Textual emotion detection in health: Advances and applications.

Textual Emotion Detection (TED) is a rapidly growing area in Natural Language Processing (NLP) that aims to detect emotions expressed through text. In this paper, we provide a review of the latest research and development in TED as applied in health and medicine. We focus on medical and non-medical data types, use cases, and methods where TED has been integral in supporting decision-making. The application of NLP technologies in health, and particularly TED, requires high confidence that these technologies and technology-aided treatment will first, do no harm. Therefore, this review also aims to assess the accuracy of TED systems and provide an update on the state of the technology. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines were used in this review. With a specific focus on the identification of different human emotions in text, the more general sentiment analysis studies that only recognize the polarity of text were excluded. A total of 66 papers met the inclusion criteria. This review found that TED in health and medicine is mainly used in the detection of depression, suicidal ideation, and the mental status of patients with asthma, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and diabetes with major data sources of social media, healthcare services, and counseling centers. Approximately, 44% of the research in the domain is related to COVID-19, investigating the public health response to vaccinations and the emotional response of the public. In most cases, deep learning-based NLP techniques were found to be preferred over other methods due to their superior performance. Developing methods for implementing and evaluating dimensional emotional models, resolving annotation challenges by utilizing health-related lexicons, and using deep learning techniques for multi-faceted and real-time applications were found to be among the main avenues for further development of TED applications in health.

Performance analysis and prediction in triathlon.

Performance in triathlon is dependent upon factors that include somatotype, physiological capacity, technical proficiency and race strategy. Given the multidisciplinary nature of triathlon and the interaction between each of the three race components, the identification of target split times that can be used to inform the design of training plans and race pacing strategies is a complex task. The present study uses machine learning techniques to analyse a large database of performances in Olympic distance triathlons (2008-2012). The analysis reveals patterns of performance in five components of triathlon (three race "legs" and two transitions) and the complex relationships between performance in each component and overall performance in a race. The results provide three perspectives on the relationship between performance in each component of triathlon and the final placing in a race. These perspectives allow the identification of target split times that are required to achieve a certain final place in a race and the opportunity to make evidence-based decisions about race tactics in order to optimise performance.

Modelling and analysing track cycling Omnium performances using statistical and machine learning techniques.

This article describes the utilisation of an unsupervised machine learning technique and statistical approaches (e.g., the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) that assist cycling experts in the crucial decision-making processes for athlete selection, training, and strategic planning in the track cycling Omnium. The Omnium is a multi-event competition that will be included in the summer Olympic Games for the first time in 2012. Presently, selectors and cycling coaches make decisions based on experience and intuition. They rarely have access to objective data. We analysed both the old five-event (first raced internationally in 2007) and new six-event (first raced internationally in 2011) Omniums and found that the addition of the elimination race component to the Omnium has, contrary to expectations, not favoured track endurance riders. We analysed the Omnium data and also determined the inter-relationships between different individual events as well as between those events and the final standings of riders. In further analysis, we found that there is no maximum ranking (poorest performance) in each individual event that riders can afford whilst still winning a medal. We also found the required times for riders to finish the timed components that are necessary for medal winning. The results of this study consider the scoring system of the Omnium and inform decision-making toward successful participation in future major Omnium competitions.

TOWARDS EARLY DISCOVERY OF SALIENT HEALTH THREATS: A SOCIAL MEDIA EMOTION CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUE.

Online social media microblogs may be a valuable resource for timely identification of critical ad hoc health-related incidents or serious epidemic outbreaks. In this paper, we explore emotion classification of Twitter microblogs related to localized public health threats, and study whether the public mood can be effectively utilized in early discovery or alarming of such events. We analyse user tweets around recent incidents of Ebola, finding differences in the expression of emotions in tweets posted prior to and after the incidents have emerged. We also analyse differences in the nature of the tweets in the immediately affected area as compared to areas remote to the events. The results of this analysis suggest that emotions in social media microblogging data (from Twitter in particular) may be utilized effectively as a source of evidence for disease outbreak detection and monitoring.

Enabling Self-Monitoring Data Exchange in Participatory Medicine.

The development of new methods, devices and apps for self-monitoring have enabled the extension of the application of these approaches for consumer health and research purposes. The increase in the number and variety of devices has generated a complex scenario where reporting guidelines and data exchange formats will be needed to ensure the quality of the information and the reproducibility of results of the experiments. Based on the Minimal Information for Self Monitoring Experiments (MISME) reporting guideline we have developed an XML format (MISME-ML) to facilitate data exchange for self monitoring experiments. We have also developed a sample instance to illustrate the concept and a Java MISME-ML validation tool. The implementation and adoption of these tools should contribute to the consolidation of a set of methods that ensure the reproducibility of self monitoring experiments for research purposes.

Mapping biomedical vocabularies: a semi-automated term matching approach.

Biomedical vocabularies vary in scope, and it is often necessary to utilize multiple vocabularies simultaneously in order to cover the full range of concepts relevant to a given biomedical application. However, as the number and size of these resources grow both redundancy (i.e., different vocabularies containing similar terms) and inconsistency (i.e., different terms in multiple vocabularies referring to the same entity) between the vocabularies increase. Therefore, there is a need for automatically aligning vocabularies. In this paper, we explore and propose new methods for detecting probable matches between two vocabularies. The methods build upon existing string similarity functions, enhancing these functions for the context of semi-automated vocabulary matching.