236 research outputs found

    Why We Read Wikipedia

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    Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Web, with millions of users relying on it to satisfy a broad range of information needs every day. Although it is crucial to understand what exactly these needs are in order to be able to meet them, little is currently known about why users visit Wikipedia. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap by combining a survey of Wikipedia readers with a log-based analysis of user activity. Based on an initial series of user surveys, we build a taxonomy of Wikipedia use cases along several dimensions, capturing users' motivations to visit Wikipedia, the depth of knowledge they are seeking, and their knowledge of the topic of interest prior to visiting Wikipedia. Then, we quantify the prevalence of these use cases via a large-scale user survey conducted on live Wikipedia with almost 30,000 responses. Our analyses highlight the variety of factors driving users to Wikipedia, such as current events, media coverage of a topic, personal curiosity, work or school assignments, or boredom. Finally, we match survey responses to the respondents' digital traces in Wikipedia's server logs, enabling the discovery of behavioral patterns associated with specific use cases. For instance, we observe long and fast-paced page sequences across topics for users who are bored or exploring randomly, whereas those using Wikipedia for work or school spend more time on individual articles focused on topics such as science. Our findings advance our understanding of reader motivations and behavior on Wikipedia and can have implications for developers aiming to improve Wikipedia's user experience, editors striving to cater to their readers' needs, third-party services (such as search engines) providing access to Wikipedia content, and researchers aiming to build tools such as recommendation engines.Comment: Published in WWW'17; v2 fixes caption of Table

    Fluid and Diffusion Limits for Bike Sharing Systems

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    Bike sharing systems have rapidly developed around the world, and they are served as a promising strategy to improve urban traffic congestion and to decrease polluting gas emissions. So far performance analysis of bike sharing systems always exists many difficulties and challenges under some more general factors. In this paper, a more general large-scale bike sharing system is discussed by means of heavy traffic approximation of multiclass closed queueing networks with non-exponential factors. Based on this, the fluid scaled equations and the diffusion scaled equations are established by means of the numbers of bikes both at the stations and on the roads, respectively. Furthermore, the scaling processes for the numbers of bikes both at the stations and on the roads are proved to converge in distribution to a semimartingale reflecting Brownian motion (SRBM) in a N2N^{2}-dimensional box, and also the fluid and diffusion limit theorems are obtained. Furthermore, performance analysis of the bike sharing system is provided. Thus the results and methodology of this paper provide new highlight in the study of more general large-scale bike sharing systems.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure

    E-learning and health inequality aversion : A questionnaire experiment

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    In principle, questionnaire data on public views about hypothetical trade-offs between improving total health and reducing health inequality can provide useful normative health inequality aversion parameter benchmarks for policymakers faced with real trade-offs of this kind. However, trade-off questions can be hard to understand, and one standard type of question finds that a high proportion of respondents-sometimes a majority-appear to give exclusive priority to reducing health inequality. We developed and tested two e-learning interventions designed to help respondents understand this question more completely. The interventions were a video animation, exposing respondents to rival points of view, and a spreadsheet-based questionnaire that provided feedback on implied trade-offs. We found large effects of both interventions in reducing the proportion of respondents giving exclusive priority to reducing health inequality, though the median responses still implied a high degree of health inequality aversion and-unlike the video-the spreadsheet-based intervention introduced a substantial new minority of non-egalitarian responses. E-learning may introduce as well as avoid biases but merits further research and may be useful in other questionnaire studies involving trade-offs between conflicting values

    Know Your Heart: Rationale, design and conduct of a cross-sectional study of cardiovascular structure, function and risk factors in 4500 men and women aged 35-69 years from two Russian cities, 2015-18

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    Russia has one of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the world. The International Project on Cardiovascular Disease in Russia (IPCDR) was set up to understand the reasons for this. A substantial component of this study was the Know Your Heart Study devoted to characterising the nature and causes of cardiovascular disease in Russia by conducting large cross-sectional surveys in two Russian cities Novosibirsk and Arkhangelsk. The study population was 4542 men and women aged 35-69 years recruited from the general population. Fieldwork took place between 2015-18. There were two study components: 1) a baseline interview to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors, usually conducted at home, and 2) a comprehensive health check at a primary care clinic which included detailed examination of the cardiovascular system. In this paper we describe in detail the rationale for, design and conduct of these studies.The International Project on Cardiovascular Disease in Russia (IPCDR) project was supported in part by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award [100217]. The project was also funded by the Arctic University of Norway, UiT in Tromsø; Norwegian Institute of Public Health; the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Social Affairs

    METABOLISM OF INTRAVENOUS METHYLNALTREXONE IN MICE, RATS, DOGS AND HUMANS

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    were observed in rats. Dogs produced only one metabolite, MNTX-3-glucuronide (M9). In conclusion, MNTX was not extensively metabolized in humans. Conversion to methyl-6-naltrexol isomers (M4 and M5) and MNTX-3-sulfate (M2) were the primary pathways of metabolism in humans. MNTX was metabolized to a higher extent in mice than in rats, dogs, and humans. Glucuronidation was a major metabolic pathway in mice, rats and dogs, but not in humans. Overall, the data suggested species differences in the metabolism of MNTX

    Impact of weight management nutrition interventions on dietary outcomes in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity: A systematic review with meta-analysis

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    Background The impact of obesity interventions on dietary intake in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity is unclear. This systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of the dietary component of weight management interventions on the change in diet in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. Methods Eligible RCTs published between 1975 and 2020 were identified by a systematic search following PRISMA guidelines. Meta-analyses of eligible study outcomes was performed using R statistical software. A multi-level random effects model was used with three significant random effects fitted using Restricted Maximum Likelihood estimation. Results This review identified 109 RCTs, including 95 that reported at least one statistically significant dietary outcome change, and 14 reporting no significant dietary change. Results from the meta-analyses (n= 29 studies) indicated that compared to control groups, intervention groups achieved significantly greater reductions in mean total energy intake at ≤6 months (-194kcal/day, 95%CI -275.80 to -112.90kcal/day, p<0.001) and up to 12 months (-112k cal/ day 95% CI -218.92 to -5.83kcal/ day)p=0.038), increases in fruit and/or vegetable intakes over 2-12 months (n=34, range +0.6 to +1.5 servings/day) and reductions in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (n=28, range -0.25 to -1.5 servings/day) at 4-24 months follow-up. Conclusions Obesity interventions with a dietary component have a modest, but sustained impact on reducing total energy intake and improving intakes of specific food groups in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. High quality RCTs that are powered to detect change in diet as a primary outcome are warranted
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