Rethinking Incentives

2020 ◽  
pp. 154-166
Author(s):  
Lea Shaver

This chapter begins by describing an experience of Iceland that casts Samuel Johnson's claim that “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money” into serious doubt. With only 350,000 speakers, the potential readership for Icelandic books is truly small; yet Iceland's publishing scene is thriving. It discusses the counterproductive effect of financial rewards as the strongest for activities that people find psychologically rewarding because they are fun, culturally valued, or otherwise meaningful. An author can experience the writing process as play, in which the creator enjoys a high degree of control over the outcome and may also feel gratified for having made a contribution to society, advancing knowledge in an area that one cares about, or the pure satisfaction of self-expression. The chapter further clarifies that people internalize the notion that doing something for profit makes it less praiseworthy and being financially rewarded may undermine the sense of pride or virtue associated with it.

Regular aerial treatment of 14000 km of watercourses has achieved and maintained, over an area of 700000 km 2 of West African savannah, a very high degree of control of the larvae of Simulium damnosum sensu stricto and S. sibanum , the vectors of onchocerciasis in this area. However, particular and relatively restricted parts of this area, mainly in northern Ivory Coast and neighbouring parts of Upper Volta, experience regular and prolonged reinvasions by parous female vectors, which have already taken bloodmeals (and many of them carrying the parasites) and arrive from unknown sources probably hundreds of kilometres away, from directions probably between southwest and north. This reinvasion, now experienced in three successive years, represents the outstanding scientific, epidemiological and logistic problem still facing the WHO Onchocerciasis Control Programme. An outline is presented of the multidisciplinary investigations being undertaken to find a solution.


Author(s):  
Diana C. Mutz

This chapter looks at the characteristics of the experimental treatments that are used to manipulate incivility, as well as the kinds of people used in the experiments. Because of the high degree of control over the political content of the broadcasts, the participants involved in the conflicts, and the way in which the cameras covered the dispute, it is possible to draw strong causal inferences about the impact that incivility and camera perspective have on viewers' experiences of political conflict. Although the professional production quality meant that none of the subjects voiced suspicions about the programs themselves, it is still plausible that other, unidentified differences between the real world and this exchange may have altered the outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Silva López ◽  

Pericyclic reactions are known for their exquisite selectivity and, in many cases, the formation of multiple chiral centers with a high degree of control. With the advent of accurate computational tools, this control was translated into predictability, and the design and exploitation of this set of reactions opened a new era in organic synthesis. Suddenly, highly complex and profusely decorated polycyclic structures were accessible in relatively short reaction sequences. Out interest in exploring the limits of application of the rules that govern these reactions with ironfist led us to discover a range of eye opening post-transitional effects that are key to ultimately understand reactivity at a microscopic level.


1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bělohradský ◽  
Françisco M. Raymo ◽  
J. Fraser Stoddart

The art and science of introducing mechanical-interlocking at the molecular level in order to generate catenanes - molecules composed of two or more macrocyclic components - offers the opportunity of constructing a new range of molecular compounds possessing intriguing properties. However, the topological features displayed by catenanes has rendered the syntheses of such molecular compounds an extremely challenging task for synthetic chemists to address. Their early syntheses were based upon either statistical approaches - the threading of a small amount of a macrocycle on to an acyclic precursor as a chance event - or directed approaches, relying upon the temporary introduction of covalent bonds in the multistep synthesis of a so-called precatenane, followed by its conversion ultimately into a catenane. These approaches afforded catenanes in very low yields overall and only after following tedious and laborious synthetic procedures. Fortunately, however, with the advent of supramolecular chemistry, template-directed methods that allow us to self-assemble [n]catenanes much more efficiently have become available. Numerous successful template-directed syntheses have now emerged - some by chance and others by design. These methods have been based upon (i) metal coordinating, (ii) hydrogen bonding, (iii) solvophobic, and/or (iv) π-π stacking interactions which have been found to govern self-assembly processes to catenated compounds from appropriate precursors. Their relative simplicity, the high degree of control with which they can be employed, and the remarkable efficiency with which they proceed has already provided the opportunity to synthetic chemists to self-assemble a series of [n]catenanes, incorporating from two up to five mechanically-interlocked macrocyclic components.


2013 ◽  
Vol 549 ◽  
pp. 68-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghazal Sheikholeslami ◽  
Jonathan Griffiths ◽  
Stuart P. Edwardson ◽  
Ken Watkins ◽  
Geoff Dearden

Laser forming (LF) is a non-contact method to shape metallic sheets and tubes by induced thermal stress without melting using a de-focused laser beam. Laser forming offers the industrial promise of controlled shaping of metallic and non-metallic components for prototyping, correction of design shape or distortion and precision adjustment applications. In order to fulfil this promise in a manufacturing environment the process must have a high degree of control, be repeatable and have a minimal impact on the material and mechanical properties of the part to be formed. In order to demonstrate the capability of the LF process a study is presented in this paper on the 3D Laser Forming of ERW steel square tubes SHS EN10305-5 E220 +CR2 (1.5x25x25mm and 1.5x50x50mm 300mm long tube) using a 1.5kW CO2laser and industrial 5 axis gantry. Strategies have been developed for out of plane bending with specific emphasis on process throughput balanced with minimising adverse localised changes to material properties that could lead to stress concentration features in a component in service. Presented in this paper is empirical 3D LF shape data verified by a scanning laser profiler, a metallurgical study, hardness testing and a FEM model developed in Comsol Multi-Physics. The results of these studies were employed to develop optimised scan strategies for the controlled laser forming of the ERW steel square tubes within strict metallurgical constraints.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 3899-3908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Wang ◽  
Tian Shan Zha ◽  
Xin Jia ◽  
Jin Nan Gong ◽  
Charles Bourque ◽  
...  

Abstract. Explanations for the occurrence of hysteresis (asynchronicity) between diel soil respiration (Rs) and soil temperature (Ts) have evoked both biological and physical mechanisms. The specifics of these explanations, however, tend to vary with the particular ecosystem or biome being investigated. So far, the relative degree of control of biological and physical processes on hysteresis is not clear for drylands. This study examined the seasonal variation in diel hysteresis and its biological control in a desert-shrub ecosystem in northwest (NW) China. The study was based on continuous measurements of Rs, air temperature (Ta), temperature at the soil surface and below (Tsurf and Ts), volumetric soil water content (SWC), and photosynthesis in a dominant desert shrub (i.e., Artemisia ordosica) over an entire year in 2013. Trends in diel Rs were observed to vary with SWC over the growing season (April to October). Diel variations in Rs were more closely associated with variations in Tsurf than with photosynthesis as SWC increased, leading to Rs being in phase with Tsurf, particularly when SWC > 0.08 m3 m−3 (ratio of SWC to soil porosity  =  0.26). However, as SWC decreased below 0.08 m3 m−3, diel variations in Rs were more closely related to variations in photosynthesis, leading to pronounced hysteresis between Rs and Tsurf. Incorporating photosynthesis into a Q10-function eliminated 84.2 % of the observed hysteresis, increasing the overall descriptive capability of the function. Our findings highlight a high degree of control by photosynthesis and SWC in regulating seasonal variation in diel hysteresis between Rs and temperature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn Harfst ◽  
Patrick Pichler ◽  
Wolfgang Fischer

Abstract Rural regions in Austria have been under increasing pressure for change in the last decades. On a regional level, varying development patterns of shrinkage and growth arise alongside economic, demographic and social parameters. In this paper, regional ambassador concepts will be explicated as a new instrument of regional development. Additionally, potential positive impacts of these approaches on the problems faced by rural, structurally weak regions will be highlighted. Notable advantages of these approaches are network and feedback effects between stakeholders. These, in turn, are capable of improving the economic and social situation in those regions. However, these measures require a high degree of control capacities which structurally weak areas often lack.


1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (41) ◽  
pp. 655
Author(s):  
OJ Burden

Five chemicals were used in screening trials for the control of black end and anthracnose of bananas, both caused by Colletotrichum musae. Of the fungicides tested, Benlate (R)-[Methyl (l-butylcarbamoy1)- 2-benzimidazolecarbamate] was the most effective. Thiabendazole and 2-amino butane also gave significant control. In a larger scale trial varying concentrations of Benlate were examined using clusters of fruit in commercial fibreboard carton packs. At 100 p.p.m. and above a high degree of control of crown rot and anthracnose was achieved, both diseases being virtually eliminated at 400 p.p.m.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-125
Author(s):  
Miles Weinberger

The excellent review article by Leffert1 and the accompanying commentary by Bergner2 made important points regarding the changing role of the pediatric allergist and the broad requirements for knowledge of any physicians who are to provide specialty care for children with asthma. While the current state of the art allows a high degree of control for this disease,3 considerable morbidity from inadequately treated asthma persists. This situation is unlikely to change rapidly unless departments of pediatrics place a high priority on ensuring that the modern allergist described by Dr. Bergner is on their faculty to teach the current housestaff and provide continuing education for the practitioner; only then will most general pediatricians be able to assume the role envisioned by Dr. Leffert.


Author(s):  
Alessio Fiore

It focuses on the interventions of cities in the countryside in the decades either side of 1100 drawing examples primarily from Lombardy, Tuscany, and Lazio. The particular character of the area close to cities (5–10km) which urban authorities sought to control politically, economically and militarily is emphasized. Detailed examples of judicial and fiscal powers exercised by the communes over rural communities both near and far from the city follow. The author points out that although some of the stronger communes such as Milan and Genoa managed to achieve a high degree of control over their territories from the early 1100s, smaller and less powerful centres (for example, Alba and Imola) struggled to do so. Nevertheless, through local consensus, many cities achieved a hegemonic position over extensive tracts of the countryside at the expense of the dynastic families who had previously held sway there. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of the (far less numerous) autonomous rural communities such as Isola Comacina, Chiavenna, and Val di Scalve, proposing the novel idea of ‘collective lordships’, a point re-emphasized in the conclusion.


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