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The mu opioid receptor gene undergoes extensive alternative splicing. Mu opioids can be divided into three classes based on the role of different groups of splice variants. Morphine and methadone require only full length 7 transmembrane (7TM) variants for analgesia, whereas IBNtxA (3’-iodobenzyol-6β-naltrexamide) needs only truncated 6TM variants. A set of endomorphin analogs fall into a third group that requires both 6TM and 7TM splice variants. Unlike morphine, endomorphin 1 and 2, DAPP (Dmt,D-Ala-Phe-Phe-NH2) and IDAPP (3’-iodo-Dmt-D-Ala-Phe-Phe-NH2) analgesia was lost in an exon 11 knockout mouse lacking 6TM variants. Restoring 6TM variant expression in a knockout mouse lacking both 6TM and 7TM variants failed to rescue DAPP or IDAPP analgesia. However, re-establishing 6TM expression in an exon 11 knockout mouse that still expressed 7TM variants did rescue the response, consistent with the need for both 6TM and 7TM variants. In receptor binding assays, 125I-IDAPP labeled more sites (Bmax) than 3H-DAMGO in wildtype mice. In exon 11 knockout mice 125I-IDAPP binding was lowered to levels similar to 3H-DAMGO, which remained relatively unchanged compared to wildtype mice. 125I-IDAPP binding was totally lost in an exon 1/exon 11 knockout model lacking all Oprm1 variant expression, confirming the drug was not cross labeling non-mu opioid receptors. These findings suggested that 125I-IDAPP labeled two populations of mu binding sites in wildtype mice, one corresponding to 7TM variants and the second dependent upon 6TM variants. Together, these data indicate that endomorphin analogs represent a unique, genetically defined and distinct class of mu opioid analgesic.

This paper analyzes the extent to which police behavior in giving speeding tickets differs from the ticketing pattern of automated cameras, which provide an estimate of the population of speeders. The novel data are obtained from Lafayette, Louisiana court records, and provide specific details about the ticketed driver as well as a wide range of violation characteristics. In contrast to the automated cameras, the probability of a ticketed driver being female is consistently and significantly higher when the ticket was given by a police officer. For African-American drivers this effect is less robust, though in general still positive and significant. This implies that police use gender and race as a determining factor in issuing a speeding ticket. Potential behavioral reasons for this outcome are discussed. The validity of using automated cameras as a population measure for police-issued tickets is thoroughly investigated and supportive evidence is provided.

This paper identifies a cost-minimizing tactic for U.S. wineries when buying French oak barrels. An otherwise trivial decision is potentially confounded by wineries’ order timing choice and exchange rate risk. Using an intuitive model, which applies exchange rate futures prices and sixteen years of price data for a specific custom-made French oak barrel, we provide a general decision rule. The simple strategy of taking the early order discount dominates all alternative strategies and would have saved wineries nearly $78,000 compared to the more traditional ordering timeframe. Interestingly, using futures market prices does not improve the cost savings. “In wine, there’s truth.” Pliny the Elder, Natural History Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." Matthew,9:17.

We study how group membership affects behavior both when group members can and cannot interact with each other. Our goal is to isolate the contrasting forces that spring from group membership: a free-riding incentive leading to reduced effort and a sense of social responsibility that increases effort. In an environment with varying task difficulty and individual decision making as the benchmark, we show that the free-riding effect is stronger. Group members significantly reduce their effort in situations where they share the outcome but are unable to communicate. When group members share outcomes and can interact, they outperform groups without communication and individuals. We show that these groups do as well as the best constituent member would have done on his or her own.

This paper explores issues in the integration of cognitive–analytic therapy and mindfulness-based therapy. Differences in the conceptualization of the observer part of the self in both approaches – as centralized and independent as opposed to decentralized and fluid – are associated with different therapeutic emphases – on task and structure versus process. The tensions between these clinical and theoretical stances are explored, both in an individual and organizational (NHS) context.

A novel extraction process, aqueous micellar solvent extraction (AMSE), was demonstrated. In ASME an solute is extracted from a wastewater across a microporous membrane into an aqueous surfactant solution containing micelles that solubilize the solute. The membrane retains the surfactant micelles in the aqueous micellar solvent. ASME was carried out in hollow fiber ultrafiltration modules with benzoic acid as the solute and a fatty amine ethoxylate surfactant. Flowing the micellar solvent through the fibers and the wastewater outside gave good extraction and low contamination of the treated water by surfactant. The major resistance to extraction of solute was diffusion across the wall of the hollow fiber. Un nouveau precede d'extraction, l'extraction par solvant micellaire aqueux (ASME), est presente. Dans I'ASME, un solute organique est extrait d'eaux usees a travers une membrane microporeuse vers une solution de tensioactif aqueux contenant des micelles qui solubilisent le solute. La membrane retient les micelles du tensioactif dans le solvant micellaire aqueux. L'ASME a ete menee dans des modules d'ultrafiltration a fibre creuse avec de l'acide benzoique comme solute et un tensioactif d'ethoxylate amine gras. II est possible d'obtenir une extraction de bonne qualite et une contamination reduite de l'eau traitee par le tensioactif dans le cas d'un ecoulement du solvant micellaire a travers les fibres et les eaux usees vers I'exterieur. La principale resistance a l'extraction du solute est la diffusion a travers la paroi de la fibre creuse.

We study how group membership affects behavior both when group members can and cannot interact with each other. Our goal is to isolate the contrasting forces that spring from group membership: a free-riding incentive leading to reduced effort and a sense of social responsibility that increases effort. In an environment with varying task difficulty and individual decision making as the benchmark, we show that the free-riding effect is stronger. Group members significantly reduce their effort in situations where they share the outcome but are unable to communicate. When group members share outcomes and can interact, they outperform groups without communication and individuals. We show that these groups do as well as the best constituent member would have done on her own.

This research provides new insights into police discrimination by following individuals’ decisions in the court process from the time a speeding ticket is issued to trial. Quintanar (2011) finds that African-Americans and women are more likely to receive a speeding ticket from a police officer as opposed to an automated source, but is unable to determine whether this is evidence of statistical or preference-based discrimination. This paper expands upon those results by using a unique dataset which contains detailed information about the court procedural choices of individuals ticketed by police. African-Americans are more likely to fight their speeding ticket, while there is no significant behavioral difference by gender. This contradicts a motive of statistical discrimination by police; targeting individuals who are likely to pay immediately rather than use court resources to fight the ticket. Potential discrimination in prosecutor and judge behavior is also investigated.

The base at the first anticodon ("wobble") position of certain eukaryotic tRNA species is either guanine or the hypermodified base queuine. These tRNA species are synthesized with guanine in the wobble position (tRNAG); this guanine can then be replaced with queuine by the action of the enzyme tRNA-guanine ribosyltransferase. In the present report, we show that tRNAG levels increased in response to the induction of erythroid differentiation of murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells. We also found that tRNA-guanine ribosyltransferase was significantly inhibited by tetrahydrobiopterin. MEL cells showed a transient threefold increase in tetrahydrobiopterin levels 6 to 12 h after exposure of the cells to inducers such as DMSO or tetramethylurea. The increase in tetrahydrobiopterin preceded the increase in tRNAG which in turn preceded the appearance of phenotypic changes characteristic of differentiation. By contrast, a mutant MEL cell line unable to differentiate in response to inducers showed no change in the level of tetrahydrobiopterin or of tRNAG upon exposure to DMSO. N-acetylserotonin, a well-characterized inhibitor of tetrahydrobiopterin synthesis, prevented the DMSO-mediated increase in tetrahydrobiopterin in normal MEL cells. N-acetylserotonin also inhibited the increase in tRNAG levels and the appearance of phenotypic differentiation in these cells.