Measuring Market Power in Professional Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey

Forbes Magazine estimates of annual revenues, costs and team values for professional sports teams are used to derive market power measures for teams in four major professional sports leagues: the MLB, NBA, NHL, and the NFL. Two variants of the Lerner Index, one that reflects short-term operations for the past year and another reflecting the long-run net present value of the franchise are derived over the 2006-2016 period. Only the long-run measure provides estimates that are always consistent with theoretical requirements. Analysis of variance of long-run market power shows that local market factors and past team performance have less impact on market power than common league-wide effects. Team market power depends least on local team effects in leagues that have stronger revenue sharing policies. Price-cost margins are higher for professional teams in North American than for the most valuable European soccer teams, consistent with the stronger exemption from anti-trust law in the U.S

Generating scalable entanglement of ultracold bosons in superlattices through resonant shaking

Based on a one-dimensional double-well superlattice with a unit filling of ultracold atoms per site, we propose a scheme to generate scalable entangled states in the superlattice through resonant lattice shakings. Our scheme utilizes periodic lattice modulations to entangle two atoms in each unit cell with respect to their orbital degree of freedom, and the complete atomic system in the superlattice becomes a cluster of bipartite entangled atom pairs. To demonstrate this we perform $ab \ initio$ quantum dynamical simulations using the Multi-Layer Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree Method for Bosons, which accounts for all correlations among the atoms. The proposed clusters of bipartite entanglements manifest as an essential resource for various quantum applications, such as measurement based quantum computation. The lattice shaking scheme to generate this cluster possesses advantages such as a high scalability, fast processing speed, rich controllability on the target entangled states, and accessibility with current experimental techniques.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

The Problem Solving Genome: Analyzing Sequential Patterns of Student Work with Parameterized Exercises

Parameterized exercises are an important tool for online assessment and learning. The ability to generate multiple versions of the same exercise with different parameters helps to support learning-by-doing and decreases cheating during assessment. At the same time, our experience using parameterized exercises for Java programming reveals suboptimal use of this technology as demonstrated by repeated successful and failed attempts to solve the same problem. In this paper we present the results of our work on modeling and examining patterns of student behavior with parameterized exercises using the Problem Solving Genome, a compact encapsulation of individual behavior patterns. We started with micro-patterns (genes) that describe small chunks of repetitive behavior and constructed individual genomes as frequency profiles that show the dominance of each gene in individual behavior. The exploration of student genomes revealed the individual genome is considerably stable, distinguishing students from their peers. Using the genome, we were able to analyze student behavior on the group level and identify genes associated with good and poor learning performance

Th1 responsiveness to nephritogenic antigens determines susceptibility to crescentic glomerulonephritis in mice

Th1 responsiveness to nephritogenic antigens determines susceptibility to crescentic glomerulonephritis in mice. The pattern of glomerulonephritis (GN) developing in response to a planted antigen (sheep anti-mouse GBM globulin) was compared in two strains of mice which demonstrated either a predominant Th1 (C57BL/6) or Th2 (BALB/c) response to this antigen. GN was induced with a subnephritogenic i.v. dose of sheep anti-mouse GBM globulin in mice presensitized to sheep globulin. Sensitized C57BL/6 mice showed pronounced cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) following the challenge with sheep globulin, low titers of circulating anti-sheep globulin antibody and high interferon γ (IFNγ) and low interleukin 4 (IL-4) production by splenic T cells, consistent with a predominant Th1 pattern of immune response. Sensitized BALB/c mice did not develop DTH following cutaneous challenge with sheep globulin, had higher circulating anti-sheep globulin antibody titers, and showed high IL-4 and low IFNγ production by splenic T cells compared with C57BL/6 mice, consistent with a predominant Th2 response. In C57BL/6 mice, GN developing in response to sheep globulin exhibited a severe crescentic pattern with prominent glomerular T cell and macrophage influx and fibrin deposition. In vivo depletion with a monoclonal anti-CD4 antibody demonstrated that this injury was T helper cell dependent. Treatment with monoclonal anti-mouse IFNγ antibody significantly reduced glomerular injury and crescent formation and attenuated the cutaneous DTH response. GN induced by the same protocol in BALB/c mice exhibited pronounced glomerular IgG and complement deposition. Crescent formation, fibrin deposition, and glomerular T cell and macrophage infiltration were significantly less than observed in C57BL/6 mice, and injury was not T cell dependent in the effector phase. These data suggest that the pattern of glomerular injury induced by a planted antigen can be determined by the balance of T helper cell subset activation. A Th1 response induces a severe crescentic pattern of GN, which like cutaneous DTH, is T helper cell and IFNγ dependent

Protein kinase inhibitors from Indonesian Sponge Axynissa sp.

A research about inhibitory activity on various cancer related protein kinases of several marine sponges collected in Indonesia was performed. This study aims were to isolate and to identify structures of biologically active sponge metabolites.A combination of a chemically-and biologically driven approach for drug discovery was employed. Sponge extracts were tested by protein kinase inhibitory assay by in vitro method in parallel to the usage of TLC, and HPLC coupled to UV spectrophotometry and mass spectrometry to isolate the chemically most interesting substances. Structure identification of active compounds was performed by using NMR spectroscopy and massspectrometry methods.This study showed that only Axynissa sp. fractions were found active in protein kinase inhibitory assay. Two bisabolene type sesquiterpenoids, (+)- curcuphenol (1) and (+)-curcudiol (2) were identified as active compounds from the sponge. Compound 1 showed SRC protein kinase inhibition with an IC50value of 7.8 μg/mL while 2 inhibited FAK with an IC50 value of 9.2 μg/mL.Key words: protein kinase inhibitor, Axynissa sp

Chemical investigation on Indonesian marine sponge Mycale phyllophila

Chemical investigation on marine sponge Mycale phyllophila collected from Bali, Indonesia has been performed. This study was aimed to isolate and to identify structures of the sponge secondary metabolites as well as to test their cytotoxic activity on mouse lymphoma cell line L5178Y.The sponge extract was fractionated by liquid-liquid partition followed with a vacuum liquid chromatography method. Structure elucidation was performed on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis involving one and two dimensional NMR spectroscopy as well as mass spectrometry. Cytotoxicity was tested on mouse lymphoma cell line L5178Y by using the microculture tetrazolium (MTT) assay. This study found a mixture of 5-pentadecyl-1H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde and (6’E)-5-(6’pentadecenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde as major constituents of the sponge extract. Those compounds were expected to be the active constituent to show growth inhibition of mouse lymphoma cell line (L5178Y) in vitro.Key words : Mycale phyllophila, cytotoxic agent, NMR spectroscopy

Interleukin-4 deficiency enhances Th1 responses and crescentic glomerulonephritis in mice

Interleukin-4 deficiency enhances Th1 responses and crescentic glomerulonephritis in mice. Evidence suggests that crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN) is due to T helper cell 1 (Th1) directed delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH)-like injury. As endogenous interleukin (IL)-4, (the pivotal cytokine in Th2 responses) may attenuate Th1 responses in this disease, we compared the development of crescentic GN, induced by a planted antigen, in mice genetically deficient in IL-4 (IL-4−/−) with disease in normal mice (IL-4+/+). IL-4−/− mice developed more severe GN with increased renal impairment (CCr 35 ± 7 μl/min vs. 133 ± 14 μl/min, P < 0.002) and crescent formation (55.7 ± 8.4% vs. 4.9 ± 1.2%, P < 0.002). This was associated with increased glomerular fibrin deposition, glomerular CD4+ T cell infiltration and macrophage recruitment. Systemically, IL-4−/− mice showed an increased antigen specific Th1 response indicated by increased skin DTH, and increased IgG3 and IgG2b. Decreased IgG1 levels indicated a reduced Th2 response. These results demonstrate a protective role for endogenous IL-4 in crescentic GN. They show that IL-4 deficiency promotes crescentic glomerular injury and amplifies local and systemic Th1 responses. They support the hypothesis that crescent formation results from Th1 immune responses to antigens in the glomerulus

The characterization of the saddle shaped nickel(III) porphyrin radical cation: an explicative NMR model for a ferromagnetically coupled metallo-porphyrin radical

Ni(III)(OETPP˙)(Br)2 is the first Ni(III) porphyrin radical cation with structural and (1)H and (13)C paramagnetic NMR data for porphyrinate systems. Associating EPR and NMR analyses with DFT calculations as a new model is capable of clearly determining the dominant state from two controversial spin distributions in the ring to be the Ni(III) LS coupled with an a1u spin-up radical