[Rsiena-help] Rsiena-help Longitudinal network data based on multiple networks with changing actor composition

[Mathias De Roeck]

Dear Professor Snijders

Thanks for the reply. I will follow your proposal and place other  
questions regarding the use of RSiena on the website you mentioned. At  
the same time, I would be glad to know any remarks from Ruth on the  
splitting of the data in different waves.

Kind Regards

Mathias


  > Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Longitudinal network data based on multiple networks	with
>       changing	actor composition (Tom Snijders)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 09:33:14 +0000
> From: Tom Snijders <Tom.Snijders at nuffield.ox.ac.uk>
> To: Mathias De Roeck <Mathias.DeRoeck at UGent.be>,
> 	"rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at"
> 	<rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at>
> Subject: Re: [Rsiena-help] Longitudinal network data based on multiple
> 	networks	with changing	actor composition
> Message-ID:
> 	<56E87F0F0FACC14DBFA30EFC82400726029D5F16833F at nuff-shetland.nuff.ox.ac.uk>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Dear Mathias,
>
> This type of question is more appropriate for the yahoo discussion  
> list http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/stocnet/ than for the  
> current list, which is meant for issues concerned with programming  
> the RSiena package (as opposed to using the package).
>
> But let me have a go at answering you, with the suggestion that if  
> problems remain, you put the next post at the other discussion list.
>
> In the first place, take care that your network ties are states, not  
> events, so that the Markov assumption is reasonable, that  
> probabilities of network change depend on the current state of the  
> network.
>
> For the changing composition, read Section 4.8 of the manual  
> http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~snijders/siena/RSiena_Manual.pdf
> (but  I think you already did this).
> The countries must be identified by numbers 1 to n, where n is the  
> total number of countries that are ever present in the data. The  
> composition change (i.e., exogenous events) file must have n rows,  
> one for each country. There is no possibility for using country names.
>
> Whether there is a way to read in the data without splitting them  
> into waves is not totally clear to me. I shall ask Ruth about the  
> possibility of using the Siena format in sienaDataCreateFromSession  
> for this purpose.
>
> Note the example R scripts at the Siena website, e.g., for  
> specifying models with multiple dependent networks. You mention that  
> you have 7 networks. Usually, it is advisable to start working with  
> one network to get an overall impression of the data set and how it  
> can be modelled, before continuing with a multivariate longitudinal  
> analysis.
>
> Best regards,
> Tom
>
> ================================================================
> Tom A.B. Snijders
> Professor of Statistics in the Social Sciences
> Department of Politics and Department of Statistics
> Nuffield College
> University of Oxford
> tel. +44-01865-278599
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rsiena-help-bounces at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at  
> [mailto:rsiena-help-bounces at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at] On Behalf Of  
> Mathias De Roeck
> Sent: 28 February 2012 08:42
> To: rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at
> Subject: [Rsiena-help] Longitudinal network data based on multiple  
> networks with changing actor composition
>
>
> Dear all
>
> At the moment I'm learning to work with RSiena, but given the nature  
> of my data I experience problems.
>
> I have longitudinal network data (from 1965 to 2005, so 41 waves)  
> about political, economic and military relations between countries  
> (a total of 7 networks). Currently, the data is in edgelist format  
> like for example:
>
> Year  CountrySender   CountryReceiver  Relation
> 1965  AFG             USA               1
>
> When there is no relation between two countries, there is no  
> information in the datafiles (that means it is not coded as 0 or  
> missing, but simply not present in the datasets). The world system  
> is a network with changing actors, since countries are entering and  
> leaving the system. Now I have some questions:
>
> 1. After checking the RSiena manual, it seems that I need to make an  
> exogenous events file. Is it possible to name the actors in this  
> file, so that I now that Afghanistan is Afghanistan and the US is  
> the US?
> 2. Does the exogenous events file imply that I will incept the  
> datasets within this broader dataframe?
> 3. Is there a way to directly read in the data, without splitting  
> them up in different waves?
>
> These are my questions. I would really appreciate any comments and  
> suggestions.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Mathias De Roeck
> Junior Researcher
> Center for Social Theory
> Ghent University
>
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> End of Rsiena-help Digest, Vol 22, Issue 1
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