Heuristic Voting as Ordinal Dominance Strategies

Decision making under uncertainty is a key component of many AI settings, and in particular of voting scenarios where strategic agents are trying to reach a joint decision. The common approach to handle uncertainty is by maximizing expected utility, which requires a cardinal utility function as well as detailed probabilistic information. However, often such probabilities are not easy to estimate or apply. To this end, we present a framework that allows "shades of gray" of likelihood without probabilities. Specifically, we create a hierarchy of sets of world states based on a prospective poll, with inner sets contain more likely outcomes. This hierarchy of likelihoods allows us to define what we term ordinally-dominated strategies. We use this approach to justify various known voting heuristics as bounded-rational strategies.Comment: This is the full version of paper #6080 accepted to AAAI'1

Типологія структурно-синтаксичних моделей простого речення (в англійській, російській та українській мовах)

Стаття пропонує і обґрунтовує типологію структурно-синтаксичних моделей простого розповідного повноскладного (нееліптичного) речення в англійській російській та українській мовах. До аналізу мовного матеріалу застосовано принцип врахування лише тих елементів, що є обов’язковими для структурної та семантичної цілісності речення. (The article suggests and supports the typology of structural-syntactic models of simple narrative non-elliptical sentences in the English, Russian and Ukrainian languages. The analysis of linguistic material is based on the application of the principle of taking into account only those sentence elements that are obligatory for the sentence structural and semantic integrity.

On the convergence of iterative voting: how restrictive should restricted dynamics be?

We study convergence properties of iterative voting procedures. Such procedures are defined by a voting rule and a (restricted) iterative process, where at each step one agent can modify his vote towards a better outcome for himself. It is already known that if the iteration dynamics (the manner in which voters are allowed to modify their votes) are unrestricted, then the voting process may not converge. For most common voting rules this may be observed even under the best response dynamics limitation. It is therefore important to investigate whether and which natural restrictions on the dynamics of iterative voting procedures can guarantee convergence. To this end, we provide two general conditions on the dynamics based on iterative myopic improvements, each of which is sufficient for convergence. We then identify several classes of voting rules (including Positional Scoring Rules, Maximin, Copeland and Bucklin), along with their corresponding iterative processes, for which at least one of these conditions hold

Reaching Consensus Under a Deadline

Committee decisions are complicated by a deadline, e.g., the next start of a budget, or the beginning of a semester. In committee hiring decisions, it may be that if no candidate is supported by a strong majority, the default is to hire no one - an option that may cost dearly. As a result, committee members might prefer to agree on a reasonable, if not necessarily the best, candidate, to avoid unfilled positions. In this paper, we propose a model for the above scenario - Consensus Under a Deadline (CUD)- based on a time-bounded iterative voting process. We provide convergence guarantees and an analysis of the quality of the final decision. An extensive experimental study demonstrates more subtle features of CUDs, e.g., the difference between two simple types of committee member behavior, lazy vs.~proactive voters. Finally, a user study examines the differences between the behavior of rational voting bots and real voters, concluding that it may often be best to have bots play on the voters' behalf

Teachers' beliefs on conflict and conflict resolution

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Молекулярно-биологические методы исследования в лабораторной диагностике лепры: эпидемиологический анализ, генетические детерминанты резистентности к антимикробным препаратам

The review of literature presents analysis of the current state of molecular biological methods for research of Mycobacterium leprae. The characteristics and feasibility of application of the methods in use for diagnostics and epidemiological monitoring of the leprosy pathogen are discussed, as well as identification of possible genetic determinants of antibiotic resistance. The present knowledge is provided of genetic characteristics of mycobacteria of the above type, which enable to lay the foundations for development of methods for leprosy diagnostics, as well as also for their significant improvement.В обзоре литературы проведен анализ современного состояния молекулярно-биологических методов исследования Mycobacterium leprae. Обсуждаются характеристики и возможности применяемых методов в целях диагностики и эпидемиологического мониторинга возбудителя лепры, а также выявления возможных генетических детерминант антибиотикорезистентности. Представлены современные данные об особенностях генетики данного вида микобактерий, позволяющие заложить основы не только для разработки методов диагностики лепры, но и для их существенного усовершенствования