Xiaofeng Liu

This study examines the effect of the CEO incentive horizon (captured by CEO pay duration) on workplace safety, a critical aspect of employee welfare. Using establishment-level data on workplace safety, we find CEO incentive horizon is negatively associated with workplace injuries and illnesses. This relation is stronger when CEOs have more career concerns or lower ability and weaker when the firm’s workers’ compensation premiums are more sensitive to injury claims or there is a greater union presence. Further, increased investments in safety and decreased employee workload are two possible channels through which the incentive horizon–injury/illness relation operates. Overall, our results suggest that increasing the CEO incentive horizon promotes employee welfare by fostering a safer work environment.

The CUORE-0 experiment searched for neutrinoless double beta decay in130Te using an array of 52 tellurium dioxide crystals, operated as bolometers at a temperature of 10 mK. It took data in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory since March 2013 to March 2015. We present the results of a search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 9.8 kg-years130Te exposure that allowed us to set the most stringent limit to date on this half-life. The performance of the detector in terms of background and energy resolution is also reported.

Peirce's linear versions of the language of his Existential Graphs (EGs), presented in 1902, are examined. Differences between linear and non-linear languages are explained by permutational invariance and type- vs. occurrence-referentiality: Standard EGs are permutationally invariant with respect to linear EGs, while the Beta part of the system, which corresponds to first-order quantificational theory with identity, is occurrence-referential. However, occurrence-referentiality of Beta graphs constitutes a defect of expressivity: Since the meaning of a quantifier is inextricably connected to the meaning of the sign of identity, certain complex assertions cannot be expressed in the language of Beta graphs without a new extension of its standard notation. © 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Improved tools for providing specific intraoperative diagnoses could improve patient care. In neurosurgery, intraoperatively differentiating non-operative lesions such as CNS B-cell lymphoma from operative lesions can be challenging, often necessitating immunohistochemical procedures which require up to 24-48 hours. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of generating rapid ex vivo specific labeling using a novel lymphoma-specific fluorescent switchable aptamer. Our B-cell lymphoma-specific switchable aptamer produced only low-level fluorescence in its unbound conformation and generated an 8-fold increase in fluorescence once bound to its target on CD20-positive lymphoma cells. The aptamer demonstrated strong binding to B-cell lymphoma cells within 15 minutes of incubation as observed by flow cytometry. We applied the switchable aptamer to ex vivo xenograft tissue harboring B-cell lymphoma and astrocytoma, and within one hour specific visual identification of lymphoma was routinely possible. In this proof-of-concept study in human cell culture and orthotopic xenografts, we conclude that a fluorescent switchable aptamer can provide rapid and specific labeling of B-cell lymphoma, and that developing aptamer-based labeling approaches could simplify tissue staining and drastically reduce time to histopathological diagnoses compared with IHC-based methods. We propose that switchable aptamers could enhance expeditious, accurate intraoperative decision-making.

© 2014 Elsevier B.V.We evaluate the factors influencing the abundance, [Li], and isotopic composition of riverine Li delivered to the oceans through analyses and modeling of [Li] and δ7Li in streams and groundwaters draining a single continental lithology, the Columbia River Basalts. The streams were sampled in different climate zones that lie east, and west of the Cascades Mountains, and during two different seasons in order to evaluate climatic and seasonal influences on Li isotopes in rivers. Dissolved Li is systematically heavier than that of fresh or weathered CRBs, suspended loads, and shallow groundwaters, consistent with previous studies showing that Li isotope fractionation is affected by equilibration between stream water and secondary minerals. However, the lack of correlation between δ7Lidis and climate zone, the uniform secondary minerals and bedrock, coupled with the highly variable δLidis7 indicate that other factors exert a strong control on δ7Lidis. In particular, the heavier Li in streams compared to the shallow groundwaters that feed them indicates that continued isotopic fractionation between stream water and suspended and/or bed loads has a major influence on riverine δ7Li. Seasonal δ7Li variation is observed only for streams west of the Cascades, where the difference in precipitation rate between the dry and wet seasons is greatest. Reactive transport model simulations reveal that riverine δ7Li is strongly controlled by subsurface residence times and the Li isotope fractionation occurring within rivers. The latter explains why there is no positive correlation between δ7Li and traditional weathering proxies such as Si or normalized Si in rivers, as riverine Li isotope fractionation drives δ7Li to higher values during transport, whereas the concentrations of major cations and anions are diluted. The varying residence time for groundwaters feeding the western streams in summer and winter explains the observed seasonal variations. A global, negative correlation between δ7Li and Li/Na for streams and rivers draining basaltic catchments reflects the overall transport time, hence the amount of silicate weathering. Based on our results, the increase of δ7Li in seawater during the Cenozoic is unlikely related to changing climate, but may reflect mountain building giving rise to increased silicate weathering.

The objectivity is a basic requirement for the measurements in the classical world, namely, different observers must reach a consensus on their measurement results, so that they believe that the object exists “objectively” since whoever measures it obtains the same result. We find that this simple requirement of objectivity indeed imposes an important constraint upon quantum measurements, i.e., if two or more observers could reach a consensus on their quantum measurement results, their measurement basis must be orthogonal vector sets. This naturally explains why quantum measurements are based on orthogonal vector basis, which is proposed as one of the axioms in textbooks of quantum mechanics. The role of the macroscopicality of the observers in an objective measurement is discussed, which supports the belief that macroscopicality is a characteristic of classicality.

The dependency of a speech recognition system on the accent of a user leads to the variation in its performance, as the people from different backgrounds have different accents. Accent labeling and conversion have been reported as a prospective solution for the challenges faced in language learning and various other voice-based advents. In the English TTS system, the accent labeling of unregistered words is another very important link besides the phonetic conversion. Since the importance of the primary stress is much greater than that of the secondary stress, and the primary stress is easier to call than the secondary stress, the labeling of the primary stress is separated from the secondary stress. In this work, the labeling of primary accents uses a labeling algorithm that combines morphological rules and machine learning; the labeling of secondary accents is done entirely through machine learning algorithms. After 10 rounds of cross-validation, the average tagging accuracy rate of primary stress was 94%, the average tagging accuracy rate of secondary stress was 94%, and the total tagging accuracy rate was 83.6%. This perceptual study separates the labeling of primary and secondary accents providing the promising outcomes.