An overview of the literature on female-perpetrated adult male sexual victimization

The rape of women has been an issue of concern in research literature for the past 40 years. Conversely, rape against men has only relatively recently received investigation. The current paper reviews the existing research literature regarding male rape and sexual assault, with particular emphasis on female perpetrated male sexual victimization. The review covers issues regarding biased legal definitions, rape myths, feminist theory, and stereotypical or negative beliefs all of which create a problematic social environment for male victims of female perpetrated assault to report crimes. The review also discusses the prevalence of female perpetrated attacks against men, with evidence from self-reports by female sex offenders to highlight the existence of male sexual victimization and the aggressive manner in which the sexual activity is committed. The review concludes that male sexual victimization by women should be taken as seriously as that of women by men

Polyhexamethylene Biguanide and Nadifloxacin Self-Assembled Nanoparticles: Antimicrobial Effects against Intracellular Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

The treatment of skin and soft tissue infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains a challenge, partly due to localization of the bacteria inside the host’s cells, where antimicrobial penetration and efficacy is limited. We formulated the cationic polymer polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) with the topical antibiotic nadifloxacin and tested the activities against intracellular MRSA in infected keratinocytes. The PHMB/nadifloxacin nanoparticles displayed a size of 291.3 ± 89.6 nm, polydispersity index of 0.35 ± 0.04, zeta potential of +20.2 ± 4.8 mV, and drug encapsulation efficiency of 58.25 ± 3.4%. The nanoparticles killed intracellular MRSA, and relative to free polymer or drugs used separately or together, the nanoparticles displayed reduced toxicity and improved host cell recovery. Together, these findings show that PHMB/nadifloxacin nanoparticles are effective against intracellular bacteria and could be further developed for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections

Towards deployment-time dynamic analysis of server applications

© 2015 ACM.Bug-finding tools based on dynamic analysis (DA), such as Valgrind or the compiler sanitizers provided by Clang and GCC, have become ubiquitous during software development. These analyses are precise but incur a large performance overhead (often several times slower than native execution), which makes them prohibitively expensive to use in production. In this work, we investigate the exciting possibility of deploying such dynamic analyses in production code, using a multi-version execution approach

Size and profitability in cooperative banking

The European cooperative banking plays an important role in promoting savings and in financing small and medium enterprises. Its distinctive characteristics have allowed it to go by the Subprime crisis with a remarkable resilience. Nevertheless, cooperative banks are inserted in a very competitive market, where they suffer a constant pressure to improve competitive position. One strategy often followed to deal with that pressure is to increase the size of local cooperative banks. Based on the data of a Portuguese cooperative banking group for 2009-11, in this paper we assess the impact of size on aggregate assets profitability, making also a disaggregated analysis of the ratios affecting aggregate profitability. After controlling for the idiosyncratic characteristics of local banks, size has a positive effect on assets return. But this effect disappears after controlling for credit risk, suggesting that the effect of size works through better credit risk management.FC

Tamaño y rentabilidad en la banca cooperativa: una perspectiva desde las entrañas de una entidad portuguesa

The European co-operative banks play an important role in promoting savings and in financing small and medium enterprises. Their distinctive characteristics have allowed them to get through the Subprime crisis with remarkable resilience. Nevertheless, co-operative banks operate in a very competitive market, where they are constantly under pressure to improve their position. Increasing the size of local co-operative banks is often the strategy used to deal with this pressure. Based on data from a Portuguese co-operative banking group for 2009-11, we assess the impact of size on assets profitability, and conduct a disaggregated analysis of the ratios affecting it. Results indicate that size has an insignificant effect on profitability after controlling for the time-invariant characteristics of each local bank (i.e. caixa). This suggests that the initial higher profitability identified in small and larger caixas vis-à-vis that of medium-size caixas was explained by their specific time-invariant features. However our evidence suggests that size has an indirect effect on return through credit risk: larger caixas have better credit risk management.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Territory and solidarity: the European Union territorial cohesion policy and the role of local institutions

This paper analyses the evolution of the notion of territorial cohesion in the European Union, with an emphasis on the importance given to the processes of participation and to the specificities of local realities. Despite space and territory has always received attention from the economic theories of development, only recently the territorial dimension was considered fundamental by the European Union. Even though the European Rural Development Policy has always had a greater territorial focus than other European policies, the real relevance of participatory models and the involvement of local actors within this policy has been questioned and must be scrutinized. The reference to a Portuguese cooperative financial institution illustrates this assessment by providing evidence on the role that a local institution can play in rural development.FC