Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adoption of Audit Technology in Audit Firms

This paper investigates audit technology adoption based on Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, Diffusion of Innovation and Institutional theories. As more audit firm’s clients use enterprise information systems, it is important for audit firms to adopt audit technologies in auditing. Descriptive statistics results from questionnaire survey on 38 audit firms’ auditors reveal that more than 50% of auditors had never used computer-assisted-audit tools other than electronic spreadsheets. Despite the low adoption, the respondents agreed that audit technology is cost-effective. Low mean ratings were given on other indicators of audit technology adoption i.e. technology compatibility, technology complexity, organization readiness, top management support, employee’s competency, client’s system complexity, competitive pressure, vendors’ and professional accounting bodies’ supports. Results also show that firm size influenced the adoption level. Theoretically, this paper contributes in developing a comprehensive audit technology adoption framework by incorporating client’s system complexity and professional accounting body support that enhances the original TOE framework.
Reproductive Biology of Hilsa Shad Tenualosa ilisha (Teleostei: Clupeidae) During Spawning Migration in the Shatt Al Arab River and Southern Al Hammar Marsh, Basra, Iraq

Aspects of the reproductive biology of Hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha from Shatt al Arab river and Southern Al Hammar Marsh during spawning migration have been investigated from the period of April 2013 to March 2014. A total of 1456 specimens were collected using gillnets and landings. The size range of the specimens collected throughout the migration season was 50-460 mm in Total Length (TL). Males were dominant in the smaller lengths, while females did in the larger lengths. The monthly variation in mean length for both sexes showed two distinct peaks, the first was during February-March and the second during September-November. The overall sex ratio showed that females were dominating (1:1.7). The sex ratio varied both spatially and seasonally. Monthly variations in Gonad Somatic Index (GSI) and Dobriyal index indicated that Hilsa shad had a long spawning season with two distinct peaks in April and November. Macroscopic observations of gonads showed six maturity stages. The spatial occurrence of maturity stages suggested that Hilsa shad spawn in all the stations of Shatt al Arab river. The size at 50% maturity was 210 mm for females and 170 for males. The absolute fecundity ranged from 223750-1477780 eggs for fishes with total length range of 200-450 mm and mean weight range of 246.3-891.7 g. The relative fecundity for the same length and weight group ranged from 900.5-1657.1 egg/g. The relationship between absolute fecundity (A F ) and total length was A F = 0.007×TL 3.129 (R 2 = 0.97, n = 62) and that between A F and body weight (B w ) was, A F = 190×B w1.327 (R 2 = 0.95, n = 62).
Demographic characteristics and prognostic factors in pediatric-type sarcomas; A 7 year single institutional experience and comprehensive review of the current literature

Background: Due to limited clinical data in pediatric-type sarcomas (rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, PNET, and desmoplas c small round-cell tumor), the aim of this study was to evaluate the demographic characteris cs and iden fying prognos c factors for survival. Materials and Methods: We retrospec vely reviewed 110 pa ents with pediatric-type sarcomas. Overall and disease free survival was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method and log rank test. To iden fy prognos c factors for overall and disease free survival, mul variate survival analyses using a Cox’s propor onal-hazard regression model was performed. Results: In this study mean age of pa ents were 20.30 years (SD=13.61; range, 1–83 years). The survival data of 54 pa ents (49.1%) were obtained with median survival of 27 months. 3 and 5-year survival rate of these pa ents were 41.5% and 28.3% respec vely. Recurrence of disease (P=0.006) and Ewing sarcoma subtype (P=0.018) were significantly associated with poor overall survival and loca on of the lesion in the upper extremi es (P=0.007) and trunk (P=0.005) were significantly associated with a lower disease free survival. Conclusion: With mul variate analysis, the authors determined that recurrence of disease and Ewing's sarcoma subtype are poor prognos c factors for overall survival and site of origin for disease free survival among pa ents with pediatric-type sarcoma. In addi on, gender, pa ent's age, and size of tumor had no significant impact on overall and disease free survival.
Genetic Diversity of Puccinia polysora in Thailand based on Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers analysis

Corn rust fungi are considered as major pathogens in corn production of Thailand. Two corn rust species, Puccinia polysora (southern rust) and P. sorghi (common rust) which are different in their life cycles and preferred environment have been reported in Thailand. In this study, genetic diversity of southern rust from various locations of corn plantation in Thailand was investigated. The genetic diversity of corn rust was analyzed using PCR amplification of inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) region. Morphological-based identification determined that all of the rust specimens were P. polysora. A high variety of 38 polymorphic bands were found from the specimens by PCR amplification using five primers: GAG (TCG)5, GAG (CGA)5, (CGA)5, (GTC)5 and (CAG)5. These bands were used to construct UPGMA dendogram, which cluster analysis divided the 38 specimens into 13 groups at 75% Dice’s similarity coefficient with cophenetic correlation (r) =0.826. The isolates from different localities are presented in the same groups, supporting that P. polysora from different provinces in Thailand are expressed genetic characteristic that resulted from the spore migration.
Development of a Bioactive Food Additive for Controlling of Fungal Growth

Fresh foods have a great importance in human nutrition. However, they are marketed with greatly reduced shelf life mainly due to fungal spoilage. In this work, cell wall degrading enzymes produced by Trichoderma asperellum T00 (TCWDE) were immobilized onto cashew gum polysaccharide (CGP) in order to evaluate the potential use of this material as food additive aiming to increase the shelf life by inhibiting fungal growth. Results from factorial design (32) evidenced that the best conditions for TCWDE immobilization was achieved with 20 min of reaction using 1 mmol L-1 of NaIO4. On these conditions it was observed 91% of retention yield for NAGase (30.1 ± 0.38 U mL-1), 41% for chitinase (0.67 ± 0.05 U mL-1), and 24% for β-1,3-glucanase (0.017± 0.001 U mL-1). CGP/TCWDE was effective for growth inhibition of Aspergillus fumigatus and Penicillium sp. and the inhibition mechanism seems to involve changes in the cell wall of those microorganisms. Finally, the CGP/TCWDE presented high stability after drying, maintaining enzymatic and biological activity after 200 days of storage at room temperature (25 oC).
Examining the Efficiency of American Put Option Pricing by Monte Carlo Methods with Variance Reduction

We apply the Monte Carlo simulation algorithm developed by Broadie and Glasserman (1997) and the control variate technique first introduced to asset pricing via simulation by Boyle (1977) to examine the efficiency of American put option pricing via this combined method. The importance and effectiveness of variance reduction is clearly demonstrated in our simulation results. We also found that the control variates technique does not work as well for deep-in-the-money American put options. This is because deep-in-the-money American options are more likely to be exercised early, thus the value of the American options are less in line (or less correlated) with those of their European counterparts. the same FPESS can also be observed when investigators partition large datasets into smaller datasets to address a variety of auditing questions. In this study, we fill the empirical gap in the literature by investigating the sensitivity of the FPESS to partitioned datasets. We randomly selected 16 balance-sheet datasets from: China Stock Market Financial Statements Database™, that tested to be Benford Conforming noted as RBCD. We then explore how partitioning these datasets affects the FPESS by repeated randomly sampling: first 10% of the RBCD and then selecting 250 observations from the RBCD. This created two partitioned groups of 160 datasets each. The Statistical profile observed was: For the RBCD there were no indications of Non-Conformity; for the 10%-Sample there were no overall indications that Extended Procedures would be warranted; and for the 250-Sample there were a number of indications that the dataset was Non-Conforming. This demonstrated clearly that small datasets are indeed likely to create the FPESS. We offer a discussion of these results with implications for audits in the Big-Data context where the audit In-charge would find it necessary to partition the datasets of the client.
Assessing Perceptual Sensitivity of Respiratory Load Using Constant AirwayResistance

Introduction: Breathlessness or dyspnoea is a complex subjective sensation that is an important feature of cardio-respiratory disease which is difficult to quantify. An objective measure would be useful as it would allow patients symptoms and response to therapy to be summarized and compared. Objectives: This study aims to investigate whether a new approach could be used to quantify resistive load detection in participants with healthy lungs or obstructive lung disease with breathlessness. Methods: Sixteen participants (five with chest disease, MRC dyspnoea score 4) were variously tested using three respiratory loading protocols, and applying a resistance between 0.2 to 1.5 kPa.L. sec-1 . Results: In a healthy group (n=11) a sigmoidal relationship between load detection and applied load was observed with the 50% detection rate being 0.5 kPa.L. sec-1 and a minimal load detection between 0.2 and 0.3 kPa.L. sec-1 whereas in the group with chest disease (n=5) a threshold response was seen instead and a load below 0.75 kPa.L. sec-1 was undetectable. Conclusions: In health there is a graded response to extrathoracic resistive respiratory loading, with the perceptual sensitivity independent of the method of load delivery. In lung disease the perceptual sensitivity is lost and load detection is reported (all or nothing) only above a threshold (0.75 kPa.L.sec-1). This approach provides a simple method for quantifying resistive load detection.
Resolving Wave Digital Filters with Multiple/Multiport Nonlinearities

We present a novel framework for developing Wave Digital Filter (WDF) models from reference circuits with multiple/multiport nonlinearities. Collecting all nonlinearities into a vector at the root of a WDF tree bypasses the traditional WDF limitation to a single nonlinearity. The resulting system has a complicated scattering relationship between the nonlinearity ports and the ports of the rest of the (linear) circuit, which can be solved by a Modiﬁed-Nodal-Analysis-derived method. For computability reasons, the scattering and vector nonlinearity must be solved jointly; we suggest a derivative of the K-method. This novel framework signiﬁcantly expands the class of appropriate WDF reference circuits. A case study on a clipping stage from the Big Muff Pi distortion pedal involves both a transistor and a diode pair. Since it is intractable with standard WDF methods, its successful simulation demonstrates the usefulness of the novel framework.
Assessing language indicators across the lifespan within the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)

Ausgehend von einer kurzen Darstellung verschiedener Modellvorstellungen und Befunde zum Spracherwerb wird eine Rahmenkonzeption zur Erfassung von Sprachkompetenzen im Rahmen des Nationalen Bildungspanels (National Educational Panel Study, NEPS) vorgestellt. Kontrastiert werden funktionalintegrative und subkomponenten-bezogene Perspektiven auf den Erwerb von Sprache und die Messung sprachlicher Kompetenzen. Dabei wird die Relevanz beider Zugange beleuchtet und die daraus resultierenden Implikationen fur die Messung sprachlicher Kompetenzen und das Erhebungsdesign des Nationalen Bildungspanels dargestellt sowie die konkret eingesetzten Verfahren kurz beschrieben. Abschliesend werden Ergebnisse einer Vorstudie vorgestellt, die beispielhaft zeigt, wie sowohl theorie- als auch datenbasiert vorgegangen wird, um Aufgaben im Bereich der phonologischen Bewusstheit fur die NEPS-Studien auszuwahlen.
Cognitive Dissonance and Its Effects on Religious Beliefs

How does an individual change his or her own religious beliefs when contrary evidence is presented? Cognitive dissonance affects Christian college students’ beliefs about a specific religious practice—speaking in tongues. A four-group between-subjects experimental design was utilized. A news story that objectively examined brain activity of those who speak in tongues was presented to a sample of Christian undergraduate students ranging in their beliefs about the issue of speaking in tongues. Cognitive dissonance was induced in two of the four conditions and its effects were measured by calculating participants’ changes in beliefs. It was hypothesized that dissonant cognitions (contradictory belief-disconfirming information) about personal religious beliefs would cause Christian college students to pursue a dissonance-reduction method that enables self-justification, allowing an individual to adhere or more strongly adhere to his or her pre-existing beliefs. Findings surprisingly did not support this hypothesis. Data also revealed that anti-tongue belief groups altered their beliefs more than pro-tongue belief groups.
An innovative Strategic Spatial Planning Model: The Municipal Unity of Thermi (Thessaloniki-Greece) case study

Abstract Strategy is distinguished as a widely discussed issue inside the scientific world. Strategic Planning constitutes an appropriate and systematic method of strategy formulation and implementation. Characteristic models of Strategic Planning are initially presented in this paper in order to analyze the characteristics and differentiations in different levels. This paper presents an unconventional Strategic Spatial Planning model in the Municipal Unity of Thermi (Thessaloniki) for the strategic arrangement of the emerging development spatial issues. The main aim of the proposed model is the identification and formulation of Specific Actions Programs which are prioritized through a composite application of integrated multicriteria decision-making methods.
Ecological effects of ionic liquids on microbial activity of a soil and on tree seed germination

In this work the effect of addition of different doses of 1-butil-2,3-dimethylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate on microbial activity of a soil under Pinus pinaster Aiton and on the seed germination of species of P. pinaster, Pinus sylvestris L. , Pinus radiata D. Don and Eucalyptus globulus Labill were analyzed. Additionally, seed germination test were also applied to this IL after being subjected to heat treatment.
Supporting animations for Simple procedure for phase-space measurement and entanglement validation.

• This paper was published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Supplementary data for this article is available in Loughborough Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro. c.3924277
A study on the frequency of vaginal species of Mycoplasma genitalium, Gardnerella vaginalis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae among pregnant women by PCR technique

Article history: Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, bacterial vaginosis, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Bacterial vaginosis or non-specific vaginitis describes the disease caused by a change in the normal Flora of the vagina, which leads to the elimination of Lactobacilli, generating hydrogen peroxide and excess growth of bacteria, particularly anaerobic bacteria. This disease is the most prevalent infection of the female genital tract, and the rate of frequency of anaerobic bacteria, specifically vaginal species of Gardnerella and Mycoplasma, is 100 to 1,000 times higher than that of healthy individuals. To determine the rate of frequency of Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which are present in bacterial vaginosis. samples of vaginal secretions of pregnant women referred to the Women's Clinic in the Tonekabon Township were obtained. In order to detect the presence of Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the samples were studied using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method. After obtaining the data, the results were analysed using the Chi-square (x2) test. Of the 44 samples tested, 3 cases were found to contain Gardnerella vaginalis (6.81 percent), 2 cases to contain Neisseria gonorrhoeae (4.54 percent), and 10 cases to contain Mycoplasma genitalium (22.72 percent). Statistical analysis showed that Mycoplasma genitalium was significantly related to the consequence of abortion. However, there was no relationship between infections caused by Gardernerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Neisseria gonorrhoeae with premature delivery and hospitalization of the newborn in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Considering the findings, it seems that a low percentage of the studied populations were afflicted by the bacterial vaginosis.
Assessment of Knowledge and Perception towards Breast Cancer Prevention and Early Detection

Background: Breast cancer was the ninth leading cause of mortality for women in Saudi Arabia, and to reduce the burden of this disease appropriate information about breast cancer and its’ early detection measures are highly needed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and perception of Northern Saudi Arabia people towards breast cancer prevention and early detection. Methodology: In this cross sectional descriptive study, data about breast cancer were obtained from 566 Saudi volunteers living in the city of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Results: When the level of individual’s knowledge about breast cancer was assessed, the majority of the study subjects were found with good knowledge followed by moderate and poor representing 187 (34.3%), 170 (31.2%) and 86 (15.8%), respectively. For females, most of them were found with good knowledge followed by moderate and poor constituting 142 (36.1%), 111 (28.2%) and 62 (15.8%), respectively. Conclusion: The findings of the present study have delivered evidence that women in Northern Saudi Arabia lack appropriate information about breast cancer and its’ early detection measures.
About the Method of Analysis of Economic Correlations by Differentiation of Spline Models

The article considers spline approximation as one of efficient methods of modeling economic dynamics. Spline approximation of economic dynamics allows carrying out qualitative and accurate transition from discrete values of a lattice function to a continuous model of a process, which allows calculating values of a studied index at any time point (interpolation). Spline representation improves the quality of economic dynamics modeling while saving the real values of the studied process at each time point. In this article, differentiation of spline models is used for analysis of the economic indexes growth rate. Correlations are detected and itemized by comparison of derivatives. The possibility of detecting "latent trends" is demonstrated by differentiation of spline models of the dynamics using the example of economic indexes of the oil and gas market of Russia. For example, in the first case, we consider spline models of the dynamics of export prices for oil and natural gas. Here, the correlation of the studied indexes is obvious and is detected by both calculation of the correlation ratio and visualization of the studied rows of dynamics with spline models. As an opposite example, we consider the dynamics of the volumes of oil and natural gas export. In this case, we gain the correlation ratio close to zero, which is to evidence absence of correlation. Modeling of the studied dynamics with cubic splines also does not detect any correlation between the dynamics of volumes of the oil and gas export. Our assumptions about "latent trends" are also confirmed by differentiation of spline models – the correlation between the change rate of the volumes of the oil and gas export is detected. Use of spline functions at economic dynamics modeling is determined with such positive properties of theirs as continuity, flexibility, differentiability, the property of minimal curve, etc.
The impact of service and goods offshoring on employment: Firm‐level evidence

Advances in communication technology have led to a remarkable increase in the tradability of services, resulting in a substantial increase in offshoring of services over the last two decades. Research investigating how this surge in service offshoring affects employment, has been largely hampered by the paucity of suitable microdata. This paper tries to fill this gap by using a newly constructed database of Belgian firms that combines individual transaction-level data on international trade in goods and services with annual financial accounts. This unusually rich dataset allows us to produce fresh evidence on the impact of goods and service offshoring on total employment and employment by educational levels for both manufacturing industries and the service sectors. Our results show that: (i) goods offshoring has a positive impact on employment growth among workers with both low and high levels of education in the manufacturing industry but this effect disappears when controlling for scale effects; and (ii) service offshoring has a negative impact on employment growth among highly educated workers in the service sectors. This novel evidence suggests that globalization may threaten job security of higher educated workers too.
Canopy structure effects on the wind at a complex forested site

We investigated the effect of the canopy description in a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method based on key flow results from a complex forested site. The canopy structure in RANS is represented trough the frontal area of canopy elements per unit volume, a variable required as input in canopy models. Previously difficult to estimate, this variable can now be easily recovered using aerial LiDAR scans. In this study, three approaches were tested which were all based on a novel method to extract the forest properties from the scans. A first approach used the fully spatial varying frontal area density. In a second approach, the vertical frontal area density variations were ignored, but the horizontally varying forest heights were kept represented. The third approach ignored any variations: the frontal area density was defined as a constant up to a fixed tree height over the whole domain. The results showed significant differences among the cases. The large-scale horizontal heterogeneities produced the largest effect on the variability of wind fields. Close to the surface, specifying more details about the canopy resulted in an increase of x – y area-averaged fields of velocity and turbulent kinetic energy.
A note on the convergence of an augmented Lagrangian algorithm to second-order stationary points

Many algorithms that ensure second-order necessary optimality conditions were developed in the literature. To the best of our knownledge, none of them guarantee Strong Second-Order Necessary Condition (SSONC). Gould and Toint [5] showed that we do not expect SSONC in the barrier method. In this paper, we argue by an example that the same is true for the second-order augmented Lagrangian method introduced in [1]. This reinforces the Weak Second-Order Necessary Condition as the appropriate condition for the convergence analysis of second-order optimization algorithms.