Risk Attitudes and Measures of Value for Risky Lotteries.

The topic of this thesis is decision-making under risk. I focus my analysis on expected utility theory by von Neumann and Morgenstern. I am especially interested in modeling risk attitudes represented by Bernoulli utility functions that belong to the following classes: Constant Absolute Risk Aversion, Decreasing Absolute Risk Aversion (understood as strictly decreasing) and in particular a subset thereof - Constant Relative Risk Aversion. I build a theory of buying and selling price for a lottery, the concepts defined by Raiffa, since such theory proves useful in analyzing a number of interesting issues pertaining to risk attitudes' characteristics within expected utility model. In particular, I analyze the following: - Chapter 2 - expected utility without consequentialism, buying/selling price gap, preference reversal, Rabin paradox - Chapter 3 - characterization results for CARA, DARA, CRRA, simple strategies and an extension of Pratt result on comparative risk aversion - Chapter 4 - riskiness measure and its intuition, extended riskiness measure and its existence, uniqueness and propertiesdecision-making under risk; lottery; gamble; expected utility theory; risk attitudes; CARA; DARA; CRRA; buying and selling price for a lottery; D81; D03; C91;Decision making; Strategic planning; Risk-taking (Psychology);

Topological Measure and Graph-Differential Geometry on the Quotient Space of Connections

(This is a report for the Proceedings of ``Journees Relativistes 1993'' written in September 1993. Containes a short description of the results published elsewhere in the joint paper with A. Ashtekar) Integral calculus on the space of gauge equivalent connections is developed. By carring out a non-linear generalization of the theory of cylindrical measures on topological vector spaces, a faithfull, diffeomorphism invariant measure is introduced on a suitable completion of the quotient space. The strip (i.e. momentum) operators are densely-defined in the resulting Hilbert space and interact with the measure correctly, to become essentially self adjoint operators.Comment: 3 pp., Proceedings of ``Journees Relativistes 1993'

Using Search Engine Technology to Improve Library Catalogs

This chapter outlines how search engine technology can be used in online public access library catalogs (OPACs) to help improve users’ experiences, to identify users’ intentions, and to indicate how it can be applied in the library context, along with how sophisticated ranking criteria can be applied to the online library catalog. A review of the literature and current OPAC developments form the basis of recommendations on how to improve OPACs. Findings were that the major shortcomings of current OPACs are that they are not sufficiently user-centered and that their results presentations lack sophistication. Further, these shortcomings are not addressed in current 2.0 developments. It is argued that OPAC development should be made search-centered before additional features are applied. While the recommendations on ranking functionality and the use of user intentions are only conceptual and not yet applied to a library catalogue, practitioners will find recommendations for developing better OPACs in this chapter. In short, readers will find a systematic view on how the search engines’ strengths can be applied to improving libraries’ online catalogs

ID slicing and the automated factory

The automation of the slicing system utilizing internal-diameter saws for the production of the silicon wafers used in solar arrays is discussed. It is argued that saw productivity can be increased by reducing silicon waste, decreasing usage of consumables, keeping the saw slicing, and increasing the cutting speed. Several machine enhancements utilizing automatic control are discussed. The need for record keeping to anticipate maintenance operations is noted, and a digital serial communication interface with the microprocessor-based saws is recommended. Distributed control of the manufacturing process is discussed in detail, and is recommended as a method for increasing productivity

LSZ-reduction, resonances and non-diagonal propagators: fermions and scalars

We analyze in details the effects associated with mixing of fermionic fields. In a system with an arbitrary number of Majorana or Dirac particles, a simple proof of factorizability of residues of non-diagonal propagators at the complex poles is given, together with a prescription for finding the "square-rooted" residues to all orders of perturbation theory, in an arbitrary renormalization scheme. Corresponding prescription for the scalar case is provided as well.Comment: 37 pages, 1 figur

Parametrix for the localization of the Bergman metric on strictly pseudoconvex domains

We give the parameter version of localization theorem for Bergman metric near the boundary points of strictly pseudoconvex domains. The approximation theorem for square integrable holomorphic functions on such domains in the spirit of Graham-Kerzman is proved in the hereby paper, as well

Search engine user behaviour: How can users be guided to quality content?

The typical behaviour of the Web search engine user is widely known: a user only types in one or a few keywords and expects the search engine to produce relevant results in an instant. Search engines not only adapt to this behaviour. On the contrary, they are often faced with criticism that they themselves created this kind of behaviour. As search engines are trendsetters for the whole information world, it is important to know how they cope with their users’ behaviour. Recent developments show that search engines try to integrate results from different collections into their results lists and to guide their users to the right results. These results should not only be relevant in general, but also be pertinent in the sense of being relevant to the user in his current situation and in accordance to his background. The article focuses on the problems of guiding the user from his initial query to these results. It shows how the general users are searching and how the intents behind their queries can be used to deliver the right results. It will be shown that search engines try to give some good results for everyone instead of focusing on complete result sets for a specific user type. If the user wishes, he can follow the paths laid out by the engines to narrow the results to a result set suitable to him