LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLES

CHEMISTRY

Mo, X. Y., Bernard, S. E., Khrapunovich, M., DINA C. MERRER, "A Computational Study of Chlorocarbene Additions to Cyclooctyne," Journal of Organic Chemistry, Vol. 73 (2008), pp. 8537-8544

Dichloro- and phenylchlorocarbene (CCl2 and PhCCl) add to cyclooctyne via a barrierless process (MP2/6-311+G*, B3LYP/6-311+G*, B3LYP/6-31G*) to yield the expected corresponding cyclopropene adducts. A three-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for CCl2 addition to cyclooctyne (B3LYP/6-31G*) shows the formation of the cyclopropene product and also possible formation of a vinylcarbene. Residing in a shallow energy well, the vinylcarbene easily rearranges to the cyclopropene product, or to an exocyclic vinyl bicyclo[3.3.0]octane. Although the calculated three-dimensional PES indicates possible dynamic control of the cyclooctyne-chlorocarbene system through the putative formation of a vinylcarbene (in addition to the expected cyclopropene), additional calculations and preliminary experimental work show paths through the vinylcarbene to be unlikely. If the additions of chlorocarbenes to cyclooctyne are controlled by reaction dynamics, we predict that the vast majority of the reactions proceed via traditional carbene cycloaddition with only a very minor amount of products formed from the alternative pathway.

ECONOMICS

RANDALL REBACK, "Teaching to the Rating: School Accountability and the Distribution of Student Achievement," Journal of Public Economics, Volume 92 Issue 5-6 (2008) pp. 1394-1415.

This paper examines whether minimum competency school accountability systems, such as those created under No Child Left Behind, influence the distribution of student achievement. Because school ratings in these systems only incorporate students' test scores via pass rates, this type of system increases incentives for schools to improve the performance of students who are on the margin of passing but does not increase short-run incentives for schools to improve other students' performance. Using student-level, panel data from Texas during the 1990's, I explicitly calculate schools' short-run incentives to improve various students' expected performance, and I find that schools do respond to these incentives. Students perform better than expected when their test score is particularly important for their schools' accountability rating. Also, low achieving students perform better than expected in math when many of their classmates' math scores are important for the schools' rating, while relatively high achieving students do not perform better. Distributional effects appear to be related to broad changes in resources or instruction, as well as narrowly tailored attempts to improve the performance of specific students.

KRISTIN MAMMEN, "The Effect of Children's Gender on Living Arrangements and Child Support," American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings. Volume 98 Issue 25 (2008)

Previous evidence suggests that the gender composition of a family's children specifically, the presence of sons affects a number of parental behaviors, including marriage formation, marriage disruption, and living arrangements. Using the March Current Population Survey from 1988 to 2006, this paper examines whether girls are at a double disadvantage in terms of living in single mother homes, and in the likelihood of receiving child support from absent fathers. The findings show that girls are indeed more likely to live in single mother homes and boys are overrepresented in married parent homes with a father or stepfather, and in single father families. However, the child support results suggest if anything that single mothers are slightly disadvantaged by having sons.

NEUROSCIENCE & BEHAVIOR

Akers, K. G., Yang, Z., DelVecchio, D. P., Reeb, B. C., Romeo, R. D., McEwen, B. S., and Tang, A. C.,
"Social competitiveness and plasticity of neuroendocrine function in old age: influence of neonatal
novelty exposure and maternal care reliability." PLoS ONE. 3(7):e2840. (2008)

Early experience is known to have a profound impact on brain and behavioral function later in life. Relatively few studies, however, have examined whether the effects of early experience remain detectable in the aging animal. Here, we examined the effects of neonatal novelty exposure, an early stimulation procedure, on late senescent rats' ability to win in social competition.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

ALEXANDER COOLEY and Lincoln A. Mitchel, "No Way to Treat Our Friends: Recasting Recent U.S.-Georgian Relations," Washington Quarterly. Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan. 2009)

As analysts focus on the Russian-Georgian relationship, the questions of how the United States–Georgia’s friend and patron–failed to anticipate the conflict and prevent its escalation need to be addressed. Two unequivocal, but ultimately flawed, principles guided recent U.S. policy towards Georgia. First, the United States supported the Saakashvili government, rather than promoting broader Georgian democratic development. Second, the United States backed reuniting Georgia’s territorial integrity, rather than acting as an honest broker to resolve the frozen conflicts with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The strong personalized ties that developed between Washington and Tbilisi prevented the United States from using its power and influence to credibly restrain the Saakashvili government from adopting a military solution. U.S. reluctance to encourage Georgia to consider alternative sovereign formulas to resolve the frozen conflicts further emboldened Georgian hardliners. Over time, the Georgian regime’s domestic policies and priorities themselves became official U.S. policies and goals, leading to an unhealthy capture of U.S. foreign policy by Tbilisi.

Looking forward, the United States must continue to offer robust and sustained support to Georgia and its democratic development, but should do so by reversing these demonstrably flawed principles. What policies should the new U.S. administration adopt that would preserve its friendly relations with Georgia, while pushing Georgia toward a territorial compromise that it does not yet favor?

PSYCHOLOGY

ROBERT REMEZ, Daria F. Ferr o, Stephanie C. Wiss ig, and Claire A. Landau, "Asynchrony tolerance in the
perceptual organization of speech," Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2008, 15 (4), 861-865

Is the syllable the unit of perceptual organization in the perception of speech? This project developed new, more sensitive measures of auditory perceptual coherence, and found that dynamic perceptual integration occurs at much finer temporal grain than the syllable pace. The results establish limits on accounts of auditory perceptual organization and audiovisual integration.