Trading Goods versus Sharing Money - An Experiment Testing Wether Fairness and Efficiency are Frame Dependent

Systematic experiments with distribution games (for a survey, see Roth, 1995) have shown that participants are strongly motivated by fairness and efficiency considerations. This evidence, however, results mainly from experimental designs asking directly for sharing monetary rewards. But even when not just one kind of monetary tokens is distributed efficiency and fairness are less influential. We investigate and confirm this frame dependency more systematically by comparing net-trade-proposals and payoff-proposals for the same exchange economy with two traders, two commodities and multi-period-negotiations.

Effects of a 10 week yoga intervention on balance, mobility, spasticity and quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that results in many symptoms including balance deficits, mobility limitations, spasticity and reduced quality of life (Joy & Johnston, 2001). However, little research exists on improving balance, mobility and spasticity through physical activity interventions in people with MS. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of a yoga intervention on postural control, spasticity, mobility, and quality of life in people with MS. A sample o f 12 people aged 30 to 76 (mean age o f 52 yrs.) with varying types of MS participated in a twice weekly 70 minute yoga intervention for 10 weeks. Participants completed a spasticity questionnaire, the Adapted Timed Get Up and Go (ATGUG), the Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI), a postural control assessment, and the Multiple Sclerosis Quality o f Life Inventory (MS-QLI) at 3 assessments; pre, post, and 12 weeks after the intervention. After the 10-week program a social validation questionnaire was also completed. One way repeated measures ANOVAs or Friedman ANOVAs by ranks indicated significant changes on the fatigue and vision scales of the MS-QLI MFIS and IVIS between pre and post assessments. Changes in ATGUG and RMI suggest that yoga may be a valuable alternative to traditional exercise programs for people with MS. Many of the changes began to return to pre intervention values over the second 12-week period. Future studies should employ a control group, larger sample sizes, and screen more carefully for initial functional status stratifications

Representations of J-central J-Potapov functions in both nondegenerate and degenerate cases

AbstractLet J be an m×m signature matrix (i.e. J∗=J and J2=Im) and let D:={z∈C:|z|<1}. Denote PJ(D) the class of all J-Potapov functions in D, i.e. the set of all meromorphic m×m matrix-valued functions f in D with J-contractive values at all points of D at which f is holomorphic. Further, denote PJ,0(D) the subclass of all f∈PJ(D) which are holomorphic at the origin. Let f∈PJ,0(D), and let f(w)=∑j=0∞Ajwj be the Taylor series representation of f in some neighborhood of 0. Then it was proved in [B. Fritzsche, B. Kirstein, U. Raabe, On the structure of J-Potapov sequences, Linear Algebra Appl., in press] that for each n∈N the matrix An can be described by its position in a matrix ball depending on the sequence (Aj)j=0n-1. The J-Potapov function f is called J-central if there exists some k∈N such that for each integer j⩾k the matrix Aj coincides with the center of the corresponding matrix ball.In this paper, we derive left and right quotient representations of matrix polynomials for J-central J-Potapov functions in D. Moreover, we obtain recurrent formulas for the matrix polynomials involved in these quotient representations

Investigating the persistence of tick-borne pathogens via the R0 model

In the epidemiology of infectious diseases, the basic reproduction number,R0, has a number of important applications, most notably it can be used to predict whether a pathogen is likely to become established, or persist, in a given area. We used the R0 model to investigate the persistence of 3 tick-borne pathogens; Babesia microti, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in an Apodemus sylvaticus-Ixodes ricinus system. The persistence of these pathogens was also determined empirically by screening questing ticks and wood mice by PCR. All 3 pathogens behaved differently in response to changes in the proportion of transmission hosts on which I. ricinus fed, the efficiency of transmission between the host and ticks and the abundance of larval and nymphal ticks found on small mammals. Empirical data supported theoretical predictions of the R0 model. The transmission pathway employed and the duration of systemic infection were also identified as important factors responsible for establishment or persistence of tick-borne pathogens in a given tick-host system. The current study demonstrates how the R0 model can be put to practical use to investigate factors affecting tick-borne pathogen persistence, which has important implications for animal and human health worldwide

Characteristic Function, Schur Parameters and Pseudocontinuation of Schur functions

In [19] there is an approach to the investigation of the pseudocontinuability of Schur functions in terms of Schur parameters. In particular, there was obtained a criterion for the pseudocontinuability of Schur functions and the Schur parameters of rational Schur functions were described. This approach is based on the description in terms of the Schur parameters of the relative position of the largest shift and the largest coshift in a completely nonunitary contraction. It should be mentioned that these results received a further development in [8, 21-24]. This paper is aimed to give a survey about essential results on this direction. The main object in the approach is based on considering a Schur function as characteristic function of a contraction (see Section 1.2). This enables us outgoing from Schur parameters to construct a model of the corresponding contraction (see Section 2). In this model, the relative position of the largest shift and the largest coshift in a completely nonunitary contraction is described in Section 3 and then, based on this model, to find characteristics which are responsible for the pseudocontinuability of Schur functions (see Sections 4 and 5). The further parts of this paper (see Sections 6-8) admit applications of the above results to the study of properties of Schur functions and questions related with them.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1003.167

Characteristic Function, Schur Interpolation Problem and Darlington Synthesis

In this paper we would like to show the interrelation between the different mathematical theories concerning the Schur interpolation problem, contractions in Hilbert spaces, pseudocontinuation and Darlington synthesis. The main objects of this article are contractive functions holomorphic in the unit disc (Schur functions). Here they are considered, on the one hand, as characteristic functions of contractions in Hilbert spaces and, on the other hand, as transfer functions of open systems