Money, moral transgressions, and blame

Two experiments tested participants' attributions for others' immoral behaviors when conducted for more versus less money. We hypothesized and found that observers would blame wrongdoers more when seeing a transgression enacted for little rather than a lot of money, and that this would be evident in observers' hand-washing behavior. Experiment 1 used a cognitive dissonance paradigm. Participants (N = 160) observed a confederate lie in exchange for either a relatively large or a small monetary payment. Participants blamed the liar more in the small (versus large) money condition. Participants (N = 184) in Experiment 2 saw images of someone knocking over another to obtain a small, medium, or large monetary sum. In the small (versus large) money condition, participants blamed the perpetrator (money) more. Hence, participants assigned less blame to moral wrong-doers, if the latter enacted their deed to obtain relatively large sums of money. Small amounts of money accentuate the immorality of others' transgressions

Abelian and non-abelian anyons in integer quantum anomalous Hall effect and topological phase transitions via superconducting proximity effect

We study the quantum anomalous Hall effect described by a class of two-component Haldane models on square lattices. We show that the latter can be transformed into a pseudospin triplet p+ip-wave paired superfluid. In the long wave length limit, the ground state wave function is described by Halperin's (1,1,-1) state of neutral fermions analogous to the double layer quantum Hall effect. The vortex excitations are charge e/2 abelian anyons which carry a neutral Dirac fermion zero mode. The superconducting proximity effect induces `tunneling' between `layers' which leads to topological phase transitions whereby the Dirac fermion zero mode fractionalizes and Majorana fermions emerge in the edge states. The charge e/2 vortex excitation carrying a Majorana zero mode is a non-abelian anyon. The proximity effect can also drive a conventional insulator into a quantum anomalous Hall effect state with a Majorana edge mode and the non-abelian vortex excitations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Rice field for the treatment of pond aquaculture effluents

We conducted an experiment to evaluate the efficiency of rice fields in treating pond aquaculture effluent and its responses to different fertilizer treatments. Four treatments was considered in the experiment: no rice planted as the control (CT); rice planted and no fertilizer input (RE); rice planted and a rate of approximately 1.0 g m-1 d-1 potassium chloride application (RK) and rice planted and mineral fertilizer (N: P2O5: K2O = 0.6: 0.5: 0.8) applied before the experiment (RF). Inflow and effluent water from the treatments were monitored weekly. The water quality parameters monitored in this study included: total phosphorus (TP), dissolved phosphorus (PO43--P), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia-nitrogen (NH4+-N), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3--N), nitrite-nitrogen (NO2--N) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Rice plant height and yield were evaluated at the end of the experiment. Under different fertilizer treatments, high average removal rates of TN, TP and COD were obtained (over 56, 68 and 53%, respectively). They showed no significant differences (p > 0.05), indicating that the rice field could remove the  pollutants effectively and the different fertilizer treatments had no impact on the removal efficiencies. However, the different fertilizer treatments showed significant differences in rice yield (p < 0.05). The RF treatment resulted in the highest production of 649.53 ± 94.2 g m-2, followed by RK at 523.83 ± 71.5 g m-2; the fertilizers increased yield by 42.93 and 15.27%, respectively over the RE trial. Rice fields can purify pond effluents efficiently without reducing production when appropriate mineral fertilizers are applied.Key words: Rice field, pond effluent, nutrient removal

Bias-controllable intrinsic spin polarization in a quantum dot

We propose a novel scheme to efficiently polarize and manipulate the electron spin in a quantum dot. This scheme is based on the spin-orbit interaction and it possesses following advantages: (1) The direction and the strength of the spin polarization is well controllable and manipulatable by simply varying the bias or the gate voltage. (2) The spin polarization is quite large even with a weak spin-orbit interaction. (3) Both electron-electron interaction and multi-energy levels do not weaken but strengthen the spin polarization. (4) It has the short spin flip time. (5) The device is free of a magnetic field or a ferromagnetic material. (6) It can be easily realized with present technology.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Comparisons and Applications of Four Independent Numerical Approaches for Linear Gyrokinetic Drift Modes

To help reveal the complete picture of linear kinetic drift modes, four independent numerical approaches, based on integral equation, Euler initial value simulation, Euler matrix eigenvalue solution and Lagrangian particle simulation, respectively, are used to solve the linear gyrokinetic electrostatic drift modes equation in Z-pinch with slab simplification and in tokamak with ballooning space coordinate. We identify that these approaches can yield the same solution with the difference smaller than 1\%, and the discrepancies mainly come from the numerical convergence, which is the first detailed benchmark of four independent numerical approaches for gyrokinetic linear drift modes. Using these approaches, we find that the entropy mode and interchange mode are on the same branch in Z-pinch, and the entropy mode can have both electron and ion branches. And, at strong gradient, more than one eigenstate of the ion temperature gradient mode (ITG) can be unstable and the most unstable one can be on non-ground eigenstates. The propagation of ITGs from ion to electron diamagnetic direction at strong gradient is also observed, which implies that the propagation direction is not a decisive criterion for the experimental diagnosis of turbulent mode at the edge plasmas.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accept by Physics of Plasma