Integration of Exploration and Search: A Case Study of the M3 Model

International audienceEffective support for multimedia analytics applications requires exploration and search to be integrated seamlessly into a single interaction model. Media metadata can be seen as defining a multidimensional media space, casting multimedia analytics tasks as exploration, manipulation and augmentation of that space. We present an initial case study of integrating exploration and search within this multidimensional media space. We extend the M3 model, initially proposed as a pure exploration tool, and show that it can be elegantly extended to allow searching within an exploration context and exploring within a search context. We then evaluate the suitability of relational database management systems, as representatives of today’s data management technologies, for implementing the extended M3 model. Based on our results, we finally propose some research directions for scalability of multimedia analytics

Using microorganisms for cleaning oil-contaminated concrete

Revealed that the distribution of spots on the surface of the concrete depends on its density and structure, and the penetration of oil into the concrete occurs through micro- and nano-pores and cracks of the further spread of spots along the pathways. It was found that the use of hydrocarbon-oxidizing microorganisms strains as Micrococcus luteus IS16, M. varians IS41, micromycetes: Aspergillus sp., Penicillium sp., Alternaria sp., thiobacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans Ach1, A. ferrooxidans Ach2 promising for biological treatment of oil-contaminated concrete. Create optimal conditions for maintaining the activity of microorganisms: 55,0 ± 15,0% moisture, nutrients, temperature 38,0 ± 2,00C, trace elements, optimize the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons

Problems of blood glucose self-monitoring in patients with diabetes mellitus

Glycemic self-monitoring is essential in  the  treatment of  diabetes mellitus. Compliance with the  recommendations for  selfmonitoring of glycemia is an important condition for the prevention of diabetes complications. The article provides a review of the problems associated with blood glucose self-monitoring faced by diabetic patients and doctors. These include low frequency of blood glucose self-monitoring, technical errors in glucose measurements, errors in keeping a diary and errors in using measurement data to diabetes control. The blood glucose monitoring system, which includes the glucometer, test strips, application, сloud for data storage can be used for blood glucose self-monitoring in patients with diabetes mellitus. The article discusses the features and advantages of the blood glucose monitoring system. The advantages of the glucometer are the no сoding technology and the following options: аpplication of additional amount of blood to the test strip; adding meal marks, testing as the measurement results compare with targets and informing about it; storage a large number of measurement results. In addition to the standard blood glucose measurement, the glucose meter and the application offer many features to improve blood glucose self-monitoring that can help to improve diabetes management: automatic transferring measurement results to smartphone or tablet; saving notes in logbook; display of glucose trends and testing as they compare with targets; offering quick and valuable tips for critical high/low glucose values

PinnerSage: Multi-Modal User Embedding Framework for Recommendations at Pinterest

Latent user representations are widely adopted in the tech industry for powering personalized recommender systems. Most prior work infers a single high dimensional embedding to represent a user, which is a good starting point but falls short in delivering a full understanding of the user's interests. In this work, we introduce PinnerSage, an end-to-end recommender system that represents each user via multi-modal embeddings and leverages this rich representation of users to provides high quality personalized recommendations. PinnerSage achieves this by clustering users' actions into conceptually coherent clusters with the help of a hierarchical clustering method (Ward) and summarizes the clusters via representative pins (Medoids) for efficiency and interpretability. PinnerSage is deployed in production at Pinterest and we outline the several design decisions that makes it run seamlessly at a very large scale. We conduct several offline and online A/B experiments to show that our method significantly outperforms single embedding methods.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

The Hilbert-Schmidt Theorem Formulation of the R-Matrix Theory

Using the Hilbert-Schmidt theorem, we reformulate the R-matrix theory in terms of a uniformly and absolutely convergent expansion. Term by term differentiation is possible with this expansion in the neighborhood of the surface. Methods for improving the convergence are discussed when the R-function series is truncated for practical applications.Comment: 16 pages, Late

Knaster's problem for (Z2)k(Z_2)^k-symmetric subsets of the sphere S2k−1S^{2^k-1}

We prove a Knaster-type result for orbits of the group $(Z_2)^k$ in $S^{2^k-1}$, calculating the Euler class obstruction. Among the consequences are: a result about inscribing skew crosspolytopes in hypersurfaces in $\mathbb R^{2^k}$, and a result about equipartition of a measures in $\mathbb R^{2^k}$ by $(Z_2)^{k+1}$-symmetric convex fans

Effect of Different Methods of Abdominal Decompression on the Dynamics of Intra-Abdominal Pressure in the Early Postoperative Period in Patients with Secondary Diffuse Peritonitis: Observational Study

Background. Intra-abdominal hypertension complicates the course of secondary diffuse peritonitis in at least 60–70% of cases. Abdominal decompression is an essential component in the complex of therapeutic measures in patients with secondary diffuse peritonitis. However, no clear criteria for choosing the method and timing of abdominal decompression have been developed so far. The effectiveness of its use in various forms of peritonitis remains controversial.Objectives — to study the dynamics of intra-abdominal pressure in the early postoperative period when using various methods of abdominal decompression in patients with secondary diffuse peritonitis.Methods. The work was performed on the basis of an observational clinical study under the auspices of Regional Clinical Emergency Hospital over a period from January 2021 to December 2022. The authors studied intra-abdominal pressure in 74 patients with secondary diffuse peritonitis in the early postoperative period. In 39 (52.7%) patients (group 1), decompression was carried out in the form of prolonged nasogastric intubation. 15 (20.3%) patients (group 2) underwent nasointestinal intubation. Group 3 was represented by 10 patients (13.5%) which were affected by open abdomen technology and vacuum assisted closure (VAC). Group 4 included patients with vacuum-assisted laparostoma who underwent nasointestinal intubation. The severity of peritonitis was assessed using WSES cIAIs Score and Mannheim Peritonitis Index. The dynamics of intra-abdominal pressure was determined through the urinary catheter using the Uno Meter Abdo Pressure® Kit (Unomedical, Russia) before surgery and within 5 days of the postoperative period. Statistical analysis was based on non-parametric Wilcoxon test for comparing the values of the same group at different periods of observation. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare absolute values in different groups.Results. Nasogastric tube did not provide an acceptable reduction in intra-abdominal pressure, especially in patients with severe forms of peritonitis. Prolonged nasointestinal intubation contributed to a steady decrease in intra-abdominal pressure throughout the postoperative period, while simultaneous intubation resulted in an increase in intra-abdominal hypertension after a decline in values one day after surgery. The best results of intra-abdominal pressure dynamics were observed in case of vacuum-assisted laparostomy and its combination with nasointestinal intubation. Throughout the postoperative period, the intra-abdominal pressure did not exceed 15–17 mmHg. This method can be used only in treatment of the most severe forms of peritonitis, with indications for sanitation relaparotomy and in case of threatened abdominal compression syndrome.Conclusion. The data obtained enable the process of choosing surgical tactics and method of abdominal decompression to be optimized with respect to the severity of peritonitis and intra-abdominal hypertension

Linear Relaxation Processes Governed by Fractional Symmetric Kinetic Equations

We get fractional symmetric Fokker - Planck and Einstein - Smoluchowski kinetic equations, which describe evolution of the systems influenced by stochastic forces distributed with stable probability laws. These equations generalize known kinetic equations of the Brownian motion theory and contain symmetric fractional derivatives over velocity and space, respectively. With the help of these equations we study analytically the processes of linear relaxation in a force - free case and for linear oscillator. For a weakly damped oscillator we also get kinetic equation for the distribution in slow variables. Linear relaxation processes are also studied numerically by solving corresponding Langevin equations with the source which is a discrete - time approximation to a white Levy noise. Numerical and analytical results agree quantitatively.Comment: 30 pages, LaTeX, 13 figures PostScrip

Type 2 Diabetes Risk Alleles Are Associated With Reduced Size at Birth

OBJECTIVE: Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms underlying this association are unknown and may represent intrauterine programming or two phenotypes of one genotype. The fetal insulin hypothesis proposes that common genetic variants that reduce insulin secretion or action may predispose to type 2 diabetes and also reduce birth weight, since insulin is a key fetal growth factor. We tested whether common genetic variants that predispose to type 2 diabetes also reduce birth weight. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at five recently identified type 2 diabetes loci (CDKAL1, CDKN2A/B, HHEX-IDE, IGF2BP2, and SLC30A8) in 7,986 mothers and 19,200 offspring from four studies of white Europeans. We tested the association between maternal or fetal genotype at each locus and birth weight of the offspring. RESULTS: We found that type 2 diabetes risk alleles at the CDKAL1 and HHEX-IDE loci were associated with reduced birth weight when inherited by the fetus (21 g [95% CI 11-31], P = 2 x 10(-5), and 14 g [4-23], P = 0.004, lower birth weight per risk allele, respectively). The 4% of offspring carrying four risk alleles at these two loci were 80 g (95% CI 39-120) lighter at birth than the 8% carrying none (P(trend) = 5 x 10(-7)). There were no associations between birth weight and fetal genotypes at the three other loci or maternal genotypes at any locus. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are in keeping with the fetal insulin hypothesis and provide robust evidence that common disease-associated variants can alter size at birth directly through the fetal genotype