Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Série Scientifique Scientific Series N o 94 s-21 THE CREDITORS FINANCIAL REORGANIZATION DECISION : NEW EVIDENCE FROM CANADIAN DATA

Résumé The paper examines a data set of 338 randomly selected financial reorganization plans filed in Canada during the period 1978-87. Creditors reject roughly 25% of reorganization plans, while about 20% of the plans creditors accept fail before completion, providing evidence of filtering failure in the reorganization process. A logit model of the creditors reorganization decision produces two interesting results. Plans offering a high proportion of cash payments are more likely to be accepted by creditors, which we interpret as evidence that cash is a signal of financial viability. Plans with high ratios of secured debt are more likely to be accepted, which we interpret as evidence that secured creditors with insider knowledge signal information about the financial viability of firms to unsecured creditors. Ce document a pour but détudier le processus de réorganisation financière au Canada sur la base dun échantillon de 338 propositions de réorganisations commerciales au cours de la période 1978-1987. Les données démontrent que 25 % des propositions sont rejetées par les créanciers non-garantis et quenviron 20% des propositions acceptées résultent éventuellement en un échec. Une analyse du comportement des créanciers lors du vote sur une proposition génère deux résultats intéressants. Premièrement, la probabilité dacceptation dune proposition augmente avec la proportion des paiements comptants fait aux créanciers. Lutilisation de paiements comptants est interprêtée comme un signal quand à la viabilité dune firme. Deuxièmement, la probabilité dacceptation dune proposition augmente avec la proportion des créances garanties à lintérieur de la firme. Ce résultat supporte la thèse à leffet que les banques possèdent de linformation privilégiée sur la viabilité des entreprises et fournit une nouvelle évidence quant au rôle des banques dans la transmission de cette information vers les créanciers non-garantis.
Environmental and Behavioural Determinants of Leptospirosis Transmission: A Systematic Review

Background Leptospirosis is one of the most widespread zoonotic diseases, which is of global medical and veterinary importance, and also a re-emerging infectious disease. The main tracks of transmission are known; however, the relative importance of each of the components and the respective environmental risk factors are unclear. We aimed to assess and specify quantitative evidence of environmental risks of leptospirosis transmission. Methods/findings A database of pre-selected studies, with publication dates from 1970 until 2008, was provided by an expert group. The database has been updated until 2015 using a text mining algorithm. Study selection was based on stringent quality criteria. A descriptive data analysis was performed to calculate the medians of the log transformed odds ratios. From a selection of 2723 unique publications containing information on leptospirosis, 428 papers dealing with risk factors were identified. Of these, 53 fulfilled the quality criteria, allowing us to identify trends in different geo-climatic regions. Water associated exposures were, with few exceptions, associated with an increased leptospirosis risk. In resource poor countries, floods and rainfall were of particular importance, whereas recreational water activities were more relevant in developed countries. Rodents were associated with increased leptospirosis risk, but the variation among studies was high, which might be partly explained by differences in exposure definition. Livestock contact was commonly associated with increased risk; however, several studies found no association. The median odds ratios associated with dog and cat contacts were close to unity. Sanitation and behavioural risk factors were almost always strongly associated with leptospirosis, although their impact was rarely investigated in Europe or North America. Conclusion This review confirms the complex environmental transmission pathways of leptospirosis, as previously established. Although, floods appeared to be among the most important drivers on islands and in Asia, the consistent pattern observed for exposure to rodents and behavioural and sanitation related risk factors indicate potential areas for intervention.
Students’ motivations, perceived benefits and constraints towards study abroad and other international education opportunities

The purpose of this study is to identify students’ motivations and perceived benefits of engaging in study abroad programs, as well as challenges and missed opportunities. ,An online survey was sent to random samples of students on two university campuses. Descriptive statistics and frequency analyses were conducted with the use of the SPSS data management software package. ,Despite the majority of students having previous international travel experience and understanding the benefits of study abroad programs, most of them will not pursue the possibility to enroll in the study abroad programs. Contrary, most of respondents did express an interest to participate in international co-op/internship opportunities while attending the university. The study identified motivations, perceived benefits and constraints for students to enroll in study abroad programs. ,Further research using samples from different universities and colleges would present a more comprehensive picture of motivations, expectations and constraints. ,Educators should promote study abroad program benefits and clearly identify the link between international experiences and future students’ employability. Study abroad programs can serve as important tool for increasing overall students’ retention and recruitment. ,In higher education, study abroad programs can serve as important tool for increasing overall students’ retention and recruitment. ,This research uncovers students’ study abroad intent, interests, motivations, perceived personal and professional benefits and desired structure for the program. The findings provide insights into how administrators can enhance the value of the summer study abroad program offered by higher educational institutions.
VGF is Required for Obesity Induced by Diet, Gold Thioglucose Treatment, and Agouti and is Differentially Regulated in Pro-Opiomelanocortin- and Neuropeptide Y-Containing Arcuate Neurons in Response to Fasting

Targeted deletion of the gene encoding the neuronal and neuroendocrine secreted polypeptide VGF (nonacronymic) produces a lean, hypermetabolic mouse. Consistent with this phenotype, VGF mRNA levels are regulated in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus in response to fasting. To gain insight into the site(s) and mechanism(s) of action of VGF, we further characterized VGF expression in the hypothalamus. Double-label studies indicated that VGF and pro-opiomelanocortin were coexpressed in lateral arcuate neurons in the fed state, and that VGF expression was induced after fasting in medial arcuate neurons that synthesize neuropeptide Y (NPY). Like NPY, VGF mRNA induction in this region of the hypothalamus in fasted mice was inhibited by exogenous leptin. In leptin-deficient ob/ob and receptor-mutant db/db mice, VGF mRNA levels in the medial arcuate were elevated. To identify neural pathways that are functionally compromised by Vgf ablation, VGF mutant mice were crossed with obeseAy/a (agouti) andob/ob mice. VGF deficiency completely blocked the development of obesity inAy/a mice, whereas deletion of Vgf in ob/ob mice attenuated weight gain but had no impact on adiposity. Hypothalamic levels of NPY and agouti-related polypeptide mRNAs in both double-mutant lines were dramatically elevated 10- to 15-fold above those of wild-type mice. VGF-deficient mice were also found to resist diet- and gold thioglucose-induced obesity. These data and the susceptibility of VGF mutant mice to monosodium glutamate-induced obesity are consistent with a role for VGF in outflow pathways, downstream of hypothalamic and/or brainstem melanocortin 4 receptors, that project via the autonomic nervous system to peripheral metabolic tissues and regulate energy homeostasis.
Information Technologies , Knowledge Ecology , and Firm Performance : An Exploratory Study

Knowledge has been considered an important asset for an organization to gain competitive advantages. Research on knowledge management processes and development of knowledge management systems has gained much attention recently. In this study, an ecological view of knowledge management is proposed to integrate the role of information technology, knowledge management, and their impact on firm performance. In this perspective, we focus on the harmonious balance of different types of knowledge that exist in an organization. The strength and diversity of knowledge in the ecology is assumed to determine the performance of an organization. Information technologies provide the infrastructure that allows different knowledge to interact and create synergy. An empirical study was performed to investigate whether (1) the use of information technologies affects the strength and diversity of organizational knowledge, and (2) the strength and diversity of knowledge affect the performance level and stability of an organization. The results show significant positive correlations between information technology capabilities, the ecology of knowledge, and firm performance. The diversity-stability relationship in a bio-ecosystem also exists in the knowledge ecosystem of an organization. Keyword: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Ecology, Value of Information Technologies, Evaluation of IT Investment
Tine Greidanus. Les constructions verbales en français parlé: Étude quantitative et descriptive de la syntaxe des 250 verbes les plus fréquents . ( Linguistische Arbeiten 243). Tübingen: Niemeyer Verlag. 1990. Pp. x + 264.

nominates avaient fait l'objet du premier volet, cp. p. 17) plusieurs observations dont le moins qu'on puisse dire est qu'elles sont, comme tout ce qu'on trouve sous la plume de Guillaume, extremement originales. II est bon de savoir que le texte a ete corrige partout oil il y avait dans le manuscrit des erreurs evidentes (le texte original est toujours transcrit en note, de sorte que le lecteur peut juger pour lui-meme s'il y avait erreur ou non). Certains mots ont 6te restitues, les passages ratures rajoutes en note, et certaines figures refaites. II est dommage que les editeurs n'aient pas pris soin de rectifier et de completer les renvois bibliographiques donnes par Guillaume lui-meme. L'auteur semble les avoir cites de memoire, et non sans souvent se meprendre sur les details.
Adaptive neural network control for robotic manipulators [Book Review]

Since the seminal publication [1], there has been continuously increasing interest in applying neural networks (NN) to identification and control of nonlinear systems. Early applications of NN in closed-loop control were basically on a trial-and-error basis. Thereafter, considerable research efforts have been centered on developing neural control structures and algorithms on a firm mathematical ground. Recently, some journals have dedicated special issues to neural control algorithms based on rigorous mathematical analysis [2]–[4]. Today, neural control has evolved to become a well-established technique. A notable trend in recent neural control research is to integrate NN, both feedfor-ward and recurrent ones, with main nonlinear control design method-ologies. Such integration significantly enhances the capability of control methods in handling many practical systems that are characterized by nonlinearity, uncertainty, and complexity. The book under review is developed along these lines technically, but focused on the control of robotic manipulators, which are highly non-linear and multivariable systems. After the clear and easy-to-follow introduction of dynamic modeling and their properties, the authors give a systematic and thorough treatment of dynamic modeling using NN and parametric networks through the introduction of a new convenient operator. Through the presentation of a unified model-based adaptive controller based on passivity, several novel adaptive NN controllers are presented for robots. After the presentation of adaptive NN model reference adaptive control (MRAC) for a class of general nonlinear systems , then the application to the control of robotic manipulators in particular , a novel control technique is presented for robotic manipulators without gravitational forces by generalizing the MRAC technique for linear systems in which the gains of the controller are approximated by NN. By combining the techniques presented, adaptive NN control is also investigated for flexible joint robots, task space operation, and constrained motion. Last but not least, the appendixes give the readers a good understanding of numerical simulation and the implementation of adaptive step size algorithms for robust numerical solutions. The sample simulation codes are very helpful and useful to new researchers and graduate students in the area. The contents reflect the research achievements of the authors in the area of robot control, and many control approaches are original and can be extended to a larger class of nonlinear systems without difficulty. The theoretical results are supported by means of simulations or real-time implementations. The book is well organized and well written. The concepts are clearly presented with mathematics and illustrations. …
Cytomegalovirus Infection in Ireland

AbstractCytomegalovirus (CMV) infections occur worldwide and primary infection usually occurs in early childhood and is often asymptomatic whereas primary infection in adults may result in symptomatic illness. CMV establishes a chronic latent infection with intermittent periods of reactivation. Primary infection or reactivation associate with increased mortality and morbidity in those who are immunocompromised. Transplacental transmission may result in significant birth defects or long-term sensorineural hearing loss.We performed a study to determine the CMV seroprevalence and the association between HLA Class I alleles and frequency of CMV infection in Ireland. The presence of CMV IgG, a marker of previous CMV infection, was determined for a cohort of 1849 HLA typed solid organ transplant donors between 1990 and 2013. The presence of CMV IgG was correlated with HLA type.The CMV seroprevalence in solid organ transplant donors was 33.4% (range 22–48% per annum) over the time period 1990 to 2013. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that both age and HLA alleles were associated with CMV seropositivity. A significant and positive relationship between age and CMV seropositivity was observed (OR = 1.013, P < 0.001, CI [1.007, 1.019]). Chi-square analysis revealed that the female gender was independently associated with CMV seropositivity (P < 0.01). Seroprevalence in women of reproductive age (20–39 years) was significantly higher than men of the same age (37% vs 26%, P < 0.01). The frequencies of HLA-A1, HLA-A2, and HLA-A3 in our cohort were 40.8%, 48.8%, and 25.9%, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of HLA-A1 but not HLA-A2 or HLA-A3 was independently associated with CMV seronegativity (P < 0.01). Interestingly, individuals who co-expressed HLA-A2 and HLA-A3 alleles were significantly more likely to be CMV seropositive (P < 0.02). The frequencies of HLA-B5, HLA-B7, and HLA-B8 in our cohort were 6.1%, 31.2%, and 30.8%, respectively. The presence of the most common inherited haplotype in the Irish population, HLA-A1, B8 was significantly associated with CMV seronegativity (OR = 1.278, P < 0.001, CI [1.049, 1.556]). CMV seroprevalence is lower in Ireland compared with other countries. The high frequency of HLA-A1 in the Irish population may, in part, have a role in the reduced susceptibility to CMV infection.
The Impact of Size and Occupancy of Hospital on the Extent of Ambulance Diversion: Theory and Evidence

In recent years, growth in the demand for emergency medical services, along with decline in the number of hospitals with emergency departments (EDs), has raised concerns about the ability of the EDs to provide adequate service. Many EDs frequently report periods of overcrowding during which they are forced to divert incoming ambulances to neighboring hospitals, a phenomenon known as “ambulance diversion. ” The objective of this paper is to study the impact of key operational characteristics of the hospitals such as the number of ED beds, the number of inpatient beds, and the utilization of inpatient beds on the extent to which hospitals go on ambulance diversion. We propose a simple queueing network model to describe the patient flow between the ED and the inpatient department. We analyze this network using two different approximations—diffusion and fluid—to derive two separate sets of measures for inpatient occupancy and ED size. We use these sets of measures to form hypotheses and test them by estimating.
Expression, Regulation and Function of MicroRNAs in Multiple Sclerosis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded 19-25 nucleotide-long RNAs and have an important role in post-transcriptional gene silencing. It has been demonstrated that miRNAs are dysregulated in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). For instance, miR-21, miR-142-3p, miR-146a, miR-146b, miR-155 and miR-326 were up-regulated in both peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and brain white matter lesions from MS patients and mouse model as well. These up-regulated miRNAs may be used as a signature for MS and play critical roles in MS pathogenesis. Moreover, miR-15a, miR-19a, miR-22, miR-210 and miR-223 were up-regulated in both regulatory T cells (Tregs) and other samples such as plasma, blood cells, PBMCs and brain white matter tissues from MS patients, suggesting that these up-regulated miRNAs and Tregs may also play a role in MS pathogenesis. Contrarily, other miRNAs such as miR-15a, miR-15b, miR-181c and miR-328 were down-regulated in MS. Drugs such as interferon-β and glatiramer acetate for MS treatment may regulate miRNA expression and thus have benefits for MS patients. The dysregulated miRNAs such as miR-155 and miR-326 may be used as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for MS.
Response properties of crayfish antennules to hydrodynamic stimuli: functional differences in the lateral and medial flagella

SUMMARY Antennules have been reported to influence localization of distant food odors, sex discrimination, and agonistic and social behaviors of decapod crustaceans. Although olfaction by the antennules is largely recognized, information on the sensitivity of antennules to hydrodynamic stimuli has been scant. In red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii antennules, mechanosensory setae outnumber the chemosensory setae. We studied the mechanosensitivity of crayfish antennules by recording neural activities from isolated antennules in response to sinusoidal dipole stimuli. Both the lateral and the medial flagellum of the antennules responded to hydrodynamic stimuli, although the medial flagellum showed more sensitivity at frequencies higher than 60 Hz. The most dominant setae present on the stimulated site were the simple setal type. Although both lateral and medial flagella are capable of detecting chemical and hydrodynamic cues, results from neural responses, morphological observations and antennular behavior observations indicate that the lateral flagellum of P. clarkii functions as an olfactory organ whereas the medial flagellum complements as a hydrodynamic receptor. It appears that in crayfish antennular sensory processing, crayfish simultaneously use chemical and hydrodynamic information. We have compared our data with the threshold of fish lateral line to the same stimuli and we discuss probable similarities in response properties.
Fast-extract with cube hashing

The fast-extract algorithm is a well-known algebraic method for factoring and decomposing Boolean expressions. Since it uses pairwise comparisons between cubes to find factors, the runtime is degraded for networks whose primary outputs are expressed in terms of primary inputs and have Boolean functions with thousands of cubes. This paper describes a new implementation of the fast-extract algorithm, fxch, having complexity linear in the number of cubes. The reduction in complexity is achieved by hashing sub-cubes and using the hash table to find good factors to extract. Experimental results on industrial benchmarks show superior runtime and scalability of the proposed algorithm, compared to the available solutions.
Shot-noise of quantum chaotic systems in the classical limit

Semiclassical trajectory-based methods can now explain mesoscopic effects (shot-noise, conductance fluctuations, etc) in clean chaotic systems, such as chaotic quantum dots. In the deep classical limit (wavelength much less than system size) the Ehrenfest time (the time for a wavepacket to spread to a classical size) plays a crucial role, and random matrix theory (RMT) ceases to be applicable to the transport properties of open chaotic systems. Here we summarize some of our recent results for shot-noise (intrinsically quantum noise in the current through the system) in this deep classical limit. For systems with perfect coupling to the leads, we use a phase-space basis on the leads to show that the transmission eigenvalues are all 0 or 1-so transmission is noiseless [Whitney-Jacquod, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 116801 (2005), Jacquod-Whitney, Phys. Rev. B 73, 195115 (2006)]. For systems with tunnel-barriers on the leads we use trajectory-based semiclassics to extract universal (but non-RMT) shot-noise results for the classical regime [Whitney, cond-mat/0612122].
A Little Sex Bias Can Hurt Women a Lot.

Relying on estimates of variance explained to assess the practical significance of research findings is now common practice. It is suggested that such estimates can offer an inaccurate picture, often underestimating the practical significance of statistically small effects. As an example, research on employment discrimination indicates that in non-traditional work settings women are generally judged less favorable than men. However, because the amount of variance due to sex is typically quite modest, the actual importance of sex bias effects has been questioned. Two numerical examples with 600 men and 600 women, and with 100 men and 100 women, respectively, demonstrate that even very small amounts of sex bias in hiring decisions and performance.evaluations can have profoundly negative consequences for women. Computer simulations confirm this conclusion. It is hoped that researchers will not automatically discount the practical consequences of statistically small effects. Five tables and one figure illustrate the analyses. (Contains 32 references.) (SLD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***u******************************************************************* 9 A Little Sex Bias Can Hurt Women A Lot Richard F. Martell. Teachers College Columbia University U $ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Oece or Ed,. ,cahona, Research and Improvement RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER ,ERIC, Telt, document has oeen reproduced as receIvect fro, 1.1e person or orgaNzaeoe or,gmatmg ,t Mmor changes na,e bee, mace tc ,mpro,re reproduchon QuIr Po,nts oea or odmonssrateo.nImsdoc. men! do not necessaros represent orhc,a. OERI oos t.on A little sex bias 1 David M. Lane and Cynthia E. Willis Rice University "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY