Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Interperiod Income Tax Allocation Enhance Prediction of Cash Flows

This paper investigates whether interperiod income tax allocation, a controversial accounting accrual, facilitates prediction of cash flows. Preparers of financial statements contend that interperiod tax allocation is too complex and costly. Similarly, users of financial statements, particularly financial analysts, often ignore deferred tax information in their assessments of solvency and corporate performance (White et al. 1994). The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), however, maintains that non-allocation of a corporation's income tax expense hinders the prediction of its future cash flows. Our research contributes to this debate by performing an empirical verification of the usefulness of interperiod tax allocation in predicting cash flows. The hypothesized linkage between deferred taxes and future cash flows rests on a linkage between deferred taxes and future income tax payments. We first provide evidence that deferred tax information aids in predicting future tax payments. We then use Lorek and Willinger's (1996) multivariate cash flow prediction model as a benchmark model and provide evidence that the inclusion of deferred tax information enhances prediction of future operating cash flows. This is especially true when deferred tax amounts are large. Overall, our results are consistent with the FASB's view that interperiod tax allocation enhances the prediction of cash flows.
An improved method for the measurement of urinary and plasma F2-isoprostanes using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

We have developed an improved method for the measurement of F2-isoprostanes using stable isotope dilution capillary gas chromatography/electron capture negative ionization mass spectrometry (GC-ECNI-MS). The F2-isoprostane family consists of a series of chemically stable prostaglandin F2 (PGF2)-like compounds generated during peroxidation of arachidonic acid in phospholipids. There is evidence that measurement of F2-isoprostanes represents a reliable and useful index of lipid peroxidation and oxidant stress in vivo. Furthermore, 8-epi-PGF2alpha, which is one of the more abundant F2-isoprostanes, is biologically active, being a potent mitogen and vasoconstrictor of rat and rabbit lung and kidney, as well as a partial agonist of platelet aggregation. Measurement of F2-isoprostanes in biological samples is complex and has involved methods which utilize multiple chromatographic steps, including separation by thin-layer chromatography, leading to poor sample recovery. We now present an improved method for the measurement of plasma and urinary F2-isoprostanes using a combination of silica and reverse-phase extraction cartridges, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and GC-ECNI-MS. Different approaches to the derivatization of the F2-isoprostanes prior to GC-ECNI-MS are also addressed. The overall recovery of F2-isoprostanes is improved (approx 70% for urine) and the within and between assay reproducibility is 6.7% (n = 23) and 3.7% (n = 3), respectively. The mean urinary excretion of F2-isoprostanes in eight healthy males was 365 +/- 5 pmol/mmol creatinine and in three smokers 981 +/- 138 pmol/mmol creatinine. The mean total (free + esterified) plasma F2-isoprostane concentration was 952 +/- 38 pmol/liter, with a within and between assay reproducibility of 8% (n = 13) and 5.6% (n = 3), respectively. This improved method for the measurement of F2-isoprostanes represents a significant advance in terms of the rapidity and yield in the purification of biological samples. The inclusion of HPLC separation enables improved analysis of F2-isoprostanes by GC-MS. This methodology will assist in defining the role of F2-isoprostanes as in vivo markers of oxidant stress in clinical and experimental settings.
Floating in the Mainstream: New Zealand Deaf Students' Learning and Social Participation Experiences in Tertiary Education

Deaf students are entering tertiary education in much higher numbers than ever before. With the advent of increased inclusion for deaf students in local schools in New Zealand, the expectation of these students is that they will be able to access tertiary education in the same way as their hearing peers. The aim of this project was to identify current learning and social participation experiences of deaf students within New Zealand tertiary institutions, to obtain an understanding of what the perceived barriers to successful outcomes were, and what the possible solutions to those barriers might be. The research used a sequential mixed methods procedure, in that the initial nested quantitative and qualitative written survey was followed by an in-depth qualitative interview with a selected sample of participants. In all, 64 students completed the written survey and I selected eight of those students to interview. Findings indicated that, access to accommodations, attitudinal barriers, level of social integration, and ease of communication were influential to their learning and participation experiences. Recommendations that aim to address the identified barriers and enhance the tertiary education experiences and outcomes for this population, included the need for students to have strong self-advocacy skills and familiarity with the range of resources available, including new technology. An increased awareness within tertiary institutions of deaf students’ academic and social needs must be at the forefront of any move towards inclusive education, where both deaf and hearing students are equal and valued participants.
A tangible user interface for interactive data visualisation

Information visualisation (infovis) tools are integral for the analysis of large abstract data, where interactive processes are adopted to explore data, investigate hypotheses and detect patterns. New technologies exist beyond post-windows, icons, menus and pointing (WIMP), such as tangible user interfaces (TUIs). TUIs expand on the affordance of physical objects and surfaces to better exploit motor and perceptual abilities and allow for the direct manipulation of data. TUIs have rarely been studied in the field of infovis. The overall aim of this thesis is to design, develop and evaluate a TUI for infovis, using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) as a case study. The research began with eliciting eQTL analysis requirements that identified high- level tasks and themes for quantitative genetic and eQTL that were explored in a graphical prototype. The main contributions of this thesis are as follows. First, a rich set of interface design options for touch and an interactive surface with exclusively tangible objects were explored for the infovis case study. This work includes characterising touch and tangible interactions to understand how best to use them at various levels of metaphoric representation and embodiment. These design were then compared to identify a set of options for a TUI that exploits the advantages of touch and tangible interaction. Existing research shows computer vision commonly utilised as the TUI technology of choice. This thesis contributes a rigorous technical evaluation of another promising technology, micro-controllers and sensors, as well as computer vision. However the findings showed that some sensors used with micro-controllers are lacking in capability, so computer vision was adopted for the development of the TUI. The majority of TUIs for infovis are presented as technical developments or design case studies, but lack formal evaluation. The last contribution of this thesis is a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the TUI and touch UI for the infovis case study. Participants adopted more effective strategies to explore patterns and performed fewer unnecessary analyses with the TUI, which led to significantly faster performance. Contrary to common belief bimanual interactions were infrequently used for both interfaces, while epistemic actions were strongly promoted for the TUI and contributed to participants’ efficient exploration strategies.
Sociability and Sense of Community among Users of Online Services

The dissertation explores a current and popular phenomenon referred to as ‘online communities’ from both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. Online communities are discussed in the context of a wider development in social life from small geographybased units to large and dispersed social networks, which can be mediated by technology. In this study, online communities are understood as fluid objects that are created and maintained through users’ social interactions and actual social practices. Therefore, they are not stable and fixed groups but, instead, a social process that transforms over time. The empirical portion of this work illustrates the multifaceted nature of the research subject and consists of five case studies exploring the usage of software intended for various purposes: an online photo-sharing service, an online exercise diary, online auctions, and social-media applications for smartphones. In addition, there is a research article consisting of a literature review that synthesise research into online community participation conducted over the past 12 years. The findings from the empirical sub-studies show that community-evocative feelings and behaviors can emerge within various online settings, including dispersed networks and contentoriented sites focusing on artefacts that users produce, such as photographs. However, users can have very different orientations with respect to their interest in social networking and community-building within the context of the same site. The literature review shows that the majority of previous research on user participation has focused on the quantity of their activity. Instead of dividing users into active and passive on the basis of the amount of content they produce, research should acknowledge that there is greater variety in the ways of participating and belonging to an online community. The dissertation vividly illustrates that online communities are a constantly changing and developing phenomenon. In recent years, the most notable technological changes have been the surge in popularity of large-scale social network sites and increased usage of the Internet via mobile devices. In order for the concept of community to be applied in description of online sociability within current technological settings, the meaning of this term and the criteria for community needs to be rethought.
Association analysis of functional polymorphism in estrogen receptor alpha gene with schizophrenia and mood disorders in the Japanese population.

Department of Psychiatry, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo, Japan and Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff, UK Correspondence to Dr Taro Kishi, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, 1-98 Dengakugakubo, Kutsukake-cho, Toyoake, Aichi 470-1192, Japan Tel: + 81 562 93 9250; fax: + 81 562 93 1831; e-mail: tarok@fujita-hu.ac. jp
Tyrosine Sulfation of P-selectin Glycoprotein Ligand-1 Is Required for High Affinity Binding to P-selectin (*)

P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) is a mucin-like glycoprotein on leukocytes that is a high affinity ligand for P-selectin. Previous studies have shown that sialylation and fucosylation of PSGL-1 are required for its binding to P-selectin, but other post-translational modifications of PSGL-1 may also be important. We demonstrate that PSGL-1 synthesized in human HL-60 cells can be metabolically labeled with [S]sulfate that is incorporated primarily into tyrosine sulfate. Treatment of PSGL-1 with a bacterial arylsulfatase releases sulfate from tyrosine, resulting in a concordant decrease in binding to P-selectin. These studies demonstrate that tyrosine sulfate on PSGL-1 functions in conjunction with sialylated and fucosylated glycans to mediate high affinity binding to P-selectin.
Nematicidal metabolites from roots of Stellera chamaejasme against Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and Bursaphelenchus mucronatus.

BACKGROUND Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the causal agent of pine wilt disease, severely damages pine forests, and Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, a species related to B. xylophilus, is weakly pathogenic. Because the use of synthetic pesticides to control pine wilt disease has raised concerns for human and environmental health, a search for useful botanically based compounds is needed. RESULTS The ethyl acetate layer from an ethanol extract of Stellera chamaejasme L. roots showed significant nematicidal activity against B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus, with LC50 values of 169.7 and 37.7 µg mL(-1), respectively, at 72 h. Further purification of the active layer yielded eight effective nematicidal compounds, which were identified by mass and nuclear magnetic resonance spectral data. Among the eight bioactive compounds, chamaejasmenin C induced the highest mortality against B. xylophilus, with an LC50 value of 2.7 µM at 72 h, and chamaechromone exhibited strong nematicidal activity against B. mucronatus, with an LC50 value of 0.003 µM at 72 h. CONCLUSION The nematicidal metabolites from S. chamaejasme roots could be used as lead compounds for developing botanically based nematicides for the management of pine wilt disease.
Criticality Analysis on Value-at-Risk Model of Loan-to-Value Ratios Decision in Inventory Financing of Supply Chain Finance

Most literatures prefer loan-to-value ratios (LTV) decisions in supply chain finance (SCF) on the way of profit maximization. This paper attempts to discuss the relationship between LTV and market risk of the loan in inventory financing of SCF from the perspective of value at risk (VaR) for the critical value of LTV corresponding to extreme value of loan VaR to prevent the bank from the risks caused by LTV decisions under the extreme position of price-decline in commodity market. Different from the traditional method of VaR only considering the asset value, we incorporate the borrower’s financial and procurement positions into VaR model. We demonstrate the critical value of LTV corresponding to extrema of the value-at-risk of loan in nonlinear analysis, as well as the critical order quantity that can monotonically affect the relationship between LTV and loan VaR in linear analysis, followed by the conclusion that higher investment may not mean higher risk from the perspective of VaR in inventory financing of SCF. Furthermore, the impact of parameters involving financial and procurement positions of the borrower is discussed to explore the affections to the bank from the borrower’s procurement decisions.
Investment and sector-specific capital: A dynamic approach to incomplete factor mobility

Since static models of partial factor mobility cannot be interpreted dynamically to explain factor accumulation and reallocation over time this model analyzes incomplete factor mobility as a problem of investment theory in a dynamic context. Convex costs of adjustment generate finite investment demand and finite speed of adjustment to exogenous shocks. A two-sector version of the dynamic theory of the firm is developed and incorporated in a small open economy model. The comparative static results of this model are derived for the cases of international mobile and international immobile financial capital, where the latter case calls for numerical simulations to get some more insights in the comparative static behaviour.
GSM Base Station Electromagnetic Radiation and Oxidative Stress in Rats

The ever increasing use of cellular phones and the increasing number of associated base stations are becoming a widespread source of nonionizing electromagnetic radiation. Some biological effects are likely to occur even at low-level EM fields. In this study, a gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell was used as an exposure environment for plane wave conditions of far-field free space EM field propagation at the GSM base transceiver station (BTS) frequency of 945 MHz, and effects on oxidative stress in rats were investigated. When EM fields at a power density of 3.67 W/m2 (specific absorption rate = 11.3 mW/kg), which is well below current exposure limits, were applied, MDA (malondialdehyde) level was found to increase and GSH (reduced glutathione) concentration was found to decrease significantly (p < 0.0001). Additionally, there was a less significant (p = 0.0190) increase in SOD (superoxide dismutase) activity under EM exposure.
Density Peak Clustering Algorithm based on the Nearest Neighbor

Clustering by fast search and find of density peaks is a new kind of density-based clustering algorithm, which can find the cluster center quickly and accurately by assuming that the cluster center has a high local density and is far away from other cluster centers. However, this clustering algorithm still has limitations in the non-central node allocation strategy and identifying anomalies. We improve on this algorithm and propose the NN-DPC algorithm with a new non-central node allocation strategy that does not rely on the cut-off distance and a method for identifying noise nodes. The experimental results show that the NN-DPC algorithm is more applicable and can identify noise nodes more accurately than the original clustering algorithm.
Financial Crises and the Future of the Real Economy

Current research on the connection between financial markets and real economy is inconclusive. We look at this relationship by analyzing statistical interconnections between stock prices, the potential for growth in companies and macroeconomic aggregates. Such analysis shows weak bond between real economy and financial markets in Poland between 1997 and 2012, thus corroborating other recent research. Further we investigate the causes of such weak relationship and find that research showed a strong relationship a few decades ago, but not in the last 30 years, indicating a structural change in the last 50 years. We believe that the cause may be connected with the abolition of the Bretton Woods Agreement, the propagation of fiat money, and the following rise of the debt-driven capital markets, as well as the steady decline in labor share connected with sharp increases in labor productivity in the First World. We investigate the possible results of this and find not only a possibility of an abundance of crises in the future but also a possible limit to economic growth. We also review the possible answers to the problem, and find that the answer lies in disincentivizing the speculative nature of modern financial markets and reforming current monetary system, i.e. fiat money.
Contour mapping for speaker-independent lip reading system

In this paper, we demonstrate how an existing deep learning architecture for automatically lip reading individuals can be adapted it so that it can be made speaker independent, and by doing so, improved accuracies can be achieved on a variety of different speakers. The architecture itself is multi-layered consisting of a convolutional neural network, but if we are to apply an initial edge detection-based stage to pre-process the image inputs so that only the contours are required, the architecture can be made to be less speaker favourable. The neural network architecture achieves good accuracy rates when trained and tested on some of the same speakers in the ”overlapped speakers” phase of simulations, where word error rates of just 1.3% and 0.4% are achieved when applied to two individual speakers respectively, as well as character error rates of 0.6% and 0.3%. The ”unseen speakers” phase fails to achieve as good an accuracy, with greater recorded word error rates of 20.6% and 17.0% when tested on the two speakers with character error rates of 11.5% and 8.3%. The variation in size and colour of different people’s lips will result in different outputs at the convolution layer of a convolutional neural network as the output depends on the pixel intensity of the red, green and blue channels of an input image so a convolutional neural network will naturally favour the observations of the individual whom the network was tested on. This paper proposes an initial ”contour mapping stage” which makes all inputs uniform so that the system can be speaker independent.
Antecedents of Role Conflict in Compliance-Enhancing Organizations

Compliance-enhancing organizations such as the military and police are characterized by guiding and controlling employees, and they increasingly tend to control and restrict employees' behavior when exposed to external uncertainty. Restrictions on employees' behavior are intended to increase efficiency safety, and combat readiness through reducing misunderstandings and conflicts. However, many writers have argued that the most natural reaction to external unpredictability and uncertainty is internal flexibility and utilizing the entire range of employees' qualifications. The question raised in this study is whether restrictions imply that employees feel they are subject to incompatible work conditions and are deprived of resources and opportunities to execute their everyday responsibilities and thereby experience role conflict. Hierarchical regression analyses performed on data from 71 police and 71 army officers showed that rules and routines that were perceived as restrictive or coercive better explained role conflict among employees than either leadership loyalty, commitment, and rules or routines that were perceived as enabling.
In situ preparation of an ultra-thin nanomask on a silicon wafer

Porous nanomasks have been prepared in situ on an insulating silicon wafer by anodization of an aluminum film grown on it. Ultra-thin nanomasks, around 50 nm thick, were fabricated by utilizing a stop signal, a vivid color appearing at the air–electrolyte interface, and the process involved showed excellent repeatability. Finally, 2D nanoscale p–n junction arrays were fabricated on a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer using the ultra-thin nanomasks prepared. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulated results on the characteristics of the anodization process involved.
Optimal Offering and Operating Strategy for a Large Wind-Storage System as a Price Maker

Wind farms and energy storage systems are playing increasingly more important roles in power systems, which makes their offering nonnegligible in some markets. From the perspective of wind farm-energy storage systems (WF-ESS), this paper proposes an integrated strategy of day-ahead offering and real-time operation policies to maximize their overall profit. As participants with large capacity in electricity markets can influence cleared prices by strategic offering, a large scaled WF-ESS is assumed to be a price maker in day-ahead markets. Correspondingly, the strategy considers influence of offering quantity on cleared day-ahead prices, and adopts linear decision rules as the real-time control strategy. These allow enhancing overall profits from both day-ahead and balancing markets. The integrated price-maker strategy is formulated as a stochastic programming problem, where uncertainty of wind power generation and balancing prices are taken into account in the form of scenario sets, permitting to reformulate the optimization problem as a linear program. Case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy by highlighting and quantifying benefits comparing with the price-taker strategy, and also show the profit enhancement brought to the distributed resources.