Neighborhood design plays a critical role in affecting auto ownership around light rail transit developments

There is a growing interest in exploring the relationship between auto ownership and rail transit investment. However, gaining insight into this relationship is challenging, as researchers must disentangle the impact of rail transit on auto ownership from the influences of the built environment and residential self-selection. In a new research centered on the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area, Jason Cao and Xiaoshu Cao examine the effects of light rail transit (LRT), neighborhood design, and self-selection on auto ownership. They find that neighborhood design and residential self-selection influences auto ownership and that LRT does not have an independent impact on auto ownership beyond neighborhood design and self-selection. Their results point to the importance of neighborhood design in rail transit development

Концепт міста й бінарна опозиція “місто / село” у хронотопі Слісаренкової прози

Стаття присвячена виявленню своєрідності зображення міста у прозі О. Слісаренка. Для більшості прозових творів О. Слісаренка характерна наявність антитези “місто / село”, яка розглядається автором у різних ракурсах. Місто виступає у творчості письменника втіленням хаосу, на відміну від сільського простору, який символізує спокій і сталість. У роботі досліджується відображення у прозі О. Слісаренка процесів урбанізації та пов’язаних з ними проблем, а також їх вплив на життя окремої людини і суспільства. Ключові слова: проза, часопростір, футуризм, місто, урбанізація, опозиція “місто / село”, символ.Статья посвящена определению специфики изображения города в прозе О. Слисаренко. Для большинства прозаических произведений О. Слисаренко характерно наличие оппозиции город / село, рассматриваемой автором в различных ракурсах. Город выступает в творчестве писателя воплощением хаоса, в отличие от сельского пространства, символизирующего покой и постоянство. В работе исследуется отражение в прозе О. Слисаренко процессов урбанизации и связанных с ними проблем, а также их влияние на жизнь человека и общества. Ключевые слова: проза, хронотоп, футуризм, город, урбанизация, оппозиция “город / село”, символ.The article is devoted to the determination of special features of imaging the city in the prose by O. Slisarenko. Most prosaic works by O. Slisarenko present the opposition the city / country, examined by the author from different sides. On the contrast to the country which symbolizes rest and constancy, a city is shown by the author as a chaotic space. The reflection of the urbanizational processes and related to them problems and their influence on human and social life in O. Slisarenko’s prose are studied in the work. Keywords: prose, chronotope, futurism, city, urbanization, opposition “city / country”, symbol

Using Multiple-case Studies to Investigate Relationships among Knowledge Management Systems, Business Process and Business Performance: A Task Technology Fit Perspective

In the face of heighted competition, organizations need to continuously improve their competitive advantage. Both knowledge management (KM) and knowledge management systems (KMS) play a pivotal role in helping organizations to stay competitive. There is much research in KMS, however very little is known about how they affect individual and organizational performance. Drawing on task-technology fit theory (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995), this study explores the fit or alignment between business process (task) and KMS (technology) and its impact on KMS utilization based on multiple case studies. Subsequently, the impacts of both the task-technology fit and KMS utilization on individual and business performance are investigated. This paper contributes to the KM literature in several ways. First, it applies task-technology fit theory to an important context, that of KM. Second, it characterizes task as business processes which have the potential to help explain KMS success on business performance. Third, the paper explores the positive impact of task-technology fit on KMS utilization and business performance. Fourth, the study provides insight into the future development of KMS which are better aligned with managerial purpose

Evidence that the AGN dominates the radio emission in z ~ 1 radio-quiet quasars

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Sarah V. White, Matt J. Jarvis, Eleni Kalfoutnzou, Martin J. Hardcastle, Aprajita Verma, Mose M. Cao Orjales, and Jason Stevens, 'Evidence that the AGN dominates the radio emission in z ~ 1 radio quiet quasars', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, first published online 3 February 2017, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx284 Key results are presented in Table 4 and Figure 7, which illustrates where the RQQs lie in relation to the far-infrared--radio correlation © 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.In order to understand the role of radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) in galaxy evolution, we must determine the relative levels of accretion and star-formation activity within these objects. Previous work at low radio flux-densities has shown that accretion makes a significant contribution to the total radio emission, in contrast with other quasar studies that suggest star formation dominates. To investigate, we use 70 RQQs from the Spitzer-Herschel Active Galaxy Survey. These quasars are all at $z$ ~ 1, thereby minimising evolutionary effects, and have been selected to span a factor of ~100 in optical luminosity, so that the luminosity dependence of their properties can be studied. We have imaged the sample using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA), whose high sensitivity results in 35 RQQs being detected above 2 $\sigma$. This radio dataset is combined with far-infrared luminosities derived from grey-body fitting to Herschel photometry. By exploiting the far-infrared--radio correlation observed for star-forming galaxies, and comparing two independent estimates of the star-formation rate, we show that star formation alone is not sufficient to explain the total radio emission. Considering RQQs above a 2-$\sigma$ detection level in both the radio and the far-infrared, 92 per cent are accretion-dominated, and the accretion process accounts for 80 per cent of the radio luminosity when summed across the objects. The radio emission connected with accretion appears to be correlated with the optical luminosity of the RQQ, whilst a weaker luminosity-dependence is evident for the radio emission connected with star formation.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Consistency Conditions for an AdS/MERA Correspondence

The Multi-scale Entanglement Renormalization Ansatz (MERA) is a tensor network that provides an efficient way of variationally estimating the ground state of a critical quantum system. The network geometry resembles a discretization of spatial slices of an AdS spacetime and "geodesics" in the MERA reproduce the Ryu-Takayanagi formula for the entanglement entropy of a boundary region in terms of bulk properties. It has therefore been suggested that there could be an AdS/MERA correspondence, relating states in the Hilbert space of the boundary quantum system to ones defined on the bulk lattice. Here we investigate this proposal and derive necessary conditions for it to apply, using geometric features and entropy inequalities that we expect to hold in the bulk. We show that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the MERA lattice can only describe physics on length scales larger than the AdS radius. Further, using the covariant entropy bound in the bulk, we show that there are no conventional MERA parameters that completely reproduce bulk physics even on super-AdS scales. We suggest modifications or generalizations of this kind of tensor network that may be able to provide a more robust correspondence.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figure

Effects of currently prescribed LDL-C-lowering drugs on PCSK9 and implications for the next generation of LDL-C-lowering agents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During the past decade, proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has been identified as a key regulator of serum LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. PCSK9 is secreted by the liver into the plasma and binds the hepatic LDL receptor, causing its subsequent degradation. In humans, gain-of-function mutations in PCSK9 cause a form of familial hypercholesterolemia that manifests with dramatically increased serum levels of LDL-C, while loss-of-function mutations in PCSK9 are associated with significantly decreased LDL-C and cardiovascular risk.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Initial studies in animals and cultured cells demonstrated that statins increased PCSK9 mRNA expression, resulting in many research groups exploring the effect of statins on PCSK9 levels in humans. We first reported that statins increased human PCSK9 circulating protein levels. Additional researchers subsequently confirmed these observations, further prompting many laboratories including our own to examine the effect of other lipid lowering medications on PCSK9 levels. Our observation that fenofibrate (200 mg/day) significantly increased PCSK9 levels was confirmed by another laboratory, and an additional group demonstrated that ezetimibe also increased PCSK9 levels.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It has become clear that the major classes of commonly prescribed lipid-lowering medications increase serum PCSK9 levels. These observations almost certainly explain why these agents are not more effective in lowering LDL-C and suggest that efforts should be made toward the development of new LDL-C lowering medications that either do not increase circulating PCSK9 levels or work through decreasing or inhibiting PCSK9.</p

Reforging the Wedding Ring::Exploring a Semi-Artificial Model of Population for the United Kingdom with Gaussian process

We extend the ‘Wedding Ring’ agent-based model of marriage formation to include some empirical information on the natural population change for the United Kingdom together with behavioural explanations that drive the observed demographic trends. We propose a method to explore statistical properties of agent-based demographic models. By coupling rule-based explanations driving the agent-based model with observed data we wish to bring agent-based modelling and demographic analysis closer together. We present a Semi-Artificial Model of Population, which aims to bridge demographic micro-simulation and agent-based traditions. We then utilise a Gaussian process emulator – a statistical model of the base model – to analyse the impact of selected model parameters on two key model outputs: population size and share of married agents. A sensitivity analysis is attempted, aiming to assess the relative importance of different inputs. The resulting multi-state model of population dynamics has enhanced predictive capacity as compared to the original specification of the Wedding Ring, but there are some trade-offs between the outputs considered. The sensitivity analysis allows the identification of the most important parameters in the modelled marriage formation process. The proposed methods allow for generating coherent, multi-level agent-based scenarios aligned with some aspects of empirical demographic reality. Emulators permit a statistical analysis of their properties and help select plausible parameter values. Given non-linearities in agent-based models such as the Wedding Ring, and the presence of feedback loops, the uncertainty of the model cannot be assessed directly using traditional statistical methods. The use of statistical emulators offers a way forward<br/