Formal Model Research Articles

Explanation, formal models, and rational choice

Formal theorists use a unified collection of models to generate intentional and causal explanations of political behavior. I explicate this claim and argue that disagreements about the role of unification and intentionality are at the root of persistent friction between theorists and empiricists. A debate around pathologies of rational choice theory is used to illustrate the argument.

Use Application Quiz in Model Tgt Learning (Team Games Tournament) to Improve Elementary School Multiplication Counting Skills

This research aims to describe the use of the quizizz application in the TGT (Team Games Tournament) learning model to improve elementary school multiplication numeracy skills in class III of SDN Sindangsari, Sukabumi Regency with a total of 28 students. The research method used was classroom action research (PTK) Kemmis and Mc Taggart model research design which was carried out in two cycles. Each cycle consists of planning, implementation, action and observation, and reflection. Data collection techniques use tests in theform of pretests and posttests, and non-tests in the form of observations, interviews, field notes and documentation. The data analysis technique used is descriptive qualitative. From the pre-cycle learning completion cycle, only 29% or 8 students completed because they still used a formal learning model consisting of lectures, exercises and questions and answers. After implementing the Quizizz application in the TGT learning model in cycle I, it has been proven that there has been an improvement, although it is not yet visible significantly, completion was only 64% or 18 students who completed. Then, from the evaluation results of the previous cycle, the research continued with cycle II by adding improvements, the completion of learning results in increasing multiplication ability increased by 89% or 25 students. Therefore, the research was stopped classically because it had reached or exceeded the 85% achievement indicator. By combining the TGT Model with the use of the Quizzizz application in mathematics learning, teachers can create a learning environment that is stimulative, collaborative and interesting for students. This can help improve students' math skills through a team-based learning approach and utilizing digital technology as an effective learning tool.

Construction of a decision model for donor testing in cases of suspected antibody-mediated transfusion-related-acute-lung-injury.

To propose a rational basis for donor testing in cases of suspected antibody-mediated transfusion-related lung injury (AMT). Anti-leukocyte antibodies in donated blood are established causes of transfusion-related lung injury (TRALI). However, the question of whether to test donors for antibodies is not identical to whether the case meets definition criteria for TRALI. There is a balance between the potential benefits of testing and the costs of donor deferral and investigation. We propose that a decision-making process based on optimising the balance between risk and benefit requires a subjective choice of the relative value of different outcomes of testing. We have developed a formal decision model to illustrate how these choices affect testing decisions. Using a Bayesian probability model, we show that the diagnostic benefit and TRALI prevention benefit of testing donors have a complex interrelationship with the number of implicated donors and clinical suspicion of antibody-mediated TRALI (AMT) and that rational testing choices vary according to value assigned to outcomes. The challenges to the use of a formal decision model for clinical testing are discussed and conclude that a formal model is a useful consensus-building tool for improving consistency and openness in decision making.

A strategic model of polytheism

We consider a formal model of polytheistic religion, where worshippers choose gods to address, and expect benefits in return. At the game-theoretic equilibrium, they choose gods optimally depending on how the gods return favors, as a function of divine efficiency. This efficiency can be modeled based on a random growth model of prayer benefit, and results in worship acts following power laws. A reduction in the range of random events associated to the various divinities, or to their range of interpretations, leads to more concentration of worship towards less divinities.

The process and perils of coming around: The assimilation of political appointees into bureaucratic agencies

AbstractThe tendency for political appointees to assimilate into the bureaucratic agencies that they lead is a recurring source of tension between appointees and the executives who appoint them. This paper employs a formal model to explore how appointees come around to the views of the civil servants whom they oversee. We conceptualize a bureaucrat as providing a cheap‐talk message about privately known, policy‐relevant conditions to an appointee who uses that information to update her beliefs and set two types of policy. Though the bureaucrat's and appointee's preferences are aligned conditional on beliefs, the appointee's prior beliefs about the likelihood of various states of the world differ from the bureaucrat's. In equilibrium, truthful reporting and inducing belief convergence may be at odds and we identify when the bureaucrat will strategically choose to issue false reports. We apply the model's insights to the budget process and agency recommendations during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

A dispersion analysis of dust Coulomb waves in complex astroclouds

A semi-analytical fugacity-based model formalism to investigate the normal instability modes excitable in strongly correlated self-gravitating dust molecular clouds (DMCs) on the Jeans spatiotemporal scales has recently been reported. It is based on a viscoelastic magnetized complex plasma with charge-fluctuating heavier dust grains with non-thermal ( κ -distributed) lighter electrons and ions in an astrophysically relevant generalized hydrodynamic (GH) framework. In this continued study, the dispersive properties of the dust Coulomb waves (DCWs) in the high-fugacity regime (HFR) of the constitutive massive, charged dust component are extensively investigated in new multiparametric windows previously remaining unexplored. It is particularly seen that the equilibrium electronic concentration, dust charge number, and azimuthal magnetic field act as DCW accelerating stabilizing agents against the ionic concentration. It is illustratively found further that equilibrium electronic concentration, dust charge number, and azimuthal magnetic field (ionic concentration) interestingly act as normal (anomalous) dispersive factors. The real astronomic relevancy of our investigated results is summarily highlighted in light of the RCW 38 regions of the dark DMCs leading to gravitationally condensed astrostructure formation and evolution.

A worldwide review of formal national street classification plans enhanced via an analytical hierarchy process: Street classification as a tool for more sustainable cities

For cities to utilise their maximum liveability potential, their transport infrastructure and overall service provision need to function seamlessly. To this end, urban street eco-systems should be characterised, organised and utilised effectively. But is this happening on a mass scale across the globe? Are our urban street classification schemes forward-thinking and ready to respond to the emerging sustainability and resilience challenges cities face nowadays? This paper aims to answer these questions by examining and decoding the prevailing “formal street classification scheme model” through conducting a detailed worldwide review of formal national street classification plans. Out of 196 countries investigated, 128 official street classification plans were identified, analysed and evaluated. We also used an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with 20 experts coming from different fields (i.e., academics, policymakers, practitioners) to enhance our results and contribute to developing an index evaluating urban street classification under the prism of sustainability. The outcomes of our work signify that conventional pro-automobile approaches still prevail, thus shaping car-centric conditions, which undermine the role of sustainable modes and reduce the ability of cities to innovate and succeed. It is demonstrated that the road to achieve sustainability and completeness in urban transport systems, considering these car-led plans, is still uphill. Based on that, multi-dimensional classification systems prioritising public and active transport, while appreciating street's urban aspect should be promoted in the future.

GELO and GreX: A framework and dashboard to investigate technology competency and culture

Participation in 4th Industrial Revolution society is increasingly dependent upon competencies related to the use of digital technologies for a wide variety of purposes. A person’s competence in the use of digital technologies has implications for a wide variety of contexts and situations, including learning in physical as well as virtual spaces, career choices and employability, digital citizenship, cultural orientations and values, and even democracy (Erstad, 2010). This workshop will provide an overview of the Global Educational Learning Observatory (GELO) project and invite participants to experience a variety of self-assessment tools accessed through the customizable dashboard, the Global Readiness Explorer (GREx). The GELO project attempts to provide a framework for an international network of institutions utilizing data-driven evidence to inform evolving best practices for online and mobile learning. To achieve this, the project (i) assembles a nucleus of formal educational institutions, (ii) constructs the necessary tools to extend research on formal learning models, and (iii) reaches into the workplace as well as other more public spaces to integrate with informal learning settings. The primary source of data derives from a customizable dashboard, the Global Readiness Explorer (GREx), and the tools that can be implemented within it. These tools are designed to give individuals, organizations, and institutions the means to construct complex profiles that can be used to identify gaps in competency attainment and development. Through small group activities, participants will examine and discuss the various tool suites in the GREx including the digital learning competency profiler (DCP); the fully online learning community survey instrument (FOLCS); the Personal Cultural Orientation Scale (PCOS) and others. In this workshop, participants will choose a self-assessment instrument to participate in and then discuss their experience with a focus on improving the GREx tool suite for global use. In addition, participants will examine the GREx for use with their students as a component of determining readiness for moving into fully online learning environments. The workshop will conclude with an explanation of the global educational learning observatory (GELO), and participants will be invited to join this global research network.

Mating with Multi-Armed Bandits: Reinforcement Learning Models of Human Mate Search.

Mate choice requires navigating an exploration-exploitation trade-off. Successful mate choice requires choosing partners who have preferred qualities; but time spent determining one partner's qualities could have been spent exploring for potentially superior alternatives. Here I argue that this dilemma can be modeled in a reinforcement learning framework as a multi-armed bandit problem. Moreover, using agent-based models and a sample of k = 522 real-world romantic dyads, I show that a reciprocity-weighted Thompson sampling algorithm performs well both in guiding mate search in noisy search environments and in reproducing the mate choices of real-world participants. These results provide a formal model of the understudied psychology of human mate search. They additionally offer implications for our understanding of person perception and mate choice.

Mobility‐aware modeling and evaluation of IoT systems using stochastic reward nets

SummaryThe frequent geographical changes of mobile nodes in Internet of Things (IoT) systems affect communication, activities, and behaviors. In such scenarios, it is crucial to establish a system model capable of evaluating quality of service (QoS) measures. However, the existing formal modeling techniques pose complexities in modeling mobility. To deal with these challenges, this study aims to propose a model that simplifies the process of modeling mobility within IoT systems. This paper presents a method for modeling mobility within IoT systems by leveraging a widely recognized extension of stochastic Petri nets known as stochastic reward nets (SRNs). The proposed method enhances the SRN model by incorporating the location concept, resulting in a novel extension called mobile SRN (MSRN). In this work, a case study utilizes the MSRN to evaluate the suggested features, examining various scenarios and investigating the impact of factors such as environmental conditions, sensor sampling rate, and the permissible distance of the node from the sink.

Enhancing Agriculture through AloT and Data Analytics Middleware

Middleware in Agriculture delves into the data analytics role of systematic Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) in convergence agriculture with smart farming. AIoT devices, remote diagnostic data analytics platforms, data analytics, formal recognition, and vision learning have generated both the amount and nature of work in rural areas. The reason for the developing changes in the global population by age is the bias in the distribution of food resources, as well as changes in climate change and the soil condition of compost. Data scientists are soon attempting to dive convergence Internet of Things (IoT) advances in savvy cultivating to support ranchers in producing better seeds, crop assurance, and manures utilizing AIoT convergence technology[1]. This distinguishes consumer-provider-administrator as a service subscriber roleon the platform, which goes for earning the nation's economy and the profitability of ranchers. The central regions where AIoT begins to emerge are agricultural robots, scrutiny, and soil and yield observation. While middleware technology for data analysis is applied, there is a great advantage of analyzing regional observation data at a real-time level. Based on this analysis method, it will spread to high-tech industries connected to production, processing, and consumption, which are subdivided areas of each precision agriculture. In this sense, ranchers are utilizing sensors for data analysis and soil information in a detailed way to gather a model that the executives dynamic platforms might use for further examination. Through an outline of real-time data analytics AIoT applications in the farming convergence industry, this paper tries a trust data basement forecast to the farming protocols[2]. It starts with a roadmap to the AIoT and an investigation of real-time data strategies utilized in the horticultural industry data analytics using Universal Middleware, service platforms, vision learning, and dynamic statistics. This study advances a dynamic platform examination of the literature on data resources and how AIoT is utilized in farming convergence. This study looked at the unstructured systems of modern agriculture, divided these processes into devices and services, and presented a systematic formalization model. It should contribute to the integration of segmented data connectivity in the AIoT field. The enhanced research model contributes to the discovery of numerous untapped additional services between devices and services.

The Politics of Delay in Crisis Negotiations

States often intentionally stall crisis negotiations, hoping to build arms or attract allies to achieve a more favorable bargaining position. Why do their adversaries tolerate delay in some cases, but attack upon delay in others? I argue that this is because states cannot perfectly distinguish between intentional and unavoidable delays. This presents a strategic tension: a state prefers to attack preventively if the delay is intentional, but prefers to avoid costly war otherwise. To study this tension, I build a formal model of crisis bargaining with delay tactics, showing that rising states may mask bargaining delays behind natural exogenous delays to complete a peaceful power shift. I find that uncertainty over the source of delay may decrease the risk of war under some conditions, and increase the risk of war under others. I discuss the implications of my theoretical model for the causes of war and power shifts in historical cases.

A Proven Translation from a UML State Machine Subset to Timed Automata

Although Unified Modeling Language (UML) state machines constitute a convenient modeling formalism that is widely used in many applications, the lack of formal semantics impedes carrying out automatic processing, such as formal verification. In this article, we aim to achieve a proven translation from a subset of UML state machines to timed automata. A generic abstract syntax is defined for state machines that allows us to specify state machines as a tree-like structure, explicitly illustrating the hierarchical relationships within the model. Based on this syntax, a formal asynchronous semantics for state machines and systems of state machines is established. Additionally, the semantics of timed automata is specified. Then, a translation relation from the considered set of state machines to timed automata is defined and a strong equivalence relation — namely, a timed bisimulation between the source and target models — is formally proven. The proof is carried out inductively while considering continuous (time) and discrete transitions separately. This proof allows us to demonstrate a strong similitude between these models.

Entrepreneurial thinking: rational vs intuitive

PurposeIntentions are central to entrepreneurial thinking and thus entrepreneurial action yet we have not explored the different pathways of how intent evolves. How does an easily assessed measure of cognitive style influence how entrepreneurs develop their intentions?Design/methodology/approachWe examine how cognitive style interacts with entrepreneurial intentions testing the model separately with subjects scoring as Intuitives or Analytics on cognitive style, plus nationality and gender as covariates with entrepreneurial intensity as a prospective moderator, using 528 university students from Norway, Russia and Finland.FindingsCognitive style does moderate the intentions model. For intuitives, country influenced social norms and entrepreneurial intensity proved a moderator. For analytics, neither perceived desirability, country, nor entrepreneurial intensity were significant.Research limitations/implicationsWe will replicate these findings in different samples, especially non-WEIRD settings. It will also be useful to test alternate measures of cognitive style and other likely moderators.Practical implicationsWe offer diagnostics for educators and ecosystem actors given that our findings suggest intriguing differences in the entrepreneurial mindset.Social implicationsUnderstanding multiple pathways exist to entrepreneurial intent and thus action helps policymakers and entrepreneurial champions better able to help nurture entrepreneurs and thus entrepreneurship in their communities.Originality/valueCognitive style has dramatic effects on the specification of the formal intentions model arguing for multiple pathways to entrepreneurial intent. For example, two entrepreneurs might arrive at the same intention but through very different processes because they differ in cognitive style.

Blockchain-based Formal Model for Food Supply Chain Management System

Blockchain-based Formal Model for Food Supply Chain Management System

On the influence of conventional and automated market makers on market quality in cryptoeconomic systems

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have become an alternative to centralized exchanges (CEXs) for trading assets in the form of tokens in cryptoeconomic system markets. The emergence of DEXs is strongly driven by their potential to tackle challenges for market quality originating from CEXs by design, such as opaque market-making strategies and centralization of power. However, it remains unclear to what extent DEXs can enhance market quality compared to CEXs. A core reason for this is the lack of an analysis concept for investigating influences of market makers, including automated market makers (AMMs) used in DEXs and conventional market makers used in CEXs, on market quality in cryptoeconomic systems. To better understand influences of market makers on market quality in cryptoeconomic systems, we developed an analysis concept based on our formal price model grounded in established concepts of market microstructure. We demonstrate the usefulness of the analysis concept by examining conventional market makers on CEXs (i.e., Binance and Coinbase) and automated market makers (AMMs) on DEXs (i.e., Uniswap v2 and Uniswap v3). The main purpose of this work is to support the analysis of influences of different market makers on market quality in cryptoeconomic systems. This is useful to better understand how cryptoeconomic systems can ensure high market quality and safeguard market participants, when issuing tokens.

Indentation and reading time: a randomized control trial on the differences between generated indented and non-indented if-statements

Indentation is an old technique that emphasizes elements in source code using white spaces or tabs. But while this technique has been taught and applied for decades, evidence for its effectiveness is weak: up to 2022 relatively few experiments can be found – the present authors are only aware of one single experiment that revealed an effect of indentation and reported the effect size, but even in that experiment the effect of indentation was found to be weak. The situation changed recently, where an experiment was published that suddenly revealed a strong and large effect of indentation in control flows on reaction time. However, although the experiment provided an initial indication of a possible cause for the difference between indented and non-indented code (the length of the code that can be skipped in indented code), the evidence for this indicator was rather weak. The present paper presents a formal model on the differences in reading times (measured in terms of reaction times) between indented and non-indented code. Based on that model a controlled experiment on generated tasks was designed and executed on 27 participants (undergraduate students, PhD students, professionals). The experiment (again) confirms a strong (p < .001) and large (ηp2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\eta _{p}^{2}$$\\end{document} = .198, MNon-IndentedMIndented\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\frac{M_{Non-Indented}}{M_{Indented}}$$\\end{document} = 2.13) effect of indentation. Furthermore, it confirms that the larger the skippable code is, the larger is the difference between reading time of indented and non-indented code (p = .001, ηp2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\eta _{p}^{2}$$\\end{document} = .072). I.e., the experiment goes beyond the point “indented vs non-indented code” and explains the difference by revealing a factor that controls this difference. However, although the previous statements holds true for the whole sample in the experiment, this effect could only be shown for a subset of individual participants.

Guilt and Guilty Pleas

Plea bargaining figures heavily in criminal justice systems in the United States and, increasingly, around the globe. Conventional wisdom holds that plea bargaining generates efficiency gains for all parties, while sorting the guilty from the innocent. We build a series of formal models to consider the relationship between a defendant’s guilt and her likelihood of pleading guilty. In an inversion of the conventional wisdom, we show that under a range of empirically plausible scenarios—for example, if criminals are more risk-seeking than the wrongfully accused, or if prosecutors derive a career benefit from trial wins—the innocent are more likely than the guilty to plea bargain.

Formal Modeling and Verification of Lycklama and Hadzilacos’s Mutual Exclusion Algorithm

This study describes our thorough experience of formal modeling and exhaustive verification of concurrent systems, particularly mutual exclusion algorithms. The experience focuses on Lycklama and Hadzilacos’s (LH) mutual exclusion algorithm. LH rests on the reduced size of the shared state, contains a mechanism that tries to enforce an FCFS order to processes entering their critical section, and embodies Burns and Lamport’s (BL) mutual exclusion algorithm. The modeling methodology is based on timed automata and the model checker of the popular Uppaal toolbox. The effectiveness of the modeling and analysis approach is first demonstrated by studying the BL’s solution and retrieving all its properties, including, in general, its unbounded overtaking, which is the non-limited number of by-passes a process can suffer before accessing its critical section. Then, the LH algorithm is investigated in depth by showing it fulfills all the mutual exclusion properties when it operates with atomic memory. However, as this study demonstrates, LH is not free of deadlocks when used with non-atomic memory. Finally, a state-of-the-art mutual exclusion solution is proposed, which relies on a stripped-down LH version for processes, which is used as the arbitration unit in a tournament tree (TT) organization. This study documents that LH’s TT-based algorithm satisfies all the mutual exclusion properties, with a linear overtaking, both using atomic and non-atomic memory.

How to Formalize Different Types of Norms in Multi-agent Systems: A Methodology Focused on the T-Norm Model

In a world where many activities are carried out digitally, it is increasingly urgent to be able to formally represent the norms, policies, and contracts that regulate these activities in order to make them understandable and processable by machine. In multi-agent systems, the process to be followed by a person to choose a formal model of norms and transform a norm written in a natural language into a formal one by using the selected model is a demanding task. In this paper, we introduce a methodology to be followed by people to understand the fundamental elements that they should consider for this transformation. We will focus mainly on a methodology for formalizing norms using the T-Norm model, this is because it allows us to express a rich set of different types of norms. Nevertheless, the proposed methodology is general enough to also be used, in some of its steps, to formalize norms using other formal languages. In the definition of the methodology, we will explicitly state which types of norms can be expressed with a given model and which cannot. Since there is not yet a set of different types of norms that is sufficiently expressive and is recognized as valid by the Normative Mutiagent Systems (NorMAS) community, another goal of this paper is to propose and discuss a rich set of norms types that could be used to study the expressive power of different formal models of norms, to compare them, and to translate norms formalized with one language into norms written in another language.