Social comparisons are associated with poorer and riskier financial decision making, no matter whether encounters are sporadic or repeated

Previous research suggests that social comparisons affect decision making under uncertainty. However, the role of the length of the social interaction for this relationship remains unknown. This experiment tests the effect of social comparisons on financial risk taking and how this effect is modulated by whether social encounters are sporadic or repeated. Participants carried out a computer task consisting of a series of binary choices between lotteries of varying profitability and risk, with real monetary stakes. After each decision, participants could compare their own payoff to that of a counterpart who made the same decision at the same time and whose choices/earnings did not affect the participants’ earnings. The design comprised three between-subjects treatments which differed in the nature of the social interaction: participants were informed that they would be matched with either (a) a different participant in each trial, (b) the same participant across all trials, or (c) a "virtual participant", i.e. a computer algorithm. Compared to the non-social condition (c), subjects in both social conditions (a and b) chose lotteries with lower expected value (z=-3.10, p<0.01) and higher outcome variance (z=2.13, p=0.03). However, no differences were found between the two social conditions (z=1.15, p=0.25 and z=0.35, p=0.73, respectively). These results indicate that social comparison information per se leads to poorer and riskier financial decisions, irrespective of whether or not the referent other is encountered repeatedly

The appropriate response of Spanish Gitanos: short-run orientation beyond current socio-economic status

Humans differ greatly in their tendency to discount future events, but the reasons underlying such inter-individual differences remain poorly understood. Based on the evolutionary framework of Life History Theory, influential models predict that the extent to which individuals discount the future should be influenced by socio-ecological factors such as mortality risk, environmental predictability and resource scarcity. However, little empirical work has been conducted to compare the discounting behavior of human groups facing different socio-ecological conditions. In a lab-in-the-field economic experiment, we compared the delay discounting of a sample of Romani people from Southern Spain (Gitanos) with that of their non-Romani neighbors (i.e., the majority Spanish population). The Romani-Gitano population constitutes the main ethnic minority in all of Europe today and is characterized by lower socio-economic status (SES), lower life expectancy and poorer health than the majority, along with a historical experience of discrimination and persecution. According to those Life History Theory models, Gitanos will tend to adopt “faster” life history strategies (e.g., earlier marriage and reproduction) as an adaptation to such ecological conditions and, therefore, should discount the future more heavily than the majority. Our results support this prediction, even after controlling for the individuals’ current SES (income and education). Moreover, group-level differences explain a large share of the individual-level differences. Our data suggest that human inter-group discrimination might shape group members’ time preferences through its impact on the environmental harshness and unpredictability conditions they face

Do envy and compassion pave the way to unhappiness? Social preferences and life satisfaction in a Spanish city

Mounting evidence shows that people’s self-reported life satisfaction (LS) is negatively related to income inequality. Under the interpretation that the relationship between macro-level variables and LS reflects individuals’ social preferences, this finding indicates that most people display inequality-averse preferences. We explore the relationship between self-reports on inequality aversion and LS in a citywide representative survey/experiment conducted in Spain. If self-reported well-being can be used to infer people’s social preferences, LS should correlate negatively with both “envy” and “compassion” scores (i.e., how much one suffers from disadvantageous and advantageous inequality, respectively). We find that LS relates negatively to envy but positively to compassion, which would imply that suffering from observing poorer others, paradoxically, increases well-being. Using an incentivized Dictator Game as a measure of generous behavior, we reject the hypothesis that the positive link between compassion and LS is actually driven by generosity. We discuss how these findings could indicate that the way LS is used to assess social preferences in the population should be revised

Role of Particle Size on the Cohesive Behavior of Limestone Powders at High Temperature

Thermal Energy Storage (TES) using granular solids is gaining momentum in the last years. With no degradation up to very high temperatures and very low price, the use of some granular materials such as sand or SiC would be feasible for storing sensible heat at large scale. A further step beyond TES is thermochemical energy storage (TCES) wherein the granular solids undergo a highly endothermic reaction at high temperature. Energy can be in this way more efficiently stored in the long term and released on demand by means of the reverse exothermic reaction. The Calcium Looping process, based on the calcination/carbonation of CaCO3, is being actively investigated for this purpose. However, a caveat of using granular solids for energy storage is the possible increase of interparticle adhesive forces with temperature which would severely hamper the flowability of the solids in the process. The cohesiveness of granular materials is essentially determined by particle size. In this paper we investigate the dependence of the tensile yield strength and compressibility of CaCO3 powders on temperature and consoli- dation stress using samples of narrow particle size distribution in the relevant range between ∼30 and ∼80 μm particle size and temperatures up to 500◦C. Our experimental results show that powder cohesiveness is greatly increased with temperature especially in the case of the finest powders whose tensile yield strength can be increased by up 2 orders of magnitude. The increase of cohesiveness with temperature is further enhanced with a previously applied consolidation stress, which is particularly relevant for applications wherein large amounts of solids are to be stored at high temperature. Experimental data are consistent with the predictions by a contact mechanics model assuming that the solids deform plastically at interparticle contacts. A main conclusion from our work is that some mechanical properties of the solids, specially the mechanical hardness, and how they change with temperature, play a critical role on the flowability of the solids as affected by an increase of temperature.Versión aceptada del artículo. La versión final puede consultarse en: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.123520Ministerio de Economía y Empresa (contract No. CTQ2017-83602-C2-2-R, Feder Funds

Fittonia verschaffeltii Response to Artificial Light Treatments: BIOMASS, Nutrient Concentrations and Physiological Changes

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different light treatments on biomass, nutrient concentrations and physiological parameters of Fittonia verschaffeltii (Lem) Van Houtte. The aim was to establish a methodology to evaluate the effect of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) emitted by lamps on biomass. The light treatments used were tube luminescent Dunn (TL-D), tube luminescent Dunn + light emitting diodes (LEDs) and Tube luminescent 5 (TL-5). At the end of the experimental period, biomass, nutritional, biochemical, and physiological parameters were assessed. A clear reduction in total plant dry weight under TL-D + LEDs at the end of the experiment was recorded. With respect to nutrient concentration in the different organs assessed, there was no clear response under the different light treatments. The growth under TL-D lamps resulted in the highest concentration of total soluble sugars and starch in leaves, whereas the highest value of indole 3-acetic acid concentration was under TL-5 lamps. Plants grown under TL-D + LEDs showed the lowest values of chlorophyll a, b and a + b. The relationship proposed between integrated use of spectral energy (IUSE) and total dry weight (TDW) showed a good correlation with an R2 value of 0.86, therefore we recommend this methodology to discern the effects of the different spectral qualities on plant biomass

Parallel Two-Stage Least Squares algorithms for Simultaneous Equations Models on GPU

Today it is usual to have computational systems formed by a multicore together with one or more GPUs. These systems are heterogeneous, due to the di erent types of memory in the GPUs and to the di erent speeds of computation of the cores in the CPU and the GPU. To accelerate the solution of complex problems it is necessary to combine the two basic components (CPU and GPU) in the heterogeneous system. This paper analyzes the use of a multicore+multiGPU system for solving Simultaneous Equations Models by the Two-Stage Least Squares method with QR decomposition. The combination of CPU and GPU allows us to reduce the execution time in the solution of large SEM.Ramiro Sánchez, C.; López-Espín, JJ.; Giménez, D.; Vidal, AM. (2012). Parallel Two-Stage Least Squares algorithms for Simultaneous Equations Models on GPU. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1496

Targeting senescent cells in translational medicine.

Organismal ageing is a complex process driving progressive impairment of functionality and regenerative potential of tissues. Cellular senescence is a state of stable cell cycle arrest occurring in response to damage and stress and is considered a hallmark of ageing. Senescent cells accumulate in multiple organs during ageing, contribute to tissue dysfunction and give rise to pathological manifestations. Senescence is therefore a defining feature of a variety of human age-related disorders, including cancer, and targeted elimination of these cells has recently emerged as a promising therapeutic approach to ameliorate tissue damage and promote repair and regeneration. In addition, in vivo identification of senescent cells has significant potential for early diagnosis of multiple pathologies. Here, we review existing senolytics, small molecules and drug delivery tools used in preclinical therapeutic strategies involving cellular senescence, as well as probes to trace senescent cells. We also review the clinical research landscape in senescence and discuss how identifying and targeting cellular senescence might positively affect pathological and ageing processes

Structural determinants in ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants explain improved cholesterol metabolism despite low HDL levels.

Twenty Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I) variants are responsible for a systemic hereditary amyloidosis in which protein fibrils can accumulate in different organs, leading to their failure. Several ApoA-I amyloidogenic mutations are also associated with hypoalphalipoproteinemia, low ApoA-I and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol plasma levels; however, subjects affected by ApoA-I-related amyloidosis do not show a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The structural features, the lipid binding properties and the functionality of four ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants were therefore inspected in order to clarify the paradox observed in the clinical phenotype of the affected subjects. Our results show that ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants are characterized by a different oligomerization pattern and that the position of the mutation in the ApoA-I sequence affects the molecular structure of the formed HDL particles. Although lipidation increases ApoA-I proteins stability, all the amyloidogenic variants analyzed show a lower affinity for lipids, both in vitro and in ex vivo mouse serum. Interestingly, the lower efficiency at forming HDL particles is compensated by a higher efficiency at catalysing cholesterol efflux from macrophages. The decreased affinity of ApoA-I amyloidogenic variants for lipids, together with the increased efficiency in the cholesterol efflux process, could explain why, despite the unfavourable lipid profile, patients affected by ApoA-I related amyloidosis do not show a higher CVD risk

Exploiting Heterogeneous Parallelism on Hybrid Metaheuristics for Vector Autoregression Models

In the last years, the huge amount of data available in many disciplines makes the mathematical modeling, and, more concretely, econometric models, a very important technique to explain those data. One of the most used of those econometric techniques is the Vector Autoregression Models (VAR) which are multi-equation models that linearly describe the interactions and behavior of a group of variables by using their past. Traditionally, Ordinary Least Squares and Maximum likelihood estimators have been used in the estimation of VAR models. These techniques are consistent and asymptotically efficient under ideal conditions of the data and the identification problem. Otherwise, these techniques would yield inconsistent parameter estimations. This paper considers the estimation of a VAR model by minimizing the difference between the dependent variables in a certain time, and the expression of their own past and the exogenous variables of the model (in this case denoted as VARX model). The solution of this optimization problem is approached through hybrid metaheuristics. The high computational cost due to the huge amount of data makes it necessary to exploit High-Performance Computing for the acceleration of methods to obtain the models. The parameterized, parallel implementation of the metaheuristics and the matrix formulation ease the simultaneous exploitation of parallelism for groups of hybrid metaheuristics. Multilevel and heterogeneous parallelism are exploited in multicore CPU plus multiGPU nodes, with the optimum combination of the different parallelism parameters depending on the particular metaheuristic and the problem it is applied to.This work was supported by the Spanish MICINN and AEI, as well as European Commission FEDER funds, under grant RTI2018-098156-B-C53 and grant TIN2016-80565-R