A reason for unreason: returns based beliefs in game theory

Players cooperate in experiments more than game theory would predict. We introduce the ‘returns-based beliefs’ approach: the expected returns of a particular strategy in proportion to total expected returns of all strategies. Using a decision analytic solution concept, Luce’s (1959) probabilistic choice model, and ‘hyperpriors’ for ambiguity in players’ cooperability, our approach explains empirical observations in various classes of games including the Prisoner’s and Traveler’s Dilemmas. Testing the closeness of fit of our model on Selten and Chmura (2008) data for completely mixed 2 × 2 games shows that with loss aversion, returns-based beliefs explain the data better than other equilibrium concepts

Probabilistic Choice Models

We examine a number of probabilistic choice models in which people might form their beliefs to play their strategies in a game theoretic setting in order to propose alternative equilibrium concepts to the Nash equilibrium. In particular, we evaluate the Blavatskyy model, Returns Based Beliefs (RBB) model, Quantal Response Equilibrium (QRE) model, Boundedly Rational Nash Equilibrium (BRNE) model and the Utility Proportional Beliefs (UPB) model. We outline the foundational axioms for these models and fully explicate them in terms of probabilistic actions, probabilistic beliefs and their epistemic characterizations. We test the model predictions using empirical data and show which models perform better under which conditions. We also extend the Blavatskyy model which was developed to consider games with two actions to cases where there are three or more actions. We provide a nuanced understanding of how different types of probabilistic choice models might predict better than others

Divine Innovation: Religion and Service Provision by Religious Organizations in India

This paper examines innovations to religious and non-religious service provision by religious organizations in India. We present a stylized Hotelling-style model in which two religious organizations position themselves at opposite locations to differentiate themselves on the religious spectrum in order to compete to attract adherents. Moreover, the model predicts that economic inequality can make both organizations increase their provision of non-religious services to retain adherents. In order to test our propositions, we present unique primary survey data on the economics of religion that we have collected from 2006-2008 on 568 Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Jain religious organizations spread across seven Indian states. We use these data to provide qualitative and descriptive statistics from the survey that is consistent and provides initial support for our propositions. We show that these organizations have substantially increased their provision of religious and non-religious services, but that there are significant variations by religion. We also provide quantitative evidence based on econometric testing to highlight that Indian religious organizations are maximizing the differences in their ideology with respect to other organizations, and are also providing higher education and health services as economic inequality increases in India

Genetic dissection of grain zinc concentration in spring wheat for mainstreaming biofortification in CIMMYT wheat breeding

Wheat is an important staple that acts as a primary source of dietary energy, protein, and essential micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) for the world’s population. Approximately two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiency, thus breeders have crossed high Zn progenitors such as synthetic hexaploid wheat, T. dicoccum, T. spelta, and landraces to generate wheat varieties with competitive yield and enhanced grain Zn that are being adopted by farmers in South Asia. Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the wheat Illumina iSelect 90 K Infinitum SNP array to characterize grain Zn concentrations in 330 bread wheat lines. Grain Zn phenotype of this HarvestPlus Association Mapping (HPAM) panel was evaluated across a range of environments in India and Mexico. GWAS analysis revealed 39 marker-trait associations for grain Zn. Two larger effect QTL regions were found on chromosomes 2 and 7. Candidate genes (among them zinc finger motif of transcription-factors and metal-ion binding genes) were associated with the QTL. The linked markers and associated candidate genes identified in this study are being validated in new biparental mapping populations for marker-assisted breeding

Rate of Inactivation of Isoniazid in South Indian Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis 2. Clinical Implications in the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis with Isoniazid either Alone or in Combination with PAS

A series of studies on the rate of inactivation of isoniazid in Indian patients with pulmonary tuberculosis undergoing domiciliary chemotherapy with isoniazid, alone or in combination with p-aminosalicylic acid, has recently been undertaken by the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras. In the first study, the serum isoniazid levels of the patients were determined four-and-a-half hours after intramuscular administration of a standard dose of 3 mg/kg body-weight of isoniazid and, according to whether the serum level was 0.58 μg/ml or above, or less than 0.58 μg/ml, the patient was classified as a slow or as a rapid inactivator. The present paper describes the second of these studies, in which the response to treatment of the slow and the rapid inactivators was compared. The results of this investigation suggested that there might be an association between response to treatment and rate of inactivation of isoniazid, since the slow inactivators were more often culturenegative during treatment and showed a higher proportion of individuals with bacteriologically quiescent disease at I2 months and a lower proportion with radiographic deterioration at six months than the rapid inactivators, while the slow inactivators who deteriorated radiographically or clinically to an extent warranting a change of treatment during the two years did so later than the corresponding rapid inactivators. There was slight evidence that the slow and the rapid inactivators differed in the speed of conversion to bacteriological negativity of those patients whose disease was bacteriologically quiescent at 12 months, but no evidence that they differed in the degree of positivity of sputum specimens that were positive on culture at six, nine or 12 months, or in the frequency with which the patients showed moderate or greater radiographic improvement at six months

Le champ d’action de la Pénicilline peut-il être étendu aux affections à bacilles de Schmorl ?

Velu Henri, Mathieu J.-V., Bouffanais A. Le champ d’action de la Pénicilline peut-il être étendu aux affections à bacilles de Schmorl ?. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 101 n°1, 1948. pp. 37-40

Yield and Quality in Purple-Grained Wheat Isogenic Lines

Breeding programs for purple wheat are underway in many countries but there is a lack of information on the effects of Pp (purple pericarp) genes on agronomic and quality traits in variable environments and along the product chain (grain-flour-bread). This study was based on unique material: two pairs of isogenic lines in a spring wheat cv. Saratovskaya-29 (S29) background differing only in Pp genes and grain color. In 2017, seven experiments were conducted in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey with a focus on genotype and environment interaction and, in 2018, one experiment in Turkey with a focus on grain, flour, and bread quality. The eect of environment was greater compared to genotype for the productivity and quality traits studied. Nevertheless, several important traits, such as grain color and anthocyanin content, are closely controlled by genotype, offering the opportunity for selection. Phenolic content in purple-grained lines was not significantly higher in whole wheat flour than in red-colored lines. However, this trait was significantly higher in bread. For antioxidant activities, no differences between the genotypes were detected in both experiments. Comparison of two sources of Pp genes demonstrated that the lines originating from cv. Purple Feed had substantially improved productivity and quality traits compared to those from cv. Purple

The Virulence in the Guinea-pig of Tubercle Bacilli Isolated before Treatment from South Indian Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis 3. Virulence related to Pretreatment Status of Disease and to Response to Chemotherapy

This is the last of a series of three reports from the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre Madras, on a study undertaken with the object of finding out whether differences in the virulence in the guinea-pig of tubercle bacilli isolated from South Indian tuberculous patients before the start of chemotherapy are related to the severity of the patients’ disease on admission to treatment and to the subsequent response to chemotherapy. The 281 patients in this study were drawn from the patients admitted to a l-year comparison of four domiciliary chemotherapeutic regimens : (a) 3.9-5.5 mg/kg isoniazid plus 0.2-0.3 g/kg sodium PAS daily, divided into two doses (PH series) ; (b) 7.8-9.6 mg/kg isoniazid alone daily in one dose (HI-I series) ; (c) 7.8-9.6 mg/kg isoniazid alone daily, divided into two doses (HI-2 series) ; (d) 3.9-5.5 mg/kg isoniazid alone daily, divided into two doses (H series). No evidence was found of an association between the virulence of the organisms and any pretreatment condition of known prognostic importance. There was no association between pretreatment virulence and progress during treatment in the PH series (the most effective regimen). In the other series, however, the progress was more satisfactory in patients infected with organisms of low virulence than in those infected with organisms of high virulence, the association between virulence and progress attaining statistical significance in the combined HI-2 and H series (the least effective regimens) and only just failing to do so in the smaller HI-1 series. Possible explanations are put forward both for the absence of an association between virulence and severity of disease on admission and for the presence of an association between virulence and response in the patients treated with isoniazid alone

How Fundamentalism Takes Root: A Simulation Study

We report agent-based simulations of religiosity dynamics in a spatially dispersed population. Agents' religiosity responds to neighbours via pairwise interactions as well as via club goods effects. A simulation run is deemed fundamentalist if the final distribution contains a sizable minority of very high religiosity together with a majority of lesser religiosity. Such simulations are more prevalent when parameter values shift from values reflecting traditional societies towards values reflecting the modern world. The simulations suggest that the rise of fundamentalism in the modern world is boosted by greater real income, lower relative prices for secular goods, less substitutability between religious and secular goods, and less time spent with neighbours. Surprisingly, the simulations suggest little role for the rise of long distance communication and transportation