Relying on the Information of Others: Debt Rescheduling with Multiple Lenders

Can inertia in terminating unsuccessful loans (creditor passivity) be due to the multiplicity of lenders in loan arrangements? Can a lender reschedule, betting against his odds? Private information in the form of bad but coarse news, that would prompt foreclosure on its own, will instead lead to rescheduling. The gamble is that other lenders may have sharper information. At equilibrium, rescheduling occurs even if all lenders received bad news. This is ine¢ cient (increasing the cost of capital) compared to perfect information sharing. However, barren information sharing, at equilibrium there is no excess reliance on the information of others from a social point of view. The paper also contains an extension dealing with \"�financial scandals\".Debt contracts, asymmetric information, rescheduling, in- solvency, Bayesian games.

Relying on the Information of Others: Debt Rescheduling with Multiple Lenders

Can inertia in terminating unsuccessful loans be due to the multiplicity of lenders in loan arrangements? Can a lender reschedule, betting against his odds? We show that fear of being last in a liquidation run prevents the aggregation of the lenders' information about the value of continuation. Private information in the form of bad but coarse news, that would prompt foreclosure on its own, will instead lead to rescheduling. The gamble is that other lenders may have sharper information. At equilibrium, rescheduling occurs even if all lenders received bad news. This is inefficient (increasing the cost of capital) compared to perfect information sharing. However, from a social point of view, barren information sharing, the equilibrium does not exhibit excessive reliance on the information of others.Debt contracts, asymmetric information, rescheduling, bankruptcy, Bayesian games

Debt Rescheduling with Multiple Lenders: Relying on the Information of Others

Can debt rescheduling decisions differ in multiple lenders’ versus a single lender loan? Do multiple lenders efficiently react to information? We show that the precision of information plays an essential role. Foreclosing by one lender is disruptive so that a lender can rationally wait for the decision of other lenders, rescheduling her loan, if she expects that other lenders receive more precise information. We develop a Bayesian game where signals of different precision are randomly distributed to lenders. Both, premature liquidation and excessive rescheduling are possible in equilibrium, according to the pattern of information. However this is a second-best outcome, given that private information cannot be optimally shared

Design of a complex virtual reality simulation to train finger motion for persons with hemiparesis: a proof of concept study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current neuroscience has identified rehabilitation approaches with the potential to stimulate adaptive changes in the brains of persons with hemiparesis. These approaches include, intensive task-oriented training, bimanual activities and balancing proximal and distal upper extremity interventions to reduce competition between these segments for neural territory.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This paper describes the design and feasibility testing of a robotic/virtual environment system designed to train the hand and arm of persons with hemiparesis. The system employs a simulated piano that presents visual, auditory and tactile feedback comparable to an actual piano. Arm tracking allows patients to train both the arm and hand as a coordinated unit, emphasizing the integration of both transport and manipulation phases. The piano trainer includes songs and scales that can be performed with one or both hands. Adaptable haptic assistance is available for more involved subjects. An algorithm adjusts task difficulty in proportion to subject performance. A proof of concept study was performed on four subjects with upper extremity hemiparesis secondary to chronic stroke to establish: a) the safety and feasibility of this system and b) the concurrent validity of robotically measured kinematic and performance measures to behavioral measures of upper extremity function.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>None of the subjects experienced adverse events or responses during or after training. As a group, the subjects improved in both performance time and key press accuracy. Three of the four subjects demonstrated improvements in fractionation, the ability to move each finger individually. Two subjects improved their aggregate time on the Jebsen Test of Hand Function and three of the four subjects improved in Wolf Motor Function Test aggregate time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The system designed in this paper has proven to be safe and feasible for the training of hand function for persons with hemiparesis. It features a flexible design that allows for the use and further study of adjustments in point of view, bilateral and unimanual treatment modes, adaptive training algorithms and haptically rendered collisions in the context of rehabilitation of the hemiparetic hand.</p

The New Jersey Institute of Technology Robot-Assisted Virtual Rehabilitation (NJIT-RAVR) system for children with cerebral palsy: a feasibility study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We hypothesize that the integration of virtual reality (VR) with robot assisted rehabilitation could be successful if applied to children with hemiparetic CP. The combined benefits of increased attention provided by VR and the larger training stimulus afforded by adaptive robotics may increase the beneficial effects of these two approaches synergistically. This paper will describe the NJIT-RAVR system, which combines adaptive robotics with complex VR simulations for the rehabilitation of upper extremity impairments and function in children with CP and examine the feasibility of this system in the context of a two subject training study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The NJIT-RAVR system consists of the Haptic Master, a 6 degrees of freedom, admittance controlled robot and a suite of rehabilitation simulations that provide adaptive algorithms for the Haptic Master, allowing the user to interact with rich virtual environments. Two children, a ten year old boy and a seven year old girl, both with spastic hemiplegia secondary to Cerebral Palsy were recruited from the outpatient center of a comprehensive pediatric rehabilitation facility. Subjects performed a battery of clinical testing and kinematic measurements of reaching collected by the NJIT-RAVR system. Subjects trained with the NJIT-RAVR System for one hour, 3 days a week for three weeks. The subjects played a combination of four or five simulations depending on their therapeutic goals, tolerances and preferences. Games were modified to increase difficulty in order to challenge the subjects as their performance improved. The testing battery was repeated following the training period.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both participants completed 9 hours of training in 3 weeks. No untoward events occurred and no adverse responses to treatment or complaints of cyber sickness were reported. One participant showed improvements in overall performance on the functional aspects of the testing battery. The second subject made improvements in upper extremity active range of motion and in kinematic measures of reaching movements.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We feel that this study establishes the feasibility of integrating robotics and rich virtual environments to address functional limitations and decreased motor performance in children with mild to moderate cerebral palsy.</p

A Lambda Term Representation Inspired by Linear Ordered Logic

We introduce a new nameless representation of lambda terms inspired by ordered logic. At a lambda abstraction, number and relative position of all occurrences of the bound variable are stored, and application carries the additional information where to cut the variable context into function and argument part. This way, complete information about free variable occurrence is available at each subterm without requiring a traversal, and environments can be kept exact such that they only assign values to variables that actually occur in the associated term. Our approach avoids space leaks in interpreters that build function closures. In this article, we prove correctness of the new representation and present an experimental evaluation of its performance in a proof checker for the Edinburgh Logical Framework. Keywords: representation of binders, explicit substitutions, ordered contexts, space leaks, Logical Framework.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2011, arXiv:1110.668