How chimpanzees cooperate in a competitive world

Our species is routinely depicted as unique in its ability to achieve cooperation, whereas our closest relative, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), is often characterized as overly competitive. Human cooperation is assisted by the cost attached to competitive tendencies through enforcement mechanisms, such as punishment and partner choice. To examine if chimpanzees possess the same ability to mitigate competition, we set up a cooperative task in the presence of the entire group of 11 adults, which required two or three individuals to pull jointly to receive rewards. This open-group set-up provided ample opportunity for competition (e.g., freeloading, displacements) and aggression. Despite this unique set-up and initial competitiveness, cooperation prevailed in the end, being at least five times as common as competition. The chimpanzees performed 3,565 cooperative acts while using a variety of enforcement mechanisms to overcome competition and freeloading, as measured by (attempted) thefts of rewards. These mechanisms included direct protest by the target, third-party punishment in which dominant individuals intervened against freeloaders, and partner choice. There was a marked difference between freeloading and displacement; freeloading tended to elicit withdrawal and third-party interventions, whereas displacements were met with a higher rate of direct retaliation. Humans have shown similar responses in controlled experiments, suggesting shared mechanisms across the primates to mitigate competition for the sake of cooperation.

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IX. On a new form of voltaic battery

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London ◽

10.1098/rspl.1884.0025 ◽

1884 ◽

Vol 37 (232-234) ◽

pp. 141-142

Keyword(s):

Internal Resistance ◽

Positive Element ◽

Negative Element ◽

Sodium Batteries ◽

New Form ◽

Set Up ◽

The Cost ◽

To Receive ◽

Soda Solution ◽

A Current

The battery which I have the honour to bring under the notice of the Royal Society is one of high electromotive force, namely, about two and three quarter volts, and a single cell consequently decomposes water; it is very light and portable, and convenient for many purposes. The electro-positive element is sodium, the electro-negative element is either carbon, spongy platinum,copper, or other metallic gauze; no fluid is used in which to immerse the plates, but the atmospheric air which is always impregnated with more or less hygrometric moisture serves to set up the action of the battery by giving up sufficient moisture to wet the surface of the sodium, so that a very thin film of fluid (a solution of soda), is thus interposed between the sodium and electro-negative element, and the internal resistance is very small in consequence of the thinness of the film of fluid. The sodium is used in the form of plates, conveniently about a quarter of an inch thick, and the plates of carbon, of which one is placed on each side of the sodium, a little longer and about the same thickness as the sodium; these plates, carbon, sodium, carbon, are kept together by means of vulcanised rubber bands, and suspended vertically, a vessel being placed underneath to receive the soda solution as it forms. A battery composed of plates 10 inches long and ½ an inch wide gives a current of 0·122 ampére at first starting, but as polarisation takes place, after five minutes, only 0·079 ampère. The cost of a battery of this size is 0·40 fr. (4 d . about), it remains in action for six days without the renewal of the sodium. Batteries of larger dimensions, as for example 10 inches long and 15/8 inches wide, last four weeks, because the action is chiefly on the edges of the sodium plate, and the broader the plate the longer the sodium lasts without renewal.

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Multi-Blockchain-Based IoT Data Processing Techniques to Ensure the Integrity of IoT Data in AIoT Edge Computing Environments

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21103515 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 3515

Author(s):

Sung-Ho Sim ◽

Yoon-Su Jeong

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Third Party ◽

Monitoring And Control ◽

Constant Size ◽

Computing Environments ◽

Iot Devices ◽

Cloud Servers ◽

The Cost ◽

Processing Techniques ◽

And Control

As the development of IoT technologies has progressed rapidly recently, most IoT data are focused on monitoring and control to process IoT data, but the cost of collecting and linking various IoT data increases, requiring the ability to proactively integrate and analyze collected IoT data so that cloud servers (data centers) can process smartly. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based IoT big data integrity verification technique to ensure the safety of the Third Party Auditor (TPA), which has a role in auditing the integrity of AIoT data. The proposed technique aims to minimize IoT information loss by multiple blockchain groupings of information and signature keys from IoT devices. The proposed technique allows IoT information to be effectively guaranteed the integrity of AIoT data by linking hash values designated as arbitrary, constant-size blocks with previous blocks in hierarchical chains. The proposed technique performs synchronization using location information between the central server and IoT devices to manage the cost of the integrity of IoT information at low cost. In order to easily control a large number of locations of IoT devices, we perform cross-distributed and blockchain linkage processing under constant rules to improve the load and throughput generated by IoT devices.

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Acceptability of remote prescribing and postal delivery services for contraceptive pills and treatment of uncomplicated Chlamydia trachomatis

BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health ◽

10.1136/bmjsrh-2020-200687 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. bmjsrh-2020-200687

Author(s):

Tom Nadarzynski ◽

Ynez Symonds ◽

Robert Carroll ◽

Jo Gibbs ◽

Sally Kidsley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Home Delivery ◽

Transmitted Infection ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Sti Testing ◽

Contraceptive Pills ◽

Remote Management ◽

Delivery Services ◽

The Cost ◽

To Receive

ObjectivesThe digitalisation of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services offers valuable opportunities to deliver contraceptive pills and chlamydia treatment by post. We aimed to examine the acceptability of remote prescribing and ‘medication-by-post’ in SRH.Study designAn online survey assessing attitudes towards remote management was distributed in three UK SRH clinics and via an integrated sexually transmitted infection (STI) postal self-sampling service. Logistic regressions were performed to identify potential correlates.ResultsThere were 1281 participants (74% female and 49% <25 years old). Some 8% of participants reported having received medication via post and 83% were willing to receive chlamydia treatment and contraceptive pills by post. Lower acceptability was observed among participants who were: >45 years old (OR 0.43 (95% CI 0.23–0.81)), screened for STIs less than once annually (OR 0.63 (0.42–0.93)), concerned about confidentiality (OR 0.21 (0.90–0.50)), concerned about absence during delivery (OR 0.09 (0.02–0.32)) or unwilling to provide blood pressure readings (OR 0.22 (0.04–0.97)). Higher acceptability was observed among participants who reported: previously receiving medication by post (OR 4.63 (1.44–14.8)), preference for home delivery over clinic collection (OR 24.1 (11.1–51.9)), preference for home STI testing (OR 10.3 (6.16–17.4)), ability to communicate with health advisors (OR 4.01 (1.03–15.6)) and willingness to: register their real name (OR 3.09 (1.43–10.6)), complete online health questionnaires (OR 3.09 (1.43–10.6)) and use generic contraceptive pills (OR 2.88 (1.21–6.83)).ConclusionsPostal treatment and entering information online to allow remote prescribing were acceptable methods for SRH services and should be considered alongside medication collection in pharmacies. These methods could be particularly useful for patients facing barriers in accessing SRH. The cost-effectiveness and implementation of these novel methods of service delivery should be further investigated.

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Methods to Prevent Future Severe Animal Welfare Problems Caused by COVID-19 in the Pork Industry

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11030830 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 830

Author(s):

Temple Grandin

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Detrimental Effect ◽

Third Party ◽

Electrical Parameters ◽

Short Term ◽

Pork Industry ◽

Third Party Auditing ◽

The Cost ◽

High Welfare

In the U.S., the most severe animal welfare problems caused by COViD-19 were in the pork industry. Thousands of pigs had to be destroyed on the farm due to reduced slaughter capacity caused by ill workers. In the future, both short-term and long-term remedies will be needed. In the short-term, a portable electrocution unit that uses scientifically validated electrical parameters for inducing instantaneous unconsciousness, would be preferable to some of the poor killing methods. A second alternative would be converting the slaughter houses to carcass production. This would require fewer people to process the same number of pigs. The pandemic revealed the fragility of large centralized supply chains. A more distributed supply chain with smaller abattoirs would be more robust and less prone to disruption, but the cost of pork would be greater. Small abattoirs can coexist with large slaughter facilities if they process pigs for specialized premium markets such as high welfare pork. The pandemic also had a detrimental effect on animal welfare inspection and third party auditing programs run by large meat buyers. Most in-person audits in the slaughter plants were cancelled and audits were done by video. Video audits should never completely replace in-person audits.

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The Mitigation of the French Nuclear Option: New Industrial Realism and Technical Democracy

Energy & Environment ◽

10.1260/0958305021501209 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 263-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dominique Finon

Keyword(s):

Waste Management ◽

Electricity Markets ◽

Social Preferences ◽

Public Inquiry ◽

The Future ◽

Parliamentary Committee ◽

Set Up ◽

The Stability ◽

The Cost ◽

Phase Out

Nuclear phase-out policies and the European obligation to liberalise electricity markets could put the French nuclear option dramatically at risk by influencing social preferences or by constraining power producers' investment choices in the future. So far, the particular institutional set-up which has allowed the efficient build-up and operation of several series of standardised reactors preserves the stability of the main elements of the option. However, important adaptations to the evolving industrial and political environment occur and contribute to changing the option. Some institutional changes (such as local public inquiry, creation of a Parliamentary committee, independence of safety authorities) and divergence between industrial interests already allow debates on internal options such as reprocessing, type of waste management deposits, ordering of an advanced PWR. These changes improve the cost transparency, even if internalisation of nuclear externalities (cost of insurance, provisions for waste management) is still incomplete. However, when effective, this internalisation would not affect definitively the competitive position of the nuclear production because of the parallel internalisation of CO2 externalities from fossil fuel power generation in the official rationale. Consequently the real issue for the future of the nuclear option in France remains the preservation of social acceptability in the perception of nuclear risks.

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The costs of functional gastrointestinal disorders and related signs and symptoms in infants: a systematic literature review and cost calculation for England

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015594 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. e015594 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

James Mahon ◽

Carlos Lifschitz ◽

Thomas Ludwig ◽

Nikhil Thapar ◽

Julie Glanville ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Systematic Literature Review ◽

Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders ◽

Signs And Symptoms ◽

Third Party ◽

Gastrointestinal Disorders ◽

Over The Counter ◽

Party Payer ◽

The Third ◽

The Cost

ObjectivesTo estimate the cost of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) and related signs and symptoms in infants to the third party payer and to parents.Study designTo estimate the cost of illness (COI) of infant FGIDs, a two-stage process was applied: a systematic literature review and a COI calculation. As no pertinent papers were found in the systematic literature review, a ‘de novo’ analysis was performed. For the latter, the potential costs for the third party payer (the National Health Service (NHS) in England) and for parents/carers for the treatment of FGIDs in infants were calculated, by using publicly available data. In constructing the calculation, estimates and assumptions (where necessary) were chosen to provide a lower bound (minimum) of the potential overall cost. In doing so, the interpretation of the calculation is that the true COI can be no lower than that estimated.ResultsOur calculation estimated that the total costs of treating FGIDs in infants in England were at least £72.3 million per year in 2014/2015 of which £49.1 million was NHS expenditure on prescriptions, community care and hospital treatment. Parents incurred £23.2 million in costs through purchase of over the counter remedies.ConclusionsThe total cost presented here is likely to be a significant underestimate as only lower bound estimates were used where applicable, and for example, costs of alternative therapies, inpatient treatments or diagnostic tests, and time off work by parents could not be adequately estimated and were omitted from the calculation. The number and kind of prescribed products and products sold over the counter to treat FGIDs suggest that there are gaps between treatment guidelines, which emphasise parental reassurance and nutritional advice, and their implementation.

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Design for Variety: A Methodology for Understanding the Costs of Product Proliferation

Volume 4: 8th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology ◽

10.1115/96-detc/dtm-1610 ◽

1996 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mark V. Martin ◽

Kosuke Ishii

Keyword(s):

Indirect Costs ◽

Product Line ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Profit Margins ◽

Design For Variety ◽

Set Up ◽

Market Coverage ◽

Product Proliferation ◽

The Cost

Abstract This paper further develops the previously introduced concept of Design for Variety (DFV). Our study seeks a tool that enables product managers to estimate the cost of introducing variety into their product line. This will help them to maximize market coverage while maintaining required profit margins. Variety incurs many indirect costs that are not always well understood or are difficult to capture. These costs are often not considered by people making the decision about introducing variety. Our DFV model attempts to capture these indirect costs through the measurement of three indices: commonality, differentiation point, and set-up cost. These indices will allow the decision makers to estimate some of the generally unmeasurable costs of providing variety. We conclude this paper by discussing our validation plans for testing the model in industry.

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Learning When Agents Can Talk to Drivers Using the INAGT Dataset and Multisensor Fusion

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive Mobile Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies ◽

10.1145/3478125 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

Tong Wu ◽

Nikolas Martelaro ◽

Simon Stent ◽

Jorge Ortiz ◽

Wendy Ju

Keyword(s):

Sensor Fusion ◽

Deep Neural Network ◽

False Positives ◽

Driver Distraction ◽

Third Party ◽

Good Time ◽

Visual Data ◽

Perceived Safety ◽

To Receive ◽

And Training

This paper examines sensor fusion techniques for modeling opportunities for proactive speech-based in-car interfaces. We leverage the Is Now a Good Time (INAGT) dataset, which consists of automotive, physiological, and visual data collected from drivers who self-annotated responses to the question "Is now a good time?," indicating the opportunity to receive non-driving information during a 50-minute drive. We augment this original driver-annotated data with third-party annotations of perceived safety, in order to explore potential driver overconfidence. We show that fusing automotive, physiological, and visual data allows us to predict driver labels of availability, achieving an 0.874 F1-score by extracting statistically relevant features and training with our proposed deep neural network, PazNet. Using the same data and network, we achieve an 0.891 F1-score for predicting third-party labeled safe moments. We train these models to avoid false positives---determinations that it is a good time to interrupt when it is not---since false positives may cause driver distraction or service deactivation by the driver. Our analyses show that conservative models still leave many moments for interaction and show that most inopportune moments are short. This work lays a foundation for using sensor fusion models to predict when proactive speech systems should engage with drivers.

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Balqis restaurant: how to move on?

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies ◽

10.1108/eemcs-05-2016-0094 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Farzana Quoquab ◽

Shazwani Binti Ahmad ◽

Wan Nurul Syazwani Binti Wan Danial ◽

Jihad Mohammad

Keyword(s):

Subject Area ◽

Marketing Mix ◽

Business Success ◽

Strategic Decisions ◽

Gradual Improvement ◽

Content Type ◽

To Come ◽

Set Up ◽

The Right ◽

The Cost

Subject area This case can be used in marketing management as well as consumer behaviour courses. Study level/applicability This case is suitable to use in advanced undergraduate levels, MBA and MSc in marketing courses that cover topics related to market segmentation and marketing mix strategies. Case overview This case highlights the dilemma of an entrepreneur and a manager of a restaurant who were to take a decision about the sustainability of their restaurant business. Balqis Restaurant was owned by Danny who was a retiree from Telekom Malaysia. He wanted to open a restaurant business after he came back from his long holiday trip. He conducted market research to find a suitable place to open his Arabic restaurant. He assigned Waleed Masood Abdullah as the manager of Balqis Restaurant. Finally, in June 2010, he opened his long awaited restaurant at Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant was known as Qasar before the name was changed to Balqis in 2015 because of copyright issues related to Saba’ restaurant at Cyberjaya. The restaurant was well managed under Danny’s supervision for 4 years and successfully won customers’ hearts and loyalty before he decided to give full responsibility to Waleed in March 2014. Danny trusted Waleed because he taught and trained him. However, under Waleed’s management, Balqis started to lose its customers. Waleed also started to branch out the restaurant to different places in different states; one in Ipoh, and the other in Perak. He invested much money on renovation for all three branches, but one of the restaurants closed down in September 2014. This is because of the fact that they could no longer bear the cost of operations for the restaurant. However, he failed to learn from the mistake; they set up another restaurant, which was in Kuantan, in the same month. The sales were not that encouraging but it did show gradual improvement; yet, they once again sold it to another Arab businessman. Waleed realized his failure in managing the restaurant business in August 2015. He again opted to open another new branch which was questioned by Danny. He was in a rush to open it by the end of December 2015 to ensure that the additional profits from the current restaurants could cover the variables costs if the new restaurants were launched. Based on that, the owner had to make a decision about whether a new branch should be opened or whether they should just retain their restaurant in Gombak. Expected learning outcomes The learning objectives of using this case are as follows. 1. Knowledge enhancement: to help students in understanding the problems faced by a restaurant in expanding its market; to make students aware that a properly blended marketing mix is the key to business success and to broaden students’ views and understanding in targeting the proper market segment in formulating an effective marketing strategy. 2. Skills building: to be able to identify the best marketing strategic decisions to manage the restaurant business for its survival and to develop students’ ability to analyse the existing situation to come up with a viable and effective solution. 3. Attitudinal: to help the students to have intellectual openness in accepting different ways of finding solutions for a particular problem and to assist students in making the right move at the right time. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.

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GAIN Premix Facility: An Innovative Approach for Improving Access to Quality Vitamin and Mineral Premix in Fortification Initiatives

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/15648265120334s314 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 33 (4_suppl3) ◽

pp. S381-S389 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Philippe Guinot ◽

Vincent Jallier ◽

Alessandro Blasi ◽

Christophe Guyondet ◽

Marc Van Ameringen

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Edible Oils ◽

Quality Standards ◽

Private Industry ◽

Target Groups ◽

High Quality ◽

Adequate Quality ◽

Standards And Guidelines ◽

Set Up ◽

The Cost

Background Vitamin and mineral premix is one of the most significant recurring input costs for large-scale food fortification programs. A number of barriers exist to procuring adequate quality premix, including accessing suppliers, volatile prices for premix, lack of quality assurance and monitoring of delivered products, and lack of funds to purchase premix. Objective To develop and test a model to procure premix through a transparent and efficient process in which an adequate level of quality is guaranteed and a financial mechanism is in place to support countries or specific target groups when there are insufficient resources to cover the cost of premix. Methods Efforts focused on premixes used to fortify flour, such as wheat or maize (iron, zinc, B vitamins, and vitamin A), edible oils (vitamins A and D), and other food vehicles, such as fortified complementary foods, complementary food supplements, and condiments. A premix procurement model was set up with three distinct components: a certification process that establishes industry-wide standards and guidelines for premix, a procurement facility that makes premix more accessible to countries and private industry engaged in fortification, and a credit facility mechanism that helps projects finance premix purchases. Results After three years of operation, 15 premix suppliers and 29 micronutrient manufacturers have been certified, and more than US$23 million worth of premix that met quality standards has been supplied in 34 countries in Africa, Central and Southern Asia, and Eastern Europe, reaching an estimated 242 million consumers. Conclusions The Premix Facility demonstrated its effectiveness in ensuring access to high-quality premixes, therefore enabling the success of various fortification programs.

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