Tame Circle Actions

In this paper, we consider Sjamaar's holomorphic slice theorem, the birational equivalence theorem of Guillemin and Sternberg, and a number of important standard constructions that work for Hamiltonian circle actions in both the symplectic category and the K\"ahler category: reduction, cutting, and blow-up. In each case, we show that the theory extends to Hamiltonian circle actions on complex manifolds with tamed symplectic forms. (At least, the theory extends if the fixed points are isolated.) Our main motivation for this paper is that the first author needs the machinery that we develop here to construct a non-Hamiltonian symplectic circle action on a closed, connected six-dimensional symplectic manifold with exactly 32 fixed points; this answers an open question in symplectic geometry. However, we also believe that the setting we work in is intrinsically interesting, and elucidates the key role played by the following fact: the moment image of $e^t \cdot x$ increases as $t \in \mathbb{R}$ increases.Comment: 25 page

Knowing Versus Telling Private Information About a Rival

As part of a broad competitive intelligence strategy, firms expect to acquire information about their rivals’ customers and production processes. In this study, we examine the firms’ incentives to disclose this information. We find that firms adopt a policy of disclosing their information regardless of whether it concerns a rival’s customers or production costs or whether the firms are Cournot or Bertrand competitors. Firms that have private information about their rivals tell. Their willingness to disclose private information about their rivals contrasts with the results in the literature when the firm has information about itself. This literature shows that the chosen disclosure policy depends on whether information is about the firm’s own payoffs or industry demand and whether the firms’ strategies are substitutes or complements.disclosure policy, voluntary disclosure, asymmetric information, Cournot competition, Bertrand competition

Using MLP to determine abiotic factors influencing the establishment of insect pest species

The use of multi-layer perceptrons (MLP) to determine the significance of climatic variables to the establishment of insect pest species is described. Results show that the MLP are able to learn to accurately predict the establishment of a pest species within a specific geographic region. Analysis of the MLP yielded insights into the contribution of the individual input variables and allowed for the identification of those variables that were most significant in either encouraging or inhibiting establishment

One Foundation's Experience with Primary and Integrated Care Grantmaking: Lessons on Leverage and Policy Change

Significant changes in health care practice usually require changes in compensation practice -- and may also require changes in licensing (of facilities and/or professions), certification and professional training. This is important work that requires a long-term commitment. And it may give rise to push-back from various sources invested in the current state of affairs:* Professionals, not wanting others to be licensed to perform similar services at lower reimbursement rates* Payers, not wanting to open a door to new categories of reimbursable services* Training institutions reluctant to alter curriculum, until it is clear that a new approach has staying powerFoundations are in a powerful position to speak out for change, as we "don't have a dog in the fight." That neutrality can be our strength, particularly as we become known for speaking clearly and from a basis in factual information and evidence-based approaches

Using Vocabulary Studies to Teach Contextual Analysis in Grade Four

Increasingly, researchers are calling for four strands to comprise the elementary school vocabulary program: direct instruction in the meanings of individual words, the improvement of students\u27 independent word learning strategies, motivation for word learning, and many opportunities for wide reading (Irvin, 1990; Graves, 1995). Strategies for independent word learning are particularly important because wide reading offers students the opportunity to learn as many as 3,000 word per year if they can successfully apply structural analysis and contextual analysis to the new words they encounter (Anderson, 1995)

Improving cluster-based methods for investigating potential for insect pest species establishment: region-specific risk factors

Existing cluster-based methods for investigating insect species assemblages or profiles of a region to indicate the risk of new insect pest invasion have a major limitation in that they assign the same species risk factors to each region in a cluster. Clearly regions assigned to the same cluster have different degrees of similarity with respect to their species profile or assemblage. This study addresses this concern by applying weighting factors to the cluster elements used to calculate regional risk factors, thereby producing region-specific risk factors. Using a database of the global distribution of crop insect pest species, we found that we were able to produce highly differentiated region-specific risk factors for insect pests. We did this by weighting cluster elements by their Euclidean distance from the target region. Using this approach meant that risk weightings were derived that were more realistic, as they were specific to the pest profile or species assemblage of each region. This weighting method provides an improved tool for estimating the potential invasion risk posed by exotic species given that they have an opportunity to establish in a target region

Boys Together; Contemporary Approaches to Moral Education; and Foundations of Moral Education

Three books reviews: Boys Together: English Public Schools, 1800 -1864, by John Chandos; Contemporary Approaches to Moral Education: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Research, by James S. Leming; and Foundations of Moral Education: An Annotated Bibliography, by James S. Leming

Financial Reporting and Supplemental Voluntary Disclosures.

Using a Verreccia [1983]-type model, we study the optimal voluntary disclosure strategy of a manager with private information that helps the market interpret financial information the firm is required to report. In equilibrium, the manager’s disclosure strategy enhances upward or mitigates downward revisions in the market’s estimate of firm value conditional on the firm’s financial reports. Hence, what the manager discloses (large or small values of her private information) and the probability of disclosure depend on the information in the firm’s financial reports. This leads to testable implications regarding the probability of voluntary disclosure (e.g., firms whose financial reports are more surprising provide more voluntary disclosures), and how earnings and revenue response coefficients depend on the manager’s voluntary disclosure strategy. Finally, we show that changes in mandatory disclosure regulations can reduce the probability of voluntary disclosure even though the manager’s private information is used to interpret the firm’s mandatory disclosures.voluntary disclosure ; financial statements ; earnings surprise ; asymmetric information ; price efficiency ; good news ; bad news

A Sensitive Membrane-Targeted Biosensor for Monitoring Changes in Intracellular Chloride in Neuronal Processes

Background: Regulation of chloride gradients is a major mechanism by which excitability is regulated in neurons. Disruption of these gradients is implicated in various diseases, including cystic fibrosis, neuropathic pain and epilepsy. Relatively few studies have addressed chloride regulation in neuronal processes because probes capable of detecting changes in small compartments over a physiological range are limited. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, a palmitoylation sequence was added to a variant of the yellow fluorescent protein previously described as a sensitive chloride indicator (YFPQS) to target the protein to the plasma membrane (mbYFPQS) of cultured midbrain neurons. The reporter partitions to the cytoplasmic face of the cellular membranes, including the plasma membrane throughout the neurons and fluorescence is stable over 30-40 min of repeated excitation showing less than 10% decrease in mbYFPQS fluorescence compared to baseline. The mbYFPQS has similar chloride sensitivity (k 50 = 41 mM) but has a shifted pKa compared to the unpalmitoylated YFPQS variant (cytYFPQS) that remains in the cytoplasm when expressed in midbrain neurons. Changes in mbYFPQS fluorescence were induced by the GABA A agonist muscimol and were similar in the soma and processes of the midbrain neurons. Amphetamine also increased mbYFPQS fluorescence in a subpopulation of cultured midbrain neurons that was reversed by the selective dopamine transporter (DAT) inhibitor, GBR12909, indicating that mbYFPQS is sensitive enough to detect endogenous DAT activity in midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons. Conclusions/Significance: The mbYFPQS biosensor is a sensitive tool to study modulation of intracellular chloride levels in neuronal processes and is particularly advantageous for simultaneous whole-cell patch clamp and live-cell imaging experiments. © 2012 Watts et al