Consensus Rule Research Articles

Blockchain Consensus Rule Based Dynamic Blind Voting for Non-Dependency Transaction

Blockchain Consensus Rule Based Dynamic Blind Voting for Non-Dependency Transaction

‘Muddling Through’ in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

The paper looks at power in the origins and evolution of the Biological & Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC). It begins by looking at the origins of what some have termed a taboo surrounding poison weapons, before turning to look at the role of different forms of power in the genesis of the BWC in the late 1960s. The article proceeds to look at the role of institutional power in the evolution of the convention before turning to the limitations generated by the diffused nature of power. The chapter concludes by exploring the literature on public administration, particularly Lindblom’s notion of ‘incrementalism’ to outline how the BWC is essentially ‘muddling through’ and to some extent is largely limited to muddling through because of the consensus rule and the limits of productive power within the BWC.

Reaching a consensus with minimum adjustment in MAGDM with hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets

In real decision making, decision makers tend to express their opinions with uncertainty when facing complicated decision problem and environment. This paper develops a novel consensus reaching process for multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) with hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs). Firstly, we define a new distance measure for two HFLTSs and propose a distance-based consensus measure for the MAGDM with HFLTSs. Then, based on this consensus measure, we develop a minimum adjustment distance consensus rule for the MAGDM with HFLTSs, which can minimize the adjustment distance between the original and adjusted opinions in the process of reaching consensus. Moreover, to obtain the collective opinion with maximum consensus, we develop a minimum distance aggregation model, which is to minimize the maximum of the distance between each decision maker's individual opinion and the collective opinion. Furthermore, based on the proposed consensus rule and aggregation model, we present a consensus reaching process for MAGDM with HFLTSs. Finally, we provide the convergence proof of the consensus reaching process, and a numerical example is used to demonstrate the validity of the consensus reaching process.

Model and Algorithms for Competitiveness Maximization on Complex Networks

In this paper we study a competition model on complex networks, where two competing agents are fixed to different states while other agents are evolving to update their states through interactions according to a distributed consensus rule. We consider the situation where one competitor has the opportunity to add new links to other evolving agents such that it could improve its influence on the number of its supporters. We focus on the problem of how to add these new links in order to maximize the influence of a competitor against its rival, referred to as competitiveness. We formulate this competition as a competitiveness maximization problem, which tries to maximize the number of supports of a given competitor against its rival. We analyze the properties of this problem on some special graphs and provide optimal solutions for them, respectively. We design a simulated annealing algorithm and three heuristic algorithms to approximately solve this NP-hard constrained optimization problem.

The Myth of Effective Veto Power under the Rule of Consensus. Dynamics and Democratic Legitimacy of Collective Decision-Making by “Tacit Consent”

Cette étude discute l’hypothèse courante selon laquelle la règle de décision par consensus, par laquelle les décisions sont prises par « consentement tacite », c’est-à-dire sans vote et en absence d’une dissidence ouverte, attribue un pouvoir de veto à chaque décideur. Elle aborde cette hypothèse d’un point de vue conceptuel, analytique et empirique et réévalue la valeur démocratique de cette règle de décision et son applicabilité empirique. L’argument principal de l’étude est que les options de veto sont restreintes par mille façons sous la règle du consensus, ce qui rend cette hypothèse du consentement trompeuse. Nous montrons que le pouvoir de veto en cas de décisions collectives prises selon la règle de consensus est limité par divers mécanismes et normes sociales, qu’il est en outre réparti de façon asymétrique parmi les décideurs, et en outre désactivé, dans une majorité de cas, par « l’ombre du vote majoritaire ». L’examen des dimensions de la légitimité démocratique en termes d’intrants et de résultats montre que l’égalité de participation et d’influence et les normes de transparence et de responsabilité sont violées en raison des options de la règle du veto et d’un ordre ambigu de préférences découlant de la logique particulière de cette règle de décision. L’efficacité de cette règle est néanmoins forte et l’engagement du groupe n’est pas inférieur à ce qu’on observe dans des situations où s’applique la règle du vote. Compte tenu des points forts et des points faibles de cette règle décisionnelle, sa pertinence dans divers contextes politiques est discutée.

Decision Process, Preferences Over Risk and Consensus Rule: A Group Experiment

The recent literature on individual vs. group decisions over risk has brought about divergent results, mainly depending on the institutional rules through which groups take decisions. While some studies where group decisions relied on the majority rule showed no appreciable difference between individuals and groups’ preferences, others where unanimity among group members was required found collective decisions to be less risk averse than individual ones. Of course, these studies share the imposition of a choice rule to determine the groups’ outcome. Alternatively, in the study at hand, we elicited groups’ preferences over risk using a consensus rule, i.e. leaving groups free to endogenously solve the potential disagreement among their members, just as in many real life instances. Our results from a logit regression unambiguously show that individuals’ preferences are systematically further from the risk neutrality than those of groups. In particular, individuals are more risk seeker than groups when facing gambles with positive expected payoff difference and more risk averse in the opposite case.

When War Adversaries Talk: The Experimental Effect of Engagement Rules on Postconflict Deliberation

AbstractA set of discussion groups including leftist ex-guerrillas and rightist ex-paramilitaries in Colombia shows the limits for democratic deliberation in postconflict societies, but also points to ways that outcomes closer to the deliberative ideal might be obtained. A total of 342 ex-combatants agreed to sit down and talk politics under a number of experimental conditions, using three different protocols of engagement. Results show that consensus rule fosters simultaneously a more reasoned and common-good–oriented, and less self-interested type of discussion when compared to majority rule and unstructured “free talk.” Nevertheless, while it might be desirable to promote a better quality of deliberation in divided societies, it does not necessarily prevent antagonists’ tendency to polarize.

Sleep spindle alterations in patients with Parkinson's disease

The aim of this study was to identify changes of sleep spindles (SS) in the EEG of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Five sleep experts manually identified SS at a central scalp location (C3-A2) in 15 PD and 15 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Each SS was given a confidence score, and by using a group consensus rule, 901 SS were identified and characterized by their 1) duration, 2) oscillation frequency, 3) maximum peak-to-peak amplitude, 4) percent-to-peak amplitude and 5) density. Between-group comparisons were made for all SS characteristics computed, and significant changes for PD patients versus control subjects were found for duration, oscillation frequency, maximum peak-to-peak amplitude and density. Specifically, SS density was lower, duration was longer, oscillation frequency slower and maximum peak-to-peak amplitude higher in patients versus controls. We also computed inter-expert reliability in SS scoring and found a significantly lower reliability in scoring definite SS in patients when compared to controls. How neurodegeneration in PD could influence SS characteristics is discussed. We also note that the SS morphological changes observed here may affect automatic detection of SS in patients with PD or other neurodegenerative disorders.

Reconstructing the World Trade Organization for the 21st century: an institutional approach

The institutional shortcomings of the World Trade Organization (WTO) became apparent during the Doha Round of Trade negotiations that began in 2001 and which aimed to improve the success of developing countries' trading by lowering trade barriers and adjusting other trade rules. This development agenda meant different things to rich and poor countries. In addition, many of the circumstances that supported success in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations of 1947 were no longer present after the WTO was founded in 1995. In Reconstructing the World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, Kent Jones examines the difficulties of the WTO in completing multilateral trade negotiations and possible ways to restore its ability to do so. The problem lies in the institutional structure it inherited from the GATT, which was designed for a more limited scope of trade negotiations among a relatively small number of wealthier, industrialized countries. Jones presents an institutional model of the GATT/WTO system, which describes why such an organization exists and how it is supposed to accomplish its goals. Institutional reforms will be necessary to restore the WTO's ability to complete global trade agreements, including a more flexible application of the consensus rule, a common understanding among all members about the limits of domestic policy space that is subject to negotiation, and clearer rules on reciprocity obligations. The popularity of bilateral and regional trade agreements, which have emerged as the alternative to WTO agreements, presents a threat to the WTO's relevance in trade negotiations, but also an opportunity to multilateralize new and deeper trade integration in future WTO agreements. Aid for trade may also play an instrumental role in bringing more developing countries into WTO disciplines. Above all, WTO members must develop new ways to find common ground in order to negotiate for mutual gains from trade. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199366040/toc.html

Sleep spindle alterations in patients with Parkinson's disease

The aim of this study was to identify changes of sleep spindles (SS) in the EEG of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Five sleep experts manually identified SS at a central scalp location (C3-A2) in 15 PD and 15 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Each SS was given a confidence score, and by using a group consensus rule, 901 SS were identified and characterized by their (1) duration, (2) oscillation frequency, (3) maximum peak-to-peak amplitude, (4) percent-to-peak amplitude, and (5) density. Between-group comparisons were made for all SS characteristics computed, and significant changes for PD patients vs. control subjects were found for duration, oscillation frequency, maximum peak-to-peak amplitude and density. Specifically, SS density was lower, duration was longer, oscillation frequency slower and maximum peak-to-peak amplitude higher in patients vs. controls. We also computed inter-expert reliability in SS scoring and found a significantly lower reliability in scoring definite SS in patients when compared to controls. How neurodegeneration in PD could influence SS characteristics is discussed. We also note that the SS morphological changes observed here may affect automatic detection of SS in patients with PD or other neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs).

The Arms Trade Treaty: Pursuit for the Effective Control of Arms Transfer

The General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on 2 April 2013, which entered into force on 24 December 2014. The process towards the adoption of the ATT draws the attention of the international disarmament community because the negotiation of the ATT failed to agree on the treaty text twice at diplomatic conferences, due to its rigid consensus rule before the adoption of the ATT by vote in the UNGA. This study first describes the ATT negotiation as an example of international law-making process, especially from three cardinal viewpoints: (i) the decision-making by consensus stipulated in its rules of procedure; (ii) the role of the UNGA in the adoption of the ATT; and (iii) the contribution of the NGOs to the treaty negotiation. This article further examines the result of the negotiation, the agreed text of the ATT, focusing on the act transfer, which is the key concept of the ATT. This analysis includes the comparative studies of the precedents set by other disarmament treaties and also other issues related to the act of transfer in the ATT. One of the interesting issues is the language of safeguards contained in the clause for the act of transfer, which is also regarded as a loophole along with the ambiguity in the ATT. Consequently, this article concludes that the language of safeguards and the ambiguity in the ATT are ‘necessary evils’ for the universalisation of the ATT and it also proposes possible solutions in the quest for effective control of arms transfer through the ATT.

Influence of Linear Features in Nonlinear Electroencephalography (EEG) Signals

Epilepsy is a critical brain disorder which can be detected through the signals captured from the brain. Electroencephalography is an efficient method used to capture signals from the brain. K nearest neighbor is one of the simplest methods used for classifying epilepsy patterns. Classification of the epilepsy signal from normal pattern will be primarily based on features extracted from brain signals. This paper discusses statistical based linear feature extraction methods such as Root Mean Square, Variance and Linear Prediction Coefficient. This paper also focuses influence of decision rules such as consensus and majority rule in the classification of epilepsy data set. Results show better classification with respect to increased k value.

Classification of Printed Moroccan Town and Village Names

This paper presents a new method called density weight and zigzag sequence to recognize printed Arabic names. This technique was performed on two steps, the first aims to reduce matrix size of 96x96 into 12x12 using density weight techniques, in the second step the last matrix (12x12) was used to extract 144 sequences following path zigzag technique. 144 features found are used for representing each name in data set. This proposed technique was tested on Morocco town and village names using KNN with consensus rule and SVM classifiers. The perfect score was obtained with KNN (k=9) and SVM (linear kernel).

Transparency in the WTO's Decision-Making

AbstractIn almost 20 years of existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has managed to be at the forefront of public discussions on international organizations (IOs). Transparency in the WTO decision-making has been on the agenda of the multilateral trading system for several years. Pressures from developing countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the civil society in particular have led to significant improvements towards more openness and participation in the WTO decision-making. This article posits the WTO within the current debates about more institutional transparency in IOs. It discusses the current features of good governance in the WTO decision-making and the consensus rule in particular, in an attempt to identify the pros and cons of this voting tradition in a modern IO. It also discusses the recent selection of the new WTO Director-General. A central insight of the paper is that input and output transparency of the WTO could be further enhanced by increased, managed participation of NGOs. As the WTO is gradually becoming a genuine IO in terms of membership and gets involved in global discussions relating to finance, climate change, or poverty eradication, public scrutiny will only increase and thus improved governance is an irreversible process. However, divergences in the views of WTO Members as to the proper scope of WTO input and output transparency will most probably lead to extended negotiations. Some thoughts about the future prospects of and possible avenues for the WTO system are also identified.

A Contested Consensus Rule

The article tests the wisdom of amending the osce rule of consensus against past experiences of introducing a “consensus minus one” procedure, establishing mandatory cooperative “mechanisms” which can be triggered by a qualified minority of states, or introducing autonomously operating institutions. It argues that amending the consensus rule does not per se lead to a stronger Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. While the participating states could benefit from more independent osce institutions, decisions leading in that direction would need time to mature, particularly in the current political environment marked by the very low level of mutual trust within the osce.

Consensus in the search for areas of endemism

AbstractFor ambiguous data sets, methods to determine areas of endemism based on an optimality criterion may result in large numbers of candidate areas, and thus some kind of consensus technique is required to summarize those results. This paper presents a formal description of two possible algorithms or rules for area consensus, which merge candidate areas if they share a user‐defined percentage of the species that define each candidate area. The two consensus rules summarize ambiguity in different ways. Applying the ‘tight’ rule will result in consensus areas defined by species present in nearly all cells, but in cases where there is significant conflict the result may be a high number of distinct consensus areas. The ‘loose’ consensus rule is more agglomerative and will result in fewer consensus areas, combining areas when overlapping distribution patterns exist. Depending on the aim and scale of the analysis, the two consensus rules can be used either to delimit areas of endemism with sharp boundaries or to identify diffuse and gradually replacing biogeographical patterns. These two different approaches are discussed and demonstrated using real data.

Do Election Rules Affect Deliberation? An Experiment on Deliberative Election Rules and Group Trust

Enhanced deliberation has been prescribed as the way forward to improve democratic decision-making, while generating positive attributes like trust and legitimacy. Yet, we do not know to what extent different decision-making election rules affect the deliberative process and its outcome. This article investigates to what extent different election rules in deliberative decision-making affect group trust by testing three ideal types of election rules (i.e. a dictator election rule, a representative election rule and a consensus rule) in a laboratory experiment. The findings show that the differences in election rules have a significant impact on the level of trust after deliberation. Interestingly, however, we find that the election rule of representative democracy yield more group trust than does the election rule of pure consensus and non-hierarchical decision-making. Thus our findings challenge the understanding by deliberative normative theorists that the more inclusion and consensus in the decision-making procedure the more trust and legitimacy amongst its participants.

Group Decision-making: Consensus Rule Versus Majority Rule

Previously, in the field to solve complex problems, we had found that majority rule (MR) decision-making out-performed consensus rule (CR) by making decisions that were quicker, more practical, and of better quality. This is an important finding for businesses. In the laboratory, we had found consistent support for the speed of making decisions under majority rules, but we subsequently failed to replicate the findings about practicality and quality with three-person groups in the laboratory. We attributed the problem to a lack of conflict experienced in the MR groups that we had attempted to generate but which did not materialize. The literature agreed with us that it was difficult to get debate in three-person groups. In an effort to increase debate among group members in the MR condition, in the present research, we used from three to seven- person groups and the Wason Selection Task. We additionally began using improved psycho-physiological instrumentation to measure electrodermal activity, skin temperature and body movement.

Deliberation after War: Experimental Evidence from Ex-Combatantss Debates in Colombia

Evidence from mini-public discussion groups including former antagonists in the Colombian armed conflict shows how scepticism and distrust can undermine deliberative behavior in divided societies, but also points to ways in which a more ideal performance might be stimulated. We show that consensus rule is associated with a higher frequency of arguments than majority rule is, that the opportunity to intervene on many occasions during a discussion is associated with a better overall performance, and that deliberation levels do not relate to listeners’ tendency to polarize. A total of 644 ex- combatants participated in our experimental research design, 342 of whom agreed to sit down and talk politics.

Fuzzy MCDM Model for Risk Factor Selection in Construction Projects

Risk factor selection is an important step in a successful risk management plan. There are many risk factors in a construction project and by an effective and systematic risk selection process the most critical risks can be distinguished to have more attention. In this paper through a comprehensive literature survey, most significant risk factors in a construction project are classified in a hierarchical structure. For an effective risk factor selection, a modified rational multi criteria decision making model (MCDM) is developed. This model is a consensus rule based model and has the optimization property of rational models. By applying fuzzy logic to this model, uncertainty factors in group decision making such as experts` influence weights, their preference and judgment for risk selection criteria will be assessed. Also an intelligent checking process to check the logical consistency of experts` preferences will be implemented during the decision making process. The solution inferred from this method is in the highest degree of acceptance of group members. Also consistency of individual preferences is checked by some inference rules. This is an efficient and effective approach to prioritize and select risks based on decisions made by group of experts in construction projects. The applicability of presented method is assessed through a case study.