Faculty Scholarship
Showing 641 - 650 of 733 Items
Solving which trilemma? The many interpretations of equality, Pareto, and freedom of occupational choice
Date: 2017-08-01
Creator: Kristi A. Olson
Access: Open access
- According to the trilemma claim, we cannot have all three of equality, Pareto, and freedom of occupational choice. In response to the trilemma, John Rawls famously sacrificed equality by introducing incentives. In contrast, GA Cohen and others argued that we can, in fact, have all three provided that individuals are properly motivated by an egalitarian ethos. The incentives debate, then, concerns the plausibility of the ethos solution versus the plausibility of the incentives solution. Considerable ink has been spilled on both sides of the debate. Yet, in this essay, I argue that we cannot have this debate until we clarify the terms. Once we clarify the terms, however, we might discover that there is no debate to be had. This is because, depending on how equality, Pareto, and freedom of occupational choice are interpreted, there might not be a trilemma in the first place. Specifically, I use a small but crucial distinction in how equality, the egalitarian ethos, and Pareto are assessed – what I call the internal/external distinction – to disentangle the various paths each solution – the ethos or incentives – could take. I conclude that both solutions have gained illicit plausibility by virtue of not keeping the distinction straight.
Mechanical Autonomous Stochastic Heat Engine
Date: 2016-06-28
Creator: Marc Serra-Garcia, André Foehr, Miguel Molerón, Joseph Lydon, Christopher, Chong, Chiara Daraio
Access: Open access
- Stochastic heat engines are devices that generate work from random thermal motion using a small number of highly fluctuating degrees of freedom. Proposals for such devices have existed for more than a century and include the Maxwell demon and the Feynman ratchet. Only recently have they been demonstrated experimentally, using, e.g., thermal cycles implemented in optical traps. However, recent experimental demonstrations of classical stochastic heat engines are nonautonomous, since they require an external control system that prescribes a heating and cooling cycle and consume more energy than they produce. We present a heat engine consisting of three coupled mechanical resonators (two ribbons and a cantilever) subject to a stochastic drive. The engine uses geometric nonlinearities in the resonating ribbons to autonomously convert a random excitation into a low-entropy, nonpassive oscillation of the cantilever. The engine presents the anomalous heat transport property of negative thermal conductivity, consisting in the ability to passively transfer energy from a cold reservoir to a hot reservoir.
All-loop-orders relation between Regge limits of N = 4 SYM and N = 8 supergravity four-point amplitudes
Date: 2021-02-01
Creator: Stephen G. Naculich
Access: Open access
- We examine in detail the structure of the Regge limit of the (nonplanar) N = 4 SYM four-point amplitude. We begin by developing a basis of color factors Cik suitable for the Regge limit of the amplitude at any loop order, and then calculate explicitly the coefficients of the amplitude in that basis through three-loop order using the Regge limit of the full amplitude previously calculated by Henn and Mistlberger. We compute these coefficients exactly at one loop, through O(ϵ 2) at two loops, and through O(ϵ) at three loops, verifying that the IR-divergent pieces are consistent with (the Regge limit of) the expected infrared divergence structure, including a contribution from the three-loop correction to the dipole formula. We also verify consistency with the IR-finite NLL and NNLL predictions of Caron-Huot et al. Finally we use these results to motivate the conjecture of an all-orders relation between one of the coefficients and the Regge limit of the N = 8 supergravity four-point amplitude.
Efficiency of incentives to jointly increase carbon sequestration and species conservation on a landscape
Date: 2008-07-15
Creator: Erik Nelson, Stephen Polasky, David J. Lewis, Andrew J. Plantinga, Eric, Lonsdorf, Denis White, David Bael, Joshua J. Lawler
Access: Open access
- We develop an integrated model to predict private land-use decisions in response to policy incentives designed to increase the provision of carbon sequestration and species conservation across heterogeneous landscapes. Using data from the Willamette Basin, Oregon, we compare the provision of carbon sequestration and species conservation under five simple policies that offer payments for conservation. We evaluate policy performance compared with the maximum feasible combinations of carbon sequestration and species conservation on the landscape for various conservation budgets. None of the conservation payment policies produce increases in carbon sequestration and species conservation that approach the maximum potential gains on the landscape. Our results show that policies aimed at increasing the provision of carbon sequestration do not necessarily increase species conservation and that highly targeted policies do not necessarily do as well as more general policies. © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
Parity moderates the effect of delivery mode on maternal ratings of infant temperament
Date: 2021-08-01
Creator: Lea Takács, Samuel P. Putnam, František Bartoš, Pavel Cepický, Catherine, Monk
Access: Open access
- Objective Cesarean section (CS) rates are rising rapidly around the world but no conclusive evidence has been obtained about the possible short- and long-term effects of CS on child behavior. We evaluated prospectively the association between CS and infant temperament across the first 9 postpartum months, controlling for indications for CS and investigating parity and infant sex as moderators. Methods The sample consisted of mothers and their healthy infants. Infant temperament was measured using the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire completed by the mothers at 6 weeks (n = 452) and 9 months (n = 258) postpartum. Mode of birth was classified into spontaneous vaginal birth (n = 347 for 6 weeks sample; 197 for 9 months sample), CS planned for medical reasons (n = 55; 28) and emergency CS (n = 50; 33). Results Multiple regression analysis revealed no main effects of birth mode, but showed a significant interaction between birth mode and parity indicating that emergency CS in firstborn infants was associated with more difficult temperament at 6 weeks. There were no significant associations between indications for CS and infant temperament, although breech presentation predicted difficult temperament at 9 months. Conclusion We largely failed to support the association between CS and infant temperament. Although our results suggest that emergency CS may be associated with temperament in firstborns, further research is needed to replicate this finding, preferably using observational measures to assess child temperament.
Waterborne cues from crabs induce thicker skeletons, smaller gonads and size-specific changes in growth rate in sea urchins
Date: 2009-04-01
Creator: Rebecca Selden, Amy S. Johnson, Olaf Ellers
Access: Open access
- Indirect predator-induced effects on growth, morphology and reproduction have been extensively studied in marine invertebrates but usually without consideration of size-specific effects and not at all in post-metamorphic echinoids. Urchins are an unusually good system, in which, to study size effects because individuals of various ages within one species span four orders of magnitude in weight while retaining a nearly isometric morphology. We tracked growth of urchins, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis (0.013-161.385 g), in the presence or absence of waterborne cues from predatory Jonah crabs, Cancer borealis. We ran experiments at ambient temperatures, once for 4 weeks during summer and again, with a second set of urchins, for 22 weeks over winter. We used a scaled, cube-root transformation of weight for measuring size more precisely and for equalizing variance across sizes. Growth rate of the smallest urchins (summer: diameter; winter: diameter) decreased by 40-42% in response to crab cues. In contrast, growth rate of larger urchins was unaffected in the summer and increased in response to crab scent by 7% in the winter. At the end of the 22-week experiment, additional gonadal and skeletal variables were measured. Cue-exposed urchins developed heavier, thicker skeletons and smaller gonads, but no differences in spine length or jaw size. The differences depended on urchin size, suggesting that there are size-specific shifts in gonadal and somatic investment in urchins.
Module structure of cells in unequal-parameter Hecke algebras
Date: 2010-09-06
Creator: Thomas Pietraho
Access: Open access
- A conjecture of Bonnafé, Geck, Iancu, and Lam parametrizes Kazhdan-Lusztig left cells for unequal-parameter Hecke algebras in type Bn by families of standard domino tableaux of arbitrary rank. Relying on a family of properties outlined by Lusztig and the recent work of Bonnafé, we verify the conjecture and describe the structure of each cell as a module for the underlying Weyl group. © 2010 by The Editorial Board of the Nagoya Mathematical Journal.
Automorphisms of higher rank lamplighter groups
Date: 2015-12-01
Creator: Melanie Stein, Jennifer Taback, Peter Wong
Access: Open access
- Let τd(q) denote the group whose Cayley graph with respect to a particular generating set is the Diestel-Leader graph DLd(q), as described by Bartholdi, Neuhauser and Woess. We compute both Aut(τd(q)) and Out(τd(q)) for d ≥ 2, and apply our results to count twisted conjugacy classes in these groups when d ≥ 3. Specifically, we show that when d ≥ 3, the groups τd(q) have property R∞, that is, every automorphism has an infinite number of twisted conjugacy classes. In contrast, when d = 2 the lamplighter groups τ2(q) = Lq = Zq Z have property R∞ if and only if (q, 6)≠1.
Microevolution of Candida albicans in Macrophages Restores Filamentation in a Nonfilamentous Mutant
Date: 2014-12-01
Creator: Anja Wartenberg, Jörg Linde, Ronny Martin, Maria Schreiner, Fabian, Horn, Ilse D. Jacobsen, Sabrina Jenull, Thomas Wolf, Karl Kuchler, Reinhard Guthke, Oliver Kurzai, Anja Forche, Christophe d'Enfert, Sascha Brunke, Bernhard Hube
Access: Open access
- Following antifungal treatment, Candida albicans, and other human pathogenic fungi can undergo microevolution, which leads to the emergence of drug resistance. However, the capacity for microevolutionary adaptation of fungi goes beyond the development of resistance against antifungals. Here we used an experimental microevolution approach to show that one of the central pathogenicity mechanisms of C. albicans, the yeast-to-hyphae transition, can be subject to experimental evolution. The C. albicans cph1Δ/efg1Δ mutant is nonfilamentous, as central signaling pathways linking environmental cues to hyphal formation are disrupted. We subjected this mutant to constant selection pressure in the hostile environment of the macrophage phagosome. In a comparatively short time-frame, the mutant evolved the ability to escape macrophages by filamentation. In addition, the evolved mutant exhibited hyper-virulence in a murine infection model and an altered cell wall composition compared to the cph1Δ/efg1Δ strain. Moreover, the transcriptional regulation of hyphae-associated, and other pathogenicity-related genes became re-responsive to environmental cues in the evolved strain. We went on to identify the causative missense mutation via whole genome- and transcriptome-sequencing: a single nucleotide exchange took place within SSN3 that encodes a component of the Cdk8 module of the Mediator complex, which links transcription factors with the general transcription machinery. This mutation was responsible for the reconnection of the hyphal growth program with environmental signals in the evolved strain and was sufficient to bypass Efg1/Cph1-dependent filamentation. These data demonstrate that even central transcriptional networks can be remodeled very quickly under appropriate selection pressure.
SU(N) group-theory constraints on color-ordered five-point amplitudes at all loop orders
Date: 2012-05-21
Creator: Alexander C. Edison, Stephen G. Naculich
Access: Open access
- Color-ordered amplitudes for the scattering of n particles in the adjoint representation of SU(N) gauge theory satisfy constraints arising solely from group theory. We derive these constraints for n=.5 at all loop orders using an iterative approach. These constraints generalize well-known tree-level and one-loop group theory relations. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.