In this paper, we apply particle swarm optimisation to the construction of optimal risky portfolios for financial investments. Constructing an optimal risky portfolio is a high-dimensional constrained optimisation problem where financial investors look for an optimal combination of their investments among different financial assets with the aim of achieving a maximum reward-to-variability ratio...

Alcohol dependence is associated with heightened risk tolerance and altered decision-making. This raises the question as to whether alcohol dependent patients (ADP) are incapable of proper risk assessment. We investigated how healthy controls (HC) and ADP engage neural networks to cope with the increased cognitive demands of risky decisions. We collected fMRI data while 34 HC and 16 ADP played ...

There is a paucity of experimental data addressing how peers influence adolescent risk-taking. Here, we examined peer effects on risky decision-making in adults and adolescents using a virtual social context that enabled experimental control over the peer "interactions." 40 adolescents (age 11-18) and 28 adults (age 20-38) completed a risk-taking (Wheel of Fortune) task under four conditions: i...

Adolescents engage in more risky behavior when they are with peers and show, on average, heightened susceptibility to peer influence relative to children and adults. However, individual differences in susceptibility to peer influence are not well understood. The current study examined whether the effect of peers on adolescents’ risky decision making was moderated by pubertal status. Participant...

Objectives—The current study examines the prevalence of health risk behaviors and their cumulative effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) among a sample of adults. Age cohort is also examined to determine the role of age in predicting CVD and risky health behaviors. Method—Medical records of a sample of adults from the Seattle Longitudinal Study categorized into one of four age-group cohorts w...

The present study explored the relationship between risky cybersecurity behaviours, attitudes towards cybersecurity in a business environment, Internet addiction, and impulsivity. 538 participants in part-time or full-time employment in the UK completed an online questionnaire, with responses from 515 being used in the data analysis. The survey included an attitude towards cybercrime and cybers...

OBJECTIVE The current study examines the prevalence of health risk behaviors and their cumulative effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) among a sample of adults. Age cohort is also examined to determine the role of age in predicting CVD and risky health behaviors. METHOD Medical records of a sample of adults from the Seattle Longitudinal Study categorized into one of four age-group cohorts ...

In this study, respondents from the P.R.C., U.S.A., Germany, and Poland were found to differ in risk preference, as measured by buying prices for risky financial options. Chinese respondents were significantly less risk-averse in their pricing than Americans when risk preference was assessed in the traditional expected-utility framework. However, these apparent differences in risk preference we...

This paper characterizes conditions under which a risky coupon bond is equivalent to a portfolio of risky zero-coupon bonds. This characterization is extended to enable the estimation of firm specific zero-coupon bond prices from risky coupon bond prices for the determination of firm specific credit risk curves.  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.