Lost in Translation: Social Choice Theory is Misapplied Against Legislative Intent

Several prominent scholars use results from social choice theory to conclude that legislative intent is meaningless. We disagree. We support our argument by showing that the conclusions in question are based on misapplications of the theory. Some of the conclusions in question are based on Arrow\u27s famous General Possibility Theorem. We identify a substantial chasm between what Arrow proves and what others claim in his name. Other conclusions come from a failure to realize that applying social choice theory to questions of legislative intent entails accepting assumptions such as legislators are omniscient and legislators have infinite resources for changing law and policy. We demonstrate that adding more realistic assumptions to models of social choice theory yields very different theoretical results-including ones that allow for meaningful inferences about legislative intent. In all of the cases we describe, important aspects of social choice theory were lost in the translation from abstract formalisms to real political and legal domains. When properly understood, social choice theory is insufficient to negate legislative intent

What Statutes Mean: Interpretive Lessons from Positive Theories of Communication and Legislation

How should judges interpret statutes? For some scholars and judges, interpreting statutes requires little more than a close examination of statutory language, with perhaps a dictionary and a few interpretive canons nearby. For others, statutory interpretation must be based upon an assessment of a statute\u27s underlying purpose, an evaluation of society\u27s current norms and values, or a normative objective, such as the law\u27s integrity. With such differences squarely framed in the literature, it is reasonable to ask whether anything of value can be added. We contend that there is

Designing Bureaucratic Accountability

A central finding in earlier research is that attitudes to work generally are more positive among older workers than among younger workers. This result has been interpreted in two different ways, by the cultural and the structural hypotheses. The cultural hypothesis sees age differences as outcomes of generational differences. We would expect that different cohorts should hold different work attitudes and that the work values of an age group at an earlier point in time should be different from the work values of the same age group at a later point in time. The structural hypothesis sees age differences as expressions of labour market inequality between older and younger workers. This point of view leads us to expect that age differences in work attitudes will follow changes in the job structure and in working conditions. Drawing on data from the Swedish survey of living conditions (ULF), attitude change within the Swedish work force during the period 1979–2003 was examined. Three sub-periods, 1986/1987, 1994 through 1996 and 2001 through 2003 were compared to 1979, the year of reference. The main results showed that a consistently lower share of the work force held extrinsic work values in the subsequent periods and this applied to all age groups. The results did not support the assumption that broader cultural differences between generations are central explanations of differences in work values. Older workers held extrinsic work values to a lesser degree than younger workers regardless of period. Most strikingly the gap between the youngest group on the labour market (aged 16 –29) and the older ones widened during the period. Furthermore, class differences in the distribution of the extrinsic attitude were intact throughout the study period; manual employees were consistently more likely to hold an extrinsic attitude than were service class employees. This implies that differences in the probability of extrinsic work attitudes have been identifiable regardless of period, but that their prevalence has decreased since jobs involving features related to extrinsic work values have decreased since 1979.Originally included in thesis in manuscript form.Panel survey of ageing and the elderl

Coping With Trade-Offs: Psychological Constraints and Political Implications

A thoughtful reader of the psychological literature on judgment and choice might easily walk away with the impression that people are flat-out incapable of reasoning their way through value trade-offs (Kahneman, Slovic, and Tversky 1982). Trade-offs are just too cognitively complex, emotionally stressful, and socially awkward for people to manage them effectively, to avoid entanglement in Tverskian paradoxes, such as intransitivities within choice tasks and preference reversals across choice tasks. But what looks impossible from certain psychological points of view looks utterly unproblematic from a microeconomic perspective. Of course, people can engage in trade-off reasoning. They do it all the time – every time they stroll down the aisle of the supermarket or cast a vote or opt in or out of a marriage (Becker 1981). We expect competent, self-supporting citizens of free market societies to know that they can\u27t always get what they want and to make appropriate adjustments. Trade-off reasoning should be so pervasive and so well rehearsed as to be virtually automatic for the vast majority of the non-institutionalized population. We could just leave it there in a post-positivist spirit of live-and-let-live pluralism. The disciplinary divergence provides just another illustration of how competing theoretical discourses construct reality in their own image. This “resolution” is, however, less than helpful to political scientists who borrow from cognitive psychology or microeconomics in crafting theories of political reasoning. The theoretical choice reduces to a matter of taste, in effect, an unconditional surrender to solipsism

In silico food-drug interaction: A case study of eluxadoline and fatty meal

Food-drug interaction is an infrequently considered aspect in clinical practice. Usually, drugs are taken together with meals and what follows may adversely affect pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, and hence, the therapeutic effects. In this study, a computational protocol was proposed to explain the different assimilations of two µ-receptors agonists, eluxadoline and loperamide, with a peculiar pharmacokinetic profile. Compared to loperamide, eluxadoline is absorbed less after the intake of a fatty meal, and the LogP values do not explain this event. Firstly, keeping in mind the different pH in the intestinal tract, the protonation states of both compounds were calculated. Then, all structures were subjected to a conformational search by using MonteCarlo and Molecular Dynamics methods, with solvation terms mimicking the water and weak polar solvent (octanol). Both computational results showed that eluxadoline has less conformational freedom in octanol, unlike loperamide, which exhibits constant behavior in both solvents. Therefore, we hypothesize that fatty meal causes the “closure” of the eluxadoline molecule to prevent the exposure of the polar groups and their interaction with water, necessary for the drug absorption. Based on our results, this work could be a reasonable “case study”, useful for future investigation of the drug pharmacokinetic profile

Evolution of average multiplicities of quark and gluon jets

The energy evolution of average multiplicities of quark and gluon jets is studied in perturbative QCD. Higher order (3NLO) terms in the perturbative expansion of equations for the generating functions are found. First and second derivatives of average multiplicities are calculated. The mean multiplicity of gluon jets is larger than that of quark jets and evolves more rapidly with energy. It is shown which quantities are most sensitive to higher order perturbative and nonperturbative corrections. We define the energy regions where the corrections to different quantities are important. The latest experimental data are discussed.Comment: 23 pages including 3 figures. Version 2 contains small correction to equation (41

The Mythology of Game Theory

Non-cooperative game theory is at its heart a theory of cognition, specifically a theory of how decisions are made. Game theory\u27s leverage is that we can design different payoffs, settings, player arrays, action possibilities, and information structures, and that these differences lead to different strategies, outcomes, and equilibria. It is well-known that, in experimental settings, people do not adopt the predicted strategies, outcomes, and equilibria. The standard response to this mismatch of prediction and observation is to add various psychological axioms to the game-theoretic framework. Regardless of the differing specific proposals and results, game theory uniformly makes certain cognitive assumptions that seem rarely to be acknowledged, much less interrogated. Indeed, it is not widely understood that game theory is essentially a cognitive theory. Here, we interrogate those cognitive assumptions. We do more than reject specific predictions from specific games. More broadly, we reject the underlying cognitive model implicitly assumed by game theory

Downs, Stokes and the Dynamics of Electoral Choice

A six-wave 2005–09 national panel survey conducted in conjunction with the British Election Study provided data for an investigation of sources of stability and change in voters’ party preferences. The authors test competing spatial and valence theories of party choice and investigate the hypothesis that spatial calculations provide cues for making valence judgements. Analyses reveal that valence mechanisms – heuristics based on party leader images, party performance evaluations and mutable partisan attachments – outperform a spatial model in terms of strength of direct effects on party choice. However, spatial effects still have sizeable indirect effects on the vote via their influence on valence judgements. The results of exogeneity tests bolster claims about the flow of influence from spatial calculations to valence judgments to electoral choice.</jats:p

Risk factors for invasive aspergillosis in ICU patients with COVID-19: current insights and new key elements

Abstract Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) has always been a challenging diagnosis and risk factors an important guide to investigate specific population, especially in Intensive Care Unit. Traditionally recognized risk factors for IPA have been haematological diseases or condition associated with severe immunosuppression, lately completed by chronic conditions (such as obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cirrhosis, chronic kidney disease and diabetes), influenza infection and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. Recently, a new association with SARS-CoV2 infection, named COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), has been reported worldwide, even if its basic epidemiological characteristics have not been completely established yet. In this narrative review, we aimed to explore the potential risk factors for the development of CAPA and to evaluate whether previous host factors or therapeutic approaches used in the treatment of COVID-19 critically ill patients (such as mechanical ventilation, intensive care management, corticosteroids, broad-spectrum antibiotics, immunomodulatory agents) may impact this new diagnostic category. Reviewing all English-language articles published from December 2019 to December 2020, we identified 21 papers describing risk factors, concerning host comorbidities, ICU management, and COVID-19 therapies. Although limited by the quality of the available literature, data seem to confirm the role of previous host risk factors, especially respiratory diseases. However, the attention is shifting from patients’ related risk factors to factors characterizing the hospital and intensive care course, deeply influenced by specific features of COVID treatment itself. Prolonged invasive or non-invasive respiratory support, as well as the impact of corticosteroids and/or immunobiological therapies seem to play a pivotal role. ICU setting related factors, such as environmental factors, isolation conditions, ventilation systems, building renovation works, and temporal spread with respect to pandemic waves, need to be considered. Large, prospective studies based on new risk factors specific for CAPA are warranted to guide surveillance and decision of when and how to treat this particular population