Matchbox: Large Scale Bayesian Recommendations Matchbox: Large Scale Bayesian Recommendations David Stern, Ralf Herbrich, and Thore Graepel 2009 We present a probabilistic model for generating personalised recommendations of items to users of a web service. The Matchbox system makes use of content information in the form of user and item meta data in combination with collaborative filtering information from previous user behavior in order to predict the value of an item for a user. Users and items are represented by feature vectors which are mapped into a low-dimensional ‘trait space’ in which similarity is measured in terms of inner products.
Spider web's strength lies in more than its silk While researchers have long known of the incredible strength of spider silk, the robust nature of the tiny filaments cannot alone explain how webs survive multiple tears and winds that exceed hurricane strength. Now, a study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations shows that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how the overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses. Reporting in the cover story of the Feb. 2, 2012, issue of Nature, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Torino in Italy show how spider web-design localizes strain and damage, preserving the web as a whole. "Multiple research groups have investigated the complex, hierarchical structure of spider silk and its amazing strength, extensibility and toughness," says Markus Buehler, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT.
FlexPaper - Download FlexPaper Publish and convert documents to the web using your Mac or Windows PC. Supercharge your pdf documents by delivering a realistic page flipping experience or convert your content to HTML5 elements while at the same time giving you maximum browser coverage. Free/trial Turn your PDFs into online publications. Data Visualization, Design and Informat… Perl Perl 5.005 or greater and the following CPAN modules GD compiled with True Type font support Config::General DBI File::Basename Pod::Usage Math::Bezier, if you would like to use Bezier curves to draw your table links SQL::Translator, if you would like to parse SQL schema dumps Generic SQL database support
Machine learning for dummies - Next at Microsoft [image courtesy of Ariel Stallings] Say machine learning to most people and they’ll look at you suspiciously – even people in the tech industry have a degree of caution is it conjures up notions of machines taking over the world in some sort of Terminator/singularity way. I think it’s because people translate it in to “machines that learn” which as it turns out, is a perfectly good way to think about this topic. Rap music powers rhythmic action of medical sensor The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body. Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis. The heart of the sensor is a vibrating cantilever, a thin beam attached at one end like a miniature diving board. Music within a certain range of frequencies, from 200-500 hertz, causes the cantilever to vibrate, generating electricity and storing a charge in a capacitor, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering. "The music reaches the correct frequency only at certain times, for example, when there is a strong bass component," he said.
50 Great Examples of Data Visualization… Wrapping your brain around data online can be challenging, especially when dealing with huge volumes of information. And trying to find related content can also be difficult, depending on what data you’re looking for. But data visualizations can make all of that much easier, allowing you to see the concepts that you’re learning about in a more interesting, and often more useful manner.
A Programming Language for DNA Computing Recently, a range of information-processing circuits have been implemented in DNA by using strand displacement as their main computational mechanism. Examples include digital logic circuits and catalytic signal amplification circuits that function as efficient molecular detectors. As new paradigms for DNA computation emerge, the development of corresponding languages and tools for these paradigms will help to facilitate the design of DNA circuits and their compilation to nucleotide sequences. We present a programming language for designing and simulating DNA circuits in which strand displacement is the main computational mechanism. The language includes basic elements of sequence domains, toeholds and branch migration, and assumes that strands do not possess any secondary structure.
Scientists create first free-standing 3-D cloak Researchers in the US have, for the first time, cloaked a three-dimensional object standing in free space, bringing the much-talked-about invisibility cloak one step closer to reality. Whilst previous studies have either been theoretical in nature or limited to the cloaking of two-dimensional objects, this study shows how ordinary objects can be cloaked in their natural environment in all directions and from all of an observer's positions. Published Jan. 26 in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, the researchers used a method known as "plasmonic cloaking" to hide an 18-centimetre cylindrical tube from microwaves.
Walrus - Gallery Visualization & Naviga… Walrus - Gallery: Visualization & Navigation These screenshots and animations are simply intended to give a feel for what visualization and navigation in Walrus are like. The data shown are not necessarily meaningful in themselves. Click on a thumbnail for the larger version. Skitter Monitors champagne (9,175 nodes and 15,519 links) Cooling semiconductors by laser light Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have combined two fields -- quantum physics and nano physics -- and this has led to the discovery of a new method for laser cooling semiconductor membranes. Semiconductors are vital components in solar cells, LEDs and many other electronics, and the efficient cooling of components is important for future quantum computers and ultrasensitive sensors. The new cooling method works quite paradoxically by heating the material!