Sharing others' emotional experience through empathy has been widely linked to prosocial behavior, i.e., behavior that aims to improve others' welfare. However, different aspects of a person's ...welfare do not always move in concert. The present research investigated how empathy affects tradeoffs between two different aspects of others' welfare: their experience (quality of life) and existence (duration of life). Three experiments offer evidence that empathy increases the priority people place on reducing others' suffering relative to prolonging their lives. Participants assigned to high or low empathy conditions considered scenarios in which saving a person's life was incompatible with extinguishing the person's suffering. Higher empathy for a suffering accident victim was associated with greater preference to let the person die rather than keep the person alive. Participants expressed greater preference to end the lives of friends than strangers (Experiment 1), those whose perspectives they had taken than those whom they considered from afar (Experiment 2), and those who remained alert and actively suffering than those whose injuries had rendered them unconscious (Experiment 3). These results highlight a distinction between empathy's effects on the motivation to reduce another person's suffering and its effects on the prosocial behaviors that sometimes, but do not necessarily, follow from that motivation, including saving the person's life. Results have implications for scientific understanding of the relationship between empathy and morality and for contexts in which people make decisions on behalf of others.
Future optical materials promise to do for photonics what semiconductors did for electronics, but the challenge has long been in creating the structure they require-a regular, three-dimensional array ...of transparent microspheres arranged like the atoms in a diamond crystal. Here we demonstrate a simple approach for spontaneously growing double-diamond (or B32) crystals that contain a suitable diamond structure, using DNA to direct the self-assembly process. While diamond symmetry crystals have been grown from much smaller nanoparticles, none of those previous methods suffice for the larger particles needed for photonic applications, whose size must be comparable to the wavelength of visible light. Intriguingly, the crystals we observe do not readily form in previously validated simulations; nor have they been predicted theoretically. This finding suggests that other unexpected microstructures may be accessible using this approach and bodes well for future efforts to inexpensively mass-produce metamaterials for an array of photonic applications.
Historically, tree biomass at large scales has been estimated by applying dimensional analysis techniques and field measurements such as diameter at breast height (dbh) in allometric regression ...equations. Equations often have been developed using differing methods and applied only to certain species or isolated areas. We previously had compiled and combined (in meta-analysis) available diameter-based allometric regression equations for estimating total aboveground and component dry-weight biomass for US trees. This had resulted in a set of 10 consistent, national-scale aboveground biomass regression equations for US species, as well as equations for predicting biomass of tree components as proportions of total aboveground biomass. In this update of our published equation database and refinement of our model, we developed equations based on allometric scaling theory, using taxonomic groupings and wood specific gravity as surrogates for scaling parameters that we could not estimate. The new approach resulted in 35 theoretically based generalized equations (13 conifer, 18 hardwood, 4 woodland), compared with the previous empirically grouped 10. For trees from USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) plots, with forest types grouped into conifers and hardwoods, previous and updated equations produced nearly identical estimates that predicted ∼20 per cent higher biomass than FIA estimates. Differences were observed between previous and updated equation estimates when comparisons were made using individual FIA forest types.
The basic rules governing the proper fatty acid analysis of feed and digesta samples are sometimes overlooked, leading to potential errors in reporting the fatty acid content or composition of feed ...and digesta samples. The direct transesterification procedure of Sukhija and Palmquist (1988, J. Agric. Food Chem. 36:1202–1206) has become popular in analyzing fatty acids in feed and digesta samples obtained from animal feeding trials. One shortcoming of the Sukhija and Palmquist transesterification procedure is inaccurate analysis of fatty acids with conjugated double bonds. Digesta and milk samples from ruminant species typically contain a multitude of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers that easily undergo isomerization and epimerization following prolonged exposure to methanolic HCl. Modifications to the Sukhija and Palmquist procedure are given in this paper that allow successful determination of CLA isomers. Errors in fatty acid analysis also occur from misuse of internal standards; use of an internal standard is recommended in the Sukhija and Palmquist procedure as the preferred method to quantify total fatty acid content. The choice of internal standard may sometimes be important for obtaining accurate results. As an example, applying the direct transesterification procedure to a fat supplement high in saturated fatty acids yielded 613 mg/g of total fatty acids when C17 was used as the internal standard compared with 930 mg/g total fatty acids when C19 was used as the internal standard. Fatty acid content further increased to 952 mg/g when a unique unsaturated fatty acid (C13:1) was used as the internal standard.
PDF
