Should Paris Hilton Receive a Lighter Prison Sentence Because She\u27s Rich? An Experimental Study

The equal punishment for the same crime principle is generally agreed upon--yet its implementation differs radically depending on whether the punishment is measured purely in nominal terms or whether the subjective perspective of the punishee is accounted for. This is simply because different people may experience the same punishment with differing intensity. Legal scholars have recently proposed that improvements in scientific knowledge and advancements in technologies (such as Functional magnetic resonance imaging), which allow us to measure subjective perceptions and feelings, need to be and should be incorporated in our penal systems. This would facilitate calibrating the punishment not only to the crime but also to the offender\u27s persona, so that different people experience equally tough punishment for the same crime. However, such a substantial change in criminal law and policy necessitates a certain amount of public legitimacy and understanding among constituents. We ran a simple experiment in order to learn how people understand punishment and to ascertain whether such legitimacy exists. We find such a legitimacy may exist in the case of pecuniary punishments. With regard to incarceration policies, however, the likelihood of popular acceptance ofproposed innovations is rather remote. Our findings therefore point out a serious challenge for the scholarship favoring the subjective approach to punishment and may complicate the implementation of suggested reforms, even if legal scholars find them worthwhile

Taxing Car-produced Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Matching the Cure to the Disease

AbstractThe amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by cars is a linear (albeit fuel specific) function of the amount of fuel consumed. Because CO2 emissions generate social costs, through their effect on climate change, which escape the price mechanism, a tax on CO2 is indicated. An ideal tax would alter the consumer prices so that they match the marginal social costs. This setting thus calls for a specific tax on fuel equal to the value of externality resulting from the combustion of a unit of fuel. Since such tax scheme is readily available, we study to what extent the existing CO2 tax policies make use of it. We find that they do only to a limited extent. Thus our policy prescription is to drop existing CO2 taxes and use the existing fuel taxes to adjust fuel prices so that they match the marginal social costs related to burning of fuel

The Simple Economics of Motor Vehicle Pollution: A Case for Fuel Tax

The volume of pollution produced by an automobile is determined by driver's behavior along three margins: (i) vehicle selection, (ii) kilometers driven, and (iii) on-road fuel economy. The first two margins have been studied extensively, however the third has received scant attention. How significant is this 'intensive margin'? What would be the optimal policies when it is taken into account? The paper develops and analyzes a simple model of the technical and behavioral mechanisms that determine the volume emissions produced by a car. The results show that an optimal fuel tax would provide drivers with appropriate incentives along all three margins and that only public information is needed for a fuel tax to be set optimally. In contrast, an optimal distance tax would require private information. Lastly, relative to the optimal fuel tax, a simple uniform fuel tax is shown to be progressive. Thus, being already deployed worldwide, a uniform fuel tax is an attractive second-best policy. These findings should be accounted for when designing new mechanisms to alleviate motor vehicle pollution

Identifying Odometer Fraud: Evidence from the Used Car Market in the Czech Republic

This paper investigates the presence of odometer fraud in the used-car market in the Czech Republic using a unique dataset of 250,000 car-sale ads. Alternative identification techniques are also discussed. However, selection into the market as well as the practice of rounding odometer readings---possibly strategic yet innocent---render the standard statistical tests unusable. A modification of the last-digit test, which was previously used to detect fraud in election and accounting data, is therefore developed and employed. The results suggest that suspicious patterns are more prevalent in the segment of cars imported from abroad. I also show that this methodology can be used at the firm-level, which may be of interest to authorities and market participants

Methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis is frequently effective, even if re-employed after a previous failure

Effectiveness of therapy with individual disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is limited, and the number of available DMARDs is finite. Therefore, at some stage during the lengthy course of RA, institution of traditional DMARDs that have previously been applied may have to be reconsidered. In the present study we investigated the effectiveness of re-employed methotrexate in patients with a history of previous methotrexate failure (original course). A total of 1,490 RA patients (80% female, 59% rheumatoid factor positive) were followed from their first presentation, yielding a total of 6,470 patient-years of observation. We identified patients in whom methotrexate was re-employed after at least one intermittent course of a different DMARD. We compared reasons for discontinuation, improvement in acute phase reactants, and cumulative retention rates of methotrexate therapy between the original course of methotrexate and its re-employment. Similar analyses were peformed for other DMARDs. Methotrexate was re-employed in 86 patients. Compared with the original courses, re-employment was associated with a reduced risk for treatment termination because of ineffectiveness (P = 0.02, by McNemar test), especially if the maximum methotrexate dose of the original course had been low (<12.5 mg/week; P = 0.02, by logistic regression). In a Cox regression model, re-employed MTX was associated with a significantly reduced hazard of treatment termination compared with the original course of methotrexate, adjusting for dose and year of employment (hazard ratio 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.42–0.97; P = 0.04). These findings were not recapitulated in analyses of re-employment of other DMARDs. Re-employment of MTX despite prior inefficacy, but not re-employment of other DMARDs, is an effective therapeutic option, especially in those patients in whom the methotrexate dose of the original course was low

Metoda a ekonomické limity regulace ve finančním právu

Hlavním cílem práce bylo identifikovat metodu regulace ve finančním právu a pojednat o jednotlivých oblastech finančního práva. Dalším cílem bylo vybrat základní ekonomické instituty, kterých stát užívá při plnění svých funkcí nebo které ovlivňují svojí regulací. Třetím cílem bylo určit sociologické metody, konkrétně metody kvantitativního a kvalitativního výzkumu, které lze využít při úvahách de lege ferenda. Publikace je výstupem dvouleté výzkumné činnosti v projektech specifického výzkumu Masarykovy univerzity Metoda a ekonomické limity regulace ve finančním právu (2012) a Metoda a ekonomické limity regulace ve finančním právu II (2013).The main goal of the work has been to identify the method of legal regulation in financial law relations and to discuss certain segments of financial law. The second goal has been to select the basic economic institutes used by the state for fulfilling its tasks or affected by the state through its regulation. The third goal has been to assess the sociological methods including the methods of the quantitative and qualitative research that may be used for de lege ferenda discussions. The publication is the output of the two-years research activities in the specific research projects Method and economic limits of regulation in financial law (2012) and Method and economic limits of regulation in financial law II (2013)

The ReCoDe addiction research consortium:Losing and regaining control over drug intake-Findings and future perspectives

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are seen as a continuum ranging from goal-directed and hedonic drug use to loss of control over drug intake with aversive consequences for mental and physical health and social functioning. The main goals of our interdisciplinary German collaborative research centre on Losing and Regaining Control over Drug Intake (ReCoDe) are (i) to study triggers (drug cues, stressors, drug priming) and modifying factors (age, gender, physical activity, cognitive functions, childhood adversity, social factors, such as loneliness and social contact/interaction) that longitudinally modulate the trajectories of losing and regaining control over drug consumption under real-life conditions. (ii) To study underlying behavioural, cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms of disease trajectories and drug-related behaviours and (iii) to provide non-invasive mechanism-based interventions. These goals are achieved by: (A) using innovative mHealth (mobile health) tools to longitudinally monitor the effects of triggers and modifying factors on drug consumption patterns in real life in a cohort of 900 patients with alcohol use disorder. This approach will be complemented by animal models of addiction with 24/7 automated behavioural monitoring across an entire disease trajectory; i.e. from a naïve state to a drug-taking state to an addiction or resilience-like state. (B) The identification and, if applicable, computational modelling of key molecular, neurobiological and psychological mechanisms (e.g., reduced cognitive flexibility) mediating the effects of such triggers and modifying factors on disease trajectories. (C) Developing and testing non-invasive interventions (e.g., Just-In-Time-Adaptive-Interventions (JITAIs), various non-invasive brain stimulations (NIBS), individualized physical activity) that specifically target the underlying mechanisms for regaining control over drug intake. Here, we will report on the most important results of the first funding period and outline our future research strategy.</p

The ReCoDe addiction research consortium: Losing and regaining control over drug intake—Findings and future perspectives

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are seen as a continuum ranging from goal-directed and hedonic drug use to loss of control over drug intake with aversive consequences for mental and physical health and social functioning. The main goals of our interdisciplinary German collaborative research centre on Losing and Regaining Control over Drug Intake (ReCoDe) are (i) to study triggers (drug cues, stressors, drug priming) and modifying factors (age, gender, physical activity, cognitive functions, childhood adversity, social factors, such as loneliness and social contact/interaction) that longitudinally modulate the trajectories of losing and regaining control over drug consumption under real-life conditions. (ii) To study underlying behavioural, cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms of disease trajectories and drug-related behaviours and (iii) to provide non-invasive mechanism-based interventions. These goals are achieved by: (A) using innovative mHealth (mobile health) tools to longitudinally monitor the effects of triggers and modifying factors on drug consumption patterns in real life in a cohort of 900 patients with alcohol use disorder. This approach will be complemented by animal models of addiction with 24/7 automated behavioural monitoring across an entire disease trajectory; i.e. from a naïve state to a drug-taking state to an addiction or resilience-like state. (B) The identification and, if applicable, computational modelling of key molecular, neurobiological and psychological mechanisms (e.g., reduced cognitive flexibility) mediating the effects of such triggers and modifying factors on disease trajectories. (C) Developing and testing non-invasive interventions (e.g., Just-In-Time-Adaptive-Interventions (JITAIs), various non-invasive brain stimulations (NIBS), individualized physical activity) that specifically target the underlying mechanisms for regaining control over drug intake. Here, we will report on the most important results of the first funding period and outline our future research strategy

Unequal allelic expression of wild-type and mutated β-myosin in familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is an autosomal dominant disease, which in about 30% of the patients is caused by missense mutations in one allele of the β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) gene (MYH7). To address potential molecular mechanisms underlying the family-specific prognosis, we determined the relative expression of mutant versus wild-type MYH7-mRNA. We found a hitherto unknown mutation-dependent unequal expression of mutant to wild-type MYH7-mRNA, which is paralleled by similar unequal expression of β-MHC at the protein level. Relative abundance of mutated versus wild-type MYH7-mRNA was determined by a specific restriction digest approach and by real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Fourteen samples from M. soleus and myocardium of 12 genotyped and clinically well-characterized FHC patients were analyzed. The fraction of mutated MYH7-mRNA in five patients with mutation R723G averaged to 66 and 68% of total MYH7-mRNA in soleus and myocardium, respectively. For mutations I736T, R719W and V606M, fractions of mutated MYH7-mRNA in M. soleus were 39, 57 and 29%, respectively. For all mutations, unequal abundance was similar at the protein level. Importantly, fractions of mutated transcripts were comparable among siblings, in younger relatives and unrelated carriers of the same mutation. Hence, the extent of unequal expression of mutated versus wild-type transcript and protein is characteristic for each mutation, implying cis-acting regulatory mechanisms. Bioinformatics suggest mRNA stability or splicing effectors to be affected by certain mutations. Intriguingly, we observed a correlation between disease expression and fraction of mutated mRNA and protein. This strongly suggests that mutation-specific allelic imbalance represents a new pathogenic factor for FHC