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The paper discusses the dynamic properties of the patent network. Technological innovation occurs frequently, and predicting where it will happen is difficult because an economic system can adapt to changing technology. We construct a patent network based on the cited relations between patents and analyze the properties of the patent network from January 1976 to December 2005 by using USPTO patent data. We find that technology trends, which are calculated by our measures, are similar with historical trends of technology, showing that our measures would be useful to predict future technology relations. Also, we find that the change of similarity between patents shows meaningful results in terms of technological innovation.

The present article investigates the effect of messages compounded of many assertions on the overall size of a Galileo space. A Galileo space is a space within which objects and attributes are arrayed in such a way that the differences in meaning between any two objects in the space is given by the distances between those objects. Thus attributes that seem to be similar are located close to each other, and objects which are seen to embody a given attribute are located close to that attributes. Similarly, objects thought to be similar to each other are located close to each other. Results show that, following approximately a ten hour latency period, the space shows a substantial increase in size, followed by a return to its original dimensions. There is some indication that the expansion of the space may be periodic, which gives rise to the possibility that human beliefs and attitudes may be modelled as a damped oscillating system. Should this be the case, human cognitive processes, such as attitude and belief changes, might be modelled by the equations for dampled oscillations.

Insofar as mathematical approaches to content analysis may be a fruitful extension of content analysis in general, further research into the use of methods involving inferred categories cannot be excluded. A preference for a priori categorization is premature. There are several arguments in favor of methods in the field of computer-assited content analysis which may be termed nondictionary computer-assisted content-analysis programs, such as Iker's WORDS program. This approach may be based on an open, unrestricted theory of language, on direct multidimensional scaling of co-frequent units of observation (i.e., of words used in texts to be analyzed), and on criteria for the fit of multidimensional models which may be deduced from the stability or instability of the stress between groups of texts to be compared.

One of the most difficult problems confronting investigators who analyze data from surveys is how treat missing data. Many statistical procedures can not be used immediately if any values are missing. This paper considers the problem of estimating the population mean using auxiliary information when some observations on the sample are missing and the population mean of the auxiliary variable is not available. We use tools of classical statistical estimation theory to find a suitable estimator. We study the model and design properties of the proposed estimator. We also report the results of a broad-based simulation study of the efficiency of the estimator, which reveals very promising results.

This study puts forth the importance of effects of pressure groups on environmental sustainability. A comprehensive literature review has revealed that there are just case studies in theoretical modelling that attempt to analyze the relation between special interest groups and environmental sustainability. When special interest groups act in an organized manner, they turn into pressure groups. For this reason, pressure groups should have a negative impact on environmental sustainability. According to the results of the first empirical analysis in this field, which was based on the data from 127 countries, there is a negative correlation between the level of environmental sustainability and pressure groups. The negative correlation between the pressure groups and environmental sustainability reaches the most significant level in developed countries. Therefore, we can conclude that as the number of pressure groups increases, the level of environmental sustainability decreases. Consequently, the implementation of policies which are created and applied to raise the level of welfare of today’s and future generations depend on developed countries which work without bowing to pressure groups.