Predicting language diversity with complex network

Evolution and propagation of the world's languages is a complex phenomenon, driven, to a large extent, by social interactions. Multilingual society can be seen as a system of interacting agents, where the interaction leads to a modification of the language spoken by the individuals. Two people can reach the state of full linguistic compatibility due to the positive interactions, like transfer of loanwords. But, on the other hand, if they speak entirely different languages, they will separate from each other. These simple observations make the network science the most suitable framework to describe and analyze dynamics of language change. Although many mechanisms have been explained, we lack a qualitative description of the scaling behavior for different sizes of a population. Here we address the issue of the language diversity in societies of different sizes, and we show that local interactions are crucial to capture characteristics of the empirical data. We propose a model of social interactions, extending the idea from, that explains the growth of the language diversity with the size of a population of country or society. We argue that high clustering and network disintegration are the most important characteristics of models properly describing empirical data. Furthermore, we cancel the contradiction between previous models and the Solomon Islands case. Our results demonstrate the importance of the topology of the network, and the rewiring mechanism in the process of language change

Orthorexia in a group of dietetics students

Wprowadzenie i cel. Ortoreksja jest definiowana jako nadmierne zaabsorbowanie tematyką jedzenia, przygotowywanie posiłków według ściśle określonych zasad, podporządkowanie swojego życia restrykcyjnej diecie. Celem badania była ocena zagrożenia ortoreksją wśród studentów kierunku dietetyka, ocena związku pomiędzy realizowanymi studiami a tendencjami do prezentowania zachowań ortorektycznych. Kolejnym celem była próba znalezienia czynników predysponujących do występowania tego zaburzenia w grupie przyszłych dietetyków. Materiał i metoda. Badania przeprowadzono wśród 155 studentów kierunku dietetyka Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Łodzi. Do badania zastosowano ankietę personalną oraz dwa kwestionariusze, które posłużyły do diagnozy ortoreksji: test autorstwa Stevena Bratmana (BOT) oraz test ORTO-15. Wyniki. Co trzecia osoba badana spełniała kryteria diagnostyczne ortoreksji. 39% znalazło się w grupie podwyższonego ryzyka, a 28% badanych nie zgłaszało żadnych symptomów charakterystycznych dla ortoreksji. Analiza danych uzyskanych kwestionariuszem BOT wskazuje na najsilniejszy spadek tendencji to zachowań ortorektycznych między I a II rokiem studiów licencjackich. Test ORTO-15 natomiast wskazuje na podobny spadek, ale między I a II rokiem studiów uzupełniających magisterskich. Wnioski. Problem występowania ortoreksji w grupie studentów kierunku dietetyka należy uznać za znaczny w porównaniu z podobnymi grupami z innych krajów. Studenci dietetyki płci męskiej charakteryzują się mniejszymi tendencjami ortorektycznymi niż kobiety. Duże zróżnicowanie wyników uzyskanych dwoma różnymi kwestionariuszami sugeruje konieczność przeprowadzenia dokładniejszych badań nad ich trafnością i rzetelnością.Introduction. Ortorexia is defined as an excessive preoccupation with healthy food, preparation of meals according to strict rules, and subordination of life to the restrictive diet. Aim. The aim of this study was evaluation of the threat of ortorexia in a group of students in the specialty of dietetics, evaluation of the relationship between university study, and tendencies towards the presentation of orthorexia behaviour. The subsequent goal of the study was an attempt to find factors predisposing for the occurrence of this disorder in a group of future dieteticians. Material and methods. The study involved 155 students of dietetics at the Medical University in Łódź, and was conducted using 2 questionnaires for diagnosing ortorexia: ORTO-15 and Bratman Orthorexia Test (BOT). Results. Every third respondent fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of orthorexia, 39% of the students were in a group at elevated risk, while 28% of them did not report any orthorectic symptoms. Analysis of data using the BOT questionnaire indicated the strongest downward tendency in orthorectic behaviours between the first and second year of Bachelor’s study, whereas the ORTO-15 confirmed a similar situation during complementary Master study. Conclusions. The existence of ortorectic behaviours in a group of students in the specialty of dietetics seems to be a notable problem. In the examined group, ortorectic tendencies were more pronounced in female than in male students. The significant diversity of results obtained using two various questionnaires – ORTO-15 and BOT – imply that it is necessary to conduct more comprehensive research on the validity and reliability of the two methods

1996-2016: Two decades of econophysics: Between methodological diversification and conceptual coherence

This article aimed at presenting the scattered econophysics literature as a unified and coherent field through a specific lens imported from philosophy science. More precisely, I used the methodology developed by Imre Lakatos to cover the methodological evolution of econophysics over these last two decades. In this perspective, three co-existing approaches have been identified: statistical econophysics, bottom-up agent based econophysics and top-down agent based econophysics. Although the last is presented here as the last step of the methodological evolution of econophysics, it is worth mentioning that this tradition is still very new. A quick look on the econophysics literature shows that the vast majority of works in this field deal with a strictly statistical approach or a classical bottom-up agent-based modelling. In this context of diversification, the objective (and contribution) of this article is to emphasize the conceptual coherence of econophysics as a unique field of research. With this purpose, I used a theoretical framework coming from philosophy of science to characterize how econophysics evolved by combining a methodological enrichment with the preservation of its core conceptual statement