Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Timeliness of corporate financial reporting in emerging capital markets: empirical evidence from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

Abstract This article reports on the results of an empirical investigation of the timeliness of annual reporting by 47 non-financial companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. It also reports on the factors that affect timely reporting by these companies. The results of a descriptive analysis indicate that 98% of the companies in the sample reported promptly to the public (i.e., submitted their audited annual reports to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by the regulatory deadline). A two-stage least squares regression identified company size, profitability and company age as statistically significant explanators of the differences in the timeliness of annual reports issued by the sample companies. No evidence was found to support the monitoring costs theory argument, which suggests that highly-geared companies are timely reporters. Furthermore, the empirical data indicate that audit reporting lead time is significantly associated with the timeliness with which sample companies release their preliminary annual earnings announcement, but not with the timeliness of their audited annual reports. Plausible explanations for these findings along with the limitations of the underlying research are provided.
Volatility Clustering in Financial Markets: Empirical Facts and Agent-Based Models.

The notions of self-similarity, scaling, fractional processes and long range dependence have been repeatedly used to describe properties of financial time series: stock prices, foreign exchange rates, market indices and commodity prices. We discuss the relevance of these properties in the context of financial modelling, their relation with the basic principles of financial theory and possible economic explanations for their presence in financial time series.
Full-Length Human Mutant Huntingtin with a Stable Polyglutamine Repeat Can Elicit Progressive and Selective Neuropathogenesis in BACHD Mice

To elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms in Huntington's disease (HD) elicited by expression of full-length human mutant huntingtin (fl-mhtt), a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-mediated transgenic mouse model (BACHD) was developed expressing fl-mhtt with 97 glutamine repeats under the control of endogenous htt regulatory machinery on the BAC. BACHD mice exhibit progressive motor deficits, neuronal synaptic dysfunction, and late-onset selective neuropathology, which includes significant cortical and striatal atrophy and striatal dark neuron degeneration. Power analyses reveal the robustness of the behavioral and neuropathological phenotypes, suggesting BACHD as a suitable fl-mhtt mouse model for preclinical studies. Additional analyses of BACHD mice provide novel insights into how mhtt may elicit neuropathogenesis. First, unlike previous fl-mhtt mouse models, BACHD mice reveal that the slowly progressive and selective pathogenic process in HD mouse brains can occur without early and diffuse nuclear accumulation of aggregated mhtt (i.e., as detected by immunostaining with the EM48 antibody). Instead, a relatively steady-state level of predominantly full-length mhtt and a small amount of mhtt N-terminal fragments are sufficient to elicit the disease process. Second, the polyglutamine repeat within fl-mhtt in BACHD mice is encoded by a mixed CAA-CAG repeat, which is stable in both the germline and somatic tissues including the cortex and striatum at the onset of neuropathology. Therefore, our results suggest that somatic repeat instability does not play a necessary role in selective neuropathogenesis in BACHD mice. In summary, the BACHD model constitutes a novel and robust in vivo paradigm for the investigation of HD pathogenesis and treatment.
UML and the Semantic Web

This paper discusses technology to support the use of UML for representing ontologies and domain knowledge in the Semantic Web. Two mappings have been defined and implemented using XSLT to produce Java classes and an RDF schema from an ontology represented as a UML class diagram and encoded using XMI. A Java application can encode domain knowledge as an object diagram realised as a network of instances of the generated classes. Support is provided for marshalling and unmarshalling this object-oriented knowledge to and from an RDF/XML serialisation. The paper also proposes an extension to RDF allowing the identification of property-- resource pairs in a model for which 'closed world' reasoning cannot be used due to incomplete knowledge.
Understanding Digital Health as Public Pedagogy: A Critical Framework

This paper argues on behalf of a public pedagogy approach to developing a critical understanding of digital health technologies. It begins by appraising the hitherto polarised articulations of digital innovation as either techno-utopian or techno-dystopian, examining these expectations of technology and considering the tensions between them. It subsequently outlines how a public pedagogy approach can help mediate between these views, offering a more contextualised, socio-political perspective of mHealth. This approach teases out the nuances of digital health by engaging with the complexities of embodied learning. Furthermore, it urges caution against viewing these pedagogical forces as one of transference, or simple governance. To this end, we therefore contextualise our critique of digital health, within an attempt to reconstitute an understanding of public pedagogies of technology.
Effect of donor age on the developmental capacity of bovine cumulus oocyte complexes obtained by repeated OPU from nonstimulated and FSH-superstimulated German Simmental heifers and cows at different life cycle stages

Similarities between the bovine female and women in terms of reproduction and fertility, such as oogenesis, folliculogenesis and reduced fertility with advanced age make the bovine a valuable model for the study of ovarian function and dysfunction as well as reproductive aging in women. The aim of the present work was to investigate the influence of donor age on follicle numbers, yield and quality of COCs obtained by repeated OPU and on the developmental competence in vitro after oocyte maturation in vitro versus in vivo. Further, the ability of oocytes from different age classes to reprogram nuclei of bovine fetal fibroblasts was studied. Since the individual is a major factor influencing parameters of fertility and results of ART in both humans and cattle, the present study used in parts the same animals to rule out inter-individual effects on the response to one or the other approach. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of donor age in non-superstimulated German Simmental heifers (n = 12, 14 months at the beginning of the experiments), young cows in their first lactation (n = 8, 2-4 years) and old cows (n = 8, 10-15 years). A total of 38 OPU sessions were performed in two experimental periods on independent sets of animals from all age classes: 5/5/5 (32 sessions) and 7/3/3 (6 sessions). In spite of a marked influence of the experimental period, a number of parameters were also significantly affected by donor age. The total number of follicles increased with age (P<0.001) and similarly, the total number of cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) recovered was higher in old cows than in young cows and heifers (P<0.01). Evaluation of the follicle size distribution revealed higher percentages of small and lower proportions of medium size follicles in old cows while the COC quality was not affected. Further, the least squares mean blastocyst rate obtained after IVM and IVF of COCs was significantly (P<0.05) higher in young cows (17.4%) than in heifers (5.1%). The culture of oocytes after SCNT resulted in similar cleavage and morula rates. Experiment 2 investigated the interaction of donor age and FSH-superstimulation using the set of animals from experimental period 1 (n = 5 per age class). During 9 OPU sessions performed in 5-week intervals proportions of in vivo matured oocytes between 65.0% and 75.1% on average were obtained. FSH-superstimulation significantly increased the numbers of follicles aspirated (P<0.001) and COCs recovered (P<0.001) as compared to non-superstimulated donors. Follicle size was shifted to less small and more medium and large follicles. Further, there was a marked positive effect of FSH-superstimulation on cleavage and blastocyst rates in all age classes (P<0.001). Importantly, the developmental deficit of heifer COCs after IVM was rescued by FSH-treatment and in vivo maturation.
Study on the Optimal Scanning Strategies of Phase-Array Radar through Ensemble Kalman Filter Assimilation of Simulated Data

1 The phased-array radar (PAR) of the National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) in Norman, Oklahoma represents a paradigm shift for weather radar observations. The PAR with abilities such as a higher data update rate through beam multiplexing (Yu et al. 2007) offers not only an opportunity but also a challenge for meteorologists to exploit its potentials for helping us improve convective storm analysis and prediction. In this paper, the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation technique is used to study the impact of different scanning strategies and to provide scientific guidance for the design and use of optimal scanning strategies for PAR. The EnKF method has shown great promise in a number of recent studies with simulated data within the Observation Simulation System Experiments, (OSSE, Snyder and Zhang 2003; Zhang et al. 2004; Tong and Xue 2005, TX05 hereafter; Xue et al. 2006, XTD06 hereafter). These OSSE studies, especially the earlier ones, make several simplifying assumptions about radar observations. For example, radar data are assumed to be available on the regular model grid points in the first three studies referenced. XTD06 assumes that radar data are available in the PPI planes but at vertical columns that coincides with columns of the analysis grid. In this study, the ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System) EnKF data assimilation system is upgraded to directly assimilate flexible forms of radar data, such as those on individual radials, and to apply more realistic observation operators that include beam weighting in all three directions. A companion radar emulator has been developed to simulate various scanning modes of PAR and produce realistically simulated data. As a result, in this system, OSSE for different scanning strategies can be easily implemented. In the experiments reported here, in both the truth simulation and data analysis, the same grid is used with a horizontal grid spacing of 1 km and a stretched vertical grid of 100 m at the surface while increasing
Jumping robots: a biomimetic solution to locomotion across rough terrain

This paper introduces jumping robots as a means to traverse rough terrain; such terrain can pose problems for traditional wheeled, tracked and legged designs. The diversity of jumping mechanisms found in nature is explored to support the theory that jumping is a desirable ability for a robot locomotion system to incorporate, and then the size-related constraints are determined from first principles. A series of existing jumping robots are presented and their performance summarized. The authors present two new biologically inspired jumping robots, Jollbot and Glumper, both of which incorporate additional locomotion techniques of rolling and gliding respectively. Jollbot consists of metal hoop springs forming a 300 mm diameter sphere, and when jumping it raises its centre of gravity by 0.22 m and clears a height of 0.18 m. Glumper is of octahedral shape, with four ‘legs’ that each comprise two 500 mm lengths of CFRP tube articulating around torsion spring ‘knees’. It is able to raise its centre of gravity by 1.60 m and clears a height of 1.17 m. The jumping performance of the jumping robot designs presented is discussed and compared against some specialized jumping animals. Specific power output is thought to be the performance-limiting factor for a jumping robot, which requires the maximization of the amount of energy that can be stored together with a minimization of mass. It is demonstrated that this can be achieved through optimization and careful materials selection.
The search for genes related to a low-level response to alcohol determined by alcohol challenges.

BACKGROUND A low level of response (LR) to alcohol seems to relate to a substantial proportion of the risk for alcoholism and to have significant heritability. METHODS This report describes the results of a genome-wide segregation analysis for the first 139 pairs of full siblings by using an alcohol challenge protocol as a direct measure of LR. Subjects from 18 to 29 years old were selected if the original screen indicated they had an alcohol-dependent parent, reported a personal history of drinking but had no evidence of alcohol dependence, and had a full sibling with similar characteristics. Body sway and Subjective High Assessment Scale scores were measured at baseline and at regular intervals after the administration of a measured dose of alcohol. Participants and available parents were genotyped for 811 microsatellite markers, and resulting data were analyzed with a variance component method. RESULTS Nine chromosome regions with logarithm of the odds ratio (LOD) between 2.2 and 3.2 were identified; several had previously been implicated regarding phenotypes relevant to alcoholism and the LR to alcohol. Several regions identified in the previous linkage study by using a retrospective self-report questionnaire were potentially confirmed by this study. The strongest evidence was on chromosomes 10, 11, and 22. CONCLUSIONS Several chromosomal areas seem to relate to the low LR to alcohol as a risk factor for alcohol dependence.
Dominant resistance to Bt cotton and minor cross-resistance to Bt toxin Cry2Ab in cotton bollworm from China

Evolution of resistance by insect pests threatens the long‐term benefits of transgenic crops that produce insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Previous work has detected increases in the frequency of resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac in populations of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, from northern China where Bt cotton producing Cry1Ac has been grown extensively for more than a decade. Confirming that trend, we report evidence from 2011 showing that the percentage of individuals resistant to a diagnostic concentration of Cry1Ac was significantly higher in two populations from different provinces of northern China (1.4% and 2.3%) compared with previously tested susceptible field populations (0%). We isolated two resistant strains: one from each of the two field‐selected populations. Relative to a susceptible strain, the two strains had 460‐ and 1200‐fold resistance to Cry1Ac, respectively. Both strains had dominant resistance to a diagnostic concentration of Cry1Ac in diet and to Bt cotton leaves containing Cry1Ac. Both strains had low, but significant cross‐resistance to Cry2Ab (4.2‐ and 5.9‐fold), which is used widely as the second toxin in two‐toxin Bt cotton. Compared with resistance in other strains of H. armigera, the resistance in the two strains characterized here may be especially difficult to suppress.
Treatment with caspofungin in immunocompromised paediatric patients: a multicentre survey.

OBJECTIVES Although a paediatric dosage has not been established, caspofungin is occasionally used in paediatric patients. We conducted a multicentre retrospective survey to obtain data on immunocompromised paediatric patients considered to require caspofungin therapy. METHODS The survey identified 64 patients (median age: 11.5 years; 25 females, 39 males) with haematological malignancies (48), marrow failure (9), solid tumours (3), haematological disorders (2) and congenital immunodeficiency (2) who received caspofungin for proven (17), probable (14) and possible (17) invasive fungal infections or empirically (16). Caspofungin was administered until intolerance or maximum efficacy at dosages individually determined by the responsible physician for refractory infection (38), intolerance of other agents (10) or as best therapeutic option (16). RESULTS The 64 patients received caspofungin for a median of 37 days (range 3-218) as single agent (20) or in combination (44). The median daily maintenance dosage was 1.07 mg/kg (95% CI 1.09-1.35; range 0.40-2.92) or 34.3 mg/m2 (95% CI 32.3-37.3; range 16.3-57.5). In none of the patients was therapy discontinued due to adverse events (AEs). Clinical AEs were mild to moderate and observed in 34 patients (53.1%). While mean glutamate pyruvate transaminase and glutamate oxalate transaminase values were slightly (P < 0.005) higher at the end of treatment (EOT), serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and creatinine values were not different from baseline. Complete responses, partial responses or stabilization were observed in 5/7/3 of 17 patients with proven, in 3/4/3 of 14 patients with probable and in 7/6/1 of 15 evaluable patients with possible invasive infections. Thirteen of 16 patients on empirical therapy completed without breakthrough infection. Overall survival was 75% at the EOT and 70% at 3 months post-EOT, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Caspofungin displayed favourable safety and tolerance and may have useful antifungal efficacy in severely immunocompromised paediatric patients.
Temporal Structure Normalization of Speech Feature for Robust Speech Recognition

This letter presents a new feature normalization technique to normalize the temporal structure of speech features. The temporal structure of the features is partially represented by its power spectral density (PSD). We observed that the PSD of the features varies with the corrupting noise and signal-to-noise ratio. To reduce the PSD variation due to noise, we propose to normalize the PSD of features to a reference function by filtering the features. Experimental results on the AURORA-2 task show that the proposed approach when combined with the mean and variance normalization improves the speech recognition accuracy significantly; the system achieves 69.11% relative error rate reduction over the baseline.
Evaluating the Efficacy of a Learning Trajectory for Early Shape Composition

Although basing instruction on learning trajectories (LTs) is often recommended, there is little direct evidence regarding the premise of a LT approach—that instruction should be presented (only) one LT level beyond a child’s present level. We evaluated this hypothesis in the domain of early shape composition. One group of preschoolers, who were at least two levels below the target instructional LT level, received instruction based on an empirically validated LT. The counterfactual (skip-levels) group received an equal amount of instruction focused only on the target level. At posttest, children in the LT condition exhibited significantly greater learning than children in the skip-levels condition, mainly on near-transfer items; no child-level variables were significant moderators. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
AGILE detection of a rapid γ-ray flare from the blazar PKS 1510-089 during the GASP-WEBT monitoring

Aims. We report the detection by the AGILE satellite of a rapid γ-ray flare from the source 1AGL J1511−0908, associated with the powerful γ-ray quasar PKS 1510−089, during a pointing centered on the Galactic center region from 1 March to 30 March 2008. This source has been continuosly monitored in the radio-to-optical bands by the GLAST-AGILE Support Program (GASP) of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT). Moreover, the γ-ray flaring episode triggered three ToO observations by the Swiftsatellite in three consecutive days, starting from 20 March 2008. The quasisimultaneous radio-to-optical, UV, X-ray and γ-ray coverage allows us to make a detailed study of the multifrequency time evolution, the spectral energy distribution of this source, and its theoretical interpretation based on the synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) emission mechanisms. Methods. During the radio-to-optical monitoring provided by the GASP-WEBT, AGILE observed the source with its two co-aligned imagers, the gamma-ray imaging detector (GRID) and the hard X-ray imager (SuperAGILE), which are sensitive in the 30 MeV–30 GeV and 18–60 keV energy bands, respectively. Results. In the period 1–16 March 2008, AGILE detected γ-ray emission from PKS 1510−089 at a significance level of 6.2-σ with an average flux over the entire period of (84 ± 17) × 10 −8 photons cm −2 s −1 for photon energies above 100 MeV. After a predefined satellite re-pointing, between 17 and 21 March 2008, AGILE detected the source at a significance level of 7.3-σ, with an average flux (E > 100 MeV) of (134 ± 29) × 10 −8 photons cm −2 s −1 and a peak level of (281 ± 68) × 10 −8 photons cm −2 s −1 with daily integration. During the observing period January-April 2008, the source also showed an intense and variable optical activity, with several flaring episodes and a significant increase in the flux was observed at millimetric frequencies. Moreover, in the X-ray band, the Swift/XRT observations seem to show a harder-when-brighter behavior of the source spectrum. Conclusions. The flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1510−089 showed strong activity between January and April 2008, with episodes of rapid variability from radio to γ-ray energy bands, in particular with a rapid γ-ray flaring episode. The spectral energy distribution of mid-March 2008 is modeled with a homogeneous one-zone synchrotron self Compton (SSC) emission plus contributions from inverse Compton scattering of external photons from both the accretion disk and the broad line region. Indeed, some features in the optical-UV spectrum seem to indicate Seyfert-like components such as the little and the big blue bumps.
Revitalising learning and development? The role of the trade union learning representative

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide a piece of empirical work that examines the impact of trade union learning representatives in enabling access to learning by those groups traditionally less likely to access such opportunities. This aim is discussed in relation to the literature on the significance of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach – The research conducted included an in‐depth qualitative interview study of full‐time trade union officials with some responsibility for learning in their union. Findings – The findings are discussed in relation to how trade union learning representatives are approaching their role; how learning is being facilitated; who is gaining access to learning and how; and the ownership of learning more generally. Originality/value – The paper presents original data on a new learning initiative about which very little is currently published.
The Impact of Advertising Appeal, Celebrity Endorsement and Repetition Advertising in Television Advertisement Toward Purchase Intention OPPO Smartphone

This research purposes to: 1) investigate the impact of advertising appeal, celebrity endorsement and advertising repetition on purchase intention OPPO smartphone, 2) identifying the factors that most impact on purchase intention OPPO Smartphone and the research population is all people who have been watching oppo smartphone advertisement in television with a sample of 470 respondents in Bandung. The sample was taken using judgment sampling. The methods used in analyzing the data are using validity and reliability test, and multiple regression analysis. The result of this research show that Advertising have a significantly impact on purchase intention, and the most influence factor is advertising repetition.