Tensor reduction for user profiling in personalized recommender systems

User profiling is the process of constructing user models which represent personal characteristics and preferences of customers. User profiles play a central role in many recommender systems. Recommender systems recommend items to users based on user profiles, in which the items can be any objects which the users are interested in, such as documents, web pages, books, movies, etc. In recent years, multidimensional data are getting more and more attention for creating better recommender systems from both academia and industry. Additional metadata provides algorithms with more details for better understanding the interactions between users and items. However, most of the existing user/item profiling techniques for multidimensional data analyze data through splitting the multidimensional relations, which causes information loss of the multidimensionality. In this paper, we propose a user profiling approach using a tensor reduction algorithm, which we will show is based on a Tucker2 model. The proposed profiling approach incorporates latent interactions between all dimensions into user profiles, which significantly benefits the quality of neighborhood formation. We further propose to integrate the profiling approach into neighborhoodbased collaborative filtering recommender algorithms. Experimental results show significant improvements in terms of recommendation accuracy.

Woolies' new loyalty program offers a glimpse into the future

Woolworths is set to launch its new loyalty program, Woolworths Rewards, claiming that the new scheme will enable shoppers to redeem cash discounts off their shopping basket, much faster than ever before. It is estimated shoppers will acquire the necessary points to save $10 automatically of their grocery bill within seven weeks. Resembling the model used by UK retailer Morrisons, the new Woolworths Rewards program is a smart move for the retailer hoping to claw back some market share and curtail operational costs. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Offers to the tsedaka

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How cancer doctors use personalized medicine to target variations unique to each tumour

The Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney recently launched an ambitious program. From early next year, scientists will analyse the unique cancer cells of 12 children diagnosed with the most aggressive forms of the disease to find the best treatment for each child. By 2020, they aim to have these individualised treatment options available to all children diagnosed with cancers that have a less than 30% survival rate. This way of tailoring treatment to each person is known as personalised medicine, and advances in DNA sequencing have paved the way for a new era in cancer management.

devovo biosynthesis of heme offers a new chemotherapeutic target in the human malarial parasite

The human malarial parasite, Image , has been found to synthesize heme Image , despite the accumulation of large quantities of polymeric heme derived from the hemoglobin of the red cell host. The parasite δ-aminolevulinate dehydrase level is significantly lower than that of the host and its inhibition by succinylacetone leads to inhibition of parasite protein synthesis and viability.

Cancer gene signatures in risk stratification: use in personalized medicine

Cancer is a complex disease which arises due to a series of genetic changes related to cell division and growth control. Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in humans next to heart diseases. As a testimony to our progress in understanding the biology of cancer and developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment methods, the overall median survival time of all cancers has increased six fold one year to six years during the last four decades. However, while the median survival time has increased dramatically for some cancers like breast and colon, there has been only little change for other cancers like pancreas and brain. Further, not all patients having a single type of tumour respond to the standard treatment. The differential response is due to genetic heterogeneity which exists not only between tumours, which is called intertumour heterogeneity, but also within individual tumours, which is called intratumoural heterogeneity. Thus it becomes essential to personalize the cancer treatment based on a specific genetic change in a given tumour. It is also possible to stratify cancer patients into low- and high-risk groups based on expression changes or alterations in a group of genes gene signatures and choose a more suitable mode of therapy. It is now possible that each tumour can be analysed using various high-throughput methods like gene expression profiling and next-generation sequencing to identify its unique fingerprint based on which a personalized or tailor-made therapy can be developed. Here, we review the important progress made in the recent years towards personalizing cancer treatment with the use of gene signatures.

Uso de hipermídia adaptativa no desenvolvimento de cursos virtuais de computação gráfica

O Ensino à distância (EaD) procura utilizar propostas pedagógicas para desenvolver sistemas inclusivos de ensino e aprendizagem. Estas propostas tem colaborado no sucesso que a EaD tem alcançado no meio empresarial corporativo. Neste meio, a demanda por cursos de formação técnica tem sido tão alta, que as empresas envolvidas no design instrucional de EaD criaram a noção de cursos à distância expressos, ou seja, cursos cuja a concepção e elaboração devem atender as tradicionais necessidades de rapidez do mercado de trabalho. Esta dissertação procura soluções para um tipo de ensino à distância ainda pouco explorado. O cenário que procuramos equacionar é o do ensino de ferramentas (softwares) para desenho vetorial, onde a metodologia de ensino é parte do processo de ensino corporativo. No processo atual de ensino de ferramentas de computação gráfica, o aluno submete ao professor, normalmente pela internet, o seu trabalho para que uma avaliação seja feita. Nesta dissertação sugerimos que este processo seja modificado de duas formas. Primeiro, no design instrucional para esta situação, trabalhamos constantemente a questão de avaliação não só na sua forma tradicional (atribuição de graus e valores) mas também como aperfeiçoamento do processo de ensino. A hipermídia adaptativa entra nesta proposta como facilitador da relação alunoprofessor-conhecimento, permitindo individualização de um ensino voltado para as massas. Em segundo lugar, propomos que a avaliação das tarefas sejam automatizada. O aluno oferece as partes (objetos) da solução que são avaliadas individualmente através de algoritmos computacionais. Isto permite uma menor participação do professor, o que é compatível com a proposta de cursos expressos. Para que isto seja possível a tarefa proposta pelo professor é dividida em objetos componentes, sendo o aluno estimulado a criar cada objeto segundo o modelo padrão oferecido. A comparaçào de cada objeto criado pelo aluno com o padrão a ser alcançado pode ser feita por diversos algoritmos computacionais existentes ou criados especificamente pelo autor do curso. Neste trabalho apresentamos exemplos desta abordagem e um protótipo que demonstra a viabilidade da proposta.

A Plasmonic Gold Nanostar Theranostic Probe for In Vivo Tumor Imaging and Photothermal Therapy.

Nanomedicine has attracted increasing attention in recent years, because it offers great promise to provide personalized diagnostics and therapy with improved treatment efficacy and specificity. In this study, we developed a gold nanostar (GNS) probe for multi-modality theranostics including surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection, x-ray computed tomography (CT), two-photon luminescence (TPL) imaging, and photothermal therapy (PTT). We performed radiolabeling, as well as CT and optical imaging, to investigate the GNS probe's biodistribution and intratumoral uptake at both macroscopic and microscopic scales. We also characterized the performance of the GNS nanoprobe for in vitro photothermal heating and in vivo photothermal ablation of primary sarcomas in mice. The results showed that 30-nm GNS have higher tumor uptake, as well as deeper penetration into tumor interstitial space compared to 60-nm GNS. In addition, we found that a higher injection dose of GNS can increase the percentage of tumor uptake. We also demonstrated the GNS probe's superior photothermal conversion efficiency with a highly concentrated heating effect due to a tip-enhanced plasmonic effect. In vivo photothermal therapy with a near-infrared (NIR) laser under the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) led to ablation of aggressive tumors containing GNS, but had no effect in the absence of GNS. This multifunctional GNS probe has the potential to be used for in vivo biosensing, preoperative CT imaging, intraoperative detection with optical methods (SERS and TPL), as well as image-guided photothermal therapy.

Functional Variants in Notch Pathway Genes NCOR2, NCSTN, and MAML2 Predict Survival of Patients with Cutaneous Melanoma.

BACKGROUND: The Notch signaling pathway is constitutively activated in human cutaneous melanoma to promote growth and aggressive metastatic potential of primary melanoma cells. Therefore, genetic variants in Notch pathway genes may affect the prognosis of cutaneous melanoma patients. METHODS: We identified 6,256 SNPs in 48 Notch genes in 858 cutaneous melanoma patients included in a previously published cutaneous melanoma genome-wide association study dataset. Multivariate and stepwise Cox proportional hazards regression and false-positive report probability corrections were performed to evaluate associations between putative functional SNPs and cutaneous melanoma disease-specific survival. Receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed, and area under the curve was used to assess the classification performance of the model. RESULTS: Four putative functional SNPs of Notch pathway genes had independent and joint predictive roles in survival of cutaneous melanoma patients. The most significant variant was NCOR2 rs2342924 T>C (adjusted HR, 2.71; 95% confidence interval, 1.73-4.23; Ptrend = 9.62 × 10(-7)), followed by NCSTN rs1124379 G>A, NCOR2 rs10846684 G>A, and MAML2 rs7953425 G>A (Ptrend = 0.005, 0.005, and 0.013, respectively). The receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that area under the curve was significantly increased after adding the combined unfavorable genotype score to the model containing the known clinicopathologic factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that SNPs in Notch pathway genes may be predictors of cutaneous melanoma disease-specific survival. IMPACT: Our discovery offers a translational potential for using genetic variants in Notch pathway genes as a genotype score of biomarkers for developing an improved prognostic assessment and personalized management of cutaneous melanoma patients.

PCR from the CPR offers a historical perspective on marine population ecology.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey has collected plankton samples from regular tracks across the world's oceans for almost 70 y. Over 299,000 spatially extensive CPR samples are archived and stored in buffered formalin. This CPR archive offers huge potential to study changes in marine communities using molecular data from a period when marine pollution, exploitation and global anthropogenic impact were much less pronounced. However, to harness the amount of data available within the CPR archive fully, it is necessary to improve techniques of larval identification, to genus and species preferably, and to obtain genetic information for historical studies of population ecology. To increase the potential of the CPR database this paper describes the first extraction, amplification by the polymerase chain reaction and utilization of a DNA sequence (mitochondrial 16S rDNA) from a CPR sample, a formalin fixed larval sandeel.