503 research outputs found

    Geography and Giving: The Culture of Philanthropy in New England and the Nation

    Get PDF
    Looks at aggregate household wealth and income at the national level and for Massachusetts as a state, and analyzes levels of charitable giving in relation to household income

    A model of adaptive decision making from representation of information environment by quantum fields

    Full text link
    We present the mathematical model of decision making (DM) of agents acting in a complex and uncertain environment (combining huge variety of economical, financial, behavioral, and geo-political factors). To describe interaction of agents with it, we apply the formalism of quantum field theory (QTF). Quantum fields are of the purely informational nature. The QFT-model can be treated as a far relative of the expected utility theory, where the role of utility is played by adaptivity to an environment (bath). However, this sort of utility-adaptivity cannot be represented simply as a numerical function. The operator representation in Hilbert space is used and adaptivity is described as in quantum dynamics. We are especially interested in stabilization of solutions for sufficiently large time. The outputs of this stabilization process, probabilities for possible choices, are treated in the framework of classical DM. To connect classical and quantum DM, we appeal to Quantum Bayesianism (QBism). We demonstrate the quantum-like interference effect in DM which is exhibited as a violation of the formula of total probability and hence the classical Bayesian inference scheme.Comment: in press in Philosophical Transactions

    Measured Spectra of the Hygroscopic Fraction of Atmospheric Aerosol Particles

    Get PDF
    The relation between dry diameter (X0) and critical supersaturation (Sc) for atmospheric submicron aerosol particles is investigated using a long term air sampling program at Rolla, Missouri. The particles are passed through an electrostatic aerosol size classifier, and then through an isothermal haze chamber. Results are reported in terms of an apparent volume fraction of soluble material, Δv defined such that for particles composed only of ammonium sulfate and water insoluble compounds, Δv is the actual volume fraction of soluble material. The probability distribution of Δv is found to be approximately Gaussian in the Δv range 0.2 to 1.3. The mean Δv is 0.5, for electrostatic aerosol classifier settings of 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 Όm diameter
    • 

    corecore