Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Tax Risk Attenuate the Positive Association between Internal and External Information Quality?

This study examines whether tax risk attenuates the positive association between firms’ internal information quality (IIQ) and external information quality (EIQ). Theoretically, higher IIQ allows managers to increase the quality of disclosures to external market participants, which improves EIQ. However, engaging in risky tax planning strategies discourages managers from disclosing information due to the risk of drawing attention from tax authorities (i.e., proprietary costs). I hypothesize and find that the association between IIQ and EIQ is fully attenuated for firms in the highest quintile of tax risk. A structural equation model and supplemental tests that account for business-related proprietary costs and uncertainty corroborate my findings. Overall, my results imply that firms with higher IIQ improve EIQ, on average. However, higher tax risk breaks down this link due to the proprietary costs of disclosing tax strategies to tax authorities.
Genome-wide identification and evolutionary and expression analysis of the wheat amino acid transporter, an important gene family involved in abiotic stresses

Background: Amino acid transporters (AATs), which transport amino acids across cellular membranes, play important roles in alleviating plant damage under stresses as well as in plant growth and development. Although this family has been systematically studied in many plant species, little is known about the AAT genes in bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) due to its complex genome sequence. Results: In this study, a total of 296 AAT genes were identified from the latest wheat genome sequence (IWGSC v1.1) and classified into twelve distinct subfamilies based upon their sequence composition and phylogenetic relationship. Wheat AAT family members showed significant heterogeneity in chromosome distribution, with relatively high density in specific chromosomal regions. Comparison the number variation of gene copies and transmembrane regions of AAT genes in different sub-genome showed that the functional adaptation of the wheat AAT family during wheat polyploidization was driven mainly by sequence mutations rather than copy number variation. In addition, it was confirmed that changes in gene structure and protein conserved domains played important roles in the functional differentiation of the AAT family. Finally, the expression profiles of these TaAAT genes under heat, drought and salt stress and in the development stage of wheat showed that the expression of TaAATs exhibited abundant and distinct expression patterns under different abiotic stresses or in different tissues, and several important candidate AAT genes that may affect abiotic stress response and grain quality were also identified. Conclusions : In this study, a total of 297 AAT proteins were systematically identified and characterized. Our study highlighted the important roles of gene duplication events in the expansion and functional differentiation of the wheat AAT family. The expression profiles of TaAATs revealed their importance for the grain development of wheat and their response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Our study also provided a theoretical basis for the further functional identification and utilization of the AAT gene family in wheat or other crops.
COUPLING BETWEEN LATERAL AND VERTICAL DYNAMICS IN THREE TILTING WHEELS VEHICLES

The present work is dedicated to the study of the dynamic behaviour of tilting vehicles, a vehicle category characterised by small width, and low rollover risk. At least one of the axles therefore has to adopt a suspension architecture which ensures the normal damping function with the roll degree of freedom. If the tilting is free, as in motorbikes, it is necessary that the suspension ensures low friction and damping to this motion, these characteristics on the other hand will probably promote unstable vibrations. Objective of the present work is the modelling and validation of the instability phenomenon that characterize the tilting vehicles; this work has been done on an experimental vehicle designed and built by the Mechatronic Lab of Politecnico di Torino. The self excited vibrations observed during steady state cornering underline the need of studying this kind of suspensions.
Marine Vessel Inspection as a Novel Field for Service Robotics: A Contribution to Systems, Control Methods and Semantic Perception Algorithms.

This cumulative thesis introduces a novel field for service robotics: the inspection of marine vessels using mobile inspection robots. In this thesis, three scientific contributions are provided and experimentally verified in the field of marine inspection, but are not limited to this type of application. The inspection scenario is merely a golden thread to combine the cumulative scientific results presented in this thesis. The first contribution is an adaptive, proprioceptive control approach for hybrid leg-wheel robots, such as the robot ASGUARD described in this thesis. The robot is able to deal with rough terrain and stairs, due to the control concept introduced in this thesis. The proposed system is a suitable platform to move inside the cargo holds of bulk carriers and to deliver visual data from inside the hold. Additionally, the proposed system also has stair climbing abilities, allowing the system to move between different decks. The robot adapts its gait pattern dynamically based on proprioceptive data received from the joint motors and based on the pitch and tilt angle of the robot’s body during locomotion. The second major contribution of the thesis is an independent ship inspection system, consisting of a magnetic wall climbing robot for bulkhead inspection, a particle filter based localization method, and a spatial content management system (SCMS) for spatial inspection data representation and organization. The system described in this work was evaluated in several laboratory experiments and field trials on two different marine vessels in close collaboration with ship surveyors. The third scientific contribution of the thesis is a novel approach to structural classification using semantic perception approaches. By these methods, a structured environment can be semantically annotated, based on the spatial relationships between spatial entities and spatial features. This method was verified in the domain of indoor perception (logistics and household environment), for soil sample classification, and for the classification of the structural parts of a marine vessel. The proposed method allows the description of the structural parts of a cargo hold in order to localize the inspection robot or any detected damage. The algorithms proposed in this thesis are based on unorganized 3D point clouds, generated by a LIDAR within a ship’s cargo hold. Two different semantic perception methods are proposed in this thesis. One approach is based on probabilistic constraint networks; the second approach is based on Fuzzy Description Logic and spatial reasoning using a spatial ontology about the environment. For each of the three mentioned key contributions of the thesis, the corresponding publications are provided in the Appendix.
Exploratory Study of Bacterial Contamination of Different Surfaces in Four Shopping Malls in Sharjah, UAE

Introduction: Frequent touch surfaces encountered in shopping malls can play a role in transmission of microbial pathogens and the dissemination of infectious diseases. This study aims at assessing the bacterial contamination of such surfaces in 4 large shopping malls in Sharjah, UAE. Materials and Methods: A total of 224 samples were collected from 4 different malls in Sharjah, UAE, in 2014, using sterile cotton swabs. The swabs were transferred and spread on Nutrient agar plates and incubated for 48 hours at 37°C. Colony forming units (CFUs) were counted for each plate, then isolated and identified using colony morphology, differential staining, and growth capabilities on different types of media. Results: Out of all collected samples, 192 (amounting to 86%) were positive (contaminated with bacteria). In each mall, more than 80% of all sampled surfaces were contaminated with bacterial growth. The highest bacterial density was found on food courts trays, food courts tables surfaces, and food tray handles. Comparing the average bacterial count from all surfaces in the 4 different malls under study, a significant result was observed, with one-way repeated measures ANOVA yielding the following: F(3) = 3.42, p = 0.024. The highest mean bacterial counts were in the malls with the highest numbers of visitors/m2. Conclusion: Nearly, every single sampled surface yielded a moderate to heavy degree of bacterial contamination. This is cause for concern, because infection risk depends to a large extent on infectious doses of pathogens. Consequently, cleaning services in shopping malls should be improved, and the public should be educated on the best hygiene-related precautions to be taken in malls.
Technology Affordances and Constraints in Management Information Systems (MIS)

Information systems are combinations of devices, software, data, and procedures designed to address the information processing needs of individuals and organizations. Examples include electronic mail and social networking tools as well as enterprise-level applications for financial management, decision-making, production planning, and so forth. The pervasiveness of information systems in organizational practices and daily life makes their study increasingly critical for management theory. There is no single theory of “management information systems. ” Rather, the term refers to a broad class of conceptual frameworks developed to understand and explain the design, use, administration, and consequences of information systems. One framework that is used increasingly to study how people and organizations use information systems and how the use of information systems affects individuals, organizations, and their performance, is a framework we refer to as “Technology Affordances and Constraints Theory” (TACT). TACT’s essential premise is that, to understand the uses and consequences of information systems, one must consider the dynamic interactions between people and organizations and the technologies they use. In this entry, we first explain the major theoretical constructs and focus of TACT and then discuss its importance for management theory.
Pszichoszomatikus tünetek és betegségek: a medicina vakfoltja

a terápiás ajánlások között direkt 25,64, indirekt forma 15,38%. A megelőzésre vonatkozóan alig (5,12%-ban) szerepel említés, a pszichés betegségek egyidejű fennállásának esélyére is mindössze 10,25%-ban történik megállapítás. A szorongásos zavarok befolyásáról kevesebb, mint minden harmadik irányelv számol be (30,76%). A pszichiátriai irányelvek között pszichoszomatikus betegségekre vonatkozóan nincs célzott szakmai irányelv. Következtetés: A pszichoszomatikus medicina a hatékony betegellátás követelményeit meghatározó szakmai irányelvekben elégtelen arányban jelenik meg. Okait szemléleti zavarokban, a pszichiátriai szakmai konszenzus és a szakmaközi együttműködés hiányosságaiban kell keresni. Mind a vonatkozó kutatásokban, mind az irányelvek fejlesztése során erőfeszítéseket kell tenni a fentiek miatt kallódó nagy betegpopuláció hatékonyabb ellátása érdekében. A szerző javaslatot tesz a szükséges konkrét lépésekre. Method: A detailed evaluation of 134 medical protocols from altogether 531 protocols with closer connection with psychosomatic disorders were carried out, their diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations were analyzed. Further review of 39 (of the 134)directly related to psychosomatics was done. Investigation of psychiatric protocols for the same aspects was carried out, as well. Results: Only a small part of the protocols contain recommendations for psychosomatic disorders. Ratios of their presence: diagnostic – direct 10.25, indirect 23.7, therapeutic – direct 25.64, indirect 15.38%. Efforts for prevention are only in 5.12% of the materials and 10.25% of the protocols mention a possible dual nature of the given clinical manifes-tation. Anxiety disorders occur only in 30.76%. Psychiatric protocol directly aiming psychosomatic problems is lacking. Conclusion: Presence of psychosomatic medicine in clinical guidelines defining the conditions of successful care of patients is practically minimal. Possible explanations: confusion in approaches, lack of consensus among the psychiatric institutions, and deficiency of interdisciplinary cooperation. Both in relevant clinical research and in development of medical protocols common additive efforts are necessary for achieving a more successful care of high numbers of patients presently neglected because of the mentioned causes. Author advises some concrete steps for the solution.
Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle

Douglas J Emlen’s Animal Weapons is a hard-hitting campaign—a bit of a Blitzkrieg through major themes in evolutionary escalation, peppered with dazzling examples from across the spectrum of animals and their adaptations, from the horns of dung beetles to the guns of battleships. Although the major lessons of offensive and defensive weaponry, escalation, and sexual selection will be quite familiar to any biologist or biology teacher, Emlen is so intimately immersed in those subjects and such a good communicator that he easily weaves them into some clever new syntheses and clear comparative frameworks. Emlen convincingly shows that there is essentially no difference between the weapons of humans and those of all other species. All of the chapters are infused with examples from the animal world and the world of human technology, and a final section focuses on these parallels in the specific cases of human fortresses (of the land, sea, and air varieties) and weapons of mass destruction. Throughout, he shows that if certain conditions apply—if there are scarce and defensible resources and the opportunity for head-to-head combat— there will be escalation toward bigger and more dangerous weaponry. This parallelism holds up even though much of human weaponry evolves through conscious design and by sharing information laterally rather than through the natural process of descent with modification. Although he doesn’t dwell on it extensively, it is rather remarkable that discoveries of modern biology—particularly the more recent understandings of lateral gene transfer in bacteria, viral evolution, and epigenetics—bring the world of biological evolution even closer to the world of human systems evolution. I can’t go further without mentioning the illustrations by David J Tuss. They are dazzling, emotive, and highly informative. Especially when composed around intra- and inter-specific comparisons, they become far more than eye candy: they are real tools to aid Emlen’s various syntheses. An especially great example is a comparative study of the common curling-up defensive postures of species as far afield in time, space, and phylogeny as trilo bites, pill bugs, cuckoo bees, armadillos, and pangolins. Another comparative illustration, of same-age male elk and beetles with wildly different horn sizes, hammers home Emlen’s point that there are many ways to go about using (or not using) weaponry that your species and sex might be predisposed to produce. The overwhelming recurring theme of Animal Weapons is the multidirectional nature of evolution. Almost every example that Emlen discusses—horns on beetles, armor on knights, antlers on deer—gets bigger, smaller, bigger again, and/or altogether forgotten, depending on where and when you start to look. Weapons get larger and more ominous until they become too costly, or the environment changes, or some disruptive agent turns
Research and Application of Urban Landscape Planning in Slow-moving System—Based on the Design of Wujin District in Changzhou

With the rapid development of motor vehicles in our country, a lot of traffic and environmental problems are triggered. As a result, more and more cities begin to focus on sustainable traffic development. Slow-moving traffic has also become people's focus of interest, though many domestic scholars have proposed various methods for slow-moving system construction with many of them put in practices in many cities, the main research direction is the traffic function and operation mechanism of slow-moving system rather than the environmental construction of that, so researches on slow-moving landscape, slow-moving facilities and their relation with the neighboring land use remain insufficient. Standing at the visual point of urban planning and design, taking into account the relation between slow-moving system and urban life, this thesis attempts to thoroughly eliminate citizens' difficulties and troubles in slow-moving, meet their slow-moving requirements such as safety, convenience and comfortableness as well as available slow-moving ways. By satisfying these requirements, it also aims to finally achieve the goal of free slow-moving and to develop a set of planning and construction methods for building slow-moving system in Wujin District. Proceeding from the three perspectives of slow-moving network, slow-moving landscape and slow-moving facilities, this thesis summarizes the key points and defects of existing theoretical knowledge through literature review. Moreover, by in-depth analysis of some typical cases, methods for slow-moving construction are deduced. Finally, based on the actuality of Wujin District, giving consideration to its natural, historical and cultural resources, methods for slow-moving system construction are applied to the core area of Wujin District. Through the research in this paper, it is expected to eliminate the gaps between traffic planning and urban design, and to shift the attentions on the traffic planning of slow-moving system to the design of slow-moving space and environment, while specific design methods are also proposed here. Academically, this thesis is also anticipated to take a positive impact on the future discussions of slow-moving system construction.
Aesthetics in User Interface Design: : The Influence on Users' Preference, Decoding and Learning

The question of the relationship between, and the importance of usability and aesthetics, in the field of user interface design, has been debated back and forth. It has also been looked at from different perspectives since Raskin (1994) wrote his article on intuitive design. Several experiments have also been conducted over the last twenty years to find out exactly how much each factor matter, what the ultimate user preference is, and if it can be stereotyped. The more complex part of the discussion, however, seems to be the definitions: exactly what is aesthetics, what is usability and how do they affect each other? To find out, I explored the context of these factors from multiple perspectives, to draw the larger conclusions about what affects what. How accurate is the concept of halo when it comes to interface design; can a less aesthetic interface discourage users from exploring its content? Moreover, can a highly usable interface convince its users that the web page is also aesthetically pleasing? In this paper I will explain the ideas of aesthetic and intuitive design based on two fields of study; human computer interaction design and interaction design. That is in the pursuance of understanding user preference and the design decisions behind one of the most popular interfaces on the internet today.
Firewalls em Redes Definidas por Software: Estado da Arte

Redes Definidas por Software, ou SDNs, representam um novo paradigma onde o controle da rede é logicamente centralizado. Este novo paradigma vem transformando o modo de pensar e gerir as redes, incluindo mudanças significativas na engenharia de tráfego e controle da topologia da rede, por exemplo. Serviços de segurança, como firewalls, também podem tirar proveito da flexibilidade oferecida pelas SDNs, como de fato de ocorrido. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar e discutir uma revisão do estado da arte sobre firewalls em SDNs, buscando identificar padrões que possibilitem classificar as soluções existentes quanto a sua arquitetura e modos de operação e, também, identificar oportunidades e desafios de pesquisa.
Nanoplasmonic surface structures for integrated photonics

Nanoplasmonic surfaces are known to be able to alter the localisation and propagation characteristics of light owing to the subwavelength interactions with the metallic elements. The recent improvements of nanolithography and self-assembly techniques have enabled the design of ever smaller and intricate structures with a high precision, allowing for research into more complex nanoplasmonic structures that control light on the nano-scale. Up until now, plasmonic surfaces are mostly operated with out-of-plane excitation which, although well-established and experimentally convenient to perform, has limited potential for on-chip applications. The integration of surface plasmonic structures with photonic waveguides allows for light to be con ned to a guiding layer while being kept in interaction along the surface structure without inducing uncontrolled scattering or excessive dissipative loss. In this work, plasmonic surface structures such as plasmonic antennas and array structures that are integrated with a CMOS compatible platform are explored. In particular, a new class of plasmonic surfaces, plasmonic nanogap tilings, are introduced. Remarkably, these simple periodic structures provide a rich physics characterised by many di erent regimes of operation, including subwavelength surface enhancement, hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonances, transmission stop-bands, resonant back scattering, coupling to out-ofplane radiation and asymmetric transmission. The ability of the nanogap tiling to concentrate the eld on the surface is studied in detail as it allows for sensing changes in the dielectric medium on the accessible surface or the inclusion of nonlinear or gain materials to functionalise the device in an integrated setup.
Deep models and optimizers for Indian sign language recognition

Deep Learning has attracted the research community's attention for a long time, and still, new deep models come into the picture very frequently. It is challenging to know and select the best amongst such models available in the literature. Also, selecting optimizers and tuning optimization hyperparameters is a trivial task. Thus, in this paper, we carry out a performance analysis of two pre-trained deep models, four adaptive gradient-based optimizers, and the tuning of hyperparameters associated with them on a static Indian sign language dataset. Experimental results found InceptionResNetV2 and Adam optimizer to have the potential of being used for static sign language recognition using transfer learning technique. Inception-ResNetV2 model highly outperformed the state-of-the-art machine learning approaches and hand-crafted features with an accuracy of 94.42% and 85.65% on numerals and alphabets of Indian sign language, respectively.
Evaluation of Bread Wheat Genotypes for Adult Plant Resistance to Stem Rust

Wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp tritici) also known as ‘polio of agriculture’ is a ravaging disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) making it a foremost confront to wheat production in Ethiopia and other wheat producing countries of the world due to the frequently evolving of virulent pathogen races. Because of this, searching novel genes in wheat genotypes is a critical issue.