Humans expect generosity

Mechanisms supporting human ultra-cooperativeness are very much subject to debate. One psychological feature likely to be relevant is the formation of expectations, particularly about receiving cooperative or generous behavior from others. Without such expectations, social life will be seriously impeded and, in turn, expectations leading to satisfactory interactions can become norms and institutionalize cooperation. In this paper, we assess people’s expectations of generosity in a series of controlled experiments using the dictator game. Despite differences in respective roles, involvement in the game, degree of social distance or variation of stakes, the results are conclusive: subjects seldom predict that dictators will behave selfishly (by choosing the Nash equilibrium action, namely giving nothing). The majority of subjects expect that dictators will choose the equal split. This implies that generous behavior is not only observed in the lab, but also expected by subjects. In addition, expectations are accurate, matching closely the donations observed and showing that as a society we have a good grasp of how we interact. Finally, correlation between expectations and actual behavior suggests that expectations can be an important ingredient of generous or cooperative behavior

The emergence of altruism as a social norm

Expectations, exerting influence through social norms, are a very strong candidate to explain how complex societies function. In the Dictator game (DG), people expect generous behavior from others even when they cannot enforce any sharing of the pie. Here we assume that people donate following their expectations, and that they update their expectation after playing a DG by reinforcement learning to construct a model that explains the main experimental results in the DG. Full agreement with the experimental results is reached when some degree of mismatch between expectations and donations is added into the model. These results are robust against the presence of envious agents, but affected if we introduce selfish agents that do not update their expectations. Our results point to social norms being on the basis of the generous behavior observed in the DG and also to the wide applicability of reinforcement learning to explain many strategic interactions

Diagnosis for ecological intensification of maize-based smallholder farming systems in the Costa Chica, Mexico

Enhanced utilization of ecological processes for food and feed production as part of the notion of ecological intensification starts from location-specific knowledge of production constraints. A diagnostic systems approach which combined social-economic and production ecological methods at farm and field level was developed and applied to diagnose extent and causes of the perceived low productivity of maize-based smallholder systems in two communities of the Costa Chica in South West Mexico. Social-economic and production ecological surveys were applied and complemented with model-based calculations. The results demonstrated that current nutrient management of crops has promoted nutrition imbalances, resulting in K- and, less surprisingly N-limited production conditions, reflected in low yields of the major crops maize and roselle and low resource use efficiencies. Production on moderate to steep slopes was estimated to result in considerable losses of soil and organic matter. Poor crop production, lack of specific animal fodder production systems and strong dependence on animal grazing within communal areas limited recycling of nutrients through manure. In combination with low prices for the roselle cash crop, farmers are caught in a vicious cycle of cash shortage and resource decline. The production ecological findings complemented farmers opinions by providing more insight in background and extent of livelihood constraints. Changing fertilizer subsidies and rethinking animal fodder production as well as use of communal lands requires targeting both formal and informal governance structures. The methodology has broader applicability in smallholder systems in view of its low demand on capital intensive resource

Circulation of Highly Drug-Resistant Clostridium difficile Ribotypes 027 and 001 in Two Tertiary-Care Hospitals in Mexico

© 2018, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.OBJECTIVE: To assess drug susceptibility and characterize Clostridium difficile ribotypes in isolates from two tertiary-care hospitals in Mexico. METHODS: Isolates were evaluated for genotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and detection of mutations associated with drug resistance. PCR ribotyping was performed using a combination of gel-based and capillary electrophoresis-based approaches. RESULTS: MIC50 and MIC90 were ≥128 mg/L for ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, clindamycin, and rifampicin. There was no reduced susceptibility to metronidazole or tetracycline; however, reduced susceptibility to vancomycin (≥4 mg/L) and fidaxomicin (≥2 mg/L) was detected in 50 (40.3%) and 4 (3.2%) isolates, respectively. Furthermore, the rpoB Arg505Lys mutation was more frequently detected in isolates with high minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to rifampicin (≥32 mg/L) (OR = 52.5; 95% CI = 5.17-532.6; p < 0.000). Of the 124 C. difficile isolates recovered, 84 (66.7%) were of ribotype 027, 18 (14.5%) of ribotype 001, and the remainder were other ribotypes (353, 255, 220, 208, 176, 106, 076, 020, 019, 017, 014, 012, 003, and 002). CONCLUSION: Ribotypes 027 and 001 were the most frequent C. difficile isolates recovered in this study, and demonstrated higher MICs. Furthermore, we found four isolates with reduced susceptibility to fidaxomicin, raising a concern since this drug is currently unavailable in Mexican Hospitals.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Aerospace industry in Queretaro, Mexico: a perspective of regional innovation system

Using the theoretical perspective of the Regional Innovation System (RIS), this paper analyzes the structure of the aerospace industry in Mexico, focusing on the region of Querétaro, Mexico. The objective of the research is to analyze the development, growth prospects , key agents and their interrelations of the aerospace industry in the Queretaro region from the perspective of the RIS. The aerospace industry in Querétaro has more than 40 companies, research centers and universities, intermediate and government agencies that focus on the aerospace industry, the region has presented rates of economic growth above the national average in the last 6 years, however to achieve the consolidation of the aerospace industry towards an RIS requires greater efforts of articulation and coordination among the agents that make up the system, it can be achieved through strategies and policies in joint collaboration for the consolidation of the industry in the region.N/

Assessing the Impact of the Lead/Lag Times on the Project Duration Estimates in Highway Construction

The literature mentions multiple factors that can affect the accuracy of estimating the project duration in highway construction, such as weather, location, and soil conditions. However, there are other factors that have not been explored, yet they can have significant impact on the accuracy of the project time estimate. Recently, TxDOT raised a concern regarding the importance of the proper estimating of the lead/lag times in project schedules. These lead/lag times are often determined based on the engineer’s experience. However, inaccurate estimates of the lead/lag time can result in unrealistic project durations. In order to investigate this claim, the study utilizes four time sensitivity measures (TSM), namely the Criticality Index (CI), Significance Index (SI), Cruciality Index (CRI), and the Schedule Sensitivity Index (SSI) to statistically analyze and draw conclusions regarding the impact of the lead/lag time estimates on the total duration in highway projects. An Excel-based scheduling software was developed with Monte Carlo simulation capabilities to calculate these TSM. The results from this paper show that the variability of some lead/lag times can significantly impact the accuracy of the estimated total project duration. It was concluded that the current practices used for estimating the lead/lag times are insufficient. As such, it is recommended to utilize more robust methods, such as the time sensitivity measures, to accurately estimate the lead/lad times in the projects scheduled

Using PLS-SEM to Analyze the Effect of CSR on Corporate Performance: The Mediating Role of Human Resources Management and Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in the Spanish Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is the published versión of a published work that apear in final form in Mathematics. To see the final versión see https://doi.org/10.3390/math9222973Although in recent decades corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been subjected to numerous studies in management and marketing literature about its impact on business results, the mechanism by which it affects performance has not been established. There is a lack of consensus when it comes to explaining how CSR actions are related to firm performance. Our research helps to understand this relationship through mediating effects such as CSR-oriented human resource management and customer satisfaction because employees and customers are critical stakeholders of companies and contribute directly to the determination of the corporate results. Through a study on a sample of small and medium-sized Spanish food and beverage manufacturing companies, and by using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), we found that CSR does indeed impact business performance when CSR actions are mainly oriented towards more efficient management of human resources and customer satisfaction. In this way, the results lead us to conclude that depending on the stakeholder to which these actions are oriented, a specific orientation of the company’s CSR policy can be more efficient in corporate performanc

Fertilización orgánica-mineral del cultivo de amaranto (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.)

de diferentes dosis de fertilización orgánica-mineral en el rendimiento de grano y altura de planta de amaranto; además, de determinar si existe correlación alguna entre las densidades de plantas y el rendimiento. El diseño experimental utilizado fue bloques completamente al azar con cuatro repeticiones. El experimento se condujo bajo el sistema tradicional de siembra directa durante los ciclos de cultivo (2014-2015). Los tratamientos se obtuvieron por medio de la matriz Plan Puebla I, los factores y niveles de estudio fueron: nitrógeno (20, 40, 80 y 100 kg ha-1), fósforo (0, 20, 40 y 60 kg ha-1) y composta de estiércol de bovino (0.5, 1, 2 y 3 t ha-1), agregándose 40 kg ha-1 de potasio a los tratamientos y el testigo (00-00-00-00). Las variables evaluadas fueron rendimiento de grano por m2, rendimiento por planta y altura de planta. Al momento del corte de panoja también se contó el número de plantas por unidad experimental con la finalidad de correlacionar la densidad de plantas y el rendimiento. Se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas (Tukey, p< 0.05) en altura de planta, rendimiento por planta y rendimiento por m2; enambas variables de rendimiento el mejor tratamiento fue 80-20-00 kg ha-1 de N-P-K más una tonelada de composta. Se encontró una correlación negativa significativa (r2= -0.38982; Pearson, p< 0.05) entre el número de plantas y altura de planta; y entre número de plantas y rendimiento por planta (r2= -0.73993; Pearson, p< 0.05).CONACY

Nobody expects selfishness

Mechanisms supporting human ultra-cooperativeness are very much subject to debate. One psychological feature likely to be relevant is the formation of expectations, particularly about receiving cooperative or generous behavior from others. Without such expectations, social life will be seriously impeded and, in turn, expectations leading to satisfactory interactions can become norms and institutionalize cooperation. In this paper, we assess people's expectations of generosity in a series of controlled experiments using the dictator game. Despite differences in respective roles, involvement in the game, degree of social distance or variation of stakes, the results are conclusive: subjects seldom predict that dictators will behave selfishly (by choosing the Nash equilibrium action, namely giving nothing). The majority of subjects expect that dictators will choose the equal split. This implies that generous behavior is not only observed in the lab, but also expected by subjects. In addition, expectations are accurate, matching closely the donations observed and showing that as a society we have a good grasp of how we interact. Finally, correlation between expectations and actual behavior suggests that expectations can be an important ingredient of generous or cooperative behavior