Economic Games on the Internet: The Effect of $1 Stakes

Online labor markets such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) offer an unprecedented opportunity to run economic game experiments quickly and inexpensively. Using Mturk, we recruited 756 subjects and examined their behavior in four canonical economic games, with two payoff conditions each: a stakes condition, in which subjects' earnings were based on the outcome of the game (maximum earnings of $1); and a no-stakes condition, in which subjects' earnings are unaffected by the outcome of the game. Our results demonstrate that economic game experiments run on MTurk are comparable to those run in laboratory settings, even when using very low stakes

The Re-Emerging Role of the State in Contemporary Russia

I examine ownership structure of Russian firms during the 1998-2006 period, where a greater emphasis is placed on motivations behind increased government ownership in the latter years, when oligarchs' opportunistic influence on the firm diminished as state ownership correspondingly increased. As this phenomenon is also correlated with improved corporate growth during the period, I argue that state participation in corporate governance acted as an effective substitute mechanism to constrain wealth-tunnelling behaviour of corporate insiders and local bureaucrats in a country defined by a weak property rights system. © 2012 Springer-Verlag

Developing international business relationships in a Russian context

The collapse of the former Soviet Union has opened up a wealth of business opportunities for companies seeking new markets in the Russian Federation. Despite this, firms intending to do business in Russia have found themselves hampered by cultural differences in business practices and expectations. As Russia integrates into the global economy, understanding such practices and the managerial mindset of business people is crucial for managers who hope to navigate Russia's complex markets. This study draws on the trust literature and adopts quantitative tools to deconstruct the Russian 'Sviazi' system of social capital business networking. We develop a model isolating three dimensions of Sviazi: one an affective or emotional component; the second, a conative component; and the third, a cognitive component. The model provides a useful guide for helping foreign firms to succeed in Russia, while also serving as a basis for further research in the field. Keywords

Isolation and screening of Bacillus subtilis MJ01 for MEOR application: biosurfactant characterization, production optimization and wetting effect on carbonate surfaces

Abstract The bacterial strain MJ01 was isolated from stock tank water of one of the Iranian south oil field production facilities. The 16S rRNA gene of isolate, MJ01, showed 99% similarity to Bacillus subtilis. The results revealed that biosurfactant produced by this strain was lipopeptide-like surfactin based on FTIR analysis. Critical micelle concentration of produced surfactin in distilled water was 0.06 g/l. Wettability study showed that at zero salinity surfactin can change original oil-wet state to water-wet state, but in seawater salinity it cannot modify the wettability significantly. To utilize this biosurfactant in ex situ MEOR process, economical and reservoir engineering technical parameters were considered to introduce a new optimization strategy using the response surface methodology. Comparing the result of this optimization strategy with the previous optimization research works was shown that significant save in use of nutrients is possible by using this medium. Furthermore, using this method leads to less formation damage due to the incompatibility of injecting fluid and formation brine, and less formation damage due to the bioplugging

Efeito da supressão da irrigação em diferentes estádios reprodutivos na qualidade de sementes de arroz irrigado.

A pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito da supressão da irrigação por inundação em diferentes estádios reprodutivos na qualidade das sementes de arroz das cultivares BRS Atalanta, BRS Querência e BRS 7 Taim. A supressão da irrigação foi realizada em quatro estádios reprodutivos distintos: exerção da panícula (R3), grão leitoso (R6), grão pastoso (R7) e maturidade completa (R9). A qualidade das sementes foi avaliada pelos testes de germinação, frio, envelhecimento acelerado, condutividade elétrica e sanidade. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado com cinco repetições. Os dados obtidos foram submetidos à análise de variância e as médias comparadas pelo teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade. Para as condições edafoclimáticas em que foi realizado o experimento, não se verificou o efeito da supressão da irrigação na qualidade de sementes das cultivares de arroz irrigado BRS Atalanta, BRS Querência e BRS Taim. As condições climáticas contribuíram para a manutenção da lâmina de água na lavoura até próximo à colheita.201