Out of the Box Thinking: Improving Customer Lifetime Value Modelling via Expert Routing and Game Whale Detection

Customer lifetime value (LTV) prediction is essential for mobile game publishers trying to optimize the advertising investment for each user acquisition based on the estimated worth. In mobile games, deploying microtransactions is a simple yet effective monetization strategy, which attracts a tiny group of game whales who splurge on in-game purchases. The presence of such game whales may impede the practicality of existing LTV prediction models, since game whales' purchase behaviours always exhibit varied distribution from general users. Consequently, identifying game whales can open up new opportunities to improve the accuracy of LTV prediction models. However, little attention has been paid to applying game whale detection in LTV prediction, and existing works are mainly specialized for the long-term LTV prediction with the assumption that the high-quality user features are available, which is not applicable in the UA stage. In this paper, we propose ExpLTV, a novel multi-task framework to perform LTV prediction and game whale detection in a unified way. In ExpLTV, we first innovatively design a deep neural network-based game whale detector that can not only infer the intrinsic order in accordance with monetary value, but also precisely identify high spenders (i.e., game whales) and low spenders. Then, by treating the game whale detector as a gating network to decide the different mixture patterns of LTV experts assembling, we can thoroughly leverage the shared information and scenario-specific information (i.e., game whales modelling and low spenders modelling). Finally, instead of separately designing a purchase rate estimator for two tasks, we design a shared estimator that can preserve the inner task relationships. The superiority of ExpLTV is further validated via extensive experiments on three industrial datasets

Mte1 interacts with Mph1 and promotes crossover recombination and telomere maintenance

Mph1 is a member of the conserved FANCM family of DNA motor proteins that play key roles in genome maintenance processes underlying Fanconi anemia, a cancer predisposition syndrome in humans. Here, we identify Mte1 as a novel interactor of the Mph1 helicase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In vitro, Mte1 (Mph1-associated telomere maintenance protein 1) binds directly to DNA with a preference for branched molecules such as D loops and fork structures. In addition, Mte1 stimulates the helicase and fork regression activities of Mph1 while inhibiting the ability of Mph1 to dissociate recombination intermediates. Deletion of MTE1 reduces crossover recombination and suppresses the sensitivity of mph1Δ mutant cells to replication stress. Mph1 and Mte1 interdependently colocalize atDNAdamage-induced foci and dysfunctional telomeres, and MTE1 deletion results in elongated telomeres. Taken together, our data indicate that Mte1 plays a role in regulation of crossover recombination, response to replication stress, and telomere maintenance

Quality of Integration of Medical Treatment-nursing-rehabilitation for Chronic Disease Patients in the Community from Patients' Perspective: a Cross-sectional Study in Hangzhou

BackgroundIt's necessary to pay urgent attention to the quality of the integration of medical treatment-nursing-rehabilitation in the service promotion process, especially the evaluation from the perspective of patients is lacking.ObjectiveTo investigate patients' perspective on the quality of integration of medical treatment-nursing-rehabilitation for chronic disease patients in the community in Hangzhou, to provide help for improving the quality of such services.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted from June to September 2020 with 550 chronic disease patients selected by convenient sampling method from the service population of 10 community health centers in five major urban districts (Jianggan, Gongshu, Xihu, Shangcheng, and Xiacheng Districts) of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, for collecting their general demographic information, and diseases and treatment-related information, as well as experience of receiving integration of medical treatment-nursing-rehabilitation (using the Chinese version of SERVQUAL Scale consisting of effectiveness, responsiveness, reliability, communication and empathy) .ResultsA total of 525 (95.5%) of the respondents returned responsive questionnaire. Among 525 patients with chronic diseases, 165 (31.4%) were satisfied with integration of medical treatment-nursing-rehabilitation. The patients' total average score of the service perception (5.14±0.44) did not reach their expected level (6.80±0.01) . From high to low the scores of each dimension were reliability (5.69±0.87) , effectiveness (5.43±0.85) , empathy (5.13±1.81) , communication (4.86±1.53) , responsiveness (4.77±0.98) . There was tiny difference among the scores of each dimension of the service expectation. The largest gap between perception and expectation was responsiveness (-2.01±0.14) and the smallest was reliability (-1.11±0.17) . Excluding the 20 "other" respondents in the satisfaction survey, a total of 505 respondents were analyzed by Spearman rank correlation. The results showed that the patients' service satisfaction was positively correlated with the service perception level in terms of total average score (rs=0.741, P<0.001) , and the gap between perception and expectation (rs=0.687, P<0.001) .ConclusionThe patients' service experience and satisfaction were closely related. Currently, the five aspects of effectiveness, responsiveness, reliability, communication and empathy of integration of medical treatment-nursing-rehabilitation have not reached the level of expectation of patients with chronic diseases in the community, especially the responsiveness, indicating that it is necessary to further improve the level of the service in a targeted manner

A Comparative Study of Survival, Metabolism, Immune Indicators, and Proteomics, in Five Batches of Japanese Scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis under Short-Term High Temperature Stress

Five batches of the Japanese scallop Mizuhopecten pyessoensis were tested for survival rate, oxygen consumption, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, total antioxidant capacities (T-AOC) contents, and proteomics under short-term high temperature conditions. The five batches, (W1, W2, W3, W4, W5) selected from the established 21 ‘ivory white’ M. yessoensis batches, had higher survival rates than the other batches after one year of culture. Initial rearing water temperature of 15°C was increased by 1°C per day with a cooling and heating system. The temperature was raised until over 50% of the scallops from 3 batches died. This occurred at 30°C. The higher than normal culture temperature conditions showed significant or highly significant differences in the responses of some of the batches. Some showed significantly higher survival rates and significantly different rates of oxygen consumption. CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content was similar in the five batches, and all three indices were significantly lower in W3 and W5 than in the other batches (P<0.01). Expression patterns of MDA content were opposite to those of CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content. Protein profiles of all five batches were similar; the sizes of the predominant bands ranged from 20-110 kDa. We identified twenty-eight proteins with high scores in the database. These included heat shock proteins (HSPs), glucose-regulated protein 94, and arginine kinase

Factors Associated with the Implementation of Integrated Medical-elderly-nursing Services：a Review Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

The problem of health and pension in an aging society is becoming increasingly acute. Under the promotion of Chinese policy of combining medical care with nursing care and the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system. Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has pioneered integrated medical-elderly-nursing services to meet the healthcare needs of an aging society. The initial effects of the services have been shown, but there are so many influencing factors associated with the delivery. And the relevant influencing factors are lack of systematic and comprehensive analysis. Therefore, summarizing the factors associated with the implementation of the services and described them in terms of five aspects (intervention characteristics, outer setting, inner setting, characteristics of individuals, process) with the help of Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. The major facilitators to implementing IMSs were as follows: diversified and individualized services, close and long-term cooperation between the healthcare institution delivering IMSs and other institutions in the regional medical consortium, clear determination of the duties of each member in the service team, incentives from hospital or other institutions. The major barriers were: lack of flexibility and ignoring individual characteristics in delivering some services, for example, health management; inadequate levels of diagnosis and treatment; insufficient workers, equipment, and drugs

Exogenous Fe2+ alleviated the toxicity of CuO nanoparticles on Pseudomonas tolaasii Y-11 under different nitrogen sources

Extensive use of CuO nanoparticles (CuO-NPs ) inevitably leads to their accumulation in wastewater and toxicity to microorganisms that effectively treat nitrogen pollution. Due to the effects of different mediums, the sources of CuO-NPs-induced toxicity to microorganisms and methods to mitigating the toxicity are still unclear. In this study, CuO-NPs were found to impact the nitrate reduction of Pseudomonas tolaasii Y-11 mainly through the action of NPs themselves while inhibiting the ammonium transformation of strain Y-11 through releasing Cu2+. As the content of CuO-NPs increased from 0 to 20 mg/L, the removal efficiency of NO3− and NH4+ decreased from 42.29% and 29.83% to 2.05% and 2.33%, respectively. Exogenous Fe2+ significantly promoted the aggregation of CuO-NPs, reduced the possibility of contact with bacteria, and slowed down the damage of CuO-NPs to strain Y-11. When 0.01 mol/L Fe2+ was added to 0, 1, 5, 10 and 20 mg/L CuO-NPs treatment, the removal efficiencies of NO3- were 69.77%, 88.93%, 80.51%, 36.17% and 2.47%, respectively; the removal efficiencies of NH4+ were 55.95%, 96.71%, 38.11%, 20.71% and 7.43%, respectively. This study provides a method for mitigating the toxicity of CuO-NPs on functional microorganisms

Long-term effects of different hypoglycemic drugs on carotid intima-media thickness progression: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

ObjectiveThe progression of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) can partially predict the occurrence of future cardiovascular events. This network meta-analysis compared the effects of 14 antidiabetic drugs (acarbose, alogliptin, exenatide, glibenclamide, glimepiride, ipragliflozin, metformin, nateglinide, pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, sitagliptin, tofoglifozin, troglitazone, voglibose) on the progression of cIMT.MethodPubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched to screen all clinical trials of treatment of cIMT with hypoglycemic agents before March 1, 2024. The differences in the changes in cIMT between the treatment group and control group were evaluated.ResultAfter screening 8395 citations, 25 studies (6675 patients) were included. The results indicated that exenatide had the best efficacy in slowing down cIMT progress, and exenatide [MD=-0.13,95%CI (-0.25, -0.01)], alogliptin [MD=-0.08,95%CI (-0.13, -0.02)] and metformin [MD=-0.05, 95%CI (-0.09, -0.02)] are more effective than placebo.ConclusionLong-term treatment of exenatide, alogliptin, and metformin may be more effective than other hypoglycemic drugs in slowing the progression of cIMT.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier CRD42024519474

Efficacy of physical exercise on the physical ability, cardiac function and cardiopulmonary fitness of patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectiveIt is advised that patients engage in physical activity to enhance their quality of life and achieve better results. The purpose of the current study was to measure the efficacy of exercise on the physical ability, cardiac function and cardiopulmonary fitness of patients with AF.MethodA comprehensive systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science from 1991 to 2023 for RCTs comparing physical exercise combined with AF routine treatments to routine treatments alone. The meta-analysis was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Our main outcomes were physical ability (measured by the 6-min walk test, 6MWT), cardiac function (measured by left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEF) and cardiopulmonary fitness (measured by peak oxygen uptake and resting heart rate). Quality assessments were conducted using the Cochrane Collaboration tool.ResultsThirteen trials involving 672 patients met the criteria for analysis. The results showed that physical exercise increased physical ability by improving the 6MWT (m) performance (MD = 96.99, 95% CI: 25.55–168.43; Z = 2.66; p = 0.008); and enhanced peak VO2 (ml/kg per min) (MD = 4.85, 95% CI: 1.55–8.14; Z = 2.89; p = 0.004) while reducing resting heart rate (beats per minute, bpm) (MD = −6.14, 95% CI: −11.30 to −0.98; Z = 2.33; p = 0.02). However, the results showed that regular exercise could improve LVEF (%) inpatients clinically, which had no statistic difference between experimental and control group (MD = 1.49, 95% CI: −0.25–3.24; Z = 1.68; p = 0.09).ConclusionOur meta-analysis shows that physical exercise is an effective intervention to improve the exercise ability and cardiopulmonary fitness for AF patients. Meanwhile, we also do not exclude the positive effect of exercise on the improvement of cardiac function (LVEF) in patients with AF. To this end, doctors should consider the positive impact of exercise on patients and give advice on exercise limits in practical clinical practice