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Ridhi Kashyap

Publications and source records attributed to Ridhi Kashyap.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

A global mobile network coverage raster product at 1km resolution, 1999--2030

Where a mobile signal is available shapes who can work, learn, bank, seek health care and respond to crises in the digital age, yet no globally consistent, sub-national record of mobile network coverage exists. We present such a record: annual 1km maps of the probability of 2G, 3G and 4G coverage for 214 countries and territories for the years 1999 to 2030. The maps are produced by three independent models: a calibrated machine-learning model, a techno-economic simulator of network build-out, and a spatial deep-learning model. The three estimates are then combined, per country and technology and in proportion to their measured accuracy, into a single best estimate with per-pixel 90% uncertainty bands; all four layers are released as part of the dataset. Because mobile roll-out closely follows a country's socio-economic conditions (population distribution, electrification, physical infrastructure), the models are grounded in existing geospatial data and tuned on 2,409 quality-screened operator-reported coverage maps, which are available up to 2020. For 2021--2024 the maps are predicted from recent geospatial data alone; for 2025--2030 they are extrapolated from demographic and infrastructure projections. On countries held out during training, the machine-learning model attains AUC 0.89--0.92. Baseline comparisons and the combined product's external validation are reported in Technical Validation. The dataset supports mapping the global digital divide, linking connectivity to household-survey outcomes, and humanitarian and infrastructure planning.

cs.CY

Gender Gaps in Online Social Connectivity, Promotion and Relocation Reports on LinkedIn

Online professional social networking platforms provide opportunities to expand networks strategically for job opportunities and career advancement. A large body of research shows that women's offline networks are less advantageous than men's. How online platforms such as LinkedIn may reflect or reproduce gendered networking behaviours, or how online social connectivity may affect outcomes differentially by gender is not well understood. This paper analyses aggregate, anonymised data from almost 10 million LinkedIn users in the UK and US information technology (IT) sector collected from the site's advertising platform to explore how being connected to Big Tech companies ('social connectivity') varies by gender, and how gender, age, seniority and social connectivity shape the propensity to report job promotions or relocations. Consistent with previous studies, we find there are fewer women compared to men on LinkedIn in IT. Furthermore, female users are less likely to be connected to Big Tech companies than men. However, when we further analyse recent promotion or relocation reports, we find women are more likely than men to have reported a recent promotion at work, suggesting high-achieving women may be self-selecting onto LinkedIn. Even among this positively selected group, though, we find men are more likely to report a recent relocation. Social connectivity emerges as a significant predictor of promotion and relocation reports, with an interaction effect between gender and social connectivity indicating the payoffs to social connectivity for promotion and relocation reports are larger for women. This suggests that online networking has the potential for larger impacts for women, who experience greater disadvantage in traditional networking contexts, and calls for further research to understand differential impacts of online networking for socially disadvantaged groups.

cs.SI

Social network-based distancing strategies to flatten the COVID 19 curve in a post-lockdown world

Social distancing and isolation have been introduced widely to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. However, more moderate contact reduction policies become desirable owing to adverse social, psychological, and economic consequences of a complete or near-complete lockdown. Adopting a social network approach, we evaluate the effectiveness of three targeted distancing strategies designed to 'keep the curve flat' and aid compliance in a post-lockdown world. These are limiting interaction to a few repeated contacts, seeking similarity across contacts, and strengthening communities via triadic strategies. We simulate stochastic infection curves that incorporate core elements from infection models, ideal-type social network models, and statistical relational event models. We demonstrate that strategic reduction of contact can strongly increase the efficiency of social distancing measures, introducing the possibility of allowing some social contact while keeping risks low. This approach provides nuanced insights to policy makers for effective social distancing that can mitigate negative consequences of social isolation.

physics.soc-ph