Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sphingosine Kinase Activation Mediates Ischemic Preconditioning in Murine Heart

Background—Phosphorylation of sphingosine by sphingosine kinase (SK) is the rate-limiting step in the cellular synthesis of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). The monoganglioside GM1, which stimulates SK, is cardioprotective in part through increased generation of S1P that protects myocytes by diverse mechanisms. Because protein kinase C (PKC)&egr; activation is necessary for myocardial ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and PKC activators increase SK activity, we tested the hypothesis that SK may be a central mediator of IPC. Methods and Results—In adult murine hearts, IPC sufficient to reduce infarct size significantly increased cardiac SK activity, induced translocation of SK protein from the cytosol to membranes, and enhanced cardiac myocyte survival. IPC did not increase SK activity in PKC&egr;-null mice. The SK antagonist N,N-dimethylsphingosine inhibited PKC&egr; activation and directly abolished the protective effects of IPC and the enhanced SK activity induced by IPC. Conclusions—These findings demonstrate that PKC&egr; is thus recruited by IPC and induces activation of SK that then mediates IPC-induced cardioprotection in murine heart.
Priorconditioners for linear systems

The construction of suitable preconditioners for the solution of linear systems by iterative methods continues to receive a lot of interest. Traditionally, preconditioners are designed to accelerate convergence of iterative methods to the solution of the linear system. However, when truncated iterative methods are used as regularized solvers of ill-posed problems, the rate of convergence is seldom an issue, and traditional preconditioners are of little use. Here, we present a new approach to the design of preconditioners for ill-posed linear systems, suitable when statistical information about the desired solution or a collection of typical solutions is available. The preconditioners are constructed from the covariance matrix of the solution viewed as a random variable. Since the construction is based on available prior information, these preconditioners are called priorconditioners. A statistical truncation index selection is also presented. Computed examples illustrate how effective such priorconditioners can be.
Irrationality or Efficiency of Macroeconomic Survey Forecasts? Implications from the Anchoring Bias Test

We analyze the quality of macroeconomic survey forecasts. Recent findings indicate that they are anchoring biased. This irrationality would challenge the results of a wide range of empirical studies, e.g., in asset pricing, volatility clustering or market liquidity, which rely on survey data to capture market participants' expectations. We contribute to the existing literature in two ways. First, we show that the cognitive bias is a statistical artifact. Despite highly significant anchoring coefficients a bias adjustment does not improve forecasts' quality. To explain this counterintuitive result we take a closer look at macroeconomic analysts' information processing abilities. We find that analysts benefit from the use of an extensive information set, neglected in the anchoring bias test. Exactly this information advantage drives the misleading anchoring bias test results. Second, we find that the superior information aggregation capabilities enable analysts to easily outperform sophisticated timeseries forecasts and therefore survey forecasts should clearly be favored.
Model-Consistent Sparse Estimation through the Bootstrap

We consider the least-square linear regression problem with regularization by the $\ell^1$-norm, a problem usually referred to as the Lasso. In this paper, we first present a detailed asymptotic analysis of model consistency of the Lasso in low-dimensional settings. For various decays of the regularization parameter, we compute asymptotic equivalents of the probability of correct model selection. For a specific rate decay, we show that the Lasso selects all the variables that should enter the model with probability tending to one exponentially fast, while it selects all other variables with strictly positive probability. We show that this property implies that if we run the Lasso for several bootstrapped replications of a given sample, then intersecting the supports of the Lasso bootstrap estimates leads to consistent model selection. This novel variable selection procedure, referred to as the Bolasso, is extended to high-dimensional settings by a provably consistent two-step procedure.
Functional Divergence of Diterpene Syntheses in the Medicinal Plant Salvia miltiorrhiza1[OPEN]

Positive selection and the divergent evolution by exon/intron patterns driving the fast divergence of copalyl diphosphate synthases underlie the biosynthesis of specialized diterpenes. The medicinal plant Salvia miltiorrhiza produces various tanshinone diterpenoids that have pharmacological activities such as vasorelaxation against ischemia reperfusion injury and antiarrhythmic effects. Their biosynthesis is initiated from the general diterpenoid precursor (E,E,E)-geranylgeranyl diphosphate by sequential reactions catalyzed by copalyl diphosphate synthase (CPS) and kaurene synthase-like cyclases. Here, we report characterization of these enzymatic families from S. miltiorrhiza, which has led to the identification of unique pathways, including roles for separate CPSs in tanshinone production in roots versus aerial tissues (SmCPS1 and SmCPS2, respectively) as well as the unique production of ent-13-epi-manoyl oxide by SmCPS4 and S. miltiorrhiza kaurene synthase-like2 in floral sepals. The conserved SmCPS5 is involved in gibberellin plant hormone biosynthesis. Down-regulation of SmCPS1 by RNA interference resulted in substantial reduction of tanshinones, and metabolomics analysis revealed 21 potential intermediates, indicating a complex network for tanshinone metabolism defined by certain key biosynthetic steps. Notably, the correlation between conservation pattern and stereochemical product outcome of the CPSs observed here suggests a degree of correlation that, especially when combined with the identity of certain key residues, may be predictive. Accordingly, this study provides molecular insights into the evolutionary diversification of functional diterpenoids in plants.
A Catch-22 for HANK Models: No Puzzles, No Amplification

New Keynesian (NK) models with heterogeneous agents (HA) can deliver aggregate-demand amplification (monetary-fiscal multipliers and deep recessions) through a New Keynesian Cross---but only if hand-to-mouth's income elasticity to aggregate is larger than one. This "hand-to-mouth channel" gives static amplification through the within-the-period elasticity of aggregate demand to policies. A dynamic, complementary "self-insurance channel" magnifies the effects when households are hand-to-mouth only occasionally: the aggregate Euler equation features discounting when the elasticity is lower than one, but compounding when larger. The former channel matters most for short-lived shocks, the latter for persistent or future news. Yet amplification has a dark side: the very same condition that delivers it also aggravates the NK troubles (the forward guidance puzzle, neo-Fisherian effects, and the paradox of flexibility) and creates new ones (insufficiency of the Taylor principle and a paradox of thrift). Phrased positively: adding HA can solve all these NK troubles, but that also rules out amplification and multipliers---a Catch-22.
Political Risk and International Valuation

Measuring the impact of political risk on investment projects is one of the most vexing issues in international business. One popular approach is to assume that the sovereign yield spread captures political risk and to augment the project discount rate by this spread. We show that this approach is flawed. While the sovereign spread is influenced by political risk, it also reflects other risks that are likely included in the valuation analysis — leading to the double counting of risks. We propose to use “political risk spreads” to undo the double counting in the evaluation of international investment projects.
Heavy Metals and Glucosinolates Based Defence Mechanisms in Metal Accumulating Plants and Counter Adaptations by Insect Herbivores : A Review

Heavy metals (HM) and glucosinolates (GS) have been studied extensively over the last three decades, because of their active involvement in plant defences against a variety of insect herbivores. These inorganic (HM) and organic (GS) chemicals defend the plants through various mechanisms. Heavy metals defend the plants either by deterring the herbivores from feeding on the heavy metal accumulator plant or through toxicity of the accumulated metal after ingestion. Glucosinolates, naturally occurring secondary metabolites in brassica plants, after herbivory are hydrolysed by myrosinase enzyme in to different toxic compounds such as; isothiocyanates, thiocyanates and nitriles, which prevent further herbivory. These compounds deter the insect attack either through direct toxicity or by hindering digestion of the tissue after ingestion. In response to these defence mechanisms, insect herbivores have co-evolved/counter adapted numerous strategies to avoid the toxicity caused by heavy metals and glucosinolates. As a counter adaptation strategy of herbivores, heavy metal toxicity is avoided by switching host or detoxifying through dietary dilution. Toxicity of GS and its hydrolysis products is countered by employing various tactics including leaf snipping, speedy absorption of GS and diverting the conversion of GS to harmless compounds. This review addresses the mechanisms of heavy metals and GS based plant defences. Moreover, counter adaptation mechanisms evolved by feeding herbivores to detoxify these plant defence compounds are encompassed. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers
Design of Area-Efficient and Highly Reliable RHBD 10T Memory Cell for Aerospace Applications

In this brief, based on upset physical mechanism together with reasonable transistor size, a robust 10T memory cell is first proposed to enhance the reliability level in aerospace radiation environment, while keeping the main advantages of small area, low power, and high stability. Using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company 65-nm CMOS commercial standard process, simulations performed in Cadence Spectre demonstrate the ability of the proposed radiation-hardened-by-design 10T cell to tolerate both <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0~\rightarrow ~1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1~\rightarrow ~0$ </tex-math></inline-formula> single node upsets, with the increased read/write access time.
Combined hysteroscopy-laparoscopy approach for excision of pelvic nitinol fragment from Essure contraceptive device: Role of intraoperative fluoroscopy for uterine conservation

We describe the successful removal of a pelvic contraceptive coil in a symptomatic 46-year-old patient who had Essure devices for four years, using a combined hysteroscopy-laparoscopy-fluoroscopy approach. Following normal hysteroscopy, at laparoscopy the right Essure implant was disrupted and its outer nitinol coil had perforated the fallopian tube. However, the inner rod (containing polyethylene terephthalate) had migrated to an extrapelvic location, near the proximal colon. In contrast, the left implant was situated within the corresponding tube. Intraoperative fluoroscopy was used to confirm complete removal of the device, which was further verified by postoperative computed tomography. The patient's condition improved after surgery and she continues to do well. This is the first report to describe this technique in managing Essure complications remote from time of insertion. Our case highlights the value and limitations of preoperative and intraoperative imaging to map Essure fragment location before surgery.
Changes in Transportation-Related Air Pollution Exposures by Race-Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status: Outdoor Nitrogen Dioxide in the United States in 2000 and 2010

Background: Disparities in exposure to air pollution by race-ethnicity and by socioeconomic status have been documented in the United States, but the impacts of declining transportation-related air pollutant emissions on disparities in exposure have not been studied in detail. Objective: This study was designed to estimate changes over time (2000 to 2010) in disparities in exposure to outdoor concentrations of a transportation-related air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), in the United States. Methods: We combined annual average NO2 concentration estimates from a temporal land use regression model with Census demographic data to estimate outdoor exposures by race-ethnicity, socioeconomic characteristics (income, age, education), and by location (region, state, county, urban area) for the contiguous United States in 2000 and 2010. Results: Estimated annual average NO2 concentrations decreased from 2000 to 2010 for all of the race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status groups, including a decrease from 17.6 ppb to 10.7 ppb (−6.9 ppb) in nonwhite [non-(white alone, non-Hispanic)] populations, and 12.6 ppb to 7.8 ppb (−4.7 ppb) in white (white alone, non-Hispanic) populations. In 2000 and 2010, disparities in NO2 concentrations were larger by race-ethnicity than by income. Although the national nonwhite–white mean NO2 concentration disparity decreased from a difference of 5.0 ppb in 2000 to 2.9 ppb in 2010, estimated mean NO2 concentrations remained 37% higher for nonwhites than whites in 2010 (40% higher in 2000), and nonwhites were 2.5 times more likely than whites to live in a block group with an average NO2 concentration above the WHO annual guideline in 2010 (3.0 times more likely in 2000). Conclusions: Findings suggest that absolute NO2 exposure disparities by race-ethnicity decreased from 2000 to 2010, but relative NO2 exposure disparities persisted, with higher NO2 concentrations for nonwhites than whites in 2010. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP959
“Don't think too much!” — Artificial somatic markers for action selection

Humans could not effectively perform everyday decisions if they could only count on purely rational evaluations of the available response options. According to the Somatic Marker hypothesis, before such evaluations take place, emotional signals drastically reduce the space of available options and provide essential biases for decision making. Within the context of action selection, we present a model of the somatic markers' mechanism, encompassing three related processes of an AI agent: (1) Creating markers from the agent's experiences; (2) Combining markers and producing generalizations; (3) Using existing markers to aid in action selection. Computer simulations in two different domains respectively show: (a) a resulting behavior that is similar to that obtained from an experiment with human subjects, and (b) an intuitive creation and effect of generalized markers.
Trends in the Transitory Variance of Male Earnings

We estimate the trend in the transitory variance of male earnings in the United States using the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1970 to 2004. Using an error components model and simpler but only approximate methods, we find that the transitory variance started to increase in the early 1970s, continued to increase through the mid-1980s, and then remained at this new higher level through the 1990s and beyond. Thus the increase mostly occurred about 30 years ago. Its increase accounts for between 31 and 49 percent of the total rise in cross-sectional variance, depending on the time period.
Citizenship, Well-Being and Sustainability: Epicurus or Aristotle?

Abstract The paper addresses two questions central to recent environmental political thought: Can a reduction in consumption be rendered compatible with a maintenance or improvement of well-being? What are the conditions for a sense of citizenship that crosses different generations? The two questions have elicited two conflicting responses. The first has been answered in broadly Epicurean terms: in recent environmental thought appeal has been made to recent hedonic research which appears to show that improvements in subjective well-being can be decoupled from increased material consumption. The second has usually been answered in broadly Aristotelian terms: republicans have suggested that a public world and projects that are shared over generations are a condition of human well-being. These Epicurean and Aristotelian responses appear to look in opposite directions. They start from different accounts of well-being and appear to look in different places for human flourishing. This paper suggests that the broadly Aristotelian response is in fact owed to both problems. It shows that recent empirical research in the hedonic tradition can be rendered consistent with that Aristotelian response.
Asymmetric Incidence of Sales Taxes: A Short-Run Investigation of Gasoline Prices

This paper investigates the shifting of sales taxes to consumers through retail prices in the short run. Retail data on gasoline prices are used at the station level within the U.S., including observations from all fifty states and the District of Columbia. A difference-in-differences approach is employed to identify the short-run effects of the changes in state taxes as of January 1st, 2015, when five states have increased their gasoline sales taxes, while five other states have decreased theirs. States experiencing such changes in sales taxes (between December 31st, 2014 and January 1st, 2015) are analyzed as the treatment group of a natural policy experiment, where the control group consists of states with no changes in their sales taxes. The results show that both sales-tax increases and decreases are under-shifted to consumer prices, although the under-shifting of sales-tax decreases is much higher (i.e., the asymmetric incidence of sales taxes). The pass-through measures also differ significantly across states, showing the importance of having a nationwide analysis. The results are robust to the consideration of retailer characteristics, wholesale prices, retail brand effects and hourly price changes within each day.
The OGCleaner: Detecting False-Positive Sequence Homology

The OGCleaner: Detecting False-Positive Sequence Homology Masaki Stanley Fujimoto Department of Computer Science, BYU Master of Science Within bioinformatics, phylogenetics is the study of the evolutionary relationships between different species and organisms. The genetic revolution has caused an explosion in the amount of raw genomic information that is available to scientists for study. While there has been an explosion in available data, analysis methods have lagged behind. A key task in phylogenetics is identifying homology clusters. Current methods rely on using heuristics based on pairwise sequence comparison to identify homology clusters. We propose the Orthology Group Cleaner (the OGCleaner) as a method to evaluate cluster level verification of putative homology clusters in order to create higher quality phylogenetic tree reconstruction.
Life History of Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) on Four Host Plant Species Under Laboratory Conditions

Abstract Life history of the mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink, on three ornamental plants [Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. , Acalypha wilkesiana (Muell.-Arg.), and Plumeria rubra L. ] and one weed species (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) was studied under laboratory conditions. Mealybugs were able to develop, survive, and reproduce on all four hosts; however, there were differences in the life history parameters. Adult females that developed on acalypha and parthenium emerged ≈1 d earlier than those that developed on hibiscus and plumeria. Adult males had a longer developmental time on plumeria than on the other hosts. Survival of first- and second-instar nymphs and cumulative adult survival were lowest on plumeria. Longevity was not affected by hosts for males and females and averaged 2.3 ± 0.1 and 21.2 ± 0.1 d, respectively. On plumeria, 58.9 ± 1.7% of the adults were females, which was a higher female percentage than on the other hosts. No egg production occurred in virgin females. Prereproductive and reproductive periods of the females were not affected by hosts and averaged 6.3 ± 0.1 and 11.2 ± 0.1 d, respectively. Mean fecundity of 186.3 ± 1.8 eggs on plumeria was lower than on the other three plant species. Life history parameters of P. marginatus on hibiscus, acalypha, plumeria, and parthenium show its ability to develop, survive, and reproduce on a wide variety of plant species.
Rural Roads and Local Economic Development

Nearly one billion people worldwide live in rural areas without access to national paved road networks. We estimate the impacts of India’s $40 billion national rural road construction program using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and comprehensive household and firm census microdata. Four years after road construction, the main effect of new feeder roads is to facilitate the movement of workers out of agriculture. However, there are no major changes in agricultural outcomes, income, or assets. Employment in village firms expands only slightly. Even with better market connections, remote areas may continue to lack economic opportunities. (JEL J43, O13, O18, R23, R42)
Physical Parameters of Erupting Luminous Blue Variables: NGC 2363-V1 Caught in the Act

A quantitative study of the luminous blue variable NGC 2363-V1 in the Magellanic galaxy NGC 2366 (D = 3.44 Mpc) is presented, based on ultraviolet and optical Hubble Space Telescope STIS spectroscopy. Contemporary WFPC2 and William Herschel Telescope imaging reveals a modest V-band brightness increase of ~0.2 mag per year between 1996 January-1997 November, reaching V = 17.4 mag, corresponding to MV = -10.4 mag. Subsequently, V1 underwent a similar decrease in V-band brightness, together with a UV brightening of 0.35 mag from 1997 November to 1999 November. The optical spectrum of V1 is dominated by H emission lines, with Fe II, He I and Na I also detected. In the ultraviolet, a forest of Fe absorption features and numerous absorption lines typical of mid-B supergiants (such as Si II, Si III, Si IV, C III, C IV) are observed. From a spectral analysis with the non-LTE, line-blanketed code of Hillier & Miller, we derive stellar parameters of T* = 11 kK, R* = 420 R☉, log (L/L☉) = 6.35 during 1997 November, and T* = 13 kK, R* = 315 R☉, log (L/L☉) = 6.4 for 1999 July. The wind properties of V1 are also exceptional, with ≃ 4.4 × 10-4M☉ yr-1 and v∞ ≃ 300 km s-1, allowing for a clumped wind (filling factor = 0.3) and assuming H/He ~ 4 by number. The presence of Fe lines in the UV and optical spectrum of V1 permits an estimate of the heavy elemental abundance of NGC 2363 from our spectral synthesis. Although some deficiencies remain, allowance for charge exchange reactions in our calculations supports a SMC-like metallicity, that has previously been determined for NGC 2363 from nebular oxygen diagnostics. Considering a variety of possible progenitor stars, V1 has definitely undergone a giant eruption, with a substantial increase in stellar luminosity, radius, and almost certainly mass-loss rate, such that its stellar radius increased at an average rate of ~4 km s-1 during 1992 October-1995 February. The stellar properties of V1 are compared to other LBVs, including η Car and HD 5980 during its brief eruption in 1994 September, the latter newly analyzed here. The mass-loss rate of the HD 5980 eruptor compares closely with V1, but its bolometric luminosity was a factor ~6 times larger.