Accelerating Information Diffusion in Social Networks Under the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible Epidemic Model

Standard Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic models assume that a message spreads from the infected to the susceptible nodes due to only susceptible-infected epidemic contact. We modify the standard SIS epidemic model to include direct recruitment of susceptible individuals to the infected class at a constant rate (independent of epidemic contacts), to accelerate information spreading in a social network. Such recruitment can be carried out by placing advertisements in the media. We provide a closed form analytical solution for system evolution in the proposed model and use it to study campaigning in two different scenarios. In the first, the net cost function is a linear combination of the reward due to extent of information diffusion and the cost due to application of control. In the second, the campaign budget is fixed. Results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed system in accelerating and improving the extent of information diffusion. Our work is useful for devising effective strategies for product marketing and political/social-awareness/crowd-funding campaigns that target individuals in a social network.

Prosocial norms and degree heterogeneity in social networks

We provide empirical evidence to support the claims that social diversity promotes prosocial behavior. We elicit a real-life social network and its members’ adherence to a social norm, namely inequity aversion. The data reveal a positive relationship between subjects’ prosociality and several measures of centrality. This result is in line with the theoretical literature that relates the evolution of social norms to the structure of social interactions and argues that central individuals are crucial for the emergence of prosocial behavior.

The STREAM Initiative: support to regional aquatic resources management. Promoting participation, communication, and policies that support the livelihoods of poor aquatic resource users in the Asia-Pacific. Memorandum

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region capture fisheries and certain less intensive forms of aquaculture can and do play a vital role in livelihoods management, food security, and health and nutrition. Knowledge and experience exist that could be more effectively used in policy for poverty alleviation. (PDF contains 89 pages)

Enabling Social Work Students to Deal with the Consequences of Political Conflict: Engaging with Victim/Survivor Service Users and a ‘Pedagogy of Discomfort’

This paper describes the evaluation of an educational project, delivered in a Bachelor in Social Work degree (BSW) program in Northern Ireland. The project aimed to equip social work students to be more culturally competent in this divided society, with a central focus on including victim/survivor service users in social work training. A number of pedagogical approaches are noted, with particular consideration of Boler's ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ as a model that includes the multidimensional nature of the learning process when topics carry a high emotional tariff. The evaluation of the students' experience indicated that: there was strong support among students for the project; the unique contribution of service users was affirmed; and the project appeared to increase students' awareness and capacity to practice in a divided society. The evaluation of the trainers' experience highlighted key processes in the delivery of collaborative training. The authors argue that the lessons learned are broadly applicable to other forms of service user and carer involvement in social work training and in other societies in which health and social care professionals have to deal with the legacies of political conflict.

Where are all the men? The marginalization of men in social scientific research on infertility

There is a wealth of research exploring the psychological consequences of infertility and assisted reproduction technology: a substantial body of sociological and anthropological work on ‘reproductive disruptions’ of many kinds and a small but growing literature on patient perspectives of the quality of care in assisted reproduction. In all these fields, research studies are far more likely to be focused on the understandings and experiences of women than those of men. This paper discusses reasons for the relative exclusion of men in what has been called the ‘psycho-social’ literature on infertility, comments on research on men from psychological and social perspectives and recent work on the quality of patient care, and makes suggestions for a reframing of the research agenda on men and assisted reproduction. Further research is needed in all areas, including: perceptions of infertility and infertility treatment seeking; experiences of treatment; information and support needs; decisions to end treatment; fatherhood post assisted conception; and the motivation and experiences of sperm donors and men who seek fatherhood through surrogacy or co-parenting. This paper argues for multimethod, interdisciplinary research that includes broader populations of men which can contribute to improved clinical practice and support for users of assisted reproduction treatment

Selecting users in energy-efficient collaborative spectrum sensing

Cognitive radio network is defined as an intelligent wireless communication network that should be able to adaptively reconfigure its communication parameters to meet the demands of the transmission network or the user. In this context one possible way to utilize unused licensed spectrum without interfering with incumbent users is through spectrum sensing. Due to channel uncertainties, single cognitive (opportunistic) user cannot make a decision reliably and hence collaboration among multiple users is often required. Here collaboration among large number of users tends to increase power consumption and introduces large communication overheads. In this paper, the number of collaborating users is optimized in order to maximize the probability of detection for any given power budget in a cognitive radio network, while satisfying constraints on the false alarm probability. We show that for the maximum probability of detection, collaboration of only a subset of available opportunistic users is required. The robustness of our proposed spectrum sensing algorithm is also examined under flat Rayleigh fading and AWGN channel conditions.

Identity and Link Reliability in Social Networks

This paper considers a non-cooperative network formation game where identity is introduced as a single dimension to capture the characteristics of a player in the network. Players access to the benefits from the link through direct and indirect connections. We consider cases where cost of link formation paid by the initiator. Each player is allowed to choose their commitment level to their identities. The cost of link formation decreases as the players forming the link share the same identity and higher commitment levels. We then introduce link imperfections to the model. We characterize the Nash networks and we find that the set of Nash networks are either singletons with no links formed or separated blocks or components with mixed blocks or connected.

Stability in a Network Economy: The Role of Institutions

We consider an economy in which agents are embedded in a network of potential value-generating relationships. Agents are assumed to be able to participate in three types of economic interactions: Autarkic self-provision; bilateral interaction; and multilateral collaboration through endogenously provided platforms.
We introduce two stability concepts and provide sufficient and necessary conditions on the network structure that guarantee existence, in cases of the absence of externalities, link-based externalities and crowding externalities. We show that institutional arrangements based on socioeconomic roles and leadership guarantee stability. In particular, the stability of more complex economic outcomes requires more strict and complex institutional rules to govern economic interactions. We investigate strict social hierarchies, tiered leadership structures and global market places.

Conspicuous by their abstinence: the limited engagement of heroin users in English and Welsh Drug Recovery Wings

Background In recent years, an abstinence-focused, ‘recovery’ agenda has emerged in UK drug policy, largely in response to the perception that many opioid users had been ‘parked indefinitely’ on Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST). The introduction of ten pilot ‘Drug Recovery Wings’ (DRWs) in 2011 represents the application of this recovery agenda to prisons. This paper describes the DRWs’ operational models, the place of opiate dependent prisoners within them, and the challenges of delivering ‘recovery’ in prison. Methods In 2013, the implementation and operational models of all ten pilot DRWs were rapidly assessed. Up to three days were spent in each DRW, undertaking semi-structured interviews with a sample of 94 DRW staff and 102 DRW residents. Interviews were fully transcribed, and coded using grounded theory. Findings from the nine adult prisons are presented here. Results Four types of DRW were identified, distinguished by their size and selection criteria. Strikingly, no mid- or large-sized units regularly supported OST recipients through detoxification. Type A were large units whose residents were mostly on OST with long criminal records and few social or personal resources. Detoxification was rare, and medication reduction slow. Type B's mid-sized DRW was developed as a psychosocial support service for OST clients seeking detoxification. However, staff struggled to find such prisoners, and detoxification again proved rare. Type C DRWs focused on abstinence from all drugs, including OST. Though OST clients were not intentionally excluded, very few applied to these wings. Only Type D DRWs, offering intensive treatment on very small wings, regularly recruited OST recipients into abstinence-focused interventions. Conclusion Prison units wishing to support OST recipients in making greater progress towards abstinence may need to be small, intensive and take a stepped approach based on preparatory motivational work and extensive preparation for release. However, concerns about post-release deaths will remain.

IP/optical integration in access network infrastructures: key issues on resource provisioning

This thesis contributes to the advancement of Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access technologies, through the development of algorithms for resource allocation and energy efficient routing. FiWi access networks use both optical and wireless/cellular technologies to provide high bandwidth and ubiquity, required by users and current high demanding services. FiWi access technologies are divided in two parts. In one of the parts, fiber is brought from the central office to near the users, while in the other part wireless routers or base stations take over and provide Internet access to users. Many technologies can be used at both the optical and wireless parts, which lead to different integration and optimization problems to be solved. In this thesis, the focus will be on FiWi access networks that use a passive optical network at the optical section and a wireless mesh network at the wireless section. In such networks, two important aspects that influence network performance are: allocation of resources and traffic routing throughout the mesh section. In this thesis, both problems are addressed. A fair bandwidth allocation algorithm is developed, which provides fairness in terms of bandwidth and in terms of experienced delays among all users. As for routing, an energy efficient routing algorithm is proposed that optimizes sleeping and productive periods throughout the wireless and optical sections. To develop the stated algorithms, game theory and networks formation theory were used. These are powerful mathematical tools that can be used to solve problems involving agents with conflicting interests. Since, usually, these tools are not common knowledge, a brief survey on game theory and network formation theory is provided to explain the concepts that are used throughout the thesis. As such, this thesis also serves as a showcase on the use of game theory and network formation theory to develop new algorithms.

Adaptive Probabilistic Topic Models for Social Networks

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2012

Social network measures for "nosduocentered" networks, their predictive power on performance

Our purpose in this article is to define a network structure which is based on two egos instead of the egocentered (one ego) or the complete network (n egos). We describe the characteristics and properties for this kind of network which we call “nosduocentered network”, comparing it with complete and egocentered networks. The key point for this kind of network is that relations exist between the two main egos and all alters, but relations among others are not observed. After that, we use new social network measures adapted to the nosduocentered network, some of which are based on measures for complete networks such as degree, betweenness, closeness centrality or density, while some others are tailormade for nosduocentered networks. We specify three regression models to predict research performance of PhD students based on these social network measures for different networks such as advice, collaboration, emotional support and trust. Data used are from Slovenian PhD students and their s

W3233 -- Networks and Complexity in Social Systems (Collective Dynamics Group ISERP -- Columbia University) Course Syllabus

The Networks and Complexity in Social Systems course commences with an overview of the nascent field of complex networks, dividing it into three related but distinct strands: Statistical description of large scale networks, viewed as static objects; the dynamic evolution of networks, where now the structure of the network is understood in terms of a growth process; and dynamical processes that take place on fixed networks; that is, "networked dynamical systems". (A fourth area of potential research ties all the previous three strands together under the rubric of co-evolution of networks and dynamics, but very little research has been done in this vein and so it is omitted.) The remainder of the course treats each of the three strands in greater detail, introducing technical knowledge as required, summarizing the research papers that have introduced the principal ideas, and pointing out directions for future development. With regard to networked dynamical systems, the course treats in detail the more specific topic of information propagation in networks, in part because this topic is of great relevance to social science, and in part because it has received the most attention in the literature to date.

Bridging the gap between research and practice in organizational network analysis: a conversation between Rob Cross and Martin Kilduff

The article features a conversation between Rob Cross and Martin Kilduff about organizational network analysis in research and practice. It demonstrates the value of using social network perspectives in HRM. Drawing on the discussion about managing personal networks; managing the networks of others; the impact of social networking sites on perceptions of relationships; and ethical issues in organizational network analysis, we propose specific suggestions to bring social network perspectives closer to HRM researchers and practitioners and rebalance our attention to people and to their relationships.