Novel evidence on the asymmetric causality between the Chinese stock and real estate markets: evidence from city-level data

Our study re-examines the asymmetric causality between the Chinese stock and real estate markets in 70 cities. Prior research using symmetry hypotheses, has not yet linked these two markets or paid attention to their heterogeneity. We uniquely employed the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model, which permits the exploration of bidirectional asymmetric causality. Decreases and increases in stock prices caused short-run changes to real estate prices in 18 of the cities studied; this short-run effect was ultimately carried on in Guangzhou and in three cities. Even after switching the study variables, similar results were obtained. Our findings show that real estate policymakers in specific cities need to take into consideration the asymmetric performance of real estate prices as caused by the asymmetry within stock prices. If government stabilises the real estate market, it can in turn facilitate stock-market stability

Chiral perturbation theory for pentaquark baryons and its applications

We construct a chiral lagrangian for pentaquark baryons assuming that the recently found Theta^+ (1540) state belongs to an antidecuplet of SU(3) flavor symmetry with J^P = (1/2)^(+-). We derive the Gell-Mann-Okubo formulae for the antidecuplet baryon masses, and a possible mixing between the antidecuplet and the pentaquark octet. Then we calculate the cross sections for pi^- p -> K^- Theta^+ and gamma n -> K^- Theta^+ using our chiral lagrangian. The resulting amplitudes respect the underlying chiral symmetry of QCD correctly. We also describe how to include the light vector mesons in the chiral lagrangian.Comment: 4 page

Encoding Speaker-Specific Latent Speech Feature for Speech Synthesis

In this work, we propose a novel method for modeling numerous speakers, which enables expressing the overall characteristics of speakers in detail like a trained multi-speaker model without additional training on the target speaker's dataset. Although various works with similar purposes have been actively studied, their performance has not yet reached that of trained multi-speaker models due to their fundamental limitations. To overcome previous limitations, we propose effective methods for feature learning and representing target speakers' speech characteristics by discretizing the features and conditioning them to a speech synthesis model. Our method obtained a significantly higher similarity mean opinion score (SMOS) in subjective similarity evaluation than seen speakers of a best-performing multi-speaker model, even with unseen speakers. The proposed method also outperforms a zero-shot method by significant margins. Furthermore, our method shows remarkable performance in generating new artificial speakers. In addition, we demonstrate that the encoded latent features are sufficiently informative to reconstruct an original speaker's speech completely. It implies that our method can be used as a general methodology to encode and reconstruct speakers' characteristics in various tasks

Inhibition of mTORC1 through ATF4-induced REDD1 and Sestrin2 expression by Metformin

Background Although the major anticancer effect of metformin involves AMPK-dependent or AMPK-independent mTORC1 inhibition, the mechanisms of action are still not fully understood. Methods To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of metformin on the mTORC1 inhibition, MTT assay, RT-PCR, and western blot analysis were performed. Results Metformin induced the expression of ATF4, REDD1, and Sestrin2 concomitant with its inhibition of mTORC1 activity. Treatment with REDD1 or Sestrin2 siRNA reversed the mTORC1 inhibition induced by metformin, indicating that REDD1 and Sestrin2 are important for the inhibition of mTORC1 triggered by metformin treatment. Moreover, REDD1- and Sestrin2-mediated mTORC1 inhibition in response to metformin was independent of AMPK activation. Additionally, lapatinib enhances cell sensitivity to metformin, and knockdown of REDD1 and Sestrin2 decreased cell sensitivity to metformin and lapatinib. Conclusions ATF4-induced REDD1 and Sestrin2 expression in response to metformin plays an important role in mTORC1 inhibition independent of AMPK activation, and this signalling pathway could have therapeutic value.This research was supported by grants from the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS), funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Republic of Korea (Nos. 50336–2021; 50531–2021; and 50544–2021)

Tristetraprolin inhibits the growth of human glioma cells through downregulation of urokinase plasminogen activator/urokinase plasminogen activator receptor mRNAs

Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) play a major role in the infiltrative growth of glioblastoma. Downregulatoion of the uPA and uPAR has been reported to inhibit the growth glioblastoma. Here, we demonstrate that tristetraprolin (TTP) inhibits the growth of U87MG human glioma cells through downregulation of uPA and uPAR. Our results show that expression level of TTP is inversely correlated with those of uPA and uPAR in human glioma cells and tissues. TTP binds to the AU-rich elements within the 3' untranslated regions of uPA and uPAR and overexpression of TTP decreased the expression of uPA and uPAR through enhancing the degradation of their mRNAs. In addition, overexpression of TTP inhibited the growth and invasion of U87MG cells. Our findings implicate that TTP can be used as a promising therapeutic target to treat human glioma

Digital-Based Healthy Bra Top Design That Promotes the Physical Activity of New Senior Women by Applying an Optimal Pressure

A bra use can reduce physiological and physical functions because of clothing pressure, which can be a problem for new senior women starting to lose physical function. The present study presents a bra top design development method for promoting new senior women’s physical activity by identifying problems related to bras’ effects on women’s health and minimizing clothing pressure. The analysis utilized the 3D scan data of 42 adult women (age range: 50s) from the 5th Size Korea Project. Bra top design elements were extracted based on new senior consumers’ needs. We developed an average wireframe reflecting the new senior’s physical characteristics, and a standard body form was developed through surface modeling. To produce a consumer-oriented bra with a body shaping effect and reduced clothing pressure that would not affect physical activities, a three-dimensional pattern was developed applying an optimal reduction rate of 80%. To verify the bra’s adequacy for the body form of new senior women, two market-available bras were selected and fit-compared to the developed product. The developed bra received higher expert appearance evaluation and 3D virtual clothing evaluation scores. This study is significant because by using virtual fitting technology, it provides foundational data to quantify the quality of fashion products

Data_Sheet_1_Lack of a Cytoplasmic RLK, Required for ROS Homeostasis, Induces Strong Resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice.docx

<p>Many scientific findings have been reported on the beneficial function of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in various cellular processes, showing that they are not just toxic byproducts. The double-edged role of ROS shows the importance of the regulation of ROS level. We report a gene, rrsRLK (required for ROS-scavenging receptor-like kinase), that encodes a cytoplasmic RLK belonging to the non-RD kinase family. The gene was identified by screening rice RLK mutant lines infected with Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), an agent of bacterial leaf blight of rice. The mutant (ΔrrsRLK) lacking the Os01g02290 gene was strongly resistant to many Xoo strains, but not to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. ΔrrsRLK showed significantly higher expression of OsPR1a, OsPR1b, OsLOX, RBBTI4, and jasmonic acid-related genes than wild type. We showed that rrsRLK protein interacts with OsVOZ1 (vascular one zinc-finger 1) and OsPEX11 (peroxisomal biogenesis factor 11). In the further experiments, abnormal biogenesis of peroxisomes, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) accumulation, and reduction of activity of ROS-scavenging enzymes were investigated in ΔrrsRLK. These results suggest that the enhanced resistance in ΔrrsRLK is due to H₂O₂ accumulation caused by irregular ROS-scavenging mechanism, and rrsRLK is most likely a key regulator required for ROS homeostasis in rice.</p