654 research outputs found
A Model of Social Explanations for a Conversational Movie Recommendation System
A critical aspect of any recommendation process is explaining the reasoning behind each recommendation. These explanations can not only improve users' experiences, but also change their perception of the recommendation quality. This work describes our human-centered design for our conversational movie recommendation agent, which explains its decisions as humans would. After exploring and analyzing a corpus of dyadic interactions, we developed a computational model of explanations. We then incorporated this model in the architecture of a conversational agent and evaluated the resulting system via a user experiment. Our results show that social explanations can improve the perceived quality of both the system and the interaction, regardless of the intrinsic quality of the recommendations
The Howl - Spring 2019
The Howl is a magazine that is planned, researched, written, photographed and designed by Otterbein University’s ESL and international students. The magazine serves to give them a safe space in which to use their voice to share their cultures, experiences and lives. If you are interested in submitting to the Howl, please e-mail your writing or photography to [email protected]. Enjoy Otterbein ESL’s contribution to the Otterbein community’s literary scene.https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/the_howl/1006/thumbnail.jp
Cost-effectiveness analysis of left atrial appendage occlusion compared with pharmacological strategies for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation
Background Transcatheter left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) is a promising
therapy for stroke prophylaxis in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) but
its cost-effectiveness remains understudied. This study evaluated the cost-
effectiveness of LAAO for stroke prophylaxis in NVAF. Methods A Markov
decision analytic model was used to compare the cost-effectiveness of LAAO
with 7 pharmacological strategies: aspirin alone, clopidogrel plus aspirin,
warfarin, dabigatran 110 mg, dabigatran 150 mg, apixaban, and rivaroxaban.
Outcome measures included quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), lifetime costs
and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). Base-case data were derived
from ACTIVE, RE-LY, ARISTOTLE, ROCKET-AF, PROTECT-AF and PREVAIL trials. One-
way sensitivity analysis varied by CHADS2 score, HAS-BLED score, time
horizons, and LAAO costs; and probabilistic sensitivity analysis using 10,000
Monte Carlo simulations was conducted to assess parameter uncertainty. Results
LAAO was considered cost-effective compared with aspirin, clopidogrel plus
aspirin, and warfarin, with ICER of US2,447, and 50,000/QALY. Conclusions
Transcatheter LAAO is cost-effective for prevention of stroke in NVAF compared
with 7 pharmacological strategies. Condensed abstract The transcatheter left
atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) is considered cost-effective against the
standard 7 oral pharmacological strategies including acetylsalicylic acid
(ASA) alone, clopidogrel plus ASA, warfarin, dabigatran 110 mg, dabigatran 150
mg, apixaban, and rivaroxaban for stroke prophylaxis in non-valvular atrial
fibrillation management
Bacteroides Microbial Source Tracking Markers Perform Poorly in Predicting Enterobacteriaceae and Enteric Pathogen Contamination of Cow Milk Products and Milk-Containing Infant Food
Consumption of microbiologically contaminated food is one of the leading causes of diarrheal diseases. Understanding the source of enteric pathogens in food is important to guide effective interventions. Enterobacteriaceae bacterial assays typically used to assess food safety do not shed light on the source. Source-specific Bacteroides microbial source tracking (MST) markers have been proposed as alternative indicators for water fecal contamination assessment but have not been evaluated as an alternative fecal indicator in animal-derived foods. This study tested various milk products collected from vendors in urban Kenyan communities and infant foods made with the milk (n = 394 pairs) using conventional culture methods and TaqMan qPCR for enteric pathogens and human and bovine-sourced MST markers. Detection profiles of various enteric pathogens and Bacteroides MST markers in milk products differed from that of milk-containing infant foods. MST markers were more frequently detected in infant food prepared by caregivers, indicating recent contamination events were more likely to occur during food preparation at home. However, Bacteroides MST markers had lower sensitivity in detecting enteric pathogens in food than traditional Enterobacteriaceae indicators. Bacteroides MST markers tested in this study were not associated with the detection of culturable Salmonella enterica and Shigella sonnei in milk products or milk-containing infant food. The findings show that while Bacteroides MST markers could provide valuable information about how foods become contaminated, they may not be suitable for predicting the origin of the enteric pathogen contamination sources
Milk Product Safety and Household Food Hygiene Influence Bacterial Contamination of Infant Food in Peri-Urban Kenya.
BACKGROUND: Milk is a common infant food in peri-urban Kenya that can transmit diarrhea-causing enteric pathogens. Little is known about how contamination of milk at point of purchase and household handling of milk-based infant foods contribute to infant exposure to enteric pathogens. OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence and concentrations of bacterial indicator organisms and enteric pathogens in unpackaged, fresh pasteurized, and ultra-high temperature (UHT) treated milk at purchase and assess the influence of the type of milk used to prepare infant food on contamination of this food. METHODS: Paired samples of purchased milk and infant food prepared with this milk were obtained from 188 households in low-income neighborhoods in Kisumu, Kenya. Samples were cultured on selective media to isolate Salmonella enterica, Shigella spp., Klebsiella aerogenes, Proteus spp., and Escherichia coli, with pathogens validated by PCR. Probability of detection of these bacteria was compared by milk product treatment and packaging method, and between milk at point of purchase vs. food at point of infant consumption. RESULTS: Unpackaged milk was most contaminated at point of purchase, but bacterial contamination was also present in pasteurized and UHT milk at purchase. Presence of bacteria in UHT and fresh pasteurized milk at purchase predicted presence of the same bacteria type in infant food. Prevalence of bacterial contamination and concentration level for bacterial indicators generally increased between point of purchase and consumption in UHT and fresh pasteurized milk-based food but decreased in unpackaged milk-based food. Prevalence of the four fecal bacteria were similar in infant foods prepared with each type of milk. CONCLUSION: Both pre-market contamination and post-purchase handling influence the likelihood of infants ingesting foods contaminated by diarrheal pathogens
Non-perturbative Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian and Paraelectricity in Magnetized Massless QED
In this paper we calculate the non-perturbative Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian
for massless QED in a strong magnetic field , where the breaking of the
chiral symmetry is dynamically catalyzed by the external magnetic field via the
formation of an electro-positron condensate. This chiral condensate leads to
the generation of dynamical parameters that have to be found as solutions of
non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson equations. Since the electron-positron pairing
mechanism leading to the breaking of the chiral symmetry is mainly dominated by
the contributions from the infrared region of momenta much smaller than
, the magnetic field introduces a dynamical ultraviolet cutoff in
the theory that also enters in the non-perturbative Euler-Heisenberg action.
Using this action, we show that the system exhibits a significant
paraelectricity in the direction parallel to the magnetic field. The
nonperturbative nature of this effect is reflected in the non-analytic
dependence of the obtained electric susceptibility on the fine-structure
constant. The strong paraelectricity in the field direction is linked to the
orientation of the electric dipole moments of the pairs that form the chiral
condensate. The large electric susceptibility can be used to detect the
realization of the magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking in physical
systems.Comment: 18 pages, to be published in NP
Magnetoelectric Effect in Strongly Magnetized Color Superconductivity
The effect of a strong magnetic field on the electric polarization of a
three-flavor color superconducting medium is investigated. We found that the
electric susceptibility of this strongly magnetized medium is highly
anisotropic. In the direction transverse to the applied magnetic field the
susceptibility reduces to that of the vacuum, while in the longitudinal
direction it depends on the magnetic field and decreases with it. The nature of
this behavior is associated with the field's dependence of the Cooper pairs'
coherence length, which plays the role of the electric dipole length. The
field's dependence of the electric polarization is interpreted as the
realization of the magnetoelectric effect in cold-dense quark matter.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
The effects of enrichment novelty versus complexity in cages of group housed rats (<i>Rattus norvegicus</i>)
GEMv2 : Multilingual NLG benchmarking in a single line of code
Evaluation in machine learning is usually informed by past choices, for example which datasets or metrics to use. This standardization enables the comparison on equal footing using leaderboards, but the evaluation choices become sub-optimal as better alternatives arise. This problem is especially pertinent in natural language generation which requires ever-improving suites of datasets, metrics, and human evaluation to make definitive claims. To make following best model evaluation practices easier, we introduce GEMv2. The new version of the Generation, Evaluation, and Metrics Benchmark introduces a modular infrastructure for dataset, model, and metric developers to benefit from each others work. GEMv2 supports 40 documented datasets in 51 languages. Models for all datasets can be evaluated online and our interactive data card creation and rendering tools make it easier to add new datasets to the living benchmark.Peer reviewe
GEMv2 : Multilingual NLG benchmarking in a single line of code
Evaluation in machine learning is usually informed by past choices, for example which datasets or metrics to use. This standardization enables the comparison on equal footing using leaderboards, but the evaluation choices become sub-optimal as better alternatives arise. This problem is especially pertinent in natural language generation which requires ever-improving suites of datasets, metrics, and human evaluation to make definitive claims. To make following best model evaluation practices easier, we introduce GEMv2. The new version of the Generation, Evaluation, and Metrics Benchmark introduces a modular infrastructure for dataset, model, and metric developers to benefit from each others work. GEMv2 supports 40 documented datasets in 51 languages. Models for all datasets can be evaluated online and our interactive data card creation and rendering tools make it easier to add new datasets to the living benchmark.Peer reviewe
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