Protest leadership in the age of social media

This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are primarily propelled by the self-motivated sharing of ideas, plans, images, and resources. It shows that leadership plays a vital role in steering popular contention on key social platforms. This argument is developed through a detailed case study on the interaction between the administrators and users of the Kullena Khaled Said Facebook page, the most popular online platform during the Egyptian revolution of early 2011. The analysis specifically focuses on the period from 1 January until 15 February 2011. It draws from 1629 admin posts and 1,465,696 user comments, extracted via a customized version of Netvizz. For each day during this period, the three most engaged with posts, as well as the 10 most engaged with comments, have been translated and coded, making it possible to systematically examine how the administrators tried to shape the communication on the page, and how users responded to these efforts. This analysis is pursued from a sociotechnical perspective. It traces how the exchanges on the page are simultaneously shaped by the admins’ marketing strategies and the technological architecture of the Facebook page. On the basis of this exploration, we argue that the page administrators should be understood as ‘connective leaders’. Rather than directing protest activity through formal organizations and collective identity frames, as social movement leaders have traditionally done, connective leaders invite and steer user participation by employing sophisticated marketing strategies to connect users in online communication streams and networks.     

On the Relationship Between Carcinogenicity and Acute Toxicity

Parodi et al. ⁽¹⁾ and Zeise et al. ⁽²⁾ found a surprising statistical correlation (or association) between acute toxicity and carcinogenic potency. In order to shed light on the questions of whether or not it is a causal correlation, and whether or not it is a statistical or tautological artifact, we have compared the correlations for the NCI/NTP data set with those for chemicals not in this set. Carcinogenic potencies were taken from the Gold et al. database. We find a weak correlation with an average value of TD₅₀/LD₅₀= 0.04 for the non-NCI data set, compared with TD₅₀/LD₅₀= 0.15 for the NCI data set. We conclude that it is not easy to distinguish types of carcinogens on the basis of whether or not they are acutely toxic.     

Subjective health,intimacy, and perceived self-efficacy after heart attack: Predicting life quality five years afterwards

Social Indicators Research - In a national sample of some 400 cardiac patients and their wives, changes in quality of life were investigated during an extended period of physical and psychosocial...     

Social support and the quality of life following myocardial infarction

A serious illness is a severe threat to the assumptive world, sense of mastery and self-concept of the individual. The quality of life of the person with a chronic disease depends upon the degree to which the patient is able to cope with these and other major adaptive tasks confronting him. The influence of the social environment on successful adaptation and well-being has been investigated in a longitudinal study with a representative sample of male German cardiac patients (N=980). The quality of interpersonal relationships and experienced socio-emotional support were found to affect both the positive and negative dimensions of psychological well-being as defined by Bradburn (1969). Perceived health status, a pivotal variable in the adaptation process, and physical disability mainly influenced the negative dimension.     

Percentage points of the largest characteristic root of the multivariate beta matrix

Upper quantiles of the distribution of the largest root of the multivariate beta matrix are tabulated in this paper. The tables extend the existing ones in regard to the range of one of the two degrees of freedom and are especially useful in tests of equality of two covariance matrices based on Roy's largest root criterion.     

Unternehmensbewertung bei Inflation und Wachstum

The valuation literature partly suggests distinguishing between growth based on retained earnings and growth based on inflation. It is not clear, however, whether inflation leads to growth and how to incorporate inflation into valuation formulas. Our paper analyzes this question using a model of a firm, which makes periodically new investments that are subject to inflation and growth. In contrast to some of the literature, we show that accounting-based valuation formulas must not be adjusted for inflation. Using nominal accounting numbers and historical unadjusted book values leads to the same valuation like discounting cash flows. We conclude that the valuation procedure, suggested by the German Institute of Auditors (IDW) leads to a deviation between accounting-based and cash-flow-based valuation formulas.     

Methodology issues in studies of sexuality and hysterectomy

Eighteen studies concerning hysterectomy and female sexuality, published between 1950 and 1982, were critically analyzed. Inconsistent findings among the studies led to a search for an explanation for these discrepancies. Methodological and measurement problems, including definition of terms, data collection instruments and procedures, sampling approaches, and other factors were studied. Further research is needed to build a solid base of knowledge concerning the relationship between the variables of sexuality and hysterectomy.     

Notfall, Nähe und Hilfsbereitschaft

The paper presents data of a survey about helping behaviour in the flood catastrophe in august 2002 in Germany. In this situation helping behaviour can be operationalized as giving donations for victims or helping in the flood area. It can be shown that helping behaviour like this is related to the individual definition of the situation as a case of emergency as it is defined by Darley and Latané. Nevertheless, the regional distance to the flood area is the most important factor on helping decisions.