Context relevance assessment and exploitation in mobile recommender systems

In order to generate relevant recommendations, a context-aware recommender system (CARS) not only makes use of user preferences, but also exploits information about the specific contextual situation in which the recommended item will be consumed. For instance, when recommending a holiday destination, a CARS could take into account whether the trip will happen in summer or winter. It is unclear, however, which contextual factors are important and to which degree they influence user ratings. A large amount of data and complex context-aware predictive models must be exploited to understand these relationships. In this paper, we take a new approach for assessing and modeling the relationship between contextual factors and item ratings. Rather than using the traditional approach to data collection, where recommendations are rated with respect to real situations as participants go about their lives as normal, we simulate contextual situations to more easily capture data regarding how the context influences user ratings. To this end, we have designed a methodology whereby users are asked to judge whether a contextual factor (e.g., season) influences the rating given a certain contextual condition (e.g., season is summer). Based on the analyses of these data, we built a context-aware mobile recommender system that utilizes the contextual factors shown to be important. In a subsequent user evaluation, this system was preferred to a similar variant that did not exploit contextual information.     

IISPH‐FLIP for incompressible fluids

We propose to use Implicit Incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (IISPH) for pressure projection and boundary handling in Fluid‐Implicit‐Particle (FLIP) solvers for the simulation of incompressible fluids. This novel combination addresses two issues of existing SPH and FLIP solvers, namely mass preservation in FLIP and efficiency and memory consumption in SPH. First, the SPH component enables the simulation of incompressible fluids with perfect mass preservation. Second, the FLIP component efficiently enriches the SPH component with detail that is comparable to a standard SPH simulation with the same number of particles, while improving the performance by a factor of 7 and significantly reducing the memory consumption. We demonstrate that the proposed IISPH‐FLIP solver can simulate incompressible fluids with a quantifiable, imperceptible density deviation below 0.1%. We show large‐scale scenarios with up to 160 million particles that have been processed on a single desktop PC using only 15GB of memory. One‐ and two‐way coupled solids are illustrated.     

Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker

This paper re‐examines the concept of “meme” in the context of digital culture. Defined as cultural units that spread from person to person, memes were debated long before the digital era. Yet the Internet turned the spread of memes into a highly visible practice, and the term has become an integral part of the netizen vernacular. After evaluating the promises and pitfalls of memes for understanding digital culture, I address the problem of defining memes by charting a communication‐oriented typology of 3 memetic dimensions: content, form, and stance. To illustrate the utility of the typology, I apply it to analyze the video meme “Leave Britney Alone.” Finally, I chart possible paths for further meme‐oriented analysis of digital content.     

The indent reflow sealing (IRS) technique-a method for thefabrication of sealed cavities for MEMS devices

A variety of microelectromechanical system devices requires encapsulation of their crucial fragile parts in a hermetically sealed cavity for reasons of protection. Hermeticity of the cavity and controllability of the ambient (gas pressure and gas composition) can be critical to the device performance. In order to minimize damage during handling, the cavity is preferably realized at the same time the device is fabricated, i.e., at wafer level. This paper reports the development of a hermetic packaging technique satisfying all the above. The method is referred to as the indent-reflow-sealing (IRS) technique, which relies on a multiple-chip fluxless solder-based joining technique and seal. Key process steps are the creation of an indent in the solder, the plasma pretreatment of the bonding surfaces, the pre-bonding (or sticking) of the chips and, the closing of the indent during a low-temperature (220°C-350°C) solder reflow in a clean controlled ambient using a designated oven. As opposed to other methods, the IRS method allows a greater flexibility with respect to the choice of the sealing gas and pressure, thereby offering a very hermetic seal and compatibility with low-cost high-throughput batch fabrication techniques. Flip-chip assemblies based on SnPb (67/37) solder and Au as the top surface metallization, have been reflowed in a forming gas ambient and have next been characterized on shear strength, hermeticity, and susceptibility to thermal stresses. The method has been successfully implemented in the process flow of an electromagnetic microrelay for the realization of the cavity housing the electrical contacts     

Porous concrete as a template for the synthesis of porous carbon materials

The potential of industrial porous concrete for using as a template for the synthesis of porous carbon materials has been investigated. Carbon replicas of porous concrete have been prepared by carbonization of sucrose. The pores of the resulting carbon materials range from the macropore to the micropore region, pointing to a hierarchy.     

Evasive Targets: Deciphering Polysemy in Mediated Humor

While polysemy has been discussed in communication studies for decades, a fundamental question has evaded systematic analysis: Which textual features make mediated texts open to multiple interpretations? Focusing on humor, we addressed this question by using a somewhat unusual point of departure–a failed intercoder reliability test. We analyzed 130 humorous forwards, of which 55 elicited disagreement between coders regarding the target of mockery and 75 were uncontroversial. Our comparative analysis yielded six textual attributes that augment polysemy in mediated humor: narrative‐valence discrepancies, unstereotypical stereotyping, debatable personality traits, self‐deprecating humor, intertextuality, and centrifugal multimodality. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed typology by analyzing public controversies stirred by humorous communication, and discuss its applicability to the study of audiences and nonhumorous genres.