Pre-existing Social Networks Research Articles

Appraisal Support from Natural Mentors, Self-worth, and Psychological Distress: Examining the Experiences of Underrepresented Students Transitioning Through College.

The current study explored whether cumulative appraisal support from as many as five natural mentors (i.e., nonparental adults from youth's pre-existing social networks who serve a mentoring role in youth's lives) led to reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety via improved global self-worth among underrepresented college students. Participants in the current study included 340 college students (69% female) attending a 4-year, predominantly White institution of higher education. Participants were first-generation college students, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and/or students from underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups. Participants completed surveys during the Fall and Spring of their first year of college and in the Spring of their second and third years of college. Results of the structural equation model (including gender, race/ethnicity, and extraversion as covariates) indicated that greater total appraisal support from natural mentoring relationships predicted decreases in students' psychological distress via increases in self-worth (indirect effects assessed via boot-strapped confidence intervals; 95% CI). The strength of association between appraisal support and self-worth was not moderated by the proportion of academic natural mentors. Findings from the current study extend previous research by measuring multiple natural mentoring relationships and pinpointing supportive exchanges that may be of particular consequence for the promotion of healthy youth development. Institutional efforts to reinforce pre-existing natural mentoring relationships and encourage the onset of new natural mentoring relationships may serve to bolster the well-being and success of underrepresented students attending predominantly White universities.

Speaker Identification in Whisper

Sociophonetic methods and findings have value in application to real-life issues, including providing expert forensic evidence in legal cases. Forensic cases often involve voices which differ markedly from those typically encountered in laboratory or field studies. We assess the ability of people to identify familiar voices produced in whisper, a commonly used form of disguise. Members of a pre-existing social network were recorded speaking normally and in whisper. Speakers found it difficult to maintain whisper beyond 30 seconds. They and other members of the group listened to extracts that were (i) short and whispered, (ii) long and whispered, and (iii) short and normal (non-whispered). Foils were also included. Performance was well above chance, and improved significantly in conditions (ii) and (iii). Differences were found across listeners and voices. The study emphasises how important is it not to overgeneralise from experimental data to a witness’s ability under forensic conditions.********************************************************************Identificação de falante a partir de fala sussurradaResumo: Os métodos e achados sociofonéticos são valiosos para aplicação a questões da vida real, como no fornecimento de evidência forense pericial em casos legais. Os casos forenses envolvem vozes que se diferem marcadamente daquelas tipicamente encontradas em laboratório ou estudos de campo. Avaliamos a habilidade de pessoas de identificar vozes familiares produzidas de forma sussurrada, uma estratégia de disfarce comumente utilizada. Membros de uma rede social pré-existente foram gravados falando normalmente e de forma sussurrada. Os falantes consideraram difícil manter o sussurro por mais do que 30 segundos. Esses falantes e outros membros do grupo ouviram trechos que foram (i) curtos e sussurrados; (ii) longos e sussurrados e (iii) curtos e normais (não sussurrados). Distratores foram incluídos. A performance foi bem acima do acaso e melhorou significativamente nas condições (ii) e (iii). Diferenças foram encontradas entre falantes e vozes. O estudo enfatiza o quanto é importante não supergeneralizar a partir de dados experimentais quanto à habilidade da testemunha sob condições forenses.Palavras-chave: Sociofonética; Fonética Forense; Sussurro

Constructing Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The Oncofertility Consortium as an Emerging Knowledge Commons

Sociologists of science and technology have long recognized that the twin forces of specialization and intellectual migration shape the content of scientific and technological knowledge. But while the combination of diverse tools is often a catalyst to innovation, social forces that work to preserve community boundaries can hinder such combination. How, then, do people from distinct practice communities — with different and often conflicting commitments to interpretive frameworks and research tools — come together to define and work on shared problems? This book chapter analyzes the emergence of interdisciplinary collaboration in the Interdisciplinary Research Program Consortia, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative whose goal was to foster an inter-disciplinary approach to research. The chapter focuses on the NIH-funded Oncofertility consortium at Northwestern University. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, participation in Oncofertility conferences, review of conference video records and primary literature, this case study identifies five features that facilitated collaboration in the Oncofertility consortium. First, a hierarchical, centralized and informal governance structure that was highly successful in large part because its decisions were consonant with and relied upon the underlying social norms of the research and clinical community. Second, the presence of a high status intellectual actor with a high degree of trustworthiness in the eyes of consortia members. Third, a pre-existing social network, which formed the core of the research group. Fourth, monthly face-to-face research meetings among that research core. Fifth, having a relatively closed infrastructure where information and know-how was accessible only to core group members. Open data sharing among the research core was crucial for leaps in creativity. Nevertheless, outside this core group of researchers, the consortium initially adopted a “closed” format — in which protocols, findings and access to expertise were available only to consortium members. A “closed” format appeared necessary to generate buy-in for the initial consortium members. Once the consortium was firmly established, and with a higher degree of institutionalization, the consortium became more open — sharing most of its research findings, protocols and expertise with any interested researcher or clinician. Patents did not play a prominent role in encouraging consortium research. Rather, consortium members used patents as an attributional device: all scientists interviewed valued patents almost exclusively for their ability to receive credit for their inventive contributions.Three of these features — the importance of a high status intellectual actor, a pre-existing social network, and face-to-face interactions — echo empirical findings in other case studies, providing further evidence that they constitute hallmarks of successful research commons. Future studies of scientific research consortia are needed to establish whether a close/open transition, and a hierarchical but informal governance structure, play important roles in establishing other successful interdisciplinary knowledge commons.

Tracking the dissemination of a culturally targeted brochure to promote awareness of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer among Black women

ObjectiveBlack women have a higher rate of BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA) mutations, compared with other populations, that increases their risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). However, Black women are less likely to know about HBOC and genetic testing. Based on a request from a community advisory panel of breast cancer survivors, community leaders and healthcare providers in the Black community, our team developed a culturally targeted educational brochure to promote awareness of HBOC among Black women. MethodsTo reach the target population we utilized a passive dissemination strategy. Using Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) as a framework, we traced dissemination of the brochure over a five year period using self-addressed postcards contained inside the brochure that included several open-ended questions about the utility of the brochure, and a field for written comments. Closed-ended responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis was conducted on the open-ended responses. ResultsDOI captured the proliferation of the brochure among Black women across the US. Practice implicationsThe use of passive dissemination strategies among pre-existing social networks proved to be a useful and sustainable method for increasing knowledge of HBOC among Black women.

The Promise of Kickstarter: Extents to Which Social Networks Enable Alternate Avenues of Economic Viability for Independent Musicians Through Crowdfunding

Since its inception in 2009, Kickstarter, a crowdsourced funding site, has been a platform for independent creative projects to get funding, ostensibly providing alternate routes of economic viability outside of a traditional framework of creative production and distribution. Kickstarter comes onto the scene after the proliferation of online social networking sites, through which bridging social capital ties are more easily maintained. This article investigates the ways in which independent musicians have used Kickstarter in conjunction with pre-existing social networks to fund their album and sustain themselves and their artistic endeavors economically while also exploring how social networks provide ways for these “Kickstarter campaigns” to reach potential backers (funders). Through three online surveys targeting musicians, their backers, and general Kickstarter backers, yielding a total of 61 respondents, this article finds that pre-existing personal social networks and relations are imperative to the successful funding of Kickstarter campaigns.

The Role of Social Networks in Trade Union Recruitment: The Case Study of a Radical Union in Spain

<p>In a general context of union decline, radical trade unions are experiencing a moderate growth in contemporary Spain. This article examines the channels through which workers join radical unions. It applies social network analysis to the study of recruitment in 2012 by the local branch of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. It concludes that pre-existing social networks (co-workers, family and friends) are essential in trade union recruitment. Due to the rapid growth of the local branch and to the characteristics of this union, the findings of this case study can shed light on the general debate on union membership.</p>

Digital Narrating for Contentious Politics: Social Media Content Curation at Movement Protests

Digital Narrating for Contentious Politics: Social Media Content Curation at Movement Protests

EuroMaidan Protests in Ukraine: Social Media Versus Social Networks

Employing original, on-site EuroMaidan Protest-Participant Survey data collected by the author in Kyiv between November 26, 2013, and January 13, 2014, triangulated with interview, focus group, and documentary data, the article contextualizes who was the average EuroMaidan protester and what did they want? Yet, the main focus is on the question of how the protest participants were mobilized. Making a contribution to several ongoing debates regarding the micro-level foundations of protest, the article elucidates that while social media and internet news sites played an important role in diffusing information and framing protest claims, they are not in themselves mobilizing. The author argues that social media can compound and facilitate the role of pre-existing social network ties that are more influential in the mobilization process.

Factors influencing health care access perceptions and care-seeking behaviors of immigrant Latino sexual minority men and transgender individuals: baseline findings from the HOLA intervention study.

Little is known about immigrant Latino sexual minorities’ health seeking behaviors. This study examined factors associated with perceptions of access and actual care behaviors among this population in North Carolina. A community-based participatory research partnership recruited 180 Latino sexual minority men and transgender individuals within preexisting social networks to participate in a sexual health intervention. Mixed-effects logistic regression models and GIS mapping examined factors influencing health care access perceptions and use of services (HIV testing and routine check-ups). Results indicate that perceptions of access and actual care behaviors are low and affected by individual and structural factors, including: years living in NC, reported poor general health, perceptions of discrimination, micro-, meso-, and macro-level barriers, and residence in a Medically Underserved Area. To improve Latino sexual minority health, focus must be placed on multiple levels, including: individual characteristics (e.g., demographics), clinic factors (e.g., provider competence and clinic environment), and structural factors (e.g., discrimination).

Social capital in disaster risk management; a case study of social capital mobilization following the 1934 Kathmandu Valley earthquake in Nepal

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how social capital operated in the lives of 15 respondents from Lalitpur following the massive 1934 Kathmandu Valley earthquake. Based on experiences of the survivors, it attempts to understand how individuals and families utilized their social capital in the aftermath of the earthquake, and rebuild their lives and communities.Design/methodology/approach– This is a qualitative study based on non-structured interviews and discussions with disaster victims on their own locality. Following Padgett's (2008) grounded theory approach, flexible method of data collection is adopted through interactions with respondents and following up on important cues or patterns as additional data emerged.Findings– Participants described a process through which they relied on bonding, bridging and linking social capital in different stages of earthquake response and recovery. Close ties or bonding social capital were important for immediate support, but bridging and linking social capital offered pathways to longer term survival and wider neighbourhood and community revitalization. This paper also discusses how social capital inclusion in pre-disaster communities might be helpful to strengthen their response capacity.Research limitations/implications– As the study participants were less than ten years old when the earthquake happened, they might have omitted or overlooked some important details about the event. The findings are based not only on participant's own memories, but they also shared stories told by their parents which were the indirect experiences.Practical implications– This study indicates the potential value and need for including bonding, bridging and linking social capital and traditional social networks in disaster planning. A key outcome related to disaster policy would be what institutional condition or combinations of different dimensions of social capital may serve the public for better disaster response and recovery.Originality/value– This study has paid attention to how social capital might be useful in disaster risk reduction both in post-disaster phase and in pre-disaster condition which may be rare in disaster studies. It also provides an insight into how community-based disaster management can take into account pre-existing social systems and traditional social networks to build local capacities.

Long-term bodyweight and glucose management effects of the Microclinic Social Network Health Behavioral Program in Amman, Jordan: 2-year results

Abstract Background Evidence shows that social network phenomena are major drivers of lifestyle risk factors that contribute to risks of obesity and diabetes. Since 2005, Microclinic International has pioneered the research and development of a novel social network microclinic model—a social network programme designed to propagate lifestyle change and leverage pre-existing social networks to improve health. We sought to assess the effectiveness of such a social network programme for sustaining long-term health. Methods With the Microclinic Social Network Behavioral Health Program in Jordan, patients with diabetes or prediabetes were enrolled in the 4-month Microclinic International programme, with data collection at baseline, the end of the 4-month programme, 12 months, and 24 months after baseline (between March, 2010, and April, 2012). Social clusters of two to eight individuals participated together in a programme with weekly physical activity, nutrition, health education, and social activity sessions. Multi-level repeated measures regression estimated the long-term change in weight, body-mass index (BMI), and HbA 1c during programme and follow-up. Findings Of 315 participants with a full 2-years of follow-up, 262 (83·2%) completed the 4-month programme, 283 (89·8%) returned for the 12-month follow-up, and 216 (69·6%) for the 24-month follow-up. At completion of the 4-month programme, participants lost an average of 2·89 kg (−3·84 to −1·93; p 1c . 2 years from baseline, participants maintained an average weight loss of −1·60 kg (−2·67 to −0·54; p=0·003) from baseline, −0·43 (−0·82 to −0·05) reduction in BMI, and −0·97% (−1·12 to −0·81; p 1c . Interpretation Our results show that the Microclinic Social Network Behavioral Health Program was translated well into this cultural context and participants had long-term sustained benefits in bodyweight, BMI, and glucose control. Funding BRIDGES.

Social Media and Impact on the Society

The internet has grown into a vast net of services, an indispensable work aid for hundreds of millions of users around the world. Since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. As of this writing, there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological features are fairly consistent, the cultures that emerge around SNSs are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities. Some sites cater to diverse audiences, while others attract people based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities. Sites also vary in the extent to which they incorporate new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing.

Young Adults’ Strategies for Managing Social Support During Weight-Loss Attempts

Obesity and being overweight often result in serious health problems. Despite growing awareness of the dangers associated with being overweight, many individuals struggle to lose weight. Investigators have identified social support as a key element in weight-loss attempts. Unfortunately, little has been done to investigate how people solicit social support from members of their pre-existing social network without a structured intervention. To address this limitation, I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 participants. Through grounded theory analysis of these interviews, I developed a typology of support management strategies used by overweight young adults when attempting to lose weight. I outline these strategies, their perceived success, and implications for future research in this article.

Do Interventions Change the Network? A Panel Peer-Effect Model Accounting for Endogenous Network Changes

A large literature has studied how peers affect behavior by exploiting the preexisting social network structure only. What if networks rewire in response to changes in the economic environment, such as a randomized intervention? We exploit a unique panel dataset that contains detailed information on the network of informal financial transactions before and after a field experiment that randomized access to savings accounts in Nepal. First, we show that the intervention affects the structure of the network of informal financial transactions among households. Second, we estimate a panel model of peer effects in expenditure where the network may change endogenously, and we exploit the design of the randomized intervention to instrument for the observed network change. Our results suggest that disregarding the network change would underestimate both total peer effects and the overall impact of the intervention.

2013 Late-Breaking Clinical Trial Abstracts

### Nitrites in Acute Myocardial Infarction Nishat Siddiqi1, Margaret Bruce1, Christopher J. Neil1, Graeme MacLennan2, Seonaidh Cotton2, Sofia A. Papadopoulou3, Baljit Jagpal1, Sue Brown3, Fatima Perez Gonzalez3, Satnam Singh1, Konstantin Schwarz1, Martin Feelisch4, Nicholas Bunce5, Pitt O Lim5, David Hildick-Smith6, John Horowitz7, Melanie Madhani8, Nicholas Boon9, Dana Dawson10, Juan-Carlos Kaski3, Michael P Frenneaux10. 1Dept of Cardiovascular Rsch, Univ of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 2Health Sciences Building (third floor), Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT), Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 3Cardiovascular Sciences Rsch Centre, St George’s Univ of London, London, United Kingdom, 4Faculty of Medicine, Univ of Southampton, Southampton, 5Cardiology Dept, St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust, 6Cardiology Research Unit, Brighton and Sussex Univ Hospitals, Brighton, United Kingdom, 7Basil Hetzel Unit for Translational Health Research, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, 8Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, Univ of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 9Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, Univ of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 10School of Medicine and Dentistry, Univ of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Introduction :Despite reperfusion therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure remains a major sequel. Reperfusion leads to further damage, described as ischemia-reperfusion-injury (IRI). This contributes up to 50% of the final infarct size. In pre-clinical models nitrite potently protects against IRI in the heart and other organs. Hypothesis :Intravenous (iv) sodium nitrite, administered immediately before opening of the infarct-related artery, results in significant reduction of IRI in patients with acute ST elevation MI (STEMI). Methods :In this phase II, randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicentre trial, 220 patients with first acute STEMI and TIMI 0 or 1 flow were randomised …

Keep your friends close: The effect of local social networks on child human capital outcomes

Social networks can affect demand for human capital investments by relaxing household time or budget constraints or by defining and reinforcing human capital preferences. However, empirically identifying the effect of social networks on human capital investment is usually problematic because households self-select their networks in ways that may be correlated with their abilities to make these investments. In Northern Ugandan Internally Displaced Persons Camps, networks were not entirely self-selected. Rebel activity, which forced households into camps in 2002, disrupted pre-existing social networks in ways that were exogenous to household human capital preferences. This paper uses the exogenous variation in network disruption to identify a positive impact of networks on children's long-term nutritional outcomes.

User Reaction to the Integration of Real & Virtual Worlds; Implications for Virtual World Platforms

Do users of a virtual world want to integrate their real world social network with the virtual world? On the one hand, such integration might improve the utility of the virtual world by allowing users to leverage their pre-existing social networks. On the other hand, such integration might negate the disinhibition-related benefits associated with anonymity in the virtual world. Using a unique dataset of prospective and current user activities in a social 3D virtual world, we study the influence of Facebook Platform integration on a virtual world through its impact on new user registration, time spent in the virtual world, and the social link formation. We find that providing the option to integrate with Facebook reduces new user registration, and that those who choose to integrate spend less time in the virtual world and have difficulty connecting socially with those who have not also chosen to integrate. These results suggest that users do not want to integrate their real and virtual worlds, and that it may harm the virtual world operator to offer or encourage such integration.

Red to Green: Environmental Activism in Post-Soviet Russia. By Laura A. Henry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. 282p. $64.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

In this richly detailed and comprehensive account of environmental organizations in post-Soviet Russia, Laura A. Henry delivers an insightful analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the many green groups to emerge during the post-Soviet era and the challenges they face in sustaining a vibrant movement. Red to Green delivers an important contribution to the field of contemporary Russian politics by utilizing the environmental movement to illustrate the growth of civil society and the strategies used by civic organizations to overcome the institutional and normative barriers created by the legacy of Soviet rule. Given the deplorable state of the Russian Federation's environment, a strong environmental movement would seem a logical outcome of the internationally desired democratization and participation in civil society among the Russian citizenry. Yet as Henry is careful to point out, participation in social movement organizations is not always a natural consequence of environmental grievances, and in order for green groups to survive, they must make use of preexisting norms, institutions, and social networks that both enable and constrain their efforts to advocate for a safe and healthy environment.

Navigating transformations in governance of Chilean marine coastal resources

Marine ecosystems are in decline. New transformational changes in governance are urgently required to cope with overfishing, pollution, global changes, and other drivers of degradation. Here we explore social, political, and ecological aspects of a transformation in governance of Chile's coastal marine resources, from 1980 to today. Critical elements in the initial preparatory phase of the transformation were (i) recognition of the depletion of resource stocks, (ii) scientific knowledge on the ecology and resilience of targeted species and their role in ecosystem dynamics, and (iii) demonstration-scale experimental trials, building on smaller-scale scientific experiments, which identified new management pathways. The trials improved cooperation among scientists and fishers, integrating knowledge and establishing trust. Political turbulence and resource stock collapse provided a window of opportunity that triggered the transformation, supported by new enabling legislation. Essential elements to navigate this transformation were the ability to network knowledge from the local level to influence the decision-making processes at the national level, and a preexisting social network of fishers that provided political leverage through a national confederation of artisanal fishing collectives. The resultant governance scheme includes a revolutionary national system of marine tenure that allocates user rights and responsibilities to fisher collectives. Although fine tuning is necessary to build resilience of this new regime, this transformation has improved the sustainability of the interconnected social-ecological system. Our analysis of how this transformation unfolded provides insights into how the Chilean system could be further developed and identifies generalized pathways for improved governance of marine resources around the world.

A study of the spreading scheme for viral marketing based on a complex network model

Buzzword-based viral marketing, known also as digital word-of-mouth marketing, is a marketing mode attached to some carriers on the Internet, which can rapidly copy marketing information at a low cost. Viral marketing actually uses a pre-existing social network where, however, the scale of the pre-existing network is believed to be so large and so random, so that its theoretical analysis is intractable and unmanageable. There are very few reports in the literature on how to design a spreading scheme for viral marketing on real social networks according to the traditional marketing theory or the relatively new network marketing theory. Complex network theory provides a new model for the study of large-scale complex systems, using the latest developments of graph theory and computing techniques. From this perspective, the present paper extends the complex network theory and modeling into the research of general viral marketing and develops a specific spreading scheme for viral marking and an approach to design the scheme based on a real complex network on the QQ instant messaging system. This approach is shown to be rather universal and can be further extended to the design of various spreading schemes for viral marketing based on different instant messaging systems.