Multiple shifts and fractional integration in the us and uk unemployment rates

This paper analyses the long-run behaviour of the US and UK unemployment rates by testing for possibly fractional orders of integration and multiple shifts using a sample of over 100 annual observations. The results show that the orders of integration are higher than 0 in both series, which implies long memory. If we assume that the underlying disturbances are white noise, the values are higher than 0.5, i.e., nonstationary. However, if the disturbances are autocorrelated, the orders of integration are in the interval (0, 0.5), implying stationarity and mean-reverting behaviour. Moreover, when multiple shifts are taken into account, unemployment is more persistent in the US than in the UK, implying the need for stronger policy action in the former to bring unemployment back to its original level

Reduction of power envelope fluctuations in OFDM signals by using neural networks

One of the main drawbacks of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) are the large fluctuations of its power envelope. In this letter, a novel and efficient scheme based on Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Networks (NN) is proposed. The NN synthesizes the Active Constellation Expansion - (ACE) technique which is able to drastically reduce envelope fluctuations. This is achieved with much lower complexity, faster convergence, and better performance compared to previously available methods.This work has been partly funded by the projects MULTI-ADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02), COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010), and the AECI Program of Research Cooperation with Morocco.Publicad

Reduction of the envelope fluctuations of multi-carrier modulations using adaptive neural fuzzy inference systems

In this paper, a novel scheme for reducing the envelope fluctuations in multi-carrier signals applying Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) is proposed and analyzed. Once trained with signals with very low envelope fluctuations, such as those obtained by the Active Constellation Expansion - Approximate Gradient Project (ACE-AGP) algorithm, ANFIS approximately reaches a similar reduction as with ACE-AGP for multi-carrier signals without the complexity and the large convergence time of conventional ACE-AGP. We show that our approach is less complex than other previous schemes and with better performanceThis work has been partly funded by projects MULTI-ADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02), COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010) and AECI Program of Research Cooperation with Morocco (A/027714/09)Publicad

High power amplifier pre-distorter based on neural-fuzzy systems for OFDM signals

In this paper, a novel High Power Amplifier (HPA) pre-distorter based on Adaptive Networks - Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals is proposed and analyzed. Models of Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA) and Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA), both memoryless and with memory, have been used for evaluation of the proposed technique. After training, the ANFIS linearizes the HPA response and thus, the obtained signal is extremely similar to the original. An average Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) of 10-6 can be easily obtained with our proposal. As a consequence, the Bit Error Rate (BER) degradation is negligible showing a better performance than what can be achieved with other methods available in the literature. Moreover, the complexity of the proposed scheme is reducedThis work was supported in part by projectsMULTIADAPTIVE (TEC2008-06327-C03-02) and AECI Program of Research Cooperation with MoroccoPublicad

International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force recommendations for systematic sampling and processing of brains from epileptic dogs and cats

Traditionally, histological investigations of the epileptic brain are required to identify epileptogenic brain lesions, to evaluate the impact of seizure activity, to search for mechanisms of drug-resistance and to look for comorbidities. For many instances, however, neuropathological studies fail to add substantial data on patients with complete clinical work-up. This may be due to sparse training in epilepsy pathology and or due to lack of neuropathological guidelines for companion animals. The protocols introduced herein shall facilitate systematic sampling and processing of epileptic brains and therefore increase the efficacy, reliability and reproducibility of morphological studies in animals suffering from seizures. Brain dissection protocols of two neuropathological centres with research focus in epilepsy have been optimised with regards to their diagnostic yield and accuracy, their practicability and their feasibility concerning clinical research requirements. The recommended guidelines allow for easy, standardised and ubiquitous collection of brain regions, relevant for seizure generation. Tissues harvested the prescribed way will increase the diagnostic efficacy and provide reliable material for scientific investigations

Characteristics of transposable element exonization within human and mouse

Insertion of transposed elements within mammalian genes is thought to be an important contributor to mammalian evolution and speciation. Insertion of transposed elements into introns can lead to their activation as alternatively spliced cassette exons, an event called exonization. Elucidation of the evolutionary constraints that have shaped fixation of transposed elements within human and mouse protein coding genes and subsequent exonization is important for understanding of how the exonization process has affected transcriptome and proteome complexities. Here we show that exonization of transposed elements is biased towards the beginning of the coding sequence in both human and mouse genes. Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed that exonization of transposed elements can be population-specific, implying that exonizations may enhance divergence and lead to speciation. SNP density analysis revealed differences between Alu and other transposed elements. Finally, we identified cases of primate-specific Alu elements that depend on RNA editing for their exonization. These results shed light on TE fixation and the exonization process within human and mouse genes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

High genetic diversity at the extreme range edge: nucleotide variation at nuclear loci in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Scotland

Nucleotide polymorphism at 12 nuclear loci was studied in Scots pine populations across an environmental gradient in Scotland, to evaluate the impacts of demographic history and selection on genetic diversity. At eight loci, diversity patterns were compared between Scottish and continental European populations. At these loci, a similar level of diversity (θsil=~0.01) was found in Scottish vs mainland European populations, contrary to expectations for recent colonization, however, less rapid decay of linkage disequilibrium was observed in the former (ρ=0.0086±0.0009, ρ=0.0245±0.0022, respectively). Scottish populations also showed a deficit of rare nucleotide variants (multi-locus Tajima's D=0.316 vs D=−0.379) and differed significantly from mainland populations in allelic frequency and/or haplotype structure at several loci. Within Scotland, western populations showed slightly reduced nucleotide diversity (πtot=0.0068) compared with those from the south and east (0.0079 and 0.0083, respectively) and about three times higher recombination to diversity ratio (ρ/θ=0.71 vs 0.15 and 0.18, respectively). By comparison with results from coalescent simulations, the observed allelic frequency spectrum in the western populations was compatible with a relatively recent bottleneck (0.00175 × 4Ne generations) that reduced the population to about 2% of the present size. However, heterogeneity in the allelic frequency distribution among geographical regions in Scotland suggests that subsequent admixture of populations with different demographic histories may also have played a role

Environmental and Parental Influences on Offspring Health and Growth in Great Tits (Parus major)

PMCID: PMC3728352This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

New use for succinylated sugarcane bagasse containing adsorbed Cu2+ and Ni2+ : efficient catalysts for gas-phase n-hexane and n-heptane oxidation reactions.

This study describes the use of succinylated twice-mercerized sugarcane bagasse containing adsorbed Cu2+ or Ni2+ ions from spiked aqueous solutions (2MSBA-Cu and 2MSBA-Ni) as heterogeneous catalysts for the catalytic oxidation of n-hexane and n-heptane in gas phase. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in which a spent adsorbent material based on lignocellulose biomass is used in the catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds. The adsorbent and spent adsorbent materials were characterized by FTIR, TGA and XRD. The amount of Cu2+ and Ni2+ adsorbed on 2MSBA was 0.49 and 2.49 mmol g?1, respectively. The catalysts were active for total oxidation of n-hexane and n-heptane, even at low temperatures. 2MSBA-Cu exhibited higher catalytic activity than 2MSBA-Ni and surprisingly their performances were comparable or superior to those of some catalysts reported in the literature, including noble metal-based catalysts

What traits are carried on mobile genetic elements, and why?

Although similar to any other organism, prokaryotes can transfer genes vertically from mother cell to daughter cell, they can also exchange certain genes horizontally. Genes can move within and between genomes at fast rates because of mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Although mobile elements are fundamentally self-interested entities, and thus replicate for their own gain, they frequently carry genes beneficial for their hosts and/or the neighbours of their hosts. Many genes that are carried by mobile elements code for traits that are expressed outside of the cell. Such traits are involved in bacterial sociality, such as the production of public goods, which benefit a cell's neighbours, or the production of bacteriocins, which harm a cell's neighbours. In this study we review the patterns that are emerging in the types of genes carried by mobile elements, and discuss the evolutionary and ecological conditions under which mobile elements evolve to carry their peculiar mix of parasitic, beneficial and cooperative genes