Using support vector machine ensembles for target audience classification on Twitter

The vast amount and diversity of the content shared on social media can pose a challenge for any business wanting to use it to identify potential customers. In this paper, our aim is to investigate the use of both unsupervised and supervised learning methods for target audience classification on Twitter with minimal annotation efforts. Topic domains were automatically discovered from contents shared by followers of an account owner using Twitter Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). A Support Vector Machine (SVM) ensemble was then trained using contents from different account owners of the various topic domains identified by Twitter LDA. Experimental results show that the methods presented are able to successfully identify a target audience with high accuracy. In addition, we show that using a statistical inference approach such as bootstrapping in over-sampling, instead of using random sampling, to construct training datasets can achieve a better classifier in an SVM ensemble. We conclude that such an ensemble system can take advantage of data diversity, which enables real-world applications for differentiating prospective customers from the general audience, leading to business advantage in the crowded social media space

Identifying the high-value social audience from Twitter through text-mining methods

Doing business on social media has become a common practice for many companies these days. While the contents shared on Twitter and Facebook offer plenty of opportunities to uncover business insights, it remains a challenge to sift through the huge amount of social media data and identify the potential social audience who is highly likely to be interested in a particular company. In this paper, we analyze the Twitter content of an account owner and its list of followers through various text mining methods, which include fuzzy keyword matching, statistical topic modeling and machine learning approaches. We use tweets of the account owner to segment the followers and identify a group of high-value social audience members. This enables the account owner to spend resources more effectively by sending offers to the right audience and hence maximize marketing efficiency and improve the return of investment

Longitudinal effects of metabolic syndrome on Alzheimer and vascular related brain pathology.

Background/aimsThis study examines the longitudinal effect of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on brain-aging indices among cognitively normal (CN) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) groups [single-domain aMCI (saMCI) and multiple-domain aMCI (maMCI)].MethodsThe study population included 739 participants (CN = 226, saMCI = 275, and maMCI = 238) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a clinic-based, multi-center prospective cohort. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to determine a MetS latent composite score using baseline data of vascular risk factors. We examined the changes of two Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers, namely [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) regions of interest and medial temporal lobe volume over 5 years. A cerebrovascular aging index, cerebral white matter (cWM) volume, was examined as a comparison.ResultsThe vascular risk was similar in all groups. Applying generalized estimating equation modeling, all brain-aging indices declined significantly over time. Higher MetS scores were associated with a faster decline of cWM in the CN and maMCI groups but with a slower decrement of regional glucose metabolism in FDG-PET in the saMCI and maMCI groups.ConclusionAt the very early stage of cognitive decline, the vascular burden such as MetS may be in parallel with or independent of AD pathology in contributing to cognitive impairment in terms of accelerating the disclosure of AD pathology

The Role of Linguistics Habits and Proprioception Sense on Mental Number Line

AbstractThe present study investigated the relationship between linguistic styles and numerical representation as evidenced by the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes effect, which smaller (larger) number is respond faster with left (right) hand. In Study 1, sixteen participants did numerical judgments by pressing left-or-right side keyboard button with digits presented randomly on three sides of the screen. SNARC effect was found to be significant whereas no significant main effect of number placement was found. In Study 2, fifteen participants reacted with moving the joystick to leftward or rightward with one hand only. No SNARC effect was found as well as the interaction effect. These results suggested the role of proprioception sense in the conceptualization of mental number line

Integration of Genome-Wide Computation DRE Search, AhR ChIP-chip and Gene Expression Analyses of TCDD-Elicited Responses in the Mouse Liver

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor (TF) that mediates responses to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-<it>p</it>-dioxin (TCDD). Integration of TCDD-induced genome-wide AhR enrichment, differential gene expression and computational dioxin response element (DRE) analyses further elucidate the hepatic AhR regulatory network.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Global ChIP-chip and gene expression analyses were performed on hepatic tissue from immature ovariectomized mice orally gavaged with 30 μg/kg TCDD. ChIP-chip analysis identified 14,446 and 974 AhR enriched regions (1% false discovery rate) at 2 and 24 hrs, respectively. Enrichment density was greatest in the proximal promoter, and more specifically, within ± 1.5 kb of a transcriptional start site (TSS). AhR enrichment also occurred distal to a TSS (e.g. intergenic DNA and 3' UTR), extending the potential gene expression regulatory roles of the AhR. Although TF binding site analyses identified over-represented DRE sequences within enriched regions, approximately 50% of all AhR enriched regions lacked a DRE core (5'-GCGTG-3'). Microarray analysis identified 1,896 number of TCDD-responsive genes (|fold change| ≥ 1.5, P1(t) > 0.999). Integrating this gene expression data with our ChIP-chip and DRE analyses only identified 625 differentially expressed genes that involved an AhR interaction at a DRE. Functional annotation analysis of differentially regulated genes associated with AhR enrichment identified overrepresented processes related to fatty acid and lipid metabolism and transport, and xenobiotic metabolism, which are consistent with TCDD-elicited steatosis in the mouse liver.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Details of the AhR regulatory network have been expanded to include AhR-DNA interactions within intragenic and intergenic genomic regions. Moreover, the AhR can interact with DNA independent of a DRE core suggesting there are alternative mechanisms of AhR-mediated gene regulation.</p

InnateDB: systems biology of innate immunity and beyond—recent updates and continuing curation

peer-reviewedInnateDB (http://www.innatedb.com) is an integrated analysis platform that has been specifically designed to facilitate systems-level analyses of mammalian innate immunity networks, pathways and genes. In this article, we provide details of recent updates and improvements to the database. InnateDB now contains >196 000 human, mouse and bovine experimentally validated molecular interactions and 3000 pathway annotations of relevance to all mammalian cellular systems (i.e. not just immune relevant pathways and interactions). In addition, the InnateDB team has, to date, manually curated in excess of 18 000 molecular interactions of relevance to innate immunity, providing unprecedented insight into innate immunity networks, pathways and their component molecules. More recently, InnateDB has also initiated the curation of allergy- and asthma-related interactions. Furthermore, we report a range of improvements to our integrated bioinformatics solutions including web service access to InnateDB interaction data using Proteomics Standards Initiative Common Query Interface, enhanced Gene Ontology analysis for innate immunity, and the availability of new network visualizations tools. Finally, the recent integration of bovine data makes InnateDB the first integrated network analysis platform for this agriculturally important model organism.This work was supported by Genome BC through the Pathogenomics of Innate Immunity (PI2) project and by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Research Initiative [Grand Challenges ID: 419]. Further funding was also provided by AllerGen grants 12ASI1 and 12B&B2. D.J.L. was funded in part during this project by a postdoctoral trainee award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). F.S.L.B. is a MSFHR Senior Scholar and R.E.W.H. holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC). Funding to enable bovine systems biology in InnateDB is provided by Teagasc [RMIS6018] and the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship scheme. IMEx is funded by the European Commission under the PSIMEx project [contract number FP7-HEALTH-2007-223411]. Funding for open access charge: Teagasc [RMIS6018]

Hyperacoustic instruments: Computer-controlled instruments that are not electrophones

This paper describes a musical instrument consisting of a physical process that acoustically generates sound from the material world (i.e. sound derived from matter such as solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) which is modified by a secondary in-put from the informatic world. This informatic input selects attributes such as the frequency range of the musical note be-ing sounded, while the acoustic process is kept in close con-tact with the user, to ensure a high degree of expressivity. In one example, ice skates with acoustic pickups are used to play music while the skater simultaneously controls a bandpass fil-ter with a hand-held keyer and wearable computer. Each skate works much like the bow on a violin, allowing the player to hit, scrape, rub, or “bow”, the ice in various ways to create a wide variety of musical textures. Additionally the player can select sound samples on a per-note basis and then “scratch” out a melody or harmony (playing multiple samples at once) on the ice on the rink like a team of Disk Jockeys (DJs) work-ing together to “scratch ” an array of vinyl records. Because the grooves on an ice rink are made by the player in a freeform fashion, there is much more room for variations in musical timbres and textures than with the fixed grooves of a record. Rather than merely using the keyer to trigger musical notes through MIDI note on/note off commands, we create acoustic sound through a physical process such as skating, and then turn those physical sounds into musical notes with the handheld keyer that functions as a modifier input. This combination combines the expressivity of non-electrophonic musical instruments like the violin with the flexibility of electrophones like the sound synthesizer. As a further contribution of the paper, a general taxonomy of acoustic transducers and a link to physical organology is provided, in which the top-level of the taxonomy is the state-of-matter in which the transducer operates