233 research outputs found
The effects of Wnt5a and Wnt3a and PCP signaling on Schwann cell biology and myelination
Planar cell polarity (PCP) is known as the polarization of cells within the plane of the tissue layer. This form of polarization controls several epithelial and non-epithelial morphological processes, such as the orientation of primary cilia in the inner ear, convergent extension (CE) and directed migration. A three tiered model of PCP regulation has been proposed which consists of the global, core, and effector modules. However there is one addition level of modulation through non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Of the many Wnt proteins a few have been identified to signal primarily through this pathway. One such protein is Wnt5a, which has been shown to modulate PCP during directed cell migration. In this study we gather preliminary data for the presence of PCP signaling components in Schwann cells and investigate the effect of Wnt5a and its antagonist Wnt3a on Schwann cell proliferation, migration and myelination.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Neha Jan
The effects of immediate versus delayed feedback after multiple-choice questions on subsequent exam performance
This thesis investigates the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback following multiple-choice questions on subsequent performance on multiple-choice and recall questions. In three experiments, students in a college psychology lecture course received immediate or delayed feedback following multiple-choice questions on an initial unit exam which was followed up with exam(s) including both multiple-choice and short-answer questions. In the first experiment, the kind of feedback did not affect performance on the same multiple-choice questions when they were repeated on the final. In the second experiment, two subsequent follow-up exams included first a short-answer version of the multiple-choice question and then the same multiple-choice question. Performance on the short-answer questions was better following delayed feedback than following immediate feedback. However, the kind of feedback had no effect on the performance of the repeated multiple-choice questions. Also, the interval between the initial exam and the follow-up exam had no effect on performance. The third experiment examined whether delayed feedback increased confidence more than immediate feedback and whether the increase in confidence mediated the improved performance on subsequent short-answer questions. The delayed feedback had no effect on confidence for the subsequent short-answer and multiple-choice responses. Together, these results demonstrate that delayed feedback improves performance on the short-answer questions by increasing the subsequent generation of the correct response but does not influence recognition of it.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Neha Sinh
Moral Panic, Social Exclusion and The Human Rights of Same-Sex Partners in Ghana-RETRACTED
This article is retracted :
The retraction is based on the request of the author, Dr. Neha Jain, as it contains some exclusive and private data of a community out of India, that should not be released online. https://doi.org/10.55938/ijgasr.v1i3.20
Sincerely,Editorial Team, IJGASR
Announcement: https://journals.icapsr.com/index.php/ijgasr/announcement/view/17
Correction to: A cell-cycle signature classifier for pan-cancer analysis
In the original published version, the list of authors was incomplete. Theodora A. Constantin was missing, and Neha Tabassum and Theodora A. Constantin share first authorship. The correct author list is given above. The original article has been corrected. DOI to original article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-020-01426-
Less-institutionalized social structures: a theoretical, methodological, and empirical analysis of how networks and culture matter for emergence
Using a networks and culture lens, I investigate the micro-level processes underlying the production of order in social contexts or locations that are relationally-defined and meaningful, but lack cultural cues to action and interpretation or are in the early stages of acquiring such meaning. Drawing on neoinstitutionalist theory, I refer to such social structures as less-institutionalized. To explain order in the absence of situational cultural cues literature in social network analysis has traditionally attributed regularities to situational structural tendencies that preclude shared understandings and/or subjective engagement. Recent literature in the sociology of culture that revives overarching moral intuitions as a basis for action similarly rejects the explanatory value of situational cultural cues. Arguing that culture is neither irrelevant nor implicated in an overarching way in culturally less-institutionalized situations, I posit that order can be linked to individuals’ tacit and discursive use of cultural repertoires acquired over the life-course through involvements in multiple networks of interaction and domains of shared meanings or ‘netdoms.’ I analytically distinguish between three categories of less-institutionalized situations of the basis of the degree of uncertainty in interpretation and action they impose upon their occupants: high, intermediate, and absence/low. I demonstrate my argument using three examples of less-institutionalized situations/positions from distinct sociological fields: (1) rapid labor-force feminization in South Asia (high-uncertainty); (2) an emergent area of knowledge production (intermediate-uncertainty); and (3) falling average sibship-size implicated in worldwide fertility decline (low/absent uncertainty). Elaborating upon three cross-netdom mechanisms - analogizing, contrasting, and spillovers – and using a mixture of interpretive techniques, multilevel statistical models, and exponential random graph models, I show that occupants use cultural repertoires discursively in high-uncertainty less-institutionalized positions, tacitly in low-uncertainty situations, and in a combination of tacit and deliberative ways under conditions of intermediate uncertainty. I also develop a mathematical model to show how less-institutionalized practices/interpretations can come to be institutionalized over time through management of uncertainty within homophilous networks. Lastly, positing a duality between the cultural repertoires of individuals and those of social locations, I conclude with a discussion on how less-institutionalized positions offer a unique window into investigating processes of emergence and social change.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Neha Gonda
Competing bimetallic ratios: Amsterdam, London and bullion arbitrage in the 18th century
This article analyses the stability of bimetallism in the mid-18th century for the case of two large centres that had different legal ratios and only one international market ratio. A new theoretical framework is articulated for the situation of international independence to set legal bimetallic ratios by monetary authorities in different countries. Then, using new data handcollected from archival sources and relevant to the two main bullion markets in the 18th century, Amsterdam and London, this theoretical framework is utilised to identify the regimes that actually prevailed during that period, in which Amsterdam was effectively on the bimetallic standard while London was on the gold standard de facto.Bimetallism, Bimetallic stability, Bullion markets, Arbitrage, Specie-point mechanism, Melting-minting points
Regional empty marine container management
Empty container repositioning is one of the longstanding and ongoing issues in the containerized maritime trade. Even though it is a non-revenue generating, expensive and undesirable exercise, it is an integral part of an overall efficient global transportation system, which balances demand and supply of empty containers between regions. Empty containers are repositioned at three levels - global, inter-regional and regional-level. The focus of this dissertation is at the regional level of empty container repositioning.
Regional repositioning of empty containers involves empty container movement between regional importers, marine terminals, empty container depots, and export customers. This chain movement generates excessive unproductive empty vehicle miles in a region. The problem of empty vehicle miles travelled becomes more prominent when empty container depots are located close to the port and import and export customers are inland. Stakeholders incur large system costs in repositioning empty containers between the regional import-export business locations and the port/depots. Regions with high import activity are concerned with the increase in containerized trade volumes and the persistent trade imbalance because of the capacity shortfall at their existing depots.
This thesis addresses the above two regional concerns of excessive empty vehicle miles and empty container storage capacity shortfall by proposing an 'Inland-Depots-for-Empty-Containers (IDEC)' system. It recommends opening new empty container depots inland in the region, closer to high volume import-export customer clusters, in addition to the depots currently being located near the ports. The dissertation discusses the feasibility, viability, and effectiveness of the proposed system.
It develops mathematical models for the IDEC system to determine the optimal number and location of inland depots in a given region under deterministic and stochastic demand patterns. Exploiting the structure of the NP-hard problem, it develops a heuristic based on the randomized rounding algorithm to solve large scale, realistic depot-location problems. To implement a successful and sustainable IDEC system, it explicitly considers the varied perspectives of different maritime stakeholders involved in the container movement. Based on the models and quantitative analyses, it demonstrates that an IDEC system has great potential in improving regional empty moves, increasing both business profitability and social welfare simultaneously.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-144)
Generative modeling for relational databases
Thesis: M. Eng. in Computer Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-80).The goal of this thesis is to build a system that automatically creates synthetic data for enabling data science endeavors. To meet this goal, we present the Synthetic Data Vault (SDV), a system that builds generative models of relational databases. We are able to sample from the model and create synthetic data, hence the name SDV. When implementing the SDV, we developed an algorithm that computes statistics at the intersection of related database tables. We then use a state-of-the-art multivariate modeling approach to model this data. The SDV iterates through all possible relations, ultimately creating a model for the entire database. Once this model is computed, the same relational information allows the SDV to synthesize data by sampling from any part of the database. After building the SDV, we used it to generate synthetic data for five different publicly available datasets. We then published the datasets and asked data scientists to develop predictive models for them as part of a crowdsourced experiment. On May 18, 2016, preliminary analysis from the ongoing experiment provided evidence that the synthetic data can successfully replace original data for data science. Our analysis indicates that there is no significant difference in the work produced by data scientists who used synthetic data as opposed to real data. We conclude that the SDV is a viable solution for synthetic data generation. Our primary contribution is that we designed and implemented the first generative modeling system for relational databases that demonstratively synthesizes realistic data.by Neha Patki.M. Eng. in Computer Science and Engineerin
After Columbus: Explaining the Global Trade Boom 1500-1800
This paper documents the size and timing of the world inter-continental trade boom following the greate voyages in the 1490s of Columbus, da Gama and their followers. Indeed, a trade boom followed over the subsequent three centuries. But what was its cause? The conventionnal wisdom in the world history literature offers globalization as the answer: it alleges that declining trade barriers falling transport costs and overseas "discovery" explains the boom. In contrast, this paper reports the evidence that confirms unambiguously that there was no commodity price convergence between continents, something that would have emerged had globalization been a force that mattered. Thus, the trade boom must have been caused by some combination of European import demand and foreign export supply from Asia and the Americas. Furthermore, the behavior of the relative price of foreign importables in European cities should tell us which mattered most and when. We offer detailed evidence on the relative prices of such importables in European markets over the five centuries 1350-1850. We then offer a model which is used to decompose the sources of the trade boom 1500-1800.
Toward Inclusive, Vital and Livable City Scenarios: The Transformation of Urban Villages in Shenzhen
Currently Shenzhen is experiencing industrial upgrading and city reprofiling, transforming from a world factory to a world city. It is a crucial moment to rethink the future of urban villages in the city, informal settlements that emerged extensively along with rapid industrialization and urban development in the past three decades, and played essential roles as “arrival cities” for migrants. This chapter investigates the formation process of urban villages as well as planning strategies for future development, from the perspective of urban form and governance. Urban vitality, livability, and inclusiveness are addressed as multidimensional urban values that could generate common interests among stakeholders, which therefore could be considered desirable and possible future scenarios for such neighborhoods in Shenzhen.Accepted Author ManuscriptSpatial Planning and Strateg
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