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Despite the relevance of crowdfunding as a financing tool for underrepresented entrepreneurs, prior research pays scant attention to the funding gap for refugee entrepreneurs. Using a composite framework that integrates both entrepreneurship research and signalling theory, the current study investigates how microfinance institutions (MFIs) and refugee entrepreneurs can deploy signals to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities on digital platforms. The results, based on refugee data pertaining to 5615 loans on Kiva during 2015–2018, reveal that when refugee loan campaigns are affiliated with an MFI that itself features lower default rates, achieves high profitability, adopts an entrepreneurial support orientation, operates transnationally and is digitally focused, the campaign achieves better crowdfunding performance outcomes than refugees campaigns affiliated with an MFI that lacks these features. These findings provide clear evidence that when MFIs offer reputational signals, visible to the crowd of lenders, it can increase entrepreneurial financing and democratize resource acquisition among financially excluded refugee entrepreneurs. Plain English Summary: Can microfinance institutions boost crowdfunding among refugee entrepreneurs and their small businesses? Yes, they can. Third-party signals may support growth in alternative finance for #refugees. While research on entrepreneurship has largely targeted immigrant entrepreneurs, the refugee context has been neglected, namely how refugee entrepreneurs fund their economic activities. With signalling literature on new venture financing of entrepreneurship being greatly fragmented, we contribute to the understanding of how crowdfunding microfinance boost venture financing of refugees. We study the gain of legitimacy by refugee entrepreneurs displayed through reputational signals intertwined with the reputation of microfinance institutions (MFI). Our results reveal higher success in funding outcomes when the loan campaign is linked with microfinance institutions with lower loan default rates, higher profitability, driven by entrepreneurial support, operating internationally and with a digital presence, compared with MFI that lacks these features. Our work has relevant implications for underrepresented refugee entrepreneurs, crowdfunding actors, policymakers and scholars. Our findings indicate that the affiliation between refugees-microfinance institutions creates certain reputational signals which enhance entrepreneurial finance and shape conditions for societal integration in the host country. For crowdfunding platforms, we show that to develop an effective, self-perpetuating entrepreneurial ecosystem, they should work to build their reputation among lenders, by capitalizing on and making third-party signals more readily available. At the same time, they must conduct due diligence to assess and monitor MFIs' behaviour. Policy makers are recommended to build up on this digital microfinance experience to enhance new venturing finance refugee programs. We, thus, extend prior findings about the importance of third-party affiliations by establishing a composite framework of third-party signals in the context of new venture financing for financially excluded communities, and refugees in particular. Accordingly, for scholars, we offer cross-disciplinary insights into which characteristics of intermediaries can facilitate links between the supply (crowd of lenders) and demand (refugee entrepreneurs) sides in prosocial crowdfunding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing energy from fusion and finding ways to scale up the fusion process to commercial proportions in an efficient, economical, and environmentally benign way is one of the grand challenges for engineering. Controlling the burning plasma in real-time is one of the critical issues that need to be addressed. Plasma Position Reflectometry (PPR) is expected to have an important role in next-generation fusion machines, such as DEMO, as a diagnostic to monitor the position and shape of the plasma continuously, complementing magnetic diagnostics. The reflectometry diagnostic uses radar science methods in the microwave and millimetre wave frequency ranges and is envisaged to measure the radial edge density profile at several poloidal angles providing data for the feedback control of the plasma position and shape. While significant steps have already been given to accomplish that goal, with proof of concept tested first in ASDEX-Upgrade and afterward in COMPASS, important, ground-breaking work is still ongoing. The Divertor Test Tokamak (DTT) facility presents itself as the appropriate future fusion device to implement, develop, and test a PPR system, thus contributing to building a knowledge database in plasma position reflectometry required for its application in DEMO. At DEMO, the PPR diagnostic's in-vessel antennas and waveguides, as well as the magnetic diagnostics, may be exposed to neutron irradiation fluences 5 to 50 times greater than those experienced by ITER. In the event of failure of either the magnetic or microwave diagnostics, the equilibrium control of the DEMO plasma may be jeopardized. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure that these systems are designed in such a way that they can be replaced if necessary. To perform reflectometry measurements at the 16 envisaged poloidal locations in DEMO, plasma-facing antennas and waveguides are needed to route the microwaves between the plasma through the DEMO upper ports (UPs) to the diagnostic hall. The main integration approach for this diagnostic is to incorporate these groups of antennas and waveguides into a diagnostics slim cassette (DSC), which is a dedicated complete poloidal segment specifically designed to be integrated with the water-cooled lithium lead (WCLL) breeding blanket system. This contribution presents the multiple engineering and physics challenges addressed while designing reflectometry diagnostics using radio science techniques. Namely, short-range dedicated radars for plasma position and shape control in future fusion experiments, the advances enabled by the designs for ITER and DEMO, and the future perspectives. One key development is in electronics, aiming at an advanced compact coherent fast frequency sweeping RF back-end [23–100 GHz in few μs] that is being developed at IPFN-IST using commercial Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMIC). The compactness of this back-end design is crucial for the successful integration of many measurement channels in the reduced space available in future fusion machines. Prototype tests of these devices are foreseen to be performed in current nuclear fusion machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose Malignancy-related hypercalcemia (MRH) is associated with a dismal prognosis. The widespread use of bisphosphonates (BPs), availability of more effective drugs in cancer treatment, and improvement in supportive care might have attenuated its impact. Patients and Methods To assess overall survival (OS) of patients with MRH in a contemporary setting, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 306 patients with solid cancer hospitalized for symptomatic hypercalcemia. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was performed to evaluate possible prognostic factors associated with MRH. Results All patients had serum ionized calcium > 5.5 mg/dL or total Ca > 10.5 mg/dL. Median age was 57 years, and the majority had squamous cell carcinoma (62%) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status > 1 (96%). Head and neck was the most frequent primary site (28%). Forty-five percent had no previous chemotherapy (CT), and subsequent CT was administered to 32%. Eighty-three percent received BP with no survival gain. Median OS was 40 (95% CI, 33 to 47) days. Patients with a performance status > 2, altered mental status, C-reactive protein > 30 mg/L, albumin < 2.5 g/dL, or bodymass index <18 kg/m² had significantly poorer survival in a univariable analysis, and longer OS was related to treatment-naive patients, subsequent CT, and breast primary site. In the multivariable analysis, subsequent CT led to a median OS improvement of 144 versus 25 days (hazard ratio, 0.24; 95%CI, 0.14 to 0.40; P < .001). Conclusion In a contemporary setting, MRH remains a marker of poor prognosis. Patients treated with CT had better survival, which suggests that appropriate treatment of selected patients might alter the course of this syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RIIS: Revista de Investigação & Inovação em Saúde is the property of RIIS: Revista de Investigacao & Inovacao em Saude and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)