Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE & PERFORMANCE SECTION 3 ACCOUNTING DISCLOSURE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY BY LISTED COMPANIES IN SAUDI STOCK MARKET

Purpose: this study aims to explore accounting disclosure through analysis financial and executives’ mangers, and external auditors’ Perceptions concerning disclosures of social responsibility practices inside listed companies in Saudi Stock Market. Design/Methodology/approach: The current study adopted quantitative approach to explore accounting disclosure of social responsibility for Saudi’ registered companies in the light of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) to fill the current gap in social responsibility and sustainable development topic inside Saudi’ environment. Findings: According to the statistical results the researcher reached to the following results: First, Saudi’ companies used standalone reports separate from their annual reports for their accounting disclosure of social responsibility& sustainable development disclosure. Second, Saudi’ companies design their social responsibility & sustainable development reports to suit with the requirements of GRI. Third, there are significant differences between commitment of Saudi’ companies concerning their disclosure of social responsibility & sustainable development practices according to their industry sectors, occupational position, and their work experience. In contrast, there are no significant differences between respondents’ perceptions according to their academic qualifications. Originality/Value: The current study provides a contribution to the prior studies in social responsibility and sustainable development issue through examine the disclosure level of social responsibility in companies registered in Saudi Stock Market. As well as, to examine the respondents’ Perceptions regarding the variance level between companies’ commitment concerning their disclosures of social responsibility & sustainable development practices according to their differences in industry sectors.
Abundance, Age Structure, and Voltinism of Light Brown Apple Moth Populations in California

ABSTRACT The light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), is native to Australia and first was detected in California in 2006. In this study, we regularly sampled populations on Leptospermum laevigatum (Gaertn.) F.Muell. at two sites in San Francisco and on Arctostaphylos densiflora M.S. Baker at two sites in Santa Cruz over a 2-yr period to monitor the abundance, age structure, and voltinism of this potential pest in relation to degree-days. Our results showed that larval abundance declined at two sites, cycled with peaks in midsummer at one site, and remained steady at one site. Generations overlapped at all four sites with the full range of larval instars being present for most of the year, although populations during the winter were predominantly mid to late instars. Accumulated degree-days predict an average of 3.27 and 4.58 generations per year in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, respectively, which matched our observed peaks of late-instar larvae in the field remarkably well. This new information on light brown apple moth phenology in coastal California will be invaluable for the development of effective monitoring and management strategies for this new invader in the studied region.
A reward-and-punishment aware incentive mechanism in P2P networks

The P2P incentive mechanism is aimed at encouraging peers to serve each other, so that the performance of system can be improved. Evolutionary game-based incentive mechanism uses evolutionary game theory to model peers and transactions in the P2P network. It can provide a better description of the changes in peers' behaviors. However, providing service according to transaction history is unfair to those who always provide service, and it is far too tolerant of those who seldom provide service. In this paper, we assessed reward and punishment mechanisms, and we prove that this approach facilitated cooperation and achieved the best average payoff of the system in a shorter period of time.
PHYSICAL MODELING OF THE HARPSICHORD PLECTRUM-STRING INTERACTION

In this paper, we present a thorough treatment of a harpsichord plectrum-string interaction which allows for large end deflections and both transverse motions of the string. We start from the general equations of motion of a bent beam, and an accurate shape of the plectrum is calculated, agreeing with existing known cantilever beam models when end deflections are assumed small. All the governing forces on the string are considered, and the complete motion of the string up to its release is simulated, allowing for future implementation on physical model sound synthesis of strings. Simulation results agree with what is experienced playing a real harpsichord string.
Can first responders be sent to selected 9-1-1 emergency medical services calls without an ambulance?

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the feasibility and safety of initially dispatching only first responders (FRs) to selected low-risk 9-1-1 requests for emergency medical services. First responders are rapidly-responding fire crews on apparatus without transport capabilities, with firefighters trained to at least a FR level and in most cases to the basic emergency medical technician (EMT) level. Low-risk 9-1-1 requests include automatic medical alerts (ALERTs), motor vehicle incidents (MVIs) for which the caller was unable to answer any medical dispatch questions designed to prioritize the call, and 9-1-1 call disconnects (D/Cs). METHODS A before-and-after study of patient dispositions was conducted using historical controls for comparison. During the historical control phase of six months, one year prior to the study phase, basic life support ambulances (staffed with two basic EMTs) were dispatched to selected low-risk 9-1-1 incidents. During the six-month study phase, a fire FR crew equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) was sent initially without an ambulance to these incidents. RESULTS For ALERTs (n = 290 in historical group vs. 330 in study group), there was no statistical difference in the transport rate (7% vs 10%), but there was a statistically significant increase in the follow-up use of advanced life support (ALS) (1% vs 4%, p = 0.009). No patient in the ALERTs historical group required airway management, while one patient in the study group received endotracheal intubation. No patient required defibrillation in either group. Analysis of the MVIs showed a significant decrease (p < 0.0001) in the patient transport rate from 39% of controls to 33% of study patients, but no change in the follow-up use of ALS interventions (2% for each group). For both the ALERTs and MVIs, the FR's mean response time was faster than ambulances (p < 0.0001). Among the 9-1-1 D/Cs with FRs only (n = 1,028), 15% were transported and 43 (4%) received subsequent ALS care. Four of these patients (0.4%) received intubation and two (0.2%) required defibrillation. However, no patient was judged to have had adverse outcomes as a result of the dispatch protocol change. CONCLUSIONS Fire apparatus crews trained in the use of AEDs can safely be used to initially respond alone (without ambulances) to selected, low-risk 9-1-1 calls. This tactic improves response intervals while reducing ambulance responses to these incidents.
Perspectives on Cultural Tourism : A Case Study of Bahurutshe Cultural Village for Tourism in Botswana

In tourism cultural villages are relatively new attractions which have opened opportunities for the advancement of cultural and heritage tourism in developing countries. However, there is a lack of research pertaining to residents’ perceptions of cultural villages for tourism. This paper aims to examine residents’ perspectives of and support for the development of Bahurutshe cultural village for tourism in Mmankgodi, Botswana. Semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were employed to collect the research materials. The findings indicate that although a significant number of residents show support, differences were echoed in the rating of negative statements such as reduced residential and grazing lands; owners not giving back to the community and small contribution to the economic development of Mmankgodi village. Recommendations are that local people should be encouraged to become active subjects in development and initiate community-based cultural village for tourism from which they could derive tangible benefits.
Larval Development of Culex quinquefasciatus in Water with Low to Moderate Pollution Levels

ABSTRACT: Population growth and urbanization have increased the potential habitats, and consequently the abundance of Culex quinquefasciatus, the southern house mosquito, a vector of West Nile Virus in urban areas. Water quality is critical in larval habitat distribution and in providing microbial food resources for larvae. A mesocosm experiment was designed to demonstrate which specific components of water chemistry are conducive to larval Culex mosquitoes. Dose—response relationships between larval development and NO3, NH4, and PO4 concentrations in stream water were developed through this experiment to describe the isolated effects of each nutrient on pre-adult development. The emergence pattern of Culex mosquitoes was found to be strongly related to certain nutrients, and results showed that breeding sites with higher PO4 or NO3 concentrations had higher larval survival rates. High NO3 concentrations favor the development of male mosquitoes and suppress the development of female mosquitoes, but those adult females that do emerge develop faster in containers with high NO3 levels compared to the reference group. The addition of PO4 in the absence of nitrogen sources to the larval habitat slowed larval development, however, it took fewer days for larvae to reach the pupal stage in containers with combinations of NO3 and PO4 or NH4 and PO4 nutrients. Results from this study may bolster efforts to control WNV in urban landscapes by exploring water quality conditions of Culex larval habitats that produce adult mosquitoes.
HybridDesk : A Low Cost Semi-Immersive System for 2 D-3 D Interactions

The HybridDesk is an immersive compact solution for visualization and interaction using low cost products. Screens were organized in an small set where a user can interact in a virtual environment sat in front of a desk, and even a standard mouse, keyboard and monitor can be used . Different from a regular CAVE the head is tracked outside the display cube and with the support of a wiimote the interaction can be controlled with a good precision. Several tests were conducted until the best and cheapest combination of technologies was achieved. Home projectors and mirrors were used using a semiautomatic calibration and finally a simple video splitter was used to produce the video source for the four projectors installed.
A Generalized Turán Problem and its Applications

The investigation of conditions guaranteeing the appearance of cycles of certain lengths is one of the most well-studied topics in graph theory. In this paper we consider a problem of this type which asks, for fixed integers l and k, how many copies of the k-cycle guarantee the appearance of an l-cycle? Extending previous results of Bollobás–Győri–Li and Alon–Shikhelman, we fully resolve this problem by giving tight (or nearly tight) bounds for all values of l and k. We also present a somewhat surprising application of the above mentioned estimates to the study of the graph removal lemma. Prior to this work, all bounds for removal lemmas were either polynomial or there was a tower-type gap between the best known upper and lower bounds. We fill this gap by showing that for every super-polynomial function f(ε), there is a family of graphs F , such that the bounds for the F removal lemma are precisely given by f(ε). We thus obtain the first examples of removal lemmas with tight super-polynomial bounds. A special case of this result resolves a problem of Alon and the second author, while another special case partially resolves a problem of Goldreich.
Seroprevalence and vaccination coverage of vaccine-preventable diseases in perinatally HIV-1-infected patients

Background Even in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), HIV-infected subjects are at higher risk of complications from vaccine-preventable diseases than those uninfected. The current international guidelines strongly recommend that these patients should receive all the routine childhood vaccinations. Although these children represent an appropriate target for immunization, the available data indicate suboptimal coverage rates. Methods To evaluate seroprotection/seropositivity rates and vaccination coverage against the common vaccine-preventable diseases, all patients with vertically transmitted HIV-1 infection who attended San Martino Hospital were enrolled. Blood samples were collected for testing antibodies against diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis A and B viruses by Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay and polioviruses by microneutralization test. In order to assess immunization coverage, retrospectively was recorded the vaccination history collecting data from Regional Immunization Database. Results A total of 39 perinatally HIV-1 infected patients were included in the study. At the time of serum was obtained, the mean age was 18,1 years (range: 6–28). The median CD4+ T-lymphocyte count was 702 cells/mm3 (2–1476 cells/mm3). Twenty-nine (74.4%) patients were found with HIV RNA load < 50 copies/mL. The proportion of subjects with protective anti-tetanus and anti-HBs were 43.6% and 30.8%, respectively. Seroprotection rates about 20% against rubella and measles were found, less than 20% against all the other antigens investigated. In particular, all patients resulted susceptible to mumps. High immunization rates were observed for polio and HBV (100% and 92.3%, respectively) and suboptimal for diphtheria-tetanus (84.6%). For the other recommended vaccines the rates were generally low. None of the patients received varicella vaccine doses. Conclusions As in the HAART era the vertically acquired HIV infection has become a chronic treatable disease, the vaccine-induced long-term protection plays an increasingly significant role; despite good initial response to primary vaccination, subsequent decline and loss of detectable antibodies may be prevented by additional strategies for booster doses of vaccines in adolescents and young adults.
Gliotoxin Inhibits Neointimal Hyperplasia after Vascular Injury in Rats

Neointima formation participates in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and restenosis. Proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) are initial responses to vascular injury. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of gliotoxin, an inhibitor of nuclear factor (NF)-κB, on migration and proliferation of cultured rat VSMC and neointimal formation in injured rat vessels. In cultured VSMC, gliotoxin inhibited the nuclear translocation of the p65 subunit of NF-κB in response to inflammatory stimuli. In addition, gliotoxin inhibited VSMC migration and proliferation in response to platelet-derived growth factor-BB. This was associated with a rapid rearrangement of the F-actin and vimentin cytoskeleton. Furthermore, gliotoxin inhibited endothelial cell nuclear translocation of p65, cell surface expression of adhesion molecules such as VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-selectin, and monocytic cell adhesion to a cytokine-activated endothelial monolayer. In the rat carotid artery balloon catheter injury model, the systemic administration of gliotoxin for 10 days decreased neointimal hyperplasia and luminal stenosis by up to 90% and decreased the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the vessel wall by up to 70%, depending on the dose. These observations suggest that gliotoxin favorably regulates the response to vascular injury through actions on VSMC. However, further studies evaluating the therapeutic benefit of gliotoxin in restenosis after balloon angioplasty are required.
DIRECTIVITY PATTERNS CONTROLLING THE AUDITORY SOURCE DISTANCE

What influence does the directivity of a sound source have on the perceived distance impression in a room? We propose different directivity pattern designs able to modify the auditory source distance. The idea is accompanied with a comprehensive experimental study investigating the audio effect and its behavior by auralization of directional sound source and room using a 24-channel loudspeaker ring inside an anechoic chamber. In addition to the proposed directivity designs, the study covers influence of auralized room, source-to-receiver distance, signal, and single-channel reverberation. Moreover, simple room acoustical measures perform well in predicting the new effect.
Neural Reasoning for Chemical-Chemical Interaction

We present an effective solution for predicting chemical-chemical interaction (CCI) between compounds. We observed that reasoning about CCI is akin to question-answering (QA) about a set of graph-structured objects. That is, the problem admits the form (query, {set of graphs}, ? ), where the query can include environmental factors, the graphs are basic molecular structures, and the answer is the degree of interaction between molecules. To solve the CCI problem, we transform it into an instance of learning to reason through a new end-toend neural architecture dubbed Relational Dynamic Memory Networks (RDMN). This is a generic differentiable neural computer capable of learning to answering queries about a set of graph-structured objects without explicit programming. Experiments are run on a large public CCI database known as STITCH, demonstrating the state-of-the-art performance of the proposed solution.
Early and late effects of exercise and athletic training on neural mechanisms controlling heart rate.

OBJECTIVE This study addresses the long term and short term effects of heavy dynamic exercise on neural control of heart rate. METHODS A group of healthy controls was compared with (1) a group of trained athletes during a period of yearly rest (detrained) and (2) a group of trained athletes at the peak of their training routine. Additionally, a group of 10 controls was studied 1, 24, and 48 h after a single bout of maximal dynamic exercise. Spectral analysis of RR interval variability provided markers of sympathetic (low frequency, LF, 0.10 Hz) and vagal (high frequency, HF, 0.25 Hz) modulation of the sinoatrial node. RESULTS (1) In detrained athletes resting bradycardia was accompanied by a predominant HF rhythmic component suggestive of a prevailing vagal tone. (2) Trained athletes showed a resting bradycardia together with high LF values, thus suggesting a more complex neural interaction modulating heart rate. An additional longitudinal part of the study, performed on a group of detrained athletes who were examined for the second time after resuming training, confirmed the finding of a prevailing LF component in resting conditions. (3) In the 10 control subjects maximal dynamic exercise induced an increase in LF which outlasted the cessation of exercise up to 24 h, suggesting a persistent sympathetic activation. (4) Passive tilt, a manoeuvre which enhances sympathetic drive, produced a greater enhancement of the LF component in trained athletes than in control subjects. CONCLUSIONS The cardiac sympathetic excitation outlasting heavy dynamic exercise may explain the coexistence of training bradycardia with signs of enhanced sympathetic activity in trained champion athletes.
The HIV-1 Tat Protein Has a Versatile Role in Activating Viral Transcription

ABSTRACT It is generally acknowledged that the Tat protein has a pivotal role in HIV-1 replication because it stimulates transcription from the viral long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter by binding to the TAR hairpin in the nascent RNA transcript. However, a multitude of additional Tat functions have been suggested. The importance of these functions is difficult to assess in replication studies with Tat-mutated HIV-1 variants because of the dominant negative effect on viral gene expression. We therefore used an HIV-1 construct that does not depend on the Tat-TAR interaction for transcription to reevaluate whether or not Tat has a second essential function in HIV-1 replication. This HIV-rtTA variant uses the incorporated Tet-On gene expression system for activation of transcription and replicates efficiently upon complete TAR deletion. Here we demonstrated that Tat inactivation does nevertheless severely inhibit replication. Upon long-term culturing, the Tat-minus HIV-rtTA variant acquired mutations in the U3 region that improved promoter activity and reestablished replication. We showed that in the absence of a functional TAR, Tat remains important for viral transcription via Sp1 sequence elements in the U3 promoter region. Substitution of these U3 sequences with nonrelated promoter elements created a virus that replicates efficiently without Tat in SupT1 T cells. These results indicate that Tat has a versatile role in transcription via TAR and U3 elements. The results also imply that Tat has no other essential function in viral replication in cultured T cells.
Re‐Evaluation of Muscle Wisdom in the Human Adductor Pollicis using Physiological Rates of Stimulation

Motor unit discharge rates decline by about 50 % over 60 s of a sustained maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). It has been suggested that this decline in discharge rate serves to maintain force by protecting against conduction failure and by optimizing the input to motor units as their contractile properties change. This hypothesis, known as muscle wisdom, is based in part on studies in which muscle force was shown to decline more rapidly when stimulation was maintained at a high rate than when stimulus rate was reduced over time. The stimulus rates used in those studies, however, were higher than those normally encountered during MVCs. The purpose of this study was to compare force loss under constant and declining stimulus rate conditions using rates similar to those that occur during voluntary effort. Isometric force and surface EMG signals were recorded from human adductor pollicis muscles in response to supramaximal stimuli delivered to the ulnar nerve at the elbow. Three fatigue protocols, each 60 s in duration, were carried out on separate days on each of 10 subjects: (1) continuous stimulation at 30 Hz, (2) stimulation at progressively decreasing rates from 30 to 15 Hz and (3) sustained MVC. The relative force–time integral (endurance index) was significantly smaller for the sustained MVC (0.75 ± 0.08) and decreasing stimulus rate conditions (0.76 ± 0.16) compared to the condition in which stimulus rate was maintained at 30 Hz (0.90 ± 0.13). These findings suggest that decreases in discharge rate may contribute to force decline during a sustained MVC.