Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Inquiry into the Accountability of the State-Owned Financial Institution versus Privately Owned Financial Institution

Abstract The purpose of this research is to analyze whether State-Owned Financial institutions are giving more attention, in their integrated report, to stakeholders, that among the most important find the civil society, than Privately-Owned Financial institutions. An in-depth content analysis of the analyzed financial institutions’ Integrated Reports has been carried out, through the employment of MAXQDA, whit the extent to answer research questions proposed. Evidences outlined a higher stakeholder engagement by State-Owned Enterprises. Further research are required for a better understanding of Stakeholder engagement of SOEs.
A comparative corpus stylistic analysis of thematization and characterization in Gordimer’s My Son’s Story and Coetzee’s Disgrace

Abstract My Son’s Story and Disgrace are two novels written by two South African Noble laureates – Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee, respectively. The current study attempts to comparatively uncover the thematic foci as well as characterization aspects and interpersonal relations between characters in the two novels by dint of corpus linguistic tools, i.e., keywords and key clusters. Thus, using Sketch Engine online interface, the study presents a comparative thematic categorization of the two novels – a categorization which proves congruent with the thematization provided by previous critical literary studies of each novel. Both novels are found to revolve around racial tensions and illicit relationships in South Africa. However, although My Son’s Story is set during the apartheid and Disgrace is set after the apartheid is supposedly over, comparative corpus-driven investigation of the two novels reveals that the South Africa promised in My Son’s Story is betrayed in Disgrace, since racial violence and cross-race sexual dissipation persist. Quantitatively, using the notion of local textual functions, the associations between the use of key clusters, their repercussions on characters’ depiction, and their interpersonal relationships are uncovered. Clear affinities between the two protagonists, Sonny and David, are discerned, e.g., their love for music and literature, their sexual whims, their unsettled relationships with their children, etc. Empirically, the father–son/daughter turbulences, husband–wife vicissitudes, landlord–farmer intricacies, and love affairs’ intricacies are fathomed.
Employee Participation in the Decision-Making Process and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Affective Commitment

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between employee participation in the decision-making process (EPDMP) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) while considering the mediating role of affective commitment (AC). Methods: The article is based on primary cross-sectional data collected using questionnaires and applying a convenience sampling method among employees in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The sample consists of 302 employees from 127 companies across multiple industries. Results: First, there is a positive relationship between EPDMP and two dimensions of OCB – organizational citizenship behavior directed at individuals (OCBI) and organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization (OCBO). Second, the findings suggest that AC mediates the relationship between EPDMP and OCBI and OCBO. Furthermore, OCBI is found to mediate the relationship between AC and OCBO. Conclusion: This article extends the literature by introducing the mediating role of AC in the relationship between EPDM and two dimensions of OCB and the mediating role of OCBI in the relationship between AC and OCBO.
Metaphors of cancer in the Arabic language: An analysis of the use of metaphors in the online narratives of breast cancer patients

Abstract This study explores the use of metaphors in the narratives of breast cancer patients in online magazine websites in the Arabic language. It aims to find similarities and/or differences between English and Arabic in respect of the metaphorical constructions of cancer experiences. The corpus of the study consists of 13,705 words in 19 narratives in Arabic. We used the metaphor identification procedure of Pragglejaz Group (2007) to detect the metaphors in the corpus. We focused on the role of metaphor in constructing our experience of cancer, and examined which metaphors are more frequent in the construction of the cancer experience. The results of the study revealed that there is a great similarity between Arabic and English in respect of the metaphors used to construct the cancer experience; the patients have framed their cancer situation via WAR and/or JOURNEY metaphors, with War metaphors more frequently used than Journey Metaphors. The findings also indicate that the Arabic narratives tended to include a stronger religious framework, constructing cancer as a kind of Trial by Ordeal in which one proves one’s firm faith through patience and acceptance of fate.
Jet impingement on the underside of a superhydrophobic surface

Abstract Water patch topology and momentum loss resulting from a jet impacting on the underside of a flat plate with varied hydrophobicity were studied. The jet's Reynolds and Froude numbers ranged from 3700 to 31 000, and from 1 to 23, respectively. Hence effects of gravity were expected to be non-negligible, and data suggest that this is the case for hydrophobic surfaces. The interplay of gravity, surface tension, inertia and viscosity resulted in two distinct behaviours. On hydrophilic surfaces, water spread uniformly. Friction reduced momentum, and led to accumulation at the edges of the patch until gravity overcame surface tension and produced droplets. On hydrophobic surfaces, two rims formed, enclosing a thin laminar film. The patch shape was mostly determined by the balance of kinetic and surface energy. Dewetting occurred in most cases when the two rims merged, but for a narrow parameter, range water detached soon after impact and formed a type of skewed water bell. The transition in detachment topology was predicted reasonably by a simple model considering whether an attached or detached rim minimizes energy. Due to promotion of dewetting by gravity, the water patch area decreased compared to that reported in previous studies, which considered jet impingement on vertical surfaces and tops of horizontal surfaces. Owing to the application that motivated this study, the streamwise force on the plate was also measured. On hydrophobic surfaces the reduction in force correlated with the reduction in water patch area. Water patch area and momentum loss were both found to scale best with the contact-angle-modified Weber number.
Mobistudy: mobile-based, platform-independent, multi-dimensional data collection for clinical studies

Internet of Things (IoT) can work as a useful tool for clinical research. We developed a software platform that allows researchers to publish clinical studies and volunteers to participate into them using an app and connected IoT devices. The platform includes a REST API, a web interface for researchers and an app that collects data during tasks volunteers are invited to contribute. Nine tasks have been developed: Forms, Positioning, Finger tapping, Pulse-oximetry, Peak Flow measurement, Activity tracking, Data query, Queen’s College step test and Six-minute walk test. These leverage sensors embedded in the phone, connected Bluetooth devices and additional APIs like HealthKit and Google Fit. Currently, the platform is used in two clinical studies by 25 patients: an asthma management study in the United Kingdom, and a neuropathic pain management study in Spain.
Prediction of Information Dissemination Scale in Large-scale Online Social Networks Based on Machine Learning: A Comparative Analysis

Prediction of information dissemination plays an essential role in the management of public opinion and marketing. However, most previous studies are limited to explore the possibility of user's forwarding from an individual perspective. To overcome these limitations, with empirical Weibo information dissemination dataset, we construct a feature set based on the user following network, information forwarding network, and Weibo content, and we implement a comprehensive comparative evaluation on prediction effects of different models from the perspective of information dissemination scale. The results indicate that LightGBM has a better prediction performance then other models, The RMSE of dissemination scale is 175.9 which verifies the effectiveness of the feature set in the prediction of information popularity.
Video-based Automatic Citrus Segmentation using Supervised and Unsupervised Learning

Citrus segmentation is a key step of automatic citrus picking. While most current image segmentation approaches achieve good segmentation results by pixel-wise segmentation, these supervised learning-based methods require a large amount of annotated data, and do not consider the continuous temporal changes of citrus position in real-world applications. In this paper, we first train a simple CNN with a small number of labelled citrus images in a supervised manner, which can roughly predict the citrus location from each frame. Then, we extend a state-of-the-art unsupervised learning approach to pre-learn the citrus's potential movements between frames from unlabelled citrus's videos. To take advantages of both networks, we employ the multimodal transformer to combine supervised learned static information and unsupervised learned movement information. The experimental results show that combing both network allows the prediction accuracy reached at 88.3% IOU and 93.6% precision, outperforming the original supervised baseline 1.2% and 2.4%. Compared with most of the existing citrus segmentation methods, our method uses a small amount of supervised data and a large number of unsupervised data, while learning the pixel level location information and the temporal information of citrus changes to enhance the segmentation effect.
Privacy Preserving Workflow Detection for Manufacturing Using Neural Networks based Object Detection

In this paper, we introduce a detection system for workflow in a manufacturing line using depth images to preserve the privacy of workers. A depth camera sensor is mounted on a ceiling with a top-down angle and pointed to workers below completing a workflow. The system was deployed in a real life industrial process where workers had to work on a metal sheet by completing a sequence of bending steps. In this study, we experimented the effectiveness of using two classification approaches in order to identify the current workstep that workers are doing. The first approach was workflow detection by human activity recognition along with detecting related objects (a tool table, a computer screen and a machine) in the scene using only a depth camera sensor. Because of the similarity between the human body shape during different activities, the results were low and precision was 63.03%. The second approach was workflow detection by object classification and human localisation along with integrating depth camera sensor data with other sensor devices and results were better than the first approach with precision 85.42%. Within this approach, two classification models were created only using data from the Realsense sensor and two more were created including data from the bending machine. Each model has its own benefits in terms of precision, accuracy and performance, and we explain them along with the challenges the system had, in the discussion section. The results are also investigated in details and we present the future plans for the proposed detection system and for the sensors connected.
The Trypanosoma brucei RNA-binding protein DRBD18 ensures correct mRNA trans splicing and polyadenylation patterns

The parasite Trypanosoma brucei grows as bloodstream forms in mammals, and as procyclic forms in tsetse flies. Transcription is polycistronic, all mRNAs are trans spliced, and polyadenylation sites are defined by downstream splicing signals. Expression regulation therefore depends heavily on post-transcriptional mechanisms. The RNA-binding protein DRBD18 was previously implicated in the export of some mRNAs from the nucleus in procyclic forms. It copurifies the outer ring of the nuclear pore, mRNA export factors and exon-junction-complex proteins. We show that for >200 mRNAs, DRBD18 depletion caused preferential accumulation of versions with shortened 3’-untranslated regions, arising from use of polyadenylation sites that were either undetectable or rarely seen in non-depleted cells. The shortened mRNAs were often, but not always, more abundant in depleted cells than the corresponding longer versions in normal cells. Their appearance was linked to the appearance of trans spliced, polyadenylated RNAs containing only downstream 3’-untranslated-region-derived sequences. Experiments with one mRNA suggested that nuclear retention alone, through depletion of MEX67, did not affect mRNA length, suggesting a specific effect of DRBD18 on processing. Since DRBD18-bound mRNAs were enriched in polypyrimidine tract motifs, and it is found in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm, we suggest that DRBD18 acts in the nucleus by binding to polypyrimidine tracts in 3’-UTRs. DRBD18 binding might both prevent polypyrimidine tract recognition by splicing factors, and promote export of the bound RNAs to the cytosol.
Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Model for Accounting Student Intention in Learning Audit Software

The industrial revolution 4.0 has penetrated all fields, including accounting and auditing. Higher education institutions and universities, in this case as labor printers, are also required to prepare graduates who are technologically savvy. We at the auditing scientific community also prepare students to become auditors who understand technology, in this case audit software. In order to become quality auditor in the future, literacy in audit software is mandatory for accounting student. We examine the factors that influence student interest in learning audio software. We use the approach of the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory. Our research is quantitative research, the object of our research is students who take the method and practice of computerized audit course. The data we process is primary data from questionnaires to respondents. We use statistical software for data analysis, namely Smart PLS 3. Our results state that the variables attitude, perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy have a significant effect, while subjective norms have no significant effect on student intention in learning audit software.
LanA (Language Atlas): A probabilistic atlas for the language network based on fMRI data from >800 individuals

Two analytic traditions characterize fMRI language research. One relies on averaging activations voxel-wise across individuals. This approach has limitations: because of inter-individual variability in the locations of language areas, a location in a common brain space cannot be meaningfully linked to function. An alternative approach relies on identifying language areas in each individual using a functional ‘localizer’. Because of its greater sensitivity, functional resolution, and interpretability, functional localization is gaining popularity, but it is not always feasible, and cannot be applied retroactively to past studies. We provide a solution for bridging these currently disjoint approaches in the form of a probabilistic functional atlas created from fMRI data for an extensively validated language localizer in 806 individuals. This atlas enables estimating the probability that any given location in a common brain space belongs to the language network, and thus can help interpret group-level peaks and meta-analyses of such peaks, and lesion locations in patient investigations. More meaningful comparisons of findings across studies should increase robustness and replicability in language research.
Differential effects of group III metabotropic glutamate receptors on spontaneous inhibitory synaptic currents in spine-innervating double bouquet and parvalbumin-expressing dendrite-targeting GABAergic interneurons in human neocortex

Diverse neocortical GABAergic neurons specialise in synaptic targeting and their effects are modulated by presynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) suppressing neurotransmitter release in rodents, but their effects in human neocortex are unknown. We tested whether activation of group III mGluRs by L-AP4 changes GABAA receptor-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) in two distinct dendritic spine-innervating GABAergic interneurons recorded in vitro in human neocortex. Calbindin-positive double bouquet cells (DBC) had columnar “horsetail” axons descending through layers II-V innervating dendritic spines (48%) and shafts, but not somata of pyramidal and non-pyramidal neurons. Parvalbumin-expressing dendrite-targeting cell (PV-DTC) axons extended in all directions innervating dendritic spines (22%), shafts (65%) and somata (13%). As measured, 20% of GABAergic neuropil synapses innervate spines, hence DBCs, but not PV-DTCs, preferentially select spine targets. Group III mGluR activation paradoxically increased the frequency of sIPSCs in DBCs (to median 137% of baseline), but suppressed it in PV-DTCs (median 92%), leaving the amplitude unchanged. The facilitation of sIPSCs in DBCs may result from their unique GABAergic input being disinhibited via network effect. We conclude that dendritic spines receive specialised, diverse GABAergic inputs, and group III mGluRs differentially regulate GABAergic synaptic transmission to distinct GABAergic cell types in human cortex.
The innovation of the symbiosome has enhanced the evolutionary stability of nitrogen fixation in legumes

Nitrogen-fixing symbiosis is globally important in ecosystem functioning and agriculture, yet the evolutionary history of nodulation remains the focus of considerable debate. Recent evidence suggesting a single origin of nodulation followed by massive parallel evolutionary losses raises questions about why a few lineages in the N2-fixing clade retained nodulation and diversified as stable nodulators while most did not. Within legumes, nodulation is restricted to the two most diverse subfamilies, Papilionoideae and Caesalpinioideae, which show stable retention of nodulation across their core clades. We characterize two nodule anatomy types across 128 species in 56 of the 150 genera of the legume subfamily Caesalpinioideae: 1) fixation thread nodules (FTs), where nitrogen-fixing bacteroids are retained within the apoplast in modified infection threads and 2) symbiosomes, where rhizobia are symplastically internalized in the host cell cytoplasm within membrane-bound symbiosomes. Using a robust phylogenomic tree based on 997 genes from 146 caesalpinioid genera, we show that losses of nodulation are more prevalent in lineages with FTs. We propose that evolution of the symbiosome allows for a more intimate and enduring symbiosis through greater compartmentalisation of their rhizobial microsymbionts, resulting in greater evolutionary stability of nodulation across this species-rich pantropical clade of legumes.
Connecting the Dots: PHF13 and cohesin promote polymer-polymer phase separation of chromatin into chromosomes

How interphase chromatin compacts into mitotic chromosomes has eluded researchers for over a century. Here we show that PHF13, a tightly regulated H3K4me epigenetic reader, and cohesin, a mediator of chromatin architecture, cooperate to drive polymer-polymer-phase-separation (PPPS) and higher order compaction of chromatin into chromosomes. PHF13 interacts with cohesin, shows similar dynamics during mitosis, and their co-depletion dramatically impairs mitotic condensation. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that PHF13 stabilizes cohesin chromatin interactions and that itself oligomerizes, resulting in a polymer with increased chromatin avidity and the ability to bridge neighboring and distant nucleosomes. Consistently, molecular dynamic simulations modelling the ability of PHF13 and cohesin to drive chromatin phase separations recapitulated our in vivo observations and are in line with 2-step condensation models.
Effect of paclitaxel treatment on cellular mechanics and morphology of human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma in 2D and 3D environments

During chemotherapy, structural and mechanical changes in malignant cells have been observed in several cancers, including leukaemia and pancreatic and prostate cancer. Such cellular changes may act as physical biomarkers for chemoresistance and cancer recurrence. This study aimed to determine how exposure to paclitaxel affects the intracellular stiffness of human oesophageal cancer of South African origin in vitro. A human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell line WHCO1 was cultured on glass substrates (2D) and in collagen gels (3D) and exposed to paclitaxel for up to 48 hours. Cellular morphology and stiffness were assessed with confocal microscopy, visually aided morpho-phenotyping image recognition, and mitochondrial particle tracking microrheology at 24 and 48 hours. In the 2D environment, the intracellular stiffness was higher for the paclitaxel-treated than for untreated cells at 24 and 48 hours. In the 3D environment, the paclitaxel-treated cells were stiffer than the untreated cells at 24 hours, but no statistically significant differences in stiffness were observed at 48 hours. In 2D, paclitaxel-treated cells were significantly larger at 24 and 48 hours and more circular at 24 but not at 48 hours than the untreated controls. In 3D, there were no significant morphological differences between treated and untreated cells. The distribution of cell shapes was not statistically significant different across the different treatment conditions in 2D and 3D environments. Future studies with patient-derived primary cancer cells and prolonged drug exposure will help identify physical cellular biomarkers to detect chemoresistance onset and assess therapy effectiveness in oesophageal cancer patients. Insight Mechanical changes in cancer cells by chemotherapeutic drugs exposure offer possible physical biomarkers for chemoresistance and cancer recurrence. This study on human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma indicated that in vitro paclitaxel treatment induced stiffening and enlarging of malignant cells in two-dimensional environments at 24 and 48 hours. In physiologically more relevant three-dimensional collagen matrices the paclitaxel treatment led to cellular stiffening at 24 hours but softening thereafter, without significant changes in cellular size at any time. The outcomes need to be confirmed in future studies with prolonged drug exposure and patient-derived primary cancer cells.