Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FMRI data classification based on hybrid temporal and spatial sparse representation

Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (tfMRI) is widely used to localize brain regions or networks in response to various cognitive tasks. However, given two groups of tfMRI data acquired under distinct task paradigms, it is not clear whether there exist intrinsic inter-group differences in signal composition patterns, and if so, whether these differences could be used for data discrimination. The major challenges originate from the high dimensionality and low signal-to-noise ratio of fMRI data. In this paper, we proposed a novel framework using hybrid temporal and spatial sparse representation to tackle above challenges. We applied the proposed framework to the Human Connectome Project (HCP) tfMRI data. Our experimental results demonstrated that the task types of fMRI data can be successfully classified, achieving a 100% classification accuracy. We also showed that both task-related components and resting state networks (RSNs) can be reliably identified. Our study provides a novel data-driven approach to detecting discriminative inter-group differences in fMRI data based on signal composition patterns, and thus potentially can be used to control fMRI data quality and to infer biomarkers in brain disorders.
MHC class I-restricted lysis of human oligodendrocytes by myelin basic protein peptide-specific CD8 T lymphocytes.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune disease that is directed either at myelin or at its cell of origin, the oligodendrocytes (OL). The inflammatory lesions in the central nervous system contain multiple myelin Ag-restricted and nonrestricted cell populations with the potential to mediate tissue injury. Previous studies indicate that it is possible to generate MHC class I-restricted myelin peptide-specific cytotoxic CD8 T cells, and that human adult OLs express MHC class I molecules in vitro. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that myelin basic protein peptide-specific CD8 T cells could induce OL injury. We generated CD8 T cell lines from six healthy donors and five MS patients, and all cell lines were HLA-A2 positive. The obtained CD8 cell lines induced lysis of HLA-A2- but not HLA-A3-transfected HMy2.C1R cells in the presence of myelin basic protein peptide 110-118. In the absence of exogenous peptide, the CD8 T cell lines were cytotoxic to HLA-A2 but not to non-HLA-A2 OLs. Cytotoxicity was blocked with anti-MHC class I-blocking Ab. These results support the postulate that autoreactive CD8 cytotoxic T cells can contribute to the tissue injury in MS.
Risk-Relevance of Fair Value Income Measures for Commercial Banks

We investigate the risk relevance of the standard deviation of three performance measures: net income, comprehensive income, and a constructed measure of full‐fair‐value income for a sample of 202 U.S. commercial banks from 1996 to 2004. We find that, for the average sample bank, the volatility of full‐fair‐value income is more than three times that of comprehensive income and more than five times that of net income. We find that the incremental volatility in full‐fair‐value income (beyond the volatility of net income and comprehensive income) is positively related to marketmodel beta, the standard deviation in stock returns, and long‐term interest‐rate beta. Further, we predict and find that the incremental volatility in full‐fair‐value income (1) negatively moderates the relation between abnormal earnings and banks' share prices and (2) positively affects the expected return implicit in bank share prices. Our findings suggest full‐fair‐value income volatility reflects elements of risk that are not captu.
Social Assistance in Oecd Countries

This article presents selected results from the first comparative study of social assistance across all 24 countries of the OECD. The scope of social assistance, discussed in the first section, is drawn to include all means-tested benefits in cash and kind, including those which provide benefits to higher income groups. The second section then presents in formation on the main programmes in each country, expenditures and groups of beneficia ries, trends over time, administrative struc tures, and operation of means tests. It concludes by developing a new measure of assistance benefit levels with which to evaluate different countries' systems. The third section distils from the country differences eight pat terns, or 'assistance regimes', varying from the limited, discretionary, decentralized models of Switzerland and Norway to the extensive, national, rights-based programmes of the English-speaking world; and from the relative generosity of Scandinavia and Australia to the low, marginalizing benefits of the Mediterranean countries and the USA. The last section turns to the economic pressures and political debates which are driving con temporary policy changes. The concepts and empirical data presented here will enable means-testing, targeting and selectivity to be brought back into the comparative study of European and wider welfare systems.
Comparison of urine, first and second endourethral swabs for PCR based detection of genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection in male patients

Objectives: To compare endourethral swabs and urine as diagnostic specimens for the detection of genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in male patients attending a genitourinary clinic and to assess whether the first endourethral swab used solely for diagnosing gonococcal infection could be used for C trachomatis detection as well. Methods: Two endourethral swabs were taken from 80 male patients, in whom the likelihood of genital C trachomatis infection was high. The first swab was used for microscopy and culture for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, before being used for C trachomatis detection. First voided urine specimens were collected from 61 of these patients. All three specimens were processed for C trachomatis DNA detection using the Roche Cobas Amplicor PCR. A diagnosis of genital C trachomatis infection was made if any one of the specimens tested reproducibly positive. Samples from 13 patients showing discrepant PCR results between swabs and/or urine were retested by ligase chain reaction (LCR). Results:Chlamydia trachomatis DNA was detected in 35 (43.8%) of the 80 patients. In 17 of the 35 patients (48.6%), all the genital specimens were positive. However, in 18 (51.4%) patients, one or more of the genital specimens had negative PCR results. Among the 18 patients with discrepant results, urine was found to be a more sensitive diagnostic specimen than the second urethral swab picking up 13 out of 16 positives (81.3%) as opposed to five out of 18 (27.8%). There was no significant difference between the two swabs. Retesting by LCR, of the samples from 13 of the 18 patients with discrepant PCR results confirmed them all as true positives, although as with PCR, not all specimens in the set were concordantly positive. LCR detected all the 13 positives in urine, while there was no difference in the detection rate between the first and the second urethral swabs. Conclusions: Urine appeared to be a better diagnostic specimen than the conventional second endourethral swab for C trachomatis detection by PCR in this cohort of male patients. There was no difference between the first swab, intended primarily for N gonorrhoeae testing and the second swab intended for C trachomatis detection. This raises questions over the need for the conventional second swab for detecting C trachomatis.
Functional Status and Quality of Life in Patients Surviving 10 years After Lung Transplantation

Although many lung allograft recipients achieve long‐term survival, there is a lack of published data regarding these patients' functional status and quality of life (QoL). We evaluated all 10‐year survivors at our institution and, utilizing the SF‐36 questionnaire, compared their QoL to population normative and chronic illness data. Twenty‐eight (29%) of 96 patients survived ≥10 years following 11 single, 6 bilateral and 11 heart‐lung procedures. At the most recent evaluation, median FEV1 in single and double lung recipients was predicted to be 54% and 74%, respectively. Five (18%) patients had BOS score 0, 13 (46%) BOS 1, 5 (18%) BOS 2 and 5 (18%) BOS 3 and median time to BOS was 7 years. Four (14%) patients required renal replacement therapy. Three patients (11%) developed symptomatic osteoporosis, 2 (7%) post‐transplant lymphoma and 1 (4%) an ischaemic stroke. Scores for physical function, role‐physical/emotional and general health, but not mental health and bodily pain, were significantly lower compared to normative and chronic illness data. Energy and social‐function scores were significantly lower than normative data alone. Long‐term survival after lung transplantation is characterized by an absence or delayed development of BOS, low iatrogenic morbidity and preserved mental, but reduced physical health status.
Anatomic markers of human premalignancy and risk of breast cancer

Epithelial hyperplasia of the breast carries an increased likelihood of carcinoma development, with most lesions best understood as markers of higher risk. The indication of increased cancer risk for more worrisome or complex histologic patterns has been supported in many studies. About 25% of women who underwent biopsies in the premammographic era had well‐developed hyperplastic changes associated with an elevated risk of 1.5 to 2.0 times that of the general population when age and length of time of follow‐up were considered. Somewhat fewer than 5% of women had specific patterns of atypical hyperplasia (AH) that approached the criteria of carcinoma in situ (CIS). These women with AH had a risk of cancer four to five times that of the general population, or about one half the risk associated with microscopic CIS. Only ductal CIS should be considered without question to be an intrinsic precancerous lesion because of its regular association with recurrence at the site of its initial diagnosis. Further studies indicated an appreciable interaction between AH and other nonanatomic risk factors, particularly a family history of breast cancer. Also, lower dosage estrogen replacement after menopause does not affect risk in any histologically defined group. The atypical hyperplastic lesions are more common in women undergoing biopsies on the indication of mammographic calcifications than because of palpable masses. The primary therapeutic implications of these premalignant lesions are intensified breast cancer surveillance and screening for these patients. Cancer 66:1326‐1335, 1990.
DIARRHEA CAUSED BY NON-CHOLERA VIBRIOS.

Summary Patients with diarrheal illness occurring in Dacca, East Pakistan, from whom cultures showed heavy growths of non-cholera vibrios (NCV) were studied. Cases occurred in both sexes and in both local residents and in U. S. personnel residing in Dacca. Unequivocal antibody titer rises against the infecting NCV were demonstrated in sera from certain cases. Survey of healthy individuals in the area failed to reveal any people with heavy infections of NCV. Small numbers of organisms from the three strains tested were able to produce a diarrheal disease in infant rabbits, and complete protection against diarrhea followed passive administration of hyperimmune serum. The demonstrated pathogenicity for man and the widespread distribution of NCV in surface waters of the world suggest that simple methods designed to identify these organisms should be included in the laboratory routines used in the study of diarrhea.
Designing online role plays with a focus on story development to support engagement and critical learning for higher education students

Online role plays, as they are designed for use in higher education in Australia and internationally, are active and authentic learning activities (Wills, Leigh & Ip, 2011). In online role plays, students take a character role in developing a story that serves as a metaphor for real-life experience in order to develop a potentially wide range of subject-related and generic learning outcomes. The characteristics of these stories are rarely considered as factors in the design―and success―of these activities. The unspoken cultural assumptions, norms and rules in the stories that impact on the meanings students make from their experiences are also rarely scrutinised in the online role play literature. This paper presents findings from a case study of an asynchronous text-based online role play involving politics and journalism students from three Australian universities. The findings highlight the centrality of students’ collaborative story-building activity to their engagement and learning, including their development of critical perspectives. The study underlines the importance of certain aspects of the role play's design to support students' story-building activity.
How Does Private Finance Affect Public Health Care Systems? Marshaling the Evidence from OECD Nations

The impact of private finance on publicly funded health care systems depends on how the relationship between public and private finance is structured. This essay first reviews the experience in five nations that exemplify different ways of drawing the public/private boundary to address the particular questions raised by each model. This review is then used to interpret aggregate empirical analyses of the dynamic effects between public and private finance in OECD nations over time. Our findings suggest that while increases in the private share of health spending substitute in part for public finance (and vice versa), this is the result of a complex mix of factors having as much to do with cross-sectoral shifts as with deliberate policy decisions within sectors and that these effects are mediated by the different dynamics of distinctive national models. On balance, we argue that a resort to private finance is more likely to harm than to help publicly financed systems, although the effects will vary depending on the form of private finance.
Monitoring earnings management in emerging markets

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption complements corporate governance factors (e.g. ownership structure) in monitoring managers’ discretional behavior in an emerging market context. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper relies on a sample of listed companies in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, South Africa and the Philippines during an eight-year period on average (four years of pre-adoption period and four years of post-adoption period). Findings - – The authors find no evidence of lower earnings management after the switch to IFRS reporting, suggesting that managerial discretional behavior is insensitive to a firm’s IFRS adoption. However, the authors document effective monitoring role of a firm’s ownership structure on earnings management. More interestingly, institutional investors are effective in constraining earnings management when holding a high level of ownership. Moreover, the effect of blockholders and institutional blockholders varies as their ownership rises following a non-linear pattern. Research limitations/implications - – First, the assumption that discretionary accruals are adequate measure of earnings management may be criticized in different ways. Second, the findings, performed on listed companies in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, South Africa and the Philippines, should be interpreted with caution and cannot be generalized to all emerging market countries. Practical implications - – Standards setters and market authorities should be aware of earnings management determinants to set adequate and fitting accounting standards limiting opportunistic behavior of managers and mainly to set up training programs to accounting professionals improving the IFRS implementation. Moreover, considering specific features of firms in emerging market countries related to ownership structure, international investors may rely on such criteria to evaluate firms. Finally, auditors should be aware of different incentives for earnings management in order to be able to detect eventual manipulation of accounting earnings. Originality/value - – This paper provides a timely contribution to the continuous debate of the effect of IFRS adoption on earnings management in a poorly exploited setting, emerging market context. When investigating, additionally, the eventual non-linear effect of institutional ownership, block ownership, institutional block ownership and non-institutional block ownership on earnings management, a major contribution is that it brings to light the finding of a differential influence of ownership levels on earnings management.
The level of human capital in innovative firms located in China. Is foreign capital relevant?

Studies on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the Chinese economy have essentially focused on the relationship between FDI, productivity and economic growth, revealing a tendency toward sectoral, regional and macroeconomic empirical studies. This work aims to complement these approaches and contribute to the rather limited literature on the relationship between FDI, Human Capital and Innovation at a corporate level. Based on a set of large and innovative firms (national and foreign capital) located in China, we have concluded that (1) the direct impact of foreign capital on the level of human capital in firms is negative, that is no evidence was found suggesting that FDI has a positive influence on their human capital and (ii) in indirect terms, by means of investment in R&D (research and development) activities, FDI has a positive impact on general human capital (i.e. formal education). These results suggest that for China to benefit from FDI, it is necessary to implement a selective policy to attract FDI, taking into account more technologically advanced, R&D-based projects.
Employee significance within stakeholder‐accountable performance management systems

Purpose – Research has not fully recognised the significance of employee stakeholders to the design and effective operation of performance management systems. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the centrality of employees within the stakeholder systems model of performance management it proposes.Design/methodology/approach – Stakeholder theory is utilised to critique current scorecard‐type performance management frameworks with a particular focus on the balanced scorecard as the most popular of these. Conceptual analysis is supported by case study evidence relating to the effectiveness of performance management systems in knowledge‐intensive organisations.Findings – The paper identifies the concept of the responsible organisation as a means of assessing organisational maturity in performance management, and links it to dimensions of organisational justice. Linkage enables stakeholder perceptions of equitable treatment to be combined with effectiveness measures in the more holistic performance mana.
Identification of Factors Which Influence the Technical Inefficiency of Indian Farmers

The agricultural production of Indian farmers is investigated using a stochastic frontier production function which incorporates a model for the technical inefficiency effects. Farm-level data from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are used. Variables considered in the model for the inefficiency effects include the age and level of education of the farmers, farm size and the year of observation. The parameters of the stochastic frontier production function are estimated simultaneously with those involved in the model for the inefficiency effects. This approach differs from the usual practice of predicting farm-level inefficiency effects and then regressing these upon various factors in a second-stage of modelling. The results indicate that the above factors do have a significant influence upon the inefficiency effects of farmers in two of the three villages considered.
Is sustainable development sustainable?

This journal proclaims its concern with ‘‘the relationships between science, society and policy and a key aim is to advance understanding of the theory and practice of sustainable development’’. We have certainly endeavoured to publish research articles, from scholars in the natural and social sciences, which put forward what our title calls an ‘‘integrative’’ approach. This integration is intended to be at once interdisciplinary, crossing not only disciplinary divides but also bringing together science and policy and policy and practice. And this integration is to be achieved through a focus on sustainable development as the integrating concept. But, it may be asked, has this concept any validity or utility as the leitmotif of a journal? Is it merely a routine recognition of a normative concept that is now pretty much axiomatic for environmental scientists and policy makers alike? Or, does the concept still retain sufficiently positive, purposive and practical connotations to fulfil its presumed role as an overarching goal of scientific understanding and political policymaking? The answer is, we suspect, a bit of both of these. It all depends on perspective, on value and viewpoint; in short, on what we think we mean by sustainable development. It is worth going back to the original identification and definitions of the concept a generation ago, beginning naturally with the Brundtland pronouncement in 1987. ‘‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’’ (World Commission 1987, p. 44). This theme has been oft repeated since in a variety of versions and contexts. For example, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring in 1997 to radioactive waste stated that society should be protected ‘‘in such a way that the needs and aspirations of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs and aspirations’’ (IAEA 1997, Article 1). As might be expected the IAEA had a particular concern that impacts on health ‘‘will not be greater than relevant levels of impact that are acceptable today’’ (IAEA 1995, Principle 4). By contrast, the UK Government of Margaret Thatcher stressed the notion of stewardship involved in sustainable development. The Prime Minister herself announced in a speech to the Royal Society in 1988 that ‘‘we do not hold a freehold on our world, but only a full repairing lease’’. This was formulated as a statement of principle, a moral imperative, in the White Paper This Common Inheritance: ‘‘We have a moral duty to look after our planet and to hand it on in good order to future generations’’ (HMSO 1990, p.10). Over the years such heady and idealistic declarations have, perhaps, become more pragmatic, more vacuous even. By 1999 the UK’s approach was defined as providing ‘‘a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come’’ Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2012, 1–8
Economic freedom, macroeconomic fundamentals and foreign direct investment in fast emerging BRICS and Malaysia

This study investigates the major factors that determine the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into fast emerging countries: Brazil, China, India, Russia, South Africa (BRICS) and Malaysia. Two sets of factors are identified: macroeconomic and country specific fundamentals. The period of analysis is 1977-2010. The study provides empirical evidence that economic growth, government consumption and trade openness are vital for FDI. In addition, country specific infrastructure quality and economic freedom are also critical factors in determining FDI for this group of countries. Our findings have significant policy implications for the growth and development of these countries, particularly through foreign direct investments.