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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Three Essays On Network Dynamics And Liminality, Diego F. Leal Nov 2018

Three Essays On Network Dynamics And Liminality, Diego F. Leal

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the emergence and evolution of social networks by paying particular attention to the spanning of cultural boundaries that segregate actors in the context of specific societies. In particular, I use systems science methods to study the bridging of cultural holes in small and relatively dense artificial societies, as well as in an American high school. I also study the significance of local triadic configurations in giving rise to the highly hierarchical system of aggregate-level migration flows in place in the Americas during the late 20th century. I use the concept of liminality as a way to …


The Difference Between Optimal And Germane Communities, Jerry Scripps, Christian Trefftz, Dr. Zachary Kurmas Jun 2018

The Difference Between Optimal And Germane Communities, Jerry Scripps, Christian Trefftz, Dr. Zachary Kurmas

Funded Articles

Networks often exhibit community structure and there are many algorithms that have been proposed to detect the communities. Different sets of communities have different characteristics. Community finding algorithms that are designed to optimize a single statistic tend to detect communities with a narrow set of characteristics. In this paper, we present evidence for the differences in community characteristics. In addition, we present two new community finding algorithms that allow analysts to find community sets that are not only high quality but also germane to the characteristics that are desired.