A group of individuals, with a potential conflict of interest, face a choice among alternatives. There is a network externality such that the chosen alternative yields value only if sufficiently many individuals get on board. Their preferences for each alternative and the benefit derived from a successfully formed network are known only privately and might vary between the players who determine...

Using models helps students learn from a "whole systems" perspective when studying the cell. This paper describes a model that employs guided inquiry and requires consensus building among students for its completion. The model is interactive, meaning that it expands upon a static model which, once completed, cannot be altered and additionally relates various levels of biological organization (m...

A deterministic algorithm for building the majority rule consensus tree of an input collection of conflicting phylogenetic trees with identical leaf labels is presented. Its worst-case running time is O(nk), where n is the size of the leaf label set and k is the number of input phylogenetic trees. This is optimal since the input size is Ω(nk). Experimental results show that the algorithm is fas...

The need for semantic interoperability between ontologies in a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment is imperative. This is because, by definition participants in P2P environment are equal, autonomous and distributed. For example, the synthesis of concepts developed independently by different academic researchers, different research labs, various emergency service departments and, hospitals and pharma...

A multi-labeled phylogenetic tree, or MUL-tree, is a generalization of a phylogenetic tree that allows each leaf label to be used many times. MUL-trees have applications in biogeography, the study of host-parasite cospeciation, gene evolution studies, and computer science. Here, we consider the problem of inferring a consensus MUL-tree that summarizes a given set of conflicting MUL-trees, and p...

We present a framework for dependability consensus building and in-operation assurance for information systems, and show the current prototype implementation. Today, information systems are ever changing systems: they are always modified and updated to satisfy user’s changing requirements and deal with environmental changes. Furthermore, information systems must cope with system failures and co...

The ability to develop evidence-based clinical guidance and effective programs and policies to achieve global health promotion and disease prevention goals depends on the availability of valid and reliable data. With specific regard to the role of food and nutrition in achieving those goals, relevant data are developed with the use of biomarkers that reflect nutrient exposure, status, and funct...

BACKGROUND There are key gaps in the production and dissemination of evidence-based tobacco control research in developing countries. In India, limited research has been made to address and understand the function, constitution, thematic areas of research of a research and practice network in tobacco control. This study aimed to identify priority areas that were agreed by stakeholders for build...

In the following study, I develop two new institutional dimensions of consensus/majoritarian democracies, building on the variables of the two forms of democracy identified by Lijphart. Based on these two new dimensions, I establish a classification of consensual regime types and winnow out two permutations which would most closely approximate the ideal of domestic social conflict resolution, a...