Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Expectations Gap: Two Remedies Investigated

In this paper, we test the effectiveness of an expanded auditor’s report vis-a-vis an audit course in narrowing the expectations gap. We compared two auditor’s reports in a between subjects design: the ISA 700 report and an expanded auditor’s report. We also examined if explaining audits to users is (more) effective in reducing the expectations gap (compared to expanding the auditor’s report). Belgian economics students participated in an experiment where the first group read a standard auditor’s report and the second read a manipulated auditor’s report. Moreover, a third group of students who already had taken an audit course, contrary to the two other groups, did not read any of the two auditor’s reports. Through a questionnaire survey, we elicited the students’ perceptions on different dimensions of the responsibilities of the auditor and the signaling power of the auditor’s report. Overall, a more thorough explanation of technical audit concepts in the auditor’s report does not significantly narrow the expectations gap. Students who already had an audit course, however, showed more reasonable expectations towards the auditor’s role and responsibilities, leading to a significant smaller expectations gap.
Quercetin Improves Behavioral Deficiencies, Restores Astrocytes and Microglia, and Reduces Serotonin Metabolism in 3‐Nitropropionic Acid‐Induced Rat Model of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant disorder, for which clinically available drugs offer only symptomatic relief. These prescription drugs are not free of side effects, and the patients usually suffer from anxiety and depression. We investigated quercetin, a dietary flavonoid with free radical scavenging properties, for its beneficial potential if any, in 3‐nitropropionic acid (3‐NP)‐induced HD in rats where both drugs were administered simultaneously.
Clinical significance of urokinase‐type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) expression in cancer

The involvement of the urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (uPA) system in particular has been extensively studied in the pathogenesis of cancer. The molecular role of the uPA receptor (uPAR) is well characterized with its participation in cell migration and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Over‐expression of uPAR in cancer has been demonstrated in many studies and is considered an attractive target for anticancer agents. We and others have down‐regulated uPAR expression in an attempt to inhibit cancer metastasis based on its molecular role. Uniquely, uPAR which is a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol anchored protein is not only bound to the cell surface but also has a soluble form, suPAR. There is now accumulated clinical and experimental evidence supporting the significant role of uPAR and its soluble counterpart in a number of solid cancers. The expression of uPAR can be associated with tumor cells or stromal cells or both. Differences observed in the expression of uPAR using immunohistochemistry (IHC) are likely explained by the use of different antibodies and techniques rather than true cellular differences and are reviewed here. This review summarizes the clinical relevance of uPAR and its soluble form in the prognosis and diagnosis of different cancers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Med Res Rev, 24, No. 1, 13–39, 2004
Legal Framework as a Determinant of Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety Programmes in the Manufacturing Sector in Kenya

Recent trends in the organization of work have increased the risk of occupational safety and health (OSH) in Kenyan industries through exposure to hazardous substances, work related accidents and increased stress-related illnesses. According to International lab our organization (ILO) everyone is entitled to the right to safe and healthy working conditions and therefore the corpus of law in Kenya dealing with occupational safety and health should be embedded in the international OSH legal instruments. Specifically the occupational health and safety Act (2007) is expected to provide for safety, health and welfare of workers and all persons lawfully present at workplaces. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate legal framework as a determinant of implementation of occupational health and safety programmes in the manufacturing sector in Kenya. It focused on six legal areas predicted as affecting implementation of OSH. These factors were national OSH policy, OSHA (occupational safety and health Act) familiarity with OSHA, government OSH inspections and audits, ease of implementation of OSHA, Government support in the implementation of OSH and OSHA implement ability. The study adopted descriptive cross-sectional survey design but however intended to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 257 OSH officers drawn randomly from 735 manufacturing industries registered by Kenya manufacturers association. 252 questionnaires were received back and analyzed with the help of SSPS window version 21. Both correlation and regression analysis were conducted and the results showed that there was a positive significant relationship between legal framework and implementation of OSH programmes.
Microwave Modeling and Parameter Extraction Method for Quantum-Well Lasers

Accurate modeling and efficient parameter extraction of the microwave equivalent circuit model of high-speed quantum- well lasers for high-frequency operation based on the rate equations are presented in this paper. The model takes into account the intrinsic nonlinear behavior of the device, the effect of hetero- junction, and the parasitic elements due to the various levels of the packaging hierarchy to ensure a realistic representation of the input of the quantum-well lasers. The model is versatile in that it permits dc, small signal, and large signal to be performed. A direct extraction method to determine the extrinsic and intrinsic model parameters for laser diode by using a set of closed-form expressions based on the dc, input reflection coefficients, and modulation responses on wafer measurement is given also. Simulated and measured results for the dc, input reflection coefficients, and modulation responses exhibit good agreement over a wide range of bias points.
The Long-Run Underperformance of Post-Listing Stock Returns: The Evidence of Earnings Management

This paper explores the puzzle of underperformance during post-listing period by investigating whether managers manipulate earnings before their stocks switch from the NASDAQ to the NYSE and the AMEX, and from the AMEX to the NYSE during the period 1990-1997. Evidence indicates that managers manipulate earnings during the year prior to having their stocks switch to new trading locations. I find a negative relationship between pre-listing discretionary current accruals and subsequent earnings changes and stock returns. Such negative relationship is specially pronounced for small-and-aggressive firms than large-and-conserve firms. The negative relationship remains even after controlling the potential bias for high-performance firms and is common to all switching firms, especially for those switching to the NYSE.
Evaluation of a quantitative fluorescence immunoassay (FIAX) for detection of serum antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi

A quantitative, indirect, fluorescence immunoassay (FIAX; Whittaker Bioproducts, Inc.) was compared with the conventional indirect fluorescent-antibody test for detection of serum antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi. FIAX correlated well with the indirect fluorescent-antibody test (r = 0.72). FIAX is a convenient and dependable means of measuring serum antibody to B. burgdorferi.
Isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans in Dry Droppings of Captive Birds in Santiago, Chile

Abstract To investigate the prevalence of Cryptococcus in droppings from captive birds in Chile, dry droppings from 113 captive birds of various species were cultured for Cryptococcus neoformans. The yeast was recovered from 17 of the 113 samples (15% [95% confidence intervals, 8.4%–21.6%]). Other yeast organisms recovered from psittacine bird droppings were Cryptococcus albidus and Cryptococcus uniguttulatus. Secreted phospholipase has been proposed as a virulence determinant in C neoformans. Phospholipase production by the egg yolk plate method, and in vitro susceptibility to fluconazole by using the disk diffusion test were performed on 17 C neoformans isolates. Two of the 17 strains (11.7%) did not produce phospholipase. Two (11.7%) were resistant to fluconazole, and 5 of 17 (29.4%) were susceptible dose-dependent. The Cryptococcus species isolated from droppings from captive birds could be potential pathogens in humans.
Cognition and social functioning in schizophrenia.

This article reviews three studies investigating the relationship between information processing and social functioning in schizophrenia. The most consistent finding is the association between vigilance performance on a hybrid continuous performance/span of apprehension task and various indices of social functioning (e.g., ward behavior). However, the nature of the information processing-social functioning relationships is mutable and appears dependent on a number of factors (e.g., cross-sectional versus longitudinal designs). This article concludes with a discussion of treatment implications and future research directions.
Pediatric Cardiomyopathies.

Pediatric cardiomyopathies are rare diseases with an annual incidence of 1.1 to 1.5 per 100 000. Dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies are the most common; restrictive, noncompaction, and mixed cardiomyopathies occur infrequently; and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy is rare. Pediatric cardiomyopathies can result from coronary artery abnormalities, tachyarrhythmias, exposure to infection or toxins, or secondary to other underlying disorders. Increasingly, the importance of genetic mutations in the pathogenesis of isolated or syndromic pediatric cardiomyopathies is becoming apparent. Pediatric cardiomyopathies often occur in the absence of comorbidities, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, renal dysfunction, and diabetes mellitus; as a result, they offer insights into the primary pathogenesis of myocardial dysfunction. Large international registries have characterized the epidemiology, cause, and outcomes of pediatric cardiomyopathies. Although adult and pediatric cardiomyopathies have similar morphological and clinical manifestations, their outcomes differ significantly. Within 2 years of presentation, normalization of function occurs in 20% of children with dilated cardiomyopathy, and 40% die or undergo transplantation. Infants with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have a 2-year mortality of 30%, whereas death is rare in older children. Sudden death is rare. Molecular evidence indicates that gene expression differs between adult and pediatric cardiomyopathies, suggesting that treatment response may differ as well. Clinical trials to support evidence-based treatments and the development of disease-specific therapies for pediatric cardiomyopathies are in their infancy. This compendium summarizes current knowledge of the genetic and molecular origins, clinical course, and outcomes of the most common phenotypic presentations of pediatric cardiomyopathies and highlights key areas where additional research is required. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifiers: NCT02549664 and NCT01912534.
Deficiency of Endogenous Acute-Phase Serum Amyloid A Protects apoE−/− Mice From Angiotensin II–Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation

Objective— Rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a major cause of death in the aged population, is characterized by vascular inflammation and matrix degradation. Serum amyloid A (SAA), an acute-phase reactant linked to inflammation and matrix metalloproteinase induction, correlates with aortic dimensions before aneurysm formation in humans. We investigated whether SAA deficiency in mice affects AAA formation during angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion. Approach and Results— Plasma SAA increased ≈60-fold in apoE−/− mice 24 hours after intraperitoneal Ang II injection (100 &mgr;g/kg; n=4) and ≈15-fold after chronic 28-day Ang II infusion (1000 ng/kg per minute; n=9). AAA incidence and severity after 28-day Ang II infusion was significantly reduced in apoE−/− mice lacking both acute-phase SAA isoforms (SAAKO; n=20) compared with apoE−/− mice (SAAWT; n=20) as assessed by in vivo ultrasound and ex vivo morphometric analyses, despite a significant increase in systolic blood pressure in SAAKO mice compared with SAAWT mice after Ang II infusion. Atherosclerotic lesion area of the aortic arch was similar in SAAKO and SAAWT mice after 28-day Ang II infusion. Immunostaining detected SAA in AAA tissues of Ang II–infused SAAWT mice that colocalized with macrophages, elastin breaks, and enhanced matrix metalloproteinase activity. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity was significantly lower in aortas of SAAKO mice compared with SAAWT mice after 10-day Ang II infusion. Conclusions— Lack of endogenous acute-phase SAA protects against experimental AAA through a mechanism that may involve reduced matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity.
Time to treatment of prostate cancer through the Calgary Prostate Institute rapid access clinic.

PURPOSE To determine the wait time between initial referral, biopsy, diagnosis and individual treatment modalities of prostate cancer treatment through the Calgary Prostate Institute rapid access clinic (RAC) and compare to historical data estimates in Alberta and to suggested standards. Biopsy rate, rate of confirmed prostate cancer and the distribution of treatment modality for patients seen through the RAC is included. MATERIALS AND METHODS A non-consented, retrospective chart review of 1103 patients from the Calgary Health Region referred to the RAC between September 2005 and August 2006 was completed. RESULTS Patients experienced a median wait time of 21 days between referral from their family doctor and prostate biopsy. A total of 31.4% of patients referred to the clinic were requested to have a prostate biopsy performed and 50.8% of biopsies resulted in confirmed prostate cancer requiring treatment. Median wait time between diagnosis and treatment for all treatment types was 52.0 days with a 90th percentile of 146.2 days. Median wait time between referral and treatment for all treatment modalities was 101 days with a 90th percentile of 187.2 days. CONCLUSION Calgary rapid access clinic reduces wait time between referral and biopsy by 78%. Stratifying across treatment type indicates that watchful waiting is the shortest time duration and radiation with hormone therapy is the longest.
Network capacity sharing with QoS as a financial derivative pricing problem : algorithms and network

A design of an automatic network capacity markets, often referred to as a bandwidth market, is presented. Three topics are investigated. First, a network model is proposed. The proposed model is based upon a trisection of the participant roles into network users, network owners, and market middlemen. The network capacity is defined in a way that allows it to be traded, and to have a well defined price. The network devices are modeled as core nodes, access nodes, and border nodes. Requirements on these are given. It is shown how their functionalities can be implemented in a network. Second, a simulated capacity market is presented, and a statistical method for estimating the price dynamics in the market is proposed. A method for pricing network services based on shared capacity is proposed, in which the price of a service is equivalent to that of a financial derivative contract on a number of simple capacity shares.Third, protocols for the interaction between the participants are proposed. The market participants need to commit to contracts with an auditable protocol with a small overhead. The proposed protocol is based on a public key infrastructure and on known protocols for multi party contract signing. The proposed model allows network capacity to be traded in a manner that utilizes the network efficiently. A new feature of this market model, compared to other network capacity markets, is that the prices are not controlled by the network owners. It is the end-users who, by middlemen, trade capacity among each other. Therefore, financial, rather than control theoretic, methods are used for the pricing of capacity.
Growth rate, transmission mode and virulence in human pathogens

The harm that pathogens cause to hosts during infection, termed virulence, varies across species from negligible to a high likelihood of rapid death. Classic theory for the evolution of virulence is based on a trade-off between pathogen growth, transmission and host survival, which predicts that higher within-host growth causes increased transmission and higher virulence. However, using data from 61 human pathogens, we found the opposite correlation to the expected positive correlation between pathogen growth rate and virulence. We found that (i) slower growing pathogens are significantly more virulent than faster growing pathogens, (ii) inhaled pathogens and pathogens that infect via skin wounds are significantly more virulent than pathogens that are ingested, but (iii) there is no correlation between symptoms of infection that aid transmission (such as diarrhoea and coughing) and virulence. Overall, our results emphasize how virulence can be influenced by mechanistic life-history details, especially transmission mode, that determine how parasites infect and exploit their hosts. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Opening the black box: re-examining the ecology and evolution of parasite transmission’.
Decreased fraction of exhaled nitric oxide in obese subjects with asthma symptoms: data from the population study INTERGENE/ADONIX.

BACKGROUND Several studies have demonstrated an association between obesity and asthma. However, it is uncertain if fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (Feno), which is used as a marker of airway inflammation, and atopy are associated with BMI. The aim of this study was to examine if obese subjects with asthma symptoms have a different phenotype of asthma than nonobese subjects as indicated by Feno. METHODS The subjects (N = 2,187) consisted of women and men, aged 25 to 74, living in Gothenburg, Sweden, who participated in the randomly selected INTERGENE study cohort. Measurements included anthropometric measures, bioelectric impedance, Feno, pulmonary function, and blood samples for IgE; questionnaires included items on respiratory symptoms. Obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m(2). In this cross-sectional analysis, general linear models were used to analyze how Feno was associated with anthropometry, body composition, wheezing, and atopy. RESULTS In nonobese subjects, wheezing was associated with raised Feno and atopy, whereas in contrast, obese subjects who reported wheezing had lower Feno than obese subjects without wheezing (16.1 vs 19.1 parts per billion, P < .01). The prevalence of atopy was similar in both of those subgroups (25.0% vs 20.7%, P = .4). Similarly, in 395 subjects (19%) who reported wheezing, Feno was negatively associated with BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, and percentage of body fat, whereas no significant relationships were observed in those without respiratory symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Wheezing was significantly associated with reduced Feno in obese subjects, whereas there was a positive association between wheezing and Feno among the nonobese subjects, indicating a possible difference in asthma phenotype, based on body weight.
Design‐ and model‐based recommendations for detecting and quantifying an amphibian pathogen in environmental samples

Abstract Accurate pathogen detection is essential for developing management strategies to address emerging infectious diseases, an increasingly prominent threat to wildlife. Sampling for free‐living pathogens outside of their hosts has benefits for inference and study efficiency, but is still uncommon. We used a laboratory experiment to evaluate the influences of pathogen concentration, water type, and qPCR inhibitors on the detection and quantification of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) using water filtration. We compared results pre‐ and post‐inhibitor removal, and assessed inferential differences when single versus multiple samples were collected across space or time. We found that qPCR inhibition influenced both Bd detection and quantification in natural water samples, resulting in biased inferences about Bd occurrence and abundance. Biases in occurrence could be mitigated by collecting multiple samples in space or time, but biases in Bd quantification were persistent. Differences in Bd concentration resulted in variation in detection probability, indicating that occupancy modeling could be used to explore factors influencing heterogeneity in Bd abundance among samples, sites, or over time. Our work will influence the design of studies involving amphibian disease dynamics and studies utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA) to understand species distributions.
Technology use by rural and urban oldest old.

OBJECTIVES Technologies designed to optimally maintain older people as they age in their desired places of residence are proliferating. An important step in designing and deploying such technologies is to determine the current use and familiarity with technology in general among older people. The goal of this study was to determine the extent that community-dwelling elderly at highest risk of losing independence, the oldest old, use common electronic devices found in residential urban or rural settings. METHODS We surveyed 306 nondemented elderly age 85 or over; 144 were part of a rural aging study, the Klamath Exceptional Aging Project, and 181 were from an urban aging cohort in Portland. RESULTS The most frequently used devices were televisions, microwave ovens, and answering machines. Persons with mild cognitive impairment were less likely to use all devices than those with no impairment. Higher socioeconomic status and education were associated with use of more complicated devices. Urban respondents were more likely than rural ones to use most devices. CONCLUSION Technology use by very old community-dwelling elderly is common. There are significant differences in use between rural and urban elderly.
CO2 emissions and international tourism in some developed countries.

The purpose of present paper is to estimate and evaluate the relationship between Pollution Index (CO2 emissions) and International tourism in selected developed countries consist of Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea Rep., Sweden and United States. Results indicate that the effect of CO2 emissions on International tourism in some Developed Countries is significantly negative. So, governments in these countries should decrease pollution (CO2 emissions) by policies. This policies consist of enforce industrial firms to green ways in production process, Tax on polluters products, subsides to firms for using a new filters to constrain the pollutions.