Social Markers Research Articles

Is It Possible to Decolonize the Field of Physical Activity and Health?

Is it possible to decolonize the field of physical activity and health? Decoloniality presupposes a body-geopolitical location, such as in the Brazilian and Latin American context, where it is crucial to use social identity lenses related to race, gender, sexuality, and other social markers that affect the body. Understanding health and physical activity from a decolonial perspective would bring the oppressions that connect capitalism, patriarchy, and racism to the center of the discussion. For a "physical activity other," we challenged the general recommendation of physical activity in the 4 domains. Physical activity should be understood as an end in itself, as a right, and as human development. Approaches that advocate physical activity at work, at home, and while commuting use other human activities to relate these domains to health without considering the inequalities and oppressions that constitute them in most parts of the world. Is it fair to apply "global recommendations" for physical activity to scenarios such as Brazil and Latin America, using models that are inappropriate to the context and history of these places, people, and cultures? Perhaps it is time to socially reorient and reposition physical activity from a decolonial perspective. We need Black, Indigenous, Latino, African, and other people from the Global South to move the research agenda, recommendations, and policies on physical activity from "any" health to a fair health.

Democracia representativa-una lectura interseccional

Objective: Analyze, from a critical and intersectional perspective, the organization, composition and legislative performance of a commission focused on women's sexual and reproductive rights, called the Parliamentary Front to Combat Abortion – Pró-Vida. Methodology: An intersectional reading was carried out regarding the constitution of the Parliamentary Front to Combat Abortion - "Pró-Vida", of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goiás (ALEGO), and the sociodemographic profile of its members was outlined, discussed in light of social markers, gender, race/ethnicity, social class and religion and problematized about a topic that directly affects women's health and lives, abortion. Results and discussion: analysis of the results points to female underrepresentation, the prevalence of white people and the predominance of conservative ideology in customs and religion in the sociodemographic profile considered. In contrast, the literature, when discussing the social markers under investigation, portrays those who choose to have an abortion as black women, with low income and education, and who look to parties with a progressive bias to advocate for their causes. Conclusion: The traditional structure present in the Parliamentary Front investigated faces challenges in building a representative debate capable of reproducing in public policies the complex identities, needs and experiences of women at risk of miscarriage. In this argument, the construction of political practices and legislative approaches must primarily consider the complexities of identity and the intersections and oppressions that lead women to abortion in order to, ultimately, build an inclusive, equitable and representative democracy. Submission: 02/22/24| Review: 03/12/24| Approval: 04/24/24

Training Architects as Activists: Social Sustainably in the Studio

This paper discusses the application of social sustainability to architecture through a second-year graduate architecture studio focused on urban buildings. I designed the Urban Design Studio in such a way that future faculty could choose assignments between five socially sustainable equity issues: housing, food insecurity, transportation equity, access to opportunities, and environmental health. This supports the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) graduate curriculum by focusing on sustainable practices, including activism in architecture. Using the built environment as a platform, the students learn to promote equity, especially in the urban environment. The students research on equity topics, adopt a position on a selected issue, and begin to develop a site, program, and building form around their issue. Architecture has a unique ability to influence social sustainability through equity, especially if we shift our design practices to support disenfranchised populations. Buildings can provide more than social markers. They can create locations that empower local communities. The question is, how do we teach a process that instills this as foundational to quality design? My studio’s process not only establishes a foundational knowledge of building within an urban context, but also provides a firm grounding of activism as central to architectural practice.

Building a Culture of Health Through the Built Environment: Impact of a Cluster Randomized Trial Remediating Vacant and Abandoned Property on Health Mindsets.

Changing built environment conditions to impact health mindsets and health equity may be a promising target for public health interventions. The present study was a cluster randomized controlled trial to test the impact of remediating vacant and abandoned properties on factors related to health mindset-including well-being, health interconnectedness, social capital markers, neighborhood disorder and worry-as well as direct and indirect violence experiences and the moderating role of racial and income segregation on outcomes. A residential cohort of 405 participants from 194 randomly assigned geographic clusters were surveyed over five waves from 2019 to 2023. Compared to clusters with no treatment, participants in clusters where both vacant lots and abandoned homes were treated experienced significant increases in sense of community (83%, 95% CI=71 to 96%, p=0.01). Among participants in randomization clusters where only vacant lots were treated, there were declines in perceived neighborhood disorder (-55%, 95% CI=-79 to -5, p=0.06) and worry about community violence (-56%, 95% CI=-58 to - 12, p=0.06). There was also a moderating effect of racial and income spatial polarization, with the greatest changes in sense of community observed among more deprived areas with both homes and lots treated; and the largest changes in neighborhood worry and disorder were seen in more deprived areas with only lots treated. Remediation of vacant and abandoned properties may be one approach to change some but not all mindsets around health, and the effects may depend on the type of remediation as well as larger neighborhood conditions such segregation.

The Tribe Affiliation of the Romans in the Lower Danube

The article deals with the perception of the tribe Papiria in the nomenclature of the Roman civics in two Trajanic colonies in Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior—col(onia) Ulp(ia) Tra(iana) Rat(iariensium) and col(onia) Ulp(ia) Oescensium respectively. Although located close geographically and with a few common traits of their historical development, some discrepancies appeared in the topic which are discussed. The inscriptions provide, although scanty, some information on the tribe affiliation of the civic and religious colonial elite, augustales coloniae as well as the tribe affiliation as a part of a certain ornamenta. All this allows to establish the Roman tribe as an important social marker and for prestige in the Roman civic community, and can therefore serve in the Roman provinces as a sign of the progress of urbanization and Romanization. Certainly, the observations made are preliminary due to the scanty evidence available so far for various reasons.

Sleep patterns in Metropolitan and Regional areas in Japan: Before and during COVID-19 social restrictions

ABSTRACT Sleep timing is an important output of the circadian system. The COVID-19-mandated social restrictions significantly altered commuting time and sleep duration regionally in Japan. This study aimed to elucidate sleep patterns, especially chronotype and social jetlag (SJL), due to changes in social time pressure through the social restrictions between the Metropolitan and Regional areas in Japan. As part of the Global Chrono Corona Survey 2020 (GCCS), the data were collected during social restrictions (SR), but pre-COVID-19 behaviours were also queried retrospectively. We analyzed a cohort of 729 respondents representing both the Metropolitan and the Regional areas separately for workdays and work-free days. While the areas showed no difference in SJL before SR, the differential decrease was larger in the Metropolitan area during SR, resulting in a significant difference in SJL between the areas. The outdoor light exposure before SR was 30 min longer in the Metropolitan areas than in the Regional; during SR both areas showed similarly low (below 1 h) outdoor light exposures. The variables associated with decreased SJL were the Metropolitan areas, work-from-home, a no-usage alarm clock on workdays, and chronotypes (mid-sleep time on free days corrected for sleep deficit accumulated over the workweek, MSFsc) during SR. The results suggest that relaxed social schedules, as reflected in the increased frequency of work-from-home and reduced alarm clock use, and moving towards earlier MSFsc during SR were linked to decreased SJL and were more prominent in the Metropolitan areas. This study provides insights into sleep patterns and the social time pressure markers, by comparison between residential groups in Japan.

Patterns of spontaneous neural activity associated with social communication abilities among infants and toddlers showing signs of autism.

Early disruptions to social communication development, including delays in joint attention and language, are among the earliest markers of autism spectrum disorder (autism, henceforth). Although social communication differences are a core feature of autism, there is marked heterogeneity in social communication-related development among infants and toddlers exhibiting autism symptoms. Neural markers of individual differences in joint attention and language abilities may provide important insight into heterogeneity in autism symptom expression during infancy and toddlerhood. This study examined patterns of spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) activity associated with joint attention and language skills in 70 community-referred 12- to 23-month-olds with autism symptoms and elevated scores on an autism diagnostic instrument. Data-driven cluster-based permutation analyses revealed significant positive associations between relative alpha power (6-9Hz) and concurrent response to joint attention skills, receptive language, and expressive language abilities. Exploratory analyses also revealed significant negative associations between relative alpha power and measures of core autism features (i.e., social communication difficulties and restricted/repetitive behaviors). These findings shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying typical and atypical social communication development in emerging autism and provide a foundation for future work examining neural predictors of social communication growth and markers of intervention response.

SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF HOMONYMOUS NOUNS OF THE MODERN GERMAN LANGUAGE

The article explores the semantic features of homonyms and the methods used to differentiate them in speech. A comprehensive sampling from the explanatory dictionaries Duden (2023), Langenscheidt (2019), and Wahrig (2018) revealed 2,128 homonymous nouns, which were grouped into 1,018 homonymous series. A component analysis of these homonymous nouns indicated that the majority refer to people or groups of people, as well as artificial objects. Other significant lexical-semantic groups, in descending order, encompass human social status, place names, fauna, mechanisms and devices, food and drink, measurements, actions, flora, art, language, human attributes, buildings, abstract concepts, natural things, and spatial objects. Statistical analysis shows that concrete concepts are more likely to be listed as the first or second homonym in the dictionary, while abstract concepts typically appear in third to fifth positions. This pattern reflects a broader principle in human activity organization, including language, where development progresses from simple to complex, from familiar to unfamiliar, and from observable to abstract. It has been determined that, in the majority of cases (86%), homonyms belong to different lexical and semantic groups, providing a natural form of differentiation within the language system. Homonyms that belong to the same lexical-semantic group are distinguished by factors such as grammatical gender, different plural forms, and social, regional, stylistic, or chronological markers. These distinctions enable a clear understanding of their meanings, reducing the ambiguity traditionally associated with homonymy. This observation suggests that the common belief that homonymy is a significant obstacle to communication may be overstated, as the above-mentioned factors allow for effective differentiation, ensuring that the risk of misinterpretation is not as frequent as one might expect.

Social health and subsequent cognitive functioning in people aged 50 years and older: examining the mediating roles of depressive symptoms and inflammatory biomarkers in two European longitudinal studies

Social health markers, including marital status, contact frequency, network size, and social support, have been shown to be associated with cognition. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain poorly understood. We investigated whether depressive symptoms and inflammation mediated associations between social health and subsequent cognition. In the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative longitudinal study in England, UK, we sampled 7136 individuals aged 50 years or older living in private households without dementia at baseline or at the intermediate mediator assessment timepoint, who had recorded information on at least one social health marker and potential mediator. We used four-way decomposition to examine to what extent depressive symptoms, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen mediated associations between social health and subsequent standardised cognition (verbal fluency and delayed and immediate recall), including cognitive change, with slopes derived from multilevel models (12-year slope). We examined whether findings were replicated in the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), a population-based longitudinal study in Sweden, in a sample of 2604 individuals aged 60 years or older living at home or in institutions in Kungsholmen (central Stockholm) without dementia at baseline or at the intermediate mediator assessment timepoint (6-year slope). Social health exposures were assessed at baseline, potential mediators were assessed at an intermediate timepoint (wave 2 in ELSA and 6-year follow-up in SNAC-K); cognitive outcomes were assessed at a single timepoint (wave 3 in ELSA and 12-year follow-up in SNAC-K), and cognitive change (between waves 3 and 9 in ELSA and between 6-year and 12-year follow-ups in SNAC-K). The study sample included 7136 participants from ELSA, of whom 3962 (55·5%) were women and 6934 (97·2%) were White; the mean baseline age was 63·8 years (SD 9·4). Replication analyses included 2604 participants from SNAC-K, of whom 1604 (61·6%) were women (SNAC-K did not collect ethnicity data); the mean baseline age was 72·3 years (SD 10·1). In ELSA, we found indirect effects via depressive symptoms of network size, positive support, and less negative support on subsequent verbal fluency, and of positive support on subsequent immediate recall (pure indirect effect [PIE] 0·002 [95% CI 0·001-0·003]). Depressive symptoms also partially mediated associations between less negative support and slower decline in immediate recall (PIE 0·001 [0·000-0·002]) and in delayed recall (PIE 0·001 [0·000-0·002]), and between positive support and slower decline in immediate recall (PIE 0·001 [0·000-0·001]). We did not observe mediation by inflammatory biomarkers. Findings of mediation by depressive symptoms in the association between positive support and verbal fluency and between positive support and change in immediate recall were replicated in SNAC-K. The findings of this study provide new insights into mechanisms linking social health with cognition, suggesting that associations between interactional aspects of social health, especially social support, and cognition are partly underpinned by depressive symptoms. EU Joint Programme-Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) and Alzheimer's Society. For the Swedish translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Bike-sharing e desigualdades: os casos de São Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract This work sought to understand race, gender, income, and housing inequalities of users of bike--sharing systems in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A face-to-face sample survey was carried out and the obtained data were compared with data from the two cities concerning the above-mentioned social markers. The results show that the systems are more accessible to some groups, such as women and black people, and less accessible to others, such as low-income people, and that, despite being in urban centers, they manage to maintain the inclusion of groups that do not live in the region. Based on the results, the insertion of these systems in Brazilian cities is discussed.

Reticence, gender, and deindustrialisation: oral history challenges emerging within deindustrialisation studies and labour history

ABSTRACT This article presents a reflective review of the challenges of interviewing hard-to-reach and marginalised groups when employing an oral history methodology. Using Belfast, Northern Ireland, as a case study, the article reflects on the significance of social and cultural markers that must be contended with, and argues for the importance of responsible research in response to instances of reticence. In addition, this article reviews the challenges faced by the author with regards to the gendered dimensions of deindustrialisation studies, particularly when interviewing women about the familial experiences of the deindustrialisation of heavy industry. The article advocates for compassionate approaches within an oral history methodology, particularly in post-conflict societies where unresolved trauma and complex ethno-cultural identities exist. Considering such issues, offers an opportunity to reenergise and expand the scope of labour history and deindustrialisation studies.

‘Belonging' within White male-dominated sports business management programmes

ABSTRACT Patriarchal Whiteness dominates the sports sector and sports business university classrooms. This echo effect maintains a cyclical pattern of oppression whereby only certain voices are heard and certain bodies are seen. Belongingness has the power to address injustices and facilitate the feeling of connection that can transcend social identity markers. This paper explores the experiences of students studying a White male-dominated degree in the United Kingdom (UK). In total, 10 sports business management students (undergraduate and postgraduate) were interviewed in relation to gender, race/ethnicity and belonging within their course. Findings demonstrated that belonging was more straightforward for male students who made connections with ease. Sense of belonging, however, was not entirely connected with Whiteness or gender but rather a shared sense of meaning and passion for sport. The subject of sport has the power to unify and facilitate belonging. This study has important ramifications for universities in relation to subject identity, student retention, course design and critical pedagogy.

Diseases of despair in early adulthood: The complex role of social relationships.

"Diseases of despair," most prominently depressive and substance-related problems, diminish the prospects of many young adults, especially those with lower levels of education. Yet many young adults in that situation avoid these problems. Close relationships are thought to be a key factor underpinning risk and resilience among this group. To examine this premise, this study explored links, beyond potential confounders assessed in adolescence, between strengths and strains in the social domain and markers of despair in the early and mid-20s in a Canadian sample overrepresenting youth without postsecondary credentials (N = 543, 52% male, 23% non-White). Having a good general ability to maintain supportive relationships was associated with fewer depressive and substance-related symptoms. Furthermore, support and less strain in relationships with parents and friends were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in the early and mid-20s, while for romantic relationships, associations with depressive symptoms became more consistent and robust in the mid-20s. Therefore, support and strains in romantic relationships gradually gained prominence as a determinant of depressive symptoms as youth advanced in adulthood. For substance-related problems, significant associations emerged for strains in friendships only, in both the early and mid-20s. These results suggest that multiple aspects of relationships pose a risk for or protect from the development of diseases of despair in early adulthood and that their relative importance changes depending on outcomes and developmental timing. Thus, facilitating meaningful social connections and reducing the prevalence and impact of relationship strains might contribute to preventing diseases of despair among youth with lower educational attainment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Digital activism about gay fatherhood on Instagram: male homoparenting in the picture.

In contemporary Brazil, the number of male fathers taking care of their sons and daughters and the initiatives to produce content about fatherhood on Instagram have been significant. This article aims to analyze the concepts that support the digital activism of homoparenting on Instagram, based on gender studies with men. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted using the life narrative method in a digital environment. The results were analyzed and divided into the following sections: parenting project, personal experience of fatherhood, articulation with LGBT political agenda when parenthood becomes a "business", and haters, criticism, and adverse reactions. It was concluded that the reflection on the experience of fatherhood/masculinity itself is crossed by the social marker of the difference in sexual orientation and the activism for rights that sustain content production. Thus, the uniqueness of each fatherhood is highlighted since the fact of being gay constructs the fatherhood experience for each man. Despite the initiatives brought forth in this study, changes are still in progress, as rights activism coexists with the advancement of conservative forces, which limit the expressions of sexual and gender otherness.

A Social Network Analysis of Traditional Labrets and Horizontal Relationships in the Salish Sea Region of Northwestern North America

AbstractIn the Salish Sea region, labret adornment with lip plugs signify particular identities, and they are interpreted as emblematic of both membership in horizontal relationships and achieved status for traditional cultures associated with labret wearing on the Northwest Coast (NWC) of North America. Labrets are part of a shared symbolic language in the region, one that we argue facilitated access to beneficial horizontal relationships (e.g., Angelbeck and Grier 2012; Rorabaugh and Shantry 2017). We employ social network analysis (SNA) to examine labrets from 31 dated site components in the Salish Sea region spanning between 3500 and 1500 cal BP. Following this period, the more widely distributed practice of cranial modification as a social marker of status developed in the region. The SNA of labret data shows an elaboration and expansion of antecedent social networks prior to the practice of cranial modification. Understandings of status on the NWC work backward from direct contact with Indigenous societies. Labret wearing begins at the Middle-Late Holocene transition, setting an earlier stage for the horizontal social relationships seen in the ethnohistoric period. These findings are consistent with the practice as signifying restricted group membership based on affinal ties and achieved social status.

Assigning a social status from face adornments: an fMRI study.

For at least 150,000 years, the human body has been culturally modified by the wearing of personal ornaments and probably by painting with red pigment. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the brain networks involved in attributing social status from face decorations. Results showed the fusiform gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and salience network were involved in social encoding, categorization, and evaluation. The hippocampus and parahippocampus were activated due to the memory and associative skills required for the task, while the inferior frontal gyrus likely interpreted face ornaments as symbols. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis clarified the interaction between these regions. The study highlights the importance of these neural interactions in the symbolic interpretation of social markers on the human face, which were likely active in early Homo species and intensified with Homo sapiens populations as more complex technologies were developed to culturalize the human face.

Ritual Mangan Indahan Siporhis Ethnic Batak Toba: Social Semiotic Study

This research is entitled "Ritual Mangan Indahan Siporhis Ethnic Batak Toba." This research aims to describe the symbols in the Mangan Indahan Siporhis Ritual of the Toba Batak ethnicity, the symbol message in the Mangan Indahan Siporhis Ritual of the Toba Batak ethnicity, the symbol value contained in the Mangan Indahan Siporhis Ritual of the Toba Batak ethnicity. The theory used in this research is the theory of social semiotics proposed by Peirce (1839-1914 (Sobur, 2003: 159) and Pateda (2001: 29), using descriptive qualitative methods with structured interview observations. The research results found are (1) stages in the mangan indahan siporhis ritual of the Toba Batak ethnicity, (2) social status marker symbols, (3) time symbols, (4) 7 food symbols, (5) 7 equipment symbols, 14 symbol messages and 6 symbol values of solidarity, mutual assistance, togetherness, mutual consent, cooperation and social symbol values. Keywords: Mangan indahan siporhis ritual, symbol, value, social semiotics.

Intersectionality in Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies: A Critical Review

The review article draws on key literature on intersectionality: theory, methodology, and empirical applications in Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies. The review points out the urgent need to account for diverse learners’ intersectional identities (racial/ethnic backgrounds, gender, linguistic ability, citizenship status, and other social identity markers) and embrace a social-justice-oriented praxis in education. We argue that integrating the intersectionality framework with existing learning theories, methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed), and pedagogies is possible and necessary. Based on the critical review, we propose four recommendations for researchers and practitioners in Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies: (a) staying faithful to the activism and liberatory commitment of intersectionality, (b) adopting appropriate method(s) and methodology with sound epistemological and axiological orientations, (c) reconceptualizing extant learning theories, which entails the re-thinking and validation of some education and psychological constructs, and (d) encouraging teaching and research on intersectionality and/or from an intersectional lens. The review article can serve as a guideline to incorporate intersectionality as theory and analytical framework. It is only through these practices that center intersectionality that we, as researchers and practitioners, become capable of creating a more equitable and inclusive learning environment from K-12 to Higher Education.

Flash flood prediction in St. Lucia island through a surrogate hydraulic model

ABSTRACT Recent flood disasters caused by extreme meteorological events highlight the need of fast and reliable tools for flooding forecast. For our purposes, the danger associated with floods is embodied in a single risk-level flag which considers both local water depth and velocity. The methodology here derived is applied and validated for the case study of the St. Lucia island in the eastern Caribbean Sea that experiences flash flooding as a result of combined intense rainfall and steep slopes, difficult to predict with traditional early-warning systems. A multi-layer perceptron neural network is trained on a high-fidelity dataset generated through full two-dimensional shallow water simulations of real and synthetic events. The dataset is validated against social markers obtained from real events. The predictive capabilities of the neural network model are tested on the out-of-box case of the Dean and Tomas hurricanes and compared with the solutions of the shallow water solver. The surrogate solver allows a significant speed-up in the prediction time with respect to traditional CFD (seconds vs hours), showing a high precision and accuracy, with accuracy, precision and F1-score above 0.99.

The effects of social distancing markers on single-file pedestrian movement during the pandemic

Social distancing markers placed on the floor are a commonly used measure by city authorities to remind pedestrians to keep a safe distance during the pandemic. However, little is known about the effects of social distancing markers on pedestrian dynamics. In this paper, we conducted a series of single-file experiments with and without social distancing markers under a prescribed social distance of 1 m. By comparing the trajectories with and without social distancing markers, the two-sided effects of social distancing markers are revealed. Pedestrians have significantly fewer social distance violations and less exposure time with the help of social distancing markers, which can decrease the total infection risk. However, pedestrians under the measure of social distancing markers need longer delay times for velocity-matching behavior; also, lower velocity and specific flow are observed at densities greater than 0.6 m−1, which will increase the queue length. Stepping behavior is further analyzed to reveal the impact mechanism behind the reduction in velocity and specific flow. It is found that pedestrians’ step length is sensitive to social distancing markers, and pedestrians tend to shorten their step length rather than step frequency more rapidly when the markers are implemented. These evidence-based results provide interesting insights for crowd management, and help to develop pedestrian simulation models in preparation for future outbreaks and pandemics.