Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Search Strategy for External Knowledge of Advanced and Developing Countries MNEs' Subsidiaries in Spain

This paper examines how the search strategy for external knowledge differs between domestic companies and foreign subsidiaries from advanced and developing countries in Spain. We argue that asymmetries in terms of the technological activities of the MNE in its home country and those of the host country translate into different search strategies for external knowledge. The results show that developing countries subsidiaries draw upon more external knowledge sources than advanced countries subsidiaries; while both types of firms have a less intensive search strategy than domestic firms. Results also indicate that affiliated domestic companies draw upon more knowledge channels than local firms, while both firms use their knowledge sources with the same intensity.
Prevalence and diversity of rotavirus A genotypes cirulating in Turkey during a 2‐year sentinel surveillance period, 2014‐2016

Human rotavirus A (RVA) is the main etiological agent of watery diarrhea among children under 5 years of age worldwide. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence and diversity of RVA genotypes circulating in Turkey during a 2‐year sentinel surveillance study. A total of 1639 rotavirus antigen‐positive stool samples were obtained from children younger than 5 years of age hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis. Rotavirus G and P genotypes were determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) with consensus primers for the VP7 and VP4 genes, followed by semi‐nested type‐specific multiplex PCR. Rotavirus RNA was detected in 1396 (85.3%) of the samples tested. The highest detection rate (38.2%) was obtained among children in the 0‐12 months age group, followed by children in the 13‐24 months age group (36.2%). The most prevalent genotype was G1P[8] (24.6%) followed by G3P[8] (19.6%), G9P[8] (12.2%), G2P[4] (9.5%), G2P[8] (6.5%), and G4P[8] (4.8%). The proportions of uncommon and mixed genotypes were 21.5% and 1.14%, respectively. The large number of genotypes observed, including common, uncommon, and mixed types, indicates a high heterogeneity of RVA strains circulating in Turkey. The current study also exhibited dramatic fluctuations on the prevalences of the common genotypes, with increases in G3 and G1 and decreases in G9 and G2 from 2014‐2016.
The Myogenic Regulatory Factor MRF4 Represses the Cardiac α-Actin Promoter through a Negative-acting N-terminal Protein Domain*

Cardiac α-actin is activated early during the development of embryonic skeletal muscle and cardiac myocytes. The gene product remains highly expressed in adult striated cardiac muscle yet is dramatically reduced in skeletal muscle. Activation and repression of cardiac α-actin gene activity in developing skeletal muscle correlates with changes in the relative content of the four myogenic regulatory factors. Cardiac α-actin promoter activity, assessed in primary chick myogenic cultures, was activated by endogenous myogenic regulatory factors but was inhibited in the presence of co-expressed MRF4. By exchanging N- and C-terminal domains of MRF4 and MyoD, the N terminus of MRF4 was identified as the mediator of repressive activity, revealing a novel negative regulatory role for MRF4. The relative ratios of myogenic regulatory factors may have fundamental roles in selecting specific muscle genes for activation and/or repression.
HOW CAN RESEARCH NETWORKS IMPROVE THE INNOVATION PROCESS

Accumulation of human capital is essential for economic growth. An important question is how knowledge spillover into innovations and production. One way of knowledge diffusion is within innovation networks. We investigate innovative networks in patent data in Sweden from 1994-2001. We define research networks with the help of direct and indirect ties among inventors. The main result clearly indicates that those researchers that collaborating, in innovation networks, improves the efficiency of the innovation process by getting more patents applications approved. The odds getting a patent application approved are in the range 1.1 to 1.5 times better if an application is a result from research collaboration. Moreover, the result suggests that collaboration is more important in the IT sector than in the mechanical engineering sector. Finally, the empirical outcomes indicate that networking is more important in less dense areas compared to the denser labor markets. Thus, networks in such areas might be a substitute for agglomeration advantages.
Robustness and Stabilization Properties of Monetary Policy Rules in Brazil

Based on three versions of a small macroeconomic model for Brazil, this paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of parameter uncertainty on monetary policy rules and on the robustness of optimal and simple rules over different model specifications. By comparing the optimal policy rule under parameter uncertainty with the rule calculated under purely additive uncertainty, we find that parameter uncertainty should make policymakers react less aggressively to the economy’s state variables, as suggested by Brainard’s “conservatism principle”, although this effect seems to be relatively small. We then informally investigate each rule’s robustness by analyzing the performance of policy rules derived from each model under each one of the alternative models. We find that optimal rules derived from each model perform very poorly under alternative models, whereas a simple Taylor rule is relatively robust. We also find that even within a specific model, the Taylor rule may perform better than the optimal rule under particularly unfavorable realizations from the policymaker’s loss distribution function. Este texto analisa a robustez e as propriedades de estabilizacao de regras de politica monetaria no contexto de um pequeno modelo macroeconometrico para o Brasil. Estimam-se tres versoes do modelo “padrao” da literatura recente sobre regras de politica monetaria. Em cada caso, a regra otima de politica e calculada sob incerteza puramente aditiva e sob incerteza multiplicativa. Observa-se que a incerteza sobre os parâmetros do modelo atenua os coeficientes da funcao de reacao otima das autoridades, conforme sugerido pelo “principio do conservadorismo” de Brainard — ainda que esse efeito seja relativamente pequeno. A robustez das regras de politica e investigada informalmente por intermedio da analise do desempenho da regra otima de cada modelo no contexto de cada um dos modelos alternativos. Os resultados mostram que as regras otimas derivadas de um modelo especifico tendem a apresentar desempenho muito fraco sob os demais modelos, em contraste com uma regra de Taylor simples, que se revela relativamente robusta. Finalmente, mostra-se que, mesmo no contexto de um modelo especifico, a regra de Taylor pode ter desempenho superior a regra otima, sob realizacoes particularmente desfavoraveis da distribuicao de probabilidade da funcao de perda das autoridades.
Silicon Photonic Waveguides and Devices for Near- and Mid-IR Applications

Silicon photonics has been a very buoyant research field in the last several years mainly because of its potential for telecom and datacom applications. However, prospects of using silicon photonics for sensing in the mid-IR have also attracted interest lately. In this paper, we present our recent results on waveguide-based devices for near- and mid-infrared applications. The silicon-on-insulator platform can be used for wavelengths up to 4 μm; therefore, different solutions are needed for longer wavelengths. We show results on passive Si devices such as couplers, filters, and multiplexers, particularly for extended wavelength regions and finally present integration of photonics and electronics integrated circuits for high-speed applications.
A Bax/Bak-independent Mechanism of Cytochrome c Release*

Bax and Bak are multidomain pro-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family of proteins that regulate mitochondria-mediated apoptosis by direct modulation of mitochondrial membrane permeability. Since double-knock-out mouse embryonic fibroblasts with deficiency of Bax and Bak are resistant to multiple apoptotic stimuli, Bax and Bak are considered to be an essential gateway for various apoptotic signals. Here we showed that the combination of calcium ionophore A23187 and arachidonic acid induced cytochrome c release and caspase-dependent death of double-knock-out mouse embryonic fibroblasts, indicating that other mechanisms of cytochrome c release exist. Furthermore, A23187/arachidonic acid (ArA)-induced caspase-dependent death was significantly suppressed by the treatment of several serine protease inhibitors including 4-(2-aminoethyl)benzenesulfonylfluoride and l-1-chloro-3-(4-tosylamido)-4-phenyl-2-butanone but not the overexpression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family of proteins or the inhibition of mitochondrial membrane permeability transition. These results indicate that there are at least two mechanisms of cytochrome c release leading to caspase activation, a Bax/Bak-dependent mechanism and a Bax/Bak-independent, but serine protease(s)-dependent, mechanism.
Semantic Unit Mining and Embedding

Semantic units, meaning words or phrases with their topics and named entities with their specific types, are the basis of the human cognitive system. It can be argued that a large part of semantic units is not just a simple single word. However, most modern NLP applications simply use single word as the basic units to process our language, which may cause the loss of much valuable semantic meanings. Thus, how to efficiently find and generate semantic units in large corpus becomes a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a method of learning embedding representation for semantic units. We first use phrase mining, name entity recognition, topic modeling to find semantic units. Then we chunk the training corpus into semantic tokens and use the Skip-gram model to train the embedding representation. Our experiments show that semantic unit based embedding outperforms word level based embedding on multiple tasks.
Establishing viable programs of research: the executive information system program at the University of Georgia

Programs of research can help develop in-depth knowledge in a field through a series of interrelated studies and have been used successfully by several universities. This article describes one of the MIS research programs: the executive information system (EIS) program of research at the University of Georgia. We discuss its motivation and history, the resources involved, the outputs to date, and the benefits. The general approach used is portable, and we discuss how the approach used by Georgia can be adopted by others.
GABAergic Interneurons Facilitate Mossy Fiber Excitability in the Developing Hippocampus

Profound activity-dependent synaptic facilitation at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses is a unique and functionally important property. Although presynaptic ionotropic receptors, such as kainate receptors, contribute partially to the facilitation in the hippocampus, the precise mechanisms of presynaptic regulation by endogenous neurotransmitters remain unclear. In this study, we report that axonal GABAA receptors on mossy fibers are involved in the activity-dependent facilitation during development. In immature mouse hippocampal slices, short-train stimulation (five pulses at 25 Hz) caused frequency-dependent facilitation of not only postsynaptic responses but also presynaptic fiber volleys that represent presynaptic activities. This fiber volley facilitation was inhibited by selective GABAA receptor antagonists, or by enkephalin that selectively suppresses excitability of interneurons. Furthermore, we directly demonstrated that this facilitation resulted from depolarization of mossy fibers in imaging experiments using a voltage-sensitive dye. This increased mossy fiber excitability caused by depolarizing action of GABA gradually decreased with development and eventually disappeared at around postnatal day 30. These results suggested that GABA released from interneurons acted on axonal GABAA receptors on mossy fibers and contributed at least partially to the activity- and age-dependent facilitation in the hippocampus.
Choosing a Financial Advisor

The very first step is to determine what those needs or goals are — buying your first home, saving for a child's college education, a comfortable and secure retirement, etc. A personal financial advisor, also known as a financial planner or a financial consultant, will use knowledge of investments, tax laws, and even insurance, in order to recommend financial options that might best fit your short-term and long-term goals. Financial planners deal with such issues as retirement and estate planning, funding for college, and also general investment options. And while some financial advisors are able to offer advice on a wide array of topics, others specialize in specific areas.
Swelling of hepatocytes injured by oxidative stress suggests pathological changes related to macromolecular crowding.

A fundamental property of living matter is the ability to establish and maintain order. Mild changes in cell volume have a role in metabolic control. Furthermore, cellular swelling is a way of living cells to react to a variety of stressors. Data from experimental pathology, biochemistry and biophysics and theoretical arguments from biology, biochemical evolution, cytology and biophysics are considered to attempt an integration of several current concepts on different subjects (intracellular compartmentation, cellular swelling, macromolecular crowding, perturbing and non-perturbing solutes). The purpose is to provide a framework for conceptualizing in modern terms the question whether cellular swelling induced by oxidative stress should be considered merely a cell adaptation balanced by antioxidant defenses and by other biochemical devices apt to preserve the intracellular environment and normal cell functioning, or whether swelling of high amplitude should be regarded as a true pathological change. The basic question dated 1982: "how crowded is the cytoplasm? " is a matter for discussion as far as swollen cells are concerned. This paper examines the liver for cellular swelling of high amplitude (about+30%) caused by iron or by thyroid hormone+iron (histological picture of "cloudy swelling") or the steatogenic poison CCl(4), also known as a source of oxyradicals, which causes an even more pronounced cellular swelling. In CCl(4)-toxic fatty liver the strong increase of tissue water is substantially masked by the parallel increase of tissue dry solids due to fat accumulation. This example of a "tissue dilution artefact" is discussed in connection with the increase of tissue water also in toxic fatty liver induced by white phosphorus and ethanol. In CCl(4)-toxic fatty liver the normal K(+)/Na(+) ratio (about 3) is substantially maintained, whereas the concentrations of the two cations ("perturbing osmolytes") in tissue water are noticeably decreased, a finding which was not further studied at the time the observations were made because biochemistry was not yet advanced enough to allow an explanation. Today, a logic hypothesis is that an increase of non-perturbing solutes such as taurine and betaine, maintains the physiological intracellular osmotic pressure and that the harmful effects of CCl(4) are limited because of the protective effects of these molecules and of molecular chaperones against damage by oxyradicals. However, as a consequence of cellular swelling, intracellular changes in ionic strength and macromolecular crowding should occur thus affecting enzyme activities. Models and techniques apt to investigate this problem experimentally are suggested.
The Role of Economic Factors in Profitability of Accepted Companies in Stock Exchange of Tehran

For every business enterprise, net profit or specific equity after tax deduction for a specific time period is the final result of investment activities, and financial and operational provision. These activities can result from managerial decisions and a group of extrinsic or intrinsic environmental factors. This study examines how firms’ profitability is impressed by selected economic and financial indices or what is the relationship between profitability and mentioned indices. In other words, this study probes if there is any relationship between profitability and selected indices according to general accepted theory. Moreover, the results from data analysis may lead to some useful strategies for a better profit management. In this study, the data of 42 companies were analyzed in Stock Exchange of Tehran, using an econometric framework from 2008-2011. Return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) were regarded as main profitability indices (dependent variables); while current ratio, financial leverages (long-term debt to total capital and long term debt ratio). Annual income growth and GDP were considered as independent variables. The correlations between dependent and independent variables were tested, using combined regressions. At 95% confidence level, however stockholder equity or asset return is regarded as the dependent variable; the results show direct and significant correlation between liquidity (current ratio) and profitability of the firms. Maybe the most important reason for that is growing inflation rate in Iran which causes high rise of basic products’ prices such as manufacturing raw materials and machinery in recent years. When asset return is regarded as profitability criterion, it is concluded that there is a negative and significant correlation between financial leverage and profitability at 90% confidence level.
RFID tags: commercial applications v. privacy rights

Purpose – This article seeks to examine the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in commercial applications and to discuss whether regulation is needed to balance commercial economic interests versus consumer privacy and libertarian concerns.Design/methodology/approach – This paper covers discussions and comparative studies of others' work and thinking.Findings – RFID technology provides enormous economic benefits for both business and consumers, while simultaneously potentially constituting one of the most invasive surveillance technologies threatening consumer privacy.Practical implications – The use of RFID technology has profound consumer privacy, civil liberty and security implications.Originality/value – RFID technology is at an embryonic stage. Like many new technologies, it poses both potential benefit and harm to society. The article recommends that legislation is needed to tip the balance enough to provide adequate privacy protection without unduly harming economic efficiency.
How credible are mining corporations' sustainability reports? a critical analysis of external assurance under the requirements of the international council on mining and metals

Member companies of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) have committed to publish externally assured sustainability reports. This paper evaluates the quality of assurance provided to those companies by analyzing the extent to which a sample of their assurance statements met minimum recommended contents. It also seeks to understand the implications of the recently launched ICMM Assurance Procedure. Nine out of the sixteen companies hired assurance in the period analyzed. Their statements mirrored several quality problems highlighted in previous studies. The extensive scope limitations and diversity of verification criteria employed by assurors indicate that mining companies had significant control over the practice. The Assurance Procedure might bring more consistency and breadth to the verification process. The extent to which it will contribute to increased trust in reported information will depend on several factors, including how assurors may interpret the procedure's requirements. Directions for further research are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease reveal innate, adaptive, and regulatory mechanisms of host dialogue with the microbiota

Summary: There are now many experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), most of which are due to induced mutations in mice that result in an impaired homeostasis with the intestinal microbiota. These models can be clustered into several broad categories that, in turn, define the crucial cellular and molecular mechanisms of host microbial interactions in the intestine. The first of these components is innate immunity defined broadly to include both myeloid and epithelial cell mechanisms. A second component is the effector response of the adaptive immune system, which, in most instances, comprises the CD4+ T cell and its relevant cytokines. The third component is regulation, which can involve multiple cell types, but again particularly involves CD4+ T cells. Severe impairment of a single component can result in disease, but many models demonstrate milder defects in more than one component. The same is true for both spontaneous models of IBD, C3H/HeJBir and SAMPI/Yit mice. The thesis is advanced that ‘multiple hits’ or defects in these interacting components is required for IBD to occur in both mouse and human.
Behavioral Marketing: Security and Privacy Issues

Abstract The internet has presented a host of opportunities for companies to bombard the consumers with various marketing information. Some of these techniques and strategies infringe on privacy and present the consumers with security issues. This article examines some of the leading tools that are being employed by companies under the umbrella of behavioral marketing. The privacy and security dimensions of these strategies are also discussed.
Milk lipid secretion: recent biomolecular aspects

Abstract Neonates of most species depend on milk lipids for calories, fat-soluble vitamins, and bioactive lipid components for growth and development during the postnatal period. To meet neonatal nutrition and development needs, the mammary gland has evolved efficient mechanisms for synthesizing and secreting large quantities of lipid during lactation. Although the biochemical steps involved in milk lipid synthesis are understood, the identities of the genes mediating these steps and the molecular physiology of milk lipid production and secretion have only recently begun to be understood in detail through advances in mouse genetics, gene expression analysis, protein structural properties, and the cell biology of lipid metabolism. This review discusses emerging data about the molecular, cellular, and structural determinants of milk lipid synthesis and secretion within the context of physiological functions.
Simultaneous enhancement and noise reduction of a single low-light image

Images obtained under low-light conditions tend to have the characteristics of low-grey levels, high-noise levels, and indistinguishable details. Image degradation not only affects the recognition of images, but also influences the performance of the computer vision system. The low-light image enhancement algorithm based on the dark channel prior de-hazing technique can enhance the contrast of images effectively and can highlight the details of images. However, the dark channel prior de-hazing technique ignores the effects of noise, which leads to significant noise amplification after the enhancement process. In this study, a de-hazing-based simultaneous enhancement and noise reduction algorithm of are proposed by analysing the essence of the dark channel prior de-hazing technique and bilateral filter. First, the authors estimate the values of the initial parameters of the hazy image model by de-hazing technique. Then, they correct the parameters of the hazy image model alternately with the iterative joint bilateral filter. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can simultaneously enhance the low-light images and reduce noise effectively. The proposed algorithm could also perform quite well compared with the current common image enhancement and noise reduction algorithms in terms of the subjective visual effects and objective quality assessments.