647 research outputs found
A mixed-methods approach for analysing social support and social anchorage of single mothers' personal networks
Full text linkThe present paper analyses the relationship among social support and personal networks by focusing on social anchorage, which is a specific dimension of social support conveying to what extent people feel integrated into their personal networks. Specifying when, why, and how personal relationships play a significant role in individual lives is a common concern at the core of studies on social support. For this reason, the study adopts a strategy of analysis for ego-centred social support networks based on a mixed-methods approach. Hence, the strength of social networks analytical tools and multilevel logistic regression models is combined with the opportunities stemming from qualitative data provided by in-depth interviews. Firstly, statistical tools are used to describe the patterns of social support relationships in ego networks and to estimate the main determinants of social anchorage; secondly narratives are considered to understand the content, the meaning, and the significance that social relationships have for egos. The case of single mothers, which represent a clear instance of the relevance of social support derived from personal networks, is investigated
Exploring Social Support Networks of single mothers
No full textwe look for the degree of embeddedness of lone mothers in their supportive relationships, focusing on: types of support, kind of alteri who provide support, and their association with leverage or coping function.
Beyond the description of the characteristics of the ego-centered networks, a deeper statistical analysis is performed using both an exploratory tool in the class of factorial methods to discover type support patterns and regression-type models allowing to investigate varying (tie) effects over individual
Digging into space psychology and isolation: The Mars520 LODGEAD study. Preliminary results of the Mars105 pilot study
No full textThe present study aims to identify the relationship between physical (e.g., confinement) and social-psychological (e.g. loneliness) stress factors and the modification of cognitive control processes. Although psychological effects of extended isolation have been investigated, the relationship between control processes and adaptation to an isolated environment, and the effects of the environmental and social-psychological stress on such a relationship have never been studied. Our project, titled 'The effects of group dynamics and loneliness on cognitive and emotional adaptation to extreme, confined environments', was accepted by the European Space Agency (ESA) for inclusion in the Mars520 isolation study carried out by the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP). Before the execution of the Mars520 study, a Mars-105 pilot study has been carried out. A group of 6 volunteers has entered the isolation facility in March 2009 and finished their confinement in July after a 105-day stay. Core data have been gathered by means of (validated) psychological questionnaires, experimental cognitive tasks, and diary logs. We hypothesised that during an extended period of isolation, (1) loneliness would increase, particularly at the end, and (2) control processes would be negatively affected, becoming less efficient. The data were analysed by means of descriptive (longitudinal) pattern analyses and non parametric sign tests. Results supported the hypotheses. Although individual variation existed, overall feelings of loneliness increased over time, and the cost associated with shifting from one task to the successive one increased while the backward inhibition effect decreased. Also, explorative analyses seemed to show increased correlations between the two sets of measures across time. Further analyses are necessary to confirm these preliminary results
Suicidality in Huntington's disease
Full text linkIn this thesis the epidemiology of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts (together referred to as 'suicidality') in Huntington's disease (HD) is investigated and coping styles and support strategies that may serve to help suicidal HD mutation carriers are explored. Suicidality frequently occurs in HD, with a 1-month prevalence of up to 20%. Mutation carriers who were most likely to currently experience suicidal ideation or suicidality had a shorter disease duration, were anxious, aggressive, previously attempted suicide, used antidepressants, and had a depressed mood. The presence of a depressed mood and use of benzodiazepines were the only significant independent predictors of incident suicidal ideation or suicidality. Biological parameters, in particular functioning of the immune system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis were not found to be associated with suicidality in HD. In a qualitative study it was shown that suicidal HD mutation carriers generally used four strategies to cope with suicidality: talking about suicidality, employing self-management activities, using medication, and discussing end-of-life wishes. Lastly, in a meta-analysis, we examined whether the expression of suicidal ideation predicted subsequent completed suicide. Effect estimates differed substantially among different populations, but none of the included studies investigated this association in HD.Printing: Vereniging van HuntingtonUBL - phd migration 201
Modeling three-way social network data: A cross-nested random effects model for gossip in the workplace
No full textSocial networks are usually collected as dyadic data: the relations between pairs of actors are recorded, directed or undirected, complete or personal networks. The actors act either as sender or receiver of a tie. Three-way social network data are rare and occur when relations are recorded involving three actors. An example that will be analyzed in this paper is gossip: In a closed group setting it is recorded, by means of selfreport, who gossips with whom about whom. In three-way data, actors have three roles: as sender, receiver, and as object (of gossip). A random effects model for binary three-way social network data is developed relating the probability of a gossip tie to individual properties and roles of the actors, network relations that may exist between any pair of them, possibly available three-way characteristics of them as a triplet. The random effects are used to account for the dependence between the observations, caused by each actor having multiple roles, and caused by each actor being involved in multiple ties (within and across roles). The resulting model, a combination of a logistic regression model with a trivariate normal distribution, is estimated using MCMC, as implemented in WinBUGS
Inferring continental ancestry of argentineans from autosomal, y-chromosomal and mitochondrial dna
Full text linkWe investigated the bio-geographic ancestry of Argentineans, and quantified their genetic admixture, analyzing 246 unrelated male individuals from eight provinces of three Argentinean regions using ancestry-sensitive DNA markers (ASDM) from autosomal, Y and mitochondrial chromosomes. Our results demonstrate that European, Native American and African ancestry components were detectable in the contemporary Argentineans, the amounts depending on the genetic system applied, exhibiting large inter-individual heterogeneity. Argentineans carried a large fraction of European genetic heritage in their Y-chromosomal (94.1%) and autosomal (78.5%) DNA, but their mitochondrial gene pool is mostly of Native American ancestry (53.7%); instead, African heritage was small in all three genetic systems (<4%). Population substructure in Argentina considering the eight sampled provinces was very small based on autosomal (0.92% of total variation was between provincial groups, p = 0.005) and mtDNA (1.77%, p = 0.005) data (none with NRY data), and all three genetic systems revealed no substructure when clustering the provinces into the three geographic regions to which they belong. The complex genetic ancestry picture detected in Argentineans underscores the need to apply ASDM from all three genetic systems to infer geographic origins and genetic admixture. This applies to all worldwide areas where people with different continental ancestry live geographically close together.Fil: Corach, Daniel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Microbiología, Inmunología y Biotecnología. Cátedra de Genética y Biología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lao, Oscar. Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Países BajosFil: Bobillo, Maria Cecilia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Microbiología, Inmunología y Biotecnología. Cátedra de Genética y Biología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gaag, Kristiaan van Der. Leiden University Medical Center; Países BajosFil: Zuniga, Sofia. Leiden University Medical Center; Países BajosFil: Vermeulen, Mark. Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Países BajosFil: Duijn, Kate van. Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Países BajosFil: Goedbloed, Miriam. Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Países BajosFil: Vallone, Peter M.. National Institute of Standars and Technology. Biochemical Science Division; Estados UnidosFil: Parson, Walther. Innsbruck Medical University; AustriaFil: Knijff, Peter de. Leiden University Medical Center; Países BajosFil: Kayser, Manfred. Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam; Países Bajo
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