The Affective Consequences of Expressing Moral Convictions

This project examined the affective consequences of expressing moral convictions to an opposing majority. It was predicted that moral conviction would function as a buffer to the common negative emotions that occur when speaking out against majority opinion (e.g., fear; Asch, 1956; Berns, et al., 2005). It was also hypothesized that moral conviction would enhance positive feelings among those who speak out (e.g., pride). Two studies were conducting using two different research paradigms. Study 1 used a normative influence paradigm modeled after Hornsey, Smith, and Begg (2007). Participants\u27 opinions and strength of moral conviction about the target issue (torture of suspected terrorists) were assessed. Participants, after being led to believe that the majority of their fellow students held the opposing opinion, were asked if they would be willing to have their opinion (with their full names) published in the school paper. Results show that simply having high moral conviction about the issue was associated with a feeling of strength - the effect of moral conviction on affect did not depend on speaking out. Study 2 used a computer-based version of an Asch-type conformity paradigm. The target issue was lowering the legal drinking age to 18. As in Study 1 there was a main effect of moral conviction; however an increase in moral conviction was associated with an increase in negative emotions after exposure to the normative influence and no increase in positive emotions. The difference between the main effects of moral conviction on affect found in the two studies is attributed to the difference in target issues. Study 2 also revealed that attitude direction has significant direct effects on affect

A comparison of European surveillance programs for Campylobacter in broilers

Campylobacter is an important foodborne pathogen as it is associated with significant disease burden across Europe. Among various sources, Campylobacter infections in humans are often related to the consumption of undercooked poultry meat or improper handling of poultry meat. Many European countries have implemented measures to reduce human exposure to Campylobacter from broiler meat. In this paper, surveillance programs implemented in some European countries is summarized. Our findings reveal that many European countries test neck skin samples for Campylobacter as per the Process Hygiene Criterion (PHC) set by the European Regulation. Variations to the legal plan are seen in some countries, as in Norway and Iceland, where weekly sampling is performed during infection peak periods only, or in Iceland, where the Campylobacter limit is set at 500 CFU/g instead of 1000 CFU/g. Furthermore, northern European countries have implemented national Campylobacter surveillance plans. Denmark tests cloaca and leg skin samples at the slaughterhouses and meat samples at the retail, while Finland, Norway, and Sweden test caeca at slaughterhouses. In contrast, Iceland tests feces on farms. Iceland and Norway test flocks close to the slaughter date and when a farm tests positive, competent authority implement measures such as logistic slaughter, heat treatment or freeze the meat from these flocks. In Iceland, frozen meat is further processed prior to being put on the market. While the incidence of campylobacteriosis has declined in all European countries except France since the introduction of PHC in 2018, it is uncertain whether this decrease is due to prevalence reduction or underreporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future investigations with more comprehensive data, devoid of potential confounding factors, are necessary to validate this potential trend. However, it is evident that the implementation of national action plans can be successful in reducing the incidence of human campylobacteriosis, as demonstrated by Iceland

Pro–B-Type Natriuretic Peptide1–108 Circulates in the General Community Plasma Determinants and Detection of Left Ventricular Dysfunction

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to investigate circulating pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (proBNP1–108) in the general community and evaluate its ability to detect left ventricular (LV) dysfunction.BackgroundThe current concept for cardiac endocrine function is that, in response to cardiac stress, the heart secretes B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP1–32) and amino-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP1–76) after intracardiac cleavage of their molecular precursor, proBNP1–108. We hypothesized that proBNP1–108 circulates in normal human subjects and that it is a useful biomarker for LV dysfunction.MethodsOur population-based study included a cohort of 1,939 adults (age ≥45 years) from Olmsted County, Minnesota, with 672 participants defined as healthy. Subjects underwent in-depth clinical characterization, detailed echocardiography, and measurement of proBNP1–108. Independent factors associated with proBNP1–108 and test characteristics for the detection of LV dysfunction were determined.ResultsProBNP1–108 in normal humans was strongly influenced by sex, age, heart rate, and body mass index. The median concentration was 20 ng/l with a mean proBNP1–108 to NT-proBNP1–76 ratio of 0.366, which decreased with heart failure stage. ProBNP1–108 was a sensitive (78.8%) and specific (86.1%) biomarker for detecting LV systolic dysfunction, which was comparable to BNP1–32, but less than NT-proBNP1–76, in several subsets of the population.ConclusionsProBNP1–108 circulates in the majority of healthy humans in the general population and is a sensitive and specific biomarker for the detection of systolic dysfunction. The proBNP1–108 to NT-proBNP1–76 ratio may provide insights into altered proBNP1–108 processing during heart failure progression. Thus, this highly specific assay for proBNP1–108 provides important new insights into the biology of the BNP system

A Bad Air Day in Houston

© Copyright 2005 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (https://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or [email protected] case study from the Texas Air Quality Study 2000 field campaign illustrates the complex interaction of meteorological and chemical processes that produced a high-pollution event in the Houston area on 30 August 2000. High 1-h ozone concentrations of nearly 200 ppb were measured near the surface, and vertical profile data from an airborne differential-absorption lidar (DIAL) system showed that these high-ozone concentrations penetrated to heights approaching 2 km into the atmospheric boundary layer. This deep layer of pollution was transported over the surrounding countryside at night, where it then mixed out the next day to become part of the rural background levels. These background levels thus increased during the course of the multiday pollution episode. The case study illustrates many processes that numerical forecast models must faithfully represent to produce accurate quantitative predictions of peak pollutant concentrations in coastal locations such as Houston. Such accurate predictions will be required for useful air-quality forecasts for urban areas.Southern Oxidant Study Texas Commission on Environmental Qualit

Search for gravitational wave bursts in LIGO's third science run

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts in data from the three LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search targets subsecond bursts in the frequency range 100-1100 Hz for which no waveform model is assumed, and has a sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10^{-20} / sqrt(Hz). No gravitational wave signals were detected in the 8 days of analyzed data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Amaldi-6 conference proceedings to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Quantum state preparation and macroscopic entanglement in gravitational-wave detectors

Long-baseline laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors are operating at a factor of 10 (in amplitude) above the standard quantum limit (SQL) within a broad frequency band. Such a low classical noise budget has already allowed the creation of a controlled 2.7 kg macroscopic oscillator with an effective eigenfrequency of 150 Hz and an occupation number of 200. This result, along with the prospect for further improvements, heralds the new possibility of experimentally probing macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM) - quantum mechanical behavior of objects in the realm of everyday experience - using gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper, we provide the mathematical foundation for the first step of a MQM experiment: the preparation of a macroscopic test mass into a nearly minimum-Heisenberg-limited Gaussian quantum state, which is possible if the interferometer's classical noise beats the SQL in a broad frequency band. Our formalism, based on Wiener filtering, allows a straightforward conversion from the classical noise budget of a laser interferometer, in terms of noise spectra, into the strategy for quantum state preparation, and the quality of the prepared state. Using this formalism, we consider how Gaussian entanglement can be built among two macroscopic test masses, and the performance of the planned Advanced LIGO interferometers in quantum-state preparation

Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has performed the fourth science run, S4, with significantly improved interferometer sensitivities with respect to previous runs. Using data acquired during this science run, we place a limit on the amplitude of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. For a frequency independent spectrum, the new limit is $\Omega_{\rm GW} < 6.5 \times 10^{-5}$. This is currently the most sensitive result in the frequency range 51-150 Hz, with a factor of 13 improvement over the previous LIGO result. We discuss complementarity of the new result with other constraints on a stochastic background of gravitational waves, and we investigate implications of the new result for different models of this background.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure

State pension funds and corporate social responsibility: do beneficiaries’ political values influence funds’ investment decisions?

This study explores the underlying drivers of US public pension funds’ tendency to tilt their portfolios towards companies with stronger corporate social responsibility (CSR). Studying the equity holdings of large, internally-managed US state pension funds, we find evidence that the political leaning of their beneficiaries and political pressures by state politicians affect funds’ investment decisions. State pension funds from states with Democratic-leaning beneficiaries tilt their portfolios more strongly towards companies that perform well on CSR issues, and this tendency is intensified when the state government is dominated by Democratic state politicians. Moreover, we find that funds which tilt their portfolios towards companies with superior CSR scores generate a slightly higher return compared with their counterparts. Overall, our findings indicate that funds align their investment choices with the financial and non-financial interests of their beneficiaries when deciding whether to incorporate CSR into their equity allocations

On the price of morals in markets: an empirical study of the Swedish AP-Funds and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund

This study empirically analyses the exclusion of companies from investors’ investment universe due to a company’s business model (sector-based exclusion) or due to a company’s violations of international norms (normbased exclusion). We conduct a time-series analysis of the performance implications of the exclusion decisions of two leading Nordic investors, Norway’s Government Pension Fund-Global (GPFG) and Sweden’s AP-funds. We find that their portfolios of excluded companies do not generate an abnormal return relative to the funds’ benchmark index. While the exclusion portfolios show higher risk than the respective benchmark, this difference is only statistically significant for the case of GPFG. These findings suggest that the exclusion of the companies generally does not harm funds’ performance. We interpret these findings as indicative that with exclusionary screening, as practiced by the sample funds, asset owners can meet the ethical objectives of their beneficiaries without compromising financial returns