An analysis of consensus approaches based on different concepts of coincidence

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.Soft consensus is a relevant topic in group decision making problems. Soft consensus measures are utilized to reflect the different agreement degrees between the experts leading the consensus reaching process. This may determine the final decision and the time needed to reach it. The concept of coincidence has led to two main approaches to calculating the soft consensus measures, namely, concordance among expert preferences and concordance among individual solutions. In the first approach the coincidence is obtained by evaluating the similarity among the expert preferences, while in the second one the concordance is derived from the measurement of the similarity among the solutions proposed by these experts. This paper performs a comparative study of consensus approaches based on both coincidence approaches. We obtain significant differences between both approaches by comparing several distance functions for measuring expert preferences and a consensus measure over the set of alternatives for measuring the solutions provided by experts. To do so, we use the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Finally, these outcomes are analyzed using Friedman mean ranks in order to obtain a quantitative classification of the considered measurements according to the convergence criterion considered in the consensus reaching process

Paradoxes of Economic Theories and Politics

The article gives an overview of the evolution of economic theories, the conditions which led to the formation of their modern schools and focuses on the analysis of arising classic, neoclassic and Keynesian doctrines encouraged by the growth and development of productive forces (factors of production), the formation of big corporations-monopolists and technological progress. The severe global recessions (1929–1933) and other shocks of the capitalist system brought to life the doctrinal theory, which is alternative to the classical one. The doctrinal theory was a theoretic and methodological basis of the System for half a century, then it was replaced by neoliberal and monetarist theories that proved to be inconsistent during the global crisis and depression in 2008–2013. The article also touches upon the necessity to change the economic policy of Russia — an urgent problem resulting from a policy of the Western countries trying to suffocate the country with sanctions

Gated communities from the perspective of developers

Gated housing areas have increasingly become a profitable segment in the real estate market as well as a new marketing angle for developers to meet the demand for security, status/prestige, and lifestyle. The development patterns of gated communities in many countries show that developers recognize the opportunity to sell safety and security to a niche market. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to investigate the development process of gated communities in a metropolitan city, Istanbul, from the perspective of developers. The data and information used for evaluation are based on the extensive survey questionnaires filled out by developers of gated communities. A “logistic regression method” is deployed to identify the most important factors on approaches and behaviors of developers. Therefore, the motivating factors both in the decision-making and production-marketing process of developers are evaluated. This evaluation enables us to highlight the characteristics of the real estate market.

Carl Menger’s “Money” and the Current Neoclassical Models of Money

The paper analyzes three neoclassical models of money with emphasis on the equilibrium concepts employed. It is argued that the neoclassical theories fail to analyze the emergence of the social institution of money. Instead, they focus on the consistency of individual decisions regarding the rational acceptability of intrinsically worthless objects given the social institution of money and the Pareto superiority of the allocations in monetary vis-à-vis barter economies. The equilibrium concepts employed by neoclassical theories are not suitable for the study of the emergence of new electronic payment systems. Instead, a theory of the emergence of social institutions, of institutional change is required: the Mengerian method of institutional analysis.Electronic money, monetary theory, Menger

Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics: a case for an effective model for international bioethics education

Designing bioethics curriculum for international postgraduate students is a challenging task. There are at least two main questions, which have to be resolved in advance: (1) what is a purpose of a particular teaching program and (2) how to respectfully arrange a classroom for students coming from different cultural and professional backgrounds. In our paper we analyze the case of the Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics program and provide recommendations for international bioethics education. In our opinion teaching bioethics to postgraduate international students goes beyond curriculum. It means that such a program requires not only well-defined goals, including equipping students with necessary skills and knowledge, but also it should first and foremost facilitate positive group dynamics among students and enables them to engage in dialogue to learn from one another

ESPON Project 2.3.1., Application and effects of the ESDP in the Member States. Second Interim Report

This Second Interim Report includes the preliminary results of the project, "Application and Effects of the ESDP in the Member States" within the ESPON Programme 2000-2006. The focus of the study is the application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), which was adopted at the Potsdam informal Ministerial Council meeting in May 199

Investigating Fine Temporal Dynamics of Prosodic and Lexical Accommodation

Conversational interaction is a dynamic activity in which participants engage in the construction of meaning and in establishing and maintaining social relationships. Lexical and prosodic accommodation have been observed in many studies as contributing importantly to these dimensions of social interaction. However, while previous works have considered accommodation mechanisms at global levels (for whole conversations, halves and thirds of conversations), this work investigates their evolution through repeated analysis at time intervals of increasing granularity to analyze the dynamics of alignment in a spoken language corpus. Results show that the levels of both prosodic and lexical accommodation fluctuate several times over the course of a conversation