Experience and gender effects in acquisition experiment with value messages

In the bargaining experiment, the privately informed seller of a company sends a value message to the uninformed potential buyer who proposes a price for acquiring the company. Participants are constantly either seller or buyer and interact over 30 rounds with randomly changing partners. How are overstating the value of the company, underpricing the received value message and acceptance of price offers affected by experience and gender (constellation)? We control via treatments for awareness of gender (constellation) and show that gender (constellation) matters and that the main experience effects apply across gender (constellations)

Estimating Grizzly and Black Bear Population Abundance and Trend in Banff National Park Using Noninvasive Genetic Sampling

We evaluated the potential of two noninvasive genetic sampling methods, hair traps and bear rub surveys, to estimate population abundance and trend of grizzly (Ursus arctos) and black bear (U. americanus) populations in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Using Huggins closed population mark-recapture models, we obtained the first precise abundance estimates for grizzly bears ( = 73.5, 95% CI = 64–94 in 2006;  = 50.4, 95% CI = 49–59 in 2008) and black bears ( = 62.6, 95% CI = 51–89 in 2006;  = 81.8, 95% CI = 72–102 in 2008) in the Bow Valley. Hair traps had high detection rates for female grizzlies, and male and female black bears, but extremely low detection rates for male grizzlies. Conversely, bear rubs had high detection rates for male and female grizzlies, but low rates for black bears. We estimated realized population growth rates, lambda, for grizzly bear males ( = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.74–1.17) and females ( = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.67–1.20) using Pradel open population models with three years of bear rub data. Lambda estimates are supported by abundance estimates from combined hair trap/bear rub closed population models and are consistent with a system that is likely driven by high levels of human-caused mortality. Our results suggest that bear rub surveys would provide an efficient and powerful means to inventory and monitor grizzly bear populations in the Central Canadian Rocky Mountains

Heat capacity and phase equilibria of hollandite polymorph of KAlSi 3 O 8

The low-temperature heat capacity ( C p ) of KAlSi 3 O 8 with a hollandite structure was measured over the range of 5–303 K with a physical properties measurement system. The standard entropy of KAlSi 3 O 8 hollandite is 166.2±0.2 J mol −1  K −1 , including an 18.7 J mol −1  K −1 contribution from the configurational entropy due to disorder of Al and Si in the octahedral sites. The entropy of K 2 Si 4 O 9 with a wadeite structure (Si-wadeite) was also estimated to facilitate calculation of phase equilibria in the system K 2 O–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 . The calculated phase equilibria obtained using Perple_x are in general agreement with experimental studies. Calculated phase relations in the system K 2 O–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 confirm a substantial stability field for kyanite–stishovite/coesite–Si-wadeite intervening between KAlSi 3 O 8 hollandite and sanidine. The upper stability of kyanite is bounded by the reaction kyanite (Al 2 SiO 5 ) = corundum (Al 2 O 3 )  + stishovite (SiO 2 ), which is located at 13–14 GPa for 1,100–1,400 K. The entropy and enthalpy of formation for K-cymrite (KAlSi 3 O 8 ·H 2 O) were modified to better fit global best-fit compilations of thermodynamic data and experimental studies. Thermodynamic calculations were undertaken on the reaction of K-cymrite to KAlSi 3 O 8 hollandite +  H 2 O, which is located at 8.3–10.0 GPa for the temperature range 800–1,600 K, well inside the stability field of stishovite. The reaction of muscovite to KAlSi 3 O 8 hollandite + corundum + H 2 O is placed at 10.0–10.6 GPa for the temperature range 900–1,500 K, in reasonable agreement with some but not all experiments on this reaction.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46910/1/269_2006_Article_63.pd

Atmospheric oxidation and carbon contamination of silver and its effect on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is considered a highly promising technology for different analytical purposes. The applications of SERS are still quite limited due its relatively poor quantitative repeatability and the fact that SERS is very sensitive to oxidation, which is a challenge especially with silver based SERS substrates. Here, the link between these phenomena is investigated by exposing silver SERS substrates to ambient laboratory air. We show that SERS intensity decreases exponentially after the exposure, which consequently leads to an increasing standard deviation (σ) in intensity. Within a five-hour measurement window, the SERS intensity already drops by 60%, while σ triples from 7% to 21%. The SERS results are supplemented by elemental analysis, which shows that oxidation and atmospheric carbon contamination coincide with the rapid SERS intensity decrease. The results emphasize how sensitive SERS is towards atmospheric contamination and how it can also reduce the measurement repeatability – even if the substrates are exposed to air just for a very short period of time