384 research outputs found
EVALUATION OF PREVALJE SETTLEMENT CORE RENEWAL
No full textV diplomskem delu smo se posvetili urbani prenovi dela mesta Prevalje z revitalizacijo naselbinskega jedra. Teoretični del naloge opisuje osnovne pojme in pristop k urbanističnemu načrtovanju mestnih središč. V praktičnem delu naloge je predstavljena Občina Prevalje, njena zgodovinska dejstva, projekt ureditve naselbinskega jedra ter izvedba projekta prenove. Zaključek naloge ovrednoti pristop k projektu ureditve naselbinskega jedra Prevalj z oceno uporabnikov, avtorja in investitorja po prenovi.The diploma thesis focuses on part of the town of Prevalje urban renewal along with revitalization of its settlement core. Theoretical part of the thesis is explaining basic concepts and approaches for city core urban renewal. In practical part of the thesis Municipality Prevalje is highlited, as are its historical facts, project of settlement core renewal and execution of renewal project. The completion of the thesis states reasonableness of the Prevalje settlement core renewal project approach with the evaluation of its users, author and investor after the renewal
Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize-Related Economics Award Winner, has also Advocated in Favor of Open Data Access
No full textAuthor: Pablo Markin Published Online: 2017-10-15 URL: http://openscience.com/richard-thaler-nobel-prize-related-economics-award-winner-has-also-advocated-in-favor-of-open-data-access/ While upon his 2017 prize nomination, Richard H. Thaler has received recognition for his contributions to behavioral economics, he has also argued that open data initiatives can bring public and private benefits alike. Excerpt On October 9, 2017, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business has announced..
Novel variants in genes related to vesicle-mediated-transport modify Parkinson's disease risk
No full textObjectives: VPS35 and VPS13 have been associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), and their shared phenotype in yeast when reduced in function is abnormal vacuolar transport. We aim to test if additional potentially deleterious variants in other genes that share this phenotype can modify the risk for PD. Methods: 77 VPS and VPS-related genes were analyzed using whole-genome-sequencing data from 202 PD patients of Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) ancestry. Filtering was done based on quality and functionality scores. Ten variants in nine genes were further genotyped in 1200 consecutively recruited unrelated AJ-PD patients, and allele frequencies and odds ratio calculated compared to gnomAD-AJ-non-neuro database, in un-stratified (n = 1200) and stratified manner (LRRK2-G2019S-PD patients (n = 145), GBA-PD patients (n = 235), and non-carriers of these mutations (NC, n = 787)). Results: Five variants in PIK3C3, VPS11, AP1G2, HGS and VPS13D were significantly associated with PD-risk. PIK3C3-R768W showed a significant association in an un-stratified (all PDs) analysis, as well as in stratified (LRRK2, GBA, and NC) analyses (Odds ratios = 2.71, 5.32, 3.26. and 2.19 with p = 0.0015, 0.002, 0.0287, and 0.0447, respectively). AP1G2-R563W was significantly associated in LRRK2-carriers (OR = 3.69, p = 0.006) while VPS13D-D2932N was significantly associated in GBA-carriers (OR = 5.45, p = 0.0027). VPS11-C846G and HGS-S243Y were significantly associated in NC (OR = 2.48 and 2.06, with p = 0.022 and 0.0163, respectively). Conclusions: Variants in genes involved in vesicle-mediated protein transport and recycling pathways, including autophagy and mitophagy, may differentially modify PD-risk in LRRK2-carriers, GBA carriers, or NC. Specifically, PIK3C3-R768W is a PD-risk allele, with the highest effect size in LRRK2-G2019S carriers. These results suggest oligogenic effect that may depends on the genetic background of the patient. An unbiased burden of mutations approach in these genes should be evaluated in additional PD and control groups. The mechanisms by which these novel variants interact and increase PD-risk should be researched in depth for better tailoring therapeutic intervention for PD prevention or slowing disease progression
Error rate control of a second-order servomechanism with coulomb friction and backlash
No full textCompensation for linear second-order servomechanisms has been used for many years to improve performance. This thesis studies in detail the use of error rate or derivative control as one method of
improving performance. The effects of coulomb friction and backlash on the error rate control system are also studied. The error rate control system with coulomb friction and backlash were simulated on the Analog Computer to demonstrate qualitative results of this type of compensation. The favorable results of this investigation are then summarized in the conclusions.
The author wishes to express his appreciation for the suggestion of this thesis topic and the invaluable aid extended by Professor G.J. Thaler of the Electrical Engineering Department of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Lieutenant, United States Navyhttp://archive.org/details/errorratecontrol109451211
Premio Nobel de Economía del año 2017: Richard Thaler
No full textEn este trabajo se analiza la obra de Richad Thaler, galardonado con el premio Nobel de Economía en el año 2017 por su contribución a la economía conductual. El autor es reconocido por ser el coautor, junto con Cass Sunstein, del libro Nudge, traducido en español como “Un pequeño empujón”. La palabra “empujón” en el título del libro hace referencia a ayudar a la población a tomar las mejores decisiones en el largo plazo. Por ejemplo, a ahorrar de cara a una jubilación. Se basan en la premisa de que las personas eligen la opción más fácil sobre la opción más adecuada. El poco tiempo para pensar y la costumbre, entre otros factores, conllevan a una mala elección. Una de las consideraciones principales para darle el premio Nobel fue la creación de un puente que une los análisis económicos con los psicológicos en la toma de decisiones de los individuos. Se considera que, gracias a sus hallazgos, se han podido abrir grandes campos de investigación en la teoría del comportamiento que han tenido un gran impacto también dentro de la política económica.In this paper I am going to talk about Richad Thaler, awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017 for his contribution to behavioral economics.
The author is recognized for being the co-author, along with Cass Sunstein, of the book Nudge, translated into Spanish as “Un pequeño empujón”. The aim of the book is to help the population to make the best decisions in the long term. For example, to save for retirement. They are based on the premise that people choose the easiest option over the most suitable option. The little time to think and the habit, among other factors, lead to a bad choice.
One of the main considerations to give him an award was the creation of a bridge that unites economic analyzes with psychological ones in the decision-making of individuals. It is considered that, thanks to his findings, large fields of
iv
research have been opened in behavioral theory. That has had a great impact in research areas also within economic policy.Departamento de Economía AplicadaGrado en Economí
Reciprocity in a Two-Part Dictator Game
No full textWe conduct a dictator game experiment in which recipients in an initial game become dictators in a second game. When the subjects paired remain the same, the amount sent back is strongly correlated with the amount received, despite the fact that the interaction is anonymous and is known to be one-time and zero-sum in nature. When the initial recipient is instead paired with a third subject, a less significant and lower-valued correlation between amounts received and sent is exhibited. Intelligence and personality test results, gender, and other characteristics also help to predict sending behavior and degree of reciprocity.reciprocity, dictator game, cognition, personality, altruism
Robust inter-subject audiovisual decoding in functional magnetic resonance imaging using high-dimensional regression
No full textMajor methodological advancements have been recently made in the field of neural decoding, which is concerned with the reconstruction of mental content from neuroimaging measures. However, in the absence of a large-scale examination of the validity of the decoding models across subjects and content, the extent to which these models can be generalized is not clear. This study addresses the challenge of producing generalizable decoding models, which allow the reconstruction of perceived audiovisual features from human magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data without prior training of the algorithm on the decoded content. We applied an adapted version of kernel ridge regression combined with temporal optimization on data acquired during film viewing (234 runs) to generate standardized brain models for sound loudness, speech presence, perceived motion, face-to-frame ratio, lightness, and color brightness. The prediction accuracies were tested on data collected from different subjects watching other movies mainly in another scanner. Substantial and significant (QFDR<0.05) correlations between the reconstructed and the original descriptors were found for the first three features (loudness, speech, and motion) in all of the 9 test movies (R¯=0.62, R¯ = 0.60, R¯ = 0.60, respectively) with high reproducibility of the predictors across subjects. The face ratio model produced significant correlations in 7 out of 8 movies (R¯=0.56). The lightness and brightness models did not show robustness (R¯=0.23, R¯ = 0). Further analysis of additional data (95 runs) indicated that loudness reconstruction veridicality can consistently reveal relevant group differences in musical experience. The findings point to the validity and generalizability of our loudness, speech, motion, and face ratio models for complex cinematic stimuli (as well as for music in the case of loudness). While future research should further validate these models using controlled stimuli and explore the feasibility of extracting more complex models via this method, the reliability of our results indicates the potential usefulness of the approach and the resulting models in basic scientific and diagnostic contexts
Publicpension governance and performance : lessons for developing countries
No full textThe author examines the relationship between public sector pension plan performance and management practices to improve the design and governance of public pensions in developing countries. Understanding this relationship is important because better yields on public pension plan investment reduce the need for additional taxes to support retirees - and well-funded plans stand a better chance of paying promised benefits. The author's model relates investment returns on public pension assets, as well as plan funding status, to features characterizing the pension systems'governance structure and authority, using new data set on U.S. state and local public sector plans. The following findings stand out. The higher the fraction of retirees elected to the pension board, the stronger the negative effect on investment return in 1990, and the more variable the returns. Systems fared about the same whether they had in-house or external money managers, or independent performance analysis (even if the external managers were drawn from the top 10). But public pensions performed better when fund and actuarial computations were done by professional actuarial and investment counselors rather than relying on former or current employees to choose investment strategies. Social investment rules hurt public pension yields. Public pension plans which mandated that a certain portion of investments be director to instate projects generated much lower returns. The data show that many public pension systems funded their plans satisfactorily but others did not. The results show the following. Fiscal stress reduced stock funding ratios. Stock funding rates were lower, the higher the fraction of elected retirees and elected active workers represented on the pension system board. Stock funding ratios were higher when a system had in-house actuaries, when the board authorized benefit levels, and when board members had liability insurance. Stock funding rates were unaltered by state statutes guaranteering that benefits be guaranteed by law, or by legally set funding requirements, or by the state's ability to carry budget deficits from one year to the next. Nor did they vary when dedicated or special taxes were earmarked for pension revenue. Policymakers in developing countries can profit from the mistakes made and lessons learned by U.S. pension analysis. Although no single package of pension plan practices can optimize investment performance for all systems across all time periods, care must be taken when designing the regulatory and investment environment in which these plans operate. Developing countries should study the work of the U.S. Government Accounting Standards Board. The author discusses some of the complex issues that must be confronted when establishing funding norms for defined benefit pension plans in the public sector.ICT Policy and Strategies,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Economic Stabilization
- …
