Toward personalised and dynamic cultural routing: a three-level approach

This paper introduces the concept of “smart routing” as a recommender system for tourists that takes into account the dynamics of their personal user profiles. The concept relies on three levels of support: 1) programming the tour, i.e. selecting a set of relevant points of interests (POIs) to be included into the tour, 2) scheduling the tour, i.e. arranging the selected POIs into a sequence based on the cultural, recreational and situational value of each, and 3) determining the tour’s travel route, i.e. generating a set of trips between the POIs that the tourist needs to perform in order to complete the tour. The “smart routing” approach intends to enhance the experience of tourists in a number of ways. The first advantage is the system’s ability to reflect on the tourists’ dynamic preferences, for which an understanding of the influence of a tourist’s affective state and dynamic needs on the preferred activities is required. Next, it arranges the POIs together in a way that creates a storyline that the tourist will be interested to follow, which adds to the tour’s cultural value. Finally, the POIs are connected by a chain of multimodal trips that the tourist will have to make, also in accordance with the tourist’s preferences and dynamic needs. As a result, each tour can be personalised in a “smart” way, from the perspective of both the cultural and the overall experience of taking it. We present the building blocks of the “smart routing” concept in detail and describe the data categories involved. We also report on the current status of our activities with respect to the inclusion of a tourist’s affective state and dynamic needs into the preference measurement phase, as well as discuss relevant practical concerns in this regard

Dynamic phase diagram of the REM

By studying the two-time overlap correlation function, we give a comprehensive analysis of the phase diagram of the Random Hopping Dynamics of the Random Energy Model (REM) on time-scales that are exponential in the volume. These results are derived from the convergence properties of the clock process associated to the dynamics and fine properties of the simple random walk in the $n$-dimensional discrete cube.Comment: This paper is in large part based on the unpublished work arXiv:1008.3849. In particular, the analysis of the overlap correlation function is new as well as the study of the high temperature and short time-scale transition line between aging and stationarit

The impact of loco-regional recurrences on metastatic progression in early-stage breast cancer: a multistate model

To study whether the effects of prognostic factors associated with the occurrence of distant metastases (DM) at primary diagnosis change after the incidence of loco-regional recurrences (LRR) among women treated for invasive stage I or II breast cancer. The study population consisted of 3,601 women, enrolled in EORTC trials 10801, 10854, or 10902 treated for early-stage breast cancer. Data were analysed in a multivariate, multistate model by using multivariate Cox regression models, including a state-dependent covariate. The presence of a LRR in itself is a significant prognostic risk factor (HR: 3.64; 95%-CI: 2.02-6.5) for the occurrence of DM. Main prognostic risk factors for a DM are young age at diagnosis (</=40: HR: 1.79; 95%-CI: 1.28-2.51), larger tumour size (HR: 1.58; 95%-CI: 1.35-1.84) and node positivity (HR: 2.00; 95%-CI: 1.74-2.30). Adjuvant chemotherapy is protective for a DM (HR: 0.66; 95%-CI: 0.55-0.80). After the occurrence of a LRR the latter protective effect has disappeared (P = 0.009). The presence of LRR in itself is a significant risk factor for DM. For patients who are at risk of developing LRR, effective local control should be the main target of therapy

Brief Report: Normal Intestinal Permeability at Elevated Platelet Serotonin Levels in a Subgroup of Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Curaçao (The Netherlands Antilles)

This study investigated the relationship between platelet (PLT) serotonin (5-HT) and intestinal permeability in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Differential sugar absorption and PLT 5-HT were determined in 23 children with PDD. PLT 5-HT (2.0–7.1 nmol/109 PLT) was elevated in 4/23 patients. None exhibited elevated intestinal permeability (lactulose/mannitol ratio: 0.008–0.035 mol/mol). PLT 5-HT did not correlate with intestinal permeability or GI tract complaints. PLT 5-HT correlated with 24 h urinary 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA; p = .034). Also urinary 5-HIAA and urinary 5-HT were interrelated (p = .005). A link between hyperserotonemia and increased intestinal permeability remained unsupported. Increased PLT 5-HT in PDD is likely to derive from increased PLT exposure to 5-HT. Longitudinal studies, showing the (in)consistency of abnormal intestinal permeability and PLT 5-HT, may resolve present discrepancies in the literature

Over de grens: Nederlands extreem geweld in de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog, 1945-1949

Op 17 augustus 1945, twee dagen na de Japanse capitulatie, verklaarde Indonesië zich onafhankelijk. Nederland erkende dit niet en trachtte met geweld zelf de regie te voeren over het onvermijdelijke proces van dekolonisatie. Dit leidde tot vier jaren van moeizame onderhandelingen en bittere oorlogvoering. In 2005 verklaarde de Nederlandse regering dat Nederland die oorlog niet had moeten voeren. Over het geweld dat de Nederlandse militairen tijdens deze oorlog hadden toegepast, staat echter nog altijd het regeringsstandpunt uit 1969 overeind: er waren wel ‘excessen’, maar de krijgsmacht had zich in de regel ‘correct’ gedragen.Naarmate de aanwijzingen van extreem Nederlands geweld zich opstapelden, bleek dit officiële standpunt steeds moeilijker vol te houden. De Nederlandse regering besloot daarom in 2016 tot financiering van een groot onderzoeksprogramma. De belangrijkste conclusies daarvan zijn in dit boek te vinden. De auteurs maken aannemelijk dat de Nederlandse krijgsmacht op structurele basis extreem geweld toepaste en dat dit toen en ook lang daarna op allerlei manieren werd toegedekt. Dit alles past slecht bij een rooskleurig nationaal zelfbeeld – zoals eigenlijk de hele koloniale geschiedenis met dat zelfbeeld schuurt.Colonial and Global Histor

The Prometastatic Microenvironment of the Liver

The liver is a major metastasis-susceptible site and majority of patients with hepatic metastasis die from the disease in the absence of efficient treatments. The intrahepatic circulation and microvascular arrest of cancer cells trigger a local inflammatory reaction leading to cancer cell apoptosis and cytotoxicity via oxidative stress mediators (mainly nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide) and hepatic natural killer cells. However, certain cancer cells that resist or even deactivate these anti-tumoral defense mechanisms still can adhere to endothelial cells of the hepatic microvasculature through proinflammatory cytokine-mediated mechanisms. During their temporary residence, some of these cancer cells ignore growth-inhibitory factors while respond to proliferation-stimulating factors released from tumor-activated hepatocytes and sinusoidal cells. This leads to avascular micrometastasis generation in periportal areas of hepatic lobules. Hepatocytes and myofibroblasts derived from portal tracts and activated hepatic stellate cells are next recruited into some of these avascular micrometastases. These create a private microenvironment that supports their development through the specific release of both proangiogenic factors and cancer cell invasion- and proliferation-stimulating factors. Moreover, both soluble factors from tumor-activated hepatocytes and myofibroblasts also contribute to the regulation of metastatic cancer cell genes. Therefore, the liver offers a prometastatic microenvironment to circulating cancer cells that supports metastasis development. The ability to resist anti-tumor hepatic defense and to take advantage of hepatic cell-derived factors are key phenotypic properties of liver-metastasizing cancer cells. Knowledge on hepatic metastasis regulation by microenvironment opens multiple opportunities for metastasis inhibition at both subclinical and advanced stages. In addition, together with metastasis-related gene profiles revealing the existence of liver metastasis potential in primary tumors, new biomarkers on the prometastatic microenvironment of the liver may be helpful for the individual assessment of hepatic metastasis risk in cancer patients

Bounding separable recourse functions with limited distribution information

The recourse function in a stochastic program with recourse can be approximated by separable functions of the original random variables or linear transformations of them. The resulting bound then involves summing simple integrals. These integrals may themselves be difficult to compute or may require more information about the random variables than is available. In this paper, we show that a special class of functions has an easily computable bound that achieves the best upper bound when only first and second moment constraints are available.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44185/1/10479_2005_Article_BF02204821.pd