Centralization and Accountability: Theory and Evidence from the Clean Air Act.

This paper studies fi scal federalism when voter information varies across regions. We develop a model of political agency with heterogeneously informed voters. Rent-seeking politicians provide public goods to win the votes of the informed. As a result, rent extraction is lower in regions with higher information. In equilibrium, electoral discipline has decreasing returns. Thus, political centralization efficiently reduces aggregate rent extraction. The model predicts that a region' s benefi ts from centralization are decreasing in its residents' information. We test this prediction using panel data on pollutant emissions across U.S. states. The 1970 Clean Air Act centralized environmental policy at the federal level. In line with our theory, we fi nd that centralization induced a differential decrease in pollution for uninformed relative to informed states

The Potential of Visible and Far-Red to Near-Infrared Light in Glaucoma Neuroprotection

Alternative treatment strategies are necessary to reduce the severity of glaucoma, a group of eye conditions that progressively damage the optic nerve and impair vision. The aim of this review is to gain insight into potentially exploitable molecular mechanisms to slow down the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), a fundamental element in the pathophysiology of all forms of glaucoma, and to stimulate adult optic nerve repair. For this purpose, we focus our analysis on both visible and far-red to near-infrared light photobiomodulation (PBM) as phototherapeutic agents, which were recently proposed in RGCs, and on the nerve lamina region neural progenitor cell (ONLR-NPC) niche. Both are suggested as potential strategies in glaucoma neuroprotection. We discuss the impact of beneficial molecular effects of PBM on both mitochondrial derangement and the alteration of ion fluxes that are considered important causes of RGC damage, as well as on the stimulation of progenitor cells. We suggest these are the most promising approaches to prevent excessive neuronal cell loss. We describe the experimental evidence supporting the validity of PBM therapy which, despite being a safe, non-invasive, inexpensive, and easy to administer procedure, has not yet been fully explored in the clinical practice of glaucoma treatment

Failure to downregulate the BAF53a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex contributes to the differentiation block in rhabdomyosarcoma

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Ontology-based identification of music for places

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36309-2_37Proceedings of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism in Innsbruck, Austria, January 22-25, 2013Place is a notion closely linked with the wealth of human experience, and invested by values, attitudes, and cultural influences. In particular, many places are strongly linked to music, which contributes to shaping the perception and the meaning of a place. In this paper we propose a computational approach for identifying musicians and music suited for a place of interest (POI). We present a knowledge-based framework built upon the DBpedia ontology, and a graph-based algorithm that scores musicians with respect to their semantic relatedness to a POI and suggests the top scoring ones. We found that users appreciate and judge as valuable the musician suggestions generated by the proposed approach. Moreover, users perceived compositions of the suggested musicians as suited for the POIs

Reprodução induzida e criação de larvas de híbridos interespecíficos e intragenérico da ordem siluriforme (Pisces).

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a resposta à indução artificial da reprodução em exemplares de cachapinta, híbrido resultante do cruzamento de Pseudoplatystoma corruscans X Pseudoplatystoma reticulatum no cruzamento intergenérico entre fêmea deste produto híbrido e macho de jundiá (Leiarius marmoratus), para verificar a produção de gametas viáveis, quantidade de larvas eclodidas, percentual de sobrevivência e crescimento das larvas e consequentemente a produção de exemplares para estudos genéticos.Organizado por: Sílvio Ricardo Maurano; AQUACIÊNCIA 2012

Met signaling mutants as tools for developmental studies

The Met receptor is widely expressed in embryonic and adult epithelial tissues; its ligand (hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor, HGF/SF) is expressed in the mesenchymal component of various organs. The generation of hgf and met null mice has revealed an essential role for this ligand-receptor pair in the development of the placenta, liver, and limb muscles. However the early lethality of the null mutants has precluded analysis of Met function in late development. To extend the possible observation period, we generated mutant metalleles of different severity. This was done by impairing the ability of the receptor to transduce the HGF/SF signal, via mutation of consensus sequences in the multifunctional docking site present in the C-terminal tail of the receptor. Mice expressing a Met mutant still active as a kinase, but unable to recruit its effectors, died in mid-gestation with the same phenotype as the metknockout, proving the importance of phosphotyrosine-SH2 interactions in vivo. Mice expressing a Met receptor with partial loss of signaling function survived until birth and revealed novel aspects of HGF/SF-Met function during muscle development

High-resolution mass spectrometry as an alternative detection method to tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of endogenous steroids in serum.

Recently, steroid hormones quantification in blood showed a promising ability to detect testosterone doping and interesting complementarities with the urinary module of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP). In this work, an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) method was developed for the quantification of eleven endogenous steroids in serum. The performance of the full scan and targeted SIM acquisition modes was evaluated and compared to the performance of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Passing-Bablok regressions and Bland-Altman plots were assessed for each analyte of interest, and concentration values measured by HRMS showed high correlation with the ones obtained by MS/MS for all target hormones, with low absolute differences in the majority of cases. A slight decrease in terms of sensitivity was observed with HRMS in both acquisition modes, but performing an analysis of variance multiblock orthogonal partial least squares (AMOPLS) on the dataset obtained with all three methods revealed that only 0.8% of the total variance was related to instrumentation and acquisition methods. Moreover, the evaluation of the testosterone administration effect over time highlighted testosterone itself and dihydrotestosterone as the most promising biomarkers of exogenous testosterone administration. This conclusion suggests that HRMS could provide suitable performance for blood steroid analysis in the anti-doping field

Dynamics of conflicts in Wikipedia

In this work we study the dynamical features of editorial wars in Wikipedia (WP). Based on our previously established algorithm, we build up samples of controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a clear correspondence between conflict and burstiness of activity patterns, and that memory effects play an important role in controversies. On long time scales, we identify three distinct developmental patterns for the overall behavior of the articles. We are able to distinguish cases eventually leading to consensus from those cases where a compromise is far from achievable. Finally, we analyze discussion networks and conclude that edit wars are mainly fought by few editors only.Comment: Supporting information adde