Fight Alone or Together? The Need to Belong

Alliances often face both free-riding and hold-up problems, which under- mine the effectiveness of alliances in mobilizing joint fighting effort. Despite of these disadvantages, alliances are still ubiquitous in all types of contests. This paper asks if there are non-monetary incentives to form alliances, e.g., intimidating/discouraging the single player(s) who is/are left alone. For this purpose, I compare symmetric (2 vs. 2) and asymmetric (2 vs. 1) contests to their equivalent 4-player and 3-player individual contests, respectively. We find that alliance players in symmetric (2 vs. 2) contests behave the same as those in equivalent 4-player individual contests. However, in asymmetric (2 vs. 1) contests, stand-alone players were strongly discouraged to exert effort (especially the females), compared to the 3-player individual contests. Alliance players may have anticipated this effect and also reduced their effort, if alliances share the prize according to the merit rule. Behavioural factors such as the need to belong can help reconcile the "paradox of alliance formation"

Are Consumers Fooled by Discounts? An Experimental Test in a Consumer Search Environment

In this paper we investigate experimentally if people search optimally and how price promotions influence search behavior. We implement a sequential search task with exogenous price dispersion in a baseline treatment and introduce discounts in two experimental treatments. We find that search behavior is roughly consistent with optimal search but also observe some discount biases. If subjects don't know in advance where discounts are offered the purchase probability is increased by 19 percentage points in shops with discounts, even after controlling for the benefit of the discount and for risk preferences. If consumers know in advance where discounts are given then the bias is only weakly significant and much smaller (7 percentage points).Consumer Search Theory, Search Cost, Price Promotion

Brothers in Arms - An Experiment on the Alliance Puzzle

Our experimental analysis of alliances in conflicts leads to three main findings. First, even in the absence of repeated interaction, direct contact or communication, free-riding among alliance members is far less pronounced than what would be expected from non-cooperative theory. Second, this possible solidarity among ‘brothers in arms’ when fighting against an outside enemy may rapidly deteriorate or disappear as soon as the outside enemy disappears. Third, when fighting an outside enemy, ‘brothers in arms’ may already anticipate future internal conflict about dividing the spoils of winning; however, this subsequent internal conflict does not discourage alliance members from expending much effort in the contest against the external enemy.alliance, conflict, contest, free-riding, hold-up problem, solidarity

Synthesis of complanadine A and phthaloyl peroxide-mediated oxidations of alkenes and arenes

The natural product complanadine A has shown promise in regenerative science, promoting neuronal outgrowth by inducing the secretion of growth factors from glial cells. Through the use of tandem, cobalt-mediated [2+2+2] cycloaddition reactions two synthetic routes have been developed with different sequences for the formation of the unsymmetric bipyridyl core. The regioselective formation of each of the pyridines was achieved based on the inherent selectivity of the molecules or by reversing this inate regioselectivity through the addition of Lewis bases. This strategy has been successfully employed to provide laboratory access to complanadine A as well as structurally related compounds possessing the lycodine core. Phthaloyl peroxide derivatives have the potential to function as organocatalysts for the dihydroxylation of alkenes. The development of an organocatalytic system for the syn-dihydroxylation of alkenes, using hydrogen peroxide as the stoichiometric oxidant, could minimize the waste and cost associated with the current industrial process. With new access to phthaloyl peroxide derivatives, this dihydroxylation method was improved with stoichiometric dichlorophthaloyl peroxide for the dihydroxylation of alkenes. Substituted phenols are broadly useful compounds, functioning as starting materials and end products in all areas of chemical industry. Since the initial discovery of phenol from coal tar advances have been made in the synthetic preparations of this class of compounds which possess a hydroxyl group appended to an aromatic hydrocarbon core. Ideally the synthesis of phenols is achieved through the direct installation of oxygen into an aromatic precursor, which is typically more abundant. In this thesis it is discussed how phthaloyl peroxide, in the absence of other reagents, enables the conversion of aromatic hydrocarbons to phenols even when the precursors possess functionality that is incompatible with strongly oxidizing conditions. The reaction is shown to proceed through a "reverse rebound" mechanism as opposed to the classical rebound mechanism, providing insight into the unique aryl selectivity of the chemical transformation.Chemistr

The Application of Formative Assessment in High School English Reading Teaching

Teaching evaluation is a very important part of high school English teaching. Curriculum assessment has an important impact on students\u27 learning effectiveness and achievement. The current research on English reading teaching dominated by summative assessment only focuses on the strategic research on how to promote the improvement of English reading ability in schools, which makes it difficult for students to form good reading habits. Compared with summative assessment, formative assessment can enable high school students to participate more fully in the classroom, and to a certain extent, effectively improve high school students\u27 interest and mastery of English reading, so as to improve high school students\u27 English reading ability. Using formative assessment in the English reading classroom can better help students learn English reading and achieve better classroom result

Brothers in arms: An experiment on the alliance puzzle

Our experimental analysis of alliances in conflicts leads to three main findings. First, even in the absence of repeated interaction, direct contact or communication, free-riding among alliance members is far less pronounced than what would be expected from non-cooperative theory. Second, this possible solidarity among brothers in arms when fighting against an outside enemy may rapidly deteriorate or disappear as soon as the outside enemy disappears. Third, when fighting an outside enemy, brothers in arms may already anticipate future internal conflict about dividing the spoils of winning; however, this subsequent internal conflict does not discourage alliance members from expending much effort in the contest against the external enemy. -- Unsere experimentelle Studie zu Allianzen in Konflikten führt zu drei Hauptergebnissen. Selbst ohne wiederholte Interaktion, direkten Kontakt oder Kommunikation zwischen den Teilnehmern ist das Trittbrettfahren der Mitglieder der Allianz viel weniger stark ausgeprägt, als es die nicht-kooperative Theorie erwarten lassen würde. Diese Solidarität zwischen den Kampfgefährten, die im Wettbewerb mit einem Außenstehenden zu beobachten ist, nimmt jedoch rapide ab, sobald der Gegner verschwunden ist. Im Kampf mit dem externen Gegner können die Kampfgefährten bereits damit rechnen, dass es zu einem internen Konflikt über die Aufteilung der Kriegsbeute kommen wird; dieser folgende interne Verteilungskonflikt hält die Mitglieder der Allianz jedoch nicht davon ab, einen hohen Einsatz im Kampf mit dem externen Gegner zu leisten.Alliance,conflict,contest,free-riding,hold-up problem,solidarity

Genetic heterogeneity of pseudoxanthoma elasticum: the Chinese signature profile of ABCC6 and ENPP1 mutations.

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by ectopic mineralization, is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. We examined clinically 29 Chinese PXE patients from unrelated families, so far the largest cohort of Asian PXE patients. In a subset of 22 patients, we sequenced ABCC6 and another candidate gene, ENPP1, and conducted pathogenicity analyses for each variant. We identified a total of 17 distinct mutations in ABCC6, 15 of them being, to our knowledge, previously unreported, including 5 frameshift and 10 missense variants. In addition, a missense mutation in combination with a recurrent nonsense mutation in ENPP1 was discovered in a pediatric PXE case. No cases with p.R1141X or del23-29 mutations, common in Caucasian patient populations, were identified. The 10 missense mutations in ABCC6 were expressed in the mouse liver via hydrodynamic tail-vein injections. One mutant protein showed cytoplasmic accumulation indicating abnormal subcellular trafficking, while the other nine mutants showed correct plasma membrane location. These nine mutations were further investigated for their pathogenicity using a recently developed zebrafish mRNA rescue assay. Minimal rescue of the morpholino-induced phenotype was achieved with eight of the nine mutant human ABCC6 mRNAs tested, implying pathogenicity. This study demonstrates that the Chinese PXE population harbors unique ABCC6 mutations. These genetic data have implications for allele-specific therapy currently being developed for PXE

Absolute vs. relative success: Why overconfidence is an inefficient equilibrium

Overconfidence is one of the most ubiquitous biases in the social sciences, but the evidence regarding its overall costs and benefits is mixed. To test the possibility that overconfidence might yield important relative benefits that offset its absolute costs, we conducted an experiment (N=298 university students) in which pairs of participants bargain over the unequal allocation of a prize that was earned via a joint effort. We manipulated confidence using a binary noisy signal to investigate the causal effect of negotiators’ beliefs about their relative contribution on the outcome of the negotiation. Our results provide evidence that high levels of confidence lead to relative benefits (how much one earns compared to one’s partner) but absolute costs (how much money one receives overall). These results suggest that overconfidence creates an inefficient equilibrium whereby overconfident negotiators benefit over their partners even as they bring about joint losses

Epigenetic Control of Circadian Clock Operation during Development

The molecular players of circadian clock oscillation have been identified and extensively characterized. The epigenetic mechanisms behind the circadian gene expression control has also been recently studied, although there are still details to be illucidated. In this review, we briefly summarize the current understanding of the mammalian clock. We also provide evidence for the lack of circadian oscillation in particular cell types. As the circadian clock has intimate interaction with the various cellular functions in different type of cells, it must have plasticity and specicity in its operation within different epigenetic environments. The lack of circadian oscillation in certain cells provide an unique opportunity to study the required epigenetic environment in the cell that permit circadian oscillation and to idenfify key influencing factors for proper clock function. How epigenetic mechansims, including DNA methylaiton and chromatin modifications, participate in control of clock oscillation still awaits future studies at the genomic scale

A secure cross-domain interaction scheme for blockchain-based intelligent transportation systems

Si, H., Li, W., Wang, Q., Cao, H., Bação, F., & Sun, C. (2023). A secure cross-domain interaction scheme for blockchain-based intelligent transportation systems. PeerJ Computer Science, (November 2023), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.1678, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.1678/supp-1, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.1678/supp-2---This work was supported by the Henan Province Key Science-technology Research Project under Grant No. 232102520006 and 232102210122, the Key Research Project of Henan Provincial Higher Education Institution under Grant No. 23A520005, and the Henan Province Major Public Welfare Projects under Grant No. 201300210300. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.In the intelligent transportation system (ITS), secure and efficient data communication among vehicles, road testing equipment, computing nodes, and transportation agencies is important for building a smart city-integrated transportation system. However, the traditional centralized processing approach may face threats in terms of data leakage and trust. The use of distributed, tamper-proof blockchain technology can improve the decentralized storage and security of data in the ITS network. However, the cross-trust domain devices, terminals, and transportation agencies in the heterogeneous blockchain network of the ITS still face great challenges in trusted data communication and interoperability. In this article, we propose a heterogeneous cross-chain interaction mechanism based on relay nodes and identity encryption to solve the problem of data cross-domain interaction between devices and agencies in the ITS. First, we propose the ITS cross-chain communication framework and improve the cross-chain interaction model. The relay nodes are interconnected through libP2P to form a relay node chain, which is used for cross-chain information verification and transmission. Secondly, we propose a relay node secure access scheme based on identity-based encryption to provide reliable identity authentication for relay nodes. Finally, we build a standard cross-chain communication protocol and cross-chain transaction lifecycle for this mechanism. We use Hyperledger Fabric and FISCO BCOS blockchain to design and implement this solution, and verify the feasibility of this cross-chain interaction mechanism. The experimental results show that the mechanism can achieve a stable data cross-chain read throughput of 2,000 transactions per second, which can meet the requirements of secure and efficient cross-chain communication and interaction among heterogeneous blockchains in the ITS, and has high application value.publishersversionpublishe