Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Accounting Conservatism on Corporate Performance Indicators in Egypt

This study aims to investigate the impact of conservative accounting on corporate performance indicators of Egyptian firms. A sample of balanced data for the 40 most active non-financial companies was collected in the period 2009-2014 to test hypotheses. Panel regression models were used for data analysis. Givoly & Hayn (2000) indicator is used as a benchmark for measuring accounting conservatism. The corporate performance indicators used in this study are return-on-assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) representing accounting performance measures, as well as Tobin’s Q which measures market performance. The results of the research show that accounting conservatism has a significant positive impact on corporate performance indicators. This reflects the positive effect of corporate performance on shareholders that leads to a strong corporate financial position. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted in Egypt as an emerging economy.
The Dilemma of Regularly Missed Diagnoses: ADTKD

An ill-defined number of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) receive an incorrect diagnosis. Numerous diseases are rather unspecific in terms of clinical appearance and histological characteristics, particularly hereditary kidney diseases. Autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney diseases (ADTKD) can be seen as a paradigm of the diagnostic challenge, where only molecular genetics can assure the diagnosis. We report a young lady with CKD who historically received a diagnosis of “biopsy-proven” IgA nephropathy (IgAN). She received 8 months of oral steroids, with side effects but further renal deterioration. Despite a positive family history with CKD over at least three generations, this clue was not considered. We established a doubtless diagnosis of MUC1-associated ADTKD by a heterozygous frameshift-causing mutation by SNaPshot minisequencing in our index patient and her affected father. Furthermore, the mucin 1 frameshift protein was readily detectable in the 10 year old kidney biopsy. We hypothesize that similar diagnostic failures are frequent in the current routine. Interestingly, the misdiagnosis of IgAN may be an underestimated problem since a substantial fraction of the healthy population may show mesangial proliferation and IgA deposition. The correct diagnosis of hereditary diseases has several clinical implications and should be the ultimate aim of precision nephrology.
An analysis of the physiological impacts on life history traits of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) related to seed maturity

Peanut is an important oilseed crop and legume species, with more than 1.9 M tons produced annually in the U.S. Being indeterminate, peanut continually flowers and sets pods throughout the growing season, leading to the potential harvest of both mature and immature pods. To quantify the physiological impacts of peanut seed maturity, a two-year field study was conducted to elucidate the difference in canopy structure and reproductive characteristics, including flower production, yield, and grade between seed obtained from immature and mature seed of two commercial peanut cultivars: TUFRunner™ ‘727’ and FloRun™ ‘107’. Data indicated that seed from the yellow class of pods have lower vigor and overall plant development and performance; further, plants developed from immature seed never achieved a level of performance comparable to that of the mature brown/black pod classes. There were differences between cultivars in the severity of the impact of immaturity, with larger detrimental effects on immature TUFRunner™ ‘727’, which exhibited reduced emergence. Despite these cultivar differences, this study illustrated that mature seed performs better in a field setting than immature seed. These results are critically important to disproving the ‘catch-up' assumption: seed maturity not only has an impact on emergence, but on subsequent life history and performance traits through the remainder of the season.
Urinary stones : medical and surgical management

List of Contributors, ix Preface, xiii Part 1: Types of Urinary Stones and Their Medical Management 1 How to Build a Kidney Stone Prevention Clinic, 3 David S. Goldfarb 2 Metabolic Evaluation: Interpretation of 24-Hour Urine Chemistries, 13 John R. Asplin 3 Uric Acid Stones, 26 Naim M. Maalouf 4 Calcium Stones, 36 John C. Lieske 5 Struvite Stones, 48 Brian H. Eisner, Sameer M. Deshmukh, and Dirk Lange 6 Genetic Causes of Kidney Stones: Cystinuria, Primary Hyperoxaluria, Dent s Disease, and APRT Deficiency, 57 Runolfur Palsson 7 Evaluation and Management of Pediatric Stones, 70 Vidar O. Edvardsson and Sherry S. Ross 8 Primary Hyperparathyroidism and Stones, 81 Marcella Donovan Walker and Shonni J. Silverberg 9 Renal Tubular Acidosis, Stones, and Nephrocalcinosis, 93 Robert J. Unwin, Stephen B. Walsh, and Oliver M. Wrong 10 Drug-Induced Stones, 106 Michel Daudon and Paul Jungers 11 Management of Renal Colic and Medical Expulsive Therapy, 120 Michael S. Borofsky and Ojas Shah Part 2: Surgical Management of Urinary Stones 12 Indications for Conservative and Surgical Management of Urinary Stone Disease, 135 Brian D. Duty and Michael J. Conlin 13 Perioperative Imaging: Plain Film, Sonography, Contrast-Based Fluoroscopic Imaging, Computed Tomography, and Magnetic Resonance Urography, 148 Nicole Hindman 14 Emergency Urinary Drainage Techniques Employed for an Obstructing Upper Urinary Tract Calculus With and Without Associated Sepsis, 157 Sunil Mathur and Francis X. Keeley Jr 15 Endoscopic Management of Lower Urinary Tract Calculi: Tips and Tricks, 166 Christopher M. Dixon and Sean Fullerton 16 Ureteroscopy, 176 Israel Franco and Lesli Nicolay 17 Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy in Children: Renal Stones, 195 Jordan Gitlin and Kai-wen Chuan 18 Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy: Generators and Treatment Techniques, 216 Jessica E. Paonessa and James E. Lingeman 19 Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy: Indications, Access Endoscopes, Accessories, and Lithotrites, 227 Julien Letendre and Olivier Traxer 20 Ureteropyeloscopic Management of Upper Urinary Tract Calculi, 243 Michael Grasso, Andrew I. Fishman, and Bobby Alexander 21 Percutaneous Nephrolithomy: Access and Instrumentation, 264 Arvind P. Ganpule, Sachin Abrol, Abhishek Laddha, and Mahesh R. Desai 22 Percutaneous Management of Intrarenal Calculi, 278 Michael Degen and Majid Eshghi 23 Laparoscopic and Open Surgical Management of Urinary Calculi, 296 Ahmed Alasker, Reza Ghavamian, and David Hoenig 24 Multimodality Therapy: Mixing and Matching of Surgical Techniques for the Treatment of Stone Disease, 311 Nir Kleinmann, Kelly A. Healy, and Demetrius H. Bagley 25 Management of Complications Associated with Various Lithotripsy Techniques, 326 Angela M. Cottrell and Andrew J. Dickinson Index, 340
Con: should asymptomatic patients with moderate-to-severe  OSA be treated?

The population prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has increased significantly in the past 20–30 years paralleling trends in population ageing and increasing rates of overweight and obesity. A recent community-based study estimated that 84% of men and 61% of women have an apnoea–hypopnoea index (AHI) of >5 events·h−1 of sleep, with moderate-to-severe OSA (AHI >15 events·h−1) occurring in approximately 50% of men and 23% of women [1]. The most widely recognised manifestation of OSA, and the main target for treatment, is excessive daytime sleepiness. However, the majority of individuals with OSA in the general community [2] and even in sleep clinics [3] do not exhibit excessive sleepiness. This raises the important question of whether such patients should be treated. In a large proportion of patients with moderate–severe OSA who do not report daytime sleepiness there is no convincing evidence at present that CPAP or similar treatments provide benefit for associated medical disorders, such as hypertension and diabetes http://ow.ly/qqqi30nok4d
Evaluation of Probiotic Potential of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Raphia Palm Wine (Raffia mambillensis)

Aim: The present study was undertaken to assess the probiotic potential of lactic acid bacteria strains isolated from raphia palm wine (Raffia mambillensis O.) of the South West region of Cameroon. Study Design: The study site and sample were randomly chosen and the responses assessed were submitted to analyses of variance. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Ekona in the South West region of Cameroon, between February 2017 and October 2018. Methodology: Physicochemical analyses were performed to characterize the Raphia palm wine samples. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from these samples using pour plate method, and the isolates were tested for their antimicrobial activity, low pH and bile salts tolerance, antibiotic sensitivity, hemolytic activity and enzymes production. The active isolates were identified phenotypically using API 50 CHL. Results: The results revealed that among the nine isolates, only three were active against Escherichia coli BL21, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella enterica and Staphylococcus aureus with inhibition diameters ranging from 10 to 25 mm. The three isolates which exhibited antimicrobial activity were able to survive at simulated stomach pH (pH 3.0) with survival rate above 80% and in the presence of bile salts at 1% with survival rates above 50%. All three isolates gave negative results for hemolytic activity and were resistant to most antibiotic treatments. These three isolates produced β-galactosidase, which is beneficial for lactose intolerance. They also produced some non-carcinogenic enzymes including leucine arylamidase, crystine arylamidase, acid phosphatase, α-galactosidase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, and N-acetyl-β-glucosamidase. Identification of these three isolates with API kit 50 CHL reveals that they are Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brevis. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that raphia palm wine can be an excellent source of probiotic lactic acid bacteria.
Nasal carriage of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus among health care workers in rural Kerala

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen causing infection among patients in hospital settings and people in the community. Health care workers (HCW’s) being the common source and reservoir for transmission of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Active surveillance of HCW’s for detection of MRSA carriage is important to prevent MRSA infections in the hospital and simultaneous spill of infections into the community. Materials and Methods: This hospital based cross sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in rural Kerala. Nasal swabbing was done for 550 HCW’s. Samples were inoculated into Sheep blood agar & selective medium like mannitol salt agar. Staphylococcus aureus was identified by colony morphology, Gram stain and catalase test. It was confirmed by tube coagulase test. Methicillin resistance was detected using Cefoxitin disc and interpreted as per CLSI guidelines. MRSA carriers identified were decolonized with Mupirocin ointment. Results: Screening among HCW’s revealed 22.54% were positive for Staphylococcus aureus of which 10.73% harboured MRSA in their nasal cavity. Conclusion: Active surveillance for MRSA nasal carriage among HCW’s and decolonization of carriers is important. Strict adherence to hand washing and infection control practices are also equally important. © 2019 Published by Innovative Publication.
Which Relationship between Gender Diversity, Intellectual Capital and Financial Performance?

Some would argue that gender diversity, both in ownership and in board of directors, can affect both financial performance and intellectual capital (IC) performance, and that the latter, in turn, can affect financial performance. This leads to hypothesise that IC performance can be a mediator in the relationship between gender diversity, in ownership or board of directors, and financial performance. As this hypothesis does not appear to have had an adequate investigation in literature, this paper aims to investigate if IC performance can be considered as a mediator in the relationship between gender diversity and financial performance. The test of this hypothesis is performed applying the multiple regression model suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) to a sample of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study shows that gender diversity in ownership negatively impacts on financial performance, directly and indirectly, and that gender diversity in board of directors negatively impacts on financial performance, only indirectly. The indirect effects are due to the negative impact of gender diversity, both in ownership and in board of directors, on IC performance. IC performance plays the role of mediator in the relationship between gender diversity and financial performance. The mediating effect is partial regarding gender diversity in ownership. It is perfect concerning gender diversity in board of directors. This study contributes to the extant literature about the relationships between gender diversity, IC performance and financial performance by offering a systemic analysis of these three items that tend to be investigated separately.
Gallstone Disease and Cholecystectomy in Children and Adolescents With Obesity

The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States is one in five children. An increase in prevalence continues in most categories of obesity across all age groups, in particular adolescents, with 41.5% of 16to 19-year-olds affected by obesity (Skinner, Ravanbakht, Skelton, Perrin, & Armstrong, 2018). Obesity is associated with many health problems, with the most recognized being cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. Gallbladder disease is an established obesity-related comorbidity in adults. Currently, the association between obesity and gallbladder disease is being studied in children and adolescents in light of the obesity epidemic (Mehta et al., 2012). The purpose of this review is to highlight an increasing cause of right upper quadrant pain in children and adolescents also affected by obesity.
Continuous Control in Car Simulator with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL), which can be trained without abundant labeled data required in supervised learning, plays an important role in autonomous vehicle researches. According to action space, DRL can be further divided into two classes: discrete domain and continuous domain. In this work, we focus on continuous steering control since it's impossible to switch among different discrete steering values at short intervals in reality. We first define the steering smoothness to quantify the degree of continuity. Then we propose a new penalty in reward shaping. We carry experiments based on Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) and Asynchronous Advantage Actor Critic (A3C), which are the state of the art in continuous domain. Results show that the proposed penalty improves the steering smoothness with both algorithms.
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in a cohort of italian patients with spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy

Spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), is an X-linked motor neuron disease caused by a CAG-repeat expansion in the first exon of the androgen receptor gene (AR) on chromosome X. In SBMA, non-neural clinical phenotype includes disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism. We investigated the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS), insulin resistance (IR) and non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a group of SBMA patients. Forty-seven consecutive patients genetically diagnosed with SBMA underwent biochemical analyses. In 24 patients abdominal sonography examination was performed. Twenty-three (49%) patients had fasting glucose above reference values and 31 (66%) patients had a homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR) ≥ 2.6. High levels of total cholesterol were found in 24 (51%) patients, of LDL-cholesterol in 18 (38%) and of triglycerides in 18 (38%). HDL-cholesterol was decreased in 36 (77%) patients. Twenty-four (55%) subjects had 3 or more criteria of MS. A positive correlation (r = 0.52; p < 0.01) was observed between HOMA-IR and AR-CAG repeat length. AST and ALT were above the reference values respectively in 29 (62%) and 18 (38%) patients. At ultrasound examination increased liver echogenicity was found in 22 patients (92 %). In one patient liver cirrhosis was diagnosed. Liver/kidney ratio of grey-scale intensity, a semi-quantitative parameter of severity of steatosis, strongly correlated with BMI (r = 0.68; p < 0.005). Our study shows a high prevalence of IR, MS and NAFLD in SBMA patients, conditions that increase the cardiovascular risk and can lead to serious liver damage, warranting pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment.
Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, Lebanon, 2016 – 2017

In a 12-month nationwide study on the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in Lebanon, we identified 3 multidrug-resistant cases and 3 extensively drug-resistant TB cases in refugees, migrants, and 1 Lebanon resident. Enhanced diagnostics, particularly in major destinations for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrant workers, can inform treatment decisions and may help prevent the spread of drug-resistant TB.
Bacteria Associated with Fresh-water Aquaculture Tilapia Fish (Oreochromisniloticus) in Suez, Egypt

Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) production is ranked on the top of aquaculture fish in Egypt. This study was aimed to screen bacteria associated with aquaculture fresh-water tilapia to determine the microbiological safety of these wide distributed fish in Egypt. The mean viable bacterial count from fish fillets with the skin samples revealed 5.6 ± 0.8 logs CFU/g. A total of eleven (11) bacterial species were isolated and identified including: E. coli, E. coli O157: H7, Salmonella enterica, Morganella morganii, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter cancerogenus, Hafnia alvei, Aeromonas hydrophila, Photobacterium damaselae. The frequency of occurrences of the isolated bacteria indicated that Enterobacter cloacae had the highest frequency of occurrence (12%), while one isolate (2%) of Salmonella enterica, E coli O157:H7, and Aeromonas hydrophila were detected. These bacterial species are potentially pathogenic to humans. Therefore, hygienic handling methods and proper processing are needed before consumption of this fish. ISSN 2641-4295 Research Article Citation: Omaima M. Ahmed. Bacteria Associated with Fresh-water Aquaculture Tilapia Fish (Oreochromisniloticus) in Suez, Egypt. Food Sci Nutr Res. 2019; 2(1): 1-7.
Ensuring Quality Cancer Care

1 Front Matter 2 Summary 3 1 Introduction 4 2 The Cancer Care 'System' 5 3 Ensuring Access to Cancer Care 6 4 Defining and Assessing Quality Cancer Care 7 5 Health Care Delivery and Quality of Cancer Care 8 6 Cancer Care Quality Assurance 9 7 Health Services Research in Cancer Care 10 8 Findings and Recommendations 11 Glossary 12 Acronyms 13 Index
Unsupervised Depth Estimation from Monocular Video based on Relative Motion

In this paper, we present an unsupervised learning based approach to conduct depth estimation for monocular camera video images. Our system is formed by two convolutional neural networks (CNNs). A Depth-net is applied to estimate the depth information of objects in the target frame, and a Pose-net tends to estimate the relative motion of the camera from multiple adjacent video frames. Different from most previous works, which normally assume that all objects captured by the images are static so that a frame-level camera pose is generated by the Pose-net, we take into account of the motions of all objects and require the Pose-net to estimate the pixel-level relative pose. The outputs of the two networks are then combined to formulate a synthetic view loss function, through which the two CNNs are optimized to provide accurate depth estimation. Experimental test results show that our method can provide better performance than most conventional approaches.
Quantitative Analysis of Parotid Gland Secretion Function in Sjögren's Syndrome Patients with Dynamic Magnetic Resonance Sialography

Objective To evaluate the secretory function of parotid glands by dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) sialography and determine the clinical performance of this technique in diagnosing and evaluating Sjögren's syndrome (SS) patients. Materials and Methods This study enrolled 29 healthy volunteers (25 women and 4 men; mean age, 34.8 ± 6.3 years; age range, 26–47 years) and 25 primary SS (pSS) patients (23 women and 2 men; mean age, 37.7 ± 7.9 years; age range, 25–50 years) with decreased secretory function. The volume of the parotid gland ducts was precisely measured for both groups at single pre- and 6 post-gustatory-stimulated phases. Time-dependent volume change ratio curves were generated, four parameters were derived from the curves: the slope of the increase in the first post-stimulation phase (slope1st), the peak value, the time-to-peak, the total saliva secretion post-stimulation. All values were used to quantitatively evaluate the secretory function of the parotid gland. The repeated measurement analysis, Mann-Whitney U test and receiver operating characteristic curve were applied. Results Time-dependent volume change ratio curves demonstrated that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups (F = 8.750; p = 0.005). A quickly increasing curve was shown in the volunteer group, whereas a slowly increasing curve was shown in the pSS patient group. The slope1st, peak value and total saliva secretion post-stimulation of the patient group were significantly lower than those of the volunteer group (p = 0.005, p = 0.003, and p = 0.002, respectively). The time-to-peak between the two groups was not significantly different (p = 0.383). The slope1st can be used as a discriminator to diagnose SS patients (p = 0.015; odds ratio = 4.234; area under the curve = 0.726). Conclusion Dynamic MR sialography is proven to be an effective method in evaluating salivary gland function and has a great potential in diagnosing and evaluating pSS patients.
Key attribute for predicting student academic performance

Predicting student final score from student's attributes is an important issue of learning analytic. Not only to achieve high prediction performance but also to identifying the key attributes is an important research theme. This paper evaluated exhaustively the prediction performance based on all possible combinations of four types of attributes - behavioral features, demographic features, academic background, and parent participation. The behavioral features are given as numerical data. But, we represented them as pair of an attribute name and the value. This vectorization yields 417 dimensional data, while naively represented data has 68 dimension. By applyig support vector machine and feature selection, we obtained the optimal prediction performance, with respect to feature selection, with accuracy 0.8096 and F-measure 0.7726. We confirmed that the behavioral feature is so crucial that the accuracy reaches 0.7905 without other features except behavioral feature. The combination of behavior feature and demographic feature gained F-measure 0.7662.