One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation

In elections, majority divisions pave the way to focal manipulations and coordination failures, which can lead to the victory of the wrong candidate. This paper shows how this flaw can be addressed if voter preferences over candidates are sensitive to information. We consider two potential sources of divisions: majority voters may have similar preferences but opposite information about the candidates, or opposite preferences. We show that when information is the source of majority divisions, Approval Voting features a unique equilibrium with full information and coordination equivalence. That is, it produces the same outcome as if both information and coordination problems could be resolved. Other electoral systems, such as Plurality and Two-Round elections, do not satisfy this equivalence. The second source of division is opposite preferences. Whenever the fraction of voters with such preferences is not too large, Approval Voting still satisfies full information and coordination equivalence.

Prospects and Opportunities. New Technology Trends yield new opportunities for Libraries and Information Centers

A number of important trends currently impact libraries. Academic libraries face the fundamental shift of collections toward ever increasing proportions of electronic content; public libraries continue to see vigorous interest in print materials, now supplemented by demand to provide e-books for lending. Breeding will explore these and other trends and describe some of the technologies available and emerging to help libraries meet the challenges involved in this context.

Possibilities and problems of teaching the history of the present time through media and information literacy.

Le système éducatif encourage une histoire positiviste, ordonnée, unilatérale et universelle; par l´incorporation de le découpage chronologique de l´histoire en quatre étapes. Mais, est-ce qu´il serait posible que les élèves puissent étudier leur propre présent? Mon commuication poursuit d´exposer, comme Saab affirmait, le présent est “le point de départ et d´arrivée de l´enseignement de l´histoire détermine les allers et les retours au passé”. La façon d´approcher l´enseignement de l´histoire est confortable. Il n´y a pas de questions, il n´y a pas de discussions. Cette vision de l´histoire interprétée par l´homme blancoccidental-hétérosexuel s´inscrit dans le projet de la modernité du Siècle des Lumières. Par conséquent, cette histoire obvie que nous vivons dans una société postmoderne de la suspicion, de la pensée débile. En ce qui concerne la problématique autour de la pollution audiovisuelle et la façon dont les enseignants et les élèves sont quotidiennement confrontés à ce problème. Par conséquent, il est nécessaire de réfléchir à la question de l´enseignement de l´histoire quadripartite. Actuellement, les médias et les nouvelles technologies sont en train de changer la vie de l´humanité. Il est indispensable que l´élève connaisse son histoire presente et les scénarioshistoriques dans l´avenir. Je pense en la nécessité d´adopter une didactique de l’histoire presente et par conséquent, nous devons utiliser la maîtrise des médias et de l´information. Il faut une formation des enseignants que pose, comme Gadamer a dit: “le passé y le présent se trouvent par une négociation permanente”. Una formation des enseignants qui permette de comprendre et penser l´histoire future / les histoires futures. À mon avis, si les élèves comprennent la complexité de leur monde et leurs multiples visions, les élèves seront plus tolérantes et empathiques.

Strzygowski and his theory of early Christian art ...

From the Harvard theological review, v. III, July, 1910.

Health beliefs affect the correct replacement of daily disposable contact lenses:predicting compliance with the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Purpose: To assess the compliance of Daily Disposable Contact Lenses (DDCLs) wearers with replacing lenses at a manufacturer-recommended replacement frequency. To evaluate the ability of two different Health Behavioural Theories (HBT), The Health Belief Model (HBM) and The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), in predicting compliance. Method: A multi-centre survey was conducted using a questionnaire completed anonymously by contact lens wearers during the purchase of DDCLs. Results: Three hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were returned. The survey comprised 58.5% females and 41.5% males (mean age 34. ±. 12. years). Twenty-three percent of respondents were non-compliant with manufacturer-recommended replacement frequency (re-using DDCLs at least once). The main reason for re-using DDCLs was "to save money" (35%). Predictions of compliance behaviour (past behaviour or future intentions) on the basis of the two HBT was investigated through logistic regression analysis: both TPB factors (subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) were significant (p. <. 0.01); HBM was less predictive with only the severity (past behaviour and future intentions) and perceived benefit (only for past behaviour) as significant factors (p. <. 0.05). Conclusions: Non-compliance with DDCLs replacement is widespread, affecting 1 out of 4 Italian wearers. Results from the TPB model show that the involvement of persons socially close to the wearers (subjective norms) and the improvement of the procedure of behavioural control of daily replacement (behavioural control) are of paramount importance in improving compliance. With reference to the HBM, it is important to warn DDCLs wearers of the severity of a contact-lens-related eye infection, and to underline the possibility of its prevention.

Genomic structure and marker-derived gene networks for growth and meat quality traits of brazilian nelore beef cattle.

Nelore is the major beef cattle breed in Brazil with more than 130 million heads. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are often used to associate markers and genomic regions to growth and meat quality traits that can be used to assist selection programs. An alternative methodology to traditional GWAS that involves the construction of gene network interactions, derived from results of several GWAS is the AWM (Association Weight Matrices)/PCIT (Partial Correlation and Information Theory). With the aim of evaluating the genetic architecture of Brazilian Nelore cattle, we used high-density SNP genotyping data (~770,000 SNP) from 780 Nelore animals comprising 34 half-sibling families derived from highly disseminated and unrelated sires from across Brazil. The AWM/PCIT methodology was employed to evaluate the genes that participate in a series of eight phenotypes related to growth and meat quality obtained from this Nelore sample.

Essays on social networks, altruism and information diffusion

This dissertation consists of three standalone articles that contribute to the economics literature concerning technology adoption, information diffusion, and network economics in one way or another, using a couple of primary data sources from Ethiopia. The first empirical paper identifies the main behavioral factors affecting the adoption of brand new (radical) and upgraded (incremental) bioenergy innovations in Ethiopia. The results highlight the importance of targeting different instruments to increase the adoption rate of the two types of innovations. The second and the third empirical papers of this thesis, use primary data collected from 3,693 high school students in Ethiopia, and shed light on how we should select informants to effectively and equitably disseminate new information, mainly concerning environmental issues. There are different well-recognized standard centrality measures that are used to select informants. These standard centrality measures, however, are based on the network topology---shaped only by the number of connections---and fail to incorporate the intrinsic motivations of the informants. This thesis introduces an augmented centrality measure (ACM) by modifying the eigenvector centrality measure through weighting the adjacency matrix with the altruism levels of connected nodes. The results from the two papers suggest that targeting informants based on network position and behavioral attributes ensures more effective and equitable (gender perspective) transmission of information in social networks than selecting informants on network centrality measures alone. Notably, when the information is concerned with environmental issues.

Stochastic models and graph theory for Zipf's law

In questo elaborato ci siamo occupati della legge di Zipf sia da un punto di vista applicativo che teorico. Tale legge empirica afferma che il rango in frequenza (RF) delle parole di un testo seguono una legge a potenza con esponente -1. Per quanto riguarda l'approccio teorico abbiamo trattato due classi di modelli in grado di ricreare leggi a potenza nella loro distribuzione di probabilità. In particolare, abbiamo considerato delle generalizzazioni delle urne di Polya e i processi SSR (Sample Space Reducing). Di questi ultimi abbiamo dato una formalizzazione in termini di catene di Markov. Infine abbiamo proposto un modello di dinamica delle popolazioni capace di unificare e riprodurre i risultati dei tre SSR presenti in letteratura. Successivamente siamo passati all'analisi quantitativa dell'andamento del RF sulle parole di un corpus di testi. Infatti in questo caso si osserva che la RF non segue una pura legge a potenza ma ha un duplice andamento che può essere rappresentato da una legge a potenza che cambia esponente. Abbiamo cercato di capire se fosse possibile legare l'analisi dell'andamento del RF con le proprietà topologiche di un grafo. In particolare, a partire da un corpus di testi abbiamo costruito una rete di adiacenza dove ogni parola era collegata tramite un link alla parola successiva. Svolgendo un'analisi topologica della struttura del grafo abbiamo trovato alcuni risultati che sembrano confermare l'ipotesi che la sua struttura sia legata al cambiamento di pendenza della RF. Questo risultato può portare ad alcuni sviluppi nell'ambito dello studio del linguaggio e della mente umana. Inoltre, siccome la struttura del grafo presenterebbe alcune componenti che raggruppano parole in base al loro significato, un approfondimento di questo studio potrebbe condurre ad alcuni sviluppi nell'ambito della comprensione automatica del testo (text mining).

A segunda lei da termodinâmica

Considering intrinsic characteristics of the system exclusively, both statistical and information theory interpretations of the second law are used to provide more comprehensive meanings for the concepts of entropy, temperature, and Helmholtz and Gibbs energies. The coherence of Clausius inequality to these concepts is emphasized. The aim of this work is to re-discuss the second law of thermodynamics in accordance to homogeneous processes thermodynamics, a temporal science which is the very special oversimplification of continuum mechanics for spatially constant intensive properties.

A segunda lei da termodinâmica

Considering intrinsic characteristics of the system exclusively, both statistical and information theory interpretations of the second law are used to provide more comprehensive meanings for the concepts of entropy, temperature, and Helmholtz and Gibbs energies. The coherence of Clausius inequality to these concepts is emphasized. The aim of this work is to re-discuss the second law of thermodynamics in accordance to homogeneous processes thermodynamics, a temporal science which is the very special oversimplification of continuum mechanics for spatially constant intensive properties.

Nota fiscal eletrônica reduz custos para o contribuinte?

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo investigar se a adoção de documentos eletrônicos, uma realidade cuja obrigatoriedade é crescente no Brasil, é acompanhada por uma redução nos custos de conformidade das empresas. O autor buscou o referencial teórico em várias áreas do conhecimento: no Direito Tributário e no Direito Civil, na Matemática Aplicada, na Tecnologia da Informação e, por fim, na Contabilidade. Do Direito Civil vieram os conceitos de documento, que juntamente com conceitos de Matemática e de Teoria da Informação permitem construir a noção de Documento Eletrônico. Do Direito Tributário vieram as noções relativas aos tributos no ordenamento brasileiro, e as suas obrigações associadas (principal e acessórias). Da Contabilidade buscaram-se as definições de custos de conformidade e de transação, de forma que se pudesse avaliar quanto custa para uma empresa ser conforme com as obrigações tributárias acessórias brasileiras, especialmente no que tange ao uso de documentos fiscais eletrônicos. O estudo foi circunscrito na Nota Fiscal Eletrônica, que no Brasil deve ser utilizada em operações de circulação de mercadorias em substituição à Nota Fiscal Modelo 1 ou 1-A, documento tradicional que existe há décadas no Brasil. Buscaram-se informações quantitativas com empresas brasileiras, e a conclusão final é que existem evidências que justificam a afirmação de que o uso de documentos eletrônicos é mais barato que o uso de documentos em papel, mediante a comparação entre os custos de transação associados com a Nota Fiscal Modelo 1 ou 1-A e com a Nota Fiscal Eletrônica.

Aspectos relativísticos da teoria da informação quântica

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uma arqueologia de diagramas cibernéticos

This paper investigates the use of explicit structures of information in architectural design. Particularly, it approaches the use of diagrams related to cybernetics and information theory in experimental practices in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It analyses the diagram of cybernetic control proposed by the cybernetician Gordon Pask for the Fun Palace, the diagrams produced by the utopian architect Yona Friedman in the conceptual description of the Flatwriter program and Christopher Alexander’s diagrams and his theories of Synthesis of Form and Pattern Language. Finally it establishes a brief parallel between current domestication and use of dataflow programming with the cybernetic diagrams, highlighting differences in their complexity approach.

Extended Networks of Evolutionary Processors

This paper presents an extended behavior of networks of evolutionary processors. Usually, such nets are able to solve NP-complete problems working with symbolic information. Information can evolve applying rules and can be communicated though the net provided some constraints are verified. These nets are based on biological behavior of membrane systems, but transformed into a suitable computational model. Only symbolic information is communicated. This paper proposes to communicate evolution rules as well as symbolic information. This idea arises from the DNA structure in living cells, such DNA codes information and operations and it can be sent to other cells. Extended nets could be considered as a superset of networks of evolutionary processors since permitting and forbidden constraints can be written in order to deny rules communication.

Нелинейная Схема Компромиссов в Многокритериальных Задачах

Определение многокритериального решения по своей природе компромиссно и принципиально основано на использовании субъективной информации. Возможность решения проблемы основана на гипотезе существования некоторой функции полезности. Традиционный подход линеаризации функции полезности обладает многими недостатками. Предлагается концепция нелинейной схемы компромиссов.