U.S. commercial electricity consumption

Commercial electricity usage exceeds that of industrial usage and is almost as large as residential electricity consumption in the United States. In this study, regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze commercial electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that total commercial demand for electricity is negatively related to price. In addition, the number of businesses and service income positively affect electricity demand for commercial use. The results are similar for equations estimated for kilowatt-hours demanded per business. The regional dummy variables exhibit different signs, which may occur due to climate factors because warm weather regions experience greater volumes of cooling degree-days, while cool weather regions observe larger amounts of heating degree-days. Although coefficients for the price of natural gas are positive, they do not satisfy the 5-percent significance criterion. The latter suggests that natural gas may not be a substitute good for electricity within the commercial sector of the U.S. economy.Commercial Electricity Consumption; Regional Economics

Regional Evidence regarding U.S. Residential Electricity Consumption

Regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze residential electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that electricity is an inferior good for households in the United States. This confirms earlier research compiled using data for less geographically extensive regional and metropolitan markets. The results imply that demographic growth may place fewer pressures on electricity generation capacity than was previously assumed.Residential Electricity Demand, Regional Economics

U.S. Commercial Electricity Consumption

Commercial electricity usage exceeds that of industrial usage and is almost as large as residential electricity consumption in the United States. In this study, regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze commercial electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that total commercial demand for electricity is negatively related to price. In addition, the number of businesses and service income positively affect electricity demand for commercial use. The results are similar for equations estimated for kilowatt-hours demanded per business. The regional dummy variables exhibit different signs, which may occur due to climate factors because warm weather regions experience greater volumes of cooling degree-days, while cool weather regions observe larger amounts of heating degree-days. Although coefficients for the price of natural gas are positive, they do not satisfy the 5-percent significance criterion. The latter suggests that natural gas may not be a substitute good for electricity within the commercial sector of the U.S. economy

Regional Evidence regarding U.S. Residential Electricity Consumption

Regional economic, demographic, and climatic data are used to analyze residential electricity demand in the United States. Results indicate that electricity is an inferior good for households in the United States. This confirms earlier research compiled using data for less geographically extensive regional and metropolitan markets. The results imply that demographic growth may place fewer pressures on electricity generation capacity than was previously assumed

Weighted composition operators on the Dirichlet space: boundedness and spectral properties

Boundedness of weighted composition operators W u,φ acting on the classical Dirichlet space D as W u,φ f=u(f∘φ) is studied in terms of the multiplier space associated to the symbol φ , i.e., M(φ)={u∈D:W u,φ is bounded on D} . A prominent role is played by the multipliers of the Dirichlet space. As a consequence, the spectrum of W u,φ in D whenever φ is an automorphism of the unit disc is studied, extending a recent work of Hyvärinen et al. (J. Funct. Anal. 265:1749–1777, 2013) to the context of the Dirichlet space

Properties of Light Flavour Baryons in Hypercentral quark model

The light flavour baryons are studied within the quark model using the hyper central description of the three-body system. The confinement potential is assumed as hypercentral coulomb plus power potential ($hCPP_\nu$) with power index $\nu$. The masses and magnetic moments of light flavour baryons are computed for different power index, $\nu$ starting from 0.5 to 1.5. The predicted masses and magnetic moments are found to attain a saturated value with respect to variation in $\nu$ beyond the power index $\nu>$ 1.0. Further we computed transition magnetic moments and radiative decay width of light flavour baryons. The results are in good agreement with known experimental as well as other theoretical models.Comment: Accepted in Pramana J. of Physic

HIV infection and HERV expression: a review

The human genome contains multiple copies of retrovirus genomes known as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) that have entered the germ-line at some point in evolution. Several of these proviruses have retained (partial) coding capacity, so that a number of viral proteins or even virus particles are expressed under various conditions. Human ERVs (HERVs) belong to the beta-, gamma-, or spuma- retrovirus groups. Endogenous delta- and lenti- viruses are notably absent in humans, although endogenous lentivirus genomes have been found in lower primates. Exogenous retroviruses that currently form a health threat to humans intriguingly belong to those absent groups. The best studied of the two infectious human retroviruses is the lentivirus human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which has an overwhelming influence on its host by infecting cells of the immune system. One HIV-induced change is the induction of HERV transcription, often leading to induced HERV protein expression. This review will discuss the potential HIV-HERV interactions

Somatic LKB1 Mutations Promote Cervical Cancer Progression

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the etiologic agent for cervical cancer. Yet, infection with HPV is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer, because most infected women develop transient epithelial dysplasias that spontaneously regress. Progression to invasive cancer has been attributed to diverse host factors such as immune or hormonal status, as no recurrent genetic alterations have been identified in cervical cancers. Thus, the pressing question as to the biological basis of cervical cancer progression has remained unresolved, hampering the development of novel therapies and prognostic tests. Here we show that at least 20% of cervical cancers harbor somatically-acquired mutations in the LKB1 tumor suppressor. Approximately one-half of tumors with mutations harbored single nucleotide substitutions or microdeletions identifiable by exon sequencing, while the other half harbored larger monoallelic or biallelic deletions detectable by multiplex ligation probe amplification (MLPA). Biallelic mutations were identified in most cervical cancer cell lines; HeLa, the first human cell line, harbors a homozygous 25 kb deletion that occurred in vivo. LKB1 inactivation in primary tumors was associated with accelerated disease progression. Median survival was only 13 months for patients with LKB1-deficient tumors, but >100 months for patients with LKB1-wild type tumors (P = 0.015, log rank test; hazard ratio = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.083 to 0.77). LKB1 is thus a major cervical tumor suppressor, demonstrating that acquired genetic alterations drive progression of HPV-induced dysplasias to invasive, lethal cancers. Furthermore, LKB1 status can be exploited clinically to predict disease recurrence

Lack of Detection of XMRV in Seminal Plasma from HIV-1 Infected Men in The Netherlands

Background: Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is a recently discovered human gammaretrovirus with yet unknown prevalence and transmission route(s). Its presence in prostate stromal fibroblasts and prostatic secretions suggests that XMRV might be sexually transmitted. We chose to study a compartment closely connected to the prostate, a location where XMRV was detected in independent studies. Seminal plasma samples from HIV-1 infected men were examined as they have an increased probability of acquiring sexually transmitted pathogens. Methodology/Principal Findings: We studied the prevalence of XMRV in 93 seminal plasma samples of 54 HIV-1 infected men living in The Netherlands with a nested PCR amplification specifically targeting the XMRV gag gene. As a control for the presence and integrity of retrovirus particles, HIV-1 was amplified from the same samples with a PCR amplification targeting the env gene of the virus, or HIV-1 was quantified with a real-time PCR amplifying part of the pol gene. Conclusions/Significance: Although HIV-1 was amplified from 25 % of the seminal plasma samples, no XMRV was detected, suggesting that either the prevalence of XMRV is very low in The Netherlands, or that XMRV is not naturally present in th

A genetic locus and gene expression patterns associated with the priming effect on lettuce seed germination at elevated temperatures

Seeds of most cultivated varieties of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) fail to germinate at warm temperatures (i.e., above 25–30°C). Seed priming (controlled hydration followed by drying) alleviates this thermoinhibition by increasing the maximum germination temperature. We conducted a quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of seed germination responses to priming using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between L. sativa cv. Salinas and L. serriola accession UC96US23. Priming significantly increased the maximum germination temperature of the RIL population, and a single major QTL was responsible for 47% of the phenotypic variation due to priming. This QTL collocated with Htg6.1, a major QTL from UC96US23 associated with high temperature germination capacity. Seeds of three near-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying an Htg6.1 introgression from UC96US23 in a Salinas genetic background exhibited synergistic increases in maximum germination temperature in response to priming. LsNCED4, a gene encoding a key enzyme (9-cis-epoxycarotinoid dioxygenase) in the abscisic acid biosynthetic pathway, maps precisely with Htg6.1. Expression of LsNCED4 after imbibition for 24 h at high temperature was greater in non-primed seeds of Salinas, of a second cultivar (Titan) and of NILs containing Htg6.1 compared to primed seeds of the same genotypes. In contrast, expression of genes encoding regulated enzymes in the gibberellin and ethylene biosynthetic pathways (LsGA3ox1 and LsACS1, respectively) was enhanced by priming and suppressed by imbibition at elevated temperatures. Developmental and temperature regulation of hormonal biosynthetic pathways is associated with seed priming effects on germination temperature sensitivity