Boston College

About: Boston College is a education organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 9749 authors who have published 25406 publications receiving 1105145 citations. The organization is also known as: BC.

Visual Mental Imagery Induces Retinotopically Organized Activation of Early Visual Areas

Abstract: There is a long-standing debate as to whether visual mental imagery relies entirely on symbolic (language-like) representations or also relies on depictive (picture-like) representations. We sought to discover whether visual mental imagery could evoke cortical activity with precise visual field topography (retinotopy). Participants received three conditions: the perception condition consisted of a standard retinotopic mapping procedure, where two flickering checkerboard wedges rotated around a central fixation point. The imagery and attention conditions consisted of the same stimulus, but only the outer arcs of the wedges were visible. During imagery, participants mentally reproduced the stimulus wedges, using the stimulus arcs as a guide. The attention condition required either distributed attention or focused attention to where the stimulus wedges would have been. Event-related analysis revealed that the imagery (greater than either form of attention) retinotopic maps were similar to the perception maps. Moreover, blocked analysis revealed similar perception and imagery effects in human motion processing region MT+. These results support the depictive view of visual mental imagery.

Identification of heart rate–associated loci and their effects on cardiac conduction and rhythm disorders

Abstract: Elevated resting heart rate is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. In a 2-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in up to 181,171 individuals, we identified 14 new loci associated with heart rate and confirmed associations with all 7 previously established loci. Experimental downregulation of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio identified 20 genes at 11 loci that are relevant for heart rate regulation and highlight a role for genes involved in signal transmission, embryonic cardiac development and the pathophysiology of dilated cardiomyopathy, congenital heart failure and/or sudden cardiac death. In addition, genetic susceptibility to increased heart rate is associated with altered cardiac conduction and reduced risk of sick sinus syndrome, and both heart rate-increasing and heart rate-decreasing variants associate with risk of atrial fibrillation. Our findings provide fresh insights into the mechanisms regulating heart rate and identify new therapeutic targets.

Managing for the Moment: The Role of Earnings Management via Real Activities versus Accruals in SEO Valuation

Abstract: We assess the role of both accruals manipulation (AM) and real activities manipulation (RAM) in inducing overvaluation at the time of a seasoned equity offering (SEO). Our results reveal that earnings management is most consistently and predictably linked with post-SEO stock market under-performance when it is driven by RAM, in particular, the opportunistic reduction of expenditures on R&D and selling, general and administrative activities. Thus, overvaluation at the time of the SEO is more likely when managers actively engage in more opaque channels to overstate earnings. Our findings are particularly relevant because managers exhibit a greater propensity for RAM at the time of SEOs, even though RAM is more costly in the long run.

Transparency and Liquidity: A Controlled Experiment on Corporate Bonds

Abstract: This article reports the results of an experiment designed to assess the impact of lastsale trade reporting on the liquidity of BBB corporate bonds Overall, adding transparency has either a neutral or a positive effect on liquidity Increased transparency is not associated with greater trading volume Except for very large trades, spreads on newly transparent bonds decline relative to bonds that experience no transparency change However, we find no effect on spreads for very infrequently traded bonds The observed decrease in transaction costs is consistent with investors’ ability to negotiate better terms of trade once they have access to broader bond-pricing data (JEL codes: G14, G18, G23, G24, G28) Although larger than the market for US Government or municipal bonds, the corporate bond market historically has been one of the least transparent securities markets in the United States, with neither pretrade nor posttrade transparency Corporate bonds trade primarily over-the-counter, and until recently, no centralized mechanism existed to collect and disseminate posttransaction information This structure changed on July 1, 2002, when the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) began a program of increased posttrade transparency for corporate bonds, known as the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) system As part of this structural change, only a selected subset of bonds initially was subject to public dissemination of trade information The resulting experiment enables us to observe the effects of increased posttrade transparency on market liquidity in a controlled setting

Introduction to paradoxes of creativity: managerial and organizational challenges in the cultural economy

Abstract: This special issue explores the paradoxes caused by the challenge of managing and organizing creativity in the cultural economy. Conventional views of the individual creative artist are replaced by a view of creativity as a social process embedded within organizational and institutional contexts. The cultural economy is broadly defined in terms of breadth of industries included and depth elements of the cultural production chain. The paper next examines paradoxical practices of the special issue papers in terms of managing creative personnel and managing creative processes. Paradoxes grounded in difference, distance, globalization and identity provide a framework for reviewing each special issue paper's findings on how cultural industry participants, whether individuals, organizations or communities of participants, balance, and as often integrate, competing demands of creative and routine work. The paper concludes with recommendations for more comparative cultural industry research into the personnel, work and management practices employed for managing and organizing creative work and creative workers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.