What are People Talking about in #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate? Exploring and Categorizing Twitter Topics Emerging in Online Social Movements through the Latent Dirichlet Allocation Model

Minority groups have been using social media to organize social movements that create profound social impacts. Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Stop Asian Hate (SAH) are two successful social movements that have spread on Twitter that promote protests and activities against racism and increase the public's awareness of other social challenges that minority groups face. However, previous studies have mostly conducted qualitative analyses of tweets or interviews with users, which may not comprehensively and validly represent all tweets. Very few studies have explored the Twitter topics within BLM and SAH dialogs in a rigorous, quantified and data-centered approach. Therefore, in this research, we adopted a mixed-methods approach to comprehensively analyze BLM and SAH Twitter topics. We implemented (1) the latent Dirichlet allocation model to understand the top high-level words and topics and (2) open-coding analysis to identify specific themes across the tweets. We collected more than one million tweets with the #blacklivesmatter and #stopasianhate hashtags and compared their topics. Our findings revealed that the tweets discussed a variety of influential topics in depth, and social justice, social movements, and emotional sentiments were common topics in both movements, though with unique subtopics for each movement. Our study contributes to the topic analysis of social movements on social media platforms in particular and the literature on the interplay of AI, ethics, and society in general.Comment: Accepted at AAAI and ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, August 1 to 3, 2022, Oxford, United Kingdo

Development of FEB Configuration Test Board for ATLAS NSW Upgrade

The FEB(front end board) configuration test board is developed aiming at meeting the requirement of testing the new generation ASIC(application-specific integrated circuit) chips and its configuration system for ATLAS NSW(New Small Wheel) upgrade, In this paper, some functions are developed in terms of the configurations of the key chips on the FEB, VMM3 and TDS2 using GBT-SCA. Additionally, a flexible communication protocol is designed, verifying the whole data link. It provides technical reference for prototype FEB key chip configuration and data readout, as well as the final system configuration

Aspirin Use and Common Cancer Risk:A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies and Randomized Controlled Trials

BackgroundWhether aspirin use can decrease or increase cancer risk remains controversial. In this study, a meta-analysis of cohort studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted to evaluate the effect of aspirin use on common cancer risk.MethodMedline and Embase databases were searched to identify relevant studies. Meta-analyses of cohort studies and RCTs were performed to assess the effect of aspirin use on the risk of colorectal, gastric, breast, prostate and lung cancer. Cochran Q test and the I square metric were calculated to detect potential heterogeneity among studies. Subgroup meta-analyses according to exposure categories (frequency and duration) and timing of aspirin use (whether aspirin was used before and after cancer diagnosis) were also performed. A dose-response analysis was carried out to evaluate and quantify the association between aspirin dose and cancer risk.ResultsA total of 88 cohort studies and seven RCTs were included in the final analysis. Meta-analyses of cohort studies revealed that regular aspirin use reduced the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) (RR=0.85, 95%CI: 0.78-0.92), gastric cancer (RR=0.67, 95%CI: 0.52-0.87), breast cancer (RR=0.93, 95%CI: 0.87-0.99) and prostate cancer (RR=0.92, 95%CI: 0.86-0.98), but showed no association with lung cancer risk. Additionally, meta-analyses of RCTs showed that aspirin use had a protective effect on CRC risk (OR=0.74, 95%CI: 0.56-0.97). When combining evidence from meta-analyses of cohorts and RCTs, consistent evidence was found for the protective effect of aspirin use on CRC risk. Subgroup analysis showed that high frequency aspirin use was associated with increased lung cancer risk (RR=1.05, 95%CI: 1.01-1.09). Dose-response analysis revealed that high-dose aspirin use may increase prostate cancer risk.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence for low-dose aspirin use for the prevention of CRC, but not other common cancers. High frequency or high dose use of aspirin should be prescribed with caution because of their associations with increased lung and prostate cancer risk, respectively. Further studies are warranted to validate these findings and to find the minimum effective dose required for cancer prevention

Assessing and Enhancing Robustness of Deep Learning Models with Corruption Emulation in Digital Pathology

Deep learning in digital pathology brings intelligence and automation as substantial enhancements to pathological analysis, the gold standard of clinical diagnosis. However, multiple steps from tissue preparation to slide imaging introduce various image corruptions, making it difficult for deep neural network (DNN) models to achieve stable diagnostic results for clinical use. In order to assess and further enhance the robustness of the models, we analyze the physical causes of the full-stack corruptions throughout the pathological life-cycle and propose an Omni-Corruption Emulation (OmniCE) method to reproduce 21 types of corruptions quantified with 5-level severity. We then construct three OmniCE-corrupted benchmark datasets at both patch level and slide level and assess the robustness of popular DNNs in classification and segmentation tasks. Further, we explore to use the OmniCE-corrupted datasets as augmentation data for training and experiments to verify that the generalization ability of the models has been significantly enhanced

Healthy Lifestyle and Cancer Survival:A Multinational Cohort Study

Lifestyle factors after a cancer diagnosis could influence the survival of cancer 60 survivors. To examine the independent and joint associations of healthy lifestyle factors with mortality outcomes among cancer survivors, four prospective cohorts (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES], National Health Interview Survey [NHIS], UK Biobank [UKB] and Kailuan study) across three countries. A healthy lifestyle score (HLS) was defined based on five common lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol drinking, diet, physical activity and body mass index) that related to cancer survival. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for the associations of individual lifestyle factors and HLS with all-cause and cancer mortality among cancer survivors. During the follow-up period of 37,095 cancer survivors, 8927 all-cause mortality events were accrued in four cohorts and 4449 cancer death events were documented in the UK and US cohorts. Never smoking (adjusted HR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.69–0.86), light alcohol consumption (adjusted HR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.82–0.90), adequate physical activity (adjusted HR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.85–0.94), a healthy diet (adjusted HR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.61–0.78) and optimal BMI (adjusted HR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.85–0.93) were significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality. In the joint analyses of HLS, the HR of all-cause and cancer mortality for cancer survivors with a favorable HLS (4 and 5 healthy lifestyle factors) were 0.55 (95% CI 0.42–0.64) and 0.57 (95% CI 0.44–0.72), respectively. This multicohort study of cancer survivors from the United States, the United Kingdom and China found that greater adherence to a healthy lifestyle might be beneficial in improving cancer prognosis

Body composition parameters correlate with the endoscopic severity in Crohn’s disease patients treated with infliximab

BackgroundThe disease activity status and behavior of Crohn’s disease (CD) can reflect the severity of the disease, and changes in body composition are common in CD patients.AimsThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body composition parameters and disease severity in CD patients treated with infliximab (IFX).MethodsPatients with CD assessed with the simple endoscopic score (SES-CD) and were treated with IFX were retrospectively collected, and body composition parameters at the level of the 3rd lumbar vertebrae were calculated from computed tomography (CT) scans of the patients. The correlation of patients’ body composition parameters with disease activity status and disease behavior was analyzed, and the diagnostic value of the relevant parameters was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.ResultsA total of 106 patients were included in this study. There were significant differences in the subcutaneous adiposity index (SAI) (p = 0.010), the visceral adiposity index (VAI) (p < 0.001), the skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) (p < 0.001), and decreased skeletal muscle mass (p < 0.001) among patients with different activity status. After Spearman and multivariate regression analysis, SAI (p = 0.006 and p = 0.001), VAI (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001), and SMI (p < 0.001and p = 0.007) were identified as independent correlates of disease activity status (both disease activity and moderate-to-severe activity), with disease activity status independently positively correlated with SAI and SMI and independently negatively correlated with VAI. In determining the disease activity and moderate-to-severe activity status, SMI performed best relative to SAI and VAI, with areas under the ROC curve of 0.865 and 0.801, respectively. SAI (p = 0.015), SMI (p = 0.011) and decreased skeletal muscle mass (p = 0.027) were significantly different between different disease behavior groups (inflammatory disease behavior group, complex disease behavior group) but were not independent correlates (p > 0.05).ConclusionBody composition parameters of CD patients treated with IFX correlate with the endoscopic disease severity, and SMI can be used as a reliable indicator of disease activity status

An optimal allocation model based on the regional ecological water requirements and multi-water supply characteristics: A case study of Shandong Province, China

Study region: Shandong Province in China. Study focus: Multi-water supply can alleviate regional water scarcity. However, the regional water usage weakens ecological water requirements owing to cost management. And the simplified optimal allocation model usually considers regional external water purchase cost or departmental water consumption cost individually, while neglecting differences of multi-water sources in water quality, quantity, and overall costs, resulting in unreasonable utilization. The present work calculated both rigid and flexible water requirements based on different ecological objectives. Meanwhile, the improved model considering water quantity, cost, and quality was constructed, and in comparison to simplified model and actual allocation scheme. New hydrological insights for the region: Taking Shandong Province in 2020 as a case study, the rigid and flexible ecological water requirements are 1.35 and 1.74 times higher than the actual usage, respectively, reflecting the insufficient actual ecological water use. Compared to the simplified models that do not distinguish water source, the improved model can not only consider departmental water consumption costs, but also regional external water purchase costs, and result in a more reasonable water allocation. Compared to the actual water usage scheme, the present scheme reduces the water usage of the Yellow River and increases the water usage of Eastern Route, resulting in a more reasonable water allocation overall improved efficiency

Ecological and navigational impact of the construction and operation of the Qingyuan dam

Dam construction has important impact on the ecological environment and navigation conditions of a river. Therefore, evaluating the degree of impact of such engineering constructions and seeking the optimum management are vital. This study considered the example of the construction of the Qingyuan Dam on the Beijiang River (China). The flow condition was calculated using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model, and a habitat suitability model and navigation risk indicators were used to conduct quantitative assessment of the impact of different scenarios. The spawning ground habitat of Megalobrama terminalis was taken as an ecological measurement index. The gray correlation analysis method was used to quantify the influence of four flow indexes (i.e., water surface slope, backflow, flow velocity, and water depth) on navigation safety. The simulation results showed that construction of the Qingyuan Dam had serious negative impact on the ecological environment in the dry season, but that dry season navigation conditions have been improved greatly. Following construction of the dam, with increase in the Feilaixia Hydro-junction discharge, the ecological and navigable usable area both first increased and then decreased. With comprehensive consideration of the usable area and the spatial distributions of habitat suitability and navigation risk, when the Feilaixia Hydro-junction discharge is 3000 m3/s and the water level in front of the Qingyuan Dam is 10 m, the ecological and navigation benefits of the studied river reach were determined to be optimal. These research results could provide guidance for the management of the Feilaixia–Qingyuan river section, and help deliver optimum ecological and navigational benefits