Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Intellectual Capital Disclosure Matter for Audit Risk? Evidence from the UK and Italy

Disclosure theory argues that better information quality reduces audit risk, by decreasing information asymmetry in the market and consequently, information risk for firms. Extant literature on voluntary disclosure analyzes the relationships between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and audit risk, finding that auditors charge lower fees and issue less going concern opinions to firms with good CSR performance. In this study, we test the relationship between intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and audit risk and we assess the effect of ICD and audit risk on audit fees. To do so, we use data from the ESG Asset4 database (Thomson Reuters Datastream) on 166 UK and 27 Italian listed firms that issue stand-alone social and intellectual capital statements. The audit risk is measured from both a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. Panel data analysis on 2004–2011 years has been used to test our research hypotheses. Empirical findings from a sample of UK and Italian listed companies show that auditors estimate a lower qualitative risk, albeit a higher quantitative one, for those companies reporting higher ICD scores, compared to those ones with lower disclosure scores on the intellectual capital. Furthermore, we find that reputation risk contributes to the relationship between ICD and audit risk.
Emotion Words Shape Emotion Percepts

People believe they see emotion written on the faces of other people. In an instant, simple facial actions are transformed into information about another’s emotional state. The present research examined whether a perceiver unknowingly contributes to emotion perception with emotion word knowledge. We present 2 studies that together support a role for emotion concepts in the formation of visual percepts of emotion. As predicted, we found that perceptual priming of emotional faces (e.g., a scowling face) was disrupted when the accessibility of a relevant emotion word (e.g., anger ) was temporarily reduced, demonstrating that the exact same face was encoded differently when a word was accessible versus when it was not. The implications of these findings for a linguistically relative view of emotion perception are discussed.
Poor Sensitivity of Symptoms in Early Detection of COPD

The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been increasing. However, COPD is often underdiagnosed. The objective of this study was to determine how many outpatients had persistent airflow limitation and could be diagnosed as COPD by post-bronchodilator spirometry. We also evaluated whether the newly diagnosed patients had any symptoms. All outpatients with liver or general diseases over 40 years old who regularly visited to our hospital were tested for pulmonary function by spirometry. Patients with airflow limitation by the first screening spirometry had further examinations including post-bronchodilator spirometry and chest radiograph by pulmonary specialists. A total of 288 patients accepted a first spirometry. The most common chronic diseases of these patients were chronic hepatitis (33.7%), fatty liver (26.4%), liver cirrhosis (8.3%), diabetes (3.5%) and hypertension (3.1%). Approximately half of the patients had a smoking history. 44 of 288 patients (15.3%) showed airflow limitation by pre-bronchodilator spirometry. Of these, 8 patients did not show airflow limitation by a repeat pre-bronchodilator spirometry nor did 5 patients by post-bronchodilator spirometry. The rest were diagnosed as COPD (80.6%), asthma (16.1%) and bronchiectasis (3.2%). The prevalence of COPD was 8.7%. Approximately half of the patients (13/25, 52.0%) diagnosed as COPD had never complained of any respiratory symptoms. Because symptoms such as dyspnea on exertion, cough and sputum are less sensitive for the diagnosis of COPD, the propagation of spirometry in a general practice/setting should be recommended for establishing the diagnosis rate of COPD rather than relying on the presence of respiratory symptoms.
Nanostructured anode materials for lithium-ion batteries: principle, recent progress and future perspectives

As the most commonly used potential energy conversion and storage devices, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been extensively investigated for a wide range of fields including information technology, electric and hybrid vehicles, aerospace, etc. Endowed with attractive properties such as high energy density, long cycle life, small size, low weight, few memory effects and low pollution, LIBs have been recognized as the most likely approach to be used to store electrical power in the future. This review will start with a brief introduction to charge–discharge principles and performance assessment indices. The advantages and disadvantages of several commonly studied anode materials including carbon, alloys, transition metal oxides and silicon along with lithium intercalation will be reviewed. The mechanism and synthesis methods, followed by strategies to enhance battery performance by virtue of interesting structural designs will be examined. Finally, a few issues needing further exploration will be discussed followed by a brief outline of the prospects and outlook for the LIB field.
Factors Affecting Team Size and Task Performance in Pediatric Trauma Resuscitation

Objectives Varying team size based on anticipated injury acuity is a common method for limiting personnel during trauma resuscitation. While missing personnel may delay treatment, large teams may worsen care through role confusion and interference. This study investigates factors associated with varying team size and task completion during trauma resuscitation. Methods Video-recorded resuscitations of pediatric trauma patients (n = 201) were reviewed for team size (bedside and total) and completion of 24 resuscitation tasks. Additional patient characteristics were abstracted from our trauma registry. Linear regression was used to assess which characteristics were associated with varying team size and task completion. Task completion was then analyzed in relation to team size using best-fit curves. Results The average bedside team ranged from 2.7 to 10.0 members (mean, 6.5 [SD, 1.7]), with 4.3 to 17.7 (mean, 11.0 [SD, 2.8]) people total. More people were present during high-acuity activations (+4.9, P < 0.001) and for patients with a penetrating injury (+2.3, P = 0.002). Fewer people were present during activations without prearrival notification (−4.77, P < 0.001) and at night (−1.25, P = 0.002). Task completion in the first 2 minutes ranged from 4 to 19 (mean, 11.7 [SD, 3.8]). The maximum number of tasks was performed at our hospital by teams with 7 people at the bedside (13 total). Conclusions Resuscitation task completion varies by team size, with a nonlinear association between number of team members and completed tasks. Management of team size during high-acuity activations, those without prior notification, and those in which the patient has a penetrating injury may help optimize performance.
QRS duration predicts death and hospitalization among patients with atrial fibrillation irrespective of heart failure: evidence from the AFFIRM study.

AIMS The association of QRS duration (QRSd) with morbidity and mortality is understudied in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to assess any association of prolonged QRS with increased risk of death or hospitalization among patients with AF. METHODS AND RESULTS QRS duration was retrieved from the baseline electrocardiograms of patients enroled in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-Up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study and divided into three categories: <90, 90-119, ≥120 ms. Cox models were applied relating the hazards of mortality and hospitalizations to QRSd. Among 3804 patients with AF, 593 died and 2305 were hospitalized. Compared with those with QRS < 90 ms, patients with QRS ≥ 120 ms, had an increased mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.61, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.29-2.03, P < 0.001] and hospitalizations (HR 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07-1.34, P = 0.043) over an average follow-up of 3.5 years. Importantly, for patients with QRS 90-119 ms, mortality and hospitalization were also increased (HR 1.31, P = 0.005 and 1.11, P = 0.026, respectively). In subgroup analysis based on heart failure (HF) status (previously documented or ejection fraction <40%), mortality was increased for QRS ≥ 120 ms patients with (HR 1.87, P < 0.001) and without HF (HR 1.63, P = 0.02). In the QRS 90-119 ms group, mortality was increased (HR 1.38, P = 0.03) for those with HF, but not significantly among those without HF (HR 1.23, P = 0.14). CONCLUSION Among patients with AF, QRSd ≥ 120 ms was associated with a substantially increased risk for mortality (all-cause, cardiovascular, and arrhythmic) and hospitalization. Interestingly, an increased mortality was also observed among those with QRS 90-119 ms and concomitant HF.
Cognitive control and its impact on recovery from aphasic stroke

Aphasic deficits are usually only interpreted in terms of domain-specific language processes. However, effective human communication and tests that probe this complex cognitive skill are also dependent on domain-general processes. In the clinical context, it is a pragmatic observation that impaired attention and executive functions interfere with the rehabilitation of aphasia. One system that is important in cognitive control is the salience network, which includes dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent cortex in the superior frontal gyrus (midline frontal cortex). This functional imaging study assessed domain-general activity in the midline frontal cortex, which was remote from the infarct, in relation to performance on a standard test of spoken language in 16 chronic aphasic patients both before and after a rehabilitation programme. During scanning, participants heard simple sentences, with each listening trial followed immediately by a trial in which they repeated back the previous sentence. Listening to sentences in the context of a listen–repeat task was expected to activate regions involved in both language-specific processes (speech perception and comprehension, verbal working memory and pre-articulatory rehearsal) and a number of task-specific processes (including attention to utterances and attempts to overcome pre-response conflict and decision uncertainty during impaired speech perception). To visualize the same system in healthy participants, sentences were presented to them as three-channel noise-vocoded speech, thereby impairing speech perception and assessing whether this evokes domain general cognitive systems. As expected, contrasting the more difficult task of perceiving and preparing to repeat noise-vocoded speech with the same task on clear speech demonstrated increased activity in the midline frontal cortex in the healthy participants. The same region was activated in the aphasic patients as they listened to standard (undistorted) sentences. Using a region of interest defined from the data on the healthy participants, data from the midline frontal cortex was obtained from the patients. Across the group and across different scanning sessions, activity correlated significantly with the patients’ communicative abilities. This correlation was not influenced by the sizes of the lesion or the patients’ chronological ages. This is the first study that has directly correlated activity in a domain general system, specifically the salience network, with residual language performance in post-stroke aphasia. It provides direct evidence in support of the clinical intuition that domain-general cognitive control is an essential factor contributing to the potential for recovery from aphasic stroke.
Smart Sketchpad-an on-line graphics recognition system

An online graphics recognition system is presented, which provides users a natural, convenient, and efficient way to input rigid and regular shapes or graphic objects (e.g., triangles, rectangles, ellipses, straight line, arrowheads, etc.) by quickly drawing their sketchy shapes in single or multiple strokes. An input sketchy (hand-drawn) shape is immediately converted into the user-intended rigid shape based on the shape similarity and the time constraint of the sketchy line. Three different (rule-based, SVM-based, and ANN-based) approaches have been applied and compared in the system. Experiments and evaluation are also presented, which show good performance of the system.
Is There a Link between Insulin Resistance and Chronic Kidney Disease in Men with Treated Hypertension? Analysis of 5-Year Data

Background/Aims: Hypertension, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have reached epidemic proportions globally. Patients with CKD are at increased risk of CVD and yet conventional factors have yet to be linked with the risk associated with patients with CKD. The aim of this research was to establish whether there is a link between insulin resistance (IR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and assess whether insulin-resistant subjects experience a more rapid deterioration in eGFR. Methods: IR was determined using HOMA-IR (homeostasis model assessment for IR) in normoglycaemic, male subjects with treated hypertension and correlated with clinical variables over a period of 5 years. Results: 106 subjects were assigned to three groups according to insulin sensitivity. Patients with IR had a higher body mass index, fasting glucose, triglyceride and lower HDL cholesterol. Half of the insulin-resistant patients developed an impaired fasting glucose by 1 year and 14% were being treated for type 2 diabetes mellitus by 5 years. Baseline and 5-year data revealed that there was no link between IR and eGFR, which deteriorated equally in all groups. Conclusion: We established that both CKD and IR are common and that the majority of subjects with IR developed impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes mellitus in only 5 years. Although eGFR deteriorated in all groups, no link was found between eGFR and IR.
Inductive routing based on energy and delay metrics in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) represent actually one of the challenging type of Delay-tolerant networks due their sparse connectivity and hard coverage. In addition, the emergence of applications with different types of traffic in these networks, assurance of Quality of Service (QoS) becomes more and more important. In recent years, lot of research has been conducted to improve the QoS in WSN. In this article, we introduce a Quality of Service (QoS) routing algorithm based on dynamic state-dependent policies. The proposed algorithm uses a bio-inspired approach based on trial/error paradigm to optimize two QoS different criteria: Energy and end-to-end delay. Our proposal, called EDEAR "Energy and Delay Efficient Adaptive Routing", is based on explorer agent who is responsible for collecting information in terms of energy and delay by using continuous learning parameters on the network and update routing maintained at each node of the network. The exploration of routes has been optimized by proposing a new algorithm based on multipoint relay for energy consumption, thus reducing the overhead generated by the packets exploration. Numerical results obtained with NS simulator for different levels of traffic's load and mobility show that EDEAR gives better performances compared to traditional approaches.
Equations for boundaries of joint obstacles for planar robots

Parameterized equations for the boundaries of joint space obstacles for planar robots are derived. The boundary of a joint obstacle prescribes the link motion of the closed chain formed by the robot in contact with a given obstacle. The theory of kinematic mappings is used to represent the link motion as a set of points in a projective three space. The link positions that are feasible to the arm define a manifold in this space, termed its reachable manifold. The link positions satisfying contact conditions define another manifold in the same space called the contact manifold. Their intersection is mapped to joint space to obtain equations defining the obstacle boundary. While the theory applies to general planar robots, the authors focus on the 3R robot arm. An example is also provided in which the boundaries of joint obstacles are computed. <<ETX>>
Secure beamforming in cooperative D2D communications with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer

In device-to-device (D2D) communications, device terminal relaying makes it possible for devices in a network to function as transmission relays for each other to enhance the spectral efficiency. In this paper we consider a cooperative D2D communication scheme which allows two nearby devices to communicate with each other in the licensed cellular bandwidth by assigning D2D transmitters as half-duplex (HD) relay to assists cellular downlink transmissions. In particular, we focus on secure information transmission for the cellular users when the idle D2D users are the potential eavesdroppers. We aim to design secure beamforming to maximize the D2D users data rate while guaranteeing the secrecy rate requirements of the cellular users and the minimum required amounts of power transferred to the idle D2D users. To solve this non-convex problem, a semi-definite programming relaxation (SDR) approach is adopted to obtain the optimal solution. Furthermore, we propose suboptimal secure beamforming scheme with low computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme achieves a significant transmission rate of the D2D users while provides a high secrecy rate for the cellular users and facilitates efficient power transfer for the idle D2D users.
The Nocturnal Bottleneck and the Evolution of Mammalian Vision

Evidence from the early paleontological record of mammalian evolution has often been interpreted as supporting the idea that mammals were nocturnal for most of their early history. Multiple features of extant mammal sensory systems, such as evolutionary modifications to the light-regulated circadian system, photoreceptor complement, and retinal morphology, support this nocturnal hypothesis for mammalian evolution. Here, we synthesize data on eye shape and orbit orientation in mammals as these data compare to other amniotes. Most mammals differ from other amniotes in retaining an eye design optimized for high visual sensitivity, with the requisite reduction in acuity, which is typically restricted to scotopically (i.e. low light) adapted amniotes. Mammals also possess the more convergent (similarly facing) orbits and, on average, the largest binocular visual fields among amniotes. Based on our analyses, we propose that extant mammals retain a scotopic eye design as well as expanded binocular zones as a result of their nocturnal origin. Only anthropoid primates notably differ from general mammalian patterns, and possibly have evolved an eye shape more typical of the ancestral amniote condition.
An optimized chemical synthesis of human relaxin‐2

Human gene 2 relaxin (RLX) is a member of the insulin superfamily and is a multi‐functional factor playing a vital role in pregnancy, aging, fibrosis, cardioprotection, vasodilation, inflammation, and angiogenesis. RLX is currently applied in clinical trials to cure among others acute heart failure, fibrosis, and preeclampsia. The synthesis of RLX by chemical methods is difficult because of the insolubility of its B‐chain and the required laborious and low yielding site‐directed combination of its A (RLXA) and B (RLXB) chains. We report here that oxidation of the Met25 residue of RLXB improves its solubility, allowing its effective solid‐phase synthesis and application in random interchain combination reactions with RLXA. Linear Met(O)25‐RLX B‐chain (RLXBO) reacts with a mixture of isomers of bicyclic A‐chain (bcRLXA) giving exclusively the native interchain combination. Applying this method Met(O)25‐RLX (RLXO) was obtained in 62% yield and was easily converted to RLX in 78% yield, by reduction with ammonium iodide. Copyright © 2010 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Campylobacter Species and Guillain-Barré Syndrome

SUMMARY Since the eradication of polio in most parts of the world, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has become the most common cause of acute flaccid paralysis. GBS is an autoimmune disorder of the peripheral nervous system characterized by weakness, usually symmetrical, evolving over a period of several days or more. Since laboratories began to isolate Campylobacter species from stool specimens some 20 years ago, there have been many reports of GBS following Campylobacter infection. Only during the past few years has strong evidence supporting this association developed. Campylobacter infection is now known as the single most identifiable antecedent infection associated with the development of GBS. Campylobacter is thought to cause this autoimmune disease through a mechanism called molecular mimicry, whereby Campylobacter contains ganglioside-like epitopes in the lipopolysaccharide moiety that elicit autoantibodies reacting with peripheral nerve targets. Campylobacter is associated with several pathologic forms of GBS, including the demyelinating (acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy) and axonal (acute motor axonal neuropathy) forms. Different strains of Campylobacter as well as host factors likely play an important role in determining who develops GBS as well as the nerve targets for the host immune attack of peripheral nerves. The purpose of this review is to summarize our current knowledge about the clinical, epidemiological, pathogenetic, and laboratory aspects of campylobacter-associated GBS.
Skill recognition

This paper proposes a method for the recognition of skill in skiing from an image sequence. This method consists of two stages. The first stage estimates motion parameters, which are displacements of the pose of the skier, from the image sequence using a model-based trading method. The second stage evaluates some bases, which describes skill, from the motion parameters. Experimental results on real image sequences show that higher evaluated value corresponds to more skilfulness. This means that our computational approach can recognize skill like human intuition.
Estimates of the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy

This paper examines various interest rate rules, as well as policies derived by solving optimal control problems, for their ability to dampen economic fluctuations caused by random shocks. A tax rate rule is also considered. A multicountry econometric model is used for the experiments. The results differ sharply from those obtained using recent models in which the coeffi- cient on inflation in the nominal interest rate rule must be greater than one in order for the economy to be stable.