The Choice Architecture of Choice Architecture: Toward a Nonpaternalistic Nudge Policy

This The goal of nudge policy is generally presented as assisting people in finding their “true” preferences. Supporters argue that nudge policies meet a libertarian paternalism criterion. This claim has provoked complaints that nudge policies are unacceptably paternalistic. This paper suggests that by changing the explicit goal of nudge policy to a goal of making the choice of choice mechanism an explicit decision variable of the subgroup being affected by the nudge one can have a non-paternalistic nudge policy that better fits with the values inherent in Classical liberalism. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is not to achieve a better result as seen by government or by behavioral economists. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is to achieve a better result as seen by the agents being nudged as revealed through their choices of choice mechanisms. Examples are given of how nonpaternalistic nudge policy will and will not differ from paternalistic nudge policy.libertarian, paternalism, nudge policy, choice architecture, behavioral economics

X(1835): A Possible Baryonium?

We point out that (1) the large $p\bar p$ coupling and suppressed mesonic coupling of X(1835) and (2) the suppression of the three-body strange final states strongly indicate that X(1835) may be a $p\bar p$ baryonium. We also point out that the branching ratio of $X(1835)\to\eta \pi\pi$ should be bigger than that of $X(1835)\to\eta^\prime \pi\pi$. If BES further confirms the non-observation of X(1835) in the $\eta\pi\pi$ channel, that will be very puzzling. Finally, X(1835) may be used a tetraquark generator if X(1835) is really established as a baryonium state.Comment: Comments and suggestions welcom

Community Detection by L0L_0-penalized Graph Laplacian

Community detection in network analysis aims at partitioning nodes in a network into $K$ disjoint communities. Most currently available algorithms assume that $K$ is known, but choosing a correct $K$ is generally very difficult for real networks. In addition, many real networks contain outlier nodes not belonging to any community, but currently very few algorithm can handle networks with outliers. In this paper, we propose a novel model free tightness criterion and an efficient algorithm to maximize this criterion for community detection. This tightness criterion is closely related with the graph Laplacian with $L_0$ penalty. Unlike most community detection methods, our method does not require a known $K$ and can properly detect communities in networks with outliers. Both theoretical and numerical properties of the method are analyzed. The theoretical result guarantees that, under the degree corrected stochastic block model, even for networks with outliers, the maximizer of the tightness criterion can extract communities with small misclassification rates even when the number of communities grows to infinity as the network size grows. Simulation study shows that the proposed method can recover true communities more accurately than other methods. Applications to a college football data and a yeast protein-protein interaction data also reveal that the proposed method performs significantly better.Comment: 40 pages, 15 Postscript figure

Surface micromachined electrostatically actuated micro peristaltic pump

An electrostatically actuated micro peristaltic pump is reported. The micro pump is entirely surface micromachined using a multilayer parylene technology. Taking advantage of the multilayer technology, the micro pump design enables the pumped fluid to be isolated from the electric field. Electrostatic actuation of the parylene membrane using both DC and AC voltages was demonstrated and applied to fluid pumping based on a 3-phase peristaltic sequence. A maximum flow rate of 1.7 nL min^–1 and an estimated pumping pressure of 1.6 kPa were achieved at 20 Hz phase frequency. A dynamic analysis was also performed with a lumped-parameter model for the peristaltic pump. The analysis results allow a quantitative understanding of the peristaltic pumping operation, and correctly predict the trends exhibited by the experimental data. The small footprint of the micro pump is well suited for large-scale integration of microfluidics. Moreover, because the same platform technology has also been used to fabricate other devices (e.g. valves, electrospray ionization nozzles, filters and flow sensors), the integration of these different devices can potentially lead to versatile and functional micro total analysis systems (µTAS)

Soft Gluon Resummation Effects in Single Graviton Production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in the Randall-Sundrum Model

We study QCD effects in single graviton production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) Model. We present in detail the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the inclusive total cross sections. The NLO QCD corrections enhance significantly the total cross sections and decrease efficiently the dependence of the total cross sections on the factorization and renormalization scales. We also examine the uncertainty of the total cross sections due to the parton distribution function (PDF) uncertainties. For the differential cross sections on the transverse momentum ($q_T$) of the graviton, within the CSS resummation formalism, we resum the logarithmically-enhanced terms at small $q_T$ to all orders up to NLO logatithmic accuracy. Combined with the fixed order calculations, we give consistent predictions for both small $q_T$ and large $q_T$.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures; minor changes and misprints corrected; version to appear in PR

The Choice Architecture of Choice Architecture: Toward a Non-Paternalistic Nudge Policy

The paper seeks to recast the goal of nudge policy from a goal of achieving a specific result determined by government or by behavioral economists to a goal of giving individuals as much power as is practical to decide the choice architecture they face. We call a nudge with such a giving individuals “power over choice mechanisms” goal a non-paternalistic nudge policy. The goal of nonpaternalistic nudge policy is not to achieve a better result as seen by government or by behavioral economists. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is to achieve a better result as seen by the agents being nudged as revealed through their choices of choice architectures. We argue that non-paternalistic nudge policy fits much better with the values inherent in Classical liberalism than does libertarian paternalistic nudge policy.

Parylene stiction

This paper presents a preliminary study into stiction between parylene C and substrate surfaces for biocompatible check-valve applications. During fabrication, parylene C is used as the structural material for the check-valve. The substrate surfaces studied include Au, Al, Si, parylene C, XeF_2 treated Si, and silicon dioxide. Stiction between different surfaces is created after sacrificial photoresist etching. Then, the stiction is measured using blister tests, and stiction mechanisms for different materials are investigated. The devices are released with different recipes to examine their effects. Finally, the results of the study reveal methods to control the cracking pressure of parylene check-valves

Transplanckian Dispersion Relation and Entanglement Entropy of Blackhole

The quantum correction to the entanglement entropy of the event horizon is plagued by the UV divergence due to the infinitely blue-shifted near horizon modes. The resolution of this UV divergence provides an excellent window to a better understanding and control of the quantum gravity effects. We claim that the key to resolve this UV puzzle is the transplanckian dispersion relation. We calculate the entanglement entropy using a very general type of transplanckian dispersion relation such that high energy modes above a certain scale are cutoff, and show that the entropy is rendered UV finite. We argue that modified dispersion relation is a generic feature of string theory, and this boundedness nature of the dispersion relation is a general consequence of the existence of a minimal distance in string theory.Comment: 7 pages. To appear in the proceedings of 36th International Symposium Ahrenshoop on the theory of Elementary Particles: Recent Developments in String/M Theory and Field Theory, Berlin, Germany, 26-30 Aug 200