COVID-19, cryptocurrencies bubbles and digital market efficiency: Sensitivity and similarity analysis

Foreign direct investments present a valuable source of national competitiveness as they have attributes of capital flows provide knowledge and technology transfer from one country to target country. In this paper are used variables defined by World Economic Forum which construct Global Competitiveness Index for assessing competitiveness of the country. The purpose of the research is to examine does the national competitiveness increase enhance the level of FDI flows in transition Western Balkan economies that are not yet full members of European Union. The findings claim that larger increase in FDI per capita stocks in majority analyzed countries would have if making infrastructure more competitiveness, accelerate their technological readiness and improve innovation while certain countries should work on health and primary education and higher education and training. According to the results, there is no correlation between FDI flows and macroeconomic environment, institutions, development of financial markets, good market efficiency, labor market efficiency and business sophistication. Applying benchmark method, it is established the most competitive WB country as benchmark value for other transition countries in its neighborhood for enhancing their competitiveness, specially in the regional market. Also, it is obtained what if analysis to detect potential rise of FDI per capita stocks as a consequence of potential changes in some competitiveness variables. It is also calculated the potential increase in FDI/capita due to similar changes in different competitiveness variables.

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Children show adult-like hippocampal pattern separation for familiar but not novel events

10.31234/osf.io/3d8tv ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Susan L. Benear ◽

Elizabeth A. Horwath ◽

Emily Cowan ◽

M. Catalina Camacho ◽

Chi Ngo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Temporal Lobe ◽

Medial Temporal Lobe ◽

Developmental Change ◽

Pattern Separation ◽

Developmental Changes ◽

Similarity Analysis ◽

Separation Processes ◽

Parahippocampal Cortex ◽

Pattern Similarity

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) undergoes critical developmental change throughout childhood, which aligns with developmental changes in episodic memory. We used representational similarity analysis to compare neural pattern similarity for children and adults in hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex during naturalistic viewing of clips from the same movie or different movies. Some movies were more familiar to participants than others. Neural pattern similarity was generally lower for clips from the same movie, indicating that related content taxes pattern separation-like processes. However, children showed this effect only for movies with which they were familiar, whereas adults showed the effect consistently. These data suggest that children need more exposures to stimuli in order to show mature pattern separation processes.

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Stable neural representations of mental states across target people and stimulus modalities

10.31234/osf.io/7axzj ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Miriam E. Weaverdyck ◽

Mark Allen Thornton ◽

Diana Tamir

Keyword(s):

Mental State ◽

Mental States ◽

Brain Regions ◽

The Self ◽

Similarity Analysis ◽

Multiple Modalities ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Conceptual Core ◽

Stimulus Modalities ◽

Huge Variety

Each individual experiences mental states in their own idiosyncratic way, yet perceivers are able to accurately understand a huge variety of states across unique individuals. How do they accomplish this feat? Do people think about their own anger in the same ways as another person’s? Is reading about someone’s anxiety the same as seeing it? Here, we test the hypothesis that a common conceptual core unites mental state representations across contexts. Across three studies, participants judged the mental states of multiple targets, including a generic other, the self, a socially close other, and a socially distant other. Participants viewed mental state stimuli in multiple modalities, including written scenarios and images. Using representational similarity analysis, we found that brain regions associated with social cognition expressed stable neural representations of mental states across both targets and modalities. This suggests that people use stable models of mental states across different people and contexts.

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