Robust image analysis with sparse representation on quantized visual features

10.1109/TIP.2012.2219543IEEE Transactions on Image Processing223860-871IIPR

From universal service to universal connectivity

Two features of the century-old policy goal of promoting universal telephone service in the United States have been enduring. Policymakers have focused on (1) wireline telephone (and more recently, fixed-line broadband) services and (2) households. The widespread adoption of mobile telephones compels a fresh examination of this focus. We construct a new measure of universal connectivity which accounts for consumers’ choices of communications technologies and for their geographic mobility over the course of the day. This measure, in turn, compels a conceptual and empirical investigation of the determinants of mobile telephone diffusion within families. Our estimations of intra-household demand for mobile service permit us to develop simulations that estimate the economic impact of modernizing a key element of existing universal service policy (viz., the Lifeline Program) to reflect the goal of improving individual connectivity. We find that a policy expansion from a single subsidy per household to multiple subsidies per eligible household members would increase mobile subscriptions by 2.25 million and Lifeline costs by $250 million

Inhibition of N-glycanase1 induces autophagic clearance of protein aggregates

Quality control of protein folding is crucial to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Impairment of these systems and the related degradative pathways involved in the clearance of misfolded proteins can result in severe and varied pathologies. Peptide N-glycanase (EC 3.5.1.52) is an endoglycosidase which cleaves N-linked glycans from incorrectly folded glycoproteins exported from the endoplasmic reticulum and occurs prior to degradation by the 26S proteasome and is important for the degradation of misfolded glycoproteins during ER-associated degradation. Mutations in this enzyme are responsible for the rare disorder, N-GLY1, a congenital multi-system disorder which results in a build-up of protein aggregates in the cell cytosol. Using a pharmacological inhibitor of peptide N-glycanase, carbobenzoxy-valyl-ananyl-aspartyl-[O-methyl]-fluoromethylketone (Z-VAD-fmk), we have found that inhibition of Nglycanase using 50 µM Z-VAD-fmk resulted in an increase in Thioflavin T fluorescence intensity after 48 hours which decreases to near basal levels after 72 hours. Thioflavin T is a fluorescent dye that exhibits enhanced fluorescence upon binding to β-sheets, characteristic of aggregated structures and fibril formation. Changes in characteristic ER stress markers were also observed; variation in the expression of BiP (GRP78), which is increased during the unfolded protein response, was observed to correlate with the changes in Thioflavin T fluorescence. Using a GFP-LC3 reporter in HEK cells we found an increase in autophagy after 72 hours of peptide N-glycanase inhibition. The increase in autophagy corresponded to the decrease in Thioflavin T fluorescence and variation in BiP levels, suggesting that protein aggregates were removed by the induction of autophagy when deglycosylation is impaired. In an autophagy deficient cell line, ATG13-/- MEFs, we found inhibition of peptide N-glycanase by 50 µM Z-VAD-fmk lead to a 45 % decrease in cell viability within 24 hours with no loss of viability seen in the corresponding wild type MEFs or HEK cells. These results show that autophagy is essential for removal of protein aggregates resulting from the inhibition of peptide N-glycanase. Further work will focus on the investigation of the autophagic machinery linked to clearance of protein aggregates caused by peptide N-glycanase inhibition