How Bad is Forming Your Own Opinion?

The question of how people form their opinion has fascinated economists and sociologists for quite some time. In many of the models, a group of people in a social network, each holding a numerical opinion, arrive at a shared opinion through repeated averaging with their neighbors in the network. Motivated by the observation that consensus is rarely reached in real opinion dynamics, we study a related sociological model in which individuals' intrinsic beliefs counterbalance the averaging process and yield a diversity of opinions. By interpreting the repeated averaging as best-response dynamics in an underlying game with natural payoffs, and the limit of the process as an equilibrium, we are able to study the cost of disagreement in these models relative to a social optimum. We provide a tight bound on the cost at equilibrium relative to the optimum; our analysis draws a connection between these agreement models and extremal problems that lead to generalized eigenvalues. We also consider a natural network design problem in this setting: which links can we add to the underlying network to reduce the cost of disagreement at equilibrium

Strong Stability Preserving Two-Step Runge-Kutta Methods

We investigate the strong stability preserving (SSP) property of two-step Runge– Kutta (TSRK) methods. We prove that all SSP TSRK methods belong to a particularly simple\ud subclass of TSRK methods, in which stages from the previous step are not used. We derive simple order conditions for this subclass. Whereas explicit SSP Runge–Kutta methods have order at most four, we prove that explicit SSP TSRK methods have order at most eight. We present TSRK methods of up to eighth order that were found by numerical search. These methods have larger SSP coefficients than any known methods of the same order of accuracy, and may be implemented in a form with relatively modest storage requirements. The usefulness of the TSRK methods is demonstrated through numerical examples, including integration of very high order WENO discretizations

On Job Resiliency Training, Tailored for Hospital Nurses: A Feasibility Study

Introduction: Burnout is a primary threat to professional wellness and performance. It reflects work-related emotional stress and is commonly manifested among professional caregivers. This study explores whether self-compassion training can alleviate hospital nurses\u27 work-related emotional stress and burnout. Methods: In the present study, we conducted a weekly, 7-session, self-compassion training program among 15 hospital nurses, primarily working in critical care units, between January 22, 2020, and March 4, 2020. A group of nine other nurses, comprising a waiting list for the following training workshop, served as a control group. Beyond feasibility assessment, we also measured outcome effects according to previous research based on self-determination theory that proposed the specific way in which self-compassion contributes to reducing burnout among professional caregivers. This study used an interventional delta (after-before) experimental design, alongside a control group with similar interval delta measurement. Results: Findings indicated high feasibility of the training program, with a trend noted toward improvement in self-compassion among the experimental group nurses (p = 0.06) - which was not observed among the control-group nurses. Despite the interventional success in self-compassion growth, burnout scores increased during the training program (exhaustion: Δ = 1.85, p = 0.007; depersonalization: Δ = 1.83, p = 0.05; lack of achievement: Δ = 1.33 p = 0.10). Conclusion: The training program\u27s institutional framework, complemented by its preliminary results in self-compassion optimization, suggest future directions for conducting preemptive resilience training among hospital nurses. Burnout remains a complex combination of stressor-related phenomena that (at least from these preliminary results) suggest that complete amelioration is multifaceted beyond the domain of self-compassion growth

Investigating links between cultural orientation and culture outcomes:Immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel and Germany

Marketers are justifiably interested in ethnic consumers; formulating effective ethnic marketing strategies requires insights into these consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. However, prior research provides few insights into how different cultural environments might shape the consumption behavior of consumers with the same cultural heritage. To address this knowledge gap, the present study examines the cultural orientation and relevant consumer outcomes (i.e., desire for unique products and fashion consciousness) of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who move to Israel and Germany. The results reveal differences in the cultural orientations of immigrants to Israel versus Germany, as well as different relational patterns between cultural orientation and the proposed consumer outcomes. These findings provide both theoretical and managerial implications

The Passive Journalist: How sources dominate the local news

This study explores which sources are “making” local news and whether these sources are simply indicating the type of news that appears, or are shaping newspaper coverage. It provides an empirical record of the extent to which sources are able to dominate news coverage from which future trends in local journalism can be measured. The type and number of sources used in 2979 sampled news stories in four West Yorkshire papers, representing the three main proprietors of local newspapers in the United Kingdom, were recorded for one month and revealed the relatively narrow range of routine sources; 76 per cent of articles cited only a single source. The analysis indicates that journalists are relying less on their readers for news, and that stories of little consequence are being elevated to significant positions, or are filling news pages at the expense of more important stories. Additionally, the reliance on a single source means that alternative views and perspectives relevant to the readership are being overlooked. Journalists are becoming more passive, mere processors of one-sided information or bland copy dictated by sources. These trends indicate poor journalistic standards and may be exacerbating declining local newspaper sales