Correlated adaptation of agents in a simple market: a statistical physics perspective

We discuss recent work in the study of a simple model for the collective behaviour of diverse speculative agents in an idealized stockmarket, considered from the perspective of the statistical physics of many-body systems. The only information about other agents available to any one is the total trade at time steps. Evidence is presented for correlated adaptation and phase transitions/crossovers in the global volatility of the system as a function of appropriate information scaling dimension. Stochastically controlled irrationally of individual agents is shown to be globally advantageous. We describe the derivation of the underlying effective stochastic differential equations which govern the dynamics, and make an interpretation of the results from the point of view of the statistical physics of disordered systems.Comment: 15 Pages. 5 figure

Financing SMEs: a model for optimising the capital structure

This paper argues that the existing finance literature is inadequate with respect to its cov-erage of capital structure of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular it is argued that the cost of equity (being both conceptually ill defined and empirically non quantifiable) is not applicable to the capital structure decisions for a large proportion of SMEs and the optimal capital structure depends only on the mix of short and long term debt. The paper then presents a model for optimising the debt mix and demonstrates its practical application using an Italian firm’s debt structure as a case study

Protection of Reputed Trademarks and Keywords: Looking for Ariadne’s Thread Among Flowers, Perfumes and Bags

Historically, in the majority of judicial systems, the protection of trademarks with reputation differs from the protection of normal trademarks. It is widely recognised that reputed trademarks have an “added value” deserving wider protection. The contribution analyses the evolution of the protection of trademarks with reputation in the European Union legislation and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The First Directive strengthened the protection of trademarks with reputation both in the field of registration and in the field of infringement. Article 5(2) of the TMD leaves to Member States the possibility to protect well-known trademarks against dilution. Third parties can be prevented by the proprietor of the trademark with reputation from using signs identical or similar to this trademark. The use must take place in the course of trade, the products or services with which it is related should be similar to those for which the trademark is registered and it must take unfair advantage of the distinctiveness of the trademark or be detrimental to it. Considering the internet features, its availability worldwide and the growing number of users, it is evident that is essential for a trademark to expand its reputation and monitor if it is used by third parties that can damage its reputation or take advance of it. The protection of reputed trademarks on the internet is very discussed and problematic. Many actions have been brought for trademark infringement by the use of similar or identical signs ad keywords in search engines. The ECJ tried to order and clarify the application of EU legislation to these particular cases (Vuitton v Google, L'Oreal v Ebay and Interflora v Marks and Spencer)

The Colombian conflict: a description of a mental health program in the Department of Tolima.

Colombia has been seriously affected by an internal armed conflict for more than 40 years affecting mainly the civilian population, who is forced to displace, suffers kidnapping, extortion, threats and assassinations. Between 2005 and 2008, Médecins Sans Frontières-France provided psychological care and treatment in the region of Tolima, a strategic place in the armed conflict. The mental health program was based on a short-term multi-faceted treatment developed according to the psychological and psychosomatic needs of the population. Here we describe the population attending during 2005-2008, in both urban and rural settings, as well as the psychological treatment provided during this period and its outcomes.We observed differences between the urban and rural settings in the traumatic events reported, the clinical expression of the disorders, the disorders diagnosed, and their severity. Although the duration of the treatment was limited due to security reasons and access difficulties, patient condition at last visit improved in most of the patients. These descriptive results suggest that further studies should be conducted to examine the role of short-term psychotherapy, adapted specifically to the context, can be a useful tool to provide psychological care to population affected by an armed conflict