Detecting Important Life Events on Twitter Using Frequent Semantic and Syntactic Subgraphs

Identifying global events from social media has been the focus of much research in recent years. However, the identification of personal life events poses new requirements and challenges that have received relatively little research attention. In this paper we explore a new approach for life event identification, where we expand social media posts into both semantic, and syntactic networks of content. Frequent graph patterns are mined from these networks and used as features to enrich life-event classifiers. Results show that our approach significantly outperforms the best performing baseline in accuracy (by 4.48% points) and F-measure (by 4.54% points) when used to identify five major life events identified from the psychology literature: Getting Married, Having Children, Death of a Parent, Starting School, and Falling in Love. In addition, our results show that, while semantic graphs are effective at discriminating the theme of the post (e.g. the topic of marriage), syntactic graphs help identify whether the post describes a personal event (e.g. someone getting married)

Identifying Important Life Events from Twitter Using Semantic and Syntactic Patterns

Identifying global events from social media has been the focus of much research in recent years. However, the identification of personal life events poses new requirements and challenges that have received relatively little research attention. In this paper we explore a new approach for life event identification, where we expand social media posts into both semantic, and syntactic networks of content. Frequent graph patterns are mined from these networks and used as features to enrich life-event classifiers. Results show that our approach significantly outperforms the best performing baseline in accuracy (by 4.48% points) and F-measure (by 4.54% points) when used to identify five major life events identified from the psychology literature: Getting Married, Having Children, Death of a Parent, Starting School, and Falling in Love. In addition, our results show that, while semantic graphs are effective at discriminating the theme of the post (e.g. the topic of marriage), syntactic graphs help identify whether the post describes a personal event (e.g. someone getting married)

Towards an\u2028 EU research and innovation policy agenda for nature-based solutions & re-naturing cities. Final report of the Horizon 2020 expert group on nature-based solutions and re-naturing cities.

1. Nature-based solutions harness the power and sophistication of nature to turn environmental, social and economic challenges into innovation opportunities. They can address a variety of societal challenges in sustainable ways, with the potential to contribute to green growth, 'future-proofing' society, fostering citizen well-being, providing business opportunities and positioning Europe as a leader in world markets. \u2028 2. Nature-based solutions are actions which are inspired by, supported by or copied from nature. They have tremendous potential to be energy and resource-efficient and resilient to change, but to be successful they must be adapted to local conditions. \u2028 3. Many nature-based solutions result in multiple co-benefits for health, the economy, society and the environment, and thus they can represent more efficient and cost-effective solutions than more traditional approaches. \u2028 4. An EU Research & Innovation (R&I) agenda on nature-based solutions will enable Europe to become a world leader both in R&I and in the growing market for nature-based solutions. For this, the evidence base for the effectiveness of nature-based solutions needs to be developed and then used to implement solutions. Both need to be done in conjunction with stakeholders. The potential for transferability and upscaling of solutions also requires further investigation. There is also a need to develop a systemic approach that combines technical, business, finance, governance, regulatory and social innovation. \u2028 5. Four principal goals have been identified that can be addressed by nature-based solutions: �� Enhancing sustainable urbanisation through nature-based solutions can stimulate economic growth as well as improving the environment, making cities more attractive, and enhancing human well-being. \u2028 �� Restoring degraded ecosystems using nature-based solutions can improve the resilience of ecosystems, enabling them to deliver vital ecosystem services and also to meet other societal challenges. \u2028 �� Developing climate change adaptation and mitigation using nature-based solutions can provide more resilient responses and enhance the storage of carbon. \u2028 �� Improving risk management and resilience using nature-based solutions can lead to greater benefits than conventional methods and offer synergies in reducing multiple risks. \u2028 6. Based on the four goals, seven nature-based solutions for R&I actions are recommended to be taken forward by the European Commission and Member States: �� Urban regeneration through nature-based solutions \u2028 �� Nature-based solutions for improving well-being in urban areas \u2028 �� Establishing nature-based solutions for coastal resilience \u2028 �� Multi-functional nature-based watershed management and ecosystem restoration \u2028 �� Nature-based solutions for increasing the sustainability of the use of matter and energy \u2028 �� Nature-based solutions for enhancing the insurance value of ecosystems \u2028 �� Increasing carbon sequestration through nature-based solutions \u2028This report was produced by the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on 'Nature-Based Solutions and Re- Naturing Cities', informed by the findings of an e-consultation and a stakeholder workshop. \u202

In Vitro Comparative Acaricidal Efficacy of Azadirachtin A and Amitrax on Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus Larvae

No Abstrac

Automatic Identification of Personal Life Events in Twitter

New social media has led to an explosion in personal digital data that encompasses both those expressions of self chosen by the individual as well as reflections of self provided by other, third parties. The resulting Digital Personhood (DP) data is complex and for many users it is too easy to become lost in the mire of digital data. This paper studies the automatic detection of personal life events in Twitter. Six relevant life events are considered from psychological research including: beginning school; first full time job; falling in love; marriage; having children and parent's death. We define a variety of features (user, content, semantic and interaction) to capture the characteristics of those life events and present the results of several classification methods to automatically identify these events in Twitter

Institutional abuse and societal silence : an emerging global problem

No abstract available.http://anp.sagepub.com/2015-01-31hb201

The role of clinical experience, diagnosis, and theoretical orientation in the treatment of posttraumatic and dissociative disorders : a vignette and survey investigation

Controversy exists regarding the merits of exposure-based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) versus a phased approach when prominent dissociative symptoms are present. The first aim of this study was to examine the degree to which diagnosing dissociation in two traumatized patients’ vignettes influenced clinicians’ preference for phase-oriented treatment and whether clinicians’ treatment experience contributed to their treatment preference. The second aim was to assess the extent to which participants had observed traumatized patients worsen when treated with exposure therapy or phase-oriented therapy and whether the theoretical orientation and treatment experience of the clinician were related to the observed deterioration. In the tradition of expert and practitioner surveys, 263 clinicians completed a survey of their diagnoses and treatment preferences for two vignettes and their treatment experience, theoretical orientation, and observations of patients’ deterioration. When a marked degree of dissociation was noted in the PTSD vignette, respondents favored phased approaches regardless of the diagnosis given. Reports of having observed patient deterioration during both exposure and phased therapy were predicted by years of experience. Psychodynamic therapists reported more observations of worsening during exposure therapy than cognitive behavior therapy therapists. Clinical experience treating PTSD may heighten awareness of negative therapeutic effects, potentially because experienced clinicians have a lower threshold for detecting such effects and because they are referred more challenging cases.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjtd202018-09-27Psychiatr

Water Arsenic Exposure and Children’s Intellectual Function in Araihazar, Bangladesh

Exposure to arsenic has long been known to have neurologic consequences in adults, but to date there are no well-controlled studies in children. We report results of a cross-sectional investigation of intellectual function in 201 children 10 years of age whose parents participate in our ongoing prospective cohort study examining health effects of As exposure in 12,000 residents of Araihazar, Bangladesh. Water As and manganese concentrations of tube wells at each child’s home were obtained by surveying all wells in the study region. Children and mothers came to our field clinic, where children received a medical examination in which weight, height, and head circumference were measured. Children’s intellectual function on tests drawn from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, version III, was assessed by summing weighted items across domains to create Verbal, Performance, and Full-Scale raw scores. Children provided urine specimens for measuring urinary As and creatinine and were asked to provide blood samples for measuring blood lead and hemoglobin concentrations. Exposure to As from drinking water was associated with reduced intellectual function after adjustment for sociodemographic covariates and water Mn. Water As was associated with reduced intellectual function, in a dose–response manner, such that children with water As levels > 50 μg/L achieved significantly lower Performance and Full-Scale scores than did children with water As levels < 5.5 μg/L. The association was generally stronger for well-water As than for urinary As

Water Arsenic Exposure and Intellectual Function in 6-Year-Old Children in Araihazar, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: We recently reported results of a cross-sectional investigation of intellectual function in 10-year-olds in Bangladesh, who had been exposed to arsenic from drinking water in their home wells. OBJECTIVES: We present results of a similar investigation of 301 randomly selected 6-year-olds whose parents participated in our ongoing prospective study of the health effects of As exposure in 12,000 residents of Araihazar, Bangladesh. METHODS: Water As and manganese concentrations of tube wells at each home were obtained by surveying all study region wells. Children and mothers were first visited at home, where the quality of home stimulation was measured, and then seen in our field clinic, where children received a medical examination wherein weight, height, and head circumference were assessed. We assessed children’s intellectual function using subtests drawn from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, version III, by summing weighted items across domains to create Verbal, Performance, Processing Speed, and Full-Scale raw scores. Children provided urine specimens for measuring urinary As and were asked to provide blood samples for blood lead measurements. RESULTS: Exposure to As from drinking water was associated with reduced intellectual function before and after adjusting for water Mn, for blood lead levels, and for sociodemographic features known to contribute to intellectual function. With covariate adjustment, water As remained significantly negatively associated with both Performance and Processing Speed raw scores; associations were less strong than in our previously studied 10-year-olds. CONCLUSION: This second cross-sectional study of As exposure expands our concerns about As neurotoxicity to a younger age group

Association between essential tremor and blood lead concentration

Lead is a ubiquitous toxicant that causes tremor and cerebellar damage. Essential tremor (ET) is a highly prevalent neurologic disease associated with cerebellar involvement. Although environmental toxicants may play a role in ET etiology and their identification is a critical step in disease prevention, these toxicants have received little attention. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that ET is associated with lead exposure. Therefore, blood lead (BPb) concentrations were measured and a lifetime occupational history was assessed in ET patients and in controls. We frequency matched 100 ET patients and 143 controls on age, sex, and ethnicity. BPb concentrations were analyzed using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. A lifetime occupational history was reviewed by an industrial hygienist. BPb concentrations were higher in ET patients than in controls (mean ± SD, 3.3 ± 2.4 and 2.6 ± 1.6 µg/dL, respectively; median, 2.7 and 2.3 µg/dL; p = 0.038). In a logistic regression model, BPb concentration was associated with diagnosis [control vs. ET patient, odds ratio (OR) per unit increase = 1.21; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05-1.39; p = 0.007]. BPb concentration was associated with diagnosis (OR per unit increase = 1.19; 95% CI, 1.03-1.37; p = 0.02) after adjusting for potential confounders. Prevalence of lifetime occupational lead exposure was similar in ET patients and controls. We report an association between BPb concentration and ET. Determining whether this association is due to increased exposure to lead or a difference in lead kinetics in ET patients requires further investigation