Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future:Influences of regulatory focus on consumers’ moral self-regulation

Moral decisions in the marketplace largely depend on consumers’ own behavioral history. Psychology literature distinguishes two possible routes for consumers’ sequential moral decision making: moral balancing and moral consistency. Moral balancing refers to consumers’ deviation from the moral stance reflected in their past decisions; moral consistency implies that consumers repeat their prior moral and immoral decisions. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, four experimental studies affirm that balancing effects occur for consumers with a strong promotion focus, but consistency is more pronounced for prevention-focused consumers; the studies also elucidate the processes underlying these effects. In addition, the promotion-balancing effect, but not the prevention-repetition effect, disappears if the second decision is unambiguously moral or immoral. These findings contribute to a better understanding of morality in the marketplace by showing that the prevention-repetition effect from psychology literature arises in consumption situations, and the promotion-balancing effect emerges as a new consumer behavior phenomenon

Comparing the effectiveness of monetary versus moral motives in environmental campaigning

Environmental campaigns often promote energy conservation by appealing to economic (for example, lower electricity bills) rather than biospheric concerns (for example, reduced carbon emissions), assuming that people are primarily motivated by economic self-interest. However, people also care about maintaining a favourable view of themselves (they want to maintain a 'positive self-concept'), and may prefer to see themselves as 'green' rather than 'greedy'. Consequently, people may find economic appeals less attractive than biospheric appeals. Across two studies, participants indicated feeling better about biospheric ('Want to protect the environment? Check your car's tire pressure') than economic ('Want to save money? Check your car's tire pressure') tyre-check appeals. In a field experiment, we found that an economic tyre-check appeal ('Do you care about your finances? Get a free tire check') elicited significantly less compliance than parallel biospheric and neutral appeals. Together, these studies discredit the conventional wisdom that appealing to economic self-interest is the best way to secure behaviour change. At least in some cases, our studies suggest, this strategy is not effective.</p

Self-concept in fairness and rule establishment during a competitive game: a computational approach

People consider fairness as well as their own interest when making decisions in economic games. The present study proposes a model that encompasses the self-concept determined by one&apos;s own kindness as a factor of fairness. To observe behavioral patterns that reflect self-concept and fairness, a chicken game experiment was conducted. Behavioral data demonstrates four distinct patterns; ???switching,??? ???mutual rush,??? ???mutual avoidance,??? and ???unfair??? patterns. Model estimation of chicken game data shows that a model with self-concept predicts those behaviors better than previous models of fairness, suggesting that self-concept indeed affects human behavior in competitive economic games. Moreover, a non-stationary parameter analysis revealed the process of reaching consensus between the players in a game. When the models were fitted to a continuous time window, the parameters of the players in a pair with ???switching??? and ???mutual avoidance??? patterns became similar as the game proceeded, suggesting that the players gradually formed a shared rule during the game. In contrast, the difference of parameters between the players in the ???unfair??? and ???mutual rush??? patterns did not become stable. The outcomes of the present study showed that people are likely to change their strategy until they reach a mutually beneficial status.clos

An Ethnobotanical Inventory of Himalayan Region Poonch Valley Azad Kashmir (Pakistan)

researchThis study indicated that the inhabitants of Poonch Valley utilized 169 plant species for more than 30 domestic needs. Major use categories were determined with the largest (most species) being for medicines and foods. Medicinal plants, timber and fodder are identified as use categories that are of particular conservation importance in the area

Etiological Spectrum of Obstructive Jaundice in Tertiary Hospital of Quetta

Objective: To identify the etiological spectrum of obstructive jaundice in patients presenting in Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta.Study type,settings& duration:This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of General Surgery, Bolan Medical Complex Hospital, Quettafrom December 2017to June 2018.Methodology:A total number of 211 patients having age 15 to 65 years with diagnosis of obstructive jaundice were included. All radiological tests like ultrasound, CT scan and Magnetic Resonance Cholangio-pancreatography of the patients was done to determine the etiology of obstructive jaundice. After surgery,the histopathological examination of the biopsy was also done. Data analysis was done through SPSS v23 software.Results:Mean age of study patients was 47.86±12.40 years. There were 131 (62.09%) female patients and only 80 (37.91%) male patients. There were 87 (41.23%) patients who presented with benign causes while remaining 124 (58.77%) patients who presented with malignant causes. Among the benign causes, stone in common bile duct (CBD) were most common presented in 51 (24.2%) patients while 36 (17.1%) patients presented with stricture. Although pancreatic head carcinoma was the most prevalent disease diagnosed in 69 (32.7%) patients with malignant conditions, peri-ampular carcinoma in 24 (11.4%) patients, gallbladder carcinoma in 22 (10.4%), and cholangio-carcinoma in just 9 (4.3%) patients.Conclusion:As compared to benign causes, malignant causes of obstructive jaundice are more frequent. The highest prevalent tumour among malignant causes is pancreatic head carcinoma, while stones inthe common bile duct are highly prevalent among benign causes of obstruction in our population

Embroidered metamaterial antenna for optimized performance on wearable applications

In this work, an embroidered metamaterial monopole antenna based on a split ring resonator electromagnetic bandgap shielding structure is designed, simulated, and tested. This work investigates the impact of different types of embroidering metamaterial patterns on the antenna performance, shielding effect in terms of human safety through specific absorption rate analysis and degree of material wearability, in comparison with the standard antenna topologies. The proposed antenna design presents a full compact embroidered metamaterial device manufactured in felt textile substrate and requires a 85¿×¿70¿mm2 area, operating at 2.45¿GHz. On-voxel analysis reveals that specific absorption standards are satisfied for both public and occupational sector with a significant safety margin whereas the antenna performance in terms of gain and directivity are significantly optimized with regard to standard wearable materials.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft