This book results from a research program on which I have spent most of my time since 1974. It addresses two of the major problems facing social system account ing: how to measure and account for nonmarket activities and how to combine social and economic indicators. The solution I propose is accounts based on behavior settings, a concept originated by Roger G. Barker more than thirty years ago. Behavior settings are the natural units of social activity into which people sort themselves to get on with the busi ness of daily life--grocery stores, school classes, reI i gious services, meetings, athletic events, and so on. The descriptive power of behavior settings has been established in surveys of complete communities in the United States and England, of high schools ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 2000 students, of rehabilitation centers in hospitals, and of several other types of organizations. Behavior settings are empirical facts of everyday life. A description of a community or an organization in terms of behavior settings corresponds to common experi ence. In many cases, small establishments are behavior settings; the paid roles in behavior settingsare occupa tions; and the buildings and equipment of establishments are the buildings and equipment of behavior settings.

Non-Invasive Imaging of Atherosclerosis is a primer, reference and review of some of the key features of current activities in the field of atherosclerosis. The Editors' goal is to provide material and stimulating ideas to basic scientists and clinical researchers in order to extend the application of vascular imaging and to further develop methods suitable for investigation of the arterial wall. The first section presents current knowledge about pathology, vascular mechanics and compensatory mechanisms active during atherogenesis. It explores the early lesion, complications of plaques and early detection of plaques. Section II reviews several key methodological issues of B-mode ultrasound imaging and some of the most current data. Quantitative B-mode ultrasound is an established non-invasive tool widely used in large epidemiologic studies and interventional clinical trials of atherosclerosis. The last section addresses the most promising areas of development in vascular imaging. This involves new techniques to evaluate the atherosclerotic bed, to follow atheroma progression/regression and to evaluate vascular mechanics in atherosclerotic arteries. The last chapter places the application of non-invasive imaging in perspective.

This text is about spreading of information and influence in complex networks. Although previously considered similar and modeled in parallel approaches, there is now experimental evidence that epidemic and social spreading work in subtly different ways. While previously explored through modeling, there is currently an explosion of work on revealing the mechanisms underlying complex contagion based on big data and data-driven approaches. This volume consists of four parts. Part 1 is an Introduction, providing an accessible summary of the state of the art. Part 2 provides an overview of the central theoretical developments in the field. Part 3 describes the empirical work on observing spreading processes in real-world networks. Finally, Part 4 goes into detail with recent and exciting new developments: dedicated studies designed to measure specific aspects of the spreading processes, often using randomized control trials to isolate the network effect from confounders, such as homophily. Each contribution is authored by leading experts in the field. This volume, though based on technical selections of the most important results on complex spreading, remains quite accessible to the newly interested. The main benefit to the reader is that the topics are carefully structured to take the novice to the level of expert on the topic of social spreading processes. This book will be of great importance to a wide field: from researchers in physics, computer science, and sociology to professionals in public policy and public health.

This publication is the Social System for a community-type society; it is a standardized social system for the organized structuring of a mutually fulfilled social population. A social system describes the organized structuring of a social environment. A social system is a grouping of units of individuation (here, units of consciousness) forming a cooperative network in which information is shared and integrated through a whole, data structure. The term social system is used, in general, to refer to lifeforms in definite relation to each other, which have enduring patterns of behavior in that relationship. This social system standard identifies humanity’s aligned interests, and that which everyone has socially in common. It is an organizing system for social navigation that specifies a direction, orientation, and approach to socio-technical life. The standard details the purpose for the society’s existence (a direction), its value system (an orientation), and its approach (a methodology and methods). Herein, these concepts, their relationships and understandings, are defined and modeled. Discursive reasoning is provided for the selection of this specific configuration of a social system, as opposed to the selection and encoding of other configurations, and their consequences are evidenced. The social system provides a description of who humanity is, and where humanity is going, by identifying its social organization.

This book introduces a Digital Social System Praxis Framework (DSSPF) integrating Computational Media, Evolutionary Systems Thinking and Design Thinking approaches to E-transformation practice, also called Community Informatics Design (CID). The DSSPF framework is intended to create communication spaces dedicated to knowledge production and sharing for social and organizational change. It allows social systems researchers and practitioners to recognize their synergistic roles in the praxis process to shape their future through social innovation projects. This transdisciplinary text provides potential students and practitioners fundamental concepts and tools for such design. It offers resources from the Pragmatic and Systemic philosophy of science for the co-construction of social architectures and infrastructures, and multi-aspectual design methodologies by which government, organizations and civil society can learn to ethically co-design common ground. This approach provides complementary and common patterns from known methods, models, and theories of social systems interventions that could support a generic framing of large scale sociotechnical systems: digital social innovation ecosystem, living Labs, Fab Labs, enterprise collaborative networks. There will be a particular focus on understanding and addressing the dimensions that make people from different communities of practice able to communicate and collaborate through multiple digital media, design platforms, worldviews and modeling approaches.