Contributions in Merlin

Antipatterns are conceptually similar to patterns in thatthey document recurring solutions to common design problems.Performance Antipatternsdocument, from a performance perspective, common mistakes madeduring software development as well as their solutions.The definition of performance antipatterns concerns softwareproperties that can include static, dynamic, and deploymentaspects. Currently, such knowledge is only used by domain experts;the problem of automatically detecting and solving antipatternswithin an architectural model has not been experimented yet.In this paper we present an approach to automatically detect and solvesoftware performance antipatterns within the Palladio architectural models:the detection of an antipattern providesa software performance feedback to designers, since it suggeststhe architectural alternatives that actually allow to overcomespecific performance problems. We implemented theapproach and a case study is presented todemonstrate its validity. The system performance under studyhas been improved of 50\% by applying antipatterns' solutions.

This paper derives optimal incentive contracts for agents with other-regarding preferences. It offers a behavioral explanation for the empirically observed lack of relative performance evaluation. We analyze a principal-multi agent model and assume that agents are inequity averse or status seeking. We show that team contracts can be optimal even if the agents’ performance measures are positively correlated such that relative performance evaluation would be optimal with purely self-interested agents and even though relative performance evaluation provides additional incentives to provide effort if agents have other-regarding preferences. Furthermore, optimal incentive contracts for other-regarding agents can be low-powered as compared to contracts for purely self-interested agents.

This paper describes two robot competitions that took place within a robotics class for teachers. The robotics class was part of a two-year master's degree program that aims at educating upper secondary school teachers of different backgrounds in informatics, a discipline that is not yet a mandatory part of the school curriculum in Switzerland. The aim of these robot competitions was to familiarize the teachers with robotic hardware and software such that they would be able to design their own informatics class syllabus. We describe the robotic platforms used, the competitions, their aims and results. Furthermore, we address the question whether robots are a suitable tool for teacher education in informatics.

In this paper we model the situation where a non-renewable investment is given, for instance a resource reservoir, and show how to optimally trade-off between dividends and leverage, in order to maximize a performance indicator for shareholders, up to the bankruptcy time. We then study the way market risk (the volatility of the market price of the resource) impacts the optimal policies and the default risk of the company. The moments when the policies are rebalanced are analyzed and we give a measure of the agency costs which appear between the shareholders and the debt-holders.

In dieser Arbeit soll geklärt werden, inwiefern die Verrechnungssteuer ein Hemmnis für den Fondsstandort Schweiz darstellt, um anschliessend mögliche Lösungsansätze in Bezug auf die Umgestaltung der Verrechnungssteuer zu erarbeiten, welche die Attraktivität des schweizeri-schen Fondsplatzes steigern könnten. Während die Verrechnungssteuer selbst bereits ein Sondernis im Vergleich zum Ausland dar-stellt, wurde die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Schweiz durch die Einführung von Art. 12 Abs. 1ter VStG gar weiter geschwächt. Von den vorgeschlagen Lösungsansätzen scheinen der Übergang vom Schuldner- zum Zahl-stellenprinzip sowie die Abschaffung der Sockelsteuer auf Dividendenerträge in den schwei-zerischen DBA und die Ersetzung der Verrechnungssteuer für ausländische Anteilsinhaber durch eine Abgeltungssteuer jene Möglichkeiten zu sein, welche in der Realität am ehesten umsetzbar sein könnten.

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Mit Hilfe der Management Guidance wird durch kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen in unterschiedlicher Form über die voraussichtliche Entwicklung wesentlicher Geschäftszahlen berichtet. Vorliegende empirische Arbeiten gehen einheitlich davon aus, dass eine Punktprognose der erwarteten zukünftigen Kennzahlen anderen Formen vorzuziehen ist. Über die diesbezüglichen Präferenzen professioneller Kapitalmarktteilnehmer liegen bisher jedoch kaum gesicherte Erkenntnisse vor. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht daher auf Basis einer Fragebogenstudie die entsprechenden Präferenzen dieser wichtigen Zielgruppe. An der Befragung nahmen insgesamt 123 Kapitalmarktteilnehmer teil, insb. Sell- und Buy-Side-Analysten sowie Asset Manager. Entgegen den bisherigen Annahmen wird eine Intervallprognose als hilfreicher angesehen als eine Punktschätzung. Weitergehende Analysen erlauben Einblicke in die Präferenzen einzelner Berufsgruppen.

In 1835, Edouard Mallet published a notable but today nearly forgotten study of the average height of Genevan conscripts. His individual data included 3 029 conscripts born between 1805 and 1814, examined and measured between 1826 and 1835. Mallet’s work was only the third auxological study to be based on a large sample of individual conscript data, the other two being those of Louis-René Villermé and Adolphe Quetelet, but as far as we know Mallet's was the first to note the law of normal distribution. Like Villermé and Quetelet, Mallet explained urban/rural and international differences in average height strictly in terms of environmental and economic determinants. In the recent past, references to Mallet’s work have been rare, and limited to citations of his computed averages. We postulate that Mallet and his study deserve greater consideration for their contribution to the field of anthropometric history than they have yet received.

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