Measurements and analysis of individual and collective advertising

The fundamental problem of the online advertising ecosystem is its lack of transparency, which avoid people or advertisers to properly understand its functionality. This lack of transparency may jeopardize the sustainable growth of this profitable market. The research community has understood this message and has recently started to develop methodologies and tools to unveil relevant aspects of online advertising. The results of this thesis aim to contribute to this collective effort. We define two different types of advertising, individual advertising and collective advertising, both present in the context of online advertising. (i) In the context of this thesis, we define individual advertising as the advertising that is targeted directly to a single user. People, as Internet users, browse over the millions and millions of websites that make up the Internet. Each of their single steps, leaves a unique footprint that defines us as a single online individual (e.g. country, sex, age, interests, tastes, etc.) who can be potentially targeted by the advertising ecosystem. (ii) Collective advertising refers to a group of users with common characteristics. For example, same geographical area (i.e. region, city, country, etc.) or same age range. Due to the nature of this type of advertising, the study has been conducted in an Online Social Network (OSN), Twitter, and specifically we have analyzed the functionality known as Trending Topics due to being a powerful tool used in marketing and advertising contexts. This thesis presents two independent methodologies in these types of advertising, which help to unveil fundamental aspects of the practices in the advertising ecosystem. One of the key problems of individual advertising is privacy. As Internet users, the sites we visite, the clicks we do or the emails we send, define us perfectly facing the advertising ecosystem. This wealth of information allows customized campaigns for each user but also includes a huge risk to our privacy and the use of our personal data. Then, the first contribution of this thesis is to define a methodology to analyze the current use of Online Behavioural targeted Advertising (OBA) that has risen in prominence as a method to increase the effectiveness of online advertising but also has a negative impact on user privacy. OBA operates by associating tags or labels to users based on their online activity and then using these labels to target them. This rise has been accompanied by privacy concerns from researchers, regulators and the press. This thesis presents a novel methodology for measuring and understanding OBA in the online advertising market. We rely on training artificial online personas representing behavioural traits like “cooking”, “movies”, “motor sports”, etc. and build a measurement system that is automated, scalable and supports testing of multiple configurations. We observe that OBA is a frequent practice and notice that categories valued more by advertisers are more intensely targeted. In the context of collective advertising, there exists a lack of methodologies to quantify the efficiency of online collective advertising tools and comparing it with the efficiency of traditional collective advertising channels (e.g., ads in TV, radio, newspapers). In this thesis we address this problem and propose the first methodology to characterize the visibility of Trending Topics in several countries and cities by using metrics that rely on the exposure time of Trending Topics and the penetration of Twitter, we compare the visibility provided by Trending Topics and traditional advertisement channels such as newspapers’ ads or radio-stations’ commercials for several countries. The study confirms that Trending Topics offer a comparable visibility to the aforementioned traditional advertisement channels in those countries where we have conducted our comparison study. Also, collective advertising, given its nature, allows the information to be spread among different users of the social network via comments or shares. This feature converts the collective advertising in a piece of information with a different treatment comparing to the individual advertising and, therefore, it also requires a study of this spread of information. To this end, we have conducted a study on existing patterns across countries following a leader-follower model over a dataset of thousands of Trending Topics from dozens of countries and hundreds of cities. The conclusions drawn from this thesis have allowed a better understanding of the use of online advertising on the web, providing more transparency to the advertising ecosystem and quantifying the impact of new collective advertising tools.El problema fundamental del ecosistema de publicidad online es su falta de transparencia, evitando que los usuarios y los anunciantes comprendan adecuadamente su funcionamiento. Esta falta de transparencia puede poner en peligro el crecimiento sostenible de este mercado tan rentable. La comunidad investigadora ha comprendido este problema y recientemente ha comenzado a desarrollar metodologías y herramientas para dar a conocer los aspectos más relevantes de la publicidad online. Los resultados de esta tesis tienen como objetivo contribuir a este esfuerzo colectivo. En esta tesis se definen dos tipos diferentes de publicidad dentro del contexto de la publicidad online: la publicidad individual y la publicidad colectiva. (i) En el contexto de esta tesis, hemos definido la publicidad individual como la publicidad que se dirige directamente a un usuario con unas características concretas. Las personas navegan a través de millones y millones de sitios web que conforman Internet. Cada uno de nuestros pasos en Internet, deja una huella única que nos define como un individuo único (por ejemplo, nuestro país, sexo, edad, intereses, gustos, etc.) y que puede ser potencialmente utilizada por el ecosistema de publicidad. (ii) Por otro lado, la publicidad colectiva se refiere a un grupo de usuarios con características comunes. Por ejemplo, una misma zona geográfica (región, ciudad, país, etc.) o en el mismo rango de edad. Debido a la naturaleza de este tipo de publicidad, el estudio se ha llevado a cabo en una red social concreta, Twitter, y específicamente, hemos analizado la funcionalidad conocida como Trending Topics, al ser una herramienta válida para ser utilizada en los contextos de marketing y publicidad. En esta tesis se presentan dos metodologías independientes relacionadas con los tipos de publicidad definidas anteriormente. Estas metodologías permitirán dar a conocer aspectos fundamentales de las prácticas utilizadas en el ecosistema de publicidad. Uno de los problemas clave de la publicidad individual es la privacidad. Como internautas, los sitios que visitamos, los clics que hacemos o los correos electrónicos que enviamos, nos definen a la perfección de cara al ecosistema de publicidad. Por tanto, esta gran cantidad de información hace posible, no solo campañas personalizadas para cada usuario, sino que también incluye un gran riesgo para nuestra privacidad y el uso de nuestros datos personales. Por tanto, la primera contribución de esta tesis es definir una metodología para analizar el uso actual del Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) que ha incrementado su importancia como método para aumentar la eficacia de la publicidad online, pero que también tiene un impacto negativo sobre la privacidad del usuario. OBA funciona mediante la asociación de tags o etiquetas a los usuarios en función de su actividad online para luego usar estas etiquetas para realizar campañas dirigidas a ellos. El aumento de esta técnica se ha visto acompañado por una mayor preocupación sobre la privacidad de los usuarios por parte de los investigadores, los reguladores y la prensa. Esta tesis presenta una nueva metodología para medir y comprender OBA en el mercado de la publicidad online. Esta metodología se basa en la creación de personas artificiales con intereses y gustos distintos como “la cocina”, “cine”, “deportes de motor”, etc. A su vez, hemos desarrollado un sistema de medición automático, escalable que permite realizar pruebas con múltiples configuraciones. Como resultado cabe mencionar que hemos observado que OBA es una práctica frecuente y que los intereses mejor valorados por los anunciantes son utilizados con mayor intensidad en las campañas dirigidas. Por otro lado, en el contexto de la publicidad colectiva, faltan metodologías que permitan cuantificar la eficacia de las actuales herramientas publicitarias colectivas y también realizar estudios comparativos con la eficiencia de los canales de publicidad colectiva tradicionales (anuncios en televisión, radio, periódicos...). En esta tesis se aborda este problema y se propone una metodología para caracterizar la visibilidad de los Trending Topics en varios países y ciudades mediante el uso de métricas basadas en el tiempo de exposición de los Trending Topics y la penetración de Twitter en esas zonas geográficas. Además, comparamos en varios países la visibilidad que proporcionan los Trending Topics y los canales de publicidad tradicionales (por ejemplo, los anuncios en periódicos o en la radio). Este estudio confirma que los Trending Topics ofrecen una visibilidad comparable a los canales de publicidad tradicionales en los países en los que hemos realizado el estudio comparativo. Además, la publicidad colectiva, debido a su naturaleza, permite que la información se difunda fácilmente entre los diferentes usuarios de una red social a través de los comentarios. Esta característica convierte la publicidad colectiva en una pieza de información con un tratamiento diferente a la publicidad individual y, por lo tanto, se requiere un estudio adicional de la propagación de esta información. Con este fin, se ha realizado un estudio sobre los patrones existentes entre países siguiendo un modelo líder-seguidor sobre un conjunto de datos de miles de Trending Topics en decenas de países y cientos de ciudades. Las conclusiones extraídas de esta tesis han permitido una mejor comprensión de la utilización de la publicidad online en la web, proporcionando una mayor transparencia al ecosistema de publicidad y cuantificando el impacto de las nuevas herramientas publicitarias colectivas.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería TelemáticaPresidente: Albert Banchs Roca.- Secretario: Juan Caballero Bayerri.- Vocal: Pere Baret Ro

EU Cohesion Policy in the Media : A Computational Text Analysis of Online News, User Comments and Social Media

This research paper investigates Cohesion Policy in the mass media by applying computational text analysis to a novel media dataset. Specifically, structural topic modelling and sentiment analysis is applied to online news, user comments and social media at multiple territorial levels. The dataset includes 4,000 news stories, 33,000 user comments, 3,700 posts and 19,500 tweets from Facebook and Twitter respectively, as well as comments and reactions. We discover a two-level hierarchy of descending sentiment on Cohesion policy news stories, whereby international media use more negative sentiment than EU web-native media at one level, and the national media in turn use more negative sentiment than regional level sources at the domestic level. The sentiment of user comments on news articles varies across our country cases, being mainly neutral or positive in Spain and overwhelmingly negative in the United Kingdom even in pro-European news sources. Finally, social media content on Facebook and Twitter is largely neutral, and dominated by official policy channels and stakeholders. We conclude that a territorially-targeted media strategy is needed to improve public appreciation of Cohesion policy, along with more emotive and topical social media activity in order engage and connect with citizens

Interstitial Lung Disease in a Patient Treated with Denosumab

Denosumab is an antiresorptive agent widely used for treating osteoporosis. Atypical femur fractures, osteonecrosis of the jaw and hypocalcaemia are well-known possible adverse effects of this drug. We present, to our knowledge, the first case report in the English literature of clinically significant interstitial lung disease likely related to denosumab

Associations of serum phthalate metabolites with thyroid hormones in GraMo cohort, Southern Spain

These results would not have been achieved without the selfless collaboration of the staff from Santa Ana and San Cecilio Hospitals and the participants who took part in the study. Dr. JP Arrebola is under contract within the Ramon y Cajal Program (RYC-2016-20155, Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain) and Dr. C Donat-Vargas is under contract within the Atraccion de Talento (from the community of Madrid, Spain) . This study was supported by research grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI20/01568, PI16/01858) .The general population is continuously exposed to phthalates via various consumer products. Epidemiological research relating phthalate exposure to thyroid function during non-developmental periods is limited. This study aimed to investigate the associations between specific serum phthalate metabolites and indicators of thyroid function in adults. We measured 10 serum phthalate metabolites and thyroid hormones - total triiodothymnine (TT3), free thyroxine (FT4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) - in a subsample of 207 adults from the GraMo cohort. This subsample was made up of men and women (in equal proportions) of middle age (49 +/- 17 years) and from Southern Spain (province of Granada). Data on age, sex, body mass index, residence area, tobacco use, alcohol consumption and attained education were obtained from a questionnaire. Phthalate metabolites were log-transformed and categorized into tertiles. Cross-sectional associations of each metabolite with thyroid hormones were analyzed using multivariable-adjusted linear regression models. The mixture effect of metabolite phthalates was assessed using weighted quantile sum regression. After multivariable-adjustment, the following phthalate metabolites were significantly associated with TT3 in a dose-response manner: MMP (beta = 0.90: 95% confidence interval 0.68,1.12), MEP (beta = 0.67: 0.44, 0.90), MiBP (beta = 0.49: 0.21, 0.77), MiDP (beta = 0.27: 0.03, 0.52), MBzP (beta = 0.51: 0.28, 0.73), MEHP (beta = -0.59: -0.82, -0.35) and MiNP (beta = -0.43: -0.71, -0.14), when comparing highest vs. lowest exposed. The sum of all metabolites was also linked to FT4 levels. No significant associations were observed for TSH except for MiNP. Although phthalate metabolites with different molecular weight showed opposite associations, overall metabolite concentrations seem to associate with increased TT3 and FT4 serum levels. The cross-sectional nature of this analysis limits causal inference.Ramon y Cajal Program (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain) RYC-2016-20155Instituto de Salud Carlos III European Commission PI20/01568 PI16/0185

The efficacy of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy on pain and quality of life in patients with painful bone metastases: a prospective study

AF, JE, and AM conceived and designed the study; all authors acquired the data; AF, JE, JP, and FM analyzed and interpreted the data; all authors drafted the manuscript; all authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors gave approval of the version to be submitted; all authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.Aim To evaluate the efficacy of radiation therapy in alleviating pain and improving the quality of life (QoL) with validated questionnaires in patients with painful bone metastases (BoM). Methods This prospective, observational study recruited 167 patients with painful BoM who were treated with palliative radiotherapy (PRT) from February 2015 to February 2018. After the first clinical assessment, the patients filled out specific questionnaires and underwent a fast radiotherapy treatment within 48 hours. The patients were followed up for eight weeks. Results The median age was 66.30 years. The most common primary cancer was lung cancer (31.1%). The most often prescribed scheme was 8 Gy in one fraction (70%). The patients experienced significant pain response and improved QoL compared with baseline, especially in the first two weeks after radiation. Overall, reduced pain and drug score were reported at two weeks of PRT in 68 (51.5%) and 37 (28%) of patients, respectively. Conclusions PRT is an effective treatment option for patients with painful BoM.Fundación Progreso y Salud and fundación Publica Andaluza para la investigación Biosanitaria Andalucía Oriental (FIBAO

Associations of accumulated persistent organic pollutants in breast adipose tissue with the evolution of breast cancer after surgery

Dr. JP Arrebola is under contract within the Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC-2016-20155, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spain). This study was supported by research grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Junta de Andalucía and European Regional Development Fund – FEDER (PI-0513/2012, PI16/01858, PI18/01573, PI20/01568).Chronic exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is suspected to contribute to the onset of breast cancer, but the impact on the evolution of patients after diagnosis is unclear. We aimed to analyze the contribution of long-term exposure to five POPs to overall mortality, cancer recurrence, metastasis, and development of second primary tumors over a global follow-up of 10 years after surgery in breast cancer patients in a cohort study. Between 2012 and 2014, a total of 112 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients were recruited from a public hospital in Granada, Southern Spain. Historical exposure to POPs was estimated by analyzing their concentrations in breast adipose tissue samples. Sociodemographic data were collected through face-to-face interviews, while data on evolution tumor were retrieved from clinical records. Statistical analyses were performed using Cox regression (overall survival, breast cancer recurrence or metastasis) and binary logistic regression models (joint outcome variable). We also tested for statistical interactions of POPs with age, residence, and prognostic markers. The third vs first tertile of hexachlorobenzene concentrations was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (Hazard Ratio, HR = 0.26; 95 % Confidence Interval, CI = 0.07-0.92) and of the appearance of any of the four events (Odds Ratio = 0.37; 95 % CI = 0.14-1.03). Polychlorinated biphenyl 138 concentrations were significantly and inversely associated with risk of metastasis (HR = 0.65; 95 % CI = 0.44-0.97) and tumor recurrence (HR = 0.69; 95 % CI = 0.49-0.98). Additionally, p,p & PRIME;dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene showed inverse associations with risk of metastasis in women with ER-positive tumors (HR = 0.49; 95 % CI = 0.25-0.93) and in those with a tumor size <2.0 cm (HR = 0.39; 95 % CI = 0.18-0.87).Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spain RYC-2016-20155Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIJunta de AndalucíaEuropean Regional Development Fund – FEDER (PI-0513/2012, PI16/01858, PI18/01573, PI20/01568)University of Granada / CBU

ABC4MAS : Assembling business collaborations for MAS

ABC4MAS provides an environment to support the rapid assembly of agent-oriented business collaborations. ABC4MAS allows: (i) to set up a collaboration environment (CE) as a virtual organisation; (ii) to reach agreements within the CE to form short-term business collaborations; (iii) to enact business collaborations; and (iv) to track the performance of agents within business collaborations to build their trust and reputation within the CE.Peer Reviewe

Public healthcare costs associated with long-term exposure to mixtures of persistent organic pollutants in two areas of Southern Spain: A longitudinal analysis

Background: Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that had been banned or restricted in many countries, including Spain. However, their ubiquity still poses environmental and human health threats. Objective: To longitudinally explore public healthcare costs associated with long-term exposure to a mixture of 8 POPs in a cohort of residents of two areas of Granada Province, Southern Spain. Methods: Longitudinal study in a subsample (n = 385) of GraMo adult cohort. Exposure assessment was performed by analyzing adipose tissue POP concentrations at recruitment. Average primary care (APC) and average hospital care (AHC) expenditures of each participant over 14 years were estimated using the data from their medical records. Data analyses were performed by robust MM regression, weighted quantile sum regression (WQS) and G-computation analysis. Results: In the adjusted robust MM models for APC, most POPs showed positive beta coefficients, being Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) significantly associated (beta 1.87; 95% Confidence interval (95%CI): 0.17, 3.57). The magnitude of this association increased (beta: 3.72; 95%CI: 0.80, 6.64) when the analyses were restricted to semirural residents, where p-HCH was also marginally-significantly associated to APC (beta: 3.40; 95%CI: -0.10, 6.90). WQS revealed a positive but non-significant mixture association with APC (beta: 0.14; 95%CI: -0.06, 0.34), mainly accounted for by p-HCH (54%) and HCB (43%), that was borderline-significant in the semi-rural residents (beta: 0.23; 95%CI: -0.01, 0.48). No significant results were observed in G-Computation analyses. Conclusion: Long-term exposure to POP mixtures might represent a modifiable factor increasing healthcare costs, thus affecting the efficiency of the healthcare systems. However, and owing the complexity of the potential causal pathways and the limitations of the present study, further research is warranted to fully elucidate ascertain whether interventions to reduce human exposure should be considered in healthcare policies.CIBER de Epidemiologia y Salud Publica (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain PI16/01858 PI18/01573 PI20/01568European CommissionRamon y Cajal Program (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain) RYC-2016-20,155PFIS (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain) FI17/00310Universidad de Granada/CBU

Amitriptyline induces mitophagy that precedes apoptosis in human HepG2 cells

Systemic treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been largely unsuccessful. This study investigated the antitumoral activity of Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant, in hepatoma cells. Amitriptyline-induced toxicity involved early mitophagy activation that subsequently switched to apoptosis. Amitriptyline induced mitochondria dysfunction and oxidative stress in HepG2 cells. Amitriptyline specifically inhibited mitochondrial complex III activity that is associated with decreased mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies revealed structurally abnormal mitochondria that were engulfed by double-membrane structures resembling autophagosomes. Consistent with mitophagy activation, fluorescence microscopy analysis showed mitochondrial Parkin recruitment and colocalization of mitochondria with autophagosome protein markers. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of autophagy exacerbated the deleterious effects of Amitriptyline on hepatoma cells and led to increased apoptosis. These results suggest that mitophagy acts as an initial adaptive mechanism of cell survival. However persistent mitochondrial damage induced extensive and lethal mitophagy, autophagy stress and autophagolysome permeabilization leading eventually to cell death by apoptosis. Amitriptyline also induced cell death in hepatoma cells lines with mutated p53 and non-sense p53 mutation. Our results support the hypothesis that Amitriptyline-induced mitochondrial dysfunction can be a useful therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment, especially in tumors showing p53 mutations and/or resistant to genotoxic treatments.This work was supported by FIS PI13/00129 grant, Ministerio de Sanidad, Spain and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER-Unión Europea), Proyecto de Investigación de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía CTS-5725, AEPMI (Asociación de Enfermos de Patología Mitocondrial) and ENACH (Asociación de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas por Acumulación Cerebral de Hierro).Peer Reviewe