Comparing Willingness-to-Pay Estimates from Experimental Auctions with Mailed Surveys Incorporating Cheap Talk

Willingness-to-pay (WTP) results from experimental auctions are compared to those from cheap-talk and conventional surveys for branded beef products in Canada. It is found that while the cheap-talk survey appears to mitigate hypothetical bias compared to the conventional survey, cheap-talk survey WTP remains higher than that in experimental auctions.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Values Affirmation in The Treatment of Moral Injury: A Pilot Study

Mainly studied in the context of military veterans, “moral injury” refers to extreme guilt and shame experienced as a result of perpetrating, bearing witness to, or failing to prevent events that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. The current pilot study aimed to examine the potential use of a brief values affirmation intervention in the treatment of moral injury associated with everyday moral transgressions. This study included 90 participants recruited from Amazon’s MTurk. Participants completed a survey in which they were assigned to complete either a values affirmation or control task, recall a moral transgression, and reflect on the recalled event. It was hypothesized that participants in the values affirmation condition would experience less shame and guilt associated with the recall of a moral transgression than the control condition, and this effect was expected to be mediated by participant’s perceptions of the event as morally injurious. Results indicate that the values affirmation had a significant effect on shame, but not moral injury or guilt. Observed patterns suggest that the values affirmation tended to increase, rather than decrease moral injury. Implications of the findings, limitations of the methodology, and potential directions for future research are discussed

Comparative analysis of deafness and the deaf cultural experience in the U.S. and in Israel

The treatment of disabled individuals, including deaf individuals, has varied by nation and taken generations to improve. The United States of America, which emerged in the 20th century as one of the major world powers, was inconsistent in its treatment of the disabled until the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The other world power, the former Soviet Union, failed miserably to consider its disabled citizens, oftentimes expelled them from society, and if not removed, forced them to endure unconscionable situations and circumstances. While these two countries\u27 failures prove interesting to compare, the purpose of this paper is to specifically analyze the treatment of the deaf in the State of Israel and the United States of America. These two countries, (despite a relatively stable diplomatic relationship), have different health care systems, economic capabilities and demands, and geographic challenges-- all of which play an important role in their respective societies\u27 treatment of deaf citizens. My decision to compare these two countries is rooted in their unique relationship that incorporates politics, religion, and democracy. It was the United States, under the leadership of President Harry S. Truman, that was the first to offer recognition of the State of Israel immediately after its establishment -- creating the background for a long, complicated relationship that continues into the 21st century. After setting forth a brief history on the treatment of deafness, I aim to properly assess the differences and similarities in the treatment and lives of deaf individuals by the respective countries, on a societal, governmental and cultural level, to identify potential reasons, motivations and results for both. Among the topics I will address, with a lens on deaf individuals, are differences in disability legislation, social constructs and identity (including education), and differences in culture

Visualization of fresh cut timber deformation by photogrammetry

Understanding the mechanical behavior of fresh cut timber, in which the natural moisture content has been retained, has application in predicting the behavior of living tree elements such as branch/stem joints, potentially inspiring structural designs through biomimicry. This project develops a process of strain imaging using particle image velocimetry to analyze behavior of timber samples freshly cut from oak tree joints and tested in tension. The timber surface was not coated so the fiber response could be visualized directly. Load was applied in steps and different methods for comparing images were trialled, including a sequential method in which strain is accumulated progressively from image to image and a first-to-last comparison. Sample flexibility caused significant deformation in the camera field of view, and so the analysis methodology was modified so that each image was compared sequentially with the first with the target area in the image for strain calculation expanded as the test proceeded. This resulted in strain contour plots able to show the impending failure of the component as the tension is applied

Global Modeling of Spur Formation in Spiral Galaxies

We investigate the formation of substructure in spiral galaxies using global MHD simulations, including gas self-gravity. Our models extend previous local models by Kim and Ostriker (2002) by including the full effects of curvilinear coordinates, a realistic log-spiral perturbation, self-gravitational contribution from 5 radial wavelengths of the spiral shock, and variation of density and epicyclic frequency with radius. We show that with realistic Toomre Q values, self-gravity and galactic differential rotation produce filamentary gaseous structures with kpc-scale separations, regardless of the strength -- or even presence -- of a stellar spiral potential. However, the growth of sheared features distinctly associated with the spiral arms, described as spurs or feathers in optical and IR observations of many spiral galaxies, requires a sufficiently strong spiral potential in self gravitating models. Unlike independently-growing ''background'' filaments, the orientation of arm spurs depends on galactic location. Inside corotation, spurs emanate outward, on the convex side of the arm; outside corotation, spurs grow inward, on the concave side of the arm. Based on spacing, orientation, and the relation to arm clumps, it is possible to distinguish ''true spurs'' that originate as instabilities in the spiral arms from independently growing ''background'' filaments. Our models also suggest that magnetic fields are important in preserving grand design spiral structure when gas in the arms fragments via self-gravity into GMCs.Comment: 36 pages, 17 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ. PDF version with high resolution figures available at http://www.astro.umd.edu/~shetty/Research

How Do Homebuyers Value Different Types of Green Space?

It is important to understand tradeoffs in preferences for natural and constructed green space in semi-arid urban areas because these lands compete for scarce water resources. We perform a hedonic study using high resolution, remotely-sensed vegetation indices and house sales records. We find that homebuyers in the study area prefer greener lots, greener neighborhoods, and greener nearby riparian corridors, and they pay premiums for proximity to green space amenities. The findings have fundamental implications for the efficient allocation of limited water supplies between different types of green space and for native vegetation conservation in semi-arid metropolitan areas.hedonic model, locally weighted regression, spatial, open space, golf course, park, riparian, Consumer/Household Economics, Land Economics/Use,

A Theory of Mind investigation into the appreciation of visual jokes in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that groups of people with schizophrenia have deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) capabilities. Previous studies have found these to be linked to psychotic symptoms (or psychotic symptom severity) particularly the presence of delusions and hallucinations. METHODS: A visual joke ToM paradigm was employed where subjects were asked to describe two types of cartoon images, those of a purely Physical nature and those requiring inferences of mental states for interpretation, and to grade them for humour and difficulty. Twenty individuals with a DSM-lV diagnosis of schizophrenia and 20 healthy matched controls were studied. Severity of current psychopathology was measured using the Krawiecka standardized scale of psychotic symptoms. IQ was estimated using the Ammons and Ammons quick test. RESULTS: Individuals with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than controls in both conditions, this difference being most marked in the ToM condition. No relationship was found for poor ToM performance and psychotic positive symptomatology, specifically delusions and hallucinations. CONCLUSION: There was evidence for a compromised ToM capability in the schizophrenia group on this visual joke task. In this instance this could not be linked to particular symptomatology

Neuronal morphologies built for reliable physiology in a rhythmic motor circuit

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in eLife 8 (2019): e41728. doi: 10.7554/eLife.41728.It is often assumed that highly-branched neuronal structures perform compartmentalized computations. However, previously we showed that the Gastric Mill (GM) neuron in the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) operates like a single electrotonic compartment, despite having thousands of branch points and total cable length >10 mm (Otopalik et al., 2017a; 2017b). Here we show that compact electrotonic architecture is generalizable to other STG neuron types, and that these neurons present direction-insensitive, linear voltage integration, suggesting they pool synaptic inputs across their neuronal structures. We also show, using simulations of 720 cable models spanning a broad range of geometries and passive properties, that compact electrotonus, linear integration, and directional insensitivity in STG neurons arise from their neurite geometries (diameters tapering from 10-20 µm to < 2 µm at their terminal tips). A broad parameter search reveals multiple morphological and biophysical solutions for achieving different degrees of passive electrotonic decrement and computational strategies in the absence of active properties.We thank Jennifer Bestman for assistance in spinning disk and confocal microscopy; the Marine Resources Center at the Marine Biological Laboratories for acquiring and maintaining animals; Louie Kerr at the Central Microscopy Facility; Dana Mock-Munoz de Luna for administrative support; Kam-ran Kodhakhah, Heather Rhodes, and the 2017 Grass Fellows for their support and feedback; and lastly, Edward Dougherty at the Brandeis University Confocal Imaging Lab for support and microscope maintenance. This study was funded by the Grass Foundation and NINDS awards to F31NS092126 to AO and R35NS097343 to EM