Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rules-Based Accounting Standards and Litigation

ABSTRACT: Some claim that rules-based accounting standards shield firms from litigation, while others argue that violations of detailed rules give plaintiffs a “roadmap” to successful litigation. We inform this debate by investigating whether rules-based standards are associated with the incidence and outcome of securities class action litigation. Overall, our results suggest that rules-based standards are associated with a lower incidence of litigation but are not associated with litigation outcomes. These results are of interest in the debate regarding the switch from a more rules-based U.S. GAAP to a more principles-based IFRS. JEL Classifications: K22, K41, M41.
Intra-City Urban Network and Traffic Flow Analysis from GPS Mobility Trace

We analyse two large-scale intra-city urban networks and traffic flows therein measured by GPS traces of taxis in San Francisco and Shanghai. Our results coincide with previous findings that, based purely on topological means, it is often insufficient to characterise traffic flow. Traditional shortest-path betweenness analysis, where shortest paths are calculated from each pairs of nodes, carries an unrealistic implicit assumption that each node or junction in the urban network generates and attracts an equal amount of traffic. We also argue that weighting edges based only on euclidean distance is inadequate, as primary roads are commonly favoured over secondary roads due to the perceived and actual travel time required. We show that betweenness traffic analysis can be improved by a simple extended framework which incorporates both the notions of node weights and fastest-path betweenness. We demonstrate that the framework is superior to traditional methods based solely on simple topological perspectives.
Locality-sensitive hashing scheme based on dynamic collision counting

Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) and its variants are well-known methods for solving the c-approximate NN Search problem in high-dimensional space. Traditionally, several LSH functions are concatenated to form a "static" compound hash function for building a hash table. In this paper, we propose to use a base of m single LSH functions to construct "dynamic" compound hash functions, and define a new LSH scheme called Collision Counting LSH (C2LSH). If the number of LSH functions under which a data object o collides with a query object q is greater than a pre-specified collision threhold l, then o can be regarded as a good candidate of c-approximate NN of q. This is the basic idea of C2LSH. Our theoretical studies show that, by appropriately choosing the size of LSH function base m and the collision threshold l, C2LSH can have a guarantee on query quality. Notably, the parameter m is not affected by dimensionality of data objects, which makes C2LSH especially good for high dimensional NN search. The experimental studies based on synthetic datasets and four real datasets have shown that C2LSH outperforms the state of the art method LSB-forest in high dimensional space.
Intrinsic Viral Factors Are the Dominant Determinants of the Hepatitis C Virus Response to Interferon Alpha Treatment in Chimeric Mice

Background Hepatitis C virus infection is a global health problem. New direct-acting antiviral agents have been recently approved. However, due to their high cost and some genotypes remaining difficult to treat, interferon-based therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin likely may remain a component of hepatitis C virus treatment for some patients. Unfortunately, pegylated interferon / ribavirin treatment achieved favorable outcomes in less than 50% of patients. Factors determining the outcome to pegylated interferon / ribavirin include both host and viral factors. It has been a major challenge to separate the host and viral factors in most in vivo systems. Aims & Methods We used two hepatitis C virus strains from patients with different interferon-sensitivities and three hepatocyte donors, each with distinct interleukin 28B and interferon lambda 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms to investigate the contributions of viral and host factors to the response of hepatitis C virus to interferon treatment in chimeric mice. Results and Conclusions We found that viral factors were the dominant factors in determining the interferon treatment outcomes in chimeric mice. Host factors, such as pre-treatment liver interferon-stimulated gene expression and single nucleotide polymorphisms near interleukin 28B and interferon lambda 4 coding regions, were less important determinants of the response to interferon in the chimeric mice than they were in patients. Our results also suggest that a complete immune system as seen in patients may be required for host factors such as single nucleotide polymorphisms near interleukin 28B / interferon lambda 4 and pre-treatment liver interferon-stimulated gene upregulation to have an effect on the interferon response.
Managing Social Activity and Participation in Large Classes with Mobile Phone Technology

Within the context of a developing country, such as South Africa, access to technology is severely limited. However, most South Africans have relatively good access to mobile phone technology in relation to other portable and mobile technology. In this initiative, students were encouraged to use mobile phone text messaging to send questions to the lecturer during classes or between classes. A total of 86 text messages were sent to the lecturer during a 7-week, second year psychology course. At the end of the course 136 responses to questionnaire distributed in class was obtained. This data was analysed using activity theory as a framework for the discussion. The results indicated that students had strongly favorable perceptions of this initiative and respondents had spontaneously suggested other uses of mobile phone technology to enhance the learning experience. Activity theory provided a useful framework for evaluating the use of mobile phone text messages to enhance student participation and learning.
Almost Being There: Video Communication with Young Children

Background Video communication is increasingly used to connect people around the world. This includes connecting young children with their parents and other relatives during times of separation. An important issue is the extent to which video communication with children can approximate a physical presence such that familial relationships can be truly maintained by this means. Methodology/Principal Findings The current study employed an adaptation of the Separation and Reunion Paradigm with children (17 months to 5 years) to investigate the potential for video communication with a parent to afford a sense of proximity and security to children. The protocol involved a free-play session with the parent, followed by two separation-reunion episodes. During one of the separation episodes the parent was ‘virtually available’ to the child via a video link. Our results revealed three important differences. First, children left alone played longer in a strange room when their parent was virtually available to them compared to when the children were left alone with neither physical nor video contact with their parent. Second, younger participants sought physical contact with their parent less at the end of the video separation episode compared to when they were left entirely alone. Finally, the comparison between free play with video and free play with parent, revealed that the children exhibit a similar level of interactivity with their parent by video as they did in person. Conclusions/Significance For young children a video connection can have many of the same effects as a physical presence. This is a significant finding as it is the first such empirical demonstration and indicates considerable promise in video communication as a tool to maintain family relationships when physical presence is not possible.
Interactions between Tropical Convection and the Environment: A View across Scales

The interaction between moist convection and the environment that engenders it is a problem that spans multiple scales. In this study, the problem is approached using a suite of observational and modeling tools. The first approach was the development of an algorithm to estimate latent heating profiles from radar observations using a high-resolution version of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). A lookup table was constructed from WRF output to statistically quantify the relationship between latent heating and three characteristics of radar-observed storms: size, mean height and mean intensity. A tight link between organization (characterized by the size of the system) and the intensity (as measured by latent heat release) was found. The algorithm was validated against field campaign observations and shows skill in replicating the short-term (less than daily) variability associated with tropical synoptic systems. The second approach was to analyze the relationship between convection and the environment via moisture modulation using the Tropical Rain Measuring Mission satellite and reanalysis data, with focus on the tropical precipitation-water vapor relationship (P-r curve) which is a power-law relationship, which at the convective time and space scales is characterized by a sharp increase in precipitation beyond a critical value of moisture (the pickup threshold). The convective and stratiform components of the P-r relationship were studied separately and it was found that the pickup in tropical precipitation mainly originates from a rapid pickup in the areal extent of stratiform precipitation. A survey of the P-r curve across the tropical world–both land and ocean–shows that the pickup threshold is much lower over tropical land than over
Heterogeneity of risk factors and antibody profiles in epstein-barr virus genome-positive and -negative hodgkin lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) tumors that contain the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome may differ etiologically from EBV-negative HL tumors. METHODS A case-case study examining heterogeneity of risk factors between disease subgroups compared personal characteristics and EBV antibodies between 95 EBV-positive and 303 EBV-negative patients with HL. RESULTS We confirmed previous associations of EBV-positive HL with older age, male sex, and mixed-cellularity (MC) histological subtypes. EBV-positive patients were less educated and more likely to have smoked cigarettes and had more prevalent and higher EBV antibody titers, compared with EBV-negative patients. After adjustment for all independent risk factors, those most strongly associated with EBV-positive HL were histological subtypes (odds ratio [OR] for MC vs. nodular sclerosis histology, 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-7.2), elevated anti-viral capsid antigen level (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.6-6.0), and less education (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5-1.0). Cigarette smoking and a low anti-Epstein-Barr nuclear protein (EBNA) 1 : anti-EBNA-2 ratio were also marginally associated with EBV-positive HL. CONCLUSIONS EBV-positive HL is more common among individuals who have markers of diminished cellular immunity and an abnormal EBV antibody response. EBV appears to participate in the etiology of EBV-positive HL but may not be involved in EBV-negative HL.
The tube over time: characterizing popularity growth of youtube videos

Understanding content popularity growth is of great importance to Internet service providers, content creators and online marketers. In this work, we characterize the growth patterns of video popularity on the currently most popular video sharing application, namely YouTube. Using newly provided data by the application, we analyze how the popularity of individual videos evolves since the video's upload time. Moreover, addressing a key aspect that has been mostly overlooked by previous work, we characterize the types of the referrers that most often attracted users to each video, aiming at shedding some light into the mechanisms (e.g., searching or external linking) that often drive users towards a video, and thus contribute to popularity growth. Our analyses are performed separately for three video datasets, namely, videos that appear in the YouTube top lists, videos removed from the system due to copyright violation, and videos selected according to random queries submitted to YouTube's search engine. Our results show that popularity growth patterns depend on the video dataset. In particular, copyright protected videos tend to get most of their views much earlier in their lifetimes, often exhibiting a popularity growth characterized by a viral epidemic-like propagation process. In contrast, videos in the top lists tend to experience sudden significant bursts of popularity. We also show that not only search but also other YouTube internal mechanisms play important roles to attract users to videos in all three datasets.
Improving Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) management for Bush Stone-curlew (Burhinus grallarius) conservation in south-eastern Australia

Andrew Carter XXII ABSTRACT In Australia, the Red Fox (fox; Vulpes vulpes) is a serious threat to livestock and a major predator of wildlife. Native ground-dwelling fauna are especially vulnerable to fox predation and one species of particular concern is the Bush Stone-curlew (curlew; Burhinus grallarius) which, in south-eastern Australia, is largely confined to privately-owned farmland. Fox control is a key management strategy in endeavours to halt curlew population declines, however it is unclear whether current efforts are employed at an appropriate scale or in areas for the most effective control. This thesis addresses these questions by examining fox predation pressure relative to landscape context and ground-layer habitat complexity, factors affecting den-site selection, home-range size and movements, and a community-based fox-baiting program specifically implemented to protect curlews. Bait-uptake experiments demonstrated that fox predation pressure was highest along roadsides and creek-lines; locations that provide important habitat for curlews in agricultural landscapes. This confirms the great risk that curlews face from foxes in farming areas and identifies landscape elements where fox control could be targeted for increased effectiveness. The hunting success of foxes was reduced in areas with high ground-layer complexity, particularly when fox abundance was lowered through a landholder baiting program. Maintaining groundlayer complexity is an important aspect of curlew habitat management, and my results suggest such efforts will be more beneficial if combined with regular fox control. The most important determinant of den-site selection was soil type, with sandier soils preferred for earthen dens. Non-earthen dens (primarily hollow trees and culverts) were most common in high clay-content soil. Understanding an area’s underlying soil will help identify the type of den most likely to be encountered (earthen or non-earthen), which in-turn indicates probable den locations. The average home range of ten foxes radio-tracked for 26–347 days was 1177 ha (100 % MCP; range = 287–3574 ha), with home-range overlap more prevalent among sub-adults than adults. On average, adult foxes travelled 9.4 km during 24 hours and covered 34 % of their home range during this period. Some foxes habitually used the same travel paths during nocturnal movements. During a community-based fox-baiting program, many properties lacked bait stations and only one third of the radio-tracked foxes (n = 2 / 6) died. Limited baiting programs are typical of most landholder campaigns in south-eastern Australia and there is a pressing need for
The father-infant relationship: becoming connected.

PURPOSE To explore fathers' experiences of developing a relationship with their infants during the infant's first 2 months of life DESIGN Grounded theory approach SETTING Fathers' homes or other mutually agreed-upon site PARTICIPANTS First-time fathers (N = 14), ages 28-44, Caucasian, middle class MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Tape-recorded semistructured interviews to elicit fathers' perceptions of their fathering selves, their infants, and the father-infant relationship. RESULTS Using constant comparative method for analysis, three major categories were identified as operative in the initial development of the father-infant relationship: (a) making a commitment, (b) becoming connected, and (c) making room for the baby CONCLUSIONS With an increased understanding of the father-infant relationship, nurses can provide humanistic, thoughtful care to assist fathers in developing this significant relationship.
Magnetic flux emergence in granular convection: radiative MHD simulations and observational signatures

Aims. We study the emergence of magnetic flux from the near-surface layers of the solar convection zone into the photosphere. Methods. To model magnetic flux emergence, we carried out a set of numerical radiative magnetohydrodynamics simulations. Our simulations take into account the effects of compressibility, energy exchange via radiative transfer, and partial ionization in the equation of state. All these physical ingredients are essential for a proper treatment of the problem. Furthermore, the inclusion of radiative transfer allows us to directly compare the simulation results with actual observations of emerging flux. Results. We find that the interaction between the magnetic flux tube and the external flow field has an important influence on the emergent morphology of the magnetic field. Depending on the initial properties of the flux tube (e.g. field strength, twist, entropy etc.), the emergence process can also modify the local granulation pattern. The emergence of magnetic flux tubes with a flux of 10 19 Mx disturbs the granulation and leads to the transient appearance of a dark lane, which is coincident with upflowing material. These results are consistent with observed properties of emerging magnetic flux.
Potential mechanism of cyclosporine A-induced vascular smooth muscle contraction.

Arterial hypertension is a common side effect of cyclosporine A therapy; however, the cellular mechanism of cyclosporine A-induced hypertension is still unknown. The present study, therefore, examined the effect of cyclosporine A on Ca2+ kinetics and contraction in primary cultures of vascular smooth muscle cells. Cyclosporine A (10 micrograms/ml) did not affect resting intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) levels (151 +/- 10 vs. 146 +/- 5 nM, NS), but augmented the 10(-8) M arginine vasopressin-induced increase of [Ca2+]i (delta 76 +/- 4 vs. delta 172 +/- 6 nM, p less than 0.001). This effect of cyclosporine A was also observed in Ca2+-free medium. Arginine vasopressin-stimulated [Ca2+]i efflux within 30 seconds compared with baseline efflux rates (1,644 +/- 146 vs. 2,591 +/- 373 cpm/mg prot/30 sec, p less than 0.005), but this transient effect was significantly greater (p less than 0.001) with arginine vasopressin plus cyclosporine A (1,702 +/- 133 vs. 5,605 +/- 1235 cpm/mg prot/30 sec, p less than 0.01). Basal 45Ca2+ efflux rates were not affected by cyclosporine A, and prior incubation of the cells with cyclosporine A was required to elicit the augmentory effect. 45Ca2+ uptake was measured to examine the mechanism by which cyclosporine A may affect [Ca2+]i stores. Cyclosporine A increased Ca2+ uptake when compared with control (6.38 +/- 0.69 vs. 10.99 +/- 0.59 x 10(3) cpm/mg prot/5 min, p less than 0.001). This effect was not blocked by the Ca2+ antagonist verapamil. Arginine vasopressin (10(-8) M) induced contraction of smooth muscle cells with 25.5% of the cells responding. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Dominant–non-dominant asymmetry of kicking a stationary and rolling ball in a futsal context

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of the asymmetries in the dominant and non-dominant limbs when kicking stationary and rolling balls. Ten experienced Brazilian amateur futsal players participated in this study. Each participant performed kicks under two conditions (stationary ball vs. rolling ball) with the dominant and non-dominant limbs (five kicks per condition per limb). We analysed the kicking accuracy, ball and foot velocities, angular joint displacement and velocity. The asymmetry between the dominant and non-dominant limbs was analysed by symmetry index and two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The results did not reveal any interaction between the condition and limb for ball velocity, foot velocity and accuracy. However, kicking with the dominant limb in both kicks showed higher ball velocity (stationary ball: dominant – 24.27 ± 2.21 m · s‒1 and non-dominant – 21.62 ± 2.26 m · s‒1; rolling ball: dominant – 23.88 ± 2.71 m · s‒1 and non-dominant – 21.42 ± 2.25 m · s‒1), foot velocity (stationary ball: dominant – 17.61 ± 1.87 m · s‒1 and non-dominant – 15.58 ± 2.69 m · s‒1; rolling ball: dominant – 17.25 ± 2.26 m · s‒1 and non-dominant – 14.77 ± 2.35 m · s‒1) and accuracy (stationary ball: dominant – 1.17 ± 0.84 m and non-dominant – 1.56 ± 1.30 m; rolling ball: dominant – 1.31 ± 0.91 m and non-dominant – 1.97 ± 1.44 m). In addition, the angular joint adjustments were dependent on the limb in both kicks (the kicks with non-dominant limb showed lower hip external rotation than the kicks with the dominant limb), indicating that the hip joint is important in kick performance. In conclusion, the kicks with the non-dominant limb showed different angular adjustments in comparison to kicks with the dominant limb. In addition, kicking a rolling ball with the non-dominant limb showed higher asymmetry for accuracy, indicating that complex kicks are more asymmetric.
Construct Validity of Animal-Assisted Therapy and Activities: How Important Is the Animal in AAT?

ABSTRACT Animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities involve a nonhuman animal as a key therapeutic agent in some kind of intervention that may range from highly specified, as in AAT, to more casual, as in AAA. In this review I address the question: How important is the animal in animal therapy? In other words, does the recent literature strongly support the notion that a live animal, as opposed to another novel stimulating component, is specifically necessary for therapeutic success. Two meta-analyses and 28 single empirical studies were reviewed in order to address this issue. I conclude that the effects of AAT and AAA are likely to be moderate and broad at best and that, although improving, the literature has not yet reached an experimentally rigorous enough level to provide a definitive robust conclusion about the effectiveness of these approaches, particularly with regard to the question of whether a live animal is necessary for a therapeutic effect.