Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reporting practice, impression management and company performance: a longitudinal and comparative analysis of water leakage disclosure

This paper aims to determine whether corporate reporting practice, consistent with impression management, changes depending upon company performance. A longitudinal analysis, rarely used in prior impression management research, enables changes in annual report disclosures, both narrative and visual, to be identified and considered relative to a company's performance. Our analysis is based upon the disclosure of leakage performance, a strategic and stakeholder issue in the water industry, by all 10 water and sewerage companies (WASCs) in England and Wales over the 7-year period 2005–2006 to 2011–2012. Our longitudinal data are also compared across companies and contrasted with the expert counter account provided by the industry regulator, OFWAT. We find that the level, nature and presentation of a WASC's leakage disclosures change markedly reflective of their performance against OFWAT's target. Our evidence shows that the changes in reporting practice include the use of tactics and presentational methods consistent with impression management, raising concerns regarding the balance and trustworthiness of voluntary disclosures in the annual report. We suggest that the International Accounting Standards Board should further consider their guidance on narrative disclosures, including presentational format, to reduce the scope for impression management within corporate reporting.
Chemical kinetic mechanistic models to investigate cancer biology and impact cancer medicine

Traditional experimental biology has provided a mechanistic understanding of cancer in which the malignancy develops through the acquisition of mutations that disrupt cellular processes. Several drugs developed to target such mutations have now demonstrated clinical value. These advances are unequivocal testaments to the value of traditional cellular and molecular biology. However, several features of cancer may limit the pace of progress that can be made with established experimental approaches alone. The mutated genes (and resultant mutant proteins) function within large biochemical networks. Biochemical networks typically have a large number of component molecules and are characterized by a large number of quantitative properties. Responses to a stimulus or perturbation are typically nonlinear and can display qualitative changes that depend upon the specific values of variable system properties. Features such as these can complicate the interpretation of experimental data and the formulation of logical hypotheses that drive further research. Mathematical models based upon the molecular reactions that define these networks combined with computational studies have the potential to deal with these obstacles and to enable currently available information to be more completely utilized. Many of the pressing problems in cancer biology and cancer medicine may benefit from a mathematical treatment. As work in this area advances, one can envision a future where such models may meaningfully contribute to the clinical management of cancer patients.
Attacking Poverty-a strategic dilemma for the World Bank

Attacking Poverty has attracted more than the usual interest in World Development Reports mainly because it reflects the dilemma in future strategy for the World Bank. Its basis in a widely welcomed consultation with the poor, its transparent process and new conceptual framework contrast with limited development of the new themes - equality, security, empowerment of the poor - and of issues to do with aid: resources and rights. Contributors to this special issue discuss the dilemma reflected in Attacking Poverty from a number of angles: critical self-awareness by World Bank, promoting equality, shifting from the Washington Consensus, limits to the Bank's role, and enabling collective action by the poor. Other contributions discuss how the analysis in Attacking Poverty should be strengthened: inclusion of urban poverty and urbanisation's role in political development, promoting informal means of reducing vulnerability, and investigation of the long term consequences of the HIV|AIDS pandemic. Priorities for the next poverty-focused World Development Report (2010? ) should include a more disaggregated and complete view of who is poor, why and where, and analysis of progress in political development. The World Bank may be best able to contribute to political development by extending to the subnational and public services level its main achievement of recent decades: the gathering, analysis and dissemination of comparative development data, to help move the focus of politics towards improving services and living standards. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Delay Analysis of a Reliable Broadcast Scheme for I2V/V2I Communications

Cooperative intelligent transport system (C-ITS) is an emerging paradigm. It aims at wirelessly increasing the awareness of vehicles of their neighborhood traffic via cooperative awareness messages for safety and non-safety purposes. Toward an efficient C-ITS realization, this paper presents a simple, yet effective, broadcast scheme for I2V/V2I communications. In this scheme, road information or safety related messages are reported from the C-ITS to vehicles via road side units (RSUs) using acknowledged radio broadcasts. Vehicles report any newly observed road status and/or safety related information piggybacked in their acknowledgments. The RSUs report these messages to the rest of the vehicles under its coverage via repeated broadcasts using adaptive inter-broadcast interval based on vehicle density and estimated average channel quality. The scheme aims at decreasing unnecessary vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) broadcasts, which leads to potentially decreasing the risk of broadcast storms. The paper introduces a comprehensive analysis of the delay performance of the proposed scheme considering practical physical channel conditions. The analysis, supported by validating simulation results, indicates the applicability of the proposed scheme as it can achieve low information transfer latency for high density roads.
Correlation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression and microvessel density in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

BACKGROUND Angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) appears to be required for the growth of invasive tumors, but little information exists about its role in the development of preinvasive lesions. We examined microvessel density and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in specimens of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), a preinvasive lesion of the uterine cervix, to determine whether a connection could be established between these parameters of angiogenesis and the grade of dysplasia (i.e., tissue abnormality). METHODS Sections of biopsy specimens from 83 patients with grades I-III CIN were examined retrospectively. Microvessels were localized by use of a polyclonal antibody directed against factor VIII-related antigen; vascular endothelial growth factor was detected by means of a monoclonal antibody. Reported P values are two-sided. RESULTS Highest microvessel densities and highest expression of vascular endothelial growth factor were found in a narrow border region between CIN lesions and the underlying stroma. A significant correlation was observed between high vascular endothelial growth factor expression and high microvessel density (Kendall's tau = 0.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.03-0.50; P = .018). Mean microvessel density values +/- standard deviations for CIN I, CIN II, and CIN III lesions were 19.4 +/- 5.8, 21.9 +/- 7.0, and 34.1 +/- 14.8, respectively (Kendall's tau = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.30-0.61; P<.0001). Corresponding values for vascular endothelial growth factor expression were 8.3 +/- 3.5, 8.4 +/- 2.0, and 12.2 +/- 3.6, respectively (Kendall's tau = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.20-0.60; P<.0001). CONCLUSIONS Our results are consistent with the idea that progression of cervical dysplasia is dependent on angiogenesis.
Advances in supportive care of patients with cancer and bone metastases: nursing implications of zoledronic acid.

The knowledge and training of nursing staff is essential for the safety and comfort of patients receiving i.v. therapies. The use of i.v. bisphosphonates as an adjunct to standard antineoplastic therapies in patients with advanced cancer is becoming widespread. Zoledronic acid and pamidronate (Zometa and Aredia, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, East Hanover, NJ) are nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates. Pamidronate has been the standard of care for patients with osteolytic bone lesions from breast cancer or multiple myeloma. However, zoledronic acid, which has demonstrated increased potency and a broad clinical utility, is emerging as the new standard of care. In addition to treating hypercalcemia of malignancy, zoledronic acid is approved for treating patients with bone metastases (osteolytic or osteoblastic) from a wide range of solid tumors, including breast, prostate, and lung cancers, or osteolytic bone lesions from multiple myeloma. Zoledronic acid (4 mg via a 15-minute infusion) has a safety profile comparable with pamidronate (90 mg via a two-hour infusion) and has demonstrated comparable or superior efficacy to that of pamidronate in every patient population tested. The shorter infusion time of zoledronic acid compared with that of pamidronate may provide added convenience, but safety guidelines should be followed for all i.v. bisphosphonate therapies. These guidelines and nursing care of patients receiving i.v. bisphosphonates are reviewed.
Achieving service success through relationships and enhanced encounters

Executive Overview This article provides the reader with both a conceptual and a practical approach to understanding the interaction between the three entities in service deliveries: customer, provider, and organization. These entities are interconnected through strong or loose links, and the strength of each bond has immediate implications in designing a service strategy. We present a typology of service delivery strategies based on a distinction between service relationships (having tight links between the individual service provider and individual customer) and service encounters (having loose links between provider and customer). We argue that excellent service can be provided by organizations that understand the limits and benefits of relationships and encounters, and thus, match their service delivery with what their customers expect. In particular, we argue that many organizations treat as identical tight links between a customer and service provider (C-P links). By treating these two links the sam.
Functional Annotation from Meta-analysis of Microarray Datasets

Tremendous amounts of microarray data for various organisms have provided a rich opportunity for computational analyses of gene products. Integrating these data can help inferring gene function effectively. Nevertheless, combining various heterogeneous, incomplete and noisy microarray datasets is still challenging. To address this challenge, we have developed a new statistical model for combining multiple microarray datasets for gene function prediction. We first evaluate the statistical significance of a Pearson correlation coefficient between two gene expression profiles in a single dataset using p-value based on the standard t-statistics. We then use the joint meta-analysis p-value to quantify the posterior probability that two genes have the same function using multiple microarray datasets. The function of a gene is predicted according to the posterior probabilities of its co-expressed genes with known functions in the multiple microarray datasets. To test the sensitivity and specificity of our model, we used microarray data of yeast and human to predict gene functions. Our results show that combining multiple datasets improves the accuracy over the best function prediction of any single dataset significantly. We have implemented the method into a software tool using the C programming language. The executables under Linux and Windows are available upon request. Supplementary data along with prediction results are available at http://digbio.missouri. edu/meta_analyses.
Community-based natural resource management and tourism: Nata Bird Sanctuary, Botswana

Community-based tourism has been promoted in many parts of the developing world as an alternative to private sector-led tourism projects. Supporters of community-based tourism contend that projects might not only reduce rural poverty and advance conservation by strengthening local economies and empowering communities but also manage natural resources for long-term economic, social, and ecological benefits. In countries of Southern Africa notions of community-based tourism linked to conservation benefits have become popular. In Botswana, community-based natural resource management is one of the foundations for national tourism planning. This article examines the case of Nata Bird Sanctuary in Northeast Botswana and highlights serious shortcomings in terms of the local community's perceptions of the management, distributional benefits, and ownership of this project.
Two Cysteines in Plant R2R3 MYB Domains Participate in REDOX-dependent DNA Binding*

Plant R2R3 MYB domain proteins comprise one of the largest known families of transcription factors. Discrete evolutionary steps have shaped the plant-specific R2R3 MYB family from the broadly distributed R1R2R3 MYB proteins. R1R2R3 MYB domains have a single Cys residue (Cys-130) that needs to be reduced for DNA binding and transcriptional activity. In contrast, most R2R3 MYB domains contain two cysteines, Cys-49 and Cys-53, with Cys-53 at the equivalent position as Cys-130 in R1R2R3 MYB. Using the maize P1 regulator of flavonoid biosynthesis as a typical R2R3 MYB-domain protein, we investigated here the in vitro REDOX requirement for DNA binding by P1. We show that the C53S mutation requires reducing conditions for DNA-binding, whereas C53A binds DNA under oxidizing and reducing conditions. Neither mutation impairs the in vivo regulatory activity of P1. The C49S and C49A mutants bind DNA in vitro irrespective of the REDOX conditions. A C49I mutant, which simulates the MYB domain of c-MYB, binds DNA only under reducing conditions, and its binding is significantly affected by the C53S replacement. It is interesting that under non-reducing conditions, Cys-49 and Cys-53 form a disulfide bond that prevents the R2R3 MYB domain from binding DNA. Together, our results suggest that the evolutionary origin of Cys-49 within the plants has provided R2R3 MYB domains with a regulatory feature not present in animal MYB domains, highlighting fundamental structural and functional differences between similar DNA-binding domains from plants and animals.
Brazil‐focused publications in leading business journals

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to conduct an overview of Brazil‐focused publications that appeared in leading business journals between 1990 and 2008 by highlighting and ranking contributions of individual authors and their affiliating institutions, summarizing types of research, research topics and theoretical perspectives, analyzing citations received by different articles and developing agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 11 leading journals are selected on the basis of past research. A usable sample of 33 publications is obtained by conducting electronic database search for articles that focus on Brazil. Analysis of contributions, research designs, research topics, theoretical perspectives, and citations received by each article is conducted and various findings are discussed.Findings – A total of 80 authors affiliated to 67 academic and seven non‐academic institutions from six geographic locations contributed to the research by examining a wide variety of busin.
Internet Use and Its Impact on Individual Physical Health

Internet use has seriously affected individual health in potential and subtle ways. Past research on the subject mainly concentrated on the mental health caused by addictive use, e.g., impulse control disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. With the constant development of cyber technology, Internet has been an indispensable element of living and working, which can provide more convenient and efficient support and help. At the same time, the effects of Internet use more than Internet addiction on individual health cannot be ignored in living and working. This paper aims to identify the most common physical complaints associated with Internet use, and further investigate the association between the frequency of Internet use and individual physical health. Five hundred and thirteen participants completed the questionnaires by online or offline manner, which covers demographic questions and questions concerning Internet use and physical complaints. The most common complaints were involving dry eyes, decreased vision, and cervical pain. The positive pearson correlation coefficient were found between the level of physical complaints and the frequency of Internet use, place of residence and education. Especially, the higher amount of time for the Internet use is strongly associated with a higher level of physical complaints.
Further Education Middle Managers

Since incorporation in the early 1990s, the Further Education (FE) sector has experienced a period of radical change and transformation in policy initiatives. As a consequence of the increased climate of accountability, the strategic planning process has become a focal point for the successful management of colleges. With the associated maximization of diversity and flexibility in FE and a correlating shift in roles and identity, there has been a tendency to blur the issues that have emerged over middle management teams and their contribution to the strategic agenda. This article aims to contribute to the discourse on strategic decision-making in colleges and the role of FE academic middle managers in participating in that process. Through reviewing sources of relevant literature and policy documents, the emphasis has been to draw on some of the key themes that contextualize strategic planning in colleges. In brief, the article attempts to define the function of middle managers as strategists within the FE sector.
The Economics of the Private Finance Initiative

This article outlines and assesses the private finance initiative in the UK. The initiative has been slow to develop despite pressure from governments (anxious to limit the PSBR) and several revamps to facilitate the PFI approach. Within a PFI project there are beneficial incentives to avoid cost over-runs but not to reduce costs where they affect long-run services. These incentives and the limits to their effectiveness are explored. Such contracts require the transfer of risk from the public does not value risk correctly and that the value for money test is biased against private-sector provision. Policy implications are discussed, including a revamp of the value for money test and the introduction of explicit assessment of the impact of potential renegotiation and other contractual difficulties. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Mechanical loading and how it affects bone cells : the role of the osteocyte cytoskeleton in maintaining our skeleton

Lack of physical activity causes bone loss and fractures not only in elderly people, but also in bedridden patients or otherwise inactive youth. This is fast becoming one of the most serious healthcare problems in the world. Osteocytes, cells buried within our bones, stimulate bone formation in the presence of mechanical stimuli, as well as bone degradation in the absence of such stimuli. As yet, we do not fully comprehend how osteocytes sense mechanical stimuli, and only know a fraction of the whole range of molecules that osteocytes subsequently produce to regulate bone formation and degradation in response to mechanical stimuli. This dramatically hampers the design of bone loss prevention strategies. In this review we will focus on the first step in the cascade of events leading to adaptation of bone mass to mechanical loading, i.e., on how osteocytes are able to perceive mechanical stimuli placed on whole bones. We will place particular emphasis on the role of the osteocyte cytoskeleton in mechanosensing. Given the crucial importance of osteocytes in maintaining a proper resistance against bone fracture, greater knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that govern the adaptive response of osteocytes to mechanical stimuli may lead to the development of new strategies towards fracture prevention and enhanced bone healing.
Investigating triple helix relationships using URL citations: a case study of the UK West Midlands automobile industry

The growth in the importance of co-operation between universities, industry and government to contemporary research has created a need to understand how cross-sector research collaborations occur in practice. Hence quantitative methods are needed to identify and assess the strength of connections within particular university- industry-government groups. The Web is a free source of timely information about all three sectors and hence should be tested for whether it can deliver relevant information. In this project, the potential use of web URL citations, collected through Google's API, as weak benchmarking indicators to estimate the levels of collaboration between different organisations, is explored through a case study of the automobile industry in the UK West Midlands region. URL citation practices are found to differ, depending on whether the website belongs to an academic, commercial, or governmental organisation. While URL citations may sometimes reflect real-world relationships, most real-world relationships probably do not result in an URL citation, particularly in the commercial sector. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is safe and effective for the treatment of sleep disorders in children with cerebral palsy

Abstract Objective: To observe the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy on the treatment of sleep disorders and its safety in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: A total of 71 recruited children were divided into two groups based on age: group 1, aged between 2 and 4 years; and group 2, aged between 4 and 6 years. The effects of HBO2 therapy on sleep quality were observed. Results: The total sleep items (TSIs) were significantly different in the two groups between pre-HBO2, post 10 HBO2 sessions, and post 20 HBO2 sessions (p < 0.01). A total of 15/38 (39.5%) participants in group 1 and 8/21 (38.0%) in group 2 presented difficulty in falling asleep; 17/38 (44.7%) in group 1 and 4/21 (19.0%) in group 2 had a short duration of sleep during the night; and 20/38 (52.6%) in group 1 and 11/21 (52.4%) in group 2 woke up easily in the night. No significant difference in the average TSIs in 59 participants was found after 10 HBO2 sessions. Eight participants had insomnia after the first 5 sessions, and three in group 2 had nocturnal hyperkinesia after 15 sessions. A seizure during decompression was observed in 2/59 participants (2/419 sessions). Discussion: These results indicate that HBO2 therapy is beneficial to improve sleep and is safe for children with CP; however, further studies are necessary to explore the mechanisms of HBO2 on sleep.
The Sustainability of Government Deficits: Implications of the Present-Value Borrowing Constraint

This paper introduces a new methodology for evaluating the sustainability of fiscal policy. The new methodology is distinguished from most existing tests in two important respects: first, it allows for stochastic real interest rates; and second, it is both necessary and sufficient. Results from the application of the new test suggest that recent fiscal policy in the United States has not been sustainable. The paper contrasts its findings with those of James D. Hamilton and Marjorie A. Flavin (1986). Copyright 1989 by Ohio State University Press.