Quantitative Analysis of the Italian National Scientific Qualification

The Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN) was introduced in 2010 as part of a major reform of the national university system. Under the new regulation, the scientific qualification for a specific role (associate or full professor) and field of study is required to apply to a permanent professor position. The ASN is peculiar since it makes use of bibliometric indicators with associated thresholds as one of the parameters used to assess applicants. Overall, more than 59000 applications were submitted, and the results have been made publicly available for a short period of time, including the values of the quantitative indicators for each applicant. The availability of this wealth of information provides an opportunity to draw a fairly detailed picture of a nation-wide evaluation exercise, and to study the impact of the bibliometric indicators on the qualification results. In this paper we provide a first account of the Italian ASN from a quantitative point of view. We show that significant differences exist among scientific disciplines, in particular with respect to the fraction of qualified applicants, that can not be easily explained. Furthermore, we describe some issues related to the definition and use of the bibliometric indicators and thresholds. Our analysis aims at drawing attention to potential problems that should be addressed by decision-makers in future ASN rounds.Comment: ISSN 1751-157

Matching under Preferences

Matching theory studies how agents and/or objects from different sets can be matched with each other while taking agents\u2019 preferences into account. The theory originated in 1962 with a celebrated paper by David Gale and Lloyd Shapley (1962), in which they proposed the Stable Marriage Algorithm as a solution to the problem of two-sided matching. Since then, this theory has been successfully applied to many real-world problems such as matching students to universities, doctors to hospitals, kidney transplant patients to donors, and tenants to houses. This chapter will focus on algorithmic as well as strategic issues of matching theory. Many large-scale centralized allocation processes can be modelled by matching problems where agents have preferences over one another. For example, in China, over 10 million students apply for admission to higher education annually through a centralized process. The inputs to the matching scheme include the students\u2019 preferences over universities, and vice versa, and the capacities of each university. The task is to construct a matching that is in some sense optimal with respect to these inputs. Economists have long understood the problems with decentralized matching markets, which can suffer from such undesirable properties as unravelling, congestion and exploding offers (see Roth and Xing, 1994, for details). For centralized markets, constructing allocations by hand for large problem instances is clearly infeasible. Thus centralized mechanisms are required for automating the allocation process. Given the large number of agents typically involved, the computational efficiency of a mechanism's underlying algorithm is of paramount importance. Thus we seek polynomial-time algorithms for the underlying matching problems. Equally important are considerations of strategy: an agent (or a coalition of agents) may manipulate their input to the matching scheme (e.g., by misrepresenting their true preferences or underreporting their capacity) in order to try to improve their outcome. A desirable property of a mechanism is strategyproofness, which ensures that it is in the best interests of an agent to behave truthfully

The Use of Digital Video Annotation in Teacher Training: The Teachers’ Perspectives

The use of digital video offers interesting opportunities in teacher training, particularly the possibilities provided by video annotation, whereby people can add and share comments and opinions on the same videos, even from different places. This exploratory study aims to examine teachers’ perspectives of this technology, taking into account both their explicit and implicit evaluations. Different methods of using video annotation for training are compared, one based on its individual use, another supported by various types of tutorship. The data were collected and analysed first through a quantitative phase, followed by an in-depth qualitative phase. It is pointed out that to make this technology fully operational it is important to address the cultural and psychosocial aspects that control the emotional conditions which arise when one’s teaching behaviour is being observed and assessed

Considerations about multistep community detection

The problem and implications of community detection in networks have raised a huge attention, for its important applications in both natural and social sciences. A number of algorithms has been developed to solve this problem, addressing either speed optimization or the quality of the partitions calculated. In this paper we propose a multi-step procedure bridging the fastest, but less accurate algorithms (coarse clustering), with the slowest, most effective ones (refinement). By adopting heuristic ranking of the nodes, and classifying a fraction of them as `critical', a refinement step can be restricted to this subset of the network, thus saving computational time. Preliminary numerical results are discussed, showing improvement of the final partition.Comment: 12 page

Frontal midline theta and N200 amplitude reflect complementary information about expectancy and outcome evaluation

Feedback ERN (fERN) and frontal midline theta have both been proposed to index a dopamine-like reinforcement learning signal in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We investigated these proposals by comparing fERN amplitude and theta power with respect to their sensitivities to outcome valence and probability in a previously collected EEG dataset. Bayesian model comparison revealed a dissociation between the two measures, with fERN amplitude mainly sensitive to valence and theta power mainly sensitive to probability. Further, fERN amplitude was highly correlated with the portion of theta power that is consistent in phase across trials (i.e., evoked theta power). These results suggest that although both measures provide valuable information about cognitive function of frontal midline cortex, fERN amplitude is specifically sensitive to dopamine reinforcement learning signals whereas theta power reflects the ACC response to unexpected events

Discrete Choices under Social Influence: Generic Properties

We consider a model of socially interacting individuals that make a binary choice in a context of positive additive endogenous externalities. It encompasses as particular cases several models from the sociology and economics literature. We extend previous results to the case of a general distribution of idiosyncratic preferences, called here Idiosyncratic Willingnesses to Pay (IWP). Positive additive externalities yield a family of inverse demand curves that include the classical downward sloping ones but also new ones with non constant convexity. When j, the ratio of the social influence strength to the standard deviation of the IWP distribution, is small enough, the inverse demand is a classical monotonic (decreasing) function of the adoption rate. Even if the IWP distribution is mono-modal, there is a critical value of j above which the inverse demand is non monotonic, decreasing for small and high adoption rates, but increasing within some intermediate range. Depending on the price there are thus either one or two equilibria. Beyond this first result, we exhibit the generic properties of the boundaries limiting the regions where the system presents different types of equilibria (unique or multiple). These properties are shown to depend only on qualitative features of the IWP distribution: modality (number of maxima), smoothness and type of support (compact or infinite). The main results are summarized as phase diagrams in the space of the model parameters, on which the regions of multiple equilibria are precisely delimited.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figure

Filling position incentives in matching markets

One of the main problems in the hospital-doctor matching is the maldistribution of doctor assignments across hospitals. Namely, many hospitals in rural areas are matched with far fewer doctors than what they need. The so called "Rural Hospital Theorem" (Roth (1984)) reveals that it is unavoidable under stable assignments. On the other hand, the counterpart of the problem in the school choice context|low enrollments at schools| has important consequences for schools as well. In the current study, we approach the problem from a different point of view and investigate whether hospitals can increase their filled positions by misreporting their preferences under well-known Boston, Top Trading Cycles, and stable rules. It turns out that while it is impossible under Boston and stable mechanisms, Top Trading Cycles rule is manipulable in that sense

The Self-Organization of Meaning and the Reflexive Communication of Information

Following a suggestion of Warren Weaver, we extend the Shannon model of communication piecemeal into a complex systems model in which communication is differentiated both vertically and horizontally. This model enables us to bridge the divide between Niklas Luhmann's theory of the self-organization of meaning in communications and empirical research using information theory. First, we distinguish between communication relations and correlations among patterns of relations. The correlations span a vector space in which relations are positioned and can be provided with meaning. Second, positions provide reflexive perspectives. Whereas the different meanings are integrated locally, each instantiation opens global perspectives--"horizons of meaning"--along eigenvectors of the communication matrix. These next-order codifications of meaning can be expected to generate redundancies when interacting in instantiations. Increases in redundancy indicate new options and can be measured as local reduction of prevailing uncertainty (in bits). The systemic generation of new options can be considered as a hallmark of the knowledge-based economy.Comment: accepted for publication in Social Science Information, March 21, 201