Uniqueness of the Embedding Continuous Convolution Semigroup of a Gaussian Probability Measure on the Affine Group and an Application in Mathematical Finance

Let {μ(i)t}t≥0 ( i=1,2 ) be continuous convolution semigroups (c.c.s.) of probability measures on Aff(1) (the affine group on the real line). Suppose that μ(1)1=μ(2)1 . Assume furthermore that {μ(1)t}t≥0 is a Gaussian c.c.s. (in the sense that its generating distribution is a sum of a primitive distribution and a second-order differential operator). Then μ(1)t=μ(2)t for all t≥0 . We end up with a possible application in mathematical finance.

Three Shades of Embeddedness, State Capitalism as the Informal Economy, Emic Notions of the Anti-Market, and Counterfeit Garments in the Mauritian Export Processing Zone

Purpose This paper furthers the analysis of patterns regulating capitalist accumulation based on a historical anthropology of economic activities revolving around and within the Mauritian Export Processing Zone (EPZ). Design/methodology/approach This paper uses fieldwork in Mauritius to interrogate and critique two important concepts in contemporary social theory – “embeddedness” and “the informal economy.” These are viewed in the wider frame of social anthropology’s engagement with (neoliberal) capitalism. Findings A process-oriented revision of Polanyi’s work on embeddedness and the “double movement” is proposed to help us situate EPZs within ongoing power struggles found throughout the history of capitalism. This helps us to challenge the notion of economic informality as supplied by Hart and others. Social implications Scholars and policymakers have tended to see economic informality as a force from below, able to disrupt the legal-rational nature of capitalism as practiced from on high. Similarly, there is a view that a precapitalist embeddedness, a “human economy,” has many good things to offer. However, this paper shows that the practices of the state and multinational capitalism, in EPZs and elsewhere, exactly match the practices that are envisioned as the cure to the pitfalls of capitalism. Value of the paper Setting aside the formal-informal distinction in favor of a process-oriented analysis of embeddedness allows us better to understand the shifting struggles among the state, capital, and labor.

State of the art of integrated therapy approaches in the treatment of schizophrenia: empirical evidence and clinical relevance

Objective: Integrated behavior therapy approaches are defined by the combination of behavioral and or cognitive interventions targeting neurocognition combined with other goal-oriented treatment targets such as social cognition, social skills, or educational issues. The Integrated Psychological Therapy Program (IPT) represents one of the very first behavior therapy approaches combining interventions of neurocognition, social cognition, and social competence. This comprehensive group-based bottom-up and top-down approach consists of five subprograms, each with incremental steps. IPT has been successfully implemented in several countries in Europe, America, Australia and in Asia. IPT worked as a model for some other approaches designed in the USA. IPT was undergone two further developments: based on the social competence part of IPT, the three specific therapy programs focusing residential, occupational or recreational topics were developed. Recently, the cognitive part of INT was rigorously expanded into the Integrated Neurocognitive Therapy (INT) designed exclusively for outpatient treatment: INT includes interventions targeting all neurocognitive and social cognitive domains defined by the NIMH-MATRICS initiative. These group and partially PC-based exercises are structured into four therapy modules, each starting with exercises on neurocognitive domains followed by social cognitive targets. Efficacy: The evidence of integrated therapy approaches and its advantage compared to of one-track interventions was becoming a discussion tool in therapy research as well as in mental health systems. Results of meta-analyses support superiority of integrated approaches compared to one-track interventions in more distal outcome areas such as social functioning. These results are in line with the large body of 37 independent IPT studies in 12 countries. Moreover, IPT research indicates the maintenance of therapy effects after the end of therapy and some evidence generalization effects. Additionally, the international randomized multi-center study on INT with 169 outpatients strongly supports the successful therapy of integrated therapy in proximal and distal outcome such as significant effects in cognition, functioning and negative symptoms. Clinical implication: therapy research as well as expert’s clinical experience recommends integrated therapy approaches such as IPT to be successful agents within multimodal psychiatric treatment concepts. Finally, integrated group therapy based on cognitive remediation seems to motivate and stimulate schizophrenia inpatients and outpatients to more successful and independent life also demanded by the recovery movement.

Vocational indentity as a mediator of the relationship between core self-evaluations and life and job satisfaction

This study investigated whether vocational identity achievement mediates the relation between basic personality dispositions (i.e. core self-evaluations) and career and well-being outcomes in terms of job and life satisfaction. Two studies with Swiss adolescents were conducted. Study 1 (N= 310) investigated students in eighth grade, prior to making the transition to vocational education and training (VET); it showed that vocational identity related positively to life satisfaction but that this relationship disappeared once core self-evaluations were controlled. Study 2 (N= 150) investigated students in their second year of VET; it showed that job satisfaction was unrelated to identity and self-evaluations. However, identity fully mediated the relation between self-evaluations and life satisfaction.

Integration through Land Improvment – Internal Colonization in Switzerland During the First Part of the 20th Century

Internal colonization in Switzerland is often seen in connection with the battle for cultivation in the Second World War, but the history of internal colonization in Switzerland is more complex. The food crisis in the First World War formed the horizon of experience for various actors from industry, consumer protection, the urban population and agriculture to start considering practical strategies for managing agricultural production. In this way, traditional spaces, such as rural and urban areas and economic roles, such as food producer, consumer and trader, overlapped and were newly conceived to some extent: people started thinking about utopias and how a modern society could be designed to be harmonious and resistant to crisis. The aim of this article is to trace some of the key points in this process for the interwar years in neutral Switzerland. In the process, the focus must be on the context of people’s mentalities in the past, although the relationships between the actors of internal colonization and the state also need to be considered. Internal colonization in Switzerland in the twentieth century can be understood as an open process. In principle, the project was driven by private actors, but in times of crisis, the project was claimed by the state as a possible tool for social and economic intervention. In addition, as a result of the planned dissolution of urban and rural spaces, it will be shown that modern societies in the interwar period were on an existential search to overcome the problems of the modern age. Internal colonization can therefore be seen as an attempt to find a third way between a world characterized by an agrarian society and a modern industrial nation.

Assessing the function of the fronto-parietal attention network: Insights from resting-state fMRI and the attentional network test

In the recent past, various intrinsic connectivity networks (ICN) have been identified in the resting brain. It has been hypothesized that the fronto-parietal ICN is involved in attentional processes. Evidence for this claim stems from task-related activation studies that show a joint activation of the implicated brain regions during tasks that require sustained attention. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that functional connectivity within the fronto-parietal network at rest directly relates to attention. We applied graph theory to functional connectivity data from multiple regions of interest and tested for associations with behavioral measures of attention as provided by the attentional network test (ANT), which we acquired in a separate session outside the MRI environment. We found robust statistical associations with centrality measures of global and local connectivity of nodes within the network with the alerting and executive control subfunctions of attention. The results provide further evidence for the functional significance of ICN and the hypothesized role of the fronto-parietal attention network. Hum Brain Mapp , 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reversal of gender differences in Educational Attainment – historical analysis of the West German Case

Background information: During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, West Germany witnessed a reversal of gender differences in educational attainment, as females began to outperform males. Purpose: The main objective was to analyse which processes were behind the reversal of gender differences in educational attainment after 1945. The theoretical reflections and empirical evidence presented for the US context by DiPrete and Buchmann (Gender-specific trends in the value of education and the emerging gender gap in college completion, Demography 43: 1–24, 2006) and Buchmann, DiPrete, and McDaniel (Gender inequalities in education, Annual Review of Sociology 34: 319–37, 2008) are considered and applied to the West German context. It is suggested that the reversal of gender differences is a consequence of the change in female educational decisions, which are mainly related to labour market opportunities and not, as sometimes assumed, a consequence of a ‘boy’s crisis’. Sample: Several databases, such as the German General Social Survey, the German Socio-economic Panel and the German Life History Study, are employed for the longitudinal analysis of the educational and occupational careers of birth cohorts born in the twentieth century. Design and methods: Changing patterns of eligibility for university studies are analysed for successive birth cohorts and gender. Binary logistic regressions are employed for the statistical modelling of the individuals’ achievement, educational decision and likelihood for social mobility – reporting average marginal effects (AME). Results: The empirical results suggest that women’s better school achievement being constant across cohorts does not contribute to the explanation of the reversal of gender differences in higher education attainment, but the increase of benefits for higher education explains the changing educational decisions of women regarding their transition to higher education. Conclusions: The outperformance of females compared with males in higher education might have been initialised by several social changes, including the expansion of public employment, the growing demand for highly qualified female workers in welfare and service areas, the increasing returns of women’s increased education and training, and the improved opportunities for combining family and work outside the home. The historical data show that, in terms of (married) women’s increased labour market opportunities and female life-cycle labour force participation, the raising rates of women’s enrolment in higher education were – among other reasons – partly explained by their rising access to service class positions across birth cohorts, and the rise of their educational returns in terms of wages and long-term employment.