When “Right Makes Might”: Moral Superiority and its Effects on Decision-making for Others

Within the psychological literature of morality, little research has been done on the concept of moral superiority. The aim of this study was to determine whether a self-perception of moral superiority led to increased severity of judgment toward social issues and harsher moral action against perpetrators. Participants in the experimental condition were given a moral identity prime prior to all tasks. The results showed that the moral prime was not effective in increasing a sense of moral superiority in comparison to the control condition. Severity of judgment also did not differ between groups. There was no difference between groups on the harshness of punishment for perpetrators of littering or prostitution, but opposite to the hypothesis, the experimental group sentenced a recreational drug user to significantly less jail time than the control group did. Exploratory analyses and a discussion of morality research and future directions follows

Visual, navigation and communication aid for visually impaired person

The loss of vision restrained the visually impaired people from performing their daily task. This issue has impeded their free-movement and turned them into dependent a person. People in this sector did not face technologies revamping their situations. With the advent of computer vision, artificial intelligence, the situation improved to a great extent. The propounded design is an implementation of a wearable device which is capable of performing a lot of features. It is employed to provide visual instinct by recognizing objects, identifying the face of choices. The device runs a pre-trained model to classify common objects from household items to automobiles items. Optical character recognition and Google translate were executed to read any text from image and convert speech of the user to text respectively. Besides, the user can search for an interesting topic by the command in the form of speech. Additionally, ultrasonic sensors were kept fixed at three positions to sense the obstacle during navigation. The display attached help in communication with deaf person and GPS and GSM module aid in tracing the user. All these features run by voice commands which are passed through the microphone of any earphone. The visual input is received through the camera and the computation task is processed in the raspberry pi board. However, the device seemed to be effective during the test and validation

Setting up a PDPA system for measurements in a Diesel spray

Abstract. A PDPA system was set up, optimised and used to measure the time resolved characteristics of the droplets inside a spray produced by a common-rail diesel fuel injection system. Some preliminary tests are performed with gas flows to optimise the optical set-up. Parametric studies are performed to gain an understanding of the particle density limits of the system, and their dependence on PDPA system parameters. Then the diesel spray produced by a single-hole injector is measured, with the fuel pressure ranging from 500 to 1300 bar, gas density in the test chamber ranging from ambient conditions to 40 kg/m3. Fuel and gas temperature were 25ºC. Beam waist size is reduced to the minimum value allowed by the optical stand-off of the spray enclosure. Receiver lens focal length is similarly reduced. Receiver slit width, which is found to have a dramatic effect on the detection of droplets during the injection period, was tested in the range from 100um to 25um. Tests performed with two different slit heights are tested, respectively 1mm and 50 μm, show that this parameter has minimal effect on performance. PMT voltage (gain) is held to a moderately low value between 400 and 500 volt and the laser power between 400 and 800 mW in the green line. Optimum burst threshold is found to obtain the best quality data regardless of background level, which varies greatly in high-density pulsed sprays

Analysis and modelling of the effects of the source and medium on strong motion

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1980.Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science.Bibliography : leaves 199-214.by Anthony Frank Shakal.Ph.D

Comparative study of two different designs of partial over denture supported with distal implant for the treatment of mandibular Kennedy class II cases

AbstractThe objective of the present study was to compare between two mandibular implant overdentures of class II Kennedy classification. Material and methods: Fourteen male patients (30–45 years) were selected and divided into two equal groups. Group I received a mandibular removable partial over denture retained with implant abutment at the first molar region and with extra coronal attachment to the first premolar. Cross arch stabilization was made by using double Aker clasp on the first and second molars of the opposite side. Group II received a unilateral mandibular removable partial over denture retained with implant abutment at the first molar region and with extra coronal attachment to a splinted first premolar and canine. Patient satisfaction, clinical and radiographic evaluations were carried out at regular recall appointments up to one year from implant loading. Results: There was insignificant increase in the pocket depth and gingival recession and insignificant decrease in the perio test values and plaque index around implants and abutments. There was insignificant increase in the marginal bone loss around implants and abutments in both groups. All patients strongly disagreed the high cost of the treatment. Group II patients were more satisfied regarding aspects of the patients' comfort and phonetics. Conclusion: It is concluded that unilateral removable partial denture was more comfortable and better with speech. The use of dental implant as a distal abutment in class II Kennedy classification reduces all the movements of denture base and results in better healthy condition for the gingival and periodontium of the abutment tooth than when using conventional partial denture

TriNet Strong-Motion Data from the M 7.1 Hector Mine, California, Earthquake of 16 October 1999

The M_w 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake of October 16, 1999 was recorded by more than 300 stations of TriNet, which is administered cooperatively by the California Division of Mines and Geology's California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CDMG/CSMIP), California Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The earthquake occurred in a remote part of the Mojave Desert, approximately 190 km northeast of downtown Los Angeles, and there were no strong-motion stations close to the surface rupture. The nearest station, Hector, is about 27 km north of the epicenter; it recorded a peak horizontal ground acceleration of 0.33g. The two next closest stations, Amboy and Joshua Tree, are to the east and south, both at epicentral distances of about 50 km; each recorded peak ground accelerations of about 0.2g. The new digital instruments installed for the TriNet project recorded a large set of reliable data at epicentral distances up to 275 km. These data can significantly improve empirical peak ground motion attenuation relationships, which are usually developed for distances only up to 100 km (Boore et al., 1993, 1997) because adequate data have not been available at greater distances. Hector Mine peak ground motions demonstrate reasonable agreement with empirical attenuation relationships for acceleration. In contrast, higher than expected ground velocities and displacements were recorded at epicentral distances of about 150 to 220 km, especially in the Los Angeles sedimentary basin, where anomalously high-amplitude displacements with periods of 6 to 7 sec were recorded in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and other areas. These long-period surface- or basin-generated waves can have significant effects on large structures. The M_w 7.3 Landers earthquake of 1992 similarly produced strong, long-period waves in the basin. The peak ground motions produced by the Landers earthquake were on average 1.6 times higher than for the Hector Mine earthquake in the Los Angeles area. Ground-motion data recorded by digital instruments were uniformly processed in the frequency band 0.067 to 46 Hz (0.022–15 sec). The processed data set includes records from 213 ground-response stations. In an effort to make strong-motion data available quickly to the engineering and scientific communities, important records from this event were made available by file transfer protocol (ftp) beginning the day of the earthquake

Use of VP60 RT-PCR to overcome the limitation of haemagglutination inhibition diagnosis of rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease

[EN] Rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD) is a highly contagious, highly fatal, peracute and acute viral disease of both wild and domestic rabbits caused by rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). Testing for haemagglutination (HA) activity in processed liver samples is one of the cornerstones for rapid diagnosis of RHDV outbreaks in national rabbitries. However, RHDV isolates exhibiting no HA activity are increasingly being reported. The extent of deviation from classical HA activity patterns for RHDV strains in Egypt has not been investigated. This study compared the HA activity patterns of samples collected from 61 RHDV outbreaks that occurred between 1999 and 2005 to determine whether dependence on HA test (HAT) for diagnosis of RHDV outbreaks needs to be reviewed. All samples were confirmed RHDV positive using SDS-PAGE and western blotting. Using slide HAT, only 36.1% of samples were positive (22 samples). Plate HAT conducted at 4 0C detected an additional 16 positive samples bringing the total HA-positive samples to 38 (62.3%). Plate HAT conducted at 22 0C failed to detect additional positive samples. The majority of samples detected after plate HA testing (62.5%) had HA titres comparable to those obtained from slide-HA-positive samples, indicating that the difference in HA activity is dependent on the nature of the HA antigen rather than its presence. Direct detection of HA activity failed in 37.7% of samples despite the presence of classical signs, pathology, and being RT-PCR positive for three different VP60 regions. Experimental infection of seronegative rabbits with 9 HA negative RHDV samples showed that 5 isolates were in-fact HA positive, while only 4 isolates remained HA negative. The increased detection of viruses lacking HA activity and the low HAT sensitivity mandates the use of molecular techniques for rapid confirmation of RHDV diagnosis in the Egyptian environment.This work was partially funded by the Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute, Abbasia, Cairo, Egypt, and by Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.Shakal, M.; Khelfa, D.; Salman, O.; Yousif, A.; Salwa, E. (2011). Use of VP60 RT-PCR to overcome the limitation of haemagglutination inhibition diagnosis of rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease. World Rabbit Science. 19(1):11-20. doi:10.4995/wrs.2011.813SWORD112019

Major improvements in progress for Southern California Earthquake Monitoring

Major improvements in seismic and strong-motion monitoring networks are being implemented in southern California to better meet the needs of emergency response personnel, structural engineers, and the research community in promoting earthquake hazard reduction. Known as the TriNet project, the improvements are being coordinated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the California Division of Mines and Geology (CDMG) of the state's Department of Conservation. Already the ambitious instrument and system development project has started to record and disseminate ground motions from a spatially dense and robust network of high quality seismographs