A personalized and context-aware news offer for mobile devices

For classical domains, such as movies, recommender systems have proven their usefulness. But recommending news is more challenging due to the short life span of news content and the demand for up-to-date recommendations. This paper presents a news recommendation service with a content-based algorithm that uses features of a search engine for content processing and indexing, and a collaborative filtering algorithm for serendipity. The extension towards a context-aware algorithm is made to assess the information value of context in a mobile environment through a user study. Analyzing interaction behavior and feedback of users on three recommendation approaches shows that interaction with the content is crucial input for user modeling. Context-aware recommendations using time and device type as context data outperform traditional recommendations with an accuracy gain dependent on the contextual situation. These findings demonstrate that the user experience of news services can be improved by a personalized context-aware news offer

Mode-hop-free tuning over 135 GHz of external cavity diode lasers without anti-reflection coating

We report an external cavity diode laser (ECDL), using a diode whose front facet is not antireflection (AR) coated, that has a mode-hop-free (MHF) tuning range greater than 135 GHz. We achieved this using a short external cavity and by simultaneously tuning the internal and external modes of the laser. We find that the precise location of the pivot point of the grating in our laser is less critical than commonly believed. The general applicability of the method, combined with the compact portable mechanical and electronic design, makes it well suited for both research and industrial applications.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Glass transition in the quenched and annealed version of the frustrated lattice gas model

In this paper we study the 3d frustrated lattice gas model in the annealed version, where the disorder is allowed to evolve in time with a suitable kinetic constraint. Although the model does not exhibit any thermodynamic transition it shows a diverging peak at some characteristic time in the dynamical non-linear susceptibility, similar to the results on the p-spin model in mean field and Lennard-Jones mixture recently found by Donati et al. [cond-mat/9905433]. Comparing these results to those obtained in the model with quenched interactions, we conclude that the critical behavior of the dynamical susceptibility is reminiscent of the thermodynamic transition present in the quenched model, and signaled by the divergence of the static non-linear susceptibility, suggesting therefore a similar mechanism also in supercooled glass-forming liquids.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figure

E-Defense 2015 ten-story building: beam–column joint assessment according to different code-based design

Recent devastating earthquakes worldwide pointed out the importance of seismic detailing and their influence on the observed damage and subsequent repairability of reinforced concrete buildings. Several studies and post-earthquake observations remarked the role of beam–column joints (BCJs) on the global building response and the effectiveness of transverse reinforcement in increasing the joint shear strength and the ultimate deformation. Although number of experimental and theoretical studies focused on the seismic response of BCJs, their mechanical behaviour is still a discussed topic. This resulted in number of design approaches available in worldwide code or standards that lead to different quantity of joint stirrups. This study focuses on the response of BCJs of a 10-story prototype building designed according to Japanese standards and tested in 2015 on the E-Defense shaking table. First the damage assessment at global (building) and local (joint) level is performed at increasing intensities and considering the building in the base slip and base fixed configurations. A refined numerical model is then developed and validated against global and local experimental results. Then, the joint stirrups are re-designed according to different international standards (ACI, EC8, NZS) and different numerical models are developed. The numerical results are then compared in terms of interstorey drift demand and joint shear strain. Finally, a comparison in terms of expected damage varying the design approach of joint stirrups is proposed

KamLAND, terrestrial heat sources and neutrino oscillations

We comment on the first indication of geo-neutrino events from KamLAND and on the prospects for understanding Earth energetics. Practically all models of terrestrial heat production are consistent with data within the presently limited statistics, the fully radiogenic model being closer to the observed value ($\approx 9$ geo-events). In a few years KamLAND should collect sufficient data for a clear evidence of geo-neutrinos, however discrimination among models requires a detector with the class and size of KamLAND far away from nuclear reactors. We also remark that the event ratio from Thorium and Uranium decay chains is well fixed $N(Th)/N(U) \simeq 0.25$, a constraint that can be useful for determining neutrino oscillation parameters. We show that a full spectral analysis, including this constraint, further reduces the oscillation parameter space compared to an analysis with an energy threshold $E_{vis}>2.6 MeV$.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX file, 3 ps figures included in the correct order, corrected some typos and added references. Accepted for publication on Phys. Lett.

Oncogenic Virome Benefits from the Different Vaginal Microbiome-Immune Axes.

The picture of dynamic interaction between oncogenic viruses and the vaginal bacteria-immune host milieu is incomplete. We evaluated the impact of Polyomaviridae, Papillomaviridae, and Herpesviridae oncoviruses on the vaginal Community State Types (CSTs) and host immune response in reproductive-age women. In our cohort, only Polyomaviridae and Papillomaviridae were detected and were associated with changes in the resident bacteria of CST I and IV (p < 0.05). Lactobacillus crispatus increased in CST I while Prevotella timonensis and Sneathia sanguinegens increased in CST IV. Conversely, CST II and III showed an alteration of the immune response, with the decrease of Eotaxin, MCP-1, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-15 (p < 0.05), leading to reduced antiviral efficacy. An efficient viral clearance was observed only in women from CST I, dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus. Our in vivo study begins to address the knowledge gap with respect to the role of vaginal bacteria and immune response in susceptibility to oncoviral infections

The extragalactic radio-source population at 95 GHz

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 95GHz to carry out continuum observations of 130 extragalactic radio sources selected from the Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) survey. Over 90% of these sources are detected at 95 GHz, and we use a triple-correlation method to measure simultaneous 20 and 95 GHz flux densities. We show that the ATCA can measure 95GHz flux densities to ~10% accuracy in a few minutes for sources above ~50mJy. The median 20-95GHz spectral index does not vary significantly with flux density for extragalactic sources with S20>150 mJy. This allows us to estimate the extragalactic radio source counts at 95GHz by combining our observed 20-95GHz spectral-index distribution with the accurate 20GHz source counts measured in the AT20G survey. The resulting 95GHz source counts down to 80 mJy are significantly lower than those found by several previous studies. The main reason is that most radio sources with flat or rising spectra in the frequency range 5-20GHz show a spectral turnover between 20 and 95 GHz. As a result, there are fewer 95GHz sources (by almost a factor of two at 0.1 Jy) than would be predicted on the basis of extrapolation from the source populations seen in lower-frequency surveys. We also derive the predicted confusion noise in CMB surveys at 95GHz and find a value 20-30% lower than previous estimates. The 95GHz source population at the flux levels probed by this study is dominated by QSOs with a median redshift z~1. We find a correlation between optical magnitude and 95GHz flux density which suggests that many of the brightest 95 GHz sources are relativistically beamed, with both the optical and millimetre continuum significantly brightened by Doppler boosting.Comment: Replaced with final version (MNRAS, in press), 15 pages plus two landscape data table

Exact solutions for diluted spin glasses and optimization problems

We study the low temperature properties of p-spin glass models with finite connectivity and of some optimization problems. Using a one-step functional replica symmetry breaking Ansatz we can solve exactly the saddle-point equations for graphs with uniform connectivity. The resulting ground state energy is in perfect agreement with numerical simulations. For fluctuating connectivity graphs, the same Ansatz can be used in a variational way: For p-spin models (known as p-XOR-SAT in computer science) it provides the exact configurational entropy together with the dynamical and static critical connectivities (for p=3, \gamma_d=0.818 and \gamma_s=0.918 resp.), whereas for hard optimization problems like 3-SAT or Bicoloring it provides new upper bounds for their critical thresholds (\gamma_c^{var}=4.396 and \gamma_c^{var}=2.149 resp.).Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in PR

Beyond inverse Ising model: structure of the analytical solution for a class of inverse problems

I consider the problem of deriving couplings of a statistical model from measured correlations, a task which generalizes the well-known inverse Ising problem. After reminding that such problem can be mapped on the one of expressing the entropy of a system as a function of its corresponding observables, I show the conditions under which this can be done without resorting to iterative algorithms. I find that inverse problems are local (the inverse Fisher information is sparse) whenever the corresponding models have a factorized form, and the entropy can be split in a sum of small cluster contributions. I illustrate these ideas through two examples (the Ising model on a tree and the one-dimensional periodic chain with arbitrary order interaction) and support the results with numerical simulations. The extension of these methods to more general scenarios is finally discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Detection of gp43 of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis by the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method

Paracoccichoidomycosis is a deep mycosis Caused by the thermo-dependent dimorphic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and is prevalent in Latin American countries. We detected the species specific gp43 gene of P. brasiliensis by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) in 22 clinical and seven armadillo-derived isolates. the amplified DNA appeared as a ladder with a specific banding pattern. the advantage of the LAMP method is speed; only 3 h were necessary for identification of the organism and diagnosis of the disease. We were also able to obtain positive results from DNA extracted from a paraffin-embedded tissue sample of paracoccidioidomycosis, suggesting that this method may achieve clinical application in the near future. (C) 2004 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Chiba Univ, Pathogen Fungi & Microbial Toxicoses Res Ctr, Chuo Ku, Chiba 2608673, JapanFujisawa Pharmaceut Co Ltd, Analyt Res Labs, Osaka, JapanUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Fac Med, Dept Anat & Patol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Fac Med, Dept Anat & Patol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc