Matevž Bren

Determining the Distance Index, II

We present the results of approximating the distance index by optimization. We do it for 16 standard dissimilarities on binary vectors and for some usual nonlinear transformations of these dissimilarities.

Assessing Validity of Different Legitimacy Constructs Applying Structural Equation Modeling

Legitimacy is a strong predictor of compliance with the law, and public trust in the fairness of justice officials is a strong predictor of perceived legitimacy (Tyler, Why people obey the law. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006). Most US studies support the findings of this “process-based model” established by Tyler, and the European studies also share at least part of it: Hough, Jackson, and Bradford (Legitimacy, trust and compliance: An empirical test of procedural justice theory using the European Social Survey. In J. Tankebe, & A. Liebling, (Eds.), Legitimacy and criminal justice: An international exploration. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013) revealed a significant effect of trust in police distributive fairness on compliance with the law via moral alignment (defined as one of the dimensions of legitimacy). To find out how people in Slovenia perceive legitimacy, four surveys conducted in Slovenia were verified using structural equation modeling (SEM). First survey: Trust in the justice module of the European Social Survey (Round 5) (www.europeansocialsurvey.org); second survey: Test of Tyler’s model on “why people obey the law” in Slovenia (Sifrer, Metode merjenja zanesljivosti in veljavnosti konstrukta “mnenje državljanov o spostovanju zakonov” [Reliability and validity methods of construct why people obey the law], Master thesis, Fakulteta za organizacijske vede, Kranj, 2013; Sifrer et al., Varstvoslovje 15(1): 45–63, 2013); third survey: Adult high school students survey—Slovenia (Reisig et al., Varstvoslovje 14(2): 41–59, 2012; Reisig et al., Eur J Crim Pol Res 20(2): 259–276, 2014); and fourth survey: The study on law students about legitimacy in Slovenia (Mesko, Perception of police legitimacy, trust in the police and legal cynicism in countries of Central and Eastern Europe—the results from a law student survey. Paper presented at the Annual CEPOL European police research & science conference Policing civil societies in times of economic constraints, Munster, Germany, 11–13 September 2013; Mesko et al., CEPOL Res Sci Bull, 15 p, in press). The four datasets are analyzed employing SEM (in fact the analyses were performed in two steps: first the exploratory factor analyses were conducted with the SPSS to provide factors in line with the theoretical model and then the path analyses with AMOS to explore and find the best fitting regression paths) to assess, evaluate and compare the validity of different legitimacy models, as was a qualitative comparison with other US and European surveys. The findings show that despite many formulations of legitimacy and a different focus of its prediction in different studies, the message is the same: relationships between dimensions of public trust and fairness of justice officials and dimensions of legitimacy are clear and strong; among all dimensions of public trust and fairness of justice officials trust in police (fairness) is of particular importance. It forms the strongest relationship with dimensions of legitimacy.

Visualization of three- and four-part (sub)compositions with R

Abstract In 2003 the MixeR (Mixtures with R) project was started and work began to develop a library of functions written in R to support the analysis of compositional data, i.e. mixtures. This paper presents the ‘mix’ object in R, reading different data file formats and some MixeR routines for graphical presentation of three- and four-part (sub)compositions in ternary diagrams and tetrahedrons. Additional graphical features and use of parameters are applied on real data — a glacial dataset and dataset of the researcher’s daily activities, both from Aitchison’s (1986) book. All these routines and datasets are available at http://vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/MixeR

Determination of the periodicity and synchronization of anticipative agent based supply-demand model

The paper presents the transformation of cobweb model by including the anticipation about the supply and demand. Developed transformation leads to oscillatory behaviour. The periodic conditions of the model have been analytically determined by the application of z-transform. Periodic solutions of the system are presented in the form of an inverse Farey tree, where the Golden Ratio path could be observed. The table of periodic conditions is given up to period 8. The agent-based system was developed in order to show the possibility of controlling the system by varying the key parameter, which determines the frequency response of agents and their interaction. A note on application in the stock market has been provided.

Anticipative agent based system synchronization example

The concept of feedback-anticipative control as the extension of classical Wiener paradigm is considered in the context of multi agent systems. The behavior of complex real world agents is based on the consideration of feedback information as well as on the anticipation. A linear model of the agents with a nonlinear interaction rule is proposed as the mean for the methodological conception. The results of the developed system display a periodic response. An analytical determination of periodicity conditions for individual agents was performed by the application of z-transform. Proof of system stability for the case of two interacting agents has been provided. The hyperincursivity paradigm is presented as an interesting methodological platform for further investigation of multi agent systems.