Search results for "External"
showing 10 items of 601 documents
On the Relevance of Agency Conflicts in SME Debt Maturity Structure
2015
Previous theoretical research asserts that an optimal policy of debt maturity structure mitigates the various agency conflicts that arise through debt contracts. We test this hypothesis on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), which are very sensitive to agency problems. Such problems mainly arise between owners and debt providers, due to SMEs recording high growth and having few fixed assets and informational asymmetry. We provide evidence on the relevant effect of underinvestment, asset substitution, and overinvestment problems on SME debt structure. Results appear to be robust to both the endogeneity problem of explanatory variables and the censored dependent variable.
The international debt problem: An analysis of the Brady plan
1989
Recently the American Treasury Secretary, Nicholas Brady, launched a new initiative in which he proposed reducing the developing countries’ bank debt. What are the elements of the plan, and which countries would benefit? What problems does it entail? Can it bring about a decisive improvement in the international debt situation of the developing countries? The following two articles attempt to answer these questions.
SmartResource Platform and Semantic Agent Programming Language (S-APL)
2007
Although the flexibility of agent interactions has many advantages when it comes to engineering a complex system, the downside is that it leads to certain unpredictability of the run-time system. Literature sketches two major directions for search for a solution: social-level characterization of agent systems and ontological approaches to inter-agent coordination. Especially the latter direction is not yet studied much by the scientific community. This paper describes our vision and the present state of the SmartResource Platform. The main distinctive features of the platform are externalization of behavior prescriptions, i.e. agents access them from organizational repositories, and utiliza…
Study of mycotoxin calibration approaches on the example of trichothecenes analysis from flour
2012
The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of different calibration approaches in trichothecenes analysis from wheat flour. Concretely eight trichothecenes (five type B trichothecenes and three type A trichothecenes) were analyzed by matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In the first set of experiments the presence of matrix effects was evaluated; values ranged between 59% and 79%. In the second set of experiments, solutions to compensate these signal suppressions were examined. Different calibration methods showed to tackle matrix effects obtaining values between 69% and 85% for external matrix matched calibration a…
Asymptotic regime in N random interacting species
2005
The asymptotic regime of a complex ecosystem with \emph{N}random interacting species and in the presence of an external multiplicative noise is analyzed. We find the role of the external noise on the long time probability distribution of the i-th density species, the extinction of species and the local field acting on the i-th population. We analyze in detail the transient dynamics of this field and the cavity field, which is the field acting on the $i^{th}$ species when this is absent. We find that the presence or the absence of some population give different asymptotic distributions of these fields.
MALIGNANT EXTERNAL OTITIS. A CASE SERIES FROM AN ITALIAN TERTIARY-CARE HOSPITAL
2014
Objectives: Malignant external otitis (MEO) is an. aggressive and potentially fatal disease that affects the external. auditory canal (EAC) it occurs almost exclusively in elderly, diabetic patients or immune compromised ones. The aim of this study was to describe epidemiological and clinical characteristics of a consecutive series of patients affected by malignant external otitis (MEO) and to conceive a flow-chart for its management. Material and methods: Adult patients diagnosed with and treated for MEO at the University Hospital of Messina, Italy between 2003 and 2013 were identified. Charts were reviewed for history, clinical presentation, laboratory data treatment, and outcomes. Result…
Is R&D Enough to Take Advantage From External Knowledge?: Focusing on Coordination Mechanisms
2014
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of research and development (R&D) and coordination mechanisms (such as decentralization in decision-making and formalization of organizational processes) in the transformation of external knowledge into innovation results. We use survey data for performing standard ordinary least squares regressions in a representative sample of firms from the Spanish Ceramic Tile Industry. The results suggest that R&D is an important moderator influencing the relationship between acquiring external knowledge and innovation outcomes. Second, formalization tends to have a detrimental effect in the transformation of external knowledge into innovation outputs. T…
Electric Field Dependence of the Fluorescence Intensity of Solute Molecules and Fourth Order Effects
1985
Abstract The effect of an external electric field on the total fluorescence of solute molecules is studied up to fourth order theoretically, and is checked experimentally with 4´-N,N-dimethylamino- 4-nitrostilbene in dioxane at room temperature.
Experimental assessment of changes in bone fragment position using infraread diodes on saw bone models with a hexapod fixator
2021
Background: The purpose of this study was an experimental assessment of changes in bone fragment position in patients with non-union of the tibia treated with a hexapod fixator. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the use of hexapod fixators leads to differences between the planned and actual position of bone fragments. Methods: The study was conducted in physical models of the hexapod fixator–bone fragment system. Bone fragment displacement was measured using the Optotrak Certus Motion Capture System. We assessed differences between the planned and actual position of bone fragments. Results: Assessment of bone fragment compression demonstrated a difference between the target and actual correc…
Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia with a novel mitochondrial DNA deletion and a mutation in the tRNALEU(UUR) gene
1999
Large-scale deletions and point mutations of the mitochondrial DNA are generally accepted as being involved in the pathogenesis of diseases associated with mitochondrial encephalomyopathies such as Kearns-Sayre syndrome and chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO). We screened suspected patients using polymerase chain reaction techniques, Southern blot analyses, and muscle biopsy specimens. We report on a novel 4,953-base pair deletion associated with a familial occurrence of a tRNA Leu(UUR) T3250C point mutation in a young female patient clinically diagnosed with CPEO. This deletion is not flanked by direct repeats, so slip replication and homologous recombination do not seem li…