2,040 research outputs found
STUDY: Socially Aware Temporally Causal Decoder Recommender Systems
Recommender systems are widely used to help people find items that are
tailored to their interests. These interests are often influenced by social
networks, making it important to use social network information effectively in
recommender systems. This is especially true for demographic groups with
interests that differ from the majority. This paper introduces STUDY, a
Socially-aware Temporally caUsal Decoder recommender sYstem. STUDY introduces a
new socially-aware recommender system architecture that is significantly more
efficient to learn and train than existing methods. STUDY performs joint
inference over socially connected groups in a single forward pass of a modified
transformer decoder network. We demonstrate the benefits of STUDY in the
recommendation of books for students who are dyslexic, or struggling readers.
Dyslexic students often have difficulty engaging with reading material, making
it critical to recommend books that are tailored to their interests. We worked
with our non-profit partner Learning Ally to evaluate STUDY on a dataset of
struggling readers. STUDY was able to generate recommendations that more
accurately predicted student engagement, when compared with existing methods.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Bring Me a Good One: Seeking High-potential Startups using Heterogeneous Venture Information Networks
Identifying startups with the highest potential for success is a complex task, necessitating the examination of various information sources, including firm demographics, management team composition, and financial performance. The effectiveness of existing methodologies, such as feature-based and network-topological approaches, is limited for predicting high-potential startups. In response, we propose a novel Venture Graph Neural Network (VenGNN) model, leveraging Heterogeneous Information Networks (HIN) and Graph Neural Networks (GNN) techniques to address the prediction problem. Specifically, we construct a Heterogeneous Venture Information Network (HVIN) using raw business data and deem the prediction a node classification task. Our model integrates theory-guided semantic meta-paths, firm demographics, sampling-based self-attention, and centrality encoding to overcome certain constraints of existing GNNs. Our experimental analysis reveals that VenGNN outperforms state-of-the-art models by 15-20% across a wide range of performance metrics. Our study also includes a comprehensive interpretation analysis to provide investors with an essential understanding for better decision-making
Behavioral Economics and Developmental Science: A New Framework to Support Early Childhood Interventions
Public policies have actively responded to an emergent social and neuroscientific evidence base documenting the benefits of targeting services to children during the earliest period of their development. But problems of low utilization, inconsistent participation, and low retention continue to present themselves as challenges. Although most interventions recognize and address structural and psycho-social barriers to parentâs engagement, few take seriously the decision making roles of parents. Using insights from the behavioral sciences, we revisit assumptions about the presumed behavior of parents in a developmental context. We then describe ways in which this framework informs features of interventions that can be designed to augment the intended impacts of early development, education and care initiatives by improving parent engagement
Kaasaegsete kognitiivsete ja sotsiaalsete sekkumistehnikate loomine pediaatrilises neurorehabilitatsioonis ajukahjustusega lastel
VÀitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneOmandatud ajukahjustusega lapsed vajavad kaasuva kognitiivse ja sotsiaalse defitsiidi diagnostikat ja rehabilitatsiooni, mis on oluline lapse akadeemilise edukuse ja elukvaliteedi parandamisel. Neurorehabilitatsioon on plaanipÀrane sekkumine, mille eesmÀrk on kompenseerida vÔi kergendada ajukahjustusest pÔhjustatud defitsiiti.
Antud doktoritöö eesmÀrk oli uute arvutipÔhiste meetodite kasutuselevÔtmine omandatud ajukahjustusega laste kognitiivses ja sotsiaalses neurorehabilitatioonis. Treeningdisainid loodi tÀhelepanu, ruumitaju ja sotsiaalse kompetentsi hÀirete raviks.
Uuringus osales 59 epilepsia, ajutrauma vĂ”i tikkide diagnoosiga ja 47 tervet kontrollgrupi last vanuses 8â12 aastat. Patsiendid lĂ€bisid rehabilitatsiooni (10 treeningut) koos eelneva ja treeningujĂ€rgse testimisega. TĂ€helepanu ja ruumitaju treeningus kasutati arvutipĂ”hist ForamenRehab lastele kohandatud programmi vĂ€ljatöötatud treeningprotokollidega. Sotsiaalsete hĂ€irete raviks loodi esmalt struktureeritud neurorehabilitatsiooni mudel, mis koosnes sotsiaalse kompetentsi olulistest komponentidest, nende hindamismeetoditest ja rehabilitatsiooni vahenditest: puutetundlikud lauad Snowflake Multiteach Tabletop ja Diamond Touch Table, ning virtuaalreaalsuse keskkonnad.
Tulemusena esines patsientidel treeningu eelselt vÀljendunud tÀhelepanu, ruumitaju ja sotsiaalse kompetentsi defitsiit. ArvutipÔhised ja virtuaalreaalsuse programmid olid efektiivsed kognitiivsete hÀirete ravis. Patsientidel esines treeningute jÀrgselt oluline paranemine kahes tÀhelepanu komponendis (tÀhelepanu jagamine ja seiramine) ja kolmes ruumitaju komponendis (visuaal-konstruktiivsed vÔimed, visuaalne tÀhelepanu ja nÀgemis-ruumitaju) ning raviefekt oli sÀilinud jÀreltestimisel 1,3 aastat hiljem. Sotsiaalse rehabilitatsiooni jÀrgselt paranesid oluliselt patsientide vaimuteooria (Theory of Mind) ja emotsioonide Àratundmine, kasutati rohkem koostööoskuseid, verbaalset ja mitteverbaalset kommunikatsiooni ning pragmaatika oskuseid. Uuringute tugevuseks oli sajaprotsendiline ravisoostumus ning positiivne tagasiside.
Olulised on töö kÀigus vÀlja töötatud teaduspÔhised sekkumisprotokollid ja uued tehnoloogiapÔhised rehabilitatsioonimeetodid hÀirunud funktsioonide spetsiifiliseks raviks lastel.Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) need diagnosis of accompanying cognitive and socio-emotional deficits and neurorehabilitation to enhance their future academic success and quality of life. Neurorehabilitation is a systematic intervention designed to compensate for or remediate the impairments caused by brain injury.
The main aim of the thesis was implementing new computer-based programs, multitouch-multiuser tabletops and virtual reality in cognitive and social neurorehabilitation for children with ABI. Rehabilitation designs were developed for the treatment of attention, visuospatial, and social competence deficits.
59 children aged 8â12 years with ABI diagnosis (epilepsy, traumatic brain injury or tic disorder) and 47 healthy controls participated. Study group patients completed 10 training sessions guided by therapists. Pre-intervention assessments, and outcome assessments immediately and 1.31 years after the rehabilitation were carried out. ForamenRehab computer-programme was adapted to children and intervention protocols were created for attention and visuospatial function remediation. For social deficit remediation, the structured neurorehabilitation model was created, composed of the main components of social competence with evaluation and intervention tools: Snowflake Multiteach Tabletop, Diamond Touch Table and virtual reality programmes.
Pre-intervention assessments showed that children with ABI had significant deficits in attention, visuospatial abilities and social competence functions. Computer-based and virtual reality programs were effective in the remediation of cognitive deficits in patients. After training, the patients had improved performance in two attention (complex attention and tracking) and three visuospatial components (visual organization, visual attention and visuospatial perception). The positive training effect had preserved after 1.3 years in follow-up assessments. Additionally, after social deficit rehabilitation, the patients showed improvements in Theory of Mind and emotion recognition, and they used more cooperation, communication, and pragmatic skills. The patientsâ compliance was 100% and feedback was positive for all three interventions.
In sum, the developed evidence-based intervention protocols and new technology-based rehabilitation methods are important in the remediation of specific cognitive deficits in children.https://www.ester.ee/record=b528718
Recommended from our members
Mind over matter: testing the efficacy of an online randomized controlled trial to reduce distraction from smartphone use
Evidence suggests a growing call for the prevention of excessive smartphone and social media use and the ensuing distraction that arises affecting academic achievement and productivity. A ten-day online randomized controlled trial with the use of smartphone apps, engaging participants in mindfulness exercises, self-monitoring and mood tracking, was implemented amongst UK university students (n = 143). Participants were asked to complete online pre-and post-intervention assessments. Results indicated high effect sizes in reduction of smartphone distraction and improvement scores on a number of self-reported secondary psychological outcomes. The intervention was not effective in reducing habitual behaviours, nomophobia, or time spent on social media. Mediation analyses demonstrated that: (i) emotional self-awareness but not mindful attention mediated the relationship between intervention effects and smartphone distraction, and (ii) online vigilance mediated the relationship between smartphone distraction and problematic social media use. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the efficacy of an intervention for decreased smartphone distraction and highlights psychological processes involved in this emergent phenomenon in the smartphone literature. Online interventions may serve as complementary strategies to reduce distraction levels and promote insight into online engagement. More research is required to elucidate the mechanisms of digital distraction and assess its implications in problematic use
Recommended from our members
Evaluating implementation of the WHO set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children: Progress, challenges and guidance for next steps in the WHO European Region
This paper describes the status of the implementation of the WHO Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children (2010). The Set of Recommendations, adopted by the World Health Assembly, urges Member States to reduce the impact on children of the marketing of energy-dense, highly processed foods and beverages that are high in saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars and/or salt (HFSS). A growing body of independent monitoring and research indicates that existing policies and regulations are markedly insufficient to address the continuing challenges in this field. This report identifies loopholes, ongoing challenges, and factors that Member States need to consider to effectively limit the harmful impact that HFSS food marketing has on children, their health and their rights.
Policies and regulations tend to use narrow definitions and criteria (they frequently apply to pre-digital media only, to younger children and not to adolescents, and to âchild-directedâ media, rather than those with the greatest child audiences), and they almost never address the complex challenges of crossborder marketing. This situation can be explained, in part, by the strong scrutiny and opposition that countries have faced from parts of the private sector, and by weak self-regulatory schemes. As a result, and in order to ensure that States uphold their legal obligations to protect the childâs right to health and related rights, the World Health Assembly requested that WHO provides additional technical support to Member States in implementing the Set of Recommendations. This report identifies challenges States need to address
Thirty-second Annual Symposium of Trinity College Undergraduate Research
2019 annual volume of abstracts for science research projects conducted by students at Trinity College
The association of early touchscreen media use with the development of visual attention and executive function
Attention plays a pivotal role in information processing by filtering the potential information available based on individual goals, states, and past experiences. Early attention control is thought to underpin and support executive functions (EFs), which in turn are predictive of later behavioural outcomes. The development of attention and EF is partly subject to environmental influences, such as the use of digital media. There is a rapid increase in accessibility and usability of mobile touchscreen devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets) in the family environment, but rigorous scientific research investigating the impact on the developing mind lags behind the widespread usage. To address this, children with different levels of touchscreen use were followed longitudinally at 12 months, 18 months, and 3.5 years, and tested on attention control (bottom-up, and top-down), and EF (updating, shifting, and inhibiting).
Children with high touchscreen use were faster on single (i.e. pop-out) visual search, with the amount of concurrent use associated with the speed of bottom-up attention in a linear manner. This saliency bias was repeatedly found on saccadic control tasks, where steady longitudinal high use was associated with a quickening of attention to peripheral salient onsets with a resulting detriment to top-down performance, i.e. disengagement and inhibition of attention. Finally, top-down difficulties were also seen in EF tasks in high users at 3.5 years, particularly in processes of updating and shifting between abstract mental sets.
These results point to an influence of touchscreens use on the emerging attention and EF systems, in a way that experience of salient and contingent digital content elicits automatic biases to bottom-up processing, and displaces competency of top-down control and/or increases reliance on stimulus-response pairings. Future studies are needed to demonstrate causality, and to understand long-term trajectories and the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processes over time
- âŠ