University of Houston

About: University of Houston is a education organization based out in Houston, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23074 authors who have published 53903 publications receiving 1641968 citations.

Solitons in conducting polymers

Abstract: Self-localized nonlinear excitations (solitons, polarons, and bipolarons) are fundamental and inherent features of quasi-one-dimensional conducting polymers. Their signatures are evident in many aspects of the physical and chemical properties of this growing class of novel materials. As a result, these polymers represent an opportunity for exploring the novel phenomena associated with topological solitons and their linear confinement which results from weakly lifting the ground-state degeneracy. The authors review the theoretical models that have been developed to describe the physics of polyacetylene and related conducting polymers and summarize the relevant experimental results obtained for these materials. An attempt is made to assess the validity of the soliton model of polyacetylene and its generalization to related systems in which the ground-state degeneracy has been lifted.

A test for independence based on the correlation dimension

Abstract: This paper presents a test of independence that can be applied to the estimated residuals of any time series model that can be transformed into a model driven by independent and identically distributed errors. The first order asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is independent of estimation error provided that the parameters of the model under test can be estimated -consistently. Because of this, our method can be used as a model selection tool and as a specification test. Widely used software1 written by Dechert and LeBaron can be used to implement the test. Also, this software is fast enough that the null distribution of our test statistic can be estimated with bootstrap methods. Our method can be viewed as a nonlinear analog of the Box-Pierce Q statistic used in ARIMA analysis.

Comprehensivemolecular characterization of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract: Genetic changes underlying clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) include alterations in genes controlling cellular oxygen sensing (for example, VHL) and the maintenance of chromatin states (for example, PBRM1). We surveyed more than 400 tumours using different genomic platforms and identified 19 significantly mutated genes. The PI(3)K/AKT pathway was recurrently mutated, suggesting this pathway as a potential therapeutic target. Widespread DNA hypomethylation was associated with mutation of the H3K36 methyltransferase SETD2, and integrative analysis suggested that mutations involving the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex (PBRM1, ARID1A, SMARCA4) could have far-reaching effects on other pathways. Aggressive cancers demonstrated evidence of a metabolic shift, involving downregulation of genes involved in the TCA cycle, decreased AMPK and PTEN protein levels, upregulation of the pentose phosphate pathway and the glutamine transporter genes, increased acetyl-CoA carboxylase protein, and altered promoter methylation of miR-21 (also known as MIR21) and GRB10. Remodelling cellular metabolism thus constitutes a recurrent pattern in ccRCC that correlates with tumour stage and severity and offers new views on the opportunities for disease treatment.