Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can a Smartphone Diagnose Parkinson Disease? A Deep Neural Network Method and Telediagnosis System Implementation

Parkinson's disease (PD) is primarily diagnosed by clinical examinations, such as walking test, handwriting test, and MRI diagnostic. In this paper, we propose a machine learning based PD telediagnosis method for smartphone. Classification of PD using speech records is a challenging task owing to the fact that the classification accuracy is still lower than doctor-level. Here we demonstrate automatic classification of PD using time frequency features, stacked autoencoders (SAE), and K nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier. KNN classifier can produce promising classification results from useful representations which were learned by SAE. Empirical results show that the proposed method achieves better performance with all tested cases across classification tasks, demonstrating machine learning capable of classifying PD with a level of competence comparable to doctor. It concludes that a smartphone can therefore potentially provide low-cost PD diagnostic care. This paper also gives an implementation on browser/server system and reports the running time cost. Both advantages and disadvantages of the proposed telediagnosis system are discussed.
The Agency Model as a Predictor of the Size of the Internal Audit Function in Belgian Companies

This study contributes to the literature by using an agency model to explain the size of internal audit functions in a non-Anglo-Saxon environment. Data to test this model were collected from annual reports and a questionnaire sent to Chief Audit Executives. The results show that the agency model has high explanatory power and reveals that the more diffused the ownership structure of the company, the larger the company and the more reporting levels within the company, the larger the internal audit function. The results of this study confirm the growing monitoring role of internal auditing in contemporary corporate governance.
Law, Enforcement and Corporate Debt Policies Around the World

This study provides evidence to show that the negative association between growth opportunities and debt policies in world markets is significantly stronger for firms in civil law countries and countries with weak enforceability of contracts. Apart from the assets-in-place explanation, other factors, such as poor legal protection of shareholders, poor bankruptcy laws, connected bank lending and government intervention in directing and guaranteeing bank credit could also account for the high levels of debt for low growth firms in civil law countries and countries with weak law enforcement.
The development of a theoretical framework for the internationalization process of fast growth medium-sized firms in Europe

The experience of the author and a review of the literature identifies a number of possible limitations in current theories of internationalization. Existing theories can be broadly classified under the headings of either "stage school" or contingency theories. There appears to have been little research on the interface between the two theoretical approaches, nor on the dynamism of the internationalization process within an individual firm. While scholars challenge the current theory, few have attempted to develop or propose alternative theories. Therefore, the central aim and contribution of this doctoral research has been to develop a theoretical framework from the literature, evaluated in an empirical study of European firms. The research and theoretical development, whilst exploratory, suggests that the internationalization process of firms is contingent on exogenous and endogenous influences. These influences are dynamic, complex and vary according to the specific contexts used in the research. The contingency contexts are summarized here as: The industry and country environment in which the organization operates; the mindset of the entrepreneur decision-maker(s); the nature of the product, the market demographics, and the mindset and nature of the seller and buying organization. The results indicate that the theoretical framework is rigorous enough to demonstrate the variety in the internationalization processes of the firms in the study. The findings are, that whilst there are some common processes and patterns among the firms in the study, there are variations, explained by the contingency theory and contexts in which the firms operate. Previous research has neglected specific contexts as important factors in the internationalization process. The thesis addresses this gap in the research by developing the theory in the context of specific sectors (electronics, software and metal-mechanical) countries (UK, Germany, France and Italy), firm size (medium-sized) and fast growth.
Road-Edge Effects on Herpetofauna in a Lowland Amazonian Rainforest

The impact of roads on the flora and fauna of Neotropical rainforest is perhaps the single biggest driver of habitat modification and population declines in these ecosystems. We investigated the road-edge effect of a low-use dirt road on amphibian and reptile abundance, diversity, and composition within adjacent lowland Amazonian rainforest at San José de Payamino, Ecuador. The road has been closed to vehicle traffic since its construction in 2010. Thus, effects from vehicle mortality, vehicle-related pollution, and road noise were not confounding factors. Herpetofauna were surveyed using both visual encounter surveys and drift fences with pitfall and funnel traps at varying distances from the road. Structural and microclimate features of the forest were measured at each sampling distance. Several habitat variables were found to differ at intermediate and interior sampling distances from the road compared to forest edge conditions, suggesting the road-edge effect began to attenuate by the intermediate sampling distance. However, the edge effect on amphibians and reptiles appeared to extend 100 m from the road edge, as abundance and diversity were significantly greater at the interior forest compared to the forest edge. Additionally, assemblage composition as well as the hierarchical position of species shifted between sampling distances. Habitat predictor models indicate that amphibian abundance was best predicted by vine abundance, while both vine and mature tree abundance were the best predictors for species richness and diversity. Overall, and contrary to what might otherwise be expected, our results demonstrate that small, little-used road disturbances can nonetheless have profound impacts on wildlife.
RNA Interference Targeting VP1 Inhibits Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Replication in BHK-21 Cells and Suckling Mice

ABSTRACT RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool to silence gene expression posttranscriptionally. In this study, we evaluated the antiviral potential of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting VP1 of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), which is essential during the life cycle of the virus and plays a key role in virus attachment to susceptible cells. We investigated in vivo the inhibitory effect of VP1-specific siRNAs on FMDV replication in BHK-21 cells and suckling mice, a commonly used small animal model. The results showed that transfection of siRNA-expressing plasmids gave an 80 to 90% reduction in the expression of FMDV VP1 in BHK-21 cells. Moreover, BHK-21 cells transiently transfected with siRNA-expressing plasmids were specifically resistant to FMDV infection when exposed to 100 50% tissue culture infective doses of virus, and the antiviral effects extended to almost 48 h postinfection. Furthermore, subcutaneous injection of siRNA-expressing plasmids in the neck made suckling mice significantly less susceptible to FMDV. In conclusion, our data suggests that RNAi may provide a viable therapeutic approach to treat FMDV infection.
Is Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure a Risk Factor for Acute Gastroenteritis in Young Children?

Because passive smoke exposure has not been previously linked to diarrhea diseases in children, it was hypothesized that very young children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure at home would also be more likely to develop infectious gastroenteritis (GE) than their unexposed counterparts. During 1-year period, 260 children 36 months and younger were prospectively followed up in a private pediatric practice in a southern community in the United States. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that ETS was strongly predictive of acute GE in the univariate analysis (P = .003). Even after controlling for the various confounders, ETS exposure was still significantly associated with acute GE (relative risk = 2.55; 95% CI = 1.26-5.18). It is speculated that, similar to acute respiratory infections, the same mechanisms may explain why ETS may also be associated with acute infectious GE.
Correlations Among Autonomic, Sensory, and Motor Neural Function Tests in Untreated Non-insulin-dependent Diabetic Individuals

A well-defined group of untreated non-insulin-dependent (NIDD) subjects were evaluated to determine whether involvement of neural function measurements is generalized and symmetrical and to compare the autonomic, sensory, and motor neural measurements. After age adjustment, the sensory and motor neural function measurements were significantly slower in the diabetic group than in normal subjects (P < 0.01). Similarly, the autonomic nervous system function measurements were also abnormal in the NIDD group (P < 0.01). Further analysis revealed that each of the specific measurements–median motor nerve conduction velocity (NCV, P < 0.005), peroneal motor NCV (P < 0.005), median sensory NCV (P < 0.005), dark-adapted pupil size after muscarinic blockade (P < 0.02), pupillary latency time (P < 0.02), and RR-variation after beta adrenergic blockade (P < 0.001)—was significantly less by analysis of covariance after age adjustment in the NIDD group than in normal subjects. Thus, there was evidence of motor and sensory neural impairment in the upper and lower extremities as well as evidence of impairment of the reflex arcs involving the parasympathetic nerves to the heart and eye and the sympathetic nerves to the iris. Further analysis revealed that right and left NCV were correlated (P < 0.01), as were the median motor and median sensory NCV (P < 0.01), the median motor and peroneal motor NCV (P < 0.001), and the peroneal motor and median sensory NCV (P < 0.001). Thus, there was evidence of symmetrical upper and lower limb, as well as motor and sensory proportional involvement of large nerve fiber NCV in this group of NIDD subjects. Within the autonomic nerve reflex arcs that were tested, the studies showed that there was correlation between measures assessing the reflex arcs involving the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) to the heart and iris (P < 0.01). However, the measure assessing the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reflex arc to the iris did not correlate significantly with either of the measures assessing PNS reflexes. Overall, measurements of sensory and motor NCV were correlated with the results of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) tests (P < 0.05). Thus, in a group of untreated NIDD men, age-adjusted measures of SNS, motor (MNS), and ANS function were reduced and there was a correlation between the measures of sensory and motor nerve tests and those of ANS function.
Florid plaques in ovine PrP transgenic mice infected with an experimental ovine BSE

The occurrence of the variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), raises the important question of the sources of human contamination. The possibility that sheep may have been fed with BSE‐contaminated foodstuff raises the serious concern that BSE may now be present in sheep without being distinguishable from scrapie. Sensitive models are urgently needed given the dramatic consequences of such a possible contamination on animal and human health. We inoculated transgenic mice expressing the ovine PrP gene with a brain homogenate from sheep experimentally infected with BSE. We found numerous typical florid plaques in their brains. Such florid plaques are a feature of vCJD in humans and experimental BSE infection in macaques. Our observation represents the first description, after a primary infection, of this hallmark in a transgenic mouse model. Moreover, these mice appear to be a promising tool in the search for BSE in sheep.
Psychosomatic Medicine: The Scientific Foundation of the Biopsychosocial Model

ObjectiveThis article presents major concepts and research findings from the field of psychosomatic medicine that the authors believe should be taught to all medical students.MethodThe authors asked senior scholars involved in psychosomatic medicine to summarize key findings in their respective fields.ResultsThe authors provide an overview of the field and summarize core research in basic psychophysiological mechanisms—central nervous system/autonomic nervous system, psychoneuroimmunology, and psychoendocrinology—in three major disease states—cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and HIV virus infections.ConclusionsUnderstanding the core scientific concepts and research findings of psychosomatic medicine should provide medical trainees with a scientific foundation for practicing medicine within a biopsychosocial model of care.
Performance of multiversion concurrency control algorithms in maintaining temporal consistency

The authors present a model of typical hard real-time applications and the concepts of age and dispersion of data accessed by the real-time transactions. These are used to evaluate the performance of a class of multiversion lock-based concurrency control algorithms in maintaining temporal consistency of data in a real-time shared-data environment. It is shown that it is easier for such a concurrency control algorithm to maintain temporal consistency of shared data when the conflicting transactions are close in the lengths of their periods. The conflict pattern of the transactions has a more significant effect on the temporal inconsistency of data than the load level of the system. It is also desirable to have the transactions' periods within a small range. The best case was obtained when the faster transactions have higher utilizations. It was also shown that the use of the priority inheritance principle with the lock-based concurrency control algorithms can reduce transactions' blocking times and the number of transactions that access temporally inconsistent data as well as the worst-case age and dispersion of data. <<ETX>>
Ethnomycological Documentation of Mushroom Diversity of Wopkola in Mul District of Western Highlands Province , Papua New Guinea and Investigation of Antimicrobial Properties of Selected

Culturally important mushrooms found in Wopkola in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, particularly among the Nenga Engamb people were considered for the study. Ethnobiological techniques such as free listing and qualitative interview questions were used to identify the most important or most common species of mushrooms. Thirty ethnomycologically important species were identified, among which twenty three were considered edible and two species were considered medicinal while as many as five species were considered potentially dangerous. Knowledge distribution on mushrooms across individuals has been measured and statistically evaluated using SPSS software. Seven different species of mushrooms were randomly selected based on the indigenous knowledge for the investigation of antimicrobial activity. Solvent extracts of the mushrooms were screened on a gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and some gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae and Salmonella typhi). Antimicrobial activity was evaluated using the agar disc diffusion method and the amount of inhibition for each extract was measured. The seven extracts showed varying degrees of inhibition. However, Tylopilus sp. exhibited moderate to very strong antibacterial activity against all microbial isolates, while Salmonella typhi was found to be the most susceptible bacteria. The results obtained in the study suggest that Tylopilus sp. possesses broad spectrum activity against all microbial isolates used in this study.
Predicting the Sound Insulation of Walls

Between 1990 and 1998, the author published five conference papers which described the gradual development of a simple theoretical model for predicting the sound insulation of building partitions. The first aim was to extend Sharp's model for cavity walls to cavities without sound absorption. The second aim was to remove the reported over prediction of Sharp's model for cavity walls. The third aim was to explain the five decibel empirical correction in Sharp's model for stud walls. The fourth aim was to produce a more theoretically valid model than Gu and Wang's steel stud wall model. Although the simple theoretical model has been reasonably successful, several concerns have since arisen. This paper describes how these concerns have been addressed and gives the current version of this theoretical model for predicting sound insulation. The theoretical model is compared with a number of experimental measurements and produces reasonable agreement.
Firm Trading Behaviour and Transaction Costs in the European Union’s Emission Trading System: An Empirical Assessment

To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically analyse the trading behaviour of all ETS firms during the first phase of the EU’s Emissions Trading System. We use a unique dataset which allows investigating the importance of permit trading transaction costs, such as information costs and search costs. This paper shows that transaction costs can play an important role in the initial years of the programme. These costs are significant in explaining why a number of ETS firms did not sell their unused allowances on the market. This study also supports the concerns that transaction costs might be excessive for smaller participants.
The Incremental Value of Qualitative Fundamental Analysis to Quantitative fundalmental Analysis: A Field Study.

The Incremental Value of Qualitative Fundamental Analysis to Quantitative Fundamental Analysis: A Field Study This field study examines whether the human-judgment component of fundamental analysis adds incremental information beyond a quantitative model designed to identify securities that will subsequently underperform the market. The subject firm (the Firm) primarily focuses on the analysis of financial statements and other accounting disclosure. This study documents abnormal returns to a sample of 203 negative recommendations issued by the fundamental analysts between February 2007 and March 2010. In addition, I find that the qualitative element of fundamental analysis is the primary driver of the Firm’s ability to identify companies whose equity securities subsequently underperform the market. The Firm initiates coverage almost exclusively on large market capitalization companies with high liquidity and low short interest. These unique characteristics of the setting increase the likelihood that the results are not the product of returns to securities with high arbitrage and/or transaction costs.
An analysis of collaboration in the Australian and Chinese mobile telecommunication markets

i LIST OF PAPERS ARISING FROM THIS STUDY . iv Journal Paper . iv Refereed and Presented Conference Papers . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF FIGURES . xi LIST OF TABLES . xiii LIST OF TERMS . xv
Providing interactive functions for staggered multicast near video-on-demand systems

We propose a scheme to provide interactive functions through active buffer management at the client side for staggered multicast near VOD systems. The scheme uses client side buffering in a novel fashion that relies on the simultaneous availability of "past", "present" and "future" parts of a video and lets the client selectively prefetch segments from multicast channels based on the observation of the play point in its local buffer. The contents of the buffer are adjusted in such a way that the relative position of the play point is kept in the middle part of the buffer and a high probability of providing the interactive functions with the contents of the local buffer is achieved. We perform several simulations and find that the active buffer management is an effective method to provide interactive functions in these systems.
Do Some Business Models Perform Better than Others

This paper defines four basic business models based on what asset rights are sold (Creators, Distributors, Landlords and Brokers) and four variations of each based on what type of assets are involved (Financial, Physical, Intangible, and Human). Using this framework, we classified the business models of all 10,970 publicly traded firms in the US economy from 1998 through 2002. Some of these classifications were done manually, based on the firms' descriptions of sources of revenue in their financial reports; the rest were done automatically by a rule-based system using the same data. Based on this analysis, we first document important stylized facts about the distribution of business models in the U.S. economy. Then we analyze the firms' financial performance in three categories: market value, profitability, and operating efficiency. We find that no model outperforms others on all dimensions. Surprisingly, however, we find that some models do, indeed, have better financial performance than others. For instance, Physical Creators (which we call Manufacturers) and Physical Landlords have greater cash flow on assets, and Intellectual Landlords have poorer q's, than Physical Distributors (Wholesaler/Retailers). These findings are robust to a large number of robustness checks and alternative interpretations. We conclude with some hypotheses to explain our findings.
Monsters of the Sea Serpent: Parasites of an Oarfish, Regalecus russellii

Abstract: Examination of a small portion of the viscera of an oarfish (Regalecus russellii) recovered from Santa Catalina Island, southern California, revealed numerous tetraphyllidean tapeworm plerocercoids, Clistobothrium cf. montaukensis; 2 juvenile nematodes, Contracaecum sp. ; and a fragment of an adult acanthocephalan, family Arhythmacanthidae. This suggests that the fish was relatively heavily parasitized. The presence of larval and juvenile worms suggests that oarfish are preyed upon by deep-swimming predators such as the shortfin mako shark, Isurus oxyrinchus, known to be a definitive host for the adult tapeworm, and also by diving mammals such as sperm whales, Physeter catodon L. , hosts of Contracaecum spp. nematodes.
Aspergillosis in four renal transplant recipients. Diagnosis and effective treatment with amphotericin B.

Four patients who had recently received kidney transplants became infected with Aspergillus fumigatus while receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Three were shown to have invasive pulmonary mycotic disease, and one of these had documented dissemination. A fourth patient had respiratory symptoms and fever and was found to have mycelial forms consistent with A. fumigatus in his sputum, verified by cultures. , All four were effectively treated with amphotericin B in low, widely spaced doses. Early diagnosis was apparently the key to successful management of the invasive Aspergillus tumigatus infection in these patients. Discovery of mycelial forms in fresh preparations of sputa or bronchial washings is a valuable clue to active infections. Securing tissue by biopsy is warranted in those patients who develop a pulmonary infiltrate or cavity that is not otherwise causally explained.