Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Emerging Market's Reaction to Initial Modified Audit Opinions: Evidence from the Shanghai Stock Exchange*

This study investigates the valuation effect of modified audit opinions (MAOs) on the emerging Chinese stock market. Here, the term MAO refers to both qualified opinions and unqualified opinions with explanatory notes. The latter can be considered an alternative form of a qualified opinion in China. The institutional setting in China enables us to find compelling evidence in support of the monitoring role of independent auditing as an institution. First, we find a significantly negative association between MAOs and cumulative abnormal returns after controlling for effects of other concurrent announcements. Further, results from a byâ€ year analysis suggest that investors did not reach negative consensus about MAOs' valuation effect until the second year, exhibiting the learning process of a market without prior exposure to MAOs. Second, we do not observe significant differences between market reaction to nonâ€ GAAPâ€ and GAAPâ€ violationâ€ related MAOs. Third, no significant difference is found between market reaction to qualified opinions and market reaction to unqualified opinions with explanatory notes.
Universal Service: An economic perspective

This paper discusses some important issues that feed the debate on the notion of Universal Service, namely, its definition, justification, cost and financing, within a unified economic framework. In view of the diversity of both the historical and forward looking situations under which the implementation of universal service is envisioned, we provide a systematic analysis of the economic trade-offs associated with various scenarios. We also draw on some actual universal service experiences that have reached some appreciable level of maturity, most notably in telecommunications and postal services, to illustrate and sometimes fine tune some of our arguments.
Learning to combine local models for facial Action Unit detection

Current approaches to automatic analysis of facial action units (AU) can differ in the way the face appearance is represented. Some works represent the whole face, dividing the bounding box region in a regular grid, and applying a feature descriptor to each subpatch. Alternatively, it is also common to consider local patches around the facial landmarks, and apply appearance descriptors to each of them. Almost invariably, all the features from each of these patches are combined into a single feature vector, which is the input to the learning routine and to inference. This constitutes the so-called feature-level fusion strategy. However, it has recently been suggested that decision-level fusion might provide better results. This strategy trains a different classifier per region, and then combines prediction scores linearly. In this work we extend this idea to model-level fusion, employing Artificial Neural Networks with an equivalent architecture. The resulting method has the advantage of learning the weights of the linear combination in a data-driven manner, and of jointly learning all the region-specific classifiers as well as the region-fusion weights. We show in an experiment that this architecture improves over two baselines, representing typical feature-level fusion. Furthermore, we compare our method with the previously proposed linear decision-level region-fusion method, on the challenging GEMEP-FERA database, showing superior performance.
Perception of Place and Secondary Articulation Contrasts in Different Syllable Positions: Language-Particular and Language-Independent Asymmetries

This study investigated the perception of place and secondary articulation contrasts in different syllable positions by Russian and Japanese listeners. The consonants involved in the study were the Russian plain (velarized) and palatalized labial and coronal voiceless stops in syllable-initial and syllable-final positions at word boundaries. The findings revealed substantial asymmetries in the perception of the contrasts by both groups of listeners: With respect to positions, consonants in syllable-final position were characterized by lower correct identification rates and (less consistently) longer reaction time than the same consonants in syllable-initial position. Positional differences were accompanied by differences in segment-specific contexts. With respect to individual consonants, the palatalized labial /p j/ and the plain coronal /t/ showed a lower correct identification rate and smaller perceptual distance than the plain labial /p/ and the palatalized coronal /tj/. The results also showed some differences between Russian and Japanese listeners in the perception of the contrast. These differences can be explained by phonotactic differences between the two languages, as well as by differences in the phonetic realizations of the consonants. The results of the study provide evidence for the role of both universal and language-particular factors in speech perception.
GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON BLOOD PRESSURE IN AN URBAN INDIAN POPULATION

Summary Aggarwal Baniyas were found to have a high prevalence of high blood pressure. Genetic and environmental influences may be implicated for this risk factor of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for common genetic and environmental influences on blood pressure measures (systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP)). The population-based sample was comprised of 309 Aggarwal Baniya families, including 1214 individuals (271 fathers, 307 mothers, 311 sons and 325 daughters) from New Delhi, India. The prevalence of obesity in this community was found to be high (BMI: fathers, 26.1 kg/m2; mothers, 29.4 kg/m2; sons, 16.9–22.4 kg/m2; and daughters, 16.3–22.7 kg/m2). Correlation and heritability were estimated. Most sibling–sibling correlations were larger than the parent–offspring correlations, and all parent–offspring and sibling–sibling correlations were larger than the corresponding spouse correlation (SBP=0.026; DBP=0.029). The maximum heritability was estimated as 44.6% for SBP and 62.8% for DBP. The lack of a significant spouse correlation is consistent with little or no influence of the common familial environment. However, the high heritability estimate for both SBP and DBPs reinforces the importance of the non-shared environmental effect.
Finding meaning despite anxiety over life and death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES To illuminate how people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) create meaning despite the disease. BACKGROUND Coping strategies for living with ALS have already been investigated. However, there is a lack of studies on how people with the disease find meaning and what helps and hinders this. DESIGN A qualitative descriptive study. METHODS Fourteen individual interviews were performed in Spring 2007. The interviews were analysed by qualitative content analysis. RESULTS Two themes emerged to illuminate the complex life situation of the interviewees: experiences of anxiety over life and death and finding meaning despite the illness. It became clear that the uncertain journey towards death was more frightened than death itself. Despite the incurable disease, which brought feelings of life and death anxiety, physical loss, unfairness, guilt, shame and existential loneliness, they also found meaning in life, which strengthened their will to live. Meaning was found through their family and friends, the act of giving and receiving help, the feeling of having a life of their own and accepting the present. The perspective of life was transferred to a deeper view where material things and quarrels were no longer in focus. CONCLUSIONS Despite the disease, the participants found meaning in life which strengthened their will to live. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The balance between anxiety over life and death and finding meaning in life indicates the importance of support through the whole disease process. Both disease-specific problems and existential questions must be tackled. Nurses and other professionals need to be aware of the patients' existential qualms. There is a need to focus on what is important for the individual, and emphasis must be placed on where that person can find meaning.
Reducing Frequency of Request Communications with Pro-Active and Aggregated Power Management for the Controlled Delivery Power Grid

We present a feasibility analysis of the controlled delivery power grid (CDG) that uses aggregated power request by users to reduce communications overhead. The CDG, as an approach to the power grid, uses a data network to communicate requests and grants of power in the distribution of electrical power. These requests and grants allow the energy supplier know the power demand in advance and to designate the loads and the time when power is supplied to them. Each load is assigned a power-network address that is used for communication of requests and grants with the energy supplier. With addressed loads, power is only delivered to selected loads. However, issuing a request for power before delivery takes place requires knowing the demand of power the load consumes during the operation interval. However, it is a general concern that having issuing requests in a time-slot basis may risk request losses and therefore, generate intermittent supply. Therefore, we propose request aggregation to minimize the number of requests issued. We show by simulation that the CDG with request aggregation attains high performance, in terms of satisfaction ratio and waiting time for power supply.
Towards the ‘Big Society’: What role for neighbourhood working? Evidence from a comparative European study

Under the New Labour government, the neighbourhood emerged prominently as a site for policy interventions and as a space for civic activity, resulting in the widespread establishment of neighbourhood-level structures for decision-making and service delivery. The future existence and utility of these arrangements is now unclear under the Coalition government’s Big Society proposals and fiscal austerity measures. On the one hand, sub-local governance structures might be seen as promoting central-to-local and local-to-community devolution of decision-making. On the other, they might be seen as layers of expensive bureaucracy standing in the way of bottom-up community action. Arguably the current value and future role of these structures in facilitating the Big Society will depend on how they are constituted and with what purpose. There are many local variations. In this paper we look at three case studies, in England, France and the Netherlands, to learn how different approaches to neighbourhood working have facilitated and constrained civic participation and action. Drawing on the work of Lowndes and Sullivan (2008) we show how the achievement of civic objectives can be hampered in structures set up primarily to achieve social, economic and political goals, partly because of (remediable) flaws in civic engagement but partly because of the inherent tensions between these objectives in relation to issues of spatial scale and the constitution and function of neighbourhood structures. The purpose of neighbourhood structures needs to be clearly thought through. We also note a distinction between ‘invited’ and ‘popular’ spaces for citizen involvement, the latter being created by citizens themselves. ‘Invited’ spaces have tended to dominate to date, and the Coalition’s agenda suggests a fundamental shift to ‘popular’ spaces. However we conclude that the Big Society will require neighbourhood working to be both invited and popular. Citizen participation cannot always replace local government – sometimes it requires its support and stimulation. The challenge for local authorities is to reconstitute ‘invited’ spaces (not to abolish them) and at the same time to facilitate ‘popular’ spaces for neighbourhood working.
Walking in the Irish countryside: landowner preferences and attitudes to improved public access provision

This paper explores the attitudes of landowners across Ireland to the wider provision of public access for recreational walking using a multinomial logit model. The study also investigates the level of compensation required to improve the supply of this public good. Results indicate that 51% of landowners are not willing to provide access (non-providers), 21% are willing to provide access free of charge (free providers) and 28% seek compensation (willing providers). The findings indicate that participation by landowners in a proposed public access scheme is influenced by landowners' experience with walkers, farm type, farm insurance costs, household demographics, regional variations, opportunity cost of land and participation in other agri-environment schemes. Mean willingness-to-accept for landowners willing to facilitate improved public access for walking was found to be €0.27 per metre of walkway.
Complement activation in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Summary. Background: Ultra‐large von Willebrand factor and deficiency of its cleaving protease are important factors in the events leading to thrombotic microangiopathy; however, the mechanisms involved are only partly understood. Whereas pathological activation of the alternative complement pathway is linked to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, the role of complement activation in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether signs of complement activation are characteristic of TTP.
A model-supported participatory process for nutrient management: a socio-legal analysis of a bottom-up implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive

A methodology for local stakeholders’ involvement in water management using a catchment model as a platform for dialogue has been developed and tested in the Kaggebo Bay drainage area in the southeast of Sweden. The process involved farmers, rural households not connected to municipal wastewater treatment facilities, local and regional authorities as well as different water and agricultural experts. This paper aims to assess whether and how the methodology has succeeded in encouraging social learning and promoting action and which barriers can be identified. The assessment shows that the methodology is able to create confidence in the process and increase the willingness to act as the methodology was able to adapt the form and content of the dialogue to better fit the cognitive and relational needs of involved stakeholders. It is also shown that the process may lead to a probable improvement of the eutrophication situation. However, if these types of processes are to serve not only as a basis for social learning and action at the local level, but also as the basis for a broader process of societal learning, then a mechanism to confer local ideas to the regional and national levels has to be clarified.
Feasibility of preoperative inspiratory muscle training in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery with a high risk of postoperative pulmonary complications: a randomized controlled pilot study

Objective: To determine in a pilot study the feasibility and effects of preoperative inspiratory muscle training in patients at high risk of postoperative pulmonary complications who were scheduled for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Design: Single-blind, randomized controlled pilot study. Setting: University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands. Subjects: Twenty-six patients at high risk of postoperative pulmonary complications were selected. Intervention: The intervention group (N = 14) received 2-4 weeks of preoperative inspiratory muscle training on top of the usual care received by the patients in the control group. Main measures: Primary outcome variables of feasibility were the occurrence of adverse events, and patient satisfaction and motivation. Secondary outcome variables were postoperative pulmonary complications and length of hospital stay. Results: The feasibility of inspiratory muscle training was good and no adverse events were observed. Treatment satisfaction and motivation, scored on 10-point scales, were 7.9 (± 0.7) and 8.2 (± 1.0), respectively. Postoperative atelectasis occurred in significantly fewer patients in the intervention group than in the control group (ϰ2 DF1 = 3.85; P = 0.05): Length of hospital stay was 7.93 (± 1.94) days in the intervention group and 9.92 (± 5.78) days in the control group (P = 0.24). Conclusion: Inspiratory muscle training for 2-4 weeks before coronary artery bypass graft surgery was well tolerated by patients at risk of postoperative pulmonary complications and prevented the occurrence of atelectasis in these patients. A larger randomized clinical trial is warranted.
Trade Cycles in a Re-export Economy: The Case of Singapore

This article uses econometric methods to test the hypothesis that Singapore is a ‘re-export economy’. If the hypothesis is true, merchandize exports and imports would co-move together over the course of trade cycles while exports would be insensitive to the exchange rate due to their high import content. Impulse response analysis of a monthly structural vector error correction model incorporating these trade aggregates, proxies for external demand and relative prices affirms the empirical validity of the re-export hypothesis. Innovation accounting also suggests that growth in the worldwide semiconductor industry rather than price competitiveness is the most important factor behind's Singapore's trade expansion in the long run.
Neuroprotective effects of salidroside on focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury involve the nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 pathway

Salidroside, the main active ingredient extracted from Rhodiola crenulata, has been shown to be neuroprotective in ischemic cerebral injury, but the underlying mechanism for this neuroprotection is poorly understood. In the current study, the neuroprotective effect of salidroside on cerebral ischemia-induced oxidative stress and the role of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway was investigated in a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion. Salidroside (30 mg/kg) reduced infarct size, improved neurological function and histological changes, increased activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione-S-transferase, and reduced malon-dialdehyde levels after cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. Furthermore, salidroside apparently increased Nrf2 and heme oxygenase-1 expression. These results suggest that salidroside exerts its neuroprotective effect against cerebral ischemia through anti-oxidant mechanisms and that activation of the Nrf2 pathway is involved. The Nrf2/antioxidant response element pathway may become a new therapeutic target for the treatment of ischemic stroke.
Connecting the player to the doctor : utilising serious games for cognitive training & screening

In this paper, we discuss the limitations of common cognitive training and cognitive screening methods, and examine how serious games could address some of these issues. We propose a cognitive game system, supporting self-care of cognitive health, in non-clinical settings, which can also function as a connection between the players/patients and their mental health clinician.
Palmitic acid affects proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in vitro

High‐lipid diet composed of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) has significant detrimental effects on brain homeostasis, and deleterious effects of SFAs on various cells have been well documented. However, the effects of SFAs on neural stem Cells (NSCs) function have not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to determine whether palmitic acid (PA) affected the proliferation and differentiation of murine‐derived NSCs. The results showed that PA dose dependently suppressed viability of NSCs and was cytotoxic at high concentrations. The toxic levels of PA inhibited the proliferation of NSCs as shown by reduced bromodeoxyuridine labeling of NSCs, which is correlated with reactive oxygen species generation. Pretreatment of the cells with the antioxidant N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine inhibitor significantly attenuated the effects of PA on the proliferation of NSCs. Furthermore, nontoxic levels of PA promoted astrocytogenesis in the differentiated NSCs, associated with Stat3 activation and altered expression of serial of basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor genes. Altogether, our data have demonstrated that PA has a significant impact on proliferation and differentiation of NSCs in vitro and may be useful for elucidating the role of SFAs in regulating NSCs fate in physiological and pathological settings. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Law of Small Abatements: Prices over Quantities in Realistic Climate Policies

A fundamental question of high practical relevance for climate policy design is whether price controls such as CO2 taxes, or quantity restrictions such as emission quotas should be preferred. I show that as the reach of climate policies is limited in terms of either suboptimally low reduction targets or the policy's extent over only parts of the world, the likelihood of price measures to be more advantageous in terms of minimizing uncertainty related welfare losses increases. The increase of the relative advantage of the price mechanisms over quantity measures may be more than proportional to the regional limitedness of the policy, suggesting that even for relatively important climate coalitions the identified factor implies a clear advantage for price measures. This analysis of the prices vs. quantities question is closer to so far on a high political level seriously discussed climate policies, not to speak of already implemented local or regional climate policies, than previous theoretical literature addressing the issue, which typically relied on the assumption of first bests (i.e. global) policies. Illustrating the main thought of the analysis, I explain why in the example of policies with an extent corresponding to the current Kyoto mechanism, the simple theoretical weighting of the price vs. the quantity approach seems to favor price mechanisms independently of the exact form of the global abatement cost and benefit curves.
Thinking in categories or along a continuum: consequences for children's social judgments.

Can young children, forming expectations about the social world, capture differences among people without falling into the pitfalls of categorization? Categorization often leads to exaggerating differences between groups and minimizing differences within groups, resulting in stereotyping. Six studies with 4-year-old children (N = 214) characterized schematic faces or photographs as falling along a continuum (really mean to really nice) or divided into categories (mean vs. nice). Using materials that children naturally group into categories (Study 3), the continuum framing prevented the signature pattern of categorization for similarity judgments (Study 1), inferences about behavior and deservingness (Studies 2 and 5), personal liking and play preferences (Study 4), and stable and internal attributions for behavior (Study 6). When children recognize people as members of continua, they may avoid stereotypes.