Deep Brain Stimulation, Authenticity and Value

In this paper, we engage in dialogue with Jonathan Pugh, Hannah Maslen, and Julian Savulescu about how to best interpret the potential impacts of deep brain stimulation on the self. We consider whether ordinary people’s convictions about the true self should be interpreted in essentialist or existentialist ways. Like Pugh et al., we argue that it is useful to understand the notion of the true self as having both essentialist and existentialist components. We also consider two ideas from existentialist philosophy – Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas about “bad faith” and “ambiguity” – to argue that there can be value to patients in regarding themselves as having a certain amount of freedom to choose what aspects of themselves should be considered representative of their true selves. Lastly, we consider the case of an anorexia nervosa-patient who shifts between conflicting mind-sets. We argue that mind-sets in which it is easier for the patient and his or her family to share values can plausibly be considered to be more representative of the patient’s true self, if this promotes a well-functioning relationship between the patient and the family. However, we also argue that families are well-advised to give patients room to figure out what such shared values mean to them, since it can be alienating for patients if they feel that others try to impose values on them from the outside

Whatever Happened To The Seveloff Fix?

This Article suggests that the Supreme Court has not deprived Alaska Native Villages of a valid basis for claiming the authority to create and enforce their own tribal alcohol regulations. Every federally recognized Alaskan Native Village is situated in an area over which Congress extended the federal Indian liquor laws in 1873, in an enactment Congress has never repealed; this should logically empower Alaska Native Villages to exercise the same federally-delegated authority within their federal Indian liquor law Indian country as lower-48 tribes have within their reservations or “dependent Indian communities.” Since this delegated authority is shared with the states, this postulate does not deprive the State of Alaska of any authority to enforce its own liquor laws; liquor transactions must conform to both state law and applicable tribal law

The Quantified Relationship

The growth of self-tracking and personal surveillance has given rise to the Quantified Self movement. Members of this movement seek to enhance their personal well-being, productivity, and self-actualization through the tracking and gamification of personal data. The technologies that make this possible can also track and gamify aspects of our interpersonal, romantic relationships. Several authors have begun to challenge the ethical and normative implications of this development. In this article, we build upon this work to provide a detailed ethical analysis of the Quantified Relationship. We identify eight core objections to the QR and subject them to critical scrutiny. We argue that although critics raise legitimate concerns, there are ways in which tracking technologies can be used to support and facilitate good relationships. We thus adopt a stance of cautious openness toward this technology and advocate the development of a research agenda for the positive use of QR technologies

Nelson-Siegel, affine and quadratic yield curve specifications: which one is better at forecasting?

In this paper we compare the in-sample fit and out-of-sample forecasting performance of no-arbitrage quadratic and essentially affine term structure models, as well as the dynamic Nelson-Siegel model. In total eleven model variants are evaluated, comprising five quadratic, four affine and two Nelson-Siegel models. Recursive re-estimation and out-of-sample one-, six- and twelve-months ahead forecasts are generated and evaluated using monthly US data for yields observed at maturities of 1, 6, 12, 24, 60 and 120 months. Our results indicate that quadratic models provide the best in-sample fit, while the best out-of-sample performance is generated by three-factor affine models and the dynamic Nelson-Siegel model variants. However, statistical tests fail to identify one single-best forecasting model class. JEL Classification: C14, C15, G12Affine term structure models, forecast performance, Nelson-Siegel model, quadratic yield curve models

A factor risk model with reference returns for the US dollar and Japanese yen bond markets

This paper develops a new methodology for simulating fixed-income return distributions. It is shown that a traditional factor risk model, when augmented with reference returns, is capable of generating visually consistent return distributions for a broad range of fixed income instruments such as government and nongovernment instruments in the US dollar and Japanese yen bond markets. The reference returns result from a regime-switching Nelson-Siegel yield curve model following Bernadell, Coche and Nyholm (2005). Empirical results are encouraging: simulated distributions exhibit most characteristics observed in the fixed income markets such as non-normal right-skewed distributions for short maturity instrument while instruments with longer maturity are closer to being normally distributed. JEL Classification: C15, C32, C53, G11, G15factor risk model, Regime switching, scenario analysis

Yield curve prediction for the strategic investor

This paper presents a new framework allowing strategic investors to generate yield curve projections contingent on expectations about future macroeconomic scenarios. By consistently linking the shape and location of yield curves to the state of the economy our method generates predictions for the full yield-curve distribution under different assumptions on the future state of the economy. On the technical side, our model represents a regimeswitching expansion of Diebold and Li (2003) and hence rests on the Nelson-Siegel functional form set in state-space form. We allow transition probabilities in the regimeswitching set-up to depend on observed macroeconomic variables and thus create a link between the macro economy and the shape and location of yield curves and their time-series evolution. The model is successfully applied to US yield curve data covering the period from 1953 to 2004 and encouraging out-of-sample results are obtained, in particular at forecasting horizons longer than 24 months. JEL Classification: C51, C53, E44Regime switching, scenario analysis, state space model, yield curve distributions

How arbitrage-free is the Nelson-Siegel Model?

We test whether the Nelson and Siegel (1987) yield curve model is arbitrage-free in a statistical sense. Theoretically, the Nelson-Siegel model does not ensure the absence of arbitrage opportunities, as shown by Bjork and Christensen (1999). Still, central banks and public wealth managers rely heavily on it. Using a non-parametric resampling technique and zero-coupon yield curve data from the US market, we find that the no-arbitrage parameters are not statistically different from those obtained from the NS model, at a 95 percent confidence level. We therefore conclude that the Nelson and Siegel yield curve model is compatible with arbitrage-freeness. To corroborate this result, we show that the Nelson-Siegel model performs as well as its no-arbitrage counterpart in an out-of-sample fore-casting experiment. JEL Classification: C14, C15, G12Affine term structure models, Nelson-Siegel model, No-arbitrage restrictions, non-parametric test

DinnerChatter-sovelluksen kehittäminen Androidille hybridimenetelmin

Projektin tavoitteena oli luoda ruokailusuunnitteluun tarkoitettu Android-sovellus käyttäen Cordova-hybridisovelluskehystä. Sovellus auttaa kaveriporukoita pääsemään yhteisymmärrykseen syömäpaikasta tarjoten mahdollisuuden lisätä ravintoloita listaa, näyttää ne kartalla ja keskustella niistä. Sovellus toteutettiin parityönä, ja tämä opinnäytetyö keskittyy puhelimeen asennettavaan ohjelmistoon. Teoriaosuudessa käsitellään sovelluksen kehittämisessä käytettyjä teknologioita kuten Cordova, AngularJS ja OnsenUi, sekä miten ne soveltuvat mobiilikehittämiseen. Luvussa käydään läpi AngularJS:n perusteet, jotka ovat olennainen osa kehitystä. Toiminnallisessa osuudessa perustellaan valitut teknologiat ja kerrotaan, miten niitä hyödynnettiin sovelluksen kehittämisessä. Luvussa käydään läpi sovelluksen käyttöliittymä näkymä kerrallaan ja nostetaan esille mielenkiintoisimpia ominaisuuksia, sekä miten ne toteutettiin. Lopuksi käsitellään palvelinpuolen integraatiota ja sovelluksen julkaisua Google Play-palvelussa. Viimeinen luku käy läpi projektin aikana nousseita mietteitä sovelluksen kehittämisestä ja käytetyistä teknologiosta sekä pohditaan myös sovelluksen tulevaisuutta ja jatkokehityssuunnitelmia. Sovellus saatiin valmiiksi juuri ennen opinnäytetyön päättämistä, minkä takia testaus laajemmassa mittakaavassa jäi toteuttamatta. Jatkokehitykseen jäi sovelluksen hienosäätämistä ja runsaasti kehityksen aikana nousseita ideoita uusista toiminnallisuuksista, joita ei vielä ehditty toteuttaa