Information access and sharing among prosthetics and orthotics faculty in Ghana and the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 030936462095882
Author(s):  
Cody L McDonald ◽  
Henry Larbi ◽  
Sarah Westcott McCoy ◽  
Deborah Kartin

Background: Information access is essential for quality healthcare provision and education. Despite technological advances, access to prosthetics and orthotics information in low- and middle-income countries is not ubiquitous. The current state of information access, availability, and exchange among prosthetics and orthotics faculty is unknown. Objectives: Describe information exchange networks and access at two prosthetics and orthotics programs in Ghana and the United States. Study design: Cross-sectional survey, social network analysis. Methods: An online survey of faculty at two prosthetics and orthotics programs using REDCap. The survey included a social network analysis, demographics, and prosthetics and orthotics information resources and frequency of use. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: Twenty-one faculty members completed the survey (84% response). Ghanaian faculty were on average younger (median Ghana: 27 years, United States: 43 years), had less teaching experience, and had less education than US faculty. Textbooks were the most commonly used resource at both programs. The Ghanaian network had more internal connections with few outside sources. The US network had fewer internal connections, relied heavily upon four key players, and had numerous outside contacts. Conclusion: Ghana and US faculty have two distinct information exchange networks. These networks identify key players and barriers to dissemination among faculty to promote successful knowledge translation of current scientific literature and technology development. Social network analysis may be a useful method to explore information sharing among prosthetics and orthotics faculty, and identify areas for further study.

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1028-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana M. Kingsbury ◽  
Madhav P. Bhatta ◽  
Brian Castellani ◽  
Aruna Khanal ◽  
Eric Jefferis ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Samuel-Azran ◽  
Tsahi Hayat

Al Jazeera America, arguably the most ambitious attempt in history by a non-Western network to broadcast to US audiences, was shut in April 2016. A social network analysis of Al Jazeera America’s following on Twitter reveals that 42 per cent of Al Jazeera America’s followers did not follow any other US news outlet and that most of the remaining 58 per cent followed liberal stations. The findings illustrate mainstream US news consumers’ reluctance to follow Al Jazeera America, which only appealed to specific audiences. The analysis portrays the challenges facing counter-hegemonic contra-flow stations such as Al Jazeera America in their bid to gain legitimacy in the West, and specifically in the United States, and highlights the relevance of selective exposure and hostile media theories in the case of counter-flowing stations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 247-261
Author(s):  
Giovanni Radhitio Putra Sadewo ◽  
Stephen Bullivant ◽  
Stephen Cranney ◽  

The former Cardinal McCarrick was often dubbed as the “Kingmaker” for his power to influence episcopal promotion in the United States and even in the Vatican. However, most of the information to support this argument is often lacking in context, making the claim easy to downplay. The purpose of this study is to look at one of the networks of Catholic bishops in the United States and to provide empirical evidence of McCarrick as the “Kingmaker” using social network analysis. The result of this study supports the claim that McCarrick was indeed the “Kingmaker” in his appointments of his former subordinates.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097172182110329
Author(s):  
Jiang Nan ◽  
Liu Xing ◽  
Xu Ming

Blockchain has been regarded as an emerging global phenomenon in the field of new technologies. However, the existing literature still lacks descriptions of the cooperation characteristics and innovation landscape of blockchain. This study uses the social network analysis method to compare the development of blockchain technology and technological collaboration in China and in the United States based on patent data. Our analyses suggest that the number of blockchain patent applications in China is increasing rapidly due to the Chinese Government developing consistent national strategies for blockchain technology. In all, both countries have notable agglomerations in a few geographical areas or cities. However, the university or enterprise block in the United States has broader and deeper cooperation, unlike the Chinese university or enterprise block, which is more inclined to cooperate within blocks and has more isolated blocks. Lastly, there are various patent attributes-influencing factors behind the importance of node cooperation. The results show that the degree of cooperation of cooperative inventors or important patents is greater in China’s cooperation network, while in the United States, the influence of enterprises rather than universities or individuals is greater.


Author(s):  
Felix Przesdzink ◽  
Laura Mae Herzog ◽  
Florian Fiebelkorn

AbstractMany nature conservation projects fail primarily not because of a lack of knowledge about upcoming threats or viable conservation concepts but rather because of the inability to transfer knowledge into the creation of effective measures. Therefore, an increase in information exchange and collaboration between theory- and practice-oriented conservation actors, as well as between conservation actors, land user groups, and authorities may enhance the effectiveness of conservation goals. By considering the interactions between conservation stakeholders as social networks, social network analysis (SNA) can help identify structural optimization potential in these networks. The present study combines SNA and stakeholder analysis (SA) to assess the interactions between 34 conservation stakeholders in the major city and district of Osnabrück in northwestern Germany and offers insights into cost/benefit optimizations of these stakeholder interactions. Data were acquired using a pile sort technique and guideline-based expert interviews. The SA, based on knowledge mapping and SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, identified individual stakeholder’s complementary properties, indicating which among them would most benefit from mutual information exchange and collaboration. The SNA revealed discrepancies in information exchange and collaboration between theory- and practice-focused stakeholders. Conflicts were found predominantly between conservation associations, authorities and land user groups. Ecological research, funding, land-use conflicts, and distribution of conservation knowledge were identified as fields with high potential for increased information exchange and collaboration. Interviews also showed that the stakeholders themselves see many opportunities for increased networking in the region. The results are discussed in relation to the existing literature on nature conservation networks and used to recommend optimization measures for the studied network. Finally, the conclusion reflects upon the developed approach’s implications and possibilities for conservation stakeholders and planners in general.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Ting Chuang ◽  
Yi-Hsi Chen

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply social network analysis (SNA) to study faculty research productivity, to identify key leaders, to study publication keywords and research areas and to visualize international collaboration patterns and analyze collaboration research fields from all Management Information System (MIS) departments in Taiwan from 1982 to 2015.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first retrieved results encompassing about 1,766 MIS professors and their publication records between 1982 and 2015 from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST) website. Next, the authors merged these publication records with the records obtained from the Web of Science, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Airiti Library and Springer Link databases. The authors further applied six network centrality equations, leadership index, exponential weighted moving average (EWMA), contribution value and k-means clustering algorithms to analyze the collaboration patterns, research productivity and publication patterns. Finally, the authors applied D3.js to visualize the faculty members' international collaborations from all MIS departments in Taiwan.FindingsThe authors have first identified important scholars or leaders in the network. The authors also see that most MIS scholars in Taiwan tend to publish their papers in the journals such as Decision Support Systems and Information and Management. The authors have further figured out the significant scholars who have actively collaborated with academics in other countries. Furthermore, the authors have recognized the universities that have frequent collaboration with other international universities. The United States, China, Canada and the United Kingdom are the countries that have the highest numbers of collaborations with Taiwanese academics. Lastly, the keywords model, system and algorithm were the most common terms used in recent years.Originality/valueThis study applied SNA to visualize international research collaboration patterns and has revealed some salient characteristics of international cooperation trends and patterns, leadership networks and influences and research productivity for faculty in Information Management departments in Taiwan from 1982 to 2015. In addition, the authors have discovered the most common keywords used in recent years.


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