Portfolio management and market risk quantification using neural networks

We discuss how neural networks may be used to estimate conditional means, variances and quantiles of nancial time series nonparametrically. These estimates may be used to forecast, to derive trading rules and to measure market risk

Muss der Bildungsauftrag des Kindergartens "eigenständig" sein?

Die institutionellen Bezugspunkte, gegen die sich in der Vergangenheit wie heute die Forderung nach Eigenständigkeit des Bildungsauftrages des Kindergartens richtet, sind die Familie und die Schule. Gegenüber der Familie besagt sie, dass der Kindergarten nicht nur einen sozialpädagogischen Betreuungsauftrag habe, sondern auch einen pädagogischen Bildungsauftrag neben der Familie; gegenüber der Schule besagt sie, dass der Bildungsauftrag nicht oder nicht in erster Linie als vorschulischer, d.h. auf die Schule bezogener Bildungsauftrag zu definieren sei. Gegenüber der Familie hat sich die Eigenständigkeitsforderung durchgesetzt. Gegenüber der Schule lassen sich in der gegenwärtigen Diskussion zwei Positionen unterscheiden: die traditionalistische will die strikte Abgrenzung des Kindergartens zur Schule aufrechterhalten; daneben hat sich eine Reformposition herausgebildet, welche die beiden Bereiche in ein Verhältnis der Kontinuität setzen will. In dem Artikel wird dafür plädiert, den Ausdruck vom "eigenständigen Bildungsauftrag des Kindergartens" aus der Diskussion zu nehmen, weil er unklar ist, zu Verwirrung führt und die Kommunikation mit der Grundschulpädagogik belastet. (DIPF/Orig.)The institutional points of reference against which the demand for independence of the educational mission of kindergarten was directed in the past are the family and the school. With regard to the family, it is said that kindergarten does not only have a socio-pedagogical mission of care, but also a pedagogical mission of education besides the family. As regards the school, it is stated that the educational mission is not - at least not primarily - to be defined as a preschool, i.e. school-related, mission. With regard to the family, the demand for independence has been asserted successfully. As regards the school, two positions may be distinguished in the recent discussion: the traditionalist position which wants to maintain the strict delimitation between kindergarten and school; in addition, a reform position has emerged which aims at creating a relationship of continuity between the two sectors. The author pleads for eliminating the concept of the "independent educational mission of kindergarten" from the debate, because it is unclear, leads to confusion, and strains communication with elementary school pedagogics. (DIPF/Orig.

Vorschulreform und der wissenschaftliche Status der "Pädagogik der frühen Kindheit" als Teildisziplin der Erziehungswissenschaft

Mit der ersten Vorschulreform in den 1970er Jahren entstanden nach semiakademischen Vorläufern die ersten Konturen einer Pädagogik der frühen Kindheit als Teildisziplin der Erziehungswissenschaft. Mit dem Ende der Reform stagnierte sie auf niedrigem Ausbaustand im disziplinären Gefüge der Sozialpädagogik. Mit der gegenwärtigen Vorschulreform stellt sich die Frage, ob die Pädagogik der frühen Kindheit von ihr profitieren und sich in Richtung einer teildisziplinären Eigenständigkeit weiterentwickeln und konsolidieren kann. (DIPF/Orig.)With the first reform of preschool education during the 1970s and following several semi-academic precursors, the first contours of a pedagogy of early childhood emerged as a sub-discipline of educational science. With the end of the reform movement, this theoretical construct stagnated on a rather low level of elaboration within the disciplinary structure of sociopedagogics. With the present reform of preschool education, the question arises whether the pedagogy of early childhood could profit from this reform movement and whether it could thus continue to develop into a consolidated independent sub-discipline. (DIPF/Orig.

Natural environment and land use in the Chad Basin, NE-Nigeria : preliminary results of an interdisciplinary research

The objective of this paper is to combine the environmental conception of the Kanuri with detailed findings of pedological and botanical field investigations. Interpretation of multitemporal satellite data and aerial photographs should provide land cover and land use information for an extended area. The area of investigation was outlined within the transitional zone from the clay plains to the sandy areas by interpretation of satellite images. The presented subset of a SPOT-XS-satellite image shows part of the Marte Local Government Area with its capital Old Marte in the north-eastern part of the image. The darker colours represent the clay plains while the lighter parts are related to the sandy areas. Almost half of the research area is covered by clay but all settlements are located on the slightly elevated sandy areas. Within these sandy areas different gray shades demonstrate the pattern of the rainy season farming area. Differences in colour within the clay plains are mainly due to variances in soil, water content and vegetation cover. In the north-eastern part of the image irrigation channels of the South Chad Irrigation Project are visible. The main attention, especially of the pedological and botanical research, was directed towards the south-western part of the subset in the vicinity of the villages of Wulwa, Dura, Kajere and Ngubdori

The autoregression bootstrap for kernel estimates of smooth nonlinear functional time series

Functional times series have become an integral part of both functional data and time series analysis. This paper deals with the functional autoregressive model of order 1 and the autoregression bootstrap for smooth functions. The regression operator is estimated in the framework developed by Ferraty and Vieu [2004] and Ferraty et al. [2007] which is here extended to the double functional case under an assumption of stationary ergodic data which dates back to Laib and Louani [2010]. The main result of this article is the characterization of the asymptotic consistency of the bootstrapped regression operator

Thermodynamic Evaluation of the system Ta–O and Preliminary Assessment of the Systems Al–Nb–O and Al–Ta–O

The binary tantalum–oxygen system is assessed using the CALculation of PHase Diagrams (CALPHAD) method with experimental data from the literature. The oxygen solubility in the Ta solid-solution phase is discussed and modeled. The low- and high-temperature modifications of Ta₂O₅ are described as stoichiometric compounds. This dataset is extended into the ternary Al–Ta–O system by complementing it with binary datasets for Al–O and Al–Ta from the literature and adding mixed-oxide AlTaO₄. The dataset for the ternary system Al–Nb–O is created by combining the three corresponding binary datasets from the literature and by assessing the quasibinary section Al₂O₃–Nb₂O₅. The ternary aluminum niobates are described as stoichiometric compounds. Phase equilibria between refractory metals and alumina at high temperature are discussed

MEMBRANE-TO-MEMBRANE CROSS-BRIDGES : A Means to Orientation and Interaction of Membrane Faces

No abstract availabl

Bootstrap of Kernel Smoothing in Quantile Autoregression Process

Abstract The paper considers the problem of bootstrapping kernel estimator of conditional quantiles for time series, under independent and identically distributed errors, by mimicking the kernel smoothing in nonparametric autoregressive scheme. A quantile autoregression bootstrap generating process is constructed and the estimator given. Under appropriate assumptions, the bootstrap estimator is shown to be consistent