Trust-based Networks Research Articles

TrustGNN: Graph Neural Network-Based Trust Evaluation via Learnable Propagative and Composable Nature.

Trust evaluation is critical for many applications such as cyber security, social communication, and recommender systems. Users and trust relationships among them can be seen as a graph. Graph neural networks (GNNs) show their powerful ability for analyzing graph-structural data. Very recently, existing work attempted to introduce the attributes and asymmetry of edges into GNNs for trust evaluation, while failed to capture some essential properties (e.g., the propagative and composable nature) of trust graphs. In this work, we propose a new GNN-based trust evaluation method named TrustGNN, which integrates smartly the propagative and composable nature of trust graphs into a GNN framework for better trust evaluation. Specifically, TrustGNN designs specific propagative patterns for different propagative processes of trust, and distinguishes the contribution of different propagative processes to create new trust. Thus, TrustGNN can learn comprehensive node embeddings and predict trust relationships based on these embeddings. Experiments on some widely-used real-world datasets indicate that TrustGNN significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. We further perform analytical experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the key designs in TrustGNN.

The Ties That Bind: The Association Between Social Network Ties, Integration, and Stress Among Incarcerated Women

Social integration is theorized to enhance psychological well-being and reduce stress among incarcerated women. However, little empirical research has examined the association between prison social integration and women’s stress during incarceration. This study expands on previous research by (a) examining the relationship between different types of prison network ties among incarcerated women and self-reported stress and (b) exploring whether women’s perceptions of social integration mediate the association between prison network ties and stress. Using ordinal logistic models that incorporate social network and survey data from two women’s prisons in Pennsylvania ( N = 223) (WO-PINS), we find that pseudo-family–based, friendship-based, and trust-based network ties formed during incarceration are associated with reduced stress among incarcerated women. However, we find limited evidence that perceptions of social integration mediate the relationship between prison network ties and stress, suggesting that prison network ties are associated with stress reduction independent of an individual’s perception of integration.

Towards sustainable landscapes: Implementing participatory approaches in contract design for biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services in Europe

Agricultural landscapes are the result of the long-term, complex, and intermingled interfaces between nature and culture. Among the stakeholders involved in the production of agri-environmental and climate services, farmers play a crucial role, and their contribution should be duly acknowledged to promote sustainable land management. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to the participatory design of agri-environmental contracts to incentivize landscape and biodiversity practices. To achieve this goal, 13 innovation labs with multi-actor perspective were established across nine different European countries. These groups envisioned a future sustainable landscape characterized by diversity and balance of economic, socio-cultural, and environmental components. Trust-based networks and effective communication channels emerge as vital components for the success of sustainable local production systems. Practitioners emphasize the significance of European-level policies in effecting transformative change and influencing farmers'willingness to contribute to both food production and environmental public goods. They defined concrete contract features such as public funding, hybrid payments, and the presence of intermediaries for the potential of agri-environmental measures. Notably, practitioners perceive a wide range of benefits associated with the implementation of agri-environmental measures, extending beyond economic compensation. Gaining a deeper understanding of practitioners' perceptions of their territories and agri-environmental measures is crucial for policymakers to design tailored and appealing programs that resonate with practitioners'needs.

Key elements and contextual factors that influence successful implementation of large-system transformation initiatives in the New Zealand health system: a realist evaluation

BackgroundDespite three decades of policy initiatives to improve integration of health care, delivery of health care in New Zealand remains fragmented, and health inequities persist for Māori and other high priority populations. An evidence base is needed to increase the chances of success with implementation of large-system transformation (LST) initiatives in a complex adaptive system.MethodsThis research aimed to identify key elements that support implementation of LST initiatives, and to investigate contextual factors that influence these initiatives. The realist logic of enquiry, nested within the macro framing of complex adaptive systems, formed the overall methodology for this research and involved five phases: theory gleaning from a local LST initiative, literature review, interviews, workshop, and online survey. NVivo software programme was used for thematic analysis of the interview, workshop, and the survey data. We identified key elements and explained variations in success (outcomes) by identifying mechanisms triggered by various contexts in which LST initiatives are implemented.ResultsThe research found that a set of 10 key elements need to be present in the New Zealand health system to increase chances of success with implementation of LST initiatives. These are: (i) an alliancing way of working; (ii) a commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi; (iii) an understanding of equity; (iv) clinical leadership and involvement; (v) involved people, whānau, and community; (vi) intelligent commissioning; (vii) continuous improvement; (viii) integrated health information; (ix) analytic capability; and (x) dedicated resources and time. The research identified five contextual factors that influenced implementation of LST initiatives: a history of working together, distributed leadership from funders, the maturity of Alliances, capacity and capability for improvement, and a continuous improvement culture. The research found that the key mechanism of trust is built and nurtured over time through sharing of power by senior health leaders by practising distributed leadership, which then creates a positive history of working together and increases the maturity of Alliances.DiscussionTwo authors (KMS and PBJ) led the development and implementation of the local LST initiative. This prior knowledge and experience provided a unique perspective to the research but also created a conflict of interest and introduced potential bias, these were managed through a wide range of data collection methods and informed consent from participants. The evidence-base for successful implementation of LST initiatives produced in this research contains knowledge and experience of senior system leaders who are often in charge of leading these initiatives. This evidence base enables decision makers to make sense of complex processes involved in the successful implementation of LST initiatives.ConclusionsUse of informal trust-based networks provided a critical platform for successful implementation of LST initiatives in the New Zealand health system. Maturity of these networks relies on building and sustaining high-trust relationships among the network members. The role of local and central agencies and the government is to provide the policy settings and conditions in which trust-based networks can flourish.OtherThis study was approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee (Ethics Approval Number 27,356). The research was supported by the Victoria University of Wellington research grant (222,809) and from the University of Auckland Department of Medicine research fund (H10779).

Transforming the nature of trust between banks and young clients: from traditional to digital banking

PurposeThis study aims to explore how the shift from traditional to digital banking transforms the nature of trust between banks and their younger clients (aged 18–35) from the perspective of bank employees.Design/methodology/approachQualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives of Ukrainian classical banks and neobanks were conducted. The interviews were analysed using the theoretical approach of institution-based and social network-based trust to identify the key distinctions between the nature of trust in traditional and digital banking.FindingsThe employees of the banks reported that digitalization processes have helped to mitigate trust issues; as a result, their banks have not experienced any difficulties in this regard among young people. Furthermore, social networks, particularly social approval, were found to be significant factors for establishing trust in digital banking among young people.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study could assist bank managers in adapting their strategies for cultivating trust among younger clients and aiding international law regulators and government institutions in preventing unintended circumstances in financial services. These contributions were shaped by the study’s limitations, including its focus on only two concepts of trust building: institution-based and social network-based, as well as its specific Ukrainian context.Originality/valueThis study highlights social approval as a valuable constituent of the trust-building process that influences trust in institutions. Furthermore, while gaining social approval – particularly through digital platforms – can promote trust-building among young people, this “easy way” may have negative societal consequences by endorsing unscrupulous institutions.

Trust–SIoT: Toward Trustworthy Object Classification in the Social Internet of Things

The recent emergence of the promising paradigm of the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) is a result of an intelligent amalgamation of the social networking concepts with the Internet of Things (IoT) objects (also referred to as “things”) in an attempt to unravel the challenges of network discovery, navigability, and service composition. This is realized by facilitating the IoT objects to socialize with one another, i.e., similar to the social interactions amongst human beings. A fundamental issue that mandates careful attention is to thus establish, and over time, maintain trustworthy relationships amongst these IoT objects. Therefore, a trust framework for SIoT must include object-object interactions, the aspects of social relationships, credible recommendations, etc., however, the existing literature has only focused on some aspects of trust by primarily relying on the conventional approaches that govern linear relationships between input and output. In this paper, an artificial neural network-based trust framework, Trust–SIoT, has been envisaged for identifying the complex non-linear relationships between input and output in a bid to classify trustworthy objects. Moreover, Trust–SIoT has been designed for capturing a number of key trust metrics as input, i.e., direct trust by integrating both current and past interactions, reliability and benevolence of an object, credible recommendations, and the degree of relationship by employing knowledge graph embedding. Finally, we have performed extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of Trust–SIoT vis-á-vis state-of-the-art heuristics on two real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that Trust–SIoT achieves a higher F1-score and lower MAE and MSE scores.

Deep Learning Enabled Social Media Recommendation Based on User Comments

Nowadays, review systems have been developed with social media Recommendation systems (RS). Although research on RS social media is increasing year by year, the comprehensive literature review and classification of this RS research is limited and needs to be improved. The previous method did not find any user reviews within a time, so it gets poor accuracy and doesn’t filter the irrelevant comments efficiently. The Recursive Neural Network-based Trust Recommender System (RNN-TRS) is proposed to overcome this method’s problem. So it is efficient to analyse the trust comment and remove the irrelevant sentence appropriately. The first step is to collect the data based on the transactional reviews of social media. The second step is pre-processing using Imbalanced Collaborative Filtering (ICF) to remove the null values from the dataset. Extract the features from the pre-processing step using the Maximum Support Grade Scale (MSGS) to extract the maximum number of scaling features in the dataset and grade the weights (length, count, etc.). In the Extracting features for Training and testing method before that in the feature weights evaluating the softmax activation function for calculating the average weights of the features. Finally, In the classification method, the Recursive Neural Network-based Trust Recommender System (RNN-TRS) for User reviews based on the Positive and negative scores is analysed by the system. The simulation results improve the predicting accuracy and reduce time complexity better than previous methods.

The Strength of Trust, Social Norms and Entrepreneurship for Trade Networks

This paper suggests that the key to entrepreneurial success lies in the ability to maintain trust-based networks and respect social norms. In elaborating this proposition, this article draws on the results of an exploratory study of 30 Nigerian traders to demonstrate how using an ‘institutional’ lens provides new insights into the influence of trust and indigenous norms on entrepreneurial behaviour. The concept of morality which presupposes an understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour, is introduced to offer a supple and adaptable explanation for how actors rely on social norms to build trade networks. At the centre, trust was found to be indispensable to networks relationships and necessary for enforcing sanctions. The results facilitate a rich understanding of how a range of trust-based networks relationships and hybrid indigenous norms underpin entrepreneurial behaviour in Nigeria. The study contributes by providing well founded insights into the entrepreneurship within an African context.

A social qualitative trust framework for Fog computing

The field of Internet of Things (IoT) is evolving at an exponential rate where megabytes of data is being processed each passing minute. Fog computing is an emerging field, regarded as the new way forward to prevent the suspected data outburst of the exhausted IoT devices. Fogging is believed to reduce latency, and enhance efficiency, ease of deployment and flexibility, however, various security and privacy concerns hinder its deployment by major platforms. Among all the security concerns, lack of a proper trust management system is of primary importance. This paper explores the Service-oriented Internet of Things (SIoT) domain to study its similarity with Fogging and creates a trust management scheme (TMS). The paper further explores the necessary trust requirements for Fogging and incorporates them into a two-way trust management scheme based on Bayes model, the model allows both the service requestor and the service provider to validate each other before connecting. The model calculates the value of trust using these metrics and combines them in a unique way with Bayes trust to have an accurate trust value. The proposed scheme is simulated in Netlogo, an agent-based network simulator. The subject scheme is capable of effectively preventing a legitimate node from connecting with a malicious node. The results illustrates high accuracy and faster convergence and also shows resilience against trust-based network attacks. The system is compared against SIoT trust management models due to lack of similar trust management models in Fog Computing.

Integration of Social Capital through Technology Use for Best Practices Of Breastfeeding Peer Support Networking in Malaysia

Literature has shown that breastfeeding success depends on breastfeeding support as breastfeeding until six months is a major challenge for most mothers. In breastfeeding research, the early cessation of breastfeeding is described as the biggest challenge. Many mothers have decided to stop breastfeeding because of a lack of support at home, at work, and in the community. The problems for working mothers derive from their work commitment or workplace support. As for stay-at-home mothers, their challenges stem from the pressure of close relatives on conventional myths and erroneous breastfeeding knowledge. New mothers are often given misinformation on breastfeeding. The use of the Internet and social media to obtain lactation information or support for breastfeeding has been widely discussed in the literature at this time. Studying how social capital may be built through the use of technology is imperative. Incorporating social capital into building healthier communities is crucial to help more women choose and continue to breastfeed. Thus, breastfeeding advocacy in Malaysia needs holistic approaches to protection, promotion, and support aspects. Establishing trust-based networks means not only building strong connections but also improving the dependability of those connections between families, communities, and organizations.

460 Adaptive Capacity and Preparedness of CTSAs: The Environmental Scan Approach and Findings

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Illuminate processes and findings of the Environmental Scan of Adaptive Capacity and Preparedness of CTSAs done by the CTSA Working Group. Share challenges, strategies, and lessons learned for CTSAs to build Capacity to address clinical and translational barriers while responding to emergencies. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: An Environmental Scan approach for searching, collecting, analyzing and using information from diverse sources regarding CTSA hubs experiences during emergency as related to research implementation, translation, support, adaptation, and preparedness: - Triangulating multiple data sources and mixed methods (e.g., literature review, document/RPPR analysis, and expert review); - Secondary analysis of the JCTS COVID-19 Survey of the CTSAs: challenges, lessons learned, and practices that work in various program components/areas; - Using feedback of CTSA professionals from multiple disciplines to enhance our knowledge of emergency preparedness and efficient adaptation to public health and other crises. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The E-scan approach helped identify challenges, successful practices, and evidence-based strategies for building adaptive capacity and preparedness of CTSAs across various scientific sectors of the translational science spectrum. Some of the findings include: - Roadmaps for the creation of new collaborative research resources (biobanks; data repositories, etc.); - Rapid clinical and research decision making during public health crises; - New community-based research strategies to facilitate communication, research dissemination, and participant recruitment based on existing trust-based networks; - Innovative resource allocation to guarantee continuity of training and research opportunities for trainees. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The Environmental Scan of the Adaptive Capacity of CTSA hubs provides useful knowledge and tools to diverse clinical research stakeholders for mitigating the impact of a disaster via adjusting programs, practices, and processes, and building capacity for effective, emergency-ready and responsive research, training, and community engagement.

Meeting the housing needs of military veterans: exploring collaboration and governance

Veterans in the UK seek help from numerous, diverse organisations to navigate the housing system, in contrast to countries such as the US and Australia, which operate dedicated Veterans Administrations. Collaboration between organisations to support veterans is non-mandatory, yet influential on housing outcomes. This study utilised network governance theory to examine how local partnerships affect veterans’ housing pathways. The research approach involved five in-depth, area-based case studies across different housing contexts. The research contributes new findings on the positive impact of local partnerships and develops a conceptual model of veterans’ housing pathways, focused on collaboration. The study revealed a step change in partnership-working since the introduction of the UK Armed Forces Covenant in 2011, with the absence of mandatory collaboration requirements having nurtured trust-based network governance. The findings suggest this has been effective for veterans in housing need, but there are potential risks in terms of sustainability of voluntary partnerships and the temptation for central government of more hierarchical approaches.

TRANSNATIONAL POLICING FIELD: THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION AND THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Abstract This paper aims to understand the relatively autonomous development of joint efforts between the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) in drug international control, in parallel to governmental relations. To shed light on this process, this documentary research resorts to Bourdieu’s formulation of field, which provides instrumental tools to understanding the relations between state bureaucracies at a transnational level, thus overcoming the inter-state framework that dominates the International Relations discipline. The findings indicate that assistance, training, and joint operations created a trust-based network among police officers from different parts of the world, enabling DEA to influence the PF conducts, guidelines, objectives, and strategies.

Blockchain: an EOM approach to reconciliation in banking

PurposeThe study aim is to evaluate the contribution of Blockchain technology (Cryptobanking) using expected operating model (EOM) to address the pain points in reconciliation at middle and back-office operational levels in assessing the significance of this technology on return on investment.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was designed to collect primary data using a stratified sampling method from 120 respondents working in leading Investment banks operating in the geographical locality of urban Bangalore. Demographic variables, accounting variables, data reporting variables, approach variables, variables of EOM were considered to validate the hypothesis with the help of statistical tools, namely ANOVA, and Multiple Stepwise Regression Analysis.FindingsThe results obtained confirm that there is significant difference in reconciliation with implementation of an innovative business process. Financial analysis is the highest predictor of ROI when integrated with technology as the adapted Blockchain innovation in reconciliation is the most influencing factor in enhancing, improving ROI playing a pivotal role in the Investment banks.Originality/valueBlockchain technology (Cryptobanking) facilitates in transforming the reconciliation process of these banks with improved operational efficiency. Blockchain and settlement platforms offer inter-organization solutions facilitating in the reconciliation of various transactions in real-time through a trust-based network in the form of digital settlements with better consortiums.

Towards trusted and energy-efficient data collection in unattended wireless sensor networks

The Internet of Things (IoT), including wireless sensors, is one of the highly anticipated contributors to big data; therefore, avoiding misleading or forged data gathering in cases of sensitive and critical data through secure communication is vital. Wireless sensor networks are relatively simple, scalable networks with many applications in research. They can provide many benefits, including ad hoc distribution, lower costs, and higher flexibility. In a scenario where time is of the essence and dedicated base stations cannot be established, mobile sinks must be used to gather data. IoT systems are based on a collective organization in which devices collaborate to provide better and more accurate decisions. It is important to ensure that the information being shared is legitimate to avoid any significant degradation in system performance because of false or inaccurate information. Building trust—the “assurance” between two devices that the information being shared can be used with confidence that it is accurate—will create a trustworthy, secure system in which all devices are identified and no information is accepted from any unauthorized device. The key contribution of this work is a new, dynamic, trust-based clustering mechanism by which nodes can securely connect to one another and begin transmitting data to a sink while it is available. To demonstrate the utility of this mechanism, we examine two possible attacks on a trust-based network and present a heuristic solution for minimizing the negative effects of such attacks in an energy-efficient way. Our results show improved network performance through reduction of the number of cycles required to isolate or mitigate the effect of malicious nodes in the network, thus reducing the energy consumption in the network with a concomitant increase in its lifespan. Our cluster methodology also has the effect of spreading energy consumption among nodes, thereby reducing early fall-off of nodes and network holes.

Relationships and interactions between school owners and school principals: A case study of a Norwegian school district programme

The literature has revealed that high-performing districts establish collaborative working relations with school leaders as a part of the strategy to improve student achievement. This study was designed to investigate the relationships and interactions that school owners and principals in municipalities with high-performing school results employ at the district level in a part of rural Norway. The district subjected to the study was characterized by small municipalities with a few school administrative units, which can be a challenging context for school owners’ involvement and interaction with principals. The research design involved a collective case study and draws on data from surveys, interviews and local school policy documents. The findings suggest that the proximity between neighbouring professional actors seems to be important, and that rural school district actors should build systemic competence and a purposefully tailored infrastructure to reinforce interactions and relationships with the subordinated principals. Further, the findings highlight the advantage of collaborative governance across municipal boundaries and the significance of a trust-based professional network for inter-organizational learning to flourish.

Varieties of privatization: informal networks, trust and state control of the commanding heights

Why did ordoliberal Germany unconditionally privatize its aerospace and defense industries in the 1980s, whereas the neoliberal government in the United Kingdom established significant state control? To shed light on this puzzle, this article builds on the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) and theorizes how different production regimes – complemented by distinct legal traditions – shape governments’ decisions about how to privatize state-owned industries. I argue that Germany’s coordinated market economy included informal networks between state and business actors that were based on trust. These relationships enabled the government to transfer ownership of the defense industries to the private sector without retaining any formal control. The United Kingdom’s liberal market economy, by contrast, lacked such informal trust-based networks. That explains why the British government maintained formal control instruments and thus intervened more forcefully in its aerospace and defense sector. The comparative process-tracing analysis draws on original sources, such as formerly secret archival files and interviews with decision-makers. The article’s contribution lies not only in extending the firm-centered logic of VoC to coordination between corporate actors and the state, but also in institutionalist theory-building: Trust-based coordination within informal networks systematically reduces vulnerabilities and can thus substitute for the arguably constant need of formal control.

How Trust Pursuing Businesses Play in an Asymmetric Power Network?

This historical, longitudinal, and qualitative study draws upon a contingent view of trust to explain how asymmetric power causes trust structures to move from trust equilibrium to trust disequilibrium and triggers strategic trust-pursuing actions. We conclude that a trustor firm has the dominant and manipulating power in an asymmetric power network to extract maximal value in a systematic way, thereby causing trustee firms to adopt strategic trust-pursuing actions to buffer the trustor's power. Consequently, this study proposes an original theoretical framework to illustrate how trustee firms must be smart trust-pursuers in a trust-based network with asymmetric power.

Researching the natural history trade of the nineteenth century

ABSTRACT The archives of the Australian Museum and the Macleay Museum are deployed to analyse the global trading networks of two important Australian natural history collectors in the mid-nineteenth century. The evidence reveals much about the challenges they faced transacting in heterogeneous specimens over long distances. It also uncovers some of the solutions they pursued, particularly in choosing the appropriate type of transaction, forging trust-based trading networks, obtaining up-to-date scientific information, and drawing on the infrastructure of existing, regular commodity trades.

Institutional Innovation for Nature-Based Coastal Adaptation: Lessons from Salt Marsh Restoration in Nova Scotia, Canada

Sea-levels have been rising at a faster rate than expected. Because of the maladaptive outcomes of engineering-based hard coastal protection infrastructure, policy makers are looking for alternative adaptation approaches to buffer against coastal flooding—commonly known as nature-based coastal adaptation (NbCA). However, how to implement NbCA under an institutional structure demonstrating ‘inertia’ to alternative adaptation approaches is a question that seeks scientific attention. Building on a case study derived from a highly climate-vulnerable Canadian province, this study shows how the entrepreneurial use of scientific information and institutional opportunities helped institutional actors overcome the inertia. Drawing on secondary document analysis and primary qualitative data, this study offers five key lessons to institutional actors aiming at implementing NbCA: (i) develop knowledge networks to help avoid uncertainty; (ii) identify and utilize opportunities within existing institutions; (iii) distribute roles and responsibilities among actors based on their capacity to mobilize required resources; (iv) provide entrepreneurial actors with decision-making autonomy for developing agreed-upon rules and norms; and (v) facilitate repeated interactions among institutional actors to develop a collaborative network among them. This study, therefore, helps us to understand how to implement a relatively new adaptation option by building trust-based networks among diverse and relevant institutional actors.