Sentiment analysis on predicting presidential election: Twitter used case

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. Twitter is a popular tool for social interaction over the Internet. It allows users to share/post opinions, social media events, and interact with other political and ordinary people. According to Statista web site 2019 statistical report, it estimated that the number of users on Twitter had grown dramatically over the past couple of years to research 300 million users. Twitter has become the largest source of news and postings for key presidents and political figures. Referring to the Trackalytics 2019 report, the recent president of the USA had posted 4,000 tweets per year, which indicates an average of 11–12 tweets per day. Our research proposes a technique that extracts and analyzes tweets from blogs and predicts election results based on tweets analysis. It assessed the people’s opinion and studied the impact that might predict the final results for the Turkey 2018 presidential election candidates. The final results were compared with the actual election results and had a high accuracy prediction percentage based on the collected 22,000 tweets

\u3cem\u3eWomen Bound to Be Active\u3c/em\u3e (Year 3 & 4): Can a Book Club Help Women Overcome Barriers to Physical Activity and Improve Self-Worth?

Little progress has been made toward increasing physical activity (PA) in women. This study aimed to determine if an 8-month theory-based book club intervention (Women Bound to Be Active) was effective in increasing: (a) self-worth, (b) benefits relative to barriers to PA, and (c) PA in women (n=51). Findings suggested a book-club was effective for improving: self-worth, the benefits relative to barriers to PA, and possibly participation in PA. This is an innovative model to help women become more active and learn skills that may enable them to be active on their own long after a PA program has ended

The PennState/Toru\'n Center for Astronomy Search for Planets Around Evolved Stars. Basic parameters of a sample of evolved stars

The objective of the PSU/TCfA Search for Planets Around Evolved Stars is to study evolution of planetary systems in the stellar evolution timescale. For such an analysis precise physical parameters of the hosts of the planetary systems are essential. In this paper we present an attempt to obtain basic physical parameters for a sample of evolved stars observed within our survey with the High Resolution Spectrograph of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.Comment: 2 pages, to appear in "Extreme Solar Systems", 2007 ASP Conference Series, eds. Debra Fischer, Fred Rasio, Steve Thorsett and Alex Wolszcza

Women Bound To Be Active: A Pilot Study to Explore the Feasibility of an Intervention to Increase Physical Activity and Self-Worth in Women

Increasing physical activity (PA) has become a national health objective due to its associated health benefits, but low participation rates. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of an 8-month (September 2006 - April 2007) PA book club (Women Bound to Be Active-WBA) in increasing PA and self-worth (SW) among women. Fifty-six adult women participated in an 8-month intervention consisting of weekly meetings designed to improve PA knowledge, awareness, confidence, and SW. Results indicated a significant increase in PA and SW. The WBA program represents a creative theory-based approach to empowering women to be more active

Intervention leads to improvements in the nutrient profile of snacks served in afterschool programs: a group randomized controlled trial

Widely adopted nutrition policies for afterschool programs (ASPs) focus on serving a fruit/vegetable daily and eliminating sugar-sweetened foods/beverages. The impact of these policies on the nutrient profile of snacks served is unclear. Evaluate changes in macro/micronutrient content of snacks served in ASPs. A 1-year group randomized controlled trial was conducted in 20 ASPs serving over 1700 elementary-age children. Intervention ASPs received a multistep adaptive framework intervention. Direct observation of snack served was collected and nutrient information determined using the USDA Nutrient Database, standardized to nutrients/100 kcal. By post-assessment, intervention ASPs reduced total kcal/snack served by 66 kcal (95CI -114 to -19 kcal) compared to control ASPs. Total fiber (+1.7 g/100 kcal), protein (+1.4 g/100 kcal), polyunsaturated fat (+1.2 g/100 kcal), phosphorous (+49.0 mg/100 kcal), potassium (+201.8 mg/100 kcal), and vitamin K (+21.5 μg/100 kcal) increased in intervention ASPs, while added sugars decreased (-5.0 g/100 kcal). Nutrition policies can lead to modest daily caloric reductions and improve select macro/micronutrients in snacks served. Long-term, these nutritional changes may contribute to healthy dietary habits

Habitat Persistence Underlies Intraspecific Variation in the Dispersal Strategies of Planthoppers

Dispersal is considered a vital life history characteristic for insects exploiting temporary habitats, and life history theorists have often hypothesized an inverse relationship between dispersal capability and habitat persistence. Most often, this hypothesis has been tested using interspecific comparisons of dispersal capability and qualitative estimates of habitat persistence. Consequently, most assessments have failed to control for possible phylogenetic nonindependence and they also lack quantitative rigor. We capitalized on existing intraspecific variation on the dispersal capability of Prokelisia planthoppers to examine the relationship between habitat persistence and dispersal, thereby minimizing possible phylogenetic effects. Two congeneric species (Prokelisia marginata and P. dolus) occur in the intertidal marshes of North America, where they feed exclusively on cordgrasses (Spartina). Because these planthoppers exhibit wing dimorphism, flight-capable adults (macropters with fully developed wings). Thus, dispersal capability can be readily estimated by the percentage of macropters in a population. At a regional spatial scale, we found a highly significant negative relationship between dispersal capability (present macroptery) and habitat persistence. In this system, habitat persistence is influenced by a combination of marsh elevation, winter severity, and tidal range, which interact to determine the ability of planthoppers to endure through winter in their primary habitat for development. P. marginata develops primarily in low-marsh habitats during summer, habitats that can be subjected to pronounced winter disturbance due to ice scouring and/or extensive tidal inundation. Levels of winter disturbance of the low marsh are extreme along the Atlantic coast, intermediate along the Pacific, and low along the Gulf. Both the failure of P. marginata populations to remain through winter in the habitat, and the dispersal ability of these populations (92%, 29%, and 17% macroptery, respectively), are correlated with levels of disturbance. Thus, in regions where winter disturbance is high, levels of dispersal are correspondingly high to allow for recolonization of extirpated habitats from overwintering sites on the high marsh. Unlike P. marginata, P. dolus develops primarily in high-marsh habitats, which are much less disturbed on all coasts during winter. Consequently, this species remains year-round in its primary habitat for development, and most populations exhibit relatively low levels of macroptery (\u3c10%). When raised under common garden conditions, many more macropters of both species were produced from Atlantic compared to Gulf populations. Thus the proportion of macropters produced from the populations used in this experiment paralleled the incidence of macroptery measured in the field, providing evidence that the geographic variation in dispersal capability in both species has in part a genetic basis. The results of this study provide strong intraspecific evidence for an inverse relationship between the dispersal capability of insects and the persistence of their habitats

My Baby, My Move+: Feasibility of a Community Prenatal Wellbeing Intervention

Background Excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG), insufficient prenatal physical activity and sleep, and poor psychological wellbeing independently increase risks for adverse maternal and infant outcomes. A novel approach to mitigate these risks is utilizing peer support in a community-based prenatal intervention. This study assessed the feasibility (acceptability, demand, implementation, and practicality) of a remotely delivered prenatal physical activity intervention called My Baby, My Move + (MBMM +) that aims to increase prenatal physical activity, enhance mood and sleep hygiene, and reduce EGWG. Methods Participants were recruited through community organizations, local clinics, and social media platforms in the Fall of 2020 and Spring of 2021. Eligible pregnant women were randomized to either the MBMM + intervention or the control group. Each group met over Zoom for 16 sessions (twice weekly for 60 min over 8 weeks) to learn either behavioral change and wellbeing knowledge and skills (MBMM +) or knowledge and skills related to parenting (control group). Multiple methods of evaluation to better understand the feasibility of the intervention were conducted. Results A total of 49 women (25 MBMM + intervention, 24 control) completed both pre- and post-survey assessments and were included in the analyses. A subsample of 19 (39%) intervention participants completed a combination of semi-structured interviews/surveys to assess acceptability, demand, implementation, and practicality. Participants expressed positive feedback regarding acceptability (satisfaction and intent to continue use) and were extremely likely or likely to recommend the program to a friend (demand). Implementation metrics were assessed by observation and feedback forms completed by peer leaders and demonstrated high-quality control. Findings suggest that the intervention was practical due to remote sessions and cost-effectiveness. Conclusion The MBMM + intervention was deemed to be a feasible intervention with high acceptability, demand, implementation, and practicality. These findings can be used to inform the scalability of the intervention and implementation of a larger efficacy trial

The opposite of Dante's hell? The transfer of ideas for social housing at international congresses in the 1850s–1860s

With the advent of industrialization, the question of developing adequate housing for the emergent working classes became more pressing than before. Moreover, the problem of unhygienic houses in industrial cities did not stop at the borders of a particular nation-state; sometimes literally as pandemic diseases spread out 'transnationally'. It is not a coincidence that in the nineteenth century the number of international congresses on hygiene and social topics expanded substantially. However, the historiography about social policy in general and social housing in particular, has often focused on individual cases because of the different pace of industrial and urban development and is thus dominated by national perspectives. In this paper, I elaborate on transnational exchange processes and local adaptations and transformations. I focus on the transfer of the housing model of SOMCO in Mulhouse, (a French house building association) during social international congresses. I examine whether cross-national networking enabled and facilitated the implementation of ideas on the local scale. I will elaborate on the transmission and the local adaptation of the Mulhouse-model in Belgium. Convergences, divergences, and different factors that influenced the local transformations (personal choice, political situation, socioeconomic circumstances) will be taken into accoun

Statistical practices of educational researchers: An analysis of their ANOVA, MANOVA, and ANCOVA analyses

Articles published in several prominent educational journals were examined to investigate the use of data-analysis tools by researchers in four research paradigms: between-subjects univariate designs, between-subjects multivariate designs, repeated measures designs, and covariance designs. In addition to examining specific details pertaining to the research design (e.g., sample size, group size equality/inequality) and methods employed for data analysis, we also catalogued whether: (a) validity assumptions were examined, (b) effect size indices were reported, (c) sample sizes were selected based on power considerations, and (d) appropriate textbooks and/or articles were cited to communicate the nature of the analyses that were performed. Our analyses imply that researchers rarely verify that validity assumptions are satisfied and accordingly typically use analyses that are nonrobust to assumption violations. In addition, researchers rarely report effect size statistics, nor do they routinely perform power analyses to determine sample size requirements. We offer many recommendations to rectify these shortcomings.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Counci

Bottom-Up Forces Mediate Natural-Enemy Impact in a Phytophagous Insect Community

We employed a combination of factorial experiments in the field and laboratory to investigate the relative magnitude and degree of interaction of bottom-up factors (two levels each of host-plant nutrition and vegetation complexity) and top-down forces (two levels of wolf-spider predation) on the population growth of Prokelisia planthoppers (P. dolus and P. marginata), the dominant insect herbivores on Spartina cordgrass throughout the intertidal marshes of North America. Treatments were designed to mimic combinations of plant characteristics and predator densities that occur naturally across habitats in the field. There were complex interactive effects between plant resources and spider predation on the population growth of planthoppers. The degree that spiders suppressed planthoppers depended on both plant nutrition and vegetation complexity, an interaction that was demonstrated both in the field and laboratory. Laboratory results showed that spiders checked planthopper populations most effectively on poor-quality Spartina with an associated matrix of thatch, all characteristics of high-marsh meadow habitats. It was also this combination of plant resources in concert with spiders that promoted the smallest populations of planthoppers in our field experiment. Planthopper populations were most likely to escape the suppressing effects of predation on nutritious plants without thatch, a combination of factors associated with observed planthopper outbreaks in low-marsh habitats in the field. Thus, there is important spatial variation in the relative strength of forces with bottom-up factors dominating under low-marsh conditions and top-down forces increasing in strength at higher elevations on the marsh. Enhancing host-plant biomass and nutrition did not strengthen top-down effects on planthoppers, even though nitrogen-rich plants supported higher densities of wolf spiders and other invertebrate predators in the field. Rather, planthopper populations, particularly those of Prokelisia marginata, escaped predator restraint on high-quality plants, a result we attribute to its mobile life history, enhanced colonizing ability, and rapid growth rate. Thus, our results for Prokelisia planthoppers suggest that the life history strategy of a species is an important mediator of top-down and bottom-up impacts. In laboratory mesocosms, enhancing plant biomass and nutrition resulted in increased spider reproduction, a cascading effect associated with planthopper increases on high-quality plants. Although the adverse effects of spider predation on planthoppers cascaded down and fostered increased plant biomass in laboratory mesocosms, this result did not occur in the field where top-down effects attenuated. We attributed this outcome in part to the intraguild predation of other planthopper predators by wolf spiders. Overall, the general paradigm in this system is for bottom-up forces to dominate, and when predators do exert a significant suppressing effect on planthoppers, their impact is generally legislated by vegetation characteristics