Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Focus on Tax Avoidance and Financial Ratio Analysis

This study is an attempt to find a causal relation between financial ratios and tax avoidance. Aside from direct financial responsibilities, we conjecture that firms that avoid taxes will also face indirect negative financial repercussions, such as degradation of their reputation in the investment market. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility) activities are reflected in the market as firms make a commitment to society, and investors perceive a positive value in an investment in such firms. Between the two contradictory drivers, tax avoidance and CSR activities, we seek to find their interplaying relation with financial ratios. From this study, tax authorities can regulate firms that engage in tax avoidance and encourage firms to conduct CSR activities. We summarize our findings as below: First, CSR activities deter tax avoidance, specifically in firms that are actively engaged in CSR. On the other hand, passive involvement in CSR does not have any influence on tax avoidance. Secondly, we find that current asset turnover, the labor-to-equipment ratio, the noncurrent liabilities ratio, and the net income-to-equity ratio all have a positive and significant influence on corporate tax avoidance. Conversely, common equity growth has been shown to be negatively related with corporate tax avoidance. From this empirical study, we contribute to the studies on tax avoidance by showing that there can be a voluntary method to reduce corporate tax avoidance in firms, which is by encouraging them to engage in CSR activities.
Improved V/f control strategy for microgrids based on master–slave control mode

The V/f control adopted by the master power supply has problems of slow dynamic response, poor anti-interference ability in response to micro-source output power fluctuations and loads abrupt change. Aiming at problems of the output voltage mentioned above, an improved V/f control strategy based on compound control is proposed in this study. The improved V/f control strategy is composed of two parts, feedforward compensation and robust feedback control. The design of the feedforward compensator is realised by the method of approximate full compensation. The design of the robust feedback controller is transformed into solving a convex optimisation problem with linear matrix inequality constraints and linear objective functions. The designed V/f control strategy is verified by a variety of comparative tests. Test comparisons show that the controller can get better voltage output characteristics, dynamic characteristics and robustness in response to micro-source output power fluctuations, loads abrupt change or non-linear loads and unbalanced loads.
Prevalence of HIV-1 subtype O infection in Cameroon: preliminary results.

Reported here are the results of a serum study to determine the prevalence of HIV-1 subtype O infections in select individuals in Cameroon. Also evaluated were some rapid screening assays used to detect HIV-1 subtype O antibodies. Participants were recruited from many locations; serum samples were from pregnant women patients at hospitals commercial sex workers cluster sampling of the general populace army recruits and individuals attending a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic. Sera were tested for HIV-1 and HIV-2 using the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) 1 + 2 a second generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and EIA 5180 an indirect ELISA. All positives were retested and then discriminated using the Clonatec HIV 1 + 2 antibody EIA. HIV-1 subtype O infections were suspected if EIA 1 + 2 was positive and/or EIA 5180 was positive and the Clonatec EIA 1 + 2 was negative or weakly positive. Of the 21 patients surveyed all tested positive using EIA 5180; 20 of 21 were positive using EIA 1 + 2; 15 of 20 were Clonatec EIA negative while 6 were weakly positive using Clonatec EIA. This study found that the prevalence of HIV-1 subtype O infection in Cameroon is 2.0% or less. This accounts for less than 10% of all HIV-1 cases in Cameroon. HIV-2 was not found in this study of 2868 people; prevalence of HIV-1 subtype O among the same sample was 0.6% (16/2868). Risk factors associated with HIV-1 subtype O appear to be similar to those of classic HIV infections and include tuberculosis and sexual promiscuity. The issue of vertical transmission of HIV-1 subtype O in pregnant women was raised by the author.
Postoperative Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy Improved Survival in Lymph Node-Positive or Stage III Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze the effect of postoperative intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) on recurrence and survival in lymph node-positive or stage III thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TESCC) patients, and evaluate its role in TESCC therapy. Methods: We enrolled 538 patients who underwent radical resection with (S + R) or without (S) postoperative IMRT. The median total postoperative IMRT dose was 60 Gy. The Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and chi-square test were used for survival rate calculation, univariate analysis, and sites of failure analysis, respectively. Results: The 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival rates were 32.7 and 27.3%, respectively. The 5-year OS rates of lymph node-positive S and S + R patients were 28.4 and 38.8%, respectively (p < 0.001). The 5-year OS rates of stage III S and S + R patients were 24.0 and 38.0%, respectively (p = 0.001). Postoperative IMRT resulted in significantly decreased intrathoracic and supraclavicular recurrence, and obviously delayed median local recurrence and systemic metastases. Systemic metastases increased following postoperative IMRT. Conclusion: Postoperative IMRT reduces local recurrence and improves survival in lymph node-positive or stage III TESCC patients, providing a rationale for selection criteria for postoperative IMRT in TESCC.
Efficient m-ary balanced codes which are invariant under symbol permutation

A symbol permutation invariant balanced (SPI-balanced) code over the alphabet Zopfm = {0, 1, . , m - 1} is a block code over Zopfm such that each alphabet symbol occurs as many times as any other symbol in every codeword. For this reason, every permutation among the symbols of the alphabet changes an SPI-balanced code into an SPI-balanced code. This means that SPI-balanced words are "the most balanced" among all possible m-ary balanced word types and this property makes them very attractive from the application perspective. In particular, they can be used to achieve m-ary DC-free communication, to detect/correct asymmetric/unidirectional errors on the m-ary asymmetric/unidirectional channel, to achieve delay-insensitive communication, to maintain data integrity in digital optical disks, and so on. This paper gives some efficient methods to convert (encode) m-ary information sequences into m-ary SPI-balanced codes whose redundancy is equal to roughly double the minimum possible redundancy rmin. It is proven that rmin sime [(m - 1)/2]logm n - (1/2)[1 - (1/log2pi m)]m - (1/log2pi m) for any code which converts k information digits into an SPI-balanced code of length n = k + r. For example, the first method given in the paper encodes k information digits into an SPI-balanced code of length n = k + r, with r = (m - 1) logm k + O(m logm logm k). A second method is a recursive method, which uses the first as base code and encodes k digits into an SPI-balanced code of length n = k + r, with r sime (m - 1) logm n - logm[(m - 1)! ]
DNA variation and language affinities.

Populations tend to diverge genetically because of genetic drift, but their differences are reduced by the exchange of individuals or gametes—in brief, by gene flow. The evolutionary weight of drift depends on a property of each single population—its effective size. Conversely, the rate—and, therefore, the impact—of gene flow depends on the relationships between populations. Geographers say that everything is related to everything else but that close objects are more closely related than distant objects.
Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss: An Analysis of Audiograms

We examined features of the audiograms of 136 individuals, from 28 families, affected by nonsyndromic genetic hearing loss. There were 83 (12 families) with autosomal dominant (AD) loss, 50 (15 families) with autosomal recessive (AR) loss, and 3 (1 family) with X-linked recessive loss. The main audiogram shapes found were sloping (50.3%), residual (26.5%), and flat (21.0%). Specific shapes (ascending and U-shaped) only occurred in 3.7% of AD cases. Audiogram shapes were found to be significantly different between AD and AR families, and showed intrafamilial and interfamilial variability. In the AR group, the main shapes were residual and sharply sloping, and in the AD group, sharply sloping, flat, and gently sloping. There was a significant difference in the degree of hearing loss between AD and AR types, with AD being milder than AR. It has been shown that there is more marked intrafamilial variation in the degree of hearing loss in AD families than in AR ones. The results suggest that the audiograms of nonsyndromic hearing loss are usually nonspecific and that counseling of family members would be better based on the specific family's condition rather than on group information.
Child-Langmuir Law for a Planar Diode Filled With a Two-Layer Dielectric

We considered the steady states of the electron beam in a planar diode filled with a two-layer dielectric. The exact mathematical formulas describing the distribution of the electrostatic potential and the electron beam current density limited by its own space charge were obtained (Child-Langmuir law for a two-layer diode).
Bovine mastitis: milk compositional changes and related diagnostic tests

Colonization of the bovine mammary gland by pathogenic bacteria results in a series of events which lead to major alterations in the composition of the milk secreted from the tissue cells (Schalm, Carroll & Jain, 1971). Initially, elevated levels of pathogenic bacteria occur, but this is closely followed by marked increases in the number of somatic cells present (Neave, 1975). Associated with this disease-combating response of the animal, a wide range of related effects occurs. For instance, total milk yield falls (Shaw & Beam, 1935) as a result of impaired synthetic ability of the secretory tissue, and marked changes occur in the levels of nearly all major and minor constituents of the milk. These compositional changes reflect the degree of damage caused to the cells and to the complex array of blood capillaries by the pathogen (Schultz, 1977). Some of these compositional changes (e.g. somatic cell level and certain enzyme levels), are more marked than others and thus they have been used as a basis for designing rapid diagnostic tests for udder infection, suitable for use in large scale monitoring programmes (Heeschen, 1975; Spencer & Simon, 1960; Kitchen, Middleton & Salmon, 19786). This review is designed to provide an up-to-date account of compositional changes occurring in milk as a result of bacterial invasion of the udder, together with recent advances and trends in diagnostic testing. Also, a summary of the current views on the technological implications of altered milk composition caused by mastitis is included. No attempt is made to review the area of bacteriological testing. Some excellent books and monographs have been published which give a detailed account of various other aspects of bovine mastitis and contain many references to earlier work in this field, and the reader is referred to these for further background information (Schalm el al. 1971; Newbould, 1974; Giesecke & Van Den Heever, 1974).
Bubbles in galactic haloes

We briefly discuss a possible interconnection of vertical HI structures observed in the Milky Way Galaxy with large scale blow-outs caused by the explosions of multiple clustered SNe. We argue that the observed OB associations can produce only about 60 such events, or approximately one chimney per 3 kpc$^2$ within the solar circle. We also discuss the overall properties of HI shells in nearby face-on galaxies and the distribution of H$\alpha$ and dust in edge-on galaxies. We argue that the presence of dust in galactic haloes may indicate that radiation pressure is the most probable mechanism capable of transporting dust to large heights above the galactic plane. In order to make this possible, the galactic magnetic field must have a strong vertical component. We mention that SNe explosions can initiate the Parker instability which in turn creates large scale magnetic loops with a strong vertical component. Recent observations of nearby edge-on galaxies favour this suggestion.
Comparative evaluation and case studies of shared-memory and data-parallel execution patterns

Shared-memory and data-parallel programming models are two important paradigms for scientific applications. Both models provide high-level program abstractions, and simple and uniform views of network structures. The common features of the two models significantly simplify program coding and debugging for scientific applications. However, the underlining execution and overhead patterns are significantly different between the two models due to their programming constraints, and due to different and complex structures of interconnection networks and systems which support the two models. We performed this experimental study to present implications and comparisons of execution patterns on two commercial architectures. We implemented a standard electromagnetic simulation program (EM) and a linear system solver using the shared-memory model on the KSR-1 and the data-parallel model on the CM-5. Our objectives are to examine the execution pattern changes required for an implementation transformation between the two modelss to study memory access patternss to address scalability issuess and to investigate relative costs and advantages/disadvantages of using the two models for scientific computations. Our results indicate that the EM program tends to become computation-intensive in the KSR-1 shared-memory system, and memory-demanding in the CM-5 data-parallel system when the systems and the problems are scaled. The EM program, a highly data-parallel program performed extremely well, and the linear system solver, a highly control-structured program suffered significantly in the data-parallel model on the CM-5. Our study provides further evidence that matching execution patterns of algorithms to parallel architectures would achieve better performance. [1]This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants CCR-9102854 and CCR-9400719, by the U.S. Air Force under research agreement FD-204092-64157, by Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant AFOSR-95-01-0215, and by a grant from Cray Research. Part of the experiments were conducted on the CM-5 machines in Los Alamos National Laboratory and in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, and on the KSR-1 machines at Cornell University and at the University of Washington.
The role of sialidase in the development of hypocomplementemia in postinfectious acute glomerulonephritis.

The role of sialidase in complement activation and in development of hypocomplementemia in patients with postinfectious acute glomerulonephritis (AGN) was investigated. In sera from 17 patients with AGN and 14 healthy controls, sialidase activity and serum levels of free and total sialic acid were measured by previously established methods. Circulating sialidase activity and serum levels of free and total sialic acid and haptoglobin were increased, and the C3 level was decreased in the acute phase of AGN. There was no correlation between free sialic acid and total sialic acid, which increased in parallel with serum levels of haptoglobin, one of the acute-phase reactants. A follow-up study of these parameters in a typical case reflected this tendency and suggested that increased sialidase after infection, in addition to complement activation by the infectious substance, could play a role in development of hypocomplementemia. To clarify this mechanism, purified neuraminidase was incubated with normal human serum under various conditions. Complement breakdown products were measured in the incubation mixture by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using monoclonal antibodies against iC3b, Bb, and C4d neoantigens. iC3b was generated dose-dependently in the presence of neuraminidase. Further examination revealed that iC3b and Bb were generated in the incubation mixture with neuraminidase and NHS and that C4d was not detected in the same mixture. These findings indicate that neuraminidase activates the alternative complement pathway. These in vitro data, together with the former in vivo data led us to conclude that increased sialidase after infection could accelerate the complement amplification system, resulting in hypocomplementemia in the acute phase of postinfectious AGN.
An Overview of Laws and Standards for Health Information Security and Privacy

In the complex technological world that healthcare organizations and their business associates operate, there exist security threats and attacks which render individually identifiable health information vulnerable. Laws exist to ensure that healthcare providers take practical measures to address the security and privacy needs of health information. There are also standards that assist healthcare entities to meet the security and privacy requirements of health information. This paper provides a chronological overview of U.S. laws and standards related to health information security and privacy, such as HIPAA, SarbanesOxley Act, HITECH, COBIT, ISO/IEC 27002 2005, and CSF.
Chronic auditory hallucinations in schizophrenic patients: MR analysis of the coincidence between functional and morphologic abnormalities.

PURPOSE To prospectively evaluate if functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging abnormalities associated with auditory emotional stimuli coexist with focal brain reductions in schizophrenic patients with chronic auditory hallucinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS Institutional review board approval was obtained and all participants gave written informed consent. Twenty-one right-handed male patients with schizophrenia and persistent hallucinations (started to hear hallucinations at a mean age of 23 years +/- 10, with 15 years +/- 8 of mean illness duration) and 10 healthy paired participants (same ethnic group [white], age, and education level [secondary school]) were studied. Functional echo-planar T2*-weighted (after both emotional and neutral auditory stimulation) and morphometric three-dimensional gradient-recalled echo T1-weighted MR images were analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM2) software. Brain activation images were extracted by subtracting those with emotional from nonemotional words. Anatomic differences were explored by optimized voxel-based morphometry. The functional and morphometric MR images were overlaid to depict voxels statistically reported by both techniques. A coincidence map was generated by multiplying the emotional subtracted functional MR and volume decrement morphometric maps. Statistical analysis used the general linear model, Student t tests, random effects analyses, and analysis of covariance with a correction for multiple comparisons following the false discovery rate method. RESULTS Large coinciding brain clusters (P < .005) were found in the left and right middle temporal and superior temporal gyri. Smaller coinciding clusters were found in the left posterior and right anterior cingular gyri, left inferior frontal gyrus, and middle occipital gyrus. CONCLUSION The middle and superior temporal and the cingular gyri are closely related to the abnormal neural network involved in the auditory emotional dysfunction seen in schizophrenic patients.
Influence of age at drinking onset on long-term ethanol self-administration with deprivation and stress phases.

BACKGROUND Onset of alcohol use during adolescence has potentially long-lasting consequences, e.g., prospective alcohol dependence. To obtain new insight into the effects of early chronic ethanol consumption, we compared the drinking behavior of two adult male Wistar rat groups: one that initiated alcohol consumption during adolescence (adolescent group) and the other that initiated their drinking during adulthood (adult group) in a model of long-term alcohol self-administration. We investigated the magnitude of the effects of deprivation and stress on alcohol intake and the influence of these events on the alcohol drinking behavior across time. METHODS Heterogeneous Wistar rats aged 31 days (adolescents) and 71 days (adults) were given ad libitum access to water, as well as 5% and 20% ethanol solutions during an observation period of 30 wk. A deprivation phase of 14 days was instituted after eight wk of access to alcohol. After 16 and 26 wk of alcohol access, all animals were subjected for three consecutive days to forced swimming and electric foot shocks, respectively. RESULTS At the onset of drinking, adolescent animals consumed less alcohol and showed lower preference than adults. The deprivation phase was followed by increased intake of highly concentrated ethanol solution without appreciable differences between age groups. Repeated swim stress produced a slight increase in ethanol consumption in both animal groups; however, alcohol intake was not significantly different between groups, whereas the foot shock stress-induced increase in alcohol intake was significantly higher in the animal group that initiated alcohol consumption during adolescence. After swim stress, the drinking behavior of the adolescent group resembled that of the adult group. In particular, the adolescent group increased their preference for 20% ethanol solution for the remainder of the experiment. CONCLUSIONS Age of voluntary alcohol drinking onset does not appear to be a strong predictor for prospective alcohol intake and relapse-like drinking behavior under the present experimental conditions. However, male Wistar rats that initiated alcohol consumption during adolescence seem to be more susceptible to acute stressor-specific effects in terms of alcohol consumption.
Mutants of Streptococcus suis types 1 and 2 impaired in expression of muramidase-released protein and extracellular protein induce disease in newborn germfree pigs

The contribution of muramidase-released protein (MRP) and extracellular factor (EF) to the virulence of Streptococcus suis type 1 and 2 infections was studied. For that aim, we constructed mutants of S. suis types 1 and 2 by inactivating the genes encoding MRP and EF. Moreover, we changed a type 2 strain producing the 110-kDa EF protein into a strain producing a modified protein (EF*) of increased molecular mass. The chromosomally located mrp and epf genes were inactivated by replacement recombination by using nonreplicative plasmids. Newborn germfree pigs were inoculated with pathogenic type 1 and 2 strains and with the isogenic mutant strains. Wild-type as well as mutant strains induced fever, specific signs of disease, and lesions. Moreover, all mutant strains could be reisolated from the central nervous system of infected pigs. These results showed that inactivation or alteration of the mrp and epj genes had no measurable effect on the pathogenicity of S. suis types 1 and 2.