D-FEND: A Diffusion-Based Fake News Detection Framework for News Articles Related to COVID-19

The social confusion caused by the recent pandemic of COVID-19 has been further facilitated by fake news diffused via social media on the Internet. For this reason, many studies have been proposed to detect fake news as early as possible. The content-based detection methods consider the difference between the contents of true and fake news articles. However, they suffer from the two serious limitations: (1) the publisher can manipulate the content of a news article easily, and (2) the content depends upon the language, with which the article is written. To overcome these limitations, the diffusion-based fake news detection methods have been proposed. The diffusion-based methods consider the difference among the diffusion patterns of true and fake news articles on social media. Despite its success, however, the lack of the diffusion information regarding to the COVID-19 related fake news prevents from studying the diffusion-based fake news detection methods. Therefore, for overcoming the limitation, we propose a diffusion-based fake news detection framework (D-FEND), which consists of four components: (C1) diffusion data collection, (C2) analysis of the data and feature extraction, (C3) model training, and (C4) inference. Our work contributes to the effort to mitigate the risk of infodemics during a pandemic by (1) building a new diffusion dataset, named CoAID+, (2) identifying and addressing the class imbalance problem of CoAID+, and (3) demonstrating that D-FEND successfully detects fake news articles with 88.89% model accuracy on average. © 2022 ACM.

Jumple: Interactive Contents for the Virtual Physical Education Classroom in the Pandemic Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all aspects of life, including children's education. As classrooms move to online space, physical education teachers face unique challenges in facilitating physical activity. As a solution, we proposed Jumple, a virtual physical education classroom that allows students to jump and play in a remote learning environment. Artificial intelligence (AI) pose estimation technology is used to detect the position of the body parts and provide real-time feedback. We developed five augmented reality games that provided new possibilities to connect teachers and students. © 2021 Owner/Author.

Reductions in NO2 concentrations in Seoul, South Korea detected from space and ground-based monitors prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Nitrogen oxides detected in urban regions are primarily emitted by transportation methods and are crucial precursors for air pollutants and climate forcers such as ozone and fine particulate matter. We investigate the trends of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) obtained from a satellite instrument and surface monitors over the megacity, Seoul, South Korea, from 2005 to 2019. Both satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument NO2 and surface in situ concentrations decreased by up to 30% between 2015 and 2019 while significant trends were not observed between 2005 and 2015. Further analysis shows the continual reduction of NO2 concentrations prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This study highlights the efficacy of South Korean pollution control policies targeting vehicular emissions. However, this study also found inconsistencies between trends observed in the official bottom-up emission inventory and data collected from space and surface sites. Further research will be urgently needed to understand the causes for the discrepancies.

Psychological distress among infectious disease physicians during the response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the republic of korea

Background: This study aimed to investigate psychological distress among infectious disease (ID) physicians during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in the Republic of Korea. Methods: Using an online-based survey link sent via text message and email, we conducted a survey from April 21 to 25, 2020, targeting all ID physicians currently working in ID (n = 265). The questionnaire was based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales, and information was collected on factors protecting against psychological distress and difficulties in relation to COVID-19. Results: Of 265 ID physicians, 115 (43.3%) responded, showing burnout (97, 90.4%), depression (20, 17.4%), anxiety (23, 20.0%), and stress (5, 4.3%). There were no differences in terms of distress between ID physicians who were directly involved in the care of patients with COVID-19 or not (Table 1). Greater than 50% of physicians valued their work and felt recognized by others, whereas < 10% indicated that sufficient human and financial support and private time had been provided during the outbreak. The most challenging issues concerned a lack of human resources for COVID-19 treatment or infection control, a shortage of personal protective equipment or airborne infection isolation rooms, pressure for research, and lack of guidelines for COVID-19 management (Figure 1). Conclusion: During the COVID-19 outbreak in the ROK, most respondents reported psychological distress. Preparing strategies for infectious disease outbreaks that support ID physicians is essential. (Figure Presented).

Clinical Presentation and Outcomes of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the Republic of Korea

Background: From May to July 2015, the Republic of Korea experienced the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outside the Arabian Peninsula. A total of 186 patients, including 36 deaths, had been diagnosed with MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection as of September 30th, 2015. Materials and Methods: We obtained information of patients who were confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was diagnosed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. Results: The median age of the patients was 55 years (range, 16 to 86). A total of 55.4% of the patients had one or more coexisting medical conditions. The most common symptom was fever (95.2%). At admission, leukopenia (42.6%), thrombocytopenia (46.6%), and elevation of aspartate aminotransferase (42.7%) were observed. Pneumonia was detected in 68.3% of patients at admission and developed in 80.8% during the disease course. Antiviral agents were used for 74.7% of patients. Mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and convalescent serum were employed for 24.5%, 7.1%, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. Older age, presence of coexisting medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, presence of dyspnea, hypotension, and leukocytosis at admission, and the use of mechanical ventilation were revealed to be independent predictors of death. Conclusion: The clinical features of MERS-CoV infection in the Republic of Korea were similar to those of previous outbreaks in the Middle East. However, the overall mortality rate (20.4%) was lower than that in previous reports. Enhanced surveillance and active management of patients during the outbreak may have resulted in improved outcomes. FAU - Choi, Won Suk