In this work we develop a rewarding framework that can be used to enhance existing crowd-sensing applications. Although a core requirement of such systems is user engagement, people may be reluctant ...to participate as sensitive information about them may be leaked or inferred from submitted data. The use of monetary rewards can help incentivize participation, thereby increasing not only the amount but also the quality of sensed data. Our framework allows users to submit data and obtain Bitcoin payments in a privacy-preserving manner, preventing curious providers from linking the data or the payments back to the user. At the same time, it prevents malicious user behavior such as double-redeeming attempts, where a user tries to obtain rewards for multiple submissions of the same data. More importantly, it ensures the fairness of the exchange in a completely trustless manner; by relying on the Blockchain, the trust placed on third parties in traditional fair exchange protocols is eliminated. Finally, our system is highly efficient as most of the protocol steps do not utilize the Blockchain network. When they do, only the simplest of Blockchain transactions are used as opposed to prior works that are based on the use of more complex smart contracts.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with enhanced anxiety and reduced reward processing leading to impaired cognitive flexibility. These pathological changes during depression are ...accompanied by dysfunctional hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its impaired regulation by the amygdala. Notably, the electrical stimulation of brain reward areas produces an antidepressant effect in both MDD patients and animal models of depression. However, the effects of chronic electrical self-stimulation of lateral hypothalamus - medial forebrain bundle (LH-MFB) on depression-associated anxiety and accompanying changes in plasma corticosterone levels, structural, and neurochemical alterations in the amygdala are unknown. Here, we used the neonatal clomipramine (CLI) model of depression. During adulthood, neonatal CLI and vehicle administered rats were subjected to bilateral electrode implantation at LH-MFB and trained to receive intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) for 14 days. Rats were then tested for anhedonic and anxiety-like behaviors, followed by estimation of plasma corticosterone levels, assessment of amygdalar volumes and neuronal/glial numbers, levels of monoamines and their metabolites in the amygdala. We found that chronic ICSS of LH-MFB reverses CLI-induced anhedonia and anxiety. Interestingly, amelioration of CLI-induced enhanced anhedonia and anxiety in ICSS rats was associated with partial reversal of enhanced plasma corticosterone levels, hypertrophy of basolateral amygdala (BLA), and altered noradrenaline (NA) metabolism in the amygdalar complex. We suggest that beneficial effects of ICSS on CLI-induced anxiety at least in part mediated by the restoration of amygdalar and HPA axis functioning. Our results support the hypothesis that brain stimulation rewarding experience might be evolved as a therapeutic strategy for reversal of amygdalar dysfunction in depression.
•ICSS of LH-MFB reverses CLI-induced anxiety-like behavior.•Chronic ICSS treatment ameliorates HPA axis dysfunctions in CLI rats.•CLI-induced hypertrophy of BLA was reversed by ICSS treatment.•Neither CLI nor ICSS alters the neuronal or glial numbers in the amygdalar complex.•ICSS reverses altered metabolism of NA in the amygdalar complex of CLI rats.
The relationship between emotional labor strategies (i.e., deep acting and surface acting) and employee outcomes has been often studied. Yet, although the impact of surface acting on employee ...well-being is clear, findings regarding deep acting have been inconsistent. In the present study, we propose that this may be explained by the multidimensional nature of deep acting, which subsumes different specific emotion regulation strategies. With a 5-day diary study, we investigated the links between subtypes of deep acting (i.e., cognitive change and attentional deployment) and key employee outcomes (i.e., mental fatigue, self-authenticity, and rewarding interactions) in a sample of 244 employees. Multilevel analyses confirmed that different emotion regulation strategies underlying deep acting were differentially related to employee outcomes, which may explain the mixed results of previous research examining deep acting as a uniform construct. Theoretical and practical implications of considering specific emotion regulation strategies underlying deep acting are discussed.
Mutualists and antagonists are known to respond to similar floral cues, and may thus cause opposing selection on floral traits. However, we lack a quantitative understanding of their independent and ...interactive effects. In a population of the orchid
Gymnadenia conopsea
, we manipulated the intensity of pollination and herbivory in a factorial design to examine whether both interactions influence selection on flowering phenology, floral display, and morphology. Supplemental hand-pollination increased female fitness by 31% and one-quarter of all plants were damaged by herbivores. Both interactions contributed to selection. Pollinators mediated selection for later flowering and herbivores for earlier flowering, while both selected for longer spurs. The strength of selection was similar for both agents, and their effects were additive. As a consequence, there was no net selection on phenology, whereas selection on spur length was strong. The experimental results demonstrate that both pollinators and herbivores can markedly influence the strength of selection on flowering phenology and floral morphology, and cause both conflicting and reinforcing selection. They also indicate that the direction of selection on phenology will vary with the relative intensity of the mutualistic and antagonistic interaction, potentially resulting in both temporal and among-population variation in optimal flowering time.
While the dark kitchen model is becoming more prominent, its research potential remains underdeveloped, including an understanding based upon the knowledge and experience of owners/managers. Learning ...from this supply-side group is vital for the present and future of this phenomenon, for instance, in shedding light on dark kitchen-consumer transactions and relationships and in maintaining or enhancing the quality of products and services. By incorporating the conceptual lens of the knowledge-based view of the firm, the study contributes empirically and theoretically to this domain. Semi-structured, open-ended interviews among dark kitchen owners/managers focused on rewarding aspects, challenges, success factors, and the future development of dark kitchen businesses. The analysis highlights the importance of such dimensions as ‘broaden the spectrum’ (rewarding aspects), ‘agile attitude’ (challenges), ‘prioritisation’ (success factors), and ‘additions to the inventory’ (future development). These and other findings support the development of a theoretical framework and underscore theoretical and practical implications.
•In reality, reward is not only used by prosocial agents but also antisocial agents.•We find that Strategy-neutral rewarding can promote the evolution of cooperation.•Anti-social rewarding does not ...deter the evolution of cooperation.
Social rewarding is a common but significant mechanism that promotes the evolution of cooperation. However, besides social rewarding, antisocial rewarding is also ordinary. Thus, we study the evolution of cooperation on prison dilemma game with strategy-neutral rewarding, namely a mechanism including social and antisocial rewarding. Two additional strategies, rewarding cooperators (RC) and rewarding defectors (RD), which establish union-like support to aid akin players are introduced. We show that the new mechanism greatly promotes the evolution of cooperation even in the presence of antisocial rewarding. The rewarding cooperators can enjoy both the benefits of their prosocial contributions and the corresponding rewards, thus they can form cooperative clusters to resist the aggression of defectors. On the other hand, due to their inherent greedy, rewarding defectors fail to secure a sustainable future. Our research might provide valuable insights into further exploring the nature of cooperation in the real world.
Excessive risk taking is a characteristic trait of several psychiatric conditions, including substance use disorders. High risk-taking (HiR) rats self-administer more cocaine compared to low ...risk-taking (LoR) rats. However, research has not determined if risk taking is associated with enhanced cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP).
Male and female Sprague Dawley rats (n = 48 each sex) were first tested in the risky decision task (RDT), in which a response on one lever resulted in safe delivery of one food pellet, and a response on a different lever resulted in delivery of two pellets and probabilistic delivery of foot shock. Following RDT training, rats were tested for cocaine CPP. The first session was a pretest that measured rats’ preference for three compartments that provided different visual and tactile cues. Rats then learned to associate one compartment with cocaine (either 10.0 mg/kg or 20.0 mg/kg; i.p.) and one compartment with saline (1.0 ml/kg; i.p.) across eight conditioning sessions. Finally, rats explored all three compartments in a drug-free state.
Sex significantly moderated the association between risky decision making and cocaine CPP. While increased risk aversion was somewhat positively associated with cocaine CPP in males, increased risk taking was positively correlated with cocaine CPP in females.
These results highlight the moderating role of sex on the relationship between risky decision making and cocaine reward.
•Sex moderates the association between risky decision making and cocaine CPP.•High risk taking in male rats tended to be negatively associated with cocaine CPP.•High risk taking in female rats was positively associated with cocaine CPP.•Females developed greater cocaine CPP compared to males.
•Feedback supports kindergartners’ self-monitoring during analogical reasoning.•Calibration feedback was most beneficial to improve children's error monitoring.•Performance feedback improved ...self-reward judgments and performance.•Children's working memory capacity moderated feedback processing.
Recognizing errors is challenging for children. In the educational context, inaccurate self-monitoring and a lack of error recognition can hinder learning and successful preparation for elementary school. This study aimed to investigate whether kindergartners’ monitoring accuracy can benefit from feedback, by investigating effects of performance feedback (PF) and calibration feedback (CF), combining feedback on performance with feedback on monitoring. Kindergartners (ages five and six, n = 105) were assigned to either a PF, CF, or no-feedback (NF) control group. They completed analogical reasoning tasks, and then monitored performance by indicating (a) whether responses for each task item were correct or incorrect, and (b) by making global self-reward judgments for performance on the entire task. Moreover, working memory (WM) was assessed to investigate individual differences in the ability to process feedback. Children were overconfident; they overlooked most of their errors and gave themselves inappropriately high rewards for performance. Although both PF and CF improved error monitoring, CF had more beneficial effects than PF on monitoring accuracy. In contrast, concerning self-rewarding, PF was most beneficial. The finding that only children with high WM optimally benefitted from CF implies that WM moderates feedback processing. CF may not be equally effective for all kindergartners. Feedback that only addresses performance may be easier to process, and therefore more suitable.
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