Bayesian quantile regression

Recent work by Schennach (2005) has opened the way to a Bayesian treatment of quantile regression. Her method, called Bayesian exponentially tilted empirical likelihood (BETEL), provides a likelihood for data y subject only to a set of m moment conditions of the form Eg(y, ?) = 0 where ? is a k dimensional parameter of interest and k may be smaller, equal to or larger than m. The method may be thought of as construction of a likelihood supported on the n data points that is minimally informative, in the sense of maximum entropy, subject to the moment conditions.

Identifying the Effect of Persuasion

We set up an econometric model of persuasion and study identification of key parameters under various scenarios of data availability. We find that a commonly used measure of persuasion does not estimate the persuasion rate of any population in general. We provide formal identification results, recommend several new parameters to estimate, and discuss their interpretation. Further, we propose methods for carrying out inference. We revisit the empirical literature on persuasion to show that the persuasive effect is highly heterogeneous. We also show that the existence of a continuous instrument opens up the possibility of point identification for the policy-relevant population

The Octonions

The octonions are the largest of the four normed division algebras. While somewhat neglected due to their nonassociativity, they stand at the crossroads of many interesting fields of mathematics. Here we describe them and their relation to Clifford algebras and spinors, Bott periodicity, projective and Lorentzian geometry, Jordan algebras, and the exceptional Lie groups. We also touch upon their applications in quantum logic, special relativity and supersymmetry.Comment: 56 pages LaTeX, 11 Postscript Figures, some small correction

Engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the secretory production of recombinant proteins via Tat-dependent pathway

Corynebacterium glutamicum, which has been an industrial producer of various L-amino acids, nucleic acids, and vitamins, is now also regarded as a potential host for the secretory production of recombinant proteins since it exhibits numerous ideal features for protein secretion: (i) it has a single cellular membrane as a gram-positive bacterium, which allows proteins to be easily secreted into the extracellular medium. (ii) C. glutamicum secretes only a few endogenous proteins into the culture medium, which allows the simpler purification of target proteins in downstream process. (iii), secreted proteins from C. glutamicum can be kept stable because extracellular protease activity is rarely detectable. To harness its potential as an industrial platform for recombinant protein production, the development of an efficient secretion system is necessary. To achieve this goal first, we engineered several genetic parts in C. glutamicum: (i) synthetic promoters, (ii) plasmid copy number, (iii) signal peptides, (iv) co-expression of secretion machinery proteins. Using the engineered host-vector systems, gram-scale production of recombinant proteins could be achieved in fed-batch cultivation

Two-gap and paramagnetic pair-breaking effects on upper critical field of SmFeAsO0.85_{0.85} and SmFeAsO0.8_{0.8}F0.2_{0.2} single crystals

We investigated the temperature dependence of the upper critical field [$H_{c2}(T)$] of fluorine-free SmFeAsO$_{0.85}$ and fluorine-doped SmFeAsO$_{0.8}$F$_{0.2}$ single crystals by measuring the resistive transition in low static magnetic fields and in pulsed fields up to 60 T. Both crystals show that $H_{c2}(T)$'s along the c axis [$H_{c2}^c(T)$] and in an $ab$-planar direction [$H_{c2}^{ab}(T)$] exhibit a linear and a sublinear increase, respectively, with decreasing temperature below the superconducting transition. $H_{c2}(T)$'s in both directions deviate from the conventional one-gap Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg theoretical prediction at low temperatures. A two-gap nature and the paramagnetic pair-breaking effect are shown to be responsible for the temperature-dependent behavior of $H_{c2}^c$ and $H_{c2}^{ab}$, respectively.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Early and mid-term results of coronary endarterectomy: Influence of cardiopulmonary bypass and surgical techniques

Background: Coronary endarterectomy (CE) may be a good option for complete revascularization of diffuse coronary artery diseases, but it has not been widely used because the outcomes have not been definitively identified. This study aims to evaluate the mid-term clinical results of CE and compare the outcomes according to the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and the surgical technique used. Methods: Between 2004 and 2014, 69 cases of CE were performed in 64 patients. We divided the pa­tients into two groups: 1) on-pump coronary artery bypass with coronary endarterectomy (ONCAB-CE) versus off-pump coronary artery bypass with coronary endarterectomy (OPCAB-CE), and 2) “open” versus “closed” surgical techniques. Operative mortality and major morbidity, were investigated includ­ing perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI), and overall survival. Results: Operative mortality was 4.7% (3/64), and no PMI was observed in the study. No statistical differences in operative mortality rate between the ONCAB-CE and OPCAB-CE groups were found (3.1% vs. 6.2%, p = 1.0) or between open versus closed techniques (6.7% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.6). The incidence of major morbidity including cerebrovascular accident, atrial fibrillation, acute renal failure, mediastinitis, respiratory complications, and bleeding was comparable between all groups. There were seven late mortalities, and no differences were found in overall survival rate between all groups. Conclusions: Coronary endarterectomy appears to be a safe option for patients with diffuse coronary artery disease, regardless of whether CPB or a specified selection of surgical techniques are used