Consumer Research and the Evaluation of Information Disclosure Requirements: The Case of Truth in Lending

This article evaluates the impact of Truth in Lending (TIL) disclosures on consumer search and credit usage behavior, and how the effects vary by market segment. Consumer behavior concepts were used to guide the development of a comprehensive model of the consumer credit decision process, which specified the intervening effects of TIL and the situational constraints which tended to limit the use of TIL information

Probing Broad Absorption Line Quasar Outflows: X-ray Insights

Energetic outflows appear to occur in conjunction with active mass accretion onto supermassive black holes. These outflows are most readily observed in the approximately 10% of quasars with broad absorption lines, where the observer's line of sight passes through the wind. Until fairly recently, the paucity of X-ray data from these objects was notable, but now sensitive hard-band missions such as Chandra and XMM-Newton are routinely detecting broad absorption line quasars. The X-ray regime offers qualitatively new information for the understanding of these objects, and these new results must be taken into account in theoretical modeling of quasar winds.Comment: Submitted to Advances in Space Research for New X-ray Results from Clusters of Galaxies and Black Holes (Oct 2002; Houston, TX), eds. C. Done, E.M. Puchnarewicz, M.J. Ward. Requires cospar.sty (6 pgs, 5 figs

Restless Quasar Activity: From BeppoSAX to Chandra and XMM-Newton

We briefly review some of the progress made in the last decade in the study of the X-ray properties of the quasar population from the luminous, local objects observed by BeppoSAX to the large, rapidly increasing population of z>4 quasars detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton in recent years.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the Symposium "The Restless High-Energy Universe", 5-8 May 2003, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, E.P.J. van den Heuvel, J.J.M. in 't Zand, and R.A.M.J. Wijers Ed

Tyrosine decaging leads to substantial membrane trafficking during modulation of an inward rectifier potassium channel

Tyrosine side chains participate in several distinct signaling pathways, including phosphorylation and membrane trafficking. A nonsense suppression procedure was used to incorporate a caged tyrosine residue in place of the natural tyrosine at position 242 of the inward rectifier channel Kir2.1 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. When tyrosine kinases were active, flash decaging led both to decreased K+ currents and also to substantial (15–26%) decreases in capacitance, implying net membrane endocytosis. A dominant negative dynamin mutant completely blocked the decaging-induced endocytosis and partially blocked the decaging-induced K+ channel inhibition. Thus, decaging of a single tyrosine residue in a single species of membrane protein leads to massive clathrin-mediated endocytosis; in fact, membrane area equivalent to many clathrin-coated vesicles is withdrawn from the oocyte surface for each Kir2.1 channel inhibited. Oocyte membrane proteins were also labeled with the thiol-reactive fluorophore tetramethylrhodamine-5-maleimide, and manipulations that decreased capacitance also decreased surface membrane fluorescence, confirming the net endocytosis. In single-channel studies, tyrosine kinase activation decreased the membrane density of active Kir2.1 channels per patch but did not change channel conductance or open probability, in agreement with the hypothesis that tyrosine phosphorylation results in endocytosis of Kir2.1 channels. Despite the Kir2.1 inhibition and endocytosis stimulated by tyrosine kinase activation, neither Western blotting nor 32P labeling produced evidence for direct tyrosine phosphorylation of Kir2.1. Therefore, it is likely that tyrosine phosphorylation affects Kir2.1 function indirectly, via interactions between clathrin adaptor proteins and a tyrosine-based sorting motif on Kir2.1 that is revealed by decaging the tyrosine side chain. These interactions inhibit a fraction of the Kir2.1 channels, possibly via direct occlusion of the conduction pathway, and also lead to endocytosis, which further decreases Kir2.1 currents. These data establish that side chain decaging can provide valuable time-resolved data about intracellular signaling systems

The Effect of Disclosure on Consumer Knowledge of Credit Terms: A Longitudinal Study

Early evaluations of Truth‐in‐Lending have observed impressive gains in consumer knowledge about interest rates. Contrary to original goals, consumers with more education, income, and debt experience have benefited far more than low‐income and minority consumers. How will these results change over time as consumers gain credit experience with the aid of disclosure? Has disclosure improved consumer understanding about finance charges, and what factors beyond socio‐economic status might have enhanced consumer knowledge of credit terms? These questions are addressed in this report of a large sample of California households surveyed at two points in time. The longitudinal analysis shows individual changes in knowledge, the effects of credit experience on learning, and a projection of future levels of credit knowledge

An overview of mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in selected angiosperm resurrection plants

The vegetative tissues of resurrection plants, like seeds, can tolerate desiccation to 5% relative water content (RWC) for extended periods and yet resume full metabolic activity on re-watering. In this review we will illustrate how this is achieved in a variety of angiosperm resurrection plants, our studies ranging from the ecophysiological to the biochemical level. At the whole plant level, leaf folding and other anatomical changes serve to minimise light and mechanical stress associated with drying and rehydration. The mechanisms of cell wall folding are described for Craterostigma wilmsii and Myrothanmus flabellifolia. Free radicals, radical oxygen species (ROS) usually generated under water-deficit stress by photosynthesis, are minimised by either homoiochlorophylly (e.g. C. wilmsii and M. flabellifolia) or poikilochlorophylly (e.g. Xerophyta sp.). The antioxidant systems of these plants effectively deal with ROS generated by other metabolic processes. In addition to antioxidants common to most plants, resurrection plants also accumulate polyphenols such as 3, 4, 5 tri-O-galloylquinic acid in M. flabellifolia, and seed-associated antioxidants (e.g. 1-cys-peroxiredoxin and metallothionines) as effective ROS scavengers. Sucrose accumulates at low RWC, presumably protecting the sub-cellular milieu against desiccation-induced macromolecular denaturation

QCD Pressure at Two Loops in the Temporal Gauge

We apply the method of \underline{zeta} functions, together with the $n_\mu^*$-prescription for the temporal gauge, to evaluate the thermodynamic pressure in QCD at finite temperature $T$. Working in the imaginary-time formalism and employing a special version of the unified-gauge prescription, we show that the pure-gauge contribution to the pressure at two loops is given by P_2^{\mbox{{\scriptsize gauge}}} = -(g^2/144)N_cN_gT^4, where $N_c$ and $N_g$ denote the number of colours and gluons, respectively. This result agrees with the value in the Feynman gauge.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, list of 63 integral

Note and Comment

Boycott - Clayton Act - In Duplex Printing Press Company v. Deering et al. (January 3, 192I) 41 S. Ct. 172, the facts were: The plaintiff, a Michigan corporation, manufactures at Battle Creek, and sells throughout the United States, especially in and around New York City, and abroad, very large, heavy and complicated newspaper printing presses. Purchasers furnish workmen, but ordinary mechanics alone are not competent to do this, and so they are supervised by specially skilled machinists furnished by plaintiffs. The plaintiffs have always operated on the open shop plan, without discrimination against union or non-union labor, either at its factory or at the place of installation of presses, but have not observed the eight-hour day nor the union scale of wages