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Understanding acculturation among second-generation South Asian Muslims in the United States

Syed Ali

Contributions to Indian Sociology·2008·8 citations

This article addresses an understudied area in studies of immigration—why patterns of acculturation of second-generation immigrants vary. To address this question, I draw on ethnographic research conducted among second-generation South Asian Muslims in New York City. Sociologists generally assume that acculturation is an inevitable process, and that it proceeds from less to more. I argue that acculturation is a more complex process that varies over time and situation for individuals, and can even go from more to less acculturation. Building on Judith Harris's group socialisation theory and Murray Milner Jr.'s theory of status relations, I propose that acculturation is a dynamic status process, and that we can better understand variations in patterns of acculturation of individuals by looking at their peers—the kinds of intimate associations that individuals make, and the kinds of peer group norms to which individuals conform.

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Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance: Lessons Learned About the Community Engagement Process and Its Outcomes

Devashree Saha, Catherine Fraser, Grace Adcox, Charlotte Scott, Evana Said, Margo Kenyon

World Resources Institute·2024·1 citations

This paper discusses Detroit’s community benefits ordinance (CBO), situating it in the city's political economy and examining some of its successes, shortcomings, and lessons learned. It provides recommendations to strengthen Detroit's CBO, and lessons for policymakers and other stakeholders beyond Detroit looking to engage communities meaningfully. The paper includes interviews with representatives from community-based organizations in Detroit, members of neighborhood advisory councils (NACs) for different projects, and some city officials.

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Overtrained Language Models Are Harder to Fine-Tune

Jacob Mitchell Springer, Sachin Goyal, Kaiyue Wen, Tanishq Kumar, Xiang Yue, Sadhika Malladi, Graham Neubig, Aditi Raghunathan

arXiv·2025

Large language models are pre-trained on ever-growing token budgets under the assumption that better pre-training performance translates to improved downstream models. In this work, we challenge this assumption and show that extended pre-training can make models harder to fine-tune, leading to degraded final performance. We term this phenomenon catastrophic overtraining. For example, the instruction-tuned OLMo-1B model pre-trained on 3T tokens leads to over 2% worse performance on multiple standard LLM benchmarks than its 2.3T token counterpart. Through controlled experiments and theoretical analysis, we show that catastrophic overtraining arises from a systematic increase in the broad sensitivity of pre-trained parameters to modifications, including but not limited to fine-tuning. Our findings call for a critical reassessment of pre-training design that considers the downstream adaptability of the model.

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Mycoparasitism related targets of Tmk1 indicate stimulating regulatory functions of this MAP kinase in Trichoderma atroviride

Lea Atanasova, Martina Marchetti-Deschmann, Albert Nemes, Bianca Bruckner, Pavel Rehulka, Nancy Stralis-Pavese, Paweł P. Łabaj, David P. Kreil, Susanne Zeilinger

Scientific Reports·2023·5 citations

AbstractMycoparasitism is a key feature of Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) biocontrol agents. Recent studies of intracellular signal transduction pathways of the potent mycoparasite Trichoderma atroviride revealed the involvement of Tmk1, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), in triggering the mycoparasitic response. We previously showed that mutants missing Tmk1 exhibit reduced mycoparasitic activity against several plant pathogenic fungi. In this study, we identified the most robustly regulated targets that were governed by Tmk1 during mycoparasitism using transcriptome and proteome profiling. Tmk1 mainly exerts a stimulating function for T. atroviride during its mycoparasitic interaction with the fungal plant pathogen Rhizoctonia solani, as reflected by 89% of strongly differently responding genes in the ∆tmk1 mutant compared to the wild type. Specifically, 54% of these genes showed strong downregulation in the response with a deletion of the tmk1 gene, whereas in the wild type the same genes were strongly upregulated during the interaction with the fungal host. These included the gene encoding the mycoparasitism-related proteinase Prb1; genes involved in signal transduction pathways such as a candidate coding for a conserved 14-3-3 protein, and a gene coding for Tmk2, the T. atroviride cell-wall integrity MAP kinase; genes encoding a specific siderophore synthetase, and multiple FAD-dependent oxidoreductases and aminotransferases. Due to the phosphorylating activity of Tmk1, different (phospho-)proteomics approaches were applied and identified proteins associated with cellular metabolism, energy production, protein synthesis and fate, and cell organization. Members of FAD- and NAD/NADP-binding-domain proteins, vesicular trafficking of molecules between cellular organelles, fungal translational, as well as protein folding apparatus were among others found to be phosphorylated by Tmk1 during mycoparasitism. Outstanding downregulation in the response of the ∆tmk1 mutant to the fungal host compared to the wild type at both the transcriptome and the proteome levels was observed for nitrilase, indicating that its defense and detoxification functions might be greatly dependent on Tmk1 during T. atroviride mycoparasitism. An intersection network analysis between the identified transcripts and proteins revealed a strong involvement of Tmk1 in molecular functions with GTPase and oxidoreductase activity. These data suggest that during T. atroviride mycoparasitism this MAPK mainly governs processes regulating cell responses to extracellular signals and those involved in reactive oxygen stress.

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“Do I Look Like My Selfie?”: Filters and the Digital-Forensic Gaze

Christine Lavrence, Carolina Cambre

Social Media + Society·2020·43 citations

Filtered faces are some of the most heavily engaged photos on social media. The vast majority of literature on selfies have focused on self-reported practices of creating and posting selfies and how subjects view themselves, but research on using filters and the kinds of looking filter provoke is underexplored. Part of a larger project, this analysis draws from a study using photo-elicitation techniques to discuss selfie filters with 12 focus groups, exploring the dominant discourses of cis-gendered looking within digital sociality. We explore how participants edit their selfies, imagine potential audiences, interact with, and perceive the filtering behaviors of others, asking what the “work” of filters is, visually and socially. We probe the kinds of discourses filters participate in, and their gendered and affective dimensions. Our focus groups indicate that when looking at the selfies of others there is often an a priori assumption that filtering has been applied, whether conspicuously or not, to the extent that visual tune-ups have become central to the genre itself. As such, we explore the ambivalence and anxiety about authenticity that filters produce, as well as the intense looking practices aimed at decoding the legitimacy of images. We posit that filters are part of a digital ecosystem that demands an intensification of looking practices, which produce and enhance specific forms of objectification directed toward selves and others within digital environments.

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Estimating the effect size of moral contagion in online networks: A pre-registered replication and meta-analysis

William J. Brady, Steve Rathje, Laura Globig, Jay Joseph Van Bavel

2025

<p>Over 5 billion people now use social media platforms. As our social lives become more entangled than ever before with online social networks, it is important to understand the dynamics of online information diffusion. This is particularly true for the political domain, as political elites, disinformation profiteers, and social activists all utilize social media to gain influence by spreading information. Recent work found that emotional expressions related to the domain of morality (moral emotion expression) are associated with increased diffusion of political messages--a phenomenon we called ‘moral contagion’. Here, we perform a large, pre-registered direct replication (N = 849,266) of Brady et al. (2017) using the dictionary methods employed in the original paper, as well as new large-language models. We also perform a meta-analysis of all available data testing moral contagion (5 different labs, 27 studies, N = 4,821,006). The estimate of moral contagion in the available population of studies is positive and significant (IRR = 1.12, 95% CI = [1.06, 1.19]), such that for each additional moral-emotional word in a social media post, the expected number of shares was 15% greater. The mean effect size of the large, pre-registered replication (IRR = 1.15) better estimated the effect size of the available population of studies than the original study (IRR = 1.20). Contrary to prior work, we find that the moral contagion model substantially outperforms non-sense models of diffusion (‘XYZ contagion model’). Moral contagion was also conceptually replicated when moral-emotional content was measured using state-of-the-art methods in natural language processing (large language models). These findings reveal that the moral contagion effect is highly robust using multiple datasets and methods.</p>

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Institutional exclusion: the cultural production of educational inequality through college narratives

Michelle Jackson, Christof Brandtner

Social Forces·2025·1 citations

Abstract Explanations of socioeconomic inequalities in college enrollment focus on college readiness, financial constraints, and information deficits. We provide a cultural explanation of educational inequalities, arguing that disadvantaged students are deterred from applying to high-status colleges because of the shared cultural narratives employed by those colleges—a mechanism that we label “institutional exclusion.” Computational text analyses of college mission statements show that community colleges, for-profit colleges, and four-year colleges draw upon distinctively different cultural narratives. To gauge the causal effect of these narratives on student responses, we designed a survey experiment for a sample of high-school seniors. We find that the career-focused narratives of for-profit colleges are most appealing to disadvantaged students, whereas advantaged students prefer the post-materialist rhetoric of four-year colleges. We conclude that institutional exclusion should be included in sociological discussions of college inequalities and the promotion of diversity in organizations.

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African Union and European Union Politics: The Veiled Account of Long-standing Interregional Relations

Christopher Changwe Nshimbi

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics·2020·4 citations

Africa turned the corner of marginalization in international affairs at the beginning of the 21st century. The end of the Cold War and global shifts in power toward the end of the previous century were closely followed by “Africa rising.” This contrasted previous decades-long narratives of a hopeless, war-ravaged, and plague-ridden continent. The Africa rising mantra followed reforms implemented in the late 1980s and early 1990s that improved institutional capacities and established African countries on firm business, economic, and political trajectories. This promised improved business environment, economic vitality, and positive democratic outlook. Africa has thus become important to major powers. They court it for its support to govern challenges that necessitate international cooperation and to enhance the major powers’ influence in global institutions and on the world. Rising Asian economies such as China and India compete for Africa’s natural resources against traditional global powers like the European Union (EU). The EU has long been economically and politically involved with Africa and has generally dominated these relations. Leading theories, discussions, and research that examine the historic, economic, and geopolitical factors at play in the evolution of African Union (AU)-EU relations suggest that elements of dependency are a calculated creation of colonialism and encounters that occurred between Africa and Europe before the advent of colonialism. Dependency continues to characterize these relations, as shown by formal AU-EU pacts. Decolonial scholars argue that the dependency is real, as Africa did not demolish colonial structures at independence. Some critical scholars further argue that the history of colonialism is also pertinent to the history of the EU in that the history of European integration was partly influenced by the history of colonialism. That is, the history of colonialism contributed to the political creation of the EU, and attempts by Western European countries to form a pan-European organization coincided with early 20th-century efforts to stabilize colonialism in Africa. The European countries could only efficiently exploit Africa by combining their political and economic capacities. AU-EU relations face many challenges in the 21st century. Influence in the relations is predominately unidirectional, with the EU determining the terms of engagement even on issues peculiar to Africa or the AU and where the latter appears to have the upper hand. The challenges show that the AU and EU are interdependent, but the onus is on the AU to set priorities right and enhance capabilities for engaging the EU. This would be easier if the EU were not continuously devising ways to maintain its dominance in the “partnership.” An overarching challenge in the partnership, therefore, is finding common ground and leveling the playing field.

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Newest and Lowest Rated Papers

Understanding acculturation among second-generation South Asian Muslims in the United States

Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance: Lessons Learned About the Community Engagement Process and Its Outcomes

Overtrained Language Models Are Harder to Fine-Tune

Mycoparasitism related targets of Tmk1 indicate stimulating regulatory functions of this MAP kinase in Trichoderma atroviride

“Do I Look Like My Selfie?”: Filters and the Digital-Forensic Gaze

Estimating the effect size of moral contagion in online networks: A pre-registered replication and meta-analysis

Cultural diversity broadens social networks.

Institutional exclusion: the cultural production of educational inequality through college narratives

The Secret Sins of Economics

African Union and European Union Politics: The Veiled Account of Long-standing Interregional Relations

"Je t'aime, moi non plus": cognitive biases in the AU-EU relationship

Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI (ARIA) ARIA 0.1: Pilot Evaluation Report