1,478 research outputs found
Attention and Visibility in an Information Rich World
As the rate of content production grows, we must make a staggering number of
daily decisions about what information is worth acting on. For any flourishing
online social media system, users can barely keep up with the new content
shared by friends. How does the user-interface design help or hinder users'
ability to find interesting content? We analyze the choices people make about
which information to propagate on the social media sites Twitter and Digg. We
observe regularities in behavior which can be attributed directly to cognitive
limitations of humans, resulting from the different visibility policies of each
site. We quantify how people divide their limited attention among competing
sources of information, and we show how the user-interface design can mediate
information spread.Comment: Appearing in 2nd International Workshop on Social Multimedia Research
2013, in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo
(ICME 2013
Network Weirdness: Exploring the Origins of Network Paradoxes
Social networks have many counter-intuitive properties, including the
"friendship paradox" that states, on average, your friends have more friends
than you do. Recently, a variety of other paradoxes were demonstrated in online
social networks. This paper explores the origins of these network paradoxes.
Specifically, we ask whether they arise from mathematical properties of the
networks or whether they have a behavioral origin. We show that sampling from
heavy-tailed distributions always gives rise to a paradox in the mean, but not
the median. We propose a strong form of network paradoxes, based on utilizing
the median, and validate it empirically using data from two online social
networks. Specifically, we show that for any user the majority of user's
friends and followers have more friends, followers, etc. than the user, and
that this cannot be explained by statistical properties of sampling. Next, we
explore the behavioral origins of the paradoxes by using the shuffle test to
remove correlations between node degrees and attributes. We find that paradoxes
for the mean persist in the shuffled network, but not for the median. We
demonstrate that strong paradoxes arise due to the assortativity of user
attributes, including degree, and correlation between degree and attribute.Comment: Accepted to ICWSM 201
Renovascular hypertension: screening and modern management
The diagnosis and management of patients with renovascular disease and hypertension continue to elude healthcare providers. The advent of novel imaging and interventional techniques, and increased understanding of the pathways leading to irreversible renal injury and renovascular hypertension, have ushered in commendable attempts to optimize and finetune strategies to preserve or restore renal function and control blood pressure. Large randomized clinical trials that compare different forms of therapy, and smaller trials that test novel experimental treatments, will hopefully help formulate innovative concepts and tools to manage the patient population with atherosclerotic renovascular diseas
Minimal H\"older regularity implying finiteness of integral Menger curvature
We study two families of integral functionals indexed by a real number . One family is defined for 1-dimensional curves in and the other one
is defined for -dimensional manifolds in . These functionals are
described as integrals of appropriate integrands (strongly related to the
Menger curvature) raised to power . Given we prove that
regularity of the set (a curve or a manifold), with implies finiteness of both curvature functionals
( in the case of curves). We also show that is optimal by
constructing examples of functions with graphs of infinite
integral curvature
Potential Role of the Ubiquitin-Proteasome System in Atherosclerosis Aspects of a Protein Quality Disease
Misfolded or damaged proteins are recognized intracellularly by protein quality mechanisms. These include chaperones and the ubiquitin-proteasome system, which aim at restoration of protein function and protein removal, respectively. A number of studies have outlined the functional significance of the ubiquitin-proteasome system for the heart and, as of recently, for the vascular system. This review summarizes these recent findings with a focus on atherosclerosis. In particular, this paper reflects on the viewpoint of atherosclerosis as a protein quality disease
Simvastatin preserves myocardial perfusion and permeability in experimental hypercholesterolemia independent of lipid lowering
Simvastatin preserves myocardial perfusion and coronary microvascular permeability in experimental hypercholesterolemia independent of lipid lowering
AbstractObjectivesThis study was designed to assess the lipid-independent effects of simvastatin on myocardial perfusion (MP) and coronary microvascular permeability index (PI) at baseline and during episodes of increased cardiac demand in experimental hypercholesterolemia.BackgroundSimvastatin preserves coronary endothelial function in experimental hypercholesterolemia independent of its lipid-lowering effect. However, the functional significance of this observation is unknown.MethodsPigs were randomized to three groups: normal diet (N), high-cholesterol diet (HC) and HC diet plus simvastatin (HC+S) for 12 weeks. Subsequently, cardiac electron beam computed tomography was performed before and during intravenous infusion of adenosine and dobutamine, and MP and PI were calculated.ResultsTotal and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were similarly and significantly increased in HC and HC+S animals compared with N. Basal MP was similar in all groups. Myocardial perfusion significantly increased in response to either adenosine or dobutamine in N and HC+S animals. Dobutamine also significantly increased MP in HC animals. However, the changes of MP in response to either drug were significantly lower in the HC group compared with the other two groups (p < 0.01 for adenosine and p < 0.05 for dobutamine vs. N and HC+S). Basal PI was similar in all groups and was not altered by either drug in N and HC+S animals. In contrast, PI significantly increased in HC pigs during infusion of either adenosine (p < 0.001) or dobutamine (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate that chronic administration of simvastatin preserves myocardial perfusion response and coronary microvascular integrity during cardiac stress in experimental hypercholesterolemia independent of lipid lowering
Endothelial dysfunction over the course of coronary artery disease
The vascular endothelium regulates blood flow in response to physiological needs. Endothelial dysfunction is closely related to atherosclerosis and its risk factors, and it constitutes an intermediate step on the progression to adverse events throughout the natural history of coronary artery disease (CAD), often affecting clinical outcomes. Understanding the relation of endothelial function with CAD provides an important pathophysiological insight, which can be useful both in clinical and research management. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on endothelial dysfunction and its prognostic influence throughout the natural history of CAD, from early atherosclerosis to post-transplant managemen
Endothelial dysfunction over the course of coronary artery disease
The vascular endothelium regulates blood flow in response to physiological needs. Endothelial dysfunction is closely related to atherosclerosis and its risk factors, and it constitutes an intermediate step on the progression to adverse events throughout the natural history of coronary artery disease (CAD), often affecting clinical outcomes. Understanding the relation of endothelial function with CAD provides an important pathophysiological insight, which can be useful both in clinical and research management. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on endothelial dysfunction and its prognostic influence throughout the natural history of CAD, from early atherosclerosis to post-transplant managemen
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