cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bayesian change point detection for functional data

Abstract We propose a Bayesian method to detect change points in a sequence of functional observations that are signal functions observed with noises. Since functions have unlimited features, it is natural to think that the sequence of signal functions driving the underlying functional observations change through an evolution process, that is, different features change over time but possibly at different times. A change-point is then viewed as the cumulative effect of changes in many features, so that the dissimilarities in the signal functions before and after the change-points are at the maximum level. In our setting, features are characterized by the wavelet coefficients in their expansion. We consider a Bayesian approach by putting priors independently on the wavelet coefficients of the underlying functions, allowing a change in their values over time. Then we compute the posterior distribution of change point for each sequence of wavelet coefficients, and obtain a measure of overall similarity between two signal functions in this sequence, which leads to the notion of an overall change-point by minimizing the similarity across the change point relative to the similarities within each segment. We study the performance of the proposed method through a simulation study and apply it to a dataset on climate change.
Dynamic Low-Light Imaging with Quanta Image Sensors

Imaging in low light is difficult because the number of photons arriving at the sensor is low. Imaging dynamic scenes in low-light environments is even more difficult because as the scene moves, pixels in adjacent frames need to be aligned before they can be denoised. Conventional CMOS image sensors (CIS) are at a particular disadvantage in dynamic low-light settings because the exposure cannot be too short lest the read noise overwhelms the signal. We propose a solution using Quanta Image Sensors (QIS) and present a new image reconstruction algorithm. QIS are single-photon image sensors with photon counting capabilities. Studies over the past decade have confirmed the effectiveness of QIS for low-light imaging but reconstruction algorithms for dynamic scenes in low light remain an open problem. We fill the gap by proposing a student-teacher training protocol that transfers knowledge from a motion teacher and a denoising teacher to a student network. We show that dynamic scenes can be reconstructed from a burst of frames at a photon level of 1 photon per pixel per frame. Experimental results confirm the advantages of the proposed method compared to existing methods.
Dynamical model for social distancing in the U.S. during the COVID-19 epidemic

Abstract Background Social distancing has led to a “flattening of the curve” in many states across the U.S. This is part of a novel, massive, global social experiment which has served to mitigate the pandemic in the absence of a vaccine or effective anti-viral drugs. Hence it is important to be able to forecast hospitalizations reasonably accurately. Methods We propose on phenomenological grounds a generalized diffusion equation which incorporates the effect of social distancing to forecast the temporal evolution of the probability of having a given number of hospitalizations. The probability density function is log-normal in the number of hospitalizations, which is useful in describing pandemics where the number of hospitalizations is very high. Findings We used this insight and data to make forecasts for states using Monte Carlo methods. Back testing validates our approach, which yields good results about a week into the future. States are beginning to reopen at the time of publication and our forecasts indicate possible precursors of increased hospitalizations. Additionally we studied the reproducibility Ro in New York (Italian strain) and California (Wuhan strain). We find that even if there is a difference in the transmission of the two strains, social distancing has been able to control the progression of COVID 19. Funding None.
Rigidity of Teichmüller space

We prove the holomorphic rigidity conjecture of Teichmuller space which loosely speaking states that the action of the mapping class group uniquely determines the Teichmuller space as a complex manifold. The method of proof is through harmonic maps. We prove that the singular set of a harmonic map from a smooth n-dimensional Riemannian domain to the Weil–Petersson completion $$\overline{\mathcal {T}}$$ of Teichmuller space has Hausdorff dimension at most $$n-2$$ , and moreover, u has certain decay near the singular set. Combining this with the earlier work of Schumacher, Siu and Jost-Yau, we provide a proof of the holomorphic rigidity of Teichmuller space. In addition, our results provide as a byproduct a harmonic maps proof of both the high rank and the rank one superrigidity of the mapping class group proved via other methods by Farb–Masur and Yeung.
A dynamic over games drives selfish agents to win-win outcomes

Understanding human institutions, animal cultures and other social systems requires flexible formalisms that describe how their members change them from within. We introduce a framework for modelling how agents change the games they participate in. We contrast this between-game 'institutional evolution' with the more familiar within-game 'behavioural evolution'. We model institutional change by following small numbers of persistent agents as they select and play a changing series of games. Starting from an initial game, a group of agents trace trajectories through game space by navigating to increasingly preferable games until they converge on 'attractor' games. Agents use their 'institutional preferences' for game features (such as stability, fairness and efficiency) to choose between neighbouring games. We use this framework to pose a pressing question: what kinds of games does institutional evolution select for; what is in the attractors? After computing institutional change trajectories over the two-player space, we find that attractors have disproportionately fair outcomes, even though the agents who produce them are strictly self-interested and indifferent to fairness. This seems to occur because game fairness co-occurs with the self-serving features these agents do actually prefer. We thus present institutional evolution as a mechanism for encouraging the spontaneous emergence of cooperation among small groups of inherently selfish agents, without space, reputation, repetition, or other more familiar mechanisms. Game space trajectories provide a flexible, testable formalism for modelling the interdependencies of behavioural and institutional evolutionary processes, as well as a mechanism for the evolution of cooperation.
Detecting and characterizing close-in exoplanets with vortex fiber nulling

Vortex Fiber Nulling (VFN) is an interferometric method for suppressing starlight to detect and spectroscopically characterize exoplanets. It relies on a vortex phase mask and single-mode fiber to reject starlight while simultaneously coupling up to 20% of the planet light at separations of l 1λ/D, thereby enabling spectroscopic characterization of a large population of RV and transit-detected planets, among others, that are inaccessible to conventional coronagraphs. VFN has been demonstrated in the lab at visible wavelengths and here we present the latest results of these experiments. This includes polychromatic nulls of 5 10−4 in 10% bandwidth light centered around 790 nm. An upgraded testbed has been designed and is being built in the lab now; we also present a status update on that work here. Finally, we present preliminary K-band (2 micron) fiber nulling results with the infrared mask that will be used on-sky as part of a VFN mode for the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer Instrument in 2021.
Journey to the Center of the Point Set

Let P be a set of n points in R d. For a parameter α ∈ (0,1), an α-centerpoint of P is a point p ∈ R d such that all closed halfspaces containing P also contain at least α n points of P. We revisit an algorithm of Clarkson et al. [1996] that computes (roughly) a 1/(4d2)-centerpoint in O(d9) randomized time, where O hides polylogarithmic terms. We present an improved algorithm that can compute centerpoints with quality arbitrarily close to 1/d2 and runs in randomized time O(d7). While the improvements are (arguably) mild, it is the first refinement of the algorithm by Clarkson et al. [1996] in over 20 years. The new algorithm is simpler, and the running time bound follows by a simple random walk argument, which we believe to be of independent interest. We also present several new applications of the improved centerpoint algorithm.
Nanoscale control of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 metal–insulator transition using ultra-low-voltage electron-beam lithography

We describe a method to control the insulator–metal transition at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface using ultra-low-voltage electron beam lithography. Compared to previous reports that utilize conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) lithography, this approach can provide comparable resolution (∼10 nm) at write speeds (10 mm/s) that are up to 10 000× faster than c-AFM. The writing technique is nondestructive, and the conductive state is reversible via prolonged exposure to air. Transport properties of representative devices are measured at milli-Kelvin temperatures, where superconducting behavior is observed. We also demonstrate the ability to create conducting devices on graphene/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures. The underlying mechanism is believed to be closely related to the same mechanism regulating c-AFM-based methods.
Time-Aggregated Graphs for Modeling Spatio-temporal Networks

Given applications such as location based services and the spatio-temporal queries they may pose on a spatial network (e.g., road networks), the goal is to develop a simple and expressive model that honors the time dependence of the road network. The model must support the design of efficient algorithms for computing the frequent queries on the network. This problem is challenging due to potentially conflicting requirements of model simplicity and support for efficient algorithms. Time expanded networks, which have been used to model dynamic networks employ replication of the networks across time instants, resulting in high storage overhead and algorithms that are computationally expensive. In contrast, the proposed time-aggregated graphs do not replicate nodes and edges across time; rather they allow the properties of edges and nodes to be modeled as a time series. Since the model does not replicate the entire graph for every instant of time, it uses less memory and the algorithms for common operations are computationally more efficient than for time expanded networks. One important query on spatio-temporal networks is the computation of shortest paths. Shortest paths can be computed either for a given start time or to find the start time and the path that lead to least travel time journeys (best start time journeys). Developing efficient algorithms for computing shortest paths in a time variant spatial network is challenging because these journeys do not always display optimal prefix property, making techniques like dynamic programming inapplicable. In this paper, we propose algorithms for shortest path computation for a fixed start time. We present the analytical cost model for the algorithm and compare with the performance of existing algorithms.
Direct Intracellular Visualization of Ebola Virus-Receptor Interaction by In Situ Proximity Ligation.

ABSTRACT Ebola virus (EBOV) entry into host cells comprises stepwise and extensive interactions of the sole viral surface glycoprotein (GP) with multiple host factors. During the intricate process, following virus uptake and trafficking to late endosomal/lysosomal compartments, GP is proteolytically processed to cleaved GP (GPCL) by the endosomal proteases cathepsin B and L, unmasking GP’s receptor-binding site. Engagement of GPCL with the universal filoviral intracellular receptor Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) eventually culminates in fusion between viral and cellular membranes, cytoplasmic escape of the viral nucleocapsid, and subsequent infection. Mechanistic delineation of the indispensable GPCL-NPC1-binding step has been severely hampered by the unavailability of a robust cell-based assay assessing interaction of GPCL with full-length endosomal NPC1. Here, we describe a novel in situ assay to monitor GPCL-NPC1 engagement in intact, infected cells. Visualization of the subcellular localization of binding complexes is based on the principle of DNA-assisted, antibody-mediated proximity ligation. Virus-receptor binding monitored by proximity ligation was contingent on GP’s proteolytic cleavage and was sensitive to perturbations in the GPCL-NPC1 interface. Our assay also specifically decoupled detection of virus-receptor binding from steps post-receptor binding, such as membrane fusion and infection. Testing of multiple FDA-approved small-molecule inhibitors revealed that drug treatments inhibited virus entry and GPCL-NPC1 recognition by distinctive mechanisms. Together, here we present a newly established proximity ligation assay, which will allow us to dissect cellular and viral requirements for filovirus-receptor binding and to delineate the mechanisms of action of inhibitors on filovirus entry in a cell-based system. IMPORTANCE Ebola virus causes episodic but increasingly frequent outbreaks of severe disease in Middle Africa, as shown by the recently overcome second largest outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite considerable effort, FDA-approved anti-filoviral therapeutics or targeted interventions are not available yet. Virus host-cell invasion represents an attractive target for antivirals; however, our understanding of the inhibitory mechanisms of novel therapeutics is often hampered by fragmented knowledge of the filovirus-host molecular interactions required for viral infection. To help close this critical knowledge gap, here, we report an in situ assay to monitor binding of the EBOV glycoprotein to its receptor NPC1 in intact, infected cells. We demonstrate that our in situ assay based on proximity ligation represents a powerful tool to delineate receptor-viral glycoprotein interactions. Similar assays can be utilized to examine receptor interactions of diverse viral surface proteins whose studies have been hampered until now by the lack of robust in situ assays.
Natural Gradient for Combined Loss Using Wavelets

Natural gradients have been widely used in the optimization of loss functionals over probability space, with important examples such as Fisher–Rao gradient descent for Kullback–Leibler divergence, Wasserstein gradient descent for transport-related functionals, and Mahalanobis gradient descent for quadratic loss functionals. This note considers the situation in which the loss is a convex linear combination of these examples. We propose a new natural gradient algorithm by utilizing compactly supported wavelets to diagonalize approximately the Hessian of the combined loss. Numerical results are included to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
Formal oscillatory distributions

We introduce the notion of an oscillatory formal distribution supported at a point. We prove that a formal distribution is given by a formal oscillatory integral if and only if it is an oscillatory distribution that has a certain nondegeneracy property. We give an algorithm that recovers the jet of infinite order of the integral kernel of a formal oscillatory integral at the critical point from the corresponding formal distribution. We also prove that a star product $\star$ on a Poisson manifold $M$ is natural in the sense of Gutt and Rawnsley if and only if the formal distribution $f \otimes g \mapsto (f \star g)(x)$ is oscillatory for every $x \in M$.
Performance Evaluation with Transactions Data: The Stock Selection of Investment Newsletters

This paper analyzes the equity-portfolio recommendations made by investment newsletters. Overall, there is no significant evidence of superior stock-picking ability for this sample of 153 newsletters. Moreover, there is no evidence of abnormal short-run performance persistence (“hot hands”). The comprehensive and bias-free transactions database also allows for insights into the precision of performance evaluation. Using a measure of precision defined in the paper, a transactions-based approach yields a median improvement of 10 percent over a corresponding factor model. This compares favorably with the precision gained by adding factors to the CAPM.
Policy Reform, Adjustment Costs, and Investment : With Activity of Local Investors as a Signal

Adjustment assistance is provided to local investors responding to policy reform and facing adjustment costs, to facilitate their activity–a signal to foreign investors about the profitability of investing in the local economy. The government, in providing assistance, maximizes its utility subject to its budgetary constraint, taking into account the utility forgone in alternative uses of budgetary funds. Foreign investors use the signal to update beliefs about investors in the local economy and compute the expected return from investing in the country. The investment response of foreign investors depends on the expected return so computed relative to the expected returns in their alternative investments worldwide.
Dynamic Optimal Income Taxation with Government Commitment

Abstract We analyze the optimal income tax problem when consumers work for many periods. Can information about abilities learned in one period be used later to attain more redistribution than is possible in a one-period world? When the government can commit to future policies and has the same discount rate as individuals, intertemporal nonstationarity of tax schedules can lead to Pareto improvements by relaxing lifetime self-selection constraints, analogous to randomization in a one-period world. More significant use of information is possible when the social discount rate is less than individuals' rates. The taxes converge over time to a nondistortionary schedule.
Containing All Permutations

Numerous versions of the question “what is the shortest object containing all permutations of a given length?” have been asked over the past fifty years: by Karp (via Knuth) in 1972; by Chung, Diac...
Feature complementarity and assortment in choice

This research argues that the purchase probability from a given choice set is contingent on the complementarity of the features differentiating its options. In particular, two types of features are distinguished: complementary features, which are characterized by the additivity of their utilities, and noncomplementary features, which are characterized by nonadditive utilities. In this context, it is argued that assortments in which options are differentiated by noncomplementary features are likely to be associated with a greater probability of purchase than assortments with options differentiated by complementary features. This prediction is supported by data from three experimental studies. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications and offers directions for further research.
A Power Struggle of Mythic Proportion: In the World of ERISA are Retirement Plan Administrators the Real Gods of Olympus?

If you were a recently divorced individual without professional experience or any marketable skills for the modern workplace where would you turn for financial subsistence? You may be relying, at least in part, on your share of former spouse’s retirement plan. This is exactly why Congress passed the Retirement Equity Act (“REA”): so state courts can separate benefits out of retirement plans that would otherwise be inaccessible because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) prohibits the alienation of assets. However, what happens if your former spouse dies a month after the divorce becomes final? Does this matter? Should it matter? Are you any less entitled to the assets the court awarded you simply because your former spouse died? Surprisingly, there is no uniform answer to these questions. Under current jurisprudence, it depends on a combination of the jurisdiction from which you obtained the divorce and where your former spouse worked. The sequence of events discussed above may seem both highly unlikely and of little consequence, but nothing could be further from the truth. Since the adoption of ERISA and the REA, divorce rates in American have increased dramatically. Therefore, the dilemmas posed by this paper are likely to occur with more frequency than they have previously. Moreover, ERISA-sponsored retirement plans now contain trillions of dollars in assets, meaning the resolution to this question will determine the distribution of a vast amount of wealth. This article reconciles this problem by providing the most critical examination to date of the Typhoeus-like case law that gave birth to the three-headed monster of jurisprudence we have today. Not only does this article present a compelling argument to Congress for statutory reform, but it also provides guidance to all relevant parties affected by this dilemma - claimants, plan administrators, and state court judges - regarding what steps one can take to mitigate the injustices that will result until Congress takes action.
Green Harms of Green Projects

This article describes the recent development of renewable energy to examine environmental law’s three contrasting approaches to the green harms of green projects. Sometimes the law allows the green benefit regardless of the green harm. Sometimes the law prohibits the green harm regardless of the green benefit. And sometimes the law allows a balancing of all of the harms and benefits, green or not. Given these options, I argue that the law should not ignore or understate green harms even if they are caused by green projects. There are some types of green harms that no benefit can justify. But if we decide that the benefits of a green project are so significant that we should tolerate its green harm, then we should also be willing to tolerate environmental harms from other projects that produce different kinds of benefits.
Managing Financial Risk via Prediction Markets

This article examines the recent innovation of prediction markets, a new genre of financial markets, and how such markets can be utilized to assess, manage, and plan for risks of all types, including economic and financial risks. A comprehensive study of these markets concluded that prediction markets possess an “uncannily accurate” ability to predict future events in finance, business, politics, science, natural catastrophes, and virtually every other realm of human and natural activity. In finance, risks include recessions, stock-market crashes, stock-price collapses, interest-rate spikes, oil-price increases, adverse currency movements, and myriad other detrimental risks. As a risk assessment and risk-management tool, knowing the probability of an event happening in the future significantly facilitates the assessment and management of risks associated with that event.
Embracing the Market: Entry into Self-Employment in Transitional China, 1978-1996

This paper introduces labor market transition as an intervening process by which the macro institutional transition to a market economy alters social stratification outcome. Rather than directly addressing income distribution, it examines the pattern of workers??? entry into self-employment in reform-era China (1978-1996), focusing on rural-urban differences and the temporal trend. Analyses of data from a national representative survey in China show that education, party membership and cadre status all deter urban workers??? entry into self-employment, while education promotes rural workers??? entry into self-employment. As marketization proceeds, the rate of entry into self-employment increases in both rural and urban China, but urban workers are increasingly more likely to take advantages of the new market opportunities. In urban China, college graduates and cadres are still less likely to be involved in self-employment, but they are becoming more likely to do so in the later phase of reform. The diversity of transition scenarios is attributed to rural-urban differences in labor market structures.
A Multiplier Approach to Understanding the Macro Implications of Household Finance

Our paper examines the impact of heterogeneous trading technologies for households on asset prices and the distribution of wealth. We distinguish between passive traders who hold fixed portfolios of stocks and bonds, and active traders who adjust their portfolios to changes in expected returns. To solve the model, we derive an optimal consumption sharing rule that does not depend on the trading technology, and we derive an aggregation result for state prices. This allows us to solve for equilibrium prices and allocations without having to search for market clearing prices in each asset market separately. We show that the fraction of total wealth held by active traders, not the fraction held by all participants, is critical for asset prices because only these traders respond to variation in state prices and hence absorb the residual aggregate risk created by non-participants. We calibrate the heterogeneity in trading technologies to match the equity premium and the risk-free rate. The calibrated model reproduces the skewness and kurtosis of the wealth distribution in the data. In contrast to existing asset pricing models with heterogeneous agents, our model matches the high volatility of returns and the low volatility of the risk-free rate.
State Rainy Day Funds and Fiscal Crises: Rainy Day Funds and the 1990–1991 Recession Revisited

The recession of the early 1980s prompted many states to establish budget stabilization (rainy day) funds. Initial examinations of rainy day funds find a limited impact by the funds in alleviating fiscal stress. In this article, we propose an enhanced model of rainy day fund impact. Using data from 48 states for the 1990–1991 recession, our analysis indicates that the presence of a number of structural factors and the maintenance of generally large balances in other funds entering recession helps to alleviate fiscal stress when a state’s economy is in recession.
Advancing Women’s Rights Through Islamic Law: The Example of Morocco

This article discusses the challenges and opportunities for advancing women’s rights through Islamic law using contemporary Morocco as a case study. Part I provides an overview of women’s rights in Morocco including the historic 2004 Mudawana (Code of Personal Status) reforms. Part II discusses the social roles, cultural representations, and socioeconomic realities of Moroccan women, emphasizing the important role that Moroccan women have played in legal and social reform efforts through their participation in civil society. Part III discusses several legal strategies for advancing women’s rights in Islamic states and assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and likely success of each approach. These strategies include implementing international law and secular reform, utilizing the Moroccan legislative process, reinterpreting the Qur’an and the hadith (the two primary sources of Islamic law), exercising ijtihad (resolving an Islamic legal issue through personal thought and reflection), and contesting the development of Shari’a. Part IV outlines the most promising strategy for advancing women’s rights in Islamic states. This final Part discusses failed reform strategies, outlines an effective reform strategy, and concludes that women’s rights are largely compatible with Shari’a provided the right social and political conditions exist.
Perceived ethical conflicts in U.S. documentary filmmaking: a field report

The documentary genre in film makes distinctive claims to honesty and truth. While filmmakers do not promise objectivity and balance, and while they all recognize that all expression is crafted and not a simple mirror of reality, the form is defined by its claim to say something honestly about something that really happened. Filmmakers' ethical judgments implicitly or explicitly revolve around this defining feature of the genre (Aufderheide, Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). This paper discusses the results of a study on how documentary filmmakers in the USA perceive what common ethical challenges are, and how these filmmakers commonly address those challenges in the absence of a formally articulated code of ethics or shared institutional regulations. Ethics is considered as the application of general moral precepts within professional practice.
CASCADES IN NETWORKS AND AGGREGATE VOLATILITY

We provide a general framework for the study of cascade effects created by interconnections between sectors, firms or financial institutions. Focusing on a multi sector economy linked through a supply network, we show how structural properties of the supply network determine both whether aggregate volatility disappears as the number of sectors increases (i.e., whether the law of large numbers holds) and when it does, the rate at which this happens. Our main results characterize the relationship between first order interconnections (captured by the weighted degree sequence in the graph induced by the input-output relations) and aggregate volatility, and more importantly, the relationship between higher-order interconnections and aggregate volatility. These higher-order interconnections capture the cascade effects, whereby low productivity or the failure of a set of suppliers propagates through the rest of the economy as their downstream sectors/firms also suffer and transmit the negative shock to their downstream sectors/firms. We also link the probabilities of tail events (large negative deviations of aggregate output from its mean) to sector-specific volatility and to the structural properties of the supply network.
Public on Paper: The Failure of Law to Protect Public Water Uses in the Western United States

Water conflicts in the western United States increasingly arise from competition between traditional economic uses (especially irrigation, municipal supply and hydropower) and public uses (especially environmental protection and water-based recreation). Western United States water law, based on the prior appropriation doctrine, has always promoted maximizing ‘beneficial use’ of the resource and has effectively protected water allocations for traditional purposes. Public water uses also enjoy some legal protection, but it exists mostly on paper; in practice, neither statutory public interest provisions nor the non-statutory public trust doctrine has been widely effective. This paper identifies the relevant legal principles and briefly explains how they have failed to protect public water uses in the western United States.
Religious Social Norms and Corporate Financial Reporting

Abstract: Religion has been shown to influence economic choices and outcomes in a variety of contexts. Honesty and risk aversion are two social norms forwarded to characterize the religious. Using the level of religious adherence in the county of a US firm's headquarters as a proxy for these religious social norms, we find that higher levels of religious adherence are associated with both a lower likelihood of financial restatement and less risk that financial statements are misrepresented because of overstated (understated) revenue/assets (expenses/liabilities). We also find that accruals of managers in areas of high religious adherence exhibit smaller deviations from expectations, and deviations, when they occur, tend to improve the time series mapping of accruals into cash flows. These results hold overall and separately for both Catholic and Protestant religious adherence. Further analysis reveals that the effects of religious social norms extend beyond accrual choices. We find that firms located in areas of high religious adherence are less likely to engage in tax sheltering, and are more forthcoming with bad news in their voluntary disclosures. Collectively, our results provide new evidence on the role of religion and social norms in corporate financial reporting.
Mediation in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Second Application

Mediation may be useful in addressing some of these problems. 66 Like other forms of ADR, mediation is an alternative method of resolving disputes, outside of the traditional, adversarial, litigation-centered model. 67 Mediation has been defined as a “process in which an impartial intervener assists two or more negotiating parties to identify matters of concern and then develop mutually acceptable proposals to deal with the concerns.” 68 The neutral or mediator does not have binding authority to decide any issues. She can only help the parties resolve the matter if they are willing. 69 Mediation can be part of an official court system (called “court-annexed mediation”) or it can be a stand alone procedure, completely independent of the courts. 70 In either case, it is usually a voluntary procedure for all parties.
Cognitive Enhancements and the Values of Higher Education

Drugs developed to treat cognitive impairments are proving popular with healthy college students seeking to boost their focus and productivity. Concerned observers have called these practices a form of cheating akin to athletes’ use of steroids, with some proposing testing students’ urine to deter “academic doping.” The ease with which critics analogize the academic enterprise to competitive sport, and the impulse to crack down on students using study drugs, reflect the same social influences and trends that spur demand for these interventions—our hyper-competitive culture, the commodification of education, and our attraction to technological quick-fixes. Rather than focusing on the technologies that are being put to troubling uses, we would be better served reforming the culture that makes these practices attractive.
The Ethics of Constrained Choice: How the Industrialization of Agriculture Impacts Farming and Farmer Behavior

The industrialization of agriculture not only alters the ways in which agricultural production occurs, but it also impacts the decisions farmers make in important ways. First, constraints created by the economic environment of farming limit what options a farmer has available to him. Second, because of the industrialization of agriculture and the resulting economic pressures it creates for farmers, the fact that decisions are constrained creates new ethical challenges for farmers. Having fewer options when faced with severe economic pressures is a very different situation for farmers than having many options available. We discuss the implications of constrained choice and show that it increases the likelihood that farmers will consider unethical behavior.
Mixed Speech: When Speech is Both Private and Governmental

Speech is generally considered to be either private or governmental, and this dichotomy is embedded in First Amendment jurisprudence. However, speech is often not purely private or purely governmental, but rather a combination of the two. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has not yet recognized mixed speech as a distinct category of speech. This Article suggests considerations for identifying mixed speech and exposes the shortcomings of the current approach of classifying all speech as either private or governmental when determining whether viewpoint restrictions pass First Amendment muster. Treating mixed speech as government speech gives short shrift to the free speech interests of speakers and audiences. According it private speech status overlooks compelling state interests, including the need to avoid establishment clause violations. This Article concludes that a better approach to mixed speech is to subject viewpoint restrictions to intermediate scrutiny. This will allow a more nuanced and transparent balancing of interests than the present either-or approach.
Worksite Raids and Immigration Norms: A "Sticky" Problem

In devising an effective immigration regulation strategy, it is critical to distinguish the ends from the means. Adam Cox and Eric Posner identify two distinct issues that shape immigration regulation. The first are policy decisions, so-called “first-order” issues. Here, the government makes decisions regarding the quantity and type of admissible immigrants, as well as the terms of their admission. Next are the institutional design questions, or “second-order” issues. Here, the government makes decisions regarding the institutional and regulatory systems that count, sort, and screen immigrants. Too often, however, the government fails to distinguish between first- and second-order issues; that is, the ends become blurred with the means. The consequences of this perceptive failure are cyclical. First, second-order design flaws go unnoticed, or at least, under-analyzed. Instead, the government equates a lack of results with lax enforcement. The government inevitably “solves” this problem with more aggressive or intrusive enforcement of the flawed second-order systems. The resulting “solutions” do not remedy the real second-order design flaws, but instead perpetuate or even aggravate the existing ones. Indeed, such a perceptive failure is likely occurring today with the government’s employer sanctioning laws. Widespread failures are attributed to fraud and “remedied” with aggressive enforcement practices.This Comment suggests that one of the unnoticed design flaws of the current employer regulation regime is that it runs counter to social norms. For years, the government has considered fraudulent documents to be the greatest cause of unauthorized employment in America, but perhaps they are not. Because of fraudulent documents, many employers cannot follow the law even if they want to because they cannot tell legal workers from illegal ones. Perhaps the more significant reason is that many employers have adopted pro-illegal immigrant norms. Such norms would undermine the enforcement of immigration laws in several ways. Critically, they could fuel a backlash against an aggressive antifraud campaign, which is exactly the direction in which current policy is headed.
The cross section of expected holding period returns and their dynamics: A present value approach ☆

Abstract We provide a tractable model of firm-level expected holding period returns using two firm fundamentals—book-to-market ratio and return on equity—and study the cross-sectional properties of the model-implied expected returns. We find that firm-level expected returns and expected profitability are time-varying but highly persistent and that forecasts of holding period returns strongly predict the cross section of future returns up to three years ahead. We show a highly significant predictive pooled regression slope for future quarterly returns of 0.86. The popular factor-based expected return models have either an insignificant or a significantly negative association with future returns. In supplemental analyses, we show that these forecasts are also informative of the time series variation in aggregate conditions. For a representative firm, the slope of the conditional expected return curve is more positive in good times, when expected short-run returns are relatively low, and the model-implied forecaster of aggregate returns exhibits modest predictive ability. Collectively, we provide a simple, theoretically motivated, and practically useful approach to estimating multi-period-ahead expected returns.
Stock option vesting conditions, CEO turnover, and myopic investment

Abstract Corporations have been criticized for providing executives with excessive incentives to focus on short-term performance. This paper shows that investment in short-term projects has beneficial effects in that it provides early feedback about Chief Executive Officer (CEO) talent, which leads to more efficient replacement decisions. Due to the threat of CEO turnover, the optimal design of stock option vesting conditions in executive compensation is more subtle than conventional views suggest. For example, I show that long vesting periods can backfire and induce excessive short-term investments. The study generates new empirical predictions regarding the determinants and impacts of stock option vesting terms in optimal contracting.
Tracking the Libor rate

With an eye to providing a methodology for tracking the dynamic integrity of prices for important market indicators, in this article we use Benford second digit (SD) reference distribution to track the daily London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) over the period 2005 to 2008. This reference, known as Benford's law, is present in many naturally occurring numerical data sets as well as in several financial data sets. We find that in two recent periods, Libor rates depart significantly from the expected Benford reference distribution. This raises potential concerns relative to the unbiased nature of the signals coming from the 16 banks from which the Libor is computed and the usefulness of the Libor as a major economic indicator.
MASTERPIECES AND MARKETS: WHY THE MOST FAMOUS MODERN PAINTINGS ARE NOT BY AMERICAN ARTISTS

Abstract A survey of the illustrations in art history textbooks reveals that the most important Modern American painters, including Pollock, Johns, and Warhol, failed to produce individual paintings as famous as the masterpieces of a number of major French artists, such as Picasso, Manet, and Seurat. Analysis of the textbooks reveals that art historians do not consider the American artists to be less important than their French predecessors or judge the Americans' innovations to be less important. The absence of American masterpieces instead appears to be a consequence of market conditions. as changes over time in the primary methods of showing and selling fine art reduced the incentive for artists to produce important individual works. This study demonstrates that the study of markets is essential to a full understanding of the development of Modern art.
Situational Duress and the Aberrance of Electronic Contracts

This article explains how the aberrant nature of electronic contracts has unique implications, which contract law should recognize. Companies, taking advantage of these unique implications, may use electronic contracts in an unfair and coercive manner, which is why this article proposes expanding the definition of duress to include “situational duress.” Situational duress would not encompass all electronic contracting scenarios, but would be limited to situations where (1) a drafting company uses an electronic contract to block consumer access to a product or service; (2) the consumer has a “vested interest” in that product or service; and (3) the consumer accepts the terms because she was blocked from the product or service after attempting to reject or decline them. Thus, situational duress would be limited to those situations where consumers are uniquely vulnerable because of the nature of their interest in the product or service. In these situations, the consumer’s action should not be effective as a manifestation of assent and the contract should be void, not voidable.
Information Collection Strategic Design in Experts-assisted Decision Making Paradigm

In an experts-assisted decision making paradigm, the information collection design becomes a strategic variable under a weak assumption that the final decision is dependent on the design used to collect information as well. As a result, the same information of the experts and the decision maker about the problem can potentially produce different final decisions for different information collection designs. The implication is that a decision maker can strategically select a design which serves his/her objective. This paper uses a Bayesian estimation methodology for combining experts' information with the decision maker's prior. An information collection process is designed by setting constraints on this model. Several designs are developed here using such controlled factors as a one-stage versus a two-stage decision process, experts' rank ordering, and group versus individual lobbying/consultation. An example is provided to illustrate the applicability of the concept. It is shown that the information produced in the process of producing a decision can also give insights into the impacts of the decision maker and the experts on the decision.
Clustered rapid induction of apoptosis limits ZIKV and DENV-2 proliferation in the midguts of Aedes aegypti.

Inter-host transmission of pathogenic arboviruses such as dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) requires systemic infection of the mosquito vector. Successful systemic infection requires initial viral entry and proliferation in the midgut cells of the mosquito followed by dissemination to secondary tissues and eventual entry into salivary glands1. Lack of arbovirus proliferation in midgut cells has been observed in several Aedes aegypti strains2, but the midgut antiviral responses underlying this phenomenon are not yet fully understood. We report here that there is a rapid induction of apoptosis (RIA) in the Aedes aegypti midgut epithelium within 2 hours of infection with DENV-2 or ZIKV in both in vivo blood-feeding and ex vivo midgut infection models. Inhibition of RIA led to increased virus proliferation in the midgut, implicating RIA as an innate immune mechanism mediating midgut infection in this mosquito vector. Ayers et al. report rapid induction of apoptosis in the midgut of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes within 2 hours of infection by dengue and Zika viruses, and find that inhibiting apoptosis led to increased virus proliferation in the midgut. These results suggest rapid induction of apoptosis as an innate immune mechanism mediating midgut infection in this mosquito vector.
Reducing Structural Dominance and Entry Barriers in Russian Industry

Many industrial firms in Russia have undergone changes in ownership, but relatively few have been competitively restructured. Using survey and other data, the author suggests that much of Russian industry is immune from robust competition because of heavy vertical integration, geographic segmentation, and the concentration of buyers and sellers, in selected markets. Moreover, regulatory constraints protect incumbent firms from competition with new entrants, both domestic and foreign. The author sketches a reform agenda for Russia's post-privatization program, which emphasizes the restructuring of anti-competitive structures and the reduction of barriers to entry. The author's proposed reform agenda calls broadly for strengthening Russia's nascent rules-based framework for competition policy to reduce discretion, increase transparency, and improve accountability.
Experimenting in Equilibrium

Classical approaches to experimental design assume that intervening on one unit does not affect other units. There are many important settings, however, where this noninterference assumption does n...
Thoughts on financial accounting and the banking industry

Abstract I provide big picture comments on the review of the banking literature in accounting by Beatty and Liao (2014) . Beatty and Liao (2014) does a service to the accounting field by providing an intelligent, well organized and accessible point of entry to banking research in accounting. I complement Beatty and Liao by presenting my observations on the role of financial accounting in banking, focusing my discussion on real effects of accounting policy choices on individual bank risk taking and codependence of risk among banks. I also offer ideas on future research directions.