Measuring discursive influence across scholarship

Assessing scholarly influence is critical for understanding the collective system of scholarship and the history of academic inquiry. Influence is multifaceted, and citations reveal only part of it. Citation counts exhibit preferential attachment and follow a rigid “news cycle” that can miss sustained and indirect forms of influence. Building on dynamic topic models that track distributional shifts in discourse over time, we introduce a variant that incorporates features, such as authorship, affiliation, and publication venue, to assess how these contexts interact with content to shape future scholarship. We perform in-depth analyses on collections of physics research (500,000 abstracts; 102 years) and scholarship generally (JSTOR repository: 2 million full-text articles; 130 years). Our measure of document influence helps predict citations and shows how outcomes, such as winning a Nobel Prize or affiliation with a highly ranked institution, boost influence. Analysis of citations alongside discursive influence reveals that citations tend to credit authors who persist in their fields over time and discount credit for works that are influential over many topics or are “ahead of their time.” In this way, our measures provide a way to acknowledge diverse contributions that take longer and travel farther to achieve scholarly appreciation, enabling us to correct citation biases and enhance sensitivity to the full spectrum of scholarly impact

Birational cobordism invariance of uniruled symplectic manifolds

A symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$ is called {\em (symplectically) uniruled} if there is a nonzero genus zero GW invariant involving a point constraint. We prove that symplectic uniruledness is invariant under symplectic blow-up and blow-down. This theorem follows from a general Relative/Absolute correspondence for a symplectic manifold together with a symplectic submanifold. A direct consequence is that symplectic uniruledness is a symplectic birational invariant. Here we use Guillemin and Sternberg's notion of cobordism as the symplectic analogue of the birational equivalence.Comment: To appear in Invent. Mat

Measuring Discursive Influence Across Scholarship

Assessing scholarly influence is critical for researchers surveying literature, institutions seeking to credit and support scholarly work, and understanding the history of academic inquiry. Influence is multi-faceted and citations reveal only part of it. Citation counts exhibit preferential attachment and follow a rigid ``news cycle’’ that can miss sustained and indirect forms of influence. Building on dynamic topic models that track distributional shifts in discourse over time, we introduce a novel variant that incorporates features such as authorship, affiliation, and publication venue to assess how these contexts interact with content to shape future scholarship. We perform in-depth analyses on collections of physics research (500K abstracts; 102 years) and scholarship generally (JSTOR: 2M full-text articles; 130 years). Our measure of document influence helps predict citations, and shows how outcomes such as winning a Nobel Prize or affiliation with a highly ranked institution boost influence. Analysis of citations alongside discursive influence reveals that citations tend to credit authors who persist in their fields over time, and discount credit for works that are influential over many topics or are ``ahead of their time’’. In this way, our measures provide a way to acknowledge diverse contributions that take longer and travel further to achieve scholarly appreciation, enabling us to correct citation biases and enhance sensitivity to the full spectrum of scholarly impact

Moduli stacks of stable toric quasimaps

We construct new "virtually smooth" modular compactifications of spaces of maps from nonsingular curves to smooth projective toric varieties. They generalize Givental's compactifications, when the complex structure of the curve is allowed to vary and markings are included, and are the toric counterpart of the moduli spaces of stable quotients introduced by Marian, Oprea, and Pandharipande to compactify spaces of maps to Grassmannians. A brief discussion of the resulting invariants and their (conjectural) relation with Gromov-Witten theory is also included.Comment: Published versio

Alternative 3′ Pre-mRNA Processing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Is Modulated by Nab4/Hrp1 In Vivo

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae RNA-binding protein Nab4/Hrp1 is a component of the cleavage factor complex required for 3′ pre-mRNA processing. Although the precise role of Nab4/Hrp1 remains unclear, it has been implicated in correct positioning of the cleavage site in vitro. Here, we show that mutation or overexpression of NAB4/HRP1 alters polyA cleavage site selection in vivo. Using bioinformatic analysis, we identified four related motifs that are statistically enriched in Nab4-associated transcripts; each motif is similar to the known binding site for Nab4/Hrp1. Site-directed mutations in predicted Nab4/Hrp1 binding elements result in decreased use of adjacent cleavage sites. Additionally, we show that the nab4-7 mutant displays a striking resistance to toxicity from excess copper. We identify a novel target of alternative 3′ pre-mRNA processing, CTR2, and demonstrate that CTR2 is required for the copper resistance phenotype in the nab4-7 strain. We propose that alternative 3′ pre-mRNA processing is mediated by a Nab4-based mechanism and that these alternative processing events could help control gene expression as part of a physiological response in S. cerevisiae

A reverse pathway? Actual and perceived skill proficiency and physical activity

Purpose: Motor skills are considered a prerequisite to physical activity, yet the relationship may be reciprocal and perceived sports competence might mediate associations.Methods: In 2006/2007, 215 adolescents completed motor skill proficiency (Get Skilled Get Active), perceived sport competence (Physical Self-Perception Profile) and physical activity assessments (Adolescent Physical Activity Recall Questionnaire) as part of the Physical Activity and Skills Study. Using AMOS (Version 7.0), reciprocal relationships were examined between motor skill (object control and locomotor) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Both models were then run in different versions to understand the role of perceived sports competence as a potential mediator. Results: Mean age was 16.4 yr (SD = 0.6), 51.6% (111/215) were females. A reciprocal relationship between object control and MVPA and a one-way relationship from MVPA to locomotor skill was found. When perceived sports competence was examined as a mediator, the best-fitting model versions explained 16% (R&sup2; = 0.16)MVPA variation, and 30% object control (R&sup2; = 0.30), and 12% locomotor skill variation (R&sup2; = 0.12) (reverse relationship). Perceived sports competence partially mediates the relationship between object control proficiency and physical activity for both directions and fully mediates the relationship between physical activity and locomotor skill; but only when locomotor skill is the outcome.Conclusions: If the relationship between object control skill and physical activity is viewed as a &lsquo;&lsquo;positive feedback loop,&rsquo;&rsquo; skill development and increasing physical activity should simultaneously be targeted in physical activity interventions. Increasing perceived sport competence should also be an intervention focus.<br /

Measuring Workplace Climate in Community Clinics and Health Centers

BackgroundThe effectiveness of community clinics and health centers' efforts to improve the quality of care might be modified by clinics' workplace climates. Several surveys to measure workplace climate exist, but their relationships to each other and to distinguishable dimensions of workplace climate are unknown.ObjectiveTo assess the psychometric properties of a survey instrument combining items from several existing surveys of workplace climate and to generate a shorter instrument for future use.Materials and methodsWe fielded a 106-item survey, which included items from 9 existing instruments, to all clinicians and staff members (n=781) working in 30 California community clinics and health centers, receiving 628 responses (80% response rate). We performed exploratory factor analysis of survey responses, followed by confirmatory factor analysis of 200 reserved survey responses. We generated a new, shorter survey instrument of items with strong factor loadings.ResultsSix factors, including 44 survey items, emerged from the exploratory analysis. Two factors (Clinic Workload and Teamwork) were independent from the others. The remaining 4 factors (staff relationships, quality improvement orientation, managerial readiness for change, and staff readiness for change) were highly correlated, indicating that these represented dimensions of a higher-order factor we called "Clinic Functionality." This 2-level, 6-factor model fit the data well in the exploratory and confirmatory samples. For all but 1 factor, fewer than 20 survey responses were needed to achieve clinic-level reliability &gt;0.7.ConclusionsSurvey instruments designed to measure workplace climate have substantial overlap. The relatively parsimonious item set we identified might help target and tailor clinics' quality improvement efforts

Moving boundary models for the growth of crystalline deposits from undetected leakages of industrial process liquors

In this study, a computational model which simulates the growth of crystalline deposits from dripping salt solution is developed and validated. This problem is of interest to the nuclear industry where the morphology of deposited material impacts on its associated criticality risk. An existing model for simulating geological-stalagmite formations is adapted to the case of dripping salt-solutions which form thin films of fluid that precipitate out over time, forming accumulations. The implementation of a CFD Volume-of-Fluid multiphase model is developed such that the fluid-flow is coupled to the crystallisation kinetics and a moving-boundary model is used for describing the size and shape of growing crystalline deposits. The fluid-flow and forming accumulation are fully coupled, with the model able to account for solute diffusion and solvent evaporation. Results are in good agreement with experimental data for surrogate salt-solutions. Numerical results are presented to assess the sensitivity to process and environmental parameters