Piezoelectric sensing and non-parametric statistical signal processing for health monitoring of hysteretic dampers used in seismic-resistant structures

The paper proposes a new application of non-parametric statistical processing of signals recorded from vibration tests for damage detection and evaluation on I-section steel segments. The steel segments investigated constitute the energy dissipating part of a new type of hysteretic damper that is used for passive control of buildings and civil engineering structures subjected to earthquake-type dynamic loadings. Two I-section steel segments with different levels of damage were instrumented with piezoceramic sensors and subjected to controlled white noise random vibrations. The signals recorded during the tests were processed using two non-parametric methods (the power spectral density method and the frequency response function method) that had never previously been applied to hysteretic dampers. The appropriateness of these methods for quantifying the level of damage on the I-shape steel segments is validated experimentally. Based on the results of the random vibrations, the paper proposes a new index that predicts the level of damage and the proximity of failure of the hysteretic damper

A rhodopsin-guanylyl cyclase gene fusion functions in visual perception in a fungus

Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The unpredictability paradox: review of empirical comparisons of randomised and non-randomised clinical trials

Objective To summarise comparisons of randomised clinical trials and non-randomised clinical trials, trials with adequately concealed random allocation versus inadequately concealed random allocation, and high quality trials versus low quality trials where the effect of randomisation could not be separated from the effects of other methodological manoeuvres.

Distinct functions and cooperative interaction of the subunits of the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP)

The ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter TAP translocates peptides from the cytosol to awaiting MHC class I molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum. TAP is made up of the TAP1 and TAP2 polypeptides, which each possess a nucleotide binding domain (NBD). However, the role of ATP in peptide binding and translocation is poorly understood. We present biochemical and functional evidence that the NBDs of TAP1 and TAP2 are non-equivalent. Photolabeling experiments with 8-azido-ATP demonstrate a cooperative interaction between the two NBDs that can be stimulated by peptide. The substitution of key lysine residues in the Walker A motifs of TAP1 and TAP2 suggests that TAP1-mediated ATP hydrolysis is not essential for peptide translocation but that TAP2-mediated ATP hydrolysis is critical, not only for translocation, but for peptide binding.

Differential functions of the two Src homology 2 domains in protein tyrosine phosphatase SH-PTP1.

SH-PTP1 (also known as PTP1C, HCP, and SHP) is a non-transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) containing two tandem Src homology 2 (SH2) domains. We show here that the two SH2 (N-SH2 and C-SH2) domains in SH-PTP1 have different functions in regulation of the PTPase domain and thereby signal transduction. While the N-terminal SH2 domain is both necessary and sufficient for autoinhibition through an intramolecular association with the PTPase domain, truncation of the C-SH2 domain [SH-PTP1 (delta CSH2) construct] has little effect on SH-PTP1 activity. A synthetic phosphotyrosine residue (pY) peptide derived from the erythropoietin receptor (EpoR pY429) binds to the N-SH2 domain and activates both wild-type SH-PTP1 and SH-PTP1 (delta CSH2) 60- to 80-fold. Another pY peptide corresponding to a phosphorylation site on the IgG Fc receptor (Fc gamma RIIB1 pY309) associates with both the C-SH2 domain (Kd = 2.8 microM and the N-SH2 domain (Kd = 15.0 microM) and also activates SH-PTP1 12-fold. By analysis of the effect of the Fc gamma RIIB1 pY309 peptide on SH-PTP1 (delta CSH2), SH-PTP1 (R30K/R33E), SH-PTP1 (R30K/R136K), and SH-PTP1 (R136K) mutants in which the function of either the N- or C-SH2 domain has been impaired, we have determined that both synthetic pY peptides stimulate SH-PTP1 by binding to its N-SH2 domain; binding of pY ligand to the C-SH2 domain has no effect on SH-PTP1 activity. We propose that the N-terminal SH2 domain serves both as a regulatory domain and as a recruiting unit, whereas the C-terminal SH2 domain acts merely as a recruiting unit.

Behavioral expression of emotions and non-invasive assessment of physiological correlates in dogs (Canis familiaris)

The aim of this thesis was to validate the use of infrared thermography (IRT) to non-invasively measure emotional reactions to different situations in pet dogs (Canis familiaris). A preliminary test, aimed to evaluate the correlation between eye-temperature and rectal temperature in dog, was performed. Then, in three different situations, negative (veterinary visit), positive (palatable food rewards), and mildly stressing followed by mildly positive (separation from and reunion with the owner), variations in heat emitted from lacrimal caruncle (referred to as eye temperature) were measured with an infrared thermographic camera. In addition, heart rate and heart rate variability parameters were collected using a non-invasive heart rate monitor designed for human use and validated on dogs. All experiments were video recorded to allow behavioral coding. During the negative situation dogs’ level of activity and stress related behaviors varied across compared to the baseline and dogs showed an increase in eye temperature despite having a significant decrease in the level of activity. The positive situation was characterized by a peak in eye temperature and mean HR and dogs engaged in behaviors indicating a positive arousal, focusing on food treats and tail wagging but there were not variations in HRV during stimulation but only an increment in SDNN immediately after the stimulus. In the separation from and reunion with the owner dogs’ eye temperature and mean HR did not vary neither in the stressful nor in the positive situations, RMSSD increased after the positive episode, SDNN dropped during the two stimulations and it increased after the stimulations. During the separation from the owner dogs were mainly directed to the door or to the experimenter while during the reunion with the owner dogs were focused mainly on the owner and on the environment, exhibiting safe base effect. A different approach was used to assess the welfare of shelter dogs. Dogs were implanted with a telemeter and after implantation dogs were housed in sequence in four different situations lasting 1 week: alone, alone with toys and a stretch cot for sleeping, with an unknown, spayed, female, and alone with a daily 2-hours interaction with an experimenter. Two different approaches were tried: partially random extracted fragments from every week, behaviors from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. were continuous during baseline and the female situation. Results showed different reactions by dogs to the different situations and interestingly not all enrichments were enjoyed by the dogs improving their welfare. Overall results suggest that IRT may represent a useful tool to investigate emotional reactions in dogs. Nevertheless, further research is needed to establish the specificity and sensivity of IRT in this context and to assess how different dogs’ characteristics, breed, previous experience and the valence and arousal elicited by the stimulus could influence the magnitude and type of the response. The role of HRV in understanding emotional valence and the one of telemeters in understanding long-term effects on sheltered dogs’ welfare is also discussed.

Mathematical approach for predicting non-negative tristimulus values using the CAT02 chromatic adaptation transform

It has been reported that for certain colour samples, the chromatic adaptation transform CAT02 imbedded in the CIECAM02 colour appearance model predicts corresponding colours with negative tristimulus values (TSVs), which can cause problems in certain applications. To overcome this problem, a mathematical approach is proposed for modifying CAT02. This approach combines a non-negativity constraint for the TSVs of corresponding colours with the minimization of the colour differences between those values for the corresponding colours obtained by visual observations and the TSVs of the corresponding colours predicted by the model, which is a constrained non-linear optimization problem. By solving the non-linear optimization problem, a new matrix is found. The performance of the CAT02 transform with various matrices including the original CAT02 matrix, and the new matrix are tested using visual datasets and the optimum colours. Test results show that the CAT02 with the new matrix predicted corresponding colours without negative TSVs for all optimum colours and the colour matching functions of the two CIE standard observers under the test illuminants considered. However, the accuracy with the new matrix for predicting the visual data is approximately 1 CIELAB colour difference unit worse compared with the original CAT02. This indicates that accuracy has to be sacrificed to achieve the non-negativity constraint for the TSVs of the corresponding colours.

Direct versus indirect channels: Differentiated loss aversion in a high‐involvement, non‐frequently purchased hedonic product

Purpose – This article aims to investigate whether intermediaries reduce loss aversion in the context of a high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic product (tourism packages). Design/methodology/approach – The study incorporates the reference-dependent model into a multinomial logit model with random parameters, which controls for heterogeneity and allows representation of different correlation patterns between non-independent alternatives. Findings – Differentiated loss aversion is found: consumers buying high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic products are less loss averse when using an intermediary than when dealing with each provider separately and booking their services independently. This result can be taken as identifying consumer-based added value provided by the intermediaries. Practical implications – Knowing the effect of an increase in their prices is crucial for tourism collective brands (e.g. “sun and sea”, “inland”, “green destinations”, “World Heritage destinations”). This is especially applicable nowadays on account of the fact that many destinations have lowered prices to attract tourists (although, in the future, they will have to put prices back up to their normal levels). The negative effect of raising prices can be absorbed more easily via indirect channels when compared to individual providers, as the influence of loss aversion is lower for the former than the latter. The key implication is that intermediaries can – and should – add value in competition with direct e-tailing. Originality/value – Research on loss aversion in retailing has been prolific, exclusively focused on low-involvement and frequently purchased products without distinguishing the direct or indirect character of the distribution channel. However, less is known about other types of products such as high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic products. This article focuses on the latter and analyzes different patterns of loss aversion in direct and indirect channels.

Cyclobutadiene automerization and rotation of ethylene: Energetics of the barriers by using Spin-polarized wave functions

Spin-projected spin polarized Møller–Plesset and spin polarized coupled clusters calculations have been made to estimate the cyclobutadiene automerization, the ethylene torsion barriers in their ground state, and the gap between the singlet and triplet states of ethylene. The results have been obtained optimizing the geometries at MP4 and/or CCSD levels, by an extensive Gaussian basis set. A comparative analysis with more complex calculations, up to MP5 and CCSDTQP, together with others from the literature, have also been made, showing the efficacy of using spin-polarized wave functions as a reference wave function for Møller–Plesset and coupled clusters calculations, in such problems.

An adaptive algorithm for clustering cumulative probability distribution functions using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov two-sample test

This paper proposes an adaptive algorithm for clustering cumulative probability distribution functions (c.p.d.f.) of a continuous random variable, observed in different populations, into the minimum homogeneous clusters, making no parametric assumptions about the c.p.d.f.’s. The distance function for clustering c.p.d.f.’s that is proposed is based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov two sample statistic. This test is able to detect differences in position, dispersion or shape of the c.p.d.f.’s. In our context, this statistic allows us to cluster the recorded data with a homogeneity criterion based on the whole distribution of each data set, and to decide whether it is necessary to add more clusters or not. In this sense, the proposed algorithm is adaptive as it automatically increases the number of clusters only as necessary; therefore, there is no need to fix in advance the number of clusters. The output of the algorithm are the common c.p.d.f. of all observed data in the cluster (the centroid) and, for each cluster, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic between the centroid and the most distant c.p.d.f. The proposed algorithm has been used for a large data set of solar global irradiation spectra distributions. The results obtained enable to reduce all the information of more than 270,000 c.p.d.f.’s in only 6 different clusters that correspond to 6 different c.p.d.f.’s.

An approximate Hahn–Banach theorem for positively homogeneous functions

This note provides an approximate version of the Hahn–Banach theorem for non-necessarily convex extended-real valued positively homogeneous functions of degree one. Given p : X → R∪{+∞} such a function defined on the real vector space X, and a linear function defined on a subspace V of X and dominated by p (i.e. (x) ≤ p(x) for all x ∈ V), we say that can approximately be p-extended to X, if is the pointwise limit of a net of linear functions on V, every one of which can be extended to a linear function defined on X and dominated by p. The main result of this note proves that can approximately be p-extended to X if and only if is dominated by p∗∗, the pointwise supremum over the family of all the linear functions on X which are dominated by p.

Rhomboid intramembrane protease RHBDL4 triggers ER-export and non-canonical secretion of membrane-anchored TGFα

Rhomboid intramembrane proteases are the enzymes that release active epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands in Drosophila and C. elegans, but little is known about their functions in mammals. Here we show that the mammalian rhomboid protease RHBDL4 (also known as Rhbdd1) promotes trafficking of several membrane proteins, including the EGFR ligand TGFα, from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi apparatus, thereby triggering their secretion by extracellular microvesicles. Our data also demonstrate that RHBDL4-dependent trafficking control is regulated by G-protein coupled receptors, suggesting a role for this rhomboid protease in pathological conditions, including EGFR signaling. We propose that RHBDL4 reorganizes trafficking events within the early secretory pathway in response to GPCR signaling. Our work identifies RHBDL4 as a rheostat that tunes secretion dynamics and abundance of specific membrane protein cargoes.

MOREMATA: Stata module (Mata) to provide various functions

This package includes various Mata functions. kern(): various kernel functions; kint(): kernel integral functions; kdel0(): canonical bandwidth of kernel; quantile(): quantile function; median(): median; iqrange(): inter-quartile range; ecdf(): cumulative distribution function; relrank(): grade transformation; ranks(): ranks/cumulative frequencies; freq(): compute frequency counts; histogram(): produce histogram data; mgof(): multinomial goodness-of-fit tests; collapse(): summary statistics by subgroups; _collapse(): summary statistics by subgroups; gini(): Gini coefficient; sample(): draw random sample; srswr(): SRS with replacement; srswor(): SRS without replacement; upswr(): UPS with replacement; upswor(): UPS without replacement; bs(): bootstrap estimation; bs2(): bootstrap estimation; bs_report(): report bootstrap results; jk(): jackknife estimation; jk_report(): report jackknife results; subset(): obtain subsets, one at a time; composition(): obtain compositions, one by one; ncompositions(): determine number of compositions; partition(): obtain partitions, one at a time; npartitionss(): determine number of partitions; rsubset(): draw random subset; rcomposition(): draw random composition; colvar(): variance, by column; meancolvar(): mean and variance, by column; variance0(): population variance; meanvariance0(): mean and population variance; mse(): mean squared error; colmse(): mean squared error, by column; sse(): sum of squared errors; colsse(): sum of squared errors, by column; benford(): Benford distribution; cauchy(): cumulative Cauchy-Lorentz dist.; cauchyden(): Cauchy-Lorentz density; cauchytail(): reverse cumulative Cauchy-Lorentz; invcauchy(): inverse cumulative Cauchy-Lorentz; rbinomial(): generate binomial random numbers; cebinomial(): cond. expect. of binomial r.v.; root(): Brent's univariate zero finder; nrroot(): Newton-Raphson zero finder; finvert(): univariate function inverter; integrate_sr(): univariate function integration (Simpson's rule); integrate_38(): univariate function integration (Simpson's 3/8 rule); ipolate(): linear interpolation; polint(): polynomial inter-/extrapolation; plot(): Draw twoway plot; _plot(): Draw twoway plot; panels(): identify nested panel structure; _panels(): identify panel sizes; npanels(): identify number of panels; nunique(): count number of distinct values; nuniqrows(): count number of unique rows; isconstant(): whether matrix is constant; nobs(): number of observations; colrunsum(): running sum of each column; linbin(): linear binning; fastlinbin(): fast linear binning; exactbin(): exact binning; makegrid(): equally spaced grid points; cut(): categorize data vector; posof(): find element in vector; which(): positions of nonzero elements; locate(): search an ordered vector; hunt(): consecutive search; cond(): matrix conditional operator; expand(): duplicate single rows/columns; _expand(): duplicate rows/columns in place; repeat(): duplicate contents as a whole; _repeat(): duplicate contents in place; unorder2(): stable version of unorder(); jumble2(): stable version of jumble(); _jumble2(): stable version of _jumble(); pieces(): break string into pieces; npieces(): count number of pieces; _npieces(): count number of pieces; invtokens(): reverse of tokens(); realofstr(): convert string into real; strexpand(): expand string argument; matlist(): display a (real) matrix; insheet(): read spreadsheet file; infile(): read free-format file; outsheet(): write spreadsheet file; callf(): pass optional args to function; callf_setup(): setup for mm_callf().

Taxation of couples: a mirrleesian approach for non-unitary households

Optimal tax theory in the Mirrlees’ (1971) tradition implicitly relies on the assumption that all agents are single or that couples may be treated as individuals, despite accumulating evidence against this view of household behavior. We consider an economy where agents may either be single or married, in which case choices result from Nash bargaining between spouses. In such an environment, tax schedules must play the double role of: i) defining households’ objective functions through their impact on threat points, and; ii) inducing the desired allocations as optimal choices for households given these objectives. We find that the taxation principle, which asserts that there is no loss in relying on tax schedules is not valid here: there are constrained efficient allocations which cannot be implemented via taxes. More sophisticated mechanisms expand the set of implementable allocations by: i) aligning the households’ and planner’s objectives; ii) manipulating taxable income elasticities, and; iii) freeing the design of singles’ tax schedules from its consequences on households’ objectives.

Challenging the dogma: the hidden layer of non-protein-coding RNAs in complex organisms

The central dogma of biology holds that genetic information normally flows from DNA to RNA to protein. As a consequence it has been generally assumed that genes generally code for proteins, and that proteins fulfil not only most structural and catalytic but also most regulatory functions, in all cells, from microbes to mammals. However, the latter may not be the case in complex organisms. A number of startling observations about the extent of non-protein-coding RNA (ncRNA) transcription in the higher eukaryotes and the range of genetic and epigenetic phenomena that are RNA-directed suggests that the traditional view of the structure of genetic regulatory systems in animals and plants may be incorrect. ncRNA dominates the genomic output of the higher organisms and has been shown to control chromosome architecture, mRNA turnover and the developmental timing of protein expression, and may also regulate transcription and alternative splicing. This paper re-examines the available evidence and suggests a new framework for considering and understanding the genomic programming of biological complexity, autopoletic development and phenotypic variation. BioEssays 25:930-939,2003. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.