Computing an effective decision making group of a society using social network analysis

Recent years have witnessed how much a decision making group can be dysfunctional due to the extreme hyperpartisanship. While partisanship is crucial for the representatives to pursue the wishes of those whom they represent for, such an extremism results in a severe gridlock in the decision making progress, and makes themselves highly inefficient. It is known that such a problem can be mitigated by having negotiators in the group. This paper investigates the potential of social network analysis techniques to choose an effective leadership group of a society such that it suffers less from the extreme hyperpartisanship. We establish three essential requirements for an effective representative group, namely Influenceability, Partisanship, and Bipartisanship. Then, we formulate the problem of finding a minimum size representative group satisfying the three requirements as the minimum connected \(k\) -core dominating set problem (MC \(k\) CDSP), and show its NP-hardness. We introduce an extension of MC \(k\) CDSP, namely MC \(k\) CDSP-C, which assumes the society has a number of sub-communities and requires at least one representative from each sub-community should be in the leadership. We also propose an approximation algorithm for a subclass of MC \(k\) CDSP with \(k=2\) , and show an \(\alpha \) -approximation algorithm of MC \(k\) CDSP can be used to obtain an \(\alpha \) -approximation algorithm of MC \(k\) CDSP-SC.     

Selfish bin coloring

The bin packing problem, a classical problem in combinatorial optimization, has recently been studied from the viewpoint of algorithmic game theory. In this bin packing game each item is controlled by a selfish player minimizing its personal cost, which in this context is defined as the relative contribution of the size of the item to the total load in the bin.     

Gambling and Problem Gambling Across the Lifespan

Two national U.S. telephone surveys of gambling were conducted, an adult survey (age 18 and over, N = 2,631) in 1999–2000 and a youth (age 14–21, N = 2,274) survey in 2005–2007. The data from these surveys were combined to examine the prevalence of any gambling, frequent gambling and problem gambling across the lifespan. These types of gambling involvement increased in frequency during the teens, reached a high level in the respondents’ 20s and 30s, and then fell off in as the respondents aged. The notion that gambling involvement generally, and especially problem gambling, is most prevalent during the teens was not supported. A comparison of the age patterns of gambling involvement and alcohol involvement showed that alcohol involvement peaks at a younger age than gambling involvement; and thus, the theory that deviant behaviors peak at an early age applies more to alcohol than to gambling.     

Measuring the Role of Central and Eastern European Countries in World Drug Research

This paper explores the sociological behavior of firms in the pharmaceutical industry in Central and Eastern Europe as measured by funding linkages. Using the ISI Web of Science data-base, the number of research papers funded by top American and European pharmaceuticals with at least one author from Central and Eastern Europe are identified. Results indicate that Poland leads in the region by both the number of papers funded and by percentage of a firm’s total papers funded, followed closely by Hungary, Greece and the Czech Republic. Though the percentages of any firm’s linkages with a Central and Eastern European author are small (upper limit being 6.6%), this percentage is skewed due to the fact that the US is cited for 50% of papers for most firms. Roche Corporation is the top funder of papers among both US and European firms. Incidentally, zero top American pharmaceuticals were found to have an R&D center located in Central and Eastern Europe whereas European firms: GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis do—possibly indicating a difference in business strategy between European and American pharmaceuticals.     

Network position and sexual dysfunction: implications of partner betweenness for men

This article combines relational perspectives on gender identity with social network structural perspectives on health to understand men's sexual functioning. The authors argue that network positions that afford independence and control over social resources are consistent with traditional masculine roles and may therefore affect men's sexual performance. For example, when a heterosexual man's female partner has more frequent contact with his confidants than he does--which the authors refer to as partner betweenness--his relational autonomy, privacy, and control are constrained. Analyses of data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) show that about a quarter of men experience partner betweennessa and that these men are 92% more likely to report erectile dysfunction. Partner betweenness is strongest among the youngest men in the sample, which may reflect changing conceptions of masculinity in later life. The authors consider several explanations for these findings and urge additional research on the links between health, gender, and network structure.     

Angelic Belief as American Folk Religion1

Belief in angels and their intervention in the material world is prevalent in the United States. Theoretically, the concept of folk religion offers an instructive lens into the popularity of these beliefs, which exist inside, outside, and across official religious doctrines, and are therefore able to transcend the boundaries of specific religious traditions by appealing to a diverse array of believers. Empirical analyses from a recent national survey support the application of the concept of folk religion, demonstrating that these beliefs are present in substantial proportions across disparate subgroups. Belief in angelic intervention is prevalent among conservative and “mainline” Protestants, Catholics, those with high levels of conventional religious practice, biblical literalists, and even those who strongly believe in “paranormal” phenomena such as Bigfoot and ESP. Belief in angels and claims of angelic protection provide compelling and flexible narratives, ready cognitive attributions, and emotional comfort. Consequently, these views have strong memetic appeal and are transposable into multifarious subcultures.     

A new mixed first-order integer-valued autoregressive process with Poisson innovations

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - Integer-valued time series, seen as a collection of observations measured sequentially over time, have been studied with deep notoriety in recent years, with...     

American families: trends and correlates

Discussion focused on the nature of the roles of the family, a review of the major demographic changes (marriage, cohabitation, nonfamily households, remarriage, fertility, teenage pregnancy, and female employment) affecting the American family in the past decades, and the nature of the impact on women, men, and children. There were four major trends identified: 1) increased proportions of children living in single-parent families due to high rates of divorce and increased childbearing outside of marriage; 2) increased proportions of adults in nontraditional living arrangements; 3) increased female labor force participation during all stages of the life cycle; and 4) decreased proportions of children and increased proportions of older people out of total population due to declining mortality and fertility rates. Family formation arises out of childbearing and childrearing roles, the need for companionship and emotional support, and the opportunities for specialization and trade, and the economies of scale. The costs of family living may include the potential for disagreement, conflict, loss of privacy, and time and money. There were a number of reasons identified for not maintaining traditional families consisting of a married couple with children. The trends were for later age at marriage: 24.4 years in 1992 for women, increased cohabitation (almost 50% cohabiting prior to first marriage in 1985-86), decreased number of married couple households, and increased number of adults in non-family households. The divorce rate has risen over the past 100 years with peaks in the 1970s; the reasons were identified as increased baby boomers and new marriages, increased labor participation of women, and changes in gender roles. The stabilization and slight decline in rates may be due to a natural leveling, the likelihood of greater stability within new marriages, and the aging of the baby boomers. An anticipated increase in divorce rates in the future was also justified. Remarriage rates varied by gender, age at separation/divorce, presence of children, race/ethnicity, and education. Fertility remained stable at 1.8 during the late 1970s and early 1980s and increased slightly to 2.0 in 1989. IN 1990, there were 25% out-of-wedlock births compared to 5% in 1960. About 12% of births in 1989 were to teenagers. There has been an increase in female-headed households, the median income of which in 1992 was $13,012, or 33% of married couple income.