Internal/External information access and information diffusion in social media

As social media platform not only provide infrastructure but also actively perform algorithmic curation for profit and user experience, it leads to an information filter bubble phenomenon: users are trapped in their own personalized bubble and are exposed only to the opinions that conform their beliefs and interests, thus potentially creating social polarization and information islands. However, filter bubbles hardly restrict all the users in a large social network, some information explorers can break the bubble and bring external global knowledge back to the internal network. In this paper, we investigate this assumption via hashtag adoption prediction. First, we construct a heterogeneous graph and extract 17 features to describe the event of hashtag adoption. Then, we generate learning instances and train a lasso regression model to do prediction. Preliminary results show that information explorers are more likely to adopt new hashtags than others, thereby more internal and external information can be diffused via these special users

Enter a job, get course recommendations

In an interdisciplinary learning environment, students are facing difficulties to locate the right education opportunities, e.g., campus courses or MOOCs, to achieve their career goals. In this paper, we propose a novel student program planning system. Using the system, students can enter job preferences, e.g., “Software Engineer at Google", and text-based and network graph-based recommendation algorithms will suggest education opportunities that help students achieve their career goals. Preliminary results show that the proposed solution is promising in recommending students a personalized education plan

Confinement of carbon dots localizing to the ultrathin layered double hydroxides toward simultaneous triple-mode bioimaging and photothermal therapy

It is a great challenge to develop multifunctional nanocarriers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Herein, versatile CDs/ICG-uLDHs nanovehicles for triple-modal fluorescence/photoacoustic/two-photon bioimaging and effective photothermal therapy were prepared via a facile self-assembly of red emission carbon dots (CDs), indocyanine green (ICG) with the ultrathin layered double hydroxides (uLDHs). Due to the J-aggregates of ICG constructed in the self-assembly process, CDs/ICG-uLDHs was able to stabilize the photothermal agent ICG and enhanced its photothermal efficiency. Furthermore, the unique confinement effect of uLDHs has extended the fluorescence lifetime of CDs in favor of bioimaging. Considering the excellent in vitro and in vivo phototherapeutics and multimodal imaging effects, this work provides a promising platform for the construction of multifunctional theranostic nanocarrier system for the cancer treatment

Improved siRNA/shRNA Functionality by Mismatched Duplex

siRNA (small interfering RNA) and shRNA (small hairpin RNA) are powerful and commonly used tools in biomedical research. Currently, siRNAs are generally designed as two 21 nt strands of RNA that include a 19 nt completely complementary part and a 2 nt overhang. However, since the si/shRNAs use the endogenous miRNA machinery for gene silencing and the miRNAs are generally 22 nt in length and contain multiple internal mismatches, we tested if the functionality can be increased by designing the si/shRNAs to mimic a miRNA structure. We systematically investigated the effect of single or multiple mismatches introduced in the passenger strand at different positions on siRNA functionality. Mismatches at certain positions could significantly increase the functionality of siRNAs and also, in some cases decreased the unwanted passenger strand functionality. The same strategy could also be used to design shRNAs. Finally, we showed that both si and miRNA structured oligos (siRNA with or without mismatches in the passenger strand) can repress targets in all individual Ago containing cells, suggesting that the Ago proteins do not differentiate between si/miRNA-based structure for silencing activity

A potential ultrafast pulse laser crystal with disordered melilite structure: Yb3+:CaLaGa3O7

The Yb3+:CaLaGa3O7 crystal with high-quality was grown successfully by the Czochralski method. The structure parameters of Yb3+:CaLaGa3O7 crystal are determined by the X-ray Rietveld refinement method. The absorption and fluorescence spectra, fluorescence lifetime and laser performance parameters were investigated in detail. The large absorption cross-section (1.14 x 10(-20) cm(2) for pi-polarization and 1.06 x 10(-20) cm(2) for sigma-polarization) of the crystal at around 980 nm indicates that the crystal can be pumped efficiently by the commercialized InGaAs laser diode. The stimulated emission-cross section at 1004 nm was calculated to be 1.11 x 10(-20) cm(2) for 'c-polarization and 1.04 x 10(-20) cm(2) for sigma-polarization. The above results reveal that Yb3+:CaLaGa3O7 crystal can be regarded as a potential candidate for realizing tunable solid-state and ultrashort pulsed lasers with LD pumping

Covered bare stents for transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt: an updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background: Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a standard treatment option for the management of portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis. Since the introduction of covered stents, shunt patency has been greatly improved. However, it remains uncertain about whether covered stents could improve survival. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials has been performed to compare the outcomes of covered versus bare stents for TIPS. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials. Overall survival, shunt patency, and hepatic encephalopathy were the major endpoints. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Heterogeneity was calculated. Cochrane risk of bias tool was employed. Results: Overall, 119 papers were identified. Among them, four randomized controlled trials were eligible. Viatorr covered stents alone, Fluency covered stents alone, and Viatorr plus Fluency covered stents were employed in one, two, and one randomized controlled trials, respectively. Risk of bias was relatively low. Meta-analyses demonstrated that the covered-stents group had significantly higher probabilities of overall survival (HR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.50–0.90, p  = 0.008) and shunt patency (HR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.29–0.62, p  < 0.0001) than the bare-stents group. Additionally, the covered-stents group might have a lower risk of hepatic encephalopathy than the bare-stents group (HR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.49–1.00, p  = 0.05). The heterogeneity among studies was not statistically significant in the meta-analyses. Conclusions: Compared with bare stents, covered stents for TIPS may improve the overall survival. In the era of covered stents, the indications for TIPS may be further expanded

Cross Social Media Recommendation

The proliferation of rich social media data revolutionizes the way people perceive and understand the world. Unfortunately, so far, there does not exist a single social media system that efficiently globalizes users around the world. Two well-known social media systems, Twitter and Facebook, are strictly blocked in mainland China for political reasons, which means 21.97% of Internet users are excluded from these systems. Similarly, the second-largest microblogging system in the world, Sina Weibo, features a default system language of Chinese, which rules out many users from other countries. This creates what we call language, network, and culture bubbles. As a result, if we are interested in modeling the knowledge of the world, all research findings based on a single social media system (within a bubble) can be biased, and the social networks or knowledge networks generated from a single system or social community cannot fully represent people from around the world. In this study, we generate a pseudo-social heterogeneous network - Pseudo Global Social Media Network (PGSMN), which bridges the topics of Twitter and Weibo. On this network, all Weibo and Twitter nodes are interconnected via an interim knowledge layer, and user or topic nodes from Twitter can randomly walk to the nodes on Weibo (via different kinds of paths), and vice versa, which enables cross-network information recommendation and knowledge globalization

Surface Defect Detection Method of Wooden Spoon Based on Improved YOLOv5 Algorithm

The available surface defect detection methods for disposable wooden spoons still involve screening with the naked eye. This detection method is not only inefficient but also accompanied by problems such as false detection and missed detection. Therefore, this paper proposes a detection method based on an improved YOLOv5 network model (YOLOv5-TSPP). This method uses the K-Means ++ algorithm to cluster the target samples in the data set to obtain anchor frames that are more in line with different target scales. The Coordinate Attention module is added to the backbone network of the YOLOv5 network model to improve the feature extraction ability of the model. A new SPP module is added to the backbone network to increase the important features in the receptive field extraction network to improve the detection accuracy of small targets. The experimental results show: The YOLOv5-TSPP algorithm has better detection performance and the mAP of defect detection reaches 80.3%, which is 9.2% higher than that of the YOLOv5 algorithm. Among them, the detection accuracy of black knot defect reached 98.6%, the detection accuracy of back crack defect reached 92.1%, and the detection accuracy of mineral line defect reached 92.3%