Handling missing data by re-approaching non-respondents

When handling missing data, a researcher should be aware of the mechanism underlying the missingness. In the presence of non-randomly missing data, a model of the missing data mechanism should be included in the analyses to prevent the analyses based on the data from becoming biased. Modeling the missing data mechanism, however, is a difficult task. One way in which knowledge about the missing data mechanism may be obtained is by collecting additional data from non-respondents. In this paper the method of re-approaching respondents who did not answer all questions of a questionnaire is described. New answers were obtained from a sample of these non-respondents and the reason(s) for skipping questions was (were) probed for. The additional data resulted in a larger sample and was used to investigate the differences between respondents and non-respondents, whereas probing for the causes of missingness resulted in more knowledge about the nature of the missing data patterns

Internal Stresses, Normal Modes, and Nonaffinity in Three-Dimensional Biopolymer Networks

We numerically investigate deformations and modes of networks of semiflexible biopolymers as a function of crosslink coordination number z and strength of bending and stretching energies. In equilibrium filaments are under internal stress, and the networks exhibit shear rigidity below the Maxwell isostatic point. In contrast to two-dimensional networks, ours exhibit nonaffine bending-dominated response in all rigid states, including those near the maximum of z = 4 when bending energies are less than stretching ones

Bistable hysteresis and resistance switching in hydrogen gold junctions

Current-voltage characteristics of H2-Au molecular junctions exhibit intriguing steps around a characteristic voltage of 40 mV. Surprisingly, we find that a hysteresis is connected to these steps with a typical time scale > 10 ms. This time constant scales linearly with the power dissipated in the junction beyond an ofset power P_s = IV_s. We propose that the hysteresis is related to vibrational heating of both the molecule in the junction and a set of surrounding hydrogen molecules. Remarkably, we can engineer our junctions such that the hysteresis' characteristic time becomes >days. We demonstrate that reliable switchable devices can be built from such junctions.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

A genomic region containing <i>REC8</i> and <i>RNF212B</i> is associated with individual recombination rate variation in a wild population of red deer (<i>Cervus elaphus</i>)

Recombination is a fundamental feature of sexual reproduction, ensuring proper disjunction, preventing mutation accumulation and generating new allelic combinations upon which selection can act. However it is also mutagenic, and breaks up favorable allelic combinations previously built up by selection. Identifying the genetic drivers of recombination rate variation is a key step in understanding the causes and consequences of this variation, how loci associated with recombination are evolving and how they affect the potential of a population to respond to selection. However, to date, few studies have examined the genetic architecture of recombination rate variation in natural populations. Here, we use pedigree data from ∼ 2,600 individuals genotyped at ∼ 38,000 SNPs to investigate the genetic architecture of individual autosomal recombination rate in a wild population of red deer (Cervus elaphus). Female red deer exhibited a higher mean and phenotypic variance in autosomal crossover counts (ACC). Animal models fitting genomic relatedness matrices showed that ACC was heritable in females (h2 = 0.12) but not in males. A regional heritability mapping approach showed that almost all heritable variation in female ACC was explained by a genomic region on deer linkage group 12 containing the candidate loci REC8 and RNF212B, with an additional region on linkage group 32 containing TOP2B approaching genome-wide significance. The REC8/RNF212B region and its paralogue RNF212 have been associated with recombination in cattle, mice, humans and sheep. Our findings suggest that mammalian recombination rates have a relatively conserved genetic architecture in both domesticated and wild systems, and provide a foundation for understanding the association between recombination loci and individual fitness within this population

The inhibition of tissue respiration and alcoholic fermentation at different catabolic levels by ethyl carbamate (urethan) and arsenite

1. A hypothesis is given concerning the action of urethan and arsenite on malignant growth. Two assumptionsares made:- (a) the enzyme system responsible for energy production in malignant tumours is working at maximal rate, contrary to the corresponding enzyme system in normal tissues. (b) a given concentration of urethan or arsenite blocks an equal part of the sensitive enzyme(s), by which a measurable effect of a small concentration of these inhibitors on the catabolism will only be obtained in case of maximal turnover rate. 2. Experiments with kidney and liver minces and with yeast have shown that indeed the inhibition caused by urethan and arsenite increases with increasing rate of respiration or fermentation. 3. If the enzyme concentration is not considered to be negligible as compared to the substrate concentration, as is done in the theory of and , the increase of inhibition with increasing turnover number can be made plausible by enzyme kinetics for the much simplified case of one single enzyme. 4. The dependence of inhibition upon the turnover number of the catabolic enzyme system in tumours is discussed in relation to other possible causes of the effect of urethan and arsenite on malignant growth

Decision support for crew rostering at NS

This paper describes a method for solving the cyclic crew rostering problem (CCRP). This is the problem of cyclically ordering a set of duties for a number of crew members, such that several complex constraints are satisfied and such that the quality of the obtained roster is as high as possible. The described method was tested on a number of instances of NS, the largest operator of passenger trains in the Netherlands. These instances involve the generation of rosters for groups of train drivers or conductors of NS. The tests show that high quality solutions for practical instances of the CCRP can be generated in an acceptable amount of computing time. Finally, we describe an experiment where we constructed rosters in an automatic way for a group of conductors. They preferred our—generated—rosters over their own manually constructed rosters

Inhibited spontaneous emission of quantum dots observed in a 3D photonic band gap

We present time-resolved emission experiments of semiconductor quantum dots in silicon 3D inverse-woodpile photonic band gap crystals. A systematic study is made of crystals with a range of pore radii to tune the band gap relative to the emission frequency. The decay rates averaged over all dipole orientations are inhibited by a factor of 10 in the photonic band gap and enhanced up to 2? outside the gap, in agreement with theory. We discuss the effects of spatial inhomogeneity, nonradiative decay, and transition dipole orientations on the observed inhibition in the band gap.Comment: 5 figures, update author lis

Monte Carlo study of multiply crosslinked semiflexible polymer networks

We present a method to generate realistic, three-dimensional networks of crosslinked semiflexible polymers. The free energy of these networks is obtained from the force-extension characteristics of the individual polymers and their persistent directionality through the crosslinks. A Monte Carlo scheme is employed to obtain isotropic, homogeneous networks that minimize the free energy, and for which all of the relevant parameters can be varied: the persistence length, the contour length as well as the crosslinking length may be chosen at will. We also provide an initial survey of the mechanical properties of our networks subjected to shear strains, showing them to display the expected non-linear stiffening behavior. Also, a key role for non-affinity and its relation to order in the network is uncovered.Comment: 11 pages, revised figures, added extra information about the network

Semiflexible Filamentous Composites

Inspired by the ubiquity of composite filamentous networks in nature we investigate models of biopolymer networks that consist of interconnected floppy and stiff filaments. Numerical simulations carried out in three dimensions allow us to explore the microscopic partitioning of stresses and strains between the stiff and floppy fractions c_s and c_f, and reveal a non-trivial relationship between the mechanical behavior and the relative fraction of stiff polymer: when there are few stiff polymers, non-percolated stiff ``inclusions`` are protected from large deformations by an encompassing floppy matrix, while at higher fractions of stiff material the stiff network is independently percolated and dominates the mechanical response.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett, to appear (4 pages, 2 figures

Spin Relaxation in Graphene with self-assembled Cobalt Porphyrin Molecules

In graphene spintronics, interaction of localized magnetic moments with the electron spins paves a new way to explore the underlying spin relaxation mechanism. A self-assembled layer of organic cobalt-porphyrin (CoPP) molecules on graphene provides a desired platform for such studies via the magnetic moments of porphyrin-bound cobalt atoms. In this work a study of spin transport properties of graphene spin-valve devices functionalized with such CoPP molecules as a function of temperature via non-local spin-valve and Hanle spin precession measurements is reported. For the functionalized (molecular) devices, we observe a slight decrease in the spin relaxation time ({\tau}s), which could be an indication of enhanced spin-flip scattering of the electron spins in graphene in the presence of the molecular magnetic moments. The effect of the molecular layer is masked for low quality samples (low mobility), possibly due to dominance of Elliot-Yafet (EY) type spin relaxation mechanisms