On the Positive Effects of Overcon fident Self-Perception in Teams

In this paper, we study the individual payoff effects of overconfident self-perception in teams. In particular, we demonstrate that the welfare of an overconfident agent in a team of one rational and one overconfident agent or a team of two overconfident agents can be higher than that of the members of a team of two rational agents. This result holds irrespective of the assumption about the agents' awareness of their colleague's bias. Moreover, we show that an overcondent agent is always better of when he is unaware of a potential bias of his colleague

On the Positive Effects of Overcon fident Self-Perception in Teams

In this paper, we study the individual payoff effects of overconfident self-perception in teams. In particular, we demonstrate that the welfare of an overconfident agent in a team of one rational and one overconfident agent or a team of two overconfident agents can be higher than that of the members of a team of two rational agents. This result holds irrespective of the assumption about the agents' awareness of their colleague's bias. Moreover, we show that an overcondent agent is always better of when he is unaware of a potential bias of his colleague.Overconfidence; Team Production

A comparative study of American and European strategies against terrorism and their impact on the UN’s counter-terrorism work

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit gibt einen Überblick über die Rolle, die die Vereinten Nationen in den Anti-Terrorismus-Strategien und -Politiken der USA und der EU einnehmen. Die Arbeit weist zwei theoretische Ausgangspunkte auf. Der erste befasst sich mit den Veränderungen der Kriegsführung in den vergangen Jahrzehnten. Zur Erläuterung wird die Literatur zu den sogenannten Neuen Kriegen (mit Schwerpunkt auf den Werken von Mary Kaldor und Herfried Münkler) zusammengefasst und diskutiert. Der zweite widmet sich Andrew Guzmans neoinstitutionalistischer Theorie des Völkerrechts und der Internationalen Organisationen. Des Weiteren wird diskutiert, wie es im letzten Jahrzehnt um den Multilateralismus im Allgemeinen und die Vereinten Nationen im Speziellen bestellt war. Hierbei wird vor allem auf Macht und Ohnmacht der UNO in Konflikten wie Ruanda, Darfur und dem damaligen Jugoslawien eingegangen und die damit einhergehenden Konsequenzen für die Rolle der UNO im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus. Der elfte September 2001 hat Terrorismus letztlich endgültig als globale Gefahr etabliert und Reaktion in der gesamten internationalen Gemeinschaft hervorgerufen. Die UNO hat mittels mehrerer institutioneller Schritte auf die veränderte Gefahrenlage reagiert. Allerdings sind die Entwicklungen innerhalb der UNO gezeichnet von Uneinigkeit in der Definition von Terrorismus und in den Vorstellungen von den institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen für einen Kampf gegen Terrorismus auf UN-Ebene. Die Europäische Union hat in den letzten zehn, zwanzig Jahren weitere Einigungsschritte vollzogen. Sie strebt damit eine Rolle als eigenständiger internationaler Akteur an und ist als solcher auch innerhalb des UN-Systems engagiert. Ihre Anti-Terror-Strategie befindet sich eindeutig im Einklang mit den Ansätzen der UNO. Die Vereinigten Staaten haben tendenziell ein schwieriges Verhältnis zur Terrorbekämpfung auf UN-Ebene. Generell herrscht in den USA das Gefühl vor, dass die Institutionen ungeeignet seien, um mit der Herausforderung durch den internationalen Terrorismus umzugehen. Anders als in Europa gab es vor allem während der Bush-Präsidentschaft das Paradigma des Regime Change (die sogenannte Freedom Agenda) und der präemptiven Militäreinsätze. Nichtsdestotrotz nimmt der Multilateralismus eine wichtige Rolle in der amerikanischen Strategie ein, wenngleich vielleicht weniger aus ideologischer Überzeugung und mehr aus pragmatischen, vernünftigen Überlegungen heraus. Abschließend wird eine Konvergenz der Anti-Terrorismus-Strategien festgestellt. Beide Seiten erkennen das Ausmaß der terroristischen Bedrohung, die Wichtigkeit der Vereinten Nationen und anderer internationaler Partner und die Bedeutung der Lösung von regionalen Konflikten, insbesondere des Nahostkonflikts. Insgesamt wird die transatlantische Kooperation „globalisiert“, d.h. auf internationale Organisationen ausgeweitet. Allerdings bleiben die strukturellen Probleme eines Systems, das geschaffen wurde, um zwischenstaatliche Konflikte zu lösen, aber Schwierigkeiten damit hat, Konflikte zwischen Staaten und nicht-staatlichen Akteuren wie terroristischen Gruppen zu lösen, bestehen.This thesis reviews the role given to the United Nations in American and European strategy concepts against terrorism and their impact on the organization’s work. Its starting point is the premise that warfare in general changed substantially in the last two decades and that terrorism has become a truly transnational issue. To elaborate on this, the literature on “new wars” (principally the writings of Mary Kaldor and Herfried Münkler) is being discussed. The second theoretical starting point is the neo-institutionalist theory of International Law and international organizations as developed by Andrew T. Guzman. Furthermore, this thesis discusses the state of multilateralism in general and especially the United Nations in the last decade. This is being done within the context of the failure of the UN in major conflicts (Rwanda, Darfur, Yugoslavia), the subsequent discredit and the resulting skepticism in regard to a possible role of the UN in counter-terrorism matters. The attacks of September 11, 2001, established terrorism as a significant global threat and led to reactions by the entire international community. By taking several institutional steps, the UN reacted to these developments. Yet, the reforms of the UN are marked by disparities in the definition of terrorism and in the envisioning of an institutional setting for counter-terrorism at the UN-level. The European Union made significant steps towards integration in the last ten to twenty years. It has become an aspiring and independent international actor and is perceived as such within the UN system. Its anti-terrorism strategy is in line with the approaches of the UN. The United States generally has a difficult relationship with the UN with regards to counter-terrorism. In the U.S., the sentiment that the UN institutions are not fit to tackle the challenges is predominant. Unlike Europe and especially during the Bush presidency, there is a prevailing paradigm of regime change (the so-called Freedom Agenda) and the possibility of pre-emptive military strikes. Nevertheless, multilateralism plays an important role in the American strategy, albeit less out of ideological conviction but more out of pragmatism and rationalism. Eventually, a convergence between anti-terrorism strategies can be observed. Both sides of the Atlantic recognize the terrorist threat, the importance of the United Nations and other international partners and the significance of resolving regional conflicts, and especially the Israeli-Arab conflict. Building on a long history of trans-Atlantic cooperation, this partnership has been globalized. What remains in the end nevertheless is the structural problem of an organization that was created to resolve disputes between states and is now challenged to cope with a problem between states and diffuse, trans-national non-state actors, which may or may not be supported or harbored by states

Regulating State Aid: Inter-jurisdictional competition, public choice, and corporate governance

Depending on the regulatory regime they are subject to, governments may or may not be allowed to hand out state aid to private firms. The economic justification for state aid can address several issues present in the competition for capital and the competition for transfers from the state. First, there are principal-agent problems involved at several stages. Self-interested politicians might enter state aid deals that are the result of extensive rent-seeking activities of organized interest groups. Thus the institutional design of political systems will have an effect on the propensity of a jurisdiction to award state aid. Secondly, fierce competition for firm locations can lead to over-spending. This effect is stronger if the politicians do not take into account the entirety of the costs created by their participation in the firm location race. Thirdly, state aid deals can be incomplete and not in the interest of the citizens. This applies if there are no sanctions if firms do not meet their obligations from receiving aid, such as creating a certain number of jobs or not relocating again for a certain amount of time. The separation of ownership and control in modern corporations leads to principal-agent problems on the side of the aid recipient as well. Managers might receive personal benefits from subsidies, the use of which is sometimes less monitored than private finance. This can eventually be to the detriment of the shareholders. Overall, it can be concluded that state aid control should also serve the purpose of regulating the contracting between governments and firms. An extended mandate for supervision by the European Commission could include requirements to disincentive the misuse of state aid. The Commission should also focus on the corporate governance regime in place in the jurisdiction that awards the aid as well as in the recipient firm

Decadal-scale hotspot methane ebullition within lakes following abrupt permafrost thaw

Thermokarst lakes accelerate deep permafrost thaw and the mobilization of previously frozen soil organic carbon. This leads to microbial decomposition and large releases of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) that enhance climate warming. However, the time scale of permafrost-carbon emissions following thaw is not well known but is important for understanding how abrupt permafrost thaw impacts climate feedback. We combined field measurements and radiocarbon dating of CH4 ebullition with (a) an assessment of lake area changes delineated from high-resolution (1–2.5 m) optical imagery and (b) geophysical measurements of thaw bulbs (taliks) to determine the spatiotemporal dynamics of hotspot-seep CH4 ebullition in interior Alaska thermokarst lakes. Hotspot seeps are characterized as point-sources of high ebullition that release 14C-depleted CH4 from deep (up to tens of meters) within lake thaw bulbs year-round. Thermokarst lakes, initiated by a variety of factors, doubled in number and increased 37.5% in area from 1949 to 2009 as climate warmed. Approximately 80% of contemporary CH4 hotspot seeps were associated with this recent thermokarst activity, occurring where 60 years of abrupt thaw took place as a result of new and expanded lake areas. Hotspot occurrence diminished with distance from thermokarst lake margins. We attribute older 14C ages of CH4 released from hotspot seeps in older, expanding thermokarst lakes (14CCH4 20 079 ± 1227 years BP, mean ± standard error (s.e.m.) years) to deeper taliks (thaw bulbs) compared to younger 14CCH4 in new lakes (14CCH4 8526 ± 741 years BP) with shallower taliks. We find that smaller, non-hotspot ebullition seeps have younger 14C ages (expanding lakes 7473 ± 1762 years; new lakes 4742 ± 803 years) and that their emissions span a larger historic range. These observations provide a first-order constraint on the magnitude and decadal-scale duration of CH4-hotspot seep emissions following formation of thermokarst lakes as climate warms

Role of SRC-Family Kinases in Hypoxic Vasoconstriction of Rat Pulmonary Artery

Aims: We investigated the role of src-family kinases (srcFKs) in hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) and how this relates to Rho-kinase-mediated Ca(2+) sensitization and changes in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)). Methods and results: Intra-pulmonary arteries (IPAs) were obtained from male Wistar rats. HPV was induced in myograph-mounted IPAs. Auto-phosphorylation of srcFKs and phosphorylation of the regulatory subunit of myosin phosphatase (MYPT-1) and myosin light-chain (MLC(20)) in response to hypoxia were determined by western blotting. Translocation of Rho-kinase and effects of siRNA knockdown of src and fyn were examined in cultured pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). [Ca(2+)](i) was estimated in Fura-PE3-loaded IPA. HPV was inhibited by two blockers of srcFKs, SU6656 and PP2. Hypoxia enhanced phosphorylation of three srcFK proteins at Tyr-416 (60, 59, and 54 kDa, corresponding to src, fyn, and yes, respectively) and enhanced srcFK-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of multiple target proteins. Hypoxia caused a complex, time-dependent enhancement of MYPT-1 and MLC(20) phosphorylation, both in the absence and presence of pre-constriction. The sustained component of this enhancement was blocked by SU6656 and the Rho-kinase inhibitor Y27632. In PASMCs, hypoxia caused translocation of Rho-kinase from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, and this was prevented by anti-src siRNA and to a lesser extent by anti-fyn siRNA. The biphasic increases in [Ca(2+)](i) that accompany HPV were also inhibited by PP2. Conclusion: Hypoxia activates srcFKs and triggers protein tyrosine phosphorylation in IPA. Hypoxia-mediated Rho-kinase activation, Ca(2+) sensitization, and [Ca(2+)](i) responses are depressed by srcFK inhibitors and/or siRNA knockdown, suggesting a central role of srcFKs in HPV

Safety and immunogenicity of the candidate tuberculosis vaccine MVA85A in West Africa.

BACKGROUND: Vaccination with a recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara expressing antigen 85A from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, MVA85A, induces high levels of cellular immune responses in UK volunteers. We assessed the safety and immunogenicity of this new vaccine in West African volunteers. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We vaccinated 21 healthy adult male subjects (11 BCG scar negative and 10 BCG scar positive) with MVA85A after screening for evidence of prior exposure to mycobacteria. We monitored them over six months, observing for clinical, haematological and biochemical adverse events, together with assessment of the vaccine induced cellular immune response using ELISPOT and flow cytometry. MVA85A was well tolerated with no significant adverse events. Mild local and systemic adverse events were consistent with previous UK trials. Marked immunogenicity was found whether individuals had a previous BCG scar or not. There was not enhanced immunogenicity in those with a BCG scar, and induced T cell responses were better maintained in apparently BCG-naïve Gambians than previously studied BCG-naïve UK vaccinees. Although responses were predominantly attributable to CD4+ T cells, we also identified antigen specific CD8+ T cell responses, in subjects who were HLA B-35 and in whom enough blood was available for more detailed immunological analysis. CONCLUSIONS: These data on the safety and immunogenicity of MVA85A in West Africa support its accelerated development as a promising booster vaccine for tuberculosis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00423839