Entrepreneurial decision-making under risk : prospect theory and dual-process theory.

This research addresses the question of why some people become entrepreneurs whereas others do not. The debate has been going on for decades in entrepreneurship. In this dissertation, I address this question by decomposing it into two related questions. The first question is whether entrepreneurs make different decisions compared to non-entrepreneurs when they are facing the same opportunities under risk. The second question is whether these differences in decision-making (if any) are due to the natural proclivity of entrepreneurs themselves. To identify the differences of entrepreneurial decision-making between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, this study investigates the nexus between entrepreneurs and opportunities from both aspects simultaneously. From an entrepreneur’s aspect, based on dual-process theory, I examine how different styles of entrepreneurial thinking influence their decision-making. Considering an opportunity itself, based on prospect theory, I test how different types of opportunity framing influence entrepreneurial decision-making. The results indicate that entrepreneurs have lower evaluations than non-entrepreneurs do when they are facing the same opportunities under risk. The opportunities in a loss frame have higher evaluations than those in a gain frame. The evaluations are higher in System 2 thinking than in System 1 thinking. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs do make different decisions than non-entrepreneurs and that these differences are more likely due to the natural proclivities of at least some entrepreneurs. These findings provide new insights for the entrepreneurial decision-making literature and enlighten some promising future research

Restoration of Atmospheric Turbulence Degraded Video using Kurtosis Minimization and Motion Compensation

In this thesis work, the background of atmospheric turbulence degradation in imaging was reviewed and two aspects are highlighted: blurring and geometric distortion. The turbulence burring parameter is determined by the atmospheric turbulence condition that is often unknown; therefore, a blur identification technique was developed that is based on a higher order statistics (HOS). It was observed that the kurtosis generally increases as an image becomes blurred (smoothed). Such an observation was interpreted in the frequency domain in terms of phase correlation. Kurtosis minimization based blur identification is built upon this observation. It was shown that kurtosis minimization is effective in identifying the blurring parameter directly from the degraded image. Kurtosis minimization is a general method for blur identification. It has been tested on a variety of blurs such as Gaussian blur, out of focus blur as well as motion blur. To compensate for the geometric distortion, earlier work on the turbulent motion compensation was extended to deal with situations in which there is camera/object motion. Trajectory smoothing is used to suppress the turbulent motion while preserving the real motion. Though the scintillation effect of atmospheric turbulence is not considered separately, it can be handled the same way as multiple frame denoising while motion trajectories are built.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Mersereau, Russell; Committee Co-Chair: Smith, Mark; Committee Member: Lanterman, Aaron; Committee Member: Wang, May; Committee Member: Tannenbaum, Allen; Committee Member: Williams, Dougla

A Study on Several Applications for Impulse Force Supporting Technique and the Controlling Problem

Motivated by the Space Elevator concept, several alternate space transportation systems are studied. Details, such as the structure, transporting capacity, and stability of the systems are explored. Further study shows that despite the difference in their structure, these transportation systems are all applications for the impulse force supporting technique. Moreover, we can show that the centrifugal force and the impulse force are merely two aspects of one kind of supporting force, each 1 of which can be used for different purposes

Technical and institutional priorities for enhancing rail/aviation cooperation for the future intercity passenger transportation

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68).There are currently about 120 airport rail links existing or proposed to be constructed around the world. The growth in the number of airport rail links reflects the almost relentless growth in air travel and the associated worsening congestion and delays on both landside and airside of airports. Rail-Air Passenger Intermodal Development (RAPID) in the United States has lagged behind the world trend, especially in comparison with Europe and Japan. This paper consists of two tasks: to examine technical priorities for the competitiveness of rail a s a feeder to a irports, a nd to i dentify key b arriers a nd recommend changes for RAPID development in this nation. Having an effective intermodal connection has proved to be the prerequisite for the successfulness of RAPID. When such a connection is available, enhancing intermodal cooperation is likely to be more effective than operating high speed rail in terms of the competitiveness of railfor airport trips. The speed of trains only needs to be high enough to ensure door-to-door trip time advantages over highways and flights in short- to mid- distance corridors. All the necessary technical options for RAPID have been widely applied in the world for decades. Even without technical challenges, RAPID development might be expensive and complicated with with many stakeholders and interest groups directly and indirectly impacted. Lack of effective intermodal infrastructure has been the primary hurdle impeding RAPID development in this nation. Unbalanced development in this nation's intercity passenger transportation system has resulted in the inability of intercity railroads to promote RAPID and the unwillingness of air carriers to connect and cooperate with the rail system.(cont.) These problems make RAPID unlikely to be developed by relying solely on the private sector. Mode separation in the administrative framework and modal bias in policy generate further hurdles for RAPID from the public sector in terms of public funding, information, planning and cooperation. To succesfully achieve RAPID, the federal government must play a major role in terms of provding a) sufficient federal funding specifically for RAPID infrastructures and b) incentives to enhance the willingness of state and localities to support RAPID. The federal leadership and institutional support will also be necessary to increase modal integration to facilitate RAPID research, planning and decision making.by Dalong Shi.S.M

Salicylic acid collaborates with gene silencing to tomato defense against tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV)

Antiviral research in plants has been focused on RNA silencing (i.e. RNA interference), and several studies suggest that salicylic acid (SA)-mediated resistance is a key part of plant antiviral defense. However, the antiviral defense mechanism of SA-mediation is still unclear, and several recent studies have suggested a connection between SA-mediated defense and RNA silencing, which needs further characterization in TYLCV infection. In this study, both SA-mediated defense and the RNA silencing mechanism were observed to play an important role in the antiviral response against TYLCV. First, we found that SA application enhanced the resistance to TYLCV in tomato plants. The expression of RNA-silencing-related genes, such as SlDCL1, SlDCL2, SlDCL4, SlRDR2, SlRDR3a, SlRDR6a, SlAGO1, and SlAGO4, were significantly triggered by exogenous SA application and inoculation with TYLCV, respectively. Furthermore, silencing of SlDCL2, SlDCL4 in tomato resulted in attenuated resistance to TYLCV, and reduced the expression of defense-related genes (SlPR1 and SlPR1b) in SA-mediated defense after infection with TYLCV, particularly in SlDCL2/SlDCL4-silenced plants. Taken together, we conclude that SA collaborates with gene silencing in tomato defense against TYLCV