Predicting Intention to Participate in Socially Responsible Collective Action in Social Networking Website Groups

he present study uses the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model to predict group members’ intentions (“we-intention”) to participate in using a social networking site (SNS) for collective action. Participants reported their beliefs about social influence processes, including their beliefs about subjective norms, group norms, and social identity; they also reported their beliefs about using an SNS for a charitable collective action, which was perceived as corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study applied an integrated research framework in the context of the Facebook group “KolorujeMY,” a group with an interest in supporting social causes in Poland. Our structural equation modeling results indicate that social identity has a positive and direct effect on we-intention to use SNS for collective action and that perceived CSR also had a positive and significant impact on we-intention. Similarly, we found that desire has a positive and significant effect on we-intention to use SNS for collective action. Our results also indicate that desire partially mediates the relationship between social influence beliefs and we-intention. Overall, this study provides insight into the understanding of the impact of social influence processes, the role of desire, and perceived CSR beliefs in terms of predicting we-intentions in a social networking environment

A Town in Between

The easternmost village on the U.S. Atlantic coast charts a course through tradition and change, native and newcomers, nature\u27s beauty and nature\u27s fury. Lubec, Maine is seen by some as a mystical place with vibrational energy, but in the end, it is a fishing community trying to survive and hold onto its fishermen and their heritage

‘Cookies on a tray’: Superselective Hierarchical Microstructured Poly(L-lactide) Surface As a Decoy For Cells

In this research we developed a micro-sized hierarchical structures on a poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) surface. The obtained structures consist of round-shaped protrusions with a diameter of ~20 µm, a height of ~3 µm, and the distance between them ~ 30 µm. We explored the effect of structuring PLLA to design a non-cytotoxic material with increased roughness to encourage cells to settle on the surface. The PLLA foils were prepared using the casting melt extrusion technique and were modified using ultra-short pulse irradiation – a femtosecond laser operating at λ=1030 nm. A hierarchical microstructure was obtained resembling \u27cookies on a tray\u27. The cellular response of fibro- and osteoblasts cell lines was investigated. The conducted research has shown that the laser-modified surface is more conducive to cell adhesion and growth (compared to unmodified surface) to such an extent that allows the formation of highly-selectively patterns consisting of living cells. In contrast to eukaryotic cells, the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus covered modified and unmodified structures in an even, non-preferential manner. In turn, adhesion pattern of eukaryotic fungus Saccharomyces boulardii resembled that of fibro- and osteoblast cells rather than that of Staphylococcus. The discovered effect can be used for fabrication of personalized and smart implants in regenerative medicine