Temptation shapes dishonesty and can alter working memory

This study shows that participants tend to remember an ambiguous, directional cue as biased towards stimuli associated with a high reward that can be attained dishonestly. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher or lower than the Target Digit. Participants were paid based on the reported digit (higher digits meant higher pay) and not based on the accuracy of their report. In this setting, they could make self-serving mistakes by dishonestly reporting the Second Cued Digit when it was higher than the Target Digit. Replicating prior work, participants frequently made such self-serving mistakes. On other trials, after the digits disappeared, participants were asked to reproduce the direction of the jittery cue, without receiving any pay. Results showed that that participants’ reports of the cue were more biased toward high-rewarding digits than low-rewarding digits. This research provides preliminary evidence of a link between attention, dishonesty, and memory, offering an important constraint for theories in behavioral ethics.

Temptation Shapes Dishonesty and can Alter Working Memory

This study shows that participants tend to remember an ambiguous, directional cue as biased towards stimuli associated with a high reward that can be attained dishonestly. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher or lower than the Target Digit. Participants were paid based on the reported digit (higher digits meant higher pay) and not based on the accuracy of their report. In this setting, they could make self-serving mistakes by dishonestly reporting the Second Cued Digit when it was higher than the Target Digit. Replicating prior work, participants frequently made such self-serving mistakes. On other trials, after the digits disappeared, participants were asked to reproduce the direction of the jittery cue, without receiving any pay. Results showed that that participants’ reports of the cue were more biased toward high-rewarding digits than low-rewarding digits. This research provides preliminary evidence of a link between attention, dishonesty, and memory, offering an important constraint for theories in behavioral ethics.

Behavior in the electric current curve by changing the anodizing area

In this work, we studied the change in the electric current and the length of the nanotubes depending on the area and the exposure time in the anodizing process. Over time the anodizing area was changed with a rate of 0.5 cm2 to 2.5 cm2 using a total anodizing time of 60 min, using a chemical solution (2ml /3 ml /0.30g ) and maintaining a constant anodizing voltage equal to 20 V. The behavior in the nanostructures was recorded by the evolution of the current density as a function of the anodizing time. The morphology of the nanostructures was analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). With the use of the Imagej program. The size, length and diameter of the titanium nanostructures are obtained. The sample that presented the best behavior was that of an anodizing area of ​​1.5 cm2 and an anodizing time of 36 min. This presents a surface where open nanotubes are observed in the upper part with a vertical length of 0.23 μm and a pattern thereof organized in a circular arrangement with a diameter of 0.035 μm. It was observed that increasing the area under these anodizing conditions decreased the length of the nanotubes. The mobility of the loads was always greater with the area of ​​exposure, which is observed in the increase of the current

We remember the past as more rewarding than it was: effects of temptation on cheating and visual working memory

Here we report that participants’ visual working memory of an ambiguous cue is biased towards stimuli that are associated with a high reward. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher, or lower than the Target Digit. Participants were paid based on the reported digit (higher digits meant higher pay) and not based on the accuracy of their report. In this setting, they could make self-serving mistakes by dishonestly reporting the Second Cued Digit when it was higher than the Target Digit. Replicating prior work, we found that participants frequently made such self-serving mistakes. On other trials, after the digits disappeared, participants were asked to reproduce the direction of the jittery cue, without receiving any pay. This allowed us to test whether participants’ memory of the cue was biased toward high-rewarding digits, and our results showed that it was. We cautiously suggest that self-serving mistakes might result from automatic biases in working memory, which provides an important constraint for theories in behavioral ethics

In situ formation of photoactive B-ring reduced chlorophyll isomer in photosynthetic protein LH2

Natural chlorophylls have a D-ring reduced chlorin π-system; however, no naturally occurring photosynthetically active B-ring reduced chlorins have been reported. Here we report a B-ring reduced chlorin, 17,18-didehydro-bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a, produced by in situ oxidation of B800 bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a in a light-harvesting protein LH2 from a purple photosynthetic bacterium Phaeospirillum molischianum. The regioselective oxidation of the B-ring of B800 BChl a is rationalized by its molecular orientation in the protein matrix. The formation of 17,18-didehydro-BChl a produced no change in the local structures and circular arrangement of the LH2 protein. The B-ring reduced 17,18-didehydro-BChl a functions as an energy donor in the LH2 protein. The photoactive B-ring reduced Chl isomer in LH2 will be helpful for understanding the photofunction and evolution of photosynthetic cyclic tetrapyrrole pigments.

Serial Section-Based 3D Reconstruction of Anaxagorea (Annonaceae) Carpel Vasculature and Implications on Integrated Axial-Foliar Origin of Angiosperm Carpels

The carpel is the basic unit of the gynoecium in angiosperms and one of the most important morphological features distinguishing angiosperms from gymnosperms; therefore, carpel origin is of great significance in angiosperm phylogenetic origin. Recent consensus favors the interpretation that the carpel originates from the fusion of an ovule-bearing axis and the phyllome that subtends it. It has been confirmed by morphological and molecular evidence that foliar homologs are involved in carpel evolution. Consequently, if axial homologs can be traced in the carpel, it would more likely be derived from an integrated axial-foliar structure. This study aimed to reveal the axial structures in carpels by analyzing the continuous changes in vasculature from the receptacle to the carpels and ovules. Anaxagorea is the most basal genus in a primitive angiosperm family, Annonaceae. The conspicuous carpel stipe at the base of each carpel makes it an ideal material for exploring the possible axial homologous structure in the carpel. In this study, floral organogenesis and the topological vasculature structure were delineated in Anaxagorea luzonensis and Anaxagorea javanica, and a 3D-model of the carpel vasculature was reconstructed based on the serial sections. The results show that (1) at the flowering stage, the number of vascular bundles entering each Anaxagorea carpel from the receptacle was significantly higher than three, arranged in a radiosymmetric pattern, and forming a basal ring at the base of each carpel. (2) All carpel bundles were only connected with the central stele. (3) At the slightly upper part of the carpel, all lateral bundles from the basal ring were reorganized into two groups, each forming a lateral bundle complex below the respective placenta. Bundles in each lateral bundle complex were also ringed. (4) The ovule bundles were composed of non-adjacent bundles in the lateral bundle complex. The results of the present study suggest that the circular arrangement of bundles in the receptacle, carpel stipe, and placenta of Anaxagorea are in line with the composite axial-foliar nature of the carpel, and provide a morphological basis for further research on the origin of the carpel.

A Small-Divergence-Angle Orbital Angular Momentum Metasurface Antenna

Electromagnetic waves carrying an orbital angular momentum (OAM) are of great interest. However, most OAM antennas present disadvantages such as a complicated structure, low efficiency, and large divergence angle, which prevents their practical applications. So far, there are few papers and research focuses on the problem of the divergence angle. Herein, a metasurface antenna is proposed to obtain the OAM beams with a small divergence angle. The circular arrangement and phase gradient were used to simplify the structure of the metasurface and obtain the small divergence angle, respectively. The proposed metasurface antenna presents a high transmission coefficient and effectively decreases the divergence angle of the OAM beam. All the theoretical analyses and derivation calculations were validated by both simulations and experiments. This compact structure paves the way to generate OAM beams with a small divergence angle.

The Wandering Circles: A Flicker-Rate and Contour Dependent Motion Illusion

Our understanding of the visual system can be informed by examining errors in perception. In this vein, we present a novel illusion that we call the Wandering Circles in which stationary circles undergoing contrast polarity reversals (i.e., flicker), when viewed peripherally, appear to move about in a random fashion. Here we report the results of two psychophysical experiments in which participants rated the strength of the perceived illusory motion under varying stimulus conditions. The illusory motion percept was strongest when there was a light/dark alternation at the circle’s edge and when the edge faded smoothly to the background gray (i.e., a circular arrangement of the Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet Illusion). Additionally, the percept of illusory motion is flicker-rate dependent, appearing when the circles flickered at 9.44Hz and 28.33Hz, and was virtually non-existent at 1.98Hz. The Wandering Circles differ from many other classic motion illusions as the light/dark alternation is perfectly balanced in time and position around the edges of the circle, and thus, there is no net directional local or global motion energy in the stimulus. Furthermore, the direction of the illusory motion does not seem to be in a particular direction. Thus, it appears that the perceived motion may rely on factors internal to the viewer such as top-down influences, asymmetries in luminance and motion perception across the retina, adaptation combined with positional uncertainty due to peripheral viewing, eye movements, and/or low contrast edges.

An optical test to unveil twisting of birefringent crystals in spherulites

Helical conformations and structures are frequently observed in materials. The presence of helices at points of the unit cell of a crystal, on a larger size scale in the crystalline lattice or even in the microscopic structure of crystals, affects the chemico-physical properties of a solid and, hence, also interactions with light. Here, attention has been drawn to the geometrical properties of helices produced by a hypothetical torque of a transparent crystal, and optical properties of twisted crystals easily observed by a polarizing microscope have been discussed. Radially grown spherulites are obtained by most substances crystallized from melt. The circular arrangement of elongated crystals reflects the optical behaviour of each crystal and, because of the larger dimensions of spherulites, allows investigations otherwise hardly feasible on separate crystals. According to the torsional analysis of elongated bodies and the birefringence theory, information on the existence of helically shaped crystals can be deduced, as hereinafter explained, from the microscopic appearance and birefringence pattern of spherulites. Indeed, twisting decreases the birefringence throughout an elongated crystal and, therefore, also the birefringence of spherulites formed by twisted radial crystals is reduced.