Modeling the Small-World Phenomenon with Road Networks

Dating back to two famous experiments by the social-psychologist, Stanley Milgram, in the 1960s, the small-world phenomenon is the idea that all people are connected through a short chain of acquaintances that can be used to route messages. Many subsequent papers have attempted to model this phenomenon, with most concentrating on the "short chain" of acquaintances rather than their ability to efficiently route messages. In this paper, we study the small-world navigability of the U.S. road network, with the goal of providing a model that explains how messages in the original small-world experiments could be routed along short paths using U.S. roads. To this end, we introduce the Neighborhood Preferential Attachment model, which combines elements from Kleinberg's model and the Barab\'asi-Albert model, such that long-range links are chosen according to both the degrees and (road-network) distances of vertices in the network. We empirically evaluate all three models by running a decentralized routing algorithm, where each vertex only has knowledge of its own neighbors, and find that our model outperforms both of these models in terms of the average hop length. Moreover, our experiments indicate that similar to the Barab\'asi-Albert model, networks generated by our model are scale-free, which could be a more realistic representation of acquaintanceship links in the original small-world experiment

Noisy Sorting Without Searching: Data Oblivious Sorting with Comparison Errors

We provide and study several algorithms for sorting an array of n comparable distinct elements subject to probabilistic comparison errors. In this model, the comparison of two elements returns the wrong answer according to a fixed probability, p_e < 1/2, and otherwise returns the correct answer. The dislocation of an element is the distance between its position in a given (current or output) array and its position in a sorted array. There are various algorithms that can be utilized for sorting or near-sorting elements subject to probabilistic comparison errors, but these algorithms are not data oblivious because they all make heavy use of noisy binary searching. In this paper, we provide new methods for sorting with comparison errors that are data oblivious while avoiding the use of noisy binary search methods. In addition, we experimentally compare our algorithms and other sorting algorithms

Efficient Exact Learning Algorithms for Road Networks and Other Graphs with Bounded Clustering Degrees

The completeness of road network data is significant in the quality of various routing services and applications. We introduce an efficient randomized algorithm for exact learning of road networks using simple distance queries, which can find missing roads and improve the quality of routing services. The efficiency of our algorithm depends on a cluster degree parameter, d_max, which is an upper bound on the degrees of vertex clusters defined during our algorithm. Unfortunately, we leave open the problem of theoretically bounding d_max, although we conjecture that d_max is small for road networks and other similar types of graphs. We support this conjecture by experimentally evaluating our algorithm on road network data for the U.S. and 5 European countries of various sizes. This analysis provides experimental evidence that our algorithm issues a quasilinear number of queries in expectation for road networks and similar graphs

The effect of climate on the radial growth of Oriental Beech in the Southern limit of its distribution area

This study was carried out to construct a site chronology of oriental beech in Topaktas site of the Amanos Mountains, one of the most southerly populations of oriental beech, and to investigate the relationships between tree-ring width and some climate variables such as the monthly maximum, minimum and mean temperature and monthly total precipitation. The study area was located in Topaktas Plateau, Dortyol, Hatay, where isolated natural populations, known as the most southerly populations of the species, exist. The average slope was 35%, the aspect was north-west, and the altitude ranged from 1300 to 1500 meter (m). 33 samples are collected by using increment borers and taken from 17 oriental beech trees in the study site, and 53-year-long treering chronology were built for the period of 1961-2013. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to investigate relationships between radial growth and climate. The radial growth of oriental beech in the site was found to be sensitive to climate with mean sensitivity value of 0.20. The results showed that high precipitation in June leads to produce wider rings (r=0.39, p<0.01), while maximum temperature in the same month has a negative significant effect on radial growth (r=-0.32, p<0.05). On the other hand, high precipitation in February and March decrease ring width of oriental beach (r=-0.30, p<0.05)

Identification of Meat Species by Using Molecular and Spectroscopic Techniques

Meat is one of the main nutrition source in the human diet with its excellent protein, vitamin and mineral contents. Despite its advantages, being high-priced makes meat products open to adulteration. Meat products are mixed food types which can contain different species of meat. However, mixing two or more types of meats is not always allowed by laws. On the other hand, replacement high quality meats with cheaper meat types are a cost lowering way for the producers. The commonly consumed meat types differ from country to country, but generally economical, ethnic and religion concerns are in the foreground. In this case, species identification techniques are gaining importance. Although some techniques depending on DNA or spectroscopy have been developed for many years, choosing the best method for species identification is still among the controversial issues today. Thus, the currently used methods and promising techniques in this area were discussed in this review

The effect of climate on the radial growth of Oriental Beech in the Southern limit of its distribution area

This study was carried out to construct a site chronology of oriental beech in Topaktas site of the Amanos Mountains, one of the most southerly populations of oriental beech, and to investigate the relationships between tree-ring width and some climate variables such as the monthly maximum, minimum and mean temperature and monthly total precipitation. The study area was located in Topaktas Plateau, Dortyol, Hatay, where isolated natural populations, known as the most southerly populations of the species, exist. The average slope was 35\%, the aspect was north-west, and the altitude ranged from 1300 to 1500 meter (m). 33 samples are collected by using increment borers and taken from 17 oriental beech trees in the study site, and 53-year-long treering chronology were built for the period of 1961-2013. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to investigate relationships between radial growth and climate. The radial growth of oriental beech in the site was found to be sensitive to climate with mean sensitivity value of 0.20. The results showed that high precipitation in June leads to produce wider rings (r=0.39, p<0.01), while maximum temperature in the same month has a negative significant effect on radial growth (r=-0.32, p<0.05). On the other hand, high precipitation in February and March decrease ring width of oriental beach (r=-0.30, p<0.05)

The prevalence of childhood psychopathology in Turkey: a cross-sectional multicenter nationwide study (EPICPAT-T).

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of childhood psychopathologies in Turkey

The prevalence of childhood psychopathology in Turkey: a cross-sectional multicenter nationwide study (EPICPAT-T)

Conclusion: This is the largest and most comprehensive epidemiological study to determine the prevalence of psychopathologies in children and adolescents in Turkey. Our results partly higher than, and partly comparable to previous national and international studies. It also contributes to the literature by determining the independent predictors of psychopathologies in this age group