Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FINANCIAL FACTORS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTING: DOES INDUSTRY SECTOR MODERATE?

In Bangladesh, companies are under criticisms for manipulation of their business activities. Some large organizations collapsed recently due to several corporate misconducts and this has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of different monitoring policies presumed to protect stakeholders’ interests and control organizational unscrupulous behavior. As a result, the practice of CSER disclosure is of great importance and value to the users of CSER reporting as their decisions are based on them. Thus, this research study has started off with the aim of investing the financial factors affecting CSER reporting with moderating effect of industry sector. The data have been collected from secondary data source: annual report, sustainability report and company’s website. The sample of this study consists of 207 observations from 69 companies for three years from 2012 to 2014. Panel data analysis has been used and fixed effects has been performed using STATA version 13 to observe the association between the variables. The study has found no convincing evidence to support the effect of profitability and leverage on CSER reporting. In addition, by using hierarchical regression, this study also estimates the moderation effect of industry sector. The study has revealed that industry sector is able to moderate the relationship between leverage and CSER reporting while no moderation effect on the relationship between profitability and CSER reporting. The study has not shown the extent to which companies have adopted the best practice on CSER reporting along with trends of the firms’ reporting practices. This paper has provided insight into the moderating effect of industry sector which has been ignored in previous studies. This paper demonstrates that the regulators do not succeed in its attempts to monitor the application of CSER practices leaving plenty of room for companies to behave opportunistically. Empirically, this study creates a new path in CSER research by answering the call for moderating effect of industry sector. Theoretically, this study has contributed to the CSER literature by applying institutional theory that explained how industry sector can play moderating role in CSER reporting.
Enhancing Automatic Detection of Frustration Induced During HCI with Moment-based Biosignal Features

—Enhancing HCI systems with the capability to detect user’s frustration and respond appropriately is a significant challenge. In this line, biosignal features based on the theory of orthogonal Krawtchouk and Legendre moments are assessed in the present work over their ability to enhance accuracy in automatic detection of frustration, which is induced through HCI, during video-game playing. Experimental evaluation, conducted over a multi-subject dataset over frustration detection showed that conventional features, typically extracted from Galvanic Skin Response and Electrocardiogram in the past, achieved correct classification rate (CCR) of 83.59%. Fusing these conventional features with moment-based ones extracted from the same modalities resulted to significantly higher accuracy, at the level of 93%. Furthermore, moment-based features lead also to over 10% increase in CCR when the aim was to identify both bored and frustrated cases, within a 3-classs affect detection problem.
A study at the earliness per se gene Eps-A(m)1 region reveals an ancient duplication that preceded the wheat-rice divergence.

microcolinearity Abstract Wheat ﬂowering is controlled by numerous genes, which respond to environmental signals such as photoperiod and vernalization. Earliness per se ( Eps ) genes control ﬂowering time independently of these environmental cues and are responsible for the ﬁne tuning of ﬂowering time. We recently mapped the Eps-A m 1 gene on the end of Triticum monococcum chromosome arm 1A m L. As a part of our eﬀorts to clone Eps-A m 1 we developed PCR markers ﬂanking this gene within a 2.7 cM interval. We screened more than one thousand gametes with these markers and identiﬁed 27 lines with recombination between them. Recombinant lines were used to generate a high-density map and to investigate the microcolinearity between wheat and rice in this region. We mapped ten genes from a 149 kb region located at the distal part of rice chromosome 5 ( cdo393 – Ndk3 ) on a 3.7 cM region on wheat chromosome one. This region is part of an ancient duplication between rice chromosomes 5 and 1. Genes present in both rice chromosomes were less similar to each other than to the closest wheat orthologues, suggesting that this duplication preceded the divergence between wheat and rice. This hypothesis was supported by the presence of 18 loci duplicated both in rice chromosomes 5 and 1 and in the colinear wheat chromosomes from homoeologous groups 1 and 3. Independent gene deletions in wheat and rice lineages explain the alternations of colinearity between rice chromosome 5 and wheat chromosomes 1 and 3. Colinearity between the end of rice chromosome 5 and wheat chromosome 1 was also interrupted by a small inversion, and several non-colinear genes. These results suggest that the distal region of the long arm of wheat chromosome 1 was involved in numerous changes that diﬀerentiated wheat and rice genomes. This comparative study provided suﬃcient markers to saturate the Eps-A m 1 gene region and to precisely map this gene within a 0.9 cM interval ﬂanked by the VatpC and Smp loci.
Determination of the Influence of Laser Welding Parameters on the Weld Quality Assurance of Heat-Resistant Alloys

: In this study, the method of determining the influence of laser welding parameters on the quality provisions of welded joints made with multicomponent heat-resistant alloys was developed. The regularities of the formation of the welded joint structure of multicomponent heat-resistant alloys obtained by laser welding have been studied. The causes and methodological approaches to eliminate defects in the form of hot cracks were identified. At the stage of mass production of the structure (destructive testing of a sample): 1. Structural study with the usage of optical as well as electron microscopy; 2. Analysis of the chemical composition of the weld using X-ray spectroscopy; 3. Determination of mechanical characteristics of weld joints in a wide range of temperatures and strain rates, at temperatures different from 20 °C; 4. Determination of heat resistance of weld joints by increasing the mass during exposure to air in the temperature range of 600-1200 °C. To test the feasibility of the developed methodic, samples of lap welded joints of heat-resistant alloy 86,7Nb-10,6Hf-0,48W-0,27Ta-0,94Ti-0,84Zr-0,30Si were produced using laser welding technology for metallographic research, as well as physical and mechanical tests.
A Local Velocity Grid Approach for BGK Equation

The solution of complex rarefied flows with the BGK equation and the Discrete Velocity Method (DVM) requires a large number of velocity grid points leading to significant computational costs. We propose an adaptive velocity grid approach exploiting the fact that locally in space, the distribution function is supported only by a subset of the global velocity grid. The velocity grid is adapted thanks to criteria based on local temperature, velocity and on the enforcement of mass conservation. Simulations in 1D and 2D are presented for different Knudsen numbers and compared to a global velocity grid BGK solution, showing the computational gain of the proposed approach.
Cozzi I.J.A.S. 02/05

Twenty-six multiparous Italian Holstein cows were used to compare two feeding strategies for the prepartum period. Cows were allocated to two dietary treatments on the basis of their parity (3.1 ± 1.1) and mature equivalent production (11473 ± 1449 kg). From 20 ± 7 d precalving to the calving day, one group of 13 cows (parity = 3.1 ± 1.0; mature equivalent production = 11473 ± 1606 kg) was fed a Control diet made by mixing a 50:50 as fed combination of the far off dry ration and the lactation diet fed postpartum. The remaining cows (parity = 3.1 ± 1.1; mature equivalent production = 11473 ± 1338 kg) were fed a prepartum diet (Anionic) obtained by supplementing the far off dry ration with energy and protein sources plus calcium chloride. This diet had a lower dietary cation-anion difference than the Control diet (7.35 vs 26.66 meq/100 g DM; P<0.05) and it induced a significant decrease in the cows’ urine pH (7.58 vs 7.95; P<0.01). Cows fed the Anionic diet had the lowest DM intake during the prepartum (12.0 vs 13.4 kg/d; P<0.01), but at parturition they showed a limited drop in plasma Ca reducing the incidence of subclinical hypocalcaemia in comparison with the Control group (8 vs 62%; P<0.01). No differences due to the prepartum diet were observed for the plasma levels of several indicators of hepatic function (aspartate-amino transferase, Υ-glutamil transferase, creatin-kinase and bilirubine). After calving, all the cows were co-mingled and fed the same lactation ration and those that had received the Anionic diet during the prepartum showed a significant increase in milk yield with no changes in milk quality. Average production at the peak of lactation was 43.8 kg/d for Control cows while it raised up to 47.8 kg/d (P<0.05) for the animals fed the Anionic diet during the prepartum. This positive result was obtained with a lower loss in cows’ body condition score measured at 30 and 60 days in milk and without any effect on the uterine involution process. The use of the Anionic diet has proven to be an effective alternative to the common practice of feeding close-up diets made by a partial replacement of the far off dry ration with the diet fed to the lactating cows. This strategy should be particularly recommended for dairy herds in which there is a great incidence of metabolic and health problems related to clinical or subclinical hypocalcaemia in the
International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology

An enhanced classification system for classification of MR images using association of kernels with support vector machine is developed and presented in this paper along with the design and development of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system. Content of image retrieval is the process of finding relevant image from large collection of image database using visual queries. Medical images have led to growth in large image collection. Oriented Rician Noise Reduction Anisotropic Diffusion filter is used for image denoising. A modified hybrid Otsu algorithm termed is used for image segmentation. The texture features are extracted using GLCM method. Genetic algorithm with Joint entropy is adopted for feature selection. The classification is done by support vector machine along with various kernels and the performance is validated. A classification accuracy of 98.83% is obtained using SVM with GRBF kernel. Various features have been extracted and these features are used to classify MR images into five different categories. Performance of the MC-SVM classifier is compared with different kernel functions. From the analysis and performance measures like classification accuracy, it is inferred that the brain and spinal cord MRI classification is best done using MCSVM with Gaussian RBF kernel function than linear and polynomial kernel functions. The proposed system can provide best classification performance with high accuracy and low error rate.
The planetary nebula Abell 48 and its [WN4] central star

We have conducted a multi-wavelength study of the planetary nebula Abell 48 and give a revised classification of its nucleus as a hydrogen-deficient star of type [WN4]. The surrounding nebula has a morphology typical of PNe and importantly, is not enriched in nitrogen, and thus not the 'peeled atmosphere' of a massive star. Indeed, no WN4 star is known to be surrounded by such a compact nebula. The ionized mass of the nebula is also a powerful discriminant between the low-mass PN and high-mass WR ejecta interpretations. The ionized mass would be impossibly high if a distance corresponding to a Pop I star was adopted, but at a distance of 2 kpc, the mass is quite typical of moderately evolved PNe. At this distance, the ionizing star then has a luminosity of ~5000 Lsolar, again rather typical for a PN central star. We give a brief discussion of the implications of this discovery for the late-stage evolution of intermediate-mass stars.
Pre-existing Statin Use is Associated with Greater Reperfusion in Hyper-Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose— Statin pretreatment has been associated with improved outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke. Although several mechanisms have been examined in animal models, few have been examined in patients. We hypothesized that patients using statins before stroke onset may have greater reperfusion than patients not using statins. Methods— Acute ischemic stroke patients underwent two MR scans: within 4.5 (tp1) and at 6 hours (tp2) after stroke onset. Regions of reperfusion were defined by prolonged MTT at tp1 which normalized at tp2. Four MTT thresholds were assessed to ensure that results were not spuriously based on an arbitrary threshold. Baseline characteristics, relative reperfusion, and change in NIH Stroke Scale between tp1 and 1-month follow-up ( Δ NIHSS) were compared between patients who were taking statins at stroke onset and those who were not. Results— Thirty-one stroke patients were prospectively enrolled; 12 were taking statins, while 19 were not. Baseline characteristics did not differ between the two groups except the statin group had greater coronary artery disease (p=0.03). Patients using statins showed significantly greater reperfusion compared to untreated patients across all MTT thresholds. For MTT=4 seconds, median relative reperfusion was 50% (IQR 30%,56%) in the pre-existing statin group vs. 13% (IQR=5%,36%)
Polyamine Metabolism and Osmotic Stress1

We have attempted to improve the viability of cereal mesophyll protoplasts by pretreatment of leaves with DL-a-difluoromethylarginine (DFMA), a specific 'suicide' inhibitor of the enzyme (arginine decarboxylase) responsible for their osmotically induced putrescine accumulation. Leaf pretreatment with DFMA before a 6 hour osmotic shock caused a 45% decrease of putrescine and a 2-fold increase of spermine titer. After 136 hours of osmotic stress, putrescine titer in DFMA-pretreated leaves increased by only 50%, but spermidine and spermine titers increased dramatically by 3.2- and 6-fold, respectively. These increases in higher polyamines could account for the reduced chlorophyll loss and enhanced ability of pretreated leaves to incorporate tritiated thymidine, uridine, and leucine into macromolecules. Pretreatment with DFMA significantly improved the overall viability of the protoplasts isolated from these leaves. The results support the view that the osmotically induced rise in putrescine and blockage of its conversion to higher polyamines may contribute to the lack of sustained cell division in cereal mesophyll protoplasts, although other undefined factors must also play a major role.
MiniReview Nonculturability : adaptation or debilitation ?

Investigation of bacterial survival in natural environments has indicated that some organisms lose culturability on appropriate media under certain conditions and yet still exhibit signs of metabolic activity and thus viability. This reproducible loss of culturability by many bacterial species led to the description of bacterial cells in this state as ‘viable but nonculturable’ (VBNC). It is suggested that the VBNC state is part of the life cycle of non-differentiating bacteria induced by environmental stress. The purpose of this review is to summarize some of the reports which support and refute the hypothesis that the VBNC response is a programmed response. Methods currently used in the determination of viability will be discussed with respect to their advantages and disadvantages. Reports which indicate resuscitation in vitro and in vivo, as well as those that show retention of infectivity and pathogenicity in the case of pathogenic organisms are presented as well. z 1998 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Strengths and Limitations of Commercial Tests for Hepatitis C Virus RNA Quantiﬁcation

The sensitivity of the Roche COBAS Monitor v.2. 0 test was slightly better than that of the Bayer bDNA 3.0 test, but the Monitor test underquantiﬁed specimens by 2.5- to 10.6-fold even at relatively low hepatitis C virus RNA concentrations. Dilution prior to assay minimally decreased the reproducibility of the Monitor assay, leading to the recommendation for all specimens to be diluted 1:100 prior to testing by this assay. The role of quantitative HCV RNA assays in the diagnosis and management of chronic hepatitis C is expanding. Several large-scale clinical studies have indicated that a high baseline hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA level was associated with a decreased likelihood of a sustained virologic response (SVR) to treatment with alpha interferon in combination with ribavirin (2, 15) or with pegylated alpha interferon plus ribavirin (5, 14). Subsequently, a lack of viral clearance within the ﬁrst 12 weeks of therapy was found to identify individuals unlikely to undergo an SVR (7–10, 13, 17, 21). A more recent study found that a 2-log decrease in the HCV RNA titer after 12 weeks of therapy predicted an SVR (5). For these reasons, the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference State-ment on the Management of Hepatitis C: 2002 stated that testing
Variability in MODIS NDVI in Relation to Southwest Monsoon over Western Ghats, India

Eleven years (2000 to 2010) of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, derived from Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra with 250 m resolution is used in the present study to discuss the changes in the vegetal cover over Western Ghats, India. The NDVI over Western Ghats (number of test sites are 16) showed increasing tendency and the pronounced changes in NDVI have been studied in the context of southwest monsoon's distribution and activity. The NDVI progression is observed from June with a minimum value of 0.179 and yielded to a maximum at 0.565 during September/October, on an average. The study then relates NDVI with different rainy events to understand the connection between the ground vegetation and the south west monsoon. The results of the study inferred are as follows: i) NDVI, Antecedent Precipitation Index (API) are in good agreement throughout the monsoon which is evidenced by correlation; ii) NDVI maintained good correlation with a number of Light and Moderate Rainy days alternatively but not with the number of Heavy Rainy days; iii) Relation of NDVI with Isolated, Scattered distributions and active monsoons is substantial; and iv) Rate of Green Up is captured by the satellite during the crop growing season over the Western Ghats.
Distribution and mixing of old and new nonstructural carbon in two temperate trees

We know surprisingly little about whole-tree nonstructural carbon (NSC; primarily sugars and starch) budgets. Even less well understood is the mixing between recent photosynthetic assimilates (new NSC) and previously stored reserves. And, NSC turnover times are poorly constrained. We characterized the distribution of NSC in the stemwood, branches, and roots of two temperate trees, and we used the continuous label offered by the radiocarbon (carbon-14, 14C) bomb spike to estimate the mean age of NSC in different tissues. NSC in branches and the outermost stemwood growth rings had the 14C signature of the current growing season. However, NSC in older aboveground and belowground tissues was enriched in 14C, indicating that it was produced from older assimilates. Radial patterns of 14C in stemwood NSC showed strong mixing of NSC across the youngest growth rings, with limited ‘mixing in’ of younger NSC to older rings. Sugars in the outermost five growth rings, accounting for two-thirds of the stemwood pool, had a mean age < 1 yr, whereas sugars in older growth rings had a mean age > 5 yr. Our results are thus consistent with a previously-hypothesized two-pool (‘fast’ and ‘slow’ cycling NSC) model structure. These pools appear to be physically distinct.
Process Corners Analysis of Data Retention Voltage (DRV) for 6T, 8T, and 10T SRAM Cells at 45 nm

ABSTRACT The quest for low power increases with the advancement in technology as a result of continuous device scaling. Static random access memory (SRAM) represents the technology workhorse due to its compatibility with the logic. Denser SRAM is required for modern high performance applications. The stability of SRAM in low power regime needs attention due to increasing effects of process variations in low dimensions. These variations are steep for the scaled devices. Data retention voltage (DRV) is the main parameter for SRAM to estimate the cell stability. This paper analyses the stability of SRAM in terms of process corner analysis of DRV. The process corner analysis in addition to temperature analysis is carried out with the Cadence Virtuoso tool using the 45 nm generic process design kit (GPDK) technology file. At lower temperature, the DRV is lowest at the FF process corner and highest at the SS corner. But for higher temperature, the highest value of DRV is obtained at the SF corner. Similarly, with varying cell ratio (CR), the process corner analysis shows that FF and TT are the best corners for low power operations.
Association between antihypertensive drugs and the elderly’s oral health- related quality of life: Results of Amirkola cohort study

Background: Hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. The prevalence of hypertension in the elderly is increasing. Patients with high blood pressure have to take medication throughout their lives. In this study, the relationship between antihypertensive drugs and oral health-related quality of life in the elderly was evaluated. Methods: This modified cross-sectional study, which is the part of the second phase of the Amirkola Health and Ageing Project (AHAP), was performed on 900 elderly people. Participants included 300 people with hypertension under medical treatment, 300 people with hypertension without medication and 300 people with normal blood pressure. All patients’ blood pressure was recorded, and the standard xerostomia questionnaire and GOHAI questionnaire (Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index) was completed for all participants. Then, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 17, whereby student’s t-test, ANOVA and chi square, Pearson correlation coefficient and logistic regression model were used. A p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean GOHAI score in the three studied groups: hypertensive under medication treatment, hypertensive without medication treatment and normal blood pressure (51.1±7.4, 51.7±7.3, 51.1±7.5, respectively) did not differ significantly (P=0.533). The frequency of xerostomia was significantly different in the three groups (P=0.008). Among the antihypertensive drugs, the highest rate of xerostomia was due to the use of calcium channel blockers (31.1%) and diuretics (26.8%). Conclusion: In our study, although antihypertensive medications were associated with xerostomia, they did not decrease the oral health-related quality of life.