This paper investigates the ways in which terrorism is linked to education and poverty using data newly culled from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) documentary sources. The paper presents a statistical analysis of the determinants of participation in terrorist activities by members of the Hamas and PIJ between the late 1980s and May 2002. The resulting evidence suggests that both higher education and standard of living are positively associated with participation in Hamas or PIJ and with becoming a suicide bomber, while being married significantly reduces the probability of participation in terrorist activities.
An evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) is an equilibrium strategy that is immune to invasions by rare alternative ("mutant") strategies. Unlike Nash equilibria, ESS do not always exist in finite games. In this paper, we address the question of what happens when the size of the game increases: does an ESS exist for "almost every large" game? Letting the entries in the n x n game matrix be randomly chosen according to an underlying distribution F, we study the number of ESS with support of size 2. In particular, we show that, as n goes to infinity, the probability of having such an ESS: (i) converges to 1 for distributions F with "exponential and faster decreasing tails" (e.g., uniform, normal, exponential); and (ii) it converges to 1 - 1/sqrt(e) for distributions F with "slower than exponential decreasing tails" (e.g., lognormal, Pareto, Cauchy). Our results also imply that the expected number of vertices of the convex hull of n random points in the plane converges to infinity for the distributions in (i), and to 4 for the distributions in (ii).
Regularities in the environment are used to decide what course of action to take and how to prepare for future events. Here we focus on the utilization of regularities for prediction and argue that the commonly considered measure of regularity - the strength of the contingency between antecedent and outcome events - does not fully capture the goodness of a regularity for predictions. We propose, instead, a new measure - the level of expected prediction accuracy (ExpPA) - which takes into account the fact that, at times, maximal prediction accuracy can be achieved by always predicting the same, most prevalent outcome, and in others, by predicting one outcome for one antecedent and another for the other. Two experiments, testing the ExpPA measure in explaining participants' behavior, found that participants are sensitive to the twin facets of ExpPA and that prediction behavior is best explained by this new measure.
Objectives. We investigated the consequences of exposure to acts of terrorism among Israeli adolescents. We examined whether exposure to terrorism predicted adolescents? use of cigarettes, alcohol (including binge drinking), and cannabis after we controlled for posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms and background variables.Methods. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were given to a random sample of 960 10th and 11th grade students (51.6% boys, 48.4% girls) in a large city in northern Israel.Results. Close physical exposure to acts of terrorism predicted higher levels of alcohol consumption (including binge drinking among drinkers) and cannabis use. These relationships remained even after we controlled for posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms.Conclusions. In addition to posttraumatic stress symptoms, negative consequences of terrorism exposure among adolescents included substance abuse. The similarity between our findings among Israeli adolescents and previous findings among US adults suggests cross-cultural generalizability. Given the risks for later problems from early-onset substance abuse, the consequences of terrorism exposure among adolescents merit greater research and clinical attention.
The LTR retrotransposon of Schizosacharomyces pombe, Tf1, has several distinctive properties that can be related to the unique properties of its reverse transcriptase (RT). Consequently, we expressed, purified and studied the recombinant Tf1 RT. This monomeric protein possesses all activities typical to RTs: DNA and RNA-dependent DNA polymerase as well as an inherent ribonuclease H. The DNA polymerase activity shows preference to Mn(+)(2) or Mg(+)(2), depending on the substrate used, whereas the ribonuclease H strongly prefers Mn(+)(2). The most outstanding feature of Tf1 RT is its capacity to add non-templated nucleotides to the 3'-ends of the nascent DNA. This is mainly apparent in the presence of Mn(+)(2), as is the noticeable low fidelity of DNA synthesis. In all, Tf1 RT has a marked infidelity in synthesizing DNA at template ends, a phenomenon that can explain, as discussed herein, some of the features of Tf1 replication in the host cells.
A laser cooling scheme for trapped ions is presented which is based on the fast dynamical Stark shift gate, described in (Jonathan et al 2000 Phys. Rev. A 62 042307). Since this cooling method does not contain an off resonant carrier transition, low final temperatures are achieved even in a traveling wave light field. The proposed method may operate in either pulsed or continuous mode and is also suitable for ion traps using microwave addressing in strong magnetic field gradients.
A laser cooling scheme for trapped ions is presented which is based on the fast dynamical Stark shift gate, described in (Jonathan et al 2000 Phys. Rev. A 62 042307). Since this cooling method does not contain an off resonant carrier transition, low final temperatures are achieved even in a traveling wave light field. The proposed method may operate in either pulsed or continuous mode and is also suitable for ion traps using microwave addressing in strong magnetic field gradients.
Proteins, polysaccharides and their blends, as examples of natural biopolymers, may be considered as amphiphilic macromolecules that play an essential role in stabilizing food formulations (foams, emulsions and dispersions). Under specific compositions and conditions (protein-to-polysaccharide ratio, pH, ionic strength, temperature, mixing, processing steps) proteins and polysaccharides form water-soluble hybrids (complexes or conjugates), but not coacervates, with enhanced functional properties in comparison to the proteins and polysaccharides alone. Aqueous mixtures of WPI (4-10wt%) and xanthan gum (\textgreater 0.5wt%) form clear aqueous systems exhibiting new physicochemical properties such as rheological behavior, surface properties, surface density of charge (zeta potential), surface hydrophobicity and diffusion behavior. Electrostatic interactions and thermodynamic incompatibility in mixed biopolymer solutions were correlated to the functional properties (rheology, surface properties and surface hydrophobicity) of these adducts. Evidences for associative interactions between WPI and xanthan gum have been established by studying the rheological behavior, the surface hydrophobicity and the surface dynamic properties of the blends. The electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions form hybrids that can provide a synergistic effect on the emulsifying capabilities of the biopolymers and can increase the stability of emulsion droplets against coalescence and flocculation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The covalent attachment of a sol-gel thin film onto a glassy carbon electrode was accomplished through the electrochem. redn. of 4-hydroxyphenyldiazonium. The latter forms a very thin layer on the glassy carbon with hydroxyl groups, through which the sol-gel is attached. This mol. glue improves the adhesion of thin layers of sol-gel to a carbonaceous surface. [on SciFinder(R)]
Reaction of diethyl 5-chloro-1-pentynylphosphonate with primary and secondary amines produces novel 2-amino-1-cyclopentenylphosphonates, 1, in excellent isolated yields (79-88%). Calculations supported by experimental facts point to a two-step mechanism: an initial amine addition to give a zwitterionic intermediate followed by cyclization and proton transfer. Calculations rule out the formation of an enamine as an intermediate.
Fragile sites are specific genomic loci that form gaps, constrictions and breaks on chromosomes exposed to replication stress conditions. In the father of a patient with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and a pure truncation of 18q22-qter, a new aphidicolin-sensitive fragile site on chromosome 18q22.2 (FRA18C) is described. The region in 18q22 appears highly enriched in flexibility islands previously found to be the characteristic of common fragile site regions. The breakpoint was cloned in this patient. The break disrupts the DOK6 gene and was immediately followed by a repetitive telomere motif, (TTAGGG)(n). Using fluorescent in situ hybridisation, the breakpoint in the daughter was found to coincide with the fragile site in the father. The breakpoint region was highly enriched in AT-rich sequences. It is the first report of an aphidicolin-sensitive fragile site that coincides with an in vivo chromosome truncation in the progeny.
Reuven Amitai ו Kedar, B. Z. 2007. “Franks In The Eastern Mediterranean, 1047”. בתוך Franco Cardini And Maria Luisa Ceccarelli Lemut, Editors. Quel Mar Che La Terra Inghirlanda: In Ricordo Di Marco Tangheroni, 2:Pp. 465-468. Pisa: Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche and PACINIeditore.
