Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Neuropeptide Galanin Augments Lobuloalveolar Development*

Mammary lobuloalveolar development during pregnancy is controlled by ovarian sex steroids and pituitary prolactin release. In organ culture these hormones are incapable of reproducing the density and size of lobuloalveoli seen in mice, suggesting the existence of other undiscovered factors. We showed previously that galanin knockout mice fail to lactate sufficiently for pup survival following their first pregnancy. Here we demonstrate that prolactin treatment of galanin knockout mice allows pup survival but does not completely rescue lobuloalveolar development or reduced milk protein expression. When galanin was used in combination with prolactin in mammary organ culture, larger and more numerous lobules were produced than with prolactin alone. Galanin alone produced sustained activation of STAT5a and the induction of milk protein expression but did not induce lobulogenesis. Examination of the transcriptional interaction between galanin and prolactin using oligonucleotide microarrays demonstrated synergistic and antagonistic modes of interaction between these hormones. These data establish a new role for galanin as a hormone augmenting mammary development during pregnancy in concert with prolactin.
E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, WWP1, Interacts with AMPKα2 and Down-regulates Its Expression in Skeletal Muscle C2C12 Cells*

Background: The role of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway under high glucose conditions is unclear. Results: AMPKα2 interacts with WWP1, and its expression is down-regulated by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in high glucose culture conditions in C2C12 cells. Conclusion: WWP1 down-regulates AMPKα2 expression through direct interaction in high glucose culture conditions of skeletal muscle C2C12 cells. Significance: The ubiquitin proteasome pathway may involve high glucose-induced AMPKα2 down-regulation. It is known that the activity of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPKα2) was depressed under high glucose conditions. However, whether protein expression of AMPKα2 is also down-regulated or not remains unclear. In this study, we showed that the expression of AMPKα2 was down-regulated in cells cultured under high glucose conditions. Treatment of proteasome inhibitor, MG132, blocked high glucose-induced AMPKα2 down-regulation. Endogenous AMPKα2 ubiquitination was detected by immunoprecipitation of AMPKα2 followed by immunoblotting detection of ubiquitin. The yeast-two hybrid (YTH) approach identified WWP1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, as the AMPKα2-interacting protein in skeletal muscle cells. Interaction between AMPKα2 and WWP1 was validated by co-immunoprecipitation. Knockdown of WWP1 blocked high glucose-induced AMPKα2 down-regulation. The overexpression of WWP1 down-regulated AMPKα2. In addition, the expression of WWP1 is increased under high glucose culture conditions in both mRNA and protein levels. The level of AMPKα2 was down-regulated in the quadriceps muscle of diabetic animal model db/db mice. Expression of WWP1 blocked metformin-induced glucose uptake. Taken together, our results demonstrated that WWP1 down-regulated AMPKα2 under high glucose culture conditions via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.
Energy data sourcebook for the US residential sector

LBNL-40297 UC-1600 E R N E S T O RLANDO L AWRENCE B E R K E L E Y NATIONAL L A B O R A T O R Y Energy Data Sourcebook for the U.S. Residential Sector Tom P. Wenzel, Jonathan G. Koomey, Gregory J. Rosenquist, Maria Sanchez, and James W. Hanford Environmental Energy Technologies Division September 1997 RECEIVED APR 0 8 «98 O S T l
Exploring the Influence of Vocal Emotion Expression on Communicative Effectiveness

Abstract This study explores whether speaker emotion influences communicative effectiveness. Two hundred participants rated their current emotional state and gave a description of a route on a simple map. The quality of the linguistic content of the descriptions was assessed using Latent Semantic Analysis. Six hundred participants provided route drawings based on the map descriptions. Median route deviation served as a measure of communicative effectiveness. Eighty addi-tional participants rated invariant parts of the descriptions for perceived speaker happiness. Path analysis revealed that while speaker emotion did not affect the linguistic content of the descriptions, it had an effect on communicative effective-ness both through the effects of vocal cues directly as well as mediated by per-ceived happiness of speech. Specifically, higher first formants were associated with higher reported and perceived happiness as well as higher communicative effectiveness. Jitter, on the other hand, was negatively related to the perception of happiness and positively related to communicative effectiveness. These findings suggest that mood-related modulation of phonation and articulation can influence the effectiveness of communication in addition to message content.
The Interaction of Focus, Givenness, and Prosody: A Study of Italian Clause Structure

1. Introduction 2. Marginalization 3. Contrastive focus and marginalization 4. Right dislocation 5. Contrastive focus and right dislocation 6. The role of prosody Appendix A: Distribution and licensing of Italian N-words Appendix B: Evidence for leftward right dislocation Appendix C: Irrelevance of pp phrasing for the analysis of marginalization and left-shift
Validation and comparison of different PWM converter small signal models

In order to determine which small signal model most accurately describes PWM converters, a comparison with a switched model is necessary. Due to parasitic effects the comparison with hardware measurements does not clarify this question. Therefore published small signal models based on ideal components are compared with a time domain simulation of a switched converter using the same idealization in this paper. The transfer function is determined by emulating the quadrature detector used in practical measurement set-ups. The paper shows the theoretical background, the implementation in SPICE and the comparison with traditionally found transfer functions.
The Effect of Apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) on Visuospatial Working Memory in Healthy Elderly and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 is the only established risk gene for late-onset, sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous studies have provided inconsistent evidence for the effect of APOE ε4 status on the visuospatial working memory (VSWM). Objective: The aim was to investigate the effect of APOE ε4 on VSWM with an event-related potential (ERP) study in healthy controls (HC) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients. Methods: The study recorded 39 aMCI patients (27 APOE ε4 non-carriers and 12 APOE ε4 carriers) and their 43 matched controls (25 APOE ε4 non-carriers and 18 APOE ε4 carriers) with an 64-channel electroencephalogram. Participants performed an N-back task, a VSWM paradigm that manipulated the number of items to be stored in memory. Results: The present study detected reduced accuracy and delayed mean correct response time (RT) in aMCI patients compared to HC. P300, a positive component that peaks between 300 and 500 ms, was elicited by the VSWM task. In addition, aMCI patients showed decreased P300 amplitude at the central–parietal (CP1, CPz, and CP2) and parietal (P1, Pz, and P2) electrodes in 0- and 1-back task compared to HC. In both HC and aMCI patients, APOE ε4 carriers showed reduced P300 amplitude with respect to non-carriers, whereas no significant differences in accuracy or RT were detected between APOE ε4 carriers and non-carriers. Additionally, standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (s-LORETA) showed enhanced brain activation in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) during P300 time range in APOE ε4 carriers with respect to non-carriers in aMCI patients. Conclusion: It demonstrated that P300 amplitude could predict VSWM deficits in aMCI patients and contribute to early detection of VSWM deficits in APOE ε4 carriers.
Calibrating Distance Sensors for Terrestrial Applications Without Groundtruth Information

This paper describes a new calibration procedure for distance sensors that does not require independent sources of groundtruth information, i.e., that is not based on comparing the measurements from the uncalibrated sensor against measurements from a precise device assumed as the groundtruth. Alternatively, the procedure assumes that the uncalibrated distance sensor moves in space on a straight line in an environment with fixed targets, so that the intrinsic parameters of the statistical model of the sensor readings are calibrated without requiring tests in controlled environments, but rather in environments where the sensor follows linear movement and objects do not move. The proposed calibration procedure exploits an approximated expectation maximization scheme on top of two ingredients: an heteroscedastic statistical model describing the measurement process, and a simplified dynamical model describing the linear sensor movement. The procedure is designed to be capable of not just estimating the parameters of one generic distance sensor, but rather integrating the most common sensors in robotic applications, such as Lidars, odometers, and sonar rangers and learn the intrinsic parameters of all these sensors simultaneously. Tests in a controlled environment led to a reduction of the mean squared error of the measurements returned by a commercial triangulation Lidar by a factor between 3 and 6, comparable to the efficiency of other state-of-the art groundtruth-based calibration procedures. Adding odometric and ultrasonic information further improved the performance index of the overall distance estimation strategy by a factor of up to 1.2. Tests also show high robustness against violating the linear movements assumption.
PSDSE: Particle Swarm Driven Design Space Exploration of Architecture and Unrolling Factors for Nested Loops in High Level Synthesis

A novel methodology for automated simultaneous design space exploration (DSE) of architecture and unrolling factors (UFs) for nested and single loops based application in high level synthesis (HLS) using particle swarm algorithm (named as 'PSDSE') is presented in this paper. The major contributions of the proposed methodology are as follows: (a) automated exploration of architecture and UFs using particle swarm intelligence that parallely maintain trade off between conflicting metrics of power - performance and balance orthogonal issues of improving Quality of Result (Or) and reducing the exploration runtime for nested loops, (b) deriving a model which directly estimate the execution time of nested loop based on resource constraint and UFs without necessity of tediously unrolling the entire control and data flow graph (CDFG) for the specified UFs values in most cases. Results indicated an average improvement in QoR of >49 % and reduction in runtime of > 97% compared to recent approaches.
Asymmetric Information between Employers

Employer learning about workers' abilities plays a key role in determining how workers sort into jobs and are compensated. This study explores whether learning is symmetric or asymmetric, i.e., whether potential employers have the same information about worker ability as the incumbent firm. I develop a model of asymmetric learning that nests the symmetric learning case and allows the degree of asymmetry to vary, yielding testable implications for the prevalence of asymmetric learning. I then show how predictions in the model can be tested using compensation data. Using the NLSY, I test the model and find strong support for asymmetric information. I first exploit the fact that groups of workers differ in their variances in ability – based on economic conditions at time of entry into a firm – to show that incumbent wages track differences in ability distributions more closely than do outside firm wages. Second, I show that learning about ability is more symmetric for occupations that require more communication outside the firm. Finally, I show how to uncover the key parameter of interest in my model representing the degree to which information is asymmetric. My estimates imply that in one period, outside firms reduce the average expectation error over worker ability by roughly a third of the reduction made by incumbent firms. Thus outside firms retain sizeable expectation errors due to asymmetric information.
Rewards-supply planning under option contracts in managing coalition loyalty programmes

We examine the problem of planning the supply of rewards in coalition loyalty programmes considering that the buyer–supplier relationships with commercial partners are governed by option contracts rather than wholesale price contracts similar to what is commonly used in practice. We develop a two-stage stochastic linear programme model with simple recourse which considers uncertain demand requirements, limited reward purchasing budgets, multiple programme partners of various sizes, point-liability control targets and overall profitability. A sampling average approximation scheme is used to solve the model. Numerical experiments show that option contracts perform better than wholesale price contracts when redemption demand uncertainty is high and the number of redemption partners is large. The results also suggest that the common practice of increasing redemption capacities is not the most effective way to cope with demand uncertainties. Programmes that reduce redemption demand variability and/or create better contracting structures are more promising in improving points-liability, redemption budget spending and overall profitability than traditional approaches.
Electrochromic voxel array for 3D display

We developed an electrochromic voxel array for realizing a three-dimensional (3D) display. A voxel is a unit of 3D graphic data just as a pixel of 2D data. The color of voxels is tuned not by their light emission but by their light absorption in the same way as the coloration of things in the real world. Our voxels consist of ITO electrodes on glass substrates and 1 mm cubes of an UV-curing polymer coated with electrochromic material which can change its color electrically. We utilized poly-(3,4-ethylenedioxy- thiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as the electrochromic material. Our voxel array and its Al counter electrode were soaked in CaCl2 solution. Voxels were operated with a very low voltage of about 1.0 V We demonstrated a 4x4 voxel array, and the color change of the voxels was observed not only in the top view but also in the side view.
Prognostic factors and treatment outcomes in 93 patients with uterine sarcoma from 4 centers in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION Uterine sarcomas are a group of heterogenous and rare malignancies of the female genital tract and there is a lack of consensus on prognostic factors and optimal treatment. OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY To perform a retrospective evaluation of clinicopathological characteristics, prognostic factors and treatment outcomes of 93 patients with uterine sarcomas who were diagnosed and treated at 4 different centers from November 2000 to October 2010. RESULTS Of the 93 patients, 58.0% had leiomyosarcomas, 26.9% malignant mixed Mullerian tumors, 9.7% endometrial stromal sarcomas, and 5.4% other histological types. According to the last International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging, 43.0% were stage I, 20.4% were stage II, 22.6% were stage III and 14.0 % were stage IV. Median relapse free survival (RFS) was 20 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 12.4-27.6 months), RFS after 1, 2, 5 years were 66.6%, 44.1%, 16.5% respectively. Median overall survival (OS) was 56 months (95% CI, 22.5-89.5 months), and OS after 1, 2, 5 years was 84.7%, 78%, 49.4% respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that age≥60 years and high grade tumor were significantly associated with poor OS and RFS; patients administered adjuvant treatment with sequential chemotherapy and radiotherapy had longer RFS time. Among patients with leiomyosarcoma, in addition to age and grade, adjuvant treatment with sequential chemotherapy and radiotherapy after surgery had significant effects on OS. CONCLUSION Uterine sarcomas have poor progrosis even at early stages. Prognostic factors affecting OS were found to be age and grade.
Approval Voting, Borda Winners, and Condorcet Winners: Evidence From Seven Elections

We analyze 10 three-candidate elections (and mock elections) conducted under approval voting (AV) using a method developed by Falmagne and Regenwetter (1996) that allows us to construct a distribution of rank orders from subset choice data. The elections were held by the Institute of Management Science, the Mathematical Association of America, several professional organizations in Britain, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Seven of the 10 elections satisfy the conditions under which the Falmagne-Regenwetter method is suitable. For these elections we recreate possible underlying preferences of the electorate. On the basis of these distributions of preferences we find strong evidence that AV would have selected Condorcet winners when they exist and would have always selected the Borda winner. Thus, we find that AV is not just simple to use, but also gives rise to outcomes that well reflect voter preferences. Our results also have an important implication for the general study of social choice processes. They suggest that transitive majority orderings may be expected in real-world settings more often then the formal social choice literature suggests. In six out of seven data sets we find social welfare orders; only one data set generates cycles anywhere in the solution space.
A Virtual Radial Arm Maze for the Study of Multiple Memory Systems in a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Environment

An increasing number of functional brain imaging studies are employing computer-based virtual reality (VR) to study changes in brain activity during the performance of high-level psychological and cognitive tasks. We report the development of a VR radial arm maze that adapts for human use in a scanning environment with the same general experimental design of behavioral tasks as that has been used with remarkable effectiveness for the study of multiple memory systems in rodents. The software platform is independent of specific computer hardware and operating systems, as we aim to provide shared access to this technology by the research community. We hope that doing so will provide greater standardization of software platform and study paradigm that will reduce variability and improve the comparability of findings across studies. We report the details of the design and implementation of this platform and provide information for downloading of the system for demonstration and research applications.
Dynamic modeling of stability of money demand and minimum wages

Dynamic modeling is a vital policy instrument in measuring macroeconomic stability of the economy and monetary planning. This study was conducted to explore long term dynamic behavior of the narrow money supply to investigate the nexus between money demand and minimum wages and their impact on macroeconomic stability in Sri Lanka. The empirical approach was directed to estimate a Vector Auto regression (VAR) function through unit root and cointegration, and vector error correction models. The coefficients of the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) were used to determine the long term elasticity of the dynamic model, and impulse response function was derived to examine the stability of the macroeconomic equilibrium. The multiplier effect depicted that though 72 percent of the long-run effect can be found, minimum wage on money demand, time adjustment of wage is sluggish compared to money demand changes. The impulse response behavior of the minimum wage underscored the macroeconomic stability of the wage-money demand adoption in Sri Lanka. Finally, monetary policy implications were recommended for the relevant entities to adjust minimum wage with the money demand to preserve the narrow money supply. Key words: Dynamic modeling, money demand, minimum wage, impulse response function.
A new look at the UI effect on transitions from unemployment into wage employment in Spain: the limited duration of the UI benefits entitlement

This article is a new look at the study of the unemployment insurance effect on the transition probability from unemployment into wage employment in Spain. It is found that individuals increase their search effort and reduce their reservation wage as the unemployment insurance benefit entitlement exhaustion approaches, and their exit rate equals that of the unemployed who never got benefits from the exhaustion moment. Financial constraints are not important in Spain. Business cycle affects more to long-term unemployed. And, finally, it is found that the probability of being offered a vacancy decreases with time spent in unemployment, having allowed for unobservable heterogeneity.
Asymmetric and Time‐Varying Causality between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in G‐7 Countries

We use Granger causality tests within a conditional Gaussian Markov switching vector autoregressive (MS‐VAR) model using monthly data for G‐7 countries covering the period 1959:12–2008:10 to examine the relationship between inflation and inflation‐uncertainty. The MS‐VAR model allows us to model parameter time‐variation so as to reflect changes in Granger causality, assuming that these changes are stochastic and governed by an unobservable Markov chain. Inflation uncertainty is measured as the conditional variance generated by a Fractionally Integrated Smooth Transition Autoregressive Moving Average‐Asymmetric Power ARCH (FISTARMA‐APARCH) model. The distinguishing feature of our approach from the previous studies is the determination of the sign of the Granger causality relationship between inflation and its uncertainty over time. First, using a rolling VAR model, we show that the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty is time varying with frequent breaks. Second, using the MS‐VAR model, we obtain strong evidence in favour of the Holland's ‘stabilizing Fed hypothesis’ for Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. We also find evidence in favour of the Friedman hypothesis for Canada and the United States.
Interactions between Human Norovirus Surrogates and Acanthamoeba spp

ABSTRACT Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are the most common cause of food-borne disease outbreaks, as well as virus-related waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States. Here, we hypothesize that common free-living amoebae (FLA)—ubiquitous in the environment, known to interact with pathogens, and frequently isolated from water and fresh produce—could potentially act as reservoirs of HuNoV and facilitate the environmental transmission of HuNoVs. To investigate FLA as reservoirs for HuNoV, the interactions between two Acanthamoeba species, A. castellanii and A. polyphaga, as well as two HuNoV surrogates, murine norovirus type 1 (MNV-1) and feline calicivirus (FCV), were evaluated. The results showed that after 1 h of amoeba-virus incubation at 25°C, 490 and 337 PFU of MNV-1/ml were recovered from A. castellanii and A. polyphaga, respectively, while only few or no FCVs were detected. In addition, prolonged interaction of MNV-1 with amoebae was investigated for a period of 8 days, and MNV-1 was demonstrated to remain stable at around 200 PFU/ml from day 2 to day 8 after virus inoculation in A. castellanii. Moreover, after a complete amoeba life cycle (i.e., encystment and excystment), infectious viruses could still be detected. To determine the location of virus associated with amoebae, immunofluorescence experiments were performed and showed MNV-1 transitioning from the amoeba surface to inside the amoeba over a 24-h period. These results are significant to the understanding of how HuNoVs may interact with other microorganisms in the environment in order to aid in its persistence and survival, as well as potential transmission in water and to vulnerable food products such as fresh produce.