Investment Risk Profiling Utilizing Business Resource Slack

Financial investor classes are commonly depicted via a tripartite model that distinguishes among risk averse, risk neutral and risk seeking behaviors. This paper contributes to the literature by capturing the essence of risk tolerance in the context of a profit-maximizing firm’s investment decision vis-à-vis the business’ resource slack. The paradigm introduced in this paper contextualizes risk profiling in a rigorous manner which should augment treatments relayed in standard principles of finance textbooks. This paper illustrates that it is the existence or absence of resource slack that influences, if not dictates, a business’ risk disposition

Self-Assessment Of Households Economic Welfare As A Manifestation Of Adjustment To Transition And European Integration Processes In The Case Of Estonia

This paper analyzes Estonian households' perception of welfare, including the determinants and dynamics of said perception under transition. Data from the Estonian Household Income and Expenditures Survey 2000 and 2001 are used to construct samples. Ordered probit and linear regression models are employed to investigate the determinants of the self-assessed economic situations and income levels as determined to be necessary by households for conducting normal life. The income level perceived by households as necessary to conduct normal life is found to vary substantially depending on a given households actual income and other extant household characteristics. This indicates that factors other than income per capita alone are relevant for understanding households welfare and their perception of normal life, and, hence, should be among the targets of social policy and factored into the development strategies of Estonias social protection system

Characterisation of the L-mode Scrape Off Layer in MAST: decay lengths

This work presents a detailed characterisation of the MAST Scrape Off Layer in L-mode. Scans in line averaged density, plasma current and toroidal magnetic field were performed. A comprehensive and integrated study of the SOL was allowed by the use of a wide range of diagnostics. In agreement with previous results, an increase of the line averaged density induced a broadening of the midplane density profile.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure

Cross-Cultural Consumer Attitudes: A Case Of The Second-Hand Clothing Market In Armenia

Under the auspices of the Center for Business Research and Development (CBRD) at the American University of Armenia, and with contributions from assistants: Lusine Poghosyan; Armen Ginosyan; Christina Dombayan; and David Janibekyan, the authors of this article consider the issue of consumer attitudes in Armenia with respect to second-hand clothing. Results of an informal public poll in Yerevan, the country’s capital, and a rendering of an historical perspective on Armenia’s economy provide a backdrop for discourse on what appears to be a slight shift of consumer attitude away from a relatively negative bias against the purchase of second-hand clothing when compared to that evidenced broadly in the United States

A risk profile for information fusion algorithms

E.T. Jaynes, originator of the maximum entropy interpretation of statistical mechanics, emphasized that there is an inevitable trade-off between the conflicting requirements of robustness and accuracy for any inferencing algorithm. This is because robustness requires discarding of information in order to reduce the sensitivity to outliers. The principal of nonlinear statistical coupling, which is an interpretation of the Tsallis entropy generalization, can be used to quantify this trade-off. The coupled-surprisal, -ln_k (p)=-(p^k-1)/k, is a generalization of Shannon surprisal or the logarithmic scoring rule, given a forecast p of a true event by an inferencing algorithm. The coupling parameter k=1-q, where q is the Tsallis entropy index, is the degree of nonlinear coupling between statistical states. Positive (negative) values of nonlinear coupling decrease (increase) the surprisal information metric and thereby biases the risk in favor of decisive (robust) algorithms relative to the Shannon surprisal (k=0). We show that translating the average coupled-surprisal to an effective probability is equivalent to using the generalized mean of the true event probabilities as a scoring rule. The metric is used to assess the robustness, accuracy, and decisiveness of a fusion algorithm. We use a two-parameter fusion algorithm to combine input probabilities from N sources. The generalized mean parameter 'alpha' varies the degree of smoothing and raising to a power N^beta with beta between 0 and 1 provides a model of correlation.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Viticulture, Wine Production, And Agriculture In Armenia: Economic Sectors In Transition

This paper focuses on perhaps the oldest branches of economic activity of Armenia viticulture and wine production. Accounts of vines and wines in Armenia are part of a larger story of the country’s agriculture industry. This paper pulls together the historic landscape and present state of affairs of the industries, revealing the significant roles agriculture, viticulture and winemaking have played in shaping Armenia and that they continue to play in sustaining the country’s standard of living. From ancient roots, through a transitional era of privatization and into modern times, the story of agriculture as a whole, grape-growing specifically, and wine production in Ar- menia is one of survival much like that which characterizes the lives of the Armenian people themselves across scores of centuries

Identification of polyubiquitin binding proteins involved in NF-kappaB signaling using protein arrays.

Attachment of ubiquitin to proteins represents a central mechanism for the regulation of protein metabolism and function. In the NF-kappaB pathway, binding of NEMO to polyubiquitinated substrates initiates the pathway in response to cellular stimuli. Other polyubiquitin binding proteins can antagonize this pathway by competing with NEMO for polyubiquitin. We have used protein arrays to identify polyubiquitin binding proteins that regulate NF-kappaB activity. Using polyubiquitin as bait, protein arrays were screened and polyubiquitin binders identified. Novel polyubiquitin binders AWP1, CALCOCO2, N4BP1, RIO3, TEX27, TTC3, UBFD1 and ZNF313 were identified using this approach, while known NF-kappaB regulators including NEMO, A20, ABIN-1, ABIN-2, optineurin and p62 were also identified. Overexpressed AWP1 and RIO3 repressed NF-kappaB activity in a manner similar to optineurin, while siRNAs directed against AWP1 and RIO3 also reduced NF-kappaB activity. TNFalpha-dependent degradation of IkappaBalpha was also suppressed by overexpression of AWP1 and RIO3, possibly due to the polyubiquitin binding activity of these proteins. Protein array screening using polyubiquitin enabled rapid identification of many known and novel polyubiquitin binding proteins and the identification of novel NF-kappaB regulators