Finding Streams in Knowledge Graphs to Support Fact Checking

The volume and velocity of information that gets generated online limits current journalistic practices to fact-check claims at the same rate. Computational approaches for fact checking may be the key to help mitigate the risks of massive misinformation spread. Such approaches can be designed to not only be scalable and effective at assessing veracity of dubious claims, but also to boost a human fact checker's productivity by surfacing relevant facts and patterns to aid their analysis. To this end, we present a novel, unsupervised network-flow based approach to determine the truthfulness of a statement of fact expressed in the form of a (subject, predicate, object) triple. We view a knowledge graph of background information about real-world entities as a flow network, and knowledge as a fluid, abstract commodity. We show that computational fact checking of such a triple then amounts to finding a "knowledge stream" that emanates from the subject node and flows toward the object node through paths connecting them. Evaluation on a range of real-world and hand-crafted datasets of facts related to entertainment, business, sports, geography and more reveals that this network-flow model can be very effective in discerning true statements from false ones, outperforming existing algorithms on many test cases. Moreover, the model is expressive in its ability to automatically discover several useful path patterns and surface relevant facts that may help a human fact checker corroborate or refute a claim.Comment: Extended version of the paper in proceedings of ICDM 201

Cross-linker effect in ETFE-based radiation-grafted proton-conducting membranes II. Extended fuel cell operation and degradation analysis

In this study the effect of crosslinker (divinylbenzene (DVB)) content on the chemical stability of poly(ethylene-alt-tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE) based membranes using an H2O2 solution was carried out. Furthermore, the first long term-testing of single H2/O2 cell over 2180h of an MEA assembled using an optimized ETFE-based membrane prepared by radiation-induced grafting of styrene / DVB and subsequent sulfonation with a graft level of 25 % was carried out. The in situ MEA properties were characterized over the testing period using auxiliary current-pulse resistance, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, polarization and H2 permeation. It is shown that the crosslinking dramatically improves the ex situ chemical stability, while no significant trend with the crosslinker content was observed. The performance of the tested MEA exhibits a decay rate of 13 μV.h-1 in voltage over the testing time at 500 mA.cm-2 at 80°C, while the hydrogen permeation shows a steady increase over time. This indicates clearly that to some extent changes in the membrane morphology occur over the operating time. The local post mortem analysis of the tested membrane reveals that high degradation was observed in areas adjacent to the O2 inlet and in other areas nearb

Stem cell differentiation increases membrane-actin adhesion regulating cell blebability, migration and mechanics

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/K. S. is funded by an EPSRC PhD studentship. S.T. is funded by an EU Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (GENOMICDIFF)

Rigidity sensing by stochastic sliding friction

The sliding friction force exerted by stochastic linkers interacting with a moving filament is calculated. The elastic properties of the substrate on which the linkers are anchored are shown to strongly influence the friction force. In some cases, the force is maximal for a finite substrate rigidity. Collective effects give rise to a dynamical instability resulting in a stick-slip behaviour, which is substrate-sensitive. The relevance of these results for the motility of crawling cells powered by an actin retrograde flow is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure