The dynamics of audience applause

The study of social identity and crowd psychology looks at how and why individual people change their behaviour in response to others. Within a group, a new behaviour can emerge first in a few individuals before it spreads rapidly to all other members. A number of mathematical models have been hypothesized to describe these social contagion phenomena, but these models remain largely untested against empirical data. We used Bayesian model selection to test between various hypotheses about the spread of a simple social behaviour, applause after an academic presentation. Individuals' probability of starting clapping increased in proportion to the number of other audience members already ‘infected’ by this social contagion, regardless of their spatial proximity. The cessation of applause is similarly socially mediated, but is to a lesser degree controlled by the reluctance of individuals to clap too many times. We also found consistent differences between individuals in their willingness to start and stop clapping. The social contagion model arising from our analysis predicts that the time the audience spends clapping can vary considerably, even in the absence of any differences in the quality of the presentations they have heard

A dynamic and multifunctional account of middle‐range theories

This article develops a novel account of middle‐range theories for combining theoretical and empirical analysis in explanatory sociology. I first revisit Robert K. Merton’s original ideas on middle‐range theories and identify a tension between his developmental approach to middle‐range theorizing that recognizes multiple functions of theories in sociological research and his static definition of the concept of middle‐range theory that focuses only on empirical testing of theories. Drawing on Merton's ideas on theorizing and recent discussions on mechanism‐based explanations, I argue that this tension can be resolved by decomposing a middle‐range theory into three interrelated and evolving components that perform different functions in sociological research: (i) a conceptual framework about social phenomena that is a set of interrelated concepts that evolve in close connection with empirical analysis; (ii) a mechanism schema that is an abstract and incomplete description of a social mechanism; and (iii) a cluster of all mechanism‐based explanations of social phenomena that are based on the particular mechanism schema. I show how these components develop over time and how they serve different functions in sociological theorizing and research. Finally, I illustrate these ideas by discussing Merton’s theory of the Matthew effect in science and its more recent applications in sociology.This article develops a novel account of middle‐range theories for combining theoretical and empirical analysis in explanatory sociology. I first revisit Robert K. Merton’s original ideas on middle‐range theories and identify a tension between his developmental approach to middle‐range theorizing that recognizes multiple functions of theories in sociological research and his static definition of the concept of middle‐range theory that focuses only on empirical testing of theories. Drawing on Merton's ideas on theorizing and recent discussions on mechanism‐based explanations, I argue that this tension can be resolved by decomposing a middle‐range theory into three interrelated and evolving components that perform different functions in sociological research: (i) a conceptual framework about social phenomena that is a set of interrelated concepts that evolve in close connection with empirical analysis; (ii) a mechanism schema that is an abstract and incomplete description of a social mechanism; and (iii) a cluster of all mechanism‐based explanations of social phenomena that are based on the particular mechanism schema. I show how these components develop over time and how they serve different functions in sociological theorizing and research. Finally, I illustrate these ideas by discussing Merton’s theory of the Matthew effect in science and its more recent applications in sociology.Peer reviewe

A Mechanism-Based Explanation of the Institutionalization of Semantic Technologies in the Financial Industry

Part 3: Creating Value through ApplicationsInternational audienceThis paper explains how the financial industry is solving its data, risk management, and associated vocabulary problems using semantic technologies. The paper is the first to examine this phenomenon and to identify the social and institutional mechanisms being applied to socially construct a standard common vocabulary using ontology-based models. This standardized ontology-based common vocabulary will underpin the design of next generation of semantically-enabled information systems (IS) for the financial industry. The mechanisms that are helping institutionalize this common vocabulary are identified using a longitudinal case study, whose embedded units of analysis focus on central agents of change—the Enterprise Data Management Council and the Object Management Group. All this has important implications for society, as it is intended that semantically-enabled IS will, for example, provide stakeholders, such as regulators, with better transparency over systemic risks to national and international financial systems, thereby mitigating or avoiding future financial crises

Impact of the degradation leachate of the polyacrylonitrile-based material UP2W on the retention of Ni(II), Eu(III) and Pu(IV) by cement

The uptake of $^{63}$Ni(II), $^{152}$Eu(III) and $^{242}$Pu(IV) by hardened cement paste (HCP, CEM I) in the degradation stage II (pH ≈ 12.5, [Ca] ≈ 0.02 M) was investigated in the presence of a degradation leachate of UP2W, a polyacrylonitrile-based (PAN) material used as a filter aid in nuclear power plants. The degradation leachate with a concentration of dissolved organic carbon of ∼40 ppm was obtained from the degradation of UP2W in portlandite-buffered solutions for ca. 1100 days. Redox conditions in the Pu systems were buffered with hydroquinone, which defines mildly reducing conditions (pe + pH ≈ 10) where Pu(IV) is the predominant oxidation state. The degradation leachate investigated in this work is moderately sorbed by cement, with distribution ratios (R$_d$) of (0.35 ± 0.15) m$^3$ kg$^{−1}$. These values are 30 to 100 times greater than distribution ratios previously reported for proxy ligands of PAN degradation products, i.e., glutaric acid, α-hydroxyisobutyric acid and 3-hydroxybutyric acid. The presence of the degradation leachate induces a moderate decrease in the uptake of $^{63}$Ni(II), $^{152}$Eu(III) and $^{242}$Pu(IV) by cement, as compared to the sorption in the presence of the proxy ligands. Nevertheless, retention in the presence of the degradation leachate remains high for all investigated radionuclides, with Rd($^{63}$Ni(II)) ≈ 2 m$^3$ kg$^{−1}$, Rd($^{152}$Eu(III)) ≈ 100 m$^3$ kg$^{−1}$ and Rd($^{242}$Pu(IV)) ≈ 30 m$^3$ kg$^{−1}$. These observations possibly reflect that the multiple functionalities (–COOH, –OH, amide groups) expected in the macromolecules (10–15 kDa) present in the degradation leachate, can offer further binding/chelating capabilities compared to the small organic proxy ligands with at most bidentate binding

Solubility of Ca( ii ), Ni( ii ), Nd( iii ) and Pu( iv ) in the presence of proxy ligands for the degradation of polyacrylonitrile in cementitious systems

The solubility of Ca(OH)$_{2}$(cr), β-Ni(OH)$_{2}$(cr), Nd(OH)$_{3}$(s) and PuO$_{2}$(ncr, hyd) was investigated in cement porewater solutions containing glutarate (GTA), α-hydroxyisobutarate (HIBA) and 3-hydroxybutarate (HBA). These ligands were proposed as probable degradation products of UP2W, a polyacrylonitrile-based filter aid used in nuclear power plants. Results obtained in this work are compared with reported solubility data in the presence of iso-saccharinic acid (ISA), a polyhydroxocarboxylic acid resulting from cellulose degradation. None of the investigated proxy ligands shows any significant impact on the solubility of Ca(II), Nd(III) or Pu(IV) in cement porewater solutions. Although the formation of binary complexes M–L (M = Ca(II), Nd(III), An(IV); L = GTA, HIBA, HBA) under acidic conditions is described in the literature, these organic ligands cannot outcompete hydrolysis under hyperalkaline conditions. GTA, HIBA and HBA induce a slight increase in the solubility of β-Ni(OH)$_{2}$(cr) at [L]$_{tot}$ = 0.1 M. This observation supports the formation of stable Ni(II)–GTA, –HIBA and –HBA complexes in hyperalkaline conditions, although the exact stoichiometry of these complexes remains unknown. The comparison of these results with solubility data in the presence of ISA confirms the stronger complexation properties of the latter ligand. Even though HIBA and HBA are carboxylic acids containing one alcohol group, this comparison shows that additional alcohol groups are required to efficiently chelate the metal ion and outcompete hydrolysis. This conclusion is supported by DFT calculations on the Pu(IV)-OH–L systems (L = GTA, HIBA and HBA), which indicate that the complexation with the proxy ligands takes places through the carboxylate group. XRD of selected solid phases after equilibration with proxy ligands at [L]$_{tot}$ = 0.1 M confirms that Ca(II), Ni(II), Nd(III) and Pu(IV) starting solid materials remained mostly unaltered in the course of the experiments. However, the presence of new XRD features suggests the possible formation of secondary phases. These results allow assessment of the effect of the proposed proxy ligands on the solubility of key radionuclides and metal ions in cementitious systems relevant for low and intermediate level waste, and feed into on-going sorption studies evaluating the impact of UP2W degradation products on the uptake of radionuclides by cement

Cardiopulmonary involvement in Puumala hantavirus infection

Abstract Background: Hantavirus infections cause potentially life-threatening disease in humans world-wide. Infections with American hantaviruses may lead to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome characterised by severe cardiopulmonary distress with high mortality. Pulmonary involvement in European Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) infection has been reported, whereas knowledge of potential cardiac manifestations is limited. We aimed to comprehensively investigate cardiopulmonary involvement in patients with PUUV-infection

Identifying Complex Dynamics in Social Systems: A New Methodological Approach Applied to Study School Segregation

It is widely recognized that segregation processes are often the result of complex nonlinear dynamics. Empirical analyses of complex dynamics are however rare, because there is a lack of appropriate empirical modeling techniques that are capable of capturing complex patterns and nonlinearities. At the same time, we know that many social phenomena display nonlinearities. In this article, we introduce a new modeling tool in order to partly fill this void in the literature. Using data of all secondary schools in Stockholm county during the years 1990 to 2002, we demonstrate how the methodology can be applied to identify complex dynamic patterns like tipping points and multiple phase transitions with respect to segregation. We establish critical thresholds in schools’ ethnic compositions, in general, and in relation to various factors such as school quality and parents’ income, at which the schools are likely to tip and become increasingly segregated

Suicide ideation of individuals in online social networks

Suicide explains the largest number of death tolls among Japanese adolescents in their twenties and thirties. Suicide is also a major cause of death for adolescents in many other countries. Although social isolation has been implicated to influence the tendency to suicidal behavior, the impact of social isolation on suicide in the context of explicit social networks of individuals is scarcely explored. To address this question, we examined a large data set obtained from a social networking service dominant in Japan. The social network is composed of a set of friendship ties between pairs of users created by mutual endorsement. We carried out the logistic regression to identify users' characteristics, both related and unrelated to social networks, which contribute to suicide ideation. We defined suicide ideation of a user as the membership to at least one active user-defined community related to suicide. We found that the number of communities to which a user belongs to, the intransitivity (i.e., paucity of triangles including the user), and the fraction of suicidal neighbors in the social network, contributed the most to suicide ideation in this order. Other characteristics including the age and gender contributed little to suicide ideation. We also found qualitatively the same results for depressive symptoms.Comment: 4 figures, 9 table