A geometric examination of Kemeny's rule

By using geometry, a fairly complete analysis of Kemeny's rule (KR) is obtained. It is shown that the Borda Count (BC) always ranks the KR winner above the KR loser, and, conversely, KR always ranks the BC winner above the BC loser. Such KR relationships fail to hold for other positional methods. The geometric reasons why KR enjoys remarkably consistent election rankings as candidates are added or dropped are explained. The power of this KR consistency is demonstrated by comparing KR and BC outcomes. But KR's consistency carries a heavy cost; it requires KR to partially dismiss the crucial “individual rationality of voters” assumption. Received: 5 February 1998/Accepted: 26 May 1999     

On the voting power of an alliance and the subsequent power of its members

Even, and in fact chiefly, if two or more players in a voting game have on a binary issue independent opinions, they may have interest to form a single voting alliance giving an average gain of influence for all of them. Here, assuming the usual independence of votes, we first study the alliance voting power and obtain new results in the so-called asymptotic limit for which the number of players is large enough and the alliance weight remains a small fraction of the total of the weights. Then, we propose to replace the voting game inside the alliance by a random game which allows new possibilities. The validity of the asymptotic limit and the possibility of new alliances are examined by considering the decision process in the Council of Ministers of the European Union.     

Alternative technology and quality of life: An exploratory survey of British Columbia smallholders

During the last decade there has occurred a significant demographic shift in North American society as rural areas become repopulated by urban-to-rural migration. Part of this migratory flow is the smallholding movement, families and individuals practicing near subsistence agriculture on small parcels of land. Central to the ideology of smallholding are the notions of simple living and technological self-reliance through the use of alternative technology (solar water heaters, windmills, greenhouses, etc.). In order to gain insight into the actual practice of smallholding, interviews with a small population of smallholders in southeastern British Columbia and southern Alberta were conducted. The data from the interviews are presented in terms of the correlations of a selected number of quality of life indicators with technical skill, technological use, attitudinal and demographic/structural factors. In general, commitment to the ideals of the smallholding movement were found to be positively correlated with quality of life and use of alternative technology, indicating that the smallholders may be a group where ideological commitment has a more consistent positive correlation with behavior and sentiments than have structural or material factors.     

A characterization of the maximin rule in the context of voting

In a voting context, when the preferences of voters are described by linear orderings over a finite set of alternatives, the Maximin rule orders the alternatives according to their minimal rank in the voters’ preferences. It is equivalent to the Fallback bargaining process described by Brams and Kilgour (Group Decision and Negotiation 10:287–316, 2001). This article proposes a characterization of the Maximin rule as a social welfare function (SWF) based upon five conditions: Neutrality, Duplication, Unanimity, Top Invariance, and Weak Separability. In a similar way, we obtain a characterization for the Maximax SWF by using Bottom Invariance instead of Top Invariance. Then, these results are compared to the axiomatic characterizations of two famous scoring rules, the Plurality rule and the Antiplurality rule.     

On the likelihood of Condorcet's profiles

Consider a group of individuals who have to collectively choose an outcome from a finite set of feasible alternatives. A scoring or positional rule is an aggregation procedure where each voter awards a given number of points, w _j, to the alternative she ranks in j ^th position in her preference ordering; The outcome chosen is then the alternative that receives the highest number of points. A Condorcet or majority winner is a candidate who obtains more votes than her opponents in any pairwise comparison. Condorcet [4] showed that all positional rules fail to satisfy the majority criterion. Furthermore, he supplied a famous example where all the positional rules select simultaneously the same winner while the majority rule picks another one. Let P ^* be the probability of such events in three-candidate elections. We apply the techniques of Merlin et al. [17] to evaluate P ^* for a large population under the Impartial Culture condition. With these assumptions, such a paradox occurs in 1.808% of the cases. Received: 30 April 1999/Accepted: 14 September 2000     

Strategies for marketing new computer products

Using the example of the computer industry, this paper explains how the marketing of new ‘high technology’ products can be improved by tailoring the extent and focus of prelaunch marketing planning to the nature and focus of the marketing strategy chosen for the new product.     

A Report on Student Health Services

Abstract

Objective: Stress impacts college students, faculty, and staff alike. Although meditation has been found to decrease stress, it is an underutilized strategy. This study used the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) to identify beliefs underlying university constituents’ decision to meditate. Participants: N = 96 students, faculty, and staff at a large midwestern university during spring 2012. Methods: A survey measured the RAA global constructs and elicited the beliefs underlying intention to meditate. Thematic and frequency analyses and multiple regression were performed. Results: Quantitative analyses showed that intention to meditate was significantly predicted (R² = .632) by attitude, perceived norm, and perceived behavioral control. Qualitative analyses revealed advantages (eg, reduced stress; feeling calmer), disadvantages (eg, takes time; will not work), and facilitating circumstances (eg, having more time; having quiet space) of meditating. Conclusions: Results of this theory-based research suggest how college health professionals can encourage meditation practice through individual, interpersonal, and environmental interventions.