16,425 research outputs found
Estimating Diffusion Network Structures: Recovery Conditions, Sample Complexity & Soft-thresholding Algorithm
Information spreads across social and technological networks, but often the
network structures are hidden from us and we only observe the traces left by
the diffusion processes, called cascades. Can we recover the hidden network
structures from these observed cascades? What kind of cascades and how many
cascades do we need? Are there some network structures which are more difficult
than others to recover? Can we design efficient inference algorithms with
provable guarantees?
Despite the increasing availability of cascade data and methods for inferring
networks from these data, a thorough theoretical understanding of the above
questions remains largely unexplored in the literature. In this paper, we
investigate the network structure inference problem for a general family of
continuous-time diffusion models using an -regularized likelihood
maximization framework. We show that, as long as the cascade sampling process
satisfies a natural incoherence condition, our framework can recover the
correct network structure with high probability if we observe
cascades, where is the maximum number of parents of a node and is the
total number of nodes. Moreover, we develop a simple and efficient
soft-thresholding inference algorithm, which we use to illustrate the
consequences of our theoretical results, and show that our framework
outperforms other alternatives in practice.Comment: To appear in the 31st International Conference on Machine Learning
(ICML), 201
Content shared on social media for national cancer survivors day 2018.
BACKGROUND:Studies estimate that the number of cancer survivors will double by 2050 due to improvements in diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy. Despite the growing population of cancer survivors, there is a paucity of research regarding how these individuals experience the transition from active treatment to long-term surveillance. While research has explored this transition from more organized venues, such as support groups for cancer survivors, this paper explores the discourses surrounding cancer survivorship on social media, paying particular attention to how individuals who identify as cancer survivors represent their experience. METHODS:We identified social media posts relating to cancer survivorship on Twitter and Instagram in early June 2018, in order to coincide with National Cancer Survivorship Day on June 3, 2018. We used nine pre-selected hashtags to identify content. For each hashtag, we manually collected the 150 most recent posts from Twitter and the 100 most recent plus the top 9 posts from Instagram. Our preliminary sample included 1172 posts; after eliminating posts from one hashtag due to irrelevance, we were left with 1063 posts. We randomly sampled 200 of these to create a subset for analysis; after review for irrelevant posts, 193 posts remained for analysis (118 from Instagram and 75 from Twitter). We utilized a grounded theory approach to analyze the posts, first open-coding a subset to develop a codebook, then applying the codebook to the rest of the sample and finally memo writing to develop themes. RESULTS:Overall, there is substantial difference in the tone and thematic content between Instagram and Twitter posts, Instagram takes on a more narrative form that represents journeys through cancer treatment and subsequent survivorship, whereas Twitter is more factual, leaning towards advocacy, awareness and fundraising. In terms of content type, 120 posts (62%) of the sample were images, of which 42 (35%) were images of the individual posting and 28 (23%) were images of patients posted by family or friends. Of the remaining images, 14 (12%) were of support groups and 7 (6%) were of family or friends. We identified four salient themes through analysis of the social media posts from Twitter and Instagram: social support, celebrating milestones and honoring survivors, expressing identity, and renewal vs. rebirth. DISCUSSION:We observed a marked relationship between physical appearance, functional status and survivorship. Additionally, our findings suggest the importance of social support for cancer patients and survivors as well as the role social media can pay in identity formation. CONCLUSION:Our findings suggest that individuals who identify as survivors on social media define their identity fluidly, incorporating elements of physical, emotional and psychological health as well as autonomy
Effects of burying and removing dead leaves from the ground on the development of scab epidemics in an apple organic orchard.
Ascospores produced on scabbed leaves in the leaf litter constitute the primary
inoculum causing scab infections in apple orchards during the year. The trial, carried
out in a commercial organic orchard, permitted to evaluate the effects of the
removal of dead leaves located on the inter-row supplemented by the ploughing in of
the leaves left on the row, on the development of scab epidemics. From the first
recorded contamination to harvest time, lesions on leaves and fruits were counted to
determine reduction in disease incidence and severity, compared with the untreated
plots. Disease severity as a function of the distance from the untreated plot was also
observed, to evaluate the spore dispersal gradient within the orchard. The results
show that the ploughing in and the removal of the litter reduced disease incidence by
62% on leaves, and by almost 82% on fruits to harvest. Moreover, measurements of
the dispersal gradient show that the spores do not disperse, or little, beyond 20m of
the untreated zone
Dynamics in the centre manifold around equilibrium points in periodically perturbed three-body problems
A new application of the parameterization method is pre- sented to compute invariant manifolds about the equilib- rium points of Periodically Perturbed Three-Body Problems ( PPTBP ). These techniques are applied to obtain high-order semi-numerical approximations of the center manifolds abo ut the points L 1 , 2 of the Sun-perturbed Earth-Moon Quasi- Bicicular Problem ( QBCP ), which is a particular case of PPTBP . The quality of these approximations is compared with results obtained using equivalents of previous normal form procedures. Then, the parameterization is used to ini- tialize the computation of Poincaré maps, which allow to get a qualitative description of the periodically-perturb ed dynamics near the equilibrium pointsPostprint (published version
Shaping Social Activity by Incentivizing Users
Events in an online social network can be categorized roughly into endogenous
events, where users just respond to the actions of their neighbors within the
network, or exogenous events, where users take actions due to drives external
to the network. How much external drive should be provided to each user, such
that the network activity can be steered towards a target state? In this paper,
we model social events using multivariate Hawkes processes, which can capture
both endogenous and exogenous event intensities, and derive a time dependent
linear relation between the intensity of exogenous events and the overall
network activity. Exploiting this connection, we develop a convex optimization
framework for determining the required level of external drive in order for the
network to reach a desired activity level. We experimented with event data
gathered from Twitter, and show that our method can steer the activity of the
network more accurately than alternatives
Force-gradient-induced mechanical dissipation of quartz tuning fork force sensors used in atomic force microscopy
We have studied the dynamics of quartz tuning fork resonators used in atomic
force microscopy taking into account mechanical energy dissipation through the
attachment of the tuning fork base. We find that the tuning fork resonator
quality factor changes even for the case of a purely elastic sensor-sample
interaction. This is due to the effective mechanical imbalance of the tuning
fork prongs induced by the sensor-sample force gradient which in turn has an
impact on the dissipation through the attachment of the resonator base. This
effect may yield a measured dissipation signal that can be different to the one
exclusively related to the dissipation between the sensor and the sample. We
also find that there is a second order term in addition to the linear
relationship between the sensor-sample force gradient and the resonance
frequency shift of the tuning fork that is significant even for force gradients
usually present in atomic force microscopy which are in the range of tens of
N/m.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures and supplemental informatio
Minimal Stability in Maximal Supergravity
Recently, it has been shown that maximal supergravity allows for
non-supersymmetric AdS critical points that are perturbatively stable. We
investigate this phenomenon of stability without supersymmetry from the
sGoldstino point of view. In particular, we calculate the projection of the
mass matrix onto the sGoldstino directions, and derive the necessary conditions
for stability. Indeed we find a narrow window allowing for stable SUSY breaking
points. As a by-product of our analysis, we find that it seems impossible to
perturb supersymmetric critical points into non-supersymmetric ones: there is a
minimal amount of SUSY breaking in maximal supergravity.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure. v2: two typos corrected, published versio
Pratiques funéraires du second âge du Fer en Gaule de l'Ouest (Bretagne, Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charentes)
International audienceHallstatt and La Tène funeraries practicies in Brittany, Loire countries and Western-Central FranceBilan des pratiques funéraires de l'Armorique au centre-Ouest de la France pendant le premier et le second âge du fe
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