Cooperative Dynamics Research Articles

Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Business Sustainability of Agricultural Cooperatives in Northern Mindanao

Cooperatives serve as cornerstones in the region's agricultural sector, supporting livelihoods, food security, and economic development. In examining the complex dynamics of agricultural cooperatives in Northern Mindanao, this analysis investigates the multifaceted factors that affect their business sustainability, shedding light on crucial determinants driving the region's agricultural cooperative landscape. The study used a descriptive correlational research design and used survey in gathering primary data. Findings revealed that the majority of the cooperatives have been operating for 21 years and above, more have members from 15 to 150, the majority have 1 to 9 employees, and the majority are micro-cooperatives. The results indicating an average mean distribution of management of cooperatives described as strongly affecting business sustainability, shed light on the critical role of effective management practices in ensuring the long-term viability of agricultural cooperatives. The study concluded that Management of Cooperatives is significantly correlated to Business Sustainability: People means are considered weak and positive relationships between the variables tested, and Profit means are described as strong. The Enterprise Characteristics are significantly correlated to Business Sustainability, People means are described as moderate and positive relationships between the variables tested, and Profit means are described as moderate. Implications: emphasize the need for cooperatives to strategically leverage their organizational characteristics to enhance business sustainability through targeted interventions in areas such as human resource management, innovation adoption, and value chain integration.

Unique Viscoelasticity and Hierarchical Relaxation Dynamics of Molecular Granular Materials.

Resulting from the dense packing of subnanometer molecular clusters, molecular granular materials (MGMs) are shown to maintain high elasticity far above their apparent glass transition temperature (Tg*). However, our microscopic understanding of their structure-property relationship is still poor. Herein, 1 nm polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSSs) are appended to a backbone chain in a brush configuration with different flexible linker chains. Assemblies of these brush polymers exhibit hierarchical relaxation dynamics with the glass transition arising from the cooperative dynamics of packed POSSs. The interaction among the assemblies can be strengthened by increasing the rigidity of linkers with the MGM relaxation modes changing from colloid- to polymer chain-like behavior, rendering their tunable viscoelasticity. This finally contributes to the decoupling of mechanical and thermal properties by showing elasticity dominant mechanical properties at a temperature 150 K above the Tg*.

EU arms collaboration, procurement, and offsets: the impact of the war in Ukraine

ABSTRACT In the last twenty years, the EU has made increasingly greater efforts to boost defence cooperation among MS. To strengthen the EDTIB and avoid duplication of capabilities, the EU has encouraged “European preference” in arms procurement and MS’ defence collaborative projects, also by seeking to expunge defence offsets from the single market. Against this backdrop, on 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. What impact has the war in Ukraine had on EU defence cooperation? Has the war impacted MS in a similar fashion or unevenly, reinforcing defence integration dynamics for some, while kickstarting disintegration for others? Two years on, a thorough analysis of the impact of the war on EU defence cooperation is still missing. This paper fills this gap by exploring three levels of analysis – arms collaboration, arms procurement, and offsets – and by comparing pre-invasion evidence with data from the post-invasion period. The analysis suggests that the Russo-Ukrainian war has negatively impacted EU defence cooperation, potentially increasing both fragmentation and non-EU dependencies. However, although MS’ threat perception and their ability to reap industrial benefits remain important to explain EU defence cooperation, integration or disintegration dynamics do not neatly map onto the geographical or size divides identified by the literature.

Are Transboundary Water Events Reported Differently in French and English News for Conflict and Cooperation Dynamics?

Media coverage of water events in transboundary river basins reflects the views of both riparian countries and beyond, and the conflict and cooperation dynamics could be biased due to the linguistic diversity. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any deviation exists in the depiction of water conflict and cooperation dynamics as reflected in the sentiments of French and English news articles, taking the Lancang–Mekong River basin and the Nile River basin as case studies. The results showed that news articles in English itself can reflect the trends of the cooperative or conflictive sentiments of the water events occurring within the basin, but French news is complementary in examining the attitudes and values of a few countries towards the shared river. The study would serve as an important reference for the perspective analysis of all riparian countries, as well as a basis for comprehending water conflict/cooperation dynamics in multiple languages.

Opinion Mining on Social Media Text Using Optimized Deep Belief Networks

In the digital world, most people spend their leisure and precious time on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter. Instagram, and so on. Moreover, users post their views of products, services, political parties on their social sites. This information is viewed by many other users and brands. With the aid of these posts and tweets, the emotions, polarities of users are extracted to obtain the opinion about products or services. To analyze these posts sentiment analysis or opinion mining techniques are applied. Subsequently, this field rapidly attracts many researchers to conduct their research work due to the availability of an enormous number of data on social media networks. Further, this method can also be used to analyze the text to extract the sentiments which are classified as moderate, neutral, low extreme, and high extreme. However, the extraction of sentiment is an arduous one from the social media datasets, since it includes formal and informal texts, emojis, symbols. Hence to extract the feature vector from the accessed social media datasets and to perform accurate classification to group the texts based on the appropriate sentiments we proposed a novel method known as, Deep Belief Network-based Dynamic Grouping-based Cooperative optimization method DBN based DGCO. Exploiting this method the data are preprocessed to attain the required format of text and henceforth the feature vectors are extracted by the ICS algorithm. Furthermore, the extracted datasets are classified and grouped into moderate, neutral, low extreme, and high extreme with DBN based DGCO method. For experimental analysis, we have taken two social media datasets and analyzed the performance of the proposed method in terms of performance metrics such as accuracy/precision, recall, F1 Score, and ROC with HEMOS, WOA-SITO, PDCNN, and NB-LSVC state-of-art works. The acquired accuracy/precision, recall, and F1 Score, of our proposed ICS-DBN-DGCO method, are 89%, 80%, 98.2%, respectively.

Examining the Coopetition Relationships in Renewable Energy Trade among BRI Countries: Complexity, Stability, and Evolution

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has significantly transformed the traditional energy market and reshaped international cooperation and conflict dynamics through its expanding trade in renewable energy resources. This study focuses on examining the complex and evolving nature of coopetition relationships in the renewable energy trade among BRI countries from 2013 to 2020. Understanding the interplay between cooperation and competition in this sector is crucial for comprehending the dynamics and stability of these trade relationships. Using a signed network approach, the findings of this study reveal that the countries predominantly exhibit a cooperative relationship. However, as time progresses, a notable pattern emerges, characterized by the coexistence of “competitive cooperation” and “cooperative competition”. In addition, coopetition group clustering is strongly influenced by geographical location. China, as a key player in the BRI, demonstrates a coopetition group characterized by a high inflow and low outflow pattern. Furthermore, the implementation of the BRI has greatly improved the overall stability of trade along the route. However, the coexistence of competition and cooperation among nations has increased the uncertainty of trade relations, thereby exerting a certain level of influence on their stability. Based on these findings, this study proposes policy recommendations to strength renewable energy trade relationships along the BRI route.

Cooperative Dynamics of Highly Entangled Linear Polymers within the Entanglement Tube.

We present a quantitative comparison of the dynamic structure factors from unentangled and strongly entangled poly(butylene oxide) (PBO) melts. As expected, the low molecular weight PBO displays Rouse dynamics, however, with very significant subdiffusive center-of-mass diffusion. The spectra from high molecular weight entangled PBO can be very well described by the dynamic structure factor based on the concept of local reptation, including the Rouse dynamics within the tube and allowing for non-Gaussian corrections. Comparing quantitatively the spectra from both polymers leads to the surprising result that their spectra differ only by the contribution of classical Rouse diffusion for the low molecular weight melt. The subdiffusive component is common for both the low and high molecular weight PBO melts, indicating that in both melts the same interchain potential is active, thereby supporting the validity of the Generalized Langevin Equation approach.

Dynamic Co-Operative Energy-Efficient Routing Algorithm Based on Geographic Information Perception in Opportunistic Mobile Networks

Opportunistic mobile networks, as an important supplement to the traditional communication methods in unique environments, are composed of mobile communication devices. It is a network form that realizes message transmission by using the opportune encounter of these mobile communication devices. Consequently, mobile communication devices necessitate periodic contact detection in order to identify potential communication opportunities, thereby leading to a substantial reduction in the already limited battery life of such devices. Previous studies on opportunistic networks have often utilized geographic information in routing design to enhance message delivery rate. However, the significance of geographic information in energy conservation has been overlooked. Furthermore, previous research on energy-efficient routing has lacked diversification in terms of the methods employed. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamic co-operative energy-efficient routing algorithm based on geographic information perception (DCEE-GIP) to leverage geographic information to facilitate dynamic co-operation among nodes and optimize node sleep time through probabilistic analysis. The DCEE-GIP routing and other existing algorithms were simulated using opportunistic network environment (ONE) simulation. The results demonstrate that DCEE-GIP effectively extends network service time and successfully delivers the most messages. The service time of DCEE-GIP increased by 8.05∼31.11%, and more messages were delivered by 14.82∼115.9%.

Enduring Crises and Possibilities for Cooperation in Turkish-Greek Relations: A Feminist Account

On 15 September 2020, Turkish and Greek women declared their commitment to peace. They said: “As peace-loving women of the two countries, despite the dominant patriarchal system threatening the world, we are determined to work towards peace by developing our common culture, cooperation, and friendship in the Aegean.” They have demanded a just resolution of controversies surrounding the relations through diplomacy and international law. By underlining that feminism offers essential insights into understanding cooperation and conflict dynamics, this article will analyse the last two decades of Turkish-Greek relations through a feminist reading. Feminism, with its critical and holistic approach, will contribute significantly to the understanding of Turkish-Greek relations during the periods of cooperation but more so during entranced conflicts. Post-1999 represents the beginning of collaboration and dialogue in Turkish-Greek relations. Various mechanisms such as regular political consultations, exploratory contacts, High-Level Cooperation Council meetings, were held. Until 2019, relations remained somehow amicable. However, since then, the refugee crisis, the Cyprus issue, and the dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean have deeply marred the relations. Going beyond the state level, this paper aims to analyse the significant cooperation and conflict periods from a feminist perspective.

Strategy revision phase with payoff threshold in the public goods game

Commonly, the strategy revision phase in evolutionary games relies on payoff comparison. Namely, agents compare their payoff with the opponent, assessing whether changing strategy can be potentially convenient. Even tiny payoff differences can be crucial in this decision process. In this work, we study the dynamics of cooperation in the public goods game, introducing a threshold ε in the strategy revision phase. In doing so, payoff differences narrower than ε entail the decision process reduces to a coin flip. Interestingly, with ordinary agents, results show that payoff thresholds curb the emergence of cooperation. Yet, the latter can be sustained by these thresholds if the population is composed of conformist agents, which replace the random-based revision with selecting the strategy of the majority. To conclude, agents sensible only to consistent payoff differences may represent ‘real-world’ individuals unable to properly appreciate advantages or disadvantages when facing a dilemma. These agents may be detrimental to the emergence of cooperation or, on the contrary, supportive when endowed with a conformist attitude.

A network perspective on tourism waste management: An evolutionary game analysis of stakeholders' participation in the Third Pole region

There is a striking absence of complex network models and extensive analysis of behavioral factors in the field of waste management research. Moreover, research on effective collaboration among different stakeholders in tourism waste management in the Third Pole region is currently lacking, despite the increasing involvement of various groups. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the cooperative relationship between multiple stakeholders in tourism waste management using the Lulang Scenic Area as a case study. A field investigation and complex network evolutionary game simulation were used to identify the cooperation dynamics between multiple stakeholders. The results indicate the following. (1) The stakeholder network characterized by small-world dynamics has efficient information diffusion and cooperation. (2) A threshold value for positive externalities and returns on investment exists, beyond which stakeholders are more inclined to participate in sustainable waste management. (3) Incentives below the threshold attract direct stakeholders in waste generation and management, whereas incentives above it draws in a broader range of stakeholders, primarily indirect stakeholders. (4) A critical mass of cooperative stakeholders tends to create a demonstration effect that encourages additional participation, supporting the growth of cooperative networks in tourism waste management. This paper innovatively shows the potential of a cooperation strategy between multiple stakeholders strengthened by appropriate incentives.

Activation energy and molecular weight dependence of cooperative tracer chains diffusion in highly entangled polymer melts

AbstractThe generalized Langevin equation for cooperative dynamics of Guenza predicts the dynamics of chains in entangled polymers is cooperative with anomalous properties, and at variance with the tube‐reptation model. The center‐of‐mass mean‐square displacements at shorter times are subdiffusive with with β < 1, contradicting the common assumption of reptation within the tube. At some longer time the subdiffusive dynamics exhibits the crossover to free diffusion with . Moreover the subdiffusive dynamics is heterogeneous, non‐Gaussian, and cooperative. These predictions have been confirmed by using neutron spin echo spectroscopy in entangled polyethylene melts [M. Zamponi, et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2008, 112, 16220], and in tracer diffusion of short polyethylene chains in a highly entangled polyethylene melt [M. Zamponi et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2021, 126, 187801]. The latter was confirmed in poly(ethylene oxide) tracer diffusion in highly entangled poly(ethylene oxide) melt [M. Kruteva et al. Macromolecules 2021, 54, 11384]. Notwithstanding, there are other important data sets obtained in the NSE experiments but were left unexplained. One set consists of the activation energies of the Arrhenius temperature dependence of D for each tracer. Another is the molecular weight dependence of D of the tracers determined at the same temperature. In this article the predictions of the Coupling Model are applied to these two sets of data. Good quantitative agreements of the CM predictions with experimental data provide additional support to the cooperativity dynamics of entangled polymers as concluded by others. Additionally, all the properties of cooperative diffusion of entangled polymer chains are shown to be isomorphic to those found in cooperative diffusions in totally different systems. Diffusion in all are governed by interaction between the diffusing units, and from which the universal properties originate.

Evolving dynamics of China-Pakistan counter-terrorism cooperation

ABSTRACT Counter-terrorism cooperation is a crucial aspect of China-Pakistan bilateral security relationship. Originating from a shared understanding of the threat of Uygur separatism facing China, it has encompassed the TTP and Baloch militants targeting CPEC projects and Chinese nationals in Pakistan. However, with Beijing’s growing economic influence in Pakistan after the BRI and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the dynamics of counter-terrorism cooperation have transformed in two ways. Firstly, Pakistan’s regional influence has diminished and Beijing no longer relies solely on Islamabad for safeguarding its interests vis-à-vis regional terrorism. Secondly, this relationship shows a dynamic of its own, largely independent of the India-factor.

The art of compensation: How hybrid teams solve collective-risk dilemmas.

It is widely known how the human ability to cooperate has influenced the thriving of our species. However, as we move towards a hybrid human-machine future, it is still unclear how the introduction of artificial agents in our social interactions affect this cooperative capacity. In a one-shot collective risk dilemma, where enough members of a group must cooperate in order to avoid a collective disaster, we study the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation in a hybrid population. In our model, we consider a hybrid population composed of both adaptive and fixed behavior agents. The latter serve as proxies for the machine-like behavior of artificially intelligent agents who implement stochastic strategies previously learned offline. We observe that the adaptive individuals adjust their behavior in function of the presence of artificial agents in their groups to compensate their cooperative (or lack of thereof) efforts. We also find that risk plays a determinant role when assessing whether or not we should form hybrid teams to tackle a collective risk dilemma. When the risk of collective disaster is high, cooperation in the adaptive population falls dramatically in the presence of cooperative artificial agents. A story of compensation, rather than cooperation, where adaptive agents have to secure group success when the artificial agents are not cooperative enough, but will rather not cooperate if the others do so. On the contrary, when risk of collective disaster is low, success is highly improved while cooperation levels within the adaptive population remain the same. Artificial agents can improve the collective success of hybrid teams. However, their application requires a true risk assessment of the situation in order to actually benefit the adaptive population (i.e. the humans) in the long-term.

Distributed Dynamic Event-Triggered Cooperative Control of Multiple TCLs and HESS for Improving Frequency Regulation

The volatility and randomness of the source-load sides increase the difficulty for system frequency regulation, while flexible loads like temperature-controlled loads (TCLs) and hydrogen storage system (HESS) can be used to pro-vide frequency auxiliary services. In this paper, a hierarchi-cal frequency control framework is established, with TCLs and HESS interacting in a distributed cooperative way to track unmatched power. Then, power allocation principles are proposed, which realizes the rational utilization of various resources and ensures the close tracking of the upper-level power targets. Further, a leader-follower distributed dynamic event-triggered control strategy is designed to guarantee fast convergence speed and synchronization accuracy, where power transmission on demand is realized to save limited network resources. Moreover, sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the stability of the distributed TCLs and HESS system by combining the Lyapunov theory. Finally, case studies assess that the proposed strategy guarantees the effectiveness and rapidity of the frequency control, meanwhile reducing the communication burden.

Disruption of energetic and dynamic base-pairing cooperativity in DNA duplexes by an abasic site

Disruption of energetic and dynamic base-pairing cooperativity in DNA duplexes by an abasic site

Complex pathways to cooperation emergent from asymmetry in heterogeneous populations.

Cooperation within asymmetric populations has garnered significant attention in evolutionary games. This paper explores cooperation evolution in populations with weak and strong players, using a game model where players choose between cooperation and defection. Asymmetry stems from different benefits for strong and weak cooperators, with their benefit ratio indicating the degree of asymmetry. Varied rankings of parameters including the asymmetry degree, cooperation costs, and benefits brought by weak players give rise to scenarios including the prisoner's dilemma (PDG) for both player types, the snowdrift game (SDG), and mixed PDG-SDG interactions. Our results indicate that in an infinite well-mixed population, defection remains the dominant strategy when strong players engage in the prisoner's dilemma game. However, if strong players play snowdrift games, global cooperation increases with the proportion of strong players. In this scenario, strong cooperators can prevail over strong defectors when the proportion of strong players is low, but the prevalence of cooperation among strong players decreases as their proportion increases. In contrast, within a square lattice, the optimum global cooperation emerges at intermediate proportions of strong players with moderate degrees of asymmetry. Additionally, weak players protect cooperative clusters from exploitation by strong defectors. This study highlights the complex dynamics of cooperation in asymmetric interactions, contributing to the theory of cooperation in asymmetric games.

Cooperative Learning in Introductory Statistics: Assessing Students’ Perceptions, Performance, and Learning in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Groups

Past research has shown the benefit of cooperative learning in organizing instruction to promote students’ engagement and achievement. However, it remains unclear whether students gain more from peers at relatively higher or similar levels of prior knowledge. Relatedly, it is important to distinguish collective performance from individual learning. Lastly, students’ perceived value of cooperative learning, group dynamics, and self-concept could elucidate the importance of group composition. We conducted a mixed-methods experiment in five introductory statistics classrooms with 139 university students of relatively low (LPK) or high (HPK) prior statistics knowledge. Students were randomly assigned within-class to homogeneous (all LPKs) or heterogenous (at least one HPK) groups, with whom they completed exercises throughout the term. Without a more knowledgeable peer, LPKs in homogeneous groups nonetheless were able to clarify much of the conceptual confusion among themselves and eventually reach the same level of understanding as LPKs in heterogeneous groups. Group composition did not influence LPKs’ individual learning on average. Within heterogeneous groups, LPKs had greater performance gains and similar individual learning when compared with HPKs. Regardless of prior knowledge or group composition, students found cooperative learning valuable, as it promoted opportunities for positive interactions, comparing work, and revealing misunderstandings for all. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Impact of committed minorities: Unveiling critical mass of cooperation in the iterated prisoner's dilemma game

The critical mass effect is a prevailing topic in the study of complex systems. Recent research indicates that a committed minority of cooperators, unwavering in their beliefs and consistently maintaining cooperation, can effectively foster widespread cooperation in social dilemma games. However, achieving a critical mass of cooperation in the one-shot prisoner's dilemma requires stricter conditions. The underlying mechanism behind this effect remains unclear, particularly in the context of repeated interactions. This work aims to investigate the influence of a committed minority on cooperation in the iterated prisoner's dilemma game, a widely studied model of repeated interactions between individuals confronting a social dilemma. In contrast to previous findings, we identify tipping points for both well-mixed and structured populations. Our findings demonstrate that a committed minority of unconditional cooperators can induce full cooperation under weak imitation conditions. Conversely, a committed minority of conditional cooperators, who employ extortion strategy, can promote widespread cooperation under strong imitation conditions. These results are consistent across various network topologies and imitation rules, suggesting that critical mass effects may be a universal principle in social dilemma games. Moreover, we discovered that an excessive density of committed extortioners can hinder cooperation in structured populations. This research advances our understanding of the role of committed minorities in shaping social behavior and provides valuable insights into cooperation dynamics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Navigating Security Challenges: Exploring the Dynamics of Cooperation in the Mediterranean Region

Navigating Security Challenges: Exploring the Dynamics of Cooperation in the Mediterranean Region