Homophily in higher education research: A perspective based on co-authorships

Research collaborations are the norm in science today, and are usually evaluated using co-authorships as the unit of analysis. Research collaborations have been typically analyzed using a mapping perspective that focuses on countries, institutions, or individuals, or by assessments of the determinants of research collaboration, i.e., who engages in collaborations and who collaborates the most. One analytical perspective that has been used less frequently is the homophily perspective, which attempts to understand the likelihood of research collaborations based on the similarity of collaborators’ preferences and attributes. In addition, compared to studies focused on the fields of the natural and exact sciences, engineering, and the health sciences, research collaborations in the social sciences have been underexamined in the literature, despite the growing numbers of social scientists who engage in such collaborations. This study assessed homophily with respect to geographical, ascribed, acquired and career-related attributes in co-authorships in the social sciences, based on a co-authorship matrix of 913 higher education researchers. The findings showed that geographic and institutional attributes were by far the most powerful homophilic drivers of collaborations, suggesting the importance of physical proximity, national incentives, and shared culture, language, and identity. Another driver was the similarity of acquired attributes, particularly certain preferences regarding research agendas; these absorbed the residual explanatory power that ascribed attributes such as gender or age had in co-authorship preferences. The study is novel in its analysis of the extent to which similarities in the research agendas of researchers predicted co-authorship. The findings indicate the need for further co-authorship homophily analyses around a broader set of acquired attributes and the trajectories that lead to them.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Hepatocellular carcinoma presenting with Budd-Chiari syndrome, right atrial thrombus and pulmonary emboli

A 47-year-old patient presented with a two-week history of right upper quadrant pain, abdominal distention and new onset of shortness of breath. He had a history of intravenous drug abuse, no alcohol consumption and denied any known liver disease. On physical examination, he was tachypneic and had dullness in the flanks. His blood analysis at admission was as follows: hemoglobin, 12.9 g/dL; leukocyte count, 6,800/uL; platelet count, 63,000/uL; INR, 2.1; serum creatinine, 1.27 mg/dL; liver biochemistry tests were notable for marginal derangement, HBsAg was negative, anti-HCV was positive, HCV RNA was 367,498 IU/ml and alpha-fetoprotein was 992 mg/dL. Abdominal ultrasound showed a right liver lobe mass (13 cm in diameter) with inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis and mild peri-hepatic ascites. A 2D echocardiogram showed a presumed right atrial tumor thrombus. A multiphasic contrast-enhanced abdominal tomography (CT) confirmed a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with IVC obstruction and extensive tumoral thrombus to the right atrium (14 cm long).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multifrequency Radio Observations of a SNR in the LMC. The Case of SNR J0527-6549 (DEM l204)

We present a detailed study and results of new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of supernova remnant, SNR J0527-6549. This Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) ob ject follows a typical supernova remnant (SNR) horseshoe morphology with a diameter of D=(66x58)+-1 pc which is among the largest SNRs in the LMC. Its relatively large size indicates older age while a steeper than expected radio spectral index of aplha=-0.92+-0.11 is more typical for younger and energetic SNRs. Also, we report detections of regions with a high order of polarization at a peak value of ~54+-17% at 6 cm.Comment: 9 Pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in SA

Radio Planetary Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds

We present preliminary results of our deep Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) radio-continuum survey of the Magellanic Clouds Planetary Nebulae.Comment: 2 pages 1 figure, to appear in Planetary Nebulae an Eye to the Future Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 28

Geometric Quantization of Topological Gauge Theories

We study the symplectic quantization of Abelian gauge theories in $2+1$ space-time dimensions with the introduction of a topological Chern-Simons term.Comment: 13 pages, plain TEX, IF/UFRJ/9

Prevalence and social-cognitive determinants of the use of performance enhancing substances by Portuguese gymgoers

Background: The use of performance-enhancing substances (PES) occurs among gym goers, which is seen as a public health concern. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of PES use and the social-cognitive determinants whichinfluence the intention to use these substances among gym goers, according to the Theory of Planned Behaviour.Methods: A convenience sample of Portuguese gym goers (n = 453; 61,3% female; 38,7% male) completed an anonymous webbased survey about beliefs, attitudes, social influences and intentions towards use of PES as well as self-reported PESuse. A two-step approach to maximum likelihood, structural equation modelling, multigroup analysis and t-test with the Welch correction for heteroskedastic variances were performed using IBM SPSS/AMOS 24.0.Results: 11.01% of the participants reported PES use. At the structural level, results support attitudes (b = 0.21; p < 0.001), beliefs (b = 0.35, p< 0.001) and subjective norms in predicting intentions to PES use in gym goers with subjective norms (b = 0.50; p <0.001) being its strongest predictor. Moreover, results showed a significant association self-reported PES use and intentions to use (b = 0.66, pp < 0.001). The predictive model was invariant across gender; however, compared to males, females believed less in the performance enhancing effects of PES, were less prone to the influence of significant others and had weaker intentions to use these substances.Conclusion: Preventive interventions should focus on influencing subjective norms, alongside to beliefs and attitudes towards PES use as these variables influence the intention to use PES in this particular population

La Sénégambie: un concept historique et socioculturelle et un objet d’étude réévalues

La session "Trade, Traders and Cross-cultural relationships in Greater Senegambia: From the Historical Background to the Dynamics of the Present" dont les contributions paraissent dans ce numéro spécial du Joumal of Mande Studies a été conçue dans le cadre d'un projet de recherche cadré sur la "Grande Sénégambie."2 Cette méta-espace encadre en partie !e Mande en tant qu'espace historique et culturel; on pourrait dire même qu'il n'y aurait eu de "Grande Sénégambie" sans le Mandé. De toute façon nous croyons que la présentation de ce concept à la fois spatial et socioculturel peut servir de contribution utile pour la compréhension du monde mandé.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Does Platform Migration Compromise Content Moderation? {Evidence} from {r/The\_Donald} and {r/Incels}

When toxic online communities on mainstream platforms face moderation measures, such as bans, they may migrate to other platforms with laxer policies or set up their own dedicated website. Previous work suggests that, within mainstream platforms, community-level moderation is effective in mitigating the harm caused by the moderated communities. It is, however, unclear whether these results also hold when considering the broader Web ecosystem. Do toxic communities continue to grow in terms of user base and activity on their new platforms? Do their members become more toxic and ideologically radicalized? In this paper, we report the results of a large-scale observational study of how problematic online communities progress following community-level moderation measures. We analyze data from r/The_Donald} and r/Incels, two communities that were banned from Reddit and subsequently migrated to their own standalone websites. Our results suggest that, in both cases, moderation measures significantly decreased posting activity on the new platform, reducing the number of posts, active users, and newcomers. In spite of that, users in one of the studied communities (r/The_Donald) showed increases in signals associated with toxicity and radicalization, which justifies concerns that the reduction in activity may come at the expense of a more toxic and radical community. Overall, our results paint a nuanced portrait of the consequences of community-level moderation and can inform their design and deployment

Do Platform Migrations Compromise Content Moderation? Evidence from r/The_Donald and r/Incels

When toxic online communities on mainstream platforms face moderation measures, such as bans, they may migrate to other platforms with laxer policies or set up their own dedicated websites. Previous work suggests that within mainstream platforms, community-level moderation is effective in mitigating the harm caused by the moderated communities. It is, however, unclear whether these results also hold when considering the broader Web ecosystem. Do toxic communities continue to grow in terms of their user base and activity on the new platforms? Do their members become more toxic and ideologically radicalized? In this paper, we report the results of a large-scale observational study of how problematic online communities progress following community-level moderation measures. We analyze data from r/The_Donald and r/Incels, two communities that were banned from Reddit and subsequently migrated to their own standalone websites. Our results suggest that, in both cases, moderation measures significantly decreased posting activity on the new platform, reducing the number of posts, active users, and newcomers. In spite of that, users in one of the studied communities (r/The_Donald) showed increases in signals associated with toxicity and radicalization, which justifies concerns that the reduction in activity may come at the expense of a more toxic and radical community. Overall, our results paint a nuanced portrait of the consequences of community-level moderation and can inform their design and deployment

The Evolution of the {Manosphere} Across the {Web}

In this paper, we present a large-scale characterization of the Manosphere, a conglomerate of Web-based misogynist movements roughly focused on "men's issues," which has seen significant growth over the past years. We do so by gathering and analyzing 28.8M posts from 6 forums and 51 subreddits. Overall, we paint a comprehensive picture of the evolution of the Manosphere on the Web, showing the links between its different communities over the years. We find that milder and older communities, such as Pick Up Artists and Men's Rights Activists, are giving way to more extremist ones like Incels and Men Going Their Own Way, with a substantial migration of active users. Moreover, our analysis suggests that these newer communities are more toxic and misogynistic than the former