Social Media Advertisement Outreach: Learning the Role of Aesthetics

Corporations spend millions of dollars on developing creative image-based promotional content to advertise to their user-base on platforms like Twitter. Our paper is an initial study, where we propose a novel method to evaluate and improve outreach of promotional images from corporations on Twitter, based purely on their describable aesthetic attributes. Existing works in aesthetic based image analysis exclusively focus on the attributes of digital photographs, and are not applicable to advertisements due to the influences of inherent content and context based biases on outreach. Our paper identifies broad categories of biases affecting such images, describes a method for normalization to eliminate effects of those biases and score images based on their outreach, and examines the effects of certain handcrafted describable aesthetic features on image outreach. Optimizing on the describable aesthetic features resulting from this research is a simple method for corporations to complement their existing marketing strategy to gain significant improvement in user engagement on social media for promotional images.Comment: Accepted to SIGIR 201

Magnetization Measurements on Single Crystals of Superconducting Ba0.6K0.4BiO3

Extensive measurements of the magnetization of superconducting single crystal samples of Ba0.6K0.4BiO3} have been made using SQUID and cantilever force magnetometry at temperatures ranging between 1.3 and 350 K and in magnetic fields from near zero to 27 T. Hysteresis curves of magnetization versus field allow a determination of the thermodynamic critical field, the reversibility field, and the upper critical field as a function of temperature. The lower critical field is measured seperately and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter is found to be temperature dependent. All critical fields have higher T = 0 limits than have been previously noted and none of the temperature dependence of the critical fields follow the expected power laws leading to possible alternate interpretation of the thermodynamic nature of the superconducting transition.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Philosophical Magazine B on 7 August 1999. This paper supplies the experimental details for the argument presented in our PRL 82 (1999) p. 4532-4535 (also at cond-mat/9904288

Experimental Evidence of a Haldane Gap in an S = 2 Quasi-linear Chain Antiferromagnet

The magnetic susceptibility of the $S = 2$ quasi-linear chain Heisenberg antiferromagnet (2,$2'$-bipyridine)trichloromanganese(III), MnCl_{3}(bipy), has been measured from 1.8 to 300 K with the magnetic field, H, parallel and perpendicular to the chains. The analyzed data yield $g\approx 2$ and $J\approx 35$ K. The magnetization, M, has been studied at 30 mK and 1.4 K in H up to 16 T. No evidence of long-range order is observed. Depending on crystal orientation, $M\approx 0$ at 30 mK until a critical field is achieved ($H_{c\|} = 1.2\pm 0.2 T$ and $H_{c\bot} = 1.8\pm 0.2 T), where M increases continuously as H is increased. These results are interpreted as evidence of a Haldane gap.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

The activated torsion oscillation magnetometer

The activated torsion oscillation magnetometer exploits the mechanical resonance of a cantilever beam, driven by the torque exerted on the sample by an ac field applied perpendicularly to the film plane. We describe a model for the cantilever dynamics which leads to the calculation of the cantilever dynamic profile and allows the mechanical sensitivity of the instrument to be expressed in terms of the minimum electronically detectable displacement. We have developed a capacitance detector of small oscillations which is able to detect displacements of the order of 0.1 nm. We show that sensitivities of the order of 0.5(10-11 Am2 can be in principle achieved. We will subsequently describe the main features of the ATOM prototype which we have built and tested, with particular attention to the design solutions which have been adopted in order to reduce the effects of parasitic vibrations due either to acoustic noise, originating from the ac field coil, or to eddy currents in the capacitor electrodes. The instrument is mounted in a continuous flow cryostat and can work in the 4.2-300 K temperature range. Finally, we will show that our experimental set-up has a second mode of operation, named Torsion Induction Magnetometer (TIM).Comment: Invited Talk at the Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism, 2002 to appear in the J. Mag. Mag. Mat Revised versio

Mechanism Of Action Of American Ginseng And Its Components In The Treatment Of Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), mainly ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn’s disease (CD), are chronic, idiopathic, inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract affecting millions of people worldwide. The incidence of IBD is steadily increasing in the modern world due to changes in dietary habits and other environmental influences that originated from industrialization. The etiology is poorly understood but is believed to be a combination of genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and overactive immune system. UC is characterized by inflammation and ulceration of colonic mucosa and rectum and has a higher incidence than CD. Aside from severely affecting the quality of life of the patients, IBD also increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Hence, it is imperative to find a treatment that not only treats colitis but can also act as a chemopreventive agent. Current medications that include aminosalicylates, TNFα inhibitors, and corticosteroids help patients cope with the symptoms and induce temporary remission, but are paired with a risk of serious side effects and people become refractory. Many patients, therefore, turn to unconventional treatments for relief and plant-based products provide a safe, alternative option. Many studies have shown that American Ginseng (AG), an herb native to North America is effective in the treatment of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Our lab has previously shown that AG treats colitis and prevents colon cancer in mice. This indicates the potential for AG to become part of mainstream medicine like other drugs that have natural antecedents, e.g., taxol, vincristine, digoxin, etc. Drug discovery from plant products involves phytochemical and biological characterization of plants used in alternative medicine. This dissertation aims to address these issues by identifying the bioactive component of AG and elucidating the mechanism of action in the treatment of UC and prevention of CRC. We used bioassay-guided fractionation to identify the most potent fraction of AG. A hexane fraction of AG (HAG) has shown remarkable anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties both in vitro and in vivo. Sub-fractionation of HAG revealed that Panaxynol (PA), a polyacetylene is the most abundant compound in this fraction and also showed antiinflammatory potential in vitro as indicated by suppression of iNOS, an inflammation marker. PA effectively suppressed DSS induced colitis in mice and showed potential as a chemopreventive agent. PA targets macrophages (mФ) for DNA damage and apoptosis while it requires \u3e10X dosage to sustain cause similar effects in other cell types. AG has been shown to decrease oxidative stress and Nuclear factor (erythroidderived 2)-like 2 (NFE2L2 or Nrf2)-a transcription factor that is a master regulator of antioxidant response), we hypothesized that AG, HAG, and PA treat colitis by activating the Nrf2 pathway. AG, HAG, and PA decreased oxidative stress and activated the Nrf2 pathway in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, in vivo experiments indicate that AG, HAG, and PA were not very effective in the treatment of DSS induced colitis in Nrf2 knockout mice. We further delineated the mechanism of action of AG in the absence of inflammation using gene expression profiling of primary peritoneal mФ by microarray. We found that AG and its compounds showed distinct immunomodulatory properties, as shown by the activation of both pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-inflammatory molecules. These results will bring AG a step closer to being used as a conventional drug for the treatment of colitis and pave the way for its use in the treatment of other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with a similar genesis

Magnetic Determination of Hc2H_{c2} under Accurate Alignment in (TMTSF)2_2ClO4_4

Cantilever magnetometry has been used to measure the upper critical magnetic field $H_{c2}$ of the quasi-one dimensional molecular organic superconductor (TMTSF)$_2$ClO$_4$. From simultaneous resistivity and torque magnetization experiments conducted under precise field alignment, $H_{c2}$ at low temperature is shown to reach 5T, nearly twice the Pauli paramagnetic limit imposed on spin singlet superconductors. These results constitute the first thermodynamic evidence for a large $H_{c2}$ in this system and provide support for spin triplet pairing in this unconventional superconductorComment: Submitted July 1, 2003, Accepted December 9, 2003, Physical Review Letter

Nonlinear Dynamics, Bifurcation Maps, Signal Encryption and Decryption using Acousto-Optic Chaos under a Variable Aperture Illumination

Bragg cell nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation properties under first-order feedback with variable aperture are examined. Chaotic encryption and recovery of low-bandwidth signals, and optimal performance are evaluated for fixed and variable apertures

Role of Micro RNA 148/152 Family in Cancer Progression

Micro RNA are small single stranded RNA that regulate the expression of various genes. MiRNA guide the mRNA disintegrating RISC complex to the complimentary sequence in the target mRNA. Each micro RNA has multiple targets and can play a different biological role depending on the population of targets at the particular stage of the cell or a physiological state. Several miRNA show elevated or decreased levels of expression in various cancers because of their role in tumor initiation and progression. MiRNA belonging to mir148/152 family are examples of such MicroRNA. This family includes miR148a, miR148b and miR152. MiR148a and miR152 are down-regulated in various cancers while there is no significant change in the expression of miR148b. Prior studies indicate a role for miR152 and mir148a in suppressing tumor growth in various cancers. However, the mechanism of action and targets remain to be identified. Interestingly, miR148b and miR152 are encoded within the first intron of COPZ1 and COPZ2 genes respectively. This study started with the understanding of the role of miR152 in cancer progression. COPZ2 gene expression is lower in malignant tissues of different tumor types when compared to benign tumors suggesting a similar expression pattern for miR152. We have identified several candidate targets for miR152 in the TGF-β pathway including DNMT1, LTBP1, SERPINE1 and the Rho GEF -LARG. This data led to the hypothesis that miR152 expression correlates with tumor progression and that miR152 suppresses epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and EMT related events through regulation of specific EMT mediators and effectors. However, all the members belonging to this family have the same seed sequence that binds to the target genes, suggesting that they play similar roles and have common targets. In this thesis, I have verified LTBP1 and PAI1 as novel, common targets for the miR148/152 family. Additionally, reintroduction of these microRNA into prostate cancer cell lines can decrease the migratory capabilities and increase the adhesive characteristics. This biological role of these miRNA can be exploited in the form of replacement miRNA in cancer therapy

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY ON HYPONATREMIA IN CHILDREN WITH THE LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS ADMITTED IN PICU

Objective: The present study has been undertaken to study hyponatremia in children with lower respiratory tract infections. The other objectives of the study were to evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of children with hyponatremia and explore the relationship between hyponatremia and outcome about the duration of hospital stay and recovery/death. Methods: The study included children aged 2 months to 5 years who were referred to the PICU, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Visakhapatnam from October 2018 to September 2019 with the lower respiratory tract infections were included in the study. A thorough clinical examination and detailed history have been completed and recorded into a prestructured pro forma. Hematological investigations have been done in all cases. Chest X-ray has been done in all cases to delineate the radiological features of LRTI. A venous blood sample was collected and sent to the biochemistry lab to evaluate serum sodium and was estimated by the ion-selective electrode method analyzed by the radiometer. Results: 872 children were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit during the study period. Among them, 100 children in the age group of 2 months to 5 years suffering from the lower respiratory tract infection were included in the study. Out of 100 cases of the lower respiratory tract infections, 59 cases were Pneumonia, and 41 cases were severe Pneumonia. Out of 100 cases, 68 cases accounting for 68% have normal sodium levels, 32 cases accounting to 32% had hyponatremia, and none had hypernatremia. Thus, third of the cases suffering from the lower respiratory tract infections had hyponatremia. The mean CRP in children with hyponatremia was 7.38 mg/dl, higher than children with normal sodium levels, that is, 2.30 mg/dl; this was also statistically significant (p<0.001). All 32 cases of hyponatremia and 68 cases of normonatremia recovered and were discharged. There was no mortality. Conclusion: Children with hyponatremia had a longer duration of hospital stay. Serum sodium levels are an important biomarker and should be measured in all children hospitalized for the lower respiratory tract infections

A Novel Neural Network Classifier for Brain Computer Interface

Brain computer interfaces (BCI) provides a non-muscular channel for controlling a device through electroencephalographic signals to perform different tasks. The BCI system records the Electro-encephalography (EEG) and detects specific patterns that initiate control commands of the device. The efficiency of the BCI depends upon the methods used to process the brain signals and classify various patterns of brain signal accurately to perform different tasks. Due to the presence of artifacts in the raw EEG signal, it is required to preprocess the signals for efficient feature extraction. In this paper it is proposed to implement a BCI system which extracts the EEG features using Discrete Cosine transforms. Also, two stages of filtering with the first stage being a butterworth filter and the second stage consisting of an moving average 15 point spencer filter has been used to remove random noise and at the same time maintaining a sharp step response. The classification of the signals is done using the proposed Semi Partial Recurrent Neural Network. The proposed method has very good classification accuracy compared to conventional neural network classifiers. Keywords: Brain Computer Interface (BCI), Electro Encephalography (EEG), Discrete Cosine transforms(DCT), Butterworth filters, Spencer filters, Semi Partial Recurrent Neural network, laguarre polynomia