The economics of scientific research coalitions : collaborative network formation in the presence of multiple funding agencies

scientific research;research and development;technology

The Effects of Total Sleep Deprivation on Bayesian Updating

Recent evidence suggests that nearly 25% of U.S. adults (47 million) suffer from some level of sleep deprivation. The impact of this sleep deprivation on the U.S. economy includes direct medical expenses related to sleep deprivation and related disorders, the cost of accidents, and the cost of reduced worker productivity. Sleep research has examined the effects of sleep deprivation on a number of performance measures, but the effects of sleep deprivation on decision-making under uncertainty are largely unknown. In this article, subjects perform a decision task (Grether, 1980) in both a well-rested and experimentally sleep-deprived state. The experimental task allows us to explore the extent to which subjects weight prior odds versus new evidence (i.e., information) when forming subjective (posterior) beliefs of a particular event. Wellrested subjects display a tendency to overweight the evidence in forming subjective posterior probability estimates, which is inconsistent with Bayes rule but possibly consistent with use of a ‘representativeness’ heuristic. In his original Bayes rule experiment, Grether (1980) also found that typical student-subjects overweighted the evidence relative to the prior odds in making posterior assessments. Ironically, behavior following sleep-deprivation is more consistent with the use of Bayes rule, because this treatment significantly reduces the (over)weight that subjects place on the new evidence. Because choice accuracy is not significantly affected by sleep deprivation, the significant difference in estimated decision-model parameters may indicate that the brain compensates under adversity in certain risky choice decision environments.

Oil prices and aggregate economic activity: a study of eight OECD countries

Power resources - Prices ; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Temperature dependence of breakdown and avalanche multiplication in In0.53Ga0.47As diodes and heterojunction bipolar transistors

The avalanche multiplication and impact ionization coefficients in In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As p-i-n and n-i-p diodes over a range of temperature from 20-400 K were measured and shown to have negative temperature dependence. This is contrary to the positive temperature dependence of the breakdown voltage measured on InP/In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in this and previous works. It is shown that the collector-base dark current and current gain can be the overriding influence on the temperature dependence of breakdown in InP/In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As HBTs and could explain previous anomalous interpretations from the latter

Oil prices and inflation

Power resources - Prices ; Inflation (Finance)

The Origins of American Resource Abundance

American manufacturing exports became increasingly resource-intensive over the very period, roughly 1880-1920, during which the U.S. ascended to the position of world leadership in manufacturing. This paper challenges the simplistic view that the resource-intensity of manufacturing reflected the country's abundant geological endowment of mineral deposits. Instead, it shows that in the century following 1850 the U.S. exploited its natural resource potentials to a far greater extent than other countries and did so across virtually the entire range of industrial minerals. It argues that "natural resource abundance" was an endogenous, "socially constructed" condition that was not geologically pre-ordained. It examines the complex legal, institutional, technological and organizational adaptations that shaped the U.S. supply-responses to the expanding domestic and international industrial demands for minerals and mineral-products. It suggests that the existence of strong "positive feedbacks"--even in the exploitation of depletable resources--was responsible for the explosive growth of the American minerals economy

Social, Achievement, and Control Dimensions of Personality-Life Event Vulnerability to Depression

This study investigated whether Sociotropy and the subscales of Autonomy (i.e., Perfectionistic/Self-critical, Need for Control, and Defensive Separation) would show differential patterns of vulnerability to dysphoria in both retrospective and prospective designs. Each of these scales showed a predicted pattern of association with life goals and impact ratings for negative events in a retrospective design. In a prospective design, the scales showed differential associations with goal obtainment and cognitive-affective responses to life events but did not predict follow-up dysphoria independently of baseline dysphoria. These results are discussed in terms of the multidimensionality of personality vulnerability and depressogenic negative life events along social, achievement, and control dimensions