Salience and consumer choice

We present a theory of context-dependent choice in which a consumer's attention is drawn to salient attributes of goods, such as quality or price. An attribute is salient for a good when it stands out among the good's attributes, relative to that attribute's average level in the choice set (or generally, the evoked set). Consumers attach disproportionately high weight to salient attributes and their choices are tilted toward goods with higher quality/price ratios. The model accounts for a variety of disparate evidence, including decoy effects, context-dependent willingness to pay, and large shifts in demand in response to price shocks.

Salience in Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect

We provide a novel account of experimental evidence for the endowment effect using the salience mechanism (Bordalo, Gennaioli, and Shleifer, 2011). The two-stage procedure implemented in experiments implies that the endowed good and other goods are evaluated in different contexts. We describe conditions under which the standard effect occurs, but also account for recent evidence such as a reverse endowment effect for bads and a role for reference prices in modulating the WTA-WTP gap.

Flux stabilization in compact groups

We consider the Born-Infeld action for symmetry-preserving, orientable D-branes in compact group manifolds. We find classical solutions that obey the flux quantization condition. They correspond to conformally invariant boundary conditions on the world sheet. We compute the spectrum of quadratic fluctuations and find agreement with the predictions of conformal field theory, up to a missing level-dependent truncation. Our results extend to D-branes with the geometry of twined conjugacy classes; they illustrate the mechanism of flux stabilization of D-branes.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. Comment and references adde

Strongly N-normal lattices

AbstractThe main purpose of this work is to characterize subvarieties of algebras with a distributive lattice reduct, by studying the partial order of their set of filters

Immigration and early life stages recruitment of the European flounder (Platichthys flesus) to an estuarine nursery: the influence of environmental factors

Connectivity between coastal spawning grounds and estuarine nurseries is a critical step in the life cycle of many fish species. Larval immigration and transport-associated physical–biological processes are determinants of recruitment success to nursery areas. The recruitment of the European flounder, Platichthys flesus, to estuarine nurseries located at the southern edge of the species distribution range, has been usually investigated during its juvenile stages, while estuarine recruitment during the earlier planktonic life stage remains largely unstudied. The present study investigated the patterns of flounder larval recruitment and the influence of environmental factors on the immigration of the early life stages to the Lima estuary (NW Portugal), integrating data on fish larvae and post-settlement individuals (< 50 mm length), collected over 7 years. Late-stage larvae arrived at the estuary between February and July and peak abundances were observed in April. Post-settlement individuals (< 50 mm) occurred later between April and October, whereas newly-settled ones (< 20 mm) were found only in May and June. Variables associated with the spawning, survival and growth of larvae in the ocean (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll a and inland hydrological variables) were the major drivers of flounder occurrence in the estuarine nursery. Although the adjacent coastal area is characterized by a current system with strong seasonality and mesoscale variability, we did not identify any influence of variables related with physical processes (currents and upwelling) on the occurrence of early life stages in the estuary. A wider knowledge on the influence of the coastal circulation variability and its associated effects upon ocean-estuarine connectivity is required to improve our understanding of the population dynamics of marine spawning fish that use estuarine nurseries

Loss of Filamin A leads to heart failure in zebrafish

Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) is frequently leading to heart failure. Familial analysis revealed 30% - 60 % of cases to be of genetic cause, predominantly occurring in genes encoding for structural proteins. The underlying mechanisms and signalling events that translate DCM causing mutations into the clinical phenotype are poorly understood. Previously, our group identified the Core- Binding Factor beta (CBFb) to be an essential factor for maintaining the sarcomeric Z-disc structure of the heart muscle. CBFb is mainly located in the sarcomere and is retained in the cytoplasm via the interaction with Filamin A (FLNA). However it is hypothesized that under stress conditions, CBFb is translocated to the nucleus, where it regulates the expression of several genes. To analyze the contribution of FLNA to the development of heart failure we created a transient and a stable loss-of-function model of FLNA in zebrafish. FLNA transient knockdown (MO-flna) resulted in systolic dysfunction, defects in re-absorption of cardiac matrix, a dilated atrium, blood regurgitation and maturation defects shown by uncompleted heart looping. We observed a significantly reduced heart rate (MO-control vs MO-flna; mean±SD: 148±6.9 vs 108±25.1 beats/min, respectively; p<0.05) and fractional shortening (MO-control vs MO-flna; mean±SD: 64.7±4.0 vs 19.3±10.8 beats/min, respectively; p<0.0001). We further established the CRISPR-CAS9 mediated FLNA stable knockout (FLNA KO). Indeed, in F0 embryos we observed a significantly reduced heart rate (wildtype vs FLNA KO; mean±SD: 144±17.6 vs 106±12.3 beats/min, respectively; p<0.0001) and fractional shortening (wildtype vs FLNA KO; mean±SD: 64±8.9 % vs 43±8.8 %, respectively; p<0.0001), as observed for the FLNA knockdown. F0 mosaic embryos were grown to adulthood and outcrossed with wildtype fish. Two FLNA KO lines (with a predicted stop codon on flna exon 4) were selected for propagation. Heterozygous adults from both lines showed a significantly reduced ejection fraction (wildtype vs FLNA KO; mean±SD: 62±6.9 % vs 41±12.2 %, respectively; p<0.01) and increased ventilation frequency (wildtype vs FLNA KO; mean±SD: 7±4.2 vs 15±7.0 buccal movements, respectively; p<0.001). Compound heterozygous, with both lines mutations, developed a pericardial edema with a dilated heart, stressing the potential role of FLNA in maintaining heart function. Homozygous embryos from one of the lines, did not show a heart failure phenotype. In accordance, flnb was shown to be up-regulated in FLNA KO adults, illustrating possible compensatory mechanisms activation. In regard to CBFb translocation mechanism, for the first time, beta-adrenergic stress was identified as a trigger for CBFb translocation to the nucleus. In conclusion, FLNA knockdown and knockout in zebrafish leads to a heart failure phenotype. By deeply investigating FLNA regulation (such as cleavage, phosphorylation, response to external cellular stress, etc) and its interacting partners (such as CBFb), we will further our understanding of the genetic pathogenic pathways involved in heart failure

Discrete Torsion and WZW Orbifolds

We propose a geometrical interpretation for the discrete torsion appearing in the algebraic formulation of quotients of WZW models by discrete abelian subgroups. Part of the discrete torsion corresponds to the choice of action of the subgroup, yielding different quotient spaces. Another part corresponds to the set of different choices of connection for the H field in each of these spaces. The former is for instance used to describe generalized lens spaces L(n,p).Comment: 11 pages, no figures; references added, typos correcte

Lutas e organização política no meio rural brasileiro: notas a partir dos movimentos de mulheres trabalhadoras rurais

Anais das IV Jornadas Internacionais de Problemas Latino-Americanos: Lutas, Experiências e Debates na América Latina - ISBN 978-950-793-223-6 - Orgs. Paulo Renato da Silva ; Mario Ayala ; Fabricio Pereira da Silva ; Fernando José MartinsO propósito deste trabalho é analisar os movimentos de mulheres trabalhadoras rurais no Brasil a partir de uma perspectiva comparativa. Tais movimentos surgiram no final da década de 1970 e início na década de 1980 num contexto de intensa ebulição política e de forte questionamento do sindicalismo levado a cabo até aquele período. Dois movimentos serão norteadores para esse desiderato: o Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais do Nordeste e o Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas. Partimos aqui da hipótese de que ambos representam tradições politicas e formas distintas de diálogo com o Estado, o que nos permite compor um quadro amplo de análise que leve em consideração não apenas a efervescência politica da década de 1980, mas as relações historicamente delineadas nacional e internacionalmente antes e depois desse marco. Trata-se, portanto, de estabelecer uma espécie de cartografia das relações construídas entre os movimentos sociais e as demais organizações (sindicalismo rural e sua forte tradição no Nordeste, o MST na região Sul, a Via Campesina, demais movimentos de luta pela terra) que compõe o campo de disputa pela representação política das trabalhadoras e trabalhadores rurais a partir da dinâmica com o Estado.PPG – IELA – UNIL