Sharing Personal Information is Discounted as a Function of Social Distance

Social discounting researchers have repeatedly shown that individuals discount sharing the amount of a monetary reward as a function of social distance, and that increasing the available monetary reward decreases sharing. However, no previous study has tested whether sharing nonmonetary commodities are discounted as a function of social distance. The current study tested whether sharing personal information would be discounted similarly to monetary rewards, as well as whether a magnitude effect occurred at a relatively small magnitude difference with 96 university students. A within-participant procedure showed that sharing personal information was discounted as a function of social distance, albeit with a steeper discounting rate relative to both monetary reward magnitudes. However, there was no significant association between personal information discounting rates and monetary discounting rates at either magnitude, suggesting that participants treated each commodity differently (i.e., commodity effect). Replicating previous non-U.S. samples, discounting rates for both monetary reward magnitudes were significantly positively associated with each other and showed a significant magnitude effect, with participants showing significantly steeper discounting rates for the relatively larger monetary rewards. The results for sharing personal information are important because many scams now target personal information in addition to money. Future research should examine what type of personal information is most likely to be shared as a function of social distance, and whether those participants who choose to share more personal information also are at greater risk for scams targeting personal information.

WhatsApp-assisted health education intervention

The acknowledgment of social media as a strategy in health education is essential, providing benefits to health promotion and the prevention and treatment of comorbidities. This study assessed the contribution of WhatsApp use on the prognosis of medical conditions and its impact on enhancing the quality of life. The review protocol used PubMed and Web of Science as databases, followed PRISMA-E 2012 guidelines, was registered in PROSPERO (Nº2021232688), and its risk of bias was analyzed Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing the risk of bias. Thirteen impact studies (n = 1653 participants) were selected and showed evidence on metabolic parameters such as reducing blood pressure (7.6%); body mass index-BMI (7.6%); glycated haemoglobin-HbA1c (15.4%); resting heart rate (7.6%); increase in static balance increase on balance (7.6%) and reduced body weight (7.6%). Furthermore, specific findings on each intervention were demonstrated, such as diminished rates of relapse in substance users (7.6%); increased populational knowledge on chronic diseases (23%) associated with a decrease in the potential complications (7.6%), and a rise on treatment adhesion (7.6%); impact on the follow-up of pregnant patients (7.6%) and progress on oral hygiene (15.4%). Therefore, it was concluded that this intervention strategy demonstrated significant magnitude in reducing the progression and complication of the assessed disorders.

Validation of a multi-scale Ti-6Al-4V drilling model by means of thermomechanical field measurements

Drilling operations lead to temperatures and forces that may locally reach significant magnitude and thus impair the surface and material integrity. Optimizing the cutting conditions could limit these degradations, which are more significant in the case of low thermal conductivity materials such as titanium alloys. Robust numerical modelling is a relevant alternative to such issues but must rely on strong in-process experimental measurements. Unfortunately, the confined nature of the cutting area during drilling prevent from any straight forward field-measurement. The proposed multi-scale strategy consists in validating the developed 3D FEM models both at micrometric and millimetric scales, using coupled full-field measurements. The limited access to the cutting area is overcome by means i) of oblique cutting tests at microscale and ii) tube drilling tests. Thermal fields are evaluated using an infrared camera while kinematic fields are determined by image correlation (DIC) using a high-speed camera. The experimental and numerical fields are then compared, and numerical results are extended over several revolutions by means of purely thermal 2D analytical model.

Impact of Surfactant Protein-A Variants on Survival in Aged Mice in Response to Klebsiella pneumoniae Infection and Ozone: Serendipity in Action

Innate immune molecules, SP-A1 (6A2, 6A4) and SP-A2 (1A0, 1A3), differentially affect young mouse survival after infection. Here, we investigated the impact of SP-A variants on the survival of aged mice. hTG mice carried a different SP-A1 or SP-A2 variant and SP-A-KO were either infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae or exposed to filtered air (FA) or ozone (O3) prior to infection, and their survival monitored over 14 days. In response to infection alone, no gene- or sex-specific (except for 6A2) differences were observed; variant-specific survival was observed (1A0 > 6A4). In response to O3, gene-, sex-, and variant-specific survival was observed with SP-A2 variants showing better survival in males than females, and 1A0 females > 1A3 females. A serendipitous, and perhaps clinically important observation was made; mice exposed to FA prior to infection exhibited significantly better survival than infected alone mice. 1A0 provided an overall better survival in males and/or females indicating a differential role for SP-A genetics. Improved ventilation, as provided by FA, resulted in a survival of significant magnitude in aged mice and perhaps to a lesser extent in young mice. This may have clinical application especially within the context of the current pandemic.

Multiple comparisons of diversity indices invaded by Lantana camara

Current study assessed the impact of Lantana camara invasion on native plant diversity in Pothohar region of Pakistan. The approach used for study was random samplings and comparisons of diversity indices [number of species (S), abundance (N), species richness (R), evenness (Jꞌ), Shannon diversity index (Hꞌ) and Simpson index of dominance (λ)] with two categorical factors i.e., invaded and non-invaded (control). Control plots harboured by an average of 1.74 more species/10m2. The control category was diverse (Hꞌ=2.56) than invaded category (Hꞌ=1.56). The higher value of species richness in control plots shows heterogeneous nature of communities and vice versa in invaded plots. At multivariate scale, ordination (nMDS) and ANOSIM showed significant magnitude of differences between invaded and control plots at all sites. The decrease in studied diversity indices in invaded over control sites indicated that plant communities become less productive due to Lantana invasion.

On the role of cave-soil in the carbon cycle. A fist approach.

<p>Karsts cover up to 25 % of the land surface and contain significant sedimentary deposits that become active cave-soils. Subterranean karst ecosystems play an active role in the global carbon cycle in terms of their contribution to the global GHG balance. They act alternately as a source or sink of CO<sub>2</sub> and as a rapid sink of CH<sub>4</sub>. The most recent results indicate that microbiota must play a significant ecological role in the biogeochemical processes that control the subterranean atmosphere composition. Soils forming underneath the surface must host a large part of the subterranean microbiota. But to date, their behaviour concerning the production of gases and exchange with the “confined troposphere” has not been evaluated. Systematic direct estimates of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes from cave-soils do not exist in literature. And they are needed before global generalizations can be made about the carbon budgets (emissions and sinks) of karstic ecosystems.</p><p>Here we present pioneering research to evaluate the carbon fluxes from the cave soils directly exchanged with the cave atmosphere. This preliminary study is the first approach to systematically characterize the role of cave-soils in the production and transport of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> in the subterranean environment. We carried out automatic in situ and real-time monitoring of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> diffusive fluxes from a sedimentary alluvial soil in Pindal cave for one year (north Spain). We developed seasonal campaigns for CH<sub>4</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes daily continuous monitoring by a LICOR closed chamber-based gas exchange system, in conjunction with a compatible Gasmet FTIR gas analyser. Moreover, autonomous equipment monitored the main micro-environmental parameters of the local subsurface-soil-atmosphere system. To interpret gas exchange processes and rates, and to understand the underlying mechanisms in soils, we also carried out seasonal δ<sup>13</sup>C geochemical tracing by using Picarro cavity ring-down spectroscopy, through simultaneous cave atmosphere-soil-chamber air samplings. We also characterized the soil microbial communities related to the carbon cycle by meta-barcoding analyses of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and Shotgun Metagenomics.</p><p>Preliminary results show net CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from cave-soil on a daily scale, resulting from respiration by chemotrophic microorganisms. We detect significant magnitude variations along the day, reaching occasionally values close to zero. This is remarkable in such thermo-hygrometric stable environment and absence of light. Changes in the cave ventilation regime seems to be the determining factor just in some cases. Intrinsic microbial processes appear to be decisive in others. The results also reveal net CH<sub>4</sub> uptake from cave-soil on a daily scale, with no significant magnitude variations along the day. It seems to be linked to the metabolism of Nitrate-dependent methanotrophs belonging to the phylum Rokubacteria. Additionally, we detected significant variations in magnitude and different flow patterns in the cave-soils colonized by biofilms, most prominent in the case of moonmilk deposits.</p><p>These preliminary results confirm that cave-soil is playing an outstanding role in the processes of production, consumption and storage of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> and may be partially determining the strong variations of these major GHGs in natural subterranean ecosystems.</p>

A Concise Handbook of the Indian Economy in the 21st Century

After experiencing slow growth for much of the post-Independence period, the Indian economy has experienced powerful changes of significant magnitude since the mid-1980s. Post-reform India has defied established economic patterns and, in the process, created a few paradoxes. In this concise edition of The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy in the 21st Century, select chapters from the original have been compiled to give students of economics a brief but comprehensive overview of the Indian economy, contributing to a finer understanding of India’s growth path. In discussing these issues, this concise handbook adopts a context-rich, research-based, non-ideological approach; provides a comprehensive yet forward-looking coverage of economic issues; includes political and social aspects and draws on policymaker and market-participant perspectives; brings to the fore the various aspects of India’s performance that now attract global attention; and debates the relative importance of external factors compared to domestic reforms.

Evolutionary branching in distorted trait spaces

Biological communities are thought to have been evolving in trait spaces that are not only multi-dimensional, but also distorted in a sense that mutational covariance matrices among traits depend on the parental phenotypes of mutants. Such a distortion may affect diversifying evolution as well as directional evolution. In adaptive dynamics theory, diversifying evolution through ecological interaction is called evolutionary branching. This study analytically develops conditions for evolutionary branching in distorted trait spaces of arbitrary dimensions, by a local nonlinear coordinate transformation so that the mutational covariance matrix becomes locally constant in the neighborhood of a focal point. The developed evolutionary branching conditions can be affected by the distortion when mutational step sizes have significant magnitude difference among directions, i.e., the eigenvalues of the mutational covariance matrix have significant magnitude difference.

Learning to Navigate (in) the Anthropocene

Over the last decades, the extent of human impact on Earth and the atmosphere has been the subject of large-scale scientific investigations. It is increasingly argued that this impact is of a geologically-significant magnitude, to the extent that we have entered a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene. However, the field of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) research has been slow in engaging in the Anthropocene debates. This article addresses that research gap by offering a theoretical analysis of the role and position of HESD, and more particularly of the lecturer and the student, within the Anthropocene. At present, the majority of HESD research can be categorized as either instrumental or emancipatory. This article’s central aim is to develop a third, navigational approach toward HESD research. In order to do so, the article first argues that developing understandings of the Anthropocene reconfigure traditional humanist conceptualizations of time, space and collectives. The article proceeds with advancing new, relational conceptualizations of educational spaces (as learning milieus), educational times (as rhythms that slow the present) and learning (as a situated activity that takes place through belonging). Embedded within these new conceptualizations, the proposed navigational approach aims to enable educational actors to orient themselves and to consequently navigate in, and to learn by making connections with, our more-than-human world.

Swirled injector modeling for cavitating multiphase flow

The goal of this study is to present a comparison between different approaches to multiphase injection modeling of self-pressurized rocket engine propellant. Swirled, tangential orifice injector of nitrous oxide, for an “N” class hybrid rocket motor is the object of the study. A brief descriptionof the injector purpose and geometry is provided, followed by a description of different approaches for flow modeling. Examined techniques range from 0D, Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) to 3D multiphase with mass and heat exchange between phases. Results of analyses are provided and compared with experimental data. The discrepancies between results are of significant magnitude but expected nature. Co clusions about most feasible approaches for engineering calculations are drawn.