Self-construal priming reconsidered: comparing effects of two commonly used primes in the UK and China

Self-construal priming was devised to mimic the effects of chronic cross-cultural differences. Primes designed to activate independent/interdependent self-construals have been found to affect numerous culturally relevant outcomes. However, researchers have rarely checked precisely what these primes activated, nor tested their cross-cultural equivalence. We compared two common priming tasks, Similarities vs. Differences with Family and Friends (SDFF) and Sumerian Warrior Story (SWS), across seven dimensions of independence/interdependence among 118 British and 178 Chinese participants. The two tasks activated different combinations of self-construal dimensions. SWS showed a similar pattern of effects across cultures, whereas SDFF more strongly affected Chinese participants. Neither manipulation closely mimicked the pattern of pre-existing cross-cultural differences between samples. We propose researchers should develop more precisely targeted self-construal primes

A method for assigning pre-exponential factors for kerogen kinetics, calibrated with Easy%RoDL, and comparison with EASY%Ro

Modeling hydrocarbon-generation processes requires reliable kinetic models for the thermal decomposition of kerogens. To improve confidence and accuracy in modeling of generation, this study employs data from both natural and laboratory maturation to quantify thermal stress and strain for kerogens in 11 source-rock data sets. The method yields kinetic parameters (pre-exponential factor and Ea) for hydrocarbon generation that are constrained to make accurate predictions about thermal stress (quantified here as Ro-equivalent) and thermal strain (quantified as Hydrogen Index) under both laboratory and natural conditions. Methods for converting Tmax values to Ro-equivalents were examined and are discussed briefly. Vitrinite reflectance values were calculated at geological heating rates using the Easy%RoDL kinetic formulation, and were then compared with previous results obtained using EASY%Ro. The large differences observed between the EASY%Ro and Easy%RoDL evaluations are attributed to the differences in the pre-exponential factors in those two Ro-kinetic formulations. Understanding this relationship gives us a way to choose kinetic parameters for hydrocarbon generation that will work well for modeling under geological conditions. The single best A factor for hydrocarbon-generation when using EASY%Ro is 1e13 s−1 , while that for Easy%RoDL is 2e14 s−1 . The minor variation in A factors observed within each of the data sets may or may not be real. Using these results and concepts, more reliable hydrocarbon-generation windows in terms of either Ro-equivalent or Transformation Ratio can be achieved and cross-correlated. These results thus have the potential to increase both the accuracy of hydrocarbon-generation modeling, and the confidence in its results.Cited as: Waples, D. W., Yang, S. A method for assigning pre-exponential factors for kerogen kinetics, calibrated with Easy%RoDL, and comparison with EASY%Ro. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023, 7(1): 1-6. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2023.01.0

Multidimensional self-construals: testing the model and refining measurement

Markus and Kitayama (1991) developed self-construal theory, and proposed that independent and interdependent self-construals would account for cultural variations in cognition, emotion and motivation. Based on this theory and Vignoles and colleagues’ (2016) reconsideration of self-construal measurement, this thesis investigates if a multi-dimensional model of self-construal helps explain cultural differences better than previous studies using the conventional two-dimensional model, as well as reporting the development of a scale that unpacks eight different ways of being independent and interdependent in multiple cultures. The thesis includes three studies. Focusing on the cultures of China and the UK, Study 1 explores if a seven-dimensional self-construal model (Vignoles et al., 2016) helps provide previously missing evidence for the predicted mediation effects of selfconstrual on cultural differences in cognition, emotion and motivation. The results show that Chinese and British participants are significantly different in six dimensions of self-construal, and explicit self-construal significantly mediated cultural differences in certain aspects of cognition, emotion and motivation. In the same two cultures, Study 2 examines individualism and collectivism priming techniques, using the seven-dimensional self-construal model to detect what two commonly used selfconstrual primes actually manipulate. The results indicate that Similarities vs. Differences with Family and Friends task (SDFF) and Sumerian Warrior Story (SWS) cue different aspects of self-construal. Effects of SWS show a similar profile across the two cultures, whereas SDFF has a much stronger effect on Chinese participants than British participants. Study 3 reports the development of a new self-construal scale. By introducing a new factor and extending the participants to 13 countries, the final version is a 48-item eight-dimensional self-construal scale. The importance of the multidimensional model and the new measure are discussed

On The I/O Complexity of Dynamic Distinct Counting

In dynamic distinct counting, we want to maintain a multi-set S of integers under insertions to answer efficiently the query: how many distinct elements are there in S? In external memory, the problem admits two standard solutions. The first one maintains $S$ in a hash structure, so that the distinct count can be incrementally updated after each insertion using O(1) expected I/Os. A query is answered for free. The second one stores S in a linked list, and thus supports an insertion in O(1/B) amortized I/Os. A query can be answered in O(N/B log_{M/B} (N/B)) I/Os by sorting, where N=|S|, B is the block size, and M is the memory size. In this paper, we show that the above two naive solutions are already optimal within a polylog factor. Specifically, for any Las Vegas structure using N^{O(1)} blocks, if its expected amortized insertion cost is o(1/log B}), then it must incur Omega(N/(B log B)) expected I/Os answering a query in the worst case, under the (realistic) condition that N is a polynomial of B. This means that the problem is repugnant to update buffering: the query cost jumps from 0 dramatically to almost linearity as soon as the insertion cost drops slightly below Omega(1)

Observation-constrained projection of flood risks and socioeconomic exposure in China

As the planet warms, the atmosphere's water vapor holding capacity rises, leading to more intense precipitation extremes. River floods with high peak discharge or long duration can increase the likelihood of infrastructure failure and enhance ecosystem vulnerability. However, changes in the peak and duration of floods and corresponding socioeconomic exposure under climate change are still poorly understood. This study employs a bivariate framework to quantify changes in flood risks and their socioeconomic impacts in China between the past (1985–2014) and future (2071–2100) in 204 catchments. Future daily river streamflow is projected by using a cascade modeling chain based on the outputs of five bias-corrected global climate models (GCMs) under three shared socioeconomic CMIP6 pathways (SSP1-26, SSP3-70, and SSP5-85), a machine learning model and four hydrological models. We also utilize the copula function to build the joint distribution of flood peak and duration, and calculate the joint return periods of the bivariate flood hazard. Finally, the exposure of population and regional gross domestic product to floods are investigated at the national scale. Our results indicate that flood peak and duration are likely to increase in the majority of catchments by 25%–100% by the late 21st century depending on the shared socioeconomic pathway. China is projected to experience a significant increase in bivariate flood risks even under the lowest emission pathway, with 24.0 million dollars/km2 and 608 people/km2 exposed under a moderate emissions scenario (SSP3-70). These findings have direct implications for hazard mitigation and climate adaptation policies in China

System dynamics model based on evolutionary game theory for quality supervision among construction stakeholders

To address the gap, that is, few studies have explored the influence of the participants’ interactions with one another during construction quality supervision, this paper proposes a system dynamics model based on evolutionary game theory to describe the complex and dynamic interactions among tripartite stakeholders in China, including the project owner (PO), construction supervising engineer (CSE), and construction contractor (CC). First, the replicated dynamic equation set is established in terms of expense targets. Second, the equilibrium solutions of the equation set are obtained to test strategy options. The trends of system fluctuations caused by penalty and reward changes are also analyzed. Finally, the stability of the proposed model is improved by integrating a dynamic penalty–reward scenario into the evolutionary strategy of the PO. Simulation results show that: 1) the evolutionary stable strategy does not exist in initial interactions, 2) the degrees of penalty and reward considerably affect the CC’s rate variable, and 3) the dynamic penalty–reward scenario could effectively improve the stability of the proposed model. The unsteadiness of the quality supervision system and the stability control scenario could help in understanding the impact of interactions among stakeholders and provide suggestions for optimizing quality supervision procedures