Popularity versus Similarity in Growing Networks

Popularity is attractive -- this is the formula underlying preferential attachment, a popular explanation for the emergence of scaling in growing networks. If new connections are made preferentially to more popular nodes, then the resulting distribution of the number of connections that nodes have follows power laws observed in many real networks. Preferential attachment has been directly validated for some real networks, including the Internet. Preferential attachment can also be a consequence of different underlying processes based on node fitness, ranking, optimization, random walks, or duplication. Here we show that popularity is just one dimension of attractiveness. Another dimension is similarity. We develop a framework where new connections, instead of preferring popular nodes, optimize certain trade-offs between popularity and similarity. The framework admits a geometric interpretation, in which popularity preference emerges from local optimization. As opposed to preferential attachment, the optimization framework accurately describes large-scale evolution of technological (Internet), social (web of trust), and biological (E.coli metabolic) networks, predicting the probability of new links in them with a remarkable precision. The developed framework can thus be used for predicting new links in evolving networks, and provides a different perspective on preferential attachment as an emergent phenomenon

Renal amyloidosis in children

Renal amyloidosis is a detrimental disease caused by the deposition of amyloid fibrils. A child with renal amyloidosis may present with proteinuria or nephrotic syndrome. Chronic renal failure may follow. Amyloid fibrils may deposit in other organs as well. The diagnosis is through the typical appearance on histopathology. Although chronic infections and chronic inflammatory diseases used to be the causes of secondary amyloidosis in children, the most frequent cause is now autoinflammatory diseases. Among this group of diseases, the most frequent one throughout the world is familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). FMF is typically characterized by attacks of clinical inflammation in the form of fever and serositis and high acute-phase reactants. Persisting inflammation in inadequately treated disease is associated with the development of secondary amyloidosis. The main treatment is colchicine. A number of other monogenic autoinflammatory diseases have also been identified. Among them cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) is outstanding with its clinical features and the predilection to develop secondary amyloidosis in untreated cases. The treatment of secondary amyloidosis mainly depends on the treatment of the disease. However, a number of new treatments for amyloid per se are in the pipeline

Factors related to the impact of chronically disabled children on their families.

BACKGROUND: This study to investigated the effects of chronically disabled children (CDC) on their families. METHOD: The study included 655 CDD and their families from 45 cities located in Turkey representing the seven regions of the country. Sociodemographic characteristics, presence of mental retardation, primary care-giver, presence of social insurance, the number of other children and other family members living in the family, duration of the disorder, disabling conditions in the other children, time spent for care giving, and level of income were recorded. WeeFIM (Functional Independence for Children) and Impact on Family Scale (IPFAM) were administered to evaluate the level of functional independence and the overall burden on the families, respectively. RESULTS: IPFAM and WeeFIM scores were not different between geographical regions (P > 0.05). Functional independence level of the child and the level of education of the mothers were significant contributors to the disruption of social relations subscale of IPFAM (P 0.05). CONCLUSION: Although some are expected, certain intriguing results, such as the impact of the mothers' literacy level, warrant further larger scale comprehensive studies to investigate the factors that contribute to the impact of CDC on their families. Also, policies that focus on family centered rehabilitation approaches should be encouraged in an effort to decrease the overall impact of CDC on families

Consanguineous marriages in Denizli, Turkey.

For the study 1000 families were interviewed during 1996 in the city of Denizli, which is situated in Western Anatolia and has a population of 79211 families. The overall rate of consanguinity was 11.7%, with a mean inbreeding coefficient of 0.00873. The principal type of consanguineous marriage recorded was between first cousins, which accounted for 49.6% of all unions. For both sexes, a significant negative association was observed between consanguinity and mean age at marriage and level of education