Neutral Strategy Research Articles

LEGITIMATION BATTLES, BACKFIRE DYNAMICS, AND TACTICAL PERSISTENCE IN THE NFL ANTHEM PROTESTS, 2016–2017*

We examine the 2016–2017 National Football League (NFL) kneeling protests that were performed during the pregame national anthem to draw attention to the problems of police brutality and violence against African Americans. Elaborating the concept of tactical neutralization, we delineate various strategies that opponents used to delegitimize this tactic and strip it of its power, thereby encouraging the athlete-protesters to desist. Drawing on online newspaper accounts of the NFL anthem protests, we use directed content analysis methods to inductively discern these “neutralization strategies,” which included discursive delegitimation of the protesters and their tactics, imposing costs for participation, and cooptation. Through successful relegitimation efforts, these athlete-protesters were able to sustain their tactic, even in the face of widespread opposition. Furthermore, a backfire dynamic was unleashed when a controversial, high profile opponent engaged in these delegitimation efforts, resulting in increased participation and heightened tactical strength.

Payoffs from Neutral Option Strategies: A Study of USD-INR Market

Payoffs from Neutral Option Strategies: A Study of USD-INR Market

Comprehensive metabolic profile of phenolic acids and flavonoids in Glechomae Herba using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry with diagnostic ion filtering strategy

Glechomae Herba (GH), a traditional Chinese medicine, is commonly used for the treatment of urolithiasis and cholelithiasis based on its diuretic and cholagogic actions. However, relatively few studies have been conducted to describe this medicine’s metabolites. Therefore, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) analysis with diagnostic product ions and neutral loss filtering strategy was established for the metabolic profiling profile of GH. First, an analytical method was established to detect the compounds in GH extracts and complex rat biosamples, including urine, bile, plasma and feces, after oral administration of GH extracts based on the holistic fingerprint approach utilizing UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. Second, the exogenously sourced ions were filtered out by the MarkerView software incorporated in Microsoft Office. Third, the diagnostic product ions and neutral loss filtering strategy were developed for the rapid identification of the metabolites. Finally, a total of 91 constituents, including 13 prototype compounds and 78 metabolites, were unambiguously or reasonably identified in rat biosamples. The metabolites were mainly eliminated by urine (82 metabolites) and bile (19 metabolites), and notably few metabolites were eliminated through feces (4 metabolites). Glucuronidation, methylation and sulfation were the primary metabolic pathways of phenolic acids and flavonoids. The primarily urine and bile elimination of metabolites may be related to the anti-urolithiasis and anti-cholelithiasis effects of GH. This work demonstrated the feasibility of an integrated strategy for the rapid identification of the metabolites after oral administration of GH extracts provided essential data for exploring the bioactive ingredients of GH in the treatment of urolithiasis and cholelithiasis.

A Cross-Scale Neutral Theory Approach to the Influence of Obesity on Community Assembly of Human Gut Microbiome.

Background: The implications of gut microbiome to obesity have been extensively investigated in recent years although the exact mechanism is still unclear. The question whether or not obesity influences gut microbiome assembly has not been addressed. The question is significant because it is fundamental for investigating the diversity maintenance and stability of gut microbiome, and the latter should hold a key for understanding the etiological implications of gut microbiome to obesity.Methods: In this study, we adopt a dual neutral theory modeling strategy to address this question from both species and community perspectives, with both discrete and continuous neutral theory models. The first neutral theory model we apply is Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity that has been extensively tested in macro-ecology of plants and animals, and the second we apply is Sloan's neutral theory model that was developed particularly for microbial communities based on metagenomic sequencing data. Both the neutral models are complementary to each other and integrated together offering a comprehensive approach to more accurately revealing the possible influence of obesity on gut microbiome assembly. This is not only because the focus of both neutral theory models is different (community vs. species), but also because they adopted two different modeling strategies (discrete vs. continuous).Results: We test both the neutral theory models with datasets from Turnbaugh et al. (2009). Our tests showed that the species abundance distributions of more than ½ species (59–69%) in gut microbiome satisfied the prediction of Sloan's neutral theory, although at the community level, the number of communities satisfied the Hubbell's neutral theory was negligible (2 out of 278).Conclusion: The apparently contradictory findings above suggest that both stochastic neutral effects and deterministic environmental (host) factors play important roles in shaping the assembly and diversity of gut microbiome. Furthermore, obesity may just be one of the host factors, but its influence may not be strong enough to tip the balance between stochastic and deterministic forces that shape the community assembly. Finally, the apparent contradiction from both the neutral theories should not be surprising given that there are still near 30–40% species that do not obey the neutral law.

Dissection of complement pathways involved in CHPV neutralization and evasion strategy adopted by the virus to override complement

Dissection of complement pathways involved in CHPV neutralization and evasion strategy adopted by the virus to override complement

Nifty Volatility Using Neutral Strategies

This research analyzes derivative strategies that have been applied on the Nifty IT index, which is one of the sectoral indexes under Nifty. It involves the application of derivative strategies on five years of historical data of the Nifty IT index and determines their profitability. Two strategies have been used for this purpose: long straddle and short straddle. The success rates of the two neutral option strategies have been computed. The research aims to identify the strategy that can be consistently applied on the Nifty IT index in the future to generate profits. Payoff graphs for the most recent months have also been generated to complement the findings of this analysis. The results suggest that the success percentage of a long straddle strategy has been around 40% and that of short straddle around 60%. The authors conclude that the market is more bearish on volatility for the Nifty IT index. The short straddle strategy was more successful than the long straddle strategy for the period studied. Therefore, of the two strategies, the short straddle seems to offer the best prospects for neutral trading on the Nifty IT index in the future.

Neutralising linguistic sexism: Promising but cumbersome?

The generic use of grammatically (or lexically) gender-marked nouns and pronouns (GM) to refer to women and men in Indo-European languages has been criticised as gender-asymmetric since the 1970s. Two main strategies for eliminating asymmetry have been suggested: visibility by feminisation and de-gendering by neutralisation. Feminisation strategies seek to contribute to women’s visibility in discourse by explicitly and symmetrically referring to women and men, thus continuing to highlight gender boundaries. In contrast, neutralisation strategies downplay gender boundaries by promoting the use of unmarked nouns and pronouns. We discuss feminisation and neutralisation strategies and review: (a) evidence (from our own work and that of others) on the effect of neutralisation and feminisation strategies on speakers’ and readers’ mental representations of gender and associated behaviours, and (b) evidence on individual variables facilitating and hampering the successful implementation of a less asymmetric—and therefore more gender-fair—language use. Based on this review, we suggest, in particular, to use feminisation strategies in contexts that are already gendered, and to use neutralisation strategies in nongendered ones (hence keeping the context gender-neutral).

Pairs trading techniques: An empirical contrast

Pairs trading is one of the most commonly used market neutral strategies. Over the last few years, several hedge funds have used different ways to successfully implement this trading strategy. The most extensively used techniques (correlation, distance, stochastic, stochastic differential residual and cointegration) use different methodologies and statistical tools to determine the two key elements of the strategy: pairs selection and the establishment of the long-term relationship between them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of selecting pairs and determining the residual series using each one of the different techniques and comparing the outputs. Results indicate that far from being differentiated systems, relationships exist between the various techniques in terms of pairs selection and residual series creation. However, some techniques are more efficient at creating residual series than others, which then means that these techniques would have the highest probabilities of generating profits. The analysis concludes that cointegration is the most efficient method of structuring a pairs trading strategy.

Does gender matter? Considering gender of service in the airline industry

Airline firms prioritize service features on the basis of customers' demand. While prioritizing these service features, successful positioning strategies are expected to focus on gender specific concerns. Given the fact that previous literature relies heavily on gender neutral strategies in airline industry, this study particularly addresses critical service features prioritized by female and male passengers by ranking airlines based on a multi-criteria decision-making method. Comfortable chair, seat space and leg room, and flexibility in reservation change were discovered as the three most impactful service features for female passengers. Availability of non-stop flight, frequency of flights, and airfare appeared as the other three most impactful service features among male passengers.

Escalation from normal appearance related intrusive cognitions to clinical preoccupations in Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A cross-sectional study

Current cognitive approaches to Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) assume that appearance-related intrusive cognitions and their functional consequences characterize the disorder, in a similar way that obsessive intrusive thoughts characterize the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This study explores whether normal but unwanted appearance-related intrusive thoughts (AITs), escalate to clinical AITs when they are dysfunctionally appraised and instigate counterproductive neutralizing strategies. From a sample of 344 non-clinical individuals who reported a highly upsetting AIT during the past three months two subgroups were extracted according to their high (n = 68) and low (n = 276) vulnerability to BDD. The subjects in the high-risk group obtained significantly higher scores on the frequency of the most disturbing AIT and its emotional impact, interference, and appraisals evaluated with the Appearance Intrusions Questionnaire (AIQ). Additionally, two subgroups of 15 subjects each, with high and low risk to BDD, were formed and their scores were compared to 10 patients with BDD. The AIT had a greater emotional negative impact and more severe consequences on individuals with BDD compared to individuals at high-risk of BDD, which in turn, reported worse consequences of the AIT than those at low-risk. These results empirically support the similarities between BDD and OCD regarding their functional and phenomenological characteristics.

Investigating the features of pairs trading strategy: A network perspective on the Chinese stock market

We systematically investigate the features of pairs trading strategy from a network perspective. Based on the cointegration theory, we construct the full graphs (FGs) and minimum spanning trees (MSTs) in terms of the cointegration matrix by using daily stock prices from the Chinese stock market around the launch of the margin-trading and short-selling (MTSS) programme. The static and dynamic features of the networks are analyzed with respect to the formation and evolution of edges. Our results show (i) that the assets allowed MTSS or within the same industry are more inclined to form trading pairs, (ii) that the cointegration relationships among trading pairs are as fragile as only a few number of them survived from one period to the next, (iii) that the movement of cointegration relationships is independent to stock market trends, confirming that pairs trading is a market neutral strategy, and (iv) that over 45% trading pairs are excluded in the re-occurrence circles of edges within 12 months, indicating that a considerable number of trading pairs are unsteady and investors should carefully pick pairs for trading in such short-term speculations.

Exploring low-cost practical antifoaming strategies in the ammonia stripping process of anaerobic digested slurry

As excessive foam formation is undesirable from an operational perspective in the ammonia stripping process of anaerobic digested slurry, the effect of alkaline agents on foam production was first evaluated by comparing two pH adjusters (NaOH and CaO). Results show that increased pH via CaO addition can significantly aggravate foam production and restrain defoaming ability during the stripping of anaerobic digestion effluent. The addition of 0.75% normal silicone oil (NSO) or 0.01% polyether-modified silicone oil (PMSO) as antifoam reduced foam capacity by 56.2 ± 2.5% and 75.2 ± 2.7%, respectively, but only works in a slurry with pH adjusted by NaOH, not by CaO. Moreover, the addition of these antifoams led to 4.31% (0.75% NSO) and 5.38% (0.01% PMSO) NH4+-N removal efficiency abatement during the stripping process. Finally, a new high-temperature, neutral (without pH adjustment) stripping strategy is proposed in this study, because it can effectively mitigate the formation of foam and maintain equalized ammonia removal. The effluent discharged via this stripping concept can be handled easily and does not cause heavy negative impacts from the residual alkaline content. Furthermore, the ammonia loss in the preparation phase before stripping was only 1/3 that in the traditionally high-pH stripping, indicating the potential of this new mitigation strategy in the frame of an environmentally friendly development.

Strategies of Reproducing Speech Anomalies in the English-Ukrainian Translation of Fiction

This study focuses on reproducing speech anomalies in English-Ukrainian translation of fiction. Speech anomalies are known to be a unique and very interesting phenomenon, which is often analyzed in Translation Studies. This is due to the genre-stylistic and communicative-functional array of speech anomalies characteristics. Speech anomalies belong to the category of difficulties of translation, as they possess no direct recurrent equivalents in the target language. The research concludes that the translation of different speech anomalies involves two opposite strategies. Neutralization strategy, which is quite close to domestication strategy, is underpinned with total withdrawal of speech anomalies in translation and their exchange for non-deformed equivalents. This strategy is a kind of “author’s treason”; it ruins the author’s intentions and deforms the character’s images. Foregrounding strategy, which combines the use of domestication and foreignization strategies, is based on the use of compensation vernaculars or parallel means. This strategy promotes the reproduction of character’s images, depicts them in a realistic and natural way, which corresponds to the ideas of target text readers.

Influence of institutional investors on firms' corporate social performance in an emerging market

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between institutional investor ownership (IIO) and corporate social performance (CSP) among firms in Malaysia. CSP Asset4 sustainability indices have been investigated in order to determine whether institutional owners reward or penalise companies for undertaking CSR activities. For this study, it is assumed that CSP Asset4 sustainability indices are suitable indicators for the performance of corporate sustainability. The results provide empirical support to the argument that institutional owners act as a promoter of CSP. This is important because the institutional investors tend to invest in emerging markets based on their perception of the firms' ability to exhibit market neutral strategies, i.e., long-term sustainable focus, communication and transparency, and size of the firm. This study contributes to the concerns of corporate management and policy-makers regarding responsible CSP related investment that may be directed towards a firm's growth and to establish competitive advantage.

Therapeutic reduction of cell-mediated immunosuppression in mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome.

Tumor progression is associated with progressive immunosuppression mediated in part by T regulatory cell(s) (Treg) and/or myeloid-derived suppressor cell(s) (MDSC). Development of strategies to reduce populations of immune cells with suppressive function in cancer patients may enable the induction or recovery of immunity against tumor cells, which may limit or reverse disease progression. With a goal of developing Treg and MDSC neutralizing strategies to treat mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sézary syndrome (SzS), we determined the association between disease stage and suppressor cell populations in patients with MF/SzS, including those responding to therapy. We found elevations in Treg populations, across Treg subtypes, in patients with SzS, and these Treg markedly suppressed proliferation of autologous CD4+CD25- responder T cells. Interestingly, while MDSC numbers were not increased in MF/SzS patients, MDSC from patients with stage IB and above produced significantly more reactive oxygen species than those from stage IA MF patients and control cohorts. Therapy with the CD25-targeting agent denileukin diftitox or IFN-α2b was associated with a reduction in Treg numbers or MDSC function, respectively. These studies identify potential mechanisms of action for these therapies and support the development of coordinated strategies targeting both Treg and MDSC activities in patients with MF/SzS.

Stochastic multi‐objective framework for optimal dynamic planning of interconnected microgrids

This paper proposes a new stochastic multi-objective framework for optimal dynamic planning of interconnected microgrids (MGs) under uncertainty from economic, technical, reliability and environmental viewpoints. In the proposed approach, optimal site, size, type, and time of distributed energy resources are determined along with optimal allocation of section switches to partitioning conventional distribution system into a number of interconnected MGs. The uncertainties of the problem are considered using scenario modelling and backward scenario reduction technique is implemented to deal with computational burden. In addition, three different risk averse, risk neutral and risk seeker strategies are defined for distribution network operator. The proposed framework is considered as two unparalleled objective functions which the first objective minimizes the investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, power loss cost and pollutants emission cost and the second objective is defined to minimize energy not supplied in both connected and islanded modes of MGs. Finally, multi objective particle swarm optimization is applied to minimize the proposed bi-objective functions and subsequently fuzzy satisfying method is accomplished to select the best solution proportional to risk based strategies. Efficiency of the proposed framework is validated on 85-bus distribution system and obtained results are presented and discussed.

An innovative risk management methodology for trading equity indices based on change points

We propose two new trading strategies which are based on a mathematical hypothesis testing procedure identifying change points in the volatility structure of equity indices. In the first strategy, we use the detected change points in order to avoid market phases of high volatility and to allow for an equity investment with significantly reduced risk. Within the second strategy, a modification is used for a pair trading approach, which leads to a promising market neutral strategy. The robustness of the proposed strategies is verified by different statistical procedures. The results strongly indicate the usefulness of both approaches for institutional investors.

The Beta Neutral Model with Leverage Effect

We present a beta neutral model that includes the leverage effect to allow hedge fund managers to target a near-zero beta for market neutral strategies. For this purpose, we derive a metric of correlation with leverage effect to identify the fine relation between the market beta and volatility changes. An empirical test based on the most popular market neutral strategies is run from 2000 to 2015 with exhaustive data sets including 600 American stocks and 600 European stocks from the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Euro Stoxx 600. Our findings confirm the ability of the beta neutral model to withdraw an important part of the bias from the market neutral strategies.

Differences in clinical intrusive thoughts between obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and hypochondria.

Differences and similarities between intrusive thoughts typical of obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and hypochondriasis are relevant for their differential diagnosis, formulation, and psychological treatment. Previous research in non-clinical samples pointed out the relevance of some process variables, such as responsibility, guilt, or neutralization strategies. This research is aimed to investigate the differences and similarities between clinical obsessions, worries, and illness intrusions in some of these process variables. A second aim is to identify models based on these variables that could reliably differentiate between them. Three groups of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (n=35; 60% women, mean age 38.57), generalized anxiety disorder (n=36; 61.1% women, mean age 41.50), and hypochondriasis (n=34; 70.6% women, mean age 31.59) were evaluated using the Cognitive Intrusions Questionnaire-Transdiagnostic Version (Romero-Sanchiz, Nogueira-Arjona, Godoy-Ávila, Gavino-Lázaro, & Freeston, ). The results showed that some appraisals (e.g., responsibility or egodystonicity), emotions (e.g., guilt or insecurity), neutralization strategies, and other variables (e.g., verbal content or trigger from body sensation) are relevant for the discrimination between obsessions, worries, and illness intrusions. The results also showed 3 stable models based on these variables for the discrimination between these thoughts. The implication of these results in the diagnosis, formulation, and psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and hypochondriasis is discussed.

A Secret Confusion Based Energy‐Saving and Privacy‐Preserving Data Aggregation Algorithm

To reduce communication overhead on the premise of privacy protection, this study presents a novel secret Confusion based energy-saving and privacypreserving data aggregation algorithm (CESPT). In confusion phase, CESPT confuses real sensory data and their sources by positive-negative pairs and a confusion factor is introduced to determine the quantity of pairs generated by a sensor, the exchange rounds and the threshold of data exchange, which affect communication overhead and privacy intensity of a Wireless sensor network (WSN). In aggregation phase, CESPT adopts a positive-negative neutralization strategy and a well-designed time slice allocation mechanism to reduce network traffic and message collision. In a word, CESPT can greatly reduce data traffic and energy consumption and obtain accurate statistical results on the basis of data privacy.