The multivalued neuron with periodic activation function (MVN-P) was proposed by Aizenberg for solving classification problems. The boundaries between two distinct categories are crisply specified in ...MVN-P, which may result in slow convergence or being unable to converge at all in the learning process. In this paper, we propose a revised model of MVN-P based on the idea of unsharp boundaries. In this revised model, a fuzzy buffer is provided around a boundary between two distinct categories, allowing incorrect assignments with membership degree less than a threshold to be tolerated in the training phase. Genetic algorithms are applied to derive optimal values for the parameters involved in this model, alleviating the burden of setting them manually by the user. Besides, MVN-P has difficulties solving the classification problems having a large number of categories. A tree structure is developed to overcome these difficulties. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed ideas.
•Overexpression of Roc4 causes early flowering preferentially under long-day conditions.•Roc4 promotes flowering time by repressing Ghd7.•Phytochromes and OsGI function upstream of Roc4.•Roc4:GUS ...transgenic plants showed Roc4 ubiquitously expressed in leaves and roots.•Roc4 has transcriptional activation activity in the N-terminal region of the START domain.
Under long day (LD) lengths, flowering can be delayed in rice by modulating several regulatory genes. We found activation tagging lines that showed an early flowering phenotype preferentially under LD conditions. Expression of Rice outermost cell-specific gene 4 (Roc4), encoding a homeodomain Leu-zipper class IV family protein, was significantly increased. Transcript levels of Grain number, plant height, and heading date7 (Ghd7) were significantly reduced while those of Ghd7 downstream genes were increased. However, other flowering regulators were unaffected. Whereas constitutive overexpression of Roc4 in ‘Dongjin’ japonica rice, which carries active Ghd7, also caused LD-preferential early flowering, its overexpression in ‘Longjing27′ rice, which is defective in functional Ghd7, did not produce the same result. This confirmed that Roc4 regulates flowering time mainly through Ghd7. Phytochromes and O. sativa GIGANTEA (OsGI) function upstream of Roc4. Transgenic plants showed ubiquitous expression of the β-glucuronidase reporter gene under the Roc4 promoter. Furthermore, Roc4 had transcriptional activation activity in the N-terminal region of the StAR-related lipid-transfer domain. All of these findings are evidence that Roc4 is an LD-preferential flowering enhancer that functions downstream of phytochromes and OsGI, but upstream of Ghd7.
Although susceptibility to seed shattering causes severe yield loss during cereal crop harvest, it is an adaptive trait for seed dispersal in wild plants. We previously identified a recessive ...shattering locus, sh-h, from the rice shattering mutant line Hsh that carries an enhanced abscission layer. Here, we further mapped sh-h to a 34-kb region on chromosome 7 by analyzing 240 F₂ plants and five F₃ lines from the cross between Hsh and Blue&Gundil. Hsh had a point mutation at the 3′ splice site of the seventh intron within LOC_Os07g10690, causing a 15-bp deletion of its mRNA as a result of altered splicing. Two transferred DNA (T-DNA) insertion mutants and one point mutant exhibited the enhanced shattering phenotype, confirming that LOC_Os07g10690 is indeed the sh-h gene. RNA interference (RNAi) transgenic lines with suppressed expression of this gene exhibited greater shattering. This gene, which encodes a protein containing a conserved carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) phosphatase domain, was named Oryza sativa CTD phosphatase-like 1 (OsCPL1). Subcellular localization and biochemical analysis revealed that the OsCPL1 protein is a nuclear phosphatase, a common characteristic of metazoan CTD phosphatases involved in cell differentiation. These results demonstrate that OsCPL1 represses differentiation of the abscission layer during panicle development.
Epidermal cell layers play important roles in plant defenses against various environmental stresses. Here we report the identification of a cuticle membrane mutant, wilted dwarf and lethal 1 (wdl1), ...from a rice T-DNA insertional population. The muant is dwarf and die at seedling stage due to increased rates of water loss. Stomatal cells and pavement cells are smaller in the mutant, suggesting that WDL1 affects epidermal cell differentiation. T-DNA was inserted into a gene that encodes a protein belonging to the SGNH subfamily, within the GDSL lipase superfamily. The WDL1-sGFP signal coincided with the RFP signal driven by AtBIP-mRFP, indicating that WDL1 is an ER protein. SEM analyses showed that their leaves have a disorganized crystal wax layer. Cross-sectioning reveals loose packing of the cuticle and irregular thickness of cell wall. Detailed analyses of the epicuticular wax showed no significant changes either in the total amount and amounts of each monomer or in the levels of lipid polymers, including cutin and other covalently bound lipids, attached to the cell wall. We propose that WDL1 is involved in cutin organization, affecting depolymerizable components.
This study develops a structural framework to value insurers’ contingent capital with counterparty risk (CR) and overcomes the problem of price endogeneity (PE) in the valuation model. Our results on ...the focal contingent capital instrument – catastrophe equity put option (CatEPut) – indicate that prices can be significantly overestimated without considering CR and be significantly underestimated without considering PE. This study also examines how CatEPuts affect the buyer’s probability of default (PD). Our results show that buying a CatEPut lowers the PD for high-risk insurers, but not necessarily so for low-risk insurers; however, without taking CR and PE into account, one may significantly overestimate the credit enhancement provided by the CatEPuts.
Gastric neuroendocrine tumors (GNETs) with spindle cell morphology are extremely rare. We present a case of a 49-year-old female patient with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's ...syndrome, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. She was initially thought to have a spindle cell gastrointestinal stromal tumor per histological studies of the fundic polypectomy samples. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were negative for CD117, and CD34, but positive for chromogranin, synaptophysin, and CD56 with a 6% Ki-67 index, consistent with a spindle cell-type well differentiated neuroendocrine tumor, World Health Organization (WHO) Grade 2. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of a gastric spindle cell neuroendocrine tumor in the English literature.
The association between hyperinsulinemia and obesity is well known. However, it is uncertain especially in childhood obesity, if initial fasting hyperinsulinemia predicts obesity, or obesity leads to ...hyperinsulinemia through insulin resistance.
To investigate the predictive effect of fasting plasma insulin on subsequent weight change after a 5-year interval in childhood.
424 Children from Da Qing city, China, were recruited at 5 years of age and followed up for 5 years. Blood pressure, anthropometric measurements, fasting plasma insulin, glucose and triglycerides were measured at baseline and 5 years later.
Fasting plasma insulin at 5 years of age was significantly correlated with change of weight from 5 to 10 years (ΔWeight). Children in the lowest insulin quartile had ΔWeight of 13.08±0.73 kg compare to 18.39±0.86 in the highest insulin quartile (P<0.0001) in boys, and similarly 12.03±0.71 vs 15.80±0.60 kg (P<0.0001) in girls. Multivariate analysis showed that the predictive effect of insulin at 5 years of age on subsequent weight gain over 5 years remained statistically significant even after the adjustment for age, sex, birth weight, TV-viewing time and weight (or body mass index) at baseline. By contrast, the initial weight at 5 years of age did not predict subsequent changes in insulin level 5 years later. Children who had both higher fasting insulin and weight at 5 years of age showed much higher levels of systolic blood pressures, fasting plasma glucose, the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and triglycerides at 10 years of age.
Fasting plasma insulin at 5 years of age predicts weight gain and cardiovascular risk factors 5 year later in Chinese children of early childhood, but the absolute weight at 5 years of age did not predict subsequent change in fasting insulin.
This paper examines the profitability of a pair-trading strategy in the Taiwan stock market while considering alternative frequency-distance filters, thresholds for opening a pair trade relationship, ...reinvestment mechanisms, different lengths of trading period, industry boundary, and the short-selling restriction. In contrast with the recent literature showing that pair-trading strategy returns are insignificant and negative in the Taiwan stock market, we find that the profitabilities of pair trades developed by positions in the Taiwan 50 Index during 1990/1–2016/3 present significant annualized mean returns of 1.84%–3.04%. Moreover, thresholds with different stringent degrees, industry boundary, and alternative reinvestment mechanisms are unable to help pick out more profitable pair-trading portfolios. The distance filter and shorter trading-day setting are more reliable for pair trading. Finally, the deregulation on short selling results in more pair-trading activities, which obviously diminish the profitability of a pair-trading strategy.
NY-ESO-1 expression in sarcomas Lai, Jin-Ping; Rosenberg, Avi Z.; Miettinen, Markku M. ...
Oncoimmunology,
11/2012, Letnik:
1, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
NY-ESO-1 (CTAG 1B) is highly expressed in the majority of synovial sarcomas and myxoid/round cell liposarcomas as well as in a subset of melanomas, but only rarely in other mesenchymal tumors. This ...points to a potential for using NY-ESO-1 in the differential diagnosis of these lesions. Furthermore, promising results have been obtained in clinical trials testing NY-ESO-1-targeted immunotherapy in subsets of melanoma and synovial sarcoma patients.
Transistor mismatch data and analysis from poly/SiON and high-k/metal-gate (HKMG) bulk CMOS technologies are presented. It is found that the traditional mismatch figure of merit from the Pelgrom plot ...(A VT ) continuously scales down as technology advances. Furthermore, the A VT values for both nFET and pFET in the HKMG technology are significantly reduced from poly/SiON technologies. By normalizing the mismatch data against electrical oxide thickness (T INV ) , threshold voltage (V TH ), and effective work function, a direct comparison of the mismatch data from various technologies is made. The differences in nFET and pFET mismatch behaviors in both poly/SiON and HKMG technologies are discussed in detail. Correlation between transistor V TH mismatch and flicker noise variation is observed in both poly/SiON and HKMG technologies. Finally, it is quantitatively demonstrated that effective work function variation does not generate significant V TH variability in the present HKMG technology.
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