The Management and Use of Social Network Sites in a Government Department

In this paper we report findings from a study of social network site use in a UK Government department. We have investigated this from a managerial, organisational perspective. We found at the study site that there are already several social network technologies in use, and that these: misalign with and problematize organisational boundaries; blur boundaries between working and social lives; present differing opportunities for control; have different visibilities; have overlapping functionality with each other and with other information technologies; that they evolve and change over time; and that their uptake is conditioned by existing infrastructure and availability. We find the organisational complexity that social technologies are often hoped to cut across is, in reality, something that shapes their uptake and use. We argue the idea of a single, central social network site for supporting cooperative work within an organisation will hit the same problems as any effort of centralisation in organisations. We argue that while there is still plenty of scope for design and innovation in this area, an important challenge now is in supporting organisations in managing what can best be referred to as a social network site 'ecosystem'.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCSCW (The Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work

On trade-offs and communal breeding: the behavioural ecology of Agta foragers

Time is finite and no organism can avoid the allocation dilemma that this necessarily entails. A quintessential trade-off is that between parental investment and reproduction, otherwise known as the quality-quantity trade-off. However, humans may be exceptional among apes given our high quantity production of high quality offspring. This success has been argued only to be possible by breeding communally. In this thesis I explore questions surrounding trade-offs, communal breeding and their fitness consequences in a small-scale foraging society, the Agta. The first analysis examines the composition of Agta childcare using an innovative form of data collection to maximise sample sizes, previously a major limitation in hunter-gatherer research. The Agta, like many small-scale societies are prolific communal breeders. However, contra previous conclusions, juveniles and non-kin appeared to provide more allocare than grandmothers. Interactions with non-kin were associated with significant decreases in maternal workload, while interactions with siblings and grandmothers were not. The next analysis explores why both kin and non-kin behave cooperatively, finding support for kin selection among close kin and reciprocity for distant kin and non-kin allocare. Communal breeding appears to be an important mechanism to ensure enough childcare was received in the absence of other strategies to counter shortfalls in household energy budgets. The next analysis asks, what are the fitness consequences of maternal social networks and allocare? Mothers’ network centrality positively correlated with non-kin allocare as well as reproductive success, revealing the adaptive value of communal breeding. These results highlight the optimising nature of hunter-gatherer cooperation and life history strategies

Marriage types

If we take a cross-cultural view of human societies, there are few institutions or systems which can be argued to be ‘universal’. Marriage may be the exception. It is found in virtually all societies, and likely has a deep evolutionary history (Shenk, 2024). However, this universality only holds if we define marriage extremely loosely, as the socially recognised union between two or more individuals (Fortunato, 2015). Beyond this, we see significant variation. Given that a key function of marriage is the legalisation and regulation of sex and reproduction, it is easy to see marriage as the cultural analogy of mating systems (chapter 20). Certainly, marriage type often is used as a proxy for mating success. But sex and reproduction occurs outside of marriage and marriage is about much more than just reproduction. It is interwoven with concepts of family and kinship: influencing and being influenced by kin obligations, how descent and inheritance is traced and economic and subsistence systems (Shenk, 2024). We need to understand a lot more about human kinship, inheritance and cultural systems to understand marriage from an evolutionary perspective. In this chapter, we will focus on evolutionary perspective to marriage types in terms of spousal number, reflecting on the diverse forms regularised human partnerships take

Evaluating the Programme for Integrated Child Health

1.1 Background, aims and research questions Improving child health depends on a rounded understanding of what constitutes good child health. Improving child health is not simply a matter of responding to clinical needs, but must involve the psychosocial dimension of care, and the ability to ensure not only that ill-health is treated, but that good health is maintained which includes attention to prevention. Delivering this holistic care depends on effective collaborative practices between hospital-based and community-based settings which have person-centred care as the driving force behind service design. Integration of child health services should offer an efficient approach which is better designed to improve child health, and a crucial aspect of this is effective communication between general practitioners and paediatricians. The Programme for Integrated Child Health (PICH) has been developed in anticipation of a continuing move towards integrating high quality holistic paediatric care and with the aim of preparing paediatric and general practice trainees for new ways of working in the delivery of child health in the community. The aim of this evaluation was firstly to provide a synthesis of current research and perspectives about integrated care through a rapid review of the literature review. Then, subsequently to evaluate participants’ and mentors’ experiences of being involved in the PICH programme, to explore the following research questions: 1. How do course participants evaluate the PICH programme, in particular? a) What are the participants’ views about the structure of the programme? b) What did the participants learn from the programme? 2. What are participants’ views about integrated care and its impact on healthcare, in particular? a) How do participants understand the concept of integrated care, its aims, and its importance? b) What do participants say are the structural issues relevant to delivering integrated care? 3. How does the intraprofessional nature of the programme influence the participants? 1.2 Methodology A rapid review of the literature was followed by a mixed methods empirical study in which 1:1 interviews and ethnographic observations were used to explore the experiences and perceptions of mentors, GPs and paediatric trainees involved in the programme. 1.2.1 Participant sampling framework and recruitment The study population comprised trainees and mentors from Cohorts 1 and 2 of the PICH programme, which corresponded to the first and second years that the programme had run. All participants volunteered to take part in the study. The induction session from Cohort 3 was observed further research with that cohort was outside of the scope of this evaluation. 1.2.2 Data gathering Three PICH programme sessions were observed and 23 one-to-one participant interviews took place. A semi-structured interview schedule guided all interviews and they were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim by a professional stenographer. 1.2.3 Data analysis Observation data and interview transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis. QSR NVivo 11© software was used to assist in the analysis and ensure inter-coder reliability. Data was analysed inductively from themes arising from the data but also deductively in response to the research questions. 1.2.4 Ethics Ethical approval was granted by UCL Research ethics committee (Ref: 8949/001). Participants gave their consent verbally at the start of the interviews. 1.3 Results 1.3.1 Participants Four teaching sessions were observed, three from cohort 2 and the induction session from cohort 3. One-to-one interviews were conducted with 23 participants. 1.3.2 Main findings 1.3.2.1 Programme evaluation The PICH programme was perceived to be well run, worthwhile, and provided the desired benefits in terms of education and learning about how integrated care can be delivered. The observations and interviews both revealed the enthusiasm of participants, mentors and programme leads and this undoubtedly contributed to the supportive yet ‘buzzing’ atmosphere described by many of the course participants. The induction session, the project website, the mentoring scheme, and the monthly seminars were all largely evaluated positively. There were some complications, for example, it was difficult for all trainees to attend all seminars due to busy work schedules. The induction was felt to be rather long and presentations, whilst of immense high quality, were perceived to be ‘too good’ and somewhat intimidating. Mentorship and support was appreciated by many of the trainees, both peers and mentors provided sources of influential advice. Some trainees felt that the mentoring was too open-ended and those who were unable to finalise their projects at the end of the year missed out on guidance. One critical component of the programme was the project. It caused both frustration and pleasure. Where barriers and delays were encountered, which derailed participants from submitting in a timely fashion, they often felt disappointment. However, many reflected later on the generic learning and the importance of the process. The projects gave participants a deep understanding of how using real data could influence traditional systems: an authentic problem-based approach. It also provided a sense of autonomy, enabling them to craft something of personal and professional relevance, to innovate and shape their own clinical environment. There was a widespread and positive perception of the style of learning delivered by the PICH programme. The aims of the project were clearly and spontaneously articulated in the interviews, demonstrating the success in delivering the PICH programme. Whilst participants did talk about learning clinical knowledge and skills in a speciality to which they would not necessarily have exposure, the vast majority of their talk was directed towards their own personal development: gaining confidence, independence, forming networks, tools for individual reflection and application. An important finding from the interviews, with both trainees and mentors, was that the course appeared to be successful in delivering tools for leadership too. Participants acquired skills to take forward integrated care initiatives; ready to enact change as ‘leaders’ of integrated care for the future. 1.3.2.2 Integrated care Trainees and mentors on the PICH programme were all integrated care enthusiasts, having been involved in other educational initiatives, in particular the ‘Learning Together’ clinics or having prior interest in the area. The rationale for integrating care was well understood and articulated by participants. All participants perceived a drive towards integration as rational, since they specified the patient must always be at the centre of care and it is in the patient’s interest that care is seamless, which integrated care enables. Moreover, there was a widespread feeling that integrated care is an idea whose time has come, not only because of the growing prominence of ‘patient-centred care’ as an ideal, but also given the need to increase efficiency in view of increasing economic pressures on healthcare. Participants were hopeful that integrated care was a driver for positive health systems change and believed that more integration was inevitable. However, they were mindful of significant barriers to implementation, including financial and territorial issues. Integrated care was reported to impact on patient care positively. Specific examples of overcoming current voids in the system were smoother referral processes and getting timely specialist advice. Integrated care was also felt to improve efficiency by preventing work from being duplicated. Integration was seen as an important concept centralizing the patient in systems-based re-organisation of health care which was likely to have tangible positive impacts for children and their families. 1.3.2.3 Integrated professions One of the most influential aspects of the programme was the creation of a shared spare for participants to talk about providing care by sharing stories. These narratives became fuller and more nuanced as the diversity of the participants increased. There were frequent stories about how responsibilities are shared within child health care and this provided the impetus for them to start thinking critically about how professional boundaries interlock and / or cross over between paediatrics and general practice. They talked about the vital role of effective communication in both the intra as well as interprofessional context, although the vast majority of the dialogue related to the latter. Communication was seen as a means of establishing effective relationships and reciprocally, building relationships resulted in improved communication and improved sharing of information. During the PICH programme participants’ learnt about seeing the other side of things, others working environment, the burden of paediatric clinical work, service pressures and affiliated health care networks which supported or undermined clinical practice. It was clear that their close perceived professional alignment – paediatricians and GP – was a natural one. However, alignment was not reported as universal. Certain specialities were not seen to align as similarly, which may be problematic for implementing future integrated care pathways. Participants gained a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities in each other’s clinical roles and how, crucially, they would now alter their own professional practice to take these into account. They became a more ‘blended professional’; one who adapts their own practice mindful of the others. This emergence of a blended professional raises the concept of professional identity, how they thought about themselves in their clinical capacity and how stepping out of traditional identities and thus roles aided the development of them as integrated professionals. 1.4 Conclusions The PICH programme was highly evaluated by participants and mentors. The overall feeling was that of a generally well-run course, which was populated by enthusiastic mentors and trainees, and which led to significant learning for everyone involved. Fundamental to its success were two key ingredients. Firstly, the learning environment established at the seminars provided both support and challenge from peers and senior colleagues and secondly, the project which allowed participants to engage with data, work with authentic problems and innovate. Whilst there were logistic issues with attendance and some frustration about project completion participant’s reported developing clinical, professional and transferable skills including leadership. Participants were all enthusiastic adopters of the concept of integrated care. However, they were aware of the practical realities of implementation, often significant structural barriers, but considered integrated care to be an effective patient-centred model for health service development. Alongside organisational systems participants learnt, through the PICH programme, the importance of the interpersonal. They articulated the value of understanding and adapting roles and identities to change professional behaviours and how to work as ‘integrated professionals’

Bacterial microevolution and the Pangenome

The comparison of multiple genome sequences sampled from a bacterial population reveals considerable diversity in both the core and the accessory parts of the pangenome. This diversity can be analysed in terms of microevolutionary events that took place since the genomes shared a common ancestor, especially deletion, duplication, and recombination. We review the basic modelling ingredients used implicitly or explicitly when performing such a pangenome analysis. In particular, we describe a basic neutral phylogenetic framework of bacterial pangenome microevolution, which is not incompatible with evaluating the role of natural selection. We survey the different ways in which pangenome data is summarised in order to be included in microevolutionary models, as well as the main methodological approaches that have been proposed to reconstruct pangenome microevolutionary history

Characterization of hunter-gatherer networks and implications for cumulative culture

Social networks in modern societies are highly structured, usually involving frequent contact with a small number of unrelated friends' 1. However, contact network structures in traditional small-scale societies, especially hunter-gatherers, are poorly characterized. We developed a portable wireless sensing technology (motes) to study within-camp proximity networks among Agta and BaYaka hunter-gatherers in fine detail. We show that hunter-gatherer social networks exhibit signs of increased efficiency 2 for potential information exchange. Increased network efficiency is achieved through investment in a few strong links among non-kin friends' connecting unrelated families. We show that interactions with non-kin appear in childhood, creating opportunities for collaboration and cultural exchange beyond family at early ages. We also show that strong friendships are more important than family ties in predicting levels of shared knowledge among individuals. We hypothesize that efficient transmission of cumulative culture 3-6 may have shaped human social networks and contributed to our tendency to extend networks beyond kin and form strong non-kin ties

Emotional and informational social support from health visitors and breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

Background: Shorter breastfeeding duration is associated with detrimental consequences for infant health/development and maternal health. Previous studies suggest social support is essential in maintaining breast/chest-feeding and helping to improve general infant feeding experiences. Public health bodies therefore work to support breastfeeding in the UK, yet UK breastfeeding rates continue to be one of the lowest globally. With this, a better understanding of the effectiveness and quality of infant feeding support is required. In the UK, health visitors (community public health nurses specialising in working with families with a child aged 0–5 years) have been positioned as one of the key providers of breast/chest-feeding support. Research evidence suggests that both inadequate informational support and poor/negative emotional support can lead to poor breastfeeding experiences and early breastfeeding cessation. Thus, this study tests the hypothesis that emotional support from health visitors moderates the relationship between informational support and breastfeeding duration/infant feeding experience among UK mothers. / Methods: We ran cox and binary logistic regression models on data from 565 UK mothers, collected as part of a 2017–2018 retrospective online survey on social support and infant feeding. / Results: Informational support, compared to emotional support, was a less important predictor of both breastfeeding duration and experience. Supportive emotional support with unhelpful or absent informational support was associated with the lowest hazard of breastfeeding cessation before 3 months. Results for breastfeeding experience followed similar trends, where positive experience was associated with supportive emotional and unhelpful informational support. Negative experiences were less consistent; however, a higher probability of negative experience was found when both types of support were reported as unsupportive. / Conclusions: Our findings point to the importance of health visitors providing emotional support to bolster the continuation of breastfeeding and encourage a positive subjective experience of infant feeding. The emphasis of emotional support in our results encourages increased allocation of resources and training opportunities to ensure health visitors are able to provide enhanced emotional support. Lowering health visitors caseloads to allow for personalised care is just one actionable example that may improve breastfeeding outcomes in the UK

GLAST: Understanding the High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky

We discuss the ability of the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT) to identify, resolve, and study the high energy gamma-ray sky. Compared to previous instruments the telescope will have greatly improved sensitivity and ability to localize gamma-ray point sources. The ability to resolve the location and identity of EGRET unidentified sources is described. We summarize the current knowledge of the high energy gamma-ray sky and discuss the astrophysics of known and some prospective classes of gamma-ray emitters. In addition, we also describe the potential of GLAST to resolve old puzzles and to discover new classes of sources.Comment: To appear in Cosmic Gamma Ray Sources, Kluwer ASSL Series, Edited by K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romer

Developing individual and team resilience in elite sport: research to practice

Drawing on the growing body of resilience research in elite sport, and the evaluation of the applied impact of this research with various national and international athletes and teams, the purpose of this article is to discuss the development of individual and team resilience with practical recommendations provided for athletes, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners operating in elite sport. Four overarching practical recommendations are provided to aid the development of individual resilience: ensure clarity of what resilience is and is not, enhance and refine personal qualities, evoke and maintain a challenge mindset, and create a facilitative environment. Furthermore, five psychosocial processes are outlined and practical recommendations are provided to develop team resilience: Transformational leadership, shared leadership, social identity, team learning, and team enjoyment and positive emotions. We hope that this article will help bridge the gap between research and practice in this area

Families and Households

Chapter 18.The article available at https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5wrcu_v1 is a preprint version. It has not been certified by peer review.A family is a network of individuals tied to each other by blood, marriage, adoption or fostering and comes in many forms and sizes. There is no singular or universal type of family. Some common family types or structures include a single parent and children, a ‘nuclear’ family comprising two parents and children, or extended families consisting of one or two parents, children and other relatives. However, a range of different family types exist within this spectrum. A household is a commonly used term or unit of analysis to describe a group of people’s living arrangements and relationships to each other. What comprises a household can vary across cultures, social contexts and even seasons. While family and households are often conflated in the literature, in reality they are different. Families refer to specific kinship structures, whereas not all members of a household are necessarily kin but instead are tied to each other through co-residence and roles and responsibilities around the production and consumption of food and labour. One key reason we see so much variation in families and households is because people usually tend to live with other people - although, of course, living alone is also a type of household. Thus, family and household size, structure and composition can vary for multiple reasons across cultures including the number of children a parent/couple have, child and adult survival rates, the types of marriage which form the family and the post-marital residence systems which influence the generational configuration of households. This chapter underlines how flexible and context-specific human family systems are, and how the vast diversity present in humans leads to endless types of families and households