An unconditional maximum likelihood test for a unit root

We investigate a test for unit roots in autoregressive time series based on maximization of the unconditional likelihood. This is the likelihood function appropriate for stationary time series. While this function is the true likelihood only under the stationary alternative, it can nevertheless be maximized for any data including data from a unit root process. It thus gives a way to test for unit roots, provided percentill~s can be calculated. For models with estimated means, the power of the new test is better than that of some currently popular tests

AIP and MEN1 mutations and AIP immunohistochemistry in pituitary adenomas in a tertiary referral center.

Background: Pituitary adenomas have a high disease burden due to tumor growth/ invasion and disordered hormonal secretion. Germline mutations in genes such as MEN1 and AIP are associated with early onset of aggressive pituitary adenomas that can be resistant to medical therapy. Aims: We performed a retrospective screening study using published risk criteria to assess the frequency of AIP and MEN1 mutations in pituitary adenoma patients in a tertiary referral center. Methods: Pituitary adenoma patients with pediatric/adolescent onset, macroadenomas occurring ≤30 years of age, familial isolated pituitary adenoma (FIPA) kindreds and acromegaly or prolactinoma cases that were uncontrolled by medical therapy were studied genetically. We also assessed whether immunohistochemical staining for AIP (AIP-IHC) in somatotropinomas was associated with somatostatin analogs (SSA) response. Results: Fifty-five patients met the study criteria and underwent genetic screening for AIP/MEN1 mutations. No mutations were identified and large deletions/duplications were ruled out using MLPA. In a cohort of sporadic somatotropinomas, low AIP-IHC tumors were significantly larger (P = 0.002) and were more frequently sparsely granulated (P = 0.046) than high AIP-IHC tumors. No significant relationship between AIP-IHC and SSA responses was seen. Conclusions: Germline mutations in AIP/MEN1 in pituitary adenoma patients are rare and the use of general risk criteria did not identify cases in a large tertiary-referral setting. In acromegaly, low AIP-IHC was related to larger tumor size and more frequent sparsely granulated subtype but no relationship with SSA responsiveness was seen. The genetics of pituitary adenomas remains largely unexplained and AIP screening criteria could be significantly refined to focus on large, aggressive tumors in young patients

Adaptive channel selection for DOA estimation in MIMO radar

We present adaptive strategies for antenna selection for Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation of a far-field source using TDM MIMO radar with linear arrays. Our treatment is formulated within a general adaptive sensing framework that uses one-step ahead predictions of the Bayesian MSE using a parametric family of Weiss-Weinstein bounds that depend on previous measurements. We compare in simulations our strategy with adaptive policies that optimize the Bobrovsky- Zaka{\i} bound and the Expected Cram\'er-Rao bound, and show the performance for different levels of measurement noise.Comment: Submitted to the 25th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), 201

Phonon-like hydrogen-bond modes in protic ionic liquids

Gigahertz- to terahertz-frequency infrared and Raman spectra contain a wealth of information concerning the structure, intermolecular forces, and dynamics of ionic liquids. However, these spectra generally have a large number of contributions ranging from slow diffusional modes to underdamped librations and intramolecular vibrational modes. This makes it difficult to isolate effects such as the role of Coulombic and hydrogen-bonding interactions. We have applied far-infrared and ultrafast optical Kerr effect spectroscopies on carefully selected ions with a greater or lesser degree of symmetry in order to isolate spectral signals of interest. This has allowed us to demonstrate the presence of longitudinal and transverse optical phonon modes and a great similarity of alkylammonium-based protic ionic liquids to liquid water. The data show that such phonon modes will be present in all ionic liquids, requiring a reinterpretation of their spectra

Selective expression of KCNS3 potassium channel α-subunit in parvalbumin-containing GABA neurons in the human prefrontal cortex

The cognitive deficits of schizophrenia appear to be associated with altered cortical GABA neurotransmission in the subsets of inhibitory neurons that express either parvalbumin (PV) or somatostatin (SST). Identification of molecular mechanisms that operate selectively in these neurons is essential for developing targeted therapeutic strategies that do not influence other cell types. Consequently, we sought to identify, in the human cortex, gene products that are expressed selectively by PV and/or SST neurons, and that might contribute to their distinctive functional properties. Based on previously reported expression patterns in the cortex of mice and humans, we selected four genes: KCNS3, LHX6, KCNAB1, and PPP1R2, encoding K+ channel Kv9.3 modulatory α-subunit, LIM homeobox protein 6, K+ channel Kvβ1 subunit, and protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 2, respectively, and examined their colocalization with PV or SST mRNAs in the human prefrontal cortex using dual-label in situ hybridization with 35S- and digoxigenin-labeled antisense riboprobes. KCNS3 mRNA was detected in almost all PV neurons, but not in SST neurons, and PV mRNA was detected in >90% of KCNS3 mRNA-expressing neurons. LHX6 mRNA was detected in almost all PV and >90% of SST neurons, while among all LHX6 mRNA-expressing neurons 50% expressed PV mRNA and >44% expressed SST mRNA. KCNAB1 and PPP1R2 mRNAs were detected in much larger populations of cortical neurons than PV or SST neurons. These findings indicate that KCNS3 is a selective marker of PV neurons, whereas LHX6 is expressed by both PV and SST neurons. KCNS3 and LHX6 might be useful for characterizing cell-type specific molecular alterations of cortical GABA neurotransmission and for the development of novel treatments targeting PV and/or SST neurons in schizophrenia. © 2012 Georgiev et al

Peachy Parallel Assignments (EduHPC 2018)

Peachy Parallel Assignments are a resource for instructors teaching parallel and distributed programming. These are high-quality assignments, previously tested in class, that are readily adoptable. This collection of assignments includes implementing a subset of OpenMP using pthreads, creating an animated fractal, image processing using histogram equalization, simulating a storm of high-energy particles, and solving the wave equation in a variety of settings. All of these come with sample assignment sheets and the necessary starter code.Departamento de Informática (Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores, Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial, Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos)Facilitar la inclusión de ejercicios prácticos de programación paralela en cursos de Computación Paralela o de alto rendimiento (HPC)Comunicación en congreso: Descripción de ejercicios prácticos con acceso a material ya desarrollado y probado

Molecular Hydrogen Kinematics in Cepheus A

We present the radial velocity structure of the molecular hydrogen outflows associated to the star forming region Cepheus A. This structure is derived from doppler shift of the H_2 v=1-0 S(1) emission line obtained by Fabry-Perot spectroscopy. The East and West regions of emission, called Cep A(E) and Cep A(W), show radial velocities in the range -20 to 0 km/s with respect to the molecular cloud. Cep A(W) shows an increasing velocity with position offset from the core indicating the existence of a possible accelarating machanism. Cep A(E) has an almost constant mean radial velocity of -18 km/s along the region although with a large dispersion in velocity, indicating the possibility of a turbulent outflow. A detailed analysis of the Cep A(E) region shows evidence for the presence of a Mach disk on that outflow. Also, we argue that the presence of a velocity gradient in Cep A(W) is indicative of a C-shock in this region. Following Riera et al. (2003), we analyzed the data using wavelet analysis to study the line width and the central radial velocity distributions. We found that both outflows have complex spatial and velocity structures characteristic of a turbulent flow.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure