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The special features displayed by family firms characterize and shape their family social capital and make them unique. The participation of both the family and the firm creates distinctive resources and capabilities in the family firm. As new generations arrive, opposing forces begin to shake the firm, and while some embrace change others expect the continuity of the family influence. Likewise, the influence of the family in the firm conditions its performance. In this study, we empirically address how family influence promotes the development of family social capital that, in turn, impacts on the organizational effectiveness of family firms. Furthermore, we observe the moderating role of generational involvement by considering generations an important source of heterogeneity in family firms. We test the hypotheses on a sample of Spanish family firms, analyzing the data using partial least squares (PLS). Results indicate that the family influence positively affects the development of family social capital and, therefore, the organizational effectiveness of the family firm. However, generational involvement can moderate both relationships in a negative way, by reducing the development and exploitation of the family social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Hurricane Maria is the most devastating natural phenomenon in the recent history of Puerto Rico. Due to its destructive path through the island, the Puerto Rico Trauma Center (PRTC) remained the only hospital managing orthopaedic trauma in the immediate post-disaster period. We investigated the impact of this hurricane on the orthopaedic trauma epidemiology in the PRTC.Methods: We evaluated the admissions by the orthopaedic surgery service in terms of demographics, mechanisms of injury, and orthopaedic diagnoses for two months after the impact of Hurricane Maria (HM) on September 20, 2017. We compared our study group with the same two month period for two years prior (2015 and 2016) and after (2018 and 2019) as control periods. A p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: We included 384 admissions from September 20 to November 20, 2017. The majority were males (63%) and had an average age of 54 years. The most-reported mechanism of injury was fall from standing height (FFSH), showing a significant increment compared with the control periods. Contrarily, motor vehicle accidents (MVA) showed a significant reduction. Among the orthopaedic diagnoses, the hip + pelvis category showed a significant decline within the study group.Conclusions: This study highlighted the impact of HM on the orthopaedic trauma epidemiology at the PRTC. Our findings provide valuable evidence to healthcare institutions to better prepare to manage the potential changes in the orthopaedic trauma epidemiology after a major atmospheric event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspergillus niger lipase immobilization by covalent binding on chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles (CMNP), obtained by one-step co-precipitation, was studied. Hydroxyl and amino groups of support were activated using glycidol and glutaraldehyde, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis confirmed reaction of these coupling agents with the enzyme and achievement of a successful immobilization. The derivatives showed activities of 309.5 ± 2.0 and 266.2 ± 2.8 U (g support) for the CMNP treated with glutaraldehyde and with glycidol, respectively. Immobilization enhanced the enzyme stability against changes of pH and temperature, compared to free lipase. Furthermore, the kinetic parameters K and V were determined for the free and immobilized enzyme. K value quantified for enzyme immobilized by means of glutaraldehyde was 1.7 times lowers than for free lipase. High storage stability during 50 days was observed in the immobilized derivatives. Finally, immobilized derivatives retained above 80 % of their initial activity after 15 hydrolytic cycles. The immobilized enzyme can be applied in various biotechnological processes involving magnetic separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold monodispersed nanoparticles (smaller than 10 nm) have been embedded into sepiolite fibres and sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) in order to preserve their nanometre size. The optical properties of these nanoparticles have been measured showing the surface plasmon resonance. Plasmon absorption curves have been successfully fitted by using the quasistatic approximation for gold nanoparticles. It has been observed that the sintering process decreases the plasmon width. SPS sintered nanostructured compacts present large values of the non-linear third-order dielectric susceptibility related to the gold concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An acid protease having milk clotting activity has been isolated from Mucor bacilliformis cultures. The enzyme was basically purified by ionic exchange chromatography. An average yield of 29 mg purified product was obtained from 100 mL crude extract. As purity criteria, SDS-PAGE, reverse-phase HPLC, and N-terminal analysis were performed. The protease is a protein composed of a single polypeptide chain with glycine at the N-terminus. The mol wt is approx 32,000, and its amino acid composition is very similar to those of other fungal proteases. As expected, its clotting activity was drastically inhibited by pepstatin A action. On the other hand, its instability against heat treatment and its clotting/proteolytic activity ratio indicate that it may be considered as a potential substitute for bovine chymosin. Index Entries: Mucor bacilliformis protease; milk clotting enzyme; acid protease; fungal protease; aspartyl protease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]