Company2Vec -- German Company Embeddings based on Corporate Websites

With Company2Vec, the paper proposes a novel application in representation learning. The model analyzes business activities from unstructured company website data using Word2Vec and dimensionality reduction. Company2Vec maintains semantic language structures and thus creates efficient company embeddings in fine-granular industries. These semantic embeddings can be used for various applications in banking. Direct relations between companies and words allow semantic business analytics (e.g. top-n words for a company). Furthermore, industry prediction is presented as a supervised learning application and evaluation method. The vectorized structure of the embeddings allows measuring companies similarities with the cosine distance. Company2Vec hence offers a more fine-grained comparison of companies than the standard industry labels (NACE). This property is relevant for unsupervised learning tasks, such as clustering. An alternative industry segmentation is shown with k-means clustering on the company embeddings. Finally, this paper proposes three algorithms for (1) firm-centric, (2) industry-centric and (3) portfolio-centric peer-firm identification.Comment: Accepted for Publication in: International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (2023

Multimodal Document Analytics for Banking Process Automation

In response to growing FinTech competition and the need for improved operational efficiency, this research focuses on understanding the potential of advanced document analytics, particularly using multimodal models, in banking processes. We perform a comprehensive analysis of the diverse banking document landscape, highlighting the opportunities for efficiency gains through automation and advanced analytics techniques in the customer business. Building on the rapidly evolving field of natural language processing (NLP), we illustrate the potential of models such as LayoutXLM, a cross-lingual, multimodal, pre-trained model, for analyzing diverse documents in the banking sector. This model performs a text token classification on German company register extracts with an overall F1 score performance of around 80\%. Our empirical evidence confirms the critical role of layout information in improving model performance and further underscores the benefits of integrating image information. Interestingly, our study shows that over 75% F1 score can be achieved with only 30% of the training data, demonstrating the efficiency of LayoutXLM. Through addressing state-of-the-art document analysis frameworks, our study aims to enhance process efficiency and demonstrate the real-world applicability and benefits of multimodal models within banking.Comment: A Preprin

Uses and Attitudes of Old and Oldest Adults towards Self-Monitoring Health Systems

Oldest adults (80 years and over) are the fastest growing group in the total world population. This is putting pressure on national healthcare budgets, as the distribution of healthcare expenses is strongly age-dependent. One way of mitigating this burden may be to let older adults contribute to their own health directly by using self-management health systems (SMHS). SMHS might help older, including oldest, adults gain insight into their health status, and invite them to take action. However, while many studies report on user evaluations of older adults with one specific sensor system, fewer studies report on older adults’ uses and attitudes towards integrated SMHS. Moreover, most studies include participants with mean ages of 65 rather than 80. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study, consisting of a focus group interview and a user evaluation of an SMHS by 12 participants with a median age of 85 years. Three main findings were derived: Older adults (1) showed heterogeneity in computer skills, (2) found health technologies useful for others – not yet for themselves, and (3) perceived health technologies as a threat to social interaction. These findings suggest that health technologies are not ready for adoption by older adults yet, and further research on making them more accessible and desirable is required

Incorporation of Omega-3 Fatty Acids Into Human Skeletal Muscle Sarcolemmal and Mitochondrial Membranes Following 12 Weeks of Fish Oil Supplementation

Fish oil (FO) supplementation in humans results in the incorporation of omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C20:6) into skeletal muscle membranes. However, despite the importance of membrane composition in structure–function relationships, a paucity of information exists regarding how different muscle membranes/organelles respond to FO supplementation. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the effects 12 weeks of FO supplementation (3g EPA/2g DHA daily) on the phospholipid composition of sarcolemmal and mitochondrial fractions, as well as whole muscle responses, in healthy young males. FO supplementation increased the total phospholipid content in whole muscle (57%; p < 0.05) and the sarcolemma (38%; p = 0.05), but did not alter the content in mitochondria. The content of omega-3 FAs, EPA and DHA, were increased (+3-fold) in whole muscle, and mitochondrial membranes, and as a result the omega-6/omega-3 ratios were dramatically decreased (-3-fold), while conversely the unsaturation indexes were increased. Intriguingly, before supplementation the unsaturation index (UI) of sarcolemmal membranes was ∼3 times lower (p < 0.001) than either whole muscle or mitochondrial membranes. While supplementation also increased DHA within sarcolemmal membranes, EPA was not altered, and as a result the omega-6/omega-3 ratio and UI of these membranes were not altered. All together, these data revealed that mitochondrial and sarcolemmal membranes display unique phospholipid compositions and responses to FO supplementation

Future Design of Accessibility in Games : A Design Vocabulary

Games represent one of the most significant cultural artefacts of this century. They are a massive force in economies around the world and are enjoyed by millions of players worldwide. With their cultural significance firmly in place, it is important to ensure that all people can participate in and play games in order to feel included in our wider society. For people with disabilities, games in particular provide a cultural outlet where they can be included with everyone else, and enabled to do things on an even footing with their non-disabled peers. However, this only happens if we create the necessary design environments that provide inclusive opportunities to game alongside the rest of the player base. Guidelines have been successful in raising awareness of accessibility in games and still function well for evaluating finished games. However, they are not the generative design thinking tools that developers need. Further in being divided to address specific disabilities, they are not capturing the diversity of needs of players with disabilities and the personalised and idiosyncratic adaptations that they make in order to play. We therefore propose developing a vocabulary and language of game accessibility which is no longer about whether someone can perceive or operate an interactive technology, but instead as to whether they can have the experience they want to have. We propose the structure for such a vocabulary showing that it needs to distinguish between access to controls, enablement to meet the challenges of the game and the player experience itself. We show how the intermediate-level knowledge embodied in guidelines can be reformulated in this way to be more generative and so support designers to develop games that deliver accessible player experiences

Mechanisms for CO2 Leakage Prevention – A Global Dataset of Natural Analogues

AbstractNatural CO2 reservoirs have similar geological trapping mechanisms as required for CO2 storage sites and often have held CO2 for a geological period of time without any indication of leakage. Yet, migration of CO2 from reservoirs to the surface is also common. 49 natural CO2 reservoirs have been analysed to provide an overview of factors that are important for (1) retention of CO2 in the subsurface and (2) leakage of CO2 from the reservoir. Results indicate that overpressure of the overburden and the state of CO2 in the reservoir influence the likelihood of migration and hence the performance of reservoirs

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Atypical Aging in Wine: History, Description and Analysis

Atypical aging (ATA) is a flavor defect in white wines, particularly but not limited to aromatic whites, where wine loses its varietal flavors very rapidly and atypical, waxy, furniture varnish, and dish rag like aromas appear when the wine is only 6 months to just over a year old. ATA is different from normal wine aging in both rate and flavor characteristics. This thesis is comprised of three papers: the first being a discussion of the history of research on the topic; next, a report on the process of describing ATA as a sensory phenomenon (taste panel results); the third paper describes research done to find ATA?s causes and responsible compounds. Work done in Germany regarding ATA has focused primarily on ortho-aminoacetophenone (O-AP), a compound responsible for the ?foxy? note in American labrusca grapes. O-AP does not seem to be an important compound in New York wines with ATA, however. What is agreed upon is the oxidative nature of ATA and the need for antioxidants beyond SO2, such as ascorbic acid, to protect at-risk wines. During the 2001-2003 growing seasons, trials were conducted in a Riesling vineyard in the Finger Lakes region of New York State to study the effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization on ATA development. Wines made from this fruit were then analyzed sensorially and chemically to determine any differences these treatments may have had on wine quality, particularly in relation to the atypical aging defect. We found that wines made from irrigated fruit tended to have both more varietal flavor character and less of the waxy, ?dishrag? off-flavor than the wines made from the non-irrigated fruit. Nitrogen additions, or lack thereof, seemed to play a much smaller role in the sensory quality of the wines. Although attempts to chemically quantify this phenomenon have been inconclusive, results point toward effective management of water and nutrients in the vineyard being important steps in helping wines avoid ATA