Moral Obligation and Evaluating Group Disloyalty Among Children

Research on children’s moral obligation has shown that children ages 8 to 13 years believe it is a moral obligation to help the out-group in high need conditions (Sierksma, Thijs, Verkuyten, 2014). In these high need situations, children feel morally expected to offer help independent of group membership. Less is known about children’s’ moral obligation to the out-group in varying contexts and in situations of varying threat to the in-group (Nesdale, Maass, Durken, & Griffiths, 2005). The current study investigates moral obligation to the in-group and out-group in three contexts (disloyalty via psychological harm to the in-group, disloyalty via physical harm to the in-group, and disloyalty via violation of dress code rules to the in-group). In addition, varying levels of disloyalty were examined (e.g., high cost and low cost disloyalty). This topic of study is crucial in understanding the various intergroup contexts in which children experience moral obligations. The sample consisted of 37 children (Mage=13.27 years; SD=2.22; 68% female). Participants were randomly assigned to three contexts (e.g., physical harm, psychological harm, violation of dress code), each condition included two stories depicting low cost of disloyalty and high cost of disloyalty toward the in-group. Participants responded to two questions about the importance of helping their in-group and the out-group (e.g., “How important was it for X to try to get more water for your/the other group?” Likert-type scale: 1=really not important, 6= really important). Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted with importance of helping (in-group vs. out- group) as the repeated measure and context as the between subject factor. Participants evaluated helping the in-group as more important than helping the out-group in both low cost and high cost situations. This was evidenced by main effects for both low cost (F(1,34)=13.47

Complete Break Up of Ortho Positronium (Ps)- Hydrogenic ion System

The dynamics of the complete breakup process in an Ortho Ps - He+ system including electron loss to the continuum (ELC) is studied where both the projectile and the target get ionized. The process is essentially a four body problem and the present model takes account of the two centre effect on the electron ejected from the Ps atom which is crucial for a proper description of the ELC phenomena. The calculations are performed in the framework of Coulomb Distorted Eikonal Approximation. The exchange effect between the target and the projectile electron is taken into account in a consistent manner. The proper asymptotic 3-body boundary condition for this ionization process is also satisfied in the present model. A distinct broad ELC peak is noted in the fully differential cross sections (5DCS) for the Ps electron corroborating qualitatively the experiment for the Ps - He system. Both the dynamics of the ELC from the Ps and the ejected electron from the target He+ in the FDCS are studied using coplanar geometry. Interesting features are noted in the FDCS for both the electrons belonging to the target and the projectile.Comment: 14 pages,7 figure

Applicability and sensitivity of PCR-SSCP method for milk species identification in cheese

Species identification in food has become a prominent issue in recent years as the importance of consumer protection has increased. DNA-based species identification methods were developed by researchers in the last two decades, as these are reliable, accurate, and low-cost techniques for species identification in raw and processed food products as well. In our study, universal primers were designed to conserved regions of mitochondrial 12S rRNA. Amplicons were heat-denatured and a PCR single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) method was developed to identify cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goat DNA. Sensitivity of this technique was tested on DNA mixtures of cattle-sheep, cattle-goat, and cattle-buffalo and the threshold limit of cattle DNA was 5%, 5%, and 3%, respectively. One hundred and five cheeses were purchased and collected from Bosnian and Hungarian farmers, retails, and supermarkets to reveal fraud, 32 percent of them (34 cheeses) were found to be mislabelled by species

Pioglitazone Attenuates Cystic Burden in the PCK Rodent Model of Polycystic Kidney Disease

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder characterized by growth of fluid-filled cysts predominately in kidney tubules and liver bile ducts. Currently, the clinical management of PKD is limited to cyst aspiration, surgical resection or organ transplantation. Based on an observation that PPARγ agonists such as pioglitazone and rosiglitazone decrease mRNA levels of a Cl− transport protein, CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator), and the Cl− secretory response to vasopressin in cultured renal cells, it is hypothesized that PPARγ agonists will inhibit cyst growth. The current studies show that a 7- or 14-week pioglitazone feeding regimen inhibits renal and hepatic bile duct cyst growth in the PCK rat, a rodent model orthologous to human PKD. These studies provide proof of concept for the mechanism of action of the PPARγ agonists and suggest that this class of drugs may be effective in controlling both renal and hepatic cyst growth and fibrosis in PKD

A neutron spectrometer for studying giant resonances with (p,n) reactions in inverse kinematics

A neutron spectrometer, the European Low-Energy Neutron Spectrometer (ELENS), has been constructed to study exotic nuclei in inverse-kinematics experiments. The spectrometer, which consists of plastic scintillator bars, can be operated in the neutron energy range of 100 keV-10 MeV. The neutron energy is determined using the time-of-flight technique, while the position of the neutron detection is deduced from the time-difference information from photomultipliers attached to both ends of each bar. A novel wrapping method has been developed for the plastic scintillators. The array has a larger than 25% detection efficiency for neutrons of approximately 500 keV in kinetic energy and an angular resolution of less than 1 degrees. Details of the design, construction and experimental tests of the spectrometer will be presented. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p