Altruism in the (Social) Network

This paper explores the role of social integration on altruistic behavior. To this aim, we develop a two-stage experimental protocol based on the classic Dictator Game. In the first stage, we ask a group of 77 undergraduate students in Economics to elicit their social network; in the second stage, each of them has to unilaterally decide over the division of a fixed amount of money to be shared with another anonymous member in the group. Our experimental design allows to control for other variables known to be relevant for altruistic behavior: framing and friendship/acquaintance relations. Consistently with previous research, we find that subjects favor their friends and that framing enhances altruistic behavior. Once we control for these effects, social integration (measured by betweenness, a standard centrality measure in network theory) has a positive effect on giving: the larger social isolation within the group, the more likely it is the emergence of selfish behavior. These results suggest that information on the network structure in which subjects are embedded is crucial to account for their behavior.

Treewidth: theory and applications to computer science

This report is an introduction to the concept of treewidth, a property of graphs that has important implications in algorithms. Some basic concepts of graph theory are presented in the first chapter for those readers that are not familiar with the notation. In Chapter 2, the definition of treewidth and some different ways of characterizing it are explained. The last two chapters focus on the algorithmic implications of treewidth, which are very relevant in Computer Science. An algorithm to compute the treewidth of a graph is presented and its result can be later applied to many other problems in graph theory, like those introduced in the last chapter.

Distribution theory and fundamental solutions of differential operators

The objective of this dissertation is to study the theory of distributions and some of its applications. Certain concepts which we would include in the theory of distributions nowadays have been widely used in several fields of mathematics and physics. It was Dirac who first introduced the delta function as we know it, in an attempt to keep a convenient notation in his works in quantum mechanics. Their work contributed to open a new path in mathematics, as new objects, similar to functions but not of their same nature, were being used systematically. Distributions are believed to have been first formally introduced by the Soviet mathematician Sergei Sobolev and by Laurent Schwartz. The aim of this project is to show how distribution theory can be used to obtain what we call fundamental solutions of partial differential equations.

Gizarte hezitzailea lanbidez : korapiloak askatu nahian

[Es] En las últimas decadas ha saltado a luz el debate en torno a la profesionalización, en el campo de la Teoría de las Profesiones. Este debate ha tenido su reflejo en el campo de la Educación Social, donde se perciben carencias a la hora de dar una imagen completa y global de la profesión. Siendo esto así, vemos la necesidad de ir dando respuesta a varias preguntas, para poder avanzar en el esclareciemiento y propio proceso de profesionalización de la Educación Social. El proposito del trabajo que se presenta a continuación es realizar una síntesis de las aportaciones sobre la conceptualización de la Educación Social y la situación profesional en ese ámbito. Para ello, se comenzará por analizar el concepto de Educación Social; seguidamente se trabajará los conceptos de profesión y profesionalización, que nos ayudarán a entender las características de la Educación Social como profesión. En la tercera parte del trabajo se pasa de un nivel más abstracto a un nivel más real, y se trabaja el tema de los educadores sociales. En la última parte nos adentraremos en la situación profesional que viven los educadores sociales, porque creemos que es desde ese nivel de donde hay que partir para poder articular pautas y mejoras.

Avances en algoritmos de estimación de distribuciones. Alternativas en el aprendizaje y representación de problemas

131 p.: graf.

Algorithms for colour image processing based on neurological models

373 p. : il., gráf., fot., tablas

Moral cleansing and moral licenses: experimental evidence

Research on moral cleansing and moral self-licensing has introduced dynamic considerations in the theory of moral behavior. Past bad actions trigger negative feelings that make people more likely to engage in future moral behavior to offset them. Symmetrically, past good deeds favor a positive self-perception that creates licensing effects, leading people to engage in behavior that is less likely to be moral. In short, a deviation from a “normal state of being” is balanced with a subsequent action that compensates the prior behavior. We model the decision of an individual trying to reach the optimal level of moral self-worth over time and show that under certain conditions the optimal sequence of actions follows a regular pattern which combines good and bad actions. We conduct an economic experiment where subjects play a sequence of giving decisions (dictator games) to explore this phenomenon. We find that donation in the previous period affects present decisions and the sign is negative: participants’ behavior in every round is negatively correlated to what they did in the past. Hence donations over time seem to be the result of a regular pattern of self-regulation: moral licensing (being selfish after altruist) and cleansing (altruistic after selfish).

Antonio Machado y Lev Vigotski. Ironía o crítica como instancias modernizadoras

499 p. (Bibliogr. 443-474)

Intermediate Macroeconomics : Self-evaluation exercises

This resource can be particularly helpful to students taking the Intermediate Macroeconomics course, which corresponds to the second year of the current Degree in Economics at the University of the Basque Country UPV/ EHU. The precise content of this resource is a collection of eight chapters of multiple-choice questions. For each question the user is asked to guess which the correct answer is. Finally, the tool will return all the correct answers for the whole test, thereby allowing the user to check the validity of his/her answers. A remarkable feature of the tool is that it has been edited in three versions, for the three languages (Spanish, Basque and English) in which the subject is taught at the UPV/EHU.