Machine Learning and MADIT methodology for the fake news identification: the persuasion index

[EN] The phenomenon of fake news has grown concurrently with the rise of social networks that allow people to directly access news without the mediation of reliable sources. Recognizing news as fake is a difficult task for humans, and even tougher for a machine. This proposal aims to redesign the problem: from a check of truthfulness of news content, to the analysis of texts’ persuasion level. That is how information is introduced to the reader, assuming that fake news is aimed at persuading towards the reality of sense they intend to convey. M.A.D.I.T. methodology has been chosen. It is useful to describe how texts are built, overcoming the content/structure analysis level and stressing the study of Discursive Repertories: discursive modalities of reality of sense building, classified into real and fake news categories thanks to the Machine learning application. For the dataset building 7,387 news have been analysed. The results highlight different profiles of text building between the two groups: the different and typical discursive repertories allow to validate the methodological approach as a good predictor of the persuasion level of texts, not only of news, but also of information in domains such as the economic financial one (e.g. GameStop event).Orrù, L.; Moro, C.; Cuccarini, M.; Paita, M.; Dalla Riva, MS.; Bassi, D.; Da San Martino, G.... (2022). Machine Learning and MADIT methodology for the fake news identification: the persuasion index. En 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 165-172. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2022.2022.1508116517

Critical Competences for the Management of Post-Operative Course in Patients with Digestive Tract Cancer: The Contribution of MADIT Methodology for a Nine-Month Longitudinal Study

There is a high postoperative morbidity rate after cancer surgery, that impairs patients' self-management, job condition and economic strength. This paper describes the results of a peculiar psychological intervention on patients undergoing surgery for esophageal, gastric and colorectal cancer. The intervention aimed to enhance patients' competences in the management of postoperative daily life. A narrative approach (M.A.D.I.T.-Methodology for the Analysis of Computerised Text Data) was used to create a questionnaire, Health and Employment after Gastro-Intestinal Surgery-Dialogical Questionnaire, HEAGIS-DQ, that assesses four competences. It was administered to 48 participants. Results were used as guidance for specific intervention, structured on patients' competence profiles. The intervention lasted nine months after surgery and was structured in weekly to monthly therapeutic sessions. Quality of Life questionnaires were administered too. At the end of the intervention, 94% of patients maintained their job and only 10% of patients asked for financial support. The mean self-perception of health-related quality of life was 71.2. The distribution of three of four competences increased after nine months (p < 0.05). Despite economic difficulties due to lasting symptoms after surgery, and to the current pandemic scenario, a structured intervention with patients let them to resume their jobs and continue activities after surgery

Managing the Consequences of Oncological Major Surgery: A Short- and Medium-Term Skills Assessment Proposal for Patient and Caregiver through M.A.D.I.T. Methodology

The effects of cancer surgery and treatment harm patients' life and working ability: major causes of this can be intensified by the postoperative symptoms. This study, the first part of the HEAGIS project (Health and Employment after Gastrointestinal Surgery), proposes a method to assess patients and caregivers' competences in dealing with postoperative course and the related needs to improve the adequate competences. In this observational study, an ad hoc structured interview was conducted with 47 patients and 15 caregivers between the third and fifteenth postoperative day. Oesophageal (38%), esophagogastric junction (13%), gastric (30%), colon (8%) and rectum (11%) cancer patients were considered. Computerized textual data analysis methodology was used to identify levels of competences. Text analysis highlighted three different levels (low, medium and high) of four specific types of patients and caregivers' competences. In particular, the overall trend of the preview of future scenarios and use of resource competences was low. Less critical were situation evaluation and preview repercussion of own actions' competences. Caregivers' trends were similar. The Kruskal-Wallis test did not distinguish any differences in the level of competences related to the characteristics of the participants. Patients and caregivers are not accurate in planning the future after surgery, using personal beliefs rather than referring to physicians, and not recognizing adequate resources. The medium-low competences' trend leads to unexpected critical situations, and patients could not deal with them in a maximally effective way. Both patients and caregivers should be taken over by healthcare professionals to improve patients' competences and make the curative surgery effective in daily life

How to Intervene in the Health Management of the Oncological Patient and of Their Caregiver? A Narrative Review in the Psycho-Oncology Field

Starting from statistical data derived from the oncological field, some articles have highlighted the importance of communication in the patient–caregiver dyad and have considered the various roles involved in a cancer diagnosis situation. Thus, the question of how to intervene in terms of “quality of life” from the time of diagnosis to the recovery or death of a cancer patient, beyond the sanitary and physical dimensions, has become relevant. Therefore, the present narrative review aims to offer an overview of the state of the art in terms of the psychological treatment modalities of cancer patients, from the diagnosis to the post-surgery period. A total of 67 articles were collected and analyzed, in relation to (1) psychological constructs employed in the oncological field, (2) intervention models and (3) quality of life and well-being measurement and evaluation tools. We described these articles, differentiating between those focusing on the role of (1) the patient, (2) the caregiver, (3) the patient–caregiver dyad and (4) healthcare professional roles. The oncological diagnosis and its repercussions in the lives of the patient and caregiver were explored and critical aspects that emerged from the literature were highlighted. In conclusion, the analysis allowed some considerations about the need to define research protocols and useful management strategies for increasing the overall health of patients with cancer diagnoses and the people who surround them

Forward to a methodological proposal to support cancer patients: the dialogics’ contribution for the precision care

In scientific context, the first step for scientific theoretical and methodological production is the epistemological analysis. What are assumptions for interaction between oncology and psychology? What are the conditions for psycho-oncological contribution in treating cancer? Furthermore, what are epistemological observations about the current developments in cancer field? And what are implications for sciences treating patients with neoplasms? Due to advances in oncology and in sciences supporting oncology, epistemological questions focus on the object of study of the integration between oncology and psychology. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe a proposal of theoretical and methodological frame suitable for current clinical and research needs in cancer patients asking for psychological support. Epistemological analysis lets the health professionals and researchers observe there are sciences using formal languages and sciences using ordinary language. Currently, personalized approach is pursued by oncology, identifying specific patients’ characteristics to define the proper treatment process: not only tumor characteristics but also behavioral and psychological features. Cancer patients features can be found in patients’ narrations about neoplasms: narration represents the core of clinical and research in psychoncology. Therefore when formalized, language provides the connection between oncology and psychology. Language used by patients and all the roles involved in the care of cancer patients can become a measure of these patients’ features. Dialogics science measuring the ordinary language allows the ordinary language formalization, pursuing a personalized medicine

The interactive management of the Sars-Cov-2 virus: the social cohesion index, a methodological-operational proposal.

none5siThis contribution places itself within the emergency context of the COVID-19 spread. Until medical research identifies a cure acting at an organic level, it is necessary to manage in a scientific and methodologically well-founded way what the emergency generates among the members of the Community in interactive terms. This is in order to promote, among the members of the Community, the pursuit of the common aim of reducing the spread of infection, with a view to the Community Health as a whole. In addition, being at the level o interactions enables us to move towards a change of these interactions in response to the COVID-19 emergency, in order to manage what will happen in the future, in terms of changes in the interactive arrangements after the emergency itself. This becomes possible by shifting away from the use of deterministic-causal references to the use of the uncertainty of interaction as an epistemological foundation principle. Managing the interactive (and non-organic) fallout of the emergency in the Community is made possible by the formalization of the interactive modalities (the Discursive Repertories) offered by Dialogical Science. To place oneself within this scientific panorama allows to have interaction measurements: so, the interaction measurement indexes allow to offer the quantum of generative possibilities of realities built by the speeches of the Community members. Moreover, the Social Cohesion measurement index, in the area of Dialogical Science, makes available to public policies the shared measure of how, much and how the Community is moving towards the common purpose of reducing the contagion spread, rather than moving towards personal and not shared goals other than this one (for instance, having a walk in spite of the lockdown). In this index, the interaction between the Discursive Repertories and the "cohesion weight" associated with them offers a Cohesion output: the data allow to manage operationally what happens in the Community in a shared way and in anticipation, without leaving the interactions between its members to chance. In this way, they can be directed towards the common purpose through appropriate interventions relevant to the interactive set-up described in the data. The Cohesion measure makes it possible to operate effectively and efficiently, thanks to the possibility of monitoring the progress of the interventions implemented and evaluating their effectiveness. In addition, the use of predictive Machine Learning models, applied to interactive cohesion data, allows for immediate and efficient availability of the measure itself, optimizing time and resources.noneGian Piero Turchi; Marta Silvia Dalla Riva; Caterina Ciloni; Christian Moro; Luisa OrrùTurchi, GIAN PIERO; Silvia Dalla Riva, Marta; Ciloni, Caterina; Moro, Christian; Orrù, Luis

The Health of Healthcare Professionals in Italian Oncology: An Analysis of Narrations through the M.A.D.I.T. Methodology

From the analysis of the scientific literature relating to the health of oncological patients, the need to consider the global dimension of health of individuals emerges, which subsumes the bodily dimension and involves all the actors who offer their contribution to it in different ways. In this direction, the state of the art of the health construct offered by healthcare professionals highlights a lack of scientific contributions to the specific subject although these professionals are fundamental figures in oncological diagnosis setups. Considering, therefore, the healthcare roles as an integral part of the interactive framework where the oncological patient is placed, this paper offers the results of an Italian study relating to the health of healthcare professionals who take charge of patients with a neoplasia diagnosis. In particular, through an analysis of the discursive productions of 61 participants (healthcare workers, oncological patients and citizens) by the M.A.D.I.T. methodology (Methodology for the Analysis of Computerized Textual Data), this study aimed at observing the discursive reality of health offered by healthcare workers. The collected data highlight a low degree of health expressed by the healthcare professionals, who are strongly typified by rhetoric such as "the one who is destined to suffer psychologically". These narrations limit the possibilities of development of different narrations in depicting these professionals: critical repercussions in the interaction with the oncological patients emerged, as well as in their global health degree. In conclusion, the results show the need for deep investigation into the impact that the health degree of health professionals can have on the patients they take charge of

How could patients support surgeons? Analysis of patient's skills before and after oesophagogastric surgery and impact on quality of life

The role of hospital case volume and surgeon expertise in improving results after esophagectomy is well known. However, health-professionals expertise and hospital volume are not enough. Prehabilitation trials outlined that patient involvement is mandatory to improve adherence to therapeutic programs. This study aims to identify what are patient’s modalities of dealing with postoperative course, supporting surgical outcomes with a psychological intervention and to evaluate his effect in the medium-term postoperative period. Literature analysis was conducted to identify specific patient’s skills supporting the postoperative course. Sixteen peculiar dimensions were identified, considering four patients skills applied to clinical, daily activities, family and work areas. Patients textual data were collected by a sixteen-questions interview. Methodology for the Analysis of Computerized Text Data was used to identify discursive repertoires used by esophageal cancer patients. These textual data let construct a closed-ended questionnaire used to assess patient’s skills in the early postoperative course. A psychological intervention aimed at enhancing competencies was conducted. Skills were re-assessed and quality of life (QOL) data were collected 9-months after intervention. In this study 28 consecutive gastroesophageal cancer patients were enrolled within a larger group of patients undergone major surgery for gastrointestinal tumours. Low/medium/high levels were detected for each of the four skills. Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that three of the four skills levels increased after the supportive intervention. Analysis revealed no differences in relation to diagnosis, oncological treatment and demographic variables. Compared to other patients, skills levels showed no differences in gastroesophageal patients. Furthermore, quality of life at 9-months after esophagectomy was comparable to date reported in current literature in the medium-long term period after surgery for digestive tract cancer. In these preliminary data, even with poorer prognosis, gastroesophageal patients deal with major surgery side effects using the same skills levels used by other gastrointestinal cancer patients. Results show that skills evaluation during hospital stay can reveal the lacking modalities of dealing with the postoperative problems due to patients’ wrong beliefs about surgical results and physical recovery. When aimed at improving surgical outcomes and based on surgeon’s indications, even patients can support surgical outcomes

Observational study on the QUality of life of Italian Axial SpondyloARthritis patients (QUASAR): baseline data

To describe the baseline characteristics of the patients enrolled in the QUality of life in patients with Axial SpondyloARthritis (QUASAR) study in terms of quality of life (QoL), disease activity, therapy adherence, and work ability in a real-world setting

A multi-element psychosocial intervention for early psychosis (GET UP PIANO TRIAL) conducted in a catchment area of 10 million inhabitants: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial

Multi-element interventions for first-episode psychosis (FEP) are promising, but have mostly been conducted in non-epidemiologically representative samples, thereby raising the risk of underestimating the complexities involved in treating FEP in 'real-world' services