Heuristics in Multi-Winner Approval Voting

In many real world situations, collective decisions are made using voting. Moreover, scenarios such as committee or board elections require voting rules that return multiple winners. In multi-winner approval voting (AV), an agent may vote for as many candidates as they wish. Winners are chosen by tallying up the votes and choosing the top-$k$ candidates receiving the most votes. An agent may manipulate the vote to achieve a better outcome by voting in a way that does not reflect their true preferences. In complex and uncertain situations, agents may use heuristics to strategize, instead of incurring the additional effort required to compute the manipulation which most favors them. In this paper, we examine voting behavior in multi-winner approval voting scenarios with complete information. We show that people generally manipulate their vote to obtain a better outcome, but often do not identify the optimal manipulation. Instead, voters tend to prioritize the candidates with the highest utilities. Using simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of these heuristics in situations where agents only have access to partial information

Conductivity Study Of The Microemulsion System Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-hexylamine-heptane-water

Conductivity measurements on this system are interpreted in terms of the percolation and effective medium theories. From this interpretation, the ratio of hexylamine to sodium dodecyl sulfate in the microemulsion droplet surfaces can be deduced. Following that determination, it is possible to obtain approximate values for the radius of the water pools and the number and surface area of droplets per unit volume of the microemulsion system. © 1987

Lamellar Liquid Crystal And Other Phases In The System Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, Hexylamine, Water, And Heptane

Phase equilibria have been studied for the system composed of sodium dodecyl sulfate, hexylamine, heptane, and water. Greatest emphasis has been placed on the lamellar liquid crystal region and X-ray diffraction measurements. Equations are developed or modified to allow determination of the degree of penetration of water into the amphiphilic double layer as a function of water or amphiphile concentration. It is found that the interfacial area occupied by the polar or ionic head groups of amphiphiles increases with increasing water content. © 1987 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved

Hydrothermal sensitivities of seed populations underlie fluctuations of dormancy states in an annual plant community

Plant germination ecology involves continuous interactions between changing environmental conditions and the sensitivity of seed populations to respond to those conditions at a given time. Ecologically meaningful parameters characterizing germination capacity (or dormancy) are needed to advance our understanding of the evolution of germination strategies within plant communities. The germination traits commonly examined (e.g., maximum germination percentage under optimal conditions) may not adequately reflect the critical ecological differences in germination behavior across species, communities, and seasons. In particular, most seeds exhibit primary dormancy at dispersal that is alleviated by exposure to dry after-ripening or to hydrated chilling to enable germination in a subsequent favorable season. Population-based threshold (PBT) models of seed germination enable quantification of patterns of germination timing using parameters based on mechanistic assumptions about the underlying germination physiology. We applied the hydrothermal time (HTT) model, a type of PBT model that integrates environmental temperature and water availability, to study germination physiology in a guild of coexisting desert annual species whose seeds were after-ripened by dry storage under different conditions. We show that HTT assumptions are valid for describing germination physiology in these species, including loss of dormancy during after-ripening. Key HTT parameters, the hydrothermal time constant (θHT ) and base water potential distribution among seeds (Ψb (g)), were effective in describing changes in dormancy states and in clustering species exhibiting similar germination syndromes. θHT is an inherent species-specific trait relating to timing of germination that correlates well with long-term field germination fraction, while Ψb (g) shifts with depth of dormancy in response to after-ripening and seasonal environmental variation. Predictions based on variation among coexisting species in θHT and Ψb (g) in laboratory germination tests matched well with 25-yr observations of germination dates and fractions for the same species in natural field conditions. Seed dormancy and germination strategies, which are significant contributors to long-term species demographics under natural conditions, can be represented by readily measurable functional traits underlying variation in germination phenologies.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Paint Stripper Composition Having Reduced Volatility Containing Decanolactone, N-methylpyrrolidone and Butyrolactone and Method of Use

An improved composition of matter and method of use for removing cured coatings of paint or varnish or other similar coatings from substrates. The composition comrpises chlorinated solvent paint strippers (especially methylene chloride (CH2CI2)), waxes and an additive selected from the group consisting of decanolactone (C10H18O2), N-methylpyrrolidone (CH3NCH2CH2CH2CH2) and butyrolactone (OCH2CH2CH2CO). The additive retards the evaporation of the solvent resulting in a composition that is environmentally less hazardous to a user and also resulting in improved stripping effectiveness

SANS From Tetradecylpyridinium Bromide Based Microemulsions

Small-angle neutron scattering is used to investigate tetradecyl pyridinium bromide/pentanol/heptane/heavy water microemulsions in the water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion phase diagram region. The heavy water content is increased while the other components (surfactant, cosurfactant, hydrocarbon) are kept constant. With use of a simple model assuming spherical micelles interacting with a hard-sphere potential (Percus-Yevick model), aggregate sizes and packing fractions have been extracted and found to agree with values determined from the mixing conditions. These experiments clearly show the transition from the single-particle (heavy water + Stern layer droplet) scattering regime at low water concentration to the mixed single/interdroplet scattering regime when the intermicellar distance becomes comparable to the size of the micelles. © 1990 American Chemical Society

Microemulsions With High Water Solubilizing Capacity At High Hydrocarbon Levels And Very Low Surfactant Concentrations

Phase diagrams have been determined showing the extent of the inverse micellar or microemulsion region for systems consisting of water-surfactant-cosurfactant or water-surfactant-hydrocarbon cosurfactant mixture with three surfactants and four cosurfactants. The surfactants are sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium laurate, and tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide while the cosurfactants are pentanol, hexanol, pentylamine, and hexylamine. Hexylamine is found to be a very effective cosurfactant giving rise to very good water solubilizing capacity at extremely low surfactant concentrations and very low cosurfactant levels at rather high initial hydrocarbon levels. © 1986

Non-invasive Measures of Core Temperature versus Ingestible Thermistor during Exercise in the Heat

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(2): 225-233, 2017 The accuracy of core temperature (Tc) thermometry from temporal, tympanic, and oral thermometry devices has been variable during exercise in a hot, humid environment. The purpose of the present study was to cross-validate temporal, two tympanic devices, and oral devices compared to an ingestible thermistor during exercise in a hot, humid environment. Fourteen young, active adults (6 women) completed a graded exercise test until voluntary exhaustion in an environmental chamber (35.5 ± 0.6 °C, 53.9 ± 5.8 % RH). There was no statistical difference in mean temperature between tympanic device 1 and pill-based core temperature (PBTc) measurements across all time points and were positively correlated (0.357; P\u3c0.001). Temperatures of tympanic device 2 were statistically higher than PBTc (37.8 ± 0.7 ºC vs. 37.6 ± 1.0 ºC; respectfully) (P=0.008). At all time points, temperatures for the second tympanic device and PBTc were positively correlated (0.192; P=0.043). Temporal and PBTc values did not differ across time points and were positively correlated (0.262; P=0.005) across all time points. Mean oral temperature was significantly less than mean PBTc across all time points. (37.0 ± 0.4 ºC vs. 37.6 ± 1.0 ºC, respectively) (P\u3c0.001). Across all time points, oral and PBTc were positively correlated (0.262; P=0.010). Tympanic and temporal devices can reflect Tc while exercising in a hot, humid environment. However, care should be taken when selecting the tympanic or temporal measurement device and validation is advised prior to heat illness mitigation in the field