Dimensions of Genocide: The Circumplex Model Meets Violentization Theory

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of Olson’s (1995, 2000) family therapy based circumplex model and Athens’ (1992, 1997, 2003) violentization theory in explaining genocide. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is used as a case study. Published texts, including interviews with perpetrators, research reports, human rights reports, and court transcripts were analyzed. The use of both theories was consistent with the data and resulted in a greater understanding of the genocide. Rwanda moved to a rigidly enmeshed society during the genocide with the perpetrators going through the violentization process. Suggestions for further research are provided

Bank capital, borrower power, and loan rates

We examine how bank capital and borrower bargaining power affect loan spreads. Consistent with previous studies, higher bank capital has a negative impact on loan rates, but borrower cash flow has a significant effect on this impact: Compared with high-capital banks, low-capital banks charge more for borrowers with low cash flow, but offer greater marginal discounts as these borrowers' cash flow rises. These effects are largely focused on more bank-dependent borrowers. We find some evidence that low-capital banks charge a higher premium for bank-dependent borrowers' systematic risk, but not for their total equity risk or default risk. Received January 27, 2015; editorial decision July 7, 2018 by Editor Philip Strahan. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.authorsversionpublishe

Microbial and metabolic succession on common building materials under high humidity conditions.

Despite considerable efforts to characterize the microbial ecology of the built environment, the metabolic mechanisms underpinning microbial colonization and successional dynamics remain unclear, particularly at high moisture conditions. Here, we applied bacterial/viral particle counting, qPCR, amplicon sequencing of the genes encoding 16S and ITS rRNA, and metabolomics to longitudinally characterize the ecological dynamics of four common building materials maintained at high humidity. We varied the natural inoculum provided to each material and wet half of the samples to simulate a potable water leak. Wetted materials had higher growth rates and lower alpha diversity compared to non-wetted materials, and wetting described the majority of the variance in bacterial, fungal, and metabolite structure. Inoculation location was weakly associated with bacterial and fungal beta diversity. Material type influenced bacterial and viral particle abundance and bacterial and metabolic (but not fungal) diversity. Metabolites indicative of microbial activity were identified, and they too differed by material

Quantum pseudo-randomness from cluster-state quantum computation

We show how to efficiently generate pseudo-random states suitable for quantum information processing via cluster-state quantum computation. By reformulating pseudo-random algorithms in the cluster-state picture, we identify a strategy for optimizing pseudo-random circuits by properly choosing single-qubit rotations. A Markov chain analysis provides the tool for analyzing convergence rates to the Haar measure and finding the optimal single-qubit gate distribution. Our results may be viewed as an alternative construction of approximate unitary 2-designs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, version appearing in Phys. Rev.

Characterization of a heat resistant beta-glucosidase as a new reporter in cells and mice.

BACKGROUND: Reporter genes are widely used in biology and only a limited number are available. We present a new reporter gene for the localization of mammalian cells and transgenic tissues based on detection of the bglA (SYNbglA) gene of Caldocellum saccharolyticum that encodes a thermophilic beta-glucosidase. RESULTS: SYNbglA was generated by introducing codon substitutions to remove CpG motifs as these are associated with gene silencing in mammalian cells. SYNbglA expression can be localized in situ or detected quantitatively in colorimetric assays and can be co-localized with E. coli beta-galactosidase. Further, we have generated a Cre-reporter mouse in which SYNbglA is expressed following recombination to demonstrate the general utility of SYNbglA for in vivo analyses. SYNbglA can be detected in tissue wholemounts and in frozen and wax embedded sections. CONCLUSIONS: SYNbglA will have general applicability to developmental and molecular studies in vitro and in vivo.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Potential drivers of virulence evolution in aquaculture

Infectious diseases are economically detrimental to aquaculture, and with continued expansion and intensification of aquaculture, the importance of managing infectious diseases will likely increase in the future. Here, we use evolution of virulence theory, along with examples, to identify aquaculture practices that might lead to the evolution of increased pathogen virulence. We identify eight practices common in aquaculture that theory predicts may favor evolution toward higher pathogen virulence. Four are related to intensive aquaculture operations, and four others are related specifically to infectious disease control. Our intention is to make aquaculture managers aware of these risks, such that with increased vigilance, they might be able to detect and prevent the emergence and spread of increasingly troublesome pathogen strains in the future

Parameters of Pseudo-Random Quantum Circuits

Pseudorandom circuits generate quantum states and unitary operators which are approximately distributed according to the unitarily invariant Haar measure. We explore how several design parameters affect the efficiency of pseudo-random circuits, with the goal of identifying relevant trade-offs and optimizing convergence. The parameters we explore include the choice of single- and two-qubit gates, the topology of the underlying physical qubit architecture, the probabilistic application of two-qubit gates, as well as circuit size, initialization, and the effect of control constraints. Building on the equivalence between pseudo-random circuits and approximate $t$-designs, a Markov matrix approach is employed to analyze asymptotic convergence properties of pseudo-random second-order moments to a 2-design. Quantitative results on the convergence rate as a function of the circuit size are presented for qubit topologies with a sufficient degree of symmetry. Our results may be theoretically and practically useful to optimize the efficiency of random state and operator generation.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 2 Appendice