Uncovering the Moral Heuristics of Altruism: A Philosophical Scale

Extant research suggests that individuals employ traditional moral heuristics to support their observed altruistic behavior; yet findings have largely been limited to inductive extrapolation and rely on relatively few traditional frames in so doing, namely, deontology in organizational behavior and virtue theory in law and economics. Given that these and competing moral frames such as utilitarianism can manifest as identical behavior, we develop a moral framing instrument—the Philosophical Moral-Framing Measure (PMFM)—to expand and distinguish traditional frames associated and disassociated with observed altruistic behavior. The validation of our instrument based on 1015 subjects in 3 separate real stakes scenarios indicates that heuristic forms of deontology, virtue-theory, and utilitarianism are strongly related to such behavior, and that egoism is an inhibitor. It also suggests that deontic and virtue-theoretical frames may be commonly perceived as intertwined and opens the door for new research on self-abnegation, namely, a perceived moral obligation toward suffering and self-denial. These findings hold the potential to inform ongoing conversations regarding organizational citizenship and moral crowding out, namely, how financial incentives can undermine altruistic behavior

Food for Thought: Genetically Modified Seeds as De Facto Standard Essential Patents

For several years, courts have been improperly calculating damages in cases involving the unlicensed use of genetically-modified (GM) seed technology. In particular, when courts determine patent damages based on the hypothetical negotiation method, they err in exaggerating these damages to a point where no rational negotiator would agree. In response, we propose a limited affirmative defense of an implied license due to the patent’s status as a de facto standard essential patent. To be classified as a de facto standard essential patent, the farmer must prove three elements that reflect the peculiarities of GM seeds used in farming: (1) dominance, (2) impracticability, and (3) necessary to fulfill a basic need. Based on the approaches used by courts and standard setting organizations in licensing standard essential patents in technological fields such as cell phones and software, designation of some GM seeds as standard essential patents allows the courts to imply a license from patentees to farmers on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. Doing so shifts the case from a tort-based patent infringement suit to a breach of contract dispute and alters the damages regime from one based in compensation, deterrence, and punishment (a tort approach) to one based solely in compensation (a contractual approach). As a result of this novel proposal, the damages calculations in these suits return to economic reality

Effects of electrical stimulation on physical, chemical and palatability characteristics of beef produced from three feeding regimens

Part I: Effects of Electrical Stimulation Carcass Characteristics and Palatability Attributes of Beef Produced From Three Feeding Regimens. Twenty forage finished, 20 limited grain finished (low energy) and 19 grain finished (high energy, ad libitum) steers were slaughtered in a commercial meat packing firm. A randomly selected side from each carcass was electrically stimulated (625 volts, 3-5 amps, 20 impulses of 1 sec duration each) within one hour post-exsanguination. All sides were chilled in a 0 C cooler, ribbed at 18-21 hrs postmortem (PM) and evaluated. Five short loin steaks (2.5cm) were removed after 60, 120, 180 and 240 hr PM aging periods for Warner-Bratzler shear (WBS) force and palatability (240 hr only) determinations. Carcasses from steers finished on forage were rated lower for lean color, lean firmness, lean texture, fat color, sensory flavor and sensory tenderness than grain finished steercarcasses. For comparisons between electrical stimulation (ES) and controls (combined feeding regimens, n = 59), ES improved (P \u3c .01) lean color, firmness, texture scores and reduced heat-ring formation. ES sides from grain finished steers exhibited higher (P \u3c .10) marbling scores (Small 30% vs Slight 90%) than control sides, however, ES did not significantly increase the marbling degree in forage finished or limit grain finished steer carcasses. ES steaks broiled to an internal temperature of 70 C for palatability determinations received higher (P \u3c .05) tenderness ratings (5.1 vs 4.8) and had lower (P \u3c .01) WBS force values at 60hr (3.4 vs 4.1 kg), 120hr (3.1 vs 3.8 kg), 180hr (3.0 vs 3.4kg) and 240 hr (2.8 vs 3.2 kg) PM aging periods. Aged (240hr) steaks from all ES sides were less (P \u3c .05) variable (s.d. .79 vs .63 kg of WBS) in tenderness. These data indicate that ES coupled with 5 days cooler aging results in an equal level of tenderness than carcasses (forage of grain) aged 10 days. Part II: Effects of Postmortem Aging on Fragmentation Index Values. A total of 472 loin steaks were removed from short loins (n = 118) from electrically stimulated (ES) and non-electrically stimulated (NES) sides cooler aged for 60, 120, 180 and 240 hrs postmortem. Following each aging period, Warner-Bratzlershear (WBS) and Fragmentation Index (FI) samples were removed. Palatability, proximate analysis and histological samples were removed after the 240 hr aging period. FI of frozen longissimus muscle was recorded at two drying times (0 min and 10 min). No difference (P \u3c .01) in correlation of FI residue to WBS force values for drying periods of 0 or 10 min was observed. Simple correlation coefficients (P \u3c .01) of NES and ES muscle relating FI (0 min) of muscle at 60 hr postmortem to WBS force values were (.50 and .44), (.48 and .39), (38 and .36) and (.39 and .31) for steaks aged 60, 120, 180 and 240 hrs PM, respectively. FI of NES muscle accounted for approximately 23, 42, 38 and 15% of the observed variation in WBS force values not explained by selected carcass traits for steaks aged 60, 120, 180 and 240 hrs PM, respectively. USDA beef quality factors accounted for approximately 7% of the variation in shear force value,while FI (0 min drying time) accounted for an additional 10-37% of the variation in shear force for steaks aged 60-240 hours. By omitting the residue drying step, the FI procedure may be reduced by 10min, thus creating a more time efficient procedure for tenderness evaluation using raw muscle cooler aged for 60 hrs. These data indicate that this procedure has potential for commercial application

Commissioning and implementing a PROFIBUS network in the Universal Water System

The Universal Water System (UWS) was built for instrumentation and control engineering students to design, implement and test different control schemes. The system has been primarily developed and designed by fourth year undergraduate and master’s students with the help of on-site technicians and electricians for installation of high voltage wiring, hardware equipment and IT related tasks. As the UWS is a learning tool that provides hands on experience with an industrial grade environment and equipment, improvement and maintenance of its functionality is a vital part of the on-going thesis projects. The main objectives of this work are split into three major segments. The first was commissioning the UWS, which consisted of updating the system’s software, replacing faulty equipment and ensuring appropriate functionality of the plant’s hardware. Two PROFIBUS Decentralised Peripherals (DP) flowmeters had been purchased to replace two faulty positive displacement flowmeters in the system. Hence the second objective was implement a PROFIBUS DP communication network for the new devices. The last objective was to design, implement and test more advanced control schemes through Open Platform Communication for the newly upgraded plant. With the project now complete, the UWS is operational with a fully functioning PROFIBUS DP communication network. The server computer’s operating system has been upgraded, while the Compact RIO’s firmware and the programming software has been updated to the latest version. Faulty equipment has been replaced and commissioned. Namely, two replacement flowmeters and an electric flow valve. A PROFIBUS DP network has been implemented to communicate with the two replacement flowmeters. An unexpected technical difficultly led to 5 variable speed drives being added to the PROFIBUS DP network. Additionally, the compact RIO’s code has been redesigned to improve efficiency, provide cyber-security, and to reduce the complexity of the client program. Due to unforeseen circumstances and time constraints the time taken to commission the plant and implement PROFIBUS was far greater than expected; two of the three project objectives were completed, pushing the advanced control schemes and Open Platform Communication to future work. Overall, the main accomplishment of this thesis besides the project objectives, is that the system has been updated, refitted and ready for operation for the next thesis student; so they do not run into the tedious and painful issues found during this project

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Alters Vascular Reactivity Independent of Elevations in ATP

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) is a pharmacologic therapy used treat a variety of medical conditions. The underlying mechanisms of HBOs effect on vascular reactivity are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to record the acute effects of HBO on vascular reactivity and determine the potential role of ATP in mediating these effects. Porcine mesenteric arteries were dissected and mounted in isolated organ baths to record changes in tension in response to potassium chloride (KCl, 15-60 mM), phenylephrine (PHE, 10-7-10-4 M), and sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 10-7-10-4 M) following a 2-hour exposure to HBO (1.75 ATA). HBO augmented responses to KCl and PHE compared to control arteries exposed to room air or nitrogen at 1.75 ATA as well as to room air at 1 atm. When compared to the 1 ATA room air control, KCl-induced constriction was significantly increased for the HBO exposure. Treatment with HBO also augmented vascular responses to PHE and SNP relative to nitrogen, but not ambient air. We hypothesized that HBO increased ATP production in vascular smooth muscle leading to enhanced vascular reactivity. Consequently, ATP levels were measured in mesenteric arteries but no significant differences in ATP levels were observed regardless of hyperbaric treatment. Direct measurements of ATPs’ effects on porcine vasculature with and without hyperbaric treatment resulted in no significant findings. These results suggest that HBO alters vascular reactivity independent of elevations in ATP

Global Distribution of Ice Cloud Particle Shape and Roughness from PARASOL Satellite Measurements

The energy balance of the Earth is regulated in part by ice clouds, which both reflect shortwave solar radiation and absorb infrared radiation from the Earth. These clouds appear frequently worldwide, with up to 70% coverage in tropical regions. The microphysics of ice clouds determines their radiative properties, and is important for accurately predicting the role of ice clouds in Earth’s energy balance. However, describing the microphysics of ice clouds remains a challenging problem, especially with regard to the shape of ice particles and the degree of ice particle surface roughening. In-situ studies have found evidence for ice surface roughness and have found many complex ice geometries; however, these studies are limited spatially and temporally. An approach which allows large-scale analysis is to retrieve these properties via theoretical modeling using satellite observations of polarized reflectance from ice clouds, since polarized reflectance is sensitive to the shape and roughness of ice particles. The theoretical model requires the scattering properties of simulated ice particles. These properties are obtained for 10 different ice shapes and 17 different levels of surface roughness. Simulations are performed for 3 different effective ice particle diameters: 30, 60 and 90 μm. Overall, the retrieved shape is dominated by the compact aggregate of columns. Although the exact composition of shapes varies from month to month, the compact aggregate of columns remains the most commonly retrieved shape. The retrieved roughness varies from moderately rough at σ = 0.1 to severely rough at σ = 0.5. Retrieved roughness varies more than shape, and smooth surfaced ice is most prominent in January. Tropical regions tend to have ice particles that are more roughened, while the midlatitudes and polar regions tend to have more smooth ice. In almost all cases, roughened ice represents > 60% of the total retrievals. The asymmetry parameter inferred from the retrieval of ice particle shape and roughness has a mean value near 0.77, with only small differences based on assumed ice effective diameter. The median value of the asymmetry parameter has a nearly constant value of approximately 0.75

Triangles in Ks-saturated graphs with minimum degree t

For $n \geq 15$, we prove that the minimum number of triangles in an $n$-vertex $K_4$-saturated graph with minimum degree 4 is exactly $2n-4$, and that there is a unique extremal graph. This is a triangle version of a result of Alon, Erd\H{o}s, Holzman, and Krivelevich from 1996. Additionally, we show that for any $s \u3e r \geq 3$ and $t \geq 2 (s-2)+1$, there is a $K_s$-saturated $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree $t$ that has $\binom{ s-2}{r-1}2^{r-1} n + c_{s,r,t}$ copies of $K_r$. This shows that unlike the number of edges, the number of $K_r$\u27s ($r \u3e2$) in a $K_s$-saturated graph is not forced to grow with the minimum degree, except for possibly in lower order terms

Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence on Prize-Linked Savings Accounts

This paper studies the adoption and impact of prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts, which offer random, lottery-like payouts to individual account holders in lieu of interest. Using micro-level data from a bank offering these products in South Africa, we show that a PLS product was attractive to a broad group of individuals, across all age, race, and income levels. Financially-constrained individuals and those with no other deposit accounts were particularly likely to open a PLS account. Participants in the PLS program increased their total savings on average by 1% of annual income, a 38% increase from the mean level of savings. Deposits in PLS did not appear to cannibalize same-bank savings in standard savings products. Instead, PLS appears to serve as a substitute for lottery gambling. Exploiting the random assignment of prizes, we also present evidence that prize winners increase their investment in PLS, sometimes by more than the amount of the prize won, and that large prizes generate a local “buzz” which lead to an 11.6% increase in demand for PLS at a winning branch