Motivated by the research on social opinion dynamics over large networks, a general framework for verifying the Monotonicity Property of multi-agent dynamics is introduced. This allows a derivation of sociologically meaningful sufficient conditions for monotonicity that are tailor-made for social opinion dynamics, which typically have high non-linearity. A key part of this framework is the defi...

CONTEXT The effectiveness of recruiting local medical opinion leaders to improve quality of care is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE To evaluate a guideline-implementation intervention of clinician education by local opinion leaders and performance feedback to (1) increase use of lifesaving drugs (aspirin and thrombolytics in eligible elderly patients, beta-blockers in all eligible patients) for ...

The purpose of this study is to observe Cuba's working healthcare models in an effort to improve ethnic health disparities in south Los Angeles through generating a new level of synergy by mobilizing resources to create academic-community partnerships and apply lessons learned. During a three-year period beginning in 2005, a team of 12-14 Charles R. Drew University and UCLA faculty, south Los A...

This research explored ward nurses’ views about the characteristics of effective nurse leaders in the context of Iraq as a developing country, where the delivery of health care continues to face disruption and change. It is well established that the provision of modern health care requires effective nurse leaders, but in countries such as Iraq the lack of effective nurse leaders is noted as a m...

It has long been accepted that word-of-mouth (w-o-m) communications play a key role in new product adoption and much interest has been directed to the positive impact of interpersonal communications on new product dissemination and adoption. Limited attention, however, has been given to the adverse effect of negative w-o-m and consumers’ resistance to change, primarily since these negative forc...

Opinion leadersplay important roles in interpersonalcommunication.Marketerscancontact the opinionleadersandreducecostsandimproveoverallcommunicationefficacybycommunicating effectivelywiththem.Thisstudyinvestigatestheopportunityofconsumersbecomingopinionleaders andalsoinvestigatestheeffectsofperceivedriskandshoppingvalueononlineconsumerpurchase...

Small-world networks (SWN) are found to be closer to the real social systems than both regular and random lattices. Then, a model for the evolution of economic systems is generalized to SWN. The Sz-najd model for the two-state opinion formation problem is applied to SWN. Then a simple definition of leaders is included. These models explain some socioeconomic aspects.

Opinion leaders in each of four countries in the Central European region summarize the available data on hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemiology. The overall prevalence of anti-HCV antibody reactivity in this region varies between 0.2% and 2.1%, the most prevalent HCV genotype is GT 1. The commonest route of transmission is intravenous drug abuse at present.

The American College of Hyperbaric Medicine provides this document for hospital credentialing committees as national standards for credentialing hyperbaric physicians. These recommendations represent the consensus opinion of expert leaders in the field of hyperbaric medicine. The principles set forth in this document are intended to serve as a guideline to assist healthcare organizations. This ...

Background Peer leader programs that prepare opinion leaders to spread healthy practices through their social networks reduce high-risk sex behaviors and show promise in preventing adolescent substance use and suicidal behavior. However, knowledge of implementation processes is very limited. To address this limitation, we drew on the Stages of Implementation Completion (SIC) framework to measur...