  The NP-hard EFFECTORS problem on directed graphs is motivated by applications
in network mining, particularly concerning the analysis of probabilistic
information-propagation processes in social networks. In the corresponding
model the arcs carry probabilities and there is a probabilistic diffusion
process activating nodes by neighboring activated nodes with probabilities as
specified by the arcs. The point is to explain a given network activation state
as well as possible by using a minimum number of "effector nodes"; these are
selected before the activation process starts.
  We correct, complement, and extend previous work from the data mining
community by a more thorough computational complexity analysis of EFFECTORS,
identifying both tractable and intractable cases. To this end, we also exploit
a parameterization measuring the "degree of randomness" (the number of "really"
probabilistic arcs) which might prove useful for analyzing other probabilistic
network diffusion problems as well.
