Choice Architecture for Healthier Insurance Choices: Ordering and Partitioning Can Improve Decisions

Health insurance decisions are a challenge for many consumers and influence welfare, health outcomes, and longevity. Two choice architecture tools are examined that can improve these decisions: informed ordering of options (from best to worst) and choice set partitioning. It is hypothesized that these tools can improve choices by changing: (1) decision focus: the options in a set on which consumers focus their attention, and (2) decision strategy: how consumers integrate the different attributes that make up the options. The first experiment focuses on the mediating role of the hypothesized decision processes on consumer decision outcomes. The outcome results are validated further in a field study of over 40,000 consumers making actual health insurance choices and in two additional experiments. The results show that informed ordering and partitioning can reduce consumers’ mistakes by hundreds of dollars per year. They suggest that wise choice architecture interventions depend upon two factors: The quality of the user model possessed by the firm to predict consumers’ best choice and possible interactions among the ensemble of choice architecture tools

Partitioning Sorted Sets: Overcoming Choice Overload While Maintaining Decision Quality

We investigate the joint use of partitioning and sorting as a choice architecture to overcome consumer choice overload in large product sets. Partitioning first presents a small initial set of alternatives with the option to click through to see the remaining alternatives. Sorting presents alternatives in order of attractiveness based on a user model that is helpful to the decision-maker. We propose that Sets with Partitioning and Sorting (SPSs) improve consumers’ choice outcomes by increasing their focus on the most attractive alternatives and their use of more compensatory decisions. Results from two controlled survey-based experiments and a field study in the domain of health insurance support this positive impact of SPSs when sorting quality is high. However, there is also a potential harmful effect of partitioning when sorting quality is low. We discuss implications of our findings and propose a practical approach to select partitioning size depending on sorting quality

Evaporation-induced hydrodynamics control plasmid transfer during surface-associated microbial growth.

Droplet evaporation is a general process in unsaturated environments that results in micro-scale hydrodynamic flows which in turn determine the spatial distributions of microbial cells across surfaces. These spatial distributions can have significant effects on the development and functioning of surface-associated microbial communities, with consequences for important processes such as the spread of plasmids. Here, we experimentally quantified how evaporation-induced hydrodynamic processes modulate the initial deposition patterns of microbial cells (via the coffee ring effect and Marangoni convection) and how these patterns control the spread of an antibiotic resistance-encoding plasmid during surface-associated growth. We found that plasmid spread is a function of the initial density of cells deposited along the droplet periphery, which is a manifestation of the coffee ring effect. Using an individual-based model, we systematically linked how the different initial cell deposition patterns caused by the relative strengths of the coffee ring effect and Marangoni convection determine the extent of plasmid transfer during surface-associated growth. Our study demonstrates that evaporation-induced hydrodynamic processes that are common in nature can alter crucial ecological properties of surface-associated microbial communities and control the proliferation of plasmids, with consequences on the spread of antibiotic resistance and other plasmid-encoded traits

Geology of the Northwestern Krania Basin

The Greveniotiki Pindos Mountains of Greece showcases the tectonics affecting the Central Mediterranean; however no detailed geological maps have been produced of the region. In this study we present a 1:10000 geological map of Mount Orliakas and its surrounding areas, including westernmost parts of the Pindos Ophiolite complex and the Mesohellenic basin. We also provide new lithological, structural, and palaeontological discussions of the region and give new evidence for the provenance of the Kranea Formation

Choice Architecture for Healthier Insurance Choices: Ordering and Partitioning Can Improve Decisions

Health insurance decisions are a challenge for many consumers and influence welfare, health outcomes, and longevity. Two choice architecture tools are examined that can improve these decisions: informed ordering of options (from best to worst) and choice set partitioning. It is hypothesized that these tools can improve choices by changing: (1) decision focus: the options in a set on which consumers focus their attention, and (2) decision strategy: how consumers integrate the different attributes that make up the options. The first experiment focuses on the mediating role of the hypothesized decision processes on consumer decision outcomes. The outcome results are validated further in a field study of over 40,000 consumers making actual health insurance choices and in two additional experiments. The results show that informed ordering and partitioning can reduce consumers’ mistakes by hundreds of dollars per year. They suggest that wise choice architecture interventions depend upon two factors: The quality of the user model possessed by the firm to predict consumers’ best choice and possible interactions among the ensemble of choice architecture tools

Annealing-Induced Full Amorphization in a Multicomponent Metallic Film

We present direct experimental evidence that controllable amorphization and nanocrystallization during annealing of metastable films could serve as a precursor for exciting nanomaterials. The interesting discovery is that certain sputtered crystalline films become completely amorphous when annealed in the temperature range between the glass temperature and the crystallization temperature. Unlike other metallic glassy materials that exhibit annealing-induced devitrification, our good glass-forming films are transformed into various nanoscale and amorphous structures due to the annealing process. The formation of an amorphous phase gives rise to notable alterations in the electrical and mechanical properties of the film

The M dwarf planet search programme at the ESO VLT + UVES. A search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of M dwarfs

We present radial velocity (RV) measurements of our sample of 40 M dwarfs from our planet search programme with VLT+UVES begun in 2000. Although with our RV precision down to 2 - 2.5 m/s and timebase line of up to 7 years, we are capable of finding planets of a few Earth masses in the close-in habitable zones of M dwarfs, there is no detection of a planetary companion. To demonstrate this we present mass detection limits allowing us to exclude Jupiter-mass planets up to 1 AU for most of our sample stars. We identified 6 M dwarfs that host a brown dwarf or low-mass stellar companion. With the exception of these, all other sample stars show low RV variability with an rms < 20 m/s. Some high proper motion stars exhibit a linear RV trend consistent with their secular acceleration. Furthermore, we examine our data sets for a possible correlation between RVs and stellar activity as seen in variations of the Halpha line strength. For Barnard's star we found a significant anticorrelation, but most of the sample stars do not show such a correlation.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, accepted by A&

Dry transfer of graphene to dielectrics and flexible substrates using polyimide as a transparent and stable intermediate layer

We demonstrate the direct transfer of graphene from Cu foil to glass and flexible substrates such as PET, using polyimide (PI) mixed with an aminosilane (3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane) or only PI, respectively, as intermediate layer. We probe the scalability and roll-to-roll processing of this technique by using two different equipment: hot press and a laminator. High quality, clean and continuous areas of graphene monolayer can be transferred with the advantage of Cu recycling for future growth catalyst as it is peeled-off mechanically from the substrate/PI/graphene structure. More important are the high transparency of the samples together with the electron doping achieved (n&lt;sub&gt;S&lt;/sub&gt;= 0.21 to 4 x 10&lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt; cm&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt;), as the performing graphene face is not in direct contact with PMMA, PI or other materials, and the high mobility (µ&lt;sub&gt;H&lt;/sub&gt; up to 1250 cm&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;/Vcenterdots). Stability of the structure in terms of sheet resistance (R&lt;sub&gt;S&lt;/sub&gt;) at high temperatures, bending cycles and water immersion make this technique promising for future applications and implementation at the large scale.Postprint (author's final draft