Collaborative Filtering via Group-Structured Dictionary Learning

Structured sparse coding and the related structured dictionary learning problems are novel research areas in machine learning. In this paper we present a new application of structured dictionary learning for collaborative filtering based recommender systems. Our extensive numerical experiments demonstrate that the presented technique outperforms its state-of-the-art competitors and has several advantages over approaches that do not put structured constraints on the dictionary elements.Comment: A compressed version of the paper has been accepted for publication at the 10th International Conference on Latent Variable Analysis and Source Separation (LVA/ICA 2012

Services within a busy period of an M/M/1 queue and Dyck paths

We analyze the service times of customers in a stable M/M/1 queue in equilibrium depending on their position in a busy period. We give the law of the service of a customer at the beginning, at the end, or in the middle of the busy period. It enables as a by-product to prove that the process of instants of beginning of services is not Poisson. We then proceed to a more precise analysis. We consider a family of polynomial generating series associated with Dyck paths of length 2n and we show that they provide the correlation function of the successive services in a busy period with (n+1) customers

The effective bandwidth problem revisited

The paper studies a single-server queueing system with autonomous service and $\ell$ priority classes. Arrival and departure processes are governed by marked point processes. There are $\ell$ buffers corresponding to priority classes, and upon arrival a unit of the $k$th priority class occupies a place in the $k$th buffer. Let $N^{(k)}$, $k=1,2,...,\ell$ denote the quota for the total $k$th buffer content. The values $N^{(k)}$ are assumed to be large, and queueing systems both with finite and infinite buffers are studied. In the case of a system with finite buffers, the values $N^{(k)}$ characterize buffer capacities. The paper discusses a circle of problems related to optimization of performance measures associated with overflowing the quota of buffer contents in particular buffers models. Our approach to this problem is new, and the presentation of our results is simple and clear for real applications.Comment: 29 pages, 11pt, Final version, that will be published as is in Stochastic Model

Extreme Environment Effects on Cognitive Functions: A Longitudinal Study in High Altitude in Antarctica.

This paper focuses on the impact of long-term Antarctic conditions on cognitive processes. Behavioral responses and event-related potentials were recorded during an auditory distraction task and an attention network paradigm. Participants were members of the over-wintering crew at Concordia Antarctic Research Station. Due to the reduced partial pressure of oxygen this environment caused moderate hypoxia. Beyond the hypoxia, the fluctuation of sunshine duration, isolation and confinement were the main stress factors of this environment. We compared 6 measurement periods completed during the campaign. Behavioral responses and N1/MMN (mismatch negativity), N1, N2, P3, RON (reorientation negativity) event-related potential components have been analyzed. Reaction time decreased in both tasks in response to repeated testing during the course of mission. The alerting effect increased, the inhibition effect decreased and the orienting effect did not change in the ANT task. Contrary to our expectations the N2, P3, RON components related to the attentional functions did not show any significant changes. Changes attributable to early stages of information processing were observed in the ANT task (N1 component) but not in the distraction task (N1/MMN). The reaction time decrements and the N1 amplitude reduction in ANT task could be attributed to sustained effect of practice. We conclude that the Antarctic conditions had no negative impacts on cognitive activity despite the presence of numerous stressors

Cosmic-ray induced background intercomparison with actively shielded HPGe detectors at underground locations

The main background above 3\,MeV for in-beam nuclear astrophysics studies with $\gamma$-ray detectors is caused by cosmic-ray induced secondaries. The two commonly used suppression methods, active and passive shielding, against this kind of background were formerly considered only as alternatives in nuclear astrophysics experiments. In this work the study of the effects of active shielding against cosmic-ray induced events at a medium deep location is performed. Background spectra were recorded with two actively shielded HPGe detectors. The experiment was located at 148\,m below the surface of the Earth in the Reiche Zeche mine in Freiberg, Germany. The results are compared to data with the same detectors at the Earth's surface, and at depths of 45\,m and 1400\,m, respectively.Comment: Minor errors corrected; final versio