False News On Social Media: A Data-Driven Survey

In the past few years, the research community has dedicated growing interest to the issue of false news circulating on social networks. The widespread attention on detecting and characterizing false news has been motivated by considerable backlashes of this threat against the real world. As a matter of fact, social media platforms exhibit peculiar characteristics, with respect to traditional news outlets, which have been particularly favorable to the proliferation of deceptive information. They also present unique challenges for all kind of potential interventions on the subject. As this issue becomes of global concern, it is also gaining more attention in academia. The aim of this survey is to offer a comprehensive study on the recent advances in terms of detection, characterization and mitigation of false news that propagate on social media, as well as the challenges and the open questions that await future research on the field. We use a data-driven approach, focusing on a classification of the features that are used in each study to characterize false information and on the datasets used for instructing classification methods. At the end of the survey, we highlight emerging approaches that look most promising for addressing false news

Journalists' views on media coverage of medical tests and overdiagnosis: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: Promotional media coverage of early detection tests is an important driver of overdiagnosis. Following research evidence that global media coverage presents the benefits of testing healthy people far more frequently than harms, and gives little coverage to overdiagnosis, we sought to examine journalists’ views on media reporting of tests, overdiagnosis, and strategies to improve critical reporting on tests. DESIGN: Qualitative study using semistructured telephone interviews. Interviews were conducted between February and March 2020 and were audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Framework thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Twenty-two journalists (mainly specialising in health reporting, average 14.5 years’ experience) based in Australia. RESULTS: This sample of journalists acknowledged the potential harms of medical tests but felt that knowledge of harms was low among journalists and the public at large. Most were aware of the term overdiagnosis, but commonly felt that it is challenging to both understand and communicate in light of strong beliefs in the benefits of early detection. Journalists felt that newsworthiness in the form of major public health impact was the key ingredient for stories about medical tests. The journalists acknowledged that factors, like the press release and ‘click bait culture’ in particular, can influence the framing of coverage about tests. Lack of knowledge and training, as well as time pressures, were perceived to be the main barriers to critical reporting on tests. Journalists felt that training and better access to information about potential harms would enable more critical reporting. CONCLUSIONS: Effectively communicating overdiagnosis is a challenge in light of common beliefs about the benefits of testing and the culture of current journalism practices. Providing journalists with training, support and better access to information about potential harms of tests could aid critical reporting of tests

NELA-GT-2018: A Large Multi-Labelled News Dataset for The Study of Misinformation in News Articles

In this paper, we present a dataset of 713k articles collected between 02/2018-11/2018. These articles are collected directly from 194 news and media outlets including mainstream, hyper-partisan, and conspiracy sources. We incorporate ground truth ratings of the sources from 8 different assessment sites covering multiple dimensions of veracity, including reliability, bias, transparency, adherence to journalistic standards, and consumer trust. The NELA-GT-2018 dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ULHLCB.Comment: Published at ICWSM 201

In the Service of Good Journalism and Audience Interests? How Audience Metrics Affect News Quality

A large and growing body of literature shows that audience metrics exert a significant influence in many newsrooms around the world. Scholars assume that this might affect the quality of news, but findings on how audience metrics influence news quality and media performance are scattered. Based on a widely used set of news quality criteria, this article is the first to focus on this question. It reviews and discusses the existing findings by considering the influence of audience metrics across four analytical dimensions: A) the allocation of resources and recognition; B) the volume, practices and rhythms of news production; C) the selection and placement of topics; and D) the formats and styles of news presentation. The analysis reveals that journalists’ use of audience metrics has a mainly negative impact on news quality. This effect is the result of both the growing economic pressures on newsrooms and a dominant rhetoric that equates measures of audience size with audience interests and good journalistic work

Adapting Behavioral Interventions for Social Media Delivery

Patients are increasingly using online social networks (ie, social media) to connect with other patients and health care professionals--a trend called peer-to-peer health care. Because online social networks provide a means for health care professionals to communicate with patients, and for patients to communicate with each other, an opportunity exists to use social media as a modality to deliver behavioral interventions. Social media-delivered behavioral interventions have the potential to reduce the expense of behavioral interventions by eliminating visits, as well as increase our access to patients by becoming embedded in their social media feeds. Trials of online social network-delivered behavioral interventions have shown promise, but much is unknown about intervention development and methodology. In this paper, we discuss the process by which investigators can translate behavioral interventions for social media delivery. We present a model that describes the steps and decision points in this process, including the necessary training and reporting requirements. We also discuss issues pertinent to social media-delivered interventions, including cost, scalability, and privacy. Finally, we identify areas of research that are needed to optimize this emerging behavioral intervention modality

DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS TO CHARACTERIZE PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTIONS

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are crucial to most biological processes and activities. Large-scale PPI screening has been applied to model organisms as well as to human cells. Two approaches have been used extensively in high-throughput PPI studies: (i) the Yeast Two-Hybrid (Y2H) assay (a bottom-up method), and (ii) the tandem affinity purification (TAP) (a top-down method). However, a close examination of both techniques revealed issues that limit their effectiveness. Thus, it is important to develop new methods that can bridge the gap between the Y2H and the TAP. In this thesis, two approaches were developed to meet this need. The first approach was a photoaffinity labeling tool, which was based on a photo-caged reactive intermediate para-quinone methide (pQM) to study protein-peptide associations. This system was developed and optimized by using the interaction between catPTP1Bm and the EGFR peptide as a test case. Highly specific protein labeling was achieved, and mass spectrometry (MS) was used to identify the crosslinked site on the target protein. Interestingly, two peptides from catPTP1Bm detected by MS were found close to the enzyme-substrate binding interface in the three-dimensional structure of the complex, which demonstrated this method might be useful for the analysis of protein complex conformation. The second approach, named "PCA plus", took advantage of a technique referred to as "Protein-fragment Complementation Assay (PCA)". A hydrolysis-deficient mutant β-lactamase (E166N) was used, which enabled interacting protein labeling in live cells. With this modification, the PCA plus method realized live cell imaging with subcellular resolution. Fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry analysis demonstrated its potential applications. In addition, a new β-lactamase substrate was developed for the PCA plus method and was applied to enable purification, from living cells, of prey protein interacting with a bait protein. The observed enrichment of interacting partners suggested the system could be used for high-throughput PPI screening. Moreover, this method could also be useful for the characterization of low affinity and transient PPIs because of its capacity on labeling interacting protein inside cells

Landings, vol. 29, no. 8

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine’s lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine\u27s coastal legacy. Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) started publication of Landings, a 24-page newsletter in January 2013 as the successor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Newsletter. As of 2022, the MLCA published over 6,500 copies of the monthly newsletter for distribution by mail to all of Maine’s commercial lobstermen, Maine state government agency staff, Maine Legislators, members of Maine\u27s U.S. Congressional delegation, subscribers, and marine businesses. For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website. Headlines in this issue include: Help Wanted: Labor Shortage Affects Marine Businesses Lobster Prices Strong as Shedder Season Ramps Up New state budget strengthens DMR staff, programs State Selects Offshore Site for First Commercial Floating Wind Farm Government Mills Signs Wind Legislation Banning Development in State Waters New Research Facility Expands Island Center’s Reach Maine Lobstermen’s Association Update Offshore Wind Updates – Research Array Whale Updates MLA Continues to Raise Concerns Over Offshore Wind Stonington Benches Honor Longtime Lobster Leader Overdose leading cause of preventable death among fishermen DMR Aquaculture Lease Application Status for August (as of 7/21/21) Keeping an Ear Out for Sharks Speeding Toward Extinction New Glider to Listen for Right Whales Jonesport Aquaculture Project Gets Final Permit Lobsters May Hear Through Their Hair Maine’s Lobster Boat Races Have Long Legac