Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intact &bgr;-Adrenergic Response and Unmodified Progression Toward Heart Failure in Mice With Genetic Ablation of a Major Protein Kinase A Phosphorylation Site in the Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor

Increased phosphorylation of the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR)2 by protein kinase A (PKA) at the phosphoepitope encompassing Ser2808 has been advanced as a central mechanism in the pathogenesis of cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure. In this scheme, persistent activation of the sympathetic system during chronic stress leads to PKA “hyperphosphorylation” of RyR2-S2808, which increases Ca2+ release by augmenting the sensitivity of the RyR2 channel to diastolic Ca2+. This gain-of-function is postulated to occur with the unique participation of RyR2-S2808, and other potential PKA phosphorylation sites have been discarded. Although it is clear that RyR2 is among the first proteins in the heart to be phosphorylated by &bgr;-adrenergic stimulation, the functional impact of phosphorylation in excitation–contraction coupling and cardiac performance remains unclear. We used gene targeting to produce a mouse model with complete ablation of the RyR2-S2808 phosphorylation site (RyR2-S2808A). Whole-heart and isolated cardiomyocyte experiments were performed to test the role of &bgr;-adrenergic stimulation and PKA phosphorylation of Ser2808 in heart failure progression and cellular Ca2+ handling. We found that the RyR2-S2808A mutation does not alter the &bgr;-adrenergic response, leaves cellular function almost unchanged, and offers no significant protection in the maladaptive cardiac remodeling induced by chronic stress. Moreover, the RyR2-S2808A mutation appears to modify single-channel activity, although modestly and only at activating [Ca2+]. Taken together, these results reveal some of the most important effects of PKA phosphorylation of RyR2 but do not support a major role for RyR2-S2808 phosphorylation in the pathogenesis of cardiac dysfunction and failure.
Forecasting Using Targeted Diffusion Indexes

The simplicity of the standard diffusion index model of Stock and Watson has certainly contributed to its success among practitioners, resulting in a growing body of literature on factor-augmented forecasts. However, as pointed out by Bai and Ng, the ranked factors considered in the forecasting equation depend neither on the variable to be forecast nor on the forecasting horizon. We propose a refinement of the standard approach that retains the computational simplicity while coping with this limitation. Our approach consists of generating a weighted average of all the principal components, the weights depending both on the eigenvalues of the sample correlation matrix and on the covariance between the estimated factor and the targeted variable at the relevant horizon. This 'targeted diffusion index' approach is applied to US data and the results show that it outperforms considerably the standard approach in forecasting several major macroeconomic series. Moreover, the improvement is more significant in the final part of the forecasting evaluation period. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A View-Level Rate Distortion Model for Multi-View/3D Video

Multi-view/3D video is currently available in games, entertainment, education, security, and surveillance applications . Since the amount of data in multi-view/3D increases proportionally with the number of cameras, and due to different bandwidth and playback capabilities of receivers, appropriate compression of multi-view/3D video to produce the correct bitrate while maintaining smooth video quality is crucial, a task that is mostly performed by the rate control module of the encoder. There are many existing rate control algorithms for single-view and multi-view video coding considering the specific features or aspects of these videos. In this paper, we introduce a novel view-level rate distortion (RD) model. We use a systematic methodology to derive this RD model by investigating the impact of multi-view/3D video characteristics on the bitrate of a compressed video. Our proposed RD model considers the concepts of intra-view and inter-view disparity as an effective feature of multi-view/3D video to estimate the overall bitrate of each view more accurately. Evaluation results indicate that our proposed view-level RD model outperforms existing linear models by a factor of 3 and can predict the rate of each view with relatively high precision and a low estimation error of 12% on average.
Novi svijet za marketing muzeja? Suočavanje sa starim nedoumicama pri izazivanju novih tržišnih prilika

Muzeji pripadaju širem kulturnom i zabavnom okruženju u kojem vladaju izrazito zahtjevni posjetitelji koji traže izuzetna iskustva (edukacije i zabave istovremeno) s uštedom vremena. To je potaknulo, a po nekim mišljenjima i prisililo muzeje da se usmjere od kolekcija prema posjetiteljima. Oni se isto tako susreću s konkurencijom i novim tehnologijama u obliku virtualnih muzeja i virtualne stvarnosti. To je dovelo do naglašavanja potrebe prihvaćanja marketinga kao sredstva za preživljavanje muzeja i poveznice između muzeja i posjetitelja. ABSTRACT
Two Views on the Obstacles to Development

I COUNT MYSELF AMONG THE MULTITUDE GIVEN AN INTRODUCTION TO the history of economic thought through Bob Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. When I first read the book I was not sufficiently knowledgeable of foreign languages to recognize the distinguishing characteristic for those included in the book was having a unique Weltanschauung. These were not worldly philosophers in the sense of having experience of the world, but rather in the sense of having an individual worldview of economic development. My recollection is that I had the book assigned as a basic text in the autumn of 1964. Most students of economics were then unaware of the implications of the UN Trusteeship Council's rapid creation of new independent states from former colonies and the problems of economic development that they would face. But, the June 1963 preface to the revised edition of The Worldly Philosophers (despite several transoceanic moves I still have my original copy) already notes that this shift reflected the change in economics toward "more concern over the trend of economic development" (1964: ii). Most of the specific discussion of development issues is found in the concluding chapter, "Beyond the Economic Revolution," which laments
Counting and Size Classification of Active Soil Bacteria by Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization with an rRNA Oligonucleotide Probe

ABSTRACT A fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique based on binding of a rhodamine-labelled oligonucleotide probe to 16S rRNA was used to estimate the numbers of ribosome-rich bacteria in soil samples. Such bacteria, which have high cellular rRNA contents, were assumed to be active (and growing) in the soil. Hybridization to an rRNA probe, EUB338, for the domain Bacteria was performed with a soil slurry, and this was followed by collection of the bacteria by membrane filtration (pore size, 0.2 μm). A nonsense probe, NONEUB338 (which has a nucleotide sequence complementary to the nucleotide sequence of probe EUB338), was used as a control for nonspecific staining. Counting and size classification into groups of small, medium, and large bacteria were performed by fluorescence microscopy. To compensate for a difference in the relative staining intensities of the probes and for binding by the rhodamine part of the probe, control experiments in which excess unlabelled probe was added were performed. This resulted in lower counts with EUB338 but not with NONEUB338, indicating that nonspecific staining was due to binding of rhodamine to the bacteria. A value of 4.8 × 108 active bacteria per g of dry soil was obtained for bulk soil incubated for 2 days with 0.3% glucose. In comparison, a value of 3.8 × 108 active bacteria per g of dry soil was obtained for soil which had been air dried and subsequently rewetted. In both soils, the majority (68 to 77%) of actively growing bacteria were members of the smallest size class (cell width, 0.25 to 0.5 μm), but the active (and growing) bacteria still represented only approximately 5% of the total bacterial population determined by DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining. The FISH technique in which slurry hybridization is used holds great promise for use with phylogenetic probes and for automatic counting of soil bacteria.
Estimating Materials Stocked by Land‐Use Type in Historic Urban Buildings Using Spatio‐Temporal Analytical Tools

The construction industry is an important contributor to urban economic development and consumes large volumes of building material that are stocked in cities over long periods. Those stocked spaces store valuable materials that may be available for recovery in the future. Thus quantifying the urban building stock is important for managing construction materials across the building life cycle. This article develops a new approach to urban building material stock analysis (MSA) using land‐use heuristics. Our objective is to characterize buildings to understand materials stocked in place by: (1) developing, validating, and testing a new method for characterizing building stock by land‐use type and (2) quantifying building stock and determining material fractions. We conduct a spatial MSA to quantify materials within a 2.6‐square‐kilometer section of Philadelphia from 2004 to 2012. Data were collected for buildings classified by land‐use type from many sources to create maps of material stock and spatial material intensity. In the spatial MSA, the land‐use type that returned the largest footprint (by percentage) and greatest (number) of buildings were civic/institutional (42%; 147) and residential (23%; 275), respectively. The model was validated for total floor space and the absolute overall error (n = 46; 20%) in 2004 and (n = 47; 24%) in 2012. Typically, commercial and residential land‐use types returned the lowest overall error and weighted error. We present a promising alternative method for characterizing buildings in urban MSA that leverages multiple tools (geographical information systems [GIS], design codes, and building models) and test the method in historic Philadelphia.
Lifecourse perspectives on immigration

The lifecourse perspective examines individual life histories in order to understand how prior events, social and economic conditions, and individual characteristics influence decisions and events over time. The lifecourse approach emphasizes the connection between individuals and the historical context in which their lives take place. This approach has its origins in Thomas and Znaniecki’s pioneering studies (1918–1920) of the migration and adaptation of Polish peasants in Europe and the United States (Thomas and Znaniecki 1958). Their work examined how the lives of Polish peasants changed over time within social, economic, and cultural contexts. In recent years, the lifecourse perspective has been used to study how events earlier in life—such as schooling or teenage experiences—affect later decisions and events, such as childbearing, marriage and divorce, and retirement. In early studies in the 1930s and 1940s, longitudinal studies of individuals followed children or adults only for a few years. Generally, this early work was interested in the sequence of social roles, such as childhood socialization, becoming married, or transition to parenthood—a process that demographers called life cycle studies or the study of key transitions in individual lives. Studies dealing with the life cycle were particularly prominent in family demography (Glick 1988), as evidenced by the large number of publications dealing with family trends, religious and racial intermarriage, social-economic changes and family stability, changes in age at first marriage, and the prevalence of divorce in the 1950s and 1960s. Recent studies in family demography demonstrate the continued usefulness of the life cycle for studying such topics as cohabitation outside marriage, one-parent families, gender preferences in children, nofault divorce, divorce among children of divorce, and stepfamilies. Other researchers, notably at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Human Development in the 1950s, realized that the study of single individuals oversimplified the lives of people, who were interacting with others and were entrenched in a broader historical context. As longitudinal studies developed—in ways discussed below— life cycle theory was expanded to what is now called lifecourse perspective. Although the early use of a lifecourse perspective dealt with migration, very few recent studies of migration have explicitly employed a lifecourse approach. In June 2010, the Committee on Migration and Immigration of the Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster1 organized a workshop at the University of Montreal to explore the value of a lifecourse perspective on immigration. This workshop included ten papers that dealt with a variety of immigration topics. Six papers from that workshop have been revised for publication in this special issue of Canadian Studies in Population.
Differential and More Favorable Treatment of Developing Countries and the International Trading System

This article argues that "differential and more favourable treatment" of developing countries in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has been a logical consequence of their own inward-looking policies and the GATT's implicit mercantilism, the latter implying that liberalization, being costly, should not be demanded of relatively poor countries. Time has, however, reduced both the appeal of the protectionist model of development and the willingness of developed countries to accord differential treatment. The upshot has been pressure on more advanced developing countries to "graduate" and a growing literature recommending fuller and more equal participation of developing countries in the GATT. The case for fuller and more equal participation is not self-evident. It needs to be assessed on its merits in terms of the prospects for improved market access abroad and more efficient policy at home. The analysis indicates that the potential benefits should not be oversold. On balance, however, the most advanced developing countries would probably gain from active and more equal participation in both GATT and the multilateral trade negotiations while the remaining developing countries would benefit from graduation by the more advanced. (iv) Contracting parties agree that the principle of differential and more favourable treatment embodied in Part IV and other relevant provisions of the General Agreement and in the decision of contracting parties of November 28, 1979 on differential and more favourable treatment, reciprocity and fuller participation of developing countries applies to the negotiations. In the implementation of standstill and rollback, particular care should be given to avoiding disruptive effects to the trade of less-developed contracting parties. (v) The developed countries do not expect reciprocity for commitments made by them in trade negotiations to reduce or remove tariffs and other Martin Wolf is director of studies at the Trade Policy Research Centre, London. The views expressed do not represent those of the staff and council of the Trade Policy Research Centre, and result partially from a research program on the participation of the developing countries in the international trading system. Particularly important are two papers prepared under the program by Hudec (forthcoming) and Riedel (forthcoming). The issues addressed in this article have also been considered in a previous paper by the author (1984, pp. 201-29). The author is grateful to participants at the Bangkok conference for their comments and especially to Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Muchkund Dubey, Anthony Lane, and Vincent Cable. Copyright © 1987 by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK.
The Osedax Trophosome: Organization and Ultrastructure

The polychaete family Siboglinidae, which is currently construed as comprising the Frenulata, Monilifera (composed of Sclerolinum), Vestimentifera, and Osedax, has become known for its specialized symbiont-housing organ called the trophosome. This organ replaced the digestive system of the worms and is located in the elongated trunk region in Frenulata, Sclerolinum, and Vestimentifera. Currently two types of trophosomes have been described: in the taxa Frenulata and Sclerolinum the bacteriocytes originate from endoderm, and in Vestimentifera they originate from mesoderm. In Osedax, a trophosome was described as lacking (Rouse et al., 2004), but bacteriocytes are located in Osedax's characteristic root tissue. Here, we argue for a consistent name for the symbiont-housing tissue, namely trophosome, as in other siboglinids. In this study we provide morphological evidence that in Osedax the bacteriocytes are derived from somatic mesoderm. We show that the trophosome in Osedax is an apolar tissue composed of bacteriocytes and nonsymbiotic cells. As in vestimentiferans, a specific cell cycle was identified; however, in this case it is directed from the posterior to the anterior end of the worms instead of from the center toward the periphery. Comparison of all siboglinid trophosomes and re-evaluation of their body regions allows us to discuss whether the trophosomes are homologous and to hypothesize about the organization of the last common ancestor of Siboglinidae.
Farsightedness and Cautiousness in Coalition Formation

We adopt the largest consistent set defined by Chwe [J. of Econ. Theory 63 (1994), 299-235] to predict which coalition structures are possibly stable when players are farsighted. We also introduce a refinement, the largest cautious consistent set, based on the assumption that players are cautious. For games with positive spillovers, many coalition structures may belong to the largest consistent set. The grand coalition, which is the efficient coalition structure, always belongs to the largest consistent set and is the unique one to belong to the largest cautious consistent set.
A genetic approach for freight transportation planning

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for optimally planning long‐haul road transport activities through proper aggregation of customer orders in separate full‐truckload or less‐than‐truckload shipments in order to minimize total transportation costs.Design/methodology/approach – The model is applied to a specific Italian multi‐plant firm operating in the plastic film for packaging sector. The method, given the order quantities to be shipped and the location of customers, aggregates shipments in subgroups of compatible orders resorting to a heuristic procedure and successively consolidates them in optimized full truck load and less than truck load shipments resorting to a Genetic Algorithm in order to minimize total shipping costs respecting delivery due dates and proper geographical and truck capacity constraints.Findings – The paper demonstrates that evolutionary computation techniques may be effective in tactical planning of transportation activities. The model shows that sub.
Fiscal Policy and Economic Inequality in the U.S. States

To what extent can state governments influence economic inequality? How do state fiscal policies of redistribution affect families in different economic situations? Using a large database of state fiscal policymaking tools (taxing and spending) between 1976 and 2006, we examine the effect of these tools on state-level inequality as well as the average incomes of families in different economic groups. We find that state taxing and spending efforts can influence these indicators of economic inequality, though these fiscal policy tools can have differential effects. Spending on unemployment compensation and cash assistance as well as revenue from taxes on corporations is found to reduce state-level inequality. We also find unemployment compensation to positively benefit the bottom 10th percentile of income earners, whereas the inheritance tax helps all income groups. Corporate tax revenue is associated with higher middle-class incomes, whereas income tax revenue benefits both middle and upper incomes. Sales tax revenue positively benefits wealthy earners. Higher property tax revenue is associated with decreased income for all groups. These results suggest that state governments can affect redistribution through fiscal policies by affecting state-level inequality as well as the economic fortunes of different income groups.
Dynamic fuzzy Q-learning control of uncertain systems with applications to humanoids

In this paper, a design methodology for enhancing the stability of humanoid robots is presented. Fuzzy Q-learning (FQL) is applied to improve the zero moment point (ZMP) performance by intelligent control of the trunk of a humanoid robot. With the fuzzy evaluation signal and the neural networks of FQL, biped robots are dynamically balanced in situations of time-varying terrains. Compared with scale reward, fuzzy evaluation gives more informative feedback for training. Different types of membership functions (MF) for fuzzy systems have been compared. Simulation studies show that the FQL controllers based on both triangular and Gaussian MFs are able to improve the stability as the actual ZMP trajectories become very close to the ideal case, and Gaussian function is superior as the actions generated are smoother and the learning speed is faster
Expression of members of the miRNA17–92 cluster during development and in carcinogenesis

The six microRNAs (miRNA) encoded by the miR‐17–92 cluster, also named oncomir‐1, have been associated with carcinogenesis and typically exhibit‐increased expression in tumors. Despite the well‐established role for the miR‐17–92 cluster in an oncogenic network, the physiological function of these miRNAs in normal tissues remains unresolved. In order to investigate whether there are similar patterns of miR‐17–92 expression during embryogenesis and carcinogenesis, we have preformed a systematic study of the expression in cultured carcinoma cells, cultured primary human keratinocytes (KC), and during development of some murine tissues. Both levels of expression of the primary transcript (pri‐miRNA) and levels of expression of the individual members of the cluster were monitored. Irrespectively of tissue examined we found that the level of expression decreased markedly during development. With cultured primary human KCs their levels of expression of some of these microRNAs decreased as the number of cell passages increased. Their levels of expression in cultured carcinoma cells, in contrasts, increased, or remained unchanged, with increasing number of cell passages. The results suggest these microRNAs are involved in the regulation of foetal development and that they may promote proliferation and inhibit differentiation during embryogenesis and carcinogenesis. Additionally, the six microRNAs exhibit variable tissue expression, suggesting selective processing of these microRNAs. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 2257–2266, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.