9,624 research outputs found
A Happiness Approach to Cost-Benefit Analysis
Subjective well-being (SWB) surveys ask respondents to quantify their overall or momentary happiness or life-satisfaction, or pose similar questions about other aspects of respondents\u27 mental states. A large empirical literature in economics and psychology has grown up around such surveys. Increasingly, too, scholars have advanced the normative proposal that SWB surveys be used for policymaking—for example, by using survey results to calculate monetary equivalents for nonmarket goods (to be incorporated in cost-benefit analysis), or to calculate gross national happiness.
This Article skeptically evaluates the policy role of SWB data. It is critical to distinguish between (1) using SWB surveys as evidence of preference utility versus (2) using them as evidence of experience utility. Preference utility is a measure of the extent to which someone has realized her preferences; experience utility, a measure of the quality of someone\u27s mental states. The two are quite different because individuals can have preferences regarding non-mental occurrences.
Having drawn this distinction, the Article then argues, first, that SWB surveys are poor evidence of preference utility—given problems of preference and scale heterogeneity, as well as other difficulties. Stated-preference surveys are a much better survey format for eliciting preference utility. Second, in considering SWB surveys as an experience-utility measure, we should recognize that experientialism about well-being—the view that well-being is simply a matter of good experiences—is highly controversial. More plausibly, an experience-utility measure might be seen as an indicator of one aspect of well-being. However, even constructing this weak experience-utility measure is not straightforward—as the Article demonstrates by discussing Daniel Kahneman\u27s detailed proposal for such a metric
Projection Operator Formalisms and the Nuclear Shell Model
The shell model solve the nuclear many-body problem in a restricted model
space and takes into account the restricted nature of the space by using
effective interactions and operators. In this paper two different methods for
generating the effective interactions are considered. One is based on a partial
solution of the Schrodinger equation (Bloch-Horowitz or the Feshbach projection
formalism) and other on linear algebra (Lee-Suzuki). The two methods are
derived in a parallel manner so that the difference and similarities become
apparent. The connections with the renormalization group are also pointed out.Comment: 4 pages, no figure
The Shell Model, the Renormalization Group and the Two-Body Interaction
The no-core shell model and the effective interaction can
both be derived using the Lee-Suzuki projection operator formalism. The main
difference between the two is the choice of basis states that define the model
space. The effective interaction can also be derived using
the renormalization group. That renormalization group derivation can be
extended in a straight forward manner to also include the no-core shell model.
In the nuclear matter limit the no-core shell model effective interaction in
the two-body approximation reduces identically to . The same
considerations apply to the Bloch-Horowitz version of the shell model and the
renormalization group treatment of two-body scattering by Birse, McGovern and
Richardson
The Anaphase-Promoting Complex (APC) ubiquitin ligase affects chemosensory behavior in \u3cem\u3eC. elegans\u3c/em\u3e
The regulation of fundamental aspects of neurobiological function has been linked to the ubiquitin signaling system (USS), which regulates the degradation and activity of proteins and is catalyzed by E1, E2, and E3 enzymes. The Anaphase-Promoting Complex (APC) is a multi-subunit E3 ubiquitin ligase that controls diverse developmental and signaling processes in post-mitotic neurons; however, potential roles for the APC in sensory function have yet to be explored. In this study, we examined the effect of the APC ubiquitin ligase on chemosensation in Caenorhabditis elegans by testing chemotaxis to the volatile odorants, diacetyl, pyrazine, and isoamyl alcohol, to which wild-type worms are attracted. Animals with loss of function mutations in either of two alleles (g48 and ye143) of the gene encoding the APC subunit EMB-27 APC6 showed increased chemotaxis towards diacetyl and pyrazine, odorants sensed by AWA neurons, but exhibited normal chemotaxis to isoamyl alcohol, which is sensed by AWC neurons. The statistically significant increase in chemotaxis in the emb-27 APC6 mutants suggests that the APC inhibits AWA-mediated chemosensation in C. elegans. Increased chemotaxis to pyrazine was also seen with mutants lacking another essential APC subunit, MAT-2 APC1; however, mat-2 APC1 mutants exhibited wild type responses to diacetyl. The difference in responsiveness of these two APC subunit mutants may be due to differential strength of these hypomorphic alleles or may indicate the presence of functional sub-complexes of the APC at work in this process. These findings are the first evidence for APC-mediated regulation of chemosensation and lay the groundwork for further studies aimed at identifying the expression levels, function, and targets of the APC in specific sensory neurons. Because of the similarity between human and C. elegans nervous systems, the role of the APC in sensory neurons may also advance our understanding of human sensory function and disease
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