1,668 research outputs found
Brief sketch of the life and labors of Rev. Alexander Bettis [microform]; also an account of the founding and development of the Bettis Accademy /
No full text"Sketch of Prof. Alfred W. Nicholson ... by Prof. John R. Wilson": p. 85-90.Microfilm.Mode of access: Internet
Problematic Interactions between AI and Health Privacy
No full textProblematic Interactions Between AI and Health Privacy Nicholson Price, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow Abstract The interaction of artificial intelligence (AI) and health privacy is a two-way street. Both directions are problematic. This Essay makes two main points. First, the advent of artificial intelligence weakens the legal protections for health privacy by rendering deidentification less reliable and by inferring health information from unprotected data sources. Second, the legal rules that protect health privacy nonetheless detrimentally impact the development of AI used in the health system by introducing multiple sources of bias: collection and sharing of data by a small set of entities, the process of data collection while following privacy rules, and the use of non-health data to infer health information. The result is an unfortunate anti-synergy: privacy protections are weak and illusory, but rules meant to protect privacy hinder other socially valuable goals. The state of affairs creates biases in health AI, privileges commercial research over academic research, and is ill-suited to either improve health care or protect patients. The health system deeply needs a new bargain between patients and the health system about the uses of patient data
The role of educative thought in the life and work of Antonio Gramsci
No full textMany philosophers have propounded a vision of an improved society, what distinguishes Antonio Gramsci is his continuous effort to make it happen by understanding the process in order to put into practice. Gramsci's conviction about the importance of educative development came from both theory and experience. While there has been considerable examination of Gramsci's work in relation to the Prison Notebooks, this study will seek to address a lacuna in Gramsci scholarship. Using Gramsci's philological method, I analyse Gramsci's pre-prison activity; his pre-prison articles and letters, which, together with his letters from prison, formed part of his educative mission. This educative process was necessary, in order to construct a new party which would develop a collective will, collaboratively, with the masses.In this study therefore, I explore the contexts and formative experiences of the first part of his life together with the intellectual sources from which Gramsci developed his later theories, making central hitherto underemphasised connections between them which informed his writing and ideas. I intend to illustrate that Gramsci's underlying purpose in his writing, and political activity, was not only practical, on how to create a new socialist ruling class, but also educative in forming the mindset and values of his comrades. So that in addition to outlining his vision of a new order, he implicitly guided or explicitly explained the processes by which the necessary changes in social relations and moral climate could be made in order to achieve it. Each person had to engage with the values of the new order so that each could contribute to the construction of a new robust state. It was essential to build a hegemony at the most profound level, one which was dependent on collective understandings and a collective will
Market Stability Switches in a Continuous-Time Financial Market with Heterogeneous Beliefs
No full textBy considering a financial market of fundamentalists and trend followers in which the price trend of the trend followers is formed as a weighted average of historical prices, we establish a continuous-time financial market model with time delay and examines the impact of time delay on market price dynamics. Conditions for the stability of the fundamental price in terms of agents' behavior parameters and time delay are obtained. In particular, it is found that an increase in time delay can not only destabilize the market price but also stabilize an otherwise unstable market price, leading to stability switching as delay increases. This interesting phenomena shed new light in understanding of mechanism on the market stability. When the fundamental price becomes unstable through Hopf bifurcations, suffcient conditions on the stability and global existence of the periodic solution are obtained.asset price; fundamentalists; trend followers; delay differential equations; stability; bifurcations
Price adjustment and market structure
No full textThe present thesis is concerned with the relationship between price
adjustments in response to changes in economic conditions and industrial
market structure. Its point of departure consists of abandoning the time-honoured
assumption that firms in industrial markets act as if they were
price takers. Instead, attention is focused on the determinants of price
adjustment in a more realistic industrial setting.
Following the introductory analysis, a synthesis is proposed
between the long-standing "administered prices" hypothesis, and the recent
theories associated with the "new view" of Keynes. It is suggested that
both approaches have common theoretical underpinnings which are themselves
closely related to this thesis.
The main body of analysis consists of a theoretical and an empirical
investigation. In the theoretical section, two distinct aspects of the
price adjustment decision are examined. The first concerns the comparative
statics of adjustment and involves an analysis of the factors which determine
the magnitude of price adjustments following changes in cost and demand.
Moreover, the influence of market structure on the adjustment process is
examined through its impact on the costs of search which are associated with
the pricing decision. The second, and no less important aspect of the
theoretical investigation concerns the dynamics of price adjustment. The
object of this analysis is to assess the impact of market structure on the
rate of price adjustment over time.
The two hypotheses developed in the theoretical section are put to
extensive empirical testing. The quantitative analysis involves mainly
time-series and cross-section regressions, but other statistical techniques
such as rank correlation and covariance tests are also employed.
The first of these hypotheses is that price adjustments in response
to short-run changes in demand could be attenuated relative to those occasioned by changes in marginal costs. The rationale for this asymmetry
is based on the unequal impact of search costs. The empirical findings,
whilst by no means conclusive, do not contradict this view.
The second hypothesis suggests that a high degree of industrial
concentration will be associated with high rates of price adjustment. This
is because concentration facilitates the process of dynamic co-ordination
amongst firms by reducing the costs of search. The empirical results come
out strongly in favour of this hypothesis. The consequential implications
regarding "administered prices" and the management of inflation are explored
in the concluding chapter of this thesis
The Social Cost-of-Living: Welfare Foundations and Estimation
No full textWe present a new class of social cost-of-living indices and a nonparametric framework for estimating these and other social cost-of- living indices. Common social cost-of-living indices can be understood as aggregator functions of approximations of individual cost-of-living indices. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the expenditure-weighted average of first-order approximations of each individual’s cost-of-living index. This is troubling for three reasons. First, it has not been shown to have a welfare economic foundation for the case where agents are heterogeneous (as they clearly are.) Second, it uses an expenditure-weighted average which downweights the experience of poor households relative to rich households. Finally, it uses only first-order approximations of each individual’s cost-of-living index, and thus ignores substitution effects. We propose a “common-scaling” social cost-of-living index, which is defined as the single scaling to everyone’s expenditure which holds social welfare constant across a price change. Our approach has an explicit social welfare foundation and allows us to choose the weights on the costs of rich and poor households. We also give a unique solution for the welfare function for the case where the weights are independent of household expenditure. A first order approximation of our social cost-of- living index nests as special cases commonly used indices such as the CPI. We also provide a nonparametric method for estimating second- order approximations (which account for substitution effects).Inflation, Social cost-of-living, Demand, Average Derivatives
Price Indexes for Drugs: A Review of the Issues
No full textPrice indexes provide a way to summarize changes in prices of individual goods and services using an aggregate statistic. An important use of these indexes is to decompose changes in spending into price and quantity components. Price indexes have roles in many areas, including in the National Income and Product Accounts and National Health Expenditure Accounts. Health economists have also used similar decompositions to inform policy debates about which levers may be used to contain cost growth. There are three particular issues that arise when discussing price and quality change. The first is deciding which particular formula and weights is most appropriate in constructing the index. Secondly, some price changes are accompanied by changes in the quality of goods. And lastly, price indexes for medical care do not have a clear link to patients’ welfare. Therefore, this paper focuses on the measurement issues, how the indexes are constructed, and how they may be used to decompose the growth in spending into price and quantity components.
Architectural authorship in generative design
No full textThe emergence of evolutionary digital design methods, relying on the creative generation of novel forms, has transformed the design process altogether and consequently the role of the architect. These methods are more than the means to aid and enhance the design process or to perfect the representation of finite architectural projects. The architectural design philosophy is gradually transcending to a hybrid of art, engineering, computer programming and biology. Within this framework, the emergence of designs relies on the architect- machine interaction and the authorship that each of the two shares.
This work aims to explore the changes within the
design process and to define the authorial control of a
new breed of architects- programmers and architects-users on architecture and its design representation. For the investigation of these problems, this thesis is to be based on an experiment conducted by the author in order to test the interaction of architects with different digital design methods and their authorial control over the final product. Eventually, the results will be compared and evaluated in relation to the theoretic views. Ultimately, the architect will establish his authorial role
The Social Cost-of-Living: Welfare Foundations and Estimation
No full textWe present a new class of social cost-of-living indices and a nonparametric framework for estimating these and other social cost-of-living indices. Common social cost-of-living indices can be understood as aggregator functions of approximations of individual cost-of-living indices. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the expenditure-weighted average of first-order approximations of each individual’s cost-of-living index. This is troubling for three reasons. First, it has not been shown to have a welfare economic foundation for the case where agents are heterogeneous (as they clearly are.) Second, it uses an expenditure-weighted average which downweights the experience of poor households relative to rich households. Finally, it uses only first-order approximations of each individual’s cost-of-living index, and thus ignores substitution effects. We propose a “common-scaling” social cost-of-living index, which is defined as the single scaling to everyone’s expenditure which holds social welfare constant across a price change. Our approach has an explicit social welfare foundation and allows us to choose the weights on the costs of rich and poor households. We also give a unique solution for the welfare function for the case where the weights are independent of household expenditure. A first order approximation of our social cost-of-living index nests as special cases commonly used indices such as the CPI. We also provide a nonparametric method for estimating second-order approximations (which account for substitution effects).Inflation, Social cost-of-living, Demand, Average derivatives
Republican National Convention 2000
No full textThe 2000 Republican National Convention highlights with James (Jim) Nicholson, Patricia (Pat) Harrison, John Dennis Hastert, Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Trent Lott, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. Topic discussed: nomination of George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice-president in the 2000 presidential election
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