Oscillations are a prevalent feature of brain recordings. They are believed to play key roles in neural communication and computation. Current analysis methods for studying neural oscillations often ...implicitly assume that the oscillations are sinusoidal. While these approaches have proven fruitful, we show here that there are numerous instances in which neural oscillations are nonsinusoidal. We highlight approaches to characterize nonsinusoidal features and account for them in traditional spectral analysis. Instead of being a nuisance, we discuss how these nonsinusoidal features may provide crucial and so far overlooked physiological information related to neural communication, computation, and cognition.
Known locally as the birthplace of American religious freedom, Flushing, Queens, in New York City is now so diverse and densely populated that it has become a microcosm of world religions. City of ...Gods explores the history of Flushing from the colonial period to the aftermath of September 11, 2001, spanning the origins of Vlissingen and early struggles between Quakers, Dutch authorities, Anglicans, African Americans, Catholics, and Jews to the consolidation of New York City in 1898, two World's Fairs and postwar commemorations of Flushing's heritage, and, finally, the Immigration Act of 1965 and the arrival of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, and Asian and Latino Christians. A synthesis of archival sources, oral history, and ethnography, City of Gods is a thought-provoking study of religious pluralism. Using Flushing as the backdrop to examine America's contemporary religious diversity and what it means for the future of the United States, R. Scott Hanson explores both the possibilities and limits of pluralism. Hanson argues that the absence of widespread religious violence in a neighborhood with such densely concentrated religious diversity suggests that there is no limit to how much pluralism a pluralist society can stand. Seeking to gauge interaction and different responses to religious and ethnic diversity, the book is set against two interrelated questions: how and where have the different religious and ethnic groups in Flushing associated with others across boundaries over time; and when has conflict or cooperation arisen? By exploring pluralism from a historical and ethnographic context, City of Gods takes a micro approach to help bring an understanding of pluralism from a sometimes abstract realm into the real world of everyday lives in which people and groups are dynamic and integrating agents in a complex and constantly changing world of local, national, and transnational dimensions. Perhaps the most extreme example of religious and ethnic pluralism in the world, Flushing is an ideal place to explore how America's long experiment with religious freedom and religious pluralism began and continues. City of Gods reaches far beyond Flushing to all communities coming to terms with immigration, religion, and ethnic relations, raising the question as to whether Flushing will come together in new and lasting ways to build bridges of dialogue or will it further fragment into a Tower of Babel.
MEASURING ECONOMIC POLICY UNCERTAINTY BAKER, SCOTT R.; BLOOM, NICHOLAS; DAVIS, STEVEN J.
The Quarterly journal of economics,
11/2016, Letnik:
131, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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We develop a new index of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) based on newspaper coverage frequency. Several types of evidence—including human readings of 12,000 newspaper articles—indicate that our ...index proxies for movements in policy-related economic uncertainty. Our U.S. index spikes near tight presidential elections, Gulf Wars I and II, the 9/11 attacks, the failure of Lehman Brothers, the 2011 debt ceiling dispute, and other major battles over fiscal policy. Using firm-level data, we find that policy uncertainty is associated with greater stock price volatility and reduced investment and employment in policy-sensitive sectors like defense, health care, finance, and infrastructure construction. At the macro level, innovations in policy uncertainty foreshadow declines in investment, output, and employment in the United States and, in a panel vector autoregressive setting, for 12 major economies. Extending our U.S. index back to 1900, EPU rose dramatically in the 1930s (from late 1931) and has drifted upward since the 1960s.
•Fatigue behavior of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V is studied.•Effects of surface roughness and surface area are investigated.•Supporting fractography, including crack growth analysis, is ...presented.•The effect of specimen diameter on the fatigue strength is discussed.
Additive manufacturing has become an increasingly popular advanced manufacturing technique, however, many questions concerning the reliability of parts fabricated by methods such as laser powder bed fusion must be addressed. In this research, the effect of surface roughness and size is investigated by designing various additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V specimen geometries. These as-built specimens were designed to specifically determine the effect of surface area and part diameter on the fatigue behavior of specimens fabricated diagonally from the substrate. Results indicate that the fatigue behavior is more sensitive to part diameter than surface area. Parts with diameters of 4.90 mm or less showed higher surface roughness on the down-skin surface. This variation diminished, however, for specimens with diameters larger than 4.90 mm. Additionally, as part diameter decreased, the difference between the load-bearing and nominal stress amplitudes, caused by surface roughness, increased, resulting in significant scatter in the high cycle fatigue data.
DNA mutations are inevitable. Despite proficient DNA repair mechanisms, somatic cells accumulate mutations during development and aging, generating cells with different genotypes within the same ...individual, a phenomenon known as somatic mosaicism. While the existence of somatic mosaicism has long been recognized, in the last five years, advances in sequencing have provided unprecedented resolution to characterize the extent and nature of somatic genetic variation. Collectively, these new studies are revealing a previously uncharacterized aging phenotype: the accumulation of clones with cancer driver mutations. Here, we summarize the most recent findings, which converge in the novel notion that cancer-associated mutations are prevalent in normal tissue and accumulate with aging.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
IMPORTANCE: The death of a pediatric patient with sepsis motivated New York to mandate statewide sepsis treatment in 2013. The mandate included a 1-hour bundle of blood cultures, broad-spectrum ...antibiotics, and a 20-mL/kg intravenous fluid bolus. Whether completing the bundle elements within 1 hour improves outcomes is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk-adjusted association between completing the 1-hour pediatric sepsis bundle and individual bundle elements with in-hospital mortality. DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PARTICIPANTS: Statewide cohort study conducted from April 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016, in emergency departments, inpatient units, and intensive care units across New York State. A total of 1179 patients aged 18 years and younger with sepsis and septic shock reported to the New York State Department of Health who had a sepsis protocol initiated were included. EXPOSURES: Completion of a 1-hour sepsis bundle within 1 hour compared with not completing the 1-hour sepsis bundle within 1 hour. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: Of 1179 patients with sepsis reported at 54 hospitals (mean SD age, 7.2 6.2 years; male, 54.2%; previously healthy, 44.5%; diagnosed as having shock, 68.8%), 139 (11.8%) died. The entire sepsis bundle was completed in 1 hour in 294 patients (24.9%). Antibiotics were administered to 798 patients (67.7%), blood cultures were obtained in 740 patients (62.8%), and the fluid bolus was completed in 548 patients (46.5%) within 1 hour. Completion of the entire bundle within 1 hour was associated with lower risk-adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio OR, 0.59 95% CI, 0.38 to 0.93, P = .02; predicted risk difference RD, 4.0% 95% CI, 0.9% to 7.0%). However, completion of each individual bundle element within 1 hour was not significantly associated with lower risk-adjusted mortality (blood culture: OR, 0.73 95% CI, 0.51 to 1.06, P = .10; RD, 2.6% 95% CI, −0.5% to 5.7%; antibiotics: OR, 0.78 95% CI, 0.55 to 1.12, P = .18; RD, 2.1% 95% CI, −1.1% to 5.2%, and fluid bolus: OR, 0.88 95% CI, 0.56 to 1.37, P = .56; RD, 1.1% 95% CI, −2.6% to 4.8%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In New York State following a mandate for sepsis care, completion of a sepsis bundle within 1 hour compared with not completing the 1-hour sepsis bundle within 1 hour was associated with lower risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality among patients with pediatric sepsis and septic shock.
The increasing availability of data derived from linked consumer financial accounts has the potential to dramatically expand the potential for research. Examining the most comprehensive existing set ...of linked-account data, consisting of transaction and balance sheet data for millions of Americans, I demonstrate the power and versatility of such sources. I discuss advantages and concerns arising from this type of data andmatch a range of distributionalmoments to external sources. As one application, I test consumption elasticities across households with varying levels, and types, of debt. I find that heterogeneity in consumption elasticity can be explained entirely by credit and liquidity.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a key component of the tumour microenvironment with diverse functions, including matrix deposition and remodelling, extensive reciprocal signalling ...interactions with cancer cells and crosstalk with infiltrating leukocytes. As such, they are a potential target for optimizing therapeutic strategies against cancer. However, many challenges are present in ongoing attempts to modulate CAFs for therapeutic benefit. These include limitations in our understanding of the origin of CAFs and heterogeneity in CAF function, with it being desirable to retain some antitumorigenic functions. On the basis of a meeting of experts in the field of CAF biology, we summarize in this Consensus Statement our current knowledge and present a framework for advancing our understanding of this critical cell type within the tumour microenvironment.
MicroRNAs play essential roles in gene regulation. A substantial fraction of microRNAs in tissues and body fluids is encapsulated in exosomes, thereby conferring protection against degradation and a ...pathway for intestinal transport. MicroRNAs in cow milk are bioavailable in humans.
This research assessed the transport mechanism of bovine milk exosomes, and therefore microRNAs, in human and rodent intestinal cells.
The intestinal transport of bovine milk exosomes and microRNAs was assessed using fluorophore-labeled bovine milk exosomes in human colon carcinoma Caco-2 cells and rat small intestinal IEC-6 cells. Transport kinetics and mechanisms were characterized using dose-response studies, inhibitors of vesicle transport, carbohydrate competitors, proteolysis of surface proteins on cells and exosomes, and transepithelial transport in transwell plates.
Exosome transport exhibited saturation kinetics at 37°C Michaelis constant (Km) = 55.5 ± 48.6 μg exosomal protein/200 μL of media; maximal transport rate = 0.083 ± 0.057 ng of exosomal protein · 81,750 cells(-1) · h(-1) and decreased by 64% when transport was measured at 4°C, consistent with carrier-mediated transport in Caco-2 cells. Exosome uptake decreased by 61-85% under the following conditions compared with controls in Caco-2 cells: removal of exosome and cell surface proteins by proteinase K, inhibition of endocytosis and vesicle trafficking by synthetic inhibitors, and inhibition of glycoprotein binding by carbohydrate competitors. When milk exosomes, at a concentration of 5 times the Km, were added to the upper chamber in transwell plates, Caco-2 cells accumulated miR-29b and miR-200c in the lower chamber, and reverse transport was minor. Transport characteristics were similar in IEC-6 cells and Caco-2 cells, except that substrate affinity and transporter capacity were lower and higher, respectively.
The uptake of bovine milk exosomes is mediated by endocytosis and depends on cell and exosome surface glycoproteins in human and rat intestinal cells.
Correct developmental timing is essential for plant fitness and reproductive success. Two important transitions in shoot development-the juvenile-to-adult vegetative transition and the ...vegetative-to-reproductive transition-are mediated by a group of genes targeted by miR156, SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN (SBP) genes. To determine the developmental functions of these genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, we characterized their expression patterns, and their gain-of-function and loss-of-function phenotypes. Our results reveal that SBP-LIKE (SPL) genes in Arabidopsis can be divided into three functionally distinct groups: 1) SPL2, SPL9, SPL10, SPL11, SPL13 and SPL15 contribute to both the juvenile-to-adult vegetative transition and the vegetative-to-reproductive transition, with SPL9, SP13 and SPL15 being more important for these processes than SPL2, SPL10 and SPL11; 2) SPL3, SPL4 and SPL5 do not play a major role in vegetative phase change or floral induction, but promote the floral meristem identity transition; 3) SPL6 does not have a major function in shoot morphogenesis, but may be important for certain physiological processes. We also found that miR156-regulated SPL genes repress adventitious root development, providing an explanation for the observation that the capacity for adventitious root production declines as the shoot ages. miR156 is expressed at very high levels in young seedlings, and declines in abundance as the shoot develops. It completely blocks the expression of its SPL targets in the first two leaves of the rosette, and represses these genes to different degrees at later stages of development, primarily by promoting their translational repression. These results provide a framework for future studies of this multifunctional family of transcription factors, and offer new insights into the role of miR156 in Arabidopsis development.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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