The Benefits of Being Yourself: An Examination of Authenticity, Uniqueness, and Well-Being

In the United States, many people are instructed about the value of “being yourself” from a young age. However, what evidence is there to support this notion and what happens when “being yourself” causes a person to stand out, or be different, from others? The field of positive psychology, with its focus on the science behind well-being, stands well-positioned to answer these questions. By reviewing the theories, measurements, and research behind the two constructs of authenticity and uniqueness, this paper aims to show how being oneself does relate positively to well-being, even when doing so sets a person apart from others. It shows that humans have a desire to be authentic and doing so correlates with higher levels of life satisfaction and well-being. It also finds that humans have sometimes competing needs to belong and be unique but that these can be jointly fulfilled by joining distinctive groups. Data supports the connection between authenticity and well-being, as well as the human desire to stand out from others. Because of this, it seems that openness and acceptance must be encouraged on a broader scale in order for individuals and societies to flourish

Novel Process for Conversion of CO₂ to Dimethyl Carbonate using Catalytic Membrane Reactors

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) receives much attention due to its versatile use, low toxicity and fast biodegradability. Various ‘green’ production routes are explored and developed to replace the classic and rather toxic synthesis of DMC via phosgene. The direct DMC synthesis route – from CO2 and methanol – is one of the most interesting options for the chemical industry, but this is hindered by the limited chemical equilibrium. This work describes the simulation of a novel process for DMC using PSE and PI methods. A membrane reactor plays the central role, as it continuously removes the water by-product, in order to overcome the equilibrium limitations. Aspen Plus simulations were carried out for a DMC process (20 kt/yr) and over 99 wt% purity of the DMC product. Due to the incomplete conversion in the membrane reactor, the DMC concentration in the reactor effluent is rather low hence the purification of this diluted stream leads to large recycles and requires large size equipment and a considerable amount of energy

Techno-economic evaluation of the direct conversion of CO₂ to dimethyl carbonate using catalytic membrane reactors

The production of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) caught more interest in the past decades due to its versatile use (e.g. as fuel additive), low toxicity and fast biodegradability. Different 'green' production routes are being developed to replace the conventional and rather toxic production of DMC via phosgene. The direct conversion of CO2 and methanol toward DMC is an environmental and economically interesting production route for the chemical industry.This work describes the process design of the direct conversion of CO2 to dimethyl carbonate, providing a valuable insight and a better understanding of the process limitations. In this design, membrane reactors are used for continuous removal of water by-product, in order to overcome the equilibrium limitations. The rigorous Aspen Plus simulations show that even when using an excess of methanol, the attainable conversion is low and the DMC concentration in the reactor effluent is less than 1.5mol%. Purifying this diluted stream to the desired concentrations demands large size equipment and a substantial amount of energy (13.61kWh/kg DMC) resulting in high investment and utility costs, thus making the process not profitable. The focus for new membrane reactors could be on the selective removal of DMC (instead of water) from the reaction area to allow for a more concentrated DMC stream

Marker-assisted conservation of European cattle breeds: an evaluation

Two methods have been developed for the assessment of conservation priorities on the basis of molecular markers. According to the Weitzman approach, contributions to genetic diversity are derived from genetic distances between populations. Alternatively, diversity within and across populations is optimized by minimizing marker-estimated kinships. We have applied, for the first time, both methods to a comprehensive data set of 69 European cattle breeds, including all cosmopolitan breeds and several local breeds, for which genotypes of 30 microsatellite markers in 25-50 animals per breed have been obtained. Both methods were used to calculate the gain in diversity if a breed was added to a set of nine non-endangered breeds. Weitzman-derived diversities were confounded by genetic drift in isolated populations, which dominates the genetic distances but does not necessarily increase the conservation value of a breed. Marker-estimated kinships across populations were less disturbed by genetic drift than the Weitzman diversities and assigned high conservation values to Mediterranean breeds, which indeed have genetic histories that differ from the non-endangered breeds. Prospects and limitations of marker-assisted decisions on conservation priorities are discussed