Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mandatory CSR expenditure and stock market liquidity of Finance

We investigate the nexus between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firms ’ stock market liquidity. Using actual firm-level CSR expenditure data and a quasi-natural experiment setup of a mandated CSR regulation in India, we find that firms complying with the mandate experience significantly higher stock market liquidity, relative to non-CSR firms in the post-CSR mandate period. This effect seems to be more pronounced among CSR firms not affiliated to business groups, with concentrated promoter ownership, with low institutional ownership, with foreign sales and having operations in multiple locations. Further, we find that firms spending more on education and healthcare projects as part of their mandatory CSR engagement have higher stock market liquidity. Our results are in line with the conjecture that mandatory CSR regulation could lead to reduced information asymmetry and improved social and reputational capital, and thus improve the stock market liquidity of CSR firms. Finally, we show that mandated CSR firms, having superior stock market liquidity, obtain higher market valuations in the long run. of robustness tests alternative definitions of and control groups, alternative stock market liquidity and placebo tests. our the effect alternative technique of multivariate regression discontinuity design (MRDD). cross-sectional institutional liquidity liquidity, to disclose CSR activities whereas S-135 requires firms to both report and spend on CSR activities. Further, we exploit S-135 and a unique CSR expenditure data to study the impact of CSR on stock market liquidity. Finally, we identify stock market liquidity as a possible channel through which mandated CSR improves CSR firms market value in the long run.
OP-BRCM210228 1..15

† Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database (http://adni.loni.usc.edu). As such, the investigators within the ADNI contributed to the design and implementation of ADNI and/or provided data but did not participate in analysis or writing of this report. A complete listing of ADNI investigators can be found at: http://adni.loni. usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/how_to_apply/ADNI_Acknowledgement_List. pdf Accessed 07 October 2021.
Essential Oil Biodiversity of Achillea ligustica All. Obtained from Mainland and Island Populations

Background: The genus Achillea is rich in essential oil (EO) with high chemical diversity. In this study, eight EO samples obtained from flowers and leaves of Achillea ligustica All. collected on the Mediterranean mainland and island locations were analyzed to evaluate their possible chemical diversity. Methods: Sixteen samples of EO were analyzed by GC-MS, leading to the identification of 95 compounds in the leaves and 86 compounds in the flowers; a statistical analysis was performed to determine the chemical polymorphism. Results: Monoterpenes, such as β-pinene, borneol, ɑ-terpineol and isobornyl acetate, were more abundant in the continental samples, while the insular samples were richer in 1,8-cineole. Fragranyl acetate and fragranol were detected in remarkable concentrations in sample 8. The fruits of sample 8 were then cultivated under controlled agronomic conditions, providing plants rich in these compounds (sample 9). The geographical variability influenced the EO compositions, with unique observed chemotypes and a high degree of diversity among samples collected in various areas (mainland or island). Statistical analyses did not reveal any pattern between the geographical provenience and the compositions. Conclusion: Samples were distributed based on the plant organ, confirming the already reported high degree of chemical polymorphism of this species. Sample 8 could be used as a source of fragranol and fragranyl acetate, with potential applications in the insecticidal and pheromone industries.
Efficient modal analysis of plasmonic nanoparticles: from retardation to nonclassical regimes

: With recent developments in nanotechnologies, metal nanoparticles permeate a wide range of dimension scales, from light wavelength-scale domains down to a few nanometers approaching electronic scales. The electrodynamics at metal surfaces hosts a rich interplay between plasmon oscillations, retardation effects of light, and nonclassical (quantum) effects of electrons. Incorporating all these effects and modeling optical responses of nanoparticles generally rely on pure numerical methods, which are, however, disadvantageous in physical interpre-tations and computational speed. Herein, we establish a modal method that accurately predicts plasmon responses of metal nanoparticles, including both retardation and nonclassical corrections on an equal footing. The proposed method, based on electrostatic plasmon modes, is parameterized by a set of geometrically dependent fac-tors, which, once computed, can be repeatedly used for same-shaped nanoparticles independent of size and material composition. The predictive accuracy of the method is examined for single nanoparticles, multi-scale plasmonic architectures—such as dimer structures with deep-nanometer gap—and geometrically deformed structures, with feature dimensions ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers. major contributions from (i) surface-enhanced e–h excitations, i.e., Landau damping; (ii) nonlocality of permittivity response functions; (iii) spill-out of conduction electrons outside the metal boundary.
Novel Transgenic Mouse Model Identification of Memory B Cells Using a

Memory B cells help to protect the host from invading pathogens by maintaining persistent levels of Ag-speciﬁc serum Ab and generating rapid Ab responses upon re-exposure to Ag. Unambiguous identiﬁcation of memory B cells has been a major obstacle to furthering our knowledge concerning both the development of B cell memory and secondary Ab responses due to an absence of speciﬁc cell surface markers. Germinal centers (GCs) are thought to be the major site of Ig hypermutation and Ag-driven selection of memory B cells. To develop a model that would identify GC-derived memory B cells, we generated transgenic mice that expressed cre recombinase in a GC-speciﬁc fashion. Interbreeding these mice with the cre-reporter strain, ROSA26R, produced progeny in which (cid:1) -galactosidase ( (cid:1) -gal) was permanently expressed in B cells of the GC-memory pathway. Analysis following immunization with (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl coupled to chicken (cid:2) globulin showed that long-lived (cid:1) -gal (cid:3) B cells exclusively contained somatically mutated (cid:4) 1 V regions and were capable of producing Ag-speciﬁc Ab-forming cell (AFC) responses that were > 100-fold higher than those afforded by (cid:1) -gal (cid:5) B cells following adoptive transfer to naive hosts. Secondary challenge of immune mice showed that only (cid:1) 20% of secondary AFCs expressed (cid:1) -gal. Interestingly, we found that somatic hypermutation of rearranged (cid:4) 1 V regions within secondary AFCs showed a strong correlation with (cid:1) -gal expression, suggesting that nonmutated B cells contribute signiﬁcantly to secondary Ab responses. This model should provide useful insights into memory B cell development, maintenance, and differentiation following immunization or pathogenic infection. The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 176: 4706–4715. a tractable -galactosidase (cid:1) -gal), GC B cells. The permanent nature of (cid:1) -gal expression allowed us to identify and isolate Ag-speciﬁc B cells following immunization with the model Ag, (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl chicken (cid:2) globulin (NPCG). Our results show that (cid:1) -gal (cid:2) B cells persisted into the immune phase of the and exclusively contained (cid:3) 1 V regions. Adoptive transfer experiments demonstrated that (cid:1) -gal (cid:2) B cells from immune mice produced (cid:3) 100-fold AFCs than their (cid:1) (cid:4) counterparts,
Title: Systematic review and meta-analysis of therapeutic alliance, engagement and outcome in psychological therapies for psychosis Short title: REVIEW OF THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE IN PSYCHOSIS

Aim: The moderate association between therapeutic alliance (TA) and psychological therapy outcome is wellestablished. Historically, the field has not focused on people with a severe mental illness. This is the first review to conduct a meta-analysis of associations between TA and therapeutic engagement as well as outcome in psychological therapy for psychosis. Eligibility Criteria: Eligible studies conducted a quantitative investigation of the relationship between TA during a psychological therapy and outcome at a subsequent time-point. Method: A systematic review examined the relationship between TA and engagement as well as outcome measures within psychological therapy for psychosis. Correlational meta-analyses using an aggregate random-effects model were conducted. Author / title page
Determination of the Most Interconnected Sections of Main Gas Pipelines Using the Maximum Clique Method

This article is devoted to the definition of the most important combinations of objects in critical network infrastructures. This study was carried out using the example of the Russian gas transmission network. Since natural gas is widely used in the energy sector, the gas transmission network can be exposed to terrorist threats, and the actions of intruders can be directed at both gas fields and gas pipelines. A defender–attacker model was proposed to simulate attacks. In this model, the defender solves the maximum flow problem to satisfy the needs of gas consumers. By excluding gas pipelines, the attacker tries to minimize the maximum flow in the gas transmission network. Russian and European gas transmission networks are territorially very extensive and have a significant number of mutual intersections and redundant pipelines. Therefore, one of the approaches to inflicting maximum damage on the system is modeled as an attack on a clique. A clique in this study is several interconnected objects. The article presents the list of the most interconnected sections of main gas pipelines, the failure of which can cause the greatest damage to the system in the form of a gas shortage among consumers. Conclusions were drawn about the applicability of the maximum clique method for identifying the most important objects in network critical infrastructures.
Associations Between Genetic Polymorphisms Within Transporter Genes and Clinical Response to Methotrexate in Chinese Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Pilot Study

Purpose: To investigate the associations between genetic polymorphisms within transporter genes and clinical response to methotrexate (MTX) in Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Patients and Methods: A total of 100 RA patients receiving MTX were prospectively followed up for approximately 3 months to determine the clinical response based on several criteria, including European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) good and moderate response, disease activity score in 28 joint counts – erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) low disease activity (LDA), change in DAS28-ESR (ΔDAS28-ESR) and ΔDAS28-ESR >0.6. Fifty-four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within seven transporter genes, including SLC19A1, ABCB1, ABCC1~4 and ABCG2 , were genotyped. Results: Multivariable analysis revealed that SLC19A1 rs12659 and rs3788200, ABCC2 rs3740066, rs4148396 and rs717620 were significantly associated with EULAR good and moderate response, and ABCC2 rs3740066 and rs717620 were significantly associated with DAS28-ESR LDA, and ABCB1 rs1128503, rs4148737 and ABCC3 rs2277624, rs4148416 were significantly associated with ΔDAS28-ESR. Moreover, 12 genetic polymorphisms were found to be significantly associated with ΔDAS28-ESR >0.6. With adjustment for corresponding confounders, SLC19A1 TGAA haplotype consisting of rs1051266, rs1131596, rs12659 and rs3788200 was significantly associated with EULAR good and moderate response and ΔDAS28-ESR >0.6 compared with the most common haplotype CAGG. The ABCC2 haplotype TTT composed of rs717620, rs4148396 and rs3740066 was significantly associated with EULAR good and moderate response and ΔDAS28-ESR >0.6 compared with the most common haplotype CCC. Conclusion: Our results highlight the potential of genetic polymorphisms within transporter genes, particularly SLC19A1 and ABCC2 , as predictors of clinical response to MTX in Chinese RA patients. we determined to the
ADAPTIVE MORPHOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR 3D DIRECTIONAL FILTERING

Engineering materials often feature lower dimensional and directed structures such as cracks, fibers, or closed facets in foams. The characterization of such structures in 3D is of particular interest in various applications in materials science. In image processing, knowledge of the local structure orientation can be used for structure enhancement, directional filtering, segmentation, or separation of interacting structures. The idea of using banks of directed structuring elements or filters parameterized by a discrete subset of the orientation space is proven to be effective for these tasks in 2D. However, this class of methods is prohibitive in 3D due to the high computational burden of filtering on a sufficiently fine discretization of the unit sphere. This paper introduces a method for 3D pixel-wise orientation estimation and directional filtering inspired by the idea of adaptive refinement in discretized settings. Furthermore, an operator for distinction between isotropic and anisotropic structures is defined based on our method. This operator utilizes orientation information to successfully preserve structures with one or two dominant dimensions. Finally, feasibility and effectiveness of the method are demonstrated on 3D micro-computed tomography images in three use cases: detection of a misaligned region in a fiber-reinforced polymer, segmentation of cracks in concrete, and separation of facets and strut system in partially closed foams.
Genomic characterisation of small RNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene regulation

+ microRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA molecules that function to guide the miRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC) to regions of complementarity within mRNA transcripts, thereby mediating sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). This form of gene regulation is vital to a variety of biological processes in animals, from fundamental developmental functions including cellular proliferation and differentiation, to more complex and specialised roles such as longterm potentiation and synapse-specific modifications in neurons. While the complementarity of miRNA-mRNA interactions enables bioinformatic algorithms to predict potential target genes, the capacity for miRNA to interact with their targets through elements of only partial complementarity renders high false discovery rates to these predictions. With the discovery of increased cortical miRNA expression in schizophrenia, biological evidence was therefore required to investigate the function of schizophrenia-associated miRNA including miR-181b, miR-107, and members of the miR-15 and miR-17 families. Functional genomic techniques were established with genome-wide expression analysis and miRNA reporter-gene assays to characterise the biology of these miRNA in a variety of cellular contexts. In vitro characterisation of miR-181b revealed target gene regulation through interactions at both conserved and non-conserved MREs, with primary and secondary effects of miRNA modulation affecting many genes enriched within neurodevelopmental pathways vital to synaptic plasticity, including a number of schizophrenia candidate genes. Surprisingly, comparisons of miR-181b and miR-107 function against target prediction frameworks revealed a subset of predicted targets displaying positive correlation with cognate miRNA expression. Context-specific functional pleiotropy was also observed in different cellular environments, and this was further explored through miR-17/20a in T lymphocyte activation, and through miR-16 in cell cycle progression. Ultimately, substantial evidence was obtained to establish biological plausibility for miR-181b dysregulation as a potential aetiological factor in the development of schizophrenia, though the emergent theme of context-specific miRNA function requires future methodological developments and experiments to consider this functional pleiotropy when exploring miRNA function in normal developmental and pathophysiological states. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________
Beta infection combined with Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccination leads to broadened neutralizing immunity against Omicron

Omicron (B.1.1.529) shows extensive escape from vaccine immunity, although vaccination reduces severe disease and death. Boosting with vaccines incorporating variant spike sequences could possibly broaden immunity. One approach to choose the variant may be to measure immunity elicited by vaccination combined with variant infection. Here we investigated Omicron neutralization in people infected with the Beta (B.1.351) variant and subsequently vaccinated with Pfizer BNT162b2. We observed that Beta infection alone elicited poor Omicron cross-neutralization, similar to what we previously found with BNT162b2 vaccination alone or in combination with ancestral or Delta virus infection. In contrast, Beta infection combined with BNT162b2 vaccination elicited neutralization with substantially lower Omicron escape.
City, University of London Institutional Repository How do parents perceive their infant’s participation in randomized controlled trials?

Objective: To explore parents ‟ perceptions of their infant‟ s participation in a randomized control trial (RCT) and the implications of the RCT for their infant and them. Design: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Setting: Participants were identified from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) clinical registers and from responses to an advertisement put on the website of UK special care baby charity, BLISS. Interviews were conducted with parents face-to-face in their homes or over the telephone. Participants: Sixteen parents of 12 infants born prematurely or with complications at full term and who had participated in 1 of 3 RCTs while receiving intensive care in 1 of 7 NICUs. Methods: Interviews were audio-taped or digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using systematic thematic analysis using WinMax qualitative software. Results: Five main themes emerged from the data. The themes were (a) parents ‟ immediate reactions to being approached about RCT enrollment, (b) interactions between parents and clinicians upon the approach of enrollment and during the RCT, (c) making the decision to enroll their infant, (d) implications of the RCT for parents, and (e) effects of the RCT on the infant. Conclusions: Clinicians should be encouraged to approach parents about enrollment of their infants in clinical research given that parents reported mostly positive experiences of their infant ‟s participation in a RCT. However, appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that the individual needs of parents are being met throughout the entire research process from enrollment to follow-up.
THE PERCEPTION OF FUTURE DECISION MAKERSON THE BUILDING PROFESSION

Out of all the professionals involved in the built environment, the most misunderstood is the Professional Builder. To avoid the dearth of the profession and ensure a sustainable profession, the study as a social judgment aims to assess the building profession in the eyes of future decision makers in Nigeria. Through a purposive sampling method, a structured questionnaire was distributed to two hundred and thirty-six (236) final year students of selected private and public universities in Lagos and Ogun state, Nigeria, termed as future decision makers. Using SPSS 17.0, descriptive and inferential statistics test such as Mean Score, Analysis of Variance and Factor analysis were used for the study. The results of this study indicated that future decision makers in the selected institutions in Nigeria had very little awareness of major and evolving roles of the professional builder. In conclusion, two (2) major areas can influence the popularity of the profession which are the Student/Professional builders’ participation and the Professional Associations. The study developed a framework to ensure the sustainability of the profession by influencing the awareness level of future decision makers.
Option Pricing with Time-Varying Volatility Risk Aversion

We introduce a novel pricing kernel with time-varying variance risk aversion that yields closed-form expressions for the VIX. We also obtain closed-form expressions for option prices with a novel approximation method. The model can explain the observed time-variation in the shape of the pricing kernel. We estimate the model with S&P 500 returns and option prices and find that timevariation in volatility risk aversion brings a substantial reduction in derivative pricing errors. The variance risk ratio emerges as a fundamental variable and we show that it is closely related to economic fundamentals and key measures of sentiment and uncertainty.
Spectral gap and stability for groups and non-local games

The word stable is used to describe a situation when mathematical objects that almost satisfy an equation are close to objects satisfying it exactly. We study operator-algebraic forms of stability for unitary representations of groups and quantum synchronous strategies for non-local games. We observe in particular that simple spectral gap estimates can lead to strong quantitative forms of stability. For example, we prove that the direct product of two (ﬂexibly) Hilbert-Schmidt stable groups is again (ﬂexibly) Hilbert-Schmidt stable, provided that one of them has Kazhdan’s property (T). We also provide a simple form and simple analysis of a non-local game with few questions, with the property that synchronous strategies with large value are close to perfect strategies involving large Pauli matrices. This simpliﬁes one of the steps (the question reduction) in the recent announced resolution of Connes’ embedding problem by Ji, Natarajan, Vidick, Wright and Yuen.
Any-resolution Training for High-resolution Image Synthesis

Generative models operate at fixed resolution, even though natural images come in a variety of sizes. As high-resolution details are downsampled away and low-resolution images are discarded altogether, precious supervision is lost. We argue that every pixel matters and create datasets with variable-size images, collected at their native resolutions. To take advantage of varied-size data, we introduce continuous-scale training, a process that samples patches at random scales to train a new generator with variable output resolutions. First, conditioning the generator on a target scale allows us to generate higher resolution images than previously possible, without adding layers to the model. Second, by conditioning on continuous coordinates, we can sample patches that still obey a consistent global layout, which also allows for scalable training at higher resolutions. Controlled FFHQ experiments show that our method can take advantage of multi-resolution training data better than discrete multi-scale approaches, achieving better FID scores and cleaner high-frequency details. We also train on other natural image domains including churches, mountains, and birds, and demonstrate arbitrary scale synthesis with both coherent global layouts and realistic local details, going beyond 2K resolution in our experiments. Our project page is available at: https://chail.github. io/anyres-gan/.