Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War

Images of the War in Tennessee The 20th anniversary of the publication of the first volume in the Portraits of Conflict series is appropriately marked by the appearance of this new book on Tennessee by Richard B. McCaslin. The author, a veteran of the seriesùhaving produced studies ...

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

The Life of Young Hickory Is there room for another biography of James K. Polk? Apparently so, as evidenced by the publication of Walter Borneman’s readable study of the nation’s eleventh president. Based largely and effectively upon Polk’s published diary (which covers only the preside...

Precision Cultural Practices for Commercial Vegetable Production (Bulletin #836)

The objectives of this bulletin are to present a summary of research on precision cultural practices by the LSU AgCenter, to explain and discuss the advantages of these cultural practices, and to recommend practices that should help commercial vegetable growers.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_bulletins/1010/thumbnail.jp

Genetic consequences of fragmentation in “arbor vitae,” eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalisL.), toward the northern limit of its distribution range

We tested the hypothesis that marginal fragmented populations of eastern white cedar (EWC) are genetically isolated due to reduced pollen and gene flow. In accordance with the central-marginal model, we predicted a decrease in population genetic diversity and an increase in differentiation along the latitudinal gradient from the boreal mixed-wood to northern coniferous forest. A total of 24 eastern white cedar populations were sampled along the north-south latitudinal gradient for microsatellite genotyping analysis. Positive Fis values and heterozygote deficiency were observed in populations from the marginal (Fis = 0.244; PHW = 0.0042) and discontinuous zones (Fis = 0.166; PHW = 0.0042). However, populations from the continuous zone were in HW equilibrium (Fis = -0.007; PHW = 0.3625). There were no significant latitudinal effects on gene diversity (Hs), allelic richness (AR), or population differentiation (Fst). Bayesian and NJT (neighbor-joining tree) analyses demonstrated the presence of a population structure that was partly consistent with the geographic origins of the populations. The impact of population fragmentation on the genetic structure of EWC is to create a positive inbreeding coefficient, which was two to three times higher on average than that of a population from the continuous zone. This result indicated a higher occurrence of selfing within fragmented EWC populations coupled with a higher degree of gene exchange among nearneighbor relatives, thereby leading to significant inbreeding. Increased population isolation was apparently not correlated with a detectable effect on genetic diversity. Overall, the fragmented populations of EWC appear well-buffered against effects of inbreeding on genetic erosion

A Randomized, Controlled Trial on the Effects of Almonds on Lipoprotein Response to a Higher Carbohydrate, Lower Fat Diet in Men and Women with Abdominal Adiposity.

BACKGROUND: Almonds have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol but there is limited information regarding their effects on the dyslipidemia characterized by increased levels of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles that is associated with abdominal adiposity and high carbohydrate intake. The objective of the present study was to test whether substitution of almonds for other foods attenuates carbohydrate-induced increases in small, dense LDL in individuals with increased abdominal adiposity. METHODS: This was a randomized cross-over study of three 3wk diets, separated by 2wk washouts: a higher-carbohydrate (CHO) reference diet (CHO RESULTS: Relative to the CHO CONCLUSION: Our analyses provided no evidence that deriving 20% E from almonds significantly modifies increases in levels of small, dense LDL or other plasma lipoprotein changes induced by a higher carbohydrate low saturated fat diet in individuals with increased abdominal adiposity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01792648

Positive pleiotropic effects of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor on vitiligo

BACKGROUND: HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) are commonly used in medicine to control blood lipid disorder. Large clinical trials have demonstrated that statins greatly reduces cardiovascular-related morbidity and mortality in patients with and without coronary artery disease. Also, the use of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors has been reported to have immunosuppressive effects. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe an unusual case of regression of vitiligo in a patient treated with high dose simvastatin. The relation between simvastatin and regression of vitiligo in this case report may be related to the autoimmune pathophysiology of the disease. CONCLUSION: This unexpected beneficial impact provides another scientific credence to the hypothesis that immune mechanisms play a role in the development of vitiligo and that the use of statins as immuno-modulator could be of use not only for treatment relative to organ transplant but in other pathologies such as vitiligo

Zero-sum thinking, the evolution of effort suppressing beliefs, and economic development

We study the evolution of belief systems that suppress productive effort. These include concerns about the envy of others, beliefs in the importance of luck for success, disdain for competitive effort, and traditional beliefs in witchcraft. We show that such demotivating beliefs can evolve when interactions are zero-sum in nature, i.e., gains for one individual tend to come at the expense of others. Within a population, our model predicts a divergence between material and subjective payoffs, with material welfare being hump-shaped and subjective well-being being decreasing in demotivating beliefs. Across societies, our model predicts a positive relationship between zero-sum thinking and demotivating beliefs and a negative relationship between zero-sum thinking (or demotivating beliefs) and both material welfare and subjective well-being. We test the model’s predictions using data from two samples in the Democratic Republic of Congo and from the World Values Survey. In the DRC, we find a positive relationship between zero-sum thinking and the presence of demotivating beliefs, such as concerns about envy and beliefs in witchcraft. Globally, zero-sum thinking is associated with skepticism about the importance of hard work for success, lower income, less educational attainment, less financial security, and lower life satisfaction. Comparing individuals in the same zero-sum environment, we observe the divergence between material outcomes and subjective well-being predicted by our model

Performance Measurements of Supercomputing and Cloud Storage Solutions

Increasing amounts of data from varied sources, particularly in the fields of machine learning and graph analytics, are causing storage requirements to grow rapidly. A variety of technologies exist for storing and sharing these data, ranging from parallel file systems used by supercomputers to distributed block storage systems found in clouds. Relatively few comparative measurements exist to inform decisions about which storage systems are best suited for particular tasks. This work provides these measurements for two of the most popular storage technologies: Lustre and Amazon S3. Lustre is an open-source, high performance, parallel file system used by many of the largest supercomputers in the world. Amazon's Simple Storage Service, or S3, is part of the Amazon Web Services offering, and offers a scalable, distributed option to store and retrieve data from anywhere on the Internet. Parallel processing is essential for achieving high performance on modern storage systems. The performance tests used span the gamut of parallel I/O scenarios, ranging from single-client, single-node Amazon S3 and Lustre performance to a large-scale, multi-client test designed to demonstrate the capabilities of a modern storage appliance under heavy load. These results show that, when parallel I/O is used correctly (i.e., many simultaneous read or write processes), full network bandwidth performance is achievable and ranged from 10 gigabits/s over a 10 GigE S3 connection to 0.35 terabits/s using Lustre on a 1200 port 10 GigE switch. These results demonstrate that S3 is well-suited to sharing vast quantities of data over the Internet, while Lustre is well-suited to processing large quantities of data locally.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in IEEE HPEC 201