451 research outputs found
Intimate Partner Violence Against Ahtna (Alaska Native) Women in the Copper River Basin
This study examined the frequency, severity, and consequences of intimate partner violence against an availability sample of Athabaskan women (n=91) residing in the interior of Alaska. Data about victimization experiences as well as cultural involvement, residential mobility, living arrangements, social cohesion, alcohol use, and post-traumatic stress were gathered through interviews. Slightly less than two-thirds of respondents (63.7%) reported intimate partner violence victimization at some point in their lifetime. Nearly one out of five women surveyed (17.6%) reported that they had been physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the most recent 12 months. Intimate partner victimization was more prevalant and more frequent when compared to what has been reported by the National Violence Against Women Survey.National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice
Grant No. 2000-WT-VX-0013Table of Contents /
Table of Tables /
Table of Figures /
Abstract /
Executive Summary /
Acknowledgements /
INTRODUCTION:
The Setting;
The Problem //
METHODS:
Collaboration and Cultural Sensitivity /
Subject Recruitment /
Subject Safety and the IRB /
Survey Instrument //
RESULTS:
Prevalence and Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence /
Comparison with Previous Estimates /
Correlates and Risk Factors Associated with Intimate Partner Violence /
Injury Among Victims of Intimate Partner Violence /
Victims' Involvement with the Justice System //
CONCLUSIONS /
REFERENCES /
APPENDICES:
Main Survey Instrument;
Detailed Physical Assault Incident Repor
Electron degeneracy and intrinsic magnetic properties of epitaxial Nb:SrTiO thin-films controlled by defects
We report thermoelectric power experiments in e-doped thin films of SrTiO
(STO) which demonstrate that the electronic band degeneracy can be lifted
through defect management during growth. We show that even small amounts of
cationic vacancies, combined with epitaxial stress, produce a homogeneous
tetragonal distortion of the films, resulting in a Kondo-like resistance upturn
at low temperature, large anisotropic magnetoresistance, and non-linear Hall
effect. Ab-initio calculations confirm a different occupation of each band
depending on the degree of tetragonal distortion. The phenomenology reported in
this paper for tetragonally distorted e-doped STO thin films, is similarto that
observed in LaAlO/STO interfaces and magnetic STO quantum wells.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Integrality gaps of semidefinite programs for Vertex Cover and relations to ell embeddability of negative type metrics
We study various SDP formulations for Vertex Cover by adding different constraints to the standard formulation. We rule out approximations better than
even when we add the so-called pentagonal inequality constraints to the standard SDP formulation, and thus almost meet the
best upper bound known due to Karakostas, of
. We further show the surprising fact that by strengthening the SDP with the (intractable) requirement that the metric interpretation
of the solution embeds into ℓ1 with no distortion, we get an exact relaxation (integrality gap is 1), and on the other hand if the solution is arbitrarily
close to being ℓ1 embeddable, the integrality gap is 2 − o(1). Finally, inspired by the above findings, we use ideas from the integrality gap construction of Charikar to provide a
family of simple examples for negative type metrics that cannot be embedded into ℓ1 with distortion better than 8/7 − ε. To this end we prove a new isoperimetric inequality for the hypercube.
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Randomized Extended Kaczmarz for Solving Least-Squares
We present a randomized iterative algorithm that exponentially converges in
expectation to the minimum Euclidean norm least squares solution of a given
linear system of equations. The expected number of arithmetic operations
required to obtain an estimate of given accuracy is proportional to the square
condition number of the system multiplied by the number of non-zeros entries of
the input matrix. The proposed algorithm is an extension of the randomized
Kaczmarz method that was analyzed by Strohmer and Vershynin.Comment: 19 Pages, 5 figures; code is available at
https://github.com/zouzias/RE
Efficient Triangle Counting in Large Graphs via Degree-based Vertex Partitioning
The number of triangles is a computationally expensive graph statistic which
is frequently used in complex network analysis (e.g., transitivity ratio), in
various random graph models (e.g., exponential random graph model) and in
important real world applications such as spam detection, uncovering of the
hidden thematic structure of the Web and link recommendation. Counting
triangles in graphs with millions and billions of edges requires algorithms
which run fast, use small amount of space, provide accurate estimates of the
number of triangles and preferably are parallelizable.
In this paper we present an efficient triangle counting algorithm which can
be adapted to the semistreaming model. The key idea of our algorithm is to
combine the sampling algorithm of Tsourakakis et al. and the partitioning of
the set of vertices into a high degree and a low degree subset respectively as
in the Alon, Yuster and Zwick work treating each set appropriately. We obtain a
running time
and an approximation (multiplicative error), where is the number
of vertices, the number of edges and the maximum number of
triangles an edge is contained.
Furthermore, we show how this algorithm can be adapted to the semistreaming
model with space usage and a constant number of passes (three) over the graph
stream. We apply our methods in various networks with several millions of edges
and we obtain excellent results. Finally, we propose a random projection based
method for triangle counting and provide a sufficient condition to obtain an
estimate with low variance.Comment: 1) 12 pages 2) To appear in the 7th Workshop on Algorithms and Models
for the Web Graph (WAW 2010
Circulating miR-181 is a prognostic biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a relentless neurodegenerative disease of the human motor neuron system, where variability in progression rate limits clinical trial efficacy. Therefore, better prognostication will facilitate therapeutic progress. In this study, we investigated the potential of plasma cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) as ALS prognostication biomarkers in 252 patients with detailed clinical phenotyping. First, we identified, in a longitudinal cohort, miRNAs whose plasma levels remain stable over the course of disease. Next, we showed that high levels of miR-181, a miRNA enriched in neurons, predicts a greater than two-fold risk of death in independent discovery and replication cohorts (126 and 122 patients, respectively). miR-181 performance is similar to neurofilament light chain (NfL), and when combined together, miR-181 + NfL establish a novel RNA–protein biomarker pair with superior prognostication capacity. Therefore, plasma miR-181 alone and a novel miRNA–protein biomarker approach, based on miR-181 + NfL, boost precision of patient stratification. miR-181-based ALS biomarkers encourage additional validation and might enhance the power of clinical trials
Comparative biochemical analysis of HIV-1 subtype B and C integrase enzymes
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Integrase inhibitors are currently being incorporated into highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Due to high HIV variability, integrase inhibitor efficacy must be evaluated against a range of integrase enzymes from different subtypes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study compares the enzymatic activities of HIV-1 integrase from subtypes B and C as well as susceptibility to various integrase inhibitors <it>in vitro</it>. The catalytic activities of both enzymes were analyzed in regard to each of 3' processing and strand transfer activities both in the presence and absence of the integrase inhibitors raltegravir (RAL), elvitegravir (EVG), and MK-2048.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results show that integrase function is similar with enzymes of either subtype and that the various integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) that were employed possessed similar inhibitory activity against both enzymes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This suggests that the use of integrase inhibitors against HIV-1 subtype C will result in comparable outcomes to those obtained against subtype B infections.</p
Potassium fertilization: paradox or K management dilemma?
In 2014, Khan et al. presented evidence that soil exchangeable K (Exch-K) increases over time without addition of potassium (K) to the soil despite the removal of K in crops on a soil rich in montmorillonite and illite. The authors term this behavior ‘The potassium paradox’. From their review of the literature, the authors also report a lack of crop response to potassium chloride (KCl) fertilization. Close evaluation of these findings reveals that their observations can be interpreted and predicted using current knowledge of K in soil chemistry and its uptake by plants, and there is no paradox in K behavior in the soil–plant system. There is also no evidence of a detrimental effect of KCl on crop yield or quality. Their conclusion that the widely used Exch-K soil test is inadequate for managing K fertilization is discussed and some possible modifications to improve its performance are included. We believe that measurement of Exch-K is an essential and valuable tool and its use should be continued, along with improvements in recommending K fertilizer application
The Threat of Capital Drain: A Rationale for Public Banks?
This paper yields a rationale for why subsidized public banks may be desirable from a regional perspective in a financially integrated economy. We present a model with credit rationing and heterogeneous regions in which public banks prevent a capital drain from poorer to richer regions by subsidizing local depositors, for example, through a public guarantee. Under some conditions, cooperative banks can perform the same function without any subsidization; however, they may be crowded out by public banks. We also discuss the impact of the political structure on the emergence of public banks in a political-economy setting and the role of interregional mobility
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