U of M computer science researchers provide insight into how we understand social networking
Time and space to play key roles in analyzing people's lives on the social web
2011-01-29
(Press-News.org) The rise of social media has allowed people to connect and re-connect with friends, colleagues and family from across the world. A new paper by University of Minnesota computer scientists in the College of Science and Engineering provides insights into how the analysis of our social networking interactions could discover things like the emergence or decline of leadership, changes in trust over time, and migration and mobility within particular communities online.
The paper, "Computational Modeling of Spatio-temporal Social Networks: A Time-Aggregated Graph Approach," was co-authored by computer science and engineering professor Shashi Shekhar and research assistant Dev Oliver. The researchers recently presented the paper at a national workshop hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, in conjunction with the National Science Foundation and Army Research Center. The paper is available online at http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/projects/spatio-temporal/docs/Shekhar-position.pdf.
In most cases, social network analysis today is limited to discovering friend connections, community leaders and outlines, influential people and personal friend recommendations using a static or snap-shot method. The authors say that if new factors could be taken into consideration, specifically changes across time and space, this could help social network analysis better understand why, when and how we are "friends" with people.
These time and space findings are particularly valuable for businesses and software developers, for example on the career networking site LinkedIn. Most people use the site to see who in their network knows and might endorse whom, but human resources professionals might cross-reference and checking a person's contacts by their work history to discern if a specific contact was established at one timeframe versus another.
Shekhar and Oliver say this points to the need for "a central role for computation and computational models, not only to scale up to the large and growing data volumes, but also to address new spatio-temporal social questions related to change, trends, duration, mobility and travel."
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-01-29
LOS ANGELES (January 27, 2011) – A team of researchers led by Vicente Gilsanz, MD, PhD, director of Clinical Imaging at The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, determined that the onset of puberty was the primary influence on adult bone mineral density, or bone strength. Length of puberty did not affect bone density.
Reduced bone mineral density leads to osteoporosis, resulting in bones becoming increasingly brittle and at risk for fracture. Osteoporosis is a significant public health issue with the cost of treatment in 2010 estimated at ...
2011-01-29
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The increased frequency of drought observed in Eastern Africa over the last 20 years is likely to continue as long as global temperatures continue to rise, according to UC Santa Barbara scientist Park Williams.
The new research, published in Climate Dynamics, indicates that more drought poses increased risk to millions of people in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, who currently face potential food shortages.
"Forecasting precipitation variability from year to year is difficult, and research on the links between global change and precipitation ...
2011-01-29
A little disorder goes a long way, especially when it comes to harnessing the sun's energy. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) jumbled the atomic structure of the surface layer of titanium dioxide nanocrystals, creating a catalyst that is both long lasting and more efficient than all other materials in using the sun's energy to extract hydrogen from water.
Their photocatalyst, which accelerates light-driven chemical reactions, is the first to combine durability and record-breaking efficiency, making it ...
2011-01-29
Princeton University engineers have developed a new laser sensing technology that may allow soldiers to detect hidden bombs from a distance and scientists to better measure airborne environmental pollutants and greenhouse gasses.
"We are able to send a laser pulse out and get another pulse back from the air itself," said Richard Miles, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, the research group leader and co-author on the paper. "The returning beam interacts with the molecules in the air and carries their finger prints."
The new technique differs ...
2011-01-29
A key mechanism that appears to contribute to blood vessel damage in people with diabetes has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Blood vessel problems are a common diabetes complication. Many of the nearly 26 million Americans with the disease face the prospect of amputations, heart attack, stroke and vision loss because of damaged vessels.
Reporting in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Washington University researchers say studies in mice show that the damage appears to involve two enzymes, fatty acid synthase ...
2011-01-29
So you think global warming is a big problem? What could happen if a 25-million-ton chunk of rock slammed into Earth? When something similar happened 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs and other forms of life were wiped out.
"A collision with an object of this size traveling at an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 mile per hour would be catastrophic," according to NASA researcher and New York City College of Technology (City Tech) Associate Professor of Physics Gregory L. Matloff. What does he recommend? "Either destroy the object or alter its trajectory." Dr. Matloff, whose ...
2011-01-29
Despite penicillin and the dozens of antibiotics that followed it, streptococcus bacteria have remained a major threat to health throughout the world. The reason: the superb evolutionary skills of this pathogen to rapidly alter its genetic makeup. In a landmark paper published this week in Science, scientists from Rockefeller University and the Sanger Institute have used full genome sequencing to identify the precise steps in the molecular evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Their research shows the changes the genome of this bacterium has undergone in time and during ...
2011-01-29
Research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine provides new clues for the compulsive behavior and cognitive defects associated with a rare childhood neurological disease called Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). Two pathways found to be defective in LND are known to be associated with other neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's and Parknson's diseases, suggesting common causes of cognitive and behavioral defects in these neurological disorders.
The research is published on-line today in the PLoS ONE.
"This study is important because it opens ...
2011-01-29
INDIANAPOLIS – An antibiotic known for its immunosuppressive functions could also point the way to the development of new anti-cancer agents, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have reported.
The study determined that the compound, tautomycetin, targets an enzyme called SHP2, which plays an important role in cell activities such as proliferation and differentiation. Interestingly, SHP2 mutations are also known to cause several types of leukemia and solid tumors. The findings were reported in the Jan. 28, 2011, issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology.
The ...
2011-01-29
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Engineers have created a new type of "stereo vision" to use in studying ocean waves as they pound against the shore, providing a better way to understand and monitor this violent, ever-changing environment.
The approach, which uses two video cameras to feed data into an advanced computer system, can observe large areas of ocean waves in real time and help explain what they are doing and why, scientists say.
The system may be of particular value as climate change and rising sea levels pose additional challenges to vulnerable shorelines around the world, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] U of M computer science researchers provide insight into how we understand social networking
Time and space to play key roles in analyzing people's lives on the social web