Fake News Detection Using Transformer and Ensemble Learning Models

On social media, misinformation can spread quickly, posing serious problems. Understanding the content and sensitive nature of fake news and misinformation is critical to prevent the damage caused by them. To this end, the characteristics of information must first be discerned. In this paper, we propose a transformer-based hybrid ensemble model to detect misinformation on the Internet. First, false and true news on Covid-19 were analyzed, and various text classification tasks were performed to understand their content. The results were utilized in the proposed hybrid ensemble learning model. Our analysis revealed promising results, establishing the capability of the proposed system to detect misinformation on social media. The final model exhibited an excellent F1 score (0.98) and accuracy (0.97). The AUC (Area Under The Curve) score was also high at 0.98, and the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) curve revealed that the true-positive rate of the data was close to one in this model. Thus, the proposed hybrid model was demonstrated to be successful in recognizing false information online. © 2022 IEEE.

Fake News Detection System: An implementation of BERT and Boosting Algorithm

On social media, false information can proliferate quickly and cause big issues. To minimize the harm caused by false information, it is essential to comprehend its sensitive nature and content. To achieve this, it is necessary to first identify the characteristics of information. To identify false information on the internet, we suggest an ensemble model based on transformers in this paper. First, various text classification tasks were carried out to understand the content of false and true news on Covid-19. The proposed hybrid ensemble learning model used the results. The results of our analysis were encouraging, demonstrating that the suggested system can identify false information on social media. All the classification tasks were validated and shows outstanding results. The final model showed excellent accuracy (0.99) and F1 score (0.99). The Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve showed that the true-positive rate of the data in this model was close to one, and the AUC (Area Under The Curve) score was also very high at 0.99. Thus, it was shown that the suggested model was effective at identifying false information online. © 2023, EasyChair. All rights reserved.

Time to surgery after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy does not negatively impact recurrence and survival outcomes in breast cancer patients

Background: The effect of time to surgery after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and outcomes in breast cancer patients remains poorly defined and unclear. Acceptable time to surgery has frequently been arbitrarily defined as between four to eight weeks. Various factors including resource limitation, scheduling conflicts, complications after chemotherapy, patient hesitation or interruptions from major events such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic can delay time to surgery, raising concern of an adverse impact on recurrence and survival outcomes. This study aims to ascertain if time to surgery after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy impacts disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Material(s) and Method(s): This single-institution retrospective study included patients who underwent neoadjuvant therapy and subsequent surgery from 2006 to 2017. Demographic, clinicopathological factors and surgical data from 250 patients were analysed. 105 patients received surgery within 28 days (group 1). 119 patients received surgery within 29 to 56 days (group 2), and 26 patients received surgery after 57 days or more (group 3). DFS and OS among the three groups were compared. Result(s): Age, race, pre-chemotherapy stage, tumour type, grade, hormone receptor status, Her2 status, focality, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), radiological response to chemotherapy, type of surgery, pathological response to chemotherapy, and receipt of adjuvant radiotherapy were not significantly different between the three groups. Receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy was statistically significant (p = 0.0248) with 39 patients (37.1%) in group 1, 32 patients (26.9%) in group 2 and 3 patients (11.5%) in group 3 receiving further chemotherapy after surgery. Mean follow-up duration was 44.5 months. DFS and OS between the three groups were not found to be significantly different (p = 0.5920 and p = 0.6133 respectively). Conclusion(s): Time to surgery after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not appear to affect recurrence or survival outcomes. This result was demonstrated despite fewer patients in the group with the longest duration to surgery receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. This may be due to the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in decreasing or eliminating micro-metastatic disease, an important factor in cancer recurrence and survival. Limitations of this study includes its retrospective nature and small sample size. Findings from this study may allow more flexibility and reduce the burden of scheduling patients for surgery within the usual four to eight week window in centres with resource and scheduling constraints. Further studies examining a larger population over a wide range of time durations could help clinicians better tailor time to surgery after neoadjuvant therapy. No conflict of interest. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Households' Socioeconomic Vulnerability Assessment Due to COVID- 19 Outbreak: A Web-Based Survey in Bangladesh

Aim: COVID-19, which can be considered a disastrous event, has created not only a public health emergency but also a major socio-economic crisis in Bangladesh. This study, therefore, aimed to assess households' socioeconomic vulnerability due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was performed among 404 households from different districts in Bangladesh. The socioeconomic vulnerability index (SeVI) was developed using data collected from participants via an online-based self-reported questionnaire that included demographic, social, economic, and physical characteristics as well as exposure to COVID-19. Results: The socioeconomic vulnerability index (SeVI) was calculated as an index score of 0.405 where social, economic, and COVID-19 exposure were reported to be the more impactful components of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure, respectively. Furthermore, the economic options for households were greatly limited by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implications: This study may help to identify the socioeconomic issues that resulted from the COVID-19 outbreak in the country and instruct the policymakers and corresponding authorities on which areas to emphasize for policy implementation so that households become socially and economically less susceptible to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as related infectious diseases and disastrous events in the upcoming years. Conclusion: This study found socioeconomic vulnerability among Bangladeshi households. The corresponding authorities should adopt policy initiatives to minimize the socioeconomic vulnerability due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

A Faculty Roundtable on Instructional Challenges during the Pandemic

This article highlights instructional experiences from various disciplines at SHSU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The serious global health threat has hit us hard, posing enormous challenges to the educators who had to switch to virtual and hybrid modes of instruction through major modifications of teaching methodologies, lab strategies, and even grading criteria. The authors of this paper participated in a series of roundtable discussions to share their course delivery experiences during the pandemic. We attempt to share our key findings, which may benefit other educators and help them adopt alternative instructional approaches in other institutions. Instructional challenges in a wide variety of courses such as Digital Electronics, Industrial Robotics, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Software Engineering, System Modeling, Epidemiology, Human Diseases, Environmental Health, and Intermediate Business Analysis were mitigated using alternative or modified approaches. Hands-on and in-person learning activities (e.g., laboratory experiments and data analysis) were substituted by innovative strategies such as online exercises via simulation, statistical software, enhanced use of audiovisual tools, and synchronous and asynchronous online instructions. Instructors also reported more frequent troubleshooting experience while using blended formats of instruction. Several other sociocultural barriers of effective teaching were also noted. While individuals with children struggled to cope up due to school and daycare closures, individuals living alone struggled with depression and anxiety due to limited in-person interactions amid widespread stay-at-home order. The struggle was exacerbated for students who were tested coronavirus positive or caregivers for immediate family members. The pandemic also had a major psychosocial impact on individuals in academia who lost their loved ones or became unemployed. In a nutshell, both students and instructors were not able to perform their academic responsibilities effectively and had to sacrifice learning goals to some extent. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Multilevel Resilience of Fishing Communities of Coastal Bangladesh Against Covid-19 Pandemic and 65-Day Fishing Ban

The unusual situation that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 65-day fishing ban (national policy to boost depleted fish stocks) affected the lower-income fishing communities in coastal Bangladesh. Shocks and stresses were posed, and community people adopted strategies to adapt to the changes. In the process of adaptation, social-ecological systems resilience at different levels plays a crucial role. Though resilience is acknowledged as multilevel feature, studies on the interaction between the levels while understanding communities’ responses to shock and stress are limited. Thus, in this study, we explored the shocks and stresses the fishing community faced and their views on the resilience feature at different levels (i.e., individual, household, and community level) in coastal Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic and 65-day fishing ban period. The study found that the most resilience promoting features (e.g., diversified livelihood, friendship, and network of supports) were adopted at the individual and household levels. However, positive and negative interactions were explored between resilience features at all levels. Low community-level resilience was not translated into a lack of household-level resilience, and strong individual-level resilience did not mean high household-level resilience. It was noted that the increased resilience of a particular individual or household could negatively affect community resilience. Resilience features showed inconsistent interactions within or among the three levels’ resilience features. The study also revealed that multilevel resilience features stressed the importance of combining persistence (i.e., keeping fishing as the main livelihood) and adaptation process (e.g., livelihood diversification). The study showcases the importance of considering multilevel resilience that offers insight into crucial resilience factors which would not be evident if only one level were studied. The overall finding of this study will contribute to framing governance strategies to ensure sustainable coastal management even in the time of any abrupt or expected changes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the fishing ban policy. © Copyright © 2021 Sultana, Irfanullah, Selim, Raihan, Bhowmik and Ahmed.

Climate Change and COVID-19: Crisis Within Crises for Eradication of Poverty in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in poverty reduction over the past years and is now battling against the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The combined impacts of COVID-19 and climate change have derailed the progress of poverty reduction by creating a pool of “new poor” that is making poor people poorer and leading extreme poor into destitute. Climate change, COVID-19 and poverty interact and are interlinked with each other to increase the vulnerability of the population creating a long-lasting socio-economic crisis, food insecurity, inequalities, gender-based violence and discriminations against poor, marginalized and vulnerable groups. In order to address the current and impending challenges in the progress towards poverty reduction, a comprehensive and holistic approach is needed to implement a pro-poor strategy addressing climate change resilience, green economic recovery and sustainable development that will promote climate adaptive agricultural diversification, infrastructural development for safeguarding the vulnerable households, health and social security, creating employment opportunities, labour-intensive and export-orientated manufacturing-related inclusive green growth, modern service sector and overseas employment for transformative adaptation, youth development and entrepreneurship. Therefore, this chapter explores the issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change vulnerability that contributes to poverty, affect the path for eradication of poverty and policy response undertaken by the country to address these crises. Graphical Abstract:. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Mental health impacts of COVID-19 outbreak and associated drivers among university students in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Mental health impacts due to COVID-19 outbreak are observable among university students. The aim of this research was to determine the mental health impacts of COVID-19 outbreak and associated drivers among university students in Bangladesh. METHODS: Across-sectional study was performed among 368 participants from Khulna University (Khulna-9208) in Bangladesh. Data were collected through an online self-reported questionnaire including demographic and selected characteristics of the participants, 7-item generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale to measure the prevalence of anxiety and 9-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale to measure the prevalence of depression. The ordered logit model was used to determine the associated drivers of anxiety and depression. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence rates of anxiety were 87%, among them 29.3%, 33.7%, and 23.9% had mild, moderate and severe, respectively. Accordingly, the estimated prevalence rates of depression were 81.5%, among them 25%, 23.9%, 20.1%, and 12.5% had mild, moderate, moderately severe and severe, respectively. The likelihood of anxiety and depression among participants has been mostly derived by residing urban area, not having stable family income, living with parents, having relatives or acquaintances infected with COVID-19, being worried about academic delays, and with the disruption of daily-life. CONCLUSIONS: University students are experienced a higher level of anxiety and depressive symptoms in Bangladesh. As the majority of students spend their time in social media during the quarantine, the implications of COVID-19 on mental health in this population can be reduced by means of online consultancy, campaigns and other awareness initiatives.

Psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric healthcare workers

INTRODUCTION: Frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are at risk of psychological distress. This study evaluates the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HCWs in a national paediatric referral centre. METHODS: This was a survey-based study that collected demographic, work environment and mental health data from paediatric HCWs in the emergency, intensive care and infectious disease units. Psychological impact was measured using the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors associated with psychological distress. RESULTS: The survey achieved a response rate of 93.9% (430 of 458). Of the 430 respondents, symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress were reported in 168 (39.1%), 205 (47.7%) and 106 (24.7%), respectively. Depression was reported in the mild (47, 10.9%), moderate (76, 17.7%), severe (23, 5.3%) and extremely severe (22, 5.1%) categories. Anxiety (205, 47.7%) and stress (106, 24.7%) were reported in the mild category only. Collectively, regression analysis identified female sex, a perceived lack of choice in work scope/environment, lack of protection from COVID-19, lack of access to physical activities and rest, the need to perform additional tasks, and the experience of stigma from the community as risk factors for poor psychological outcome. CONCLUSION: A high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was reported among frontline paediatric HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personal psychoneuroimmunity and organisational prevention measures can be implemented to lessen psychiatric symptoms. At the national level, involving mental health professionals to plan and coordinate psychological intervention for the country should be considered.

Impact of COVID-Pandemic on the Mental Health of Medical Students of Sindh Province, Pakistan

Introduction: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is group of viral disease associated with respiratory infection and it has similar symptoms of COVID-pandemic. The first case of SARS was reported in ancient remote areas of China in 2003 and spread throughout the world within short period of time. World Health Organization coordinated with numerous health experts around the globe in order to overcome the pandemic condition. Methodology: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted for the period of 06 months from June 2020 to December 2020 at different medical universities of Sindh province. Total 374 study samples were selected and data was collected from the medical students of numerous medical universities of Sindh province and well designated questionnaire was filled by participants through proper guidelines provided to them. Data was analyzed by using statistical software SPSS version 24.00. Results: Impact of Covid Pandemic on the mental health of medical students was evaluated by compiling the data from questionnaire filled by them. Frequency of males were 216(%) and females 158(%), mostly people were resident of rural areas with the frequencies of 226 (%) and only 148(%) belongs to urban areas. 114 participants belongs to MBBS degree, 49 belongs to BDS, 72 Nursing, 83 Pharmacy and 56 students belongs to Public Health department of numerous medical universities. Conclusion: It was concluded that there was bad impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of medical students of Universities from Sindh province. Level of anxiety among the students totally depends upon variables were online classis, examination, ward visits and Assignments. Academic activities along with financial matter had direct impact on the mental health of students.

Safety and Awareness of Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak;A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: COVID-19 has affected millions of people throughout the world and due to the high rate of its spread, it is very vital to protect the people who are at the frontlines of COVID-19 positive cases. In this study, we have analyzed the level of awareness among the Healthcare Workers (HCWs) and level of preparedness by the Healthcare Authorities (HCA) for the safety of HCWs. Study Design: Cross-sectional prospective study. Subjects and Methods: Study was conducted online, for 3 months, from July to September 2020, at various Health Care Facilities (HCF) of Sindh, Pakistan. The survey instrument was circulated among the HCWs and a total of 419 filled forms were received and analyzed using SPSS 24. Results: Out of 419 participants, 54.4% were male and 45.6% female. Half of the respondents were doctors (50.1%) with majority having 1-5 years (61.6%) of experience. It was found that the major sources of information of HCWs about COVID-19 was social media (80.4%) and only 18.6% of HCWs had trainings to deal with pandemics. HCA couldn't manage to maintain adequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) as goggle/eye shields were available only to 20.5% HCWs, shoe covers to 24.3%, N95 masks to 28.5%. Conclusion: We identified serious concern in the source of information but despite that the knowledge and awareness level was quite acceptable among our study respondents. However, greater efforts to be taken for training campaigns for HCWs as well as supply of PPE.