Measures Of Cohesion Research Articles

Analysis of patterns of livestock movements in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda for risk-based surveillance of infectious diseases.

The knowledge of animal movements is key to formulating strategic animal disease control policies and carrying out targeted surveillance. This study describes the characteristics of district-level cattle, small ruminant, and pig trade networks in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda between 2019 and 2021. The data for the study was extracted from 7,043 animal movement permits (AMPs) obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) of Uganda. Most of the data was on cattle (87.2%), followed by small ruminants (11.2%) and pigs (1.6%). Two types of networks representing animal shipments between districts were created for each species based on monthly (n = 30) and seasonal (n = 10) temporal windows. Measures of centrality and cohesiveness were computed for all the temporal windows and our analysis identified the most central districts in the networks. The median in-degree for monthly networks ranged from 0-3 for cattle, 0-1 for small ruminants and 0-1 for pigs. The highest median out-degrees for cattle, small ruminant and pig monthly networks were observed in Lira, Oyam and Butambala districts, respectively. Unlike the pig networks, the cattle and small ruminant networks were found to be of small-world and free-scale topologies. The cattle and small ruminant trade movement networks were also found to be highly connected, which could facilitate quick spread of infectious animal diseases across these networks. The findings from this study highlighted the significance of characterizing animal movement networks to inform surveillance, early detection, and subsequent control of infectious animal disease outbreaks.

Cluster analysis of a large dataset of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: Predicting response to treatment

ObjectivesThe purpose of the current study was to apply Two-step cluster analysis on a large dataset of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). We hypothesized that there are distinct subgroups of patients with similar clinical characteristics. We also hypothesized that the seizure outcome is different between these clusters. MethodsThis was a retrospective study of a prospectively developed database. All patients with a diagnosis of JME were studied at the epilepsy center at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, from 2008 until 2022. The Two-Step cluster analysis (Schwarz's Bayesian Criterion) was applied to the whole dataset. In the next step, the seizure outcome was compared between the clusters of patients. ResultsTwo hundred and ninety-five patients were included. Two-Step cluster analysis showed that there were two distinct clusters of homogeneous subgroups of patients with JME, presenting with more or less similar clinical characteristics, with a fair (0.4) silhouette measure of cohesion and separation. One hundred and eighty-one patients had a follow up duration of 12 months or longer at our center. Response to treatment at 12 months of follow-up was different between the clusters (as a trend): 43 patients (39.1%) from cluster 1 and 18 people (25.4%) from cluster 2 were free of all seizure types (p = 0.076). ConclusionThe Two-Step cluster analysis identified two distinct clusters of patients with JME. Individuals with JME, who also have absence seizures, are less likely to enjoy a seizure free state with ASMs.

Institutionalizing Voluntary Blood Donation: Explaining the Cross-National Variance in the Approval of Paid Blood or Plasma Donation in Europe

Inspired by the analytical shift toward understanding altruism from an institutional perspective, this article presents an empirical analysis of the impact of institutionalized solidarity on attitudes toward payment for blood or plasma donations, in terms of both the level of welfare provision and confidence in the welfare system. Postulating that institutionalized solidarity is intertwined with group-based solidarity, this article offers a more refined understanding of the relationship between institutional context and attitudes toward paid donation by incorporating measures of social cohesion in the analysis. Based on Eurobarometer data from 2014, the results indicate that support for cash payment for donation is lower in European countries where social spending is higher. Similarly, aggregated levels of trust in the social security system are associated with less support for payment for donation. These findings point to the importance of institutionalized solidarity for the manifestation of support for non-remunerated blood and plasma donation.

Group Cohesion in Psychoeducational Groups with Latinos: Examining Cultural Correlates

ABSTRACT Group psychotherapy is an effective therapeutic modality for the treatment of many mental health and related issues. Group therapy is cost-effective and could decrease barriers to mental health services for ethnic minority populations, including Latinx people. Group cohesion is a therapeutic factor associated with positive outcomes in group psychotherapy according to meta-analyses. While information exists regarding the associations of group cohesion to other variables that may affect the effectiveness of group psychotherapy, there is no published research exploring the relationships between group cohesion and the Latinx cultural correlates of acculturation, machismo, caballerismo, marianismo, personalismo, individualism, and collectivism. We analyzed pre- and post-data from 235 Latinx college students who participated in eight sessions of one of two types of psychoeducational groups (one for dating violence prevention and one for stress management), using a multivariate general linear model (GLM) examining the relationships between our gender and cultural variables on two total group cohesion measures (GCS and GSRS). This finding partially supports our hypotheses regarding the association between cultural correlates and group cohesion: collectivistic attitudes among Latinx group members were associated with improved group cohesion. These findings have relevance for the implementation of group psychotherapy with Latinx people.

A Component Selection Framework of Cohesion and Coupling Metrics

Component-based software engineering is concerned with the development of software that can satisfy the customer prerequisites through reuse or independent development. Coupling and cohesion measurements are primarily used to analyse the better software design quality, increase the reliability and reduced system software complexity. The complexity measurement of cohesion and coupling component to analyze the relationship between the component module. In this paper, proposed the component selection framework of Hexa-oval optimization algorithm for selecting the suitable components from the repository. It measures the interface density modules of coupling and cohesion in a modular software system. This cohesion measurement has been taken into two parameters for analyzing the result of complexity, with the help of low cohesion and high cohesion. In coupling measures between the component of inside parameters and outside parameters. The final process of coupling and cohesion, the measured values were used for the average calculation of components parameter. This paper measures the complexity of direct and indirect interaction among the component as well as the proposed algorithm selecting the optimal component for the repository. The better result is observed for high cohesion and low coupling in component-based software engineering.

Examinatıon of basketball players' team cohesion levels according to some variables

This study was applied to measure the team cohesion of basketball players playing in the Türkiye Basketball Leagues in terms of some variables. In the research, two different forms have been used. First of these forms, the personal data form is prepared by a researcher to collect data about the active basketball period of the participants, their league category, camping with the team at the start of the season, and the duration of their presence in the team. The second is the Moralı data form developed by Neil W. Widmeyer, Lawrence R. Brawley and Albert Carron (1985) The Measurement of Cohesion in Sports Team Inventory adapted to Türkiye by 1994. The research group consists of a total of 266 basketball players actively playing in the Türkiye Basketball Leagues. The scale and personal data form were applied to the basketball players who participated in the study with the online method using the purposeful sampling method. The data obtained as a result of the research were analyzed in the SPSS.22 program. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data, a t-test for independent groups was used in pairwise group comparisons, and a one-way analysis of variance ANOVA test was used to compare multiple groups. In addition, posthoc tests were used to know the way of the difference among groups. The significance level was taken as 0.05 in the interpretation of the results. The cohesion levels of the basketball players participating in the study were mostly at a better level. Keywords: Basketball, team cohesion, basketball players.

OLDER PEOPLE'S ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION (OPAP): FACTOR STRUCTURE AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF A SCALE

Abstract Older people’s participation in activities is critical to their health and well-being. Active lifestyle in old age reduces the risk of mortality, prevents chronic diseases, promotes physical and mental wellbeing, and is conducive to active and healthy aging. While various measures of participation have been proposed, a holistic measure that includes both social and individual activity participation is currently unavailable. To enable lifestyle medicine recommendations, we developed the Older People’s Activity Participation (OPAP) scale to understand the constituent factors of older people’s everyday activities. This study examined OPAP’s internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha, convergent validity using regression analysis, as well as factor structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in a dense urban setting. Preliminary items assessed engagement in 27 health-related, fitness, recreational, social, productive, and cognitive activities, and were administered to 270 community-dwelling adults aged 50 and older in Singapore. The 17-item OPAP showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha= .69), and demonstrated convergence with a validated measure of social cohesion (B=.27, p<.001) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (B=.32, p<.001). It has a 5-factor structure, namely socializing (alpha=.63), physical training (alpha=.56), listening (alpha=.69), home-making (alpha=.59), and outing (alpha=.58). Acceptable model fit was obtained (RMSEA=0.48, SRMR=0.06, CFI=.90). The OPAP scale is valid and reliable to assess activity participation in Asian older adults. It can be a useful tool to understand older people’s everyday life and lifestyles, relationships between activity participation and health outcomes, and further guide the development and use of effective interventions to promote active and healthy aging.

Relationship among interpersonal stressors in adolescence, social support buffers, and obesity in adulthood 14 years later.

Early life stress may be linked to adult obesity. Alternatively, social support can buffer the effects of stress. The study's objective was to examine in a nationally representative sample, whether adolescent interpersonal and financial stress predict later obesity in adulthood and whether social support and social cohesion might buffer this effect. The sample includes 6,504 participants across four waves in the Add Health dataset. Researchers created a structural equation model whereby latent measures of interpersonal stress and financial stress during adolescence were used to predict obesity (Body Mass Index, BMI ≥ 30) at Wave 4, 14 years later. Latent measures of social support and social cohesion were added to observe whether they buffered the effect of stress on adult BMI. Covariates included race/ethnicity, gender, self-rated health, smoking status, and age. In an initial model of interpersonal and financial stressors and covariates predicting BMI, interpersonal stress (p < .001) but not financial stress (p > .05) predicted adult BMI. In the full model including stressors, buffers and covariates, social support (p < .001) and social cohesion (p = .038) negatively predicted adult BMI, and they covaried with interpersonal stress in opposing directions, buffering the effects of interpersonal stress on adult BMI. Stressful interpersonal life events in adolescence such as having family members in jail or being the victim of a crime are linked to adult obesity 14 years later. However, these stress effects are buffered by the effects of social support and social cohesion, which are linked to lower adult BMI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Using the Conceptual Framework for Examining Sport Teams to Understand Group Dynamics in Professional Soccer

(1) Background: The aim of this study is to propose a model of the interactions of group dynamics using the conceptual framework to examine sports teams; (2) Methods: The hypothesized model includes measures of group structure (authentic leadership, perceived justice, coaching competency, role clarity/ambiguity, and role conflict), group cohesion (cohesion and team conflict), and group processes (collective efficacy and transactive memory systems). Participants were 581 professional soccer players (M = 24.51, SD = 3.73; 356 males and 225 females) who completed a multisection questionnaire assessing group dynamics variables; (3) Results: The results show that coach leadership predicts coaching competency and perceived justice, and both competency and justice predict role ambiguity and role conflict. Furthermore, role ambiguity and role conflict predict group cohesion and team conflict, whereas group cohesion and team conflict both predict the transactive memory system. Finally, collective efficacy is predicted by the transactive memory system; (4) Conclusions: The results suggest the importance of coach behavior (leadership, justice, and competency) and group processes to improving team functioning in a professional sports context.

Daily stress, family functioning and mental health among Palestinian couples in Israel during COVID-19: A moderated mediation model.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a range of stressors, among them difficulties related to work conditions, financial changes, lack of childcare, and confinement or isolation due to social distancing. Among families and married individuals, these stressors were often expressed in additional daily hassles, with an influence on mental health. This study examined two moderated mediation models based on Bodenmann's systemic-transactional stress model. Specifically, the models tested the hypothesis that intra-dyadic stress mediates the association between extra-dyadic stress and mental health, while two measures of family functioning, cohesion and flexibility, moderate the relationship between extra and intra-dyadic stress. Participants were 480 Palestinian adults in Israel who completed self-report questionnaires. All were in opposite-sex marriages and identified as either cisgender women or cisgender men. The results showed partial mediation patterns supporting both models, indicating that family cohesion and flexibility weakened the mediating effect of intra-dyadic stress on the relationship between extra-dyadic stress and mental health. These findings increase our understanding of the variables that affected mental health during the pandemic, and suggest that when faced with extra-dyadic stress, married individuals with good family environments are less likely to experience high levels of intra-dyadic stress, which is in turn associated with preserved mental health. Limitations and implications for planning interventions for couples and families during the pandemic are discussed.

On pathways and agreement: Objective and perceived accounts of neighbourhood attributes and their associations with mental health during pregnancy

There is growing interest in understanding the links between neighbourhood environmental attributes (i.e. greenness, walkability and air pollution) and human health. Recent research has analysed the mediating role of a diverse set of potential factors and studied the agreement between objective and perceived modalities of those attributes. In this study, we explored the connections between objective neighbourhood attributes, their perceived accounts and mental health during pregnancy, using a measure of social cohesion as potential mediator with data from two samples of pregnant women recruited during the 12th week of pregnancy in two Spanish cities (Donostialdea, n = 440; Barcelona n = 364). Besides, we ran analyses on the agreement between objective and perceived measures. We fitted four separate Structural Equation Models and detected associations between objective neighbourhood attributes and mental health occurred only through their perceived counterparts and the strengthening of social cohesion. We also found poor to fair agreement between greenness measures in both cities, walkability measures only in Donostialdea, and were unable to detect any meaningful agreement between air pollution variables. Using rescaled versions of neighbourhood attribute variables and in some instances, we saw that the higher the objective value of a given attribute, the larger the differences between objective and perceived accounts of such attributes.

Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ad Hoc League of Legends Teams

Team cohesion is a widely known predictor of performance and collaborative satisfaction. However, how it develops and can be assessed, especially in fast-paced ad hoc dynamic teams, remains unclear. An unobtrusive and objective behavioural measure of cohesion would help identify determinants of cohesion in these teams. We investigated team communication as a potential measure in a mixed-methods study with 48 teams (n=135) in the digital game League of Legends. We first established that cohesion shows similar performance and satisfaction in League of Legends. teams as in non-game teams and confirmed a positive relationship between communication word frequency and cohesion. Further, we conducted an in-depth exploratory qualitative analysis of the communication sequences in a high-cohesion and a low-cohesion team. High cohesion is associated with sequences of apology-&gt;encouragement, suggestion-&gt;agree/acknowledge, answer-&gt;answer, and answer-&gt;question, while low-cohesion is associated with sequences of opinion/analysis-&gt;opinion/analysis, disagree-&gt;disagree, command-&gt;disagree, and frustration-&gt;frustration. Our findings also show that cohesion is important to team satisfaction independently of the match outcomes. We highlight that communication sequences are more useful than frequencies to determine team cohesion via player interactions.

Can We Detect Non-playable Characters’ Personalities Using Machine And Deep Learning Approaches?

Personality recognition and computational psychometrics data have become prevalent in personnel selection processes. Such assessment tools are adequate for human resources seeking tools to assess a large volume of diverse player personalities in the current "war of talents." Recently, studies about using Gamified situational judgment test approaches have shown positive results in assessing players' behavior and personality.&#x0D; Gamified situational judgment tests combine the advantages of gamification, such as enhancing players' reactions and flow state, with the acknowledged traditional situational judgment test approach. To gamify a situational judgment test, an innovative approach using the visual novel game genre has shown positive results in the gamification by adding game elements such as narrative scripts, non-player characters, dialogs, and audiovisual assets to the test. Indeed, these elements play an essential role in the validity of the players' personality results by using a stealth-assessment method to minimize social bias and player's stress. However, to our knowledge, as gamification in personality detection is still recent, little is known on the possible positive outcomes of designing game elements such as the dialogues and non-player character personalities in the validity of the team cohesion measure. To this end, we propose an empirical study to build personality trait models based on non-players characters' speeches. &#x0D; We used the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator based on four dichotomies to classify the personalities as one of companies and organizations' most used personality typology. For each of the four dimensions, we train twenty-four separate binary classifiers and one 16-class classifier, using well-established machine learning and a convolutional neural network in the domain of natural language processing, text analytics, and computational psychometrics. The results of this study show that it is possible to recognize non-playable characters’ personalities and thus can help game designers to understand their characters' personalities using natural language processing.

Interrelationship among spatial cohesion, aggression rate, counter-aggression and female dominance in three lemur species

How social and ecological factors are associated with variation in dominance style across species of animals has been studied frequently, but the underlying processes are often not addressed. Theoretical research indicates that stronger spatial cohesion among individuals in a group causes a higher frequency of fighting and, thus, through the self-reinforcing effects of winning and losing fights, a stronger differentiation of the dominance hierarchy and dominance of females over more males. Our aim in the present paper is to study whether the same interrelationship among processes may underlie differences in dominance style among three species of lemur that differ in their degree of despotism: Lemur catta, Propithecus verreauxi and Eulemur rufifrons. We investigated their agonistic interactions and spatial cohesion based on 2752 h of observational data of 20 wild groups of these three species. We determined dominance style using the proportion of counter-aggression, with a lower proportion indicating a more despotic dominance style. We found that stronger spatial cohesion among individuals is associated with a higher rate of aggression, stronger despotism and dominance of females over more males. The results of our study emphasise the general importance of spatial cohesion in determining dominance style.Significance statementTheoretical studies have shown that the spatial configuration of individuals in a group influences the dominance style. In an agent-based model, DomWorld, individuals are guided by simple rules of grouping and fighting and emergent patterns of behaviour switch between resembling those of despotic or egalitarian primates depending on the degree of cohesion in groups. Yet this link has seldom been studied empirically. We, therefore, examine the relevance of spatial cohesion on patterns of behaviour of individuals in groups of three species of lemur. We confirm the predictions from the model and show that stronger spatial cohesion results in more frequent aggression, a more despotic dominance style and stronger female dominance over males. In light of this, we urge future research of animal dominance to include measures of cohesion.

Team Situation Awareness, Cohesion, and Autonomic Synchrony.

This study evaluated the causal relationships among situation awareness (SA), cohesion, and autonomic synchrony (SE) within teams. SA is often a team effort and should be more accurate in better-functioning teams. Cohesive teams perform better overall, although the relationship appears reciprocal; the relationship to SA has not been considered previously. SE is a collective neurocognitive activity that has been connected to team coordination, communication, and performance in some circumstances. In this experiment, 71 undergraduates, organized into 16 teams, played two matches of a first-person shooter computer game and completed self-report measures of cohesion and SA. SE was determined through time series analysis of electrodermal responses using the driver-empath framework. Empaths and those who came from more synchronized teams reported less cohesion in the team. Granger causality regression showed reciprocal relations among SA, SE, and cohesion that were both positive and negative after controlling for match difficulty. The cohesion-SA relationship is similar to the reciprocal cohesion-performance relationship. SE plays an important and independent role in both the social and cognitive aspects of team behavior. It is possible, furthermore, that individuals who are more attuned to their co-workers reported a more accurate, and less obliging, social situation. Results are applicable to situations requiring teamwork in a dynamic environment.

Synergistic antioxidant activity of selected medicinal plants in Brunei Darussalam and its application in developing fortified pasta.

Developing functional foods by utilizing plants can often lead to compromised sensory properties. Thus this study investigates the combination of plants to produce synergistic effects and to incorporate these plant powders into a pasta formulation without affecting its sensory acceptance. Six common Brunei medicinal plants were evaluated for their in vitro antioxidant activity determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity (IC50 ), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenziazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assay. Aqueous extracts of Amaranthus tricolor, Breynia androgyna, Manihot esculenta, Polygonum minus, Apium graveolens and Coriandrum sativum were prepared. Breynia androgyna had the highest FRAP value of 74.3 ± 5.33 mg g-1 ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE), with DPPH IC50 antioxidant activity of 70.3 ± 3.14 μg mL-1 and ABTS scavenging activity of 44.0 ± 2.80 mg g-1 AAE. This correlates well with the total flavonoid, flavonol and phenolic content (50.5 mg g-1 gallic acid equivalents (GAE), 50.6 mg g-1 GAE and 24.3 mg g-1 GAE, respectively). Plant species powders were combined in pairs and evaluated for their synergistic antioxidant properties. With potential synergistic plant mixtures, fortification of these mixtures into functional food can be developed to improve its overall antioxidant capacity. Based on the synergistic IC50 results of these mixtures, three fortified pastas were formulated by incorporating selected plant powder combinations of Amaranthus tricolor + P. minus, Apium graveolens + P. minus, and P. minus + B. androgyna into wheat pasta at 1:100 (w/w). Fortification of pasta with the plant powder blends resulted a significant increase in DPPH antioxidant activity, while successfully maintaining indistinguishable features from the control pasta, including minimal cooking loss, agreeable measure of cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness, with good overall sensory acceptability. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Unpacking the contribution of linguistic features to graph writing quality: An analytic scoring approach

Previous research on L2 writing quality has mostly focused on independent writing, and there is little empirical work on integrated writing quality. Furthermore, the majority of studies on L2 writing quality have adopted holistic scoring for writing assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate the contribution of linguistic features, i.e. measures of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, cohesion, and linguistic accuracy, to scores of content, organization, and language use in graph writing, which is far less researched. Two hundred and forty-three undergraduate Iranian students described a graph with few visual chunks and a familiar topic. The findings of stepwise regression revealed that content nominals per clause and lexical diversity contributed to content and language use scores, linguistic accuracy could predict the scores of organization and language use, and contrastive and temporal connectives and temporal cohesion were predictive of the scores in all the three subscales. Moreover, some important discrepancies were observed between the raters’ scores to a subscale and its linguistic predictors. Implications for writing research, pedagogy, and assessment are offered. • Linguistic features contribute to the subscales of graph writing in different ways. • Complex nominals per clause predicted content and language use scores. • Lexical diversity was the strongest predictor of content scores. • Cohesion contributed to all the three subscales. • Linguistic accuracy was the best predictor of language use scores.

Stakeholder Network Analysis for Front-of-Pack Labeling in China.

BackgroundFront-of-pack (FoP) labeling on packaged foods is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce diet-related non-communicable diseases, but it has not yet been implemented in China. The introduction of FoP labeling is driven by multiple institutions and stakeholders. This study aimed to identify key institutional actors involved in FoP labeling and describe links between actors to support future FoP labeling policies and programmes in China.MethodsThe Net-Map method was adopted. We conducted Net-map activities with eight participants using face-to-face interviews between November 2020 and May 2021. Participants were asked to identify actors involved in the development and implementation of FoP labeling in China, describe networks among actors according to pre-defined link types (command, dissemination, funding, and technical assistance), and estimate influence of each actor within the FoP labeling landscape. Social network analysis measures of cohesion and centrality were used to describe each network. Gephi software was used for social network analysis and network visualization.ResultsForty-one unique actors were identified across seven actor categories including government agencies (n = 14), technical support agencies (n = 7), professional associations (n = 10), food industry groups (n = 2), media groups (n = 4), international organizations (n = 3), and a consumer group (n = 1). Weighted influence scores among actors ranged from 0.13 to 3.13. The Department of Food Safety Standards, Risk Surveillance and Assessment of the National Health Commission (DFSSRSA of NHC) was the actor with the highest weighted influence score, followed by the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control of National Health Commission, Chinese Nutrition Society, and the National Institute for Nutrition and Health of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. DFSSRSA of NHC played a central role in both command and technical assistance networks. State-owned media had the greatest betweenness and outdegree centrality in the dissemination network. The Chinese Nutrition Society was in the central position and provided funding to diverse actors in the funding network.ConclusionsA variety of multisectoral actors have an interest in the introduction of FoP labeling policies and programmes. Effectively engaging key actors identified in this study can generate a multisectoral commitment to advance FoP labeling policies and programmes in China.

Mortality Risk Stratification Using Cluster Analysis in Patients With Myositis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease Receiving Initial Triple-Combination Therapy.

ObjectiveTo stratify patients with polymyositis/dermatomyositis-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) who were initially treated with an intensive regimen consisting of high-dose corticosteroids, a calcineurin inhibitor, and intravenous cyclophosphamide (triple-combo therapy) into subgroups based on mortality outcomes by a cluster analysis using a large-scale multicenter retrospective cohort of Japanese patients with myositis-associated ILD (JAMI).MethodsTwo-step cluster analysis of preclustering and subsequent hierarchical clustering was conducted in 185 patients who received triple-combo therapy in an unbiased manner. Initial predictors for mortality previously reported in patients with myositis-associated ILD were used as variables and included age, sex, disease duration, classification of myositis, requirement of supplemental oxygen, anti-aminoacyl tRNA synthetase (ARS) antibody, anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) antibody, and serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6). The cluster model was further applied to 283 patients who received conventional regimens consisting of corticosteroids with or without a single immunosuppressive agent (dual-combo therapy or monotherapy). Cumulative survival rates were compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis, and the log-rank test was used to test for significant differences between two groups.ResultsWe developed a cluster model consisting of 6 clusters, which were categorized by age at onset, clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis, CRP, KL-6, requirement of supplemental oxygen, anti-ARS antibody, and anti-MDA5 antibody. This model was judged to be of good quality based on the silhouette measure of cohesion and separation of 0.6. These clusters were regrouped into three subsets based on low (<10%), moderate (10-50%), and high (>50%) mortality rates. The performance of the clustering was generally replicated in patients who received initial dual-combo therapy or monotherapy. Survival benefits of triple-combo therapy over dual-combo therapy or monotherapy were not observed in any of the clusters.ConclusionWe successfully developed a cluster model that stratified patients with myositis-associated ILD who were treated with initial triple-combo therapy into subgroups with different prognoses, although this model failed to identify a patient subgroup that showed survival benefits from triple-combo therapy over dual-combo therapy or monotherapy.

Dynamics and disruption: Structural and individual changes in two Dutch Jihadi networks after police interventions

Longitudinal studies of criminal networks are rare yet necessary to assess the adaptation and recovery of criminal networks after disruptions. We study the structural and individual effects of law enforcement disruption on criminal networks using longitudinal data on two Dutch jihadi networks (n1 = 57; n2 = 26). We expect that actors in criminal networks under disruption seek security and to remain concealed as much as possible. We argue how the structural properties of networks as well as mechanisms operating at the actor level might change after a disruption. We used descriptive measures of network cohesion together with core-periphery model fit and modularity to analyse the structural changes in the networks. To obtain the actor-level tendencies, we used undirected stochastic actor oriented models. At the structural level, both networks display opposite tendencies – the larger one is becoming less cohesive after the disruption, whereas the smaller network counter-intuitively becomes structurally more cohesive. Despite the structural differences, the actor-level mechanisms are similar in both studied networks with actors being inclined towards triadic closure and reliance on pre-existing ties. Our study demonstrates the importance of considering the analytical levels of networks and actors by showing that a disruption may disrupt the network at the structural level, while triggering contradictory unintended consequences by increasing individual-level connectivity as in the case of our second network.