Recommending Podcasts for Cold-Start Users Based on Music Listening and Taste

Recommender systems are increasingly used to predict and serve content that aligns with user taste, yet the task of matching new users with relevant content remains a challenge. We consider podcasting to be an emerging medium with rapid growth in adoption, and discuss challenges that arise when applying traditional recommendation approaches to address the cold-start problem. Using music consumption behavior, we examine two main techniques in inferring Spotify users preferences over more than 200k podcasts. Our results show significant improvements in consumption of up to 50\% for both offline and online experiments. We provide extensive analysis on model performance and examine the degree to which music data as an input source introduces bias in recommendations.Comment: SIGIR 202

Systematics and molecular phyulgeny of the Dipodidae superfamily (Rodentia, Mammalia)

peer reviewe

A multi-approach survey as the most reliable tool to accurately assess biodiversity: the example of Thai murine rodents

International audienceWildlife surveys rely on an accurate taxonomic framework. Identification tools used to reach this goal are not equivalent and may depend on several objectives and constraints, including sampling conservation difficulties, the invasiveness of the sampling techniques, sampling capacity, the relevance of the results, materials needed, the cost and the user time required in the field and laboratory. This article presents and discusses the advantages and limits of each identification tool used in the Ceropath (Community ecology of rodents and their pathogens in South East Asia) program to reach a fast and relevant identification of the rodents sampled. It is concluded that there needs to be a combination of the results from different methods, including the most recent ones, to achieve an improvement in taxonomic identification

Semi-continuous co-digestion of solid cattle slaughterhouse wastes with other waste streams: Interactions within the mixtures and methanogenic community structure

The performance of the anaerobic co-digestion process is strongly related to the characteristics of the substrates utilized. In this work, the impact of mixture interactions, i.e., synergy and antagonism, previously observed in batch operation mode were evaluated under semi-continuous co-digestion of slaughterhouse waste (SB) and its different combinations with manure (M), various crops (VC), and municipal solid waste (MSW). The effects on the process performance and the microbial community structure were investigated. The digestion of SB failed at an OLR of 0.9 gVS L-1 d(-1). However, stable performance with higher loadings was observed for mixtures that displayed synergy obtained earlier in the batch mode (i.e., SB + M, SB + VC + MSW). Bacterial and Archaeal groups increased for the SB + M and SB + VC + MSW, compared with the digestion of SB alone and that for SB + VC. The combination that showed antagonistic effects (SB + VC) resulted in unstable operation and poor representation of methanogens. It was proved that synergetic or antagonistic effects observed in batch mode due to the different mixture compositions could be correlated to process performance, as well as the development of the microbial community structure during semi-continuous operation

Humans have impacted atmospheric C-exchange since the introduction of agriculture by changing the geomorphic cascade

Early human impact on the global C cycle through deforestation has been demonstrated and it is estimated that between 50 and 357 Pg C have been released from vegetation and soils to the atmosphere in the pre-Industrial era. However, the contribution of erosion and sediment storage on C exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere has not been accounted for, although long-term sediment budget studies show that large volumes of soil material have been mobilized since the introduction of agriculture. Furthermore, through human impact also the geomorphic setting itself has changed thus altering ecosystems such that the C exchange with the atmosphere changed as well. For the 780 km² Dijle River catchment in the western European loess belt, the impact of human induced soil erosion on C exchange with the atmosphere was quantified by combining a sediment budget with detailed inventories of C in soils and sediments. For the period 4000 BC to AD 2000 it was estimated that anthropogenic erosion induced a net C sink, offsetting 39% of the C emissions due to land cover change since the advent of agriculture. However, this sink is limited by a significant loss of buried C in colluvial settings lagging the burial: ca. half of the original C buried in the colluvial stores remains after 500 years. Contrary to colluvial settings, C burial in alluvial settings appears to be more conservative, which is most probably related to higher autochthonous production and preservation rates in wet floodplain soils. Data from the floodplain sediments also indicate that human induced high rates of minerogenic sedimentation since the Middle Ages were able to capture more C in the floodplain than the Mid-Holocene natural wetlands through peat formation. The result for the Dijle River catchment, with a long history of human impact, can be used to estimate the longer term impact of the major agricultural expansion of the 19th and 20th century worldwide on global C budgets

Multimodal optical analysis discriminates freshly extracted human sample of gliomas, metastases and meningiomas from their appropriate controls

International audienceDelineating tumor margins as accurately as possible is of primordial importance in surgical oncology: extent of resection is associated with survival but respect of healthy surrounding tissue is necessary for preserved quality of life. The real-time analysis of the endogeneous fluorescence signal of brain tissues is a promising tool for defining margins of brain tumors. The present study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of multimodal optical analysis to discriminate fresh samples of gliomas, metastases and meningiomas from their appropriate controls. Tumor samples were studied on an optical fibered endoscope using spectral and fluorescence lifetime analysis and then on a multimodal set-up for acquiring spectral, one and two-photon fluorescence images, second harmonic generation signals and two-photon fluorescence lifetime datasets. The obtained data allowed us to differentiate healthy samples from tumor samples. These results confirmed the possible clinical relevance of this real-time multimodal optical analysis. This technique can be easily applied to neurosurgical procedures for a better delineation of surgical margins

Combined Mitochondrial and Nuclear Markers Revealed a Deep Vicariant History for Leopoldamys neilli, a Cave-Dwelling Rodent of Thailand

Background: Historical biogeography and evolutionary processes of cave taxa have been widely studied in temperate regions. However, Southeast Asian cave ecosystems remain largely unexplored despite their high scientific interest. Here we studied the phylogeography of Leopoldamys neilli, a cave-dwelling murine rodent living in limestone karsts of Thailand, and compared the molecular signature of mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used a large sampling (n = 225) from 28 localities in Thailand and a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear markers with various evolutionary rates (two intronic regions and 12 microsatellites). The evolutionary history of L. neilli and the relative role of vicariance and dispersal were investigated using ancestral range reconstruction analysis and Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). Both mitochondrial and nuclear markers support a large-scale population structure of four main groups (west, centre, north and northeast) and a strong finer structure within each of these groups. A deep genealogical divergence among geographically close lineages is observed and denotes a high population fragmentation. Our findings suggest that the current phylogeographic pattern of this species results from the fragmentation of a widespread ancestral population and that vicariance has played a significant role in the evolutionary history of L. neilli. These deep vicariant events that occurred during Plio-Pleistocene are related to the formation of the Central Plain of Thailand. Consequently, the western, central, northern and northeastern groups of populations were historically isolated and should be considered as four distinct Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs). Conclusions/Significance: Our study confirms the benefit of using several independent genetic markers to obtain a comprehensive and reliable picture of L. neilli evolutionary history at different levels of resolution. The complex genetic structure of Leopoldamys neilli is supported by congruent mitochondrial and nuclear markers and has been influenced by the geological history of Thailand during Plio-Pleistocene

A new group of exo-acting family 28 glycoside hydrolases of Aspergillus niger that are involved in pectin degradation

The fungus Aspergillus niger is an industrial producer of pectin-degrading enzymes. The recent solving of the genomic sequence of A. niger allowed an inventory of the entire genome of the fungus for potential carbohydrate-degrading enzymes. By applying bioinformatics tools, 12 new genes, putatively encoding family 28 glycoside hydrolases, were identified. Seven of the newly discovered genes form a new gene group, which we show to encode exoacting pectinolytic glycoside hydrolases. This group includes four exo-polygalacturonan hydrolases (PGAX, PGXA, PGXB and PGXC) and three putative exo-rhamnogalacturonan hydrolases (RGXA, RGXB and RGXC). Biochemical identification using polygalacturonic acid and xylogalacturonan as substrates demonstrated that indeed PGXB and PGXC act as exo-polygalacturonases, whereas PGXA acts as an exo-xylogalacturonan hydrolase. The expression levels of all 21 genes were assessed by microarray analysis. The results from the present study demonstrate that exo-acting glycoside hydrolases play a prominent role in pectin degradation