21 research outputs found
[[alternative]]A study on gender ideology of collegiate Ethics textbooks in Taiwan
No full text[[abstract]]This study aimed at exploring gender ideologies underlying four Ethics textbooks written by Taiwan scholars, published or republished in 2004-2006. The content analysis method was employed to answer three research questions: (1) how did the four textbooks portray sex/gender issues, (2) what gender ideologies were presented in the four textbooks, and (3) what are the mutilated texts in the four textbooks regarding gender issues?
The results generated from this study are of three aspects. First, except the text of ‘Ethics and Life’, most texts portray sex/gender issues in fragmented ways and with traditional and conservative thinking. Second, gender ideologies underlying the four texts include the Gods theory, the biological determinism, heterosexual hegemony, functionalism, and patriarchy ideology. All the four texts showed linguistic bias against women and homosexuality directly or indirectly. It is also found that most texts ignored the experience and voice of women and homosexuality. Third, most texts were not aware of gender stereotype, bias and discrimination underlying traditional Ethnics paradigms and the new paradigm, the Feminist Ethics of Care, was omitted and distorted.
Based upon the above-mentioned findings, suggestions were offered to Ethics textbook writers and users.
What to bid and when to stop
No full textNegotiation is an important activity in human society, and is studied by various disciplines, ranging from economics and game theory, to electronic commerce, social psychology, and artificial intelligence. Traditionally, negotiation is a necessary, but also time-consuming and expensive activity. Therefore, in the last decades there has been a large interest in the automation of negotiation, for example in the setting of e-commerce. This interest is fueled by the promise of automated agents eventually being able to negotiate on behalf of human negotiators.Every year, automated negotiation agents are improving in various ways, and there is now a large body of negotiation strategies available, all with their unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, some agents are able to predict the opponent's preferences very well, while others focus more on having a sophisticated bidding strategy. The problem however, is that there is little incremental improvement in agent design, as the agents are tested in varying negotiation settings, using a diverse set of performance measures. This makes it very difficult to meaningfully compare the agents, let alone their underlying techniques. As a result, we lack a reliable way to pinpoint the most effective components in a negotiating agent.There are two major advantages of distinguishing between the different components of a negotiating agent's strategy: first, it allows the study of the behavior and performance of the components in isolation. For example, it becomes possible to compare the preference learning component of all agents, and to identify the best among them. Second, we can proceed to mix and match different components to create new negotiation strategies., e.g.: replacing the preference learning technique of an agent and then examining whether this makes a difference. Such a procedure enables us to combine the individual components to systematically explore the space of possible negotiation strategies.To develop a compositional approach to evaluate and combine the components, we identify structure in most agent designs by introducing the BOA architecture, in which we can develop and integrate the different components of a negotiating agent. We identify three main components of a general negotiation strategy; namely a bidding strategy (B), possibly an opponent model (O), and an acceptance strategy (A). The bidding strategy considers what concessions it deems appropriate given its own preferences, and takes the opponent into account by using an opponent model. The acceptance strategy decides whether offers proposed by the opponent should be accepted.The BOA architecture is integrated into a generic negotiation environment called Genius, which is a software environment for designing and evaluating negotiation strategies. To explore the negotiation strategy space of the negotiation research community, we amend the Genius repository with various existing agents and scenarios from literature. Additionally, we organize a yearly international negotiation competition (ANAC) to harvest even more strategies and scenarios. ANAC also acts as an evaluation tool for negotiation strategies, and encourages the design of negotiation strategies and scenarios.We re-implement agents from literature and ANAC and decouple them to fit into the BOA architecture without introducing any changes in their behavior. For each of the three components, we manage to find and analyze the best ones for specific cases, as described below. We show that the BOA framework leads to significant improvements in agent design by wining ANAC 2013, which had 19 participating teams from 8 international institutions, with an agent that is designed using the BOA framework and is informed by a preliminary analysis of the different components.In every negotiation, one of the negotiating parties must accept an offer to reach an agreement. Therefore, it is important that a negotiator employs a proficient mechanism to decide under which conditions to accept. When contemplating whether to accept an offer, the agent is faced with the acceptance dilemma: accepting the offer may be suboptimal, as better offers may still be presented before time runs out. On the other hand, accepting too late may prevent an agreement from being reached, resulting in a break off with no gain for either party. We classify and compare state-of-the-art generic acceptance conditions. We propose new acceptance strategies and we demonstrate that they outperform the other conditions. We also provide insight into why some conditions work better than others and investigate correlations between the properties of the negotiation scenario and the efficacy of acceptance conditions.Later, we adopt a more principled approach by applying optimal stopping theory to calculate the optimal decision on the acceptance of an offer. We approach the decision of whether to accept as a sequential decision problem, by modeling the bids received as a stochastic process. We determine the optimal acceptance policies for particular opponent classes and we present an approach to estimate the expected range of offers when the type of opponent is unknown. We show that the proposed approach is able to find the optimal time to accept, and improves upon all existing acceptance strategies.Another principal component of a negotiating agent's strategy is its ability to take the opponent's preferences into account. The quality of an opponent model can be measured in two different ways. One is to use the agent's performance as a benchmark for the model's quality. We evaluate and compare the performance of a selection of state-of-the-art opponent modeling techniques in negotiation. We provide an overview of the factors influencing the quality of a model and we analyze how the performance of opponent models depends on the negotiation setting. We identify a class of simple and surprisingly effective opponent modeling techniques that did not receive much previous attention in literature.The other way to measure the quality of an opponent model is to directly evaluate its accuracy by using similarity measures. We review all methods to measure the accuracy of an opponent model and we then analyze how changes in accuracy translate into performance differences. Moreover, we pinpoint the best predictors for good performance. This leads to new insights concerning how to construct an opponent model, and what we need to measure when optimizing performance.Finally, we take two different approaches to gain more insight into effective bidding strategies. We present a new classification method for negotiation strategies, based on their pattern of concession making against different kinds of opponents. We apply this technique to classify some well-known negotiating strategies, and we formulate guidelines on how agents should bid in order to be successful, which gives insight into the bidding strategy space of negotiating agents. Furthermore, we apply optimal stopping theory again, this time to find the concessions that maximize utility for the bidder against particular opponents. We show there is an interesting connection between optimal bidding and optimal acceptance strategies, in the sense that they are mirrored versions of each other.Lastly, after analyzing all components separately, we put the pieces back together again. We take all BOA components accumulated so far, including the best ones, and combine them all together to explore the space of negotiation strategies.We compute the contribution of each component to the overall negotiation result, and we study the interaction between components. We find that combining the best agent components indeed makes the strongest agents. This shows that the component-based view of the BOA architecture not only provides a useful basis for developing negotiating agents but also provides a useful analytical tool. By varying the BOA components we are able to demonstrate the contribution of each component to the negotiation result, and thus analyze the significance of each. The bidding strategy is by far the most important to consider, followed by the acceptance conditions and finally followed by the opponent model.Our results validate the analytical approach of the BOA framework to first optimize the individual components, and then to recombine them into a negotiating agent
Foreign exchange and stock market: tow related markets?
No full textThis paper studies the relationship between the stock market and the exchange rate in several countries. The approach taken in the first part of this study is a linear VAR, to be compared in the following part to a MSVAR. The data is also analyzed by Granger causality tests in both contexts and a thorough description of the empirical results obtained is shown. The research uncovers a spread (but not constant over time) causality from the exchange rate and American stock market to the local markets of the different nations studied. The non-linear, time varying approach allows several considerations on the dynamics of the relationship. The markets analyzed are the Japanese, the British and the German (pre-Euro) market against the US Dollar and the US stock market. The frequency of the data used is daily.
Nonlinear Fourier classification of 663 rogue waves measured in the Philippine Sea
No full textRogue waves are sudden and extreme occurrences, with heights that exceed twice the significant wave height of their neighboring waves. The formation of rogue waves has been attributed to several possible mechanisms such as linear superposition of random waves, dispersive focusing, and modulational instability. Recently, nonlinear Fourier transforms (NFTs), which generalize the usual Fourier transform, have been leveraged to analyze oceanic rogue waves. Next to the usual linear Fourier modes, NFTs can additionally uncover nonlinear Fourier modes in time series that are usually hidden. However, so far only individual oceanic rogue waves have been analyzed using NFTs in the literature. Moreover, the completely different types of nonlinear Fourier modes have been observed in these studies. Exploiting twelve years of field measurement data from an ocean buoy, we apply the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) (referred to NLSE-NFT) to a large dataset of measured rogue waves. While the NLSE-NFT has been used to analyze rogue waves before, this is the first time that it is systematically applied to a large real-world dataset of deep-water rogue waves. We categorize the measured rogue waves into four types based on the characteristics of the largest nonlinear mode: stable, small breather, large breather and (envelope) soliton. We find that all types can occur at a single site, and investigate which conditions are dominated by a single type at the measurement site. The one and two-dimensional Benjamin-Feir indices (BFIs) are employed to examine the four types of nonlinear spectra. Furthermore, we verify on a part of the data set that for the localized types, the largest nonlinear Fourier mode can be attributed directly to the rogue wave, and investigate the relation between the height of the rogue waves and that of the dominant nonlinear Fourier mode. While the dominant nonlinear Fourier mode in general only contributes a small fraction of the rogue wave, we find that soliton modes can contribute up to half of the rogue wave. Since the NLSE does not account for directional spreading, the classification is repeated for the first quartile with the lowest directional spreading for each type. Similar results are obtained.Team Michel Verhaege
Ferrate(VI) oxidation of endocrine disruptors and antimicrobials in water
No full textAuthor name used in this publication: X. Z. LiAccepted ManuscriptPublishedGreen (AAM
Asset prices and exchange rates: a time dependent approach
No full textThis paper studies the relationship between exchange rates and asset prices. It takes the novel approach of modeling both the markets in a framework of heterogeneous agents. Investors maximize their profits from the international equity markets by solving a Mean-Variance problem. As a result, agents choose between different combinations of rules in the home and foreign equity market as well as in the foreign exchange market. Given the incomplete information setting, agents check the past profitability of their rules and switch behavior in the effort to maximize their profits. Due to the heuristics embedded within the model, this simple frame-work alone is able to create a complex, time-varying dynamics. This dynamics is analyzed for different parameters and conditions. Finally the model is brought to the data, to check the fitness of the predictions on the real world markets.Behavioral finance, exchange rates, asset prices
Recent developments in coastal engineering
No full textThe Purpose of Coastal and Marine Research in Germany (Rolf Peter RANDL) Topic I, Coastal Protection Coastal Protection and its Management in Germany (Heie Focken ERCHINGER) The Scientific and Technical Development of Marine Technology in the Central Weather Bureau (Beng-Chun LEE) Climate Impact Research for the German Coast of the Baltic Sea (Werner ZIELKE) Integration of Coastal Protection in Germany into a Coastal Zone Management (Hans KUNZ) The Ocean Space Utilization and Monitoring Program in the Western Coast of Taiwan (Hwung-Hweng HWUNG Ruey-Chy KAO) Optiniised Design of Land Reclamation Fields for Sustainable Foreland Development (Nicole VON LIEBERMANN Andreas MATHEJA Horst SCHWARZE) High Water Protection in Coastal Towns of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Thomas ZARNCKE Barbel KOPPE) Topic II, Field Investigations The Effect of the Irregularity of Waves for the Design of Coastal Structures (Karl-Friedrich DAEMRICH) Hydrodynamic Impact on Cliff Coast Areas of the Baltic Sea on the Basis of Directional Wave Measurements (Peter FROHLE Thomas FITTSCHEN ) Measurement of Directional Waves by Wave Gauge array and Buoy (Chia Chuen KAO Hwa CHIEN Heng Haur CHOW Yean Bin LIN Chao Hui LIN) Accuracy Analysis of SURFER" Contouring of Bar-type Coastal Topography (Shiahn-Wern SYHUE Chung-Pan LEE) Recent Developments in Shallow Water Wave Prediction (Heinz GÜNTHER) Forecasting of Typhoon Waves for a Harbor at Eastern Coast of Taiwan (Laurence Zsu-Hsin CHUANG Chihfeng KUAN Dong Jiing DOONG) Topic Ill, Simulation Methods Aspects of Modelling Sediment Transport in lnstationary Flow (Ulrich ZANKE ) Cross-Shore Sediment Transport - Comparison of Basic Approaches and Limitations - (Hans-Henning DETTE ) DRBEM Analysis of Combined Wave (Ming-Chung LIN ) Refraction and Diffraction in the Presence of Nien-Chia Hu Currents (Sung-Shan HSIAO ) A Numerical Model for Non-linear Interaction of Water Waves with Submerged Obstacles (Robert R. HWANG Y.C. SUE ) Coupling of Numerical Wave and Current Models (Klaus-Peter HOLZ Peter MILBRADT) A Second-Order Solution of the Flap Wavemaker Problem (Jaw-Fang LEE Cheng-Chi Llu Yuan-Jyh LAN) Activities of Coastal Development in Taiwan (Yen-Sun Hsu )KWP-collectio
Foreign exchange and stock market: two related markets?.
No full textThis paper studies the relationship between the stock market and the exchange rate in several countries. The approach taken in the first part of this study is a linear VAR, to be compared in the following part to a MSVAR. The data is also analyzed by Granger causality tests in both contexts and a thorough description of the empirical results obtained is shown. The research uncovers a spread (but not constant over time) causality from the exchange rate and American stock market to the local markets of the different nations studied. The non-linear, time varying approach allows several considerations on the dynamics of the relationship. The markets analyzed are the Japanese, the British and the German (pre-Euro) market against the US Dollar and the US stock market. The frequency of the data used is daily.
Incorporating stakeholders’ preferences into a multi-criteria framework for planning large-scale Nature-Based Solutions
No full textHydro-meteorological risks are a growing issue for societies, economies and environments around the world. An effective, sustainable response to such risks and their future uncertainty requires a paradigm shift in our research and practical efforts. In this respect, Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) offer the potential to achieve a more effective and flexible response to hydro-meteorological risks while also enhancing human well-being and biodiversity. The present paper describes a new methodology that incorporates stakeholders’ preferences into a multi-criteria analysis framework, as part of a tool for selecting risk mitigation measures. The methodology has been applied to Tamnava river basin in Serbia and Nangang river basin in Taiwan within the EC-funded RECONECT project. The results highlight the importance of involving stakeholders in the early stages of projects in order to achieve successful implementation of NBSs. The methodology can assist decision-makers in formulating desirable benefits and co-benefits and can enable a systematic and transparent NBSs planning process.Water ResourcesRivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineerin
Asset prices and exchange rates: a time dependent approach.
No full textThe paper studies the relationship between exchange rates and asset prices. It takes the approach of order ows to exchange rates. Specifically, it focuses on the effect of time-dependent risk aversion. The switch in the parameter causes the equilibrium of the system to alternate between two regimes: an optimistic and a pessimistic one. The paper is complete of a wide empirical section where the two equilibria are identified and specified for three of the main world markets. The regimes appear to be persistent and consistent with the existing literature on risk aversion. This also includes recent events of the financial crisis. The analysis uncovers a new development for exchange rate microstructure models. 3 of the 4 markets studied are consistent with both the order flow and the Markov switching models. The markets analyzed are the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Japan.
