Search results for "People and Places"
showing 10 items of 263 documents
The Global Research Collaboration of Network Meta-Analysis: A Social Network Analysis
2016
et al.
Social Network Analysis and Qualitative Interviews for Assessing Geographic Characteristics of Tourism Business Networks.
2015
This study integrates quantitative social network analysis (SNA) and qualitative interviews for understanding tourism business links in isolated communities through analysing spatial characteristics. Two case studies are used, the Surselva-Gotthard region in the Swiss Alps and Longyearbyen in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, to test the spatial characteristics of physical proximity, isolation, and smallness for understanding tourism business links. In the larger Surselva-Gotthard region, we found a strong relationship between geographic separation of the three communities on compartmentalization of the collaboration network. A small set of businesses played a central role in steering col…
Does Sedentary Behavior Predict Academic Performance in Adolescents or the Other Way Round? A Longitudinal Path Analysis.
2016
This study examined whether adolescents’ time spent on sedentary behaviors (academic, technological-based and social-based activities) was a better predictor of academic performance than the reverse. A cohort of 755 adolescents participated in a three-year period study. Structural Equation Modeling techniques were used to test plausible causal hypotheses. Four competing models were analyzed to determine which model best fitted the data. The Best Model was separately tested by gender. The Best Model showed that academic performance was a better predictor of sedentary behaviors than the other way round. It also indicated that students who obtained excellent academic results were more likely t…
Least-squares community extraction in feature-rich networks using similarity data
2021
We explore a doubly-greedy approach to the issue of community detection in feature-rich networks. According to this approach, both the network and feature data are straightforwardly recovered from the underlying unknown non-overlapping communities, supplied with a center in the feature space and intensity weight(s) over the network each. Our least-squares additive criterion allows us to search for communities one-by-one and to find each community by adding entities one by one. A focus of this paper is that the feature-space data part is converted into a similarity matrix format. The similarity/link values can be used in either of two modes: (a) as measured in the same scale so that one may …
A Bayesian unified framework for risk estimation and cluster identification in small area health data analysis.
2020
Many statistical models have been proposed to analyse small area disease data with the aim of describing spatial variation in disease risk. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian hierarchical model that simultaneously allows for risk estimation and cluster identification. Our model formulation assumes that there is an unknown number of risk classes and small areas are assigned to a risk class by means of independent allocation variables. Therefore, areas within each cluster are assumed to share a common risk but they may be geographically separated. The posterior distribution of the parameter representing the number of risk classes is estimated using a novel procedure that combines its prior …
Mapping of global scientific research in comorbidity and multimorbidity: A cross-sectional analysis
2018
[Background]: The management of comorbidity and multimorbidity poses major challenges to health services around the world. Analysis of scientific research in comorbidity and multimorbidity is limited in the biomedical literature. This study aimed to map global scientific research in comorbidity and multimorbidity to understand the maturity and growth of the area during the past decades. [Methods and findings]: This was a cross-sectional analysis of the Web of Science. Searches were run from inception until November 8, 2016. We included research articles or reviews with no restrictions by language or publication date. Data abstraction was done by one researcher. A process of standardization …
Criminal networks analysis in missing data scenarios through graph distances.
2021
Data collected in criminal investigations may suffer from: (i) incompleteness, due to the covert nature of criminal organisations; (ii) incorrectness, caused by either unintentional data collection errors and intentional deception by criminals; (iii) inconsistency, when the same information is collected into law enforcement databases multiple times, or in different formats. In this paper we analyse nine real criminal networks of different nature (i.e., Mafia networks, criminal street gangs and terrorist organizations) in order to quantify the impact of incomplete data and to determine which network type is most affected by it. The networks are firstly pruned following two specific methods: …
Sequencing toponymic change: A quantitative longitudinal analysis of street renaming in Sibiu, Romania.
2021
Recent scholarship in critical toponymy studies has refashioned the understanding of street names from innocent labels to nominal loci of historical memory and vectors of collective identity that are embroiled with power relations. Urban nomenclatures consist of more than mere linguistic signposts deployed onto space to facilitate navigation. Street names are also powerful signposts that indicate the political regime and its socio-cultural values. Drawing on these theoretical insights, this paper is focused on Sibiu (Romania) and explore the city’s shifting namescape in a longitudinal perspective spanning one century and a half of modern history (1875–2020). The analysis is based on a compl…
Effect of a prenatal lifestyle intervention on physical activity level in late pregnancy and the first year postpartum
2017
Background: Despite documented health benefits for mother and baby, physical activity (PA)-level tends to decline in pregnancy. Overweight/obese and physically inactive women are two selected groups at increased risk of pregnancy complications. Thus, efficient strategies to maintain or increase PA-level in pregnancy and the postpartum period, especially among these women, are warranted. This secondary analysis examined the effect of a prenatal lifestyle-intervention on PA-level in late pregnancy and the first year postpartum, with subanalysis on initially physically active versus inactive and normal-weight versus overweight/obese women. Method: The Norwegian Fit for Delivery (NFFD) randomiz…
Disrupting resilient criminal networks through data analysis: The case of Sicilian Mafia
2020
Compared to other types of social networks, criminal networks present hard challenges, due to their strong resilience to disruption, which poses severe hurdles to law-enforcement agencies. Herein, we borrow methods and tools from Social Network Analysis to (i) unveil the structure of Sicilian Mafia gangs, based on two real-world datasets, and (ii) gain insights as to how to efficiently disrupt them. Mafia networks have peculiar features, due to the links distribution and strength, which makes them very different from other social networks, and extremely robust to exogenous perturbations. Analysts are also faced with the difficulty in collecting reliable datasets that accurately describe the…