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The genus Polistes is one of the most species-rich and widely distributed groups of social wasps and a model taxon for studies of social behavior. Almost half the Polistes world fauna occurs in the New World, but their classification has been unstable due in part to the scarcity of phylogenetic studies. We investigated the phylogeny of the New World Polistes by combining a previously existing molecular dataset with a new morphological and behavioral matrix for 90 of the 93 New World species. All analyses support a single origin for the New World Polistes. All five traditionally defined New World subgenera (Aphanilopterus, Epicnemius, Fuscopolistes, Onerarius, and Palisotius) were monophyletic, but the relationships among them varied across datasets. Our results, with an expanded phenotypic dataset, improved taxonomic sampling, and enhanced clade support relative to previous studies, strongly support a classification based on five subgenera, which are all diagnosable groups supported by clear morphological synapomorphies. Hence, we propose the revalidation of previously proposed subgenera; we provide a taxonomic account of each subgenus and an identification key to all species of New World Polistes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global community strives to address the pressing challenges of environmental degradation and social inequality, the role of architecture in promoting sustainable development has gained unprecedented significance. This paper explores the intrinsic connection between architecture and sustainable development, focusing on Egypt as a case study. The research follows theoretical and practical application methodology, where case studies and solutions are applied. Egypt, with its rich historical heritage and rapidly urbanizing cities, presents a unique context to investigate how the built environment can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations. This study adopts a multidisciplinary approach, integrating architectural analysis, urban planning principles, environmental science, and social studies to examine the various ways in which architecture influences and interacts with sustainability goals. Case Studies include two locations in Egypt as future concepts to solve problems: Downtown Cairo and Nubia-Aswan, where ideas were introduced towards a better quality of life. The findings of this research underscore the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders, such as government bodies, non-governmental organizations, architects, and the public, to create a holistic approach to sustainable architectural design and urban planning towards resilient communities. The paper also emphasizes the need for education and awareness campaigns to foster a culture of sustainability within the architectural and construction sectors. Proposed projects were introduced in the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen 2023 and published in UIA Guidebook 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a result of a complementary advanced publication workshop accompanying the curriculum course exercises for PhD students, on the role of ICT in the research work of a scientist. To fulfill the extended course requirements the participants decided to write relevant paper, if possible, related to their individual research endeavors and their relations to the digital world. The paper consists of a collection of short chapters written by young researchers. They express their own views, based on early research experience, relevant generally to the inclusion of critical digital age components in their theses. The chapters are only moderately consulted by the tutor in the direction of finding a common denominator related to social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to situate climate change by examining three scalar dissonances between "global" and "local" knowledge-making and policy action. The three dissonances – the knowledge production and policy meaning-making nexus, the politics of urgency, and the politics of building socio-climatic future pathways – engage deeply with the emergent literature that deals with climate change from the perspective of Human Geography Studies and the Social Studies of Science and Technology (STS). By posing guiding questions and through examples primarily from Latin American countries, this paper lays out a research agenda that advances geographical sensitivity, allowing us to better understand the "other" geographies of climate science production, circulation, and information use. Furthermore, it highlights the unresolved political and interdisciplinary tensions in accommodating global narratives in regions of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating territorial attractiveness can result in several interpretations due to the multidimensional nature of the concept, starting from economy and expanding into many fields such as geography and social studies, in this paper, we attempt to analyze the existing economic-urban dilemma in the north-east region of Algeria by evaluating the attractiveness of its two national metropolises as separate territorial units. The main objective of the study was to explore the possibility of evaluating the three facets of attractiveness simultaneously in a bipolar cities system. Our method is not in itself new; it has been used as a model for assessment in many other regions of the developing world suffering from lack of data and economic-urban issues, but this is the first time it has been used to assess attractiveness. This multi-factorial model with synthetic indicators will help us to have a general view of the issue and to define strengths and weaknesses of both territorial units. However, the limits of this methodology will be the percentage uncertainty that lies in the subjectivity of the weighting step performed by experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AI and Society discourse has previously drawn attention to the ways that digital systems embody the values of the technology development community from which they emerge through the development and deployment process. Research shows how this effect leads to a particular treatment of gender in computer systems development, a treatment which lags far behind the rich understanding of gender that social studies scholarship reveals and people across society experience. Many people do not relate to the narrow binary gender options of male or female, and many people express their gender identity in much richer ways than the sex/gender binary female/woman and male/man Boolean terms will allow. We ask: are "born-digital" gendered datasets in digital systems experienced as marginalising by those who express their identity beyond the male/female binary? Case Study: Ireland. To answer this universal question, this paper presents the findings of an empirical case study of people in Ireland with diverse gender identities and expressions, and their experiences with public data systems and new technologies. In spite of great social changes in Ireland which have led to constitutional change in favour of LGBTQI + people, born-digital systems were experienced by respondents as embodying socio-cultural values which were no longer accepted in society at large. For many of the respondents, digital technologies routinely marginalise them in all kinds of ways. These systems keep alive violence and oppression long after civil rights have been enshrined in constitutional law. This study is just one example of the way assumptions about digital are disengaged from society-at-large. It is a call to arms to all who are passionate about socially-responsible technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper critically discusses the use and merits of global indices, in particular, the Global Health Security Index (GHSI; Cameron et al. https://www.ghsindex.org/#l-section--map ) in times of an imminent crisis, such as the current pandemic. This index ranked 195 countries according to their expected preparedness in the case of a pandemic or other biological threat. The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic provides the background to compare each country's predicted performance from the GHSI with the actual performance. In general, there is an inverted relation between predicted versus actual performance, i.e. the predicted top performers are among those that are the worst hit. Obviously, this reflects poorly on the potential policy uses of this index in imminent crisis management.Methods: The paper analyses the GHSI and identifies why it may have struggled to predict actual pandemic preparedness as evidenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper also uses two different data sets, one from the Worldmeter on the spread of the Covid-19 pandemics, and the other from the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) Evidence-to-Policy Tracker, to draw comparisons between the actual introduction of pandemic response policies and the corresponding death rate in 29 selected countries.Results: This paper analyses the reasons for the poor match between prediction and reality in the index, and mentions six general observations applying to global indices in this respect. These observations are based on methodological and conceptual analyses. The level of abstraction in these global indices builds uncertainties upon uncertainties and hides implicit value assumptions, which potentially removes them from the policy needs on the ground.Conclusions: From the analysis, the question is raised if the policy community might have better tools for decision-making in a pandemic. On the basis of data from the INGSA Evidence-to-Policy Tracker, and with backing in studies from social psychology and philosophy of science, some simple heuristics are suggested, which may be more useful than a global index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the debate about creating shared value (CSV) and clusters, by shedding light on how clusters might generate shared value, i.e. cause social and business benefits, hence focusing on the following research question "do clusters create shared value?" Design/methodology/approach: The study relied on social network analysis methods and techniques. Data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources, in the empirical context of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna. The authors computed three independent and four dependent variables to operationalize the concept of cluster development and shared value creation. A multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure and, more specifically, the most accurate model of that procedure, that is the double semi-partialling method, has been carried out to answer the research question. Finally, empirical evidence has been complemented with other cluster-level data recently collected by the Italian Cluster Mapping project. Findings: The findings confirm how the development of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna contributed to the creation of economic and social growth opportunities for all the actors. The study shows that clusters do create shared value and the chosen cluster development variables do explain much of the business and social impact variables at a very high statistical significance level. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the under-explored research on clusters and CSV with a very first attempt in providing quantitative evidence of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative research plays an important role in helping us describe, interpret and generate theories about complex phenomena in healthcare. Complete and transparent reporting of research informs readers about the significance and rigor of the work. The aim of this scientometric study was to determine the quality of reporting of qualitative research in nursing social science. Studies were identified by manually searching the table of contents for qualitative papers published in the June (or closest subsequent) 2018 issue of 115 nursing journals. Adherence with the 32-item Consolidated Criteria for REporting Qualitative (COREQ) research was determined for each study by two researchers. Additional information about the study (e.g., sample size, field of nursing) and the publishing journal (e.g., endorsement of COREQ) were also extracted. Using established criteria, COREQ compliance was coded either good (≥ 25 items), moderate (17 to 24), poor (9 to 16), very poor (≤ 8) based on the number of items addressed in each study. One hundred and ninety-seven manuscripts were included. The quality of reporting was generally rated as either moderate (57%) or poor (38%). Journal endorsement of qualitative reporting guidelines was associated with better reporting. The reporting of qualitative research in nursing social science journals is suboptimal. Researchers, authors, reviewers and journal editors need to ensure their papers comprehensively address the requirements of COREQ to ensure comprehensive and transparent reporting of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political changes after the 1990s were accompanied by major economic changes, transforming a centralized economy to decentralized. During the past two decades, the public sector in Albania has been through a dramatic change, mostly from a structural perspective. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the most significant indicators of public sector performance in the case of Albania. Thus, indicators such as utility services, legal and institutional framework, modernization of public administration, and economic issues are examined considering the public perception and furthermore, their expectations. The survey took place in Albania, wherein 200 questionnaires were delivered and fulfilled. Evaluation of variables in this study are rated using a 5-point Likert-type scale, with 1 being strongly disagree to 5 being strongly agree. Each variable is measured through items, which are estimated through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) as the most used technique in social sciences studies; Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method is implemented. Results indicate that all the 12 observed variables, are positively evaluated by the interviewed citizens. Two most positively evaluated indicators are the judicial system, and being employed in the public sector; while two less evaluated indicators are those of e-services and telecommunication. Referring to the citizens’ expectations, this paper will contribute to enhance the performance of the activities of public organizations and government institutions. In addition, the results of this study, aim to help policy-making structures improve the performance of public administration in providing public services to citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the tenets of the theory of cultural capital (P. Bourdieu) and the results of studies on the social dimension of education, the paper analyzes the connection between the social origin and educational orientation of the student population of the University of Niš. It also focuses on family socio-economic status and cultural-educational status as socially differentiated factors of educational orientation (choice of program of study). The paper presents the results of the study carried out from April until June 2019. The sample included 374 students from 13 faculties of the University of Niš. A comparative analysis of the social origin of the students (operationalized through the educational and socio-professional status of their parents and the financial status of their families) represented the starting point for the study of the social determination of their educational orientation. The findings indicate that children of agricultural workers and farm laborers more often choose the Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Pedagogy and Faculty of Economics, while children of business professionals and professionals with a non-business background more often choose the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Law, compared to the students with origins from other socio professional groups. Since the research has confirmed the existence of social differentiation in educational orientation, it is necessary to design and realize adequate educational policy measures to overcome social inequality in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a desktop study that adopts a theoretical approach of the classroom management interconnectivity between information and communications technology and Social Studies in the Educational Institutions of both secondary and tertiary institutions. The paper discusses classroom management interconnectivity between information and communications technology and social studies. ICT is understood as a complex of artifacts, techniques, and knowledge for solving human problems involving information and its communication. One major feature is the employment of electronics rather than mechanical means for storing, processing, and communicating social studies information. It is noted that when communication is hampered in the administration of any organization, the entire organization suffers, when it is accurate, thorough, and timely, the organization can move so effectively and efficiently towards goal achievement. The paper, therefore, examines the specific objectives of ICT, the major terminologies, the relevance of ICT, challenges, and way-outs of the challenges. It is therefore recommended that Social studies education must engage in constant self-development in information and communications technology, orientation courses, and symposium, conferences, debates, seminars should be encouraged and emphasis should be laid on the teaching of values of ICT. Finally, it is recommended that federal and state governments should ensure a sustainable supply of electricity to all institutions of learning in both rural and urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Longitudinal cohort studies have made significant contributions to medical discoveries and provide the impetus for health interventions which reduce the risk of disease. Establishing and maintaining these cohorts is challenging and costly. While some attrition is unavoidable, maintaining a sufficient number of participants ensures that results remain representative and free from bias. Numerous studies have investigated ways to reduce attrition but few studies have sought to understand the experience of participants, and none have examined this through a social marketing framework. This first paper in a two part-series describes participants' experiences according to: benefits, barriers, motivators and influencers. The second paper uses this understanding to address issues relating to the 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) of social marketing.Methods: Participants were recruited from the Raine Study, a pregnancy cohort study that has been running in Western Australia since 1989. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 active and inactive participants from the Generation 2 cohort, who were originally enrolled in the Raine Study at birth by their parents (Generation 1). 'Active' participants (n = 17) were defined as those who agreed to attend their 27 year follow-up, while 'inactive' (n = 12) participants were defined as those who had not attended either of the past two follow-ups (at 22 and 27 years).Results: There were considerable differences between active and inactive participants, with active participants perceiving far more personal and collective benefits from their participation. Inactive participants described being constrained by structural barriers around work and life, whereas active participants were able to overcome them to attend follow-ups. Inactive participants also described the value of extrinsic incentives which might motivate their attendance, and active participants described the role of their parents as significant influencers in their propensity to remain in the study.Conclusions: This paper provides rich descriptions of what participation in a long-running study means to participants. Use of a social marketing framework ensured that participants were constructed as 'human consumers' who are influenced by individual and broader social systems. Understanding participants in this way means that differentiated strategies can be tailored to enhance retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Science deals with the study of phenomena related to the social status of human beings. The importance of such sciences lies in the fact that they make it possible to know, predict, modify and improve the functioning of human societies today. Due to the great complexity of modern societies, it is virtually impossible to have accurate data or knowledge about any contemporary society. That is why neutrosophic theory is suitable for representing and modeling the data from studies on any social sciences. They may contain data that is contradictory, incomplete, inaccurate, vague, and so on. In particular, neutrosophic statistics generalizes classical statistics to interval-valued data. Since classical statistics are of great importance for the study of Social Sciences, in this paper, we compile, define and illustrate some statistical methods typical of classical statistics generalized to neutrosophic statistics. We will emphasize the Legal Sciences in our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the construction industry is project-oriented with extensive collaborations. Belongingness, formed from collaborations, represents a sense of membership and an emotional attachment to teams. Team members' belongingness improves their performance and participation in collaboration. However, little to no evidence elucidates how collaborations influence member belongingness. This paper presents a social network study that identified the relationship between individual member's network position and belongingness. The authors surveyed construction students in the US and conducted regressions to identify the relationship. Results showed that member belongingness is related negatively to the member's network interconnectivity. The results suggest that a team member is likely to achieve high belongingness when they have a hub position to connect immediate partners. The findings imply that connections with interdisciplinary stakeholders can increase belongingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Science deals with the study of phenomena related to the social status of human beings. The importance of such sciences lies in the fact that they make it possible to know, predict, modify and improve the functioning of human societies today. Due to the great complexity of modern societies, it is virtually impossible to have accurate data or knowledge about any contemporary society. That is why neutrosophic theory is suitable for representing and modeling the data from studies on any social sciences. They may contain data that is contradictory, incomplete, inaccurate, vague, and so on. In particular, neutrosophic statistics generalizes classical statistics to interval-valued data. Since classical statistics are of great importance for the study of Social Sciences, in this paper, we compile, define and illustrate some statistical methods typical of classical statistics generalized to neutrosophic statistics. We will emphasize the Legal Sciences in our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People worldwide communicate online and create a great amount of data on social media. The understanding of such large-scale data generated on social media and uncovering patterns from social relationship has received much attention from academics and practitioners. However, it still faces challenges to represent and manage the large-scale social relationship data in a formal manner. Therefore, this study proposes a social relationship representation model, which addresses both conceptual graph and domain ontology. Such a formal representation of a social relationship graph can provide a flexible and adaptive way to complete social relationship discovery. Using the term-define capability of ontologies and the graphical structure of the conceptual graph, this paper presents a social relationship description with formal syntax and semantics. The reasoning procedure working on this formal representation can exploit the capability of ontology reasoning and graph homomorphism-based reasoning. A social relationship graph constructed from the Lehigh University Benchmark (LUBM) is used to test the efficiency of the relationship discovery method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks influence health-related behavior, such as obesity and smoking. While researchers have studied social networks as a driver for diffusion of influences and behavior, it is less understood how the structure or topology of the network, in itself, impacts an individual's health behavior and wellness state. In this paper, we investigate whether the structure or topology of a social network offers additional insight and predictability on an individual's health and wellness. We develop a method called the Network-Driven health predictor (NetCARE) that leverages features representative of social network structure. Using a large longitudinal data set of students enrolled in the NetHealth study at the University of Notre Dame, we show that the NetCARE method improves the overall prediction performance over the baseline models—that use demographics and physical attributes—by 38%, 65%, 55%, and 54% for the wellness states—stress, happiness, positive attitude, and self-assessed health—considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The risk management inherent in a company's supply chain has become a decisive line for its growth, generating a competitive differential. The literature on risk management is diverse; however, much has been studied on the financial risks and little on the social risks in which the supply chain of a company may be involved. The current scenario is critical. For example, the Global Slavery Index shows that by 2014 more than 35 million workers were in situations analogous to slaves in the world. Scandals have been recently increasing in the media, such as the use of child labor by large brands, making consumers more aware and companies more negatively affected. The present research aims to study social risk and proposes a taxonomy, a framework and a research agenda to support future works on social supply chain risks. A systematic literature review is conducted, and after analysing 77 abstracts and 43 full papers, we identify twenty-four social risks and thirteen consequences that those risks can generate for the company and consequently affect the entire supply chain. We also develop a Social Supply Chain Risk Management (SSCRM) taxonomy and a framework that integrates the literature frameworks and the risks and consequences in order to make it viable for practitioners managing social supply chain risks. Finally, a research agenda is provided to enhance the conceptual foundations of social supply chain risk management towards the formalisation and improvement of the field. Highlights • The study intends to understand the social view as a competitive differential. • We conduct a systematic literature review on social risks to analyse 43 full papers. • Twenty-four social risks and thirteen consequences for company's were identified. • We deliver three taxonomies, a research agenda and a framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the collapse of state socialism in 1989 regional disparities have been growing considerably in Hungary. In particular, small settlements in structurally disadvantaged areas are affected by different dimensions of peripheralization processes, such as stigmatization (they are labelled as "lagged behind", "backwards" or "underdeveloped" areas), selective migration, disconnection, dependence and social exclusion. In addition, social exclusion in Hungary has an ethnic dimension, as Roma people tend to concentrate in peripheralized areas. As a response to these processes, local initiatives, such as rural social enterprises or social and solidarity economy initiatives, have emerged, counting Roma people amongst their stakeholders. Based on ethnographic methods the article examines the capacity of three rural social enterprises to counteract these peripheralization processes, particularly the dimensions of political dependence and ethnicity-based social exclusion. The analysis has two parts. On the one hand, this paper examines how the institutional basis (civilian-based, municipality-based or faith based social enterprise) influences the political autonomy of a social enterprise, its access to funding and consequently its room for maneuverability. On the other hand, this paper looks to which extent the so-called Gypsy-Hungarian differentiation (Kovai, 2018, Horváth, 2008, Horváth and Kovai, 2010) determines local realities in peripheralized villages and how rural social enterprises can empower Roma people and divert the differentiation between the conceptual "Gypsy" and the conceptual "Hungarian". The findings suggest that only the civilian-based social enterprise reflects the racialized and gendered oppression of Roma and thus has the greatest potential concerning Roma empowerment. On the other hand, the civilianbased social enterprise faces the most severe structural and financial challenges due to the constraining institutional framework, which favors centralized organization structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Festivals were a significant part of life in ancient Nabataea (312 BC-106 AD) and were a central part of worshipping the gods. Some of the most important festivals of ancient Nabataea were held in honour of the main principle god Dushara. These festivals celebrated the powers of the gods and Nabataean kings and allowed the Nabataean citizens to show their respect. Hence, in this paper, we will try to determine what ceremonies were held in the ancient Nabataea, and the rituals associated with these festivals. Moreover, studies the social traditions and religious practises related to these events, the time of the ceremonies and banquets which be held near the tombs and temples. The article based on interdisciplinary historiographical and anthropological studies and Nabataean inscriptions, as well as the review of ancient historical and contemporary materials and written accounts, I finish my paper with the discussion of the application of my research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on 10 months of field work between 2009 and 2014 in Cape Verde, and provides an overview of the anthropological literature in which motor vehicles and African roads are studied as social phenomena. Until the end of the twentieth century, most ethnographies have failed to focus on the countless social processes linked to the development of mobility by road and the motorisation of transportation in Africa, or on the role played by cars and roads as symbols of a globalised modernity. The paper reviews the research by authors who, from the 1930s onwards, mention African roads and the use of motor vehicles as spaces in which social situations and processes take place. The several symbolic and instrumental dimensions of the motorisation of road transportation in Africa are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using video-recordings from one day of a theater project for young adults, this paper investigates how the meaning of novel verbal expressions is interactionally constituted and elaborated over the interactional history of a series of activities. We examine how the theater director introduces and instructs the group in the Chekhovian technique of acting, which is based on "imagining with the body," and how the imaginary elements of the technique are "brought into existence" in the language of the instructions. By tracking shifts in the instructor's use of the key expressions invisible/imaginary/inner body or movement through a series of exercises, we demonstrate how they are increasingly treated as real and perceivable bodily conduct. The analyses focus on the instructor's attribution of factual and agentive properties to these expressions, and the changes that these properties undergo over the series of instructions. This case demonstrates the significance of longitudinal processes for the establishment of shared meaning in social interaction. The study thereby contributes to the field of interactional semantics and to longitudinal studies of social interaction. • Instructions of the Chekhovian acting technique to a group of novices are examined. • The 'inner body' as a creative resource becomes increasingly established as common ground. • The meaning of 'inner/invisible/imaginary body' is constituted and enriched over an interactional history. • Bodily practices are used to convey the meaning of imaginary objects and actions. • Factual and agentive properties of expressions change over the interactional history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many models in population ecology, including spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models, assume that individuals are distributed and detected independently of one another. In reality, this is rarely the case – both antagonistic and gregarious relationships lead to non-independent spatial configurations, with territorial exclusion at one end of the spectrum and group-living at the other. Previous simulation studies suggest that grouping has limited impact on the outcome of SCR analyses. However, group associations entail not only spatial clustering of activity centers but also coordinated space use by group members, potentially impacting both ecological and observation processes underlying SCR analysis. We simulated SCR scenarios with different strengths of aggregation (clustering of individuals into groups with shared activity centers) and cohesion (synchronization of detection patterns of members of a group). We then fit SCR models to the simulated data sets and evaluated the effect of aggregation and cohesion on parameter estimates. Low to moderate aggregation and cohesion did not impact the bias and precision of estimates of density and the scale parameter of the detection function. However, non-independence between individuals led to high levels of overdispersion. Overdispersion strongly decreased the coverage of confidence intervals around parameter estimates, thereby increasing the probability of erroneous predictions. Our results indicate that SCR models are robust to moderate levels of aggregation and cohesion. Nonetheless, spatial dependence between individuals can lead to false inference. We recommend that practitioners 1) test for the presence of overdispersion in SCR data caused by aggregation and cohesion, and, if necessary, 2) correct their variance estimates using the overdispersion factor ĉ. Approaches for doing both are described in this paper. We also urge the development of SCR models that incorporate spatial associations between individuals not only to account for overdispersion but also to obtain quantitative information about social aspects of study populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach to enhancing the pedagogy of science education is to employ academics who are not only science-trained but also engaged in education research. As some academics begin their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research careers with a pure science background, shifting in disciplinary perspectives can be a source of professional tension. The pedagogic frailty model provides a framework that helps us to integrate institutional efforts to enhance teaching improvements by maintaining a simultaneous focus on critical areas that are thought to impede academic development. This paper draws attention to the importance of disciplinary crossover by uncovering and comparing academics' teaching perspectives, views and beliefs from three disciplines: natural science (chemistry), social science (education) and science education. Through a case study design using the pedagogic frailty model and concept map-mediated interviews as a tool, three academics engaged in a non-linear discourse in which their conceptions could be visualised and analysed. Analysis of the case study interviews indicated that the academics' conceptions of teaching were highly individualised. The discourse surrounding the curriculum, and the embeddedness of and connection between pedagogy and discipline, were both subject-sensitive and influenced by professional backgrounds and research areas. On the other hand, because they operated under the same institutional values and regulations, we found a considerable overlap in terms of how the academics perceived the tensions between research and teaching and academic leadership. By comparing three academics who were at a different stage in the journey from disciplinary experts (chemistry) to teaching expert (education), we were able to uncover and understand more about the ways that the teaching environment impacted upon their practices. The science educator shared aspects of the other two perspectives, which suggests that his profile was a transitory state in comparison with the chemist and the educationist. The findings provide a glimpse of the distinctive nature of the values that underpin teaching and offer insights that can be used to promote dialogue about quality enhancement in science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining the evolutionary origin and maintenance of color polymorphisms is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Such polymorphisms are commonly thought to reflect the existence of alternative behavioral or life‐history strategies under negative frequency‐dependent selection. The European common wall lizard Podarcis muralis exhibits a striking ventral color polymorphism that has been intensely studied and is often assumed to reflect alternative reproductive strategies, similar to the iconic "rock–paper–scissors" system described in the North American lizard Uta stansburiana. However, available studies so far have ignored central aspects in the behavioral ecology of this species that are crucial to assess the existence of alternative reproductive strategies. Here, we try to fill this gap by studying the social behavior, space use, and reproductive performance of lizards showing different color morphs, both in a free‐ranging population from the eastern Pyrenees and in ten experimental mesocosm enclosures. In the natural population, we found no differences between morphs in site fidelity, space use, or male–female spatial overlap. Likewise, color morph was irrelevant to sociosexual behavior, space use, and reproductive success within experimental enclosures. Our results contradict the commonly held hypothesis that P. muralis morphs reflect alternative behavioral strategies, and suggest that we should instead turn our attention to alternative functional explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade ago, there were multiple calls for more ethnographic research in the construction industry in order to provide deeper insights into industry practice. Since those calls, methods under the umbrella of ethnographic methods have been more regularly applied, with various data collection techniques being adopted, often as part of multifaceted research designs. It is argued that it is now an appropriate time to critically review ethnographic research studies over the past 10 years in order to establish the kinds of knowledge they generate and the intervention they may inform. In doing so, this also begins to identify contributions and areas that deserve more attention. We reviewed 57 relevant studies that adopted approaches such as autoethnography, quasi-ethnography, ethnographic-action research, retrospective ethnography, and ethnographic interviewing, used both to explore problems and confirm results. Interesting intense forms of ethnography dominated, with alternative and shorter-term ethnographic work (as opposed to classic long-term approaches) forming the basis of the majority of the studies reviewed. The methods explicated within these papers suggested they were rooted within different ontological positions, with there being little consistency in terms of how the rigor of the approaches used was evaluated. There was also a distinct lack of researcher reflexivity on their emotions. This means that many researchers fail to reflect on their role within the social worlds they study, which, in a Western construction context, can be a macho, masculine, and potentially dangerous (physically and mentally) environment. Greater levels of appreciation and consistency in judging ethnographic research, and greater reflexivity on the influence of the researcher's position and influence on the practices studied, are prerequisites for robust ethnographic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to verify and analyze the leading academic publications related to innovation topics and digital social networks. The research methodology is the co-citation analysis followed by the development of a co-citation map that includes approaches, types of networks and levels of aggregation by these themes. Therefore, this study can promote a better understanding of how the authors studying innovation and digital social networks relate. The research was conducted at Web Of Science and the total of 694 articles, the years 2015 to 2019 were selected. Of these, 26,570 were the references cited by the analyzed papers and the average citations per item were 9.78. Three main clusters were identified with the references of the articles analyzed. These clusters reflects the themes Organizational Knowledge; Social and Relations and Innovation; and Creativity and Social Networks. Future studies on innovation and social networks can use the result of this article to support your choice of authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of collective action and the origin of collective action problems have been extensively and systematically studied in the social sciences. Yet, while we have substantial knowledge about the factors promoting collective action at the local level, we know far less about how these insights travel to large-scale collective action problems. Such problems, however, are at the heart of humanity's most pressing challenges, including climate change, large-scale natural resource depletion, biodiversity loss, nuclear proliferation, antibiotic resistance due to overconsumption of antibiotics, and pollution. In this paper, we suggest an analytical framework that captures the theoretical understanding of preconditions for large-scale collective action. This analytical framework aims at supporting future empirical analyses of how to cope with and overcome larger-scale collective action problems. More specifically, we (i) define and describe the main characteristics of a large-scale collective action problem and (ii) explain why voluntary and, in particular, spontaneous large-scale collective action among individual actors becomes more improbable as the collective action problem becomes larger, thus demanding interventions by an external authority (a third party) for such action to be generated. Based on this, we (iii) outline an analytical framework that illustrates the connection between third-party interventions and large-scale collective action. We conclude by suggesting avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foundation and activity of the Mariupol Local Public University under the social processes of the Ukrainian Revolution during 1917-1919-s is highlighted in the paper on the base of the modern methodological approaches. The history of the educational institution is analyzed in the context of anthropological, social, cultural and interdisciplinary approaches. The issues of the Mariupol Local Public University’s organization and principles of its activity are considered regarding the principles of microhistory in detail. The educational activity, personnel and university enrolment are presented. The attention was drawn to the activity of the Mariupol democratic community regarding university’s establishment, to an impact of changing social processes that were in Ukraine in general and in Mariupol in particular, according to the methodological principles of socio-cultural history. The role of the particular historical and public figures (namely, the head of the Board of trustees of the public university S. Vainerova, the heads of the City Council of Mariupol I. Popov and O. Levytskyi, the member of Mariupol public executive committee I. Kovalenko and others) is considered on the methodological bases of historical anthropology. The elements of history, social and cultural studies are combined in the article according to the interdisciplinary approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation entered the academic discourse several decades ago and has since been seen as a way of tackling existing problems in various contexts. Although an extensive body of research has been conducted into the role of social innovation in urban context, there is still a gap when it comes to studying the role of social innovation in the development of rural areas. In this paper, an attempt is made to look at the role of Local Action Groups (LAGs) and Local Development Associations (LDAs) as promoters of social innovation in rural areas in Austria and Portugal, aiming to understand the role of such organisations and the challenges faced by the latter in promoting social innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks continuously change as new ties are created and existing ones fade. It is widely acknowledged that our social embedding has a substantial impact on what information we receive and how we form beliefs and make decisions. However, most empirical studies on the role of social networks in collective intelligence have overlooked the dynamic nature of social networks and its role in fostering adaptive collective intelligence. Therefore, little is known about how groups of individuals dynamically modify their local connections and, accordingly, the topology of the network of interactions to respond to changing environmental conditions. In this paper, we address this question through a series of behavioral experiments and supporting simulations. Our results reveal that, in the presence of plasticity and feedback, social networks can adapt to biased and changing information environments and produce collective estimates that are more accurate than their best-performing member. To explain these results, we explore two mechanisms: 1) a global-adaptation mechanism where the structural connectivity of the network itself changes such that it amplifies the estimates of high-performing members within the group (i.e., the network "edges" encode the computation); and 2) a localadaptation mechanism where accurate individuals are more resistant to social influence (i.e., adjustments to the attributes of the "node" in the network); therefore, their initial belief is disproportionately weighted in the collective estimate. Our findings substantiate the role of social-network plasticity and feedback as key adaptive mechanisms for refining individual and collective judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social storage systems are a good alternative to existing data backup systems of local, centralized, and P2P backup. Till date, researchers have mostly focussed on either building such systems by using existing underlying social networks (exogenously built) or on studying quality of service related issues. In this paper, we look at two untouched aspects of social storage systems. One aspect involves modelling social storage as an endogenous social network, where agents themselves decide with whom they want to build data backup relation, which is more intuitive than exogenous social networks. The second aspect involves studying the stability of social storage systems, which would help reduce maintenance costs and further, help build efficient as well as contented networks. We have a four fold contribution that covers the above two aspects. We, first, model the social storage system as a strategic network formation game. We define the utility of each agent in the network under two different frameworks, one where the cost to add and maintain links is considered in the utility function and the other where budget constraints are considered. In the context of social storage and social cloud computing, these utility functions are the first of its kind, and we use them to define and analyse the social storage network game. Second, we propose the concept of bilateral stability which refines the pairwise stability concept defined by Jackson and Wolinsky (J Econ Theory 71(1):44–74, 1996), by requiring mutual consent for both addition and deletion of links, as compared to mutual consent just for link addition. Mutual consent for link deletion is especially important in the social storage setting. The notion of bilateral stability subsumes the bilateral equilibrium definition of Goyal and Vega-Redondo (J Econ Theory 137(1):460–492, 2007). Third, we prove necessary and the sufficient conditions for bilateral stability of social storage networks. For symmetric social storage networks, we prove that there exists a unique neighborhood size, independent of the number of agents (for all non-trivial cases), where no pair of agents has any incentive to increase or decrease their neighborhood size. We call this neighborhood size as the stability point. Fourth, given the number of agents and other parameters, we discuss which bilaterally stable networks would evolve and also discuss which of these stable networks are efficient—that is, stable networks with maximum sum of utilities of all agents. We also discuss ways to build contented networks, where each agent achieves the maximum possible utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have extensively studied the social mechanisms that drive the formation of networks observed among preschool children. However, less attention has been given to global network structures in terms of blockmodels. A blockmodel is a network where the nodes are groups of equivalent units (according to links to others) from a studied network. It is already shown that mutuality, popularity, assortativity, and different types of transitivity mechanisms can lead the global network structure to the proposed asymmetric core-cohesive blockmodel. Yet, they did not provide any evidence that such a global network structure actually appears in any empirical data. In this paper, the symmetric version of the core-cohesive blockmodel type is proposed. This blockmodel type consists of three or more groups of units. The units from each group are internally well linked to each other while those from different groups are not linked to each other. This is true for all groups, except one in which the units have mutual links to all other units in the network. In this study, it is shown that the proposed blockmodel type appears in empirical interactional networks collected among preschool children. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the most often studied social network mechanisms can lead the global network structure to the proposed symmetric blockmodel type. The units' attributes are not considered in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a medium-specific research perspective as fundamental basis for Social Sciences and Communication fieldwork. It points to the importance of combining knowledge on platform grammatisation with data research practices (capture, mining, analysis and visualization) to study digital networks. That is what we refer to as call into the platform; an effort to account for the technical fieldwork and digital methods in an interdependent position to research. In this conception, and through the case of Portuguese Universities on Facebook, we interrogate how digital networks contribute to the research contexts of communication and social sciences studies. To respond to this question, two distinctive digital networks were explored, shedding light in the institutional connections and the visual culture of the higher education in Portugal. The first comprises all connections made by a given Page - the act of liking other pages or being liked in return (Page like network). The second is built upon the affordances of computer vision APIs - the connections between images and their descriptive labels (Page timeline image-label network). Beyond providing new ways to design and implement research that can be repurposed for different studies, the main contribution of this study lies in embracing the methods of the medium as key component for digital social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and knowledge are essential for the survival of companies and people's daily lives. Furthermore, software is a fundamental element to manage this information. Programming professionals use information and organizational knowledge to develop their projects and work as a team. Information and knowledge represent power, and their sharing includes bargains, behaviors studied by the Social Exchange Theory. Sharing information effectively involves more than passing it on, it involves interference aiming the receiver's appropriation of it, for work execution, by means of information mediating subjects. This paper objective is to verify how information and knowledge are shared among software professionals, inferring how principles of Social Exchange Theory interfere or not in their mediation, highlighting the influence of egocentric and altruistic motivators, or motivation aimed at the group. As methodological procedures, a descriptive case study was carried out with software professionals, students of a public higher education institution, in Garça city, São Paulo state, as well as their administrative personnel, using questionnaires, interviews and analysis of the institution website. As a result, it was found that there is evidence of mediation of information and knowledge among those surveyed, since altruistic and egocentric motivations are dialectically reconciled in this mediation/sharing. The results are attributed possibly to internalized values during higher education period, as well to a psychologically positive work environment. It is concluded that there are convergences between the Social Exchange Theory and the mediation of information, both in theoretical and practical aspects, showing the possibility of mediation besides traditional informational equipment: libraries, archives and museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust is crucial for purchasing decisions in social commerce. However, inexperienced users may not have a direct trust relation to experienced users in practice. Besides, users tend to give their trust degrees to others with linguistic labels rather than crisp values. To evaluate the trust degree for inexperienced users to experienced ones, we propose an interval type‐2 fuzzy trust evaluation model in this paper. Interval type‐2 fuzzy linguistic labels are used to represent trust degree among users. An interval type‐2 fuzzy Algebraic t‐norm is addressed to compute propagative trust degrees. Considering the effect of trust path length, the induced ordered weighted averaging (IOWA) operator is extended to aggregate the interval type‐2 fuzzy trust degrees obtained from multiple paths. In addition, the final interval type‐2 fuzzy trust degree is transferred into the corresponding linguistic label to help users make decisions more naturally. Finally, a case study in social commerce and a related comparison are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science and Technology Studies understandings of technological change are at odds with its own dominant research designs and methodological guidelines. A key insight from social shaping of technology research, for instance, has been that new technologies are formed in multiple, particular (albeit interlinked) settings, by many different groups of actors over long periods of time. Nonetheless, common research designs have not kept pace with these conceptual advances, continuing instead to resort to either intensive localised ethnographic engagements or broad stroke historical studies, unable to address both the intricacy and extent of the process in tandem. There has consequently been increasing interest in extending current methodological and analytical approaches through longitudinal and multi-site research templates. We discuss this fundamentally methodological critique and its implications through one of these approaches: the 'biographies of artifacts and practices' (BOAP) framework, which by now offers a twenty years body of studies to reflect upon methodological choices in different sociomaterial settings. This paper outlines the basic principles of BOAP and its significant variations, and discusses its contribution to STS understandings of innovation, especially user roles in innovation. We finish by arguing that if STS is to continue to provide insight around innovation this will require a reconceptualisation of research design, to move from simple 'snap shot' studies to the linking together of a string of studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ontology learning problem has raised much attention in semantic structure expression and information retrieval. As a powerful tool, ontology is evenly employed in various subjects, such as neuroscience, medical science, pharmacopedia, chemistry, education and other social science. Ontology similarity measuring plays a vital role in practical implementations since essential issues of ontology mapping are also similarity calculating. In ontology function learning, one learns a real valued score function that assigns scores to each ontology vertex which corresponds to a concept. Thus, the similarity between vertices is determined by means of the absolute value of difference between their corresponding scores. In this paper, we report the new optimization algorithms for obtaining ontology function in view of ontology sparse vector learning. The implementation of ontology algorithms is mainly based on iterative calculation in which we consider the whole matrix version of framework and ontology sparse vector are updated in each iterative. The data results obtained from four simulation experiments reveal that our newly proposed ontology approach has high efficiency and accuracy in biology and plant science with regard to ontology similarity measure, and humanoid robotics and education science with regard to ontology mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study represents a social and geographical analysis of the spatial distribution of pharmacies in Craiova city using GIS methods. This study aims to present the evolution in the pharmacies' number, location, density and accessibility to the population of Craiova city on the background of an analysis of European and national legislation concerning the pharmaceutical sector. The paper also outlines the uneven distribution of pharmacies in the city by analysing the ratio between the number of pharmacies and the number of people within a district. Distance and time are considered important, especially when using different transport types. Indicators like density of pharmacies, distribution of population density, and population size in districts were taken into account in this study. Although the GIS-based analysis revealed that accessibility of pharmacies in terms of time and distance and the ratio of population size to number of pharmacies were both good and had increased over the years, the study also indicated residential areas with no pharmacy, and therefore an uneven distribution of pharmaceutical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some views in the history, philosophy and social studies of chemistry, Joseph Priestley is at least as well-known and cited for his objections to the new chemistry and his promotion of his own late version of the theory of phlogiston, as for his early series of discoveries about types of air for which he had become famous. These citations are generally not associated with any detailed indications about his late work from 1788 onwards and his late phlogistic theory, of which there has not been a detailed study. This paper undertakes a detailed study of Priestley's late work on water and related airs. He put forward a theory to support which his apparatus and initial substances would have needed to exclude impurities altogether. His theory did not take into account the solutions to the difficulties with the experiment which had been comprehensively understood and published by the phlogistian Cavendish several years previously, and with which the Lavoisians were in agreement. Priestley readily and fundamentally changed his interpretations of experiments in order to support the theory he currently favoured, and he was highly selective about replying about the criticisms of any opponent. This detailed analysis shows many divergences between his own practices and aspects of his objections to the new chemistry, which have implications for those stances in the secondary literature which do not question his objections. Accordingly, this study has implications concerning the nature of chemistry and other sciences, how they do progress and how they should progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 50 countries and international organisations worldwide are currently working on strategies and policies to promote a transition to a bioeconomy. This economic system centres on a sustainable use of bio- and renewable resources to guarantee sustainability. Although many contributions have been made to the field of bioeconomy, most focus on a science perspective (e.g. chemistry, engineering, technology, biomedicine or biology). Despite the significant importance of social and economic issues for a bioeconomy transition, studies from a social science perspective are largely lacking. This paper presents a systematic review of academic contributions to the field of bioeconomy from a social science standpoint. The results reveal the need for an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities that the bioeconomy faces in social and economic terms. Image 1 • Significant gaps in bioeconomy contributions from a social science perspective. • Lack of multidimensional studies on socioeconomic impacts. • Mixed and refined methodologies are required, especially, empirical studies. • Academic studies on the bioeconomy require a major focus on opportunities and risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The content of the subjects focused on elementary realia in primary education is formed by science and social studies. These subjects include Elementary Science, Natural Science and Homeland Study. Their core, from the perspective of teaching, is a conceptual process in which it is crucial to teach a pupil to access professional texts while developing logical thinking with an emphasis on the application of knowledge to social reality. The taught topic in the form of professional text is preceded by a pupil's experience with understanding a literary text. The paper brings some results of the realized pedagogical research, which documents to what extent individual teacher strategy can be significant if it integrates or supports science content with literary texts and activating methods with an emphasis on reading comprehension and development of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is a central social institution supporting human capital development and socialisation of youth to adulthood. From this point of view, the passage of individuals through the education system is an important theme of study for social sciences, both for explaining educational attainment, as well as for understanding subsequent outcomes obtained by individuals through their life course (employment, income, health, etc.). Educational trajectories are characterised by various transitions that mark the passing of individuals through the education system. The present paper aims to explore educational choices and participation to higher education in Romania and the way they are being shaped by contextual factors. We analyse statistical and administrative data on participation to higher education, considering the characteristics of the economic environment and institutional settings. Our results are relevant to better inform education related decisions of individuals, as well as for supporting the policy making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the centrality of regions in social movements, politics and public administration, here we aim to quantitatively study regional identity, cross-region communication and sentiment. This paper presents a new methodology to study social interaction within and between social-geographic regions, and then applies the methodology to a case study of England and Wales. We use a social network, built from geo-located Twitter data, to identify contiguous geographical regions with a shared social identity and then investigate patterns of communication within and between them. In contrast to other approaches (e.g. using phone call data records or online friendship networks), use of Twitter data provides message contents as well as social connections. This allows us to investigate not only the volume of communication between locations, but also the sentiment and vocabulary used in the messages. For example, our case study shows: a significant dialect difference between England and Wales; that regions tend to be more positive about themselves than about others, with the South being more ‘self-regarding’ than the North; and that people talk politics much more between regions than within. This study demonstrates how social media can be used to quantify regional identity and inter-region communications and sentiment, exposing these previously hard-to-observe geographic concepts to analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the first application of the "Neurotic Personality Questionnaire KON-2006" method, developed by the Polish scientist J. Aleksandrowicz, in Russia. This study is approved by the Ethics Committee of St. Petersburg State University. At subsequent stages, the project was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant? 17-06-00956). It describes the adaptation procedure of the questionnaire, and the results obtained from the study of his construct and convergent validity. The paper outlines the results of an empirical study, conducted with 423 participants (201 patients with neurotic disorders, and 222 healthy persons), which demonstrate the psychodiagnostic possibilities of the method. It shows that, in the Russian sample, "KON-2006" clearly demarcates the clinical group from the healthy group, revealing significant differences in almost all indicators. The questionnaire describes a wide range of personality traits (personality dysfunctions) inherent in patients with neurotic disorders, and reveals their high level of manifestation. Along with the "KON-2006", the present study also uses methods for studying the level of social frustration: the "Neurotic personality traits" questionnaire, the "Level of neuroticism" questionnaire, the Symptoms Check List - 90 method, for studying the severity of psychopathological symptoms, and a method for studying intrapersonal conflicts. Our study revealed the personality traits that show the highest correlation with clinically validated neurotic disorders. Based on these observations, an attempt was made to identify and describe certain "personality types" typical of patients with neurotic disorders. As a result, we have designed a methodical complex for the positive diagnosis of neurosis, which main tool is the "Neurotic Personality Questionnaire KON-2006". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Produced in a historiographical spirit, this literature review traces trends in the depiction of Hmong Americans not in popular representations such as newspapers or public perception, but in the American academic discourse itself. By adopting a thematic approach, it evidences the curious chronological development of which aspects of Hmong studies were treated in which way from the 1980s until the present. To this extent, the paper argues that while the 1980s and 1990s saw a heavy emphasis on social scientific studies of Hmong family ties and clan structure which, while careful and mostly sensitive in their treatment, nevertheless on occasion construct the Hmong as either irreconcilably or undesirably different (sections I and II). It then proceeds to crystallise the significant treatment of education with respect to the Hmong, which, produced in particular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, presented powerful cases of forced assimilation through the lens of Hmong Americans themselves (section III). A brief fourth section focuses on the marginal role ascribed to economic problems encountered by the Hmong, treated as almost inevitable. Crucially, the fifth section proceeds to problematise more recent feminist critiques. The argument presented here is that their central drawback lies in the appropriation and overriding of Hmong voices for a particular project. This construction of Hmong voices, finally, is on the retreat in most recent studies which, centred on horticulture, music, rituals and medicine - to name but a few - attempt to elucidate the Hmong American experience through the lens of the protagonists themselves. This is an important step, and one which must be pursued further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this paper was to verify the impact of gender on correlations between native language competences and academic activity of master grade students of social sciences in Poland. Results are disscussed with other international findings. Methods: Gathering of the data was used via auditorial survey. Data was collected from 235 students (163 female, 73 male) from one of polish national universities on faculty of social sciences. Data has been analysed using T-Students test and Linear Regression models. Results: T-Students test results indicated that female students had significantly higher education outcomes and study results scores than male students. Regression analysis revealed that gender as a moderating factor of linguistic capital was a significant predictor in regard to students education outcomes and study results. The main part of linguistic capital significantly moderated by gender were language experiences, regarded toward study results scores. Conclusions: Female students have equall linguistic capital and language experiencess as male students, althoug they are more capable in using that capitale for their benefit in the context of academic education. Implication of the study and future recommendation are advised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the validity of the so-called "publishing studies" as an academic discipline, while trying to situate them within the field of social sciences and to contextualize their success. It argues that a more appropriate frame could be adopted to describe what people studying the transformations of book publishing do - or should do - both at a theoretical and methodological level. The paper begins by providing an overview of the scholarly and academic context in France as far as book publishing is concerned, highlighting its genesis and current development. It goes on to underline the main pitfalls that such a sub-field as publishing studies is faced with, before making suggestions as to the bases for a stimulating analysis of publishing, making a case for an interdisciplinary approach nurtured by social sciences. The paper is based on a long-term field study on independent presses in France, together with a survey of literature on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]