459 research outputs found
Incentive-Compatible Surveys via Posterior Probabilities
We consider the problem of eliciting truthful responses to a survey question when the respondents share a common prior that the survey planner is agnostic about. The planner would therefore like to have a "universal” mechanism, which would induce honest answers for all possible priors. If the planner also requires a locality condition that ensures that the mechanism payoffs are determined by the respondents' posterior probabilities of the true state of nature, we prove that, under additional smoothness and sensitivity conditions, the payoff in the truth-telling equilibrium must be a logarithmic function of those posterior probabilities. Moreover, the respondents are necessarily ranked according to those probabilities. Finally, we discuss implementation issues
Quantum phenomenology of conjunction fallacy
A quantum-like description of human decision process is developed, and a
heuristic argument supporting the theory as sound phenomenology is given. It is
shown to be capable of quantitatively explaining the conjunction fallacy in the
same footing as the violation of sure-thing principle.Comment: LaTeX 8 pages, 2 figure
Asking about social circles improves election predictions
Election outcomes can be difficult to predict. A recent example is the 2016 US presidential election, in which Hillary Clinton lost five states that had been predicted to go for her, and with them the White House. Most election polls ask people about their own voting intentions: whether they will vote and, if so, for which candidate. We show that, compared with own-intention questions, social-circle questions that ask participants about the voting intentions of their social contacts improved predictions of voting in the 2016 US and 2017 French presidential elections. Responses to social-circle questions predicted election outcomes on national, state and individual levels, helped to explain last-minute changes in people’s voting intentions and provided information about the dynamics of echo chambers among supporters of different candidates
A Note on the Shape of the Probability Weighting Function
The focus of this contribution is on the transformation of objective probability, which in Prospect Theory is commonly referred as probability weighting. Empirical evidence suggests a typical inverse-S shaped function: decision makers tend to overweight small probabilities, and underweight medium and high probabilities; moreover, the probability weighting function is initially concave and then convex. We apply different parametric weighting functions proposed in the literature to the evaluation of derivative contracts and to insurance premium principles
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Model Simulations of Continuous ION Interjection Into EBIS Trap with Slanted Electrostatic Mirror
The efficiency of trapping ions in an EBIS is of primary importance for many applications requiring operations with externally produced ions: RIA breeders, ion sources, traps. At the present time, the most popular method of ion injection is pulsed injection, when short bunches of ions get trapped in a longitudinal trap while traversing the trap region. Continuous trapping is a challenge for EBIS devices because mechanisms which reduce the longitudinal ion energy per charge in a trap (cooling with residual gas, energy exchange with other ions, ionization) are not very effective, and accumulation of ions is slow. A possible approach to increase trapping efficiency is to slant the mirror at the end of the trap which is opposite to the injection end. A slanted mirror will convert longitudinal motion of ions into transverse motion, and, by reducing their longitudinal velocity, prevent these ions from escaping the trap on their way out. The trade off for the increased trapping efficiency this way is an increase in the initial transverse energy of the accumulated ions. The slanted mirror can be realized if the ends of two adjacent electrodes- drift tubes - which act as an electrostatic mirror, are machined to produce a slanted gap, rather than an upright one. Applying different voltages to these electrodes will produce a slanted mirror. The results are presented of 2D and 3D computer simulations of ion injection into a simplified model of EBIS with slanted mirror
Collisional kinetics of non-uniform electric field, low-pressure, direct-current discharges in H
A model of the collisional kinetics of energetic hydrogen atoms, molecules,
and ions in pure H discharges is used to predict H emission
profiles and spatial distributions of emission from the cathode regions of
low-pressure, weakly-ionized discharges for comparison with a wide variety of
experiments. Positive and negative ion energy distributions are also predicted.
The model developed for spatially uniform electric fields and current densities
less than A/m is extended to non-uniform electric fields, current
densities of A/m, and electric field to gas density ratios MTd at 0.002 to 5 Torr pressure. (1 Td = V m and 1 Torr =
133 Pa) The observed far-wing Doppler broadening and spatial distribution of
the H emission is consistent with reactions among H, H,
H, and H ions, fast H atoms, and fast H molecules, and with
reflection, excitation, and attachment to fast H atoms at surfaces. The
H excitation and H formation occur principally by collisions of
fast H, fast H, and H with H. Simplifications include using a
one-dimensional geometry, a multi-beam transport model, and the average
cathode-fall electric field. The H emission is linear with current
density over eight orders of magnitude. The calculated ion energy distributions
agree satisfactorily with experiment for H and H, but are only in
qualitative agreement for H and H. The experiments successfully modeled
range from short-gap, parallel-plane glow discharges to beam-like,
electrostatic-confinement discharges.Comment: Submitted to Plasmas Sources Science and Technology 8/18/201
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