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The widespread availability of high spatial and temporal resolution public transit data is improving the measurement and analysis of public transit-based accessibility to crucial community resources such as jobs and health care. A common approach is leveraging transit route and schedule data published by transit agencies. However, this often results in accessibility overestimations due to endemic delays due to traffic and incidents in bus systems. Retrospective real-time accessibility measures calculated using real-time bus location data attempt to reduce overestimation by capturing the actual performance of the transit system. These measures also overestimate accessibility since they assume that riders had perfect information on systems operations as they occurred. In this paper, we introduce realizable real-time accessibility based on space–time prisms as a more conservative and realistic measure. We, moreover, define accessibility unreliability to measure overestimation of schedule-based and retrospective accessibility measures. Using high-resolution General Transit Feed Specification real-time data, we conduct a case study in the Central Ohio Transit Authority bus system in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Our results prove that realizable accessibility is the most conservative of the three accessibility measures. We also explore the spatial and temporal patterns in the unreliability of both traditional measures. These patterns are consistent with prior findings of the spatial and temporal patterns of bus delays and risk of missing transfers. Realizable accessibility is a more practical, conservative, and robust measure to guide transit planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China prioritizes ecological civilization construction and embraces the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." Great achievements have been made in ecological protection and restoration through implementing a series of policies and projects. This paper reviews the history of ecological restoration in China and the current development of the "integrated protection and restoration project of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts (IPRP)." Furthermore, the characteristics of IPRP were systematically elaborated from the perspectives of the ecological civilization thought, the policy management, and the key scientific issues. Also, the current achievements were summarized in the fields of national ecological space management, biodiversity conservation, and ecological protection and restoration. Existing challenges in management policy, scientific issues, and engineering practices were highlighted. Future perspectives include ecological space control, nature-based Solutions, biodiversity big data platform, modern techniques, and value realization mechanisms of ecological products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing severity and frequency of disasters across the USA is revealing a landscape that is not entirely prepared to cope with these exposures. Resilience as a socio-ecological concept has become progressively more important as a means of assessing and mitigating these losses. Technological advances and planning have improved many outcomes, but all populations have not experienced the benefits. In this paper, we focus on the shortcomings of current resilience measures in capturing neighborhood disparities. Much like vulnerability and sustainability, local disparities will have a deleterious impact on the community as a whole. We use the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) framework and downscale the index using neighborhood-level Census data (tracts) and variations in household access to community resources. These added variables represent the variation of resilience indicators across a community and capture cross-scale relationships that exist between county and Census tract characteristics. We apply scaled variables in the Pensacola Bay Watershed to demonstrate cross-scaled interactions in the Florida panhandle. Potential modifications and applications of the concepts are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The varied and episodic nature of volcanic eruptions requires numerous and diverse observations for study and successful forecasting. Volcanological databases are important resources for the community because they enable investigation of questions that are not answerable by single datasets. Large-scale or synoptic studies are increasingly accessible through the use of machine learning applied to those often complex databases. In this paper, we describe the existing volcanological database landscape, the complexity of linking between various resources, the challenges of data standardization, and the challenges associated with long-term growth and sustainability of databases. Many challenges to database interoperability can be addressed through use of global unique identifiers and standardized data formats when populating databases and when publishing scientific studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasingly becoming a threat to a wide range of community livelihoods in the agro-pastoral systems across scales. Hence, recovery from impacts caused by climate change requires rational decisions, particularly how resources and activities can be mobilized to enhance resilience. In this paper, we track pathways to recovery from such climate shocks in the agro-pastoral systems in three villages; Naitolia, MwakiniJuu and MswakiniChini in northern Tanzania. A mixed methods approach was used that entailed 120 questionnaire respondents and three focus group discussion sessions, one in each village. Our findings show that livelihood assets and activities are inadequate to buffer the impacts of climate change. Despite rules and regulations that guide resource utilization; communities will continue facing climate related impacts. This is due to inherent cultural dispositions that hinder transformation from one form of livelihood assets to the other. This restricts the reception of new frontiers of experiential knowledge that would allow for livelihood diversification outside the climate dependence scenario even after the occurrence of climate hazards. We argue that any attempt of building the resilience of any social-ecological system must consider the cultural backgrounds of the communities in which resilience building is sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is endowed with vast natural resources. It is equally labelled a cursed continent due to a plethora of conflicts emanating from the use and sharing of gains from these natural resources. For the past decades, accountability has been thought of as an anecdote to natural resources conflicts. However, these challenges have persisted across the Sub-Saharan African region. Using Ghana and South African communities, the study revisits the relationship between accountability of natural resources and community development with the aim to strengthen accountability processes in Africa. The paper revealed that accountability in natural resources management should extend beyond reports and opinions of the technocrats, bureaucrats, experts and political elites. We argue that accountability should be participatory, inclusive, and embody elements of trust and social justices. It therefore proposes the adoption of negotiated accountability, to strengthen the governance of natural resources in Africa. Negotiated accountability should holistically address four main accountability elements: the normative, relational, decisional and behavioural element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of life is an individual evaluation of the objective conditions in which a person lives. Objective living conditions determine the potential quality of life, which through individual valorisation becomes the quality of life in the full sense. In this paper, we present a method for measuring potential quality of life with a synthetic index of relative concentration (SIRC) that we have developed starting from the logical basis of the Herfindahl index. The SIRC measures the impact on quality of life due to the unequal distribution of objective living conditions among members of the same community. It transforms the original data on the inequality of the distribution of objective living conditions, generating appropriate weights, into indicators of the concentration of potential quality of life. Based on the obtained SIRC values, the categorization and ranking of the potential quality of life for the analyzed subjects that make up the same community is performed. The practical application of SIRC in the research of potential quality of life for 48 municipalities of the Republic of Srpska based on 34 indicators that show objective living conditions in municipalities are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which community wellbeing is, and could be, related to individual subjective wellbeing by mapping current practice, teasing out the assumptions underlying a dominant approach and flagging neglected issues. The notion of community is widely understood as about something more than the sum of the parts. Capturing subjective aspects of local life that are not simply individual but reflect the ways in which people feel and are well together is a challenging undertaking. Most existing frameworks for assessing community wellbeing are premised on a theory of the self as an autonomous, rational and independently acting or feeling individual, and the primary interest is on how community aspects of life impact on individual subjective wellbeing. This dominant approach consistently neglects spatial and social inequalities, multiple settings and scales and temporal choices and legacies, all of which constitute important political dimensions to community wellbeing. Social theories of the self as relational put relations as prior to subjectivity and as such afford ways to conceptualise community wellbeing in terms of being well together. A relational approach can also offer routes to tackling the complex interactions of inequality, scale and time. Such an approach is not, however, easily translated into quantitative measures or simple policy interventions. The approach taken to community wellbeing is not a technological issue but a political choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite volunteering being a feature of community life in the UK, differences as to who volunteers are evident. Reporting on a rapid review of the evidence on volunteering and inequalities, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the breadth and interconnectedness of barriers to volunteering for potentially disadvantaged groups. Sixty-seven articles were identified, to produce a map of factors affecting volunteer participation. Findings suggest that whilst different demographic groups experience specific barriers to volunteering, there are areas of commonality. Analysis shifts the onus of volunteering away from the level of individual choice (a dominant emphasis in policy and practical discussions around promoting volunteering) and towards the influence of structural factors related to broader exclusionary processes. Those who potentially have the most to gain from volunteering are the least likely to participate. Whilst the benefits of volunteering are increasingly documented by research and championed by policy, there are questions about the success of this approach given that the underlying social inequalities present substantive barriers to volunteering and must be addressed to promote greater access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a data-based comparison of three indicators of social isolation that are frequently used in contemporary social research: (a) low frequency of social contact with friends, relatives, and neighbors (social contact indicator); (b) absence of a discussion network (discussion network indicator); (c) absence of social support (support indicator). All three indicators are in line with an understanding of social isolation as the absence of close personal relationships. However, as shown in this paper, they are correlated only weakly to each other and lead to different results concerning the overall share of social isolation, age disparities, and gender differences of social isolation. Against this background, the paper proceeds with considerations on the content validity and criterion validity of the three indicators. Different versions of each indicator are scrutinized to gain insights on content validity. Conclusions on criterion validity are drawn from an examination of the correlations between the indicators and health, poverty, satisfaction with family life, and satisfaction with social life. Findings suggest a higher validity of the social contact indicator compared to the other two indicators. Data source is the German Socio-Economic Panel. Discussions of content validity are additionally based on analyses using the German Family Survey and the German Aging Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying vital nodes in networks exhibiting a community structure is a fundamental issue. Indeed, community structure is one of the main properties of real-world networks. Recent works have shown that community-aware centrality measures compare favorably with classical measures agnostic about this ubiquitous property. Nonetheless, there is no clear consensus about how they relate and in which situation it is better to use a classical or a community-aware centrality measure. To this end, in this paper, we perform an extensive investigation to get a better understanding of the relationship between classical and community-aware centrality measures reported in the literature. Experiments use artificial networks with controlled community structure properties and a large sample of real-world networks originating from various domains. Results indicate that the stronger the community structure, the more appropriate the community-aware centrality measures. Furthermore, variations of the degree and community size distribution parameters do not affect the results. Finally, network transitivity and community structure strength are the most significant drivers controlling the interactions between classical and community-aware centrality measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to fill the gap in literature concerning community gardens in post-communist countries by focusing on the situation in Prague, Czechia. It introduces Prague′s newly emerged community gardens and presents the results of a first representative survey of these gardens. Information was gathered about eleven of the sixteen larger community gardens and the data were collected by semi-structured interviews with the managers of the particular gardens. The paper compares the Czech community gardens as representatives of civic agriculture forms in post-communist countries with their counterparts (mainly those in the North America) and stresses their similarities and differences. The results show that the new community gardens reflect much of what can be seen elsewhere in terms of spatial and organizational design, as well as reasons for starting them, motivations for participation and some of the challenges experienced. However, in contrast to many community gardens in the USA, Canada and UK that focus on food and nutrition provision, in Prague the community is more of a priority than food and the other mentioned benefits. The paper shows that different activities, events and functions make gardens important hubs of their communities and potential tools of further community involvement and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role of seafaring as an important aspect of everyday life in the communities of prehistoric Cyprus. The maritime capabilities developed by early seafarers enabled them to explore new lands and seas, tap new marine resources and make use of accessible coastal sites. Over the long term, the core activities of seafaring revolved around the exploitation of marine and coastal resources, the mobility of people and the transport and exchange of goods. On Cyprus, although we lack direct material evidence (e.g. shipwrecks, ship representations) before about 2000 BC, there is no question that beginning at least by the eleventh millennium Cal BC (Late Epipalaeolithic), early seafarers sailed between the nearby mainland and Cyprus, in all likelihood several times per year. In the long stretch of time—some 4000 years—between the Late Aceramic Neolithic and the onset of the Late Chalcolithic (ca. 6800–2700 Cal BC), most archaeologists passively accept the notion that the inhabitants of Cyprus turned their backs to the sea. In contrast, this study entertains the likelihood that Cyprus was never truly isolated from the sea, and considers maritime-related materials and practices during each era from the eleventh to the early second millennium Cal BC. In concluding, I present a broader picture of everything from rural anchorages to those invisible maritime behaviours that may help us better to understand seafaring as an everyday practice on Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of the density of nonprofits registered in the USA by using alternative measures of government services and community conditions to test government failure theory and interdependence theory. Specifically, we examined the relationship between governments and nonprofits in the fields of art, health, and human services, with an emphasis on the level of the provision of public services, the heterogeneous demands of populations, and for-profit service providers. We found that the size of government, measured as government wage and fiscal decentralization, was negatively associated with the density of nonprofits, while government fragmentation was positively related to the density of nonprofits. The heterogeneity of community populations tended to increase nonprofit density. Taken together, therefore, our results offer more support for the government failure theory than the interdependence theory. Also, our findings that for-profit service organizations were positively related to the density of nonprofits call for researchers to pay attention to nonprofit partners and competitors in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in quality of life (QoL) as an integrated approach to addressing key social, environmental and economic determinants of health. The University of Saskatchewan’s Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) has examined the process and results of a multi-stakeholder approach to the ongoing sustainability of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan as a healthy city with an improving and a more equitably distributed QoL. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis, this research has examined QoL across three locales in Saskatoon—representing Low, Middle and High socio-economic status neighbourhoods. Two large telephone surveys were conducted with residents of the city in 2001 and 2004. This paper presents the major findings from these two surveys according to four overarching research questions posed by the CUISR QoL team. The questions relate to a number of QoL issues including the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, place related measures, aspects influencing excellent or very good QoL in Saskatoon and feelings of a strong sense of place. The paper also assesses the changes in the results of the four questions between 2001 and 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why people move, their well-being or self-assessed quality of life and the impact that this has on the stability of neighbourhoods are linked in many ways. One of the expected outcomes related to the attachment to and meaning of place is the level of intra-urban mobility by individuals and families. Those who have negative or neutral feelings towards the place they reside are expected to experience a greater level of intra-urban mobility. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between residential mobility and perceived well-being or self-assessed quality of life in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan across three clusters of neighbourhoods representing different socio-economic status (SES) (low, middle and high). The paper begins with a review of the literature on residential mobility and highlights concepts such as the life-cycle, social cohesion and social isolation. It employs data from three sources: a telephone survey collected from residents in 2001, a series of face-to-face interviews and 2001 Census data. The data are analysed statistically using a mixed model approach. The results show that mobility is an important feature of Saskatoon, and that a significant difference exists in the length of residency among the three neighbourhood clusters. However, the analysis indicates that there is no relationship between residential mobility and well-being as measured by self-reported quality of life and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determinants at the contextual level are important for children's and adolescents' mental health care utilization, as this is the level where policy makers and care providers can intervene to improve access to and provision of care. The objective of this review was to summarize the evidence on contextual determinants associated with mental health care utilization in children and adolescents. A systematic literature search in five electronic databases was conducted in August 2021 and retrieved 6439 unique records. Based on eight inclusion criteria, 74 studies were included. Most studies were rated as high quality (79.7%) and adjusted for mental health problems (66.2%). The determinants that were identified were categorized into four levels: organizational, community, public policy or macro-environmental. There was evidence of a positive association between mental health care utilization and having access to a school-based health center, region of residence, living in an urban area, living in an area with high accessibility of mental health care, living in an area with high socio-economic status, having a mental health parity law, a mental health screening program, fee-for-service plan (compared to managed care plan), extension of health insurance coverage and collaboration between organizations providing care. For the other 35 determinants, only limited evidence was available. To conclude, this systematic review identifies ten contextual determinants of children's and adolescents' mental health care utilization, which can be influenced by policymakers and care providers. Implications and future directions for research are discussed PROSPERO ID: CRD42021276033. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Perinatal intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent problem in Peru, but no evidence-based interventions have been developed to address the needs of Peruvian pregnant women exposed to IPV. The current qualitative study examined existing resources in Lima, Peru for IPV-exposed pregnant women, barriers to women's access to resources, and how to make a new intervention for these women accessible and responsive to their needs. Method: Using thematic analysis, the study analyzed qualitative focus groups data from healthcare providers (N = 11) and pregnant women (N = 14, 50% of whom had experienced perinatal IPV) in Lima. Results: Women used word of mouth from other women to determine which community resources were trustworthy. Obstacles to resource utilization included IPV-related barriers, emotional barriers, and lack of knowledge about, access to, and trust in community and legal resources. Participants discussed that future interventions for IPV-exposed pregnant women should provide information to bolster women's resilience across the lifespan, such as childhood education about safe sex and gender equality, and education in adulthood about safety planning for IPV, healthy relationships, and maternal health and infant care. To improve resource accessibility, participants described the importance of fostering trust among women and healthcare providers, providing childcare, transportation, and mental and physical health services at little to no cost. Conclusion: Study findings have important implications for mental health supports, women's access to information, and broader social efforts aimed at reducing perinatal IPV in Peru, especially the role of accessible community resources in fostering women's resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  TV Program recommendation is a good example of a novel application of networked appliances using personalization technologies. The aim of this paper is to propose methods to improve the accuracy of TV program recommendation. Automatic metadata expansion (AME) is a method to enhance TV program metadata from electronic program guide (EPG) data, and indirect collaborative filtering (ICF) is a method to recommend non-persistent items such as TV programs based on the preferences of other members in a community. In this paper, the effectiveness of these methods is confirmed through experiments. This online TV recommendation system is currently being used by 230,000 members in Japan. The result of the actual operation is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in quality of life as an integrated approach to addressing key social, environmental and economic determinants of health. The University of Saskatchewan’s Community-University Institute for Social Research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (grant #410-2004-0669) has examined the process and results of a multi-stakeholder approach to the ongoing sustainability of Saskatoon, Canada as a healthy city with an improving and a more equitably distributed quality of life. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis, together with GIS technology, this research has examined the quality of life across three locales in Saskatoon—representing Low, Middle and High socio-economic status in both 2001 and 2004. The participatory action research approach used in this work ensures the value of the outputs to the stakeholders. Given the strong recognition of the importance of interfacing policy, research and community, and the growing impatience with the limited application of research findings to social and health practices and policies, this project has undertaken four major knowledge translation/transfer strategies, above and beyond the traditional academic channels: (1) engagement of local media on a consistent basis, (2) implementing community policy forums to ensure continued community readiness and uptake, (3) facilitation of and successful functioning of a steering committee, and (4) employment of an action researcher to operate as a policy entrepreneur. This paper will review and discuss each of these strategies and outline the evaluative research being done to document the success of these strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception, the Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) has been involved in a participatory process aimed at understanding the quality of life in Saskatoon. Informed by the results of Quality of Life (QoL) survey in 2001 and by a list of QoL action priorities from a community forum, the CUISR QoL module set out to survey community work on QoL action planning and implementation. In collaboration with a steering committee of community-based professionals, CUISR developed a methodology for managing and analyzing QoL initiatives related to community action implementation and planning. The Community Action Plan Information System (CAPIS) is the result of this process. CAPIS is a compendium, an analysis, and a purposive contextualization of QoL actions and recommendations from collaborative action plan documents, focused on the Saskatoon community. This paper provides a detailed examination of the concept and components of the Comprehensive Action Plan Information System (CAPIS), as well as the process and outcomes of a sampling of the QoL statement analysis and mapping project. The paper concludes by projecting how the CAPIS could evolve into a fully operational QoL strategic action plan and gap indicator, providing the foundation for a knowledge based, informed, reporting mechanism on the state and evolution of QoL action and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the passing of the apartheid regime and its multi-faceted mechanisms of exclusion, women in rural South Africa have begun expanding their access to natural resources for livelihood enhancement. One of the ways this has occurred is through community-based organizations that focus on local production as a mechanism to transform natural resources into material goods. While this practice is nearly ubiquitous throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the apartheid regime was particularly effective in limiting access to natural resources, a phenomenon reversed by the current democratic government. In this paper, we assess the impact of organizational design on women's livelihood systems as a means of alleviating rural poverty. We surveyed women on both more formal, or bureaucratic, organizations and more informal, or socially-embedded, organizations. After locating the discussion in the relevant gender, environment, and livelihoods literatures, we employ four concepts, organizational context, environmental entitlement, livelihood systems, and gender and power relations to assess the impact of organizational design on livelihood enhancement. Having found that women derived no significant material benefit from participation in either type of organization, we conclude that women are straddling two processes, neo-liberalization and neotraditionalism, that impact gender and power relations. This situation has left women in vulnerable positions within their organizations and with little livelihood enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses foodscapes as a lens to explore the potential of ecovillages' food practices towards enhancing sustainable food systems. Ecovillages are collective projects where members attempt to integrate sustainability principles into daily community life. In these communities, food acts, not only as an element of social life, but also as a venue through which to interact with mainstream food systems and society. Yet, how food practices at ecovillages contribute to sustainable food systems remains vague. This article proposes foodscapes, as a lens, for exploring the sustainability potential of place-based food practices in ecovillages, while also directing attention to how these practices intersect with networks at broader social and spatial scales. It asks, how can we better understand and draw from sustainable food practices, when considering these as both, place-based and relational? And what is the potential and the role of ecovillage communities to contribute to broader sustainable food system change? Drawing on ethnographic and food mapping methods, the article explores selected food practices at three ecovillage communities in the United States. Using social practice theory for "zooming in" on place-based practices and "zooming out" to examine relational networks, we investigate how these communities create internally sustainable food systems, while externally bridging themselves with broader urban and rural communities. Through viewing ecovillage food practices as place-based and relational, we develop a broader and spatially-focused understanding of food system sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature regarding gendered patterns of participation in conservation by examining participation in sea turtle conservation and community life in coastal Northeast Brazil. We used a mixed methods approach, comprised of questionnaires and focus groups, and our findings indicate that conservation participation can be partially explained by gendered characteristics related to issues of structural access, cultural attitudes and values, and agency. Results show greater gender differences in access and agency than attitudes toward sea turtle conservation, demonstrating how patterns of participation are influenced by close knit and gendered social networks that decrease an individual's chance of being invited to participate. While gender issues are not universal, a framework examining issues of structure, culture, and agency allows differences related to age, class, race, etc. to be considered as well, presenting useful information in understanding the barriers and motivations involved in conservation participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first data on performance of mortgages on residences located in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods of U.S. cities. It provides new data on delinquencies and foreclosure provided by a sample of lenders who are members of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders and who have lending programs established pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act. Sample mortgages on multifamily dwellings perform comparably with national sample data, whereas sample mortgages on single-family mortgages perform much better than comparable national sample data. The findings of this paper demonstrate clearly that lending programs in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods can be viable. The findings do not, however, help to settle the issue as the racial or gender discrimination in mortgage origination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-cell RNA-seq data allow the quantification of cell type differences across a growing set of biological contexts. However, pinpointing a small subset of genomic features explaining this variability can be ill-defined and computationally intractable. Here we introduce MarkerMap, a generative model for selecting minimal gene sets which are maximally informative of cell type origin and enable whole transcriptome reconstruction. MarkerMap provides a scalable framework for both supervised marker selection, aimed at identifying specific cell type populations, and unsupervised marker selection, aimed at gene expression imputation and reconstruction. We benchmark MarkerMap's competitive performance against previously published approaches on real single cell gene expression data sets. MarkerMap is available as a pip installable package, as a community resource aimed at developing explainable machine learning techniques for enhancing interpretability in single-cell studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how entrepreneurs "do" contexts in peripheral areas. Through the examination of changes in roles, practices, and relationships across peripheral areas in Chile, we found that substantive transformations result from the momentary repurposing of systems of provision, types of inter-dependencies, and sources of reliance within public, community, and family contexts. Drawing from the perspective of interstitial spaces and extensive data, this is done through three interwoven interaction rituals: support seeking, neighboring, and nesting. We abductively theorize the connection between these rituals as trans-contextual work. As entrepreneurs do contexts through trans-contextual work new entrepreneurial ideas, practices and artifacts begin to reorganize community resources and transform the commune's social into an entrepreneurial life. Our research expands the current understanding of contextual change in peripheral areas and contextualization in entrepreneurship more broadly. Plain English Summary: How does a supportive context for entrepreneurship emerge in peripheral areas? While prior literature in this domain has focused on key drivers for supporting entrepreneurship there is typically a high growth and high innovation focus which may be less relevant when considering the diverse features of peripheral areas. Through detailed qualitative analysis, findings indicate how traditional community resources are re-purposed to support entrepreneurial activities. This transformation of communities is described as "trans-contextual work" involving support seeking, neighboring, and nesting which occurs in often informal and temporary settings (e.g., community football clubs) known as "interstitial spaces." Consequently, we see that supportive environments for entrepreneurship emerge through this process, occurring across public, community, and family contexts. This has important theoretical implications for understanding how entrepreneurs enact their contexts. Practically, the findings imply that many peripheral areas are actually rich in supportive mechanisms for entrepreneurship, but that may not be observed through traditional lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groups and communities have been key topics in the information systems (IS) research agenda. While communities are assumed to emerge at the intersection of overlapping groups and their practices, prior research has mainly focused on their dynamics and evolution. This has resulted to limited empirical support regarding the emergence of communities. We address that lacuna by tracing the emergence of communities through the prism of resource mobilization theory. In doing so, we make use of a unique longitudinal dataset and incorporate Topic Modelling, Bipartite Network Analysis, and Community Detection. We show that new communities are formed at the intersection of overlapping groups and practices. In addition, we contribute to the IS literature by demonstrating that their emergence occurs due to resource mobilization that gives rise to a shared mindset. We also reveal that multiple resources are incorporated into the practices of an emerging community. By combining large datasets and innovative computational approaches, we help IS theory and practice to move away from traditional "what" questions towards the more insightful "how" ones. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our work and delineate an agenda for future research on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the manner in which Jewish community contexts relate to Jewish identity. We employ the Decade 2000 Data Set that contains almost 20,000 randomly selected Jewish households from 22 American Jewish communities interviewed from 2000 to 2010. Because of the large sample size, and its incorporation of community infrastructure data, this research also is able to examine various influences on Jewish identity that have not been definitively addressed in previous research, including the manner in which characteristics of Jewish community infrastructure are related to individuals' Jewish identity. The Decade 2000 Data Set used for the analysis is described and some of the methodological considerations involved in its use are presented. Jewish identity is conceptualized as multidimensional, and a factor analysis results in four Jewish identity factors: a communal religious factor, a private religious factor, a broader ethnic factor, and a local ethnic factor. Multiple regressions for each of the Jewish identity factors are related to Jewish community characteristics; more commonly researched individual-level variables (Jewish background and connections, family status, socioeconomic status, demographic/geographic characteristics); and survey-level variables (such as size of sample and year of study) are also controlled. Surprisingly, except for the local ethnic factor, Jewish community characteristics have little relationship to individual Jewish identity. The contributions to a 'sociology of Jewish place' and suggestions for further research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alderley Sandhills Project (ASP) was designed to archaeologically explore the transformative roles of industrialization and de-industrialization on the working communities of rural England. Collection of oral histories was an intrinsic element of fieldwork, with project participants including elderly former residents and neighbors of the excavated cottages. Their narratives provided a crucial source for understanding social meanings of the archaeological objects and places within this study site, particularly over the inter-war decades of the early twentieth century. Drawing from elements of this multi-year project, this paper will explore the dynamic maintenance of community life through the composition of social memories, and the materiality of social belonging, to illuminate the inner world of the Hagg Cottages of Alderley Edge, Cheshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excess capacity can be viewed as wasteful (an unnecessary cost) or as prudential (a ready source of supply). The role of excess capacity is an important issue at the individual firm level as well as at the community level. In this paper we explore hospital capacity for a sample hospitals operating in the 15 largest standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) in the U.S. during 2002. Using Johanson’s (, Production Functions and the Concept of Capacity, Namur, Belgium, Recherches Récentes sur le Fonction de Production (Collection, Economie Mathematique et Econometrie no. 2). [Reprinted in Finn R. Førsund (ed) (1987) The Collected Works of Leif Johanson, vol 1. Amsterdam, North-Holland, pp 350–282]) notion of capacity as the maximum rate of output possible from fixed inputs (i.e., without restrictions on variable inputs), we measure capacity in a frontier setting using directional distance functions. Rather than attempt to determine the “optimal” level of hospital capacity, we instead quantify capacity and capacity utilization rates at both the individual hospital and, by aggregating, the SMSA levels. After determining capacity and capacity utilization rates, we then introduce a model that calculates the changes in variable inputs that would be needed to utilize excess capacity. Finally, we introduce a simulation model that is used to examine whether each SMSA has enough “excess” hospital capacity to accommodate the loss of one of its five largest hospitals. The approach developed in this study should be of value to decision makers and planners in a variety of fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Testing the validity of indicator systems is a task almost always left to the scientific community, in standard practice and in keeping with the quest for objectivity prevalent in politics and in society as a whole. This paper calls for a reinvigorated agenda within indicators research to question this practice and develop alternative methodologies to test the validity, legitimacy and impacts of indicator systems. The assumptions of objectivity are not realistic in contemporary policy contexts. As a result, the scientific community is not the only community with a stake in assessing an indicator system; it is perhaps not even the most important one. Four other community types with distinct interests in the design, use and impacts of indicator systems are identified. First is the community of elected officials, whose positions of power make their perspective important and unique; second is the community of engaged publics, whose stake is made clear by the principles of participatory and deliberative democracy; third are communities of cultural difference; and fourth are professional communities. The unique relationship each of these communities has with indicator systems, and thus the tests and challenges offered by each to the practice of indicators, is discussed through a case study of a public participation process for the development of a new set of regional sustainability indicators in Vancouver, Canada. The evidence suggests new research questions for scholars in policy and indicators studies who seek to better understand paths and barriers to implementation and impact in indicators practice, as well as lessons for other local indicators practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on a project that aimed to evaluate the potential of the Internet to reduce social isolation amongst the elderly, and thereby, improve psychosocial functioning. Twenty residents of a retirement village volunteered to be given access to, and training in, the use of computers and the Internet. After 3 months, they exhibited little change in measures of self-esteem, positive affect, personal well-being, optimism and social connectedness. However, they reported that they found the use of the Internet to be of great benefit. Over the 12 months of the study 12 participants discontinued their involvement for a variety of reasons. After 12 months, the eight participants who remained in the study again reported a range of positive outcomes however, quantitative survey data did not confirm these findings of a generally-positive experience. This discrepancy between the qualitative (interview) data and the quantitative (survey) data suggests that impact of the Internet on the wellbeing of the elderly may be more complex than suggested, and broader than was assessed psychometrically. We make specific recommendations about the introduction of computers to elderly with care both in how participants are selected and how their well being is monitored subsequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  This paper describes mass personalization, a framework for combining mass media with a highly personalized Web-based experience. We introduce four applications for mass personalization: personalized content layers, ad hoc social communities, real-time popularity ratings and virtual media library services. Using the ambient audio originating from a television, the four applications are available with no more effort than simple television channel surfing. Our audio identification system does not use dedicated interactive TV hardware and does not compromise the user’s privacy. Feasibility tests of the proposed applications are provided both with controlled conversational interference and with “living-room” evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of recent theories suggest that high civicness, civic participation and social capital protect a community from deviant behavior. Most empirical studies of this hypothesis have been conducted in North America. This paper examines to what extent this hypothesis applies to Italy and to three forms of violent death: homicide, suicide, and drug overdose, using the Putnam concept of civicness. Official statistics on civicness, unemployment, per capita G.D.P., urbanization, couples’ separation and age group concentration from the 95 sub-regions (provinces) of Italy were used as predictors of violent death. Among regions, homicide and suicide rates were negatively correlated. Southern provinces had more homicides, while northern provinces had more suicides and deaths from drug overdose. Analyses of interactions among independent variables revealed that certain relationships, which at first sight appeared to concern the whole of Italy, in reality concern only the north or only the south. This suggests the existence of specific effects, whereby some independent variables are only triggered in the particular conditions encountered in the north or in the south of Italy. Civicness was negatively associated with homicide only in the south, where it was also positively associated with suicide. Death by drug overdose was mostly explained by wealth. The overall pattern of results was more complex than present theories suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TimeBank is the only reference corpus for TimeML, an expressive language for annotating complex temporal information. It is a rich resource for a broad range of research into various aspects of the expression of time and temporally related events. This paper traces the development of TimeBank from its initial—and somewhat noisy—version (1.1) to a substantially revised release (1.2), now available via the Linguistic Data Consortium. The development path is motivated by the encouraging empirical results of TimeML-compliant annotators developed on the basis of TimeBank 1.1, and is informed by a detailed study of the characteristics of that initial release, which guides a clean-up process turning TimeBank 1.2 into a consistent and robust community resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a novel explanation for urban blight and endogenous divergence in the overall quality and wealth of neighborhoods and simultaneously derives the salient features of actual urban renewal and other aid programs from optimizing government behavior based on collective public preferences. These features appear when the objective of such public aid programs is to restore the ex ante distribution of wealth or property values within a blighted neighborhood, while equilibria exhibiting deficient levels of private investment and blight itself can arise when residents accurately anticipate the potential provision of public aid to an affected neighborhood and ex ante investment in private insurance diminishes neighborhood eligibility for such aid. Examples of antipodal equilibria in which urban renewal programs entirely crowd out local private investment or in which neighborhood residents invest in efficient levels of private mitigation illustrate these results, which stand in direct contrast to both traditional explanations of urban blight and to the new “social-interaction” models of neighborhood divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Archaeological Review is the property of Springer Nature 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.)

West African societies have long been enmeshed in interregional, subcontinental, and intercontinental relations. Documents tell us little about how local life was shaped by its intersection with global processes, especially in coastal hinterlands. In this paper I report on archaeological investigations into the changing contours of local life in the Banda area of west central Ghana over the past seven centuries. Excavations at three temporally distinct occupations on two sites—Makala Kataa and Kuulo Kataa—document changes in settlement, craft production, subsistence, and exchange, providing insights into the dynamics of local life during a period of expanding global networks. A concluding section addresses why this type of research is important for our understanding of ancient African societies. Les sociétés Ouest Africaines sont depuis longtemps parties prenantes dans les relations inter-régionales, sous-continentales et inter-continentales. Les documents ne nous disent pas grand chose sur la manière dont la vie locale a été façonnée par cette interaction avec les processus mondiaux, particulièrement dans les arrières pays côtiers. Dans cet article, je rends compte des recherches archéologiques concernant les changements dans la vie locale intervenus dans la région de Banda au centre ouest du Ghana au cours des sept derniers siècles. Les fouilles dans trois occupations temporellement distincts sur deux sites—Makala Kataa et Kuulo Kataa—mettent en évidence les changements dans l'occupation, la production artisanale, les modes de subsistances et les échanges, donnant un aperçu des dynamiques de la vie locale durant une période d'expansion des réseaux mondiaux d'échange. La conclusion aborde les raisons pour lesquelles ce type de recherche est important pour notre compréhension des anciennes sociétés africaines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the geographic generality of the succession model of neighborhood racial change for the period 1970 to 1980. Using census data on racially mixed tracts, we determine whether white-to-black compositional shifts were equally common across the four regions and 58 central cities in our sample. Substantial variation occurred by region in the incidence and magnitude of racial succession; tracts in western cities departed most markedly from expectations. Even in other regions, some cities experienced more numerous instances of stability and displacement than of succession. These region and city effects persist when neighborhood characteristics believed to influence racial transition are controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The area based Jewish Federations are the major focus of contemporary Jewish communal philanthropy in the U.S. and Canada. In 1986 there were 816,747 individual contributions to the annual campaign and 1,500,000 people received services from the more than 1,300 social agencies these gifts support. The aggregate cost of services in the Jewish voluntary sector including Federation allocations, government and third party payments, client fees was about $4 billion in 1986. The Federation is both a fund-raising and allocating institution. Around half it's annual campaign dollars are sent to Jews in need around the world through their partnership with the United Jewish Appeal. However, it is the local level rather than the associated national and international activities of Federations which is the focus of this paper. At the local level the Federation is both a charitable and an operative decision-making body touching upon local services usually including a hospital, a family and children's service, institutional and other programs for the aged, community centers, Jewish educational and vocational agencies.

Longitudinal bulk and single-cell omics data is increasingly generated for biological and clinical research but is challenging to analyze due to its many intrinsic types of variations. We present PALMO (https://github.com/aifimmunology/PALMO), a platform that contains five analytical modules to examine longitudinal bulk and single-cell multi-omics data from multiple perspectives, including decomposition of sources of variations within the data, collection of stable or variable features across timepoints and participants, identification of up- or down-regulated markers across timepoints of individual participants, and investigation on samples of same participants for possible outlier events. We have tested PALMO performance on a complex longitudinal multi-omics dataset of five data modalities on the same samples and six external datasets of diverse background. Both PALMO and our longitudinal multi-omics dataset can be valuable resources to the scientific community. The analysis of longitudinal bulk and single-cell multi-omics data is a highly complex task. Here, the authors introduce PALMO, a software platform with five modules to analyse longitudinal bulk and single-cell multi-omics data, which is extensively tested in external datasets that include multiple omics modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complexities of displacement and resettlement in the United States (US), few resources have been invested in facilitating social relationships, social integration, and social support for recently resettled refugees. Studies indicate low levels of socialization and thus extreme isolation among refugees, suggesting the need to create additional safety nets that encourage social connectivity (Strang & Quinn, 2019). In partnership with a resettlement agency, university researchers developed a pilot study exploring the feasibility and impact of a social participation intervention for a target group of recently resettled refugees. Research facilitators from the A Bridging-Community (or ABC) Project hosted weekly social events for resettled refugees (N=12). Participants were split into three groups and attended social events either two, four, or six times over a four month period. To assess the experiences of participants in the program, survey data were collected at the beginning and end of the program, and semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted upon entry into the program and at the conclusion of the study. Findings suggest that the ABC Project helped cultivate new relationships and a sense of belonging among participants, with stronger results observed among participants who met four or six times. The overall effectiveness of the program was rated highly by all participants, indicating a need for additional research about targeted social interventions among groups at risk for social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is part of fishers' livelihood strategies, and the topic of 'migration and fisheries' has gained considerable attention from researchers. Previous works identified negative and positive impacts of migrant fishers on local communities. However, little attention has been given to how social relationships are actually built between migrant fishers and local residents. This paper is based on observations of daily life and social connections in a coastal village in Okinawa, Japan and aims to fill this gap. It also provides a picture of how relationships between migrant fishers and host communities are built. Fieldwork yielded the following results. 1) Migrants moved to Okinawa in various phases; 2) Through their fishing activities, they have established good relationships with other fishers and non-fishing residents; 3) Sharing and selling fishery products has helped migrant fishers and their families gain socio-cultural knowledge and learn about the social conventions of the community, enabling them to integrate themselves into the social fabric of local community life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SomaScan is a high-throughput, aptamer-based proteomics assay designed for the simultaneous measurement of thousands of proteins with a broad range of endogenous concentrations. In its most current version, the 7k SomaScan assay v4.1 is capable of measuring 7288 human proteins. In this work, we present an extensive technical assessment of this platform based on a study of 2050 samples across 22 plates. Included in the study design were inter-plate technical duplicates from 102 human subjects, which allowed us to characterize different normalization procedures, evaluate assay variability by multiple analytical approaches, present signal-over-background metrics, and discuss potential specificity issues. By providing detailed performance assessments on this wide range of technical aspects, we aim for this work to serve as a valuable resource for the growing community of SomaScan users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditional degron tags (CDTs) are a powerful tool for target validation that combines the kinetics and reversible action of pharmacological agents with the generalizability of genetic manipulation. However, successful design of a CDT fusion protein often requires a prolonged, ad hoc cycle of construct design, failure, and re-design. To address this limitation, we report here a system to rapidly compare the activity of five unique CDTs: AID/AID2, IKZF3d, dTAG, HaloTag, and SMASh. We demonstrate the utility of this system against 16 unique protein targets. We find that expression and degradation are highly dependent on the specific CDT, the construct design, and the target. None of the CDTs leads to efficient expression and/or degradation across all targets; however, our systematic approach enables the identification of at least one optimal CDT fusion for each target. To enable the adoption of CDT strategies more broadly, we have made these reagents, and a detailed protocol, available as a community resource. Conditional Degron Tags are a valuable tool to validate and study novel therapeutic targets. Here, the authors compared 5 orthogonal tags across 16 unique proteins and provide a panel of vectors for users to systematically screen the tags with their own protein of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Eco-symbiotic complementarity" refers to mechanisms of reciprocal support among people settled in different ecological zones to access zone-specific useful products. We evaluated eco-symbiotic complementarity and how socio-spatial marginality influences the exchange of natural products between Nahua communities in the municipality of Coyomeapan and the nearest markets in the Sierra Negra of Puebla, Mexico. Through ethnobotanical interviews, we documented 191 useful morphospecies of plants and fungi, 136 of them sold in the municipal market. β diversity analyses showed that most traded morphospecies were specific to the predominant vegetation type of the study communities. We established that plants, including cultivated crops, exhibit complementarity patterns by commercialization, while fungi do not through an examination of exchange networks. Communities' degree of marginalization influences their traded products specialization and the scope of their trade routes. The diversity of ecosystems favors a complementarity network that persists through the municipal market and increases the availability of resources for people inhabiting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health and addiction (MHA) related Emergency Department (ED) visits have increased significantly in recent years. Studies identified that a small subgroup of patients constitutes a disproportionally large number of visits. However, there is limited qualitative research exploring the phenomenon from the perspectives of patients who visited ED frequently for MHA reasons, and healthcare providers who provide care to the patients since the overwhelming majority of studies were quantitative based on clinical records. Without input from patients and healthcare providers, policymakers have inadequate information for designing and implementing programs. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature of qualitative research on frequent MHA related ED visits. The findings of the review revealed that a lack of community resources and existing community resources not meeting the needs of patients were critical contributing factors for frequent MHA related ED visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]