Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of the Incentive Effects of R&D Preferential Tax Policies on Business Innovative Outputs: A Study Based on the National-Recognized Enterprise Technical Centers

Taking the data of the listed companies which are identified as National- Recognized Enterprise Technical Centers as samples, this paper focuses on the multiform innovative outputs and conducts an ampirical study by applying the propensity matching approach. The result shows that the firms that have enjoyed the preferential tax policies can have more patents, new products and technological rewards than those without the tax policies, which supports the incentive effects of RD preferential tax policies; meanwhile, the situations of the firms that enjoyed the preferential tax policies are not satisfactory, there even exist regional and industrial differences. Therefore, firms should apply for RD preferential tax policies actively, and the government should also strengthen its efforts in carrying out the relevant preferential policies, so as to quicken the pace of independent innovation in the firms.
Presenting problems and treatment expectations among service users accessing psychiatric outpatient care: are there gender differences?

BACKGROUND Community-based studies have documented gender differences in mental health problems and service utilization. This mixed methods study explored gender differences in severity of emotional distress, referral paths, presenting problems and care expectations among service users upon accessing outpatient psychiatric care. METHODS Consecutive service users (N=284, 64% women) who presented for a new or repeated episode of care in adult outpatient clinics completed questionnaires on a measure of emotional distress, treatment history and referral path. These variables were quantitatively analyzed. Also, users completed two open-ended questionnaires on reasons for seeking care and expectations from the services. These variables were qualitatively analyzed using thematic analyses. RESULTS No significant gender differences emerged on any of the variables examined among new and repeated users. The main reasons for seeking care were psychiatric symptoms as well as non-specific psychopathology. The most frequent expectations from the services were receiving psychotherapy and specific tools to better manage life problems. LIMITATIONS The sample of new male service users was relatively small. CONCLUSIONS Once care is initiated, men and women showed similar clinical presentation and care expectations.
A New Approach in Nonparametric Estimation of Returns in Mean-DownSide Risk Portfolio frontier

The DownSide Risk (DSR) model for portfolio optimization allows to overcome the drawbacks of the classical Mean-Variance model concerning the asymmetry of returns and the risk perception of investors. This optimization model deals with a positive definite matrix that is endogenous with respect to the portfolio weights and hence yields to a non standard optimization problem. To bypass this hurdle, Athayde (2001) developed a new recursive minimization procedure that ensures the convergence to the solution. However, when a finite number of observations is available, the portfolio frontier usually exhibits some inflexion points which make this curve not very smooth. In order to overcome these points, Athayde (2003) proposed a mean kernel estimation of returns to get a smoother portfolio frontier. This technique provides an effect similar to the case in which an infinite number of observations is available. In spite of the originality of this approach, the proposed algorithm was not neatly written. Moreover, no application was presented in his paper. Ben Salah et al (2015), taking advantage on the the robustness of the median, replaced the mean estimator in Athayde's model by a nonparametric median estimator of the returns, and gave a tidily and comprehensive version of the former algorithm (of Athayde (2001, 2003)). In all the previous cases, the problem is computationally complex since at each iteration, the returns (for each asset and for the portfolio) need to be re-estimated. Due to the changes in the kernel weights for every time, the portfolio is altered. In this paper, a new method to reduce the number of iterations is proposed. Its principle is to start by estimating non parametrically all the returns for each asset; then, the returns of a given portfolio will be derived from the previous estimated assets returns. Using the DSR criterion and Athayde's algorithm, a smoother portfolio frontier is obtained when short selling is or is not allowed. The proposed approach is applied on the French and Brazilian stock markets.
[Characteristics of cognitive impairment in patients with leukoaraiosis].

OBJECTIVE To explore the characteristics of cognitive impairment in patients with leukoaraiosis (LA). METHODS Forty-six LA patients and 38 age and gender-matched healthy subjects were recruited from the Department of Neurology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University between September 2010 and March 2011. All participants underwent the neuropsychological tests recommended by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-Canadian Stroke Network Vascular Cognitive Impairment Harmonization Standards (NINDS/CSN). The were divided into 3 different groups (mild, moderate and severe) according to the Fazekas scale. The differences of neuropsychological performances were compared among 3 groups. RESULTS The LA patients were associated with comprehensive cognitive function deficits, including MMSE (24.4 ± 3.2 vs 28.3 ± 1.2), MoCA (20.4 ± 3.0 vs 26.2 ± 0.8), digital span forward (5.7 ± 0.9 vs 6.8 ± 1.0), digital span backward (3.5 ± 0.7 vs 4.1 ± 0.7), Stroop-B (69 ± 13 vs 43 ± 5), Stroop-C (141 ± 42 vs 65 ± 10), trail making test-A (73 ± 15 vs 31 ± 7), trail making test-B (126 ± 18 vs 82 ± 6) and digit symbol test (25 ± 6 vs 37 ± 5, P < 0.05). However, there was no difference in the performance of verbal fluency (12.7 ± 2.5 vs 13.4 ± 2.5, P > 0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the severity of LA had a negative correlation with the performance of MoCA (r = -0.601, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS The LA patients are closely correlated with cognitive impairments of attention, memory, executive function and information processing speed. It may be attributed to the frontal-subcortical circuitry dysfunction.
A modified Kalman filter based on augmentation state for X-ray pulsar phase-differenced measurement

To reduce the measurement noise and the correlation between the process and measurement noises caused by time-differenced measurement, we study an X-ray pulsar navigation method using phase-differenced measurement, which calculates phases of pulsar signal in frequency domain and is more accurate than time-differenced measurement. A modified Kalman filter based on augmentation state is proposed to solve the issue of the correlation. The simulation results show that the proposed method can not only reduce the system biases but also solve the correlation of the process noise with the measurement noises effectively.
Towards a new understanding on the regulation of mammalian oocyte meiosis resumption

Mammalian oocytes reach prophase of first meiosis around the time of birth, and remain at this stage for months or years, depending on the species. Only after puberty will the fully-grown oocytes begin to resume meiosis which is stimulated by gonadotropin surge. It has long been known that a high level of intra-oocyte cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) prevents oocyte meiosis resumption as indicated by germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Recently, guanosine triphosphate-binding (G) protein-coupled receptors/G proteins/adenyl cyclase pathway endogenous to the oocyte as well as cAMP diffusion from the somatic compartment through gap junctions have been implicated in maintaining cAMP at levels that prevent oocytes from resuming meiosis. Another second messager molecule, guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP), has also recently been found to play important roles in maintaining oocyte meiosis arrest. cGMP in the follicular somatic cells diffuses into the oocyte and causes an increase in oocyte cAMP, presumably by acting on phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3). The cGMP level in the somatic compartment of the follicle decreases in response to luteinizing hormone (LH), and this change may be mediated through the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like factors and specific cGMP-phosphodiesterase subtype activity. It is well known that gonadotropic stimulation of meiotic resumption depends on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation in the somatic compartment of the follicle; recent studies show that LH, through cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase C (PKC) pathways, induces the synthesis of paracine factors such as EGF-like facors and meiosis activating sterol (MAS) to regulate oocyte GVBD via the MAPK pathway in follicle cells. A recent granulosa cell-specific knockout study has for the first time provided in vivo evidence for the important role of extracellular regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), two main forms of MAPK, and their downstream molecules in granulosa cells in oocyte meiosis resumption. Unresolved questions and future directions on research regarding signaling changes in follicle cells and oocytes as well their communication in response to the gonadotropin surge are addressed in this review.
Expanding frontiers in plant transcriptomics in aid of functional genomics and molecular breeding

The transcript pool of a plant part, under any given condition, is a collection of mRNAs that will pave the way for a biochemical reaction of the plant to stimuli. Over the past decades, transcriptome study has advanced from Northern blotting to RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq), through other techniques, of which real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and microarray are the most significant ones. The questions being addressed by such studies have also matured from a solitary process to expression atlas and marker‐assisted genetic enhancement. Not only genes and their networks involved in various developmental processes of plant parts have been elucidated, but also stress tolerant genes have been highlighted. The transcriptome of a plant with altered expression of a target gene has given information about the downstream genes. Marker information has been used for breeding improved varieties. Fortunately, the data generated by transcriptome analysis has been made freely available for ample utilization and comparison. The review discusses this wide variety of transcriptome data being generated in plants, which includes developmental stages, abiotic and biotic stress, effect of altered gene expression, as well as comparative transcriptomics, with a special emphasis on microarray and RNA‐seq. Such data can be used to determine the regulatory gene networks, which can subsequently be utilized for generating improved plant varieties.
US Bank Credit Spreads During the Financial Crisis

This paper argues that first passage time models are likely to better than affine hazard rate models in modelling stressed credit markets and confirms their superior performance in explaining the behavior of Credit Default Swap rates for the major US banking groups over the period of the financial crisis. Affine models find it hard to deal with periods of exceptionally high or low default risk given their assumption of a constant rate of mean reversion in the hazard rate. In contrast, first passage time models are specified in terms of the distance to default rather than the hazard rate. The persistence of shocks varies with the distance to default, allowing the default curve to invert sharply (compress) when the distance to default is low (high). I use an empirical version of the Collin-Dufresne et al. (2003) model, which contains a smoothing parameter that allows it to control the relative effect of these shocks on the short spreads and can be interpreted as an information lag.
Open source initiatives as basis for the establishment of new technologies in industrial automation: 4DIAC a case study

This paper intends to prove that an open source strategy is an adequate means for pushing current developments within the industrial automation domain and for bringing together interested partners to focus and unite their efforts on the development of an open, distributed and flexible automation environment. After introducing the new IEC 61499 standard and the “Framework for Distributed Industrial Automation and Control” (4DIAC), open source initiative based on the same standard, the authors provide an overview of the various research activities and industrial domains where 4DIAC project outcomes are currently used. Finally, evidences of the support provided by the initiative to both the establishment of new technologies and products, based on open standards, and the appearing of new actors in the industrial automation domain will be provided.
Research and application of jet stream arc-quenching lightning protection gap (JSALPG) for transmission lines

Traditional lightning protection measures of transmission lines have been restricted by a variety of uncontrollable factors, and it has been difficult to achieve the ideal effect. In this paper, a novel Jet Stream Arc-quenching Lightning Protection Gap (JSALPG), based on the "channeling type" lightning protection method, was studied. JSALPG may be triggered to generate high-speed jet streams while its parallel gap is broken down by lightning strokes; the resulting jet stream will intensely act on the initial development stage of subsequent power frequency arc and completely extinguish the arc in a much shorter time than the operation of relay protection; thus, suppressing the “arc establishing rate” and reducing the lightning tripout rate significantly. In this paper, the operating principle of JSALPG is introduced, and the MHD model and modified Mayr arc model of jet stream arc-quenching field are developed. Relevant numerical calculations, simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the arc-quenching effect of JSALPG. Finally, the actual operation of JSALPG on a 35 kV line is analyzed, verifying the validity and reliability of JSALPG.
Temperature‐dependent phagotrophy and phototrophy in a mixotrophic chrysophyte

The roles of temperature and light on grazing and photosynthesis were examined for Dinobryon sociale, a common freshwater mixotrophic alga. Photosynthetic rate was determined for D. sociale adapted to temperatures of 8, 12, 16, and 20°C under photosynthetically active radiation light irradiances of 25, 66, and 130 μmol photons · m−2 · s−1, with concurrent measurement of bacterial ingestion at all temperatures under medium and high light (66 and 130 μmol photons · m−2 · s−1). Rates of ingestion and photosynthesis increased with temperature to a maximum at 16°C under the two higher light regimes, and declined at 20°C. Although both light and temperature had a marked effect on photosynthesis, there was no significant difference in bacterivory at medium and high irradiances at any given temperature. At the lowest light condition (25 μmol photons · m−2 · s−1), photosynthesis remained low and relatively stable at all temperatures. D. sociale acquired the majority of carbon from photosynthesis, although the low photosynthetic rate without a concurrent decline in feeding rate at 8°C suggested 20%–30% of the carbon budget could be attributed to bacterivory at low temperatures. Grazing experiments in nutrient‐modified media revealed that this mixotroph had increased ingestion rates when either dissolved nitrogen or phosphorus was decreased. This work increases our understanding of environmental effects on mixotrophic nutrition. Although the influence of abiotic factors on phagotrophy and phototrophy in pure heterotrophs and phototrophs has been well studied, much less is known for mixotrophic organisms.
Effects of Aposymbiotic and Symbiotic Aphids on Parasitoid Progeny Development and Adult Oviposition Behavior Within Aphid Instars

ABSTRACT This study aims at exploring the potential relationship between aphidiine parasitoid development and the primary endosymbiont in aphids by focusing on specific aphid instars and the relative effects on parasitoid oviposition behavior and progeny development. Lysiphlebus ambiguus (Aphidiidae, Hymenoptera) is a solitary parasitoid of several species of aphids, including Aphis fabae. In this study, A. fabae was treated with antibiotic rifampicin to obtain aposymbiotic hosts and exposed to parasitism. L. ambiguus launched significantly more attacks on symbiotic L2 (the second instar), aposymbiotic L3 (the third instar) and L4 (the forth instar) hosts than on the corresponding hosts at the same age. L. ambiguus also parasitized more L1 aphids compared with adults irrespective of whether the aphid was asymbiotic or not. Pupa mortality rate of parasitoid progeny was significantly lower from aposymbiotic hosts than from the corresponding symbiotics at all stages. Female-biased parasitoid progeny was produced from aposymbiotic aphids without respect to host ages, but female progeny increased linearly with host ages at parasitism from symbiotic aphids. Body size of parasitoid progeny increased linearly with host instars at parasitism in symbiotic aphids but did not significantly change across host instars in aposymbiotic aphids. The offspring parasitoids turned out to be generally large in body size from attacking aposymbiotic aphids compared with the symbiotics. Development time of egg-to-adult of parasitoid progeny decreased with host instars in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic aphids but was generally much longer in aposymbiotic aphids than in symbiotic aphids. Our study suggests that age or body size of host aphids may not be the only cue exercised by L. ambiguus to evaluate host quality and that offspring parasitoids may be able to compensate for the nutrition stress associated with disruption of primary endosymbiotc bacteria in aposymbiotic aphids.
Daclatasvir + sofosbuvir versus standard of care for hepatitis C genotype 3: a matching-adjusted indirect comparison.

AIMS To compare the efficacy and tolerability of daclatasvir and sofosbuvir (DCV + SOF) versus SOF and ribavirin (SOF + R) and versus peginterferon-alfa plus ribavirin (A/R) in patients infected with hepatitis C genotype 3. PATIENTS & METHODS Clinical trials of SOF + R or A/R were identified in systematic literature reviews. The DCV+SOF population was adjusted via propensity score weighting to match average baseline characteristics to those reported for the comparator regimens. RESULTS The SVR12 rate was similar between DCV + SOF and SOF + R, and significantly higher with DCV + SOF than A/R. Rates of discontinuation due to AEs were similar or significantly lower in patients treated with DCV + SOF than SOF + R or A/R. CONCLUSION With its high efficacy and improved tolerability, DCV + SOF is an important treatment for hepatitis C genotype 3.
Modeling the postural disturbances caused by upper extremity movements

This paper describes the design, validation, and application of a dynamic, three-dimensional (3-D) model of the upper extremity for the purpose of estimating postural disturbances generated by movements of the arms. The model consists of two links representing the upper and lower arms, with the shoulder and elbow modeled as gimbal joints to allow three rotational degrees of freedom. With individualized segment inertial parameters based on anthropometric measurements, the model performs inverse dynamic analysis of recorded arm movements to calculate reaction forces and moments acting on the body at the shoulder in three dimensions. The method was validated by comparing the output of the model to estimates obtained from ground reaction loads during stereotypical and free form unilateral movements at various velocities and with different loads carried by human subjects while seated on biomechanical force platforms. The correlation between predicted and measured reaction forces and moments was very good under all conditions and across all subjects, with average rms errors less than 8% of measured peak-to-peak values. The model was then applied to bimanual activities representative of functional movements that would typically be performed while standing at a counter. The resulting estimates were consistent and adequate for the purpose of evaluating postural disturbances caused by upper extremity movements.
Relationship Quality In Real Estate Companies

Customer loyalty is becoming a topic of interest which is winning increasingly more importance lately, as a result of the focus of marketing research on business relationships. One of the most important factors that determine customer loyalty is Service Quality.The stage of qualitative research consists of analyzing the research literature from this domain, which highlights the Relationship Quality construct as a distinct dimension, relevant for the real estate field. The summary of the main models of relationship quality indicate the most commonly used variables to describe this construct. The stage of quantitative research aims at testing the proportion of content validity for the most commonly used variables. The results describe an estimation of the dimensions of the Relationship Quality construct for the case of real estate services.
Generalized protein structure prediction based on combination of fold‐recognition with de novo folding and evaluation of models

To predict the tertiary structure of full‐length sequences of all targets in CASP6, regardless of their potential category (from easy comparative modeling to fold recognition to apparent new folds) we used a novel combination of two very different approaches developed independently in our laboratories, which ranked quite well in different categories in CASP5. First, the GeneSilico metaserver was used to identify domains, predict secondary structure, and generate fold recognition (FR) alignments, which were converted to full‐atom models using the “FRankenstein's Monster” approach for comparative modeling (CM) by recombination of protein fragments. Additional models generated “de novo” by fully automated servers were obtained from the CASP website. All these models were evaluated by VERIFY3D, and residues with scores better than 0.2 were used as a source of spatial restraints. Second, a new implementation of the lattice‐based protein modeling tool CABS was used to carry out folding guided by the above‐mentioned restraints with the Replica Exchange Monte Carlo sampling technique. Decoys generated in the course of simulation were subject to the average linkage hierarchical clustering. For a representative decoy from each cluster, a full‐atom model was rebuilt. Finally, five models were selected for submission based on combination of various criteria, including the size, density, and average energy of the corresponding cluster, and the visual evaluation of the full‐atom structures and their relationship to the original templates. The combination of FRankenstein and CABS was one of the best‐performing algorithms over all categories in CASP6 (it is important to note that our human intervention was very limited, and all steps in our method can be easily automated). We were able to generate a number of very good models, especially in the Comparative Modeling and New Folds categories. Frequently, the best models were closer to the native structure than any of the templates used. The main problem we encountered was in the ranking of the final models (the only step of significant human intervention), due to the insufficient computational power, which precluded the possibility of full‐atom refinement and energy‐based evaluation. Proteins 2005;Suppl 7:84–90. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.