Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Photoacoustic ToF tomography of blood cells: From mathematical approximation to super-resolution

Photoacoustic or PA waves, generated from blood cells, create distinct spectral features in the Fourier domain, for example, maxima and minima. In this way, high-frequency PA signals can be used to identify and distinguish blood cells. However, due to finite bandwidth of physical systems, many interesting Fourier features are invisible within the observed bandwidth. To overcome this challenge, we reformulate the PA imaging problem as a time-of-flight super-resolution problem. Based on the PA wave equations, we show that the problem reduces to estimation of sparse cellular features from a set of finite trigonometric moments. For this purpose, we develop a super-resolution algorithm which achieves near exact performance (in context of maximum likelihood estimation) when working with experimental data. Hence, our work alleviates an important bottleneck in PA imaging linked with classification of cellular features.
The Iho670 Fibers of Ignicoccus hospitalis: a New Type of Archaeal Cell Surface Appendage

ABSTRACT Ignicoccus hospitalis forms many cell surface appendages, the Iho670 fibers (width, 14 nm; length, up to 20 μm), which constitute up to 5% of cellular protein. They are composed mainly of protein Iho670, possessing no homology to archaeal flagellins or fimbrins. Their existence as structures different from archaeal flagella or fimbriae have gone unnoticed up to now because they are very brittle.
Institutional Investors, Corporate Ownership and Corporate Governance

We examine the role of institutional investors in financial markets and in corporate governance. In many countries, institutional investors have become the predominant players in financial markets and their influence worldwide is growing, chiefly due to the privatization and development of pension fund systems. Moreover, foreign institutional investors are becoming a significant presence, bringing their trading habits and corporate governance preferences to international markets. In fact, we argue that the primary actors prompting change in many corporate governance systems are institutional investors, often foreign institutional investors. In other countries the role of institutional investors is limited. Instead, large blockholders, often in the form of individuals, family groups, other corporations, or lending institutions are the dominant players. We present the theoretical arguments for the involvement of investors in shareholder monitoring and a brief history of institutional ownership and activism in the United States and other countries. We also discuss studies of the efficacy of such activism. We then examine differences in ownership structures around the world and the implications of the interactions of these ownership structures for institutional investor involvement in corporate governance. Although there may be some convergence in corporate governance systems across countries, because of the endogenous nature of the interrelation among the factors of corporate governance the evolution will most likely . /…
The Relationship between Religiosity and Customers’ Adoption of Islamic Banking Services in Morocco

The main purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between religiosity and the adoption of Islamic banking services. At the same time the study attempts to inspect the willingness of the Moroccan customers to adopt Islamic banking services. A total of 300 questionnaires were randomly distributed among Moroccan banking customers, out of which, 252 were returned and usable. T-test and linear regression analyses were then employed to analyse the data, whereby the dependent variable is adoption of Islamic banking services, and the independent variable is religiosity. The results indicate that religiosity has a significant positive influence on the adoption of Islamic banking services in Morocco. The results also indicate that the Moroccan customers are willing to adopt Islamic banking services.
Attitude and age differences in online buying

Purpose – This paper examines the shopping and buying behavior of younger and older online shoppers as mediated by their attitudes toward internet shopping.Design/methodology/approach – Over 300 students and staff from a US university completed a survey regarding their online shopping and buying experiences for 17 products.Findings – The results show that, while older online shoppers search for significantly fewer products than their younger counterparts, they actually purchase as much as younger consumers. Attitudinal factors explained more variance in online searching behavior. Age explained more variance in purchasing behavior if the consumer had first searched for the product online.Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the present research are threefold. First, the sample was restricted to university faculty, staff and students. Second, a better measure of the hedonic motivation construct is needed. Third, additional independent measures such as income should be included to understan.
Proposals to Change Lease Accounting: Evidence from Canada and Malaysia

Leasing transactions are significant in business activities and both national and international accounting regulations require leases to be classified as either operating or finance leases. The International Accounting Standards Board recently proposed for the present classification to be removed, and for both finance and operating leases to appear on the balance sheet. This paper compares the opinions of 63 qualified accountants in Canada and 54 qualified accountants in Malaysia on the present regulations and the implications of the new standard. The responses from these countries support the substance-over-form model, but raise doubts on its applicability to leasing transactions. The majority of respondents agree on one method for accounting for leases, but support for the removal of finance and operating lease classifications is weaker. An analysis of the data reveals that those who believe the current information is of use are more likely to reject the proposed changes. This suggests that future research should be less concerned with whether users find the information relevant and should be directed towards the nature of user decisions and how the present information is utilised.
The viability of a second-mover's market win with higher brand equity

This study supports the fact that in some aspects bounded rationality in consumer behaviors drive consumers to value more intangible than tangible aspects in a product, and enable the second-mover to overtake the market. The model of this paper focuses on the impact of a sequential market entrance of two firms in one market segment. By means of the Stackelberg competition and empirical metrics used in brand management, the model tries to show that when customers are facing an entrance of a product with a higher valued brand, they can ignore the first-mover's superiority and move to the product which delivers a stronger value – which is in this study's case greater brand equity (trust to a brand due to the brand's reputation and the value that this equity delivers). The findings show viable applications in the current smart phone market where customers’ belief based on bounded rational trust and belief in a brand's equity can make the late-mover overcome the disadvantages of being the inexperienced competitor. Also, in the same context, when consumers do not have a high discrepancy in choosing a product by its technological background or market experience, intangible assets can serve as the decision variable of a product.
An empirical model of home internet services quality in Thailand

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the antecedents to service quality and their relationship with affective evaluations of customers of internet service providers (ISPs) in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the research objectives, a model is proposed. The literature review and formulation of hypotheses related to each construct are then discussed. Findings – The findings reveal that service quality is influenced by network quality, customer service, information support, privacy and security. Service quality in turn also impacts customer loyalty attributes, including satisfaction, value, trust and commitment. Satisfaction is a determinant of customer trust, whereas the direct relationship between value and customer commitment is not supported. Research limitations/implications – The model in this study was tested in the Thai ISP context which may be different in other service industries as well as in other countries. Practical implications – By enhancing service quality, fi.
Reviewing Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives of Tobacco Industry in Pakistan

The performance of the firms in corporate sector is heavily dependant upon the corporate governance practices (Nazir et al. 2009) as well as consideration of social responsibility into the general managerial practices of firms, the dimensions of socio-cultural environment into business procedures and compliance with other ethical and regulatory issues. The researchers have focused on the incorporation of corporate environmental governance issues into business practices in order to gain a competitive advantage for the firms (Wise and Ali, 2008; Mitra et al. 2008). However, a little has been found on the corporate environmental governance issues and practices of Pakistani firms in tobacco industry since the concept of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility is newer for the emerging economies like Pakistan. This shows study tells about the two companies and their corporate responsibility towards the society. Pakistan Tobacco Company and Lakson both are in same business which is risky to health for customers but they are considering Corporate Social Responsibility and environment safety for generating goodwill in the minds of customers and stakeholders.
Sylvester's Problem and Mock Heegner Points

We prove that if $p \equiv 4,7 \pmod{9}$ is prime and $3$ is not a cube modulo $p$, then both of the equations $x^3+y^3=p$ and $x^3+y^3=p^2$ have a solution with $x,y \in \mathbb{Q}$.
Epidemiology of partial urorectal septum malformation sequence (or ‘persistent cloaca’): a population-based study in seven regions of England and Wales, 1985–2010

Background Partial urorectal septum malformation (pURSM) sequence (or ‘persistent cloaca’) is a rare congenital anomaly characterised by a joining of the urethral, anal, and genital openings into a single common channel. This study describes the epidemiology of pURSM sequence in England and Wales including prevalence, additional anomalies, and pregnancy outcomes. Methods All cases of pURSM sequence prospectively notified to seven congenital anomaly registers in England and Wales during 1985–2010, whether delivered as live births, spontaneous fetal deaths (≥20 weeks’ gestation), or elective terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly (TOPFA, any gestation), formed this population-based cohort. The risks of spontaneous fetal and infant death were examined by Kaplan–Meier analysis. Differences in prevalence over time, and between regions, were examined by multilevel Poisson regression. Results 117 cases were recorded among 4 251 241 total births. Six (5%) pregnancies resulted in spontaneous fetal deaths, 53 (45%) in TOPFA, and 58 (50%) in live births. The prevalence was 2.8 (95% CI 2.3 to 3.4) per 100 000 total births, increasing significantly over time (p=0.002) and differing significantly between regions (p=0.005). 77 cases (66%) had at least one additional major congenital anomaly outside the perineum, including 67 (57%) renal, 29 (25%) musculoskeletal, 26 (23%) digestive system, and 24 (21%) cardiovascular anomalies. The risks of spontaneous fetal and infant death were estimated as 8.9% (95% CI 4.1 to 18.8) and 26.3% (95% CI 15.1 to 43.4) respectively. Conclusions This is the largest study of the epidemiology of pURSM sequence. The information will be valuable for families and health professionals whenever a case of pURSM sequence is diagnosed.
Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase deficiency identified in adults and a child with mental retardation

Our study describes the adult clinical and biochemical spectrum of guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT) deficiency, a recently discovered inborn error of metabolism. The majority of the previous reports dealt with pediatric patients, in contrast to the present study. A total of 180 institutionalized patients with a severe mental handicap were investigated for urine and plasma uric acid and creatinine. Patients with an increased urinary uric acid/creatinine ratio and/or decreased creatinine were subjected to the analysis of guanidinoacetate (GAA). Four patients (three related and one from an unrelated family) were identified with GAMT‐deficiency. A fifth patient had died before a biochemical diagnosis could be made. They all had shown a normal psychomotor development for the first year of life, after which they developed a profound mental retardation. Three out of four had convulsions and all four totally lacked the development of speech. Their GAMT activity in lymphoblasts was impaired and two novel mutations were identified: the 59 G > C and 506 G > A missense mutations. Urinary GAA was increased, but highly variable 347–1,624 mmol/mol creat (Controls <150 mmol/mol creat). In plasma and CSF the GAA levels were fairly constant at 17.3–27.0 μmol/L (Controls 1.33–3.33) and 11.0–12.4 μmol/L, respectively (Controls 0.068–0.114). GAMT deficiency in adults is associated with severe mental retardation and absence or limited speech development. Convulsions may be prominent. The nonspecific nature of the clinical findings as well as the limited availability of GAA assays and/or in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain may mean that many more patients remain undiagnosed in institutions for persons with mental handicaps. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Determinants of service quality in education: service provider's perspective and academician's perspective

This paper addresses the issue of service quality in one of the service provider industries of the present business scenario, i.e., education. Like other sectors, the issue of service quality has caused concern in the education sector also. Researchers have been interested in modelling, measuring and determining the service quality aspects in education. In this paper effort has been made to identify the determinants of service quality in education from the academician's perspective. Findings of this paper give important insights to the various stakeholders as to what and how the service quality of an educational institute may be enhanced. It helps in identifying the critical and non-critical factors that affects the service quality of education so that efforts may be used judiciously for its enhancement.
Review of the Relationship between Board Attributes and Firm Performance

Corporate governance over the years has become an issue of global concern due to the 2008 economic crisis and several financial scandals and corporate failures. This has drawn the attention of policy makers, researchers, investors and regulatory institutions. Moreover, the most significant mechanism of corporate governance is board of directors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review previous studies that examine the relationship between board attributes and firm performance, and to identify possible literature gaps. For the purpose of this review, related materials were being gathered from Emerald management e-Journals and Research Gate database. The paper synthesizes empirical findings on the relationship between selected dimensions of board attributes and firm performance. The paper identifies shortcoming of past studies and concluded by offering some avenues for future researches in this promising area of empirical research.
Convergence analysis of LMS multiuser CDMA detectors

The convergence behaviour of the LMS CDMA multiuser detector is of great interest both in practice and in theory. The sampling rate for the tap-input of a LMS detector may be equal to or higher than the chip rate, and these correspond to chip-spaced (CS) and fractionally-spaced (FS) detection, respectively. It is shown in this paper that CS and FS detectors with the same time-span exhibit identical convergence behaviour, if the baseband received signal is strictly bandlimited to half the chip rate. Even in the practical case when this condition is not met, deviations from this observation are imperceptible unless the initial tap-weight vector gives an extremely large mean squared error (MSE). The inadequacy of the eigenvalue spread of the tap-input correlation matrix as an indicator of transient behaviour, and the influence of the initial tap weight vector on convergence speed, are highlighted. Specifically, initialization within the signal subspace or to the origin leads to very much faster convergence compared to initialization in the noise subspace.
Oral appliances for obstructive sleep apnoea.

BACKGROUND Obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea (OSAH) is a syndrome characterised by recurrent episodes of partial or complete upper airway obstruction during sleep that are usually terminated by an arousal. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the primary treatment for OSAH , but many patients are unable or unwilling to comply with this treatment. Oral appliances (OA) are an alternative treatment for OSAH. OBJECTIVES The objective was to review the effects of OA in the treatment of OSAH in adults. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register. Searches were current as of June 2005. Reference lists of articles were also searched. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised trials comparing OA with control or other treatments in adults with OSAH . DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently extracted data and assessed trial quality. Study authors were contacted for missing information. MAIN RESULTS Sixteen studies (745 participants) met the inclusion criteria. All the studies had some shortcomings, such as small sample size, under-reporting of methods and data, and lack of blinding. OA versus control appliances (six studies): OA reduced daytime sleepiness in two crossover trials (WMD -1.81;95%CI -2.72 to -0.90), and improved apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) (-10.78; 95% CI-15.53 to -6.03 parallel group data - five studies). OA versus CPAP (nine studies): OA were less effective than CPAP in reducing apnoea-hypopnoea index (parallel group studies: WMD 13 (95% CI 7.63 to 18.36), two trials; crossover studies: WMD 7.97; (95% CI 6.38 to 9.56, seven trials). However, no significant difference was observed on symptom scores. CPAP was more effective at improving minimum arterial oxygen saturation during sleep compared with OA. In two small crossover studies, participants preferred OA therapy to CPAP. OA versus corrective upper airway surgery (one study): Symptoms of daytime sleepiness were initially lower with surgery, but this difference disappeared at 12 months. AHI did not differ significantly initially, but did so after 12 months in favour of OA. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There is increasing evidence suggesting that OA improves subjective sleepiness and sleep disordered breathing compared with a control. CPAP appears to be more effective in improving sleep disordered breathing than OA. The difference in symptomatic response between these two treatments is not significant, although it is not possible to exclude an effect in favour of either therapy. Until there is more definitive evidence on the effectiveness of OA in relation to CPAP, with regard to symptoms and long-term complications, it would appear to be appropriate to recommend OA therapy to patients with mild symptomatic OSAH, and those patients who are unwilling or unable to tolerate CPAP therapy. Future research should recruit patients with more severe symptoms of sleepiness, to establish whether the response to therapy differs between subgroups in terms of quality of life, symptoms and persistence with usage. Long-term data on cardiovascular health are required.
Testing Weak Form Efficiency for Indian Stock Markets

This paper attempts to seek evidence for the weak form efficient market hypothesis using the daily data for stock indices of the National Stock Exchange, Nifty, and the Bombay Stock Exchange, Sensex, for the period of 1999-2004. The random walk hypothesis for the Nifty and the Sensex stock indices is rejected. Both the stock markets have become relatively more inefficient in the recent periods, and have high and increasing volatility. Non-parametric tests also indicate that the distribution of the underlying variables are not normal and the deviation from normality has become higher in recent years. Both the indices show a negative autocorrelation at lag 2, indicating over-reaction one day after information arrival, followed by a correction on the next day. The study suggests immediate dissemination of information on foreign institutional investor trades and equity holding and the need to improve free float of equity to move towards efficiency.
International Tourists Service Quality Perception And Behavioral Loyalty Toward Medical Tourism In Bangkok Metropolitan Area

This research assesses the relationship between service quality, value, satisfaction, and brand trust on the behavioral loyalty of international tourists acting as medical tourists toward private hospital medical services in the Bangkok Metropolitan area. A quantitative study was performed using 400 international tourists who use medical service from private hospitals in Thailand. Structural equation analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that there are significant positive relationships between service quality and value (H1), satisfaction (H2), and brand trust (H3). Value (H4), satisfaction (H5), and brand trust (H6) have significant positive relationships with behavioral loyalty. Service quality has an indirect effect on behavioral loyalty by having value, satisfaction, and brand trust function as mediators. Finally, nationality has no moderating effect on the relationship between service quality and value (H7), satisfaction (H8), and brand trust (H9).
Antimicrobial Activity Spectrum, cDNA Cloning, and mRNA Expression of a Newly Isolated Member of the Cecropin Family from the Mosquito Vector Aedes aegypti *

An antimicrobial peptide belonging to the cecropin family was isolated from the hemolymph of bacteria-challenged adult Aedes aegypti. This new peptide, named cecropin A, was purified to homogeneity and fully characterized after cDNA cloning. The 34-residue A. aegypti cecropin A is different from the majority of reported insect cecropins in that it is devoid of a tryptophan residue and C-terminal amidation. The importance of these two structural features on the activity spectrum was investigated using a chemically synthesized peptide. A comparison of the antimicrobial activity spectrum of A. aegypti and Drosophilacecropin A showed a lower activity for the mosquito molecule. A. aegypti cecropin mRNA expression was not detected by Northern blot or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis in any immature stage of the mosquito, nor in naı̈ve adults, but it was observed in challenged adults 6 h after bacteria inoculation, and it continued over 7–10 days.