Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are Extensive Audits "Good News"? : Market Perceptions of Abnormal Audit Fees and Fair Value Disclosures

Although the role of auditing is to increase the reliability of financial statements, surprisingly little is known about addressees’ perceptions of the auditor-client relationship. Using a sample of more than 1,000 U.S. bank-years from 2008 to 2011, we analyze the economic consequences of the joint announcement of audit fees and the level breakdown of fair value assets. We confirm prior findings that audit fees are higher for banks with larger proportions of Level 3 fair values. Moreover, we find that the market perception regarding fair value assets depends on the extent of managerial discretion in the estimation process. Most importantly, we find evidence consistent with the notion that addressees’ interpret abnormal audit fees as an indication of additional risk. Thus, unexpected audit fees are not interpreted as a signal for a more reliable audit, but further increase the market discount on Level 3 fair values. Bank managers have to consider these negative consequences in their reporting strategy.
Constraints and tradeoffs: toward a predictive theory of competition and succession

The development of mechanistic, predictive ecological theory will entail the explicit inclusion of organismal tradeoffs, of environmental constraints, and of the basic mechanisms of interspecific interaction. This approach was used to address the causes of species dominance and successional dynamics in sandplain vegetation in Minnesota. A series of field experiments performed over the last eight years have shown that the major constraints on plants were soil nitrogen and disturbance, with nitrogen competition being a major force. Nutrients other than nitrogen (P, K, Ca, Mg, S and trace metals), herbivory, and light were of minor importance. As predicted by theory, the superior nitrogen competitors were the species that, when growing in long-term monocultures in the field, lowered soil extractable N the most. These species had high root biomass and low tissue N levels. Seven alternative hypotheses of succession, each named after its underlying tradeoff, were proposed and tested. The colonization - nutrient competition hypothesis provided the best explanation for the initial dominance (years 0 to 40) of herbs, whereas the nutrient versus light competition hypothesis best explained the long-term dominance by woody plants. Hypotheses involving transient dynamics caused by differences in maximal growth rates were rejected. In total, the results demonstrate that the inclusion of simple mechanisms of interspecific interactions, and of allocationbased tradeoffs, can allow models to predict the composition and successional dynamics of vegetation.
Left‐Hemispheric Microstructural Abnormalities in Children With High‐Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Current theories of the neurobiological basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) posit an altered pattern of connectivity in large‐scale brain networks. Here we used diffusion tensor imaging to investigate the microstructural properties of the white matter (WM) that mediates interregional connectivity in 36 high‐functioning children with ASD (HF‐ASD) as compared with 37 controls. By employing an atlas‐based analysis using large deformation diffeometric morphic mapping registration, a widespread but left‐lateralized pattern of abnormalities was revealed. The mean diffusivity (MD) of water in the WM of HF‐ASD children was significantly elevated throughout the left hemisphere, particularly in the outer‐zone cortical WM. Across diagnostic groups, there was a significant effect of age on left‐hemisphere MD, with a similar reduction in MD during childhood in both typically developing and HF‐ASD children. The increased MD in children with HF‐ASD suggests hypomyelination and may reflect increased short‐range cortico‐cortical connections subsequent to early WM overgrowth. These findings also highlight left‐hemispheric connectivity as relevant to the pathophysiology of ASD and indicate that the spatial distribution of microstructural abnormalities in HF‐ASD is widespread and left‐lateralized. This altered left‐hemispheric connectivity may contribute to deficits in communication and praxis observed in ASD. Autism Res 2015, 8: 61–72. © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Modelling Emotional Requirements

The way people feel about a technology can determine whether the technology is embraced or rejected by its intended users. People’s feelings and emotions are particularly important for uptake of socio-technical systems involving social behaviour. For example, a photo sharing web application will not be used if people do not feel engaged or in-touch with their friends and family during use. Considering the feelings of the intended users of a system can uncover new requirements, leading to an improved and more accepted system. We contend that requirements engineering, in developing systems for the new social age, needs modified lightweight practices. In this paper, we propose adapting a requirements engineering methodology to include emotion modelling for socio-technical systems. We extend a set of existing agent oriented lightweight models to consider emotions, describe the process for modelling, and demonstrate both models and process in an example of personal alarm systems for older adults.
Defining Postpartum Uterine Disease and the Mechanisms of Infection and Immunity in the Female Reproductive Tract in Cattle1

Uterine microbial disease affects half of all dairy cattle after parturition, causing infertility by disrupting uterine and ovarian function. Infection with Escherichia coli, Arcanobacterium pyogenes, and bovine herpesvirus 4 causes endometrial tissue damage. Toll-like receptors on endometrial cells detect pathogen-associated molecules such as bacterial DNA, lipids, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), leading to secretion of cytokines, chemokines, and antimicrobial peptides. Chemokines attract neutrophils and macrophages to eliminate the bacteria, although persistence of neutrophils is associated with subclinical endometritis and infertility. Cows with uterine infections are less likely to ovulate because they have slower growth of the postpartum dominant follicle in the ovary, lower peripheral plasma estradiol concentrations, and perturbation of hypothalamic and pituitary function. The follicular fluid of animals with endometritis contains LPS, which is detected by the TLR4/CD14/LY96 (MD2) receptor complex on granulosa cells, leading to lower aromatase expression and reduced estradiol secretion. If cows with uterine disease ovulate, the peripheral plasma concentrations of progesterone are lower than those in normal animals. However, luteal phases are often extended in animals with uterine disease, probably because infection switches the endometrial epithelial secretion of prostaglandins from the F series to the E series by a phospholipase A2-mediated mechanism, which would disrupt luteolysis. The regulation of endometrial immunity depends on steroid hormones, somatotrophins, and local regulatory proteins. Advances in knowledge about infection and immunity in the female genital tract should be exploited to develop new therapeutics for uterine disease.
Casimir effect for the scalar field under Robin boundary conditions: a functional integral approach

In this work we show how to define the action of a scalar field such that the Robin boundary condition is implemented dynamically, i.e. as a consequence of the stationary action principle. We discuss the quantization of that system via functional integration. Using this formalism, we derive an expression for the Casimir energy of a massless scalar field under Robin boundary conditions on a pair of parallel plates, characterized by constants c1 and c2. Some special cases are discussed; in particular, we show that for some values of c1 and c2 the Casimir energy as a function of the distance between the plates presents a minimum. We also discuss the renormalization at one-loop order of the two-point Green function in the ? 4 theory subject to the Robin boundary condition on a plate.
Moderation of Wireless Sensor Network utilizing NS-3 with Energy Estimation

We think about the vitality effective scope and availability issue in remote sensor systems (WSNs). We attempt to find heterogeneous sensors and course information produced to a base station fewer than two clashing goals: minimization of system expense and augmentation of system lifetime. We go for fulfilling availability and scope necessities and sensor hub and connection limit imperatives. We propose numerical definitions and utilize a precise arrangement way to deal with discover Pareto ideal answers for the issue. We additionally build up a multiobjective hereditary calculation to inexact the proficient wilderness, as the definite arrangement approach requires long calculation times. We explore different avenues regarding our hereditary calculation on haphazardly created issues to test how well the heuristic system approximates the proficient boondocks. Our outcomes demonstrate that our hereditary calculation approximates the effective outskirts well in sensible calculation times.
On the Nature of Fair Behavior

This Paper shows that identical offers in an ultimatum game generate systematically different rejection rates depending on the other offers that are available to the proposer. This result casts doubt on the consequentialist practice in economics of defining the utility of an action solely in terms of the consequences of the action irrespective of the set of alternatives. It means, in particular, that negatively reciprocal behaviour cannot be fully captured by equity models that are exclusively based on preferences over the distribution of material pay-offs. Models that take into account players’ fairness intentions and distributional preferences are consistent with our data while models that focus exclusively on intentions or on the distribution of material pay-offs are not.
Temporal Activity Detection in Untrimmed Videos with Recurrent Neural Networks

This work proposes a simple pipeline to classify and temporally localize activities in untrimmed videos. Our system uses features from a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (C3D) as input to train a a recurrent neural network (RNN) that learns to classify video clips of 16 frames. After clip prediction, we post-process the output of the RNN to assign a single activity label to each video, and determine the temporal boundaries of the activity within the video. We show how our system can achieve competitive results in both tasks with a simple architecture. We evaluate our method in the ActivityNet Challenge 2016, achieving a 0.5874 mAP and a 0.2237 mAP in the classification and detection tasks, respectively. Our code and models are publicly available at: https://imatge-upc.github. io/activitynet-2016-cvprw/
Linear programming relaxations of maxcut

It is well-known that the integrality gap of the usual linear programming relaxation for Maxcut is 2 - ε. For general graphs, we prove that for any ε and any fixed bound k, adding linear constraints of support bounded by k does not reduce the gap below 2 - ε. We generalize this to prove that for any ε and any fixed bound k, strengthening the usual linear programming relaxation by doing κ rounds of Sherali-Adams lift-and-project does not reduce the gap below 2 - ε. On the other hand, we prove that for dense graphs, this gap drops to 1 + ε after adding all linear constraints of support bounded by some constant depending on ε.
Outcome of home haemodialysis patients: a case-cohort study.

BACKGROUND Randomized, controlled comparisons between home haemodialysis (HHD) and centre haemodialysis (CHD) have not been performed to date. Reported survival benefits of HHD as compared with CHD from uncontrolled studies have been attributed largely to patient selection. METHODS In order to minimize a selection bias, we have compared the outcome of our HHD and CHD patients with a nested case-cohort study. For each patient trained for HHD at our dialysis centre between 1970 and 1995 (n=103), a corresponding match was searched from the CHD patients by retrospective chart analysis. The pairs were matched for sex, age (+/-5 years), time of dialysis therapy onset (+/-2 years) and renal disease category. For 58 of the 103 HHD patients, a corresponding matched CHD patient was identified. Both treatment groups had the same mean age (50+/-13 years) at dialysis onset and were comparable with respect to the Khan comorbidity index, prevalence and duration of hypertension, smoking habits, history of myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. In both groups, approximately 50% of the patients were transplanted during the observation period. RESULTS HHD patients were hospitalized less often and tended to have fewer operations as compared with CHD patients. Survival was significantly longer in HHD as compared with CHD. Five, 10 and 20 year survival rates were 93 (n=55 patients at risk), 72 (41) and 34% (11) with HHD and 64 (38), 48 (26) and 23% (4) with CHD, respectively. This survival difference persisted after adjusting for predictors of mortality, i.e. age at onset of dialysis, year of start of dialysis therapy and Khan comorbidity index. CONCLUSIONS HHD offers a cheap and valuable alternative to CHD, with no apparent disadvantages.
Effort-Based Cost–Benefit Valuation and the Human Brain

In both the wild and the laboratory, animals' preferences for one course of action over another reflect not just reward expectations but also the cost in terms of effort that must be invested in pursuing the course of action. The ventral striatum and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACCd) are implicated in the making of cost–benefit decisions in the rat, but there is little information about how effort costs are processed and influence calculations of expected net value in other mammals including humans. We performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to determine whether and where activity in the human brain was available to guide effort-based cost–benefit valuation. Subjects were scanned while they performed a series of effortful actions to obtain secondary reinforcers. At the beginning of each trial, subjects were presented with one of eight different visual cues that they had learned indicated how much effort the course of action would entail and how much reward could be expected at its completion. Cue-locked activity in the ventral striatum and midbrain reflected the net value of the course of action, signaling the expected amount of reward discounted by the amount of effort to be invested. Activity in ACCd also reflected the interaction of both expected reward and effort costs. Posterior orbitofrontal and insular activity, however, only reflected the expected reward magnitude. The ventral striatum and anterior cingulate cortex may be the substrate of effort-based cost–benefit valuation in primates as well as in rats.
Outcomes of Infants Starting Antiretroviral Therapy in Southern Africa, 2004–2012

Background:There are limited published data on the outcomes of infants starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in routine care in Southern Africa. This study aimed to examine the baseline characteristics and outcomes of infants initiating ART. Methods:We analyzed prospectively collected cohort data from routine ART initiation in infants from 11 cohorts contributing to the International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS in Southern Africa. We included ART-naive HIV-infected infants aged <12 months initiating ≥3 antiretroviral drugs between 2004 and 2012. Kaplan–Meier estimates were calculated for mortality, loss to follow-up (LTFU), transfer out, and virological suppression. We used Cox proportional hazard models stratified by cohort to determine baseline characteristics associated with outcomes mortality and virological suppression. Results:The median (interquartile range) age at ART initiation of 4945 infants was 5.9 months (3.7–8.7) with follow-up of 11.2 months (2.8–20.0). At ART initiation, 77% had WHO clinical stage 3 or 4 disease and 87% were severely immunosuppressed. Three-year mortality probability was 16% and LTFU 29%. Severe immunosuppression, WHO stage 3 or 4, anemia, being severely underweight, and initiation of treatment before 2010 were associated with higher mortality. At 12 months after ART initiation, 17% of infants were severely immunosuppressed and the probability of attaining virological suppression was 56%. Conclusions:Most infants initiating ART in Southern Africa had severe disease with high probability of LTFU and mortality on ART. Although the majority of infants remaining in care showed immune recovery and virological suppression, these responses were suboptimal.
A Trypanosoma brucei Kinesin Heavy Chain Promotes Parasite Growth by Triggering Host Arginase Activity

Background In order to promote infection, the blood-borne parasite Trypanosoma brucei releases factors that upregulate arginase expression and activity in myeloid cells. Methodology/Principal findings By screening a cDNA library of T. brucei with an antibody neutralizing the arginase-inducing activity of parasite released factors, we identified a Kinesin Heavy Chain isoform, termed TbKHC1, as responsible for this effect. Following interaction with mouse myeloid cells, natural or recombinant TbKHC1 triggered SIGN-R1 receptor-dependent induction of IL-10 production, resulting in arginase-1 activation concomitant with reduction of nitric oxide (NO) synthase activity. This TbKHC1 activity was IL-4Rα-independent and did not mirror M2 activation of myeloid cells. As compared to wild-type T. brucei, infection by TbKHC1 KO parasites was characterized by strongly reduced parasitaemia and prolonged host survival time. By treating infected mice with ornithine or with NO synthase inhibitor, we observed that during the first wave of parasitaemia the parasite growth-promoting effect of TbKHC1-mediated arginase activation resulted more from increased polyamine production than from reduction of NO synthesis. In late stage infection, TbKHC1-mediated reduction of NO synthesis appeared to contribute to liver damage linked to shortening of host survival time. Conclusion A kinesin heavy chain released by T. brucei induces IL-10 and arginase-1 through SIGN-R1 signaling in myeloid cells, which promotes early trypanosome growth and favors parasite settlement in the host. Moreover, in the late stage of infection, the inhibition of NO synthesis by TbKHC1 contributes to liver pathogenicity.
Biased competition between Lgr5 intestinal stem cells driven by oncogenic mutation induces clonal expansion

The concept of ‘field cancerization’ describes the clonal expansion of genetically altered, but morphologically normal cells that predisposes a tissue to cancer development. Here, we demonstrate that biased stem cell competition in the mouse small intestine can initiate the expansion of such clones. We quantitatively analyze how the activation of oncogenic K‐ras in individual Lgr5+ stem cells accelerates their cell division rate and creates a biased drift towards crypt clonality. K‐ras mutant crypts then clonally expand within the epithelium through enhanced crypt fission, which distributes the existing Paneth cell niche over the two new crypts. Thus, an unequal competition between wild‐type and mutant intestinal stem cells initiates a biased drift that leads to the clonal expansion of crypts carrying oncogenic mutations.
22 Why does statistics have two theories ?

The public image of statistics is changing, and recently the changes have been mostly for the better, as we've all seen. But occasional court cases, a few conspicuous failures, and even appeals to personal feelings suggest that careful thought may be in order. Actually, statistics itself has more than one theory , and these approaches can give contradictory answers, with the discipline largely indi↵erent. Saying " we are just exploring! " or appealing to mysticism can't really be appropriate, no matter the spin. In this paper for the COPSS 50th Anniversary Volume, I would like to examine three current approaches to central theory. As we will see, if continuity that is present in the model is also required for the methods, then the conflicts and contradictions resolve. had been preceded by many small shocks, and Italy's Civil Protection Department established a committee of seismologists to address the risks of a major earthquake. The committee reported before the event that there was no particularly good reason to think that a major earthquake was coming and the Department's Deputy Head even allowed that the small shocks were reducing the seismic stresses, lowering the chances of a major quake. This gave some reassurance to many who were concerned for their lives; but the earthquake did come and more than 300 died. For some details, see Pielke (2011). Charges were then brought against the seismologists and seven were sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter, " for falsely reassuring the inhabitants of L'Aquila ". Part of the committee's role had been the communication of their findings, statistics being intrinsically involved.
A Comparison of the Variability of the Symbiotic X-Ray Binaries GX 1+4, 4U 1954+31, and 4U 1700+24 from Swift BAT and RXTE ASM Observations

We present an analysis of the X-ray variability of three symbiotic X-ray binaries, GX 1+4, 4U 1700+24, and 4U 1954+31, using observations made with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor (ASM). Observations of 4U 1954+31 with the Swift BAT show modulation at a period near 5 hr. Models to explain this modulation are discussed, including the presence of an exceptionally slow X-ray pulsar in the system and accretion instabilities. We conclude that the most likely interpretation is that 4U 1954+31 contains one of the slowest known X-ray pulsars. Unlike 4U 1954+31, neither GX 1+4 nor 4U 1700+24 show any evidence for modulation on a timescale of hours. An analysis of the RXTE ASM light curves of GX 1+4, 4U 1700+24, and 4U 1954+31 does not show the presence of periodic modulation in any source, with the exception of a possible detection of the 5 hr period in 4U 1954+31, although there is considerable variability on long timescales for all three sources. There is no modulation in GX 1+4 on either the optical 1161 day orbital period or a previously reported 304 day X-ray period. For 4U 1700+24 we do not confirm the 404 day X-ray period previously proposed for this source from a shorter duration ASM light curve. We conclude that all three sources have substantial low-frequency noise in their power spectra that may give the appearance of periodic modulation if this noise is not properly accounted for, particularly if short-duration light curves are examined.
Studying Impacts of Prefix Interception Attack by Exploring BGP AS-PATH Prepending

The AS path prep ending approach in BGP is commonly used to perform inter-domain traffic engineering, such as inbound traffic load-balancing for multi-homed ASes. It artificially increases the length of the AS level path in BGP announcements by inserting its local AS number multiple times into outgoing announcements. In this work, we study how the AS path prep ending mechanism can be exploited to launch a BGP prefix interception attack. Our work is motivated by a recent routing anomaly related to AS Path prepending behavior, i.e., Facebook's traffic being redirected to Korea and China due to a shorter path with fewer prep ending ASNs. In order to measure the possible impact of the attack, we develop a simulator to quantify the damage of the attack under a diverse set of attacker/victim combinations. Our main contribution is to quantify how many ASes may be susceptible to the attack, and analyze how effective the attack may be through simulation. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm to detect the interception attack by exploiting inconsistencies via collaborative monitoring from multiple vantage points. Our evaluation shows up to 99% accuracy with 150 vantage points.