Showing papers by "Saint Anselm College published in 2015"

Horizontal Merger Guidelines

Abstract: This article provides an examination of the four sets of guidelines, regarding mergers between rival firms, which have been provided to the business community by the US antitrust authorities during the past half century. These guidelines identify the conditions under which a proposed merger is considered to be sufficiently anticompetitive that the antitrust authorities will challenge the merger in court. The development of, and economic rationale behind, the first set of guidelines issued in 1968 is presented. The article then presents the three sets of guidelines subsequently developed by the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, including those issued in 2010 that are in force today. The differences in the economic methodology behind each set of guidelines are presented. The article then provides a discussion of the ongoing policy debate among several prominent economics scholars as to the relative merits of the early and newer guides. Keywords: antitrust policy; mergers; market power; market performance; guidelines

Vitamin B12: a tunable, long wavelength, light-responsive platform for launching therapeutic agents

Abstract: Light-responsive agents offer the promise of targeted therapy, whose benefits include (i) prolonged action at the target site, (ii) overall reduced systemic dosage, (iii) reduced adverse effects, and (iv) localized delivery of multiple agents. Although photoactivated prodrugs have been reported, these species generally require short wavelengths ( 600 nm) is readily captured and used to separate the Co-appended ligand (e.g., a drug) from B12. Consequently, it is now feasible to preassign the wavelength of homolysis by simply installing a fluorescent antenna with the desired photophysical properties. The wavelength malleability inherent within this strategy has been used to construct photoresponsive compounds that launch different drugs by simply modulating the wavelength of illumination. In addition, these phototherapeutics have been installed on the surface and interior of cells, such as erythrocytes or neural stem cells, and released upon expoure to the appropriate wavelength. We have shown that cytotoxic agents, such as doxorubicin, anti-inflammatories, such as dexamethasone, and anti- and pro-vascular agents are readily released from cellular vehicles as biologically active agents. We have also demonstrated that the concept of "optical window of tissue" phototherapeutics is not just limited to prodrugs. For example, stem cells have received considerable attention in the area of regenerative medicine. Hydrogels serve as scaffolds for stem cell growth and differentiation. We have shown that the formation of hydrogels can be triggered, in the presence of cells, using appropriately designed alkyl-cob(III)alamins and long wavelength light. The potential applications of phototherapeutics are broad and include drug delivery for a variety of indications, tissue engineering, and surgery.

Job strain and trajectories of change in episodic memory before and after retirement: results from the Health and Retirement Study

Abstract: Background We examined indicators of job strain in relation to level and change in episodic memory in the years leading up to as well as following retirement. Methods Our analyses centre on 3779 individuals from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (baseline age 57.3 years) who reported gainful employment in an occupation for 10+ years prior to retirement, and who were assessed for episodic memory performance over up to 20 years (median 8 waves over 16 years). We used ratings from the Occupational Information Network (O*Net) to score occupations for job control and job demands, and to measure job strain (job demands/job control). Results Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, and cardiovascular disease, less job control and greater job strain were not significantly associated with change in episodic memory in the period leading up to retirement, but were associated with significantly poorer episodic memory at retirement and an accelerated rate of decline in episodic memory following retirement. The results did not vary for men and women or by self-employment status. Conclusions Job strain expressed mainly as low job control is linked to poorer episodic memory at retirement and more decline after retirement. Job characteristics appear to have implications for cognitive ageing independent of relevant confounds.

Overcoming Barriers to Palliative Care Consultation

Abstract: Palliative care consultations for patients with life-threatening illnesses provide benefits for the patients and their families as well as for the health care team. Patients have better quality of life and live longer but cost the health care system less. Still, many patients are not offered the opportunity to receive a palliative care consultation. Barriers to palliative care consultation for patients in critical care units include misunderstandings about palliative care and not having agreed upon criteria for referral. Critical care nurses can assist in overcoming these barriers.

Negative mood reverses devaluation of goal-directed drug-seeking favouring an incentive learning account of drug dependence.

Abstract: Background Two theories explain how negative mood primes smoking behaviour. The stimulus–response (S-R) account argues that in the negative mood state, smoking is experienced as more reinforcing, establishing a direct (automatic) association between the negative mood state and smoking behaviour. By contrast, the incentive learning account argues that in the negative mood state smoking is expected to be more reinforcing, which integrates with instrumental knowledge of the response required to produce that outcome. Objectives One differential prediction is that whereas the incentivelearningaccountanticipatesthatnegativemoodinduction could augment a novel tobacco-seeking response in an extinction test, the S-R account could not explain this effect because the extinction test prevents S-R learning by omitting experience of the reinforcer. Methods To test this, overnight-deprived daily smokers (n= 44) acquired two instrumental responses for tobacco and chocolate points, respectively, before smoking to satiety. Half then received negative mood induction to raise the expected value of tobacco, opposing satiety, whilst the remainder received positive mood induction. Finally, a choice between tobacco and chocolate was measured in extinction to test whether negative mood could augment tobacco choice, opposing satiety, in the absence of direct experience of tobacco reinforcement. Results Negative mood induction not only abolished the devaluation of tobacco choice, but participants with a significant increase in negative mood increased their tobacco choice in extinction, despite satiety. Conclusions These findings suggest that negative mood augments drug-seeking by raising the expected value of the drug through incentive learning, rather than through automatic S-R control.

Awareness of Memory Ability and Change: (In)Accuracy of Memory Self-Assessments in Relation to Performance

Abstract: Little is known about subjective assessments of memory abilities and decline among middle-aged adults or their association with objective memory performance in the general population. In this study we examined self-ratings of memory ability and change in relation to episodic memory performance in two national samples of middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS II in 2005-06) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; every two years from 2002 to 2012). MIDUS (Study 1) participants (N=3,581) rated their memory compared to others their age and to themselves five years ago; HRS (Study 2) participants (N=14,821) rated their current memory and their memory compared to two years ago, with up to six occasions of longitudinal data over ten years. In both studies, episodic memory performance was the total number of words recalled in immediate and delayed conditions. When controlling for demographic and health correlates, self-ratings of memory abilities, but not subjective change, were related to performance. We examined accuracy by comparing subjective and objective memory ability and change. More than one third of the participants across the studies had self-assessments that were inaccurate relative to their actual level of performance and change, and accuracy differed as a function of demographic and health factors. Further understanding of self-awareness of memory abilities and change beginning in midlife may be useful for identifying early warning signs of decline, with implications regarding policies and practice for early detection and treatment of cognitive impairment.

Law of Demand

Abstract: This article describes one of the fundamental laws of economics. Its description of the relation between price changes and consumer purchases of a good is presented. The economic forces which explain the consumer behavior described in the law are identified. Examples of the law are offered, as are some possible exceptions where the law appears to be violated. Keywords: demand; consumer behavior; price; marginal utility

Daily stressors and emotional reactivity in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy controls.

Abstract: Daily experiences of stress are common and have been associated with worse affect among older adults. People with mild cognitive impairment (PWMCI) have measurable memory deficits in between normal cognition and dementia and have been identified as having greater psychological distress than cognitively healthy older adults (CHOAs). Little is known about whether daily stressors contribute to distress among PWMCI. We hypothesized that compared with CHOAs, PWMCI would have higher daily negative affect and lower daily positive affect, report greater numbers and severity of daily stressors, and experience greater emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Fifteen clinically diagnosed PWMCI and 25 CHOAs completed daily reports of stressors, stressor severity, and positive and negative affect over an 8-day period. PWMCI reported higher daily negative affect, lower daily positive affect, and higher numbers and greater severity of memory stressors but did not differ from CHOAs in numbers or severity of general stressors. Cognitive status was a moderator of the daily stress-affect relationship. Days with greater numbers and severity of general daily stressors were associated with higher negative affect only for PWMCI. The numbers and severity of memory stressors were not associated with negative affect. In addition, more severe general daily stressors and memory stressors were associated with lower positive affect for all participants. Results suggest that PWMCI are less resilient in the face of daily stress than are CHOAs in terms of negative affect, perhaps because of declines in reserve capacity. The study presents a promising approach to understanding stress and coping in predementia states of cognition.

A Hierarchical Instrumental Decision Theory of Nicotine Dependence

Abstract: It is important to characterize the learning processes governing tobacco-seeking in order to understand how best to treat this behavior. Most drug learning theories have adopted a Pavlovian framework wherein the conditioned response is the main motivational process. We favor instead a hierarchical instrumental decision account, wherein expectations about the instrumental contingency between voluntary tobacco-seeking and the receipt of nicotine reward determines the probability of executing this behavior. To support this view, we review titration and nicotine discrimination research showing that internal signals for deprivation/satiation modulate expectations about the current incentive value of smoking, thereby modulating the propensity of this behavior. We also review research on cue-reactivity which has shown that external smoking cues modulate expectations about the probability of the tobacco-seeking response being effective, thereby modulating the propensity of this behavior. Economic decision theory is then considered to elucidate how expectations about the value and probability of response-nicotine contingency are integrated to form an overall utility estimate for that option for comparison with qualitatively different, nonsubstitute reinforcers, to determine response selection. As an applied test for this hierarchical instrumental decision framework, we consider how well it accounts for individual liability to smoking uptake and perseveration, pharmacotherapy, cue-extinction therapies, and plain packaging. We conclude that the hierarchical instrumental account is successful in reconciling this broad range of phenomenon precisely because it accepts that multiple diverse sources of internal and external information must be integrated to shape the decision to smoke.

Structure‐Conduct‐Performance Paradigm

Abstract: This article provides a description of the basic model of industry analysis that is used in the field of industrial organization economics. The article focuses on the two competing views of industry behavior and public policy toward business which have evolved from the paradigm. The traditional Structuralist School view of the causal flow of the paradigm's elements is examined and empirical research supporting this view is presented. The article then presents some of the consequences of this view in terms of the antitrust policy prescriptions which it supports. Some theoretical and empirical shortcomings of this view, and competing evidence supporting the alternative Chicago School view, are then examined. Keywords: market structure; market performance; antitrust policy; market power; efficiency

The Effects of Household Technology on Body Mass Index among Chinese Adults

Abstract: Current public obesity intervention focuses on promoting programs that encourage exercise and healthy eating. Our study emphasizes that rapid technological changes may also have the potential to lead to obesity epidemics. This research investigates whether household technology launched in China during the last two decades has the potential to cause increases in body mass index (BMI). We hypothesize that adopting household technology is a contributory factor in BMI increase, independent of daily calorie consumption and energy expenditure in exercise. To test this hypothesis, we use longitudinal data from individuals aged 18–55 who participated in the 1997–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Linear fixed-effects regression captures the effects of the dynamic processes of adopting household technology on BMI. All analyses are stratified by gender. The results show that adopting computers or air conditioners is associated with BMI increases in men, while adopting washing machines promotes BMI increases in women. Having a computer is associated with a decrease in BMI for women. Food-preparation technologies, such as refrigerators, microwaves, rice makers, and pressure cookers, are associated with BMI increases for both men and women. This study suggests that household technology ownership and BMI increases are linked, whereas changes in overall energy intake and exercise may not function as mediators for this relationship. Future public health policy may evaluate interventions focused on increasing low-intensity activities impacted by household technologies.

Female belly colour and bobbing behaviour advertise sexual receptivity in a pelagic-spawning coral reef fish

Abstract: Female nuptial signals (FNSs) advertise reproductive state, individual quality, and are used in intrasexual competition. I explored whether pelagic-spawning pink-belly wrasse (Halichoeres margaritaceus) used red belly colouration and a unique bobbing behaviour as FNSs to advertise spawning readiness. I examined (i) if there was a temporal pattern in belly colour and incidence of bobbing, as each related to spawning; (ii) response of female belly colouration during male courtship behaviours; and (iii) pink belly area as it related to body area and bobbing rate. Temporal patterns were detected, females displayed ephemeral red belly colour and bobbing behaviour prior to spawning; females displaying red belly colouration elicited more courtship behaviour from males than females with white or pink belly colouration, and larger females displayed larger red belly areas. Benefits to advertising spawning readiness in pink-belly wrasse are discussed, including a reduction in mate-searching costs and potential for increased reproductive success through sex-change.

Sensation within the Skin

Abstract: This Viewpoint emphasizes interoceptive discriminative stimulus modulation of voluntary operant behavior (a la B. F. Skinner), rather than elicitation of Pavlovian conditioned reflexes. In doing so, I will restate how the operant drug discrimination paradigm may not only elucidate smoking and other addictive behaviors but also anxiety (Troisi, J. R., II. (2003) Spontaneous recovery during, but not following, extinction of the discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine in rats: Reinstatement of stimulus control. Psychol. Rec. 53, 579–592).

Contextuality: Wheeler’s Universal Regulating Principle

Abstract: In this essay I develop quantum contextuality as a potential candidate for Wheeler’s universal regulating principle, arguing—contrary to Wheeler—that this ultimately implies that ‘bit’ comes from ‘it’

Effectiveness of Postpartum Education in the Reducing Symptoms of Postpartum Depression

Abstract: Paper Presentation Objective To determine if an educational intervention provided during postpartum hospitalization is effective in decreasing the symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) as measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at 6‐weeks, 3‐months, and 6‐months postpartum. Design Quasi‐experimental. Setting A 12‐bed maternity unit of an acute care hospital in New England. Sample A sample of 240 women was recruited: the first 120 women served as the control group (usual care) and the next 120 women served as the educational intervention group. Respondents were predominantly White (89%) and multiparous (65%). The average age was 29.7 (range 19–40), and 34% were eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. More than one third (36.7%) had a history of depression prior to pregnancy. Methods During postpartum hospitalization, participants completed written questionnaires including demographic, delivery, and infant feeding information as well as the Postpartum Depression Predictors Inventory (PDPI). Education about PPD was provided verbally and in writing at the bedside to respondents in the treatment group by a member of the research team based on the fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services “Depression during and after Pregnancy.” Follow‐up by mail and telephone was completed at 6‐weeks, 3‐months, and 6‐months postpartum with a self‐report questionnaire, including the EPDS, updates regarding the health of mother and infant, and any employment or major life changes. Results The educational intervention did not have a significant effect on EPDS scores at any of the three data collection points. History of depression and anxiety was the most significant predictor of symptoms. Conclusion/Implications for Nursing Practice These results suggest that the postpartum period is important for identifying women at risk for depression, but that education during this time may not be effective. Further study is needed to determine a more appropriate time and method of intervening to ensure adequate care. Limited nursing time during the brief hospitalization may be better spent on implementing a mechanism for ensuring adequate follow‐up after discharge for women at risk.

Staying Afloat: Risk and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820

Abstract: films in Hollywood, and the antiNazism with which Hollywood eventually engaged. Collectively, they do not reveal an industry-wide “pact with Hitler,” as the book’s subtitle suggests; instead, they show that the moguls of three studios followed the directives of censors who, themselves, were under the influence of Nazis. To this, Urwand attaches copious amounts of evidence from German and US sources that implicate other industry leaders in appeasing Nazism. The result is a provocative, significant, and highly readable attack on the idea that 1930s Hollywood was synonymous with antifascism. There are many villains throughout Urwand’s book. At times, Urwand’s attacks on Louis B. Mayer seem partially based on hearsay found in the archives, but he augments this hearsay with astute speculation about the historical record. Of all the studio heads, Urwand targets none more than Mayer. Urwand also skillfully portrays how Nazis fixated on the studio system to the point of using Consul Georg Gyssling as their censor. Hollywood accepted him; Gyssling’s relationships are reconstructed as Urwand masterfully dissects his censorship, film by film. Will Hays’s acquiescence to Gyssling surprises; the persistence of the notoriously antisemitic Joseph Breen, interjecting himself on behalf of Gyssling’s agenda, stupefies. The concluding chapter introduces the book’s hero: screenwriter-turnedactivist Ben Hecht. In many ways, Urwand has channeled the tenacity and worldview of the man who, in the 1940s, condemned American Jews he deemed too timid in their anti-Nazism. According to Urwand, Hecht “saw Hollywood as one of the great Jewish achievements. The only problem, in his view, was that the studio heads did not share his pride. In fact, they had removed all images of Jews from the screen” (245), Urwand argues that this removal occurred off-lot by German censors and in-house by studios editing with their ears and eyes focused on preserving the German market. With no sympathetic images of Jews onscreen, audiences never would learn to accept them offscreen, an idea that played into the Nazis’ hands. Indeed, Germans allowed American films to be shown in their theatres every year of the decade, because they felt Hollywood promoted many values they wanted modeled for their audiences— Nazi values. Urwand reveals that appeasing German anti-Semitism had even graver consequences than subjecting American audiences to essentially Nazified movies. Forced to keep their local profits in Germany, Fox and Paramount used their revenue to create nationalistic newsreels: propaganda furthering Nazi aims. Worse, Urwand portrays MGM (in the month after Kristallnacht) discovering it could smuggle money by laundering it through the armaments industry that enabled Hitler’s war machine to conquer Europe and kill its Jews. These three studios used the term collaboration in their German correspondence, and Urwand indignantly pillories them for kowtowing and remaining in Germany when most studios left the market. Should all of Hollywood be accused? Urwand musters compelling evidence that, over time, all studio heads tried to comply with the culture of censorship and erased Judaism from the screen in the 1930s. His own evidence, however, suggests that a more nuanced interpretation of negotiation could have been highlighted. Regardless, with its focus on moguls and their profit motive, his thesis holds, even if his title aggrandizes. Thomas Doherty’s 2013 book Hollywood and Hitler, 1933–1939 (Columbia University Press) competes with Urwand’s. Some films appear in both, and each author includes significant films the other avoided, but they have written different histories. Doherty defines Hollywood broadly, so as to look beyond the titans and write sympathetically about Urwand’s antithesis: how Hollywood developed its antifascist politics. Urwand’s focus, informed by Neal Gabler’s An Empire of their Own (Anchor, 1988), laments that Hollywood’s studio heads wished “to see themselves as Americans rather than Jews” and lambasts them for having “had no desire to defend their Jewish heritage. They preferred . . . to let the people hate Jews” (218), and hate led to death. For Urwand, the depths of archives around the world revealed that every major studio head either essentially or actively collaborated with Nazis to contribute to the Holocaust’s rise, protraction, and (as argued in a short epilogue) long absence in postwar Hollywood cinema. Only in 1959 did Hollywood revisit the Holocaust with an inescapably Jewish subject: Anne Frank (315). For Urwand, Hollywood never turned truly antifascist in its golden age.

EU Competition Policy

Abstract: This article provides a foundation for understanding antitrust (competition) policy within the European Union. The two prevailing statutes, Article 101 and 102 of the Treaty of Lisbon, are each examined and evidence as to how various aspects of each law has been interpreted in recent years is provided. Also detailed are the EU's rules of implementation, which provide for the distribution of authority between the EU and its member nations to investigate possible violations and enforce the laws. The European Commission's special powers of investigation and the remedial options available to the commission for providing relief from a violation are presented. Also included is a description of the EU corporate amnesty program and its conditions. A comparison is drawn with US antitrust policy regarding several aspects of the law and its enforcement. In addition, UK competition law and some areas of conflict and convergence with that of the EU are explored. Keywords: antitrust; competition policy; European Union; monopoly; market power

Antitrust Policy (US)

Abstract: The historical development of antitrust (competition) policy in the United States is described in this article. This is followed by a broad overview of the principle US statutes. Debate over the original intent and interpretation of these statutes is examined, as is some of the controversy surrounding the economic theory and philosophy supporting these statutes. Keywords: antitrust; monopoly; market power; competition; policy

Song discrimination by male Mourning Warblers ( Geothlypis philadelphia ) and implications for population divergence across the breeding range

Abstract: Geographic variation in song may reduce or eliminate the ability of some populations to recognize each other as conspecifics, possibly leading to assortative mating, reproductive isolation, and speciation Song playback experiments, used to evaluate the significance of geographic variation in song, have been particularly useful in discovering divergence among previously unknown populations of sibling species In this study, I report the results of song playback to male Mourning Warblers ( Geothlypis philadelphia ) from populations throughout the breeding range and discuss the implications for population divergence Four regions in the breeding range contain unique song types or regiolects: western, eastern, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland Results of reciprocal song playback experiments showed that males from the western and Newfoundland regiolects respond more aggressively to songs in their own regiolect than those in the other regiolects Interior populations, ie, eastern and Nova Scotia regions, showed little or no difference in aggressive response toward their own versus other regiolects This pattern may be due to a combination of geographic proximity of populations belonging to different regiolects, song learning, experience, and contact during migration Song discrimination by populations from the western Prairie Provinces and Newfoundland is consistent with the existence of at least partial reproductive isolation at the geographic extremes of the breeding range

Merger Guidelines, 2010

Abstract: The latest set of merger guidelines to be provided to the business community by the US government are presented here. Emphasis is placed on examining the new “effects based” approach used in these guidelines and differences established between these and the previous guidelines issued in 1997. Changes in the role of market definition and market concentration are highlighted. Keywords: mergers; guidelines; market definition; market concentration; anticompetitive behavior

The role of curvature in entanglement

Abstract: Which tangles more readily: curly hair or straight hair? A perhaps natural thought, supported by some theoretical evidence, is to associate curvature and entanglement, and assume that they would grow together—that an increase in one fosters an increase in the other. However we have biological examples such as DNA in the chromosome, and mechanical examples such as coiled telephone cords, in which much more curvature is employed than is required for the packing, and in which tangling is presumably detrimental. We offer a resolution to this conundrum. We show, that at least for simple but generally applicable models, the relationship between curvature and entanglement is subtle: if we keep filament density constant and increase curvature, the entanglement initially increases, passes through a maximum, then decreases, so there is a regime where increasing curvature increases entanglement, and there is also a regime where increasing curvature decreases entanglement. This has implications for filament packing in many circumstances, and in particular for the compaction structure of DNA in the cell—it provides a straightforward argument for the view that one purpose of DNA coiling and supercoiling is to inhibit entanglement. It also tells us to expect that wavy hair–neither the straightest nor the curliest–tangles most readily.

Autonomous Brownian Motor Driven by Nonadiabatic Variation of Internal Parameters

Abstract: We discuss an autonomous motor based on a Brownian particle driven from thermal equilibrium by periodic in time variation of the internal potential through which the particle interacts with molecules of the surrounding thermal bath. We demonstrate for such a motor the absence of a linear response regime: the average driving force and drift velocity are shown to be quadratic in both the frequency and amplitude of the variation. The adiabatic approximation (of an infinitely slow variation) and the leading correction to it (linear in the variation’s frequency) both lead to zero drift and are insufficient to describe the motor’s operation.

Microsoft Antitrust Case: United States

Abstract: This article presents an examination of the antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice against the Microsoft Corporation. The article addresses the primary issues of market definition, market power and anticompetitive behavior which were central to the case. The economic arguments behind the government's positions and Microsoft's defenses are provided. The decisions of the US District and Circuit courts with respect to the legality of Microsoft's behavior regarding the monopolizing of the operating system market, attempting to monopolize the browser market and the tying of its operating system to its browser are also provided. Keywords: antitrust; market power; monopoly; Microsoft; tying

Rethinking the Scientific Enterprise: In Defense of Reductionism

Abstract: In this essay, I argue that modern science is not the dichotomous pairing of theory and experiment that it is typically presented as, and I offer an alternative paradigm defined by its functions as a human endeavor. I also demonstrate how certain scientific debates, such as the debate over the nature of the quantum state, can be partially resolved by this new paradigm.

Microsoft Antitrust Case: EU

Abstract: This article provides an examination of the two principle antitrust investigations of Microsoft Corp. which were brought by the European Commission during the past decade. Microsoft's behavior is examined in those markets in which the Commission found the “abuse of a dominant position” which is in violation of Article 102 of the European Union's (EU's) 2009 Lisbon Treaty. The remedial actions called for in the first case and Microsoft's commitments resulting from a settlement of the subsequent case are evaluated. A comparison is drawn between these cases and the parallel case brought in the United States. The divergence in policy decisions and remedial relief provided by EU and US antitrust authorities and their respective courts is presented. Keywords: antitrust; tying; European Union; market power; Microsoft