Collective Decision Research Articles

Revenue Management in Airlines and External Factors Affecting Decisions: The Harmonic Oscillator Model

The Revenue Management (RM) problem in airlines for a fixed capacity, single resource and two classes has been solved before by using a standard formalism. In this paper we propose a model for RM by using the semi-classical approach of the Quantum Harmonic Oscillator. We then extend the model to include external factors affecting the people’s decisions, particularly those where collective decisions emerge.

Collective decision through an informed mediator

An imperfectly informed mediator (or mechanism designer) must make a decision on behalf of a group of agents, who are privately informed about their valuations attached to the decision. The mediator chooses a mechanism before observing a signal about the agents' valuations and commits to truthfully using this information in the mechanism. We give a necessary and sufficient condition on the mediator's information under which the ex post efficient decision rule can be implemented by an ex ante budget balanced, dominant strategy incentive-compatible and ex post individually rational mechanism. In a large economy, we show that the amount of information that the mediator needs to know about each agent to achieve ex post efficiency is bounded as the number of agents grows to infinity.

Telehealth Use during COVID-19: An Exploratory Study on Adaptations and Experiences of Providers.

The current exploratory study examines the impact of the rapid acceleration of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of healthcare providers. Understanding provider perspectives, particularly in terms of adaptations made during this critical time, is a useful lens into service innovation in times of crisis and can help elucidate successful strategies for continuing the use of telehealth during the postpandemic period. Fourteen providers from 11 different service agencies in a southeastern state were interviewed. Findings identified three themes: (1) dynamic adaptations enacted by healthcare providers at the onset of the pandemic, such as hybrid services, rapid innovations in workflow, collective decision making among providers, and outreach to educate patients; (2) the relaxation of policies by regulators/insurers, focused most often on reimbursement of services; and (3) how patient engagement was impacted via telehealth, including openness to telehealth, more family-level accessibility, and reduced no-show rates. Implications for social workers include heightened professional training on telehealth as well as increasing the critical role that social workers serve in educating providers and patients on telehealth.

Transitive delegation in social networks: Theory and experiment

This paper presents a model of delegative democracy, wherein each voter has the choice to either directly vote or delegate their vote, along with any votes delegated to them, to another voter. I examine the incentives for delegation and how this affects the quality of collective decision-making. Specifically, by assuming the delegation network to be a ring network, I analyze symmetric Nash equilibria both with and without the delegation option. A key finding is that when the delegation network is sufficiently ideologically homogeneous and large, voters are inclined to delegate their votes, even in situations where they lack knowledge about who knows what or who knows whom. Furthermore, I demonstrate that delegation facilitates improved collective decision-making. Theoretical predictions are corroborated by laboratory data.

International Comparative Analysis of Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Equipment Demand Characteristics Using the Bass Diffusion Model

Objectives: This paper proposed the direction of future supply and demand management policies through demand prediction and demand characteristics analysis of advanced diagnostic imaging equipment using new medical technology.Methods: This study used the Bass Diffusion Model to analyze demand characteristics for advanced diagnostic imaging equipment. Derived diffusion coefficients were applied for medium to long-term demand predictions (2021-2050). Parameter estimation employed non-linear regression analysis (SPSS 27.0). Demand characteristics were further analyzed using the ratio of the Bass model’s innovation to imitation coefficients for each country and device.Results: Comparing the imitation coefficients (<i>q/p</i> ratio) for computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) among South Korea, the United States, and Japan, South Korea has the highest <i>q/p</i> ratio for both CT and MRI. This implies that the influence of opinion leaders and group pressure is relatively more significant in South Korea, particularly in CT purchases. In the demand prediction results, South Korea’s <i>q/p</i> ratio for CT and MRI is notably larger, suggesting that institutional pressures and collective decision-making, rather than individual clinical decisions, play a significant role in the purchase of advanced diagnostic imaging Equipment. The <i>q/p</i> ratio for advanced diagnostic imaging Equipment in South Korea is higher than in other countries, reflecting a large power distance in the adoption of these technologies.Conclusions: This study utilizes the Bass Diffusion Model to predict the demand for advanced diagnostic imaging equipment in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Findings highlight that imitation, not innovation, is the main driver of diffusion, with South Korea showing a faster adoption rate for CT and MRI. The study identifies factors influencing diffusion in South Korea, noting the impact of the quantity system on CT and the absence of influence on MRI. CT diffusion is positively linked to the quantity-based payment system, while MRI remains unaffected.

Additive manufacturing of self-sensing parts through material extrusion

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate self-sensing capabilities in additively manufactured parts by embedding conductive elements that are copper and continuous carbon fiber. Two sets of test specimen were manufactured using a custom g-code on material extrusion-based Anisoprint A4 machine. Each set contained copper and continuous carbon fiber in an amorphous thermoplastic matrix. A tailor-made test setup was developed by improvising the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM D790) three-point loading system. Electrical resistance measurements were conducted under flexural loads to evaluate the self-sensing capability of each test specimen. The results confirmed that material extrusion technology can allow production of self-sensing parts. The electrical resistance increases linearly (Sensing tolerance <±2.6%, R2>93.8% p-value < 0.005), establishing a strong correlation with applied force and strain. The work allows for creating smart parts that can facilitate big data collection, analysis, and evidence-based decision-making for condition monitoring and preventive maintenance needed for Industry 4.0.

Blockchain-Based Electronic Voting System: Significance and Requirements

In a democratic regime, voting is crucial to making collective decisions. Unfortunately, although this activity has great significance and value, little effort has been made to improve the way we vote. Paper ballots are still the most used method, although this method is relatively simple, brings many inconveniences, and represents a contradiction to the modern world and its advances. This paper mostly focuses on a review study of blockchain-based voting systems. It aims at identifying the strategies and the guidelines as well as provides a comprehensive end-to-end electronic voting system based on blockchain, with the help of cryptographic techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs to improve privacy. The novelty of this paper is that we tackle the limitations of electronic voting systems found in the literature, including cost, identity management, and scalability problems. Our purpose is to provide key elements for organizations on how to design their proper electronic voting system based on blockchain technology.

State in Context of Dataism: Swarm of Political Agents and Data Management in Russia and the World

The article analyzes the transformation of the state in context of dataism. Dataism is a paradigm that (1) recognizes the crucial role of data in policy preparation and evaluation, (2) considers all systems as a structures of data exchange between decentralized agents for coordination and collective decision-making. In context of dataism the state implements information incentives through data policy to receive feedback from citizens and businesses in the form of engagement in management, value creation, production of local innovations. Dataism transforms the state in a swarm of political agents, where collective decision-making becomes possible through data exchange. The swarm model requires effective data management as the creation of organizational, regulatory and infrastructural conditions for the use of the data in policy implementation. The article presents a comparison of the data management results in Russia and different groups of countries within the framework of the global data management map. Russia has significant results in regulatory and structural measurements of data management, but additional solutions are needed in participatory and accountability/transparency measurements. The directions of improving data management in Russia include open data policy, transparency of automated systems, crowdsensing; intersectoral data exchange.

Strong Political Liberalism

Public reason liberalism demands that political decisions be publicly justified to the citizens who are subjected to them. Much recent literature emphasises the differences between the two main interpretations of this requirement, justificatory and political liberalism. In this paper, I show that both views share structural democratic deficits. They fail to guarantee political autonomy, the expressive quality of law, and the justification to citizens, because they allow collective decisions made by incompletely theorised agreements. I argue that the result can only be avoided by changing public reason’s role in collective decision-making. Instead of incompletely theorised agreements, we should demand agreement both on the public reasons themselves and on the other premises that justify political decisions. In this way, it is always possible to point to a procedure-independent reason that justifies democratic decisions, and the reasoning of the state is public and contestable. Finally, I explain how this, in turn, implies that only political liberalism can be rescued—by accepting what I will call strong political liberalism. Modifying justificatory liberalism in the necessary way will inevitably open the door to an objectionable form of perfectionism.

Research on cross-field applications and future prospects of intelligent sensors

The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed daily life through enhanced internet and communication technologies. Intelligent sensors, like temperature and humidity sensors, have revolutionized smart homes, enabling remote control and enhancing comfort. In agriculture, these sensors monitor soil moisture and crop conditions, optimizing farming practices for increased yields and sustainability. Healthcare benefits from the IoT with sensors in medical devices and wearables, offering real-time patient monitoring and cost reduction. Logistics employs intelligent sensors to track goods, boosting supply chain efficiency. Projects like IoT-based road analysis systems and pest monitoring exemplify data collection and intelligent decision-making, benefiting urban management and agriculture. It can be seen that intelligent sensors have an irreplaceable role in the Internet of Things, so this paper will introduce the technology and working principles of intelligent sensors and discuss the cross-domain applications and future expectations of intelligent sensors. Through literature analysis, it can be concluded that after the intelligent sensor receives the external signal, it will convert the signal into a physical signal related to the measured parameters and process, store, and communicate it so as to realize the detection, control, and data transmission of the environment. This means that intelligent sensors can be widely used in industrial production, environmental monitoring, medical health, and other fields.

The Effect of Ethical Behavior Strategy on Job Voice, Work Ethics as an Interactive Variable: An Applied Study in the Basra South Oil Company

Ethical behavior and work ethics are among the topics that have received great attention in recent years because of their clear impact on business organizations, as these organizations have begun to work in a continuous movement to issue regulations and ethical codes to form and formulate their goals and principles in a way that frames the ethical responsibility of the organization as well as the extent of their impact on voice performance. career of these organizations After the financial and profit aspect was the goal of business organizations, today they focus on ethical aspects. Rather, organizations seek to outperform competitors by using ethical standards and principles as a criterion for competition. They also determined their impact on the performance of the job voice of employees and the extent to which these standards are reflected in their individual and collective decisions and principles. Therefore, the importance of the study aims to diagnose the extent of the impact of ethical behavior on job performance through work ethics in the South Oil Company / Basra. The study is an applied study in the South Oil Company / Basra. The descriptive analytical statistical approach was adopted, and a questionnaire was prepared and distributed with the aim of testing the study hypotheses. Several questionnaires were distributed to the sample, and a strong direct relationship was found between the variables of the study. One of the most important conclusions reached by the study is that ethical behavior greatly affects job performance, organizational atmosphere, improving relations between employees and senior management, and enhancing trust through adopting work ethics and effective behaviors.

About the jury’s evaluation

The collective decision of the Jury, after voting all the submissions, was to give the first prize to “Appropriation of Time” and two honourable mentions to “A Wake-Up Call” and “Oasis of Education”. In overall terms, it can be observed that the submissions that obtained the highest scores share a harmonious equilibrium among three key dimensions: the originality of the project’s concept (idea), the cogency of its rationale (written explanation), and the effectiveness of its visual presentation (imagery). However, it’s worth noting that the Jury members held differing perspectives when it came to identifying projects that masterfully balanced these three dimensions. This diversity of opinions prompted critical reflection on contemporary concerns within our societies and academic institutions. On one hand, some works raised questions about whether modern universities are suitable environments for learning, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. On the other hand, other projects highlighted environmental issues and the resulting decline in the quality of life and education within university settings.&#x0D; (...)

Besluitneming in die Gereformeerde Kerkverband

Decision-making in the Reformed Churches in South Africa The hypothesis for this article is that no complete certainty can exist on whether a resolution taken by a meeting of people is an authoritative expression of the will of God. The church [ekklésia] of Christ refers to the universal church of all times and places, as well as the local church (congregation). The general nature of collective decision-making involves the notions of representation and voting. The Reformation liberated churches from the overlordship of Rome, but also had the unintended consequence of the entrenchment of the liberal notions of individual sovereignty and self-sufficiency. The foundational Reformed confessional documents were formulated and adopted at gatherings convened and overseen by extra-clerical (state) institutions. It is likely that decision-making in the churches was directly influenced by the rationalism, humanism, and liberalism that has been influential since the 17th century. Contemporary participants in collective decision-making can find it difficult to distinguish between liberal-democratic processes and those of the church. Christ is the only head of his church and exegesis and hermeneutics are not exact sciences, it is, however, possible to deliberate on alternative Scriptural interpretations, but impossible to prove one to be correct and the other false. The inability of a major assembly of churches to resolve an exegetical question unanimously, attests to the human inability to know the will of God completely. Resolutions of major assemblies should be subject to unrestricted revision as the assemblies are not meetings of a church or of the church itself. Influential opinions among Reformed authors hover between independentism and collegialism, both having been influenced by liberal thinking.Contribution: A range of interdependent matters need to be clarified to resolve questions concerning representation in and decision-making by major assemblies. A list of such questions has been set out at the end of the article.

Social-ecological vulnerability to environmental extremes and adaptation pathways in small-scale fisheries of the southern California Current

Coastal ecosystems and human communities are threatened worldwide by climate change, and shocks from social, market and political change. There is an urgent global need to promote resilient food production and livelihoods in the face of these shocks. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) in rural settings can be particularly vulnerable as they frequently lack the resources, rights and infrastructure to respond to shocks originating outside the focal systems. We examined ecological and social outcomes of environmental extremes in a SSF socio-ecological system (SES) by using long-term oceanographic (between 2010-2019) and ecological (2006-2018) data tracking change in a kelp forest ecosystem of Baja California, Mexico, and concurrent documentation of proactive and reactive actions of a fishing community organized in a cooperative. Results indicate a complex landscape of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ among species and fisheries exposed to unprecedented environmental extremes, including marine heat waves and prolonged hypoxia, and a suite of adaptive actions by the local fishing cooperative, and others in the region, that have helped confront these rapid and drastic changes. Cooperatives have established voluntary marine reserves to promote recovery of affected populations and have invested in diversification of activities enabled by access rights, collective decision-making, and participatory science programs. Results indicate that local actions can support social and ecological resilience in the face of shocks, and that enabling locally-driven adaptation pathways is critical to resilience. This case study highlights the crucial importance of strengthening and supporting rights, governance, capacity, flexibility, learning, and agency for coastal communities to respond to change and sustain their livelihoods and ecosystems in the long run.

Imparting Value Based Education Through Gurukul Methodology for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

In the conditions of a global crisis value education represents the most efficient way of forming a social and intellectual basis for the achievement of sustainable development goals and coevolution ideas. Due to mounting problems related to sustainable development the need of value education for sustainable development continues growing. The proposed research will explore contemporary state of education and suggest possible ways for imparting value-based education through Gurukul methodology for achieving sustainable development goals.&#x0D; Value education for sustainable development is regarded as a way of forming of new consciousness and behaviour through which human development course should be adjusted.&#x0D; The Gurukul education system is an immortal part of our country’s rich traditions and cultural heritage. It is indeed one of the most valued and famous education and life learning systems practiced in ancient India.&#x0D; A Gurukul is a residential education system in India which dates to 5000 BC. Under this system, all are considered as equals and no fee is charged. The Shishyas or students are taught life lessons and a cultured way of life in natural surroundings. Also, humanity, love, peace and discipline are essential components of the Gurukul education.&#x0D; Gurukul education which focuses on applied knowledge, practical learning and personality development. It also emphasizes on thoughtfulness, respect for planetary boundaries, social equality and justice. This Sustainable Gurukul Education system prepares the Shishyas in all aspects of life in future.&#x0D; Sustainable development requires the interplay of all three areas: knowledge, values, and education, influencing individual and then collective decision-making, behavior, and action.&#x0D; We want to create a more sustainable world, with stable economies and more just and inclusive societies. A difficult but not unattainable target if we can count on the involvement of governments, institutions, businesses, and, above all, a responsible and committed public.&#x0D; Integration among the three elements is essential for sustainable development. Scientific knowledge without values can produce materialism, exploitation and destruction. Religious values without reason can lead to superstition and fanaticism. Education must bring both knowledge and values together to be effective. Sustainable development goal is one among 17 goals set out by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030.India is ranking 121 in the world for sustainable development ranking. These goals are directed towards ending poverty, inequality, climate change and peace for all. So, every country in the world is responsible to achieve these agendas.&#x0D; Besides, the idea of Atmanirbhar Bharat or Azadi ka Amrit Kaal cannot be actualised without making youth capable of contributing sustainability towards industrial revolution. The proposed research will explore various methods of imparting value-based education through Gurukul Methodology for achieving sustainable development goals.&#x0D; This kind of research in much needed in the current scenario. This research will try to explore the various dimensions of sustainable development which are linked with value education, so that people will have a better understanding of value education &amp; its importance in sustainable development. The proposed research will be an in-depth study on how Gurukul Methodology can pave a way for sustainable development. It will develop a systematic review of literature on the value education through Gurukul Methodology &amp; its importance in sustainable development, which is yet lacking. Researcher will try to develop a model through which value education can be imparted using Gurukul Methodology which results in sustainable development.&#x0D;

A cleavage-based conceptualisation of politicised global integration

ABSTRACT How can we conceptualise politicised integration at the global level? Functionalism and neo-functionalism are de-politicised, technocratic theories of integration dispensing with ideology and contestation, while post-functionalist approaches address politicisation but not supra-national integration. Drawing on comparative macro-historical theories, this article suggests a conceptualisation of politicised integration that extends exit–voice and political structuring models used at national and European levels to global integration. The replacement of territorial divisions with cleavages cutting across world regions – core–periphery and North–South divisions, civilisations and ‘multiple modernities’ – creates the conditions for cross-territorial dimensions of contestation, along which cross-regional membership groups link, coordinate and form bonds of solidarity. The de-territorialisation of global cleavages and the regional convergence it brings about, provide the social bases for mass politics rather than elitist policy integration. The conceptualisation of integration is political rather than technocratic, and one in which collective decision making is a matter of pluralist contestation rather than problem-solving expertise.

How do cicadas emerge together? Thermophysical aspects of their collective decision-making.

Periodical cicadas exhibit life cycles with durations of 13 or 17 years, and it is now accepted that large prime cycles arose to avoid synchrony with predators. Less well explored is how, in the face of intrinsic biological and environmental noise, insects within a brood emerge together in large successive swarms from underground during springtime warming. Here, we consider the decision-making process of underground cicadas experiencing random, spatially correlated thermal microclimates such as those in nature. Introducing short-range communication between insects leads to an Ising model of consensus building with a quenched, spatially correlated random magnetic field and annealed site dilution, which displays the kinds of collective swarms seen in nature. These results highlight the need for fieldwork to quantify the spatial fluctuations in thermal microclimates and their relationship to the spatiotemporal dynamics of swarm emergence.

Pausing to swarm: locust intermittent motion is instrumental for swarming-related visual processing.

Intermittent motion is prevalent in animal locomotion. Of special interest is the case of collective motion, in which social and environmental information must be processed in order to establish coordinated movement. We explored this nexus in locust, focusing on how intermittent motion interacts with swarming-related visual-based decision-making. Using a novel approach, we compared individual locust behaviour in response to continuously moving stimuli, with their response in semi-closed-loop conditions, in which the stimuli moved either in phase with the locust walking, or out of phase, i.e. only during the locust's pauses. Our findings clearly indicate the greater tendency of a locust to respond and 'join the swarming motion' when the visual stimuli were presented during its pauses. Hence, the current study strongly confirms previous indications of the dominant role of pauses in the collective motion-related decision-making of locusts. The presented insights contribute to a deeper general understanding of how intermittent motion contributes to group cohesion and coordination in animal swarms.

Organizational democracy at work. Shaping participation through strategic planning in university

This article discusses whether and how strategic planning can promote the development and dissemination of organizational democracy in knowledge-intensive organizations. This research is inspired by the theoretical approach known as strategy-as-practice, in which strategic planning is considered a process of co-construction of meanings and actions involving multiple actors engaged in negotiation dynamics, through situational interactions in daily practice. Adopting a strategic ethnography approach from a methodological point of view, we examine the participatory strategic planning process conducted from January 2022 to April 2023 at the University of Bergamo. By analyzing ethnographic reports, formal documents, and working drafts, four strategic practices (Collective decision making, Platform and process alignment, Emotional coordination, and Organizational diplomacy) are identified as connected to two key enabling factors (synergic approach and consensus on organizational change) that can support and facilitate the spread of work environments more sensitive to the principles of organizational democracy. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Collective Decision of One-vs-Rest Networks for Open-Set Recognition.

Unknown examples that are unseen during training often appear in real-world pattern recognition tasks, and an intelligent self-learning system should be able to distinguish between known examples and unknown examples. Accordingly, open-set recognition (OSR), which addresses the problem of classifying knowns and identifying unknowns, has recently been highlighted. However, conventional deep neural networks (DNNs) using a softmax layer are vulnerable to overgeneralization, producing high confidence scores for unknowns. In this article, we propose a simple OSR method that is based on the intuition that the OSR performance can be maximized by setting strict and sophisticated decision boundaries that reject unknowns while maintaining satisfactory classification performance for knowns. For this purpose, a novel network structure, in which multiple one-vs-rest networks (OVRNs) follow a convolutional neural network (CNN) feature extractor, is proposed. Here, an OVRN is a simple feedforward neural network that is designed to assign confidence scores that are lower than those in the softmax layer to unknown samples so that unknown samples can be more effectively separated from known classes. Furthermore, the collective decision score is modeled by combining the multiple decisions reached by the OVRNs to alleviate overgeneralization. Extensive experiments were conducted on various datasets, and the experimental results show that the proposed method performs significantly better than the state-of-the-art methods by effectively reducing overgeneralization. The code is available at https://github.com/JaeyeonJang/Openset-collective-decision.