scholarly journals Interactions, information and emergence: Exploring task allocation in ant colonies using network analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anshuman Swain ◽  
Sara D Williams ◽  
Louisa J Di Felice ◽  
Elizabeth A Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Task Allocation ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Network Measures ◽  
Interaction History ◽  
The Impact

In animal societies, individuals may take on different roles to fulfil their own needs and the needs of their groups. Ant colonies display high levels of organisational complexity, with ants fulfilling different roles at different timescales (what is known as task allocation). Factors affecting task allocation can be at the individual level (e.g., physiology), or at the group level (e.g., interaction histories). In this work, we focus on group level processes by exploring the impact of the history of interaction networks on task allocation and task switching using a previously published dataset (Mersch et al., 2013) tracking the behaviour of six Camponotus fellah colonies over 41 days. First, we investigated the architecture of interaction networks using node (individual) level network measures and their relation to the individual's task - foraging, cleaning or nursing - and whether or not the ant switched tasks. We then explored how noisy information propagation is among ants, as a function of the colony composition (how many ants are carrying out which tasks), through the information-theoretic metric of effective information. Our results show that interaction history affected task allocation, with ants more likely to switch to a task if they had interacted with other ants carrying out that task. The degree to which interaction history affected task allocation, as well as the noise in their interactions, depended on which groups of ants are interacting. Overall, we showed that colony cohesion is stable even as ant-level network measures vary more for ants when they switched functional groups; thus ant colonies maintain a high level of information flow as determined by network analysis and ant functional groups play different roles in maintaining colony cohesion.

scholarly journals Ain’t Too Proud to Beg! Effects of Leader’s Use of Pride on Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (19) ◽  
pp. 7146
Author(s):  
Catherine S. Daus ◽  
Stephen R. Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Emotion Management ◽  
Task Group ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Satisfaction ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Authentic Pride ◽  
Generally True

Studies of discrete pride in the workplace are both few and on the rise. We examined what has, to date, been unstudied, namely the impact that a leader’s expressions of authentic and hubristic pride can have on the followers at that moment, and on their attitudes regarding their task, leader, and group. Students working in groups building Lego structures rated their perceived leader regarding expressions of pride, both authentic and hubristic. Students who perceived the leader as expressing more authentic pride rated the task, group (satisfaction and cohesion), and leader more positively, while the reverse was generally true for perceptions of expressions of hubristic pride. We found these effects both at the individual level and at the group level. We also predicted and found moderation for the type of task worked on, creative or detailed. Implications abound for leader emotional labor and emotion management.

scholarly journals Ain’t too Proud to Beg! Effects of Leader’s Use of Pride on Groups

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Baumgartner ◽  
Catherine Daus
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Emotion Management ◽  
Task Group ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Satisfaction ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Authentic Pride ◽  
Generally True

Studies of discrete pride in the workplace are both few and on the rise. We examined what has, to date, been yet unstudied: the impact that a leader’s expressions of authentic and hubristic pride can have on the followers at that moment, and on their feelings about their task, leader, and group. Students working in groups building Lego structures rated their perceived leader regarding expressions of pride, both authentic and hubristic. Students who perceived the leader as expressing more authentic pride rated the task, group (satisfaction and cohesion), and leader more positively; while the reverse was generally true for perceptions of expressions of hubristic pride. We found these effects both at the individual level, and at the group level. We also predicted and found moderation for the type of task worked on, creative or detailed. Implications abound for leader emotional labor and emotion management.

Keeping score on congress: explaining variations in interest group ratings of US senators

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Chand ◽  
William D. Schreckhise
Keyword(s):  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Senate ◽  
The Impact

We adopt a novel use for an old type of data – interest group scorecards – to explore the impact business organizations have on the political process. By aggregating congressional scorecards, we can develop a sense of how satisfied groups are with the US Congress as a whole. To do this, we generate interest group-level ratings of the US Senate derived from individual-level ratings of each senator. We find business groups tend to give higher aggregated scores relative to other types of groups, suggesting business organizations more often get what they want form Congress, which in turn, illuminates the importance of these groups in the political process. We also find that well-funded “niche” organizations tend to show higher levels of satisfaction with senators than larger groups with broad public missions.

scholarly journals The impact of air pollution on birthweight: evidence from grouped quantile regression

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Pons
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Quantile Regression ◽  
Conditional Distribution ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Lower Tail ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Distributional Effect ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Particulate Matter Pollution

AbstractEstimates of the average effect of pollution on birthweight might not provide a complete picture if more vulnerable infants are disproportionately more affected. To address this, I focus on the distributional effect of particulate matter pollution (PM$$_{2.5}$$ 2.5 ) on birthweight. To estimate the impact, this paper uses grouped quantile regression, a methodology developed by Chetverikov et al. (Econometrica 84(2): 809–833, 2016), which allows estimating the impact of a group-level treatment on an individual-level outcome when there are group-level unobservables. The analysis reveals nonhomogeneous effects indicating that pollution disproportionately affects infants in the lower tail of the conditional distribution, whereas average effects suggest only minimal and not economically significant impact of pollution on birthweight. The findings are also consistent across different specifications.

scholarly journals How Strong Should My Anchor Be For Estimating Group And Individual Level Meaningful Change? A Simulation Study Assessing Anchor Correlation Strength And The Impact of Sample Size, Distribution of Change Scores And Methodology On Establishing A True Meaningful Change Threshold.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Griffiths ◽  
Joel Sims ◽  
Abi Williams ◽  
Nicola Williamson ◽  
David Cella ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sample Size ◽  
Roc Curves ◽  
Change Score ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Meaningful Change ◽  
Change Scores ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Correlation Strength ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Purpose: Treatment benefit as assessed using clinical outcome assessments (COAs), is a key endpoint in many clinical trials at both the individual and group level. Anchor-based methods can aid interpretation of COA change scores beyond statistical significance, and help derive a meaningful change threshold (MCT). However, evidence-based guidance on the selection of appropriately related anchors is lacking. Methods: A simulation was conducted which varied sample size, change score variability and anchor correlation strength to assess the impact of these variables on recovering the true simulated MCT at both the individual and group-level. At the individual-level, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and Predictive Modelling (PM) anchor analyses were conducted. At the group-level, group means of the ‘not-improved’ and ‘improved’ groups were compared. Results: Sample sizes, change score variability and magnitude of anchor correlation affected accuracy of the estimated MCT. At the individual-level, ROC curves were less accurate than PM methods at recovering the true MCT. For both methods, smaller samples led to higher variability in the returned MCT, but higher variability still using ROC. Anchors with weaker correlations with COA change scores had increased variability in the estimated MCT. An anchor correlation of 0.50-0.60 identified a true MCT cut-point under certain conditions using ROC. However, anchor correlations as low as 0.30 were appropriate when using PM under certain conditions. At the group-level, the MCT was consistently underestimated regardless of the anchor correlation. Conclusion: Findings show that the chosen method, sample size and variability in change scores influence the necessary anchor correlation strength when identifying a true individual-level MCT. Often, this needs to be higher than the commonly accepted threshold of 0.30. Stronger correlations than 0.30 are required at the group-level, but a specific recommendation is not provided. Results can be used to assist researchers selecting and assessing the quality of anchors.

scholarly journals Culture And Risk Assessment: A Comparison Of Singapore And Taiwan

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsueh-Ju Chen ◽  
Shaio-Yan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Audit Risk ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Personal Risk ◽  
Chinese Auditors ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

This study examines two areas of auditing: namely, the identification of those factors that are associated with audit risk, business risk, and personal risk; and secondly how culture affects risk assessment. A factor analysis and a logistic regression are used to analyze questionnaire data collected from Singapore and Taiwan. The results show that three factors (the effectiveness of control activities, reporting bias of management and reliability of management) are strongly associated with the auditors risk assessment. This result replicates findings of previous research, indicating the importance of understand the clients control environment in the assessment of the likelihood of material misstatements. In addition, this study also hypothesized that differences in the cultural values of Chinese auditors are likely to result in differences in the risks assessed. The results show that auditors place more emphasis on their firms risk rather than their personal risk. However, compared to auditors in Taiwan, auditors in Singapore seem to be more concerned with risks at the individual level than at the group level. It implies the impact of Western Anglo-Saxon ideas on individuals from a Chinese background.

scholarly journals Diagnosis of tuberculosis in groups of badgers: an exploration of the impact of trapping efficiency, infection prevalence and the use of multiple tests

2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (8) ◽  
pp. 1717-1727 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. BUZDUGAN ◽  
M. A. CHAMBERS ◽  
R. J. DELAHAY ◽  
J. A. DREWE
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Trapping Efficiency ◽  
Infection Prevalence ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Tuberculosis Control ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Diagnosis Of Infection

SUMMARYAccurate detection of infection with Mycobacterium bovis in live badgers would enable targeted tuberculosis control. Practical challenges in sampling wild badger populations mean that diagnosis of infection at the group (rather than the individual) level is attractive. We modelled data spanning 7 years containing over 2000 sampling events from a population of wild badgers in southwest England to quantify the ability to correctly identify the infection status of badgers at the group level. We explored the effects of variations in: (1) trapping efficiency; (2) prevalence of M. bovis; (3) using three diagnostic tests singly and in combination with one another; and (4) the number of badgers required to test positive in order to classify groups as infected. No single test was able to reliably identify infected badger groups if <90% of the animals were sampled (given an infection prevalence of 20% and group size of 15 badgers). However, the parallel use of two tests enabled an infected group to be correctly identified when only 50% of the animals were tested and a threshold of two positive badgers was used. Levels of trapping efficiency observed in previous field studies appear to be sufficient to usefully employ a combination of two existing diagnostic tests, or others of similar or greater accuracy, to identify infected badger groups without the need to capture all individuals. To improve on this, we suggest that any new diagnostic test for badgers would ideally need to be >80% sensitive, at least 94% specific, and able to be performed rapidly in the field.

scholarly journals Exploring the Effects of Segmentation on Semi-Structured Interview Data with Epistemic Network Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szilvia Zörgő ◽  
Zachari Swiecki ◽  
Andrew Ruis
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Model Features ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Methodological Studies

Quantitative ethnographic models are typically constructed using qualitative data that has been segmented and coded. While there exist methodological studies that have investigated the effects of changes in coding on model features, the effects of segmentation have received less attention. Our aim was to examine, using a dataset comprised of narratives from semi-structured interviews, the effects of different segmentation decisions on population- and individual-level model features via epistemic network analysis. We found that while segmentation choices may not affect model features overall, the effects on some individual networks can be substantial. This study demonstrates a novel method for exploring and quantifying the impact of segmentation choices on model features.

scholarly journals The impact of intermediaries on a negotiation: an approach from game theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana López ◽  
Guillermo Owen ◽  
Martha Saboya
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Optimal Design ◽  
Shapley Value ◽  
Efficient Algorithm ◽  
Cooperative Games ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Model Interaction ◽  
Game Outcome ◽  
The Impact

AbstractStandard approaches to model interaction networks are limited in their capacity to describe the nuances of real communication. We present a game theoretical framework to quantify the effect of intermediaries on the interaction between agents. Inspired by the seminal work Myerson (1977). on cooperative structures in cooperative games, we set the basis for multidimensional network analysis within game theory. More specifically, an extension of the point-arc game Feltkamp and van den Nouwe51 land (1992). is introduced, generalizing the analysis of cooperative games to multigraphs. An efficient algorithm is proposed for the computation of Shapley value of this game. We prove the validity of our approach by applying it to a intermediaries network model. We are able to recover meaningful results on the dependence of the game outcome on the intermediaries network. This work contributes to the optimal design of networks in economic environments and allows the ranking of players in complex networks.

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