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Observers can adopt attentional control settings that regulate how their attention is drawn to salient stimuli in the environment. Do observers choose their attentional control settings voluntarily, or are they primed in a bottom-up manner based on the stimuli that the observer has recently attended and responded to (i.e., target-selection history)? In the present experiment, we tested these two accounts using a long-term memory attentional control settings paradigm, in which participants memorized images of 18 common visual objects, and then searched for those objects in a spatial blink task. Unbeknownst to participants, we manipulated priming by dividing the set of target objects into two subsets: nine objects appeared frequently as targets in the spatial blink task (frequently primed objects), and nine infrequently (infrequently primed objects). We assessed attentional capture by presenting these objects as distractors in the spatial blink task and measuring their effect on task accuracy. We found that both subsets of objects captured attention more than non-studied objects, and frequently primed objects did not capture attention more than infrequently primed objects. Moreover, a follow-up analysis revealed that all studied objects captured attention, even before those objects had appeared as targets in the spatial blink task. These findings suggest that priming through target-selection history plays little-to-no role in long-term memory attentional control settings. Rather, these findings align with a growing body of evidence that attentional control settings are primarily implemented through voluntary control.

This paper proposes a framework to identify and evaluate companies from the technological perspective to support merger and acquisition (M&A) target selection decision-making. This employed a text mining-based patent map approach to identify companies which can fulfill a specific strategic purpose of M&A for enhancing technological capabilities. The patent map is the visualized technological landscape of a technology industry by using technological proximities among patents, so companies which closely related to the strategic purpose can be identified. To evaluate the technological aspects of the identified companies, we provide the patent indexes that evaluate both current and future technological capabilities and potential technology synergies between acquiring and acquired companies. Furthermore, because the proposed method evaluates potential targets from the overall corporate perspective and the specific strategic perspectives simultaneously, more robust and meaningful result can be obtained than when only one perspective is considered. Thus, the proposed framework can suggest the appropriate target companies that fulfill the strategic purpose of M&A for enhancing technological capabilities. For the verification of the framework, we provide an empirical study using patent data related to flexible display technology.

This empirical study examined whether the visual complexities of the first and second characters in two-character words play similar roles in modulating the fixation time and saccade target selection during un-spaced Chinese reading. Consistent with prior research, words with low-complexity characters were fixated for shorter times than words with high-complexity characters. Critically, saccade target selection was primarily influenced by the visual complexity of the first character of a two-character word: words with low-complexity first characters were skipped more frequently, and fixation was localized nearer to the center of the word compared with the words with high-complexity first characters. These results are important for understanding the mechanisms of eye movement control in Chinese reading and thus provide benchmark data to test models of eye movement control in Chinese reading.

To improve the efficiency of computer input, extensive research has been conducted on hand movement in a spatial region. Most of it has focused on the technologies but not the users’ spatial controllability. To assess this, we analyze a users’ common operational area through partitioning, including a layered array of one dimension and a spatial region array of two dimensions. In addition, to determine the difference in spatial controllability between a sighted person and a visually impaired person, we designed two experiments: target selection under a visual and under a non-visual scenario. Furthermore, we explored two factors: the size and the position of the target. Results showed the following: the 5 × 5 target blocks, which were 60.8 mm × 48 mm, could be easily controlled by both the sighted and the visually impaired person; the sighted person could easily select the bottom-right area; however, for the visually impaired person, the easiest selected area was the upper right. Based on the results of the users’ spatial controllability, we propose two interaction techniques (non-visual selection and a spatial gesture recognition technique for surgery) and four spatial partitioning strategies for human-computer interaction designers, which can improve the users spatial controllability.

We study behind-the-scenes investor activism promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) improvements by means of a proprietary dataset of a large international, socially responsible activist fund. We examine the activist’s target selection, forms of engagement, impact on ESG performance, drivers of success, and effects on the targets’ operations and value creation. Target firms are typically large and visible, perform well, and have high liquidity (stock turnover) and low ESG performance. Engagement induces ESG rating adjustments: firms with poor ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings increase after complying with the activist’s demands, whereas firms with high ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings decrease following the revelation of their ESG problems. Activism that is focused on environmental and social issues is more likely to succeed if targets are ESG-sensitive (i.e., they have a strong ex ante ESG profile). Successful engagements boost targets’ sales. Risk-adjusted excess stock returns (with four-factor adjustment and relative to a matched sample of non-engaged firms) of successful engagements outperform those of unsuccessful engagements by 2.7%. Results are especially strong for firms with low ex ante ESG scores. Specifically, targeted firms in the lowest ex ante ESG quartile outperform matched peers by 7.5% in the year after the end of the engagement. Our results thus suggest that the activism regarding corporate social responsibility generally improves ESG practices and corporate sales and is profitable to the activist. Taken together, we provide direct evidence that ethical investing and strong financial performance, both from the activist’s and the targeted firm’s perspective, can go hand-in-hand together.

Prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity in the primate brain emerging from minicolumnar microcircuits plays a critical role in cognitive processes dealing with executive control of behavior. However, the specific operations of columnar laminar processing in prefrontal cortex (PFC) are not completely understood. Here we show via implementation of unique microanatomical recording and stimulating arrays, that minicolumns in PFC are involved in the executive control of behavior in rhesus macaque nonhuman primates (NHPs) performing a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task. PFC neurons demonstrate functional interactions between pairs of putative pyramidal cells within specified cortical layers via anatomically oriented minicolumns. Results reveal target-specific, spatially tuned firing between inter-laminar (layer 2/3 and layer 5) pairs of neurons participating in the gating of information during the decision making phase of the task with differential correlations between activity in layer 2/3 and layer 5 in the integration of spatial vs. object-specific information for correct task performance. Such inter-laminar processing was exploited by the interfacing of an online model which delivered stimulation to layer 5 locations in a pattern associated with successful performance thereby closing the columnar loop externally in a manner that mimicked normal processing in the same task. These unique technologies demonstrate that PFC neurons encode and process information via minicolumns which provides a closed loop form of \"executive function,\" hence disruption of such inter-laminar processing could form the bases for cognitive dysfunction in primate brain.

To track the spatiotemporal dynamics of selective attention, we constructed four theory-driven variants of Eriksen's flanker task. In each, subjects made speeded binary categorizations of target arrowhead direction while ignoring surrounding flanker arrowheads, whose direction was either congruent or incongruent to the target. Experiment 1 tracked the temporal evolution of target selection by systematically manipulating onset asynchrony between the target and flankers. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we increased flanker strength (both experiments) and reduced target strength (Experiment 2B only) at various times relative to target onset, exploring the effects of dynamic perceptual inputs on flanker congruency effects. Experiment 3 measured how uncertainty about stimulus location impeded spatial selection. Our findings demonstrate that spatial selection in the flanker task is dynamically modulated by both intra- and supra-trial factors.

Background One approach to brain delivery relies on receptor‐mediated transcytosis (RMT). Multi‐organ atlases allow searching for RMT targets by comparing brain capillary endothelial cells (BCEC) with biodistribution‐relevant peripheral cells. I sought to create a proteomics atlas of these cells. I also analyzed protein turnover, deeming it crucial for all targets and especially those that do not transport large ligands natively and whose use in RMT may thus rely on hijacking their recycling. I then hypothesized that for targets with slow internalization, one could induce endocytosis by binding extracellular regions where conformational changes would expose possibly inactive endocytic motifs in the cytosolic tails, and sought to identify targets suitable for such triggered endocytosis and to design constructs enabling it. Finally, I reasoned that after intracellular dissociation, binding endosomal proteins may be the only way to enable faster‐than‐diffusional cargo movement, ideally abluminal, and sought to identify proteins that could intercept cargo in the endosome. Method To create atlases, I processed the spectra of cell type‐resolved proteomics datasets and supplemented this with a transcriptomics‐based analysis. To analyze isoforms, I used peptide‐level proteomics, long‐read transcriptomics, and short‐read transcriptomics data with sufficient depth. To analyze turnover and trafficking, but also identify intracellular targets that could intercept cargo in the endosome, I used in vivo proteomics data and in vitro protein‐protein interactions and organelle fractionation datasets. To design endocytosis‐triggering constructs, I mined targets for conserved cytosolic endocytic motifs, then built allostery maps to locate suitable extracellular regions, and finally modeled binders targeting those regions. Result Despite shallower coverage and integration challenges, the proteomics atlas allows target identification, with some deviations from transcriptomics results. Turnover data can inform target choice. Isoforms of several hits increase their specificity to BCEC or, conversely, may complicate their use. Several targets are parts of heterodimers; targeting their interface could improve specificity. The constructs designed to trigger endocytosis show high confidence scores yet require validation. Analysis of protein‐protein interactions and subcellular fractionation helps predict endosomal targets that could intercept constructs and, unlike surface proteins, would ideally be bound at acidic pH. Conclusion These results may inform target selection and help refine constructs for better trans‐BBB delivery.

We develop a capabilities-based theory of acquirer target selection, arguing that acquirers will pursue both low capability targets in existing contexts to deploy existing capabilities, and high capability targets in new contexts to acquire new capabilities. These arguments are formalized in an analytical model that jointly considers the benefits and costs of acquisition as a function of target capability level and context. The predictions from this model are tested in the Chinese brewing industry (1998-2007), with results showing that acquirers strongly prefer inferior targets in existing geographic markets, but are relatively more likely to choose superior targets in new markets, especially if they have strong acquisition capabilities. Our study provides insight into the factors driving target selection, and contributes to a capabilities-based understanding of acquisitions.

Valuable resources often exist at distant points from a firm’s current locations, with the result that strategic decisions such as growth have a spatial dimension in which firms seek information and choose between geographically distributed alternatives. Studies show that geographic proximity facilitates the flow of resources, but there is limited understanding of factors that exacerbate or ease the impact of geographic distance when firms seek new resources. This paper argues that the difficulty of search increases with distance, particularly when search involves greater information processing, but that firms can partially overcome the constraints of distance with direct, contextual, and vicarious learning. We study 2,070 domestic acquisition announcements by U.S. chemical manufacturers founded after 1979. The results demonstrate the persistent effect of spatial geography on organizational search processes.