"The Organization of s National System of Higher Education: Some Preliminary Thoughts on a Decentralized System"

The purpose of this paper is to address a fundamental question about higher education. If a country wanted to design a system of higher education, what would the optimal institutional structure of the system look like? This question is very broad so we limit our initial approach by analyzing one aspect of this question and ask how well a decentralized higher education system will perform. This paper is preliminary and does not provide an answer to this question; rather it attempts to lay out a framework for thinking about this question using existing systems, principally the US, as a model for how such a system would work.higher education, rankings, organization of higher education

Robust Bayesian inference via coarsening

The standard approach to Bayesian inference is based on the assumption that the distribution of the data belongs to the chosen model class. However, even a small violation of this assumption can have a large impact on the outcome of a Bayesian procedure. We introduce a simple, coherent approach to Bayesian inference that improves robustness to perturbations from the model: rather than condition on the data exactly, one conditions on a neighborhood of the empirical distribution. When using neighborhoods based on relative entropy estimates, the resulting "coarsened" posterior can be approximated by simply tempering the likelihood---that is, by raising it to a fractional power---thus, inference is often easily implemented with standard methods, and one can even obtain analytical solutions when using conjugate priors. Some theoretical properties are derived, and we illustrate the approach with real and simulated data, using mixture models, autoregressive models of unknown order, and variable selection in linear regression

"Macroeconomic Market Incentive Plans: History and Theoretical Rationale"

This paper explores the contemporary debate among economists on the means to move the economy toward high employment without inflation-beyond the traditional instruments of monetary and fiscal policy. The authors pay particular attention to the Market Anti-Inflation Plan (MAP), submitted by Lerner and Colander in 1980. The reasons economists have searched for alternative measures relate to the problems associated with wage and price controls. MAP is an anti-inflation plan that allows relative prices to adjust: The scheme increases costs to firms that raise prices, and contains an added incentive to lower prices. Since MAP is designed to fight macroeconomic inflation by changing the incentives of individual price setters, the relationship between microeconomic behavior and macroeconomic outcomes must be addressed. The theoretical justification for MAP is that there is a macroeconomic externality, and MAP can mitigate the ramifications of the externality. However, efforts to more clearly define the nature of this externality require a better understanding of transaction costs. Consequently, there will be the need for a mechanism to integrate such costs into microeconomic and macroeconomic models.

"A Comparison of the Organization of Higher Education Systems in France and the USA"

Countries have many different ways of organizing higher education. Because of the high costs of higher education, reform efforts, of which the Bologna Process in Europe is an example, are underway in many places. Even where explicit governmental reform processes are less important, economic pressures are bringing about changes. This paper compares the higher education systems in the USA and France. They have been chosen for our study because the problems of high achievement, reasonable economic costs and accessibility are shared values, but their systems are organized very differently.Organization of Higher Education Systems, Economics of Higher Education, Goals of National Systems of Higher Education, Autonomy of Universities, Enrollment in Higher Education, Higher Education in France, Higher Education in the US

Skeletal muscle phenotypes initiated by ectopic MyoD in transgenic mouse heart

Forced expression of the myogenic regulatory gene MyoD in many types of cultured cells initiates their conversion into skeletal muscle. It is not known, however, if MyoD expression serves to activate all or part of the skeletal muscle program in vivo during animal development, nor is it known how limiting the influences of cellular environment may be on the regulatory effects of MyoD. To begin to address these issues, we have produced transgenic mice which express MyoD in developing heart, where neither MyoD nor its three close relatives—myogenin, Myf-5, and MRF4/herculin/Myf-6—are normally expressed. The resulting gross phenotype in offspring from multiple, independent transgenic founders includes abnormal heart morphology and ultimately leads to death. At the molecular level, affected hearts exhibit activation of skeletal muscle-specific regulatory as well as structural genes. We conclude that MyoD is able to initiate the program that leads to skeletal muscle differentiation during mouse development, even in the presence of the ongoing cardiac differentiation program. Thus, targeted misexpression of this tissue-specific regulator during mammalian embryogenesis can activate, either directly or indirectly, a diverse set of genes normally restricted to a different cell lineage and a different cellular environment

The Natural Rate in a Share Economy

Will the natural rate 0f unemployment be lower in the share economy described by Martin Weitzman than in a wage economy? We examine this question for a search economy with an equilibrium unemployment rate, a version 0f Salop's (1979) quits model. Equilibrium unemployment is the same in both economies. We also examine firms' short-run adjustment to shocks. Share-economy firms adjust output less than wage-economy firms for both demand shocks and labor-supply shocks. Depending on whether rapid output adjustment is stabilizing, a share economy may be more or less stable than a wage economy

Application of the Monopole Source to Quantify Explosive Flux During Vulcanian Explosions at Sakurajima Volcano (Japan)

A primary goal in volcano seismology is to characterize source motions internal to a volcano in terms of their representative forces. In a similar manner, much volcano infrasound research strives to recover eruptive force time histories corresponding to material accelerations occurring at Earth’s free surface. These motions may correspond to explosive emission of gas and pyroclasts (e.g., Banister, 1984), rapid ground distensions of a volcanic dome (e.g., Johnson and Lees, 2010), and/or gravity driven rock fall or pyroclastic flows (e.g., Yamasato, 1997). When free surface motion is unsteady it imposes stresses upon the surrounding atmosphere, which are propagated as acoustic airwaves. Typically, the sounds produced by volcanic phenomena are recorded with low-frequency infrasound sensitive microphones. The intervening atmosphere is relatively homogeneous and nonattenuating for infrasound propagation of a few kilometers, therefore the recorded excess pressures closely represent volcano source time functions. Such force time histories are equivalent to volumetric accelerations of the atmosphere at or near to the source

What Variables Predict Endorsing Gambling as an Escape on the GFA-R?

The present investigation attempted to determine what variables would predict participants’ endorsing of gambling as an escape on the Gambling Functional Assessment – Revised (GFA-R). Study 1 employed 224 university students as participants. Results of a hierarchical linear regression showed that responses on the GFA-R escape subscale were predicted by their GFA-R positive reinforcement subscale, Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), and South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) scores, but not by the risk factors of pathological gambling. Study 2, which employed 188 university students, replicated those findings and also found that participants’ self-reported locus of control and gambling expectancy scores, cumulatively, also accounted for a significant amount of variance in endorsing gambling as an escape. Together, these results suggest that people endorse gambling as an escape because they gamble for a variety of reasons, have experienced negative consequences due to their gambling, have a relatively lengthy history with gambling, and have potential emotional-regulation problems. The present results shed light on why people may gamble as an escape, which is important to understand given its strong relationship with pathological gambling

Regulation of actin cytoskeleton architecture by Eps8 and Abi1

BACKGROUND: The actin cytoskeleton participates in many fundamental processes including the regulation of cell shape, motility, and adhesion. The remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton is dependent on actin binding proteins, which organize actin filaments into specific structures that allow them to perform various specialized functions. The Eps8 family of proteins is implicated in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton remodeling during cell migration, yet the precise mechanism by which Eps8 regulates actin organization and remodeling remains elusive. RESULTS: Here, we show that Eps8 promotes the assembly of actin rich filopodia-like structures and actin cables in cultured mammalian cells and Xenopus embryos, respectively. The morphology of actin structures induced by Eps8 was modulated by interactions with Abi1, which stimulated formation of actin cables in cultured cells and star-like structures in Xenopus. The actin stars observed in Xenopus animal cap cells assembled at the apical surface of epithelial cells in a Rac-independent manner and their formation was accompanied by recruitment of N-WASP, suggesting that the Eps8/Abi1 complex is capable of regulating the localization and/or activity of actin nucleators. We also found that Eps8 recruits Dishevelled to the plasma membrane and actin filaments suggesting that Eps8 might participate in non-canonical Wnt/Polarity signaling. Consistent with this idea, mis-expression of Eps8 in dorsal regions of Xenopus embryos resulted in gastrulation defects. CONCLUSION: Together, these results suggest that Eps8 plays multiple roles in modulating actin filament organization, possibly through its interaction with distinct sets of actin regulatory complexes. Furthermore, the finding that Eps8 interacts with Dsh and induced gastrulation defects provides evidence that Eps8 might participate in non-canonical Wnt signaling to control cell movements during vertebrate development