Manipulation under k-approval scoring rules

Under a k-approval scoring rule each agent attaches a score of one to his k most preferred alternatives and zero to the other alternatives. The rule assigns the set of alternatives with maximal score. Agents may extend preferences to sets in several ways: they may compare the worst alternatives, or the best alternatives, or use a stochastic dominance criterion. In this paper we characterize the non-manipulable profiles for each of these set comparisons. For two-agent profiles we also determine the value(s) of k for which the number of non-manipulable profiles is maximal.microeconomics ;

The impact of compaction, moisture content, particle size and type of bulking agent on initial physical properties of sludge-bulking agent mixtures before composting

This study aimed to experimentally acquire evolution profiles between depth, bulk density, Free Air Space (FAS), air permeability and thermal conductivity in initial composting materials. The impact of two different moisture content, two particle size and two types of bulking agent on these four parameters was also evaluated. Bulk density and thermal conductivity both increased with depth while FAS and air permeability both decreased with it. Moreover, depth and moisture content had a significant impact on almost all the four physical parameters contrary to particle size and the type of bulking agent

HandyBroker - An intelligent product-brokering agent for M-commerce applications with user preference tracking

One of the potential applications for agent-based systems is m-commerce. A lot of research has been done on making such systems intelligent to personalize their services for users. In most systems, user-supplied keywords are generally used to help generate profiles for users. In this paper, an evolutionary ontology-based product-brokering agent has been designed for m-commerce applications. It uses an evaluation function to represent a user’s preference instead of the usual keyword-based profile. By using genetic algorithms, the agent tracks the user’s preferences for a particular product by tuning some parameters inside its evaluation function. A prototype called “Handy Broker” has been implemented in Java and the results obtained from our experiments looks promising for m-commerce use

Spectral triangulation molecular contrast optical coherence tomography with indocyanine green as the contrast agent

We report a new molecular contrast optical coherence tomography (MCOCT) implementation that profiles the contrast agent distribution in a sample by measuring the agent's spectral differential absorption. The method, spectra triangulation MCOCT, can effectively suppress contributions from spectrally dependent scatterings from the sample without a priori knowledge of the scattering properties. We demonstrate molecular imaging with this new MCOCT modality by mapping the distribution of indocyanine green, a FDA-approved infrared red dye, within a stage 54 Xenopus laevis

Dynamics of Individual Specialization and Global Diversification in Communities

We discuss a model of an economic community consisting of $N$ interacting agents. The state of each agent at any time is characterized, in general, by a mixed strategy profile drawn from a space of $s$ pure strategies. The community evolves as agents update their strategy profiles in response to payoffs received from other agents. The evolution equation is a generalization of the replicator equation. We argue that when $N$ is sufficiently large and the payoff matrix elements satisfy suitable inequalities, the community evolves to retain the full diversity of available strategies even as individual agents specialize to pure strategies.Comment: 13 pages, Late

Kinetic models with randomly perturbed binary collisions

We introduce a class of Kac-like kinetic equations on the real line, with general random collisional rules, which include as particular cases models for wealth redistribution in an agent-based market or models for granular gases with a background heat bath. Conditions on these collisional rules which guarantee both the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium profiles and their main properties are found. We show that the characterization of these stationary solutions is of independent interest, since the same profiles are shown to be solutions of different evolution problems, both in the econophysics context and in the kinetic theory of rarefied gases

Agent-Based Simulation on Women's Role in a Family Line on Civil Service Examination in Chinese History

In this paper, following our previous work on civil service examinations in imperial China, we investigate women's role in a Chinese historical family line using an agent-based simulation (ABS) model with a grid oriented genetic algorithm (GOGA) framework. We utilize a GOGA framework, because our ABS had such large parameter spaces with real values that it required much greater computational resources. First, we studied the genealogical records. Second, based on that study, we implemented an agent-based model with the family lines branched out into two clusters to compare different family norms. Third, using an "inverse simulation" technique, we optimized the agent-based model in order to fit the simulation profiles to real profile data with real-coded GA. From these intensive experiments, we have found that (1) The combined influence of the father, uncle, mother and the aunt has important significance in maintaining a successful family norm, and (2) a particular role of the aunt to pass it on as well.Agent-Based Simulation, Grid Oriented Genetic Algorithm, Inverse Simulation, Family Norm, Civil Service Examination