The Diversifying Experience Model::Taking a Broader Conceptual View of the Multiculturalism–Creativity Link

We examine the multiculturalism–creativity link from the perspective of diversifying experiences research. Multicultural experiences can be construed as diversifying experiences—highly unusual and unexpected events or situations (e.g., unusual educational experiences, early life adversity) that push individuals outside the frameworks of their ordinary everyday lives, forcing them to embrace new and uncommon ideas. Our review identifies a range of diversifying experiences (e.g., multicultural exposure, unexpected adversity, violations of expectations) that have been found to influence creativity. We introduce the Diversifying Experience Model (DEM), where we argue for a curvilinear relationship between diversifying experiences and creativity, whereby creativity improves as a result of moderate (but not low or high) levels of diversifying experiences. We also propose adaptive personal resources as the key moderator, and threat and challenge appraisals as the key mediators of the diversifying experience–creativity relation. When adaptive resources are high, moderate diversifying experiences are appraised primarily as a challenge, facilitating creativity, whereas when adaptive resources are low, moderate diversifying experiences are appraised primarily as a threat, derailing creativity. This broad and parsimonious theoretical framework can help clarify and expand research on when and why various diversifying experiences (including multicultural experiences) facilitate creativity. </jats:p

Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment

People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic resources and (2) whether parental socioeconomic resources predict these forms of attractiveness. Based on the theory of resource substitution with structural amplification, we hypothesized that both types of attractiveness would have a stronger association with educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds (resource substitution), but also that people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be less likely to be perceived as attractive (amplification)

IMPLEMENTATION OF CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The article presents the concept of sustainable development and its evolution over time. The authors analyse possibilities for promotion of clean technologies within the context of sustainable development. There are presented and analysed advantages of sustainable development and of utilisation of clean technologies for achieving the targets linked with climate changes. The authors have presented and analysed a case study regarding utilisation of a clean technology in an industrial sector. The case study is referring to modification of a furnace through introduction of a heat recovery unit from flue gasses for pre-heating of combustion air. The results of the complex energy, economic and environment analysis show that utilisation of this solution leads to energy and financial savings and to reduction of the environment impact. In conclusion there is shown the importance of the sustainable development and the implications of clean technologies in the energy sector

Can personality traits and intelligence compensate for background disadvantage? Predicting status attainment in adulthood.

This paper investigates the interplay of family background and individual differences, such as personality traits and intelligence (measured in a large US representative sample of high school students; N = 81,000) in predicting educational attainment, annual income, and occupational prestige eleven years later. Specifically, we tested whether individual differences followed one of three patterns in relation to parental SES when predicting attained status: (a) the independent effects hypothesis (i.e., individual differences predict attainments independent of parental SES level), (b) the resource substitution hypothesis (i.e., individual differences are stronger predictors of attainments at lower levels of parental SES), and (c) the Matthew effect hypothesis (i.e., “the rich get richer,” individual differences are stronger predictors of attainments at higher levels of parental SES). We found that personality traits and intelligence in adolescence predicted later attained status above and beyond parental SES. A standard deviation increase in individual differences translated to up to 8 additional months of education, $4,233 annually, and more prestigious occupations. Furthermore, although we did find some evidence for both the resource substitution and the Matthew effect hypotheses, the most robust pattern across all models supported the independent effects hypothesis. Intelligence was the exception, where interaction models were more robust. Finally, we found that although personality traits may help compensate for background disadvantage to a small extent, they do not usually lead to a “full catch up” effect, unlike intelligence. This was the first longitudinal study of status attainment to test interactive models of individual differences and background factors

Valorificarea reziduului vegetal de seminţe de struguri rezultat din procesele extractive ale compuşilor fenolici

The stepwise extraction process of phenolic compounds from grape seeds ultimately leads to the production of a residue rich in protein, cellulose and substances without nitrogen which can be biodegraded in nature by microorganisms from the soil. The purpose of this research was to verify whether the vegetable residue of grape seeds, resulting from the extraction of polymerized proanthocyanidins can be used as an organic fertilizer in the soil. The soil biodegradation process was assessed by microbiological analysis and analysis of current and potential dehydrogenase activity. The results obtained showed that the vegetal residue led to the increaseof the number of soil microorganisms involved in the nitrogen circuit and carbon, as a result of the triggering of the biodegradation process as well as its non-polluting effect supported by current and potential dehydrogenase activity determined in dynamicsover a year in experimental plots

Activitatea antimicrobiană a unui bioprodus biologic activ obţinut din seminţele de struguri

At the Research Station for Viticulture and Enology Iasi, a polymeric condensed proanthocyanidins was obtained from Fetească neagră grape seeds, through a phase preparation, which under determined conditions with hydrogen peroxide, led to the production of a water-soluble bio product with antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties. Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of the bio product was performed by determining minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (CMB) against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. From the analysis of the obtained data it was found that the bio product reacted differently from the tested species, being more active against Staphylococcus aureus (G +). The determined MIC was 1.5 mg/mL and the CMB 2.0 mg / mL. In the case of the Escherichia coli (G-) test, the MIC and CMB values were equal but increased to 3.0 mg/mL

Separarea şi caracterizarea principalelor fracţiuni de proantocianidine din seminţele de struguri

Grape seeds, as waste products of the winemaking industry, contain large amounts of monomers, oligomers and more highly polymerised proanthocyanidins (PA), being a good source of phytochemicals for the production of antioxidative dietary supplements. PA from defatted grape seeds were extracted by precipitation with diethyl ether from the crude alcoholic extract and fractionated into monomers (FI), oligomers (FII) and polymers (FIII) of flavan-3-ols by their separation on C18 Sep-Pak cartridges. FIII was the predominant class of proanthocyanidins (82.22%), while monomeric PA has only 5.71% of total. The ratio PA (by vanillin assay) / tannins (Bate-Smith assay) indicates the highest degree of polymerisation (DP) in FIII fraction (1.28). Thin layer chromatography (TLC) confirmed the presence of monomers in FI, the DP increasing significantly for the next two fractions. Oligomeric and polymeric PA showed the highest antioxidant activity (% scavenged DPPH), but the synergic antioxidant effect of PA classes was also observed

Preregistration of secondary data analysis:A template and tutorial

Multivariate analysis of psychological dat

The Journalistic Information about the European Union. The Journalistic Interest of the European Matters in Three European Countries Media: Poland, Romania and Spain

Three European research teams from the academic field meet to study the interest of media in matters concerning of the common European space. The results show that the European Union and its member countries do not constitute, at the moment, a usual priority issue in informative agendas of analyzed media in Poland, Romania and Spain. These results can be deduced of the analysis of the indicators of journalistic interest, such as, for example: the priority use of routine news to cover the European events; the low media interest in the Europeanist debate; the insignificant percentage of European news that media highlight on their front pages or summaries; the reduced length or extension of the majority of European news, the lack of an accurate knowledge by citizens of who is behind the spread news

A process-dissociation examination of the cognitive processes underlying unconscious thought

Conscious and unconscious thought have been previously found to differentially impact decision-making quality. However, little research has directly measured the processes underlying these modes of thinking. We propose that both thinking modes are characterized by rule-based and intuitive processing. In two experiments, we used the Process Dissociation Procedure to independently measure these cognitive processes. We tested three competing hypotheses: (a) conscious thinking evokes both increased rule-based and decreased intuitive processing compared to unconscious thinking; (b) conscious and unconscious thinking evoke similar levels of intuitive processing but conscious thinking enhances rule-based processing; and (c) conscious and unconscious thinking evoke similar levels of rule-based processing but unconscious thinking enhances intuitive processing. Experiment 1 used base-rate and law-of-large-numbers decision-making problems, whereas Experiment 2 used decision-making problems similar to the "apartment" problem that is often used in unconscious thought studies. In both experiments we found support for hypothesis (b). © 2012 Elsevier Inc