Two fundamental questions underlie the expression of behavior, namely what to do and how vigorously to do it. The former is the topic of an overwhelming wealth of theoretical and empirical work particularly in the fields of reinforcement learning and decision-making, with various forms of affective prediction error playing key roles. Although vigor concerns motivation, and so is the subject of ...

Most red lentil produced worldwide is consumed in dehulled form, and post-harvest milling and splitting qualities are major concerns in the secondary processing industry. Lentil producers in northern temperate regions usually apply pre-harvest desiccants as harvest aids to accelerate the lentil crop drying process and facilitate harvesting operations. This paper reports on field studies conduct...

This paper aims to explore how an organization changes to fit the dynamic environment. The paper's approach is a case study on a Chinese telecom company. Data have been collected through 2 questionnaire surveys as well as 15 interviews. The results show that the organizational transformation of Anhui Telecom has enhanced the vigor of it and employees by stimulating dynamic capabilities and form...

We trust that the uncertainty regarding the outcome of a coin toss makes it a fair procedure for making a decision. Small differences in the force used to toss a coin should not affect this uncertainty. However, the voluntary movement involved in tossing a coin is subject to motivational influences arising from the anticipation of the value of the outcome of the toss. Presented here are measure...

Heterogeneity in fruit quality constitutes a major constraint in agri-food chains. In this paper the sources of the heterogeneity in pineapple in the field were studied in four experiments in commercial pineapple fields. The aims were to determine (a) whether differences in pineapple fruit quality among individual fruits are associated with differences in vigor of the individual plants within t...

Selection and breeding of rootstocks that can tolerate low K supply may increase crop productivity in low fertility soils and reduce fertilizer application. However, the underlying physiological traits are still largely unknown. In this study, 16 contrasting recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between domestic and wild tomato species (Solanum lycopersicum × Solanum pimpinellifo...

BACKGROUND This study investigated the relationships among salivary stress biomarkers, cigarette smoking, and mood states. METHODS The study population comprised 49 healthy sixth-year dental students at Fukuoka Dental College (39 men, 10 women; age, 23-31 years). Lifetime exposure to smoking was calculated using the Brinkman index (BI). Resting saliva samples were collected, and concentration...

1 Sudden and excessive exposure of northern hardwood trees often causes growth responses that degrade tree quality, injuries that lead to tree deterioration, or both. The most sensitive and visible tree reaction to increased exposure is the formation of epicormic branches. Such branches may arise along the tree bole from either dormant or adventitious buds in response to some physiological stim...