Group status, minorities and trust

We present the results of an experiment that attempts to measure the impact of majority and minority groups, and high status and low status groups, on well-being, cooperation and social capital. In the experiment, group membership is induced artificially, subjects interact with insiders and outsiders in trust games and periodically enter markets where they can trade group membership. We find that trust falls with groups because of discrimination against outsiders. Against this, however, there is evidence that low group status and minority subjects are less satisfied, and that low status subjects trust less other low status subjects

Group Status, Minorities and Trust

We present the results of an experiment measuring the impact of low group status and relative group size on trust, trustworthiness and discrimination. Subjects interact with insiders and outsiders in trust games and periodically enter markets where they can trade group membership. Low status and minority subjects have low morale: that is, they comparatively dislike being low status and being minority subjects. Group discrimination against low status and minority subjects is unchanged. However, low status subjects are deferential to high status subjects in terms of comparatively higher trust, and minority subjects are deferential to majority subjects in terms of comparatively higher trustworthiness

Focal points and payoff information in tacit bargaining

Schelling proposed that payoff-irrelevant cues can affect the outcome of tacit bargaining games by creating focal points. Tests of this hypothesis have found that conflicts of interest between players inhibit focal-point reasoning. We investigate experimentally whether this effect is reduced if players have imperfect information about each other’s payoffs. When players know only their own payoffs, they fail to ignore this information even though it cannot assist coordination; the effects of payoff-irrelevant cues on coordination success are small. When no exact information about payoffs is provided, payoff-irrelevant cues are more helpful, but not as much as when conflict is absent

Vote and Voice::An experiment on the effects of inclusive governance rules

We present an experiment that examines three mechanisms through which the extent of inclusivity in an organization’s governance arrangements might affect its performance. We distinguish extent of inclusivity along two dimensions: members of the organization may or may not be able to (a) vote on collective decisions (‘vote’) and (b) discuss with others what should be done (‘voice’). We find that the inclusivity can affect performance and that each dimension of inclusivity matters, but for different decision problems within an organization. The ‘voice’ matters for motivation whereas ‘voting’ matters for processing and aggregating information; and the decisive difference for performance comes from ‘voice’, not ‘voting’

Efficiency, equality and labelling: an experimental investigation of focal points in explicit bargaining

Efficiency, equality and labelling: an experimental investigation of focal points in explicit bargainin

Measurement of Coolant in a Flat Heat Pipe Using Neutron Radiography

Proceedings of the 10th World Conference on Neutron Radiography (WCNR-10) Grindelwald, Switzerland October 5–10, 2014A newly developed flat heat pipe FGHPTM (Morex Kiire Co.) was experimentally investigated by using neutron radiography. The test sample of the FGHP heat spreader was 65 × 65 × 2 mm3 composed of several etched copper plates and pure water was used as the coolant. Neutron radiography was performed at the E-2 port of the Kyoto University Research Reactor (KUR). The coolant distributions in the wick area of the FGHP and its heat transfer characteristics were measured at heating conditions. Experimental results show that the coolant distributions depend slightly on its installation posture and that the liquid thickness in the wick region remains constant with increasing heat input to the FGHP. In addition, it is found that the wick surface does not dry out even in the vertical posture at present experimental conditions

Spectral Tuning Mechanism of Primate Blue-sensitive Visual Pigment Elucidated by FTIR Spectroscopy

Protein-bound water molecules are essential for the structure and function of many membrane proteins, including G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Our prior work focused on studying the primate green- (MG) and red- (MR) sensitive visual pigments using low-temperature Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, which revealed protein-bound waters in both visual pigments. Although the internal waters are located in the vicinity of both the retinal Schiff base and retinal β-ionone ring, only the latter showed differences between MG and MR, which suggests their role in color tuning. Here, we report FTIR spectra of primate blue-sensitive pigment (MB) in the entire mid-IR region, which reveal the presence of internal waters that possess unique water vibrational signals that are reminiscent of a water cluster. These vibrational signals of the waters are influenced by mutations at position Glu113 and Trp265 in Rh, which suggest that these waters are situated between these two residues. Because Tyr265 is the key residue for achieving the spectral blue-shift in λmax of MB, we propose that these waters are responsible for the increase in polarity toward the retinal Schiff base, which leads to the localization of the positive charge in the Schiff base and consequently causes the blue-shift of λmax

Variation in ligand responses of the bitter taste receptors TAS2R1 and TAS2R4 among New World monkeys

Background New World monkeys (NWMs) are unique in that they exhibit remarkable interspecific variation in color vision and feeding behavior, making them an excellent model for studying sensory ecology. However, it is largely unknown whether non-visual senses co-vary with feeding ecology, especially gustation, which is expected to be indispensable in food selection. Bitter taste, which is mediated by bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) in the tongue, helps organisms avoid ingesting potentially toxic substances in food. In this study, we compared the ligand sensitivities of the TAS2Rs of five species of NWMs by heterologous expression in HEK293T cells and calcium imaging. Results We found that TAS2R1 and TAS2R4 orthologs differ in sensitivity among the NWM species for colchicine and camphor, respectively. We then reconstructed the ancestral receptors of NWM TAS2R1 and TAS2R4, measured the evolutionary shift in ligand sensitivity, and identified the amino acid replacement at residue 62 as responsible for the high sensitivity of marmoset TAS2R4 to colchicine. Conclusions Our results provide a basis for understanding the differences in feeding ecology among NWMs with respect to bitter taste