Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three essays on the role of non-audit services for audit pricing and audit quality

The European audit reform aims to stabilize financial markets by enhancing trust in the statutory audit. To strengthen auditor independence and to increase audit quality the provision of non-audit services to audit clients is further restricted. The supranational introduction of a blacklist, including prohibited non-audit services, and of a cap on the volume of non-audit fees is a novelty on the European level. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we analyze these measures in light of both current national restrictions of non-audit services and auditor fee disclosure requirements in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Second, we assess the potential impact of the cap on the volume of non-audit services by providing descriptive evidence on current fee levels in these three countries. Third, we critically assess the impact of the audit reform regarding non-audit services in light of audit research by analyzing the state-of-the-art. On this basis, we doubt whether the European reform of auditor-provided non-audit services is effective and efficient. The main goal of enhancing perceived auditor independence and, thus, public trust in audited financial statements of public-interest entities may be hardly achieved and the blacklist might present a tradeoff between auditor independence and audit quality.
On the Way to a Sustainable Energy Policy in Japan and South Korea

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the sustainability of Japan’s and South Korea’s energy policies. For the analysis, categories framed by Holgar Rogall for identifying a sustainable energy policy were used. Using official data from the UN and government authorities of both countries as well as secondary literature, a comparison of international goals and legal norms and an analysis of developments in energy policy since 1990 were conducted. Their results show that Japan and South Korea pursue quite different energy policies. In more than half of the criteria, Japan can be seen as having a sustainable energy policy. The country still has to improve its use of energy sources, as it is too dependent on fossil fuels and thus needs to accelerate the development of renewable energies. South Korea’s energy policy, however, cannot yet be classified as sustainable. The government still rejects international commitments regarding climate change, a conclusion that is reflected in development since 1990: greenhouse gases rising at a high speed, coupled with low energy efficiency and dependence on fossil fuels. Despite sharing the same basic conditions, the energy policies of Japan and South Korea differ fundamentally.
The 10th International Symposium on the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (ISBGMO), Wellington, New Zealand, November 2008.

The Symposium consisted of eight sessions of oral presentations as well as various workshops and poster sessions. This report reviews the presentations in the following sessions and discusses the main conclusions and issues arising from each session: Session 1: Biosafety - experience and results Session 2: Introgression, invasion and fitness Session 3: Biotic and abiotic stress resistance Session 4: GM animals Session 5: Effects of GM crops on soil ecosystems Session 7: Biocontainment methods Session 8: Post market environmental monitoring Abstracts of the presentations in these sessions are available at: http://www.isbgmo. info/assets_/isbgmo_symposium_handbook. pdf.
Mechanism of product inhibition for cellobiohydrolase Cel7A during hydrolysis of insoluble cellulose

The cellobiohydrolase cellulase Cel7A is extensively utilized in industrial treatment of lignocellulosic biomass under conditions of high product concentrations, and better understanding of inhibition mechanisms appears central in attempts to improve the efficiency of this process. We have implemented an electrochemical biosensor assay for product inhibition studies of cellulases acting on their natural substrate, cellulose. Using this method we measured the hydrolytic rate of Cel7A as a function of both product (inhibitor) concentration and substrate load. This data enabled analyses along the lines of conventional enzyme kinetic theory. We found that the product cellobiose lowered the maximal rate without affecting the Michaelis constant, and this kinetic pattern could be rationalized by two fundamentally distinct molecular mechanisms. One was simple reversibility, that is, an increasing rate of the reverse reaction, lowering the net hydrolytic velocity as product concentrations increase. Strictly this is not a case of inhibition, as no catalytically inactive is formed. The other mechanism that matched the kinetic data was noncompetitive inhibition with an inhibition constant of 490 ± 40 μM. Noncompetitive inhibition implies that the inhibitor binds with comparable strength to either free enzyme or an enzymesubstrate complex, that is, that association between enzyme and substrate has no effect on the binding of the inhibitor. This mechanism is rarely observed, but we argue, that the special architecture of Cel7A with numerous subsites for binding of both substrate and product could give rise to a true noncompetitive inhibition mechanism. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1178–1186. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Bipolar disorder: epidemiology, course, diagnosis, and treatment.

Bipolar affective disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a major public health problem affecting approximately 1% of the U.S. population. Despite the considerable emotional, psychological, and economic cost of this disorder, relatively little research has focused on developing alternative maintenance treatments for bipolar patients. The authors review the epidemiology, course, diagnosis, and current treatment options for those patients with bipolar disorder, then suggest areas for further research.
Serum Response Factor-dependent Regulation of the Smooth Muscle Calponin Gene*

Smooth muscle calponin is a multifunctional, thin filament-associated protein whose expression is restricted to smooth muscle cell lineages in developing and postnatal tissues. Although the physiology of smooth muscle calponin has been studied extensively, thecis-elements governing its restricted pattern of expression have yet to be identified. Here we report on smooth muscle-specific enhancer activity within the first intron of smooth muscle calponin. Sequence analysis revealed a proximal consensus intronic CArG box and two distal intronic CArG-like elements, each of which bound recombinant serum response factor (SRF) as well as immunoreactive SRF from smooth muscle nuclear extracts. Site-directed mutagenesis studies suggested that the consensus CArG box mediates much of the intronic enhancer activity; mutating all three CArG elements abolished the ability of SRF to confer enhancer activity on the smooth muscle calponin promoter. Cotransfecting a dominant-negative SRF construct attenuated smooth muscle-specific enhancer activity, and transducing smooth muscle cells with adenovirus harboring the dominant-negative SRF construct selectively reduced steady-state expression of endogenous smooth muscle calponin. These results demonstrate an important role for intronic CArG boxes and the SRF protein in the transcriptional control of smooth muscle calponin in vitro.
Plasmodium vivax: gametocyte infectivity of naturally infected Thai adults

SUMMARY Up to 200 laboratory reared Anopheles dirus mosquitoes were fed on each of 496 symptomatic Thai men who had patent, naturally acquired Plasmodium vivax gametocytaemia. Mean gametocyte densities were 455/mm3 (range: 0–3281), geometric mean oocyst number was 9 (0–142), mean frequency of infection was 43% (0–100%), and mean sporozoite number in salivary glands was 9525 (0–285 000). There was little relation between gametocyte density and either oocyst number or frequency of mosquito infection. There were, however, statistically strong positive correlations between oocyst numbers and frequency of infection, and between number of oocysts and number of salivary gland sporozoites. The data suggest that each oocyst contributed about 850 sporozoites to a gland infection.
Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona as a Safety Net: Evidence from Murshidabad District of West Bengal

This paper assesses the role of Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona (SGSY), a government sponsored microfinance programme, as a safety net. The initial survey was conducted in 2006 in Murshidabad District of West Bengal, India while the same households were surveyed again in 2008. The results show that the programme is well designed to restrict the decline of transient poor or to uplift the chronic poor from below the poverty line. However, there are serious lacunas in implementing the programme. As a result, the SGSY programme as a safety net has failed to fully deliver anticipated benefits to the programme participants. The picture becomes worse if one measures the targeting efficiency of the programme. It is revealed that the “programme” suffers from both inclusion and exclusion errors. The study, however, suffers from the conventional errors of sampling and the limited time frame may not be adequate to measure the full efficacy of the programme.
Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibit a range of virulence for mice

A panel of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, several of which were resistant to one or more antimycobacterial drugs, were tested for their capacity to give rise to active disease following aerogenic infection of normal immunocompetent mice. The panel exhibited a range of virulence in this model, which followed no clear trend in terms of geographical source, degree of drug resistance, or rate of growth in vitro. Several isolates grew very quickly over the first 20 days in mouse lungs before being contained by emerging immunity. In view of this latter observation, we hypothesize that it is possible that such so-called fast growers may be responsible for the rapid fatality sometimes seen in immunocompromised patients with tuberculosis. Moreover, the results of the study do not support the belief that increased drug resistance usually associates with loss of virulence of the isolate.
A Quantitative Analysis of Integrated Reporting via CAGR on Publicly Traded U.S. Corporations Listed in the S & P 500

The business environment continues to change and evolve at a rapid pace, and the reporting process by which organizations communicate performance to external stakeholder must also change and adapt. As both financial and non-financial stakeholder become increasingly interested in not only the financial results of the organization, but how these results are achieved, management teams must take appropriate steps. Incorporating both the operational and financial results of the organization into data communicated to internal and external users remains a fiduciary responsibility of management professionals across industry lines. Integrated reporting, although not a panacea for short-termism and other pressures on organizations, does provide a vehicle for more comprehensive financial reporting. This research examines both the literature and academic support for integrated reporting, and, as of the date of this research, implications that adopting such a framework has a financial performance.
Biliary tract cancers: current concepts and controversies

Biliary tract cancer, which consists of gall bladder cancer and cholangio-carcinoma, presents many challenges to practising physicians. It is a relatively rare cancer that often causes a diagnostic dilemma, as its presentation may be similar to that of non-malignant conditions. In many cases, histological or cytological confirmation of a cancer diagnosis is not possible preoperatively. The management of this disease is also complex due to a morbid patient population and limited data on the optimal therapeutic approach. Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment, although the extent of resection required is still debated. The role of adjuvant therapy is also controversial, but a combined modality approach appears to be beneficial in patients with a high risk of recurrence, such as those with node positive tumors or positive resection margins. When surgery is not possible, the prognosis of patients with biliary tract cancer is very poor. In unresectable patients, the combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy can result in a prolonged survival for some patients. In the palliative setting, biliary stenting and other supportive measures can alleviate symptoms and improve survival. Gemcitabine-based combination chemotherapy may also provide successful palliation and has achieved response rates of ~ 30% and a median survival of > 15 months in one study. Ultimately, treatment decisions should be individualised and participation in clinical trials is encouraged. Further progress in the management of biliary tract cancer is anticipated using biological therapies and continued research is essential to discover the optimal treatment for this challenging disease.
Protective Effects of Antiplacental Growth Factor Antibody Against Light-Induced Retinal Damage in Mice.

PURPOSE Placental growth factor (PlGF) is part of the VEGF family and is known to be involved in angiogenesis, vasopermeability, and neuroprotection. Recently, PlGF has been reported as a novel therapeutic target for wet AMD. However, there are few reports about the effect of PlGF against dry AMD. Previously, we reported that PlGF has protective effects against retinal neuronal cell damage in vitro. Therefore, we investigated the effects of PlGF against photoreceptor degeneration. METHODS In this study, mice were exposed to white light at 8000 lx for 3 hours to induce retinal damage, which was evaluated by recording the electroretinogram amplitude and measuring the outer nuclear layer (ONL) thickness. The mice were injected intravitreally with PlGF before light exposure, PlGF after light exposure, or anti-PlGF antibody before light exposure. RPE-choroid-sclera flat mounts were immunostained with anti-ZO-1 antibody to evaluate the disruption of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cell-cell junctional integrity after light exposure. Furthermore, the expression of VEGF receptor in the retina and RPE-choroid complex after light exposure was measured using Western blot analysis. RESULTS Contrary to the expected outcome, PlGF treatment exacerbated the light-induced retinal functional damage and ONL thinning. In contrast, anti-PlGF treatment significantly improved the light-induced retinal degeneration. The disruption of RPE cell-cell junctional integrity after light exposure was suppressed by anti-PlGF treatment. Moreover, the VEGF receptor, which is involved in blood-retinal barrier breakdown, was up-regulated after light exposure. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that anti-PlGF antibody has protective effects against light-induced retinal degeneration in the murine retina through inhibition of RPE breakdown after light exposure. Thus, anti-PlGF antibody may be useful therapeutic agents in dry AMD.
Local Product Marketing Strategy (Home Industry) in ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Era

The ASEAN free market era (ASEAN Economic Community) encourages countries that are members of ASEAN organizations to compete globally, including Indonesia. This research is a qualitative research with focus group discussion method (FGD). The subject of this research is home industries that joined in Self Help Group (SHGs) group of 19 groups. These SHGs are chosen because they have high entrepreneurship power. Entrepreneurship is needed as a fundamental force of SHG in order to create a sustainable and growing business. The result of focus group discussion is the formation of the same perception and goals in making the home industry business is survive and sustainable through several strategies. Some of the strategies adopted based on FGD results are marketing strategy through exhibition both national and international. This strategy is expected to introduce local products from home industry in the eyes of the world to face MEA competition. This will increase local wisdom value in the era of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
Towards a better understanding of protected-area management costs

Title: Towards a better understanding of protected-area management costs 1 2 Article type: Methods 3 4 Authors: Ian D. Craigie1* craigie.ian@gmail.com 5 Robert L. Pressey1 bob.pressey@jcu.edu. au 6 7 Affiliations: 8 1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, 9 Queensland 4811, Australia 10 11 *Corresponding Author: Ian Craigie (craigie.ian@gmail.com), +44 (0) 7482 316 520 12 13 14
A Reconsideration of Environmental Federalism

This paper provides a review and assessment of the debate over environmental federalism-the issue of the roles of different levels of government in environmental management. The paper begins with the presentation of three benchmark cases that provide a framework for thinking about the issue. It then offers a review, first of the theoretical literature and second of some new, provocative empirical literature on the race to the bottom. The paper contends that there remains, under certain circumstances, an important role for decentralized government in the setting of environmental standards and the design of regulatory programs. The central government, in addition to setting standards for "national" pollutants, has a fundamental contribution to make in supporting research in environmental science and pollution control technology and in providing needed information and guidance to state and local governments.
Simulation of a model microswimmer

We discuss the modelling of a microswimmer that operates in a ‘squirmer’ mode, by means of stochastic rotation dynamics. The squirmer that we model can easily be tuned between a ‘pusher’ and a ‘puller’. We examine the flows produced by the squirmer and find that there is good agreement between both the predicted and simulated velocities of locomotion and the resulting flow field.
IQ as Moderator of Terminal Decline in Perceptual and Motor Speed, Spatial, and Verbal Ability: Testing the Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis in a Population-Based Sample Followed From Age 70 Until Death

Terminal decline (TD) refers to acceleration in within-person cognitive decline prior to death. The cognitive reserve hypothesis postulates that individuals with higher IQ are able to better tolerate age-related increase in brain pathologies. On average, they will exhibit a later onset of TD, but once they start to decline, their trajectory is steeper relative to those with lower IQ. We tested these predictions using data from initially nondemented individuals (n = 179) in the H70-study repeatedly measured at ages 70, 75, 79, 81, 85, 88, 90, 92, 95, 97, 99, and 100, or until death, on cognitive tests of perceptual-and-motor-speed and spatial and verbal ability. We quantified IQ using the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) test administrated at age 70. We fitted random change point TD models to the data, within a Bayesian framework, conditioned on IQ, age of death, education, and sex. In line with predictions, we found that 1 additional standard deviation on the IQ scale was associated with a delay in onset of TD by 1.87 (95% highest density interval [HDI; 0.20, 4.08]) years on speed, 1.96 (95% HDI [0.15, 3.54]) years on verbal ability, but only 0.88 (95% HDI [−0.93, 3.49]) year on spatial ability. Higher IQ was associated with steeper rate of decline within the TD phase on measures of speed and verbal ability, whereas results on spatial ability were nonconclusive. Our findings provide partial support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis and demonstrate that IQ can be a significant moderator of cognitive change trajectories in old age.
94-GHz Broadband Transition from Coplanar Waveguide to Substrate Integrated Image Guide (SIIG)

This paper presents a novel transition for the 94-GHz range between coplanar waveguide and substrate integrated image guide (SIIG), a synthesized version of the dielectric image guide. It provides low radiation and insertion loss over a 15-GHz bandwidth and its simple construction is compatible with planar integrated circuits. With these properties, it is an ideal interface between millimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuits (MIMICs) and extensive passive components such as antenna arrays, resonators, and bandpass filters, which depend on a low loss technology like SIIG.
Business Strategy, Culture Control and Organizational Performance

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship business strategy, culture control and organizational performance. The data is processed by using a Partial Least Square (PLS). The population consists of middle manager of multinational manufacturing company in Banten. , Sample of this research is middle manager, Using purposive sampling, we select 52 respondents as the sample of this study. The results of this study show that,business strategy significant associated toward culture control and organizational performance. On the other hand, culture control have significant associated with organizational performance. In addition, this research found that culture control can mediated the relationship of business strategy and organizational performance. Index Terms Business Strategy, Culture Control, Organizational Performance, Multinational Manufacturing Company,Banten, Partial Least Square.
Can a reinforcement learning agent practice before it starts learning?

A reinforcement learning (RL) agent needs a fair amount of experience to find a near-optimal policy. Transfer learning has been investigated as a means to reduce the amount of experience required. Transfer learning, however, requires another similar reinforcement learning task as a transfer source, which can also be costly in the amount of experience required. In this research, we examine the possible “practice” approach that transfers knowledge from a non-RL task to a target RL task to avoid the expensive data sampling. We analyze how practice captures the distributions of state and action spaces in an environment. For this, we develop a novel learning approach that acquires important samples from practice and then applies them to a target RL task without changing learned bases. Results show an improved learning efficiency through practice in classical benchmark problems and limitations in OpenAI Gym problems.