Comparing the Effect of Rational and Emotional Appeals on Donation Behavior

We present evidence from a pre-registered experiment indicating that a philosophical argument––a type of rational appeal––can persuade people to make charitable donations. The rational appeal we used follows Singer’s well-known “shallow pond” argument (1972), while incorporating an evolutionary debunking argument (Paxton, Ungar, & Greene 2012) against favoring nearby victims over distant ones. The effectiveness of this rational appeal did not differ significantly from that of a well-tested emotional appeal involving an image of a single child in need (Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic 2007). This is a surprising result, given evidence that emotions are the primary drivers of moral action, a view that has been very influential in the work of development organizations. We did not find support for our pre-registered hypothesis that combining our rational and emotional appeals would have a significantly stronger effect than either appeal in isolation. However, our finding that both kinds of appeal can increase charitable donations is cause for optimism, especially concerning the potential efficacy of well-designed rational appeals. We consider the significance of these findings for moral psychology, ethics, and the work of organizations aiming to alleviate severe poverty

Operability, Reliability and Economic Benefits of CSP with Thermal Energy Storage: First Year of Operation of ANDASOL 3

AbstractThis current paper gives a short overview on the results of the study we have conducted to illustrate the operability and reliability properties of CSP plants based on the experience acquired during the first operation year of the CSP generation unit with thermal energy storage (TES) Andasol 3.Andasol 3 was commissioned in autumn 2011 under the leadership of the company “Marquesado Solar S.L.” and is the third of Solar Millennium developed parabolic trough power plants. The plant is located near Guadix in Andalusia, Spain and has an installed capacity of 49.9 MWe and a thermal storage tank with a capacity of 7.5hours at full load. The power station was designed to reach a net annual energy production of 165 GWh at typical meteorological year conditions.Andasol 3 as well as other solar power plants with TES, are not only providers of environmentally friendly solar electricity, but also power sources with operational capabilities that have the potential to support the continued reliability of the electric power system. Furthermore, the flexibility given by TES allows this type of plants to shift electricity generation meeting capacity needs and peak demand resulting in a rise of utility value due to increased revenues.In order to demonstrate the properties mentioned above and to present the experience gained during the first operational year, Andasol 3 conducted a study based on actual economic and technical data collected during the period past. Our first priority was to explore several operating modes aiming to maximize the economic benefits of the plant and to gain an experience-based foundation that contributes to further developments. For this purpose several operational tests were conducted and anomalies owing to external and internal influence conditions were analyzed and evaluated

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Scenario drivers (1970-2050): Climate and hydrological alterations

This study was carried out to support and enhance a series of global studies assessing contemporary and future changes in nutrient export from watersheds (Global Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS)). Because hydrography is one of the most important drivers in nutrient transport, it was essential to establish how climatic changes and direct human activities (primarily irrigation and reservoir operations) affect the hydrological cycle. Contemporary and future hydrography was established by applying a modified version of a global water balance and transport model (WBMplus) driven by present and future climate forcing, as described in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios (1970-2050). WBMplus represents a major upgrade to previous WBM implementations by incorporating irrigational water uptake and reservoir operations in a single modeling framework. Contemporary simulations were carried out by using both observed climate forcings from the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia (CRU) data sets and from Global Circulation Model (GCM) simulations that are comparable to the future simulations from the same GCM forcings. Future trends in three key human activities (land use, irrigation, and reservoirs operation for hydropower) were taken from the Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment (IMAGE). The reservoir operation required establishing a realistic distribution of future reservoirs since the IMAGE model provided only the hydropower potentials for the different future scenarios

¿Existe alguna relación entre la capacidad de movimiento funcional y el estado ponderal? Un estudio en escolares españoles

Indexación: Scopus.Background: to examine relations between functional movement patterns and weight status in Spanish primary school children and to determine the differences between sexes. Methods: three hundred and thirty-three, 6-13 years old children (164 boys and 169 girls), participated in this study. The main outcome measures were the body mass index (BMI) and the Functional Movement Screen™ (FMS). Children were classified as normal weight (NW), overweight (OV) or obese (OB) according to international cut-offs. Results: total FMS score was negatively correlated with BMI (p < 0.001). FMS score was different between children from NW, OV and OB groups (p = 0.001), lower with the increased BMI (p < 0.001 between all groups). Significant differences (p < 0.05) between NW, OV and OB were found in deep squat, hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder mobility, straight leg-raise and push-up tests. As for the sex differences, girls obtained higher scores (p < 0.05) in in-line lunge, shoulder mobility and straight leg-raise, whereas boys did it in push-up (p = 0.044) test. Conclusions: these results confirm that total FMS score significantly and inversely correlates with BMI in a group of 333 school-age children. As for the sex differences, girls outperform boys in movements requiring flexibility and balance, whilst boys outperform girls in tests where muscular strength is required. © 2018 SENPE and Arán Ediciones S.L.Introducción: examinar la relación entre los patrones de movimiento funcional y el estado ponderal en escolares españoles, determinando también la infl uencia de la variable sexo. Métodos: trescientos treinta y tres niños de 6-13 años de edad (164 niños y 169 niñas), participaron voluntariamente en este estudio. Las variables objeto de estudio fueron el índice de masa corporal (IMC) y la batería de test Functional Movement ScreenTM (FMS). Los niños fueron clasifi cados como normopeso (NW), sobrepeso (OV) y obesos (OB) de acuerdo con los puntos de corte internacionales. Resultados: la puntuación total en el FMS correlacionó de forma negativa y signifi cativa con el IMC (p < 0,001). La puntuación en FMS fue diferente entre las categorías de peso (p = 0,001), hallando un peor rendimiento en FMS conforme aumenta el IMC (p < 0,001 entre todos los grupos). Se hallaron diferencias signifi cativas (p < 0,05) entre NW, OV y OB en los test de deep squat, hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder mobility, straight leg-raise and push-up. En cuanto a las diferencias por sexo, las chicas obtuvieron puntuaciones más altas en FMS (p < 0,05) en los test in-line lunge, shoulder mobility and straight leg-raise; mientras los chicos obtuvieron puntuaciones superiores en el test de push-up (p = 0,044). Conclusiones: los resultados confi rman que la puntuación total en el FMS correlaciona signifi cativa y negativamente con el IMC en este grupo de 333 escolares. En cuanto a la infl uencia del sexo, las chicas obtuvieron mayor puntuación que los chicos en los test que requerían fl exibilidad y equilibrio, mientras los chicos fueron superiores en los test en los que predominaba la fuerza muscular.https://www.nutricionhospitalaria.org/index.php/articles/01670/show#

From cartoons to quantitative models in Golgi transport

Background: Cell biology is evolving to become a more formal and quantitative science. In particular, several mathematical models have been proposed to address Golgi self-organisation and protein and lipid transport. However, most scientific articles about the Golgi apparatus are still using static cartoons that miss the dynamism of this organelle. Results: In this report, we show that schematic drawings of Golgi trafficking can be easily translated into an agent-based model using the Repast platform. The simulations generate an active interplay among cisternae and vesicles rendering quantitative predictions about Golgi stability and transport of soluble and membrane-associated cargoes. The models can incorporate complex networks of molecular interactions and chemical reactions by association with COPASI, a software that handles ordinary differential equations. Conclusions: The strategy described provides a simple, flexible and multiscale support to analyse Golgi transport. The simulations can be used to address issues directly linked to the mechanism of transport or as a way to incorporate the complexity of trafficking to other cellular processes that occur in dynamic organelles. Significance: We show that the rules implicitly present in most schematic representations of intracellular trafficking can be used to build dynamic models with quantitative outputs that can be compared with experimental results.Fil: Quiros, D. Nicolas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Nieto, Franco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Mayorga, Luis Segundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; Argentin

Burn It Down: The Incommensurability Of The University And Decolonization

As students and a professor in, but not of, an American liberal arts college, we ask whether our current institutions of higher education are compatible with a project of decolonization. Grounded in our own testimonios and drawing on a genealogy of Western knowledge, we argue that U.S. higher education authorizes and perpetrates settler colonial violence. Furthermore, based on our experiences surviving this violence, we conclude that the Universitas adapts to inhibit and neutralize institutional reform that might challenge its coloniality. As such, we find that higher education is not only incompatible, but irredeemably incommensurable with decolonization. In being incommensurable, we ask ourselves whether we should transform higher education or burn it down and start anew? We argue that we do need to burn it down, and we look to how individuals within the institution already work towards the development of a new social structure, one that will outlast and supplant higher education. We identify three constructive and transformative techniques currently used for this purpose: empowerment, survival, and conversion. These techniques are a combination of stances towards, relationships to, and practices within, the institution that build collective futurities no longer dependent upon higher education

Witness-based Approach for Scaling Distributed Ledgers to Massive IoT Scenarios

Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) are playing a major role in building security and trust in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, IoT deployments with a large number of devices, such as in environment monitoring applications, generate and send massive amounts of data. This would generate vast number of transactions that must be processed within the distributed ledger. In this work, we first demonstrate that the Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain fails to scale in a sizable IoT connectivity infrastructure. To solve this problem, we present a lightweight distributed ledger scheme to integrate PoW blockchain into IoT. In our scheme, we classify transactions into two types: 1) global transactions, which must be processed by global blockchain nodes and 2) local transactions, which can be processed locally by entities called witnesses. Performance evaluation demonstrates that our proposed scheme improves the scalability of integrated blockchain and IoT monitoring systems by processing a fraction of the transactions, inversely proportional to the number of witnesses, locally. Hence, reducing the number of global transactions.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, conference pape

High U(1) charges in type IIB models and their F-theory lift

We construct models with U(1) gauge group and matter with charges up to 6, in the context of type IIB compactifications. We show explicitly that models with charges up to 4 can be derived from corresponding models in F-theory by applying the Sen weak coupling limit. We derive which type IIB models should be the limit of charge 5 and 6 F-theory models. Explicit six dimensional type IIB models with maximal charge 5 and 6 are constructed on an algebraic K3 surface that is the double cover of \u2102\u2119 2 . By using type IIB results we are also able to rediscover the F-theory charge 4 model in a straightforward way