Computer Program Detects Depression in Bloggers' Texts

Computer Program Detects Depression in Bloggers' Texts

  12:55:00 PM    Science Lover

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Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) developed a software program that can detect depression in blogs and online texts. The software is capable of identifying language that can indicate the writer's psychological state, which could serve as a screening tool.

The software, developed by a team headed by Associate Professor Yair Neuman in BGU's Department of Education, was used to scan more than 300,000 English language blogs that were posted to mental health Web sites. The program identified what it perceived to be the 100 "most depressed" and 100 "least depressed" bloggers. A panel of four clinical psychologists reviewed the samples, and concluded that there was a 78 percent correlation between the computer's findings and the panel's.

Professor Yair Neuman will be presenting his BGU team's work at the 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agency Technology in Toronto, Canada, August 31 -- Sept. 3, 2010. Prof. Neuman's findings will also be published in the conference's proceedings.

"The software program was designed to find depressive content hidden in language that did not mention the obvious terms like "depression" or suicide," explains Prof. Neuman. "A psychologist knows how to spot various emotional states through intuition. Here, we have a program that does this methodically through the innovative use of 'web intelligence.'"

For example, the program spots words that express various emotions, like colors that the writer employs to metaphorically describe certain situations. Words like "black" combined with other terms that describe symptoms of depression, such as sleep deprivation or loneliness, will be recognized by the software as "depressive" texts.

Originally conducted for academic purposes, the findings could potentially be used to screen for would-be suicides.

The software provides a screening process that raises an individual's awareness of his or her condition, enables mental health workers to identify individuals in need of treatment, and can then recommend they seek professional help. Because, "no one can actually replace excellent human judgment," says Neuman.

In the United States, there is a big problem of undiagnosed people suffering from depression. The usual screening process is an online questionnaire, which is a self-selective process. If a person is completing a survey, he already suspects a problem. With this software, it is possible to analyze proactively. If the blogger agrees, he will know whether or not he needs to seek professional counseling.

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Nanoscale Origami From DNA

Nanoscale Origami From DNA

  7:52:00 PM    Science Lover

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Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and Harvard University have thrown the lid off a new toolbox for building nanoscale structures out of DNA, with complex twisting and curving shapes. In the August 7 issue of the journal Science, they report a series of experiments in which they folded DNA, origami-like, into three dimensional objects including a beachball-shaped wireframe capsule just 50 nanometers in diameter.

Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Harvard University have thrown the lid off a new toolbox for building nanoscale structures out of DNA, with complex twisting and curving shapes. They report a series of experiments in which they folded DNA, origami-like, into 3-D objects including a beach ball-shaped wireframe capsule just 50 nanometers in diameter. (Credit: Used by permission of H. Dietz, TUM Dept. of Physics, all rights reserved.)

"Our goal was to find out whether we could program DNA to assemble into shapes that exhibit custom curvature or twist, with features just a few nanometers wide," says biophysicist Hendrik Dietz, a professor at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. Dietz's collaborators in these experiments were Professor William Shih and Dr. Shawn Douglas of Harvard University. "It worked," he says, "and we can now build a diversity of three-dimensional nanoscale machine parts, such as round gears or curved tubes or capsules. Assembling those parts into bigger, more complex and functional devices should be possible."

As a medium for nanoscale engineering, DNA has the dual advantages of being a smart material – not only tough and flexible but also programmable – and being very well characterized by decades of study. Basic tools that Dietz, Douglas, and Shih employ are programmable self-assembly – directing DNA strands to form custom-shaped bundles of cross-linked double helices – and targeted insertions or deletions of base pairs that can give such bundles a desired twist or curve. Right-handed or left-handed twisting can be specified. They report achieving precise, quantitative control of these shapes, with a radius of curvature as tight as 6 nanometers.

The toolbox they have developed includes a graphical software program that helps to translate specific design concepts into the DNA programming required to realize them. Three-dimensional shapes are produced by "tuning" the number, arrangement, and lengths of helices.

In their current paper, the researchers present a wide variety of nanoscale structures and describe in detail how they designed, formed, and verified them. "Many advanced macroscopic machines require curiously shaped parts in order to function," Dietz says, "and we have the tools to make them. But we currently cannot build something intricate such as an ant's leg or, much smaller, a ten-nanometer-small chemical plant such as a protein enzyme. We expect many benefits if only we could build super-miniaturized devices on the nanoscale using materials that work robustly in the cells of our bodies – biomolecules such as DNA."

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