This paper will examine the effects of inside information on bid-ask spreads when the probability of insider trading and the likelihood of an informational event occurring varies using a theoretical, simulation-based approach. The results show that bid-ask spreads narrow as the number of time periods increase, regardless of probability of insider trading or the likelihood of an informational event occurring. For a high, given likelihood of an informational event occurring, the highest average spreads were found for lower probabilities of insider trading as time increased. For a high, given probability of insider trading, the highest average spreads were found for lower likelihoods of an informational event occurring as time increased. The variances increased along with the probability of insider trading as well as with the likelihood of an informational event occurring. The maximum average spread settled near 0.25, typically found for a probability of insider trading of 1 and a likelihood of an information event occurring of 0.5. The results verify previous research done by Glosten and Milgrom (1985), Easley, Hvidkjaer and O’Hara (2002) and Potterton (2011). The results also may reconcile the differences between the findings of Easley, Hvidkjaer and O’Hara (2002) and Potterton (2011).

Competing speech seems to pose a greater challenge to spoken language comprehension than does competing noise, especially for older adults. The difficulties of older adults may be due to declines in auditory and cognitive processing. However, evidence suggests that the use of top-down information processing to overcome this interference may be preserved in aging. This research investigated the effect of speech- and noise masking on language comprehension, as well as age-related differences in the use of top-down processing to overcome masking. Topic I examined whether younger and older adults gain the same release from masking given a partial preview of a target sentence in quiet (auditory prime) prior to hearing the full sentence in noise, and investigated the auditory factors contributing to the advantage provided by the primes. Results showed that despite age-related declines in overall performance, younger and older listeners benefited similarly from priming. This benefit was not attributable to cues about the target talker’s voice or fluctuations in the amplitude envelope of the target sentences. Topics II and III examined the effect of speech- and noise masking on the time-course of stream segregation. The analyses revealed that stream segregation takes time to build up when a speech target is masked by other speech, but not when it is masked by noise. Subsequent analyses showed that in younger adults, the delay in segregation under speech masking was primarily due to the vocal similarities between the talkers, with interference from the semantic content of the masker playing a secondary role in impeding performance. The results also showed that older listeners were less efficient than younger listeners in segregating speech from speech-like maskers. Furthermore, older listeners benefited less than younger listeners when the amplitude envelope modulations of maskers were limited. Overall, the findings indicate that some of the language comprehension difficulties experienced by older listeners in noisy environments may be due to age-related declines in stream segregation and a decreased ability to benefit from fluctuations in the amplitude envelopes of maskers. However, benefit from priming may help offset some of these age-related declines in auditory scene analysis.

Les plates-formes publiques d’accès aux contenus culturels sont aujourd’hui marginales au regard du développement mondial des plates-formes privées. Le modèle du courtage informationnel permet d’observer et de décrire ces plates-formes en analysant la fonction centrale d’intermédiation et son positionnement vis-à-vis de l’amont et de l’aval de la plateforme elle-même. L’analyse des services géoCulture permet de qualifier ces formes publiques de courtage informationnel et de les différencier des plates-formes privées. Remplissant des missions de service public, les plates-formes étudiées se caractérisent par une forte volonté de coopération entre les acteurs et d’éditorialisation des contenus. Leur développement reste cependant freiné par la poursuite d’objectifs divergents voire contradictoires. En particulier,l’objectif d’animer une communauté de contributeurs l’emporte sur l’objectif de développement des usages, alors que ce dernier reste la priorité absolue des plates-formes privées. / Public access platforms to cultural content are today marginal in comparison to the global development of private access platforms. The model of informational brokerage enables us to observe and describe these platforms by analysing the central function of intermediation and its positioning with the actors upstream and downstream the platform itself. The analysis of geoCulture services makes it possible to qualify these public forms of information brokerage and to differentiate them from private platforms. Fulfilling public service missions, the platforms studied are characterized by a strong desire for cooperation between the actors and the editorialization of content. However, their development remains restrained by the pursuit of divergent, perhaps even contradictory, goals. More precisely, the objective of moderating acommunity of contributors prevails on the development of usages, where as the latter remains the ultimate priority of private platforms.

Este trabalho aborda a necessidade de multifuncionalidade na Controladoria nas organizações existentes, em função das demandas informacionais exigidas nos dias atuais. Demandas estas que, se não atendidas e entendidas, podem provocar um impacto no resultado econômico e financeiro da empresa, com consequências que colocam em risco, inclusive a sobrevivência da mesma. Entende-se por demanda informacional, as necessidades informativas dos usuários – todos aqueles que detiverem maior ou menor poder decisório – que venham a facilitar na redução das incertezas nas tomadas de decisões revertendo em prol do próprio objetivo intrínseco de uma empresa: sua rentabilidade. Necessidades informativas não significam somente aquelas informações mensuráveis, mas também, toda e qualquer informação que de alguma forma contribua para a tomada de decisões. Se observarmos a empresa numa visão sistêmica, a demanda informacional estará em constante transformação e cabe à Controladoria retroalimentar este sistema, servindo de certa forma, também, de “usuário” na medida em que possui uma interdependência quanto à organização e utilização de informações. Justamente pela amplitude do tema e do papel da Controladoria propriamente dita, recorre-se a vários ramos do conhecimento como suporte – abordando-se desde a visão pragmática de negócios com a Contabilidade, passando pela Economia, Economia da informação, aporte da Teoria da Agência e conceito de Assimetria informacional, até as interrogações de entendimento e estudo linguístico com a utilização da Semiótica e suas questões semânticas. Também estão incluídos os estudos dos processos e teorias de informação e de comunicação que, seguindo certo rigor teórico, são conceitos diferentes e, por isso, teorias diferentes e fundamentais para entender como se constituem e se processam as informações dentro da estrutura organizacional, de que forma podem se reprocessar para constituir um novo tipo de relacionamento e a importância da Controladoria na constituição deste novo modelo. Em suma, este trabalho busca a interlocução destas várias ciências – Economia, Contabilidade e Comunicação, exigência para os profissionais que pretendam, direta ou indiretamente, envolverem-se com as questões de Controladoria. / This paper addresses the need for multi-functionality on the Controllership in the existing organizations, according to the informational demands required nowadays. These demands which, if not addressed and understood, can cause an impact on the company economic and financial results, with consequences that threaten even its survival. Informational demand is understood as the information needs of users – all of those who hold more or less decision-making power - that will facilitate the reduction of uncertainty in decision-making in favor of reversing the own intrinsic goal of a company: its profitability. Information needs do not mean only those measurable information, but also any information that somehow contributes to the decision-making. Looking at the company in a systemic view, the informational demand will be constantly changing and it is up to the Controllership to give feedback for this system, serving in a way, also, as the "User" as it has an interdependence in the organization and use of information. Due to the scope of the theme and the role of the Controllership itself, it resorts to various branches of knowledge and support - approaching from the pragmatic view of business with Accounting, through Economics, Economics of Information, contribution of the Agency Theory and concept of Information asymmetry, to the questions of understanding and linguistic study with the use of semiotics and its semantic issues. Also included are studies of information and communication processes and theories, following some theoretical rigor, the concepts are different and therefore different and fundamental theories to understand how they form and process the information within the organizational structure of how they can be reprocessed to form a new type of relationship and the importance of Controllership on the constitution of this new model. In short, this work aims at dialoguing these various sciences - Economics, Accounting and Communication, a demand for professionals who wish to, directly or indirectly, engage with the issues of Controllership.

Este trabalho aborda a necessidade de multifuncionalidade na Controladoria nas organizações existentes, em função das demandas informacionais exigidas nos dias atuais. Demandas estas que, se não atendidas e entendidas, podem provocar um impacto no resultado econômico e financeiro da empresa, com consequências que colocam em risco, inclusive a sobrevivência da mesma. Entende-se por demanda informacional, as necessidades informativas dos usuários – todos aqueles que detiverem maior ou menor poder decisório – que venham a facilitar na redução das incertezas nas tomadas de decisões revertendo em prol do próprio objetivo intrínseco de uma empresa: sua rentabilidade. Necessidades informativas não significam somente aquelas informações mensuráveis, mas também, toda e qualquer informação que de alguma forma contribua para a tomada de decisões. Se observarmos a empresa numa visão sistêmica, a demanda informacional estará em constante transformação e cabe à Controladoria retroalimentar este sistema, servindo de certa forma, também, de “usuário” na medida em que possui uma interdependência quanto à organização e utilização de informações. Justamente pela amplitude do tema e do papel da Controladoria propriamente dita, recorre-se a vários ramos do conhecimento como suporte – abordando-se desde a visão pragmática de negócios com a Contabilidade, passando pela Economia, Economia da informação, aporte da Teoria da Agência e conceito de Assimetria informacional, até as interrogações de entendimento e estudo linguístico com a utilização da Semiótica e suas questões semânticas. Também estão incluídos os estudos dos processos e teorias de informação e de comunicação que, seguindo certo rigor teórico, são conceitos diferentes e, por isso, teorias diferentes e fundamentais para entender como se constituem e se processam as informações dentro da estrutura organizacional, de que forma podem se reprocessar para constituir um novo tipo de relacionamento e a importância da Controladoria na constituição deste novo modelo. Em suma, este trabalho busca a interlocução destas várias ciências – Economia, Contabilidade e Comunicação, exigência para os profissionais que pretendam, direta ou indiretamente, envolverem-se com as questões de Controladoria. / This paper addresses the need for multi-functionality on the Controllership in the existing organizations, according to the informational demands required nowadays. These demands which, if not addressed and understood, can cause an impact on the company economic and financial results, with consequences that threaten even its survival. Informational demand is understood as the information needs of users – all of those who hold more or less decision-making power - that will facilitate the reduction of uncertainty in decision-making in favor of reversing the own intrinsic goal of a company: its profitability. Information needs do not mean only those measurable information, but also any information that somehow contributes to the decision-making. Looking at the company in a systemic view, the informational demand will be constantly changing and it is up to the Controllership to give feedback for this system, serving in a way, also, as the "User" as it has an interdependence in the organization and use of information. Due to the scope of the theme and the role of the Controllership itself, it resorts to various branches of knowledge and support - approaching from the pragmatic view of business with Accounting, through Economics, Economics of Information, contribution of the Agency Theory and concept of Information asymmetry, to the questions of understanding and linguistic study with the use of semiotics and its semantic issues. Also included are studies of information and communication processes and theories, following some theoretical rigor, the concepts are different and therefore different and fundamental theories to understand how they form and process the information within the organizational structure of how they can be reprocessed to form a new type of relationship and the importance of Controllership on the constitution of this new model. In short, this work aims at dialoguing these various sciences - Economics, Accounting and Communication, a demand for professionals who wish to, directly or indirectly, engage with the issues of Controllership.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the differential impact of informational delivery systems T1 (games and simulations), T2 (closed-circuit television), T3 (programmed learning), and T4 (standard lecture and discussion) on student understanding of elementary economic concepts as measured by the Test of Understanding in College Economics. In addition, the study seeks to determine whether a significant relationship exists between students' revealed preferences for specific informational delivery systems and increased economic understanding, and whether a significant relationship exists between students' evaluation of specific informational delivery systems as most effective in preparation for class examinations and increased economic understanding.

O estudo dos centros geradores de padrão, CPGs, ´e um excelente exemplo das limitações do método reducionista, na tentativa de explicar um comportamento de ordem mais global. Não queremos, com isso, relegar a descrição esmiuçada dos mecanismos biofísicos e moleculares ao ostracismo. Muito pelo contrário, iremos nos apropriar de um subconjunto desses conceitos, na forma do modelo de Hodgkin & Huxley, para construir um sistema de simulação computacional de redes neurais, em pequena escala, passível de realizar duas métricas. Uma destinada a medir a complexidade da geração de informação circulante interna a rede, enquanto a outra traz dados relativos ao consumo energético das células neurais. Espera-se, com isso, alguma resposta para a seguinte questão: existe algum mecanismo, algum princípio básico em redes que oscilam, capaz de mapear um mínimo de uma grandeza física externa em algum outro mínimo interno a rede? Ao que tudo indica a resposta é afirmativa. Apresentaremos um tal ponto de minimização, juntamente com um formalismo, ainda em desenvolvimento, que justifica os resultados / The study of central pattern generators is a great example of the limitations in a reductionist approach, to achieve global knowledge about a system. We are not neglecting the importance of biophysical and molecular mechanisms. Quite the contrary, we will apply some of this concepts by means of Hodgkin & Huxley formalism, to build up a small form factor neural network software simulator. This platform will be able to perform two measurements, informational complexity and metabolic consumption with the aim of answer the question: is there some mechanism, some basic principle in oscillatory networks, capable of mapping a minimum in an external physical quantity into another minimum internal to the network? It seems that the answer is affirmative. We will present this minimization point, together with an under development formalism, to embase the results

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-09-06T14:37:18Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação PPGCI versão Final 09_03_2016.pdf: 2349104 bytes, checksum: 9576c3622492d9a3c872a3dba18db06e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-06T14:37:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação PPGCI versão Final 09_03_2016.pdf: 2349104 bytes, checksum: 9576c3622492d9a3c872a3dba18db06e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-04 / Este estudo identificou, mapeou e analisou os documentos constantes nos acervos técnicos de engenharia, no Domínio de Estudos e Projetos Civis da unidade de geração de energia elétrica da Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco – com o objetivo de explicar as diferenças de escopo e o alcance da informatividade dos documentos produzidos, recebidos e armazenados. Especificamente, foram mapeados os repositórios de informações e, ainda, descreveu-se o conteúdo informativo registrado nos principais documentos desse domínio. A pesquisa é de natureza qualiquantitativa, descritiva-exploratória. Buscou-se o seu delineamento por meio do método Estudo de Caso. Os procedimentos concernentes a esta pesquisa foram pautados na busca exploratória de informações acerca do objeto de estudo. A coleta dos dados foi viabilizada por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e mapeamento do acervo de documentos, observação assistemática e pesquisa documental. No tocante aos procedimentos de análise de dados, os documentos da unidade organizacional estudada foram mapeados e apresentados de forma tabelar, com a respectiva descrição do seu potencial informativo e seu uso relevante para a tomada de decisão. Foram analisados também os fatores obstativos e impulsionadores para o uso mais efetivo desse patrimônio documental. Como resultado desta pesquisa, foi elaborado um mapa documental preliminar referente às atividades técnicas no domínio citado, uma espécie de guia para indicar a localização desses documentos e o seu conteúdo informacional. / This study identified, mapped and analyzed the documents contained in the technical collections of engineering, in the Domain of Studies and Projects Civilian of the Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco power generation unit in order to explain the scope of differences and the range of informativeness of documents produced, received and stored. Specifically, the information repositories were mapped and also described the information content recorded in the main documents in this domain. The research is by nature qualitative quantitative, descriptive and exploratory. Sought to your design through the method Case Study. The procedures regarding to this research were based in the exploratory search for information about study object. The data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews, mapping of the body of document, observation unsystematic and documentary research. With regard to data analysis procedures, the documents studied organizational unit were mapped and presented in tabular form, with its description of its information potential and its relevant use for decision-making. In addition, this research aimed to analyze impediment and driver factors for the most effective use of this documentary heritage. As result of this research, a preliminary document map was drawn, which serves as a guide to indicate these documents location and informational content, In addition, this research aimed to analyze impediment and driver factors for the most effective use of this documentary heritage. As result of this research, a preliminary document map was drawn, related to the technical activities in the said domain, which serves as a guide to indicate the location of these documents and their informational content.

This research is aimed at identifying political bias in mainstream media news channels. Specifically, this thesis focuses on political bias portrayed through the media following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. This analysis explores the media’s coverage of the initial travel ban (enforced by executive order) during the first month of the Trump presidency. The content in this research explores specific frames, facts, statistics, wording, phrasing, and overall presentations of two primetime media hosts, Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity. This research explores several presentations from each host, all pertaining to the Trump Administration’s initial travel ban. Framing theory is used throughout the manuscript to emphasize the manner in which each host presents news and information, while also distinguishing the differences between each host due to their partisan agendas. Through this research, it was found that both media hosts presented news and information on the same issue (the travel ban) through completely different perspectives. Each host varied drastically in tone, phrasing, and facts of emphasis, while also presenting each issue in a manner that aligns with a specific partisan agenda. This research demonstrates that partisan agendas and perceived audience needs take priority over the reporting of objective facts and straightforward coverage on the issue of immigration in the United States.

The diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of innovations in golf enterprise illustrated on the case study GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB HODKOVIČKY, a.s. Concretely, I discuss the possibility of implementation of new informational system that would cover a wide range of processes and services, including outsourcing of already solved problems or development of own software. In the theoretical part I describe the conditions for making business, the factors of prosperity of a company and innovations in general, last but not least I pay attention to the utilize of managerial information systems and description of golf environment. The empirical part then analyzes the valuation of the reference company and its processes, describes the innovations in golf environment, compares outsourcing informational systems and proposes own innovation suitable for the company. The aim of the thesis is to create a background for strategic managerial decisions in the field of customer system, compare advantages and disadvantages of proposed changes and recommend the best solution to the owners for realization.