Third party assessments in trust problems with conflict of interest: An experiment on the effects of promisesm

Is it possible to elicit reliable assessment from an assessor having a conflict of interest (e.g. a professor that writes a recommendation letter for a formal PhD student)? We propose an experimental test and show that compared to a not-incentivized assessment, a promise to give a truthful assessment reduces misreporting to the same extent as an incentivized assessment (i.e. when the assessor gains higher payoff if the assessment is correct).

Improved boundary elements in torsion problems

Since the epoch-making "memoir" of Saint-Venant in 1855 the torsion of prismatic and cilindrical bars has reduced to a mathematical problem: the calculation of an analytical function satisfying prescribed boundary values. For over one century, till the first applications of the F.E.M. to the problem, the only possibility of study in irregularly shaped domains was the beatiful, but limitated, theory of complex function analysis, several functional approaches and the finite difference method. Nevertheless in 1963 Jaswon published an interestingpaper which was nearly lost between the splendid F. E.M. boom. The method was extended by Rizzo to more complicated problems and definitively incorporated to the scientific community background through several lecture-notes of Cruse recently published, but widely circulated during past years. The work of several researches has shown the tremendous possibilities of the method which is today a recognized alternative to the well established F .E. procedure. In fact, the first comprehensive attempt to cover the method, has been recently published in textbook form. This paper is a contribution to the implementation of a difficulty which arises if the isoparametric elements concept is applicated to plane potential problems with sharp corners in the boundary domain. In previous works, these problems was avoided using two principal approximations: equating the fluxes round the corner or establishing a binode element (in fact, truncating the corner). The first approximation distortes heavily the solution in thecorner neighbourhood, and a great amount of element is neccesary to reduce its influence. The second is better suited but the price payed is increasing the size of the system of equations to be solved. In this paper an alternative formulation, consistent with the shape function chosen in the isoparametric representation, is presented. For ease of comprehension the formulation has been limited to the linear element. Nevertheless its extension to more refined elements is straight forward. Also a direct procedure for the assembling of the equations is presented in an attempt to reduce the in-core computer requirements.

The Labour Market in Spain: Problems, Challenges and Future Trends. Policy Brief #2015/01

Spain’s economy was hit particularly hard by the financial crisis. After severe austerity measures have been implemented in recent years to contain a strong public debt increase, first signs of economic recovery are emerging. However, as SIM Europe results show, very few measures to soften the social consequences have been enacted. Spain scores second to last in the ‘Labour Market Access’ dimension of the Social Justice Index 2015, with the greatest deterioration among all EU countries compared to 2008. According to the Reform Barometer 2015, the quality of labour market reforms in Spain ranks last in the EU. With economic recovery gaining momentum, high priority should be given to ameliorating labour market access through higher education improvements, professional training, investments into R&D and promotion of high added-value industries.

Significance of clay minerals in shoaling problems /

Mode of access: Internet.

Readings in social problems,

"References" at end of some of the chapters.

Running the gauntlet; a study of the capture of pawns, en passant, in chess problems,

Introduction in English and German on opposite pages.

The law in business problems; cases and other materials for the study of legal aspects of business,

--Introductory topics.--I. Engaging in business.--II. The law of contracts with special reference to the relation of buyer and seller.--III. The enforcement of contracts with special reference to the relation of debtor and creditor.--IV. The law of business organization.

Summary report from Workshop on Two-Dimensional Mathematical Models for Use in Hydraulic Problems /

Mode of access: Internet.

Mental health in Appalachia; problems and prospects in the central highlands. A report based on a conference

"Prepared by Public Information Section, National Institute of Mental Health."

The role of a state vocational rehabilitation agency in solving problems in a depressed area; project 790.

Cover title: Depressed areas study.

Forest diseases in California : problems and the research program of the Pacific Southwest Station /

"August 1961."

Teaching and learning German language and culture in higher education in Britain:problems, challenges and didactical implications. A case study

The aim of this thesis is to explore key aspects and problems of the institutionalised teaching and learning of German language and culture in the context of German Studies in British Higher Education (HE). This investigation focuses on teaching and learning experiences in one department of German Studies in the UK, which is the micro-context of the present study, in order to provide an in-depth insight into real-life problems, strengths and weaknesses as they occur in the practice of teaching and learning German. Following Lamb (2004) and Holliday (1994), the present study acts on the assumption that each micro-context does not exist in vacuo but is always embedded in a wider socio-political and education environment, namely the macro-context, which largely determines how and what is taught. The macro-analysis of the present study surveys the socio-political developments that have recently affected the sector of modern languages and specifically the discipline of German Studies in the UK. It demonstrates the impact they have had on teaching and learning German at the undergraduate level in Britain. This context is interesting inasmuch as the situation in Britain is to a large extent a paradigmatic example of the developments in German Studies in English-speaking countries. Subsequently, the present study explores learning experiences of a group of thirty-five first year students. It focuses on their previous experiences in learning German, exposure to the target language, motivation, learning strategies and difficulties encountered, when learning German at the tertiary level. Then, on the basis of interviews with five lecturers of German, teaching experience in the context under study is explored, problems and successful teaching strategies discussed.

Image Quotient Set Transforms in Segmentation Problems

Image content interpretation is much dependent on segmentations efficiency. Requirements for the image recognition applications lead to a nessesity to create models of new type, which will provide some adaptation between law-level image processing, when images are segmented into disjoint regions and features are extracted from each region, and high-level analysis, using obtained set of all features for making decisions. Such analysis requires some a priori information, measurable region properties, heuristics, and plausibility of computational inference. Sometimes to produce reliable true conclusion simultaneous processing of several partitions is desired. In this paper a set of operations with obtained image segmentation and a nested partitions metric are introduced.