Maritime Location Decisions for Lng Bunkering Facilities

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one of the upcoming fuels to be used for more sustainable shipping activities in the maritime sector. For a widespread adoption by end-users, a refuelling network requiring capital intensive investments, needs to be in place. From a macro perspective of suppliers of LNG, it makes sense to develop the infrastructure at strategic locations that capture as many vessels and ships as possible. The goal of this research is to develop a facility location model that can contribute to the location selection of LNG facilities in a new fuelling network. The new model will fit the maritime sector and specifically the LNG transition. Experiments, with data obtained from expert interviews, have been performed to study facility location decisions in the North Sea areas

How Social is Your Social Network? Toward A Measurement Model

Social networks are omnipresent in both our private and professional lives. As social beings, we thrive on the ability provided to us by the technology to be social. But what does it really mean to be social within social networks? To better capture and measure socialness in that context, we look beyond measures of being active and having many connections with others, like Social Network Analysis does. In this paper, we zoom in on a new dimension that captures the content of social exchanges. We propose, that social(ness) markers related to content can be divided into four facets: being personal, being curious, being respectful, and share with others. A correlation analysis is applied to showcase how each facet is related to the dimensions of activity and connectivity. As a result, we provide a comprehensive measurement model for socialness in computer-mediated and networked environments

The path of ambivalence: tracing the pull of opposing evaluations using mouse trajectories

Ambivalence refers to a psychological conflict between opposing evaluations, often experienced as being torn between alternatives. This dynamic aspect of ambivalence is hard to capture with outcome-focused measures, such as response times or self-report. To gain more insight into ambivalence as it unfolds, the current work uses an embodied measure of pull, drawing on research in dynamic systems. In three studies, using different materials, we tracked people’s mouse movements as they chose between negative and positive evaluations of attitude objects. When participants evaluated ambivalent attitude objects, their mouse trajectories showed more pull of the non-chosen evaluative option than when they evaluated univalent attitude objects, revealing that participants were literally torn between the two opposing evaluations. We address the relationship of this dynamic measure to response time and self-reports of ambivalence and discuss implications and avenues for future research

Unique and conserved functions of B cell-activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF) in the chicken

The chicken represents the best-characterized animal model for B cell development in the so-called gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) and the molecular processes leading to B cell receptor diversification in this species are well investigated. However, the mechanisms regulating B cell development and homeostasis in GALT species are largely unknown. Here we investigate the role played by the avian homologue of B cell-activating factor of the tumor necrosis factor family (BAFF). Flow cytometric analysis showed that the receptor for chicken B cell-activating factor of the tumor necrosis factor family (chBAFF) is expressed by mature and immature B cells. Unlike murine and human BAFF, chBAFF is primarily produced by B cells both in peripheral lymphoid organs and in the bursa of Fabricius, the chicken's unique primary lymphoid organ. In vitro and in vivo studies revealed that chBAFF is required for mature B cell survival. In addition, in vivo neutralization with a decoy receptor led to a reduction of the size and number of B cell follicles in the bursa, demonstrating that, in contrast to humans and mice, in chickens BAFF is also required for the development of immature B cells. Collectively, we show that chBAFF has phylogenetically conserved functions in mature B cell homeostasis but displays unique and thus far unknown properties in the regulation of B cell development in bird

Phonon Sidebands in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Excitons dominate the optical properties of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Besides optically accessible bright exciton states, TMDs exhibit also a multitude of optically forbidden dark excitons. Here, we show that efficient exciton-phonon scattering couples bright and dark states and gives rise to an asymmetric excitonic line shape. The observed asymmetry can be traced back to phonon-induced sidebands that are accompanied by a polaron redshift. We present a joint theory-experiment study investigating the microscopic origin of these sidebands in different TMD materials taking into account intra- and intervalley scattering channels opened by optical and acoustic phonons. The gained insights contribute to a better understanding of the optical fingerprint of these technologically promising nanomaterials

No Initial Elevation on Personality Self-Reports in an Online Convenience Sample

Research shows that people’s self-reports may be biased by an initial elevation phenomenon in which ratings are higher the first time that people take a survey as compared to the second and subsequent times. Apart from the fact that this phenomenon exists, and that it might bias ratings for negative subjective experiences more strongly than positive ones, little else is known. In the present study, we examined whether the initial elevation phenomenon occurs for commonly used trait measures, such as ratings on personality inventories and life satisfaction. We hypothesized that the initial elevation phenomenon may be associated with the (un)desirability of the content of the self-report items such that scores for undesirable facets would show initial elevation and scores for desirable facets would show the reverse. We tested this in an online convenience sample (N = 3,329) using 5 facets of a personality inventory and a single item measure of life satisfaction. Our hypotheses were not supported. Our findings suggest that at least for online convenience samples, ratings on personality inventories and life satisfaction are not strongly impacted by initial elevation

Vergleich des Einsatzes von Arbeitspferden und Traktortechnik im Kartoffelanbau bzgl. Boden- und Ertragsparameter

Ergebnisse eines Tastversuches unter Praxisbedingungen zum Vergleich des Einflusses von Zugpferde- vs. Traktoreinsatz auf Bodenparameter und Ertrag im Kartoffelbau

Ambivalence and interpersonal liking: The expression of ambivalence as social validation of attitudinal conflict

Literature on attitude similarity suggests that sharing similar attitudes enhances interpersonal liking, but it remains unanswered whether this effect also holds for ambivalent attitudes. In the present research, we shed light on the role attitudinal ambivalence plays in interpersonal liking. Specifically, we examine whether people express ambivalence strategically to generate a positive or negative social image, and whether this is dependent on the attitudinal ambivalence of their perceiver. We test two alternative hypotheses. In line with the attitude-similarity effect, people should express ambivalence toward ambivalent others to enhance interpersonal liking, as sharing ambivalence might socially validate the latter’s experience of attitudinal conflict. On the other hand, people might express more univalence, as ambivalence may drive ambivalent others toward the resolution of their attitudinal conflict, and univalent stances could help to achieve that goal. In two studies (N = 449, 149), people expressed similar attitudes to those of their perceivers, even when the latter experienced attitudinal conflict (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, they composed an essay, the message of which validated their perceiver’s attitudinal conflict (Study 2). In line with these results, we further observe that the more people experienced their ambivalence as conflicting, the more they liked others who similarly experienced attitudinal conflict (Study 1). These findings suggest that the expression of ambivalence can have important interpersonal functions, as it might lead to an enhanced social image when interacting with those coping with attitudinal conflict

Systematic analysis of the binding behaviour of UHRF1 towards different methyl- and carboxylcytosine modification patterns at CpG dyads

The multi-domain protein UHRF1 is essential for DNA methylation maintenance and binds DNA via a base-flipping mechanism with a preference for hemi-methylated CpG sites. We investigated its binding to hemi- and symmetrically modified DNA containing either 5-methylcytosine (mC), 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC), 5-formylcytosine (fC), or 5-carboxylcytosine (caC). Our experimental results indicate that UHRF1 binds symmetrically carboxylated and hybrid methylated/carboxylated CpG dyads in addition to its previously reported substrates. Complementary molecular dynamics simulations provide a possible mechanistic explanation of how the protein could differentiate between modification patterns. First, we observe different local binding modes in the nucleotide binding pocket as well as the protein's NKR finger. Second, both DNA modification sites are coupled through key residues within the NKR finger, suggesting a communication pathway affecting protein-DNA binding for carboxylcytosine modifications. Our results suggest a possible additional function of the hemi-methylation reader UHRF1 through binding of carboxylated CpG sites. This opens the possibility of new biological roles of UHRF1 beyond DNA methylation maintenance and of oxidised methylcytosine derivates in epigenetic regulation