Behavioral economics has grown significantly in importance and prevalence within the economics profession over the last couple of decades. Most economics departments now include researchers conducting behavioral research, and most economics journals regularly publish behavioral work.

Behavioral economics is generally defined as using evidence and constructs from neighboring social sciences, especially about limits on computation, willpower, and self-interest, to inform economic analysis (e.g., Camerer and Loewenstein, 2003). While many of these constructs come from psychology, other social sciences have much to contribute as well (see Weber and Dawes, 2005). For instance, anthropological research has provided important insights into the understanding of how social institutions and interactions shape strategic behavior (see Henrich et al., 2001).

Previous studies have shown that simply knowing one player moves first can affect behavior in games, even when the first-mover's moves are known to be unobservable. This observation violates the game-theoretic principle that timing of unobserved moves is irrelevant, but is consistent with virtual observability, a theory of how timing can matter without the ability to observe actions. However, this previous research only shows that timing matters in games where knowledge that one player moved first can help select that player's preferred equilibrium, presenting an alternative explanation to virtual observability. We extend this work by varying timing of unobservable moves in ultimatum bargaining games and “weak link” coordination games. In the latter, the equilibrium selection explanation does not predict any change in behavior due to timing differences. We find that timing without observability affects behavior in both games, but not substantially.

Efficient evidence generation to assess the clinical and economic impact of medical therapies is critical amid rising healthcare costs and aging populations. However, drug development and clinical trials remain far too expensive and inefficient for all stakeholders. On October 25–26, 2023, the Duke Clinical Research Institute brought together leaders from academia, industry, government agencies, patient advocacy, and nonprofit organizations to explore how different entities and influencers in drug development and healthcare can realign incentive structures to efficiently accelerate evidence generation that addresses the highest public health needs. Prominent themes surfaced, including competing research priorities and incentives, inadequate representation of patient population in clinical trials, opportunities to better leverage existing technology and infrastructure in trial design, and a need for heightened transparency and accountability in research practices. The group determined that together these elements contribute to an inefficient and costly clinical research enterprise, amplifying disparities in population health and sustaining gaps in evidence that impede advancements in equitable healthcare delivery and outcomes. The goal of addressing the identified challenges is to ultimately make clinical trials faster, more inclusive, and more efficient across diverse communities and settings.

Structural and diffraction criteria for distinguishing between t-1M, c-1M, m-1M, and 3T illite varieties are described. The t-1M illite corresponds to a one-layer monoclinic structure with vacant transsites. The c-1M illite has vacant cis-octahedra forming one of two symmetrically independent point systems; the other cis-octahedra as well as the trans-octahedra are occupied; and the m-1M illite corresponds to the structure in which cations are statistically distributed over available trans- and cis-sites. For t-1M, c-1M, and m-1M, the values of |c cos β/a| are equal to 0.39–0.41, 0.29–0.31, and 0.333, respectively. Application of these criteria demonstrates that illite samples described in the literature as the 3T polytype usually are c-1M instead. The relatively common occurrence of c-1M illite in association with t-1M and 2M1 polytypes has been recognized in illite from hydrothermal alterations around uranium deposits located in the Athabasca basement (Saskatchewan, Canada). The c-1M illite from these deposits was previously described as 3T one.

We performed a literature review to describe the risk of surgical-site infection (SSI) in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) compared to standard open surgery. Most studies reported decreased SSI rates among patients undergoing MIS compared to open procedures. However, many were observational studies and may have been affected by selection bias. MIS is associated with reduced risk of surgical-site infection compared to standard open surgery and should be considered when feasible.

Viruses are the most numerically abundant biological entities on Earth. As ubiquitous replicators of molecular information and agents of community change, viruses have potent effects on the life on Earth, and may play a critical role in human spaceflight, for life-detection missions to other planetary bodies and planetary protection. However, major knowledge gaps constrain our understanding of the Earth's virosphere: (1) the role viruses play in biogeochemical cycles, (2) the origin(s) of viruses and (3) the involvement of viruses in the evolution, distribution and persistence of life. As viruses are the only replicators that span all known types of nucleic acids, an expanded experimental and theoretical toolbox built for Earth's viruses will be pivotal for detecting and understanding life on Earth and beyond. Only by filling in these knowledge and technical gaps we will obtain an inclusive assessment of how to distinguish and detect life on other planetary surfaces. Meanwhile, space exploration requires life-support systems for the needs of humans, plants and their microbial inhabitants. Viral effects on microbes and plants are essential for Earth's biosphere and human health, but virus–host interactions in spaceflight are poorly understood. Viral relationships with their hosts respond to environmental changes in complex ways which are difficult to predict by extrapolating from Earth-based proxies. These relationships should be studied in space to fully understand how spaceflight will modulate viral impacts on human health and life-support systems, including microbiomes. In this review, we address key questions that must be examined to incorporate viruses into Earth system models, life-support systems and life detection. Tackling these questions will benefit our efforts to develop planetary protection protocols and further our understanding of viruses in astrobiology.

Individual differences in decision making are a topic of longstanding interest, but often yield inconsistent and contradictory results. After providing an overview of individual difference measures that have commonly been used in judgment and decision-making (JDM) research, we suggest that our understanding of individual difference effects in JDM may be improved by amending our approach to studying them. We propose four recommendations for improving the pursuit of individual differences in JDM research: a more systematic approach; more theory-driven selection of measures; a reduced emphasis on main effects in favor of interactions between individual differences and decision features, situational factors, and other individual differences; and more extensive communication of results (whether significant or null, published or unpublished). As a first step, we offer our database—the Decision Making Individual Differences Inventory (DMIDI; http://html://www.sjdm.org/dmidi), a free, public resource that categorizes and describes the most common individual difference measures used in JDM research.

In two studies, time preferences for financial gains and losses at delays of up to 50 years were elicited using three different methods: matching, fixed-sequence choice titration, and a dynamic “staircase” choice method. Matching was found to create fewer demand characteristics and to produce better fits with the hyperbolic model of discounting. The choice-based measures better predicted real-world outcomes such as smoking and payment of credit card debt. No consistent advantages were found for the dynamic staircase method over fixed-sequence titration.

Studying group decision-making is challenging for multiple reasons. An important logistic difficulty is studying a sufficiently large number of groups, each with multiple participants. Assembling groups online could make this process easier and also provide access to group members more representative of real-world work groups than the sample of college students that typically comprise lab Face-to-Face (FtF) groups. The main goal of this paper is to compare the decisions of online groups to those of FtF groups. We did so in a study that manipulated gain/loss framing of a risky decision between groups and examined the decisions of both individual group members and groups. All of these dependent measures are compared for an online and an FtF sample. Our results suggest that web-conferencing can be a substitute for FtF interaction in group decision-making research, as we found no moderation effects of communication medium on individual or group decision outcome variables. The effects of medium that were found suggest that the use of online groups may be the preferred method for group research. To wit, discussions among the online groups were shorter, but generated a greater number of thought units, i.e., they made more efficient use of time.

In recent years, evidence has started piling up that some high-energy cosmic neutrinos can be associated with blazars in flaring states. On 2022 February 26, a new blazar-neutrino coincidence was reported: the track-like neutrino event IC220225A detected by IceCube is spatially coincident with the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 0215+015. Like previous associations, this source was found to be in a high optical and γ-ray state. Moreover, the source showed a bright radio outburst, which substantially increases the probability of a true physical association. We have performed six observations with the VLBA shortly after the neutrino event with a monthly cadence and are monitoring the source with the Effelsberg 100m-Telescope, and with the Australia Compact Telescope Array. Here, we present first results on the contemporary parsec-scale jet structure of PKS 0215+015 in total intensity and polarization to constrain possible physical processes leading to neutrino emission in blazars.

The design and the early commissioning of the ELI-Beamlines laser facility’s 30 J, 30 fs, 10 Hz HAPLS (High-repetition-rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System) beam transport (BT) system to the P3 target chamber are described in detail. It is the world’s first and with 54 m length, the longest distance high average power petawatt (PW) BT system ever built. It connects the HAPLS pulse compressor via the injector periscope with the 4.5 m diameter P3 target chamber of the plasma physics group in hall E3. It is the largest target chamber of the facility and was connected first to the BT system. The major engineering challenges are the required high vibration stability mirror support structures, the high pointing stability optomechanics as well as the required levels for chemical and particle cleanliness of the vacuum vessels to preserve the high laser damage threshold of the dielectrically coated high-power mirrors. A first commissioning experiment at low pulse energy shows the full functionality of the BT system to P3 and the novel experimental infrastructure.

We evaluated the ability of an ultraviolet-C (UV-C) room decontamination device to kill Candida auris and C. albicans. With an organic challenge (fetal calf serum), the UV-C device demonstrated the following log10 reductions for C. auris of 4.57 and for C. albicans of 5.26 with direct line of sight, and log10 reductions for C. auris of 2.41 and for C. ablicans of 3.96 with indirect line of sight.

We evaluated the robustness of sterilization technologies when spores and bacteria were placed on “dirty” instruments and overlaid with blood. The results illustrate that steam sterilization is the most effective sterilization technology with the largest margin of safety, followed by ethylene oxide and hydrogen peroxide gas plasma.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders worldwide. They often onset early in life, with symptoms and consequences that can persist for decades. This makes anxiety disorders some of the most debilitating and costly disorders of our time. Although much is known about the synaptic and circuit mechanisms of fear and anxiety, research on the underlying genetics has lagged behind that of other psychiatric disorders. However, alongside the formation of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium Anxiety workgroup, progress is rapidly advancing, offering opportunities for future research.

Here we review current knowledge about the genetics of anxiety across the lifespan from genetically informative designs (i.e. twin studies and molecular genetics). We include studies of specific anxiety disorders (e.g. panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder) as well as those using dimensional measures of trait anxiety. We particularly address findings from large-scale genome-wide association studies and show how such discoveries may provide opportunities for translation into improved or new therapeutics for affected individuals. Finally, we describe how discoveries in anxiety genetics open the door to numerous new research possibilities, such as the investigation of specific gene–environment interactions and the disentangling of causal associations with related traits and disorders.

We discuss how the field of anxiety genetics is expected to move forward. In addition to the obvious need for larger sample sizes in genome-wide studies, we highlight the need for studies among young people, focusing on specific underlying dimensional traits or components of anxiety.