Does Empirical Embeddedness Matter? Methodological Issues on Agent-Based Models for Analytical Social Science

The paper deals with the use of empirical data in social science agent-based models. Agent-based models are too often viewed just as highly abstract thought experiments conducted in artificial worlds, in which the purpose is to generate and not to test theoretical hypotheses in an empirical way. On the contrary, they should be viewed as models that need to be embedded into empirical data both to allow the calibration and the validation of their findings. As a consequence, the search for strategies to find and extract data from reality, and integrate agent-based models with other traditional empirical social science methods, such as qualitative, quantitative, experimental and participatory methods, becomes a fundamental step of the modelling process. The paper argues that the characteristics of the empirical target matter. According to characteristics of the target, ABMs can be differentiated into case-based models, typifications and theoretical abstractions. These differences pose different challenges for empirical data gathering, and imply the use of different validation strategies.Agent-Based Models, Empirical Calibration and Validation, Taxanomy of Models

Pillars of Trust: An Experimental Study on Reputation and Its Effects

This paper presents the results of laboratory experiments on the relevance of reputation for trust and cooperation in social interaction. We have extended a repeated investment game by adding new treatments where reputation is taken more explicitly into account than before. We then compared treatments where the investor and the trustee rate each other and treatments where the investor and the trustee were rated by a third party. The results showed that: (i) third party reputation positively affects cooperation by encapsulating trust; (ii) certain differences in the reputation mechanism can generate different cooperation outcomes. These results have interesting implications for the recent sociological debate on the normative pillars of markets

L'industria dei contenuti digitali in Piemonte : evoluzione e tendenze

Sistema informativo delle attività produttive- Indice #3- Introduzione e sintesi del rapporto. La rilevanza del settore nell'economia contemporanea #5- Il settore dei contenuti digitali in Piemonte #17- Il contributo dei testimoni privilegiati alla discussione sul ruolo del digitale nell'industria dei contenuti in Piemonte #55- Bibliografia #6

Monitoring and predicting the risk of violence in residential facilities. No difference between patients with history or with no history of violence

none34noopende Girolamo, Giovanni; Buizza, Chiara; Sisti, Davide; Ferrari, Clarissa; Bulgari, Viola; Iozzino, Laura; Boero, Maria Elena; Cristiano, Giuseppe; De Francesco, Alessandra; Giobbio, Gian Marco; Maggi, Paolo; Rossi, Giuseppe; Segalini, Beatrice; Candini, Valentina; Andreose, Suor; Basso, Pasquale; Beneduce, Rossella; Bertolotti, Pietro; Braida, Vanda; Bonelli, Marina; Bongiorno, Fanny; Bussi, Riccardo; Castagno, Elisa; Dominicis, Fabio; Ghersi, Loredana; Greppo, Stefania; Sodano, Alessandro Jaretti; Leporatti, Massimo; Presti, Eleonora Lo; Milone, Valeria; Panigada, Fausto; Pasquadibisceglie, Livia; Rigamonti, Danilo; Rillosi, Lucianade Girolamo, Giovanni; Buizza, Chiara; Sisti, Davide; Ferrari, Clarissa; Bulgari, Viola; Iozzino, Laura; Boero, Maria Elena; Cristiano, Giuseppe; De Francesco, Alessandra; Giobbio, Gian Marco; Maggi, Paolo; Rossi, Giuseppe; Segalini, Beatrice; Candini, Valentina; Andreose, Suor; Basso, Pasquale; Beneduce, Rossella; Bertolotti, Pietro; Braida, Vanda; Bonelli, Marina; Bongiorno, Fanny; Bussi, Riccardo; Castagno, Elisa; Dominicis, Fabio; Ghersi, Loredana; Greppo, Stefania; Sodano, Alessandro Jaretti; Leporatti, Massimo; Presti, Eleonora Lo; Milone, Valeria; Panigada, Fausto; Pasquadibisceglie, Livia; Rigamonti, Danilo; Rillosi, Lucian

Association between preoperative evaluation with lung ultrasound and outcome in frail elderly patients undergoing orthopedic surgery for hip fractures: study protocol for an Italian multicenter observational prospective study (LUSHIP)

Hip fracture is one of the most common orthopedic causes of hospital admission in frail elderly patients. Hip fracture fixation in this class of patients is considered a high-risk procedure. Preoperative physical examination, plasma natriuretic peptide levels (BNP, Pro-BNP), and cardiovascular scoring systems (ASA-PS, RCRI, NSQIP-MICA) have all been demonstrated to underestimate the risk of postoperative complications. We designed a prospective multicenter observational study to assess whether preoperative lung ultrasound examination can predict better postoperative events thanks to the additional information they provide in the form of "indirect" and "direct" cardiac and pulmonary lung ultrasound signs

The social mechanism of public good provision : analytically researching social dilemmas with empirically founded agent based models

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The social mechanism of public good provision. analytically researching social dilemmas with empirically founded agent based models.

This work puts into close relationship the approach of Analytical Sociology, characterised by a search for explanatory social mechanisms, and the tools of Complexity Science, particularly useful for studying social systems characterised by non-linearity and out of equilibrium dynamics. It starts by presenting arguments for analytical social research, touching on epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues. After having introduced and debated the analytical approach to social theory, it describes a kind of bounded rationality that seems to be consistent with both the methodological individualism implied by the approach and the need for final explanations of social phenomena. The focus then passes onto the choice of an appropriate tool for the analysis of social systems: Agent Based Simulations. In the second half of the work this framework is applied to a social dilemma, voluntary public good provision. The critical point about the provision of public good is connected to the general social dilemma of cooperation: individuals would improve their wealth by making a full contribution to the public good in the case of cooperation with others, but free riding can be widespread and have a strong impact on the system dynamics. Thus the work, having introduced some not very common tools, concentrates on attempts to analyse and simulate the behaviour of subjects in economic experiments about the voluntary provision of public goods, pointing out that the mechanism in such dilemma is mainly the result of conditional cooperation. A case study of a rural community in Italy helps to validate the results and to direct attention to some other key issues, such as the structure of the interactions between the community members. The work ends by presenting a mechanism-based theory of voluntary public good provision that helps in understanding the boundaries of validity of social explanation and in extending it

The social mechanism of public good provision. analytically researching social dilemmas with empirically founded agent based models.

This work puts into close relationship the approach of Analytical Sociology, characterised by a search for explanatory social mechanisms, and the tools of Complexity Science, particularly useful for studying social systems characterised by non-linearity and out of equilibrium dynamics. It starts by presenting arguments for analytical social research, touching on epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues. After having introduced and debated the analytical approach to social theory, it describes a kind of bounded rationality that seems to be consistent with both the methodological individualism implied by the approach and the need for final explanations of social phenomena. The focus then passes onto the choice of an appropriate tool for the analysis of social systems: Agent Based Simulations. In the second half of the work this framework is applied to a social dilemma, voluntary public good provision. The critical point about the provision of public good is connected to the general social dilemma of cooperation: individuals would improve their wealth by making a full contribution to the public good in the case of cooperation with others, but free riding can be widespread and have a strong impact on the system dynamics. Thus the work, having introduced some not very common tools, concentrates on attempts to analyse and simulate the behaviour of subjects in economic experiments about the voluntary provision of public goods, pointing out that the mechanism in such dilemma is mainly the result of conditional cooperation. A case study of a rural community in Italy helps to validate the results and to direct attention to some other key issues, such as the structure of the interactions between the community members. The work ends by presenting a mechanism-based theory of voluntary public good provision that helps in understanding the boundaries of validity of social explanation and in extending it

A Computational Prototype of Industrial District

The aim of our paper is to suggest an agent-based computational approach to industrial districts. Agent-based computational techniques enable us to focus industrial district modeling on evolutionary fundamentals, such as time, dynamics and the emergence of collective phenomena by means of micro-founded specifications. Besides, they allow us also to look into interesting issues concerning industrial districts, such as above all the relation between firms, inter-organizational networks, information structure, technological adaptation and economic performance. First of all, we identify several building blocks, or industrial districts fundamental mechanisms, allowing us to get out an agent-based industrial district computational prototype. Afterwards, we describe two different experimental settings able to explain how some changes into interaction mechanisms can affect both long-term firms adaptation and systems evolution, in respect to technology and market environments challenges. Our artificial experiments seem to confirm that economic performance and technological adaptation, within decentralized local production systems, such as industrial districts, are closely related to the problem of how inter-firm relations can set up stable inter-firm technology coordination scaffolds