AN ANALYTIC APPROACH TO MEASURE INFORMATION AGGREGATION AND EVALUATE THE STABILITY OF INFORMATIONAL CASCADES UNDER INCOMPLETE INFORMATION SETTINGS

Informational cascades describe a situation in which people observe the actions of others and then make the same choice, regardless of their own information. Behavioral conformity prevents information aggregation (Bikhchandani et al., 1992). However, under incomplete information settings, individual’s information is a sample of the whole information pool as we are facing information more than we can handle in daily business routine. As we can rule out the possibility that predecessors get enough information to shatter a cascade if cascade continues, it is reasonable to consider there is information injected into cascade even when decision-maker follows predecessor’s behavior. Taking this belief into consideration, we analyze the threshold point of convergence /deviation, and propose a model to measure Information aggregation and evaluate the stability of informational cascades under incomplete information settings. This model helps to optimize sequential decision-making process by utilizing the statistical aspects of informational cascades

Currency Cooperation in East Asia

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Bounded Rationality, Social Learning and Collective Behavior: Decisional Analysis in a Nested World

People are usually brought together in a social network to make synergetic decisions. This decision making process often involves information acquisition and social learning, which are essential to overcome individuals’ bounded rationality. The performance of a society thus depends on the collective behavior of individuals. Besides information attributes, organizational properties often influenced such a decision process. In this article, we introduce a paradigm -- nested world -- that treats social network as a symbolic system. Based on this paradigm, we developed a research model to investigate how information attributes, social parameters, and their interactions influenced the performance of a social network. This research model was subsequently converted to a computational model for analysis and validation. Our findings suggested that informativeness, network density, social influence, and their interactions had significant influence on the performance of whole society. Besides these findigns, many interesting phenomenon were also observed, including significant social learning curve, U-shape decision speed, threshold of network density, and interchangeability between network density and social influence

Quantum Hydrodynamic Model by Moment Closure of Wigner Equation

In this paper, we derive the quantum hydrodynamics models based on the moment closure of the Wigner equation. The moment expansion adopted is of the Grad type firstly proposed in \cite{Grad}. The Grad's moment method was originally developed for the Boltzmann equation. In \cite{Fan_new}, a regularization method for the Grad's moment system of the Boltzmann equation was proposed to achieve the globally hyperbolicity so that the local well-posedness of the moment system is attained. With the moment expansion of the Wigner function, the drift term in the Wigner equation has exactly the same moment representation as in the Boltzmann equation, thus the regularization in \cite{Fan_new} applies. The moment expansion of the nonlocal Wigner potential term in the Wigner equation is turned to be a linear source term, which can only induce very mild growth of the solution. As the result, the local well-posedness of the regularized moment system for the Wigner equation remains as for the Boltzmann equation

Comparison of ultrasound−based ADNEX model with magnetic resonance imaging for discriminating adnexal masses: a multi-center study

ObjectivesThe ADNEX model offered a good diagnostic performance for discriminating adnexal tumors, but research comparing the abilities of the ADNEX model and MRI for characterizing adnexal tumors has not been reported to our knowledge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the ultrasound-based ADNEX (Assessment of Different NEoplasias in the adneXa) model in comparison with that of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for differentiating benign, borderline and malignant adnexal masses.MethodsThis prospective study included 529 women with adnexal masses who underwent assessment via the ADNEX model and subjective MRI analysis before surgical treatment between October 2019 and April 2022 at two hospitals. Postoperative histological diagnosis was considered the gold standard.ResultsAmong the 529 women, 92 (17.4%) masses were diagnosed histologically as malignant tumors, 67 (12.7%) as borderline tumors, and 370 (69.9%) as benign tumors. For the diagnosis of malignancy, including borderline tumors, overall agreement between the ADNEX model and MRI pre-operation was 84.9%. The sensitivity of the ADNEX model of 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.85–0.95) was similar to that of MRI (0.89, 95% CI: 0.84–0.94; P=0.717). However, the ADNEX model had a higher specificity (0.90, 95% CI: 0.87–0.93) than MRI (0.81, 95% CI: 0.77–0.85; P=0.001). The greatest sensitivity (0.96, 95% CI: 0.92–0.99) and specificity (0.94, 95% CI: 0.91–0.96) were achieved by combining the ADNEX model and subjective MRI assessment. While the total diagnostic accuracy did not differ significantly between the two methods (P=0.059), the ADNEX model showed greater diagnostic accuracy for borderline tumors (P<0.001).ConclusionThe ultrasound-based ADNEX model demonstrated excellent diagnostic performance for adnexal tumors, especially borderline tumors, compared with MRI. Accordingly, we recommend that the ADNEX model, alone or with subjective MRI assessment, should be used for pre-operative assessment of adnexal masses

Two Views on One Problem: The Eurasian Project and “One Belt — One Road”

The article compares the theoretical foundations of ethno-cultural policy in the Eurasian region.Aim. The goal set by the authors is to compare two approaches in the theory of social dynamics, on the basis of which the ethno-cultural policy of the modern states of the region — Russia (USSR) and China — is based.Tasks. Identification of fundamental differences in the geopolitical strategies developed by the theorists of Eurasianism and Chinese scientists.Methods. In the context of the implementation of this task — a comparison of the methodological foundations of real political projects in the Eurasian space, through logical analysis, differences are established in the theories of geopolitical dynamics proposed in the Eurasian concept and in Chinese science. The method of comparative analysis of ethno-cultural and ethno-economic policies in the Eurasian region of the two most influential powers allows us to conclude that alternative theoretical concepts and their paradigmatic limitations are adequate to real geopolitical processes.Results. The study showed that the concept of Eurasian geocivilization, which was formed as overcoming the limitations of the Slavophile version of Russian civilization in the context of the collapse of traditional approaches in social theory and in the context of historical collisions of the early twentieth century, had a positive potential, partially realized in the policy of the Soviet state. But the conceptual limitations imposed by the inadequate theoretical basis — the theory of civilizations existing at that time — did not allow the formation of a single Eurasian cultural space to be completed. The Eurasian unity represented by the Soviet Union was consolidated by institutional means, but it was not realized as a cultural synthesis. Chinese scientists have proposed an alternative project for the integration of the Eurasian space — the “One Belt — One Road”, which began to be implemented already in the XXI century. This project is based on Marxist theory and concepts of the second half of the twentieth century, complimentary to Marxism or being neo-Marxist.Conclusions. The incompleteness and instability of the Eurasian project in the Soviet version is a consequence of the limitations inherent in the geopolitical theory itself, which does not take into account the positive potential of Marxist theory and social concepts developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Chinese scientists use the scientific potential of Eurasianism in interpreting the Russian mentality and consider the politics of modern Russia through the prism of Eurasian connotations, but Eurasianism as a geopolitical theory, in their opinion, has not passed the test of history. Therefore, Chinese policy in the Eurasian space is based on other theoretical foundations — in addition to classical Marxism, neo-Marxist approaches. The Chinese authors conclude, in this regard, that Russia is still facing the problem of choosing a geopolitical strategy, which in turn is due to the paradigmatic uncertainty of Russian science

Automatic Moving Object Segmentation for Freely Moving Cameras

This paper proposes a new moving object segmentation algorithm for freely moving cameras which is very common for the outdoor surveillance system, the car build-in surveillance system, and the robot navigation system. A two-layer based affine transformation model optimization method is proposed for camera compensation purpose, where the outer layer iteration is used to filter the non-background feature points, and the inner layer iteration is used to estimate a refined affine model based on the RANSAC method. Then the feature points are classified into foreground and background according to the detected motion information. A geodesic based graph cut algorithm is then employed to extract the moving foreground based on the classified features. Unlike the existing global optimization or the long term feature point tracking based method, our algorithm only performs on two successive frames to segment the moving foreground, which makes it suitable for the online video processing applications. The experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm in both of the high accuracy and the fast speed

Factors related to the quality of life of family cancer caregivers

BackgroundCancer caregivers directly affect patient health outcomes. To maintain the function and health of caregivers so that patients can receive efficient care, we must pay more attention to caregivers’ quality of life in the process of caring for patients. However, the factors influencing caregivers’ quality of life are complex.AimTo assess caregivers’ quality of life in the process of caring for cancer patients and to explore the factors associated with it.DesignThis was a descriptive correlational study. A self-report questionnaire was used to anonymously collect data from one Chinese cancer hospital. The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp-12), General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC-10), 24-item Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) and Caregiver Evaluation Questionnaire were used to measure caregivers’ spiritual well-being, self-efficacy, affective well-being, resilience, caregiver burden and quality of life. One-way analysis of variance, the Kruskal–Wallis H test and multiple regression analysis were applied to measure the factors influencing caregivers’ situations.Setting and participantsA total of 315 caregivers of cancer patients were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were invited to complete the questionnaire through a one-on-one approach.ResultsThe mean score for caregiver quality of life was 204.62 ± 36.61. After controlling for demographic factors, self-efficacy (β’ = 0.265, p < 0.01), resilience (β’ = 0.287, p < 0.01) and positive affect (β’ = 0.103, p < 0.01) were protective factors for caregivers’ quality of life. Negative affect (β’ = −0.217, p < 0.01) and caregiver burden (β’ = −0.219, p < 0.01) were negative factors. Notably, not all of these predictors can predict all dimensions of quality of life.ConclusionCaregivers’ quality of life needs to be further improved. The results of this study may provide clues to help identify factors influencing caregivers’ quality of life and implement targeted strategies to improve their quality of life