Collective Opinion Research Articles

Integrated microtia and aural atresia management.

To present recommendations for the coordinated evaluation and management of the hearing and reconstructive needs of patients with microtia and aural atresia. A national working group of 9 experts on microtia and atresia evaluated a working document on the evaluation and treatment of patients. Treatment options for auricular reconstruction and hearing habilitation were reviewed and integrated into a coordinated care timeline. Recommendations were created for children with microtia and atresia, including diagnostic considerations, surgical and non-surgical options for hearing management and auricular reconstruction, and the treatment timeline for each option. These recommendations are based on the collective opinion of the group and are intended for otolaryngologists, audiologists, plastic surgeons, anaplastologists, and any provider caring for a patient with microtia and ear canal atresia. Close communication between atresia/hearing reconstruction surgeon and microtia repair surgeon is strongly recommended.

Extending the Theory of Normative Social Behavior: Collective Norms, Opinion Leadership, and Masking During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Novel, public behaviors, such as masking, should be susceptible to normative influence. This paper advances the theory of normative social behavior by considering a new set of moderators of normative influence — superdiffuser traits — and by clarifying the antecedents and consequences of exposure to collective norms. We use data from a two-wave survey of a cohort living in one U.S. county during the pandemic (N = 913) to assess normative effects on masking. We also used a bipartite network (based on people shopping for food in the same stores) to examine exposure to collective norms. The results show different superdiffuser traits have distinct effects on the relationship between perceived injunctive norms and masking intentions. Exposure to collective norms influences masking, but this influence depends on how people interact with their social environments. Network analysis shows that behavioral homophily is a significant predictor of selective exposure to collective norms earlier (but not later) in the pandemic. Implications for understanding normative influence in a context where opinion leadership matters are discussed.

Social network group decision-making for probabilistic linguistic information based on GRA

In group decision-making problems, decision-makers typically use probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) to express their evaluation opinions. This paper focuses on the social network group decision-making method for probabilistic linguistic information. First, we propose a new consensus judgment mechanism by computing the absolute grey relation degree between the most probable optimal vectors of individual decision makers and collective opinion. Furthermore, in order to reduce the calculated amount in the decision-making process, we propose a model to transform the score value into a PLTS. This technique uses stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis to determine the criteria weights. The preferences of the decision-makers can be accurately portrayed by this approach. In addition, we put forward a model to transform the score value into a PLTS and propose a new way to obtain the criteria weights using stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis. Moreover, we develop an advice generation method with two steps for the PLTS in a feedback adjustment process. Finally, we use a case study and comparative analysis to illustrate the effectiveness of our method. Our proposed method can be applied to address many group decision-making problems involving multiple interest groups, such as social policy, facility placement, and other issues.

Expertise-Structure and Risk-Appetite-Integrated Two-Tiered Collective Opinion Generation Framework for Large-Scale Group Decision Making

The generation of collective preference assessments occupies a critical position in deriving accurate and reliable alternative rankings in the context of large-scale group decision making (LSGDM). In general, the collective opinion generation framework entails the following three phases, which are clustering analysis, weighting clusters, and preference aggregation. However, the clustering of experts has been frequently based on preference similarities among them without taking into account individual opinions in which knowledge elicitation plays a crucial role. The traditional collective opinion generation framework suffering from this drawback may result in unreliable decision outcomes. To this end, we propose an expertise-structure and risk-appetite-integrated two-tiered collective opinion generation framework to address this concern. The first tier of the two-tiered collective opinion generation framework divides the entire expert group into several subgroups based on individual expertise structures, which are extracted from hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS)-based preference assessments, and it then weighs the resulting clusters in accordance with the overall expertise levels. The second-tier clusters the first-tier subgroups conditioned on the indicator of individual assessment similarities and gathers the generated subgroup preference constructs in the use of the risk appetite-oriented power average operator. In addition, the notion of proportional HFLTSs was introduced to manifest collective evaluations in second-tier subgroups to eliminate information loss and distortion. The effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed collective opinion generation algorithm are eventually illustrated by a case study and a comparison analysis.

Adaptive minimum adjustment consensus model for large-scale group decision making under social networks and its application in Integrated Care of Older People

Elderly care has become a vital livelihood issue as the aging population continues to grow. Generally, integrated care of older people (ICOPE) involves doctors, nurses, and family members. The service quality evaluation of integrated care can be modeled by social network large-scale group decision making (SN-LSGDM), and linguistic distribution assessment (LDA) is a powerful means to express evaluation information. However, it lacks the associated research. This paper proposes an adaptive minimum adjustment consensus model for SN-LSGDM with LDA and then applies it to evaluate elderly care modes. Firstly, trust relationships are updated according to the opinion similarity and the trust deviation. Then, a new clustering method based on trust density and opinion similarity is proposed to cluster DMs. Further, the expert and subgroup consensus levels are measured by considering the distance from the collective opinion. Moreover, adaptive consensus models are constructed in terms of the minimum adjustment of subgroups and experts. Finally, a case study of the service quality of ICOPE demonstrates the effectiveness of the new method, and comparison and sensitivity analysis reflect the advantages of the new approach.

Discontinuous Transitions in Stochastic Models of Collective Opinion Dynamics

Discontinuous Transitions in Stochastic Models of Collective Opinion Dynamics

Co-finance for energy project under the Belt and Road Initiative: an application of evidential reasoning-group decision-making method.

Cooperation among consortium countries for energy projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) faces various uncertainties, and urges institutional investors to choose the co-finance mode to diversify the investment risk of energy projects. Recently, responsible investing in energy finance has been raised as a path to make the BRI greener. However, few studies focused on the issue on how to make the optimal decision in the process of collaboration. Therefore, this study constructed the financial-environment, social, and governance (F-ESG) evaluation indicator system from the perspective of responsible investors and proposed an integrated evidential reasoning group decision-making (ER-GDM) model. Then, programmed algorithms were designed to analyze and visualize the selection of the desired alternative. Finally, we applied the evaluation framework to the co-finance for four energy projects under the BRI. The results showed that after multiple rounds of discussion and negotiation (DAN), the consensus level reached 95.1%. It depicts that the optimized collective opinion has been obtained despite heterogeneous preferences. The analysis framework and proposed model in this study not only help international investors to co-finance energy project efficiently but also provide a solution for policy-makers to realize sustainable and high-quality cooperation in investment and financing under the BRI.

Extremism, segregation and oscillatory states emerge through collective opinion dynamics in a novel agent-based model

ABSTRACT Using mathematics to model the evolution of opinions among interacting agents is a rich and growing field. We present a novel agent-based model that enhances the explanatory power of existing theoretical frameworks, corroborates experimental findings in social psychology, and reflects observed phenomena in contemporary society. Bespoke features of the model include: a measure of pairwise affinity between agents; a memory capacity of the population; and a generalized confidence bound called the interaction threshold, which can be dynamical and heterogeneous. Moreover, the model is applicable to opinion spaces of any dimensionality. Through analytical and numerical investigations, we study the opinion dynamics produced by the model and examine the effects of various model parameters. We prove that as long as every agent interacts with every other, the population will reach an opinion consensus regardless of the initial opinions or parameter values. When interactions are limited to be among agents with similar opinions, segregated opinion clusters can be formed. An opinion drift is also observed in certain settings, leading to collective extremisation of the whole population, which we quantify using a rigorous mathematical measure. We find that collective extremisation is likely if agents cut off connections whenever they move away from the neutral position, effectively isolating themselves from the population. When a population fails to reach a steady state, oscillations of a neutral majority are observed due to the influence exerted by a small number of extreme agents. By carefully interpreting these results, we posit explanations for the mechanisms underlying socio-psychological phenomena such as emergent cooperation and group polarization.

A large-scale group decision-making model with no consensus threshold based on social network analysis

Recently, large-scale group decision-making in the social network context has become an attractive research hotspot in decision science. The focus of large-scale group decision-making is how to objectively and reasonably generate a collective opinion accepted by most decision makers. To this end, this study investigates a novel consensus model with no threshold based on social networks. In the model, inspired by the “similarity-attraction paradigm” in psychology, we first propose a novel adjustment method for the trust degree between decision makers. A clustering method that depends on the similarity-trust score between decision makers is presented to reduce the complexity of decision-making. In the consensus reaching process, we provide an approach to managing the overconfident or unconfident behaviour of decision makers. Moreover, the social network DeGroot model is used to adjust the preferences of decision makers in the feedback mechanism. In addition, we design an objective condition to terminate the consensus reaching process. Based on this, the no threshold consensus model is established, which makes the decision results more rational and scientific. Finally, the applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated by an illustrative example. Simulation experiments and comparative analysis illustrate the validity of the proposed model in promoting consensus reaching.

ESCP President's report.

ESCP President's report.

Relationship between the distance consensus and the consensus degree in comprehensive minimum cost consensus models: A polytope-based analysis

Agreement in Group Decision-Making problems has recently been tackled through the use of Minimum Cost Consensus (MCC) models, which are associated with solving convex optimization problems. Such models minimize the cost of changing experts’ preferences towards reaching a mutual consensus, and establish that the distance between the modified individual preferences and the collective opinion must be bounded by the threshold ε>0. A recent MCC-based model, called the Comprehensive Minimum Cost Consensus (CMCC) model, adds another constraint related to a parameter γ∈[0,1] to the above constraint related to the parameter ε to enforce modified expert preferences in order to achieve a minimum level of agreement dictated by the consensus threshold 1−γ∈[0,1]. This paper attempts to analyze the relationship between the aforementioned constraints in the CMCC models from two different perspectives. The first is based on inequalities and allows simple bounds to be determined to relate the parameters ε and γ. The second one is based on Convex Polytope Theory and provides algorithms that compute more precise bounds to relate these parameters, and could also be applied to other similar optimization problems. Finally, several examples are provided to illustrate the proposal.

An Analytical Study of the Opinions of Collective Jurisprudential Institutions on Prevailing Insurance

The insurance agreement is a significant issue of Islamic jurisprudence which has concerned numerous arguments and deliberations. Shari‘ah researchers, economists, and experts have categorically discussed their views from a Shari‘ah stands point. A number of scholars are opposed to the idea of modern insurance. They highlight objectionable elements like interest, gambling, and uncertainty in insurance. On the other hand, some scholars say nothing incorrect with insurance. According to them, an insurance contract is a valid contract from the Shari‘ah point of view because it is based on Islamic values ofcollaboration and mutual help. Many international conferences and seminars had been organized on said issue and were studied by collective fiqhi bodies and research organizations in different Muslim countries. This paper aims to review and analyze theverdict uphold in the conferences and the resolutions of research organizations about the shari'ah position of insurance as the collective opinion are always considered stronger than individual opinion. Resolutions of almost all well-known reputed fiqhi bodies were collected and analyzed. It is noted with surprise that although some scholars consider insurance permissible but all collective fiqhi bodies are unanimous on it impermissibility due to the involvement of prohibited elements found in this contract. These bodies also suggested the possible alternative to commercial insurance. `The 1992 report of the Council of Islamic Ideology Pakistan is the most comprehensive work on this subject and provides a detailed model based on the concept of Waqf.

The Contribution of Places Of Worship in Tamilnadu towards Sustainability in Tourism Sector Post Covid 19

The paper is based on the Contribution that needs to be taken by the places of Worship across Tamilnadu towards resurrecting the Tourism Sector post Covid 19. The Impact of the pandemic, Corona Virus has bought the tourism sector to a Complete halt, a sector to which our country generally looks into and carries it as an asset towards the generation of our country economy every year. It was observed by the expert committee like the CII who says that the losses has gone upto over 30 billion, with an average of around 80 less travel in these period since the Lockdown in March 2020. Furthermore to complicate things, a loss of around 20 trillion is expected thus damaging the growth further. As a researcher, it is a scary thought for me to think out minute factors that happen to reach the Tourism sector to promote itself .Indian tourism development in the world has shown a improving trend in to being 22nd in the world in 2018 and just touching in upon the top 20 status last year Indian Tourism has witnessed a considerable hit in the current situation. Tourism sector which also has created a ripple of a domino effect in towards Aviation Sector, Hospitality Sector and Transportation sector has to be revived immediately for the welfare of our country. As I underwent a few research, one thing that caught my eye is the places of Worship. I thought of covering in the places of religious sites as a way to Sustain and build tourism in our state Tamilnadu. Based on a Questionnaire , I started Collecting opinions through Telephonic Conversation among the various people in Tamilnadu in a convenient Sampling method. I used the statistical tool, chi Square test and also wanted to see whether there is a difference in the means, a way to build up Tourism Industry. Based on this, I noted my findings and concluded in certain suggestions to ensure that Places of Worship in Tamilnadu can be one of the fundamental things through which Sustainability can be achieved in Tourism

The European Society of Coloproctology Collecting Opinions on Sustainable Surgery Study.

ESCP ECOS-Surgery Study Committee: The European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP), Porstsmouth, United Kingdom Funding/Source: None reported. Financial Disclosures: None reported. This study has been presented as Podium Presentation at the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) meeting 5/3-5/2022, Liverpool, UK and as Poster Presentation at the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI) 4-6 July 2022, Edinburgh, UK. Members of the ESCP ECOS-Surgery Study Committee: The study committee members are listed in the Acknowledgements. Correspondence: Gianluca Pellino, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, Universitá degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, Italy. Email: [email protected][email protected]

Sustainability Prize 3 Surgeons’ awareness and opinions on sustainability in surgery: the ECOS-Surgery global survey

Abstract Aims Healthcare is one of the largest waste-generating activities contributing to climate change, with surgery the most energy-intense sector. This international survey aimed to evaluate current understanding and perspectives of colorectal surgeons on sustainability, with a specific focus on surgical practice. Methods The European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) designed an online survey - ECOS-Surgery (ESCP Collecting Opinions on Sustainable Surgery). Questions were divided into three sections to capture demographic characteristics of participants, their awareness on global sustainability with its application to surgical practice, and their perspectives on future directions in sustainability. Results 370 participants from 57 countries answered the survey (median age 39; 75% men; 73% consultant surgeons). Around 60% of them were unaware that the health sector contributed to global greenhouse gas emissions. Delivering sustainable surgery was perceived as a matter of great importance for most (92%), and 97% of participants were willing to change their practice to improve sustainability. However, 78% of them had no local or national guidance on this subject. Lack of understanding by the surgical community was recognised as the primary key barrier in improving sustainable pathways (63%). Research in sustainability was perceived to play a role in improving sustainability in surgery by the majority (97.5%). Promoting healthy lifestyle among patients (38%) and use of low-carbon alternatives in surgery (29%) were the solutions most commonly suggested. Conclusion Our survey shows the surgical community's interest in supporting a sustainable surgery pathway, although underlining the lack of contemporary guidance/support to achieve this goal.

From collective opinion dependence to personalization: The impacts of social trust relationship in consensus formation

Social network group decision-making (SNGDM) has become popular recently in the area of decision analysis as the social network can effectively model the relationship among decision makers. In the SNGDM, decision makers will present conflicting assessments due to individual differences in education backgrounds and cognitive levels. This study aims to develop a personalized consensus reaching framework considering the impact of social trust network on assessments-modifications willingness. A personalized feedback is designed for guiding assessments-modifications, which is based on the assumption that a decision maker will accept his\\her trusted decision makers’ assessments when modifying assessment in a social trust network. Then, a dual optimization-based personalized feedback is proposed for supporting consensus formation, where the first personalized feedback seeks to minimize the assessments-modifications and the second aims to minimize network-modifications. Particularly, two ways are used to measure network-modifications, referred to as trust values modifications with fixed network structure and network structure modifications, respectively. Further, an interactive dual optimization-based personalized consensus reaching process is constructed. With the aim of justifying the effectiveness of the proposed model, it is applied to solve the green supplier evaluation problem. Finally, it is illustrated that our proposal can improve consensus efficiency compared with collective opinion dependence feedback.

The current state of well test analysis and reservoir testing in Russian oil and gas fields

The article presents the results of the industry survey questionnaire on the current state of comprehensive well test analysis and reservoir testing in Russia conducted in October 2021 – February 2022. One hundred and eighty industry experts – in geology, geophysics, oil and gas field development, petrophysics and other areas – gave complete and thorough answers to the questionnaire about the strategy and business importance of research; the techniques, technologies and software for the industry; the improvement of methodology and the creation of a regulatory framework; HR strategy and development of professional competencies. As a result, we obtained valuable information, the collective expert opinion on the current state of affairs and directions of further elaboration of comprehensive multidisciplinary well test analysis and reservoir testing for the purposes of rational subsoil use, improvement of field development efficiency and development of human capital in the oil and gas industry.

Coevolution of collective opinions and actions under two different control inputs

This paper investigates a two-layer coevolution model of collective opinions and actions under two different control inputs. First, we introduce two control inputs, opinion regulator and impulsive stimulation, into this model. While changes in opinions tend to be gradual, changes in actions can instantly occur through external stimuli. These two inputs are control methods implemented on opinions and actions, respectively. Next, we conduct a series of investigations on how shifts of the collective opinions and actions are realized under the interventions brought by the control inputs. With only the opinion regulator, we explore conditions of the internal attributes of generic individuals. Assuming only the impulsive stimulation existed, we pay more attention to how to implement the intervention. These results provide valuable analytical references for guidance on public opinions and behaviors. Last, we show the validity of our theoretical results through numerical simulations.

Freedom of Association versus Freedom of Assembly

Freedom of assembly occupies an “eminent place” in the system of international acts aimed at the protection of human rights. In this sense, we mention that freedom of association and freedom of assembly are instruments of expression, of collective opinion and as such, due to their role in the existence and development of a democratic society, they assign a central place in establishing the democratic framework of state governance. Freedom of association and freedom of assembly outline the essence of democracy which resides in its ability to resolve issues through public debate. The protection of freedom of assembly targets precisely this exchange of ideas and the collective manifestations of social and political activity. Freedom of assembly covers both private and public assemblies. In this sense, states have a positive obligation to protect those who exercise this freedom against the violence of counter-demonstrators. For this purpose, the states have a wide margin of appreciation of the necessary measures.

Overcoming challenges in management of atopic dermatitis: Role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis and treatment target of atopic dermatitis (ROAD)

The Dermatology Advisory Board on Atopic Dermatitis from Asian Medical Expert Academy compiles current evidence-based approach review in managing atopic dermatitis (AD) among Asians. Electronic searches were performed to retrieve relevant published paper, systematic reviews, and guidelines on AD in the period of 2010-2020. A premeeting survey was performed prior to the meeting to gather opinions from experts to identify the individual unmet demands in the current management, and the possible strategies to overcome these issues. Collective opinions are scrutinized during the next step in a meeting, with the establishment of the opinions into an updated consensus in current AD management. Meeting of all committees through webinar platform in 2020 is called in making the current position in the AD management. Current challenges in AD management include steroid phobia, compliance, myths among the community, frequent flares leading to loss of patience, and good rapport. The Expert Panel recommends a stepwise approach to treatment based on disease severity. The use of moisturizers is recommended across all levels of AD severity. Oxidative stress is recognized as an important contributor to AD that can directly damage skin cells and induce an immune response that leads to AD. Prescribed Emollient Device (PED) with antioxidants can help mitigate the effects of oxidative stress in causing AD. Furfuryl palmitate is an antioxidant that has demonstrated efficacy in managing symptoms of AD in adults and children, as well as other inflammatory dermatoses. PEDs can potentially play an important role in the treatment of AD by augmenting "upstream" treatment. This could potentially help reduce the risk of side effects and adverse events in patients undergoing treatment for AD. Furfuryl palmitate is an antioxidant that has demonstrated efficacy in managing symptoms of AD in adults and children.