Leveraging Recommender Systems to Reduce Content Gaps on Peer Production Platforms

Peer production platforms like Wikipedia commonly suffer from content gaps. Prior research suggests recommender systems can help solve this problem, by guiding editors towards underrepresented topics. However, it remains unclear whether this approach would result in less relevant recommendations, leading to reduced overall engagement with recommended items. To answer this question, we first conducted offline analyses (Study 1) on SuggestBot, a task-routing recommender system for Wikipedia, then did a three-month controlled experiment (Study 2). Our results show that presenting users with articles from underrepresented topics increased the proportion of work done on those articles without significantly reducing overall recommendation uptake. We discuss the implications of our results, including how ignoring the article discovery process can artificially narrow recommendations. We draw parallels between this phenomenon and the common issue of "filter bubbles" to show how any platform that employs recommender systems is susceptible to it.Comment: To appear at the 18th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024

Improving Coping Skills for Self-management of Treatment Side Effects Can Reduce Antiretroviral Medication Nonadherence among People Living with HIV

BackgroundHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment side effects have a deleterious impact on treatment adherence, which is necessary to optimize treatment outcomes including morbidity and mortality.PurposeTo examine the effect of the Balance Project intervention, a five-session, individually delivered HIV treatment side effects coping skills intervention on antiretroviral medication adherence.MethodsHIV+ men and women (N = 249) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with self-reported high levels of ART side effect distress were randomized to intervention or treatment as usual. The primary outcome was self-reported ART adherence as measured by a combined 3-day and 30-day adherence assessment.ResultsIntent-to-treat analyses revealed a significant difference in rates of nonadherence between intervention and control participants across the follow-up time points such that those in the intervention condition were less likely to report nonadherence. Secondary analyses revealed that intervention participants were more likely to seek information about side effects and social support in efforts to cope with side effects.ConclusionsInterventions focusing on skills related to ART side-effects management show promise for improving ART adherence among persons experiencing high levels of perceived ART side effects

Communities` attitudes towards conservation in Gashakagumti National Park Nigeria

This study assessed the attitudes of communities around GashakaGumti National Park towards conservation. It also investigated factors that influence these conservation attitudes. Data were obtained through structured questionnaire which covered demographic characteristics, perceived benefits and  challenges derived from the park and responses to attitudinal statements. Data were subjected to  descriptive and inferential analysis. The result indicated that 79.3% of the respondents had a positive  attitude towards conservation on GashakaGumti National Park. Perceived benefits derived from the Park  included construction of classrooms, roads, medical centre, employment opportunity, improved  economy through tourist inflow while perceived challenges included destruction of farm produce by wild  animals and lack of access to fodder for livestock. 78.9% of the respondents were willing to be involved in community based projects planning and execution. 94.7% accepted and supported community  development projects. 100% supported the continued existence of the park. The positive conservation  attitude of the respondents might be attributed to the perceived economic benefits derived from the park and the communities` willingness to be involved in  community based projects. Result of the chi square and correlation analysis indicated gender, occupation, level of education, perceived benefits and distance from the park had significant relationship with attitude towards conservation in GashakaGumti National Park. The authorities of the park should not relent in their effort in maintaining their peaceful co existence with the surrounding communities but ensure consolidation of this feat. The park management should look into the issues  considered as challenges by communities to avert conflict, animosity and breeding of negative conservation attitudes. It is also recommended that attitudinal  studies should be conducted periodically and incorporated into National Park Service Management Plan.Key words: Attitudes, Conservation, Benefits, GashakaGumti National Par

What determines pension insurance participation in China?: triangulation and the intertwined relationship among employers, employees and the government

The current study draws on the Advocacy Coalition Framework to examine what determines employees’ pension participation in China. For the purpose of exploring which employees actually receive pension coverage and why, econometric analysis was conducted with China’s Employer–Employee Matched Survey data (N = 3412). A variety of both individual factors, ranging from age and Hukou status to job characteristics, and macro factors, including interprovincial migration and level of economic development, are all found to predict insurance coverage. Qualitative research results contextualize these findings by discussing the often ambivalent and triangulated relations among employers, employees and government. These three groups primarily use shared core policy beliefs to structure their interactions in the form of advocacy coalitions. Various types of cross-coalition interaction, including negotiation, cooperation and conflict, are examined. These findings carry both theoretical and policy implications

Spider Haiku

The utilization of lightweight oil palm shell to produce high strength lightweight sustainable material has led many researchers towards its commercialization as structural concrete. However, the low tensile strength of Oil Palm Shell Concrete (OPSC) has hindered its development. This study aims to enhance the mechanical properties and flexural behaviours of OPSC by the addition of steel fibres of up to 3% by volume, to produce oil palm shell fibre-reinforced concrete (OPSFRC). The experimental results showed that the steel fibres significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of OPSFRC. The highest compressive strength, splitting tensile and flexural strengths of 55, 11.0 and 18.5 MPa, respectively, were achieved in the OPSFRC mix reinforced with 3% steel fibres. In addition, the flexural beam testing on OPSFRC beams with 3% steel fibres showed that the steel fibre reinforcement up to 3% produced notable increments in the moment capacity and crack resistance of OPSFRC beams, but accompanied by reduction in the ductility

Contact and Friction of Nano-Asperities: Effects of Adsorbed Monolayers

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study contact between a rigid, nonadhesive, spherical tip with radius of order 30nm and a flat elastic substrate covered with a fluid monolayer of adsorbed chain molecules. Previous studies of bare surfaces showed that the atomic scale deviations from a sphere that are present on any tip constructed from discrete atoms lead to significant deviations from continuum theory and dramatic variability in friction forces. Introducing an adsorbed monolayer leads to larger deviations from continuum theory, but decreases the variations between tips with different atomic structure. Although the film is fluid, it remains in the contact and behaves qualitatively like a thin elastic coating except for certain tips at high loads. Measures of the contact area based on the moments or outer limits of the pressure distribution and on counting contacting atoms are compared. The number of tip atoms making contact in a time interval grows as a power of the interval when the film is present and logarithmically with the interval for bare surfaces. Friction is measured by displacing the tip at a constant velocity or pulling the tip with a spring. Both static and kinetic friction rise linearly with load at small loads. Transitions in the state of the film lead to nonlinear behavior at large loads. The friction is less clearly correlated with contact area than load.Comment: RevTex4, 17 pages, 13 figure

Angular momentum and clustering properties of early dark matter halos

In this paper we study the angular momentum properties of simulated dark matter halos at high redshift that likely host the first stars in the Universe. Calculating the spin distributions of these 10^6 - 10^7 \Msun halos in redshift slices from $z = 15 - 6$, we find that they are well fit by a log-normal distribution as is found for lower redshift and more massive halos in earlier work. We find that both the mean value of the spin and dispersion are largely unchanged with redshift for all halos. Our key result is that subsamples of low and high spin 10^6 \Msun and 10^7 \Msun halos show difference in clustering strength. In both mass bins, higher spin halos are more strongly clustered in concordance with a tidal torquing picture for the growth of angular momentum in dark matter halos in the CDM paradigm.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted MNRA

Order parameter model for unstable multilane traffic flow

We discuss a phenomenological approach to the description of unstable vehicle motion on multilane highways that explains in a simple way the observed sequence of the phase transitions "free flow -> synchronized motion -> jam" as well as the hysteresis in the transition "free flow synchronized motion". We introduce a new variable called order parameter that accounts for possible correlations in the vehicle motion at different lanes. So, it is principally due to the "many-body" effects in the car interaction, which enables us to regard it as an additional independent state variable of traffic flow. Basing on the latest experimental data (cond-mat/9905216) we assume that these correlations are due to a small group of "fast" drivers. Taking into account the general properties of the driver behavior we write the governing equation for the order parameter. In this context we analyze the instability of homogeneous traffic flow manifesting itself in both of the mentioned above phase transitions where, in addition, the transition "synchronized motion -> jam" also exhibits a similar hysteresis. Besides, the jam is characterized by the vehicle flows at different lanes being independent of one another. We specify a certain simplified model in order to study the general features of the car cluster self-formation under the phase transition "free flow synchronized motion". In particular, we show that the main local parameters of the developed cluster are determined by the state characteristics of vehicle motion only.Comment: REVTeX 3.1, 10 pages with 10 PostScript figure

Delocalized single-photon Dicke states and the Leggett- Garg inequality in solid state systems

We show how to realize a single-photon Dicke state in a large one-dimensional array of two- level systems, and discuss how to test its quantum properties. Realization of single-photon Dicke states relies on the cooperative nature of the interaction between a field reservoir and an array of two-level-emitters. The resulting dynamics of the delocalized state can display Rabi-like oscillations when the number of two-level emitters exceeds several hundred. In this case the large array of emitters is essentially behaving like a mirror-less cavity. We outline how this might be realized using a multiple-quantum-well structure and discuss how the quantum nature of these oscillations could be tested with the Leggett-Garg inequality and its extensions.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, journal pape