Remembering moral and immoral actions in constructing the self

Having positive moral traits is central to one’s sense of self, and people generally are motivated to maintain a positive view of the self in the present. But it remains unclear how people foster a positive, morally good view of the self in the present. We suggest that recollecting and reflecting on moral and immoral actions from the personal past jointly help to construct a morally good view of the current self in complementary ways. More specifically, across four studies we investigated the extent to which people believe they have changed over time after recollecting their own moral or immoral behaviors from the personal past. Our results indicate that recollecting past immoral actions is associated with stronger impressions of dissimilarity and change in the sense of self over time than recollecting past moral actions. These effects held for diverse domains of morality (i.e., honesty/dishonesty, helping/harming, fairness/unfairness, and loyalty/disloyalty), and they remained even after accounting for objective, calendar time. Further supporting a motivational explanation, these effects held when people recollected their own past actions but not when they recollected the actions of other people

Resistance to Position Change, Motivated Reasoning, and Polarization

People seem more divided than ever before over social and political issues, entrenched in their existing beliefs and unwilling to change them. Empirical research on mechanisms driving this resistance to belief change has focused on a limited set of well-known, charged, contentious issues and has not accounted for deliberation over reasons and arguments in belief formation prior to experimental sessions. With a large, heterogeneous sample (N = 3,001), we attempt to overcome these existing problems, and we investigate the causes and consequences of resistance to belief change for five diverse and less contentious socio-political issues. After participants chose initially to support or oppose a given socio-political position, they were provided with reasons favoring their chosen position (affirming reasons), reasons favoring the other, unchosen position (conflicting reasons), or all reasons for both positions (reasons for both sides). Our results indicate that participants are more likely to stick with their initial decisions than to change them no matter which reasons are considered, and that this resistance to belief change is likely due to a motivated, biased evaluation of the reasons to support their initial beliefs (prior-belief bias). More specifically, they rated affirming reasons more favorably than conflicting reasons—even after accounting for reported prior knowledge about the issue, the novelty of the reasons presented, and the reported strategy used to make the initial decision. In many cases, participants who did not change their positions tended to become more confident in the superiority of their positions after considering many reasons for both sides

I’m not the person I used to be: The self and autobiographical memories of immoral actions

People maintain a positive identity in at least two ways: They evaluate themselves more favorably than other people, and they judge themselves to be better now than they were in the past. Both strategies rely on autobiographical memories. The authors investigate the role of autobiographical memories of lying and emotional harm in maintaining a positive identity. For memories of lying to or emotionally harming others, participants judge their own actions as less morally wrong and less negative than those in which other people lied to or emotionally harmed them. Furthermore, people judge those actions that happened further in the past to be more morally wrong than those that happened more recently. Finally, for periods of the past when they believed that they were very different people than they are now, participants judge their actions to be more morally wrong and more negative than those actions from periods of their pasts when they believed that they were very similar to who they are now. The authors discuss these findings in relation to theories about the function of autobiographical memory and moral cognition in constructing and perceiving the self over time

Ytterbium-doped tantalum pentoxide waveguide lasers

We have demonstrated a Yb:Ta2O5 waveguide laser fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering on oxidised silicon. The waveguide laser was end-pumped with a laser diode at 977 nm and lasing was observed between 1015 and 1020 nm. The launched pump power threshold and slope efficiency were measured to be ~25 mW and 1.78 %, respectively

\u27There are a lot of new people in town: but they are here for soccer, not for business\u27 a qualitative inquiry into the impact of the 2010 soccer world cup on sex work in South Africa

Background: Sports mega-events have expanded in size, popularity and cost. Fuelled by media speculation and moral panics, myths proliferate about the increase in trafficking into forced prostitution as well as sex work in the run-up to such events. This qualitative enquiry explores the perceptions of male, female and transgender sex workers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa, and the impact it had on their work and private lives. Methods: A multi-method study design was employed. Data consisted of 14 Focus Group Discussions, 53 sex worker diaries, and responses to two questions in surveys with 1059 male, female and transgender sex workers in three cities. Results: Overall, a minority of participants noted changes to the sex sector due to the World Cup and nothing emerged on the feared increases in trafficking into forced prostitution. Participants who observed changes in their work mainly described differences, both positive and negative, in working conditions, income and client relations, as well as police harassment. The accounts of changes were heterogeneous - often conflicting in the same research site and across sites. Conclusions: No major shifts occurred in sex work during the World Cup, and only a few inconsequential changes were noted. Sports mega-events provide strategic opportunities to expand health and human rights programmes to sex workers. The 2010 World Cup missed that opportunity

Reduced glycogen availability is associated with increased AMPKα2 activity, nuclear AMPKα2 protein abundance, and GLUT4 mRNA expression in contracting human skeletal muscle

Glycogen availability can influence glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) expression in skeletal muscle through unknown mechanisms. The multisubstrate enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has also been shown to play an important role in the regulation of GLUT4 expression in skeletal muscle. During contraction, AMPK [alpha]2 translocates to the nucleus and the activity of this AMPK isoform is enhanced when skeletal muscle glycogen is low. In this study, we investigated if decreased pre-exercise muscle glycogen levels and increased AMPK [alpha]2 activity reduced the association of AMPK with glycogen and increased AMPK [alpha]2 translocation to the nucleus and GLUT4 mRNA expression following exercise. Seven males performed 60 min of exercise at ~70% [VO.sub.2] peak on 2 occasions: either with normal (control) or low (LG) carbohydrate pre-exercise muscle glycogen content. Muscle samples were obtained by needle biopsy before and after exercise. Low muscle glycogen was associated with elevated AMPK [alpha]2 activity and acetyl-CoA carboxylase [beta] phosphorylation, increased translocation of AMPK [alpha]2 to the nucleus, and increased GLUT4 mRNA. Transfection of primary human myotubes with a constitutively active AMPK adenovirus also stimulated GLUT4 mRNA, providing direct evidence of a role of AMPK in regulating GLUT4 expression. We suggest that increased activation of AMPK [alpha]2 under conditions of low muscle glycogen enhances AMPK [alpha]2 nuclear translocation and increases GLUT4 mRNA expression in response to exercise in human skeletal muscle. <br /

Water vapor inhibits hydrogen sulfide detection in pulsed fluorescence sulfur monitors

The Thermo Scientific 450 Hydrogen Sulfide–Sulfur Dioxide Analyzer measures both hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂). Sulfur dioxide is measured by pulsed fluorescence, while H₂S is converted to SO₂ with a molybdenum catalyst prior to detection. The 450 is widely used to measure ambient concentrations, e.g., for emissions monitoring and pollution control. An air stream with a constant H₂S concentration was generated and the output of the analyzer recorded as a function of relative humidity (RH). The analyzer underreported H₂S as soon as the relative humidity was increased. The fraction of undetected H₂S increased from 8.3 at 5.3 % RH (294 K) to over 34 % at RH  &gt;  80 %. Hydrogen sulfide mole fractions of 573, 1142, and 5145 ppb were tested. The findings indicate that previous results obtained with instruments using similar catalysts should be re-evaluated to correct for interference from water vapor. It is suspected that water decreases the efficiency of the converter unit and thereby reduces the measured H₂S concentration

Effects of Sex, Age, and Season on Plasma Steroids in Free-ranging Texas Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum)

The Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) is protected in several states due to its apparently declining numbers; information on its physiology is therefore of interest from both comparative endocrine and applied perspectives. We collected blood samples from free-ranging P. cornutum in Oklahoma from April to September 2005, spanning their complete active period. We determined plasma concentrations of the steroids, progesterone (P), testosterone (T), and corticosterone (CORT) by radioimmunoassay following chromatographic separation and 17β-estradiol (E2) by direct radioimmunoassay. T concentrations in breeding males were significantly higher than in non-breeding males. P showed no significant seasonal variation within either sex. CORT was significantly higher during the egg-laying season compared to breeding and non-breeding seasons for adult females and it was marginally higher in breeding than in non-breeding males (P = 0.055). CORT concentrations also significantly increased with handling in non-breeding males and egg-laying females. Perhaps most surprisingly, there were no significant sex differences in plasma concentrations of P and E2. Furthermore, with respect to seasonal differences, plasma E2 concentrations were significantly higher in breeding females than in egg-laying or non-breeding females, and they were significantly higher in breeding than in non-breeding males. During the non-breeding season, yearling males exhibited higher E2 concentrations than adult males; no other differences between the steroid concentrations of yearlings and adults were detected. In comparison to other vertebrates, the seasonal steroid profile of P. cornutum exhibited both expected and unexpected patterns, and our results illustrate the value of collecting such baseline data as a springboard for appropriate questions for future research

Investigating Hastily-Formed Collaborative Networks

This research explores both the human and technical aspects of the network centric environment in the context of a major disaster or incident of national significance. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is viewed by the authors as a social network, and an organizational topology is developed to improve its effectiveness. A rapid Network Deployment Kit (RNDK) using commercial off the shelf (COTS) wireless networking technology is also proposed that facilitates immediate NIMS implementation. The integration of logical and technical analyses forms a comprehensive systems engineering proposal to facilitate collaboration in a net-centric environment. It is envisioned that the methodology used herein to derive and evaluate comprehensive networks proves extendable to other contexts thereby contributing to the netcentric body of knowledge