Relative Performance Information, Advice-Seeking, and Trust in the Supervisor

Relative performance information (RPI) is commonly provided or available in many organizations. While RPI can be viewed as a control that firms use to influence employee effort and performance, the presence of RPI may also encourage employees to seek advice from the supervisor, which in turn breeds employees’ trust in the supervisor. This study investigates how RPI influences employee advice-seeking as well as how such advice-seeking affects trust in the supervisor. Using a laboratory experiment, I find that RPI motivates the non-bottom performing employees (i.e., top and middle performers) to seek advice from their supervisor more frequently. In contrast, the bottom performing employees are not significantly affected by RPI to seek advice. I also find that the non-bottom performing employees’ advice-seeking frequency positively influences their trust in the supervisor. Mediation analysis reveals that RPI has a positive effect on the non-bottom performing employees’ trust in the supervisor and this positive effect is mediated by their advice-seeking behavior. I discuss the implications of my findings for accounting theory and practice

Asymptotic nonnegative rank of matrices

The nonnegative rank of nonnegative matrices is an important quantity that appears in many fields, such as combinatorial optimization, communication complexity, and information theory. In this paper, we study the asymptotic growth of the nonnegative rank of a fixed nonnegative matrix under Kronecker product. This quantity is called the asymptotic nonnegative rank, which is already studied in information theory. By applying the theory of asymptotic spectra of V. Strassen (J. Reine Angew. Math. 1988), we introduce the asymptotic spectrum of nonnegative matrices and give a dual characterization of the asymptotic nonnegative rank. As the opposite of nonnegative rank, we introduce the notion of the subrank of a nonnegative matrix and show that it is exactly equal to the size of the maximum induced matching of the bipartite graph defined on the support of the matrix (therefore, independent of the value of entries). Finally, we show that two matrix parameters, namely rank and fractional cover number, belong to the asymptotic spectrum of nonnegative matrices

Positioning precision of GPS/Galileo integration in Vietnam

The design of Galileo has been conceived so as to facilitate its possible joint use with GPS thus contributing to a favorable multi-GNSS environment. Evaluating the performances of such multi-GNSS combination is crucial for end users to assess the quality of obtainable PVT and the easiness of interoperability of the two systems. In this paper, we evaluate the GPS/Galileo integration performances in terms of estimated precision in position determination and in terms of availability of the service. Results obtained from real data are presented and show that there is an improvement of both these criteria when the two systems are jointly used

User Scheduling for Precoded Satellite Systems with Individual Quality of Service Constraints

Multibeam high throughput satellite (MB-HTS) systems will play a key role in delivering broadband services to a large number of users with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. This paper focuses on MB-HTS where the same spectrum is re-used by all user links and, in particular, we propose a novel user scheduling design capable to provide guarantees in terms of individual QoS requirements while maximizing the system throughput. This is achieved by precoding to mitigate mutual interference. The combinatorial optimization structure requires an extremely high cost to obtain the global optimum even with a reduced number of users. We, therefore, propose a heuristic algorithm yielding a good local solution and tolerable computational complexity, applicable for large-scale networks. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm on scheduling many users with better sum throughput than the other benchmarks. Besides, the QoS requirements for all scheduled users are guaranteed.Comment: 6 pages,2 figures, Accepted to present at PIMRC 202

A novel regulatory event-based gene set analysis method for exploring global functional changes in heterogeneous genomic data sets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Analyzing gene expression data by assessing the significance of pre-defined gene sets, rather than individual genes, has become a main approach in microarray data analysis and this has promisingly derive new biological interpretations of microarray data. However, the detection power of conventional gene list or gene set-based approaches is limited on highly heterogeneous samples, such as tumors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a novel method, the regulatory <b>e</b>vent-based <b>G</b>ene <b>S</b>et <b>A</b>nalysis (eGSA), which considers not only the consistently changed genes but also every gene regulation (event) of each sample to overcome the detection limit. In comparison with conventional methods, eGSA can detect functional changes in heterogeneous samples more precisely and robustly. Furthermore, by utilizing eGSA, we successfully revealed novel functional characteristics and potential mechanisms of very early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study creates a novel scheme to directly target the major cellular functional changes in heterogeneous samples. All potential regulatory routines of a functional change can be further analyzed by the regulatory event frequency. We also provide a case study on early HCCs and reveal a novel insight at the initial stage of hepatocarcinogenesis. eGSA therefore accelerates and refines the interpretation of heterogeneous genomic data sets in the absence of gene-phenotype correlations.</p

Identifying Ketamine Responses in Treatment-Resistant Depression Using a Wearable Forehead EEG

This study explores the responses to ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) using a wearable forehead electroencephalography (EEG) device. We recruited fifty-five outpatients with TRD who were randomised into three approximately equal-sized groups (A: 0.5 mg/kg ketamine; B: 0.2 mg/kg ketamine; and C: normal saline) under double-blind conditions. The ketamine responses were measured by EEG signals and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores. At baseline, responders showed a significantly weaker EEG theta power than did non- responders (p < 0.05). Responders exhibited a higher EEG alpha power but lower EEG alpha asymmetry and theta cordance at post-treatment than at baseline (p < 0.05). Furthermore, our baseline EEG predictor classified responders and non-responders with 81.3 +- 9.5% accuracy, 82.1 +- 8.6% sensitivity and 91.9 +- 7.4% specificity. In conclusion, the rapid antidepressant effects of mixed doses of ketamine are associated with prefrontal EEG power, asymmetry and cordance at baseline and early post-treatment changes. The prefrontal EEG patterns at baseline may account for recognising ketamine effects in advance. Our randomised, double- blind, placebo-controlled study provides information regarding clinical impacts on the potential targets underlying baseline identification and early changes from the effects of ketamine in patients with TRD.Comment: This revised article is submitting to IEEE TBM

The Anti-hepatitis B Virus Activity of Boehmeria nivea Extract in HBV-viremia SCID Mice

Boehmeria nivea extract (BNE) is widely used in southern Taiwan as a folk medicine for hepato-protection and hepatitis treatment. In previous studies, we demonstrated that BNE could reduce the supernatant hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in HBV-producing HepG2 2.2.15 cells. In the present study, we established an animal model of HBV viremia and used it to validate the efficacy of BNE in vivo. In this animal model, serum HBV DNA and HBsAg were elevated in accordance with tumor growth. To evaluate the anti-HBV activity of BNE, HBV-viremia mice were built up after one subcutaneous inoculation of HepG2 2.2.15 tumor cells in severe combined immunodeficiency mice over 13 days. The levels of serum HBV DNA were elevated around 105–106 copies per milliliter. Both oral and intraperitoneal administration of BNE were effective at inhibiting the production of HBsAg and HBV DNA, whereas tumor growth was not affected by all test articles. Intraperitoneal administration of BNE appeared to have greater potential to inhibit serum HBV DNA levels compared with oral administration under the same dosage. Notably, reduced natural killer cell activity was also observed after high dosage of BNE administration, and this correlated with reduced serum HBV DNA. In conclusion, BNE exhibited potential anti-HBV activity in an animal model of HBV viremia