Partial Preferences for Mediated Bargaining

In this work we generalize standard Decision Theory by assuming that two outcomes can also be incomparable. Two motivating scenarios show how incomparability may be helpful to represent those situations where, due to lack of information, the decision maker would like to maintain different options alive and defer the final decision. In particular, a new axiomatization is given which turns out to be a weakening of the classical set of axioms used in Decision Theory. Preliminary results show how preferences involving complex distributions are related to judgments on single alternatives.Comment: In Proceedings SR 2014, arXiv:1404.041

Federated Learning of Artificial Neural Networks

A jelenlegi, legszélesebb körben alkalmazható gépi tanulás (ML) modellek, és különösképp mesterséges neurális hálók betanítása rendkívül nagy mennyiségű adatot és jelentős számítási kapacitást igényel. A Federált Tanulás (FL) kutatás fókuszában az ML modellek kollaboratív tanítása áll, napjaink heterogén, földrajzilag is erősen elosztott információs infrastruktúráján. Az FL célja ezáltal eloszlatni a tanulás számítási igényét a résztvevők (node-ok) között, az adatot annak keletkezési helyén feldolgozva, míg tanulás maga a node-okon számított módosítási igények (update-ek) időszakonkénti begyűjtésével, összegzésével és a frissített modell szétosztásával történik. Az FL-lel kapcsolatos kutatások, a mi megátsunk szerint három főbb irányba folynak: (1) Az első irány az általánosan elfogadott federált tanulási metódus, a Federált Átlagolás (FedAvg) életszerű környezetben való alkalmazásának kérdéseivel foglalkozik, azaz hogyan lehetséges a szükséges kommunikációs és számítási kapacitás biztosítása. (2) A második irány a FedAvg algoritmus alkalmazásakor fellépő problémákra fókuszál, úgymint a modell csökkenő általános pontosága, valamint a közös modell potenciálisan elégtelen teljesítménye a végfelhasználóknál. (3) A harmadik sokat kutatott téma pedig a résztvevők bizalmas adatinak minél erősebb védelmének módjait vizsgálja. A disszertációban az mesterséges neurális hálók federált tanításának az ezen, általunk a legfontosabbnak ítélt irányokban történő fejlesztésére irányuló munkánkat mutatom be. Az bemutatott metódusok az egyes problémák ehnyhítésére a következő ötleteken alapulnak: (1) A FedAvg algoritmus peer-to-peer átalakítása (2) a múltbeli állapotokon alapuló optimalizációs metódusok alkalmazása; valamint (3) a gradiensek használatát nem igénylő természet által inspirált optimalizációs módszerek alkalmazása

Schumpeter's Bahnbrechen considered in the light of Native Title Legislation and Indigenous entrepreneurship

In Australia, the Native Title Act 1993 (NTAct) dramatically altered the business and property environment, constituting a Bahnbrechen or transformative regulatory change which created the benefit of native title recognition for Aboriginals. This Study provides an account of NTAct’s operation and many negative elements, along with its intriguingly positive impact upon entrepreneurial opportunity. It shows that the simple fact of the chaotic setting of a transformative regulatory change shakes things up in a way that impacts upon entrepreneurial opportunity, even while its policies are anti-entrepreneurial and disempowering

Do classrooms matter? Pass rates, achievement and classroom procedures: a quanti-qualitative study.

Urban upper primary schools in Espirito Santo are better staffed and equipped than rural schools yet their "pass rates" are lower. Given evidence that: (a) urban areas are more developed than rural areas, (b) development and educational quality correlate positively, (c) school characteristics account for about 80 percent of the variation in pupil achievement in less developed countries, and (d) learning assessment in Brazil is not centralized, the reported "pass rates" are paradoxical and call for clarification. This is the problem this thesis approaches from a quanti-qualitative focus. Survey data on achievement scores, school results and the correlations between these measures of pupil attainments indicate that "pass rates" enmesh teachers' set learning goals. High school results / lower achievement scores in rural areas, which lack significant correlations, suggest lower quality education geared towards rote-learning. Lower school results / higher achievement scores in urban areas, with weak-moderate positive correlations signal more complex cognitive demands and improvement of educational quality through content understanding. Therefore, "pass rates" have specific meanings and are not suitable as comparison of performance of different schools. The ethnography of an urban school illuminates the survey findings and unveil the meaning of "pass rates" from the viewpoint of "successful" classroom practices. In a context of similar qualifications teachers share a progressive pedagogical discourse but their classroom practices portray diversity of educational quality and corresponding learning achievement standards. Teaching approaches, displayed in a typology (based in textbook use and pupils participation in the lesson), represent a continuum from rote-learning to the recreation of knowledge. Options for teaching approaches are compromises between educational ideals and existing constraints. These include teachers' competence (rooted in their background), the ethos and culture of the school, and external demands on schooling. Pupils' responses to teaching approaches embody their appraisal of the process, the subjectmatter, and prevailing teacher-pupil affective ties. Ultimately learning outcomes expressed through "pass rates" represent distinctive teaching practices and learning results

An initial evaluation of market-based land reform in Brazil: Can it create sustainable communities?

Land reform is a burning issue in Brazil. Redistribution of land through government expropriation has proven to be difficult and expensive as unwilling landowners can hold up the process for years, or defeat it, in the courts. In 1997, the World Bank, at the request of the Brazilian Government, approved Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation Pilot Project 4147-BR -- known in Brazil as the Cedula da Terra. This program instituted a market based approach to land reform through which eligible agricultural workers could form associations and obtain subsidized financing to purchase land from willing sellers. As there was no previous work that comprehensively brought together the historical and legal roots of land in Brazil from a land reform perspective, this study initially sets out that history. It then asks the question: Is market-based land reform potentially an effective instrument to redistribute land to working farmers in a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable manner? In order to answer that question, case study research was carried out in seven Cedula da Terra land reform settlements in northern Bahia. Sustainability was defined as land reform settlements being socially, economically, and environmentally viable for a minimum one generation. Data from the case studies was analyzed and placed in the larger context of Brazilian land reform history. The primary finding is that viable settlements can be developed through market-based land reform where sufficient support is provided. Additional recommendations are provided as to factors that tend to increase the success of such settlements

New information technologies in public participation : a challenge to old decision-making institutional frameworks

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.Page 520 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 457-466).Given the progress in information technology (IT) in the past 30 years, I hypothesized that new conditions exist for considerable improvements in public participation in decision-making. In order to test my hypothesis, I developed a prototype of an Intelligent Multimedia System to support public and technical consultation and, together with Internet-based collaborative tools, introduced it in the environmental impact assessment review process, for the solid urban waste incinerator of S. Joao da Talha, Portugal. Supported by the evidence gathered from this experiment and by my analysis of the qualitative jump these IT developments represent, I argue that it is possible to use this new IT to capture and represent meaningful planning knowledge and with it enable multiple improvements in the public consultation, both qualitatively and quantitatively. On the other hand, observing the institutional responses and constraints during the process, my findings strongly suggest that the current institutional and regulatory context, inherited from old frameworks, is an impediment to fully set in place the improvements enabled by these IT developments.(cont.) In other words, the decision-making institutional framework has not evolved at a pace fast enough to provide adequate responses to the challenges brought by the new IT. My findings also illustrate how different actors in a decision-making process are constrained by these old frameworks to follow different planning paradigms, further emphasizing the need to adjust to the new technology reality. In this thesis, I present my hypothesis and research questions; the methodology I followed; the scientific traditions and bodies of literature that support this research; the case study and thesis experiment used to collect direct evidence; the analytical reasoning concerning the IT qualitative jump; the suggested research agenda for this domain; and the conclusions derived from this research, suggesting possible avenues to institutionalize some of the demonstrated IT-based improvements in public participation.by Pedro Manuel Barbosa Ferraz de Abreu.Ph.D