Developing Knowledge Absorptive Capacity of SMEs in China

Small and medium-sized enterpreises (SMEs) are a crucial driver of the fast growing Chinese economy. This study aims to investigate how the external structures influence SMEs’ knowledge absorptive capacity for competence enhancement and performance improvement. Taking the “structure-conduct-performance” paradigm as an overarching framework, this research extends and enriches this framework by integrating social networking theory and absorptive capacity theory into it. More specific, we partition the “structure” into environmental structure and social network structure outside of a focal firm, and specify the “conduct” as knowledge absorptive capacity development including knowledge acquisition and transformation. To verify our research model, a survey method is employed involving 77 SMEs from China. The results show the distinct roles of environmental hostility, customer network ties, and knowledge absorptive capacities on SMEs’ performance. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed

Modeling branching effects on source-sink relationships of the cotton plant

International audienceCompared with classical process-based models, the functional-structural plant models provide more efficient tools to explore the impact of changes in plant structures on plant functioning. In this paper we investigated the effects of branches on the sourcesink interaction for the cotton plant (Gossypium hirsutum L.) based on a two-treatment experiment conducted on cotton grown in the field: the singlestem plants and the plants with only two vegetative branches. It was observed that the branched cotton had more organs for the whole plant but the organs on the trunk were smaller than those on the single-stem cotton. The phytomer production of the branches was four or five growth cycles delayed compared with the main stem. The organs on the trunk had similar dynamics of expansion for both treatments. Effects of branches were evaluated by using the functionalstructural model GREENLAB. It allowed estimating the coefficients of sink strength to differentiate the biomass acquisition abilities of organs between different physiological ages. We found that the presence of the two vegetative branches increased the ground projection area of plant leaves and had led to slight changes on the directly measured parameters; the potential relative sink strengths of organs were found similar for the two treatments

Loop Formulas for Description Logic Programs

Description Logic Programs (dl-programs) proposed by Eiter et al. constitute an elegant yet powerful formalism for the integration of answer set programming with description logics, for the Semantic Web. In this paper, we generalize the notions of completion and loop formulas of logic programs to description logic programs and show that the answer sets of a dl-program can be precisely captured by the models of its completion and loop formulas. Furthermore, we propose a new, alternative semantics for dl-programs, called the {\em canonical answer set semantics}, which is defined by the models of completion that satisfy what are called canonical loop formulas. A desirable property of canonical answer sets is that they are free of circular justifications. Some properties of canonical answer sets are also explored.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figures (in pdf), a short version appeared in ICLP'1

Impact of drug-eluting stents with different coating strategies on stent thrombosis: A meta-analysis of 19 randomized trials

Background: Whether drug-eluting stents with biodegradable polymers (BP-DES) improve safety, especially with respect to stent thrombosis (ST) compared with permanent polymers DES (PP-DES), remains uncertain. We aimed to compare the short- and long-term outcomes and the ST risk in patients treated with BP-DES vs. PP-DES.Methods: We searched Medline, Embase, Web of science, CENTRAL databases, and conferenceproceedings/abstracts for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing BP-DES with PP-DES. The primary endpoint was to compare the risks of overall and different temporalc ategories of definite/probable ST. Other clinical outcomes were target lesion revascularization (TLR), myocardial infarction (MI), and all-cause death in short-term (≤ 1 year) and long-term follow-up. The meta-analyses were performed by computing odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model.Results: Nineteen RCTs including 20,229 patients were analyzed. Overall, BP-DES significantly decreased the risks of very late definite/probable ST (OR 0.33; 95% CI 0.16–0.70), and TLR in long-term follow-up (OR 0.70; 95% CI 0.52–0.95) compared with PP-DES. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding MI incidence and mortality during both short and long follow-up periods. In stratified analyses, the long-term superiority of BP-DES was maintained only by using first-generation DES as the comparators.Conclusions: The present meta-analysis indicated that BP-DES were more efficacious than PP-DES at reducing the risks of very late ST and long-term TLR, but it could vary by heterogeneities in the use of PP-DES comparators. Additional rigorous RCTs with longer follow-up periods are warranted to verify these very promising long-term endpoints.

Research on the Standard of Grain Information Collection and Tracing Service

To collect the information of every link in grain production, and connect the product identification information on each link to form a traceable chain, this paper explores the traceability of grain quality through standard research and platform construction, by taking the current situation of grain production industry into consideration. This study will help establish a traceable chain of grain production, purchase,storage, processing, marketing link, and grain safety to improve grain quality traceability from the field to the table

The conserved aromatic residue W-122 is a determinant of potyviral coat protein stability, replication, and cell-to-cell movement in plants

Coat proteins (CPs) play critical roles in potyvirus cell-to-cell movement. However, the underlying mechanism controlling them remains unclear. Here, we show that substitutions of alanine, glutamic acid, or lysine for the conserved residue tryptophan at position 122 (W-122) in tobacco vein banding mosaic virus (TVBMV) CP abolished virus cell-to-cell movement in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. In agroinfiltrated N. benthamiana leaf patches, both the CP and RNA accumulation levels of three W-122 mutant viruses were significantly reduced compared with those of wild-type TVBMV, and CP accumulated to a low level similar to that of a replication-deficient mutant. The results of polyprotein transient expression experiments indicated that CP instability was responsible for the significantly low CP accumulation levels of the three W-122 mutant viruses. The substitution of W-122 did not affect CP plasmodesmata localization or virus particle formation; however, the substitution significantly reduced the number of virus particles. The wild-type TVBMV CP could complement the reduced replication and abolished cell-to-cell movement of the mutant viruses. When the codon for W-122 was mutated to that for a different aromatic residue, phenylalanine or tyrosine, the resultant mutant viruses moved systemically and accumulated up to 80% of the wild-type TVBMV level. Similar results were obtained for the corresponding amino acids of W-122 in the watermelon mosaic virus and potato virus Y CPs. Therefore, we conclude that the aromatic ring in W-122 in the core domain of the potyviral CP is critical for cell-to-cell movement through the effects on CP stability and viral replication.Peer reviewe