Social Capital and Sport Governance in Europe

Although there is significant interest in the social role of sport in fostering civil society from both policymakers and academics, there is a lack of evidence of the specific role of sport federations in this system. This book critically presents the mechanisms and structures in a selection of sport federations within a variety of European countries that illuminate the varied relationships between not-for-profit sport federations, their members, governments and the citizens they represent. The contributors explore the contrasts and synergies between core social capital theoretical perspectives, and how these may be informed by and/or shape the realities of governance from different perspectives within the sport system.

General practitioners can evaluate the material, social and health dimensions of patient social status

OBJECTIVE: To identify which physician and patient characteristics are associated with physicians' estimation of their patient social status.DESIGN: Cross-sectional ulticentric survey. SETTING: Fourty-seven primary care private offices in Western Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of 2030 patients ≥ 16, who encountered a general practitioner (GP) between September 2010 and February 2011. MAIN MEASURES: PRIMARY OUTCOME: patient social status perceived by GPs, using the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, ranging from the bottom (0) to the top (10) of the social scale.Secondary outcome: Difference between GP's evaluation and patient's own evaluation of their social status. Potential patient correlates: material and social deprivation using the DiPCare-Q, health status using the EQ-5D, sources of income, and level of education. GP characteristics: opinion regarding patients' deprivation and its influence on health and care. RESULTS: To evaluate patient social status, GPs considered the material, social, and health aspects of deprivation, along with education level, and amount and type of income. GPs declaring a frequent reflexive consideration of their own prejudice towards deprived patients, gave a higher estimation of patients' social status (+1.0, p = 0.002). Choosing a less costly treatment for deprived patients was associated with a lower estimation (-0.7, p = 0.002). GP's evaluation of patient social status was 0.5 point higher than the patient's own estimate (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: GPs can perceive the various dimensions of patient social status, although heterogeneously, according partly to their own characteristics. Compared to patients' own evaluation, GPs overestimate patient social status.

Prevention of vascular dysfunction and arterial hypertension in mice generated by assisted reproductive technologies by addition of melatonin to culture media.

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) induce vascular dysfunction in humans and mice. In mice, ART-induced vascular dysfunction is related to epigenetic alteration of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene, resulting in decreased vascular eNOS expression and nitrite/nitrate synthesis. Melatonin is involved in epigenetic regulation, and its administration to sterile women improves the success rate of ART. We hypothesized that addition of melatonin to culture media may prevent ART-induced epigenetic and cardiovascular alterations in mice. We, therefore, assessed mesenteric-artery responses to acetylcholine and arterial blood pressure, together with DNA methylation of the eNOS gene promoter in vascular tissue and nitric oxide plasma concentration in 12-wk-old ART mice generated with and without addition of melatonin to culture media and in control mice. As expected, acetylcholine-induced mesenteric-artery dilation was impaired (P = 0.008 vs. control) and mean arterial blood pressure increased (109.5 ± 3.8 vs. 104.0 ± 4.7 mmHg, P = 0.002, ART vs. control) in ART compared with control mice. These alterations were associated with altered DNA methylation of the eNOS gene promoter (P < 0.001 vs. control) and decreased plasma nitric oxide concentration (10.1 ± 11.1 vs. 29.5 ± 8.0 μM) (P < 0.001 ART vs. control). Addition of melatonin (10(-6) M) to culture media prevented eNOS dysmethylation (P = 0.005, vs. ART + vehicle), normalized nitric oxide plasma concentration (23.1 ± 14.6 μM, P = 0.002 vs. ART + vehicle) and mesentery-artery responsiveness to acetylcholine (P < 0.008 vs. ART + vehicle), and prevented arterial hypertension (104.6 ± 3.4 mmHg, P < 0.003 vs. ART + vehicle). These findings provide proof of principle that modification of culture media prevents ART-induced vascular dysfunction. We speculate that this approach will also allow preventing ART-induced premature atherosclerosis in humans.

Olympic social responsibility : a challenge for the future

Social responsibility, especially in the fields of education, society and peace, is one of the cornerstones of the olympic ideal and strategic vision (contribute to building a better world through sport). The article reviews the literature on organizational social responsibility (OSR) and the relationship between sport/olympism and OSR in order to examine the conditions governing the implementation and success of the International Olympic Committee's strategic vision. Several ways in which the IOC could promote a more ambitious and better-integrated social strategy: revise its performance model, notably evaluate and present in a social responsibility report; promote the adoption of OSR initiatives and strategies within the Olympic System from the bottom-up, rather than from the top-down; share best practices in the different countries for promoting and developing "sport for all"; create a World Agency for Development through Sport, or partnering and funding the international platform on sport and development; creating a World Agency for the International Governance of Sport. Two possible scenarios for the future of Olympic responsibility are finally discussed: strategy of "small steps" and a more ambitious local and global social strategy through sport and olympism.

A Social Network Analysis of Twitter: Mapping the Digital Humanities Community

Defining digital humanities might be an endless debate if we stick to the discussion about the boundaries of this concept as an academic "discipline". In an attempt to concretely identify this field and its actors, this paper shows that it is possible to analyse them through Twitter, a social media widely used by this "community of practice". Based on a network analysis of 2,500 users identified as members of this movement, the visualisation of the "who's following who?" graph allows us to highlight the structure of the network's relationships, and identify users whose position is particular. Specifically, we show that linguistic groups are key factors to explain clustering within a network whose characteristics look similar to a small world.

Relation soignant-soigné quand les blogs s'en mêlent [Patient-caregiver relationship: when illness blogs step in].

The use of social media as a communication tool is rapidly growing in the community, and more specifically in patients, through illness blogs. This has been true for several years in North America, but is becoming a reality in Europe as well. We report here the first results of studies on the putative psychological benefits and risks of illness blogs for their authors. We also explore the possible impact of blogging on the patient-caregiver relationship. Social media are expected to have a growing influence in certain areas of health care. Physicians should therefore stay informed about them, take advantage of their benefits, and anticipate their risks.

Swiss Democracy on the Web 2010 : Society and Politics in a Connected Age

The rapid adoption of online media like Facebook, Twitter or Wikileaks leaves us with little time to think. Where is information technology taking us, our society and our democratic institutions ? Is the Web replicating social divides that already exist offline or does collaborative technology pave the way for a more equal society ? How do we find the right balance between openness and privacy ? Can social media improve civic participation or do they breed superficial exchange and the promotion of false information ? These and lots of other questions arise when one starts to look at the Internet, society and politics. The first part of this paper gives an overview of the social changes that occur with the rise of the Web. The second part serves as an overview on how the Web is being used for political participation in Switzerland and abroad. Le développement rapide de nouveaux médias comme Facebook, Twitter ou Wikileaks ne laisse que peu de temps à la réflexion. Quels sont les changements que ces technologies de l'information impliquent pour nous, notre société et nos institutions démocratiques ? Internet ne fait-il que reproduire des divisions sociales qui lui préexistent ou constitue-t-il un moyen de lisser et d'égaliser ces mêmes divisions ? Comment trouver le bon équilibre entre transparence et respect de la vie privée ? Les médias sociaux permettent-ils de stimuler la participation politique ou ne sont-ils que le vecteur d'échanges superficiels et de fausses informations ? Ces questions, parmi d'autres, émergent rapidement lorsque l'on s'intéresse à la question des liens entre Internet, la société et la politique. La première partie de ce cahier est consacrée aux changements sociaux générés par l'émergence et le développement d'Internet. La seconde fait l'état des lieux de la manière dont Internet est utilisé pour stimuler la participation politique en Suisse et à l'étranger.

The Gene Ontology: enhancements for 2011.

The Gene Ontology (GO) (http://www.geneontology.org) is a community bioinformatics resource that represents gene product function through the use of structured, controlled vocabularies. The number of GO annotations of gene products has increased due to curation efforts among GO Consortium (GOC) groups, including focused literature-based annotation and ortholog-based functional inference. The GO ontologies continue to expand and improve as a result of targeted ontology development, including the introduction of computable logical definitions and development of new tools for the streamlined addition of terms to the ontology. The GOC continues to support its user community through the use of e-mail lists, social media and web-based resources.

Sentiment de finitude de vie et de coping chez le patient face à l'annonce d'un cancer digestif étude descriptive correlationnelle

Problématique. Le cancer digestif est une maladie qui s'accompagne de nombreux décès. L'annonce d'un tel diagnostic engendre une crise existentielle composée d'un sentiment de finitude de la vie. Des réactions psychosociales accompagnent cette mauvaise nouvelle. Un concept particulier appelé le transitoriness est omniprésent. La personne lutte pour continuer à vivre. Elle adopte des stratégies de coping pour s'ajuster aux difficultés imposées par ce sentiment de finitude de vie. But. Décrire le niveau de sentiment de finitude de vie et les stratégies de coping utilisées face à l'annonce du diagnostic d'un cancer digestif et explorer la présence d'associations entre les variables. Méthode. Cette étude descriptive corrélationnelle a été conduite auprès de 40 personnes hospitalisées pour une intervention chirurgicale, recrutées selon un échantillonnage de convenance. Le protocole de recherche a été avalisé par le comité cantonal d'éthique. Les données ont été recueillies par un formulaire de données sociodémographiques et de santé ainsi que deux instruments de mesure : le SEKT (Subjektive Einschätzung von Krankheitssituation und Todesnähe) a permis de mesurer le sentiment de finitude de vie et le JCS (Jalowiec Coping Scale) a été employé pour recueillir les stratégies de coping. Les deux instruments de mesure n'étant pas disponibles en français, une procédure de traduction et retraduction a été effectuée et avalisée par un comité d'expert. Des analyses descriptives et corrélationnelles ont été réalisées. Résultats. L'échantillon est composé majoritairement d'hommes (51%), âgés entre 56- 74 ans (52,5%), mariés (45%) et avec enfants âgés de plus de 20 ans (60%). Il apparaît une forte proportion de personnes d'une autre nationalité (40%) que la suisse et avec une formation obligatoire (40%). Le sentiment de finitude de vie est présent: 62% réalisent que le cancer représente une menace pour leur vie. Les préoccupations autour de la mort sont « quelquefois » présentes (32,5%). Les personnes se sentent « un peu » à « proche » de la mort et le score total de la proximité est de M = 3,37 (ĒT= 1,77 ; rang: 0-8). Le style de coping privilégié est l'optimisme (M = 2,10), puis l'indépendance (M = 1,95) et l'affrontement de la situation (M =1,80). Aucune relation entre le sentiment de finitude de vie et le score total de coping n'apparaît, si ce n'est une probabilité p< 0,08 entre le sentiment de finitude de vie et les styles de coping expression des émotions et indépendance. La relation entre le sentiment de finitude de vie et la variable sociodémographique la nationalité présente une probabilité marginale (p= 0,058). Certains facteurs sociodémographiques influencent l'utilisation des différentes stratégies de coping : affrontement de la situation (p= 0,0007), coping palliatif (p= 0,0449) et niveau de formation; optimisme et genre (p= 0,0424) ; expression des émotions et âge (p= 0,045); indépendance et nationalité (p= 0,0319); soutien social et nombre d'enfants (p= 0,0016). Conclusion. Les professionnels de la santé doivent être sensibilisés aux spécificités du transitoriness et aux facteurs influençant l'utilisation de stratégies de coping efficaces afin de détecter les personnes vulnérables et de cibler leurs interventions de soins pour diminuer le risque de détresse et son impact sur la qualité de vie du patient.