Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INTERNAL CONTROL RISK INFLUENCE WHEN PLANNING AN AUDIT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE COSO CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

SUMMARY This paper studies whether the audit profession understands and follows the internal control framework developed in the COSO Report about the assessment of control risks. That is to say, the extent to which auditors assess control risks and transmit such assessments on substantive testing work when planning an audit, and take into account the assumptions of COSO which affect the identification of risks, in line with the new audit approach based on business risks. The results of the statistical tests show that, in general, the participants evaluated control risks and adjusted the quantity and extent of substantive procedures in accordance with the threats of internal control when they were presented by following the conceptual framework of the COSO Report.
Rescaling of Perceived Space Transfers Across Virtual Environments

Research over the past 20 years has consistently shown that egocentric distance is underperceived in virtual environments (VEs) compared with real environments. In 2 experiments, judgments of object distance (Experiment 1) and object size (Experiment 2) improved after a brief period of walking through the VE with continuous visual feedback. Whereas improvement of blind-walking distance judgments could be attributable to recalibration of walking, improvement in perceived size is considered evidence for rescaling of perceived space, whereby perceived size and distance increased after walking interaction. Furthermore, improvements in judged distance and size transferred to a new VE. Distance judgments, but not size judgments, continued to improve after additional walking interaction in the new VE. These results have theoretical implications regarding the effects of walking interaction on perceived space, and practical implications regarding methods of improving perceived distance in VEs.
Rebranding Employment Branding: Establishing a New Research Agenda to Explore the Attributes, Antecedents, and Consequences of Workers' Employment Brand Knowledge

Two primary approaches have been used to study employment brands and branding. First, there is a long history of the study of organizational attraction. Second, in the past 10–15 years, there has been growth in a hybrid stream of research combining branding concepts from the consumer psychology literature with I/O psychology frameworks of organizational attraction and applicant job search behavior. In this chapter, we take an entirely different approach and suggest that the theoretical models built around product/service brand knowledge can readily accommodate employment brands and branding without hybridizing the framework with I/O psychology. This merging of employment brand with product and service brands is accomplished simply by recognizing employment as an economic exchange between workers and employers and recognizing workers as cognitive and emotional beings that vary in their talents and have their own vectors of preferences for the employment offering. After developing a testable model of the components, antecedents, and consequences of employment brand knowledge, we review the existing employment brand and organizational attraction literature and identify multiple opportunities for additional research.
A New Method of Image Denoising for Underground Coal Mine Based on the Visual Characteristics

Affected by special underground circumstances of coal mine, the image clarity of most images captured in the mine is not very high, and a large amount of image noise is mingled with the images, which brings further downhole images processing many difficulties. Traditional image denoising method easily leads to blurred images, and the denoising effect is not very satisfactory. Aimed at the image characteristics of low image illumination and large amount of noise and based on the characteristics of color detail blindness and simultaneous contrast of human visual perception, this paper proposes a new method for image denoising based on visual characteristics. The method uses CIELab uniform color space to dynamically and adaptively decide the filter weights, thereby reducing the damage to the image contour edges and other details, so that the denoised image can have a higher clarity. Experimental results show that this method has a brilliant denoising effect and can significantly improve the subjective and objective picture quality of downhole images.
Towards the integration of Enterprise Service Bus with UDDI server: A case study

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) supports services communication to integrate diverse heterogeneous applications in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Services composition and invocation in ESB is implemented by message transmitting and routing actually. However, current ESB framework only support static service routing, and messages can only be sent to the specified destination configured in service routing files. Besides, it is difficult to manage these services provided by applications in distributed heterogeneous environment. This paper presents a new approach by integrating ESB with UDDI Server to enable dynamic service routing. Using this approach, services can be selected and invoked at runtime. Moreover, UDDI Server can facilitate the operation of services running in ESB. The integration case based on open source ESB and UDDI implementation, i.e., Mule and jUDDI, also shows this approach is feasible.
Image classification using ontology based improved visual words

Multi-class classification has become a challenging task in computer vision. Due to the richness of visual concepts in the real world, the number of categories in this task is growing to large scale number of classes. Categories in multi-class data are often part of an underlying semantic taxonomy. Recent works in object classification has found it useful to use this taxonomic structure to develop more efficient recognition algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a new visual word generation and feature representation method for multi-class image classification based on semantic taxonomies. We leverage the semantic taxonomy to define visual words which are aware of contents and categories and design a hierarchical classifier based on semantic taxonomies. Experimental results show that the proposed method has improved the accuracy of classification results.
The compact band-pass filter using L slot lines and enhanced air-bridge for the spurious responses suppression

In microwave communication systems, filters with wide stopband are required to enhance the system performance. The presence of undesired spurious response is a problem for microwave filters. Many papers have proposed the second harmonic suppression method for the band-pass filters by adding additional structures, such as DGS. However, those structures are at the sacrifice of large size and higher order harmonics could not be suppressed efficiently. In this paper, we present a new method to suppress high harmonics. Through introducing the enhanced air-bridge and L slot lines, the stopband of the bandpass filter in [1] can be extended to 30GHz so that the harmonics in 5f0, 7f0 and 11f0 are all eliminated while the passband selectivity still keeps excellent. Moreover, those extra-structures do not increase the size of the filter.
Case Mix and Outcomes of Total Knee Replacement in Orthopaedic Specialty Hospitals

Objectives:To examine patient characteristics and outcomes of total knee replacement (TKR) in orthopaedic specialty hospitals. Methods:We performed a retrospective cohort study in the US Medicare population. We defined specialty hospitals for TKR as centers: (1) that performed >75 TKRs in Medicare recipients in 2000; (2) in which TKR accounted for >7% of all Medicare discharges; and (3) that had <300 beds. We divided specialty hospitals into those with ≤100 beds and those with 101–299 beds. We compared preoperative characteristics and complications among patients undergoing TKR in specialty and nonspecialty centers. We stratified patients according to risk of complications and performed stratum-specific analyses. Results:A total of 2417 patients received TKA in 19 specialty hospitals, accounting for 3% of all TKRs in 2000. The specialty hospitals had fewer patients with poverty level income. The smaller “boutique” specialty hospitals had lower complication rates than the larger specialty hospitals and the nonspecialty centers (P value for trend = 0.001). In analyses that adjusted for patient age and sex, low-risk patients had similar outcomes across all hospital categories. However, high-risk patients had statistically significantly greater benefit from treatment in smaller specialty hospitals, with the risk of any adverse event ranging from 1.4% (95% CI, 0%–3.5%) in smaller specialty hospitals to 4.9% (95% CI, 4.4%–5.5%) in low-volume centers. Conclusions:Smaller specialty hospitals have low complication rates and are especially beneficial for high-risk patients. Further work should address functional outcomes, costs, and satisfaction in these specialty centers, and evaluate strategies to manage more high-risk patients in specialty centers.
A Stochastic Adaptive Robust Optimization Approach for the Generation and Transmission Expansion Planning

This paper proposes a stochastic adaptive robust optimization approach for the generation and transmission expansion planning problem. The problem is formulated under the perspective of a central planner, e.g., the transmission system operator, that aims at determining the generation and transmission expansion plans that minimize both the expansion and operation costs. This central planner builds the transmission facilities and promotes the building of the most suitable generating units among private profit-oriented investors. Uncertainties in the future peak demand and the future generation (fuel) cost are modeled using confidence bounds, while uncertainties in the demand variability and the production of stochastic units are modeled using a number of operating conditions. Results of an illustrative example and a case study based on the IEEE 118-bus test system show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Effects of Water Sector Reforms on Service Delivery in Botswana: The Case of Maun in Ngamiland District

Botswana is a semi-arid water scarce country. The need for prudent management of water resources as well as global trends on water sector reforms has prompted the country to embrace integrated water resources management. This paper seeks to improve understanding of the challenges of implementing IWRM principles in Botswana’s water sector. Using a conceptualisation of the integrated water resources management approach, the paper assesses the structure and function of water management institutions at various spatial scales; it assesses stakeholder perceptions on water sector reforms, and identifies key challenges of supplying water in Maun and nearby settlements of Sexaxa and Matlapaneng;. The paper utilises data from secondary sources and stakeholder interviews. The results indicate that prior to the water sector reforms frequent water shortages, inadequate storage, aging and inefficient distribution infrastructure, and poor service delivery were the main challenges faced by the water sector in Botswana. The following reforms were implemented to address the challenges: 1) dismantling and re-arrangement of water management institutions; and 2) Water Utilities Corporation awarded the responsibility to supply water to all settlements including Maun and small settlements. The water reform had challenges in Maun as WUC inherited a debt of BWP70 million, old and incapacitated and poorly constructed water supply infrastructure; and water tariffs that didn’t meet the costs of water supply. These resulted in water supply disruptions.
Robust digital image watermark scheme on wavelet domain using fuzzy rough sets

Digital watermark technology has been proposed as an effective method to protect the copyright of digital image. By exploiting the characteristic of human visual system (HVS) and considering properties of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficient, a novel image watermark scheme is designed in this paper. For embedding watermark, it selects wavelet detail coefficients to utilize HVS characteristic by fuzzy rough sets (FRS). The proposed scheme provides to select wavelet coefficients method using the fuzzy lower and upper approximations, which is partitioned by the FRS according to HVS. The experimental results confirm that the embedded watermarks by the proposed scheme are robust against common image processing attacks, such as JPEG compression, Gaussian noise, Salt & Pepper noise, cropping, mean filtering, wiener filtering, histogram equalization, and scaling etc. Proposed scheme can provide very good results in terms of image imperceptibility, too.
Plasma membrane phospholipid scramblase 1 is enriched in lipid rafts and interacts with the epidermal growth factor receptor.

We have identified physical and functional interactions between the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and phospholipid scramblase 1 (PLSCR1), an endofacial plasma membrane protein proposed to affect phospholipid organization. PLSCR1, a palmitoylated protein, was found to partition with the EGF receptor in membrane lipid rafts. Cell stimulation with EGF transiently elevated Tyr-phosphorylation of PLSCR1, peaking at 5 min. Although PLSCR1 is a known substrate of c-Abl [Sun, J., et al. (2001) J.Biol. Chem. 276, 28984-28990], the Abl inhibitor STI571 did not substantially affect its EGF-dependent phosphorylation, suggesting PLSCR1 is a substrate of the EGF receptor kinase, or another EGF-activated kinase. Coinciding with phosphorylation, there was a transient increase in physical association of PLSCR1 with both the EGF receptor and the adapter protein Shc, as determined by immunoprecipitation and Western blotting. Confocal immunofluorescence analysis revealed that EGF initiates rapid internalization of both the EGF receptor and PLSCR1, with trafficking into both distinct and common endosomal pools. These data also suggested that whereas the EGF receptor is ultimately degraded, much of the endocytosed PLSCR1 is recycled to the cell surface within 3 h after EGF treatment. Consistent with this interpretation, Western blotting revealed neither ubiquitination nor proteolysis of PLSCR1 under these conditions, whereas the ubiquitination and degradation of the EGF receptor were readily confirmed. Finally, stimulation with EGF was also found to markedly increase the total cellular expression of PLSCR1, suggesting that in addition to its initial interactions with activated EGF receptor, PLSCR1 may also contribute to posttranscriptional effector pathway(s) mediating the cellular response to EGF.
Mutation-based receiver search in a network for temporary information sharing

This paper examines our previously proposed mutation-based search method for temporary information sharing in a wireless mesh network. The temporary information sharing indicates that for the case in which information senders and receivers freely appear in the network, information is forwarded from an information sender to a receiver. The mutation-based search method determines a unique route to find receivers who want the forwarded information by operations among numerical values assigned to each node and probabilistically changes the assigned numerical values according to the search results, which can be regarded as a sort of mutation in evolutionary computation. A variety of types of operations and numerical values can be used for this search method. In simulations, the method is evaluated in terms of search reliability under two appearance patterns of an information sender-receiver pair. One is the appearance pattern that locations of the receiver and the receiver are randomly determined. The other is that only a location of the receiver is fixed. Simulation results reveal that search reliability depends on the types of operations and numerical values and is related to how frequently a closed path is generated in the search. The results also suggest that the degree of randomness in search is important for reliable search and varies with the types of operations and numerical values.
Probabilistic Modeling of Real-world Scenes in a Virtual Environment

In this paper we present an approach for the automated creation of real-world scenes in an virtual environment. Here we focus on human-robot interaction and collaboration in the industrial domain, with corresponding virtual object classes and inter-class constellations. As the basis for the sample generation process, we probabilistically model essential discrete and continuous object parameters, by adapting a generic mixed joint density function to distinct scene classes, in order to capture the specific inter- and intra-class dependencies. To provide a convenient way to assert these object interactions, we use a Bayesian Network for the representation of the density function, where dependencies can directly be modeled by the network layout. For the conditioned and uncertain descriptions of object translations, we use hierarchical Gaussian Mixture Models as geometrical sampling primitives in the 3D space. In our paper, we show how the combination of a Bayesian Network with these sampling primitives can directly be used for the automated collision avoidance of objects, during the sampling process. For the illustration of the applicability and usefulness of our approach, we instantiate the generic and abstract concept using an example with reduced complexity.
Reduction of Cr(VI) and Bioaccumulation of Chromium by Gram Positive and Gram Negative Microorganisms not Previously Exposed to CR-Stress

Resistance to Cr(VI) is usually associated with its cellular exclusion, precluding enrichment techniques for the isolation of organisms accumulating Cr(VI) via bioreduction to insoluble Cr(III). A technique was developed to screen for potential Cr(VI) reduction in approx. 2000 isolates from a coastal environment, based on the non-specific reduction of selenite and tellurite to Se0 and Te0, and reduction of tetrazolium blue to insoluble blue formazan. The most promising strains were further screened in liquid culture, giving three, which were identified by 16S rRNA sequence analysis as Bacillus pumilus, Exiguobacterium aurantiacum and Pseudomonas synxantha, all of which reduced 100 µM Cr(VI) anaerobically, without growth. The respective removal of Cr(VI) was 90% and 80% by B. pumilus and E. aurantiacum after 48 h and 80% and by P. synxantha after 192 h. With the Gram positive strains Cr(VI) promoted loss of flagella and, in the case of B. pumilus, lysis of some cells, but Cr was deposited as an exocellular precipitate which was identified as containing Cr and P using energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDAX). This prompted the testing of Citrobacter sp. N14 (subsequently re-assigned by 16S rRNA sequence analysis and biochemical studies as a strain of Serratia) which bioprecipitates metal cation phosphates via enzymatically-liberated phosphate. This strain reduced Cr(VI) at a rate comparable to that of P. synxantha but Cr(III) was not bioprecipitated where La(III) was removed as LaPO4, even though a similar amount of phosphate was produced in the presence of Cr(III). Since B. pumilus removed most of the Cr(VI), with the formation of cell-bound CrPO4 implicated, this suggests that this strain could have future bioprocess potential.
Pricing game of celebrities in sponsored viral marketing in online social networks with a greedy advertising platform

While the influence maximization problem (IMP) which studies how to trigger a large cascade in Online Social Networks (OSNs) by properly selecting seed nodes has been extensively studied in the past decade, one important and practical issue on how these seed nodes or celebrities will get paid for promoting cascades is seldom addressed. In order to get selected by the advertising platform and to maximize his/her own utility, it is natural for each celebrity to determine his/her price of promoting cascades based on other celebrities' decisions and his/her power of influence. In this paper, we formulate the problem of determining prices by celebrities as a pricing game, with celebrities as players. We show that celebrity selection by the advertising platform is NP-hard, and assume that the advertising platform will adopt the simple greedy algorithm that is widely used in IMP. Under this assumption, we study the pure Nash equilibrium of the pricing game among celebrities. In particular, we prove that while equilibrium exists and is unique when there are only two or three players, the equilibrium is not guaranteed to exist in cases of four or more players.
Silicon heating by a microwave-drill applicator with optical thermometry

This paper presents a method for heating silicon wafers locally by open-end coaxial microwave applicators, with optical techniques employed for measuring the temperature. Silicon samples of ∼2 × 2 cm2 area were radiated in air atmosphere by a microwave drill operating at 2.45 GHz in the range of 20–450 W. The rate of temperature variation was measured by the Fabry–Pérot etalon effect in samples illuminated by InGaAs lasers. The steady-state temperatures were measured by the changes in the absorption index of an InGaAs laser beam. The experimental results indicate heating rates of ∼150 K s−1 and a temperature range of 300–900 K across the silicon sample during the microwave heating process. Further operation of the microwave drill caused local melting of the silicon samples. This paper presents the experimental setup and results, as well as numerical simulations of the microwave heating process.
A high-speed THz permittivity measurement system featuring a simple 2-tone generation method using LO leakage

A fast and simple permittivity measurement system at the terahertz wave band is proposed. A 2-tone method is used to measure permittivity. To generate the 2-tone signal simply, a method using just a single frequency oscillator and LO leakage at the transmitter is proposed. For fast measurement of the two-tone phase difference, a self-heterodyne technique with a simple diode is applied in the receiver. The proposed system achieved a measurement time of 0.03 ms at one point, which is 1/200 compared to a conventional system, with an error of less than 6%.
The Interrelated Effects of Culture and Relationship Quality on the Relations Between Portuguese Exporters and Angolan Distributors

The objective of this research is to investigate the role of the relationship quality and culture between Portuguese companies and their export market intermediaries in Angola. In particular, we aim to understand the importance that the quality of the relationship has and the role of cultures in export activities. In terms of methodology we opted for a qualitative analysis; we present the results of two case studies of Portuguese exporting companies and one case study on an Angolan intermediate. In general, the results show that the business relationships are influenced by trust, commitment, culture and similar values. As known, Angola was once a Portuguese colony, so communication is easy because these countries share some common cultural traits. Such factors will influence the trade relations between Portuguese exporters and their Angolan distributors.
Light-front quantization of the sine-Gordon model.

It is shown how to modify the canonical light-front quantization of the (1+1)-dimensional sine-Gordon model such that the zero-mode problem of light-front quantization is avoided. The canonical sine-Gordon Lagrangian is replaced by an effective Lagrangian which does not lead to divergences as [ital k][sup +]=([ital k][sup 0]+[ital k][sup 1])/ [radical]2 [r arrow]0. After canonically quantizing the effective Lagrangian, one obtains the effective light-front Hamiltonian which agrees with the naive light-front (LF) Hamiltonian, up to one additional renormalization. The spectrum of the effective LF Hamiltonian is determined using discrete light-cone quantization and agrees with results from equal-time quantization.