bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Political Ties of Listed Chinese Companies, Performance Effects, and Moderating Institutional Factors
Authors: Arnoldi Jakob , Villadsen Anders R. 
Published: April 2015

ABSTRACTAlthough development in China is quite heterogeneous across regions, little research has explored how the value of Chinese firms’ political ties is contingent on the institutional and economic development of firms’ regional environment. This article explores some of the factors that moderate the benefit of political ties, differentiating between ties to central and local government. The study investigates how benefits of ties to central and local government are moderated by regional market and economic development, respectively. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of 858 listed Chinese firms. The results suggest that firms enjoy a positive effect of political ties but mainly ties to central government. The analysis, furthermore, finds these ties to be less valuable in economically well-developed regions. Market development, on the other hand, does not moderate the effects of local or central government ties.
Neue Westpolitik: The Clandestine Campaign to Westernize the SPD in Cold War Berlin, 1948–1958
Authors: Krause Scott H. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractThis article focuses on the joint campaign of “remigrés” and American authorities to “westernize” the local Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin during the early Cold War. The years 1948 to 1958 witnessed one of postwar Germany's most bitter intraparty struggles for leadership within the Berlin SPD, where a faction of remigrés led by Ernst Reuter and Willy Brandt wrestled for control with the so-calledKeulenriegearound Franz Neumann. Examining clandestine American support for the remigré faction, which included favorable media coverage and considerable financial contributions, this article focuses in particular on the political maneuvering of a German-American network around Shepard Stone, political advisor to U.S. Commissioner John McCloy. An investigation of the postwar power struggle within the Berlin SPD offers fresh perspectives on three related subjects: the role of remigrés in postwar Germany history; the political clout of informal German-American networks; and West Berlin as an alternative laboratory of German democratization.
Diagnostics of peak laser intensity based on the measurement of energy of electrons emitted from laser focal region
Authors: Kalashnikov M. , Andreev A. , Ivanov K. , Galkin A. , Korobkin V. , Romanovsky M. , Shiryaev O. , Schnuerer M. , Braenzel J. , Trofimov V. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractA new method to determine the peak intensity of focused relativistic laser pulses is experimentally justified. It is based on the measurement of spectra of electrons, accelerated in the beam waist. The detected electrons were emitted from the plasma, generated by nonlinear ionization of low-density gases (helium, argon, and krypton) in the focal area of a laser beam with the peak intensity >1020 W/cm2. The measurements revealed generation of particles with the maximum energy of a few MeV, observed at a small angle relative to the beam axis. The results are supported by numerical particle-in-cell simulations of a laser–low-density plasma interaction. The peak intensity in the focal region derived from experimental data reaches the value of 2.5 × 1020 W/cm2.
Path Planning and scheduling for a fleet of autonomous vehicles
Authors: Xidias Elias , Zacharia Paraskevi , Nearchou Andreas 
Published: April 2015

SUMMARYThis paper presents a new solution approach for managing the motion of a fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in indoor factory environments. AVs are requested to serve a number of workstations (WS) (following a specified desired production plan for materials requirements) while taking into account the safe movement (collisions avoidance) in the shop floor as well as time duration and energy resources. The proposed approach is based on the Bump-Surface concept to represent the 2D environment through a single mathematical entity. The solution of the combined problem of path planning and task scheduling is searched on a higher-dimension B-surface (in our case 3D) in such a way that its inverse image into the robot environment satisfies the given objectives and constraints. Then, a modified Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to search for a near-optimum solution. The objective of the fleet coordination consists of determining the best feasible paths for the AVs so that all the WS are served at the lowest possible cost. The efficiency of the developed method is investigated and discussed through characteristic simulated experiments concerning a variety of operating environments.
Dual arm-angle parameterisation and its applications for analytical inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators
Authors: Xu Wenfu , Yan Lei , Mu Zonggao , Wang Zhiying 
Published: April 2015

SUMMARYAn S-R-S (Spherical-Revolute-Spherical) redundant manipulator is similar to a human arm and is often used to perform dexterous tasks. To solve the inverse kinematics analytically, the arm-angle was usually used to parameterise the self-motion. However, the previous studies have had shortcomings; some methods cannot avoid algorithm singularity and some are unsuitable for configuration control because they use a temporary reference plane. In this paper, we propose a method of analytical inverse kinematics resolution based on dual arm-angle parameterisation. By making use of two orthogonal vectors to define two absolute reference planes, we obtain two arm angles that satisfy a specific condition. The algorithm singularity problem is avoided because there is always at least one arm angle to represent the redundancy. The dual arm angle method overcomes the shortcomings of traditional methods and retains the advantages of the arm angle. Another contribution of this paper is the derivation of the absolute reference attitude matrix, which is the key to the resolution of analytical inverse kinematics but has not been previously addressed. The simulation results for typical cases that include the algorithm singularity condition verified our method.
Consumers' perception-oriented product form design using multiple regression analysis and backpropagation neural network
Authors: Chen Hung-Yuan , Chang Hua-Cheng 
Published: April 2015

AbstractConsumers' psychological perceptions of a product are significantly influenced by its appearance aesthetics, and thus product form plays an essential role in determining the commercial success of a product. The evolution of a product's form during the design process is typically governed by the designer's individual preferences and creative instincts. As a consequence, there is a risk that the product form may fail to satisfy the consumers' expectations or may induce an unanticipated consumer response. This study commences developing an integrated design approach based on the numerical definition of product form. A series of evaluation trials are then performed to establish the correlation between the product form features and the consumers' perceptions of the product image. The results of the evaluation trials are used to construct three different types of mathematical model (a multiple regression analysis model, a backpropagation neural network model, and a multiple regression analysis with a backpropagation neural network model) to predict the likely consumer response to any arbitrary product form. The feasibility of an integrated design approach is demonstrated using a three-dimensional knife form. Although this study takes an example for illustration and verification purposes, the methodology proposed in the present study is equally applicable to any form of consumer product.
SEABIRD: Scalable search for systematic biologically inspired design
Authors: Vandevenne Dennis , Verhaegen Paul-Armand , Dewulf Simon , Duflou Joost R. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractAs more and more people are increasingly turning to nature for design inspiration, tools and methodologies are developed to support the systematic bioideation process. State-of-the-art approaches struggle with expanding their knowledge bases because of interactive work required by humans per biological strategy. As an answer to this persistent challenge, a scalable search for systematic biologically inspired design (SEABIRD) system is proposed. This system leverages experience from the product aspects in design by analogy tool that identifies candidate products for between-domain design by analogy. SEABIRD is based on two conceptual representations, product and organism aspects, extracted from, respectively, a patent and a biological database, that enable leveraging the ever growing body of natural-language biological texts in the systematic bioinspired design process by eliminating interactive work by humans during corpus expansion. SEABIRD's search is illustrated and validated with three well-known biologically inspired design cases.
The effect of sarcopenic obesity on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in older people
Authors: Atkins Janice L , Wannamethee S Goya 
Published: April 2015

SummaryObesity is a major public health problem with increasing prevalence worldwide. It is well recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adult populations. Obesity prevalence is also increasing with age, and this may be particularly important in an ageing population. Ageing is associated with an increase in visceral fat and a progressive loss of muscle mass. Sarcopenia has been defined as the age-associated loss of skeletal muscle mass and has been associated with metabolic impairment, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, physical disability and mortality. Sarcopenia is often associated with obesity. Sarcopenic obesity is a new category of obesity in older adults who have high adiposity coupled with low muscle mass. Thus sarcopenia with obesity may synergistically increase their effect on metabolic disorders, CVD and mortality. This review focuses on the effects of sarcopenic obesity on the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in older adults.
Electron Microprobe and Raman Spectroscopy Investigation of an Oxygen-Bearing Pt–Fe–Pd–Ni–Cu Compound from Nurali Chromitite (Southern Urals, Russia)
Authors: Zaccarini Federica , Garuti Giorgio , Bakker Ronald J. , Pushkarev Evgeny 
Published: April 2015

AbstractOne grain, about 100×80μm in size, occurring in chromitite associated with the layered sequence of the Nurali mafic-ultramafic complex (Southern Urals, Russia) was investigated by electron-microprobe analyses and Raman spectroscopy. The grain is characterized by a spotty, rugged appearance and chemical zoning from which two compositions were calculated: (Pt0.35Pd0.26Fe0.22Cu0.01Ni0.05)0.98O1.02and (Fe0.90Pt0.58Ni0.28Pd0.13Cu0.08Rh0.01)1.98O1.02. In the lack of X-ray data, Raman spectroscopy established the presence of a diffuse 500–700 band and a sharp peak at 657 cm−1of relative wavenumber that strongly resemble the Raman spectra of synthetic PtO and PdO (palladinite). It is concluded that the Nurali grain probably represents a platinum group element (PGE) oxide, and does not consist of a mixture of PGE alloys with Fe oxide or hydroxide as reported for other natural PGE-O compounds.
A spatial analysis of incomes and institutional quality: evidence from US metropolitan areas
Authors: BOLOGNA JAMIE , YOUNG ANDREW T. , LACOMBE DONALD J. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractWe use the Stansel (2013) metropolitan area economic freedom index and 25 conditioning variables to analyze the spatial relationships between institutional quality and economic outcomes across 381 U.S. metropolitan areas. Specifically, we allow for spatial dependence in both the dependent and independent variables and estimate how economic freedom impacts both per capita income growth and per capita income levels. We find that economic freedom and per capita income growth and income levels are directly and positively related. Furthermore, we find that the total (direct plus indirect) effects on all metropolitan areas are positive and larger in magnitude than the direct effects alone, indicating that freedom-enhancing reforms in one metropolitan area lead to positive-sum games with neighboring metropolitan areas.
Detecting bit-flip errors in a logical qubit using stabilizer measurements
Authors: Ristè D. , Poletto S. , Huang M.-Z. , Bruno A. , Vesterinen V. , Saira O.-P. , DiCarlo L. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractQuantum data are susceptible to decoherence induced by the environment and to errors in the hardware processing it. A future fault-tolerant quantum computer will use quantum error correction to actively protect against both. In the smallest error correction codes, the information in one logical qubit is encoded in a two-dimensional subspace of a larger Hilbert space of multiple physical qubits. For each code, a set of non-demolition multi-qubit measurements, termed stabilizers, can discretize and signal physical qubit errors without collapsing the encoded information. Here using a five-qubit superconducting processor, we realize the two parity measurements comprising the stabilizers of the three-qubit repetition code protecting one logical qubit from physical bit-flip errors. While increased physical qubit coherence times and shorter quantum error correction blocks are required to actively safeguard the quantum information, this demonstration is a critical step towards larger codes based on multiple parity measurements.
Nanoscale surface chemistry directs the tunable assembly of silver octahedra into three two-dimensional plasmonic superlattices
Authors: Lee Yih Hong , Shi Wenxiong , Lee Hiang Kwee , Jiang Ruibin , Phang In Yee , Cui Yan , Isa Lucio , Yang Yijie , Wang Jianfang , Li Shuzhou , Ling Xing Yi 
Published: April 2015

AbstractA major challenge in nanoparticle self-assembly is programming the large-area organization of a single type of anisotropic nanoparticle into distinct superlattices with tunable packing efficiencies. Here we utilize nanoscale surface chemistry to direct the self-assembly of silver octahedra into three distinct two-dimensional plasmonic superlattices at a liquid/liquid interface. Systematically tuning the surface wettability of silver octahedra leads to a continuous superlattice structural evolution, from close-packed to progressively open structures. Notably, silver octahedra standing on vertices arranged in a square lattice is observed using hydrophobic particles. Simulations reveal that this structural evolution arises from competing interfacial forces between the particles and both liquid phases. Structure-to-function characterizations reveal that the standing octahedra array generates plasmonic ‘hotstrips’, leading to nearly 10-fold more efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering compared with the other more densely packed configurations. The ability to assemble these superlattices on the wafer scale over various platforms further widens their potential applications.
Ablation of the p16INK4a tumour suppressor reverses ageing phenotypes of klotho mice
Authors: Sato Seidai , Kawamata Yuka , Takahashi Akiko , Imai Yoshinori , Hanyu Aki , Okuma Atsushi , Takasugi Masaki , Yamakoshi Kimi , Sorimachi Hiroyuki , Kanda Hiroaki , Ishikawa Yuichi , Sone Saburo , Nishioka Yasuhiko , Ohtani Naoko , Hara Eiji 
Published: April 2015

AbstractThe p16INK4a tumour suppressor has an established role in the implementation of cellular senescence in stem/progenitor cells, which is thought to contribute to organismal ageing. However, since p16INK4a knockout mice die prematurely from cancer, whether p16INK4a reduces longevity remains unclear. Here we show that, in mutant mice homozygous for a hypomorphic allele of the α-klotho ageing-suppressor gene (klkl/kl), accelerated ageing phenotypes are rescued by p16INK4a ablation. Surprisingly, this is due to the restoration of α-klotho expression in klkl/kl mice and does not occur when p16INK4a is ablated in α-klotho knockout mice (kl−/−), suggesting that p16INK4a is an upstream regulator of α-klotho expression. Indeed, p16INK4a represses α-klotho promoter activity by blocking the functions of E2Fs. These results, together with the observation that the expression levels of p16INK4a are inversely correlated with those of α-klotho throughout ageing, indicate that p16INK4a plays a previously unrecognized role in downregulating α-klotho expression during ageing.
Metazoans evolved by taking domains from soluble proteins to expand intercellular communication network
Authors: Nam Hyun-Jun , Kim Inhae , Bowie James U. , Kim Sanguk 
Published: April 2015

AbstractA central question in animal evolution is how multicellular animals evolved from unicellular ancestors. We hypothesize that membrane proteins must be key players in the development of multicellularity because they are well positioned to form the cell-cell contacts and to provide the intercellular communication required for the creation of complex organisms. Here we find that a major mechanism for the necessary increase in membrane protein complexity in the transition from non-metazoan to metazoan life was the new incorporation of domains from soluble proteins. The membrane proteins that have incorporated soluble domains in metazoans are enriched in many of the functions unique to multicellular organisms such as cell-cell adhesion, signaling, immune defense and developmental processes. They also show enhanced protein-protein interaction (PPI) network complexity and centrality, suggesting an important role in the cellular diversification found in complex organisms. Our results expose an evolutionary mechanism that contributed to the development of higher life forms.
Sensorimotor transformation via sparse coding
Authors: Takiyama Ken 
Published: April 2015

AbstractSensorimotor transformation is indispensable to the accurate motion of the human body in daily life. For instance, when we grasp an object, the distance from our hands to an object needs to be calculated by integrating multisensory inputs and our motor system needs to appropriately activate the arm and hand muscles to minimize the distance. The sensorimotor transformation is implemented in our neural systems and recent advances in measurement techniques have revealed an important property of neural systems: a small percentage of neurons exhibits extensive activity while a large percentage shows little activity, i.e., sparse coding. However, we do not yet know the functional role of sparse coding in sensorimotor transformation. In this paper, I show that sparse coding enables complete and robust learning in sensorimotor transformation. In general, if a neural network is trained to maximize the performance on training data, the network shows poor performance on test data. Nevertheless, sparse coding renders compatible the performance of the network on both training and test data. Furthermore, sparse coding can reproduce reported neural activities. Thus, I conclude that sparse coding is necessary and a biologically plausible factor in sensorimotor transformation.
Rapid generation of endogenously driven transcriptional reporters in cells through CRISPR/Cas9
Authors: Rojas-Fernandez Alejandro , Herhaus Lina , Macartney Thomas , Lachaud Christophe , Hay Ronald T. , Sapkota Gopal P. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractCRISPR/Cas9 technologies have been employed for genome editing to achieve gene knockouts and knock-ins in somatic cells. Similarly, certain endogenous genes have been tagged with fluorescent proteins. Often, the detection of tagged proteins requires high expression and sophisticated tools such as confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Therefore, a simple, sensitive and robust transcriptional reporter system driven by endogenous promoter for studies into transcriptional regulation is desirable. We report a CRISPR/Cas9-based methodology for rapidly integrating a firefly luciferase gene in somatic cells under the control of endogenous promoter, using the TGFβ-responsive gene PAI-1. Our strategy employed a polycistronic cassette containing a non-fused GFP protein to ensure the detection of transgene delivery and rapid isolation of positive clones. We demonstrate that firefly luciferase cDNA can be efficiently delivered downstream of the promoter of the TGFβ-responsive gene PAI-1. Using chemical and genetic regulators of TGFβ signalling, we show that it mimics the transcriptional regulation of endogenous PAI-1 expression. Our unique approach has the potential to expedite studies on transcription of any gene in the context of its native chromatin landscape in somatic cells, allowing for robust high-throughput chemical and genetic screens.
SIRT7 inactivation reverses metastatic phenotypes in epithelial and mesenchymal tumors
Authors: Malik Shivani , Villanova Lidia , Tanaka Shinji , Aonuma Misato , Roy Nilotpal , Berber Elisabeth , Pollack Jonathan R. , Michishita-Kioi Eriko , Chua Katrin F. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractMetastasis is responsible for over 90% of cancer-associated mortality. In epithelial carcinomas, a key process in metastatic progression is the epigenetic reprogramming of an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition-like (EMT) change towards invasive cellular phenotypes. In non-epithelial cancers, different mechanisms must underlie metastatic change, but relatively little is known about the factors involved. Here, we identify the chromatin regulatory Sirtuin factor SIRT7 as a key regulator of metastatic phenotypes in both epithelial and mesenchymal cancer cells. In epithelial prostate carcinomas, high SIRT7 levels are associated with aggressive cancer phenotypes, metastatic disease and poor patient prognosis and depletion of SIRT7 can reprogram these cells to a less aggressive phenotype. Interestingly, SIRT7 is also important for maintaining the invasiveness and metastatic potential of non-epithelial sarcoma cells. Moreover, SIRT7 inactivation dramatically suppresses cancer cell metastasis in vivo, independent of changes in primary tumor growth. Mechanistically, we also uncover a novel link between SIRT7 and its family member SIRT1, providing the first demonstration of direct interaction and functional interplay between two mammalian sirtuins. Together with previous work, our findings highlight the broad role of SIRT7 in maintaining the metastatic cellular phenotype in diverse cancers.
Optimizing Hybrid Spreading in Metapopulations
Authors: Zhang Changwang , Zhou Shi , Miller Joel C. , Cox Ingemar J. , Chain Benjamin M. 
Published: April 2015

AbstractEpidemic spreading phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and society. Examples include the spreading of diseases, information and computer viruses. Epidemics can spread by local spreading, where infected nodes can only infect a limited set of direct target nodes and global spreading, where an infected node can infect every other node. In reality, many epidemics spread using a hybrid mixture of both types of spreading. In this study we develop a theoretical framework for studying hybrid epidemics and examine the optimum balance between spreading mechanisms in terms of achieving the maximum outbreak size. We show the existence of critically hybrid epidemics where neither spreading mechanism alone can cause a noticeable spread but a combination of the two spreading mechanisms would produce an enormous outbreak. Our results provide new strategies for maximising beneficial epidemics and estimating the worst outcome of damaging hybrid epidemics.