Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Returns to educational performance at entry into the Italian Labour Market

This paper studies whether a better educational performance enhances the chances of success at entry into the Italian labour market. Two indicators of educational performance are considered: the final grades in the diploma achieved and the speed with which a given educational qualification was completed. It is argued that the Italian educational system is highly standardized, in terms of the curricula and the examination system. Thus, it provides employers with information that can be used when making decisions about whom to employ. Therefore, educational performance should be rewarded by employers. At a theoretical level, a queuing model of the functioning of the labour market is specified and the need to distinguish the processes that lead to dependent employment and self-employment is highlighted. The empirical analysis is based on the Italian Household Longitudinal Survey and consists of an event-history analysis of the duration of first job search and a regression-type analysis of the prestige score of the first job. The results suggest that (a) individual educational performance increases the chances of success at entry into the labour market, (b) the importance of educational performance is greater in the youngest cohort of school-leavers
Journées de la Société francophone du nerf périphérique Pathophysiology and biomarkers in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies Physiopathologie et biomarqueurs des polyradiculoneuropathies inflammatoires démyélinisantes chroniques

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is an acquired dysimmune disorder characterized by strong heterogeneity in terms of clinical manifestations, prognostic and response to treatment. To date, its pathophysiology and potential target antigens are not totally identified despite substantial progress in the understanding of the involved molecular mechanisms. Recent researches in the field have underlined the importance of cell-mediated immunity (lymphocytes T CD4+, CD8+ and macrophages), the breakdown of blood-nerve barrier, a failure of T-cell regulation, and the disruption of nodal and paranodal organization at the node of Ranvier. This last point is possibly mediated by autoantibodies towards axoglial adhesion molecules which may disrupt sodium and potassium voltage-gated channels clustering leading to a failure of saltatory conduction and the apparition of conduction blocks. The purpose of this article is to overview the main pathophysiologic mechanisms and biomarkers identified in CIDP. # 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
contamination of public tap water distribution system during a waterborne outbreak in Clostridium difficile

Aims: In November through December 2007, the drinking water distribution system in the town of Nokia, Finland, was contaminated with treated sewage effluent that resulted in a large gastroenteritis outbreak in the community. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the contaminated water in this outbreak was also a potential source of Clostridium difficile infections. Methods: Samples from the contaminated tap water and treated sewage effluent were collected. Stool samples from a portion of patients that fell ill during the outbreak were examined for C. difficile. PCR ribotyping was performed on toxin positive C. difficile isolates and the genetic profiles of the water and patient isolates were compared. Results: Twelve toxin-positive C. difficile isolates were found in water samples: five from contaminated tap water and seven from treated sewage effluent. Among these, four and five distinct PCR ribotype profiles were identified, respectively. Four PCR ribotype profiles were found among nine human faecal C. difficile isolates. Two isolates, one from tap water and one from a patient, had an indistinguishable PCR ribotype profile. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate for the first time C. difficile contamination of a tap water distribution system and waterborne transmission of toxigenic C. difficile seems possible.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a primary myocardial disease with a wide range of clinical and morphologic characteristics

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a primary myocardial disease with a wide range of clinical and morphologic characteristics. It is characterized by increased cardiac mass associated with a non-dilated, hypertrophied left ventricle. Phenotypic variability is substantial and includes both diffuse and segmental forms of left ventricular hypertrophy. Histopathologic features consist of myofiber disorganization, intramural arteriosclerosis, and pathologic fibrosis and matrix connective tissue. Associated functional derangements include dynamic obstruction to left and right ventricular outflow and diastolic dysfunction, including heart failure.
A PARALLEL METHOD FOR POPULATION BALANCE EQUATIONS BASED ON THE METHOD OF CHARACTERISTICS

In this paper, we present a parallel scheme to solve the population balance equations based on the method of characteristics and the finite element discretization. The application of the method of characteristics transform the higher dimensional population balance equation into a series of lower dimensional convection-diffusion-reaction equations which can be solved in a parallel way. Some numerical results are presented to show the accuracy and efficiency.
Metals and Polymers under Mechanical Stress: X-Ray Texture Analysis with the Use of a Tensile Stage

X-ray diffraction studies have been performed to investigate the change of the preferred orientation of the crystallites as a function of externally applied mechanical stresses. For this purpose, a uniaxial tensile stage was integrated onto a Eulerian cradle in a laboratory X-ray diffraction system. Measurements have been executed while the sample experiences a certain mechanical loading. As example, orientation studies have been performed on metallic as well as on polymer samples.
Monocular Features Stereo Features ( Bird ' s eye view ) Inference Result

In this paper, we present a novel probabilistic generative model for multi-object traffic scene understanding from movable platforms which reasons jointly about the 3D scene layout as well as the location and orientation of objects in the scene. In particular, the scene topology, geometry and traffic activities are inferred from short video sequences. Inspired by the impressive driving capabilities of humans, our model does not rely on GPS, lidar or map knowledge. Instead, it takes advantage of a diverse set of visual cues in the form of vehicle tracklets, vanishing points, semantic scene labels, scene flow and occupancy grids. For each of these cues we propose likelihood functions that are integrated into a probabilistic generative model. We learn all model parameters from training data using contrastive divergence. Experiments conducted on videos of 113 representative intersections show that our approach successfully infers the correct layout in a variety of very challenging scenarios. To evaluate the importance of each feature cue, experiments using different feature combinations are conducted. Furthermore, we show how by employing context derived from the proposed method we are able to improve over the state-of-the-art in terms of object detection and object orientation estimation in challenging and cluttered
Origins of production errors and significance of employee empowerment in reducing production error amount in sheet metal fabricating industry

In this paper employee empowerment is investigated in theory. Focus has been made on reducing the overall production error amount in sheet metal component fabricating industry by means of workforce empowerment. In this paper also the level of empowerment is examined in case factories. With the employee empowerment direct and indi-rect human errors in the production flow can supposedly be affected. It can be expected that the employee empower-ment make reductions in the overall amount of the produc-tion errors in the production flow of constructions based on fabricated sheet metal parts possible. It also can be claimed that more can be done in current situation by investing in the employee empowerment than investing in a new manu-facturing technology in the case factories studied.
The Contemporary Role and Perspectives of the BRIC States in the World-Order

The term ‘BRIC states’ is an acronym derived from the capital letters of the names of four large states: Brazil, Russia, India and China. This group of states represents a relatively new, but powerful and influential group of states in the world order. The contemporary international relations, global and regional, are unimaginable without these states, which are home to over 40 per cent of the world population. BRIC states are changing geo-economics of the world and indicate a gradual and evolutionary deflection of the relative economic power from the most developed states. However, BRIC states are not changing the world economic order quintessentially, since it is defined and ruled by globalisation and the neoliberal ideology. BRIC states are using neoliberal ideology to develop their economies and base their development on the economic growth and the rapidly increasing exploitation of the natural resources.
Changes in Albuminuria and the Risk ofMajor

We analyzed data from 8,766 participants in the ADVANCE-ON study. Change in UACR was calculated from UACR measurements 2 years apart, classified into three groups: decrease in UACR of ‡30%,minor change, and increase in UACR of ‡30%. By analyzing changes from baseline UACR groups, categorized into thirds, we repeated these analyses accounting for regression to the mean (RtM). The primary outcome was the composite of major macrovascular events, renal events, and all-cause mortality; secondary outcomes were these components. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs).
Buyer Power and Suppliers' Incentives to Innovate

Buyer power is widely considered to decrease innovation incentives of suppliers. However, there is little empirical evidence for this statement. Our paper analyses how buyer power influences innovation incentives of upstream firms while taking into account the type of competition in the downstream market, namely price and technology. We explore this relationship empirically for a unique dataset containing 1,129 observations of German firms from manufacturing and service sectors including information on the economic dependency of firms from their buyers. Using a generalised Tobit model, we find a negative effect of buyer power on a supplier's likelihood to start R&D activities. This negative effect is mitigated if the supplier faces powerful buyers operating under strong price competition. There is also weak evidence for a negative effect of buyer power on suppliers' R&D intensity if the powerful buyer operates under strong technology competition.
A Comparative Study of Local Financial Autonomy in Italy, France and Morocco

Financing local communities relies on a complex network of taxes, subsidies and loans. In the last decade the network has undergone numerous transformations . The reforms implanted in past years changed the systems of public finance substantially. Therefore, financial local autonomy is a term that frequently employed in the literature of federalism and decentralization, but it’s rarely defined conceptually in a careful way to empirical research. Generally it expresses the capacity of local communities to have their own revenue and expenditure budget, distinct from that of the state in which revenue can cover expenses incurred to meet their requirements. Indeed it is a highly valued feature of good governance. This paper is dedicated to a study in theory and practice. Starting with an overview on background of theoretical approach of local financial autonomy, then comparing the experiences of two European countries France, Italy and Morocco in the field. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the meaning of local financial autonomy and give a structured overview of the factors that may potentially influence the liberty of sub national authorities with regard of their own revenue and expenditure budget. Based on indicators and taking into account empirical evidences offered by official statistical datas, established in recent years for evaluating the position of administrative territorial units in relation to central government. The analyses prove that there is no universal model of local public finance applicable to all countries, because each has its own specific historical, cultural and linguistic particularities.
Small Firm CEOs and Outside Directorships: Tenure, Demonstration and Synergy Effects

We investigate the determinants of the number of outside directorships held by chief executive officers (CEOs) of small, unquoted companies. CEOs of growth-oriented firm's hold more outside directorships, as do CEOs of more complex firms. This reflects the need to acquire external resources and develop internal human capital. Synergy effects were also evident in particular industries. On balance there was little evidence of perquisite consumption and some evidence that boards do have a disciplining role. Copyright © 2008 The Author.
Commuting patterns, infrastructure and the location of economic activity. A study of sector concentration and municipality specialisation in Sweden.

This thesis investigates the impact of commuting and the quality of infrastructure on the degree of sector concentration and municipality specialisation in Sweden. Data on seven sectors and 286 Swedish municipalities for the years 2001 and 2003 is used in the empirical study performed using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The robustness of the results is tested with respect to changes in the variable-transformation method as well as the measurement of some of the included variables. Although partly affected, the obtained results in general seem to be qualitatively quite robust to the performed changes. Both the direction and the magnitude of commuting influence the concentration of economic activity, whereas the degree and type of municipality specialisation is mainly affected by the direction of the occurring commuting flows. In general, however, the results indicate that interactions between municipality and industry characteristics have a larger impact on the type of municipality specialisation than on the sector concentration of economic activity. Partly in contrast with theoretical predictions, sectors for which links to other producers are of large importance tend to be relatively less concentrated in municipalities characterised by large market potential. Such municipalities also tend to be less specialised in sectors for which links to consumers and producers are of relatively large importance.
Beneficios y barreras identificadas por las presas que practican actividad física: Una revisión cualitativa de la literatura (Benefits and barriers identified by incarcerated women who practice physical activity: A qualitative literature review)

El objetivo de esta revision fue identificar los beneficios y las barreras que perciben las mujeres encarceladas durante la practica de actividades fisico-deportivas. La busqueda se realizo partiendo de tres areas –actividades fisico-deportivas, prision y mujer– la cual finalizo con 33 estudios de los cuales se seleccionaron 27, que analizaban los beneficios y/o las barreras de las presas, mediante un analisis de contenido. Los datos muestran como la practica fisica les resulta beneficiosa tanto para su salud mental y fisica, como para sobrellevar y resistir la condena. A la vez, ciertos estudios revisados apuntan que las actividades fisico-deportivas pueden ser beneficiosas para la futura inclusion social. Por otra parte, los estudios evidencian obstaculos entre los cuales destaca el propio regimen penitenciario. Aunque sean realidades dispares se han encontrado similitudes entre ciertos beneficios y barreras de las mujeres en libertad y las reclusas, como la influencia del patriarcado. Los resultados constatan la necesidad de promover, mejorar y crear programas de actividad fisico-deportivas pensados con y para las presas. Abstract. The aim of this review was to identify the benefits and barriers perceived by convicted women during the practice of sport and physical activity. The search was based on three areas –sport and physical activities, prison, and women- and through a content analysis selective process. 27 studies related with the benefits and/or barriers were chosen out of 33 studies that were firstly included in the list. Our results show how the practice of physical activity is beneficial for convicted women’s physical and mental health, as well as to deal with their sentence. At the same time, some studies suggest that physical sports activities can be beneficial for the future social inclusion. Nevertheless, several obstacles were identified, the penitentiary regime standing out among them. Even if the reality of convicted and non-convicted women is different, some similarities were found in the benefits and barriers, for example the influence of patriarchy. The results confirm the need to promote, improve, and create sport and physical-activities programs with and for female prisoners.
Idiopathic Ventricular Arrhythmias of Left Versus Right Ventricular Origin : Prevalence and Prognostic Value of Concealed Structural Abnormalities in Patients With Print

Gianluca Piccoli, Elisabetta Daleffe, Mauro Toniolo, Davide Zanuttini, Domenico Facchin, Gaetano Nucifora, Daniele Muser, Pier Giorgio Masci, Andrea Barison, Luca Rebellato, A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Apparently Idiopathic Ventricular Arrhythmias of Left Versus Right Ventricular Origin: Prevalence and Prognostic Value of Concealed Structural Abnormalities in Patients With Print ISSN: 1941-3149. Online ISSN: 1941-3084 Copyright © 2014 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology doi: 10.1161/CIRCEP.113. 001172 2014;7:456-462; originally published online April 25, 2014; Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol. http://circep.ahajournals. org/content/7/3/456 World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the http://circep.ahajournals. org/content/suppl/2014/04/25/CIRCEP.113. 001172.DC1. html Data Supplement (unedited) at:
CLT for linear eigenvalue statistics for a tensor product version of sample covariance matrices

For $k,m,n\in \mathbb{N}$, we consider $n^k\times n^k$ random matrices of the form $$ \mathcal{M}_{n,m,k}(\mathbf{y})=\sum_{\alpha=1}^m\tau_\alpha {Y_\alpha}Y_\alpha^T,\quad Y_\alpha=\mathbf{y}_\alpha^{(1)}\otimes. \otimes\mathbf{y}_\alpha^{(k)}, $$ where $\tau _{\alpha }$, $\alpha\in[m]$, are real numbers and $\mathbf{y}_\alpha^{(j)}$, $\alpha\in[m]$, $j\in[k]$, are i.i. d. copies of a normalized isotropic random vector $\mathbf{y}\in \mathbb{R}^n$. For every fixed $k\ge 1$, if the Normalized Counting Measures of $\{\tau _{\alpha }\}_{\alpha}$ converge weakly as $m,n\rightarrow \infty$, $m/n^k\rightarrow c\in \lbrack 0,\infty )$ and $\mathbf{y}$ is a good vector in the sense of Definition 1.1, then the Normalized Counting Measures of eigenvalues of $\mathcal{M}_{n,m,k}(\mathbf{y})$ converge weakly in probability to a non-random limit found in [15]. For $k=2$, we define a subclass of good vectors $\mathbf{y}$ for which the centered linear eigenvalue statistics $n^{-1/2}\text{Tr} \,\varphi(\mathcal{M}_{n,m,2}(\mathbf{y}))^\circ$ converge in distribution to a Gaussian random variable, i.e., the Central Limit Theorem is valid.
Numerische Mathematik Domain decomposition based H-LU preconditioning

Hierarchical matrices provide a data-sparse way to approximate fully populated matrices. The two basic steps in the construction of an H-matrix are (a) the hierarchical construction of a matrix block partition, and (b) the blockwise approximation of matrix data by low rank matrices. In this paper, we develop a new approach to construct the necessary partition based on domain decomposition. Compared to standard geometric bisection based H-matrices, this new approach yields H-LU factorizations of finite element stiffness matrices with significantly improved storage and computational complexity requirements. These rigorously proven and numerically verified improvements result from an H-matrix block structure which is naturally suited for parallelization and in which large subblocks of the stiffness matrix remain zero in an LU factorization. We provide numerical results in which a domain decomposition based H-LU factorization is used as a preconditioner in the iterative solution of the discrete (three-dimensional) convection-diffusion equation. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 65F05 · 65F30 · 65F50 · 65N55 This work was supported in part by the US Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-04ER25649 and by the National Science Foundation under grant No. DMS-0408950. L. Grasedyck (B) · R. Kriemann Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Inselstrasse 22–26, 04103 Leipzig, Germany e-mail: lgr@mis.mpg. de R. Kriemann e-mail: rok@mis.mpg. de S. Le Borne Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA e-mail: sleborne@tntech.edu
Asymptotics of sliced inverse regression

: Sliced Inverse Regression is a method for reducing the dimension of the explanatory variables x in non-parametric regression problems. Li (1991) discussed a version of this method which begins with a partition of the range of y into slices so that the conditional covariance matrix of x given y can be estimated by the sample covariance matrix within each slice. After that the mean of the conditional covariance matrix is estimated by averaging the sample covariance matrices over all slices. Hsing and Carroll (1992) have derived the asymptotic properties of this procedure for the special case where each slice contains only two observations. In this paper we consider the case that each slice contains an arbitrary but (cid:12)xed numberof yi and more generally the case when the number of yi per slice goes to in(cid:12)nity. The asymptotic properties of the associated eigenvalues and eigenvectors are also obtained.