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Financing entrepreneurship spurs innovation and economic growth. Digital financial platforms that crowdfund equity for entrepreneurs have emerged globally, yet they remain poorly understood. We model equity crowdfunding in terms of the relationship between the number of investors and the amount of money raised per pitch. We examine heterogeneity in the average amount raised per pitch that is associated with differences across three countries and seven platforms. Using a novel dataset of successful fundraising on the most prominent platforms in the UK, Germany, and the USA, we find the underlying relationship between the number of investors and the amount of money raised for entrepreneurs is loglinear, with a coefficient less than one and concave to the origin. We identify significant variation in the average amount invested in each pitch across countries and platforms. Our findings have implications for market actors as well as regulators who set competitive frameworks.

BackgroundThis study aims to describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 patients in a Swiss university hospital.MethodsThis retrospective observational study included all adult patients hospitalized with a laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 1 to March 25, 2020. We extracted data from electronic health records. The primary outcome was the need to mechanical ventilation at day 14. We used multivariate logistic regression to identify risk factors for mechanical ventilation. Follow-up was of at least 14 days.Results145 patients were included in the multivariate model, of whom 36 (24.8%) needed mechanical ventilation at 14 days. The median time from symptoms onset to mechanical ventilation was 9·5 days (IQR 7.00, 12.75). Multivariable regression showed increased odds of mechanical ventilation with age (OR 1.09 per year, 95% CI 1.03-1.16, p = 0.002), in males (OR 6.99, 95% CI 1.68-29.03, p = 0.007), in patients who presented with a qSOFA score ≥2 (OR 7.24, 95% CI 1.64-32.03, p = 0.009), with bilateral infiltrate (OR 18.92, 3.94-98.23, pConclusionsThis study gives some insight in the epidemiology and clinical course of patients admitted in a European tertiary hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Age, male sex, high qSOFA score, CRP of 40 mg/l or greater and a bilateral radiological infiltrate could help clinicians identify patients at high risk for mechanical ventilation.

We examined how factors related to the internal representation of the hands (handedness and grasping affordances) influence the distribution of visuospatial attention near the body. Left and right handed participants completed a covert visual cueing task, discriminating between two target shapes. In Experiment 1, participants responded with either their dominant or non-dominant hand. In Experiment 2, the non-responding hand was positioned below one of two target placeholders, aligned with the shoulder. In Experiment 3 the near-monitor hand was positioned under the placeholder in the opposite region of hemispace, crossed over the body midline. For Experiments 2 & 3, in blocked trials the palmar and back-of hand surfaces were directed towards the target placeholder such that targets appeared towards either the graspable or non-graspable space of the hand respectively. In Experiment 2, both left and right handers displayed larger accuracy cueing effects for targets near versus distant from the graspable space of the right hand. Right handers also displayed larger response time cueing effects for objects near the graspable versus non-graspable region of their dominant hand but not for their non-dominant hands. These effects were not evident for left-handers. In Experiment 3, for right handers, accuracy biases for near hand targets were still evident when the hand was crossed over the body midline, and reflected hand proximity but not functional orientation biases. These findings suggest that biased visuospatial attention enhances object identity discrimination near hands and that these effects are particularly enhanced for right-handers.

The 'mirror neuron system' (MNS), located within inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), creates an internal motor representation of the actions we see and has been implicated in imitation. Recently, the MNS has been implicated in non-identical responses: when the actions we must execute do not match those that we observe. However, in such conflicting situations non action-specific cognitive control networks also located in frontoparietal regions may be involved. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study participants made both similar and dissimilar actions within two action contexts: imitative and complementary. We aimed to determine whether activity within IPL/IFG depends on (i) responding under an imitative versus complementary context (ii) responding with similar versus dissimilar responses, and (iii) observing hand actions versus symbolic arrow cue stimuli. Activity within rIPL/rIFG regions was largest during observation of hand actions compared with arrow cues. Specifically, rIPL/rIFG were recruited only during the imitative context, when participants responded with similar actions. When responding to symbolic arrow cues, rIPL/rIFG activity increased during dissimilar responses, reflecting increased demands placed on general cognitive control mechanisms. These results suggest a specific role of rIPL/rIFG during imitation of hand actions, and also a general role of frontoparietal areas in mediating dissimilar responses to both hand actions and symbolic stimuli. We discuss our findings in relation to recent work that has examined the role of frontoparietal brain structures in joint-actions and inter-actor cooperation. We conclude that the specific brain regions identified here to show increased activation during action observation conditions are likely to form part of a mechanism specifically involved in matching observed actions directly with internal motor plans. Conversely, observation of arrow cues recruited part of a wider cognitive control network involved in the rapid remapping of stimulus-response associations.

Gene profiling studies provide important information for key molecules relevant to a disease but are less informative of protein-protein interactions, post-translational modifications and regulation by targeted subcellular localization. Integration of genomic data and construction of functional gene networks may provide additional insights into complex diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).We analyzed gene expression microarray data of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) from 20 SLE patients (11 with active disease) and 10 controls. Gene networks were constructed using the bioinformatic tool Ingenuity Gene Network Analysis. In SLE patients, comparative analysis of BMMCs genes revealed a network with 19 central nodes as major gene regulators including ERK, JNK, and p38 MAP kinases, insulin, Ca(2+) and STAT3. Comparison between active versus inactive SLE identified 30 central nodes associated with immune response, protein synthesis, and post-transcriptional modification. A high degree of identity between networks in active SLE and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients was found, with overlapping central nodes including kinases (MAPK, ERK, JNK, PKC), transcription factors (NF-kappaB, STAT3), and insulin. In validation studies, western blot analysis in splenic B cells from 5-month-old NZB/NZW F1 lupus mice showed activation of STAT3, ITGB2, HSPB1, ERK, JNK, p38, and p32 kinases, and downregulation of FOXO3 and VDR compared to normal C57Bl/6 mice.Gene network analysis of lupus BMMCs identified central gene regulators implicated in disease pathogenesis which could represent targets of novel therapies in human SLE. The high similarity between active SLE and NHL networks provides a molecular basis for the reported association of the former with lymphoid malignancies.