Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kelch-like 3 and Cullin 3 regulate electrolyte homeostasis via ubiquitination and degradation of WNK4

Pseudohypoaldosteronism type II (PHAII) is a rare Mendelian syndrome featuring hypertension and hyperkalemia resulting from constitutive renal salt reabsorption and impaired K+ secretion. Recently, mutations in Kelch-like 3 (KLHL3) and Cullin 3 (CUL3), components of an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, were found to cause PHAII, suggesting that loss of this complex’s ability to target specific substrates for ubiquitination leads to PHAII. By MS and coimmunoprecipitation, we show that KLHL3 normally binds to WNK1 and WNK4, members of WNK (with no lysine) kinase family that have previously been found mutated in PHAII. We show that this binding leads to ubiquitination, including polyubiquitination, of at least 15 specific sites in WNK4, resulting in reduced WNK4 levels. Dominant disease-causing mutations in KLHL3 and WNK4 both impair WNK4 binding, ubiquitination, and degradation. WNK4 normally induces clearance of the renal outer medullary K+ channel (ROMK) from the cell surface. We show that WT but not mutant KLHL3 inhibits WNK4-induced reduction of ROMK level. We show that PHAII-causing mutations in WNK4 lead to a marked increase in WNK4 protein levels in the kidney in vivo. These findings demonstrate that CUL3–RING (really interesting new gene) ligases that contain KLHL3 target ubiquitination of WNK4 and thereby regulate WNK4 levels, which in turn regulate levels of ROMK. These findings reveal a specific role of CUL3 and KLHL3 in electrolyte homeostasis and provide a molecular explanation for the effects of disease-causing mutations in both KLHL3 and WNK4.
Spatial equilibrium of housing provident fund in China based on data mining cluster analysis

Housing provident fund is an important guarantee for the livelihood of people and also an important policy for the improvement of national housing condition. Its development relates to system imputation, extraction, loan business, GDP, workers' disposable income and other factors. This paper chooses the housing provident fund in 31 provinces in China as the research project, constructing the compound evaluation index system by unsupervised learning clustering algorithm to obtain the national average housing provident fund development distribution. Further in-depth analysis of the differences among provinces provides scientific basis for the national development strategy of housing provident fund.
Predictive modeling of occupancy patterns in smart buildings

The intensive research for developing smart environments is based on building energy management systems. There exist demonstrated results that indicate a significant correlation between measured occupancy status and environmental conditions. In this context, the occupancy behaviour plays a key role to illustrate the consequent energy impact in energy savings HVAC control strategies, security, energy demand and interactions with space equipment. This paper presents the modeling of occupant presence and prediction of status — vacant or occupied — in smart buildings. For this objective Markov chain models are used and the results suggest potential energy savings for the input that they bring in HVAC control strategies. Forecasting results based on realistic data sets are discussed.
The determinants of household education expenditure in Ghana

The role of formal education in the socio-economic development of a country cannot be overemphasized. It is in this light, that over the years, governments of Ghana and other organizations have supported the education sector in many ways. Despite the efforts, many people think that a lot more can be done, but resources are not unlimited. Against this backdrop, it will be helpful if stakeholders are in the known as to what sections of the populace need urgent support. This is the primary motivation for this study. A logit model was estimated to find out the socio-economic determinants of a household’s probability of spending on education. The data used was the 2006/2007 Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Five (GLSS-V). We found that high education expenditure does not necessarily mean high probability of spending on education. Two categories of households with high probability of education expenditure were identified. The first category consists of households whose heads have formal education, households who own land, vehicles, and other durable assets, as well as households living in the forest belt. The second category includes: female-headed households; households with greater number of children of school going age; rural households; and households living farther away from the nation’s capital. Households in the second category are those that must be targeted for urgent support. Governments support in the form of capitation grant, free feeding and free supply of uniforms and stationery are in the right direction, but this must be stepped up in a sustainable manner.
How Much of Cross-Country Income Variation is Explained by Health?

We use development accounting techniques to assess the contribution of health to differences in income per capita among countries. Rather than rely on regressions in aggregate data, we build up estimates of the effect of health starting from microeconomic data. We examine both a particular condition, anemia, and a proxy for general health, the adult survival rate. We find that differences in anemia explain 1.3 percent of the log variance of income per capita, and that differences in adult survival explain 19 percent of the log variance of income per capita. The latter figure is almost one third of the variation in output that is left unexplained by other measures of factor accumulation. (JEL: O47, I10) Copyright (c) 2003 The European Economic Association.
MEG recording from the human ventro-occipital cortex in response to isoluminant color stimulation

In contrast to PET and fMRI studies, color-selective responses from the ventro-occipital area have rarely been reported in MEG studies. We tried to minimize the stimulation to all areas in the visual system except the color-processing ones by using a color space based on psychophysical and physiological knowledge in order to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio for MEG responses from the ventro-occipital area. MEG obtained from long intermittent reversals (2.0–3.5 s) of isoluminant chromatic gratings showed two major peaks at the latencies of approximately 100 and 150 ms. The estimated location of the equivalent-current dipole for response at 100-ms latency was in the calcarine sulcus and that of the dipole for the response at 150 ms was in the collateral sulcus in the ventro-occipital area. The response around 150 ms was uniquely observed in MEG elicited by chromatic reversals. The average of lags between MEG responses from the calcarine sulcus and ventro-occipital area was 43 ms, which suggests sequential processing of color information across the visual cortices.
Confidence Weighted Dictionary Learning algorithm for low-dose CT image processing

Though clinically desirable, Computed Tomography (CT) images tend to be severely degraded by excessive noise and artifacts. This paper proposes a novel post-processing approach termed Confidence Weighted Dictionary Learning (CW-DL) to improve low-dose CT (LDCT) images. The proposed CW-DL algorithm introduces a novel intensity constrained strategy into the frame of dictionary learning (DL) processing, and demonstrates an improved performance in artifact suppression. Experiment results show that the proposed CW-DL algorithm can lead to effective suppression of both mottled noise and artifacts in LDCT images.
Why Qualitative Data Matter: Community Members" Perceptions of Learning Environments

Introduction It is an honour and privilege to be invited here to Thailand and Mahidol University to encourage and nurture qualitative research. There are numerous possibilities for you as teachers and researchers and I hope to spark some interest in your becoming active in both theoretical and practical qualitative pursuits. There are things happening here in Thailand and we just heard the potential things the government is doing to encourage research, development, and publications. I, too, want to encourage you to share your data not only among yourselves, but with your community, region, nation, and the world. We need to know what exciting things are happening here in Thailand. Your perceptions, beliefs, and understandings are important to the wider profession around the globe. I hope some of my insights enlighten your journey to develop, share, and provide qualitative data that matter to you and others.
Optimal camera trajectory for video surveillance systems

In a video surveillance system a key issue is how to place the cameras and how to optimally move them searching for events. The Group for Research in Automatic Control Engineering (GRACE) at University of Sannio in Benevento (Italy) has developed a tool to determine the optimal cameras trajectory aimed to minimize the time necessary to monitor the environment. The problem has been treated as a constrained dynamic problem: given a bounded space equipped with one or more video cameras, the algorithm synchronizes them and determines the optimal trajectory in order to minimize the time necessary to monitor the environment, subject to static and dynamic constraints, i.e. bounds of the environment and camera dynamics. The algorithm effectiveness has been tested in GRACE laboratory
Irresponsible state: local cadres and image-building in China

Existing research on the role of the state in economic development tends to categorize the state as developmental or predatory according to how it makes decisions and allocates resources. However, this characterization does not capture the scenario where the state engages in activities that are beyond the developmental–predatory spectrum. State agents may make decisions and allocate resources neither for real development nor for predatory purposes, but to enhance their own image, leading to a waste of public resources. An exploration of this phenomenon promotes our understanding of the role a state may play. While irresponsible behaviour among state agents may not be unique to a particular country, in the case of China, because of the country's political arrangements, local state agents have both incentive and opportunity for making irresponsible decisions and misusing resources. He is working on a book manuscript tentatively entitled State and Laid-Off Workers in Reform China: The Silence and Collective Action of the Retrenched.
Mutual Fund Performance and Changing Market Trends 1990-2001

Mutual fund performance studies that examine returns over several years typically show that fund managers significantly underperform on a risk-adjusted basis. Using a four-factor risk-adjustment model, the authors of this article observe similar results during the bull market of the 1990s. However, they report that when they run their model using a moving 36-month window, they show that managers, on average, do not underperform on a risk-adjusted basis during the two bear markets that occurred within the full sample period 1990–2001. In fact, for some manager experience levels, they report significant positive risk-adjusted performance, on average, during the latest bear market. Contrary to some prior studies and popular belief, the level of risk-adjusted performance they find is not positively related to manager experience. The article's conclusions indicate that market trends rather than manager experience more clearly influence the level of risk-adjusted returns generated by fund managers, and thus investors should not pick mutual funds based solely on the tenure of the funds' managers.
Shipping Costs, Information Costs, and the Sources of Industrial Coagglomeration

Direct trade between establishments, coupled with costs of trading goods and information across space, has long been considered a primary determinant of industrial colocation. However, researchers have had difficulty decomposing the effects of interindustry trade into these two cost components. Using new techniques for separately estimating shipping and information costs, this paper provides an empirical framework for identifying the various sources of industrial coagglomeration among U.S. manufacturing industries. My findings suggest that both interindustry shipping costs and information costs influence metropolitan‐level coagglomeration. Additional evidence points to the significant role of direct information costs in determining intraindustry agglomerations.
Migrant Scientists and International Networks

We examine collaboration patterns of foreign scientists working in one of 16 countries in 2011 and compare them to the collaboration patterns of nonmigrant scientists and scientists with some international experience who have returned. Data come from the GlobSci survey. Major findings are that both foreign-born scientists and returnees have larger international research networks than do native researchers who lack an international background. The higher incidence of international collaboration among migrants is driven primarily by those who did not get their PhD training in the destination country but rather came for a postdoctoral position or directly for employment. We also find that a sizeable share of foreign born collaborate with researchers located in their country of origin and that migrants are also likely to collaborate with individuals from their home country who are working or studying in a third country (diaspora effect). Finally, the relative strength of the origin country's science base matters in the sense that those who come from a relatively stronger base have superior networks compared to those coming from a relatively weaker science base.
Creative Partnerships between GEAR UP and State College Savings Plans: Experience and Policy Potential

Summary of Partnerships and Policy Potential This brief provides examples of how GEAR UP and state College Savings Plans are working together to provide information and resources to low-income and at-risk students. These innovations in the states reflect the strengths of the US federalist system of government, with states taking significant leadership in exploring policy options and becoming “laboratories for democracy. ” Very often in the history of US social policy, successful innovations in the states have influenced federal policy going forward.In this regard, the state GEAR UP and College Savings Plan partnerships with the longest tenure have allocated millions of dollars into 529 plan accounts, and thousands of students have benefited. Thus, the existing partnerships are significant in scope, and may influence similar policy discussions in other states. We would not want to exaggerate the current innovations, but they are not trivial; they are in a period of testing to see what works; and the future potential is much greater. State-level experiences to date suggest several policy implications. First and most obviously, there is potential to expand the scope of current partnerships based on evidence of success, if resources were available to do so. Second, other states could learn from the GEAR UP and College Savings Plan partnerships that exist, and create their own versions. In order to do this, the College Savings Plans Network
Critical case insights from Mali : strengths and opportunities for education reform in the midst of crisis

The education resilience assessment for Mali was conducted within a wider programmatic study and technical assistance framework, Mali: impact of the crisis on social sectors. The broad assessment and action plan supported by this framework crosses the education, health, and social protection sectors. This assessment introduces a resilience lens to identify both the risks brought about or accentuated during the recent political and security crisis in the country, and the community and institutional assets that have helped displaced and host communities cope with it. This focus on risks and assets is fundamental to a resilience approach, and are indeed interrelated. In education resilience, the author's stress how the education system protects and fosters the assets of local school actors, but resilience also suffuses the institutional level, contributing to the policies, programs, and resources that address the protection and educational development needs of students. In this Mali education resilience study, the education communities of interest are those displaced from the north, due to the 2012 political and security crisis, and those in the south hosting them. However, the authors also extrapolate lessons learned for the overall education system of Mali. This study benefitted from the resilience (RES)-360°, a rapid mixed-methods assessment methodology focused on resilience. Together, the qualitative interviews and the perception survey also identified those education services that were considered most relevant to protect host and displaced communities and foster longer-term education reforms. This report has four chapters. Chapter one presents the data collected from participating school actors about the risks they faced as a result of the crisis and the assets they used to cope. Chapter two extrapolates some of the implications of these risks and assets for school-based management structures and programs in Mali. Chapter three presents some initial recommendations for aligning relevant education policies and programs in Mali with a resilience-based approach. Chapter four briefly guides the reader to additional relevant research questions and topics that can further support the education reform process in Mali.
Mitochondria accumulate Ca2+ following intense glutamate stimulation of cultured rat forebrain neurones.

1. In cultures of rat forebrain neurones, mitochondria buffer glutamate‐induced, NMDA receptor‐mediated Ca2+ influx. Here, we have used the fluorescent calcium indicator, indo‐1 AM to record [Ca2+]i from single cells. We varied either the glutamate concentration or the duration of exposure to investigate the cellular mechanisms recruited to buffer [Ca2+]i within different stimulation protocols. 2. For a 15 s stimulus, the recovery time doubled as the glutamate concentration was raised from 3 to 300 microM. Changing the duration of exposure from 15 s to 5 min increased the recovery time tenfold even when the glutamate concentration was held at 3 microM. 3. We used a selective inhibitor of the mitochondrial Na(+)‐Ca2+ exchange, CGP‐37157. When applied immediately after a 15 s, 100 microM glutamate challenge, CGP‐37157 consistently caused a rapid fall in [Ca2+]i followed by a slow rise after the drug was washed out. A similar pattern was seen with the 5 min, 3 microM glutamate stimulus. The effects of CGP‐37157 are consistent with the release of substantial mitochondrial Ca2+ stores during recovery from an intense glutamate stimulus. 4. These studies suggest that mitochondria become progressively more important for buffering glutamate‐induced Ca2+ loads as the stimulus intensity increases. The recovery of [Ca2+]i to baseline following glutamate removal is critically regulated by the release of Ca2+ from mitochondrial stores via mitochondrial Na(+)‐Ca2+ exchange. The data highlight a previously under‐appreciated role for [Na+]i in the regulation of [Ca2+]i in central neurones.
Towards Multi-Domain and Multi-Physical Electronic Design

Electronic systems are increasingly fusing multiple technology solutions exchanging information both at electrical and at non-electrical levels, and in general both analog and digital operation coexists in multiple physical domains. This paper introduces a homogeneous multi-domain design methodology which blurs analog and digital boundaries and enables the design of etherogeneous electrical and non-electrical building blocks. The methodology is based on the identification of four fundamental quantities (quadrivium), namely signal-to-noise ratio, signal-to-interference ratio, impedance and consumed energy, applicable to both electrical and multiphysics components. Based on their constraining and their propagation on an ensemble of transactions in time domain, these four elements can be used across different domains (digital or analog), and permit architects to extract internal features, so that these are intrinsically oriented to successive physical and technology-related implementation and modeling. With example application cases, we show that these four quantities in turn define design constraints of electrical and nonelectrical internal units. After presenting an electronic design example, to show applicability in multiple physical domains, the paper discusses and applies the quadrivium also in the context of a MEMS sensor and microfluidic components.
High oxygen atmosphere improves human follicle development in organ cultures of ovarian cortical tissues in vitro.

BACKGROUND Obtaining mature human follicles from cultured ovarian tissue may be beneficial for clinical use for women who wish to preserve fertile competence. However, the methodology of culture such as culture condition and gas atmosphere has not been well established in humans. Therefore, we investigated the effect of oxygen concentration in organ culture in order to establish an ovarian tissue culture method. METHODS Ovarian tissue was obtained from 26-35-year-old women undergoing removal of a benign tumor (n = 12) or caesarean section (n = 16). The ovarian cortical tissues were cultured on a cell culture insert for 15 days under high (100%) and low (air, 20%) oxygen concentrations and then inspected for follicle development with light and electron microscopy. Estradiol and progesterone concentrations in the medium during culture were measured. RESULTS The ultrastructure and the function of hormone secretion in the cultured tissues were well preserved after organ culture. The follicles developing under high oxygen were larger and more matured than those developing under low oxygen (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Human ovarian tissues can be cultured for 15 days under high oxygen concentration with the organ culture system used here. This technique could make it possible to utilize ovarian tissue for preservation of reproductive competence in cancer patients.
Parathyroid Hormone Stimulates Receptor Activator of NFκB Ligand and Inhibits Osteoprotegerin Expression via Protein Kinase A Activation of cAMP-response Element-binding Protein*

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulates osteoclast formation by binding to its receptor on stromal/osteoblastic cells and stimulating the production of receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL) and inhibiting the expression of osteoprotegerin (OPG). However, the mechanisms through which PTH regulates these genes remain unknown. Here we report that PTH stimulated RANKL gene transcription and increased RANKL mRNA stability in murine stromal/osteoblastic cells stably expressing human PTH/PTH-related protein receptor 1. PTH also potently suppressed OPG mRNA in these cells. Cycloheximide did not block the effects of PTH on RANKL but did inhibit the suppression of OPG mRNA. Activation of protein kinase A (PKA) was necessary and sufficient for the effect of PTH on both genes. Conditional expression of a dominant-negative form of the transcription factor CREB, but not c-fos or Runx2, significantly reduced PTH stimulation of RANKL. CREB activity was also required for full stimulation of RANKL by oncostatin M or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Dominant-negative forms of CREB and c-fosreduced the suppression of OPG by PTH. These results demonstrate that PTH directly stimulates RANKL expression via a PKA-CREB pathway and that CREB may be a central regulator of RANKL expression. Furthermore, they suggest that PTH suppression of OPG involves CREB and c-fos.