The Evolution and Diffusion of the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) Initiatives: Evidence from UK Small Businesses

Few studies have comprehensively described Standard Business Reporting (SBR) as a policy-driven initiative based on inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) aimed at reducing the administrative burden of statutory business reporting. The SBR term is still difficult to understand even by the countries where it has been implemented. The objective of this study is twofold. First, it describes in detail the evolution of the SBR initiatives in the UK. Second, it investigates the drivers and inhibitors of the take-up of the SBR initiative by small businesses based on the technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework. It draws on contextual data and 23 interviews with participants involved in the development of these initiatives. The findings show that the following are perceived as drivers of the take-up of the SBR initiatives by small private companies: the relative advantages of using WebFiling, commercial filing software, and the digital services, the organizational accountant's readiness, and the influence of commercial filing software. However, we find no evidence that the relative advantage of using the joint-filing facility via iXBRL was perceived as a driver of the take-up of this innovation. The findings indicate that the absence of critical mass among government agencies inhibits its diffusion. This study provides specific implications to small businesses, the accountants working in small businesses and practice, government agencies in the UK, and other jurisdictions embarking on the SBR initiatives for further developments to reduce the reporting burden on smaller entitie

Hepatotoxic and hematotoxic effects of sage oil-loaded ifosfamide nanoemulsion in Ehrlich ascites carcinomabearing mice

Purpose: To investigate the hepatotoxic and hematotoxic effects of sage oil-loaded ifosfamide (IFO) nanoemulsion (NE) in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC)-bearing mice. Methods: Ifosfamide (IFO) was loaded into a NE containing sage oil, and its hepatotoxic and hematotoxic effects were assessed in EAC-bearing mice. Female Swiss albino mice (n = 50) weighing 25 - 30 g (mean weight = 27.5 ± 2.50 g) were randomly assigned to five groups of ten mice each. With the exception of group 1, the mice were inoculated intraperitoneally (i.p.) with 2.5 × 106 EAC/mouse for 48 h. Group I served as negative control, C (-); group II served as positive control, C (+); while groups III - V were treated i.p. with 60 mg/kg IFO in 0.3mL water (free-IFO); 0.3 mL NE (SAGE-NANO), and 60 mg/kg IFO in 0.3 mL SAGE-NANO (SAGE-IFO), respectively. The treatments were administered for three days. Results: Treatment with 60 mg/kg bwt IFO (free-IFO) significantly elevated the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT, p < 0.05). However, subsequent treatment with SAGE-IFO significantly reduced the activity of these liver enzymes (p < 0.05). The concentration of reduced glutathione (GSH) as well as the activities of catalase and glutathione reductase (GR) significantly increased, while malondialdehyde (MDA) level decreased significantly in SAGE-IFO group, when compared with free-IFO group (p < 0.05). Treatment with SAGE-IFO significantly restored white blood cell (WBC) count and platelet levels which were altered by free-IFO (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results obtained in this study suggest that loading IFO in sage oil-NE greatly reduces its hepatotoxicity and hematotoxicity

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBESITY AND DIETARY INTAKE OF OBESE AND PRE-OBESE FEMALE STUDENTS – AJA CAMPUS HAIL UNIVERSITY

Globally obesity has reached to epidemic proportions, and the people of the Gulf countries have also affected, especially high income, oilproducing countries. Recent data clearly indicate a high prevalence of adult obesity particularly in women in the Kingdom. This paper aims to identify the relationship between obesity and dietary intake of obese and pre-obese female students in Hail University–KSA. Descriptive analytical approach was used in this paper. BMI was calculated and related to dietary intake using food frequency questionnaire. Results shows prevalence of obesity grades was n(%); 43(43%) obesity grade I, 17(17%) obesity grade II, and 8(8%) were grade III obesity. Thirty one subjects were pre-obese and only one subject was overweight. Basic food groups consumption as stated in frequency per week revealed that: female students consumed more servings (>6 times/ week ) of fruits; vegetables; and dairy products, alternatives, sweets and candies, eggs, legumes, rice macaroni and other starch foods, non-alcoholic beverages. Whereas they consumed less servings (≤Once/ week) of breads, fruit juices, carbonated drinks and potato. The majority of the subjects 65% ate chicken with rice (Kabsa) as staple food, whereas 4% ate other starchy food. High consumption of energy dense foods might be responsible for increased deposition of calories in the form adipose tissue. Conclusion: It is crucial to enumerate awareness programs to modify dietary behavior and eating habits of female students and Hail community with respect to food intake. This will be effective in the treatment of obesity, especially in Saudi Arabia

Antitumor activity of doxorubicine-loaded nanoemulsion against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma-bearing mice

Purpose: To evaluate the antitumor activity of doxorubicine (DOX) loaded nanoemulsion (NE) on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC)-bearing Swiss albino mice.Methods: The mice were divided into five groups (n = 20) according to the administered drug. Groups I - V were labeled as negative control (normal), positive control of the untreated EAC bearing mice (EAC control), blank nanoemulsion (BI-NE), DOX-loaded-NE (DOX/LNE) and free DOX (DOX-Sol), respectively. Cardiotoxicity was assessed by measuring changes in body and organ weight, analyzing serum enzymes and lipids, and examining histological changes in heart tissues by light microscopy. In addition, mean survival time (MST), increase in life span (ILS) and survival (S) of the mice were determined.Results: DOX/LNE group reduced levels of serum enzymes and lowered damage to heart tissues relative to DOX-Sol group. The MST of the DOX/LNE group (80 ± 0.0 days) was significantly greater than that for DOX-Sol group (34.6 ± 8.9 days), while ILS of DOX/LNE (265.30 days) was higher than that of DOX-Sol (57.99 days) by 4.6-fold.Conclusion: Administration of DOX/LNE to EAC-bearing mice improves the efficacy of DOX and reduce its side effects on the heart.Keywords: Doxorubicine, Anti-tumor activity, Mean survival time, Heart histology, Nanoemulsion, Lipid profil

Adaptation of Deeplab V3+ for Damage Detection on Port Infrastructure Imagery

Regular inspection and maintenance of infrastructure facilities are crucial to ensure their functionality and safety for users. However, current inspection methods are labor-intensive and can vary depending on the inspector. To improve this process, modern sensor systems and machine learning algorithms can be deployed to detect defects based on rapidly acquired data, resulting in lower downtime. A quality-controlled processing chain allows to provide hence informed uncertainty assessments to inspection operators. In this study, we present several Deeplab V3+ models optimized to predict corroded segments of the quay wall at JadeWeserPort, Germany, which is a dataset from the 3D HydroMapper research project. Our models achieve generally high accuracy in detecting this damage type. Therefore, we examine the use of a Region Growing-based weakly supervised approach to efficiently extend our model to other common types in the future. This approach achieves about 90 % of the results compared to corresponding fully supervised networks, of which a ResNet-50 variant peaks at 55.6 % Intersection-over-Union regarding the test set's corrosion class

Removal of imidacloprid from polluted water using adsorption and membrane separation technologies

In this work, the stability of imidacloprid in fresh water and sludge was studied. The results revealed that the pesticide is unstable in both media. In freshwater, it underwent hydrolysis whereas a degradation to several metabolites has been observed in sludge. The rate constants for the hydrolysis and degradation at 25°C were 0.0.0067 and 0.0.0099 d–1, respectively. Monitoring the degradation of imidacloprid in sludge by high-pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) revealed that five metabolites have emerged during the study. These metabolites include imidacloprid urea, imidacloprid-guanidine, 6-hydroxynicotinic acid, an olefin, and 5-hydroxy, 1-(6-chloro-3-pyridylmethyl)-2-(nitroimino)-imidazolidin-5-ol. The efficiency of Al-Quds University Wastewater Treatment Plant towards the removal of imidacloprid indicates that the ultrafiltration-hollow fiber unit was insufficient, whereas the ultrafiltration-spiral wound, activated carbon, and reverse osmosis units were efficient for complete removal of the pesticide. Adsorption experiments of imidacloprid using either activated charcoal or micelle-clay complex were found to fit Langmuir isotherms better than Freundlich isotherm. The data demonstrate a higher Langmuir Qmax value for the activated charcoal (126.6 mg g–1) when compared to the micelle-clay complex (11.76 mg g–1). Filtration column experiments, conducted with mixed micelle-clay complex and sand (using a ratio of 1/50 by mass) at a flow rate of 2 mL min–1 and influent concentration of 50 mg L–1, revealed that a sufficient removal of imidacloprid was achieved in the first fraction of 100 mL elution. These findings indicate that the adsorption technology using the micelle-clay complex provides efficient removal of imidacloprid in continuous flow mode

Boiler-Feed and Process Water Reclamation from Biotreated Palm Oil Mill Effluent (BPOME): A Developmental Review

Increased water shortages and new environmental policies and regulations have stimulated significant development in reuse programs in the past 20 years.1 Reclaimed water has been recognized as a vital and drought-proof water source to ensure economic and agricultural activities. According to the conclusions of various water reuse surveys, the best water reuse projects, in terms of economic viability and public acceptance, are those that substitute reclaimed water in lieu of potable water for use in industrial, irrigation, environmental restoration, cleaning and toilet flushing. The main benefits of using reclaimed water in these situations are conservation of water resources and pollution reduction. 1 Low Pressure Membranes (LPMs) such as Microfiltration (MF) and Ultrafiltration (UF) integrated with adsorption system could be a viable option for separation of contaminants in wastewater for reuse as boiler-feed or process water in industry. This article technically discusses the main constituents of concern in boiler-feed and process water requirements and finally suggests potentially efficient and low-energy-low-cost hybridized LPM /adsorption treatment facilities to achieve this paradigm shift towards new water sources

HIV-1 Coreceptor Activity of CCR5 and Its Inhibition by Chemokines: Independence from G Protein Signaling and Importance of Coreceptor Downmodulation

AbstractHIV-1 infection requires the presence of specific chemokine receptors on CD4+ target cells to enable the fusion reactions involved in virus entry. CCR5 is a major fusion coreceptor for macrophage-tropic HIV-1 isolates. HIV-1 entry and fusion are mediated by the viral envelope glycoprotein (Env) and are inhibited by CCR5 ligands, but the mechanisms are unknown. Here, we test the role of G protein signaling and CCR5 surface downmodulation by two separate approaches: direct inactivation of CCR5 signaling by mutagenesis and inactivation of Gi-type G proteins with pertussis toxin. A CCR5 mutant lacking the last 45 amino acids of the cytoplasmic C-terminus (CCR5306) was created that was expressed on transfected cells at levels comparable to cells expressing CCR5 and displayed normal chemokine binding affinity. CCR5 ligands induced calcium flux and receptor downmodulation in cells expressing CCR5, but not in cells expressing CCR5306. Nevertheless, CCR5 or CCR5306, when coexpressed with CD4, supported comparable HIV-1 Env-mediated cell fusion. Consistent with this, treatment of CCR5-expressing cells with pertussis toxin completely blocked ligand-induced transient calcium flux, but did not affect Env-mediated cell fusion or HIV-1 infection. Also, pertussis toxin did not block chemokine inhibition of Env-mediated cell fusion or HIV-1 infection. However, chemokines inhibited Env-mediated cell fusion less efficiently for CCR5306than for CCR5. We conclude that the C-terminal domain of CCR5 is critical for G protein signaling and receptor downmodulation from the surface, but that neither function is required for CCR5 fusion coreceptor activity. The contrasting phenotypes of CCR5 and CCR5306suggest that coreceptor downmodulation and direct blockage of Env interaction sites both contribute to chemokine inhibition of HIV-1 infection