Manifestly Haraway by Donna J. Haraway

Review of Donna J. Haraway\u27s Manifestly Haraway

A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes by Madhur Anand

A Review of Madhur Anand\u27s A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes

Interactions between the neuromodulatory systems and the amygdala: exploratory survey using the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas.

Neuromodulatory systems originate in nuclei localized in the subcortical region of the brain and control fundamental behaviors by interacting with many areas of the central nervous system. An exploratory survey of the cholinergic, dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic receptor expression energy in the amygdala, and in the neuromodulatory areas themselves was undertaken using the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas. The amygdala was chosen because of its importance in cognitive behavior and its bidirectional interaction with the neuromodulatory systems. The gene expression data of 38 neuromodulatory receptor subtypes were examined across 13 brain regions. The substantia innominata of the basal forebrain and regions of the amygdala had the highest amount of receptor expression energy for all four neuromodulatory systems examined. The ventral tegmental area also displayed high receptor expression of all four neuromodulators. In contrast, the locus coeruleus displayed low receptor expression energy overall. In general, cholinergic receptor expression was an order of magnitude greater than other neuromodulatory receptors. Since the nuclei of these neuromodulatory systems are thought to be the source of specific neurotransmitters, the projections from these nuclei to target regions may be inferred by receptor expression energy. The comprehensive analysis revealed many connectivity relations and receptor localization that had not been previously reported. The methodology presented here may be applied to other neural systems with similar characteristics, and to other animal models as these brain atlases become available

Should the democrats move to the left on economic policy?

Could John Kerry have gained votes in the 2004 Presidential election by more clearly distinguishing himself from George Bush on economic policy? At first thought, the logic of political preferences would suggest not: the Republicans are to the right of most Americans on economic policy, and so in a one-dimensional space with party positions measured with no error, the optimal strategy for the Democrats would be to stand infinitesimally to the left of the Republicans. The median voter theorem suggests that each party should keep its policy positions just barely distinguishable from the opposition. In a multidimensional setting, however, or when voters vary in their perceptions of the parties' positions, a party can benefit from putting some daylight between itself and the other party on an issue where it has a public-opinion advantage (such as economic policy for the Democrats). We set up a plausible theoretical model in which the Democrats could achieve a net gain in votes by moving to the left on economic policy, given the parties' positions on a range of issue dimensions. We then evaluate this model based on survey data on voters' perceptions of their own positions and those of the candidates in 2004. Under our model, it turns out to be optimal for the Democrats to move slightly to the right but staying clearly to the left of the Republicans' current position on economic issues.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOAS150 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org). With Correction

The Runaway Greenhouse: A History of Water on Venus

Radiative-convective equilibrium models of planetary atmospheres are discussed for the case when the infrared opacity is due to a vapor in equilibrium with its liquid or solid phase. For a grey gas, or for a gas which absorbs at all infrared wavelengths, equilibrium is impossible when the solar constant exceeds a critical value. Equilibrium therefore requires that the condensed phase evaporates into the atmosphere. Moist adiabatic and pseudoadiabatic atmospheres in which the condensing vapor is a major atmospheric constituent are considered. This situation would apply if the solar constant were supercritical with respect to an abundant substance such as water. It is shown that the condensing gas would be a major constituent at all levels in such an atmosphere. Photodissociation of water in the primordial Venus atmosphere is discussed in this context

Block patterns in Stirling permutations

We introduce and study a new notion of patterns in Stirling and $k$-Stirling permutations, which we call block patterns. We prove a general result which allows us to compute generating functions for the occurrences of various block patterns in terms of generating functions for the occurrences of patterns in permutations. This result yields a number of applications involving, among other things, Wilf equivalence of block patterns and a new interpretation of Bessel polynomials. We also show how to interpret our results for a certain class of labeled trees, which are in bijection with Stirling permutations

Achieving Rapid Growth in the Transition Economies of Central Europe

This paper describes ways that the CEEs can speed their convergence with the EU by emulating the growth strategies of the very fast growing economies. In Section II, we introduce the VFGEs, and discuss some of the sources of their superior growth performance. In Section III, we demonstrate the role of key policy variables in the context of cross-country growth equations. In Section IV, we examine how the CEEs can emulate key aspects of the economic policies of the VFGEs, in order to raise their growth in the coming years.economic transition, Central Eastern Europe, economic growth

Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration

macroeconomics, economic reform, global integration