Regularities

The neoclassical q-theory is a good start to understand the cross section of returns. Under constant return to scale, stock returns equal levered investment returns that are tied directly with characteristics. This equation generates the relations of average returns with book-to-market, investment, and earnings surprises. We estimate the model by minimizing the differences between average stock returns and average levered investment returns via GMM. Our model captures well the average returns of portfolios sorted on capital investment and on size and book-to-market, including the small-stock value premium. Our model is also partially successful in capturing the post-earnings-announcement drift and its higher magnitude in small firms.

A combined "electrochemical-frustrated Lewis pair" approach to hydrogen activation: surface catalytic effects at platinum electrodes

Herein, we extend our “combined electrochemical–frustrated Lewis pair” approach to include Pt electrode surfaces for the first time. We found that the voltammetric response of an electrochemical–frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) system involving the B(C6F5)3/[HB(C6F5)3]− redox couple exhibits a strong surface electrocatalytic effect at Pt electrodes. Using a combination of kinetic competition studies in the presence of a H atom scavenger, 6-bromohexene, and by changing the steric bulk of the Lewis acid borane catalyst from B(C6F5)3 to B(C6Cl5)3, the mechanism of electrochemical–FLP reactions on Pt surfaces was shown to be dominated by hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT) between Pt, [Pt[BOND]H] adatoms and transient [HB(C6F5)3]⋅ electrooxidation intermediates. These findings provide further insight into this new area of combining electrochemical and FLP reactions, and proffers additional avenues for exploration beyond energy generation, such as in electrosynthesis

The Human–Nature Relationship and Its Impact on Health: A Critical Review

Within the past four decades, research has been increasingly drawn toward understanding whether there is a link between the changing human–nature relationship and its impact on people’s health. However, to examine whether there is a link requires research of its breadth and underlying mechanisms from an interdisciplinary approach. This article begins by reviewing the debates concerning the human–nature relationship, which are then critiqued and redefined from an interdisciplinary perspective. The concept and chronological history of “health” is then explored, based on the World Health Organization’s definition. Combining these concepts, the human–nature relationship and its impact on human’s health are then explored through a developing conceptual model. It is argued that using an interdisciplinary perspective can facilitate a deeper understanding of the complexities involved for attaining optimal health at the human–environmental interface

SketchSoup: Exploratory Ideation Using Design Sketches

International audienceA hallmark of early stage design is a number of quick-and-dirty sketches capturing design inspirations, model variations, and alternate viewpoints of a visual concept. We present SketchSoup, a workflow that allows designers to explore the design space induced by such sketches. We take an unstructured collection of drawings as input, along with a small number of user-provided correspondences as input. We register them using a multi-image matching algorithm, and present them as a 2D interpolation space. By morphing sketches in this space, our approach produces plausible visualizations of shape and viewpoint variations despite the presence of sketch distortions that would prevent standard camera calibration and 3D reconstruction. In addition, our interpolated sketches can serve as inspiration for further drawings, which feed back into the design space as additional image inputs. SketchSoup thus fills a significant gap in the early ideation stage of conceptual design by allowing designers to make better informed choices before proceeding to more expensive 3D modeling and prototyping. From a technical standpoint, we describe an end-to-end system that judiciously combines and adapts various image processing techniques to the drawing domain – where the images are dominated not by color, shading and texture, but by sketchy stroke contours

Bringing KASH under the SUN: the many faces of nucleo-cytoskeletal connections

The nucleus is the most prominent cellular organelle, and its sharp boundaries suggest the compartmentalization of the nucleoplasm from the cytoplasm. However, the recent identification of evolutionarily conserved linkers of the nucleoskeleton to the cytoskeleton (LINC) complexes, a family of macromolecular assemblies that span the double membrane of the nuclear envelope, reveals tight physical connections between the two compartments. Here, we review the structure and evolutionary conservation of SUN and KASH domain–containing proteins, whose interaction within the perinuclear space forms the “nuts and bolts” of LINC complexes. Moreover, we discuss the function of these complexes in nuclear, centrosomal, and chromosome dynamics, and their connection to human disease

Dynein-Dynactin Complex Is Essential for Dendritic Restriction of TM1-Containing Drosophila Dscam

BACKGROUND: Many membrane proteins, including Drosophila Dscam, are enriched in dendrites or axons within neurons. However, little is known about how the differential distribution is established and maintained. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we investigated the mechanisms underlying the dendritic targeting of Dscam[TM1]. Through forward genetic mosaic screens and by silencing specific genes via targeted RNAi, we found that several genes, encoding various components of the dynein-dynactin complex, are required for restricting Dscam[TM1] to the mushroom body dendrites. In contrast, compromising dynein/dynactin function did not affect dendritic targeting of two other dendritic markers, Nod and Rdl. Tracing newly synthesized Dscam[TM1] further revealed that compromising dynein/dynactin function did not affect the initial dendritic targeting of Dscam[TM1], but disrupted the maintenance of its restriction to dendrites. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results of this study suggest multiple mechanisms of dendritic protein targeting. Notably, dynein-dynactin plays a role in excluding dendritic Dscam, but not Rdl, from axons by retrograde transport

A Drosophila-centric view of protein tyrosine phosphatases

AbstractMost of our knowledge on protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) is derived from human pathologies and mouse knockout models. These models largely correlate well with human disease phenotypes, but can be ambiguous due to compensatory mechanisms introduced by paralogous genes. Here we present the analysis of the PTP complement of the fruit fly and the complementary view that PTP studies in Drosophila will accelerate our understanding of PTPs in physiological and pathological conditions. With only 44 PTP genes, Drosophila represents a streamlined version of the human complement. Our integrated analysis places the Drosophila PTPs into evolutionary and functional contexts, thereby providing a platform for the exploitation of the fly for PTP research and the transfer of knowledge onto other model systems