Self-serving incentives impair collective decisions by increasing conformity

The average judgment of large numbers of people has been found to be consistently better than the best individual response. But what motivates individuals when they make collective decisions? While it is a popular belief that individual incentives promote out-of-thebox thinking and diverse solutions, the exact role of motivation and reward in collective intelligence remains unclear. Here we examined collective intelligence in an interactive group estimation task where participants were rewarded for their individual or group's performance. In addition to examining individual versus collective incentive structures, we controlled whether participants could see social information about the others' responses. We found that knowledge about others' responses reduced the wisdom of the crowd and, crucially, this effect depended on how people were rewarded. When rewarded for the accuracy of their individual responses, participants converged to the group mean, increasing social conformity, reducing diversity and thereby diminishing their group wisdom. When rewarded for their collective performance, diversity of opinions and the group wisdom increased. We conclude that the intuitive association between individual incentives and individualist opinion needs revising

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050

Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached$8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and$1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4$2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7$1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Polymer-supported dichloroiodate as a new polymeric oxidation reagent for novel and selective oxidation of benzylic alcohols under mild aprotic conditions

A mild and efficient procedure has been proposed for oxidation of benzylic alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds using polymer-supported dichloroiodate (PSDI). The oxidations were carried out in acetonitrile solution, affording the corresponding aldehydes or ketones in high substrate conversion and short reaction time under mild aprotic conditions. Excellent selectivity was observed between primary benzyl alcohols and secondary ones as well as non-benzylic alcohols in the oxidation reactions. The catalyst can be easily prepared and regenerated

Effect of Bone Borne Expansion and Tooth Borne Palatal Expansion on Airway Volume: A Review Article

Background and purpose: Transverse problems in the maxilla (high arched- narrow hard plates) can cause respiratory disorders. Palatal expansion can be helpful in this way. The present study aimed at evaluating the effect of bone borne expansion and tooth borne palatal expansion on airway volume. Materials and methods: A review study was performed by search in Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane using the following keywords: maxillary expansion, palatal expansion, miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion, tooth borne, bone borne, rapid palatal expansion, airway dimension, and Cone beam computed tomography. The search was limited to articles published in January 2011-April 2021. Results: In the initial search, 343 articles were found. After reviewing the titles and abstracts only 20 papers were found that studied the effect of bone and tooth borne palatal expansion on airway dimensions and met the inclusion criteria. The studies indicated that both bone expansion and tooth borne palatal expansion could considerably increase airway volumes. However, only bone borne palatal expansion enabled more predictable and greater skeletal expansion and less teeth response. Conclusion: Both bone and tooth borne palatal expansion are efficient in increasing the airway volume. Further randomized clinical trials with large sample size and matched control groups, longer follow-up periods and measuring respiration index such as apnea-hypopnea index are suggested

Treatment of Skeletal Anterior Open Bite Using Absolute Anchorage: A Case Report and Review

Background and purpose: Skeletal anchorage is a new aid for the correction of moderate anterior open bite. This study aimed at treating moderate anterior open bite using posterior intrusion via mini implants. In addition, a review of studies carried out on open bite correction using absolute anchorage was performed. Materials and methods: The following keywords were used: open bite, camouflage, extraction, surgery, bone-anchor intrusion, posterior intrusion, mini screw, mini plate, and absolute anchorage. A review of articles was performed in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Cochrane. The time span of article search was from January 2011 to April 2021. In the case presented in this study, an anterior open bite was corrected with mini implants. Results: Twelve studies were selected from 42 articles that met the initial eligibility criteria.  In most studies, the reduction in mandibular plane angle (SN-GoGn and FMA) was less than 2◦ following counterclockwise rotation. But, in some studies the changes ranged between 2.3 and 3.9◦. In all studies following mandibular autorotation, facial convexity decreased, chin contour improved, and lower anterior face height decreased. Our patient also showed a decrease of 2° in the mandibular plane angle and a decrease of 1°in facial convexity. Conclusion: According to this study, intrusion of posterior teeth with the aid of moderate skeletal anchorage is a non-invasive camouflage treatment. Also, in the patient studied here it corrected overbite, improved facial appearance, and reduced the need for surgery

Sustainable production of cellulose nanofiber from sugarcane trash: A quality and life cycle assessment

Developing green processes in the chemistry and engineering domains is one of the most significant challenges for sustainable production. Sugarcane trash (ST) generated during the sugar extraction process is an excellent feedstock for the production of cellulose nanofibers (CNF). Four distinct routes for CNF production from ST has been designed. The OTH procedure included an Organosolv pretreatment, TEMPO oxidation, and High-pressure homogenization; the OLH procedure included an Organosolv pretreatment followed by Lime juice hydrolysis. Alkaline pretreatment, TEMPO oxidation and High-pressure homogenization comprised the ATH. The ALH consisted of Alkaline pretreatment, lime juice hydrolysis, and High-pressure homogenization. The characterization of the CNF samples revealed excellent purity and crystallinity. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to characterize the synthesized CNF. X-ray diffractograms (XRD) showed a crystallinity value of 64.28 %, 69.52 %, 60.54 %, and 68.81 % for OTH, OLH, ATH, and ALH, respectively. The OTH route produced the highest yield of cellulose (0.98 g/g ST) while the OTH and OLH routes produced high yields of CNF (0.34 g/g ST). Environmental parameters associated with the processes used to obtain CNF from ST were evaluated to achieve sustainable production and asses the environmental impact, including EcoScale (ES) and Life Cycle Analyses (LCA). EcoScale analysis assigned the OTH method a score of 84 and OLH, ALH, and ATH methods 74, 67, and 74, respectively. The life cycle assessment results indicated that the ATH method had a relatively low environmental impact across all impact categories. Finally, comparing CNF value to other carbon nanomaterials, the CNF derived from biomass was found to have a low environmental impactThe authors are grateful to the Research Council of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz for financial support (GN: SCU.AA99.585