Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of COSO control components on internal control effectiveness: An internal audit perspective

Boards of directors have the ultimate responsibility for governance - including internal control - in their organisations. Management is tasked with the design, implementation and maintenance of internal control systems. Internal auditors play a key role in independently evaluating these controls, acting as agents on behalf of the board of directors in order to mitigate the possibility of management not acting in the best interest of the organization, leaving gaps in the internal control system, and, in some instances, doing so in order to enable unlawful personal gain. The Committee of Sponsoring Organisations' Integrated Framework for Internal Control (hereafter referred to as the COSO framework) is used as a recognised framework, which, if implemented, could result in an effective internal control system and served as the basis for the design of the research instrument of the research. The questionnaire was distributed to internal audit practitioners. Responses were obtained from 31 participants from the Eastern Cape and Western Cape regions in South Africa. The majority of the participants provide internal audit services to the local government sphere of the South African government. This article identifies which characteristics should exist in an organization's control system that, in the opinion of internal auditors, improve the effectiveness of the internal control system. This study concludes that internal auditors are of the opinion that control characteristics as outlined in the COSO framework for 'risk assessment', 'information and communication', 'control activities' and 'monitoring' components of internal control, do contribute to an effective internal control system.
Association of HCV and HBV markers in Spanish HIV-seropositive patients in relation to risk practices.

BACKGROUND/AIMS HBV, HCV, and HIV have some transmission routes in common. Viral liver disease is a leading cause of mortality in HIV-infected patients. The study was aimed at evaluating the prevalence of HBV and HCV markers in subjects with different risk practices for HIV infection. METHODOLOGY A total of 699 subjects were studied Of these subjects, 517 were intravenous drug users (373 HIV-positive and 144 HIV-negative), 127 had heterosexual risk practice (66 HIV-positive and 61 HIV-negative), 31 had homosexual risk practice (all HIV-positive), 15 had post-transfusional HIV infection, and nine had HIV infection of unknown source. Patients with anti-HBc antibody were considered HBV-positive, and cases with anti-HCV antibodies were considered HCV-positive. RESULTS Among patients with HIV infection, most intravenous drug users (79%) had markers of both HBV and HCV, compared with 20%, 11%, and 10% of cases infected by transfusional, heterosexual, and homosexual route, respectively (p < 0.001). Absence of both HBV and HCV markers was observed in most HIV-positive heterosexuals (62%) compared with 40% of post-transfusional cases, 32% of homosexuals and 4% of intravenous drug users (p: NS, p = 0.009, and p < 0.001, respectively). Isolated HBV-positivity was the most frequent pattern in HIV-infected homosexuals (58%), compared with 27% of post-transfusional, 21% of heterosexuals and 11% of intravenous drug users (p: NS, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). HIV-negative intravenous drug users had a lower prevalence of HBV/HCV association than HIV-positive cases (p < 0.001). Isolated HCV-positivity was more frequent in HIV-negative than in HIV-positive intravenous drug users (27% vs. 6%, p < 0.001). In heterosexuals, isolated HBV-positivity was more prevalent in HIV-positive than in HIV-negative cases (21% vs. 7%, p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS HBV and HCV seroprevalence in HIV infected patients vary depending on the risk practice. This suggests a variable transmissibility depending on the route considered. Within the same risk practice, differences in HCV and HBV seroprevalence between HIV-positive and HIV-negative cases suggest that some factors associated with HIV infection may influence the rate of infection by HCV and HBV.
EVolving morphologies for human-Robot sYmbiotic interactiON

The goal of the EVRYON project is to develop a novel approach for the design of Wearable Robots (WRs) that can be used for such applications as rehabilitation, assistance, human augmentation and more. Such systems should aim at the optimal trade-off between performance, i.e. the level of assistance to be provided to the user, and some critical requirements, such as minimal weight and encumbrance, low
A 0.7-V 870-$\mu$ W Digital-Audio CMOS Sigma-Delta Modulator

This paper introduces a power-efficient, chopper-stabilized switched-capacitor sigma-delta (SigmaDelta) modulator that combines delayed input feedforward and single-comparator tracking multi-bit quantization to achieve high-precision, low-voltage analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion. An experimental prototype of the proposed architecture has been integrated in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology. The prototype operates from a 0.7-V supply voltage with a sampling rate of 5 MSamples/sec and consumes only 870 muW of total power. The converter achieves a dynamic range of 100 dB, a peak signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 100 dB and a peak signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 95 dB for a 25-kHz signal bandwidth.
Techniques for assessing tooth surfaces in school-based sealant programs.

BACKGROUND The authors reviewed the evidence supporting current guidelines for the detection of cavitated carious lesions. Currently, cavitation is the point at which sealants are not placed in school-based programs. TYPES OF STUDIES REVIEWED The authors did not perform a formal systematic review. However, they examined existing systematic reviews of caries detection and diagnosis, including those presented at the 2001 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on Management of Caries, published evidence related to the International Caries Detection and Assessment System criteria and other peer-reviewed publications. Where the authors found ambiguity or uncertainty in the evidence, they consulted with fellow members of an expert work group. RESULTS Visual examination is appropriate and adequate for caries assessment before placing sealants. The clinician should not use an explorer under force. Radiographs are not indicated solely for the placement of sealants, and the use of magnification and caries detection devices is not necessary to determine cavitation. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS This report focuses on tooth assessment, in particular the detection of carious lesion cavitation in school-based sealant programs. These recommendations must be balanced with the dentist's expertise, available treatment options, the patient's preferences and access to care.
Reaching the poor with health, nutrition, and population services : what works, what doesn't, and why

Health services can make an important contribution to improved health conditions among disadvantaged groups. Yet as the contents of this volume make clear, the health services supported by governments, and by agencies like ours too often fail to reach these people who need them most. This is not acceptable. Nor need it be accepted. The studies presented here point to numerous strategies that can help health programs reach the poor much more effectively than at present. In doing so, they strongly reinforce the messages of the 2004 World Development Report and other recent publications about the importance and possibility of making services work better for poor people. Different views will be formed about which of the strategies are most promising for a particular setting-whether, for example, one would be best advised to follow Brazil's approach of seeking universal coverage for basic health services, Cambodia's strategy of contracting with non-governmental organizations, Nepal's use of participatory program development, or some other approach. The report provides a discussion on issues like these, in order to build upon the important basic findings presented herewith, i.e., that better performance is possible. In brief, better performance in reaching the poor is both needed and feasible. These are the two messages from this report that will be discussed further.
Interactive User-Feedback for Sound Source Separation

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). IUI’13, March 19–22, 2012, Santa Monica, California, USA. This work was performed while interning at Adobe Research. Abstract Machine learning techniques used for single-channel sound source separation currently offer no mechanism for user-feedback to improve upon poor results and typically require isolated training data to perform separation. To overcome these issues, we present work that applies interactive machine learning principles to incorporate continual user-feedback into the source separation process. In particular, we allow end-users to annotate errors found in source separation estimates by painting on time-frequency displays of sound. We then employ a posterior regularization technique to make use of the annotations to obtain refined source separation estimates and repeat the process until satisfied. An initial prototype shows that the proposed method can significantly improve separation quality compared to previous work and facilitate separation without isolated training data.
Trend-Based Conditional Asset Pricing: Explaining the Cross-Section of Technical Analysis Profitability

This paper develops a trend-based conditional asset pricing framework, which can be applied to explain the cross-section of asset returns and evaluate the performance of asset managers. I use the moving average (MA) indicators of the aggregate market portfolio to identify the up and down price trends of the stock market. The market and size premiums under the up price trends are substantially higher than those under the down trends, so that portfolios with high (low) market or size betas under up (down) trends will generate higher unconditional expected returns. I then model the trend-based conditional betas as linear functions of lagged market MA indicators. The trend-based conditional asset pricing framework has significant explanatory power for the cross-sectional technical analysis profitability anomaly and momentum anomaly.
Dynamic maritime systems inquiry: The DIVER approach

The approach of thinking about systems as a whole with the explicit consideration of complex interactions between its constituents is the key conceptual framework underlying systems thinking. Such an approach is particularly useful for unraveling the dynamic interactions that confounds present‐day maritime systems. In this work, we propose the DIVER systems inquiry framework as a logical and platform to guide the systems thinking process in elucidating the maritime dynamics. We describe the implementation of system dynamics modeling and simulation as a particularly relevant tool within this framework. Its role as a structural modeling and analysis tool for various supply‐demand problems is described. Furthermore, as a means to facilitate the systems thinking process in this framework, we propose a set of archetypical system structures that can explain some commonly observed maritime dynamics. Finally, a case study on the evolution of global container ship capacity based on DIVER is presented. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 14:
Role of dietary intervention on metabolic abnormalities and nutritional status after renal transplantation.

BACKGROUND In these last years, several traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, like obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and post-transplant diabetes mellitus have been also identified as important non-immunological risk factors leading to the development of chronic allograft nephropathy, the first cause of graft loss in transplanted patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of a 12-month dietary regimen on the nutritional status and metabolic outcome of renal transplant recipients in the first post-transplant year. METHODS Forty-six cadaver-donor renal transplant recipients (mean age 40.8 +/- 10.1-years), enrolled during the first post-transplant year (4.8 +/- 3.3 months) and followed prospectively for a 12 month period. Biochemical and nutritional markers, anthropometric measurements, body composition (by conventional bioelectrical impedance analysis) and dietary records (using a detailed food-frequency questionnaire) at baseline and after 12 months. RESULTS Compliance to the diet was related to sex (male better than female) and was associated with weight loss primarily due to a decrease in fat mass, with decrease in total cholesterol and glucose plasma levels and with a concomitant rise in serum albumin. CONCLUSION After renal transplantation, health benefits of proper metabolic balance that include reduced body fat, weight loss, lower cholesterol and triglycerides levels and an improvement, fasting glucose levels can be obtained when dietary intervention occurred.
Research on classification of architectural style image based on convolution neural network

Deep learning is a new field in machine learning research. Convolution neural network is the most important factor in image recognition. This paper mainly focuses on the network design and parameter optimization of convolution neural network. This paper is first based on the traditional handwritten digital classification framework LeNet-5 to improve, and implements the test on the ten and twenty-five architectural style data set, and then based on ImageNet-k model design ideas to design a deep convolution neural network structure. The experimental results show that the deeper the network level, the more comprehensive the feature of the image, the better the training effect. In this paper, we study the network design and parameters optimization of convolution neural network, and summarize some practical rules of depth classification on image classification, which is very instructive to solve practical problems.
The p75 neurotrophin receptor evades the endolysosomal route in neuronal cells, favouring multivesicular bodies specialised for exosomal release

ABSTRACT The p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75, also known as NGFR) is a multifaceted signalling receptor that regulates neuronal physiology, including neurite outgrowth, and survival and death decisions. A key cellular aspect regulating neurotrophin signalling is the intracellular trafficking of their receptors; however, the post-endocytic trafficking of p75 is poorly defined. We used sympathetic neurons and rat PC12 cells to study the mechanism of internalisation and post-endocytic trafficking of p75. We found that p75 internalisation depended on the clathrin adaptor protein AP2 and on dynamin. More surprisingly, p75 evaded the lysosomal route at the level of the early endosome, instead accumulating in two different types of endosomes, Rab11-positive endosomes and multivesicular bodies (MVBs) positive for CD63, a marker of the exosomal pathway. Consistently, depolarisation by KCl induced the liberation of previously endocytosed full-length p75 into the extracellular medium in exosomes. Thus, p75 defines a subpopulation of MVBs that does not mature to lysosomes and is available for exosomal release by neuronal cells.
Susceptibility of Lupus-Prone Nzm Mouse Strains to Lead Exacerbation of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Symptoms

It has been repeatedly shown that the heavy metal mercury can induce or exacerbate lupuslike autoimmunity in susceptible strains of rats and mice. A hallmark of such autoimmune induction is the accompaniment of an immune shift, in which there is usually an initial skewing toward a Th2-like immune environment. Another heavy metal, lead (Pb), has also been found to induce a Th2 shift in mice. However, exposure of normal mouse strains to Pb does not appear to induce autoimmunity. In order to investigate whether mice genetically predisposed to murine systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are susceptible to a Pb-induced exacerbation of lupus, males and females of four New Zealand mixed (NZM) mouse strains, along with BALB/c and C57Bl/6 controls, were administered three 100-µl intraperitoneal injections of either 1.31 mM lead or sodium acetate per week for 3 wk. The four NZM strains chosen, NZM391, NZM2328, NZM88, and NZM2758, have differential genetic penetrance for SLE with variances in certain manifestations of the disease, but all of these strains naturally develop glomerulonephritis and produce high titers of anti-nuclear autoantibodies. The mice were prebled for baseline values and were bled directly after the injection period (d 1) and monthly thereafter for 5 mo. Sera were assessed for anti-double-stranded DNA titers, urea nitrogen levels, and creatine kinase activity, as well as for total immunoglobulin (Ig) G2a and IgG1 levels. Mortality and morbidity of the mice were also recorded. All NZM strains showed an acute, non-gender-based, susceptibility to Pb at d 1, but the control strains were unaffected. Over time, it became apparent that the strains diverged: The NZM391 strain showed gender-independent susceptibility to Pb enhancement of lupus manifestations and mortality; the NZM2328 strain exhibited gender-independent Pb susceptibility to manifestations, although only females had increased mortality; the NZM2758 strain exhibited non-gender-based elevations in urea nitrogen and creatine kinase activity levels; and the NZM88 strain displayed male susceptibility to anti-DNA and life span. Surprisingly, Pb increased the longevity of NZM88 and NZM2758 females. These results indicate that Pb indeed can exacerbate SLE in lupus-prone mice; however, even among lupus-prone strains, genetic differences determine the degree of exacerbation. Using the known phenotype and genetic differences, one can identify and characterize possible traits and loci associated with Pb susceptibility.
Will SDN Be Part of 5G?

For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered settled with software defined networking/network function virtualization (SDN/NFV) providing the inevitable innovation enablers toward the realization of a virtualized, programmable, and flexible 5G network. As SDN along with other technology enablers (including NFV) are still in the process of evolution, the first commercial deployment of 5G may take few years. However, some companies are claiming the availability of 5G solutions, but considering the monumental task of softwarization of mobile cellular networks there are genuine concerns that we may only see some point solutions involving SDN technology instead of a fully virtualized SDN-enabled 5G mobile network. In order to determine the technology readiness of SDN solutions in the context of 5G networks, this survey paper attempts to identify all important obstacles in the way, and looks at the state of the art of the relevant research. This survey is different from the previous surveys on SDN-based mobile networks as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul, backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment, business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general purpose processors, and additional security vulnerabilities that softwarization brings along to the mobile network. We have also provided a summary of the architectural developments in SDN-based mobile network landscape, including deployment options for SDN within NFV framework, as not all work can be covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the state of the art of SDN-based mobile networks and clearly points out the gaps in the technology.
The interplay between models and observations

We propose a formal framework to examine the relationship between models and observations . To make our analysis precise, models are reduced to ﬁrst-order theories that represent both terminological knowledge – e.g., the laws that are supposed to regulate the domain under analysis and that allow for explanations, predictions, and simulations – and assertional knowledge – e.g., information about speciﬁc entities in the domain of interest. Observations are introduced into the domain of quantiﬁcation of a distinct ﬁrst-order theory that describes their nature and their organization and takes track of the way they are experimentally acquired or intentionally elaborated. A model mainly represents the theoretical knowledge or hypotheses on a domain, while the theory of observations mainly represents the empirical knowledge and the given experimental practices. We propose a precise identity criterion for observations and we explore different links between models and observations by assuming a degree of independence between them. By exploiting some techniques developed in the ﬁeld of social choice theory and judgment aggregation, we sketch some strategies to solve inconsistencies between a given set of observations and the assumed theoretical hypotheses. The solutions of these inconsistencies can impact both the observations – e.g., the theoretical knowledge and the analysis of the way observations are collected or produced may highlight some unreliable sources – and the models – e.g., empirical evidences may invalidate some theoretical laws.
Response of the neuromuscular system by simultaneous stimulation to the antagonistic muscle pair

This paper describes the behavior of the antagonistic muscle pair during simultaneous electrical stimulation. Forces were measured under the isometric condition using the ramp-shaped stimulation with the antagonistic stimulation and differential forces with respect to time were evaluated. Based on that evaluation, it was considered that the nonlinear response of the neuromuscular system was improved by simultaneous stimulation. This means that the simultaneous stimulation method is useful for controlling paralyzed muscles by Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES).