Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Audit Committee Characteristics and Audit Fee

361 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets of the A stock market during the years 2005 and 2007 chosen as the study sample,this paper aims at the relationship between the Characteristics of the Audit Committee and Audit fees.We find that the active performance of committee members is the inverse correlation while their independence and professionalism play a more active role in high Audit fees.All contributes to one important conclusion that characteristics of the Audit Committee make a certain effect that the Board of Auditors to control the external audit to reduce the risk,thereby affecting the effectiveness of the Audit Committee.
CD4+ T cell-mediated killing of MHC class II-positive antigen-presenting cells. I. Characterization of target cell recognition by in vivo or in vitro activated CD4+ killer T cells.

Ag-specific as well as Ia-restricted killing of certain APC by CD4+ T cells was investigated. The CD4-mediated killing is not only a characteristic of in vitro long term cultured T cell lines or clones, but is also manifest after in vivo priming. Thus, CD4+ killer T cells are generated in vivo as well. CD4+ killer T cells are detected in the Th1, but not in the Th2 subset, and they do not appear to lyse Ia+ APC or bystander cells by a pathway mediated by secreted T cell factors. The latter observation is demonstrated by cold target inhibition experiments as well as by the failure of puromycin to inhibit killing, if applied in doses which completely block lymphokine secretion. Ia+ APC differ in their susceptibility to lysis. Transformed APC are usually better lysed than nontransformed APC. Unstimulated B cells are not killed, while LPS-stimulated B cell blasts are killed. The results of cold target inhibition and bystander killing experiments suggest that CD4+ killer T cells are activated by the common pathway, i.e., by Ag presented in the context of Ia, but killing requires the recognition of additional determinant(s) on APC. It is proposed that these killing-inducing determinants are continuously expressed on most transformed Ia+ cells and on nontransformed but stimulated APC.
Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus Infection in Migratory Birds

H5N1 avian influenza virus (AIV) has emerged as a pathogenic entity for a variety of species, including humans, in recent years. Here we report an outbreak among migratory birds on Lake Qinghaihu, China, in May and June 2005, in which more than a thousand birds were affected. Pancreatic necrosis and abnormal neurological symptoms were the major clinical features. Sequencing of the complete genomes of four H5N1 AIV strains revealed them to be reassortants related to a peregrine falcon isolate from Hong Kong and to have known highly pathogenic characteristics. Experimental animal infections reproduced typical highly pathogenic AIV infection symptoms and pathology.
Management and Outcomes of Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak Associated With Anterior Decompression for Cervical Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament With or Without Dural Ossification

Study Design: A retrospective clinical study. Objective: To analyze and evaluate the clinical outcomes of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak after anterior decompression for cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) with or without dural ossification (DO). Summary of Background Data: Anterior decompression can be highly efficacious in the treatment of OPLL. However, in some cases of OPLL, there often exists DO and fusion with the posterior longitudinal ligament, which may increase the chance for CSF leak during an anterior decompression surgery. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 126 OPLL patients (89 men and 37 women) treated with anterior decompression surgery between January 2008 and January 2012. The mean age at operation was 61 years (ranging from 46 to 72 y) and the average duration of diagnosis was 4.2 years (ranging from 3 d to 7 y). DO was present in 11 patients, of whom 7 developed dural tear or defect. Among the 115 patients without DO, only 4 developed dural tear. Intraoperative dural repair was performed with gelatin foam onlay and fibrin glue seal. Postoperative care for CSF leak involved bed rest, CSF drainage, nutritional support, and antibiotics. Results: A total of 11 cases associated with dural tear or defect developed postoperative CSF leak (an overall incidence of 8.7%). There was a statistically significant difference (P<0.001) in the incidence of CSF leak between the DO group (63.6%) and the non-DO group (3.5%). While leakage in 3 patients resolved spontaneously within 5 days of surgery, intermittent CSF cysts developed in 8 patients. These were treated with circular pressure bandages, repeated aspiration, and lumbar drainage. All 8 cases resolved 14–30 days after surgery. These 11 patients were followed up for an average of 12.8 months (range of 1 to 36 mo) with an average Japanese Orthopedic Association score of 51.2% and no significant neurological deficit or persistent headaches were recorded. Conclusions: Patients with DO are at increased risk for dural injury while undergoing anterior decompression for the treatment of OPLL. This is associated with a high incidence of CSF leak. However, the majority of patients with CSF leak could be managed conservatively.
To Cross or not to Cross the Boundaries? A Reflection on Electronic Public Service Integration

Parallel with the rapid evolution of information and communication technologies, customer service delivery is confronting a radical transformation in both the public and private sectors. One-stop service delivery with inter-organizational integration, even joined-up with government, has become an appealing vision, as well as a desideratum of future public service provision. However, while a significant body of literature on business process reengineering and inter-organizational system presents the possibility of ubiquitous public service delivery, some governmental organizations remain reluctant to adopt this model. This chapter aims to deal with the following questions. Is electronic cross-boundary service integration a desirable vision of e-governance? If so, why isn’t everyone jumping on this bandwagon? What are the potential factors which the proponents of electronic cross-boundary governance should take into account which may influence departmental adoption of electronic public service integration? Is electronic cross-boundary governance a one-size-fit-all solution? This chapter seeks to answer the questions with a case study of Taipei online e-services provided by the Taipei City government. Because Taipei online e-services attempts to provide a digital platform by which citizens in Taipei City are able to complete most applications, requests, payments, even tracking requests, it is regarded as a system which threads multiple service operational procedures as well as databases across departmental boundaries. The vision raised by Taipei online e-services is very close to the promise offered by e-governance proponents.
Differential effects of TAK-442, a novel orally active direct factor Xa inhibitor, and ximelagatran, a thrombin inhibitor, on factor V-mediated feedback on coagulation cascade and bleeding

Summary Thrombin amplifies the blood coagulation via factor V (FV)-mediated positive feedback loop. We hypothesised that factor Xa (FXa) inhibitors would interfere more gradually with this feedback activation loop than thrombin inhibitors, thereby achieving a better balance between haemostasis and prevention of thrombosis. In this study, we compared the effects of TAK-442, a novel FXa inhibitor, versus ximelagatran, a thrombin inhibitor, on FV-mediated positive feedback, venous thrombosis and bleeding. In normal plasma, TAK-442 delayed the onset of tissue factor-induced thrombin generation and prolonged prothrombin time (PT) with more gradual concentration-response curve than melagatran, the active form of ximelagatran. The effect of melagatran on the onset of thrombin generation decreased in an FVa-concentration-dependent manner in FV-deficient plasma supplemented with FVa. Furthermore, in FV-deficient plasma, the PT-prolonging potency of melagatran was markedly increased with a change in its concentration-response curve from steep to gradual. In the rat venous thrombosis model, TAK-442 (10 mg/kg, p.o.) prevented thrombus formation by 55% with 1.2 times prolongation of PT; a similar effect was observed in ximelagatran-treated (3 mg/kg, p.o.) rats. TAK-442 at 100 mg/kg prolonged PT by only 2.1 times with no change in bleeding time (BT), whereas ximelagatran at 10 mg/kg prolonged PT by 3.9 times and significantly increased BT. These results suggest that the differential effects of the two agents on FV-mediated amplification of thrombin generation may underlie the observation of a wider therapeutic window for TAK-442 than for ximelagatran.
Understanding Faculty Collaboration and Productivity: A Case Study

Research productivity has been always an important part of every academic’s job, since it has a profound effect on faculty promotion and tenure decisions. In addition, some scholars believe that co-authorship between faculty members has a great impact on their academic life and faculty advancement. Since 2005, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan (MOE) has developed two university programs and evaluation policies for improving the competitiveness and internationalization of Taiwan universities, and has clearly stated that there is a strong relationship between faculty promotion and research performance. However, none of them has used social network analysis (SNA) to examine research productivity and co-authorship under two university programs and evaluation policies from MOE in Taiwan. Therefore, in this study, we first uses SNA to analyze the research productivity, collaboration patterns, and publication strategies of faculty members in a Management Information Systems (MIS) department at a national university in Taiwan. Then, we used D3, a well-known drawing tool to create data visualization using JavaScript libraries, to visualize and discuss how these two university programs and evaluation policies from the MOE affected these patterns and strategies. We hope that our study not only provides beneficial information to the MIS department, but can be treated as an important source for MOE committees in their future adjustment of university programs and policies.
Design of a Broadband All-Textile Slotted PIFA

A new broadband textile based PIFA antenna structure designed for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is presented. The new topology can be directly integrated into clothing. The study starts by considering three different materials: flexible copper foil, and ShieldIt Super and pure copper polyester taffeta conductive textiles. Bandwidth broadening is successfully achieved by implementing a novel and simple slot in the radiating patch. The measured reflection coefficient and radiation characteristics agree well with simulations. Moreover, radiation characteristics and bandwidth show satisfactory immunity against detuning when operating on-body, especially when placed on the back. To our knowledge, the proposed structure is the first fully fabric based slotted PIFA to be reported in open literature with high bandwidth (more than 46%) and reasonable gain (ca. 1.5 dB), to be used for multiple applications in the frequency band of 1.8 to 3.0 GHz.
Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity in Raw and Denatured Aqueous Extracts from Sprouts and Wheatgrass of Einkorn and Emmer Obtained under Salinity

Total phenolic content (TPC), reducing power (RP), superoxide radical scavenging (RS), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) production inhibition were measured in raw and denatured aqueous extracts from sprouts and wheatgrass of einkorn and emmer obtained at increasing salinity. Grains were incubated and kept at 0, 25, 50, and 100 mM NaCl until either sprout or wheatgrass stage. Additionally, a recovery treatment was included, in which sprouts obtained at 100 mM NaCl were then transferred at 0 mM NaCl until wheatgrass stage. All parameters (TPC, RP, RS, and TBARS production inhibition) increased with sprouting and were highest in wheatgrass. Salinity increased all parameters, but the effect varied with NaCl concentration, genotype, developmental stage, and plant material processing (raw or denatured). Overall, given the delay and limitation of growth at high NaCl concentration, the best compromise appears to be the application of a moderate salinity (25 to 50 mM NaCl). In denatured extracts, TPC, RP, and RS slightly decreased, and TBARS was not affected, which means that antioxidant activity was mainly related to compounds other than enzymes and peptides, and thus it can be assumed to remain after digestion. Thus, supplementing the human diet with einkorn or emmer sprouts and wheatgrass can actually benefit health.
Lazy Forwarding in Low-Duty-Cycle Wireless Sensor Network

In order to simultaneously achieve good energy efficiency and high packet delivery performance, a multihop forwarding scheme should generally involve three design elements: media access mechanism, link estimation scheme, and routing strategy. Disregarding the low-duty-cycle nature of media access often leads to overestimation of link quality. Neglecting the bursty loss characteristic of wireless links inevitably consumes much more energy than necessary and underutilizes wireless channels. The routing strategy, if not well tailored to the above two factors, results in poor packet delivery performance. In this paper, we propose , a practical design of data forwarding in low-duty-cycle wireless sensor networks. addresses link burstiness by employing multivariate Bernoulli link model. Further incorporated with synchronized rendezvous, enables sensor nodes to work in a lazy mode, keep their radios off most of the time, and realize highly reliable forwarding by scheduling very limited packet transmissions. We implement on a real sensor network testbed. The results demonstrate that outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in terms of energy efficiency and network yield.
Selection of a Teicoplanin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Mutant during an Outbreak Caused by Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci with the VanB Phenotype

ABSTRACT Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have recently become an increasing problem in hospitals in Poland, being responsible for a growing number of nosocomial outbreaks. In this work, we have analyzed the second outbreak of VRE with the VanB phenotype to be identified in the country. It was caused by clonal dissemination of a single strain of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VRES) and horizontal transmission of vancomycin resistance genes among several vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREM) strains. Two similar restriction fragment length polymorphism types of the vanB gene cluster characterized VRES and VREM isolates, and they both contained the same vanB2 variant of the vanB gene. Two vancomycin-susceptible E. faecium (VSEM) isolates, recovered from the same wards during the outbreak, proved to be related to certain VREM isolates and could represent endemic strains that had acquired vancomycin resistance. One VSEM and four VREM isolates, all identified in the same patient, belonged to a single clone, although they revealed remarkable diversity in terms of susceptibility, PFGE patterns, plasmid content, and number of vanB gene cluster copies. Most probably they reflected the dynamic evolution of an E. faecium strain in the course of infection of a single patient. One of the VREM isolates turned out to be resistant to teicoplanin, which coincided with the use of this antibiotic in the patient's therapy. ItsvanB gene variant differed by a single mutation from that found in other isolates; however, it also lacked a large part of the vanB gene cluster, including the regulatory genesvanRB and -SB, and the vancomycin-inducible promoter PYB. Expression of the resistance genes vanHB, -B, and -XB was constitutive in the mutant, and this phenomenon was responsible for its unusual phenotype.
Online Communication and Healthcare: The Diffusion of Health-Related Virtual Communities

The “experience of illness” (Fitzpatrick et al., 1984) sets each person in front of their own fragility, marking their life from a physical, but also psychological, affective, behavioural, social and sometimes also spiritual point of view. Patients’ needs are multidimensional and do not find a full satisfaction neither in the personal, but fragmented relationship with doctors, nor in the many online informative resources concerning health, which are easy to access, but remain impersonal (Preece, 2000). Patients’ growing awareness, plus clinicians’ changing attitude, has been favouring in recent years a better patient-centered health, “a care that is closely congruent with and responsive to patients’ wants, needs and preferences” (Laine & Davidoff, 1996). This approach (Mead and Bower, 2000) adopts a “biopsychosocial” perspective (Duggan et al., 2006, p. 271), which means keeping in better consideration sick persons’ problems, needs and desires, and sharing both power and responsibilities between the physician and the patient. AbstrAct
Consumer Purchasing Behaviour towards Organic Products in Thailand

This study investigates the factors affecting consumers’ decisions to purchase organic products. A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect the data from consumers who are primary shoppers for their households at five retail stores in the Bangkok metropolitan area. Using psychological and socio-demographics variables, exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression was used to examine consumers’ decisions to purchase organic products. Results suggest that consumers who are knowledgeable about organic products often purchase groceries at natural/health food stores, are concerned about health and food safety, and are more likely to purchase organic products. In addition, middle-aged female consumers who are highly educated and in the high income group are more likely to be organic consumers. In contrast, households who often dine out or consume takeaway food are less likely to purchase organic products. Yaowarat Sriwaranun Khon Kaen University, Thailand Christopher Gan Lincoln University, New Zealand Minsoo Lee Asian Development Bank, The Philippines David A. Cohen Lincoln University, New Zealand
Analyzing the transition of learners’ motivation to learn programming

In this research, a model of motivation design called ARCS was used to analyze the transition of learnerspsila motivation to learn programming. The students were in an art and design course, and a programming environment specialized for design/art called Processing was used to teach introductory programming to the students. The questionnaire based on the ARCS model was conducted three times: early, middle, and late in the course. From the analysis of the questionnaire, it has been found that the change of the motivation from early to middle in the course was more remarkable than the change from middle to late in the course. Therefore, it was important to raise and maintain the motivation of the learners in the early stage of the course. It has also been found that the correlation between the factors in the ARCS model increased as the learning progressed. Therefore, the instructors should prepare their teaching materials in such a way that the four factors in the ARCS model are balanced.
Privacy and security for analytics on healthcare data

We investigated standards for the exchange of security policies and other security and privacy related restrictions to accessing healthcare data. We describe use cases that gather data during the treatment of patients, as well as use cases that need access to data for analytical purposes. These use cases were expressed using the Healthcare Classiﬁcation System and Patient Consent Directive of the HL 7 standards. We describe how data collected from disparate medical data sources can be accessed for analytical purposes, governed by security policies imposed by the source systems. We implemented prototypes for de-identiﬁcation and access control.
Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 and CREB-Binding Protein/p300 Are Subunits of Double-Stranded RNA-Activated Transcription Factor DRAF1

ABSTRACT Cells respond to viral infection or double-stranded RNA with the transcriptional induction of a subset of alpha/beta interferon-stimulated genes by a pathway distinct from the interferon signal pathway. The transcriptional induction is mediated through a DNA sequence containing the alpha/beta interferon-stimulated response element (ISRE). We previously identified a novel transcription factor, designated double-stranded RNA-activated factor 1 (DRAF1), that recognizes this response element. The DNA-binding specificity of DRAF1 correlates with transcriptional induction, thereby distinguishing it as a positive regulator of alpha/beta interferon-stimulated genes. Two of the components of DRAF1 have now been identified as interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3) and the transcriptional coactivator CREB-binding protein (CBP)/p300. We demonstrate that IRF-3 preexists in the cytoplasm of uninfected cells and translocates to the nucleus following viral infection. Translocation of IRF-3 is accompanied by an increase in serine and threonine phosphorylation. Coimmunoprecipitation analyses of endogenous proteins demonstrate an association of IRF-3 with the transcriptional coactivators CBP and p300 only subsequent to infection. In addition, antibodies to the IRF-3, CBP, and p300 molecules react with DRAF1 bound to the ISRE target site of induced genes. The cellular response that leads to DRAF1 activation and specific gene expression may serve to increase host survival during viral infection.
Type I Tympanoplasty Meta-Analysis: A Single Variable Analysis

Objective: To determine which independent variables influence the efficacy of type I tympanoplasty in adult and pediatric populations. Data Sources: A search of the PubMed database and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews using the key words “tympanoplasty OR myringoplasty” from January 1966 to July 2014 was performed. Study Selection: Studies reporting outcomes of myringoplasty or Type I tympanoplasty in primary non-cholesteatomatous chronic tympanic membrane (TM) perforation were included. Data Extraction: Of 4,698 abstracts reviewed, 214 studies involving 26,097 patients met our inclusion criteria and contributed to meta-analysis. Data Synthesis: The primary outcome of success was defined as closure rate at 12 months. The independent variables analyzed were age, follow-up period, approach, graft material, perforation cause, size, location, ear dryness, and surgical technique. Only those studies providing data on a given parameter of interest could be included when comparing each variable. Conclusion: The weighted average success rate of tympanic closure was 86.6%. Based on this meta-analysis, pediatric surgery has a 5.8% higher failure rate than adults and there is no correlation between follow-up period and success. Other variables associated with improved closure rates include perforation with a size less than 50% of total area (improved by 6.1%) and the use of cartilage as a graft (improved by 2.8% compared with fascia), while ears that were operated on while still discharging, those in different locations of the pars tensa, or using different surgical approaches or techniques did not have significantly different outcomes.