The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network

Based on repeated surveys of 12,067 closely interconnected people between 1971 and 2000, examines the extent to which smoking spreads socially and to which groups of smokers quit together, as well as trends in the number and social centrality of smokers

Complex networks and public funding: the case of the 2007-2013 Italian program

In this paper we apply techniques of complex network analysis to data sources representing public funding programs and discuss the importance of the considered indicators for program evaluation. Starting from the Open Data repository of the 2007-2013 Italian Program Programma Operativo Nazionale 'Ricerca e Competitivit\`a' (PON R&C), we build a set of data models and perform network analysis over them. We discuss the obtained experimental results outlining interesting new perspectives that emerge from the application of the proposed methods to the socio-economical evaluation of funded programs.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns

Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538 undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics. Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer effects among university students

Centrality in children's best friend networks: the role of social behaviour

Centrality is an indicator of an individual's relative importance within a social group. Predictors of centrality in best friendship networks were examined in 146 children (70 boys, 76 girls, Mage= 9.95). Children completed measures of social confidence, social desirability, friendship quality, school liking, and loneliness, and nominated their best friends from within their class at two time points, 3 months apart. Multigroup path analysis revealed gender differences in the antecedents of centrality. Social confidence, social desirability, and friendship quality predicted changes in the indicators of centrality in best friend networks over time. In boys’ social behaviour positively predicted changes in centrality whereas in girls’ social behaviour negatively predicted changes in centrality. Together, these findings suggest that some aspects of social behaviour are influential for centrality in best friend groups

The social network's influences on individual performance

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Autism research : An objective quantitative review of progress and focus between 1994 and 2015

The nosology and epidemiology of Autism has undergone transformation following consolidation of once disparate disorders under the umbrella diagnostic, autism spectrum disorders. Despite this re-conceptualization, research initiatives, including the NIMH's Research Domain Criteria and Precision Medicine, highlight the need to bridge psychiatric and psychological classification methodologies with biomedical techniques. Combining traditional bibliometric co-word techniques, with tenets of graph theory and network analysis, this article provides an objective thematic review of research between 1994 and 2015 to consider evolution and focus. Results illustrate growth in Autism research since 2006, with nascent focus on physiology. However, modularity and citation analytics demonstrate dominance of subjective psychological or psychiatric constructs, which may impede progress in the identification and stratification of biomarkers as endorsed by new research initiatives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Emotion regulation difficulties related to depression and anxiety : a network approach to model relations among symptoms, positive reappraisal, and repetitive negative thinking

Frequent repetitive negative thinking and infrequent positive reappraisal use are theorized to increase risk for depression and anxiety. Yet, research has studied these regulatory strategies at the disorder level, ignoring the clinical heterogeneity and differential relations among their individual symptoms. In this study, we examined the associations among repetitive negative thinking, positive reappraisal, and individual symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders. Models of regularized partial-correlation networks were estimated using cross-sectional data from 468 participants. Results showed that repetitive negative thinking and positive reappraisal were differentially related to affective, cognitive, and somatic symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, repetitive negative thinking was more central than positive reappraisal with stronger connections to individual symptoms. Finally, repetitive negative thinking was more important than positive reappraisal in connecting clusters of depression and anxiety symptoms. These findings cast light on potential pathways through which repetitive negative thinking and positive reappraisal may operate within depression and anxiety