scholarly journals The Role of the Canadian Media During the Initial Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Topic Modelling Approach Using Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Articles

10.2196/25242 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e25242
Author(s):  
Janhavi Patel ◽  
Harsheev Desai ◽  
Ali Okhowat

Background Beginning as a local epidemic, COVID-19 has since rapidly evolved into a pandemic. As countries around the world battle this outbreak, mass media has played an active role in disseminating public health information. Objective The aim of this study was to get a better understanding of the role that the Canadian media played during the pandemic and to investigate the patterns of topics covered by media news reporting. Methods We used a data set consisting of news articles published on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) website between December 2019 and May 2020. We then used Python software to analyze the data using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling. Subsequently, we used the pyLDAvis tool to plot these topics on a 2D plane through multidimensional scaling and divided these topics into different themes. Results After removing articles that were published before the year 2019, we identified 6771 relevant news articles. According to the CV coherence value, we divided these articles into 15 topics, which were categorized into 6 themes. The three most popular themes were case reporting and testing (n=1738), Canadian response to the pandemic (n=1259), and changes to social life (n=1171), which accounted for 25.67%, 18.59%, and 17.29% of the total articles, respectively. Conclusions Understanding the Canadian media’s reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the Canadian pandemic response is a product of consistent government communication, as well as the public’s understanding of and adherence to protocols.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahereh Dehdarirad ◽  
Kalle Karlsson

AbstractIn this study we investigated whether open access could assist the broader dissemination of scientific research in Climate Action (Sustainable Development Goal 13) via news outlets. We did this by comparing (i) the share of open and non-open access documents in different Climate Action topics, and their news counts, and (ii) the mean of news counts for open access and non-open access documents. The data set of this study comprised 70,206 articles and reviews in Sustainable Development Goal 13, published during 2014–2018, retrieved from SciVal. The number of news mentions for each document was obtained from Altmetrics Details Page API using their DOIs, whereas the open access statuses were obtained using Unpaywall.org. The analysis in this paper was done using a combination of (Latent Dirichlet allocation) topic modelling, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. The covariates included in the regression analysis were features related to authors, country, journal, institution, funding, readability, news source category and topic. Using topic modelling, we identified 10 topics, with topics 4 (meteorology) [21%], 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation) [18%] and 8 (ecosystems and biodiversity) [14%] accounting for 53% of the research in Sustainable Development Goal 13. Additionally, the results of regression analysis showed that while keeping all the variables constant in the model, open access papers in Climate Action had a news count advantage (8.8%) in comparison to non-open access papers. Our findings also showed that while a higher share of open access documents in topics such as topic 9 (Human vulnerability to risks) might not assist with its broader dissemination, in some others such as topic 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation), even a lower share of open access documents might accelerate its broad communication via news outlets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Yahya Yahya

The role of Arabic-Indonesian community in Islamic da 'wah in Indonesia is quite important. However, there are few studies of their role that have been conducted It is for this reason that the writer would like to observe the role and the existence of this community from the social-historical perspective. There are two theories in understanding their relationship with indigenous people. The first is identical theory which perceives that historically Islam is identical with Arab and therefore cannot be separated from Arabic people. The second theory is that the arrival and the development of Arabic community in Indonesia, on the perspective of anthropological history, is closely related to the history of conversion to Islam and the development of Islam in society. The writer tries to observe their social life and their active role in the development of Indonesian society.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Nurul Fatmawati ◽  
Afrizal Nur ◽  
Saidul Amin

The qur’an contains the laws, commandments and prohibitions of Allah, giving glad tidings and al-qur’an has explained the problems of human life from all fields, including all forms of women’s problems. It is based on Qur’an surah al-ahzab: 33. But the verse is less precise is used as an excuse to limit women’s gait in social activities outside the home. The article al-qur’an does not forbit women to work out of the house, even al-qur’an imposes responsibility on men and women to guide and improve society. This is expressed in the word of Allah surah at-tawba: 71. As al-Qur’an has explained how women play a social role, there is also one movement of women who also focus on women’s problems, namely ‘Aisyiyah. ‘Aisyiyah is one of the muslimah mevement under the leadership of of indonesia. Then the problem studied in this thesis is how social role the of women contained in al-qur’an and how also according to aisyiyah which is limited by discussing five surah in al-Qur’an that is surah al-Imran: 159, an-Nisa’: 124, an-Nahl: 97, ghafir: 40, at-taubah: 71.The type of research that the writer use is literature research with the title method (by collecting verses related to the social role of women) then peeled in deeply and thoroughly from various aspects related and analyzed with descriptive approach to explain the sosial role of women according to al-qur’an and according to aisyiyah. After being reviewed and studied, the author gets the answer that al-qur’an has explained that women can play an active role social life. Similarly aisyiyah also explained that women can still play an active role in social life as long as he does not forget his nature as a woman. There is no controversy in in these two perspectives.


2022 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 313-337
Author(s):  
Nuha Alshaar

Although modern scholars tend to be sceptical of the role of religion in the formation of ethical and political thought in the Būyid period (334/945–440/1048), this article argues that both philosophy and religion, as envisioned by al-Tawḥīdī and his contemporaries, played an integral role in its creation. The analysis shows that modern concepts such as ‘humanism’ and ‘political philosophy,’ as applied to these authors and their texts, are not felicitous to the social and intellectual contexts in which they were produced. Through analysing al-Tawḥīdī’s ethical and political thought, certain modern assumed dichotomies, including scientific enquiry versus religious teaching, theoretical ethics versus practical ethics, and the social versus the personal, are reconsidered. The article argues that a contextual approach to al-Tawḥīdī and his peers should consider the encyclopaedic system of knowledge that shaped their thought and the interdisciplinary nature of their work where religious, philosophical, and literary elements are intertwined. The article highlights al-Tawḥīdī’s political thought, his active role as an intellectual and his attempt to disseminate knowledge based on two main beliefs: the role of knowledge linked to action in social life and reform, and a solid sense of the religious and moral responsibility of the scholar to offer advice to the leaders of the community. The concepts that he uses, such as maḥabba (love) and ṣadāqa (friendship) with its four foundational components, namely the soul (nafs), intellect (ʿaql), nature (ṭabīʿa), and morals (khulq), addressed social and political challenges in Būyid society and produced alternative moral and intellectual responses to sectarianism, social disintegration and the decline in morality, which were characteristic of the Būyid era. Keywords: Ethical political thought, Būyid, Humanism, Political philosophy, ʿIlm (Knowledge), ʿAmal (action), Ṣadāqa (friendship), al-Tawḥīdī, Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yena Kim ◽  
Jae Choe ◽  
Gilsang Jeong ◽  
Dongsun Kim ◽  
Masaki Tomonaga

ABSTRACTFairness judgment is a fundamental aspect of human cooperation. By carefully balancing the payoffs and efforts with cooperating partner (s) we could either avoid or punish cheaters and stably maintain cooperation. Recent studies investigating the origin of this fairness sentiment have demonstrated that this psychological trait is not unique to humans, but also can be observed in other group-living primates, such as chimpanzees and capuchins, suggesting a convergent evolution of a sense of fairness, with cooperative social life being the selective pressure for it. The current study was designed to test this hypothesis by directly comparing the response to the outcome inequity in two of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and orangutans, having different social systems, i.e. solitary and patrilocal multi-male multi-female groups. Unlike other inequity experiments, we used a prosocial choice apparatus with different reward distributions (advantageous / disadvantageous) to give subjects an active role of not-sharing foods if they considered it unfair. In addition to the choice, we also recorded the behavioral responses of the apes to the inequity. Throughout the experiments aversive emotional responses toward the disadvantageous inequity were only found in chimpanzees, but not in orangutans, supporting the convergent (or domain-specific) evolution of a sense of fairness. However, this aversion to the inequity did not lead the chimpanzees to actually make selfish choices, indirectly supporting the previous findings that chimpanzees employ a partner choice strategy rather than a punishment for fair cooperation. We also found that hierarchy seems to play an important role in the expression of aversion to inequity and prosocial tendency in chimpanzees.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Fazal Husain ◽  
Abdul Rashid

This study extends the analysis of causality by Husain and Rashid (2008) by examining the shift in the variables due to the price hikes in Pakistan in the early 1970s. We investigate the causal relations between real money and real income, between nominal money and nominal income, and between nominal money and prices using the annual data set from 1959-60 to 2003-04. Moreover, we examine the stochastic properties of the variables used in the analysis, and take care of the shifts in the series due to price hikes and liberalisation measures through dummy variables. The results indicate significant shifts in the variables during the sample period. In this context, the shift that occurred due to price hikes in the early 1970s seems to be more important to be incorporated in the analysis. The study finds the active role of money as the leading variable in changing prices without any feedback. In the earlier studies on income the feedback mechanism of money is found missing perhaps because of overlooking the shift in the macro economic variables in the early 1970s. JEL classification: E3, E4, N3 Keywords: Money, Income, Prices, Price Hikes, Causal Relations, Pakistan


Author(s):  
Hideo Hayashi ◽  
Yoshikazu Hirai ◽  
John T. Penniston

Spectrin is a membrane associated protein most of which properties have been tentatively elucidated. A main role of the protein has been assumed to give a supporting structure to inside of the membrane. As reported previously, however, the isolated spectrin molecule underwent self assemble to form such as fibrous, meshwork, dispersed or aggregated arrangements depending upon the buffer suspended and was suggested to play an active role in the membrane conformational changes. In this study, the role of spectrin and actin was examined in terms of the molecular arrangements on the erythrocyte membrane surface with correlation to the functional states of the ghosts.Human erythrocyte ghosts were prepared from either freshly drawn or stocked bank blood by the method of Dodge et al with a slight modification as described before. Anti-spectrin antibody was raised against rabbit by injection of purified spectrin and partially purified.


Author(s):  
N.V. Belov ◽  
U.I. Papiashwili ◽  
B.E. Yudovich

It has been almost universally adopted that dissolution of solids proceeds with development of uniform, continuous frontiers of reaction.However this point of view is doubtful / 1 /. E.g. we have proved the active role of the block (grain) boundaries in the main phases of cement, these boundaries being the areas of hydrate phases' nucleation / 2 /. It has brought to the supposition that the dissolution frontier of cement particles in water is discrete. It seems also probable that the dissolution proceeds through the channels, which serve both for the liquid phase movement and for the drainage of the incongruant solution products. These channels can be appeared along the block boundaries.In order to demonsrate it, we have offered the method of phase-contrast impregnation of the hardened cement paste with the solution of methyl metacrylahe and benzoyl peroxide. The viscosity of this solution is equal to that of water.


2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeshan Ali ◽  
Zhenbin Wang ◽  
Rai Muhammad Amir ◽  
Shoaib Younas ◽  
Asif Wali ◽  
...  

While the use of vinegar to fi ght against infections and other crucial conditions dates back to Hippocrates, recent research has found that vinegar consumption has a positive effect on biomarkers for diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Different types of vinegar have been used in the world during different time periods. Vinegar is produced by a fermentation process. Foods with a high content of carbohydrates are a good source of vinegar. Review of the results of different studies performed on vinegar components reveals that the daily use of these components has a healthy impact on the physiological and chemical structure of the human body. During the era of Hippocrates, people used vinegar as a medicine to treat wounds, which means that vinegar is one of the ancient foods used as folk medicine. The purpose of the current review paper is to provide a detailed summary of the outcome of previous studies emphasizing the role of vinegar in treatment of different diseases both in acute and chronic conditions, its in vivo mechanism and the active role of different bacteria.


2009 ◽  
pp. 23-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Radygin

The article deals with key tendencies in the development of Russia’s market of mergers and acquisitions in the first decade of the 21st century. Quantitative parameters are analyzed by using available in the open access data bases for the years 2003-2008 taking into consideration new tendencies relating to 2008 financial crisis. An active role of the state played in the market of corporate control represents an important factor. Special attention is given to issues of development of Russia’s system of legal norms regulating the market of mergers and acquisitions.


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