O principal objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que uma convenção social está fortemente relacionada com o conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado. Através da interação de longo prazo e do aprendizado, os agentes podem chegar a um acordo, mesmo com suposições pouco restritivas e que possibilitem uma interpretação mais natural e realista do conceito de equilíbrio em Teoria dos Jogos. Inicialmente a suposição de conhecimento comum é apresentado de maneira formal e informal. O conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado é apresentado com exemplos. Finalmente, a relação entre o equilíbrio correlacionado e a convenção social é analisada. / The main purpose of this dissertation is to show that a convention can be related to a correlated equilibrium. Through the long run interaction and learning, the players can reach an agreement, even if we relax the traditional assumptions of Game Theory, and we can find a more natural and plausible interpretation of equilibrium. Initially the common knowledge assumption is presented in a formal and informal way. The correlated equilibrium is presented with examples. Finally, the relation between correlated equilibrium and convention is analyzed.

Using best-practices and supports that apply the least dangerous assumption (LDA) is a powerful tool for increasing overall student quality of life and keeping alive a vision of high achievement for all students. This presentation will focus on research and evidence based strategies to promote the LDA for students with significant disabilities regarding accessing personally relevant academic instruction with meaningful student centered outcomes. OBJECTIVES: By the end of this session, participants will be able to: a) identify four criteria to promote Least Dangerous Assumption b) discuss ways to successfully implement the four criteria in their classroom to meet the needs of a wide range of diverse students with significant disabilities c) identify resources that incorporate these four criteria and are applicable to students from diverse backgrounds

<p>This thesis consists of four papers about the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model in survival analysis. </p><p>The <b>first paper </b>compares the hazard ratio estimated from the Cox model to an exact calculation of the geometric average of the hazard ratio when the underlying assumption of proportional hazards is false, i.e. when the hazards are not proportional. The estimates are evaluated in a simulation study.</p><p>The <b>second paper</b> describes and compares six of the most common numerical procedures to check the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model. The tests are evaluated in a simulation study.</p><p>Six graphical procedures to check the same assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model are described and compared in the <b>third paper</b>. A criterion for rejection is derived for each procedure, to make it possible to compare the results of the different methods. The procedures are evaluated in a simulation study.</p><p>In the <b>fourth paper </b>the effects of covariate measurement error on testing the assumption of proportional hazards is investigated. Three of the most common numerical procedures to check the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model are evaluated in a simulation study. </p>

For the last 46 years, the countries of the world have tried to reduce the number of chronically hungry people. Despite all the efforts, the numbers have barely budged from the over 850 million people who were chronically hungry in 1974 until the 2007-2009 food price crisis, when the numbers increased to over 1.02 billion. The blame for this situation has variously been put on bad governance, the lack of adequate market reforms, the market reforms that were imposed on developing nations, and globalization. Food, like other products in this globalized world, is allocated using the market system. One likely place to look for the cause of continuing hunger is at the assumptions that underlie the market system, in particular the assumption of non-coerciveness. This assumption asserts that the market transaction—in this case for food—is freely entered into by both the buyer and the seller and that either can refuse to enter into the transaction if it is not to their advantage. After looking at the traditional understanding of coerciveness in economics, this dissertation examines the logic system of economics concluding that the issue of non-coerciveness is a moral issue, and the argument of Frank Knight that the question of non-coerciveness is an issue of ethics. Using the work of Michael Keeley, this paper concludes that broadly accepted human rights is the best possible criterion for determining whether or not the aggregate food market is non-coercive. If the human right to food is abridged then it can be said that the aggregate food market is coercive and the assumption of non-coerciveness for the aggregate food market does not hold. With 1.02 billion people chronically hungry, 1/6 of humanity, it is clear that the right to food has been abridged and the aggregate food market is coercive. To overcome chronic hunger and enforce the right to food, governments, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations are going to have to supplement markets with non-market measures. The dissertation concludes with a number of recommendations for non-market measures that can be taken to ensure that all people enjoy the right to food.

This thesis consists of four papers about the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model in survival analysis. The <b>first paper </b>compares the hazard ratio estimated from the Cox model to an exact calculation of the geometric average of the hazard ratio when the underlying assumption of proportional hazards is false, i.e. when the hazards are not proportional. The estimates are evaluated in a simulation study. The <b>second paper</b> describes and compares six of the most common numerical procedures to check the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model. The tests are evaluated in a simulation study. Six graphical procedures to check the same assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model are described and compared in the <b>third paper</b>. A criterion for rejection is derived for each procedure, to make it possible to compare the results of the different methods. The procedures are evaluated in a simulation study. In the <b>fourth paper </b>the effects of covariate measurement error on testing the assumption of proportional hazards is investigated. Three of the most common numerical procedures to check the assumption of proportional hazards for the Cox model are evaluated in a simulation study.

Recommendation systems are emerging as an important business application as the demand for personalized services in E-commerce increases. Collaborative filtering techniques are widely used for predicting a user's preference or generating a list of items to be recommended. In this thesis, we develop several new approaches for collaborative filtering based on model combination and kernel smoothing. Specifically, we start with an experimental study that compares a wide variety of CF methods under different conditions. Based on this study, we formulate a combination model similar to boosting but where the combination coefficients are functions rather than constant. In another contribution we formulate and analyze a local variation of matrix factorization. This formulation constructs multiple local matrix factorization models and then combines them into a global model. This formulation is based on the local low-rank assumption, a slightly different but more plausible assumption about the rating matrix. We apply this assumption to both rating prediction and ranking problems, with both empirical validations and theoretical analysis. We contribute with this thesis in four aspects. First, the local approaches we present significantly improve the accuracy of recommendations both in rating prediction and ranking problems. Second, with the more realistic local low-rank assumption, we fundamentally change the underlying assumption for matrix factorization-based recommendation systems. Third, we present highly efficient and scalable algorithms which take advantage of parallelism, suited for recent large scale datasets. Lastly, we provide an open source software implementing the local approaches in this thesis as well as many other recent recommendation algorithms, which can be used both in research and production.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que uma convenção social está fortemente relacionada com o conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado. Através da interação de longo prazo e do aprendizado, os agentes podem chegar a um acordo, mesmo com suposições pouco restritivas e que possibilitem uma interpretação mais natural e realista do conceito de equilíbrio em Teoria dos Jogos. Inicialmente a suposição de conhecimento comum é apresentado de maneira formal e informal. O conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado é apresentado com exemplos. Finalmente, a relação entre o equilíbrio correlacionado e a convenção social é analisada. / The main purpose of this dissertation is to show that a convention can be related to a correlated equilibrium. Through the long run interaction and learning, the players can reach an agreement, even if we relax the traditional assumptions of Game Theory, and we can find a more natural and plausible interpretation of equilibrium. Initially the common knowledge assumption is presented in a formal and informal way. The correlated equilibrium is presented with examples. Finally, the relation between correlated equilibrium and convention is analyzed.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que uma convenção social está fortemente relacionada com o conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado. Através da interação de longo prazo e do aprendizado, os agentes podem chegar a um acordo, mesmo com suposições pouco restritivas e que possibilitem uma interpretação mais natural e realista do conceito de equilíbrio em Teoria dos Jogos. Inicialmente a suposição de conhecimento comum é apresentado de maneira formal e informal. O conceito de equilíbrio correlacionado é apresentado com exemplos. Finalmente, a relação entre o equilíbrio correlacionado e a convenção social é analisada. / The main purpose of this dissertation is to show that a convention can be related to a correlated equilibrium. Through the long run interaction and learning, the players can reach an agreement, even if we relax the traditional assumptions of Game Theory, and we can find a more natural and plausible interpretation of equilibrium. Initially the common knowledge assumption is presented in a formal and informal way. The correlated equilibrium is presented with examples. Finally, the relation between correlated equilibrium and convention is analyzed.

The thesis is focused on identifying the basic assumptions for successful participation of Czech Football clubs in European competitions. One of the main motivations is the financial reward resulting from participation in European competitions. Basic assumptions are found in the team axis and their representative experience in team selection U16-U21, in the ideal age average of the basic assemblies, opponents' playability from the point of view of their nationality and an estimate of the progress of Czech teams in future years against teams by nationality. The results of the thesis clearly show that if the assumptions mentioned above are fulfilled separately the possibilities of success for the Czech teams are small. It is really important to combine these assumptions in one complex at the same time. There is not calculated with the influences we can not predict but may significantly affect the results in the competition . It is possible to estimate the success or failure of Czech teams in European team competitions from the result of this work.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not nursing staff working in a care home notice and, if they do, how they interpret signs of gerotranscendence in the residents and how they approach the residents that exhibited those signs. The study was conducted with qualitative semi-structured interviews with nursing staff active in a Swedish care home.  The theoretical approach was hermeneutic and the study was conducted due to the author’s view that the current research on gerotranscendence is sparse. The conclusion of this study is that the nursing staff were able to notice some signs connected to gerotranscendence in the residents but not all. Notification and interpretation of the signs were varied and residents were approached differently by the nursing staff due to the nursing staff’s varying theoretical and working background.