Investment Of Effort Research Articles

Thank You to Our 2021 Peer Reviewers

AbstractReviews of Geophysics is the top‐rated journal in Geochemistry and Geophysics (ISI Web of Knowledge category) reflecting the many excellent contributions we received. It is an important milestone achieved with the reviewers' investment of time and effort. Their expertise ensures that the papers published in this journal meet the standards that the research community expects. We sincerely appreciate the time the reviewers spent reading and commenting on manuscripts, and we are very grateful for their willingness and readiness to serve in this role.

University Students’ Perceptions of the Use of Technologies in Educational Activities and Mental Effort Invested

Different generations (digital natives, resident students, generation Y, X, or Z) show a preference towards technologies and the digital world. This "ex-post-facto" study is presented to learn the preferences that university students have regarding the use of different resources for various educational activities, as well as the investment of mental effort and perceived ease of learning concerning different means and technological resources. The sampling used is non-probabilistic, conventional, and intentional. 2,148 university students from different scientific fields of twelve Spanish public universities participate in it. To do this, an "ad hoc" instrument is designed whose data show high reliability and validity indices. The results indicate that students tend to have different perceptions regarding the various means and resources presented, in terms of the level of mental effort needed, along with the degree of easiness to learn through them. In this sense, the casuistry of the results is discussed and compared with the theory of mental effort proposed by Salomon (1981). The findings can be explained by the result of the interaction of three elements: the symbolic systems mobilized to elaborate messages, the message, and the technology that packages, formalizes, and transmits them. In the same way, it concludes by discussing the applicability of the results for the improvement of the digital competence of the students.

The role of green space in Chicago’s gentrification

Investment in park green space can improve the quality of life for urban residents but has also been linked to green gentrification. Investments in informal green space have been proposed as means for improving green access while minimizing the risk of displacement. Very little empirical research, however, has examined the differential impacts of park and non-park green space investments in the broader context of neighborhood greening. To further this understanding, we examine the association between park and non-park green space increases and the likelihood of gentrification in Chicago using satellite imagery, land use, and census data during two periods—1990–2000 and 2000–2010. We found that green space of any type did not have a statistically significant role in increasing the odds of gentrification, but the importance of green space variables in predicting gentrification increased with time. Neighborhood characteristics like the distance to downtown or the presence of gentrifying neighbors were most predictive, suggesting that green investment efforts should consider the pre-existing risk factors for gentrification. Our results do not dispute that green space has the potential to play a role in gentrification, simply that green gentrification may be strongly contingent upon timing and neighborhood characteristics.

Value Analysis determines when and how to strive

<p id="p00005">The optimization of effort investment, which minimizes the cost of effort and maximizes benefits, is a core issue in every field. “What factors influence how much effort we invest?” is gaining more and more attention. This study aims to review previous theoretical and empirical studies on effort. Based on the Paradox of Effort theory, this study expounds on the two sides of effort: inherent cost and potential value. Even though there are intrinsic costs associated with effort, the concept of effort solely in terms of costs is inadequate. The Paradox of Effort theory indicates that analyzing the value of effort at different time stages is more in line with daily activities. The key to effort-based decision-making is weighing the rewards and effort required to accomplish a goal. On this basis, we discussed the non-social and social factors and the neural mechanisms involved in effort investment according to the Expected Value of Control (EVC) theory. EVC theory discusses models of effort optimization in terms of conflict monitoring, cost-benefit integration of cognitive control, and implementation of control, emphasizing the role of integrating the expected value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Both social and non-social factors have impacts on the adaptive control allocation during the integration, but few empirical studies have explored the two-level interaction. Therefore, we developed the topic of cost-benefit analysis in EVC theory and highlighted its application to motivational behavior in social circumstances, which is conducive to exploring the plasticity of social behavior. The cognitive and neural mechanisms of effort play an essential role in understanding the adaptive allocation of effort in social life and provide references for treating motivational disorders, shaping learned industriousness and prosocial behavior. Future research needs to explore the adaptive changes in the expected value of control during the dynamic process using methods of neurophysiology and combine computational modeling to complement and validate the EVC theory in social contexts.

Investment Efforts Under Complementary Sourcing: The Role of Market Risk and Endogenous Pricing

Problem definition: Complementary sourcing, with which a product depends on both a supplier’s and a manufacturer’s engineering and production efforts, is ubiquitous in modern supply chains. A unique feature of complementary sourcing is that efforts by one party enhance the marginal value of the other party’s efforts. Whereas this positive spillover effect can benefit both parties, it is well-established in the literature that it paradoxically induces a first-mover disadvantage; neither party is willing to exert efforts ex ante, resulting in significant lost opportunities for improving sourcing performance. The question we consider in this paper is whether the first-mover disadvantage is a valid concern in more realistic sourcing environments in which the market is risky and price is endogenous. Methodology/results: We analyze a sequential-investment model and investigate how market risk and endogenous pricing affect the first-mover disadvantage. In the presence of market risk, the first mover may face greater market uncertainty than the second mover and, thus, is at an apparent disadvantage. Surprisingly, we find the introduction of market risk can favor the first mover. In effect, the presence of market risk weakens the second mover’s ability to free ride on the first mover’s investment, which increases the leverage of the first mover. This finding persists with exogenous pricing even if the first mover has weak power. Managerial implications: Our results suggest that the first-mover disadvantage identified in the extant literature ignores the operational aspect of practical sourcing environments, and sourcing managers should recognize that advance effort investment is often beneficial in more realistic complementary sourcing environments.

A guide to enzyme kinetics in early drug discovery.

Drugs interact with their target of interest to bring about the desired phenotypic outcome that results in disease alleviation. Traditionally, most lead optimization exercises were driven by affinity measures (like IC50 ) to inform structure-activity relationship (SAR)-guided medicinal chemistry. However, an IC50 value is a thermodynamic estimate measured under equilibrium conditions that can vary as a function of substrate concentration and/or time (the latter especially for nonequilibrium modalities). Further, like other thermodynamic estimates, it is a state-function that is indifferent to the path traversed from the initial state to the final state. This can be a cause for concern in drug discovery given the predominance of nonequilibrium interactions and the open thermodynamic nature of the human system. Under such situations, employing rates along with equilibrium constants (or IC50 values) would be far more relevant to capture the time evolution of the small molecule's interaction with the target of interest. These rates are generally typified by the rate of association, rate of dissociation and the residence time of the small molecule on the target (target occupancy). These parameters, when combined with the concept of target vulnerability, therapeutic window, pharmacokinetic profile of the small molecule, estimates of endogenous ligand and target turnover, will shed critical insights into the kinetics and dynamics of a small molecule's interaction with the protein, and allow realistic modelling of the system to enable optimizations and dosing decisions. With that aim, this guide will attempt to introduce the traditional role of mechanistic enzymology within drug discovery and emphasize the importance of kinetics in guiding SAR-based optimizations. It will also present initial ideas on how kinetic investigation should be positioned relative to the temporal span of a drug-discovery pipeline to leverage maximal utility from the investment in time and effort.

Sensorimotor communication fosters trust and generosity: The role of effort and signal utility

Previous research has shown that a co-actor's willingness to bear the monetary costs of prior cooperative activities influences our cooperative behaviour towards them. But what about when such information is lacking? In addition to monetary costs, people routinely engage in joint actions in which they incur effort costs in order to help each other achieve their goals, for example by adapting their goal-directed actions in order to send informative signals. We aimed to investigate whether people act more cooperatively towards those who are willing to bear the effort costs of an interaction by adapting their movements to send informative signals. We find that the effort that a co-actor invests in order to produce informative movement adaptations increases a participant's trust towards that co-actor, and that both the effort and utility of these informative movement adaptations increase generosity towards that co-actor. This demonstrates that we may base decisions about cooperation with a person on their willingness to bear the effort costs of interaction. These findings are discussed with respect to the role that effort investment plays in sustained cooperation.

Debt Burden and Sustainable Development: An Evaluation of the Nigeria Railway Modernization Project

This work investigated the sustainability or otherwise of the Nigeria public debt as it relates to the Nigeria railway modernization project. We set up two hypotheses: Ho1: That the current investment effort by the Nigeria government in the Nigeria railway modernization project has led Nigeria into huge external unsustainable public debt. Ho2: That Nigeria public debt stock is unsustainable. Two measures as found in the literature: debt servicing-to-export ratio and debt servicing to-GDP ratio were tested against data obtained from the CBN Statistical Bulletin to validate or invalidate our hypothesis. The analysis give an inconclusive result– Debt servicing-to-export ratio gave an overwhelmingly negative result, while the debt servicing-to-GDP was positive. We are therefore unable to confirm the sustainability or otherwise of Nigeria public debt as it relates to the railway modernization project. However by conjecture, these authors believe that the Nigeria public debt relative to the Nigeria modernization project is not likely to be sustainable. We recommend that government at all levels increase surveillance over borrowed fund for infrastructural development from being diverted to private use.

Smart IoT and Machine Learning-based Framework for Water Quality Assessment and Device Component Monitoring

Water is the most important natural element present on earth for humans, yet the availability of pure water is becoming scarce and decreasing. An increase in population and rise in temperatures are two major factors contributing to the water crisis worldwide. Desalinated, brackish water from the sea, lake, estuary, or underground aquifers is treated to maximize freshwater availability for human consumption. However, mismanagement of water storage, distribution, or quality leads to serious threats to human health and ecosystems. Sensors, embedded and smart devices in water plants require proactive monitoring for optimal performance. Traditional quality and device management require huge investments in time, manual efforts, labour, and resources. This research presents an IoT-based real-time framework to perform water quality management, monitor, and alert for taking actions based on contamination and toxic parameter levels, device and application performance as the first part of the proposed work. Machine learning models analyze water quality trends and device monitoring and management architecture. The results display that the proposed method manages water monitoring and accessing water parameters efficiently than other works.

How Well Are Manufacturing Companies in Transylvania, Romania Adapting to the Low-Carbon Economy in Order to Become Sustainable?

This paper addresses the degree of readiness of manufacturing companies in the well-defined area of Transylvania, Romania for tackling the challenges of the low-carbon economy (LCE) in view of the ambitious goals of the European Union. The presented survey aims to provide a better understanding about the management and reduction in the carbon footprint among production companies in Romania, as this sector is not usually included official strategies or studies. One hundred and three companies, selected based on voluntary sampling responses, were investigated using a 40-item questionnaire. The survey was applied to the manufacturing sector, including automotive, furniture production, and metal processing domains, which are locally representative and a good approximation of what small- and medium-sized firms look like across the EU, thus furnishing a good view of what takes place in other countries as well. The results obtained were analyzed using univariate descriptive statistics, multi-variate item analysis, and hypothesis testing to arrive at conclusions with a high degree of applicability. The purpose was to obtain an accurate overview about the actual situation and help companies find solutions in order to reduce the carbon footprint in the production field and achieve sustainable manufacturing. We arrive at the conclusion that manufacturing firms have a high degree of interest in decarbonization, but understand the efforts required to the same degree they understand the opportunities it brings. For example, 55% of respondents are interested in the benefits of LCE, while 90% of them observe at least one environmental standard, and ca. 70% implement at least common decarbonization measures, such as electricity savings or process optimization. While raising awareness and improving technological processes are accepted and embraced, other issues (i.e., involvement in RDI and CSR, change management, as well as financing investment efforts) should be addressed by proper policies.

Digital Education for Sustainable Development in Non-Formal Education in Germany and COVID-19-Induced Changes

Digital media increasingly transform daily routines as well as everyday actions and working environments, including education. Apps, games, computer programs, and social media, etc. can support and improve learning processes. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions of social life accelerated a shift towards the application of digital media in education as well as in distance learning. This paper answers questions about the current usage of digital media in non-formal education in Germany, especially in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The results of a 2020 survey in Germany with 111 participants show that digital media are an integral part of non-formal education; in particular, audio and video recording and filesharing are used often. Notably, the usage of web calls and webinars has increased since the pandemic. Regarding the disadvantages of digitals formats, participants note the investment in time and effort as well as the expensive equipment needed for development. Despite being dissatisfied with existing offers, a lot of institutions have not developed their own digital education formats (yet). This indicates a possible need for further training and education of educators in non-formal ESD, enabling them to independently create digital formats. This would also contribute to the quality of digital formats, of which many were possibly developed without proper expertise.

A Data-Driven Approach for Electric Energy Equipment Using Wireless Sensing Technology in the Context of Carbon Neutrality

In this paper, we use wireless sensing technology to conduct an in-depth study and analysis of data-driven power energy equipment in the context of carbon neutrality. For the high-order uncertainty of renewable energy power generation and the nonlinearity of the tidal equation, a set of orthogonal bases under arbitrary probability space can be constructed by itself using the high-order information of renewable energy power generation statistics, and then, polynomials fit the state variables such as voltage in the tidal equation using the orthogonal bases and calculate the fitting parameters using the stochastic Gallatin integration method. Based on the analysis of the online monitoring project of the main power equipment in the substation, a substation power equipment condition monitoring system is designed to realize the real-time monitoring of the temperature status of power equipment, substation smoke and temperature, and humidity environment, and the feasibility and advanced of the system are verified by elaborating the analysis. Using wireless transmission to send real-time temperature information to the monitoring background, the infrared thermal imaging online monitoring system is designed around the front-end data acquisition system, transmission network, background data processing, and display module. Saving-investment equilibrium means that total investment equals total savings; government budget balance can be achieved through government savings or deficits. When both supply chain approaches enter into the same environmental competition, the added value that consumers value the product because of the carbon-neutral approach becomes smaller in the coefficient constraint of green effort investment cost due to the competition between the two supply chains, which in turn increases the green investment cost of the supply chain with the green effort carbon-neutral approach, indicating that in the case of competition, consumers, when faced with two products produced by two supply chains, are interested in the product with the carbon-neutral approach has less value-added, and some of the demand is shifted to the product not produced with the carbon-neutral approach.

Asymmetric retailers’ sales effort competition in the presence of a manufacturer’s help

In this study, we build a game theory model to examine whether two asymmetric retailers exert sales effort in the face of a manufacturer’s help with cost-sharing and direct investment strategies and examine the effects of sales effort competition and help strategy on operational decisions and channel member profits. The retailers make sales effort decisions based on the manufacturer’s choice of assisting one or both asymmetric retailers. We discover that helping both parties induces the weak retailer to exert a high level of effort, whereas helping neither results in a low level of effort. The dominant retailer experiences the opposite outcome. When the dominant retailer does not exert sales effort, the weak retailer will set a high retail price. Furthermore, the manufacturer’s assistance may reduce the incentive of the retailers to exert sales effort and investment in sales effort is determined by their cost differences and the efficiency of the manufacturer’s assistance. Moreover, when no retailer exerts sales effort, the manufacturer will only assist the weak retailer in achieving a higher profit margin. When at least one retailer exerts sales effort, the manufacturer can always benefit from assisting the retailers. However, even if the dominant retailer has more channel power, it may not be optimal for the manufacturer to assist the dominant retailer.

Structure of unmodified and pyroglutamylated amyloid beta peptides in lipid membranes

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes brain atrophy, neuronal and synaptic loss, cognitive decline, and death. Worldwide, over 30 million people suffer from AD. Despite extensive basic and clinical research and multibillion investments in pharmaceutical efforts, no disease-modifying drugs are available for AD. One of the roadblocks in AD drug development is the incomplete understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the disease. A major histopathological trait of AD is extracellular deposition of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide in brain parenchyma and vasculature, but the most toxic species are the intracellular oligomeric forms of Aβ.

Seasonality of reproduction in wild cotton‐top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) in Colombia

Seasonal availability of resources can influence the timing and success of reproduction in primates. This study examines the annual pattern of conceptions, mid-term (13 weeks) and full-term (26 weeks) pregnancy losses, births, and infant survivorship of the Critically Endangered cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) at Proyecto Tití's long-term field site in Santa Catalina, Colombia. Using 18 years of behavior, physical exam, and fecal steroid data (N = 51 females, 168 conceptions, 121 liters), fecal estrone conjugate (E1 C) and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide (PdG) or progesterone (P4) profiles were examined to investigate the relationships between female reproductive patterns and reproductive success with feeding and climatic data. Cotton-top tamarins demonstrated seasonal patterns of reproduction and pregnancy losses. We found positive correlations between peak conception and nectarivory, births and rainfall, and mid-lactation and frugivory. High body mass mothers reproducing during the peak season were more likely to have infants survive. Overall, these results suggest that tamarins use a "relaxed income-breeder" strategy. Cotton-top tamarins appear to maximize reproductive output at the time of ovulation, and can reduce their investment in the current reproductive effort at many stages. Changes in food availability due to habitat loss and climate change will require the Critically Endangered cotton-top tamarins to alter their reproductive strategies to survive.

Clival Meningioma: Remove the Bone to Pursue Ventral Exposure: 2-Dimensional Operative Video.

Clival meningiomas are defined by their wide midline insertion on the upper two-thirds of the clivus.1 They are rarely reported and are some of the least studied meningiomas. Owing to their ventral location, encasement of the basilar artery, compression of the brainstem, and involvement of bilateral cranial nerves, they are truly the most challenging and the highest risk surgical undertaking. Consequently, their surgical resection requires a wide exposure with multitrajectory access, particularly in reaching the ventral surface in front of the basilar artery and brainstem extending to the opposite side. Prior surgery with adhesions to the cranial nerves and cerebral vessels adds further difficulties to the dissection that could be overcome by shortening the distance of the operative corridor and bringing the deep structures closer to the surface for fine microsurgical dissection under high magnification.2-6 Hence, in a patient with unilateral hearing loss, total petrosectomy represents an ideal approach without the need to sacrifice any neural or vascular structure or apply brain retraction.2,7,8 The lengthy and extensive bony drilling is a worthy investment of time and effort to gain advantageous exposure. We demonstrate the exposure obtained by the total petrosectomy and the extent of safe dissection of the brainstem and basilar system in a case of a 53-year-old woman who presented with large recurrent clival meningioma after multiple surgeries in the preceding 10 years. The patient consented to surgery and the publication of images. Image at 1:46 © Ossama Al-Mefty, used with permission. Image at 2:13 reprinted with permission from Al-Mefty O, Operative Atlas of Meningiomas, Vol 1, © LWW, 1998.

Tracking cell lineages in 3D by incremental deep learning.

Deep learning is emerging as a powerful approach for bioimage analysis. Its use in cell tracking is limited by the scarcity of annotated data for the training of deep-learning models. Moreover, annotation, training, prediction, and proofreading currently lack a unified user interface. We present ELEPHANT, an interactive platform for 3D cell tracking that addresses these challenges by taking an incremental approach to deep learning. ELEPHANT provides an interface that seamlessly integrates cell track annotation, deep learning, prediction, and proofreading. This enables users to implement cycles of incremental learning starting from a few annotated nuclei. Successive prediction-validation cycles enrich the training data, leading to rapid improvements in tracking performance. We test the software's performance against state-of-the-art methods and track lineages spanning the entire course of leg regeneration in a crustacean over 1 week (504 timepoints). ELEPHANT yields accurate, fully-validated cell lineages with a modest investment in time and effort.

Macrozoobenthic community assemblage as key indicator for mangrove restoration success in North Sumatra and Aceh, Indonesia

The recognition of the high value of mangrove forests and the wide array of ecosystem services they provide has motivated investment in worldwide restoration efforts. However, current metrics of functional restoration (other than seedling survival rates and plant community composition) are often not readily available for local community managers, highlighting an urgency to identify easy‐to‐measure indicators to assess the functionality of restored mangroves. The macrozoobenthic community could be such practical indicator, as macrozoobenthic communities are sensitive to changes in their environment, and can be easily surveyed within local managing programs. Focusing on three main mangrove management conditions (natural, planted, and naturally regenerated) in North Sumatra and the province of Aceh, Indonesia, we compared vegetation and macrozoobenthic community diversity indices and identified environmental variables that best describe the forest management conditions and their associated macrozoobenthic community assemblage. Results showed that community assemblage, rather than macrozoobenthic diversity index, was associated with management conditions. The highest dissimilarity in macrozoobenthic community assemblages occurred between planted versus natural mangroves, with nonsignificant dissimilarity between natural and naturally regenerated mangroves. The Lined Nerite gastropod (Nerita balteata) was identified as an indicator of natural mangroves, and the invasive Giant African snail (Achatina fulica) was abundant in mangrove plantations, but also in natural mangroves bordering harbors, oil palm plantations, and aquaculture ponds, suggesting associated anthropogenic pressures. This study showed that the macrozoobenthic community can be used as restoration indicator and could serve as a baseline to empower monitoring activities and community‐based adaptive management practices to improve the outcomes of restoration efforts.

Removing Out-of-Condition Grain: An Exploration and Documentation of Existing Strategies

HighlightsDifferent approaches used to handle out-of-condition grain can be split into three broad categories: outfitting, outside, and inside the bin.A total of 21 strategies to handle out-of-condition grain are documented in this article.Outside the bin strategies are split into four categories: grain handling solutions, rodding, force-based solutions, and alternate grain extraction methods.Abstract. Grain entrapments remain a major concern in the grain storage and handling industry. Even with the adoption of safer technology, enhanced enforcement of OSHA regulations, and considerable investment in training and outreach efforts, grain entrapments continue to occur in significant numbers. The most significant contributing factor to grain entrapment is the presence of out-of-condition grain. A better understanding of existing strategies employed to remove out-of-condition grain from storage is important to provide evidence-based solutions to reduce the perceived need to enter grain storage structures and the grain entrapment associated with this activity. A review of existing strategies for handling out-of-condition grain used previously by farmers and workers with experience in grain storage facilities was conducted. Training programs, extension resources, and published research were reviewed to document existing strategies to remove out-of-condition grain. These strategies were split into three broad categories: outfitting the bin, outside of the bin, and inside the bin. A total of 21 strategies were documented. Each of the strategies was defined and, where possible, the risks and benefits were discussed. The study highlights the importance of researching the safety and effectiveness of each of these strategies in various out-of-condition grain situations and the lack of available knowledge of the effectiveness of each strategy. Keywords: Engulfment, Entrapment, Inside the bin strategies, Outfitting the bin strategies, Out-of-condition grains, Outside the bin strategies, Spoiled grains, Storage.

Advancing the Practice of Contemporary Military Performance Psychology:A Full-Spectrum Approach to Psychological Health and Readiness.

The Department of Defense (DoD) continues to emphasize operational readiness, lethality, and optimal performance. Performance psychology is a critical aspect of and central dimension to human performance optimization in support of Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF) and Total Force Fitness (TFF). The delivery of performance psychology services must continue to evolve to maximize its potential for enhancing combat performance and supporting psychological readiness in warfighters across all branches of service. The authors (1) provide a brief history of the evolution of military psychology; (2) explore how performance psychology complements and broadens approaches to support warfighter health and readiness; and (3) present a set of strategies to advance performance psychology services toward an aspirational model. Such strategies will more effectively promote best practices to better target operational performance, complement existing health and medical service delivery, and encompass a systems approach to sustainable training. Moreover, these strategies aim to increase return on investment of psychological readiness efforts for warfighters across all branches of service.