Network architecture, salience and coordination

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of monotone games with imperfect information. Players are located at the nodes of a network and observe the actions of other players only if they are connected by the network. These games have many sequential equilibria; nonetheless, the behavior of subjects in the laboratory is predictable. The network architecture makes some strategies salient and this in turn makes the subjects’ behavior predictable and facilitates coordination on efficient outcomes. In some cases, modal behavior corresponds to equilibrium strategies

Spectrum and decays of hadronic atoms

We describe the spectra and decays of pi pi and pi K atoms within a non-relativistic effective field theory. The evaluations of the energy shifts and widths are performed at next-to-leading order in isospin symmetry breaking. The prediction for the lifetime of the pi K atom in its ground-state yields tau = (3.7 \pm 0.4) * 10^{-15} sec.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of MESON 2004: 8th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Cracow, Poland, 4-8 June 2004. 7 page

Monolithic narrow-linewidth InGaAsP semiconductor laser for coherent optical communications

A design for a monolithic narrow-linewidth InGaAsP diode laser has been developed using a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) extended-passive-cavity distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser design. Theoretical results indicate that this structure has the potential for a linewidth of 100 kHz or less. To realize this device, a number of the fabrication techniques required to integrate low-loss passive waveguides with active regions have been developed using a DBR laser structure. In addition, the MOCVD growth of InGaAs MQW laser structures has been developed, and threshold current densities as low as 1.6 kA/sq cm have been obtained from broad-stripe InGaAs/InGaAsP separate-confinement-heterostructure MQW lasers

Information Aggregation in Standing and Ad Hoc Committees

[No abstract

Campaign Spending and Incumbency: An Alternative Simultaneous Equations Approach

This paper estimates the effects of incumbent spending and challenger spending in U.S. House elections in the 1970s and 1980s. The paper employs FIML simultaneous equations analysis involving instrumental variables as vote predictors, and zero-covariance restrictions for the vote-spending disturbances. This procedure allows the estimation of spending effects given plausible assumptions about the effects of unobserved causes of the vote on candidate spending. The results are that incumbent spending matters even with only modest amounts of simultaneity. Evidence is presented to suggest that the effectiveness of new incumbent spending declines with seniority but accumulates to the incumbent's long-term advantage

Equilibria in Campaign Spending Games: Theory and Data

This paper presents a formal game-theoretic model to explain the simultaneity problem that has made it difficult to obtain unbiased estimates of the effects of both incumbent and challenger spending in U.S. House elections. The model predicts a particular form of correlation between the expected closeness of the race and the level of spending by both candidates, which implies that the simultaneity problem should not be present in close races, and should be progressively more severe in range of safe races that are empirically observed. This is confirmed by comparing simple OLS regression of races that are expected to be close with races that are expected not to be close, using House incumbent races spanning two decades. The theory also implies that inclusion of a variable controlling for total spending should successfully produce reliable estimates using OLS. This is confirmed

The Spending Game: Money, Votes, and Incumbency in Congressional Elections

This paper takes a game-theoretic approach to the analysis of the spending-votes relationship in Congressional elections to reinvestigate the surprisingly weak effects of incumbent spending measured in previous studies. Rather than focusing narrowly on the impact of spending on electoral outcomes, we attempt to take account of the reciprocal effect of (anticipated) closeness on spending using several statistical approaches. We also offer improvements in the specification and measurement of the vote equation, by using a better measure of district party strength adjusted for year-effects, and by including a variable that measures the heat of the campaign in terms of total spending by the incumbents and challengers. The latter measure partially corrects for the simultaneously determined (and highly positively correlated) levels of incumbent and challenger spending. A more rigorous multiequation simultaneous equations model, identified by uncorrelated errors, provides even more leverage for sorting out the effects of incumbent and challenger spending on votes. That analysis indicates (in a complete turnaround from findings reported elsewhere) that incumbent spending effects are highly significant and of a magnitude that is, if anything, greater than challenger spending effects. The paper concludes by using a game theoretic model to estimate the effect of anticipated closeness on spending and to estimate differences in campaign financing costs between incumbents and challengers

The Twenty-First Century Law Library

On November 6, 2008, the J. Michael Goodson Law Library at the Duke University School of Law held a number of events in celebration of its newly renovated and expanded space. This is an edited version of the program, "The 21st Century Law Library: A Conversation," that was held as part of that celebration. The conversation explores the role of the academic law library in legal education in an increasingly digital environment

Increased radiation dose and projected radiation-related lifetime cancer risk in patients with obesity due to projection radiography

This is the final version. Available on open access from IOP Publishing via the DOI in this recordPurpose. Primarily to evaluate the radiation dose delivered to patients with obesity in projection radiography and its relationship to the patient's size. A secondary purpose is to estimate the subsequent projected radiation-related lifetime cancer risk to patients with obesity compared to normal-weight patients. Method and material. Data from 1964 patients from a bariatric clinic in the UK were reviewed with the relevant permission. 630 patients were identified to have a projection radiography history and were included in the study. Patients' dose area product (DAP) data were collected for all projection radiography. Multiple exams in one day including a single DAP reading and exams with no records of DAP and exposure factors were excluded. Correlations were calculated and data analysed to yield the third quartile for each examination using STATA 14. Absorbed doses were generated from PCXMC simulation, utilising DAP data from this study and the UK national diagnostic reference level (NDRL), to calculate the effective risk for patients with obesity compared to patients with normal-weight. Results. Patients with obesity received higher DAPs for all examinations included in this study compared to NDRL. Abdominal and lumbar spine radiographs DAPs were the highest (17.6 and 30.31 Gy cm2) compared to the NDRL (2.5 and 4 Gy cm2). Only moderate to low correlations were found between patient's size and DAPs in the abdomen and chest radiographs. The projected radiation-related lifetime cancer risk for patients with obesity is up to 153% higher than for adult patients with normal weight. Conclusion. Patients with obesity receive higher DAPs than normal-weight adults which may be in excess of that expected due to their size. Therefore, radiation-related lifetime cancer risk is increased in patients with obesity as a result of medical radiation exposures. This indicates more dose optimisation research is needed in this group of patients to reduce dose rate and variation.Najran Universit