Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Competitive Advantage with Multiple Mediations from Social Capital and Dynamic Capabilities

The correlation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantage (CA) has been studied for decades; however, a consistent conclusion has still not been reached. This may be due to the lack of discussion about the variables that affect the relationship between them. We extended the examination of the relationship between CSR and CA through largely ignored perspectives of organization resources and capabilities. Drawing on the multiple mediations of social capital (SC) and dynamic capabilities (DCs), we generated propositions concerning the relationship of CSR with CA. Based on 112 enterprises in China, the data from 269 surveys were used to test our theoretical model. The results showed that CSR can positively affect CA directly and indirectly with mediations of structure and relational dimensions of CA. The results also showed that, in the dynamic environment, CSR indirectly created CA by enhancing DCs, such as resource integration capability and organizing learning capability, but not by innovation and transformation capability. From these results, the paper concluded that with a proper combination of external social measures, internal competitive resources and capabilities, enterprises can realize the creation of a shared value of economy and society, which in turn will become the sustainable power with which enterprises can gain CA.
Impulsive noise suppression in OFDM-based communication systems

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a technique used for terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T) and many other modern applications. The longer OFDM symbol duration provides an advantage in a presence of weak impulsive noise, because impulsive noise energy is spread among simultaneously transmitted OFDM sub-carriers. However, it has been recently recognized that this advantage turns into a disadvantage if the impulsive noise energy exceeds certain threshold. In this paper the algorithm for impulsive noise suppression in OFDM receivers is proposed and investigated. Whereas traditional methods for impulsive noise suppression are implemented in a time domain before OFDM demodulation, proposed algorithm compensates impulsive noise in a frequency domain after OFDM demodulation and channel equalization. The method is applied to DVB-T and its performance is studied by means of simulation.
Psychological hardiness predicts neuroimmunological responses to stress

Psychological hardiness characterizes people who remain healthy under psychosocial stress. The present exploratory study investigates possible links between hardiness and several immune and neuroendocrine markers: IL-6, IL-12, IL-4, IL-10, & neuropeptide-Y. A total of 21 Norwegian navy cadets were studied in the context of a highly stressful military field exercise. Blood samples were collected midway, and again late in the exercise when stress levels were highest. Psychological hardiness (including commitment, control, and challenge) was measured two days before the exercise. While all subjects scored high in hardiness, some were high only in commitment and control, but relatively low in challenge. These “unbalanced” hardiness subjects were also more stress reactive, showing suppressed proinflammatory cytokines (IL-12), increased anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10), and lower neuropeptide-Y levels as compared to the hardiness-balanced group. This study thus shows that being high in hardiness with a balanced profile is linked to more moderate and healthy immune and neuroendocrine responses to stress.
Event detection with 3D tactile sensors

In this contribution we present a fast and efficient technique for detecting and identifying the tactile events. This kind of events cannot be detected with tactile sensors sensing only the normal (perpendicular) component of the forces acting between surfaces. Our approach utilizes an integrated sensing-processing-actuating system comprising: (1) A 8×8 taxel (tactile pixel) array mounted on a tri-fingered robot hand, (2) event detector central unit (3) a closed loop controller. This arrangement, along with the proper pattern recognition algorithm, allows the detection and the control of the tactile event. It is essential to know and comprehend the forces between contact surfaces and the related 3D pressure fields.
Comprehensive assessment of flexible‐ligand docking algorithms: current effectiveness and challenges

&NA; Protein‐ligand docking has been playing an important role in modern drug discovery. To model drug‐target binding in real systems, a number of flexible‐ligand docking algorithms with different sampling strategies and scoring methods have been subsequently developed over the past three decades, while rigid‐ligand docking is still being used because of its compelling computational efficiency. Here, a comprehensive assessment has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of flexible‐ligand docking versus rigid‐ligand docking for three representative docking algorithms (global optimization, incremental construction and multi‐conformer docking) in virtual screening and pose prediction on the Directory of Useful Decoys. It was found that overall flexible‐ligand docking did not achieve a statistically significant improvement in enrichments over rigid‐ligand docking in virtual screening, but all docking programs significantly improved the success rates when considering ligand flexibility in pose prediction. The worse effectiveness of flexible‐ligand docking in virtual screening than in pose prediction suggests that the challenges of current docking algorithms exist in ranking more than docking, although the use of flexible‐ligand docking in virtual screening was justified by its better effectiveness for more flexible ligand in virtual screening. Challenges for scoring, including internal energy, charge polarization, entropy and flexibility, were investigated and discussed. An empirical way was also proposed to consider loss of ligand conformational entropy for virtual screening.
Genomewide demarcation of RNA polymerase II transcription units revealed by physical fractionation of chromatin

Epigenetic modifications of chromatin serve an important role in regulating the expression and accessibility of genomic DNA. We report here a genomewide approach for fractionating yeast chromatin into two functionally distinct parts, one containing RNA polymerase II transcribed sequences, and the other comprising noncoding sequences and genes transcribed by RNA polymerases I and III. Noncoding regions could be further fractionated into promoters and segments lacking promoters. The observed separations were apparently based on differential crosslinking efficiency of chromatin in different genomic regions. The results reveal a genomewide molecular mechanism for marking promoters and genomic regions that have a license to be transcribed by RNA polymerase II, a previously unrecognized level of genomic complexity that may exist in all eukaryotes. Our approach has broad potential use as a tool for genome annotation and for the characterization of global changes in chromatin structure that accompany different genetic, environmental, and disease states.
Low Resourced Machine Translation via Morpho-syntactic Modeling: The Case of Dialectal Arabic

We present the second ever evaluated Arabic dialect-to-dialect machine translation effort, and the first to leverage external resources beyond a small parallel corpus. The subject has not previously received serious attention due to lack of naturally occurring parallel data; yet its importance is evidenced by dialectal Arabic's wide usage and breadth of inter-dialect variation, comparable to that of Romance languages. Our results suggest that modeling morphology and syntax significantly improves dialect-to-dialect translation, though optimizing such data-sparse models requires consideration of the linguistic differences between dialects and the nature of available data and resources. On a single-reference blind test set where untranslated input scores 6.5 BLEU and a model trained only on parallel data reaches 14.6, pivot techniques and morphosyntactic modeling significantly improve performance to 17.5.
bioLights: Light emitting wear for visualizing lower-limb muscle activity

Analysis of muscle activity by electrophysiological techniques is commonly used to analyze biomechanics. Although the simultaneous and intuitive understanding of both muscle activity and body motion is important in various fields, it is difficult to realize. This paper proposes a novel technique for visualizing physiological signals related to muscle activity by means of surface electromyography. We developed a wearable light-emitting interface that indicates lower-limb muscle activity or muscular tension on the surface of the body in real time by displaying the shape of the activated muscle. The developed interface allows users to perceive muscle activity in an intuitive manner by relating the level of the muscle activity to the brightness level of the glowing interface placed on the corresponding muscle. In order to verify the advantage of the proposed method, a cognitive experiment was conducted to evaluate the system performance. We also conducted an evaluation experiment using the developed interface in conjunction with an exoskeleton robot, in order to investigate the possible applications of the developed interface in the field of neurorehabilitation.
Are you sure? Delusion conviction moderates the behavioural and emotional consequences of paranoid ideas

Introduction Paranoid beliefs strongly impact behaviour and emotion: Most people with paranoid delusions engage in safety behaviours and a relevant minority even commits violent acts under the influence of delusional thoughts. The present study examined whether different levels of belief conviction modulate subsequent behaviour and emotion. To be able to control for important confounds, we set up an analogue study using nonclinical participants. Methods Participants were recruited from the general population (N=1935) and asked to fill out the Paranoia Checklist. Individuals had to imagine being persecuted by a secret service, whereby the level of subjective conviction was set at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 90%, or 100%. Subsequently, participants had to estimate for 37 behavioural and emotional items how they might respond to this threat. Results Three quarters of the sample affirmed the presence of at least one paranoid idea from the Paranoia Checklist over the duration of a month. The level of belief conviction and paranoia was positively associated with behavioural and emotional consequences. Conclusions Our investigation suggests that a higher degree of belief conviction aggravates the behavioural consequences of persecutory beliefs in a linear fashion. The study is limited by its “what if” character and should be replicated with clinical participants. The study suggests that treatment approaches that aim to reduce overconviction may positively impact behaviour in psychosis.
Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration of pulmonary artery tumors: A systematic review (with video)

Convex probe endobronchial ultrasound (CP-EBUS) was originally introduced as a diagnostic and staging tool for lung cancer and subsequently utilized for diagnosis of other malignant and benign mediastinal diseases such as melanoma, lymphoma, and sarcoidosis. More recently, CP-EBUS has been successfully used for the visualization and diagnosis of pulmonary emboli and other vascular lesions including primary and metastatic pulmonary artery (PA) tumors. In this review, we will underline the role of EBUS-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) for the diagnosis of pulmonary arterial tumors such as sarcomas and tumor emboli. We will concisely discuss the clinical applications of EBUS-TBNA and the types of pulmonary arterial tumors and their different diagnostic modalities. We searched the Cochrane Library and PubMed from 2004 to 2014 to provide the most comprehensive review. Only 10 cases of EBUS-TBNA for intravascular lesions were identified in the literature. Although many cases of EBUS and EUS-guided transvascular tumor biopsies were described in the literature, there were no reported cases of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for intravascular tumor biopsies. Except for one paper, all cases were published as case reports.
On Commodity Price Limits

This paper examines the behavior of futures prices and trader positions around the occurrence of price limits in commodity futures markets. We ask whether limit events are the result of shocks to fundamental volatility or the result of temporary volatility induced by the trading of non-commercial market participants (speculators). We find little evidence that limits events are the result of speculative activity, but instead associated with shocks to fundamentals that lead to persistent price changes. When futures trading halts price discovery migrates to options markets, but option prices provide a biased estimate of subsequent future prices when trading resumes.
Molecular and cytogenetic analysis of chromosome 7 in uterine leiomyomas

Uterine leiomyomas are benign tumors that arise clonally from smooth muscle cells of the myometrium. Cytogenetic studies of uterine leiomyomas have shown that about 40% have chromosome abnormalities and that deletion of 7q is a common finding. The observations suggest the possible location of a growth‐suppressor gene within the 7q21‐q22 region. Molecular genetic analysis of cytogenetically normal tumors has frequently shown somatic loss of specific tumor suppressor genes detected by loss of heterozygosity in the critical region. To test the hypothesis that chromosome region 7q21‐q22 contains a growth‐suppressor gene involved in the development of leiomyomas, we examined 92 leiomyomas for allelic loss of 7q markers spanning the cytogenetically defined critical region. Forty tumors with cytogenetically defined 7q deletion, 45 tumors without cytogenetically visible 7q deletion, and seven tumors with no cytogenetic information were examined for allelic loss of loci D7S489, D7S440, D7S492, D7S518, D7S471, D7S466, and D7S530. Loss of heterozygosity for one or more of these loci was observed in 23 of 40 (57.5%) of the tumors with deletion of 7q and in 2 of 45 cases without a cytogenetically visible deletion. The tumors with cytogenetic deletion of 7q, but no loss of 7q21‐q22 markers, were mosaics, with only a minority of cells containing the cytogenetic deletion. The critical region of loss is defined by the markers D7S518 and D7S471, each showing loss in approximately 50% of informative cases. These markers define a 10 cM region of 7q21‐q22 that is consistent with the cytogenetically defined smallest region of overlap and exclude loss of the MET oncogene locus and WNT1, the murine mammary tumor‐virus integration site, from the critical region. Our results further define a region that is consistently lost in leiomyomas with cytogenetic deletion of chromosome arm 7q. This region may contain a tumor suppressor gene involved in the development of a subset of leiomyomas.
Disturbance state distinction algorithm and its application to estimation of time delay with inertia error

This paper proposes a novel algorithm to detect information of time delay and inertia errors of the nominal model in the disturbance observer. The proposed method adopts the hidden Markov model to relate the states causing disturbances with the observed disturbances. Output distribution of the hidden disturbance state can be defined based on the relationship between the observed disturbance and time delay/inertia errors. The proposed algorithm is compared with the Interacting Multiple Model algorithm. Simulation results verify effectiveness and properties of the proposed algorithm.
Comparing patient and parent recall of 90-day and 30-day migraine disability using elements of the PedMIDAS and an Internet headache diary

Aim The aim of this article is to compare 90-day and 30-day recall of Pediatric Migraine Disability Assessment (PedMIDAS) elements and headache frequency against daily entries from an Internet headache diary among pediatric patients and their parents. Methods In a prospective cohort study, patients aged 10–18 years with episodic migraine or probable migraine completed a 90-day Internet-based headache diary that incorporated PedMIDAS questions. Following the 90-day diary period, patients and parents completed modified PedMIDAS instruments to assess 90-day and 30-day recall. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated to measure recall reliability. The Kruskal-Wallis and Jonckheere-Terpstra tests were used to explore recall accuracy as it relates to each participant’s self-reported confidence in recall and to patient age. Results Fifty-two subjects completed 90 consecutive diary entries. Comparing 30-day to 90-day recall of PedMIDAS elements, ICC scores improved by 26.2% (patients) and 17.5% (parents). Patients had better recall than their parents for all study measures. Self-reported confidence in recall and patient age had limited and inconsistent effects on recall accuracy. Conclusion The optimal recall interval to assess migraine disability must balance recall accuracy with generalizability across a range of headache frequencies. When compared to daily diary entries, recall accuracy of PedMIDAS elements and headache frequency improves at 30 days compared to 90 days. Parent report of migraine disability should not be used as a replacement for patient report.
The Roles of Cortical Slow Waves in Synaptic Plasticity and Memory Consolidation

Sleep plays important roles in sensory and motor memory consolidation. Sleep oscillations, reflecting neural population activity, involve the reactivation of learning-related neurons and regulate synaptic strength and, thereby affect memory consolidation. Among sleep oscillations, slow waves (0.5–4 Hz) are closely associated with memory consolidation. For example, slow-wave power is regulated in an experience-dependent manner and correlates with acquired memory. Furthermore, manipulating slow waves can enhance or impair memory consolidation. During slow wave sleep, inter-areal interactions between the cortex and hippocampus (HC) have been proposed to consolidate declarative memory; however, interactions for non-declarative (HC-independent) memory remain largely uninvestigated. We recently showed that the directional influence in a slow-wave range through a top-down cortical long-range circuit is involved in the consolidation of non-declarative memory. At the synaptic level, the average cortical synaptic strength is known to be potentiated during wakefulness and depressed during sleep. Moreover, learning causes plasticity in a subset of synapses, allocating memory to them. Sleep may help to differentiate synaptic strength between allocated and non-allocated synapses (i.e., improving the signal-to-noise ratio, which may facilitate memory consolidation). Herein, we offer perspectives on inter-areal interactions and synaptic plasticity for memory consolidation during sleep.
Asymmetric effects of monetary policy

This thesis analyses if macroeconomic policy has asymmetric effects on output and unemployment, comparing the effectiveness of monetary policy when the output gap is positive to when it is negative. Asymmetric effects may be present due to uncertainty and loss aversion, the downward-stickiness of prices, or financial market imperfections. The empirical analysis is conducted through a panel data regression, with data from Sweden, Norway, the UK, the Czech Republic, Canada, and the US, spanning from 1996Q1 to 2017Q4. The results show that monetary policy is more effective when the output gap is positive, and that the monetary policy conducted when it is positive is contractionary, and thus that contractionary monetary policy seems more effective than expansionary, although the empirical study presents certain problems that bring the results into question. (Less)
The Synthetic PPARγ Agonist Troglitazone Inhibits Eotaxin-Enhanced Eosinophil Adhesion to ICAM-1-Coated Plates

Accumulation and activation of eosinophils in tissue are critical events in the allergic inflammatory response and adhesion molecules play important roles in this process. We previously demonstrated that human eosinophils expressed a nuclear receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), and that stimulation with a PPARγ agonist attenuated cytokine/chemokine-induced eosinophil activation, such as survival, chemotaxis and degranulation. In the present study, we investigated the effect of troglitazone, a synthetic PPARγ agonist, on adherence to intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Eosinophils were purified from human peripheral blood, and the functional adherence to recombinant soluble ICAM-1-coated plates was examined. We found that in the presence of eotaxin, troglitazone inhibited eosinophil adherence in a concentration-dependent manner. This novel activity appears to be associated with modulation of qualitative change of integrins in response to eotaxin, because quantitative reduction of CD11a, CD11b and CD18 expression by troglitazone was not observed using flow cytometry. The PPARγ agonist troglitazone has a potent inhibitory effect on eosinophil adhesion to ICAM-1, and this may be a therapeutic modality for the treatment of eosinophil-related diseases including bronchial asthma.
Hydrogen peroxide-induced injury of cells and its prevention by inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase.

H2O2, in concentrations achieved in the proximity of stimulated leukocytes, induces injury and lysis of target cells. This may be an important aspect of inflammatory injury of tissues. Cell lysis in two target cells, the murine macrophage-like tumor cell line P388D1 and human peripheral lymphocytes, was found to be associated with activation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (EC 2.4.2.30), a nuclear enzyme. This enzyme is activated under various conditions of DNA damage. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase utilizes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) as substrate and has been previously shown to consume NAD during exposure of cells to oxidants that was associated with inhibition of glycolysis, a decrease in cellular ATP, and cell death. In the current studies, inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase by 3-aminobenzamide, nicotinamide, or theophylline in cells exposed to lethal concentrations of H2O2 prevented the sequence of events that eventually led to cell lysis--i.e., the decrease in NAD, followed by depletion of ATP, influx of extracellular Ca2+, actin polymerization and, finally, cell death. DNA damage, the initial stimulus for poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activation, occurred despite the inhibition of this enzyme. Cells exposed to oxidant in the presence of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor 3-aminobenzamide failed to demonstrate repair of DNA strand breaks.