Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A magnitude e relevância das imparidades em contas a receber nas empresas da Euronext Lisbon

The main goal of this study is to analyze the evolution of the magnitude and relevance of impairment losses on account receivables at Euronext Lisbon companies, given the recent financial crisis that has devastated our country. The study follows a longitudinal approach, based on the direct collection and content analysis of consolidated financial statements of the Euronext Lisbon listed companies, from 2005 to 2014. From the empirical study, we’ve concluded that the impairments on accounts receivable have a greater magnitude as well as greater relevance in the financial statements during crisis periods. We also concluded that the smaller companies recognize more impairments when compared to the biggest ones. We also found big bath practice indications, because it was mainly in the worst financial performance years that the recognition of impairment losses on receivables affected negatively the companies’ results.
Making Many Markets: Limited Attention and the Allocation of Effort in Securities Trading

Individual market makers often provide liquidity for a portfolio of stocks. Although this organizational arrangement may yield public benefits through diversification or subsidization, theories of limited attention suggest that it may also impose important constraints. We examine individual NYSE specialist portfolios and find that the execution quality of a stock is inversely related to the total trade frequency of other stocks handled by the same specialist, especially for the least active stocks. We interpret our results as evidence that market makers face time and processing limits, and that they allocate effort toward their most active stocks during periods of increased trading activity. This, in turn, forces the market maker to reduce their attention to the other stocks in their portfolio, leading to a decrease in execution quality for these stocks. This research has policy implications regarding the structure of trading floors and the use of automatic execution systems.
Factors determining the intention to adopt cloud computing by finance companies in Sri Lanka

Cloud computing has become the most evolving technological innovation that reduces the processing cost while increasing the availability, flexibility, reliability and processing throughout. Though this is an emerging technology and the rest of the worlds’ finance companies are implementing it, Sri Lanka’s finance companies have not gained the competitive advantage of adopting cloud technology as yet. This study therefore has made significant efforts on analysing what factors determine the intention to adopt cloud computing by the finance companies of Sri Lanka. Selective factors from Innovation Diffusion Theory and Technology-Organization-Environment framework such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, security, top management support and technology readiness were considered. From the total of 45 licensed finance companies in Sri Lanka, 35 companies were targeted to collect primary data. Survey-based questionnaire method was used to collect data. A statistical analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS Statistical Software v.23, and hypotheses were tested based on the results of multiple regression. According to the regression model, it is recognised that relative advantage and compatibility are significant factors which predict the adoption of cloud computing. It has also analyzed the moderating impact on finance resource allocation on the relationship between independent variables (seven factors) and adoption of cloud computing. Findings suggest that financial resource allocation would not have a significant impact on the model’s ability to determine adoption of cloud computing.
Los problemas de comprensión lectora: análisis de la práctica instruccional

Las teorias explicativas de los problemas de aprendizaje de la lectura que mas influencia tienen en la practica docente coinciden en explicarlos en base a la presencia en el alumno de determinados deficits (neurologicos, constitucionales, viso-espaciales, en los procesos de memoria, atencion . ). En congruencia con esta concepcion, se propugna una intervencion que emplea un conjunto de tecnicas o programas mediante cuya aplicacion al alumno con problemas, individualmente o en pequenos grupos, se le facilite la superacion de estos deficits. Como resultado de ello, se afirma que este alumno estara en disposicion de aprender adecuadamente. '
Real-time estimation of single-phase grid voltage frequency using a modulating function based technique

This paper proposes a real-time estimation technique of the single-phase grid voltage fundamental frequency under distorted conditions. The proposed technique relies on a modulating function and an algorithm based on three consecutive samples. The frequency estimation technique is relatively simple, robust and capable of providing accurate estimation of time-varying fundamental frequency from a single-phase grid voltage waveform. It can also reject the negative effects caused by the presence of DC offset and harmonics. Real-time experimental results are presented to confirm the benefits of the proposed estimation technique.
Diseño e implementación de un protocolo de transporte para una red ieee 802.15.4 con protocolo de encaminamiento NST-AODV

Este trabajo se enmarca dentro de las redes de sensores de tipo mesh, redes sin infraestructura. Las redes de sensores estan formadas por dispositivos inalambricos de bajas prestaciones y consumo reducido con capacidad para actuar como terminal y router. Estas redes presentan enlaces de calidad variable, nodos con movilidad y velocidades de transmision muy reducidas, obligando a la creacion de una pila de protocolos nueva. Actualmente, un amplio porcentaje de los dispositivos utilizan modulos radio inalambricos compatibles con el estandar IEEE 802.15. 4. Este estandar cubre los niveles fisico y de acceso al medio para abordar los problemas mencionados anteriormente.
Worldwide racial and ethnic distribution of alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency: summary of an analysis of published genetic epidemiologic surveys.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency is a genetic disease that is widely known in Europe as a disease of white individuals, who, along with their descendants in other parts of the world, are at the highest risk for liver and/or lung disease. There is a limited database of individuals affected by this disease worldwide. It has been estimated, for example, that there are 70,000 to 100,00 individuals affected in the United States, with comparable numbers in Europe. STUDY DESIGN Genetic epidemiologic studies in the peer-reviewed literature have been used in an exploratory study to estimate the number of carriers and the number of those individuals who are homozygous or heterozygous for the two most common defective alleles for AAT deficiency in 58 individual countries. The total country database of 373 control cohorts has been combined to estimate the numbers of carriers and deficiency allele combinations for PiS and PiZ in 11 geographic regions and worldwide. The study was designed to be illustrative rather than comprehensive, and more detailed publication of the enormous database developed in this exploratory study is planned. CONCLUSIONS The database presented indicates that in a total population of 4.4 billion in the countries surveyed worldwide, there are at least 116 million carriers (PiMS and PiMZ) and 3.4 million deficiency allele combinations (PiSS, PiSZ, and PiZZ). Furthermore, this database demonstrates that AAT deficiency is found in various populations of African blacks, Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, whites in Australia/New Zealand, Europe, and North America, central Asians, far east Asians, and southeast Asians. These data demonstrate that AAT deficiency is not just a disease of whites in Europe, but that it affects individuals in all racial subgroups worldwide. In addition, AAT deficiency may be one of the most common serious hereditary disorders in the world.
Use of a new aneurysm clip with an inverted-spring mechanism to facilitate visual control during clip application. Technical note.

When operating on deep-seated cerebral aneurysms, the surgeon's visual control of clip application may be impaired by the clip holder unless adjacent structures are retracted. To improve visual control and reduce the necessity for retraction, the senior author (A.P.) developed a new concept: an aneurysm clip with an inverted-spring mechanism. The clip has two jaws that point away from the clip blades. The jaws of the clip holder articulate with the inner side of the clip jaws. By distending the jaws of the clip holder the blades of the clip are opened and vice versa. Thus the visual field increases while the clip application is proceeding. This instrumentation is useful, especially in cases of deep-seated aneurysms arising from the posterior circulation and in multiple aneurysms. In these latter cases even lesions located contralaterally could be reached with good visual control.
Smoldering (asymptomatic) multiple myeloma: current diagnostic criteria, new predictors of outcome, and follow-up recommendations.

PURPOSE To provide an overview on smoldering (asymptomatic) multiple myeloma (SMM) including current diagnostic criteria, predictors of progression, pattern of progression, and outcome. DESIGN A comprehensive review of the literature on risk factors for progression, treatment attempts to delay progression and outcome in patients with SMM. RESULTS The risk factors for progression of SMM include: plasma cell mass including M-protein size and percentage of bone marrow clonal plasma cells (BMPC), abnormal free light chain ratio, proportion of phenotypically abnormal BMPC, immunoparesis, evolution pattern (evolving v nonevolving), and pattern of magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities. Most patients with SMM progress with anemia and/or skeletal involvement. Immediate therapy with cytotoxic agents, such as melphalan/prednisone has not resulted in improved outcome. Patients should not be treated until progressive disease with end-organ damage occurs. Increasing anemia is the most reliable indicator of progression. CONCLUSION These recently recognized predictors of outcome may be helpful for better disease monitoring and for investigation of new treatment approaches. Thus, recommendations for follow-up every to 3 to 6 months depending on the risk of progression are suggested, and clinical trials with new noncytotoxic biologically derived agents to delay progression, particularly in high-risk patients, are ongoing.
Oxygen abstraction from dioxygen on the Al(111) surface.

Abstractive chemisorption in the initial oxidation of Al(111) has been experimentally verified using variable incident energy O2. Scanning tunneling microscopy images show a transition between single O-adatom reaction products to more pairs of O-adatom reaction products as the O2 incident energy is raised from 0.025 to 0.8 eV. The ejected O atoms have been detected in the gas phase with resonant enhanced multiphoton ionization. The observations that both abstractive and dissociative chemisorption are activated processes are in contrast to current adiabatic models of the absorption process.
Indoor location services and context-sensitive applications in wireless networks

The present research was conducted at the Budapest University of Technology in the field of indoor location using radio waves of Wi-Fi networks with a focus on practical application issues. Our goal was to enhance and combine existing algorithms and create an implementation that is efficient enough to enable real-time operation in 3D space in multi-level office environments while retaining the accuracy of more complex systems and allowing the addition of valuable context-sensitive features.
Laser‐engineered dissolving microneedle arrays for protein delivery: potential for enhanced intradermal vaccination

We aimed to highlight the utility of novel dissolving microneedle (MN)‐based delivery systems for enhanced transdermal protein delivery. Vaccination remains the most accepted and effective approach in offering protection from infectious diseases. In recent years, much interest has focused on the possibility of using minimally invasive MN technologies to replace conventional hypodermic vaccine injections.
The Structure of Online Consumer Communication Networks

We analyze the structure of bilateral communication links among consumers in virtual communities by a game-theoretic model of network formation. First, link specificity is incorporated, meaning that the more direct links somebody has to maintain with others, the less she is able to specify her attention per link, so that the value of her links decreases. Second, a distinction is made between the social and informational value from communication, where informational value is transferable via indirect links, whereas social value is not. We characterize the set of pairwise stable structures in the case with only social value to indicate the separate impact of link specificity and demonstrate that it includes a wide range of non-standard architectures under large link specificity and particular combinations of fully connected components under low link specificity. In the case with both social and informational value, the joint effect of link specificity and value transferability is shown to reduce the pairwise stable set to particular fragmented architectures under large link specificity or rather to the complete network under small link specificity.
Phospholipid metabolites, prognosis and proliferation in human breast carcinoma

The content of the phospholipid metabolites, phosphocholine, phosphoethanolamine, glycerophosphorylcholine and glycerophosphorylethanolamine was measured in chemical extracts from 46 human breast carcinoma using 31P NMR spectroscopy. Some patients had received therapy prior to tumour resection. The data were therefore stratified into two groups: (i) all tumours; and (ii) untreated tumours. Three indices of tumour proliferation i.e., mitotic index, Ki67 and S‐phase fraction were determined on tissue from the same tumours and were found not to correlate with the content of any of these metabolites. In addition oestrogen‐receptor status and density, tumour grade and DNA ploidy were obtained on some tumours. The phosphocholine content was higher in high grade tumours when compared with low grade tumours. There was no apparent relationship between DNA ploidy and the content of any of these metabolites. Glycerophosphorylcholine content of oestrogen‐receptor positive tumours correlated with receptor density. However, there was no significant difference between receptor positive and negative tumours in the content of any of the phospholipid metabolites measured.
Analysis of the internal replication sequence indicates that there are three elements required for efficient replication of minute virus of mice minigenomes

Prior analysis of minigenomes of minute virus of mice carried out by our laboratory indicated that sequences within the region of nucleotides 4489 to 4695, inboard of the 5' palindrome, are required for efficient DNA replication of the virus and are the site of specific interactions with unidentified factors present in a host cell nuclear extract (P. Tam and C. R. Astell, Virology 193:812-824, 1993; P. Tam and C. R. Astell, J. Virology 68:2840-2848, 1994). In order to examine this region in finer detail, a comprehensive library of linker-scanning mutants spanning the region was tested for the ability to support replication of minigenome constructs and for the ability to interact with host cell factors. Three short discrete sequence elements critical for replication competence were observed. Binding of host cell nuclear factors was localized to four sites, with two major complexes each appearing to have two binding sites within the region. All factor binding sites were found to be directly adjacent to or overlapping with sequence elements contributing to replication competence, and evidence suggesting a correlation between factor binding and minigenome replication is presented. A possible model is proposed for function of a viral origin within the region of the internal replication sequence which addresses the still-unresolved problem of how parvoviruses overcome the thermodynamic energy barrier involved in the rearrangement of the 5'-terminal palindrome from an extended form to a hairpin conformation.
Muscle‐Flap Coverage for Infected Peripheral Vascular Prostheses

Infection in a peripheral vascular prosthesis continues to be a serious complication in arterial reconstructive surgery and threatens the patient with loss of either limb or life. Infection rates at major centers are now low, ranging from 1 to 6 percent; however, limb loss and mortality rates for this complication range from 25 to 75 percent depending on the location of the graft and the extent of the infection. The use of muscle flaps in the management of acute wounds, infection-prone wounds, exposed orthopedic hardware, and osteomyelitis is now commonplace. Transposed muscle has been shown to be well-vascularized tissue that improves healing time and decreases local wound bacterial counts. After considering the preceding facts, we used muscle flaps for coverage of infected peripheral vascular prostheses in a highly select group of patients. These patients were “end of the line,” and last-ditch efforts were made to salvage life or limb. Twenty-four infected vascular grafts in 20 patients have been analyzed. Ages ranged from 52 to 87 years. All patients had grade 3, stage I, II, or III peripheral graft infections, as previously defined by Szilagyi and modified by vonDongen. Aortofemoral reconstruction was the most common initial bypass procedure (14), followed by femoral popliteal (6), axiliofemoral (2), iliofemoral (1), and subclavian/subclavian bypass (1). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common infecting organism. Muscles used for coverage were the rectus femoris (13), the sartorius (9), the rectus abdominis (1), and the pectoralis major (1). The graft material was composed of Dacron in 16 instances and polytetrafluoroethylene in 8. The 24 graft infections were treated by extensive debridement, muscle-flap transposition, and closed-suction irrigation system with dilute povidone-iodine. Sixteen (66.7 percent) were successful with a mean follow-up of 41 months. There were eight failures, and three patients required amputation. Two patients died of septic and vascular complications secondary to central aortic graft infection and/or necrotizing fasciitis of the extremities. This procedure can be successful in patients with well-localized peripheral graft infections not extending to the aortoiliac system. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 93: 1005, 1994.)
Do enterprise zones promote local business development? Evidence from Vietnam

We examined the effects of Vietnamese enterprise zones on local businesses based on different patterns of place-based policies as well as the ownership structure of the zone infrastructure developers (ZIDs). We constructed a panel of communes during 2000-2007 using a census survey of firms having more than nine employees and a census of zones and zone-based firms. We found that place-based policies led to growth in the number of jobs and firms in the communes where enterprise zones were located, even after excluding zone-based firms. Our findings also suggest that privately owned ZIDs worked best under corporate-tax incentives, while zones with a designated central government agency as the ZID had adverse spillover effects on business development in neighboring communes of the same district.
Value co-creation, co-destruction, and firm performance: A proposed mediation of the internet of things

Value co-creation is a study on consumer-firm interactions, where consumers can be actively involved with firms in designing, developing, marketing, distributing, and (or) selling of products to personalize their service experiences. In contrast, value codestruction exists due to imbalance involvement between consumers and firm in cocreating of value as a result of misuse of resources. Previous studies have suggested while value co-creation will increase firm performance, value co-destruction will do just the opposite of that. In the meantime, the internet of things (IoT) has becoming important topic to study how value co-creation and co-destruction can be created. Therefore, it was expected the effects of value co-creation and co-destruction on firm performance can be better understood with IoT. However, study that has looked into the mediating effects of IoT in the relationships between value co-creation and co-destruction on firm performance in a single topic is still hard to find. In line with the research gap, this paper will be investigating the aforementioned issue by building a conceptual framework with research propositions. This paper is proposing that IoT will positively improve the effect of value co-creation on firm performance, while at the same time reducing the negative effect of value co-destruction. This paper is expected to enhance our knowledge on the relationships between value co-creation and co-destruction, improve our understanding on the effects of IoT on firm performance, and promotes resource-based view (RBV) to complement Service-Dominant (S-D) logic at explaining superior firm performance.
Genetic and nongenetic factors associated with fibrosis progression in different types of chronic liver diseases

Liver fibrosis is the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins including collagen that occurs in most types of chronic liver diseases. Advanced liver fibrosis results in cirrhosis, liver failure, and portal hypertension and often requires liver transplantation. Our knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of liver fibrosis has greatly advanced. Activated hepatic stellate cells, portal fibroblasts, and myofibroblasts of bone marrow origin have been identified as major collagen-producing cells in the injured liver. These cells are activated by fibrogenic cytokines such as TGF-β1, angiotensin II, and leptin. Reversibility of advanced liver fibrosis in patients has been recently documented, which has stimulated researchers to develop antifibrotic drugs. Emerging antifibrotic therapies are aimed at inhibiting the accumulation of fibrogenic cells and/or preventing the deposition of extracellular matrix proteins. Although many therapeutic interventions are effective in experimental models of liver fibrosis, their efficacy and safety in humans is unknown. This review summarizes recent progress in the study of the pathogenesis and diagnosis of liver fibrosis and discusses current antifibrotic strategies.
Factors influencing the profitability of manufacturing firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange

The purpose of this study is to assess the factors influencing the profitability of manufacturing firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The investigated variables include: firm size, intensity of research and development, growth rate, productivity, age, net asset turnover, leverage ratio, and current ratio. Consequently, the dependent variable is profitability. Data was collected from the ORBIS database on 250 American manufacturing firms for years 2012-2017. The results indicate a positive relationship between investment in research and development, growth rate, employee productivity, leverage ratio, current ratio and the dependent variable: profitability. No statistically significant relationship was found for independent variables firm size and age and profitability. The results also suggest a negative relationship between net asset turnover and profitability.