Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poly[[μ-1,4-anhydroerythritolato-di-μ-aqua-sodium(I)] monohydrate]

In the title compound, {[Na(C4H7O3)(H2O)2]·H2O}n, the sodium ion is octahedrally coordinated by two bridging 1,4-anhydroerythritolate ligands, unexpectedly coordinated by the ring oxygen and four water ligands. This bonding pattern leads to one-dimensional antitactical polymeric chains along [010]. One of the exocyclic O atoms of the anhydroerythritolate group is an acceptor in four hydrogen bonds, giving further evidence that it is deprotonated.
The UNCLOS and the US-China Hegemonic Competition over the South China Sea

The South China Sea (SCS) is a semi-enclosed sea with a complex set of territorial claims by a number of Southeast Asian nations, China being the dominant claimant country. The United States (US) is not a party to such claims. However, the US has great concerns pertaining to peace and stability of the region as far as freedom of navigation in the SCS is concerned, which has significant repercussions for its strategic interests. In addition to the utilization of the SCS as an important international trade route, the US is also committed to protect the interests of its allies in the region, as well as those of its companies involved in offshore hydrocarbon activities. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack, the dynamics of a new world order push the US to strengthen its presence in the region in order to combat any security threats against its interests. This article investigates China-US relations in the SCS and highlights the law of the sea prescriptions that facilitate the understanding of the legal nature of the tensions between China and the US.
European Option Pricing with Discrete Stochastic Dividends

The original Black-Scholes model prices options on a non-dividend paying stock, but of course, most actual stocks pay dividends. The two standard ways of adjusting for dividends are either to assume future dividends are known with certainty and subtract their present value from the current stock price, or to assume the dividend is paid continuously as a constant proportion of the stock price (making the dividend amount stochastic). This article shows that even when dividends are discrete and stochastic, the first type of dividend correction can still work. The key is that the current market values of the stochastic future dividends must be subtracted from the initial stock price. Chance, Kumar, and Rich then discuss ways in which the necessary market values might be obtained.
Immunogenic Response of Brucella canis virB10 and virB11 Mutants in a Murine Model

The virB locus, which encodes the type IV secretion system, is a major component of virulence in Brucella. A non-polar virB10 mutant and a virB11 deletion mutant were constructed in Brucella canis. In the mouse model, both mutants were cleared at day 21 post-infection, indicating reduced virulence in mice. After challenging with wild-type B. canis, the amounts of CFU recovered at day 15 were significantly lower in the group previously vaccinated with the virB10 mutant. Levels of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, and IgM, the induction of the cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and the production of IFN-γ were measured in lymphocyte cultures. All strains elicited similar levels of different antibody isotype profiles, and no significant differences were detected (P < 0.05). The wild-type strain induced a rapid and strong INF-γ response at 24 h, while both mutants induced mild INF-γ responses at 24 h, which remained constant over the course of sampling. Our results suggest that the virB mutants elicit a protective immunity and may be considered as candidates for studies to be conducted in dogs against canine brucellosis.
Influence of neurophysiological hippotherapy on the transference of the centre of gravity among children with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to present the influence of neurophysiological hippotherapy on the transference of the centre of gravity (COG) among children with cerebral palsy (CP). MATERIAL AND METHODS The study involved 19 children aged 4-13 years suffering from CP who demonstrated an asymmetric (A/P) model of compensation. Body balance was studied with the Cosmogamma Balance Platform. An examination on this platform was performed before and after a session of neurophysiological hippotherapy. In order to compare the correlations and differences between the examinations, the results were analysed using Student's T-test for dependent samples at p ≤ 0.05 as the level of statistical significance and descriptive statistics were calculated. RESULTS The mean value of the body's centre of gravity in the frontal plane (COG X) was 18.33 (mm) during the first examination, changing by 21.84 (mm) after neurophysiological hippotherapy towards deloading of the antigravity lower limb (p ≤ 0.0001). The other stabilographic parameters increased; however, only the change in average speed of antero - posterior COG oscillation was statistically significant (p = 0.0354). CONCLUSION 1. One session of neurophysiological hippotherapy induced statistically significant changes in the position of the centre of gravity in the body in the frontal plane and the average speed of COG oscillation in the sagittal plane among CP children demonstrating an asymmetric model of compensation (A/P).
Total quality management training: A review and suggested framework

This study focuses on the role of training as a key element in the successful implementation of total quality management (TQM). It provides a brief overview of training, what it is and what it aims to provide to an organization. Various approaches to training and their relationship to successful TQM implementation are examined, together with content and the organizational aspects of training, such as timing and venue, and how these might be used to optimize their effect. The reasons for evaluation of training and the various evaluation methods are also presented. The paper compares the cost of training with the benefits and asks if organizations can afford not to train. The arguments presented in the paper are used to create a TQM training model, which is then applied to a company, AMS Neve.
Pediatric Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis: Clinical Spectrum, Risk Factors and Diagnostic Challenges in a Low Prevalence Region

Background: Children are at higher risk of tuberculosis (TB) dissemination and extrapulmonary disease, contributing greatly to TB-associated morbidity and long-term sequelae. However, there are very few studies that assess the impact and clinical spectrum of pediatric extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) in low-prevalence regions. Methods: Children <18 years of age diagnosed with TB in Madrid region (2005–2013) were reviewed. We compared the epidemiology, clinical characteristics and the performance of diagnostic tests in childhood extrapulmonary and pulmonary disease. We performed a multivariate logistic regression to identify factors associated with EPTB. Results: During the study period, 93 of 526 pediatric TB cases had EPTB (17.7%). The most common site was lymphatic TB (34.5%). The source case was not identified in most extrapulmonary cases, contrary to pulmonary TB (28% vs. 63.3%; P < 0.001). The tuberculin-skin-test induration was smaller in EPTB cases (<5 mm 22% vs. 5%; P < 0.001), but the sensitivity of interferon-gamma-release-assays was similar (76.9% vs. 79.4%). Children with EPTB presented higher rate of bacteriologic confirmation (66% vs. 49.4%; P < 0.01), and higher incidence of multidrug resistant TB (8.2% vs. 1.6%; P = 0.03). Complications were present in 40.2% extrapulmonary cases. EPTB was associated with the child's foreign origin [odds ratio (OR) 2.3 (1.1–5.3)], immune disorders [OR 5.8 (1.9–17.1)] and drug resistance [OR 2.4 (1.1–5.4)]. Conclusions: In our low-prevalence region, childhood EPTB was linked to immigrant status, immune disorders and drug resistance, and presented high rate of complications. Our study underscores the relevance of improved diagnostic tools and systematic TB screening in high risk populations.
Determinants of the initial IPO performance: evidence from Hong Kong and Taiwan

The study examines the pricing determinants of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Hong Kong and Taiwanese markets. Consistent with the literature, we find that the IPOs are underpriced in these two markets. Among the pricing determinants we examine, share allotment over the number of participating applicants appears to be the most important common factor. However, different IPO market characteristics do exist between the markets. We document that investment firms are underpriced while the trading and service firms are overpriced during the IPO events in Hong Kong. In contrast, liquidity appears to be positively related to the initial underpricing of IPO firms in Taiwan. Our evidence therefore supports the winner's curse model proposed by Rock (1986), and to some extent the liquidity theory by Booth and Chua (1996). The applicability and implications of our findings should also be of value to firms seeking external equities in these markets.
Foreword by SoEA4EE Organizers -- Service Oriented Enterprise Architecture for Enterprise Engineering

The goal of the workshop is to develop concepts and methods to assist the engineering and management of service oriented enterprise architectures and the software systems supporting them. Especially four themes of research have been pursued: 1. Alignment of the enterprise goals and strategies with the service-oriented enterprise architecture; 2. Design of the service-oriented enterprise architecture; 3. Mapping of service-oriented enterprise architecture to enterprise resources; 4. SoEA and Cloud-Computing; influence of cloud, social and big data.
Perceived partisan heterogeneity in communication networks and changes in party choice in a national election: evidence from Taiwan

Partisan voters who change their voting choice on election day account for a small proportion of the electorate, but play a decisive role in a close election. Paul Beck’s (2002) social-support theory of partisan defection states that a voter who perceives support for a candidate of the opposite party from his or her communication network is likely to defect. This study examines Beck’s theory in the context of data collected in Taiwan after the 2004 presidential election. This election was marked by competition between two camps, making it the first campaign in Taiwan’s history that resembled a two-party system. Besides providing an empirical test of the theory, this article shows that Pan-Green Camp supporters are more volatile than Pan-Blue Camp supporters, and it identifies the major factors associated with this pattern.
Opinions by local politicians on community development projects: two Swedish studies

The current problems in the European Union with unemployment and cut-backs in the public sector might require initiatives within the social economy and the third sector, initiated by private citizens or others. Total Quality Management (TQM) might be a proper methodology for the practical work. Here opinions are presented about two societal development projects, as expressed by local politicians. They find such projects fruitful, and maybe even necessary for improving living conditions in rural areas. The difficulties experienced can be reduced if the improvement work is clearly defined and organised, and if information and communication are improved.
OPTIMAL TAXATION WITH FIXED WAGES AND INDUCED MIGRATION

This paper addresses the issue of optimal taxation in an economy wi th induced internal migration. It extends the Diamond-Mirrlees model, in that households base their decisions on observed quantities, as well as consumer prices, and the work of J. N. Bhagwati and T. N. Srinivasan on the Harris-Todaro model, by considering the costs of raising revenue to pay for policies. It shows how the tax rules and Bhagwati-Srinivasan' s wage subsidy policy have to be modified. It also shows that concern for income distribution does not necessarily counteract a presumption in favor of placing heavy tax burdens on unsuccessful migrants. Copyright 1988 by Royal Economic Society.
Monetary Policy Dilemmas: Some RBI Perspectives

Over the last decade, the profile of central banks has gone up. First, we had the Great Moderation - a period of extraordinary benign macroeconomic environment globally, characterized by steady growth in advanced economies and accelerated growth in emerging economies, and low and stable inflation all around. Central banks took credit for this, believed they had discovered the Holy Grail and declared victory. That sense of triumph was dented by the crisis as central banks came to be blamed for policies and actions that got the world into the crisis. Even so, central banks battled the crisis from the frontlines and regained some of the lost reputation by acting quickly, decisively, and where required in concert, to stabilize the global economy which was hurtling towards collapse. Over the last few months, fears of a double-dip recession have resurfaced, and governments in advanced countries are locked in a policy logjam over the balance between short-term fiscal stimulus and long term fiscal consolidation. This has pushed central banks to the fore once again as monetary stimulus has to bear the burden of being the first, and in some cases, possibly the only line of defence against recession. The crisis has been an intellectual challenge in many ways. It has tested the armory of instruments available to central banks and the limits of their policy force. It has also reopened questions that we thought had been answered and renewed debates that we thought had been settled. The real world problems are too complex to fit template solution of text books. Some of the complexities and dilemmas in real world policy making, from the perspective of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are explained. [Comments at the Stern School of Business, New York University]. URL:[http://rbidocs.rbi. org.in/rdocs/Speeches/PDFs/MPDP26092011.pdf].
Big Data and Its Exclusions

Legal debates over the "big data" revolution currently focus on the risks of inclusion: the privacy and civil liberties consequences of being swept up in big data's net. This essay takes a different approach, focusing on the risks of exclusion: the threats big data poses to those whom it overlooks. Millions of people worldwide remain on big data's periphery. Their information is not regularly collected or analyzed, because they do not routinely engage in the sorts of behaviors big data is designed to capture. Consequently, their preferences and needs risk being routinely ignored when governments and private industry use big data and advanced analytics to shape public policy and the marketplace. Because big data poses a unique threat to equality, not just privacy, this essay argues that a new "data antisubordination" doctrine may be needed.
Corporate Governance: The Role of Restructuring Transactions

The purpose of this essay is to examine and evaluate the corporate restructuring transaction as an innovation in corporate governance, in particular to determine how far it remedies the perceived agency problems associated with management control. In the current debate on governance issues there is a widely articulated view (e.g. Charkham, I994) that the Anglo-American style capital market, with its emphasis on liquidity and the separation of institutional shareholders from the firms they invest in, too. often results in poor managerial accountability and substantial departures from shareholder value maximisation. ' It is further suggested that neither of the principal market restraints on managerial behaviour i.e. the managerial labour market and the corporate acquisitions market is particularly effective. The former, which might be expected to reward success and penalise failure (Fama, I980) shows, at best, a very weak average relationship between top executive remuneration and performance (see Conyon et al. in this Forum); whilst.the market for corporate control hypothesis is flawed if managers can deploy effective costly defences, including size, or if errant managers use their discretion to pursue takeover targets.2 Concerns such as these were among those leading to the Cadbury Report (I992), whose code of practice has received widespread adoption in the United Kingdom, and have encouraged others to call for more far-reaching institutional changes. The argument to be advanced here is that the corporate restructuring transaction may be considered as an organic response of Anglo-American capital markets to the governance problems encountered therein. The description 'corporate restructuring transaction' is used here to embrace a range of organisational developments leveraged buy-outs, management buy-outs and buy-ins, leveraged recapitalisations and cash-outs, employee stock ownership plans etc. which involve simultaneous changes in the ownership, financial structure and incentive systems of firms. Changes which typically have the effect of securing: first, a substantial re-unification of share ownership and manager control; second, the partial substitution of various debt instruments for equity in the firm's financial structure; third, the introduction of increased incentives for investors and/or lenders to monitor senior managers; and fourth, the introduction of greater incentives at the peak tier of the managerial
Newly Emergent Highly Pathogenic H5N9 Subtype Avian Influenza A Virus

ABSTRACT The novel H7N9 avian influenza virus (AIV) was demonstrated to cause severe human respiratory infections in China. Here, we examined poultry specimens from live bird markets linked to human H7N9 infection in Hangzhou, China. Metagenomic sequencing revealed mixed subtypes (H5, H7, H9, N1, N2, and N9). Subsequently, AIV subtypes H5N9, H7N9, and H9N2 were isolated. Evolutionary analysis showed that the hemagglutinin gene of the novel H5N9 virus originated from A/Muscovy duck/Vietnam/LBM227/2012 (H5N1), which belongs to clade 2.3. 2.1. The neuraminidase gene of the novel H5N9 virus originated from human-infective A/Hangzhou/1/2013 (H7N9). The six internal genes were similar to those of other H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 virus strains. The virus harbored the PQRERRRKR/GL motif characteristic of highly pathogenic AIVs at the HA cleavage site. Receptor-binding experiments demonstrated that the virus binds α-2,3 sialic acid but not α-2,6 sialic acid. Identically, pathogenicity experiments also showed that the virus caused low mortality rates in mice. This newly isolated H5N9 virus is a highly pathogenic reassortant virus originating from H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes. Live bird markets represent a potential transmission risk to public health and the poultry industry. IMPORTANCE This investigation confirms that the novel H5N9 subtype avian influenza A virus is a reassortant strain originating from H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes and is totally different from the H5N9 viruses reported before. The novel H5N9 virus acquired a highly pathogenic H5 gene and an N9 gene from human-infecting subtype H7N9 but caused low mortality rates in mice. Whether this novel H5N9 virus will cause human infections from its avian host and become a pandemic subtype is not known yet. It is therefore imperative to assess the risk of emergence of this novel reassortant virus with potential transmissibility to public health.
KBMS-based evolutionary prototyping of software systems

The development of a complex software system is a costly endeavor. Prototypes would not be "throw-aways" and much time and effort could be saved if a complex software system were developed by a series of refined and verified prototypes as the prototyper gains more and more knowledge about the functionality and performance requirements of the system being developed. To support such an evolutionary prototyping process, it is useful to have a powerful knowledge base management system (KBMS) to provide: (1) a powerful object model for modeling in a uniform manner, the structural and behavioral properties and constraints of software components that define the evolving prototypes and the data they manipulate, (2) a persistent knowledge base to maintain the models of these prototypes and the data related to design decisions, requirements, schedules, milestones, etc., and (3) a knowledge base programming language for querying and manipulating the persistent knowledge base, as well as for writing code. This paper presents a KBMS-based evolutionary prototyping methodology and an implemented KBMS that provides the above facilities.
Spectrum of malignant lymphomas in Klang Hospital, a public hospital in Malaysia.

BACKGROUND Lymphoma is a relatively common group of neoplasms diagnosed in hospital practice. This study aims to elucidate the pattern of this disease encountered in a public service hospital of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 98 biopsies from 92 patients were retrieved from the archives of Klang General Hospital, from January 1993 to June 1999. The histopathology of these biopsies were reviewed by two pathologists, and confirmed cases were sub-classified according to the WHO proposed scheme. Immunohistochemical staining with a panel of lymphoid antibodies was performed in aid of sub-typing. All cases were screened for Epstein-Barr virus association by in-situ hybridisation technique. RESULTS 15 biopsies were excluded from further analysis due to inadequate material for further study or diagnosed as non-lymphoma. The remaining 83 biopsies were from 80 patients. 52 were males and 28 females. The male: female ratio was 1.9:1. There were 64 Malays, 4 Chinese and 12 Indians. The ages of patients ranged from 3 to 86 years with a mean age of 50.5 years. 73.8% of the diagnostic materials were nodal tissue. Fourteen patients had Hodgkin's lymphomas (HL), 6 being mixed-cellularity, 4 nodular-sclerosis, 1 lymphocyte-rich, 2 lymphocyte-depleted, 1 lymphocyte-predominant, and 66 had non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL). The HL: NHL ratio was 1:4.7. Of the 66 cases of NHL, 9 (13.6%) were T- and 57 (86.4%) B-cell types. The most common NHL encountered was diffuse large B-cell type. Follicular-lymphoma constituted 16.7% of these NHL. 77.8% of T-NHL and 10.5% of B-NHL was EBV associated. Double staining of EBER with CD20 and EBER with CD3 in the T-NHL cases showed that in a majority of the cases, EBER-positive large cells did not express the T- or B- cell antigen. CONCLUSION There is a relatively small proportion of T-cell lymphoma in this series of Asian patients. The reason is thought to be the lower utilisation rate of this hospital service by ethnic Chinese, as reflected by the hospital admission data.
Dynamics between energy, output, openness and financial development in sub-Saharan African countries

ABSTRACT This study aims to establish the connection between energy use, economic output, financial development and trade, based on the panel data of 15 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period from 1983 to 2010. One full main panel and two subpanels were created by incorporating low-income and middle-income countries. The panel cointegration test results indicate a long-run relationship between the variables. The mean group (MG) estimators show that energy consumption, financial development, capital and international trade have significant impacts on economic output. In the case of middle-income countries, the Granger causality analysis reveals that rising economic output leads to higher energy consumption, but this is not true vice versa. This means that energy conservation measures are unlikely to have adverse impacts upon economic output. On the other hand, there is a complementary relationship between financial development and energy consumption. In this case, energy conservation measures should be critically analysed and implemented, so as not to have an unfavourable impact on financial development. In regard to low-income economies, there is no relationship between energy use and any of the other variables mentioned. Thus, a reduction in energy consumption has little or no significant impact on output, financial development, capital and trade.