Building an Artificial Stock Market Populated by Reinforcement-Learning Agents

In this paper we propose an artificial stock market model based on interaction of heterogeneous agents whose forward-looking behaviour is driven by the reinforcement learning algorithm combined with some evolutionary selection mechanism. We use the model for the analysis of market self-regulation abilities, market efficiency and determinants of emergent properties of the financial market. Distinctive and novel features of the model include strong emphasis on the economic content of individual decision making, application of the Q-learning algorithm for driving individual behaviour, and rich market setup.agent-based financial modelling, artificial stock market, complex dynamical system, emergent properties, market efficiency, agent heterogeneity, reinforcement learning

Mokesčių moralė ir viešojo sektoriaus pajamos Baltijos šalyse

This article investigates issues behind households’ tax payment morale, theoretical and practical aspects of the tax payment gap, and its impact on public sector revenue in Baltic countries. The attitude of households on tax payment is assessed quantitatively by employing a dichotomous logit-probit regression analysis. The tax payment gap among Baltic households has been investigated by applying a “macro approach,” the main components of which are the shadow economy and the total tax rate. The effect of any hypothetical changes in tax morale is assessed by applying social accounting matrixes, which are based on national account data and allow to keep the economy balanced at all time. The results presented in this research suggest that taxes uncollected from households constitute nearly one fifth of total general government revenues and count nearly one tenth of the nominal GDP. Measures applied to strengthening tax morale positively contribute to public sector revenue and in general to the economy, though they should be applied gradually.Straipsnyje yra analizuojama aktuali daugeliui valstybių prastos mokesčių mokėtojų moralės ir dėl to atsirandančios mokesčių spragos problematika. Atsižvelgus į tai yra siūloma priemonių mokesčių moralei stiprinti ir pateikiamas netradicinis – nacionalinių sąskaitų pagrindu parengtų socialinės apskaitos matricų – metodas mokesčių moralės pokyčiams ir viešojo sektoriaus pajamoms įvertinti. Gyventojų mokesčių moralei reikšmingiausią įtaką daro tokie veiksniai korupcijos toleravimas, pasitikėjimas valdžia, nacionalinis pasididžiavimas ir religingumas. Apskritai atliktas tyrimas patvirtina ekonominės elgsenos svarbą vertinant mokesčių surinkimą. Kaip pavyzdys yra pasitelktos Baltijos šalys, kuriose mokesčių spragos problema yra itin aktuali

Formative Threads in the Tapestry of College Credit in High School: An Early History of the Development of Concurrent Enrollment and a Case Study of the Country’s Oldest Program

While dual and concurrent enrollment (DE/CE) programs are a frequent part of a student’s secondary educational experience today, relatively little is known about how these programs came to be, what factors influenced their development, and what individual and institutional stakeholders were involved. This paper traces how DE/CE programs were created as one of many educational remedies to issues of articulation and duplication between high schools and colleges and the need for acceleration and enrichment for some students during the early and middle twentieth century. At that time, more students than ever were moving through the educational system, education attainment was increasing, and sociopolitical concerns required new ideas for the acceleration and enrichment of students. Additionally, this article also provides a historical review of the longest running CE program in the United States, the University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience Program. The historical review seeks to reflect and exemplify how the broader sociopolitical influences discussed in the first section of the paper influenced the creation of the first CE program in the country. Through understanding how one program came to be, the current landscape of DE/CE–as well as the evolution and future directions–can be better understood and contextualized

Return, reliability and risk as a proactive set of concepts in developing an efficient integration strategy of companies

For companies that cannot boast about the abundance of resources available for development, it is particularly important to focus their efforts on the optimum use of such resources and to ensure the reliability of change in the development process to counterbalance the potential losses caused by uncertainty and risk. The article explores the theoretical substantiation for the integral management system of processes covered by the concepts of efficiency, reliability and risk of development. Also, it looks at the practical application of the system through the examination of a specific situation by employing analytical possibilities of a stochastic network. It should also be noted that the concepts of efficiency, reliability and risk are used not only in the assessment of the key development processes of a company but also in the deliberation of the real formation of input as well as its transformation into output results. To formulate and solve the management problems of the complex system, a number of methods were used, namely, the stochastic recording of the aims, the existing restrictions and the stochastic optimisation

On a boundary value problem to third order PDE with multiple characteristics

In the paper the second boundary value problem in a rectangular domain to equation uxxx − uyy = f(x, y) with the multiple characteristics is considered. The considered equation is closely related with nonlinear equation uxxx + uyy −(ν/y)uy = uxuxx, which describes transonic flow of a gas around a revolution bodies. Using the fundamental solutions of corresponding homogeneous equation the Green function of analyzed problem is composed and thereby this problem is solved

Sünde im Alten Ägypten: eine begriffssemasiologische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung

Das Ziel der Arbeit ist, den Sündenbegriff im Alten Ägypten von einer religionswissenschaftlichen Fragestellung ausgehend zu definieren und ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung aufzuzeigen. Der größte Schwerpunkt liegt allerdings auf der philologisch-semantischen Ebene. Die ägyptischen Lexeme, die diesen Begriff in bestimmten Kontexten ausdrücken können, werden semasiologisch untersucht. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei Seiten des ägyptischen Sündenbegriffes besprochen und auf zwei Grundfragen eine Antwort gesucht. Die erste Grundfrage ist eine systematisch-religionswissenschaftliche: Was wird in der ägyptischen Religion unter Sünde verstanden? Die zweite ist eine semantisch-semasiologische: Welche Wörter der ägyptischen Sprache können in welchen Kontexten die Bedeutung „Sünde“ annehmen? Basierend auf den Ergebnissen dieser semantisch-semasiologischen Untersuchung wird ein religionsgeschichtlicher Überblick der Entwicklung des Sündenbegriffes geboten

Nonlinear microscopy for failure analysis of CMOS integrated circuits in the vectorial focusing regime

This thesis focuses on the development of techniques for enhancing the spatial resolution and localisation precision in the sub-surface microscopy for failure analysis in semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs). Highest spatial resolutions are obtained by implementing solid immersion lenses (SIL), which provide unsurpassed numerical aperture (NA) for sub-surface microscopy. These high NA conditions mean that scalar diffraction theory is no longer valid and a vectorial focusing description should be applied to accurately describe the focal plane electric field distribution. Vectorial theory predicts that under high NA conditions a linearly polarised (LP) light focuses to a spot that is extended along the electric field vector, but radially polarised (RP) light is predicted to form a circular spot whose diameter equals the narrower dimension obtained with linear polarisation. By implementing a novel liquid-crystal (LC) radial polarisation converter (RPC) this effect was studied for both two-photon optical-beam-induced current (TOBIC) microscopy and two-photon laser assisted device alteration (2pLADA) techniques, showing a resolution and localisation improvement using the RP beam. By comparing images of the same structural features obtained using linear, circular and radial polarisations imaging and localisation resolutions both approaching 100 nm were demonstrated. The obtained experimental results were in good agreement with modelling and were consistent with theoretically predicted behaviour. Certain artefacts were observed under radial polarisation, which were thought to result from the extended depth of focus and the significant longitudinal field component. In any application these effects must be considered alongside the benefits of the symmetric field distribution in the focal plane. While SIL sub-surface microscopy offers unmatched spatial resolutions, it is prone to being severely degraded by aberrations arising from inaccurate dimensions of the SIL, imprecise substrate thickness or imperfect contact between SIL and substrate. It is in this context that techniques to identify and even mitigate aberrations in the system are important. A simple approach is demonstrated for revealing the presence of chromatic and spherical aberrations by measuring the two-photon autocorrelation of the pulses at the focal plane inside the sample. In the case of aberration free imaging, it was shown both theoretically and experimentally that the planes of the maximum autocorrelation amplitude and shortest pulse duration always coincide. Therefore, the optics of the imaging system can be first adjusted to obtain the minimum autocorrelation duration and then the wavefront of incident light modified to maximise the autocorrelation intensity, iterating this procedure until the positions of minimum pulse duration and maximum autocorrelation amplitude coincide