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The study of rhetorical devices and how corporate leaders organise the texts and convey attitudes to stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports has become an important research area in recent years. A relatively neglected means of rhetorical expressions, however, is metadiscursive nouns. This study investigates the use of metadiscursive nouns in a 0.5-million-word self-built corpus of the US and Chinese CEO letters in CSR reports to reveal cross-cultural variations. The results show that the interactive metadiscursive nouns are twice as frequent in the US discourse as in the Chinese discourse, demonstrating greater efforts invested in cohesion by the US companies. This difference can be attributed to the writer-responsible rhetoric in the West and the reader-responsible conventions in China. The interactional metadiscursive nouns in the US discourse occur twice as frequently as in the Chinese counterpart, suggesting greater exertion of nominal stance by the US companies. This discrepancy mainly arises from the high- and low-context variations between the US and China. This study sheds new insights on metadiscursive nouns as rhetorical resources in cross-cultural CSR communication and provides implications for ESP practitioners to use them as a means of conceptualising writer–reader interaction in corporate communication. • The US texts use more interactive metadiscursive nouns than the Chinese texts. • The US texts use more interactional metadiscursive nouns than the Chinese texts. • The US discourse reflects writer-responsible rhetoric and low-context culture. • The Chinese discourse reveals reader-responsible rhetoric and high-context culture. • Metadiscursive nouns are key rhetorical resources in cross-cultural CSR discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the Hicks-Moorsteen index method to examine the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the total factor productivity and its decomposition efficiencies of the high-tech industry in China. The results show that the total factor productivity of the high-tech industry in the research and development phase is significantly and positively influenced by the primary phase of digital economy development. Digital economy development has a positive impact on technical change, according to the specific path analysis, which has an inverted U-shaped nonlinear characteristic. With a U-shaped nonlinear characteristic, it has a significant and persistent negative impact on efficiency changes, where the positive impact of technological spillovers on the digital economy outweighs the negative impact of technological shocks. The threshold effect test shows that the best condition for promoting total factor productivity and its decomposition efficiency in the R&D stage of high-tech industry was achieved when the digital economy composite index was between 2.611 and 2.747. • We study the effect-mechanism of digital economy on total factor productivity. • Total factor productivity is impacted positively by digital economy. • Digital economy has a positive impact on technical change. • Digital economy has a negative influence on efficiency change. • We provide the best condition for promoting total factor productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenotypic associations have been reported between heart failure (HF) and blood lipids (BLs), blood pressure (BP), and blood glucose (BG). However, the shared genetic etiology underlying these associations remains incompletely understood. Conducting a large-scale multi-trait association study for HF with these traits, we discovered 143 previously unreported genomic risk loci for HF. Results showed that 46, 35, and 14 colocalized loci were shared by HF with BLs, BP, and BG, respectively. Notably, the loci shared by HF with these traits rarely overlapped, indicating distinct mechanisms. The combination of gene-mapping, gene-based, and transcriptome-wide association analyses prioritized noteworthy candidate genes (such as lipoprotein lipase [LPL], G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 [GRK5], and troponin C1, slow skeletal and cardiac type [TNNC1]) for HF. Enrichment analysis revealed that HF exhibited comparable characteristics to cardiovascular traits and metabolic traits correlated to BLs, BP, and BG. Finally, we reported drug repurposing candidates and plasma protein targets for HF. These results provide biological insights into the pathogenesis of these comorbidities of HF. [Display omitted] • Large-scale study combined with advanced methods of genetic epidemiology • Extensive genetic overlaps between HF with BLs, BP, and BG • Genomic risk loci and shared causal variants for HF with these traits • Genetic evidence for drug repurposing candidates and plasma protein targets for HF Zhu et al. conduct a multi-trait association study for heart failure (HF) with blood lipids (BLs), blood pressure (BP), and blood glucose (BG), providing biological insights into the shared genetic etiology for HF with these traits, including genomic risk loci, shared causal variants, genes, pathways, and therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The causal effects of moderate alcohol consumption on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are continuously debated, especially on coronary artery disease (CAD). Objectives We aimed to explore the causal associations of alcohol consumption with CVDs and all-cause mortality among Chinese males. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted in 40,386 Chinese males, with 17,676 being genotyped for the rs671 variant in the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) gene. A Cox proportional hazards model was conducted to estimate the effects of self-reported alcohol consumption. Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to explore the causality using rs671 as an instrumental variable. Results During the follow-up of 303,353 person-years, 2406 incident CVDs and 3195 all-cause mortalities were identified. J-shaped associations of self-reported alcohol consumption with incident CVD and all-cause mortality were observed, showing decreased risks for light (≤25 g/d) and moderate drinkers (25−≤60 g/d). However, MR analyses revealed a linear association of genetically predicted alcohol consumption with the incident CVD (P -trend = 0.02), including both CAD (P -trend = 0.03) and stroke (P -trend = 0.02). The HRs (95% CIs) for incident CVD across increasing tertiles of genetically predicted alcohol consumption were 1 (reference), 1.18 (1.01, 1.38), and 1.22 (1.03, 1.46). After excluding heavy drinkers, the risk of incident CVD and all-cause mortality was increased by 27% and 20% per standard drink increment of genetically predicted alcohol consumption, respectively. Conclusions Our analyses extend the evidence of the harmful effect of alcohol consumption to total CVD (including CAD) and all-cause mortality, highlighting the potential health benefits of lowering alcohol consumption, even among light-to-moderate male drinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2007.09.013 Byline: Chunyu Hu (a), Hwangnam Kim (b), Jennifer C. Hou (c) Keywords: Backoff algorithm; IEEE 802.11 MAC; Model; p-Persistent Abstract: Along with the success of IEEE 802.11-compliant WLANs, the distributed coordinated function (DCF) specified as the contention-based medium access mechanism in IEEE 802.11 has been widely used to support applications in new regimes. A thorough understanding of the characteristics of IEEE 802.11 DCF is therefore a research focus. DCF assumes the binary exponential backoff algorithm (BEBA) [D. Bertsekas, R. Gallager, Data Networks, Prentice Hall, 1992]. Several existing models that characterize BEBA as a p-persistent scheme have ignored several subtle protocol details. This has practically constrained the models from being applied in a broader range of configurations, e.g., small contention window, and from being further extended, e.g., 802.11e EDCA. In this paper, we develop an analytical model that captures the subtlety, and faithfully describes the channel activities as governed by DCF. Based on the devised model, we perform a rigorous analysis on the saturation throughput performance in a single-hop WLAN. We show that the stochastic property of the backoff time, r, may substantially impact the system performance. For example, setting the range of r to [1, CW] instead of [0, CW -1], can degrade the system throughput considerably. We also identify, by clearly defining and thus being able to differentiate the two terms, attempt probability and transmission probability, an erroneous extension made to Bianchi's model [G. Bianchi, Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function, IEEE JSAC, 18(3) (2000) 535-547]. All the findings are corroborated by ns-2 simulation. Author Affiliation: (a) Wireless Networking Business Unit, Broadcom Corporation, CA, United States (b) School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea (c) Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2006.07.017 Byline: Hwangnam Kim (a), Jennifer C. Hou (b), Chunyu Hu (c), Ye Ge (d) Keywords: Wireless local area networks; IEEE 802.11 enhancement and extension; Quality of service; Wireless MAC protocol design and evaluation Abstract: Proliferation of portable, wireless-enabled laptop computers and PDAs, cost-effective deployment of access points, and availability of the license-exempt bands and appropriate networking standards contribute to the conspicuous success of IEEE 802.11 WLANs. In the article, we provide a comprehensive overview of techniques for capacity improvement and QoS provisioning in the IEEE 802.11 protocol family. These techniques represent the R&D efforts both in the research community and the IEEE 802.11 Working Groups. Specifically, we summarize the operations of IEEE 802.11 legacy as well as its extension, introduce several protocol modeling techniques, and categorize the various approaches to improve protocol capacity, to provide QoS (by either devising new MAC protocol components or fine-tuning protocol parameters in IEEE 802.11), and to judiciously arbitrate radio resources (e.g., transmission rate and power). To demonstrate how to adapt QoS provisioning in newly emerging areas, we use the wireless mesh network as an example, discuss the role IEEE 802.11 plays in such a network, and outline research issues that arise. Author Affiliation: (a) School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Republic of Korea (b) Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1304 W. Springfield Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, United States (c) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States (d) Department of Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, United States Article History: Received 2 January 2006; Accepted 3 July 2006 Article Note: (miscellaneous) Responsible Editor: E. Gregori

Automatic activity recognition is an active research topic which aims to identify human activities automatically. A significant challenge is to recognize new activities effectively. In this paper, we propose an effective class incremental learning method, named Class Incremental Random Forests (CIRF), to enable existing activity recognition models to identify new activities. We design a separating axis theorem based splitting strategy to insert internal nodes and adopt Gini index or information gain to split leaves of the decision tree in the random forests (RF). With these two strategies, both inserting new nodes and splitting leaves are allowed in the incremental learning phase. We evaluate our method on three UCI public activity datasets and compare with other state-of-the-art methods. Experimental results show that the proposed incremental learning method converges to the performance of batch learning methods (RF and extremely randomized trees). Compared with other state-of-the-art methods, it is able to recognize new class data continuously with a better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: IEEE 802.11 power save mode (PSM) is a representative of energy-saving protocols which put wireless network interfaces into sleep during idleness. To save energy, part of the performance of IEEE 802.11 is sacrificed attributed to the wake-up latency thus introduced. This paper proposes a complementary mechanism, called link-indexed statistical traffic predictor (LISP) to improve IEEE 802.11 PSM. LISP employs a simple, light-weight traffic prediction method to speed up the delivery of packets along the end-to-end path. By seeking the inherent correlation between ATIM_ACKs and incoming traffic, nodes en route stay awake in the beacon intervals in which packets are anticipated to arrive. As the result, a “freeway” is bridged for packets to rapidly traverse the route. Meanwhile, the number of duty cycles is reduced and more energy is conserved. We have conducted analytical and simulation studies and demonstrated the effectiveness of LISP. The impact of various factors is investigated, including traffic load, number of hops (of routes which connections traverse), ATIM window size and packet size, in both tandem networks and networks of arbitrary topologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper propose an inverted sequential load-modulated balanced amplifier (ISLMBA) for extending the dynamic power range of a power amplifier (PA) over a wide bandwidth. The proposed ISLMBA consists of a control amplifier (CA) and a balanced PA (BPA) pair. A composited impedance inverter is inserted between each BPA transistor and the output coupler. The composited impedance inverter is composed by the intrinsic elements and output matching network (OMN) of the BPA transistor. In this way, the intrinsic elements can be fully absorbed into the impedance inverter over a wide bandwidth. Meanwhile, the load modulation trajectories of the BPA transistors can be optimized over a wide bandwidth by tuning the characteristic impedance of the impedance inverter. The theoretical current, voltage and load-modulation profiles of the ISLMBA are comprehensively analyzed. It is illustrated that the proposed ISLMBA could maintain high efficiency at deep output back-off power level over a wide bandwidth. Moreover, this work designs and fabricates an ISLMBA operating over 1.3–2.55 GHz to verify the proposed PA architecture. The fabricated ISLMBA exhibits a saturation drain efficiency (DE) of 54.5%–73.8% and a saturation output power of 42.9–45.9 dBm. At the same time, the fabricated ISLMBA achieves a 10 dB back-off DE of 42.1%–63.9% over the frequency band of interest. When the fabricated ISLMBA is stimulated by a 20 MHz wideband signal with a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of 10.2 dB at 2.0 GHz, the measured adjacent channel leakage ratios (after predistortion) are −47.7 and −48.8 dBc at the lower and upper bands, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Signalling nouns (SNs, hereinafter) as grammatical metaphors serve as effective clues to disciplinary epistemology. Based on self-built corpora, this study explores disciplinary variation in the use of SNs by investigating marketing and economics research articles (RAs, hereinafter). The results show that marketing RAs employ SNs with significantly higher frequency than economics RAs. In terms of grammatical patterns, marketing RAs prefer the "SN+ to -infinitive" pattern, whereas economics RAs tend to use the "SN+ that -clause" structure. Semantically, marketing researchers prefer modal fact and idea nouns to show a greater tendency for writer visibility, greater interest in factors influencing consumer purchasing behaviors, and the more empirical and experimental nature of marketing. In contrast, economics researchers prefer fact and idea nouns to explore the decision-making process of economic agents, and reveal the more hypothetical, econometrical, and abstract reasoning nature of this discipline. The choices of SNs reflect distinct disciplinary epistemologies between marketing and economics. This study sheds new light on the significance of SNs in revealing disciplinary variations, and creates a database of detailing the characteristics of SNs used in both disciplines, which can aid EFL learners and EAP practitioners to better use SNs to construct interpersonal relations with readers in academic writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This review comprehensively demonstrates the recent applications of deep learning in fundus images. • A knowledge graph is summarized, providing a clear overview for related studies. • Detailed summaries and analyses are provided for each specific task and overall. • State-of-the-art results and newly-released datasets will be released and regularly updated at GitHub. The use of fundus images for the early screening of eye diseases is of great clinical importance. Due to its powerful performance, deep learning is becoming more and more popular in related applications, such as lesion segmentation, biomarkers segmentation, disease diagnosis and image synthesis. Therefore, it is very necessary to summarize the recent developments in deep learning for fundus images with a review paper. In this review, we introduce 143 application papers with a carefully designed hierarchy. Moreover, 33 publicly available datasets are presented. Summaries and analyses are provided for each task. Finally, limitations common to all tasks are revealed and possible solutions are given. We will also release and regularly update the state-of-the-art results and newly-released datasets at https://github.com/nkicsl/Fundus%5fReview to adapt to the rapid development of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural areas of North China Plain, an important grain producer in China, are endowed with abundant new energy resources such as biomass, solar, and wind energy. The revitalization of the rural villages is confronted with the shortage of clean and low carbon energy supply. This work proposes a multi-energy complementary distributed energy system (DES) tailored for daily energy consumption in a typical scattered village on the basis of the field survey results. The geothermal heat pump, photovoltaic system (PV), biomass gasification equipment, and other energy conversion devices are integrated in the DES model. The state grid is used as a fundamental ensuring resource to improve the robustness of the system. The improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to determine the optimal unit capacity configuration by examining investment cost, payback period, system self-sufficiency, accommodation rate, and annual CO 2 emissions. The main available renewable energy resources are biomass and solar energy with the annual amount of 1608.9 tons and 1679 kW h/m2. The heat, gas, and electricity load account for 76.84%, 3.14%, and 20.02%, respectively. Based on the daily peak-to-valley price differentials in Beijing of over $0.15/kWh, DES optimization was carried out with PSO module in MATLAB software. The cost of the energy supply with DES, Scenario 3, was compared with that of the mere grid and renewable systems, Scenario 1 and Scenario 2. The direct DES cost is $0.52 million with the internal rate of return of 8.46%, resulting in a payback period of 6.15 years. The overall system self-sufficiency index except for grid achieved a value of 0.42. The application of the DES lead to energy costs of residents and annual carbon emission reduction by 32.5% and more than 3800 tons, respectively, compared to grid-only energy consumption, showcasing the feasibility of grid-aided combined heat and electricity production in rural areas. • The multi-energy complementary distributed rural energy system (DES) is proposed. • Improved particle swarm optimization is used to determine optimal configuration. • The cost of DES is $0.52 million with the internal rate of return of 8.46%. • Payback period and system self-sufficiency index of DES are 6.15 years and 0.42. • Energy costs and annual CO 2 emission of DES are reduced by 32.5% and 3800 tons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a brand new analytical perspective for analyzing and evaluating the IEEE 802.11-based networks. We identify a tightly-coupled relationship between the number of contending nodes and their contention window sizes in the networks. Based on the relationship, we propose a downsizing model for reducing the computational complexity and for improving the simulation performance in the evaluation of the IEEE 802.11-based networks. We first formally prove that the proposed model preserves the operational characteristics of the original networks in their downsized networks through well-known analytical frameworks, such as the models proposed by Bianchi (2000) , Calí et al. (2000) , and Hu et al. (2006) . We then demonstrate that the proposed model speeds up the simulation by maximally two orders of magnitude. Even though the simulation shows some difference between the results from an original network and those in its corresponding downsized networks in a wide range of network sizes and traffic patterns, the difference is acceptable since it has minimal values of 1% in most cases and maximum values of 10% in a very few cases. We also present the effectiveness of both the downsizing model and the downsizing-model-based simulation in comparison with other performance models and simulation techniques. As the size and complexity of wireless networks are increasing nowadays, we vision that the new proposed model will be of great advantage in conducting fast and accurate packet-level wireless simulations, as well as being a helpful tool for performing the numerically tractable theoretical studies for extensive performance evaluations, such as determining the network-wide throughput or end-to-end delays. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A biosynthetic pathway of myo-inositol was constructed in E. coli. • The initial glucose concentration had an obvious effect on the inositol production. • Higher glucose concentration did not favor the plasmid stability. • The production profile of myo-inositol was investigated in a 1 L shake flask. Myo-inositol is widely used in drug, food and animal feed industries. In this study, the myo-inositol biosynthetic pathway was established in Escherichia coli by introducing the myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase-encoding gene (INO1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae SC288. The production of myo-inositol was also investigated in shake flasks. The results showed that gene INO1 was succefully expressed in E. coli as verified by SDS-PAGE analysis. The initial glucose concentrations in M9 media had a positive impact on the production of myo-inositol and acetic acid, OD 600 of cells and plasmid stability. The highest concentration of myo-inositol was obtained at the initial glucose concentration of 30 g/L, which reached 887 mg/L. When the initial concentration of glucose was 40 g/L, a lot of acetic acid was accumulated (8.53 g/L), causing slightly decrease in the concentration of myo-inositol. The recombinant plasmid was more unstable at higher initial concentration of glucose as compared to a lower one. 797 mg/L of myo-inositol was ultimately produced in a 1 L shake flask at the initial glucose concentration of 10 g/L. The maximal OD 600 of cells and the highest concentration of acetic acid were 7.18 and 3.05 g/L, respectively. This study lays good foundation for understanding the biosynthesis of myo-inositol in E. coli and provides the possibility of applying myo-inositol to the industrial production by recombinant E. coli in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]