The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons

Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these previous studies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether malicious envy influences schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited in the context of precise and ambiguous social comparisons. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to play a monetary game with several other players. In the experimental condition, participants gained less or lost more than the other player; in the control condition, both the participants and the player gained little or lost much. Subsequently, the participants observed that the player encountered a misfortune, that is, gained less or lost more money than the participant. The results showed that when participants knew the exact amount of monetary gained and lost by themselves and the other player (i.e., precise social comparisons), malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude only in the loss frame rather than in the gain frame. More importantly, malicious envy turned out to reduce feelings of schadenfreude in both gain and loss frames, when participants did not know the exact amount (i.e., ambiguous social comparisons). The findings provide novel evidence that malicious envy does not always increase schadenfreude particularly when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons.

Modeling and optimizations of mixing and aeration processes in bioreactors with activated sludge

Mixing aimed at homogenization of the volume of bioreactors with the activated sludge is of great importance for the proper course of the wastewater treatment process. It affects both the efficiency of pollutants removal and the properties of the activated sludge related to its sedimentation. The mixing process in bioreactors can be carried out in different ways. In batch bioreactors in the aeration phase or flow bioreactors in aerobic chambers, mixing is carried out through aeration systems. These systems should aerate the activated sludge flocs for efficient biological treating of wastewater, as well as effectively homogenize the volume of the bioreactor. Hence, it is important to choose such a design of the aeration system and its operation settings that provide the amount of air ensuring the exact amount of oxygen for the implementation of technological processes, counteract sedimentation of sludge at the bottom of the reactor, are reliable as well as economical in operation (demand of electric energy). The paper presents the model studies aimed at optimization of the design and settings of aeration and mixing systems used in active sludge bioreactors.

PENENTUAN PREMI DAN CADANGAN PADA ASURANSI PENDIDIKAN DENGAN MEMERHATIKAN PELUANG HIDUP ANAK

Education insurance provides services in the field of education. In education insurance, the insured not only gets protection benefits but also education funds. These benefits will be received if they have paid premiums. Insurance companies also need to set the exact amount of policy value. The purpose of this study is to determine the premium and policy value of education insurance by taking into account the child's life chances. In this study, used secondary data from the 2011 Indonesian Mortality Table and illustrated data in the form of education fund data. Premium is obtained using the equivalence principle and policy value is obtained using the prospective method. In the calculation of premiums and policy values for education insurance premiums by taking into account the child's life chances, modifications are made, the amount of education funds multiplied by the child's life chances. The results given in this study are the amount of education insurance premium by taking into account the child's life chances is Rp 6.946.456,00. Policy value increases during the disbursement of education funds and decreases at the end of coverage.

Second-Generation Platelet Concentrates (PRFs): Estimation of Cellular Content

We performed a study to evaluate the amount of Platelets and Leukocytes in a second-generation solid platelet concentrates in terms of Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Value (VP+), Negative Predictive Value (VP-), False Negative Proportion, and False Positive Proportion of our Statistical Method. Blood was collected in anticoagulant-free PET tubes with silica for clot production and PRF membranes. The membranes and clots produced were examined. In a previous work, the authors, starting from the results obtained in Kitamura's work, wanted to elaborate a simpler and inexpensive system to calculate the exact amount of platelets and leukocytes contained in PRF, compared to the one present in whole blood, starting from a simple "haemochromocytometric examination". In this study, the authors have evaluated the Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Value (VP+), Negative Predictive Value (VP-), False Negative Proportion, and False Positive Proportion of the "Statistical Method". Using the Statistical Method, we have that by reducing by 34.12% (±28.2) the value of leukocytes obtained from the CBC examination. We obtained the value of leukocytes contained in the PRF membrane by t-PA digestion and by reducing by 15.12% (±24.87) the value of platelets obtained by the same method, we obtained the value contained in solid platelet concentrates by t-PA digestion. The method thus proposed demonstrated a Se=0.75; Sp=0.86; VP+=0.75; VP-=0.86 for platelet counts, Se=0.47; Sp=0.66; VP+=0.80; VP-=0.30 for leukocyte counts. Conclusion: Our study sought to standardize the PRF preparation procedure by validating a statistical system to calculate the exact amount of platelets and leukocytes in second-generation solid platelet concentrates, making it easy to evaluate individual PRF arrays on time in the clinical setting. The Statistical method compared to the digestive method with t-PA for leukocyte and platelet counts demonstrated equal validity for platelets, but not so for leukocytes.

GROUNDWATER MONITORING USING GRACE MISSION

Since last few decades, India has met to major crises related to groundwater. Major cities, for example, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru etc. are facing extreme risk of water crisis. In next few decades, this may lead to a major water crisis when this non-renewable resource is exhausted. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, widely used for monitoring of groundwater storage change, could be utilized to get the information of exact amount of water above or below the surface of the earth that may be used to counter act over such situation of water crisis. GRACE mission consists of two earth orbiting satellite vehicles (SVs) separated by 220 km with the objective of computing change in gravity by increasing or decreasing distance between both the SVs caused by higher or lower gravity masses. The primary objective of the presented work is to obtain the liquid water equivalent height in a selected area using GRACE mission data with GLDAS soil moisture data. The advantage of using GRACE is that it provides better accuracy (fraction of 1cm) in comparison to traditional methods, therefore, larger extent could be covered. This paper extensively discusses about GRACE application (especially groundwater monitoring), challenges with GRACE missions and about effective methods for groundwater recharge.

Calculation of Limestone Reserves in the East Biluhu Region, Gorontalo district, Gorontalo Province

<em>Indonesia is a country that has a lot of natural resources. Natural resources are widely used in various areas of human life. One of the resources that is often used is limestone. Limestone is a non-metallic mining material that has considerable potential and reserves and spreads across almost all parts of Indonesia, but the exact amount of reserves is not yet known. The research aims to predict the amount of packstone-type limestone reserves using geophysical methods. This research was conducted using the geoelectric method with the Schlumberger configuration, where the resistivity geoelectric data obtained variations in resistivity and layer thickness. From this data, it is then interpreted to determine the type of rock in the surface area, and making a 3D model to determine the distribution of limestone in the study area and to calculate the amount of limestone reserves in the study area. Based on the research results, it is known that the research area is dominated by packstone with a resistivity value of 16.6 Ωm - 1.3x105 Ωm. The calculation result of packstone reserves in the study area is </em>73,629,403<em>tons.</em>

Fluid Intake Monitoring Systems for the Elderly: A Review of the Literature

Fluid intake monitoring is an essential component in preventing dehydration and overhydration, especially for the senior population. Numerous critical health problems are associated with poor or excessive drinking such as swelling of the brain and heart failure. Real-time systems for monitoring fluid intake will not only measure the exact amount consumed by the users, but could also motivate people to maintain a healthy lifestyle by providing feedback to encourage them to hydrate regularly throughout the day. This paper reviews the most recent solutions to automatic fluid intake monitoring both commercially and in the literature. The available technologies are divided into four categories: wearables, surfaces with embedded sensors, vision- and environmental-based solutions, and smart containers. A detailed performance evaluation was carried out considering detection accuracy, usability and availability. It was observed that the most promising results came from studies that used data fusion from multiple technologies, compared to using an individual technology. The areas that need further research and the challenges for each category are discussed in detail.

The Role of Dishware Size in the Perception of Portion Size in Children and Adolescents with Obesity

Purpose: The influence of dishware on portion size perception in children and adolescents is inconclusive. This study investigated how children and adolescents with both obesity and a normal weight perceived portion size in different sized and shaped dishware items. Methods: The study included 60 children and adolescents with overweight and obesity (OBE) and 27 children and adolescents with normal weight (NW) aged from 9 to 17 years. The participants estimated quantities in three pairs of drinking glasses, one pair of bowls and two pairs of plates which varied in size and shape. The children were instructed to state intuitively which portion they would choose for big or small thirst/hunger. Thereafter they were asked to determine the exact amount by answering which dishware item contained the larger/smaller portion (cognitive evaluation). Results: There were no substantial differences in the intuitive evaluation of portion sizes between OBE and NW. During the cognitive evaluation, OBE estimated the amount of water in the glasses more correctly compared to NW (61% vs. 43%; p = 0.008); OBE estimated the amount of lentils in the bowls and on the plates significantly less correctly (39%) compared to NW (56%; p = 0.013). Conclusions: Habit formation and environmental stimuli might play a greater role in estimating food amounts in dishware than the child’s and adolescent’s body weight.

To cool is to keep: residual H/He atmospheres of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes

ABSTRACT Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are commonly thought to have accreted hydrogen/helium envelopes, consisting of a few to ten percent of their total mass, from the primordial gas disc. Subsequently, hydrodynamic escape driven by core-powered mass-loss and/or photoevaporation likely stripped much of these primordial envelopes from the lower mass and closer-in planets to form the super-Earth population. In this work, we show that after undergoing core-powered mass-loss, some super-Earths can retain small residual H/He envelopes. This retention is possible because, for significantly depleted atmospheres, the density at the radiative–convective boundary drops sufficiently such that the cooling time-scale becomes shorter than the mass-loss time-scale. The residual envelope is therefore able to contract, terminating further mass-loss. Using analytic calculations and numerical simulations, we show that the mass of primordial H/He envelope retained as a fraction of the planet’s total mass, fret, increases with increasing planet mass, Mc, and decreases with increasing equilibrium temperature, Teq, scaling as $f_\mathrm{ret} \propto M_\mathrm{c}^{3/2} T_\mathrm{eq}^{-1/2} \exp {[M_\mathrm{c}^{3/4} T_\mathrm{eq}^{-1}]}$. fret varies from &lt;10−8 to about 10−3 for typical super-Earth parameters. To first order, the exact amount of left-over H/He depends on the initial envelope mass, the planet mass, its equilibrium temperature, and the envelope’s opacity. These residual hydrogen envelopes reduce the atmosphere’s mean molecular weight compared to a purely secondary atmosphere, a signature observable by current and future facilities. These remnant atmospheres may, however, in many cases be vulnerable to long-term erosion by photoevaporation. Any residual hydrogen envelope likely plays an important role in the long-term physical evolution of super-Earths, including their geology and geochemistry.

FLOWER POLLINATION ALGORITHM FOR MULTI LEVEL LOT SIZING OPTIMIZATION

In this competitive and constantly changing world, meeting the customer requirements within less time by providing less cost is extremely tricky task. This is only possible by optimizing all the different parameters in its life cycle. Here Optimizing the inventory plays a major role.Maintaining the exact amount of inventory, at proper place, in appropriate level is a challenging task for production managers. When we work on Multi level environments this problem becomes even more complex.So, to optimize this kind of problems we applied binary form of Flower Pollination algorithm to solve this complex problem. we solved different inventory lot sizing problems with this FP algorithm and compared the results with genetic algorithm and other algorithms. In all the scenarios our simulation results shown that FP algorithm is better than other algorithms