Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Institutional environment and network competence in successful SME internationalisation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of institutional environment on the international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is influenced by network competence. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quantitative approach. In total, 119 internationally operating Finnish SMEs from five industry sectors are sampled via a cross-sectional survey. Data are analysed through regression modelling. Findings The international performance of SMEs is influenced directly and indirectly by institutional drivers. The results show that network competence mediates the positive relationship between institutional drivers and international performance. Research limitations/implications Network capability development can help SMEs leverage more or less favourable institutional environments for successful internationalisation. Perceived institutional drivers directly result in higher performance, but the effect can be partially mediated by dynamic capabilities. The limitations of the study include its single-country context and the cross-sectional nature of the data. Practical implications SMEs should take their home countries’ institutional environments into account, but for long-term success, they should develop the ability to manage their business networks. A conducive institutional environment may help develop competence, which in turn can enable more successful internationalisation in terms of scale, scope and satisfaction. Social implications Decision-makers may benefit from knowing that, in addition to capabilities, an institutionally conducive environment that drives domestic SMEs towards international markets may be an antecedent of successful internationalisation in the SME sector. Originality/value This is one of the few studies to illustrate how network capabilities can mediate the influence of institutional factors on entrepreneurial internationalisation. It combines institutional theory and the dynamic capabilities view to explain successful SME internationalisation.
An executable specification language for planning attacks to security protocols

We propose AL/sub SP/ a Declarative Executable Specification Language for Planning Attacks to Security Protocols based on logic programming. In AL/sub SP/ we can give a declarative specification of a protocol with the natural semantics of send and receive actions. We view a protocol trace as a plan to reach a goal, so that attacks are just plans reaching goals that correspond to security violations, which can be also declaratively specified. Building on results from logic programming and planning, we map the existence of an attack to a protocol into the existence of a model for the protocol specification that satisfies the specification of an attack. AL/sub SP/ specifications are executable, as we can automatically search for attacks via any efficient model generator (such as smodels), that implements the stable model semantics of normal logic programs. Thus, we come to a specification language which is easy to use (protocol specifications are expressed at a high level of abstraction, and with an intuitive notation close to their traditional description) still keeping the rigor of a formal specification that, in addition, is executable.
Impact of sarcopenic overweight on the outcomes after living donor liver transplantation.

Background The effect of body composition disturbances has been recently in focus. Sarcopenic obesity, a co-occurrence of low muscle mass and high body fat was reportedly predictive of high mortality in patients with cirrhosis. However, the impact of the interacting sarcopenia and overweight on the outcomes after liver transplantation is still unclear. Methods We evaluated 200 patients undergoing adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation at our institution between January 2008 and November 2013 classified according to BMI and psoas muscle index (PMI) on admission to transplant into 4 subgroups; sarcopenic overweight (SO), sarcopenic non-overweight (SN), non-sarcopenic overweight and non-sarcopenic non-overweight (NN). Short-term outcomes and overall post-transplant survival were compared among the four subgroups. Results Sarcopenic patients with preoperative low PMI had higher incidence of postoperative bacteremia and major postoperative complications, and poorer overall post-transplant survival than non-sarcopenic patients with normal/high PMI (P<0.001, respectively). Overweight recipients had a significantly higher overall survival (OS) rate than non-overweight patients (P=0.021). SO subgroup (low PMI and BMI ≥25) had statistically indifferent incidence of postoperative bacteremia, major postoperative complications or overall post-transplant survival than other recipients. In contrast, SN subgroup (low PMI and BMI <25) had higher incidence of postoperative bacteremia (P<0.001), major postoperative complications (P<0.001) than the SO subgroup and possessed the poorest OS among the four recipient subgroups (P=0.001). Conclusions In living donor liver transplantation, preoperative SO did not confer added significant morbidity or mortality risks than the stand-alone sarcopenia.
On-line Multilingual Linguistic Services

In this demo, we present our free on-line multilingual linguistic services which allow to analyze sentences or to extract collocations from a corpus directly on-line, or by uploading a corpus. They are available for 8 European languages (English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish) and can also be accessed as web services by programs. While several open systems are available for POS-tagging and dependency parsing or terminology extraction, their integration into an application requires some computational competence. Furthermore, none of the parsers/taggers handles MWEs very satisfactorily, in particular when the two terms of the collocation are distant from each other or in reverse order. Our tools, on the other hand, are specifically designed for users with no particular computational literacy. They do not require from the user any download, installation or adaptation if used on-line, and their integration in an application, using one the scripts described below is quite easy. Furthermore, by default, the parser handles collocations and other MWEs, as well as anaphora resolution (limited to 3rd person personal pronouns). When used in the tagger mode, it can be set to display grammatical functions and collocations.
Classification of peatland vegetation types using in situ hyperspectral measurements

This study aims at evaluating two classes of methods to discriminate 13 peatland vegetation types using reflectance data from hyperspectral in situ measurements. These vegetation types were empirically defined according to their composition, strata and biodiversity richness. We suppose that specific biophysical properties/components may help discriminating vegetation types applying supervised classification such as Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Regularized Logistic Regression (RLR), Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Biophysical components can be used in a local way considering vegetation spectral indices or in a global way considering spectral ranges which characterize specific biophysical properties. and transformed spectral signatures enhancing absorption features. The results of this study suggest that RLR classifier is promising to map the different vegetation types with high ecological values despite vegetation heterogeneity and mixture.
Membrane Association of the CD3ε Signaling Domain Is Required for Optimal T Cell Development and Function

The TCR:CD3 complex transduces signals that are critical for optimal T cell development and adaptive immunity. In resting T cells, the CD3ε cytoplasmic tail associates with the plasma membrane via a proximal basic-rich stretch (BRS). In this study, we show that mice lacking a functional CD3ε-BRS exhibited substantial reductions in thymic cellularity and limited CD4–CD8– double-negative (DN) 3 to DN4 thymocyte transition, because of enhanced DN4 TCR signaling resulting in increased cell death and TCR downregulation in all subsequent populations. Furthermore, positive, but not negative, T cell selection was affected in mice lacking a functional CD3ε-BRS, which led to limited peripheral T cell function and substantially reduced responsiveness to influenza infection. Collectively, these results indicate that membrane association of the CD3ε signaling domain is required for optimal thymocyte development and peripheral T cell function.
Clinical aspects of ocular sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis can involve any part of the eye and may be the major manifestation of the disease, even leading to severe impairment. It can occur early or late in the disease course, and may even "pre-date" the disease, since some patients initially diagnosed with idiopathic uveitis will eventually develop systemic signs of sarcoidosis [1]. Therefore, it is important that all sarcoidosis patients are evaluated for eye disease and that sarcoidosis should be considered as the cause of abnormal eye findings.
Regulatable promoters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: comparison of transcriptional activity and their use for heterologous expression.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has become a popular model system for studying the molecular biology of the eucaryotic cell. Many mutants of S. cerevisiae have been successfully used for the isolation of functional homologues from other species by heterologous complementation. All these analyses require the ectopic and regulated expression or coexpression of genes or cDNAs at different levels under the control of heterologous promoters. Inducible and regulatable expression of proteins is of great importance especially for the comparative analysis of dosage dependent effects . In this paper, we compare the expression rates from different regulatable promoters at low or high copy number. Based on these data we have designed a series of compact vectors for the convenient cloning of genes and their regulated expression at different levels and in various genetic backgrounds. For the comparison of the expression rates we chose the promoters derived from the genes encoding 0-acetyl homoserine sulphydrylase (MET25; ref. 2) and galactokinase (GALl; ref. 3). The MET25 promoter is repressed when cells are grown in the presence of methionine (4). The GALl promoter is tightly repressed by glucose and is strongly induced by galactose Since the expression from the very strong GALl promoter can to toxic effects we constructed two deletion variants termed GALL and GALS which lack either one or one and a half of the 3 UAS elements required for full induction of the promoter by
Information technology capabilities and organizational agility

Purpose Currently, it is commonly accepted that information technology capabilities (ITC) positively influence organizational agility. Nevertheless, studies have recently started to demonstrate that different organizational factors mediate this relation under the controvertible assumption that companies are capable of responding quickly to market changes using their IT in combination with other internal resources. Therefore, companies have given very little attention to collaborative work with external partners. The purpose of this study is to analyze the mediating effects of the acquisition and exploitation capabilities of open innovation on the information technology capabilities – organizational agility relationship. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model with survey data from a multinational corporation that operates in South American emerging economies in the pension and savings businesses. Findings This study found that only the open innovation capability of exploitation has a partial mediating effect. This means that this organizational ability serves as a bridge so that IT capabilities can have a positive incidence on organizational agility. Originality/value This paper adopts a more novel study focus that emphasizes the importance of collaborative work and of the use of external resources that are implicit in open innovation capability. On the other hand, this organizational ability implies external embeddedness, which is usually approached mainly from the network theory in the international business literature; however, this study offers a more interesting study focus in which externally oriented organizational abilities such as open innovation are more important for external embeddedness than are the size and quality of the external network.
Statistical Polygonal Snakes for 3D building reconstruction using High Resolution SAR data

In this paper, the polygonal active contour method is adapted to the case of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of urban areas. The statistical criterion is modified to be able to deal with multiple images in order to improve the segmentation of buildings. A criterion is proposed and is then implemented and tested over real high resolution SAR images containing urban areas. A discussion about the benefits of this approach is done and further work about 3D statistical active contour is introduced.
Gene Products of the hupGHIJ Operon Are Involved in Maturation of the Iron-Sulfur Subunit of the [NiFe] Hydrogenase from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae

ABSTRACT In the present study, we investigate the functions of the hupGHIJ operon in the synthesis of an active [NiFe] hydrogenase in the legume endosymbiont Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae. These genes are clustered with 14 other genes including the hydrogenase structural genes hupSL. A set of isogenic mutants with in-frame deletions (ΔhupG, ΔhupH, ΔhupI, and ΔhupJ) was generated and tested for hydrogenase activity in cultures grown at different oxygen concentrations (0.2 to 2.0%) and in symbiosis with peas. In free-living cultures, deletions in these genes severely reduced hydrogenase activity. The ΔhupH mutant was totally devoid of hydrogenase activity at any of the O2 concentration tested, whereas the requirement of hupGIJ for hydrogenase activity varied with the O2 concentration, being more crucial at higher pO2. Pea bacteroids from the mutant strains affected in hupH, hupI, and hupJ exhibited reduced (20 to 50%) rates of hydrogenase activity compared to the wild type, whereas rates were not affected in the ΔhupG mutant. Immunoblot experiments with HupL- and HupS-specific antisera showed that free-living cultures from ΔhupH, ΔhupI, and ΔhupJ mutants synthesized a fully processed mature HupL protein and accumulated an unprocessed form of HupS (pre-HupS). Both the mature HupL and the pre-HupS forms were located in the cytoplasmic fraction of cultures from the ΔhupH mutant. Affinity chromatography experiments revealed that cytoplasmic pre-HupS binds to the HupH protein before the pre-HupS-HupL complex is formed. From these results we propose that hupGHIJ gene products are involved in the maturation of the HupS hydrogenase subunit.
An HIV-1 transgenic rat that develops HIV-related pathology and immunologic dysfunction

We report, to our knowledge, the first HIV type 1 (HIV-1) transgenic (Tg) rat. Expression of the transgene, consisting of an HIV-1 provirus with a functional deletion of gag and pol, is regulated by the viral long terminal repeat. Spliced and unspliced viral transcripts were expressed in lymph nodes, thymus, liver, kidney, and spleen, suggesting that Tat and Rev are functional. Viral proteins were identified in spleen tissue sections by immunohistochemistry and gp120 was present in splenic macrophages, T and B cells, and in serum. Clinical signs included wasting, mild to severe skin lesions, opaque cataracts, neurological signs, and respiratory difficulty. Histopathology included a selective loss of splenocytes within the periarterial lymphoid sheath, increased apoptosis of endothelial cells and splenocytes, follicular hyperplasia of the spleen, lymphocyte depletion of mesenteric lymph nodes, interstitial pneumonia, psoriatic skin lesions, and neurological, cardiac, and renal pathologies. Immunologically, delayed-type hypersensitivity response to keyhole limpet hemocyanin was diminished. By contrast, Ab titers and proliferative response to recall antigen (keyhole limpet hemocyanin) were normal. The HIV-1 Tg rat thus has many similarities to humans infected with HIV-1 in expression of viral genes, immune-response alterations, and pathologies resulting from infection. The HIV-1 Tg rat may provide a valuable model for some of the pathogenic manifestations of chronic HIV-1 diseases and could be useful in testing therapeutic regimens targeted to stages of viral replication subsequent to proviral integration.
Construire un arbre de discrimination binaire à partir de données imprécises

En raison d'un processus de partitionnement parfois rigide, les methodes de segmentation peuvent offrir des performances peu satisfaisantes lorsque les donnees etudiees sont recueillies dans un contexte d'incertitude important. Ce travail propose une methodologie de construction d'arbre de discrimination binaire permettant la prise en compte explicite de phenomenes d'imprecision au niveau de la description des objets etudies. La prise en compte de donnees imprecises conduit a un processus de partitionnement plus souple, base sur l'idee d'affectation probabiliste des objets dans les differents nœuds de l'arbre, a partir d'un critere de coupure utilisant la notion de vraisemblance, la methode favorise la selection de divisions plus stables, a l'image des coupures «souples», avec lesquelles nous faisons ici le lien. L'approche est illustree par un exemple simple et applique enfin a un probleme medical.
A New Model for the  $1/f$  Noise of Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

An alternative model for the 1/f noise of polycrystalline Si thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) is developed. The model adequately incorporates the grain boundary (GB) effect, different from previous work, however, the current noise is attributed to fluctuations in both carrier number and the GB barrier caused by carrier trapping/detrapping between the channel inversion carriers and the intragrain traps within the GB depletion region. The large dispersion of the trapping time constants in the 1/f noise behavior is attributed to the variation in carrier tunneling distance. The model fits the noise data very well in the low-drain current region. Based on the model, the effective density of states of the intragrain traps is obtained, providing a feasible method to evaluate the grain quality of poly-Si TFTs.
Poliovirus capsid proteins derived from P1 precursors with glutamine-valine cleavage sites have defects in assembly and RNA encapsidation

Assembly of poliovirus virions requires proteolytic cleavage of the P1 capsid precursor polyprotein between two separate glutamine-glycine (QG) amino acid pairs by the viral protease 3CD. In this study, we have investigated the effects on P1 polyprotein processing and subsequent assembly of processed capsid proteins caused by substitution of the glycine residue at the individual QG cleavage sites with valine (QG-->QV). P1 cDNAs encoding the valine substitutions were created by site-directed mutagenesis and were recombined into wild-type vaccinia virus to generate recombinant vaccinia viruses which expressed the mutant P1 precursors. The recombinant vaccinia virus-expressed mutant P1 polyproteins were analyzed for proteolytic processing defects in cells coinfected with a recombinant vaccinia virus (VVP3) that expresses the poliovirus 3CD protease and for processing and assembly defects by using a trans complementation system in which P1-expressing recombinant vaccinia viruses provide capsid precursor to a defective poliovirus genome that does not express functional capsid proteins (D. C. Ansardi, D. C. Porter, and C. D. Morrow, J. Virol. 67:3684-3690, 1993). The QV-substituted precursors were proteolytically processed at the altered sites both in cells coinfected with VVP3 and in cells coinfected with defective poliovirus, although the kinetics of cleavage at the altered sites were slower than those of cleavage at the wild-type QG site in the precursor. Completely processed capsid proteins VP0, VP3, and VP1 derived from the mutant precursor containing a valine at the amino terminus of VP3 (VP3-G001V) were unstable and failed to assemble stable subviral structures in cells coinfected with defective poliovirus. In contrast, capsid proteins derived from the P1 precursor with a valine substitution at the amino terminus of VP1 (VP1-G001V) assembled empty capsid particles but were deficient in assembling RNA-containing virions. The assembly characteristics of the VP1-G001V mutant were compared with those of a previously described VP3-VP1 cleavage site mutant (K. Kirkegaard and B. Nelsen, J. Virol. 64:185-194, 1990) which contained a deletion of the first four amino-terminal residues of VP1 (VP1-delta 1-4) and which was reconstructed for our studies into the recombinant vaccinia virus system. Complete proteolytic processing of the VP1-delta 1-4 precursor also occurred more slowly than complete cleavage of the wild-type precursor, and formation of virions was delayed; however, capsid proteins derived from the VP1-G001V mutant assembled RNA-containing virions less efficiently than those derived from the VP1-delta 1-4 precursor. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Repetitive Box Lifting Performance is Impaired in a Hot Environment: Implications for Altered Work-Rest Cycles

This study investigated the effects of environmental temperature on repetitive box lifting (RBL) performance, associated stress hormone and creatine kinase (CK) responses. Ten healthy males performed two experimental trials in a random crossover design. The trials consisted of three 40 min (10 min sitting, 20 min standing, and 10 min RBL) circuits performed in either 23°C or 38°C followed by a 180 min seated recovery period in 23°C. RBL performance (i.e., number of boxes lifted) was reduced (p ≤ 0.05) in 38°C compared to the 23°C trial. Physiological Strain Index was significantly different between trials (38°C: 8.5 ± 1.1 versus 23°C: 7.2 ± 0.7; p ≤ 0.01). Plasma testosterone was elevated (p ≤ 0.05) across both trials and then decreased at 60 min recovery, compared to pre-exercise (PRE) measures, but was higher (p ≤ 0.05) during the 38°C trial. Plasma cortisol increased (p ≤ 0.05) at 60 min during both trials and remained elevated until 120 min in 23°C, and until 60 min recovery in 38°C. Serum CK was greater through 48 hr post compared to PRE values in both trials. Thus, 10 min RBL performance was reduced in 38°C despite the 30-min rest periods between RBL intervals. Plasma testosterone and cortisol were generally higher during the 38°C trial, suggesting a greater stress response. Additional research is needed to determine optimal work:rest cycles for maximizing work performance in thermally oppressive environments.
Various Modifications of Electrochemical Barrier Layer Thinning of Anodic Aluminum Oxide

— In this paper, two options of anodic alumina barrier layer thinning have been demonstrated. The approaches varied with the duration of the voltage step. It was found that too long step of the barrier layer thinning process leads to chemical etching of the nanopores on their top. At the bottoms pores are not fully opened what is disadvantageous for further applications in nanofabrication. On the other hand, while the duration of the voltage step is controlled by the current density (value of the current density cannot exceed 75% of the value recorded during previous voltage step) the pores are fully opened. However, pores at the bottom obtained with this procedure have smaller diameter, nevertheless this procedure provides electric contact between the bare aluminum (substrate) and electrolyte, what is suitable for template assisted electrodeposition, one of the most cost-efficient synthesis method in nanotechnology.