Pre-play communication and credibility: A test of Aumann's conjecture

The effectiveness of pre-play communication in achieving efficientoutcomes has long been a subject of controversy. In some environments,cheap talk may help to achieve coordination. However, Aumannconjectures that, in a variant of the Stag Hunt game, a signal forefficient play is not self-enforcing and concludes that an "agreementto play [the efficient outcome] conveys no information about what theplayers will do." Harsanyi and Selten (1988) cite this example as anillustration of risk-dominance vs. payoff-dominance. Farrell and Rabin(1996) agree with the logic, but suspect that cheap talk willnonetheless achieve efficiency. The conjecture is tested with one-waycommunication. When the sender first chooses a signal and then anaction, there is impressive coordination: a 94% probability for thepotentially efficient (but risky) play, given a signal for efficientplay. Without communication, efforts to achieve efficiency wereunsuccessful, as the proportion of B moves is only 35%. I also test ahypothesis that the order of the action and the signal affects theresults, finding that the decision order is indeed important. WhileAumann s conjecture is behaviorally disconfirmed when the signal isdetermined initially, the signal s credibility seems to be much moresuspect when the sender is known to have first chosen an action, andthe results are not statistically distinguishable from those whenthere is no signal. Some applications and issues in communication andcoordination are discussed.

Assessing an intuitive condition for stability under a range of traffic conditions via a generalised Lu-Kumar network

We argue the importance both of developing simple sufficientconditions for the stability of general multiclass queueing networks and also of assessing such conditions under a range of assumptions on the weight of the traffic flowing between service stations. To achieve the former, we review a peak-rate stability condition and extend its range of application and for the latter, we introduce a generalisation of the Lu-Kumar network on which the stability condition may be tested for a range of traffic configurations. The peak-rate condition is close to exact when the between-station traffic is light, but degrades as this traffic increases.

Le peuple élu et les autres. L'Ancien Testament entre exclusion et ouverture

La conviction d'être le peuple élu s'enracine au coeur de la foi d'Israël. Mais elle justifia aussi par réaction tous les antisémitismes. La Bible, pourtant, ne nous fait pas entendre qu'un seul discours sur l'élection. A trop vite tirer à soi tel passage, on en vient à travestir dangereusement son message. En réalité la critique des dérives intégristes auxquelles peut donner et a donné lieu le thème de l'élection d'Israël est le fait de l'Ancien Testament lui-même. Il est vrai que dans les temps d'oppresion et de déportation la conscience d'être le peuple de Dieu a permis à Israël de fortifier son espérance et d'assurer son identité. Et ce fut là, notamment, le grand dessein auquel se consacrèrent les auteurs successsifs du Deutéronome, à l'époque de la domination assyrienne, puis de l'exil babylonien. Mais il est tout aussi vrai qu'à chaque fois aussi se sont levés des hommes avertis, dans la foulée des propnètes de jadis, pour mettre en garde contre la tentation du nombrilisme voire de l'exclusivisme ravageur. L'histoire d'Abraham réécrite au retour de l'exil, en est l'exemple le plus impressionnant, qui souligne combien Dieu n'a cessé d'élargir à tous les pepes son électon et sa bénédiction.

Resolving the ortholog conjecture: orthologs tend to be weakly, but significantly, more similar in function than paralogs.

The function of most proteins is not determined experimentally, but is extrapolated from homologs. According to the "ortholog conjecture", or standard model of phylogenomics, protein function changes rapidly after duplication, leading to paralogs with different functions, while orthologs retain the ancestral function. We report here that a comparison of experimentally supported functional annotations among homologs from 13 genomes mostly supports this model. We show that to analyze GO annotation effectively, several confounding factors need to be controlled: authorship bias, variation of GO term frequency among species, variation of background similarity among species pairs, and propagated annotation bias. After controlling for these biases, we observe that orthologs have generally more similar functional annotations than paralogs. This is especially strong for sub-cellular localization. We observe only a weak decrease in functional similarity with increasing sequence divergence. These findings hold over a large diversity of species; notably orthologs from model organisms such as E. coli, yeast or mouse have conserved function with human proteins.

Rapport lu à la Société littéraire de Lyon au sujet de la candidature de M. Léon Gontier / par M. Aimé Vingtrinier

Comprend : Apollon ; Le grillon

ng Tooeoe oeoe Naênêng Löïcïc Laømøm Vieäcäc Cuoeoeaoeoea Baïnïn Chöùng Tooe Naêng Löïc Laøm Vieäc Cuoea Baïn Nôi xuaát baoen

Baïn muoán coù moät vieäc laøm. Vaø baïn cuõng coù caoem giaùctin raèng ôoe moät nôi naøo ñoù coù moätngöôøi chuoechuû nhaân ñang caàn moät ngöôøi laømchính xaùc coâng vieäc baïn muoán - moät coâng vieäcñoøi hooei ñuùng kieán thöùc vaø caùc khaoe naêng cuoea baïn, cuõng nhö ñöa ra nhöõng thaùch thöùc vaø côhoäi thaêng tieán. Ñeå tìm ñöôïc coâng vieäc aáy, baïn caàn phaoei laäpkeá hoaïch tìm vieäc moät caùch kyõ caøng vaø thöïc hieän ñuùng keá hoaïch ñoù. Baïn coù theå baùn ñi moätthöù - ñoù laøcoi nhöõng kieán thöùc, kyõ naêng, vaøkinh nghieäm cuoea baïn - töùc - laø chính baïn! - nhölaø moät saûn phaåm caàn “baùn” cho caùc chuû nhaân!.Ñieàu baïn caàn bieát laø laøm theá naøo ñeå chöùng tooenaêng löïc cuoea mình moät caùch coù hieäu quaoe nhaát. Cho duø baïn môùi ra tröôøng hay vaø ñang chuaånbò baét ñaàu moätböôùc ñaàu trong söï nghieäp cuûa mình hay ñang tìm moät coâng vieäc môùi sau 20naêm kinh nghieäm, moät soá phöông phaùp ñöôïctrình baøy trong taäp thoâng tin naøy coù theå giuùpích cho baïn. NOTE: Vietnamese Translation