3,069 research outputs found
Post-Socialist Culture and Entrepreneurship
In this paper it is argued that locus of control beliefs and preferences concerning state action negatively affect the formation of new firms in former socialist countries. For this purpose Kirzner's theory of costless entrepreneurship is reviewed and criticized. German reunification, in which the formerly Socialist East joined the Federal Republic of Germany, represents an intriguing natural experiment in which the formal institutional structure of one nation was almost fully transplanted into another. Traditional as well as psychological factors are examined. The results suggest that about one third of the east-west gap in new self-employment can be explained by inert informal institutions.Psychology of Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Transitional Economies, East Germany
Global Optimization for Value Function Approximation
Existing value function approximation methods have been successfully used in
many applications, but they often lack useful a priori error bounds. We propose
a new approximate bilinear programming formulation of value function
approximation, which employs global optimization. The formulation provides
strong a priori guarantees on both robust and expected policy loss by
minimizing specific norms of the Bellman residual. Solving a bilinear program
optimally is NP-hard, but this is unavoidable because the Bellman-residual
minimization itself is NP-hard. We describe and analyze both optimal and
approximate algorithms for solving bilinear programs. The analysis shows that
this algorithm offers a convergent generalization of approximate policy
iteration. We also briefly analyze the behavior of bilinear programming
algorithms under incomplete samples. Finally, we demonstrate that the proposed
approach can consistently minimize the Bellman residual on simple benchmark
problems
Integrally regulated solar array demonstration using an Intel 8080 microprocessor
A concept for regulating the voltage of a solar array by using a microprocessor to effect discrete voltage changes was demonstrated. Eight shorting switches were employed to regulate a simulated array at set-point voltages between 10,000 and 15,000 volts. The demonstration showed that the microprocessor easily regulated the solar array output voltage independently of whether or not the switched cell groups were binary sized in voltage. In addition, the microprocessor provided logic memory capability to perform additional tasks such as locating and insolating a faulty switch
Feature Selection Using Regularization in Approximate Linear Programs for Markov Decision Processes
Approximate dynamic programming has been used successfully in a large variety
of domains, but it relies on a small set of provided approximation features to
calculate solutions reliably. Large and rich sets of features can cause
existing algorithms to overfit because of a limited number of samples. We
address this shortcoming using regularization in approximate linear
programming. Because the proposed method can automatically select the
appropriate richness of features, its performance does not degrade with an
increasing number of features. These results rely on new and stronger sampling
bounds for regularized approximate linear programs. We also propose a
computationally efficient homotopy method. The empirical evaluation of the
approach shows that the proposed method performs well on simple MDPs and
standard benchmark problems.Comment: Technical report corresponding to the ICML2010 submission of the same
nam
Microtectonic measurements and interpretation of the Mesozoic formations in the Villány Hills and Görcsöny-Máriakéménd Ridge, Hungary
Abstract
Within the framework of a National Research Fund project, different types of scientific investigations were carried out with the aim of a comprehensive paleogeographic reconstruction of the Tisza structural unit. As part of this project microtectonic measurements in the area of the Villány Hills and Görcsöny-Máriakéménd Ridge were carried out. Several publications have already appeared concerning the structural development of the Mecsek-Villány area (Csontos and Bergerat 1988, 1993; Benkovics 1997; Csontos et al. 2002), but in these the Villány Hills and their surroundings played a secondary role compared to the Mecsek Mountains. The goal of the present study was to establish the limits of the structural phases and determine their relative and absolute ages. An important issue has been to clarify to what degree the suggested events of structural deformation could be integrated into regional geologic processes. The tectonic conditions of the area of interest were studied through description and analysis of structural elements of 12 investigated quarries within it. Calculated stress field data were also analyzed. Seven quarries in the Villány Hills, five in the Görcsöny-Máriakéménd area, the data of over 650 striae, 550 joints, various ductile deformation elements (folds, flexures) as well as stylolites, were recorded. Integrating these structural elements into the regional geologic processes was of significant importance
Transfer function determination of the primary loop of a conceptual nuclear Brayton space powerplant
Transfer functions for primary loop of conceptual nuclear Brayton space power plan
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