Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining the Non‐Executive Director's Role from a Non‐Agency Theory Perspective: Implications Arising from the Higgs Report

In January of 2003, the British government published Derek Higgs’ report on the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors on British corporate boards (Higgs, 2003). The government’s original request for the report came in the wake of several high-profile corporate scandals, most notably those involving Enron, WorldCom and Tyco in the USA. Its intent was to help prevent the emergence of a major corporate governance failure within a British corporation by strengthening the Combined Code of Corporate Governance (Financial Reporting Council, 2003) to better reflect theory and best practice. It followed in the footsteps of past investigations into corporate governance issues commissioned by the British government including, but not limited to, the Cadbury Report (Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, 1992), the Greenbury Report (Study Group on Directors’ Remuneration, 1995), the Hempel Report (Committee on Corporate Governance, 1998) and the Turnbull Report (ICEAW, 1999). Higgs commissioned three studies to collect and analyse data on British corporate boards to be used in his final report. One of those studies involved in-depth interviews with 40 board chairmen and non-executive directors, a task that was undertaken by the research team of Terry McNulty, John Roberts and Philip Stiles. Contrary to several of the structural and regulatory recommendations within the larger Higgs review that were criticized by corporate and investment communities (see Jones and Pollitt, 2004 for an in-depth discussion of such criticisms) and which have been subsequently scaled back by the Financial Reporting Council responsible for changes to the Combined Code (Keenan, 2004), the McNulty, Roberts and Stiles (2003) report focused on the behavioural dynamics of board members (especially non-executive directors) that might promote board effectiveness. In line with Higgs’ original commission, McNulty, Roberts and Stiles’s report was both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, including several recommendations about behaviours that could help strengthen board effectiveness by creating ‘intelligent accountability’ (as opposed to distant accountability). As McNulty, Roberts and Stiles summarized, ‘Board structure and composition condition but cannot determine board effectiveness. Instead, board effectiveness depends upon the experience, skill and judgement of individual executive and non-executive directors and the ways in which they combine to shape board conduct and relationships’ (2003, p. 2). Following the publication of the Higgs review, and in light of the controversy it sparked within the UK, we asked John, Terry and Philip to supplement their contribution to the Higgs review with a consideration of the theoretical implications arising from their research. The end British Journal of Management, Vol. 16, S1–S4 (2005) DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005. 00443.x
Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education

I. The Context and Development of Leadership for Special Education Section I Introduction 1. Leadership for Student Performance in an Era of Accountability Martha L. Thurlow, Rachel F. Quenemoen, and Sheryl S. Lazarus 2. Conceptual and Historical Foundations of Special Education Administration Barbara Pazey and James R. Yates 3. Expanding the Leadership Framework: An Alternate View of Professional Standards Mary Lynn Boscardin and Carl Lashley 4. Developing Educational Leaders for the Realities of Special Education in the 21st Century Jean B. Crockett II. Leadership, Policy and School Reform Section II Introduction 5. Special Education Law for Leaders and Administrators of Special Education Mitchell L. Yell, Susan S. Thomas, and Antonis Katsiyannis 6. Financing Education for Children with Special Needs Preston Green, Bruce Baker, and Matthew J. Ramsey 7. Special Education and School Choice: A Special Leadership Challenge Julie Mead and Preston Green 8. Disability, Difference, and Justice: Strong Democratic Leadership for Undemocratic Times Thomas Skrtic III. Collaborative Leadership for Special Education in Multicultural Contexts Section III Introduction 9. System-wide Leadership for Culturally-Responsive Education Elizabeth Kosleski and Jennifer J. Huber 10. Inclusive School Reform: Distributed Leadership across the Change Process Bonnie Billingsley 11. Collaborative Decision-Making in Multicultural Contexts John Hoover, Amy Eppolito, Janette Klingner, and Leonard Baca 12. Leadership and Collaboration in Home-School Partnerships Beth Harry 13. Building Trust and Responding to Conflict in Special Education Barbara J. Lake and Art Stewart IV: Instructional Leadership and the Evaluation of Educational Outcomes Section IV Introduction 14. Leading to Improve Teacher Effectiveness: Implications for Practice, Reform, Research, and Policy Donald Deshler and Jake Cornett 15. Teacher Quality and Effectiveness in an Era of Accountability: Challenges and Solutions in Special Education? Mary Brownell, Bonnie S. Billingsley, James McLeskey, and Paul Sindelar 16. Leadership and Instruction: Evidence-based Practices in Special Education Bryan G. Cook and Garnett J. Smith 17. School Leadership and School-wide Positive Behavior Support George Sugai, Breda V. O'Keeffe, Robert H. Horner, and Timothy J. Lewis 18. Responsive Instructional Leadership for Early Intervention Patricia Snyder, Crystal D. Crowe, and Robert Crow 19. Leadership for Transition to Postsecondary Settings David W. Test, Valerie L. Mazzotti, and April L. Mustian V: Challenges for Educational Leaders Section V Introduction 20. Challenges for Leaders in the Not-so-New Era of Standards Margaret J. McLaughlin, Amy F. Smith, and Tracy G. Wilkinson
Flies without Trehalose*

Background: The physiological role of trehalose as a hemolymph sugar during insect development remains unclear. Results: Mutants of the trehalose-synthesizing enzyme Tps1 failed to produce trehalose. Conclusion: Drosophila larvae lacking the hemolymph sugar trehalose exhibit diet-dependent phenotypes of growth and survival. Significance: Tps1 mutant flies are particularly useful in unraveling a wide range of physiological processes, such as homeostasis, aging, and stress resistance. Living organisms adapt to environmental changes through metabolic homeostasis. Sugars are used primarily for the metabolic production of ATP energy and carbon sources. Trehalose is a nonreducing disaccharide that is present in many organisms. In insects, the principal hemolymph sugar is trehalose instead of glucose. As in mammals, hemolymph sugar levels in Drosophila are regulated by the action of endocrine hormones. Therefore, the mobilization of trehalose to glucose is thought to be critical for metabolic homeostasis. However, the physiological role of trehalose as a hemolymph sugar during insect development remains largely unclear. Here, we demonstrate that mutants of the trehalose-synthesizing enzyme Tps1 failed to produce trehalose as expected but survived into the late pupal period and died before eclosion. Larvae without trehalose grew normally, with a slight reduction in body size, under normal food conditions. However, these larvae were extremely sensitive to starvation, possibly due to a local defect in the central nervous system. Furthermore, Tps1 mutant larvae failed to grow on a low-sugar diet and exhibited severe growth defects on a low-protein diet. These diet-dependent phenotypes of Tps1 mutants demonstrate the critical role of trehalose during development in Drosophila and reveal how animals adapt to changes in nutrient availability.
Using Tree-Based Approaches to Analyze Dependability and Security on I&C Systems in Safety-Critical Systems

This study uses event trees and fault trees to analyze dependability issues on instrumentation and control systems in safety-critical systems. In an event tree, each state can be constructed as a fault tree and each fault tree can be converted to an ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD). The state probability can then be evaluated by quantifying the corresponding OBDD. We present an algorithm to combine OBDDs and evaluate each outcome probability for both statistically-independent (s-independent) and statistically-dependent (s-dependent) events. For s-independent events, the outcome probability can be easily obtained by probability multiplications of the associated branch states. For s-dependent events, we present an algorithm to combine OBDDs and compute each outcome probability. In the security domain, we analyze cyberphysical security issues with attack trees. The countermeasures and different levels/layers of protection are also presented. The integration of the dependability and security analysis are adopted by combining event trees, fault trees, and attack trees. A case study is presented to demonstrate that the integration of dependability and security is feasible and the improvement of outcome risk is significant through adopting security countermeasures.
[Relationship of cytokine level with cancer cachexia and therapeutic effects of indomethacin for cancer cachexia].

BACKGROUND To investigate the relationship between cytokine level and cancer cachexia on murine model, and to observe the effects of regular dose of indomethacin on cancer cachexia and survival of mice. METHODS C57 mice bearing Lewis lung carcinoma were used to establish murine cancer cachexia model. The serum cytokine levels (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α and IFN-γ) and body weight of the mice were measured at different time points before and after treatment with daily intraperioneal injection of either indomethacin (1 mg/kg) or saline. RESULTS The mice in cancer cachexia group had significantly higher serum levels of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α ( P < 0.05) and lower body weight ( P < 0.05) than those in healthy control group. Compared to saline treatment, indomethacin intervention apparently down regulated the levels of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α ( P < 0.05 ), and remarkably prolonged the survival of mice ( P < 0.05). No significant difference in IFN-γ level was observed between cancer cachexia and healthy control groups ( P > 0.05), as well as between indomethacin and saline groups ( P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that serum IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α are possibly associated with cancer cachexia, however, IFN-γ seems to be irrelevant. Indomethacin may potentially ameliorate cancer cachexia through down-regulating levels of cytokines.
Interferon alfa-2b alone or in combination with ribavirin for the treatment of relapse of chronic hepatitis C. International Hepatitis Interventional Therapy Group.

BACKGROUND Interferon alfa is the only effective treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C. Forty percent of patients have an initial response to this therapy, but most subsequently relapse. We compared the effect of interferon alone with that of interferon plus oral ribavirin for relapses of chronic hepatitis C. METHODS We studied 345 patients with chronic hepatitis C who relapsed after interferon treatment. A total of 173 patients were randomly assigned to receive standard-dose recombinant interferon alfa-2b concurrently with ribavirin (1000 to 1200 mg orally per day, depending on body weight) for six months, and 172 patients were assigned to receive interferon and placebo. RESULTS At the completion of treatment, serum levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA were undetectable in 141 of the 173 patients who were treated with interferon and ribavirin and in 80 of the 172 patients who were treated with interferon alone (82 percent vs. 47 percent, P<0.001). Serum HCV RNA levels remained undetectable 24 weeks after the end of treatment in 84 patients (49 percent) in the combination-therapy group, but in only 8 patients (5 percent) in the interferon group (P<0.001). Sustained normalization of serum alanine aminotransferase concentrations and histologic improvement were highly correlated with virologic response. Base-line serum HCV RNA levels of 2 x 10(6) copies per milliliter or less were associated with higher rates of response in both treatment groups. Viral genotypes other than type 1 were associated with sustained responses only in the combination-therapy group. Combined therapy caused a predictable fall in hemoglobin concentrations but otherwise had a safety profile similar to that of interferon alone. CONCLUSIONS In patients with chronic hepatitis C who relapse after treatment with interferon, therapy with interferon and oral ribavirin results in higher rates of sustained virologic, biochemical, and histologic response than treatment with interferon alone.
The five capabilities of socially responsible companies

This paper develops and tests a model that integrates processes of public affairs management with stakeholder engagement and dialogue, business ethics and social reporting to explain social responsibility capabilities in organisations. The model, called Corporate Social Responsibility Management Capacity, describes social responsiveness as arising from a firm's social responsibility orientation and its public relations orientation. The paper shows how the model can be used by managers to measure, manage and improve their company's ability to be socially responsible.
The Generalized Rate of Return

Investment analysis, both for purposes of capital expenditures and for financial investments, is based on an evaluation of cash flows. This evaluation involves the application of interest rates in order to determine whether a given option–a series of cash flows–is profitable or not. For numerous reasons, primarily that of simplicity, it has been traditional to assume that the rates of interest used to measure the worth of an investment are constant. With this assumption it is possible to equate the two familiar investment criteria when investments are independent and outlays are not subject to expenditure constraints, i.e., when capital markets are taken to be perfect in the usual sense. An investment is profitable if its net present value is positive when discounting of cash flows uses the (assumed constant) cost of capital, or if its (assumed unique) internal rate of return is greater than the cost of capital. Equivalence of these two criteria is historically most frequently identified with Irving Fisher [3, 4], and his two-period analysis, portrayed graphically, is generally utilized to establish the correctness of the equivalence of the criteria.
Relationship between maximum bite force and the gonial angle in crossbite

Introduction: Modification of overjet and posterior crossbite (PC) can affect the maximum bite force (MBF), in turn affecting the shape of the gonial angle (GA). Aims: To analyze MBF in PC and the correlation between MBF and GA in adults. Method: The evaluation was performed in 160 individuals, i.e., 88 men and 72 women (aged 18 to 39 years), divided into two groups: without PC, comprising 130 individuals (75 men and 55 women) and with PC, comprising 30 individuals (13 men and 17 women). The method consisted of the following steps: anamnesis, evaluation of the occlusion, MBF evaluation, and GA measurement. Evaluation of the occlusion was performed in order to classify the occlusion as with or without PC. The MBF was measured with a digital dynamometer [DDK/M model (Kratos, São Paulo, Brazil)]. Three measurements were performed in all individuals with the device positioned on the occlusal surface of the first molars, alternating with one-minute intervals, following which the means were calculated. GA measurement was performed with a goniometer on both, the right and left sides. The data collected were analyzed statistically by parametric tests, considering a significance level of 0.05 (5%). Results: MBF was higher for men, independent of the group and the side; in the group without PC, MBF was different between the sides just for women. Between the groups, MBF was higher for men in the group without PC. The correlation found between MBF and GA in both groups was negative or inversely proportional. Conclusions: The group with PC showed lower MBF in men and the correlation between MBF and GA was negative, suggesting that higher the MBF, the lower is the GA or vice versa. Correspondence to: Silvana Bommarito, Speech therapist; Associate professor, Department of Speech Pathology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo – UNIFESP/EPM, São Paulo, Brazil, E-mail: bomarito@terra.com. br
Anticancer Effects of Extracts from the Fruit of Morinda Citrifolia (Noni) in Breast Cancer Cell Lines

Abstract Morinda citrifolia L. (NONI) fruits have been used for thousands of years for the treatment of many health problems including cancer, cold, diabetes, flu, hypertension, and pain. Plant extracts have reported several therapeutic benefits, but extraction of individual compound from the extract often exhibits limited clinical utility as the synergistic effect of various natural ingredients gets lost. They generally constitute polyphenols and flavonoids. Studies have suggested that these phytochemicals, especially polyphenols, display high antioxidant properties, which help to reduce the risk of degenerative diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Several in-vitro and in-vivo studies have shown that Noni fruits have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-dementia, liver-protective, anticancer, analgesic, and immunomodulatory effects. Till date about 7 in vitro cancer studies have been done, but a detailed in vitro study including cell cycle and caspase activation assay on breast cancer cell line has not been done. In the present study different Noni fruit fractions have tested on cancer cell lines MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 (breast adenocarcinoma) and one non-cancer cell line HEK-293 (Human embryonic kidney). Out of which ethylacetate extract showed a higher order of in vitro anticancer activity profile. The ethylacetate extract strongly inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and HEK-293 cell lines with IC50 values of 25, 35, 60 µg/ml respectively. The extract showed increase in apoptotic cells in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells and arrested the cell cycle in the G1/S phase in MCF-7 and G0/G1 phase in MDA-MB-231 cells. Noni extract also decreases the intracellular ROS generation and mitochondrial membrane potential.
Modeling the evolution of preferences: an answer to Schubert and Cordes

We applaud the effort of Schubert and Cordes (2013, this journal) to contribute a model describing the social mediation of preferences and to apply their results to the more general context of economic welfare. Although we consider this topic to be of utmost importance and interest, we have found a problem in Schubert and Cordes’ argument that renders their statements in Section 3 invalid. After providing some basic intuition on the problem at hand, we present a short proof showing that the assumptions of the model always lead to a stable society. We also report on an interesting non-linear segregation effect that can occur within the Schubert-Cordes model.
Making the connection: randomized controlled trial of social skills at school for children with autism spectrum disorders.

BACKGROUND This study compared two interventions for improving the social skills of high functioning children with autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms. One intervention involved a peer-mediated approach (PEER) and the other involved a child-assisted approach (CHILD). METHOD The two interventions were crossed in a 2 × 2 factorial design yielding control, PEER, CHILD, and both PEER and CHILD conditions. Sixty children participated from 56 classrooms in 30 schools. Interventions involved 12 sessions over 6 weeks, with a 3-month follow-up. Outcome measures included self, peer and teacher reports of social skills and independent weekly observations of children on their school playground over the course of the intervention. RESULTS Significant improvements were found in social network salience, number of friendship nominations, teacher report of social skills in the classroom, and decreased isolation on the playground for children who received PEER interventions. Changes obtained at the end of the treatment persisted to the 3-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that significant improvements can be made in peer social connections for children with autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms with a brief intervention, and that these gains persist over time.
Support for the work-life balance in Europe: the impact of state, workplace and family support on work-life balance satisfaction

This article studies the relevance of different types of support for satisfaction with work life balance. More specifically, it investigates the relevance of state, instrumental and emotional workplace and family support, based on a survey of 7867 service-sector workers in eight European countries. The article starts by mapping available state, workplace and family support in order to determine which source dominates in which country and whether these sources match Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology. The impact of the different support sources is then examined. Findings indicate that support for employee work-life balance satisfaction has a direct and moderating effect. Finally, results show that emotional support and instrumental support in the workplace have a complementary relationship. Whereas emotional family support has a positive impact on work-life balance satisfaction, instrumental family support does not.
Tri-μ-oxido-bis[(5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinato-κ4 N)niobium(V)]

In the title dinuclear NbV compound, [Nb2(C44H28N4)2O3], each Nb atom is seven-coordinated with three bridging O atoms and four N atoms from a chelating tetraphenylporphyrinate anion. The Nb—O bond lengths range from 1.757 (6) to 2.331 (6) Å, and the average (niobium–pyrrole N atom) distance is 2.239 Å. In the dinuclear molecule, the Nb⋯Nb separation is 2.8200 (8) Å, and the dihedral angle between the two porphyrinate mean planes is 5.4 (1)°. Weak intermolecular C—H⋯π interactions are present in the crystal structure.