Intertemporal Altruism

This thesis investigated the links between prior prosocial decision and following prosocial motivation, whether to benefit oneself or others. In a series of experiments, this thesis revealed that after making donation, people are more generous if the charity uses self-benefit rather than other-benefit message appeals. In contrast, after rejecting a charity request, people responded more positively to other-benefit than self-benefit message appeals. This study is among the first to examine the influence of moral balancing effects and message appeals on willingness to donate. The results of the study may contribute to the area of consumers' ethical decisions making and morality concerns.

We report on a numerical observation of the recurrence phenomenon in a three dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) plasma for certain classes of initial flow profiles. Our simulations discover such a behaviour for an initial Taylor-Green (TG) type of flow, whereas under identical conditions, an initial Arnold-Beltrami-Childress (ABC) flow fails to show recurrent behaviour. This difference in the dynamical behaviours is traced to the nature of the Rayleigh quotient in each case. The Rayleigh quotient which is an approximate measure of the number of active degrees of freedom in a dynamical system is found to remain small and bounded in time for the TG flow but grows indefinitely in time for the ABC flow. An estimate of the effective degrees of freedom for the TG flow case is provided and its practical implications for the nonlinear behaviour of the continuum nonlinear MHD plasma system are discussed.

Myhre syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the SMAD4 gene, characterized by multisystemic involvement, including unique neurodevelopmental challenges. This review explores the interplay between SMAD4/TGF-beta signaling pathways and neurodevelopmental outcomes, emphasizing their implications for cognition, behavior, and brain structure. Key findings from neuroimaging studies highlight structural brain abnormalities that may underpin the cognitive and behavioral characteristics observed in affected individuals. We examine the lifespan perspective on neurodevelopment, from prenatal brain development to long-term cognitive outcomes, and discuss current therapeutic approaches, including early interventions and the potential for targeted molecular therapies. Challenges in diagnosing and monitoring neurodevelopmental symptoms in rare conditions like Myhre syndrome are highlighted, emphasizing the need for standardized assessments and regular surveillance. Additionally, this review underscores the profound psychosocial and clinical implications for patients and families, calling for integrated multidisciplinary care.

Seismic reflection data collected offshore of Alaska Peninsula across the western edge of the Semidi segment show distinctive variations in reflection characteristics of the megathrust fault with depth, suggesting changes in structure that may relate to seismic behavior. From the trench to ~40 km landward, two parallel reflections are observed, which we interpret as the top and bottom of the subducted sediment section. From ~50 to 95 km from the trench, the plate interface appears as a thin (<400 ms) reflection band. Deeper and farther landward, the plate interface transitions to a thicker (1–1.5 s) package of reflections, where it appears to intersect the fore‐arc mantle wedge based on our preferred interpretation of the continental Moho. Synthetic waveform modeling suggests that the thin reflection band is best explained by a single ~100 to 250 m thick low‐velocity zone, whereas the thick reflection band requires a 3 to 5 km thick zone of thin layers. The thin reflection band is located at the center of the 1938 Mw 8.2 Semidi earthquake rupture zone that now experiences little interplate seismicity. The thick reflection band starts at the downdip edge of the rupture zone, correlates with a dipping band of seismicity, and projects to the location of tremor at greater depth. We interpret the thin reflection band as a compacted sediment layer and/or localized shear zone. The thick reflection band could be caused by a wide deformation zone with branching faults and/or fluid‐rich layers, representing a broad transition from stick‐slip sliding to slow slip and tremor.

Hybrid event beds form when turbidity currents that transport or locally acquire significant quantities of mud decelerate. The mud dampens turbulence driving flow transformations, allowing both mud and sand to settle into dense, near‐bed fluid layers and debris flows. Quantifying details of the mud distribution vertically in what are often complex tiered deposits is critical to reconstructing flow processes and explaining the diverse bed types left by mud‐bearing gravity flows. High‐resolution X‐ray fluorescence core scanning provides continuous vertical compositional profiles that can help to constrain mud distribution at sub‐millimetre scale, offering a significant improvement over discrete sampling. The approach is applied here to cores acquired from the Pennsylvanian Ross Sandstone Formation, western Ireland, where a range of hybrid event beds have been identified. Raw X‐ray fluorescence counts are calibrated against element concentrations and mineral abundances determined on coincident core plugs, with element and element log‐ratios used as proxies to track vertical changes in abundances of quartz, illite (including mica), chlorite and calcite cement. New insights include ‘stepped’ (to higher values) as opposed to ‘saw‐tooth’ vertical changes in mud content and the presence of compositional banding that would otherwise be overlooked. Hybrid event beds in basin floor sheets that arrived ahead of the prograding fan system have significantly cleaner sandy components than those in mid‐fan lobes. The latter may imply that the heads of the currents emerging from mid‐fan channels entrained significant mud immediately before they collapsed. Many of the H3 debrites are bipartite with a sandier H3a division attributed to re‐entrainment and mixing of a trailing debris or fluid mud flow (H3b) with sand left by the forward part of the flow. Hybrid event bed structure may thus partly reflect substrate interaction and mixing during deposition, and the texture of the bed divisions may not simply mirror those in the suspensions from which they formed.

In the era of digital communications, religious dialogues have experienced significant transformations, notably with the rise of online fatwas via social media platforms. The spread of these digital religious verdicts has broadened the dissemination of information and public engagement while challenging traditional boundaries of freedom of speech. This research, grounded in the context of Pakistan, explores the implications and effectiveness of online fatwas. Through a qualitative approach, this study examines various social media platforms widely used in Pakistan to deliver online fatwas. The findings of this study suggest that these platforms have democratized religious discourse, shifting it from physical, sacred spaces such as mosques to the digital sphere. Furthermore, these platforms significantly influence individual beliefs, societal norms, and behaviors, thereby contributing to shifts in socio-political structures. Given the powerful influence of these platforms, the need for vigilant scrutiny and regulation is underscored. This study, therefore, offers critical insights into the digital transformation of religious practices and its vast implications for societal structures and individual behaviors. The conclusions drawn from this research could guide the management and dissemination of online fatwas, ensuring a balanced and beneficial societal impact.

Evidence indicating that eutectic liquids possess strong short-range ordering is presented. This evidence consists of viscosity data, relative strengths of atomic interactions, eutectic compositions, and eutectic temperatures. These liquids appear to consist of specific metal-metalloid molecular ions immersed in a gas of conduction electrons. Thus they have highly non-regular structures. The proposed cluster structures have important implications for crystallization behaviour and glass structures that derive from them.

<p>Inter-firm collaboration and networking have significantly increased in the context of technological innovation, changing the business environment and contributing to rapid and global integration. Being at the heart of technological innovation and commercialization, the venture capital (VC) industry has adopted inter-firm alliance as a common practice on a global scale. The most common form of collaboration in the industry is investment syndication between firms which eventually leads to a network of syndication. Understanding drivers of syndication and its financial implications is no longer enough. The nature of the inter-firm collaboration networks can be influenced by location and industry characteristics, and in turn they can also influence the industry practices and change. This study investigates the emerging structure of the VC networks in technology ventures in Australia in order to capture key features of the Australian VC market. Using graph theory the paper presents syndication network graphs and analyses their structural properties. The connectivity and density analysis shows further scope for facilitating the flow of information and resources across the VC industry. Behavioural implications of the networks on the industry practices and viability are also analysed and questions raised about the VC industry’s contribution to supporting and mainsteaming sustainable technologies.</p>

Archaic Mortuary Sites in the Central Mississippi Drainage: Distribution, Structure, and Behavioral Implications

Cosmology is one of the predominant research areas of the modern world, and advances in modern cosmology have prompted renewed interest in the intersections among religion, theology, and cosmology. After identifying three general areas of theological interest in cosmology, this chapter has two foci. The first is on ancient Mediterranean cosmologies and cosmogonies. In antiquity, the cosmos was often understood religiously, with the result that cosmologies and cosmogonies were either religious in nature or constituted a reaction to a religiously conceived understanding of the structures of the universe. The second focus is on the ways in which religions typically view cosmology, a topic that has been recently addressed by William Scott Green. It is argued that, according to religion qua religion, neither scientific cosmology nor natural theology can reveal the privileged knowledge that religions, especially religions that appeal to revelation, claim to provide in terms of the identity and nature of the superhuman being who created, discovered, or revealed the cosmos, as well as the behavioral and ethical implications of cosmic structure, teleology, and eschatology. Such knowledge comes only in and through religion and that is why every major world religion has a cosmology.

The amount of drug aerosol from an inhaler that can pass through an in vitro model of the mouth and throat (MT) during a realistic breath or inhalation flow rate vs. time profile (IP) is designated the total lung dose in vitro, or TLDin vitro. This article describes a clinical study that enabled us to recommend a general method of selecting IPs for use with powder inhalers of known airflow resistance (R) provided subjects followed written instructions either alone or in combination with formal training. In a drug-free clinical trial, inhaler-naïve, nonsmoking healthy adult human volunteers were screened for normal pulmonary function. IPs were collected from each volunteer inhaling through different air flow resistances after different levels of training. IPs were analyzed to determine the distribution of inhalation variables across the population and their dependence on training and airflow resistance. Equations for IP simulation are presented that describe the data including confidence limits at each resistance and training condition. Realistic IPs at upper (90%), median (50%), and lower (10%) confidence limits were functions of R and training. Peak inspiratory flow rates (PIFR) were inversely proportional to R so that if R was assigned, values for PIFR could be calculated. The time of PIFR, TPIFR, and the total inhaled volume (V) were unrelated to R, but dependent on training. Once R was assigned for a powder inhaler to be tested, a range of simulated IPs could be generated for the different training scenarios. Values for flow rate acceleration and depth of inspiration could also be varied within the population limits of TPIFR and V. The use of simulated IPs, in concert with realistic in vitro testing, should improve the DPI design process and the confidence with which clinical testing may be initiated for a chosen device.

In this study, we present behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging evidence that social stress enhances intuitive prosocial value processing while impairing self-reward processing. When deciding on monetary rewards for individuals at various social distances, participants who exhibited elevated cortisol levels following a social stress task were more inclined to choose a disadvantageous unequal option. Neuroimaging data revealed that participants more likely to choose the disadvantageous unequal option exhibited increased encoding of other-regarding rewards in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), whereas the dorsal mPFC exhibited a decrease in encoding. Mediation analyses further indicated that both the ventral and dorsal mPFC indirectly mediated the relationship between heightened cortisol levels and a greater likelihood of choosing a disadvantageous unequal option. Additionally, effective connectivity analysis results demonstrated that cortisol has an excitatory effect on the dorsal mPFC via the ventral striatum, while simultaneously sending inhibitory signals to the dorsal mPFC via the dorsal striatum. These findings provide empirical evidence to clarify the ambiguity surrounding the effects of stress on prosocial decision-making, suggesting that social stress disrupts deliberative decision-making while simultaneously promoting intuitive prosocial motivation through the differential modulation of hierarchically organized cortico-striatal loops.

The origins of human prosociality, in particular between strangers, are multifaceted. While laboratory studies support a cost-benefit account of helping, real-life scenarios involve additional socio-emotional motives grounded in subjective intuitions. How the cost-benefit model generalizes to everyday helping behavior remains unclear. In this study, we comprehensively assessed how motivations jointly shape helping across 100 naturalistic helping scenarios: an online sample (N1 = 215) rated willingness to help after reading brief vignettes, and a subset (N2 = 140) rated the strengths of candidate motivations elicited by each scenario. Two key factors-benefit to both helper and helpee, and cost to the helper-were identified through a factor analysis of the motivation ratings. We then successfully predicted helping decisions as a linear weighted sum of the two motivational factors, along with a dispositional helping bias. While a higher helping bias was associated with greater trait agreeableness and dispositional empathy,whereas individuals who prioritized cost over benefit exhibited higher levels of punishment sensitivity. Finally, we characterized the helping scenarios in three associated spaces: a decision space (willingness to help levels), a motivation space (two key motivational factors), and a semantic space (14 semantic types). Combining computational modeling with naturalistic helping contexts, this approach provides an integrated account of prosocial motivation and clarifies how individual differences in personality map onto real-world helping behaviors.

Giving in Dictator Games: Regard for Others or Regard by Others?

The Altruistic Rich? Inequality and Other-Regarding Preferences for Redistribution in the US