Goals and Plans in Protective Decision Making

Protective decisions are often puzzling. Among other anomalies, people insure against non-catastrophic events, underinsure against catastrophic risks, and allow extraneous factors to influence insurance purchases and other protective decisions. Neither expected utility theory nor prospect theory can explain these anomalies satisfactorily. We propose a constructed-choice model for general decision making. The model departs from utility theory and prospect theory in its treatment of multiple goals and it suggests several different ways in which context can affect choice. To apply this model to the above anomalies, we consider many different insurance-related goals, organized in a taxonomy, and we consider the effects of context on goals, resources, plans and decision rules. The paper concludes by suggesting some prescriptions for improving individual decision making with respect to protective measures.

Solar Sacrifice: How an Arizona Church Lost Money by Going Solar — and Solutions for When Energy Incentives Fail to Serve the Needs of Nonprofits

By policy design, consumers are supposed to save money when they invest in solar energy. This paper presents a case study of what happens when a church goes solar and the finances go wrong. Following the installation of solar-photovoltaic panels, the Arizona church — in the Valley of the Sun, among the sunniest places in the country — decreased its energy consumption, but its electric bills went up. Through oral-history interviews of key stakeholders, the author investigates what happened, and what could be done to prevent other religious institutions and nonprofits from experiencing the church’s fate.David Krantz (ORCID 0000-0001-6062-6628) was supported by an IGERT-SUN (Solar Utilization Network) fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation (Award 1144616)

Adaptive immunity in urothelial cancer : molecular and clinical aspects

In the battle between the immune system and cancer, tolerance mechanisms otherwise protective against autoimmunity, are exploited to halt the anti-tumor immune response. In this model, tumors turn distinct parts of the immune system against each other; suppressive cells such as regulatory T cells (Tregs) are hijacked to obstruct effector lymphocytes in their attempt to eradicate the tumor. We explored the effects of this immunomodulation on Tregs, effector T cells (Teff) and B cells in patients with urinary bladder cancer (UBC) and examined what impact chemotherapy has on this process. Puzzled by our previous finding of tumor-infiltrating Tregs to correlate to a favorable prognosis in patients with UBC, we sought to corroborate our results and ensure that we had not mistaken Teff cells for Treg cells. This was not the case, since we demonstrated tumor-infiltrating CD4+FOXP3+ T cells to be phenotypically, functionally and epigenetically stably committed Tregs. In search for a mechanistic explanation to the apparent favorable role of Tregs in UBC, we found this cell population to mediate suppression of the prometastatic factor MMP2, produced by M2 macrophages and UBC cells at the invasive front of the tumor microenvironment (TME). This finding supports the model where Tregs, by controlling inflammation, may benefit patients with inflammation-driven cancers. In our initial investigation of chemotherapeutic effects on lymphocytes, we found Doxorubicin to enhance the antigen presenting ability of B cells, with a subsequent increased activation of CD4+ T cells. This effect was mediated by an increased expression of the co-stimulatory molecule CD86, together with an altered cytokine profile including IL-10 and TNFα. The findings were translatable to the clinical setting, since CD86 expression was increased on circulating B cells of patients treated with Doxorubicin-containing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). When further evaluating the effects of chemotherapy on the T cell compartment, we changed scenery from peripheral blood to the Sentinel node (SN). CD8+ Teff exhaustion was demonstrated to be reduced after NAC treatment, while cytotoxicity was increased. In complete responders (CRs) to NAC, these cells were functionally and epigenetically committed effectors. For CD4+ Teff cells, tumorspecific reactivity was observed after NAC. In contrast, Tregs were attenuated by NAC in a dosedependent manner with decreased frequency and reduced effector molecule expression. Also, CRs had higher Teff to activated Treg ratio, promoting antitumoral T cell activation. In our further examination of SN T cells we wondered if their proteome was altered by the tumor. We found growth- and immune signaling to be up-regulated in SN Tregs. Most significantly, Interleukin (IL)-16 was identified as central in SN Treg signaling, Furthermore, direct contact with tumoral factors increased Treg IL-16 processing into its bioactive forms and this effect was mediated by active caspase-3. In conclusion, the adaptive arm of the immune system in the TME is heavily modulated in patients with UBC, where NAC contributes with substantial positive effects on this system. The observed suppression of tumor promoting inflammation by Tregs, manifested by inhibition of M2 macrophage functions, suggests the view of Tregs as a clear-cut negative force in tumor immunity to be a reductionistic and unfortunate vision

Jewish Energy Guide

50-article edited book produced as part of the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign. Contributors include: Al Gore, Jill Jacobs, Jakir Manela, Bill McKibben, Alon Tal, and Arthur Waskow, among others.Green Zionist Alliance (Aytzim) and the Jewish Council for Public Affair

Is Yellow the New Green? The Banal Environmentalism of The Simpsons

Through a qualitative-content analysis of nearly 14,000 television episodes from 76 long-running shows, this chapter explores the concept of banal environmentalism while examining the way that U.S. sitcoms handled environmental issues in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.This work was supported by an IGERT-SUN fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation (Award 1144616)

A theory of context effects based on cross-context matching

In cross-context matching, an observer reports that some stimulus elements, seen in one context, match other stimulus elements, see in a different context. The effect of changing from context S to context T defines a function gS,T, where gS,T(A) = B if stimulus A in T matches B in S.The description of context changes by functions is particularly powerful when there exist a semigroup of transformations of the stimulus elements that exhibits a special property called context-invariance. In this case, the functions gS,T are affine transformations of commutative groups. This means that knowledge of some effects of a context change can be used, via the group structure, to predict other effects. Predictive power is increased further when the contexts themselves are related by transformations that leave cross-context matching invariant; and the greatest power is obtained when stimuli and contexts have vector structure, as with color stimuli. Some previous theories of context effects in color are discussed from the standpoint of different semigroups of context-invariant transformations.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33216/1/0000605.pd

Rational distance functions for multidimensional scaling

A rational distance function is a numerical measure of psychological distance whose geometric properties are deducible from psychological truths about some particular judgmental task. In this paper, we review two theoretical analyses that have led to proposed rational distance functions. These analyses are based on two different tasks: paired-associate learning and similarity judgments. A generalization of the theory on similarity judgments is presented.Empirical results concerning similarity judgments seriously conflict with the basic psychological assumptions in the generalized treatment of similarity judgments. We conclude form these results that the construction of valid psychologically-based distance functions from analysis of choice probabilities in similarity judgments requires, as an initial step, the development of scaling models that take into account the influence of "irrelevant" dimensions on choice probability.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33323/1/0000719.pd

Integration of just-noticeable differences

Fechner deduced his logarithmic law from Weber's Law by integrating the equation du = dx/kx. Since the work of Luce and Edwards, this method has been regarded as incorrect. Reexamination shows that the method can be reformulated and justified in a rigorous manner.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33543/1/0000042.pd

Time Course of Changes in Peripheral Blood Gene Expression During Medication Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder.

Changes in gene expression (GE) during antidepressant treatment may increase understanding of the action of antidepressant medications and serve as biomarkers of efficacy. GE changes in peripheral blood are desirable because they can be assessed easily on multiple occasions during treatment. We report here on GE changes in 68 individuals who were treated for 8 weeks with either escitalopram alone, or escitalopram followed by bupropion. GE changes were assessed after 1, 2, and 8 weeks of treatment, with significant changes observed in 156, 121, and 585 peripheral blood gene transcripts, respectively. Thirty-one transcript changes were shared between the 1- and 8-week time points (seven upregulated, 24 downregulated). Differences were detected between the escitalopram- and bupropion-treated subjects, although there was no significant association between GE changes and clinical outcome. A subset of 18 genes overlapped with those previously identified as differentially expressed in subjects with MDD compared with healthy control subjects. There was statistically significant overlap between genes differentially expressed in the current and previous studies, with 10 genes overlapping in at least two previous studies. There was no enrichment for genes overexpressed in nervous system cell types, but there was a trend toward enrichment for genes in the WNT/β-catenin pathway in the anterior thalamus; three genes in this pathway showed differential expression in the present and in three previous studies. Our dataset and other similar studies will provide an important source of information about potential biomarkers of recovery and for potential dysregulation of GE in MDD