A non-cooperative foundation for the continuous Raiffa solution

This paper provides a non-cooperative foundation for (asymmetric generalizations of) the continuous Raiffa solution. Specifically, we consider a continuous-time variation of the classic Ståhl–Rubinstein bargaining model, in which there is a finite deadline that ends the negotiations, and in which each player’s opportunity to make proposals is governed by a player-specific Poisson process, in that the rejecter of a proposal becomes proposer at the first next arrival of her process. Under the assumption that future payoffs are not discounted, it is shown that the expected payoffs players realize in subgame perfect equilibrium converge to the continuous Raiffa solution outcome as the deadline tends to infinity. The weights reflecting the asymmetries among the players correspond to the Poisson arrival rates of their respective proposal processes

The Effects of Using Living Sea Animals on the Student’s Emotional States

Using living animals in school lessons makes it possible for students to have an emotionally charged learning experience. With the example of Thornback rays (Raja clavata), the emotional affects of sea animals on students are investigated. Theoretical aspects can be found in the explanation of activity-oriented teaching, which is organised holistically and student-active. The preparation for and confrontation with the thornback ray was successfully adjusted to the individual needs of the students. The students collectively worked on research issues and the ray was presented as a research object. Besides the emotional adventures of touching a living ray, the students took notes of the most important growth characteristics of the ray. Hence the students encounter the ray as a living animal on different levels. To check the hypotheses of how a living animal influences the students’ emotional state, the PANAS questionnaire is applied. PANAS serves as a snap-shot of the students’ emotional state. Whilst there are no differences found concerning the negative affects, the positive affects show a significant difference between a lesson with and a lesson without a real object. If the lesson comprises a real object, the item attentive is chosen significantly more often than in a lesson without real objects. Additionally, the data was analysed with a t-test, whereat the students in the framework of an activity-oriented lesson show significantly more positive affects compared to a lesson without real objects. The study gives a comprehensive insight into the different emotions of students when confronting them with a real object

The Effects of Using Living Sea Animals on the Student’s Emotional States

Wegner C, Tonnesmann N. The Effects of Using Living Sea Animals on the Student’s Emotional States. Frontiers in Education Technology. 2018;1(2):119-136

Student teachers’ perception of dilemmatic demands and the relation to epistemological beliefs

Teaching is characterized by contradictory demands, resulting in teaching dilemmas. For example, to promote the continuous learning of students, teachers need to set up rules and control them, which in turn can undermine students’ intrinsic motivation. Teachers have to become aware of these contradictions and need to understand that not all aspects of good teaching can be maximized at the same time. An adequate representation of the dilemmatic nature of problems of teaching is therefore crucial for judging different teaching situations. Also, an adequate epistemological understanding is needed. We assessed student teachers’ (N = 122) perceptions of demands in teaching in general and in regards to specific situations, as well as their epistemological beliefs. Perception of demands in general influenced the judgment of specific situations, but there was also a situation-specific component. Epistemological beliefs were related to the perceptions of demands in general, especially in situations in which the dilemmatic content was highly visible. Together, findings suggest that epistemological beliefs shape the perception of demands in teaching in general, and that the perception of demand in general again influences perception in specific situations

Essays in microeconomic theory

My thesis considers various aspects of microeconomic theory and focuses on the different types of uncertainty that players can encounter. Each chapter studies a setting with a different type of uncertainty and draws conclusions about how players are likely to behave in such a situation. The first chapter focuses on games of incomplete information and is joint work with Peter Eccles. We provide conditions to allow modelling situations of asymmetric information in a tractable manner. In addition we show a novel relationship between certain games of asymmetric information and corresponding games of symmetric information. This framework establishes links between certain games separately studied in the literature. The class of games considered is defined by scalable preference relations and a scalable information structure. We show that this framework can be used to solve asymmetric contests and auctions with loss aversion. In the second chapter I move to situations in which information is almost complete. In joint work with Peter Eccles, we consider the robustness of subgame perfect implementation in situations when the preferences of players are almost perfectly known. More precisely we consider a class of information perturbations where in each state of the world players know their own preferences with certainty and receive almost perfectly informative signals about the preferences of other players. We show that implementations using two-stage sequential move mechanisms are always robust under this class of restricted perturbations, while those using more stages are often not. The third chapter deals with a case of complete information and is joint work with Peter Eccles. We introduce the family of weighted Raiffa solutions. An individual solution is characterised by two parameters representing the bargaining weight of each player and the speed at which agreement is reached. First we provide a cooperative foundation for this family of solutions, by appealing to two of the original axioms used by Nash and a simple monotonicity axiom. Using similar axioms we give a new axiomatization for a family of weighted Kalai-Smorodinsky solutions. Secondly we provide a non-cooperative foundation for weighted Raiffa solutions, showing how they can be implemented using simple bargaining models where offers are intermittent or the identity of the proposer is persistent. This shows that weighted Raiffa solutions have cooperative foundations closely related to those of the Kalai-Smorodinksy solution, and non-cooperative foundations closely related to those of the Nash solution. The fourth chapter is closely related to the third chapter and is joint work with Bram Driesen and Peter Eccles. It provides a non-cooperative foundation for asymmetric generalizations of the continuous Raiffa solution. Specifically, we consider a continuous-time variation of the classic Stahl-Rubinstein bargaining model, in which each player's opportunity to make proposals is produced by an independent Poisson process, and a definite deadline ends the negotiations. Under the assumption that future payoffs are not discounted, it is shown that the payoffs realized in the unique subgame perfect equilibrium of this game approach the continuous Raiffa solution as the time horizon tends to infinity. The weights reflecting the asymmetries among the players, correspond with the Poisson arrival rates of their respective proposal processesScalable games: modelling games of incomplete information / Nora Wegner and Peter Eccles. -- Robustness of Subgame Perfect Implementation / Nora Wegner and Peter Eccles. -- Generalised weighted Raiffa Solutions / Nora Wegner and Peter Eccles. -- A non-cooperative foundation for the continuous Raiffa solution / Nora Wegner, Bram Driesen and Peter EcclesPrograma Oficial de Doctorado en EconomíaPresidente: Christopher Wallace; Secretario: Miltiadis Makris; Vocal: Ludovic Reno

Adult Turner syndrome associated with chylous ascites and vascular anomalies

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66334/1/j.1399-0004.1987.tb02799.x.pd

BALL - biochemical algorithms library 1.3

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Biochemical Algorithms Library (BALL) is a comprehensive rapid application development framework for structural bioinformatics. It provides an extensive C++ class library of data structures and algorithms for molecular modeling and structural bioinformatics. Using BALL as a programming toolbox does not only allow to greatly reduce application development times but also helps in ensuring stability and correctness by avoiding the error-prone reimplementation of complex algorithms and replacing them with calls into the library that has been well-tested by a large number of developers. In the ten years since its original publication, BALL has seen a substantial increase in functionality and numerous other improvements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we discuss BALL's current functionality and highlight the key additions and improvements: support for additional file formats, molecular edit-functionality, new molecular mechanics force fields, novel energy minimization techniques, docking algorithms, and support for cheminformatics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>BALL is available for all major operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and MacOS X. It is available free of charge under the Lesser GNU Public License (LPGL). Parts of the code are distributed under the GNU Public License (GPL). BALL is available as source code and binary packages from the project web site at <url>http://www.ball-project.org</url>. Recently, it has been accepted into the debian project; integration into further distributions is currently pursued.</p

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion