Anxiety and Learning in Dynamic and Static Clock Game Experiments

In clock games, agents receive differently-timed private signals when an asset value is above its fundamental. The price crashes to the fundamental when K of N agents have decided to sell. If selling decisions are private, bubbles can be sustained because people delay selling, after receiving signals, knowing that others will delay too. Our results replicate the main features of the one previous experimental study of clock game (in two subject pools): Selling delays are shorter than predicted, but converge toward equilibrium predictions over repeated trials. We also find that delays are shorter in a dynamic game in which selling decisions unfold over time, compared to a static equivalent in which subjects precommit to selling decisions. A model of learning with growing anxiety after signal arrival can reproduce the empirical observations of shorter-than-predicted delay, smaller delay after later signal arrival, and shorter delays in dynamic games

Loss Aversion in Post-Sale Purchases of Consumer Products and Their Substitutes

This paper considers the measurement of consumer loss aversion in product markets. We introduce a test based on a "substitution effect," focusing on how the end of a sale affects sales not of the good itself, but a substitute good. Such an effect cannot be easily confounded with consumer stockpiling. Using a unique dataset from an online hardware retailer, we find evidence consistent with consumer loss aversion. Moreover, we find that less experienced consumers suffer a more prominent loss aversion bias compared to more experienced consumers

Concentrations and isotope ratios of helium and other noble gases in the Earth's atmosphere during 1978-2011

The evolution of the atmospheric noble gas composition during the past few decades has hardly been studied because, in contrast to many other atmospheric gases, systematic time-series measurements have not been available. Based on theoretical considerations, the atmospheric noble gas isotope composition is assumed to be stable on time scales of up to about 10^6 years, with the potential exception of anthropogenic changes predicted for the He concentration and the 3He/4He ratio. However, experimental assessments of the predicted changes in the atmospheric He isotope composition are controversial. To empirically test these assumptions and predictions, we analysed the noble gas isotope composition in samples of the Cape Grim Air Archive, a well-defined archive of marine boundary layer air in the southern hemisphere. The resulting time series of the 20Ne, 40Ar, 86Kr and 136Xe concentrations and 20Ne/22Ne and 40Ar/36Ar ratios during 1978-2011 demonstrate the stability of the atmospheric Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe composition during this time interval. The He isotope data provide strong evidence for a decrease in the 3He/4He during the same time interval at a mean rate of 0.23-0.30 permil per year. This result is consistent with most model predictions of the rate of decrease in the atmospheric 3He/4He ratio associated with mining and burning of fossil fuels

Transformative research as knowledge mobilization: transmedia, bridges and layers

Mainstream knowledge production and communication in the academy generally reflect the tenets of positivist research and predominantly embody hierarchical processes of knowledge transfer. In contrast, a transformative research paradigm is rooted in knowledge mobilization processes involving close collaboration between researchers and community actors as co-enquirers as a part of a broader agenda for progressive social change. They also involve strategic communication strategies that mobilize knowledge beyond those directly involved in the research process. We illustrate the cyclical pattern and transgressive potential of knowledge mobilization processes through a reflective case study of a participatory action research program in the Canadian Prairies. Based on this work, we present three key knowledge mobilization strategies. These include: using transmedia to exchange knowledge across a range of communication media; building bridges to invite communication amongst diverse knowledge communities; and layering to communicate knowledge at varying levels of detail. We critically examine our own practice as a contested and partial process in tension with the institutional and cultural durability of the more linear knowledge transfer paradigm. Knowledge mobilization strategies provide a framework to implement research methods, communication processes, and outcomes that are high in impact and relevant in struggles for a more just and resilient society. </jats:p

Working Together to Build Cooperative Food Systems

The combined challenges of food insecurity, agriculture-related environmental decline, corporate concentration, and the decline of community resilience are being met by growing societal interest in developing more just and sustainable food systems. A recent emphasis on cooperation and innovative forms of collective action within the food movement invokes a community-centered approach to food provisioning where collective problem-solving and democracy take center place in the development agenda (Ikerd, 2012). Cooperative alternative food networks are becoming powerful tools for community development and important vehicles for cultivating democratically controlled food systems at multiple scales. The papers in this special issue provide an important contribution to our understanding of the function, the challenges, and the potential of collective action in enabling more just and resilient food systems. Cooperative alternative food networks represent a break from the competitive productivism of the dominant food economy and create new relational spaces that hold promise for overcoming the pragmatic and political limits of some of the more individualistic approaches in the local/ sustainable food movement. These include cooperative forms of: food hubs, local food networks, farmers' markets, CSAs, box schemes, buying clubs, and value chains, along with a range of agriculture and food cooperatives owned by farmers, consumers, workers, and in emerging multistakeholder cooperative structures. With a renewed emphasis on civic governance, the resulting food-provisioning systems are based on principles of participatory democracy, solidarity, and reciprocity (Renting, Schermer, &amp; Rossi, 2012) and provide spaces to nurture collective subjectivities required for transformative food practice and politics (Levkoe, 2011)

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries (now replaced by EEN0508)

Using examples from more than a dozen fisheries, we highlight the failures of ‘command control’ management and show that approaches that empower fishers with the incentives and the mandate to be co-custodians of the marine environment can promote sustainability. Evidence is provided that where harvesters share well-defined management responsibilities over fish, and experience both the pain of overexploitation and the gains from conservation, they are much more likely to protect fish stocks and habitat. The key insight is that to maintain marine ecosystems for present and future generations, fishing incentives must be compatible with long-term goals of sustainability.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Lamin A Δexon9 mutation leads to telomere and chromatin defects but not genomic instability

Over 300 mutations in the LMNA gene, encoding A-type lamins, are associated with 15 human degenerative disorders and premature aging syndromes. Although genomic instability seems to contribute to the pathophysiology of some laminopathies, there is limited information about what mutations cause genomic instability and by which molecular mechanisms. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts depleted of A-type lamins or expressing mutants lacking exons 8–11 (Lmna(Δ8–11/Δ8–11)) exhibit alterations in telomere biology and DNA repair caused by cathepsin L-mediated degradation of 53BP1 and reduced expression of BRCA1 and RAD51. Thus, a region encompassing exons 8–11 seems essential for genome integrity. Given that deletion of lamin A exon 9 in the mouse (Lmna(Δ9/Δ9)) results in a progeria phenotype, we tested if this domain is important for genome integrity. Lmna(Δ9/Δ9) MEFs exhibit telomere shortening and heterochromatin alterations but do not activate cathepsin L-mediated degradation of 53BP1 and maintain expression of BRCA1 and RAD51. Accordingly, Lmna(Δ9/Δ9) MEFs do not present genomic instability, and expression of mutant lamin A Δexon9 in lamin-depleted cells restores DNA repair factors levels and partially rescues nuclear abnormalities. These data reveal that the domain encoded by exon 9 is important to maintain telomere homeostasis and heterochromatin structure but does not play a role in DNA repair, thus pointing to other exons in the lamin A tail as responsible for the genomic instability phenotype in Lmna(Δ8–11/Δ8–11) mice. Our study also suggests that the levels of DNA repair factors 53BP1, BRCA1 and RAD51 could potentially serve as biomarkers to identify laminopathies that present with genomic instability

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries

The failures of traditional target-species management have led many to propose an ecosystem approach to fisheries to promote sustainability. The ecosystem approach is necessary, especially to account for fishery-ecosystem interactions, but by itself is not sufficient to address two important factors contributing to unsustainable fisheries — inappropriate incentives bearing on fishers, and the ineffective governance that frequently exists in commercial, developed fisheries managed primarily by total harvest limits and input-controls. We contend that much greater emphasis must be placed on fisher motivation when managing fisheries. Using evidence from more than a dozen ‘natural experiments’ in commercial fisheries, we argue that incentive-based approaches that better specify community, individual harvest, or territorial rights and also price ecosystem services — coupled with public research, monitoring and effective oversight — promote sustainable fisheries.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Asymptotics of relative heat traces and determinants on open surfaces of finite area

The goal of this paper is to prove that on surfaces with asymptotically cusp ends the relative determinant of pairs of Laplace operators is well defined. We consider a surface with cusps (M,g) and a metric h on the surface that is a conformal transformation of the initial metric g. We prove the existence of the relative determinant of the pair $(\Delta_{h},\Delta_{g})$ under suitable conditions on the conformal factor. The core of the paper is the proof of the existence of an asymptotic expansion of the relative heat trace for small times. We find the decay of the conformal factor at infinity for which this asymptotic expansion exists and the relative determinant is defined. Following the paper by B. Osgood, R. Phillips and P. Sarnak about extremal of determinants on compact surfaces, we prove Polyakov's formula for the relative determinant and discuss the extremal problem inside a conformal class. We discuss necessary conditions for the existence of a maximizer.Comment: This is the final version of the article before it gets published. 51 page