Semantic modelling of user interests based on cross-folksonomy analysis

The continued increase in Web usage, in particular participation in folksonomies, reveals a trend towards a more dynamic and interactive Web where individuals can organise and share resources. Tagging has emerged as the de-facto standard for the organisation of such resources, providing a versatile and reactive knowledge management mechanism that users find easy to use and understand. It is common nowadays for users to have multiple profiles in various folksonomies, thus distributing their tagging activities. In this paper, we present a method for the automatic consolidation of user profiles across two popular social networking sites, and subsequent semantic modelling of their interests utilising Wikipedia as a multi-domain model. We evaluate how much can be learned from such sites, and in which domains the knowledge acquired is focussed. Results show that far richer interest profiles can be generated for users when multiple tag-clouds are combine

Lattice sites of ion-implanted Li in diamond

Published in: Appl. Phys. Lett. 66 (1995) 2733-2735 citations recorded in [Science Citation Index] Abstract: Radioactive Li ions were implanted into natural IIa diamonds at temperatures between 100 K and 900 K. Emission channelling patterns of a-particles emitted in the nuclear decay of 8Li (t1/2 = 838 ms) were measured and, from a comparison with calculated emission channelling and blocking effects from Monte Carlo simulations, the lattice sites taken up by the Li ions were quantitatively determined. A fraction of 40(5)% of the implanted Li ions were found to be located on tetrahedral interstitial lattice sites, and 17(5)% on substitutional sites. The fractions of implanted Li on the two lattice sites showed no change with temperature, indicating that Li diffusion does not take place within the time window of our measurements.

Social network dynamics of face-to-face interactions

The recent availability of data describing social networks is changing our understanding of the "microscopic structure" of a social tie. A social tie indeed is an aggregated outcome of many social interactions such as face-to-face conversations or phone-calls. Analysis of data on face-to-face interactions shows that such events, as many other human activities, are bursty, with very heterogeneous durations. In this paper we present a model for social interactions at short time scales, aimed at describing contexts such as conference venues in which individuals interact in small groups. We present a detailed anayltical and numerical study of the model's dynamical properties, and show that it reproduces important features of empirical data. The model allows for many generalizations toward an increasingly realistic description of social interactions. In particular in this paper we investigate the case where the agents have intrinsic heterogeneities in their social behavior, or where dynamic variations of the local number of individuals are included. Finally we propose this model as a very flexible framework to investigate how dynamical processes unfold in social networks.Comment: 20 pages, 25 figure

Reporting of Adverse Events in Published and Unpublished Studies of Health Care Interventions : A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: We performed a systematic review to assess whether we can quantify the underreporting of adverse events (AEs) in the published medical literature documenting the results of clinical trials as compared with other nonpublished sources, and whether we can measure the impact this underreporting has on systematic reviews of adverse events. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Studies were identified from 15 databases (including MEDLINE and Embase) and by handsearching, reference checking, internet searches, and contacting experts. The last database searches were conducted in July 2016. There were 28 methodological evaluations that met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 9 studies compared the proportion of trials reporting adverse events by publication status. The median percentage of published documents with adverse events information was 46% compared to 95% in the corresponding unpublished documents. There was a similar pattern with unmatched studies, for which 43% of published studies contained adverse events information compared to 83% of unpublished studies. A total of 11 studies compared the numbers of adverse events in matched published and unpublished documents. The percentage of adverse events that would have been missed had each analysis relied only on the published versions varied between 43% and 100%, with a median of 64%. Within these 11 studies, 24 comparisons of named adverse events such as death, suicide, or respiratory adverse events were undertaken. In 18 of the 24 comparisons, the number of named adverse events was higher in unpublished than published documents. Additionally, 2 other studies demonstrated that there are substantially more types of adverse events reported in matched unpublished than published documents. There were 20 meta-analyses that reported the odds ratios (ORs) and/or risk ratios (RRs) for adverse events with and without unpublished data. Inclusion of unpublished data increased the precision of the pooled estimates (narrower 95% confidence intervals) in 15 of the 20 pooled analyses, but did not markedly change the direction or statistical significance of the risk in most cases. The main limitations of this review are that the included case examples represent only a small number amongst thousands of meta-analyses of harms and that the included studies may suffer from publication bias, whereby substantial differences between published and unpublished data are more likely to be published. CONCLUSIONS: There is strong evidence that much of the information on adverse events remains unpublished and that the number and range of adverse events is higher in unpublished than in published versions of the same study. The inclusion of unpublished data can also reduce the imprecision of pooled effect estimates during meta-analysis of adverse events

A complementary view on the growth of directory trees

Trees are a special sub-class of networks with unique properties, such as the level distribution which has often been overlooked. We analyse a general tree growth model proposed by Klemm {\em et. al.} (2005) to explain the growth of user-generated directory structures in computers. The model has a single parameter $q$ which interpolates between preferential attachment and random growth. Our analysis results in three contributions: First, we propose a more efficient estimation method for $q$ based on the degree distribution, which is one specific representation of the model. Next, we introduce the concept of a level distribution and analytically solve the model for this representation. This allows for an alternative and independent measure of $q$. We argue that, to capture real growth processes, the $q$ estimations from the degree and the level distributions should coincide. Thus, we finally apply both representations to validate the model with synthetically generated tree structures, as well as with collected data of user directories. In the case of real directory structures, we show that $q$ measured from the level distribution are incompatible with $q$ measured from the degree distribution. In contrast to this, we find perfect agreement in the case of simulated data. Thus, we conclude that the model is an incomplete description of the growth of real directory structures as it fails to reproduce the level distribution. This insight can be generalised to point out the importance of the level distribution for modeling tree growth.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Attitudes towards the use of perioperative steroids in resectional colorectal cancer surgery in the UK: a qualitative study

Introduction: Resectional surgery remains the mainstay of treatment for colorectal cancer. A heightened postoperative systemic inflammatory response has been shown to correlate negatively with short/long-term outcomes. Perioperative steroid administration may help to alleviate this systemic inflammatory response. This survey has been carried out to assess current attitudes towards perioperative steroid use and to gauge interest in a randomised control trial in this area. Method: An internet-based survey consisting of 9 questions was circulated via email. Those responses from outside the United Kingdom were excluded. Result: 74 doctors from the United Kingdom, predominantly Consultant Anaesthetists (54%) responded to this survey. 77% gave some or all of their patients steroids, in 75% of cases at the discretion of the anaesthetist. The main perceived benefit was to reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting. Diabetics and those deemed at high risk of wound infection were the group in whom most respondents would be reluctant to give steroids. 32% of respondents had no concerns. 87% of respondents felt that that a randomised trial in this field would be of clinical interest with most respondents (58%) preferring a three-armed trial – no steroids vs low dose steroids vs high dose steroids. Conclusion: – This survey indicated that perioperative steroid use is currently widespread. Sufficient equipoise exists for a trial in this area with regard to examining the impact of dexamethasone on postoperative complications and the postoperative systemic inflammatory response. Respondents favoured a 3-armed trial – no steroids vs low-dose steroids vs high-dose steroids

Increasing Feed Conversion Efficiency in Automatic Milking Systems: The Impact of Grain-Based Concentrate Allocation and Kikuyu (\u3cem\u3ePennisetum clandestinum\u3c/em\u3e) Pasture State on Milk Production

Pasture is typically offered to dairy cows in three allocations in pasture-based automatic milking systems (AMS). However, due to voluntary cow movement and distribution of milkings, some dairy cows access fresh pasture and other cows access depleted (stale) pasture. The first cows moving to an allocation of fresh pasture are offered ad-libitum, high quality pasture as opposed to cows arriving to the same allocation during the middle or end of the day accessing poorer quality, high fibre (neutral detergent fibre, NDF) pasture. In addition, grain-based concentrate (GBC) is allocated independently to this pasture state. The ability to increase feed conversion efficiency and AMS herd milk production by targetedGBC supplementation to cows accessing differing pasture states is unknown. Therefore, the aim of the current experiment was to determine the impact of pasture state and GBC allocation on dairy cow milk production

Increasing Feed Conversion Efficiency in Automatic Milking Systems: The Impact of Grain-Based Concentrate Allocation and Kikuyu (\u3cem\u3ePennisetum clandestinum\u3c/em\u3e) Pasture State on Kikuyu Pasture Digestibility

Automatic milking system (AMS) farms, rely upon voluntary cow traffic (the voluntary movement of cattle around a farm) for milk harvesting and feed consumption. Dairy cows on a pasture-based AMS farm typically move from depleted to fresh allocations of pasture in small groups, or individually, at differing times. The first cows moving to an allocation of fresh pasture get access to rapidly fermentable, ad libitum, high quality pasture in contrast to those cows accessing the same allocation towards the end of the access period. At the same time, grain-based concentrate (GBC) is allocated independent of the pasture state that cows access. Inclusion of a high level of GBC in the diet with high or low nutritive value forage, or variable states of forage, may create dramatic variations in rumen fluid pH, which may induce subacute ruminal acidosis (Bramley 2004), reduce feed conversion efficiency and negatively impact animal health. The aim of the current study was to determine the impact of pasture state and GBC allocation on the digestibility of kikuyu pasture