Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Performance: Does Financial Reporting Quality Matter?

This study aims to analyze the role of social responsibility in times of crisis, where the study examines whether the role of social responsibility in the corporate performance will depend on its interaction with other basic aspects of the corporate business environment. In the contemporary economic context, information environment considers important aspects of the business environment, therefore, it can be suggested that the impact of social responsibility on the company’s performance will be clearer when considering its interaction with financial reporting quality. To test this argument, data from the Saudi business environment for the year 2020 was collected to explore the relationship between social responsibility and the company’s financial performance during the Corona pandemic, and the role of the financial reporting quality in that relationship. The results were largely consistent with the general argument of the study, the results showed that social responsibility does not affect the financial performance, but the interaction between it and the financial reporting quality positively affects the financial performance of the company during the pandemic period. Therefore, financial reporting quality play a major role in the extent to which social responsibility affects performance. The results represent a motivation for the various parties in the business environment to pay attention to the general framework of the companys business aspects when analyzing performance

Epigenetic-Mediated Antimicrobial Resistance:Host versus Pathogen Epigenetic Alterations

Since the discovery of antibiotics, humans have been benefiting from them by decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with bacterial infections. However, in the past few decades, misuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of bacterial infections resistant to multiple drugs, a significant health concern. Bacteria exposed to inappropriate levels of antibiotics lead to several genetic changes, enabling them to survive in the host and become more resistant. Despite the understanding and targeting of genetic-based biochemical changes in the bacteria, the increasing levels of antibiotic resistance are not under control. Many reports hint at the role of epigenetic modifications in the bacterial genome and host epigenetic reprogramming due to interaction with resistant pathogens. Epigenetic changes, such as the DNA-methylation-based regulation of bacterial mutation rates or bacteria-induced histone modification in human epithelial cells, facilitate its long-term survival. In this review article, epigenetic changes leading to the development of antibiotic resistance in clinically relevant bacteria are discussed. Additionally, recent lines of evidence focusing on human host epigenetic changes due to the human–pathogen interactions are presented. As genetic mechanisms cannot explain the transient nature of antimicrobial resistance, we believe that epigenetics may provide new frontiers in antimicrobial discovery.</p

Epigenetic Mediated Antimicrobial Resistance:Host versus Pathogen Epigenetic Alterations

Since the discovery of antibiotics, humans have been benefiting from them by decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with bacterial infections. However, in the past few decades, misuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of bacterial infections resistant to multiple drugs, a significant health concern. Bacteria exposed to inappropriate levels of antibiotics lead to several genetic changes, enabling them to survive in the host and become more resistant. Despite the understanding and targeting of genetic-based biochemical changes in the bacteria, the increasing levels of antibiotic resistance are not under control. Many reports hint at the role of epigenetic modifications in the bacterial genome and host epigenetic reprogramming due to interaction with resistant pathogens. Epigenetic changes, such as the DNA-methylation-based regulation of bacterial mutation rates or bacteria-induced histone modification in human epithelial cells, facilitate its long-term survival. In this review article, epigenetic changes leading to the development of antibiotic resistance in clinically relevant bacteria are discussed. Additionally, recent lines of evidence focusing on human host epigenetic changes due to the human–pathogen interactions are presented. As genetic mechanisms cannot explain the transient nature of antimicrobial resistance, we believe that epigenetics may provide new frontiers in antimicrobial discovery

The USFD Spoken Language Translation System for IWSLT 2014

The University of Sheffield (USFD) participated in the International Workshop for Spoken Language Translation (IWSLT) in 2014. In this paper, we will introduce the USFD SLT system for IWSLT. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is achieved by two multi-pass deep neural network systems with adaptation and rescoring techniques. Machine translation (MT) is achieved by a phrase-based system. The USFD primary system incorporates state-of-the-art ASR and MT techniques and gives a BLEU score of 23.45 and 14.75 on the English-to-French and English-to-German speech-to-text translation task with the IWSLT 2014 data. The USFD contrastive systems explore the integration of ASR and MT by using a quality estimation system to rescore the ASR outputs, optimising towards better translation. This gives a further 0.54 and 0.26 BLEU improvement respectively on the IWSLT 2012 and 2014 evaluation data

The Association between Colorectal Cancer and Colonoscopic Conditions in Saudi Patients: A 10-Year Cross-Sectional-Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: In Saudi Arabia, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common cancer in males and the third most common cancer in females. The current gold standard for colorectal cancer diagnosis is colonoscopy. Several concerns regarding the balance of ordering colonoscopy procedures for patients presenting with signs and symptoms. There are also several concerns regarding over-ordering the procedure when unnecessary. The current study aimed to evaluate the association between colorectal cancer and colonoscopic conditions in Saudi patients. METHODS: A 10-year cross-sectional study was conducted at Alnoor Specialty Hospital, Makkah, over the last ten years. Colonoscopy reports of patients were evaluated to identify the colonoscopy manifestations associated with mass, polyps, and bleeding. RESULTS: The current study evaluated 2158 cases admitted to the hospital for colonoscopic diagnosis. Results indicated that most of the patients were males (55.4%). Additionally, results showed a significant statistical association between tumor and bleeding, polyp, and hemorrhage. Moreover, it highlighted the association between polyps and bleeding, inflammation, and diverticulosis. CONCLUSION: CRC screening in Saudi Arabia is comprehensive; however, there are a few areas for improvement, including standardization of colorectal cancer pathology reporting to improve the health system's quality. Also, the current study identified conditions that are significantly associated with reported colon polyps and tumors, which could aid in stratifying patients selected for screening via colonoscopy

Mutual Relationships: Saudi Universities and The Private Sector for Economic Development

The purpose of this research is to determine the level of the mutual relationship between Saudi universities and the private sector to achieve Economic development in light of the Kingdoms 2030 vision. The researcher relied heavily on the questionnaire as the primary instrument for data collection for the study, employing a descriptive research design and a quantitative methodology in order to accomplish the goals of the study. The investigation was carried out with a sample size of 180 universities leaders in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, all of them were chosen at random. The findings of this study indicated that leaders had high expectations for a mutual relationship between Saudi universities and the private sector. In addition, the findings demonstrated that there are no statistically significant variations in the mutual relationship between Saudi universities and the private sector with regard to the variables of academic rank, and years of experience

Numerical treatment for a novel crossover mathematical model of the COVID-19 epidemic

This paper extends a novel piecewise mathematical model of the COVID-19 epidemic using fractional and variable-order differential equations and fractional stochastic derivatives in three intervals of time. The deterministic models are augmented with hybrid fractional order and variable order operators, while the stochastic differential equations incorporate fractional Brownian motion. To probe the behavior of the proposed models, we introduce two numerical techniques: the nonstandard modified Euler Maruyama method for the fractional stochastic model, and the Caputo proportional constant-Grünwald-Letnikov nonstandard finite difference method for the fractional and variable-order deterministic models. Several numerical experiments corroborate the theoretical assertions and demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches