Characterization Of A Clustering Gas Jet For High Energy Density Plasma Production

When expanding through a nozzle into a vacuum in a high-pressure-backed supersonic jet, certain gases can condense into van der Waals-bound atomic or molecular clusters. These clusters absorb intense, pulsed laser light more efficiently than uniform gas jets of the same average density, making them useful sources of high energy density plasmas. An argon gas jet designed to produce such clusters was studied using Rayleigh scattering and interferometry

Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Microbial Communities Proximal to a Florida Sewage Outfall System

Water samples were collected at several wastewater treatment plants in southeast Florida, and water and sediment samples were collected along and around one outfall pipe, as well as along several transects extending both north and south of the respective outfall outlet. Two sets of samples were collected to address potential seasonal differences, including 38 in the wet season (June 2018) and 42 in the dry season (March 2019). Samples were screened for the presence/absence of 15 select antibiotic resistance gene targets using the polymerase chain reaction. A contrast between seasons was found, with a higher frequency of detections occurring in the wet season and fewer during the dry season. These data illustrate an anthropogenic influence on offshore microbial genetics and seasonal flux regarding associated health risks to recreational users and the regional ecosystem

Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Microbial Communities Proximal to a Florida Sewage Outfall System

Water samples were collected at several wastewater treatment plants in southeast Florida, and water and sediment samples were collected along and around one outfall pipe, as well as along several transects extending both north and south of the respective outfall outlet. Two sets of samples were collected to address potential seasonal differences, including 38 in the wet season (June 2018) and 42 in the dry season (March 2019). Samples were screened for the presence/absence of 15 select antibiotic resistance gene targets using the polymerase chain reaction. A contrast between seasons was found, with a higher frequency of detections occurring in the wet season and fewer during the dry season. These data illustrate an anthropogenic influence on offshore microbial genetics and seasonal flux regarding associated health risks to recreational users and the regional ecosystem

Compatibility Effects in Judgment and Choice

43 pagesWe investigate the hypothesis that the weight of a stimulus attribute is enhanced by its compatibility with the response mode. The first section demonstrates compatibility effects in predictions of market value (Study 1) and course grades (Study 2). In each case, the weight of a stimulus attribute is greater when it matches the response scale than when it does not. The second section applies the compatibility principle to the study of choice, and investigates the hypothesis that preference reversals are caused by the fact that payoffs are weighted more heavily in pricing than in choice, as implied by compatibility. The account is supported in experiments on risky choice (Studies 3 and 5), and on time preferences (Study 4). Theoretical and practical implications of the compatibility hypothesis are discusses in the last section.Support for this research was provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and by NSF Grant No. SES 8712145 to Decision Research. This chapter has benefited from the comments of Robyn Dawes, Gregory Fischer, Robin Hogarth, Eric Johnson, and Daniel Kahneman

The Social-Safety System: Fortifying Relationships in the Face of the Unforeseeable

A model of the social-safety system is proposed to explain how people sustain a sense of safety in the relational world when they are not able to foresee the behavior of others. In this model, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by agents in their personal relational world behaving unexpectedly (e.g., spouse, child) by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their sociopolitical relational world (e.g., President, Congress). Conversely, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by sociopolitical agents behaving unexpectedly by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their personal relational world. Two daily diary studies, a longitudinal study of the 2018 midterm election, and a 3-year longitudinal study of newlyweds supported the hypotheses. On a daily basis, people who were less certain they could trust their romantic partner defended against acutely unforeseeable behavior in one relational world by affirming faith in the well-intentioned motivations of agents in the alternate world. Moreover, when people were more in the personal daily habit of finding safety in the alternate relational world in the face of the unexpected, those who were initially uncertain they could trust their romantic partner later evidenced greater comfort depending on their personal relationship partners

Individual differences in self-affirmation: distinguishing self-affirmation from positive self-regard

Research into self-affirmation has almost exclusively employed experimental manipulations. In this paper we address individual differences in the tendency to respond to threats with self-affirming cognitions and distinguish this from two overlapping constructs: habitual positive self-thought and trait self-esteem. Items we designed to measure self-affirmation were represented by three first-order factors and loaded on a higher-order factor, creating the Spontaneous Self-Affirmation Measure (SSAM). The SSAM correlated moderately with self-esteem and habitual positive self-thought. In competitive analyses, the SSAM was an independent predictor of a large number of outcomes. The studies provide evidence about the correlates of individual differences in reported spontaneous self-affirmation in response to threat and the contribution made to this response by habitual positive self-thought and trait self-esteem

Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenic Capacity Is Regulated by Elovl6.

Although many transcriptional pathways regulating BAT have been identified, the role of lipid biosynthetic enzymes in thermogenesis has been less investigated. Whereas cold exposure causes changes in the fatty acid composition of BAT, the functional consequences of this remains relatively unexplored. In this study, we demonstrate that the enzyme Elongation of Very Long Chain fatty acids 6 (Elovl6) is necessary for the thermogenic action of BAT. Elovl6 is responsible for converting C16 non-essential fatty acids into C18 species. Loss of Elovl6 does not modulate traditional BAT markers; instead, it causes reduced expression of mitochondrial electron transport chain components and lower BAT thermogenic capacity. The reduction in BAT activity appears to be counteracted by increased beiging of scWAT. When beige fat is disabled by thermoneutrality or aging, Elovl6 KO mice gain weight and have increased scWAT mass and impaired carbohydrate metabolism. Overall, our study suggests fatty acid chain length is important for BAT function.We thank the BBSRC, MRC, EU FP7 5 BetaBAT and Wellcome Trust for funding this work.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2015.11.00

How does culture influence corporate risk-taking?

We investigate the role of national culture and earnings management in corporate risk-taking. First, we postulate that culture influences managerial risk-taking directly through its effect on individual decision-making and indirectly through its effect on a country’s formal institutions and a firm’s managerial practices. Second, we postulate that the influence of culture is conditioned on measures of earnings management and firm size. Using firm-level data from 35 countries and employing a hierarchical linear modeling approach to isolate the effects of firm-level and country-level variables, we show that individualism has positive and significant direct effects, whereas uncertainty avoidance has negative and significant direct effects on corporate risk-taking. Our economic significance analysis of the total effects suggests that culture has significant explanatory power in corporate risk-taking. Greater earnings management strengthens and large