DR. CLARK-KENNEDY, physician to the London Hospital and Dean of the Medical School, and well known for his original presentation of medicine in the several textbooks he has written, has now produced a book for the layman. Many will still think that for the population generally, and especially for the more neurotic section of it likely to be most interested in this type of book, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The author ranges widely, and on the whole wisely, over a wide variety of topics. Extreme compression can easily lead to misunderstanding and the expression of half-truths, but the author probably manages to avoid this better than most books of this kind. The book should be useful to students of the social sciences and medical students will find it stimulating in parts and of some general interest. THIS small volume represents the teaching of the late Dr. Harold Waller. As all those interested in the feeding of the newborn are aware, Dr. Waller attained an outstanding place in presenting his views on the feeding of infants by natural methods. Obstetricians and pediatricians owe a debt of gratitude to him for his great contribution to this important field. Obstetricians and paediatricians will appreciate the quality of his teaching, and midwives too will be glad to have his advice presented in this attractive book. It is concise, well written, and more. than adequately illustrated. THIS is a book which concerns every parent, though it is especially important for teachers and all those who handle children. A concise account is given of a child's behaviour from infancy to adolesence. The difficulties which may arise at various stages and the methods of treating them are described. The book is illustrated by case histories and photographs, and there is an extensive bibliography at the end of each chapter. THIS annual volume is now well known to many general practitioners. This year there are thirty-two articles by experts in various branches of medicine and surgery dealing with the treatment of such conditions as coronary thrombosis, disturbed nights in the elderly, gangrene of the extremities, tumours of the bladder, the management of colostomies and of incurable malignant disease. The articles are uniformly good and, although concerned primarily with treatment, they impart much information on symptomatology and diagnosis. The general style of the annual has always been attractive, making for easy reading. In the present volume …
The aim of this collection of essaysl is to facilitate &dquo;a more sophisticated examination of the hitherto poorly elucidated phenomena of racism and to examine the adequacy of the theoretical formulations, paradigms and interpretive schemes in the social and human sciences...with respect to introlerance and racism and in relation to the complexity of problems they pose.&dquo; This general rubric enables me to situate more precisely the kind of contribution which a study of Gramsci’s work can make to the larger enterprise. In my view, Gramsci’s work does not offer a general social science which can be applied to the analysis of social phenomena across a wide comparative range of historical societies. His potential contribution is more limited. It remains, for all that, of seminal importance. His work is, precisely, of a &dquo;sophisticating&dquo; kind. He works, broadly, within the marxist paradigm. However, he has extensively revised, renovated and sophisticated many aspects of that theoretical framework to make it
We review a general class of models for self-organized dynamics based on alignment. The dynamics of such systems is governed solely by interactions among individuals or “agents,” with the tendency to adjust to their “environmental averages.” This, in turn, leads to the formation of clusters, e.g., colonies of ants, flocks of birds, parties of people, rendezvous in mobile networks, etc. A natural question which arises in this context is to ask when and how clusters emerge through the self-alignment of agents, and what types of “rules of engagement” influence the formation of such clusters. Of particular interest to us are cases in which the self-organized behavior tends to concentrate into one cluster, reflecting a consensus of opinions, flocking of birds, fish, or cells, rendezvous of mobile agents, and, in general, concentration of other traits intrinsic to the dynamics. Many standard models for self-organized dynamics in social, biological, and physical sciences assume that the intensity of alignment in...
Elisabetta Biondi, Chiara Boldrini, Andrea Passarella
et al.
Online social networks (OSNs) have transformed the way individuals fulfill their social needs and consume information. As OSNs become increasingly prominent sources for news dissemination, individuals often encounter content that influences their opinions through both direct interactions and broader network dynamics. In this paper, we propose the Friedkin-Johnsen on Cascade (FJC) model, which is, to the best of our knowledge, is the first attempt to integrate information cascades and opinion dynamics, specifically using the very popular Friedkin-Johnsen model. Our model, validated over real social cascades, highlights how the convergence of socialization and sharing news on these platforms can disrupt opinion evolution dynamics typically observed in offline settings. Our findings demonstrate that these cascades can amplify the influence of central opinion leaders, making them more resistant to divergent viewpoints, even when challenged by a critical mass of dissenting opinions. This research underscores the importance of understanding the interplay between social dynamics and information flow in shaping public discourse in the digital age.
İnternetin yapısal özellikleri itibariyle 7/24 gazeteciliği olanaklı kılan egemen değerler; akılcılık (araçsal akıl-girişimcilik), esneklik (çoklu beceriler ve çalışma ilişkileri), aciliyet (sürekli ulaşılabilir olma ve yoğun mesai), hız (güncellik baskısı ve enformasyon akışı) becerilerinden oluşmaktadır. Çalışma zamanının boş zamana baskın gelme halini yaratan ve boş zamanı sermayeleştiren bu değerler, 2000’li yıllardan sonra internet gazeteciliğiyle birlikte bilişsel kapitalizmin yeni ruhunu tanımlayan ve gazetecilerin sahip olması beklenen özelliklerdir. Çünkü bilişsel veya iletişimsel kapitalizmde emek gücünün denetimi ve çalışmanın verimliliği zamanın denetiminden geçmektedir. Bu araştırmanın amacı, Türkiye’de Basın İlan Kurumu’nun (BİK) 2023 yılı sonrası internet gazeteciliğine doğrudan etki eden kural koyucu misyonunun bir sonucu olarak belirlediği kriterlerin, 7/24 gazeteciliğe sebep olan esnekleşme, hedefleme, hız ve anındalık temelli çalışma düzenine etkisini incelemektir. Araştırmada, niteliksel araştırma yöntemlerinden yapılandırılmış ve yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat/görüşme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Deneyime dayanan araştırma bulgularını değerlendirmek amacıyla fenomolojik desen tercih edilmiştir. Sonuçta, BİK’in belirlediği yüksek kriterlerin gazetecilerin haber yapma alışkanlıklarında ve ideallerinde bir kurumsuzlaşma yarattığı, internet gazeteciliğiyle birlikte gazetecilerin çalışma düzeni ve istihdam koşullarında iyileşme sağlanamadığı ve günümüzde çalışma zamanının serbest zamana baskın gelme durumunun gazeteciler lehine çözümlenemediği tespit edilmiştir.
Isura Manchanayaka, Zainab Razia Zaidi, Shanika Karunasekera
et al.
The rise of social media has been accompanied by a dark side with the ease of creating fake accounts and disseminating misinformation through coordinated attacks. Existing methods to identify such attacks often rely on thematic similarities or network-based approaches, overlooking the intricate causal relationships that underlie coordinated actions. This work introduces a novel approach for detecting coordinated attacks using Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM), a technique that infers causality from temporal relationships between user activity. We build on the theoretical framework of CCM by incorporating topic modelling as a basis for further optimizing its performance. We apply CCM to real-world data from the infamous IRA attack on US elections, achieving F1 scores up to 75.3% in identifying coordinated accounts. Furthermore, we analyse the output of our model to identify the most influential users in a community. We apply our model to a case study involving COVID-19 anti-vax related discussions on Twitter. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of our model in uncovering causal structures of coordinated behaviour, offering a promising avenue for mitigating the threat of malicious campaigns on social media platforms.
Sai Puppala, Ismail Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam
et al.
Our paper introduces a novel approach to social network information retrieval and user engagement through a personalized chatbot system empowered by Federated Learning GPT. The system is designed to seamlessly aggregate and curate diverse social media data sources, including user posts, multimedia content, and trending news. Leveraging Federated Learning techniques, the GPT model is trained on decentralized data sources to ensure privacy and security while providing personalized insights and recommendations. Users interact with the chatbot through an intuitive interface, accessing tailored information and real-time updates on social media trends and user-generated content. The system's innovative architecture enables efficient processing of input files, parsing and enriching text data with metadata, and generating relevant questions and answers using advanced language models. By facilitating interactive access to a wealth of social network information, this personalized chatbot system represents a significant advancement in social media communication and knowledge dissemination.
W. Madushan Fernando, Amila Thibbotuwawa, H. Niles Perera
et al.
The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) represents a thoroughly investigated domain within operations research, yielding substantial cost savings in global transportation. The fundamental objective of the VRP is to determine the optimal route plan that minimizes the overall distance traveled. This study employs VRP to address the challenge of distributing fresh agricultural products within retail chains. It introduces an integrated bi-objective VRP model that concurrently optimizes resource allocation, order scheduling, and route planning. The proposed model incorporates two objective functions with the goals of minimizing total distribution costs and ensuring timely product deliveries to retail outlets. Real-world characteristics are integrated to enhance practical applicability. All solution algorithms and the developed VRP model undergo testing using data from one of Sri Lanka's largest retail chains. Numerical experiments showcase the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in solving real-world VRP problems. Moreover, the proposed VRP model achieves a 19% reduction in daily distribution costs, including a 24% saving in fuel costs. This not only provides financial benefits but also contributes to the reduction of the carbon footprint of retail chains. The model ensures on-time deliveries to 95% of retail outlets, which is crucial for maintaining the quality of fresh food. The findings of this study underscore the significant cost savings, enhanced sustainability, and improved quality associated with the efficient distribution of fresh agricultural products within retail chains.
Systems engineering, Marketing. Distribution of products
The trade-off and coordinated development of the “production-living-ecological” functions (PLEFs) of an area is an important basis for the optimization of the spatial pattern of the land, and helps to promote the harmonious symbiotic relationship between human beings and nature. This paper combines ecological niche theory, a coupling coordination model, and a trade-off synergy model to construct an evaluation index system for Chinese county PLEFs. Quantitative methods were used to measure spatiotemporal evolution characteristics, trade-off synergy of PLEFs in 38 counties in Chongqing, China, and the coupling coordination degree between PLEFs. The results showed that the ecological niche width of the “production-ecological” function revealed an overall growth trend. However, there was a mismatch in regional development of the “production-ecological” function, showing dislocation characteristics of “high in the west and low in the east” and “high in the east and low in the west.” The niche width of the life function is similar to the comprehensive niche width of PLEFs, showing the characteristics of fluctuation and partition change. PLEFs and both the aforementioned functions showed distribution characteristics of “high in the west and low in the east,” with the whole moving towards the stage of coordinated coupling, of which the “production-living” function has the highest coupling level. The functional coupling coordination degree of “production-living-ecological” is generally manifested as “high in the west and low in the east,” and changing from the primary stage of imbalance to well-coordinated development. The “production-ecological” and “living-ecological” functions are in low-level imbalance in the primary and moderate coordination stages. Additionally, the evolution trend of the “production-ecological” and the “living-ecological” functions are similar, showing alternating and fluctuating development characteristics. Overall, in the past 20 years, Chongqing’s “living-production” function has changed from a trade-off model to a collaborative development relationship, and the “living-ecological” function is generally based on a collaborative development relationship. The “ecological function” is manifested as a trade-off constraint relationship. Moreover, the coordinated development level of “living-production,” “living-ecological,” and “production-ecological” functions in the central urban area has been greatly improved, while counties have gradually shown different degrees of trade-offs.