Bone mineral: update on chemical composition and structure

Bone mineral: update on chemical composition and structur

Symptom monitoring and usage in chronic mental illness

Thesis (M.N.)--University of Kansas, Nursing, 1984

Regulation of innate immunity by signaling pathways emerging from the endoplasmic reticulum.

The innate immune system has evolved the capacity to detect specific pathogens and to interrogate cell and tissue integrity in order to mount an appropriate immune response. Loss of homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) triggers the ER-stress response, a hallmark of many inflammatory and infectious diseases. The IRE1/XBP1 branch of the ER-stress signaling pathway has been recently shown to regulate and be regulated by innate immune signaling pathways in both the presence and absence of ER-stress. By contrast, innate immune pathways negatively affect the activation of two other branches of the ER-stress response as evidenced by reduced expression of the pro-apoptotic transcription factor CHOP. Here we will discuss how innate immune pathways and ER-signaling intersect to regulate the intensity and duration of innate immune responses

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions Choosing a Biological Science of Choice

AbstractBehavioral ecologists argue that evolution drives animal behavior to efficiently solve the problems animals face in their environmental niches. The ultimate evolutionary causes of decision making, they contend, can be found in economic analyses of organisms and their environments. Neurobiologists interested in how animals make decisons have, in contrast, focused their efforts on understanding the neurobiological hardware that serves as a more proximal cause of that same behavior. Describing the flow of information within the nervous system without regard to these larger goals has been their focus. Recent work in a number of laboratories has begun to suggest that these two approaches are beginning to fuse. It may soon be possible to view the nervous system as a representational process that solves the mathematically defined economic problems animals face by making efficient decisions. These developments in the neurobiological theory of choice, and the new schema they imply, form the subject of this article

An expected utility maximizer walks into a bar

We conducted field experiments at a bar to test whether blood alcohol concentration (BAC) correlates with violations of the generalized axiom of revealed preference (GARP) and the independence axiom. We found that individuals with BACs well above the legal limit for driving adhere to GARP and independence at rates similar to those who are sober. This finding led to the fielding of a third experiment to explore how risk preferences might vary as a function of BAC. We found gender-specific effects: Men did not exhibit variations in risk preferences across BACs. In contrast, women were more risk averse than men at low BACs but exhibited increasing tolerance towards risks as BAC increased. Based on our estimates, men and women's risk preferences are predicted to be identical at BACs nearly twice the legal limit for driving. We discuss the implications for policy-maker

The Neural Correlated of Subjective Value During Intertemporal Choice

Neuroimaging studies of decision-making have generally related neural activity to objective measures (such as reward magnitude, probability or delay), despite choice preferences being subjective. However, economic theories posit that decision-makers behave as though different options have different subjective values. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neural activity in several brain regions—particularly the ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex—tracks the revealed subjective value of delayed monetary rewards. This similarity provides unambiguous evidence that the subjective value of potential rewards is explicitly represented in the human brain

Flexible valuations for consumer goods as measured by the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism

Economists have long been interested in mechanisms that lead to truthful revelation of the relative values individuals place on diff erent goods. In this paper we take one of the most popular of such mechanisms, and show that valuations obtained using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) procedure depend on the distribution of prices presented to subjects when the mechanism is implemented. We show that this eff ect of price distribution occurs quite frequently, significantly impacts reported valuations, and that it is unlikely to be caused by misconceptions about BDM. This eff ect is the largest when pricing distributions show a large peak just above or just below an individual's average valuation of the good being considered. We also show that a simple non-incentive compatible subject rating of the desirability of goods can be used to predict the likelihood that pricing distributions will influence BDM valuations. Valuations for goods subjects report that they most want to purchase are most likely to be influenced by distributional structure. Our results challenge some of the dominant theoretical models of how BDM-like valuation procedures relate to standard notions of utility

The Neurobiology of Decision: Consensus and Controversy

We review and synthesize recent neurophysiological studies of decision making in humans and nonhuman primates. From these studies, the basic outline of the neurobiological mechanism for primate choice is beginning to emerge. The identified mechanism is now known to include a multicomponent valuation stage, implemented in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and associated parts of striatum, and a choice stage, implemented in lateral prefrontal and parietal areas. Neurobiological studies of decision making are beginning to enhance our understanding of economic and social behavior as well as our understanding of significant health disorders where people\u27s behavior plays a key role

Quantum Replicator Dynamics

We propose quantization relationships which would let us describe and solution problems originated by conflicting or cooperative behaviors among the members of a system from the point of view of quantum mechanical interactions. The quantum analogue of the replicator dynamics is the equation of evolution of mixed states from quantum statistical mechanics. A system and all its members will cooperate and rearrange its states to improve their present condition. They strive to reach the best possible state for each of them which is also the best possible state for the whole system. This led us to propose a quantum equilibrium in which a system is stable only if it maximizes the welfare of the collective above the welfare of the individual. If it is maximized the welfare of the individual above the welfare of the collective the system gets unstable and eventually it collapses.Comment: 10 page