Kinds Of Groups Research Articles

Adaptive Spammer Detection with Sparse Group Modeling

Social spammers disseminate unsolicited information on social media sites that negatively impacts social networking systems. To detect social spammers, traditional methods leverage social network structures to identify the behavioral patterns hidden in their social interactions. They focus on accounts that are affiliated with groups comprising known spammers. However, since different parties are emerging to generate various spammers, they may form different kinds of groups, and some spammers may even detach from the flock. Therefore, it is challenging for existing methods to find the optimal group structure that captures different spammers simultaneously. Employing different approaches for specific spammers is time-consuming, and it also lacks the adaptivity of dealing with emerging spammers. In this work, we aim to propose a group modeling framework that adaptively characterizes social interactions of spammers. In particular, we introduce to integrate content information into the group modeling process. The proposed framework exploits additional content information in selecting groups and individuals that are likely to be involved in spamming activities. In order to alleviate the intensive computational cost, we transform the problem as a sparse learning task that can be solved efficiently. Experimental results on real-world datasets show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.

Tuning the Electron-Transport and Electron-Accepting Abilities of Dyes through Introduction of Different π-Conjugated Bridges and Acceptors for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

A series of dyes, containing thiophene and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene as π-conjugated bridging units and six kinds of groups as electron acceptors, were designed for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The ground- and excited-state properties of the designed dyes were investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT, respectively. Moreover, the parameters affecting the short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage were calculated to predict the photoelectrical performance of each dye. In addition, the charge difference density was presented through a three-dimensional (3D) real-space analysis method to investigate the electron-injection mechanism in the complexes. Our results show that the longer conjugated bridge would inhibit the intramolecular charge transfer, thereby affecting the photoelectrical properties of DSSCs. Similarly, owing to the lowest chemical hardness, largest electron-accepting ability, dipole moment (μnormal ) and the change in the energy of the TiO2 conduction band (ΔECB ), the dye with a (E)-3-(4-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)phenyl)-2-cyanoacrylic acid (TCA) acceptor group would exhibit the most significant photoelectrical properties among the designed dyes.

Designing writing groups to support postgraduate students’ academic writing: A case study from a South African university

This paper reports on a writing group pilot programme implemented at a South African university. Drawing on literature, anonymous student evaluations and facilitator observations, it discusses the use of writing groups for supporting postgraduate academic writing practices. Developed within a broader postgraduate academic writing support programme, the paper discusses a case study of two pilot writing groups: a multidisciplinary long-term group and a disciplinary short-term ‘writing-intensive’ group. The findings indicate that the overall experience of the writing group was a positive one, with each group presenting varied ‘success’ aspects as well as challenges. Insights gleaned may contribute to our understanding of how these groups can be utilised to support postgraduate students and how different kinds of groups can be developed to serve particular student needs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the inclusion of a disciplinary expert, which proved particularly useful in this pilot.

Efficient modulation of optical and electrical properties of X-shaped thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters by substitution.

A series of X-shaped thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are systematically studied by first-principles calculations. Effects of the cyano group adding to the acceptor unit and the hydroxyl group adding to the donor part on the optical and electrical properties are analyzed. It is found that both kinds of groups can efficiently increase the emission wavelength to realize full-color emission. Although they play different roles in modulating the energy level of frontier orbitals, the S-T energy gap, the reorganization energy and transfer integral for different molecules, they can efficiently increase the charge transfer rate and reduce the difference of electron transfer rate and hole transfer rate. These results indicate that these designed strategies are efficient to achieve balanced charge transfer rates and modulate emission colors. By analyzing the energy matching between the TADF emitters and three kinds of hosts, the emission spectra of the 3,5-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene (mcp) and the absorption spectra of most TADF emitters have a large overlap, which provides helpful information in application of these TADF molecules.

Functionalized mesoporous silica: absorbents for water purification

The release of heavy metals into the environment is a potential threat to water and soil quality as well as to plants, animals, and human health. In the current research work, organically functionalized mesoporous silicates (MSU-H) were prepared by the co-condensation between sodium silicate and organoalkoxysilanes in the presence of the nonionic surfactant triblock copolymer P104. The surfactant was used as a template for improving the porosity of hybrid gels. Synthesized materials were characterized. The surface morphology and textural properties of such materials varied with various kinds of groups in the channels. In this study, removal of some heavy metal ions from aqueous solution by adsorption process was investigated. Batch adsorption studies show that the adsorption capacity of metal ions on the functionalized silicates is more than that on pure MSU-H. Data show adsorption on synthesized materials is a time-efficient process, suggesting adsorption on external surface as well as the mesoporous process. Adsorption models of Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin depicted equal goodness for all adsorbents, whereas pseudo-second-order kinetics is in best agreement with experimental data.

Indicatoren voor sociale cohesie

Abstract Indicators for social cohesion. Japan as a special case and its implications.How to measure social cohesion? There are, in the literature, two main methods for measuring social cohesion: one can measure trust or one can measure civic participation in different kinds of groups. It will be argued that both methods appear to suffer from two biases. First, universal forms of social cohesion are prioritized. Second, in general, perceptions are measured instead of actual behaviour. These two biases are not without consequences, especially with regard to comparative research. Using Japan as an example it is shown that these biases indeed exist and that the use of other indicators would result in quite different outcomes.

Which Groups Have Scientific Knowledge? Wray Vs. Rolin

Kristina Rolin and Brad Wray agree with an increasing number of epistemologists that knowledge can sometimes be attributed to a group and to none of its individual members. That is, collective knowledge sometimes obtains. However, Rolin charges Wray with being too restrictive about the kinds of groups to which he attributes collective knowledge. She rejects Wray’s claim that only scientific research teams can know while the general scientific community cannot. Rolin forwards a ‘default and challenge’ account of epistemic justification toward her argument that even the general scientific community can know because it’s sometimes the general scientific community, and none of its individual members, that attains epistemic justification. I argue that Rolin faces a dilemma: either she must herself be more restrictive about the kinds of groups to which she attributes collective knowledge or she must concede the general claim that collective knowledge obtains at all.

Understanding collective agency in bioethics

Bioethicists tend to focus on the individual as the relevant moral subject. Yet, in highly complex and socially differentiated healthcare systems a number of social groups, each committed to a common cause, are involved in medical decisions and sometimes even try to influence bioethical discourses according to their own agenda. We argue that the significance of these collective actors is unjustifiably neglected in bioethics. The growing influence of collective actors in the fields of biopolitics and bioethics leads us to pursue the question as to how collective moral claims can be characterized and justified. We pay particular attention to elaborating the circumstances under which collective actors can claim 'collective agency.' Specifically, we develop four normative-practical criteria for collective agency in order to determine the conditions that must be given to reasonably speak of 'collective autonomy'. For this purpose, we analyze patient organizations and families, which represent two quite different kinds of groups and can both be conceived as collective actors of high relevance for bioethical practice. Finally, we discuss some practical implications and explain why the existence of a shared practice of trust is of immediate normative relevance in this respect.

The Limits of Self-Determination and the Cases of Forced Separatism: The Example of Northern Cyprus

In the current essay, the writer will try to approach the cases of separatism and especially those of illegal separatism which are creating unrecognized or partially recognized states. It is true though that these cases, even of forced separatism, are matter which has been subjected to the international law and mainly to the principle of the security of a minority group and finally the right to self-determination. Although the principle of self-determination is respected under the Charter of the United Nations (article 1§2), it is still rather vague to define what kind of group is subjected to it. The Charter doesn’t provide much information about it and keeps the Wilsonian concept of “self-determination for people”, therefore cases of separatism are still under broad and heated debate. Although this paper will focus on the case of forced separatism in Cyprus and especially the case of Northern Cyprus, which has been separated from the Cypriot mainland after the Turkish invasion of 20th July 1974 and has proclaimed to be the independent “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”1 after 1983. Moreover I will try to focus on the aspects of the separatist arguments posed from the Turkish community for protection from the Greek paramilitary forces and the fact of the invasion which made the whole territory an occupied territory (S/RES/550, 1984) rather than an independent state coming from a legitimate secessionist movement. Hence the arguments and the methodology followed in this paper will move in a dialectic path by highlighting first of all the historical aspects of the case of Cyprus from 1878 and the British rule over the island. Afterwards we will mention the arguments supporting the cases of legitimate secessionism and we will attempt to give a possible definition of illegal and forced separatism which are carried out after invasions and territorial claims that are made under the safeguard clause of the United Nations Covenant of Friendly relations of 1970. These claims are tightly connected to the-so called but disputable remedial right to secessionism. The remedial right of secessionism is pleaded when the central government is adopting a discriminatory behavior against to a minority group with specific religious or racial characteristics by following strict political, economic and social policies on this community (Buchanan, 1997).

Group-Directed Empathy: A Phenomenological Account

This paper is an attempt to build a bridge between the fields of social cognition and social ontology. Drawing on both classical and more recent phenomenological studies, the article develops an account ofgroup-directed empathy. The first part of the article spells out the phenomenological notion of empathy and suggests certain conceptual distinctions vis-à-vis two different kinds of group. The second part of the paper applies these conceptual considerations to cases in which empathy is directed at groups and elucidates the sense in which individuals can empathically target not only other individual’s emotions, but also shared emotions as such. Clarifying the structure of group-directed empathy, it will also be argued that the latter is, by default, more informative than individual-directed empathy. The third and last section of the paper is devoted to one central consequence of the proposed account: if it is possible to empathize with groups as such, and if empathy necessary builds on body-perception, then both ideas seem to be conducive to the claim that groups as such have a body.

Group Psychotherapy in Israel: History and Main Trends

In Israel, the sense of belonging carries special meaning for historical and contemporary reasons. Since its establishment, Israel, with a background of centuries of persecution of the Jews, has been subjected to a consistent threat of war and terror that makes it a traumatized society. On the one hand, this intensifies social cohesiveness, especially in times of war. Yet many of the threats pose existential, political, and ideological dilemmas. The trauma of the Holocaust coupled with the continuous existence of wars enhanced the development of special kinds of groups. No wonder group therapy in Israel flourishes, perhaps more than in any other Western country (Nuttman-Shwartz & Weinberg, 2002).

Can Liberalism Incorporate Group Human Rights?

The protection of indigenous peoples and minority languages, as well as the guarantee of outreach to disadvantaged groups, can be considered using the language of human rights – specifically, group human rights. Liberalism is the view that individuals’ freedoms ought to be protected against the competing interests of other entities. From a liberal point of view, a number of challenges to the idea of group rights present themselves. Against these, I will argue that it makes more sense for a coherent liberalism to incorporate group rights than to deny them. I aim to achieve this in two main argumentative steps: by establishing the link between groups, identity and human dignity, and by borrowing the phrase ‘standard threat to human dignity’ (Donnelly 2013: 49) to identify groups that can bear group rights – whose protection is necessary to safeguard the dignity that, arguably, is the very thing that provides the foundation for any human rights claims in the first place. In Part 1, I set out the liberal view. In Part 2, I make my first main argumentative move by identifying a powerful relation between groups and human dignity through the idea of identity. In Part 3, I examine the objection that, even accepting the value of certain groups, group rights can be reduced to individual rights, or that group rights pose too great a danger to individuals and their liberties to go any further with the idea. I respond that, were liberalism to accept either of these objections, it would leave important work undone. In Part 4, once the possibility of group rights has been established, I examine their place in relation to other rights. The important question is not the ontological ‘what is a group?’ but the normative question, ‘what kind of group has the moral weight to be entitled to group rights?’ I make my second main argumentative move by suggesting a ‘standard threat to human dignity’ (Donnelly 2013: 49) condition that answers the normative question: what is at stake is the protection of the groups that, as established in Part 2, are an indispensable part of the identity and human dignity that grounds human rights claims in the first place. This discussion leads to an answer to the more basic question about the moral status of groups. In Part 5, I conclude that it makes more sense for a coherent liberalism to incorporate group rights than to deny them.

Cleavage, Ideology and Identity. Explaining the Linkage between Representatives and Interest Groups

This article critically evaluates explanatory theories about how representatives, and more specifically members of parliament (MPs), connect with interest groups. Central to this are the crucial questions of whether these contacts are party-based or identity-based. Our analysis includes five kinds of groups: two traditional cleavage-based groups (blue-collar workers and employers) with well-established contacts between parties (respectively, social-democratic and conservative parties) and interest groups (trade unions and employers' organisations) on the one hand, and three newer groups in society (women, young people and the elderly), on the other hand. Our analysis is based on the data Partirep MP Survey, which contains information about characteristics, attitudes and behaviour of regional and federal MPs in 15 European countries.

Maintaining patients' social contacts through displaying nonverbal awareness information on mobile devices.

Awareness systems had been invented for supporting groups collaborating simultaneously over a network. They provide each group member with real-time information about the state of affairs on the remote locations of the other members. Awareness systems have also been observed to help remote collaborators develop the same shared sense of community that often emerges within co-located work groups, and this effect of creating or maintaining group cohesion is an important goal in itself. Purely social awareness systems can be employed by any kind of group, e.g. families, without shared work tasks. As a means of preventing loneliness they can be regarded as examples of biomedical technology. In this paper a demonstrator of an awareness-enhanced instant messaging system for elderly living alone is described along with assumptions about group processes that led to its specification.

Delay guaranteed VoD services over group-based integrated fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks with energy efficiency

In group-based fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks, where wireless clients are divided into several groups according to their interested Internet services, VoD services will meet new challenges considering the diversity of video requesting probability for each wireless group. In this paper, we categorize wireless groups into “video-hot” group with great interest in VoD services and “video-cold” group with infrequent video requesting. For video requests from “video-hot” groups, we firstly propose an energy-efficient optical network unit (ONU) selection approach to reduce ONU power consumption by selecting a subset of ONUs to support such requests, then our previously proposed rebroadcast and patching scheme can be effectively applied. For video requests from “video-cold” groups, a batched multicasting scheme is presented for energy and bandwidth saving. Both of the VoD schemes mentioned in this study are with the aim to minimize worst-case playback delay (WPD) which is particularly important as Internet users. In view of that some ONUs may need to handle video requests from two kinds of group, optimal ONU channel assignment aims to minimize weighted overall WPD is also studied. The efficiency of the work is finally demonstrated by the simulations.

F-formation detection: individuating free-standing conversational groups in images.

Detection of groups of interacting people is a very interesting and useful task in many modern technologies, with application fields spanning from video-surveillance to social robotics. In this paper we first furnish a rigorous definition of group considering the background of the social sciences: this allows us to specify many kinds of group, so far neglected in the Computer Vision literature. On top of this taxonomy we present a detailed state of the art on the group detection algorithms. Then, as a main contribution, we present a brand new method for the automatic detection of groups in still images, which is based on a graph-cuts framework for clustering individuals; in particular, we are able to codify in a computational sense the sociological definition of F-formation, that is very useful to encode a group having only proxemic information: position and orientation of people. We call the proposed method Graph-Cuts for F-formation (GCFF). We show how GCFF definitely outperforms all the state of the art methods in terms of different accuracy measures (some of them are brand new), demonstrating also a strong robustness to noise and versatility in recognizing groups of various cardinality.

Two Kinds of Universals and Two Kinds of Groups

No abstract.

Liability, community, and just conduct in war

Those of us who are not pacifists face an obvious challenge. Common-sense morality contains a stringent constraint on intentional killing, yet war involves homicide on a grand scale. If wars are to be morally justified, it needs be shown how this conflict can be reconciled. A major fault line running throughout the contemporary just war literature divides two approaches to attempting this reconciliation. On a ‘reductivist’ view, defended most prominently by Jeff McMahan, the conflict is largely illusory, since such killing can be justified by aggregating individuals’ ordinary permissions to use force in self- and other-defence. In opposition, a rival ‘nonreductivist’ approach holds that these considerations are insufficient for the task. One prominent version of non-reductivism grounds the permission to kill in combatants’ membership in certain kinds of group or association. The key claim is that participation in certain morally important relationships can provide an independent source of permission for killing in war. This paper argues that non-reductivism should be rejected. It does so by pushing a dilemma onto non-reductivists: if they are successful in showing that the relevant relationships can generate permissions to kill in war, they must also jettison the most intuitive restrictions on conduct in war—the constraint on intentionally killing morally innocent non-combatants most saliently. Since this conclusion is unacceptable, non-reductivism should be rejected.

Genetic Diversity of Main Inbred Indica Rice Varieties Applied in Guangdong Province as Revealed by Molecular Marker

Genetic diversity of 299 inbred indica rice varieties, including 33 introduced varieties, applied in Guangdong Province of China were assessed using 20 ILP (intron length polymorphism) and 34 SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. Totally, 154 loci were screened for the 299 varieties, with the average number of alleles (Na), rare alleles (Nr), and polymorphism information content (PIC) scored at 3.4, 0.7 and 0.32, respectively. The Nei's genetic distance (GD) was estimated ranging from 0 to 0.7529 with an average of 0.4797. There was no significant difference of Na, Nr, PIC or GDs between the introduced and local varieties. Neighbor-joining (NJ) analysis showed that the 299 varieties failed into three main distinct groups, and the 33 introduced varieties were distributed over all the groups or subgroups. Model-based cluster analysis demonstrated that only 73 (24.4%) of the 299 varieties and 7 (21.2%) of the 33 introduced varieties could be distinctly classified into the three groups. Analysis of molecular variance showed that within the groups divided by NJ analysis, the genetic variations revealed by ILP, SSR and these two combined were 7.7%, 5.6% and 6.6%, and within the groups divided by region (Guangdong local and the introduced varieties), the genetic variables were 2.1%, 4.6%, 5.4%, respectively. These results suggested that the genetic diversity of the 299 inbred rice varieties in Guangdong Province was low, simultaneously relationship among varieties was poor and close in all kind of groups. Hence, it is very necessary to extend the genetic diversity during the breeding and selection practical procedure.

한국 기혼 성인자녀의 노부모 부양 스트레스가 우울감에 미치는 영향

본 연구의 목적은 노부모를 부양하는 성인자녀의 부양스트레스가 우울감에 미치는 영향을 파악하는데 있다. 이를 위해 2014년 1월 2월 충남의 H 대학의 대학원생을 조사원으로 활용하여 노부모부양에 책임이 있는 기혼의 성인자녀를 대상으로 편의표집을 하였으며, 350부를 배포하여 최종적으로 307명의 자료를 분석에 사용하였다. 성인자녀의 부양스트레스의 신뢰도는 .94, 우울감의 신뢰도는 .92로 높은 것으로 나타났다. 연구결과, 첫째, 노부모 부양 성인의 우울감은 평균 2.56점, 부양스트레스는 평균 2.53점으로 보통수준이하로 낮았다. 둘째, 기혼 성인자녀의 부양스트레스는 여성인 경우, 50대 이상, 농촌에 거주, 경제수준이 낮은 경우 더 높았다. 우울감은 배우자가 없는 경우, 경제수준이 낮은 경우 더 높았다. 셋째, 기혼 성인자녀의 경제수준이 낮을수록, 부양 스트레스가 높을수록 우울감이 높은 것으로 나타났다. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between caregivng stress and depression of the caregiver. The data was collected through by a survey on to married adults who are responsible for the care of old parents. The survey(by purposive sampling) was conducted over the course of for the three months duration from Jan. to Feb. 2014. A total of Finally, 307 copies of the questionnaire retrieved were used for analysis. First, in the case of women, those in their 50s or over, and in the all both gender cases, those who live in rural area, and those who perceive their economic levels as 'low' tend to have higher caregivng stress than other kinds of groups. Second, those who do not have spouses, and those who perceive their economic levels as 'low' tend to have higher depression than other kinds of groups, and those who hold the whole responsibility of caring old parents had a severe high depression. Third, it was found that the greater higher the caregivng stress of caregivers get, the more serious higher their stresses become get.