Climate change could affect resource competition between resident and migratory bird species by changing the interval between their onsets of breeding or by altering their population densities. We studied interspecific nest-hole competition between resident great tits and migrant pied flycatchers in South-Western Finland over the past five decades (1953-2005). We found that appearance of fatal ...

The purpose of this study is to explore how student competition using the tit-for-tat strategy could be remedied with a minimum design change in order to support student to collaborate constructively in a computer supportedcollaborative learning system called SWoRD (Scaffolded Writing and Reviewing in the Discipline) [5], a reciprocal peer reviewing of writing system. We identified a factor for...

We describe the strategy of our negotiating agent, Nice Tit for Tat Agent, which reached the finals of the 2011 Automated Negotiating Agent Competition. It uses a Tit for Tat strategy to select its offers in a negotiation, i.e.: initially it cooperates with its opponent, and in the following rounds of negotiation, it responds in kind to the opponent’s actions. We give an overview of how to impl...

This paper investigates the effects of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) hedging activity on interest-rate volatility and proposes a model that takes these effects into account. An empirical examination suggests that the inclusion of information about MBS considerably improves model performance in pricing interest-rate options and in forecasting future interest-rate volatility. The empirical res...

We introduce Large Scale Asset Purchases (LSAPs) in a New-Keynesian DSGE model that features distinct mortgage and corporate loan markets. We show that following a significant disruption of financial intermediation, central-bank purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are uniformly less effective at easing credit market conditions and stabilizing economic activity than outright purchases ...

The collateralised debt obligation (CDO) market has grown rapidly, both globally and in Australia, over recent years. CDOs are securities that are issued against a pool of assets that can include bonds, loans or asset-backed securities (ABS) including other CDOs.2 Increasingly, this exposure is being created synthetically by the use of derivatives written on these assets, rather than physically...

Proof of concept of a cavity backed slot antenna based on inverted microstrip gap ‎waveguide (IMGW) technology is presented. Since the antenna is operating based on the ‎first resonating mode of the cavity, it is more compact compared to the ordinary cavity ‎backed slot antennas in which the second cavity mode is used for radiation. Furthermore, ‎the proposed antenna element introduces lower lo...

Eurasian penduline tits (Remiz pendulinus) have an unusually diverse breeding system consisting of frequent male and female polygamy, and uniparental care by the male or the female. Intriguingly, 30 to 40 per cent of all nests are deserted by both parents. To understand the evolution of this diverse breeding system and frequent clutch desertion, we use 6 years of field data to derive fitness ex...