Learning Unethical Practices from a Co-worker: The Peer Effect of Jose Canseco

This paper examines the issue of whether workers learn productive skills from their co-workers, even if those skills are unethical. Specifically, we estimate whether Jose Canseco, one of the best baseball players in the last few decades, affected the performance of his teammates. In his autobiography, Canseco claims that he improved the productivity of his teammates by introducing them to steroids. Using panel data on baseball players, we show that a player’s performance increases significantly after they played with Jose Canseco. After checking 30 comparable players from the same era, we find that no other baseball player produced a similar effect. Clearly, Jose Canseco had an unusual influence on the productivity of his peers. These results are consistent with Canseco’s controversial claims, and suggest that workers not only learn productive skills from their co-workers, but sometimes those skills may derive from unethical practices. These findings may be relevant to many workplaces where competitive pressures create incentives to adopt unethical means to boost productivity and profits.peer effects, corruption, crime, externalities

A Simple Bargaining Mechanism That Elicits Truthful Reservation Prices

We describe a simple 2-stage mechanism that induces two bargainers to be truthful in reporting their reservation prices in a 1st stage. If these prices criss-cross, the referee reports that they overlap, and the bargainers proceed to make offers in a 2nd stage. The average of the 2nd-stage offers becomes the settlement if both offers fall into the overlap interval; if only one offer falls into this interval, it is the settlement, but is implemented with probability 1/2; if neither offer falls into the interval, there is no settlement. Thus, if the bargainers reach the 2nd stage, they know their reservation prices overlap even if they fail to reach a settlement, possibly motivating them to try again.Bargaining; truth-telling mechanisms; probabilistic implementation; incomplete information.

The South Dakota cooperative land use effort: A state level remote sensing demonstration project

Remote sensing technology can satisfy or make significant contributions toward satisfying many of the information needs of governmental natural resource planners and policy makers. Recognizing this potential, the South Dakota State Planning Bureau and the EROS Data Center together formulated the framework for an ongoing Land Use and Natural Resource Inventory and Information System Program. Statewide land use/land cover information is generated from LANDSAT digital data and high altitude photography. Many applications of the system are anticipated as it evolves and data are added from more conventional sources. The conceptualization, design, and implementation of the program are discussed

Nitrogen Oxide Concentrations in Natural Waters on Early Earth

A key challenge in origins-of-life studies is estimating the abundances of species relevant to the chemical pathways proposed to have contributed to the emergence of life on early Earth. Dissolved nitrogen oxide anions (NO$_{X}^{-}$), in particular nitrate (NO$_{3}^{-}$) and nitrite (NO$_{2}^{-}$), have been invoked in diverse origins-of-life chemistry, from the oligomerization of RNA to the emergence of protometabolism. Recent work has calculated the supply of NO$_{X}^{-}$ from the prebiotic atmosphere to the ocean, and reported steady-state [NO$_{X}^{-}$] to be high across all plausible parameter space. These findings rest on the assumption that NO$_{X}^{-}$ is stable in natural waters unless processed at a hydrothermal vent. Here, we show that NO$_{X}^{-}$ is unstable in the reducing environment of early Earth. Sinks due to UV photolysis and reactions with reduced iron (Fe$^{2+}$) suppress [NO$_{X}^{-}$] by several orders of magnitude relative to past predictions. For pH$=6.5-8$ and $T=0-50^\circ$C, we find that it is most probable that NO$_{X}^{-}$]$<1~\mu$M in the prebiotic ocean. On the other hand, prebiotic ponds with favorable drainage characteristics may have sustained [NO$_{X}^{-}$]$\geq 1~\mu$M. As on modern Earth, most NO$_{X}^{-}$ on prebiotic Earth should have been present as NO$_{3}^{-}$, due to its much greater stability. These findings inform the kind of prebiotic chemistries that would have been possible on early Earth. We discuss the implications for proposed prebiotic chemistries, and highlight the need for further studies of NO$_{X}^{-}$ kinetics to reduce the considerable uncertainties in predicting [NO$_{X}^{-}$] on early Earth.Comment: In review for publication at Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems (G-cubed). Comments, questions, and criticism solicited; please contact corresponding author at [email protected]. SI at: https://web-cert.mit.edu/sukrit/Public/nox_si.pdf. GitHub at: https://github.com/sukritranjan/no

Spatial and Temporal Habitat Use of an Asian Elephant in Sumatra

Increasingly, habitat fragmentation caused by agricultural and human development has forced Sumatran elephants into relatively small areas, but there is little information on how elephants use these areas and thus, how habitats can be managed to sustain elephants in the future. Using a Global Positioning System (GPS) collar and a land cover map developed from TM imagery, we identified the habitats used by a wild adult female elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in the Seblat Elephant Conservation Center, Bengkulu Province, Sumatra during 2007–2008. The marked elephant (and presumably her 40–60 herd mates) used a home range that contained more than expected medium canopy and open canopy land cover. Further, within the home range, closed canopy forests were used more during the day than at night. When elephants were in closed canopy forests they were most often near the forest edge vs. in the forest interior. Effective elephant conservation strategies in Sumatra need to focus on forest restoration of cleared areas and providing a forest matrix that includes various canopy types

The Replication Argument for Incompatibilism

In this paper, I articulate an argument for incompatibilism about moral responsibility and determinism. My argument comes in the form of an extended story, modeled loosely on Peter van Inwagen’s “rollback argument” scenario. I thus call it “the replication argument.” As I aim to bring out, though the argument is inspired by so-called “manipulation” and “original design” arguments, the argument is not a version of either such argument—and plausibly has advantages over both. The result, I believe, is a more convincing incompatibilist argument than those we have considered previously

Plant hydraulic traits reveal islands as refugia from worsening drought.

Relatively mesic environments within arid regions may be important conservation targets as 'climate change refugia' for species persistence in the face of worsening drought conditions. Semi-arid southern California and the relatively mesic environments of California's Channel Islands provide a model system for examining drought responses of plants in potential climate change refugia. Most methods for detecting refugia are focused on 'exposure' of organisms to certain abiotic conditions, which fail to assess how local adaptation or acclimation of plant traits (i.e. 'sensitivity') contribute to or offset the benefits of reduced exposure. Here, we use a comparative plant hydraulics approach to characterize the vulnerability of plants to drought, providing a framework for identifying the locations and trait patterns that underlie functioning climate change refugia. Seasonal water relations, xylem hydraulic traits and remotely sensed vegetation indices of matched island and mainland field sites were used to compare the response of native plants from contrasting island and mainland sites to hotter droughts in the early 21st century. Island plants experienced more favorable water relations and resilience to recent drought. However, island plants displayed low plasticity/adaptation of hydraulic traits to local conditions, which indicates that relatively conserved traits of island plants underlie greater hydraulic safety and localized buffering from regional drought conditions. Our results provide an explanation for how California's Channel Islands function as a regional climate refugia during past and current climate change and demonstrate a physiology-based approach for detecting potential climate change refugia in other systems