Neighborhood Cooperation Research Articles

Kierunki pozaeuropejskie paradyplomacji polskich województw

The main purpose of this article is to present the directions of foreign activity (paradiplomacy) of Polish regional governments with partners from outside Europe. The first, theoretical part shows the essence of paradiplomacy, which is understood as the ability of local government units to conduct political interactions beyond country borders. The empirical part discusses the spatial directions of paradiplomacy of Polish local governments, Polish-chinese regional partnerships and other partnerships from outside Europe. The hypothesis was verified that regional governments, in addition to european and neighbourhood cooperation, also cooperate with geographically distant partners from outside the european continent. The article uses methods typical of social sciences, including case studies and quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Collective computational intelligence in biology – Emergence of memory in somatic tissues

Role of memory in the function of biological tissues, organs and organisms remains unexplored with many unanswered questions. In this study, the emergence of associative memory in somatic (non-neural) tissues and its potential relation to tissue function was explored using a number of biologically plausible network topologies in in silico tissues with computing cells. These topologies were local cooperation; complete system-wide cooperation or inhibition; and local cooperation and short- or long-range inhibition. These were tested with and without self-feedback on two-dimensional (2D) three-dimensional (3D) cell networks, resulting in various forms of fully and partially connected networks. Further, both binary inputs with threshold processing and real-valued inputs with nonlinear processing were considered. Results revealed the emergence of diverse forms of tissue memory. In full cooperation, networks produced one fixed attractor indicating the propensity towards a stable memory pattern which in a real tissue could correspond to an invariable physiological state, such as bioelectric homeostasis. The local neighbourhood cooperation produced both a fixed and a limit cycle attractor that could be beneficial for a tissue to hold few associative memories including circadian rhythms. Most interesting results were found for the local cooperation with short- or long-range inhibition topologies that produced a cluster of fixed and limit cycle attractors offering diverse memories. Fixed attractors could correspond to inactive tissue states and active nonrhythmic functional states and limit cycles could correspond to circadian rhythms such as pumping in heart, kidney or liver in various oscillatory regimes. In all topologies, self-feedback abolished or drastically reduced the limit cycles in favour of fixed stable state. These attractor patterns were found to be largely invariant to scale (2D or 3D) and type of inputs and processing. We also explored the self-optimising ability of the ‘local cooperation with global (short- or long-range) inhibition’ 2D topologies with Hebbian learning with fixed and flexible topologies. The fixed topology learned to self-model to consolidate memory towards fewer more stable attractors. The flexible topology even formed new connections to bring the system to a single fixed state. Thus local cooperation with global inhibition topology can offer greater freedom to create diverse memory pattens that can be tempered by learning, self-feedback, and to some extent continuous processing to simplify and consolidate memory towards manageable forms.

Employment Loss in Informal Settlements during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Chile.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reached almost every corner of the world. Despite the historical development, approval, and distribution of vaccines in some countries, non-pharmaceutical interventions will remain an essential strategy to control the pandemic until a substantial proportion of the population has immunity. There is increasing evidence of the devastating social and economic effects of the pandemic, particularly on vulnerable communities. Individuals living in urban informal settlements are in a structurally disadvantaged position to cope with a health crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Estimates of this impact are needed to inform and prioritize policy decisions and actions. We study employment loss in informal settlements before and during the Covid-19 pandemic in Chile, using a longitudinal panel study of households living in Chile’s informal settlements before and during the health crisis. We show that before the pandemic, 75% of respondents reported being employed. There is a decrease of 30 and 40 percentage points in May and September 2020, respectively. We show that the employment loss is substantially higher for individuals in informal settlements than for the general population and has particularly affected the immigrant population. We also show that the pandemic has triggered neighborhood cooperation within the settlements and that targeted government assistance programs have reached these communities in a limited way. Our results suggest that individuals living in informal settlements are facing severe hardship as a consequence of the pandemic. In addition to providing much-needed support, this crisis presents a unique opportunity for long-term improvements in these marginalized communities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11524-021-00575-6.

Parental Perceptions of Child's Medical Care and Neighborhood and Child's Behavioral Risk Factors for Obesity in U.S. Children by Body Mass Index Classification.

Environmental factors, preventive medical care, and behaviors play a role in childhood obesity. This study used the National Survey of Children's Health, 2011-2012, for 42,828 children, ages 10–17 years. Greater percent of children in the overweight/obese category performed no moderate-to-vigorous physical activity: 11.9 (10.6, 13.3) as compared to children in the underweight/normal weight category: 9.7 (8.9 10.6). No moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with no preventive medical care, inadequate or no health care, parents reporting higher percent of no parks or playgrounds, and unsafe and unsupportive neighborhoods. Odds ratios of overweight/obesity were higher for males [OR = 2.06 (1.64, 2.60)], Hispanics [OR = 1.49 (1.17, 1.90)], non-Hispanic Black females [OR = 1.59 (1.20, 2.08)], younger females [OR10–12 yrs. = 1.35 (1.03, 1.79) and OR13–15 yrs. = 1.4. (1.06, 1.89) vs. OR = 1.0016-17 yrs.], children with high television viewing [OR0-1 hr./day = 0.72 (0.61, 0.86); OR>1 to <4 hrs./day 0.84 (0.72, 0.99) = vs. OR = 1.00≥ 4 hrs./day,] and lower categories of physical activity [OR 0 days/wk. = 1.38 (1.13, 1.62); OR1–3 days/wk. = 1.14 (1.22, 1.62) vs. OR7 days/wk. = 1.00], higher poverty, smoke exposure, and parental perception of their neighborhood as unsupportive. Promoting preventive medical care and neighborhood cooperation may have potential to lower childhood obesity.

Distributed model predictive control for networked plant-wide systems with neighborhood cooperation

For large-scale networked plant-wide systems composed by physically &#x0028 or geographically &#x0029 divided subsystems, only limited information is available for local controllers on account of region and communication restrictions. Concerning the optimal control problem of such subsystems, a neighbor-based distributed model predictive control &#x0028 NDMPC &#x0029 strategy is presented to improve the global system performance. In this scheme, the performance index of local subsystems and that of its neighbors are minimized together in the determination of the optimal control input, which makes the local control decision also beneficial to its neighboring subsystems and further contributes to improving the convergence and control performance of overall system. The stability of the closed-loop system is proved. Moreover, the parameter designing method for distributed synthesis is provided. Finally, the simulation results illustrate the main characteristics and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Social capital and neighbourhood cooperation: Implications for development of the urban poor in LDCs

‘Neighbourhood cooperation’ can be viewed as a key element for livelihood improvement, particularly within areas of urban poverty in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Such cooperation might be useful for mobilising resources and sharing risks of investing in infrastructures/services and maintaining common goods. This article explores the structural relationships between individual level cooperation and overall social capital, in relation to household and neighbourhood characteristics. These relationships are complex as various factors are interlinked, which influence cooperation at both individual and group levels. Literature on social capital has relied mainly on Western countries; from this starting point, this article analyses the relationships among aspects of social capital. Analytical models are based on Durlauf’s approach of measuring ‘social capital’ and Manski’s perspective on social interaction, which are tested on 1800 households’ data across three locations in Bangladesh. The estimates reveal that individual level cooperation can be influenced directly by households’ socio economic circumstances and indirectly through neighbourhood mediation, while questioning some theoretical generalisations about neighbourhood cooperation. The findings contribute to the literature on neighbourhood effects by revealing that: (a) the relationship between one’s socio economic status and one’s social capital is less clear than expected; and (b) extreme poverty and proximity of living in a neighbourhood can promote norms of trust and cooperation.

EU’s Cross-Border Cooperation and Conflict Transformation at Contested Borders in the European Neighbourhood: Lessons from the Turkish-Armenian Border

ABSTRACTIn the post-Cold War period, the European Union’s neighbourhood policy towards its emerging eastern neighbours aims to surround the European Union (EU) with a ring of secure, stable and prosperous neighbouring countries. Advancing conflict transformation through cross-border cooperation initiatives constitutes a crucial part of the European neighbourhood policy. Cross-border interaction and cooperation are expected to lessen the heavy burden of sealed borders by decreasing isolation and indifference and promoting mutual interaction, dialogue and confidence-building between conflicting parties. However, there are several ethno-political contestations whose historical animosities cast a shadow on the effectiveness of the EU’s neighbourhood and cross-border cooperation policies for conflict transformation. The Turkish-Armenian case testifies to the persistence of physical and mental borders that stem from competing historical memories, longstanding grievances and contesting national claims, as well as from regional dynamics. This article aims to assess the impact of the EU’s neighbourhood policy and cross-border cooperation initiatives on conflict transformation on the Turkish-Armenian border. The EU’s policies have remained partially relevant and effectual by initiating interaction and dialogue at the civil societal level. Advancing conflict transformation at the political level, however, would require the EU to develop a more comprehensive framework that considers the cross-cutting context of the competing historical memories and regional dynamics and shifts that currently undermine the impact of further transformative attempts.

Interference Coordination in Heterogeneous Small-Cell Networks: A Coalition Formation Game Approach

Heterogeneous small-cell networks have been identified as key technological components in accomplishing objectives of the fifth generation wireless communication system, in which the key point is the hyper dense deployment of small-cells. However, the interference among dense small-cells exacerbates in hyper dense deployment coupled with incessant use of multimedia services. In this paper, a network-side self-organized coalition formation approach for intra-tier interference mitigation primarily through neighborhood cooperation is proposed. By forming disjoint coalitions, small-cell access points (SAPs) are able to mitigate the interference within a coalition and thus improve their achievable data rates. The cooperative behavior among the neighborhood SAPs is formulated as a coalition formation game in partition form with non-transferable utility. Instead of fully reversible and irreversible methods used in prior studies, a merge and split based algorithm with partial reversibility rule which can obtain a final stable partition in the recursive core is proposed. The proposed algorithm converges to a final stable partition in a finite number of steps and works efficiently for both co-channel and orthogonal radio resource allocation modes. Simulation results have verified that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the individual SAP throughput for both modes when compared with the conventional and the non-cooperative schemes.

Neighborhood Associations and Social Capital

In the United States, the past 50 years have witnessed a remarkable expansion of formal associations in residential neighborhoods, including homeowners associations, condo associations, crime watch groups, tenant associations, and special-interest neighborhood coalitions. Despite their prevalence and growing role in neighborhood governance, the relationship of these associations to interpersonal trust and networks among residents and outsiders remains understudied. Drawing on the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS), we estimate the impact of neighborhood association membership on bonding and bridging social capital in a nationally representative sample of residents. Among non-homeowners, our findings suggest that neighborhood association membership is linked to bonding social capital (such as a propensity to socialize and cooperate with neighbors and a positive perception of impact on community conditions), as well as bridging social capital (such as a greater likelihood of trust in racial out-groups). These benefits from neighborhood association membership are attenuated or reversed among homeowners. The results underscore the need for social scientists to consider the inherent tension in neighborhood associations, as institutions that ensure the protection of property values, on the one hand, and that promote neighborhood cooperation and quality of life, on the other.

Greedy Sparsity-Promoting Algorithms for Distributed Learning

This paper focuses on the development of novel greedy techniques for distributed learning under sparsity constraints. Greedy techniques have widely been used in centralized systems due to their low computational requirements and at the same time their relatively good performance in estimating sparse parameter vectors/signals. The paper reports two new algorithms in the context of sparsity--aware learning. In both cases, the goal is first to identify the support set of the unknown signal and then to estimate the non--zero values restricted to the active support set. First, an iterative greedy multi--step procedure is developed, based on a neighborhood cooperation strategy, using batch processing on the observed data. Next, an extension of the algorithm to the online setting, based on the diffusion LMS rationale for adaptivity, is derived. Theoretical analysis of the algorithms is provided, where it is shown that the batch algorithm converges to the unknown vector if a Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) holds. Moreover, the online version converges in the mean to the solution vector under some general assumptions. Finally, the proposed schemes are tested against recently developed sparsity--promoting algorithms and their enhanced performance is verified via simulation examples.

Neighborhood-Aware and Overhead-Free Congestion Control for IEEE 802.11 Wireless Mesh Networks

It has been reported that the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol and the TCP congestion control are highly problematic in terms of flow starvation in wireless mesh networks (WMNs). However, the economic features of IEEE 802.11 make it the commonly-used MAC protocol in WMNs. Therefore, solving starvation at the transport layer seems to be more appropriate. Indeed, the main starvation cause in TCP is that congestion is managed as a link-based problem. However, since bandwidth is a spatially-shared resource in WMNs, congestion is a neighborhood phenomenon that should be handled using mutual cooperation within a congested neighborhood. Such cooperation considerably consumes the already scarce bandwidth of WMNs causing more congestion. In this paper, we propose a neighborhood-aware and overhead-free congestion control scheme (NICC) that solves the starvation problem without impacting the scarce bandwidth of WMNs. NICC makes use of some underexploited fields in the IEEE 802.11 frame header, without modifying the standard frame size, to provide an overhead-free multi-bit congestion feedback; being overhead-free, this feedback allows performing neighborhood cooperation without generating control overhead. Furthermore, being multi-bit, it yields source nodes a fine-grained indication of the congestion degree, providing accurate rate control. The NICC performance in terms of starvation avoidance and bandwidth efficiency is proven through extensive simulations.

Assessing cultural-spatial change in European border areas

This article presents a theoretical approach to the empirical reconstruction of cultural-spatial change, building on knowledge sociology and social constructivism. A model with visualization is presented based on the assumption that cultural-spatial change in European border areas occurs within a process of interaction and communication between different cultures which have their own specific knowledge systems and related social practices. Border regions in this sense are regarded as “spaces with opportunities” that – in the context of neighbourhood cooperation and intercultural communication processes – provide particular opportunity structures for different cultures moving towards each other. Such a view means that border spaces thus have the potential to integrate different social interpretations of reality and within this process cultural-spatial change may take place.

Binary neighbourhood field optimisation for unit commitment problems

Inspired by the neighbourhood cooperation, a new discrete optimisation algorithm is proposed. The so-called binary neighbourhood field optimisation (BNFO), utilises the attractive field of the superior neighbour and the repulsive field of the inferior neighbour. As a kind of local search, BNFO is able to deliver promising results efficiently within acceptable computational time. BNFO is applied to solve the unit commitment problem (UCP), whose objective is to minimise the operation cost of the generation units over the scheduling horizon. After numerical tests on several benchmark UCP cases, the obtained costs are less expensive compared with conventional Lagrangian relaxation, genetic algorithm, evolutionary programming, particle swarm optimisation and differential evolutionary. BNFO can converge to promising results with less computation times, especially for the large-scale UCPs.

Neighborhood Collective Efficacy and Dimensions of Diversity: A Multilevel Analysis

Collective efficacy is becoming an increasingly important concept within the social and health sciences as researchers question how the social environment of a neighborhood influences a host of individual psychological, behavioral, and health outcomes. We investigate whether ethnic as well as other dimensions of neighborhood-level diversity are associated with collective efficacy. Survey data are used to capture perceptions of neighborhood cooperation and social cohesion for 26 344 survey respondents in southeast Pennsylvania; US Census data are used to capture neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and residential mobility, as well as diversity along a range of dimensions, including ethnicity, birthplace, household type, occupation, income, and educational attainment. Multilevel modeling is employed to test the association of various dimensions of neighborhood diversity with individual-level perceptions of neighborhood cooperation and social cohesion, while controlling for individual and other neighborhood-level variables. Results suggest that low collective efficacy is associated with diversity in cultural characteristics such as ethnicity, birthplace, and household type. We ascribe these findings to patterns of neighborhood transition, or churning, where high rates of neighborhood in-migration and out-migration act to weaken collective efficacy. Diversity, both in educational attainment and in income, however, are associated with high neighborhood collective efficacy, and are not related to neighborhood churning.

Maturité scolaire et mobilisation communautaire : étude rétrospective dans un quartier Montréalais

This article presents a modelling of the collective decision-making process by which a community-based population-level intervention transformed the organization of early childhood services in a Montréal community from 2001 to 2006.Multisectoral players from a childhood/family issue table.The chosen territory is one of the most multi-ethnic and poorest neighbourhoods of Montréal.The intervention being examined is Understanding the Early Years (UEY), a Canada-wide initiative aiming to strengthen communities' capacity to use quality information to support the thought process relating to the organization of early childhood services. Twelve Canadian regions took part, including Montréal.The time chart for the collective decision-making process presents the events that significantly influenced the procedure: establishment of an intersectoral working committee, production of a portrait of the neighbourhood, think tank, development and implementation of the Passage maison-école [home-to-school] and Femmes-Relais [relay women] projects, retreats, and inclusion of school readiness as a priority focus area in the neighbourhood's three-year action plan. Also presented are the contextual factors that influenced decision making: the neighbourhood's cooperation and coordination history, the researcher's involvement, financial support and shared leadership.The benefits of UEY-Montréal in this territory extended beyond 2006. With respect to current priorities for action in early childhood, this territory is a good example of mobilization for school readiness.

The Japanese house: material culture in the modern home

Acknowledgments Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION SPREAD 1: Map with locations and images of exteriors of the homes studied Chapter 2 HOMES INSIDE OUT Gates, fences and walls 'We would rather have nice English garden' 'Everyone needs garage' Between the window and the hallway Red buckets and neighbourhood cooperation Local communities of limited liability Conclusion: The inside out SPREAD 2: Street gardens green fences and terracotta walls SPREAD 3: Wifely duties and neighbourhood surveillance Chapter 3 FEELING AT HOME 'The pleasures of happy home' From tatami to chair-based living The postwar 'LDK home': 1. The sofa and dining table 2. Double beds 'Bathing is my way to relax' Tatami mats 'A space to relax' Conclusion: Affectionate ties SPREAD 4: The choreography of domestic slippers Chapter 4 TATAMI TASTES Male domestic taste and sophistication Full-time and part-time housewives A national domestic taste? Eclectic alcoves 'New is better': traditional and modern aesthetics Male minimal design The exception: modern aesthetic scheme 'We have a son in box ' Male domestic stereotypes: 'Japanese fathers have no holidays' Do-it-Yourself Conclusion: Gender stereotypes SPREAD 5: Alcoves half full or half empty? Chapter 5 STUFF AND STORAGE The ideology of tidiness Storehouse living: circulation and accumulation Storage strategies: 1. Expanding the home 2. 'Living among one's furniture' Furniture walls Dowries and provisioning The contemporary starter home Life cycle rupture points: 'if I had house like castle, I would take everything' Conclusion: Conduits and containers SPREAD 6: Women and their kimono SPREAD 7: Destroying and rebuilding the family home Chapter 6 TROUBLESOME THINGS Domestic disarray? Souvenir Cabinets: objects frozen in time and space Troublesome Things Commemorative gifts and unique relationships Ephemeral gifts and the renewal of relationships Surplus, divestment and informal sociality Conclusion: pressures and constraints of gift culture SPREAD 8: The Dolls Festival SPREAD 9: Bazaars and flea markets Chapter 7 THE LOCUS OF SPIRITUAL IN THE DOMESTIC The house-building ceremony The domestic cycle of 'annual events' God shelves and auspiciousness The temporality of luck Affective and material bonds with the ancestors A son's duty of care? Inter-generational tensions New family models Conclusion: Causality and self-determination SPREAD 10: Religion as action Chapter 8 CONCLUSION Notes Bibliography Index

Learning Hemodynamic Response Function with Neighborhood Cooperation in fMRI

Learning Hemodynamic Response Function with Neighborhood Cooperation in fMRI

EU's Eastern Neighbours: Institutional Harmonisation and Potential Growth Bonus

This paper provides the quantitative estimate of the potential growth bonus for CIS countries, and in particular EU’s Easter Neighbours, that can be a result of deeper institutional harmonisation with the EU. Econometric investigation involving instrumental variable, simultaneous equation and dynamic panel techniques documents the strong positive link between growth performance and reforms, as well as between reforms and European integration. The paper derives the range of possible values of growth bonus from the deepened neighbourhood cooperation between 1 and 3.8 with the median at 1.8 percentage points. The least growth bonus is expected through basic liberalization reforms, while countries with a considerable institutional gap are likely to gain the most.

Supervised Neural Gas with General Similarity Measure

Prototype based classification offers intuitive and sparse models with excellent generalization ability. However, these models usually crucially depend on the underlying Euclidian metric; moreover, online variants likely suffer from the problem of local optima. We here propose a generalization of learning vector quantization with three additional features: (I) it directly integrates neighborhood cooperation, hence is less affected by local optima; (II) the method can be combined with any differentiable similarity measure whereby metric parameters such as relevance factors of the input dimensions can automatically be adapted according to the given data; (III) it obeys a gradient dynamics hence shows very robust behavior, and the chosen objective is related to margin optimization.

Evolutionary algorithms with neighborhood cooperativeness according to neural maps

In this contribution we give a short overview about actual developments in hybrid systems combining self-organizing maps and evolutionary algorithms. Thereby, we pay attention to both directions of influence: neural network improvement by incorporating evolutionary elements and evolutionary design using ideas of learning in neural maps. In more detail, we highlight neighborhood cooperation in evolutionary systems for multiple population systems as well as genetic operators. We show the possibilities and properties of these approaches for exemplary real world applications.