47,744 research outputs found
The structure of gauge-invariant ideals of labelled graph -algebras
In this paper, we consider the gauge-invariant ideal structure of a
-algebra associated to a set-finite,
receiver set-finite and weakly left-resolving labelled space
, where is a labelling map assigning
an alphabet to each edge of the directed graph with no sinks. Under the
assumption that an accommodating set is closed under taking
relative complement, it is obtained that there is a one to one correspondence
between the set of all hereditary saturated subsets of and the
gauge-invariant ideals of . For this, we
introduce a quotient labelled space arising
from an equivalence relation on and show the existence
of the -algebra generated by a
universal representation of . Also the
gauge-invariant uniqueness theorem for is
obtained.
For simple labelled graph -algebras
, where is the
smallest accommodating set containing all the generalized vertices, it is
observed that if for each vertex of , a generalized vertex is
finite for some , then is simple if
and only if is strongly cofinal and
disagreeable. This is done by examining the merged labelled graph
of and the common properties that
and
share
The phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent activation of Btk is required for optimal eicosanoid production and generation of reactive oxygen species in antigen-stimulated mast cells
Activated mast cells are a major source of the eicosanoids PGD(2) and leukotriene C(4) (LTC(4)), which contribute to allergic responses. These eicosanoids are produced following the ERK1/2-dependent activation of cytosolic phospholipase A(2), thus liberating arachidonic acid, which is subsequently metabolized by the actions of 5-lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase to form LTC(4) and PGD(2), respectively. These pathways also generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which have been proposed to contribute to FcepsilonRI-mediated signaling in mast cells. In this study, we demonstrate that, in addition to ERK1/2-dependent pathways, ERK1/2-independent pathways also regulate FcepsilonRI-mediated eicosanoid and ROS production in mast cells. A role for the Tec kinase Btk in the ERK1/2-independent regulatory pathway was revealed by the significantly attenuated FcepsilonRI-dependent PGD(2), LTC(4), and ROS production in bone marrow-derived mast cells of Btk(-/-) mice. The FcepsilonRI-dependent activation of Btk and eicosanoid and ROS generation in bone marrow-derived mast cells and human mast cells were similarly blocked by the PI3K inhibitors, Wortmannin and LY294002, indicating that Btk-regulated eicosanoid and ROS production occurs downstream of PI3K. In contrast to ERK1/2, the PI3K/Btk pathway does not regulate cytosolic phospholipase A(2) phosphorylation but rather appears to regulate the generation of ROS, LTC(4), and PGD(2) by contributing to the necessary Ca(2+) signal for the production of these molecules. These data demonstrate that strategies to decrease mast cell production of ROS and eicosanoids would have to target both ERK1/2- and PI3K/Btk-dependent pathways
Non-specific cellular uptake of surface-functionalized quantum dots
We report a systematic empirical study of nanoparticle internalization into
cells via non-specific pathways. The nanoparticles were comprised of commercial
quantum dots (QDs) that were highly visible under a fluorescence confocal
microscope. Surface-modified QDs with basic biologically-significant moieties,
e.g. carboxyl, amino, streptavidin were used, in combination with the surface
derivatization with polyethylene glycol (PEG) in a range of immortalized cell
lines. Internalization rates were derived from image analysis and a detailed
discussion about the effect of nanoparticle size, charge and surface groups is
presented. We find that PEG-derivatization dramatically suppresses the
non-specific uptake while PEG-free carboxyl and amine functional groups promote
QD internalization. These uptake variations displayed a remarkable consistency
across different cell types. The reported results are important for experiments
concerned with cellular uptake of surface-functionalized nanomaterials, both
when non-specific internalization is undesirable and also when it is intended
for material to be internalized as efficiently as possible.
Published article at: http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/21/28/285105/Comment: 14 pages 7 figure
Life and war in Korea : photographic portrayals of the Korean War in Life magazine, July 1950 - August 1953
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 27, 2009)Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.This study examines the visual portrayal of the Korean War, as presented in Life magazine from July 1950 through August 1953, by adopting the theoretical framework of framing and cultural studies and by combining two methodologies: content analysis and ideological analysis. In light of recent international situations such as the end of the Cold War and the Iraq War, and the nuclear crisis of North Korea, it is this intention of this study to provide a new, balanced view of the Korean War. By recovering American history's "forgotten war", this study attempts an interpretative examination of the visual construction of news events and features. Content analysis results show that Life's coverage was U.S.-centered and that the magazine published a reasonable number of combat photographs, but almost no photographs taken of Korean civilian casualties or of the country's destruction. Ideological analysis shows that Life's photographs followed several mythical themes: Victory in the air, Defeat on the ground, Unready/ Unpopular war, MacArthur as a hero, Good versus evil, Paternalism/Humanitarianism, and Tragedy of Korea. Results and analysis suggest that although Life presented the Korean War as America's military tragedy and their disillusionment with war, Cold War politics still defined it as a just war, meant to save South Korea from the evils of Communism.Includes bibliographical reference
Mining iron: Iron uptake and transport in plants
AbstractIron uptake in plants is highly regulated in order to supply amounts sufficient for optimal growth while preventing excess accumulation. In response to iron deficiency, plants induce either reduction-based or chelation-based mechanisms to enhance iron uptake from the soil. Genes involved in each mechanism have been identified from various model plants including Arabidopsis and rice. Iron transport within plants is also tightly controlled. New information has emerged on transporters that play a role in xylem loading and phloem loading/unloading of iron, and on the iron chelators involved in iron homeostasis. Some of the components regulating iron deficiency responses also have been elucidated, demonstrating that iron dependent gene regulation occurs at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels
On Horizontal and Vertical Separation in Hierarchical Text Classification
Hierarchy is a common and effective way of organizing data and representing
their relationships at different levels of abstraction. However, hierarchical
data dependencies cause difficulties in the estimation of "separable" models
that can distinguish between the entities in the hierarchy. Extracting
separable models of hierarchical entities requires us to take their relative
position into account and to consider the different types of dependencies in
the hierarchy. In this paper, we present an investigation of the effect of
separability in text-based entity classification and argue that in hierarchical
classification, a separation property should be established between entities
not only in the same layer, but also in different layers. Our main findings are
the followings. First, we analyse the importance of separability on the data
representation in the task of classification and based on that, we introduce a
"Strong Separation Principle" for optimizing expected effectiveness of
classifiers decision based on separation property. Second, we present
Hierarchical Significant Words Language Models (HSWLM) which capture all, and
only, the essential features of hierarchical entities according to their
relative position in the hierarchy resulting in horizontally and vertically
separable models. Third, we validate our claims on real-world data and
demonstrate that how HSWLM improves the accuracy of classification and how it
provides transferable models over time. Although discussions in this paper
focus on the classification problem, the models are applicable to any
information access tasks on data that has, or can be mapped to, a hierarchical
structure.Comment: Full paper (10 pages) accepted for publication in proceedings of ACM
SIGIR International Conference on the Theory of Information Retrieval
(ICTIR'16
Does Earnings Management Amplify The Association Between Corporate Governance And Firm Performance?: Evidence From Korea
This paper aims to examine whether earnings management strengthens the causal links between corporate governance and firm performance. It examines the association between corporate governance and real activity-based earnings management and extends it to firm performance. This study involves 1,104 listings on the Korean Stock Exchange and finds that real activity-based earnings management decreases if firms have a well-established governance system, and such earnings management could strengthen the causal link between corporate governance and firm performance as measured by Tobin’s Q. Our study results are the first empirical evidences that real activity-based earnings management is effectively controlled by a corporate governance system and that it has links between corporate governance and performance. This provides the importance of corporate governance which could effectively constrain real activity-based earnings management, such that eventually influences the firm’s performance. In particular, it provides useful insights into corporate structures in which ownership is highly concentrated. Our findings are of great importance for Korea, in which the predominant business structure for large enterprises is that of the chaebol (equivalent to the Japanese keiretsu), which consists of conglomerates of many smaller companies and in which the structure of corporate governance is that of owner control
Triple-ionised carbon associated with the low-density neutral hydrogen gas at 1.7 < z < 3.3: the integrated N(HI)-N(CIV) relation
From the Voigt profile fitting analysis of 183 intervening CIV systems at 1.7
< z < 3.3 in 23 high-quality UVES/VLT and HIRES/Keck QSO spectra, we find that
a majority of CIV systems (~75%) display a well-characterised scaling relation
between integrated column densities of HI and CIV with a negligible redshift
evolution, when column densities of all the HI and CIV components are
integrated within a given (-150, +150) km/sec range centred at the CIV flux
minimum. The integrated CIV column density N(CIV, sys) increases with N(HI,
sys) at log N(HI, sys) = 14.0--15.5 and log N(CIV, sys) = 11.8--14.0, then
becomes almost independent of N(HI, sys) at log N(HI, sys) > 16, with a large
scatter: at log N(HI, sys) = 14--22, log N(CIV, sys) = C1 / (log(NHI, sys) +
C2) + C3, with C1 = -1.90+0.55, C2 = -14.11+0.19 and C3 = 14.76+0.17,
respectively. The steep (flat) part is dominated by SiIV-free (SiIV-enriched)
CIV systems. Extrapolating the N(HI, sys)-N(CIV, sys) relation implies that
most absorbers with log N(HI) < 14 are virtually CIV-free. The N(HI,
sys)-N(CIV, sys) relation does not hold for individual components, clumps or
the integration velocity range less than +-100 km/sec. It is expected if the
line-of-sight extent of CIV is smaller than HI and N(CIV, sys) decreases more
rapidly than N(HI, sys) at the larger impact parameter, regardless of the
location of the HI+CIV gas in the IGM filaments or in the intervening galactic
halos.Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRAS, 26 pages, 20 figures, 4 tables.
On-line materials are found in the submitted civ.tar.gz file: complete Table
2, complete Table 3, complete Table 4, velocity plots civ1.pdf, civ2.pdf,
civ3.pdf, civ4.pdf and civ5.pd
Meteorin regulates mesendoderm development by enhancing nodal expression
During gastrulation, distinct lineage specification into three germ layers, the mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm, occurs through an elaborate harmony between signaling molecules along the embryonic proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes, and Nodal signaling plays a key role in the early embryonic development governing embryonic axis formation, mesoderm and endoderm specification, and left-right asymmetry determination. However, the mechanism by which Nodal expression is regulated is largely unknown. Here, we show that Meteorin regulates Nodal expression and is required for mesendoderm development. It is highly expressed in the inner cell mass of blastocysts and further in the epiblast and extra-embryonic ectoderm during gastrulation. Genetic ablation of the Meteorin gene resulted in early embryonic lethality, presumably due to impaired lineage allocation and subsequent cell accumulation. Embryoid body culture using Meteorin-null embryonic stem (ES) cells showed reduced Nodal expression and concomitant impairment of mesendoderm specification. Meteorin-null embryos displayed reduced levels of Nodal transcripts before the gastrulation stage, and impaired expression of Goosecoid, a definitive endoderm marker, during gastrulation, while the proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes and primitive streak formation were preserved. Our results show that Meteorin is a novel regulator of Nodal transcription and is required to maintain sufficient Nodal levels for endoderm formation, thereby providing new insights in the regulation of mesendoderm allocation.open1113sciescopu
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