Zipf rank approach and cross-country convergence of incomes

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Shao, Jia; Ivanov, Plamen Ch.; Urošević, Branko; Stanley, H. Eugene; Podobnik, Boris

2011-05-01

We employ a concept popular in physics —the Zipf rank approach— in order to estimate the number of years that EU members would need in order to achieve "convergence" of their per capita incomes. Assuming that trends in the past twenty years continue to hold in the future, we find that after t≈30 years both developing and developed EU countries indexed by i will have comparable values of their per capita gross domestic product {\\cal G}_{i,t} . Besides the traditional Zipf rank approach we also propose a weighted Zipf rank method. In contrast to the EU block, on the world level the Zipf rank approach shows that, between 1960 and 2009, cross-country income differences increased over time. For a brief period during the 2007-2008 global economic crisis, at world level the {\\cal G}_{i,t} of richer countries declined more rapidly than the {\\cal G}_{i,t} of poorer countries, in contrast to EU where the {\\cal G}_{i,t} of developing EU countries declined faster than the {\\cal G}_{i,t} of developed EU countries, indicating that the recession interrupted the convergence between EU members. We propose a simple model of GDP evolution that accounts for the scaling we observe in the data.

Workplace harassment: double jeopardy for minority women.

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Berdahl, Jennifer L; Moore, Celia

2006-03-01

To date there have been no studies of how both sex and ethnicity might affect the incidence of both sexual and ethnic harassment at work. This article represents an effort to fill this gap. Data from employees at 5 organizations were used to test whether minority women are subject to double jeopardy at work, experiencing the most harassment because they are both women and members of a minority group. The results supported this prediction. Women experienced more sexual harassment than men, minorities experienced more ethnic harassment than Whites, and minority women experienced more harassment overall than majority men, minority men, and majority women.

A complicated answer to a simple question: Are believers and members of minority religions, churches and religious communities in postdayton BiH discriminated?

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Nagradić Slobodan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The work treats the real social position of minority religions, denominations, religious communities and churches in postdayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. In other words, the author researches real social, political, legislative, mass-media-communicational, economic status and a status of so called small religious communities and churches in other spheres of existence like education, culture, public health etc., and seeks to answer to, from rhetorical point of view, simple question: are minority religions, denominations, religious communities and churches, as defined and treated by the Law on Freedom of Religion and Legal Position of Churches and Religious Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, discriminated or not. In the focus of the author's analyses are equally institutional sphere or so called minority religious communities as such, but also and individuals, believers and followers of those institutionalized and formalized religious-denominational- ecclesial subjects having been named religious communities and churches. The results of the author's empirical-theoretical researches can be condensed into nuanced and complex answer whose content leads to conclusion that minority religions, churches and their members in several spheres of life are, after all, in inferior position, in spite of declarative equality of all religions, denominations, religious communities and churches. The author supports such conclusion with numerous and plausible arguments.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN SLOVENIA

OpenAIRE

Vera Klopčič

2018-01-01

The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia mentions only Italian and Hungarian national minority and Roma community as holders of special collective minority rights. Special rights of the autochthonous Italian and Hungarian national minorities in Slovenia are defined in Article 64. Although data on the ethnic structure in Slovenia reflect more heterogeneous ethnic structure, members of other ethnic groups than Italian and Hungarian national communities and Roma community, at present, do not...

Rank Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Gershenson, Carlos

Studies of rank distributions have been popular for decades, especially since the work of Zipf. For example, if we rank words of a given language by use frequency (most used word in English is 'the', rank 1; second most common word is 'of', rank 2), the distribution can be approximated roughly with a power law. The same applies for cities (most populated city in a country ranks first), earthquakes, metabolism, the Internet, and dozens of other phenomena. We recently proposed ``rank diversity'' to measure how ranks change in time, using the Google Books Ngram dataset. Studying six languages between 1800 and 2009, we found that the rank diversity curves of languages are universal, adjusted with a sigmoid on log-normal scale. We are studying several other datasets (sports, economies, social systems, urban systems, earthquakes, artificial life). Rank diversity seems to be universal, independently of the shape of the rank distribution. I will present our work in progress towards a general description of the features of rank change in time, along with simple models which reproduce it

PageRank tracker: from ranking to tracking.

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Gong, Chen; Fu, Keren; Loza, Artur; Wu, Qiang; Liu, Jia; Yang, Jie

2014-06-01

Video object tracking is widely used in many real-world applications, and it has been extensively studied for over two decades. However, tracking robustness is still an issue in most existing methods, due to the difficulties with adaptation to environmental or target changes. In order to improve adaptability, this paper formulates the tracking process as a ranking problem, and the PageRank algorithm, which is a well-known webpage ranking algorithm used by Google, is applied. Labeled and unlabeled samples in tracking application are analogous to query webpages and the webpages to be ranked, respectively. Therefore, determining the target is equivalent to finding the unlabeled sample that is the most associated with existing labeled set. We modify the conventional PageRank algorithm in three aspects for tracking application, including graph construction, PageRank vector acquisition and target filtering. Our simulations with the use of various challenging public-domain video sequences reveal that the proposed PageRank tracker outperforms mean-shift tracker, co-tracker, semiboosting and beyond semiboosting trackers in terms of accuracy, robustness and stability.

Logic-based aggregation methods for ranking student applicants

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Milošević Pavle

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present logic-based aggregation models used for ranking student applicants and we compare them with a number of existing aggregation methods, each more complex than the previous one. The proposed models aim to include depen- dencies in the data using Logical aggregation (LA. LA is a aggregation method based on interpolative Boolean algebra (IBA, a consistent multi-valued realization of Boolean algebra. This technique is used for a Boolean consistent aggregation of attributes that are logically dependent. The comparison is performed in the case of student applicants for master programs at the University of Belgrade. We have shown that LA has some advantages over other presented aggregation methods. The software realization of all applied aggregation methods is also provided. This paper may be of interest not only for student ranking, but also for similar problems of ranking people e.g. employees, team members, etc.

National minorities in legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Nagradić Slobodan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available There are 17 recognized national minorities living and working in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At least, they have been enumerated, identified and sanctioned as such by the Law on the Protection of Rights of National Minorities adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2003. Apart from that law, the rights of national minorities and its members have also been regulated by the whole set of many different laws, from the election, criminal, education and other identity-related laws to the laws addressing the specific areas and/or life issues, all adopted at the level of the state, the entities, the cantons, and the Brcko District of BiH. This paper analyses the content, the significance, and the legal and sociopolitical implications of certain provisions of the Law on the Protection of Rights of National Minorities from the sociological and political views and methods, as well as the relation and the impact of its norms on social sphere and individual existence (in politics, education, culture, the media, employment etc. of minority members within a multi-specific and asymmetric state as post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. The causa finalis of this tractatus's narrative is to give a better understanding of human rights of minorities, their etiology and determination.

Strategies employed by sexual minority adolescents to cope with minority stress.

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Goldbach, J T; Gibbs, J J

2015-09-01

Sexual minority adolescents (SMA) experience disparities in health and behavioral health outcomes, including high rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, substance use, HIV risk behavior, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. These outcomes are commonly attributed to minority stress. Stress experiences are different for SMA than their adult counterparts. For example, disclosing their sexual orientation may be more likely to result in homelessness because these youth more often live with parents or other family members. Although stress in this population has been explored in previous research, very little is known about how SMA cope. Relying upon an adolescent coping model, this study examined the coping strategies, responses, and resources of SMA related to stress. Forty-eight racially and ethnically diverse SMA (age 14-19) were recruited for 90-minute tape-recorded interviews. The semi-structured interviews were guided by a life history calendar. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and entered into QSR NVivo. All transcripts were coded by two members of the research team and went through a consensus process. Forty-three unique coping statements emerged that fit with the Compas model of adolescent coping. SMA cope with minority stress in similar ways to heterosexual youth coping with general stress, but findings suggest that SMA may also use different kinds of coping resources. Although further research is needed, the present study identified a variety of ways SMA cope with stress and can inform future research on the development interventions.

75 FR 26757 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-12

... Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic minority group and... to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public...

Ranking network of a captive rhesus macaque society: a sophisticated corporative kingdom.

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Fushing, Hsieh; McAssey, Michael P; Beisner, Brianne; McCowan, Brenda

2011-03-15

We develop a three-step computing approach to explore a hierarchical ranking network for a society of captive rhesus macaques. The computed network is sufficiently informative to address the question: Is the ranking network for a rhesus macaque society more like a kingdom or a corporation? Our computations are based on a three-step approach. These steps are devised to deal with the tremendous challenges stemming from the transitivity of dominance as a necessary constraint on the ranking relations among all individual macaques, and the very high sampling heterogeneity in the behavioral conflict data. The first step simultaneously infers the ranking potentials among all network members, which requires accommodation of heterogeneous measurement error inherent in behavioral data. Our second step estimates the social rank for all individuals by minimizing the network-wide errors in the ranking potentials. The third step provides a way to compute confidence bounds for selected empirical features in the social ranking. We apply this approach to two sets of conflict data pertaining to two captive societies of adult rhesus macaques. The resultant ranking network for each society is found to be a sophisticated mixture of both a kingdom and a corporation. Also, for validation purposes, we reanalyze conflict data from twenty longhorn sheep and demonstrate that our three-step approach is capable of correctly computing a ranking network by eliminating all ranking error.

Ranking network of a captive rhesus macaque society: a sophisticated corporative kingdom.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hsieh Fushing

2011-03-01

Full Text Available We develop a three-step computing approach to explore a hierarchical ranking network for a society of captive rhesus macaques. The computed network is sufficiently informative to address the question: Is the ranking network for a rhesus macaque society more like a kingdom or a corporation? Our computations are based on a three-step approach. These steps are devised to deal with the tremendous challenges stemming from the transitivity of dominance as a necessary constraint on the ranking relations among all individual macaques, and the very high sampling heterogeneity in the behavioral conflict data. The first step simultaneously infers the ranking potentials among all network members, which requires accommodation of heterogeneous measurement error inherent in behavioral data. Our second step estimates the social rank for all individuals by minimizing the network-wide errors in the ranking potentials. The third step provides a way to compute confidence bounds for selected empirical features in the social ranking. We apply this approach to two sets of conflict data pertaining to two captive societies of adult rhesus macaques. The resultant ranking network for each society is found to be a sophisticated mixture of both a kingdom and a corporation. Also, for validation purposes, we reanalyze conflict data from twenty longhorn sheep and demonstrate that our three-step approach is capable of correctly computing a ranking network by eliminating all ranking error.

PageRank and rank-reversal dependence on the damping factor

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Son, S.-W.; Christensen, C.; Grassberger, P.; Paczuski, M.

2012-12-01

PageRank (PR) is an algorithm originally developed by Google to evaluate the importance of web pages. Considering how deeply rooted Google's PR algorithm is to gathering relevant information or to the success of modern businesses, the question of rank stability and choice of the damping factor (a parameter in the algorithm) is clearly important. We investigate PR as a function of the damping factor d on a network obtained from a domain of the World Wide Web, finding that rank reversal happens frequently over a broad range of PR (and of d). We use three different correlation measures, Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall, to study rank reversal as d changes, and we show that the correlation of PR vectors drops rapidly as d changes from its frequently cited value, d0=0.85. Rank reversal is also observed by measuring the Spearman and Kendall rank correlation, which evaluate relative ranks rather than absolute PR. Rank reversal happens not only in directed networks containing rank sinks but also in a single strongly connected component, which by definition does not contain any sinks. We relate rank reversals to rank pockets and bottlenecks in the directed network structure. For the network studied, the relative rank is more stable by our measures around d=0.65 than at d=d0.

PageRank and rank-reversal dependence on the damping factor.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, S-W; Christensen, C; Grassberger, P; Paczuski, M

2012-12-01

PageRank (PR) is an algorithm originally developed by Google to evaluate the importance of web pages. Considering how deeply rooted Google's PR algorithm is to gathering relevant information or to the success of modern businesses, the question of rank stability and choice of the damping factor (a parameter in the algorithm) is clearly important. We investigate PR as a function of the damping factor d on a network obtained from a domain of the World Wide Web, finding that rank reversal happens frequently over a broad range of PR (and of d). We use three different correlation measures, Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall, to study rank reversal as d changes, and we show that the correlation of PR vectors drops rapidly as d changes from its frequently cited value, d_{0}=0.85. Rank reversal is also observed by measuring the Spearman and Kendall rank correlation, which evaluate relative ranks rather than absolute PR. Rank reversal happens not only in directed networks containing rank sinks but also in a single strongly connected component, which by definition does not contain any sinks. We relate rank reversals to rank pockets and bottlenecks in the directed network structure. For the network studied, the relative rank is more stable by our measures around d=0.65 than at d=d_{0}.

Ranking structures and rank-rank correlations of countries: The FIFA and UEFA cases

Science.gov (United States)

Ausloos, Marcel; Cloots, Rudi; Gadomski, Adam; Vitanov, Nikolay K.

2014-04-01

Ranking of agents competing with each other in complex systems may lead to paradoxes according to the pre-chosen different measures. A discussion is presented on such rank-rank, similar or not, correlations based on the case of European countries ranked by UEFA and FIFA from different soccer competitions. The first question to be answered is whether an empirical and simple law is obtained for such (self-) organizations of complex sociological systems with such different measuring schemes. It is found that the power law form is not the best description contrary to many modern expectations. The stretched exponential is much more adequate. Moreover, it is found that the measuring rules lead to some inner structures in both cases.

Sex-reversed correlation between stress levels and dominance rank in a captive non-breeder flock of crows.

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Ode, Minami; Asaba, Akari; Miyazawa, Eri; Mogi, Kazutaka; Kikusui, Takefumi; Izawa, Ei-Ichi

2015-07-01

Group living has both benefits and costs to individuals; benefits include efficient acquisition of resources, and costs include stress from social conflicts among group members. Such social challenges result in hierarchical dominance ranking among group members as a solution to avoid escalating conflict that causes different levels of basal stress between individuals at different ranks. Stress-associated glucocorticoid (corticosterone in rodents and birds; CORT) levels are known to correlate with dominance rank in diverse taxa and to covary with various social factors, such as sex and dominance maintenance styles. Although there is much evidence for sex differences in the basal levels of CORT in various species, the correlation of sex differences in basal CORT with dominance rank is poorly understood. We investigated the correlation between CORT metabolites (CM) in the droppings and social factors, including rank and sex, in a captive non-breeder group of crows. In this group, all the single males dominated all the single females, and dominance ranks were stable among single males but relatively unstable among single females. CM levels and rank were significantly correlated in a sex-reversed fashion: males at higher rank (i.e., more dominant) had higher CM, whereas females at higher rank exhibited lower CM. This is the first evidence of sex-reversed patterns of CM-rank correlation in birds. The results suggest that different mechanisms of stress-dominance relationships operate on the sexes in non-breeder crow aggregations; in males, stress is associated with the cost of aggressive displays, whereas females experience subordination stress due to males' overt aggression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ethnic minority psychology: struggles and triumphs.

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Sue, Stanley

2009-10-01

This article focuses on my interpretation of the history of ethnic minority psychology, using as a base the presentations of the contributing authors to this special issue of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Because each contributing author has focused on a particular ethnic group or a particular aspect of history, my goal is to focus on 3 common issues and problems. First, what are the themes and issues that confronted African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, and Latinos? Second, what were characteristics of the ethnic leaders on whose shoulders we now stand? Third, what kinds of relationships existed between members of different ethnic minority groups? Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN SLOVENIA

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Vera Klopčič

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia mentions only Italian and Hungarian national minority and Roma community as holders of special collective minority rights. Special rights of the autochthonous Italian and Hungarian national minorities in Slovenia are defined in Article 64. Although data on the ethnic structure in Slovenia reflect more heterogeneous ethnic structure, members of other ethnic groups than Italian and Hungarian national communities and Roma community, at present, do not have the status of a national minority in the sense of collective holders of minority rights. In February 2018 the draft Act on the Implementation of Collective Cultural Rights of National Communities of the Nations of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Republic of Slovenia was prepared. The draft received a support within the National Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia for further consideration

SibRank: Signed bipartite network analysis for neighbor-based collaborative ranking

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Shams, Bita; Haratizadeh, Saman

2016-09-01

Collaborative ranking is an emerging field of recommender systems that utilizes users' preference data rather than rating values. Unfortunately, neighbor-based collaborative ranking has gained little attention despite its more flexibility and justifiability. This paper proposes a novel framework, called SibRank that seeks to improve the state of the art neighbor-based collaborative ranking methods. SibRank represents users' preferences as a signed bipartite network, and finds similar users, through a novel personalized ranking algorithm in signed networks.

The Yugoslav Minority Standards and Croats in the FR of Yugoslavia

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Milenko Horvatić

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Ethnic relations and the treatment of minorities have proven themselves to be an exceptionally important issue for security and stability in the Balkans, especially in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY. The perspective for peace in this country is to a great deal dependent on the ability to find a solution to the problems of national minorities. All Yugoslav constitutions have included clauses relating to minority rights, yet significant differences were evident in the degrees of stipulated protection for minorities. In these acts minority status was regulated as a liberty and a right enjoyed by individuals − members of minorities. The status of a minority as a collective group was generally not regulated, and the measures for the protection of collective rights were not sufficiently developed. Nevertheless, guarantees in the Constitution of the FRY and the fact that international accords in the Yugoslav legal system stand above the law, on the whole provide a good basis for developing a system of protection of minority rights. Croats live on the territory of the present FRY as an indigenous and homogeneous group in the republics of Serbia and Montenegro. In Serbia the largest Croat concentration is located in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Following the Kosovo crisis, no Croats remained in Kosovo. In Montenegro Croats live mostly in Boka Kotorska. Minorities make up a third of the population of the FRY and the largest minority groups live in Serbia. Based on an analysis of census figures after WWII (the period examined it is apparent that the number and percentage of minority group members has been on a continuous decline, except in the case of the Albanians, Roma and Yugoslavs. The national (ethnic structure of the FRY has significantly changed since the 1991 census, to the detriment of the percentage of minority populations in the overall population. Taking into consideration the period from 1961 to the (most recent 1991 census

Cross-border mergers and minority protection
An open-ended harmonization

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Marieke Wyckaert

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Minority protection is an important, though difficult, issue in company law, and a subtle balance must be struck between the legitimate interests of the majority and minority shareholder(s. The rules on minority protection in the context of the Cross-border Mergers Directive, which was recently adopted and should have been transposed into Member States’ national law towards the end of 2007, are examined in this paper. The authors analyse how minority shareholders are protected within the scope of this Directive and how some of the Member States (such as Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands have transposed or will transpose some of these protective provisions. The different levels of minority protection (information rights, consultation rights, rights to challenge majority decisions and other specific rights are considered, as well as which types of shareholders can benefit from such protection, and why they should be afforded protection. With respect to the last question, the authors conclude that the change in corporate law encountered especially by the shareholders of the disappearing company seems to be the major rationale underlying the European legislator's decision to introduce minority protection (but not oblige Member States to do so. The authors submit that this reflects too narrow a vision on the need for minority protection because it ignores the fact that the change of the corporate form as a consequence of a merger is in itself sufficient rationale for protecting minority shareholders. It remains somewhat of a mystery as to why the European legislator, while confirming that a cross-border merger should be subject to the same rules as a national merger, has created one possible and very vague exception to that rule.

Does formal mentoring for faculty members matter? A survey of clinical faculty members.

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Mylona, Elza; Brubaker, Linda; Williams, Valerie N; Novielli, Karen D; Lyness, Jeffrey M; Pollart, Susan M; Dandar, Valerie; Bunton, Sarah A

2016-06-01

Mentoring relationships, for all medical school faculty members, are an important component of lifelong development and education, yet an understanding of mentoring among medical school clinical faculty members is incomplete. This study examined associations between formal mentoring relationships and aspects of faculty members' engagement and satisfaction. It then explored the variability of these associations across subgroups of clinical faculty members to understand the status of mentoring and outcomes of mentoring relationships. The authors hypothesised that academic clinical faculty members currently in formal mentoring relationships experience enhanced employee engagement and satisfaction with their department and institution. Medical school faculty members at 26 self-selected USA institutions participated in the 2011-2014 Faculty Forward Engagement Survey. Responses from clinical faculty members were analysed for relationships between mentoring status and perceptions of engagement by faculty members. Of the 11 953 clinical faculty respondents, almost one-third reported having a formal mentoring relationship (30%; 3529). Most mentored faculty indicated the relationship was important (86%; n = 3027), and over three-fourths were satisfied with their mentoring experience (77%; n = 2722). Mentored faculty members across ranks reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction and more positive perceptions of their roles in the organisation. Faculty members who were not receiving mentoring reported significantly less satisfaction with their workplace environment and lower overall satisfaction. Mentored clinical faculty members have significantly greater satisfaction with their department and institution. This multi-institutional study provides evidence that fostering mentoring opportunities may facilitate faculty members' satisfaction and engagement, which, in turn, may help medical schools retain high-quality faculty staff committed to the multidimensional

Ranking nodes in growing networks: When PageRank fails.

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Mariani, Manuel Sebastian; Medo, Matúš; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2015-11-10

PageRank is arguably the most popular ranking algorithm which is being applied in real systems ranging from information to biological and infrastructure networks. Despite its outstanding popularity and broad use in different areas of science, the relation between the algorithm's efficacy and properties of the network on which it acts has not yet been fully understood. We study here PageRank's performance on a network model supported by real data, and show that realistic temporal effects make PageRank fail in individuating the most valuable nodes for a broad range of model parameters. Results on real data are in qualitative agreement with our model-based findings. This failure of PageRank reveals that the static approach to information filtering is inappropriate for a broad class of growing systems, and suggest that time-dependent algorithms that are based on the temporal linking patterns of these systems are needed to better rank the nodes.

Reduced Rank Regression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Søren

2008-01-01

The reduced rank regression model is a multivariate regression model with a coefficient matrix with reduced rank. The reduced rank regression algorithm is an estimation procedure, which estimates the reduced rank regression model. It is related to canonical correlations and involves calculating...

General Self-Esteem of Adolescents from Ethnic Minorities in the Netherlands and the Reflected Appraisal Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Verkuyten, Maykel

1988-01-01

Examined lack of differences in general self-esteem between adolescents of ethnic minorities and Dutch adolescents, focusing on reflected appraisal process. Found significant relationship between general self-esteem and perceived evaluation of family members (and no such relationship with nonfamily members) for ethnic minority adolescents;…

Human rights violations among sexual and gender minorities in Kathmandu, Nepal: a qualitative investigation.

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Singh, Sonal; Pant, Sunil Babu; Dhakal, Suben; Pokhrel, Subash; Mullany, Luke C

2012-05-16

Nepal has experienced sporadic reports of human rights violations among sexual and gender minorities. Our objective was to identify a range of human rights that are enshrined in international law and/or are commonly reported by sexual and gender minority participants in Kathmandu, to be nonprotected or violated. In September 2009 three focus group discussions were conducted by trained interviewers among a convenience sample of sexual and gender minority participants in Kathmandu Nepal. The modified Delphi technique was utilized to elicit and rank participant-generated definitions of human rights and their subsequent violations. Data was analyzed independently and cross checked by another investigator. Participants (n = 29) reported experiencing a range of human rights violations at home, work, educational, health care settings and in public places. Lack of adequate legal protection, physical and mental abuse and torture were commonly reported. Access to adequate legal protection and improvements in the family and healthcare environment were ranked as the most important priority areas. Sexual and gender minorities in Nepal experienced a range of human rights violations. Future efforts should enroll a larger and more systematic sample of participants to determine frequency, timing, and/or intensity of exposure to rights violations, and estimate the population-based impact of these rights violations on specific health outcomes.

RankProdIt: A web-interactive Rank Products analysis tool

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Laing Emma

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The first objective of a DNA microarray experiment is typically to generate a list of genes or probes that are found to be differentially expressed or represented (in the case of comparative genomic hybridizations and/or copy number variation between two conditions or strains. Rank Products analysis comprises a robust algorithm for deriving such lists from microarray experiments that comprise small numbers of replicates, for example, less than the number required for the commonly used t-test. Currently, users wishing to apply Rank Products analysis to their own microarray data sets have been restricted to the use of command line-based software which can limit its usage within the biological community. Findings Here we have developed a web interface to existing Rank Products analysis tools allowing users to quickly process their data in an intuitive and step-wise manner to obtain the respective Rank Product or Rank Sum, probability of false prediction and p-values in a downloadable file. Conclusions The online interactive Rank Products analysis tool RankProdIt, for analysis of any data set containing measurements for multiple replicated conditions, is available at: http://strep-microarray.sbs.surrey.ac.uk/RankProducts

RankExplorer: Visualization of Ranking Changes in Large Time Series Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Conglei; Cui, Weiwei; Liu, Shixia; Xu, Panpan; Chen, Wei; Qu, Huamin

2012-12-01

For many applications involving time series data, people are often interested in the changes of item values over time as well as their ranking changes. For example, people search many words via search engines like Google and Bing every day. Analysts are interested in both the absolute searching number for each word as well as their relative rankings. Both sets of statistics may change over time. For very large time series data with thousands of items, how to visually present ranking changes is an interesting challenge. In this paper, we propose RankExplorer, a novel visualization method based on ThemeRiver to reveal the ranking changes. Our method consists of four major components: 1) a segmentation method which partitions a large set of time series curves into a manageable number of ranking categories; 2) an extended ThemeRiver view with embedded color bars and changing glyphs to show the evolution of aggregation values related to each ranking category over time as well as the content changes in each ranking category; 3) a trend curve to show the degree of ranking changes over time; 4) rich user interactions to support interactive exploration of ranking changes. We have applied our method to some real time series data and the case studies demonstrate that our method can reveal the underlying patterns related to ranking changes which might otherwise be obscured in traditional visualizations.

Quantitative Analysis of Mixtures of Monoprotic Acids Applying Modified Model-Based Rank Annihilation Factor Analysis on Variation Matrices of Spectrophotometric Acid-Base Titrations

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Ebrahim Ghorbani-Kalhor

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the current work, a new version of rank annihilation factor analysis was developedto circumvent the rank deficiency problem in multivariate data measurements.Simultaneous determination of dissociation constant and concentration of monoprotic acids was performed by applying model-based rank annihilation factor analysis on variation matrices of spectrophotometric acid-base titrations data. Variation matrices can be obtained by subtracting first row of data matrix from all rows of the main data matrix. This method uses variation matrices instead of multivariate spectrophotometric acid-base titrations matrices to circumvent the rank deficiency problem in the rank quantitation step. The applicability of this approach was evaluated by simulated data at first stage, then the binary mixtures of ascorbic and sorbic acids as model compounds were investigated by the proposed method. At the end, the proposed method was successfully applied for resolving the ascorbic and sorbic acid in an orange juice real sample. Therefore, unique results were achieved by applying rank annihilation factor analysis on variation matrix and using hard soft model combination advantage without any problem and difficulty in rank determination. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;}    

Perceptions of Hazing and Bullying among U.S. Military Service Members

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-18

this study. Third, additional demographic criteria such as job type, specific location, and sexual orientation are omitted from these data. These and...perceptions. 31 Fourth, additional demographic criteria not included in the data may indicate perceptual differences based on age or other characteristics...For example, it can be assumed that rank and age are highly correlated, as higher rank service members often have spent more time in the military

PageRank as a method to rank biomedical literature by importance.

Science.gov (United States)

Yates, Elliot J; Dixon, Louise C

2015-01-01

Optimal ranking of literature importance is vital in overcoming article overload. Existing ranking methods are typically based on raw citation counts, giving a sum of 'inbound' links with no consideration of citation importance. PageRank, an algorithm originally developed for ranking webpages at the search engine, Google, could potentially be adapted to bibliometrics to quantify the relative importance weightings of a citation network. This article seeks to validate such an approach on the freely available, PubMed Central open access subset (PMC-OAS) of biomedical literature. On-demand cloud computing infrastructure was used to extract a citation network from over 600,000 full-text PMC-OAS articles. PageRanks and citation counts were calculated for each node in this network. PageRank is highly correlated with citation count (R = 0.905, P PageRank can be trivially computed on commodity cluster hardware and is linearly correlated with citation count. Given its putative benefits in quantifying relative importance, we suggest it may enrich the citation network, thereby overcoming the existing inadequacy of citation counts alone. We thus suggest PageRank as a feasible supplement to, or replacement of, existing bibliometric ranking methods.

Rank-dependent grooming patterns and cortisol alleviation in Barbary macaques.

Science.gov (United States)

Sonnweber, Ruth S; Ravignani, Andrea; Stobbe, Nina; Schiestl, Gisela; Wallner, Bernard; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2015-06-01

Flexibly adapting social behavior to social and environmental challenges helps to alleviate glucocorticoid (GC) levels, which may have positive fitness implications for an individual. For primates, the predominant social behavior is grooming. Giving grooming to others is particularly efficient in terms of GC mitigation. However, grooming is confined by certain limitations such as time constraints or restricted access to other group members. For instance, dominance hierarchies may impact grooming partner availability in primate societies. Consequently specific grooming patterns emerge. In despotic species focusing grooming activity on preferred social partners significantly ameliorates GC levels in females of all ranks. In this study we investigated grooming patterns and GC management in Barbary macaques, a comparably relaxed species. We monitored changes in grooming behavior and cortisol (C) for females of different ranks. Our results show that the C-amelioration associated with different grooming patterns had a gradual connection with dominance hierarchy: while higher-ranking individuals showed lowest urinary C measures when they focused their grooming on selected partners within their social network, lower-ranking individuals expressed lowest C levels when dispersing their grooming activity evenly across their social partners. We argue that the relatively relaxed social style of Barbary macaque societies allows individuals to flexibly adapt grooming patterns, which is associated with rank-specific GC management. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Health systems around the world - a comparison of existing health system rankings.

Science.gov (United States)

Schütte, Stefanie; Acevedo, Paula N Marin; Flahault, Antoine

2018-06-01

Existing health systems all over the world are different due to the different combinations of components that can be considered for their establishment. The ranking of health systems has been a focal points for many years especially the issue of performance. In 2000 the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a ranking to compare the Performance of the health system of the member countries. Since then other health system rankings have been performed and it became an issue of public discussion. A point of contention regarding these rankings is the methodology employed by each of them, since no gold standard exists. Therefore, this review focuses on evaluating the methodologies of each existing health system performance ranking to assess their reproducibility and transparency. A search was conducted to identify existing health system rankings, and a questionnaire was developed for the comparison of the methodologies based on the following indicators: (1) General information, (2) Statistical methods, (3) Data (4) Indicators. Overall nine rankings were identified whereas six of them focused rather on the measurement of population health without any financial component and were therefore excluded. Finally, three health system rankings were selected for this review: "Health Systems: Improving Performance" by the WHO, "Mirror, Mirror on the wall: How the Performance of the US Health Care System Compares Internationally" by the Commonwealth Fund and "the Most efficient Health Care" by Bloomberg. After the completion of the comparison of the rankings by giving them scores according to the indicators, the ranking performed the WHO was considered the most complete regarding the ability of reproducibility and transparency of the methodology. This review and comparison could help in establishing consensus in the field of health system research. This may also help giving recommendations for future health rankings and evaluating the current gap in the literature.

Improving Acceptance, Integration, and Health Among LGBT Service Members

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

Military, LGBT, health disparities, minority stress , social networks 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 19a...physical and mental health needs of this community. This project includes LGBT service members from all four services, Army, Air Force, Navy and...acceptance and integration of sexual minorities into traditional heterosexual work environments. Further, the findings will address possible health

Organizational role stress among medical school faculty members in Iran: dealing with role conflict

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brommels Mats

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Little research has been conducted to investigate role stress experienced by faculty members in medical schools in developing countries. This becomes even more important when the process of reform in medical education has already taken place, such as the case of Iran. The objectives of this study were to investigate and assess the level and source of role-related stress as well as dimensions of conflict among the faculty members of Iranian medical schools. Variables like the length of academic work, academic rank, employment position, and the departments of affiliation were also taken into consideration in order to determine potentially related factors. Methods A survey was conducted at three different ranks of public medical schools. The validated Organizational Role Stress Scale was used to investigate the level of role stress and dimensions of role conflict among medical faculty members. The response rate was 66.5%. Results The findings show that role stress was experienced in high level among almost all faculty members. All three studied medical schools with different ranks are threatened with relatively the same levels of role stress. Specific differences were found among faculty members from different disciplines, and academic ranks. Also having permanent position and the length of services had significant correlation with the level of role stress. The major role- related stress and forms of conflict among faculty members were role overload, role expectation conflict, inter-role distance, resource inadequacy, role stagnation, and role isolation. Conclusion The most role-related stressors and forms of conflict among faculty members include too many tasks and everyday work load; conflicting demands from colleagues and superiors; incompatible demands from their different personal and organizational roles; inadequate resources for appropriate performance; insufficient competency to meet the demands of their role; inadequate

77 FR 18248 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-27

... the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic... racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will... least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public will have an opportunity...

77 FR 39495 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-03

... the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic... racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will... least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public will have an opportunity...

76 FR 39107 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-05

... the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic... strategies to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public...

78 FR 11885 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-20

... each racial and ethnic minority group and on the development of goals and specific program activities... strategies to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public...

78 FR 36783 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-19

... racial and ethnic minority group and on the development of goals and specific program activities of the... improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies... (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public will have an opportunity to provide...

75 FR 80055 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-21

... the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic... strategies to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public...

75 FR 9220 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-01

... each racial and ethnic minority group and on the development of goals and specific program activities... to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public...

RANK and RANK ligand expression in primary human osteosarcoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Branstetter

2015-09-01

Our results demonstrate RANKL expression was observed in the tumor element in 68% of human OS using IHC. However, the staining intensity was relatively low and only 37% (29/79 of samples exhibited≥10% RANKL positive tumor cells. RANK expression was not observed in OS tumor cells. In contrast, RANK expression was clearly observed in other cells within OS samples, including the myeloid osteoclast precursor compartment, osteoclasts and in giant osteoclast cells. The intensity and frequency of RANKL and RANK staining in OS samples were substantially less than that observed in GCTB samples. The observation that RANKL is expressed in OS cells themselves suggests that these tumors may mediate an osteoclastic response, and anti-RANKL therapy may potentially be protective against bone pathologies in OS. However, the absence of RANK expression in primary human OS cells suggests that any autocrine RANKL/RANK signaling in human OS tumor cells is not operative, and anti-RANKL therapy would not directly affect the tumor.

Ranking nodes in growing networks: When PageRank fails

Science.gov (United States)

Mariani, Manuel Sebastian; Medo, Matúš; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2015-11-01

PageRank is arguably the most popular ranking algorithm which is being applied in real systems ranging from information to biological and infrastructure networks. Despite its outstanding popularity and broad use in different areas of science, the relation between the algorithm’s efficacy and properties of the network on which it acts has not yet been fully understood. We study here PageRank’s performance on a network model supported by real data, and show that realistic temporal effects make PageRank fail in individuating the most valuable nodes for a broad range of model parameters. Results on real data are in qualitative agreement with our model-based findings. This failure of PageRank reveals that the static approach to information filtering is inappropriate for a broad class of growing systems, and suggest that time-dependent algorithms that are based on the temporal linking patterns of these systems are needed to better rank the nodes.

Human rights violations among sexual and gender minorities in Kathmandu, Nepal: a qualitative investigation

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Nepal has experienced sporadic reports of human rights violations among sexual and gender minorities. Our objective was to identify a range of human rights that are enshrined in international law and/or are commonly reported by sexual and gender minority participants in Kathmandu, to be nonprotected or violated. Methods In September 2009 three focus group discussions were conducted by trained interviewers among a convenience sample of sexual and gender minority participants in Kathmandu Nepal. The modified Delphi technique was utilized to elicit and rank participant-generated definitions of human rights and their subsequent violations. Data was analyzed independently and cross checked by another investigator. Results Participants (n = 29) reported experiencing a range of human rights violations at home, work, educational, health care settings and in public places. Lack of adequate legal protection, physical and mental abuse and torture were commonly reported. Access to adequate legal protection and improvements in the family and healthcare environment were ranked as the most important priority areas. Conclusions Sexual and gender minorities in Nepal experienced a range of human rights violations. Future efforts should enroll a larger and more systematic sample of participants to determine frequency, timing, and/or intensity of exposure to rights violations, and estimate the population-based impact of these rights violations on specific health outcomes PMID:22591775

77 FR 69484 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-19

... each racial and ethnic minority group and on the development of goals and specific program activities... strategies to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health... designated contact person at least seven (7) business days prior to the meeting. Members of the public will...

76 FR 60841 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-30

... the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health in improving the health of each racial and ethnic... the designated contact person at least fourteen (14) business days prior to the meeting. Members of... or fax their comments to the Office of Minority Health at least seven (7) business days prior to the...

76 FR 73644 - Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-29

... improving the health of each racial and ethnic minority group and on the development of goals and specific... include strategies to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development..., should notify the designated contact person prior to close of business December 22, 2011. Members of the...

RANK/RANK-Ligand/OPG: Ein neuer Therapieansatz in der Osteoporosebehandlung

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Preisinger E

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Die Erforschung der Kopplungsmechanismen zur Osteoklastogenese, Knochenresorption und Remodellierung eröffnete neue mögliche Therapieansätze in der Behandlung der Osteoporose. Eine Schlüsselrolle beim Knochenabbau spielt der RANK- ("receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF- κB"- Ligand (RANKL. Durch die Bindung von RANKL an den Rezeptor RANK wird die Knochenresorption eingeleitet. OPG (Osteoprotegerin sowie der für den klinischen Gebrauch entwickelte humane monoklonale Antikörper (IgG2 Denosumab blockieren die Bindung von RANK-Ligand an RANK und verhindern den Knochenabbau.

Life Satisfaction Among Ethnic Minorities : The Role of Discrimination and Group Identification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verkuyten, Maykel

2008-01-01

For most immigrants and ethnic minority groups, everyday life in the country of settlement raises question of adaptation and belonging. Aside from factors such as lower income, lower education and poorer health, being an ethnic minority member carries additional factors that can lower general life

Authors and editors assort on gender and geography in high-rank ecological publications.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kezia R Manlove

Full Text Available Peer-reviewed publication volume and caliber are widely-recognized proxies for academic merit, and a strong publication record is essential for academic success and advancement. However, recent work suggests that publication productivity for particular author groups may also be determined in part by implicit biases lurking in the publication pipeline. Here, we explore patterns of gender, geography, and institutional rank among authors, editorial board members, and handling editors in high-impact ecological publications during 2015 and 2016. A higher proportion of lead authors had female first names (33.9% than editorial board members (28.9%, and the proportion of female first names among handling editors was even lower (21.1%. Female editors disproportionately edited publications with female lead authors (40.3% of publications with female lead authors were handled by female editors, though female editors handled only 34.4% of all studied publications. Additionally, ecological authors and editors were overwhelmingly from countries in the G8, and high-ranking academic institutions accounted for a large portion of both the published work, and its editorship. Editors and lead authors with female names were typically affiliated with higher-ranking institutions than their male peers. This description of author and editor features provides a baseline for benchmarking future trends in the ecological publishing culture.

Authors and editors assort on gender and geography in high-rank ecological publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Manlove, Kezia R; Belou, Rebecca M

2018-01-01

Peer-reviewed publication volume and caliber are widely-recognized proxies for academic merit, and a strong publication record is essential for academic success and advancement. However, recent work suggests that publication productivity for particular author groups may also be determined in part by implicit biases lurking in the publication pipeline. Here, we explore patterns of gender, geography, and institutional rank among authors, editorial board members, and handling editors in high-impact ecological publications during 2015 and 2016. A higher proportion of lead authors had female first names (33.9%) than editorial board members (28.9%), and the proportion of female first names among handling editors was even lower (21.1%). Female editors disproportionately edited publications with female lead authors (40.3% of publications with female lead authors were handled by female editors, though female editors handled only 34.4% of all studied publications). Additionally, ecological authors and editors were overwhelmingly from countries in the G8, and high-ranking academic institutions accounted for a large portion of both the published work, and its editorship. Editors and lead authors with female names were typically affiliated with higher-ranking institutions than their male peers. This description of author and editor features provides a baseline for benchmarking future trends in the ecological publishing culture.

Research Ranking of Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences Based on International Indicators: An Experience From I.R. of Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Baradaran Eftekhari, Monir; Sobhani, Zahra; Eltemasi, Masoumeh; Ghalenoee, Elham; Falahat, Katayoun; Habibi, Elham; Djalalinia, Shirin; Paykari, Niloofar; Ebadifar, Asghar; Akhondzadeh, Shahin

2017-11-01

In recent years, international ranking systems have been used by diverse users for various purposes. In most of these rankings, different aspects of performance of universities and research institutes, especially scientific performance, have been evaluated and ranked. In this article, we aimed to report the results of research ranking of Iranian universities of medical sciences (UMSs) based on some international indicators in 2015. In this study, after reviewing the research indicators of the majority of international ranking systems, with the participation of key stakeholders, we selected eight research indicators, namely research output, high-quality publications, leadership, total citations, citations per paper in 2015, papers per faculty member and h-index. The main sources for data gathering were Scopus, PubMed, and ISI, Web of Science. Data were extracted and normalized for Iranian governmental UMSs for 2015. A total of 18023 articles were indexed in 2015 in Scopus with affiliations of UMSs affiliation. Almost 17% of all articles were published in top journals and 15% were published with international collaborations. The maximum h-index (h-index = 110) belonged to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The average paper per faculty member was 1.14 (Max = 2.5, Min = 0.13). The mean citation per published articles in Scopus was 0.33. Research ranking of Iranian UMSs can create favorable competition among them towards knowledge production.

Developing an Open-Source Bibliometric Ranking Website Using Google Scholar Citation Profiles for Researchers in the Field of Biomedical Informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sittig, Dean F; McCoy, Allison B; Wright, Adam; Lin, Jimmy

2015-01-01

We developed the Biomedical Informatics Researchers ranking website (rank.informatics-review.com) to overcome many of the limitations of previous scientific productivity ranking strategies. The website is composed of four key components that work together to create an automatically updating ranking website: (1) list of biomedical informatics researchers, (2) Google Scholar scraper, (3) display page, and (4) updater. The site has been useful to other groups in evaluating researchers, such as tenure and promotions committees in interpreting the various citation statistics reported by candidates. Creation of the Biomedical Informatics Researchers ranking website highlights the vast differences in scholarly productivity among members of the biomedical informatics research community.

Sexual Orientation Minorities in College Counseling: Prevalence, Distress, and Symptom Profiles

Science.gov (United States)

McAleavey, Andrew A.; Castonguay, Louis G.; Locke, Benjamin D.

2011-01-01

Sexual minority group members are at a higher risk for mental health difficulties than are heterosexual individuals. The results of this study showed that college student sexual minorities were common in counseling centers and that they were more likely than heterosexual students to seek counseling. The results also showed that sexual orientation…

Research of Subgraph Estimation Page Rank Algorithm for Web Page Rank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

LI Lan-yin

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The traditional PageRank algorithm can not efficiently perform large data Webpage scheduling problem. This paper proposes an accelerated algorithm named topK-Rank，which is based on PageRank on the MapReduce platform. It can find top k nodes efficiently for a given graph without sacrificing accuracy. In order to identify top k nodes，topK-Rank algorithm prunes unnecessary nodes and edges in each iteration to dynamically construct subgraphs，and iteratively estimates lower/upper bounds of PageRank scores through subgraphs. Theoretical analysis shows that this method guarantees result exactness. Experiments show that topK-Rank algorithm can find k nodes much faster than the existing approaches.

Analysis of Survey Results in Terms of Selection of Characteristics of the Mining Rescuer to the Ranks of Rapid Response

Science.gov (United States)

Grodzicka, Aneta; Szlązak, Jan

2016-06-01

The authors of the current study undertook the subject of the analysis features of the mining rescuer as a member of the ranks of the rescue, with particular emphasis on the following parameters: heart rate, body weight, height, BMI, age and seniority in the mining and rescue. This publication concerns the analysis of the test results of these characteristics rescuer as a potential member of the ranks of the rescue, taking into account its risk appetite, stress resistance, attitude towards life, the role of the team, teamwork, attitude to work, motivation to work and physical fitness.

ANALYSIS OF SURVEY RESULTS IN TERMS OF SELECTION OF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MINING RESCUER TO THE RANKS OF RAPID RESPONSE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aneta GRODZICKA

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The authors of the current study undertook the subject of the analysis features of the mining rescuer as a member of the ranks of the rescue, with particular emphasis on the following parameters: heart rate, body weight, height, BMI, age and seniority in the mining and rescue. This publication concerns the analysis of the test results of these characteristics rescuer as a potential member of the ranks of the rescue, taking into account its risk appetite, stress resistance, attitude towards life, the role of the team, teamwork, attitude to work, motivation to work and physical fitness.

Academic elite in accounting: linkages among top-ranked graduate programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bair, Jeffrey H

2002-06-01

The 10 top-ranked graduate programs in accounting, based on a national survey of deans and top administrators, were linked to one another by hiring in the programs one another's graduates. Almost one-half (45.9%) of the faculty members in these 10 programs (N = 172) had graduated from one of these 10 programs. It is suggested that this linkage helps these programs to maintain and enhance their prestige.

75 FR 57807 - Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation; Request for Nominations for Voting Members

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-22

... consists of up to 25 members, who are Special Government Employees, and 5 ex-officio, non-voting members... for appropriately qualified female, minority, or disabled candidates. Dated: September 15, 2010...

A real social position of ethnic minorities in the area of medical care and social security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nagradić Slobodan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This work contains research of the position of ethnic minorities in two important existential areas such are medical care and social security. The author puts under a critical analyze not only semantics of the ideas and phrases of medical care and, especially, social security themselves, believing that their inaccurate meaning and usage hide more than they expose facts and relations according to which it is possible to detect and describe a real position of ethnic minorities in the post-dayton society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also the experience of implementation of rules from those areas, which should enable them to use the rights defined. Of course, his attention is specially focused on members of Roma ethnic minority, for which he claims to be the most sensible, and that their members, unlike members of all the other ethnic minorities in BiH, are most, or more precisely, only discriminated a-pro-pos the protection of their rights in the areas of medical care and social security, which is not only a responsibility of institutions that provide services in the mentioned areas of life. By using a method of analysis of contents of legal (constitutions, laws, conventions, charters, resolutions, sublegal acts and political (reports, evaluations, analyses, strategies, action plans etc. documents, and by analyzing real life features, processes, relations and events in contemporary BiH society, the author came to sociologically relevant insights of real social and legally-political positions of ethnic minorities in BiH, a state and courses in the areas of medical care and social security and clearly formulated a conclusion that members of ethnic minority determined collectivities, apart from Roma, are in no way ancillary positioned compared to members of constitutional people of post-dayton BiH.

VaRank: a simple and powerful tool for ranking genetic variants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Véronique Geoffroy

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background. Most genetic disorders are caused by single nucleotide variations (SNVs or small insertion/deletions (indels. High throughput sequencing has broadened the catalogue of human variation, including common polymorphisms, rare variations or disease causing mutations. However, identifying one variation among hundreds or thousands of others is still a complex task for biologists, geneticists and clinicians.Results. We have developed VaRank, a command-line tool for the ranking of genetic variants detected by high-throughput sequencing. VaRank scores and prioritizes variants annotated either by Alamut Batch or SnpEff. A barcode allows users to quickly view the presence/absence of variants (with homozygote/heterozygote status in analyzed samples. VaRank supports the commonly used VCF input format for variants analysis thus allowing it to be easily integrated into NGS bioinformatics analysis pipelines. VaRank has been successfully applied to disease-gene identification as well as to molecular diagnostics setup for several hundred patients.Conclusions. VaRank is implemented in Tcl/Tk, a scripting language which is platform-independent but has been tested only on Unix environment. The source code is available under the GNU GPL, and together with sample data and detailed documentation can be downloaded from http://www.lbgi.fr/VaRank/.

Faculty Challenges across Rank in Liberal Arts Colleges: A Human Resources Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Vicki L.; Pifer, Meghan J.; Lunsford, Laura G.

2016-01-01

This article focuses on the challenges faced by faculty members in a consortium of 13 Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs). We present findings, by academic rank, from a mixed-methods study of faculty development needs and experiences within the consortium. Relying on human resource principles, we advocate a greater focus on the development of the person,…

CE: Military Sexual Trauma in Male Service Members.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckerlin, Denise M; Kovalesky, Andrea; Jakupcak, Matthew

2016-09-01

: The experience of military sexual trauma (MST), which can result from assault, battery, or harassment of a sexual nature, may jeopardize the mental health of service members as well as that of their family members, colleagues, and community members. Although a greater proportion of female than male service members are subjected to MST, the Department of Defense estimates that the absolute numbers of affected men and women, across all ranks and branches of military service, are nearly equal because roughly 85% of military members are men. Little research has explored the effects of MST on men. This article discusses the unique ways in which men may experience MST, and examines how social stereotypes of masculinity, myths surrounding sexual assault, and military culture and structure often influence a man's interpretation of an attack and his likelihood of reporting the incident or seeking treatment. It describes current treatments for MST-related mental health conditions and addresses implications for nurses and other health care professionals.

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2014-04-17

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse structure, we assume that each multimedia object could be represented as a sparse linear combination of all other objects, and combination coefficients are regarded as a similarity measure between objects and used to regularize their ranking scores. Moreover, we propose to learn the sparse combination coefficients and the ranking scores simultaneously. A unified objective function is constructed with regard to both the combination coefficients and the ranking scores, and is optimized by an iterative algorithm. Experiments on two multimedia database retrieval data sets demonstrate the significant improvements of the propose algorithm over state-of-the-art ranking score learning algorithms.

Ranking agility factors affecting hospitals in Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Abdi Talarposht

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Agility is an effective response to the changing and unpredictable environment and using these changes as opportunities for organizational improvement. Objective: The aim of the present study was to rank the factors affecting agile supply chain of hospitals of Iran. Methods: This applied study was conducted by cross sectional-descriptive method at some point of 2015 for one year. The research population included managers, administrators, faculty members and experts were selected hospitals. A total of 260 people were selected as sample from the health centers. The construct validity of the questionnaire was approved by confirmatory factor analysis test and its reliability was approved by Cronbach's alpha (α=0.97. All data were analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Chi-square and Friedman tests. Findings: The development of staff skills, the use of information technology, the integration of processes, appropriate planning, and customer satisfaction and product quality had a significant impact on the agility of public hospitals of Iran (P<0.001. New product introductions had earned the highest ranking and the development of staff skills earned the lowest ranking. Conclusion: The new product introduction, market responsiveness and sensitivity, reduce costs, and the integration of organizational processes, ratings better to have acquired agility hospitals in Iran. Therefore, planners and officials of hospitals have to, through the promotion quality and variety of services customer-oriented, providing a basis for investing in the hospital and etc to apply for agility supply chain public hospitals of Iran.

Low-rank coal research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weber, G. F.; Laudal, D. L.

1989-01-01

This work is a compilation of reports on ongoing research at the University of North Dakota. Topics include: Control Technology and Coal Preparation Research (SO{sub x}/NO{sub x} control, waste management), Advanced Research and Technology Development (turbine combustion phenomena, combustion inorganic transformation, coal/char reactivity, liquefaction reactivity of low-rank coals, gasification ash and slag characterization, fine particulate emissions), Combustion Research (fluidized bed combustion, beneficiation of low-rank coals, combustion characterization of low-rank coal fuels, diesel utilization of low-rank coals), Liquefaction Research (low-rank coal direct liquefaction), and Gasification Research (hydrogen production from low-rank coals, advanced wastewater treatment, mild gasification, color and residual COD removal from Synfuel wastewaters, Great Plains Gasification Plant, gasifier optimization).

Identification of Potential Aggressive Behavior in Rural At-Risk Minority Youth: A Community Response.

Science.gov (United States)

French, Laurence Armand; Rodriguez, Richard F.

1998-01-01

New Mexico ranks high in youth violence, substance abuse, poverty, teen pregnancies, and school dropout rates. In response, Western New Mexico University developed a special master's program in bilingual special education, attended primarily by minority-group school personnel, and implemented a program to address the cycle of poverty by training…

Identifying and ranking of strategies to implement green supply chain management in Indian manufacturing industry using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunil Luthra

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The study aims to identify and rank the major strategies that help achieve successful implementation of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM in Indian manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approach – Strategies to implement GSCM have been identified thorough extensive literature review and then experts’ opinion is sought for categorizing them into four representative dimensions which are then ranked using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP.Findings – The study categorizes the GSCM implementation strategies into four dimensions - Non members of supply chain, downward stream supply chain Members, Organizational members of supply chain and upward stream supply chain members. These dimensions are found to play an important role in greening the supply chains enabling the practicing firms achieve enhanced operational performances.Research limitations/implications- AHP is used for ranking the GSCM implementation strategies in Indian manufacturing scenario. The pair-wise comparisons are made on the basis of the opinion of the experts drawn from academia and industry. As is natural, opinions of experts may not always be free from bias or prejudices. Moreover, the study relied more on the GSCM practices literature in developed nations as only limited literature related to the undertaken work in the Indian context was available.Practical implications – This paper may play important role in understanding various strategies and ranking them in order of importance. This facilitates firms prioritize different actions for achieving high GSCM performances in Indian manufacturing industry. Strategic implementation of green supply chain management will help Indian manufacturing enterprises enjoy cost and efficiency benefits.Originality/value – GSCM is a relatively new topic for majority of Indian manufacturing industries. This work is likely to help GSCM practitioners select suitable strategies in consonance with the government regulations

How to Rank Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradshaw, Corey J A; Brook, Barry W

2016-01-01

There are now many methods available to assess the relative citation performance of peer-reviewed journals. Regardless of their individual faults and advantages, citation-based metrics are used by researchers to maximize the citation potential of their articles, and by employers to rank academic track records. The absolute value of any particular index is arguably meaningless unless compared to other journals, and different metrics result in divergent rankings. To provide a simple yet more objective way to rank journals within and among disciplines, we developed a κ-resampled composite journal rank incorporating five popular citation indices: Impact Factor, Immediacy Index, Source-Normalized Impact Per Paper, SCImago Journal Rank and Google 5-year h-index; this approach provides an index of relative rank uncertainty. We applied the approach to six sample sets of scientific journals from Ecology (n = 100 journals), Medicine (n = 100), Multidisciplinary (n = 50); Ecology + Multidisciplinary (n = 25), Obstetrics & Gynaecology (n = 25) and Marine Biology & Fisheries (n = 25). We then cross-compared the κ-resampled ranking for the Ecology + Multidisciplinary journal set to the results of a survey of 188 publishing ecologists who were asked to rank the same journals, and found a 0.68-0.84 Spearman's ρ correlation between the two rankings datasets. Our composite index approach therefore approximates relative journal reputation, at least for that discipline. Agglomerative and divisive clustering and multi-dimensional scaling techniques applied to the Ecology + Multidisciplinary journal set identified specific clusters of similarly ranked journals, with only Nature & Science separating out from the others. When comparing a selection of journals within or among disciplines, we recommend collecting multiple citation-based metrics for a sample of relevant and realistic journals to calculate the composite rankings and their relative uncertainty windows.

Evaluation of the osteoclastogenic process associated with RANK / RANK-L / OPG in odontogenic myxomas

Science.gov (United States)

González-Galván, María del Carmen; Mosqueda-Taylor, Adalberto; Bologna-Molina, Ronell; Setien-Olarra, Amaia; Marichalar-Mendia, Xabier; Aguirre-Urizar, José-Manuel

2018-01-01

Background Odontogenic myxoma (OM) is a benign intraosseous neoplasm that exhibits local aggressiveness and high recurrence rates. Osteoclastogenesis is an important phenomenon in the tumor growth of maxillary neoplasms. RANK (Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor κappa B) is the signaling receptor of RANK-L (Receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand) that activates the osteoclasts. OPG (osteoprotegerin) is a decoy receptor for RANK-L that inhibits pro-osteoclastogenesis. The RANK / RANKL / OPG system participates in the regulation of osteolytic activity under normal conditions, and its alteration has been associated with greater bone destruction, and also with tumor growth. Objectives To analyze the immunohistochemical expression of OPG, RANK and RANK-L proteins in odontogenic myxomas (OMs) and their relationship with the tumor size. Material and Methods Eighteen OMs, 4 small ( 3cm) and 18 dental follicles (DF) that were included as control were studied by means of standard immunohistochemical procedure with RANK, RANKL and OPG antibodies. For the evaluation, 5 fields (40x) of representative areas of OM and DF were selected where the expression of each antibody was determined. Descriptive and comparative statistical analyses were performed with the obtained data. Results There are significant differences in the expression of RANK in OM samples as compared to DF (p = 0.022) and among the OMSs and OMLs (p = 0.032). Also a strong association is recognized in the expression of RANK-L and OPG in OM samples. Conclusions Activation of the RANK / RANK-L / OPG triad seems to be involved in the mechanisms of bone balance and destruction, as well as associated with tumor growth in odontogenic myxomas. Key words:Odontogenic myxoma, dental follicle, RANK, RANK-L, OPG, osteoclastogenesis. PMID:29680857

Sparse structure regularized ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Sun, Yijun; Gao, Xin

2014-01-01

Learning ranking scores is critical for the multimedia database retrieval problem. In this paper, we propose a novel ranking score learning algorithm by exploring the sparse structure and using it to regularize ranking scores. To explore the sparse

The Deaf Child as a Linguistic Minority.

Science.gov (United States)

Charrow, Veda R.; Wilbur, Ronnie B.

The author offers support for viewing the deaf child as a member of a linguistic minority and considers how this situation affects education of the deaf. Deaf persons are discussed in terms of their intellectual abilities, educational achievement, English competence, and the sociolinguistic factors which point to the existence of a deaf community.…

Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Issues and Solutions in Promoting the Advancement of Women and Minorities to Executive Management in Corporate America. White Paper 1966.

Science.gov (United States)

Microquest Corp., San Rafael, CA.

Despite their progress in the workplace in recent years, women and minorities still remain greatly underrepresented in executive roles in major U.S. companies. The barriers, attitudes, and practices that deter the advancement of women and minorities into executive ranks collectively result in the phenomenon known as the "Glass Ceiling."…

Time evolution of Wikipedia network ranking

Science.gov (United States)

Eom, Young-Ho; Frahm, Klaus M.; Benczúr, András; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2013-12-01

We study the time evolution of ranking and spectral properties of the Google matrix of English Wikipedia hyperlink network during years 2003-2011. The statistical properties of ranking of Wikipedia articles via PageRank and CheiRank probabilities, as well as the matrix spectrum, are shown to be stabilized for 2007-2011. A special emphasis is done on ranking of Wikipedia personalities and universities. We show that PageRank selection is dominated by politicians while 2DRank, which combines PageRank and CheiRank, gives more accent on personalities of arts. The Wikipedia PageRank of universities recovers 80% of top universities of Shanghai ranking during the considered time period.

National Identification and Collective Emotions as Predictors of Pro-Social Attitudes Toward Islamic Minority Groups in Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Mashuri

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The present study examined the role of Indonesian Moslem majority’s national identification, collective emotions of pride and guilt in predicting their support in helping members of Islamic minority and their perceived inclusion towards this group. Data from this study (N = 182 demonstrated that, in line with our prediction, support for minority helping significantly predicted perceived inclusion. We also hypothesized and found that collective pride and collective guilt directly predicted the minority helping. Finally, national identification had significant direct effects on both collective pride and collective guilt. These findings shed light on the importance of collective emotions and national identification in giving rise to pro-social attitudes of Indonesian Moslem majority towards members of Islamic minority. Implications of the research findings were discussed with reference to theories of group-based emotion and intergroup helping, and to practical strategies Indonesian government can apply to recognize Islamic minorities.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-11-19

Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Multiplex PageRank.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arda Halu

Full Text Available Many complex systems can be described as multiplex networks in which the same nodes can interact with one another in different layers, thus forming a set of interacting and co-evolving networks. Examples of such multiplex systems are social networks where people are involved in different types of relationships and interact through various forms of communication media. The ranking of nodes in multiplex networks is one of the most pressing and challenging tasks that research on complex networks is currently facing. When pairs of nodes can be connected through multiple links and in multiple layers, the ranking of nodes should necessarily reflect the importance of nodes in one layer as well as their importance in other interdependent layers. In this paper, we draw on the idea of biased random walks to define the Multiplex PageRank centrality measure in which the effects of the interplay between networks on the centrality of nodes are directly taken into account. In particular, depending on the intensity of the interaction between layers, we define the Additive, Multiplicative, Combined, and Neutral versions of Multiplex PageRank, and show how each version reflects the extent to which the importance of a node in one layer affects the importance the node can gain in another layer. We discuss these measures and apply them to an online multiplex social network. Findings indicate that taking the multiplex nature of the network into account helps uncover the emergence of rankings of nodes that differ from the rankings obtained from one single layer. Results provide support in favor of the salience of multiplex centrality measures, like Multiplex PageRank, for assessing the prominence of nodes embedded in multiple interacting networks, and for shedding a new light on structural properties that would otherwise remain undetected if each of the interacting networks were analyzed in isolation.

Multiplex PageRank.

Science.gov (United States)

Halu, Arda; Mondragón, Raúl J; Panzarasa, Pietro; Bianconi, Ginestra

2013-01-01

Many complex systems can be described as multiplex networks in which the same nodes can interact with one another in different layers, thus forming a set of interacting and co-evolving networks. Examples of such multiplex systems are social networks where people are involved in different types of relationships and interact through various forms of communication media. The ranking of nodes in multiplex networks is one of the most pressing and challenging tasks that research on complex networks is currently facing. When pairs of nodes can be connected through multiple links and in multiple layers, the ranking of nodes should necessarily reflect the importance of nodes in one layer as well as their importance in other interdependent layers. In this paper, we draw on the idea of biased random walks to define the Multiplex PageRank centrality measure in which the effects of the interplay between networks on the centrality of nodes are directly taken into account. In particular, depending on the intensity of the interaction between layers, we define the Additive, Multiplicative, Combined, and Neutral versions of Multiplex PageRank, and show how each version reflects the extent to which the importance of a node in one layer affects the importance the node can gain in another layer. We discuss these measures and apply them to an online multiplex social network. Findings indicate that taking the multiplex nature of the network into account helps uncover the emergence of rankings of nodes that differ from the rankings obtained from one single layer. Results provide support in favor of the salience of multiplex centrality measures, like Multiplex PageRank, for assessing the prominence of nodes embedded in multiple interacting networks, and for shedding a new light on structural properties that would otherwise remain undetected if each of the interacting networks were analyzed in isolation.

Form and Function in Doing Business Rankings: is Investor Protection in Italy Still so Bad?

OpenAIRE

Luca Enriques; Matteo Gargantini

2016-01-01

The World Bank’s Doing Business Report (DBR) ranks every year numerous jurisdictions across the globe according to their ability to facilitate business activities. Among the indexes contributing to the definition of the global competitiveness of the legislations, the “Protecting investors index” (PII) measures the protection of minority shareholders in listed companies. In this paper, we analyse the DBR’s assessment of the Italian regulatory framework on investor protection. We find that the ...

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2012-11-19

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-01-01

Background: Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods.Results: To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods.Conclusion: The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. 2012 Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Jim

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. Results To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. Conclusion The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Improving Ranking Using Quantum Probability

OpenAIRE

Melucci, Massimo

2011-01-01

The paper shows that ranking information units by quantum probability differs from ranking them by classical probability provided the same data used for parameter estimation. As probability of detection (also known as recall or power) and probability of false alarm (also known as fallout or size) measure the quality of ranking, we point out and show that ranking by quantum probability yields higher probability of detection than ranking by classical probability provided a given probability of ...

Implementing Minority Rights in the Balkans.

Science.gov (United States)

1998-04-27

strengthening the autonomous powers of local government over taxation , delivery of services, and language use. The government of the Republic of Macedonia...or a considerable number. The Center for Ethnic Relations at the Institute for Sociological, Political, and Juridical Research, as a scientific...Affairs, members of national minorities represent 16.5 percent of the total number of those employed, a figure that has almost doubled in only two to

How Many Alternatives Can Be Ranked? A Comparison of the Paired Comparison and Ranking Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Ock, Minsu; Yi, Nari; Ahn, Jeonghoon; Jo, Min-Woo

2016-01-01

To determine the feasibility of converting ranking data into paired comparison (PC) data and suggest the number of alternatives that can be ranked by comparing a PC and a ranking method. Using a total of 222 health states, a household survey was conducted in a sample of 300 individuals from the general population. Each respondent performed a PC 15 times and a ranking method 6 times (two attempts of ranking three, four, and five health states, respectively). The health states of the PC and the ranking method were constructed to overlap each other. We converted the ranked data into PC data and examined the consistency of the response rate. Applying probit regression, we obtained the predicted probability of each method. Pearson correlation coefficients were determined between the predicted probabilities of those methods. The mean absolute error was also assessed between the observed and the predicted values. The overall consistency of the response rate was 82.8%. The Pearson correlation coefficients were 0.789, 0.852, and 0.893 for ranking three, four, and five health states, respectively. The lowest mean absolute error was 0.082 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.074-0.090) in ranking five health states, followed by 0.123 (95% CI 0.111-0.135) in ranking four health states and 0.126 (95% CI 0.113-0.138) in ranking three health states. After empirically examining the consistency of the response rate between a PC and a ranking method, we suggest that using five alternatives in the ranking method may be superior to using three or four alternatives. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ranking Features on Psychological Dynamics of Cooperative Team Work through Bayesian Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pilar Fuster-Parra

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to rank some features that characterize the psychological dynamics of cooperative team work in order to determine priorities for interventions and formation: leading positive feedback, cooperative manager and collaborative manager features. From a dataset of 20 cooperative sport teams (403 soccer players, the characteristics of the prototypical sports teams are studied using an average Bayesian network (BN and two special types of BNs, the Bayesian classifiers: naive Bayes (NB and tree augmented naive Bayes (TAN. BNs are selected as they are able to produce probability estimates rather than predictions. BN results show that the antecessors (the “top” features ranked are the team members’ expectations and their attraction to the social aspects of the task. The main node is formed by the cooperative behaviors, the consequences ranked at the BN bottom (ratified by the TAN trees and the instantiations made, the roles assigned to the members and their survival inside the same team. These results should help managers to determine contents and priorities when they have to face team-building actions.

Neophilia Ranking of Scientific Journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Packalen, Mikko; Bhattacharya, Jay

2017-01-01

The ranking of scientific journals is important because of the signal it sends to scientists about what is considered most vital for scientific progress. Existing ranking systems focus on measuring the influence of a scientific paper (citations)-these rankings do not reward journals for publishing innovative work that builds on new ideas. We propose an alternative ranking based on the proclivity of journals to publish papers that build on new ideas, and we implement this ranking via a text-based analysis of all published biomedical papers dating back to 1946. In addition, we compare our neophilia ranking to citation-based (impact factor) rankings; this comparison shows that the two ranking approaches are distinct. Prior theoretical work suggests an active role for our neophilia index in science policy. Absent an explicit incentive to pursue novel science, scientists underinvest in innovative work because of a coordination problem: for work on a new idea to flourish, many scientists must decide to adopt it in their work. Rankings that are based purely on influence thus do not provide sufficient incentives for publishing innovative work. By contrast, adoption of the neophilia index as part of journal-ranking procedures by funding agencies and university administrators would provide an explicit incentive for journals to publish innovative work and thus help solve the coordination problem by increasing scientists' incentives to pursue innovative work.

Hierarchical partial order ranking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carlsen, Lars

2008-01-01

Assessing the potential impact on environmental and human health from the production and use of chemicals or from polluted sites involves a multi-criteria evaluation scheme. A priori several parameters are to address, e.g., production tonnage, specific release scenarios, geographical and site-specific factors in addition to various substance dependent parameters. Further socio-economic factors may be taken into consideration. The number of parameters to be included may well appear to be prohibitive for developing a sensible model. The study introduces hierarchical partial order ranking (HPOR) that remedies this problem. By HPOR the original parameters are initially grouped based on their mutual connection and a set of meta-descriptors is derived representing the ranking corresponding to the single groups of descriptors, respectively. A second partial order ranking is carried out based on the meta-descriptors, the final ranking being disclosed though average ranks. An illustrative example on the prioritisation of polluted sites is given. - Hierarchical partial order ranking of polluted sites has been developed for prioritization based on a large number of parameters

Faculty Members' Attitudes towards the Performance Appraisal Process in the Public Universities in Light of Some Variables

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Ashqar, Wafaa Mohammed Ali

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to detect the level of faculty members' attitudes at public universities towards the performance appraisal process and its relationship with some variables (gender, college, scientific rank, university, teaching experience, and age). The study sample consisted of (320) faculty members of both sexes in three public…

Motivations and Paths to Becoming Faculty at Minority Serving Institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Blake

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Drawing upon 15 qualitative interviews with early- to mid-career faculty (seven men and eight women at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs, this study examines the diverse motivations and paths those faculty members have taken to becoming professors at their respective institutions. The faculty come from a range of MSIs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, and Predominantly Black Institutions across the country and represent a broad spectrum of disciplines. This study sheds light on factors that guide their choices of discipline and entrance into the faculty ranks at MSIs. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT was used as a lens during qualitative coding and analysis in order to develop the findings, which reveal that (1 teaching, activism, and community uplift were primary motivators to enter the professoriate; (2 supportive environmental factors, including single individuals, proved pivotal in influencing faculty to take these roles; and (3 career transitions into the academy were spurred by learning experiences that revealed disciplinary and teaching interests. The findings suggest that MSIs attract community-oriented individuals to their faculty positions, and that colleges and universities interested in diversifying their faculties should craft such roles in ways that are appealing to the populations that they are trying to recruit and retain.

One-loop tensor Feynman integral reduction with signed minors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fleischer, Jochem; Riemann, Tord; Yundin, Valery

2012-01-01

of the formalism is the immediate evaluation of complete contractions of the tensor integrals with external momenta. This leads to the problem of evaluating sums over products of signed minors with scalar products of chords. Chords are differences of external momenta. These sums may be evaluated analytically......We present an algebraic approach to one-loop tensor integral reduction. The integrals are presented in terms of scalar one- to four-point functions. The reduction is worked out explicitly until five-point functions of rank five. The numerical C++ package PJFry evaluates tensor coefficients in terms...

A Survey on PageRank Computing

OpenAIRE

Berkhin, Pavel

2005-01-01

This survey reviews the research related to PageRank computing. Components of a PageRank vector serve as authority weights for web pages independent of their textual content, solely based on the hyperlink structure of the web. PageRank is typically used as a web search ranking component. This defines the importance of the model and the data structures that underly PageRank processing. Computing even a single PageRank is a difficult computational task. Computing many PageRanks is a much mor...

The Serbs in Slovenia: A new minority

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prelić Mladena

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The breakdown of the former Yugoslavia has resulted in formation of new independent states while the former co-citizens and constitutive people have found themselves in new roles. Some have become a majority while some have become a minority, with an aspiration to affirm the status in the public sphere. As a country with a large numbers of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia is facing a challenge of the confirmation of ethnic pluralism within its borders, along with solutions and appropriate places for 'new' minorities (the usual appellation for ethnic groups formed by the members of the former Yugoslavia, where the Serbs are outnumbering the rest. At the same time, the new minorities face a challenge of constitution foundation of their own associations, that is, formation of their own identity and public affirmation in the new context. This paper discusses these ongoing processes with a special attention to the Serbian ethnic group.

Wikipedia ranking of world universities

Science.gov (United States)

Lages, José; Patt, Antoine; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2016-03-01

We use the directed networks between articles of 24 Wikipedia language editions for producing the wikipedia ranking of world Universities (WRWU) using PageRank, 2DRank and CheiRank algorithms. This approach allows to incorporate various cultural views on world universities using the mathematical statistical analysis independent of cultural preferences. The Wikipedia ranking of top 100 universities provides about 60% overlap with the Shanghai university ranking demonstrating the reliable features of this approach. At the same time WRWU incorporates all knowledge accumulated at 24 Wikipedia editions giving stronger highlights for historically important universities leading to a different estimation of efficiency of world countries in university education. The historical development of university ranking is analyzed during ten centuries of their history.

Educational needs of faculty members of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in 2011

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. S Mazloomy Mahmoodabad

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Identifying educational needs is an essential step in planning faculty development programs. It plays an important role in promoting the quality of education. The aim of this study was to determine and prioritize the educational needs of clinical and non clinical faculty members of Faculty of Medicne of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Methods: A questionnaire was developed for this cross-sectional study using the indices identified by reviewing the literature. The questionnaire was sent to all faculty members of Medical Faculty (n=260. The items were scored from 1 to 20 according to the importance of the educational needs. Data was analyzed by SPSS software. Results: Different areas of educational needs of the clinical faculty members were respectively prioritized as: familiarity with National Medical Universities Ranking Schemeresearch, personal development, administrative and executive activities, education, specialized activities outside the university and health services and health promotion. In the non clinical faculty members: research, familiarity with National Medical Universities Ranking Schemeeducation, personal development, specialized activities outside the university, administrative and executive activities. The first priority of education in the clinical faculty members was design, implementation and analysis of oral exams. In research domain priorities were data analysis skills and the first priority of education in the non clinical faculty members was how to foster critical thinking and reasoning in research and critical appraisal skills. Conclusion: Faculty members need all of the seven studiedmajor areas. It is recommended further research to determine the weight of these seven areas using a standard method.

RANK (TNFRSF11A Is Epigenetically Inactivated and Induces Apoptosis in Gliomas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna von dem Knesebeck

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Alterations of DNA methylation play an important role in gliomas. In a genome-wide screen, we identified a CpG-rich fragment within the 5′ region of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, member 11A gene (TNFRSF11A that showed de novo methylation in gliomas. TNFRSF11A, also known as receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK, activates several signaling pathways, such as NF-κB, JNK, ERK, p38α, and Akt/PKB. Using pyrosequencing, we detected RANK/TNFRSF11A promoter methylation in 8 (57.1% of 14 diffuse astrocytomas, 17 (77.3% of 22 anaplastic astrocytomas, 101 (84.2% of 120 glioblastomas, 6 (100% of 6 glioma cell lines, and 7 (100% of 7 glioma stem cell-enriched glioblastoma primary cultures but not in four normal white matter tissue samples. Treatment of glioma cell lines with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine significantly reduced the methylation level and resulted in increased RANK/TNFRSF11A mRNA expression. Overexpression of RANK/TNFRSF11A in glioblastoma cell lines leads to a significant reduction in focus formation and elevated apoptotic activity after flow cytometric analysis. Reporter assay studies of transfected glioma cells supported these results by showing the activation of signaling pathways associated with regulation of apoptosis. We conclude that RANK/TNFRSF11A is a novel and frequent target for de novo methylation in gliomas, which affects apoptotic activity and focus formation thereby contributing to the molecular pathogenesis of gliomas.

University Rankings and Social Science

OpenAIRE

Marginson, S.

2014-01-01

University rankings widely affect the behaviours of prospective students and their families, university executive leaders, academic faculty, governments and investors in higher education. Yet the social science foundations of global rankings receive little scrutiny. Rankings that simply recycle reputation without any necessary connection to real outputs are of no common value. It is necessary that rankings be soundly based in scientific terms if a virtuous relationship between performance and...

Perils of parsimony: properties of reduced-rank estimates of genetic covariance matrices.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Karin; Kirkpatrick, Mark

2008-10-01

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of covariance matrices are important statistics for multivariate problems in many applications, including quantitative genetics. Estimates of these quantities are subject to different types of bias. This article reviews and extends the existing theory on these biases, considering a balanced one-way classification and restricted maximum-likelihood estimation. Biases are due to the spread of sample roots and arise from ignoring selected principal components when imposing constraints on the parameter space, to ensure positive semidefinite estimates or to estimate covariance matrices of chosen, reduced rank. In addition, it is shown that reduced-rank estimators that consider only the leading eigenvalues and -vectors of the "between-group" covariance matrix may be biased due to selecting the wrong subset of principal components. In a genetic context, with groups representing families, this bias is inverse proportional to the degree of genetic relationship among family members, but is independent of sample size. Theoretical results are supplemented by a simulation study, demonstrating close agreement between predicted and observed bias for large samples. It is emphasized that the rank of the genetic covariance matrix should be chosen sufficiently large to accommodate all important genetic principal components, even though, paradoxically, this may require including a number of components with negligible eigenvalues. A strategy for rank selection in practical analyses is outlined.

24 CFR 599.401 - Ranking of applications.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Ranking of applications. 599.401... Communities § 599.401 Ranking of applications. (a) Ranking order. Rural and urban applications will be ranked... applications ranked first. (b) Separate ranking categories. After initial ranking, both rural and urban...

On Page Rank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoede, C.

In this paper the concept of page rank for the world wide web is discussed. The possibility of describing the distribution of page rank by an exponential law is considered. It is shown that the concept is essentially equal to that of status score, a centrality measure discussed already in 1953 by

Citation graph based ranking in Invenio

CERN Document Server

Marian, Ludmila; Rajman, Martin; Vesely, Martin

2010-01-01

Invenio is the web-based integrated digital library system developed at CERN. Within this framework, we present four types of ranking models based on the citation graph that complement the simple approach based on citation counts: time-dependent citation counts, a relevancy ranking which extends the PageRank model, a time-dependent ranking which combines the freshness of citations with PageRank and a ranking that takes into consideration the external citations. We present our analysis and results obtained on two main data sets: Inspire and CERN Document Server. Our main contributions are: (i) a study of the currently available ranking methods based on the citation graph; (ii) the development of new ranking methods that correct some of the identified limitations of the current methods such as treating all citations of equal importance, not taking time into account or considering the citation graph complete; (iii) a detailed study of the key parameters for these ranking methods. (The original publication is ava...

When sparse coding meets ranking: a joint framework for learning sparse codes and ranking scores

KAUST Repository

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan

2017-06-28

Sparse coding, which represents a data point as a sparse reconstruction code with regard to a dictionary, has been a popular data representation method. Meanwhile, in database retrieval problems, learning the ranking scores from data points plays an important role. Up to now, these two problems have always been considered separately, assuming that data coding and ranking are two independent and irrelevant problems. However, is there any internal relationship between sparse coding and ranking score learning? If yes, how to explore and make use of this internal relationship? In this paper, we try to answer these questions by developing the first joint sparse coding and ranking score learning algorithm. To explore the local distribution in the sparse code space, and also to bridge coding and ranking problems, we assume that in the neighborhood of each data point, the ranking scores can be approximated from the corresponding sparse codes by a local linear function. By considering the local approximation error of ranking scores, the reconstruction error and sparsity of sparse coding, and the query information provided by the user, we construct a unified objective function for learning of sparse codes, the dictionary and ranking scores. We further develop an iterative algorithm to solve this optimization problem.

University Rankings: The Web Ranking

Science.gov (United States)

Aguillo, Isidro F.

2012-01-01

The publication in 2003 of the Ranking of Universities by Jiao Tong University of Shanghai has revolutionized not only academic studies on Higher Education, but has also had an important impact on the national policies and the individual strategies of the sector. The work gathers the main characteristics of this and other global university…

Ranking Specific Sets of Objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Maly, Jan; Woltran, Stefan

2017-01-01

Ranking sets of objects based on an order between the single elements has been thoroughly studied in the literature. In particular, it has been shown that it is in general impossible to find a total ranking - jointly satisfying properties as dominance and independence - on the whole power set of objects. However, in many applications certain elements from the entire power set might not be required and can be neglected in the ranking process. For instance, certain sets might be ruled out due to hard constraints or are not satisfying some background theory. In this paper, we treat the computational problem whether an order on a given subset of the power set of elements satisfying different variants of dominance and independence can be found, given a ranking on the elements. We show that this problem is tractable for partial rankings and NP-complete for total rankings.

PageRank of integers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frahm, K M; Shepelyansky, D L; Chepelianskii, A D

2012-01-01

We up a directed network tracing links from a given integer to its divisors and analyze the properties of the Google matrix of this network. The PageRank vector of this matrix is computed numerically and it is shown that its probability is approximately inversely proportional to the PageRank index thus being similar to the Zipf law and the dependence established for the World Wide Web. The spectrum of the Google matrix of integers is characterized by a large gap and a relatively small number of nonzero eigenvalues. A simple semi-analytical expression for the PageRank of integers is derived that allows us to find this vector for matrices of billion size. This network provides a new PageRank order of integers. (paper)

Ranking Support Vector Machine with Kernel Approximation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Kai; Li, Rongchun; Dou, Yong; Liang, Zhengfa; Lv, Qi

2017-01-01

Learning to rank algorithm has become important in recent years due to its successful application in information retrieval, recommender system, and computational biology, and so forth. Ranking support vector machine (RankSVM) is one of the state-of-art ranking models and has been favorably used. Nonlinear RankSVM (RankSVM with nonlinear kernels) can give higher accuracy than linear RankSVM (RankSVM with a linear kernel) for complex nonlinear ranking problem. However, the learning methods for nonlinear RankSVM are still time-consuming because of the calculation of kernel matrix. In this paper, we propose a fast ranking algorithm based on kernel approximation to avoid computing the kernel matrix. We explore two types of kernel approximation methods, namely, the Nyström method and random Fourier features. Primal truncated Newton method is used to optimize the pairwise L2-loss (squared Hinge-loss) objective function of the ranking model after the nonlinear kernel approximation. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method gets a much faster training speed than kernel RankSVM and achieves comparable or better performance over state-of-the-art ranking algorithms.

Ranking Support Vector Machine with Kernel Approximation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Learning to rank algorithm has become important in recent years due to its successful application in information retrieval, recommender system, and computational biology, and so forth. Ranking support vector machine (RankSVM is one of the state-of-art ranking models and has been favorably used. Nonlinear RankSVM (RankSVM with nonlinear kernels can give higher accuracy than linear RankSVM (RankSVM with a linear kernel for complex nonlinear ranking problem. However, the learning methods for nonlinear RankSVM are still time-consuming because of the calculation of kernel matrix. In this paper, we propose a fast ranking algorithm based on kernel approximation to avoid computing the kernel matrix. We explore two types of kernel approximation methods, namely, the Nyström method and random Fourier features. Primal truncated Newton method is used to optimize the pairwise L2-loss (squared Hinge-loss objective function of the ranking model after the nonlinear kernel approximation. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method gets a much faster training speed than kernel RankSVM and achieves comparable or better performance over state-of-the-art ranking algorithms.

University Rankings and Social Science

Science.gov (United States)

Marginson, Simon

2014-01-01

University rankings widely affect the behaviours of prospective students and their families, university executive leaders, academic faculty, governments and investors in higher education. Yet the social science foundations of global rankings receive little scrutiny. Rankings that simply recycle reputation without any necessary connection to real…

Two-dimensional ranking of Wikipedia articles

Science.gov (United States)

Zhirov, A. O.; Zhirov, O. V.; Shepelyansky, D. L.

2010-10-01

The Library of Babel, described by Jorge Luis Borges, stores an enormous amount of information. The Library exists ab aeterno. Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia, becomes a modern analogue of such a Library. Information retrieval and ranking of Wikipedia articles become the challenge of modern society. While PageRank highlights very well known nodes with many ingoing links, CheiRank highlights very communicative nodes with many outgoing links. In this way the ranking becomes two-dimensional. Using CheiRank and PageRank we analyze the properties of two-dimensional ranking of all Wikipedia English articles and show that it gives their reliable classification with rich and nontrivial features. Detailed studies are done for countries, universities, personalities, physicists, chess players, Dow-Jones companies and other categories.

Obstacles of Academic Productivity of Faculty Members in the Education College at Jeddah University as Perceived by them

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Fahad Abdulrahamn Almalki

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to investigate the obstacles of academic productivity of faculty members in the education college at Jeddah University as perceived by them. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach by using a questionnaire to collect data. The researcher developed the questionnaire which consisted of (46 items and were distributed over four themes. The questionnaire was checked for its validity and reliability. Then, it was administrated to a sample of (80 faculty members in the education faculty at Jeddah University. The findings of the study were as follows: The effect of university and society obstacles on academic productivity was given a high rate. On the other hand, the effect of personal obstacles and academic publication received an average rate. The society obstacles were ranked first, while academic publication obstacles were in the last rank. There were statistically significant differences which were attributed to the differences in academic rank in the obstacles related to university, society and personal and academic publication in favor of the assistant professor rank. There were also statistically significant differences that were attributed to years of experience in university obstacles in favor of (1-5 years experience and (more than 10 years experience. On the other hand, there were no differences in university, society and personal obstacles. There were no statistically significant differences attributed to the variable of the university from which the faculty members got their PhD degree. In addition, there were statistically significant differences attributed to nationality in university, personal and society obstacles while there were no differences in the variable of academic publication. The study recommended the need to increase funds to be allocated for academic productivity. Keywords: Academic productivity, Faculty members, Obstacles, Universities.

Class advantages and disadvantages are not so Black and White: intersectionality impacts rank and selves.

Science.gov (United States)

Brannon, Tiffany N; Higginbotham, Gerald D; Henderson, Kyshia

2017-12-01

At the intersection of race and class the consequences of being working-class or middle-class are not so Black and White. Rather, established and emerging research suggests that race/ethnicity and social class intersect to differentially afford benefits and burdens. For instance, racial/ethnic minorities often do not reap the social, psychological or economic benefits of higher social class; yet, in some key life domains (e.g. health and mortality) racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. seem to be buffered from some burdens of lower social class. We integrate empirical evidence to suggest that such differential advantages and disadvantages along racial lines reflect that social class exists alongside, rather than separate from, race/ethnicity as two distinct yet intersecting sources of rank and in turn selves. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

14 CFR 1214.1105 - Final ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Final ranking. 1214.1105 Section 1214.1105... Recruitment and Selection Program § 1214.1105 Final ranking. Final rankings will be based on a combination of... preference will be included in this final ranking in accordance with applicable regulations. ...

Rank-based Tests of the Cointegrating Rank in Semiparametric Error Correction Models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hallin, M.; van den Akker, R.; Werker, B.J.M.

2012-01-01

Abstract: This paper introduces rank-based tests for the cointegrating rank in an Error Correction Model with i.i.d. elliptical innovations. The tests are asymptotically distribution-free, and their validity does not depend on the actual distribution of the innovations. This result holds despite the

Universal scaling in sports ranking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deng Weibing; Li Wei; Cai Xu; Bulou, Alain; Wang Qiuping A

2012-01-01

Ranking is a ubiquitous phenomenon in human society. On the web pages of Forbes, one may find all kinds of rankings, such as the world's most powerful people, the world's richest people, the highest-earning tennis players, and so on and so forth. Herewith, we study a specific kind—sports ranking systems in which players' scores and/or prize money are accrued based on their performances in different matches. By investigating 40 data samples which span 12 different sports, we find that the distributions of scores and/or prize money follow universal power laws, with exponents nearly identical for most sports. In order to understand the origin of this universal scaling we focus on the tennis ranking systems. By checking the data we find that, for any pair of players, the probability that the higher-ranked player tops the lower-ranked opponent is proportional to the rank difference between the pair. Such a dependence can be well fitted to a sigmoidal function. By using this feature, we propose a simple toy model which can simulate the competition of players in different matches. The simulations yield results consistent with the empirical findings. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the model is quite robust with respect to the modifications of some parameters. (paper)

Hypertension in a population of active duty service members.

Science.gov (United States)

Smoley, Brian A; Smith, Nicholas L; Runkle, Guy P

2008-01-01

Hypertension is a common condition, but little is known about its prevalence in the Armed Forces. Our purpose was to provide an estimate of the prevalence of hypertension in a large population of US service members. We reviewed the screening records for service members who completed health risk assessments at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, WA, in 2004. The prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension were estimated from single recorded blood pressure readings and subjects' reported use of blood pressure medications. Study subject characteristics associated with hypertension and prehypertension were examined by chi(2) tests and multivariate logistic regression. Thirteen percent of the 15,391 subjects met the study definition for hypertension; 62% met the study definition for prehypertension. Increasing age and body mass index, male sex, black race/ethnicity, and senior rank were associated with hypertension; only body mass index, male sex, and senior rank were associated with prehypertension. Hypertension and prehypertension are more prevalent in the US Armed Forces than has been previously reported, and prehypertension may be more common in the US Armed forces than in the general population. The high prevalence of prehypertension found in this young, fit population suggests a need to better define the risks and benefits associated with the diagnosis and treatment of prehypertension in low-risk populations.

Social rank and social cooperation: Impact of social comparison processes on cooperative decision-making.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xu Gong

Full Text Available Successful navigation of our complex social world requires the capability to recognize and judge the relative status of others. Hence, social comparison processes are of great importance in our interactions, informing us of our relative standing and in turn potentially motivating our behavior. However, so far few studies have examined in detail how social comparison can influence interpersonal decision-making. One aspect of social decision-making that is of particular importance is cooperative behavior, and identifying means of maintaining and promoting cooperation in the provision of public goods is of vital interest to society. Here, we manipulated social comparison by grading performance rankings on a reaction time task, and then measured cooperative decisions via a modified Public Goods Game (PGG. Findings revealed that individuals ranked highest tended to be more cooperative as compared to those who placed in the bottom rank. Interestingly, this effect was regardless of whether the comparison group members were the subsequent players in the PGG or not, and this effect was stronger in those with higher social orientation. In summary, the present research shows how different social comparison processes (assessed via social rankings can operate in our daily interaction with others, demonstrating an important effect on cooperative behavior.

Identifying important nodes by adaptive LeaderRank

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Shuang; Wang, Pei

2017-03-01

Spreading process is a common phenomenon in complex networks. Identifying important nodes in complex networks is of great significance in real-world applications. Based on the spreading process on networks, a lot of measures have been proposed to evaluate the importance of nodes. However, most of the existing measures are appropriate to static networks, which are fragile to topological perturbations. Many real-world complex networks are dynamic rather than static, meaning that the nodes and edges of such networks may change with time, which challenge numerous existing centrality measures. Based on a new weighted mechanism and the newly proposed H-index and LeaderRank (LR), this paper introduces a variant of the LR measure, called adaptive LeaderRank (ALR), which is a new member of the LR-family. Simulations on six real-world networks reveal that the new measure can well balance between prediction accuracy and robustness. More interestingly, the new measure can better adapt to the adjustment or local perturbations of network topologies, as compared with the existing measures. By discussing the detailed properties of the measures from the LR-family, we illustrate that the ALR has its competitive advantages over the other measures. The proposed algorithm enriches the measures to understand complex networks, and may have potential applications in social networks and biological systems.

Minkowski metrics in creating universal ranking algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrzej Ameljańczyk

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a general procedure for creating the rankings of a set of objects, while the relation of preference based on any ranking function. The analysis was possible to use the ranking functions began by showing the fundamental drawbacks of commonly used functions in the form of a weighted sum. As a special case of the ranking procedure in the space of a relation, the procedure based on the notion of an ideal element and generalized Minkowski distance from the element was proposed. This procedure, presented as universal ranking algorithm, eliminates most of the disadvantages of ranking functions in the form of a weighted sum.[b]Keywords[/b]: ranking functions, preference relation, ranking clusters, categories, ideal point, universal ranking algorithm

Recurrent fuzzy ranking methods

Science.gov (United States)

Hajjari, Tayebeh

2012-11-01

With the increasing development of fuzzy set theory in various scientific fields and the need to compare fuzzy numbers in different areas. Therefore, Ranking of fuzzy numbers plays a very important role in linguistic decision-making, engineering, business and some other fuzzy application systems. Several strategies have been proposed for ranking of fuzzy numbers. Each of these techniques has been shown to produce non-intuitive results in certain case. In this paper, we reviewed some recent ranking methods, which will be useful for the researchers who are interested in this area.

Minor Actinides Recycling in PWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delpech, M.; Golfier, H.; Vasile, A.; Varaine, F.; Boucher, L.; Greneche, D.

2006-01-01

Recycling of minor actinides in current and near future PWR is considered as one of the options of the general waste management strategy. This paper presents the analysis of this option both from the core physics and fuel cycle point of view. A first indicator of the efficiency of different neutron spectra for transmutation purposes is the capture to fission cross sections ratio which is less favourable by a factor between 5 to 10 in PWRs compared to fast reactors. Another indicator presented is the production of high ranking isotopes like Curium, Berkelium or Californium in the thermal or epithermal spectrum conditions of PWR cores by successive neutron captures. The impact of the accumulation of this elements on the fabrication process of such PWR fuels strongly penalizes this option. The main constraint on minor actinides loadings in PWR (or fast reactors) fuels are related to their direct impact (or the impact of their transmutation products) on the reactivity coefficients, the reactivity control means and the core kinetics parameters. The main fuel cycle physical parameters like the neutron source, the alpha decay power, the gamma and neutrons dose rate and the criticality aspects are also affected. Recent neutronic calculations based on a reference core of the Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor (EPR), indicates typical maximum values of 1 % loadings. Different fuel design options for minor actinides transmutation purposes in PWRs are presented: UOX and MOX, homogeneous and heterogeneous assemblies. In this later case, Americium loading is concentrated in specific pins of a standard UOX assembly. Recycling of Neptunium in UOX and MOX fuels was also studied to improve the proliferation resistance of the fuel. The impact on the core physics and penalties on Uranium enrichment were underlined in this case. (authors)

Ranking Operations Management conferences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steenhuis, H.J.; de Bruijn, E.J.; Gupta, Sushil; Laptaned, U

2007-01-01

Several publications have appeared in the field of Operations Management which rank Operations Management related journals. Several ranking systems exist for journals based on , for example, perceived relevance and quality, citation, and author affiliation. Many academics also publish at conferences

The minor immigrant and the effects of juvenile migration in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andy Corneliu Pusca

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the civil law and the international law, the minor immigrants are the new protagonists of migratory processes and constitute a fundamental subject. During the last decade, the presence of minors in the most important migration phenomenon has united migrations worldwide and the numbers increased significantly. There is no universal definition of the minor immigrant. This paper aims to describe the concept of minor immigrant, the effects of juvenile migration on the EU Member States and the measures to be taken in order to prevent the negative aspects and to reduce the human costs of migration processes. The method applied is the creation of placement and protection models able to comply with the obligations imposed by international conventions, model that is far from being considered adequate, since the convictions of the European Court of Human Rights prove the lack of practice in the field.

Why do faculty leave? Reasons for attrition of women and minority faculty from a medical school: four-year results.

Science.gov (United States)

Cropsey, Karen L; Masho, Saba W; Shiang, Rita; Sikka, Veronica; Kornstein, Susan G; Hampton, Carol L

2008-09-01

Faculty attrition, particularly among female and minority faculty, is a serious problem in academic medical settings. The reasons why faculty in academic medical settings choose to leave their employment are not well understood. Further, it is not clear if the reasons why women and minority faculty leave differ from those of other groups. One hundred sixty-six medical school faculty who left the School of Medicine (SOM) between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2005, completed a survey about their reasons for leaving. The three most common overall reasons for leaving the institution included career/professional advancement (29.8%), low salary (25.5%), and chairman/departmental leadership issues (22.4%). The ranking of these reasons varied slightly across racial and gender groups, with women and minority faculty also citing personal reasons for leaving. Women and minority faculty were at lower academic ranks at the time they left the SOM compared with male and majority groups. Although salary differences were not present at the time of initial hire, sex was a significant predictor of lower salary at the start of the new position. Opportunity for advancement and the rate of promotion were significantly different between women and men. Job characteristics prior to leaving that were rated most poorly were protected time for teaching and research, communication across the campus, and patient parking. Harassment and discrimination were reported by a small number of those surveyed, particularly women and minority faculty. The majority of reasons for faculty attrition are amenable to change. Retaining high-quality faculty in medical settings may justify the costs of faculty development and retention efforts.

Country-specific determinants of world university rankings

OpenAIRE

Pietrucha, Jacek

2017-01-01

This paper examines country-specific factors that affect the three most influential world university rankings (the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the QS World University Ranking, and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking). We run a cross sectional regression that covers 42–71 countries (depending on the ranking and data availability). We show that the position of universities from a country in the ranking is determined by the following country-specific variables: econom...

AptRank: an adaptive PageRank model for protein function prediction on   bi-relational graphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Biaobin; Kloster, Kyle; Gleich, David F; Gribskov, Michael

2017-06-15

Diffusion-based network models are widely used for protein function prediction using protein network data and have been shown to outperform neighborhood-based and module-based methods. Recent studies have shown that integrating the hierarchical structure of the Gene Ontology (GO) data dramatically improves prediction accuracy. However, previous methods usually either used the GO hierarchy to refine the prediction results of multiple classifiers, or flattened the hierarchy into a function-function similarity kernel. No study has taken the GO hierarchy into account together with the protein network as a two-layer network model. We first construct a Bi-relational graph (Birg) model comprised of both protein-protein association and function-function hierarchical networks. We then propose two diffusion-based methods, BirgRank and AptRank, both of which use PageRank to diffuse information on this two-layer graph model. BirgRank is a direct application of traditional PageRank with fixed decay parameters. In contrast, AptRank utilizes an adaptive diffusion mechanism to improve the performance of BirgRank. We evaluate the ability of both methods to predict protein function on yeast, fly and human protein datasets, and compare with four previous methods: GeneMANIA, TMC, ProteinRank and clusDCA. We design four different validation strategies: missing function prediction, de novo function prediction, guided function prediction and newly discovered function prediction to comprehensively evaluate predictability of all six methods. We find that both BirgRank and AptRank outperform the previous methods, especially in missing function prediction when using only 10% of the data for training. The MATLAB code is available at https://github.rcac.purdue.edu/mgribsko/aptrank . gribskov@purdue.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Universal emergence of PageRank

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frahm, K M; Georgeot, B; Shepelyansky, D L, E-mail: frahm@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr, E-mail: georgeot@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr, E-mail: dima@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr [Laboratoire de Physique Theorique du CNRS, IRSAMC, Universite de Toulouse, UPS, 31062 Toulouse (France)

2011-11-18

The PageRank algorithm enables us to rank the nodes of a network through a specific eigenvector of the Google matrix, using a damping parameter {alpha} Element-Of ]0, 1[. Using extensive numerical simulations of large web networks, with a special accent on British University networks, we determine numerically and analytically the universal features of the PageRank vector at its emergence when {alpha} {yields} 1. The whole network can be divided into a core part and a group of invariant subspaces. For {alpha} {yields} 1, PageRank converges to a universal power-law distribution on the invariant subspaces whose size distribution also follows a universal power law. The convergence of PageRank at {alpha} {yields} 1 is controlled by eigenvalues of the core part of the Google matrix, which are extremely close to unity, leading to large relaxation times as, for example, in spin glasses. (paper)

Universal emergence of PageRank

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frahm, K M; Georgeot, B; Shepelyansky, D L

2011-01-01

The PageRank algorithm enables us to rank the nodes of a network through a specific eigenvector of the Google matrix, using a damping parameter α ∈ ]0, 1[. Using extensive numerical simulations of large web networks, with a special accent on British University networks, we determine numerically and analytically the universal features of the PageRank vector at its emergence when α → 1. The whole network can be divided into a core part and a group of invariant subspaces. For α → 1, PageRank converges to a universal power-law distribution on the invariant subspaces whose size distribution also follows a universal power law. The convergence of PageRank at α → 1 is controlled by eigenvalues of the core part of the Google matrix, which are extremely close to unity, leading to large relaxation times as, for example, in spin glasses. (paper)

The prevalence, diagnostic significance and demographic characteristics of Schneiderian first-rank symptoms in an epidemiological sample of first-episode psychoses.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Ihara, Kazushige

2009-01-01

The diagnostic significance of first-rank symptoms (FRSs) remains uncertain. Ethnic differences in FRSs may account for high rates of schizophrenia in minority groups. This study aims to examine the prevalence of FRSs in an epidemiological sample of first-episode psychoses stratified by relevant demographic variables. SAMPLING AND METHOD: We identified everyone aged 16-64 presenting with their first psychosis over 2 years in 3 UK centres.

Twenty Years of National Minority Protection in the Republic of Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Siniša Tatalović

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The paper contains a review of policies towards national minorities in the Republic of Croatia in the past twenty years, with reference to the perspective of minority rights implementation. The topic has been analysed in relation to two independent variables – the influence of external factors, i.e. the international community, and internal political processes that have had influence on the realisation of national minority rights. Today, as a country and society on the eve of accession to the European Union, along with a legislatively developed and institutionally branched model of the implementation of national minority rights, we can not claim to have established permanent protection of their rights. The degree of national minority integration in society is the only true indicator of policy success in relation to national minorities. The goal of this policy ought to be complete integration of national minorities into public, cultural, economic and political life, but accompanied by the preservation of their cultural and national identity. The Croatian model has been set up in such a way, but the manner in which it functions will depend on the political will to implement it, the willingness of national minority members to be active subjects of social and political life, as well as on civil society and Croatian society as a whole.

The Influence of Racial Microaggressions and Social Rank on Risk for Depression among Minority Graduate and Professional Students

Science.gov (United States)

Lilly, Flavius R. W.; Owens, Jenny; Bailey, TaShara C.; Ramirez, Amy; Brown, Whitney; Clawson, Clancy

2018-01-01

Objective: This study examined the association between positive screening for depression, current exposure to microaggressions, distress evoked by microaggressions, and subjective social status among high-achieving minorities. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted using the Racial Microaggressions Scale, MacArthur Scale of…

A Ranking Approach to Genomic Selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Blondel, Mathieu; Onogi, Akio; Iwata, Hiroyoshi; Ueda, Naonori

2015-01-01

Genomic selection (GS) is a recent selective breeding method which uses predictive models based on whole-genome molecular markers. Until now, existing studies formulated GS as the problem of modeling an individual's breeding value for a particular trait of interest, i.e., as a regression problem. To assess predictive accuracy of the model, the Pearson correlation between observed and predicted trait values was used. In this paper, we propose to formulate GS as the problem of ranking individuals according to their breeding value. Our proposed framework allows us to employ machine learning methods for ranking which had previously not been considered in the GS literature. To assess ranking accuracy of a model, we introduce a new measure originating from the information retrieval literature called normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG). NDCG rewards more strongly models which assign a high rank to individuals with high breeding value. Therefore, NDCG reflects a prerequisite objective in selective breeding: accurate selection of individuals with high breeding value. We conducted a comparison of 10 existing regression methods and 3 new ranking methods on 6 datasets, consisting of 4 plant species and 25 traits. Our experimental results suggest that tree-based ensemble methods including McRank, Random Forests and Gradient Boosting Regression Trees achieve excellent ranking accuracy. RKHS regression and RankSVM also achieve good accuracy when used with an RBF kernel. Traditional regression methods such as Bayesian lasso, wBSR and BayesC were found less suitable for ranking. Pearson correlation was found to correlate poorly with NDCG. Our study suggests two important messages. First, ranking methods are a promising research direction in GS. Second, NDCG can be a useful evaluation measure for GS.

Dynamic Matrix Rank

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frandsen, Gudmund Skovbjerg; Frandsen, Peter Frands

2009-01-01

We consider maintaining information about the rank of a matrix under changes of the entries. For n×n matrices, we show an upper bound of O(n1.575) arithmetic operations and a lower bound of Ω(n) arithmetic operations per element change. The upper bound is valid when changing up to O(n0.575) entries...... in a single column of the matrix. We also give an algorithm that maintains the rank using O(n2) arithmetic operations per rank one update. These bounds appear to be the first nontrivial bounds for the problem. The upper bounds are valid for arbitrary fields, whereas the lower bound is valid for algebraically...... closed fields. The upper bound for element updates uses fast rectangular matrix multiplication, and the lower bound involves further development of an earlier technique for proving lower bounds for dynamic computation of rational functions....

Research Performances of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Members.

Science.gov (United States)

Khoubnasabjafari, Maryam; Sadeghifar, Eliza; Khalili, Majid; Ansarin, Khalil; Jouyban, Abolghasem

2012-01-01

Scientometric analysis of academic institutions provides useful information for policy makers, international and national organizations to invest in the research fields of the institutions to gain more outputs with less cost. The objectives of this work were to report a scientometric analysis of Islamic states considering a number of indicators. The number of articles and patents published by members of organization of Islamic conference were extracted from Scopus(TM) along with the top journals, authors, document type, universities, language of the publications and subjects. The analyses of data revealed that Turkey is the leading country followed by Iran, Egypt, Malaysia and Nigeria when total numbers of indexed articles in Scopus(TM) are considered. When the articles of 2006-2010 are considered the ranks are Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt and Pakistan. the increased pattern was observed for scientific performances of OIC members however, more investments are required to fill the gap between OIC members and the leading countries.

Statistical methods for ranking data

CERN Document Server

Alvo, Mayer

2014-01-01

This book introduces advanced undergraduate, graduate students and practitioners to statistical methods for ranking data. An important aspect of nonparametric statistics is oriented towards the use of ranking data. Rank correlation is defined through the notion of distance functions and the notion of compatibility is introduced to deal with incomplete data. Ranking data are also modeled using a variety of modern tools such as CART, MCMC, EM algorithm and factor analysis. This book deals with statistical methods used for analyzing such data and provides a novel and unifying approach for hypotheses testing. The techniques described in the book are illustrated with examples and the statistical software is provided on the authors’ website.

Polymorphisms in the RANK/RANKL Genes and Their Effect on Bone Specific Prognosis in Breast Cancer Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Hein

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK pathway is involved in bone health as well as breast cancer (BC pathogenesis and progression. Whereas the therapeutic implication of this pathway is established for the treatment of osteoporosis and bone metastases, the application in adjuvant BC is currently investigated. As genetic variants in this pathway have been described to influence bone health, aim of this study was the prognostic relevance of genetic variants in RANK and RANKL. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in RANK(L (rs1054016/rs1805034/rs35211496 were genotyped and analyzed with regard to bone metastasis-free survival (BMFS, disease-free survival, and overall survival for a retrospective cohort of 1251 patients. Cox proportional hazard models were built to examine the prognostic influence in addition to commonly established prognostic factors. The SNP rs1054016 seems to influence BMFS. Patients with two minor alleles had a more favorable prognosis than patients with at least one common allele (HR 0.37 (95% CI: 0.17, 0.84, whereas other outcome parameters remained unaffected. rs1805034 and rs35211496 had no prognostic relevance. The effect of rs1054016(RANKL adds to the evidence that the RANK pathway plays a role in BC pathogenesis and progression with respect to BMFS, emphasizing the connection between BC and bone health.

Hitting the Rankings Jackpot

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, David W.

2008-01-01

Recently, Samford University was ranked 27th in the nation in a report released by "Forbes" magazine. In this article, the author relates how the people working at Samford University were surprised at its ranking. Although Samford is the largest privately institution in Alabama, its distinguished academic achievements aren't even…

Minoría gitana, Derecho penal y teorías republicanas del castigo || Roma Minority, Criminal Law and Republican Theories of Punishment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oscar Pérez de la Fuente

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Resumen: En primer lugar, este artículo plantea argumentos contra el prejuicio antigitano. En especial, los diversos intentos  de mezclar biología y Derecho penal.   En segundo lugar,  analiza tres elementos que explican mejor la relación entre minoría gitana y justicia penal: a El prejuicio como una profecía que se autocumple; b El Derecho penal como un caso de discriminación indirecta; c El prejuicio como falacia de la generalización.  En tercer lugar, se estudian las teoricle ly this artetribucionista, utilitarista y restaurativa desde las perspectiva de los derechos de los miembros de la minorías del castigo retribucionista, utilitarista y restaurativa desde las perspectiva de los derechos de los miembros de la minoría gitana.  Abstract: Firstly, this article focus on some arguments about the prejudice against Roma people. Specially, different attempts of mixing biology and criminal Law. Secondly, it is analysed three elements that explain better the relationship between Roma minority and criminal justice: a Prejudice as a prophecy that it self-accomplishes; b Criminal Law as a case of indirect discrimination; c The prejudice as a fallacy of generalization. Thirdly, it is studied the retributionist, utilitarian and restorative theories of punishment from the perspective of the rights of the members of Roma minority. 

A tilting approach to ranking influence

KAUST Repository

Genton, Marc G.

2014-12-01

We suggest a new approach, which is applicable for general statistics computed from random samples of univariate or vector-valued or functional data, to assessing the influence that individual data have on the value of a statistic, and to ranking the data in terms of that influence. Our method is based on, first, perturbing the value of the statistic by ‘tilting’, or reweighting, each data value, where the total amount of tilt is constrained to be the least possible, subject to achieving a given small perturbation of the statistic, and, then, taking the ranking of the influence of data values to be that which corresponds to ranking the changes in data weights. It is shown, both theoretically and numerically, that this ranking does not depend on the size of the perturbation, provided that the perturbation is sufficiently small. That simple result leads directly to an elegant geometric interpretation of the ranks; they are the ranks of the lengths of projections of the weights onto a ‘line’ determined by the first empirical principal component function in a generalized measure of covariance. To illustrate the generality of the method we introduce and explore it in the case of functional data, where (for example) it leads to generalized boxplots. The method has the advantage of providing an interpretable ranking that depends on the statistic under consideration. For example, the ranking of data, in terms of their influence on the value of a statistic, is different for a measure of location and for a measure of scale. This is as it should be; a ranking of data in terms of their influence should depend on the manner in which the data are used. Additionally, the ranking recognizes, rather than ignores, sign, and in particular can identify left- and right-hand ‘tails’ of the distribution of a random function or vector.

Research Productivity in Top-Ranked Schools in Psychology and Social Work: Does Having a Research Culture Matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Barner, John R.; Holosko, Michael J.; Thyer, Bruce A.; King, Steve, Jr.

2015-01-01

The "h"-index for all social work and psychology tenured or tenure-track faculty in the top 25 social work programs and psychology departments as ranked by "U.S. News and World Report" in 2012 and 2013, respectively, were obtained, permitting comparison of the scholarly influence between members (N = 1,939) of the two fields.…

Co-pyrolysis of low rank coals and biomass: Product distributions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soncini, Ryan M.; Means, Nicholas C.; Weiland, Nathan T.

2013-10-01

Pyrolysis and gasification of combined low rank coal and biomass feeds are the subject of much study in an effort to mitigate the production of green house gases from integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) systems. While co-feeding has the potential to reduce the net carbon footprint of commercial gasification operations, the effects of co-feeding on kinetics and product distributions requires study to ensure the success of this strategy. Southern yellow pine was pyrolyzed in a semi-batch type drop tube reactor with either Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal or Mississippi lignite at several temperatures and feed ratios. Product gas composition of expected primary constituents (CO, CO{sub 2}, CH{sub 4}, H{sub 2}, H{sub 2}O, and C{sub 2}H{sub 4}) was determined by in-situ mass spectrometry while minor gaseous constituents were determined using a GC-MS. Product distributions are fit to linear functions of temperature, and quadratic functions of biomass fraction, for use in computational co-pyrolysis simulations. The results are shown to yield significant nonlinearities, particularly at higher temperatures and for lower ranked coals. The co-pyrolysis product distributions evolve more tar, and less char, CH{sub 4}, and C{sub 2}H{sub 4}, than an additive pyrolysis process would suggest. For lignite co-pyrolysis, CO and H{sub 2} production are also reduced. The data suggests that evolution of hydrogen from rapid pyrolysis of biomass prevents the crosslinking of fragmented aromatic structures during coal pyrolysis to produce tar, rather than secondary char and light gases. Finally, it is shown that, for the two coal types tested, co-pyrolysis synergies are more significant as coal rank decreases, likely because the initial structure in these coals contains larger pores and smaller clusters of aromatic structures which are more readily retained as tar in rapid co-pyrolysis.

Oversampling the Minority Class in the Feature Space.

Science.gov (United States)

Perez-Ortiz, Maria; Gutierrez, Pedro Antonio; Tino, Peter; Hervas-Martinez, Cesar

2016-09-01

The imbalanced nature of some real-world data is one of the current challenges for machine learning researchers. One common approach oversamples the minority class through convex combination of its patterns. We explore the general idea of synthetic oversampling in the feature space induced by a kernel function (as opposed to input space). If the kernel function matches the underlying problem, the classes will be linearly separable and synthetically generated patterns will lie on the minority class region. Since the feature space is not directly accessible, we use the empirical feature space (EFS) (a Euclidean space isomorphic to the feature space) for oversampling purposes. The proposed method is framed in the context of support vector machines, where the imbalanced data sets can pose a serious hindrance. The idea is investigated in three scenarios: 1) oversampling in the full and reduced-rank EFSs; 2) a kernel learning technique maximizing the data class separation to study the influence of the feature space structure (implicitly defined by the kernel function); and 3) a unified framework for preferential oversampling that spans some of the previous approaches in the literature. We support our investigation with extensive experiments over 50 imbalanced data sets.

Ranking adverse drug reactions with crowdsourcing.

Science.gov (United States)

Gottlieb, Assaf; Hoehndorf, Robert; Dumontier, Michel; Altman, Russ B

2015-03-23

There is no publicly available resource that provides the relative severity of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Such a resource would be useful for several applications, including assessment of the risks and benefits of drugs and improvement of patient-centered care. It could also be used to triage predictions of drug adverse events. The intent of the study was to rank ADRs according to severity. We used Internet-based crowdsourcing to rank ADRs according to severity. We assigned 126,512 pairwise comparisons of ADRs to 2589 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers and used these comparisons to rank order 2929 ADRs. There is good correlation (rho=.53) between the mortality rates associated with ADRs and their rank. Our ranking highlights severe drug-ADR predictions, such as cardiovascular ADRs for raloxifene and celecoxib. It also triages genes associated with severe ADRs such as epidermal growth-factor receptor (EGFR), associated with glioblastoma multiforme, and SCN1A, associated with epilepsy. ADR ranking lays a first stepping stone in personalized drug risk assessment. Ranking of ADRs using crowdsourcing may have useful clinical and financial implications, and should be further investigated in the context of health care decision making.

Ranking Adverse Drug Reactions With Crowdsourcing

KAUST Repository

Gottlieb, Assaf

2015-03-23

Background: There is no publicly available resource that provides the relative severity of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Such a resource would be useful for several applications, including assessment of the risks and benefits of drugs and improvement of patient-centered care. It could also be used to triage predictions of drug adverse events. Objective: The intent of the study was to rank ADRs according to severity. Methods: We used Internet-based crowdsourcing to rank ADRs according to severity. We assigned 126,512 pairwise comparisons of ADRs to 2589 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers and used these comparisons to rank order 2929 ADRs. Results: There is good correlation (rho=.53) between the mortality rates associated with ADRs and their rank. Our ranking highlights severe drug-ADR predictions, such as cardiovascular ADRs for raloxifene and celecoxib. It also triages genes associated with severe ADRs such as epidermal growth-factor receptor (EGFR), associated with glioblastoma multiforme, and SCN1A, associated with epilepsy. Conclusions: ADR ranking lays a first stepping stone in personalized drug risk assessment. Ranking of ADRs using crowdsourcing may have useful clinical and financial implications, and should be further investigated in the context of health care decision making.

Ranking scientific publications: the effect of nonlinearity

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Liyang; Wei, Tian; Zeng, An; Fan, Ying; di, Zengru

2014-10-01

Ranking the significance of scientific publications is a long-standing challenge. The network-based analysis is a natural and common approach for evaluating the scientific credit of papers. Although the number of citations has been widely used as a metric to rank papers, recently some iterative processes such as the well-known PageRank algorithm have been applied to the citation networks to address this problem. In this paper, we introduce nonlinearity to the PageRank algorithm when aggregating resources from different nodes to further enhance the effect of important papers. The validation of our method is performed on the data of American Physical Society (APS) journals. The results indicate that the nonlinearity improves the performance of the PageRank algorithm in terms of ranking effectiveness, as well as robustness against malicious manipulations. Although the nonlinearity analysis is based on the PageRank algorithm, it can be easily extended to other iterative ranking algorithms and similar improvements are expected.

Ranking scientific publications: the effect of nonlinearity.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Liyang; Wei, Tian; Zeng, An; Fan, Ying; Di, Zengru

2014-10-17

Ranking the significance of scientific publications is a long-standing challenge. The network-based analysis is a natural and common approach for evaluating the scientific credit of papers. Although the number of citations has been widely used as a metric to rank papers, recently some iterative processes such as the well-known PageRank algorithm have been applied to the citation networks to address this problem. In this paper, we introduce nonlinearity to the PageRank algorithm when aggregating resources from different nodes to further enhance the effect of important papers. The validation of our method is performed on the data of American Physical Society (APS) journals. The results indicate that the nonlinearity improves the performance of the PageRank algorithm in terms of ranking effectiveness, as well as robustness against malicious manipulations. Although the nonlinearity analysis is based on the PageRank algorithm, it can be easily extended to other iterative ranking algorithms and similar improvements are expected.

Commission release recommendations for attracting more women, minorities

Science.gov (United States)

Showstack, Randy

U.S. Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a U.S. Space Shuttle mission, tries to encourage and inspire young women and minorities to follow their dreams of becoming scientists, engineers, and technicians.“I like to tell young women that there have been 12 men who have walked on the Moon, but not yet one woman, and you could be the first,” Collins, who is a member of the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (CAWMSET), said at a July 13 hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology reviewing the commission's recommendations. Collins said she tells young women, “No one has walked on Mars, and you could be that person.”

Statistical Optimality in Multipartite Ranking and Ordinal Regression.

Science.gov (United States)

Uematsu, Kazuki; Lee, Yoonkyung

2015-05-01

Statistical optimality in multipartite ranking is investigated as an extension of bipartite ranking. We consider the optimality of ranking algorithms through minimization of the theoretical risk which combines pairwise ranking errors of ordinal categories with differential ranking costs. The extension shows that for a certain class of convex loss functions including exponential loss, the optimal ranking function can be represented as a ratio of weighted conditional probability of upper categories to lower categories, where the weights are given by the misranking costs. This result also bridges traditional ranking methods such as proportional odds model in statistics with various ranking algorithms in machine learning. Further, the analysis of multipartite ranking with different costs provides a new perspective on non-smooth list-wise ranking measures such as the discounted cumulative gain and preference learning. We illustrate our findings with simulation study and real data analysis.

Country-specific determinants of world university rankings.

Science.gov (United States)

Pietrucha, Jacek

2018-01-01

This paper examines country-specific factors that affect the three most influential world university rankings (the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the QS World University Ranking, and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking). We run a cross sectional regression that covers 42-71 countries (depending on the ranking and data availability). We show that the position of universities from a country in the ranking is determined by the following country-specific variables: economic potential of the country, research and development expenditure, long-term political stability (freedom from war, occupation, coups and major changes in the political system), and institutional variables, including government effectiveness.

Ranking in evolving complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Hao; Mariani, Manuel Sebastian; Medo, Matúš; Zhang, Yi-Cheng; Zhou, Ming-Yang

2017-05-01

Complex networks have emerged as a simple yet powerful framework to represent and analyze a wide range of complex systems. The problem of ranking the nodes and the edges in complex networks is critical for a broad range of real-world problems because it affects how we access online information and products, how success and talent are evaluated in human activities, and how scarce resources are allocated by companies and policymakers, among others. This calls for a deep understanding of how existing ranking algorithms perform, and which are their possible biases that may impair their effectiveness. Many popular ranking algorithms (such as Google's PageRank) are static in nature and, as a consequence, they exhibit important shortcomings when applied to real networks that rapidly evolve in time. At the same time, recent advances in the understanding and modeling of evolving networks have enabled the development of a wide and diverse range of ranking algorithms that take the temporal dimension into account. The aim of this review is to survey the existing ranking algorithms, both static and time-aware, and their applications to evolving networks. We emphasize both the impact of network evolution on well-established static algorithms and the benefits from including the temporal dimension for tasks such as prediction of network traffic, prediction of future links, and identification of significant nodes.

Groundwater contaminant plume ranking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-08-01

Containment plumes at Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project sites were ranked to assist in Subpart B (i.e., restoration requirements of 40 CFR Part 192) compliance strategies for each site, to prioritize aquifer restoration, and to budget future requests and allocations. The rankings roughly estimate hazards to the environment and human health, and thus assist in determining for which sites cleanup, if appropriate, will provide the greatest benefits for funds available. The rankings are based on the scores that were obtained using the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Modified Hazard Ranking System (MHRS). The MHRS and HRS consider and score three hazard modes for a site: migration, fire and explosion, and direct contact. The migration hazard mode score reflects the potential for harm to humans or the environment from migration of a hazardous substance off a site by groundwater, surface water, and air; it is a composite of separate scores for each of these routes. For ranking the containment plumes at UMTRA Project sites, it was assumed that each site had been remediated in compliance with the EPA standards and that relict contaminant plumes were present. Therefore, only the groundwater route was scored, and the surface water and air routes were not considered. Section 2.0 of this document describes the assumptions and procedures used to score the groundwater route, and Section 3.0 provides the resulting scores for each site. 40 tabs

Inhibition of osteoclastogenesis by RNA interference targeting RANK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ma Ruofan

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Osteoclasts and osteoblasts regulate bone resorption and formation to allow bone remodeling and homeostasis. The balance between bone resorption and formation is disturbed by abnormal recruitment of osteoclasts. Osteoclast differentiation is dependent on the receptor activator of nuclear factor NF-kappa B (RANK ligand (RANKL as well as the macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF. The RANKL/RANK system and RANK signaling induce osteoclast formation mediated by various cytokines. The RANK/RANKL pathway has been primarily implicated in metabolic, degenerative and neoplastic bone disorders or osteolysis. The central role of RANK/RANKL interaction in osteoclastogenesis makes RANK an attractive target for potential therapies in treatment of osteolysis. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of inhibition of RANK expression in mouse bone marrow macrophages on osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. Methods Three pairs of short hairpin RNAs (shRNA targeting RANK were designed and synthesized. The optimal shRNA was selected among three pairs of shRNAs by RANK expression analyzed by Western blot and Real-time PCR. We investigated suppression of osteoclastogenesis of mouse bone marrow macrophages (BMMs using the optimal shRNA by targeting RANK. Results Among the three shRANKs examined, shRANK-3 significantly suppressed [88.3%] the RANK expression (p Conclusions These findings suggest that retrovirus-mediated shRNA targeting RANK inhibits osteoclast differentiation and osteolysis. It may appear an attractive target for preventing osteolysis in humans with a potential clinical application.

On Rank and Nullity

Science.gov (United States)

Dobbs, David E.

2012-01-01

This note explains how Emil Artin's proof that row rank equals column rank for a matrix with entries in a field leads naturally to the formula for the nullity of a matrix and also to an algorithm for solving any system of linear equations in any number of variables. This material could be used in any course on matrix theory or linear algebra.

Ranking economic history journals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Di Vaio, Gianfranco; Weisdorf, Jacob Louis

2010-01-01

This study ranks-for the first time-12 international academic journals that have economic history as their main topic. The ranking is based on data collected for the year 2007. Journals are ranked using standard citation analysis where we adjust for age, size and self-citation of journals. We also...... compare the leading economic history journals with the leading journals in economics in order to measure the influence on economics of economic history, and vice versa. With a few exceptions, our results confirm the general idea about what economic history journals are the most influential for economic...... history, and that, although economic history is quite independent from economics as a whole, knowledge exchange between the two fields is indeed going on....

Ranking Economic History Journals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Di Vaio, Gianfranco; Weisdorf, Jacob Louis

This study ranks - for the first time - 12 international academic journals that have economic history as their main topic. The ranking is based on data collected for the year 2007. Journals are ranked using standard citation analysis where we adjust for age, size and self-citation of journals. We...... also compare the leading economic history journals with the leading journals in economics in order to measure the influence on economics of economic history, and vice versa. With a few exceptions, our results confirm the general idea about what economic history journals are the most influential...... for economic history, and that, although economic history is quite independent from economics as a whole, knowledge exchange between the two fields is indeed going on....

A Universal Rank-Size Law

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

A mere hyperbolic law, like the Zipf’s law power function, is often inadequate to describe rank-size relationships. An alternative theoretical distribution is proposed based on theoretical physics arguments starting from the Yule-Simon distribution. A modeling is proposed leading to a universal form. A theoretical suggestion for the “best (or optimal) distribution”, is provided through an entropy argument. The ranking of areas through the number of cities in various countries and some sport competition ranking serves for the present illustrations. PMID:27812192

On the ranking of chemicals based on their PBT characteristics: comparison of different ranking methodologies using selected POPs as an illustrative example.

Science.gov (United States)

Sailaukhanuly, Yerbolat; Zhakupbekova, Arai; Amutova, Farida; Carlsen, Lars

2013-01-01

Knowledge of the environmental behavior of chemicals is a fundamental part of the risk assessment process. The present paper discusses various methods of ranking of a series of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) according to the persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity (PBT) characteristics. Traditionally ranking has been done as an absolute (total) ranking applying various multicriteria data analysis methods like simple additive ranking (SAR) or various utility functions (UFs) based rankings. An attractive alternative to these ranking methodologies appears to be partial order ranking (POR). The present paper compares different ranking methods like SAR, UF and POR. Significant discrepancies between the rankings are noted and it is concluded that partial order ranking, as a method without any pre-assumptions concerning possible relation between the single parameters, appears as the most attractive ranking methodology. In addition to the initial ranking partial order methodology offers a wide variety of analytical tools to elucidate the interplay between the objects to be ranked and the ranking parameters. In the present study is included an analysis of the relative importance of the single P, B and T parameters. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigating Faculty Members' Beliefs about Distance Education: The Case of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Science.gov (United States)

Saleem, Naifa Eid; Al-Suqri, Mohammed Nasser

2015-01-01

This research paper aims to investigate the beliefs (perceptions) about distance education(DE) held by the faculty members of Sultan Qaboos Uuniversity (SQU) at the Sultanate of Oman as well as the differences between their beliefs (perceptions) with regards to gender, teaching experience, college academic rank, nationality, etc. This study used a…

Block models and personalized PageRank.

Science.gov (United States)

Kloumann, Isabel M; Ugander, Johan; Kleinberg, Jon

2017-01-03

Methods for ranking the importance of nodes in a network have a rich history in machine learning and across domains that analyze structured data. Recent work has evaluated these methods through the "seed set expansion problem": given a subset [Formula: see text] of nodes from a community of interest in an underlying graph, can we reliably identify the rest of the community? We start from the observation that the most widely used techniques for this problem, personalized PageRank and heat kernel methods, operate in the space of "landing probabilities" of a random walk rooted at the seed set, ranking nodes according to weighted sums of landing probabilities of different length walks. Both schemes, however, lack an a priori relationship to the seed set objective. In this work, we develop a principled framework for evaluating ranking methods by studying seed set expansion applied to the stochastic block model. We derive the optimal gradient for separating the landing probabilities of two classes in a stochastic block model and find, surprisingly, that under reasonable assumptions the gradient is asymptotically equivalent to personalized PageRank for a specific choice of the PageRank parameter [Formula: see text] that depends on the block model parameters. This connection provides a formal motivation for the success of personalized PageRank in seed set expansion and node ranking generally. We use this connection to propose more advanced techniques incorporating higher moments of landing probabilities; our advanced methods exhibit greatly improved performance, despite being simple linear classification rules, and are even competitive with belief propagation.

Adiabatic quantum algorithm for search engine ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Garnerone, Silvano; Zanardi, Paolo; Lidar, Daniel A

2012-06-08

We propose an adiabatic quantum algorithm for generating a quantum pure state encoding of the PageRank vector, the most widely used tool in ranking the relative importance of internet pages. We present extensive numerical simulations which provide evidence that this algorithm can prepare the quantum PageRank state in a time which, on average, scales polylogarithmically in the number of web pages. We argue that the main topological feature of the underlying web graph allowing for such a scaling is the out-degree distribution. The top-ranked log(n) entries of the quantum PageRank state can then be estimated with a polynomial quantum speed-up. Moreover, the quantum PageRank state can be used in "q-sampling" protocols for testing properties of distributions, which require exponentially fewer measurements than all classical schemes designed for the same task. This can be used to decide whether to run a classical update of the PageRank.

Comparing classical and quantum PageRanks

Science.gov (United States)

Loke, T.; Tang, J. W.; Rodriguez, J.; Small, M.; Wang, J. B.

2017-01-01

Following recent developments in quantum PageRanking, we present a comparative analysis of discrete-time and continuous-time quantum-walk-based PageRank algorithms. Relative to classical PageRank and to different extents, the quantum measures better highlight secondary hubs and resolve ranking degeneracy among peripheral nodes for all networks we studied in this paper. For the discrete-time case, we investigated the periodic nature of the walker's probability distribution for a wide range of networks and found that the dominant period does not grow with the size of these networks. Based on this observation, we introduce a new quantum measure using the maximum probabilities of the associated walker during the first couple of periods. This is particularly important, since it leads to a quantum PageRanking scheme that is scalable with respect to network size.

The age estimation practice related to illegal unaccompanied minors immigration in Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pradella, F; Pinchi, V; Focardi, M; Grifoni, R; Palandri, M; Norelli, G A

2017-12-01

The migrants arrived to the Italian coasts in 2016 were 181.436, 18% more than the previous year and 6% more than the highest number ever since. An "unaccompanied minor" (UAM) is a third-country national or a stateless person under eighteen years of age, who arrives on the territory of the Member State unaccompanied by an adult responsible for him/her whether by law or by the practice of the Member State concerned, and for as long as he or she is not effectively taken into the care of such a person; it includes a minor who is left unaccompanied after he/she entered the territory of the Member States. As many as 95.985 UAMs applied for international protection in an EU member country just in 2015, almost four times the number registered in the previous year. The UAMs arrived in Italy were 28.283 in 2016; 94% of them were males, 92% unaccompanied, 8% of them under 15; the 53,6% is 17; the individuals between 16 and 17 are instead the 82%. Many of them (50%), 6561 in 2016, escaped from the sanctuaries, thus avoiding to be formally identified and registered in Italy in the attempt to reach more easily northern Europe countries, since The Dublin Regulations (2003) state that the asylum application should be held in the EU country of entrance or where parents reside. The age assessment procedures can therefore be considered as a relevant task that weighs in on the shoulders of the forensic experts with all the related issues and the coming of age is the important threshold. In the EU laws on asylum, the minors are considered as one of the groups of vulnerable persons towards whom Member States have specific obligations. A proper EU common formal regulation in the matter of age estimation procedures still lacks. According to the Italian legal framework in the matter, a medical examination should have been always performed but a new law completely changed the approach to the procedures of age estimation of the migrant (excluding the criminal cases) with a better adherence

RANK ligand as a potential target for breast cancer prevention in BRCA1-mutation carriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nolan, Emma; Vaillant, François; Branstetter, Daniel; Pal, Bhupinder; Giner, Göknur; Whitehead, Lachlan; Lok, Sheau W; Mann, Gregory B; Rohrbach, Kathy; Huang, Li-Ya; Soriano, Rosalia; Smyth, Gordon K; Dougall, William C; Visvader, Jane E; Lindeman, Geoffrey J

2016-08-01

Individuals who have mutations in the breast-cancer-susceptibility gene BRCA1 (hereafter referred to as BRCA1-mutation carriers) frequently undergo prophylactic mastectomy to minimize their risk of breast cancer. The identification of an effective prevention therapy therefore remains a 'holy grail' for the field. Precancerous BRCA1(mut/+) tissue harbors an aberrant population of luminal progenitor cells, and deregulated progesterone signaling has been implicated in BRCA1-associated oncogenesis. Coupled with the findings that tumor necrosis factor superfamily member 11 (TNFSF11; also known as RANKL) is a key paracrine effector of progesterone signaling and that RANKL and its receptor TNFRSF11A (also known as RANK) contribute to mammary tumorigenesis, we investigated a role for this pathway in the pre-neoplastic phase of BRCA1-mutation carriers. We identified two subsets of luminal progenitors (RANK(+) and RANK(-)) in histologically normal tissue of BRCA1-mutation carriers and showed that RANK(+) cells are highly proliferative, have grossly aberrant DNA repair and bear a molecular signature similar to that of basal-like breast cancer. These data suggest that RANK(+) and not RANK(-) progenitors are a key target population in these women. Inhibition of RANKL signaling by treatment with denosumab in three-dimensional breast organoids derived from pre-neoplastic BRCA1(mut/+) tissue attenuated progesterone-induced proliferation. Notably, proliferation was markedly reduced in breast biopsies from BRCA1-mutation carriers who were treated with denosumab. Furthermore, inhibition of RANKL in a Brca1-deficient mouse model substantially curtailed mammary tumorigenesis. Taken together, these findings identify a targetable pathway in a putative cell-of-origin population in BRCA1-mutation carriers and implicate RANKL blockade as a promising strategy in the prevention of breast cancer.

Error analysis of stochastic gradient descent ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hong; Tang, Yi; Li, Luoqing; Yuan, Yuan; Li, Xuelong; Tang, Yuanyan

2013-06-01

Ranking is always an important task in machine learning and information retrieval, e.g., collaborative filtering, recommender systems, drug discovery, etc. A kernel-based stochastic gradient descent algorithm with the least squares loss is proposed for ranking in this paper. The implementation of this algorithm is simple, and an expression of the solution is derived via a sampling operator and an integral operator. An explicit convergence rate for leaning a ranking function is given in terms of the suitable choices of the step size and the regularization parameter. The analysis technique used here is capacity independent and is novel in error analysis of ranking learning. Experimental results on real-world data have shown the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in ranking tasks, which verifies the theoretical analysis in ranking error.

Contests with rank-order spillovers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.R. Baye (Michael); D. Kovenock (Dan); C.G. de Vries (Casper)

2012-01-01

textabstractThis paper presents a unified framework for characterizing symmetric equilibrium in simultaneous move, two-player, rank-order contests with complete information, in which each player's strategy generates direct or indirect affine "spillover" effects that depend on the rank-order of her

Minor actinide transmutation using minor actinide burner reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukaiyama, T.; Yoshida, H.; Gunji, Y.

1991-01-01

The concept of minor actinide burner reactor is proposed as an efficient way to transmute long-lived minor actinides in order to ease the burden of high-level radioactive waste disposal problem. Conceptual design study of minor actinide burner reactors was performed to obtain a reactor model with very hard neutron spectrum and very high neutron flux in which minor actinides can be fissioned efficiently. Two models of burner reactors were obtained, one with metal fuel core and the other with particle fuel core. Minor actinide transmutation by the actinide burner reactors is compared with that by power reactors from both the reactor physics and fuel cycle facilities view point. (author)

Rank distributions: A panoramic macroscopic outlook

Science.gov (United States)

Eliazar, Iddo I.; Cohen, Morrel H.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a panoramic macroscopic outlook of rank distributions. We establish a general framework for the analysis of rank distributions, which classifies them into five macroscopic "socioeconomic" states: monarchy, oligarchy-feudalism, criticality, socialism-capitalism, and communism. Oligarchy-feudalism is shown to be characterized by discrete macroscopic rank distributions, and socialism-capitalism is shown to be characterized by continuous macroscopic size distributions. Criticality is a transition state between oligarchy-feudalism and socialism-capitalism, which can manifest allometric scaling with multifractal spectra. Monarchy and communism are extreme forms of oligarchy-feudalism and socialism-capitalism, respectively, in which the intrinsic randomness vanishes. The general framework is applied to three different models of rank distributions—top-down, bottom-up, and global—and unveils each model's macroscopic universality and versatility. The global model yields a macroscopic classification of the generalized Zipf law, an omnipresent form of rank distributions observed across the sciences. An amalgamation of the three models establishes a universal rank-distribution explanation for the macroscopic emergence of a prevalent class of continuous size distributions, ones governed by unimodal densities with both Pareto and inverse-Pareto power-law tails.

Importance of intrinsic and non-network contribution in PageRank centrality and its effect on PageRank localization

OpenAIRE

Deyasi, Krishanu

2016-01-01

PageRank centrality is used by Google for ranking web-pages to present search result for a user query. Here, we have shown that PageRank value of a vertex also depends on its intrinsic, non-network contribution. If the intrinsic, non-network contributions of the vertices are proportional to their degrees or zeros, then their PageRank centralities become proportion to their degrees. Some simulations and empirical data are used to support our study. In addition, we have shown that localization ...

Ranking as parameter estimation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kárný, Miroslav; Guy, Tatiana Valentine

2009-01-01

Roč. 4, č. 2 (2009), s. 142-158 ISSN 1745-7645 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 2C06001; GA AV ČR 1ET100750401; GA MŠk 1M0572 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : ranking * Bayesian estimation * negotiation * modelling Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2009/AS/karny- ranking as parameter estimation.pdf

A Family Longevity Selection Score: Ranking Sibships by Their Longevity, Size, and Availability for Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sebastiani, Paola; Hadley, Evan C; Province, Michael

2009-01-01

Family studies of exceptional longevity can potentially identify genetic and other factors contributing to long life and healthy aging. Although such studies seek families that are exceptionally long lived, they also need living members who can provide DNA and phenotype information. On the basis...... of these considerations, the authors developed a metric to rank families for selection into a family study of longevity. Their measure, the family longevity selection score (FLoSS), is the sum of 2 components: 1) an estimated family longevity score built from birth-, gender-, and nation-specific cohort survival...... probabilities and 2) a bonus for older living siblings. The authors examined properties of FLoSS-based family rankings by using data from 3 ongoing studies: the New England Centenarian Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and screenees for the Long Life Family Study. FLoSS-based selection yields families...

77 FR 63416 - Senior Executive Service; Departmental Offices Performance Review Board Members

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-16

... Secretary for Human Resources and Chief Human Capital Officer Bynum, Nicole, Chief of Management Operations... CONTACT: Mario R. Minor, Senior Human Resources Specialist, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., ATTN: Room 6W529... career appointee, more than half the members shall consist of career appointees. The names and titles of...

Diversifying customer review rankings.

Science.gov (United States)

Krestel, Ralf; Dokoohaki, Nima

2015-06-01

E-commerce Web sites owe much of their popularity to consumer reviews accompanying product descriptions. On-line customers spend hours and hours going through heaps of textual reviews to decide which products to buy. At the same time, each popular product has thousands of user-generated reviews, making it impossible for a buyer to read everything. Current approaches to display reviews to users or recommend an individual review for a product are based on the recency or helpfulness of each review. In this paper, we present a framework to rank product reviews by optimizing the coverage of the ranking with respect to sentiment or aspects, or by summarizing all reviews with the top-K reviews in the ranking. To accomplish this, we make use of the assigned star rating for a product as an indicator for a review's sentiment polarity and compare bag-of-words (language model) with topic models (latent Dirichlet allocation) as a mean to represent aspects. Our evaluation on manually annotated review data from a commercial review Web site demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach, outperforming plain recency ranking by 30% and obtaining best results by combining language and topic model representations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparison of average-based, percentile rank, and other citation impact indicators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruiz-Castillo, J.; Albarran, P.

2016-07-01

The main aim of this paper is to defend the view that, in spite of the broad agreement in favor of the MNCS and the percentile rank indicators, there are two other citation indicators with desirable properties that the above indicators do not posses: (i) a member of the family of high-impact indicators introduced in Albarránet al. (2011), and (ii) a new indicator, based in the work of Herrero & Villar (2013), which measures the relative performance of the different research units in terms of a series of tournaments in which each research unit is confronted with all others repeatedly. We compare indicators from the point of view of their discriminatory power, measured by the range and the coefficient of variation. Using a large dataset indexed by Thomson Reuters, we consider 40 countries that have published at least 10,000 articles in all sciences in 1998-2003. There are two main findings. First, the new indicator exhibits a greater discriminatory power than percentile rank indicators. Second, the high-impact indicator exhibits the greatest discriminatory power. (Author)

Why does ingroup essentialism increase prejudice against minority members?

Science.gov (United States)

Zagefka, Hanna; Nigbur, Dennis; Gonzalez, Roberto; Tip, Linda

2013-01-01

A study with British participants (N = 90) tested a potential mediator of the effect of essentialist beliefs about the national ingroup on prejudice against immigrants. Essentialist beliefs were defined as beliefs in genetic determinism, a basic assumption that group membership is "written in the blood" and that the groups' boundaries and characteristics are determined by genetic and/or biological factors. Essentialist beliefs were expected to play an important role in the formation of prejudice. They were predicted to be associated with a reduction in the perceived possibility of immigrants' adopting the mainstream culture. Further, it was expected that essentialist beliefs would be positively associated with perceptions of intergroup threat, which in turn would be associated with a stronger demand for immigrants adopting the mainstream culture. Taken together, essentialist beliefs were predicted to be associated with a greater discrepancy between the demand for and perceived feasibility of culture adoption. This discrepancy was hypothesized to mediate the effect of essentialist beliefs on prejudice against immigrants. Structural equation modeling analysis and mediation analysis supported the hypotheses, showing that essentialism attributed to the national ingroup results in people demanding something seemingly impossible from immigrants, and that this situation in which immigrants have little chance of fulfilling majority members' expectations results in prejudice against them. Thus, results show that perceptions of the ingroup are associated with attitudes to the outgroup, and they outline an explanatory mechanism for the positive correlation between essentialism and prejudice which has been found in previous research. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

28 CFR 600.9 - Notification and reports by the Attorney General.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... GENERAL POWERS OF SPECIAL COUNSEL § 600.9 Notification and reports by the Attorney General. (a) The Attorney General will notify the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Judiciary Committees of each... which the Attorney General concluded that a proposed action by a Special Counsel was so inappropriate or...

Algebraic and computational aspects of real tensor ranks

CERN Document Server

Sakata, Toshio; Miyazaki, Mitsuhiro

2016-01-01

This book provides comprehensive summaries of theoretical (algebraic) and computational aspects of tensor ranks, maximal ranks, and typical ranks, over the real number field. Although tensor ranks have been often argued in the complex number field, it should be emphasized that this book treats real tensor ranks, which have direct applications in statistics. The book provides several interesting ideas, including determinant polynomials, determinantal ideals, absolutely nonsingular tensors, absolutely full column rank tensors, and their connection to bilinear maps and Hurwitz-Radon numbers. In addition to reviews of methods to determine real tensor ranks in details, global theories such as the Jacobian method are also reviewed in details. The book includes as well an accessible and comprehensive introduction of mathematical backgrounds, with basics of positive polynomials and calculations by using the Groebner basis. Furthermore, this book provides insights into numerical methods of finding tensor ranks through...

Co-integration Rank Testing under Conditional Heteroskedasticity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cavaliere, Guiseppe; Rahbæk, Anders; Taylor, A.M. Robert

null distributions of the rank statistics coincide with those derived by previous authors who assume either i.i.d. or (strict and covariance) stationary martingale difference innovations. We then propose wild bootstrap implementations of the co-integrating rank tests and demonstrate that the associated...... bootstrap rank statistics replicate the first-order asymptotic null distributions of the rank statistics. We show the same is also true of the corresponding rank tests based on the i.i.d. bootstrap of Swensen (2006). The wild bootstrap, however, has the important property that, unlike the i.i.d. bootstrap......, it preserves in the re-sampled data the pattern of heteroskedasticity present in the original shocks. Consistent with this, numerical evidence sug- gests that, relative to tests based on the asymptotic critical values or the i.i.d. bootstrap, the wild bootstrap rank tests perform very well in small samples un...

Augmenting the Deliberative Method for Ranking Risks.

Science.gov (United States)

Susel, Irving; Lasley, Trace; Montezemolo, Mark; Piper, Joel

2016-01-01

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) characterized and prioritized the physical cross-border threats and hazards to the nation stemming from terrorism, market-driven illicit flows of people and goods (illegal immigration, narcotics, funds, counterfeits, and weaponry), and other nonmarket concerns (movement of diseases, pests, and invasive species). These threats and hazards pose a wide diversity of consequences with very different combinations of magnitudes and likelihoods, making it very challenging to prioritize them. This article presents the approach that was used at DHS to arrive at a consensus regarding the threats and hazards that stand out from the rest based on the overall risk they pose. Due to time constraints for the decision analysis, it was not feasible to apply multiattribute methodologies like multiattribute utility theory or the analytic hierarchy process. Using a holistic approach was considered, such as the deliberative method for ranking risks first published in this journal. However, an ordinal ranking alone does not indicate relative or absolute magnitude differences among the risks. Therefore, the use of the deliberative method for ranking risks is not sufficient for deciding whether there is a material difference between the top-ranked and bottom-ranked risks, let alone deciding what the stand-out risks are. To address this limitation of ordinal rankings, the deliberative method for ranking risks was augmented by adding an additional step to transform the ordinal ranking into a ratio scale ranking. This additional step enabled the selection of stand-out risks to help prioritize further analysis. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Model of Decision Making through Consensus in Ranking Case

Science.gov (United States)

Tarigan, Gim; Darnius, Open

2018-01-01

The basic problem to determine ranking consensus is a problem to combine some rankings those are decided by two or more Decision Maker (DM) into ranking consensus. DM is frequently asked to present their preferences over a group of objects in terms of ranks, for example to determine a new project, new product, a candidate in a election, and so on. The problem in ranking can be classified into two major categories; namely, cardinal and ordinal rankings. The objective of the study is to obtin the ranking consensus by appying some algorithms and methods. The algorithms and methods used in this study were partial algorithm, optimal ranking consensus, BAK (Borde-Kendal)Model. A method proposed as an alternative in ranking conssensus is a Weighted Distance Forward-Backward (WDFB) method, which gave a little difference i ranking consensus result compare to the result oethe example solved by Cook, et.al (2005).

Minority Language Rights.

Science.gov (United States)

O Riagain, Padraig; Shuibhne, Niamh Nic

1997-01-01

A survey of literature since 1990 on minority languages and language rights focuses on five issues: definition of minorities; individual vs. collective rights; legal bases for minority linguistic rights; applications and interpretations of minority language rights; and assessments of the impact of minority rights legislation. A nine-item annotated…

Campus Climate and the Underrepresented Minority Engineering Student Experience: A Critical Race Study

Science.gov (United States)

Mayes, Terrance

In the current technological era, the number of minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a crucial factor in predetermining the economic growth of the United States. Since the minority population is growing at much faster rates than the non-minority population, the lack of proportionate production of minority engineers poses a threat to the United States' ability to remain a global competitor in technological innovation. Sixty-three per cent (63%) of undergraduate students who enter engineering majors continue on to graduate in that major. The graduation rate, however, for African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American students in engineering is significantly lower at 39%. As this group represents only a small fraction of the annual student enrollment, engineering programs are graduating these minority groups at rates that are greatly disproportionate to United States demographics. Therefore, researchers are thoroughly investigating certain initiatives that promote academic success among underrepresented minority students in engineering. Colleges and universities have attempted to address the growing achievement gap between underrepresented minority and non-minority engineering students, predominately through various deficit-based interventions, focusing on the student's flaws and problems. As the pipeline for minorities in engineering continues to narrow, it begs the question of whether institutions are focusing on the right solutions to the problem. Critical Race Theory scholars argue that colleges and universities must address institutional climate issues around students, such as racism, microaggressions, and marginalization, before members of oppressed groups can truly succeed. This dissertation explored the unique experiences of underrepresented minority engineering students in a predominately White and Asian campus.

The Privilege of Ranking: Google Plays Ball.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiggins, Richard

2003-01-01

Discussion of ranking systems used in various settings, including college football and academic admissions, focuses on the Google search engine. Explains the PageRank mathematical formula that scores Web pages by connecting the number of links; limitations, including authenticity and accuracy of ranked Web pages; relevancy; adjusting algorithms;…

Probabilistic relation between In-Degree and PageRank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Litvak, Nelli; Scheinhardt, Willem R.W.; Volkovich, Y.

2008-01-01

This paper presents a novel stochastic model that explains the relation between power laws of In-Degree and PageRank. PageRank is a popularity measure designed by Google to rank Web pages. We model the relation between PageRank and In-Degree through a stochastic equation, which is inspired by the

Multiple Minority Stress and LGBT Community Resilience among Sexual Minority Men.

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, Elizabeth A; Janulis, Patrick; Phillips, Gregory; Truong, Roky; Birkett, Michelle

2018-03-01

Minority stress theory has widespread research support in explaining health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minorities. However, less is known about how minority stress impacts multiply marginalized groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color (LGBT POC). Also, although research has documented resilience in the face of minority stress at the individual level, research is needed that examines macro-level processes such as community resilience (Meyer, 2015). In the current study, we integrate minority stress theory and intersectionality theory to examine multiple minority stress (i.e., racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood) and community resilience (i.e., connection to LGBT community) among sexual minority men of different racial/ethnic groups who use a geosocial networking application for meeting sexual partners. Results showed that Black sexual minority men reported the highest levels of racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and White sexual minority men reported the lowest levels, with Asian and Hispanic/Latino men falling in between. Consistent with minority stress theory, racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood were associated with greater stress for sexual minority men of all racial/ethnic groups. However, connection to LGBT community played more central role in mediating the relationship between stigma and stress for White than POC sexual minority men. Results suggest that minority stress and community resilience processes may differ for White and POC sexual minority men. Potential processes driving these differences and implications for minority stress theory are discussed.

THE IMPACT OF TAX SYSTEM ON GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS. ANALYSIS ON THE LEVEL OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brandusa Tudose

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Summarizing the results of theoretical and empirical research, the paper aims to analyze the impact of tax system on global competitiveness through the following three variables: taxation on incentives to invest; total tax rate and taxation on incentives to work. Summarizing the analysis to the European Union member states, the paper presents rankings and provides interpretations for each case. Luxembourg is the country where there is registered: a the biggest impact on competitiveness of tax policies supporting investment, b the largest fiscal affordability (measured by GDP/capita and total tax rate and c the most generous labor taxation system in the EU. However, in the ranking realized based on the global competitiveness index Luxembourg ranks on the 22nd place, on the first place being Finland.

PageRank, HITS and a unified framework for link analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding, Chris; He, Xiaofeng; Husbands, Parry; Zha, Hongyuan; Simon, Horst

2001-10-01

Two popular webpage ranking algorithms are HITS and PageRank. HITS emphasizes mutual reinforcement between authority and hub webpages, while PageRank emphasizes hyperlink weight normalization and web surfing based on random walk models. We systematically generalize/combine these concepts into a unified framework. The ranking framework contains a large algorithm space; HITS and PageRank are two extreme ends in this space. We study several normalized ranking algorithms which are intermediate between HITS and PageRank, and obtain closed-form solutions. We show that, to first order approximation, all ranking algorithms in this framework, including PageRank and HITS, lead to same ranking which is highly correlated with ranking by indegree. These results support the notion that in web resource ranking indegree and outdegree are of fundamental importance. Rankings of webgraphs of different sizes and queries are presented to illustrate our analysis.

Generalized PageRank on Directed Configuration Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, Ningyuan; Litvak, Nelli; Olvera-Cravioto, Mariana

2017-01-01

Note: formula is not displayed correctly. This paper studies the distribution of a family of rankings, which includes Google’s PageRank, on a directed configuration model. In particular, it is shown that the distribution of the rank of a randomly chosen node in the graph converges in distribution to

Sex and marriage with members of other ethnic groups : A study in The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, A.P.; Dijkstra, Pieternella

2017-01-01

Given the importance of interethnic intimate relationships for the integration of minority groups, the present study examined attitudes toward marriages and sexual relationships with in-group and out-group members among young second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands compared with the Dutch. A

OutRank

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Müller, Emmanuel; Assent, Ira; Steinhausen, Uwe

2008-01-01

Outlier detection is an important data mining task for consistency checks, fraud detection, etc. Binary decision making on whether or not an object is an outlier is not appropriate in many applications and moreover hard to parametrize. Thus, recently, methods for outlier ranking have been proposed...

Ranking Theory and Conditional Reasoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Skovgaard-Olsen, Niels

2016-05-01

Ranking theory is a formal epistemology that has been developed in over 600 pages in Spohn's recent book The Laws of Belief, which aims to provide a normative account of the dynamics of beliefs that presents an alternative to current probabilistic approaches. It has long been received in the AI community, but it has not yet found application in experimental psychology. The purpose of this paper is to derive clear, quantitative predictions by exploiting a parallel between ranking theory and a statistical model called logistic regression. This approach is illustrated by the development of a model for the conditional inference task using Spohn's (2013) ranking theoretic approach to conditionals. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The structure of completely positive matrices according to their CP-rank and CP-plus-rank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dickinson, Peter James Clair; Bomze, Immanuel M.; Still, Georg J.

2015-01-01

We study the topological properties of the cp-rank operator $\\mathrm{cp}(A)$ and the related cp-plus-rank operator $\\mathrm{cp}^+(A)$ (which is introduced in this paper) in the set $\\mathcal{S}^n$ of symmetric $n\\times n$-matrices. For the set of completely positive matrices, $\\mathcal{CP}^n$, we

Nominal versus Attained Weights in Universitas 21 Ranking

Science.gov (United States)

Soh, Kaycheng

2014-01-01

Universitas 21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems (U21 Ranking) is one of the three new ranking systems appearing in 2012. In contrast with the other systems, U21 Ranking uses countries as the unit of analysis. It has several features which lend it with greater trustworthiness, but it also shared some methodological issues with the other…

A Comprehensive Analysis of Marketing Journal Rankings

Science.gov (United States)

Steward, Michelle D.; Lewis, Bruce R.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive assessment of journal standings in Marketing from two perspectives. The discipline perspective of rankings is obtained from a collection of published journal ranking studies during the past 15 years. The studies in the published ranking stream are assessed for reliability by examining internal…

Comparison of different physiological parameter responses in Lemna minor and Scenedesmus obliquus exposed to herbicide flumioxazin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geoffroy, Laure; Frankart, Cecile; Eullaffroy, Philippe

2004-01-01

The sensitivity of different physiological parameters in Scenedesmus obliquus and Lemna minor exposed to herbicide (flumioxazin) was investigated to indicate the most convenient and sensitive parameter. To assess toxicity of flumioxazin, we used a panel of biomarkers: pigment contents, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and antioxidative enzyme activities. Algae and duckweed were exposed to 48-h IC 50 for growth rate. In L. minor, the sensitivity of the parameters was as follows: Q N >Oxygen emission>PHIs PSII >Q P >PHI PSII >CAT, GR>Pigment>APO>Growth. For S. obliquus, this ranking was as follows: CAT>Oxygen emission>Q P >APO>GR>Pigment>PHIs PSII >Growth>PHI PSII >Q N (from the greatest to the least sensitive). The results demonstrated that the observed toxicity is related not only to interspecific variations but also to the selected parameter

Minorities with Different Values at School--The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses

Science.gov (United States)

Liedgren, Pernilla

2018-01-01

Teachers in Swedish schools must balance the values imposed by law while simultaneously attempting to respect freedom of religion for their pupils. This study aimed to empirically investigate how teachers handle pupils who are Jehovah's Witnesses, a minority religion. Eleven, adult ex-members were asked to reflect on their experiences during…

The BiPublishers ranking: Main results and methodological problems when constructing rankings of academic publishers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Torres-Salinas, Daniel

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We present the results of the Bibliometric Indicators for Publishers project (also known as BiPublishers. This project represents the first attempt to systematically develop bibliometric publisher rankings. The data for this project was derived from the Book Citation Index and the study time period was 2009-2013. We have developed 42 rankings: 4 by fields and 38 by disciplines. We display six indicators for publishers divided into three types: output, impact and publisher’s profile. The aim is to capture different characteristics of the research performance of publishers. 254 publishers were processed and classified according to publisher type: commercial publishers and university presses. We present the main publishers by field and then discuss the principal challenges presented when developing this type of tool. The BiPublishers ranking is an on-going project which aims to develop and explore new data sources and indicators to better capture and define the research impact of publishers.Presentamos los resultados del proyecto Bibliometric Indicators for Publishers (BiPublishers. Es el primer proyecto que desarrolla de manera sistemática rankings bibliométricos de editoriales. La fuente de datos empleada es el Book Citation Index y el periodo de análisis 2009-2013. Se presentan 42 rankings: 4 por áreas y 38 por disciplinas. Mostramos seis indicadores por editorial divididos según su tipología: producción, impacto y características editoriales. Se procesaron 254 editoriales y se clasificaron según el tipo: comerciales y universitarias. Se presentan las principales editoriales por áreas. Después, se discuten los principales retos a superar en el desarrollo de este tipo de herramientas. El ranking Bipublishers es un proyecto en desarrollo que persigue analizar y explorar nuevas fuentes de datos e indicadores para captar y definir el impacto de las editoriales académicas.

Moving toward True Inclusion of Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Federally Funded Studies. A Key Step for Achieving Respiratory Health Equality in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Sam S.; Foreman, Marilyn G.; Celedón, Juan C.

2015-01-01

A key objective of the 1993 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act was to ensure inclusion of minorities in clinical research. We conducted a literature search for the period from 1993 to 2013 to examine whether racial/ethnic minorities are adequately represented in published research studies of pulmonary diseases, particularly NIH-funded studies. We found a marked underrepresentation of minorities in published clinical research on pulmonary diseases. Over the last 20 years, inclusion of members of racial or ethnic minority groups was reported (in MeSH terms, journal titles, and MEDLINE fields) in less than 5% of all NIH-funded published studies of respiratory diseases. Although a secondary analysis revealed that a larger proportion of NIH-funded studies included any minorities, this proportional increment mostly resulted from studies including relatively small numbers of minorities (which precludes robust race- or ethnic-specific analyses). Underrepresentation or exclusion of minorities from NIH-funded studies is likely due to multiple reasons, including insufficient education and training on designing and implementing population-based studies of minorities, inadequate motivation or incentives to overcome challenges in the recruitment and retention of sufficient numbers of members of racial/ethnic minorities, underrepresentation of minorities among respiratory scientists in academic medical centers, and a dearth of successful partnerships between academic medical centers and underrepresented communities. This problem could be remedied by implementing short-, medium-, and long-term strategies, such as creating incentives to conduct minority research, ensuring fair review of grant applications focusing on minorities, developing the careers of minority scientists, and facilitating and valuing research on minorities by investigators of all backgrounds. PMID:25584658

PageRank in scale-free random graphs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, Ningyuan; Litvak, Nelli; Olvera-Cravioto, Mariana; Bonata, Anthony; Chung, Fan; Pralat, Paweł

2014-01-01

We analyze the distribution of PageRank on a directed configuration model and show that as the size of the graph grows to infinity, the PageRank of a randomly chosen node can be closely approximated by the PageRank of the root node of an appropriately constructed tree. This tree approximation is in

46 CFR 282.11 - Ranking of flags.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Ranking of flags. 282.11 Section 282.11 Shipping... COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES Foreign-Flag Competition § 282.11 Ranking of flags. The operators under each... priority of costs which are representative of the flag. For liner cargo vessels, the ranking of operators...

An empirical investigation of physicians' attitudes toward intrasibling kidney donation by minor twins.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, Josh W; Thistlethwaite, J Richard; Josephson, Michelle A; Ross, Lainie Friedman

2008-05-15

A United States consensus group on the live donor concluded that minors (international guidelines reject this position. Recent United Network of Organ Sharing data show that minors serve as living donors, albeit infrequently. We examined the attitudes of US physicians toward minors as living donors. Four hundred members of the American Society of Transplantation and 160 physicians from the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Nephrology or Bioethics were surveyed. The physicians were asked whether minors should be permitted to serve as living donors and how their opinion would change depending on the twins' zygosity, age, and increased waitlist time. One hundred seventy of 436 eligible participants (39%) returned surveys. Thirty-two and 39% of respondents would permit a kidney donation between 15-year-old fraternal and identical twins, respectively (P=NS). If the wait time increased from 1 to 6 years, willingness increased to 39% and 45%, respectively (P=NS). Pediatric bioethicists were the most reluctant to prohibit minors as living donors. Approximately one-third of US physicians would permit children to serve as donors. Lengthening the wait time is associated with a trend toward greater willingness to permit minor donations. Current policies that give preferential status for a deceased donor organ to minors may help minimize donations by their minor siblings. Nontransplant physicians need education about donor risks to ensure that donations are in the best interest of pediatric donors and recipients.

Computing and STEM in Greek Tertiary Education: Gender Representation of Faculty Members during the Decade 2003-2013

Science.gov (United States)

Berdousis, Ioannis; Kordaki, Maria

2018-01-01

This study focuses on the investigation of gender representation of faculty members of all ranks (professors, associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers) of Computing and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in Greek tertiary education during the decade 2003-2013. To this end, a quantitative study was conducted,…

How revealing rankings affects student attitude and rerformance in a peer review learning environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Papadopoulos, Pantelis M.; Lagkas, Thomas D.; Demetriadis, Stavros N.

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the possible benefits as well as the overall impact on the behaviour of students within a learning environment, which is based on double-blinding reviewing of freely selected peer works. Fifty-six sophomore students majoring in Informatics and Telecommunications Engi....... The students that participated in the other two conditions were provided with their usage information (logins, peer work viewed/reviewed, etc.), while members of the last group could also have access to ranking information about their positioning in their group, based on their usage data. According to our...

Low-ranking female Japanese macaques make efforts for social grooming.

Science.gov (United States)

Kurihara, Yosuke

2016-04-01

Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feeding and grooming in low-ranking animals. Unifying the effects of dominance rank on feeding and grooming behaviors contributes to revealing the importance of grooming. Here, I tested whether the grooming behavior of low-ranking females were similar to that of high-ranking females despite differences in their feeding patterns. I followed 9 Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata fuscata adult females from the Arashiyama group, and analyzed the feeding patterns and grooming behaviors of low- and high-ranking females. Low-ranking females fed on natural foods away from the provisioning site, whereas high-ranking females obtained more provisioned food at the site. Due to these differences in feeding patterns, low-ranking females spent less time grooming than high-ranking females. However, both low- and high-ranking females performed grooming around the provisioning site, which was linked to the number of neighboring individuals for low-ranking females and feeding on provisioned foods at the site for high-ranking females. The similarity in grooming area led to a range and diversity of grooming partners that did not differ with rank. Thus, low-ranking females can obtain small amounts of provisioned foods and perform grooming with as many partners around the provisioning site as high-ranking females. These results highlight the efforts made by low-ranking females to perform grooming and suggest the importance of grooming behavior in group-living primates.

Low-ranking female Japanese macaques make efforts for social grooming

Science.gov (United States)

Kurihara, Yosuke

2016-01-01

Abstract Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feeding and grooming in low-ranking animals. Unifying the effects of dominance rank on feeding and grooming behaviors contributes to revealing the importance of grooming. Here, I tested whether the grooming behavior of low-ranking females were similar to that of high-ranking females despite differences in their feeding patterns. I followed 9 Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata fuscata adult females from the Arashiyama group, and analyzed the feeding patterns and grooming behaviors of low- and high-ranking females. Low-ranking females fed on natural foods away from the provisioning site, whereas high-ranking females obtained more provisioned food at the site. Due to these differences in feeding patterns, low-ranking females spent less time grooming than high-ranking females. However, both low- and high-ranking females performed grooming around the provisioning site, which was linked to the number of neighboring individuals for low-ranking females and feeding on provisioned foods at the site for high-ranking females. The similarity in grooming area led to a range and diversity of grooming partners that did not differ with rank. Thus, low-ranking females can obtain small amounts of provisioned foods and perform grooming with as many partners around the provisioning site as high-ranking females. These results highlight the efforts made by low-ranking females to perform grooming and suggest the importance of grooming behavior in group-living primates. PMID:29491896

Ranking Entities in Networks via Lefschetz Duality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aabrandt, Andreas; Hansen, Vagn Lundsgaard; Poulsen, Bjarne

2014-01-01

then be ranked according to how essential their positions are in the network by considering the effect of their respective absences. Defining a ranking of a network which takes the individual position of each entity into account has the purpose of assigning different roles to the entities, e.g. agents......, in the network. In this paper it is shown that the topology of a given network induces a ranking of the entities in the network. Further, it is demonstrated how to calculate this ranking and thus how to identify weak sub-networks in any given network....

A Hybrid Distance-Based Ideal-Seeking Consensus Ranking Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madjid Tavana

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Ordinal consensus ranking problems have received much attention in the management science literature. A problem arises in situations where a group of k decision makers (DMs is asked to rank order n alternatives. The question is how to combine the DM rankings into one consensus ranking. Several different approaches have been suggested to aggregate DM responses into a compromise or consensus ranking; however, the similarity of consensus rankings generated by the different algorithms is largely unknown. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid distance-based ideal-seeking consensus ranking model (DCM. The proposed hybrid model combines parts of the two commonly used consensus ranking techniques of Beck and Lin (1983 and Cook and Kress (1985 into an intuitive and computationally simple model. We illustrate our method and then run a Monte Carlo simulation across a range of k and n to compare the similarity of the consensus rankings generated by our method with the best-known method of Borda and Kendall (Kendall 1962 and the two methods proposed by Beck and Lin (1983 and Cook and Kress (1985. DCM and Beck and Lin's method yielded the most similar consensus rankings, whereas the Cook-Kress method and the Borda-Kendall method yielded the least similar consensus rankings.

16 CFR 1015.12 - Disclosure to Congress.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Disclosure to Congress. 1015.12 Section 1015...) § 1015.12 Disclosure to Congress. (a) All records of the Commission shall be disclosed to Congress upon a request made by the chairman or ranking minority member of a committee or subcommittee of Congress acting...

Fair ranking of researchers and research teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Vavryčuk, Václav

2018-01-01

The main drawback of ranking of researchers by the number of papers, citations or by the Hirsch index is ignoring the problem of distributing authorship among authors in multi-author publications. So far, the single-author or multi-author publications contribute to the publication record of a researcher equally. This full counting scheme is apparently unfair and causes unjust disproportions, in particular, if ranked researchers have distinctly different collaboration profiles. These disproportions are removed by less common fractional or authorship-weighted counting schemes, which can distribute the authorship credit more properly and suppress a tendency to unjustified inflation of co-authors. The urgent need of widely adopting a fair ranking scheme in practise is exemplified by analysing citation profiles of several highly-cited astronomers and astrophysicists. While the full counting scheme often leads to completely incorrect and misleading ranking, the fractional or authorship-weighted schemes are more accurate and applicable to ranking of researchers as well as research teams. In addition, they suppress differences in ranking among scientific disciplines. These more appropriate schemes should urgently be adopted by scientific publication databases as the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) or the Scopus (Elsevier).

Treatment plan ranking using physical and biological indices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebert, M. A.; University of Western Asutralia, WA

2001-01-01

Full text: The ranking of dose distributions is of importance in several areas such as i) comparing rival treatment plans, ii) comparing iterations in an optimisation routine, and iii) dose-assessment of clinical trial data. This study aimed to investigate the influence of choice of objective function in ranking tumour dose distributions. A series of physical (mean, maximum, minimum, standard deviation of dose) dose-volume histogram (DVH) reduction indices and biologically-based (tumour-control probability - TCP; equivalent uniform dose -EUD) indices were used to rank a series of hypothetical DVHs, as well as DVHs obtained from a series of 18 prostate patients. The distribution in ranking and change in distribution with change in indice parameters were investigated. It is found that not only is the ranking of DVHs dependent on the actual model used to perform the DVH reduction, it is also found to depend on the inherent characteristics of each model (i.e., selected parameters). The adjacent figure shows an example where the 18 prostate patients are ranked (grey-scale from black to white) by EUD when an α value of 0.8 Gy -1 is used in the model. The change of ranking as α varies is evident. Conclusion: This study has shown that the characteristics of the model selected in plan optimisation or DVH ranking will have an impact on the ranking obtained. Copyright (2001) Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Rank diversity of languages: generic behavior in computational linguistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cocho, Germinal; Flores, Jorge; Gershenson, Carlos; Pineda, Carlos; Sánchez, Sergio

2015-01-01

Statistical studies of languages have focused on the rank-frequency distribution of words. Instead, we introduce here a measure of how word ranks change in time and call this distribution rank diversity. We calculate this diversity for books published in six European languages since 1800, and find that it follows a universal lognormal distribution. Based on the mean and standard deviation associated with the lognormal distribution, we define three different word regimes of languages: "heads" consist of words which almost do not change their rank in time, "bodies" are words of general use, while "tails" are comprised by context-specific words and vary their rank considerably in time. The heads and bodies reflect the size of language cores identified by linguists for basic communication. We propose a Gaussian random walk model which reproduces the rank variation of words in time and thus the diversity. Rank diversity of words can be understood as the result of random variations in rank, where the size of the variation depends on the rank itself. We find that the core size is similar for all languages studied.

Evaluation of treatment effects by ranking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halekoh, U; Kristensen, K

2008-01-01

In crop experiments measurements are often made by a judge evaluating the crops' conditions after treatment. In the present paper an analysis is proposed for experiments where plots of crops treated differently are mutually ranked. In the experimental layout the crops are treated on consecutive...... plots usually placed side by side in one or more rows. In the proposed method a judge ranks several neighbouring plots, say three, by ranking them from best to worst. For the next observation the judge moves on by no more than two plots, such that up to two plots will be re-evaluated again...... in a comparison with the new plot(s). Data from studies using this set-up were analysed by a Thurstonian random utility model, which assumed that the judge's rankings were obtained by comparing latent continuous utilities or treatment effects. For the latent utilities a variance component model was considered...

Ranking the Online Documents Based on Relative Credibility Measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Dahlan

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Information searching is the most popular activity in Internet. Usually the search engine provides the search results ranked by the relevance. However, for a certain purpose that concerns with information credibility, particularly citing information for scientific works, another approach of ranking the search engine results is required. This paper presents a study on developing a new ranking method based on the credibility of information. The method is built up upon two well-known algorithms, PageRank and Citation Analysis. The result of the experiment that used Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient to compare the proposed rank (generated by the method with the standard rank (generated manually by a group of experts showed that the average Spearman 0 < rS < critical value. It means that the correlation was proven but it was not significant. Hence the proposed rank does not satisfy the standard but the performance could be improved.

Ranking the Online Documents Based on Relative Credibility Measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Dahlan

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Information searching is the most popular activity in Internet. Usually the search engine provides the search results ranked by the relevance. However, for a certain purpose that concerns with information credibility, particularly citing information for scientific works, another approach of ranking the search engine results is required. This paper presents a study on developing a new ranking method based on the credibility of information. The method is built up upon two well-known algorithms, PageRank and Citation Analysis. The result of the experiment that used Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient to compare the proposed rank (generated by the method with the standard rank (generated manually by a group of experts showed that the average Spearman 0 < rS < critical value. It means that the correlation was proven but it was not significant. Hence the proposed rank does not satisfy the standard but the performance could be improved.

Generalized Reduced Rank Tests using the Singular Value Decomposition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

F.R. Kleibergen (Frank); R. Paap (Richard)

2003-01-01

textabstractWe propose a novel statistic to test the rank of a matrix. The rank statistic overcomes deficiencies of existing rank statistics, like: necessity of a Kronecker covariance matrix for the canonical correlation rank statistic of Anderson (1951), sensitivity to the ordering of the variables

Military Service Members and Veterans: In the Classroom and on the Police Force

Science.gov (United States)

Olson, Dustin; Gabriel-Olson, Kirsten

2012-01-01

With the troop levels in Iraq decreasing and more service members being discharged, the number of veterans on campuses is steadily increasing. On average, these warriors-turning-college-students will be 24 or older, ethnic minorities, and first-generation college students. It is important to make sure that departments, campuses and communities are…

Priority ranking of safety-related systems for structural assessment at Savannah River Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, G.C.; Daugherty, W.L.; Barnes, D.M.

1993-01-01

In order to extend the service life of safety related structures and systems in a logical manner, a Structural Enhancement Program was initiated to evaluate the structural integrity of eight systems, namely: cooling water system, emergency cooling system, moderator recovery system, supplementary safety system, water removal system, service raw water system, service clarified water system, and river water system. Since the level of importance of each system to reactor operations varies from one system to another, the scope of structural integrity evaluation for each system should be prioritized accordingly. This paper presents the assessment of system priority for structural evaluation based on a ranking methodology and specifies the level of structural evaluation consistent with the established priority. The effort was undertaken by a five-member panel representing four major disciplines, including: structures, reactor engineering/operations, risk management, and materials. The above systems were divided into a total of thirty-five subsystems. These subsystems were then ranked with six attributes, namely: safety classification, degradation mechanisms, difficulty of replacement, failure mode, radiation dose to workers, and consequence of failure. Each attribute was assigned a set of consequences or events with corresponding weighting scores. The results of the ranking process yielded two groups of subsystems, categorized as Priority I and II subsystems. The level of structural assessment was then formulated accordingly. The prioritized approach will allow more efficient allocation of resources, so that the Structural Enhancement Program can be implemented in a cost-effective and efficient manner

NASN position statement: Sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (sexual minority students): school nurse practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradley, Beverly; Kelts, Susan; Robarge, Deb; Davis, Catherine; Delger, Suzey; Compton, Linda

2013-03-01

It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses that all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or the sexual orientation of their parents and family members, are entitled to a safe school environment and equal opportunities for a high level of academic achievement and school participation/involvement. Sexual minority persons are those who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (LGB) or are unsure of their sexual orientation, or those who have had sexual contact with persons of the same sex or both sexes (Kann et al., 2011). Sexual minority is thought to be a more inclusive and neutral term. For the purposes of this statement, the term sexual minority will be used in lieu of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning).

Beyond Low Rank: A Data-Adaptive Tensor Completion Method

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Lei; Wei, Wei; Shi, Qinfeng; Shen, Chunhua; Hengel, Anton van den; Zhang, Yanning

2017-01-01

Low rank tensor representation underpins much of recent progress in tensor completion. In real applications, however, this approach is confronted with two challenging problems, namely (1) tensor rank determination; (2) handling real tensor data which only approximately fulfils the low-rank requirement. To address these two issues, we develop a data-adaptive tensor completion model which explicitly represents both the low-rank and non-low-rank structures in a latent tensor. Representing the no...

Generalized reduced rank tests using the singular value decomposition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleibergen, F.R.; Paap, R.

2002-01-01

We propose a novel statistic to test the rank of a matrix. The rank statistic overcomes deficiencies of existing rank statistics, like: necessity of a Kronecker covariance matrix for the canonical correlation rank statistic of Anderson (1951), sensitivity to the ordering of the variables for the LDU

Trachomatous Scar Ranking: A Novel Outcome for Trachoma Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, Angela; Ryner, Alexander M; Tadesse, Zerihun; Shiferaw, Ayalew; Callahan, Kelly; Fry, Dionna M; Zhou, Zhaoxia; Lietman, Thomas M; Keenan, Jeremy D

2017-06-01

AbstractWe evaluated a new trachoma scarring ranking system with potential use in clinical research. The upper right tarsal conjunctivas of 427 individuals from Ethiopian villages with hyperendemic trachoma were photographed. An expert grader first assigned a scar grade to each photograph using the 1981 World Health Organization (WHO) grading system. Then, all photographs were ranked from least (rank = 1) to most scarring (rank = 427). Photographic grading found 79 (18.5%) conjunctivae without scarring (C0), 191 (44.7%) with minimal scarring (C1), 105 (24.6%) with moderate scarring (C2), and 52 (12.2%) with severe scarring (C3). The ranking method demonstrated good internal validity, exhibiting a monotonic increase in the median rank across the levels of the 1981 WHO grading system. Intrarater repeatability was better for the ranking method (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.74-0.94). Exhibiting better internal and external validity, this ranking method may be useful for evaluating the difference in scarring between groups of individuals.

CNN-based ranking for biomedical entity normalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haodi; Chen, Qingcai; Tang, Buzhou; Wang, Xiaolong; Xu, Hua; Wang, Baohua; Huang, Dong

2017-10-03

Most state-of-the-art biomedical entity normalization systems, such as rule-based systems, merely rely on morphological information of entity mentions, but rarely consider their semantic information. In this paper, we introduce a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem and benefits from semantic information of biomedical entities. The CNN-based ranking method first generates candidates using handcrafted rules, and then ranks the candidates according to their semantic information modeled by CNN as well as their morphological information. Experiments on two benchmark datasets for biomedical entity normalization show that our proposed CNN-based ranking method outperforms traditional rule-based method with state-of-the-art performance. We propose a CNN architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem. Comparison results show that semantic information is beneficial to biomedical entity normalization and can be well combined with morphological information in our CNN architecture for further improvement.

RANK und RANKL - Vom Knochen zum Mammakarzinom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sigl V

2012-01-01

Full Text Available RANK („Receptor Activator of NF-κB“ und sein Ligand RANKL sind Schlüsselmoleküle im Knochenmetabolismus und spielen eine essenzielle Rolle in der Entstehung von pathologischen Knochenveränderungen. Die Deregulation des RANK/RANKL-Systems ist zum Beispiel ein Hauptgrund für das Auftreten von postmenopausaler Osteoporose bei Frauen. Eine weitere wesentliche Funktion von RANK und RANKL liegt in der Entwicklung von milchsekretierenden Drüsen während der Schwangerschaft. Dabei regulieren Sexualhormone, wie zum Beispiel Progesteron, die Expression von RANKL und induzieren dadurch die Proliferation von epithelialen Zellen der Brust. Seit Längerem war schon bekannt, dass RANK und RANKL in der Metastasenbildung von Brustkrebszellen im Knochengewebe beteiligt sind. Wir konnten nun das RANK/RANKLSystem auch als essenziellen Mechanismus in der Entstehung von hormonellem Brustkrebs identifizieren. In diesem Beitrag werden wir daher den neuesten Erkenntnissen besondere Aufmerksamkeit schenken und diese kritisch in Bezug auf Brustkrebsentwicklung betrachten.

Using incomplete citation data for MEDLINE results ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Herskovic, Jorge R; Bernstam, Elmer V

2005-01-01

Information overload is a significant problem for modern medicine. Searching MEDLINE for common topics often retrieves more relevant documents than users can review. Therefore, we must identify documents that are not only relevant, but also important. Our system ranks articles using citation counts and the PageRank algorithm, incorporating data from the Science Citation Index. However, citation data is usually incomplete. Therefore, we explore the relationship between the quantity of citation information available to the system and the quality of the result ranking. Specifically, we test the ability of citation count and PageRank to identify "important articles" as defined by experts from large result sets with decreasing citation information. We found that PageRank performs better than simple citation counts, but both algorithms are surprisingly robust to information loss. We conclude that even an incomplete citation database is likely to be effective for importance ranking.

Using centrality to rank web snippets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jijkoun, V.; de Rijke, M.; Peters, C.; Jijkoun, V.; Mandl, T.; Müller, H.; Oard, D.W.; Peñas, A.; Petras, V.; Santos, D.

2008-01-01

We describe our participation in the WebCLEF 2007 task, targeted at snippet retrieval from web data. Our system ranks snippets based on a simple similarity-based centrality, inspired by the web page ranking algorithms. We experimented with retrieval units (sentences and paragraphs) and with the

Neural Ranking Models with Weak Supervision

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dehghani, M.; Zamani, H.; Severyn, A.; Kamps, J.; Croft, W.B.

2017-01-01

Despite the impressive improvements achieved by unsupervised deep neural networks in computer vision and NLP tasks, such improvements have not yet been observed in ranking for information retrieval. The reason may be the complexity of the ranking problem, as it is not obvious how to learn from

Generalization Performance of Regularized Ranking With Multiscale Kernels.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yicong; Chen, Hong; Lan, Rushi; Pan, Zhibin

2016-05-01

The regularized kernel method for the ranking problem has attracted increasing attentions in machine learning. The previous regularized ranking algorithms are usually based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces with a single kernel. In this paper, we go beyond this framework by investigating the generalization performance of the regularized ranking with multiscale kernels. A novel ranking algorithm with multiscale kernels is proposed and its representer theorem is proved. We establish the upper bound of the generalization error in terms of the complexity of hypothesis spaces. It shows that the multiscale ranking algorithm can achieve satisfactory learning rates under mild conditions. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for drug discovery and recommendation tasks.

Scalable Faceted Ranking in Tagging Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Orlicki, José I.; Alvarez-Hamelin, J. Ignacio; Fierens, Pablo I.

Nowadays, web collaborative tagging systems which allow users to upload, comment on and recommend contents, are growing. Such systems can be represented as graphs where nodes correspond to users and tagged-links to recommendations. In this paper we analyze the problem of computing a ranking of users with respect to a facet described as a set of tags. A straightforward solution is to compute a PageRank-like algorithm on a facet-related graph, but it is not feasible for online computation. We propose an alternative: (i) a ranking for each tag is computed offline on the basis of tag-related subgraphs; (ii) a faceted order is generated online by merging rankings corresponding to all the tags in the facet. Based on the graph analysis of YouTube and Flickr, we show that step (i) is scalable. We also present efficient algorithms for step (ii), which are evaluated by comparing their results with two gold standards.

Rank Diversity of Languages: Generic Behavior in Computational Linguistics

Science.gov (United States)

Cocho, Germinal; Flores, Jorge; Gershenson, Carlos; Pineda, Carlos; Sánchez, Sergio

2015-01-01

Statistical studies of languages have focused on the rank-frequency distribution of words. Instead, we introduce here a measure of how word ranks change in time and call this distribution rank diversity. We calculate this diversity for books published in six European languages since 1800, and find that it follows a universal lognormal distribution. Based on the mean and standard deviation associated with the lognormal distribution, we define three different word regimes of languages: “heads” consist of words which almost do not change their rank in time, “bodies” are words of general use, while “tails” are comprised by context-specific words and vary their rank considerably in time. The heads and bodies reflect the size of language cores identified by linguists for basic communication. We propose a Gaussian random walk model which reproduces the rank variation of words in time and thus the diversity. Rank diversity of words can be understood as the result of random variations in rank, where the size of the variation depends on the rank itself. We find that the core size is similar for all languages studied. PMID:25849150

Differential invariants for higher-rank tensors. A progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tapial, V.

2004-07-01

We outline the construction of differential invariants for higher-rank tensors. In section 2 we outline the general method for the construction of differential invariants. A first result is that the simplest tensor differential invariant contains derivatives of the same order as the rank of the tensor. In section 3 we review the construction for the first-rank tensors (vectors) and second-rank tensors (metrics). In section 4 we outline the same construction for higher-rank tensors. (author)

Social support relationships for sexual minority women in Mumbai, India: a photo elicitation interview study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowling, Jessamyn; Dodge, Brian; Banik, Swagata; Bartelt, Elizabeth; Mengle, Shruta; Guerra-Reyes, Lucia; Hensel, Devon; Herbenick, Debby; Anand, Vivek

2018-02-01

Little research exists on women who do not identify as heterosexual in India. Social support for sexual minority women may protect against the effects of discrimination. An examination of significant social relationships may point to both strengths and weaknesses in this support. We aimed to understand relationship prioritisation and communication patterns associated with the social support of sexual minority women in Mumbai. In partnership with the Humsafar Trust, India's oldest and largest sexual and gender minority-advocacy organisation, we conducted photo-elicitation interviews with 18 sexual minority women, using participants' photographs to prompt dialogue about their social support. Intimate partners were a source of dependable support and many of those without relationships were seeking them. Participants' extended networks included friends and family as well as less formal relationships of social support. Participants mediated their communication with particular social network members, which involved filtering information sexual identity, romantic interests, and personal aspirations, among others. The diverse relationships that sexual minority women have in their social support networks may be used to guide programmes to improve health outcomes.

On Rank Driven Dynamical Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Veerman, J. J. P.; Prieto, F. J.

2014-08-01

We investigate a class of models related to the Bak-Sneppen (BS) model, initially proposed to study evolution. The BS model is extremely simple and yet captures some forms of "complex behavior" such as self-organized criticality that is often observed in physical and biological systems. In this model, random fitnesses in are associated to agents located at the vertices of a graph . Their fitnesses are ranked from worst (0) to best (1). At every time-step the agent with the worst fitness and some others with a priori given rank probabilities are replaced by new agents with random fitnesses. We consider two cases: The exogenous case where the new fitnesses are taken from an a priori fixed distribution, and the endogenous case where the new fitnesses are taken from the current distribution as it evolves. We approximate the dynamics by making a simplifying independence assumption. We use Order Statistics and Dynamical Systems to define a rank-driven dynamical system that approximates the evolution of the distribution of the fitnesses in these rank-driven models, as well as in the BS model. For this simplified model we can find the limiting marginal distribution as a function of the initial conditions. Agreement with experimental results of the BS model is excellent.

Ranking accounting, banking and finance journals: A note

OpenAIRE

Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos

2012-01-01

This paper by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) ranks Economics journals in the field of Accounting, Banking and Finance. By using one composite input and one composite output the paper ranks 57 journals. In addition for the first time three different quality ranking reports have been incorporated to the DEA modelling problem in order to classify the journals into four categories (‘A’ to ‘D’). The results reveal that the journals with the highest rankings in the field are Journal of Fi...

University rankings in computer science

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ehret, Philip; Zuccala, Alesia Ann; Gipp, Bela

2017-01-01

This is a research-in-progress paper concerning two types of institutional rankings, the Leiden and QS World ranking, and their relationship to a list of universities’ ‘geo-based’ impact scores, and Computing Research and Education Conference (CORE) participation scores in the field of computer...... science. A ‘geo-based’ impact measure examines the geographical distribution of incoming citations to a particular university’s journal articles for a specific period of time. It takes into account both the number of citations and the geographical variability in these citations. The CORE participation...... score is calculated on the basis of the number of weighted proceedings papers that a university has contributed to either an A*, A, B, or C conference as ranked by the Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia. In addition to calculating the correlations between the distinct university...

Institutional Variation in the Promotion of Racial/Ethnic Minority Faculty at US Medical Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Ciarleglio, Maria M.; Sandoval-Schaefer, Teresa; Elumn, Johanna; Castillo-Page, Laura; Peduzzi, Peter; Bradley, Elizabeth H.

2012-01-01

Objectives. We compared faculty promotion rates by race/ethnicity across US academic medical centers. Methods. We used the Association of American Medical College's 1983 through 2000 faculty roster data to estimate median institution-specific promotion rates for assistant professor to associate professor and for associate professor to full professor. In unadjusted analyses, we compared medians for Hispanic and Black with White faculty using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. We compared institution-specific promotion rates between racial/ethnic groups with data stratified by institutional characteristic (institution size, proportion racial/ethnic minority faculty, and proportion women faculty) using the χ2 test. Our sample included 128 academic medical centers and 88 432 unique faculty. Results. The median institution-specific promotion rates for White, Hispanic, and Black faculty, respectively, were 30.2%, 23.5%, and 18.8% (P climates that support the successful development of racial/ethnic minority trainees, ultimately improving healthcare access and quality for all patients. PMID:22420820

Adaptive distributional extensions to DFR ranking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Casper; Simonsen, Jakob Grue; Järvelin, Kalervo

2016-01-01

-fitting distribution. We call this model Adaptive Distributional Ranking (ADR) because it adapts the ranking to the statistics of the specific dataset being processed each time. Experiments on TREC data show ADR to outperform DFR models (and their extensions) and be comparable in performance to a query likelihood...

How Prospective Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Trainees Rank Residency Training Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Auriemma, Michael J; Whitehair, Curtis L

2018-03-01

Since the inception of the National Resident Matching Program, multiple studies have investigated the factors applicants consider important to ranking prospective residency programs. However, only 2 previous studies focused on prospective physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) trainees, and the most recent of these studies was published in 1993. It is unknown whether these previous studies are reflective of current prospective PM&R residents. To assess various factors that contribute to prospective PM&R residents' decision making in choosing a residency program and compare these findings with previous studies. An anonymous, voluntary questionnaire. A single PM&R residency program. All applicants to a single PM&R residency program. All applicants to our PM&R residency program were invited to participate in a 44-item, 5-point Likert-based questionnaire. Applicants were asked to rate the importance of various factors as they related to constructing their residency rank list. Means and standard deviations were calculated for items included in the survey. A response rate of 26% was obtained, with the responses of 98 applicants (20%) ultimately analyzed. The highest rated factors included "perceived happiness of current residents," "opportunities for hands-on procedure training," "perceived camaraderie among current residents," "perceived camaraderie among faculty and current residents," "perceived quality of current residents," and "perceived work/life balance among current residents." Although male and female respondents demonstrated similar ranking preferences, an apparent difference was detected between how genders rated the importance of "whether the program projects a favorable environment for women" and "whether the program projects a favorable environment for minorities." As compared with previous PM&R applicants, current prospective trainees seem to place greater importance on skill acquisition over didactic teaching. Prospective PM&R residents highly value

Discovering author impact: A PageRank perspective

OpenAIRE

Yan, Erjia; Ding, Ying

2010-01-01

This article provides an alternative perspective for measuring author impact by applying PageRank algorithm to a coauthorship network. A weighted PageRank algorithm considering citation and coauthorship network topology is proposed. We test this algorithm under different damping factors by evaluating author impact in the informetrics research community. In addition, we also compare this weighted PageRank with the h-index, citation, and program committee (PC) membership of the International So...

Social class rank, threat vigilance, and hostile reactivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kraus, Michael W; Horberg, E J; Goetz, Jennifer L; Keltner, Dacher

2011-10-01

Lower-class individuals, because of their lower rank in society, are theorized to be more vigilant to social threats relative to their high-ranking upper-class counterparts. This class-related vigilance to threat, the authors predicted, would shape the emotional content of social interactions in systematic ways. In Study 1, participants engaged in a teasing interaction with a close friend. Lower-class participants--measured in terms of social class rank in society and within the friendship--more accurately tracked the hostile emotions of their friend. As a result, lower-class individuals experienced more hostile emotion contagion relative to upper-class participants. In Study 2, lower-class participants manipulated to experience lower subjective socioeconomic rank showed more hostile reactivity to ambiguous social scenarios relative to upper-class participants and to lower-class participants experiencing elevated socioeconomic rank. The results suggest that class affects expectations, perception, and experience of hostile emotion, particularly in situations in which lower-class individuals perceive their subordinate rank.

Are university rankings useful to improve research? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Vernon, Marlo M; Balas, E Andrew; Momani, Shaher

2018-01-01

Concerns about reproducibility and impact of research urge improvement initiatives. Current university ranking systems evaluate and compare universities on measures of academic and research performance. Although often useful for marketing purposes, the value of ranking systems when examining quality and outcomes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate usefulness of ranking systems and identify opportunities to support research quality and performance improvement. A systematic review of university ranking systems was conducted to investigate research performance and academic quality measures. Eligibility requirements included: inclusion of at least 100 doctoral granting institutions, be currently produced on an ongoing basis and include both global and US universities, publish rank calculation methodology in English and independently calculate ranks. Ranking systems must also include some measures of research outcomes. Indicators were abstracted and contrasted with basic quality improvement requirements. Exploration of aggregation methods, validity of research and academic quality indicators, and suitability for quality improvement within ranking systems were also conducted. A total of 24 ranking systems were identified and 13 eligible ranking systems were evaluated. Six of the 13 rankings are 100% focused on research performance. For those reporting weighting, 76% of the total ranks are attributed to research indicators, with 24% attributed to academic or teaching quality. Seven systems rely on reputation surveys and/or faculty and alumni awards. Rankings influence academic choice yet research performance measures are the most weighted indicators. There are no generally accepted academic quality indicators in ranking systems. No single ranking system provides a comprehensive evaluation of research and academic quality. Utilizing a combined approach of the Leiden, Thomson Reuters Most Innovative Universities, and the SCImago ranking systems may provide

Administrative Circular No. 11 (Rev. 3) - Categories of members of the personnel

CERN Multimedia

2014-01-01

Administrative Circular No. 11 (Rev. 3) entitled “Categories of members of the personnel”, approved by the Director-General following discussion at the Standing Concertation Committee meeting of 3 July 2014 and entering into force on 1 September 2014, is available on the intranet site of the Human Resources Department.   This circular is applicable to all members of the personnel. It cancels and replaces Administrative Circular No. 11 (Rev. 2) entitled “Categories of members of the personnel” of January 2013. The circular was revised in order to include a minor adjustment of the determination of required period of break in the payment of subsistence allowance to certain categories of associated members of the personnel (taking account of possible technical means of control). Furthermore, the possibility of traineeships of long duration was restricted to cases in which the traineeship is awarded pursuant to an agreement between CERN and a...

Freudenthal ranks: GHZ versus W

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borsten, L

2013-01-01

The Hilbert space of three-qubit pure states may be identified with a Freudenthal triple system. Every state has an unique Freudenthal rank ranging from 1 to 4, which is determined by a set of automorphism group covariants. It is shown here that the optimal success rates for winning a three-player non-local game, varying over all local strategies, are strictly ordered by the Freudenthal rank of the shared three-qubit resource. (paper)

Assessing the efficacy of advancing underrepresented minority groups through AGU's Student Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Marasco, L.; Hurtado, C.; Gottschall, H.; Meisenhelder, K.; Hankin, E. R.; Harwell, D. E.

2017-12-01

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) strives to cultivate a diverse and inclusive organization that uses its position to build the global talent pool in Earth and space science. To cultivate a diverse talent pool, AGU must also foster a diverse student member population. The two largest AGU programs serving students are the Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA) and the Student Grants programs. OSPA allows students to practice their presentation skills and receive valuable feedback from experienced scientists. Over 3,000 students participated in OSPA at Fall Meeting 2016. The Student Grants program includes a suite of 14 travel and research grant opportunities. Over 2,000 students applied for grant opportunities in 2016 and 246 grants and fellowships were awarded. The OSPA and Student Grants programs also engage non-student members through volunteering opportunities for program roles, such as OSPA judge or grant reviewer. This presentation will look at the temporal participation trends of underrepresented minority groups in AGU's OSPA and Student Grants programs. The participation of underrepresented minority groups will also be compared before and after the implementation of policy changes to the Student Grants program in 2012.

Ranking U-Sapiens 2010-2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos-Roberto Peña-Barrera

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Los principales objetivos de esta investigación son los siguientes: (1 que la comunidad científica nacional e internacional y la sociedad en general co-nozcan los resultados del Ranking U-Sapiens Colombia 2010_2, el cual clasifica a cada institución de educación superior colombiana según puntaje, posición y cuartil; (2 destacar los movimientos más importantes al comparar los resultados del ranking 2010_1 con los del 2010_2; (3 publicar las respuestas de algunos actores de la academia nacional con respecto a la dinámica de la investigación en el país; (4 reconocer algunas instituciones, medios de comunicación e investigadores que se han interesado a modo de reflexión, referenciación o citación por esta investigación; y (5 dar a conocer el «Sello Ranking U-Sapiens Colombia» para las IES clasificadas. El alcance de este estudio en cuanto a actores abordó todas y cada una de las IES nacionales (aunque solo algunas lograran entrar al ranking y en cuanto a tiempo, un periodo referido al primer semestre de 2010 con respecto a: (1 los resultados 2010-1 de revistas indexadas en Publindex, (2 los programas de maestrías y doctorados activos durante 2010-1 según el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, y (3 los resultados de grupos de investigación clasificados para 2010 según Colciencias. El método empleado para esta investigación es el mismo que para el ranking 2010_1, salvo por una especificación aún más detallada en uno de los pasos del modelo (las variables α, β, γ; es completamente cuantitativo y los datos de las variables que fundamentan sus resultados provienen de Colciencias y el Ministerio de Educación Nacional; y en esta ocasión se darán a conocer los resultados por variable para 2010_1 y 2010_2. Los resultados más relevantes son estos: (1 entraron 8 IES al ranking y salieron 3; (2 las 3 primeras IES son públicas; (3 en total hay 6 instituciones universitarias en el ranking; (4 7 de las 10 primeras IES son

Women service members, veterans, and their families: What we know now.

Science.gov (United States)

Mankowski, Mariann; Everett, Joyce E

2016-12-01

The purpose of this paper is to highlight what we know now about female service members, veterans, and their families. The experiences of U.S. female service members and veterans are more complex than previous eras and significant demographic changes have taken place. U.S. female veterans are more likely to be younger, come from ethnic and racial minority groups, have children, and combat exposure. U.S. female service members report high rates of sexual violence and they are more vulnerable to homelessness and unemployment when compared to previous female military cohorts. U.S. female service members and veterans are also at higher risk for significant mental and health issues. Children and adolescents of women service members and veterans may also carry a heavy burden as a result of lengthy deployments. A majority of female service members and veterans will utilize community based healthcare and social services, therefore, it is essential that all healthcare providers understand the unique needs of this cohort of women. Practice implications at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels are discussed. Qualitative and quantitative studies that expand our understanding of women's experience in the military and as veterans are encouraged. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ranking Quality in Higher Education: Guiding or Misleading?

Science.gov (United States)

Bergseth, Brita; Petocz, Peter; Abrandt Dahlgren, Madeleine

2014-01-01

The study examines two different models of measuring, assessing and ranking quality in higher education. Do different systems of quality assessment lead to equivalent conclusions about the quality of education? This comparative study is based on the rankings of 24 Swedish higher education institutions. Two ranking actors have independently…

A Study of the Effects of Rank and Gender on Officers' Club Membership and Club Usage at U.S. Air Force Bases in the Continental United States

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Smith, C

1999-01-01

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between both officer rank and officer gender and both club membership and member usage at Air Force officers' clubs in the Continental United States (CONUS...

Blind Reduced-Rank MMSE Detector for DS-CDMA Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaodong Cai

2003-01-01

Full Text Available We first develop a reduced-rank minimum mean squared error (MMSE detector for direct-sequence (DS code division multiple access (CDMA by forcing the linear MMSE detector to lie in a signal subspace of a reduced dimension. While a reduced-rank MMSE detector has lower complexity, it cannot outperform the full-rank MMSE detector. We then concentrate on the blind reduced-rank MMSE detector which is obtained from an estimated covariance matrix. Our analysis and simulation results show that when the desired user′s signal is in a low-dimensional subspace, there exists an optimal subspace so that the blind reduced-rank MMSE detector lying in this subspace has the best performance. By properly choosing a subsspace, we guarantee that the optimal blind reduced-rank MMSE detector is obtained. An adaptive blind reduced-rank MMSE detector, based on a subspace tracking algorithm, is developed. The adaptive blind reduced-rank MMSE detector exhibits superior steady-state performance and fast convergence speed.

An R package for analyzing and modeling ranking data.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Paul H; Yu, Philip L H

2013-05-14

In medical informatics, psychology, market research and many other fields, researchers often need to analyze and model ranking data. However, there is no statistical software that provides tools for the comprehensive analysis of ranking data. Here, we present pmr, an R package for analyzing and modeling ranking data with a bundle of tools. The pmr package enables descriptive statistics (mean rank, pairwise frequencies, and marginal matrix), Analytic Hierarchy Process models (with Saaty's and Koczkodaj's inconsistencies), probability models (Luce model, distance-based model, and rank-ordered logit model), and the visualization of ranking data with multidimensional preference analysis. Examples of the use of package pmr are given using a real ranking dataset from medical informatics, in which 566 Hong Kong physicians ranked the top five incentives (1: competitive pressures; 2: increased savings; 3: government regulation; 4: improved efficiency; 5: improved quality care; 6: patient demand; 7: financial incentives) to the computerization of clinical practice. The mean rank showed that item 4 is the most preferred item and item 3 is the least preferred item, and significance difference was found between physicians' preferences with respect to their monthly income. A multidimensional preference analysis identified two dimensions that explain 42% of the total variance. The first can be interpreted as the overall preference of the seven items (labeled as "internal/external"), and the second dimension can be interpreted as their overall variance of (labeled as "push/pull factors"). Various statistical models were fitted, and the best were found to be weighted distance-based models with Spearman's footrule distance. In this paper, we presented the R package pmr, the first package for analyzing and modeling ranking data. The package provides insight to users through descriptive statistics of ranking data. Users can also visualize ranking data by applying a thought

Hyper-local, directions-based ranking of places

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Venetis, Petros; Gonzalez, Hector; Jensen, Christian S.

2011-01-01

they are numerous and contain precise locations. Specifically, the paper proposes a framework that takes a user location and a collection of near-by places as arguments, producing a ranking of the places. The framework enables a range of aspects of directions queries to be exploited for the ranking of places......, including the frequency with which places have been referred to in directions queries. Next, the paper proposes an algorithm and accompanying data structures capable of ranking places in response to hyper-local web queries. Finally, an empirical study with very large directions query logs offers insight...... into the potential of directions queries for the ranking of places and suggests that the proposed algorithm is suitable for use in real web search engines....

Reduced-Rank Adaptive Filtering Using Krylov Subspace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergueï Burykh

2003-01-01

Full Text Available A unified view of several recently introduced reduced-rank adaptive filters is presented. As all considered methods use Krylov subspace for rank reduction, the approach taken in this work is inspired from Krylov subspace methods for iterative solutions of linear systems. The alternative interpretation so obtained is used to study the properties of each considered technique and to relate one reduced-rank method to another as well as to algorithms used in computational linear algebra. Practical issues are discussed and low-complexity versions are also included in our study. It is believed that the insight developed in this paper can be further used to improve existing reduced-rank methods according to known results in the domain of Krylov subspace methods.

Retention of Underrepresented Minority Faculty: Strategic Initiatives for Institutional Value Proposition Based on Perspectives from a Range of Academic Institutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Whittaker, Joseph A; Montgomery, Beronda L; Martinez Acosta, Veronica G

2015-01-01

The student and faculty make-up of academic institutions does not represent national demographics. Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately underrepresented nationally, and particularly at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Although significant efforts and funding have been committed to increasing points of access or recruitment of under-represented minority (URM) students and faculty at PWIs, these individuals have not been recruited and retained at rates that reflect their national proportions. Underrepresentation of URMs is particularly prevalent in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This reality represents a national crisis given a predicted shortage of workers in STEM disciplines based on current rates of training of all individuals, majority and URM, and the intersection of this limitation with persistent challenges in the recruitment, training, retention and advancement of URMs who will soon represent the largest pool of future trainees. An additional compounding factor is the increasingly disproportionate underrepresentation of minorities at higher professorial and administrative ranks, thus limiting the pool of potential mentors who are correlated with successful shepherding of URM students through STEM training and development. We address issues related to improving recruitment and retention of URM faculty that are applicable across a range of academic institutions. We describe challenges with recruitment and retention of URM faculty and their advancement through promotion in the faculty ranks and into leadership positions. We offer specific recommendations, including identifying environmental barriers to diversity and implementing strategies for their amelioration, promoting effective and innovative mentoring, and addressing leadership issues related to constructive change for promoting diversity.

Global network centrality of university rankings

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Weisi; Del Vecchio, Marco; Pogrebna, Ganna

2017-10-01

Universities and higher education institutions form an integral part of the national infrastructure and prestige. As academic research benefits increasingly from international exchange and cooperation, many universities have increased investment in improving and enabling their global connectivity. Yet, the relationship of university performance and its global physical connectedness has not been explored in detail. We conduct, to our knowledge, the first large-scale data-driven analysis into whether there is a correlation between university relative ranking performance and its global connectivity via the air transport network. The results show that local access to global hubs (as measured by air transport network betweenness) strongly and positively correlates with the ranking growth (statistical significance in different models ranges between 5% and 1% level). We also found that the local airport's aggregate flight paths (degree) and capacity (weighted degree) has no effect on university ranking, further showing that global connectivity distance is more important than the capacity of flight connections. We also examined the effect of local city economic development as a confounding variable and no effect was observed suggesting that access to global transportation hubs outweighs economic performance as a determinant of university ranking. The impact of this research is that we have determined the importance of the centrality of global connectivity and, hence, established initial evidence for further exploring potential connections between university ranking and regional investment policies on improving global connectivity.

The effect of new links on Google PageRank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Avrachenkov, Konstatin; Litvak, Nelli

2004-01-01

PageRank is one of the principle criteria according to which Google ranks Web pages. PageRank can be interpreted as a frequency of visiting a Web page by a random surfer and thus it reflects the popularity of a Web page. We study the effect of newly created links on Google PageRank. We discuss to

Quantum probability ranking principle for ligand-based virtual screening

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Dabbagh, Mohammed Mumtaz; Salim, Naomie; Himmat, Mubarak; Ahmed, Ali; Saeed, Faisal

2017-04-01

Chemical libraries contain thousands of compounds that need screening, which increases the need for computational methods that can rank or prioritize compounds. The tools of virtual screening are widely exploited to enhance the cost effectiveness of lead drug discovery programs by ranking chemical compounds databases in decreasing probability of biological activity based upon probability ranking principle (PRP). In this paper, we developed a novel ranking approach for molecular compounds inspired by quantum mechanics, called quantum probability ranking principle (QPRP). The QPRP ranking criteria would make an attempt to draw an analogy between the physical experiment and molecular structure ranking process for 2D fingerprints in ligand based virtual screening (LBVS). The development of QPRP criteria in LBVS has employed the concepts of quantum at three different levels, firstly at representation level, this model makes an effort to develop a new framework of molecular representation by connecting the molecular compounds with mathematical quantum space. Secondly, estimate the similarity between chemical libraries and references based on quantum-based similarity searching method. Finally, rank the molecules using QPRP approach. Simulated virtual screening experiments with MDL drug data report (MDDR) data sets showed that QPRP outperformed the classical ranking principle (PRP) for molecular chemical compounds.

Quantum probability ranking principle for ligand-based virtual screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Dabbagh, Mohammed Mumtaz; Salim, Naomie; Himmat, Mubarak; Ahmed, Ali; Saeed, Faisal

2017-04-01

Chemical libraries contain thousands of compounds that need screening, which increases the need for computational methods that can rank or prioritize compounds. The tools of virtual screening are widely exploited to enhance the cost effectiveness of lead drug discovery programs by ranking chemical compounds databases in decreasing probability of biological activity based upon probability ranking principle (PRP). In this paper, we developed a novel ranking approach for molecular compounds inspired by quantum mechanics, called quantum probability ranking principle (QPRP). The QPRP ranking criteria would make an attempt to draw an analogy between the physical experiment and molecular structure ranking process for 2D fingerprints in ligand based virtual screening (LBVS). The development of QPRP criteria in LBVS has employed the concepts of quantum at three different levels, firstly at representation level, this model makes an effort to develop a new framework of molecular representation by connecting the molecular compounds with mathematical quantum space. Secondly, estimate the similarity between chemical libraries and references based on quantum-based similarity searching method. Finally, rank the molecules using QPRP approach. Simulated virtual screening experiments with MDL drug data report (MDDR) data sets showed that QPRP outperformed the classical ranking principle (PRP) for molecular chemical compounds.

What is a good death? Minority and non-minority perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Elizabeth; McGraw, Sarah A; Dobihal, Edward; Baggish, Rosemary; Cherlin, Emily; Bradley, Elizabeth H

2003-01-01

While much attention has been directed at improving the quality of care at the end of life, few studies have examined what determines a good death in different individuals. We sought to identify common domains that characterize a good death in a diverse range of community-dwelling individuals, and to describe differences that might exist between minority and non-minority community-dwelling individuals' views. Using data from 13 focus groups, we identified 10 domains that characterize the quality of the death experience: 1) physical comfort, 2) burdens on family, 3) location and environment, 4) presence of others, 5) concerns regarding prolongation of life, 6) communication, 7) completion and emotional health, 8) spiritual care, 9) cultural concerns, 10) individualization. Differences in minority compared to non-minority views were apparent within the domains of spiritual concerns, cultural concerns, and individualization. The findings may help in efforts to encourage more culturally sensitive and humane end-of-life care for both minority and non-minority individuals.

A novel three-stage distance-based consensus ranking method

Science.gov (United States)

Aghayi, Nazila; Tavana, Madjid

2018-05-01

In this study, we propose a three-stage weighted sum method for identifying the group ranks of alternatives. In the first stage, a rank matrix, similar to the cross-efficiency matrix, is obtained by computing the individual rank position of each alternative based on importance weights. In the second stage, a secondary goal is defined to limit the vector of weights since the vector of weights obtained in the first stage is not unique. Finally, in the third stage, the group rank position of alternatives is obtained based on a distance of individual rank positions. The third stage determines a consensus solution for the group so that the ranks obtained have a minimum distance from the ranks acquired by each alternative in the previous stage. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the applicability and exhibit the efficacy of the proposed method and algorithms.

Learning to rank figures within a biomedical article.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feifan Liu

Full Text Available Hundreds of millions of figures are available in biomedical literature, representing important biomedical experimental evidence. This ever-increasing sheer volume has made it difficult for scientists to effectively and accurately access figures of their interest, the process of which is crucial for validating research facts and for formulating or testing novel research hypotheses. Current figure search applications can't fully meet this challenge as the "bag of figures" assumption doesn't take into account the relationship among figures. In our previous study, hundreds of biomedical researchers have annotated articles in which they serve as corresponding authors. They ranked each figure in their paper based on a figure's importance at their discretion, referred to as "figure ranking". Using this collection of annotated data, we investigated computational approaches to automatically rank figures. We exploited and extended the state-of-the-art listwise learning-to-rank algorithms and developed a new supervised-learning model BioFigRank. The cross-validation results show that BioFigRank yielded the best performance compared with other state-of-the-art computational models, and the greedy feature selection can further boost the ranking performance significantly. Furthermore, we carry out the evaluation by comparing BioFigRank with three-level competitive domain-specific human experts: (1 First Author, (2 Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article but who works in the same field of the corresponding author of the article, and (3 Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article and who may or may not work in the same field of the corresponding author of an article. Our results show that BioFigRank outperforms Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert and performs as well as Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert. Although BioFigRank underperforms First Author, since most biomedical researchers are either in- or

Learning to rank figures within a biomedical article.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feifan; Yu, Hong

2014-01-01

Hundreds of millions of figures are available in biomedical literature, representing important biomedical experimental evidence. This ever-increasing sheer volume has made it difficult for scientists to effectively and accurately access figures of their interest, the process of which is crucial for validating research facts and for formulating or testing novel research hypotheses. Current figure search applications can't fully meet this challenge as the "bag of figures" assumption doesn't take into account the relationship among figures. In our previous study, hundreds of biomedical researchers have annotated articles in which they serve as corresponding authors. They ranked each figure in their paper based on a figure's importance at their discretion, referred to as "figure ranking". Using this collection of annotated data, we investigated computational approaches to automatically rank figures. We exploited and extended the state-of-the-art listwise learning-to-rank algorithms and developed a new supervised-learning model BioFigRank. The cross-validation results show that BioFigRank yielded the best performance compared with other state-of-the-art computational models, and the greedy feature selection can further boost the ranking performance significantly. Furthermore, we carry out the evaluation by comparing BioFigRank with three-level competitive domain-specific human experts: (1) First Author, (2) Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article but who works in the same field of the corresponding author of the article, and (3) Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert who is not the author nor co-author of an article and who may or may not work in the same field of the corresponding author of an article. Our results show that BioFigRank outperforms Non-Author-Out-Domain-Expert and performs as well as Non-Author-In-Domain-Expert. Although BioFigRank underperforms First Author, since most biomedical researchers are either in- or out

Modelling crop land use change derived from influencing factors selected and ranked by farmers in North temperate agricultural regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mehdi, Bano; Lehner, Bernhard; Ludwig, Ralf

2018-08-01

To develop meaningful land use scenarios, drivers that affect changes in the landscape are required. In this study, driving factors that influence farmers to change crops on their farm were determined. A questionnaire was administered to four independent groups of farmers who identified and ranked influencing factors pertaining to their choices of crops. The farmers were located in two mid-latitude agricultural watersheds (in Germany and Canada). The ranked influencing factors were used to develop a "farmer driven" scenario to 2040 in both watersheds. Results showed that the most important influencing factors for farmers to change crops were the "economic return of the crop" and "market factors". Yet, when the drivers of crop land use change were grouped into two categories of "financial" and "indirectly-related financial" factors, the "financial" factors made up approximately half of the influencing factors. For some responses, the "indirectly-related financial" factors (i.e. "access to farm equipment", the "farm experience", and "climate") ranked higher than or just as high as the financial factors. Overall, in the four farmer groups the differences between the rankings of the influencing factors were minor, indicating that drivers may be transferable between farms if the farmers are full-time and the farming regions have comparable growing seasons, access to markets, similar technology, and government programs for farm income. In addition to the "farmer driven" scenario, a "policy driven" scenario was derived for each watershed based only on available information on the financial incentives provided to farmers (i.e. agricultural subsidies, income support, crop insurance). The influencing factors ranked by the farmers provided in-depth information that was not captured by the "policy driven" scenario and contributed to improving predictions for crop land use development. This straight-forward method to rank qualitative data provided by farmers can easily be

Diversity rankings among bacterial lineages in soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Youssef, Noha H; Elshahed, Mostafa S

2009-03-01

We used rarefaction curve analysis and diversity ordering-based approaches to rank the 11 most frequently encountered bacterial lineages in soil according to diversity in 5 previously reported 16S rRNA gene clone libraries derived from agricultural, undisturbed tall grass prairie and forest soils (n=26,140, 28 328, 31 818, 13 001 and 53 533). The Planctomycetes, Firmicutes and the delta-Proteobacteria were consistently ranked among the most diverse lineages in all data sets, whereas the Verrucomicrobia, Gemmatimonadetes and beta-Proteobacteria were consistently ranked among the least diverse. On the other hand, the rankings of alpha-Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Chloroflexi varied widely in different soil clone libraries. In general, lineages exhibiting largest differences in diversity rankings also exhibited the largest difference in relative abundance in the data sets examined. Within these lineages, a positive correlation between relative abundance and diversity was observed within the Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi, and a negative diversity-abundance correlation was observed within the Bacteroidetes. The ecological and evolutionary implications of these results are discussed.

Social class rank, essentialism, and punitive judgment.

Science.gov (United States)

Kraus, Michael W; Keltner, Dacher

2013-08-01

Recent evidence suggests that perceptions of social class rank influence a variety of social cognitive tendencies, from patterns of causal attribution to moral judgment. In the present studies we tested the hypotheses that upper-class rank individuals would be more likely to endorse essentialist lay theories of social class categories (i.e., that social class is founded in genetically based, biological differences) than would lower-class rank individuals and that these beliefs would decrease support for restorative justice--which seeks to rehabilitate offenders, rather than punish unlawful action. Across studies, higher social class rank was associated with increased essentialism of social class categories (Studies 1, 2, and 4) and decreased support for restorative justice (Study 4). Moreover, manipulated essentialist beliefs decreased preferences for restorative justice (Study 3), and the association between social class rank and class-based essentialist theories was explained by the tendency to endorse beliefs in a just world (Study 2). Implications for how class-based essentialist beliefs potentially constrain social opportunity and mobility are discussed.

Low-Rank Sparse Coding for Image Classification

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Tianzhu; Ghanem, Bernard; Liu, Si; Xu, Changsheng; Ahuja, Narendra

2013-01-01

In this paper, we propose a low-rank sparse coding (LRSC) method that exploits local structure information among features in an image for the purpose of image-level classification. LRSC represents densely sampled SIFT descriptors, in a spatial neighborhood, collectively as low-rank, sparse linear combinations of code words. As such, it casts the feature coding problem as a low-rank matrix learning problem, which is different from previous methods that encode features independently. This LRSC has a number of attractive properties. (1) It encourages sparsity in feature codes, locality in codebook construction, and low-rankness for spatial consistency. (2) LRSC encodes local features jointly by considering their low-rank structure information, and is computationally attractive. We evaluate the LRSC by comparing its performance on a set of challenging benchmarks with that of 7 popular coding and other state-of-the-art methods. Our experiments show that by representing local features jointly, LRSC not only outperforms the state-of-the-art in classification accuracy but also improves the time complexity of methods that use a similar sparse linear representation model for feature coding.

Low-Rank Sparse Coding for Image Classification

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Tianzhu

2013-12-01

In this paper, we propose a low-rank sparse coding (LRSC) method that exploits local structure information among features in an image for the purpose of image-level classification. LRSC represents densely sampled SIFT descriptors, in a spatial neighborhood, collectively as low-rank, sparse linear combinations of code words. As such, it casts the feature coding problem as a low-rank matrix learning problem, which is different from previous methods that encode features independently. This LRSC has a number of attractive properties. (1) It encourages sparsity in feature codes, locality in codebook construction, and low-rankness for spatial consistency. (2) LRSC encodes local features jointly by considering their low-rank structure information, and is computationally attractive. We evaluate the LRSC by comparing its performance on a set of challenging benchmarks with that of 7 popular coding and other state-of-the-art methods. Our experiments show that by representing local features jointly, LRSC not only outperforms the state-of-the-art in classification accuracy but also improves the time complexity of methods that use a similar sparse linear representation model for feature coding.

Image Re-Ranking Based on Topic Diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Xueming; Lu, Dan; Wang, Yaxiong; Zhu, Li; Tang, Yuan Yan; Wang, Meng

2017-08-01

Social media sharing Websites allow users to annotate images with free tags, which significantly contribute to the development of the web image retrieval. Tag-based image search is an important method to find images shared by users in social networks. However, how to make the top ranked result relevant and with diversity is challenging. In this paper, we propose a topic diverse ranking approach for tag-based image retrieval with the consideration of promoting the topic coverage performance. First, we construct a tag graph based on the similarity between each tag. Then, the community detection method is conducted to mine the topic community of each tag. After that, inter-community and intra-community ranking are introduced to obtain the final retrieved results. In the inter-community ranking process, an adaptive random walk model is employed to rank the community based on the multi-information of each topic community. Besides, we build an inverted index structure for images to accelerate the searching process. Experimental results on Flickr data set and NUS-Wide data sets show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Ethnic Self-Esteem and Intergroup Attitudes Among the Estonian Majority and the non-Estonian Minority

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maaris Raudsepp

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The study was focussed on the relationships between ethnic self-esteem and various indicators of intergroup attitudes in a representative sample of adult population of Estonia (N=1142. Attitudinal variables that discriminated most between persons with high and low ethnic self-esteem were identified. Among Estonians ethnic self-esteem was related to positive ingroup bias, readiness for outgroup contact, perceived threat from the outgroup, attitudes to non-Estonian minority, and attitudes toward minority integration. Among non-Estonians ethnic self-esteem was related to readiness for outgroup contact, ethnic sterotypes, and various attitudes towards minority integration. An attempt was made to reconstruct the system of intergroup attidues of prototypical persons with high and low ethnic selfesteem and to describe psychological implications of high and low ethnic self-esteem for members of majority and minority groups. Various theoretical models (social identity theory, integrated threat theory, social dominane theory were used for interpretation of the results.

Classification of rank 2 cluster varieties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mandel, Travis

We classify rank 2 cluster varieties (those whose corresponding skew-form has rank 2) according to the deformation type of a generic fiber U of their X-spaces, as defined by Fock and Goncharov. Our approach is based on the work of Gross, Hacking, and Keel for cluster varieties and log Calabi...

Ranking species in mutualistic networks

Science.gov (United States)

Domínguez-García, Virginia; Muñoz, Miguel A.

2015-02-01

Understanding the architectural subtleties of ecological networks, believed to confer them enhanced stability and robustness, is a subject of outmost relevance. Mutualistic interactions have been profusely studied and their corresponding bipartite networks, such as plant-pollinator networks, have been reported to exhibit a characteristic ``nested'' structure. Assessing the importance of any given species in mutualistic networks is a key task when evaluating extinction risks and possible cascade effects. Inspired in a recently introduced algorithm -similar in spirit to Google's PageRank but with a built-in non-linearity- here we propose a method which -by exploiting their nested architecture- allows us to derive a sound ranking of species importance in mutualistic networks. This method clearly outperforms other existing ranking schemes and can become very useful for ecosystem management and biodiversity preservation, where decisions on what aspects of ecosystems to explicitly protect need to be made.

77 FR 10755 - Request for Nominations for Voting Members on a Public Advisory Committee; Risk Communication...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-02-23

... in ensuring that women, minority groups, and individuals with disabilities are adequately represented... who use FDA-regulated products. The latter may include patients and patients' family members, health... business address and/or home address, telephone number, and email address if available. Nominations must...

Hot topics, urgent priorities, and ensuring success for racial/ethnic minority young investigators in academic pediatrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Flores, Glenn; Mendoza, Fernando S; Fuentes-Afflick, Elena; Mendoza, Jason A; Pachter, Lee; Espinoza, Juan; Fernandez, Cristina R; Arnold, Danielle D P; Brown, Nicole M; Gonzalez, Kymberly M; Lopez, Cynthia; Owen, Mikah C; Parks, Kenya M; Reynolds, Kimberly L; Russell, Christopher J

2016-12-09

The number of racial/ethnic minority children will exceed the number of white children in the USA by 2018. Although 38% of Americans are minorities, only 12% of pediatricians, 5% of medical-school faculty, and 3% of medical-school professors are minorities. Furthermore, only 5% of all R01 applications for National Institutes of Health grants are from African-American, Latino, and American Indian investigators. Prompted by the persistent lack of diversity in the pediatric and biomedical research workforces, the Academic Pediatric Association Research in Academic Pediatrics Initiative on Diversity (RAPID) was initiated in 2012. RAPID targets applicants who are members of an underrepresented minority group (URM), disabled, or from a socially, culturally, economically, or educationally disadvantaged background. The program, which consists of both a research project and career and leadership development activities, includes an annual career-development and leadership conference which is open to any resident, fellow, or junior faculty member from an URM, disabled, or disadvantaged background who is interested in a career in academic general pediatrics. As part of the annual RAPID conference, a Hot Topic Session is held in which the young investigators spend several hours developing a list of hot topics on the most useful faculty and career-development issues. These hot topics are then posed in the form of six "burning questions" to the RAPID National Advisory Committee (comprised of accomplished, nationally recognized senior investigators who are seasoned mentors), the RAPID Director and Co-Director, and the keynote speaker. The six compelling questions posed by the 10 young investigators-along with the responses of the senior conference leadership-provide a unique resource and "survival guide" for ensuring the academic success and optimal career development of young investigators in academic pediatrics from diverse backgrounds. A rich conversation ensued on the topics

Meeting challenges related to the dietary assessment of ethnic minority populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Garduño-Diaz, S D; Husain, W; Ashkanani, F; Khokhar, S

2014-08-01

Migrants from the Indian subcontinent comprise the largest minority group in the UK. With the process of migration come alterations in lifestyle and eating habits. The present study aimed to disseminate the valuable information, experiences and challenges faced by researchers who conduct studies with ethnic minority groups in the area of diet and nutritional surveys, with an emphasis on migrant South Asians. The findings reported are the result of research carried out during 2008-2012, involving 1100 face-to-face dietary recalls conducted in the UK among South Asian children (aged 1.5-11 years; n = 300) and adults (≥30 years; n = 100). Factors to consider when planning and carrying out diet and nutrition survey studies among migrant South Asians were identified and include the employment of culture-specific tools, visual aid reinforcement and the involvement of key community members and translators to facilitate recruitment and data collection. One of the best practices found when working with minority groups was the use of incentives and tangible benefits to reward study participants. It was also found that constant communication and follow-up of the study participants improved the quality of the data and the likelihood of maintaining links with community members for future studies. From the results of in-house studies and a revision of practices reported in earlier literature, two 24-h face-to-face dietary recalls are recommended as the optimal method for the dietary assessment of migrant South Asians. To complement this assessment, ethnic-specific food frequency questionnaires such as that developed and successfully implemented among South Asians in the present study must be employed. © 2013 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

Sign rank versus Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension

Science.gov (United States)

Alon, N.; Moran, Sh; Yehudayoff, A.

2017-12-01

This work studies the maximum possible sign rank of sign (N × N)-matrices with a given Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension d. For d=1, this maximum is three. For d=2, this maximum is \\widetilde{\\Theta}(N1/2). For d >2, similar but slightly less accurate statements hold. The lower bounds improve on previous ones by Ben-David et al., and the upper bounds are novel. The lower bounds are obtained by probabilistic constructions, using a theorem of Warren in real algebraic topology. The upper bounds are obtained using a result of Welzl about spanning trees with low stabbing number, and using the moment curve. The upper bound technique is also used to: (i) provide estimates on the number of classes of a given Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension, and the number of maximum classes of a given Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension--answering a question of Frankl from 1989, and (ii) design an efficient algorithm that provides an O(N/log(N)) multiplicative approximation for the sign rank. We also observe a general connection between sign rank and spectral gaps which is based on Forster's argument. Consider the adjacency (N × N)-matrix of a Δ-regular graph with a second eigenvalue of absolute value λ and Δ ≤ N/2. We show that the sign rank of the signed version of this matrix is at least Δ/λ. We use this connection to prove the existence of a maximum class C\\subseteq\\{+/- 1\\}^N with Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension 2 and sign rank \\widetilde{\\Theta}(N1/2). This answers a question of Ben-David et al. regarding the sign rank of large Vapnik-Chervonenkis classes. We also describe limitations of this approach, in the spirit of the Alon-Boppana theorem. We further describe connections to communication complexity, geometry, learning theory, and combinatorics. Bibliography: 69 titles.

The Model of Tourist Virtual Community Members Engagement Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krzysztof Stepaniuk

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Building numerous and active virtual tourist communities involved in the tourist brand, connected with product, attraction or travel destination is a significant challenge for a dynamic and competitive tourist market. The main aim of presented pilot study was the drawing up guidelines for development of users engagement of selected virtual tourist communities on the example of Facebook. For that purpose a ranking of the most popular indicators of thematic areas, around which virtual tourist communities are formed was built. Simultaneously a typology of members of virtual tourist communities was presented as well as motives for the participation in communities gathered around the definite subject matter were analysed.

The Rankings Game: Who's Playing Whom?

Science.gov (United States)

Burness, John F.

2008-01-01

This summer, Forbes magazine published its new rankings of "America's Best Colleges," implying that it had developed a methodology that would give the public the information that it needed to choose a college wisely. "U.S. News & World Report," which in 1983 published the first annual ranking, just announced its latest ratings last week--including…

Views of United States Physicians and Members of the American Medical Association House of Delegates on Physician-assisted Suicide.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitney, Simon N.; Brown, Byron W.; Brody, Howard; Alcser, Kirsten H.; Bachman, Jerald G.; Greely, Henry T.

2001-01-01

Ascertained the views of physicians and physician leaders toward legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Results indicated members of AMA House of Delegates strongly oppose physician-assisted suicide, but rank-and-file physicians show no consensus either for or against its legalization. Although the debate is adversarial, most physicians are…

Evaluating ranking methods on heterogeneous digital library collections

CERN Document Server

Canévet, Olivier; Marian, Ludmila; Chonavel, Thierry

In the frame of research in particle physics, CERN has been developing its own web-based software /Invenio/ to run the digital library of all the documents related to CERN and fundamental physics. The documents (articles, photos, news, thesis, ...) can be retrieved through a search engine. The results matching the query of the user can be displayed in several ways: sorted by latest first, author, title and also ranked by word similarity. The purpose of this project is to study and implement a new ranking method in Invenio: distributed-ranking (D-Rank). This method aims at aggregating several ranking scores coming from different ranking methods into a new score. In addition to query-related scores such as word similarity, the goal of the work is to take into account non-query-related scores such as citations, journal impact factor and in particular scores related to the document access frequency in the database. The idea is that for two equally query-relevant documents, if one has been more downloaded for inst...

Ranking spreaders by decomposing complex networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng, An; Zhang, Cheng-Jun

2013-01-01

Ranking the nodes' ability of spreading in networks is crucial for designing efficient strategies to hinder spreading in the case of diseases or accelerate spreading in the case of information dissemination. In the well-known k-shell method, nodes are ranked only according to the links between the remaining nodes (residual links) while the links connecting to the removed nodes (exhausted links) are entirely ignored. In this Letter, we propose a mixed degree decomposition (MDD) procedure in which both the residual degree and the exhausted degree are considered. By simulating the epidemic spreading process on real networks, we show that the MDD method can outperform the k-shell and degree methods in ranking spreaders.

The ranking of negative-cost emissions reduction measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, Simon

2012-01-01

A flaw has been identified in the calculation of the cost-effectiveness in marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs). The problem affects “negative-cost” emissions reduction measures—those that produce a return on investment. The resulting ranking sometimes favours measures that produce low emissions savings and is therefore unreliable. The issue is important because incorrect ranking means a potential failure to achieve the best-value outcome. A simple mathematical analysis shows that not only is the standard cost-effectiveness calculation inadequate for ranking negative-cost measures, but there is no possible replacement that satisfies reasonable requirements. Furthermore, the concept of negative cost-effectiveness is found to be unsound and its use should be avoided. Among other things, this means that MACCs are unsuitable for ranking negative-cost measures. As a result, MACCs produced by a range of organizations including UK government departments may need to be revised. An alternative partial ranking method has been devised by making use of Pareto optimization. The outcome can be presented as a stacked bar chart that indicates both the preferred ordering and the total emissions saving available for each measure without specifying a cost-effectiveness. - Highlights: ► Marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs) are used to rank emission reduction measures. ► There is a flaw in the standard ranking method for negative-cost measures. ► Negative values of cost-effectiveness (in £/tC or equivalent) are invalid. ► There may be errors in published MACCs. ► A method based on Pareto principles provides an alternative ranking method.

Ranking Queries on Uncertain Data

CERN Document Server

Hua, Ming

2011-01-01

Uncertain data is inherent in many important applications, such as environmental surveillance, market analysis, and quantitative economics research. Due to the importance of those applications and rapidly increasing amounts of uncertain data collected and accumulated, analyzing large collections of uncertain data has become an important task. Ranking queries (also known as top-k queries) are often natural and useful in analyzing uncertain data. Ranking Queries on Uncertain Data discusses the motivations/applications, challenging problems, the fundamental principles, and the evaluation algorith

Subtracting a best rank-1 approximation may increase tensor rank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stegeman, Alwin; Comon, Pierre

2010-01-01

It has been shown that a best rank-R approximation of an order-k tensor may not exist when R >= 2 and k >= 3. This poses a serious problem to data analysts using tensor decompositions it has been observed numerically that, generally, this issue cannot be solved by consecutively computing and

Using Power-Law Degree Distribution to Accelerate PageRank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoyan Jin

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The PageRank vector of a network is very important, for it can reflect the importance of a Web page in the World Wide Web, or of a people in a social network. However, with the growth of the World Wide Web and social networks, it needs more and more time to compute the PageRank vector of a network. In many real-world applications, the degree and PageRank distributions of these complex networks conform to the Power-Law distribution. This paper utilizes the degree distribution of a network to initialize its PageRank vector, and presents a Power-Law degree distribution accelerating algorithm of PageRank computation. Experiments on four real-world datasets show that the proposed algorithm converges more quickly than the original PageRank algorithm.

A Case-Based Reasoning Method with Rank Aggregation

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Jinhua; Du, Jiao; Hu, Jian

2018-03-01

In order to improve the accuracy of case-based reasoning (CBR), this paper addresses a new CBR framework with the basic principle of rank aggregation. First, the ranking methods are put forward in each attribute subspace of case. The ordering relation between cases on each attribute is got between cases. Then, a sorting matrix is got. Second, the similar case retrieval process from ranking matrix is transformed into a rank aggregation optimal problem, which uses the Kemeny optimal. On the basis, a rank aggregation case-based reasoning algorithm, named RA-CBR, is designed. The experiment result on UCI data sets shows that case retrieval accuracy of RA-CBR algorithm is higher than euclidean distance CBR and mahalanobis distance CBR testing.So we can get the conclusion that RA-CBR method can increase the performance and efficiency of CBR.

Comparison of different physiological parameter responses in Lemna minor and Scenedesmus obliquus exposed to herbicide flumioxazin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geoffroy, Laure; Frankart, Cecile; Eullaffroy, Philippe

2004-09-01

The sensitivity of different physiological parameters in Scenedesmus obliquus and Lemna minor exposed to herbicide (flumioxazin) was investigated to indicate the most convenient and sensitive parameter. To assess toxicity of flumioxazin, we used a panel of biomarkers: pigment contents, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and antioxidative enzyme activities. Algae and duckweed were exposed to 48-h IC{sub 50} for growth rate. In L. minor, the sensitivity of the parameters was as follows: Q{sub N}>Oxygen emission>PHIs{sub PSII}>Q{sub P}>PHI{sub PSII}>CAT, GR>Pigment>APO>Growth. For S. obliquus, this ranking was as follows: CAT>Oxygen emission>Q{sub P}>APO>GR>Pigment>PHIs{sub PSII}>Growth>PHI{sub PSII}>Q{sub N} (from the greatest to the least sensitive). The results demonstrated that the observed toxicity is related not only to interspecific variations but also to the selected parameter.

Creating a Minor in Applied Data Science: Case Western Reserve University Engages Business Leaders to Produce T-Shaped Professionals. A BHEF Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Business-Higher Education Forum, 2016

2016-01-01

This case study examines how Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) member Case Western Reserve University is integrating T-shaped skills into a minor in applied data science. Through the collaboration of its business and higher education members, BHEF launched the National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative to create new undergraduate…

Minorities and majorities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijman, J.E.; Fassbender, B.; Peters, A.

2012-01-01

This chapter discusses the paradox of minorities as a constitutive Other of international law. While minorities have been viewed as outside the international legal system for centuries, minorities have at the same time made a significant and fundamental contribution to precisely that system, as they

Power-law and exponential rank distributions: A panoramic Gibbsian perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eliazar, Iddo

2015-01-01

Rank distributions are collections of positive sizes ordered either increasingly or decreasingly. Many decreasing rank distributions, formed by the collective collaboration of human actions, follow an inverse power-law relation between ranks and sizes. This remarkable empirical fact is termed Zipf’s law, and one of its quintessential manifestations is the demography of human settlements — which exhibits a harmonic relation between ranks and sizes. In this paper we present a comprehensive statistical-physics analysis of rank distributions, establish that power-law and exponential rank distributions stand out as optimal in various entropy-based senses, and unveil the special role of the harmonic relation between ranks and sizes. Our results extend the contemporary entropy-maximization view of Zipf’s law to a broader, panoramic, Gibbsian perspective of increasing and decreasing power-law and exponential rank distributions — of which Zipf’s law is one out of four pillars

Power-law and exponential rank distributions: A panoramic Gibbsian perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eliazar, Iddo, E-mail: eliazar@post.tau.ac.il

2015-04-15

Rank distributions are collections of positive sizes ordered either increasingly or decreasingly. Many decreasing rank distributions, formed by the collective collaboration of human actions, follow an inverse power-law relation between ranks and sizes. This remarkable empirical fact is termed Zipf’s law, and one of its quintessential manifestations is the demography of human settlements — which exhibits a harmonic relation between ranks and sizes. In this paper we present a comprehensive statistical-physics analysis of rank distributions, establish that power-law and exponential rank distributions stand out as optimal in various entropy-based senses, and unveil the special role of the harmonic relation between ranks and sizes. Our results extend the contemporary entropy-maximization view of Zipf’s law to a broader, panoramic, Gibbsian perspective of increasing and decreasing power-law and exponential rank distributions — of which Zipf’s law is one out of four pillars.

Functional Multiplex PageRank

Science.gov (United States)

Iacovacci, Jacopo; Rahmede, Christoph; Arenas, Alex; Bianconi, Ginestra

2016-10-01

Recently it has been recognized that many complex social, technological and biological networks have a multilayer nature and can be described by multiplex networks. Multiplex networks are formed by a set of nodes connected by links having different connotations forming the different layers of the multiplex. Characterizing the centrality of the nodes in a multiplex network is a challenging task since the centrality of the node naturally depends on the importance associated to links of a certain type. Here we propose to assign to each node of a multiplex network a centrality called Functional Multiplex PageRank that is a function of the weights given to every different pattern of connections (multilinks) existent in the multiplex network between any two nodes. Since multilinks distinguish all the possible ways in which the links in different layers can overlap, the Functional Multiplex PageRank can describe important non-linear effects when large relevance or small relevance is assigned to multilinks with overlap. Here we apply the Functional Page Rank to the multiplex airport networks, to the neuronal network of the nematode C. elegans, and to social collaboration and citation networks between scientists. This analysis reveals important differences existing between the most central nodes of these networks, and the correlations between their so-called pattern to success.

A cross-benchmark comparison of 87 learning to rank methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tax, N.; Bockting, S.; Hiemstra, D.

2015-01-01

Learning to rank is an increasingly important scientific field that comprises the use of machine learning for the ranking task. New learning to rank methods are generally evaluated on benchmark test collections. However, comparison of learning to rank methods based on evaluation results is hindered

Feature ranking and rank aggregation for automatic sleep stage classification: a comparative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Najdi, Shirin; Gharbali, Ali Abdollahi; Fonseca, José Manuel

2017-08-18

Nowadays, sleep quality is one of the most important measures of healthy life, especially considering the huge number of sleep-related disorders. Identifying sleep stages using polysomnographic (PSG) signals is the traditional way of assessing sleep quality. However, the manual process of sleep stage classification is time-consuming, subjective and costly. Therefore, in order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the sleep stage classification, researchers have been trying to develop automatic classification algorithms. Automatic sleep stage classification mainly consists of three steps: pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. Since classification accuracy is deeply affected by the extracted features, a poor feature vector will adversely affect the classifier and eventually lead to low classification accuracy. Therefore, special attention should be given to the feature extraction and selection process. In this paper the performance of seven feature selection methods, as well as two feature rank aggregation methods, were compared. Pz-Oz EEG, horizontal EOG and submental chin EMG recordings of 22 healthy males and females were used. A comprehensive feature set including 49 features was extracted from these recordings. The extracted features are among the most common and effective features used in sleep stage classification from temporal, spectral, entropy-based and nonlinear categories. The feature selection methods were evaluated and compared using three criteria: classification accuracy, stability, and similarity. Simulation results show that MRMR-MID achieves the highest classification performance while Fisher method provides the most stable ranking. In our simulations, the performance of the aggregation methods was in the average level, although they are known to generate more stable results and better accuracy. The Borda and RRA rank aggregation methods could not outperform significantly the conventional feature ranking methods. Among

Rank Two Affine Manifolds in Genus 3

OpenAIRE

Aulicino, David; Nguyen, Duc-Manh

2016-01-01

We complete the classification of rank two affine manifolds in the moduli space of translation surfaces in genus three. Combined with a recent result of Mirzakhani and Wright, this completes the classification of higher rank affine manifolds in genus three.

Sensitivity ranking for freshwater invertebrates towards hydrocarbon contaminants.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerner, Nadine V; Cailleaud, Kevin; Bassères, Anne; Liess, Matthias; Beketov, Mikhail A

2017-11-01

Hydrocarbons have an utmost economical importance but may also cause substantial ecological impacts due to accidents or inadequate transportation and use. Currently, freshwater biomonitoring methods lack an indicator that can unequivocally reflect the impacts caused by hydrocarbons while being independent from effects of other stressors. The aim of the present study was to develop a sensitivity ranking for freshwater invertebrates towards hydrocarbon contaminants, which can be used in hydrocarbon-specific bioindicators. We employed the Relative Sensitivity method and developed the sensitivity ranking S hydrocarbons based on literature ecotoxicological data supplemented with rapid and mesocosm test results. A first validation of the sensitivity ranking based on an earlier field study has been conducted and revealed the S hydrocarbons ranking to be promising for application in sensitivity based indicators. Thus, the first results indicate that the ranking can serve as the core component of future hydrocarbon-specific and sensitivity trait based bioindicators.

Tensor rank of the tripartite state |W>xn

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Nengkun; Guo Cheng; Duan Runyao; Chitambar, Eric

2010-01-01

Tensor rank refers to the number of product states needed to express a given multipartite quantum state. Its nonadditivity as an entanglement measure has recently been observed. In this Brief Report, we estimate the tensor rank of multiple copies of the tripartite state |W>=(1/√(3))(|100>+|010>+|001>). Both an upper bound and a lower bound of this rank are derived. In particular, it is proven that the rank of |W> x 2 is 7, thus resolving a previously open problem. Some implications of this result are discussed in terms of transformation rates between |W> xn and multiple copies of the state |GHZ>=(1/√(2))(|000>+|111>).

Low-Rank Matrix Factorization With Adaptive Graph Regularizer.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Gui-Fu; Wang, Yong; Zou, Jian

2016-05-01

In this paper, we present a novel low-rank matrix factorization algorithm with adaptive graph regularizer (LMFAGR). We extend the recently proposed low-rank matrix with manifold regularization (MMF) method with an adaptive regularizer. Different from MMF, which constructs an affinity graph in advance, LMFAGR can simultaneously seek graph weight matrix and low-dimensional representations of data. That is, graph construction and low-rank matrix factorization are incorporated into a unified framework, which results in an automatically updated graph rather than a predefined one. The experimental results on some data sets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art low-rank matrix factorization methods.

Dominance-based ranking functions for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Liang-Hsuan; Tu, Chien-Cheng

2014-08-01

The ranking of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IvIFSs) is difficult since they include the interval values of membership and nonmembership. This paper proposes ranking functions for IvIFSs based on the dominance concept. The proposed ranking functions consider the degree to which an IvIFS dominates and is not dominated by other IvIFSs. Based on the bivariate framework and the dominance concept, the functions incorporate not only the boundary values of membership and nonmembership, but also the relative relations among IvIFSs in comparisons. The dominance-based ranking functions include bipolar evaluations with a parameter that allows the decision-maker to reflect his actual attitude in allocating the various kinds of dominance. The relationship for two IvIFSs that satisfy the dual couple is defined based on four proposed ranking functions. Importantly, the proposed ranking functions can achieve a full ranking for all IvIFSs. Two examples are used to demonstrate the applicability and distinctiveness of the proposed ranking functions.

Ranking of Unwarranted Variations in Healthcare Treatments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moes, Herry; Brekelmans, Ruud; Hamers, Herbert; Hasaart, F.

2017-01-01

In this paper, we introduce a framework designed to identify and rank possible unwarranted variation of treatments in healthcare. The innovative aspect of this framework is a ranking procedure that aims to identify healthcare institutions where unwarranted variation is most severe, and diagnosis

Gender disparity among US anaesthesiologists: are women underrepresented in academic ranks and scholarly productivity?

Science.gov (United States)

Pashkova, A A; Svider, P F; Chang, C Y; Diaz, L; Eloy, J A; Eloy, J D

2013-09-01

The h-index is an objective indicator of research productivity and influence on scholarly discourse within a discipline. It may be a valuable adjunct for measuring research productivity, a key component in decisions regarding appointment and promotion in academic medicine. The objectives of this analysis were to (1) examine whether there are gender disparities in research productivity among academic anaesthesiologists, and (2) compare results to measures of research productivity in other specialties. A bibliometric analysis of faculty members from 25 academic anaesthesiology departments was performed using the Scopus database. Academic anaesthesiologists were organised by academic rank and gender. The h-index and publication range (in years) of faculty members were calculated. Male anaesthesiologists had higher research productivity, as measured by the h-index, than female colleagues. Organised by rank, this difference was noted only among full professors. Men had higher overall and early-career research productivity, while women had mid-career research productivity rates equivalent to and surpassing that of their male colleagues. Gender disparities in research productivity were also noted among a sample of academic physicians in other specialties. While men had higher overall research productivity, women had equivalent or higher mid-career research output, suggesting that early-career considerations unique to women should be taken into account during appointment and promotion in academic anaesthesiology. While disparities in gender representation among anaesthesiologists have also been noted in Europe, further study as to whether these differences also extend to research productivity and academic promotion outside of the US would be of interest. © 2013 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Who's bigger? where historical figures really rank

CERN Document Server

Skiena, Steven

2014-01-01

Is Hitler bigger than Napoleon? Washington bigger than Lincoln? Picasso bigger than Einstein? Quantitative analysts are rapidly finding homes in social and cultural domains, from finance to politics. What about history? In this fascinating book, Steve Skiena and Charles Ward bring quantitative analysis to bear on ranking and comparing historical reputations. They evaluate each person by aggregating the traces of millions of opinions, just as Google ranks webpages. The book includes a technical discussion for readers interested in the details of the methods, but no mathematical or computational background is necessary to understand the rankings or conclusions. Along the way, the authors present the rankings of more than one thousand of history's most significant people in science, politics, entertainment, and all areas of human endeavor. Anyone interested in history or biography can see where their favorite figures place in the grand scheme of things.

Low-rank coal research. Quarterly report, January--March 1990

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1990-08-01

This document contains several quarterly progress reports for low-rank coal research that was performed from January-March 1990. Reports in Control Technology and Coal Preparation Research are in Flue Gas Cleanup, Waste Management, and Regional Energy Policy Program for the Northern Great Plains. Reports in Advanced Research and Technology Development are presented in Turbine Combustion Phenomena, Combustion Inorganic Transformation (two sections), Liquefaction Reactivity of Low-Rank Coals, Gasification Ash and Slag Characterization, and Coal Science. Reports in Combustion Research cover Fluidized-Bed Combustion, Beneficiation of Low-Rank Coals, Combustion Characterization of Low-Rank Coal Fuels, Diesel Utilization of Low-Rank Coals, and Produce and Characterize HWD (hot-water drying) Fuels for Heat Engine Applications. Liquefaction Research is reported in Low-Rank Coal Direct Liquefaction. Gasification Research progress is discussed for Production of Hydrogen and By-Products from Coal and for Chemistry of Sulfur Removal in Mild Gas.

Attitudes of Chinese community members and psychiatrists towards forensic psychiatric assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaoling, Zhong; Jun, Wang; Graham, Mellsop; Chen, Chen; Simei, Zhang; Qiguang, Li; Qun, Wang; Jiansong, Zhou; Xiaoping, Wang

2017-12-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Chinese community members and psychiatrists towards forensic psychiatric assessments. A questionnaire designed to record attitudes toward the current forensic psychiatric assessment procedures and the disposal of mentally ill offenders was developed and distributed via a mobile App. A total of 134 community members and 132 psychiatrists voluntarily completed the questionnaire. Most of responders agreed that the department of public-security has the right to apply for a forensic psychiatric assessment but should not be held solely by that department. Community members were less significantly confident in the validation of forensic psychiatric opinions than were the psychiatrists. A significantly higher proportion of community members than psychiatrists considered that offenders judged Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) should be punished as would be sane people. In addition, only a minority of responders supported that NCRMD should not be held criminally responsible. Our results indicate that both groups have comments on the current distribution of right of startup of forensic psychiatric assessments. Compared to psychiatrists, community members have lower confidence in the validation of forensic psychiatric assessment and have stricter attitudes toward the disposal of offenders with psychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

National identification and collective emotions as predictors of pro-social attitudes toward Islamic minority groups in Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mashuri, A.; Zaduqisti, Esti

2014-01-01

The present study examined the role of Indonesian Moslem majority’s national identification, collective emotions of pride and guilt in predicting their support in helping members of Islamic minority and their perceived inclusion towards this group. Data from this study ( N = 182) demonstrated that,

Ranking ecological risks of multiple chemical stressors on amphibians.

Science.gov (United States)

Fedorenkova, Anastasia; Vonk, J Arie; Lenders, H J Rob; Creemers, Raymond C M; Breure, Anton M; Hendriks, A Jan

2012-06-01

Populations of amphibians have been declining worldwide since the late 1960s. Despite global concern, no studies have quantitatively assessed the major causes of this decline. In the present study, species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) were developed to analyze the sensitivity of anurans for ammonium, nitrate, heavy metals (cadmium, copper), pesticides (18 compounds), and acidification (pH) based on laboratory toxicity data. Ecological risk (ER) was calculated as the probability that a measured environmental concentration of a particular stressor in habitats where anurans were observed would exceed the toxic effect concentrations derived from the species sensitivity distributions. The assessment of ER was used to rank the stressors according to their potential risk to anurans based on a case study of Dutch freshwater bodies. The derived ERs revealed that threats to populations of anurans decreased in the sequence of pH, copper, diazinon, ammonium, and endosulfan. Other stressors studied were of minor importance. The method of deriving ER by combining field observation data and laboratory data provides insight into potential threats to species in their habitats and can be used to prioritize stressors, which is necessary to achieve effective management in amphibian conservation. Copyright © 2012 SETAC.

Level-rank duality of untwisted and twisted D-branes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naculich, Stephen G.; Schnitzer, Howard J.

2006-01-01

Level-rank duality of untwisted and twisted D-branes of WZW models is explored. We derive the relation between D0-brane charges of level-rank dual untwisted D-branes of su-bar (N) K and sp-bar (n) k , and of level-rank dual twisted D-branes of su-bar (2n+1) 2k+1 . The analysis of level-rank duality of twisted D-branes of su-bar (2n+1) 2k+1 is facilitated by their close relation to untwisted D-branes of sp-bar (n) k . We also demonstrate level-rank duality of the spectrum of an open string stretched between untwisted or twisted D-branes in each of these cases

UTV Expansion Pack: Special-Purpose Rank-Revealing Algorithms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fierro, Ricardo D.; Hansen, Per Christian

2005-01-01

This collection of Matlab 7.0 software supplements and complements the package UTV Tools from 1999, and includes implementations of special-purpose rank-revealing algorithms developed since the publication of the original package. We provide algorithms for computing and modifying symmetric rank-r...... values of a sparse or structured matrix. These new algorithms have applications in signal processing, optimization and LSI information retrieval.......This collection of Matlab 7.0 software supplements and complements the package UTV Tools from 1999, and includes implementations of special-purpose rank-revealing algorithms developed since the publication of the original package. We provide algorithms for computing and modifying symmetric rank......-revealing VSV decompositions, we expand the algorithms for the ULLV decomposition of a matrix pair to handle interference-type problems with a rank-deficient covariance matrix, and we provide a robust and reliable Lanczos algorithm which - despite its simplicity - is able to capture all the dominant singular...

Rank 2 fusion rings are complete intersections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Troels Bak

We give a non-constructive proof that fusion rings attached to a simple complex Lie algebra of rank 2 are complete intersections.......We give a non-constructive proof that fusion rings attached to a simple complex Lie algebra of rank 2 are complete intersections....

Entity Ranking using Wikipedia as a Pivot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R. Kaptein; P. Serdyukov; A.P. de Vries (Arjen); J. Kamps

2010-01-01

htmlabstractIn this paper we investigate the task of Entity Ranking on the Web. Searchers looking for entities are arguably better served by presenting a ranked list of entities directly, rather than a list of web pages with relevant but also potentially redundant information about

Low Rank Approximation Algorithms, Implementation, Applications

CERN Document Server

Markovsky, Ivan

2012-01-01

Matrix low-rank approximation is intimately related to data modelling; a problem that arises frequently in many different fields. Low Rank Approximation: Algorithms, Implementation, Applications is a comprehensive exposition of the theory, algorithms, and applications of structured low-rank approximation. Local optimization methods and effective suboptimal convex relaxations for Toeplitz, Hankel, and Sylvester structured problems are presented. A major part of the text is devoted to application of the theory. Applications described include: system and control theory: approximate realization, model reduction, output error, and errors-in-variables identification; signal processing: harmonic retrieval, sum-of-damped exponentials, finite impulse response modeling, and array processing; machine learning: multidimensional scaling and recommender system; computer vision: algebraic curve fitting and fundamental matrix estimation; bioinformatics for microarray data analysis; chemometrics for multivariate calibration; ...

Model Minority Stereotype: Influence on Perceived Mental Health Needs of Asian Americans.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Alice W; Chang, Janet; O'Brien, Janine; Budgazad, Marc S; Tsai, Jack

2017-06-01

This study examined the influence of the model minority stereotype on the perceived mental health functioning of Asian Americans. It was hypothesized that college students would perceive Asian Americans as having fewer mental health problems and clinical symptoms than Whites due to the model minority stereotype. Four hundred and twenty-five undergraduate students from a predominately White college campus in the American northeast were randomly exposed to one of four conditions: (1) a clinical vignette describing a White college student suffering from adjustment disorder; (2) the same vignette describing an Asian American college student; (3) a newspaper article describing a success story of Whites and the White clinical vignette; (4) the same newspaper article and clinical vignette describing an Asian American. Following exposure to one of the conditions, participants completed a memory recall task and measures of colorblindness, attitudes towards Asian Americans, attitudes towards out-group members, and perceived mental health functioning. Participants exposed to the vignettes primed with the positive/model minority stereotype perceived the target regardless of race/ethnicity as having better mental health functioning and less clinical symptoms than the condition without the stereotype. Additionally, the stereotype primer was found to be a modest predictor for the perception of mental health functioning in Asian American vignettes. Results shed light on the impact of the model minority stereotype on the misperception of Asian Americans' mental health status, contributing to the invisibility or neglect of this minority group's mental health needs.

Human Rhinovirus Diversity and Evolution: How Strange the Change from Major to Minor.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis-Rogers, Nicole; Seger, Jon; Adler, Frederick R

2017-04-01

Rhinoviruses are the most common causes of the common cold. Their many distinct lineages fall into "major" and "minor" groups that use different cell surface receptors to enter host cells. Minor-group rhinoviruses are more immunogenic in laboratory studies, although their patterns of transmission and their cold symptoms are broadly similar to those of the major group. Here we present evolutionary evidence that minor-group viruses are also more immunogenic in humans. A key finding is that rates of amino acid substitutions at exposed sites in the capsid proteins VP2, VP3, and VP1 tend to be elevated in minor-group relative to major-group viruses, while rates at buried sites show no consistent differences. A reanalysis of historical virus watch data also indicates a higher immunogenicity of minor-group viruses, consistent with our findings about evolutionary rates at amino acid positions most directly exposed to immune surveillance. The increased immunogenicity and speed of evolution in minor-group lineages may contribute to the very large numbers of rhinovirus serotypes that coexist while differing in virulence. IMPORTANCE Most colds are caused by rhinoviruses (RVs). Those caused by a subset known as the minor-group members of rhinovirus species A (RV-A) are correlated with the inception and aggravation of asthma in at-risk populations. Genetically, minor-group viruses are similar to major-group RV-A, from which they were derived, although they tend to elicit stronger immune responses. Differences in their rates and patterns of molecular evolution should be highly relevant to their epidemiology. All RV-A strains show high rates of amino acid substitutions in the capsid proteins at exposed sites not previously identified as being immunogenic, and this increase is significantly greater in minor-group viruses. These findings will inform future studies of the recently discovered RV-C, which also appears to exacerbate asthma in adults and children. In addition, these

Paired comparisons analysis: an axiomatic approach to ranking methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gonzalez-Diaz, J.; Hendrickx, Ruud; Lohmann, E.R.M.A.

2014-01-01

In this paper we present an axiomatic analysis of several ranking methods for general tournaments. We find that the ranking method obtained by applying maximum likelihood to the (Zermelo-)Bradley-Terry model, the most common method in statistics and psychology, is one of the ranking methods that

Do Double Minority Students Face Double Jeopardy? Testing Minority Stress Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Hayes, Jeffrey A.; Chun-Kennedy, Caitlin; Edens, Astrid; Locke, Benjamin D.

2011-01-01

Data from 2 studies revealed that ethnic and sexual minority clients experienced greater psychological distress on multiple dimensions than did European American or heterosexual clients, respectively, as did ethnic and sexual minority students who were not clients. Among sexual minority students, ethnicity was not an added source of distress.…

LogDet Rank Minimization with Application to Subspace Clustering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhao Kang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Low-rank matrix is desired in many machine learning and computer vision problems. Most of the recent studies use the nuclear norm as a convex surrogate of the rank operator. However, all singular values are simply added together by the nuclear norm, and thus the rank may not be well approximated in practical problems. In this paper, we propose using a log-determinant (LogDet function as a smooth and closer, though nonconvex, approximation to rank for obtaining a low-rank representation in subspace clustering. Augmented Lagrange multipliers strategy is applied to iteratively optimize the LogDet-based nonconvex objective function on potentially large-scale data. By making use of the angular information of principal directions of the resultant low-rank representation, an affinity graph matrix is constructed for spectral clustering. Experimental results on motion segmentation and face clustering data demonstrate that the proposed method often outperforms state-of-the-art subspace clustering algorithms.

Low rank magnetic resonance fingerprinting.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazor, Gal; Weizman, Lior; Tal, Assaf; Eldar, Yonina C

2016-08-01

Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) is a relatively new approach that provides quantitative MRI using randomized acquisition. Extraction of physical quantitative tissue values is preformed off-line, based on acquisition with varying parameters and a dictionary generated according to the Bloch equations. MRF uses hundreds of radio frequency (RF) excitation pulses for acquisition, and therefore high under-sampling ratio in the sampling domain (k-space) is required. This under-sampling causes spatial artifacts that hamper the ability to accurately estimate the quantitative tissue values. In this work, we introduce a new approach for quantitative MRI using MRF, called Low Rank MRF. We exploit the low rank property of the temporal domain, on top of the well-known sparsity of the MRF signal in the generated dictionary domain. We present an iterative scheme that consists of a gradient step followed by a low rank projection using the singular value decomposition. Experiments on real MRI data demonstrate superior results compared to conventional implementation of compressed sensing for MRF at 15% sampling ratio.

Two Ranking Methods of Single Valued Triangular Neutrosophic Numbers to Rank and Evaluate Information Systems Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samah Ibrahim Abdel Aal

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The concept of neutrosophic can provide a generalization of fuzzy set and intuitionistic fuzzy set that make it is the best fit in representing indeterminacy and uncertainty. Single Valued Triangular Numbers (SVTrN-numbers is a special case of neutrosophic set that can handle ill-known quantity very difficult problems. This work intended to introduce a framework with two types of ranking methods. The results indicated that each ranking method has its own advantage. In this perspective, the weighted value and ambiguity based method gives more attention to uncertainty in ranking and evaluating ISQ as well as it takes into account cut sets of SVTrN numbers that can reflect the information on Truth-membership-membership degree, false membership-membership degree and Indeterminacy-membership degree. The value index and ambiguity index method can reflect the decision maker's subjectivity attitude to the SVTrN- numbers.

Lerot: An Online Learning to Rank Framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuth, A.; Hofmann, K.; Whiteson, S.; de Rijke, M.

2013-01-01

Online learning to rank methods for IR allow retrieval systems to optimize their own performance directly from interactions with users via click feedback. In the software package Lerot, presented in this paper, we have bundled all ingredients needed for experimenting with online learning to rank for

Entity ranking using Wikipedia as a pivot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaptein, R.; Serdyukov, P.; de Vries, A.; Kamps, J.; Huang, X.J.; Jones, G.; Koudas, N.; Wu, X.; Collins-Thompson, K.

2010-01-01

In this paper we investigate the task of Entity Ranking on the Web. Searchers looking for entities are arguably better served by presenting a ranked list of entities directly, rather than a list of web pages with relevant but also potentially redundant information about these entities. Since

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions Environmental Technology Consortium annual report 1994--1995

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-07-01

The HBCU/MI ET Consortium was established in January 1990, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among its member institutions. This group of research oriented Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MIs) agreed to work together to initiate or revise education programs, develop research partnerships with public and private sector organizations, and promote technology development to address the nation`s critical environmental contamination problems. The Consortium`s Research, Education and Technology Transfer (RETT) Plan became the working agenda. The Consortium is a resource for collaboration among the member institutions and with federal an state agencies, national and federal laboratories, industries, (including small businesses), majority universities, and two and four-year technical colleges. As a group of 17 institutions geographically located in the southern US, the Consortium is well positioned to reach a diverse group of women and minority populations of African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians. This Report provides a status update on activities and achievements in environmental curriculum development, outreach at the K--12 level, undergraduate and graduate education, research and development, and technology transfer.

Vaccines for minor use and minor species (MUMS)--industry's views.

Science.gov (United States)

Bönisch, B

2004-01-01

Over the past 30 years the importance of vaccines for minor use and minor species has changed for multinational animal health companies. The major reasons for this are being reviewed, with a particular focus on technical, financial and business aspects. Key regulatory obstacles to the development of new products for minor uses and minor species are identified, and examples of vaccines falling into the various categories are provided. A number of proposals are offered with the intention of resolving the medicines availability problem between all the stakeholders involved. Finally, based on the presented scientific and regulatory considerations, ideas are shared as to where the legal and economical framework would need to change to reach a viable solution.

Encoding of QC-LDPC Codes of Rank Deficient Parity Matrix

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammed Kasim Mohammed Al-Haddad

2016-05-01

Full Text Available the encoding of long low density parity check (LDPC codes presents a challenge compared to its decoding. The Quasi Cyclic (QC LDPC codes offer the advantage for reducing the complexity for both encoding and decoding due to its QC structure. Most QC-LDPC codes have rank deficient parity matrix and this introduces extra complexity over the codes with full rank parity matrix. In this paper an encoding scheme of QC-LDPC codes is presented that is suitable for codes with full rank parity matrix and rank deficient parity matrx. The extra effort required by the codes with rank deficient parity matrix over the codes of full rank parity matrix is investigated.

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ranking considerations and proposal selection. 1491.6... PROGRAM General Provisions § 1491.6 Ranking considerations and proposal selection. (a) Before the State.... The national ranking criteria will be established by the Chief and the State criteria will be...

Extracting Rankings for Spatial Keyword Queries from GPS Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Keles, Ilkcan; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard; Saltenis, Simonas

2018-01-01

Studies suggest that many search engine queries have local intent. We consider the evaluation of ranking functions important for such queries. The key challenge is to be able to determine the “best” ranking for a query, as this enables evaluation of the results of ranking functions. We propose...

Revisiting the Relationship between Institutional Rank and Student Engagement

Science.gov (United States)

Zilvinskis, John; Louis Rocconi

2018-01-01

College rankings dominate the conversation regarding quality in postsecondary education. However, the criteria used to rank institutions often have nothing to do with the quality of education students receive. A decade ago, Pike (2004) demonstrated that institutional rank had little association with student involvement in educational activities.…

Rank of quantized universal enveloping algebras and modular functions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majid, S.; Soibelman, Ya.S.

1991-01-01

We compute an intrinsic rank invariant for quasitriangular Hopf algebras in the case of general quantum groups U q (g). As a function of q the rank has remarkable number theoretic properties connected with modular covariance and Galois theory. A number of examples are treated in detail, including rank (U q (su(3)) and rank (U q (e 8 )). We briefly indicate a physical interpretation as relating Chern-Simons theory with the theory of a quantum particle confined to an alcove of g. (orig.)

Therapist qualities preferred by sexual-minority individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Burckell, Lisa A; Goldfried, Marvin R

2006-01-01

Psychotherapy research concerning lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has focused on matching clients on gender and sexual orientation, yet has not considered how factors such as therapeutic skill, presenting problem, and cohort membership may influence preference for therapists. This study was designed to identify those therapist qualities that sexual-minority individuals prefer and to determine how the presenting problem influences therapist choice. Forty-two nonheterosexual adults between 18 and 29 years old ranked 63 therapist characteristics from "Extremely Uncharacteristic" to "Extremely Characteristic" when seeking treatment for a problem in which their sexual orientation was salient and one in which it was not. The analyses of both conditions yielded clusters of items reflecting therapist characteristics that participants considered unfavorable, neutral, beneficial, and essential. Participants valued therapists who had LGB-specific knowledge as well as general therapeutic skills, whereas they indicated that they would avoid therapists who held heterocentric views. Application of these findings to clinical practice and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Ranking Music Data by Relevance and Importance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruxanda, Maria Magdalena; Nanopoulos, Alexandros; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard

2008-01-01

Due to the rapidly increasing availability of audio files on the Web, it is relevant to augment search engines with advanced audio search functionality. In this context, the ranking of the retrieved music is an important issue. This paper proposes a music ranking method capable of flexibly fusing...

Academic Ranking--From Its Genesis to Its International Expansion

Science.gov (United States)

Vieira, Rosilene C.; Lima, Manolita C.

2015-01-01

Given the visibility and popularity of rankings that encompass the measurement of quality of post-graduate courses, for instance, the MBA (Master of Business Administration) or graduate studies program (MSc and PhD) as do global academic rankings--Academic Ranking of World Universities-ARWU, Times Higher/Thomson Reuters World University Ranking…

RANK/RANKL/OPG Signalization Implication in Periodontitis: New Evidence from a RANK Transgenic Mouse Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bouchra Sojod

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Periodontitis is based on a complex inflammatory over-response combined with possible genetic predisposition factors. The RANKL/RANK/OPG signaling pathway is implicated in bone resorption through its key function in osteoclast differentiation and activation, as well as in the inflammatory response. This central element of osteo-immunology has been suggested to be perturbed in several diseases, including periodontitis, as it is a predisposing factor for this disease. The aim of the present study was to validate this hypothesis using a transgenic mouse line, which over-expresses RANK (RTg and develops a periodontitis-like phenotype at 5 months of age. RTg mice exhibited severe alveolar bone loss, an increased number of TRAP positive cells, and disorganization of periodontal ligaments. This phenotype was more pronounced in females. We also observed dental root resorption lacunas. Hyperplasia of the gingival epithelium, including Malassez epithelial rests, was visible as early as 25 days, preceding any other symptoms. These results demonstrate that perturbations of the RANKL/RANK/OPG system constitute a core element of periodontitis, and more globally, osteo-immune diseases.

RANK/RANKL/OPG Signalization Implication in Periodontitis: New Evidence from a RANK Transgenic Mouse Model

Science.gov (United States)

Sojod, Bouchra; Chateau, Danielle; Mueller, Christopher G.; Babajko, Sylvie; Berdal, Ariane; Lézot, Frédéric; Castaneda, Beatriz

2017-01-01

Periodontitis is based on a complex inflammatory over-response combined with possible genetic predisposition factors. The RANKL/RANK/OPG signaling pathway is implicated in bone resorption through its key function in osteoclast differentiation and activation, as well as in the inflammatory response. This central element of osteo-immunology has been suggested to be perturbed in several diseases, including periodontitis, as it is a predisposing factor for this disease. The aim of the present study was to validate this hypothesis using a transgenic mouse line, which over-expresses RANK (RTg) and develops a periodontitis-like phenotype at 5 months of age. RTg mice exhibited severe alveolar bone loss, an increased number of TRAP positive cells, and disorganization of periodontal ligaments. This phenotype was more pronounced in females. We also observed dental root resorption lacunas. Hyperplasia of the gingival epithelium, including Malassez epithelial rests, was visible as early as 25 days, preceding any other symptoms. These results demonstrate that perturbations of the RANKL/RANK/OPG system constitute a core element of periodontitis, and more globally, osteo-immune diseases. PMID:28596739

Consistent ranking of volatility models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Peter Reinhard; Lunde, Asger

2006-01-01

We show that the empirical ranking of volatility models can be inconsistent for the true ranking if the evaluation is based on a proxy for the population measure of volatility. For example, the substitution of a squared return for the conditional variance in the evaluation of ARCH-type models can...... variance in out-of-sample evaluations rather than the squared return. We derive the theoretical results in a general framework that is not specific to the comparison of volatility models. Similar problems can arise in comparisons of forecasting models whenever the predicted variable is a latent variable....

An Adaptive Reordered Method for Computing PageRank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi-Ming Bu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We propose an adaptive reordered method to deal with the PageRank problem. It has been shown that one can reorder the hyperlink matrix of PageRank problem to calculate a reduced system and get the full PageRank vector through forward substitutions. This method can provide a speedup for calculating the PageRank vector. We observe that in the existing reordered method, the cost of the recursively reordering procedure could offset the computational reduction brought by minimizing the dimension of linear system. With this observation, we introduce an adaptive reordered method to accelerate the total calculation, in which we terminate the reordering procedure appropriately instead of reordering to the end. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of this adaptive reordered method.

A Note on the PageRank of Undirected Graphs

OpenAIRE

Grolmusz, Vince

2012-01-01

The PageRank is a widely used scoring function of networks in general and of the World Wide Web graph in particular. The PageRank is defined for directed graphs, but in some special cases applications for undirected graphs occur. In the literature it is widely noted that the PageRank for undirected graphs are proportional to the degrees of the vertices of the graph. We prove that statement for a particular personalization vector in the definition of the PageRank, and we also show that in gene...

Extreme learning machine for ranking: generalization analysis and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hong; Peng, Jiangtao; Zhou, Yicong; Li, Luoqing; Pan, Zhibin

2014-05-01

The extreme learning machine (ELM) has attracted increasing attention recently with its successful applications in classification and regression. In this paper, we investigate the generalization performance of ELM-based ranking. A new regularized ranking algorithm is proposed based on the combinations of activation functions in ELM. The generalization analysis is established for the ELM-based ranking (ELMRank) in terms of the covering numbers of hypothesis space. Empirical results on the benchmark datasets show the competitive performance of the ELMRank over the state-of-the-art ranking methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multidimensional ranking the design and development of U-Multirank

CERN Document Server

Ziegele, Frank

2012-01-01

During the last decades ranking has become one of the most controversial issues in higher education and research. It is widely recognized now that, although some of the current rankings can be severely criticized, they seem to be here to stay. In addition, rankings appear to have a great impact on decision-makers at all levels of higher education and research systems worldwide, including in universities. Rankings reflect a growing international competition among universities for talent and resources; at the same time they reinforce competition by their very results. Yet major concerns remain a

Is there a 'Mid-Rank Trap' for Universities'

OpenAIRE

Chang Da Wan

2015-01-01

The middle-income trap is an economic phenomenon to describe economies that have stagnated at the middle-income level and failed to progress into the high-income level. Inspired by this economic concept, this paper explores a hypothesis: is there a 'mid-rank trap' for universities in the exercise to rank universities globally' Using the rankings between 2004 and 2014 that were jointly and separately developed by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds Company, this paper argues that t...

A Citation-Based Ranking of Strategic Management Journals

OpenAIRE

Azar, Ofer H.; Brock, David M.

2007-01-01

Rankings of strategy journals are important for authors, readers, and promotion and tenure committees. We present several rankings, based either on the number of articles that cited the journal or the per-article impact. Our analyses cover various periods between 1991 and 2006, for most of which the Strategic Management Journal was in first place and Journal of Economics & Management Strategy (JEMS) second, although JEMS ranked first in certain instances. Long Range Planning and Technology An...

A Rational Method for Ranking Engineering Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Glower, Donald D.

1980-01-01

Compares two methods for ranking academic programs, the opinion poll v examination of career successes of the program's alumni. For the latter, "Who's Who in Engineering" and levels of research funding provided data. Tables display resulting data and compare rankings by the two methods for chemical engineering and civil engineering. (CS)

Mining Feedback in Ranking and Recommendation Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuang, Ziming

2009-01-01

The amount of online information has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and users become more and more dependent on ranking and recommendation systems to address their information seeking needs. The advance in information technologies has enabled users to provide feedback on the utilities of the underlying ranking and recommendation…

Monte Carlo methods of PageRank computation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Litvak, Nelli

2004-01-01

We describe and analyze an on-line Monte Carlo method of PageRank computation. The PageRank is being estimated basing on results of a large number of short independent simulation runs initiated from each page that contains outgoing hyperlinks. The method does not require any storage of the hyperlink

Dynamic collective entity representations for entity ranking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Graus, D.; Tsagkias, M.; Weerkamp, W.; Meij, E.; de Rijke, M.

2016-01-01

Entity ranking, i.e., successfully positioning a relevant entity at the top of the ranking for a given query, is inherently difficult due to the potential mismatch between the entity's description in a knowledge base, and the way people refer to the entity when searching for it. To counter this

Locus of control, minority stress, and psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Larry W; Mollen, Debra; Smith, Nathan Grant

2014-01-01

Within the framework of minority stress theory, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are conceptualized as members of a minority group defined by sexual orientation. Two of the component processes of minority stress hypothesized by Meyer (2003), internalized heterosexism and the experience of prejudice events, were examined in the current study. Both internalized heterosexism and the experience of prejudice events have been associated with increased psychological distress in LGB populations. Researchers have also observed a relationship between external locus of control and increased psychological distress in general population samples. The current study explored whether locus of control served as a moderator in the relationship between the overall psychological distress of LGB individuals and both internalized heterosexism and the experience of workplace-based prejudice events (n = 165). Results indicated that locus of control served as a moderator in the relationship between experience of workplace-based prejudice events and overall psychological distress but not for the relationship between internalized heterosexism and distress. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The CAMPARE Program:A New Model Promoting Minority Participation in Astronomy Research and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Rudolph, Alexander L.; Impey, C. D.; Bieging, J. H.; Phillips, C. B.; Tieu, J.; Povich, M. S.

2014-01-01

The California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE) program represents a new and innovative kind of research program for undergraduates: one that can effectively carry out the goal of recruiting qualified minority and female students to participate in Astronomy and Planetary Science research opportunities, while mentoring them in a way to maximize the chance that these students will persist in obtaining their undergraduate degrees in STEM fields, and potentially go on to obtain their PhDs or pursue careers in those fields. The members of CAMPARE comprise a network of comprehensive universities and community colleges in Southern California and Arizona (most of which are minority serving institutions), and four major research institutions (University of Arizona Steward Observatory, the SETI Institute, and JPL/Caltech). Most undergraduate research programs focus on a single research institution. By having multiple institutions, we significantly broaden the opportunities for students, both in terms of breadth of research topics and geographical location.

Priority ranking of safety-related systems for structural enhancement assessment at Savannah River Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, G.C.; Daugherty, W.L.; Barnes, D.M.

1992-09-01

In order to extend the service life of safety related structures and systems in a logical manner, a Structural Enhancement Program was initiated to evaluate the structural integrity of eight (8) systems, namely: Cooling Water System, Emergency Cooling System, Moderator Recovery System supplementary Safety System, Water Removal System, Service Raw Water System, Service Clarified Water System, and River Water System. Since the level of importance of each system to reactor operations varies from one system to another, the scope of structural integrity evaluation for each system should be prioritized accordingly. This paper presents the assessment of system priority for structural evaluation based on a ranking methodology and specifies the level of structural evaluation consistent with the established priority. The effort was undertaken by a five-member panel representing four (4) major disciplines, including. structures, reactor engineering/operations, risk management and materials. The above systems were divided into a total of thirty-five (35) subsystem. These subsystems were then ranked with six (6) attributes, namely: Safety Classification, Degradation Mechanisms, Difficulty of Replacement, Failure Mode, Radiation Dose to Workers and Consequence of Failure. Each attribute was assigned a set of consequences or events with corresponding weighting scores. The results of the ranking process yielded two groups of subsystems, categorized as Priority I and II subsystems. The level of structural assessment was then formulated accordingly. The prioritized approach will allow more efficient allocation of resources, so that the Structural Enhancement Program can be implemented in a cost-effective and efficient manner

Comparative Case Studies on Indonesian Higher Education Rankings

Science.gov (United States)

Kurniasih, Nuning; Hasyim, C.; Wulandari, A.; Setiawan, M. I.; Ahmar, A. S.

2018-01-01

The quality of the higher education is the result of a continuous process. There are many indicators that can be used to assess the quality of a higher education. The existence of different indicators makes the different result of university rankings. This research aims to find variables that can connect ranking indicators that are used by Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education with indicators that are used by international rankings by taking two kind of ranking systems i.e. Webometrics and 4icu. This research uses qualitative research method with comparative case studies approach. The result of the research shows that to bridge the indicators that are used by Indonesian Ministry or Research, Technology, and Higher Education with web-based ranking system like Webometrics and 4icu so that the Indonesian higher education institutions need to open access towards either scientific or non-scientific that are publicly used into web-based environment. One of the strategies that can be used to improve the openness and access towards scientific work of a university is by involving in open science and collaboration.

Is there a 'Mid-Rank Trap' for Universities'

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Da Wan

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The middle-income trap is an economic phenomenon to describe economies that have stagnated at the middle-income level and failed to progress into the high-income level. Inspired by this economic concept, this paper explores a hypothesis: is there a 'mid-rank trap' for universities in the exercise to rank universities globally' Using the rankings between 2004 and 2014 that were jointly and separately developed by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds Company, this paper argues that there is indeed a phenomenon, which I term as 'mid-rank trap' whereby universities remain stagnant for a decade in a similar band of the rankings. Having established the hypothesis for universities, the paper examines policies and interventions that have been successfully carried out to elevate economies away from the middle-income trap, and importantly, to draw out the underlying principles of these economic policies and interventions that can be incorporated into policymaking and strategic planning for universities using the Malaysian higher education system as a case study.

Econophysics of a ranked demand and supply resource allocation problem

Science.gov (United States)

Priel, Avner; Tamir, Boaz

2018-01-01

We present a two sided resource allocation problem, between demands and supplies, where both parties are ranked. For example, in Big Data problems where a set of different computational tasks is divided between a set of computers each with its own resources, or between employees and employers where both parties are ranked, the employees by their fitness and the employers by their package benefits. The allocation process can be viewed as a repeated game where in each iteration the strategy is decided by a meta-rule, based on the ranks of both parties and the results of the previous games. We show the existence of a phase transition between an absorbing state, where all demands are satisfied, and an active one where part of the demands are always left unsatisfied. The phase transition is governed by the ratio between supplies and demand. In a job allocation problem we find positive correlation between the rank of the workers and the rank of the factories; higher rank workers are usually allocated to higher ranked factories. These all suggest global emergent properties stemming from local variables. To demonstrate the global versus local relations, we introduce a local inertial force that increases the rank of employees in proportion to their persistence time in the same factory. We show that such a local force induces non trivial global effects, mostly to benefit the lower ranked employees.

Refining dermatology journal impact factors using PageRank.

Science.gov (United States)

Dellavalle, Robert P; Schilling, Lisa M; Rodriguez, Marko A; Van de Sompel, Herbert; Bollen, Johan

2007-07-01

Thomson Institute for Scientific Information's journal impact factor, the most common measure of journal status, is based on crude citation counts that do not account for the quality of the journals where the citations originate. This study examines how accounting for citation origin affects the impact factor ranking of dermatology journals. The 2003 impact factors of dermatology journals were adjusted by a weighted PageRank algorithm that assigned greater weight to citations originating in more frequently cited journals. Adjusting for citation origin moved the rank of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology higher than that of the Archives of Dermatology (third to second) but did not affect the ranking of the highest impact dermatology journal, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. The dermatology journals most positively affected by adjusting for citation origin were Contact Dermatitis (moving from 22nd to 7th in rankings) and Burns (21st to 10th). Dermatology journals most negatively affected were Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery (5th to 14th), the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery (19th to 27th), and the Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings (26th to 34th). Current measures of dermatology journal status do not incorporate survey data from dermatologists regarding which journals dermatologists esteem most. Adjusting for citation origin provides a more refined measure of journal status and changes relative dermatology journal rankings.

10 CFR 455.131 - State ranking of grant applications.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false State ranking of grant applications. 455.131 Section 455... State ranking of grant applications. (a) Except as provided by § 455.92 of this part, all eligible... audit or energy use evaluation pursuant to § 455.20(k). Each State shall develop separate rankings for...

Tutorial: Calculating Percentile Rank and Percentile Norms Using SPSS

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgartner, Ted A.

2009-01-01

Practitioners can benefit from using norms, but they often have to develop their own percentile rank and percentile norms. This article is a tutorial on how to quickly and easily calculate percentile rank and percentile norms using SPSS, and this information is presented for a data set. Some issues in calculating percentile rank and percentile…

Public Policy, Introduction

Science.gov (United States)

Boyce, Peter

1998-05-01

Congressman George Brown (D-CA) has agreed to speak. This should be a speech worth hearing. Known as one of the most thoughtful men in Congress, Representative Brown has been a longtime friend of science. He is currently the Ranking Minority Member of the House Science Committee. The meeting schedule has been rearranged to accommodate the Congressman's need to return to Washington for an important vote.

Book Review: Higher Education and the Palestinian Minority in Israel by Khalid Arar and Kussai Haj-Yehia, Palgrave Macmillan (US, 2016

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bogdan Florian

2016-10-01

Full Text Available For both Prof. Arar and Haj-Yehia the study of education related topics in the context of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel has been a career guiding theme. Their previous research projects and publications have touched on various dimensions of this issue, mainly emphasizing issues such as access to education, but also documentation of migration for study relation purposes of members of this community. Their latest book, “Higher Education and the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel”, published in 2016 by Palgrave Macmillan, can be described as a synthesis of previous research and, at the same time, an argument for supporting access to education for underrepresented groups. From the prologue even of the book the authors state their objective clearly: “to raise pertinent questions concerning the dual marginality of Palestinian Arab minority in Israel (PAMI, […] in Israel’s HE system and employment market” (p. 1. The book is structured in seven chapters and an Epilogue, starting with general historical information about the PAMI and the formation of the state of Israel and ending with policy proposals to widen access to education for members of the PAMI minority. The narrative follows a classical structure, with each chapter approaching a different dimension of the more general topics of access to education, outcomes of education on the labor market and finally policy evaluation and proposals for improvement of both. Using data and research results from both quantitative and qualitative previous studies, the authors argue that the existence of numerous hurdles hampering access to higher education, in particular, foster further inequalities on the labor market for members of the PAMI community

Despite Increased Insurance Coverage, Nonwhite Sexual Minorities Still Experience Disparities In Access To Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Ning; Ruther, Matt

2017-10-01

Previous studies suggest that members of sexual minority groups have poorer access to health services than heterosexuals. However, few studies have examined how sexual orientation interacts with gender and race to affect health care experience. Moreover, little is known about the role in health care disparities played by economic strains such as unemployment and poverty, which may result from prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Using data for 2013-15 from the National Health Interview Survey, we found that most members of sexual minority groups no longer have higher uninsurance rates than heterosexuals, but many continue to experience poorer access to high-quality care. Gay nonwhite men, bisexual white women, and bisexual and lesbian nonwhite women are disadvantaged in multiple aspects of access, compared to straight white men. Only some of these disparities are attributable to economic factors, which implies that noneconomic barriers to care are substantial. Our results suggest that the intersection of multiple social identities can reveal important gaps in health care experience. Making culturally sensitive services available may be key to closing the gaps. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

A new measure of output ranking performance in automatic document retrieval systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebinuma, Yukio

1987-01-01

A new measure of output ranking performance is proposed on the basis of recall-precision pairs corresponding to ranks of relevant documents when documents are arranged in decreasing order of their scores given by a ranking function. This measure is constructed to take a single value in starting from the area under a recall-precision graph for a ranked output and to distinguish meaningful ranking with a positive value between 0 and 1 from meaningless ranking with a negative value. It is clarified too that the measure must be useful in practice to evaluate the ranking performance made by various ranking function models and to choose the best ranking models among them. (author)

Consequence ranking of radionuclides in Hanford tank waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmittroth, F.A.; De Lorenzo, T.H.

1995-09-01

Radionuclides in the Hanford tank waste are ranked relative to their consequences for the Low-Level Tank Waste program. The ranking identifies key radionuclides where further study is merited. In addition to potential consequences for intrude and drinking-water scenarios supporting low-level waste activities, a ranking based on shielding criteria is provided. The radionuclide production inventories are based on a new and independent ORIGEN2 calculation representing the operation of all Hanford single-pass reactors and the N Reactor

Reduced Rank Adaptive Filtering in Impulsive Noise Environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza

2014-01-06

An impulsive noise environment is used in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction. The minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each algorithm is discussed.

Reduced Rank Adaptive Filtering in Impulsive Noise Environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza; Abed-Meraim, Karim; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2014-01-01

An impulsive noise environment is used in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction. The minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each algorithm is discussed.

Minority engineering scholarships, 2012.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-02-01

Scholarships for Minority Students Studying Engineering and Science: Support will make scholarships available to minority students : interested in engineering and science and will increase significantly the number of minority students that Missouri S...

Proceedings of the sixteenth biennial low-rank fuels symposium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

Low-rank coals represent a major energy resource for the world. The Low-Rank Fuels Symposium, building on the traditions established by the Lignite Symposium, focuses on the key opportunities for this resource. This conference offers a forum for leaders from industry, government, and academia to gather to share current information on the opportunities represented by low-rank coals. In the United States and throughout the world, the utility industry is the primary user of low-rank coals. As such, current experiences and future opportunities for new technologies in this industry were the primary focuses of the symposium

Proceedings of the sixteenth biennial low-rank fuels symposium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-01-01

Low-rank coals represent a major energy resource for the world. The Low-Rank Fuels Symposium, building on the traditions established by the Lignite Symposium, focuses on the key opportunities for this resource. This conference offers a forum for leaders from industry, government, and academia to gather to share current information on the opportunities represented by low-rank coals. In the United States and throughout the world, the utility industry is the primary user of low-rank coals. As such, current experiences and future opportunities for new technologies in this industry were the primary focuses of the symposium.

Maximising information recovery from rank-order codes

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, B.; Furber, S.

2007-04-01

The central nervous system encodes information in sequences of asynchronously generated voltage spikes, but the precise details of this encoding are not well understood. Thorpe proposed rank-order codes as an explanation of the observed speed of information processing in the human visual system. The work described in this paper is inspired by the performance of SpikeNET, a biologically inspired neural architecture using rank-order codes for information processing, and is based on the retinal model developed by VanRullen and Thorpe. This model mimics retinal information processing by passing an input image through a bank of Difference of Gaussian (DoG) filters and then encoding the resulting coefficients in rank-order. To test the effectiveness of this encoding in capturing the information content of an image, the rank-order representation is decoded to reconstruct an image that can be compared with the original. The reconstruction uses a look-up table to infer the filter coefficients from their rank in the encoded image. Since the DoG filters are approximately orthogonal functions, they are treated as their own inverses in the reconstruction process. We obtained a quantitative measure of the perceptually important information retained in the reconstructed image relative to the original using a slightly modified version of an objective metric proposed by Petrovic. It is observed that around 75% of the perceptually important information is retained in the reconstruction. In the present work we reconstruct the input using a pseudo-inverse of the DoG filter-bank with the aim of improving the reconstruction and thereby extracting more information from the rank-order encoded stimulus. We observe that there is an increase of 10 - 15% in the information retrieved from a reconstructed stimulus as a result of inverting the filter-bank.

A Ranking Method for Evaluating Constructed Responses

Science.gov (United States)

Attali, Yigal

2014-01-01

This article presents a comparative judgment approach for holistically scored constructed response tasks. In this approach, the grader rank orders (rather than rate) the quality of a small set of responses. A prior automated evaluation of responses guides both set formation and scaling of rankings. Sets are formed to have similar prior scores and…

Enhancing the Ranking of a Web Page in the Ocean of Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hitesh KUMAR SHARMA

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In today's world, web is considered as ocean of data and information (like text, videos, multimedia etc. consisting of millions and millions of web pages in which web pages are linked with each other like a tree. It is often argued that, especially considering the dynamic of the internet, too much time has passed since the scientific work on PageRank, as that it still could be the basis for the ranking methods of the Google search engine. There is no doubt that within the past years most likely many changes, adjustments and modifications regarding the ranking methods of Google have taken place, but PageRank was absolutely crucial for Google's success, so that at least the fundamental concept behind PageRank should still be constitutive. This paper describes the components which affects the ranking of the web pages and helps in increasing the popularity of web site. By adapting these factors website developers can increase their site's page rank and within the PageRank concept, considering the rank of a document is given by the rank of those documents which link to it. Their rank again is given by the rank of documents which link to them. The PageRank of a document is always determined recursively by the PageRank of other documents.

Ranking beta sheet topologies of proteins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fonseca, Rasmus; Helles, Glennie; Winter, Pawel

2010-01-01

One of the challenges of protein structure prediction is to identify long-range interactions between amino acids. To reliably predict such interactions, we enumerate, score and rank all beta-topologies (partitions of beta-strands into sheets, orderings of strands within sheets and orientations...... of paired strands) of a given protein. We show that the beta-topology corresponding to the native structure is, with high probability, among the top-ranked. Since full enumeration is very time-consuming, we also suggest a method to deal with proteins with many beta-strands. The results reported...... in this paper are highly relevant for ab initio protein structure prediction methods based on decoy generation. The top-ranked beta-topologies can be used to find initial conformations from which conformational searches can be started. They can also be used to filter decoys by removing those with poorly...

Feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ushijima, Koji; Yonebayashi, Kenji; Narumiya, Yoshiyuki; Sakata, Kaoru; Kumano, Tetsuji

1999-01-01

Nuclear power is the base load electricity source in Japan, and reduction of operation and maintenance cost maintaining or improving plant safety is one of the major issues. Recently, Risk Informed Management (RIM) is focused as a solution. In this paper, the outline regarding feasibility study of component risk ranking for plant maintenance for a typical Japanese PWR plant is described. A feasibility study of component risk raking for plant maintenance optimization is performed on check valves and motor-operated valves. Risk ranking is performed in two steps using probabilistic analysis (quantitative method) for risk ranking of components, and deterministic examination (qualitative method) for component review. In this study, plant components are ranked from the viewpoint of plant safety / reliability, and the applicability for maintenance is assessed. As a result, distribution of maintenance resources using risk ranking is considered effective. (author)

Relationship between perceived acculturation expectations and Muslim minority youth's acculturation and adaptation

OpenAIRE

Kunst, J. R.; Sam, D. L.

2013-01-01

Acculturation strategies have frequently been used to describe how members of ethnic minorities reconcile their heritage culture with the culture of their society of residence. Recently, studies have started to pay increased attention to the fact that the choice of acculturation strategy does not take place in a social vacuum. In the present study, we test whether the perception of assimilation expectations held by the societal majority (PSAE) as well as separation expectations held by ethnic...

Reduced rank adaptive filtering in impulsive noise environments

KAUST Repository

Soury, Hamza

2014-11-01

An impulsive noise environment is considered in this paper. A new aspect of signal truncation is deployed to reduce the harmful effect of the impulsive noise to the signal. A full rank direct solution is derived followed by an iterative solution. The reduced rank adaptive filter is presented in this environment by using two methods for rank reduction, while the minimized objective function is defined using the Lp norm. The results are presented and the efficiency of each method is discussed. © 2014 IEEE.

Highlighting Entanglement of Cultures via Ranking of Multilingual Wikipedia Articles

Science.gov (United States)

Eom, Young-Ho; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2013-01-01

How different cultures evaluate a person? Is an important person in one culture is also important in the other culture? We address these questions via ranking of multilingual Wikipedia articles. With three ranking algorithms based on network structure of Wikipedia, we assign ranking to all articles in 9 multilingual editions of Wikipedia and investigate general ranking structure of PageRank, CheiRank and 2DRank. In particular, we focus on articles related to persons, identify top 30 persons for each rank among different editions and analyze distinctions of their distributions over activity fields such as politics, art, science, religion, sport for each edition. We find that local heroes are dominant but also global heroes exist and create an effective network representing entanglement of cultures. The Google matrix analysis of network of cultures shows signs of the Zipf law distribution. This approach allows to examine diversity and shared characteristics of knowledge organization between cultures. The developed computational, data driven approach highlights cultural interconnections in a new perspective. Dated: June 26, 2013 PMID:24098338

Highlighting entanglement of cultures via ranking of multilingual Wikipedia articles.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young-Ho Eom

Full Text Available How different cultures evaluate a person? Is an important person in one culture is also important in the other culture? We address these questions via ranking of multilingual Wikipedia articles. With three ranking algorithms based on network structure of Wikipedia, we assign ranking to all articles in 9 multilingual editions of Wikipedia and investigate general ranking structure of PageRank, CheiRank and 2DRank. In particular, we focus on articles related to persons, identify top 30 persons for each rank among different editions and analyze distinctions of their distributions over activity fields such as politics, art, science, religion, sport for each edition. We find that local heroes are dominant but also global heroes exist and create an effective network representing entanglement of cultures. The Google matrix analysis of network of cultures shows signs of the Zipf law distribution. This approach allows to examine diversity and shared characteristics of knowledge organization between cultures. The developed computational, data driven approach highlights cultural interconnections in a new perspective. Dated: June 26, 2013.

Podium: Ranking Data Using Mixed-Initiative Visual Analytics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wall, Emily; Das, Subhajit; Chawla, Ravish; Kalidindi, Bharath; Brown, Eli T; Endert, Alex

2018-01-01

People often rank and order data points as a vital part of making decisions. Multi-attribute ranking systems are a common tool used to make these data-driven decisions. Such systems often take the form of a table-based visualization in which users assign weights to the attributes representing the quantifiable importance of each attribute to a decision, which the system then uses to compute a ranking of the data. However, these systems assume that users are able to quantify their conceptual understanding of how important particular attributes are to a decision. This is not always easy or even possible for users to do. Rather, people often have a more holistic understanding of the data. They form opinions that data point A is better than data point B but do not necessarily know which attributes are important. To address these challenges, we present a visual analytic application to help people rank multi-variate data points. We developed a prototype system, Podium, that allows users to drag rows in the table to rank order data points based on their perception of the relative value of the data. Podium then infers a weighting model using Ranking SVM that satisfies the user's data preferences as closely as possible. Whereas past systems help users understand the relationships between data points based on changes to attribute weights, our approach helps users to understand the attributes that might inform their understanding of the data. We present two usage scenarios to describe some of the potential uses of our proposed technique: (1) understanding which attributes contribute to a user's subjective preferences for data, and (2) deconstructing attributes of importance for existing rankings. Our proposed approach makes powerful machine learning techniques more usable to those who may not have expertise in these areas.

Block models and personalized PageRank

OpenAIRE

Kloumann, Isabel M.; Ugander, Johan; Kleinberg, Jon

2016-01-01

Methods for ranking the importance of nodes in a network have a rich history in machine learning and across domains that analyze structured data. Recent work has evaluated these methods though the seed set expansion problem: given a subset $S$ of nodes from a community of interest in an underlying graph, can we reliably identify the rest of the community? We start from the observation that the most widely used techniques for this problem, personalized PageRank and heat kernel methods, operate...

Make her a virgin again: when medical disputes about minors are cultural clashes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopelman, Loretta M

2014-02-01

Recalcitrant disputes among health care providers and patients or their families may signal deep cultural differences about what interventions are needed or about clinicians's professional duties. These issues arose in relation to a mother's request for hymenoplasty or revirgination for her minor daughter to enable an overseas, forced marriage and protect her from an honor killing. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology committee recommends against members performing a hymenoplasty or other female genital cosmetic surgeries due to a lack of data concerning their safety and efficacy. A key issue in such cases is how to determine what is in the minor's best interest and the scope of health care moral or professional's duties. The Best Interests Standard can serve as a powerful moral tool for resolving cross-cultural disputes and identifying needed policy.

A model-based approach to operational event groups ranking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simic, Zdenko [European Commission Joint Research Centre, Petten (Netherlands). Inst. for Energy and Transport; Maqua, Michael [Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS), Koeln (Germany); Wattrelos, Didier [Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN), Fontenay-aux-Roses (France)

2014-04-15

The operational experience (OE) feedback provides improvements in all industrial activities. Identification of the most important and valuable groups of events within accumulated experience is important in order to focus on a detailed investigation of events. The paper describes the new ranking method and compares it with three others. Methods have been described and applied to OE events utilised by nuclear power plants in France and Germany for twenty years. The results show that different ranking methods only roughly agree on which of the event groups are the most important ones. In the new ranking method the analytical hierarchy process is applied in order to assure consistent and comprehensive weighting determination for ranking indexes. The proposed method allows a transparent and flexible event groups ranking and identification of the most important OE for further more detailed investigation in order to complete the feedback. (orig.)

One-loop tensor Feynman integral reduction with signed minors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleischer, J.; Yundin, V.

2011-12-01

We present an algebraic approach to one-loop tensor integral reduction. The integrals are presented in terms of scalar one- to four-point functions. The reduction is worked out explicitly until five-point functions of rank five. The numerical C++ package PJFry evaluates tensor coefficients in terms of a basis of scalar integrals, which is provided by an external library, e.g. QCDLoop. We shortly describe installation and use of PJFry. Examples for numerical results are shown, including a special treatment for small or vanishing inverse four-point Gram determinants. An extremely efficient application of the formalism is the immediate evaluation of complete contractions of the tensor integrals with external momenta. This leads to the problem of evaluating sums over products of signed minors with scalar products of chords. Chords are differences of external momenta. These sums may be evaluated analytically in a systematic way. The final expressions for the numerical evaluation are then compact combinations of the contributing basic scalar functions. (orig.)

One-loop tensor Feynman integral reduction with signed minors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fleischer, J. [Bielefeld Univ. (Germany). Fakultaet fuer Physik; Riemann, T. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany); Yundin, V. [Copenhagen Univ. (Denmark). Niels Bohr International Academy and Discovery Center

2011-12-15

We present an algebraic approach to one-loop tensor integral reduction. The integrals are presented in terms of scalar one- to four-point functions. The reduction is worked out explicitly until five-point functions of rank five. The numerical C++ package PJFry evaluates tensor coefficients in terms of a basis of scalar integrals, which is provided by an external library, e.g. QCDLoop. We shortly describe installation and use of PJFry. Examples for numerical results are shown, including a special treatment for small or vanishing inverse four-point Gram determinants. An extremely efficient application of the formalism is the immediate evaluation of complete contractions of the tensor integrals with external momenta. This leads to the problem of evaluating sums over products of signed minors with scalar products of chords. Chords are differences of external momenta. These sums may be evaluated analytically in a systematic way. The final expressions for the numerical evaluation are then compact combinations of the contributing basic scalar functions. (orig.)

Data envelopment analysis of randomized ranks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sant'Anna Annibal P.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Probabilities and odds, derived from vectors of ranks, are here compared as measures of efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs. These measures are computed with the goal of providing preliminary information before starting a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA or the application of any other evaluation or composition of preferences methodology. Preferences, quality and productivity evaluations are usually measured with errors or subject to influence of other random disturbances. Reducing evaluations to ranks and treating the ranks as estimates of location parameters of random variables, we are able to compute the probability of each DMU being classified as the best according to the consumption of each input and the production of each output. Employing the probabilities of being the best as efficiency measures, we stretch distances between the most efficient units. We combine these partial probabilities in a global efficiency score determined in terms of proximity to the efficiency frontier.

Ranking benchmarks of top 100 players in men's professional tennis.

Science.gov (United States)

Reid, Machar; Morris, Craig

2013-01-01

In men's professional tennis, players aspire to hold the top ranking position. On the way to the top spot, reaching the top 100 can be seen as a significant career milestone. National Federations undertake extensive efforts to assist their players to reach the top 100. However, objective data considering reasonable ranking yardsticks for top 100 success in men's professional tennis are lacking. Therefore, it is difficult for National Federations and those involved in player development to give empirical programming advice to young players. By taking a closer look at the ranking history of professional male tennis players, this article tries to provide those involved in player development a more objective basis for decision-making. The 100 names, countries, birthdates and ranking histories of the top 100 players listed in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) at 31 December 2009 were recorded from websites in the public domain. Descriptive statistics were reported for the ranking milestones of interest. Results confirmed the merits of the International Tennis Federation's junior tour with 91% of the top 100 professionals earning a junior ranking, the mean peak of which was 94.1, s=148.9. On average, top 100 professionals achieved their best junior rankings and earned their first ATP point at similar ages, suggesting that players compete on both the junior and professional tours during their transition. Once professionally ranked, players took an average 4.5, s=2.1 years to reach the ATP top 100 at the mean age of 21.5, s=2.6 years, which contrasts with the mean current age of the top 100 of 26.8, s=3.2. The best professional rankings of players born in 1982 or earlier were positively related to the ages at which players earned their first ATP point and then entered the top 100, suggesting that the ages associated with these ranking milestones may have some forecasting potential. Future work should focus on the change in top 100 demographics over time as well

Si dios quiere: Hispanic families' experiences of caring for a seriously mentally ill family member.

Science.gov (United States)

Guarnaccia, P J; Parra, P; Deschamps, A; Milstein, G; Argiles, N

1992-06-01

Among Hispanics, the family is viewed as the primary care giver for seriously mentally ill family members. This paper reports on a study of minority families' conceptions of serious mental illness, of their interaction with mental health resources, and on the burdens experienced by families in caring for a seriously mentally ill family member. The focus of this paper is on Hispanic families in New Jersey, with some comparative data from other ethnic group families. Families' conceptions of serious mental illness are explored and analyzed to demonstrate the importance of concepts of nervios and fallo mental in shaping families' responses to their ill family member. Social support systems for families are also explored with particular attention to the role of religious institutions and religious healing as a major source of solace.

Social Rank, Stress, Fitness, and Life Expectancy in Wild Rabbits

Science.gov (United States)

von Holst, Dietrich; Hutzelmeyer, Hans; Kaetzke, Paul; Khaschei, Martin; Schönheiter, Ronald

Wild rabbits of the two sexes have separate linear rank orders, which are established and maintained by intensive fights. The social rank of individuals strongly influence their fitness: males and females that gain a high social rank, at least at the outset of their second breeding season, have a much higher lifetime fitness than subordinate individuals. This is because of two separate factors: a much higher fecundity and annual reproductive success and a 50% longer reproductive life span. These results are in contrast to the view in evolutionary biology that current reproduction can be increased only at the expense of future survival and/or fecundity. These concepts entail higher physiological costs in high-ranking mammals, which is not supported by our data: In wild rabbits the physiological costs of social positions are caused predominantly by differential psychosocial stress responses that are much lower in high-ranking than in low-ranking individuals.

ICU versus Non-ICU Hospital Death: Family Member Complicated Grief, Posttraumatic Stress, and Depressive Symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Probst, Danielle R; Gustin, Jillian L; Goodman, Lauren F; Lorenz, Amanda; Wells-Di Gregorio, Sharla M

2016-04-01

Family members of patients who die in an ICU are at increased risk of psychological sequelae compared to those who experience a death in hospice. This study explored differences in rates and levels of complicated grief (CG), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression between family members of patients who died in an ICU versus a non-ICU hospital setting. Differences in family members' most distressing experiences at the patient's end of life were also explored. The study was an observational cohort. Subjects were next of kin of 121 patients who died at a large, Midwestern academic hospital; 77 died in the ICU. Family members completed measures of CG, PTSD, depression, and end-of-life experiences. Participants were primarily Caucasian (93%, N = 111), female (81%, N = 98), spouses (60%, N = 73) of the decedent, and were an average of nine months post-bereavement. Forty percent of family members met the Inventory of Complicated Grief CG cut-off, 31% met the Impact of Events Scale-Revised PTSD cut-off, and 51% met the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale depression cut-off. There were no significant differences in rates or levels of CG, PTSD, or depressive symptoms reported by family members between hospital settings. Several distressing experiences were ranked highly by both groups, but each setting presented unique distressing experiences for family members. Psychological distress of family members did not differ by hospital setting, but the most distressing experiences encountered at end of life in each setting highlight potentially unique interventions to reduce distress post-bereavement for family members.

Cultural Integration and National Identity Education for Ethnic Minority College Students

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Yongzheng; WANG Lixia

2014-01-01

, the Chi-nese nation’ s common history, culture, religion, law, customs related to the national identity are products of constant integration , adaptation to and development of the various nationalities in China . On the other hand , only by strengthening the ex-changes among the various nationalities , and learn-ing from each other , can the various ethnic cul-tures integrate constantly , and provide the possibil-ity for ethnic minorities ’ national identity educa-tion. Cultural integration is a powerful guarantee for ethnic people ’ s national identity education . There are various ways to construct national identi-ty, including political, economic and cultural, a-mong which , education is the most durable meth-od.Cultural integration is the expression of nation-al identity education to ethnic minorities , and it re-quires and reflects a reasonable allocation of edu-cation resource . Cultural integration is a high -level goal of national identity education for minority students . China ’ s common psychology is guaranteed by a cultural ideology of “the unity from differences” in China ’ s traditional culture , and from which the i-deological foundation of “unity in diversity” has been built into the ethnic structure .The historical experience of China has proved that the stability and unity of a multi-national country lies neither in the homogenization of the numbers of various ethnic population , nor in a powerful culture ’ s homogenization of other cultures , but in the cultur-al integration of various nationalities and their com-mon cultural identity .Every individual of the Chi-nese nation should not only admit his/her identity as a member of one branch of the nation , but also admit his/her compound national identity as a member of Chinese nation . In conclusion , the cultural integration of Chi-na’ s various nationalities is a precondition and foundation , a strong guarantee , and expression form for national identity education for the

Experimental screening of carbon-base materials for impact members in isotopic heat sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bansal, G.K.; Duckworth, W.H.

1976-11-01

Fourteen C/C composites and three reentry-grade bulk graphites were evaluated experimentally to determine their applicability for impact member use in radioisotope heat sources. The composites included the following generic types: (1) 2-D cloth lay-ups; (2) 2-D and 3-D felts; (3) 3-D weaves; (4) 3-D pierced fabrics; (5) 7-D weave; and (6) coarse polar weave. Also included was the 2-D randomly wound, resin-impregnated C/C material presently used as the impact member in the MHW RTG and commonly designated ''GIS'' (an acronym for graphite impact shell). The various materials were evaluated as energy absorbing materials. None of the materials in these tests performed appreciably better than the GIS impact member material now used in the MHW heat source, HITCO Pyro Carb 814. Two cloth lay-up composites, HITCO's Pyro Carb 903 and Carborundum's Carbitex 700, were somewhat superior in performance, while the bulk graphites and felt-base composites ranked least effective as energy absorbers. All experimental data and other factors considered to date suggest that Pyro Carb 903 is the best prospect for a bifunctional heat shield and impact member. Its high density (1.80 g/cm 3 ) indicates potentially good ablation resistance to accompany its indicated good performance as an energy absorber

Tensor completion and low-n-rank tensor recovery via convex optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gandy, Silvia; Yamada, Isao; Recht, Benjamin

2011-01-01

In this paper we consider sparsity on a tensor level, as given by the n-rank of a tensor. In an important sparse-vector approximation problem (compressed sensing) and the low-rank matrix recovery problem, using a convex relaxation technique proved to be a valuable solution strategy. Here, we will adapt these techniques to the tensor setting. We use the n-rank of a tensor as a sparsity measure and consider the low-n-rank tensor recovery problem, i.e. the problem of finding the tensor of the lowest n-rank that fulfills some linear constraints. We introduce a tractable convex relaxation of the n-rank and propose efficient algorithms to solve the low-n-rank tensor recovery problem numerically. The algorithms are based on the Douglas–Rachford splitting technique and its dual variant, the alternating direction method of multipliers

A Fast Algorithm for Generating Permutation Distribution of Ranks in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... function of the distribution of the ranks. This further gives insight into the permutation distribution of a rank statistics. The algorithm is implemented with the aid of the computer algebra system Mathematica. Key words: Combinatorics, generating function, permutation distribution, rank statistics, partitions, computer algebra.

Variation in rank abundance replicate samples and impact of clustering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Neuteboom, J.H.; Struik, P.C.

2005-01-01

Calculating a single-sample rank abundance curve by using the negative-binomial distribution provides a way to investigate the variability within rank abundance replicate samples and yields a measure of the degree of heterogeneity of the sampled community. The calculation of the single-sample rank

Cointegration rank testing under conditional heteroskedasticity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cavaliere, Giuseppe; Rahbek, Anders Christian; Taylor, Robert M.

2010-01-01

We analyze the properties of the conventional Gaussian-based cointegrating rank tests of Johansen (1996, Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models) in the case where the vector of series under test is driven by globally stationary, conditionally heteroskedastic......, relative to tests based on the asymptotic critical values or the i.i.d. bootstrap, the wild bootstrap rank tests perform very well in small samples under a variety of conditionally heteroskedastic innovation processes. An empirical application to the term structure of interest rates is given....

VisualRank: applying PageRank to large-scale image search.

Science.gov (United States)

Jing, Yushi; Baluja, Shumeet

2008-11-01

Because of the relative ease in understanding and processing text, commercial image-search systems often rely on techniques that are largely indistinguishable from text-search. Recently, academic studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of employing image-based features to provide alternative or additional signals. However, it remains uncertain whether such techniques will generalize to a large number of popular web queries, and whether the potential improvement to search quality warrants the additional computational cost. In this work, we cast the image-ranking problem into the task of identifying "authority" nodes on an inferred visual similarity graph and propose VisualRank to analyze the visual link structures among images. The images found to be "authorities" are chosen as those that answer the image-queries well. To understand the performance of such an approach in a real system, we conducted a series of large-scale experiments based on the task of retrieving images for 2000 of the most popular products queries. Our experimental results show significant improvement, in terms of user satisfaction and relevancy, in comparison to the most recent Google Image Search results. Maintaining modest computational cost is vital to ensuring that this procedure can be used in practice; we describe the techniques required to make this system practical for large scale deployment in commercial search engines.

SRS: Site ranking system for hazardous chemical and radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rechard, R.P.; Chu, M.S.Y.; Brown, S.L.

1988-05-01

This report describes the rationale and presents instructions for a site ranking system (SRS). SRS ranks hazardous chemical and radioactive waste sites by scoring important and readily available factors that influence risk to human health. Using SRS, sites can be ranked for purposes of detailed site investigations. SRS evaluates the relative risk as a combination of potentially exposed population, chemical toxicity, and potential exposure of release from a waste site; hence, SRS uses the same concepts found in a detailed assessment of health risk. Basing SRS on the concepts of risk assessment tends to reduce the distortion of results found in other ranking schemes. More importantly, a clear logic helps ensure the successful application of the ranking procedure and increases its versatility when modifications are necessary for unique situations. Although one can rank sites using a detailed risk assessment, it is potentially costly because of data and resources required. SRS is an efficient approach to provide an order-of-magnitude ranking, requiring only readily available data (often only descriptive) and hand calculations. Worksheets are included to make the system easier to understand and use. 88 refs., 19 figs., 58 tabs

Cell adhesion signaling regulates RANK expression in osteoclast precursors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayako Mochizuki

Full Text Available Cells with monocyte/macrophage lineage expressing receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK differentiate into osteoclasts following stimulation with the RANK ligand (RANKL. Cell adhesion signaling is also required for osteoclast differentiation from precursors. However, details of the mechanism by which cell adhesion signals induce osteoclast differentiation have not been fully elucidated. To investigate the participation of cell adhesion signaling in osteoclast differentiation, mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs were used as osteoclast precursors, and cultured on either plastic cell culture dishes (adherent condition or the top surface of semisolid methylcellulose gel loaded in culture tubes (non-adherent condition. BMMs cultured under the adherent condition differentiated into osteoclasts in response to RANKL stimulation. However, under the non-adherent condition, the efficiency of osteoclast differentiation was markedly reduced even in the presence of RANKL. These BMMs retained macrophage characteristics including phagocytic function and gene expression profile. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS and tumor necrosis factor -αTNF-α activated the NF-κB-mediated signaling pathways under both the adherent and non-adherent conditions, while RANKL activated the pathways only under the adherent condition. BMMs highly expressed RANK mRNA and protein under the adherent condition as compared to the non-adherent condition. Also, BMMs transferred from the adherent to non-adherent condition showed downregulated RANK expression within 24 hours. In contrast, transferring those from the non-adherent to adherent condition significantly increased the level of RANK expression. Moreover, interruption of cell adhesion signaling by echistatin, an RGD-containing disintegrin, decreased RANK expression in BMMs, while forced expression of either RANK or TNFR-associated factor 6 (TRAF6 in BMMs induced their differentiation into osteoclasts even under the non

Discriminative Multi-View Interactive Image Re-Ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jun; Xu, Chang; Yang, Wankou; Sun, Changyin; Tao, Dacheng

2017-07-01

Given an unreliable visual patterns and insufficient query information, content-based image retrieval is often suboptimal and requires image re-ranking using auxiliary information. In this paper, we propose a discriminative multi-view interactive image re-ranking (DMINTIR), which integrates user relevance feedback capturing users' intentions and multiple features that sufficiently describe the images. In DMINTIR, heterogeneous property features are incorporated in the multi-view learning scheme to exploit their complementarities. In addition, a discriminatively learned weight vector is obtained to reassign updated scores and target images for re-ranking. Compared with other multi-view learning techniques, our scheme not only generates a compact representation in the latent space from the redundant multi-view features but also maximally preserves the discriminative information in feature encoding by the large-margin principle. Furthermore, the generalization error bound of the proposed algorithm is theoretically analyzed and shown to be improved by the interactions between the latent space and discriminant function learning. Experimental results on two benchmark data sets demonstrate that our approach boosts baseline retrieval quality and is competitive with the other state-of-the-art re-ranking strategies.

Texture Repairing by Unified Low Rank Optimization

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiao Liang; Xiang Ren; Zhengdong Zhang; Yi Ma

2016-01-01

In this paper, we show how to harness both low-rank and sparse structures in regular or near-regular textures for image completion. Our method is based on a unified formulation for both random and contiguous corruption. In addition to the low rank property of texture, the algorithm also uses the sparse assumption of the natural image: because the natural image is piecewise smooth, it is sparse in certain transformed domain (such as Fourier or wavelet transform). We combine low-rank and sparsity properties of the texture image together in the proposed algorithm. Our algorithm based on convex optimization can automatically and correctly repair the global structure of a corrupted texture, even without precise information about the regions to be completed. This algorithm integrates texture rectification and repairing into one optimization problem. Through extensive simulations, we show our method can complete and repair textures corrupted by errors with both random and contiguous supports better than existing low-rank matrix recovery methods. Our method demonstrates significant advantage over local patch based texture synthesis techniques in dealing with large corruption, non-uniform texture, and large perspective deformation.

A Ranking Approach on Large-Scale Graph With Multidimensional Heterogeneous Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Wei; Gao, Bin; Liu, Tie-Yan; Wang, Taifeng; Li, Guohui; Li, Hang

2016-04-01

Graph-based ranking has been extensively studied and frequently applied in many applications, such as webpage ranking. It aims at mining potentially valuable information from the raw graph-structured data. Recently, with the proliferation of rich heterogeneous information (e.g., node/edge features and prior knowledge) available in many real-world graphs, how to effectively and efficiently leverage all information to improve the ranking performance becomes a new challenging problem. Previous methods only utilize part of such information and attempt to rank graph nodes according to link-based methods, of which the ranking performances are severely affected by several well-known issues, e.g., over-fitting or high computational complexity, especially when the scale of graph is very large. In this paper, we address the large-scale graph-based ranking problem and focus on how to effectively exploit rich heterogeneous information of the graph to improve the ranking performance. Specifically, we propose an innovative and effective semi-supervised PageRank (SSP) approach to parameterize the derived information within a unified semi-supervised learning framework (SSLF-GR), then simultaneously optimize the parameters and the ranking scores of graph nodes. Experiments on the real-world large-scale graphs demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms the algorithms that consider such graph information only partially.

Fourth-rank gravity and cosmology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marrakchi, A.L.; Tapia, V.

1992-07-01

We consider the consequences of describing the metric properties of space-time through a quartic line element. The associated ''metric'' is a fourth-rank tensor G μυλπ . In order to recover a Riemannian behaviour of the geometry it is necessary to have G μυλπ = g (μυ g λπ) . We construct a theory for the gravitational field based on the fourth-rank metric G μυλπ . In the absence of matter the fourth-rank metric becomes separable and the theory coincides with General Relativity. In the presence of matter we can maintain Riemmanianicity, but now gravitation couples, as compared to General Relativity, in a different way to matter. We develop a simple cosmological model based on a FRW metric with matter described by a perfect fluid. For the present time the field equations are compatible with k OBS = O and Ω OBS t CLAS approx. 10 20 t PLANCK approx. 10 -23 s. Our final and most important result is the fact that the entropy is an increasing function of time. When interpreted at the light of General Relativity the treatment is shown to be almost equivalent to that of the standard model of cosmology combined with the inflationary scenario. (author). 16 refs, 1 fig

Ranking production units according to marginal efficiency contribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ghiyasi, Mojtaba; Hougaard, Jens Leth

League tables associated with various forms of service activities from schools to hospitals illustrate the public need for ranking institutions by their productive performance. We present a new method for ranking production units which is based on each units marginal contribution to the technical...

The Distribution of the Sum of Signed Ranks

Science.gov (United States)

Albright, Brian

2012-01-01

We describe the calculation of the distribution of the sum of signed ranks and develop an exact recursive algorithm for the distribution as well as an approximation of the distribution using the normal. The results have applications to the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

I undervalue you but I need you: the dissociation of attitude and memory toward in-group members.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ke Zhao

Full Text Available In the present study, the in-group bias or in-group derogation among Mainland Chinese was investigated through a rating task and a recognition test. In two experiments,participants from two universities with similar ranks rated novel faces or names and then had a recognition test. Half of the faces or names were labeled as participants' own university and the other half were labeled as their counterpart. Results showed that, for either faces or names, rating scores for out-group members were consistently higher than those for in-group members, whereas the recognition accuracy showed just the opposite. These results indicated that the attitude and memory for group-relevant information might be dissociated among Mainland Chinese.

I undervalue you but I need you: the dissociation of attitude and memory toward in-group members.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Ke; Wu, Qi; Shen, Xunbing; Xuan, Yuming; Fu, Xiaolan

2012-01-01

In the present study, the in-group bias or in-group derogation among Mainland Chinese was investigated through a rating task and a recognition test. In two experiments,participants from two universities with similar ranks rated novel faces or names and then had a recognition test. Half of the faces or names were labeled as participants' own university and the other half were labeled as their counterpart. Results showed that, for either faces or names, rating scores for out-group members were consistently higher than those for in-group members, whereas the recognition accuracy showed just the opposite. These results indicated that the attitude and memory for group-relevant information might be dissociated among Mainland Chinese.

Who's #1? The Science of Rating and Ranking

CERN Document Server

Langville, Amy N

2012-01-01

A website's ranking on Google can spell the difference between success and failure for a new business. NCAA football ratings determine which schools get to play for the big money in postseason bowl games. Product ratings influence everything from the clothes we wear to the movies we select on Netflix. Ratings and rankings are everywhere, but how exactly do they work? Who's #1? offers an engaging and accessible account of how scientific rating and ranking methods are created and applied to a variety of uses. Amy Langville and Carl Meyer provide the first comprehensive overview of the mathemat

A cautionary note on the rank product statistic.

Science.gov (United States)

Koziol, James A

2016-06-01

The rank product method introduced by Breitling R et al. [2004, FEBS Letters 573, 83-92] has rapidly generated popularity in practical settings, in particular, detecting differential expression of genes in microarray experiments. The purpose of this note is to point out a particular property of the rank product method, namely, its differential sensitivity to over- and underexpression. It turns out that overexpression is less likely to be detected than underexpression with the rank product statistic. We have conducted both empirical and exact power studies that demonstrate this phenomenon, and summarize these findings in this note. © 2016 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Rank Dynamics of Word Usage at Multiple Scales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José A. Morales

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The recent dramatic increase in online data availability has allowed researchers to explore human culture with unprecedented detail, such as the growth and diversification of language. In particular, it provides statistical tools to explore whether word use is similar across languages, and if so, whether these generic features appear at different scales of language structure. Here we use the Google Books N-grams dataset to analyze the temporal evolution of word usage in several languages. We apply measures proposed recently to study rank dynamics, such as the diversity of N-grams in a given rank, the probability that an N-gram changes rank between successive time intervals, the rank entropy, and the rank complexity. Using different methods, results show that there are generic properties for different languages at different scales, such as a core of words necessary to minimally understand a language. We also propose a null model to explore the relevance of linguistic structure across multiple scales, concluding that N-gram statistics cannot be reduced to word statistics. We expect our results to be useful in improving text prediction algorithms, as well as in shedding light on the large-scale features of language use, beyond linguistic and cultural differences across human populations.

The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses.

Science.gov (United States)

Krueger, Konstanze; Farmer, Kate; Heinze, Jürgen

2014-05-01

Social learning is said to meet the demands of complex environments in which individuals compete over resources and cooperate to share resources. Horses (Equus caballus) were thought to lack social learning skills because they feed on homogenously distributed resources with few reasons for conflict. However, the horse's social environment is complex, which raises the possibility that its capacity for social transfer of feeding behaviour has been underestimated. We conducted a social learning experiment using 30 socially kept horses of different ages. Five horses, one from each group, were chosen as demonstrators, and the remaining 25 horses were designated observers. Observers from each group were allowed to watch their group demonstrator opening a feeding apparatus. We found that young, low-ranking and more exploratory horses learned by observing older members of their own group, and the older the horse, the more slowly it appeared to learn. Social learning may be an adaptive specialisation to the social environment. Older animals may avoid the potential costs of acquiring complex and potentially disadvantageous feeding behaviours from younger group members. We argue that horses show social learning in the context of their social ecology and that research procedures must take such contexts into account. Misconceptions about the horse's sociality may have hampered earlier studies.

The California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE): A New Model for Promoting Minority Participation in Astronomy Research and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Rudolph, Alexander L.; Impey, C. D.; Bieging, J. H.; Phillips, C. B.; Tieu, J.; Prather, E. E.; Povich, M. S.

2013-01-01

The California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE) program represents a new and innovative kind of research program for undergraduates: one that can effectively carry out the goal of recruiting qualified minority and female students to participate in Astronomy and Planetary Science research opportunities, while mentoring them in a way to maximize the chance that these students will persist in obtaining their undergraduate degrees in STEM fields, and potentially go on to obtain their PhDs or pursue careers in those fields. The members of CAMPARE comprise a network of comprehensive universities and community colleges in Southern California and Arizona (most of which are minority serving institutions), and four major research institutions (University of Arizona Steward Observatory, the SETI Institute, and JPL/Caltech). Most undergraduate research programs focus on a single research institution. By having multiple institutions, we significantly broaden the opportunities for students, both in terms of breadth of research topics and geographical location. In its first three years, the CAMPARE program has had 20 undergraduates from two CSU campuses, both Hispanic Serving Institutions, take part in research and educational activities at four research institutions, the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, the SETI Institute, and JPL/Caltech. Of the 20 participants, 9 are women and 11 are men, a much more even split than is typical in Astronomy research programs; 10 are Hispanic, 2 are African American, and 1 is part Native American, including 2 female Hispanic and 2 female African-American participants, an exceptionally high participation rate (65%) for students from underrepresented minority groups. Of the five participants who have graduated since the program began, two are in graduate programs in Physics or Astronomy, two are pursuing a K-12 teaching credential, and one has enlisted in the Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate

Bias and Stability of Single Variable Classifiers for Feature Ranking and Selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Fakhraei, Shobeir; Soltanian-Zadeh, Hamid; Fotouhi, Farshad

2014-11-01

Feature rankings are often used for supervised dimension reduction especially when discriminating power of each feature is of interest, dimensionality of dataset is extremely high, or computational power is limited to perform more complicated methods. In practice, it is recommended to start dimension reduction via simple methods such as feature rankings before applying more complex approaches. Single Variable Classifier (SVC) ranking is a feature ranking based on the predictive performance of a classifier built using only a single feature. While benefiting from capabilities of classifiers, this ranking method is not as computationally intensive as wrappers. In this paper, we report the results of an extensive study on the bias and stability of such feature ranking method. We study whether the classifiers influence the SVC rankings or the discriminative power of features themselves has a dominant impact on the final rankings. We show the common intuition of using the same classifier for feature ranking and final classification does not always result in the best prediction performance. We then study if heterogeneous classifiers ensemble approaches provide more unbiased rankings and if they improve final classification performance. Furthermore, we calculate an empirical prediction performance loss for using the same classifier in SVC feature ranking and final classification from the optimal choices.

Learning to rank for information retrieval

CERN Document Server

Liu, Tie-Yan

2011-01-01

Due to the fast growth of the Web and the difficulties in finding desired information, efficient and effective information retrieval systems have become more important than ever, and the search engine has become an essential tool for many people. The ranker, a central component in every search engine, is responsible for the matching between processed queries and indexed documents. Because of its central role, great attention has been paid to the research and development of ranking technologies. In addition, ranking is also pivotal for many other information retrieval applications, such as coll

Ranking mutual funds using Sortino method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khosro Faghani Makrani

2014-04-01

Full Text Available One of the primary concerns on most business activities is to determine an efficient method for ranking mutual funds. This paper performs an empirical investigation to rank 42 mutual funds listed on Tehran Stock Exchange using Sortino method over the period 2011-2012. The results of survey have been compared with market return and the results have confirmed that there were some positive and meaningful relationships between Sortino return and market return. In addition, there were some positive and meaningful relationship between two Sortino methods.

Reducing the rank of gauge groups in orbifold compactification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Hikaru

1989-01-01

The report introduces general twisted boundary conditions on fermionic string variables and shows that a non-Abelian embedding is possible when background gauge field is introduced on orbifold. This leads to reduction of the rank of the gauge group. The report presents a procedure to obtain the lower-rank gauge groups by the use of non-Abelian Wilson lines. The unbroken gauge group is essentially determined by the eigen vector which should obey the level-matching conditions. The gauge symmetry is determined by certain conditions. In a particular application, it is not necessary to introduce explicit form of the non-Abelian Wilson lines. The procedure starts with introduction of desired eigen vectors which are supposed to be obtained by diagonalization of the boundary conditions with the appropriate transformation matrix. The rank is reduced by one by using the Wilson lines which transform as 3 of SU(2) R or SU(2) in SU(4). A possible way of reducing the rank by two is to use the Wilson lines from SU(2) R x SU(2) or SU(3) in SU(4). The rank is reduced by three by means of the Wilson lines which transform as SU(4) or SU(2) R SU(3). Finally the rank is reduced by four when the Wilson lines with full symmetry of SU(2) R x SU(4) are used. The report tabulates the possible lower-rank gauge groups obtained by the proposed method. Massless fermions corresponding to the eigen vectors are also listed. (N.K.)

Resolution of ranking hierarchies in directed networks

Science.gov (United States)

Barucca, Paolo; Lillo, Fabrizio

2018-01-01

Identifying hierarchies and rankings of nodes in directed graphs is fundamental in many applications such as social network analysis, biology, economics, and finance. A recently proposed method identifies the hierarchy by finding the ordered partition of nodes which minimises a score function, termed agony. This function penalises the links violating the hierarchy in a way depending on the strength of the violation. To investigate the resolution of ranking hierarchies we introduce an ensemble of random graphs, the Ranked Stochastic Block Model. We find that agony may fail to identify hierarchies when the structure is not strong enough and the size of the classes is small with respect to the whole network. We analytically characterise the resolution threshold and we show that an iterated version of agony can partly overcome this resolution limit. PMID:29394278

Development and first application of an operating events ranking tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Šimić, Zdenko; Zerger, Benoit; Banov, Reni

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A method using analitycal hierarchy process for ranking operating events is developed and tested. • The method is applied for 5 years of U.S. NRC Licensee Event Reports (1453 events). • Uncertainty and sensitivity of the ranking results are evaluated. • Real events assessment shows potential of the method for operating experience feedback. - Abstract: The operating experience feedback is important for maintaining and improving safety and availability in nuclear power plants. Detailed investigation of all events is challenging since it requires excessive resources, especially in case of large event databases. This paper presents an event groups ranking method to complement the analysis of individual operating events. The basis for the method is the use of an internationally accepted events characterization scheme that allows different ways of events grouping and ranking. The ranking method itself consists of implementing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) by means of a custom developed tool which allows events ranking based on ranking indexes pre-determined by expert judgment. Following the development phase, the tool was applied to analyze a complete set of 5 years of real nuclear power plants operating events (1453 events). The paper presents the potential of this ranking method to identify possible patterns throughout the event database and therefore to give additional insights into the events as well as to give quantitative input for the prioritization of further more detailed investigation of selected event groups

Informal and Formal Support Groups Retain Women and Minorities in Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Ong, Maria

2005-10-01

Ten U.S. minority female undergraduates who aspire to become physicists were followed over an 8-year period. Participant observation and in-depth interviews recorded the strategies they used to earn bachelor's degrees in physics or physics-related fields, and then go on to graduate school and/or careers in science. One significant strategy these women of color employed was participating in small subcommunities with other women or underrepresented ethnic minorities at the margins of their local physics community. The study found that informal peer groups offered safe spaces to counter negative experiences, to normalize their social realities, and to offer practical guidance for persevering in the field. Formal women- and minority-serving programs in physics provided foundations for community building, stronger curriculum and instruction, networking, and role models. The positive effects of informal and formal support groups on these students' experiences challenge a standard application of Pierre Bourdieu's framework of social and cultural capital. Women of color in the study initially lacked traditional capital of "acceptable" appearance, cultural background and habits, and networks that are more easily acquired by white males and are rewarded by the U.S. physics culture. However, instead of failing or leaving, as Bourdieu's theory would predict, the minority women persisted and achieved in science. The marginal communities contributed to their retention by offering safe spaces in which they could learn and share alternative ways of "accruing capital." Moreover, as these women made strides along their academic and career paths, they also engaged in social justice work in efforts to change the physics culture to be more welcoming of nontraditional members. The outcomes of the study offer empirical confirmation of the critical need for informal and institutionally supported women's and minorities' support groups to promote diversity in science.

Ranking Exponential Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers by Median Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Rezvani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we want represented a method for ranking of two exponential trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. A median value is proposed for the ranking of exponential trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. For the validation the results of the proposed approach are compared with different existing approaches.

Automatic figure ranking and user interfacing for intelligent figure search.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Yu

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Figures are important experimental results that are typically reported in full-text bioscience articles. Bioscience researchers need to access figures to validate research facts and to formulate or to test novel research hypotheses. On the other hand, the sheer volume of bioscience literature has made it difficult to access figures. Therefore, we are developing an intelligent figure search engine (http://figuresearch.askhermes.org. Existing research in figure search treats each figure equally, but we introduce a novel concept of "figure ranking": figures appearing in a full-text biomedical article can be ranked by their contribution to the knowledge discovery.We empirically validated the hypothesis of figure ranking with over 100 bioscience researchers, and then developed unsupervised natural language processing (NLP approaches to automatically rank figures. Evaluating on a collection of 202 full-text articles in which authors have ranked the figures based on importance, our best system achieved a weighted error rate of 0.2, which is significantly better than several other baseline systems we explored. We further explored a user interfacing application in which we built novel user interfaces (UIs incorporating figure ranking, allowing bioscience researchers to efficiently access important figures. Our evaluation results show that 92% of the bioscience researchers prefer as the top two choices the user interfaces in which the most important figures are enlarged. With our automatic figure ranking NLP system, bioscience researchers preferred the UIs in which the most important figures were predicted by our NLP system than the UIs in which the most important figures were randomly assigned. In addition, our results show that there was no statistical difference in bioscience researchers' preference in the UIs generated by automatic figure ranking and UIs by human ranking annotation.The evaluation results conclude that automatic figure ranking and user

Ranking Scientific Publications Based on Their Citation Graph

CERN Document Server

Marian, L; Rajman, M

2009-01-01

CDS Invenio is the web-based integrated digital library system developed at CERN. It is a suite of applications which provides the framework and tools for building and managing an autonomous digital library server. Within this framework, the goal of this project is to implement new ranking methods based on the bibliographic citation graph extracted from the CDS Invenio database. As a first step, we implemented the Citation Count as a baseline ranking method. The major disadvantage of this method is that all citations are treated equally, disregarding their importance and their publication date. To overcome this drawback, we consider two different approaches: a link-based approach which extends the PageRank model to the bibliographic citation graph and a time-dependent approach which takes into account time in the citation counts. In addition, we also combined these two approaches in a hybrid model based on a time-dependent PageRank. In the present document, we describe the conceptual background behind our new...

Improving the Health of Minority Communities through Probation-Public Health Collaborations: An Application of the Epidemiological Criminology Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Potter, Roberto Hugh; Akers, Timothy A.

2010-01-01

This article explores the notion that common dynamic risks may underlie both criminal justice system involvement and poor health outcomes among members of minority groups in the U.S. We introduce the epidemiological criminology framework as a way of conceptualizing, researching, and intervening to reduce both health and criminal behaviors…

Perceived Prejudice and the Mental Health of Chinese Ethnic Minority College Students: The Chain Mediating Effect of Ethnic Identity and Hope

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Jin; Yang, Liping

2017-01-01

As a multinational country incorporating 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, China is concerned with the mental health of members of minority ethnic groups, with an increasing focus on supporting Chinese ethnic minority college students. Nevertheless, in daily life, members of minority ethnic groups in China often perceive prejudice, which may in turn negatively influence their mental health, with respect to relative levels of ethnic identity and hope. To examine the mediating effects of ethnic identity and hope on the relationship between perceived prejudice and the mental health of Chinese ethnic minority college students, 665 students (18–26 years old; 207 males, 458 females; the proportion of participants is 95.38%) from nine colleges in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Yunnan and Guizhou provinces of China took part in our study, each completing adapted versions of a perceived prejudice scale, a multiethnic identity measure, an adult dispositional hope scale, and a general health questionnaire. Analysis of the results reveals that perceived prejudice negatively influences mental health through both ethnic identity and hope in Chinese ethnic minority college students. The total mediation effect was 54.9%. Perceived prejudice was found to negatively predict ethnic identity and hope, suggesting that perceived prejudice brings about a negative reconstruction of ethnic identity and hope mechanisms within the study's Chinese cultural context. The relationship between perceived prejudice and mental health was fully mediated by hope and the chain of ethnic identity and hope. Ethnic identity partially mediated the relationship between perceived prejudice and hope. The relationship between perceived prejudice and mental health mediated by ethnic identity was not significant, which suggests that the rejection–identification model cannot be applied to Chinese ethnic minority college students. This paper concludes by considering the limitations of our study

Discrepancies between multicriteria decision analysis-based ranking and intuitive ranking for pharmaceutical benefit-risk profiles in a hypothetical setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoshikawa, K; Ono, S

2017-02-01

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been generally considered a promising decision-making methodology for the assessment of drug benefit-risk profiles. There have been many discussions in both public and private sectors on its feasibility and applicability, but it has not been employed in official decision-makings. For the purpose of examining to what extent MCDA would reflect the first-hand, intuitive preference of evaluators in practical pharmaceutical assessments, we conducted a questionnaire survey involving the participation of employees of pharmaceutical companies. Showing profiles of the efficacy and safety of four hypothetical drugs, each respondent was asked to rank them following the standard MCDA process and then to rank them intuitively (i.e. without applying any analytical framework). These two approaches resulted in substantially different ranking patterns from the same individuals, and the concordance rate was surprisingly low (17%). Although many respondents intuitively showed a preference for mild, balanced risk-benefit profiles over profiles with a conspicuous advantage in either risk or benefit, the ranking orders based on MCDA scores did not reflect the intuitive preference. Observed discrepancies between the rankings seemed to be primarily attributed to the structural characteristics of MCDA, which assumes that evaluation on each benefit and risk component should have monotonic impact on final scores. It would be difficult for MCDA to reflect commonly observed non-monotonic preferences for risk and benefit profiles. Possible drawbacks of MCDA should be further investigated prior to the real-world application of its benefit-risk assessment. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

First record of Molorchus minor minor (Linnaeus (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ubirajara R. Martins

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Molorchus minor minor (Linnaeus (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae is recorded for the first time in Brazil (Bahia. It was originally described from Europe and is currently widely distributed in that continent and Asia.

Learning to rank for information retrieval and natural language processing

CERN Document Server

Li, Hang

2014-01-01

Learning to rank refers to machine learning techniques for training a model in a ranking task. Learning to rank is useful for many applications in information retrieval, natural language processing, and data mining. Intensive studies have been conducted on its problems recently, and significant progress has been made. This lecture gives an introduction to the area including the fundamental problems, major approaches, theories, applications, and future work.The author begins by showing that various ranking problems in information retrieval and natural language processing can be formalized as tw

Job satisfaction and its influential factors in dental academic members in tehran, iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Seraj, B; Ghadimi, S; Mirzaee, M; Ahmadi, R; Bashizadeh, H; Ashofteh-Yazdi, K; Sahebjamee, M; Kharazi, Mj; Jahanmehr, M

2014-03-01

Assessment of job satisfaction of the faculty members and its underlying factors may increase career fulfillment and raise the educational and research productivity, leading to higher quality of dental services at the community level, ultimately improving public oral health status. This study assessed job satisfaction and its influential factors in dental academic members in Tehran. The job satisfaction level of 203 faculty members was assessed using a Likert scale questionnaire from 0 to 4, with 4 representing very satisfied and 0 not at all satisfied. The analysis of variance was used to compare the responses among dental faculty members of three different universities. The impact of age, gender, academic rank, employment status and the date of employment on the overall faculty job satisfaction was identified by multiple linear regression analysis. The mean professional satisfaction score among faculty members was 1.5 (0.5) out of four. Among the studied underlying factors, only the date of employment was seen to have a statistically significant impact on the faculties' overall job satisfaction (P= 0.05). There was no difference in job compensation observed between the three dental faculties. Dissatisfying aspects of the academic work included educational and research policies, monetary strategies, quality of leadership and administration, promotion and tenure policies, job security, educational environment, equipments, and facilities. The only satisfying factor was the interaction between faculty colleagues and students. Faculty members of Tehran Dental Schools are dissatisfied with their work environments in Tehran Dental Schools. Issues such as salary and remuneration, facilities, equipments, promotion and tenure policies are strongly believed to account for the dissatisfaction.

PageRank (II): Mathematics

African Journals Online (AJOL)

maths/stats

... GAUSS SEIDEL'S. NUMERICAL ALGORITHMS IN PAGE RANK ANALYSIS. ... The convergence is guaranteed, if the absolute value of the largest eigen ... improved Gauss-Seidel iteration algorithm, based on the decomposition. U. L. D. M. +. +. = ..... This corresponds to determine the eigen vector of T with eigen value 1.

The Trojan minor planets

Science.gov (United States)

Spratt, Christopher E.

1988-08-01

There are (March, 1988) 3774 minor planets which have received a permanent number. Of these, there are some whose mean distance to the sun is very nearly equal to that of Jupiter, and whose heliocentric longitudes from that planet are about 60°, so that the three bodies concerned (sun, Jupiter, minor planet) make an approximate equilateral triangle. These minor planets, which occur in two distinct groups, one preceding Jupiter and one following, have received the names of the heroes of the Trojan war. This paper concerns the 49 numbered minor planets of this group.

Minorities in Iran

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elling, Rasmus Christian

Contrary to the popular understanding of Iran as a Persian nation, half of the country's population consists of minorities, among whom there has been significant ethnic mobilization at crucial stages in Iranian history. One such stage is now: suppressed minority demands, identity claims, and deba......Contrary to the popular understanding of Iran as a Persian nation, half of the country's population consists of minorities, among whom there has been significant ethnic mobilization at crucial stages in Iranian history. One such stage is now: suppressed minority demands, identity claims......, and debates on diversity have entered public discourse and politics. In 2005–2007, Iran was rocked by the most widespread ethnic unrest experienced in that country since the revolution. The same period was also marked by the re-emergence of nationalism. This interdisciplinary book takes a long-overdue step...

1991 Acceptance priority ranking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-12-01

The Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High- Level Radioactive Waste (10 CFR Part 961) that the Department of Energy (DOE) has executed with the owners and generators of civilian spent nuclear fuel requires annual publication of the Acceptance Priority Ranking (APR). The 1991 APR details the order in which DOE will allocate Federal waste acceptance capacity. As required by the Standard Contract, the ranking is based on the age of permanently discharged spent nuclear fuel (SNF), with the owners of the oldest SNF, on an industry-wide basis, given the highest priority. the 1991 APR will be the basis for the annual allocation of waste acceptance capacity to the Purchasers in the 1991 Annual Capacity Report (ACR), to be issued later this year. This document is based on SNF discharges as of December 31, 1990, and reflects Purchaser comments and corrections, as appropriate, to the draft APR issued on May 15, 1991

Time-Aware Service Ranking Prediction in the Internet of Things Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yuze; Huang, Jiwei; Cheng, Bo; He, Shuqing; Chen, Junliang

2017-04-27

With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT), building IoT systems with high quality of service (QoS) has become an urgent requirement in both academia and industry. During the procedures of building IoT systems, QoS-aware service selection is an important concern, which requires the ranking of a set of functionally similar services according to their QoS values. In reality, however, it is quite expensive and even impractical to evaluate all geographically-dispersed IoT services at a single client to obtain such a ranking. Nevertheless, distributed measurement and ranking aggregation have to deal with the high dynamics of QoS values and the inconsistency of partial rankings. To address these challenges, we propose a time-aware service ranking prediction approach named TSRPred for obtaining the global ranking from the collection of partial rankings. Specifically, a pairwise comparison model is constructed to describe the relationships between different services, where the partial rankings are obtained by time series forecasting on QoS values. The comparisons of IoT services are formulated by random walks, and thus, the global ranking can be obtained by sorting the steady-state probabilities of the underlying Markov chain. Finally, the efficacy of TSRPred is validated by simulation experiments based on large-scale real-world datasets.

Time-Aware Service Ranking Prediction in the Internet of Things Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuze Huang

2017-04-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of the Internet of things (IoT, building IoT systems with high quality of service (QoS has become an urgent requirement in both academia and industry. During the procedures of building IoT systems, QoS-aware service selection is an important concern, which requires the ranking of a set of functionally similar services according to their QoS values. In reality, however, it is quite expensive and even impractical to evaluate all geographically-dispersed IoT services at a single client to obtain such a ranking. Nevertheless, distributed measurement and ranking aggregation have to deal with the high dynamics of QoS values and the inconsistency of partial rankings. To address these challenges, we propose a time-aware service ranking prediction approach named TSRPred for obtaining the global ranking from the collection of partial rankings. Specifically, a pairwise comparison model is constructed to describe the relationships between different services, where the partial rankings are obtained by time series forecasting on QoS values. The comparisons of IoT services are formulated by random walks, and thus, the global ranking can be obtained by sorting the steady-state probabilities of the underlying Markov chain. Finally, the efficacy of TSRPred is validated by simulation experiments based on large-scale real-world datasets.

Ranking Regime and the Future of Vernacular Scholarship

Science.gov (United States)

Ishikawa, Mayumi

2014-01-01

World university rankings and their global popularity present a number of far-reaching impacts for vernacular scholarship. This article employs a multidimensional approach to analyze the ranking regime's threat to local scholarship and knowledge construction through a study of Japanese research universities. First, local conditions that have led…

HEALS Hypertension Control Program: Training Church Members as Program Leaders.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodani, Sunita; Beayler, Irmatine; Lewis, Jennifer; Sowders, Lindsey A

2014-01-01

Health disparities related to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) including stroke have remained higher in the African-Americans (AAs) than in other populations. HEALS is a faith-based hypertension (HTN) control program modified according to AA community needs, and delivered by the church-lay members called church health advisors (CHAs). This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of training CHAs as HEALS program leaders. Four CHAs completed a 10-hour HEALS program training workshop at the Church, conducted by the nutrition experts. Workshop was evaluated by CHAs on their level of satisfaction, clarity of contents covered and comfort in delivery the program to the church congregation. The overall six main HEALS curriculum components were completed. Workshop was highly evaluated by CHAs on length of training, balance between content and skills development, and level of satisfaction with program delivery. Church-based culturally modified health promotion interventions conducted by the community lay members may be a way to reduce health disparities in ethnic minorities.

Expanding the landscape of N=2 rank 1 SCFTs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Argyres, Philip C.; Lotito, Matteo; Lü, Yongchao; Martone, Mario

2016-01-01

We refine our previous proposal http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.04814http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00011P. Argyres, M. Lotito, Y. Lü and M. Martone, Geometric constraints on the space of N=2 SCFTs III: enhanced Coulomb branches and central charges, to appear. for systematically classifying 4d rank-1 N=2 SCFTs by constructing their possible Coulomb branch geometries. Four new recently discussed rank-1 theories http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2016)083http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.02077, including novel N=3 SCFTs, sit beautifully in our refined classification framework. By arguing for the consistency of their RG flows we can make a strong case for the existence of at least four additional rank-1 SCFTs, nearly doubling the number of known rank-1 SCFTs. The refinement consists of relaxing the assumption that the flavor symmetries of the SCFTs have no discrete factors. This results in an enlarged (but finite) set of possible rank-1 SCFTs. Their existence can be further constrained using consistency of their central charges and RG flows.

A Rank-Constrained Matrix Representation for Hypergraph-Based Subspace Clustering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yubao Sun

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel, rank-constrained matrix representation combined with hypergraph spectral analysis to enable the recovery of the original subspace structures of corrupted data. Real-world data are frequently corrupted with both sparse error and noise. Our matrix decomposition model separates the low-rank, sparse error, and noise components from the data in order to enhance robustness to the corruption. In order to obtain the desired rank representation of the data within a dictionary, our model directly utilizes rank constraints by restricting the upper bound of the rank range. An alternative projection algorithm is proposed to estimate the low-rank representation and separate the sparse error from the data matrix. To further capture the complex relationship between data distributed in multiple subspaces, we use hypergraph to represent the data by encapsulating multiple related samples into one hyperedge. The final clustering result is obtained by spectral decomposition of the hypergraph Laplacian matrix. Validation experiments on the Extended Yale Face Database B, AR, and Hopkins 155 datasets show that the proposed method is a promising tool for subspace clustering.

Minimizing cross-cultural maladaptation: How minority status facilitates change in international acculturation.

Science.gov (United States)

Volpone, Sabrina D; Marquardt, Dennis J; Casper, Wendy J; Avery, Derek R

2018-03-01

Culturally savvy organizations recognize that selecting and developing people who can be effective in a global workforce is important in today's business environment. Nevertheless, many companies struggle to identify and develop talent who are happy and successful working and living outside their home country. We examine 1 factor that may foster success in a host country-minority status in 1's home country-as a predictor of change in acculturation over time. Specifically, we draw on the conservation of resources model to suggest that international students who have been a member of more minority groups in their home country have unique experiences working with dissimilar others that offer advantages when acculturating to new cultures and novel situations. Then, change in host country acculturation is explored as a mechanism to explain how minority status in the home country relates to intentions to leave the host country and psychological well-being 6 months after entry. Two moderators (cultural intelligence, perceived diversity climate of the host institution) of these relationships are also examined. Results revealed that the relationship between minority status in the home country and change in host country acculturation was positive and stronger for those with higher cultural intelligence. Further, the relationship between change in host country acculturation and psychological well-being was positive when perceived diversity climate of the host institution was high, but was not significant when perceived diversity climate was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Rank dependent expected utility models of tax evasion.

OpenAIRE

Erling Eide

2001-01-01

In this paper the rank-dependent expected utility theory is substituted for the expected utility theory in models of tax evasion. It is demonstrated that the comparative statics results of the expected utility, portfolio choice model of tax evasion carry over to the more general rank dependent expected utility model.

Reference material IAEA 413: Major, minor and trace elements in algae

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

Reference materials are a basic requirement for any sort of quantitative chemical and radiochemical analysis. Laboratories need them for calibration and quality control throughout their analytical work. The IAEA started to produce reference materials in the early 1960s to meet the needs of the analytical laboratories in its Member States that required reference materials for quality control of their measurements. The initial efforts were focused on the preparation of environmental reference materials containing anthropogenic radionuclides for use by those laboratories employing nuclear analytical techniques. These reference materials were characterized for their radionuclide content through interlaboratory comparison involving a core group of some 10 to 20 specialist laboratories. The success of these early exercises led the IAEA to extend its activities to encompass both terrestrial and marine reference materials containing primordial radionuclides and trace elements. Today, the IAEA has more than 90 reference materials and maintains a customer base of about 5000 members from more than 85 Member States. Within the frame of IAEA activities in production and certification of RM, this report describes the certification of the IAEA 413: Major, minor and trace elements in algae. Details are given on methodologies and data evaluation

Control by Numbers: New Managerialism and Ranking in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Kathleen

2015-01-01

This paper analyses the role of rankings as an instrument of new managerialism. It shows how rankings are reconstituting the purpose of universities, the role of academics and the definition of what it is to be a student. The paper opens by examining the forces that have facilitated the emergence of the ranking industry and the ideologies…

Decomposition of the Google PageRank and Optimal Linking Strategy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Avrachenkov, Konstatin; Litvak, Nelli

We provide the analysis of the Google PageRank from the perspective of the Markov Chain Theory. First we study the Google PageRank for a Web that can be decomposed into several connected components which do not have any links to each other. We show that in order to determine the Google PageRank for

TRAF Family Member-Associated NF-κB Activator (TANK) Induced by RANKL Negatively Regulates Osteoclasts Survival and Function

OpenAIRE

Mengrui Wu, Yiping Wang, Lianfu Deng, Wei Chen, Yi-Ping Li

2012-01-01

Osteoclasts are the principle bone-resorbing cells. Precise control of balanced osteoclast activity is indispensable for bone homeostasis. Osteoclast activation mediated by RANK-TRAF6 axis has been clearly identified. However, a negative regulation-machinery in osteoclast remains unclear. TRAF family member-associated NF-κB activator (TANK) is induced by about 10 folds during osteoclastogenesis, according to a genome-wide analysis of gene expression before and after osteoclast maturation...

TRAF Family Member-Associated NF-κB Activator (TANK) Induced by RANKL Negatively Regulates Osteoclasts Survival and Function

OpenAIRE

Wu, Mengrui; Wang, Yiping; Deng, Lianfu; Chen, Wei; Li, Yi-Ping

2012-01-01

Osteoclasts are the principle bone-resorbing cells. Precise control of balanced osteoclast activity is indispensable for bone homeostasis. Osteoclast activation mediated by RANK-TRAF6 axis has been clearly identified. However, a negative regulation-machinery in osteoclast remains unclear. TRAF family member-associated NF-κB activator (TANK) is induced by about 10 folds during osteoclastogenesis, according to a genome-wide analysis of gene expression before and after osteoclast maturation, and...

An Evaluation and Ranking of Children's Hospital Websites in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Huerta, Timothy R; Walker, Daniel M; Ford, Eric W

2016-08-22

Children's hospitals are faced with the rising need for technological innovation. Their prospective health care consumers, who increasingly depend on the Web and social media for communication and consumer engagement, drive this need. As patients and family members navigate the Web presence of hospitals, it is important for these specialized organizations to present themselves and their services efficiently. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the website content of children's hospitals in order to identify opportunities to improve website design and create benchmarks to judge improvement. All websites associated with a children's hospital were identified using a census list of all children's hospitals in the United States. In March of 2014, each website and its social media were evaluated using a Web crawler that provided a 5-dimensional assessment that included website accessibility, marketing, content, technology, and usability. The 5-dimensional assessment was scored on a scale ranging from 0 to 10 with positive findings rated higher on the scale. Websites were ranked by individual dimensions as well as according to their average ranking across all dimensions. Mean scores of 153 websites ranged from 5.05 to 8.23 across all 5 dimensions. Results revealed that no website scored a perfect 10 on any dimension and that room exists for meaningful improvement. Study findings allow for the establishment of baseline benchmarks for tracking future website and social media improvements and display the need for enhanced Web-based consumer engagement for children's hospitals.

Future goal setting, task motivation and learning of minority and non-minority students in Dutch schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Andriessen, Iris; Phalet, Karen; Lens, Willy

2006-12-01

Cross-cultural research on minority school achievement yields mixed findings on the motivational impact of future goal setting for students from disadvantaged minority groups. Relevant and recent motivational research, integrating Future Time Perspective Theory with Self-Determination Theory, has not yet been validated among minority students. To replicate across cultures the known motivational benefits of perceived instrumentality and internal regulation by distant future goals; to clarify when and how the future motivates minority students' educational performance. Participants in this study were 279 minority students (100 of Turkish and 179 of Moroccan origin) and 229 native Dutch students in Dutch secondary schools. Participants rated the importance of future goals, their perceptions of instrumentality, their task motivation and learning strategies. Dependent measures and their functional relations with future goal setting were simultaneously validated across minority and non-minority students, using structural equation modelling in multiple groups. As expected, Positive Perceived Instrumentality for the future increases task motivation and (indirectly) adaptive learning of both minority and non-minority students. But especially internally regulating future goals are strongly related to more task motivation and indirectly to more adaptive learning strategies. Our findings throw new light on the role of future goal setting in minority school careers: distant future goals enhance minority and non-minority students' motivation and learning, if students perceive positive instrumentality and if their schoolwork is internally regulated by future goals.

Multimodal biometric system using rank-level fusion approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Monwar, Md Maruf; Gavrilova, Marina L

2009-08-01

In many real-world applications, unimodal biometric systems often face significant limitations due to sensitivity to noise, intraclass variability, data quality, nonuniversality, and other factors. Attempting to improve the performance of individual matchers in such situations may not prove to be highly effective. Multibiometric systems seek to alleviate some of these problems by providing multiple pieces of evidence of the same identity. These systems help achieve an increase in performance that may not be possible using a single-biometric indicator. This paper presents an effective fusion scheme that combines information presented by multiple domain experts based on the rank-level fusion integration method. The developed multimodal biometric system possesses a number of unique qualities, starting from utilizing principal component analysis and Fisher's linear discriminant methods for individual matchers (face, ear, and signature) identity authentication and utilizing the novel rank-level fusion method in order to consolidate the results obtained from different biometric matchers. The ranks of individual matchers are combined using the highest rank, Borda count, and logistic regression approaches. The results indicate that fusion of individual modalities can improve the overall performance of the biometric system, even in the presence of low quality data. Insights on multibiometric design using rank-level fusion and its performance on a variety of biometric databases are discussed in the concluding section.

Survival outcome of malignant minor salivary tumors in Pakistani population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassan Iqbal

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: Malignant tumors of minor salivary glands (MSG are rare. Survival outcome in Pakistani population with malignant MSG tumors remains to be defined. The objective of this study was to report the clinical presentation, treatment modalities, and survival outcome of radically treated malignant tumors of MSG in Pakistani population. Materials and Methods: Between April 2003 and March 2011, 45 patients with malignant tumors of MSG were treated at Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and included in the study. Patient characteristics and treatment modalities were assessed and local, regional, and distant failures determined. Relapse-free (RFS and overall survival (OS was calculated using Kaplan-Meier curves, and log-rank test was used to determine significance. Results: Median age was 40 (17-83 years. Male to female ratio was 1.25:1. Most common site was hard palate in 31 (69% patients. Adenoid cystic carcinoma (51% was the most common histological diagnosis. Nine patients (20% underwent surgery as the only treatment modality, six patients received (13% radiotherapy alone, and 30 patients (67% had surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. Eight patients developed recurrence (four local, two regional, one locoregional, and one distant. The 5-year actuarial overall OS and RFS was 77 and 66%, respectively. Age, T-stage, and treatment modality were significant for RFS, whereas T-stage and treatment modality were significant factors for OS. Conclusion: Surgery as single modality or combined with radiation therapy resulted in acceptable survival in Pakistani population with malignant minor salivary tumors.

Management level of Intellectual Capital in the Palestinian Universities from the Perspective of Faculty Members in Relationship to the Aspects of Excellence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmoud A.R. Assaf

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The study aimed to identify the degree of assessment given by faculty members of the Palestinian universities about their efforts in managing the intellectual capital, and to identify the aspects of excellence mostly preferred by them and the relationship between these aspects. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher followed the descriptive method by applying two questionnaires: the first consisting of (37 items; and the second comprising (28 items distributed to (4 areas. The sample consisted of (229 faculty members from these universities: (Al-Azhar, the Islamic university and al-Aqsa. They were selected using the random stratified method. The results were as follows: The respondents’ total degree of assessment of the efforts exerted by the universities in intellectual capital was at the rate of (63.8%, which is a medium degree. The area of (management of relations came in first place at a rate of (71.2% with a large degree. The ‘management of intellectual and organizational assets’ was given the last rank with a medium degree and the rate of (56.80% The aspect of excellence that was given the first rank by the respondents was the (development of faculty members and teaching at the rate of (65.2 % , and with a medium degree. The least trend is (supporting talent and creativity which came in the last rank, with a medium degree and a rate of (59.4%. There was a statistically significant correlation of (α≤0.05 between the degree of respondents’ assessment of university efforts in managing intellectual capital and their assessment of the aspects of excellence, recording a correlation coefficient of (0.737 .  Keywords: Aspects of excellence, Intellectual capital, Efforts of Palestinian Universities.

Compressed Sensing with Rank Deficient Dictionaries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Thomas Lundgaard; Johansen, Daniel Højrup; Jørgensen, Peter Bjørn

2012-01-01

In compressed sensing it is generally assumed that the dictionary matrix constitutes a (possibly overcomplete) basis of the signal space. In this paper we consider dictionaries that do not span the signal space, i.e. rank deficient dictionaries. We show that in this case the signal-to-noise ratio...... (SNR) in the compressed samples can be increased by selecting the rows of the measurement matrix from the column space of the dictionary. As an example application of compressed sensing with a rank deficient dictionary, we present a case study of compressed sensing applied to the Coarse Acquisition (C...

Beyond Low-Rank Representations: Orthogonal clustering basis reconstruction with optimized graph structure for multi-view spectral clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yang; Wu, Lin

2018-07-01

Low-Rank Representation (LRR) is arguably one of the most powerful paradigms for Multi-view spectral clustering, which elegantly encodes the multi-view local graph/manifold structures into an intrinsic low-rank self-expressive data similarity embedded in high-dimensional space, to yield a better graph partition than their single-view counterparts. In this paper we revisit it with a fundamentally different perspective by discovering LRR as essentially a latent clustered orthogonal projection based representation winged with an optimized local graph structure for spectral clustering; each column of the representation is fundamentally a cluster basis orthogonal to others to indicate its members, which intuitively projects the view-specific feature representation to be the one spanned by all orthogonal basis to characterize the cluster structures. Upon this finding, we propose our technique with the following: (1) We decompose LRR into latent clustered orthogonal representation via low-rank matrix factorization, to encode the more flexible cluster structures than LRR over primal data objects; (2) We convert the problem of LRR into that of simultaneously learning orthogonal clustered representation and optimized local graph structure for each view; (3) The learned orthogonal clustered representations and local graph structures enjoy the same magnitude for multi-view, so that the ideal multi-view consensus can be readily achieved. The experiments over multi-view datasets validate its superiority, especially over recent state-of-the-art LRR models. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sexual Minority Stressors, Internalizing Symptoms, and Unhealthy Eating Behaviors in Sexual Minority Youth