5,989 research outputs found
Indenture as a Commitment Device in Self-Enforced Contracts: An Experimental Test
How can a principal (an agent) ensure that an agent (a principal) will work (pay up), if payment (work) precedes work (payment)? When a banknote is torn in two, each part is by itself worthless. A principal can pre-commit to payment-on-delivery, by tearing a banknote and giving the agent the first half as "prepayment"; the agent receives the completing half upon delivery of the service. This contract design is known as "indenture". It is selfenforcing and incentive-compatible. This paper experimentally tests the efficacy of the "indenture game" and its implications for cooperation in one-shot environments. We find that cooperation rates are high and stable over time. Its efficacy is moderated by expected losses due to the existence of uncooperative types.Cooperation, Experiment, Contracts, Indenture, Reciprocity
Indenture as a Self-Enforced Contract Device: An Experimental Test
We experimentally test the efficacy of indenture as a self-enforced contract device. In an indenture game, the principal signals the intention of payment-on-delivery, by tearing a banknote and giving the agent half of it as "prepayment"; the agent receives the completing half after delivering the service. By forward induction, cooperation is incentive-compatibly self-enforcing. The indenture performs very well, inducing a significantly higher level of cooperation than that in a three-stage centipede game, which we use to benchmark the natural rate of cooperation. The difference between cooperation rates in both games increases over time.Cooperation, experiment, contracts, indenture, reciprocity
The Economics of Solidarity: A Conceptual Framework
For many people "solidarity" has become a meaningless word used in slogans - too often used without leading to any economic consequences. We show in this paper conditions under which solidarity can be a powerful instrument. In a solidary action, an individual in a group contributes to a series of actions that aims for a reallocation of scarce resources. The willingness to contribute is mainly influenced by the efficiency of the objective of the solidary action, and is enhanced by feelings of mutual exchange (solidarity) within a group. --solidarity,altruism,dynamic,mutual
Estimation under group actions: recovering orbits from invariants
Motivated by geometric problems in signal processing, computer vision, and
structural biology, we study a class of orbit recovery problems where we
observe very noisy copies of an unknown signal, each acted upon by a random
element of some group (such as Z/p or SO(3)). The goal is to recover the orbit
of the signal under the group action in the high-noise regime. This generalizes
problems of interest such as multi-reference alignment (MRA) and the
reconstruction problem in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). We obtain
matching lower and upper bounds on the sample complexity of these problems in
high generality, showing that the statistical difficulty is intricately
determined by the invariant theory of the underlying symmetry group.
In particular, we determine that for cryo-EM with noise variance
and uniform viewing directions, the number of samples required scales as
. We match this bound with a novel algorithm for ab initio
reconstruction in cryo-EM, based on invariant features of degree at most 3. We
further discuss how to recover multiple molecular structures from heterogeneous
cryo-EM samples.Comment: 54 pages. This version contains a number of new result
Evaluating the Implementation of Human Rights Law: A Data Analytics Research Agenda
Human rights law relies on national-level implementation and enforcement to give it full meaning. The United Nations\u27 mandatory reporting process, a built-in component of all major human rights treaties, enables monitoring and evaluation of countries\u27 progress toward human rights goals. However, the operation and effectiveness of this process have been largely under-studied. This Article lays the foundations for a data analytics research agenda that can help assess the reporting process and inform human rights law implementation. As a first step, we use a relatively new set of computational tools to evaluate the Concluding Observations issued by a human rights treaty body, the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Concluding Observations provide both an appraisal of states\u27 practices and a set of recommendations that act as an agenda for the state going forward. Using text and data analytics tools, we mined the text of Concluding Observations issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child over a twenty-seven-year period to identify the topics addressed in each report and parsed the language of these reports to determine the tenor and tone of the Committee\u27s discussion. We then mapped our findings by state and year, to form a detailed descriptive picture of what the Committee has said, and how the Committee has delivered its message(s), across both geography and time. In doing so, we hope to show how these data analytics tools can contribute to a deeper understanding of the Committee\u27s work and, more broadly, of the effectiveness of the reporting process in securing and protecting human rights
Cavity-enhanced Raman Microscopy of Individual Carbon Nanotubes
Raman spectroscopy reveals chemically specific information and provides
label-free insight into the molecular world. However, the signals are
intrinsically weak and call for enhancement techniques. Here, we demonstrate
Purcell enhancement of Raman scattering in a tunable high-finesse microcavity,
and utilize it for molecular diagnostics by combined Raman and absorption
imaging. Studying individual single-wall carbon nanotubes, we identify crucial
structural parameters such as nanotube radius, electronic structure and
extinction cross-section. We observe a 320-times enhanced Raman scattering
spectral density and an effective Purcell factor of 6.2, together with a
collection efficiency of 60%. Potential for significantly higher enhancement,
quantitative signals, inherent spectral filtering and absence of intrinsic
background in cavity-vacuum stimulated Raman scattering render the technique a
promising tool for molecular imaging. Furthermore, cavity-enhanced Raman
transitions involving localized excitons could potentially be used for gaining
quantum control over nanomechanical motion and open a route for molecular
cavity optomechanics
Performance Models for Split-execution Computing Systems
Split-execution computing leverages the capabilities of multiple
computational models to solve problems, but splitting program execution across
different computational models incurs costs associated with the translation
between domains. We analyze the performance of a split-execution computing
system developed from conventional and quantum processing units (QPUs) by using
behavioral models that track resource usage. We focus on asymmetric processing
models built using conventional CPUs and a family of special-purpose QPUs that
employ quantum computing principles. Our performance models account for the
translation of a classical optimization problem into the physical
representation required by the quantum processor while also accounting for
hardware limitations and conventional processor speed and memory. We conclude
that the bottleneck in this split-execution computing system lies at the
quantum-classical interface and that the primary time cost is independent of
quantum processor behavior.Comment: Presented at 18th Workshop on Advances in Parallel and Distributed
Computational Models [APDCM2016] on 23 May 2016; 10 page
ExoMol molecular line lists - XVII The rotation-vibration spectrum of hot SO
Sulphur trioxide (SO) is a trace species in the atmospheres of the Earth
and Venus, as well as well as being an industrial product and an environmental
pollutant. A variational line list for SO, named UYT2, is
presented containing 21 billion vibration-rotation transitions. UYT2 can be
used to model infrared spectra of SO at wavelengths longwards of 2 m
( cm) for temperatures up to 800 K. Infrared absorption
cross sections are also recorded at 300 and 500 C are used to validate the UYT2
line list. The intensities in UYT2 are scaled to match the measured cross
sections. The line list is made available in electronic form as supplementary
data to this article and at \url{www.exomol.com}.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 9 tables MNRAS submitte
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