Citrus trade liberalization with Japan

trade liberalization, Japan, citrus, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade,

Does comorbid anxiety counteract emotion recognition deficits in conduct disorder?

Background: Previous research has reported altered emotion recognition in both conduct disorder (CD) and anxiety disorders (ADs) - but these effects appear to be of different kinds. Adolescents with CD often show a generalised pattern of deficits, while those with ADs show hypersensitivity to specific negative emotions. Although these conditions often cooccur, little is known regarding emotion recognition performance in comorbid CD+ADs. Here, we test the hypothesis that in the comorbid case, anxiety-related emotion hypersensitivity counteracts the emotion recognition deficits typically observed in CD. Method: We compared facial emotion recognition across four groups of adolescents aged 12-18 years: those with CD alone (n = 28), ADs alone (n = 23), cooccurring CD+ADs (n = 20) and typically developing controls (n = 28). The emotion recognition task we used systematically manipulated the emotional intensity of facial expressions as well as fixation location (eye, nose or mouth region). Results: Conduct disorder was associated with a generalised impairment in emotion recognition; however, this may have been modulated by group differences in IQ. AD was associated with increased sensitivity to low-intensity happiness, disgust and sadness. In general, the comorbid CD+ADs group performed similarly to typically developing controls. Conclusions: Although CD alone was associated with emotion recognition impairments, ADs and comorbid CD+ADs were associated with normal or enhanced emotion recognition performance. The presence of comorbid ADs appeared to counteract the effects of CD, suggesting a potentially protective role, although future research should examine the contribution of IQ and gender to these effects

An Investigation Of The Determinants Of BTs Debt Levels From 1998-2002: What Does It Tell Us About The Optimal Capital Structure?

Over the period 1998-2001, British Telecom (BT) dramatically increased its debt levels, from 4.8bn in 1998 to 31bn in 2001. This was accompanied by a dramatic decrease in the firms share price. Subsequent pressure from analysts and investors induced BT to use a rights issue to substantially reduce debt in 2002 (from 31bn to 18.4bn). However, the share price has continued to fall, but not so dramatically. Hence, BT provides an ideal case study of the effects of capital structure on firm value. In this case study, we will consider such questions as:a) Why did BT take on so much debt? Why did it cause firm value to fall, when many capital structure theories suggest a positive relationship between leverage and firm value?b) Why has the reduction in debt not caused an increase in equity value?c) Was BT beyond its optimal debt/equity ratio from 1998-2001? Is it still beyond the optimum?d) Does BT have an optimal capital structure? What is it? Is it static? What are the trade-offs involved?e)Does BTs case hold lessons for other firms

A Theory of Entrepreneurial Overconfidence, Effort, and Firm Outcomes

We present a theory of entrepreneurial behavior that explores the relationship between overconfidence and successful firm outcomes, such as acquisition or IPO. In our model, increasing overconfidence produces two conflicting effects on the probability of a successful outcome: it not only induces an entrepreneur to increase the riskiness of a venture (which lowers the likelihood of successful exit), but also drives higher entrepreneurial effort, increasing likelihood of a successful exit. Due to this conflict, a kinked or U-shaped relationship may exist between overconfidence and positive outcomes. Furthermore, our model suggests that increased outside equity mitigates the effects of overconfidence

The Politics of Crime and Criminal Justice

This volume is about politics, crime, and criminal justice in the United States. As such, it reports on some of the fruits of an increasing amount of research that has been devoted to this topic in recent years. With the exception of one analytical essay on crime as an issue in American politics, all of the articles in the volume are based on original field research

Engineering study to determine feasible methods of simulating planetary albedo and radiation effects upon the thermal balance of spacecraft Final report

Planetary radiation and albedo effects on thermal balance of spacecraft orbiting Mars and Venu

Bilingualism Is Associated with a Delayed Onset of Dementia but Not with a Lower Risk of Developing it: a Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses.

Some studies have linked bilingualism with a later onset of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Not all studies have observed such relationships, however. Differences in study outcomes may be due to methodological limitations and the presence of confounding factors within studies such as immigration status and level of education. We conducted the first systematic review with meta-analysis combining cross-sectional studies to explore if bilingualism might delay symptom onset and diagnosis of dementia, AD, and MCI. Primary outcomes included the age of symptom onset, the age at diagnosis of MCI or dementia, and the risk of developing MCI or dementia. A secondary outcome included the degree of disease severity at dementia diagnosis. There was no difference in the age of MCI diagnosis between monolinguals and bilinguals [mean difference: 3.2; 95% confidence intervals (CI): -3.4, 9.7]. Bilinguals vs. monolinguals reported experiencing AD symptoms 4.7 years (95% CI: 3.3, 6.1) later. Bilinguals vs. monolinguals were diagnosed with dementia 3.3 years (95% CI: 1.7, 4.9) later. Here, 95% prediction intervals showed a large dispersion of effect sizes (-1.9 to 8.5). We investigated this dispersion with a subgroup meta-analysis comparing studies that had recruited participants with dementia to studies that had recruited participants with AD on the age of dementia and AD diagnosis between mono- and bilinguals. Results showed that bilinguals vs. monolinguals were 1.9 years (95% CI: -0.9, 4.7) and 4.2 (95% CI: 2.0, 6.4) older than monolinguals at the time of dementia and AD diagnosis, respectively. The mean difference between the two subgroups was not significant. There was no significant risk reduction (odds ratio: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.68-1.16) in developing dementia among bilinguals vs. monolinguals. Also, there was no significant difference (Hedges' g = 0.05; 95% CI: -0.13, 0.24) in disease severity at dementia diagnosis between bilinguals and monolinguals, despite bilinguals being significantly older. The majority of studies had adjusted for level of education suggesting that education might not have played a role in the observed delay in dementia among bilinguals vs. monolinguals. Although findings indicated that bilingualism was on average related to a delayed onset of dementia, the magnitude of this relationship varied across different settings. This variation may be due to unexplained heterogeneity and different sources of bias in the included studies. Registration: PROSPERO CRD42015019100