Bad News: An Experimental Study on the Informational Effects of Rewards

Both psychologists and economists have argued that rewards often have hidden costs. One possible reason is that the principal may have incentives to offer higher rewards when she knows the task to be dificult. Our experiment tests if high rewards embody such bad news and if this is perceived by their recipients. Our design allows us to decompose the overall effect of rewards on effort into a direct incentive and an informational effect. The results show that most participants correctly interpret high rewards as bad news. In accordance with theory, the negative informational effect co-exists with the direct positive effect.reward, bonus, informational content, motivation, crowdingout, laboratory experiment

Software for Remote Parallel Simulation

This paper describes distributed/parallel simulation system Triad.Net and software, which allows geographical distributed users to participate collaboratively and remotely in simulation experiments and to observe simulation model behavior via Internet

LOW-DOSE γ-IRRADIATION AFFECTS THE SURVIVAL OF EXPOSED DAPHNIA AND THEIR OFFSPRING

Purpose: To analyze the long-term effects of exposure to low-dose γ-irradiation on sur- vival and life span in directly irradiated Daphnia magna and their offspring. Materials and methods: One-day-old Daphnia magna were exposed to 10, 100 and 1000 mGy of acute γ-rays. The life-span of irradiated and control animals, as well as their non-exposed progeny was analyzed. Results: Irradiation at dose of 100 and 1000 mGy resulted in a significant decrease in the life span of irradiated Daphnia. The data presented here also show that the survival of non-exposed first-generation offspring of irradiated parents is significantly compromised, thus implying the presence of transgenerational effects. Conclusion: The results of our study show that low-dose irradiation significantly reduces the life-span of directly exposed Daphnia and their first-generation offspring. The observed compro- mised viability is most likely attributed to non-targeted effects of ionizing radiation

Functional human endogenous retroviral LTR transcription start sites are located between the R and U5 regions

AbstractHuman endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) occupy about 5% of human DNA and are thought to be remnants of ancient retroviral infections of human ancestors' germ cells. HERVs can modify expression of host cell genes through their cis-regulatory elements concentrated in their long terminal repeats (LTRs). Although numerous HERV-related RNAs were identified in the human transcriptome, for most of them, it remains unclear whether they are LTR-promoted or read-through products initiated from neighboring genomic promoters. Here, we describe mapping of transcriptional start sites within solitary and proviral LTRs of the HERV-K (HML-2) human-specific subfamily of endogenous retroviruses. Surprisingly, the transcription was initiated predominantly from the very 3′ termini of the LTR R regions. The data presented here may shed light on adaptive coevolution of human endogenous retroviruses with their host cells

Purchases for corporate needs in Russia’s regions in 2019

Objective. To consider the indicators that characterize purchases for the needs of large corporations with state participation in the regions of Russia. Methodology. The study uses relevant information for 82 regions of Russia. The methodology of the research base on evaluation functions density of normal distribution volumes of contracts on regions. Results. The results of research are calculation of four indicators’ values that demonstrate the regional aspects of procurement for corporate needs, including the contracts signed by small businesses or with their participation. Conclusions. It was proved that averageshare of the contracts with small enterprises is about 20 %; the value of every indicator is significantly varied in different regions of Russia. The article confirms the lack of connection between the values of each indicator and such factors as the level of economic development of regions and their geographical location

On the number of epi-, mono-, and homomorphisms of groups

It is known that the number of homomorphisms from a group $F$ to a group $G$ is divisible by the greatest common divisor of the order of $G$ and the exponent of $F/[F,F]$. We investigate the number of homomorphisms satisfying some natural conditions such as injectivity or surjectivity. The simplest nontrivial corollary of our results is the following fact: {\it in any finite group, the number of generating pairs $(x,y)$ such that $x^3=1=y^5$, is a multiple of the greatest common divisor of 15 and the order of the group $[G,G]\cdot\{g^{15}\;|\;g\in G\}$.Comment: 5 pages. A Russian version of this paper is at http://halgebra.math.msu.su/staff/klyachko/papers.htm . V2: minor corrections. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1806.0887

Chimeric retrogenes suggest a role for the nucleolus in LINE amplification

AbstractChimeric retrogenes, found in mammalian and fungal genomes, are bipartite elements composed of DNA copies of cellular transcripts either directly fused to each other or fused to the 3′ part of a LINE retrotransposon. These cellular transcripts correspond to messenger RNAs, ribosomal RNAs, small nuclear RNAs and 7SL RNA. The chimeras are likely formed by RNA template switches during reverse transcription of LINE elements by their retrotranspositional machinery. The 5′ part of chimeras are copies of nucleolar RNAs, suggesting that the nucleolus plays a significant role in LINE retrotransposition. RNAs from the nucleolus might have protective function against retroelement invasion or, alternatively, the nucleolus may be required for retrotranspositional complex assembly and maturation. These hypotheses will be discussed in this review