Why Proximity Matters for the Concept of Supererogation

The concept of supererogation is strictly correlated with duty, since its peculiar value is defined by acts that go beyond our regular obligations. This paper highlights the importance of proximity (relational closeness) in allowing the proper theoretical space to supererogation. As a matter of fact if we broaden our sense of duty, the possibility to perform supererogatory acts correspondingly decreases. Special obligations emphasize how difficult acts of supererogation are to perform if we stand in some morally-relevant special position with the recipient of our acts. Thus, we can conclude that the relationship between the agent and the recipient of the act (proximity) plays an important role both for our sense of duty (generating special obligations) and for the possibility of performing supererogatory acts. Furthermore, this analysis brings attention to the fact that whenever an act is supererogatory, it cannot, at the same time, be a special obligation (and vice versa). As a consequence, if proximity plays such a role, an objection to the possibility of self-regarding supererogation can be made

Supererogation and the Limits of Moral Obligations. Guest Editor’s Preface

Do moral obligations include all the good that can be possibly achieved? Does every instance of the good always entail obligatory performance? Supererogation is a moral concept that tries to address this claim, by pointing out the existence of a category of morally relevant good acts that go beyond the call of duty. Paradigmatic examples of this category of acts are represented by deeds of heroism and sanctity, where the agent is sacrificing herself in order to benefit the others in an exemplary way. However, supererogation is not limited to extreme and utmost cases of generosity, but it has much to do with our everyday life. From a moral point of view, making a small donation to the local children‘s hospital is considered to be morally good, but optional

Comparing density forecasts of aggregated time series via bootstrap

When forecasting aggregated time series, several options are available. For example, the multivariate series or the individual time series might be predicted and then aggregated, or one may choose to forecast the aggregated series directly. While in theory an optimal disaggregated forecast will generally be superior (or at least not inferior) to forecasts based on aggregated information, this is not necessarily true in practical situations. The main reason is that the true data generating process is usually unknown and models need to be specified and estimated on the basis of the available information. This paper describes a bootstrap-based procedure, in the context of vector autoregressive models, for ranking the different forecasting approaches for contemporaneous time series aggregates. Uncertainty due to parameter estimation will be considered and the ranking will be based not only on the mean squared forecast error, but more in general on the performance of the forecast distribution. The forecasting procedures are applied to the United States aggregate inflation

Synthesis and characterization of titanium carbon nitride films by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

The aim of this study is to investigate the potentiality of an HiPIMS reactive process with two gases, evaluating the process control and the properties of the deposited coatings compared to DCMagnetron Sputtering. TiCN(H) nano-composite films have been deposited in a CFUBMS apparatus and HiPIMS generator. Coatings have been characterized from compositional, microstructural as well as mechanical and tribological point of viewope

Only Through Complexity. Morality and the Case of Supererogation

This volume deals with some of the major issues in contemporary moral philosophy. The core metaethical argument illuminates the structure of a moral system and emphasizes the importance of a phenomenological attitude toward the moral subject. From this starting point, further questions (typically addressed in normative ethics) arise: “How does moral deliberation work?” “How is moral justification possible?” “What is moral pluralism?” “How do we give an account of supererogatory acts?” Regarding all these questions, the volume works out the following answer: only through complexity. This view entails the belief that a life lived well is richer if we endorse a moral system that denies theoretical oversimplifications and favors the abundance of the constraints of moral obligations. As such, the overall goal of this volume involves mapping and recognizing different instances of moral complexity. This acknowledgment comes with several assumptions. Only through complexity can we make sense of what lies beyond the call of duty. Only through complexity can we give an account of how morality works from the first-person perspective. Only through complexity can we better promote the pursuit of a flourishing life

Spin-cobordism and fermionic d=2 anomalies

The aim of this work is to improve our description of global anomalies and the tools we have at our disposal for their computation. In particular, we focus on general fermionic quantum field theories with a global finite group symmetry G^f in 2-dimensions, with a special regard for the torus spacetime. The modular transformation properties of the family of partition functions with different backgrounds is determined by the ’t Hooft anomaly of G^f. For a general G^f, possibly non-abelian or twisted, we provide a method to determine the modular transformations directly from the bulk 3d invertible topological quantum field theory (iTQFT) corresponding to the anomaly by inflow. We also describe a method of evaluating the character map from the real representation ring of G^f to the group which classifies anomalies. Physically the value of the map is given by the anomaly of free fermions in a given representation. We assume classification of the anomalies/iTQFTs by spin-cobordisms. As a byproduct, we provide explicit combinatorial expressions for corresponding spin-bordism invariants of abelian symmetry groups G^f in terms of surgery representation of arbitrary closed spin 3-manifolds. As an application, we compute the constraints that ’t Hooft anomaly puts on the spectrum of infrared conformal field theories for various symmetry groups. In particular, we provide a first of such analysis for discrete non-abelians G^f or with a non-trivial twist of the Z_2^f subgroup

Bourdeilles – La Pièce du Roc

Lien Atlas (MCC) :http://atlas.patrimoines.culture.fr/atlas/trunk/index.php?ap_theme=DOM_2.01.02&ap_bbox=0.536;45.285;0.613;45.363 Cette opération de diagnostic a été réalisée en préalable à une demande de permis de construire déposée par Mme Sandrine Joubert, sur un terrain d’une superficie totale de 4375 m2. L’emprise couvre un rebord de plateau qui surplombe la vallée de la Dronne, à l’aplomb des falaises qui abritent le site du Pont d’Ambon, gisement paléolithique majeur fouillé par G. Ce..

A new time-varying model for forecasting long-memory series

In this work we propose a new class of long-memory models with time-varying fractional parameter. In particular, the dynamics of the long-memory coefficient, $d$, is specified through a stochastic recurrence equation driven by the score of the predictive likelihood, as suggested by Creal et al. (2013) and Harvey (2013). We demonstrate the validity of the proposed model by a Monte Carlo experiment and an application to two real time series

Value-at-Risk prediction by higher moment dynamics.

In this paper the prediction of Value-at-Risk by means of models accounting for higher moment dynamics is studied. We consider the GARCHDSK model, which allows for dynamic skewness and kurtosis, and compare its performance with that of several widely adopted models. The analysis is based on the study of sequences of (long and short) VaR violations, for which the hypotheses of absence of autocorrelation and of correct coverage rates are assessed. Both in-sample and out-of-sample results are investigated