Search

Social media may have an impact on people’s interaction patterns and social relationships. Investigating the interaction patterns of learners across various social media platforms can provide profound insights into the characteristics and mechanisms of connectivist learning. This study explores interaction network characteristics and the dynamic evolution of interaction patterns across multiple social media platforms within a cMOOC by using SNA and SIENA. The results show that cMOOC learners' interaction patterns have evolved with different characteristics on WeChat, blogs, and forums, eventually forming distinct interaction networks on each platform. The interaction networks on WeChat demonstrate superior performance in terms of size, cohesion, and connectivity, followed by the networks on blogs, and lastly, those on forums. WeChat and blog interaction networks exhibit a multi-center structure and modular characteristics, while forum interaction networks display a single-center structure. The evolution of interaction patterns on WeChat reveals more significant effects, such as reciprocity, transitivity, homophily, and preferential attachment, in contrast to blogs and forums, where transitivity and homophily are not prominent. The paper concludes with a discussion on the interaction patterns and network characteristics supported by three types of social media. Additionally, it highlights the significance and implications of these findings for educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the article is to present the practical aspects of Europol’s role in Hungarian law enforcement. Methodology: We have collected knowledge about the operation of Europol, its services and support of law enforcement by studying the available EU and Hungarian regulations, as well as performing the former management tasks of Europol Hungarian Liaison Bureau, and practical implementation of the tasks of the crime coordinator assisting domestic procedures. Findings: Europol’s law enforcement services provide Hungarian law enforcement agencies with opportunities that cannot be provided by other agencies. In addition to supporting specific investigations, the institutional system also provides IT, strategic and financial support to countries. Value: The study provides operational, practical insights into the possibilities of cooperation with Europol, which will allow the staff of the criminal and judicial authorities to have a deeper insight into the more effective detection and investigation, as well as answers on the individual services and their future, also interpreted in the context of the readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Belügyi Szemle / Academic Journal of Internal Affairs is the property of Ministry of Interior of Hungary and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to understand how a group of academics cite each others' work through time, considering the simultaneous co-evolution of three networks representing their scientific collaboration, the journals in which they publish and institutional membership. It argues that both social and cognitive processes contribute to these dynamics. Two types of network mechanisms are considered specifically: closures by affiliation and closures by association. To assess whether these mechanisms generate the macro features of the network under study, we propose new features for three-mode multilevel networks such as the mixed geodesic distances, mixed degree distributions, and the mixed quadrilateral census. We investigate whether a micro-level model that considers the above-mentioned network mechanisms is able to correctly reproduce these features. We apply stochastic actor-oriented models (SAOMs) for one-mode and two-mode networks to link the micro-macro processes using a dataset of a scientific community of astronomers from 2013 to 2015. The results suggest that social relationships grounded on scientific collaboration and proximity based on institutional affiliation are more accurately suited to understanding the co-evolution of the network of citations than an alternative approach that merely considers cognitive-based networks measured as the similarity in publishing in the same journals. • We investigate how a group of academics cite each others' work through time considering the co-evolution of a multilevel network. • The co-evolution of a three-mode multilevel network is analysed considering cross-level effects. • New and already available measures for diagnostics are used for statistical models for social networks to identify how micro-mechanisms trigger different structures at the macro level. • Social relationships grounded on scientific collaboration and space proximity based on institutional affiliation are more accurately suited to understand the co-evolution of the networks in a scientific network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinal cord (SC) atrophy obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging has gained relevance as an indicator of neurodegeneration in various neurological disorders. The common method to assess SC atrophy is by comparing numerical differences of the cross-sectional spinal cord area (CSA) between time points. However, this indirect approach leads to considerable variability in the obtained results. Studies showed that this limitation can be overcome by using a registration-based technique.The present study introduces the Structural Image Evaluation using Normalization of Atrophy on the Spinal Cord (SIENA-SC), which is an adapted version of the original SIENA method, designed to directly calculate the percentage of SC volume change over time from clinical brain MRI acquired with an extended field of view to cover the superior part of the cervical SC.In this work, we compared SIENA-SC with the Generalized Boundary Shift Integral (GBSI) and the CSA change. On a scan-rescan dataset, SIENA-SC was shown to have the lowest measurement error than the other two methods. When comparing a group of 190 Healthy Controls with a group of 65 Multiple Sclerosis patients, SIENA-SC provided significantly higher yearly rates of atrophy in patients than in controls and a lower sample size when measured for treatment effect sizes of 50%, 30% and 10%.Our findings indicate that SIENA-SC is a robust, reproducible, and sensitive approach for assessing longitudinal changes in spinal cord volume, providing neuroscientists with an accessible and automated tool able to reduce the need for manual intervention and minimize variability in measurements.

The paper aims at exploring the role played by visual content in the processes of place touristification and commodification that are initiated and accelerated by online platforms. The analysis addresses the photographs through which Airbnb hosts illustrate and promote their accommodations, focusing on food images as the most fertile terrain for the inquiry, by virtue of the density of its aesthetic, social, geographical, and cultural meanings, constantly evoked by the photos. The analysis is based on a corpus of 250 listings located in the Municipality of Siena (Tuscany, Italy) present on Airbnb between November 2020 and February 2022, and 3960 photographs of the interiors uploaded by hosts. To this end, the authors develop an interdisciplinary method of investigation that synergistically integrates the geographical approach with interpretative models applied in the fields of semiotics and visual studies. The city of Siena is itself an excellent case study. Thanks to its small size, it was possible to map the entire set of accommodations present in the territory during the indicated period, which makes the corpus homogeneous and exhaustive; as a major tourist attraction in Tuscany and nationwide, the link between food, tourism and local identity is particularly strong and therefore worthy of study. Based on the outcomes, the conclusions show the effects and dynamics of a process of image normalization that differs profoundly from the promise of authentic and unique tourist experiences summed up in the platform's slogan “living like a local”.

This article discusses Hisham Matar's second work of memoir, A Month in Siena in terms of its complex, longer engagement with the disappearance of Matar's dissident father, its aftermath, and the son's own relation to his father's ultimate fate. Attempting to articulate what may be an unrealisable form of grief, Matar seeks to elicit from the spaces of the medieval Sienese Republic an aesthetic grammar by means of which the process of surviving with(in) a forcibly suspended relation with his absent forebear may be spelt out. Matar's memoir mobilises the ability of memory to interpellate the act of self-narrative in the service of achieving a mourning-in-progress. Referencing the work of Massimo Cacciari, T.J. Clark, Mark Dooley, John Baldacchino and Philippe D'Averio, the author discusses Matar's contemplations of works from the Sienese School, including those of Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Duccio di Buoninsegna. The article opens up Matar's ekphrastic journey, suggesting that through it, art holds forth a configuration of power that is expansive in character: one whose semantic vista is as affirmative in its potential for articulating a complex, often damaged political world as the Libyan regime's own silence about his father is negatingly labyrinthine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, Italy during a siege in 1554-1555 to explore two related threads within the historiography of charity: the treatment and perception of abandoned children, and the intersection of hospitals and civic religion in a time of crisis. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, people viewed the hospital and its children as a reflection of Siena's piety and devotion to its patron saint. During the siege, the designation of the hospital's children as bocche inutili and the resulting perceptions of the city's failure in its performance of charity towards abandoned children enabled the hospital's rector to use rhetoric around foundlings and charity to protest policy and negotiate resolutions. This incident allows us to see how, during times of crisis, abandoned children, through their physical presence in processions and as objects of rhetoric, could hold an important place in civic religious devotions and discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two‐wave longitudinal study examined peer selection and influence pertaining to tobacco and alcohol use by adolescents and their friends in a sample of 854 Chinese adolescents (384 girls: mean age = 13.33 years). Participants nominated friends and self‐reported their tobacco and alcohol use at seventh and again at eighth grade. Longitudinal social network analyses revealed evidence of friend influence but not selection over smoking and drinking. Boys increased their levels of smoking at rates greater than that of girls, but no sex moderation of either selection or influence was found. In interpreting these results, it is important to understand the gender norms for Chinese boys and girls and the cultural context of tobacco and alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L’analisi delle tipologie tessili realizzate in lana e in seta a Siena tra la seconda metà del Duecento e la prima del Trecento consente di verificare l’esistenza di un rapporto tra valore economico e valore sociale degli indumenti. Partendo dallo studio della normativa suntuaria e la sua evoluzione, l’accesso di strati sociali meno agiati a stoffe dapprima di uso esclusivo delle élite viene messo in relazione con l’effettivo valore economico dei tessuti. Ciò consente di dimostrare che fibre comunemente ritenute ‘di lusso’ come la seta furono più economiche di altre considerate solitamente di minor valore. Furono le caratteristiche tecniche dei tessuti a fare la differenza. Per una serie di dinamiche economico-produttive, più o meno protezioniste a seconda delle fasi, la legislazione senese fu molto attenta alla tipologia delle stoffe che era consentito adoperare per la realizzazione di particolari indumenti o manufatti, tanto che ci si preoccupò più di regolamentare la materialità dei tessuti adoperati che la foggia delle vesti.

Copyright of Reti Medievali is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the face of climate change and human equity, architects are still presenting pristine images of perfect urban plans stuck in the aspic of a bygone age that has precipitated the difficult global condition we find ourselves in. Here Justyna Karakiewicz – Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne – describes some of the conceptual and practical notions explored at her home university to ameliorate this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We developed a novel method (SIENA-SC) for the quantification of cervical spinal cord atrophy from two T1-w brain acquisitions as obtained from magnetic resonance imaging. • With its convenient and robust design, SIENA-SC provides a fully automatic and easy-to-use solution for a direct estimation of longitudinal SC atrophy, overcoming the limitations of conventional segmentation-based methods. • SIENA-SC performs better than the common segmentation-based method and a freely available registration-based method (GBSI). Spinal cord (SC) atrophy obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging has gained relevance as an indicator of neurodegeneration in various neurological disorders. The common method to assess SC atrophy is by comparing numerical differences of the cross-sectional spinal cord area (CSA) between time points. However, this indirect approach leads to considerable variability in the obtained results. Studies showed that this limitation can be overcome by using a registration-based technique. The present study introduces the Structural Image Evaluation using Normalization of Atrophy on the Spinal Cord (SIENA-SC), which is an adapted version of the original SIENA method, designed to directly calculate the percentage of SC volume change over time from clinical brain MRI acquired with an extended field of view to cover the superior part of the cervical SC. In this work, we compared SIENA-SC with the Generalized Boundary Shift Integral (GBSI) and the CSA change. On a scan-rescan dataset, SIENA-SC was shown to have the lowest measurement error than the other two methods. When comparing a group of 190 Healthy Controls with a group of 65 Multiple Sclerosis patients, SIENA-SC provided significantly higher yearly rates of atrophy in patients than in controls and a lower sample size when measured for treatment effect sizes of 50%, 30% and 10%. Our findings indicate that SIENA-SC is a robust, reproducible, and sensitive approach for assessing longitudinal changes in spinal cord volume, providing neuroscientists with an accessible and automated tool able to reduce the need for manual intervention and minimize variability in measurements. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the sixteenth century the Academy of the Intronati produced romantic comedies in Siena, which were rooted in contemporary reality. These comedies quickly became famous throughout Italy and abroad. These festivals were officially offered to the noble ladies of the city because the academicians wanted to remain faithful to the courtly ideal evoked in Castiglione’s treatise. Sienese women’s taste for the theatre and their participation in private performances is well-known. Their fame in the intellectual field is attested by the dedications they received, the poems they composed, the writings that praised their qualities of mind and culture. The actor who says the prologue praises their beauty, while using an equivocal language that is full of innuendoes. Such performances also answer the diplomatic needs of the small republic, which was forced to honor the powerful ones who threatened its political destiny. In order to honor ladies, the plot highlights heroines who, despite tribulations inspired by Alexandrian novels, affirm their fidelity to the man they love, and the comedies end with love marriages, offering to female spectators a utopian vision of their condition. However, this moralistic scheme suggests a strong erotic tension in male/female relationships. The performance also relies on the traditional satire of women's shortcomings, which is a tried-and-tested comic device, as academic dignity must bend to the requirements of the stage and deal with the prejudices of everyday life. The female spectators are thus invited to laugh, if not at their own image, at least at the weaknesses of women.

Through a survey of archival and primary source material, this article discusses the existence of St. Thomas Becket's relics in Siena cathedral. The institution's inventories indicate that, from 1482 until ca. 1529, the relics were housed in an ostensory kept in the sacristy. Today, this object is displayed in the Sala del Tesoro, in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo in Siena. Although the ostensory has been examined in previous scholarship concerned with mapping the cathedral's heritage, its function as a vessel for the relics of Thomas Becket, and indeed the very presence of these relics in Siena, remain unexplored. Thus, seeking to understand the nature of Becket's reception in Siena, I examine the whereabouts of his relics within the cathedral, to then widen the investigation to the city at large. The evidence shows that although there were no chapels, altars or churches dedicated to Thomas Becket within the city walls, Siena still engaged with Becket's sainthood and legacy on multiple levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I focus on two of the most prominent female saints: the Franciscan St. Clare of Assisi (1194–1253) and one belonging to the third order of Saint Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380). I analyze a series of visual examples that picture their roles as saviors against epidemics and point out similarities and differences between them. I emphasize the power of the images in providing relief and salvation. St. Clare of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena offer two distinct models of female sanctity that protect against the plague: the first owing to her symbolic power and her being a kind of a second Mary and the second because of her unique personality and actions in healing the sick and saving the dying in Italian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The network is a key concept which has been highly valued in connectivism. Research about the static characteristics of social networks in connectivist learning has been carried out in recent years, however, little knowledge exists regarding the principles of network evolution from a dynamic perspective. This article chose the first connectivist massive open and online course (cMOOC) in China, “Internet plus Education: Dialogue between Theory and Practice” as the research object, using the dynamic analysis method of social networks which is based on stochastic actor-oriented models, to reveal the influence of the individual attributes and network structural attributes on the dynamic evolution of social networks in a cMOOC. We found that: 1) the learners with the same sex, the same social identity, and the same type of behaviour tendency found it much easier to interact with each other; 2) there is a heterogeneous phenomenon with course identity, meaning that compared to communicating with other learners, learners are more inclined to reply to a facilitator; and 3) the reciprocity and transitivity have significant effects on social network evolution. This study is valuable for understanding the network evolution and has implications for the improvement of cMOOC design, in turn improving the online learning experience for cMOOC learners.

La carestia che flagellò l’Europa nel periodo 1257-1260, causata dall’eruzione del vulcano indonesiano Samalas, viene analizzata in questo contributo dal punto di vista delle fonti pubbliche senesi. Ciò che emerge è il fatto che la città toscana, rispetto ad altri comuni del nord Italia, si trovò pronta a gestire quest’emergenza per via delle misure di contrasto e prevenzione delle crisi alimentari che aveva messo in atto nel corso di una precedente carestia che aveva colpito la Toscana nel periodo 1248-1256. Siena riuscì inoltre a volgere l’emergenza a proprio favore nell’ambito della politica estera, utilizzando la necessità di acquistare grano dall’Italia meridionale come pretesto per avvicinarsi politicamente al ghibellino Manfredi di Sicilia senza dover rompere i rapporti con la guelfa Firenze, a cui i senesi erano legati da un trattato di alleanza. Questa constatazione mostra come lo studio della storia dell’ambiente può risultare utile non solo per analisi di natura economico-sociale, ma può avere risvolti anche nell’ambito della storia delle vicende politiche delle società del passato.

This article analyses the way that literary writing could contribute to the valuation and the transmission of the urban heritage by highlighting a genius loci. From this notion of “genius of the place” to the city of Siena, experienced by three writers, Hippolyte Taine, André Suarès, Dominique Fernandez, we will study material and immaterial heritage elements that literary language can promote to readers, potential users of the city. In the interpretative and theoretical field of humanistic and literary geography, this comparative reading highlights the territorial and landscape construction through the non-fictional literary language of an example of genius loci. The latter denotes singularities of a place’s meaning, its existential thickness constituted by the subjective experience and apprehension of space. Of these three cultural models of writers, i.e their systems of presuppositions and cultural references emerge epistemic content and different influences constitutive of Siena heritage, which form or preform the gaze of the passer-by.

This article is the first to publish, translate to Lithuanian, and analyse the description of border between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Confederation of Livonia dated on January 12th, 1529. This paper establishes previously unknown locations of some of the toponyms mentioned. It also investigates the circumstances of creating and archiving this document. A hypothesis is raised that the document had been drafted by Alexander (Olechno) Krivec and was later transferred to chancellor Albertas Goštautas (pol. Olbracht Gasztołd; bel. Альбрэхт Гаштольд; rus. Ольбрахт (Альберт) Гаштольд)) for storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Learning & Technology is the property of Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Representations of critical geography and border studies have developed concepts and methodologies for exploring the multifaceted and contradictory image of contemporary borders. Artists, scholars and social activists show increased interest in the narrative and visual documenting of border’s closures. The border’s visuality becomes a supporting argument for dissent and protest, giving the ‘visual evidence’ of the extremely quick border’s re-territoriality. As a result, important events allow one ‘to extracts sameness even from what is unique’ (W. Benjamin). The mass migration and the pandemic return us to the reality of the human world with their non-freedom and illness. In the migration case, Europe has dealt with an ‘alien body’, and in the pandemic, with an ‘infected or sick body’. The relationship between the image and the viewer is an important starting point in the representation of mass migration and pandemic. Mitchell’s metaphor of ‘live images’ help us better understand the sense and reasons of new biological and politic events. Nowadays, the development, materialisation, and embodiment of European borders are the stable visual symbol of our existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siena, Italy—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—was the home of St. Bernardino and St. Catherine and is known for its architectural beauty and its religious devotion, particularly to the Virgin Mary. Sienna was regarded in the medieval era as “The City of the Virgin.” The art historian and philosopher of religion Titus Burckhardt (1908–1984), who explores the city with the reader of this book, was one of the 20th century’s most renowned experts on sacred art. The interdependence of the human and the city is crucial, as it is akin to the correspondence between the human and the cosmos or the transcendence and immanence of the Divine. St. Catherine of Siena compares the city to the image of the human soul. Siena itself is like a “little universe” with many facets representing the tripartite structure of the human being, consisting of Spirit, soul, and body. This masterly book is stunningly illustrated and surveys the history, culture, and spirituality of the Italian city of Siena, which provides the metaphysical keys to comprehend at its deepest roots the architectural beauty and devotional splendor of this remarkable city.

The archaeoseismological study of a number of contexts affected by historical earthquakes provides a more complete understanding of the seismic impacts had on architecture as well as restoration techniques used in the aftermath of these events. The PROTECT project is part of this line of research, funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program of the European Union, and aims to apply, on an experimental basis, methods of archaeoseismological analysis to a portion of the historic center of Siena (Tuscany), in order to acquire further knowledge on the context of study from the point of view of seismic prevention. In this paper only the first steps of the project, begun in December 2021 and focused on the study of the Terzo di Città, are presented. The contribution focuses in particular on the proposal of a theoretical framework for the creation of a database designed to answer precise chrono-typological queries.

Copyright of Archeologia dell'Architettura is the property of Edizioni all'Insegna del Giglio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current study compares estimates of peer influence from an analytic approach that explicitly address network processes with those from traditional approaches that do not. Using longitudinal network data from the PROmoting School–community–university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience peers project, we obtain estimates of social influence on multiple outcomes from both conventional linear modeling approaches and the stochastic actor–based modeling approach of the simulation investigation for empirical network analysis (SIENA) software. Our findings indicate that peer influence estimates from SIENA are not more conservative relative to other methods, that each method is subject to omitted variable bias from stable individual differences, and that imprecision among each method could lead to erroneous conclusions in samples that lack sufficient power. Together, these results underscore the difficulty in obtaining estimates of peer influence from observational data, and they give no indication that results from conventional methods tend to be biased toward overestimating peer influence, relative to SIENA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeoseismological study of a number of contexts affected by historical earthquakes provides a more complete understanding of the seismic impacts had on architecture, as well as restoration techniques used in the aftermath of these events. The PROTECT project is part of this line of research, funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program of the European Union, and aims to apply, on an experimental basis, methods of archaeoseismological analysis to a portion of the historic center of Siena (Tuscany), in order to acquire further knowledge on the context of study from the point of view of seismic prevention. In this paper only the first steps of the project, begun in December 2021 and focused on the study of the Terzo di Città, are presented. The contribution focuses in particular on the proposal of a theoretical framework for the creation of a database, linked to a GIS platform, designed to answer precise chrono-typological queries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyse, through a comparison of two italian historical reenactments, the Palio of Siena and that of Asti, the strategy of using local history in the propagandistic and aesthetic sphere of the fascist regime. In particular, the work will focus itself on the rivalry that developed between Asti and Siena for the legitimization of their own reenactments, as rooted in continuous history. Asti’s recourse to the Sienese model involved a growing controversy that the regime resolved by conferring the monopoly of the term “palio” to Siena. The analysis aims to show how the model of the historical exhumation did not provide guarantees regarding the manteinance of its aesthetic content, let alone could achieve its educational-anthropological purpose by grafting on the community a series of lasting historical memories, symbols, and aesthetic apparatuses. The local community seeks, in historical reenactments, a passtime and a form of aggregation and novelty, quickly putting aside the whole ceremonial complex and the series of historical reminders inserted on by the local administration and organs of the regime. Historical reenactments, then, does not seem to be able to survive solely through the recovery of perennial historical characters, as the regime believed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archeologia dell'Architettura is the property of Edizioni all'Insegna del Giglio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archeologia Medievale: Cultura Materiale, Insediamenti, Territorio is the property of All'Insegna del Giglio s.a.s. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Exposure to violent media has been widely linked to increased aggression. In the present research, we examined whether violent media exposure would be associated with increased aggression, which would then spread within social networks like a contagious disease. Two groups of first year psychology students completed a questionnaire three times over the course of a year, measuring their media exposure, aggression, personality, and social relations within the group. Cross-sectional analysis provided mixed results in regards to the link between violent media and aggression. Siena analysis found no evidence of homophily (i.e., participants were not more likely to be friends with others similar to themselves) nor of social influence (i.e., participant's behavior did not predict a change in their friends' behavior). However, given the relatively small sample sizes and the weak ties between participants, more work is needed to assess the spread of violent media effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although agent-based models (ABMs) have been increasingly accepted in social sciences as a valid tool to formalize theory, propose mechanisms able to recreate regularities, and guide empirical research, we are not aware of any research using ABMs to assess the robustness of our statistical methods. We argue that ABMs can be extremely helpful to assess models when the phenomena under study are complex. As an example, we create an ABM to evaluate the estimation of selection and influence effects by SIENA, a stochastic actor-oriented model proposed by Tom A. B. Snijders and colleagues. It is a prominent network analysis method that has gained popularity during the last 10 years and been applied to estimate selection and influence for a broad range of behaviors and traits such as substance use, delinquency, violence, health, and educational attainment. However, we know little about the conditions for which this method is reliable or the particular biases it might have. The results from our analysis show that selection and influence are estimated by SIENA asymmetrically and that, with very simple assumptions, we can generate data where selection estimates are highly sensitive to misspecification, suggesting caution when interpreting SIENA analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Médiévales is the property of Presses Universitaires de Vincennes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)