36,429 research outputs found
Profile-Based Optimal Matchings in the Student-Project Allocation Problem
In the Student/Project Allocation problem (spa) we seek to assign students to individual or group projects offered by lecturers. Students provide a list of projects they find acceptable in order of preference. Each student can be assigned to at most one project and there are constraints on the maximum number of students that can be assigned to each project and lecturer. We seek matchings of students to projects that are optimal with respect to profile, which is a vector whose rth component indicates how many students have their rth-choice project. We present an efficient algorithm for finding agreedy maximum matching in the spa context – this is a maximum matching whose profile is lexicographically maximum. We then show how to adapt this algorithm to find a generous maximum matching – this is a matching whose reverse profile is lexicographically minimum. Our algorithms involve finding optimal flows in networks. We demonstrate how this approach can allow for additional constraints, such as lecturer lower quotas, to be handled flexibly
Active site voltage clamp fluorometry of the sodium glucose cotransporter hSGLT1.
In the human sodium glucose cotransporter (hSGLT1) cycle, the protein undergoes conformational changes where the sugar-binding site alternatively faces the external and internal surfaces. Functional site-directed fluorometry was used to probe the conformational changes at the sugar-binding site. Residues (Y290, T287, H83, and N78) were mutated to cysteines. The mutants were expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes and tagged with environmentally sensitive fluorescent rhodamines [e.g., tetramethylrhodamine (TMR)-thiols]. The fluorescence intensity was recorded as the mutants were driven into different conformations using voltage jumps. Sugar binding and transport by the fluorophore-tagged mutants were blocked, but Na+ binding and the voltage-dependent conformational transitions were unaffected. Structural models indicated that external Na+ binding opened a large aqueous vestibule (600 Ă…3) leading to the sugar-binding site. The fluorescence of TMR covalently linked to Y290C, T287C, and H83C decreased as the mutant proteins were driven from the inward to the outward open Na+-bound conformation. The time courses of fluorescence changes (milliseconds) were close to the SGLT1 capacitive charge movements. The quench in rhodamine fluorescence indicated that the environment of the chromophores became more polar with opening of the external gates as the protein transitioned from the inward to outward facing state. Structural analyses showed an increase in polar side chains and a decrease in hydrophobic side chains lining the vestibule, and this was reflected in solvation of the chromophore. The results demonstrate the opening and closing of external gates in real time, with the accompanying changes of polarity of the sugar vestibule
Expressive Stream Reasoning with Laser
An increasing number of use cases require a timely extraction of non-trivial
knowledge from semantically annotated data streams, especially on the Web and
for the Internet of Things (IoT). Often, this extraction requires expressive
reasoning, which is challenging to compute on large streams. We propose Laser,
a new reasoner that supports a pragmatic, non-trivial fragment of the logic
LARS which extends Answer Set Programming (ASP) for streams. At its core, Laser
implements a novel evaluation procedure which annotates formulae to avoid the
re-computation of duplicates at multiple time points. This procedure, combined
with a judicious implementation of the LARS operators, is responsible for
significantly better runtimes than the ones of other state-of-the-art systems
like C-SPARQL and CQELS, or an implementation of LARS which runs on the ASP
solver Clingo. This enables the application of expressive logic-based reasoning
to large streams and opens the door to a wider range of stream reasoning use
cases.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. Extended version of accepted paper at ISWC 201
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Oral contraceptive use and breast cancer risk: retrospective and prospective analyses from a BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carrier cohort study
Background
For BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, the association between oral contraceptive preparation (OCP) use and breast cancer (BC) risk is still unclear.
Methods
BC risk associations were estimated from OCP data on 6,030 BRCA1 and 3,809 BRCA2 mutation carriers using age-dependent Cox regression, stratified by study and birth cohort. Prospective, left-truncated retrospective and full-cohort retrospective analyses were performed.
Results
For BRCA1 mutation carriers, OCP use was not associated with BC risk from prospective analyses (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.08;95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.75-1.56), but from the left-truncated and full-cohort retrospective analyses risks were increased by 26% (95%CI 6%-51%) and 39% (95%CI 23%-58%), respectively. For BRCA2 mutation carriers, OCP use was associated with BC risk from prospective analyses (HR 1.75;95%CI 1.03-2.97), but retrospective analyses were inconsistent (left-truncated: HR 1.06;95%CI 0.85-1.33; full-cohort: HR 1.52;95%CI 1.28-1.81). There was evidence of increasing risk with duration of use, especially before first full-term pregnancy (BRCA1: both retrospective analyses, p<0.001 and p=0.001, respectively; BRCA2: full-retrospective analysis, p=0.002).
Conclusions
Prospective analyses did not show that past use of OCP is associated with an increased BC risk for BRCA1 mutation carriers in young middle age women (40-50 years). For BRCA2 mutation carriers, a causal association is also not likely at those ages. Findings between retrospective and prospective analyses were inconsistent and could be due to survival bias or a true association for younger women who were underrepresented in the prospective cohort. Given uncertain safety of OCP use for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, indications other than contraception should be avoided and non-hormonal contraceptive methods discussed
Functional renormalization group with a compactly supported smooth regulator function
The functional renormalization group equation with a compactly supported
smooth (CSS) regulator function is considered. It is demonstrated that in an
appropriate limit the CSS regulator recovers the optimized one and it has
derivatives of all orders. The more generalized form of the CSS regulator is
shown to reduce to all major type of regulator functions (exponential,
power-law) in appropriate limits. The CSS regulator function is tested by
studying the critical behavior of the bosonized two-dimensional quantum
electrodynamics in the local potential approximation and the sine-Gordon scalar
theory for d<2 dimensions beyond the local potential approximation. It is shown
that a similar smoothing problem in nuclear physics has already been solved by
introducing the so called Salamon-Vertse potential which can be related to the
CSS regulator.Comment: JHEP style, 11 pages, 2 figures, proofs corrected, accepted for
publication by JHE
Infrared fixed point in quantum Einstein gravity
We performed the renormalization group analysis of the quantum Einstein
gravity in the deep infrared regime for different types of extensions of the
model. It is shown that an attractive infrared point exists in the broken
symmetric phase of the model. It is also shown that due to the Gaussian fixed
point the IR critical exponent of the correlation length is 1/2. However,
there exists a certain extension of the model which gives finite correlation
length in the broken symmetric phase. It typically appears in case of models
possessing a first order phase transitions as is demonstrated on the example of
the scalar field theory with a Coleman-Weinberg potential.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, final version, to appear in JHE
Fidelity analysis of topological quantum phase transitions
We apply the fidelity metric approach to analyze two recently introduced models that exhibit a quantum phase transition to a topologically ordered phase. These quantum models have a known connection to classical statistical mechanical models; we exploit this mapping to obtain the scaling of the fidelity metric tensor near criticality. The topological phase transitions manifest themselves in divergences of the fidelity metric across the phase boundaries. These results provide evidence that the fidelity approach is a valuable tool to investigate novel phases lacking a clear characterization in terms of local order parameters
Pareto Optimal Matchings in Many-to-Many Markets with Ties
We consider Pareto-optimal matchings (POMs) in a many-to-many market of
applicants and courses where applicants have preferences, which may include
ties, over individual courses and lexicographic preferences over sets of
courses. Since this is the most general setting examined so far in the
literature, our work unifies and generalizes several known results.
Specifically, we characterize POMs and introduce the \emph{Generalized Serial
Dictatorship Mechanism with Ties (GSDT)} that effectively handles ties via
properties of network flows. We show that GSDT can generate all POMs using
different priority orderings over the applicants, but it satisfies truthfulness
only for certain such orderings. This shortcoming is not specific to our
mechanism; we show that any mechanism generating all POMs in our setting is
prone to strategic manipulation. This is in contrast to the one-to-one case
(with or without ties), for which truthful mechanisms generating all POMs do
exist
Running Gauge Coupling in Asymptotically Safe Quantum Gravity
We investigate the non-perturbative renormalization group behavior of the
gauge coupling constant using a truncated form of the functional flow equation
for the effective average action of the Yang-Mills-gravity system. We find a
non-zero quantum gravity correction to the standard Yang-Mills beta function
which has the same sign as the gauge boson contribution. Our results fit into
the picture according to which Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is asymptotically
safe, with a vanishing gauge coupling constant at the non-trivial fixed point.Comment: 27 page
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