3 research outputs found
Predicting the Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Chronic Diseases in Population with Human Mobility Data
Chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes are major
threats to human life. Understanding the distribution
and progression of chronic diseases of a
population is important in assisting the allocation of
medical resources as well as the design of policies
in preemptive healthcare. Traditional methods to
obtain large scale indicators on population health,
e.g., surveys and statistical analysis, can be costly
and time-consuming and often lead to a coarse
spatio-temporal picture. In this paper, we leverage
a dataset describing the human mobility patterns
of citizens in a large metropolitan area. By viewing
local human lifestyles we predict the evolution
rate of several chronic diseases at the level of a city
neighborhood. We apply the combination of a collaborative
topic modeling (CTM) and a Gaussian
mixture method (GMM) to tackle the data sparsity
challenge and achieve robust predictions on
health conditions simultaneously. Our method enables
the analysis and prediction of disease rate
evolution at fine spatio-temporal scales and demonstrates
the potential of incorporating datasets from
mobile web sources to improve population health
monitoring. Evaluations using real-world check-in
and chronic disease morbidity datasets in the city
of London show that the proposed CTM+GMM
model outperforms various baseline methods
Kissing Cuisines: Exploring Worldwide Culinary Habits on the Web
In the Web Science Track of 26th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2017)In the Web Science Track of 26th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2017)In the Web Science Track of 26th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2017)Food and nutrition occupy an increasingly prevalent space on the web, and dishes and recipes shared online provide an invaluable mirror into culinary cultures and attitudes around the world. More specifically, ingredients, flavors, and nutrition information become strong signals of the taste preferences of individuals and civilizations. However, there is little understanding of these palate varieties. In this paper, we present a large-scale study of recipes published on the web and their content, aiming to understand cuisines and culinary habits around the world. Using a database of more than 157K recipes from over 200 different cuisines, we analyze ingredients, flavors, and nutritional values which distinguish dishes from different regions, and use this knowledge to assess the predictability of recipes from different cuisines. We then use country health statistics to understand the relation between these factors and health indicators of different nations, such as obesity, diabetes, migration, and health expenditure. Our results confirm the strong effects of geographical and cultural similarities on recipes, health indicators, and culinary preferences across the globe
Brain-Computer Interfaces for Non-clinical (Home, Sports, Art, Entertainment, Education, Well-being) Applications
HCI researchers interest in BCI is increasing because the technology industry is expanding into application areas where efficiency is not the main goal of concern. Domestic or public space use of information and communication technology raise awareness of the importance of affect, comfort, family, community, or playfulness, rather than efficiency. Therefore, in addition to non-clinical BCI applications that require efficiency and precision, this Research Topic also addresses the use of BCI for various types of domestic, entertainment, educational, sports, and well-being applications. These applications can relate to an individual user as well as to multiple cooperating or competing users. We also see a renewed interest of artists to make use of such devices to design interactive art installations that know about the brain activity of an individual user or the collective brain activity of a group of users, for example, an audience. Hence, this Research Topic also addresses how BCI technology influences artistic creation and practice, and the use of BCI technology to manipulate and control sound, video, and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR)