Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of compliance and disclosure requirements by top listed companies under Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (2012)

This study examines the compliance and disclosure levels of corporate governance practices of Malaysian firms under the MCCG 2012. Additionally, the study aims to deepen our understanding of the main drivers of corporate governance reporting in one of the fast developing countries in Asia. Data for 84 top companies listed with Bursa Malaysia are extracted from their 2013 annual reports. Sixty-four corporate governance disclosure items are utilised to develop a disclosure index which is taken as the dependent variable. The overall voluntary compliance and disclosure in Malaysia's top listed companies is good with an average of 77.1%, with minimum compliance level being 50% and maximum being 90%. Firm characteristics and corporate governance mechanisms are taken as the independent variables. Using OLS regression, the study finds that board size, institutional ownership, foreign ownership, profitability, and auditor size are the main determinants of corporate governance disclosure in Malaysia under MCCG 2012. The paper contributes to literature on disclosure and the reported findings are broadly consistent with the notion that good corporate governance generally leads to better corporate disclosure and transparency in developing capital markets.
The structure and innervation of the male urethra: histological and immunohistochemical studies with three‐dimensional reconstruction

The structure of the striated urethral sphincter, the so‐called rhabdosphincter, remains the subject of controversy. There are two main concepts regarding its structure: either it is a part of the urogenital diaphragm, or it extends from the base of the bladder up to the urogenital diaphragm and is an integral part of the urethra. It is also uncertain whether it possesses a somatic innervation or a mixed innervation (i.e. autonomic and somatic). The purpose of this study was to show the precise location of the nerves running to the urethra, and to try to determine their exact nature. Histology and immunohistochemistry were performed in the external urethral sphincter of ten male fetuses (114–342 mm crown–rump length, or between 14 and 40 weeks of gestation). A three‐dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the urethral structure and its innervation was made from serial sections. The 3D reconstruction of the same section levels with different strains allowed us to identify the precise structure of the muscle layers (smooth and striated muscle fibres) and the nature of the nerve elements (myelinated and unmyelinated), their distributions and their relationship to the urethral wall, the prostate and the seminal vesicles. Histological and immunohistochemical 3D reconstruction of the anatomical elements of the urethral sphincter helps us to understand the 3D arrangement of the sphincter muscle layers. It also provides a better understanding of the origin and nature of the nerve elements that play a role in urinary continence.
Discrimination and other barriers to employment for teens and young adults with disabilities

Purpose. Having a disability is a barrier to securing and maintaining employment. Most research has focussed on employment barriers among adults, while very little is known about young people's experience finding paid work. Method. Young people aged 15–24 were selected from the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey to explore the barriers and discrimination they experienced in seeking employment ((n == 1898)). Results. Our findings show that teens and young adults with disabilities encountered several barriers and discrimination in seeking paid employment. The types of barriers that these young people encountered varied by age and type of disability. There were fewer yet different types of barriers to working that were encountered between the two age groups ((teens and young adults)). Several socio-demographic factors also influenced barriers to working. Severity of disability, type and duration of disability, level of education, gender, low income, geographic location and the number of people living in the household all influenced the kind of barriers and work discrimination for these young people. Conclusions. Rehabilitation and life skills counsellors need to pay particular attention to age, type of disability and socio-demographic factors of teens and young adults who may need extra help in gaining employment.
A CMOS Chip With Active Pixel Array and Specific Test Features for Subretinal Implantation

This paper presents a CMOS imager chip that is aimed at subretinal implantation for partially restoring human vision. It has low supply voltage (plusmn 2 V) and all DC free terminals for long life wired operation. Stimulation voltage is increased to approximately 4 Vpp by low voltage drop design. 40 x 40 pixel cells including light sensors, amplifiers, control logic and electrode drivers are addressed sequentially to improve power consumption and spatial resolution of perception. Pad count is limited to 6, which requires a specific test procedure. The 3 x 3 mm2 design is fabricated in a 0.35 mum CMOS technology optimized for optical performance.
Design and Analysis of PADSR Protocol for Routing in MANETs

A mobile ad hoc network is a collection of nodes with no pre-established infrastructure. As the network management functions are performed by the mobile nodes themselves, every node participating in the network is heavily burdened with transmissions and processing operations for the maintenance of the network, apart from its own intended ones for establishing / answering a call. Considering the limited processing ability, storage capacity and most importantly the available battery power of the nodes, it is required to minimize the transmission power and the amount of data transmitted, for efficient operation. This paper presents a power aware routing protocol aptly designed, implemented and tested for a mobile ad hoc network of small to medium size (10 to 100 nodes). The basic protocol is chosen as Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) considering its excellent performance in small to medium sized ad hoc networks. The DSR protocol is then enhanced with power awareness using the Location Aided Power Aware Routing (LAPAR) algorithm. The performance of DSR protocol and Power Aware DSR (PADSR) protocol are compared through simulation. It is seen that PADSR protocol out-performs DSR protocol by a power saving of as much as 30%
Identification of insulin-stimulated protein kinase-1 as the rabbit equivalent of rskmo-2. Identification of two threonines phosphorylated during activation by mitogen-activated protein kinase.

An improved procedure has been developed for the isolation of insulin-stimulated protein kinase-1 (ISPK-1), an S6 kinase-II homologue, by which 0.5 mg highly purified enzyme can be obtained within four days. The sequences of tryptic peptides from ISPK-1 (100 residues) revealed 100% identity with the predicted protein product of rskmo-2, a cDNA clone isolated from a mouse F2 cell line library [Alcorta, D. A. , Crews, C. M. , Sweet, L. J., Bankston, L. , Jones, S. W. and Erikson, R. L. (1989) Mol. Cell. Biol. 9, 3850-3859], demonstrating that rskmo-2 encodes an S6 kinase-II. Two isoforms of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (p42mapk and p44mapk) were the only ISPK-1-reactivating enzymes detected after Mono Q chromatography of extracts prepared from rabbit skeletal muscle or phaeochromocytoma 12 cells stimulated by nerve or epidermal growth factors. One of the residues on ISPK-1 phosphorylated by p42mapk was a threonine located nine residues N-terminal to the conserved Ala-Pro-Glu motif in the C-terminal protein kinase domain, an analogous location to phosphorylation sites essential for the activity of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, MAP kinase and p34cdc2. A further threonine located five residues N-terminal to the same Ala-Pro-Glu motif was also phosphorylated, probably via autophosphorylation catalysed by ISPK-1 itself.
Unified Unbalanced Synchronous Reference Frame Current Control for Single-Phase Grid-Connected Voltage-Source Converters

This paper presents a unified structure of the unbalanced synchronous reference current control strategies for single-phase grid-tied voltage-source converters to obtain a zero steady-state error in the line current. An arbitrary waveform is used as the orthogonal current for the stationary to rotating frame axis transformation of the reference and measured grid currents. Various choices of such orthogonal signals lead to different control structures with the same performance characteristics. This causes a temporary unbalanced system, in which double-line frequency components appear in the control loops during the transient state. The proposed method with cross-axis decoupling, tuned at the control loop bandwidth by greater than eight times the grid frequency, has better performance than the existing virtual balanced synchronous reference frame scheme. Absence of the orthogonal signal generation guarantees the stability criterion of the control scheme. A zero steady-state error is still achieved under conditions of uncertainty in the converter parameters. Simulation and experimental results of a 1.5-kVA pulse width modulation rectifier validate the proposed methodology.
Structure, genetic localization, and identification of the cardiac and skeletal muscle transcripts of the human integrin alpha7 gene (ITGA7).

We have determined the structure and the exon size pattern of the human integrin alpha7 subunit gene (ITGA7), which has been shown to be affected in a form of congenital myopathy. The gene is composed of at least 27 exons spanning a region of about 22.5 kb. The sequence of all exon/intron boundaries was determined and conforms to the GT/AG splicing consensus. We investigated the different splicing forms previously described in human and rodents. The major cytoplasmic variants alpha7A and alpha7B, which are developmentally regulated and tissue specific, were identified in human tissues, as well as the extracellular isoforms X1 and X2. The recently described D variant was detected in adult tissues by RT-PCR but not the C variant. We localized ITGA7 on chromosome 12q13 by high-resolution radiation hybrid mapping between D12S312 and D12S90 and identified a new CA-repeat microsatellite in intron 1.
Home, Heart, and Being Latina

The authors examine an emergent association between low-income Mexican mothers’ control of housing and power relations in their romantic unions. Guided by valued resource theory, and mothers’ lived racial, ethnic, and gender experiences of navigating access to housing and sustaining intimate unions, the authors used secondary longitudinal ethnographic data on 29 low-income mothers of Mexican descent as exemplar cases to explore (1) mothers’ housing dependencies as they transitioned from their natal homes to coresidential housing with romantic partners, (2) the factors that differentially shaped mothers’ housing options, and (3) how mothers’ control of housing procurement influenced their intimate relationship power. The findings suggest that mothers followed one of five housing dependency pathways, with 25 percent securing housing independently. Most traversed complex and transient levels of dependence on their partners for housing with immigrants and native-born Mexican Americans evincing nuanced differences in their relationship power depending on their housing situations. In most cases, regardless of their national origin (Mexico or the U.S.), mothers’ control of housing procurement directly corresponded to increased relationship power. The importance of considering the impact of race/ethnicity on housing and women’s power in Latino families in future research is also discussed.
A Single Surgeon’s 12-Year Experience with Tissue Expander/Implant Breast Reconstruction: Part I. A Prospective Analysis of Early Complications

Background: Multiple prior reports are conflicted regarding the true incidence of complications following implant-based breast reconstruction. A review of a single surgeon's extensive experience with tissue expander/implant reconstruction provides the opportunity to critically evaluate outcomes in a uniformly treated patient population. The objective of this study was to analyze the development of early complications in patients following two-stage implant breast reconstruction. Methods: A review of all tissue expander/implant reconstructions performed by a single surgeon over the 12-year period from July of 1992 to June of 2004 was performed. A prospectively maintained database was analyzed with respect to reconstructive and early complication data on 1522 reconstructions in 1221 patients. Early complications were defined as those occurring 12 months or less from initiation of reconstruction. Results: The overall rate of early complications was 5.8 percent; the rate of premature expander removal was 2.7 percent. The most common complication was infection (2.5 percent). The incidence of complications after tissue expander insertion (8.5 percent) was significantly higher than that after the exchange procedure (2.7 percent). The rate of complications was significantly higher in patients with a history of preoperative chest wall irradiation. There was no difference in the incidence of complications in patients who were expanded during chemotherapy and those who were not. Conclusions: Tissue expander/implant reconstruction is a safe, reliable method of reconstruction with minimal early complications. Early complications are more common after expander insertion. Chemotherapy administered during tissue expansion does not increase the rate of complications. The rate of complications, although higher in previously irradiated patients, remains low.
A real-time 3D hair animation system for human-computer interaction

In view of the 3D hair animation for human computer interaction, a real-time hair animation system is proposed based on the physical model. Firstly, the spring hinge coefficients of joints are transformed from the blending stiffness by combining the large deflection deformation model and spring hinge model, and then the traditional hair strand motion model, which is only applicable to the straight hair, is extended to the complicated hair motion. Secondly, by presenting hairs with large number of particles and dividing the hair space into some sub-spaces as well, the hair-hair interaction is simulated by estimating the possibilities of particle collisions according to the density of particles in a sub-space based on some constraint conditions. Finally, after simulating of the collision between hair and body, the hair animation is synthesized. The experimental results demonstrated the system can synthesize realistic and complicated hair motion in real-time.
Utility of tumor markers in determining resectability of pancreatic cancer.

HYPOTHESIS Despite advances in preoperative radiologic imaging, a significant fraction of potentially resectable pancreatic cancers are found to be unresectable at laparotomy. We tested the hypothesis that preoperative serum levels of CA19-9 (cancer antigen) and carcinoembryonic antigen will identify patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer despite radiologic staging demonstrating resectable disease. DESIGN AND SETTING Academic tertiary care referral center. PATIENTS From March 1, 1996, to July 31, 2002, 125 patients were identified who underwent surgical exploration for potentially resectable pancreatic cancer based on a preoperative computed tomographic scan; in 89 of them a preoperative tumor marker had been measured. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Preoperative tumor markers (CA19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen) were correlated with extent of disease at exploration. As CA19-9 is excreted in the biliary system, CA19-9 adjusted for the degree of hyperbilirubinemia was determined and analyzed. RESULTS Of the 89 patients, 40 (45%) had localized disease and underwent resection, 25 (28%) had locally advanced (unresectable) disease, and 24 (27%) had metastatic disease. The mean adjusted CA19-9 level was significantly lower in those with localized disease than those with locally advanced (63 vs 592; P =.003) or metastatic (63 vs 1387; P<.001) disease. When a threshold adjusted CA19-9 level of 150 was used, the positive predictive value for determination of unresectable disease was 88%. Carcinoembryonic antigen level was not correlated with extent of disease. CONCLUSIONS Among the patients with resectable pancreatic cancer based on preoperative imaging studies, those with abnormally high serum levels of CA19-9 may have unresectable disease. These patients may benefit from additional staging modalities such as diagnostic laparoscopy to avoid unnecessary laparotomy.
Patent foramen ovale closure in recreational divers: effect on decompression illness and ischaemic brain lesions during long-term follow-up

Objective To test the effect of patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure on neurological events in divers. Design Prospective, non-randomised, longitudinal three-arm study. Setting Tertiary referral centre. Population 104 scuba divers with a history of major decompression illness (DCI). Intervention Transcutaneous PFO closure. Main outcome measures Baseline and three follow-up examinations with a questionnaire about health status and diving habits/accidents, transoesophageal echocardiography at baseline for PFO grading, cerebral MRI at all examinations. Results 39 divers had no PFO, 26 had a PFO and chose to undergo percutaneous closure and 39 had a PFO, but decided not to undergo closure. The total number of dives, including those performed before baseline and those during long-term follow-up, was 81 654; 18 394 dives during the follow-up period of 5.3±0.3 years, during which there were a total of five major neurological DCI events–namely 0 in the no PFO group, 0.5±2.5/104 dives in the PFO closure group and 35.8±102.5/104 dives in the PFO no closure group (four events; p=0.045 between the PFO groups). In the groups, no PFO, PFO closure and PFO no closure, there were 1.1±2.6, 0.8±1.4, 3.3±6.9 ischaemic brain lesions, respectively, at follow-up (p=0.039 between the PFO groups)—that is, 16±42/104 dives in the no PFO group, 6±13/104 dives in the PFO closure group and 104±246/104 dives in the PFO no closure group (overall p=0.042; p=0.024 between the PFO groups). Conclusion PFO closure in continuing divers appears to prevent symptomatic (major DCI) and asymptomatic (ischaemic brain lesions) neurological events during long-term follow-up.
Cytokine Production and Monocyte HLA-DR Expression as Predictors of Outcome for Patients with Community-Acquired Severe Infections

ABSTRACT This study was performed to evaluate the impact of pro- and anti-inflammatory molecules and human leukocyte antigen DR (HLA-DR) expression as markers of immune status for the final outcome of septic patients. The study included 30 patients with severe sepsis due to community-acquired infections. Concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-10, and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) in serum, as well as monocyte HLA-DR expression, were determined on admission and on days 3, 10, 13, and 17 during hospitalization. Of the 30 patients enrolled, 13 survived, while 17 died during their hospital stay. All patients had significantly lower HLA-DR expression and higher pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels than healthy individuals. HLA-DR expression was significantly decreased in nonsurvivors at almost all time points. In nonsurvivors, higher levels in serum of TNF-α on days 13 and 17; IL-6 levels on day 3; and IL-10 on days 3, 10, and 13 were found. Baseline levels of TGF-β1 were significantly higher in survivors. Independent risk factors of mortality were IL-10 levels on days 3 and 10, while monocyte HLA-DR expression on admission was a good predictor for survival. Several pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines are oversynthesized during severe infections, especially in patients with a poor outcome. Monocyte HLA-DR expression is an early and constant predictive marker for survival in severe sepsis, while serum IL-10 levels on days 3 and 10 have negative prognostic value for the final outcome.
A Randomised Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Intrathecal Bupivacaine Combined with Different Adjuvants (Fentanyl, Clonidine and Dexmedetomidine) in Caesarean Section

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate comparatively, in women undergoing caesarean section under spinal anesthesia, the effectiveness of hyperbaric bupivacaine combined with 3 different adjuvants (fentanyl, clonidine, and dexmedtomidine) on quality of blockade and maternal and neonatal repercussions. Method: 84 patients undergoing elective surgeries under spinal anesthesia were randomized into 4 groups of 21 each, gB, gBF, gBC and gBD. Patients in groups gb, gBF, gBC and gBD were given bupivacaine alone, bupivacaine plus fentanyl (15.0 µg), bupivacaine plus fentanyl plus clonidine (75 µg), and bupivacaine plus dexmedetomidine (10 µg), respectively. Hemodynamic parameters evaluated were the onset and level of sensory block, perioperative analgesia, degree and recovery time of motor block, duration of analgesia, sedation, and maternal-foetal repercussions. Results: The onset of blockade was significantly faster in groups with adjuvants clonidine and dexmedetomidine compared with gB and gBF. Patients in Groups gB and gBF reported pain during the perioperative period. Duration of analgesia was significantly higher in Group gBD and was comparable to gBC and time to motor block recovery was significantly higher in Group gBD. Sedation was significant in Group gBD and gBC. Conclusion: Addition of dexmedetomidine and clonidine as adjuvants to hyperbaric bupivacaine provided adequate anesthesia and postoperative analgesia compared to fentanyl adjuvant without causing any significant side effects.
Selenium supplementation, baseline plasma selenium status and incidence of prostate cancer: an analysis of the complete treatment period of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial

To present the results (to January 1996, the end of blinded treatment) of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) Trial, a randomized trial of selenium (200 µg daily) designed to test the hypothesis that selenium supplementation (SS) could reduce the risk of recurrent nonmelanoma skin cancer among 1312 residents of the Eastern USA.
Heart growth in broilers

1. Morphological development of the heart in fast-growing, meat-type fowl of both sexes was studied. 2. In 4 experiments, fowl were weighed, killed and hearts were dissected at 0, 20, 34, and 48th d of age. Heart weight (HW), length (HL), diameter (HD), and thickness of the right ventricular wall (RVW) and left ventricular wall (LVW) were determined. 3. This is the first description of sexual dimorphic differences in the heart of fowl. 4. Results indicate that males have greater HW, HL, and LVW thickness than females. However, thickness of the RVW during the embryonic period, as indicated by thickness of the RVW at hatching in females, exceeds that of males.