"Mathématique Sociale" and Mathematics. A case study: Condorcet's effect and medians

The "effet Condorcet" refers to the fact that the application of the pair-wise majority rule to individual preference orderings can generate a collective preference containing cycles. Condorcet's solution to deal with this disturbing fact has been recognized as the search for a median in a certain metric space. We describe the many areas of "applied" or "pure" mathematics where the notion of (metric) median has appeared. If it were actually necessary to give examples proving that "social mathematics" is mathematics, the median case would provide a convincing example.Condorcet's effect ; Fermat's point ; majority rule ; "Mathématique sociale" ; median algebra ; metric space ; permutohedron

Design and evaluation of a voting tool in a collaborative environment

This dissertation researchdesigned, implemented, and evaluated a Web-based Dynamic Voting Toolfor small group decision-making in a collaborative environment. In this dissertation, theliterature on voting tools in current GDSS research is presented. Variousvoting theories and methods are analyzed, and the advantages and weaknessesare compared, so as to gain a better understanding of how to apply thesedifferent voting methods to diverse decision-making situations. A briefoverview of scaling theories is also given, with an emphasis on Thurstone\u27sLaw. The basic features of someweb-based voting tool implementations are reviewed along with a discussionof the pros and cons of Intemet voting. A discussion of Human DynamicVoting (HDV) follows; HDV allows multiple voting and continuous feedbackin a group process. The Dynamic Voting Tool designed and developed bythe author (i.e., Zheng Li) integrated multiple scaling and voting methods,and supported dynamic voting. Its features, user feedback, and futureimprovements are further discussed. A controlled experiment wasconducted to evaluate the effects of the Dynamic Voting Tool (alongwith the List Gathering Tool by Yuanqiong Wang) interacting with smallgroup process. The design and procedures of the experiment, and thedata analysis results extracted from 187 student subjects from New JerseyInstitute of Technology are reported. While the System Survey yieldedvery positive feedback on the voting tool, the hypotheses tested bythe Post-Questionnaire and expert judgments showed no major positivesignificant results. This was probably due to the complexity of thetask and procedures, lack of motivation of the subjects, bad timing,insufficient training, and uneven distribution of subjects, etc. Several field studies usingthe Social Decision Support System (SDSS) Toolkit (List Gathering Tool+ Dynamic Voting Tool) are presented. The SDSS system worked well whenthe subjects were motivated. The field studies show that the toolkitcan be used in course evaluations, or other practical applications. Finally, it is suggestedthat future research can focus on improving the voting tool with truedynamic features, exploring more issues on SDSS systems design and experimentation,and exploring the relationship of voting and GSS

Proceedings of the International Workshop "What can FCA do for Artificial Intelligence?" (FCA4AI 2014)

International audienceThis is the third edition of the FCA4AI workshop, whose first edition was organized at ECAI 2012 Conference (Montpellier, August 2012) and second edition was organized at IJCAI 2013 Conference (Beijing, August 2013, see http://www.fca4ai.hse.ru/). Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is a mathematically well-founded theory aimed at data analysis and classification that can be used for many purposes, especially for Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs. The objective of the workshop is to investigate two main main issues: how can FCA support various AI activities (knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and reasoning, learning, data mining, NLP, information retrieval), and how can FCA be extended in order to help AI researchers to solve new and complex problems in their domain

Globalistics And Globalization Studies: Aspects & Dimensions Of Global Views

Nowadays globalization processes have become all-embracing. But at the same time, despite the ever-increasing flow of publications on globalization, our understanding and knowledge of it still leaves much to be desired. Especially it concerns the global processes in general, of which globalization is a part. We also need to systematize our ideas about globalization and Global Studies to somehow fit the realities. In particular, this concerns the education process, because the current state of education will determine the way people will perceive reality in the forthcoming decades. This yearbook aims at contributing to the solution of these important tasks. It is the third in the series of yearbooks titled Globalistics and Globalization Studies. This year it has the following subtitle: Aspects & Dimensions of Global Views. Its authors consider globalization and Global Studies in different dimensions and aspects: philosophical, methodological, and pedagogical, in terms of various processes, problems and perspectives. Of course, to some extent this means that this yearbook presents rather diverse materials. But globalization itself is very diverse. And its comprehension may proceed in the framework of different theoretical approaches and points of view. In the present yearbook one can find perceptions of globalization and Global Studies by a number of scholars from different countries of the world and learn rather peculiar visions of globalization by the Russian scientists and educators. The yearbook will be interesting to a wide range of researchers, teachers, students and all those who pay attention to global issues

Report of the Secretary of the Interior; being part of the message and documents communicated to the two Houses of Congress at the beginning of the first session of the Fifty-fourth Congress; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1895.

Annual Report of the Sec. of Interior. 27 Nov. HD 5, 54-1, v14-22 , 7924p. [3381-3389] Indian affairs in the U.S.; annual report of the Gen. Land Office (Serial 3381) ; annual report of the CIA (Serial 3382) ; etc

Condorcet's Social Mathematic, A Few Tables

International audienc

A comparative study of the reorganisation of secondary education in the united states, England and Sweden after 1945 with reference to emerging policies in the Arab republic of Egypt.

Asynchronous changes in the socio-economic aspects and in the\ud educational system in Egypt have created the problem of the inadequate\ud response of secondary education to the needs and aspirations of\ud Egyptian society after 1952.\ud This study attempts to propose alternative policies of reorganising\ud Egyptian secondary education in order to solve, or eliminate, such a\ud problem. To accomplish this, a comparative analysis of some models\ud of the reorganisation of secondary education after 1945 is carried out.\ud The countries chosen in this study are the United States, England and\ud Sweden since they had faced similar problems and offered successful\ud solutions of reorganising their secondary schools on comprehensive lines.\ud Following the 'problem approach' this thesis is examined in five\ud parts. In addition to the statement of the problem and the outlining\ud of the aims of the study, the first part discusses the methodology used\ud and the basic characteristics of a typical comprehensive school.\ud Part Two, which comprises two chapters, deals with the problem\ud analysis and its intellectualisation through the identification of\ud changes and relative non-changes in some aspects of Egyptian society\ud since the 1952 Revolution. While Chapter Two explores the normative\ud changes in terms of policy statements on justice, industrialisation and\ud education, Chapter Three identifies the actual changes in such aspects.\ud Part Three examines the Egyptian educational policies and practices\ud through a critical investigation that confirms the emerging need for the\ud reform of Egyptian secondary education. It also discusses recent\ud Egyptian experimentation in this field.\ud Part Four includes seven chapters dealing with the comparative\ud analysis. This part covers : basic forces behind the comprehensive\ud education movement, comprehensive school models, selection and allocation\ud of pupils to comprehensive schools within tracked and unified systems,\ud grouping in the comprehensive schools, and the curriculum organisation\ud and processes. Finally, Part Five puts forward the proposed solutions\ud and the prediction of their workability within the Egyptian initial\ud conditions