How transgressor's moral identity leads to high-quality apologies: The positive effects of guilt.

Comprehensive apologies are effective strategies to solve interpersonal conflict and promote reconciliation. However, transgressors tend to avoid providing comprehensive apologies because it is more threatening to do so. As a result, transgressors usually offer perfunctory apologies and hinder their own chances of being forgiven. Given the importance of promoting high-quality apologies, we investigate the role of moral identity in increasing apology comprehensiveness. Across three studies using a combination of experimental and correlational designs with autobiographical recall paradigm, we demonstrate that transgressors high in moral identity feel guiltier after committing a transgression. As a result, they offer more comprehensive apologies. Moreover, the effects of guilt on transgressors' apologizing are conditional on the perceived apology effectiveness. Guilt is particularly important to boost apology quality when perceived apology effectiveness is low. In such cases, guilt leads transgressors to make more reparative efforts towards reconciliation despite the low possibility of apology's acceptance.

Voltammetric Selectivity in Detection of Ionized Perfluoroalkyl Substances at Micro-Interfaces between Immiscible Electrolyte Solutions.

Widespread contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and concern about their health impacts require the availability of rapid sensing approaches. In this research, four PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), were studied at micropipette-based interfaces between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (µITIES) to assess the potentiality for their detection by ion transfer voltammetry. All four PFAS substances were detected by ion transfer voltammetry at the µITIES, with half-wave transfer potentials (E1/2 vs Ag/AgCl) for PFOS, PFHxS, PFBS, and PFOA of 0.34, 0.32, 0.25, and 0.23 V, respectively. The selectivity of the µITIES for detection of PFAS mixtures was investigated. Among the six combinations of the four compounds, most combinations were detectable, except PFOA + PFBS and PFHxS + PFOS, because of unresolved ion transfer voltammograms. These findings provide a basis for the design of new PFAS sensing strategies based on ion transfer voltammetry.

Business Ethics and Quantification: Towards an Ethics of Numbers.

Social practices of quantification, or the production and communication of numbers, have been recognized as important foundations of organizational knowledge, as well as sources of power. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated digital tools to capture and extract numerical data from social life, however, there is a pressing need to understand the ethical stakes of quantification. The current study examines quantification from an ethical lens, to frame and promote a research agenda around the ethics of quantification. After a brief overview of quantification research and its uses in state and market organization, I discuss quantification in terms of three core subprocesses-capture, specification, and appropriation, illustrating and identifying ethical concerns around each process. Linking these processes to the performative effects of measures, I present a working model of quantification from which the discussion builds ideas for developing a research agenda around quantification.

Identifying With How We Are, Fitting With What We Do: Personality and Dangerousness at Work as Moderators of Identification and Person-Organization Fit Effects.

Using a sample drawn from a Brazilian electric company exposing employees to both dangerous and non-dangerous working conditions, the current study provides evidence on the differential underlying mechanisms guiding the relationships of organizational identification and person-organization-fit (P-O fit) with job performance. We suggest that despite their relatedness in current literature, organizational identification operates as a largely self-centered process and P-O fit as a predominantly context-dependent one, leading to distinct work-related processes deriving from each construct. Our findings suggest that P-O fit serves as a pathway through which job identification induces job performance. In this mediating path, personality and in particular neuroticism, hinders the effects of identification, whereas job dangerousness, a contextual factor, undermines work-related effects of perceived environmental congruence (P-O fit). Discussing these results, we provide novel insights on the distinct mechanisms driving organizational identification, P-O fit and their contingencies.

A stochastic frontier analysis of technical efficiency of fish cage culture in Peninsular Malaysia.

Cage culture plays an important role in achieving higher output and generating more export earnings in Malaysia. However, the cost of fingerlings, feed and labour have increased substantially for cage culture in the coastal areas in Peninsular Malaysia. This paper uses farm level data gathered from Manjung, Perak and Kota Tinggi, Johor to investigate the technical efficiency of brackish water fish cage culture using the stochastic frontier approach. The technical efficiency was estimated and specifically the factors affecting technical inefficiencies of fish cage culture system in Malaysia was investigated. On average, 37 percent of the sampled fish cage farms are technically efficient. The results suggest very high degrees of technical inefficiency exist among the cage culturists. This implies that great potential exists to increase fish production through improved efficiency in cage culture management in Peninsular Malaysia. The results indicate that farmers obtained grouper fingerlings from other neighboring countries due to scarcity of fingerlings from wild sources. The cost of feeding for grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) requires relatively higher costs compared to seabass (Lates calcarifer) production in cage farms in the study areas. Initiatives to undertake extension programmes at the farm level are needed to help cage culturists in utilizing their resources more efficiently in order to substantially enhance their fish production.

RTDS implementation of an improved sliding mode based inverter controller for PV system.

This paper proposes a novel approach for testing dynamics and control aspects of a large scale photovoltaic (PV) system in real time along with resolving design hindrances of controller parameters using Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). In general, the harmonic profile of a fast controller has wide distribution due to the large bandwidth of the controller. The major contribution of this paper is that the proposed control strategy gives an improved voltage harmonic profile and distribute it more around the switching frequency along with fast transient response; filter design, thus, becomes easier. The implementation of a control strategy with high bandwidth in small time steps of Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) is not straight forward. This paper shows a good methodology for the practitioners to implement such control scheme in RTDS. As a part of the industrial process, the controller parameters are optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to improve the low voltage ride through (LVRT) performance under network disturbance. The response surface methodology (RSM) is well adapted to build analytical models for recovery time (Rt), maximum percentage overshoot (MPOS), settling time (Ts), and steady state error (Ess) of the voltage profile immediate after inverter under disturbance. A systematic approach of controller parameter optimization is detailed. The transient performance of the PSO based optimization method applied to the proposed sliding mode controlled PV inverter is compared with the results from genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization technique. The reported real time implementation challenges and controller optimization procedure are applicable to other control applications in the field of renewable and distributed generation systems.

Affordable, web-based surgical skill training and evaluation tool.

Advances in the medical field have increased the need to incorporate modern techniques into surgical resident training and surgical skills learning. To facilitate this integration, one approach that has gained credibility is the incorporation of simulator based training to supplement traditional training programs. However, existing implementations of these training methods still require the constant presence of a competent surgeon to assess the surgical dexterity of the trainee, which limits the evaluation methods and relies on subjective evaluation. This research proposes an efficient, effective, and economic video-based skill assessment technique for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). It analyzes a surgeon's hand and surgical tool movements and detects features like smoothness, efficiency, and preciseness. The system is capable of providing both real time on-screen feedback and a performance score at the end of the surgery. Finally, we present a web-based tool where surgeons can securely upload MIS training videos and receive evaluation scores and an analysis of trainees' performance trends over time.

Misestimating betting behavior: the role of negative asymmetries in emotional self prediction.

This paper addresses the role of negative asymmetries in emotional self-prediction by looking at the extent to which individuals misestimate their own betting behavior in sequential gambles. In a series of three experimental studies, we demonstrate that losses lead to higher than planned bets whereas bets are on average carried over after gains. Such asymmetric deviations from the plan emerge (1) when monetary and non-monetary incentives are used, and (2) when participants face fair and unfair gambles. The asymmetry is based on people's inability to predict how much the negative emotions generated by a bad experience (e.g. the loss) will influence them to put more effort (e.g. bet more) than planned in an attempt to re-establish a homeostatic state in the prospect of a good experience (e.g. winning).

High-fidelity, low-cost, automated method to assess laparoscopic skills objectively.

BACKGROUND: We sought to define the extent to which a motion analysis-based assessment system constructed with simple equipment could measure technical skill objectively and quantitatively. METHODS: An "off-the-shelf" digital video system was used to capture the hand and instrument movement of surgical trainees (beginner level = PGY-1, intermediate level = PGY-3, and advanced level = PGY-5/fellows) while they performed a peg transfer exercise. The video data were passed through a custom computer vision algorithm that analyzed incoming pixels to measure movement smoothness objectively. RESULTS: The beginner-level group had the poorest performance, whereas those in the advanced group generated the highest scores. Intermediate-level trainees scored significantly (p < 0.04) better than beginner trainees. Advanced-level trainees scored significantly better than intermediate-level trainees and beginner-level trainees (p < 0.04 and p < 0.03, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: A computer vision-based analysis of surgical movements provides an objective basis for technical expertise-level analysis with construct validity. The technology to capture the data is simple, low cost, and readily available, and it obviates the need for expert human assessment in this setting.

Objective and subjective indicators of happiness in Brazil: the mediating role of social class.

The authors tested the proposition that monetary household income affects subjective well-being (E. Deiner, E. M. Suh, R. E. Lucas, & H. L. Smith, 1999) through the mediating mechanisms of objective and subjective social classes. The present authors drew a representative sample in a door-to-door survey format from a Brazilian urban center. Using a back-translated version of E. Diener, R. A. Emmons, R. J. Larson, and S. Griffin's (1985) Satisfaction With Life Scale, the present authors demonstrated a significant relation with income. However, this effect was mediated by objectively and subjectively measured social classes. These effects reinforce, extend, and internationally generalize the Person x Situation perspective elaborated by E. Diener et al. (1999).

Conducting multilevel analyses in medical education.

A significant body of education literature has begun using multilevel statistical models to examine data that reside at multiple levels of analysis. In order to provide a primer for medical education researchers, the current work gives a brief overview of some issues associated with multilevel statistical modeling. To provide an example of this technique, we then present a multilevel analysis examining the relationship between two individual-level variables and the "cross-level" interaction between this relationship and a school-level variable. In offering this discussion and example of multilevel modeling, we hope to provide medical educators with a basic introduction to multilevel statistics, including the advantages of utilizing these techniques.

Relative effectiveness of worker safety and health training methods.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine the relative effectiveness of different methods of worker safety and health training aimed at improving safety knowledge and performance and reducing negative outcomes (accidents, illnesses, and injuries). METHODS: Ninety-five quasi-experimental studies (n=20991) were included in the analysis. Three types of intervention methods were distinguished on the basis of learners' participation in the training process: least engaging (lecture, pamphlets, videos), moderately engaging (programmed instruction, feedback interventions), and most engaging (training in behavioral modeling, hands-on training). RESULTS: As training methods became more engaging (i.e., requiring trainees' active participation), workers demonstrated greater knowledge acquisition, and reductions were seen in accidents, illnesses, and injuries. All methods of training produced meaningful behavioral performance improvements. CONCLUSIONS: Training involving behavioral modeling, a substantial amount of practice, and dialogue is generally more effective than other methods of safety and health training. The present findings challenge the current emphasis on more passive computer-based and distance training methods within the public health workforce.