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In a randomized controlled trial conducted in three waves over 2.5 years and involving nearly 700 customer-service representatives (CSRs) from a Canadian government service agency, we studied how providing CSRs with repeated performance feedback, with or without peer comparison, affected their subsequent organ donor registration rates. The feedback resulted in a 25 % increase in daily signups compared to otherwise equivalent encouragements and reminders. Adding benchmark information about peer performance did not amplify or diminish this effect. We observed increased registration rates for both high and low performers. A post-intervention survey indicates that CSRs in all conditions found the information included in the treatments helpful and motivating, and that signing up organ donors makes their job more meaningful. We also found suggestive evidence that performance feedback with benchmark information was the most motivating and created the least pressure to perform.

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We have developed a passive 350 GHz (850 µm) video-camera to demonstrate lumped element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs)--designed originally for far-infrared astronomy--as an option for general purpose terrestrial terahertz imaging applications. The camera currently operates at a quasi-video frame rate of 2 Hz with a noise equivalent temperature difference per frame of ∼0.1 K, which is close to the background limit. The 152 element superconducting LEKID array is fabricated from a simple 40 nm aluminum film on a silicon dielectric substrate and is read out through a single microwave feedline with a cryogenic low noise amplifier and room temperature frequency domain multiplexing electronics.

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Research on social class and generosity suggests that higher-income individuals are less generous than poorer individuals. We propose that this pattern emerges only under conditions of high economic inequality, contexts that can foster a sense of entitlement among higher-income individuals that, in turn, reduces their generosity. Analyzing results of a unique nationally representative survey that included a real-stakes giving opportunity (n = 1,498), we found that in the most unequal US states, higher-income respondents were less generous than lower-income respondents. In the least unequal states, however, higher-income individuals were more generous. To better establish causality, we next conducted an experiment (n = 704) in which apparent levels of economic inequality in participants' home states were portrayed as either relatively high or low. Participants were then presented with a giving opportunity. Higher-income participants were less generous than lower-income participants when inequality was portrayed as relatively high, but there was no association between income and generosity when inequality was portrayed as relatively low. This research finds that the tendency for higher-income individuals to be less generous pertains only when inequality is high, challenging the view that higher-income individuals are necessarily more selfish, and suggesting a previously undocumented way in which inequitable resource distributions undermine collective welfare.

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We investigated whether the prevalence of fast-food restaurants in the social ecology are associated with greater financial impatience at the national, neighborhood, and individual level. Study 1 shows that the proliferation of fast-food restaurants over the past 3 decades in the developed world was associated with a historic shift in financial impatience, as manifested in precipitously declining household savings rates. Study 2 finds that households saved less when living in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of fast-food restaurants relative to full-service restaurants. With a direct measure of individuals' delay discounting preferences, Study 3 confirms that a higher concentration of fast-food restaurants within one's neighborhood is associated with greater financial impatience. In line with a causal relationship, Study 4 reveals that recalling a recent fast-food, as opposed to full-service, dining experience at restaurants within the same neighborhood induced greater delay discounting, which was mediated behaviorally by how quickly participants completed the recall task itself. Finally, Study 5 demonstrates that pedestrians walking down the same urban street exhibited greater delay discounting in their choice of financial reward if they were surveyed in front of a fast-food restaurant, compared to a full-service restaurant. Collectively, these data indicate a link between the prevalence of fast food and financial impatience across multiple levels of analysis, and suggest the plausibility of fast food having a reinforcing effect on financial impatience. The present investigation highlights how the pervasiveness of organizational cues in the everyday social ecology can have a far-ranging influence.

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A spectro-polarimetric method is presented to allow the recovery of the frequency dependent polarization modulation function for an achromatic half-wave plate. We show how the non ideal nature of the modulator can be characterized for removal of both instrument effects and variations related to the source spectral index.

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SCUBA-2 is a submillimeter camera being built for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. Bringing CCD style imaging to the submillimeter for the first time, with over 10000 pixels, it will provide a revolutionary improvement in sensitivity and mapping speed. We present results of the first tests on a prototype 1280 pixel SCUBA-2 subarray; the full instrument will be made up of eight such subarrays. The array is made up of transition edge sensor (TES) detectors, with Mo/Cu bilayers as the sensing element. To keep the number of wires reasonable, a multiplexed readout is used. Unlike previous TES arrays, an in-focal plane multiplexer configuration is used, in which the multiplexing elements are located beneath each pixel. To achieve the required performance, the detectors are operated at a temperature of approximately 120 mK. We describe the results of a basic electrical and optical characterization of the array, demonstrating that it is fully operational. Noise measurements were made on several pixels and gave a noise equivalent power below 2.5 x 10(-17) W HZ(-0.5), within the requirements for SCUBA-2. The construction of the testbed used to carry out these measurements is also described.