4,266 research outputs found
HypTrails: A Bayesian Approach for Comparing Hypotheses About Human Trails on the Web
When users interact with the Web today, they leave sequential digital trails
on a massive scale. Examples of such human trails include Web navigation,
sequences of online restaurant reviews, or online music play lists.
Understanding the factors that drive the production of these trails can be
useful for e.g., improving underlying network structures, predicting user
clicks or enhancing recommendations. In this work, we present a general
approach called HypTrails for comparing a set of hypotheses about human trails
on the Web, where hypotheses represent beliefs about transitions between
states. Our approach utilizes Markov chain models with Bayesian inference. The
main idea is to incorporate hypotheses as informative Dirichlet priors and to
leverage the sensitivity of Bayes factors on the prior for comparing hypotheses
with each other. For eliciting Dirichlet priors from hypotheses, we present an
adaption of the so-called (trial) roulette method. We demonstrate the general
mechanics and applicability of HypTrails by performing experiments with (i)
synthetic trails for which we control the mechanisms that have produced them
and (ii) empirical trails stemming from different domains including website
navigation, business reviews and online music played. Our work expands the
repertoire of methods available for studying human trails on the Web.Comment: Published in the proceedings of WWW'1
Microbial decomposition of the floating weed Salvinia molesta Aublet in Cochin backwaters
From the live and decomposing S. molesta 13 strains of bacteria were isolated and the growth promoting effect of the weed
extract in various concentrations in 5 selected strains of bacteria and a mixed culture was studied. Turbidity measurements
gave maximum percentaae transmission in 5 % extract. Dry weight loss of dried weed in the laboratory was 20 and 25 % after to
and 25 days of incubation respectively. Yield efficiency of 3 bacterial strains calculated for 48 hr was 20%. The results suggest
the potential value of this primary source of organic material in the food web of Cocbin backwater
Hepatitis B testing and treatment in HIV patients in The Gambia - compliance with international guidelines and clinical outcomes
Background Compliance with WHO guidelines on HBV screening and treatment in HIV-coinfected patients is often challenging in resource limited countries and has been poorly assessed in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods Between 2015 and 2016, we assessed physician’s compliance with WHO guidelines on HIV-HBV coinfection in the largest HIV clinic in The Gambia, and the hepatic outcomes in HIV-HBV coinfected patients as compared to randomly selected HIV-monoinfected controls. Results 870 HIV-infected patients regularly seen in this clinic agreed to participate in our study. Only 187 (21.5%, 95% CI 18.8–24.3) had previously been screened for HBsAg, 23 (12.3%, 95% CI 8.0–17.9) were positive of whom none had liver assessment and only 6 (26.1%) had received Tenofovir. Our HBV testing intervention was accepted by all participants and found 94/870 (10.8%, 95% CI 8.8–13.1) positive, 78 of whom underwent full liver assessment along with 40 HBsAg-negative controls. At the time of liver assessment, 61/78 (78.2%) HIV-HBV coinfected patients received ART with 7 (11.5%) on Tenofovir and 54 (88.5%) on Lamivudine alone. HIV-HBV coinfected patients had higher APRI score compared to controls (0.58 vs 0.42, p = 0.002). HBV DNA was detectable in 52/53 (98.1%) coinfected patients with 14/53 (26.4%) having HBV DNA >20,000 IU/L. 10/12 (83.3%) had at least one detectable 3TC-associated HBV resistance, which tended to be associated with increase in liver fibrosis after adjusting for age and sex (p = 0.05). Conclusions Compliance with HBV testing and treatment guidelines is poor in this Gambian HIV programme putting coinfected patients at risk of liver complications. However, the excellent uptake of HBV screening and linkage to care in our study suggests feasible improvements
Evaluation of Ferrocene Derivatives as Burn Rate Modifiers in AP/HTPB-Based Composite Propellants
Some ferrocene derivatives like 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine derivative of acetyl ferrocene, 1-pyrrolidinylmethyl ferrocene, di-ter-butyl ferrocene and 1,3-diferrocenyl-l-butene (DFB) have been synthesised and characterised by infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet, iron content, etc. To study the effect of their incorporation on performance, ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene-based composite propellants containing these derivatives have been prepared and studied for burn rates, tensile strength and percentage elongation followed by their static test evaluation. A comparison of the properties of propellant containing solid and liquid ferrocene derivatives has been made with those containing Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and n-butyl ferrocene, respectively. The data clearly indicates that these ferrocene derivatives are better than Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and n-butyl errocene. Also, DFB is the best among these derivatives. Like composite propellants, DFB increases burn rate in fuel-rich propellants also
Influence of Various Process Parameters on Mechanical Properties and Ballistics of Nitramine-Based Advanced CMDB Propellants
This paper reports the influence of important process parameters, namely mixing time and batch size; on the mechanical properties and ballistics of nitramine-based advanced CMDB propellants. Considerable improvement to the tune of 67 per cent in tensile strength was observed at a mixing time increase of 60-135 min. Scaling up of batch size from 8 to 25 kg resulted in 30 per cent higher tensile strength. Recorded enhancement of burning rate was of the order of 8 per cent in both the sets of experiments. Ballistically modified composition revealed 11-12 per cent increase in burning rate at all the pressure ranges, on combined increase in mixing time (55 to 85 min) and batch size(5-17kg). These findings are in line with those reported for composite and ballistically modified double-base propellants
Ovarian Hemangioma: a rare case in a young girl
The ovary has a rich vascular supply. But the vascular tumors of the ovary are extremely rare. Ovarian masses are mostly discovered accidentally during surgery or imaging. These tumors may rarely be associated with systemic manifestations. Here we report a case of 17 year old young unmarried obese girl who presented with acute pain in abdomen and was treated laproscopically with conservation of ovaries. Histopathology report was suggestive of ovarian haemangioma. The diagnostic challenge and therapeutic rarity of such a tumour in a young unmarried girl has proven to be an exceptional case and an excellent investigative opportunity
Controlling Light Through Optical Disordered Media : Transmission Matrix Approach
We experimentally measure the monochromatic transmission matrix (TM) of an
optical multiple scattering medium using a spatial light modulator together
with a phase-shifting interferometry measurement method. The TM contains all
information needed to shape the scattered output field at will or to detect an
image through the medium. We confront theory and experiment for these
applications and we study the effect of noise on the reconstruction method. We
also extracted from the TM informations about the statistical properties of the
medium and the light transport whitin it. In particular, we are able to isolate
the contributions of the Memory Effect (ME) and measure its attenuation length
Single molecule experiments in biophysics: exploring the thermal behavior of nonequilibrium small systems
Biomolecules carry out very specialized tasks inside the cell where energies
involved are few tens of k_BT, small enough for thermal fluctuations to be
relevant in many biomolecular processes. In this paper I discuss a few concepts
and present some experimental results that show how the study of fluctuation
theorems applied to biomolecules contributes to our understanding of the
nonequilibrium thermal behavior of small systems.Comment: Proceedings of the 22nd Statphys Conference 2004 (Bangalore,India).
Invited contributio
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