Impact of Social Networking Sites on Post-Partum Depression in Women: An Analysis in the Context of Bangladesh

Postpartum Depression (PPD) refers to moderate or severe depression in a woman after childbirth. It is strikingly common in new mothers from all regions of the world with a prevalence of around 10-15%. PPD can have severe adverse effects on maternal and child health, such as suicidal tendency of the mother, infanticide as well as poor cognitive and developmental growth of the child. Despite this, few women seek medical attention due to ignorance, negligence and financial limitations; the latter is especially true for those who live in developing countries. Nowadays, social networking sites (SNS) e.g., Facebook can act as accessible and effective tools for the prevention and treatment of PPD. In this paper, we analyze the opinions and awareness level of Bangladeshi people about PPD and impact of using SNS during postpartum period on reducing PPD based on our survey (N = 93). We also discuss possible SNS-based interventions and design implications that can effectively and feasibly reduce PPD in women in developing countries

Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources

The rapid change in technologies and markets (innovations) as well as government policies has induced firms and localities to take collective actions to enhance their capacity to adapt and respond to uncertainty (Lundvall, 1998). In this regard current approaches to economic development draw upon diverse theoretical fields and concepts but there is some agreement as to the importance of social capital (Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1993; Sabel, 1993). Social capital refers to embeddedness of trust and strong civic relations in a locality that serves as a source of competitiveness through cooperation. The SME’s are, naturally, both creators and users of the social capital in a locality. It is observed that different regions perform different qualities in the creation and exploitation of social capital in Turkey. Thus, this study aims to analyze and identify the attitudes of the SME’s towards networking, trust and collaboration in Lakes District (Isparta and Burdur Provinces) in order to assess the social capital capacity and capability. Is there a certain level networking among SME’s? Do they trust each other in their local business environment? Do they trust other local actors such as business chambers and local authorities? Is there awareness about collaborative business development among SME’s? The findings of such questions will help policy makers to design effective strategies in order to improve the role of social capital in economic development process. This study depends on a survey conducted in 2005. 66 SME’s were chosen from KOSGEB’s regional data inventory which includes 250 SME’s for Lakes District. In this survey, 50 questions questionnaire was used. The data collected have been evaluated by SPSS and MINITAB. In order to explore the social capital attitudes and differences among the SME’s, discriminant analysis, t-test and ANOVA are used. The social capital was categorized into (i) supportive structure of local actors (ii) collaboration among SME’s (iii) trust at different levels. The initial findings are less supportive of a strong social capital among SME’s and between SME’s and local actors. It is expected that informal and social relations should have been much developed in less developed economies, mainly as a consequence of less capitalization of social processes. Ironically, strong social relations in developing countries are not enough to produce/reproduce social capital. Referring to Putnam (1993), trust and civicness can be assumed as more compatible producers of the social capital (Keating, 2001) instead of strong social relations.social capital, SMEs, networking, Turkey

Asynchronous Remote Medical Consultation for Ghana

Computer-mediated communication systems can be used to bridge the gap between doctors in underserved regions with local shortages of medical expertise and medical specialists worldwide. To this end, we describe the design of a prototype remote consultation system intended to provide the social, institutional and infrastructural context for sustained, self-organizing growth of a globally-distributed Ghanaian medical community. The design is grounded in an iterative design process that included two rounds of extended design fieldwork throughout Ghana and draws on three key design principles (social networks as a framework on which to build incentives within a self-organizing network; optional and incremental integration with existing referral mechanisms; and a weakly-connected, distributed architecture that allows for a highly interactive, responsive system despite failures in connectivity). We discuss initial experiences from an ongoing trial deployment in southern Ghana.Comment: 10 page

Building virtual bridges: how rural micro-enterprises develop social capital in online and face-to-face settings

In rural UK, businesses are often isolated and have much to gain from healthy networks, yet studies show that many rural business owners fail to network effectively. Information communications technologies offer new ways to network that might benefit rural businesses by expanding their reach. This study looked at online and face-to-face networking behaviour among rural micro-enterprises in Scotland in relation to the development of bonding and bridging social capital. Given the challenges of remoteness faced by many rural businesses, online networking is particularly useful in developing bridging capital, but is an unsuitable context for building the trust needed to gain tangible benefits. The article therefore highlights the importance of face-to-face interactions in developing trust and bonding social capital. Rural business owners face distinctive challenges with respect to online communications, which are explored in this article

Capacity-building barriers to S3 implementation: an empirical framework for catch-up regions

In this paper, we investigate the implementation challenge of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) in catch-up regional environments, through the lens of capacity building. We analyse capacity building at two levels: micro-level (individual organisations) and meso-level (regional inter-organisational networks). We use empirical evidence from 50 interviews conducted in the period 2015–2017 from two Greek regions dramatically hit by the economic crisis (Crete and Central Macedonia). We argue that in the Cretan and Central Macedonian context, the difficulty of implementing S3 is directly linked with firms’ lack of adsorptive capability to exploit university-generated knowledge, university knowledge that is too abstract for firm’s to easily acquire, as well as to the capability of regional actors to build inter-organisational networking that fits their strategic needs

The Quest for a Killer App for Opportunistic and Delay Tolerant Networks (Invited Paper)

Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) has attracted a lot of attention from the research community in recent years. Much work have been done regarding network architectures and algorithms for routing and forwarding in such networks. At the same time as many show enthusiasm for this exciting new research area there are also many sceptics, who question the usefulness of research in this area. In the past, we have seen other research areas become over-hyped and later die out as there was no killer app for them that made them useful in real scenarios. Real deployments of DTN systems have so far mostly been limited to a few niche scenarios, where they have been done as proof-of-concept field tests in research projects. In this paper, we embark upon a quest to find out what characterizes a potential killer applications for DTNs. Are there applications and situations where DTNs provide services that could not be achieved otherwise, or have potential to do it in a better way than other techniques? Further, we highlight some of the main challenges that needs to be solved to realize these applications and make DTNs a part of the mainstream network landscape

A Value Focused Thinking (VFT) Analysis to Understanding Users’ Privacy and Security Dynamics in Social Networking Services

The rate of growth of Social Networking Services (SNS) has significant implications for computer and cyber-crime management. In exploring the human side of security, studies have shown that any security response requires more than technical solutions. This is even more so as users are often seen as the key point of vulnerabilities for computer systems including SNS. This study seeks to explore what are the important values in understanding measures to maximize end-user security and privacy concerns in SNS settings. The study applies the Value-focused Thinking (VFT) methodology to determine the users’ values and objectives, with an initial focus on a developing context. With online users in developing countries surpassing more developed regions, it is imperative that focused attention to this domain is granted. The study found that privacy, confidentiality, integrity of SNS, security controls, awareness campaigns, corporate social responsibility and personal responsibility are fundamental values in maximizing user security and privacy conditions. Corporate social responsibility was one of the findings from this research which underlined the important role of businesses including the service providers in maintaining the integrity of SNS environment

Geographical co-location, social networks and inter-firm marketing co-operation : the case of the salmon industry

This study looks at the factors that influence the development of marketing co-operation among cluster-based firms. It examines data from SMEs operating within the salmon farming industry in two different regions: Scotland and Chile. Analyses indicate that informal social networks help explain the observed relationship between geographical proximity and inter-firm marketing co-operation, especially for firms located in peripheral rural communities. A theoretical model is proposed for further research in the field that, until recently, has been traditionally analysed only by economists. Practical implications are suggested for practitioners and policymaker