Detecting fake news in social media: An Asia-Pacific perspective

IN MARCH 2011, the catastrophic accident known as "The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster" took place, initiated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The only nuclear accident to receive a Level-7 classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986, the Fukushima event triggered global concerns and rumors regarding radiation leaks. Among the false rumors was an image, which had been described as a map of radioactive discharge emanating into the Pacific Ocean, as illustrated in the accompanying figure. In fact, this figure, depicting the wave height of the tsunami that followed, still to this date circulates on social media with the inaccurate description. Social media is ideal for spreading rumors, because it lacks censorship. Confirmation bias and filter-bubble effects further amplify the spread of unconfirmed information. Upon public outcry, independent fact-checking organizations have emerged globally, and many platforms are making efforts to fight against fake news. For example, the state-run Factually website in Singapore has been known to clarify falsehoods since its inception in May 2012, which was followed recently by the implementation of the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) in October 2019. In Taiwan, the government officially created a feature on the website of the Executive Yuan (the executive branch of Taiwan's government) to identify erroneous reporting and combat the spread of fake news. Taiwan's Open Culture Foundation has also developed and introduced the well-known anti-fake fact-checking chatbot Cofacts in May 2018. The Indonesia government since 2018 has held weekly briefings on hoax news; that same year, the country revised its Criminal Code to permit the imprisonment for up to six years of anyone spreading fake news. Governments in the Asia and Oceania region, including South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, have enacted relevant laws to prevent fake news from spreading. Nonetheless, fact-checking of fake news remains daunting, and requires tremendous time and effort in terms of human investigation. Moreover, it is prone to low efficiency and inadequate coverage due to the complexity of the topics being checked, and is incapable of keeping up with the fast production and diffusion of falsehoods online. This article will review some of the latest techniques to automatically debunk fake news, many of which were initiated in the Asia and Oceania region.

SpitzerSpitzer Parallax of OGLE-2018-BLG-0596: A Low-mass-ratio Planet around an M-dwarf

We report the discovery of a $Spitzer$ microlensing planet OGLE-2018-BLG-0596Lb, with preferred planet-host mass ratio $q \sim 2\times10^{-4}$. The planetary signal, which is characterized by a short $(\sim 1~{\rm day})$ "bump" on the rising side of the lensing light curve, was densely covered by ground-based surveys. We find that the signal can be explained by a bright source that fully envelops the planetary caustic, i.e., a "Hollywood" geometry. Combined with the source proper motion measured from $Gaia$, the $Spitzer$ satellite parallax measurement makes it possible to precisely constrain the lens physical parameters. The preferred solution, in which the planet perturbs the minor image due to lensing by the host, yields a Uranus-mass planet with a mass of $M_{\rm p} = 13.9\pm1.6~M_{\oplus}$ orbiting a mid M-dwarf with a mass of $M_{\rm h} = 0.23\pm0.03~M_{\odot}$. There is also a second possible solution that is substantially disfavored but cannot be ruled out, for which the planet perturbs the major image. The latter solution yields $M_{\rm p} = 1.2\pm0.2~M_{\oplus}$ and $M_{\rm h} = 0.15\pm0.02~M_{\odot}$. By combining the microlensing and $Gaia$ data together with a Galactic model, we find in either case that the lens lies on the near side of the Galactic bulge at a distance $D_{\rm L} \sim 6\pm1~{\rm kpc}$. Future adaptive optics observations may decisively resolve the major image/minor image degeneracy.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to AAS journa

OGLE-2015-BLG-1670Lb: A Cold Neptune beyond the Snow Line in the Provisional WFIRST Microlensing Survey Field

We present the analysis of the microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-1670, detected in a high-extinction field, very close to the Galactic plane. Due to the dust extinction along the line of sight, this event was too faint to be detected before it reached the peak of magnification. The microlensing light-curve models indicate a high-magnification event with a maximum of $A_\mathrm{max}\gtrsim200$, very sensitive to planetary deviations. An anomaly in the light curve has been densely observed by the microlensing surveys MOA, KMTNet, and OGLE. From the light-curve modeling, we find a planetary anomaly characterized by a planet-to-host mass ratio, $q=\left(1.00^{+0.18}_{-0.16}\right)\times 10^{-4}$, at the peak recently identified in the mass-ratio function of microlensing planets. Thus, this event is interesting to include in future statistical studies about planet demography. We have explored the possible degeneracies and find two competing planetary models resulting from the $s\leftrightarrow1/s$ degeneracy. However, because the projected separation is very close to $s=1$, the physical implications for the planet for the two solutions are quite similar, except for the value of $s$. By combining the light-curve parameters with a Galactic model, we have estimated the planet mass $M_2=17.9^{+9.6}_{-8.8}\,\mathrm{M}_\oplus$ and the lens distance $D_\mathrm{L}=6.7^{+1.0}_{-1.3}\,\mathrm{kpc}$, corresponding to a Neptune-mass planet close to the Galactic bulge. Such events with a low absolute latitude ($|b|\approx 1.1\,\mathrm{deg}$) are subject to both high extinction and more uncertain source distances, two factors that may affect the mass measurements in the provisional Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope fields. More events are needed to investigate the potential trade-off between the higher lensing rate and the difficulty in measuring masses in these low-latitude fields.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Typos corrected and section 3.2.3 added. Version accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Transcription Expression and Clinical Significance of Dishevelled-3 mRNA and δ-Catenin mRNA in Pleural Effusions from Patients with Lung Cancer

Objective. To evaluate diagnostic utility of Dishevelled-3 (DVL-3) mRNA and δ-catenin mRNA expression in pleural effusions of patients with lung cancer. Methods. DVL-3 mRNA and δ-catenin mRNA levels were assessed by performing RT-PCR on pleural effusion specimens from patients with lung cancer (n = 75) and with lung benign disease (n = 51). Results. The expressions of DVL-3 mRNA and δ-catenin mRNA were significantly higher in malignant than in benign lung disease (P < 0.01) and were obviously higher than cytology in adenocarcinoma (P < 0.01). In single use, DVL-3 mRNA had the highest specificity (94.1%) and PPV (95.7%), whereas δ-catenin mRNA had the highest sensitivity (92.0%) and NPV (88.5%). When combinations of markers were evaluated together, DVL-3 mRNA and δ-catenin mRNA gave a high-diagnostic performance: sensitivity of 100.0%, NPV of 100.0%, and accuracy of 96.0%, respectively. Conclusion. As molecular markers of detecting pleural micrometastasis, DVL-3 mRNA and δ-catenin mRNA are helpful to diagnose the cancer cells in pleural effusions of patients with lung cancer

Hybrid speaker tracking in an automated lecture room

Abstract We present a hybrid speaker tracking scheme based on a single pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ

Self-Assembly of 9,10-Bis(phenylethynyl) anthracene (BPEA) Derivatives: Influence of pi-pi and Hydrogen Bonding Interactions on Aggregate Morphology and Self-Assembly Mechanism

9,10-Bis(phenylethynyl)anthracenes (BPEAs) are an important class of dyes with various applications including chemiluminescence emitters, materials for photon upconversion and for optoelectronic devices. Some of these applications require control over the packing modes of the active molecules within the active layer, which can be effected by bottom-up self-assembly. Studies aimed at controlling the molecular organization of BPEAs have primarily focused on bulk or liquid crystal materials, while in-depth investigations of BPEA-based assemblies in solution remain elusive. In this article, we report the self-assembly of two new BPEA derivatives with hydrophobic side chains, one of them featuring amide functional groups (2) and the other one lacking them (1). Comparison of the self-assembly behaviour in solution of both systems via spectroscopic (UV/Vis, fluorescence and NMR), microscopic (AFM) and theoretical (PM6) studies reveals the crucial role of the amide groups in controlling the self-assembly. While for both systems the formation of H-type face-to-face -stacks is proposed, the interplay of -stacking and H-bonding is responsible of driving the formation of 1D stacks and increasing the binding constant two-to-three orders of magnitude. Our findings show that H-bonding is a prerequisite to create ordered BPEA assemblies in solution

Graphene-Based Nanocomposites for Energy Storage

Since the first report of using micromechanical cleavage method to produce graphene sheets in 2004, graphene/graphene-based nanocomposites have attracted wide attention both for fundamental aspects as well as applications in advanced energy storage and conversion systems. In comparison to other materials, graphene-based nanostructured materials have unique 2D structure, high electronic mobility, exceptional electronic and thermal conductivities, excellent optical transmittance, good mechanical strength, and ultrahigh surface area. Therefore, they are considered as attractive materials for hydrogen (H2) storage and high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors, rechargeable lithium (Li)-ion batteries, Li–sulfur batteries, Li–air batteries, sodium (Na)-ion batteries, Na–air batteries, zinc (Zn)–air batteries, and vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), etc., as they can improve the efficiency, capacity, gravimetric energy/power densities, and cycle life of these energy storage devices. In this article, recent progress reported on the synthesis and fabrication of graphene nanocomposite materials for applications in these aforementioned various energy storage systems is reviewed. Importantly, the prospects and future challenges in both scalable manufacturing and more energy storage-related applications are discussed

A two-step target binding and selectivity support vector machines approach for virtual screening of dopamine receptor subtype-selective ligands

10.1371/journal.pone.0039076PLoS ONE76

Kosmos-2.5: A Multimodal Literate Model

We present Kosmos-2.5, a multimodal literate model for machine reading of text-intensive images. Pre-trained on large-scale text-intensive images, Kosmos-2.5 excels in two distinct yet cooperative transcription tasks: (1) generating spatially-aware text blocks, where each block of text is assigned its spatial coordinates within the image, and (2) producing structured text output that captures styles and structures into the markdown format. This unified multimodal literate capability is achieved through a shared Transformer architecture, task-specific prompts, and flexible text representations. We evaluate Kosmos-2.5 on end-to-end document-level text recognition and image-to-markdown text generation. Furthermore, the model can be readily adapted for any text-intensive image understanding task with different prompts through supervised fine-tuning, making it a general-purpose tool for real-world applications involving text-rich images. This work also paves the way for the future scaling of multimodal large language models