Social Group Activities Research Articles

A generalized multinomial probabilistic model for SARS-COV-2 infection prediction and public health intervention assessment in an indoor environment.

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and its sub-lineages have become the predominant variants globally since early 2022. As of January 2023, over 664 million confirmed cases and over 6.7 million deaths had been reported globally. Current infection models are limited by the need for large datasets or calibration to specific contexts, making them difficult to apply to different settings. This study aims to develop a generalized multinomial probabilistic model of airborne infection to assist public health decision-makers in evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions (PHIs) across a broad spectrum of scenarios. The proposed model systematically incorporates group characteristics, epidemiology, viral loads, social activities, environmental conditions, and PHIs. Assumptions about social distance and contact duration that estimate infectivity during short-term group gatherings have been made. The study is differentiated from earlier works on probabilistic infection modeling in the following ways: (1) predicting new cases arising from more than one infectious person in a gathering, (2) incorporating additional key infection factors, and (3) evaluating the effectiveness of multiple PHIs on SARS-CoV-2 infection simultaneously. Although the results show that limiting group size has an impact on infection, improving ventilation has a much greater positive health impact. The proposed model is versatile and can flexibly accommodate other scenarios or airborne diseases by modifying the parameters allowing new factors to be added.

"There is No Help:" Caregiver Perspectives on Service Needs for Adolescents and Adults with Profound Autism.

The underrepresentation of individuals with profound autism (who require 24/7 access to care) in autism research has resulted in limited knowledge about their service needs and a lack of evidence-based practices tailored to those needs. This study explored caregiver perspectives on service needs, barriers to accessing care, and treatment priorities to guide treatment development and improvement of service delivery. A sequential mixed-methods design integrated quantitative survey data (n = 423; Mage = 18.89years; 26.7% female) with qualitative interviews (n = 20) with caregivers of adolescents and adults with profound autism. Quantitative findings indicated regular socialization opportunities were the most frequently endorsed unmet service need (60.3% of caregivers), followed by primary health care with autism-trained staff (59.3%), social skills instruction (55.8%), life skills instruction (51.3%), and behavioral support (47.3%). Higher likelihood of needing social activity groups was associated with elevated emotional reactivity, higher language level, minoritized ethnicity, and lower household income. Greater need for specialized primary health care was associated with lower income, while the need for social and life skills instruction was associated with increased age and elevated dysphoria. Qualitative analysis identified 10 themes that converged and expanded quantitative findings by highlighting a pervasive shortage of individualized, goal-oriented services, common barriers to care, and the priority of developing centralized treatment settings that coordinate care throughout adulthood. This study identified pressing service needs for adolescents and adults with profound autism in the United States. These insights are crucial for improving the accessibility and quality of clinical care.

Representation of social actors in The Straits Times and The Independent Singapore: A comparative critical discourse analysis of the repeal of Section 377A in Singapore

Section 377A was a decades-old law introduced in Singapore in 1938, which had made sexual intimacy between gay men, even when consensual, punishable by a maximum sentence of two years in prison. In Aug 2022, in what many considered as a historic moment in Singapore, the Prime Minister announced its repeal. Following the announcement, several related news articles were published by the news outlets The Straits Times and The Independent Singapore. This study, therefore, sets out to undertake a critical discourse analysis of these news articles, focusing on the representation of two groups of social actors, namely the Singapore government and gay people. Guided by a framework that constitutes the theoretical approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Fairclough, Van Dijk and Wodak’s perspectives on power relations as discursive, as well as Van Leeuwen's theories on discourse construction and representations of social actors, the analysis of the textual data reveals distinct patterns in how the Singapore government and gay people are represented. In an area where there is little comparative critical discourse research on how more powerful groups and less powerful groups are represented in news coverage following significant legal and sociopolitical changes in a society, this article aims to deepen readers’ understanding of such discursive patterns and foster media literacy, thereby attaining the practical result of pointing readers in the direction of change – a desired outcome that CDA seeks through its research.

Design and Analysis of Efficient Attention in Transformers for Social Group Activity Recognition

Design and Analysis of Efficient Attention in Transformers for Social Group Activity Recognition

The Effects of Social Group Activities and Subjective Class Consciousness on Donation Behavior

The Effects of Social Group Activities and Subjective Class Consciousness on Donation Behavior

Online social interaction skill group for adolescents on the autism spectrum: Preliminary outcomes of the START Connections program

BackgroundPromising social skill interventions have emerged to target socialization vulnerabilities of autistic adolescents, but there remains a critical need for effective dissemination of these programs to improve service access. The Social Tools And Rules for Teens (START) Program is a group-based intervention program for increasing social motivation while enhancing social communication skill use. MethodThe current study aimed to evaluate START Connections, an online adaptation of the original START model. We (1) assessed the preliminary efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of START Connections, and (2) compared its outcomes to a prior in-person START clinical trial. Participants were 41 autistic adolescents aged 11–16 and their parent. Each bi-weekly START Connections session consisted of a check-in, socialization time, group discussion and practice of social topics, group activity, and check-out. ResultsAttendance for the program was high and teens endorsed high levels of enjoyment and skill improvement. Analysis of treatment gains yielded evidence of increased emotion regulation, social skills, and social motivation. Improvements in behaviorally coded target skills were observed for many participants during naturalistic conversations. An analytical comparison revealed a comparable trend in outcomes between START Connections and in-person START groups for social challenges, self-reported social skill use, and social motivation and competence. ConclusionOverall, these pilot outcomes are extremely promising and suggest that the START Connections model is feasible and has the potential to improve social communication and emotion regulation in autistic teens. These results warrant a follow-up, RCT investigation evaluating the unique benefits of in-person versus online START Programs.

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and Startup Ecosystem in Vietnam

Research on science, technology and innovation policy (STI policy) in Vietnam has mainly focused on the role of government and business—the two main groups of social actors shaping the development of the Government. From the cultural perspective of STI policy, the article analyses the interactions between four policy cultures representing four groups of social actors (academic, state, business and civil society) that affect the formation and development of STI policy in Vietnam through four stages of development. From there, the article provides a general picture of the role of four groups of policy actors involved in the policymaking process, considering aspects including: (a) the nature of the policy; (b) policy objectives; (c) policy makers; (d) policy instruments; (e) policy specificity and (f) group of agents representing policy culture. Next, the article analyses the formation and development of an innovation-based startup ecosystem that represents the concerns of a third policy culture—an economic policy culture. Finally, the article proposes some initial recommendations to promote the interaction between the components of the STI ecosystem, especially those related to the innovation-based startup ecosystem.

Social coordination of individuals with disabilities in the context of sustainable development of an inclusive reality

The article actualises the need to search for and form a correct conceptual and categorical apparatus that serves as a methodological and theoretical basis for adequate representation, comprehension, interpretation and understanding of the whole range of problems of inclusive society formation. It is shown that the phenomenological analysis of various aspects of the everyday world of the inclusive society using the concepts of social coordination, social partnership and interaction is of particular interest. It is postulated that the context of the study of inclusive everyday life implies not only the representation and description of the life and local history of an individual with health limitations (HL) within the framework of social everyday life, but the emphasis is shifted to the analysis of multilevel transformations and transformations of inclusive reality in the course of everyday activities of various social groups. The aim of the article is to systematically investigate the concept of social coordination in the segments of manifestation of subjective time of an individual with HL, which makes it possible to consider the inclusive society as a special social group of people with HL from the position of interpretation of everyday inclusive reality. The methodological foundations of the study are determined by modern philosophical, pedagogical, and sociological sources that reflect the peculiarities of understanding, comprehension, and interpretation of various segments of the study of inclusive society, taking into account the conceptual apparatus of analytical philosophy and social phenomenology.

Impact of lifestyle habits on the health self-assessment of rural older men of different ages: evidence from the Chinese longitudinal healthy longevity survey

This study examined the influence of lifestyle habits on health self-assessments among elderly rural men and the effect of age on the strength of the impact to provide a basis for targeted health improvement in this population. Data from the 2018 Chinese longitudinal healthy longevity survey were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, regression analysis, and Shapley value decomposition tests. The model analysis results showed that elderly rural men who did not drink alcohol or were moderate drinkers, maintained regular sleep patterns, exercised regularly, and had active social interactions had better health self-assessment results (p < 0.01). Notably, the impact of lifestyle habits on health perceptions varied with age. Specifically, the influence of alcohol consumption and sleep duration decreased with age, while the benefits of physical activity and social engagement became more pronounced. These results suggest that lifestyle habits significantly impact the health self-assessments of elderly rural men, with notable variations observed in the strength of these effects across different ages. To improve the overall health of elderly rural men, alcohol cessation interventions should be implemented as early as possible, attention should be paid to the sleep habits of young male seniors, and low-intensity group exercise and social activities should be actively organized for older male seniors.

Designing with Older Adults: How University Health Network's NORC Innovation Centre creating an integrated health and social care community for seniors residing in naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC).

It is well known that, with adequate supports, many seniors desire to age in place in their own homes. NIC’s data shows that in Toronto, 70,000 seniors are living in 495 NORCs with over 53% of these having 2 or more co-morbid conditions. Rising to this challenge, the NIC's vision is to implement a 21st-century model of integrated health and social care in NORC buildings by developing health, social, and digitally-enabled solutions that provide Canadians with new options for aging in place with dignity and choice.
 Phase one, created and refined the NORC Ambassadors program (norcambassadors.ca) – an aging-in-place model based on mutual support, community engagement, and seniors' leadership. It was founded on a multi-year exploration that incorporated senior input, ethnographic observation, documentary stories, literature reviews, journey mapping, and the co-creation of service blueprints. Seniors led the implementation of the Ambassadors program based on participatory decision-making, self-management, agency, and choice. From the 2021 final report, 100% of respondents indicated a desire to continue organizing aging-in-place activities with 78% feeling their awareness of aging-in-place issues improved. Interestingly, 75% reported challenges with improving overall building engagement.
 Based on learnings from phase 1 and guided by IFIC's 9 pillars of integrated care, phase 2 layered in a service design approach to creating an enhanced model of health and social care that increases access to place-based services and support for seniors living in Toronto’s high-rise communities. Phase 2 involves over 100 Senior Advisors, 37 Specialists, national partners, and a growing array of system partners.
 Central to phase 2 work is developing the NIC's Integrated Health and Social Care model. Inviting senior advisors to lead co-design activities ensured that their voice is front and centre in a system for seniors by seniors. Leveraging multi-sector involvement supported the development of one team to enable the provision of services most important to seniors that span the entire continuum of care and determinants of health. NIC's model focuses on two parts of a person's journey – ""I want to stay healthy"" where people can access an array of services that help them stay healthy, and connected, and address social isolation and loneliness. This approach added the introduction of a NORC Animator to the Ambassador model from phase 1. NORC Animators, are on site and function to create relationships with the residents, coordinate group health and social activities, and are a friendly resource for all resident needs. In addition, the NORC Animator can also watch for functional change and; where seniors state that ""I want to get healthier""; support the connection to one-on-one health and social services. 
 This presentation will address the following questions: 1) How does the NIC model compare with other existing models in Ontario 2) What is required to effectively support seniors in participatory design? And how can you sustain involvement? 3) What is most important in designing what support is needed and how it is delivered? 4) What lessons learned have been identified from the early adopter site experiences?

Driving Sustainability: Exploring Global Green Banking Initiatives for a Greener Future

Environmental degradation threatens survival of entire Global system. Global warming has been a national and international issue in recent years. Environmental challenges harm businesses directly and indirectly. Although several regulations to control pollution and protect the environment, they are not enforced, therefore we have failed to prevent environmental damage. So, all business policies focus on environmental issues. In a worldwide economy, regulators, governments, media, judiciaries, civil society organisations, and social activist groups are analysing industry and corporate environmental impacts and pressuring them to become greener. Hence, ethical regard for the environment is transforming global corporate sectors into green, ecologically friendly ones. The banking sector as a business sector is not excluded from this initiative. Consequently, encouraging environmentally friendly initiatives and prudent lending should be one of the financial industry’s obligations. Hence Banks and other financial companies are streamlining carbon emission reduction. Banks worldwide are investing in green strategy. These actions, part of a larger sustainable development plan, have created the concept of Green Banking. In the realm of finance, Green Banking is a relatively recent concept. It varies from conventional banking in that it considers environmental considerations while deciding whether to grant a loan. The green finance movement is young but expanding fast enough to replace fossil fuel investments. So, future demand for green financial products is expected to rise. In light of this, the present study compiled a list of a few global banks that have implemented Green Banking initiatives. Consumers are able to safeguard the environment and work to mitigate the effects of climate change while also doing their typical banking operations online. This research study is intended to analyse the various Green Banking Initiatives that have been implemented by a selected financial institution worldwide. The focus of the study has been narrowed down to five financial institutions from around the world that were actively engaging in green banking initiatives through their customers’ active participation namely Starling Bank, Treecard, Aspiration, bunq and Tomorrow and Green Banking Initiatives in Indian Scenario. The annual reports of the chosen financial institutions, sustainability reports, official websites of the concerned banks, and other sources are sorted through in great detail for the purpose of gathering data on the green banking activities initiated by these financial institutions.

Association between physical, cognitive and social activity and incident sarcopenia among older adults with cognitive decline: A 4‐year longitudinal study

AbstractBackgroundCognitive decline and sarcopenia are associated with each other among older adults. However, it is unclear that the prospective association of older adults with cognitive decline with incident sarcopenia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine longitudinal association between physical, cognitive and social activities and incident sarcopenia among older adults with cognitive decline.MethodAmong older adults with cognitive decline (MMSE score range: 18 to 27) aged 65 years or older who participated in the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 1440 participants (mean age: 71.6 ± 4.9, man: 53.3%) were included after excluding those who meet the exclusion criteria. The participants were asked about the status of implementation concerning physical (PA), cognitive (CA) and social activity (SA), respectively. The participants were categorized to high/low‐PA, high/low‐CA and high/low‐SA group. Sarcopenia was defined by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People2, and participants were classified as robust or sarcopenia.ResultDuring 4 years, 361 (25.1%) participants developed sarcopenia. After adjusting for covariates (age, sex, education level, medication, current smoking and alcohol), the logistic regression analysis model showed that low‐PA group (OR 1.77, 95%CI 1.23‐2.56) and low‐SA group (OR 1.40, 95%CI 1.05‐1.85) had a significantly higher risk of incident sarcopenia compared with each high group. Low‐CA group had no significant association with incident sarcopenia.ConclusionIn older adults with cognitive decline, low physical and social activity in daily life influences the future incidence of sarcopenia. On the other hand, cognitive activity might not be effective in preventing incident sarcopenia, especially among older adults with cognitive decline.

The Influence of Online Social Groups on Adolescents’ Self-Esteem and Academic Performance in China

In the digital era, adolescents in China are immersed in online social groups, which have become a prominent part of their lives. This study delves into the influence of online social groups on adolescents’ self-esteem and academic performance in China. We explore how participation in these groups affects self-esteem, investigate the potential link between online social group activities and academic performance, and weigh the positive and negative aspects of their influence. The findings shed light on the psychological implications of these dynamics and offer insights into potential interventions to promote healthy self-esteem and academic success among Chinese adolescents. Ethical considerations regarding responsible use of online social groups are also discussed.

Indwelling Vascular Access Ports: Application, Advantages, and Management in Nonhuman Primates

Animals in the veterinary and experimental settings, including nonhuman primates (NHPs), often require repeated and prolonged vascular access for indications including blood sampling or administration of fluids, blood products, medication, or other therapies. A vascular access approach should be tailored to experimental or clinical use meeting the needs of the individual animal such that benefits outweigh risks. The optimal device and placement technique is based on the inherent advantages and disadvantages of specific anatomic sites and planned use. Totally implanted vascular access ports (VAPs) enable reliable central venous access for frequent sample collection and/or intravenous therapies. VAPs minimize discomfort with IV access to facilitate cooperation with handling and minimize stress-induced physiologic changes which can confound biologic data and drug responses. VAPs do not limit species-typical behavior and social group activities and are compatible with animal enrichment programs that include play and swim because there are no externalized components. VAPs are typically used long-term and demonstrate excellent durability with high patency and low complication rates over time, presenting a safe and dependable vascular access approach.

Street soccer and homelessness: Exploring social identities, health, and well-being

Membership in social and physical activity groups has the potential to help people with a range of physical and mental health challenges. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of members of a unique physical activity group: people who were formerly or currently homeless participating in a street soccer program in Western Canada. Ten participants in the Vancouver Street Soccer League (VSSL) were interviewed about the extent to which this program fostered a sense of community, social connectivity, and quality of life among people with experience of homelessness. Interviews were augmented with a Social Identity Mapping activity and observations from the first author who took part in weekly practice with the VSSL for over a year. The data were analysed using thematic analysis, in which four themes were developed to reflect the findings. These included (1) Coming together through soccer, (2) Dynamics motivating continued involvement in the league, (3) Leaders and leadership: Social influence in the league, and (4) The league and health outcomes. The findings provide insight into how a street soccer program which fostered shared social identity, psychological safety, friendly competition, and social support contributed to the well-being of people impacted by homelessness, various traumas, and marginalisation.

Constructing the Nation through Talk: Social Media as a Tool for Banal Nationalism in Africa

It was feared that the digital divide would deny citizens in developing countries opportunities for increased participation in politics through internet-enabled communication technologies. However, the divide has been bridged by citizens through the appropriation of Western technologies like internet access through mobile phones and cyber cafes. In fact, the difference between North and South in the use of the internet to participate in politics is quickly becoming unnoticeable, especially regarding the use of social media. This paper describes the unforeseen impact of the rapid adoption of social media in Africa, a continent that has been lethargic to other Western technological advances. The paper uses Anderson’s (1991/1983) theory of imagined community and Billig’s (1995) banal nationalism thesis to describe the role of social media groups in building banal nationalism, a process that unobtrusively legitimises the otherwise artificial nation-state. Through analysis of the activities of social media groups, the paper describes how, besides enabling the formation of social groups, social media has created a new sense of consciousness and deep attachment to the concept of a nation-state in Kenya.

Covid Vaccination Disputes in Czechia: Political Myth-Making and Boundary Work

The paper argues that one of the reasons the suppression of scientific dissent during the Covid pandemic has been so severe was because the dominant scientific Covid narrative has been turned into a political myth, i.e. a narrative mobilizing groups in support of key moral values. Taking the example of Covid vaccination, I show the key values with which it became linked in Czechia. Questioning vaccination came to be seen as endangering these values, which made scientific dissent appear as particularly dangerous. I further analyse how this schematic discourse dealt with “free-vax” scientists, who were not against Covid vaccination as such but only against its blanket application. I show that their discreditation was mainly carried out by various fact-checking NGOs or social media influencers, who attempted to delegitimize them not by scientific arguments but rather by associating them with more dubious groups of social actors, or labelling their views as “disinformation”. This discrediting strategy was largely successful, but it also had some undesirable social and political backfire effects, in that it pushed some of the free-vaxxers out of the liberal democratic mainstream and forced them to seek alliance with more anti-systemic segments of the population in attempts at political resistance.

Challenges of inclusive schooling for children and adolescents with congenital heart disease: A phenomenological study

AbstractEducational attainment is closely associated with health. The objective is to explore the extent to which children and adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) are afforded the same educational and socialization opportunities as their healthy peers. We used a qualitative phenomenological design with convenience sampling. Data gathered 27 semistructured interviews: children with CHD (n = 9), parents (n = 10), and professionals (n = 8) in Catalonia, Spain. Interview transcripts were coded using the constant comparative method and analyzed using ATLAS.ti software. The analysis revealed three themes describing the experience of schooling for children with CHD: (1) Empowering and enabling a child with CHD to achieve academically and engage socially is a challenge for parents; (2) Teachers lack the resources and specific skills necessary to meet the diversity needs of children with CHD; (3) Parents and teachers have low expectations regarding the academic achievement of a child with CHD. Further application of the constant comparison method yielded a core theme: (4) Children with CHD experience exclusion from peer group social learning activities. Further efforts are needed for more effective collaboration and coordination between educational and health professionals to provide support for teachers and families and enable children to be better integrated within schools.

Combined impacts of physical activity, dietary variety, and social interaction on incident functional disability in older Japanese adults.

This 3.6-year prospective study examined combined impacts of physical activity, dietary variety, and social interaction on incident disability and estimated population-attributable fraction for disability reduction in older adults. Participants were 7,822 initially non-disabled residents (3,966 men; 3,856 women) aged 65-84 years of Ota City, Tokyo, Japan. Sufficiency of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) ≥150 min/week, dietary variety score (DVS) ≥3 (median), and social interaction (face-to-face and/or non-face-to-face) ≥1 time/week was assessed using self-administered questionnaires. Disability incidence was prospectively identified using the long-term care insurance system's nationally unified database. During a follow-up of 3.6 years, 1,046 (13.4%) individuals had disabilities. Independent multivariate-hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals of MVPA, DVS, and social interaction sufficiency for incident disability were 0.68 (0.59-0.78), 0.87 (0.77-0.99), and 0.91 (0.79-1.03), respectively. Incident disability HRs (95% CIs) gradually reduced with increased frequency of satisfying these behaviors (any one: 0.82, 0.65-1.03; any two: 0.65, 0.52-0.82; and all three behaviors: 0.54, 0.43-0.69), in an inverse dose-response manner (P < 0.001 for trend). Population-attributable fraction for disability reduction in satisfying any one, any two, and all three behaviors were 4.0% (-0.2, 7.9), 9.6% (4.8-14.1), and 16.0% (8.7-22.8), respectively. Combining active physical activity, dietary variety, and social interaction substantially enhances the impacts on preventing disability among older adults, with evidence of an inverse dose-response manner. Adding the insufficient behavior element to individual habits and preexisting social group activities may be effective in preventing disability in the community.

Behavioral adaptation in an adoptive free-ranging female Tibetan macaque.

Adoption is an important form of allomaternal care in nonhuman primates, with implications for reproductive output and infant survival. Here, we report a kidnapping that became an adoption of a 3-week-old infant by a mother with her own infant in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana). The adoptive mother nursed her "new" infant (allonursing), the first observation of this behavior in the species. The case provided a natural experiment for comparing how a female copes with a heavier burden of care for both her biological infant and another female's infant, compared to mothers caring for only one infant. Our results showed that the adoptive female spent more time foraging and resting, and less time in group social activity compared to females with a single infant. The adoptive female showed more instances of social bridging. Although the duration of post-bridging grooming received from group members decreased, the frequency of such grooming increased. We discuss this adoption with reference to possible factors involved in the evolution of adoption and allonursing behavior in Tibetan macaques.