cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Crimes of Misery and Theories of Punishment

Increasingly, one sees the homeless on the streets, alleys, and doorways of the commercial, recreational, and living spaces of our cities, otherwise populated by the affluent and relatively affluent. At the same time, there has been an increase in the creation and use of so-called “public order laws,” such as forbidding sitting on sidewalks, lying down on benches, and panhandling in certain tourist areas. Together with laws already on the books forbidding public intoxication, open containers of liquor in public, and urinating in public, this suite of laws provides police with a means to control the day-to-day lives of the homeless on the city streets. Although there is a rich and extensive literature exploring the philosophical justification for the use of the criminal sanction, little has been concerned with minor crimes (misdemeanors), and none of the literature concerns these misdemeanor public order laws. Termed “crimes of misery” herein, this suite of laws forbids conduct naturally flowing from life on streets as experienced by the desperately impoverished, mentally ill, chronically alcoholic, and/or drug-addicted. In this article, the author carefully analyzes these crimes of misery within each of the five philosophical grounds that traditionally justify and guide punishment: a variety of theories of retribution, as well as general deterrence, specific deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. From this analysis, the author concludes that none of the traditional philosophical theories can justify the crimes of misery and, as such, those crimes are morally unsupportable and unjust.
Unpacking Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs)

There is tremendous interest in a certain type of patent litigant — the often-called non-practicing entity ("NPE"), patent assertion entity ("PAE"), patent monetization entity ("PME"), or simply patent troll. These NPEs are the subject of a recent GAO report, a possible FTC investigation, pending legislation before Congress, and even comments from the President of the United States. All of this commentary and activity centers on whether NPE participation in patent litigation, and the patent system in general, is detrimental or beneficial to society. But the fundamental barrier to understanding the current debate is the lack of granular and transparent data on NPE litigation behavior. Accordingly, we personally hand-coded all patent holder litigants from calendar years 2010 and 2012, and we are releasing this data to the public. In our coding, we drill down and finely classify the nature of the litigants beyond the simple NPE or non-NPE definitions. Releasing this data to the public that unpacks the definition of NPE can provide better illumination to policy makers, researchers, and others interested in the patent litigation system. The data reveals a much lower percentage of litigation brought by patent holding companies than other studies, finding no explosion in NPE litigation between 2010 and 2012. Instead, we find that most differences between the years — an increase in the number of patent holding companies and individual inventor suits — is likely explained by a change in the joinder rules adopted in 2011 as part of the America Invents Act.
Bringing discursive ideals to legal facts On Baxter on Habermas

In Between Facts and Norms (1992) Habermas set out a theory of law and politics that is linked both to our high normative expectations and to the realities consequent upon the practices and institutions meant to put them into effect. The article discusses Hugh Baxter’s Habermas: The Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy and the drawbacks he finds in Habermas’ theory. It focuses on raising questions about and objections to some of the author’s leading claims.
Bureaucratic Decision Costs and Endogenous Agency Expertise

This article analyzes the effect of the cost that an agency must incur to adopt a new regulation (the ‘‘enactment cost’’) on the agency’s incentive to invest in expertise. The effect of the enactment cost on agency expertise depends on whether the agency would regulate if it fails to acquire additional information about the regulation’s effects. If an uninformed agency would regulate, increasing enactment costs increases agency expertise; if an uninformed agency would retain the status quo, increasing enactment costs decreases agency expertise. These results may influence the behavior of an uninformed overseer, such as a court or legislature, that can manipulate the agency’s enactment costs. Such an overseer must balance its interest in influencing agency policy preferences against its interest in increasing agency expertise. The article discusses the implications of these results for various topics in institutional design, including judicial and executive review of agency regulations, structure-and-process theories of congressional oversight, national security, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. The delegation of substantial policymaking authority to administrative agencies is often both explained and justified by the belief that agencies have more accurate information about the actual impacts of different policy choices. Consider, for example, the decision whether to ban a toxic substance like asbestos. A common argument for delegating this decision to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rather than leaving the decision to Congress, is that the EPA has greater expertise about the likely effects of the proposed ban, including more accurate estimates of projected health benefits and economic costs. At the same time, delegation entails the risk that agencies will exploit their
Common identity and the voluntary provision of public goods: An experimental investigation

Abstract We conduct a framed field experiment in two Dallas neighborhoods to examine how common identity affects individual contributions to local public goods. The participants’ common identity is primed to make neighborhood membership salient before individuals make donations to local non-profit organizations. We find that the identity treatment is sensitive to community context. It decreases the likelihood of giving in the struggling, poor neighborhood, but its impact is positive, albeit statistically insignificant, in the low- to middle-income neighborhood. In addition, the identity treatment triggers participants’ perceptions or memories of experiences with their communities which in turn lead to the treatment differences across the two communities. Our findings reveal the limitations on the power of common group identity in influencing individual economic decision making, which has been largely overlooked in the literature.
An internet-scale idea generation system

A method of organizing the crowd to generate ideas is described. It integrates crowds using evolutionary algorithms. The method increases the creativity of ideas across generations, and it works better than greenfield idea generation. Specifically, a design space of internet-scale idea generation systems is defined, and one instance is tested: a crowd idea generation system that uses combination to improve previous designs. The key process of the system is the following: A crowd generates designs, then another crowd combines the designs of the previous crowd. In an experiment with 540 participants, the combined designs were compared to the initial designs and to the designs produced by a greenfield idea generation system. The results show that the sequential combination system produced more creative ideas in the last generation and outperformed the greenfield idea generation system. The design space of crowdsourced idea generation developed here may be used to instantiate systems that can be applied to a wide range of design problems. The work has both pragmatic and theoretical implications: New forms of coordination are now possible, and, using the crowd, it is possible to test existing and emerging theories of coordination and participatory design. Moreover, it may be possible for human designers, organized as a crowd, to codesign with each other and with automated algorithms.
Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion: Experimental Evidence

We introduce experimental research design to the study of policy diffusion in order to better understand how political ideology affects policymakers’ willingness to learn from one another's experiences. Our two experiments–embedded in national surveys of U.S. municipal officials–expose local policymakers to vignettes describing the zoning and home foreclosure policies of other cities, offering opportunities to learn more. We find that: (1) policymakers who are ideologically predisposed against the described policy are relatively unwilling to learn from others, but (2) such ideological biases can be overcome with an emphasis on the policy's success or on its adoption by co-partisans in other communities. We also find a similar partisan-based bias among traditional ideological supporters, who are less willing to learn from those in the opposing party. The experimental approach offered here provides numerous new opportunities for scholars of policy diffusion.
Trade and labor reallocation with heterogeneous enforcement of labor regulations

Abstract This paper revisits the question of how trade affects labor market outcomes in a developing country setting. We explore the fact that plants face varying degrees of exposure to the enforcement of labor market regulations, and rely on Brazil's currency crisis in 1999 as an exogenous source of variation in access to foreign markets. Using administrative data on employers and their employees, and on the enforcement of labor regulations at the city level over Brazil's crisis period, we document that the way a currency shock affects employment depends on the stringency of de facto labor market regulations. In particular, we show for Brazil, a country with strict de jure labor regulation, that after a depreciation, plants facing stricter enforcement of the labor law increase employment by less than plants facing looser enforcement. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that, in the context of strict de jure labor market regulations, increased enforcement limits the plant-level productivity gains associated with a more global market. Therefore, increasing the flexibility of de jure regulations may allow for broader access to the gains from trade.
The History of Contingency and the Contingency of History

This comment considers the implications of the historical evidence that the use of contingency fees extends back in American legal history to the early nineteenth century. Such a dating casts doubt on the three historically based criticisms of contingency fees: that they are a product of the late nineteenth century development of the modern tort system (hence a fit target for tort reform), that they are a partisan mechanism designed for a society riven by labor strife (unnecessary in a more peaceful and prosperous era), and that they are intimately connected to late nineteenth century ambulance chasing (thus exemplifying the worst aspects of our adversary system). Locating the rise of contingency fees in the early 1800s highlights their association with the strongly felt American desire to insure access to court for both rich and poor alike as signaled in the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of the right to counsel and rejection of the "loser pays" rule. America's early embrace of the contingency fee bespeaks a choice to allow free court access rather than accept principles of repose.
Segment Profitability and the Proprietary and Agency Costs of Disclosure

We exploit the change in U.S. segment reporting rules (from SFAS No. 14 to SFAS No. 131) to examine two motives for managers to conceal segment profits: proprietary costs and agency costs. Managers face proprietary costs of segment disclosure if the revelation of a segment that earns high abnormal profits attracts more competition and, hence, reduces the abnormal profits. Managers face agency costs of segment disclosure if the revelation of a segment that earns low abnormal profits reveals unresolved agency problems and, hence, leads to heightened external monitoring. By comparing a hand‐collected sample of restated SFAS No. 131 segments with historical SFAS No. 14 segments, we examine at the segment level whether managers' disclosure decisions are influenced by their proprietary and agency cost motives to conceal segment profits. Specifically, we test two hypotheses: (1) when the proprietary cost motive dominates, managers tend to withhold the segments with relatively high abnormal profits (hereafter, th...
Power Sharing and Leadership Dynamics in Authoritarian Regimes

I examine a fundamental problem of politics in authoritarian regimes: the dictator and the ruling coalition must share power and govern in an environment where political influence must be backed by a credible threat of violence. I develop a model of authoritarian politics in which power sharing is complicated by this conflict of interest: by exploiting his position, the dictator may acquire more power at the expense of the ruling coalition, which may attempt to deter such opportunism by threatening to stage a coup. Two power-sharing regimes, contested and established dictatorships, may emerge as a result of strategic behavior by the dictator and the ruling coalition. This theory accounts for the large variation in the duration of dictators’ tenures and the concentration of power in dictatorships over time, and it contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of power sharing and accountability in authoritarian regimes.
The Belated Decline of Literalism in Professional Responsibility Doctrine: Soft Deception and the Rule of Law

Literalism is the doctrine that a facially accurate but knowingly deceptive statement does not violate prohibitions of falsehood and misrepresentation. This essay argues that Literalism has had greater legitimacy in professional responsibility than in other areas of law, but that it seems to be in terminal decline. It surveys the arguments for and against Literalism and concludes that its impending demise should be welcomed.
The impact of price variability on US imports of homogeneous inputs

Abstract In this paper, I quantify the impact of price variability on homogeneous intermediate goods imports. In product-level data, I find a country’s share of US imports is decreasing in the level and the variance of its unit price. This finding is consistent with a model of sourcing decisions in which risk averse final-goods firms choose the optimal distribution of intermediate inputs demand across suppliers.
The absorption of grave breaches into war crimes law

This article compares the concepts, scopes of application and procedural regimes of war crimes and grave breaches, while considering what role remains for the latter in international criminal law. In addition to their original conception as international obligations to enact and enforce domestic crimes, grave breaches have taken on a new meaning as international crimes, similar to war crimes. Only in few regards does the scope of application of these new grave breaches surpass that of war crimes. The procedural regime of grave breaches differs in theory significantly from that of war crimes, though less so in practice. Although it is too early to discount grave breaches, they are likely to become confined to history.
Institutional ownership and aggregate volatility risk

Abstract The paper shows that the difference in aggregate volatility risk can explain why several anomalies are stronger among the stocks with low institutional ownership (IO). Institutions tend to stay away from the stocks with extremely low and extremely high levels of firm-specific uncertainty because of their desire to hedge against aggregate volatility risk or exploit their competitive advantage in obtaining and processing information, coupled with the dislike of idiosyncratic risk. Thus, the spread in uncertainty measures is wider for low IO stocks, and the same is true about the differential in aggregate volatility risk.
A Rule of Reason Approach to the Antitrust Issues of the Google Book Search Settlement

This paper examines, from an antitrust perspective, the recent controversy of the Google Book Search (GBS) settlement in its broader context of copyright collective administration. It argues that courts should view competitive concerns of the settlement pertaining to exclusivity and pricing as ancillary restraints to an overall procompetitive copyright collective, and hence courts should analyze the settlement using the rule of reason instead of condemning it as per se illegal under antitrust law. In particular, I will examine closely the following five issues: (1) How does the GBS settlement relate to ASCAP/BMI blanket licensing in the music performance context and copyright collective arrangements in general? (2) Why should courts apply the rule of reason (as opposed to a per-se illegal rule) to analyze anticompetitive features of the GBS settlement and other copyright collectives? (3) What is the proper antitrust baseline against which a rule-of-reason analysis is conducted? More precisely, should an antitrust court ask whether a collective scheme is overall efficiency-enhancing or should look it for a “less restrictive alternative” which is equally capable of achieving procompetitive goals, albeit in a less anticompetitive manner? (4) How should a court identify and weigh anticompetitive justifications and procompetitive objectives of an ancillary restraint? How can a “reverse” rule of reason be adopted to help courts and parties to identify efficiency modifications to an existing collective arrangement? (5) What would be the result if the rule-of-reason analysis is applied in the specific context of the GBS settlement in evaluating the competitive effects of allegedly anticompetitive restraints and proposed modifications?
CEO Narcissism and Corporate Tax Sheltering

ABSTRACT: We examine the effect of CEO narcissism on an especially aggressive form of corporate tax avoidance: tax sheltering. Narcissism is a multifaceted personality trait associated with a sens...
Price Wars and the Stability of Collusion: A Study of the Pre‐World War I Bromine Industry

Between 1885 and 1914 US bromine producers colluded to raise prices and pro¢ts. This collusion was disrupted by price wars. Bromine price wars are compared with the Green/Porter and Abreu/Pearce/ Stacchetti models. Some price wars resulted from the imperfect monitoring problems which motivate these models. Several empirical implications of the APS model are borne out, but the bromine industry’s price wars were generally milder than contemplated by APS. More severe price wars were part of a bargaining process, in which ¢rms tried to force renegotiation to a new collusive equilibrium with a diierent distribution of rents.
Who Decides and What Difference Does It Make?: Defining Marriage in "Our Democratic, Federal Republic

The debate over the legality of same-sex marriage has centered largely on the substantive merits of the issue. This article does not.Instead, it seeks to draw attention to the perhaps equally important-but often overlooked-issue of the proper form and forum for resolving the substantive issue. It asks the question, if we awoke tomorrow to the newspaper headline -- “Legality of Same-Sex Marriage Decided” -- what difference would it make if the succeeding story referred to 1) a federal statute, 2) a U. S. Supreme Court decision, 3) a federal constitutional amendment, 4) a state statute, 5) a state supreme court decision, or 6) a state constitutional amendment? The article attempts to answer that question in light of the structure of what I call “our democratic, federal, republican” form of government.The article proceeds in three parts. Section one considers the nature of the decision a government makes when it defines marriage, examining the various governmental interests in defining marriage which have been identified by proponents and opponents of legalizing same-sex marriage. Section two then describes the key components of “our democratic, federal republic,” highlighting both theoretical and practical reasons for the adoption of those components. Section three evaluates the relative merits of deciding the same-sex marriage issue in each of the six potential forms in terms of compatibility with the key components of “our” system of government, at the same time examining some practical effects of deciding the issue in some of the forms.This analysis indicates that where, and in what form, the same-sex marriage debate is resolved has implications for both our current governmental system and the long-term viability of the solution, whatever it may be. It also indicates that the best hypothetical newspaper story would begin with the phrase, “The state constitution was amended today ....”
Agency Costs and the False Claims Act

The False Claims Act represents the U.S. Justice Department’s most effective tool in detecting, punishing, and deterring fraud against the government. The effectiveness of the False Claims Act is due in large part to the law’s qui tam provisions, which provide a private right of action to whistleblowers who may sue fraudsters on behalf of the government in exchange for a percentage of the recovery. The resulting relationship between the government and whistleblowers has led to increased detection and recoveries from corporate defendants who defraud and abuse government programs. However, these whistleblower provisions also come with social costs where profit-motivated private enforcers bring frivolous claims and overenforce. Unlike much of the literature to date, this Note uses an agency-cost approach to analyze these qui tam provisions. This approach allows for an exploration of the incentives created by the qui tam provisions, the associated social benefits and costs, and possible reforms that augment these benefits and reduce unnecessary costs. Specifically, this Note argues that clearly defined incentives for whistleblowers and corporate defendants, along with a requirement that settlements be publicly filed and include admissions of wrongdoing, will reduce agency costs involved with private enforcement under the False Claims Act.
The Financial Education Fallacy

Research to date does not demonstrate a causal chain from financial education to welfare-enhancing financial behavior, in part due to biases, heuristics, and emotional influences on decisions. Yet the search for effective financial education continues. But it is time to ask whether giving every person effective financial education would make us better off. Two reasons it might not are discussed here. First, the time, expense, and invasion of privacy required would be enormous. Second, such a world would entail a decrease in individual autonomy. Alternative tools could potentially increase household financial welfare and security at lower social and individual expense.
Gambling for the Good, Trading for the Future: The Legality of Markets in Science Claims

Good ideas do not always lead to legal acts. Setting up a market in science claims, for instance, certainly sounds like a good idea. Such a market could effectively open a shortcut to the future, giving us the means to answer crucial scientific questions more quickly, accurately, and cheaply than we can at present. Notwithstanding their salient benefits, however, U.S. law does not clearly approve of markets in science claims. They do not fit neatly into any category created by common law, statute, or regulation, and their legal status remains untested by the courts. This article aims to dispel some of the legal uncertainty surrounding markets in science claims and thus to help chart a path toward their implementation. Given that they remain almost wholly untried, and thus largely unknown, Part II offers a concise introduction to markets in science claims. Part III then compares the transactions supported by such a market with their closest analogs in extant U.S. law: gambling and commodity futures trading. That comparison finds the policies behind such laws generally more sympathetic to markets in science claims than the laws themselves, though even the latter offer some hope. Nonetheless, recognizing that some
Why Do People Vote in Semicompetitive Elections in China

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, one of the post-Mao electoral reforms was semicompetitive elections, including those for local people's congresses. A better understanding of voters' subjective motivations in these elections is critical for explaining and predicting the significant effects of the elections on sociopolitical development in rapidly changing Chinese society. Using survey data collected in Beijing, China, in 1995, we reexamine arguments and findings about voters' subjective motivations reported by Shi (1999a). Contrary to Shi's arguments and findings, we find that people with stronger democratic orientation and a keener sense of internal efficacy are less likely to vote in these semicompetitive elections, while those who are identified with the regime and have affective attachments to the political authority are more likely to vote in the elections. In this article, we present the differences between our arguments and findings and Shi's. Then we draw some important political and theoretical...
Do First Impressions Last? The Impact of Initial Assessments and Subsequent Performance on Promotion Decisions

This paper examines whether and for how long managers’ initial assessments of employee ability influence promotion decisions. Using archival data from minor league professional baseball, we find th...
Market Reaction To Firm Inclusion On The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Underfunding List

This study investigates stock market reaction to a firms inclusion on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporations (PBGC) Top 50 list of firms with the most underfunded pension plans. The PBGCs use of the list to put pressure on firm managers to increase pension funding has been controversial. Abnormal returns calculated around press release dates are not statistically significant, inconsistent with the PBGCs implicit goal of having third parties exert pressure on firm managers to increase funding. However, for one list that is report by The Wall Street Journal, reaction is statistically positive. The positive reaction is consistent with the theory that firms with underfunded pension obligations have a put option with respect to the PBGC.
Using Partial Least Squares in Operations Management Research: A Practical Guideline and Summary of Past Research

Abstract The partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) has been widely adopted in business research fields such as information systems, consumer behavior, and marketing. The use of PLS in the field of operations management is also growing. However, questions still exist among some operations management researchers regarding whether and how PLS should be used. To address these questions, our study provides a practical guideline for using PLS and uses examples from the operations management literature to demonstrate how the specific points in this guideline can be applied. In addition, our study reviews and summarizes the use of PLS in the recent operations management literature according to our guideline. The main contribution of this study is to present a practical guideline for evaluating and using PLS that is tailored to the operations management field.
Can Islamizing a Legal System Ever Help Promote Liberal Democracy?: A View from Pakistan

Over the past twenty-five years, academics in Europe and the United States have written a great deal about the relationship between Islam and democracy, and between Islam and human rights. This scholarship often fails to acknowledge or take into account similar debates that occurred earlier during a period of decolonization. This article discusses the work of a Christian judge who served on the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This judge, A.R. Cornelius, was a famous Cambridge-educated legal liberal who courageously tried in the 1950s and 60s to protect human rights as Pakistan came under martial rule. Cornelius came to argue shockingly and controversially in the 1960s and 70s that Islamizing the law of the state not only permits the liberal rule of law to survive, but, under certain narrow circumstances, it can help promote a version of the liberal rule of law. This article discusses the genesis of his thinking, the criticism that it received in Pakistan and discusses briefly how Pakistan's recent history does and does not support his theory.
Reconciling Archival and Experimental Research: Does Internal Audit Contribution Affect the External Audit Fee?

ABSTRACT: Consistent with guidelines from external auditing standards, experimental and survey research suggests that an internal audit function (IAF) can contribute in ways that lead to decreased external audit fees; however, research using archival methodologies generally finds either no relation or a positive relation between proxies for IAF contribution and external audit fees. In this paper, we provide new evidence using a unique and previously unavailable data set to develop archival proxies of internal audit contribution. We find that archival proxies for the contribution of internal audit based on Statement of Audited Standards (SAS) No. 65 are associated with lower unexpected external audit fees. We show that proxies used in prior archival studies are limited in their ability to capture the IAF's potential contribution to external auditing, and suggest that the lack of high-quality proxies could help explain the divergent findings of experimental and survey-based studies in relation to archival ...
A proof of the EOQ formula using quasi-variational inequalities

A rigorous proof of the classical EOQ formula is provided using the method of quasi-variational inequalities (QVI). The meaning of the so-called potential function that arises in the course of our analysis is interpreted and that the QVI methodology can be used to address continuous-time stochastic inventory models with fixed ordering cost is noted.
Positivity of cumulative sums for multi-index function components explains the lower bound formula in the Levin-Robbins-Leu family of sequential subset selection procedures

We exhibit some strong positivity properties of a certain function that implies a key inequality that in turn implies the lower bound formula for the probability of correct selection in the Levin-R...
Major Malfunction A Field Experiment Correcting Undergraduates’ Beliefs about Salaries

In a field experiment at a flagship state university in the United States, I test whether providing college students salary information can affect their choices of major and classes. I find that undergraduates are substantially misinformed about mean salaries by major. On average, students in my sample underestimate mean salaries, but there is also large heterogeneity in beliefs across individuals. I also find that providing information to correct these errors has a large impact on students’ choices; students in the treatment group were nine percentage points (16 percent) more likely to major in a field about which they received information.
Policing Women: Moral Arguments and the Dilemmas of Criminalization

This essay concerns the peculiar dilemmas of criminalization for women. I explain the ways in which women are policed, ranging from the monitoring of motherhood to the criminalization of prostitution. This policing may be through the criminal law, civil law, or more subtly, through cultural attitudes that devalue women's work yet simultaneously encourage women to do that work. Hence, I argue that in order to sensitize, reform, and change the criminal justice system, it is critical to consider women's needs. This essay also pays special attention to the impact of the criminal justice system on children. Specifically, I examine the tension between the interests of children and of women, as well as the role played by the criminal justice system in serving these sometimes conflicting interests.
No-fault Default, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and Financial Institutions

Abstract This paper analyzes the costs and benefits of a no-fault-default debt structure as an alternative to the typical bankruptcy process. We show that the deadweight costs of bankruptcy can be avoided or substantially reduced through no-fault-default debt, which permits a relatively seamless transfer of ownership from shareholders to bondholders in certain states of the world. We show that potential costs introduced by this scheme due to risk shifting can be attenuated via convertible debt, and we discuss the relationship of this to bail-in debt and contingent convertible (CoCo) debt for financial institutions. We then explore how, despite the advantages of no-fault-default debt, there may still be a functional role for the bankruptcy process to efficiently allow the renegotiation of labor contracts in certain cases. In sharp contrast to the human-capital-based theories of optimal capital structure in which the renegotiation of labor contract in bankruptcy is a cost associated with leverage, we show that it is a benefit. The normative implication of our analysis is that no-fault-default debt, when combined with specific features of the bankruptcy process, may reduce the deadweight costs associated with bankruptcy. We discuss how an orderly process for transfer of control and a predetermined admissibility of renegotiation of labor contracts can be a useful tool for resolving financial institution failure without harming financial stability.
Towards an Administrative Law of Central Banking

A world in turmoil caused by Covid-19 has revealed again what has long been true: the Federal Reserve is arguably the most powerful administrative agency in government, but neither administrative-law scholars nor the Fed itself treat it that way. In this Article, we present the first effort to map the contours of what administrative law should mean for the Fed, with particular attention to the processes the Fed should follow in determining and announcing legal interpretations and major policy changes. First, we synthesize literature from administrative law and social science to show the advantages that an agency like the Fed can glean from greater openness and transparency in its interpretations of law and in its long-term policymaking processes. These advantages fall into two categories: (1) sending more credible signals of future action and thereby shaping the behavior of regulated parties and other constituents, and (2) increasing the diversity of incoming information on which to base decisions, thereby improving their factual and predictive accuracy. Second, we apply this framework to two key areas monetary policy and emergency lending to show how the Fed can improve its policy signaling and input diversity in the areas of its authority that are most expansive. The result is a positive account of what the Fed already does as an administrative agency and a normative account of what it should do in order to preserve necessary policy flexibility without sacrificing the public demands for policy clarity and rigor.
On the Convergence of Nested Decentralized Gradient Methods With Multiple Consensus and Gradient Steps

In this paper, we consider minimizing a sum of local convex objective functions in a distributed setting, where the cost of communication and/or computation can be expensive. We extend and generalize the analysis for a class of nested gradient-based distributed algorithms [NEAR-DGD, (Berahas et al. , 2019)] to account for multiple gradient steps at every iteration. We show the effect of performing multiple gradient steps on the rate of convergence and on the size of the neighborhood of convergence, and prove R-Linear convergence to the exact solution with a fixed number of gradient steps and increasing number of consensus steps. We test the performance of the generalized method on quadratic functions and show the effect of multiple consensus and gradient steps in terms of iterations, number of gradient evaluations, number of communications and cost.
The role of aquaporin-4 in optic nerve head astrocytes in experimental glaucoma.

Purpose To study aquaporin channel expression in astrocytes of the mouse optic nerve (ON) and the response to IOP elevation in mice lacking aquaporin 4 (AQP4 null). Methods C57BL/6 (B6) and AQP4 null mice were exposed to bead-induced IOP elevation for 3 days (3D-IOP), 1 and 6 weeks. Mouse ocular tissue sections were immunolabeled against aquaporins 1(AQP1), 4(AQP4), and 9(AQP9). Ocular tissue was imaged to identify normal AQP distribution, ON changes, and axon loss after IOP elevation. Ultrastructure examination, cell proliferation, gene expression, and transport block were also analyzed. Results B6 mice had abundant AQP4 expression in Muller cells, astrocytes of retina and myelinated ON (MON), but minimal AQP4in prelaminar and unmyelinated ON (UON). MON of AQP4 nulls had smaller ON area, smaller axon diameter, higher axon density, and larger proportionate axon area than B6 (all p≤0.05). Bead-injection led to comparable 3D-IOP elevation (p = 0.42) and axonal transport blockade in both strains. In B6, AQP4 distribution was unchanged after 3D-IOP. At baseline, AQP1 and AQP9 were present in retina, but not in UON and this was unaffected after IOP elevation in both strains. In 3D-IOP mice, ON astrocytes and microglia proliferated, more in B6 than AQP4 null. After 6 week IOP elevation, axon loss occurred equally in the two mouse types (24.6%, AQP4 null vs. 23.3%, B6). Conclusion Lack of AQP4 was neither protective nor detrimental to the effects of IOP elevation. The minimal presence of AQP4 in UON may be a vital aspect of the regionally specific phenotype of astrocytes in the mouse optic nerve head.
Covid-19 prevalence and empty college seats

Using the National Association for College Admission Counselling’s annual list of colleges with open seats and Covid-19 cases and deaths at the county level, this paper provides a first look at how...
Efficient Conformal Prediction via Cascaded Inference with Expanded Admission

In this paper, we present a novel approach for conformal prediction (CP), in which we aim to identify a set of promising prediction candidates---in place of a single prediction. This set is guaranteed to contain a correct answer with high probability, and is well-suited for many open-ended classification tasks. In the standard CP paradigm, the predicted set can often be unusably large and also costly to obtain. This is particularly pervasive in settings where the correct answer is not unique, and the number of total possible answers is high. We first expand the CP correctness criterion to allow for additional, inferred "admissible" answers, which can substantially reduce the size of the predicted set while still providing valid performance guarantees. Second, we amortize costs by conformalizing prediction cascades, in which we aggressively prune implausible labels early on by using progressively stronger classifiers---again, while still providing valid performance guarantees. We demonstrate the empirical effectiveness of our approach for multiple applications in natural language processing and computational chemistry for drug discovery.
Semisimple Reflection Hopf Algebras of Dimension Sixteen

For each nontrivial semisimple Hopf algebra H of dimension sixteen over $\mathbb {C}$ , the smallest dimension inner-faithful representation of H acting on a quadratic AS regular algebra A of dimension 2 or 3, homogeneously and preserving the grading, is determined. Each invariant subring AH is determined. When AH is also AS regular, thus providing a generalization of the Chevalley–Shephard–Todd Theorem, we say that H is a reflection Hopf algebra for A.
Efficient Content-Based Sparse Attention with Routing Transformers

Self-attention has recently been adopted for a wide range of sequence modeling problems. Despite its effectiveness, self-attention suffers from quadratic compute and memory requirements with respect to sequence length. Successful approaches to reduce this complexity focused on attending to local sliding windows or a small set of locations independent of content. Our work proposes to learn dynamic sparse attention patterns that avoid allocating computation and memory to attend to content unrelated to the query of interest. This work builds upon two lines of research: it combines the modeling flexibility of prior work on content-based sparse attention with the efficiency gains from approaches based on local, temporal sparse attention. Our model, the Routing Transformer, endows self-attention with a sparse routing module based on online k-means while reducing the overall complexity of attention to O(n^{1.5}d) from O(n^2d) for sequence length n and hidden dimension d. We show that our model outperforms comparable sparse attention models on language modeling on Wikitext-103 (15.8 vs 18.3 perplexity) as well as on image generation on ImageNet-64 (3.43 vs 3.44 bits/dim) while using fewer self-attention layers. Additionally, we set a new state-of-the-art on the newly released PG-19 data-set, obtaining a test perplexity of 33.2 with a 22 layer Routing Transformer model trained on sequences of length 8192.
Refined counting of core partitions into d-distinct parts

Using a combinatorial bijection with certain abaci diagrams, Nath and Sellers have enumerated $(s, m s \pm 1)$-core partitions into distinct parts. We generalize their result in several directions by including the number of parts of these partitions, by considering $d$-distinct partitions, and by allowing more general $(s, m s \pm r)$-core partitions. As an application of our approach, we obtain the average and maximum number of parts of these core partitions.
Cultural values predict national COVID-19 death rates

National responses to a pandemic require populations to comply through personal behaviors that occur in a cultural context. Here we show that aggregated cultural values of nations, derived from World Values Survey data, have been at least as important as top-down government actions in predicting the impact of COVID-19. At the population level, the cultural factor of cosmopolitanism, together with obesity, predict higher numbers of deaths in the first two months of COVID-19 on the scale of nations. At the state level, the complementary variables of government efficiency and public trust in institutions predict lower death numbers. The difference in effect between individual beliefs and behaviors, versus state-level actions, suggests that open cosmopolitan societies may face greater challenges in limiting a future pandemic or other event requiring a coordinated national response among the population. More generally, mass cultural values should be considered in crisis preparations.
Going Straight to the Source: A Pilot Study of Bereaved Parent-facilitated Communication Training for Pediatric Subspecialty Fellows

Purpose: The primary goal of this intervention centered on teaching, modeling, and facilitating practice in the communication of difficult information. Methods: The authors designed and implemented a communication training seminar using bereaved parent educators and faculty facilitators in small group, interactive, role-play scenarios. Pre-test and post-test surveys were used to assess short- and long-term changes …
Low frequency bulk modulus of partially molten peridotite, KLB-1

Abstract We report experimental results on the bulk modulus of partially molten peridotite at mantle conditions, using a multi-anvil high pressure apparatus coupled with synchrotron X-ray radiation. A sinusoidal pressure at an amplitude of 180 MPa with period of 360 s is applied to the sample as a function of temperature. The sample volume derived from the X-ray radiograph also demonstrated sinusoidal variation at the same frequency. The derived bulk modulus from the amplitude of the stress and strain shows that the bulk modulus is drastically reduced at the onset of the melting, as predicated by dynamic melting model.
Development of a Cx46 Targeting Strategy for Cancer Stem Cells

Gap junction-mediated cell-cell communication enables tumor cells to synchronize the execution of complex processes. Despite the connexin family of gap junction proteins being considered tumor suppressors, we previously found that glioblastoma cancer stem cells (CSCs) express higher levels of Cx46 compared to non-stem tumor cells, and this was necessary and sufficient for CSC maintenance. To develop a Cx46 targeting strategy, we utilized point mutants to disrupt specific functions of Cx46 and found that gap junction coupling was the critical function of Cx46 for CSCs. Based on this finding, we screened a clinically relevant library of small molecules and identified clofazimine as an inhibitor of Cx46-specific cell-cell communication. Clofazimine attenuated proliferation, self-renewal, and tumor growth and synergized with temozolomide to induce apoptosis. These data suggest that combining clofazimine with standard-of-care therapies may target glioblastoma CSCs. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the importance of targeting cell-cell communication as an anti-cancer therapy.
The innate immune kinase TBK1 directly increases mTORC2 activity and downstream signaling to Akt.

TBK1 responds to microbes to initiate cellular responses critical for host innate immune defense. We found previously that TBK1 phosphorylates mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) on S2159 to increase mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling in response to the growth factor EGF and the viral dsRNA mimetic poly(I:C). mTORC1 and the less well studied mTORC2 respond to diverse cues to control cellular metabolism, proliferation, and survival. Although TBK1 has been linked to Akt phosphorylation, a direct relationship between TBK1 and mTORC2, an Akt kinase, has not been described. By studying MEFs lacking TBK1, as well as MEFs, macrophages, and mice bearing an Mtor S2159A knock-in allele (MtorA/A) using in vitro kinase assays and cell-based approaches, we demonstrate here that TBK1 activates mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) directly to increase Akt phosphorylation. We find that TBK1 and mTOR S2159 phosphorylation promotes mTOR-dependent phosphorylation of Akt in response to several growth factors and poly(I:C). Mechanistically, TBK1 coimmunoprecipitates with mTORC2 and phosphorylates mTOR S2159 within mTORC2 in cells. Kinase assays demonstrate that TBK1 and mTOR S2159 phosphorylation increase mTORC2 intrinsic catalytic activity. Growth factors failed to activate TBK1 or increase mTOR S2159 phosphorylation in MEFs. Thus, basal TBK1 activity cooperates with growth factors in parallel to increase mTORC2 (and mTORC1) signaling. Collectively, these results reveal cross talk between TBK1 and mTOR, key regulatory nodes within two major signaling networks. As TBK1 and mTOR contribute to tumorigenesis and metabolic disorders, these kinases may work together in a direct manner in a variety of physiological and pathological settings.
LIGO series, dimension of embedding and Kolmogorov's complexity

Abstract The interpretation of the series recorded by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is a very important issue. Here we apply two methods widely used in the study of nonlinear dynamical systems, namely, the calculation of Takens’ dimension of embedding and the spectrum of Kolmogorov’s complexity, to the series recorded in event GW150914. An increase of the former and a drop of the latter are observed, which are consistent with the appearance of a gravitational wave. We also apply Hurst, ADF and KPSS coefficients. We propose these methods as additional tools to help to interpret LIGO signals.