2,623 research outputs found
A study on text-score disagreement in online reviews
In this paper, we focus on online reviews and employ artificial intelligence
tools, taken from the cognitive computing field, to help understanding the
relationships between the textual part of the review and the assigned numerical
score. We move from the intuitions that 1) a set of textual reviews expressing
different sentiments may feature the same score (and vice-versa); and 2)
detecting and analyzing the mismatches between the review content and the
actual score may benefit both service providers and consumers, by highlighting
specific factors of satisfaction (and dissatisfaction) in texts.
To prove the intuitions, we adopt sentiment analysis techniques and we
concentrate on hotel reviews, to find polarity mismatches therein. In
particular, we first train a text classifier with a set of annotated hotel
reviews, taken from the Booking website. Then, we analyze a large dataset, with
around 160k hotel reviews collected from Tripadvisor, with the aim of detecting
a polarity mismatch, indicating if the textual content of the review is in
line, or not, with the associated score.
Using well established artificial intelligence techniques and analyzing in
depth the reviews featuring a mismatch between the text polarity and the score,
we find that -on a scale of five stars- those reviews ranked with middle scores
include a mixture of positive and negative aspects.
The approach proposed here, beside acting as a polarity detector, provides an
effective selection of reviews -on an initial very large dataset- that may
allow both consumers and providers to focus directly on the review subset
featuring a text/score disagreement, which conveniently convey to the user a
summary of positive and negative features of the review target.Comment: This is the accepted version of the paper. The final version will be
published in the Journal of Cognitive Computation, available at Springer via
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12559-017-9496-
A Terminal Velocity on the Landscape: Particle Production near Extra Species Loci in Higher Dimensions
We investigate particle production near extra species loci (ESL) in a higher
dimensional field space and derive a speed limit in moduli space at weak
coupling. This terminal velocity is set by the characteristic ESL-separation
and the coupling of the extra degrees of freedom to the moduli, but it is
independent of the moduli's potential if the dimensionality of the field space
is considerably larger than the dimensionality of the loci, D >> d. Once the
terminal velocity is approached, particles are produced at a plethora of nearby
ESLs, preventing a further increase in speed via their backreaction. It is
possible to drive inflation at the terminal velocity, providing a
generalization of trapped inflation with attractive features: we find that more
than sixty e-folds of inflation for sub-Planckian excursions in field space are
possible if ESLs are ubiquitous, without fine tuning of initial conditions and
less tuned potentials. We construct a simple, observationally viable model with
a slightly red scalar power-spectrum and suppressed gravitational waves; we
comment on the presence of additional observational signatures originating from
IR-cascading and individual massive particles. We also show that
moduli-trapping at an ESL is suppressed for D >> d, hindering dynamical
selection of high-symmetry vacua on the landscape based on this mechanism.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. V3: typos corrected compared to JHEP version,
conclusions unchange
Subcellular localization of MC4R with ADCY3 at neuronal primary cilia underlies a common pathway for genetic predisposition to obesity.
Most monogenic cases of obesity in humans have been linked to mutations in genes encoding members of the leptin-melanocortin pathway. Specifically, mutations in MC4R, the melanocortin-4 receptor gene, account for 3-5% of all severe obesity cases in humans1-3. Recently, ADCY3 (adenylyl cyclase 3) gene mutations have been implicated in obesity4,5. ADCY3 localizes to the primary cilia of neurons 6 , organelles that function as hubs for select signaling pathways. Mutations that disrupt the functions of primary cilia cause ciliopathies, rare recessive pleiotropic diseases in which obesity is a cardinal manifestation 7 . We demonstrate that MC4R colocalizes with ADCY3 at the primary cilia of a subset of hypothalamic neurons, that obesity-associated MC4R mutations impair ciliary localization and that inhibition of adenylyl cyclase signaling at the primary cilia of these neurons increases body weight. These data suggest that impaired signaling from the primary cilia of MC4R neurons is a common pathway underlying genetic causes of obesity in humans
A Hybrid Higgs
We construct composite Higgs models admitting a weakly coupled Seiberg dual
description. We focus on the possibility that only the up-type Higgs is an
elementary field, while the down-type Higgs arises as a composite hadron. The
model, based on a confining SQCD theory, breaks supersymmetry and electroweak
symmetry dynamically and calculably. This simultaneously solves the \mu/B_\mu
problem and explains the smallness of the bottom and tau masses compared to the
top mass. The proposal is then applied to a class of models where the same
confining dynamics is used to generate the Standard Model flavor hierarchy by
quark and lepton compositeness. This provides a unified framework for flavor,
supersymmetry breaking and electroweak physics. The weakly coupled dual is used
to explicitly compute the MSSM parameters in terms of a few microscopic
couplings, giving interesting relations between the electroweak and soft
parameters. The RG evolution down to the TeV scale is obtained and salient
phenomenological predictions of this class of "single-sector" models are
discussed.Comment: 56 pages, 7 figures, v2: discussion on FCNCs and references added,
v3: JHEP versio
The influence of caffeine on energy content of sugar-sweetened beverages : the caffeine–calorie effect
Background/Objectives: Caffeine is a mildly addictive psychoactive chemical and controversial additive to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). The objective of this study is to assess if removal of caffeine from SSBs allows co-removal of sucrose (energy) without affecting flavour of SSBs, and if removal of caffeine could potentially affect population weight gain. Subjects/Methods: The research comprised of three studies; study 1 used three-alternate forced choice and paired comparison tests to establish detection thresholds for caffeine in water and sucrose solution (subjects, n ¼ 63), and to determine if caffeine suppressed sweetness. Study 2 (subjects, n ¼ 30) examined the proportion of sucrose that could be co-removed with caffeine from SSBs without affecting the flavour of the SSBs. Study 3 applied validated coefficients to estimate the impact on the weight of the United States population if there was no caffeine in SSBs. Results: Detection threshold for caffeine in water was higher (1.09±0.08 mM) than the detection threshold for caffeine in sucrose solution (0.49 ± 0.04 mM), and a paired comparison test revealed caffeine significantly reduced the sweetness of sucrose (Po0.001). Removing caffeine from SSBs allowed co-removal of 10.3% sucrose without affecting flavour of the SSBs, equating to 116 kJ per 500 ml serving. The effect of this on body weight in adults and children would be 0.600 and 0.142 kg, which are equivalent to 2.08 and 1.10 years of observed existing trends in weight gain, respectively. Conclusion: These data suggest the extra energy in SSBs as a result of caffeine's effect on sweetness may be associated with adult and child weight gain
Threat-sensitive anti-predator defence in precocial wader, the northern lapwing Vanellus vanellus
Birds exhibit various forms of anti-predator behaviours to avoid reproductive failure, with mobbing—observation, approach and usually harassment of a predator—being one of the most commonly observed. Here, we investigate patterns of temporal variation in the mobbing response exhibited by a precocial species, the northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus). We test whether brood age and self-reliance, or the perceived risk posed by various predators, affect mobbing response of lapwings. We quantified aggressive interactions between lapwings and their natural avian predators and used generalized additive models to test how timing and predator species identity are related to the mobbing response of lapwings. Lapwings diversified mobbing response within the breeding season and depending on predator species. Raven Corvus corax, hooded crow Corvus cornix and harriers evoked the strongest response, while common buzzard Buteo buteo, white stork Ciconia ciconia, black-headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus and rook Corvus frugilegus were less frequently attacked. Lapwings increased their mobbing response against raven, common buzzard, white stork and rook throughout the breeding season, while defence against hooded crow, harriers and black-headed gull did not exhibit clear temporal patterns. Mobbing behaviour of lapwings apparently constitutes a flexible anti-predator strategy. The anti-predator response depends on predator species, which may suggest that lapwings distinguish between predator types and match mobbing response to the perceived hazard at different stages of the breeding cycle. We conclude that a single species may exhibit various patterns of temporal variation in anti-predator defence, which may correspond with various hypotheses derived from parental investment theory
Sí Se Puede: Using Participatory Research to Promote Environmental Justice in a Latino Community in San Diego, California
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) increasingly is seen as a potent tool for studying and addressing urban environmental health problems by linking place-based work with efforts to help effect policy-level change. This paper explores a successful CBPR and organizing effort, the Toxic Free Neighborhoods Campaign, in Old Town National City (OTNC), CA, United States, and its contributions to both local policy outcomes and changes in the broader policy environment, laying the groundwork for a Specific Plan to address a host of interlocking community concerns. After briefly describing the broader research of which the OTNC case study was a part, we provide background on the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) partnership and the setting in which it took place, including the problems posed for residents in this light industrial/residential neighborhood. EHC’s strong in-house research, and its training and active engagement of promotoras de salud (lay health promoters) as co-researchers and policy change advocates, are described. We explore in particular the translation of research findings as part of a policy advocacy campaign, interweaving challenges faced and success factors and multi-level outcomes to which these efforts contributed. The EHC partnership's experience then is compared with that of other policy-focused CBPR efforts in urban environmental health, emphasizing common success factors and challenges faced, as these may assist other partnerships wishing to pursue CBPR in urban communities
Supermembrane interaction with dynamical D=4 N=1 supergravity. Superfield Lagrangian description and spacetime equations of motion
We obtain the complete set of equations of motion for the interacting system
of supermembrane and dynamical D=4 N = 1 supergravity by varying its complete
superfield action and writing the resulting superfield equations in the special
gauge where the supermembrane Goldstone field is set to zero. We solve the
equations for auxiliary fields and discuss the effect of dynamical generation
of cosmological constant in the Einstein equation of interacting system and its
renormalization due to some regular contributions from supermembrane. These two
effects (discussed in late 70th and 80th, in the bosonic perspective and in the
supergravity literature) result in that, generically, the cosmological constant
has different values in the branches of the spacetime separated by the
supermembrane worldvolume.Comment: 23 pages, no figures. V2 two references added, 24 page
Many faces of low mass neutralino dark matter in the unconstrained MSSM, LHC data and new signals
If all strongly interacting sparticles (the squarks and the gluinos) in an
unconstrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) are heavier than the
corresponding mass lower limits in the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model,
obtained by the current LHC experiments, then the existing data allow a variety
of electroweak (EW) sectors with light sparticles yielding dark matter (DM)
relic density allowed by the WMAP data. Some of the sparticles may lie just
above the existing lower bounds from LEP and lead to many novel DM producing
mechanisms not common in mSUGRA. This is illustrated by revisiting the above
squark-gluino mass limits obtained by the ATLAS Collaboration, with an
unconstrained EW sector with masses not correlated with the strong sector.
Using their selection criteria and the corresponding cross section limits, we
find at the generator level using Pythia, that the changes in the mass limits,
if any, are by at most 10-12% in most scenarios. In some cases, however, the
relaxation of the gluino mass limits are larger (). If a subset of
the strongly interacting sparticles in an unconstrained MSSM are within the
reach of the LHC, then signals sensitive to the EW sector may be obtained. This
is illustrated by simulating the \etslash, , and \etslash signals in i) the light stop scenario and ii) the light
stop-gluino scenario with various light EW sectors allowed by the WMAP data.
Some of the more general models may be realized with non-universal scalar and
gaugino masses.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure, references added, minor changes in text, to
appear in JHE
Coupling models of cattle and farms with models of badgers for predicting the dynamics of bovine tuberculosis (TB)
Bovine TB is a major problem for the agricultural industry in several
countries. TB can be contracted and spread by species other than cattle and
this can cause a problem for disease control. In the UK and Ireland, badgers
are a recognised reservoir of infection and there has been substantial
discussion about potential control strategies. We present a coupling of
individual based models of bovine TB in badgers and cattle, which aims to
capture the key details of the natural history of the disease and of both
species at approximately county scale. The model is spatially explicit it
follows a very large number of cattle and badgers on a different grid size for
each species and includes also winter housing. We show that the model can
replicate the reported dynamics of both cattle and badger populations as well
as the increasing prevalence of the disease in cattle. Parameter space used as
input in simulations was swept out using Latin hypercube sampling and
sensitivity analysis to model outputs was conducted using mixed effect models.
By exploring a large and computationally intensive parameter space we show that
of the available control strategies it is the frequency of TB testing and
whether or not winter housing is practised that have the most significant
effects on the number of infected cattle, with the effect of winter housing
becoming stronger as farm size increases. Whether badgers were culled or not
explained about 5%, while the accuracy of the test employed to detect infected
cattle explained less than 3% of the variance in the number of infected cattle
- …