A customisable pipeline for continuously harvesting socially-minded Twitter users

On social media platforms and Twitter in particular, specific classes of users such as influencers have been given satisfactory operational definitions in terms of network and content metrics. Others, for instance online activists, are not less important but their characterisation still requires experimenting. We make the hypothesis that such interesting users can be found within temporally and spatially localised contexts, i.e., small but topical fragments of the network containing interactions about social events or campaigns with a significant footprint on Twitter. To explore this hypothesis, we have designed a continuous user profile discovery pipeline that produces an ever-growing dataset of user profiles by harvesting and analysing contexts from the Twitter stream. The profiles dataset includes key network and content-based users metrics, enabling experimentation with user-defined score functions that characterise specific classes of online users. The paper describes the design and implementation of the pipeline and its empirical evaluation on a case study consisting of healthcare-related campaigns in the UK, showing how it supports the operational definitions of online activism, by comparing three experimental ranking functions. The code is publicly available.Comment: Procs. ICWE 2019, June 2019, Kore

Vortex phase diagram for mesoscopic superconducting disks

Solving numerically the 3D non linear Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equations, we study equilibrium and nonequilibrium phase transitions between different superconducting states of mesoscopic disks which are thinner than the coherence length and the penetration depth. We have found a smooth transition from a multi-vortex superconducting state to a giant vortex state with increasing both the disk thickness and the magnetic field. A vortex phase diagram is obtained which shows, as function of the magnetic field, a re-entrant behavior between the multi-vortex and the giant vortex state.Comment: 5 figures (post script files) include

Cutting Through the Discussion on Caesarean Delivery: Birth Practices as Social Practices

Women are finding appeal in (or, at minimum, a lower level of resistance to) caesarean delivery despite the health risks that it poses, and I investigate how this decision figures into a broader pattern of women\u27s gender socialisation within a culture that is deeply anxious about women\u27s bodies. I review scholarship on caesarean delivery, and use social practice theory to map possible contact points between theories of embodiment, a sociology of gender, and the specific practice of caesarean section. I consider caesarean delivery as a component of a social practice, and adopt a practice framework to analyze women\u27s motivation for selecting (or consenting to) caesarean delivery. I detail the materiality of the hospital, the medicalisation of women\u27s bodies, and women\u27s antagonistic body relationship to reveal some of the less immediately apparent reasons why caesarean delivery has been normalised and rendered invisible as part of the pattern of modern childbirth. Interventions to address the further escalation of caesarean delivery might consider how this decision aligns with other social practices. I conclude that activism addressing the social conditions that make caesarean delivery so attractive may radiate out to other aspects of women\u27s lives where the practices of normative femininity have proven equally restrictive

“A good little tool to get to know yourself a bit better”: a qualitative study on users’ experiences of app-supported menstrual tracking in Europe

Background: Menstrual apps facilitate observation and analysis of menstrual cycles and associated factors through the collection and interpretation of data entered by users. As a subgroup of health-related apps, menstrual apps form part of one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing developments in biomedicine and health care. However, despite their popularity, qualitative research on how people engaging in period-tracking use and experience these apps remains scarce. Results: An inductive content analysis was performed and eight characteristics of app-supported menstrual tracking were identified: 1) tracking menstrual cycle dates and regularities, 2) preparing for upcoming periods, 3) getting to know menstrual cycles and bodies, 4) verifying menstrual experiences and sensations, 5) informing healthcare professionals, 6) tracking health, 7) contraception and seeking pregnancy, and 8) changes in tracking. Our study finds that period-tracking via apps has the potential to be an empowering practice as it helps users to be more aware of their menstrual cycles and health and to gain new knowledge. However, we also show that menstrual tracking can have negative consequences as it leads to distress in some cases, to privacy issues, and the work it requires can result in cessation. Finally, we present practical implications for healthcare providers and app developers. Conclusions: This qualitative study gives insight into users’ practices and experiences of app-supported menstrual tracking. The results provide information for researchers, health care providers and app designers about the implications of app-supported period-tracking and describe opportunities for patient-doctor interactions as well as for further development of menstrual apps.This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675378

Surreptitious symbiosis: engagement between activists and NGOs

Based on research conducted in Athens, Cairo, London and Yerevan the article analyses the relationship between activists engaged in street protests or direct action since 2011 and NGOs. It examines how activists relate to NGOs and whether it is possible to do sustained activism to bring about social change without becoming part of a ‘civil society industry’. The article argues that while at first glance NGOs seem disconnected from recent street activism, and activists distance themselves from NGOs, the situation is more complicated than meets the eye. It contends that the boundaries between the formal NGOs and informal groups of activists is blurred and there is much cross-over and collaboration. The article demonstrates and seeks to explain this phenomenon, which we call surreptitious symbiosis, from the micro- perspective of individual activists and NGO staff. Finally, we discuss whether this surreptitious symbiosis can be sustained and sketch three scenarios for the future

Density Distribution in the Liquid Hg-Sapphire Interface

We present the results of a computer simulation study of the liquid density distribution normal to the interface between liquid Hg and the reconstructed (0001) face of sapphire. The simulations are based on an extension of the self-consistent quantum Monte Carlo scheme previously used to study the structure of the liquid metal-vapor interface. The calculated density distribution is in very good agreement with that inferred from the recent experimental data of Tamam et al (J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 1, 1041-1045 (2010)). We conclude that, to account for the difference in structure between the liquid Hg-vapor and liquid-Hg-reconstructed (0001) Al2O3 interfaces, it is not necessary assume there is charge transfer from the Hg to the Al2O3. Rather, the available experimental data are adequately reproduced when the van der Waals interactions of the Al and O atoms with Hg atoms and the exclusion of electron density from Al2O3 via repulsion of the electrons from the closed shells of the ions in the solid are accounted for.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

Natural parenting : back to basics in infant care

Peer reviewe

Groups and individuals: conformity and diversity in the performance of gendered identities

The nature and role of social groups is a central tension in sociology. On the one hand, the idea of a group enables sociologists to locate and describe individuals in terms of characteristics that are shared with others. On the other, emphasizing the fluidity of categories such as gender or ethnicity undermines their legitimacy as ways of classifying people and, by extension, the legitimacy of categorization as a goal of sociological research. In this paper, we use a new research method known as the Imitation Game to defend the social group as a sociological concept. We show that, despite the diversity of practices that may be consistent with self‐identified membership of a group, there are also shared normative expectations – typically narrower in nature than the diversity displayed by individual group members – that shape the ways in which category membership can be discussed with, and performed to, others. Two claims follow from this. First, the Imitation Game provides a way of simultaneously revealing both the diversity and ‘groupishness’ of social groups. Second, that the social group, in the quasi‐Durkheimian sense of something that transcends the individual, remains an important concept for sociology