BACKGROUND: With an overarching goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in biomedical sciences, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) developed a web-based national mentoring platform (MyNRMN) that seeks to connect mentors and mentees to support the persistence of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical sciences. As of May 15, 2024, the MyNRMN platform, which provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools, has facilitated more than 12,100 unique mentoring connections between faculty, students, and researchers in the biomedical domain.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections facilitated by our web-based platform between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional and geographic boundaries. Using an innovative graph database, we analyzed diverse mentoring connections between mentors and mentees across demographic characteristics in the biomedical sciences.
METHODS: Through the MyNRMN platform, we observed profile data and analyzed mentoring connections made between students and faculty across institutional boundaries by race, ethnicity, gender, institution type, and educational attainment between July 1, 2016, and May 31, 2021.
RESULTS: In total, there were 15,024 connections with 2222 mentees and 1652 mentors across 1625 institutions contributing data. Female mentees participated in the highest number of connections (3996/6108, 65%), whereas female mentors participated in 58% (5206/8916) of the connections. Black mentees made up 38% (2297/6108) of the connections, whereas White mentors participated in 56% (5036/8916) of the connections. Mentees were predominately from institutions classified as Research 1 (R1; doctoral universities-very high research activity) and historically Black colleges and universities (556/2222, 25% and 307/2222, 14%, respectively), whereas 31% (504/1652) of mentors were from R1 institutions.
CONCLUSIONS: To date, the utility of mentoring connections across institutions throughout the United States and how mentors and mentees are connected is unknown. This study examined these connections and the diversity of these connections using an extensive web-based mentoring network.

BACKGROUND: In 2023, the United States experienced its highest- recorded number of suicides, exceeding 50,000 deaths. In the realm of psychiatric disorders, major depressive disorder stands out as the most common issue, affecting 15% to 17% of the population and carrying a notable suicide risk of approximately 15%. However, not everyone with depression has suicidal thoughts. While \"suicidal depression\" is not a clinical diagnosis, it may be observed in daily life, emphasizing the need for awareness.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the dynamics, emotional tones, and topics discussed in posts within the r/Depression subreddit, with a specific focus on users who had also engaged in the r/SuicideWatch community. The objective was to use natural language processing techniques and models to better understand the complexities of depression among users with potential suicide ideation, with the goal of improving intervention and prevention strategies for suicide.
METHODS: Archived posts were extracted from the r/Depression and r/SuicideWatch Reddit communities in English spanning from 2019 to 2022, resulting in a final data set of over 150,000 posts contributed by approximately 25,000 unique overlapping users. A broad and comprehensive mix of methods was conducted on these posts, including trend and survival analysis, to explore the dynamic of users in the 2 subreddits. The BERT family of models extracted features from data for sentiment and thematic analysis.
RESULTS: On August 16, 2020, the post count in r/SuicideWatch surpassed that of r/Depression. The transition from r/Depression to r/SuicideWatch in 2020 was the shortest, lasting only 26 days. Sadness emerged as the most prevalent emotion among overlapping users in the r/Depression community. In addition, physical activity changes, negative self-view, and suicidal thoughts were identified as the most common depression symptoms, all showing strong positive correlations with the emotion tone of disappointment. Furthermore, the topic \"struggles with depression and motivation in school and work\" (12%) emerged as the most discussed topic aside from suicidal thoughts, categorizing users based on their inclination toward suicide ideation.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study underscores the effectiveness of using natural language processing techniques to explore language markers and patterns associated with mental health challenges in online communities like r/Depression and r/SuicideWatch. These insights offer novel perspectives distinct from previous research. In the future, there will be potential for further refinement and optimization of machine classifications using these techniques, which could lead to more effective intervention and prevention strategies.

COVID-19 has caused significant and unforeseen problems for entrepreneurs. While entrepreneurs would normally seek social support to help deal with these issues, due to social distancing, physical networks are often not available. Consequently, entrepreneurs must turn to alternative support sources, such as online communities, raising the question of how support is created in such spaces. Drawing on an affordance perspective, we investigate how entrepreneurs interact with online communities and base our qualitative analysis on conversation data (76,365 posts) from an online community of entrepreneurs on Reddit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings draw out four affordances that online communities offer to entrepreneurs (resolving problems, reframing problems, reflecting on situations, refocusing thinking and efforts), resulting in a framework of entrepreneurial support creation in online communities. Thus, our study contributes to debates around (1) entrepreneurs\' support during COVID-19 and (2) digital affordances in the entrepreneurship context.

UNASSIGNED: New digital technologies possess the potential to transform entrepreneurial processes, such as how entrepreneurs pursue opportunities and access funding and how they learn. How entrepreneurs learn may be transformed as digital technologies provide new spaces for learning, such as online communities. Online communities can gather thousands of participants and provide entrepreneurs with new opportunities for learning that are not limited by time, space, or social class. Yet, we know little about how entrepreneurs take advantage of the new digital opportunities of learning. To remedy this, we studied a large online community of entrepreneurs on Reddit (r/startups), where we qualitatively analyzed the top-voted 100 threads from 2018 to 2019 (10,277 comments in total). By drawing on coactive vicarious learning, a theory that describes how learning is socially constructed through discursive interactions, we outline how entrepreneurial learning is socially constructed through conversations, which are taking place in different micro-learning contexts. Through identifying distinct entrepreneurial learning conversations, we build new theory on entrepreneurial learning in online communities. Our theorizing contributes to (1) the growing research on how entrepreneurial learning is socially constructed in communities, (2) the current debate on knowledge creation in online communities, and (3) the knowledge on how coactive vicarious learning unfolds in communities.
UNASSIGNED: When entrepreneurs go online to learn, new research shows how online communities provide entrepreneurs with diverse learning spaces for developing ideas, learning new skills, and coping with the uncertainties of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs increasingly use social media for doing business, but can they also use it to learn about doing business? In this article, we investigate this question by studying an online community of entrepreneurs on Reddit called r/startups, in which entrepreneurs exchange experiences and help each other with questions and issues. We show that entrepreneurial learning is taking place in five forms of learning conversations, which are situated in four learning contexts that differ from each other, from a classroom with a student-teacher dynamic, a collab space where entrepreneurs collect ideas and develop new skills and knowledge, a club context in which they challenge each other, and a care context in which they can bring their fears and uncertainties. Our findings show how entrepreneurship practitioners can make use of online communities, encouraging teaching and policy to pay more attention to how entrepreneurs work digitally.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities were among the first institutions to shift to an online model. As they did so, nascent collegiate esports program lost access to campus spaces and in-person connections, potentially destabilizing this rising industry. Conversely, universities also worked to provide students remote access to resources, and many components of esports already occur online. Therefore, collegiate esports may have adjusted to distancing measures, potentially strengthening their footholds on US campuses. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with collegiate esports players, student employees, program directors, and administrators to address different programs\' reactions to the pandemic, specifically the challenges and opportunities they faced. Overall, interviews reveal how COVID-19 shifted the understandings of and practices around gaming and esports, highlighted the intermittent relationship of online and offline spheres, and presented various possibilities and challenges for different stakeholders during the global pandemic.

This review provides an in-depth analysis of the intersection between health and technology, focusing specifically on social media\'s and online communities\' role in healthcare. It explores the significance of these digital platforms in patient education, empowerment, and support, highlighting their potential to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Key findings are synthesized by examining existing literature, including the wide-reaching impact of social media on health information dissemination and the value of online communities in facilitating peer support. However, privacy concerns and misinformation are also addressed, emphasizing the need for careful consideration and strategic implementation of these technologies. The implications for healthcare practice and research are discussed, with recommendations for future actions and priorities outlined. Overall, this review underscores the transformative potential of social media and online communities in reshaping the healthcare landscape. It also highlights the importance of ethical and responsible use to maximize benefits.

In the present contribution, we examine the practice of microdosing psychedelics (microdosing) through textual analysis of the content produced by a dedicated online community, the r/microdosing subreddit. We collected a comprehensive dataset of publicly available submissions from this community and used structural topic modelling to identify and analyse the prevalent topics within the discussions. Through our analysis, we identified 16 distinct topics that mapped into clinical, human enhancement, as well as self-medication narratives. Notably, we found that the majority of discussions revolved around \"how to\" topics, supporting our argument that such online communities serve as essential information hubs, facilitating the dissemination of practical knowledge related to microdosing practices among the general population. The identified impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the prevalence of discussion topics suggests that individuals within the online community may perceive microdosing primarily as a means of self-medication during times of heightened stress and uncertainty. Our findings contribute to the field of health sociology and psychedelic research by shedding light on the sociocultural factors influencing healthcare practices, including the role of online communities in facilitating processes of self-medicalization and self-medication.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has drastically risen in recent years. For some, self-management includes the use of GDM online communities on Facebook. Such communities can fill gaps in information and support that participants are not able to access elsewhere to address unmet needs. Given the popularity of sharing information about pregnancy on Facebook and the documented benefits of diabetes online communities, the same may be true of GDM online communities.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to categorize and quantify what is being discussed in GDM Facebook groups, including informational and emotional help-seeking behavior, and how this support and engagement may be demonstrated by peers through comments and reactions.
METHODS: We sourced the data from the 2 largest Facebook groups focused on GDM in Australia. A summative content analysis was conducted on original posts across the 2 groups and coded for topics as well as help-seeking types. The coding scheme was based on the previous work of Liang and Scammon. Visible indicators of engagement, including the number of comments and \"reactions,\" were tabled and manually evaluated.
RESULTS: There were 388 original posts, and the analysis produced 6 topics: GDM self-management (199/388, 51.3%), GDM clinical management (120/388, 30.9%), preparing for birth (40/388, 10.3%), mental distress (35/388, 9%), birth announcement (29/388, 7.5%), and GDM journey reflections (21/388, 5.4%). Secondary coding of help-seeking type revealed more than half of the posts were informational help-seeking (224/388, 57.7%), while a small proportion were both informational and emotional help-seeking (44/388, 11.3%), and some (12/388, 3.1%) were emotional help-seeking only. Self-disclosure was identified as a fourth category, comprising almost a quarter of all posts (90/388, 23.2%). A total of 6022 comments were posted in response to the original posts, and there were 4452 reactions across all posts. Emotional help-seeking attracted the most comments per thread (mean 21.5, SD 19.8), followed by informational and emotional help-seeking (mean 20.2, SD 14.7), informational help-seeking (mean 15.6, SD 14.6), and self-disclosure (mean 14.3, SD 21.8). Across all help-seeking categories, few reactions occurred compared to comments; in contrast, self-disclosure attracted a large number of reactions (mean 9.4, SD 45.3).
CONCLUSIONS: This is one of the first studies to examine peer support in a GDM online community on Facebook. Our findings suggest that active participants\' needs around information and support in relation to GDM are being somewhat met by peer-led online communities. Given the practical limitations of formal health care, including the provision of ongoing social support, it is important to recognize how GDM online communities can complement formal health care and help address unmet needs.

Online communities in health care are well established as technologies for facilitating interactions between patients with common conditions and communication between patients and health professionals. Less well known is how health professionals use these platforms to connect with their peers, particularly for interprofessional education or support. We present early results from our exploratory international mixed methods (survey and interview) study of health professionals\' experience of engaging with online communities for interprofessional peer education. Our results show that health professionals had relatively high levels of confidence engaging with multiple platforms. They used the platforms to formally and informally share evidence-based content, engage in collegial debate and connect with international colleagues. Health professionals are keen to engage with online communities for education and are aware of how these sites\' functionality can promote engagement with interdisciplinary peers.

Recent technical developments and the widespread use of social networks have led to the emergence of a variety of online communities built around common interests. Among these virtual communities, one notable category revolves around sports fans. This conceptual article uses several examples of online sports fan communities in Israel to analyze their core elements. Within this context, the article focuses on the significance of humor, trivial knowledge, and counter-modern concepts as the key elements fostering unity among fans. Humor serves as a common thread that encourages interactions, also providing a platform for fans to showcase their niche knowledge, symbolizing their dedication to fan culture. Meanwhile, the prevalence of counter-modern inclinations within these communities highlights the fans\' constant devotion to the sport, demonstrating a profound loyalty. Collectively, these elements signify a shift from supporting specific teams to becoming keen fans of the broader sporting domain.