cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reusable Learning Objects: An Agile Approach

This "Innovative Practice" full paper discusses Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) and to what extent they have lived up to the promise, particularly of reusability. Reusable Learning Objects have actually been discussed in the literature for the last 20 years and yet true large scale sharing of learning and teaching materials remains relatively rare and challenging. This paper argues that part of the reason is that the granularity of the learning objects that are in use today is not conducive to true reuse. Certainly whole PowerPoint slide decks and word documents are kept in individuals’ folders; perhaps bits are cut and pasted and emailed around; but providence, permissions, tracking and tracing are ad-hoc and styling, formatting, templates, slide layouts need to be tended to repeatedly. It is not an ideal situation. As a result, educators, teachers, course designers, are constantly reinventing the wheel, or searching for where that one excellent assignment, explanation, definition was last seen so it can be copied forward.This paper argues that to achieve effective reuse of Learning Objects, the following are required: smaller, more granular ("micro") learning objects; means to combine them into larger presentation products; and modern revision and version control. The paper proposes applying approaches originating in the software engineering community, such as agile methodology, version control and management, markup languages, and agile publishing, which together form the "Agile Approach" of the title of the paper. With that foundation laid, the paper examines "CourseGen", an open source software platform designed for creating, sharing, reusing and publishing reusable course content. CourseGen uses a modified markdown format augmented by CourseGen specific directives, such as $link to and $include topic. The CourseGen compiler converts a collection of CourseGen files into the final format such as a web site or a PowerPoint. CourseGen was designed, used and refined over the last three years in several Computer Science Courses at Brandeis University.
Neoantigen-driven B cell and CD4+ T follicular helper cell collaboration promotes robust anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses

CD4+ T follicular helper (TFH) cells provide help to B cells, which is critical for germinal center (GC) formation, but the importance of TFH-B cell interactions in cancer is unclear. We found TFH cells correlated with GC B cells and with prolonged survival of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. To investigate further, we developed an LUAD model, in which tumor cells expressed B-cell- and T-cell-recognized neoantigens. Interactions between tumor-specific TFH and GC B cells were necessary for tumor control, as were effector CD8+ T cells. The latter were reduced in the absence of T cell-B cell interactions or the IL-21 receptor. IL-21 was produced primarily by TFH cells, development of which required B cells. Moreover, development of tumor-specific TFH cell-responses was also reliant upon tumors that expressed B-cell-recognized neoantigens. Thus, tumor-neoantigens themselves can control the fate decisions of tumor-specific CD4+ T cells by facilitating interactions with tumor-specific B cells.
Visualizing a Large Spatiotemporal Collection of Historic Photography with a Generous Interface

Museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions continue to prioritize and build web-based visualization systems that increase access and discovery to digitized archives. Prominent examples exist that illustrate impressive visualizations of a particular feature of a collection. For example, interactive maps showing geographic spread or timelines capturing the temporal aspects of collections. By way of a case study, this paper presents a new web-based visualization system that allows users to simultaneously explore a large collection of images along several different dimensions—spatial, temporal, visual, textual, and through additional metadata fields including the photographer name—guided by the concept of generous interfaces. The case study is a complete redesign of a previously released digital, public humanities project called Photogrammar (2014). The paper highlights the redesign’s interactive visualizations that are now possible by the affordances of newly available software. All of the code is open-source in order to allow for reuse of the codebase to other collections with a similar structure.
scLM: Automatic Detection of Consensus Gene Clusters Across Multiple Single-cell Datasets.

Abstract In gene expression profiling studies, including single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analyses, the identification and characterization of co-expressed genes provides critical information on cell identity and function. Gene co-expression clustering in scRNA-seq data presents certain challenges. We show that commonly used methods for single-cell data are not capable of identifying co-expressed genes accurately, and produce results that substantially limit biological expectations of co-expressed genes. Herein, we present single-cell Latent-variable Model (scLM), a gene co-clustering algorithm tailored to single-cell data that performs well at detecting gene clusters with significant biologic context. Importantly, scLM can simultaneously cluster multiple single-cell datasets, i.e., consensus clustering, enabling users to leverage single-cell data from multiple sources for novel comparative analysis. scLM takes raw count data as input and preserves biological variation without being influenced by batch effects from multiple datasets. Results from both simulation data and experimental data demonstrate that scLM outperforms the existing methods with considerably improved accuracy. To illustrate the biological insights of scLM, we apply it to our in-house and public experimental scRNA-seq datasets. scLM identifies novel functional gene modules and refines cell states, which facilitates mechanism discovery and understanding of complex biosystems such as cancers. A user-friendly R package with all the key features of the scLM method is available at https://github.com/QSong-github/scLM .
Thermodynamic behavior of time-dependent wormholes in Palatini f ( R ) gravity

In the frame work of Palatini approach to modified f(R) theories of gravity, we attempt to investigate the thermodynamic behavior of time-dependent wormhole geometries. By considering an evolving wormhole spacetime, we find the field equations in Palatini f(R) gravity. The energy density and pressure are redefined in order to satisfy the continuity equation. To discuss the thermodynamic behavior, an expression for the variation of total entropy is obtained. Then, we extend our discussions to apparent and event horizons of evolving wormholes. We employ the radius of apparent and event horizons to determine the validity of generalized second law of thermodynamics which states that the variation of total entropy is non-negative.
Towards a Scalable Hierarchical High-order CFD Solver

Development of highly scalable and robust algorithms for large-scale CFD simulations has been identified as one of the key ingredients to achieve NASA's CFD Vision 2030 goals. In order to improve simulation capability and to effectively leverage new high-performance computing hardware, the most computationally intensive parts of CFD solution algorithms -- namely, linear solvers and preconditioners -- need to achieve asymptotic behavior on massively parallel and heterogeneous architectures and preserve convergence rates as the meshes are refined further. In this work, we present a scalable high-order implicit Discontinuous Galerkin solver from the SU2 framework using a promising preconditioning technique based on algebraic sparsified nested dissection algorithm with low-rank approximations, and communication-avoiding Krylov subspace methods to enable scalability with very large processor counts. The overall approach is tested on a canonical 2D NACA0012 test case of increasing size to demonstrate its scalability on multiple processing cores. Both the preconditioner and the linear solver are shown to exhibit near-linear weak scaling up to 2,048 cores with no significant degradation of the convergence rate.
Rationality and the Taming of Complexity

The article is one of this year’s Meador Lectures, which were dedicated to Rationality. Its central thesis is that a central but somewhat unnoticed feature of both rationality and the legal system is the struggle to tame complexity. Indeed, the struggle to tame complexity may be one of the most general explanatory features of the legal system. As I will attempt to show, viewing the legal system through such a lens is clarifying in a large number of way; the taming of complexity is a unifying perspective that uncovers similarities in otherwise disparate phenomena. Viewed from such a perspective, for example, the law’s difficulty with both questions of law and questions of fact come into better focus. The taming of complexity explains more aspects of the trial of disputes specifically, and dispute resolution more generally, than any other hypothesis, as it also enlightens disparate practical and philosophical debates about the meaning of law, the significance of discretion, and even sheds light on perennial issues such as the distinction between rules and standards or rules and principles.
Limelight on dark markets: Theory and experimental evidence on liquidity and information

We investigate how informational frictions affect trading in decentralized markets in theory and in a laboratory setting. Subjects, matched pairwise at random, trade divisible commodities that have different private values for a divisible asset with a common value (interpreted as money). We compare a bargaining game with complete information with a bargaining game where agents can produce fraudulent assets at some cost and are privately informed about the quality of their assets. The threat of fraud strongly reduces the subjects’ ability to exploit the gains from trade, it reduces significantly both the size of the trade and the acceptability of the asset, but only a small fraction of all assets are actually fraudulent.
Discrimination and Dignity

Recent Supreme Court jurisprudence under s. 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has identified the violation of human dignity as a key element, perhaps the key element in the determination of whether a legislative distinction is discriminatory. Although this move has been condemned as introducing a vague and indeterminate concept into equality jurisprudence and for being used to deny worthy claims, it is arguable that some substantive foundation like dignity is needed to make sense of s. 15. However, the Supreme Court has not yet done a very good job of explaining what dignity is and how we can identify its violation. This article aims to provide a fuller understanding of dignity as a legal value and explain the role is it capable of playing in defining the scope of equality rights. It identifies three forms of indignity implicit in the case law to date and interprets features of the Supreme Court's test for the violation of s. 15 through a dignity lens.
Access to Prescription Drugs: A Normative Economic Approach to Pharmacist Conscience Clause Legislation

Over the past several years there has been a surge in the introduction of legislation that provides legal protection to a pharmacist who refuses to fill a prescription due to a personal and/or religious objection to the particular medication. These pieces of legislation are collectively referred to as “conscience clauses.” While many states are currently considering such legislation, at least five (5) states - Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and South Dakota - already have state laws that provide legal protection to pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions. In large part, the pharmacist conscience clause legislation debate focuses on birth control – this is reflected in some pharmacist conscience clause legislation that limits the legal protection afforded to pharmacists to enumerated categories of prescription drugs. Some conscience clauses, however, are broadly worded and do not limit the protection to stated categories of drugs. This Article proposes that these broadly worded conscience clauses may be used to protect pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for drugs developed through controversial biomedical research, such as embryonic stem-cell research. The goals of this Article are two-fold: (1) explain that pharmacist conscience clause legislation may be expanded to areas concerning controversial biomedical research and (2) demonstrate that welfare economics can be applied to analyze pharmacist conscience clause legislation. Regarding the first goal, the broad language of existing and proposed conscience clause legislation creates an umbrella that allows a pharmacist to escape liability for refusing to fill a prescription for almost any type of medication. With respect to the second goal, this Article applies welfare economics to demonstrate pharmacist conscience clauses are a part of tort law and can be analyzed as such to determine whether social welfare is maximized.
No Place Like Home: Familiarity in Mutual Fund Manager Portfolio Choice

We show that familiarity affects the portfolio decisions of mutual fund managers. Controlling for fund location, funds overweight stocks from their managers' home states by 12% compared with their peers. In team-managed funds, home-state overweighting is 37% larger than the fund location effect. The home-state bias is stronger if the manager is inexperienced, is resource-constrained, or spent more time in his home state. Home-state stocks do not outperform other holdings, confirming that home-state investments are not informed. The overweighting also leads to excessively risky portfolios. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.
Capital market behavior and operational announcements of layoffs, operation closings, and pay cuts

This article examines the relation between stock returns and a set of operating decisions: layoffs, operation closings, and pay cuts. We find evidence that cost-cutting measures occur after significant stock price declines. Announcements of layoffs and temporary operation closings are associated with negative returns, while permanent operation closings do not have significant announcement effects.
Hedging and Financial Fragility in Fixed Exchange Rate Regimes

Currency crises that coincide with banking crises tend to share at least three elements. First, banks have a currency mismatch between their assets and liabilities. Second, banks do not completely hedge the associated exchange rate risk. Third, there are implicit government guarantees to banks and their foreign creditors. This paper argues that the first two features arise from banks’ optimal response to government guarantees. We show that guarantees completely eliminate banks’ incentives to hedge the risk of a devaluation. Our model also articulates one reason why governments might be tempted to provide guarantees to bank creditors. Guarantees lower the domestic interest rate and lead to a boom in economic activity. But this boom comes at the cost of a more fragile banking system. In the event of a devaluation, banks renege on foreign debts and declare bankruptcy.
An Analysis of Post¿Expectation Gap Voting Behaviour by the ASB

In the United States, auditing standards are promulgated in the private sector by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB), which is a committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In contrast to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), ASB members are not required to sever ties with their firms (parent organizations). As a result, ASB members have an opportunity to act as agents of their parent organizations in casting their votes for proposed Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs). McEnroe (1994) found such behaviour to exist in relation to the ‘expectation gap’ SASs and suggested as an area of future research to ascertain if this type of voting behaviour would continue on subsequent SASs. Accordingly, this research investigates the votes cast by the ASB members on the post–expectation gap SASs in an effort to determine if ‘agency’ voting has continued. The results support the proposition that agency voting behaviour is still prominent on the part of the ASB, even after repeated calls for its reformulation.
European Parliament and Executive Federalism: Approaching a Parliament in a Semi‐Parliamentary Democracy

The European Parliament has often been understood along the lines of theories of European integration—compared to regular parliaments by Federalists or belittled as merely an international assembly by intergovernmentalists. This paper proposes an understanding of the European Parliament not along theories about what the EU should become, but what it is and surely will continue to be, that is a very distinct federal structure. The European Parliament is a parliament in an executive federalism—with far-reaching consequences for its form and functions. After outlining the characteristics of this federal structure, these consequences will be demonstrated by analysing the European Parliament in contrast with two ideal types of parliaments: the working parliament, separated from the executive branch and centred around strong committees (like the US Congress), and the debating parliament, characterised by the fusion of parliamentary majority and government as well as plenary debates (like the British House of Commons). Dwelling thus on a comparison to a legislature in a non-parliamentary federal system, like the US Congress, this paper argues that the European Parliament might best be understood as a special case of a working parliament. Finally, it will be proposed to consider the influence of executive federalism not only as fundamentally shaping the European Parliament but also as rendering the EU generally a semi-parliamentary democracy.
Reflecting on the VPIN dispute

Abstract In Andersen and Bondarenko (2014) , using tick data for S&P 500 futures, we establish that the VPIN metric of Easley, Lopez de Prado, and O'Hara (ELO), by construction, will be correlated with trading volume and return volatility (innovations). Whether VPIN is more strongly correlated with volume or volatility depends on the exact implementation. Hence, it is crucial for the interpretation of VPIN as a harbinger of market turbulence or as a predictor of short-term volatility to control for current volume and volatility. Doing so, we find no evidence of incremental predictive power of VPIN for future volatility. Likewise, VPIN does not attain unusual extremes prior to the flash crash. Moreover, the properties of VPIN are strongly dependent on the underlying trade classification. In particular, using more standard classification techniques, VPIN behaves in the exact opposite manner of what is portrayed in ELO, 2011a , ELO, 2012a . At a minimum, ELO should rationalize this systematic reversal as the classification becomes more closely aligned with individual transactions. ELO (2014) dispute our findings. This note reviews the econometric methodology and the market microstructure arguments behind our conclusions and responds to a number of inaccurate assertions. In addition, we summarize fresh empirical evidence that corroborates the hypothesis that VPIN is largely driven, and significantly distorted, by the volume and volatility innovations. Furthermore, we note there is compelling new evidence that transaction-based classification schemes are more accurate than the bulk volume strategies advocated by ELO for constructing VPIN. In fact, using perfect classification leads to diametrically opposite results relative to ELO, 2011a , ELO, 2012a .
Stock Option Repricing and Its Alternatives: An Empirical Examination

In this paper I examine the likelihood of CEO stock option repricing and its alternatives: namely, option grant, stock grant, and “do nothing.” Multinomial logit results suggest that firms reprice options to increase sensitivity of pay to stock price and to temper down sensitivity of pay to volatility. Moreover, repricing firms are younger and more concentrated in industries where human capital is important. Finally, I find no evidence that internal governance or executive conflicts of interest are relevant in explaining repricing. My results indicate that repricing is motivated by incentive alignment and retention, and not by agency cost considerations.
Refugees: On the Economics of Political Migration

Unless literally forced to leave, prospective refugees have a choice between staying and flight, subject to constraints, particularly the willingness of a country to grant asylum. Although all options may be unpleasant, they nonetheless represent alternatives amenable to economic analysis. The incentive to flee is a function of threat severity and credibility, and the attractiveness of available safe havens. The theoretical analysis suggests that restrictive asylum policies have little impact on demand for asylum, except in the interplay with other factors, such as costs of flight and retribution against unsuccessful refugees. While the case of bogus refugees has received much attention in the popular literature, this article shows that threatened individuals may choose emigration instead of flight if there are repercussions associated with refugee status. The article also analyzes the case of bogus refugees.
Half full or empty: cues that lead wine drinkers to unintentionally overpour.

What might unknowingly bias the amount of wine a person serves themselves? Wine is often self-poured in various settings (e.g., at home, restaurants, receptions, parties). Building on research invo...
A model of competition in the solar panel industry

We develop a model of competition in the solar panel industry. Solar firms manufacture panels that are differentiated both vertically and horizontally, and compete by setting quantities. The equilibrium of the model is consistent with a set of stylized facts that we document, including variation in prices, markups and market shares across firms. We calibrate the model using a new dataset data on prices, costs and shipments of leading solar companies, as well as solar sales in four leading markets. The calibrated model is applied to evaluate the impact of a decline in the price of polysilicon, a key raw material used in the manufacture of solar panels, on the equilibrium price of solar panels.
The Enfranchisement of Women and the Welfare State

Abstract We offer a rationale for the decision to extend the franchise to women within a politico-economic model where men are richer than women, women display a higher preference for public goods, and women's disenfranchisement carries a societal cost. Men and women are matched within households which are the center of the decision process. We derive the optimal tax rate under two alternative regimes: a males-only enfranchisement regime and a universal enfranchisement regime. The latter is associated with a higher tax rate but, as industrialization raises the reward to intellectual labor relative to physical labor, women's relative wage increases, thus decreasing the difference between the tax rates. When the cost of disenfranchisement becomes higher than the cost of the higher tax rate which applies under universal enfranchisement, the male median voter is better off extending the franchise to women. A consequent expansion of the size of government is only to be expected in societies with a relatively high cost of disenfranchisement. We empirically test the implications of the model over the 1870–1930 period. We proxy the gender wage gap with the level of per capita income and the cost of disenfranchisement with the presence of catholicism, which is associated with a more traditional view of women's role and thus a lower cost. The gender gap in the preferences for public goods is proxied by the availability of divorce, which implies marital instability and a more vulnerable economic position for women. Consistently with the model's predictions, women's suffrage is correlated positively with per capita income and negatively with the presence of catholicism and the availability of divorce, while women's suffrage increases the size of government only in non-catholic countries.
Eroding the Myth of Discretionary Justice in Family Law: The Child Support Experiment

Reliance on judicial discretion to resolve disputes is one of the most fundamental characteristics of the American legal system. Nowhere have judges exercised more unfettered discretion than in family law. Judicial discretion in this area, however, is not without its critics. In this Article Professor Jane Murphy recommends limiting the use of judicial discretion in family law matters. Professor Murphy argues that the lack of predictability which flows from discretionary decisions undermines our confidence in the equity of decisions and encourages protracted litigation.Professor Murphy reviews the developing consensus that fixed rules are necessary to guide judges' discretion in divorce dispute resolution. Examining the application of fixed rules to one particular area of family law-child support obligations-Professor Murphy demonstrates that the use of fixed rules has successfully provided judges and parties with a means of developing more equitable, predictable child support decisions. Professor Murphy concludes that fixed rules similarly will prove useful in other areas of family law that presently are governed by judicial discretion.
Historical Knowledge and Quantitative Analysis: The Case of the Origins of Proportional Representation

Political scientists commonly draw on history but often do not read actual historians carefully. This limited engagement with historians, and with contextual information more generally, contributes to a loss of historical knowledge that can undermine the validity of quantitative analysis. This article makes this argument by means of an examination of the qualitative evidence underlying the important quantitative arguments about the origins of electoral systems advanced by Carles Boix and by Thomas Cusack, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice. The article explores how their respective attention to historical knowledge affects the quality of their data, the plausibility of their hypotheses, and, ultimately, the robustness of their statistical findings. It also analyzes how such knowledge sheds new light on the causal direction between institutions and their economic effects.
The Modern Common Law of Foreign Official Immunity

In Samantar v. Yousuf, 130 S. Ct. 2278 (2010), decided in June 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), the federal immunity statute, does not protect foreign government officials sued in U.S. courts. The decision resolved longstanding splits among the circuits and between the circuits and the Executive Branch on an issue that is key to international relations and hotly contested around the world: When are government officials immune from suit in the courts of a foreign state? The Court remanded to the lower court to determine whether common law immunity protects foreign officials such as the defendant, a former official of Somalia who has been sued for torture and summary execution. With little guidance from the Supreme Court, the lower courts are now charged with developing common law standards to determine when a foreign official is immune from suit in the United States. Suits for human rights violations will be particularly contentious, as the courts seek to reconcile the competing demands of sovereign immunity and human rights norms. The courts will not be able to simply adopt common law principles applied before the FSIA was enacted in 1976, because both international and U.S. norms governing accountability for human rights violations have changed dramatically since that time. Instead, courts should look for guidance to international and domestic immunity principles and doctrines developed in U.S. human rights litigation. When foreign officials violate clearly defined, widely accepted international law norms, they act outside of their lawful authority and are not entitled to immunity.
Social Group Asylum Claims: A Second Look at the New Visibility Requirement

In an article appearing in this journal in 2008, 1 Fatma E. Marouf identified a worrisome development in asylum law: refugees persecuted because of their membership in a "particular social group" one of the five grounds for asylum in the United States2 must now show that their group is "socially visible" in the country from which they fled.3 For the past five years, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)4 and the federal courts have increasingly relied on this social visibility criterion to deny asylum claims. Groups deemed insufficiently visible range from youth who resist gangs, to whistleblowers, to women who have children outside of wedlock.5 Meanwhile, calls to abolish the requirement have grown louder. In the past several months, advocates have sought to challenge social visibility through legislation,6 executive action,7 and judicial
Control and Responsibility of Credit Rating Agencies in the United States

While the quote is an overstatement, credit rating agencies do play an important role in our financial and capital markets. Their primary function is to assess the credit worthiness of a company and its' debt obligations through credit ratings.2 As private suppliers of information, in theory they can facilitate the raising of capital by pro viding information to investors at a lower cost then their own investi gation, and as a result lower the cost of capital by companies who issue securities.3 Their opinions greatly influence the ability of these
Dangling at the Abyss: How Deadweight Costs and Political Attitudes May Prevent (or Induce) Collapse

Analysts have considered what might check the 20th century growth in government, thereby avoiding Leviathan and economic collapse. We develop a model where political economy equilibrium pushes the economy to the brink of collapse, but rising marginal welfare costs may prevent collapse. For small reductions in welfare from government, rational ignorance enables special interests to gain. When deadweight costs become large, taxpayers provide political opposition that prevents collapse. Optimistic views of government may alter this conclusion and induce collapse. However, if favorable attitudes toward government are revised downward in light of poor economic performance, this concern is lessened.
Cosmetic Psychopharmacology for Prisoners: Reducing Crime and Recidivism Through Cognitive Intervention

Criminologists have long acknowledged the link between a number of cognitive deficits, including low intelligence and impulsivity, and crime. A new wave of research has demonstrated that pharmacological intervention can restore or improve cognitive function, particularly executive function (including the inhibition of impulsive response), and restore neural plasticity. Such restoration and improvement can allow for easier acquisition of new skills and as a result, presents significant possibilities for the criminal justice system. For example, studies have shown that supplements of Omega-3, a fatty acid commonly found in food such as tuna, can decrease frequency of violent incidents in an incarcerated population. Research has also begun to explore the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to reduce impulsivity in some violent offenders. However, there are significant legal and ethical implications when moving from dietary supplements to prescription pharmaceuticals and medical devices for cognitive intervention. This paper will explore the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of pharmacological intervention on prisoners as an effort to reduce crime and recidivism.
Reconstruction for the Signature of a Rough Path

Recently, it was proved that the group of rough paths modulo tree-like equivalence is isomorphic to the corresponding signature group through the signature map S (a generalized notion of taking iterated path integrals). However, the proof of this uniqueness result does not contain any information on how to ‘see’ the trajectory of a (tree-reduced) rough path from its signature, and a constructive understanding on the uniqueness result (in particular, on the inverse of S) has become an interesting and important question. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct a rough path from its signature in an explicit and universal way.
Credit Ratings Across Asset Classes: A Long-Term Perspective

We test whether ratings are comparable across asset classes. We examine default rates by initial rating, accuracy ratios, migration metrics, instantaneous upgrade and downgrade intensities, and rating changes over bonds’ lives in multivariate regressions. These approaches reveal substantial and persistent differences across broad asset classes, as well as across subcategories of structured finance products. Our results are best explained by variation in rating agency incentives and variation in underlying risk profiles. We conclude that regulations requiring ratings to perform comparably across asset classes will prove difficult to enforce. We advocate instead a regulatory framework that better distinguishes risks and incentives across asset classes.
Four formal(izable) theories of the firm

In this essay, I define and compare elemental versions of four theories of the firm. These elemental theories are distilled from important contributions by Hart, Holmstrom, Klein, Williamson, and others. Although these contributions have been widely cited and much discussed, I have found it difficult to understand the commonalities, distinctions, and potential combinations of these seemingly familiar contributions. In this essay, therefore, I attempt to clarify these issues in three steps: I begin with informal summaries of the theories, then turn to simple but formal statements of each elemental theory, and finally nest the four elemental theories in an integrative framework.
Professionals or Politicians: The Uncertain Empirical Case for an Elected Rather than Appointed Judiciary

Conventional wisdom holds that appointed judges are superior to elected judges because appointed judges are less vulnerable to political pressure. However, there is little empirical evidence for this view. Using a data set of state high court opinions, we construct measures for three aspects of judicial performance: effort, skill, and independence. The measures permit a test of the relationship between performance and the four primary methods of state high court judge selection: partisan election, non-partisan election, merit plan, and appointment. Appointed judges write higher quality opinions than elected judges do, but elected judges write more opinions, and the evidence suggests that the large quantity difference makes up for the small quality difference. In addition, elected judges are not less independent than appointed judges. The results suggest that elected judges focus on providing service to the voters, whereas appointed judges care more about their long-term legacy as creators of precedent. If the state has a problem with judicial impartiality, it is largely one the state brought upon itself by continuing the practice of popularly electing judges. Justice O’Connor, concurring in Republican Party of Minn. v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 792 (2002).
The Promise and Limits of Collective Action for Nonprofit Self-Regulation: Evidence From Asia:

Self-regulation is an increasing mandate in American nonprofit life, but the new focus on self-regulation is not limited to the United States. Nonprofit self-regulation is expanding rapidly in Asia as an expression of collective action to defend against encroaching and increasing state pressures; to strengthen the quality of sectoral governance, services, financial management, and fundraising; to improve public, corporate, media, and other perceptions of nonprofits and charities; to organize an unruly sphere and marginalize lower quality actors or other outliers; to access governmental or donor funding; to act as a market mechanism to exclude competitive or unproductive actors for the benefit of remaining players or to marginalize organizations causing reputational damage to the sector; as a learning opportunity for nonprofits and their networks; and as a means to clarify and strengthen shared identity. This article analyzes the rapid development and forms of nonprofit self-regulation in Cambodia, India, ...
Jurisgenerative Constitutionalism: Procedural Principles for Managing Global Legal Pluralism

Global Legal Pluralism recognizes the inevitability (and sometimes even the desirability) of multiple legal and quasi-legal systems purporting to regulate the same act or actor. However, the resulting pluralism—just as inevitably—creates conflicts among norms that are potentially intractable. Thus, legal systems must address how best to respond to the realities of pluralism. This inquiry has constitutional dimensions because it goes to the constitutive character of communities and their relationships with other communities, be they international, transnational, national, subnational, or epistemic. One response to pluralism is jurispathic: “kill off” all competing laws by declaring that one set of norms—and only one—shall win. This is a constitutional declaration founded solely on power or messianism, and I argue that it is both unsatisfying as a normative matter and doomed to failure as a descriptive one. Instead, this article offers principles that would undergird a more jurisgenerative constitutionalism, one that seeks to manage, without eliminating, the plural voices clamoring to be heard. These principles can be used to design procedural mechanisms, institutions, and discursive practices that better respond to the reality of a world of multiple competing voices. In addition, such principles may bring more such voices into the constitutional discourse, thereby creating at least the possibility that enemies can be turned into adversaries, resulting in more fruitful (and peaceful) constitutional interactions.
On a fallacy in the Kaldor–Hicks efficiency–equity analysis

This paper shows that implicit assumptions about the numeraire good in the Kaldor–Hicks efficiency–equity analysis involve a “same-yardstick” fallacy (a fallacy pointed out by Paul Samuelson in another context). These results have negative implications for cost-benefit analysis, the wealth-maximization approach to law and economics, and other parts of applied welfare economics—as well as for the whole vision of economics based on the “production and distribution of social wealth”.
Intrinsic network activity in human brain organoids

Abstract Human brain organoids replicate much of the cellular diversity and developmental anatomy of the human brain. However, the physiological behavior of neuronal circuits within organoids remains relatively under-explored. With high-density CMOS microelectrode arrays and shank electrodes, we probed broadband and three-dimensional spontaneous activity of human brain organoids. These recordings simultaneously captured local field potentials (LFPs) and single unit activity. From spiking activity, we estimated a directed functional connectivity graph of synchronous neural network activity which showed a large number of weak functional connections enmeshed within a network skeleton of significantly fewer strong connections. Increasing the intrinsic inhibitory tone with a benzodiazepine altered the functional network graph of the organoid by suppressing the network skeleton. Simultaneously examining the spontaneous LFPs and their phase alignment to spiking showed that spike bursts were coherent with theta oscillations in the LFPs. An ensemble of spikes phase-locked to theta frequency oscillations were strongly interconnected as a sub-network within the larger network in which they were embedded. Our results demonstrate that human brain organoids have self-organized neuronal assemblies of sufficient size, cellular orientation, and functional connectivity to co-activate and generate field potentials from their collective transmembrane currents that phase-lock to spiking activity. These results point to the potential of brain organoids for the study of neuropsychiatric diseases, drug mechanisms, and the effects of external stimuli upon neuronal networks.
The Steep Costs of Using Noncumulative Zoning to Preserve Land for Urban Manufacturing

In cities around the country, huge swaths of property in desirable locations house only empty warehouses, barely-used shipping facilities, and heavily subsidized industrial-age factories, often right across the street from high-end condos and office buildings. The reason is a widely-used, but poorly understood form of local industrial policy known as non-cumulative zoning. In contrast with traditional Euclidean zoning, in which manufacturing uses were prohibited in residential areas but not vice versa, areas that are zoned non-cumulatively allow only manufacturing uses and bar any residential (and sometimes even commercial uses) of property. The arguments for non-cumulative zoning are always the same: Cities seek to (a) reduce the degree to which urban manufacturers are held responsible for nuisance and (b) subsidize urban manufacturing by reducing the competition for land and hence reducing the price. In this Article, we argue that non-cumulative zoning is an idea whose time has passed, if there ever was a convincing case for it at all. The two major justifications for non-cumulative zoning are flawed, and alternative means could achieve the same ends with fewer costs. The large number of nuisance claims engendered by urban manufacturing could be addressed by creating a "right to stink" in certain zones, allowing residential and commercial users to move into these zones but prohibiting them from suing manufacturers who are not violating regulatory laws. As for the second manufacturer-subsidizing justification, subsidies cannot be justified in terms of a subsidizing city's own welfare unless the external "agglomeration" benefits of manufacturing exceed the cost of the subsidy to the city. Moreover, the broader social perspective also requires that some cities are better able to capture those agglomeration benefits than others, meaning that competition between jurisdictions could result in total increases in wealth. However, non-cumulative zoning is unlikely to achieve either local or broader social efficiency. Its scope is not closely tied to any theory of external benefit; it encourages the inefficient use of land and the substitution of land for other inputs; and it hides the true cost of urban manufacturing subsidies from the public. If urban manufacturing must be subsidized, a direct cash subsidy system would be preferable, particularly if it could be funded directly from taxes on the increased value of land caused by the removal of a non-cumulative zoning designation.
A Tisket, a Tasket: Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters

In an income tax system that comported with the economic, or HaigSimons, definition of income, deductible expenses would not face sourcebased limitations. A true Haig-Simons income tax system therefore would not take the schedular approach of sorting different types of expenses and losses into distinct conceptual “baskets” containing corresponding types of income. Practical realities often require departing from the Haig-Simons norm, however. The U.S. federal income tax system does require individuals to basket a number of types of expenses and losses. For example, individuals’ passive activity losses can only be deducted from passive income gains. By contrast, most corporations taxed under Subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code are not subject to many of these restrictions. Thus, corporations generally can deduct their passive investment expenses and losses from their active business income. That ability allowed the creation of  William W. Oliver Professor of Tax Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law. I am grateful to Brian Broughman, Cliff Fleming, Christopher Hanna, Susan Morse, and Bill Popkin for comments on prior drafts. I am also grateful for helpful discussions with Alice Abreu, Benjamin Alarie, Raquel Meyer Alexander, Michael Alexeev, Richard Bird, Joshua Blank, Yariv Brauner, David Fischer, David Gamage, David Hyman, Darian Ibrahim, Sarah Lawsky, Stephen Mazza, Stephanie McMahon, Bob Peroni, Lisa Philipps, Ted Seto, Jeff Stake, and participants in the 2009 Midwest Law & Economics Conference at Notre Dame Law School, the 2009 Central States Law Schools Association meeting at Capital Law School, the 2010 Law and Society Association meeting, a 2009 faculty workshop at Brooklyn Law School, a 2010 Tax Policy Colloquium at Southern Methodist University‘s Dedman Law School, a 2010 Tax Law Colloquium at Washburn University School of Law, and a 2010 Tax Law & Policy Workshop at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Brandon Benjamin, Robert Christie, Katherine Erbeznik, Michala Irons, and Angela Moudy provided valuable research assistance. Washington University Open Scholarship 558 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [VOL. 88:557 infamous tax strategies such as Son-of-BOSS and the CINS contingent installment sale shelter. In order to prevent the resurgence of abusive tax shelters, this Article proposes to extend to the domestic corporate context the passive/active distinction that already exists for individuals. If corporations were required to basket their passive-source expenses and losses with their passive income (such as income from interest, dividends, and rents and royalties, other than those produced by an active business), many abusive tax shelters involving financial products would not work. The Article also considers the three principal objections to the proposal—that it is overbroad, underinclusive, and too complex—and argues that the proposal is tailored so as to minimize these costs.
Jesse Burkhead and the Multiple Uses of Federal Budgets: A Contemporary Perspective

The work of Jesse Burkhead continues to have great relevance today. Its germaneness could be taken as an indictment of how little progress has been made in federal budgeting in the past half century, but it also says a great deal about Burkhead's insights and the lasting legacy of his work. This article discusses some of Burkhead's ideas on the use of the federal budget and their pertinence to the budget issues of today, including the role of the federal government in the economy, budgetary relations between presidents and Congresses, and the role of performance information in budgeting.
Short-Sale Constraints, Differences of Opinion, and Overvaluation

Miller (1977) hypothesizes that dispersion of investor opinion in the presence of short-sale constraints leads to stock price overvaluation. However, previous empirical tests of Miller's hypothesis examine the valuation effects of only one of these two necessary conditions. We examine the valuation effects of the interaction between differences of opinion and short sale constraints. We find robust evidence of significant overvaluation for stocks that are subject to both conditions simultaneously. Stocks are not systematically overvalued when either one of these two conditions is not met.
Learning from Past Mistakes: Future Regulation to Prevent Greenwashing

The term “greenwashing” refers to false or misleading environmental claims in advertising. This Note gives an overview of various laws that may be applied to greenwashers and the “Green Guides,” the Federal Trade Commission’s nonbinding guidance covering the application of the Federal Trade Commission Act to environmental claims. This Note argues that greenwashing is a persistent problem for consumers and the environment and that existing laws are not sufficient to prevent it. It suggests that additional federal regulation is needed to curb greenwashing, and that regulation should specifically define terms and be uniform across the country. Unlike the Green Guides, future greenwashing regulation should be binding and enforceable.