Estimating Social Influences from Social Networking Sites—Articulated Friendships versus Communication Interactions

Despite the ubiquity of social networking sites, the online social networking industry is in search of effective marketing strategies to better profit from their established user base. Social media marketing strategies build on the premise that the social network of online users can be predicted and social influences among online users can be estimated. However, the existence of various heterogeneous social interactions on social networking sites presents a challenge for social network prediction and social influence estimation. In this article we draw upon the literatures on self‐presentation on social networking sites and signaling in online social networking to categorize six heterogeneous online social interactions on social networking sites into two types—articulated friendships and communication interactions. This article provides empirical evidence for the differences between articulated friendships and communication interactions and the corresponding articulated and communication networks. In order to compare the impacts of the social influences based on these two networks, we utilize support vector machines to build a classifier to predict virtual community membership and we further estimate the marginal effects of these social influences using a two‐stage probit least squares method. We find significant explanatory power of social influences in predicting virtual community membership. Although the communication network is much sparser than the articulated network, social influences based on the communication network achieve similar performance as the articulated network. These findings provide important implications for social media marketing as well as the management of virtual communities.     

一体化背景下长吉图地区产业发展战略研究

笔者对长吉图产业发展现状及存在问题进行阐述,并对产业发展环境等进行SWOT分析。研究认为:长吉图产业发展拥有诸多机遇和优势,为其快速发展奠定了良好基础;但同时,由于区域对外开放的不确定性和风险的存在以及地区产业结构性问题的凸显,使得长吉图地区产业发展也面临着诸多挑战。为进一步适应一体化发展,长吉图地区应把调整区域产业结构,转变经济发展方式,推动产业升级、产业集聚和实行错位发展,加强区域间协调合作等作为应对区域整合发展的产业发展战略重点,并加快产业发展的支撑体系建设。     

新型农村社会养老保险制度的缺陷与完善

国家新型农村社会养老保险制度具有明显的优越性,但其实施方案也存在政策的缺陷:中央财政按东部和中西部划分的财政补助方式虽有一定依据,但并不合理,尤其是对东部地区部分省份不公平.应通过构建地区"农村养老负担能力指数",科学地对各省、市、自治区予以分档补助.新农保制度的账户设计,在缴费环节、基金管理以及待遇给付等方面也存在一些问题,应进行相应的政策改进.     

实时超声弹性成像诊断老年人乳腺肿块良恶性的价值

目的探讨利用实时超声弹性成像(弹性成像)诊断老年人乳腺肿块良恶性的价值。方法 2009年1月至2009年11月,162例患者187个乳腺肿块行常规超声检查和弹性成像检查,实时弹性成像结果评分参照改良5分法,将弹性成像结果与手术病理结果对照分析。结果恶性肿块55个,弹性成像评分结果:1分1个;2分5个,3分8个,4分24个,5分17个。良性肿块132个,弹性成像评分结果:1分68个;2分46个,3分9个,4分9个,5分0个,乳腺恶性肿块弹性评分与良性肿块弹性评分分布明显不同(P=0.000)。以弹性成像评分≥3分诊断恶性肿块,其敏感性、特异性、准确性分别为:89.1%,86.4%,87.2%。结论超声弹性成像鉴别老年人乳腺肿块良恶性具有较高临床应用价值。     

市场竞争、支农行为与农村信用社经营绩效——基于扬州县域金融的实证研究

市场竞争不断加剧以及农业经济弱质与效益低的情况下支农行为的弱化,已经成为影响农村信用社经营绩效的关键性因素和核心问题。本文以扬州县域的经验数据为例,采用实证分析,研究市场竞争、支农行为对农村信用社经营绩效的影响。结果显示:(1)农村信用社自身的资产规模和存贷款规模对其经营绩效的影响较为显著;(2)市场竞争力的提高,有利于农村信用社提高自身的经营绩效;(3)支农行为中"三农"贷款占比以及农户贷款结构对农信社绩效的影响几乎可以忽略;(4)市场竞争、支农行为对农村信用社经营绩效的长期影响较为显著,而短期影响不显著。     

Healthcare Provision for Elderly People in Argentina: The Crisis of PAMI

This paper highlights the problems of administering health insurance programmes in Latin America and the difficulties of imposing effective reforms. It examines the development, financial collapse and subsequent restructuring of a health insurance programme specifically targeting elderly people in Argentina. By the 1990s the Integrated Healthcare Programme (PAMI) had become one of the largest components of the country's public welfare system, managing an annual budget of US $2.5 billion. It provided elderly people with a wide range of services, including free and discounted medical care and a national network of day centres. The Programme was widely praised as efficient and innovative both within Argentina and beyond and was considered a model which other developing countries might emulate.
However, in 1994 it was discovered that PAMI had accumulated a deficit of US $1.3 billion and was suffering from a large number of serious structural weaknesses. These included a complete absence of financial accountability (both internally and externally), the piecemeal expansion of services, employment featherbedding, political patronage and corruption. Also, the Programme had contributed to long-standing inequalities between different geographical regions and between insured and uninsured populations. Since then, numerous attempts have been made to reform the Programme, some of which have received funding from the World Bank, but these initiatives are only being very gradually implemented.     

Psychosocial predictors of health status

This prospective study examined, in a sample of male and female adults, the relationship between specific psychosocial factors and health status. Measures of stress, health habits, social support, Type A behaviour, and coping style were collected for 203 professional employees in a large aerospace organization in 1988. One year later a follow-up questionnaire assessing self-reported physical illness and job burn-out was administered resulting in a final sample of 95 employees. When adjustments for age, sex, education, and initial psychological well-being were made, perceived stress, physical exercise, and an avoidant coping style significantly contributed to predictions of physical illness in multiple regression analyses. Employees who possessed less hardy appraisals of work/life and expressed greater Type A behaviour reported significantly more fatigue and exhaustion one year later. Type A individuals also reported being significantly less sensitive and caring towards others. Finally, individuals who perceived less stress and expressed more cognitive hardiness reported significantly greater work/life satisfaction. Overall, the data supported the view that psychosocial factors may be differentially associated with diverse physical and psychological health outcomes.     

Adolescent mothers: Racial differences in childrearing support

This article presents a study of racial differences in the types of support that families and babies' fathers give to teenage mothers. The sample is 203 inner city adolescent mothers were using public health clinics in three midwest cities. Black mothers were younger than white mothers and were less likely to live with a male partner. Although only one black father lived with his baby, while 2/3 of the white fathers lived with their babies, similar percentages of both black and white fathers provided support in a variety of different areas of childcare and financial aid. Thus, there was substantial childcare involvement from absent black fathers. The families of black mothers provided a wider variety of child care and financial support. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that the greater number of different types of support for black mothers from family of origin persisted despite differences in the teen mother's age, the age of the baby, and the family's socio-economic status. Implications for social work interventions are discussed.Preparation of this document was aided by Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, Grant #APR 00930-01-0. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third Biennial Conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Atlanta, GA, March, 1990.