Simple Mediation in a Cheap-Talk Game

In the Crawford-Sobel (uniform, quadratic utility) cheap-talk model, we consider a simple mediation scheme (a communication device) in which the informed agent reports one of N possible elements of a partition to the mediator and then the mediator suggests one of N actions to the uninformed decision-maker according to the probability distribution of the device. We show that such a simple mediated equilibrium cannot improve upon the unmediated N-partition Crawford-Sobel equilibrium when the preference divergence parameter (bias) is small.

Coordination, Efficiency and Two-Sided Cheap Talk

We consider the Battle of the Sexes game with incomplete information and allow two-sided cheap talk before the game is played. We characterise the set of fully revealing symmetric cheap talk equilibria. The best fully revealing symmetric cheap talk equilibrium, when exists, has a desirable characteristic. When the players' types are different, it fully coordinates on the ex-post efficient pure Nash equilibrium. We also analyse the mediated communication equilibria of the game. We find the range of the prior for which this desirable equilibrium exists under unmediated and mediated communication processes.

Short-pulse, extreme-ultraviolet continuum emission from a table-top laser plasma light source

We have observed extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) ''line-free'' continuum emission from laser plasmas of high atomic number elements using targets irradiated with 248 nm laser pulses of 7 ps duration at a power density of similar to 10(13) W/cm(2). Using both dispersive spectroscopy and streak camera detection, the spectral and temporal evolution of XUV continuum emission for several target atomic numbers has been measured on a time scale with an upper limit of several hundred picoseconds limited by amplified spontaneous emission. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Claiming and displaying national identity: Irish Travellers' and students' strategic use of 'banal' and 'hot' national identity in talk

Two complementary explanations have been offered by social psychologists to account for the universal hold of national identity, first that national identity is ideologically assumed, as it forms the ‘banal’ background of everyday life, and second that national identity is ‘hotly’ constructed and contested in political and everyday settings to great effect. However, ‘banal’ and ‘hot’ aspects of national identity have been found to be distributed unevenly across national and subnational groups and banality itself can be strategically used to distinguish between different groups. The present paper develops these ideas by examining possible reasons for these different modes and strategies of identity expression. Drawing upon intergroup theories of minority and majority relations, we examine how a group who see themselves unequivocally as a minority, Irish Travellers, talk about their national identity in comparison to an age and gender-matched sample of Irish students. We find that Travellers proactively display and claim ‘hot’ national identity in order to establish their Irishness. Irish students ‘do banality’, police the boundaries and reputation of Irishness, and actively reject and disparage proactive displays of Irishness. The implications for discursive understandings of identity, the study of intra-national group relations and policies of minority inclusion are discussed.

Examining the uncertainties in a 'tuned and stacked' peatland water table reconstruction

Tuning and stacking approaches have been used to compile non-annually resolved peatland palaeo-water table records in several studies. This approach has been proposed as a potential way forward to overcome the chronological problems that beset the correlation of records and may help in the upscaling of palaeoclimate records for climate model-data comparisons. This paper investigates the uncertainties in this approach using a published water table compilation from Northern Ireland. Firstly, three plausible combinations of chronological match points are used to assess the variability of the reconstructions. It is apparent that even with markedly different match point combinations, the compilations are highly similar, especially when a 100-year running mean line is used for interpretation. Secondly, sample-specific reconstruction errors are scaled in relation to the standardised water table units and illustrated on the compiled reconstruction. Thirdly, the total chronological errors for each reconstruction are calculated using Bayesian age-modelling software. Although tuning and stacking approaches may be suitable for compiling peat-based palaeoclimate records, it is important that the reconstruction and chronological errors are acknowledged and clearly illustrated in future studies. The tuning of peat-based proxy climate records is based on a potentially flawed assumption that events are synchronous between sites. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.

Valuing the talk of young people: are we nearly there yet?

This paper examines reasons why young people’s talk about themselves and their educational experiences do not seem to be valued in public discourse about education. Drawing on a national dataset of student focus groups, it illustrates how students talk about themselves in educational contexts in a way that is entirely different and more complex than how they are conceptualised by an adult audience and symbolic elites. It demonstrates, contrary to dominant adult perceptions, the critical, communicative and creative use of language offered by young people when asked about their educational experiences, and highlights the potential innovation being missed by not listening.

Resolution theory, and static and frequency-dependent cross-talk in piezoresponse force microscopy

Probing the functionality of materials locally by means of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) requires a reliable framework for identifying the target signal and separating it from the effects of surface morphology and instrument non-idealities, e.g. instrumental and topographical cross-talk. Here we develop a linear resolution theory framework in order to describe the cross-talk effects, and apply it for elucidation of frequency-dependent cross-talk mechanisms in piezoresponse force microscopy. The use of a band excitation method allows electromechanical/electrical and mechanical/topographic signals to be unambiguously separated. The applicability of a functional fit approach and multivariate statistical analysis methods for identification of data in band excitation SPM is explored.