Government regulators and other concerned citizens warily view multilevel marketing enterprises (MLM) because of their close operational resemblance to exploitative pyramid schemes. We analyze two types of MLM network architectures — the unilevel and binary, in terms of growth behavior and...

We show that time-dependent fluctuations $\{\Delta x\}$ in foreign exchange rates are accurately described by a random walk in a complex plane that is demarcated into the gain (+) and loss (-) sectors. $\{\Delta x\}$ is the outcome of $N$ random steps from the origin and $|\Delta x|$ is the...

We analyze the exit dynamics of pedestrians who are initially confined in a room. Pedestrians are modeled as cellular automata and compete to escape via a known exit at the soonest possible time. A pedestrian could move forward, backward, left or right within each iteration time depending on...

We study the efficacy of allelomimesis as an escape strategy of mobile agents (pedestrians) that aim to leave a two-exit room within the shortest possible time. Allelomimesis is the act of copying one’s kindred neighbors. To escape, an agent employs one of the following strategies: (1) It...

We set up a mechanistic agent-based model of a rapid mass transit system. Using empirical data from Singapore’s unidentifiable smart fare card, we validate our model by reconstructing actual travel demand and duration of travel statistics. We subsequently use this model to investigate two...

We demonstrate an accurate procedure based on linear discriminant analysis that allows automatic authorship classification of opinion column articles. First, we extract the following stylometric features of 157 column articles from four authors: statistics on high frequency words, number of...

Sandpile-based models have successfully shed light on key features of nonlinear relaxational processes in nature, particularly the occurrence of fat-tailed magnitude distributions and exponential return times, from simple local stress redistributions. In this work, we extend the existing...

Determining the stability of granular matter piles is of basic concern in understanding many real-world phenomena (e.g. landslides, debris flow, and avalanches). While extensive literature exists dealing with the stability of mono-disperse systems, models for the dynamical behavior of...