The Peter principle revisited: A computational study

In the late sixties the Canadian psychologist Laurence J. Peter advanced an apparently paradoxical principle, named since then after him, which can be summarized as follows: ‘Every new member in a hierarchical organization climbs the hierarchy until he/she reaches his/her level of maximum incompetence’. Despite its apparent unreasonableness, such a principle would realistically act in any organization where the mechanism of promotion rewards the best members and where the competence at their new level in the hierarchical structure does not depend on the competence they had at the previous level, usually because the tasks of the levels are very different to each other. Here we show, by means of agent based simulations, that if the latter two features actually hold in a given model of an organization with a hierarchical structure, then not only is the Peter principle unavoidable, but also it yields in turn a significant reduction of the global efficiency of the organization. Within a game theory-like approach, we explore different promotion strategies and we find, counterintuitively, that in order to avoid such an effect the best ways for improving the efficiency of a given organization are either to promote each time an agent at random or to promote randomly the best and the worst members in terms of competence.     

Promoting cooperation in social dilemmas via simple coevolutionary rules

We study the evolution of cooperation in structured populations within popular models of social dilemmas, whereby simple coevolutionary rules are introduced that may enhance players abilities to enforce their strategy on the opponent. Coevolution thus here refers to an evolutionary process affecting the teaching activity of players that accompanies the evolution of their strategies. Particularly, we increase the teaching activity of a player after it has successfully reproduced, yet we do so depending on the disseminated strategy. We separately consider coevolution affecting either only the cooperators or only the defectors, and show that both options promote cooperation irrespective of the applied game. Opposite to intuitive reasoning, however, we reveal that the coevolutionary promotion of players spreading defection is, in the long run, more beneficial for cooperation than the likewise promotion of cooperators. We explain the contradictive impact of the two considered coevolutionary rules by examining the differences between resulting heterogeneities that segregate participating players, and furthermore, demonstrate that the influential individuals completely determine the final outcome of the games. Our findings are immune to changes defining the type of considered social dilemmas and highlight that the heterogeneity of players, resulting in a positive feedback mechanism, is a fundamental property promoting cooperation in groups of selfish individuals.     

Strong cosmic censorshiP for a scalar field in a logarithmic-de Sitter black hole

It has been shown that the quasinormal modes of perturebated fields can be used to investigate the validity of strong cosmic censorship(SCC).Relevant issues for Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter(RN-dS)black holes and Born-Infeld-de Sitter black holes have been discussed.In this paper,we investigate SCC in an asymptotic RN-dS black hole with logarithmic nonlinear electromagnetic field perturbed by massless scalar fields.It has been argued that SCC can be violated in a near-extremal RN-dS black hole.However,we find that the NLED effect can rescue SCC for a near-extremal logarithmic-de Sitter black hole.Compared with Born-Infeld model,we find that the NLED effect has similar behavior.     

Towards the role of social connectivity and aspiration level on evolutionary game

Investigating the evolutionary game dynamics in structured populations is challenging due to the complexity of social interactions. There has been a growing interest in evolutionary game on social networks, particularly concerning how a specific network structure affects the evolution of strategies. Here, we consider a social network of interacting individuals playing the anti-coordination games with mixed strategies, and present a deterministic nonlinear equation for the evolution of strategies where the aspiration level is an incentive in the selection of strategies. We find that with an intermediate aspiration level, there exists an evolutionarily-stable mixed-strategy equilibrium if the cost-to-benefit ratio of altruistic is chosen below a threshold, which is determined by the largest Laplacian eigenvalue of the network. We also give extensive numerical simulations on regular and scale-free networks which confirm the validity of our analytical findings.     

A Decision Support Model for Hotel Recommendation Based on the Online Consumer Reviews Using Logarithmic Spherical Hesitant Fuzzy Information

Spherical hesitant fuzzy sets have recently become more popular in various fields. It was proposed as a generalization of picture hesitant fuzzy sets and Pythagorean hesitant fuzzy sets in order to deal with uncertainty and fuzziness information. Technique of Aggregation is one of the beneficial tools to aggregate the information. It has many crucial application areas such as decision-making, data mining, medical diagnosis, and pattern recognition. Keeping in view the importance of logarithmic function and aggregation operators, we proposed a novel algorithm to tackle the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) problems. First, novel logarithmic operational laws are developed based on the logarithmic, t-norm, and t-conorm functions. Using these operational laws, we developed a list of logarithmic spherical hesitant fuzzy weighted averaging/geometric aggregation operators to aggregate the spherical hesitant fuzzy information. Furthermore, we developed the spherical hesitant fuzzy entropy to determine the unknown attribute weight information. Finally, the design principles for the spherical hesitant fuzzy decision-making have been developed, and a practical case study of hotel recommendation based on the online consumer reviews has been taken to illustrate the validity and superiority of presented approach. Besides this, a validity test is conducted to reveal the advantages and effectiveness of developed approach. Results indicate that the proposed method is suitable and effective for the decision process to evaluate their best alternative.     

Maxwell’s demon and the management of ignorance in stochastic thermodynamics

It is nearly 150 years since Maxwell challenged the validity of the second law of thermodynamics by imagining a tiny creature who could sort the molecules of a gas in such a way that would decrease entropy without exerting any work. The demon has been discussed largely using thought experiments, but it has recently become possible to exert control over nanoscale systems, just as Maxwell imagined, and the status of the second law has become a more practical matter, raising the issue of how measurements manage our ignorance in a way that can be exploited. The framework of stochastic thermodynamics extends macroscopic concepts such as heat, work, entropy and irreversibility to small systems and allows us explore the matter. Some arguments against a successful demon imply a second law that can be suspended indefinitely until we dissipate energy in order to remove the records of his operations. In contrast, under stochastic thermodynamics, the demon fails because on average, more work is performed upfront in making a measurement than can be extracted by exploiting the outcome. This requires us to exclude systems and a demon that evolve under what might be termed self-sorting dynamics, and we reflect on the constraints on control that this implies while still working within a thermodynamic framework.     

Optical conductivity of the Bechgaard salts: the sum rules revisited

The validity of the optical sum rules has been addressed eversince and was always matter of debate. Particularly controversial is the proof that the partial sum rules can be extended to both optical conductivity and energy loss function. We show in this paper that for both transverse (optical conductivity) and longitudinal (energy loss function) absorption processes the corresponding sum rule can be theoretically established and through appropriate conditions for the integration limits exactly verified. We also focus our attention on the one-dimensional case within the microscopic Hubbard model. An application of these concepts to the quasi one-dimensional systems, for which we have chosen the organic (TMTSF)₂PF₆ material, will also be presented. Received: 19 December 1997 / Received in final form: 9 March 1998 / Accepted: 23 March 1998     

On the vectorial fields with position-independent stochastic behavior

Vectorial fields with position-independent stochastic behavior within a certain region are analyzed. More specifically, we deal with the transverse components of this class of beamlike fields (the longitudinal component assumed to be negligible). The general form of the cross-spectral density tensor (CDT) of these fields is shown. Attention is also focused on the properties of these kinds of fields. Thus, among other characteristics, it is seen that the CDT of these fields can be written as the sum of two CDTs associated, respectively, to a totally polarized field and to an unpolarized field. It is also shown that, for such fields, a Young's interference experiment can always be performed whose fringe visibility is optimized. This behavior has analytically been characterized by means of a certain parameter, valid for general beamlike fields. It is shown that, for the fields studied, this parameter reaches its maximum value.     

An analysis of chaos-based security solution for fingerprint data

Recently, an engineering report on chaos-based security solution has been proposed for fingerprint data during communication and transmission (IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas. 61 (April (4)) (2012) 876–887). It has been claimed that experimental results and security analysis demonstrate the efficiency of the security solution in this report. However, from a scientific perspective, we give a validity analysis. Firstly, we demonstrate that the reversibility of integer reversible hidden transform (RHT) cannot be guaranteed under the current constraint condition in the original paper and then counterexamples are given to verify demonstration. In addition, in its experiment and performance analysis parts, there also exist several problems. Finally, we put forward some suggestive remarks on the designing of security solution for fingerprint data.     

Customizable Biopolymers for Heavy Metal Remediation

Nanoscale materials have been gaining increasing interest in the area of environmental remediation because of their unique physical, chemical and biological properties. One emerging area of research has been the development of novel materials with increased affinity, capacity, and selectivity for heavy metals because conventional technologies are often inadequate to reduce concentrations in wastewater to acceptable regulatory standards. Genetic and protein engineering have emerged as the latest tools for the construction of nanoscale materials that can be controlled precisely at the molecular level. With the advent of recombinant DNA techniques, it is now possible to create ‘artificial’ protein polymers with fundamentally new molecular organization. The most significant feature of these nanoscale biopolymers is that they are specifically pre-programmed within a synthetic gene template and can be controlled precisely in terms of sizes, compositions and functions at the molecular level. In this review, the use of specifically designed protein-based nano-biomaterials with both metal-binding and tunable properties for heavy metal removal is summarized. Several different strategies for the selective removal of heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury are highlighted.     

On the Peter Principle: An agent based investigation into the consequential effects of social networks and behavioural factors

The Peter Principle is a theory that provides a paradoxical explanation for job incompetence in a hierarchical organisation. It argues that should staff be competent at a given level, their competence may not be implicit at higher levels due to the differences in the skill set required. Furthering the work of a recent investigation into the Peter Principle utilising agent based simulation, this paper explores external factors upon varying promotion strategies to assess efficiency. Through additional elements of social networks and organisational thought, a more representative view of workplace interaction is presented. Results of the simulation found that although the Peter Principle affects efficiency, it may not be to the levels previously suggested. Furthermore promotion on merit provided the most favourable maximum and minimum efficiency margins, given the absence of clear evidence pertaining to the existence of the Peter Principle.     

Growth optimal investment and pricing of derivatives

We introduce a criterion how to price derivatives in incomplete markets, based on the theory of growth optimal strategy in repeated multiplicative games. We present reasons why these growth-optimal strategies should be particularly relevant to the problem of pricing derivatives. Under the assumptions of no trading costs, and no restrictions on lending, we find an appropriate equivalent martingale measure that prices the underlying and the derivative security. We compare our result with other alternative pricing procedures in the literature, and discuss the limits of validity of the lognormal approximation. We also generalize the pricing method to a market with correlated stocks. The expected estimation error of the optimal investment fraction is derived in a closed form, and its validity is checked with a small-scale empirical test.     

Thermodynamics of event horizon with modified Hawking temperature in scalar-tensor gravity

In recent past, Hawking temperature has been modified for the validity of thermodynamical laws at the event horizon in general relativity context. This lead to the introduction of modified Hawking temperature and it has been found that the modified Hawking temperature is more realistic on the event horizon. With this motivation, here we investigate the thermodynamical consistency of scalar-tensor gravity based models by examining the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSLT) and thermodynamical equilibrium (TE) at the event horizon. In order to attain our goal, we consider a spatially flat Friedman–Robertson–Walker Universe filled with ordinary matter and the boundary of the Universe bounded by the event horizon that is in thermal equilibrium with modified Hawking temperature. Next, we calculate the general expressions for the GSLT and TE using modified Hawking temperature in the context of the more general action of scalar-tensor gravity where there is a non-minimally coupling between the scalar field and matter Lagrangian (as the chameleon field). From the general expression of GSLT, we find that the null energy condition must hold for a viable scalar-tensor model of the Universe dominated by a perfect fluid. Furthermore, in order to better understand these complicated general expressions of GSLT and TE, we explore the validity of the GSLT and TE for two viable models of scalar-tensor gravity namely Brans–Dicke gravity with a self-interacting potential and Chameleon gravity at the event horizon using special cosmological solutions. Finally, some graphical representation of the GSLT and TE have been presented. From the graphical analysis, we found that the power-law forms of the scale factor and scalar field is much favourable for the study of universal thermodynamics as compared to other choices of the scalar field and the analytic function.     

A validity index approach for network partitions

The validity index has been used to evaluate the fitness of partitions produced by clustering algorithms for points in Euclidean space. In this paper, we propose a new validity index for network partitions, which can provide a measure of goodness for the community structure of networks. It is defined as a product of two factors, and involves the compactness and separation for each partition. The simulated annealing strategy is used to minimize such a validity index function in coordination with our previous k-means algorithm based on the optimal reduction of a random walker Markovian dynamics on the network. It is demonstrated that the algorithm can efficiently find the community structure during the cooling process. The number of communities can be automatically determined without any prior knowledge of the community structure. Moreover, the algorithm is successfully applied to three real-world networks.     

A finite element model using multi-layered shell element in laser forming

Due to its enormously high flexibility laser forming has been gaining importance in recent years. This rapidness and flexibility demand very precise controlling strategies especially when simulating the process of large plates and challenging the limited computation power of the current workstation. A simple, robust and accurate modeling method of laser forming has been demonstrated to solve this problem. The simplified model is meshed by multi-layered shell element, simulated with a more real scanning method and fewer parameters. The intelligent meshing strategies have reduced the number of elements dramatically. Thus the simulation efficiency has been improved significantly. By comparing the simulation results under the simplified model with the results under the traditional model for laser forming, the applicability of proposed method has been proven. The method of these simplified models is also suitable to simulate complex finite element models, which take much time to simulate. It would throw some light on the thermal mechanically coupled-field simulation of large sheet.     

Dynamic infrared scene projection: a review

Since the early 1990s, there has been major progress in the developing field of dynamic infrared scene projection, driven principally by the need for hardware-in-the-loop simulation of the oncoming generation of imaging infrared missile seekers and more recently by the needs for realistic simulation of the new generation of thermal imagers and forward-looking infrared systems. In this paper the current status of the dynamic infrared projection field is reviewed, commencing with an outline of its history. The requirements for dynamic infrared scene projection are examined, allowing a set of validity criteria to be developed. Each class of infrared projector that has been investigated—emissive, transmissive, reflective, laser scanner and phosphor—together with the specific technology initiatives within the class is described and examined against the validity criteria. In this way the leading dynamic infrared scene projection technologies are identified.     

全息照相实验研究型教学探索

本文介绍了在全息照相实验中开展研究型教学的实验内容和组织形式,提出了将实验内容分为基本实验内容和扩展研究内容,采用了分小组实验研究,分大组研究讨论的组织形式．利用实例反映了研究型教学取得的成效及其启示：在近代物理实验中实施研究型教学,有利于培养学生的实践创新能力和提高教师的科研水平．     

钙钛矿薄膜钝化策略的研究进展

钙钛矿太阳能电池由于其优异的光电转化效率及成本低等优点被引入作为一种新的光伏器件。在过去的十几年内,钙钛矿太阳能电池的研究及发展尤为迅速,性能有了显著提高。然而,要使其进入光伏市场,研究者还需要做出巨大努力。这主要是由于钙钛矿薄膜自身制备的局限性,使其缺陷的存在是不可避免的,这严重影响了钙钛矿太阳能电池中载流子的数目及迁移率,从而制约了钙钛矿太阳能电池效率及稳定性的提升。本综述在对钙钛矿及其缺陷分类简单介绍的基础上,总结了近些年来钙钛矿薄膜钝化的不同策略,希望可以对钙钛矿材料领域的研究人员在选择合适钝化剂方面提供一定的参考。