Modeling Paying Behavior in Game Social Networks

Online gaming is one of the largest industries on the Internet, generating tens of billions of dollars in revenues annually. One core problem in online game is to find and convert free users into paying customers, which is of great importance for the sustainable development of almost all online games. Although much research has been conducted, there are still several challenges that remain largely unsolved: What are the fundamental factors that trigger the users to pay? How does users? paying behavior influence each other in the game social network? How to design a prediction model to recognize those potential users who are likely to pay? In this paper, employing two large online games as the basis, we study how a user becomes a new paying user in the games. In particular, we examine how users' paying behavior influences each other in the game social network. We study this problem from various sociological perspectives including strong/weak ties, social structural diversity and social influence. Based on the discovered patterns, we propose a learning framework to predict potential new payers. The framework can learn a model using features associated with users and then use the social relationships between users to refine the learned model. We test the proposed framework using nearly 50 billion user activities from two real games. Our experiments show that the proposed framework significantly improves the prediction accuracy by up to 3-11% compared to several alternative methods. The study also unveils several intriguing social phenomena from the data. For example, influence indeed exists among users for the paying behavior. The likelihood of a user becoming a new paying user is 5 times higher than chance when he has 5 paying neighbors of strong tie. We have deployed the proposed algorithm into the game, and the Lift_Ratio has been improved up to 196% compared to the prior strategy

Di-lepton production in p+p collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = 200 GeV from STAR

The di-electron analysis for 200 GeV p+p collisions is presented in this article. The cocktail simulations of di-eletrons from light flavor meson decays and heavy flavor decays are reported and compared with data. The perspectives for di-lepton measurements in Au+Au collisions are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Hard Probes 2010 proceeding

RKIP inhibits NF-κB in cancer cells by regulating upstream signaling components of the IκB kinase complex

AbstractRKIP was first identified as an inhibitor of the Raf-MEK-ERK signaling pathway. RKIP was also found to play an important role in the NF-κB pathway. Genetic and biochemical studies demonstrated that RKIP functioned as a scaffold protein facilitating the phosphorylation of IκB by upstream kinases. However, contrary to what one would expect of a scaffold protein, our results show that RKIP has an overall inhibitory effect on the NF-κB transcriptional activities. Since NF-κB target gene expression is subject to negative regulation involving the optimal induction of negative regulators, our data support a hypothesis that RKIP inhibits NF-κB activity via the auto-regulatory feedback loop by rapidly inducing the expression and synthesis of inhibitors of NF-κB activation.Structured summaryMINT-7386121: TRAF6 (uniprotkb:Q9Y4K3) physically interacts (MI:0915) with RKIP (uniprotkb:P30086) by anti bait co-immunoprecipitation (MI:0006

Detection of lymphangiogenesis in non-small cell lung cancer and its prognostic value

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our aim was to detect lymphatic endothelial marker podoplanin, lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor-1 (LYVE-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR)-3 and study the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).</p> <p>Materials</p> <p>82 paraffin-embedded tissues and 40 fresh frozen tissues from patients with NSCLC were studied. Tumor samples were immunostained for the lymphatic endothelial markers. Lymphangiogenesis was assessed by immunohistochemical double stains for Podoplanin and Ki-67. The prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis-related clinicopathological parameters in NSCLC was evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that the number of podoplanin positive vessels was correlated positively with the number of LYVE-1 positive vessels. Most of VEGFR-3 positive, few of LYVE-1 positive and none of podoplanin positive vessels were blood vessels. Peritumoral lymphatic vessel density (ptLVD), pathologic stage, lymph node status, lymphatic vessel invasion (LVI), vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) expression and Ki-67 index of the endothelium cells of the micro lymphatic vessels (Ki67%) were associated significantly with a higher risk of tumor progress. ptLVD, pathologic stage, lymph-node metastasis and Ki67% were independent prognostic parameters for overall survival.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Podoplanin positive ptLVD might play important roles in the lymphangiogenesis and progression of NSCLC. Patients with high podoplanin+ ptLVD have a poor prognosis.</p

Thermal Properties Prediction of Large-Scale Machine Tool in Vacuum Environment Based on the Parameter Identification of Fluid–Thermal Coupling Model

Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.A high vacuum environment safeguards the performance of special processing technologies and high-precision parts such as nanosecond laser processing, chip packaging, and optical components. However, it poses higher requirements for the machine tool, which makes the temperature control of machine tools an important goal in design and development. In this paper, the thermal properties of a large-scale 5-axis laser processing machine tool in a vacuum environment were investigated. The thermal contact resistance between parts is identified by the parametric simulation and experiment. The whole machine temperature field was then obtained based on the fluid–thermal coupling model and verified by experiment. The results showed that the thermal contact resistance of the motor and reducer with the water cold plate was 560 W/(m2∙°C) and 510 W/(m2∙°C), respectively, and the maximum temperature increase of the machine was 3 °C. Based on the results, the machine tool’s temperature increase prediction chart was obtained by simulation under different processing conditions such as cooling water flow rate, cooling water temperature, motor speed, and ambient temperature. It provides technical and data references for the research on the thermal stability of the machine tool in processing.Construction of High-level University—Leading Program of First-class Graduate Education (No.10-22-304-382, 10-22-304-393) and 2023 Shanghai Education Commission Young Teacher Training Subsidy Program

The role of tidal interactions in the formation of slowly rotating early-type stars in young star clusters

The split main sequences found in the colour-magnitude diagrams of star clusters younger than ~600 Myr are suggested to be caused by the dichotomy of stellar rotation rates of upper main-sequence stars. Tidal interactions have been suggested as a possible explanation of the dichotomy of the stellar rotation rates. This hypothesis proposes that the slow rotation rates of stars along the split main sequences are caused by tidal interactions in binaries. To test this scenario, we measured the variations in the radial velocities of slowly rotating stars along the split main sequence of the young Galactic cluster NGC 2422 (~90 Myr) using spectra obtained at multiple epochs with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope. Our results show that most slowly rotating stars are not radial-velocity variables. Using the theory of dynamical tides, we find that the binary separations necessary to fully or partially synchronise our spectroscopic targets, on time-scales shorter than the cluster age, predict much larger radial velocity variations across multiple-epoch observations, or a much larger radial velocity dispersion at a single epoch, than the observed values. This indicates that tidal interactions are not the dominant mechanism to form slowly rotating stars along the split main sequences. As the observations of the rotation velocity distribution among B- and A-type stars in binaries of larger separations hint at a much stronger effect of braking with age, we discuss the consequences of relaxing the constraints of the dynamical tides theory.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis among asymptomatic HIV+ patients in Guangxi, China

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) among asymptomatic Chinese patients with HIV infection has not been investigated despite high tuberculosis burden in China. This study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence, risk factors and clinical outcomes of PTB among asymptomatic patients with HIV/AIDS in Guangxi to facilitate the development of diagnostic and treatment strategies. METHODS: All asymptomatic adult HIV-infected patients with CD4 < 350 cells/µl who attended four HIV clinics in Guangxi between August 2006 and March 2008 were evaluated for active PTB with physical examination, chest X-ray (CXR), sputum smear and/or sputum liquid culture. Data were described using median (interquartile range, IQR) and frequencies. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors associated with PTB. RESULTS: Among 340 asymptomatic subjects, 15 (4%) were diagnosed with PTB, with 4 (27%) sputum smear positive and 8 (53%) sputum culture positive. CXR has higher diagnostic sensitivity (87%) than sputum smear (25%) and sputum culture (67%), but lower specificity (56%) compared with sputum smear (99%) and culture (100%). In univariate analysis, injection drug user, body mass index (BMI) < 18 kg/m(2), CD4 < 50 cells/µl and presence of peripheral lymphadenopathy were associated with an increased risk of asymptomatic PTB, while in multivariate analysis only peripheral lymphadenopathy maintained statistical significance (OR = 7.6, 95%CI 1.4 - 40). Patients with negative smear and minor or no abnormalities on CXR had longer interval between screening and TB treatment. CONCLUSIONS: PTB was relatively common in this group of HIV(+) asymptomatic Chinese patients. Diagnosis is challenging especially where sputum culture is unavailable. These findings suggest that an enhanced evaluation for PTB needs to be integrated with HIV care in China and transmission prevention in China to control at both households and health care facilities, especially for patients with factors associated with a higher risk of PTB