Antidumping Petition: To File or Not To File

Given the “normal value†of a product as common knowledge in an import-competing market, the profitability of a home firm in filing an antidumping (AD) petition against its foreign rival is shown to depend on the marginal cost differential between the home and foreign firms. When the marginal cost differential is “significantly large,†the home firm's ability to put the foreign firm at the risk of an AD violation is limited. But when the marginal cost differential is “significantly small,†the home firm is able to increase its output and lower the price of the product below its normal value, putting the foreign firm in the situation of an illegal dumping. One interesting implication is that, relative to the case without an AD law, the home firm has a stronger incentive to undertake cost-reducing activities (e.g., R&D investment or the adoption of a more efficient technology) under the law.antidumping laws, antidumping duties, dumping margins

Electron Transport Chain Is Biochemically Linked to Pilus Assembly Required for Polymicrobial Interactions and Biofilm Formation in the Gram-Positive Actinobacterium Actinomyces oris.

The Gram-positive actinobacteria Actinomyces spp. are key colonizers in the development of oral biofilms due to the inherent ability of Actinomyces to adhere to receptor polysaccharides on the surface of oral streptococci and host cells. This receptor-dependent bacterial interaction, or coaggregation, requires a unique sortase-catalyzed pilus consisting of the pilus shaft FimA and the coaggregation factor CafA forming the pilus tip. While the essential role of the sortase machine SrtC2 in pilus assembly, biofilm formation, and coaggregation has been established, little is known about trans-acting factors contributing to these processes. We report here a large-scale Tn5 transposon screen for mutants defective in Actinomyces oris coaggregation with Streptococcus oralis We obtained 33 independent clones, 13 of which completely failed to aggregate with S. oralis, and the remainder of which exhibited a range of phenotypes from severely to weakly defective coaggregation. The former had Tn5 insertions in fimA, cafA, or srtC2, as expected; the latter were mapped to genes coding for uncharacterized proteins and various nuo genes encoding the NADH dehydrogenase subunits. Electron microscopy and biochemical analyses of mutants with nonpolar deletions of nuo genes and ubiE, a menaquinone C-methyltransferase-encoding gene downstream of the nuo locus, confirmed the pilus and coaggregation defects. Both nuoA and ubiE mutants were defective in oxidation of MdbA, the major oxidoreductase required for oxidative folding of pilus proteins. Furthermore, supplementation of the ubiE mutant with exogenous menaquinone-4 rescued the cell growth and pilus defects. Altogether, we propose that the A. oris electron transport chain is biochemically linked to pilus assembly via oxidative protein folding.IMPORTANCE The Gram-positive actinobacterium A. oris expresses adhesive pili, or fimbriae, that are essential to biofilm formation and Actinomyces interactions with other bacteria, termed coaggregation. While the critical role of the conserved sortase machine in pilus assembly and the disulfide bond-forming catalyst MdbA in oxidative folding of pilins has been established, little is known about other trans-acting factors involved in these processes. Using a Tn5 transposon screen for mutants defective in coaggregation with Streptococcus oralis, we found that genetic disruption of the NADH dehydrogenase and menaquinone biosynthesis detrimentally alters pilus assembly. Further biochemical characterizations determined that menaquinone is important for reactivation of MdbA. This study supports the notion that the electron transport chain is biochemically linked to pilus assembly in A. oris via oxidative folding of pilin precursors

Adaptive RF Pigtail Probe Modeling for De-embedding of RF Measurements

This disclosure describes techniques for accurate estimation and de-embedding of the effects of pigtail probes in circuits. An adaptive pigtail model is developed and described that can accurately de-embed the effects of pigtail probes in digital circuits. Example parameters are identified that include pigtail length, tip length, pigtail tilt degree, ground distance, and solder amount. A pigtail simulation model is developed to model the soldered pigtail probe. The dependency of circuit impedance on the identified parameters is determined by experimentation which indicates that circuit performance can be boosted by short ground distance lengths, low tilt angles, thick support wires, short pin and cable lengths, and thick support wires. The pigtail model can be utilized to derive de-embedded results for different pigtail probe configurations without a need for explicitly measuring de-embedded results for those configurations

EFFECT OF ANKLE TAPING ON STANDING BALANCE IN THE INDIVIDUALS WITH FUNCTIONAL ANKLE INSTABILITY

Ankle sprain is one of the most common sport injuries in athletes. Based on the epidemiologic investigation (Bahr, 1997), the injury rate of ankle sprain could be 54% in volleyball players, indicating that more than half of the volleyball players has been suffering ankle sprain. The rate of recurrent ankle sprain could be as high as 79% in the volleyball players with ankle sprain. Also, ankle sprain is a common sports injury that can cause significant and chronic disability. Functional instability of the ankle has been defined as a tendency for the foot to give away after an ankle sprain. Such instability is a relatively widespread concern following the acute ankle sprain, persisting as a chronic condition long after the apparent signs and symptoms of the original insult have resolved. Ankle taping has become one of the major interventions in athletic training and is often used for rehabilitation and/or prevention of ankle sprains. Orthotic devices have been shown to effectively modify selected aspects of lower extremity mechanics and improve foot stability during the stance phase of running (Guskiewicz, 1996). Ankle function and muscle coordination after the ankle sprain have been documented (Fu, 2005). However, very little study has been done focusing on the effect of ankle taping on balance control in the individuals with recurrent ankle sprains. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ankle taping on the balance ability in the individual with functional ankle instability

SpeechGen: Unlocking the Generative Power of Speech Language Models with Prompts

Large language models (LLMs) have gained considerable attention for Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC), particularly with the emergence of ChatGPT. However, the direct adaptation of continuous speech to LLMs that process discrete tokens remains an unsolved challenge, hindering the application of LLMs for speech generation. The advanced speech LMs are in the corner, as that speech signals encapsulate a wealth of information, including speaker and emotion, beyond textual data alone. Prompt tuning has demonstrated notable gains in parameter efficiency and competitive performance on some speech classification tasks. However, the extent to which prompts can effectively elicit generation tasks from speech LMs remains an open question. In this paper, we present pioneering research that explores the application of prompt tuning to stimulate speech LMs for various generation tasks, within a unified framework called SpeechGen, with around 10M trainable parameters. The proposed unified framework holds great promise for efficiency and effectiveness, particularly with the imminent arrival of advanced speech LMs, which will significantly enhance the capabilities of the framework. The code and demos of SpeechGen will be available on the project website: \url{https://ga642381.github.io/SpeechPrompt/speechgen}Comment: Work in progress. The first three authors contributed equall

Gratitude and Athletes’ Life Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Mindfulness

Life satisfaction is a critical index of well-being and is well documented in the literature as a means of protecting athletes from stress. However, minimal research has focused on the factors that contribute to life satisfaction in sports. Accordingly, we adopted the positive psychology perspective and proposed that gratitude would relate to athletes’ life satisfaction. Additionally, we further suggested that mindfulness would strengthen the relationship between gratitude and athletes’ life satisfaction. Athletes completed measurements, and the results, which indicated that athletes with higher levels of gratitude exhibited increased life satisfaction when they had higher levels of mindfulness, supported our expectations. The implications and applications are discussed in terms of mindfulness

Effects of natto extract on endothelial injury in a rat model

Vascular endothelial damage has been found to be associated with thrombus formation, which is considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A diet of natto leads to a low prevalence of cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of natto extract on vascular endothelia damage with exposure to laser irradiation. Endothelial damage both in vitro and in vivo was induced by irradiation of rose bengal using a DPSS green laser. Cell viability was determined by MTS assay, and the intimal thickening was verified by a histological approach. The antioxidant content of natto extract was determined for the free radical scavenging activity. Endothelial cells were injured in the presence of rose bengal irradiated in a dose-dependent manner. Natto extract exhibits high levels of antioxidant activity compared with purified natto kinase. Apoptosis of laser-injured endothelial cells was significantly reduced in the presence of natto extract. Both the natto extract and natto kinase suppressed intimal thickening in rats with endothelial injury. The present findings suggest that natto extract suppresses vessel thickening as a synergic effect attributed to its antioxidant and anti-apoptosis properties