Existence of a utility on a topological semigroup

This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical framework in which a unified treatment of additive and expected utility can be given. For achieving this, elaborate structural assumptions, characterizing a simply ordered, topological semigroup, have to be established in order to construct an isomorphism with the additive group of real numbers. This construction establishes a link between additive and expected utility theory to the extent that the same mathematical considerations leading to the derivation of an additive representation are also valid for proving the expected utility theorem.     

Economic Darwinism

We define an evolutionary process of “economic Darwinism” for playing the field, symmetric games. The process captures two forces. One is “economic selection”: if current behavior leads to payoff differences, behavior yielding lowest payoff has strictly positive probability of being replaced by an arbitrary behavior. The other is “mutation”: any behavior has at any point in time a strictly positive, very small probability of shifting to an arbitrary behavior. We show that behavior observed frequently is in accordance with “evolutionary equilibrium”, a static equilibrium concept suggested in the literature. Using this result, we demonstrate that generally under positive (negative) externalities, economic Darwinism implies even more under- (over-)activity than does Nash equilibrium.     

Dose intra-subject escalation to an event (DIETE): A new method for phase 1 dose-finding utilizing systematic intra-subject dose escalation with application to T-cell engagers

T-cell engagers are a class of oncology drugs which engage T-cells to initiate immune response against malignant cells. T-cell engagers have features that are unlike prior classes of oncology drugs (e.g., chemotherapies or targeted therapies), because (1) starting dose level often must be conservative due to immune-related side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS); (2) dose level can usually be safely titrated higher as a result of subject's immune system adaptation after first exposure to lower dose; and (3) due to preventive management of CRS, these safety events rarely worsen to become dose limiting toxicities (DLTs). It is generally believed that for T-cell engagers the dose intensity of the starting dose and the peak dose intensity both correlate with improved efficacy. Existing dose finding methodologies are not designed to efficiently identify both the initial starting dose and peak dose intensity in a single trial. In this study, we propose a new trial design, dose intra-subject escalation to an event (DIETE) design, that can (1) estimate the maximum tolerated initial dose level (MTD1); and (2) incorporate systematic intra-subject dose-escalation to estimate the maximum tolerated dose level subsequent to adaptation induced by the initial dose level (MTD2) with a survival analysis approach. We compare our framework to similar methodologies and evaluate their key operating characteristics.     

Experiments in modelling recent Danish fertility curves

This paper reports the outcome of an exercise in curve fitting to annual sets of Danish age-specific fertility rates for the years 1962 to 1971 by means of least squares. Functions fitted were a cubic spline, the Hadwiger and Coale-Trussell functions, the gamma and beta densities, two versions of a polynomial, and two of Brass's relational procedures, as well as the Gompertz curve. The spline function fitted all curves far better than any of the others. The Coale-Trussell procedure and gamma density were about equal, followed by the Hadwiger function. All of these functions fit the data well. One of the polynomials fit reasonably well, but the rest of the functions were less accurate.     

Observed Interactions Indicate Protective Effects of Relationships With Parents for Referred Adolescents

This study examined whether the quality of parent–adolescent interactions moderate the association between stressful life events and internalizing and externalizing problems in referred adolescents (N=101, M age 13.41 years, SD=1.81). Adolescents and their parents reported on psychological problems at the time of referral and 4 years later. At follow‐up parents reported on stressful life events and an interaction task was conducted to observe autonomy and relatedness promoting behaviors. For adolescents exposed to stressful events, levels of internalizing and externalizing problems went up except if observed parent–adolescent interactions were characterized by high autonomy and relatedness. The results implied that autonomy and relatedness protect adolescents against the deleterious effects of stressful life events. These findings build on previous research showing for psychologically vulnerable adolescents that parenting that promotes autonomy while maintaining relatedness is associated with resilience in times of stress.     

Cognitive and motivational structure of sustainability

In this paper the cognitive and motivational perceptual structure of sustainability of light users of sustainable products are empirically compared to the Brundlandt definition and the Triple-P-Baseline definition of sustainability. Results show that light users cognitively can distinguish between the social and temporal dimensions of the Brundlandt definition, as well as the People, Planet and Prosperity dimensions of the Triple-P definition of sustainability. In the motivational structure of light users of sustainable products, all attributes that do not offer direct and personal benefits are collapsed into a single dimension. This single dimension explains purchases more parsimoniously than a more complex structure, and is itself explained by a set of psychographic predictors that appears to be related to identity.Theoretical implications are that research into consumers’ cognitive understanding of abstract constructs may fail to predict purchase behaviour of light users, because their motivational structure is not related to this understanding. Practical implications are that focusing on sustainability as a container construct that incorporates various approaches to sustainable development matches with motivations of light users and thus may induce them to purchase more sustainable products.     

什么是责任?

责任这个概念是个涵盖了关系和归因的概念——责任是按照对一种行为或其结果的预期而追溯原因的关系系统。在区分责任的不同维度的基础上,重点讨论了普遍的道义责任。道义责任并不局限于任何特殊领域,然而在原则上却是普遍的;它不容拖延、不容委派,也不容推卸,而且总是与个人相关,不可能被分割。基于对责任种类的划分,探讨了责任划分和责任分担的某些问题,并对这些问题的解决方案进行了深入的分析和探究。