An investigation of the corporate responsibility report assurance statements of the Big Four banks in Australia

The corporate responsibility report demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to sustainability. Currently, not much is known about the quality of the assurance statements of the corporate responsibility reports of banks in Australia. This research study fills the gap in the literature by investigating the corporate responsibility report assurance statements of the Big Four banks in Australia. The assurance statements are evaluated against the criteria provided by O’Dwyer and Owen (2005) and Perego and Kolk (2012). The results reveal that although the assurance statements, on average, meet the criteria highly, there are areas that need improvement. Keywords: assurance, bank, AA1000AS, ASAE 3000, ISAE 3000 JEL Codes:G21, M14, M4

Charged particles in external fields as physical examples of quasi-exactly solvable models: a unified treatment

We present a unified treatment of three cases of quasi-exactly solvable problems, namely, charged particle moving in Coulomb and magnetic fields, for both the Schr\"odinger and the Klein-Gordon case, and the relative motion of two charged particles in an external oscillator potential. We show that all these cases are reducible to the same basic equation, which is quasi-exactly solvable owing to the existence of a hidden $sl_2$ algebraic structure. A systematic and unified algebraic solution to the basic equation using the method of factorization is given. Analytic expressions of the energies and the allowed frequencies for the three cases are given in terms of the roots of one and the same set of Bethe ansatz equations.Comment: RevTex, 15 pages, no figure

Interethnic differences in neuroimaging markers and cognition in Asians, a population-based study

We examined interethnic differences in the prevalence of neuroimaging markers of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disease in 3 major Asian ethnicities (Chinese, Malays, and Indians), as well as their role in cognitive impairment. 3T MRI brain scans were acquired from 792 subjects (mean age: 70.0 ± 6.5years, 52.1% women) in the multi-ethnic Epidemiology of Dementia In Singapore study. Markers of cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration were identified. Cognitive performance was evaluated using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and a neuropsychological assessment. Compared to Chinese, Malays had a higher burden of intracranial stenosis (OR: 2.28. 95%CI: 1.23-4.20) and cortical atrophy (β: -0.60. 95%CI: -0.78, -0.41), while Indians had a higher burden of subcortical atrophy (β: -0.23. 95%CI: -0.40, -0.06). Moreover, Malay and Indian ethnicities were likely to be cognitively impaired (OR for Malays: 3.79. 95%CI: 2.29-6.26; OR for Indians: 2.87. 95%CI: 1.74-4.74) and showed worse performance in global cognition (β for Malays: -0.51. 95%CI: -0.66, -0.37; and Indians: -0.32. 95%CI: -0.47, -0.17). A higher burden of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative markers were found in Malays and Indians when compared to Chinese. Further research is required to fully elucidate the factors and pathways that contribute to these observed differences

Efficacy of spesolimab for the treatment of generalized pustular psoriasis flares across pre-specified patient subgroups in the Effisayil 1 study

Effisayil 1 was a multicentre, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study of the anti‐interleukin (IL)‐36 receptor monoclonal antibody, spesolimab, in patients presenting with a generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) flare. Previously published data from this study revealed that within 1 week, rapid pustular and skin clearance were observed in patients receiving spesolimab versus placebo. In this pre‐specified subgroup analysis, the efficacy of spesolimab was evaluated according to patient demographic and clinical characteristics at baseline in patients receiving spesolimab (n = 35) or placebo (n = 18) on Day 1. Efficacy was by assessed by achievement of primary endpoint (Generalized Pustular Psoriasis Physician Global Assessment [GPPGA] pustulation subscore of 0 at Week 1) and key secondary endpoint (GPPGA total score of 0 or 1 at Week 1). Safety was assessed at Week 1. Spesolimab was found to be efficacious and had a consistent and favourable safety profile in patients presenting with a GPP flare, regardless of patient demographics and clinical characteristics at baseline

Recurrent dynamical symmetry breaking and restoration by Wilson lines at finite densities on a torus

In this paper we derive the general expression of a one-loop effective potential of the nonintegrable phases of Wilson lines for an SU(N) gauge theory with a massless adjoint fermion defined on the spactime manifold $R^{1,d-3}\times T^2$ at finite temperature and fermion density. The Phase structure of the vacuum is presented for the case with $d=4$ and N=2 at zero temperature. It is found that gauge symmetry is broken and restored alternately as the fermion density increases, a feature not found in the Higgs mechanism. It is the manifestation of the quantum effects of the nonintegrable phases.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

A Brain-Computer Interface Based Attention Training Program for Treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

10.1371/journal.pone.0046692PLoS ONE710

Risk Factors of Peritoneal Recurrence and Outcome of Resected Peritoneal Recurrence After Liver Resection in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Review of 1222 Cases of Hepatectomy in a Tertiary Institution

10.1245/s10434-012-2260-3Annals of Surgical Oncology1972246-225