Reinforcement learning depends upon the integrity of emotional circuitry to establish associations between environmental cues, decisions, and positive or negative outcomes in order to guide behavior through experience. The emotional dysregulation characteristic of major depressive disorder (MDD) may alter activity in frontal and limbic structures that are key to learning. Although reward and decision-making have been examined in MDD, the effects of depression on associative learning is less well studied. We investigated whether depressive symptoms would be related to abnormalities in learning-related brain activity as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Also, we explored whether melancholic and atypical features were associated with altered brain activity. We conducted MRI scans on a 4T Varian MRI system in 10 individuals with MDD and 10 healthy subjects. We examined event-related brain activation during feedback-based learning task using Analysis of Functional NeuroImages (AFNI) for image processing and statistical analysis. We observed that MDD patients exhibited reduced activation in visual cortex but increased activation in cingulate and insular regions compared to healthy participants. Also, in relation to features of depressive subtypes, we observed that levels of activation in striatal, thalamic, and precuneus regions were negatively correlated with atypical characteristics. These results suggest that the effects of MDD change the neural circuitry underlying associative learning, and these effects may depend upon subtype features of MDD.

This study addresses contracting with an employee (labeled a saint) whose distaste for profit-seeking effort can be mitigated by engaging in another effort directed toward the realization of broader societal goals (i.e., sustainability). The saint is also optimistic about the efficacy of this effort. I establish conditions under which the principal maximizes expected profits by hiring a saint instead of a traditional agent. This can occur even if sustainability initiatives, not including the effect on compensation, generate negative cash flows. I extend the model to include a sustainability report used in a second period for recontracting purposes, and find that the principal can prefer an uninformative report because it may allow her to continue to extract the saint's private benefits from sustainability actions.

ABSTRACT This study addresses the effect of clawbacks on earnings management (EM). In a two-period model, the manager can report truthfully or distort an interim report using either accrual or real EM. The principal can make short-term payments based on a manipulable accounting signal and long-term payments based on unmanipulable cash flows. The strength of the clawbacks determines the likelihood that the manager's compensation is reclaimed when the interim report was managed. Stronger clawback provisions may result in (1) a substitution between accrual and real earnings management, or (2) earnings management when no earnings management was optimal with weak clawbacks, and (3) lower expected profits for the principal. Numerical analysis suggests that strong clawbacks do not reduce aggregate earnings management. JEL Classifications: J33; M48; M52; G38. Data Availability: All data are simulated.

BACKGROUND:Integration of electronic health records (EHRs) data across sites and access to that data remain limited.OBJECTIVE:We developed an EHR-based pediatric inpatient repository using nine U.S. centers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Pediatric Trials Network.METHODS:A data model encompassing 147 mandatory and 99 optional elements was developed to provide an EHR data extract of all inpatient encounters from patients <17 years of age discharged between January 6, 2013 and June 30, 2017. Sites received instructions on extractions, transformation, testing, and transmission to the coordinating center.RESULTS:We generated 177 staging reports to process all nine sites' 147 mandatory and 99 optional data elements to the repository. Based on 520 prespecified criteria, all sites achieved 0% errors and <2% warnings. The repository includes 386,159 inpatient encounters from 264,709 children to support study design and conduct of future trials in children.CONCLUSION:Our EHR-based data repository of pediatric inpatient encounters utilized a customized data model heavily influenced by the PCORnet format, site-based data mapping, a comprehensive set of data testing rules, and an iterative process of data submission. The common data model, site-based extraction, and technical expertise were key to our success. Data from this repository will be used in support of Pediatric Trials Network studies and the labeling of drugs and devices for children.

Lipopeptides promote innate immune response and are related to disease pathology. To investigate the newly emerging roles of lipopeptides, accurate measurements of stereoisomers with multiple chiral centers are essential yet challenging. This work uses (3R)- and (3S)-(15-methyl-3-((13-methyltetradecanoyl)oxy)hexadecanoyl)glycyl-l-serine, abbreviated as l-serine-(R+S)-Lipid 654, to develop a method that combines chiral liquid chromatography, a diastereomeric mixture of isotopically labeled internal standards, and multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry. The new method allows for simultaneously determining the absolute configuration and quantity of stereoisomers of bacteria-derived lipopeptides. Total lipid extracts of nine evaluated bacteria strains had different amounts, but only the (R)-isoform of l-serine-Lipid 654. The developed method also allowed for the first quantitative analysis of hydrolysis of a nonphospholipid as a novel substrate of honey bee venom phospholipase A2.

I show that bailouts can reduce excessive risk-taking. After receiving debt financing, a limited-liability firm chooses between two projects. The safe project results in higher expected cash flows. The excessively risky project results in lower expected debt repayments because default occurs more often. In equilibrium, the creditor anticipates the risk choice of the firm and sets the debt repayment to obtain its required rate of return. The implicit bailout subsidy allows the creditor to lower the debt service payment. As a result, the incremental default benefit of the risky project is lower, leading to less risk-taking. The results inform the ongoing debate about the determinants of risk-taking by firms.

This study shows that in the presence of privately informed firms the optimal level of conservatism may result in failing to finance good projects or abandoning successful ones inefficiently often compared to a no private information benchmark. The result holds for a pre-investment signal and a post-investment signal with and without renegotiation. Without private information, good firms implicitly subsidize bad ones. Privately informed good firms will not provide this subsidy. The good firms' financing terms must improve to induce them to seek financing. Conservatism improves the financing terms by protecting creditors from downside risk either by removing more bad projects from the financing pool or allowing creditors to capture their liquidation value more frequently. In all three private information settings, conservatism is useful for projects with relatively high ex ante expected returns. This is in contrast to several recent studies in which conservatism is useful only for projects with relatively low ex ante expected returns.

To increase investor awareness of the sensitivity of financial statements to the methods, assumptions, and estimates underlying their preparation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that firms include disclosures about critical accounting policies (CAPs) in their 10-Ks. Using a large sample of CAP disclosures from SEC filers, we provide evidence on the extent to which CAP disclosures correlate with existing financial statement information, provide new information, and corroborate theories of voluntary disclosure. We also consider the interaction among disclosures, finding limited support for disclosure decisions following a portfolio rather than an account by account approach.

Previous works have shown that placement of a high‐dielectric pad can improve image intensity in a region adjacent to the pad, or that placement of dielectric pads around a large surface of the head can improve image homogeneity on an entire plane through the head in high‐field MRI. Here, experimental results show that use of high‐dielectric pads around the human head can reduce the required input radiofrequency power by 50% while enhancing image signal‐to‐noise ratio by 20–40% throughout the cerebrum at 3 T. Thus, dielectric pads may be used to provide a relatively simple and low‐cost method for improving quality and safety of MRI in a variety of applications at 3 T. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

The polymer PEDOT(+) (1 or 2) mediates a cyclodehydration reaction with alditols 3, 5, 7, 9, in hydrocarbon solvents, to give cyclic ethers 4, 6, 8, or 10, respectively, in high yield with a trivial isolation protocol. Polymers 1 or 2 also mediate the cyclodehydration of ketohexoses such as d-fructose, but not aldohexoses, to the important industrial intermediate 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (17), under milder conditions when compared to reactions mediated by mineral acids. A cascade reaction with ketohexoses is observed in toluene via cyclodehydration followed by Friedel-Crafts alkylation of the initially formed benzylic alcohol to give 16.

This paper addresses the contracting implications of New Economy firms: informal, flexible organizations predominantly staffed by younger workers. The model incorporates two findings from the behavioral economics literature. First, workers may overestimate their own productivity (optimism). Second, workers may be monitoring-averse, with intense monitoring undermining intrinsic motivation. The combination of behavioral traits and work setting has deleterious consequences for workers. Despite higher monetary compensation and sometimes weaker incentives, they work harder in equilibrium, experience a higher disutility of effort than conventional workers, and also have a utility realization that is lower on average than their reservation utility. Optimism and monitoring-aversion are mutually reinforcing. When private information is introduced, both high-and low-productivity unconventional workers benefit, in contrast to standard agency models with asymmetric information. Both types of agents still experience a utility shortfall, however.

Films of sorbitol-treated PEDOT–PSS or sorbitol-treated PEDOT (oxidized form) undergo a cyclodehydration reaction in the presence of the polymer to form 1,6-anhydrosorbitol. We offer evidence that both sorbitol and 1,6-anhydrosorbitol remain in the film and contribute to the enhanced conductivity. This reaction offers a new explanation for the observed “loss” of sorbitol upon annealing, and should be considered in any explanation of the role of sorbitol as an additive for PEDOT–PSS.