Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Price Dispersion and Loss-Leader Pricing: Evidence from the Online Book Industry

I this paper, we develop a theoretical model to analyze the pricing strategies of competing retailers with asymmetric cross-selling capabilities when product demand changes. Our results suggest that retailers with better opportunities for cross-selling have higher incentives to adopt loss-leader pricing on high-demand products than retailers with low cross-selling capabilities. As a result, price dispersion of a product across retailers rises when its demand increases. The predictions of our model are consistent with the empirical evidence from the online book retailing industry. Using product breadth as a proxy for cross-selling capability, we find that retailers with high cross-selling capabilities reduce prices on best sellers more aggressively than retailers with low cross-selling capabilities. As a result, price dispersion increases when a book makes it to the best-seller list, and the increase is mainly driven by the difference in pricing behavior between retailers with different cross-selling capabilities. Our empirical results are robust against a number of alternative explanations.
From macro-state to meso-organizing: A sociological review of the transition of Chinese local governments in the past 30 years

Studying the transition of Chinese local governments has continuously been the main theme for sociologists since the fiscal, administrative, and market reforms launched in the 1980s. In reference to other countries’ experience, sociological studies about this transition are generally from three macro-theoretical perspectives: Weberian modernity, local transitional state, and local developmental state. However, they have two common problems: first, perceiving the transition as a paradigm shift, not a process; and, second, perceiving local governments as static entities, without internal dynamics. As an alternative, the paper argues that a meso-theoretical perspective should be adopted to inductively study the organization of Chinese local governments in the transitional process. Through exploring the two schools of the meso-organizing perspective—‘structuralism’ and ‘agency with plural institutions’—the paper proposes that sociologists should explore the transition as a dynamic process, an open system, an interaction of ‘structuralism’ and ‘agency with plural institutions’, and with an internal perspective.
Activity in the Medial Temporal Lobe Predicts Memory Strength, Whereas Activity in the Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Recollection

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of recognition memory have often been interpreted to mean that the hippocampus supports recollection and that the adjacent perirhinal cortex supports familiarity. Other work points out that these studies have confounded recollection and familiarity with strong and weak memories. In a source memory study, we used two novel approaches to data analysis that allowed item memory strength and source memory strength to be assessed independently. First, we identified regions in both hippocampus and perirhinal cortex in which activity varied as a function of subsequent item memory strength while source memory strength was held constant at chance levels. Second, we identified regions in prefrontal cortex in which activity varied as a function of subsequent source memory strength while item memory strength was held constant. These findings suggest that activity in the medial temporal lobe is predictive of subsequent memory strength, whereas activity in prefrontal cortex is predictive of subsequent recollection.
The New HiVIS Spectropolarimeter and Spectropolarimetric Calibration of the AEOS Telescope

We have designed, built, and calibrated a new spectropolarimeter for the HiVIS spectrograph (R ∼ 12,000–49,000) on the Advanced Electro‐Optical System (AEOS) telescope. We have also conducted a polarization calibration of the telescope and instrument. In this paper, we introduce the design and use of the spectropolarimeter, in addition to a new data‐reduction package we have developed, and then discuss the polarization calibration of the spectropolarimeter and the AEOS telescope. We used observations of unpolarized standard stars at many pointings to measure the telescope‐induced polarization and compare it with a Zemax model. The telescope induces polarization of 1%–6%, with a strong variation with wavelength and pointing, consistent with the expected altitude and azimuth variation. We then used scattered sunlight as a linearly polarized source to measure the telescope's spectropolarimetric response to linearly polarized light. Finally, we made an all‐sky map of the telescope’s polarization response to calibrate future spectropolarimetry.
Approach for a Novel High Power-To-Weight Ratio Actuator Scalable in Force and Length for Robots

One of the research goals in robotics is the development of home-help robots. The development of a control approach for a novel lightweight and multifunctional shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator scalable in force and length for robots is presented in this paper. The SMA actuator is based on lightweight bundles of thin wires of prestrainend shape memory alloy that change their length when heated above their transformation temperature. The design approach of the actuator allows arranging the point of actuation in any direction and ensures a short cool down time to guarantee a frequency of contraction/stress cycles that is high enough to allow fast joint motions. This is needed for the generation of fast joint motions. For the use of the actuator the novel control approach has been experimentally validated. The approach uses the resistance of the actuator as a linear position encoder and there are no additional external sensors needed. The application of the new actuator to a novel lightweight humanoid robot is outlined. One advantage of the actuator over electric motors lies in the large variety of user-defined points of actuation of the in pull-force and length free scalable actuators and the high power-to-weight ratio. The result show that it is possible to build a large humanoid robot actuated with SMA actuator in a new way. Index Terms – sensor systems, smart sensors, artificial muscles
Search Frictions, Real Rigidities and Inflation Dynamics

I analyze the effect of search frictions on inflation dynamics, in a New Keynesian model where firms make both pricing and vacancy posting decisions. I find that search frictions create real rigidities in price setting. This mechanism flattens the New Keynesian Phillips curve, relative both to the standard model with a frictionless labor market and a model where pricing and vacancy posting decisions are made by different subsets of firms. This helps the model improve its empirical performance along a number of dimensions. First, inflation becomes more persistent. Second, output responses to monetary shocks become larger and more persistent. Finally, unemployment becomes more volatile.
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey. Evolution of the luminosity functions by galaxy type up to z = 1.5 from first epoch data

From the first epoch observations of the VVDS up to z=1.5 we have derived luminosity functions (LF) of different spectral type galaxies. The VVDS data, covering ~70% of the life of the Universe, allow for the first time to study from the same sample and with good statistical accuracy the evolution of the LFs by galaxy type in several rest frame bands from a purely magnitude selected sample. The magnitude limit of the VVDS allows the determination of the faint end slope of the LF with unprecedented accuracy. Galaxies have been classified in four spectral classes, using their colours and redshift, and LFs have been derived in the U, B, V, R and I rest frame bands from z=0.05 to z=1.5. We find a significant steepening of the LF going from early to late types. The M* parameter is significantly fainter for late type galaxies and this difference increases in the redder bands. Within each of the galaxy spectral types we find a brightening of M* with increasing redshift, ranging from =< 0.5 mag for early type galaxies to ~1 mag for the latest type galaxies, while the slope of the LF of each spectral type is consistent with being constant with redshift. The LF of early type galaxies is consistent with passive evolution up to z~1.1, while the number of bright early type galaxies has decreased by ~40% from z~0.3 to z~1.1. We also find a strong evolution in the normalization of the LF of latest type galaxies, with an increase of more than a factor 2 from z~0.3 to z~1.3: the density of bright late type galaxies in the same redshift range increases of a factor ~6.6. These results indicate a strong type-dependent evolution and identifies the latest spectral types as responsible for most of the evolution of the UV-optical luminosity function out to z=1.5.
GERAmI : Improving the delivery of health care in geriatric residences

This article presents an agent-based intelligent environment (GERAmIGeriatric Ambient Intelligence) developed for facilitating health care in geriatric residences. GERAmI integrates multiagent systems with RFID, Wi-Fi technologies and handheld devices. The core of GERAmI is GerAg (Geriatric Agent for monitoring alzheimer patients), an autonomous deliberative casebased planner agent designed to plan the nurses’ working time dynamically, to maintain the standard working reports about the nurses’ activities, and to guarantee that the patients assigned to the nurses are given the right care. The agent operates in wireless devices and is integrated with complementary agents into a multi-agent system, named GR-MAS (Geriatric Residence Multi-Agent System), capable of interacting with the environment. A description of GerAg, its relationship with the complementary agents, and preliminary results of the multi-agent system prototype in a real environment are
Automatic Extraction of Leaf Characters from Herbarium Specimens

Herbarium specimens are a vital resource in botanical taxonomy. Many herbaria are undertaking large-scale digitization projects to improve access and to preserve delicate specimens, and in doing so are creating large sets of images. Leaf characters are important for describing taxa and distinguishing between them and they can be measured from herbarium specimens. Here, we demonstrate that herbarium images can be analysed using suitable software and that leaf characters can be extracted automatically. We describe a low-cost digitization process that we use to create a set of 1,895 images of Tilia L. specimens, and novel botanical image processing software. The output of the software is a set of leaf characters. As a demonstration of this approach, we extract the length and width of a large number of leaves automatically from images of whole herbarium specimens. We show that the lengths and widths that we extract are very strongly correlated with values in a published account of cultivated species, but are also consistently smaller. We discuss some particular features of herbarium specimens that may affect the results of this form of analysis, and consider further applications to extract characters such as leaf shape and margin characters.
A Distributed Chemosensory Circuit for Oxygen Preference in C. elegans

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has complex, naturally variable behavioral responses to environmental oxygen, food, and other animals. C. elegans detects oxygen through soluble guanylate cyclase homologs (sGCs) and responds to it differently depending on the activity of the neuropeptide receptor NPR-1: npr-1(lf) and naturally isolated npr-1(215F) animals avoid high oxygen and aggregate in the presence of food; npr-1(215V) animals do not. We show here that hyperoxia avoidance integrates food with npr-1 activity through neuromodulation of a distributed oxygen-sensing network. Hyperoxia avoidance is stimulated by sGC-expressing oxygen-sensing neurons, nociceptive neurons, and ADF sensory neurons. In npr-1(215V) animals, the switch from weak aerotaxis on food to strong aerotaxis in its absence requires close regulation of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the ADF neurons; high levels of ADF serotonin promote hyperoxia avoidance. In npr-1(lf) animals, food regulation is masked by increased activity of the oxygen-sensing neurons. Hyperoxia avoidance is also regulated by the neuronal TGF-β homolog DAF-7, a secreted mediator of crowding and stress responses. DAF-7 inhibits serotonin synthesis in ADF, suggesting that ADF serotonin is a convergence point for regulation of hyperoxia avoidance. Coalitions of neurons that promote and repress hyperoxia avoidance generate a subtle and flexible response to environmental oxygen.
Protein sorting by lipid phase-like domains supports emergent signaling function in B lymphocyte plasma membranes

Diverse cellular signaling events, including B cell receptor (BCR) activation, are hypothesized to be facilitated by domains enriched in specific plasma membrane lipids and proteins that resemble liquid-ordered phase-separated domains in model membranes. This concept remains controversial and lacks direct experimental support in intact cells. Here, we visualize ordered and disordered domains in mouse B lymphoma cell membranes using super-resolution fluorescence localization microscopy, demonstrate that clustered BCR resides within ordered phase-like domains capable of sorting key regulators of BCR activation, and present a minimal, predictive model where clustering receptors leads to their collective activation by stabilizing an extended ordered domain. These results provide evidence for the role of membrane domains in BCR signaling and a plausible mechanism of BCR activation via receptor clustering that could be generalized to other signaling pathways. Overall, these studies demonstrate that lipid mediated forces can bias biochemical networks in ways that broadly impact signal transduction. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.19891. 001
Universality of Sine-Kernel for Wigner Matrices with a Small Gaussian Perturbation

We consider $N\times N$ Hermitian random matrices with independent identically distributed entries (Wigner matrices). We assume that the distribution of the entries have a Gaussian component with variance $N^{-3/4+\beta}$ for some positive $\beta>0$. We prove that the local eigenvalue statistics follows the universal Dyson sine kernel.
English, Russian and Russian English in Russia: CLIL and non-CLIL students’ opinion in St. Petersburg

English is a Lingua Franca in the many domains. Its spread is a factor and a result of the Expanding Globalization. The current conflict between Russia and the West initiates a number of increasing concerns towards the fate and the future of the Russian language. To be more exact, they are underdevelopment, pidginization and influx and spread of the English language uncontrolled. The research was carried out at Saint Petersburg University in the period of January 2016. CLIL and non-CLIL students from three Saint Petersburg universities were asked (N=301). The results of the investigations described 1 Saint Petersburg State University, 2 Smolny Street, St Petersburg, 191124, Russian Federation. E-mail: infosoc@bk.ru 2 E-mail: pavenkov@yahoo.es 3 E-mail: dsndfn@yandex.ru
Prevalence of National Responsiveness to HBV Vaccine After 22 Years of Iranian Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Study

Context: Hepatitis B Virus expanded program on immunization (EPI) started on 1993 in Iran. Most surveys have assessed the level of response to vaccine by measuring the titers of anti-HBs. This meta- analysis aimed to summarize the Iranian published data on the rate of vaccine-responders versus non-responders. Moreover, the impact of variables such as age, gender, type of vaccine, etc. on the levels of responsiveness was evaluated. Evidence Acquisition: All published papers on this topic in Iranian and international journals with affiliation of “Iran” were reviewed using standard keywords up to 2014. We included our study to healthy participants with no previous HBV infection and who had already received a complete course of HB vaccine. The estimated prevalence and 95% confidence intervals in 28 eligible articles for HBV vaccine responders (anti-HBs > 10 IU/mL) and non-responders (10 <) were analyzed by random effect method due to between-study heterogeneity. Results: The age of subjects was between 6 months and 15 years old. Overall, 5991 (51.5%) were male and 4571 (48.5%) females. Overall, 80% were responders to vaccine versus 20% nonresponders. With increase in age, the number of responders to vaccine decreased significantly (P = 0.001). There was no strong difference between responders versus nonresponders to vaccine for gender, types of vaccine, ethnicity and living area. Conclusions: The results arose from this meta-analysis highlighted the safety of vaccine and its effectiveness in stimulating immune response of vaccines, despite being different in generation, manufacturers and types. Moreover, there was no substantial difference between Iranian and other international investigations in the rate of nonresponsiveness to HBV vaccine.
The Politics of Capitalist Diversity in Europe: Explaining Ireland’s Divergent Recovery from the Euro Crisis

The 2008 financial crisis hit few places harder than the Euro periphery. Faced with high levels of public debt, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain were each compelled to implement harsh austerity reforms. Yet despite this common policy response, the recoveries have shown significant divergence. In particular, Ireland seems to have managed to succeed economically in a way that the other peripheral countries have not. The prevailing narrative is that Ireland’s recovery from the crisis is due to “austerity” and improved “cost competitiveness. ” Drawing upon theories from the study of comparative capitalism we challenge this narrative, and argue that the Irish recovery is an outcome of a state-led enterprise policy aimed at nurturing a close relationship with corporate firms from Silicon Valley. Using qualitative and quantitative investigation we find evidence that this state-led FDI growth model, rather than austerity induced competitiveness, kick-started Ireland’s recovery from crisis. As Ireland is a critical case for the “success” story of austerity in Europe, our findings represent a significant challenge to the politics of adjustment. It suggests the strategies of business-state elites, and not simply the workings of electoral coalitions, explains the politics of adjustment in advanced capitalism.
Characterization of Neutral Lipase BT-1 Isolated from the Labial Gland of Bombus terrestris Males

Background In addition to their general role in the hydrolysis of storage lipids, bumblebee lipases can participate in the biosynthesis of fatty acids that serve as precursors of pheromones used for sexual communication. Results We studied the temporal dynamics of lipolytic activity in crude extracts from the cephalic part of Bombus terrestris labial glands. Extracts from 3-day-old males displayed the highest lipolytic activity. The highest lipase gene expression level was observed in freshly emerged bumblebees, and both gene expression and lipase activity were lower in bumblebees older than 3 days. Lipase was purified from labial glands, further characterized and named as BT-1. The B. terrestris orthologue shares 88% sequence identity with B. impatiens lipase HA. The molecular weight of B. terrestris lipase BT-1 was approximately 30 kDa, the pH optimum was 8.3, and the temperature optimum was 50°C. Lipase BT-1 showed a notable preference for C8-C10 p-nitrophenyl esters, with the highest activity toward p-nitrophenyl caprylate (C8). The Michaelis constant (Km) and maximum reaction rate (Vmax) for p-nitrophenyl laurate hydrolysis were Km = 0.0011 mM and Vmax = 0.15 U/mg. Conclusion This is the first report describing neutral lipase from the labial gland of B. terrestris. Our findings help increase understanding of its possible function in the labial gland.
The effects of absolute pitch ability and musical training on lexical tone perception

The relationship between processing of speech and music was explored here via the linguistic vehicle of lexical tone. People with amusia have been found to be impaired on linguistic tasks; we examined whether absolute pitch (AP) possessors have an advantage on linguistic tasks. Participants were 3 groups of monolingual Australian-English speakers: non-AP musicians (musically-trained individuals who did not possess AP), AP musicians (musically-trained individuals who were AP possessors), and non-musicians (no musical training). Perceptual discrimination was tested in an AX same–different task for lexical tones presented in three contexts: normal Thai speech, low-pass filtered speech tones, and violin, with processing level manipulated via variation of the interstimulus interval (ISI). Non-musicians showed attenuated pitch discrimination of tones in speech, suggesting speech specialisation. On the other hand, all musicians showed greater accuracy, faster reaction times and less variation in accuracy across stimulus types than non-musicians. Importantly, AP musicians showed greater accuracy than non-AP musicians in the speech context, implying a domain-general advantage due to AP. However, speech-violin accuracy correlations for AP musicians were almost zero at the longer ISI, suggesting less commonality of mechanisms during more extensive processing. Results are discussed in terms of the role of AP in tone language perception.
Cry1Aa binding to the cadherin receptor does not require conserved amino acid sequences in the domain II loops

Characterizing the binding mechanism of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Cry toxin to the cadherin receptor is indispensable to understanding the specific insecticidal activity of this toxin. To this end, we constructed 30 loop mutants by randomly inserting four serial amino acids covering all four receptor binding loops (loops α8, 1, 2 and 3) and analysed their binding affinities for Bombyx mori cadherin receptors via Biacore. High binding affinities were confirmed for all 30 mutants containing loop sequences that differed from those of wild-type. Insecticidal activities were confirmed in at least one mutant from loops 1, 2 and 3, suggesting that there is no critical amino acid sequence for the binding of the four loops to BtR175. When two mutations at different loops were integrated into one molecule, no reduction in binding affinity was observed compared with wild-type sequences. Based on these results, we discussed the binding mechanism of Cry toxin to cadherin protein.
Bmc Infectious Diseases Black Race as a Predictor of Poor Health Outcomes among a National Cohort of Hiv/aids Patients Admitted to Us Hospitals: a Cohort Study

Background: In general, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) population has begun to experience the benefits of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART); unfortunately, these benefits have not extended equally to Blacks in the United States, possibly due to differences in patient comorbidities and demographics. These differences include rates of hepatitis B and C infection, substance use, and socioeconomic status. To investigate the impact of these factors, we compared hospital mortality and length of stay (LOS) between Blacks and Whites with HIV/AIDS while adjusting for differences in these key characteristics.