Role of the surface in the measurement of the Leidenfrost temperature

Role of surfaces in measuring Leidenfrost temperatur

Investigating the Structure of Neurotoxic Protein Aggregates Inside Cells.

Neurodegenerative diseases affect the lives of millions of people across the world, being particularly prevalent in the aging population. Despite huge research efforts, conclusive insights into the disease mechanisms are still lacking. Therefore, therapeutic strategies are limited to symptomatic treatments. A common histopathological hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases is the presence of large pathognomonic protein aggregates, but their role in the disease pathology is unclear and subject to controversy. Here, we discuss imaging methods allowing investigation of these structures within their cellular environment: conventional electron microscopy (EM), super-resolution light microscopy (SR-LM), and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). Multidisciplinary approaches are key for understanding neurodegenerative diseases and may contribute to the development of effective treatments. For simplicity, we focus on huntingtin aggregates, characteristic of Huntington's disease. Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.Dedicated to the memory of Professor Dr. rer. nat. Edmund Bäuerlein (1932–2019)

The Bitter Truth About Sugar and Willpower: The Limited Evidential Value of the Glucose Model of Ego Depletion

This work was supported by European Research Council Grant 283849 (to N. Gold) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013)

When God is your only friend: Religious beliefs compensate for purpose in life in the socially disconnected

ObjectiveSocial relationships supply purpose to life. How can socially disconnected people, who show lower levels of purpose, compensate for purpose in life? We propose that religious beliefs can compensate for the purpose in life that social relationships would otherwise provide, through providing (a) greater purpose to turn to and (b) divine figures that can substitute for social relationships.MethodIn three studies, we analyze three nationally representative and longitudinal data sets (N = 19,775) using moderated regression and cross‐lagged panel analyses.ResultsConsistent with our hypotheses, religious beliefs were of minimal influence on purpose in life for socially connected individuals, who already held higher levels of purpose than socially disconnected individuals. However, for socially disconnected individuals, being highly religious predicted higher levels of purpose in life.ConclusionsResults suggest that although people primarily derive purpose from social relationships, socially disconnected individuals may leverage their religious beliefs for purpose and social comfort until they can reconnect.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149243/1/jopy12401.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149243/2/jopy12401_am.pd

Who Punishes? Personality Traits Predict Individual Variation in Punitive Sentiment

Cross-culturally, participants in public goods games reward participants and punish defectors to a degree beyond that warranted by rational, profit-maximizing considerations. Costly punishment, where individuals impose costs on defectors at a cost to themselves, is thought to promote the maintenance of cooperation. However, despite substantial variation in the extent to which people punish, little is known about why some individuals, and not others, choose to pay these costs. Here, we test whether personality traits might contribute to variation in helping and punishment behavior. We first replicate a previous study using public goods scenarios to investigate effects of sex, relatedness and likelihood of future interaction on willingness to help a group member or to punish a transgressor. As in the previous study, we find that individuals are more willing to help related than unrelated needy others and that women are more likely to express desire to help than men. Desire to help was higher if the probability of future interaction is high, at least among women. In contrast, among these variables, only participant sex predicted some measures of punitive sentiment. Extending the replication, we found that punitive sentiment, but not willingness to help, was predicted by personality traits. Most notably, participants scoring lower on Agreeableness expressed more anger towards and greater desire to punish a transgressor, and were more willing to engage in costly punishment, at least in our scenario. Our results suggest that some personality traits may contribute to underpinning individual variation in social enforcement of cooperation

Charting self-esteem during marital dissolution.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to chart changes in self-esteem before and after marital dissolution to identify the factors that shape individuals' self-esteem during this life transition.MethodWe analyzed 10 annual waves of self-esteem data from 291 divorcees from a nationally representative panel study of the Netherlands (N ~ 13,000). We charted the course of self-esteem before and after marital dissolution and tested a broad set of moderator variables that may shape individuals' self-esteem trajectories.ResultsThe average divorcee experienced significant decrease in self-esteem preceding marital dissolution and remained stable afterward. There were substantial individual differences in self-esteem trajectories, both before and after marital separation. Divorcees who experienced financial hardship, were affiliated with a church or religion, or scored low in Conscientiousness showed the most pronounced decrease in self-esteem during the years approaching marital dissolution.ConclusionThis study highlights the importance of assessing people multiple times before and after marital dissolution to dissect how people approach and respond to this life event. Results are consistent with perspectives that view divorce as an opportunity to abate the strains of an unhappy marriage

Low self-control promotes the willingness to sacrifice in close relationships

Although previous theories and research have suggested that human behavior is automatically driven by selfish impulses (e.g., vengeance rather than forgiveness), the present research tested the hypothesis that in close relationships, people's impulsive inclination is to be prosocial and to sacrifice for their partner-to pursue the interests of the partner or of the relationship at some costs for the self. Results from four studies demonstrated that people with low self-control, relative to those with high self-control, reported greater willingness to sacrifice for their close others. Furthermore, Study 4 demonstrated that communal orientation was more strongly associated with sacrifice among participants with low self-control than participants with high self-control. This moderational pattern supports the hypothesis that communal orientation functions as a default approach to sacrifice in the context of close relationships. Taken together, these findings suggest that under certain crucial conditions in close relationships, gut-level impulses are more likely than deliberative considerations to promote prorelationship behavior. © The Author(s) 2013

Alignment and preliminary outcomes of an ELT-size instrument to a very large telescope: LINC-NIRVANA at LBT

LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is a high resolution, near infrared imager that uses a multiple field-of-view, layer-oriented, multi-conjugate AO system, consisting of four multi-pyramid wavefront sensors (two for each arm of the Large Binocular Telescope, each conjugated to a different altitude). The system employs up to 40 star probes, looking at up to 20 natural guide stars simultaneously. Its final goal is to perform Fizeau interferometric imaging, thereby achieving ELT-like spatial resolution (22.8 m baseline resolution). For this reason, LN is also equipped with a fringe tracker, a beam combiner and a NIR science camera, for a total of more than 250 optical components and an overall size of approximately 6x4x4.5 meters. This paper describes the tradeoffs evaluated in order to achieve the alignment of the system to the telescope. We note that LN is comparable in size to planned ELT instrumentation. The impact of such alignment strategies will be compared and the selected procedure, where the LBT telescope is, in fact, aligned to the instrument, will be described. Furthermore, results coming from early night-time commissioning of the system will be presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 pages, AO4ELT5 Proceedings, 201

A critical test of the assumption that men prefer conformist women and women prefer nonconformist men.

Five studies tested the common assumption that women prefer nonconformist men as romantic partners, whereas men prefer conformist women. Studies 1 and 2 showed that both men and women preferred nonconformist romantic partners, but women overestimated the extent to which men prefer conformist partners. In Study 3, participants ostensibly in a small-group interaction showed preferences for nonconformist opposite-sex targets, a pattern that was particularly evident when men evaluated women. Dating success was greater the more nonconformist the sample was (Study 4), and perceptions of nonconformity in an ex-partner were associated with greater love and attraction toward that partner (Study 5). On the minority of occasions in which effects were moderated by gender, it was in the reverse direction to the traditional wisdom: Conformity was more associated with dating success among men. The studies contradict the notion that men disproportionately prefer conformist women