Hypothetical-Actual Bid Calibration of a Multi-Good Auction

Evidence suggests the calibration of hypothetical and actual behavior is good-specific. We examine whether clustering commodities into mutual categories can reduce the burden. While we reject a common calibration across sets of commodities, a sport-specific calibration function cannot be rejected.Valuation, Calibration, Clusters

Excessive growth hormone expression in male GH transgenic mice adversely alters bone architecture and mechanical strength

Patients with acromegaly have a higher prevalence of vertebral fractures despite normal bone mineral density (BMD), suggesting that GH overexpression has adverse effects on skeletal architecture and strength. We used giant bovine GH (bGH) transgenic mice to analyze the effects of high serum GH levels on BMD, architecture, and mechanical strength. Five-month-old hemizygous male bGH mice were compared with age- and sex-matched nontransgenic littermates controls (NT; n=16/group). Bone architecture and BMD were analyzed in tibia and lumbar vertebrae using microcomputed tomography. Femora were tested to failure using three-point bending and bone cellular activity determined by bone histomorphometry. bGH transgenic mice displayed significant increases in body weight and bone lengths. bGH tibia showed decreases in trabecular bone volume fraction, thickness, and number compared with NT ones, whereas trabecular pattern factor and structure model index were significantly increased, indicating deterioration in bone structure. Although cortical tissue perimeter was increased in transgenic mice, cortical thickness was reduced. bGH mice showed similar trabecular BMD but reduced trabecular thickness in lumbar vertebra relative to controls. Cortical BMD and thickness were significantly reduced in bGH lumbar vertebra. Mechanical testing of femora confirmed that bGH femora have decreased intrinsic mechanical properties compared with NT ones. Bone turnover is increased in favor of bone resorption in bGH tibia and vertebra compared with controls, and serum PTH levels is also enhanced in bGH mice. These data collectively suggest that high serum GH levels negatively affect bone architecture and quality at multiple skeletal sites

Solid state television camera system Patent

Solid state television camera system consisting of monolithic semiconductor mosaic sensor and molecular digital readout system

A cross-linguistic database of phonetic transcription systems

Contrary to what non-practitioners might expect, the systems of phonetic notation used by linguists are highly idiosyncratic. Not only do various linguistic subfields disagree on the specific symbols they use to denote the speech sounds of languages, but also in large databases of sound inventories considerable variation can be found. Inspired by recent efforts to link cross-linguistic data with help of reference catalogues (Glottolog, Concepticon) across different resources, we present initial efforts to link different phonetic notation systems to a catalogue of speech sounds. This is achieved with the help of a database accompanied by a software framework that uses a limited but easily extendable set of non-binary feature values to allow for quick and convenient registration of different transcription systems, while at the same time linking to additional datasets with restricted inventories. Linking different transcription systems enables us to conveniently translate between different phonetic transcription systems, while linking sounds to databases allows users quick access to various kinds of metadata, including feature values, statistics on phoneme inventories, and information on prosody and sound classes. In order to prove the feasibility of this enterprise, we supplement an initial version of our cross-linguistic database of phonetic transcription systems (CLTS), which currently registers five transcription systems and links to fifteen datasets, as well as a web application, which permits users to conveniently test the power of the automatic translation across transcription systems

Characterization of a continuous feline mammary epithelial cell line susceptible to feline epitheliotropic viruses.

Mucosal epithelial cells are the primary targets for many common viral pathogens of cats. Viral infection of epithelia can damage or disrupt the epithelial barrier that protects underlying tissues. In vitro cell culture systems are an effective means to study how viruses infect and disrupt epithelial barriers, however no true continuous or immortalized feline epithelial cell culture lines are available. A continuous cell culture of feline mammary epithelial cells (FMEC UCD-04-2) that forms tight junctions with high transepithelial electrical resistance (>2000Omegacm(-1)) 3-4 days after reaching confluence was characterized. In addition, it was shown that FMECs are susceptible to infection with feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herpesvirus (FHV-1), feline coronavirus (FeCoV), and feline panleukopenia virus (FPV). These cells will be useful for studies of feline viral disease and for in vitro studies of feline epithelia

Non-Simplified SUSY: Stau-Coannihilation at LHC and ILC

If new phenomena beyond the Standard Model will be discovered at the LHC, the properties of the new particles could be determined with data from the High-Luminosity LHC and from a future linear collider like the ILC. We discuss the possible interplay between measurements at the two accelerators in a concrete example, namely a full SUSY model which features a small stau_1-LSP mass difference. Various channels have been studied using the Snowmass 2013 combined LHC detector implementation in the Delphes simulation package, as well as simulations of the ILD detector concept from the Technical Design Report. We investigate both the LHC and ILC capabilities for discovery, separation and identification of various parts of the spectrum. While some parts would be discovered at the LHC, there is substantial room for further discoveries at the ILC. We finally highlight examples where the precise knowledge about the lower part of the mass spectrum which could be acquired at the ILC would enable a more in-depth analysis of the LHC data with respect to the heavier states.Comment: 42 pages, 18 figures, 12 table

Ricci Solitons and Einstein-Scalar Field Theory

B List has recently studied a geometric flow whose fixed points correspond to static Ricci flat spacetimes. It is now known that this flow is in fact Ricci flow modulo pullback by a certain diffeomorphism. We use this observation to associate to each static Ricci flat spacetime a local Ricci soliton in one higher dimension. As well, solutions of Euclidean-signature Einstein gravity coupled to a free massless scalar field with nonzero cosmological constant are associated to shrinking or expanding Ricci solitons. We exhibit examples, including an explicit family of complete expanding solitons which can be thought of as a Ricci flow for a complete Lorentzian metric. The possible generalization to Ricci-flat stationary metrics leads us to consider an alternative to Ricci flow.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure; Revised version (organizational changes, other minor revisions and corrections, citations corrected and added), to appear in CQ

Reasoning with comparative moral judgements: an argument for Moral Bayesianism

The paper discusses the notion of reasoning with comparative moral judgements (i.e judgements of the form “act a is morally superior to act b”) from the point of view of several meta-ethical positions. Using a simple formal result, it is argued that only a version of moral cognitivism that is committed to the claim that moral beliefs come in degrees can give a normatively plausible account of such reasoning. Some implications of accepting such a version of moral cognitivism are discussed

Matriptase regulates c-Met mediated proliferation and invasion in inflammatory breast cancer.

The poor prognosis for patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) compared to patients with other types of breast cancers emphasizes the need to better understand the molecular underpinnings of this disease with the goal of developing effective targeted therapeutics. Dysregulation of matriptase expression, an epithelial-specific member of the type II transmembrane serine protease family, has been demonstrated in many different cancer types. To date, no studies have assessed the expression and potential pro-oncogenic role of matriptase in IBC. We examined the functional relationship between matriptase and the HGF/c-MET signaling pathway in the IBC cell lines SUM149 and SUM190, and in IBC patient samples. Matriptase and c-Met proteins are localized on the surface membrane of IBC cells and their expression is strongly correlated in infiltrating cancer cells and in the cancer cells of lymphatic emboli in patient samples. Abrogation of matriptase expression by silencing with RNAi or inhibition of matriptase proteolytic activity with a synthetic inhibitor impairs the conversion of inactive pro-HGF to active HGF and subsequent c-Met-mediated signaling, leading to efficient impairment of proliferation and invasion of IBC cells. These data show the potential of matriptase inhibitors as a novel targeted therapy for IBC, and lay the groundwork for the development and testing of such drugs

Towards an Ontological Modelling of Preference Relations

Preference relations are intensively studied in Economics, but they are also approached in AI, Knowledge Representation, and Conceptual Modelling, as they provide a key concept in a variety of domains of application. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation of preference relations to formalise their essential aspects across domains. Firstly, we shall discuss what is the ontological status of the relata of a preference relation. Secondly, we investigate the place of preference relations within a rich taxonomy of relations (e.g. we ask whether they are internal or external, essential or contingent, descriptive or nondescriptive relations). Finally, we provide an ontological modelling of preference relation as a module of a foundational (or upper) ontology (viz. OntoUML). The aim of this paper is to provide a sharable foundational theory of preference relation that foster interoperability across the heterogeneous domains of application of preference relations