Exploring three approaches to offer distance learning courses through a social network of health researchers in three African countries

The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp hereby presents the results of two pilot distance learning training programmes, developed under the umbrella of the AFRICA BUILD project (FP7). The two courses focused on evidence-based medicine (EBM): with the aim of enhancing research and education, via novel approaches and to identify research needs emanating from the field. These pilot experiences, which were run both in English-speaking (Ghana), and French-speaking (Mali and Cameroon) partner institutions, produced targeted courses for the strengthening of research methodology and policy. The courses and related study materials are in the public domain and available through the AFRICA BUILD Portal (http://www.africabuild.eu/taxonomy/term/37); the training modules were delivered live via Dudal webcasts. This paper assesses the success and difficulties of transferring EBM skills with these two specific training programmes, offered through three different approaches: fully online facultative courses, fully online tutor supported courses or through a blended approach with both online and face-to-face sessions. Key factors affecting the selection of participants, the accessibility of the courses, how the learning resources are offered, and how interactive online communities are formed, are evaluated and discussed.

HealthEye: The Social Network : the social network for rare diseases

HealthEye es la red social para unir a personas con la misma enfermedad rara. Este proyecto, es considerado como una startup social, abordando tanto el desarrollo de la plataforma así como el modelo de negocio del proyecto. La parte más complicada del proyecto, sin duda alguna, es encontrar un modelo sostenible para la empresa, y por supuesto, el crear una web de buena calidad para el beneficio del usuario.

A universal scaling law between gray matter and white matter of cerebral cortex

Neocortex, a new and rapidly evolving brain structure in mammals, has a similar layered architecture in species over a wide range of brain sizes. Larger brains require longer fibers to communicate between distant cortical areas; the volume of the white matter that contains long axons increases disproportionally faster than the volume of the gray matter that contains cell bodies, dendrites, and axons for local information processing, according to a power law. The theoretical analysis presented here shows how this remarkable anatomical regularity might arise naturally as a consequence of the local uniformity of the cortex and the requirement for compact arrangement of long axonal fibers. The predicted power law with an exponent of 4/3 minus a small correction for the thickness of the cortex accurately accounts for empirical data spanning several orders of magnitude in brain sizes for various mammalian species, including human and nonhuman primates.

Intramolecular vibrational dephasing obeys a power law at intermediate times

Experimental intramolecular vibrational dephasing transients for several large organic molecules are reanalyzed. Fits to the experimental data, as well as full numerical quantum calculations with a factorized potential surface for all active degrees of freedom of fluorene indicate that power law decays, not exponentials, occur at intermediate times. The results support a proposal that power law decays describe vibrational dephasing dynamics in large molecules at intermediate times because of the local nature of energy flow.

A power law for cells

Darwin observed that multiple, lowly organized, rudimentary, or exaggerated structures show increased relative variability. However, the cellular basis for these laws has never been investigated. Some animals, such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, are famous for having organs that possess the same number of cells in all individuals, a property known as eutely. But for most multicellular creatures, the extent of cell number variability is unknown. Here we estimate variability in organ cell number for a variety of animals, plants, slime moulds, and volvocine algae. We find that the mean and variance in cell number obey a power law with an exponent of 2, comparable to Taylor's law in ecological processes. Relative cell number variability, as measured by the coefficient of variation, differs widely across taxa and tissues, but is generally independent of mean cell number among homologous tissues of closely related species. We show that the power law for cell number variability can be explained by stochastic branching process models based on the properties of cell lineages. We also identify taxa in which the precision of developmental control appears to have evolved. We propose that the scale independence of relative cell number variability is maintained by natural selection.

A Qualitative Investigation of Social Network Efficacy Relative to Employee Recruitment and Generational Needs

Non-traditional means of recruitment for the twenty-first century knowledge worker need to accompany traditional means of recruitment due to an increased usage of technology by the twenty-first century knowledge worker. In this capstone project, the author examined the recruiting efficacy of social networks. Non-traditional means of recruitment through social networks via the World Wide Web can help organizations compete for potential applicants and assist job seekers in securing employment. These means are cost effective for the employer. Examples of organizational usage in this investigation illustrate that social networking can improve efficacy for recruitment and generational needs.

A potential case of attitude change: The Spanish spoken in the city of Malaga and used on social network sites

The Spanish spoken in the city of Malaga, as Andalusian Spanish in general, was in the past often times considered an incorrect, low prestige variety of Spanish which was strongly associated with the poor, rural, backward South of Spain. This southern Spanish variety is easily recognised because of its innovative phonetic features that diverge from the national standard, even though in the past years in the case of some features a convergence to the standard could be observed. Despite its low prestige the local variety of Spanish is quite often used on social network sites, where it is considered as urban, fashion and cool. Thus, this paper aims at analysing whether the Spanish used in the city of Malaga is undergoing an attitude change. The study draws on naturally occurring speech, data extracted from Facebook and a series of questionnaires about the salience, attitude and perception of the local variety of Spanish. The influence of the social factors age and gender is analysed, since they are both known to play a crucial role in many instances of language change. The first is of special interest, as during the Franco dictatorship dialect use was not accepted in schools and in the media. Results show that, on the one hand, people from Malaga hold a more positive attitude towards non-standard features used on social network sites than in spoken language. On the other hand, young female users employ most non-standard features online and unsurprisingly have an extremely positive attitude towards this use. However, in spoken Spanish the use and attitude of some features is led by men and speakers educated during the Franco dictatorship, while other features, such as elision of intervocalic /d/, elision of final /ɾ/, /l/ and /d/ and ceceo, are predominantly employed by and younger speakers and women. These features are considered as salient in the local variety and work as local identity markers.

Transit network analysis : INET /

Mode of access: Internet.

Ameren Illinois Power Company workforce adequacy analysis report /

"December 2008"--Colophon.

Aircraft used for law enforcement : an analysis of costs /

"December 1981."

Illinois Department of Law Enforcement occupational analysis executive summary /

Bibliography: p. 63.

Primer on the Taft-Hartley law, a moral analysis.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Relationship between Adolescent Social Network Structure and Perceptions of School Climate

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Demographic category membership and leadership in small groups: A social identity analysis

Developing the social identity theory of leadership (e.g., [Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184-200]), an experiment (N=257) tested the hypothesis that as group members identify more strongly with their group (salience) their evaluations of leadership effectiveness become more strongly influenced by the extent to which their demographic stereotype-based impressions of their leader match the norm of the group (prototypicality). Participants, with more or less traditional gender attitudes (orientation), were members, under high or low group salience conditions (salience), of non-interactive laboratory groups that had instrumental or expressive group norms (norm), and a male or female leader (leader gender). As predicted, these four variables interacted significantly to affect perceptions of leadership effectiveness. Reconfiguration of the eight conditions formed by orientation, norm and leader gender produced a single prototypicality variable. Irrespective of participant gender, prototypical leaders were considered more effective in high then low salience groups, and in high salience groups prototypical leaders were more effective than less prototypical leaders. Alternative explanations based on status characteristics and role incongruity theory do not account well for the findings. Implications of these results for the glass ceiling effect and for a wider social identity analysis of the impact of demographic group membership on leadership in small groups are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantifying aphasic people's social lives in the context of non-aphasic peers

Background: Developing the knowledge base on the impact of aphasia on people's social lives has become increasingly important in recent times to further our understanding of the broad consequences of communication disability and thus provide appropriate services. Past research clearly indicates that relationships and social activities with family members and others undergo change with the onset of aphasia in an individual, however more evidence of a quantitative nature would be beneficial. Aims: The current research furthers our knowledge by quantifying chronically aphasic older people's regular social contacts and social activities, and places them in context by comparing them with healthy older people of similar age and education. Methods & Procedures: A total of 30 aphasic participants aged 57 to 88 years, and 71 non-aphasic controls aged 62 to 98 years were interviewed by a speech and language therapist using self-report measures of Social Network Analysis (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987) and Social Activities Checklist (Cruice, 2001, in Worrall & Hickson, 2003). Demographic information was also collected. Descriptive statistics are presented and independent samples t tests were used to examine differences between the groups. Outcomes & Results: Participants with primarily mild to moderate aphasic impairment reported a considerable range of social contacts (5-51) and social activities (8-18). Many significant differences were evident between the two groups' social contacts and activities. On average, aphasic participants had nine fewer social contacts (mainly friend'' relationships) and three fewer social activities (mainly leisure'' activities) than their non-aphasic peers. The majority of controls were satisfied with their social activities, whereas the majority of aphasic participants were not and wanted to be doing more. There were some general similarities between the groups, in terms of range of social contacts, overall pattern of social relationships, and core social activities. Conclusions: Older people with chronic aphasia had significantly fewer social contacts and social activities than their peers. People with aphasia expressed a desire to increase the social activity of their lives. Given the importance of leisure activity and relationships with friends as well as family for positive well-being, speech and language therapists may direct their rehabilitation efforts towards two areas: (1) conversational partner programmes training friends to maintain these relationships; and (2) encouraging and supporting aphasic clients in leisure activities of their choice.