Modelling workplace contact networks: the effects of organizational structure, architecture, and reporting errors on epidemic predictions

Face-to-face social contacts are potentially important transmission routes for acute respiratory infections, and understanding the contact network can improve our ability to predict, contain, and control epidemics. Although workplaces are important settings for infectious disease transmission, few studies have collected workplace contact data and estimated workplace contact networks. We use contact diaries, architectural distance measures, and institutional structures to estimate social contact networks within a Swiss research institute. Some contact reports were inconsistent, indicating reporting errors. We adjust for this with a latent variable model, jointly estimating the true (unobserved) network of contacts and duration-specific reporting probabilities. We find that contact probability decreases with distance, and research group membership, role, and shared projects are strongly predictive of contact patterns. Estimated reporting probabilities were low only for 0-5 minute contacts. Adjusting for reporting error changed the estimate of the duration distribution, but did not change the estimates of covariate effects and had little effect on epidemic predictions. Our epidemic simulation study indicates that inclusion of network structure based on architectural and organizational structure data can improve the accuracy of epidemic forecasting models.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figure

What content is published on websites of organizations supporting people with disabilities? Secondary analysis of online sources

The article describes the results obtained in the research conducted in the form of an analysis of online secondary sources (websites of organizations supporting people with disabilities). The study covers websites of ten major European organizations whose main activity is to help people with disabilities. The research question is: "What topics and issues dominate in the web content created by organizations, and what is overlooked, unnoticed?". The analysis of websites makes it possible to identify five significant thematic categories that dominate the content published by the selected organizations; these categories are - education, legal issues, architectural barriers, financial issues, social activities. In addition, the research makes it possible to diagnose the absence of several critical disability-related topics in the published content. Essential issues omitted on the institutions' websites include adulthood and sexuality of people with disabilities, everyday life of people with disabilities and their families, and individual perspectives of people with disabilities (presentation of topics from the group's point of view, lack of personal viewpoint). According to research result there is also a hierarchy of disabilities in the content published on the websites (e.g., a small number of articles devoted to intellectual disabilities or mental disorders)

Relation between the Internet and Social and School Functioning of Children and Adolescents: A Review

This paper depicts a review of research into the different views on the relations between the Internet activity of children and adolescents and their social and school functioning. The paper also presents the research of educationists, psychologists and sociologists who studied the subject. This paper focuses on the types of threats and dangers which are perceived in the virtual world and which can have a negative influence on young people’s lives. The paper also describes examples of research providing information regarding the consequences of the active use of the Internet and their influence on the development of social competences in adolescents and children

A Support received in the Large Families in Poland as a factor influencing the Student's Results in School: Quantitative Survey Report

In this study, I am going to present a fragment of the research concerning large families in Poland. I analyse the relation between shaping the educational failures and successes of the students having their origin in the large families and the support they get from their parents in the numerous families. The analysis shall be made based on the comparison of the character of the relationships inside the families in the study case of the students in the lower secondary school who come from different backgrounds. This article shall constitute the description of the results of the survey research conducted in two schools (lower secondary schools) in the group of over 150 students. The family relationships, communication character between parents – children are going to be analysed according to the place of living (village, city) and number of children in a family (large and small families)

Cinematherapy as a Part of the Education and Therapy of People with Intellectual Disabilities, Mental Disorders and as a Tool for Personal Development

The review paper aims at presenting a look at ways, forms and usefulness of cinematherapy in the education and therapy of people with disabilities and people with mental disorders. I will analyze the usefulness of cinematherapy in different areas of education and therapy. The study also briefly comments on the most significant features that describe cinematherapy. Subsequently, it will go on to benefits of using cinematherapy as a tool for personal development

How to Fairly Allocate Scarce Medical Resources: Justice Trade-Offs between an Individual and a Population Perspective

ISSN:0300-5771ISSN:1464-368

Nethnographic Research Report on Families with Members with Disabilities in Social Media and Facebook

Article presents nethnographic qualitative research report partially based on the research completed in 2017 as thesis at the Chair of Disability Studies, Faculty of Education Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. The research was conducted within 4 online open groups, organizational cultures of families with children, youth or adults with disabilities who are participating in social media in Poland. The primary focus of the research was the law and legal issues’ perception by families. However, in this paper we refer to wider aspects of general online activities undertaken by the members of researched 4 groups, that in fact form online organizational disability cultures. Presented results of analysis contain categories as: basic cultural artifacts (material and symbolic), values of 4 analyzed groups and underlying assumptions, according to the model of organizational culture by Edgar H. Schein (2010). Furthermore we discuss the general activities of participants in the context of the core research topic that was law and legal aspects of public online discussions. The main research question was formulated as follows: how families (from 4 organizational cultures online) with members with disabilities are active on social media in the context of the law and legal issues? Collected qualitative data was elaborated on the ground of the organizational culture model according to 3 levels of organizational culture indicated by Schein (2010) as: 1. artifacts, 2. espoused beliefs and values and 3. cultural underlying assumption

Conducting Interviews with Elderly Informants for the Purposes of Educational Ethnography: Selected Aspects of Gerontological Fieldwork

The article presents the problem of conducting interviews for research and educational purposes with elderly people. It is not the purpose of the article to analyze the process of collecting interviews for clinical purposes in medical sciences. The article refers only to the epistemological issues in social sciences. The importance of proper interviewing elderly people is related to the planning of formal, informal or nonformal educational support for them (Kargul 2001) or on the other hand, for the purpose of data collection in qualitative research such as educational ethnography. In both cases, pedagogues should have deep knowledge about both the interview performance and the specificity of conducting interviews with the elderly informants, with respect and knowledge about the state of functioning of their health, cognitive skills etc. It is also particularly worth considering the problem of collecting data with informants having dementia or mental illnesses or being in need of particular sensitivity from the researchers. The article introduces the problem of educational needs of people in late adulthood, synthesizes the characteristics of elderly people as informants, taking into account their cognitive performance, health-related requirements or chronic diseases. In addition, the content includes procedural recommendations for the practice of data collection with informants in late adulthood (Tokaj 2005; Talarska & Wieczorowska-Tobis 2012) – after 60-65 years of age

Automarginalization of the Elderly Females Living in Care Homes as an Outcome of Transition from Symbolic Once to Now: Secondary Qualitative Data Analysis (SQDA)

A qualitative secondary data analysis outlined the key causes and problems of everyday life of 12 women who marginalize themselves in the care home, from various activities and social contacts. The results of the research indicated two main groups of causes: self-reeducation about experienced own losses and silent rebellion. The article is a report of secondary qualitative data analysis of 12 transcripts, semi-structured interviews with 12 older women aged 65-90, residents of 3 care homes in Poland. The purpose of the secondary analysis was to examine and understand the symbolic framework, dimensions and reasons for the selfwithdrawal of women. Analyzes indicated the automarginalization of 12 women in a symbolic continuum determining the time from admission to a care home and residence in it, called once and now. Females clearly indicate that there has been a transit from symbolic once to now. At that time, usually self-marginalization was present. Automarginalization took place on various plans, which determines e.g. dimensions as a physical withdrawal from; families, activities in the care home, ties and friendships, social status and roles, and space gradually limited to their own room. The analysis of 12 transcripts of interviews indicated two groups of causes. The first was related to self-reeducation about various losses that females experienced at the time, marked symbolically as once and now. The second reason indicates the rebellion of females against institutional conditions and organizational culture rules and customs. Interestingly, the rebellion was not indicated as an open objection but as a silent revolt. General conclusion and suggestion after the SQDA showed needs of regular training for the entire staff in the proper communication with female residents, who progressively lose their cognitive and other functions, fitness and feel helpless and embarrassed about it