scholarly journals A systematic evaluation of assumptions in centrality measures by empirical flow data

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mareike Bockholt ◽  
Katharina A. Zweig

AbstractWhen considering complex systems, identifying themost importantactors is often of relevance. When the system is modeled as a network, centrality measures are used which assign each node a value due to its position in the network. It is often disregarded that they implicitly assume a network process flowing through a network, and also make assumptions ofhowthe network process flows through the network. A node is then central with respect to this network process (Borgatti in Soc Netw 27(1):55–71, 2005,10.1016/j.socnet.2004.11.008). It has been shown that real-world processes often do not fulfill these assumptions (Bockholt and Zweig, in Complex networks and their applications VIII, Springer, Cham, 2019,10.1007/978-3-030-36683-4_7). In this work, we systematically investigate the impact of the measures’ assumptions by using four datasets of real-world processes. In order to do so, we introduce several variants of the betweenness and closeness centrality which, for each assumption, use either the assumed process model or the behavior of the real-world process. The results are twofold: on the one hand, for all measure variants and almost all datasets, we find that, in general, the standard centrality measures are quite robust against deviations in their process model. On the other hand, we observe a large variation of ranking positions of single nodes, even among the nodes ranked high by the standard measures. This has implications for the interpretability of results of those centrality measures. Since a mismatch of the behaviour of the real network process and the assumed process model does even affect the highly-ranked nodes, resulting rankings need to be interpreted with care.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (S1) ◽  
pp. 37-37
Author(s):  
Americo Cicchetti ◽  
Rossella Di Bidino ◽  
Entela Xoxi ◽  
Irene Luccarini ◽  
Alessia Brigido

IntroductionDifferent value frameworks (VFs) have been proposed in order to translate available evidence on risk-benefit profiles of new treatments into Pricing & Reimbursement (P&R) decisions. However limited evidence is available on the impact of their implementation. It's relevant to distinguish among VFs proposed by scientific societies and providers, which usually are applicable to all treatments, and VFs elaborated by regulatory agencies and health technology assessment (HTA), which focused on specific therapeutic areas. Such heterogeneity in VFs has significant implications in terms of value dimension considered and criteria adopted to define or support a price decision.MethodsA literature research was conducted to identify already proposed or adopted VF for onco-hematology treatments. Both scientific and grey literature were investigated. Then, an ad hoc data collection was conducted for multiple myeloma; breast, prostate and urothelial cancer; and Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) therapies. Pharmaceutical products authorized by European Medicines Agency from January 2014 till December 2019 were identified. Primary sources of data were European Public Assessment Reports and P&R decision taken by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) till September 2019.ResultsThe analysis allowed to define a taxonomy to distinguish categories of VF relevant to onco-hematological treatments. We identified the “real-world” VF that emerged given past P&R decisions taken at the Italian level. Data was collected both for clinical and economical outcomes/indicators, as well as decisions taken on innovativeness of therapies. Relevant differences emerge between the real world value framework and the one that should be applied given the normative framework of the Italian Health System.ConclusionsThe value framework that emerged from the analysis addressed issues of specific aspects of onco-hematological treatments which emerged during an ad hoc analysis conducted on treatment authorized in the last 5 years. The perspective adopted to elaborate the VF was the one of an HTA agency responsible for P&R decisions at a national level. Furthermore, comparing a real-world value framework with the one based on the general criteria defined by the national legislation, our analysis allowed identification of the most critical point of the current national P&R process in terms ofsustainability of current and future therapies as advance therapies and agnostic-tumor therapies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine E. Sprague ◽  
Jim Parsons

In this paper, the authors discuss creativity and the impact it might have on teaching and learning. The authors believe that imaginative play, at all ages, helps all people (children especially) create healthy environments and spaces that expand their learning. The authors contend that teaching for imagination—which asks little more than creating and trusting an ecological space that engenders it—seldom is considered a priority. Given the emphasis on creativity in the real world and the virtual digital world, the authors believe it is important to add to the body of knowledge through continued research in this field.


2012 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-438
Author(s):  
Jerry A. Cohen ◽  
Norman A. Cohen ◽  
James D. Grant ◽  
Daniel J. Cole

Author(s):  
Nazmul Islam ◽  
Dulal C. Ghosh

The electronegativity and the hardness are two different fundamental descriptors of atoms and molecules, and this chapter describes how the authors have logistically discovered the commonality between the heuristic and basic philosophical structures of their origin and also the manifestation in the real world. Also, the chapter demonstrates that the physical hardness and the chemical hardness with evolution of time have converged to one and the same general principle– the hardness. The authors also try to expose the physical basis and operational significance of another very important descriptor–the electronegativity. The chapter also explores whether the hardness equalization principle can be conceived analogous to the well established electronegativity equalization principle. The authors hypothesize that the electronegativity and the absolute hardness are two different appearances of the one and the same fundamental property of atoms, and the Hardness Equalization Principle can be equally conceived like the electronegativity equalization principle. To test this hypothesis, the authors have made several comparative studies by evaluating some well known chemico-physical descriptors of the real world, such as hetero nuclear bond distances, dipole charges, and dipole moments of molecules. The detailed comparative study suggests that the paradigm of the hardness equalization principle may be another law of nature like the established electronegativity equalization principle.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Xinman Zhang ◽  
Kunlei Jing ◽  
Guokun Song

The security problems of online transactions by smartphones reveal extreme demand for reliable identity authentication systems. With a lower risk of forgery, richer texture, and more comfortable acquisition mode, compared with face, fingerprint, and iris, palmprint is rarely adopted for identity authentication. In this paper, we develop an effective and full-function palmprint authentication system regarding the application on an Android smartphone, which bridges the algorithmic study and application of palmprint authentication. In more detail, an overall system framework is designed with complete functions, including palmprint acquisition, key points location, ROI segmentation, feature extraction, and feature coding. Basically, we develop a palmprint authentication system having user-friendly interfaces and good compatibility with the Android smartphone. Particularly, on the one hand, to guarantee the effectiveness and efficiency of the system, we exploit the practical Log-Gabor filter for feature extraction and discuss the impact of filtering direction, downsampling ratio, and discriminative feature coding to propose an improved algorithm. On the other hand, after exploring the hardware components of the smartphone and the technical development of the Android system, we provide an open technology to extend the biometric methods to real-world applications. On the public PolyU databases, simulation results suggest that the improved algorithm outperforms the original one with a promising accuracy of 100% and a good speed of 0.041 seconds. In real-world authentication, the developed system achieves an accuracy of 98.40% and a speed of 0.051 seconds. All the results verify the accuracy and timeliness of the developed system.


AJS Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
Robert Chazan

The impact of Salo Wittmayer Baron on the study of the history of the Jews during the Middle Ages has been enormous. This impact has, in part, been generated by Baron's voluminous writings, in particular his threevolume The Jewish Community and–even more so–his eighteen-volume Social and Religious History of the Jews. Equally decisive has been Baron's influence through his students and his students' students. Almost all researchers here in North America currently engaged in studying aspects of medieval Jewish history can surely trace their intellectual roots back to Salo Wittmayer Baron. In a real sense, many of Baron's views have become widey assumed starting points for the field, ideas which need not be proven or irgued but are simply accepted as givens. Over the next decade or decades, hese views will be carefully identified and reevaluated. At some point, a major study of Baron's legacy, including his influence on the study of medieval Jewish history, will of necessity eventuate. Such a study will have, on the one hand, its inherent intellectual fascination; at the same time, it will constitute an essential element in the next stages of the growth of the field, as it inevitably begins to make its way beyond Baron and his twentieth-century ambience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miedzo Mutendi ◽  
Chipo Makamure

This study seeks to establish the quality and type of feedback necessary and suitable for learners, understandable by learners and implementable in the learning process by the learners to improve progress in learning numeracy. However, although written feedback is believed to be instrumental in shaping the pupils’ classroom performance, there is less agreement on whether this is workable in the real world of the classroom or has remained an intended goal of feedback. There is limited work in literature on how pupils respond or use written feedback to improve their performance. A questionnaire was administered to a group of Year 5 students at a school in England to solicit the pupils’ perceptions of the usefulness of written feedback and the challenges that were likely to be faced in interpreting and implementing the feedback. In order to measure the impact of feedback on students’ performance, a pre-test was given, pupils’ recommendations from the questionnaire were incorporated, and a second test was given two days later. The two sets of marks were then compared. It was found that pupils find it difficult to understand written feedback at times, mainly because of unfamiliar vocabulary used in the feedback and when they do understand the language, they often find it unhelpful in achieving their learning goals. Teachers are recommended to simplify and add more detail to feedback, making it as informative as possible about what was done well and suggest improvements that could be made.


Author(s):  
Aumyo Hassan ◽  
Sarah J. Barber

AbstractRepeated information is often perceived as more truthful than new information. This finding is known as the illusory truth effect, and it is typically thought to occur because repetition increases processing fluency. Because fluency and truth are frequently correlated in the real world, people learn to use processing fluency as a marker for truthfulness. Although the illusory truth effect is a robust phenomenon, almost all studies examining it have used three or fewer repetitions. To address this limitation, we conducted two experiments using a larger number of repetitions. In Experiment 1, we showed participants trivia statements up to 9 times and in Experiment 2 statements were shown up to 27 times. Later, participants rated the truthfulness of the previously seen statements and of new statements. In both experiments, we found that perceived truthfulness increased as the number of repetitions increased. However, these truth rating increases were logarithmic in shape. The largest increase in perceived truth came from encountering a statement for the second time, and beyond this were incrementally smaller increases in perceived truth for each additional repetition. These findings add to our theoretical understanding of the illusory truth effect and have applications for advertising, politics, and the propagation of “fake news.”


2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leeat Granek ◽  
Ora Nakash

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document