On local intrinsic dimensionality of deformation in complex materials

We propose a new metric called s-LID based on the concept of Local Intrinsic Dimensionality to identify and quantify hierarchies of kinematic patterns in heterogeneous media. s-LID measures how outlying a grain’s motion is relative to its s nearest neighbors in displacement state space. To demonstrate the merits of s-LID over the conventional measure of strain, we apply it to data on individual grain motions in a set of deforming granular materials. Several new insights into the evolution of failure are uncovered. First,s-LID reveals a hierarchy of concurrent deformation bands that prevails throughout loading history. These structures vary not only in relative dominance but also spatial and kinematic scales. Second, in the nascent stages of the pre-failure regime, s-LID uncovers a set of system-spanning, criss-crossing bands: microbands for small s and embryonic-shearbands at large s, with the former being dominant. At the opposite extreme, in the failure regime, fully formed shearbands at large s dominate over the microbands. The novel patterns uncovered from s-LID contradict the common belief of a causal sequence where a subset of microbands coalesce and/or grow to form shearbands. Instead, s-LID suggests that the deformation of the sample in the lead-up to failure is governed by a complex symbiosis among these different coexisting structures, which amplifies and promotes the progressive dominance of the embryonic-shearbands over microbands. Third, we probed this transition from the microband-dominated regime to the shearband-dominated regime by systematically suppressing grain rotations. We found particle rotation to be an essential enabler of the transition to the shearband-dominated regime. When grain rotations are completely suppressed, this transition is prevented: microbands and shearbands coexist in relative parity.

A New, Ecologically Self-Significant Metric of Species-Abundance Unevenness, Reliably Highlighting the Intensity of Interspecific Competition

A wide series of commonly used metrics of abundance-evenness (or -unevenness) have been proposed to characterize synthetically the distributions of species-abundances, accounting for the hierarchic-like organization of species within natural communities. Among them, most – if not all–have been relevantly criticized on their serious limitations regarding both their “descriptive” and their “interpretative” capacities. From the descriptive point of view, many authors have already repeatedly emphasized the formal non-independenceof conventional (un-)evenness metrics with respect to species-richness, leading, in particular, to unacceptable bias when comparing communities differing by their species-richness, thus making these metrics unreliable descriptors in this respect. Now, as regards the capacity to provide relevant ecological interpretations, especially in terms of the intensity of competition among co-occurring species, the weakness of conventional (un-)evenness metrics is readily highlighted by the usual absence of any associated interpretation of this kind in the literature: the conventional (un-)evenness metrics beingrestricted to purely descriptive purpose only. Accordingly, a newly designed abundance-unevenness metric – the “standardized abundance-unevenness” index is proposed, positively addressing both kinds of limitations evoked above. By standardizing a conventional measure,U,of abundance-unevenness to the corresponding measure, U’, of the abundance-unevenness in the well-known “broken-stick” model, the resulting “standardized unevenness” index (Istr = U/U’) proves to be efficient against both themajor limitations pointed-out above:indeed,the new index does benefit by being both (i) formally independent from species-richness, thereby allowing reliable,unbiased comparisons of abundance unevenness between species-communities, whatever their difference in species-richness; (ii) able to relevantly quantify the mean intensity of interspecific-competition within community, in term of its direct outcomeuponthe degree of species-abundance unevenness. This double success being, of course, the direct consequences of the properties of the “broken-stick” distribution model, originally putforth in a well-known, yet insufficiently thoroughly exploited paper by the regretted Robert MacArthur.

A Distributional Analysis of Uni-and Multidimensional Poverty and Inequalities in Ethiopia

This study analyzes uni-and multidimensional poverty and inequalities in rural and small towns in Ethiopia. Unlike the unidimensional measure, the multidimensional measure of poverty shows all the channels through which poverty may manifest itself; it also shows the extent of deprivation. The analysis uses 6 dimensions with 14 indicators to construct a multidimensional index of poverty and inequalities using Ethiopian Households’ Socioeconomic Survey dataset. The study also uses multiple correspondence analyses for determining relative weights in computing a multidimensional index and conducts a stochastic dominance analysis of distribution of poverty for different population segments. The paper sheds light on the degree of inequalities in consumption expenditure and multidimensional deprivations. In addition, it also compares the degree of poverty using the conventional measure of poverty and the multidimensional approach. It also examines the determinants of household poverty status using both unidimensional and multidimensional measures using the logit model. The results show that the intensity, severity, and depth of poverty varies substantially across the 2 measures. The unidimensional measure of poverty shows that 36 percent of the households were poor as compared to 46 percent multidimensionally poor households. Moreover, demographic, regional, and household heads’ characteristics also affect households’ poverty status.

Peptidoglycan Endopeptidase Spr of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Contributes to Kidney Infections and Competitive Fitness During Bladder Colonization

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the most common pathogen of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Antibiotic therapy is the conventional measure to manage such infections. However, the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance has reduced the efficacy of antibiotic treatment. Given that the bacterial factors required for the full virulence of the pathogens are potential therapeutic targets, identifying such factors may facilitate the development of novel therapeutic strategies against UPEC UTIs. The peptidoglycan (PG) endopeptidase Spr (also named MepS) is required for PG biogenesis in E. coli. In the present study, we found that Spr deficiency attenuated the ability of UPEC to infect kidneys and induced a fitness defect during bladder colonization in a mouse model of UTI. Based on the liquid chromatography (LC)/mass spectrometry (MS)/MS analysis of the bacterial envelope, spr deletion changed the levels of some envelope-associated proteins, suggesting that Spr deficiency interfere with the components of the bacterial structure. Among the proteins, FliC was significantly downregulated in the spr mutant, which is resulted in reduced motility. Lack of Spr might hinder the function of the flagellar transcriptional factor FlhDC to decrease FliC expression. The motility downregulation contributed to the reduced fitness in urinary tract colonization. Additionally, spr deletion compromised the ability of UPEC to evade complement-mediated attack and to resist intracellular killing of phagocytes, consequently decreasing UPEC bloodstream survival. Spr deficiency also interfered with the UPEC morphological switch from bacillary to filamentous shapes during UTI. It is known that bacterial filamentation protects UPEC from phagocytosis by phagocytes. In conclusion, Spr deficiency was shown to compromise multiple virulence properties of UPEC, leading to attenuation of the pathogen in urinary tract colonization and bloodstream survival. These findings indicate that Spr is a potential antimicrobial target for further studies attempting to develop novel strategies in managing UPEC UTIs.

Migration and Food Consumption: The Impact of Culture and Country of Origin on Obesity as an Indicator of Human Health

Previous research demonstrates that the 1965 American immigration wave has tended to attenuate the obesity pandemic in the United States. Based on a survey carried out by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) in 2012 and 2016, we observe the correlation between BMI, age, native language, and years-since-migration to Israel. BMI (=kgm2) is a conventional measure of obesity, where BMI ≥ 25 is considered overweight and BMI ≥ 30 as type I obesity. The results indicate that compared to 11 groups of immigrants, the median BMI among native Israelis is lower. While the prevalence of overweight (BMI ≥ 25) among Hebrew speakers is below 50%, in 11 groups of immigrants, the prevalence of overweight is above 50%. A noteworthy exception is the immigrants from Ethiopia, who exhibit lower overweight prevalence compared to native Israelis and all other population groups. Finally, while male Hebrew and Russian speakers cross the overweight benchmark at the same age (35 years), native Israeli women (Hebrew speakers) cross this benchmark only when they reach 50 years (15 years after the males) and Russian women cross this benchmark only five years after the Russian men. These research findings may be of assistance in public health and culture-oriented medicine.

A critical approach to economic development

This paper x-rayed the concept, measurement and, patterns of economic development. In doing this, the paper reviewed a vast literature on concepts, measurement of economic development and, economic development patterns and their effects on growth indicators as well as on the quality of life components. This literature was sourced from known academic databases. From the overview of the concept, measurement of economic development and, economic development patterns and their relationship between growth indicators as well as the quality of life components the following were found; as new challenges emerge, the horizon of the concept of economic development expands to accommodate the prevailing challenges. Economic development has no conventional measure/indicator that completely captures it process and, there are various economic development patterns use in tackling the problem of economic growth and quality of life, some of which are; knowledge-based, trade-based, saving-based and ethnic-religious-based pattern. Future studies may use these concepts/measurements of economic development and patterns of economic development and, validate their significance using statistical methods.

A comparison of methods to measure daily cigarillo consumption among adolescents and young adults

ObjectiveCigarillo use is widespread among young people. Accurate assessment of cigarillo consumption is necessary to inform and evaluate tobacco research, but is complicated by product sharing and irregular use. This study compares a conventional approach with a detailed approach for measuring cigarillo consumption.MethodsData are drawn from a cross-sectional, web-based survey of 1089 young (aged 15–28 years) cigarillo smokers. The conventional measure of cigarillo consumption employs two common tobacco use items—the number of days a product was smoked in the past month and the average number of products smoked per day. The detailed measure uses a time line follow-back procedure to assess product use on each of the past 7 days, both in a group and alone. Paired t-tests compare daily cigarillo use estimates from the two methods overall, and are stratified by sample characteristics and behaviours; associations with multiple factors are examined simultaneously using linear regression.ResultsCompared with the conventional measure, the detailed measure yields significantly higher daily consumption estimates for moderate and high-level users and for non-daily tobacco users, and significantly lower estimates for those who always share products and daily tobacco users. Differences remain after controlling for demographics and product use behaviours. There are no differences by gender, age, race or multiple product use.ConclusionsThe two measurement methods yield significantly different consumption estimates based on sharing behaviour, regularity of use and use level. Improving accuracy in the measurement of tobacco product consumption is important and timely for tobacco control research and policy.

A Bias-Corrected Estimator of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues

The ratio of the actual standard deviation (ASD) to the idealized standard deviation of win percentages (RSD) is the conventional measure of competitive balance (CB). RSD is designed to control for the effect of season length on the sample standard deviation of win percentages (ASD). Theoretically, the RSD should be greater than 1, but empirical values below 1 have been found in previous studies. This article employs a mathematical statistics approach to evaluate the statistical properties of RSD and ASD. In doing so, this study finds that RSD is constructed by an invalid normalization approach and that ASD is biased. It also presents a bias-corrected standard deviation (BCSD) as a new estimator of the standard deviation of true win probabilities. Results from the simulations confirm the following: (i) ASD is prone to underestimate CB levels when the number of games is small, (ii) the RSD values become unreasonably large when the number of games is large, and (iii) BCSD performs well with respect to mean bias and root mean squared errors. According to empirical analysis of the English Premier League (EPL) and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), BCSD shows that the KBO was more competitively balanced than the EPL between 2000 and 2015, while the RSD implies that the two leagues were roughly equal.

Social connectedness is associated with fibrinogen level in a human social network

Socially isolated individuals face elevated rates of illness and death. Conventional measures of social connectedness reflect an individual's perceived network and can be subject to bias and variation in reporting. In this study of a large human social network, we find that greater indegree, a sociocentric measure of friendship and familial ties identified by a subject's social connections rather than by the subject, predicts significantly lower concentrations of fibrinogen (a biomarker of inflammation and cardiac risk), after adjusting for demographics, education, medical history and known predictors of cardiac risk. The association between fibrinogen and social isolation, as measured by low indegree, is comparable to the effect of smoking, and greater than that of low education, a conventional measure of socioeconomic disadvantage. By contrast, outdegree, which reflects an individual's perceived connectedness, displays a significantly weaker association with fibrinogen concentrations.