Cooperative games with size-truncated information

[Eng] We study the marginal worth vectors and their convex hull, the socalled Weber set, from the original coalitional game and the transformed one, which is called the Weber set of level k. We prove that the core of the original game is included in each of the Weber set of level k, for any k, and that the Weber sets of consecutive levels form a chain if and only if the original game is 0-monotone. Even if the game is not 0-monotone, the intersection of the Weber sets for consecutive levels is always not empty, what is not the case for non-consecutive ones. Spanish education system.

Metallisten kuluttajamaalipakkausten kierrätys.

Metalliset maalipurkit valmistetaan tinalla molemmin puolin päällystetystä pellistä. Tina on terästeollisuudelle haitallinen aine raaka-aineen seassa ja tästä syystä tinapellille on ollut vaikeuksia löytää hyötykäyttäjää. Metallipakkauksien osalta on sitouduttu hyötykäyttötavoitteisiin ja niihin pääsemiseksi tulee kerätä myös tinapeltipakkauksia, koska ne muodostavat huomattavan osan vuosittain käytettävistä metallipakkauksista. Suurilta ammattikäyttäjiltä maalipakkauksia on kerätty jo vuodesta 1998 ja pienkuluttajia varten keräyskokeilu aloitettiin vuoden 1999 alkupuolella. Tämä tutkimus käsittelee kuluttajille suunnattua keräyskokeilua ja tutkimuksen tavoitteena on laatia suosituksia ja ohjeita kuluttajamaalipakkausten keräilyn järjestämiseksi Suomessa. Kokeilua varten perustettiin muutamia keräyspisteitä, ensin Suur-Helsingin alueelle ja myöhemmin myös muualle Etelä-Suomeen. Kaikki perustetut keräyspisteet sijaitsivat maalia myyvän kaupan yhteydessä. Kuluttajat suhtautuivat palautusmahdollisuuteen erittäin myönteisesti ja kokeilussa mukana olevat liikkeet saivat positiivista julkisuutta. Keräyspisteisiin pääsääntöisesti palautetut maalipurkit olivat tyhjiä tai niissä oli vain hieman maalia jäljellä. Kaupoissa sijaitsevien keräyspisteiden lisäksi on tarvetta myös kunnallisille keräyspisteille. Kuusakoski Oy on nykyisin ainoa tinapellin käsittelijä Suomessa. Myös Onni Forsell Oy on kehittelemässä tinapellin käsittelymenetelmää. Kuusakosken murskauskäsittelyn ympäristövaikutukset selvitettiin tutkimuksessa ja tulosten mukaan käsittelyssä syntyvä jäte on kaatopaikkakelpoista. Tinapeltimurskeen hyötykäyttäjää ei Suomesta tällä hetkellä löydy, joten murske viedään ulkomaille hyötykäytettäväksi.

DNA:n eristysmenetelmien vertailu elintarvikenäytteille erilaisilla näytematriiseilla

Tämä opinnäytetyö tehtiin Tullilaboratorion Biokemian jaoston GMO-työryhmälle, joka valvoo elintarvikenäytteissä esiintyviä geneettisiä muunnoksia. Työn tarkoituksena oli ver-tailla DNA:n eristysmenetelmiä erilaisilla näytematriiseilla. Kaikki näytteet olivat Tullilabo-ratorion valvontaan kuuluvia elintarvikenäytteitä, joista osa oli pitkälle prosessoituja elin-tarvikkeita ja osa sisälsi suuria määriä rasvaa ja proteiinia. Jokaiselle näytetyypille pyrittiin löytämään sopivin menetelmä, jolla saadaan hyvälaatuista ja monistuskelpoista DNA:ta. Eristetyn DNA:n pitoisuus, menetelmän kustannukset, työturvallisuus, analyysin käytetty aika ja kontaminaatioriskit olivat myös valintakriteerejä. Kolmea erilaista menetelmää ver-rattiin laboratoriossa rutiinikäytössä olevaan eristysmenetelmään. Näytteet käsiteltiin kolmessa sarjassa: ensimmäinen sisälsi riisinäytteitä, toinen maissi-näytteitä ja kolmas soijaa sisältäviä elintarvikkeita. Jokaisesta näytteestä tehtiin rinnak-kaispunnitus tulosten luotettavuuden varmistamiseksi. Kaikki näytesarjat eristettiin valituil-la kolmella menetelmällä. Eristetyt DNA-näytteet analysoitiin kvantitatiivisella reaaliaikai-sella PCR:llä, jotta voitiin varmistua, että näytteestä saatiin eristettyä halutun organismin DNA. Jokaiselle näytetyypille löydettiin parhaiten soveltuva menetelmä. Kahdella valituista me-netelmistä saatiin parhaat tulokset jokaisen näytematriisin kohdalla. Myös näytteistä, joista ei saatu eristettyä referenssi-DNA:ta rutiinikäytössä olevalla menetelmällä, onnistuttiin eristämään haluttua DNA:ta yhdellä menetelmistä. Kokeilu onnistui hyvin ja tuloksia voi-daan hyödyntää valittaessa valvontanäytteille sopivia eristysmenetelmiä.

Stafne bone cavity: a retrospective study of 11 cases

Objective: to describe the clinical and radiological characteristics of patients with Stafne bone cavity. Study design: a retrospective, observational study of 11 cases of Stafne bone cavity. After finding an imagine compatible with Stafne bone cavity in the Orthopantomograph® of 11 patients, a sialography of the mandibular gland was made in 3 cases, computerized tomography (CT) in 6 cases, and in 4 cases surgical intervention to confirm the diagnosis. Results: the average age was 51.5 years, predominantly males. The entity was diagnosed incidentally during a routine radiology in all cases. The sialography revealed glandular tissue within the defect, and the CT demonstrated the conservation of the lingual cortical and the peripheral origin of the lesion. Glandular tissue was found within the lesions of two of the patients who underwent surgery, and in the other two the cavity was empty. No progressive changes were found in any of the 11 cases. Conclusions: Stafne bone cavity was an incidental finding, presenting no evolutionary changes, and as such conservatory therapy based on periodic controls was indicated. Currently, complementary techniques such as CT are sufficient to establish a certain diagnosis.

One-seller assignment markets with multi-unit demands

We consider one-seller assignment markets with multi-unit demands and prove that the associated game is buyers-submodular. Therefore the core is non-empty and it has a lattice structure which contains the allocation where every buyer receives his marginal contribution. We prove that in this kind of market, every pairwise-stable outcome is associated to a competitive equilibrium and viceversa. We study conditions under which the buyers-optimal and the seller-optimal core allocations are competitive equilibrium payoff vectors. Moreover, we characterize the markets for which the core coincidences with the set of competitive equilibria payoff vectors. When agents behave strategically, we introduce a procedure that implements the buyers-optimal core allocation as the unique subgame perfect Nash equilibrium outcome.

When Langmuir is too simple: H2 dissociation on Pd(111) at high coverage

Recent experiments of H2 adsorption on Pd(111) [T. Mitsui et al., Nature (London) 422, 705 (2003)] have questioned the classical Langmuir picture of second order adsorption kinetics at high surface coverage requiring pairs of empty sites for the dissociative chemisorption. Experiments find that at least three empty sites are needed. Through density functional theory, we find that H2 dissociation is favored on ensembles of sites that involve a Pd atom with no direct interaction with adsorbed hydrogen. Such active sites are formed by aggregation of at least 3 H-free sites revealing the complex structure of the "active sites."

Pre-dispersal predation effect on seed packaging strategies and seed viability.

An increased understanding of intraspecific seed packaging (i.e. seed size/number strategy) variation across different environments may improve current knowledge of the ecological forces that drive seed evolution in plants. In particular, pre-dispersal seed predation may influence seed packaging strategies, triggering a reduction of the resources allocated to undamaged seeds within the preyed fruits. Assessing plant reactions to pre-dispersal seed predation is crucial to a better understanding of predation effects, but the response of plants to arthropod attacks remains unexplored. We have assessed the effect of cone predation on the size and viability of undamaged seeds in populations of Juniperus thurifera with contrasting seed packaging strategies, namely, North African populations with single-large-seeded cones and South European populations with multi-small-seeded cones. Our results show that the incidence of predation was lower on the single-large-seeded African cones than on the multi-small-seeded European ones. Seeds from non-preyed cones were also larger and had a higher germination success than uneaten seeds from preyed cones, but only in populations with multi-seeded cones and in cones attacked by Trisetacus sp., suggesting a differential plastic response to predation. It is possible that pre-dispersal seed predation has been a strong selective pressure in European populations with high cone predation rates, being a process which maintains multi-small-seeded cones and empty seeds as a strategy to save some seeds from predation. Conversely, pre-dispersal predation might not have a strong effect in the African populations with single-large-seeded cones characterized by seed germination and filling rates higher than those in the European populations. Our results indicate that differences in pre-dispersal seed predators and predation levels may affect both selection on and intraspecific variation in seed packaging.

Mother-offspring competition promotes colonization success.

Colonization is the crucial process underlying range expansions, biological invasions, and metapopulation dynamics. Which individuals leave their natal population to colonize empty habitats is a crucial question and is presently unresolved. Dispersal is the first step in colonization. However, not all dispersing individuals are necessarily good colonizers. Indeed, in some species, the phenotype of dispersers differs depending on the selective pressures that induce dispersal. In particular, kin-based interactions, a factor driving social evolution, should induce different social response profiles in nondispersing and dispersing individuals. Kin competition (defined here as between the mother and offspring) has been proven to produce dispersers with a particular phenotype that may enhance their colonizing ability. By using the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara), we conducted a multipopulation experiment to study the effect of kin competition on dispersal and colonization success. We manipulated mother-offspring interactions, which are the most important component of kin competition in the studied species, at the family and population levels and measured the consequences on colonization success. We demonstrate that mother-offspring competition at the population level significantly influences colonization success. Increased competition at the population level enhanced the colonization rate of the largest juveniles as well as the growth and survival of the colonizers. Based on these results, we calculated that kin-induced colonization halves the extinction probability of a newly initiated population. Because interactions between relatives are likely to affect the ability of a species to track habitat modifications, kin-based dispersal should be considered in the study of invasion dynamics and metapopulation functioning.

Accessing forgotten memory traces from long-term memory via visual movements

Because memory retrieval often requires overt responses, it is difficult to determine to what extend forgetting occurs as a problem in explicit accessing of long-term memory traces. In this study, we used eye-tracking measures in combination with a behavioural task that favoured high forgetting rates to investigate the existence of memory traces from long-term memory in spite of failure in accessing them consciously. In 2 experiments, participants were encouraged to encode a large set of sound-picture56 location associations. In a later test, sounds were presented and participants were instructed to visually scan, before a verbal memory report, for the correct location of the associated pictures in an empty screen. We found the reactivation of associated memories by sound cues at test biased oculomotor behaviour towards locations congruent with memory representations, even when participants failed to consciously provide a memory report of it. These findings reveal the emergence of a memory-guided behaviour that can be used to map internal representations of forgotten memories from long-term memory.

Urban Gardening: espacio de creación, crítica social y activismo ecológico

El artículo hace una revisión de aquellas intervenciones artísticas que abordan determinados usos del territorio urbano y formas de cultivo. Actuaciones que mediante la acción de plantar y cultivar generan espacios para la expresión de identidades artísticas, políticas y sociales. Estos lugares encuentran asentamiento en los intersticios de nuestras ciudades, en espacios vacíos como solares abandonados, en zonas no urbanizables o semi urbanizadas, en riberas de ríos, arcenes de autopistas, márgenes de vías de tren, etc. The paper reviews those specific artistic interventions that address urban land uses and farming methods. Actions that through the act of planting and cultivating generate spaces for the expression of artistic, political and social identities. These places are settling in the interstices of our cities, in empty spaces such as brownfield sites, in non-urbanized or semi urbanized areas, on riverbanks, highways verges, railways edges, etc.

Generalized three-sided assignment markets: consistency and the core

A class of three-sided markets (and games) is considered, where value is generated by pairs or triplets of agents belonging to different sectors, as well as by individuals. For these markets we analyze the situation that arises when some agents leave the market with some payoff To this end, we introduce the derived market (and game) and relate it to the Davis and Maschler (1965) reduced game. Consistency with respect to the derived market, together with singleness best and individual anti-monotonicity axiomatically characterize the core for these generalized three-sided assignment markets. These markets may have an empty core, but we define a balanced subclass, where the worth of each triplet is defined as the addition of the worths of the pairs it contains. Keywords: Multi-sided assignment market, Consistency, Core, Nucleolus. JEL Classification: C71, C78

Influència del nombre d'usuaris en sistemes de localització en interiors basats en Wi-Fi

El present estudi descriu el procés de creació d'un sistema de localització en interiors que permet investigar les possibles diferències de la precisió de les localitzacions en entorns buits i amb presència d'altres persones. Posteriorment es presenten una sèrie de proves realitzades, s'exposen els seus resultats, així com les conclusions sobre com influencia el nombre d'usuaris a la precisió del sistema.

Sustainability of palm oil production and opportunities for Finnish technology and know-how transfer

The global demand for palm oil is growing, thus prompting an increase in the global production particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Such increasing demand for palm oil is due to palm oil’s relatively cheap price and versatile advantage both in edible and non-edible applications. Along with the increasing demand for palm oil, particularly for the production of biofuel, is a heated debate on its sustainability. Ecological degradation, climate change and social issues are among the main sustainability issues pressing the whole palm oil industry today. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects fulfilling the imperatives of the Kyoto Protocol are starting to gain momentum in Malaysia as reflected by the increasing registration of CDM projects in the palm oil mills. Most CDM projects in palm oil mills are on waste-to-energy, cocomposting, and methane recovery with the latter being the most common. The study on greenhouse gases (GHG) in the milling process points that biogas collection and energy utilisation has the greatest positive effect on GHG balance. On the other hand, empty fruit bunches (EFB) end-use as energy and high energy efficiency of the mill have the least effect on GHG balance of the mill. The range of direct GHG emissions from the palm oil mill is from 2.5 to 27 gCO2e/MJCPO, while the range of GHG emissions with all indirect and avoided emissions included is from -9 to 29 gCO2e/MJCPO. Comparing this GHG balance result with that of the EU RES-Directive suggests a further check on the values and emissions consideration of the latter.

Distribuição espacial de ferro, cobre e chumbo em sedimentos de manguezal em um gradiente de degradação na Baía de Guanabara (Estado do Rio de Janeiro)

Iron, copper and lead distribution was evaluated in sediment cores from a disturbed mangrove area in Guanabara Bay: a core from a seaward site where mangrove vegetation was removed ~20 yr before sampling (MD); a core from an intermediate site with dead vegetation, apparently due to insect attack (MP), and a core from a landward site with living vegetation (MV). Metal concentrations showed increasing values seaward while organic matter content showed an inverse trend, displaying a negative correlation with metals. This unusual correlation indicates opposite sources, since metals come from the bay and the main OM origin is probably degraded mangrove vegetation. Plant cover loss seems to be a critical factor affecting metal accumulation, particularly due to changes in OM input.

Caracterização do material particulado fino e grosso e composição da fração inorgânica solúvel em água em São José dos Campos (SP)

Air samples of fine (PM2,5) and coarse (PM2,5-10) particulate matter were collected in São José dos Campos from February 2004 to February 2005. Average PM10 mass concentrations was 31.2 ± 14.0 μg m-3, half of which belonging to the PM2.5 fraction. Ammonium and SO4(2-) were predominantly found in the fine fraction. Average (NH4)2SO4 concentration was estimated to be about 2.9 μg m-3. Chloride, Na+ and NO3- were mostly associated with PM2,5-10. Chloride deficits with respect to sea-salt Cl/Na ratio were found in both size fractions.