Some probabilistic models of best, worst, and best-worst choices

Over the past decade or so, a choice design in which a person is asked to select both the best and the worst option in an available set of options has been gaining favor over more traditional designs, such as where the person is asked, for instance, to: select the best option; select the worst option; rank the options; or rate the options. In this paper, we develop theoretical results for three overlapping classes of probabilistic models for best, worst, and best-worst choices, with the models in each class proposing specific ways in which such choices might be related. The models in these three classes are called random ranking and random utility, joint and sequential, and ratio scale. We include some models that belong to more than one class, with the best known being the maximum-difference (maxdiff) model, summarize estimation issues related to the models, and formulate a number of open theoretical problems.     

Procedural justice effects on self-esteem under certainty versus uncertainty emotions

Building upon the idea that procedural justice effects are more pronounced when uncertainty is high, we proposed that recall of an uncertainty-eliciting emotion (fear) will render people more responsive to variations in procedural justice than will recall of a certainty-eliciting emotion (disgust). Results from Study 1, (n = 79 undergraduate students) confirmed that a fair procedure (voice condition) enhanced self-esteem relative to an unfair procedure (no voice condition) to a greater extent when people recalled fear than when they recalled disgust. Results from Study 2 (n = 147 undergraduate students) also showed that a fair, relative to an unfair, procedure enhanced self-esteem more strongly when recalling the emotion of fear rather than disgust, but only when these emotions were recalled from a self-immersed than a self-distanced perspective. These findings confirm that discrete emotions that orient people to interpret situations in uncertain versus certain ways are important antecedents of procedural justice effects.     

On the existence of extremal cones and comparative probability orderings

We study the recently discovered phenomenon [Conder, M. D. E., & Slinko, A. M. (2004). A counterexample to Fishburn's conjecture. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 48(6), 425-431] of existence of comparative probability orderings on finite sets that violate the Fishburn hypothesis [Fishburn, P. C. (1996). Finite linear qualitative probability. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 40, 64-77; Fishburn, P. C. (1997). Failure of cancellation conditions for additive linear orders. Journal of Combinatorial Designs, 5, 353-365]—we call such orderings and the discrete cones associated with them extremal. Conder and Slinko constructed an extremal discrete cone on a set of n=7 elements and showed that no extremal cones exist on a set of n?6 elements. In this paper we construct an extremal cone on a finite set of prime cardinality p if p satisfies a certain number theoretical condition. This condition has been computationally checked to hold for 1725 of the 1842 primes between 132 and 16,000, hence for all these primes extremal cones exist.     

Cost Comparison of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and Special Education for Children with Autism

The financial implications of the increased prevalence of autism, though rarely discussed, will be extremely important to society. We compared the costs associated with 18 years of special education to the costs associated with the implementation of an average of 3 years of Discrete Trial Training as an Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) in an effort to minimize the need for special education. Our results indicate that the state of Texas would save $208,500 per child across eighteen years of education with EIBI. When applied to the conservative estimate of 10,000 children with autism in Texas, the State would save a total of $2.09 billion with EIBI. Implications for taxpayers, policymakers, and treatment are discussed.     

制度伦理视野中的传统文化的现代转换

要适应市场经济发展的需要,适应制度伦理建设的需要,必须要实现传统文化的现代转换。从制度伦理的视角而言,传统文化的现代转换主要包括从农业文明到商业文明,从人治社会到法治社会,从国家主义到以人为本的转换。     

Reconstructing Distances among Objects from Their Discriminability

We describe a principled way of imposing a metric representing dissimilarities on any discrete set of stimuli (symbols, handwritings, consumer products, X-ray films, etc.), given the probabilities with which they are discriminated from each other by a perceiving system, such as an organism, person, group of experts, neuronal structure, technical device, or even an abstract computational algorithm. In this procedure one does not have to assume that discrimination probabilities are monotonically related to distances, or that the distances belong to a predefined class of metrics, such as Minkowski. Discrimination probabilities do not have to be symmetric, the probability of discriminating an object from itself need not be a constant, and discrimination probabilities are allowed to be 0’s and 1’s. The only requirement that has to be satisfied is Regular Minimality, a principle we consider the defining property of discrimination: for ordered stimulus pairs (a,b), b is least frequently discriminated from a if and only if a is least frequently discriminated from b. Regular Minimality generalizes one of the weak consequences of the assumption that discrimination probabilities are monotonically related to distances: the probability of discriminating a from a should be less than that of discriminating a from any other object. This special form of Regular Minimality also underlies such traditional analyses of discrimination probabilities as Multidimensional Scaling and Cluster Analysis. This research was supported by the NSF grant SES 0318010 (E.D.), Humboldt Research Award (E.D.), Humboldt Foundation grant DEU/1038348 (H.C. & E.D.), and DFG grant Co 94/5 (H.C.).     

The control of amplitude and direction in a bimanual coordination task

Bimanual coordination requires task-specific control of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the movements of both hands. The present study focused on the spatial relationship between hand movements when their amplitude and direction were manipulated. In the experiment in question, participants were instructed to draw two lines simultaneously. These two lines were instructed to be drawn in mirror symmetric or perpendicular directions of each other while the length was instructed to be the same or different. The coordinative quality of amplitude control was compared when the task required symmetric and asymmetric bimanual spatial coordination patterns. Results showed that the amplitude accuracy decreased when different amplitudes and/or directions had to be generated simultaneously. The coordinative quality of direction was also compared when the task required symmetric and asymmetric bimanual spatial coordination patterns. Unlike amplitude, the direction accuracy was largely independent of coordination symmetry/asymmetry of direction or amplitude. The results suggest that the coordinative quality of amplitude control does not only interfere with amplitude asymmetry, but it also interferes with direction asymmetry. Moreover, in bimanual coordination amplitude control is more vulnerable to the influence of direction control demands than vice versa.     

Internet of image things-discrete wavelet transform and Gabor wavelet transform based image enhancement resolution technique for IoT satellite applications

In image processing, image enhancement is a vital processing chore. The image enhancement can improve the image quality by removing either blur or any kind of noise in the image. Image enhancement technique is utilized in many applications, such as medical, satellite, agriculture, oceanography and so on. This paper focuses on the IoT satellite applications. Most of the satellite images are essential to have high resolution satellite images, low resolution images are majorly affected by absorption, scattering, spatial resolution and spectral resolution issues. For better resolution of these kinds of issued images, Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) based interpolation method, combination of DWT and stationary wavelet transform (SWT) methods, bicubic interpolation methods are utilized. However, DWT with SWT method is failed avoid distorted in the resultant images, the bicubic interpolation method is quite complex and cannot give a clear image. DWT based interpolation method lose linear features and unwanted oscillations are occurred and edges data is lost. Therefore, DWT and Gabor technique is proposed to overcome existing method issues. DWT is decomposed into multiple sub-bands; GWT is employed to minimize the loss of information in wavelet domain. The advantages of the GWT are less complexity, remove the noise, and also sharp the image. The proposed method of the PSNR, MSE is compared with existing methods by using the different satellite images.     

The changing influences on commuting mode choice in urban England under Peak Car: A discrete choice modelling approach

The phenomenon of Peak Car has been defined over the past eight years as a plateau or fall in the level of car use in urban areas. Although Peak Car research to date has relied on population-level data, such macro-level trends can be disaggregated into many individual travel decisions. This research uses English survey data collected by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2009 to test a range of variables influencing choice of commuting mode in residents of urban England. The variables tested are subdivided into spatial, demographic, level of service, and attitudinal. Multinomial logistic regression is used to test these variables individually and then in combination, producing a multivariate discrete choice model of commuting mode choice. The choice between commuting modes is fourfold: car, bus, train, and active modes. The results suggest that the relationship between income and car use is changing, as higher incomes are found to be associated with increased odds of choosing to commute by train or active modes rather than the car when other factors are controlled for. Attitudes to buses and active modes are also found to be influential.     

Socioemotional selectivity in older adults: Evidence from the subjective experience of angry memories

Few studies have compared the phenomenological properties of younger and older adults' memories for emotional events. Some studies suggest that younger adults remember negative information more vividly than positive information whereas other studies suggest that positive emotion yields phenomenologically richer memories than negative emotion for both younger and older adults. One problem with previous studies is a tendency to treat emotion as a dichotomous variable. In contrast, emotional richness demands inclusion of assessments beyond just a positive and negative dimension (e.g., assessing specific emotions like anger, fear and happiness). The present study investigated different properties of autobiographical remembering as a function of discrete emotions and age. Thirty-two younger and thirty-one older adults participated by recalling recent and remote memories associated with six emotional categories and completed the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire for each. Results demonstrated that older adults' angry memories received lower ratings on some phenomenological properties than other emotional memories whereas younger adults' angry memories did not show this same pattern. These results are discussed within the context of socioemotional selectivity theory.