A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations

This study proposes theoretical and practical frameworks to systematically examine mediated public relations in social media spaces. We applied a social network conceptual framework to identify and characterize social mediators that connect the US State Department with its international public. The results showed that social mediators vary in terms of their formality and interdependence. Formal social mediators were primarily US government agencies while informal social mediators were nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals. Notably, relationships with populations in the Middle East and North Africa were mediated primarily by informal actors, and formal mediators played a key role in connecting the public with everywhere else in the world. Government-related formal mediators and informal social mediators showed similar levels of bilateral relationships. In contrast, news media, the most traditional public relations mediators, were rarely found as social mediators and demonstrated the most unilateral relationships.     

Human-machine cooperation: a solution for life-critical Systems?

Decision-making plays an important role in life-critical systems. It entails cognitive functions such as monitoring, as well as fault prevention and recovery. Three kinds of objectives are typically considered: safety, efficiency and comfort. People involved in the control and management of such systems provide two kinds of contributions: positive with their unique involvement and capacity to deal with the unexpected; and negative with their ability to make errors. In the negative view, people are the problem and need to be supervised by regulatory systems in the form of operational constraints or by design. In the positive view, people are the solution and lead the game; they are decision-makers. The former view also deals with error resistance, and the latter with error tolerance, which, for example, enables cooperation between people and decision support systems (DSS). In the real life, both views should be considered with respect to appropriate situational factors, such as time constraints and very dangerous environments. This is known as function allocation between people and systems. This paper presents a possibility to reconcile both approaches into a joint human-machine organization, where the main dimensioning factors are safety and complexity. A framework for cooperative and fault tolerant systems is proposed, and illustrated by an example in Air Traffic Control.     

Regularization through variable selection and conditional MLE with application to classification in high dimensions

It is often the case that high-dimensional data consist of only a few informative components. Standard statistical modeling and estimation in such a situation is prone to inaccuracies due to overfitting, unless regularization methods are practiced. In the context of classification, we propose a class of regularization methods through shrinkage estimators. The shrinkage is based on variable selection coupled with conditional maximum likelihood. Using Stein's unbiased estimator of the risk, we derive an estimator for the optimal shrinkage method within a certain class. A comparison of the optimal shrinkage methods in a classification context, with the optimal shrinkage method when estimating a mean vector under a squared loss, is given. The latter problem is extensively studied, but it seems that the results of those studies are not completely relevant for classification. We demonstrate and examine our method on simulated data and compare it to feature annealed independence rule and Fisher's rule.     

A ‘nondecimated’ lifting transform

Classical nondecimated wavelet transforms are attractive for many applications. When the data comes from complex or irregular designs, the use of second generation wavelets in nonparametric regression has proved superior to that of classical wavelets. However, the construction of a nondecimated second generation wavelet transform is not obvious. In this paper we propose a new ‘nondecimated’ lifting transform, based on the lifting algorithm which removes one coefficient at a time, and explore its behavior. Our approach also allows for embedding adaptivity in the transform, i.e. wavelet functions can be constructed such that their smoothness adjusts to the local properties of the signal. We address the problem of nonparametric regression and propose an (averaged) estimator obtained by using our nondecimated lifting technique teamed with empirical Bayes shrinkage. Simulations show that our proposed method has higher performance than competing techniques able to work on irregular data. Our construction also opens avenues for generating a ‘best’ representation, which we shall explore.     

On the margins of the child protection system: creating space for relational social work practice

In the UK, a threshold divides between two categories of children, child protection (CP) and child in need. Each category tends to be treated as a homogeneous entity, despite containing heterogeneous levels and forms of risk and need. CP practice, accompanied by regulation, protocols and procedures, aspires to achieve a coordinated multi‐agency response to identified concerns with available resources targeted towards this category. However, it is well known that those children assessed as falling just below the CP threshold can still have high levels of need and risk, requiring a level of social work involvement beyond the low‐resource and low‐oversight model that generally accompanies a child in need categorisation. This paper probes an approach to practice, which divides levels of risk within the child in need category enabling adequate, coordinated support and oversight to be provided for children and families with complex needs. Evidence from our study evaluating this approach suggests that a simple protocol provided a clear process within, which social workers and agency partners felt confident and safe to practice outside of the formal CP framework. The protocol prevented drift and helped to create a space within, which relational social work practice flourished.     

The meaning of frailty according to Dutch older frail and non-frail persons

Frailty is a term often used by researchers and clinicians to describe a state in which older persons are at risk for adverse outcomes such as falls, disability, institutionalization and mortality. However, no study so far examined what frailty means to older persons. Therefore the aim of this study was to describe the meaning that older community-dwelling persons attach to frailty. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were analyzed using the grounded theory method. Frailty was described as being in poor health, having walking difficulties, feeling down, being anxious, having few social contacts and not being able to do the things one likes to do. Men described in more detail the physical dimension whereas women elaborated in more depth on the psychological and social component. Existing definitions of frailty should be adjusted to better reflect the meaning of frailty for older persons.     

Fringe benefits and income inequality

In this paper, we analyze the distribution of fringe benefits among workers and underline its implications for income inequality. To this end, we develop a positional approach to inequality based on the concept of rent as a potential link between positions and their rewards. We hypothesize that workers extract rent in the form of benefits in industries with worker leverage (in the form of unioniziation, internal labor market, and public employment) or share rent with firms in highly profitable industries that endure for efficiency wage reasons. On the basis of a unique dataset from Israel, we test these hypotheses by estimating the probabilities of obtaining benefits according to industries’ structural features while controlling for cross-industrial differences in workers’ demographic and human capital characteristics. The analyses reveal that benefits are determined by structural factors, representing a separate dimension of the rewards attached to positions, different from earnings. We further stress the importance of incorporating fringe benefits into inequality research, given that benefits together with earnings stratify workers and evidently signify structured positions in the economy.     

Psychiatry in the age of neuroscience: the impact on clinical practice and lives of patients

Due to the progress being made in the neurosciences, higher expectations for the use of medication, even against the patient’s will, are arising in mental hospitals. In this article, we will discuss whether the neurosciences and new psychopharmacological solutions really support patients who suffer from mental illnesses. To answer this question, we will focus on the perspective of patients and their experiences with psychiatric (coercive) treatments. The analysis of one person’s story shows that other issues besides appropriate medication are important for recovery from a mental illness. In daily life, issues such as coping, rehabilitation and social support are of major importance for a patient suffering from psychiatric disease. Thus, although progress in the neurosciences is a positive development for clinical practice, it does not mean that (coercive) medication alone will carry a patient into recovery. A patient’s recovery is dependent, not only upon the process of finding the appropriate medication and trust between the psychiatrist and the patient, but also upon relational aspects, such as being recognised as a person, belonging, accepting responsibilities, developing friendships and trusting others. These findings lead to the conclusion that dealing with psychiatric diseases is more complex than what the biomedical model of neuroscience suggests and that one should include the social context of the patient in the recovery process.