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In this article, we consider the portfolio selection problem as a Bayesian decision problem. We compare the traditional mean–variance and mean–variance–skewness efficient portfolios. We develop bi-level programming problem to investigate the market’s preference for risk by using observed (market) weights. Numerical experiments are conducted on a portfolio formed by the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Numerical results show that the market’s preferences are better explained when skewness is included.

he study was born from an interest into how language students are driven to read in a second language, do their reading preferences and habits in this second language follow those of reading in their mother tongue. The study paid attention to the issue of print versus electronic reading with these students. The study was conducted with students aged between eight and sixteen years of age at a Turkish private school. The empirical data was drawn from 182 completed questionnaires and four group interview sessions during 2019. Analysis of the results show that reading preferences and habits are transferred from mother tongue to 2nd language reading, especially the feeling of the importance of reading and the pleasure from reading. Further, the study concludes that the majority of these students prefer paper-based reading for pleasure as they consider it an escape from the digital connection that normally engulfs them. The study also concluded that English is often used online for research, in fact most students saw it as a lingua franca for academic research purposes, and students accept that digital reading is necessary in this context. The study found that the motivators to read that had the largest effect on both reading in Turkish and in English were the belief that reading is important to the students and the amount of enjoyment they felt by reading. Further, as expected, the motivation to read has a greater influence on frequency of reading in Turkish than English.

Peaches are the predominant tree fruit in Utah. Preliminary estimates for 1947 indicate a crop of 933,000 bushels valued at $1,679,000, which represents approximately 27 percent of the value of the major fruits grown in Utah and 1.2 percent of the value of all agricultural commodities grown in the state (5:23). It should be noted, however, that the 1947 peach crop was somewhat above normal. The estimated average annual production over the 10-year period 1938 to 1947 was 722,000 bushels.

Il s’avère difficile d’expliquer pourquoi certains individus décident de devenir entrepreneurs malgré le risque encouru. Dans cette thèse, j’analyse les effets de plusieurs mécanismes comportementaux sur la décision d’entrée en entrepreneuriat. Le premier essai propose de séparer les effets sur la décision d’entrer sur un marché de deux mécanismes comportementaux qui ont parfois pu être confondus : la confiance en soi et l’attitude envers l’ambiguïté. Cet essai met en avant le rôle fondamental de l’attitude envers l’ambiguïté dans la décision d’entrer sur un marché, en particulier quand les résultats de l’entrée dépendent directement des compétences du décideur, comme dans le cas de l’entrepreneuriat. La nature même de l’entrepreneuriat est d’investir du capital et du temps dans le but d’obtenir des bénéfices financiers dans le futur. Comprendre les préférences temporelles pour le temps et l’argent des entrepreneurs peut permettre d’améliorer notre compréhension des facteurs déterminants de l’entrée en entrepreneuriat. Alors que de nombreuses études analysent le choix inter-temporel pour l’argent, très peu d’études se sont intéressées à comment les individus escomptent leur futur temps, malgré le fait que le temps soit une ressource limitée et de valeur. Le deuxième essai examine cette question dans une expérience en laboratoire avec incitations réelles. A l’aide d’une expérience en ligne, le troisième essai analyse les préférences temporelles pour le temps et l’argent d’un échantillon de futurs entrepreneurs et de futurs managers. / Explaining why individuals enter into entrepreneurship has been challenging. In this thesis, I take a behavioral perspective and analyze the effects on entrepreneurial entry of behavioral mechanisms that have been understudied in the entrepreneurship literature. The first essay proposes to disentangle the effects on market entry of two mechanisms that may have been confounded: overconfidence and attitude toward ambiguity. This essay highlights the critical role of ambiguity attitude on the decision to enter a market, particularly when the result depends on one’s skills, such as entry into entrepreneurship. The very nature of entrepreneurship is to invest capital and time with the hope of receiving future financial benefits. I therefore argue that understanding entrepreneurs’ temporal preferences for time and money can provide new insights on the determinants of entry into entrepreneurship. While intertemporal choice involving money has been studied extensively in the behavioral literature, very few studies have analyzed the way people discount time, despite the fact that it is a scarce and valuable resource. The second essay investigates this issue in a laboratory experiment. Finally, using a lab-in-the-field experiment, the third essay analyzes temporal preferences for money and time of a comparable sample of future entrepreneurs and future managers.

L’exposition au régime maternel durant la période périnatale, induit des processus d’empreintes orientant à long terme le phénotype et la santé des individus. De plus, les orientations alimentaires, telles que celles concernant les protéines, évoluent quantitativement et qualitativement. Ces deux constats, encouragent la communauté scientifique à s’interroger sur les conséquences de ces variations de consommation en protéines sur les générations futures. Ce projet de thèse vise à évaluer chez la descendance femelle rat, les effets d’une alimentation maternelle variant par la teneur (riche versus normal) et la qualité (sources animales versus végétales) en protéines sur la modification des préférences alimentaires et sur les risques métaboliques.Deux études ont été réalisées chez le rat. Une première étude a évalué l’impact de l’excès de protéines à travers un régime hyperprotéique (HP) à base de protéines de lait pendant la gestation. Une seconde étude a évalué les effets d’un régime HP de source protéique spécifique (lait, pois ou dinde) pendant la gestation et d’un régime de source protéique spécifique (lait, pois ou dinde) pendant l’allaitement. Une fois sevrés et jusqu’à l’âge adulte (étude 1 : 15 semaines ; étude 2 : 10 semaines), les ratons femelles ont été soumis à des modèles de « dietary self-selection » (DSS) leur laissant la possibilité de choisir la composition en macronutriments, le niveau de consommation alimentaire et la source protéique (étude 2 uniquement). Indépendamment du régime maternel, ces deux études ont montré que lorsque les sources en macronutriments étaient séparées dans le modèle DSS, les ratons présentaient une hyperphagie liée à une consommation accrue de lipides au détriment des glucides.De plus, les résultats de la seconde étude ont montré que les ratons n’orientaient pas spécifiquement leur consommation de protéines vers la source protéique à laquelle ils avaient été exposés via le régime maternel périnatal. En revanche, les deux études ont montré que la consommation d’un régime HP pendant la gestation, quelle que soit la qualité des protéines le composant, induisait une augmentation de l’adiposité chez la descendance femelle adulte. Cette augmentation était majorée lorsque la descendance avait été soumise au régime de choix (DSS), leur permettant d’augmenter leur consommation de lipides au détriment des glucides.En conclusion, l’exposition périnatale à un régime HP de qualité variable en protéines augmente la sensibilité au surpoids chez la descendance femelle adulte rat. Nous avons évalué les relations entre ces données et : la sensibilité des voies centrales du contrôle de la prise alimentaire et de la récompense, la sensibilité des voies de contrôle du métabolisme énergétique périphérique et la composition et l’activité du microbiote de l’intestin.Ces travaux apportent un grand nombre de nouvelles données indiquant clairement qu’une alimentation équilibrée en quantité et en qualité de protéines pendant la grossesse, à travers le ratio protéines/glucides et le profil en acides aminés, pourrait jouer un rôle clé sur des paramètres phénotypiques de la descendance notamment lorsqu’elle est soumise à des choix alimentaires augmentés. / Abstract : Perinatal exposure to maternal diet induces programming processes of later individual phenotype and health. Additionally, food orientations like for protein, change in terms of quantity and quality. These observations enhance scientific community to evaluate consequences of protein consumption changes on future generations.This thesis project aims to determine the consequences of modifying protein quantity and quality in maternal diets on food preferences and metabolic risks in female rat offspring.Two studies were conducted in rats. The first study evaluated the impact of protein excess in the maternal diet during gestation, through a high-protein (HP) diet composed with cow milk protein. The second study evaluated effects of (i) a HP diet composed with different protein sources (cow milk, pea, or turkey) during gestation and (ii) these different protein sources (cow milk, pea, or turkey-derived) during lactation. From weaning to adulthood (study 1: 15 weeks after birth; study 2; 10 weeks after birth), female pups were subjected to “dietary self-selection” (DSS), which allowed them to choose their own macronutrient compositions, level of food intake and protein sources (second study only).Regardless of the maternal diet, these two studies showed that when DSS was composed with separate macronutrients, rats exhibited overfeeding and increased lipid intake coupled with a decreased carbohydrate intake. Moreover, the results of the second study indicated that rats did not orient their protein intake towards the maternal protein source to which they were exposed during perinatal period. Nevertheless, the two studies showed that the maternal HP diet during gestation caused an increased adiposity in female adult offspring, regardless of the maternal protein source. This increase was stronger when offspring were subjected to DSS condition, which allowed them to increase lipid intake and decrease carbohydrate intake.In conclusion, perinatal exposure to a HP diet varying in protein quantity and quality increases the risk of becoming overweight in female rat adult offspring. We assess the relationship between these data and the the sensitivity of central pathways of food intake and reward control, the sensitivity of energetic and peripheral metabolic pathways, and the gut microbiota composition and activity.This work provides new data indicating that a balanced diet in protein quantity and quality during gestation, through a protein/carbohydrate ratio and amino acid profile, could play a key role on offspring phenotypic parameters, especially when submitted to increased dietary options.

This study is designed to gather information concerning a possible relationship between how dental students prefer to take in and communicate new information and how they prefer to be assessed. Though there are numerous references in the literature regarding the learning styles of students there are also references to the inaccuracy of such studies. Part of the problem is in the definition of what construes a particular learning style and how to match the outcomes of one study based on one set of criteria with another study based on a dissimilar set of guide lines. This study focuses on learning preferences that make up just a part of a learning style. To gather information two quantitative surveys were utilized that involved three class years of dental students attending the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. Both surveys were designed to be voluntary and anonymous assuming that the results would be fewer but more accurate. The first survey (VARK Survey), based on the principles of the modes represented by VARK (Visual, Aural, Read-write, and Kinesthetic), gathered information regarding how dental students prefer to take in and give out information when learning is the goal. The second survey (Survey II) gathered information validating the results of the first survey along with information regarding how dental students prefer to be assessed. One hundred forty five students responded to the VARK Survey and one hundred students responded to the Survey II. Results of the VARK Survey indicated that dental students rely heavily on using a combination of modes, a category termed “multimodal.” Responses to singular VARK modes resulted in Kinesthetic followed by Read/write, Aural, and Visual. The preferred methods of assessment in descending order were: Multiple-Choice, Combination of Methods, Essay, Oral Exam, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and True/False. The majority of dental education is presenting information and assessing the results of the teaching. Teaching and assessing strategies should be formulated to achieve optimal results when educating students is the goal. Understanding the interconnection between learning preferences and assessment methods is critical when striving to achieve optimal results educating dental students.

Assessment is a critical component of the educational experience. The purpose of this study was to examine dental students’ assessment preferences and their relation to students’ approaches to learning. The study also investigates the impact of gender, age, GPA and class level on dental students’ assessment preferences. Two hundred sixteen dental students at University of the Pacific Arthur Dugoni School of Dentistry have completed a self-reported 67-item questionnaire. Open-ended questions requiring long answers were the least preferred assessment method as perceived by the dental students, while multiple-choice questions are the most preferred assessment method. Deep approach to learning was significantly and positively correlated with oral test, alternative test, concept map, open-ended questions and questions that require higher order thinking. Surface approach to learning, however, was not significantly correlated with any assessment type. Age, gender, GPA and class level all have significant impact on dental students’ assessments preferences.

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