115 research outputs found
Negative Effects of Incentivised Viral Campaigns for Activity in Social Networks
Viral campaigns are crucial methods for word-of-mouth marketing in social
communities. The goal of these campaigns is to encourage people for activity.
The problem of incentivised and non-incentivised campaigns is studied in the
paper. Based on the data collected within the real social networking site both
approaches were compared. The experimental results revealed that a highly
motivated campaign not necessarily provides better results due to overlapping
effect. Additional studies have shown that the behaviour of individual
community members in the campaign based on their service profile can be
predicted but the classification accuracy may be limited.Comment: In proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social
Computing and its Applications, SCA 201
From the Hands of an Early Adopter's Avatar to Virtual Junkyards: Analysis of Virtual Goods' Lifetime Survival
One of the major questions in the study of economics, logistics, and business
forecasting is the measurement and prediction of value creation, distribution,
and lifetime in the form of goods. In "real" economies, a perfect model for the
circulation of goods is impossible. However, virtual realities and economies
pose a new frontier for the broad study of economics, since every good and
transaction can be accurately tracked. Therefore, models that predict goods'
circulation can be tested and confirmed before their introduction to "real
life" and other scenarios. The present study is focused on the characteristics
of early-stage adopters for virtual goods, and how they predict the lifespan of
the goods. We employ machine learning and decision trees as the basis of our
prediction models. Results provide evidence that the prediction of the lifespan
of virtual objects is possible based just on data from early holders of those
objects. Overall, communication and social activity are the main drivers for
the effective propagation of virtual goods, and they are the most expected
characteristics of early adopters.Comment: 28 page
Effective Influence Spreading in Temporal Networks with Sequential Seeding
The spread of influence in networks is a topic of great importance in many
application areas. For instance, one would like to maximise the coverage,
limiting the budget for marketing campaign initialisation and use the potential
of social influence. To tackle this and similar challenges, more than a decade
ago, researchers started to investigate the influence maximisation problem. The
challenge is to find the best set of initially activated seed nodes in order to
maximise the influence spread in networks. In typical approach we will activate
all seeds in single stage, at the beginning of the process, while in this work
we introduce and evaluate a new approach for seeds activation in temporal
networks based on sequential seeding. Instead of activating all nodes at the
same time, this method distributes the activations of seeds, leading to higher
ranges of influence spread. The results of experiments performed using real and
randomised networks demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms single
stage seeding in 71% of cases by nearly 6% on average. Knowing that temporal
networks are an adequate choice for modelling dynamic processes, the results of
this work can be interpreted as encouraging to apply temporal sequential
seeding for real world cases, especially knowing that more sophisticated seed
selection strategies can be implemented by using the seed activation strategy
introduced in this work.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, reproductory code availabl
Evaluation of TRANSFoRm Mobile eHealth Solution for Remote Patient Monitoring during Clinical Trials
Today, in the digital age, the mobile devices are more and more used to aid
people in the struggle to improve or maintain their health. In this paper, the
mobile eHealth solution for remote patient monitoring during clinical trials is
presented, together with the outcomes of quantitative and qualitative
performance evaluation. The evaluation is a third step to improve the quality
of the application after earlier Good Clinical Practice certification and
validation with the participation of 10 patients and three general
practitioners. This time, the focus was on the usability which was evaluated by
the seventeen participants divided into three age groups (18-28, 29-50, and
50+). The results, from recorded sessions and the eye tracking, show that there
is no difference in performance between the first group and the second group,
while for the third group the performance was worse, however, it was still good
enough to complete task within reasonable time.Comment: 16 pages, 8 Figures, Results of EU FP7 TRANSFoRm projec
Model of Multilayer Knowledge Diffusion for Competence Development in an Organization
Growing role of intellectual capital within organizations is affecting new strategies related to knowledge management and competence development. Among different aspects related to this field, knowledge diffusion has become one of the interesting areas from both practitioner and researcher’s perspectives. Several models were proposed with main goal of simulating diffusion and explaining the nature of these processes. Existing models are focused on knowledge diffusion and they assume diffusion within a single layer using knowledge representation. From the organizational perspective connecting several types of knowledge and modelling changes of competence can bring additional value. In this paper we extended existing approaches by using multilayer diffusion model and focused on analysis of competence development process. The proposed model describes competence development process in a new way through horizontal and vertical knowledge diffusion in multilayer network. In the network, agents collaborate and interchange various kinds of knowledge through different layers and these mutual activities affect the competencies in a positive or negative way. Taking into consideration worker’s cognitive and social abilities and the previous level of competence the new competence level can be estimated. The model is developed to support competence management in different organizations
Resistant hypertension: Renal denervation or pharmacovigilance? Insights from a renal denervation screening program
BACKGROUND: With emerging new therapeutic concepts including renal denervation (RDN), there is a renewed interest in resistant hypertension (ResH). Among patients suspected of having ResH, a definitive diagnosis needs to be established.
OBJECTIVES: This study presents observations from a standardized single-center screening program for RDN candidates, including medical therapy modification and reassessment.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients referred to our center for RDN underwent a standardized screening protocol. Candidates were recruited from among patients receiving no less than 3 antihypertensive drugs, including diuretics with office blood pressure (BP) \u3e140/90 mm Hg. The assessment included 2 measurements of BP and ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). If needed, pharmacotherapy was intensified and the diagnosis of ResH was reconfirmed after 6 weeks. If ResH was persistent, patients were hospitalized with repeated ABPM on day 4. Further, renal CT-angio was performed and a multidisciplinary team discussed the patients\u27 suitability for RDN.
RESULTS: A total of 87 patients with a ResH diagnosis were referred for RDN. Mean office BP was 159/92 (±7.0/6.5) mm Hg and mean ABPM was 154/90 (±9.0/4.8) mm Hg. The initial medication included angiotensin convertase inhibitors (ACE-I, 78%), angiotensin receptor blockers (12%), β-blockers (85%), calcium channel blockers (36%), and diuretics (93%). During the 18 months of the RDN program, 5 patients underwent RDN and 2 further had ineligible renal anatomy. A new diagnosis of secondary hypertension was made in 21 patients. However, in 59 patients, BP control was achieved after optimization of medical therapy, with a mean ABPM of 124/74 mm Hg. The final treatment included ACE-I (100%), β-blockers (92%), indapamide (94%), amlodipine (72%), and spironolactone (61%). Medication in most of these patients (88%) included single-pill triple combination (52.5%) or double combination (35.6%).
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with elevated BP screened for RDN require a rigorous diagnostic workup. Up to 2/3 of patients can be managed with strict pharmacotherapy compliance and pharmaceutical intensification, including single-pill combinations and improved drug compliance. Hasty use of RDN may be a result of poor drug optimization and/or compliance. It does remain a viable treatment option in thoroughly vetted ResH patients
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