Impermanent Types and Permanent Reputations

We study the impact of unobservable stochastic replacements for the long-run player in the classical reputation model with a long-run player and a series of short-run players. We provide explicit lower bounds on the Nash equilibrium payoffs of a long-run player, both ex-ante and following any positive probability history. Under general conditions on the convergence rates of the discount factor to one and of the rate of replacement to zero, both bounds converge to the Stackelberg payoff if the type space is sufficiently rich. These limiting conditions hold in particular if the game is played very frequently.Reputation, repeated games, replacements, disappearing reputations JEL Classification Numbers: D80, C73

Determinants for Bullying Victimization among 11–16-Year-Olds in 15 Low- and Middle-Income Countries:\ud A Multi-Level Study

Bullying is an issue of public health importance among adolescents worldwide. The present study aimed at explaining differences in bullying rates among adolescents in 15 low- and middle-income countries using globally comparable indicators of social and economic well-being. Using data derived from the Global School-based Health Survey, we performed bivariate analyses to examine differences in bullying rates by country and by bullying type. We then constructed a multi-level model using four fixed variables (age, gender, hunger and truancy) at the individual level, random effects at the classroom and\ud school levels and four fixed variables at the country level (Gini coefficient, per capita Gross Domestic Project, homicide rate and pupil to teacher ratio). Bullying rates differed significantly by classroom, school and by country, with Egypt (34.2%) and Macedonia (3.6%) having the highest and lowest rates, respectively. Eleven-year-olds were the most likely of the studied age groups to report being bullied, as was being a male. Hunger and truancy were found to significantly predict higher rates of bullying. None of the explanatory variables at the country level remained in the final model. While self-reported bullying varied significantly between countries, the variance between classrooms better explained these differences. Our findings suggest that classroom settings should be considered when designing approaches aimed at bullying prevention.\u

Autonomy, Oppression, and Respect

While it is intuitive to many that oppressive socialization undermines autonomy in virtue of its ability to shape the desires and values of the oppressed, it’s difficult to provide a plausible account of autonomy that can explain when and why socialization is autonomy undermining. I provide such an account, arguing that self-respect is a necessary condition for autonomous choice and that oppressive socialization functions in part by undermining the self-respect of the oppressed. On my account, our choices lack autonomy to the degree that they are motivated by a failure to respect ourselves as beings whose plans and desires matter as much as anyone else’s; whose capacity for rational deliberation and practical reasoning are valuable; and whose particularities and interests contribute to our value. This theory of personal autonomy is able to account for the lack of autonomy in a wide range of cases, for example, a cult member being brainwashed by a cult leader, or a wife being subservient to her husband. I defend this account against objections which claim that it is disrespectful to the oppressed to claim that their autonomy is undermined by their oppression, and in the final chapter, I expand my theory to explain not only what our minds must be like for us to be autonomous, but also what the world outside of us must be like

Doing Death Better: Practical Ways for Healthcare Professionals to Care for the Dying Patient and Their Families

Healthcare professionals care for patients with unique personal, cultural, religious, and medical needs, but these needs are not always met in a way that ensures the patient and their families are being treated as unique individuals. This paper first provides an overview of the physiological aspects of dying and how to educate patients and their families regarding expectations in end-of-life. The impacts of the death of a child and a parent were explored, and areas in need of more resources for these individuals were identified. The beliefs and practices of Hindu, Native American, and Islamic cultures were discussed, and lessons from these cultures that healthcare professionals can apply to patients cross-culturally were stated. This paper then examines different aspects of post-mortem considerations such as family member perceptions and presence during resuscitative measures, as well as the role of nurses during end-of-life care, and the effects this can have on the profession. The results of multiple studies were discussed throughout the paper, including the implications of these results and ways to improve the experience of death and dying for both the patient and their loved ones

Dynamic Strategic Information Transmission

This paper studies strategic information transmission in a dynamic environment where, each period, a privately informed expert sends a message and a decision maker takes an action. Our main result is that, in contrast to a static environment, full information revelation is possible. The gradual revelation of information and the eventual full revelation is supported by the dynamic rewards and punishments. The construction of a fully revealing equilibrium relies on two key features. The first feature is that the expert is incentivized, via appropriate actions, to join separable groups in which she initially pools with far-away types, then later reveals her type. The second feature is the use of trigger strategies. The decision maker is incentivized by the reward of further information revelation if he chooses the separation-inducing actions, and the threat of a stop in information release if he does not. Our equilibrium is non-monotonic. With monotonic partition equilibria, full revelation is impossible.Asymmetric information, Cheap talk, Dynamic strategic communication, Full information revelation

Identification with all of humanity, uncertainty, and beliefs toward animals

The current study aims to expand on the human-animal relations literature through a social identity lens, using 231 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Americans consume large amounts of meat, yet many people feel morally conflicted by enjoying meat, yet killing animals. These feelings can be tied to one’s identity, through identifying as a vegetarian, meat-eater, or animal lover. Humans tend to attach themselves to a social group, act on behalf of that group’s norms and values, and use their groups to reduce feelings of uncertainty by adopting group normative attitudes and behaviors. People who identify strongly with all of humanity tend to hold favorable views of outgroups and express empathy towards outgroups, which may or may not extend to non-human animals (identification with all of humanity; IWAH). However, if people identify strongly with all of humanity, do conditions that exacerbate intergroup perceptions lead them to denigrate and hold less empathy for animals? This study explores whether or not all of humanity can form a salient and coherent identity for people experiencing uncertainty. If so, then the benefits of IWAH (less prejudice and more empathy as IWAH increases) should not extend to non-human animals when people experience uncertainty and look to distinguish the ingroup from a relevant outgroup. Perhaps IWAH captures “global community” rather than a distinct identity and connection with all of humanity? This study predicts that IWAH will produce greater beliefs that animals have human-like qualities (e.g., empathy, personality), particularly when an animal is described in a humanized way; however, this effect will be weakened (or will disappear) in conditions of high uncertainty. Findings did not support the hypotheses; however results and null findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and theory development examining IWAH from a self-categorization perspective

Farm retailing : motivations and practice

This paper investigates rural diversification strategies, specifically focussing upon farm retailing. The study reveals farmers’ different motivations and experiences of structural diversification through both farmers markets and wholly owned farm shops. Using a qualitative study of eight farm businesses we find that diversification is not always motivated by entrepreneurial objectives. Necessity (push) factors (such as agri-food market inequality) act as the catalyst transforming nascent diversification tendencies. Once the need for diversification is unlocked farmers face an entrepreneurial choice: those with push motivations (such risk reduction) choose non-entrepreneurial diversification in the form of farmers markets; while those with pull motivations (such as business growth) exhibit characteristics of entrepreneurship and engage in entrepreneurial diversification in the form of on-farm retailing

eIDeCert: a user-centric solution for mobile identification

The necessity to certify one's identity for different purposes and the evolution of mobile technologies have led to the generation of electronic devices such as smart cards, and electronic identities designed to meet daily needs. Nevertheless, these mechanisms have a problem: they don't allow the user to set the scope of the information presented. That problem introduces interesting security and privacy challenges and requires the development of a new tool that supports user-centrity for the information being handled. This article presents eIDeCert, a tool for the management of electronic identities (eIDs) in a mobile environment with a user-centric approach. Taking advantage of existing eCert technology we will be able to solve a real problem. On the other hand, the application takes us to the boundary of what the technology can cope with: we will assess how close we are to the boundary, and we will present an idea of what the next step should be to enable us to reach the goal

The Farmer gets a wife : hidden labour in farming households

Farming is a critical sector within rural economies (Phelan and Sharpley, 2012) but is uncertain and risky for those reliant upon it (Turner et al, 2003). The majority of UK farms are small family farms (Morell and Brandth, 2007) where a considerable share of household income is derived from farming, labour is provided by the family and the family lives on the farm (Calus and Van Huylenbroeck, 2010) compounding the impact of economic uncertainty. Previous research has focused on the Farmer as the “person responsible for the administration of the business” (Clark, 2009:219) when seeking to understanding work undertaken in these enterprises and the skills necessary for success. This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of farm work by investigating the hidden enabling work undertaken by the wider farming household. Using case-study methodology (Yin, 2009) analysis is based on observations and interviews with members of 8 households within the Scottish farming community. Extending extant work exploring the gendered nature of farming (Riley, 2009) it finds that farmers’ spouses and children play important roles in the diversified businesses that characterise contemporary farming. The unmeasured and unpaid nature of the farming household’s work allows farms to retain financial viability which external paid labour would destroy. It finds farmers’ spouses providing labour of high economic value and displaying skills such as entrepreneurial drive, opportunity identification and business management which are instrumental to successful business outcomes in contemporary family farm businesses

Citation classics in epilepsy

BACKGROUND: The impact of a scientific article is proportional to the citations it has received. In this study, we set out to identify the most cited works in epileptology in order to evaluate research trends in this field. METHODS: According to the Web of Science database, articles with more than 400 citations qualify as "citation classics". We conducted a literature search on the ISI Web of Science bibliometric database for scientific articles relevant to epilepsy. RESULTS: We retrieved 67 highly cited articles (400 or more citations), which were published in 31 journals: 17 clinical studies, 42 laboratory studies, 5 reviews and 3 classification articles. Clinical studies consisted of epidemiological analyses (n=3), studies on the clinical phenomenology of epilepsy (n=5) – including behavioral and prognostic aspects – and articles focusing on pharmacological (n=6) and non-pharmacological (n=3) treatment. The laboratory studies dealt with genetics (n=6), animal models (n=27), and neurobiology (n=9) – including both neurophysiology and neuropathology studies. The majority (61%) of citation classics on epilepsy were published after 1986, possibly reflecting the expansion of research interest in laboratory studies driven by the development of new methodologies, specifically in the fields of genetics and animal models. Consequently, clinical studies were highly cited both before and after the mid 80s, whilst laboratory researches became widely cited after 1990. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that the main drivers of scientific impact in the field of epileptology have increasingly become genetic and neurobiological studies, along with research on animal models of epilepsy. These articles are able to gain the highest numbers of citations in the time span of a few years and suggest potential directions for future research