Learning technologies at the service of higher education: global trends and local Israeli opportunities

This paper provides an overview of global trends in e-Learning and opportunities opened by harnessing learning technologies at the service of the Israeli higher education. The introduction of innovative learning technologies is examined in light of an organizational change. A series of substantial issues should be taken into account to successfully manage the change. Among these are: rethinking of academic learning and instruction, redefining the role of the teachers and the students, decoupling the learning materials and the learning process, new approaches to student assessment and program evaluation, and instituting a well thought out organizational plan including a support center. The above-mentioned issues guided the introduction of a recent call for project proposals for the integration of technologies into Israeli higher education. The main principles, criteria and results of this call are described.     

Social Indeterminacy

An extension of Condorcet's paradox by McGarvey (1953) asserts that for every asymmetric relation R on a finite set of candidates there is a strict‐preferences voter profile that has the relation R as its strict simple majority relation. We prove that McGarvey's theorem can be extended to arbitrary neutral monotone social welfare functions that can be described by a strong simple game G if the voting power of each individual, measured by the Shapley–Shubik power index, is sufficiently small. Our proof is based on an extension to another classic result concerning the majority rule. Condorcet studied an election between two candidates in which the voters' choices are random and independent and the probability of a voter choosing the first candidate is p>1/2. Condorcet's jury theorem asserts that if the number of voters tends to infinity then the probability that the first candidate will be elected tends to one. We prove that this assertion extends to a sequence of arbitrary monotone strong simple games if and only if the maximum voting power for all individuals tends to zero.     

Information Independence and Common Knowledge

In Bayesian environments with private information, as described by the types of Harsanyi, how can types of agents be (statistically) disassociated from each other and how are such disassociations reflected in the agents' knowledge structure? Conditions studied are (i) subjective independence (the opponents' types are independent conditional on one's own) and (ii) type disassociation under common knowledge (the agents' types are independent, conditional on some common‐knowledge variable). Subjective independence is motivated by its implications in Bayesian games and in studies of equilibrium concepts. We find that a variable that disassociates types is more informative than any common‐knowledge variable. With three or more agents, conditions (i) and (ii) are equivalent. They also imply that any variable which is common knowledge to two agents is common knowledge to all, and imply the existence of a unique common‐knowledge variable that disassociates types, which is the one defined by Aumann.     

Bayesian Representation of Stochastic Processes under Learning: de Finetti Revisited

A probability distribution governing the evolution of a stochastic process has infinitely many Bayesian representations of the form μ=∫μdλ(θ). Among these, a natural representation is one whose components ( μ's) are ‘learnable’ (one can approximate μ by conditioning μ on observation of the process) and ‘sufficient for prediction’ (μ's predictions are not aided by conditioning on observation of the process). We show the existence and uniqueness of such a representation under a suitable asymptotic mixing condition on the process. This representation can be obtained by conditioning on the tail-field of the process, and any learnable representation that is sufficient for prediction is asymptotically like the tail-field representation. This result is related to the celebrated de Finetti theorem, but with exchangeability weakened to an asymptotic mixing condition, and with his conclusion of a decomposition into i.i.d. component distributions weakened to components that are learnable and sufficient for prediction.     

Structural sources of personnel problems in multinational corporations: Third-country nationals

The paper examines the extent to which multinational corporations (MNCs) whose staffing policies approach the genuine multinational model are free of the dysfunctions found by the authors in earlier studies of ethnocentric MNCs. The findings are based on comparative research in 51 MNCs, and intensive diagnostic studies of seven subsidiaries of MNCs operating and headquartered in four continents. The findings may be summed up as follows: (1) certain, but very few, morale problems have indeed been eliminated; (2) others are still present; (3) others are still present and their effect has intensified; and (4) new problems have appeared which are unique to the staffing policy approximating to the genuine multinational model. These findings shed new light on several of the assumptions underlying this model. The general conclusion is that each prevalent type of staffing policy has several sources of morale problems—some inherent in its uniqueness, and others shared by the alternative staffing policies—irrespective of the personal qualifications of the managers. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect that a change toward the genuine multinational model would solve the basic morale problems prevalent in the dominant type of MNCs.     

Framing the rabbit to snare the votes

Results in cognitive psychology and experimental economics suggest that people are prone to systematic misperception of policy. This paper embodies voters’ misperceptions of policy into a standard political economy framework with complete information, and examines whether and to what extent political parties may use this misperception to manipulate voters and derive political gains. We analyze the equilibria and welfare implications for different setups. A payroll tax incidence detailed example is used to illustrate the framework. The paper is based in part on a chapter in the second author’s Ph.D. dissertation. The authors wish to thank Elhanan Helpman, seminar participants in Silvaplana and Bonn University and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. The authors are grateful for financial assistance by the Sapir Fund.     

Slave dealers,women, pregnancy,and abortion: The story of a circassian slave‐girl in mid‐nineteenth century Cairo

Revd Richard Price was one of the leading intellectual lights of Rational Dissent in late eighteenth-century Britain and was prominent in campaigns for religious and parliamentary reform. Hailed as an ‘Apostle of Liberty’ by the American and French Revolutionaries, Price was also an early subscriber to the Abolition Society in London. While prominent among British Enlightenment figures he had, however, a low profile as an abolitionist and is seldom mentioned in scholarship on abolition. This study discusses the nature of Price's antislavery and his relationship with Americans such as Thomas Jefferson. It sheds more light on the degree to which the emergence of abolitionism depended upon circumstances and how well it combined with other aims and priorities.     

Serum oxidizability potential is associated with age and exercise test results

The purpose of this paper is to find out whether serum oxidizability potential measured before an exercise test (EXT) correlates with age and ischemic heart disease severity. Oxidizability potential was determined in 3 age groups, in gr. I patients < 45 years, in gr. II age range = 45 - 70years {\hbox{range}} = {45} - {7}0{\hbox{years}} , and in gr. III patients > 70 years. Included subjects had chronic ischemic heart disease (IHD) and underwent a symptom-limited EXT upon initiation of a cardiac rehabilitation program. The thermo-chemiluminescence (TCL) assay was used to assess serum oxidizability potential. This assay is based on heat-induced oxidation of serum, leading to the formation of electronically excited species in the form of unstable carbonyls, which further decompose into stable carbonyls and light energy (low chemiluminescence). Measured photons emission is represented by a kinetic curve which is described by its amplitude and slope (=ratio). We assessed the correlations of TCL ratio with age, exercise duration, metabolic equivalents (METS), maximal heart rate (mHR), maximal systolic BP, >1 mm S-T depression, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)> or <40%, previous myocardial infarction, and aorto-coronary bypass surgery. A high TCL ratio (%) correlated well with METS (r = 0.82), mHR (r = 0.77) and with exercise-induced S-T segment shift (r = 0.86, p < 0.05). A lower serum oxidizability potential, expressed as a low TCL ratio, thus suggestive of a previous high oxidative stress, was found in the two older age groups compared to gr. I (<45 years), p = 0.041, and in particular, in gr. III patients with low LVEF%. The TCL ratio (%) in gr. III was 188.7 ± 14.5, 192 ± 17 in gr. II, and 214 ± 13 in gr. I (p < 0.05), and was 166 ± 13.1 in gr. III with LVEF < 45% as compared to 271 ± 15.7 in gr. I patients with LVEF > 45% (p < 0.01). A trend for lower TCL ratio (%) was found in diabetic, hypertensive, and post-coronary bypass surgery patients. A paradoxically low TCL ratio (low oxidizability potential) was observed in patients without S-T depression compared to patients with S-T depression (189 ± 22 vs. 201 ± 15, p = NS), due to the fact these patients had a much lower LVEF% and a lower exercise capacity. Serum oxidizability potential is associated with age, EXT parameters, results, and IHD severity. TCL ratio is an “easy-to-measure marker” that might be incorporated into risk assessment and prediction in aged IHD patients.