Tweets Offer Insight into Mental Health Issues
Computer scientists are analyzing Twitter tweets to gather key information on the prevalence of common mental illnesses. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore say their new computer program can sift through volumes of publicly available postings on the social media website, and detect certain ‘language cues’ associated with particular disorders, such as depression, post-traumatic […]
Real-time Flu Forecasting Proves Successful in Large-scale Test
A flu forecasting system that uses some of the same techniques as modern weather forecasting was not only able to predict the timing of the 2012-2013 influenza season, but was able to do so nine weeks before the flu season peaked. Columbia University researchers say there were able to correctly predict that flu activity in […]
Flu Forecasts Could Soon Join Weathercasts
Imagine that one day soon when you tune in to your favorite radio or TV station for the latest weather forecast, you’re given a flu forecast as well. Adapting techniques used in modern weather prediction, scientists at Columbia University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have come up with a way to produce localized […]