Patience Versus Decisiveness in Decision-Making

When rationality is bounded, a variety of factors may influence how far a choice is from optimal. We examine the willingness to search among alternatives. We find fixed individual differences in this temperament measure. People may be usefully typed according to how they obtain improved choices. More patient subjects obtain improvement by effectively using decision resources, performing better when the decision is more complex. More decisive subjects obtain improvement by conserving valuable decision resources, performing better when the decision problem is simple. We find that a bonus incentive frame encourages patience, while a penalty frame encourages decisiveness. These results suggest an organization can enhance its performance by matching individual temperaments and incentive frames to decision tasks at hand.framing, deliberation cost, bounded rationality, heuristics, incentives

Realizing Potential: A Pragmatic Look at Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In the United States, there are over 400,000 cryogenically frozen embryos (Hoffman, et al., 2003). These frozen embryos are almost exclusively produced from in vitro fertilization (IVF) and related treatments. Much debate centers on the fate of these embryos. Among the current options available to the parents of leftover embryos are embryo adoption, keeping the embryos frozen for future use, destroying them, faux-implantations to let the embryos „naturally‟ die (Grady, 2008), and donating them for human embryonic stem cell (hES cell) research. While not all of the embryos are destroyed, many are, and it is wasteful for those embryos to simply be discarded. With the consent of the parents, researchers should use the embryos slated to be destroyed or discarded for the purpose of realizing the great potential they posses, rather than letting them be wasted

Partnering with local government: Accelerating the achievement of community foundation sustainability

Community foundations are one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy worldwide, almost doubling in number in the last ten years. However, most community foundations do not achieve sustainability until after seven to ten years, and this is a major challenge for the movement. The aim of Mark Bentley's research is to identify and test a range of partnership opportunities with local government that might be successful in helping community foundations accelerate the journey to organizational and financial sustainability. The academic literature was reviewed for information on community foundation sustainability and the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful working relationships with local government. Partnership opportunities were identified and then tested in discussions with community foundation leaders worldwide. The results revealed a clear and consistent group of practical opportunities through which local government could support the start-up and survival of community foundations worldwide, as well as some opportunities that were more context-specific in nature. Whilst highlighting many of the challenges for a community foundation in working more closely with local government, the research proposed a range of strategies that would maximize the potential for successful partnership and mutual benefit

Space Weathering on Mercury: Laboratory Studies and Modelling

Mercury is one of the most mysterious objects in the Solar System. To date, Mercury has been visited only by the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which imaged less than half of the surface. The inner planet is now the target of two missions: NASA’s MESSENGER and the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo. One of the key measurement goals of both missions is global mapping of the surface composition. However, it is known from lunar research that regolith exposed to the space environment evolves in a way that obscures the mineralogical information otherwise derived from reflectance spectroscopy. This evolution process (space weathering), is the result of micrometeorite bombardment and solar wind sputtering, during which ferrous iron in lunar minerals is reduced to metallic iron. Such processes are also expected to operate on other airless bodies, including Mercury. This thesis focuses on the use of laboratory simulations of space weathering, with particular emphasis on Mercury. A pulsed laser facility was established, capable of simulating impacts into regolith analogues at varying temperatures. A variety of analytical techniques were then evaluated to quantify the amount of metallic iron produced and its size distribution; space weathering is critically dependent on both of these parameters. Nearly all of the optical and magnetic properties observed in lunar space weathering were also observed in laboratory analyses. Of the techniques used, measurements of magnetic susceptibility proved extremely useful. These were rapid and non-destructive measurements, and were diagnostic of the ferromagnetic iron produced during weathering. In addition, multi-frequency or temperature-dependent measurements could readily detect the very fine superparamagnetic particles that modified the reflectance spectra. Having demonstrated the importance of these measurements, the possibility of including a magnetic susceptibility sensor on future planetary landers was investigated; this would provide useful data constraining mineralogy and regolith maturity for very low mass and power resources

A Study of the (\u3csup\u3e3\u3c/sup\u3eHe, n) Reaction at 25 MeV

Energy spectra of neutrons from the 12C (3He, n)140; 27A1(3He, n)29P; 28Si(3He, n)30S; and 58,60,62Ni(3He, n)60,62,64Zn reactions have been measured at 25 MeV incident 3He energy using time-of-flight techniques. An overall energy resolution of about 1 percent for detection of 10-35 MeV neutrons provided accurate determinations of level excitations. Differential cross sections were extracted for many two particle states with up to 10 MeV excitation in the residual nuclei. By varying the beam incident angle and leaving the flight path somewhat fixed, angular distributions from 0 to 35° lab were obtained. Making use of heavy shielding, neutron-gamma discrimination techniques and a cosmic rat anti-coincidence detector, background was reduced to the extent that cross sections on the order of 50 microbarn/sr could be measured. The shapes and relative magnitudes of the experimental angular distributions were compared with the theoretical predictions of distorted wave calculations, thus yielding orbital angular momentum (ΔL) transfers. Certain simplifying but well verified assumptions about the reaction mechanism enabled assignments of definite Jπ values from the orbital angular momentum transfer values which best fit the shapes of the angular distributions. In some cases sensitivity of the calculations, mostly in magnitude, to the choice of bound state wave functions permitted determinations of the dominant two particle shell configurations of the final states

‘The sword that was broken …’: the detection of recycled iron in the archaeological record

Although the recycling of materials such as copper and glass is widely known and generally well understood within archaeological contexts, far less is known about the recycling of iron. Iron recycling is more complex than that of other metals for two reasons. First, normal manufacturing processes, which include forging several components to make a composite object, offer the opportunity to include recycled iron. Second, the material itself is more complex than Cu alloys. The alloys of Fe, depending primarily on C content, are very different in terms of properties and can be interconverted by (normally) removing C such as decarburizing cast iron to make wrought iron. Thus, recycling practices are potentially intimately combined with such processes. These factors, combined with the poor preservation of archaeological iron and the consequent reluctance to carry out extensive studies (which often require destructive analysis via metallography), mean that there are no clear criteria for identifying recycled iron. However, limited historical documentation suggests, at least indirectly, that such recycling was common. This paper is neither comprehensive nor definitive, but merely intends to promote discussion and awareness of iron recycling by hypothesizing several possible mechanisms and providing a few illustrative archaeological examples

Contemporary Christian Radio Web Sites: A Uses and Gratifications Study

An exploratory study of the uses and gratifications associated with Contemporary Christian radio station Web sites. A convenience sample of 351 Web site users was collected through an online survey. Links were posted on nine Christian radio station Web sites for one month. Principal components analysis with Varimax rotation was used to identify underlying gratification factors associated with the Web sites. Descriptive statistics were used to identify which Web site features respondents used the most. Crosstabs with Chi-Square analysis were used to study relationships between demographic variables and frequency of Web site visits, as well as relationships between demographics and radio station support. Three primary gratification factors were found for Christian radio station Web sites. Christian Entertainment was related to the desire to find entertainment that was consistent with respondents' faith and values. Lifestyle Management was related to managing time, self-image, and connections with other people. Information Seeking was related to finding information conveniently. Information Seeking was the factor that respondents most agreed with. The most-used Web site features also related to information gathering. No strong relationships were found between demographic variables and frequency of Web site visits or support of Christian radio stations. Respondents who were 50 or older were more likely than expected to report visiting a Christian radio Web site "a few times a month." Respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 were significantly less likely than expected to contribute funds to Christian radio stations.School of Media and Strategic Communication

Elements of construction: Minecraft and the periodic table

Minecraft is a popular computer game that allows the construction of almost limitless creations, and is used in learning contexts around the world. The widespread appeal and familiarity of the game makes it ideal for engaging children and young people with topics that might not otherwise interest them. With this in mind, the Science Hunters project, with support from a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Outreach Fund grant, developed five Minecraft-based informal learning and engagement sessions about the periodic table, carbon, helium, uranium and gold, as part of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT)

Shelf space strategy in long-tail markets

The Internet is known to have had a powerful impact on on-line retailer strategies in markets characterised by long-tail distribution of sales. Such retailers can exploit the long tail of the market, since they are effectively without physical limit on the number of choices on offer. Here we examine two extensions of this phenomenon. First, we introduce turnover into the long-tail distribution of sales. Although over any given period such as a week or a month, the distribution is right-skewed and often power law distributed, over time there is considerable turnover in the rankings of sales of individual products. Second, we establish some initial results on the implications for shelf-space strategy of physical retailers in such markets.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure