Judicial Risk and Credit Market Performance: Micro Evidence from Brazil Payroll Loans

A large body of literature has stressed the institution-development nexus as critical in explaining differences in countries' economic performance. The empirical evidence, however, has been mainly at the aggregate level, associating macro performance with measures of quality of institutions. This paper, by relating a judicial decision on the legality of payroll debit loans in Brazil to bank-level decision variables, provides micro evidence on how creditor legal protection affects market performance. Payroll loans are personal loans with principal and interests payments directly deducted from the borrowers' payroll check, which, in practice, makes a collateral out of future income. In June 2004, a high-level federal court upheld a regional court ruling that had declared payroll deduction illegal. Using personal loans without payroll deduction as a control group, we assess whether the ruling had an impact on market performance. Evidence indicates that it had an adverse impact on risk perception, interest rates, and amount lent.

In-plane structure and ordering at liquid sodium surfaces and interfaces from ab initio molecular dynamics

Atoms at liquid metal surfaces are known to form layers parallel to the surface. We analyze the two-dimensional arrangement of atoms within such layers at the surface of liquid sodium, using ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on density functional theory. Nearest neighbor distributions at the surface indicate mostly 5-fold coordination, though there are noticeable fractions of 4-fold and 6-fold coordinated atoms. Bond angle distributions suggest a movement toward the angles corresponding to a six-fold coordinated hexagonal arrangement of the atoms as the temperature is decreased towards the solidification point. We rationalize these results with a distorted hexagonal order at the surface, showing a mixture of regions of five and six-fold coordination. The liquid surface results are compared with classical MD simulations of the liquid surface, with similar effects appearing, and with ab initio MD simulations for a model solid-liquid interface, where a pronounced shift towards hexagonal ordering is observed as the temperature is lowered

Eclipsing Binaries in the OGLE Variable Star Catalogs.V. Long-Period Beta Lyrae-type Systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud and the PLC-beta Relation

Thirty eight long-period (P>10 days), apparently contact binary stars discovered by the OGLE-II project in the SMC appear to be Beta Lyrae-type systems with ellipsoidal variations of the cool components dominating over eclipse effects in the systemic light variations and in the total luminosity. A new period-luminosity- color (PLC) relation has been established for these systems; we call it the PLC-beta relation, to distinguish it from the Cepheid relation. Two versions of the PLC-beta relation - based on the (B-V)0 or (V-I)0 color indices - have been calibrated for 33 systems with (V-I)0>0.25 spanning the orbital period range of 11 to 181 days. The relations can provide maximum-light, absolute-magnitude estimates accurate to epsilon-M_V~0.35 mag. within the approximate range -3<M_V<+1. In terms of their number in the SMC, the long-period Beta Lyrae-type binaries are about 50 times less common than the Cepheids. Nevertheless, their large luminosities coupled with continuous light variations make these binaries very easy to spot in nearby galaxies, so that the PLC-beta relation can offer an auxiliary and entirely independent method of distance determination to nearby stellar systems rich in massive stars. The sample of the long-period Beta Lyrae systems in the SMC analyzed in this paper is currently the best defined and uniform known sequence of such binaries.Comment: submitted for publication in Astronomical Journal; 8 PS figures, 2 table

Continuous decolourization of a sugar refinery wastewater in a modified rotating biological contactor with Phanerochaete chrysosporium immobilized on polyurethane foam disks

Phanerochaete chrysosporium immobilized on different support materials, such as polyurethane foam (PUF) and scouring web (SW), in shake cultures, was able to decolourize efficiently the sugar refinery effluent in a long-term repeated-batch operation. The decolourization medium composition was optimized using PUF-immobilized fungus. Addition of glucose was obligatory and the minimum glucose concentration was found to be 5 g/l. A rotating biological contactor (RBC) containing P. chrysosporium immobilized on PUF disks was operated with optimized decolourization medium, in continuous mode with a retention time of 3 days. By simply reversing the feed inlet of the reactor, after 17 days of operation, it was possible to double the active fungal lifetime. During the course of operation the colour, total phenols and chemical oxygen demand were reduced by 55, 63 and 48%, respectively.PEDIP Program - Project EUREKA EUROAGRI 1974 RESINAS

Intrinsic, Pro-Apoptotic Effects of IGFBP-3 on Breast Cancer Cells are Reversible: Involvement of PKA, Rho, and Ceramide

We established previously that IGFBP-3 could exert positive or negative effects on cell function depending upon the extracellular matrix composition and by interacting with integrin signaling. To elicit its pro-apoptotic effects IGFBP-3 bound to caveolin-1 and the beta 1 integrin receptor and increased their association culminating in MAPK activation. Disruption of these complexes or blocking the beta 1 integrin receptor reversed these intrinsic actions of IGFBP-3. In this study we have examined the signaling pathway between integrin receptor binding and MAPK activation that mediates the intrinsic, pro-apoptotic actions of IGFBP-3. We found on inhibiting protein kinase A (PKA), Rho associated kinase (ROCK), and ceramide, the accentuating effects of IGFBP-3 on apoptotic triggers were reversed, such that IGFBP-3 then conferred cell survival. We established that IGFBP-3 activated Rho, the upstream regulator of ROCK and that beta1 integrin and PKA were upstream of Rho activation, whereas the involvement of ceramide was downstream. The beta 1 integrin, PKA, Rho, and ceramide were all upstream of MAPK activation. These data highlight key components involved in the pro-apoptotic effects of IGFBP-3 and that inhibiting them leads to a reversal in the action of IGFBP-3

Near‐infrared fluorescent image‐guided lymph node dissection compared with locoregional lymphadenectomies in dogs with mast cell tumours

Objectives: Near-infrared fluorescent imaging has been described for intraoperative mapping of the draining lymph nodes in human cancer and canine oral tumours. The aim of this study was to retrospectively describe the results of lymphadenectomies in dogs with mast cell tumours treated either by standard unguided locoregional lymph node dissection or near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection. Methods: Medical records between 2012 and 2020 were reviewed for dogs that were presented for surgical resection of mast cell tumours with concurrent lymphadenectomy either with (near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection) or without near-infrared fluorescence image guidance (lymph node dissection). The number and location of lymph nodes planned for surgical dissection and actually dissected nodes, presence of metastases and perioperative complications were recorded. Results: Thirty-five patients underwent near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection, and 43 lymph node dissections. The number of nodes preoperatively planned for resection were 70 and 68, respectively. Fifty-eight of those (83%) were identified during near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection procedures, compared with 50 (74%) during lymph node dissection. near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection resulted in resection of additional fluorescent nodes not corresponding to locoregional nodes in 15 of 35 dogs. Using near-infrared fluorescent image-guided lymph node dissection, we identified at least one metastatic node in 68% of dogs (24 of 35) compared with 33% (14 of 43) when lymph node dissection was used without imaging. No complications related to near-infrared fluorescent imaging were reported. Clinical significance: The present study suggests that near-infrared imaging is a promising technique for intraoperative detection of the draining lymph nodes in dogs with mast cell tumours. Further validation of the technique is required to assess if near-infrared fluorescent imaging can detect the true sentinel lymph node

Examining the Effects of Text Genre and Structure on Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students’ High-Level Comprehension as Evidenced in Small-Group Discussions

Although there is a rich literature on the role of text genre and structure on students’ literal comprehension, more research is needed regarding the role of these text features on students’ high-level comprehension as evidenced in their small-group discussions. As such, the present study examined the effects of text genre (i.e., narrative and informational) and structure (i.e., story, comparison, causation, problem/solution, and sequence) on fourth- and fifth-grade students’ small-group discussions, and the text-based discussions were coded for high-level comprehension discourse indicators (i.e., authentic questions, elaborated explanations, and exploratory talk). The results indicated that students evidenced more indices of high-level comprehension when discussing narrative texts than when discussing informational texts. Meanwhile, teachers tended to initiate more questions in discussions on informational texts. The deeper structure of the texts was also shown to influence the discussions. Specifically, students generated significantly more authentic questions during discussions on texts with comparison structures than for any of the other four text structures, while causation structure texts triggered more authentic questions from teachers. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of text factors on students’ high-level comprehension

Chiral Mo and W Complexes bearing Oxazoline-Cyclopentadienyl Ligands

Trabalho apresentado em 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, 29 August - 2 September 2010, Nürnberg, GermanyN/