Reasons and Means to Model Preferences as Incomplete

Literature involving preferences of artificial agents or human beings often assume their preferences can be represented using a complete transitive binary relation. Much has been written however on different models of preferences. We review some of the reasons that have been put forward to justify more complex modeling, and review some of the techniques that have been proposed to obtain models of such preferences

State dependent choice

We propose a theory of choices that are influenced by the psychological state of the agent. The central hypothesis is that the psychological state controls the urgency of the attributes sought by the decision maker in the available alternatives. While state dependent choice is less restricted than rational choice, our model does have empirical content, expressed by simple "revealed preference" type of constraints on observable choice data. We demonstrate the applicability of simple versions of the framework to economic contexts. We show in particular that it can explain widely researched anomalies in the labour supply of taxi drivers

Prospect theory and tax evasion: a reconsideration of the Yitzhaki puzzle

The standard expected utility (EUT) model of tax evasion predicts that evasion is decreasing in the marginal tax rate (the Yitzhaki puzzle). Recent literature shows cases in which incorporating prospect theory (PT) does and does not overturn the Puzzle. In a general environment that nests both PT and EUT preferences, we provide a detailed study of how the elements of PT affect the Puzzle. PT does not always reverse the Puzzle, hence we give and interpret conditions for when it does and does not. When allowing for stigma and/or variable audit probability, PT reverses the Puzzle in the same way and with the same limitations as does EUT, if equally augmented

Successful treatment of familial Mediterranean fever attacks with thalidomide in a colchicine resistant patient

Colchicine is the treatment of choice in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) both for attacks and for prevention of secondary amyloidosis. The overall non-responder rate varies from 5-10 to 40 %. Thalidomide is known to blunt the acute phase response. We report the efficacy of the addition of thalidomide to colchicine in controlling the febrile attacks and acute phase response in a patient with FMF resistant to 2 mg colchicine per day

The frequency of familial Mediterranean fever in an emergency unit

Approximately 90% of patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) complain of recurrent attacks of fever and abdominal pain of various severities. Prior to the diagnosis of FMF, the majority of patients are admitted to emergency units with a suspicion of acute abdomen pain and at least half of them undergo unnecessary abdominal interventions. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of FMF among the patients who are admitted to emergency units for acute abdominal pain. One hundred consecutive patients who were admitted to an emergency unit in Istanbul, Turkey, with acute abdominal pain were screened for FMF. When the definite cases were considered, a frequency of 2% was encountered which was significantly high. compared to the frequency of FMF in Turkey. Physicians working in emergency units should include FMF in their differential diagnosis list when evaluating a patient with acute abdominal pain, especially in countries where the disease is prevalent