18 research outputs found
Large-Scale User Modeling with Recurrent Neural Networks for Music Discovery on Multiple Time Scales
The amount of content on online music streaming platforms is immense, and
most users only access a tiny fraction of this content. Recommender systems are
the application of choice to open up the collection to these users.
Collaborative filtering has the disadvantage that it relies on explicit
ratings, which are often unavailable, and generally disregards the temporal
nature of music consumption. On the other hand, item co-occurrence algorithms,
such as the recently introduced word2vec-based recommenders, are typically left
without an effective user representation. In this paper, we present a new
approach to model users through recurrent neural networks by sequentially
processing consumed items, represented by any type of embeddings and other
context features. This way we obtain semantically rich user representations,
which capture a user's musical taste over time. Our experimental analysis on
large-scale user data shows that our model can be used to predict future songs
a user will likely listen to, both in the short and long term.Comment: Author pre-print version, 20 pages, 6 figures, 4 table
Panethnic Differences in Blood Pressure in Europe: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
BACKGROUND:
People of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asians(SA) ethnic minorities living in Europe have higher risk of stroke than native Europeans(EU). Study objective is to provide an assessment of gender specific absolute differences in office systolic(SBP) and diastolic(DBP) blood pressure(BP) levels between SSA, SA, and EU.
METHODS AND FINDINGS:
We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies conducted in Europe that examined BP in non-selected adult SSA, SA and EU subjects. Medline, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from their inception through January 31st 2015, for relevant articles. Outcome measures were mean SBP and DBP differences between minorities and EU, using a random effects model and tested for heterogeneity. Twenty-one studies involving 9,070 SSA, 18,421 SA, and 130,380 EU were included. Compared with EU, SSA had higher values of both SBP (3.38 mmHg, 95% CI 1.28 to 5.48 mmHg; and 6.00 mmHg, 95% CI 2.22 to 9.78 in men and women respectively) and DBP (3.29 mmHg, 95% CI 1.80 to 4.78; 5.35 mmHg, 95% CI 3.04 to 7.66). SA had lower SBP than EU(-4.57 mmHg, 95% CI -6.20 to -2.93; -2.97 mmHg, 95% CI -5.45 to -0.49) but similar DBP values. Meta-analysis by subgroup showed that SA originating from countries where Islam is the main religion had lower SBP and DBP values than EU. In multivariate meta-regression analyses, SBP difference between minorities and EU populations, was influenced by panethnicity and diabetes prevalence.
CONCLUSIONS:
1) The higher BP in SSA is maintained over decades, suggesting limited efficacy of prevention strategies in such group in Europe;2) The lower BP in Muslim populations suggests that yet untapped lifestyle and behavioral habits may reveal advantages towards the development of hypertension;3) The additive effect of diabetes, emphasizes the need of new strategies for the control of hypertension in groups at high prevalence of diabetes
Pigeonpea nutrition and its improvement
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp.), known by several
vernacular and names such as red gram, tuar, Angola
pea. yellow dhal and oil dhal, is one of the major grain legume crops of
the tropics and sub-tropics. It is a crop of small holder dryland
fmmers because it can grow well under subsistence level of agriculture
and provides nutritive food, fodder, and fuel wood. It also improves soil
by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. India by far is the largest pigeonpea producer
it is consumed as decorticated split peas, popularly called as
'dhaL' In other countries, its consumption as whole dty and green
vegetable is popular. Its foliage is used as fodder and milling by-products
[onn an excellent feed for domestic animals. Pigeonpea seeds contain
about 20-22% protein and appreciable amounts of essential amino.acids
and minerals. DehuHing and boiling treatments of seeds get rid of the
most antinutritional factors as tannins and enzyme inhibitors. Seed
storage causes considerable losses in the quality of this legume. The seed
protein of pigeonpea has been successfully enhanced by breeding from
20-22% to 28-30%. Such lines also agronomically performed well and
have acceptable and color. The high-protein lines were found nutritionally superior to the cultivars because they would provide more
quantities of utilizable protein and sulfur-containing amino acids