Pashto offensive language detection: a benchmark dataset and monolingual Pashto BERT.

Social media platforms have become inundated with offensive language. This issue must be addressed for the growth of online social networks (OSNs) and a healthy online environment. While significant research has been devoted to identifying toxic content in major languages like English, this remains an open area of research in the low-resource Pashto language. This study aims to develop an AI model for the automatic detection of offensive textual content in Pashto. To achieve this goal, we have developed a benchmark dataset called the Pashto Offensive Language Dataset (POLD), which comprises tweets collected from Twitter and manually classified into two categories: "offensive" and "not offensive". To discriminate these two categories, we investigated the classic deep learning classifiers based on neural networks, including CNNs and RNNs, using static word embeddings: Word2Vec, fastText, and GloVe as features. Furthermore, we examined two transfer learning approaches. In the first approach, we fine-tuned the pre-trained multilingual language model, XLM-R, using the POLD dataset, whereas, in the second approach, we trained a monolingual BERT model for Pashto from scratch using a custom-developed text corpus. Pashto BERT was then fine-tuned similarly to XLM-R. The performance of all the deep learning and transformer learning models was evaluated using the POLD dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that our pre-trained Pashto BERT model outperforms the other models, achieving an F1-score of 94.34% and an accuracy of 94.77%.

The evaluation of antibiotic susceptibility pattern and associated risk factors of UTI in tertiary care hospital of Peshawar.

UTIs are majorly caused by species of bacteria in patients of almost all ages. The study was aimed to determine the prevalence rate of uropathogens, its antibiotic susceptibility pattern and associated risk factors. Urine samples were collected from n=470 participants using sterilized containers and were inoculated on culture media. The isolates were identified via gram-staining and biochemical characterization. A total of 43.20% samples were positive. Female contributed the highest prevalence rate, 78.82% as compared to male, 21.18%. The highest prevalence 40.90% was observed in the age-group 31-45, followed by 16-30 with 36.90%. Escherichia coli (47.80%) was the most prevalent, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (18.2%), Enterococcus faecalis (12.80%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.30%) and Proteus mirabilis (7.40%). Staphylococcus aureus showed high sensitivity (100%) to amikacin, meropenem, imipenem, fosfomycin, vancomycin, clindamycin and linezolid while in case of E. faecalis, vancomycin and linezolid were highly potent. Amikacin and meropenem showed the highest (100%) potency followed by imipenem While Fosfomycin was highly potent to E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. mirabilis and P. aeruginosa with potency rate 89.97%, 92.31%, 100% and 100% respectively. In the current study, the positivity rate was highly observed in female. E. coli and K. pneumoniae were found the most ubiquitous for UTI.

Risk factors for eating disorders among Chinese and international university students: a comparative cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) and their association with socio-demographic and behavioural factors among university students. METHODS: A cross-sectional study among university students (Chinese and international) in Nanjing, China. We collected the data from 877 students, of which 811 were eligible for this study. They submitted a self-administered questionnaire (Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire 6 (EDE-Q6) related to socio-demographic, health variables and lifestyle factors. Data were assessed with the help of SPSS software. RESULTS: A total of 401 Chinese and 410 international university students (49.44% vs. 50.55%) participated in this study. Binary logistic regression showed that young female adults of 18~25 years of age had more risk of developing eating disorders. Higher body mass index (BMI), such as overweight and obesity, were more influential risk factors (p < 0.001) for eating disorders. The significant risks (p < 0.001) EDs were found in students who were athletes, physically active, and involved in various extra-curricular activities. Alcohol and smoking were significant risk factors associated with eating disorders. CONCLUSION: The results indicated higher risks of eating disorders followed by objective binge eating and compensatory behaviour. In this scenario, early assessment and treatment are necessary to reduce the burden of eating disorders and to promote good nutritional practices among university students.

Effect of time-restricted feeding on metabolic risk and circadian rhythm associated with gut microbiome in healthy males.

Time-restricted feeding (TRF) confers protection against nutritional challenges that predispose obesity and metabolic risks through involvement of circadian locomotor output cycles protein kaput genes and gut microbiome, but the underlying mechanism is not clearly understood. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of TRF on metabolic markers and circadian rhythm associated with gut microbiota in healthy males. Two groups (TRF, n 56; non-TRF, n 24) of male adults were enrolled. The TRF group provided blood at pre-TRF and post-TRF, while non-TRF one time after 25 d of trial. Serum lipid and liver profiles were determined. Real time-PCR was applied for circadian and inflammatory gene expression. The 16S rRNA genes were sequenced on the Illumina Miseq v3 platform to comprehensively catalogue the composition and abundance of bacteria in stool. We showed that TRF ameliorated the serum lipid and liver profiles of the individuals. In the TRF group, gut microbial richness was significantly enhanced, with enrichment of Prevotellaceae and Bacteroideaceae. TRF enhanced circadian gene expression probably by activation of sirtuin-1, which is positively associated with gut microbiome richness. TRF could be a safe remedy for the prevention of metabolic diseases related to dyslipidaemia, as it regulates circadian rhythm associated with gut microbiome modulation.