scholarly journals Workflow for constructing social networks from automated telemetry systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daizaburo Shizuka ◽  
Sahas Barve ◽  
Allison Johnson ◽  
Eric Walters

1.Advances in datalogging technologies have provided a way to monitor the movement of individual animals at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales, both large and small. When used in conjunction with social network analyses, these data can provide insight into fine scale associative behaviors. The variety of technologies demand continuous progress in workflows to translate data streams from automated systems to social networks, based on biologically relevant metrics. 2.Here we present a workflow for generating flexible association matrices from automated radio-telemetry data that can be parsed into both spatial and temporal dimensions. These can then be used to generate and compare social networks across space and time.3.We illustrate this workflow using data collected from an automated telemetry study of acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a cooperatively breeding bird. The data were collected continuously over two years at base stations placed within social group territories. We use this system to demonstrate how this flexible data structure can be used to answer a number of biological questions, specifically 1) how assortative are social associations at the population scale, 2) how do association patterns among territory visitors vary across territories, 3) and how does seasonality affect assortative affiliation within groups?4.This flexible method allows one to generate social networks that can be used to ask a variety of biological questions pertinent to a wide range of animal systems, exploiting the investigative power that can be gained by using automated radio-telemetry in conjunction with social network analyses.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Sosa ◽  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Ivan Puga-Gonzalez ◽  
F Stephen Dobson ◽  
Vincent A Viblanc ◽  
...  

Animal social network analyses (ASNA) have led to a foundational shift in our understanding of animal sociality that transcends the disciplinary boundaries of genetics, spatial movements, epidemiology, information transmission, evolution, species assemblages and conservation. However, some analytical protocols (i.e., permutation tests) used in ASNA have recently been called into question due to the unacceptable rates of false negatives (type I error) and false positives (type II error) they generate in statistical hypothesis testing. Here, we show that these rates are related to the way in which observation heterogeneity is accounted for in association indices. To solve this issue, we propose a method termed the "global index" (GI) that consists of computing the average of individual associations indices per unit of time. In addition, we developed an "index of interactions" (II) that allows the use of the GI approach for directed behaviours. Our simulations show that GI: 1) returns more reasonable rates of false negatives and positives, with or without observational biases in the collected data, 2) can be applied to both directed and undirected behaviours, 3) can be applied to focal sampling, scan sampling or "gambit of the group" data collection protocols, and 4) can be applied to first- and second-order social network measures. Finally, we provide a method to control for non-social biological confounding factors using linear regression residuals. By providing a reliable approach for a wide range of scenarios, we propose a novel methodology in ASNA with the aim of better understanding social interactions from a mechanistic, ecological and evolutionary perspective.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-220

This issue leads off with a perspective paper, ‘Chinese Entrepreneurs, Social Networks, and Guanxi’, by Ronald S. Burt and Katarzyna Burzynska. The paper is followed by three commentaries from Yanjie Bian, Nan Lin, and Olav Sorenson, which collectively advance social network analyses in China, and contribute to a much more nuanced understanding of the significance of guanxi and entrepreneurs’ social capital in China. This paper was presented by Ron Burt as the keynote address at the Second Management and Organization Review Research Frontiers Conference hosted by Guanghua School of Management, Peking University (October 6–8, 2016). It is my hope that this study could be replicated in other transforming economies such as India, and Russia, Ex-Soviet Republics, and Eastern Europe. In the case of Africa, the legacy of colonial powers may have influenced entrepreneurial social capital and guanxi in surprising ways.


2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiko K. Fujisawa ◽  
Nobuyuki Kutsukake ◽  
Toshikazu Hasegawa

Using social network analysis, we investigated the characteristics of social networks composed of positive relationships (positive network: PN) and negative relationships (negative network: NN) in classrooms of Japanese 3- and 4-year-olds. Analysis of “density” showed that PNs were denser than NNs among 4-year-olds but that this was not the case among 3-year-olds. The difference between the probability of dyads of girls forming cliques, between PNs and NNs, was larger than that for dyads of boys or mixed-sex dyads. Four-year-olds formed cliques more often in PNs than in NNs, compared to 3-year-olds. This study showed that both sex combination of dyads and age affect the quantified properties of social networks among preschoolers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-218
Author(s):  
Mary B. Dunn

This article presents an experiential exercise where students learn the basics of social network analysis, relate social networks to social capital, and analyze their own networks in the classroom. Instructors of all types of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels can use this activity to teach students about social networks and build a greater sense of community in the classroom. This article provides instructions for collecting students’ social network data, teaching students about social networks as the basis for social capital, guiding students through basic social network analyses, and facilitating a discussion about ways to increase social capital for individuals and collectives. While engaging in this activity, students have opportunities to interact with other students and build high-quality relationships. In doing so, this exercise can facilitate a greater sense of community in the classroom, enrich the social capital for the collective, and promote students’ learning.


Author(s):  
Boris Milović

Social networks have proven to be very convenient and effective medium for the spreading of marketing messages, advertising, branding and promotion of products and services. Social networks offer companies, nonprofit organizations, political parties etc. sending certain messages for free. In addition, they allow companies access to a wide range of characteristics of their users. Developing appropriate, the winning strategy for marketing in social media is a comprehensive, time-intensive process therefore it is important to know to manage their content. Social networks transform certain classical approaches to marketing. They provide creative and relatively easy way to increase public awareness of the company and its products, and facilitate obtaining feedback and decision making. These are sources of different information about users and groups that they've joined. The success itself of marketing performance on a social network depends on the readiness and training of organizations to perform on them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (24) ◽  
pp. 6255-6260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Kern ◽  
Andrew N. Radford

Many animals participate in biological markets, with strong evidence existing for immediate cooperative trades. In particular, grooming is often exchanged for itself or other commodities, such as coalitionary support or access to food and mates. More contentious is the possibility that nonhuman animals can rely on memories of recent events, providing contingent cooperation even when there is a temporal delay between two cooperative acts. Here we provide experimental evidence of delayed cross-commodity grooming exchange in wild dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula). First, we use natural observations and social-network analyses to demonstrate a positive link between grooming and sentinel behavior (acting as a raised guard). Group members who contributed more to sentinel behavior received more grooming and had a better social-network position. We then used a field-based playback experiment to test a causal link between contributions to sentinel behavior and grooming received later in the day. During 3-h trial sessions, the perceived sentinel contributions of a focal individual were either up-regulated (playback of its surveillance calls, which are given naturally during sentinel bouts) or unmanipulated (playback of its foraging close calls as a control). On returning to the sleeping refuge at the end of the day, focal individuals received more grooming following surveillance-call playback than control-call playback and more grooming than a matched individual whose sentinel contributions were not up-regulated. We believe our study therefore provides experimental evidence of delayed contingent cooperation in a wild nonprimate species.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cosma Rohilla Shalizi

VanderWeele et al.'s paper is a useful contribution to the on-going scientific conversation about the detection of contagion from purely observational data. It is especially helpful as a corrective to some of the more extreme statements of Lyons (2011). Unfortunately, this paper, too, goes too far in some places, and so needs some correction itself.


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