Aberrant O-glycosylation and anti-glycan antibodies in an autoimmune disease IgA nephropathy and breast adenocarcinoma

Glycosylation abnormalities have been observed in autoimmune diseases and cancer. Here, we compare mechanisms of aberrant O-glycosylation, i.e., formation of Tn and sialyl-Tn structures, on MUC1 in breast cancer, and on IgA1 in an autoimmune disease, IgA nephropathy. The pathways of aberrant O-glycosylation, although different for MUC1 and IgA1, include dysregulation in glycosyltransferase expression, stability, and/or intracellular localization. Moreover, these aberrant glycoproteins are recognized by antibodies, although with different consequences. In breast cancer, elevated levels of antibodies recognizing aberrant MUC1 are associated with better outcome, whereas in IgA nephropathy, the antibodies recognizing aberrant IgA1 are part of the pathogenetic process.     

Do professional forecasters believe in the Phillips curve? evidence from the G7 countries

This paper uses monthly survey data for the G7 countries for the time period 1989–2007 to explore the link between expectations on nominal wages, prices and unemployment rates as suggested by the wage and price Phillips curves. Four major findings stand out. First, we find that survey participants trust in both types of Phillips curve relationships. Second, we find evidence in favor of nonlinearities in the price Phillips curve. Third, we take into account a kink in the price Phillips curve to indicate that the slope of the Phillips curve differs during the business cycle. We find strong evidence of this feature in the data which confirms recent theoretical discussions. Fourth, we employ our data to the expectations‐augmented Phillips curve model. The results suggest that professional forecasters adopt this model when forecasting macroeconomic variables. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅谈保障性住宅的成本构成与控制

从征地和拆迁补偿费用、前期费用、配套费用、管理费用等几个方面探讨了保障性住宅的成本构成与控制。     

Inconsistencies in Constituent Theories of World Views: Quantum Mechanical Examples

We put forward the hypothesis that there exist three basic attitudes towards inconsistencies within world views: (1) The inconsistency is tolerated temporarily and is viewed as an expression of a temporary lack of knowledge due to an incomplete or wrong theory. The resolution of the inconsistency is believed to be inherent to the improvement of the theory. This improvement ultimately resolves the contradiction and therefore we call this attitude the ‘regularising’ attitude; (2) The inconsistency is tolerated and both contradicting elements in the theory are retained. This attitude integrates the inconsistency and leads to a paraconsistent calculus; therefore we will call it the paraconsistent attitude. (3) In the third attitude, both elements of inconsistency are considered to be false and the ‘real situation’ is considered something different that can not be described by the theory constructively. This indicates the incompleteness of the theory, and leads us to a paracomplete calculus; therefore we call it the paracomplete attitude. We illustrate these three attitudes by means of two ‘paradoxical’ situations in quantum mechanics, the wave-particle duality and the situation of non locality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sick building syndrome among parents of preschool children in relation to home environment in Chongqing, China

The prevalence and risk factors of sick building syndrome(SBS)symptoms in domestic environments were studied by a questionnaire survey on the home environment.Parents of 5299 3–6 years old children from randomly selected kindergartens in Chongqing,China returned completed questionnaires between December 2010 and April 2011.The prevalence of parents’SBS symptoms(often(every week)compared with never)were:11.4%for general symptoms,7.1%for mucosal symptoms and 4.4%for skin symptoms.Multiple logistic regressions were applied controlling for gender and asthma/allergic rhinitis/eczema.Living near a main road or highway was a strong risk factor for general symptoms(adjusted odds ratio,aOR=2.16,P<0.001),skin symptoms(aOR=2.69,P<0.001),and mucosal symptoms(aOR=1.63,P<0.01).Redecoration was a risk factor for general symptoms(aOR=2.00,P<0.001),skin symptoms(aOR=1.66,P<0.01),and mucosal symptoms(aOR=1.66,P<0.05).New furniture was a risk factor for general symptoms(aOR=2.16,P<0.001)and skin symptoms(aOR=1.67,P<0.01).Dampness related problems(mould spot,damp stain,water damage and condensation)were all risk factors for SBS symptoms,as was the presence of cockroaches,rats,and mosquitoes/flies and use of incense.Protective factors include cleaning the child’s bedroom every day and frequently exposing bedding to sunshine.In conclusion,adults’SBS symptoms were related to factors of the home environment.     

Ablation of cyclase-associated protein 2 (CAP2) leads to cardiomyopathy

Cyclase-associated proteins are highly conserved proteins that have a role in the regulation of actin dynamics. Higher eukaryotes have two isoforms, CAP1 and CAP2. To study the in vivo function of CAP2, we generated mice in which the CAP2 gene was inactivated by a gene-trap approach. Mutant mice showed a decrease in body weight and had a decreased survival rate. Further, they developed a severe cardiac defect marked by dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) associated with drastic reduction in basal heart rate and prolongations in atrial and ventricular conduction times. Moreover, CAP2-deficient myofibrils exhibited reduced cooperativity of calcium-regulated force development. At the microscopic level, we observed disarrayed sarcomeres with development of fibrosis. We analyzed CAP2’s role in actin assembly and found that it sequesters G-actin and efficiently fragments filaments. This activity resides completely in its WASP homology domain. Thus CAP2 is an essential component of the myocardial sarcomere and is essential for physiological functioning of the cardiac system, and a deficiency leads to DCM and various cardiac defects.     

Autoregressive-asymmetric moving average models for business cycle data

Much business cycle research is based on an assumption of symmetric cycles, though it is frequently argued that the downturns are steeper and more short-lived than the upturns; implying cyclical asymmetries. A new class of nonlinear autoregressive-asymmetric moving average models is introduced. These models are able to deal with symmetric as well as asymmetric phenomena. A likelihood estimation procedure and a Wald test statistic for symmetry are presented. Evidence of asymmetry is found in US real GNP growth rates.     

Data Mining as an Enabler for Customer Data Driven Vehicle Development

对于汽车等面向消费者的行业,数据驱动的产品开发是一项关键的系统工程。数据驱动方法的前提是数据本身,由于现代车辆的联网能力不断提高,使得汽车制造商能够以内部总线信号的形式记录并储存客户数据。由于这些数据并不用于外部,只用于内部通信以保证车辆的安全性和功能性,这给这些数据的应用带来了一定的困难,因此汽车行业的主要问题在于如何利用数据挖掘技术从这些数据中提取客户需求及相关信息。为此,对上述数据应用问题进行了文献调研,并在此基础上开展数据挖掘的模拟研究,以确定现有数据挖掘过程在需求获取领域的适用性;进而提出一种扩展程序,使得数据挖掘技术能够应用于相关客户数据之中,从而加快车辆开发的进程。