Decision Makers Facing Uncertainty: Theory versus Evidence

We consider three competing normative theories of how to make choices when facing uncertainty: subjective expected utility, maximin utility and minimax regret. In simple decision problems, we compare how decision makers under each of these theories value safe options, freedom of choice and information. We then use these models to predict answers to questions in the European Values Survey and use these predictions via a latent class analysis to estimate the distribution of these behaviors across Europe. We find a larger proportion of Bayesians in the Northern countries than in Southern countries. The opposite is true for maximin utility behavior. Only a few are consistent with minimax regret behavior

A systematic characterization of cognitive techniques for learning from textual and pictorial representations

Pictorial representations can play a pivotal role in both printed and digital learning material. Although there has been extensive research on cognitive techniques and strategies for learning from text, the same cannot be said for static and dynamic pictorial representations. In this paper we propose a systematic characterization of cognitive learning techniques that is founded on both theoretical and empirical research. The characterization relates the learning techniques to classes of cognitive processes as well as to textual and pictorial representations. We show how successful strategies for learning from both plain text and illustrated text are covered by the characterization. We also exemplify how the construction of new strategies for pictorial representations can be informed by the characterization

Electronic spectra of polyatomic molecules with resolved individual rotational transitions

The density of rotational transitions for a polyatomic molecule is so large that in general many such transitions are hidden under the Doppler profile, this being a fundamental limit of conventional high resolution electronic spectroscopy. We present here the first Doppler-free cw two-photon spectrum of a polyatomic molecule. In the case of benzene, 400 lines are observed of which 300 are due to single rotational transitions, their spacing being weil below the Doppler profile. The resolution so achieved is 1.5 X 10'. Benzene is a prototype planar molecule taken to have D •• symmetry in the ground as weil as in the first excited state. From our ultra-high resolution results it is found that benzene in the excited SI state i8 a symmetrical rotor to a high degree. A negative inertial defect is found for the excited state. The origin of this inertial defect is discused

Memetic Multilevel Hypergraph Partitioning

Hypergraph partitioning has a wide range of important applications such as VLSI design or scientific computing. With focus on solution quality, we develop the first multilevel memetic algorithm to tackle the problem. Key components of our contribution are new effective multilevel recombination and mutation operations that provide a large amount of diversity. We perform a wide range of experiments on a benchmark set containing instances from application areas such VLSI, SAT solving, social networks, and scientific computing. Compared to the state-of-the-art hypergraph partitioning tools hMetis, PaToH, and KaHyPar, our new algorithm computes the best result on almost all instances

Global dynamics above the ground state for the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation without a radial assumption

We extend our previous result on the focusing cubic Klein-Gordon equation in three dimensions to the non-radial case, giving a complete classification of global dynamics of all solutions with energy at most slightly above that of the ground state.Comment: 40 page