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import { StepMapping } from '../../wizard/shared/field-mapping/FieldMapping';
import { AzureField, VnetOptionType } from '../azure-wizard.constants';
import { SimpleValidator } from '../../wizard/shared/constants/validation.constants';
export const AzureVnetStandaloneStepMapping: StepMapping = {
fieldMappings: [
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CONTROLPLANE_NEWSUBNET_CIDR, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'CONTROL PLANE SUBNET CIDR' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CONTROLPLANE_NEWSUBNET_NAME, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'CONTROL PLANE SUBNET NAME' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CONTROLPLANE_SUBNET_NAME, required: true, requiresBackendData: true, label: 'CONTROL PLANE SUBNET' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CUSTOM_NAME, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'VNET NAME' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_EXISTING_NAME, required: true, requiresBackendData: true, label: 'VNET NAME' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_EXISTING_OR_CUSTOM, required: true, primaryTrigger: true, defaultValue: VnetOptionType.EXISTING },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_PRIVATE_CLUSTER, isBoolean: true, label: 'PRIVATE AZURE CLUSTER' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_PRIVATE_IP, label: 'PRIVATE IP' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_RESOURCE_GROUP, required: true, requiresBackendData: true, label: 'RESOURCE GROUP' },
// special hidden field used to capture existing subnet cidr when user selects existing subnet
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CONTROLPLANE_SUBNET_CIDR, doNotAutoRestore: true },
// defaultCidrFields
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CUSTOM_CIDR, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'VNET CIDR BLOCK',
validators: [SimpleValidator.NO_WHITE_SPACE, SimpleValidator.IS_VALID_IP_NETWORK_SEGMENT] },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_CONTROLPLANE_NEWSUBNET_CIDR, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true,
validators: [SimpleValidator.NO_WHITE_SPACE, SimpleValidator.IS_VALID_IP_NETWORK_SEGMENT] },
]
};
export const AzureVnetStepMapping: StepMapping = {
fieldMappings: [
...AzureVnetStandaloneStepMapping.fieldMappings,
{ name: AzureField.VNET_WORKER_NEWSUBNET_NAME, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'WORKER NODE SUBNET NAME' },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_WORKER_NEWSUBNET_CIDR, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true },
{ name: AzureField.VNET_WORKER_SUBNET_NAME, required: true, requiresBackendData: true, label: 'WORKER NODE SUBNET' },
// defaultCidrFields
{ name: AzureField.VNET_WORKER_NEWSUBNET_CIDR, required: true, doNotAutoRestore: true, label: 'WORKER NODE SUBNET CIDR',
validators: [SimpleValidator.NO_WHITE_SPACE, SimpleValidator.IS_VALID_IP_NETWORK_SEGMENT] },
]
}
// About AzureVnetStep:
// Most of the fields require backend data to be populated (or are set based on cascading onChange events), so most of the fields have
// doNotAutoRestore or requiresBackendData set TRUE; we rely on the event handlers to populate the fields based on stored data AFTER the
// backend data arrives.
// The choice of whether to do existing or custom is the first trigger field
|
/**
* Update the contents of the spectrum cache for the next query
* spectrum. If query are NOT sorted, empties cache and fetches all
* spectra in search window. If query are sorted, removes spectra
* with mz lower than current search window and adds
* spectra up to the max mz of the search window. Add spec of all
* charge states and do the charge state filtering at the spectrum
* comparison.
*/
void SearchLibrary::updateSpectrumCache(double queryMz){
double searchMinMz = queryMz - mzWindow_;
double searchMaxMz = queryMz + mzWindow_;
if( ! querySorted_ ){
clearDeque(cachedSpectra_);
clearDeque(cachedDecoySpectra_);
}
deque<RefSpectrum*>::iterator it = cachedSpectra_.begin();
while( it != cachedSpectra_.end() && (*it)->getMz() < searchMinMz ){
it++;
cachedSpectra_.pop_front();
}
it = cachedDecoySpectra_.begin();
while( it != cachedDecoySpectra_.end() && (*it)->getMz() < searchMinMz ){
it++;
cachedDecoySpectra_.pop_front();
}
double addMinMz = searchMinMz;
if( ! cachedSpectra_.empty() ){
addMinMz = cachedSpectra_.back()->getMz();
}
getLibrarySpec(addMinMz, searchMaxMz);
sort(cachedSpectra_.begin(), cachedSpectra_.end(), compSpecPtrMz());
sort(cachedDecoySpectra_.begin(), cachedDecoySpectra_.end(),
compSpecPtrMz());
} |
import React from 'react';
import { RecommendDataNode } from '../../interface';
import './index.less';
interface Props {
data: RecommendDataNode[]
}
function Recommend(props: Props) {
const { data } = props;
return (
<div>
<div className={'title'}>
为你推荐
</div>
<div className={'reContainer'}>
{
data.map((item) => (
<div key={item.data.heat} className={'reContent'}>
<img src={item.data.img} />
<div className={'vTitle'}>
{item.data.title}
</div>
<div className={'subTitle'}>
{item.data.subtitle}
</div>
</div>
))
}
</div>
</div>
);
}
export default Recommend;
|
package org.prebid.server.proto.openrtb.ext.request.gamoshi;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Value;
@AllArgsConstructor(staticName = "of")
@Value
public class ExtImpGamoshi {
@JsonProperty("supplyPartnerId")
String supplyPartnerId;
@JsonProperty("favoredMediaType")
String favoredMediaType;
}
|
Brandon Riley Speck, 17, of 1314 ½ Kelly Street, Rossville arrested on charges of driving without valid license, fleeing and attempting to elude police, littering, reckless driving and tag light violation.
Jayce Hunter Simmons, 18, of 1533 Myrt Street, Rossville arrested on charges of aggressive driving and littering.
Chip Neal Saine, 29, of 1309 Sunnyfield Lane, East Ridge arrested for driving while license suspended.
Phillip Paul Soto, 36, of 7310 Standifer Gap Road, Chattanooga arrested on charges of affixing nontransparent materials to windows and driving while license suspended.
Cleaver, 35, of 110 Row Street, Rossville arrested on charges of driving while license revoked and tag light requirements.
Jahmal Vernon Hunter, 25, of 241 Cloud Springs Road, Fort Oglethorpe arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to maintain lane and leaving the scene of an accident.
Tonya Lynn Evans, 36, of 66 Hickory Lane, Rossville arrested for theft by shoplifting.
Joshua Eugene Burnham, 32, of 518 Mohawk Street, Rossville arrested on charges of driving while license suspended/revoked and failure to yield when turning left.
Nathan David Williams, 47, of 629 Maple Lane, Chattanooga arrested on charges of distracted driving, driving revoked, driving under the influence of alchol and open container.
Angela Lanell Willis, 54 of 900 Vernon Avenue, Dalton arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to maintain lane and speeding.
Janelle Lin Smith, 43, of 82 Pine Ridge Circle, Rossville arrested on charges of altered license plate, driving while license suspended, excessive volume from vehicle and no proof of insurance.
Brandon Shane Mull, 39, of 2339 Cherokee Valley Road, Ringgold arrested on a charge of driving while license suspended.
Christopher Wade VonZiebrecht, 29, of 167 East Lake Road, Chattanooga arrested for driving while license suspended.
John Richard Sipe, 38, of 7130 Condra Drive, Harrison arrested on charges of outstanding warrant, giving false information, no license on person and tag light requirements.
Stephanie Lynn Johnson, 34, of 15 Sherry Court, Chickamauga arrested on charges of possession of schedule IV, driving under the influence of drugs, possession of marijuana and failure to maintain lane.
Bryan Ray Proctor, 31, of 407 Wisteria Road, Lafayette arrested on charges of driving while license suspended and failure to obey traffic control device.
Brian Neal Dempsey, 22, of 13559 Sattler Road, Jacksonville, FL arrested for loitering and prowling.
Matthew Austin Talley, 22, of 1922 Port Royal Drive, Soddy Daisy arrested on charges of driving while suspended and seat belt violation.
Madison Kathleem Marie Fernandez, 22, of 206 East Indiana Street, Lafayette arrested on charges of driving on a revoked license, possession of marijuana, headlight requirement and tag light requirement.
William Blake Bryant, 20, of 131 East Teems Road, Ringgold arrested on charges of driving under the influence of drugs and failure to maintain lane.
Stacey Lyne Kubiaczyk, 52, of 358 Linda Lane, Rossville arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. |
A357 Aluminium Cast Alloys for Extrusion Processes The A357 Al-Si-Mg cast alloy is commonly used for cast production of automotive components in conventional HPDC and in semi-solid processes. The aim of this work is to study the application of A357 cast alloy in thixoextrusion processes. This technology offers new possibilities of application for cast alloys and several advantages in from of conventional processes of hot-extrusion: lower pressure, minor friction forces, higher material fluidity and longer tool life. The thixoextrusion was experimented in a pilot plant, at different speeds and temperatures, with an induction furnace and a 400 Tn press. With ingots of A357 as cast, a tool with a ratio of 8.5 and with temperatures of extrusion around 560 °C, it is possible to obtain extrusion speeds more than 3 ms-1. In all cases, when the speed of extrusion increases, the press of extrusion decreases. The effect of heat treatments and extrusion speed in the microstructure of the extruded product is evaluated. |
Rayleigh Scattering in the Atmosphere of the Warm Exo-Neptune GJ 3470b GJ 3470b is a warm Neptune-size planet transiting a M dwarf star. Like the handful of other small exoplanets for which transmission spectroscopy has been obtained, GJ 3470b exhibits a flat spectrum in the near- and mid-infrared. Recently, a tentative detection of Rayleigh scattering in its atmosphere has been reported. This signal manifests itself as an observed increase of the planetary radius as a function of decreasing wavelength in the visible. We set out to verify this detection and observed several transits of this planet with the LCOGT network and the Kuiper telescope in four different bands (Sloan g', Sloan i', Harris B and Harris V). Our analysis reveals a strong Rayleigh scattering slope, thus confirming previous results. This makes GJ 3470b the smallest known exoplanet with a detection of Rayleigh scattering. We find that the most plausible scenario is a hydrogen/helium-dominated atmosphere covered by clouds which obscure absorption features in the infrared and hazes which give rise to scattering in the visible. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of exoplanet atmospheric characterization from the ground, even with meter-class telescopes. INTRODUCTION In the two decades since the first detection of an extrasolar planet orbiting a main sequence star (Mayor & Queloz 1995), exoplanets have presented an uninterrupted stream of unexpected surprises. From isolated hot Jupiters on retrograde orbits to tightly-packed, multi-planet systems of super-Earths, none seem to quite resemble the Earth nor to be arranged in a structure similar to that of our Solar System. Hundreds of new transiting planets continue to be discovered each year in data from surveys such as Kepler (), K2 (), SuperWASP () and HATNET/HATSouth ((Bakos et al., 2013, to name only a few. While for hot Jupiters it is possible to measure the planetary mass using radial velocity measurements, this is more challenging for smaller planets, though still possible for those in small orbits around bright stars. Even so, the density of planets with radii approximately between that of Earth and Neptune does not uniquely determine their composition. Detailed atmospheric characterization of the most observationally accessible of these systems is necessary to gain deeper insight into the nature of these objects. In principle, such observations (transmission and emission spectroscopy at a wide range of wavelengths) can distinguish between different planetary compositions -rocky, water-rich, or hydrogen-dominated. These studies will continue to emphasize the uniqueness of our own Solar System by constraining the composition, structure, and formation of extrasolar systems. Though Jovian-sized planets were the first discovered by both radial velocity and transit observations, smaller exoplanets are of especial interest because a wide range of compositions, particularly atmospheric composition, is possible for planets with masses comparable to and smaller than that of Neptune. Understanding the nature of increasingly smaller exoplanets also constitutes a stepping stone toward determining how frequent truly Earth-like planets are, and how they form. The Kepler mission has discovered over 4000 planet candidates (), the vast majority of which are similar in size to or smaller than Neptune. After accounting for detection biases, planets in this size category occur ∼ 10 more frequently per log R P than larger planets, and are 2-3 more common around M dwarfs than around Sunlike stars (;). Despite the large numbers of known or candidate planets, and despite the high frequency of small planets around main sequence stars, the host stars of most systems are too faint for the atmospheric makeups of their planets to be studied. A host star that is very bright will facilitate such studies, even for transit depths of the order of 0.1%. Notable examples are 55 Cnc e (;;V = 5.95) and HD 97658b (; V = 7.7). Small planets transiting somewhat fainter stars are also accessible to existing facilities if their transits are deeper than a couple of 0.1%, which could occur due to a smaller host star and/or a larger planet. GJ 1214b (; V = 14.7), GJ 436b (;V = 10.6) and GJ 3470b (;V = 12.3), all of which orbit M dwarf (so smaller) stars, are such systems. This small, but growing, sample of favorable super-Earths, sub-Neptunes, and hot Neptunes continues to be the target of considerable effort to probe these planets' atmospheres via transmission spectroscopy (Seager & Sasselov 2000;Brown 2001). So far, these observations often reveal featureless transmission spectra, which are interpreted as a high-mean-molecularweight atmosphere and/or high-altitude clouds or hazes (;). A few groups (;Sing et al., 2015;de ) have attempted to break this degeneracy by seeking the Rayleighscattering slope expected to dominate both hazy and clear atmospheres at the shortest optical wavelengths. With an estimated planetary temperature and gravity, the detection of a Rayleigh scattering slope yields the atmospheric scale height and thus empirically determines the atmosphere's mean molecular weight. Until now, this measurement has only been attempted for a few planets. This measurement can also be useful for hot Jupiters since some also show indications of high altitude clouds, and indeed these studies have mostly been performed for giant exoplanets because a Rayleigh scattering signal would be easier to detect for planets with larger scale heights. An increase in planetary radius with decreasing wavelength in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b is reported by Pont et al. and Sing et al., based on HST ACS and STIS observations, respectively. After taking into account the overall flux level of the star and implementing a wavelength-dependent radius correction assuming a reasonable spot temperature, Pont et al. and Sing et al. demonstrate the effect is planetary rather than stellar, and they attribute it to the presence of Rayleigh scattering due to high-altitude hazes. While McCullough et al. find that such a rise in planetary radius could, in the case of HD 189733, be explained by latitudinal bands of star spots, Pont et al. have demonstrated that the stellar variability of HD 189733 is caused by isolated spots moving in and out of view. These studies emphasize the importance of adequately characterizing the stellar variability and the spot properties when undertaking such analyses. Recently, a detection of Rayleigh scattering was also announced for other hot Jupiters, including WASP-6b (;) and WASP-31b. Narita et al. and de have carried out such observations for GJ 1214b, a warm super-Earth orbiting a M dwarf, but found the transmission spectrum to be as featureless at these short wavelengths as it is at longer wavelengths (;). The first sub-Jovian planet with any significant features reported in transmission is the subject of our study. GJ 3470b is a 'warm Neptune' with T eq ≈ 700 K, R P = 3.9R ⊕ and M P = 13.7M ⊕ () transiting exoplanet in orbit around a M1.5V star. Its low density of 1.18 ± 0.18 g cm −3 strongly points to a substantial atmosphere covering the planet. Recent Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) observations of a single transit of GJ 3470b in dual-band photometry indicates the presence of a strong Rayleigh scattering slope () despite the absence of strong absorption in the infrared (;). The optical transit photometry was obtained simultaneously through the LBT's U spec and F97N20 filters, centred at 357.5 and 963.5 nm, respectively. A 6 difference was observed between the transit depths in the two filters, indicating a significant detection of Rayleigh scattering. It is not clear whether the atmosphere of GJ3470b is highly metal-enhanced, nearly pure H 2, or somewhere in-between. On the one hand, Fortney et al. find that, based on population synthesis models, low-mass low-density planets such as GJ 3470b are likely to form with a high metallicity H/He atmosphere. This conclusion is supported by other planet formation studies as well (;). On the other hand, the LBT observations tentatively indicate a haze-covered but low-metallicity H/He-dominated atmosphere. If confirmed, the results of Nascimbeni et al. suggest that it may indeed be possible to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets using shorter-wavelength measurements even when their IR transmission spectra are featureless, an exciting prospect. However, their conclusions are based on photometry obtained during a single transit, and their photometric uncertainties do not take into account the presence of correlated noise in the light curves. In addition, there is a need for transit measurements at wavelengths between the two wavelengths probed by Nascimbeni et al. in order to better constrain the prospective Rayleigh scattering feature in the 400 -900 nm region. These factors motivate additional observations in this wavelength regime. In this work, we present new, four-color, broadband photometry acquired during several transits of GJ 3470b with which we aim to improve constraints on this planet's short-wavelength Rayleigh scattering slope and its atmospheric composition. We describe the observations in Section 2 and the light curve analysis in Section 3. Our modelling procedure and results are presented in Section 4. We discuss the implications of our results in Section 5 and conclude in Section 6. PHOTOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS We acquired new observations during eleven transits of GJ 3470b, between December 2013 and March 2014. These consist of seven full and four partial transits, for all of which we have light curves covering more than half a transit (and including at least ingress or egress). We describe below the observations and data reduction for all of these transits, including four obtained in the Sloan g', five in the Sloan i', one in the Harris B and one in the Harris V filters. We also include in our analysis a sixth Sloan i' transit that was first published in Biddle et al.. A detailed observation log is found in Table 1. Kuiper observations We obtained two transit light curves with the Steward Observatory 1.55m Kuiper Telescope on Mt. Bigelow, using the Mont4k CCD. The Mont4k CCD contains a 4096 x 4096 pixel sensor with a field of view of 9.7'x9.7'. One of the transit light curves was observed through the Harris-B (350-550nm) filter and the other through the Harris-V (475-675 nm) filter. The exposure times used were 108 and 40 seconds, respectively. The B and V band measurements were obtained on 2014 February 8 and 2014 January 14, respectively. Each of the Kuiper datasets were reduced using the Exoplanet Data Reduction Pipeline, described in Pearson et al.. The pipeline generates a series of IRAF scripts that will calibrate images using the standard reduction procedure and perform aperture photometry. To produce the light curve we performed aperture photometry (using the task PHOT in the IRAF DAOPHOT package) by measuring the flux from our target star as well as the flux from various reference stars at different aperture radii. The aperture radii and comparison star that produced the lowest scatter in the out of transit data points were used to produce the final GJ 3470b light curves. Because GJ 3470 is very bright and the Kuiper Telescope field of view is relatively small, one reference star was ultimately used for the differential photometry. LCOGT observations Ten of our transit light curves (including one already published in Biddle et al. ) were obtained using the LCOGT network, which currently consists of nine 1.0m and two 2.0m telescopes (Faulkes Telescope North and Faulkes Telescope South) located at five longitudinally distributed sites in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Thanks to its low declination (RA = 07 59 05.87; Dec = +15 23 29.5), it was possible to observe GJ 3470 from either hemisphere. All of the i' band and one of the g' band transits were observed with 1.0m telescopes, while the remaining three g' band transits were observed with 2.0m telescopes. The 1.0m and 2.0m data were obtained using SBIG STX-16803 4096 x 4096 cameras with a 15.8' x 15.8' FOV, and Fairchild CCD486 BI 4096 x 4096 spectral imaging cameras with a 10.5' x 10.5' FOV, respectively. Observations taken in the i' band had an exposure time of 45 s and were obtained with the telescope defocussed in order to avoid saturation and to increase the open shutter time relative to the overhead time (thus improving the duty cycle). The defocus was 2.8mm from the focal plane. The g' band observations were taken with exposure times of 240 s and 45 s on the 2.0m and 1.0m telescopes, respectively. While it may seem counterintuitive to expose longer when employing a larger telescope, we note that on the nights during which we observed with the 2.0m's, the local seeing was greater than 2". In addition, on the night of the 1.0m g' transit (observed at McDonald Observatory), the seeing was less than 2" and the transparency was exceptionally high. All images were processed using the pipeline described in Brown et al.. The light curves were extracted using pyraf aperture photometry routines. Differential photometry was carried out using the same ensemble of comparison stars for a given filter. Two and three reference stars were used to calibrate the g' band and i' band photometry of GJ 3470, respectively. LIGHT CURVE ANALYSIS Most of the transit light curves required de-trending from one or more of the following parameters: time, airmass, x and y position on the detector. To avoid overfitting, we de-trended for x or y position only if there was an obvious drift (> 1 pixel) in the star positions through a given transit. The transits were analysed with EXOFAST ), a differential evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. Each transit was fit (using the Mandel & Agol transit model) simultaneously with the de-trending parameters. We used the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) for model selection, and selected the combination of de-trending parameters (if any) that resulted in the lowest BIC value by at least ∆BIC = 2 (indicating positive evidence for that particular combination; Kass & Raftery 1995). Table 2 shows the BIC values for the combinations of de-trending parameters we tested. EXOFAST scales photometric uncertainties using the method of Gillon et al. which multiplies the photometric uncertainties by the ratio of the RMS of the binned light curve to the RMS expected if only white noise was present in the data. This scaling factor is determined based on the light curve residuals. We allowed the mid-transit time (T 0 ), period (P ), scaled semi-major axis (a/R S ), orbital inclination (i) and the planet-to-star radius ratio (R P /R S ) to vary as free parameters. For each of the four filters used, we computed quadratic limb darkening coefficients using the methods described in Crossfield et al. and the stellar parameter values of Demory et al.. The calculations were based on a spherically symmetric PHOENIX stellar atmosphere model. We estimate uncertainties for the limb darkening values by varying the stellar parameters within their own uncertainties. Our data are not sufficiently precise to fit for the limb darkening coefficients, so the transit analysis is performed with the coefficients fixed to the values we calculated. These calculated limb darkening coefficients and the fitted transit parameter values for each transit are found in Tables 3 and 4. We note that all of our values of P, a/R S and i agree with those of Demory et al. to within 1, and with those of Biddle et al. to within 1 to 2. The individual g' and i' transits are shown in Figure 1, and the best-fit values of R P /R S for each transit are plotted in Figure 2. We then fit all g' transits and all i' transits to obtain a set of transit parameters for each filter. Individual transit light curves were de-trended from different sets of variables, as described above. The mid-transit times were allowed to vary for each transit only to the extent to which they could still be fit with a linear ephemeris (i.e. transit timing variations were not allowed). All other parameters were not allowed to vary between transits in a given filter. The single B and V transits, and the phased g' and i' transits are plotted in Figure 3. Finally, we performed a global analysis of all twelve transits in order to obtain an updated ephemeris and precise values for a/R *, b and T 14, which can be found in Table 5. We note that all of our individual and global values of P, a/R S, b and T 14 agree with those of Demory et al. to within 1, and with those of Biddle et al. to within 1 to 2. We also re-analysed the LBT light curves, fixing the limb darkening coefficients to theoretical values computed as described above, and scaling the photometric error bars to take into account the presence of correlated noise. Our reasons for this step are twofold: first, to provide an independent analysis of the discovery data and verify the statistical significance of the Nascimbeni et al. detection; and second, to optimize the comparison between existing photometric observations in the visible wavelength regime by analyzing these observations in a consistent fashion. We indeed find a larger error bar for the planet-to-star radius ratio in the U spec transit light curve than reported by Nascimbeni et al.. This leads to a 3.4 difference between the U spec and F97N20 R P /R S values, significantly lower than the 6 difference determined by Nascimbeni et al.. We note that the LBT observations, as well as those reported by Fukui et al., were also re-analyzed using a MCMC algorithm by Biddle et al.. We find that our R P /R S measurements for the LBT light curves (0.0823 +0.0019 −0.0018 for U spec and 0.076 +0.0004 −0.0004 for F 97N 20) differ slightly from those of Biddle et al.. Therefore, throughout this paper we use our own re-determination of the LBT R P /R S values. RESULTS Our analysis shows a 3 difference between the g' and i' R P /R S values alone. When combined with our B-and V-band measurements as well as previously published values in the visible wavelength range ( < 1000 nm), the significance of the difference between planet-to-star radius ratio values below and above ∼650 nm increases even further. The hypothesis that this discrepancy has an astrophysical origin is strengthened by the fact that all of our g' R P /R S values are consistently larger than those for the i' transits, as demonstrated in Figure 2. Incidentally, we do not see any systematic effects between transits observed at different LCOGT sites, indicating that data from the various LCOGT telescopes can be safely combined and analysed jointly. One possible astrophysical cause for the difference in R p /R s values could be stellar variability. We consider and discard this possibility for two reasons. First, Biddle et al. have shown that the low level of stellar variability is expected to introduce changes in the transit depth no greater than 5 10 −5 for this planet (translating to variations of up to 3 10 −4 in R P /R S ). Second, our g' and i' transits acquired during the winter of 2013-2014 span nearly three cycles of the stellar rotation period (23.7 days; Biddle et al. ) and are unevenly intermingled. This makes it very unlikely that the consistent difference in transit depths between the blue and red ends of the visible spectrum is due to stellar variability. We also consider unocculted spots as a potential cause for the observed increase in transit depth, as suggested by McCullough et al.. Using the peakto-peak amplitude in stellar variability of 0.01 as deter- Table 3. Figure 1. The parameter symbols are defined as follows: u 1 = linear limb-darkening coefficient; u 2 = quadratic limb-darkening coefficient; T C = time of mid-transit -2450000; R P /R * = radius of planet in stellar radii; a/R * = semi-major axis in stellar radii; b = impact parameter; T 14 = total transit duration; P = orbital period. The parameter symbols are defined as follows: u 1 = linear limbdarkening coefficient; u 2 = quadratic limb-darkening coefficient; T C = time of mid-transit -2450000; R P /R * = radius of planet in stellar radii; a/R * = semi-major axis in stellar radii; b = impact parameter; T 14 = total transit duration. that the unocculted spots can only give rise to a difference in R p /R s of no more than 0.0004. This is approximately 5% of the difference we observe (see Section 5 for the quantitative analysis). We conclude that the increase in R p /R s is due to an increase in the radius of GJ 3470b toward shorter wavelengths. Atmospheric retrieval We use atmospheric retrieval to interpret our transmission spectrum. SCARLET, described in detail in Benneke & Seager and Benneke & Seager, starts by varying multiple parameters (metallicity, C/O ratio, cloud-top pressure, planetary radius at 1 bar and the Bond albedo) in a nested sampling framework. From these parameters, it generates molecular abundances in chemical equilibrium as well as temperature pressure (T-P) profiles. Molecular absorption is modelled through radiative transfer based on opacity lookup tables. Rayleigh scattering is included using the twostream approximation. In this study, we included clouds as a grey opacity source that cuts off the transmission of starlight below the parameterized cloud-top pressure. For a given atmospheric composition, the Bond albedo is the dominant source of uncertainty in the (T-P) profile. The T-P profile determines the scale height, which in turn affects the mean molecular mass and the observed depths of the absorption features. The nested algorithm computed several tens of thousands atmospheric models. It was initiated by randomly drawing 1000 active samples within the multidimensional parameter space. The active samples then iteratively converged toward regions of high likelihood. Convergence was obtained once the logarithm of the Bayesian evidence determined from the active sample changed by less than 0.0001. SCARLET is robust to multimodal posterior distributions and to degeneracies between parameters. In Figure 4, we show all published transmission spectra and broadband spectro-photometric transit measurements for GJ 3470b, the best-fit model spectrum as determined using the retrieval framework described above and four additional representative model spectra that provide similar fits. We also show reduced 2 values for each model, using 31 degrees of freedom (32 data points, and a normalization parameter to match the average depth R p /R s of our data). Figure 4 suggests that all existing published spectroscopic data is reasonably consistent with a range of atmosphere models, of which we show a few representative ones. The best-fit model to the entire spectrum, in a 2 sense, is a 50 solar metallicity one that includes water and methane absorption bands with some cloud and haze coverage. However, given the current data set, we favor a model that consists of a low mean molecular weight atmosphere covered by hazes and high altitude clouds (cyan line in Figure 4). Our reasoning is as follows. First, we consider the fact that the WFC3 () and MOSFIRE (Crossfield et tions spanning the 1 -2.5 m wavelength range prefer a flat spectrum to any that show physically motivated absorption features (). Second, the steep Rayleigh slope in the visible regime is detected with high significance ( 2 = 0.9 and 6.4, for the best-fit slope and a flat line, respectively; see below for description of fit). Clouds covering a H/He-dominated atmosphere would obscure molecular features in the near-infrared while hazes would give rise to a strong scattering feature in the visible. We note, as did Nascimbeni et al., that a clear solar composition atmosphere (dark green line in Figure 4) alone is not sufficient to reproduce the observed steep slope while also providing a reasonable fit to the data points redward of 1 m. The main characteristic of the transmission spectrum that prevents a "clouds and hazes" model from providing the best fit to the data is an offset between the median of the near-and mid-IR data points, and the level where the Rayleigh scattering slope appears to flatten. We consider two factors that may cause this discrepancy. One is stellar variability due to spots, which may induce a scatter of up to 0.008 in the R p /R s values, particularly those in the visible regime (the contrast between star spots and the stellar photosphere decreases toward longer wavelengths). However, stellar variability alone cannot explain this difference. The offset may also arise from differences between the reduction and analysis procedures carried out for each of the low-resolution spectra and the broadband spectrophotometric measurements by the groups who acquired the data. As an illustration, Biddle et al. re-analyzed the previously published transits of Fukui et al. and Nascimbeni et al. and obtained values that differed from the original values by up to 2, as well as different uncertainties on the transit depths. We note that Nikolov et al. find an offset between the HST STIS and WFC3 HAT-P-1b transmission spectra they analysed, though in their case the level of the spectra longward of 1.0 m (WFC3) is lower than that of the spectra shortward of 1.0 m (STIS). They have also found that stellar variability could not completely explain the difference between the mean levels of the spectra, but unknown instrumental systematics remain a possibility. DISCUSSION Following the procedure of Nascimbeni et al., we have also constrained the mean molecular weight () of the planet's atmosphere using the following equation: where H is the atmospheric scale height, k is Boltzman's constant and = −4 for Rayleigh scattering. We measured the slope of the observed Rayleigh scattering feature (dR p /R s dln) through a weighted linear least squares fit, obtaining a best-fit value of dR p R s dln = −0.0070 ± 0.0013. Figure 5 shows the visible region of the transmission spectrum and the best-fit slope. We then used this value together with the stellar radius (R s = 0.48 ± 0.04R ⊙ ) and the planet's gravity (g = 676.1 ± 171 cm s −2 ) from Biddle et al., as well as its equilibrium temperature (T eq = (1 − A B ) 1/4 691.6 ± 15 K) estimated from stellar and transit parameters in the same publication, to derive for two limiting cases of the Bond albedo (A B ): 0 and 0.3. We obtain a mean molecular weight of 1.47 ± 0.48 for A B =0 and 1.35 ± 0.44 for A B =0.3 10. Our values agree with those found by Nascimbeni et al. and are consistent with a H/H 2 /He-dominated atmosphere, confirming our conclusions from the beginning of this Section. Nevertheless, the existing data set does not constrain the atmospheric composition of GJ 3470b beyond indicating a low-metallicity atmosphere. One way forward is through additional transit spectroscopy observations in the near-and mid-infrared, where the absorption features expected from water and carbon molecules may be detected as long as any clouds are at sufficiently low altitude. If with more precise measurements the spectrum remains featureless in this wavelength range, this would confirm the presence of clouds high in the atmosphere, but would also limit the chances of constraining this planet's atmospheric composition any further. CONCLUSION We have observed several transits of GJ 3470b, a warm Neptune analog around an early M dwarf, in four different bands with the LCOGT and Kuiper telescopes. Our analysis of the resulting photometry shows a marked in-crease in the planetary radius from the red toward the blue ends of the visible wavelength range. Our LCOGT g' and i' band measurements are based on 4 and 6 transits, respectively. These transits were observed at four different sites and are unevenly spaced over a period spanning over three stellar rotation cycles. The g' transits consistently have a larger R p /R s value than the i' transits, allowing us to rule out stellar activity and sitespecific systematics as the source of this variation. We conclude that the rise toward the blue end of the transmission spectrum is due to an increase in the planetary radius, indicative of Rayleigh scattering in the planet's atmosphere. We find that the most plausible scenario is a H/He-dominated atmosphere covered by high-altitude clouds and hazes, which obscure absorption features in the near-IR but give rise to a steep Rayleigh scattering slope in the visible, respectively. With the visible slope of GJ 3470b's transmission spectrum confirmed by our LCOGT and Kuiper measurements, the next step consists of acquiring more infrared observations in order to verify whether the spectrum is truly featureless redward of 1 m. Our result is the first high-confidence detection of an exoplanet atmospheric feature using observations taken only with 1.0 to 2.0m telescopes. This work demonstrates the importance of the role that ground-based, meter-class telescopes can play in the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. A search for Rayleigh scattering in the atmospheres of the most promising, low-density exoplanets with deep transits becomes conceivable. Such measurements would be particularly valuable for those planets whose transmission spectrum at longer wavelengths does not show any sign of absorption features, but even when that is not the case, they can provide an independent determination of the atmospheric scale height and composition. Meaningful constraints on these parameters could be obtained with only a few transits observed in each of two filters widely separated in wavelength (i.e. Sloan g' and i', Bessell B and I, etc.), depending on the planet-tostar radius ratio and the planetary density. However, we strongly recommend that such observations be taken in the same sets of (preferably standard) filters, in order to facilitate comparison between independent sets of measurements and the eventual confirmation of a tentative signal. |
<gh_stars>0
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import binascii
from ..utils import encode
class AbstractAsset:
_name = None
_namespace = None
_quoted = False
def _set_name(self, name):
"""
Sets the name of this asset.
:param name: The name of the asset
:type name: str
"""
if self._is_identifier_quoted(name):
self._quoted = True
name = self._trim_quotes(name)
if '.' in name:
parts = name.split('.', 1)
self._namespace = parts[0]
name = parts[1]
self._name = name
def _is_in_default_namespace(self, default_namespace):
return self._namespace == default_namespace or self._namespace is None
def get_namespace_name(self):
return self._namespace
def get_shortest_name(self, default_namespace):
shortest_name = self.get_name()
if self._namespace == default_namespace:
shortest_name = self._name
return shortest_name.lower()
def get_full_qualified_name(self, default_namespace):
name = self.get_name()
if not self._namespace:
name = default_namespace + '.' + name
return name.lower()
def is_quoted(self):
return self._quoted
def _is_identifier_quoted(self, identifier):
return len(identifier) > 0\
and (identifier[0] == '`' or identifier[0] == '"' or
identifier[0] == '[')
def _trim_quotes(self, identifier):
return re.sub('[`"\[\]]', '', identifier)
def get_name(self):
if self._namespace:
return self._namespace + '.' + self._name
return self._name
def get_quoted_name(self, platform):
keywords = platform.get_reserved_keywords_list()
parts = self.get_name().split('.')
for k, v in enumerate(parts):
if self._quoted or keywords.is_keyword(v):
parts[k] = platform.quote_identifier(v)
return '.'.join(parts)
def _generate_identifier_name(self, columns, prefix='', max_size=30):
"""
Generates an identifier from a list of column names
obeying a certain string length.
"""
hash = ''
for column in columns:
hash += '%x' % binascii.crc32(encode(str(column)))
return (prefix + '_' + hash)[:max_size]
|
Children's Learning in the Diverse Sociocultural Context of South Africa Children develop in several interlocking systems-in the context of their family, and within the interaction of settings such as home, school, and church. In South Africa, children's diverse backgrounds within families, neighborhoods and socio-cultural environments provide them with varied experiences and opportunities to learn. Whether growing up in urban or rural communities, belonging to a specific race and ethnic group, or being poor or rich, all imply exposure to cultures, lifestyles, amenities, and living conditions that differ in marked ways. With 79% of the total population being Blacks, the racial and ethnic heterogeneity translates into a complex mix of languages: English, Afrikaans, nine indigenous languages and five Indian languages are spoken. |
// Copyright (c) 2012 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/existing_user_controller.h"
#include <memory>
#include <utility>
#include <vector>
#include "ash/constants/ash_switches.h"
#include "ash/public/cpp/ash_pref_names.h"
#include "ash/public/cpp/login_screen.h"
#include "ash/public/cpp/notification_utils.h"
#include "base/barrier_closure.h"
#include "base/bind.h"
#include "base/callback.h"
#include "base/callback_helpers.h"
#include "base/command_line.h"
#include "base/compiler_specific.h"
#include "base/logging.h"
#include "base/metrics/histogram_functions.h"
#include "base/metrics/histogram_macros.h"
#include "base/scoped_observation.h"
#include "base/strings/string_util.h"
#include "base/strings/utf_string_conversions.h"
#include "base/threading/sequenced_task_runner_handle.h"
#include "base/timer/elapsed_timer.h"
#include "base/values.h"
#include "base/version.h"
#include "chrome/app/vector_icons/vector_icons.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/app_mode/kiosk_app_launch_error.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/app_mode/kiosk_app_types.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/arc/arc_util.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/authpolicy/authpolicy_helper.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/crosapi/browser_data_migrator.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/customization/customization_document.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/auth/chrome_login_performer.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/easy_unlock/easy_unlock_service.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/enterprise_user_session_metrics.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/helper.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/quick_unlock/pin_storage_cryptohome.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/reauth_stats.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/screens/encryption_migration_mode.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/session/user_session_manager.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/signin/oauth2_token_initializer.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/signin_specifics.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/startup_utils.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/ui/login_display_host.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/ui/signin_ui.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/ui/user_adding_screen.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/user_flow.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/users/chrome_user_manager.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/login/wizard_controller.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/profiles/profile_helper.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/settings/cros_settings.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ash/system/device_disabling_manager.h"
#include "chrome/browser/browser_process.h"
#include "chrome/browser/browser_process_platform_part.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chrome_notification_types.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/boot_times_recorder.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/policy/core/browser_policy_connector_chromeos.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/policy/core/device_local_account.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/policy/core/device_local_account_policy_service.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/policy/handlers/minimum_version_policy_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/chromeos/policy/handlers/powerwash_requirements_checker.h"
#include "chrome/browser/net/system_network_context_manager.h"
#include "chrome/browser/notifications/system_notification_helper.h"
#include "chrome/browser/policy/profile_policy_connector.h"
#include "chrome/browser/profiles/profile.h"
#include "chrome/browser/profiles/profile_manager.h"
#include "chrome/browser/signin/chrome_device_id_helper.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/ash/system_tray_client_impl.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/aura/accessibility/automation_manager_aura.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/encryption_migration_screen_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/kiosk_autolaunch_screen_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/kiosk_enable_screen_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/l10n_util.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/tpm_error_screen_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/chromeos/login/update_required_screen_handler.h"
#include "chrome/browser/ui/webui/management/management_ui_handler.h"
#include "chrome/common/channel_info.h"
#include "chrome/common/chrome_switches.h"
#include "chrome/common/pref_names.h"
#include "chrome/common/url_constants.h"
#include "chrome/grit/generated_resources.h"
#include "chromeos/cryptohome/cryptohome_parameters.h"
#include "chromeos/cryptohome/cryptohome_util.h"
#include "chromeos/dbus/power/power_manager_client.h"
#include "chromeos/dbus/session_manager/session_manager_client.h"
#include "chromeos/dbus/userdataauth/userdataauth_client.h"
#include "chromeos/login/auth/key.h"
#include "chromeos/login/session/session_termination_manager.h"
#include "chromeos/settings/cros_settings_names.h"
#include "chromeos/strings/grit/chromeos_strings.h"
#include "components/account_id/account_id.h"
#include "components/arc/arc_util.h"
#include "components/arc/enterprise/arc_data_snapshotd_manager.h"
#include "components/google/core/common/google_util.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/cloud/cloud_policy_core.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/cloud/cloud_policy_store.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/cloud/device_management_service.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/policy_map.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/policy_service.h"
#include "components/policy/core/common/policy_types.h"
#include "components/policy/policy_constants.h"
#include "components/policy/proto/cloud_policy.pb.h"
#include "components/prefs/pref_service.h"
#include "components/session_manager/core/session_manager.h"
#include "components/user_manager/known_user.h"
#include "components/user_manager/user_names.h"
#include "components/user_manager/user_type.h"
#include "components/vector_icons/vector_icons.h"
#include "components/version_info/version_info.h"
#include "content/public/browser/browser_task_traits.h"
#include "content/public/browser/browser_thread.h"
#include "content/public/browser/notification_service.h"
#include "content/public/browser/notification_types.h"
#include "content/public/browser/storage_partition.h"
#include "google_apis/gaia/gaia_auth_util.h"
#include "google_apis/gaia/google_service_auth_error.h"
#include "services/network/public/mojom/network_context.mojom.h"
#include "third_party/abseil-cpp/absl/types/optional.h"
#include "ui/base/l10n/l10n_util.h"
#include "ui/message_center/public/cpp/notification.h"
#include "ui/message_center/public/cpp/notification_delegate.h"
#include "ui/views/widget/widget.h"
using RebootOnSignOutPolicy =
enterprise_management::DeviceRebootOnUserSignoutProto;
namespace chromeos {
namespace {
const char kAutoLaunchNotificationId[] =
"chrome://managed_guest_session/auto_launch";
const char kAutoLaunchNotifierId[] = "ash.managed_guest_session-auto_launch";
// Enum types for Login.PasswordChangeFlow.
// Don't change the existing values and update LoginPasswordChangeFlow in
// histogram.xml when making changes here.
enum LoginPasswordChangeFlow {
// User is sent to the password changed flow. This is the normal case.
LOGIN_PASSWORD_CHANGE_FLOW_PASSWORD_CHANGED = 0,
// User is sent to the unrecoverable cryptohome failure flow. This is the
// case when http://crbug.com/547857 happens.
LOGIN_PASSWORD_CHANGE_FLOW_CRYPTOHOME_FAILURE = 1,
LOGIN_PASSWORD_CHANGE_FLOW_COUNT, // Must be the last entry.
};
// Delay for transferring the auth cache to the system profile.
const long int kAuthCacheTransferDelayMs = 2000;
// Delay for restarting the ui if safe-mode login has failed.
const long int kSafeModeRestartUiDelayMs = 30000;
// Makes a call to the policy subsystem to reload the policy when we detect
// authentication change.
void RefreshPoliciesOnUIThread() {
if (g_browser_process->policy_service())
g_browser_process->policy_service()->RefreshPolicies(base::OnceClosure());
}
void OnTranferredHttpAuthCaches() {
VLOG(1) << "Main request context populated with authentication data.";
// Last but not least tell the policy subsystem to refresh now as it might
// have been stuck until now too.
content::GetUIThreadTaskRunner({})->PostTask(
FROM_HERE, base::BindOnce(&RefreshPoliciesOnUIThread));
}
void TransferHttpAuthCacheToSystemNetworkContext(
base::RepeatingClosure completion_callback,
const base::UnguessableToken& cache_key) {
network::mojom::NetworkContext* system_network_context =
g_browser_process->system_network_context_manager()->GetContext();
system_network_context->LoadHttpAuthCacheProxyEntries(cache_key,
completion_callback);
}
// Copies any authentication details that were entered in the login profile to
// the main profile to make sure all subsystems of Chrome can access the network
// with the provided authentication which are possibly for a proxy server.
void TransferHttpAuthCaches() {
content::StoragePartition* webview_storage_partition =
login::GetSigninPartition();
base::RepeatingClosure completion_callback =
base::BarrierClosure(webview_storage_partition ? 2 : 1,
base::BindOnce(&OnTranferredHttpAuthCaches));
if (webview_storage_partition) {
webview_storage_partition->GetNetworkContext()
->SaveHttpAuthCacheProxyEntries(base::BindOnce(
&TransferHttpAuthCacheToSystemNetworkContext, completion_callback));
}
network::mojom::NetworkContext* default_network_context =
ProfileHelper::GetSigninProfile()
->GetDefaultStoragePartition()
->GetNetworkContext();
default_network_context->SaveHttpAuthCacheProxyEntries(base::BindOnce(
&TransferHttpAuthCacheToSystemNetworkContext, completion_callback));
}
// Record UMA for password login of regular user when Signin with Smart Lock is
// enabled. Excludes signins in the multi-signin context; only records for the
// signin screen context.
void RecordPasswordLoginEvent(const UserContext& user_context) {
// If a user is already logged in, this is a multi-signin attempt. Disregard.
if (session_manager::SessionManager::Get()->IsInSecondaryLoginScreen())
return;
EasyUnlockService* easy_unlock_service =
EasyUnlockService::Get(ProfileHelper::GetSigninProfile());
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_REGULAR &&
user_context.GetAuthFlow() == UserContext::AUTH_FLOW_OFFLINE &&
easy_unlock_service) {
easy_unlock_service->RecordPasswordLoginEvent(user_context.GetAccountId());
}
}
bool IsUpdateRequiredDeadlineReached() {
policy::MinimumVersionPolicyHandler* policy_handler =
g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->GetMinimumVersionPolicyHandler();
return policy_handler && policy_handler->DeadlineReached();
}
void RecordPasswordChangeFlow(LoginPasswordChangeFlow flow) {
UMA_HISTOGRAM_ENUMERATION("Login.PasswordChangeFlow", flow,
LOGIN_PASSWORD_CHANGE_FLOW_COUNT);
}
bool IsTestingMigrationUI() {
return base::CommandLine::ForCurrentProcess()->HasSwitch(
chromeos::switches::kTestEncryptionMigrationUI);
}
bool ShouldForceDircrypto(const AccountId& account_id) {
if (IsTestingMigrationUI())
return true;
// If the device is not officially supported to run ARC, we don't need to
// force Ext4 dircrypto.
if (!arc::IsArcAvailable())
return false;
// When a user is signing in as a secondary user, we don't need to force Ext4
// dircrypto since the user can not run ARC.
if (UserAddingScreen::Get()->IsRunning())
return false;
return true;
}
// Returns true if the device is enrolled to an Active Directory domain
// according to InstallAttributes (proxied through BrowserPolicyConnector).
bool IsActiveDirectoryManaged() {
return g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->IsActiveDirectoryManaged();
}
LoginDisplayHost* GetLoginDisplayHost() {
return LoginDisplayHost::default_host();
}
LoginDisplay* GetLoginDisplay() {
return GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetLoginDisplay();
}
void AllowOfflineLoginOnErrorScreen(bool allowed) {
if (!GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetOobeUI())
return;
GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetOobeUI()->GetErrorScreen()->AllowOfflineLogin(
allowed);
}
void SetLoginExtensionApiLaunchExtensionIdPref(const AccountId& account_id,
const std::string extension_id) {
const user_manager::User* user =
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->FindUser(account_id);
DCHECK(user);
Profile* profile = chromeos::ProfileHelper::Get()->GetProfileByUser(user);
DCHECK(profile);
PrefService* prefs = profile->GetPrefs();
prefs->SetString(prefs::kLoginExtensionApiLaunchExtensionId, extension_id);
prefs->CommitPendingWrite();
}
absl::optional<EncryptionMigrationMode> GetEncryptionMigrationMode(
const UserContext& user_context,
bool has_incomplete_migration) {
if (has_incomplete_migration) {
// If migration was incomplete, continue migration automatically.
return EncryptionMigrationMode::RESUME_MIGRATION;
}
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_CHILD) {
// TODO(https://crbug.com/1147009): Remove child user special case or
// implement finch experiment for child user migration mode.
return absl::nullopt;
}
const bool profile_has_policy =
user_manager::known_user::GetProfileRequiresPolicy(
user_context.GetAccountId()) ==
user_manager::ProfileRequiresPolicy::kPolicyRequired ||
base::CommandLine::ForCurrentProcess()->HasSwitch(
chromeos::switches::kProfileRequiresPolicy);
// Force-migrate all home directories if the user is known to have enterprise
// policy, otherwise ask the user.
return profile_has_policy ? EncryptionMigrationMode::START_MIGRATION
: EncryptionMigrationMode::ASK_USER;
}
// Returns account ID of a public session account if it is unique, otherwise
// returns invalid account ID.
AccountId GetArcDataSnapshotAutoLoginAccountId(
const std::vector<policy::DeviceLocalAccount>& device_local_accounts) {
AccountId auto_login_account_id = EmptyAccountId();
for (std::vector<policy::DeviceLocalAccount>::const_iterator it =
device_local_accounts.begin();
it != device_local_accounts.end(); ++it) {
if (it->type == policy::DeviceLocalAccount::TYPE_PUBLIC_SESSION) {
// Do not perform ARC data snapshot auto-login if more than one public
// session account is configured.
if (auto_login_account_id.is_valid())
return EmptyAccountId();
auto_login_account_id = AccountId::FromUserEmail(it->user_id);
VLOG(2) << "PublicSession autologin found: " << it->user_id;
}
}
return auto_login_account_id;
}
// Returns account ID if a corresponding to `auto_login_account_id` device local
// account exists, otherwise returns invalid account ID.
AccountId GetPublicSessionAutoLoginAccountId(
const std::vector<policy::DeviceLocalAccount>& device_local_accounts,
const std::string& auto_login_account_id) {
for (std::vector<policy::DeviceLocalAccount>::const_iterator it =
device_local_accounts.begin();
it != device_local_accounts.end(); ++it) {
if (it->account_id == auto_login_account_id) {
VLOG(2) << "PublicSession autologin found: " << it->user_id;
return AccountId::FromUserEmail(it->user_id);
}
}
return EmptyAccountId();
}
} // namespace
// Utility class used to wait for a Public Session policy store load if public
// session login is requested before the associated policy store is loaded.
// When the store gets loaded, it will run the callback passed to the
// constructor.
class ExistingUserController::PolicyStoreLoadWaiter
: public policy::CloudPolicyStore::Observer {
public:
PolicyStoreLoadWaiter(policy::CloudPolicyStore* store,
base::OnceClosure callback)
: callback_(std::move(callback)) {
DCHECK(!store->is_initialized());
scoped_observation_.Observe(store);
}
~PolicyStoreLoadWaiter() override = default;
PolicyStoreLoadWaiter(const PolicyStoreLoadWaiter& other) = delete;
PolicyStoreLoadWaiter& operator=(const PolicyStoreLoadWaiter& other) = delete;
// policy::CloudPolicyStore::Observer:
void OnStoreLoaded(policy::CloudPolicyStore* store) override {
scoped_observation_.Reset();
std::move(callback_).Run();
}
void OnStoreError(policy::CloudPolicyStore* store) override {
// If store load fails, run the callback to unblock public session login
// attempt, which will likely fail.
scoped_observation_.Reset();
std::move(callback_).Run();
}
private:
base::OnceClosure callback_;
base::ScopedObservation<policy::CloudPolicyStore,
policy::CloudPolicyStore::Observer>
scoped_observation_{this};
};
// static
ExistingUserController* ExistingUserController::current_controller() {
auto* host = LoginDisplayHost::default_host();
return host ? host->GetExistingUserController() : nullptr;
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, public:
ExistingUserController::ExistingUserController()
: cros_settings_(CrosSettings::Get()),
network_state_helper_(new login::NetworkStateHelper) {
registrar_.Add(this, chrome::NOTIFICATION_AUTH_SUPPLIED,
content::NotificationService::AllSources());
show_user_names_subscription_ = cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefShowUserNamesOnSignIn,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged,
base::Unretained(this)));
allow_new_user_subscription_ = cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefAllowNewUser,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged,
base::Unretained(this)));
allow_guest_subscription_ = cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefAllowGuest,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged,
base::Unretained(this)));
users_subscription_ = cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefUsers,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged,
base::Unretained(this)));
local_account_auto_login_id_subscription_ =
cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefDeviceLocalAccountAutoLoginId,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::ConfigureAutoLogin,
base::Unretained(this)));
local_account_auto_login_delay_subscription_ =
cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefDeviceLocalAccountAutoLoginDelay,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::ConfigureAutoLogin,
base::Unretained(this)));
family_link_allowed_subscription_ = cros_settings_->AddSettingsObserver(
kAccountsPrefFamilyLinkAccountsAllowed,
base::BindRepeating(&ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged,
base::Unretained(this)));
observed_user_manager_.Observe(user_manager::UserManager::Get());
}
void ExistingUserController::Init(const user_manager::UserList& users) {
timer_init_ = std::make_unique<base::ElapsedTimer>();
UpdateLoginDisplay(users);
ConfigureAutoLogin();
}
void ExistingUserController::UpdateLoginDisplay(
const user_manager::UserList& users) {
int reboot_on_signout_policy = -1;
cros_settings_->GetInteger(kDeviceRebootOnUserSignout,
&reboot_on_signout_policy);
if (reboot_on_signout_policy != -1 &&
reboot_on_signout_policy !=
RebootOnSignOutPolicy::REBOOT_ON_SIGNOUT_MODE_UNSPECIFIED &&
reboot_on_signout_policy != RebootOnSignOutPolicy::NEVER) {
SessionTerminationManager::Get()->RebootIfNecessary();
// Initialize PowerwashRequirementsChecker so its instances will be able to
// use stored cryptohome powerwash state later
policy::PowerwashRequirementsChecker::Initialize();
}
bool show_users_on_signin;
user_manager::UserList saml_users_for_password_sync;
cros_settings_->GetBoolean(kAccountsPrefShowUserNamesOnSignIn,
&show_users_on_signin);
user_manager::UserManager* const user_manager =
user_manager::UserManager::Get();
// By default disable offline login from the error screen.
AllowOfflineLoginOnErrorScreen(false /* allowed */);
for (auto* user : users) {
// Skip kiosk apps for login screen user list. Kiosk apps as pods (aka new
// kiosk UI) is currently disabled and it gets the apps directly from
// KioskAppManager, ArcKioskAppManager and WebKioskAppManager.
if (user->IsKioskType())
continue;
// TODO(xiyuan): Clean user profile whose email is not in allowlist.
if (user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_SUPERVISED_DEPRECATED)
continue;
// Allow offline login from the error screen if user of one of these types
// has already logged in.
if (user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_REGULAR ||
user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_CHILD ||
user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_ACTIVE_DIRECTORY) {
AllowOfflineLoginOnErrorScreen(true /* allowed */);
}
const bool meets_allowlist_requirements =
!user->HasGaiaAccount() ||
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->IsGaiaUserAllowed(*user);
if (meets_allowlist_requirements && user->using_saml())
saml_users_for_password_sync.push_back(user);
}
auto login_users = ExtractLoginUsers(users);
// ExistingUserController owns PasswordSyncTokenLoginCheckers only if user
// pods are hidden.
if (!show_users_on_signin && !saml_users_for_password_sync.empty()) {
sync_token_checkers_ =
std::make_unique<PasswordSyncTokenCheckersCollection>();
sync_token_checkers_->StartPasswordSyncCheckers(
saml_users_for_password_sync,
/*observer*/ nullptr);
} else {
sync_token_checkers_.reset();
}
// If no user pods are visible, fallback to single new user pod which will
// have guest session link.
bool show_guest = user_manager->IsGuestSessionAllowed();
show_users_on_signin |= !login_users.empty();
bool allow_new_user = true;
cros_settings_->GetBoolean(kAccountsPrefAllowNewUser, &allow_new_user);
GetLoginDisplay()->Init(login_users, show_guest, show_users_on_signin,
allow_new_user);
GetLoginDisplayHost()->OnPreferencesChanged();
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, content::NotificationObserver implementation:
//
void ExistingUserController::Observe(
int type,
const content::NotificationSource& source,
const content::NotificationDetails& details) {
DCHECK_EQ(type, chrome::NOTIFICATION_AUTH_SUPPLIED);
// Don't transfer http auth cache on NOTIFICATION_AUTH_SUPPLIED after user
// session starts.
if (session_manager::SessionManager::Get()->IsSessionStarted())
return;
// Possibly the user has authenticated against a proxy server and we might
// need the credentials for enrollment and other system requests from the
// main `g_browser_process` request context (see bug
// http://crosbug.com/24861). So we transfer any credentials to the global
// request context here.
// The issue we have here is that the NOTIFICATION_AUTH_SUPPLIED is sent
// just after the UI is closed but before the new credentials were stored
// in the profile. Therefore we have to give it some time to make sure it
// has been updated before we copy it.
// TODO(pmarko): Find a better way to do this, see https://crbug.com/796512.
VLOG(1) << "Authentication was entered manually, possibly for proxyauth.";
base::SequencedTaskRunnerHandle::Get()->PostDelayedTask(
FROM_HERE, base::BindOnce(&TransferHttpAuthCaches),
base::TimeDelta::FromMilliseconds(kAuthCacheTransferDelayMs));
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, private:
ExistingUserController::~ExistingUserController() {
CHECK(UserSessionManager::GetInstance());
UserSessionManager::GetInstance()->DelegateDeleted(this);
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, LoginDisplay::Delegate implementation:
//
void ExistingUserController::CompleteLogin(const UserContext& user_context) {
if (!GetLoginDisplayHost()) {
// Complete login event was generated already from UI. Ignore notification.
return;
}
if (is_login_in_progress_)
return;
is_login_in_progress_ = true;
ContinueLoginIfDeviceNotDisabled(
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::DoCompleteLogin,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), user_context));
}
std::u16string ExistingUserController::GetConnectedNetworkName() const {
return network_state_helper_->GetCurrentNetworkName();
}
bool ExistingUserController::IsSigninInProgress() const {
return is_login_in_progress_;
}
void ExistingUserController::Login(const UserContext& user_context,
const SigninSpecifics& specifics) {
if (is_login_in_progress_) {
// If there is another login in progress, bail out. Do not re-enable
// clicking on other windows and the status area. Do not start the
// auto-login timer.
return;
}
is_login_in_progress_ = true;
if (user_context.GetUserType() != user_manager::USER_TYPE_REGULAR &&
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->IsUserLoggedIn()) {
// Multi-login is only allowed for regular users. If we are attempting to
// do multi-login as another type of user somehow, bail out. Do not
// re-enable clicking on other windows and the status area. Do not start the
// auto-login timer.
return;
}
ContinueLoginIfDeviceNotDisabled(
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::DoLogin,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), user_context, specifics));
}
void ExistingUserController::PerformLogin(
const UserContext& user_context,
LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode auth_mode) {
VLOG(1) << "Setting flow from PerformLogin";
BootTimesRecorder::Get()->RecordLoginAttempted();
// Use the same LoginPerformer for subsequent login as it has state
// such as Authenticator instance.
if (!login_performer_.get() || num_login_attempts_ <= 1) {
// Only one instance of LoginPerformer should exist at a time.
login_performer_.reset(nullptr);
login_performer_ = std::make_unique<ChromeLoginPerformer>(this);
}
if (IsActiveDirectoryManaged() &&
user_context.GetUserType() != user_manager::USER_TYPE_ACTIVE_DIRECTORY) {
PerformLoginFinishedActions(false /* don't start auto login timer */);
ShowError(SigninError::kGoogleAccountNotAllowed,
"Google accounts are not allowed on this device");
return;
}
if (user_context.GetAccountId().GetAccountType() ==
AccountType::ACTIVE_DIRECTORY &&
user_context.GetAuthFlow() == UserContext::AUTH_FLOW_OFFLINE &&
user_context.GetKey()->GetKeyType() == Key::KEY_TYPE_PASSWORD_PLAIN) {
// Try to get kerberos TGT while we have user's password typed on the pod
// screen. Failure to get TGT here is OK - that could mean e.g. Active
// Directory server is not reachable. We don't want to have user wait for
// the Active Directory Authentication on the pod screen.
// AuthPolicyCredentialsManager will be created inside the user session
// which would get status about last authentication and handle possible
// failures.
AuthPolicyHelper::TryAuthenticateUser(
user_context.GetAccountId().GetUserEmail(),
user_context.GetAccountId().GetObjGuid(),
user_context.GetKey()->GetSecret());
}
// If plain text password is available, computes its salt, hash, and length,
// and saves them in `user_context`. They will be saved to prefs when user
// profile is ready.
UserContext new_user_context = user_context;
if (user_context.GetKey()->GetKeyType() == Key::KEY_TYPE_PASSWORD_PLAIN) {
std::u16string password(
base::UTF8ToUTF16(new_user_context.GetKey()->GetSecret()));
new_user_context.SetSyncPasswordData(password_manager::PasswordHashData(
user_context.GetAccountId().GetUserEmail(), password,
auth_mode == LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode::kExternal));
}
if (new_user_context.IsUsingPin()) {
absl::optional<Key> key = quick_unlock::PinStorageCryptohome::TransformKey(
new_user_context.GetAccountId(), *new_user_context.GetKey());
if (key) {
new_user_context.SetKey(*key);
} else {
new_user_context.SetIsUsingPin(false);
}
}
// If a regular user log in to a device which supports ARC, we should make
// sure that the user's cryptohome is encrypted in ext4 dircrypto to run the
// latest Android runtime.
new_user_context.SetIsForcingDircrypto(
ShouldForceDircrypto(new_user_context.GetAccountId()));
login_performer_->PerformLogin(new_user_context, auth_mode);
RecordPasswordLoginEvent(new_user_context);
SendAccessibilityAlert(
l10n_util::GetStringUTF8(IDS_CHROMEOS_ACC_LOGIN_SIGNING_IN));
if (timer_init_) {
base::UmaHistogramMediumTimes("Login.PromptToLoginTime",
timer_init_->Elapsed());
timer_init_.reset();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::ContinuePerformLogin(
LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode auth_mode,
const UserContext& user_context) {
login_performer_->PerformLogin(user_context, auth_mode);
}
void ExistingUserController::ContinuePerformLoginWithoutMigration(
LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode auth_mode,
const UserContext& user_context) {
UserContext user_context_ecryptfs = user_context;
user_context_ecryptfs.SetIsForcingDircrypto(false);
ContinuePerformLogin(auth_mode, user_context_ecryptfs);
}
void ExistingUserController::OnSigninScreenReady() {
// Used to debug crbug.com/902315. Feel free to remove after that is fixed.
VLOG(1) << "OnSigninScreenReady";
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnGaiaScreenReady() {
// Used to debug crbug.com/902315. Feel free to remove after that is fixed.
VLOG(1) << "OnGaiaScreenReady";
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnStartEnterpriseEnrollment() {
if (KioskAppManager::Get()->IsConsumerKioskDeviceWithAutoLaunch()) {
LOG(WARNING) << "Enterprise enrollment is not available after kiosk auto "
"launch is set.";
return;
}
DeviceSettingsService::Get()->GetOwnershipStatusAsync(base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::OnEnrollmentOwnershipCheckCompleted,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr()));
}
void ExistingUserController::OnStartKioskEnableScreen() {
KioskAppManager::Get()->GetConsumerKioskAutoLaunchStatus(base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::OnConsumerKioskAutoLaunchCheckCompleted,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr()));
}
void ExistingUserController::OnStartKioskAutolaunchScreen() {
ShowKioskAutolaunchScreen();
}
void ExistingUserController::SetDisplayEmail(const std::string& email) {
display_email_ = email;
}
void ExistingUserController::SetDisplayAndGivenName(
const std::string& display_name,
const std::string& given_name) {
display_name_ = base::UTF8ToUTF16(display_name);
given_name_ = base::UTF8ToUTF16(given_name);
}
bool ExistingUserController::IsUserAllowlisted(
const AccountId& account_id,
const absl::optional<user_manager::UserType>& user_type) {
bool wildcard_match = false;
if (login_performer_.get()) {
return login_performer_->IsUserAllowlisted(account_id, &wildcard_match,
user_type);
}
return cros_settings_->IsUserAllowlisted(account_id.GetUserEmail(),
&wildcard_match, user_type);
}
void ExistingUserController::LocalStateChanged(
user_manager::UserManager* user_manager) {
DeviceSettingsChanged();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnConsumerKioskAutoLaunchCheckCompleted(
KioskAppManager::ConsumerKioskAutoLaunchStatus status) {
if (status == KioskAppManager::ConsumerKioskAutoLaunchStatus::kConfigurable)
ShowKioskEnableScreen();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnEnrollmentOwnershipCheckCompleted(
DeviceSettingsService::OwnershipStatus status) {
VLOG(1) << "OnEnrollmentOwnershipCheckCompleted status=" << status;
if (status == DeviceSettingsService::OWNERSHIP_NONE) {
ShowEnrollmentScreen();
} else if (status == DeviceSettingsService::OWNERSHIP_TAKEN) {
// On a device that is already owned we might want to allow users to
// re-enroll if the policy information is invalid.
CrosSettingsProvider::TrustedStatus trusted_status =
CrosSettings::Get()->PrepareTrustedValues(base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::OnEnrollmentOwnershipCheckCompleted,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), status));
if (trusted_status == CrosSettingsProvider::PERMANENTLY_UNTRUSTED) {
VLOG(1) << "Showing enrollment because device is PERMANENTLY_UNTRUSTED";
ShowEnrollmentScreen();
}
} else {
// OwnershipService::GetStatusAsync is supposed to return either
// OWNERSHIP_NONE or OWNERSHIP_TAKEN.
NOTREACHED();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowEnrollmentScreen() {
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartWizard(EnrollmentScreenView::kScreenId);
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowKioskEnableScreen() {
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartWizard(KioskEnableScreenView::kScreenId);
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowKioskAutolaunchScreen() {
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartWizard(KioskAutolaunchScreenView::kScreenId);
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowEncryptionMigrationScreen(
const UserContext& user_context,
EncryptionMigrationMode migration_mode) {
GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetSigninUI()->StartEncryptionMigration(
user_context, migration_mode,
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::ContinuePerformLogin,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(),
login_performer_->auth_mode()));
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowTPMError() {
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(false);
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartWizard(TpmErrorView::kScreenId);
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowPasswordChangedDialog(
const UserContext& user_context) {
RecordPasswordChangeFlow(LOGIN_PASSWORD_CHANGE_FLOW_PASSWORD_CHANGED);
VLOG(1) << "Show password changed dialog"
<< ", count=" << login_performer_->password_changed_callback_count();
// True if user has already made an attempt to enter old password and failed.
bool show_invalid_old_password_error =
login_performer_->password_changed_callback_count() > 1;
GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetSigninUI()->ShowPasswordChangedDialog(
user_context.GetAccountId(), show_invalid_old_password_error);
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, LoginPerformer::Delegate implementation:
//
void ExistingUserController::OnAuthFailure(const AuthFailure& failure) {
guest_mode_url_ = GURL::EmptyGURL();
std::string error = failure.GetErrorString();
PerformLoginFinishedActions(false /* don't start auto login timer */);
if (ChromeUserManager::Get()
->GetUserFlow(last_login_attempt_account_id_)
->HandleLoginFailure(failure)) {
return;
}
const bool is_known_user = user_manager::UserManager::Get()->IsKnownUser(
last_login_attempt_account_id_);
if (failure.reason() == AuthFailure::OWNER_REQUIRED) {
ShowError(SigninError::kOwnerRequired, error);
// Using Untretained here is safe because SessionTerminationManager is
// destroyed after the task runner, in
// ChromeBrowserMainParts::PostDestroyThreads().
content::GetUIThreadTaskRunner({})->PostDelayedTask(
FROM_HERE,
base::BindOnce(&SessionTerminationManager::StopSession,
base::Unretained(SessionTerminationManager::Get()),
login_manager::SessionStopReason::OWNER_REQUIRED),
base::TimeDelta::FromMilliseconds(kSafeModeRestartUiDelayMs));
} else if (failure.reason() == AuthFailure::TPM_ERROR) {
ShowTPMError();
} else if (failure.reason() == AuthFailure::TPM_UPDATE_REQUIRED) {
ShowError(SigninError::kTpmUpdateRequired, error);
} else if (last_login_attempt_account_id_ == user_manager::GuestAccountId()) {
// Show no errors, just re-enable input.
GetLoginDisplay()->ClearAndEnablePassword();
StartAutoLoginTimer();
} else if (is_known_user &&
failure.reason() == AuthFailure::MISSING_CRYPTOHOME) {
ForceOnlineLoginForAccountId(last_login_attempt_account_id_);
RecordReauthReason(last_login_attempt_account_id_,
ReauthReason::MISSING_CRYPTOHOME);
} else if (is_known_user &&
failure.reason() == AuthFailure::UNRECOVERABLE_CRYPTOHOME) {
// TODO(chromium:1140868, dlunev): for now we route unrecoverable the same
// way as missing because it is removed under the hood in cryptohomed when
// the condition met. We should surface that up and deal with it on the
// chromium level, including making the decision user-driven.
ForceOnlineLoginForAccountId(last_login_attempt_account_id_);
RecordReauthReason(last_login_attempt_account_id_,
ReauthReason::UNRECOVERABLE_CRYPTOHOME);
} else {
// Check networking after trying to login in case user is
// cached locally or the local admin account.
if (!network_state_helper_->IsConnected()) {
if (is_known_user)
ShowError(SigninError::kAuthenticationError, error);
else
ShowError(SigninError::kOfflineFailedNetworkNotConnected, error);
} else {
// TODO(nkostylev): Cleanup rest of ClientLogin related code.
if (!is_known_user)
ShowError(SigninError::kAuthenticatingNew, error);
else
ShowError(SigninError::kAuthenticating, error);
}
GetLoginDisplay()->ClearAndEnablePassword();
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
// Reset user flow to default, so that special flow will not affect next
// attempt.
ChromeUserManager::Get()->ResetUserFlow(last_login_attempt_account_id_);
for (auto& auth_status_consumer : auth_status_consumers_)
auth_status_consumer.OnAuthFailure(failure);
ClearActiveDirectoryState();
ClearRecordedNames();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnAuthSuccess(const UserContext& user_context) {
is_login_in_progress_ = false;
GetLoginDisplay()->set_signin_completed(true);
// Login performer will be gone so cache this value to use
// once profile is loaded.
password_changed_ = login_performer_->password_changed();
auth_mode_ = login_performer_->auth_mode();
ChromeUserManager::Get()
->GetUserFlow(user_context.GetAccountId())
->HandleLoginSuccess(user_context);
StopAutoLoginTimer();
// Truth table of `has_auth_cookies`:
// Regular SAML
// /ServiceLogin T T
// /ChromeOsEmbeddedSetup F T
const bool has_auth_cookies =
login_performer_->auth_mode() ==
LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode::kExternal &&
(user_context.GetAccessToken().empty() ||
user_context.GetAuthFlow() == UserContext::AUTH_FLOW_GAIA_WITH_SAML);
// LoginPerformer instance will delete itself in case of successful auth.
login_performer_->set_delegate(nullptr);
ignore_result(login_performer_.release());
if (user_context.GetAuthFlow() == UserContext::AUTH_FLOW_OFFLINE)
UMA_HISTOGRAM_COUNTS_100("Login.OfflineSuccess.Attempts",
num_login_attempts_);
const bool is_enterprise_managed = g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->IsDeviceEnterpriseManaged();
// Mark device will be consumer owned if the device is not managed and this is
// the first user on the device.
if (!is_enterprise_managed &&
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->GetUsers().empty()) {
DeviceSettingsService::Get()->MarkWillEstablishConsumerOwnership();
}
if (user_context.IsLockableManagedGuestSession()) {
CHECK(user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT);
user_manager::User* user =
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->FindUserAndModify(
user_context.GetAccountId());
DCHECK(user);
user->AddProfileCreatedObserver(base::BindOnce(
&SetLoginExtensionApiLaunchExtensionIdPref, user_context.GetAccountId(),
user_context.GetManagedGuestSessionLaunchExtensionId()));
}
UserSessionManager::StartSessionType start_session_type =
UserAddingScreen::Get()->IsRunning()
? UserSessionManager::StartSessionType::kSecondary
: UserSessionManager::StartSessionType::kPrimary;
UserSessionManager::GetInstance()->StartSession(
user_context, start_session_type, has_auth_cookies,
false, // Start session for user.
this);
// Update user's displayed email.
if (!display_email_.empty()) {
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->SaveUserDisplayEmail(
user_context.GetAccountId(), display_email_);
}
if (!display_name_.empty() || !given_name_.empty()) {
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->UpdateUserAccountData(
user_context.GetAccountId(),
user_manager::UserManager::UserAccountData(display_name_, given_name_,
std::string() /* locale */));
}
ClearRecordedNames();
if (public_session_auto_login_account_id_.is_valid() &&
public_session_auto_login_account_id_ == user_context.GetAccountId() &&
last_login_attempt_was_auto_login_) {
const std::string& user_id = user_context.GetAccountId().GetUserEmail();
policy::DeviceLocalAccountPolicyBroker* broker =
g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->GetDeviceLocalAccountPolicyService()
->GetBrokerForUser(user_id);
bool privacy_warnings_enabled =
g_browser_process->local_state()->GetBoolean(
ash::prefs::kManagedGuestSessionPrivacyWarningsEnabled);
if (ChromeUserManager::Get()->IsFullManagementDisclosureNeeded(broker) &&
privacy_warnings_enabled) {
ShowAutoLaunchManagedGuestSessionNotification();
}
}
if (is_enterprise_managed) {
enterprise_user_session_metrics::RecordSignInEvent(
user_context, last_login_attempt_was_auto_login_);
}
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowAutoLaunchManagedGuestSessionNotification() {
policy::BrowserPolicyConnectorChromeOS* connector =
g_browser_process->platform_part()->browser_policy_connector_chromeos();
DCHECK(connector->IsDeviceEnterpriseManaged());
message_center::RichNotificationData data;
data.buttons.push_back(message_center::ButtonInfo(
l10n_util::GetStringUTF16(IDS_AUTO_LAUNCH_NOTIFICATION_BUTTON)));
const std::u16string title =
l10n_util::GetStringUTF16(IDS_AUTO_LAUNCH_NOTIFICATION_TITLE);
const std::u16string message = l10n_util::GetStringFUTF16(
IDS_ASH_LOGIN_MANAGED_SESSION_MONITORING_FULL_WARNING,
base::UTF8ToUTF16(connector->GetEnterpriseDomainManager()));
auto delegate =
base::MakeRefCounted<message_center::HandleNotificationClickDelegate>(
base::BindRepeating([](absl::optional<int> button_index) {
DCHECK(button_index);
SystemTrayClientImpl::Get()->ShowEnterpriseInfo();
}));
std::unique_ptr<message_center::Notification> notification =
ash::CreateSystemNotification(
message_center::NOTIFICATION_TYPE_SIMPLE, kAutoLaunchNotificationId,
title, message, std::u16string(), GURL(),
message_center::NotifierId(
message_center::NotifierType::SYSTEM_COMPONENT,
kAutoLaunchNotifierId),
data, std::move(delegate), vector_icons::kBusinessIcon,
message_center::SystemNotificationWarningLevel::NORMAL);
notification->SetSystemPriority();
notification->set_pinned(true);
SystemNotificationHelper::GetInstance()->Display(*notification);
}
void ExistingUserController::OnProfilePrepared(Profile* profile,
bool browser_launched) {
// Reenable clicking on other windows and status area.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(true);
profile_prepared_ = true;
chromeos::UserContext user_context =
UserContext(*chromeos::ProfileHelper::Get()->GetUserByProfile(profile));
auto* profile_connector = profile->GetProfilePolicyConnector();
bool is_enterprise_managed =
profile_connector->IsManaged() &&
user_context.GetUserType() != user_manager::USER_TYPE_CHILD;
user_manager::known_user::SetIsEnterpriseManaged(user_context.GetAccountId(),
is_enterprise_managed);
if (is_enterprise_managed) {
std::string manager = ManagementUIHandler::GetAccountManager(profile);
if (!manager.empty()) {
user_manager::known_user::SetAccountManager(user_context.GetAccountId(),
manager);
}
}
// Inform `auth_status_consumers_` about successful login.
// TODO(nkostylev): Pass UserContext back crbug.com/424550
for (auto& auth_status_consumer : auth_status_consumers_)
auth_status_consumer.OnAuthSuccess(user_context);
}
void ExistingUserController::OnOffTheRecordAuthSuccess() {
is_login_in_progress_ = false;
// Mark the device as registered., i.e. the second part of OOBE as completed.
if (!StartupUtils::IsDeviceRegistered())
StartupUtils::MarkDeviceRegistered(base::OnceClosure());
UserSessionManager::GetInstance()->CompleteGuestSessionLogin(guest_mode_url_);
for (auto& auth_status_consumer : auth_status_consumers_)
auth_status_consumer.OnOffTheRecordAuthSuccess();
}
void ExistingUserController::OnPasswordChangeDetected(
const UserContext& user_context) {
is_login_in_progress_ = false;
// Must not proceed without signature verification.
if (CrosSettingsProvider::TRUSTED !=
cros_settings_->PrepareTrustedValues(
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::OnPasswordChangeDetected,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), user_context))) {
// Value of owner email is still not verified.
// Another attempt will be invoked after verification completion.
return;
}
for (auto& auth_status_consumer : auth_status_consumers_)
auth_status_consumer.OnPasswordChangeDetected(user_context);
ShowPasswordChangedDialog(user_context);
}
void ExistingUserController::OnOldEncryptionDetected(
const UserContext& user_context,
bool has_incomplete_migration) {
absl::optional<EncryptionMigrationMode> encryption_migration_mode =
GetEncryptionMigrationMode(user_context, has_incomplete_migration);
if (!encryption_migration_mode.has_value()) {
ContinuePerformLoginWithoutMigration(login_performer_->auth_mode(),
user_context);
return;
}
ShowEncryptionMigrationScreen(user_context,
encryption_migration_mode.value());
}
void ExistingUserController::ForceOnlineLoginForAccountId(
const AccountId& account_id) {
// Save the necessity to sign-in online into UserManager in case the user
// aborts the online flow.
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->SaveForceOnlineSignin(account_id, true);
GetLoginDisplayHost()->OnPreferencesChanged();
// Start online sign-in UI for the user.
is_login_in_progress_ = false;
login_performer_.reset();
if (session_manager::SessionManager::Get()->IsInSecondaryLoginScreen()) {
// Gaia dialog is not supported on the secondary login screen.
return;
}
GetLoginDisplayHost()->ShowGaiaDialog(account_id);
}
void ExistingUserController::AllowlistCheckFailed(const std::string& email) {
PerformLoginFinishedActions(true /* start auto login timer */);
GetLoginDisplay()->ShowAllowlistCheckFailedError();
for (auto& auth_status_consumer : auth_status_consumers_) {
auth_status_consumer.OnAuthFailure(
AuthFailure(AuthFailure::ALLOWLIST_CHECK_FAILED));
}
ClearActiveDirectoryState();
ClearRecordedNames();
}
void ExistingUserController::PolicyLoadFailed() {
ShowError(SigninError::kOwnerKeyLost, std::string());
PerformLoginFinishedActions(false /* don't start auto login timer */);
ClearActiveDirectoryState();
ClearRecordedNames();
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ExistingUserController, private:
void ExistingUserController::DeviceSettingsChanged() {
// If login was already completed, we should avoid any signin screen
// transitions, see http://crbug.com/461604 for example.
if (!profile_prepared_ && GetLoginDisplay() &&
!GetLoginDisplay()->is_signin_completed()) {
// Signed settings or user list changed. Notify views and update them.
const user_manager::UserList& users =
UserAddingScreen::Get()->IsRunning()
? user_manager::UserManager::Get()->GetUsersAllowedForMultiProfile()
: user_manager::UserManager::Get()->GetUsers();
UpdateLoginDisplay(users);
ConfigureAutoLogin();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::AddLoginStatusConsumer(
AuthStatusConsumer* consumer) {
auth_status_consumers_.AddObserver(consumer);
}
void ExistingUserController::RemoveLoginStatusConsumer(
const AuthStatusConsumer* consumer) {
auth_status_consumers_.RemoveObserver(consumer);
}
LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode ExistingUserController::auth_mode() const {
if (login_performer_)
return login_performer_->auth_mode();
return auth_mode_;
}
bool ExistingUserController::password_changed() const {
if (login_performer_)
return login_performer_->password_changed();
return password_changed_;
}
// static
user_manager::UserList ExistingUserController::ExtractLoginUsers(
const user_manager::UserList& users) {
bool show_users_on_signin;
chromeos::CrosSettings::Get()->GetBoolean(
chromeos::kAccountsPrefShowUserNamesOnSignIn, &show_users_on_signin);
user_manager::UserList filtered_users;
for (auto* user : users) {
// Skip kiosk apps for login screen user list. Kiosk apps as pods (aka new
// kiosk UI) is currently disabled and it gets the apps directly from
// KioskAppManager, ArcKioskAppManager and WebKioskAppManager.
if (user->IsKioskType())
continue;
// TODO(xiyuan): Clean user profile whose email is not in allowlist.
if (user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_SUPERVISED_DEPRECATED)
continue;
const bool meets_allowlist_requirements =
!user->HasGaiaAccount() ||
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->IsGaiaUserAllowed(*user);
// Public session accounts are always shown on login screen.
const bool meets_show_users_requirements =
show_users_on_signin ||
user->GetType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT;
if (meets_allowlist_requirements && meets_show_users_requirements)
filtered_users.push_back(user);
}
return filtered_users;
}
void ExistingUserController::LoginAsGuest() {
PerformPreLoginActions(UserContext(user_manager::USER_TYPE_GUEST,
user_manager::GuestAccountId()));
bool allow_guest = user_manager::UserManager::Get()->IsGuestSessionAllowed();
if (!allow_guest) {
// Disallowed. The UI should normally not show the guest session button.
LOG(ERROR) << "Guest login attempt when guest mode is disallowed.";
PerformLoginFinishedActions(true /* start auto login timer */);
ClearRecordedNames();
return;
}
// Only one instance of LoginPerformer should exist at a time.
login_performer_.reset(nullptr);
login_performer_ = std::make_unique<ChromeLoginPerformer>(this);
login_performer_->LoginOffTheRecord();
SendAccessibilityAlert(
l10n_util::GetStringUTF8(IDS_CHROMEOS_ACC_LOGIN_SIGNIN_OFFRECORD));
}
void ExistingUserController::LoginAsPublicSession(
const UserContext& user_context) {
VLOG(2) << "LoginAsPublicSession";
PerformPreLoginActions(user_context);
// If there is no public account with the given user ID, logging in is not
// possible.
const user_manager::User* user =
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->FindUser(user_context.GetAccountId());
if (!user || user->GetType() != user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT) {
VLOG(2) << "Public session user not found";
PerformLoginFinishedActions(true /* start auto login timer */);
return;
}
// Public session login will fail if attempted if the associated policy store
// is not initialized - wait for the policy store load before starting the
// auto-login timer.
policy::CloudPolicyStore* policy_store =
g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->GetDeviceLocalAccountPolicyService()
->GetBrokerForUser(user->GetAccountId().GetUserEmail())
->core()
->store();
if (!policy_store->is_initialized()) {
VLOG(2) << "Public session policy store not yet initialized";
policy_store_waiter_ = std::make_unique<PolicyStoreLoadWaiter>(
policy_store,
base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::LoginAsPublicSessionWithPolicyStoreReady,
base::Unretained(this), user_context));
return;
}
LoginAsPublicSessionWithPolicyStoreReady(user_context);
}
void ExistingUserController::LoginAsPublicSessionWithPolicyStoreReady(
const UserContext& user_context) {
VLOG(2) << "LoginAsPublicSessionWithPolicyStoreReady";
policy_store_waiter_.reset();
UserContext new_user_context = user_context;
std::string locale = user_context.GetPublicSessionLocale();
if (locale.empty()) {
// When performing auto-login, no locale is chosen by the user. Check
// whether a list of recommended locales was set by policy. If so, use its
// first entry. Otherwise, `locale` will remain blank, indicating that the
// public session should use the current UI locale.
const policy::PolicyMap::Entry* entry =
g_browser_process->platform_part()
->browser_policy_connector_chromeos()
->GetDeviceLocalAccountPolicyService()
->GetBrokerForUser(user_context.GetAccountId().GetUserEmail())
->core()
->store()
->policy_map()
.Get(policy::key::kSessionLocales);
base::ListValue const* list = nullptr;
if (entry && entry->level == policy::POLICY_LEVEL_RECOMMENDED &&
entry->value() && entry->value()->GetAsList(&list)) {
if (list->GetString(0, &locale))
new_user_context.SetPublicSessionLocale(locale);
}
}
if (!locale.empty() &&
new_user_context.GetPublicSessionInputMethod().empty()) {
// When `locale` is set, a suitable keyboard layout should be chosen. In
// most cases, this will already be the case because the UI shows a list of
// keyboard layouts suitable for the `locale` and ensures that one of them
// us selected. However, it is still possible that `locale` is set but no
// keyboard layout was chosen:
// * The list of keyboard layouts is updated asynchronously. If the user
// enters the public session before the list of keyboard layouts for the
// `locale` has been retrieved, the UI will indicate that no keyboard
// layout was chosen.
// * During auto-login, the `locale` is set in this method and a suitable
// keyboard layout must be chosen next.
//
// The list of suitable keyboard layouts is constructed asynchronously. Once
// it has been retrieved, `SetPublicSessionKeyboardLayoutAndLogin` will
// select the first layout from the list and continue login.
VLOG(2) << "Requesting keyboard layouts for public session";
GetKeyboardLayoutsForLocale(
base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::SetPublicSessionKeyboardLayoutAndLogin,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), new_user_context),
locale);
return;
}
// The user chose a locale and a suitable keyboard layout or left both unset.
// Login can continue immediately.
LoginAsPublicSessionInternal(new_user_context);
}
void ExistingUserController::LoginAsKioskApp(KioskAppId kiosk_app_id) {
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartKiosk(kiosk_app_id, /*auto_launch*/ false);
}
void ExistingUserController::ConfigureAutoLogin() {
std::string auto_login_account_id;
cros_settings_->GetString(kAccountsPrefDeviceLocalAccountAutoLoginId,
&auto_login_account_id);
VLOG(2) << "Autologin account in prefs: " << auto_login_account_id;
const std::vector<policy::DeviceLocalAccount> device_local_accounts =
policy::GetDeviceLocalAccounts(cros_settings_);
const bool show_update_required_screen = IsUpdateRequiredDeadlineReached();
auto* data_snapshotd_manager =
arc::data_snapshotd::ArcDataSnapshotdManager::Get();
bool is_arc_data_snapshot_autologin =
(data_snapshotd_manager &&
data_snapshotd_manager->IsAutoLoginConfigured());
if (is_arc_data_snapshot_autologin) {
public_session_auto_login_account_id_ =
GetArcDataSnapshotAutoLoginAccountId(device_local_accounts);
} else {
public_session_auto_login_account_id_ = GetPublicSessionAutoLoginAccountId(
device_local_accounts, auto_login_account_id);
}
const user_manager::User* public_session_user =
user_manager::UserManager::Get()->FindUser(
public_session_auto_login_account_id_);
if (!public_session_user || public_session_user->GetType() !=
user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT) {
VLOG(2) << "PublicSession autologin user not found";
public_session_auto_login_account_id_ = EmptyAccountId();
}
if (is_arc_data_snapshot_autologin ||
!cros_settings_->GetInteger(kAccountsPrefDeviceLocalAccountAutoLoginDelay,
&auto_login_delay_)) {
auto_login_delay_ = 0;
}
// TODO(crbug.com/1105387): Part of initial screen logic.
if (show_update_required_screen) {
// Update required screen overrides public session auto login.
StopAutoLoginTimer();
GetLoginDisplayHost()->StartWizard(UpdateRequiredView::kScreenId);
} else if (public_session_auto_login_account_id_.is_valid()) {
StartAutoLoginTimer();
} else {
StopAutoLoginTimer();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::ResetAutoLoginTimer() {
// Only restart the auto-login timer if it's already running.
if (auto_login_timer_ && auto_login_timer_->IsRunning()) {
StopAutoLoginTimer();
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::OnPublicSessionAutoLoginTimerFire() {
CHECK(public_session_auto_login_account_id_.is_valid());
VLOG(2) << "Public session autologin fired";
SigninSpecifics signin_specifics;
signin_specifics.is_auto_login = true;
Login(UserContext(user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT,
public_session_auto_login_account_id_),
signin_specifics);
}
void ExistingUserController::StopAutoLoginTimer() {
VLOG(2) << "Stopping autologin timer that is "
<< (auto_login_timer_ ? "" : "not ") << "running";
if (auto_login_timer_)
auto_login_timer_->Stop();
}
void ExistingUserController::CancelPasswordChangedFlow() {
login_performer_.reset(nullptr);
ClearActiveDirectoryState();
PerformLoginFinishedActions(true /* start auto login timer */);
}
void ExistingUserController::MigrateUserData(const std::string& old_password) {
// LoginPerformer instance has state of the user so it should exist.
if (login_performer_.get()) {
VLOG(1) << "Migrate the existing cryptohome to new password.";
login_performer_->RecoverEncryptedData(old_password);
}
}
void ExistingUserController::ResyncUserData() {
// LoginPerformer instance has state of the user so it should exist.
if (login_performer_.get()) {
VLOG(1) << "Create a new cryptohome and resync user data.";
login_performer_->ResyncEncryptedData();
}
}
void ExistingUserController::StartAutoLoginTimer() {
if (is_login_in_progress_ ||
!public_session_auto_login_account_id_.is_valid()) {
VLOG(2) << "Not starting autologin timer, because:";
VLOG_IF(2, is_login_in_progress_) << "* Login is in process;";
VLOG_IF(2, !public_session_auto_login_account_id_.is_valid())
<< "* No valid autologin account;";
return;
}
VLOG(2) << "Starting autologin timer with delay: " << auto_login_delay_;
if (auto_login_timer_ && auto_login_timer_->IsRunning()) {
StopAutoLoginTimer();
}
// Block auto-login flow until ArcDataSnapshotdManager is ready to enter an
// auto-login session.
// ArcDataSnapshotdManager stores a reset auto-login callback to fire it once
// it is ready.
auto* data_snapshotd_manager =
arc::data_snapshotd::ArcDataSnapshotdManager::Get();
if (data_snapshotd_manager && !data_snapshotd_manager->IsAutoLoginAllowed() &&
data_snapshotd_manager->IsAutoLoginConfigured()) {
data_snapshotd_manager->set_reset_autologin_callback(
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::ResetAutoLoginTimer,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr()));
return;
}
// Start the auto-login timer.
if (!auto_login_timer_)
auto_login_timer_ = std::make_unique<base::OneShotTimer>();
VLOG(2) << "Public session autologin will be fired in " << auto_login_delay_
<< "ms";
auto_login_timer_->Start(
FROM_HERE, base::TimeDelta::FromMilliseconds(auto_login_delay_),
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::OnPublicSessionAutoLoginTimerFire,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr()));
}
void ExistingUserController::ShowError(SigninError error,
const std::string& details) {
VLOG(1) << details;
auto* signin_ui = GetLoginDisplayHost()->GetSigninUI();
if (!signin_ui) {
DCHECK(session_manager::SessionManager::Get()->IsInSecondaryLoginScreen());
// Silently ignore the error on the secondary login screen. The screen is
// being deprecated anyway.
return;
}
signin_ui->ShowSigninError(error, details, num_login_attempts_);
}
void ExistingUserController::SendAccessibilityAlert(
const std::string& alert_text) {
AutomationManagerAura::GetInstance()->HandleAlert(alert_text);
}
void ExistingUserController::SetPublicSessionKeyboardLayoutAndLogin(
const UserContext& user_context,
std::unique_ptr<base::ListValue> keyboard_layouts) {
UserContext new_user_context = user_context;
std::string keyboard_layout;
for (size_t i = 0; i < keyboard_layouts->GetSize(); ++i) {
base::DictionaryValue* entry = nullptr;
keyboard_layouts->GetDictionary(i, &entry);
bool selected = false;
entry->GetBoolean("selected", &selected);
if (selected) {
entry->GetString("value", &keyboard_layout);
break;
}
}
DCHECK(!keyboard_layout.empty());
new_user_context.SetPublicSessionInputMethod(keyboard_layout);
LoginAsPublicSessionInternal(new_user_context);
}
void ExistingUserController::LoginAsPublicSessionInternal(
const UserContext& user_context) {
// Only one instance of LoginPerformer should exist at a time.
VLOG(2) << "LoginAsPublicSessionInternal for user: "
<< user_context.GetAccountId();
login_performer_.reset(nullptr);
login_performer_ = std::make_unique<ChromeLoginPerformer>(this);
login_performer_->LoginAsPublicSession(user_context);
SendAccessibilityAlert(
l10n_util::GetStringUTF8(IDS_CHROMEOS_ACC_LOGIN_SIGNIN_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT));
}
void ExistingUserController::PerformPreLoginActions(
const UserContext& user_context) {
// Disable clicking on other windows and status tray.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(false);
if (last_login_attempt_account_id_ != user_context.GetAccountId()) {
last_login_attempt_account_id_ = user_context.GetAccountId();
num_login_attempts_ = 0;
}
num_login_attempts_++;
// Stop the auto-login timer when attempting login.
StopAutoLoginTimer();
}
void ExistingUserController::PerformLoginFinishedActions(
bool start_auto_login_timer) {
is_login_in_progress_ = false;
// Reenable clicking on other windows and status area.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(true);
if (start_auto_login_timer)
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
void ExistingUserController::ContinueLoginWhenCryptohomeAvailable(
base::OnceClosure continuation,
bool service_is_available) {
if (!service_is_available) {
LOG(ERROR) << "Cryptohome service is not available";
OnAuthFailure(AuthFailure(AuthFailure::COULD_NOT_MOUNT_CRYPTOHOME));
return;
}
std::move(continuation).Run();
}
void ExistingUserController::ContinueLoginIfDeviceNotDisabled(
base::OnceClosure continuation) {
// Disable clicking on other windows and status tray.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(false);
// Stop the auto-login timer.
StopAutoLoginTimer();
auto split_continuation = base::SplitOnceCallback(std::move(continuation));
// Wait for the `cros_settings_` to become either trusted or permanently
// untrusted.
const CrosSettingsProvider::TrustedStatus status =
cros_settings_->PrepareTrustedValues(base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::ContinueLoginIfDeviceNotDisabled,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), std::move(split_continuation.first)));
if (status == CrosSettingsProvider::TEMPORARILY_UNTRUSTED)
return;
if (status == CrosSettingsProvider::PERMANENTLY_UNTRUSTED) {
// If the `cros_settings_` are permanently untrusted, show an error message
// and refuse to log in.
++num_login_attempts_;
ShowError(SigninError::kOwnerKeyLost, /*details=*/std::string());
// Re-enable clicking on other windows and the status area. Do not start the
// auto-login timer though. Without trusted `cros_settings_`, no auto-login
// can succeed.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(true);
return;
}
if (system::DeviceDisablingManager::IsDeviceDisabledDuringNormalOperation()) {
// If the device is disabled, bail out. A device disabled screen will be
// shown by the DeviceDisablingManager.
// Re-enable clicking on other windows and the status area. Do not start the
// auto-login timer though. On a disabled device, no auto-login can succeed.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(true);
return;
}
UserDataAuthClient::Get()->WaitForServiceToBeAvailable(base::BindOnce(
&ExistingUserController::ContinueLoginWhenCryptohomeAvailable,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), std::move(split_continuation.second)));
}
void ExistingUserController::DoCompleteLogin(
const UserContext& user_context_wo_device_id) {
UserContext user_context = user_context_wo_device_id;
std::string device_id =
user_manager::known_user::GetDeviceId(user_context.GetAccountId());
if (device_id.empty()) {
bool is_ephemeral = ChromeUserManager::Get()->AreEphemeralUsersEnabled() &&
user_context.GetAccountId() !=
ChromeUserManager::Get()->GetOwnerAccountId();
device_id = GenerateSigninScopedDeviceId(is_ephemeral);
}
user_context.SetDeviceId(device_id);
const std::string& gaps_cookie = user_context.GetGAPSCookie();
if (!gaps_cookie.empty()) {
user_manager::known_user::SetGAPSCookie(user_context.GetAccountId(),
gaps_cookie);
}
PerformPreLoginActions(user_context);
if (timer_init_) {
base::UmaHistogramMediumTimes("Login.PromptToCompleteLoginTime",
timer_init_->Elapsed());
timer_init_.reset();
}
// Fetch OAuth2 tokens if we have an auth code.
if (!user_context.GetAuthCode().empty()) {
oauth2_token_initializer_ = std::make_unique<OAuth2TokenInitializer>();
oauth2_token_initializer_->Start(
user_context,
base::BindOnce(&ExistingUserController::OnOAuth2TokensFetched,
weak_factory_.GetWeakPtr()));
return;
}
PerformLogin(user_context, LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode::kExternal);
}
void ExistingUserController::DoLogin(const UserContext& user_context,
const SigninSpecifics& specifics) {
last_login_attempt_was_auto_login_ = specifics.is_auto_login;
VLOG(2) << "DoLogin with a user type: " << user_context.GetUserType();
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_GUEST) {
if (!specifics.guest_mode_url.empty()) {
guest_mode_url_ = GURL(specifics.guest_mode_url);
if (specifics.guest_mode_url_append_locale)
guest_mode_url_ = google_util::AppendGoogleLocaleParam(
guest_mode_url_, g_browser_process->GetApplicationLocale());
}
LoginAsGuest();
return;
}
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_PUBLIC_ACCOUNT) {
LoginAsPublicSession(user_context);
return;
}
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_KIOSK_APP) {
LoginAsKioskApp(
KioskAppId::ForChromeApp(user_context.GetAccountId().GetUserEmail()));
return;
}
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_ARC_KIOSK_APP) {
LoginAsKioskApp(KioskAppId::ForArcApp(user_context.GetAccountId()));
return;
}
if (user_context.GetUserType() == user_manager::USER_TYPE_WEB_KIOSK_APP) {
LoginAsKioskApp(KioskAppId::ForWebApp(user_context.GetAccountId()));
return;
}
// Regular user or supervised user login.
if (!user_context.HasCredentials()) {
// If credentials are missing, refuse to log in.
// Reenable clicking on other windows and status area.
GetLoginDisplay()->SetUIEnabled(true);
// Restart the auto-login timer.
StartAutoLoginTimer();
}
PerformPreLoginActions(user_context);
PerformLogin(user_context, LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode::kInternal);
}
void ExistingUserController::OnOAuth2TokensFetched(
bool success,
const UserContext& user_context) {
if (!success) {
LOG(ERROR) << "OAuth2 token fetch failed.";
OnAuthFailure(AuthFailure(AuthFailure::FAILED_TO_INITIALIZE_TOKEN));
return;
}
PerformLogin(user_context, LoginPerformer::AuthorizationMode::kExternal);
}
void ExistingUserController::ClearRecordedNames() {
display_email_.clear();
display_name_.clear();
given_name_.clear();
}
void ExistingUserController::ClearActiveDirectoryState() {
if (last_login_attempt_account_id_.GetAccountType() !=
AccountType::ACTIVE_DIRECTORY) {
return;
}
// Clear authpolicyd state so nothing could leak from one user to another.
AuthPolicyHelper::Restart();
}
} // namespace chromeos
|
#pragma once
#include <ros/time.h>
#include <pcl/point_cloud.h>
#include <pcl/point_types.h>
#include <dynamic_reconfigure/server.h>
#include <safe_landing_planner/SafeLandingPlannerNodeConfig.h>
#include "grid.hpp"
namespace avoidance {
class SafeLandingPlanner {
public:
SafeLandingPlanner() = default;
~SafeLandingPlanner() = default;
pcl::PointCloud<pcl::PointXYZ> cloud_;
pcl::PointCloud<pcl::PointXYZI> visualization_cloud_;
double timeout_critical_ = 0.5;
double timeout_termination_ = 15.0;
/**
* @brief setter method for current vehicle position and orientation
* @param[in] pos, vehicle position
* @param[in] q, quaternion vehicle orientation
**/
void setPose(const Eigen::Vector3f& pos, const Eigen::Quaternionf& q);
/**
* @brif runs landing site detection algorithm
**/
void runSafeLandingPlanner();
/**
* @brief sets parameters from ROS parameter server
* @param config, struct containing all the parameters
* @param level, bitmask to group together reconfigurable parameters
**/
void dynamicReconfigureSetParams(
const safe_landing_planner::SafeLandingPlannerNodeConfig& config,
uint32_t level);
/**
* @brief based on counter, standard devuation and mean, it decides if a cell
*is landable
**/
void isLandingPossible();
Eigen::Vector2i getPositionIndex() const { return pos_index_; };
Grid getPreviousGrid() const { return previous_grid_; };
Grid getGrid() const { return grid_; };
int getSmoothingSize() const { return smoothing_size_; };
protected:
Eigen::Vector3f position_ = Eigen::Vector3f::Zero();
Eigen::Vector2i pos_index_ = Eigen::Vector2i(-1, -1);
float n_points_thr_ = 1.f;
float std_dev_thr_ = 0.1f;
float grid_size_ = 10.f;
float cell_size_ = 1.f;
float mean_diff_thr_ = 0.3f;
float alpha_ = 0.8f;
int n_lines_padding_ = 1;
int max_n_mean_diff_cells_ = 2;
int grid_seq_ = 0;
int smoothing_size_ = 1;
int min_n_land_cells_ = 9;
bool size_update_ = false;
safe_landing_planner::SafeLandingPlannerNodeConfig rqt_param_config_;
Grid grid_ = Grid(10.f, 1.f);
Grid previous_grid_ = Grid(10.f, 1.f);
/**
* @brief process the pointcloud and calculate mean and variance for points in
*the grid
**/
void processPointcloud();
/**
* @brief checks if a point cloud point is inside the 2D grid
* @param[in] x, x coordinate of the pointcloud point
* @param[in] y, y coordinate of the pointcloud point
* @return true, if point is inside the grid
**/
bool isInsideGrid(float x, float y);
/**
* @brief computes the grid bin to which a point is mapped to
* @param[in] x, x coordinate of the pointcloud point
* @param[in] y, y coordinate of the pointcloud point
* @returns indexes of the 2D grid
**/
Eigen::Vector2i computeGridIndexes(float x, float y);
/**
* @brief computes the online mean and variance of a grid bin on the z value
* @param[in] prev_mean, previous bin mean value
* @param[in] prev_variance, previous bin varinace value
* @param[in] new_value, new data point to be averaged
* @param[in] seq, number of data points already in the bin
* @returns bin mean and variance
**/
std::pair<float, float> computeOnlineMeanVariance(float prev_mean,
float prev_variance,
float new_value, float seq);
};
}
|
Heteropoly acids triggered self-assembly of cationic peptides into photo- and electro-chromic gels. A series of cationic peptides with alternating lysines and hydrophobic residues were designed and synthesized. These kinds of short peptides with protonated lysines can complex with anionic heteropoly acids (HPAs) to form a stable gel in water/ethanol mixed solution. Circular dichroism spectroscopy showed that the short peptides adopted a mixed conformation (-sheet and random-coil) within the gel matrix. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the heteropoly acids, acting as nanosized cross-linkers, first initiated the self-assembly of the cationic peptides into spherical nanostructures. Then these nanospheres accumulated with each other through hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions to form large sheet-like assemblies, which further interconnected with each other forming continuous 3D network structures. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the structural integrity of the HPAs was maintained during the gelation process. The resultant hybrid gels showed reversible photo- and elecrtro-chromic properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the hybrid gels, capable of persistent and reversible changes of their colour, are attributed to the intervalence charge-transfer transition of the HPAs. Reversible information writing and erasing were demonstrated through a repeated photo-lithograph or electric stimuli without significant loss of the gel performance. |
<reponame>nistefan/cmssw<gh_stars>1-10
#ifndef RecoLocalMuon_RPCRollMask_h
#define RecoLocalMuon_RPCRollMask_h
#include <bitset>
const int maskSIZE=192;
typedef std::bitset<maskSIZE> RollMask;
#endif
|
from django.urls import path
from . import views
from users import views as usersview
urlpatterns = [
path('', views.products, name="products"),
path('cart', views.cart, name="cart"),
path('checkout', views.checkout, name="checkout"),
path('update_item', views.updateItem, name="update_item"),
path('product_details', views.productDetails, name="product_details"),
path('process_order',views.processOrder, name="process_order"),
path('dashboard',views.dashboard, name="dashboard"),
path('category',views.products, name="category"),
path('addProductView', views.addProductView, name="addProductView"),
path('editProductView', views.editProductview, name="editProductView"),
path('addProduct',views.addProduct, name="addProduct"),
path('profile',views.profile, name="profile"),
path('faqs',views.faqs, name="faqs"),
path('updateProfile',views.updateProfile, name="updateProfile"),
path('update_wishlist', views.UpdateWishList, name="update_wishlist"),
path('wishlist', views.ViewWishList, name="wishlist"),
path('add_review/<int:id>', views.add_review, name='add_review'),
] |
ToolBox: A Living Directory for UNIX Tools Owned by the Community ; CU-CS-747-94 Members of a community who work primarily at computer terminals are deprived from distributed cognition as it occurs in many other domains where people work with tools in a shared physical space. This makes it harder for individuals to pick up cues towards useful tools and their utilizations. Traditional help systems were unsuccessful to fill in this gap of information flow. People prefer to consult other people in their community because either their tool knowledge is contextualized appropriately or they know other people who can help. In this paper we describe the design and preliminary evaluation of a system that is actively looking for new tools and is interviewing potential experts. The result of these interviews is presented by weekly newsletters and a hypertext system in World Wide Web format. We specifically address design issues of and experience with the interviewing process and the presentation of the resulting information. |
package com.bitpay.sdk.model.Invoice;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIgnore;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIgnoreProperties;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown = true)
public class SupportedTransactionCurrency {
private boolean _enabled;
private String _reason;
public SupportedTransactionCurrency() {
}
@JsonIgnore
public boolean getEnabled() {
return _enabled;
}
@JsonProperty("enabled")
public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) {
this._enabled = enabled;
}
@JsonIgnore
public String getReason() { return _reason; }
@JsonProperty("reason")
public void setReason(String reason) {
this._reason = reason;
}
}
|
<filename>src/dto/create-user.dto.ts
import { Prisma } from "@prisma/client";
import { IsAlpha, IsAlphanumeric, IsDate, IsEmail, IsHash, IsInt, IsNumber, IsNumberString, IsPhoneNumber, IsString, IS_HASH } from "class-validator"
export class CreateUserDto{
@IsAlpha()
firstname: string
@IsAlpha()
lastname: string;
@IsEmail()
email: string
@IsNumberString()
phone: string
@IsString()
hash: string
@IsDate()
dob: Date
@IsAlphanumeric()
address: string
@IsInt()
type: Prisma.UserTypeCreateNestedOneWithoutUsersInput
@IsInt()
church: Prisma.ChurchCreateNestedOneWithoutUsersInput
} |
Fronto-temporal interactions are functionally relevant for semantic control in language processing Semantic cognition, i.e. processing of meaning is based on semantic representations and their controlled retrieval. Semantic control has been shown to be implemented in a network that consists of left inferior frontal (IFG), and anterior and posterior middle temporal gyri (a/pMTG). We aimed to disrupt semantic control processes with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over left IFG and pMTG and to study whether behavioral effects are moderated by induced alterations in resting-state functional connectivity. To this end, we applied real cTBS over left IFG and left pMTG as well as sham stimulation on 20 healthy participants in a within-subject design. Stimulation was followed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and a semantic priming paradigm. Resting-state functional connectivity of regions of interest in left IFG, pMTG and aMTG revealed highly interconnected left-lateralized fronto-temporal networks representing the semantic system. We did not find any significant direct modulation of either task performance or resting-state functional connectivity by effective cTBS. However, after sham cTBS, functional connectivity between IFG and pMTG correlated with task performance under high semantic control demands in the semantic priming paradigm. These findings provide evidence for the functional relevance of interactions between IFG and pMTG for semantic control processes. This interaction was functionally less relevant after cTBS over aIFG which might be interpretable in terms of an indirect disruptive effect of cTBS. Introduction Semantic cognition, i.e. processing of meaning is a central function in language and communication. Previous studies suggested that two distinct components of semantic cognition can be PLOS segregated, semantic representation and semantic control, which have different neural underpinnings. Semantic representations encode multimodal concepts which span different items and contexts. They are thought to be implemented in distributed modality specific cortices which interact with a transmodal hub located bilaterally in the anterior temporal lobe. On the other hand, semantic control is necessary to specifically retrieve context-relevant and task-appropriate semantic information from the representational system especially when unusual, uncharacteristic or anomalous meanings need to be accessed or when dominant meanings need to be suppressed. For example, a very salient feature of the concept "piano" is that it is a musical instrument, but in the context of moving, the most important semantic aspect may be its weight. Increasing semantic control demands are thereby associated with higher task-related activity in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), angular gyrus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG). The latter region is of special interest because it might form an interface between networks which underlie automatic and controlled semantic retrieval. Previous transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies confirmed a causal relationship between semantic control and both IFG and pMTG: semantic judgements were delayed and less accurate after inhibitory TMS over IFG or pMTG only for trials with high semantic control demands (i.e. weakly associated cue and target words). Another study combining inhibitory rTMS and fMRI with a similar semantic priming paradigm unexpectedly reported decreased activity in bilateral IFG and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex exclusively for trials with low control demands while reaction times remained unaffected. The fact that activity associated with high control demand trials was not suppressed due to rTMS might reflect the specific role of these regions for semantic control. In language comprehension, predictions are formed about upcoming words depending on the prior context. It is assumed that correct predictions might facilitate access to semantic representations and thus promote integration of a word in the given context. False predictions on the other hand require additional integration efforts which can be viewed as a situation with high semantic control demands because contextually (spuriously) preactivated representations need to be inhibited. For example, the context of "the pilot flies the..." might lead to the prediction and accompanying preactivation of the concept "plane" which then needs to be suppressed when the actual sentence ending is unexpected (e.g. "kite") or even incorrect (e.g. "radiator"). Behaviorally, this is reflected by increased reaction times for unexpected or incorrect in relation to expected words in naming or lexical decision tasks. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have also shown that such semantic violations are accompanied by increased activity in semantic control networks in left anterior IFG (aIFG), pMTG and additionally anterior middle temporal gyrus (aMTG). Resting-state fMRI is a tool to map functional networks based on the temporal similarity of slow intrinsic blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal fluctuations during wakeful rest. Regions with significantly similar BOLD signals at rest are assumed to be functionally connected. Functional connectivity at rest is thereby thought to facilitate coordinated task-related activity. This is reflected in similar network mappings at rest and for corresponding tasks in fMRI investigations. It has further been shown that such measures of restingstate functional connectivity are of functional relevance for language processing since they correlate with behavioral performance. Previous studies have revealed highly interconnected, left-lateralized fronto-temporal networks for general language as well as speech production and comprehension processes during rest. A recent study by Wei and colleagues demonstrated that regional BOLD signal amplitudes of left pMTG during rest are associated with general semantic processing. Furthermore, functional resting-state connectivity of this region with left IFG, other parts of the MTG and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex also predicted performance in semantic processing. Less is known about the functional relevance of resting-state functional connectivity for more specific semantic operations like semantic control. Besides, while some studies have documented effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on resting-state networks, few studies have investigated specifically whether behavioral alterations due to TMS are also reflected in changes of restingstate functional connectivity. Recent work by Wang et al. could prove such a mechanism for cortical-hippocampal networks and associative memory: High-frequency repetitive TMS delivered over left lateral parietal cortex for five consecutive days led to increased resting-state functional connectivity between hippocampus and multiple cortical sites which correlated with an increased associative memory performance. In the present study, we characterized the semantic network of 20 healthy subjects based on resting-state functional connectivity of three regions of interest (ROIs) which were associated with semantic control processes in a prior study, i.e. left aIFG, aMTG and pMTG. We further investigated the relevance of functional connectivity within this network for semantic control processes and finally aimed to modulate this network with the application of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over left aIFG and pMTG. We hypothesized that connectivity patterns of the three ROIs would reveal the semantic system found in previous task-based fMRI studies and that the strength of functional coupling between these nodes at rest would predict performance in a semantic priming paradigm with varying semantic control demands. We further hypothesized that cTBS over left aIFG and/or pMTG would interfere with semantic processing in trials with high semantic control demands and that this effect would be mediated by cTBS induced changes in functional connectivity. Experimental design and procedure The experiment (see Fig 1A) employed a sham controlled crossover within-subject design. Twenty healthy participants underwent neuronavigated cTBS followed by 6 minutes of resting-state fMRI (8.9 ± 0.4 minutes after stimulation; mean ± standard deviation) and a subsequent lexical decision task under varying semantic control demands. In three separate sessions, either real cTBS or sham cTBS was applied over left aIFG or pMTG. All sessions were at least 7 days apart and their order was randomized and counterbalanced across subjects to the best possible degree. A high resolution T1 weighted structural MRI was acquired for individually neuronavigated cTBS on a separate day prior to the first session if not available from prior studies. Participants Twenty adults (10 female) aged 25.1 ± 2.5 years (mean ± standard deviation) participated in the study. All were right handed as given by a mean laterality index of 93%, range 73-100%. Participants were German native speakers, had no history of neurological or psychiatric illness and no contraindications to MRI scanning or TMS. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Leipzig. All participants gave written informed consent prior to the study. Transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied as neuronavigated cTBS over left aIFG, pMTG or as sham stimulation over either region prior to resting-state fMRI. The coil was placed tangentially on the head with the handle pointing back-and downwards at 45in projection to the sagittal plane. Stimulation consisted of 600 biphasic TMS pulses (3 pulses at a rate of 50 Hz every 200 ms) at 80% of the individual active motor threshold (AMT) resulting in a total duration of 40 seconds. The AMT was defined as the stimulation intensity (over the left motor hotspot) which had a 50% chance to produce a motor evoked potential (MEP) of > 200 V in the tonically active (as defined by amplitudes of about 150 V in the electromyography) right first dorsal interosseous muscle. This was assessed with an adaptive PEST (parameter estimation by sequential testing) procedure as implemented in the software "Adaptive PEST for TMS" (http://clinicalresearcher.org/software.htm). Because the AMT is known to be variable across individuals but rather stable across time, the AMT was determined only once before the first cTBS session and then used for all subsequent sessions. Stimulation was applied using a MagPro X100 (MagVenture, Medtronic, USA) stimulator and a figure of eight coil (diameter 75 mm, CB-B60, MagVenture). For sham stimulation a similar coil with additional effective magnetic shielding (MCF-P-B65, MagVenture) providing the same acoustic ('click') sensation without actual magnetic stimulation was used. Electromyography was derived with Ag/AgCl electrodes, an analog-digital converter "Power 1401 Mk II" and an amplifier "1902" manufactured by Cambridge Electronic Design (UK). Neuronavigation was used in order to ensure best spatial accuracy, which is about 5-8 mm. Peak coordinates for left aIFG and pMTG from a prior study (see Fig 1B) were transformed to the individual T1 weighted images with SPM8 (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging). Brainsight software (version 1.7.6, Rogue Research Inc., Canada) and an infrared tracking system (Polaris Spectra, Northern Digital Inc., Canada) with trackers fixed to the subjects head and the TMS coil were then used to coregister the subjects head and his/her T1 weighted image based on 7 anatomical landmarks allowing for real-time neuronavigation. Semantic task and stimuli Subjects performed a well-established semantic priming paradigm with a lexical decision task which implicitly tests lexico-semantic performance under different semantic control demands. In short German sentences (1.2-2.4 s) the final word integrated differently well into the prior semantic context, e.g. "the author writes the book" (expected condition), "the author writes the speech" (unexpected condition) or "the author writes the night" (anomalous condition). The sentence-final words in these three conditions were matched for frequency, word stress and number of letters and syllables. An additional condition with sentence-final pseudowords allowed for the implementation of a lexical decision task, i.e. to decide whether the final word is a pseudoword or a real word (indicated by button press). The advantage of using a lexical decision task is that semantic control processes are investigated implicitly and domain general executive requirements are kept stable across all conditions. The stimuli for our experiment were taken from a prior study from our laboratory. In total 260 spoken sentences were auditorily presented via headphones (52 with expected, 52 with unexpected, 52 with anomalous and 104 with pseudoword endings). Additionally, subjects were presented 50 training sentences before the main experiment to familiarize with task and stimuli. The experiment was implemented in Presentation 14.9 (Neurobehavioral Systems). Trials were separated by random intertrial intervals between 1.5 and 4.5 s and presented in pseudorandomized order to make the condition of the current trial unpredictable. Statistical analysis Behavioral data. Reaction times (RTs) and response correctness were extracted for each subject and each trial using Matlab R2016a (MathWorks). Incorrect trials and outliers (i.e. RTs greater than mean plus 2 standard deviations) were discarded and mean RTs were calculated for each subject and condition. Additionally, normalized mean unexpected, anomalous and pseudoword RTs were calculated by dividing the respective RTs by mean expected RTs. Further group level statistical analysis was conducted with IBM SPSS Statistics (version 24.0.0.0). All data were tested for normal distribution with Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors-test. A 3x4 factorial repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) of mean RTs with the factors stimulation site (aIFG, pMTG, sham) and condition (expected, unexpected, anomalous, pseudoword) was calculated. An additional 3x3 factorial repeated measures ANOVA was calculated for normalized RTs with the factors stimulation site (aIFG, pMTG, sham) and condition (unexpected, anomalous, pseudoword). Degrees of freedom were adjusted according to Greenhouser-Geisser whenever the assumption of sphericity was violated as indicated by the Mauchly-test (p <.05). Post-hoc paired t-tests (and Bonferroni correction) were applied if a factor or interaction explained a significant fraction of variance as indicated by the corresponding F-test. Because error rates were not normally distributed, differences were assessed with direct pairwise comparisons conducting Wilcoxon signed rank tests for error rates pooled over (a) condition and (b) session respectively to assess main effects and with (c) unpooled data to check for cTBS effects (i.e. aIFG/pMTG stimulation vs. sham) within each condition. Bonferroni correction was used to control the family wise error rate. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Preprocessing and group level analysis were carried out using Statistical Parametric Mapping version 12 (SPM12 rev6685, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London). Denoising, assessment of functional connectivity and statistical analysis of ROI-to-ROI connectivity was implemented in Matlab R2016a (MathWorks) with in-house scripts as outlined below. The first four functional (EPI) scans were excluded from further analysis to allow for magnetic field saturation. Remaining scans were motion corrected using a two pass procedure with realignment (using a least squares approach and a rigid body spatial transformation with six degrees of freedom) of all scans to the first, calculation of a mean and realignment of all scans to the mean image. The structural (i.e. T1 weighted) image was coregistered (objective function: normalized mutual information) to the mean functional image and then segmented using the unified segmentation approach with light bias regularization. This resulted in individual probability maps for grey/white matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and a nonlinear deformation field which was used to spatially normalize and resample (4 th degree B-spline interpolation to a voxel size of 3x3x3 mm) all functional scans to the MNI152 (Montreal Neurological Institute) space. To account for residual anatomical variance and to improve signalto-noise ratio, all functional images were convolved with an isotropic Gaussian smoothing kernel with full width at half maximum of 8 mm. For denoising purposes, BOLD signal variance over time explained by nuisance variables was removed from the data using a multiple regression approach. To this end, motion parameters (as derived from the realignment) and their first derivative (as first and second order terms) and mean white matter and CSF signal (as first order terms only) entered the regression model as explanatory variables. Mean white matter and CSF signal were extracted from individual tissue masks. To avoid bias introduced by grey matter signal regression, this signal was not included in the model. Furthermore, mean white matter signal was calculated only within areas with high (i.e. greater than.75) individual tissue probability. Next, BOLD time series were band-pass filtered to preserve only frequencies between.01 and.08 Hz. Because subject motion can disturb functional connectivity patterns, motion scrubbing was used to further improve data quality. This was achieved by calculation of framewise displacement (FD) defined as maximum frame to frame movement of any voxel within a 50 mm sphere centered in the sample volume. All volumes with FD greater than.5 mm were discarded. This led to exclusion of one subject with excessive motion because remaining volumes represented less than 5 minutes of resting-state fMRI for each session. For the remaining 19 subjects, only 1.3% of all scans had to be discarded. Regions of interest were defined as spheres with a radius of 7 mm around the peak coordinates derived from a prior fMRI study which-using the same task as in the present studylocalized semantic control processes within the left aIFG, aMTG and pMTG (see Fig 1B). These spheres were masked with individual grey matter masks to eliminate all voxels outside the brain and within white matter. BOLD time series for each ROI were then expressed as the first eigenvariate of the time series of all remaining voxels within that ROI. Functional connectivity was calculated as Fisher transformed Pearson correlation coefficient either between the time series of all possible pairs of ROIs (ROI-to-ROI) or between the ROI time series and the time series of all other voxels within the brain (whole brain). Whole brain functional connectivity on the group level was analyzed with a linear regression model at each voxel (mass univariate approach), using generalized least squares with a global repeated measures correlation model as implemented in SPM12. A repeated measures ANOVA with the factors stimulation site (aIFG, pMTG, sham), ROI (aIFG, aMTG, pMTG) and subject with appropriate non-sphericity correction was estimated. Contrasts of interests were connectivity after sham stimulation (for all three ROIs) and differences of these patterns induced by cTBS. These differences were examined by conjunction null analysis of the contrasts for ROI connectivity (after sham stimulation) and differences of this pattern between aIFG/pMTG and sham stimulation. Significance was assessed using cluster-level inference based on Gaussian random fields theory as implemented in SPM12 with a cluster-forming threshold of p(uncorrected) <.001 and a significance threshold for cluster extent of p(FWE) <.05. Anatomical labeling was performed with the AAL2-toolbox (anatomical automatic labeling) for SPM12. To quantify lateral preferences, a laterality index (LI) was calculated for each subject and ROI (and for the conjunction of all three) as given by LI = (LH -RH)/(LH + RH) based on the number of suprathreshold (p <.001) voxels in the left (LH) and right (RH) hemisphere. Similarly to the whole brain analysis, network (ROI-to-ROI) connectivity after sham stimulation was assessed with one-sample t-tests and effects of cTBS with paired t-tests. To test for functional relevance of functional connectivity within this network, we calculated correlations between ROI-to-ROI connectivity after sham cTBS and normalized (unexpected and anomalous) RTs. Bonferroni correction was used to control the family wise error rate. Because ROI-to-ROI functional connectivity was not normally distributed for the connection between left aMTG and pMTG in the sham session as shown by Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors test (p =.034), all affected statistical tests were instead conducted with appropriate non-parametric approaches (Spearman's rank correlation and Wilcoxon signed-rank test). To finally test whether results are specific for the semantic control network, we tested for correlation with behavior and effects of cTBS on connectivity within a network not involved in semantic control, i.e. the default mode network (DMN). To this end, we obtained MNI coordinates of four DMN nodes from a prior resting-state fMRI independent component decomposition, i.e. medial frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex (4, -52, 24), left angular gyrus (-50, -64, 30) and right angular gyrus (52-64 36) and tested whether connectivity between all possible pairs of DNM-ROIs is associated with behavior or modulated by cTBS. Behavioral data Behavioral data were available for 19 subjects only due to technical issues with the response box. RTs in all conditions were normally distributed. Fig 2A displays raw mean RTs. Repeated measures ANOVA both for raw and normalized RTs revealed a significant main effect for condition (F-test: p <.001) but neither for stimulation site nor for their interaction (p >.05 respectively). Effects of condition were further analyzed with Bonferroni corrected post-hoc paired t-tests indicating significant differences between all possible pairs of conditions both for raw and normalized RTs revealing a pattern of monotonously increasing RTs over the four conditions (expected < unexpected < anomalous < pseudoword). Error rates were small with an overall mean of 1.7% (corresponding to about 5 of the total 260 trials per session, see Fig 2B) and showed a non-normal distribution. Non-parametric testing (Bonferroni corrected Wilcoxon signed rank tests) revealed the following significant differences between conditions: expected < anomalous, expected < pseudoword and unexpected < anomalous. This suggests an analogous pattern compared to the RTs except for pseudowords which led to better accuracy compared to anomalous endings. No significant differences were found between stimulation sites neither across all nor within each condition (p >.05 respectively). Functional connectivity Whole brain resting-state functional connectivity of left aIFG, aMTG and pMTG after sham cTBS revealed widespread, predominantly fronto-temporal and slightly left-lateralized (mean LI: aIFG: 0.16, aMTG: 0.08 and pMTG: 0.09) networks (see Fig 3 and S1 Table) with strongest functional connectivity to the homologous area in the right hemisphere. The overlap (i.e. conjunction null analysis) of all three ROIs revealed a significantly more left-lateralized (LI of 0.34) fronto-temporal pattern including bilateral inferior frontal, superior and middle temporal, angular (and supramarginal) gyri and temporal poles as well as left middle frontal and medial superior frontal gyri. Additional functional connectivity of the aIFG includes subcortical structures such as left caudate nucleus, pallidum and putamen and also the right cerebellum. Connectivity of aMTG also included a bilateral postero-medial cluster containing lingual gyrus, precuneus and middle/posterior cingulum extending bilaterally to thalamus and hippocampus as well as an antero-medial cluster including medial superior frontal gyri, medial frontal cortices and straight gyri. Connectivity of pMTG additionally comprised bilateral precentral gyri, precuneus and cuneus, calcarine sulcus, lingual gyri and occipital cortex as well as right fusiform gyrus. For a complete list of anatomical labels see S1 Table. Although all ROIs were defined in the left hemisphere and left lateralization is therefore not surprising, it is worth noting that the LI was significantly greater (as shown by paired t-test) for the overlap than for the single ROIs. Effects of cTBS on whole brain connectivity of different ROIs were tested by conjunction null analysis of contrasts for ROI connectivity (after sham stimulation) and differences of this pattern between stimulation over aIFG/pMTG and sham stimulation. This analysis did not reveal any significant effects of cTBS on ROI connectivity. Even when inspected at a threshold of p <.001 on voxel-level without any correction for multiple comparisons, no compelling spatial pattern arose. Contrary, contrasts of interest revealed either empty maps or unstructured noise to become manifest in very small clusters (with corresponding p(FWE) >.35) at apparently random positions. One could argue that effects of cTBS could also appear in regions which had no significant connectivity to a certain ROI after sham stimulation (e.g. regions which are recruited due to cTBS). We, therefore, repeated our analysis without conjunction to avoid bias introduced by a priori spatial limitation of differential effects to certain regions. However, this also did not provide evidence for significant influence of cTBS on ROI connectivity. As whole brain connectivity patterns suggested, ROI-to-ROI connectivity between all pairs of ROIs within the semantic control network was significantly (Bonferroni corrected) larger than zero for the sham session ( Fig 4A). However, again ROI-to-ROI connectivity could not reveal any significant influence of cTBS on functional connectivity neither within the semantic network nor within the DMN (p >.05, uncorrected). Correlation between connectivity and behavioral data Because raw RTs are rather unspecific and also depend on processes outside the language domain (i.e. perceptive, executive and motor functions), we decided to control for these unspecific effects by contrasting all semantic decisions with high control demands (i.e. sentences with unexpected/anomalous endings) with sentences with low control demands (i.e. sentences with expected endings). This was done by normalizing RTs in trials with unexpected and anomalous endings to RTs in trials with expected endings. The rationale followed a similar strategy aiming to eliminate unspecific neural activity in a previous fMRI study. Both behavioral and functional connectivity data were available for 18 subjects. Using data obtained in the sham condition correlation analysis was performed between normalized RTs in high control demand trials and connectivity between all ROI pairs (Table 1). This analysis revealed that higher functional connectivity between left aIFG and pMTG was significantly (Bonferroni corrected) associated with faster response times for unexpected stimuli (see Fig 4B). There was also a trend towards an association of faster response times for anomalous stimuli with higher connectivity for this connection (p =.01), which however did not survive Bonferroni correction. Because one might argue that these correlations could be driven by the dividend or divisor of the normalized RTs, it is worth noting that neither of these alone significantly correlated with the connectivity measure. Furthermore, these associations between behavior and connectivity were specific for the semantic control network and not evident for connectivity between any pair of four DMN nodes (p >.05, uncorrected). Finally, we performed an additional exploratory analysis to test whether the described correlation found between connectivity between aIFG and pMTG and behavior in the sham condition (r = -.63) was significantly different after stimulation over aIFG (r = -.17) or pMTG (r = -.42), respectively. To this end, we performed a two-tailed permutation test with the null hypothesis that the correlation coefficient is not dependent on the cTBS condition for both aIFG and pMTG vs. sham. This was achieved by 10,000 random assignments of cTBS condition (real vs. sham) to individual data followed by computation of the difference of Fisher transformed correlation coefficients to obtain the null distribution. We found that the correlation of connectivity between aIFG and pMTG and normalized unexpected RTs in the sham condition was significantly weaker after cTBS over aIFG (p = 0.02) but was not different after cTBS over pMTG (p = 0.19). Discussion In the present study, we used functional connectivity measures based on slow intrinsic BOLD signal fluctuations during wakeful rest to characterize interactions between key nodes of the semantic network. Connectivity patterns of regions of interest in left aIFG, pMTG and aMTG are in accordance with the semantic network as known from previous task-based fMRI studies. Importantly, we found evidence for the functional relevance of the interaction between left aIFG and pMTG at rest for semantic control. This was based on a correlation with performance in a semantic task for trials with high semantic control demands. However, we did not obtain evidence for modulating effects of cTBS applied over semantic key regions. To examine the functional relevance of resting-state functional connectivity within the semantic network, we correlated behavioral measures from a well-established semantic priming paradigm with connectivity measures between our predefined ROIs in the sham condition. We showed that functional connectivity between left aIFG and pMTG is relevant for semantic control processes on sentence level. Specifically, higher connectivity between these two nodes was associated with faster integration of the final key word under high semantic control demands. The direction of this association, i.e. higher connectivity correlates with better performance is typically observed for cognitive processing. Our finding is well in line with a prior study by Wei and colleagues who showed that functional connectivity strength between aIFG and pMTG during rest was associated with general semantic performance, although this association did not further explain performance scores when regional BOLD signal amplitudes in pMTG were regressed out. Probabilistic fiber tracking has revealed the most probable anatomical substrates underlying this functional interaction: (i) a ventral pathway consisting of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (iFOF) running through the extreme capsule and (ii) a dorsal pathway consisting of the superior longitudinal fasciculus/arcuate fasciculus (SLF/AF). The ventral pathway is indeed associated with semantic processing and therefore the most likely structural correlate of the observed association between functional connectivity and performance in the semantic priming paradigm. Recent analyses of effective connectivity in task-based fMRI using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) suggest that higher semantic control demands require inhibition of the left pMTG in order to suppress the dominant meaning and that the source of this inhibition is either the aMTG or the aIFG depending on control demands. We can only speculate, whether the discovered association between functional connectivity at rest and performance reflects the ability of left aIFG to dynamically inhibit left pMTG during task performance. If this were the case, our data would not support the assumption of multiple (i.e. aMTG ! pMTG and aIFG ! pMTG) inhibitory routes depending on semantic control demands, because we only observed a correlation between behavior and aIFG-pMTG connectivity for unexpected and (as a statistical trend) anomalous sentences, but no correlation for the connectivity between aMTG and pMTG. Alternatively, this association between interactions during rest and behavior could also reflect other (unknown) mechanisms which contribute differently to semantic performance. In either case, our findings, using a method complementary to DCM on fMRI data, support the view that a functional interaction between aIFG and pMTG might represent the neural correlate of semantic integration processes under high control demands. One could argue that the association between behavior and connectivity is fixed (e.g. structurally determined). It is thus of interest to prove that connectivity is context-dependent. We, therefore, aimed to modulate specific connectivity within the semantic network by application of cTBS over semantic key regions (i.e. aIFG and pMTG). However, we did not find any direct modulating effects of cTBS, neither on behavior nor on resting-state functional connectivity. We therefore, tested whether effective cTBS affected the correlation found for connectivity between left aIFG and pMTG and behavioral performance. Indeed, this analysis revealed that the association between aIFG-pMTG connectivity and behavior was significantly reduced after real cTBS over aIFG but not over pMTG. We interpret this as an indirect disruptive effect of cTBS over aIFG. That is, interactions between left aIFG and pMTG are functionally less relevant for semantic control after temporary disruption of aIFG compared to sham stimulation while behavioral performance remains unaffected. The absence of a behavioral effect might be explained by (unobserved) functional reorganization within the network fully compensating the focal disturbance induced by cTBS over aIFG. Additionally, functional degeneracy in the semantic network might protect the system against unifocal disturbance. This is in line with a recent TMS-study that aimed at modulating semantic processing and showed that inhibition of a single network node was insufficient to delay reaction times in a semantic decision task. Although this indirect effect of cTBS on semantic processing certainly is of interest, the absence of a direct stimulation effect on connectivity or behavior needs to be discussed. This might be explained by (i) the resilience of resting-state functional connectivity in general, (ii) insufficient effectivity of the cTBS protocol and (iii) limitations of our study design to detect cTBS effects. The first possibility seems to be unlikely because single session cTBS has already been shown to alter resting-state functional connectivity in healthy subjects when applied over temporal, parietal, occipital and frontal regions and has also been proven to be suitable to disrupt behavior in the cognitive domain. Regarding the stimulation intensities a previous study showed that cTBS over temporal cortex only affected lexical decisions when applied at a higher stimulation intensity of 90% of individual AMT, but not with the conventional protocol of 80% AMT as used in our study. Insufficient magnetic field strengths at the stimulation target might have been further amplified by larger coil to cortex distances of the stimulation targets. This might be in particular true for the pMTG with additional 1.0-1.5 cm when compared to the motor cortex which was used to determine individual stimulation intensities. Concerning the study design, the implementation of a single resting-state fMRI session after administration of cTBS might have rendered our findings vulnerable against effects induced by the passage of time. Although resting-state networks are known to be stable over time, intrasubject variability between two sessions may be larger than TMS induced effects on connectivity. It is thus likely that pre-and post-TMS resting-state fMRI designs are more sensitive (although less specific) to TMS induced effects. As inter-session interval amounted to at least one week in our study, performing pre-as well as post-TMS scanning sessions, as done in several previous studies, might have been able to reduce inter-session variability. Another concern is related to the timing of our resting-state session, as cTBS effects on the BOLD signal are strongly time-dependent. Resting-state scanning in our study started about 9 minutes after stimulation and lasted 6 minutes. It has recently been shown for a saccade-fixation paradigm that effects on task-related activity do not arise before 20 to 35 minutes after cTBS. Similar results were also obtained in resting-state fMRI: Gratton and colleagues observed increased connectivity in widespread networks after cTBS over cognitive control areas 20 minutes but not 10 minutes after stimulation. Since functional connectivity within a given network may be stronger during task performance it can be speculated that task-related connectivity is more sensitive to cTBS effects. Resting-state functional connectivity of regions of interest in left IFG, pMTG and aMTG revealed highly interconnected left-lateralized fronto-temporal networks representing the semantic system. All three ROIs were associated with semantic control processes in prior task-based fMRI studies. Each of these ROIs revealed a widespread and highly interconnected, mostly fronto-temporal network in accordance with prior resting-state studies. These connectivity patterns overlapped in strongly left-lateralized regions displaying a striking similarity to activation patterns found in previous task-based semantic fMRI studies. This set of interconnected nodes features regions which are involved in specific semantic tasks. This includes regions which may serve as an amodal semantic store, i.e. parts of the anterior temporal lobe and regions which have been suggested to be involved in sematic control processes like parts of the posterior middle temporal gyrus, the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus which has also been suggested to be involved in semantic unification of multiword utterances. Connectivity networks also overlapped in the angular gyrus (extending slightly to the supramarginal gyrus). The exact role of this region for semantic cognition remains elusive. It may be directly involved in semantic control or automatic semantic retrieval and contribute indirectly to semantic cognition due to its involvement in more domain-general executive processing. These observations support the view that slow intrinsic BOLD signal fluctuations during rest in combination with our predefined ROIs reveal a network of interconnected regions which highly corresponds to the semantic system. This might suggest that functional connectivity within this network coordinates neuronal processing and therefore facilitates the observed co-activations in semantic fMRI paradigms. Functional connectivity of aIFG to left basal ganglia and the right cerebellum is also in accordance with prior resting-state connectivity analyses and supports a possible role of these regions in language processing. While the importance of the right cerebellum in language processing has long been discussed, there are also recent studies which link the basal ganglia to synchronization of temporal and sequential aspects in language processing. On the behavioral level, performance reflected the increasing semantic control demands for unexpected and anomalous compared to expected sentence endings, indicating that semantic incongruencies between the sentence's subject and the lexical decision target (unexpected condition) disturb the lexical decision response. This disturbance was even stronger for additional incongruencies between the verb and the target (anomalous condition). These findings are well in line with prior findings on the same task both for visual and auditory stimulus presentation and confirm that it appropriately represents semantic integration processes under increasing semantic control demands. The ROIs and stimulation targets used in this experiment were taken from a previous study utilizing the same task as in the current work. These ROIs therefore correspond to regions specifically involved in neural processing associated with this particular task and are well suited especially for the correlation with behavioral data obtained in this study. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that the coordinates of these ROIs differ to some degree from meta-analytic data regarding semantic control networks. For example, the pMTG coordinate used in this study is located more ventrally than the peak from an activation likelihood estimation analysis of studies contrasting high and low semantic control. Our results might thus be specific for semantic control processes considering the given task but less generalizable to this process when using different tasks. Conclusions Using resting-state fMRI, we were able to reproduce the semantic network as known from previous task-based fMRI studies. This indicates that functional connectivity within this network might coordinate neuronal processing and therefore facilitate the observed co-activations in semantic fMRI paradigms. Our main finding was an association between resting-state functional connectivity between aIFG and pMTG and task performance suggesting that a functional interaction between aIFG and pMTG might represent the neural correlate of semantic integration processes under high control demands. This interaction was functionally less relevant after cTBS over aIFG which is indicative for an indirect disruptive effect of cTBS on semantic control. However, this study did not reveal any significant direct effects of cTBS on semantic task performance or functional connectivity which might be explained by experimental limitations. Future studies should consider higher stimulation intensities for cTBS, longer intervals between cTBS and subsequent resting-state fMRI and additional baseline scanning prior to the intervention in order to optimize the chance to detect direct behavioral and neurobiological effects of cTBS. Supporting information S1 Table. Whole brain resting-state functional connectivity of aIFG, aMTG and pMTG. Resting-state functional connectivity of left aIFG, pMTG aMTG and their overlap of 19 healthy subjects after sham continuous theta burst stimulation. Significance threshold: p(FWE) <.05 on cluster-level with a cluster-forming threshold of p(uncorrected) <.001 on voxel-level. Anatomical labels according to Anatomical Automatic Labeling 2 (AAL2) for SPM12 where % label was > 5%. Cluster extent is noted in milliliters. Peak level coordinates (reporting up to 3 per cluster) refer to Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space. Abbreviations: aIFG-left anterior inferior frontal gyrus, aMTG-left anterior middle temporal gyrus, pMTG-left posterior middle temporal gyrus. (PDF) |
Optimal Multi-Step Toll Design under General User Heterogeneity This paper studies the optimal multi-step toll design problem for the bottleneck model with general user heterogeneity. The design model is formulated as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC), which is NP-hard due to non-convexity in both the objective function and the feasible set. An analytical method is proposed to solve the MPEC by decomposing it into smaller and easier quadratic programs, each corresponding to a unique departure order of different user classes. The quadratic programs are defined on a polyhedral set, which makes it easier to identify a local optimum. Importantly, each quadratic program is constrained by a set of linear feasibility cuts that define the presence of each user class in the arrival window. We prove that the proposed method ensures global optimality provided that each quadratic program can be solved globally. To obviate enumerating all departure orders, a heuristic method is developed to navigate through the solution space by using the multipliers associated with the feasibility cuts. Numerical experiments are conducted on several small examples to validate the proposed methodology. These experiments show that the proposed heuristic method is effective in finding near-optimal solution within a relatively small number of iterations. Introduction The peak-time congestion pricing has been widely studied in the context of traffic management. Despite its theoretical appeal, peak-time pricing remains unpopular among pub-lic. Opponents frequently cite regressive redistributive effects as a main drawback (Small, 1983;;Evans, 1992). Such an argument hinges on the fact that pricing affects travelers unequally because they value time and schedule punctuality differently. Not surprisedly, the impact of such user heterogeneity on optimal toll design and welfare effects has attracted much attention in the past decades (Small, 1982;Cohen, 1987;Arnott et al.,, 1994Lindsey, 2004;;van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b;Liu and Nie, 2011;Hall, 2013). To maximize efficiency, Vickrey's toll has to vary continuously with time. Yet, such a time-varying toll is rarely implemented in practice. Empirical evidence suggests that simpler pricing schemes may have a better chance to rally support. For example, according to a survey conducted in early 1990s, travelers seem to dislike time varying tolls more than flat tolls. Indeed, existing congestion pricing schemes (e.g. London, Singapore and Stockholm, ) often use "step tolls" that keep toll rates constant in predefined discrete time windows. This paper is focused on the optimal multi-step toll design problem under general user heterogeneity. In our context, user heterogeneity typically consists of the desired arrival time (t * ), the value of time () and the values of schedule punctuality ( for early arrival and for late arrival). Previous studies often make assumptions about the relationship between, and to simplify the analysis. The most restrictive assumptions require either that all three parameters vary proportionally (Vickrey, 1973;), or that only (Arnott and Kraus, 1995;van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011a) or (van den Berg, 2014) may vary; hereafter referred to as proportional heterogeneity, heterogeneity and heterogeneity, respectively. These assumptions effectively reduce a three-dimensional problem to a one-dimensional problem. A less restrictive structure of heterogeneity reduces the dimension of the problem to two by allowing and to vary freely and assuming as a function of (Cohen, 1987;Newell, 1987;Arnott et al.,, 1994van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b;Liu and Nie, 2011;Hall, 2013). Welfare effects of congestion pricing seem to depend on the imposed heterogeneity structure. For example, with proportional heterogeneity, all users are better off or break even under Vickrey's time-varying toll (;van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b), and yet with heterogeneity, all users are worse off or break even (van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b). Notably, the gains from pricing rise with the value of time in these one-dimensional cases. However, such a monotonic relationship no longer holds with two-dimensional heterogeneity (van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b). Clearly, restricting the heterogeneity structure, which has so far been considered necessary to maintain tractability, also limits the ability to appreciate and draw insights about the complex interactions at work. Motivated by the above, we propose an analytical method to find optimal step tolls for the bottleneck model with users of general heterogeneity. By general heterogeneity, we mean that no arbitrary relationships are imposed on, and. 1 The proposed method aims to locate an exact solution by enumerating all possible combinations of user departure orders. The underlying idea behind the method is recently explored in Chen et al., which focuses on finding user equilibrium solutions for the bottleneck model with general heterogeneity and given step tolls. Chen et al. show that, once the departure order of different user classes is given, a linear equation system can be constructed to generate a candidate solution, which is then verified against the equilibrium conditions. Since the number of possible departure orders is finite, the method guarantees finding the correct equilibrium solutions after exhausting all possible departure orders. This paper tackles the optimal toll design problem using the similar idea. Specifically, we construct and solve a toll design problem for each departure order, which is formulated as a quadratic program constrained by user equilibrium conditions associated with the departure order. The optimal step toll configuration can then be determined by comparing the objective functions of all feasible design problems. Note that the general toll design problem constrained by equilibrium conditions is a challenging network design problem known to be NP-hard, even without considering user heterogeneity. Indeed, because the number of possible departure orders grow exponentially with the problem size (the number of user classes and the number of step tolls), the exact method is impractical except for extremely small problems. In light of this limitation, an effective heuristic method will be developed to obviate the complete enumeration of departure orders. Few analytical studies 2 had considered a heterogeneity structure as general as pursued in this paper. Lindsey analyzes a similar model but his focus is to prove that it admits one and only one user equilibrium under mild conditions. His result is significant but does not prescribe solution and design methods. Recently, the user equilibrium problem for the step-tolled bottleneck model under general heterogeneity has been solved using a semi-analytical method () and an analytical method (). However, neither study addresses the optimal design of step tolls. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the basic setting of the bottleneck model with general user heterogeneity and step tolls. Section 3 presents the formulations of the optimal step toll design problem as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints. Development of analytical and heuristic solution methods are discussed in Section 4. Section 5 validates the proposed methodology using a few small numerical examples. Section 6 concludes the paper with suggestion for future directions of research. Preliminaries Consider a fixed number of individuals (N) who commute from home to work during morning rush hour through a bottleneck with a capacity of s. The en-route travel time of any individual who arrives at the workplace at time t contains two parts: a waiting time T(t) in the queue and a free flow travel time T 0. Because the free flow travel time T 0 will not affect the following analysis, we assume T 0 = 0. It is also assumed that all commuters prefer to pass the bottleneck and arrive at work at t * = 0. Whenever an early or late arrival occurs, a schedule cost is incurred. At user equilibrium, each commuter chooses an arrival time t to minimize a general cost which includes travel delay T(t) and schedule cost. To model user heterogeneity, commuters are divided into n classes, each including N i, (i = 1,..., n) commuters who have identical unit cost of travel time ( i ) and unit cost of schedule delay ( i for early arrival and i for late arrival). Note that the existence of equilibrium requires that i < i, ∀i. To avoid potential degenerative solutions, we also assume i / i = j / j and i / i = j / j for any i = j. For the convenience of the reader, Table 7 in Appendix lists main notations. We divide the analysis period into two sub periods: the early arrival period (−∞, t * ] and the late arrival period . We use A to identify the arrival periods. Specifically, for the early arrival period A = E and for the late arrival period A = L. Let p E j be the distance in time between t * and the beginning of the jth toll window in the early arrival period, and p L j be the distance in time between t * and the end of the jth toll window in the late arrival period. Moreover, m A is the number of step toll windows in the arrival period A = {E, L}. Note that the toll windows in each arrival period are numbered starting at 0 and from the far end (see Figure 1 for an illustration). That is, For j = 0,, m A, the amount of toll in each arrival period is denoted as A j. Note that A 0 = 0, ∀A = {E, L}, which dictates that the furthest toll windows from t * on both sides are in fact no-toll windows. Also, In what follows, A j will be used to identify the jth arrival window in the arrival period A, where j = 0, 1,, m A and A = {E, L}. A user equilibrium (UE) is attained if no commuter could reduce his/her commute cost by changing the departure time. This notion of equilibrium may be illustrated graphically using an isocost curve (see e.g. Hendrickson and Kocur, 1981;Newell, 1987;Cohen, 1987;;Lindsey, 2004), i.e., at equilibrium, all commuters from the same class must be on the same isocost curve. Let t denote the time at which commuters depart from the bottleneck (corresponding to the arrival time at the workplace), the isocost curve with step toll is given as: where i is the travel cost for class i measured in travel time and T(t) is the travel time corresponding to arrival time t. Hence, d i (t)/dt = 0 implies that which gives the slopes of the isocost curves. For the purpose of illustration, Figure 1 shows isocost curves of two user classes and multiple step tolls. Note that the isocost curve of each class actually represents the commuters' willingness to pay for each time slot. At UE, an arrival time slot is always assigned to the class with highest willingness to pay. Graphically, this means that commuters should always stay on the upper envelope of all the isocost curves. The primary complexity in step toll analysis arises from the discontinuity at the end of each toll window in the late arrival period. In order to compensate this discontinuity, the first commuter in the jth toll window must experience a higher travel time than the last commuter would do in the j + 1th toll window ∀j = 1, m L j − 1. This calls for additional assumptions about how commuters behave at the end of each toll window. In the literature, the mass arrival assumption () dictates that a group of users would arrive at the beginning of jth toll window to create a temporal queue and that they would all experience the same expected cost from that queue to offset the toll relief. The braking-induced idle assumption ( Figure 1: Illustration of toll windows and isocost curves the other hand, resolves the discontinuity by forcing the bottleneck to operate below capacity at the end of each toll window. Both assumptions will lead to a slightly different rush hour period and displace commuters' arrival time compared to the no-toll UE, which complicates the analysis especially when m A > 1, A = {E, L}. In contrast, Laih (1994Laih (, 2004 shows that in the case of homogenous users, the separate-waiting (SW) assumption avoids such complexities while keeping the rush hour period and commuters' arrival time intact after the step toll. showed This nice property of the SW assumption still holds with heterogeneous users (). Since we expect that the analysis outcome is relatively insensitive to these behavioral assumptions, the SW assumption will be adopted here for its simplicity. Optimal step toll design problem In this section, we will give a general formulation for the step toll design problem. To avoid unnecessary complexities, we shall assume m A is given for A = {E, L}. In the homogeneous case, a larger value of m A always leads to higher efficiency, since the continuously varying toll can eliminate all queuing delays. Yet, how many step toll windows can be implemented is often dictated by technology constraints and/or political processes. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that the policy makers would choose m A first, before fine-tuning other design parameters such as A j and p A j. The design formulation presented herein aims at finding optimal A j and p A j, ∀j, A for given m A. The proposed formulation will be in the form of a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) (Harker and Pang, 1988;). Therefore, we will first present the step-tolled equilibrium model, formulated as an asymmetric traffic assignment problem with side constraints, along the line of Liu et al. and Chen et al.. Step-tolled equilibrium According to Arnott et al. and Lindsey, the departure orders of all user classes in any window A j can be determined based on their values of, and. Namely, the higher the ratio i / i (for early arrival) or i / i (for late arrival) is, the closer class i's arrival time will be to t *. Let E(i) be the class ID of the class whose i / i value ranks at the i th place in all classes, and L(i) be the class ID of the class whose i / i value ranks at the i th place in all classes. Then with the notation A = {E, L}, A(i) is the class ID for ratio ranks. Without loss of generality, we assume that the class IDs are already ranked by i / i at the beginning, which implies Let N A j i and C A j i be respectively the number of class i users and their equilibrium cost (measured in the units of travel delay) in the toll window A j, j = 0, 1,, m A, A = {E, L}. We use N and C to denote the corresponding vectors, and note that the length of these vectors is n m E + m L + 2. L}} are used to represent the vectors of toll and the boundaries of the toll windows, respectively. Note that the length of these two vectors is m E + m L. Using the properties of isocost curves, the general travel cost of class i in arrival window A j (A = E, L), measured in the time unit, can be written as follows (The reader is referred to Liu et al. for details). The flow conservation constraints and nonnegativity constraints are Chen et al. noted that the capacity constraints are needed for all arrival windows that have a finite length, i.e. Finally, the dynamic user equilibrium conditions dictate that where A j is the multiplier associated with the capacity constraint for A j, interpreted as an "additional delay", and i is the UE cost of class i. Note that all users in A j share the same additional delay created by the capacity restriction (). The problem of finding N * and C * that satisfy can be formulated as a traffic assignment problem defined on a network as depicted in Figure 2. The network has n origin-destination links with capacity constraint (tolled arrival window) pairs. Each O-D pair i starts from i and ends at i + 1 in the network, corresponding to the user class i with a demand N i. There are m E + m L + 2 routes connecting each O-D pair, representing all possible arrival windows. Commuters of each class i split among these routes according to the route choice behavior defined by the Wardrop principle. The route costs are given by, which is non-separable and asymmetric. It is well known (see e.g. ) that the flow vector N * satisfies if and only if it solves a variational inequalities problem VIP(, C): where C is defined in Equation and Optimal toll design The objective of the toll design is to minimize the inefficiency in the system, which is measured by the total commute costs including both schedule and travel costs. Noting C defined by includes the toll income, the total system cost can be written as follows: where the first term in represents the total commuter cost and the second is the toll income. Since for any selected tolls scheme, the users must make their departure time choices according to the user equilibrium conditions, N A j i, C A j i and A j in must be the solution to the VIP. Therefore, the toll design problem can be written as the following mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC): where (10b) represents the equilibrium constraints and The literature shows that, in the homogeneous and some special heterogeneity cases (proportional heterogeneity and heterogeneity) discussed in (;Laih, 1994Laih,, 2004Xiao et al.,, 2012van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011a;van den Berg, 2014), the optimal toll window boundaries p are closely related to the toll. Specifically, for a given, the optimal boundaries are always determined such that: the bottleneck always operates at the capacity in all tolled arrival windows, and the first (last) commuter is subject to no queuing delay in each of the early (late) tolled arrival window. If this property holds in the case of general heterogeneity, the capacity constraint will always bind for an optimally designed toll, i.e. Summing the above equations from j to m A yields Accordingly, p A j+1 in Equation can be replaced with the new expression above, i.e. Consequently, the optimal toll design problem can be significantly simplified by making use of the above relationship between p and. Not only is the number of decision variables in the upper level reduced by two thirds, but the capacity constraints in the lower level problem can also be eliminated. Since it remains an open question whether this relationship holds under general user heterogeneity, the above simplified formulation may be used as an approximation when a relatively crude solution is sufficient or when the computation overhead is a major concern. It is however not used in the numerical experiments presented later. Solution method Thanks to the equilibrium constraints, the MPEC formulation is a non-convex optimization problem that is difficult to solve. In this section, an exact solution algorithm will be developed by converting the original problem into a series of much simpler problems, each corresponding to a unique departure order in all arrival windows. A heuristic method that aims to overcome the difficulty of enumerating all departure orders will also be presented. Main idea For each arrival window A j, ∀j = 0,, m A, A = {E, L}, the set of all user classes that pass the bottleneck in the window is called the Class Membership Set (CMS) of the window, denoted as indicates whether a class i appears in windows A j. Note that both real user classes (Class 1 to n) and the dummy user class (Class 0) may appear in an arrival period. For A 0, an idle arrival period always exists, implying Class 0 should always be present in A 0. A vector = { A j } is called a Class Membership Set Realization (CMSR). We note that a CMSR corresponds to a unique route choice pattern in the transformed network shown in Figure 2. In other words, enumerating CMSR is effectively equal to enumerating all paths in the transformed network. Finally, is used to denote the set of all possible CMSR. Our idea is as follows. For each given, N and can be solved from Equations, as functions of . Note that the user equilibrium conditions require the isocost curve of any classes present in an arrival window (in the transformed network, this means the class uses the route corresponding to the arrival window) is on the upper envelop in that window. It will become clear later that this requirement can be represented by a convex feasible set of denoted as (). For now, recalling that ∈ ( is defined in ), we can formulate the design problem corresponding to as follows: where W (p, ) is equivalent to W in equation when a CMSR is given. We shall show that Problem is a quadratic program defined over a polyhedron, and that the optimal solution of the original toll design problem can be found by comparing the optimal solutions of these simpler quadratic programs. In what follows, we first define the objective function and the constraints for. Objective function of the subproblem We first show how W can be written as a quadratic function of , once is given. Note that Figure 2, and 0 otherwise. For i = 0, which corresponds the dummy user class, A j 0 = 0 implies that the capacity constraint is (not) 9 binding. Equations can then be converted to the following linear equation system: where A j is the multiplier corresponding to the capacity constraint. The above system has (2n + 1) m E + m L + 2 + n unknowns (N, C,, ), and (n + 1) m E + m L + 2 + n equations. Recall Equation defines the relationship between N and C, which gives another n m E + m L + 2 equations. Hence, we can write (through Gaussian elimination for example) which is a quadratic but potentially non-convex function of . The above approach requires reducing a linear equation system with (2n + 1) m E + m L + 2 + n unknowns, which can be a considerable computational burden. The approach first proposed by Chen et al. provides a more efficient alternative. For narrative convenience, the approach is described in what follows. Note that the toll design parameters are treated as inputs in Chen et al., whereas they are considered solution variables in this paper. Therefore, while the formulas may seem similar, they are interpreted differently, and perhaps more important, used differently in guiding the design of the heuristic algorithm. Let us first write the isocost curve of class i in the arrival window A j as where b For the given, let n A j D be the number of classes in A j, and D A j (i) be the ratio rank ID of the class whose time flexibility ranks at the i th place among all n A j D presenting class in the arrival period A j, then the class ID of i th class in A j is given by A(D A j (i)). Isocost curve of class D Isocost curve of class D Isocost curves of those classes that are not using window E j in the current We define, i = 2,..., n A j D represents the t coordinate of the point where the isocost curves of classes A(D A j (i − 1)) and A(D A j (i)) intersect. In Figure 3, an example is provided in which three out of fives user classes appear in E j. The figure clearly shows that, once the above coordinates are located, the amount of flows for each class of commuters in A j can be computed as Evidently, those classes who do not appear in the window according to would have zero flow. Using this approach, all class flows in any window A j are expressed as a function of i and the step toll parameters (p, ) in a closed form. Invoking the flow conservation conditions then leads to an n by n linear equation system with the only unknowns being i, the general class cost measured in time unit. Clearly, the new system is much smaller compared to, which will simplify the reduction of the linear system significantly. However, both approaches will lead to the same analytical solutions. Feasibility set defined by isocost curves As shown in Figure 3, an arbitrarily determined may not ensure every class thought to be present in an arrival window has its isocost curve stay on the upper envelope, which is an inherent requirement of the dynamic equilibrium conditions. To enforce this requirement, additional feasibility cuts must be added to form the aforementioned feasible set () (Constraint (15b)) for . First, for any class that does appear in A j, its flow defined in must be nonnegative, which leads to the following constraints: Second, for any class that does not appear in A j, we must ensure that its isoscost curve is "dominated" by those of the classes that do appear. We classify these "missing classes" into three categories. For those whose |a A k | (the absolute value of the slope of the isocost curve) are smaller than |a A A(D A j ) |, the y intercept of their isocost curves at the far end of the arrival window must be lower than that of A(D A j ), i.e. For the missing classes whose |a A k | satisfies the following condition |, the intersection of its isocost curve with that of A(D A j (i + 1)) must lie further away from t * compared to the intersection between isocost curves of A(D A j (i)) and A(D A j (i + 1)). Mathematically this requirement can be written as follows: Finally, for all the missing classes whose |a |, the y intercept of its isocost curve with the boundary of the arrival windows near to t * must be lower than that of A(D A j (n A j D )): Combining Equations -, there are in total (n + 1) m E + m L + 2 linear constraints, each corresponding to exactly one class (including the dummy user) in each arrival window. We thus formally define Since Equations - are all linear in p and, () is a polyhedral set. Because is also polyhedral, Problem is defined on a polyhedral set. Optimality and the exact algorithm We now formally state and prove the following result, which is at the core of the proposed solution method. Proposition 1 (Optimality). Let W * be the optimal solution to the MPEC formulation of the optimal toll design problem. Proof: We first show that ∈ () covers the entire, the feasible set of . Note that, for any given ∈, Lindsey proves that a unique tolled equilibrium always exist. Since enumerates all possible CMSR, the existence of equilibrium implies that we must be able to find a such that ∈. In other words, every point in must also be in a (). Second, we show that for 1 = 2, the intersection ( 1 ) ( 2 ) = ∅. Suppose that the intersection is not empty, then any ∈ in the intersection corresponds to two different UE solutions, which contradicts to the fact that such solution is unique once is given. Therefore, solving the subproblem for each ∈ would search every part of once (and only once) for the minimum system cost, while satisfying the equilibrium conditions (imposed through the objective function and ()). This completes the proof. 2 For clarity, a detailed procedure of the enumeration method is summarized in Algorithm 1. Heuristics The exact algorithm above decomposes the network design problem into a very large number of quadratic programs. To be precise, the total number of these programs is on the order of 2 n(m E +m L +2), which is astronomically large even for relatively small n and m A. This is not a surprise since the original problem is known to be NP-hard. Moreover, while the quadratic program is defined on a polyhedral set, its objective function may not be convex, and therefore the problem of finding its global optimal is NP-hard itself. Thus, solving the toll design problem for any non-trivial n and m A would have to involve some kind of heuristics. The idea pursued here is related to the heuristic algorithm developed by Chen et al. for solving step-tolled user equilibrium for the same problem. The algorithm starts from a predefined, and finds a corresponding UE solution. It then identifies in each arrival windows the classes whose isocost curves stay on the upper envelope, and use that information to assemble Algorithm 1 Exact method for the toll design problem 1: Output: W *, . 2: Initialize: 3: Create the set = { 1, 2,..., K }, where K = ||. Set iteration index k = 1, and W * = +∞. 4: while k < K do 5: Set a linear equation system with respect to using Equations, and Create the quadratic objective function W k based on the coefficients. 16: Set k = k + 1. 17: end while a new, which is then examined in the next iteration. Their preliminary computational experiments indicate that this simple idea consistently locates optimal solutions after only checking a very small subset of. However, this method cannot be directly applied to the toll design problem, since the upper envelope is not readily available, but rather consists of linear functions of . The proposed heuristic method is built on two conjectures. First, the overall solution quality depends more on finding the right than solving each quadratic program to its global optimality. While the objective function is non-convex in general, it may well be convex within the feasible set for a given. Even if it is indeed non-convex, being trapped at a local optimum may still be inconsequential as long as the multipliers are effective in steering the search for the right. Second, for a given, the multipliers associated with the constraints in () will offer useful information about which of the ∈ should be examined in the next round. Let A j i, i = 0,, n, j = 1, m A, A = {E, L} be these multipliers, obtained after solving the quadratic program to a local optimum. Note that a non-zero multiplier implies that the corresponding constraint is binding, and the objective function may be improved should the constraint be relaxed 3. Since each of the constraints in () defines whether a class i should appear in A j or not, relaxing a constraint essentially means flipping the appearance status of a class in a given arrival window. The question is: when there are more than one non-zero multipliers, which ones should be chosen to flip the appearance status of the associated classes? This choice is potentially critical to the overall performance of the heuristic method. In this study, the procedure described in Algorithm 2 is used to make this choice. The algorithm basically flips the appearance status of the class that has the maximum non-zero multiplier in each arrival time, subject to the requirement that any class must appear in at least one time window in the new (Lines 9 -11 in Algorithm 2 provide this protection). Algorithm 2 Method for determining the next from 1: Input: multipliers and the current CMSR. 2: Output: the next CMSR 3: Initialize: i, the number of times class i appears in all windows. Set =. 5: for all A j do 6: It follows from Algorithm 2 that the heuristic method should be terminated if all multipliers in the constraints of () are zero, because no new can be discovered. However, the optimal solution may be on the boundary of (), where multipliers can be greater than zero. Such a boundary solution may arise, for example, when the appearance status of one class in a window affects neither the optimal toll design nor the total system cost. To avoid potential cycling over such boundary solutions endlessly, an additional termination criterion should be introduced. The strategy adopted in this paper is to keep track of recent solutions so that such cycles can be detected. Algorithm 3 describes the heuristic method in details. The heuristic method differs from the exact method in two aspects. First, the heuristic method only solves the quadratic program to a local optimum. Second, it does not enumerate the space of. Rather, it starts from a randomly selected and terminates when all constraints in () have zero multipliers (leading to k * = k, Line 14 in Algorithm 3); or a cycle is detected (Line 17 -25 in Algorithm 3). A couple of other remarks are also in order here. First, note that if the linear system created for solving is degenerate, a new random point will be picked to restart the search (Line 18 in Algorithm 3). Second, when the termination condition (Line 14 in Algorithm 3) is met, to avoid being trapped at a local optimum, one may attempt to resolve the current quadratic program with different starting points, and reevaluate the termination condition. This extension to Algorithm 15 3 is not considered here, but its implementation should be straightforward. A two-class with a single-step-toll example To better illustrate the proposed methodology, a simple two-class with a single-step-toll example is presented here. For convenience, we set 1 = 2. Since there is only a single step toll, we have m E = m L = 1 and E 1 = L 1. For simplicity, we define 1 = E 1 = L 1. The capacity of the bottleneck (s) is 1000 vph, and the detailed information of user classes is given in Table 1. When 1 = 0, the costs of the first and second classes at user equilibrium are $6 and $ 96 13, respectively, which correspond to a total social cost W UE = $17077. Details of solving no-toll equilibrium is omitted here for brevity; the reader is referred to Chen et al. for details. Note that E 0 is the no-toll early arrival window, E 1 is the tolled early arrival window, L 1 is the tolled late arrival window and L 0 is the no-toll late arrival window. Basically, * place both classes, as well as the dummy class in E 0, class 2 in E 1, both classes in L 1, and class 1 and the dummy class in L 0. 10: Create the quadratic objective function W k based on the coefficients. 12: Solve the quadratic program to find a local optimum W * k, and multipliers A j * i. 31: end while It is an interesting coincidence that the class travel cost is constant, and not a function of any step toll parameters in this case. This is not the case in general, as shown later. With all i and N A j i defined, the quadratic program associated with 0 can now be written as: (Constraints for Class 2 in E 0 and Class 1 in E 1 ); (31f) 3 26 ≤ p L 1 ≤ 1 2 (Constraints for Class 1 in L 1 and L 0 ). The other constraints are omitted because they are automatically satisfied after is plugged in. The optimal solution for this program is ( 183 52, 201 208, 43 208 ). (32b) Figure 4 plots the isocost curves as well as the cumulative departure/arrival curves for the user equilibrium solution with the above single-step optimal toll scheme. Note that the first commuter of class 2 in E 1 and the class commuter of class 1 in L 1 have no travel delays, and there is no idle periods in these two arrival windows (i.e. the dummy class is not present). The multipliers associated with the constraints (31c) and (31d) are 5278.8 and 1759.6, respectively, which suggests that placing class 0, i.e. the dummy class, in either E 1, L 1 or both may improve the system cost. We examine these solutions in the following, which are 1 3 shown in Table Table 2: Cyclic optimal solutions in the two-class with a single-step-toll example 1, 1 0, 0, 1 0, 1, 1 1, 1, 0 1 1, 1, 1 1, 0, 1 0, 1, 1 1, 1, 0 2 1, 1, 1 1, 0, 1 1, 1, 1 1, 1, 0 3 1, 1, 1 0, 0, 1 1, 1, 1 1, 1, 0 For 1 in Table 2, following the above procedure will yield ( 1, 2 ) = ≥ 0 (Constraint for both Class 1 in L 1 and Class 2 in L 0 ); Again, other constraints are automatically satisfied with the definition of. Interestingly, the optimal solution for this problem is identical to what is given in, despite the quadratic program appears to be completely different. While dummy class is placed in E 1, it does not affect the solution because the optimality requires reducing the length of the idle period to zero. However, the multipliers associated with Constraints (33e) and (33h) are 2052.2 and 384.5, respectively. We will leave it to the reader to verify that for 2 ( 1, 2 ) = Again, both 2 and 3 lead to the exactly same optimal solution as given in, although they present different quadratic programs. Clearly, the multipliers will guide the solution process to cycle around the defined in Table 2, without changing the actual solution. This problem is precisely the reason why a cycle detection mechanism is introduced in Algorithm 3. What other insights can one learn from the above observation? The fact that only the dummy class and the tolled windows are involved here is quite intriguing. Recall that the existence of a dummy class in a tolled window implies that the bottleneck would have an idle period. Removing such an idle period can improve the system cost, which explains why the multiplier is positive when there a dummy class in the window (see the case for 1 above). On the other hand, when the dummy class is not in the window, the first (last for late arrival) appearing class must have a y intercept at the far end of the window that is larger than or equal to zero (see Figure 3). A positive y means that the first (last) commuter arriving in an early (late) arrival window has a non-zero travel delay. Accordingly, the system cost may be reduced by eliminating such delays, which can be achieved by introducing a dummy class. The final solution settles at the boundary point where the first (last) commuter arriving in an early (late) arrival window has a zero travel delay, and the idle period corresponding to the appearance of the dummy class is also zero (see Figure 4). We note that these properties are consistent with those known for the system optimal flow patterns under special user heterogeneity (see e.g. Xiao et al.,, 2012, and the cyclic solution pattern revealed here may be caused by the inherent requirement of these properties. Impact of design flexibility We now allow the tolls in the periods E 1 and L 1 to take different values, which essentially turns a single-step toll design problem into a multi-step toll design problem. The purpose is to examine how this increased design flexibility may affect the outcomes. It is found (details omitted here) that the new design problem has the exactly the same optimal CMSR as the single-step-toll problem, but produces a different optimal toll scheme. As shown in Table 3, the new design slightly expands the toll window in the late arrival period, while reducing the amount of toll. It does exactly the opposite to the early arrival window. As expected, the system cost is improved as the flexibility increases, although the improvement is almost negligible in this case. {,,, } 3.6923 3.0000 0.9231 0.2500 12919 General user heterogeneity The previous examples assumes 1 = 2 for simplicity. We now consider a different example that has more general heterogeneity, defined in Table 4. With the help of the heuristic method, we identified three solutions that satisfy the termination criteria for a local optimum. The existence of multiple local optima is indeed expected, given the non-convex nature of the problem. Table 5 compares these local optima with the no-toll user equilibrium solution, and Figure 5 plots their isocost curves. In all three cases shown in the figure, there is a jump in the isocost curve at t *, which is created by the jump in the optimal toll before and after t *. We note that for the homogeneous case, the optimal toll price would not have such a jump around time t * since the optimal solution will set the toll unchanged at time t *. These upward jumps, which imply that the first user in the next arrival window will indeed depart earlier than the last user in the previous arrival window, violate the FIFO principle around the times when the toll is reduced. However, since the SW assumption provides a separate waiting lane for users willing to arrive in the next arrival window and pay a lower toll, the FIFO principle is preserved within each lane, which is exactly how the SW assumption deals with the discontinuity problem. The three local optima correspond to different CMSR and toll schemes, but generate similar total system costs. In fact, the first two solutions almost yield the same system cost. The three solutions also have similar welfare effects, namely, class 1 breaks even while class 2 is slightly worse off with the step toll. This result indicates that the commuters with stronger schedule inflexibility are likely to suffer from congestion pricing, which agrees with the findings in literature (c) Local optimal toll design 3 Figure 5: Equilibrium solutions corresponding to different local optimal toll schemes for the example with more general heterogeneity (e.g. van den Berg and Verhoef, 2011b). Finally, the fact that these local optima have similar total system costs is good news, because it suggests that the efficiency of the step tolls may not be very sensitive to design parameters and that the potential loss suffered from "being trapped" at a local optimum may be relatively small. Convergence performance of the heuristic algorithm As explained before, the exact algorithm will have to check 784 scenarios in order to solve the above two examples correctly. However, our experiments indicate that the heuristic method can solve these problems with much better efficiency. Table 6 summarizes the convergence performance of the heuristic method in solving the two problems reported in Sections 5.1 and 5.2. Note that for both problems, only four iterations are needed to find the optimum solution, and another three to confirm it (i.e. checking all cyclic solutions). Importantly, such a desirable performance seems insensitive to the initial solution. In fact, even when the initially selected CMSR leads to an infeasible quadratic program, the multipliers obtained from solving that infeasible program still successfully guide the remaining solution process. Conclusions We have proposed an analytical method to solve the optimal multi-step toll design problem for the bottleneck model with general user heterogeneity. The underlying design model is formulated as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraint, which is non-convex in terms of both the objective function and the feasible set. The proposed method decomposes the original model into a set of smaller and easier quadratic programs, each corresponding to a unique departure order of different user classes. While these quadratic programs may still have non-convex objective functions, they are all defined over a polyhedral set, which makes it easy to identify at least a local optimum. Importantly, a set of linear feasibility cuts is proposed for the quadratic program to define the appearance status of user classes in each arrival window. We prove that the proposed method ensures global optimality provided that each quadratic program can be solved globally. A heuristic method is then developed to obviate the impossible enumeration of all departure orders, which increases exponentially with respect to the number of user classes and step tolls. The heuristic method uses the multipliers associated with the feasibility cuts to navigate through the vast space of the departure order vector (so-called class membership set realization, or ). It terminates either when no positive multiplies can be found at all (an interior solution) or when the process begins to cycle around several essentially identical corner solutions. The proposed methodology is validated using several small examples. The main findings from the numerical results are summarized below. 1. The results support the conjecture that, even under the general user heterogeneity, the system optimum solution should still have the following known properties the bottleneck always operates at the capacity during the entire rush hour, and the first (last) commuter in each early (late) tolled arrival window should be subject to no queuing delays. 2. In all tested experiments, the proposed heuristic method consistently locates local optimal solutions quickly, after searching only a small part of the feasible space, and the performance seems insensitive to the initial solution. Further studies are needed, however, to confirm the scalability of the method with large-scale experiments. 3. The optimal step-toll design problem can have multiple local optima. Yet, the local optimal solution identified in our example are similar in terms of their overall efficiency, which suggests that accepting a local optimal design may be satisfactory in practice. A theoretical issue that has yet to be addressed is a proper assessment of the solution quality provided by the heuristic method, which may be accomplished by developing a good global lower bound for each of the quadratic programs. Such efforts will likely help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the heuristic method. Another theoretical question has to do with proving/disproivng the desirable properties of the system optimum solution under general user heterogeneity (cf. the finding 1 above). Utilizing these properties could significantly simplify the optimal toll design problem. A first step along this direction can be gathering empirical evidence through numerical experiments. This paper does not consider heterogeneity in desired arrival times. Yet, incorporating this feature is relatively straightforward, since a new desired arrival time would simply break existing arrival windows into more pieces. While the problem size may hence increase quickly with the number of desired arrival times, the isocost curve for each class can still be analytically represented in a similar fashion. Hence, the nature of the formulation would not change. Last but not least, the methodology proposed in this paper provides a new tool that will enable the analysts to fully understand the impact of general user heterogeneity on the design and welfare effects of step tolls. Thus, various applications of this tool will be an important component of future studies. A j i W system cost of the toll design problem $ W system cost of the quadratic program corresponding to $ feasible set of the tolled equilibrium problem feasible set of toll parameters applied to () additional feasibility requirements for toll parameters, defined by isocost curves corresponding to A j capacity-related penalty travel delay in the arrival window A j hour j = 0, 1,..., m A, A = {E, L} vector of multipliers associated with constraints in () |
A review of risk factors for overweight in preschool children: a policy perspective. An increasing number of preschool children are becoming overweight. Although many risk factors have been identified for school-age children, less is known about this young age group. Ecological models have been developed to illustrate how individual characteristics, family characteristics, community-level factors, and policies may influence weight gain. We used this model to review factors that influence overweight in children, aged six months to five years, which are amenable to policy intervention in resource-rich countries. We found strong evidence for a direct association between childhood overweight and maternal prepregnancy body size, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and children's television/media use; strong evidence for an inverse relationship between breastfeeding and overweight, and moderate evidence for children's physical activity. There was limited research on community-level factors, policies and interventions. Future policies and interventions should be subject to evaluation and aim to support parents and young children to develop health-related behaviours that may prevent early childhood overweight. |
Socioeconomic trajectory from birth to adolescence and lung function: prospective birth cohort study Background Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to be an important contributor to lung function. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between lung function in adolescence and (a) SES at birth; (b) SES in adolescence; (c) SES trajectory from birth to adolescence ('never poor', 'non poor-poor', 'poor-non poor' and 'always poor'). Additionally, we investigate the role of adolescent and parental variables at mediating these associations. Methods Prospective birth cohort study in Pelotas, Brazil, including 4,005 adolescents (mean age: 14.7 years) followed up from birth. Lung function was measured by spirometry. Outcome variables were forced expiratory volume in one second in liters (FEV1) and forced vital capacity also in liters (FVC). Results Mean FEV1 was 3.46 L (95%CI 3.43-3.49) among boys and 2.93 L (95%CI 2.91-2.95) among girls. Mean FVC was 4.00 L (95%CI 3.97; 4.04) among boys and 3.30 L (95%CI 3.27; 3.32) among girls. SES at birth, in adolescence and its trajectory from birth to adolescence were inversely associated with lung function in both adolescent boys and girls. After adjustment for mediating variables, coefficients were largely reduced, particularly among boys, and the main predictor of change in coefficients was the inclusion of height in the models. Conclusion Low income adolescents from Brazil present impaired lung function as compared to the better off, and this is largely explained by height. Background Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to be an important contributor to lung function. In a systematic review of articles published over the past 20 years, Hegewald and Crapo showed that poverty in adults was related to a reduction of > 300 mL in forced expired volume in one second (FEV1) among men and > 200 mL among women. As compared to studies among adults, those including children and adolescents were less frequent in the literature. In addition, most studies were cross-sectional and were carried out in highincome countries. Most prospective studies in the field have evaluated the roles of birthweight and respiratory infections in infancy and childhood on later lung function. Those analyzing SES and later lung function used static measures of SES at a given age. We were unable to locate articles describing the long-term association between SES trajectories during the life course and lung function. The aims of this article were to evaluate the association between lung function in adolescence, expressed by FEV1 and forced vital capacity (FVC), and (a) socioeconomic status at birth; (b) socioeconomic status in adolescence; (c) socioeconomic trajectory from birth to adolescence. Additionally, we investigate the role of sociodemographic, anthropometric, behavioral and parental variables at mediating these associations. Methods All hospital-born children in 1993 (N = 5,265) residents in the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil were eligible for a birth cohort study; there were only 16 refusals. At the age of 14-15 years all cohort participants were visited at home and a questionnaire was administered. Adolescents were also invited to visit the "Research Clinic" for performing spirometry. Pulmonary function was evaluated with the adolescents seated, using a noseclip and a disposable mouthpiece. A portable, battery-operated, ultrasound transit-time based spirometer (Easy-One2; NDD Medical Technologies, Chelmsford MA, USA and Zurich, Swizerland) was used. Exclusion criteria for spirometry included a positive answer for any of the following questions in the last three months: thoracic or abdominal surgery, heart problem, eye surgery and admission to hospital for any cardiac condition; pregnancy among the girls was also exclusion for spirometry. By using these exclusion criteria, 64 adolescents were ineligible to perform spirometry. Adolescents performed as many forced expiratory maneuvers as needed in order to produce three acceptable and repeatable. Over 90% of all spirometric tests fulfilled the 2005 American Thoracic Society-European Respiratory Society quality criteria. Quality of all tests was assessed centrally by one person (RPP). Outcome variables were forced expiratory volume in one second in liters (FEV1) and forced vital capacity also in liters (FVC). Socioeconomic level was based on family income collected at birth and at 14-15 years of age, and was categorized in tertiles for the analyses. Mean family income at the 15 years follow up visit was around U$ 200 for the lowest tertile, U$ 500 for the intermediate tertile and U$ 1500 for the wealthiest tertile. Mean income in Pelotas is slightly higher than the national average. However, because Brazil is a big country with important income inequalities, the mean family income in Pelotas is much lower than that of the wealthiest cities in the South and Southeast regions, but much higher than that of most cities of the Northeast and North regions. Socioeconomic trajectories were created based on the combination of socioeconomic levels at birth and at 14-15 years of age. Adolescents who were classified in the lowest tertile in both periods were categorized as 'always poor'. Those who were classified in the lowest tertile at birth, but in the intermediate or top tertile at 14-15 years of age were categorized as 'poor, non-poor". Similarly, those classified in the intermediate or top tertile at birth and at the bottom tertile at 14-15 years were categorized as "non-poor, poor". Finally, those classified in both visits in the top tertile were categorized as "never poor". Family income at birth and at 14-15 years of age was measured in the same way at these two data collection points and it was based on parental report. The mediating variables included in this paper were: height at 14-15 years (measured to the nearest 0.1 cm using a locally made portable stadiometer), weight at 14-15 years (measured to the nearest 100 g using an electronic SECA weight scale), adolescent skin color (self reported and categorized as white, mixed or black), pubertal stage by Tanner stages, medical diagnosis of allergy (yes/no), parental smoking when adolescents were aged 11 years (yes if any of the parents reported it vs. none), parental wheezing when adolescent were 11 years of age (presence of wheezing within the last 12 months either for the mother or father vs. none), adolescent self-reported smoking at 14-15 years of age, adolescent wheezing at 14-15 years of age (wheezing within the last 12 months), age at follow-up and physical activity in minutes per week (calculated using a validated questionnaire on leisure-time and commuting physical activity). Prior to data collection, standardization sessions for the anthropometric measurements were carried out. These sessions were repeated every two months during the fieldwork. Reported measurement errors from the National Center for Health Statistics were used as the acceptable limits in these standardization sessions. Approximately 10% of the interviewees were re-visited by a field supervisor one or two weeks after the original interview, and a short version of the entire questionnaire was administered for quality control purposes. Data were analyzed using Stata 10.0 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA). Descriptive analyses included calculation of means and standard deviations for pulmonary function parameters stratified by sex. In the unadjusted analysis, simple linear regression was used to compare FEV1 and FVC according to socioeconomic variables. Multivariable analyses included linear regression using two different models. Model one included current age, height and weight separated for each gender. Model 2 added to model 1 adjustment by parental (smoking and wheezing) and adolescent variables (wheezing, smoking, pubertal stage, physical activity, skin color and allergy). In order to analyze the mediating effect of several variables on the association between socioeconomic status and lung function, we ran models including one extra variable at a time, and examined the change in beta coefficients and coefficient of determination (R). The order in which mediating variables were included in the model was defined by the significance of its association with lung function. Significance level was set at 5% for two-tailed tests. Further details on the methodology of the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study can be found elsewhere. All phases of the 1993 Pelotas birth cohort study were approved by the Medical School Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Pelotas . Written informed consent was obtained prior to each follow-up. Results The original cohort included 5,249 children born in 1993 in Pelotas, Brazil. From birth to 14-15 years of age, 148 cohort members were known to have died. We interviewed 4,325 adolescents, thus totaling a response rate of 85.7%. Out of the 4,325 subjects located, 4,005 provided valid spirometric data. The mean age at follow-up was 14.7 years (SD = 0.3); 51% of them were female, 64% self-rated their skin color as white, 27% were overweight, 12% reported wheezing in the past year, 39% presented medical diagnosis of rhinitis or eczema, and 19% reported to have ever smoked. Exactly half of them had at least one parent who was current smoker, and 34% of parents referred to present asthma. Mean body weight and height were, respectively, 57.4 kg (SD = 12.7) and 163.2 cm (SD = 8.2). The mean FEV1 for the whole sample was 3.19 l (95% CI 3.17-3.21), being 3.46 l (95%CI 3.43-3.49) among boys and 2.93 l (95%CI 2.91-2.95) among girls. Mean FVC was 3.65 l (95%CI 3.62-3.66), being higher among boys (mean: 4.00 l; 95%CI 3.97-4.04) than girls (mean: 3.30; 95%CI 3.27-3.32). Lung function was directly associated with socioeconomic status at birth and at 15 years of age. Particularly among boys, trajectories of socioeconomic status were also related to lung function. Boys who were always poor had, on average, 0.31 l lower FEV1 as compared to those who were never poor; FVC among them was, on average, 0.37 l lower than the values for those who were never poor. Equivalent values for girls were 0.18 l and 0.17 l, respectively ( Table 1). The results of the unadjusted and adjusted associations between lung function and socioeconomic status are presented in Tables 2 (boys) and 3 (girls). In the unadjusted analyses, all the associations were highly significant. When adjusted for the main variables (age, height, weight and BMI for each gender), the association between lung function (FEV1 and FVC) and socioeconomic status at birth and at 15 years of age remained significant, although with less strength. Socioeconomic trajectories from birth to 15 years of age were no longer associated with lung function among boys, but remained significant among girls. Among boys, when further adjustments were made (Model 2), all associations with socioeconomic-related variables lost statistical significance. Among girls, socioeconomic status at birth and socioeconomic trajectories lost statistical significance, whereas socioeconomic level at 14-15 years of age remained statistically significant (Tables 2 and 3). Table 4 shows the mediation analysis using FEV1 as the outcome variable for boys. By far, height was the main explanatory variable of the association between socioeconomic status and lung function. For example, among boys, a change of 79.2% in the regression coefficient was observed comparing a model with socioeconomic status alone and a model that also incorporate height. The R 2 of these two models were, respectively, 2.7 and 49.2. Inclusion of an extra 10 variables did not result in additional relevant changes. The R 2, for example, increase only from 49.2 to 53.6 if we compare a model with SES and height only with another which also includes an additional 10 variables. In table 5 the equivalent analysis is presented for girls. The pattern was not the same observed among boys. First, the inclusion of height in the model changed the coefficient by 55.7%, as compared to 79.2% among boys. Second, the explained variance (R 2 ) of the models was consistently lower than those observed among boys. Third, the association between SES and lung function remained statistically significant even after inclusion of all mediating variables in the model. In spite of these differences, the R 2 in the model with height only (29.5%) was just slightly different from the one obtained by the full model (34.9%). Discussion The association between SES and lung function is still inconclusive, in spite of several studies from various countries. It is possible that lung function reflects the effects of early life exposures that influence lung growth and development. A reduced supply of nutrients to the fetus may result in low birth weight and, depending on the timing, may result in specific detrimental effects to growing organs such as the lungs. Maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal nutrition throughout life course may be also affect lung development. Postnatal factors such as acute respiratory infections, morbidities (e.g. asthma) and smoking during adolescence are possible determinants of lung function. Although all these factors are related to socioeconomic status, the most plausible explanation for an association between low socioeconomic status and poor lung function is multifactorial. SES at birth, in adolescence and its trajectory from birth to adolescence were inversely associated with lung function in both adolescent boys and girls in our paper. After adjustment for mediating variables, coefficients were largely reduced, particularly among boys, and the main predictor of change in coefficients was the inclusion of height in the models. Therefore, an important fraction of the SES differentials in lung function is explained by height, which is in accordance with one of the postulated factors associated with lower SES that affect lung function: poor nutrition. Lawlor and colleagues reported that poverty was associated with a reduction of 160 mL in FEV1 and 110 mL in FVC among older adults aged 60-79 years of age in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Jackson and coworkers found that the rate of decline in lung function in 5 years was higher among the poor. In addition, the authors found a negative effect of childhood SES on adult lung function. Also in the United States, a study showed that low education was the only predictor of more rapid FEV1 decline among nonsmokers. Taken together, these studies clearly suggest SES differentials in lung function throughout the lifespan. Our study adds to the current knowledge in several aspects. First, we show that SES trajectories do matter in terms of later lung function. As compared to subjects who changed their SES position over time, those who were 'never poor' or 'always poor' consistently presented the highest and lowest lung function results, respectively. Second, we present the first low and middleincome prospective data on this association. Third, we explore the reasons why low income individuals present impaired lung function and most of the association with SES is explained by lower height. That is, lower income individuals are shorter (mean height: 161.2 ± 7.9 cm) than those with higher income (mean height: 164.6 ± 8.3 cm), and likewise smaller lungs that are in general terms proportional to the body size. Among boys, the anthropometric effect was so strong that incorporation of height and weight in the model completely removed the SES differentials in lung function. Among girls, although a similar pattern was observed and thus a marked reduction in the coefficients was seen, the association with SES remained statistically significant even in the model with 11 different predictors, suggesting a more complex impact of SES on lung function involving body size, composition, and other factors. Some methodological aspects of our study need to be discussed. A possible limitation is that SES groups were defined on the basis of family income, and a certain degree of misclassification is expected because of the difficulties at collecting income data. Another limitation is that data on smoking, a well known determinant of lung function, was collected by means of self-report, and we have previously shown that in early adolescence, selfreported data on smoking presents poor agreement with cotinine measurements. The use of SES data in two periods is a positive aspect of our analyses, because it allowed us to investigate SES trajectory instead of focusing only on a static point in time. The high follow up rate and the high quality of the spirometric tests also need to be highlighted. Conclusions In summary, low income adolescents from Brazil present impaired lung function as compared to the better off, and this is largely explained by height. Similar studies in other cohorts are needed to confirm our findings. Nutritional interventions targeting low income individuals may have a long-term positive impact on lung function. |
<reponame>melted/Joy
/*
module : fclose.c
version : 1.1
date : 05/21/21
*/
#ifndef FCLOSE_C
#define FCLOSE_C
/**
1830 fclose : S ->
Stream S is closed and removed from the stack.
*/
PRIVATE void fclose_(pEnv env)
{
ONEPARAM("fclose");
if (nodetype(env->stck) == FILE_ && nodevalue(env->stck).fil == NULL) {
POP(env->stck);
return;
}
FILE("fclose");
fclose(nodevalue(env->stck).fil);
POP(env->stck);
}
#endif
|
Microstructure and Material Properties of Ti-15mass%Nb Alloy after Gas Nitriding and Quenching Process : The (cid:48) martensite of Ti-15mass%Nb alloy exhibits high internal friction with high damping properties. However, its structure is smoother than the + structure. Therefore, a hardened surface layer is required for abrasion resistance. This study fabricated a martensite structure inside the nitriding layer by quenching, after gas nitriding at 1023 and 1223 K. Vickers hardness test, X-ray di ff raction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and SEM-energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) measurements from the surface to the inside were made after the heat treatment process. In addition, the Youngs modulus and internal friction were calculated from the damping analysis. The -TiN 0.3 and phase region was formed at approximately 80 m from the surface at 1023 and 1223 K, and it was hardened. The internal friction of the gas nitriding and quenching specimens at 1023 and 1223 K was relatively high, though it did not reach that of the as-quenched specimen owing to the influence of the surface structure. From these results, it is considered that these material property values of the alloy can be controlled using the nitriding and quenching processes. Plasma nitriding occurs at a wide range of temperatures from approximately 773 to 1373 K, whereas gas nitriding occurs at only high temperatures ranging from approximately 973 to 1273 K. Therefore, to obtain high hardness and high damping properties, a nitriding process at a relatively low temperature while maintaining the martensite structure of the titanium alloy and forming a martensite structure after nitriding at a high temperature can be considered. In the former, we attempted the plasma nitriding of Ti-15mass%Nb alloy at a relatively low temperature range of approximately Materials and Methods Ti-15mass%Nb alloy was used in this study. It was cut to achieve the following dimensions: 15 10 1 mm for the Vickers hardness test (HM-220D; Motutoyo, Kawasaki, Japan), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (S-4300; HITACHI, Tokyo, Japan), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement (SmartLab; Rigaku, Tokyo, Japan), and 70 7 1 mm for damping analysis (DS3000; Ono Sokki, Yokohama, Japan). The specimen was placed on a quartz boat and then poured into a quartz tube in an electric furnace, and the evacuation process and nitrogen gas substitution were repeated three times. The nitrogen gas used had a purity of 99.999%, and it was set to a pressure of 0.15 MPa. After heating at 1023 or 1223 K and holding for 3.6 ks in a nitrogen atmosphere, the quartz boat was soaked in ice water for quenching. This heat treatment is called the gas nitriding and quenching process (GNQP). The Vickers hardness test was performed at intervals of 20 m for the cross-sectional depth direction with a test force of 0.01 kgf and a holding time of 15 s. Damping analysis was performed via the free resonance method. The attenuation waveform of the vibration amplitude was read, and the frequency response function was obtained. The E was calculated from the resonance frequency, and the Q −1 was calculated from the Hilbert calculation. Mirror-polished cross-sectional specimens were used for SEM observation and SEM-energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurement. The constituents of the layer from the surface to a depth of 150 m were investigated via XRD analysis of CuK (40 kV, 30 mA). The GNQP specimens were ground to 10, 50, and 150 m from the surface. Figure 1 shows the cross-sectional SEM microstructure after GNQP. A brighter layer was formed on the surface for the microstructure at 1023 K (a). In addition, a dense acicular structure of 30 m and sparse long acicular structure of 50 m were observed. At 1223 K (b), the first layer of 10 m, a dense massive structure layer of 16 m and a sparse massive structure of 54 m were formed. At the corner area of the specimen (c), a wide area lamellar microstructure was formed in addition to the first layer of 10 m. Results Crystals 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 7 attempted the plasma nitriding of Ti-15mass%Nb alloy at a relatively low temperature range of approximately 773 K, but only the outermost surface could be hardened. Therefore, this study fabricated a martensite structure inside the nitriding layer by quenching after gas nitriding at 1023 and 1223 K. Materials and Methods Ti-15mass%Nb alloy was used in this study. It was cut to achieve the following dimensions: 15 10 1 mm for the Vickers hardness test (HM-220D; Motutoyo, Kawasaki,Japan), scanning electron microscopy (SEM)( S-4300; HITACHI, Tokyo, Japan), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement (SmartLab; Rigaku, Tokyo, Japan), and 70 7 1 mm for damping analysis (DS3000; Ono Sokki, Yokohama, Japan). The specimen was placed on a quartz boat and then poured into a quartz tube in an electric furnace, and the evacuation process and nitrogen gas substitution were repeated three times. The nitrogen gas used had a purity of 99.999%, and it was set to a pressure of 0.15 MPa. After heating at 1023 or 1223 K and holding for 3.6 ks in a nitrogen atmosphere, the quartz boat was soaked in ice water for quenching. This heat treatment is called the gas nitriding and quenching process (GNQP). The Vickers hardness test was performed at intervals of 20 m for the cross-sectional depth direction with a test force of 0.01 kgf and a holding time of 15 s. Damping analysis was performed via the free resonance method. The attenuation waveform of the vibration amplitude was read, and the frequency response function was obtained. The E was calculated from the resonance frequency, and the Q -1 was calculated from the Hilbert calculation. Mirror-polished cross-sectional specimens were used for SEM observation and SEM-energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurement. The constituents of the layer from the surface to a depth of 150 m were investigated via XRD analysis of CuK (40 kV, 30 mA). The GNQP specimens were ground to 10, 50, and 150 m from the surface. Figure 1 shows the cross-sectional SEM microstructure after GNQP. A brighter layer was formed on the surface for the microstructure at 1023 K (a). In addition, a dense acicular structure of 30 m and sparse long acicular structure of 50 m were observed. At 1223 K (b), the first layer of 10 m, a dense massive structure layer of 16 m and a sparse massive structure of 54 m were formed. At the corner area of the specimen (c), a wide area lamellar microstructure was formed in addition to the first layer of 10 m. Figure 2 shows the micro Vickers hardness distribution from the surface after GNQP. At 1023 K, the hardness of the surface layer was 540 HV, and it was 327 HV at a depth of 100 m. The hardness of the martensite in the alloy was approximately 240 HV, which is equivalent to that observed at a position deeper than 250 m. Conversely, the hardness of the surface layer was 720 HV at 1223 K, which was 450 HV at a depth of 100 m. At deeper positions, almost the same hardness value was maintained, and it did not drop to a similar hardness to that of the martensite. Figure 3 shows the change in the XRD profile from the surface. For comparison, the XRD profiles of the as-annealed (AN) and the as-quenched (AQ) specimens at 1023 and 1223 K are shown in the Figure 2 shows the micro Vickers hardness distribution from the surface after GNQP. At 1023 K, the hardness of the surface layer was 540 HV, and it was 327 HV at a depth of 100 m. The hardness of the martensite in the alloy was approximately 240 HV, which is equivalent to that observed at a position deeper than 250 m. Conversely, the hardness of the surface layer was 720 HV at 1223 K, which was 450 HV at a depth of 100 m. At deeper positions, almost the same hardness value was maintained, and it did not drop to a similar hardness to that of the martensite. Results peaks of TiO2 were very strong. However, very weak peaks of TiN, Ti2N, and -TiN0.3 were also detected. Similar to that at 1023 K, -TiN0.3 and phase were detected at 10 m, and the martensite was detected at 50 m. Because the diffraction peak of the martensite is very broad, residual strain is generated. Moreover, a part of the structure is formed as an martensite from the separation state of the peak. Even after 150 m grinding, the diffraction peak was still broadened, and a large residual strain was introduced during the formation of the martensite. Relative Intensity Diffraction angle, 2(deg.) Relative Intensity Figure 3 shows the change in the XRD profile from the surface. For comparison, the XRD profiles of the as-annealed (AN) and the as-quenched (AQ) specimens at 1023 and 1223 K are shown in the figure. From Figure 3, it can be observed that the AN has a mixed phase structure of the phase and the phase. However, in the AQ, the supersaturated martensite exhibits a diffraction peak shifted to a lower angle than the phase; thus, it can be observed that the martensite expanded. Comparing the calculated lattice constants of the martensite with the annealed phase from the XRD profiles, expansion of the a-axis is approximately 0.8% and that of the c-axis is approximately 0.2%. At the surface XRD profile at 1023 K (a), the diffraction peaks of TiO 2, TiN, Ti 2 N, and -TiN 0.3 were detected. In addition to the -TiN 0.3 peak, phase diffraction peaks were detected in the XRD profile after 10 m grinding. After 50 m grinding, it was considered that the structure contained the martensite. After 150 m grinding, for some percentage of the structure to be changed into the martensite, the peaks were split. For the surface at 1223 K (b), the diffraction peaks of TiO 2 were very strong. However, very weak peaks of TiN, Ti 2 N, and -TiN 0.3 were also detected. Similar to that at 1023 K, -TiN 0.3 and phase were detected at 10 m, and the martensite was detected at 50 m. Because the diffraction peak of the martensite is very broad, residual strain is generated. Moreover, a part of the structure is formed as an martensite from the separation state of the peak. Even after 150 m grinding, the diffraction peak was still broadened, and a large residual strain was introduced during the formation of the martensite. Figure 4 shows the cross-sectional SEM-EDX analysis results after GNQP at 1023 K. In the SEM image (a), the position where the point analysis was performed and the mapping range surrounded by the light blue frame area are shown. Nitrogen and oxygen were detected at the outermost surface of the point analysis result (b), and a decrease in Ti content was observed. This is attributed to the formation of nitrides and oxides. Almost no nitrogen and oxygen were detected in regions to, marked on (a). A decreased content of Nb was observed in the dark region, whereas it increased in the bright region. In region, the default amount of Nb is shown. In the element mapping result (c), a region of increased/decreased Ti and Nb contents detected via point analysis was detected. Although it is difficult to evaluate the distribution of N, an increase in O was observed in the outermost surface region. Figure 5 shows the cross-sectional SEM-EDX analysis results after GNQP at 1223 K. The position of the point analysis and the mapping range are indicated in the SEM image (a). The amount of oxygen detected at the outermost surface of the point analysis result is high (b), indicating that it is an oxide film layer. It can be observed that nitrogen is detected and diffused in region. The amount of Nb decreased in the dark region, whereas it increased in the bright region. In the element mapping result (c), a region of increased/decreased Ti and Nb contents detected via point analysis could be confirmed. In addition, the distribution of nitrogen corresponds to the region with a high amount of Ti. The distribution of oxygen was confirmed in the outermost surface region, and it was established that a TiO 2 layer was formed. of the point analysis result is high (b), indicating that it is an oxide film layer. It can be observed that nitrogen is detected and diffused in region. The amount of Nb decreased in the dark region, whereas it increased in the bright region. In the element mapping result (c), a region of increased/decreased Ti and Nb contents detected via point analysis could be confirmed. In addition, the distribution of nitrogen corresponds to the region with a high amount of Ti. The distribution of oxygen was confirmed in the outermost surface region, and it was established that a TiO2 layer was formed. Discussion The microstructural state is discussed based on the results of the Vickers hardness test, X-ray diffraction, and SEM-EDX analysis. The oxide film layer formed on the outermost surface was formed during water quenching. During gas nitriding, nitrogen diffuses from the surface to a depth of approximately 80 m, and nitrides are formed in the portion close to the surface layer. In addition, because nitrogen diffuses in -Ti, -TiN0.3 with a low Nb content is formed. Moreover, the portion with a high Nb content becomes a phase, and it remains even after quenching. In particular, GNQP at 1223 K is significantly affected by the structural change of the surface layer, and the residual strain remains inside the specimen during quenching and shows high hardness. Conversely, the base value of hardness is high in gas nitriding at temperatures above 1223 K, and a similar phenomenon occurs. The specimen after GNQP at 1023 K exhibited an E value closer to that of the AN specimen than that of the AQ specimen. According to the XRD results shown in Figure 3, the martensite structure is formed at 80 m from the surface layer. Notably, the actual value is slightly lower, but according Figure 6 shows the E (a) and the Q −1 (b) after each heat treatment. The E of the Ti-15Nb alloy AN specimen with + structure is 92.5 GPa, whereas that of the AQ specimen with the martensite structure is 58.3 GPa. That of the specimen after GNQP at 1023 K was 87.9 GPa, whereas that of the specimen after GNQP at 1223 K was 79.6 GPa, indicating a high value close to that of the AN specimen, although the martensite structure was formed. Conversely, the Q −1 ( 10 −3 ) of the AQ specimen increased from 0.3 to 6.2, showing high damping properties. The Q −1 of the specimen after GNQP at 1023 K was 3.6, whereas that of the specimen after GNQP at 1223 K was 4.4, indicating relatively high values, although not as high as that of the AQ specimen. Notably, these changes are consistent with the influence of the formed layer and the state of the martensite structure. Discussion The microstructural state is discussed based on the results of the Vickers hardness test, X-ray diffraction, and SEM-EDX analysis. The oxide film layer formed on the outermost surface was formed during water quenching. During gas nitriding, nitrogen diffuses from the surface to a depth of approximately 80 m, and nitrides are formed in the portion close to the surface layer. In addition, because nitrogen diffuses in -Ti, -TiN0.3 with a low Nb content is formed. Moreover, the portion with a high Nb content becomes a phase, and it remains even after quenching. In particular, GNQP at 1223 K is significantly affected by the structural change of the surface layer, and the residual strain remains inside the specimen during quenching and shows high hardness. Conversely, the base value Discussion The microstructural state is discussed based on the results of the Vickers hardness test, X-ray diffraction, and SEM-EDX analysis. The oxide film layer formed on the outermost surface was formed during water quenching. During gas nitriding, nitrogen diffuses from the surface to a depth of approximately 80 m, and nitrides are formed in the portion close to the surface layer. In addition, because nitrogen diffuses in -Ti, -TiN 0.3 with a low Nb content is formed. Moreover, the portion with a high Nb content becomes a phase, and it remains even after quenching. In particular, GNQP at 1223 K is significantly affected by the structural change of the surface layer, and the residual strain remains inside the specimen during quenching and shows high hardness. Conversely, the base value of hardness is high in gas nitriding at temperatures above 1223 K, and a similar phenomenon occurs. The specimen after GNQP at 1023 K exhibited an E value closer to that of the AN specimen than that of the AQ specimen. According to the XRD results shown in Figure 3, the martensite structure is formed at 80 m from the surface layer. Notably, the actual value is slightly lower, but according to this measurement method, it is possible that it was significantly influenced by the acicular structure of the surface layer. Further factors need to be explored. The Q −1 is relatively high, which corresponds to the value of the martensite structure inside. Conversely, the specimen after GNQP at 1223 K exhibited a relatively high E. This is attributed to the increase in hardness and the effect of the surface structure. Further, when the Q −1 of the alloy was increased, the hardness reduced and the E decreased. However, after the GNQP treatment, the hardness increased, the E increased, and the Q −1 was relatively high, although it was not as high as that of the AQ specimen. From these results, it is considered that the material property values of the alloy can be controlled by the GNQP heat treatment. Conclusions In this study, the changes in the microstructure and material properties of the Ti-15mass%Nb alloy after GNQP at 1023 or 1223 K were investigated. The following conclusions were obtained: As a result of changing the hardness in the depth direction after GNQP, the region of -TiN 0.3 and phase was formed at approximately 80 m at 1023 and 1223 K, and this region was hardened. It was established that the hardness of the martensite was observed in the region deeper than 250 m at 1023 K, whereas the inside was also very hard at 1223 K. From the XRD result at 1223 K, it was established that although the martensite structure was formed in the internal region, it was extremely strained. It was established that the Q −1 of the specimens after GNQP was relatively high, though both 1023 and 1223 K did not reach the AQ specimen due to the influence of the surface structure. In addition, the E showed a high value close to that of the AN specimen. From these results, it is considered that the material property values of the alloy can be controlled by the GNQP heat treatment. |
import React from 'react';
import CloseButton from "./CloseButton";
import "./PopUp.css";
interface Props {
showPopUp: boolean;
setShowPopUp: any;
detail: string;
}
const PopUp: React.FC<Props> = ({ showPopUp, detail, setShowPopUp }) => {
return (
<>
{showPopUp ? (
<div className="pop-up">
<div className="head">
<span
className="detail"
style={{ fontWeight: "bolder", fontSize: "17px" }}
>
Privacy Info
</span>
<CloseButton onClick={() => setShowPopUp((prev: boolean) => !prev)} />
</div>
<div className="description">
<span className="detail">{detail}</span>
</div>
</div>
) : null}
</>
);
};
export default PopUp;
|
<reponame>copslock/broadcom_cpri<filename>sdk-6.5.20/libs/sdklt/bcmpkt/include/bcmpkt/flexhdr/bcmpkt_dest_option_t_internal.h
/*****************************************************************
*
* DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
* This file is auto-generated by xfc_map_parser
* from the NPL output file(s) header.yml.
* Edits to this file will be lost when it is regenerated.
*
*
* This license is set out in https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Broadcom-Network-Switching-Software/OpenBCM/master/Legal/LICENSE file.
*
* Copyright 2007-2020 Broadcom Inc. All rights reserved.
* All Rights Reserved.$
*
* Tool Path: $SDK/INTERNAL/fltg/xfc_map_parser
*/
/*! \file bcmpkt_dest_option_t_internal.h
*
* dest_option_t access interface(Internal use only).
*/
#ifndef BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_INTERNAL_H
#define BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_INTERNAL_H
#include <shr/shr_types.h>
#include <bcmpkt/bcmpkt_internal.h>
#include <bcmpkt/flexhdr/bcmpkt_dest_option_t_defs.h>
/*!
* Array of dest_option_t field get functions for a particular device
* type.
*/
typedef struct bcmpkt_dest_option_t_fget_s {
/*! Array of field get functions. */
bcmpkt_field_get_f fget[BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_FID_COUNT];
} bcmpkt_dest_option_t_fget_t;
/*!
* Array of dest_option_t field set functions for a particular device
* type. These functions are used for internally configuring packet
* filter.
*/
typedef struct bcmpkt_dest_option_t_fset_s {
/*! Array of field set functions. */
bcmpkt_field_set_f fset[BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_FID_COUNT];
} bcmpkt_dest_option_t_fset_t;
/*!
* Array of dest_option_t field address and length getter functions for a multiple
* words field of a particular device type.
*/
typedef struct bcmpkt_dest_option_t_figet_s {
/*! Array of field get functions */
bcmpkt_ifield_get_f fget[BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_I_FID_COUNT];
} bcmpkt_dest_option_t_figet_t;
/*! \cond Externs for the required functions. */
#define BCMLRD_VARIANT_ENTRY(_bd,_bu,_va,_ve,_vu,_vv,_vo,_vd,_r0,_r1) \
extern void _bd##_vu##_va##_dest_option_t_view_info_get(bcmpkt_pmd_view_info_t *info);
#define BCMLTD_VARIANT_OVERRIDE
#include <bcmlrd/chip/bcmlrd_variant.h>
/*! \endcond */
#endif /* BCMPKT_DEST_OPTION_T_INTERNAL_H */
|
def arrived(self):
self.state.change_state("waiting", self.network.env.now)
self.state.write_log() |
At one time or another, we have all experienced some form of wireless signal interference from other electrical devices. Researchers at University of Wisconsin are working on a device called Airshark that may just be the answer needed to eliminate signal interference.
The researchers say that with Airshark embedded in access points, the software could kick off interference-mitigation mechanisms. |
**COPYRIGHT**
Copyright © 2009 by Robert Feldman
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Twelve
Hachette Book Group
237Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
www.twitter.com/grandcentralpub
Twelve is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.
The Twelve name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-55219-6
Contents
COPYRIGHT
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Everyday Inventions of Everyday Life
CHAPTER 2: The Liar's Advantage
CHAPTER 3: Deception 101: How Children Learn to Lie
CHAPTER 4: The Evolution of Deceit : Are We Born to Lie?
CHAPTER 5: Broken Trust: Loving a Liar
CHAPTER 6: Self-Deception: The Lies We Tell Ourselves
CHAPTER 7: Cosmetic Deceit:
CHAPTER 8: Lies with Intent: Deceit to Trick or Cheat
CHAPTER 9: Synthetic Reality: Media-Manufactured Lies
CHAPTER 10: Career Lies: Deception in the Workplace
CHAPTER 11: Web of Deceit: The Brave New World of Internet Dishonesty
CONCLUSION: Living with Lies
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES
ABOUT TWELVE
_To Kathy_
# INTRODUCTION
The National Archives, housed in an austere building in downtown Washington, D.C., contains original copies of the founding documents of the United States of America: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. These documents, with their talk of unalienable rights and the equality of all, established the country not just in a legal sense but in a moral sense, too. The United States would be, and still aspires to be, a nation where justice and truth prevail.
Yet I did not visit the archives several decades ago to learn more about the brighter moments in our nation's past. Instead, I went in order to listen to scratchy tape recordings made secretly in Richard Nixon's Oval Office, recordings of fraud and deceit that ultimately led to Nixon's resignation from the presidency in the dénouement of the Watergate scandal. I believed, with the great conviction and zeal of a young assistant professor determined to understand the nature of lying, that I might be able to learn more about deceit by listening to the words of one of its most infamous practitioners.
However, when I listened to the Nixon tapes, I was frustrated that I could not determine from tone or intonation the moments when Nixon or his cronies were lying. Instead, to my ears, Nixon's conversations and soliloquies were remarkable most of all for how unremarkable they were. There was talk of political appointments and strategies; there were flashes of insight and of paranoia. Overall, though, from what I could tell, the conversation was not much different from what I might have heard from recordings of any office, oval or not.
After subsequent decades of research and dozens of studies into the topic of deception, I now see that my frustration was misplaced. My failure to distinguish a Nixonian office from any other had less to do with my own inability to recognize lies and more with the fact that there is simply not much distinction to notice. The scale and impact of Nixon's lies set him apart from probably every other president and surely most people generally. But what my research and the research of many others has shown is that lies occur regularly in every office. They occur regularly in every living room, in every bedroom; they occur regularly in conversations between strangers and conversations between friends.
In a sense, the very fact that the National Archives houses both the Nixon tapes and our most esteemed texts is paradigmatic. For in our society, the juxtaposition of venerated truth and notorious deceit is not just a matter of storage; it is a contradiction that plays out in our lives every day. While we talk a great deal about respecting the truth, while most of us regard the truth with genuine respect, the fact is that lies are common in American life, and in Western society in general. I went to the National Archives because I thought lies were hard to find. In fact, lying was then and is now nearly ubiquitous. If I wanted to listen to people lying, I could have listened in on practically any conversation between any two people.
Let me put it another way: there is no question mark at the end of this book's title. There _is_ a liar in your life. In fact, there are a lot of them. We encounter lies not only from the claims of presidents ("I am not a crook" or, more recently, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman") or sleazy sales associates at the local car dealership ("This SUV gets terrific mileage!"); we also hear lies from the people we meet and interact with on a daily basis, including our family, friends, colleagues, and the strangers we encounter in the ordinary course of each day. Dishonesty is deeply ingrained in our everyday interactions and in our broader culture. As we will see, it colors our perceptions of who other people are and our perceptions of their behavior. It even affects how we perceive our own behavior.
The issue we need to confront is not whether people lie to us—they do—but how much and why. Just as importantly, we need to consider why we're so prone to believing and even embracing the deception we hear from others, as well as the lies we tell ourselves. We need to explore why we view certain lies as harmless, while rejecting others as manipulative and shameful. And we need to consider how lies play out in broader societal contexts such as the business world, the media, and the new realm of digital communication. The primary purpose of _The Liar in Your Life_ is to describe and explain the prevalence and consequences of lying in contemporary life, as well as to discuss the ways in which these lies affect us.
In this book, I've focused on lying not in terms of its philosophical or moral dimensions but rather as an objective scientist describing what science tells us. Understanding lying is more a matter of discussing how it occurs, not whether it ought to occur. Hence, the emphasis is on clear explanation as opposed to principled judgment.
Yet it does not take an ethicist or a clergy member to recognize that lying exacts a toll—on us as individuals, on our families and communities, and on society at large. Further, from whatever perspective one approaches deception, it is hard not to feel surprised, or even alarmed, at the discovery of just how much lying goes on in our lives. I think it's safe to say that we all share the goal of building a more honest society. The surest way to do this is to come to grips with—and confront—the lies each of us face as individuals.
I hope _The Liar in Your Life_ can be the first step in this process.
CHAPTER 1
Everyday Inventions of Everyday Life
Think about the last time you were lied to.
It may take you a minute. Most of the time when I ask people about when they were last deceived, they need a few moments before coming up with something. Eventually, they will recollect the story of the mechanic who overcharged for an unnecessary repair, or the date who promised to call the next day and was never heard from again.
Lies that took some kind of emotional or financial toll are the ones that generally spring to mind when we think about the deception we encounter. This makes sense. Events that are painful or dramatic tend to be memorable, and tend also to shape our impressions of the circumstances—like being lied to—that surround them. My guess is that the lie you came up with as the one you most recently encountered involved a blow to either your heart or your wallet.
The reality of deception, though, is very different from what such painful memories lead us to believe. Our relationship to lying is far more intimate than the occasional encounter with a duplicitous mechanic or dishonest lover. Think again, more carefully, about the last time you were lied to. Perhaps you picked up your dry cleaning, and when you thanked the person handing it to you, he responded, "My pleasure"—although both of you knew there was almost no chance that doing your laundry had given him any pleasure at all. Or maybe you were in line at the grocery store and you struck up a conversation with the woman in line ahead of you. Maybe she told you she'd never had to wait in line so long before. Really?
Or perhaps the last time you checked your e-mail you were offered a share of a Nigerian inheritance, which you could claim for only a few thousand dollars in taxes. Or maybe you watched television or listened to the radio, and heard about this or that product's miraculous or life-altering virtues. Maybe an infomercial promised you savings, but only provided you "act now."
The truth is, we are lied to frequently, even in the course of a single day. Most of the lies we don't notice, or don't even consider to be deception. Spam e-mail, deceptive advertising, and disingenuous social niceties form almost an omnipresent white noise that we've learned to tune out. Regardless of what we choose to accommodate or ignore, though, the fact remains that lies are a typical feature of our everyday experience. That we do disregard so much deception only underlines how common it really is.
Lying is not limited to one aspect of our society, one type of person, or one kind of institution. As we'll see, lying permeates the way we get to know one another and the way we form relationships. It is a part of how we educate our children and how we elect our leaders. It is essential to our economy, and it is essential to the media.
More strikingly, while lying sometimes occurs as an aberration in these and other arenas, often its manifestations are the rule. We tend to think of lying as something we censure. But just as we smile when the man handing us our dry cleaning lies about the pleasure he took in laundering our clothes, there are lies society accepts, and even encourages. Indeed, deception is so deeply ingrained in the functioning of our society that if we removed it, we might not recognize the society that resulted. We probably wouldn't be very comfortable living in it, either.
The fact is that much of what we think we know about deception is, simply put, not true. Misconceptions too often mask lying's prominence in our society and the ambiguities that surround its operation. So the first step to understanding the role of lying in our lives may be to consider the many ways we _mis_ understand it.
# **Amanda and the Seven Dwarfs**
A former student of mine, whom I'll call Gary, moved to Santa Fe a few years ago to pursue a career in real estate. (You'll forgive me for fudging the names and other minor details in this story, and in other personal anecdotes that appear in the book. My only concern is to protect the innocent, as they say on _Dragnet_. The essentials, of course, are the truth, the whole truth, and so forth.) Gary is a devoted marathoner, and he joined a recreational club of runners in his area. Another member of this club was a young woman named Amanda. She and Gary fell in love.
Amanda told Gary about her troubled upbringing. Her mother had died when she was young, and she was estranged from her father. As a teenager, she had battled cancer. Gary was sympathetic, and impressed at the courage and toughness she showed in overcoming these hardships. After they'd dated for a little under a year, Gary proposed, and Amanda accepted. They bought an apartment together and started to plan their wedding.
In the following weeks, though, Amanda began to complain of feeling fatigued and lethargic. She showed little enthusiasm for putting together an invitation list or selecting a reception venue. Since this was wholly out of character for the energetic woman he knew, Gary encouraged her to see her doctor—a man Amanda trusted and whom she had been seeing since college. Because she was anxious about her doctor's visit, Gary offered to go with her.
At the doctor's office, Gary and Amanda described Amanda's symptoms. Amanda's doctor said that mononucleosis sounded like a potential explanation, but he would have to examine her. Gary then asked whether a diagnosis of mono was more likely based on Amanda's history of cancer. As Gary described it to me weeks later, the doctor looked at him blankly and asked, "Cancer?"
Amanda had never had cancer. Nor did she have mono. What she did have, or so it seems, is mythomania, more commonly described as compulsive lying. Amanda wasn't estranged from her father, and her mother was very much alive. Amanda had hidden her fairly close relationship with her parents from Gary, along with a whole host of other facts about her basically happy and completely healthy background.
The relationship, and the lies, unraveled quickly but not neatly. Gary had to explain to all his friends and family why he was canceling his wedding. He had to buy out Amanda's share of the apartment, which he eventually sold, at a loss. And he had to start a big part of his life all over again.
I wouldn't be surprised if you've heard stories similar to Gary's. Perhaps you've personally encountered a compulsive liar and experienced the unnerving revelation that everything you know about him or her might be false. Compulsive lying is not a common condition, but the anecdotes that accompany it tend to be remembered.
Now let's consider another incident of deception, one that is also remarkable but that occurred in a far different context from Gary's broken engagement to Amanda. In 1994, seven top executives from leading American tobacco companies, among them the CEOs of Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, and U.S. Tobacco, testified before the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. The "seven dwarfs," as they were later dubbed, had been called as part of the committee's ongoing efforts to bring attention to the health dangers of cigarettes. All seven of these men were asked whether they believed nicotine to be addictive. And each man answered in turn, under oath, that he did not. The statement "I believe that nicotine is not addictive" was repeated again and again.
What the seven dwarfs did not volunteer was research Big Tobacco itself had done, demonstrating that nicotine, in fact, is addictive. Nor did they mention that their companies had made efforts to enhance the addictive powers of the nicotine in the cigarettes they sold. Three months after their testimony, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into whether they had committed perjury with their "nicotine is not addictive" assertion.
The stories of Gary and Amanda, on the one hand, and the seven dwarfs of Big Tobacco, on the other, would seem to have little in common, other than the fact that they both have lying at their core. But taken together, these stories provide a fairly comprehensive picture of how most of us believe deception functions in our society. Those telling the lies in both stories seem generally representative of the kinds of people we typically think of as liars: lying, as practiced by Amanda, was an abnormal behavior, one indicative of mental imbalance. She may be an extreme case, but liars are generally thought of as standing outside the norm for social behavior. They are more morally lax and more manipulative—or simply more crazy—than an "ordinary" person. The seven dwarfs embody another feature of the lying stereotype. We can see these men in the ruthless liar mold, displaying a willingness to sacrifice the truth in order to make a profit or to escape punishment. They aren't crazy, but they are greedy or guilty enough to be dishonest.
In both of these incidents of deception, too, we can identify innocent victims of the lies. Amanda tricked and emotionally manipulated Gary for her own purposes, whatever they might have been. The Big Tobacco executives perpetrated their fraud against a congressional subcommittee and, more broadly, against the American public in general. In other words, they lied to _us._
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in both cases the act of lying was a clear violation of conventional standards for behavior. Amanda's lies violated the bonds of trust she shared with her fiancé, and so Gary broke off their engagement. The tobacco executives broke their oath to tell the truth, and legal action followed. In broad terms, the lies in both cases were _wrong_ , and were censured as such.
In sum, then, both of these stories, while different in their particulars, fit our common conception of how lying works. One story played out in a private arena, the other in public, but in both cases the structure was the same: atypical individuals employed deception to victimize innocent people and were justly condemned for it. Indeed, because such stories are so remarkable and draw so much attention, they almost _define_ the stereotype of deceit. As with the lies touched on earlier, those of the duplicitous mechanic and the dishonest date, when we think about lying, these are the kinds of dramatic events that shape our impressions. They are also consistent with the "big" deceptions found throughout the history of civilization. Indeed, many of the most notorious historical events—the Greek infiltration of Troy, the Holocaust, the invasion of Iraq—involve deception on a grand scale.
Yet the fact is that most of the lies to which we are exposed on a daily basis, the ones that influence us the most, do not fit the pattern we find in the splashier examples of deception. Indeed, the lies that matter most to our everyday lives come not from compulsive liars or depraved business executives. Extraordinary liars may attract the most attention, but an accurate portrait of deceit reveals that most of the liars in our lives, and the lies they tell, are characterized mainly by how commonplace they really are.
# **Everyday Inventions**
It is probably comforting to believe that we encounter few liars in our daily lives. Perhaps someone with a Machiavellian bent or with psychological problems like Amanda's might lie repeatedly to our face. Ordinary people, though, are less likely to do so. Or, at least, that's what we'd like to think.
This assumption turns out to be wrong. A wealth of psychological research has for decades provided evidence that it's not only the atypically immoral who lie frequently. Indeed, my own research into deception, which has spanned more than four decades now, has repeatedly shown lying to be far more common in daily life than we think. To attempt to find out just how common, I (along with my students James Forrest and Benjamin Happ) conducted a study of more than a hundred people in ordinary social situations. The results of this study have major implications for how we understand the lying in our life—and garnered media attention that ranged far beyond the circles of academia.
The setup of the study was fairly simple. Two at a time, I had participants meet, and I asked these unacquainted individuals to spend ten minutes getting to know each other. I didn't tell the participants, though, that I was conducting a study of lying. Instead, I said I was interested in investigating how people interact when they meet someone new. Something else I didn't mention was that each pair's entire conversation would be secretly videotaped. (Ironically, researchers who study deception end up employing a good deal of it in their research.)
After the conversation finished, I revealed the secret surveillance to the participants. I then asked one of each pair to review the video with me. As the participant watched the video, I asked him or her to identify, moment by moment, any instances in which he or she said something that was "inaccurate." (I purposely didn't ask participants to report "lies," wanting to avoid their becoming defensive or embarrassed and, consequently, not admitting to deception. The term "inaccurate" seemed less charged than "lie.")
There is a difference worth emphasizing between this study and other laboratory studies of deception. Most studies of lying, many of my own included, involve a fairly artificial setup. For example, a participant might be asked to watch a series of short video clips of people describing their upbringing and then identify in which clips participants had been told by the experimenter to lie. That sort of thing doesn't usually happen in real life. However, we meet new people all the time. Maybe the conversations we have with strangers don't usually occur in a small room with a two-way mirror, but meeting and getting to know someone else is a fundamental part of social life. Whatever other conditions my study introduced, at its heart it did seem to reproduce a typical, everyday experience. I hoped, then, that the data I gleaned would be particularly relevant to an exploration of deception in ordinary life.
I did, though, introduce one other twist into the basic structure of the experiment. I wanted to know if the frequency of lying might change with the specifics of the conversation. Perhaps some social interactions were more prone to deception than others.
To try to find out, I told some of the participants to attempt to come off as very likable. In other cases, I told one of the participants to convince the other that he or she was very competent. Everyone else I instructed simply to get to know the other person. I reasoned that while assigning goals to certain people did introduce a slightly greater degree of artificiality into the experiment, social situations in which one person is trying to demonstrate his or her charm or poise to another are very common. And again: none of the people in the study knew I was even interested in lies. As far as the pairs of strangers were concerned, deception had no relevance whatsoever to the study.
The conversations between the participants generally unfolded as you might expect: some initial, tentative "How are you?"s and "Where are you from?"s, followed by a more comfortable exchange of personal details and opinions as the chat got rolling. One conversation between a man and a woman I'll call Tim and Allison was fairly typical. Tim was a college student with a laid-back disposition suggestive of someone at ease with himself. Once he and Allison had gotten a little bit acquainted, he told her about his band.
TIM: We just signed to a record company, actually.
ALLISON: Really?
TIM: Yeah, Epitaph.
ALLISON: Do you sing or...
TIM: Yeah, I'm the lead singer.
ALLISON: Wow!
Another participant, Natasha, also discussed with her partner her musical background, talking about how she entered competitions as a pianist and toured the country with a chamber group. She also managed to weave into the conversation that she'd been a member of her honor society in high school. It was all more or less what you'd expect from two strangers making small talk—one person, directly or just unconsciously, trying to impress another with his or her achievements, or just passing the time by discussing his or her life.
What makes all of the above examples remarkable is that they are all lies. Natasha never toured the country, and never quite managed to be inducted into the honor society. Tim's band didn't sign with Epitaph. In fact, there's no band at all. Tim's musical expertise is limited to, in his words, "a couple chords." And these are only a few examples of what I found to be an extraordinary pattern. Participants in my study didn't just lie occasionally. They lied a lot.
Participants watching themselves on video confessed to lies that were big and small, rooted in the truth and fantastic, predictable and unexpected, relatively defensible and simply baffling. Further, the lying was hardly limited to the participants to whom I had given a directive to appear likable or competent. These people lied with greater frequency, but even those with no specific agenda lied regularly.
All told, I found that most people lied three times in the course of a ten-minute conversation. Some lied as many as twelve times. Bear in mind, too, that after the fact, participants might have been reluctant to confess to their "inaccuracies." This would only lead to an underreporting of the incidences of deception, though. In other words, it's possible that the frequency of lies was even _higher_ than three lies per conversation.
My finding that most people told three lies in a ten-minute "getting to know you" chat attracted national media attention. The _CBS Evening News,_ the BBC, the _New York Times,_ and the _Washington Post_ all covered the story. I was often asked whether my results could be explained by some circumstance unrelated to how people "actually lie" in the real world. Admittedly, it would be easy—and maybe a little comforting—to conclude that the randomly selected participants in my study just happened to be unusually duplicitous. Or one might reason that some factor in my study induced people to lie far more than they normally would. But my later research on conversations between unacquainted strangers has shown, fairly consistently, that they lie to each other about three times every ten minutes, both inside and outside the lab. With apologies to the media outlets that shined a spotlight on my work, the results of this study really weren't extraordinary. They were typical. The extraordinary thing is how much, it turns out, people lie to each other.
High rates of lying are common even outside conversations between strangers, who are unlikely to encounter each other in the future. We might be able to accept that new acquaintances lie to each other with regularity, but we'd think that people with any sort of established social bond would not. Yet this is not the case. Psychologists such as myself have conducted scores of studies examining interpersonal deception: as it plays out in conversations between strangers, as in my study; in interactions between spouses and lovers; within families; and on the job. Lies occur regularly in all such contexts. The exact frequency is difficult to measure. A study like mine works fine to examine interactions between people who are meeting for the first time, but it's not as if this setup lends itself to, say, conversations between a husband and wife in bed.
However, diary research studies, in which participants are asked to record their daily social interactions and indicate which contained lies, show that lying occurs regularly even in the most intimate relationships. Although deception occurs at lower levels between those with a close bond and often involves lies meant to put another person at ease ("Of course you're not putting on weight"), lying is still a routine part of the rapport between spouses, lovers, close friends, and family members. No relationship has been found to be immune to dishonesty.
The weight of evidence is thus compelling and clear: people are lied to with great frequency in their daily lives. While the extent and content of Amanda's deception of Gary may have been extreme, the fact that she lied regularly is not. Lying in our society is not "abnormal." The normal people who fill our lives do it all the time, in all sorts of ordinary interpersonal situations.
The question becomes, Why? Why do people feel compelled to make up bands they don't belong to or honors they never earned? What are the lies that occur so regularly when we talk with someone new—or sometimes even with a person we know well—all about? To put it simply: Why all the lies?
To answer these questions, we'll need to reconsider some of our fundamental ideas about the motivations behind deception. Stories like those of Amanda duping Gary or the seven dwarfs trying to dupe us tend to make us think about lying in terms of what it does _to_ the person who is fooled. The central issue, though, may be what lying does _for_ the person telling the lies.
# **"We Have So Much in Common"**
In the 2002 film _About a Boy,_ starring Hugh Grant and adapted from a Nick Hornby novel, the thirty-something protagonist, Will, pretends to have a son so he can join a single-parents' group to meet women. Predictably, the invention of "Ned" leads to a series of complications and, because it's a Hugh Grant movie, ends up helping Will find love. The trope is a familiar one in romantic comedies: the hero tells a giant lie—about having a passion for dance or a lucrative career—in order to win the interest of some desirable romantic partner.
We probably don't spend much time wondering why a tobacco executive would lie to a congressional subcommittee about the dangers of cigarettes. Nor does it baffle us when a mechanic tells us a replacement part costs three times more than it actually does. While we might question the character of the people who tell such lies, the reasons for the lies themselves seem straightforward. Tobacco executives want to evade a truth that would harm their business and perhaps leave them legally culpable; greedy mechanics hope to bilk ignorant customers out of a few dollars more. Profit, the avoidance of punishment: these are the sorts of motivations we often associate with deception. If we add Amanda's example into our considerations, we might include mental imbalance as another conventionally understood motive for lies.
Yet greed, evasion of punishment, or some degree of insanity are not adequate explanations for much of the lying that occurs in daily life. Unacquainted strangers usually have nothing material to gain or any consequences to avoid through deception. Nor is there profit involved in many of the other interpersonal interactions that make up a typical day, and which researchers have found to be riddled with lies. Conditions like mythomania are very rare; mental problems can account for only a small portion of lies.
Ironically, the fiction of movies like _About a Boy_ may provide more of a clue for the motivations behind the bulk of the deception we encounter than real-life incidents like the tobacco hearing. In the movies, deceptive behavior is exaggerated and played for laughs. Yet using deception to win affection may be so common in the movies because it is so common in reality, too.
To see what does motivate much interpersonal deception, let's examine more closely the lies told during my experiment. As I mentioned, I gave some of the participants particular goals for how to present themselves: some of them were instructed to come off as likable, others as competent. And while participants with no particular goal lied frequently, tellingly, those who had a self-presentation agenda lied more. Tellingly, also, the kinds of lies participants told varied based on their goals.
Let's first consider the participants instructed to impress their partner with their likability. These people tended to tell lies about their feelings. They distorted their true opinions and emotions, often in order to mirror those expressed by their partners. If their partner expressed a preference for Chinese food, for instance, they would claim to like Chinese food, too, even if they hated it. This kind of mirroring behavior is exactly the kind we see enacted for comedic effect in so many movies.
In fact, psychologists have found the mirroring of opinions, even at the cost of the truth, to be a very common strategy for ingratiating oneself with others. The reasoning behind such behavior is rather straightforward. Most people shy away from conflict and disagreement. They build relationships with others based on fundamental things they have _in common._ In order to form a relationship with another person, then, one would want to avoid the areas of dissonance and emphasize the commonalities.
Imagine yourself on a first date. If you find your date charming and attractive, it would be an obvious tactic to try to at least gloss over your disgust for her preferred political party and to maybe feign more interest than you actually have in her discussion of West African folk music. What bears emphasis here is not only that such behavior is common, as psychological research has shown, but also that mirroring of opinion to avoid disagreement and demonstrate similarity is widely considered to be _normal_. If you later tell a friend that you liked your date but spent your dinner with her arguing over politics and expressing disinterest in her hobbies, he might give you credit for honesty, but he would also think you were a complete social moron. Deception is such a common technique for ingratiation that its _lack_ strikes us as aberrant.
Now let's look at the participants in my study I told to try to appear competent. The lies of this group reveal another powerful motivation for interpersonal deception, one more directly psychological than social. Participants instructed to come off as competent tended to lie about their biographies. They invented achievements and plans that would enhance the way they were perceived. They spoke of academic honor societies they didn't belong to and of career ambitions they had no intention of fulfilling. In other words, in order to impress their partners as competent, they made up stories about being competent.
I want to emphasize again that I didn't encourage any of the participants to lie. Indeed, when I spoke with participants with self-presentation goals after their conversations, they reported that they hadn't felt encouraged to be deceptive. Deception was a strategy they selected on their own to achieve their goal. But why would so many people lie to appear competent or likable? Why not "just be yourself"?
We can answer these questions if we consider what "just being yourself" means. Often, when someone gives us this advice, the implication is that "just being yourself" is the simplest approach to any social situation. In fact, "just being yourself," if we examine it closely, turns out to be a fairly complicated process, involving a complex balancing of a range of factors.
To begin with, when we interact with another person, there is always a larger social context that shapes the encounter. If we see a friend at a party, for example, we will speak with him differently than we would if we visited him in his cubicle at his office. The different standards for behavior in the different settings have to be taken into account in the "self" we present to our friend. This self is further shaped by the content of the encounter, emotional or otherwise. If a friend has just lost his cat, we wouldn't be much a friend if we didn't express sympathy; if a friend announces her engagement, we wouldn't be much of a friend if we didn't express joy. Such social standards for how we ought to act are weighed against expressions of our "true" feelings.
Finally, working in conjunction with our sensitivity to context is an almost constant interest in projecting a positive image of ourselves. No matter where we are or who we are talking to, we generally want to show our better qualities. Which of these qualities we express is again influenced by the nature of the interaction we are involved in. For example, our excellent sense of humor isn't much use at funerals, but our caring, sensitive nature is. On the other hand, our sense of humor might be precisely what we want to show on a first date, or to a prospective client.
"Just being yourself," it turns out, takes effort. Indeed, psychologists have long discussed it as something that takes _creative_ effort. Our expression of who we are involves choices that reflect social and interpersonal context, our mood, our personality, our need to maintain our self-image, and on and on. The fact that we are able to perform this process with little conscious effort every day and in nearly every conversation speaks to our vast intelligence as social beings.
Still, if we consider self-presentation as a creative process, we can see how it can easily slide into deception. Again, every interaction involves decisions about which attributes to emphasize and to minimize, which impulses to follow and which to ignore. At some point, we may not be choosing among our actual traits and our sincere reactions. We may simply fabricate the traits and reactions the social situation calls for, or that we think it calls for. In other words, we might lie.
In addition to this, there is another complexity to "just being yourself." We aren't always confident in ourselves. Insecurities are part of human nature. All of us, at times, question our own good qualities—whether we are really smart enough, attractive enough, capable enough. Lying can allow us to navigate social situations in which we don't feel we quite measure up. Like the participants in my study who attempted to appear competent by making up stories of their competence, if we fear we don't embody the qualities a particular situation calls for, we can substitute a fiction that does.
Think back to Amanda and the lies she told Gary about her deceased parent and her battle with cancer. It's probably not a worthwhile exercise to try to draw thirdhand conclusions about why she did what she did. But if we assume that there was at least some element of wanting to win sympathy and admiration, of attempting to present herself in a way that was more appealing to Gary than she believed the facts allowed for, we can identify elements of conventional social behavior in her mythomania.
The key difference, of course, is that Amanda manipulated Gary practically all the way to the altar. Common interpersonal deception is usually far less menacing. Without a doubt, every lie, by definition, involves deceit and implicit manipulation—but that does not mean that every lie is employed in the service of deception and manipulation. When Tim told Allison about his nonexistent band and his nonexistent record contract, he did so without any larger agenda of fooling her into doing this or thinking that. For all he knew, he would never see Allison again. Tim's lies seemed to involve Allison only secondarily. His primary goal seemed to be fostering his own persona or addressing his own insecurities when meeting a new person. To put it simply, Tim's lies were about _Tim_.
We now see how another aspect of the conventional conception of lying is debunked by reality. Stories like that of Amanda and of the seven dwarfs of Big Tobacco make us think of lying as a tool used to victimize or exploit ordinary people. More commonly, though, ordinary people use lying to quell their own insecurities, to build a friendship, or to avoid a disagreement.
Sometimes, too, lying can be used within a conversation to benefit the conversation itself. There are times in any interaction when a strict adherence to the truth would only interrupt its natural flow, probably needlessly. When a friend wants to tell you about the great time he had in Montauk over the weekend, and asks you, "You know where Montauk is, right?," it borders on the pointless, not to mention the tedious, to stop his story and find out exactly where the town might be. The conversation goes much more smoothly if you nod, and say, "Oh, sure, Montauk." I call such deception "lies of social convenience." These lies grease the wheels of social discourse. They are not about fooling someone or achieving illicit gain. They are a tactic to make communication easier, or sometimes even possible.
As we will discuss more fully in future chapters, psychologists have found an association between socially successful people and skill at deception. In other words, popular people, for whatever reason, tend to be good liars. While it is easy to exaggerate the meaning of this finding (we can't say, for instance, that popular people are popular _because_ they are good liars), it can be argued that an ability to lie is a valuable social skill. Consider whether you would really want to form a relationship with someone who pointed out every area of disagreement or could not convince you of his feigned interest in your hobbies. In many ways, deception is not so different from tact; indeed, one could make a case that sometimes they are actually one and the same.
Regardless of the terminology we apply to interpersonal deception, it's important to recognize that it is both a common and an accepted feature of ordinary conversation. Strict honesty is often directly opposed to what we consider to be standard social behavior. Lying, as strange as it sounds, is more normal.
But if lying is more frequently used to keep a conversation moving than to cheat or manipulate, this raises an important question: Does lying matter as much as we think? Perhaps, since there are no obvious victims to much deception, its frequency in our culture should not be so alarming. Maybe lying, outside of the kind practiced by Amanda or the seven dwarfs of Big Tobacco, doesn't really matter so much.
This line of thinking may be comforting, but unfortunately it is also misleading. While many lies don't cost us money or happiness, they do cost us _something_. The idea that some don't is surprisingly common, though. Many of us like to think that there are lies that are so insignificant, they aren't even really lies at all.
# **The Myth of the Little White Lie**
We have seen how deception is pervasive in daily life, but not deception as we commonly think of it. A coworker may claim to like the Yankees in order to steer clear of an argument about the Red Sox. The woman in line ahead of us at Star-bucks may feign a familiarity with our company to avoid the inconvenience of saying that she's never heard of it.
When I tell people that ten-minute conversations often include three lies, and sometimes more, they are usually shocked. But when I explain the function of these lies, the shock gives way to a kind of ambivalence. "But those are just little white lies," I've been told more than once about some of the more common forms of interpersonal deception.
This is what I call the Myth of the Little White Lie. According to this myth, "little white lies" are not the same thing as "real" lies. "Little white lies," like a lie of social convenience or the "My pleasure" we hear on receiving our dry cleaning, are so negligible—or so the myth says—that they shouldn't even be grouped with lies like those of the seven dwarfs. "Real" lies are bad: they cost money or cause pain. "Real" lies are morally wrong. "Little white lies," by (somewhat circular) definition, don't hurt anyone.
Unfortunately, the Myth of the Little White Lie is basically a fairy tale. Although "little white lies" may be less egregious than "real" lies, they still—like all deception—involve _some_ degree of victimization. If a lie succeeds, someone is always fooled. And, crucially, even if the target of the lie doesn't know this, the liar does.
Bella DePaulo, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her students have found repeated and consistent evidence that lying—even "white" lying—takes a toll on the teller of the lie. Lying can cause a "twinge of distress," in DePaulo's words, making liars feel a little worse than they did before they told a lie. Further, this coloring of mood can last even after the conversation has returned to more honest territory. The sum effect of this is what DePaulo calls an emotional "smudge" on the interaction. Conversations involving lies are less warm, less intimate, less comfortable than those that are more honest.
The common lies in everyday life may not hurt us in an easily measurable way, then. But they have the effect of making everyday life that much less friendly. This is the cost of living in a society so prone to deceit in so many of its aspects: our life is often smudged. The accumulation of these many smudges can erode our trust in one another, it can make us cynical about our media and government, it can make us generally less attentive to the world around us. Whatever our particular response to the lies in our lives, the fact is that we have one. All lies have an impact. It's probably fair to say that some have a greater impact than others, but given their volume, not even the smallest lie can be wholly ignored.
Furthermore, when people find out they are being lied to, the effect is immediate and almost always negative. In a study I conducted in which participants learned that they'd been lied to during a conversation they'd just held with another person, these participants immediately formed a negative impression of the individual who had lied to them. Their conversational partner was seen as untrustworthy, unlikable, and generally more devious. But here's the most insidious consequence: those who were duped typically began to increase the level of _their_ lies in a subsequent conversation with the person who lied to them. In short, lies—even the tiny white lies of everyday conversation—beget more lies.
In making the argument that all lies are consequential, we need to consider both the reasons lies occur in nearly every walk of modern life and the effect those lies have on us. As we will see in later chapters, the effects are not exclusively negative—or, at least, they are often no more negative than a strict adherence to honesty might be. As with a lie to keep a conversation moving, some deception can be extremely helpful in accomplishing goals that are essential to an individual's or society's continued functioning.
On the other hand, we will also consider the toll lying takes. Lying can often be more expedient in the short term, but ultimately, in the long term, it may present more social and psychological difficulties than it solves. Furthermore, an analysis of the conditions under which lying promotes or deters effective social interaction must consider the moral and philosophical implications of lying, which we'll also address in future chapters.
First, though, let's examine an aspect of deception we have so far ignored. We've been looking at lying as something we recognize. Very often, though, this is not the case. We've already seen how many of our preconceived notions about deception—who practices it and how often and why—are incorrect. There's another, essential piece to how we think about lying, though: our reaction to it. In the chapter that follows, we'll consider why lies fool us and what we might do to better detect them. As we will see, however, our opportunities to accomplish the latter are very limited—not least because, in some cases, we _want_ to live with lies.
# CHAPTER 2
# The Liar's Advantage
Alexi Santana's application to Princeton University must have stood out right away. Rather than include an essay about a backpacking trip across Europe or the stresses of a private school education, Santana discussed his life as a parentless ranch hand: sleeping outdoors, teaching himself the great works of world literature, and running for miles in the Nevada wilderness. An admission officer's dream, Santana was accepted into the class of 1993. He became a standout on the track team and took six or seven classes a semester, earning mostly A's. He even won admission to one of Princeton's most prestigious eating clubs. As if following the plot of a Hollywood movie, it seemed the self-taught ranch hand had made good at one of America's finest universities.
Then, at a Princeton-Harvard-Yale track meet, a Yale senior recognized Alexi Santana. But she didn't recognize him as Santana. She recognized him as James Hogue, an ex-convict in his thirties who had posed as a high school student in Palo Alto years earlier. As the situation unraveled, the picturesque stories of Alexi Santana's youth were all revealed to be inventions—intended, apparently, to entice an admissions office looking for geographic and economic diversity in its freshman class. Hogue's admission was quickly revoked, and he was eventually jailed for defrauding the Princeton student-aid office of financial assistance.
Although what Hogue did is clearly extraordinary, it's not exactly unprecedented. Although (fortunately for us) extremely rare, stories of con men establishing phony identities for themselves go back hundreds of years. In the nineteenth century, a Scot named Gregor MacGregor claimed to be the prince of a fictional Central American nation called Poyais. He sold titles to land in Poyais, and even convinced European settlers to sail across the Atlantic to establish colonies there. Wilhelm Voigt, an undistinguished German shoemaker, put on a captain's uniform and led a group of soldiers to occupy the small town of Kopenick in 1906. He had the mayor arrested and seized money from the local treasury before being found out. More recently, Laurel Wilson, an American woman born in 1941, claimed to be Lauren Stratford, a survivor of a satanic cult ritual. After that story was exposed, she later posed as a Holocaust survivor named Laura Grabowski.
You could write volumes about the pathology of people like James Hogue—what compels them to deceive, how they live with their fabrications, what their "real" motivations are. The causes underlying impostorism, which we will discuss more fully in Chapter 8, remain a topic both fascinating and elusive. Many psychologists would argue that the perpetrators themselves don't even really know why they've carried out their deceit.
Yet perhaps the most compelling aspect of deceivers like James Hogue is not their underlying motivation but that such impostors can succeed at all. Indeed, an incredible part of James Hogue's unlikely story is that for so long, _he got away with it._ Consider what Hogue accomplished: he moved to a community of some of the brightest minds in the country and integrated himself into a social group composed largely of people nearly half his age. He didn't keep a low profile, either: he joined the track team and an eating club; he had roommates; he even hosted small parties for select female classmates. Yet it took a stroke of extraordinary luck (good or bad, depending on your perspective) for his deception to be uncovered: someone from the other side of the country recognized him from years before. Professors, coaches, classmates, and deans at this Ivy League university were all fooled.
Still more surprising is the fact that Hogue was far from the polished, unflappable charlatan we expect from movie and television portrayals of con men. Just the opposite, in fact: he exhibited some of the most stereotypical "clues" to deceit. He avoided eye contact. He was vague about the specifics of his past. He made extraordinary claims, such as that he'd done stunts for a movie about skiing. In retrospect, it's startling—to us and probably to those who attended Princeton with him—that James Hogue passed as Alexi Santana for so long.
Hogue's success, though, illustrates an essential truth about deception, one we rarely recognize. We usually think that successful lying is difficult. Confident in our ability to sort out what's true and what isn't, we are unnerved when we discover that we've been lied to. We speak of "good" and "bad" liars, ascribing to the former group unusual skills that allow them to pull off the difficult feat of fabrication.
The story of James Hogue suggests something else entirely, something supported by my own and other research: lying is easy. It doesn't take a slick con man to fool dozens of the brightest, most educated people in the country. And it doesn't take unusual calculation and self-control to fool people in the kind of interactions we have on a daily basis. Think back to the experiment that I discussed in the first chapter, in which I studied conversations between strangers and found that they lied to each other about three times every ten minutes. The last time you had a chance encounter with a stranger, did he or she lie to you three times? You would probably say no, but my research and other studies suggest that the answer is yes. Most likely, you simply didn't notice the deception.
The question is, Why not? Why didn't someone at Princeton catch on to James Hogue? Why do we believe it when someone says our pants don't look too tight, even when we struggled to pull them on? Why can't we tell when a colleague's praise about job performance is hollow? In short, why can't we detect deceit?
The answer: the Liar's Advantage. This is my term for the range of factors, some large, some small, that give liars a leg up in getting away with their deception. If we want to understand why so much lying occurs in modern society, it's essential that we understand the many components of the Liar's Advantage. After all, if every time a lie was told—if even most of the times a lie was told—it was uncovered, lying would probably be a lot less frequent. In reality, the Liar's Advantage allows the bulk of lies to pass unnoticed. Consequently, people can, and do, lie with regularity.
As we explore the Liar's Advantage, we will see how more of our basic assumptions about deception are false. We will see why you need not be a silver-tongued salesman—or a calculating sociopath—to dupe people in significant ways. And we will also examine how a large piece of the Liar's Advantage comes not from the liar but from the person being lied to. Startlingly, it turns out that often we don't notice lies because we don't want to notice them.
# **Truth Detection**
As we begin to discuss the Liar's Advantage, let's examine this notion that lying is easy to get away with. When you first read that assertion, did you believe it? Or did you think, "Other people might not be able to spot a liar, but _I_ can?"
The latter sentiment is the typical view. A friend of mine, a middle-aged woman named Maura, told me how she recently warned a new boyfriend, "Don't bother lying to me, because I'll just know." And she is certainly not the only person I've met who sees herself as virtually immune to deception. Study after study has shown that most people have a great deal of faith in their ability to catch a lie, to sense fabrication. Even if we don't share Maura's level of confidence, few of us think of ourselves as pushovers, easily susceptible to cons and dishonesty.
But do we really know when we're being lied to? When it comes right down to it and someone lies, do we "just know," like Maura claims she would? In 2006, Texas Christian University professor Charles Bond and Bella DePaulo of the University of California at Santa Barbara tried to answer this question. These two leading researchers into deception wanted to determine how good, statistically, people are at judging when they're being told a lie. Analyzing tens of thousands of individual performances, Bond and DePaulo found that people can differentiate truth from lies only 47 percent of the time. In other words, we are actually a little _worse_ at figuring out when someone is deceiving us than we would be if we just guessed randomly. Bond and DePaulo's research suggests that we might just as well flip a coin to decide if what we're hearing is the truth.
The difficulty of detecting deceit is shown even more starkly when you examine those with a professional interest in catching liars. We tend to assume that certain people—police officers, detectives, FBI agents, and others involved in the criminal justice system—are exceptionally good at determining when they're being lied to. The media has fed this perception for decades. In the hard-boiled crime novels of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler and the film noir adaptations they inspired, it is a measure of the PI heroes' long experience that no one can "put one over" on them—that is, get away with lying to them. More recently, television shows like _24_ and _Law and Order_ depict interrogators who can spot a suspect's lies without fail. A recent James Bond film, _Casino Royale,_ featured 007 using his exceptional lie-detection skills to compete in a high-stakes game of poker.
While we probably don't expect anyone to have Bond's preternatural expertise in detecting deception, we do assume that truth detection "experts"—those with training and practice in spotting a liar—can identify deception with great consistency. After all, detectives' jobs (not to mention our peace of mind) depend on their knowing whether someone is telling the truth or lying to cover up a recent liquor store heist.
But just how reliable are lie-detection experts? Researcher Paul Ekman of the University of California in San Francisco and colleagues Maureen O'Sullivan and Mark Frank decided to measure their performance. Selecting as their subjects members of groups like polygraph administrators, judges, psychiatrists, and police officers, they sought to test people, in the words of their study, "who have a specialized interest, and presumably more experience, in detecting deceit." The researchers showed these professionals a series of short video clips. Each clip featured the face of a young woman as she described her reaction to a film she was watching. Sometimes the woman was watching a soothing nature film, other times a gruesome horror movie. Regardless, she talked about how enjoyable it was to see scenes of nature. Could the police officers and the rest tell the difference between a clip of a woman honestly describing her reactions and a clip of a woman lying about them?
Ekman's findings were a little unsettling. Most of the trained and experienced lie catchers didn't do much better at selecting the lying women than if they'd used the coin-flipping approach. Of the groups studied, only Secret Service members demonstrated any particular lie-detection aptitude. The rest—polygraph administrators, cops, judges—were no better than ordinary people at detecting deceit. In other words, they were not very good at all. And while we might like to think that the performance of the Secret Service is attributable to the intense training its agents receive to ferret out people who make serious threats against government officials, it may be more likely that a statistical anomaly within the study masked the same incapacity at recognizing lies that every other group showed.
The implications of Ekman's findings to our legal and justice systems, for instance, are serious. Consider the case of Richard Jewell. During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Jewell, working as a part-time security guard, noticed a suspicious-looking backpack on the Olympic grounds. He immediately notified police and began evacuating the area. The backpack exploded moments later, and Jewell's quick thinking probably saved scores of lives. Yet in the days following the bombing, Jewell went from hero to pariah, as he became the FBI's chief suspect in the case. Despite Jewell's repeated denials, despite a total lack of evidence, the FBI spent months investigating Jewell: ransacking his residence, questioning friends and acquaintances, keeping Jewell under twenty-four-hour surveillance. It was months before Jewell was formally cleared, and years before the real Olympic bomber was identified. The FBI's inability, as an institution and on the level of individual agents, to recognize that Jewell was telling them the truth—that he in fact tried to thwart the bombing—cost Jewell his good name and wasted untold resources while the real bomber was still at large.
When we realize that even those with "specialized interest" in identifying deception usually can't do it right more than half the time, we begin to appreciate the true difficulty the average person has in spotting lies. In Ekman's experiment, the subjects knew that they were supposed to be on the lookout for liars. Even then, they weren't very successful in finding them. In our daily lives, no one taps us on the shoulder and says, "By the way, one of the people you are about to meet is going to lie to you." It becomes clearer and clearer how James Hogue, a man in his thirties, was able to pose as a college freshman. We are just not very good at knowing when someone is lying to us.
This forms the first element of the Liar's Advantage. It represents a fundamental reason why liars succeed in deception: spotting a lie is difficult. Very often, federal agents and judges can't do it; you and I can't do it; and probably my friend Maura can't do it as well as she likes to think.
Our poor performance at catching lies probably shouldn't surprise us as much as it does, though. To explain why, let me share a brief anecdote: A few years ago I decided to take up golf. So I went to the local course and rented a club and paid for a bucket of balls. Then I spent the next hour hitting golf ball after golf ball after golf ball off the tee. After every shot I would watch the path of the ball, then adjust my swing accordingly. The fact that I never picked up a golf club again should tell you how much my practice paid off, but my golf game isn't the issue here. What's important is the method: in order to get better at swinging the golf club, I would take a swing and watch the ball to evaluate my performance.
Now let's go back to lying. Let's assume that lie detection is a skill like any other. The way you acquire and improve upon a skill is through practice. I wanted to learn to play golf, so I practiced. How, though, does one practice lie detection in ordinary life? You might try to pay attention to every statement you hear, and assess whether or not it's true—but the problem is, _how do you know if you're right?_ You could ask every person you encounter, after everything they say, whether or not they are lying, but they could easily just lie again—and moreover, doing so wouldn't make you many friends. So you might suspect that someone is lying to you, but there is virtually no way to find out if your suspicion is correct. It's as if when I tried to learn to golf, I played in the dead of night. I could take swing after swing after swing, but without seeing where the ball went, I would have no way of knowing how I was doing. With catching a liar, we can make guess after guess after guess about what is true and what is not, but we rarely, if ever, know when we're right. Thus it's very hard to build our lie-detection skills. Keep in mind, too, that even those who presumably do get some feedback on their deceit detection—FBI agents and detectives and other such experts—still aren't very proficient.
Identifying a lie is difficult to practice and difficult to master—a tougher skill to acquire than even a good golf swing. This forms a significant piece of the Liar's Advantage. In a sense, liars exploit one of our weaknesses, challenging us to use an ability we often don't possess. The difficulty in catching a lie raises an obvious and urgent question: How _can_ we spot a liar? What clues to deceit can we look for? Unfortunately, in asking this latter question—or, rather, in assuming there is an answer—we have already made another miscalculation that contributes to the Liar's Advantage.
# **The Averted Gaze**
Let's return to the image of the iconic con man, the one we get from movies like _The Sting_ and _Ocean's Eleven_ (or _Twelve_ or _Thirteen_ , for that matter). In such works of fiction, the hustler is portrayed as unflappable, glib, always one step ahead of anyone he is trying to con. The implicit idea is that to pull off deceit, you need the aplomb (and maybe the wardrobe) of George Clooney.
But as we have seen, it's easy to get away with a lie: we're usually worse at identifying dishonesty than we'd be if we guessed at random. So why does the media offer these depictions of ultraslick liars? And, more importantly, why do we respond to them?
The answer has to do with a very common and deeply in-grained myth about liars. We take for granted that liars usually exhibit some signal that they are lying. And we assume it takes extraordinary poise _not_ to show these signs. Subsequently, anyone who can tell lies without it being written all over his or her face must be worthy of portrayal on the silver screen. They must have the cool befitting a movie star.
The underlying assumption at work here—that there are frequently clear and noticeable signals that someone is lying—forms an essential piece of the Liar's Advantage. We think that when someone tells a lie, there are red flags: A person lying will avert his gaze. He'll shuffle his feet or drum his fingers. Perhaps his face reddens. If it's a particularly big lie, he might even start to sweat. When we don't see these red flags, we often conclude that the person is telling the truth.
To see how all this functions as part of the Liar's Advantage, let's consider one red flag in particular: the averted gaze. Charles Bond, a researcher I mentioned earlier, conducted a study in which investigators asked over two thousand people in scores of different countries what they look for to tell someone is lying. The most frequent answer was the averted gaze. Clearly, the idea that liars shift their eyes in the course of deceit is widespread and crosses most borders.
But is it true? Startlingly, it seems that "gaze aversion," as psychologists call it, is not, in fact, related to deception. Numerous researchers have conducted experiments, and all conclude that a shifted gaze is not a telltale sign of a liar. Gaze aversion may signal other things—such as submissiveness, an association dating back from our animal ancestors, who signified their deference by looking away—but it is unrelated to lying.
Yet the stereotype that gaze aversion signals deception remains a powerful one. I had a colleague whose husband avoided almost all of the social events in academia—receptions, parties, graduations—that most spouses attend (if grudgingly). The first few times I did meet him at such an event and tried to engage him in conversation, he made little eye contact. He simply would not look me in the face, instead looking off to one side or the other. Despite my best intentions, I couldn't help but feel that the husband was a dishonest and shifty guy, someone who could not be trusted.
I later found out that my colleague's husband had a deeply rooted social anxiety disorder that led him to dread social situations. His evasion of eye contact signaled only that he felt extreme unease and apprehension when having to carry out conversations with people he didn't know.
The power of the gaze aversion stereotype is so great that even after I learned the true reason behind his behavior, I was still unable to shake the initial suspicion that he was lying to me. And as a psychologist I knew full well that the link between gaze aversion and deceptiveness is a myth!
Just as we cannot conclude that an averted gaze necessarily signals deceit, we also cannot conclude that the _lack_ of an averted gaze signals honesty; this also holds for the lack of a sweaty brow or a hunched-over, tense posture. Experts on deception have concluded that there are no physical tics that universally signal that a person is lying. Individual differences in how people lie are strong. One person might blink rapidly when she lies; another might stare at you, taking elongated pauses between blinks. Further, practiced liars learn their own giveaways (or the conventionally assumed giveaways, like gaze aversion), and teach themselves to avoid them.
To understand how difficult it really is to tell, from someone's behavior, if he's lying, consider polygraph machines. Movies like _Meet the Parents_ suggest that if you want to know if someone is telling the truth, all you need to do is hook him up to a polygraph. The suspect's lies will be recognized by the machine's instruments, and his deceit will be uncovered.
This is a compelling idea, of course: a mechanical Pinocchio's nose, revealing beyond any doubt when someone tells a lie. Despite the media myths, though, polygraphs are not actually "lie detectors" in the strictest sense. They don't buzz when someone tells a lie or ring pleasantly when someone tells the truth. Instead, the polygraph is predicated on the idea that when people lie, they experience anxiety. Anxiety is connected fairly strongly with a range of physical responses—a pounding heart, an elevated pulse, sweating, heavy breathing. It is these responses that a polygraph machine measures.
The earliest polygraphs, developed around the turn of the century, were little more than elaborate blood pressure monitors—an elevation in blood pressure was interpreted as a signal of anxiety and, hence, deception. Modern polygraphs are far more sophisticated. They record a range of physiological responses simultaneously: monitors on the fingers track the activity of the sweat glands; tubes around the chest measure changes in breathing; a blood pressure cuff is used to note changes in pulse and blood pressure. The polygraph thus functions under much the same principle we use when we look into a person's face to determine if he or she is telling us the truth: lying triggers detectable physical signals. A polygraph machine is really only a scientific tool for picking up these signals.
Because humans are such poor detectors of lies, a machine that can do it for us holds obvious appeal—provided it actually works. And this, it turns out, is the problem. Though the poly-graph is still in wide use, its effectiveness is far from certain.
Although many studies have concluded that polygraphs work more than 80 percent of the time, a recent report issued by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council questioned the value of much of this research. As the report said, "The general quality of the evidence for judging polygraph validity is relatively low: the substantial majority of the studies most relevant for this purpose were below the quality level typically needed for [federal] funding." And even if you accept the figure claiming above 80 percent accuracy (and many researchers do not), that still means that one out of five times, the polygraph yields a false result.
This is troubling when you consider that polygraphs are used by the police to determine guilt or innocence, and by federal agencies to ferret out moles. Yet cases of polygraph failures abound. For example, Aldrich Ames, the American spy who sold Cold War secrets to the Soviets, passed multiple polygraph tests while acting as a double agent. Eleven CIA operatives were killed as a result of Ames's continuing duplicity. In another case, Gary Leon Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, passed a polygraph when he was a suspect in the murder of his fourth victim. Set free, he went on to kill another forty-four people. And Charles Cullen, a nurse, was convicted of killing dozens of his patients via lethal injection. After the death of his first victim, police suspected Cullen of foul play, but he cleared himself by passing a polygraph test.
The flaw with polygraph machines is that what is true of the averted gaze is also true of the physiological responses a poly-graph measures: they are not always connected to lying. If you ran up five flights of stairs and then sat down for a polygraph, everything you said would look like a lie, because you'd be panting, sweaty, and your heart would be pounding. The physical signs of exertion are often the same as the signs for anxiety. More to the point, if you were extremely nervous while you took a polygraph—but only because you'd been wrongfully arrested for a triple homicide—your physical responses would still look like deception on the machine's instruments. The polygraph can record only that a subject is anxious; it can't determine _why._ Think back to the example of my colleague's anxious husband. Just because you are showing signs typically associated with lying doesn't mean you're lying. This remains the inherent flaw of polygraph machines. The National Research Council report on polygraphs states it clearly: "Although psychological states often associated with deception (e.g., fear of being judged deceptive) do tend to affect the physiological responses that the polygraph measures, these same states can arise in the absence of deception. Moreover, many other psychological and physiological factors (e.g., anxiety about being tested) also affect those responses. Such phenomena make polygraph testing intrinsically susceptible to producing erroneous results."
The report thus acknowledges that people sometimes show signs of nervousness even when they're telling the truth. By the same token, people lying sometimes don't show signs of nervousness. We are wrong to assume that everyone who lies feels guilty or anxious about it. Liars can rehearse their fabrications to the point where repeating them becomes second nature, an automatic response that elicits no particular physical arousal. Further, we have all known people who lie to themselves as well as to us. These individuals can embrace a lie so fully that it seems to supplant the truth even in their own minds. (We'll look more closely at this type of lie, and this type of liar, in Chapter 8.) The essential point is that while you and I might feel nervous when we lie, that feeling is no more universal than the averted gaze. And as Aldrich Ames showed, even if 80 percent of liars exhibit signs of nervousness, the detection gaps remain extremely significant.
The shortcomings of the polygraph have led scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs to explore new lie-detection technology. After all, there is money to be made: the polygraph business brings in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Over the last decade, several tools have been celebrated as the key to unlocking the secrets of honesty and deception: electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring of the electric activity in the brain; thermal imaging, directed at the observation that sometimes people's eyes heat up when they lie; and, more recently, functional MRI scanning, which shows the flow of blood in the brain. All of these technologies have demonstrated flaws, though. The electric signal the brain gives off when someone lies can't be distinguished from other signals, undermining the effectiveness of the EEG. The eye-heating effect thermal imaging traces is actually just another indicator of nervousness, not necessarily of deception. And while the brain scans of the functional MRI have shown promise, there remains much debate over whether the brain processes deception in a way that is significantly different from how it processes other types of thoughts. Ultimately, as the National Research Council report declares, no alternative technology "has yet been shown to outperform the polygraph."
For the foreseeable future, then, the tool used by the government to identify spies and by the police to identify killers remains the polygraph—one that is "intrinsically susceptible to producing erroneous results." Considering that the best science can offer in the way of physiologically based lie detection is decidedly flawed, it shouldn't surprise us that our own efforts to discern a liar from how he or she acts are often futile as well. And remember that in a setting in which a polygraph is used, the entire focus is on whether a certain person is telling the truth. In our daily lives, our attention is far more divided.
The lack of reliable physical clues to deception contributes to the Liar's Advantage in two ways. First, and simply, since there are no universal behaviors that signal deception, liars can't be given away by them. Most liars don't do anything in particular when they lie. This makes it easier for them to pass off their deception as truth. Second, and more subtly, we think there _are_ physical clues to deception. We rely on stereotypical behaviors like the averted gaze to help us spot dishonesty. In effect, we're waiting to hear an alarm bell that doesn't exist. And because we don't hear it—because the liar we're talking to doesn't shift her eyes or mumble or blush—we fall back to our erroneous default position: she must be telling the truth. This faulty assumption—that a _lack_ of certain behaviors signals a _lack_ of deception—forms a key component of the Liar's Advantage.
Clearly, the absence of telltale signs of deceit also contributes to the first aspect of the Liar's Advantage discussed earlier: that we are pretty inept at determining when someone is lying. Yet there is more to the Liar's Advantage than our ability (or inability) to spot deception. To understand the next part of the Liar's Advantage, we'll return to James Hogue, alias Alexi Santana, Princeton class of '93.
# **The Truth Bias**
So far, we've been examining the physical dimensions to lie detection. "Look me in the eye and tell me that!" is the old adage for detecting deceit. It is also an adage that neatly encompasses many of the common notions about lies: that there are physical signals to deception, that these signals often occur in the eyes (in the form of an averted gaze), and that with a long, hard look, we can know if someone is lying. We know by now that all of these notions are mistaken. Yet the difficulty of noticing a lie goes beyond what we do, or do not, see in a person's eyes or face. The Liar's Advantage, it turns out, extends even into the very way we think.
To begin to understand how, write down a list of all the conversations you had today. Include conversations in any form—through e-mail, on the phone, face-to-face—and of any length. The pleasantries you exchanged with the tollbooth worker on your morning commute count as much as a long talk with your spouse. If you spoke with the same person twice—say, with a coworker in the morning and then again later in the afternoon—that counts as two separate conversations.
Now look over the list and put a check mark beside every conversation you had during which you wondered if the person you were conversing with was lying. Note that this isn't a question of whether, in retrospect, you now believe someone could have been lying to you. Make a check only if you _considered at the time_ whether your partner in the conversation was lying.
Unless your job involves collecting homework or evaluating felons for parole, you probably haven't made a lot of check marks. Most of us, in fact, don't spend a lot time in our daily lives wondering, "Am I being lied to?" What's interesting about this is that, as we know by now, we are lied to fairly regularly. Yet look again at your list—if you're like most people, you never even considered whether the person on the other end of the phone or across the kitchen table or e-mailing you from Cincinnati was being honest. You just assumed it.
This psychological phenomenon, in which we assume that we aren't being deceived, is known as the _truth bias_. The truth bias means that rather than objectively judging the honesty of those with whom we interact based on their behavior and what they say, our default belief is that they're telling the truth. Someone needs to give us a compelling reason to think they're lying; otherwise the idea never occurs to us. Recent thinking in the psychological community suggests that the truth bias operates as a judgment heuristic. _Judgment heuristic_ is the term research psychologists use for a cognitive rule of thumb. Judgment heuristics simplify the world for us—rather than assess every situation based on all the available information, we use subconscious mental rules to make quick determinations about things. The truth bias is one such mental rule. It lets us get through the day without scrutinizing the face of the gas station attendant giving us directions or assessing the potential ulterior motives of the man on the train platform who tells us the Patriots won last night. We lead our daily lives with the belief that most people are being honest with us.
When you think about it, it isn't difficult to see why we need a truth bias. Who wants to spend their day wondering if even the most straightforward information they've been given is a lie? Many people don't even count the change they get at the convenience store. Who, then, would take the time to wonder whether the clerk _really_ heard that it's going to rain tomorrow? The truth bias makes daily interactions a lot simpler.
Remember, though, that the truth bias functions as a judgment heuristic—a cognitive rule of thumb we aren't really conscious of utilizing. Indeed, the usefulness of judgment heuristics is that we _don't_ have to think about them. The effect of this, though, is that judgment heuristics like the truth bias can operate in unexpected ways.
A pair of Japanese researchers, Toshiji Kawagoe and Hirokazu Takizawa, conducted an experiment that measured the effects of the truth bias. The experiment involved having two people compete in simple word games. The details of the games are less important than two essential points: First, within the games, the two people were adversaries—one would win, the other would lose. Second, Kawagoe and Takizawa explained to both players that the person playing the role dubbed "sender" could, if he chose, deceive the other player. This deception would give the sender an advantage, if he could get away with the deceit.
What Kawagoe and Takizawa wanted to know was whether the other player would trust the sender. We'd probably expect that he wouldn't, given that he knew the sender had motivation to lie. The surprising result that Kawagoe and Takizawa found, though, was that the other player _did_ in fact trust the sender, accepting what he said within the game as credulous. The truth bias trumped the suspicion that the opposing player had every reason to feel toward the sender. Kawagoe and Takizawa found that even when two people are pitted against each other—even when both know that one has both motive and opportunity to trick the other—there is still a strong bias toward trust and belief.
This gives us an idea of the truth bias's unexpected strength. It is not something we can switch on and off, even when logic would suggest we should. The truth bias is like any unconscious bias—it affects our behavior in ways we don't expect and can't easily control. For instance, several years ago I was stopped at a red light in New York City when a man in a suit tapped on my window. He told me that he was a lawyer who had been mugged, his wallet, car keys, and cell phone stolen. He needed twenty dollars, he explained, to contact his family and pay for a train ticket home. If I gave him my address, he assured me, he would repay me. I gave him the twenty dollars. Needless to say, I am still awaiting repayment.
Everyone to whom I tell this story says, "You should have known better." In retrospect, it does seem foolish to have given money—along with my home address—to a total stranger. But the fact is, like the rest of us, I was operating under a deeply in-grained truth bias—a bias that Kawagoe and Takizawa found could indeed trump logical suspicion.
Another of our cognitive processes also contributes to the Liar's Advantage—and it frequently works in concert with the truth bias. To explore this idea, let's return to a scenario I touched on earlier: someone wondering whether a convenience store clerk _really_ heard the weather report. Let's imagine there's a man out there who is actually suspicious enough to consider that question. And let's imagine that this man—let's call him Sherlock—is equally suspicious of everyone he interacts with; in whatever conversation Sherlock engages, with whomever, he is always wondering if he is being told lies. Sherlock wonders whether his daughter really needs a ride home from soccer practice later that day. Sherlock wonders if the man at the newsstand really did just sell his last copy of the _Times_. Sherlock isn't convinced by his coworker's remark that he'll be ready for lunch as soon as he gets off the phone.
Besides leading a fairly unpleasant life—trusting no one, questioning everything—Sherlock would also probably find himself mentally exhausted by lunch—unless, of course, he were a fictional detective. For us in the real world, it takes cognitive energy to consider ulterior motives and hidden agendas, to scrutinize every single phrase for fabrication. This fact contributes to the Liar's Advantage.
While we're often curious and engaged by the world, we're also careful with how we spend our mental energy. For instance, when we walk down the street, we don't examine every crack in the sidewalk, every car on the road, the face of every person we pass, the shape of each cloud in the sky, the path of every bird. First of all, we'd never make it to the corner. But also, we simply don't have the cognitive capacity to consciously consider every aspect of what we encounter. We pay attention to a few things and don't spend much time thinking about the rest.
This model of thought considers us _cognitive misers_. The cognitive miser model holds that we typically spend as little mental energy as we can on various situations and social interactions. To put it simply, we can be mentally lazy. We try to figure things out as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Our imaginary scenario of a man who questions everyone suggests how the cognitive miser model adds to the Liar's Advantage. To scrutinize a statement for the truth takes mental energy—and we like to save our mental energy when we can. This allows liars to float beneath our cognitive radar. They may lie to us, and we may simply be too cognitively miserly to try to consider whether they did. Assuming we're being told the truth saves our mental resources for other things—thoughts about work, about family, about the crossword puzzle.
Of course, we're not always cognitive misers. If we're in a situation of high concern, one that focuses our attention—perhaps we're questioning our teenage son about just how a bottle of vodka came to find its way under his bed—our cognitive miserliness will be put aside, and we'll focus on ferreting out the truth. But most of the time we're a lot more mentally lazy, and the cognitive miser within us significantly lowers our level of curiosity about whether we're hearing the truth.
As we can tell by now, the Liar's Advantage is fairly significant. First, we're not very good at recognizing lies, and we don't get much chance to practice. Second, it's often impossible to determine whether someone is lying from their gestures or facial expressions. Third, we all operate under a powerful truth bias that gives liars an immediate edge in duping us. Further, we're often disinclined to spend our cognitive resources to even consider if we're being lied to. Yet there is still another element to the Liar's Advantage, perhaps the most important of all. This element turns on its head many of our basic beliefs about why people tell lies and why they get away with them.
# **The Willing Accomplice**
I take piano lessons, and despite my better judgment, periodically I participate in recitals with my fellow students. Following every one of my performances, my piano teacher praises my playing. No matter how many mistakes I make, no matter how much my execution varies from recital to recital, I'm always told I did an excellent job. And despite my "Aw, shucks" protests, I'm always pleased to hear it—more than willing to accept that once again, yes, I did an excellent job.
This is the kind of deception we're likely to encounter in our everyday lives. The fact of the matter is, we'll probably never meet someone using a false identity. James Hogue could pose as Alexi Santana for so long in part because—in addition to all the reasons we've discussed—people so rarely fabricate their entire life story, down to their name. No one at Princeton was on the lookout for a thirty-one-year-old posing as a freshman, in great part because such an occurrence is far beyond the norm of typical behavior.
Deception in general, though, is not exceptional. The deception we're regularly exposed to is not the fraudulent variety of James Hogue but, rather, interpersonal lies told by those we meet and those we know well. Many lies serve only to keep a conversation moving—to grease the wheels of social discourse. Other lies mostly relate to the liar—to make him or her appear more appealing or successful in the short term.
We make a mistake if we think that all lies are of the James Hogue variety. Most lies aren't part of a grand web of deception, and many lies are far less calculated than we might assume. Further, not all deception even serves the needs of the person doing the lying. Consider, for example, how my piano teacher tells me I did an excellent job after every piano recital, regardless of my actual performance. That's a kind of lie we're all told from time to time: the false compliment. We say that our child looks great with his new hair color; we say that our friend got a great deal on her SUV; we say that our coworker really deserves a promotion.
False compliments are lies, but the liar is not telling them for malicious reasons. Usually, the motivations in giving a false compliment are both immediate and benign: the falsehood is designed to make the recipient of the lie feel good or to avoid hurting his feelings.
We hold a common conception of deceiver and deceived: that the latter is a victim of the former. But when we consider false compliments, we see how this conception is too simple. Often, we lie because we _don't_ want to victimize, through the use of a harsh truth, those we're lying to. In order to spare their feelings, we lie to them. Even when we spare their feelings for selfish reasons, to avoid the fallout of telling the truth, the effect is still to support and encourage the person being deceived.
The fact that some lies benefit their recipient underscores another piece of the Liar's Advantage. Think about being on the other side of a false compliment, as the recipient instead of the teller. How motivated are you to find out that yes, you have been putting on weight? Or that no, you really don't deserve a promotion and a higher salary? Or that this time, your playing in the recital was clearly mediocre? If you're like most people, you're not terribly vigilant in uncovering your flaws, mistakes, and shortcomings. And because certain lies protect us from these harsh realities, we don't scrutinize them.
Perhaps the most important piece of the Liar's Advantage, the factor that prevents a lie from being uncovered, is what I call the _Willing Accomplice Principle_. The Willing Accomplice Principle states that sometimes we simply don't want to uncover a lie. It's not only less strenuous cognitively, it's also more flattering and comforting to accept certain statements at face value. With regard to false compliments, we all want to believe the best about ourselves. Hence, we tend to be unsuspicious of those who seem to believe it, too.
This seems like an obvious point: when a lie flatters us, we don't spend much time trying to determine whether it's true. But like the truth bias, our tendency to believe lies that make us feel good may operate more powerfully than we might expect.
How strong is the bias toward believing statements that flatter us? Roos Vonk, a social psychologist at the University of Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, designed a series of clever experiments to try to answer this question.
Vonk realized that it can be difficult to isolate from other factors the role flattery plays in gaining trust. For instance, imagine you've just been introduced to your brother's fiancée. The first thing she tells you is that your brother never told her how good-looking you are. Naturally, you believe her! The reasons you believe her, though, are a little fuzzy (psychologists might say that there are too many "relevant variables," but they really mean fuzzy). Maybe you believe her because it's important to get along with your brother's future wife, and so you're inclined toward liking—and therefore trusting—her. Maybe you believe her because you already know you're good-looking, and we tend not to scrutinize information that conforms with our preconceived notions. Maybe you haven't seen your brother in a while, and there is a lot you want to ask him and his fiancée. Like any cognitive miser, you're not going to focus your thinking on a passing compliment.
Vonk wanted to construct a situation in which none of these other explanations would be relevant. He wanted to know to what extent we are more inclined to believe flattery just because it's flattery—not because of our vanity, or who is doing the flattering, or the other things on our mind when we hear it. He wanted to test the power of compliments to win trust with as much specificity as possible.
Vonk's experiment worked like this: He told the participants in his study that he was doing research into how people collaborate and form impressions of one another. To that end, he had each participant sit alone in a cubicle and take a personality test. Afterward, he told them that another group was going to read the results of the personality tests, and write up descriptions, evaluating each participant as a potential partner in a supposed later stage of the study. The trick Vonk pulled was that there was no second group and no later stage—Vonk's real interest was in how participants judged the descriptions.
These descriptions, ostensibly based on the results of the personality tests the participants took but actually written by Vonk and his assistants beforehand, read like this:
I understand that I will work with [participant's name or other name]. I have seen her test results. I noticed that we have the same ideas about many things. Especially in how we deal with other people we are very much alike. It seems to me that anyone can get along with [name], but I will certainly get along great with her myself. I'm very glad that I will work with [name] because we seem to be so similar. And I'm sure that she will take her responsibility very seriously and that she'll do an excellent job at whatever it is we're doing, because she seems to have many talents. Also, she seems like a great person to go out with or to talk with, but anyway, that's not the issue now. I think she'll find the right way to do the task. She's given many responses that appeal to me. All in all, my impression is that she's a really nice person, easy to get along with, and someone who has many qualities. I'm looking forward to meeting her.
Sometimes the name in the description was the participant's name; other times it was a name of someone the participant didn't know. The participants were asked to evaluate the person who had written the description on a number of criteria, such as "sincerity" and "sliminess."
Vonk added a number of twists to this basic setup. He told some of the participants that the author of the description believed that her financial compensation for the experiment was being determined by the participant. Hence, the participant believed that the author of the description had a financial motive to offer false praise. In some cases, Vonk told the participants that they would later meet the description's author. Vonk also asked questions about the participant's mood to see if that made any difference to how they assessed the author of the description.
Adding all these different wrinkles to his study allowed Vonk to discover that participants who read their own name in the description evaluated the author as more honest and more credible than those who read someone else's name in the same description. In other words, participants who were flattered believed the author was sincere; those who weren't flattered were skeptical. And unexpectedly, Vonk found that this was true regardless of whether the participants thought they would ever meet the author, regardless of the participant's mood, his or her self-esteem, or the amount of compensation the participant believed the description's author stood to earn through false praise.
Our impulse to trust flattery turns out to be extremely strong. Vonk's study suggests that you would have believed the compliment from your brother's fiancée even if she wasn't your brother's fiancée, if you'd never met her before and would never see her again, if you were in a terrible mood, if you hated your looks, or even if you knew that she could make some money by flattering you. Vonk's surprising results indicate that even weighed against all that, you'd still believe the woman who said she thought you were good-looking.
Our need to receive praise and tame our insecurities seems almost automatically to trump a healthy skepticism. Our bias toward believing compliments seems to operate a lot like the truth bias: it isn't something we can turn on or off depending on the situation. To a certain degree, it's as if I can't help believing my piano teacher's praise of my playing.
Our complicity with liars isn't limited to explicit personal praise of the variety Vonk studied. For the same reasons we're almost uncontrollably trusting of compliments to ourselves, we're also given to believing compliments about our work, our children, and our possessions. Indeed, the partnership we sometimes form with liars in our acceptance of their deceit can be very broad and have great implications.
Let's examine the Willing Accomplice Principle, about our readiness—even eagerness—to be deceived, in another context. Imagine that a real estate agent is showing you a house. Not surprisingly, the real estate agent is falling all over herself praising it: the condition of the roof and the flooring, the neighborhood, the size, the value—all first-rate. You know enough to be skeptical of someone with an obvious financial motive in your purchasing the house, but there's a problem: you love the house, too. What's more, you've been looking for the right house for months, this one is in your price range, and it's just a quick commute away from work. If you are like most people, your initially skeptical assessment of what the real estate agent says probably begins to change: instead of being on guard against deceit, you will start to _want_ to believe her.
In this way, we enter into a kind of unstated conspiracy with liars. In the case of the real estate agent, there is tangible benefit on both sides to believing her description of the house: she gets a commission, and you get a house you want. The situation is really fairly similar to that of a false compliment. When my piano teacher tells me I did a great job playing, she saves herself the awkwardness and guilt of disparaging my performance, and I get to walk around thinking about what a great piano player I am.
This point is so straightforward that it is often overlooked, but it forms an essential component of our complicity with liars. In many cases, a liar and the target of the lie both benefit from the lie's success. Given this, it is not hard to see how powerful our own contribution to the Liar's Advantage can be. If a liar can hit upon deception that we'd like to believe, too, we're both—liar and target of the lie—hoping on some level that the lie won't be revealed for what it is. Now _that_ is a significant edge in pulling off deception.
This characterization of deceit—in which liar and target of the lie both have an interest in the lie succeeding—is far different from the typical conception of how fabrication operates. We usually imagine deception along the lines of the story of James Hogue. In such circumstances, one person is the liar, and the other—or others—are victims. Again, though, incidents of large-scale deception like that committed by James Hogue are the exception. Far more common is deception that follows the Willing Accomplice Principle. Consider how many false compliments you give—and likely receive—every day.
This raises an obvious question: If so many of the lies we hear are ones we embrace, perhaps we should be less concerned with deceit? The fact that we're accomplices in so much deception signals that we're already more enmeshed in it than we usually acknowledge. However, simply because lies sometimes stoke our egos does not mean we should uncritically accept them. Consider again the scenario of the real estate agent praising the house you want to buy. In the short term, you are willing to accept her lies about the house because you are already inclined to buy it. In the long term, though, accepting what the real estate agent says at face value could prove very dangerous. However much you'd like to believe that the house has been cleared for termites by multiple inspectors, this is an assurance that demands scrutiny.
On a larger scale, consider the collapse of the subprime real estate market in 2008. Lenders extended loans to those with terrible track records of repayment. There was mutually convenient deception on both sides: borrowers with miserable credit assured lenders that this time they would repay their loans; lenders assured borrowers that astronomical interest rates wouldn't lead them to financial ruin and eventual default. Both sides had a financial stake in allowing the deception to continue. Economic forces, though, rarely tolerate such arrangements. The (now seemingly inevitable) collapse of the subprime market triggered global repercussions that are still being felt.
Although it seems clear in retrospect that vigilance in seeking the truth would have been appropriate, the problem is that the cognitive rules we play by—the truth bias, the trust in flatterers that Vonk explored, our need for cognitive efficiency—are not ones we can easily alter. Just as there is no way to explain to someone else all the kinds of lies we'll accept, and all the kinds we don't want to hear, we can't really make this explanation to ourselves, either. The Liar's Advantage, then, can seem in some ways permanent. It exploits mental processes over which we largely have no control.
Nonetheless, the Liar's Advantage is only that—an advantage. While it gives liars a leg up on deceiving us, it does not mean we are bound to be always fooled—assuming, of course, that we don't want to be fooled. Acknowledgment of the true complexity of deception—that it is more often practiced by piano teachers with their students' complicity, rather than con artists pulling the wool over the eyes of an entire university—is a good first step toward gaining a better handle on the deceit that surrounds us. It is also helpful to consider where our notions about deception come from. Why do we assume that liars always deceive us maliciously? Where do our misconceptions about the averted gaze come from? Why aren't we more aware of our own role in successful deception? The next chapter takes up these and similar questions, as we explore the lessons children learn about lying.
# CHAPTER 3
# Deception 101: How Children Learn to Lie
Testing day at Forest Brook High School in Houston probably was not what George W. Bush had in mind when he signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated periodic competency testing. Some students taking the high-stakes Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test in March 2008 were sitting close enough to share answers. In another classroom, a proctor read a newspaper while students took the test, and students left the room for bathroom breaks, unaccompanied by proctors. In a third classroom, students talked to one another before handing in their answer sheets. Overall, the testing took place in a chaotic atmosphere.
Perhaps the incidents at Forest Brook simply indicated administrative disorganization. But the history of testing at Forest Brook suggests otherwise. Until 2005, Forest Brook was another urban school with a dismal record of failure. Suddenly, though, its TAKS scores soared, and 95 percent of eleventh graders passed the state science test. The students at Forest Brook became poster children for the benefits of school reform, brought about by a partnership of its teachers and students.
If it seemed too good to be true, it was. After an exposé by the _Dallas Morning News,_ it became apparent that the rise in scores had more likely been brought about by systematic subterfuge than true academic improvement. Investigators came to believe that some teachers doled out answers to their students during the test or later changed their students' answers. When the state assigned independent monitors to oversee test administration the following year, the science scores plummeted, with only 39 percent of students passing. Indeed, testing irregularities were identified at hundreds of schools in Texas, and in the fallout of these revelations teachers and administrators were fired, suspended, and demoted.
Testing was the centerpiece of the No Child Left Behind Act: The results of the competency tests would then be used as a yardstick to determine school success. Schools that performed poorly would face penalties such as teacher or administrator firings or, in extreme cases, takeover by the state.
No Child Left Behind, which also promised schools billions of dollars in new federal funding, received bipartisan support. Even lawmakers who traditionally opposed increases in federal money for education lined up behind the act, attracted by the new accountability schools would face in keeping up their test scores. Our culture is one that customarily judges performance in numerically quantifiable terms: movies are hits if they earn a lot of money in ticket sales; politicians are doing well if they are ahead in polls; CEOs are successful if they drive up their company's stock price. Perhaps it was inevitable (or unavoidable) that schools would start to be assessed in the same way.
Further, tying a school's future to its students' test scores apparently has a track record of success—at least inasmuch as raising the scores on those tests is concerned. (Whether standardized test performance really ought to be the measure of an education is an argument for a different book.) Many schools have reported dramatic increases in test results when these results had consequences for teacher employment and school funding.
There is a problem underlying this emphasis on test performance, though, one that relates not to the fairness of tying an entire school's destiny to a standardized test but, rather, to the integrity of the test performance itself. Students and teachers might respond to higher-stakes testing with increased study time and effort. Or they might respond by cheating.
Raising the specter of cheating is not just a matter of cynicism. Research shows that students cheat, and cheat frequently. A 2006 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics examining 36,000 high school students found that 60 percent of them cheated on a test during the previous year, and 35 percent of them did so more than once. A third of them admitted to plagiarizing material from the Internet. A separate study of 4,500 students conducted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University found even higher rates of cheating. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed by McCabe admitted to cheating on an exam or a test.
Cheating, then, is not an aberration. These studies suggest that it is typical, a practice the vast majority of high school students engage in. And McCabe also found another surprising result, one particularly relevant to a discussion of how cheating might undermine the results of mandatory tests such as those required by No Child Left Behind. McCabe determined that while 90 percent of teachers reported knowing that cheating was occurring in their classrooms, a third of them took no action to prevent it.
Given these attitudes, it is easy to see how cheating could skew the results of standardized tests. And in many cases when jobs and funding were on the line, cheating is exactly what occurred. State officials in Mississippi had to throw out test results in nine different schools after evidence of widespread cheating emerged. In Arizona, test results were discarded across nine school districts where teachers had read portions of tests to students in advance or had given them additional time to finish. In 2005, an Indiana third-grade teacher was suspended when administrators discovered her practice of tapping her students on the shoulder when they marked an incorrect answer.
Recent years have seen cheating scandals in schools from New York to Florida to California. Importantly, in nearly all these instances the cheating was collaborative—teachers worked with students in achieving dishonest results. In some cases, teachers would give students the actual tests to study from ahead of time. In other instances, teachers would simply write correct answers on the blackboard while students took the test.
Indeed, the origins of deception in children almost always involve a relationship between the child and someone else. As in the cheating scandals discussed above, the relationship sometimes seems clear: adults use their influence to guide children into dishonesty. We often assume children are indoctrinated in dishonesty, in overt or subtle ways, by more morally compromised grown-ups. Many children, at least, seem to take this view. In his study of high school students, McCabe found that the most common reason students gave for their cheating was the example set by adults. Yet this conception is probably too simplistic. Even parents who stress the value of honesty the most frequently find that their children lie to them, and to others, with regularity.
Just as the uses and purposes of lying by adults are complex, deception as practiced by children is no different. The dishonesty on tests like those mandated by No Child Left Behind turns out to be one of the simpler forms it takes. Like adults, children lie for a range of reasons and in a variety of circumstances—and, surprisingly, their lying may actually be a by-product of their increasing cognitive and social sophistication, which in other manifestations are welcomed by their parents.
# **Don't Peek!**
A five-year-old boy we'll call Jonah is facing a dilemma. He had just been playing a game with a friendly-looking woman. As she explained it, the game sounded easy. She would play the sounds of toys behind Jonah's back, and all he had to do was guess what each toy was. The initial two sounds were easy for him to identify. The first was the sound of a fire engine—simple enough to match with a toy truck. The second sound was a recorded voice saying, "To infinity and beyond!" As Jonah knew, this is the motto of Disney's Buzz Lightyear.
The sound of the third toy, though, left Jonah stumped. It was a simple melody that Jonah couldn't associate with any particular toy. Just as he was about to give up, the woman playing the sounds was told by an assistant that she had a phone call. She prepared to leave Jonah alone in the room, instructing him not to peek at the mysterious toy behind his back while she was gone. As she left, she warned him again, "Remember, no peeking!" For a minute or so, Jonah held out, but finally the temptation was too great. He turned around and saw that the toy was a Barney doll. Then he heard the doorknob rattling, and he turned back around quickly. The friendly woman returned to the room and asked him if he had figured out what the toy was. He happily declared that it was a Barney doll. Then she asked him, pointedly, whether or not he'd peeked—and Jonah had his dilemma: to lie or tell the truth.
At the beginning of the chapter we discussed some of the statistics that reveal the high rates of cheating that occur among high school students. While the ubiquity of cheating is probably surprising, the fact that it goes on may not be. Our preconceived notions about teenagers probably allow for the fact that they cheat in high school. As any teenager who has been followed around an electronics store by a salesclerk can tell you, adult attitudes toward "children" once they reach thirteen are less than wholly trusting. But let's turn the child development clock back a few stages and look at our attitudes toward younger children.
The idea of young children as innocents, unsullied by the experiences of later life, is a common one. It also has an impressive philosophical pedigree. Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that young children are, by nature, virtuous and good. "There is no original perversity in the human heart," he asserted; the "perversity" that people acquire comes from the corrupting influences of society.
American culture in particular seems to embrace Rousseau's ideas about the innate goodness of children. Our educational system, with its emphasis on creativity and individual attention, is largely based on the idea that a child's natural disposition is toward the good. Further, unlike in, for instance, Scotland, where children are punished as adults starting at the age of eight, our justice system grants younger members of society special leeway, as if crime is not indicative of the true nature of their characters.
This attitude is reflected in the views of many parents I speak with, who believe that their children possess an innate, and powerful, moral compass. "My children don't lie," I've been assured by many a kindergarten mother. When we look into the face of a child, it's hard to believe he or she could be capable of the cunning, much the less the malice, we generally associate with deceit.
However, developmental psychologists who have been studying questions of deceptive behavior in children for decades would argue differently. Indeed, what they have found stands in contrast to the simple goodness we typically attribute to young children. One of the primary tools psychologists utilize in studying childhood deception involves what's called the "temptation resistance paradigm," or, in simpler terms, "peeking experiments." It is in such an experiment that Jonah finds himself in the scenario described at the beginning of this section. Peeking experiments can have many variations: they can involve flash cards, or cloths covering the toys, or different types of cautions about peeking. At their core, though, the scenario is always the same: a child is tempted into looking at something he or she has been instructed not to, and then the experimenter confronts the child to see if he or she will lie about the behavior.
The specifics of the experiment described above are derived from a study conducted by Victoria Talwar of McGill University, in Montreal. And the results of her study, broadly speaking, are typical for peeking experiments. Of the more than one hundred three- to seven-year-olds Talwar studied, 82 percent peeked at the third toy. (Talwar intentionally used a sound that had no connection to the actual toy, in order to induce children to peek.) And of those who peeked, the vast majority lied about it. Depending on the variation of the peeking experiment, sometimes as many as 95 percent of the guilty peekers lied.
The peeking experiment demonstrates that young children are not as honest as we might like to think. As with teenagers cheating on tests, the typical behavior in scenarios like the peeking experiment is for children to lie. The fact of childhood deception is not limited to the lab, either. Observed in preschool or elementary school, interacting with peers or with their parents, most children lie. Lying is not limited to any particular demographic, either. Children from upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class backgrounds lie. Girls lie as well as boys. Children at all IQ levels lie. And children of all cultures lie; there is nothing about modern Western society that induces more dishonesty than that found in children in the developing world or in Eastern cultures.
Deception in children is common enough, in fact, that psychologists have been able to identify clear patterns in how children lie as they age. Verbal lies start in most children around the age of three, though in some children they can occur as early as two. Lying typically accompanies children's understanding of the fact that their parents have rules and that there are punishments associated with breaking them. The earliest are almost reflexive attempts to avoid these punishments. In other words, the first lies children tell are often of the "I didn't do it" variety. Importantly, these lies are as unsophisticated as the phrasing suggests. A three-year-old will claim "I didn't do it" even in the face of clear evidence that he or she broke the vase, hit the sibling, or ate the last cookie. Three-year-olds have the ability to feign denial, but not the understanding or insight to make this denial believable.
Children's lies become more nuanced around the age of four or five. The indiscriminate "I didn't do it" is replaced by the more calculated "The dog did it." (We will discuss why children are able to take this step in deception later in the chapter.) Also, it is around the age of four that children begin to tell social lies, such as those discussed in the first chapter. As children begin preschool and have greater peer interaction, the need for lies that ingratiate or boost a fragile ego increases. Again, in these early forms such lying is crude, but it often serves the same psychological needs as adult lying. Whereas an adult may brag about exaggerated success at work, a child may brag about a trip he took to hunt down the Loch Ness monster.
By kindergarten, most children also start to engage in the socially useful (and, as we saw in the previous chapter, psychologically powerful) practice of false flattery. Kang Lee, director of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, and Genyue Fu of Zhejiang Normal University, in China, asked a group of children aged three to six for their opinions of drawings, both when the artist was present and when the artist was absent. The three-year-olds didn't alter their judgments of the drawings when the artist was there to overhear their evaluations; they were simply honest in their criticism or admiration. The five- and six-year-olds, though, praised drawings more in the presence of the artist. By this age children have the social wherewithal to use deceit to shade their own opinions.
Clearly we can see that as children grow up, the lies they tell become increasingly complex. In less than three years, they move from basically transparent attempts to escape blame to subtle maskings of their true opinions that reference the sensitivities and egos of others. And there is also another important way in which childhood deception alters with age.
I conducted a study of childhood deception involving three age groups: first graders, seventh graders, and college students. I gave participants in each group two different drinks to try; one tasted pleasant, the other like cough medicine cut with gasoline (at least, that's how Kool-Aid without the sugar tastes to most people). I told the participants that their goal was to convince an interviewer that they liked the repulsive drink as much as the good one, as they might if they were acting in a commercial. I videotaped their reactions and descriptions of the two drinks, and then showed these videos to a group of adult observers.
The observers could usually tell when the first graders had tried the unpleasant drink. Despite some attempts at masking their displeasure, their puckered lips and frowns gave them away. The seventh graders, though, consistently fooled the observers. Their lies about how the drink tasted were successful. And the group of college students dissembled so successfully that they convinced many observers that they were tasting the good drink when, in fact, they were tasting the bad one.
This study shows a clear progression, one that is echoed in many other studies and that parallels the development in complexity of the lies children tell as they age: the older children get, the _better_ they are at lying, to the point where eventually their lies become indiscernible from the truth. A lot of parents claim that lying is something that children grow out of. In fact, the opposite is true: children grow _into_ lying, learning to become more thoughtful and more nimble liars as they make their way into young adulthood.
For decades, surveys of parents have shown that honesty is the trait they most hope their children will display. How, then, to account for the fact that children become only more adept at dishonesty as they grow up? There are a number of answers to this question, which we will explore in the following section. Perhaps the most important, though, is one we have already seen throughout our discussion of deception in our lives: while adults may pay lip service to the value of honesty, their behavior often sends a more ambiguous—and even contradictory—message.
# **Model Liars**
Once upon a time, a young boy named George Washington was given a new hatchet. Eager to try out his new toy (child safety standards were different then), young George chopped down a cherry tree. When George's father saw the dead tree, he was horrified. He confronted the future Founding Father and demanded to know whether he was the one who had cut down the tree. George declared, "I cannot tell a lie!" and confessed. George's father wasn't angry, though. He explained that George's honesty was more valuable than any tree, and forgave him.
Or so the legend goes.
The story of George Washington and the cherry tree remains a popular one in elementary schools across the country. And why not? It adds a patriotic flourish to a lesson every child is taught from preschool on: don't lie. Yet even this seemingly straightforward tale contains ambiguity with regard to the truth. Scholars agree that the legend of Washington and the cherry tree is just that: a legend, one invented by an ex-parson-turned-bookseller in his nineteenth-century biography of the first president.
Teaching our children a made-up story to instill in them the value of honesty is in some ways emblematic of society's larger lessons to children with regard to truth and lies. Even when we feel we are being clear, the message is often mixed. Perhaps this shouldn't surprise us. As we have seen, our own relationship with dishonesty is more complex than we generally acknowledge.
It's important to keep this complexity in mind when examining how children learn to lie. Many children have heard the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Many others have also heard stories with parallel morals, such as those of the boy who cried wolf or Pinocchio. Yet as common as these stories may be, children's exposure to lies is probably much more frequent—daily at minimum. As we've seen, lies are a common feature of everyday life. A parent tells her boss that she's as sick as a dog and can't come to work, yet makes an amazing recovery as soon as she puts down the phone. A father tells his son he's too tired to play with him, yet later goes out to a bar with his friends. A mother assures her neighbor that she loves her new lawn gargoyle, then tells a friend that it looks hideous.
Children are witness to these lies. We might like to think that preschool children can't recognize fabricated evening plans or a false compliment, but within a few years these are just the kinds of lies children themselves are telling. Mirroring others' behavior—what psychologists refer to as _modeling_ —is a powerful aspect of child development. We may _tell_ children that honesty is more valuable than any cherry tree—but their observations and experience show that dishonesty is an important part of social life, too. It probably shouldn't surprise us so much to hear children lying in the service of their social and psychological needs. They are only doing what their parents, teachers, aunts, and uncles do.
I call the people who, through their actions and behavior, implicitly teach children to lie, _Model Liars._ Model liars don't set out to teach dishonesty, but because children see them lying and observe the benefits that lying brings, the message is clear: lying works as a social tactic.
Of course, children's lies don't always reflect a deliberate effort to manipulate others. As we have seen, despite our conventional conception of deceit, the bulk of lies we encounter don't have a malicious character—they serve to mask an insecurity, keep a conversation moving, avoid offense. This is true of the lies children tell, as well. Because their thinking is immature, children's lies are often more blatant—again, they'll lie about a hunt for the Loch Ness monster instead of inflating their title at work. Nonetheless, their primary concern is not usually to manipulate or defraud their fellow kindergartener, any more than this is the intent of the woman in line ahead of us at the movies who fibs about her résumé.
It may be possible, then, to reconcile the fact that children do lie frequently with our image of them as innately good (or, at least, largely better than most adults). Lying is not necessarily evidence of wickedness. It's merely evidence that children are human beings too, and, in social situations, employ some of the same tactics as their elders.
There is also another important way in which children are led to deceit by the example, and even the explicit instruction, of adults. To understand how this occurs, imagine that you are the parent of a child involved in the flattery experiment I described earlier. Your kindergartener is being asked to evaluate a series of drawings, sometimes with the artist present, sometimes not. When sitting across from the creator of a drawing you know your child hates, would you really want your child to be honest? Or would you hope your child would do the polite thing and couch his true opinions with some false praise?
These are difficult questions because parents want their children to be honest _and_ polite. Often, though, these two values come into conflict. For young children, it's not easy to grasp the nuances of situations in which they are "supposed" to lie. A preschooler might be defensibly confused when she is punished for lying about eating Grandmother's freshly baked cookies, then is punished again for being honest about how unhappy she is to receive Grandmother's hand-knitted sweater. While eventually children do, usually with the help of their parents, master the art of "little white lies," this simply means they've mastered a form of deceit. Despite the stories we tell children, then, the fact is that there is honesty we punish and deception we encourage.
The message of honesty we preach to children is further undercut by the fact that adults themselves don't always practice it—not only in conversations with other adults but also in their dealings with children. I think any parent would confess to having lied to his or her child at some point. Often, these lies are intended to protect the child from a harsh or complex truth. When Jamie Lynn Spears, the then-sixteen-year-old star of Nickelodeon's popular series _Zoey 101_ , revealed she was pregnant, parents across the country were faced with some very difficult choices about what to explain to Zoey's young fans. We probably couldn't blame a parent who lied to his or her young child rather than elucidate some of the finer points of conception and teen pregnancy. While some of the lies parents tell are more self-serving—used to steal a few minutes' peace after a long day or simply to evade a discussion of why the sky is blue—many falsehoods are told in the name of good parenting. Children often do lack the mental and emotional sophistication to comprehend issues of death, sex, and violence that lying shields them from. Unfortunately, when children realize they have been lied to, the motives behind the deception are often less important, and less comprehensible, than the fact of the deception itself. Even parents with the best of intentions can end up signaling to their children that lying is an acceptable practice.
When one examines the broad range of exposure children have to the practice of dishonesty, we can see why they lie with the frequency they do. They overhear the adults in their lives, their models for more sophisticated social and mental behavior, lying to one another regularly. Their parents and teachers often explicitly instruct them to lie when civility demands it. And they themselves are lied to, often by the people they trust most in the world.
However, as we've discussed, the bulk of the lies children tell are told without malice. Moreover, it is overly simplistic to view the manifestation of deceit in children in a wholly negative light. Sometimes, a lie means a child has learned to be polite. Or he or she can be demonstrating a sensitivity to someone else's feelings. Importantly, too, we can tell something significant about the child who lies: not necessarily that he or she is "dishonest" but, rather, that he or she has made an important advancement in mental aptitude.
Specifically, a crucial step in children's mental growth is their development of what's called _theory of mind_. Theory of mind doesn't refer to a theory held by psychologists to explain a particular phenomenon. Rather, it is a set of ideas that every one of us holds about how the human mind functions. But theory of mind is not something that we're born with. Instead, it gradually develops as our cognitive abilities become more sophisticated. Before children develop a theory of mind, they have little awareness of the consciousness of other people. Their theory of mind represents their comprehension of how both they themselves and other people think: that people have beliefs, intentions, desires. Prior to theory of mind, children see the world only from their own perspective. What they see, think, and believe they assume everyone sees, thinks, and believes.
Rudiments of a theory of mind begin to emerge after infancy. For example, by preschool age, children can distinguish between something in their minds and physical actuality. A three-year-old knows that he can imagine something that is not physically present, such as a zebra, and that others can do the same. A three-year-old can also pretend that something has happened and react as if it really had occurred. This skill becomes part of their imaginative play, as well as a crucial building block for their earliest attempts at deception.
There are limits, though, to young children's theory of mind. Although three-year-olds understand the concept of "pretend," their understanding of "belief" is still not complete. The difficulty experienced by three-year-olds in comprehending "belief" is illustrated by their performance on what's called a false-belief task. In a typical false-belief task, preschoolers are shown a doll named Maxi who places chocolate in a cabinet and then leaves. After Maxi is gone, though, his mother moves the chocolate somewhere else. After viewing these events, a preschooler is asked where Maxi will look for the chocolate when he returns. Three-year-olds answer (erroneously) that Maxi will look for it in the new location. In contrast, most four-year-olds correctly realize that Maxi has the erroneous false belief that the chocolate is still in the cabinet, and therefore that's where he will look for it.
Lying, of course, beyond the crudest forms, demands an understanding of the concept of belief: that what a person thinks is true is not the same as what is true. Hence, a child who successfully lies demonstrates that he or she has mastered a crucial element of theory of mind. Indeed, telling a plausible lie shows a great deal of sophisticated thinking: an awareness of the beliefs of another person, an ability to manipulate those beliefs through language, and an understanding of what another person might regard as credible. In a sense, then, lying represents an important cognitive milestone.
Further, what's crucial to keep in mind as we assess children's deception is that they arrive at the milestone divorced from its moral implications. Concepts of morality, of right and wrong, involve a whole other order of thinking beyond theory of mind, one that many children have yet to master. Children have the cognitive skills to lie before they have the cognitive skills to comprehend that it is "wrong." For many of them, lying closely resembles playing make-believe, an activity that also allows them to explore their understanding of theory of mind. They do learn quickly that lying is disapproved of in a way that playing make-believe is not—but, as we have seen, they also learn that this disapproval is far from unqualified.
Indeed, for children with certain kinds of developmental disabilities, the inability to lie can be viewed as a symptom of the disorder. The best example is children with autism, a profound disability in which children exhibit language difficulties and such social deficits as the inability to recognize and respond to others' emotions.
Parents of children with autism often report that their children are simply incapable of lying. While at first glance unrelenting honesty might be seen as a virtue, in fact it is at the heart of the social difficulties children with autism experience. For instance, playing children's games becomes an impossibility if the games require children to engage in pretend play. Children with autism are thought to lack a theory of mind allowing them to understand that others have their own perspectives and emotions. In order for a child with autism to lie, they have to understand that two different perspectives are possible simultaneously: the true one ("I broke the lamp") and a false perspective ("Someone else broke it"). Not only are children with autism unable to imagine that false perspective, but they may be unable to understand that the perspective that others hold is different from their own. The inability to understand that multiple perspectives exist makes them feel that what's in their own mind ("I broke the lamp") is apparent to everyone else.
Consider the irony of the situation. Honesty in children with autism is viewed as a manifestation of their disorder. Subsequently, autistic children who were originally unfailingly honest but have begun to show signs of lying effectively are considered to be showing improvement in their condition. Once again, the view that honesty is good and lying is bad proves flawed.
# **The Lovable Liar**
The daughter of an acquaintance of mine began dating a boy who—at least in her father's view—was a total loser, unworthy of his daughter's affections. The suitor, sixteen years old, didn't do well in school, and he had a large group of friends who were constantly in trouble in school. Yet the daughter—an honor student and all-around high achiever—was entranced with him, despite the fact that she'd caught him in a lie on more than one occasion. And even her father had to admit that there was a certain charm to the boy, who, when he visited the daughter, was unfailingly polite to the father.
We don't usually think of charm and deception as being tied together, and yet that's certainly the case with adults. As I mentioned in Chapter 1, there's a clear connection between skill in lying and more general social aptitude, at least for adults. For adults, good liars also tend to be good at forming friendships, to be more empathetic, to have greater social insight. But does the same hold true for children and adolescents? Is convincing lying associated with a broader array of social skills?
In order to answer the question, I conducted a variation on the experiment with the sweet and bitter drinks I described earlier. In this case, I examined older children, using adolescents aged eleven to sixteen as the participants. As before, I had the adolescents drink and describe both drinks, falsely claiming to like both equally. I videotaped these responses, then showed them to a panel of observers, asking them to judge whether the adolescents actually liked the drink or if they were lying. But in this study, I looked more closely at the participants to get a sense of their social skills. I asked the adolescents' parents and their teachers to rate the participants' social skills, to estimate how many friends they had, and to indicate how many different activities they participated in; from that information I constructed an index of the adolescents' popularity.
As in the previous iteration of the experiment, I found that the older the children were, the better they were at convincing the observers that they liked the awful drink as much as the tasty one. Apparently, skill in lying continues to grow well into adolescence. But the more intriguing result was that the greater the social competence of the adolescents, the more successful they were at deceit. Just like adults, the more popular adolescents were better able to fool the observers with their lies than the less popular ones.
After the study was published, it garnered some attention in the national press, but the results were twisted into a more sensationalistic form. Generally, reporters used a hook claiming I had discovered that lying makes adolescents more popular. That claim is misleading. My study didn't show that adolescents are popular _because_ they lie. My study showed that adolescents who are good liars are also successful in other aspects of social life. The results are correlational, not causal, as psychologists like to say. Think of the distinction this way: socially successful adolescents tend to be good liars, and fire engines tend to be red. We can't conclude from these statements that adolescents are socially successful because they're good liars any more than we can conclude that a truck is a fire engine because it's red.
The connection between lying and social aptitude in adolescents is real, though, and has several possible explanations. It may be that socially competent adolescents are better liars because they have more opportunities to practice their deception. Since they are socially competent, they have a lot of friends, and in interacting with all these people, they have ample opportunity to hone their lying skills. Adolescents who are less socially competent, on the other hand, have fewer friends, and so fewer chances to practice deception. It is also possible that socially competent adolescents are more comfortable with social situations in general, and this comfort allows them to be relaxed enough to pull off a lie. As we've seen from the previous chapter, anxiety is the foremost clue people look for in detecting deception.
Yet neither of these explanations seems fully satisfactory. First, just because an adolescent is socially competent does not necessarily mean that he or she has more social interactions (and so more opportunities to practice lying) than an adolescent with less social competence. Social incompetence doesn't mean an adolescent can't have an after-school job, play a school sport, or come from a large family. Such a teenager, on balance, would probably have more social interactions than a socially skilled teenager who is an only child and spends time after school studying. Second, comfort in social situations is not, as we have seen, a prerequisite for pulling off a lie. Indeed, many people lie because they _aren't_ comfortable in social situations.
Perhaps the best explanation for the connection between social skills and deceit becomes clear if we don't draw such a sharp contrast between the two. In other words, we might think of deceit as a social skill itself—or, rather, as a component of many social skills. Almost by definition, socially skilled people tend to be tactful, polite, and ingratiating. All these qualities can involve a distortion of one's true opinions and reactions. Sometimes, they are little more than distortion. Taken in the context of children, we can also say that qualities like tact, as well as the knowledge of when to employ them, signal a certain maturity in social interactions.
By this reasoning, then, lying not only demonstrates important steps in cognitive development; it also has implications for social development. Children who integrate deception into their social lives show that they have mastered some of the more subtle forms of interpersonal interaction. And given how frequent lying is in daily life, they also show that they have mastered one of the more common forms.
The manifestation of deception in children is not simply a matter of falling short of the standard set by George Washington. Lying in children is typical, it shows a sensitivity to adult behavior, and it demonstrates mental and social acuity. In fact, a parent might have more cause for alarm if his or her child does not lie than if the child does.
Of course, most parents don't see it this way. And, as we have seen throughout our discussion of lying in our lives, while lying is in some ways more benign than we usually think, in other ways it is more harmful. Certainly, the widespread deception surveys show that in children it has negative consequences. Consider again its implications for the multibillion-dollar No Child Left Behind Act.
Further, if we are interested in building a more honest culture, this should start with raising more honest children. And while lying is a common feature of child development, rampant dishonesty is not inevitable. One of the easiest ways adults can help children be more honest is not to box them into deception. This happens, ironically, in real-world scenarios that closely resemble the peeking experiment. Adults will often confront a child about something the adult knows the child has done. ("Were you the one who cut the tablecloth into a dress?" is an example from my days of raising children.) In such situations, children are essentially encouraged to lie—they will often see deception as their last chance to avoid punishment. Such tactics by adults undercut what might be a sincere wish in children to try to be honest.
Rather than taking the approach of snuffing out any and all instances of lying, adults might do better to teach children that honesty is a difficult but still achievable goal. They might point out that while the moral of the story of George Washington and the cherry tree is a valuable one, even the most honest people lie on occasion. The point is to make a sincere effort to be truthful, while balancing a sensitivity to other people's feelings. While some parents may feel such a message is too complex for their children, it bears noting that being honest is perhaps no less complex for adults, either. And regardless of how they are introduced to this complexity, they will discover it one way or another.
The fact that children lie drives home the point that deception is a fact of modern culture. Indeed, it may be a fact of human _life._ Vasudevi Reddy of the University of Portsmouth, in England, recently conducted a study of deception in the youngest children: infants. Through her research, Reddy identified what she considers deceptive behavior starting in children as young as six months old. Infants, Reddy asserts, use tactics such as fake crying and laughing to win attention.
This research is new, and the intention, deceptive or not, behind any infant behavior may ultimately be impossible to fix. Still, Reddy's research raises an intriguing question: If children are lying in the crib, is it really a behavior they learn from adults? It's possible that lying may have a deeper source: the DNA of every human. As we will consider next, the reason children become such proficient liars may be, in fact, that they are born to lie.
# CHAPTER 4
# The Evolution of Deceit : Are We Born to Lie?
Even at seventy-seven, Elva Giddings was a sharp, competent woman; she lived alone and managed her own household. Like many people, though, she had dreams of instant wealth and loved to fill out cards to enter sweepstakes. And one day, her dreams came true: she received a telephone call informing her that she had won second place in a lottery and had $240,000 coming her way. All she had to do was pay the taxes on her winnings, which came to only $10,000.
After Elva sent a check for the $10,000, she got more good news. The first-place winner of the lottery had been disqualified, and now Elva would be receiving $2 million. All she needed to do was pay the additional taxes on the grand prize—to the tune of over $70,000. For Elva, this money constituted almost all of her savings, money she'd intended to give her grandchildren to help them pay for college. Still, the prospect of a multimillion-dollar payday proved all too enticing. Elva sent the check.
As you have probably already guessed, she never received her $2 million windfall. Elva Giddings had fallen victim to a lottery scam, variations of which have cheated Americans out of billions of dollars. Luckily for Elva, by the time she sent the $70,000 check, her phone calls with the con man perpetrating the lottery scam had begun to be monitored by law enforcement officials. They were able to break up the fraud before the check was ever cashed.
Many victims of lottery scams and other such schemes aren't so lucky. By some estimates, each year one out of every three adult Americans receives a call from a con man. Often the cons are cloaked with the prospects of easy wealth: your wishes for prosperity have been granted; all you have to do is pay. Frequently, too, these scams make use of the digital technologies that are ubiquitous in modern society. The con men hide their tracks using a web of pagers, stolen cell phone numbers, and calling cards.
Up to now, we've looked mostly at forms of deception that are normal—in the sense that they are common, in the sense that nearly everyone practices them, and in the sense that our daily lives would appear to us as _abnormal_ without them. Lies outside the realm of civility or advertising or cocktail-party chatter, though—lies, say, of the variety used to defraud Elva Giddings—are hardly normal in any sense. Lottery scams and other such schemes are perpetrated relatively rarely, and by unusually unscrupulous people. Also, nearly everyone else in society would agree that we'd be better off without these sorts of lies. There is, however, one perspective from which a lottery scheme could be considered normal. One could argue that such deception is _natural_.
Consider the portia spider. The portia is a hairy creature about the size of a button on a dress shirt, and species of it are found in Africa, Australia, and many parts of Asia. Most spiders we're familiar with eat insects, but the portia has a taste for other spiders—not to mention sophisticated methods for catching them. Portias regularly attack larger spiders, sometimes as big as twice their own size. Like humans, the portia compensates for its physical limitations with exceptional cunning.
The portia has excellent vision, but most other spiders see poorly. They rely on the vibrations they feel in their web to identify what has landed there. Spiders can tell the difference between the shaking in their web made by a trapped, helpless insect and that made by an approaching predator or a potential mate. The portia spider uses this reliance on vibration against its prey. When landing on or moving across the web of its potential meal, it waits for natural cover provided by a falling leaf or a breeze. In this way, the vibrations made by its approach are masked. Its prey is not even aware that it is under attack. And this is only the beginning of portias' extraordinary predatory skills. Portia spiders are actually able to manipulate the webs of their prey to mimic the vibrations of trapped food or a hopeful suitor. The unsuspecting spider heads toward what it thinks is a tasty meal or a likely mate, only to be ambushed and eaten by the portia. Still more extraordinary is the fact that different types of spiders "feel" for different types of vibrations, and the portia will change how it manipulates a web depending on what it is hunting. The vibrations that attract one type of spider will have no effect on another, and the portia adjusts accordingly. Sometimes, the portia will employ trial and error to hit upon a deceptive vibration that attracts its prey, even spending days patiently testing false cues until something works.
A predator uses the promise of a false reward to manipulate its prey into a compromised position. It's hard not to think of Elva Giddings and the lottery scheme that ensnared her. However, there are important distinctions between the behavior of the portia spider and the behavior of human con men—or of any human. While the portia spider might appear to be using reason and knowledge of its prey to draw conclusions about how to attack it, this is only an appearance. Portia spiders aren't capable of such sophisticated thinking; really, they aren't capable of thinking at all. Their behavior is a function of instinct, formed by way of evolution over thousands and thousands of generations. Only humans can "think up" ways to trick and attack a meal or a mark. Our capacity to devise and enact noninstinctive plans is one thing that sets us apart from other animals.
Still, even if the cognitive process behind the deception of a portia spider and that of a human con man is different, the behavior itself remains remarkably similar. Both species send false signals—the spider through web vibrations, the human through language—to create the illusion of a benefit. They then exploit this illusion for their own profit—caloric or monetary, as the case may be.
As skilled at deception as humans are, we do not hold a monopoly on the behavior. The portia spider plucking out false signals on its prey's web is just one example of the falsehoods and manipulations that occur across the natural world. As we will see, nonhuman deception can be almost as varied and complex as the kind practiced by humans.
The ubiquity of deception in nature presents an intriguing possibility as we investigate the lying in our lives. We often think of the practice of deception as a kind of falling away from the natural order of things. But given that the youngest of children often lie (as discussed in the previous chapter), given that animals so often deceive one another, perhaps the deception in modern life is not a falling away from the natural order, but, rather, a sign of consistency with it. In other words, perhaps deception is something humans are born to do.
# **Lie or Die**
Before Charles Darwin published _On the Origin of Species,_ in 1859, it was widely believed that the earth had been created only a few thousand years ago, by God, in seven days, as described in Genesis. All the animal and plant life on earth had been created in that week, and it existed in the same form then as in modern times. Creation was more or less static, and was ordered in a hierarchy with human beings at the top.
So it's hard to overstate the importance of Darwin's theories to the way we view ourselves, the world around us, and how it all came to be. The static model was replaced by a model of constant adaptation and change. Instead of humanity being above nature, we were thrust into the thick of it, an animal as much as any other. And the creating hand of God was replaced by Darwin's engine of natural selection, an engine fueled by competition and death.
Darwin's theories suggest that anything that gives an individual creature an advantage in surviving its environment or in finding a mate can be selected for and passed on. In hummingbirds, larger beak size provides an advantage in survival, as it increases the kinds of flowers from which the birds can draw nectar. In an example of what's called sexual selection—the selection of traits that provide an advantage in attracting or winning a mate—male peacocks have developed their elaborate plumage. In nineteenth-century England, the peppered moth changed color, going from speckled gray to black, as darkness in color provided better camouflage against trees now covered in industrial soot. And, in an example of the selection of a trait that provides protection against a specific predator, there are spiders that have evolved a sort of alarm at the approach of a portia spider; they will abandon their web in a panic if they sense the subtle signs of the approach of this deadly foe.
All this brings us back to lying. We usually think of Darwinian adaptations as things like wing color and beak size. But in a range of contexts, deception has proven an advantageous trait for survival and procreation. To put it simply, nature has selected deceit, and we see it in a vast array of plants, insects, and animals. The forms of this deception are also highly varied, being played out as adaptations to the range of environments in which living things struggle to pass on their genes.
In its crudest forms, natural deception can be entirely passive. This is the case with one of the most pervasive forms of deceit, as well as perhaps the simplest: camouflage. It's not hard to see the advantages it gives a creature to be able to blend in with its surroundings. If a predator can't find you, it can't eat you. Frequently, though, camouflage goes beyond a simple matching of background colors, as in the case of a peppered moth perched on a soot-covered London tree. Zebras have stripes to make it difficult for a predator to differentiate between the individuals in a herd. Some creatures are camouflaged to look like something they are not: insects of the order Phasmatodea have the color and long, slender appearance of a stick; the wings of certain praying mantises are wide, flat, and green, so that viewed from above they look almost identical to a leaf. The portia spider has developed a similar characteristic: its coloration makes it look like a piece of forest detritus, such as a scrap of bark, a trait that further exploits the poor eyesight of its prey.
In other cases, creatures are camouflaged to look like different creatures. Certain harmless butterflies have the same wing patterns as the poisonous heliconid variety—a bluff to fend off hungry birds. Many other butterflies and moths have "eyespots" on their wings, dark, circular markings that may give the impression to a predator that it is being watched—and affording its prey crucial time in which to escape. Animal impersonation can even occur across species. Young bushveld lizards are black, in order to mimic the toxic oogpister beetle. The mirror orchid has a flower that looks like a female wasp. It augments this deceptive lure with the release of a scent similar to a female wasp's pheromones. In this way, the mirror orchid attracts male wasps looking to mate, allowing the flower to spread its pollen despite the fact that it contains no nectar.
Deception carried out by way of appearance is only the simplest form of natural trickery, though. Many animals are capable of _acting_ deceptively, too. A huge variety of creatures employ the tactic of "playing dead" when threatened. Opossums are so notorious for their imitations of a dead or sickly animal that their name has become synonymous with the strategy. But the prize for the most dramatic imitation of death should probably go to the hognose snake. In playing dead, a hognose will roll over onto its back, excrete fecal matter and a disgusting odor, and let its tongue hang limp as drops of blood fall from its mouth.
The behaviors animals can fake go beyond imitations of death. The methods animals use for communication can also be the methods they use to deceive one another. It's a stretch to say that animals tell one another lies. This implies a capacity for intention and behavioral insight that all but a few species lack. But the signals they send to one another do not always communicate what the recipient understands them to, and this misunderstanding frequently benefits the sender.
For example, fireflies use their luminescence in order to seek out a mate. Male fireflies signal their presence to prospective partners by illuminating near an area where a female might be found. Females, who are flightless, illuminate back to signal to a male that they are willing sexual partners. At least, that is how it usually works. In some firefly species, a female signals a willingness to mate, but only as a hunting tactic. When the duped suitor arrives, she eats him.
Frogs, too, communicate false signals to one another. Male green frogs use their croaks to announce their size. Larger males have a lower-pitched croak. Sometimes, though, small frogs will lower their croaks, imitating the signals of a bigger male. This can serve to ward off the challenges of competitors. Or, taking a page from the behavior of certain female fireflies, males will give voice to their distinctive mating call, only to attack the female who is duped into approaching.
The urge to procreate, which underpins the mechanism of evolution as a whole, can also be used by one species against another. Bolas spiders do not spin webs. Instead, they are fishermen who use a synthetic form of moth pheromone as bait. This bait is contained on a sticky glob at the end of a single line of silk. The bolas spider lowers this line and swings it to ensnare the male moths attracted to the scent of a sexually aroused female.
But no discussion of cross-species animal deception would be complete without mention of social parasites. These natural spongers are able to trick their hosts—often socially organized insects such as bees, wasps, and ants—into caring for them and their offspring. Often, they achieve this by synthesizing the chemicals that the exploited species uses to identify members of its own group. The staphylinid beetle, for example, can make ants believe that it is a larva of their own colony, and the ants will feed it and care for it even as it repays their hospitality by eating the colony's real ant larvae.
The variety and frequency of deception in nature demonstrates that it offers its practitioners an advantage in the great game of survival and procreation. Note, also, that in many of the examples mentioned above, we've been discussing some of the least intelligent forms of animal life: frogs, fireflies, beetles. Clearly, it does not take a large brain to execute some fairly cunning acts of deception.
Yet as we consider the question of whether the deception that humans practice has evolutionary roots, it is important to keep in mind that animals of the intelligence of a bug don't employ deception the way we do. As in the difference in the behavior of a portia spider and the con man who scammed Elva Giddings, creatures like beetles and fireflies enact their deceit purely as a function of instinct. Their behavior can be thought of as reflexive: it neither requires learning nor exhibits understanding.
In this, humans differ even from animals that can, in a limited way, alter their deceptive behavior based on the response of their targets. Piping plovers have evolved a very cunning way of protecting their nests. When predators threaten their chicks, plovers will fake a broken wing and scurry in the opposite direction, hoping to draw the attention of the hostile animal away with the promise of an easy meal. If they see that they have lost the predator's attention, they will squawk more loudly and flap their "broken" wing more elaborately. Yet while this demonstrates some ability to tailor an automatic response to a specific situation, one could argue that even this is merely a function of instinct—a hardwired behavior honed by natural selection over thousands of generations of fleeing plovers.
Human deception operates in clear contrast to this. Unlike animals, we don't lie only when presented with particular stimuli—say, when an intruder enters our home and threatens our children, or when we hope to lure a mate into what will be a less-than-permanent relationship. Our deception is flexible, it is creative, and we can employ it in almost any context or environment. In this way, our lying makes use of our truly characteristic adaptation, the one that more than anything else sets us apart from our fellow animals: our minds.
# **Tic-Tac-Toe or Calvinball**
In Bill Watterson's comic strip _Calvin and Hobbes_ , Calvin and his imaginary tiger friend Hobbes play a one-of-a-kind game they dub Calvinball. The rules of Calvinball are simple: you make the rules up as you go along. The action is fast as players reveal themselves as double agents, scores climb as high as Q to 12, and equipment from eye masks to volleyballs to croquet wickets enter the fray and are then declared irrelevant. Calvinball is spontaneous, borderless, and requires wit more than athleticism.
Contrast that to a game of tic-tac-toe. A player has only one of nine squares in which to mark an X or O. The possibilities for strategy are limited, at best. Most games end in a tie.
As we've discussed, the deception most creatures on earth enact is instinctive. Given a particular stimulus, they respond in a particular deceptive way. When a plover with chicks senses the approach of a predator, it is wired to run away while feigning a broken wing. In rough terms, it's playing tic-tac-toe. A predator makes an X, and the plover responds with reflexive O to block it. The variety in nature means that these contests are played out much more elaborately than four crossed lines on a piece of paper allows for. But the mechanism of the behavior is basically the same: stimulus X elicits deceptive behavior O.
When humans lie, we're playing Calvinball. We are not bounded by particular stimuli or particular behavior. We can invent and fashion our lies to suit the situation or in response to whomever we are "playing" against. The forms of deceit humans are capable of are as limitless as the human imagination.
It's important to keep in mind, when evaluating the cunning of a portia spider, the intelligence of the creatures it is fooling. While its hunting tactics may be impressive for an animal with the brain the size of a pin, its prey species have pin-sized brains, too. The spiders the portia hunts aren't capable of insight into their attackers or of devising new solutions to the problem of predation.
When humans attempt to lie to other humans, on the other hand, they are trying to fool the smartest animals on earth. Human deception demands the flexibility and creativity of a game of Calvinball because humans are, relatively speaking, so difficult to fool. Just because a con man makes an X, that does not mean his target will make an O.
The key distinction biologists make between the deception practiced by humans and that seen in much of the animal kingdom is that the former involves what's called "mind reading." This is not the application of psychic powers, though that would surely be a useful tactic in deceit. Rather, reading minds means applying our understanding of what other people think, believe, or expect. Recall our discussion of theory of mind in the previous chapter. The awareness of the minds of others and how they operate is a crucial asset in our ability to manipulate one another. We can assess what we know other people think, as well as how they think, in order to fool them.
Mind reading is the fundamental element in the huge diversity of human deceptive behavior. We address our knowledge of what others think when we give a sensitive friend a false compliment, when we deceive our boss about our workload, and when we invent an excuse to avoid an unappealing social invitation. The mechanics of how we deceive—our decision as to when a lie might be necessary, the attention we give to persuasion and plausibility, the cues we look for to see whether our lie is successful—all hinge on our reading others' minds.
Consider, for instance, the mind-reading dynamics of even a very straightforward lie. Let's say Eve asks her husband, Adam, whether he cleaned the gutters yet. Adam didn't—and he knows his wife will be upset to find that out. So he tells her a lie: "Yes, I cleaned them this morning before you got up." He knows that Eve is going out later in the afternoon, and this will give him a chance to actually clean the gutters, thereby covering up his lie. Again, it is a simple, seemingly uncomplicated lie, the kind of lie even a child could tell.
Yet even such a basic example of human deceit involves complexity on the mental level. Adam has to assess, first, what Eve knows. He can't trick her if she's been outside and seen the clogged gutters. Second, he has to make an assessment as to what Eve will believe. His addition of the "I cleaned them this morning" has to be plausible, and must contribute to the overall plausibility of the deceit. Finally, he has to make a judgment about what Eve will do. For the lie to succeed, he needs to know that she won't immediately check the gutters, and that later in the day she will go out and give him a chance to really do the work. Hence, even a lie like "Yes, I cleaned them this morning" demands accurate assessments of the target's knowledge, judgment, and intentions. The portia spider's behavior is impressive, but let's give our species some credit, too.
Without question, our great capacity for mind reading makes us distinct from all of nature's other liars. But the question of whether mind reading, to any degree of sophistication, is something humans alone can engage in is less clear. While we may be the best mind readers on the planet, we might not be the only ones.
# **Cheating Monkeys**
I have never been sure why, but we humans seem to find endless amusement in primates. We dress chimpanzees up in tuxedos and laugh when they stick out their tongues. Images of monkeys adorn greeting cards and baby clothes. For years, my daughter asked for a pet monkey for her birthday. (No, I didn't oblige.) We seem to have cultivated an image of primates as lovable scamps—just like us but, well, _cuter._ I don't dispute that some monkeys are cute, of course. But when we choose our greeting cards, we may not give enough consideration to the first half of this characterization: how much like us they truly are.
Richard Byrne and Andrew Whiten, evolutionary psychologists at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, have spent decades studying primate behavior. They have compiled a database of hundreds of incidents of monkeys and apes cheating, tricking, and manipulating one another. In some of these cases, their behavior seems to resemble very closely the less admirable habits of their more evolved relatives.
For instance, male monkeys who live in social groups are generally ordered in strict hierarchies. The dominant males control the access to females in the group. Primatologists have observed subordinate males sneaking off with females to have sex out of sight of the dominant male leaders. The clandestine lovers will even muffle the sounds of their copulation, in order to further hide their tryst. In a similar incident, a baboon was crafty enough to keep her head and shoulders visible to the dominant male in her group, while behind a rock, her hands were busy grooming a subordinate male.
Primates also frequently use deception to cheat each other out of another of life's essentials besides sex: food. Whiten and Byrne recorded the story of one young baboon in the Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa, whom primatologists called Paul. Paul noticed another baboon digging up a tasty plant bulb. Once the bulb was loose, young Paul let out a scream, and his frightened mother quickly came charging over, frightening away the baboon who'd been digging up the bulb. Paul was now free to take the bulb for himself. In another example, a Dutch primatologist, Frans Plooij, saw a chimpanzee come upon some food, only to hide it when another chimp appeared. The first chimp waited until the other had departed, sitting placidly as if nothing was out of the ordinary, before retrieving the food for himself.
The complexity of the deception in these examples separates it from the reflexive, programmed deception of spiders and fireflies. Clearly, the higher-order intelligence of primates is at work in their deceit. Yet the question of whether any of these acts demonstrates mind reading, the hallmark of human deception, is the source of a heated debate among ethologists. In some cases, it certainly appears that apes and monkeys manipulate the thinking of others. When Paul cried out for his mother, he seemed to comprehend in some way what her response would be, and to exploit this comprehension to his own benefit. The female baboon who showed just enough of herself to convince the dominant male in her group that she wasn't up to any illicit grooming did seem to have an awareness of what the dominant male might suspect and what he might be reassured by. On the other hand, these behaviors could simply be the result of trial and error—a basic form of learning possible for animals of far more limited intelligence than primates, and one that doesn't require understanding of the minds of other creatures. Perhaps, for instance, Paul had noticed that calling for his mother often resulted in his getting food, and so his behavior was not so much manipulation of her reactions as a learned response drawn from other, similar situations.
The question of whether baboons, chimps, or other of our closest animal relatives can read minds ultimately comes down to whether they understand what a mind is at all. Recent studies along the lines of the Maxi doll experiment described in the previous chapter have suggested that some nonhuman primates do, in fact, have some understanding of theory of mind. Yet ascribing theory of mind to monkeys and apes may always be a matter of conjecture, since on some level it seems fundamentally impossible to know what any nonhuman creature is _actually thinking_. Their behavior may be indicative of theory of mind, but so then is the behavior of a portia spider.
Yet even if we grant that monkey or ape methods of manipulation are less sophisticated than human methods, the fact that their deceptive behavior is so similar to ours offers some intriguing clues about the origin of lying. Indeed, these clues may take us beyond an understanding of the source of our deception and even offer insight into the source of humanity's advanced intelligence in general. Some scientists believe that human deception is not only a function of evolution but also the driving force behind it. Lies, in other words, may have made us who we are today.
# **The Arms Race of the Mind**
We've been looking at some peculiar animal behavior. Now let's look at an oddity among us humans. Every December, members of _Homo sapiens_ adorn their homes in multicolored electrical lights, festoon their lawns with plastic likenesses of elves and reindeer, and sometimes go so far as to inflate enormous plastic depictions of a man in a red suit with a white beard. I'm talking, of course, about the annual habit of putting out Christmas decorations—a human behavior that if not you, someone living very close to you engages in.
Now let's look at another aspect of this behavior. Perhaps one of your neighbors—let's call him Kris—takes enormous pride in having the splashiest, showiest Christmas display in town. And another neighbor we'll call Nick has the same ambition. So when Kris gets a ten-foot Christmas tree for his yard, Nick gets a twelve-footer. Nick spells out "Merry Christmas" in lights on his roof, so Kris spells out "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" Kris hires carolers to serenade passersby; Nick pays for a twelve-piece orchestra. And so forth.
The point of this (only slightly) exaggerated story of one-upsmanship is that without the other's presence in the neighborhood, neither Kris nor Nick would ever achieve such heights of jollity or electrical usage. The principle at work is escalation. Each man raises the stakes for the other, and each responds by raising them again, in a cycle that spirals upward.
Now let's turn back to the question of deceit, and whether it can be considered a behavior humans developed as a product of evolution. As we've discussed, deception provides an advantage in survival and procreation to a myriad of creatures. But if we think of the animal kingdom as static, we're making the same mistake pre-Darwinian thinkers made. Evolution is an ongoing process. If deception manifests itself as a trait that provides an advantage, the ability to detect that deception might be an advantageous trait, too. If a firefly has a better chance of survival by tricking other fireflies into thinking it wants to mate when it really wants to eat, a firefly who can tell the difference has a better chance of survival by avoiding that risk. Following this line of thinking, an even more cunning firefly might then come along who can trick even the more discerning fireflies—seizing an advantage until natural selection turns out another, still more discerning version of the firefly. And so forth.
This "arms race" conception of evolution, the same one mirrored in the decoration war between Kris and Nick, has recently been applied to humans and the development of their intelligence. Richard Byrne and Andrew Whiten, who created a catalog of hundreds of instances of monkey and ape deceit, hypothesize that for early humans, deception and manipulation provided key advantages in survival. The first humans, many anthropologists agree, lived in social groups of shifting composition and frequently changing alliances. In these circumstances, Byrne and Whiten believe, the ability to lie, cheat, and swindle effectively would have been invaluable in winning food, status, and opportunities to mate. Perhaps equally advantageous, though, would have been the ability to _detect_ the liars, cheaters, and swindlers who beset early man. And just as these opposing pressures push Kris and Nick to further Christmas extravagances, the evolutionary battle between liars and the need to detect lies pushed early man's mind to greater and greater capacity. In what they call their "Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis," Byrne and Whiten posit that the struggles among our ancestors to outsmart and outwit one another were the key to the evolution of intelligence in _Homo sapiens_.
Obviously, such a hypothesis is all but impossible to confirm, but there is mounting evidence in support of it. A correlation has been found in primates between a species' average neocortex size and the group size in which the species' members live—pointing to a connection between mental capacity and the complexity of social interactions. Also, mathematical simulations modeling the growth of intelligence show that competition can spark an explosion in cognitive capacity.
But if our intelligence has its roots in deception, what are the implications for our culture? If our brains are in some way selected to be deceptive, can we be anything but?
It's important to keep in mind that the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis remains merely that—a hypothesis. Many anthropologists would agree that living in social groups does spur intelligence but would disagree with Byrne and Whiten that it is specifically _Machiavellian_ encounters that are at the heart of this phenomenon. Almost any social interaction, especially within the context of a large group, can have a complexity that might drive intelligence. Collaboration and cooperation have their nuances, too, after all.
Yet even if our ancestors made deception part of our genetic inheritance, it does not mean we are destined to lie. Human society functions because we are able to resist many of our "animal instincts." Probably more than theory of mind, it is this ability to deny our impulses that truly makes us different from the rest of the earth's inhabitants. We may see the opportunity to lie; we may even feel, we might imagine, some primordial tug to do so. That does not mean we must follow through with it.
These issues of denying our instincts probably have their most frequent applications in the realm of relationships. In this arena, the urge to deceive and the risks of being deceived are particularly urgent. In the next chapter, we will examine how our values, our commitments, and our inescapable sex drive shape and erode the honesty between spouses, lovers, and boyfriends and girlfriends.
# CHAPTER 5
# Broken Trust: Loving a Liar
Perhaps the most dramatic and notorious example of broken trust in recent years played out, as these matters often do, against the backdrop of politics. Eliot Spitzer arrived in Albany with great ambition. Having won the governorship of New York by a landslide, Spitzer promised to reform stagnant Albany politics once and for all. During his eight years as New York's attorney general, he had earned a reputation as a tireless fighter of corporate corruption, clashing with business titans who tried to stand in the way of his reforms. The self-styled "sheriff of Wall Street" was now going to bring his ethical crusade to a whole new arena. But the man who had built his career on fighting dishonesty in the financial world was undone by his own deceptions, ones enacted in a wholly different realm. In March 2008, it was revealed that Spitzer had been recorded on a federal wiretap arranging to meet a prostitute at a Washington, D.C., hotel. Within days of this disclosure, Spitzer, who was married and the father of three children, resigned.
The incident triggered a frenzy in the national media. The ironies seemed simply too choice for the press to resist: the paragon of justice caught red-handed in a crime, the symbol of virtue enmeshed in something so patently tawdry. There was another element to the story, though, of which many commentators made special mention. At the press conferences Spitzer held as the scandal unfolded, his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, stone-faced and stricken, appeared by his side. For many, she was a sad and unsettling figure. And the attention she received was probably not simply a matter of sympathy or embarrassment on her behalf. Surely, there was some element of identification.
An old soul song sums up the situation nicely: "Everybody plays the fool." Sooner or later, all of us will fall victim to emotional betrayal in some form. Loved ones may break their promises; we may catch them in a pattern of calculated deceit; spouses or lovers may cheat. The feelings accompanying the revelation of such betrayals are often devastating. It can seem as if all the positive feelings associated with love and trust have been pulled inside out, transformed into their own inverses: hurt, humiliation, fear, and loneliness, to name just a few. It was emotions like these that many people saw on the face of Silda Wall Spitzer, perhaps catching echoes of painful episodes in their own emotional histories.
Most of the lies we encounter in our daily lives have fairly low emotional stakes. We might be surprised to learn that the stranger we've struck up a conversation with on the train platform hasn't, as he says, seen _The Third Man_ , but it's unlikely we'd be truly hurt by this revelation. Some lies, though, have the potential do real, and deep, emotional harm. And while these lies are relatively rare when compared to the deceptive social niceties we encounter in nearly every interaction, their potential consequences make them extremely important to understand.
The problem, of course, is that they are by nature _difficult_ to understand. The first question that follows the admission of deception is almost inevitably "Why?" But the "Because" is elusive, sometimes even for the liar. First, the varieties of emotional betrayal are as diverse as the individuals who enact them and the particular relationships they violate. What is for one couple a minor bending of the truth may be for another a wholesale violation of the bonds that hold that couple together. Further, the reasons a person might trick her spouse or manipulate his closest friend are often particular to that individual. Further still, as suggested above, the individual who enacts the betrayal may not fully understand the _why_ behind the behavior any more than the person betrayed does. Our motivations for many of our actions are opaque—this can be especially true with regard to an act as complex, and with as complex consequences, as the betrayal of trust.
Nevertheless, psychologists and other researchers have made progress in seeking to understand why the bonds of trust can be broken. For many of the same reasons that the press gave so much attention to Eliot Spitzer's downfall, their focus has often been on infidelity. It is an act that is both common and dramatic, making it something we can all understand and at once all be (ostensibly) horrified by. Plus, it has the added benefit of being associated with sex—an appeal that should not be overlooked, even for academics. Most of all, though, among all the emotional wounds we commonly inflict on one another, infidelity is probably the one that cuts the deepest. And while the dynamics of infidelity are often relevant to other forms of betrayal, cheating, as we all have witnessed or even felt, inflicts a unique brand of pain.
# **Cheating: How Much and How Often**
Eliot Spitzer was hardly the first politician to have been caught up in a scandal involving infidelity and prostitution. But the events that followed his resignation probably gave even the most proudly cynical residents of New York pause. Spitzer was replaced in office by his lieutenant governor, David Paterson. Paterson, legally blind and the first African-American to become governor of New York, had been married for fifteen years when he took office. But the day after being installed as governor, he, too, admitted to infidelity. Indeed, he confessed that he had had multiple extramarital affairs—as had his wife.
Most likely, few of us retain many illusions about the sanctity of the marriages we observe in public life. Still, when consecutive governors in one of the largest states are revealed to be unfaithful (and let's not forget an earlier New York governor, Nelson Rockefeller, who reputedly died in flagrante with a young female aide in 1979), it can't help but make us wonder how ubiquitous infidelity really is. If people with so much to lose aren't faithful, what about those who risk only the trust of their spouse or lover?
Even if all the Bill Clintons and John Edwardses and Eliot Spitzers guilty of infidelity suddenly, as a group, stopped cheating (not likely, but theoretically possible), we probably still wouldn't lack for opportunities to wonder and worry about the frequency of infidelity. Most of us personally know people who cheat. Not a few of us have likely been cheated on in the past. Sometimes, it may seem that monogamy is the exception in our society.
Psychologists, as well as other social scientists, have struggled to answer the question of how common infidelity really is. The first problem is one we discussed earlier in the context of lying in general: definition. Simply put, what counts as infidelity? Is it exclusively extramarital sexual intercourse? Should sex acts short of intercourse count as infidelity or (as Bill Clinton might argue) not? And what about nonphysical relationships? Is it possible to commit emotional adultery? Cyberadultery? And in what sort of relationships is the question of infidelity even relevant? Most people would agree that marriage is not a prerequisite for cheating, but at what point does a casual relationship become a monogamous one?
In addition to this problem of defining infidelity, there is the nature of infidelity itself. As with any violation of another person's trust, cheating is something those who practice want to keep secret. No guarantee of anonymity may be sufficient for an adulterous spouse to admit his or her behavior to a researcher. One study showed that those currently in a marriage were far more likely to deny infidelity than those whose marriages had already ended. This reluctance to confess is not always simply a matter of discretion, either. Admitting infidelity to a psychologist also means admitting it _to yourself._ Because definitions of infidelity are so flexible, it can be easy to construct reassuring notions about what is and is not cheating.
With these caveats in mind, though, we can address some of the insight researchers have gained into the frequency of infidelity in our society. Psychologists Adrian Blow of Michigan State University and Kelley Hartnett of St. Louis University conducted an in-depth review of recent studies of infidelity. In looking at the range of work done on the question of the frequency of infidelity, they determined that most researchers have found cheating occurs in less than 25 percent of marriages. While much data supports this statistic, again, it is important to keep it in context. Blow and Hartnett's figure holds for heterosexual married couples engaging in extramarital sex. Rates of infidelity are not necessarily the same for, say, unmarried cohabitating couples or homosexual couples or with regard to sexual behavior that is not intercourse. More specific statistics on how frequent infidelity is will require broader research. (It's worth noting that sexuality is generally among the trickier subjects for psychologists to sort out empirically, even when they are not focused specifically on a taboo behavior like infidelity.)
One conclusion about infidelity that psychologists can make with confidence, though, is that most people have a clear opinion about it. They don't like it. Surveys show that an overwhelming majority of Americans consider infidelity to be wrong. In a 2001 Gallup poll, 89 percent of respondents said that "married men and women having an affair" is wrong. Interestingly, this same study found that attitudes about infidelity have become _more_ conservative in the last few decades—in contrast to attitudes toward other aspects of sexuality, such as premarital sex. It seems the consensus that infidelity is immoral is growing, in spite of (or perhaps because of ) the prominent adultery scandals of recent years.
In this way, infidelity and other serious breaches of trust differ from many of the other types of lying we've discussed to this point. Most people would likely argue that false flattery or the protective lies we tell children and friends are a beneficial aspect of social discourse. But surveys such as the Gallup poll cited above indicate that few of us would defend sexual or emotional dishonesty. As a society, we seem to recognize that behavior like infidelity has corrosive and painful results. Infidelity, for example, is among the leading causes of divorce, of battery, and even of murder. Yet as we all know, through the stories of friends or the headlines in the _New York Post_ or firsthand experience, infidelity is a fact of modern life. Many decry it, but statistics indicate that some of those who call it wrong must also engage in it. As we will see, this is only one of many paradoxes that cloud attempts to understand the act of cheating.
# **The Affairs of Madison County**
Several years ago, a woman I know (let's call her Hera) suffered the dissolution of her marriage when her husband of ten years declared that he wanted a divorce so he could marry his mistress, a woman fifteen years his junior. I remember very clearly a phone conversation I had with Hera about her breakup in the weeks that followed. At some point during the conversation, she asked me something along the lines of "Why did this happen?" And I took the opportunity to expound on some of the latest research, and probably hoariest clichés, about why men leave their marriages, what the psychology is behind their behavior, whether women are wired in the same way, and so forth. But about five minutes into my (hopefully at least a little comforting) monologue, Hera interrupted me. "No, no," she clarified. "What I'm asking is, what did _I_ do?"
When we are stabbed in the back, through infidelity or some other violation, the initial response is almost always that of a victim. This is appropriate, of course. After all, it's our back that just got stabbed. Upon reflection, though, there often comes a point where we start to wonder what our role in our victimization was. We ask ourselves, metaphorically speaking, "What was my back doing there in the first place? Was my back asking for it?"
In these terms, such notions may seem silly, but the idea that victims share the blame for what befalls them in cases of infidelity and such resonates with conventional thinking. In the aftermath of the Spitzer scandal, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the author and nationally syndicated radio host, argued that women bear responsibility when their husbands cheat. "I hold women accountable," she was quoted as saying, "for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need." And while this is an extreme position (Dr. Laura is a syndicated radio host, after all), virtually all the men and women I've known who have been stung by betrayal have looked inward at some point, questioning whether they might have done something that caused the offense.
The tendency toward self-blame can manifest itself in the victims of all manner of crimes, outside the realm of trust and honesty. Victims of robberies and of rape often go through a period of wondering what they might have done differently to prevent their maltreatment. Further, for those of us on the outside of a betrayal of trust looking in, it can be comforting to assign cause to the victim. If we feel an act of infidelity, for example, might have been caused by something the faithful partner did, we can believe we have some control over similar behavior in our own partner. In other words, it can be empowering to blame the victim. We tell ourselves that our own actions toward our loved one can shield us from deceit and betrayal. A small industry has grown up around this way of thinking, featuring books with titles like _Avoiding the Greener Grass Syndrome and Emotional Infidelity: How to Affair-Proof Your Marriage and 10 Other Secrets to a Great Relationship._
Beyond the visceral comfort the possibility of "affair-proofing" your relationships might provide, there is a straightforward logic to looking to the wounded party, or at least the violated relationship, in trying to determine the cause of betrayal. Betrayal is, almost by definition, a violation of the bonds and obligations a relationship entails. It can be seen, by extension, as a failure of that relationship. To put it more simply, if one person isn't respecting the obligations of the relationship, the whole relationship must not be working. In regards to infidelity in particular, the critique can be even more pointed: if one partner needs to look elsewhere for emotional or sexual satisfaction, then the other partner must not be doing his or her part to provide those things.
I call this the Madison County model of infidelity. In Robert James Waller's novel _The Bridges of Madison County,_ and the film adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, lonely Iowa housewife Francesca finds the fulfillment her marriage fails to provide in a torrid affair with dashing _National Geographic_ photographer Robert Kincaid. Hollywood and the media often recycle this trope: the bored or unsatisfied spouse finding illicit happiness in the arms of another. Psychologists have tried to determine whether the Madison County model really does explain infidelity, seeking the factors within a relationship that might lead to (or discourage) cheating.
There is certainly evidence that relationship dissatisfaction can trigger infidelity. Studies have shown that women who report unhappiness in their marriages are more likely to engage in extramarital affairs. The same is also often true for men, though the emphasis for them seems to be on attaining sexual satisfaction. This parallels a larger trend researchers have found in studying infidelity: in their illicit relationships women more often seek emotional fulfillment, while men seek sexual thrills. Perhaps the most cogent system psychologists have devised for understanding why relationships might yield to cheating involves what's called the "investment model." In this approach, _commitment_ is regarded as the core of any relationship. Commitment in this context, as explained by psychologists Stephen Drigotas and William Barta in their article "The Cheating Heart," means "a psychological attachment to, and a motivation to continue, a relationship." If a person's commitment to a relationship is weak, he or she does not feel "invested" in it; he or she has little at stake, emotionally or otherwise, in its success or failure. If, on the other hand, a person's commitment to the relationship is strong, he or she has a definite interest in its continued success and will work toward this goal. Breaking down the idea of commitment further, the investment model holds that commitment is influenced primarily by three factors: _satisfaction_ , which refers to a person's happiness in a relationship; _alternative quality_ , a person's judgment about how happy they would be with someone else; and _investments_ , the things a person stands to lose (financial security, for example) if the relationship fails.
To understand what these terms mean more concretely, let's return to the fictional example provided by _The Bridges of Madison County._ In evaluating why Francesca had an affair, a psychologist using the investment model would point to her loneliness as the wife of a somewhat dull farmer (satisfaction); the romantic and sexual qualities she ascribed to the alternative to her husband, Robert Kincaid (alternative quality); and how relatively little she had to lose with the dissolution of her marriage (investments). These three factors combined meant her larger commitment to her marriage was low, and hence the likelihood that she might engage in an extramarital affair was relatively high.
Things are always neater in fiction, of course (in addition to being more steamy or weepy, depending on the author). As applied to real people, the three factors that drive commitment often overlap, and sometimes one far supersedes the others in importance. The essential point, though, is that the investment model has had success not only in _explaining_ , retrospectively, why infidelity may have occurred, but also in _predicting_ , to some degree, which relationships might be prone to it. Drigotas and colleagues C. Annette Safstrom and Tiffany Gentilia conducted a study of dating college students and evaluated their relationships based on their commitment and the factors that contribute to it. They found that those who were more committed, those who were satisfied and invested and had fewer alternatives, were less likely to engage in infidelity than those who registered more weakly in these criteria.
This is a powerful finding. Drigotas and his colleagues managed to identify aspects of relationships that could signal their vulnerability to adultery and cheating in the future. It's important, though, to keep these findings in perspective. It overstates the case to argue that if a person is "highly committed" to a relationship, in the investment model sense of the phrase, he or she won't engage in adultery. Drigotas found that relationships with high commitment levels were _less_ prone to infidelity—not immune, just perhaps more resistant. There is no reason to believe that one can "affair-proof" a relationship.
It's also important to consider Drigotas's sample: heterosexual college students who were not married, but dating. The dynamics of such relationships and those within, say, a twenty-year marriage are usually very different. In some ways, dating college students are probably more prone to infidelity but in others, it could be argued, less. A nineteen-year-old, for example, does not have to deal with the waning sex drive of an aging partner, to name just one challenge to longer-term relationships. Furthermore, the logistical constraints of carrying out an affair are very different for dating college students living in separate residence halls and for married couples who share the same bed every night.
Regardless, though, the predictive capacity of the investment model, even if limited, remains instructive. It demonstrates that the popular Madison County model for understanding infidelity has some empirical validity. There do seem to be dimensions to relationships that encourage or discourage their members from cheating.
What is frustrating, though, is the fact that it remains difficult for psychologists to pinpoint what exactly is at work in successfully monogamous relationships. Terms such as "satisfaction" and "commitment" are vague and, ultimately, subjective. Further, one could fairly criticize a theory that posits commitment as the key to avoiding infidelity, since avoiding infidelity is itself an indication of commitment. We may be only a step away from saying that the best way to ensure monogamy is to remain monogamous.
Moreover, looking at betrayal more broadly, the fact that your partner is "committed" to you doesn't exactly guarantee that you won't be lied to by him or her. Sometimes, betrayal occurs _because_ of commitment. A friend related a telling anecdote to me: For over two years, a woman dated a man she'd first met in a bar. The relationship was on the point of engagement when the woman made a troubling discovery: her boyfriend was in fact ten years older than he'd claimed. The lie had started when the couple met at the bar. Wanting to appear attractive to her, the man had shaved a decade off his age. As the relationship progressed, he'd felt he had to maintain the lie in order to maintain the relationship, and so employed further fabrication, digging himself deeper and deeper. When the truth was finally revealed, the relationship quickly ended. This is an example of serious and continued deception precisely _because_ a member of the relationship was happy with it, invested in its continuation. On the other hand, I know several men and women who are desperately unhappy in their relationships yet who would never lie in a significant way to their partner. Their commitment to honesty trumps their relationship dissatisfaction.
The nature of a relationship, then, is ultimately an insufficient—or at least unsatisfactory—explanation for infidelity or for any sort of betrayal. In a strange way, though, this can be reassuring. When we are stabbed in the back, we can at least spare ourselves the certainty that it is necessarily somehow _our fault._ There is no evidence that a victim always plays a role in his or her victimization. Sometimes, we are just unlucky in the people we form relationships with or in the people we are bound to by blood.
Some psychologists would add a corollary to this notion. They would suggest that we may sometimes be unlucky not in our own relationships but, more precisely in the relationships of everyone else. In pinpointing the source of betrayal, they suggest we start by examining not our spouses, lovers, and family but, rather, our neighbors.
# **Sex Because of the City**
America has often been criticized (and occasionally praised, too) for being a sexually conservative society, at least as compared to other Western countries. Perhaps as the legacy of our Puritan heritage, American values regarding marriage, sex, and divorce often seem more stringent and restrictive than those of France or Italy. Within months of being elected president of France in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy finalized a divorce from his wife; only months later, he married former supermodel Carla Bruni. It's hard to imagine an American president getting divorced and remarried in the space of his first year in office. Attitudes toward cheating are also different across the Atlantic. While infidelity is far from a given, many Europeans seem more broadly tolerant of, or at least resigned to, cheating than do their American counterparts.
Social psychologists understand such differing cultural values in the context of _social norms._ Social norms are socially agreed upon rules—not so much written laws as broadly encouraged behaviors. Think of norms in terms of a game of Monopoly: there are the rules of Monopoly printed on the box, which everyone follows, and then there are the twists particular groups of players add to the game, such as collecting $400 when landing on Go. Social norms are like this latter category. Social groups form and enact them outside of codified systems of behavior. To use another example: there is no law against men wearing bras, but there are very powerful social norms that discourage it.
When it comes to infidelity, social norms operate strongly. In the United States, these norms seem unambiguous: marriage and committed relationships demand monogamy. As demonstrated by the public (and sometimes borderline enthusiastic) shaming of Eliot Spitzer, violating these norms of monogamy can carry strict social penalties. Outside the arena of politics, the penalties for violating the social norms against infidelity can include a loss of friends, estrangement from loved ones, castigation from the wronged party, and so forth.
Yet while it may seem clear that social norms serve to discourage infidelity, things may not be quite so simple. Often in large and complex social groups multiple norms can exist, and these norms are not necessarily harmonious. And while many elements of social life might push individuals away from cheating, some psychologists argue that we have other social norms that actually encourage infidelity—and encourage it powerfully.
Psychologists make a distinction between _injunctive_ norms and _descriptive_ norms. Injunctive norms are the more formal social laws of society, ones that are commonly known and largely obeyed. Not smoking cigarettes when you're pregnant, not littering in a national wildlife preserve, not picking your nose in a fancy restaurant—these are examples of injunctive norms. Descriptive norms operate more subtly. They are the norms we learn from the behavior we observe in those around us. If you want to see an example of descriptive norms at work, go to a baseball game and watch people during the playing of the national anthem. Everyone will stand (that's an injunctive norm), but whether people take their hats off or cover their hearts will often be governed, I have observed, by the actions of those sitting in the seats and rows nearby. One fan taking off his hat can trigger a cascade of hat removals. You might see one section in which every hand is on a heart, and other sections in which all hands are clasped behind. Descriptive norms can operate subtly, but the power of the behavior of our closest neighbors—physically and metaphorically—should not be overlooked.
Further, it's possible for injunctive and descriptive norms to run counter to one another. This might happen if a pregnant woman finds herself in a Lamaze class full of smokers. The injunctive norms encourage one behavior; the descriptive norms operate differently.
What is surprising to anyone seeking to understand betrayal is that researchers have found evidence that descriptive norms with regard to infidelity are more powerful than injunctive norms. Studies have shown that individuals who know someone who has been unfaithful are more likely to be unfaithful themselves. It's as if the same factors that make people take off their hats at baseball games also make them cheat on their partners.
This is what I call the Sex and the City model of infidelity. On the wildly popular HBO series _Sex and the City_ , four single women navigate the relationship landscape of New York City—and in so doing, have a lot of sex. Indeed, the New York of the show is depicted as one of nearly continuous hookups, liaisons, affairs, and trysts. Monogamy is depicted as a struggle, for both men and women. Leaving aside the social norms of the real New York City, the social norms of the place portrayed on the show _Sex and the City_ are ones that might make even a Frenchman blush (well, maybe). The Sex and the City model posits that many cheaters carry out their infidelity because in their social lives, as on the HBO television show, cheating is widespread. The most immediate social precedent is one of infidelity, and this is the one people follow.
The Sex and the City model has obvious implications for betrayal more broadly. If descriptive norms can trump injunctive norms in the sexual arena, they can surely do so in other arenas, too. Many parents have experienced this firsthand when their children find a group of friends disinclined to obey the admonitions of adults. What had been close and trusting parent-child relationships can devolve quickly if the child's peers commonly engage in behavior his or her parents frown upon. The excuse the child gives may seem frustratingly trite—"Sheena does it!"—but remember the fans at the baseball game: descriptive norms have a powerful role in our behavior.
On the other hand, this model provides an important tool to those who want to make betrayal less likely in those around them, be it in their family or their social circle. Quite simply, if you don't want to be betrayed, don't betray anyone else. While you can't guarantee that you will never be wronged, setting a precedent where such behavior is at all normal (or normative, as psychologists like to say) probably introduces you to greater risk. Again, the example of parents is relevant. If you don't want your children to be untrustworthy, don't model untrustworthy behavior for them. The descriptive norms children absorb from their parents can be incredibly powerful.
Yet as with the Madison County model, the Sex and the City model can also seem insufficient. Turning back to infidelity specifically, there are certainly instances in which cheating occurs to the surprise and shock of the immediate social circle. This was the case, for example, when a couple my mother had known for forty years split up in the wake of adultery. Perhaps in the urban jungle social norms condone cheating, but it certainly seemed to be a scandal in my mother's Florida retirement community. And in general, if illicit behavior is somehow triggered by the illicit behavior of others, who started this unfortunate chain of misconduct? At some point, the Sex and the City model can start to resemble a chicken-or-the-egg paradox.
The truth is that while the behavior of others can facilitate certain bad acts, we don't need the example of friends and neighbors to act treacherously. For instance, when it comes to infidelity, the Sex and the City model leaves something essential out: sex. After all, even the weakest of relationships in the most sexually liberal environments might not yield to infidelity if the human sex drive weren't so powerful. Perhaps cheating is not so much a matter of breaking the rules that we see everyone breaking, but rather human beings simply following their natural biological impulses.
# **The Primal Urge**
Swans enjoy a special place in the human heart—particularly when those hearts appear on Valentine's Day cards. But more than their elegant necks or lovely white plumage, swans win human esteem in romantic matters because of a peculiar aspect of their behavior. Unlike most creatures, swans mate for life. They form pairs at two or three years old and usually maintain them until they die. When the female lays eggs, the male defends the nest. Both swan parents help rear their young once they've hatched. Remind you of anyone?
The image of swan fidelity is an appealing one for a species like ours, which places so much emphasis on lifelong monogamy. It's reassuring to see an echo of our romantic ideal in the animal world: it affirms our belief that it's both possible and natural. But the truth of swan behavior is more complicated than the illustration on a Hallmark card suggests. Swans, it turns out, fall short of total monogamy. Scientists studying the DNA of young swans have found that one in six of them has been fathered by a male outside the swan social pair. In other words, swan females are unfaithful, as are the males siring children outside their primary "family."
Indeed, if humans look to nature to reinforce our values regarding fidelity, we'll be disappointed. The simple truth is that virtually every animal on the planet seeks multiple sexual partners, even those who form pairs in order to raise their off-spring. DNA research has shown that anywhere from 10 to 70 percent of the progeny of animal social pairs are the product of an illicit encounter. David P. Barash, a psychologist at the University of Washington, was quoted in the _New York Times_ describing a variety of flatworm, _Diplozoon paradoxum,_ as the only truly "faithful" creature in nature. "Males and females meet each other as adolescents," Barash told the _Times,_ "and their bodies literally fuse together, whereupon they remain faithful until death. That's the only species I know of in which there seems to be 100 percent monogamy."
The ubiquity of infidelity in nature suggests that there is something _unnatural_ about strict monogamy—that it is a human construct, no more innate than our other peculiar behaviors, like wearing clothes or voting for an _American Idol_ contestant. Viewed from the other side, this idea suggests that our nature predisposes us toward sexual promiscuity. We are wired to have multiple sexual partners; when it comes to relationships, we are somehow programmed to betray. I call this conception the Primal Scream model of infidelity. Here, cheating represents the expression of _Homo sapiens'_ true primal urges—the scream in the face of societally driven monogamy.
Evolutionary biologists who explore this idea discuss the human sex drive as part of the larger biological drive toward _reproductive success_. This is the fundamental act of successfully passing your genes down to another generation—a Darwinian imperative. Evolutionary biologists argue that much of human behavior, particularly that related to infidelity, is essentially an often unconscious attempt to achieve reproductive success.
Men and women, given their different biologies, go about pursuing reproductive success in different ways. Men are able to sire a theoretically unlimited number of children. Hence, their surest way to pass their DNA to another generation is to mate with as many women as possible. From a reproductive success point of view, it's much better to mate with ten potential mothers than to take a chance with just one. To torture a phrase, it's not evolutionarily effective for a male to put all his sperm in one basket.
Women, on the other hand, are limited in the number of children they can produce; at most, they can bear about one every nine months for the limited number of years they are fertile. Their opportunities to achieve reproductive success are thus relatively few. So they have to make the opportunities they do have count: by mating with a male whose genes are most likely to produce offspring that will thrive.
According to the Primal Scream model of infidelity, the drive for reproductive success explains not only the fact that men and women cheat but also the specifics of _how_ they cheat. For example, studies indicate, again, that male infidelity is usually motivated by the desire for sexual satisfaction. Other studies show that men are more likely than women to engage in one-night stands, and less likely to form emotional bonds with their illicit partners. This data is consistent with the conception of male infidelity as a best attempt toward reproductive success: men seek out short-term encounters focused on sex—a good tactic if the goal (conscious or not) is siring as many DNA carriers as possible. Women, on the other hand, cheat based on their own set of reproductive success criteria. Research suggests that a woman's sexual drive is most urgent during the most fertile phase of her menstrual cycle, and that women are most likely to cheat on their partners during this time. Again, this fits a model that places the impetus for infidelity in a woman's drive for impregnation. Furthermore, researchers have found that women are actually more thoroughgoing in the use of contraception with their husbands than with their partners in extramarital affairs. (Recent DNA analysis indicates that fully 10 percent of people have fathers other than the men they believe conceived them.) This meshes with the idea that through infidelity, women are seeking to "trade up"—conceiving a child with a more genetically appealing individual than their life partner.
There are obvious flaws with the Primal Scream model, of course. Primarily, perhaps, it fails to explain homosexual infidelity. How does a man cheating on his male lover with another man further his reproductive success? Or a woman cheating on her husband with a woman? Yet placing biological urges at the core of infidelity does account for one puzzle that surrounds cheating that other models leave unsolved. I've known my share of individuals who have sabotaged seemingly terrific relationships with attractive, intelligent people through infidelity. When we observe such behavior, it _doesn't make sense._ The Primal Scream model affirms precisely this response. Infidelity doesn't make sense because it is at its core not about reason but about animal instinct. Cheating may at times appear absurd through the lens of logic, but through the lens of reproductive success, it can be seen as something close to reasonable.
As we search for the sources of betrayal generally, or try to pick up the pieces when we ourselves are betrayed, we often come to wonder whether there is some fundamental element of human nature involved. It's easy to suspect, also, that this element may not be limited to a manifestation of reproductive urges. Maybe part of us is just, well, _bad_ ? Freud pointed to something like this in his identification of the death drive in the human psyche. And history, particularly recent history, furnishes more than enough examples to indicate that at least some element of human nature is inclined toward evil. Perhaps we betray one another just for the sake of betrayal.
We need to keep in mind, though, that history—both our personal histories and the history of human civilization—furnishes plenty of examples of the possibility of human goodness. However painful our relationships, however badly behaved our neighbors, however loudly biology squawks in our ear, we retain control over our behavior. It is not inevitable that we will betray, or that any individual must betray us.
On the other hand, whatever accounts for the many forms of betrayal, at some point, we will likely encounter one of them. It's worth exploring, then, what the aftermath of broken trust can be—and, specifically, if it is bound to forever stay broken.
# **The Mornings After**
I can still remember the first feelings of despair while my heart stopped beating. Within moments, I felt devastated, destroyed. My world crumbled in a moment and it seemed as though everything I thought to be true about my marriage and my life was nothing more than an illusion. In that instant, I lost my identity as well as the identity of my wife.... A split second later I fell into the deepest despair I've ever felt before and never felt since. The emotional pain in my heart became physical. A mental anguish that was as painful as the worst torture one could imagine.
The above quotation is Richard Alan's account of his reaction to learning that his wife has had an affair, excerpted from his book _First Aid for the Betrayed._ This description might seem overblown, but given the context, it has the ring of cold truth. Perhaps one can't exaggerate the level of pain that accompanies the revelation of a partner's deceit, of a lifetime of trust violated, of a relied-upon promise shattered.
As Alan suggests, the damage betrayal causes occurs on many levels. Psychologists and family therapists can actually have a hard time compiling a complete list of all the kinds of harm and potential harm broken trust can wreak. In the most extreme cases, the aftermath can trigger feelings of rage, betrayal, isolation, anxiety, and despair; it can lead to depression, substance abuse, even suicide; it can crush self-esteem and erode every other social bond. And these are just the consequences for the victim. The perpetrator may suffer, too: from overwhelming guilt, from crippling regret, and from the fraying of relationships connected to the broken one, such as those with children or mutual friends. Also, we should not overlook the cost of "getting away with" serious deceit. Think of the shame and embarrassment that must have been felt by the man who had to trick the woman he loved into believing he was ten years younger than his actual age. It's also telling that 95 percent of those who admit affairs to their partners do so out of guilt or a desire to repair the primary relationship. It seems the weight of keeping a dalliance secret often outweighs the happiness it might yield.
Yet despite the plethora of painful consequences, broken trust does not have to be fatal to relationships. While every individual is different, as is every lie, in some cases trust can be repaired, even in the wake of deception as serious as infidelity. It's important to note that such repair may not always be wise. Unfortunately, we may encounter people who are not worth trusting, who will betray our faith as many times as it is restored. Yet there are also cases in which deception can stand as an exception, or in which the factors that led to the deception can be removed or altered. Addictions can be conquered; acquaintances can be discarded; relationships can become more fulfilling.
It is the case, then, that someone who lies or betrays and promises "never to do it again" may, in fact, _not_ do it again. But what's essential to keep in mind is that such an assurance is only a precursor to restored trust. Restored trust means believing the assurance, having faith in the honesty of someone who has, at least once, proven to be untrustworthy. No one should think that the promise to never repeat a transgression is tantamount to repairing the damage of that transgression.
Equally important is the other precursor for restored trust: _wanting_ to restore that trust. Overcoming betrayal is a two-way street. It means repentance and change on the one side and, at minimum, forgiveness on the other. It is often surprising how attached we can become to our own feelings of injured pride and righteous indignation. Finally, though, if we are serious about moving on with a life that includes our betrayer, we must let go of these feelings.
One final point I'd like to emphasize about restoring trust is that the goal should not be to restore the old relationship. First, why would anyone want to? The old relationship was the one that gave way to infidelity or manipulation or dishonesty. In repair, we should strive for something better. Second, overcoming betrayal is not the same as, and will not feel like, stepping into a time machine and living life as it was before the betrayal occurred. The betrayal _did_ occur, and that experience needs to be learned from and assimilated into the new relationship.
There are benefits to such a process. Family therapists point to cases in which infidelity has actually strengthened relationships in the long term (though few would recommend it). Overcoming betrayal can have the affect of bringing people closer together, as dealing with a breach of trust can lead to a rededication to the value of a relationship and to a partner's needs. More importantly, repairing trust can, and should, create a new atmosphere of honesty and openness. We all pay lip service to the truth. But no one likely values it as much as those who have suffered from its violation.
# CHAPTER 6
# Self-Deception: The Lies We Tell Ourselves
The break in the case unfolded as if it had been pulled from a cheesy mystery novel. Ten years had passed since the body of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey had been found in the basement of her parents' Colorado home. Even though the case garnered national media attention, with JonBenét's haunting face appearing on magazine covers and the nightly news for weeks, police had been unable to find her killer. For a time, suspicion fell on JonBenét's family, but no arrests were ever made. The case seemed destined to go unsolved.
Then a professor of journalism at the University of Colorado brought to police attention anonymous e-mails he had received that referenced the JonBenét Ramsey murder. The professor, Michael Tracey, had followed the case closely and produced multiple documentaries about it. He believed the author of the messages might be involved in the murder. Colorado police traced the man writing to Tracey to Thailand, and he was arrested there by Thai officials. John Mark Karr, a former substitute teacher with an arrest record for child pornography, quickly confessed to the murder. Saying that her death was "an accident," he claimed to have been with JonBenét Ramsey when she died. When asked by reporters whether he was innocent, he answered, "No."
For a few days, at least, many believed the case had finally been solved. But what seemed a dramatic conclusion proved to be merely another dead end. DNA found at the crime scene did not match Karr's. His family insisted that he had no connection to the Ramseys and that he had not been with them at the time of the murder. The charges against Karr in connection with the JonBenét Ramsey case were soon dropped, the confession dismissed as a product of Karr's troubled mind.
False confessions, in which an individual confesses to a crime he or she did not actually commit, may strike us initially as an utterly inexplicable behavior. Why accept blame for something you didn't do? Yet false confessions are not wholly unusual within the criminal justice system. Over fifty people confessed to murdering Black Dahlia actress Elizabeth Short in 1947. The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization of lawyers dedicated to using DNA evidence to overturn wrongful convictions, estimates that over a quarter of the clients they have exonerated made at least partial false confessions. Over two hundred people falsely confessed to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. In the infamous case of the "Central Park jogger," five teenagers confessed to violently assaulting and raping a twenty-eight-year-old investment banker in New York's Central Park. Years later the confessions were all thrown out, when another man, whose DNA was found at the scene, claimed sole responsibility for the attack.
Often, false confessions are the result of coercive interrogation techniques. Physical abuse can eventually induce almost anyone to confess to a crime, the truth becoming secondary to the alleviation of the immediate torment. Coercion does not have to take a physical form, either. Relentless psychological pressure or outright deception can also persuade innocent people to take responsibility for crimes they did not commit. Especially with regard to young or mentally challenged suspects, the wrongfully accused can become convinced that simply confessing is their best option—one that will allow them to "just go home."
In other instances, though, the psychological dynamics of the false confession are not so straightforward. There are numerous documented cases of innocent suspects, under lengthy and intense interrogation, actually starting to believe—at least temporarily—that they are, in fact, guilty. In Karr's case, there were no angry detectives badgering him. It is possible he confessed to murdering JonBenét Ramsey as a macabre publicity stunt. It is also possible, however, that he had come to believe that he really had killed her.
Indeed, researchers have found that it is easy to induce people to confess to transgressions of which they are actually innocent. For example, social psychologist Saul Kassin of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice asked individual participants to type a list of letters read aloud quickly in what was supposedly a study of reaction time. Right before starting, each participant was warned that if they pressed the Alt key, the computer would malfunction. Just sixty seconds into the task, the computer seemed to crash, and the irate experimenter accused the participant of hitting the forbidden Alt key. In reality, each participant was innocent, having avoided the Alt key entirely. Yet when accused by the experimenter and a supposed eyewitness of hitting that key, a significant number of participants not only signed a written confession but appeared to be convinced of their guilt to the point of manufacturing details of their supposed misdeed.
We generally think of our perceptions as reliable, of our memories as stable. Yet there is a great deal of evidence that both these assumptions are false. Our mental processes often stray significantly from the dispassionate and the objective; our memories of what we witnessed and experienced almost always erode, and sometimes even transform. We can't always depend on ourselves to form a strictly "truthful" impression of reality. Humans are capable of deceiving themselves into thinking they murdered people they never even met. Very likely, we are all engaged in multiple mundane acts of self-deception that influence our behavior and impressions on a daily basis.
Lying is a behavior that makes sense to us when it comes from other people. At the very least, we can understand that others might have motive—defensible or nefarious—to deceive us. But the question of why we would deceive ourselves is much more difficult to reconcile. Why would we be anything but completely honest within the boundaries of our own mind? More fundamentally, how _could_ a person even lie to him or herself?
Consider the idea of self-deception from a logical perspective. To employ a shorthand definition, let's say lying means knowing the truth but distorting it to fool another person. For instance, you might (if you're feeling greedy) tell your friend you haven't seen the hundred-dollar bill he dropped, masking the truth that it ended up under your loafer. Using the same definition, though, lying to yourself would seem to require that you both know the truth and fool yourself into not knowing it. It's almost as if you're hiding the hundred-dollar bill without knowing where it is. You are both the teller of the lie and the one it deceives.
Yet self-deception is a fact of human thought. It is possible largely because our experience of reality is far more complicated than the knowledge of where a dropped hundred-dollar bill might have ended up. Indeed, it is these complications that seem to make self-deception necessary. Just as the lies we tell one another help us navigate the psychological complexities of social life, the lies we tell ourselves help us carry on in the sometimes tricky endeavor of simply _being ourselves_.
# **"I Disagree with Myself"; or, How to Think Two Things at Once**
Imagine you've just spent an hour as a participant in a psychological experiment—an excruciatingly boring one. For what seemed like an unendurable sixty minutes, you were charged with the task of placing spools on a tray and twisting a series of square pegs around and around. You'd mastered the task after ten minutes, and you spent the remainder of the time berating yourself for ever agreeing to spend your time this way. Finally, you're finished. But then the psychologist running the experiment, with a sheepish look on his face, makes an unusual request.
The researcher says that, due to a scheduling problem, he needs your services in working with the next participant. The experiment, he explains, concerns the effects of motivational preparation on task performance. The next participant is due to arrive at any minute. All you have to do, the experimenter explains, is tell her that the experimental task is fun, fascinating, and exciting. For this, you'll be paid a dollar.
If you agree to the researcher's request and tell the next participant how thrilling the task will be, receiving a dollar for your trouble, something you probably never thought possible will likely happen: your attitude toward the initial task will change, and you'll come to feel more positively toward it. Even more surprisingly, your attitude toward the task will be more favorable than if the experimenter had offered you twenty dollars to be his confederate.
The scenario and findings described above are taken from a groundbreaking experiment conducted in the 1950s by Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith. Festinger and Carlsmith were not, as they told their participants, interested in the connection between preparation and performance. Rather, their interest was in how their participants' attitudes toward a painfully boring task changed when those participants agreed to describe it as exciting. Their central finding—that describing the task as engaging somehow made it seem more engaging in the participants' minds—yielded great insight into the way we deal with conflicting ideas. Specifically, it helped validate a psychological theory that has remained essential for over fifty years: _cognitive dissonance._ Cognitive dissonance is one of the key elements to understanding the mechanics of self-deception.
"Cognitive dissonance" is the term psychologists use for the tension that arises from holding two contradictory ideas in mind simultaneously. For example, a man with high cholesterol might know "I need to avoid red meat" but at the same time be faced with the contradictory fact "I am eating a T-bone steak." The conflict between these two ideas, or _cognitions,_ as psychologists refer to them, creates the mental discomfort labeled dissonance.
According to cognitive dissonance theory, in order to resolve the dissonance, the mind, consciously or unconsciously, alters one of the two competing ideas. The man with high cholesterol eating the steak might decide that he eats so little red meat that the steak shouldn't count; or he might conclude that the evidence linking red meat to high cholesterol really isn't so convincing; or he might add a new idea that helps ease the tension, such as "After this meal, I will never eat red meat again." These are the kinds of rationalizations and conditions we all employ when we're doing something we know we probably shouldn't be. What is important to realize, though, is that such altering of ideas and reevaluations of judgments represent an apparently natural and fundamental mechanism of the human mind.
Go back to Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment, in which participants changed their attitudes toward the boring experiment once they agreed to describe it to someone else as exciting. Cognitive dissonance theory provides a neat explanation for this finding. The participants were suddenly faced with two contradictory thoughts: first, that the experiment was boring; second, that they had agreed to say it was stimulating. In order to reconcile these ideas, the participants mentally altered the first one. They came to believe that, in fact, the experiment really _wasn't_ boring; thus there was no conflict created by saying it was exciting.
The other wrinkle to Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment was offering participants either one dollar or twenty dollars for talking up the fun of the experimental task. They found, as I mentioned, that participants who received one dollar ended up viewing the task as more enjoyable than those who received twenty. Cognitive dissonance theory explains this, too. Participants who were being paid twenty dollars did not face the same level of dissonance as those who received only a token sum. The former group could think, "The task was boring" and "I am taking twenty dollars to say it wasn't boring." The conflict there is ethical, not psychological. (And, as far as an ethical evaluation goes, it's worth noting that in the 1950s, twenty dollars went a lot further.) The latter participants, those given only a dollar to claim the task was exciting, could not use money as a mental excuse for their behavior. They had to change _how they thought_ to resolve their cognitive dissonance.
Now we can start to see the connection between cognitive dissonance and self-deception. When our opinions, our behavior, or our beliefs contradict each other, we are compelled to alter our thinking. The ideas that result are more internally consistent with one another, but they are not necessarily _consistent with reality_. Is any steak ever really the last one? Do we really think the scientific links between red meat and cholesterol are so flimsy that they can be ignored? The answer to such questions is almost inevitably no, but that doesn't mean that under the pressure of cognitive dissonance we can't convince ourselves that the answer is yes.
As we consider the influence of cognitive dissonance, another key element of self-deception also comes into focus. As mentioned earlier, it's strange to think we could lie to ourselves about the location of a hundred-dollar bill. Physical reality resists easy mental distortion. It has tangible aspects we can't simply change in our minds. Our thoughts, our beliefs, and our attitudes, though, are different. They have no physical dimension—no dimension at all, really, beyond the confines of our thoughts. And within these confines we can alter them almost limitlessly. We can be proud on the days we eat a healthy diet; we can question the science of nutrition on the days when we don't.
But while some of our ideas are easily changed, others can be surprisingly stubborn. When the outside world conflicts with our thinking, sometimes we can find ways to preserve the latter at the expense of how we perceive the former. This mental inflexibility is probably nowhere more apparent than with regard to how we think about ourselves.
# **Believing in Yourself – No Matter What**
A few years ago my son decided to join some friends in a weekly poker game. Like a lot of people, he had gotten caught up in the Texas Hold 'Em poker fad, a game that involves some combination (the exact proportions are debatable) of luck and skill. He reasoned that he had seen enough poker on television to do moderately well. Further, he'd heard enough around the dinner table about the research on lying to think he might have a leg up in the game—if only because the other players might think that he'd somehow gleaned some secret knowledge about how to spot a liar.
Suffice it to say, he did not participate in the game for very long. But besides some endurable financial losses, there was another reason he didn't stick with poker. There was a player in the game he really couldn't stand. For purposes of this example, let's call him André. André, who outside of poker was a perfectly amiable person, had an extremely irritating personality when it came to cards. Whenever he won a big hand, he would cluck about how skilled he was—how he had bluffed his opponent perfectly, played his hand with textbook precision, and on and on. More annoyingly, when he lost a large hand, he would spend the next ten to twenty minutes lamenting his bad luck—he had made all the right moves but the cards had come up wrong, it wasn't fair, he was a superior player but his opponent had caught a break. After a few nights of this, my son had had enough: André was preternaturally skilled when he won and amazingly unlucky when he lost.
It turns out, though, that my son got something for the money lost in his brief poker dalliance, because André provided an excellent example of a very common—and very insidious—form of self-deception. Looking at matters objectively, it is fair to say that André's victories weren't _always_ attributable to his skill. Sometimes, he got lucky—the cards came his way. On the other hand, when he lost, it was not a question of bad luck every time. Sometimes, he was simply outplayed. But André did not, or could not, see it this way.
We've already examined how the mind responds to cognitive dissonance. When we hold two competing, contradictory ideas, we change one of them, consciously or unconsciously. Red meat goes from forbidden to occasionally allowable; a boring task becomes tolerable, and perhaps even a bit enjoyable. Cognitive dissonance can be most urgent, though, when one of the contradictory ideas relates to our view of ourselves.
Consider André's situation when he loses at poker. He holds a very strong view of himself as a great poker player. Yet this opinion is contradicted by the fact that he has just lost at poker. In order to resolve this dissonance, André engages in self-justification that allows him to retain his positive self-image. It's not that he is a bad poker player, or even a less good poker player than he thinks. In his mind, he is an _unlucky_ poker player. In this way, André can preserve his opinion of himself in the face of contradictory facts. What's important to understand, too, is that André does not perceive the facts as contradictory. He believes that he is always unlucky when he loses. In other words, he lies to himself.
Psychologists and researchers have found this need to protect one's self-image to be an extremely powerful force in shaping our perceptions of the world. On one level, it can even create a kind of filter that blocks out information that could be challenging to our self-image. Roy Baumeister of Florida State University conducted an experiment in which he gave a group of participants a phony personality test. The "results" of this personality test were distributed at random. Some participants received highly favorable feedback; others received extremely harsh, negative feedback. Baumeister and his colleagues found that the participants who received the negative response spent far less time looking it over than those who received the positive response. In other words, participants gave less attention to criticism than to praise.
Psychologists call this phenomenon _selective exposure._ We seek to minimize our exposure to, and even avoid altogether, information that contradicts what we think, particularly what we think about ourselves. Imagine you are at the home page of your local newspaper and you see the headlines of two editorials, one praising your favorite political party, the other decrying it. Not wanting to read attacks on your party's positions and candidates, you click on only the link to the favorable editorial. The theory of selective exposure operates in just this way, except that instead of our political party, the subject matter is our self-concept. We avoid information that challenges us and embrace that which reinforces us.
An important difference, though, between the psychological reality of selective exposure and the example of the newspaper home page is that with selective exposure, in extreme cases we somehow _deny the existence_ of the link to the negative editorial. We can perceive only the praise. This is why André can carry on in his belief that when he loses at poker, he is always unlucky. His mistakes, the flaws in his play, don't register with him in his self-evaluations.
Just as importantly, André may also interpret the mistakes he does recognize in a way that protects his self-image. For instance, if he makes a bad bluff, he might tell himself that it was not because he is fundamentally a bad bluffer but simply because he had one beer too many, and this detracted from his performance. Our ability to analyze events in a way that protects our preconceived notions about ourselves is another powerful element of self-deception. And the examples of such thinking are myriad. We like to think of ourselves as having special insight into financial markets, so when our stock trades turn out badly, we tell ourselves it was just a fluke. We think of ourselves as competent, so when we back the car into the closed garage door, we blame atypical exhaustion. We think of ourselves as intelligent, so if we fail a test, we chalk it up to unfair question sets or a neighbor with a distracting cough. In other words, we embrace the possibilities of interpretation to keep bad outcomes at arm's length. Poor results don't have to do with us, we tell ourselves. They have to do with—well, whatever we can imagine.
Psychologists have also noted the inverse of this type of thinking: the tendency to ascribe positive outcomes almost totally to personal performance. So when our stock trades make us money, _that_ isn't a fluke. It's a direct result of intelligence and insight. Obviously, almost any success can be ascribed to a combination of luck, circumstance, and individual traits. Yet our interpretations tend to highlight the importance of the last one at the expense of the former two. We can see an exaggerated form of such thinking when lottery winners say, "Well, I must have done something good for somebody." Even when an event is _purely_ a product of chance, the mind searches for ways to assign it to personal performance.
Again, a critical point here is that when we view negative outcomes as bad luck and positive outcomes as a consequence of our own abilities, we don't realize we are applying a bias. We believe we are looking at events objectively. And it is just this perceived objectivity that allows us to use these events as evidence to support our notions of ourselves. To put it simply, in order to build or defend our self-esteem, we tell ourselves lies about how we perceive our experiences. Without fully realizing it, we interpret what happens to us in ways that are comforting, flattering, or both.
On a personal level, this tendency can lead to persistent self-delusion. The book _He's Just Not That into You_ (adapted as a film in 2009) took as its best-selling theme the necessity of accepting difficult truths in the face of stubborn romantic self-deception. It is all too tempting to imagine that a lost phone number or an unexpected business trip are the explanations for a potential mate's lack of contact. Unrequited romantic interest carries a particular sting, touching, as it does, on so many inevitable insecurities about appearance and desirability. We probably all have friends who have tied themselves in speculative knots rather than accept that an unreturned phone call signals simple disinterest in a second date. If we're honest, we can probably admit that we've tied ourselves in such knots, too. At its worst, self-deception in our private lives can make us cling to relationships that don't work, partners who aren't interested, friendships that have soured.
In the public and professional realms, though, the consequences of self-deception can perhaps be even greater. Indeed, the attempt to preserve one's self-image through self-deceit can have consequences that extend far beyond the individual who does the lying to him- or herself. Scott McClellan worked as the press secretary in the George W. Bush White House for close to three years. During that time he was fiercely loyal to the president, and dogged in selling his policies to the media. Then, in 2008, McClellan published a memoir recounting his work for Bush. Titled _What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception_ , the book was less than flattering. In it, McClellan asserts that President Bush was a victim (or practitioner, depending on one's perspective) of "self-deception." McClellan writes, "As I worked closely with President Bush, I would come to believe that sometimes he convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment." McClellan describes how the president's tendency to bend the truth in his own mind had costs for his policy toward Iraq and for the administration generally.
It is always dangerous to make assumptions about the workings of someone else's mind, particularly if those assumptions are based on third-party accounts. The difficulty is only compounded when those accounts carry political implications and are filtered through the media. Still, if we consider the challenges presented to President Bush—or to any president, for that matter—it isn't difficult to see how he could fall victim to self-deception. For powerful leaders, be they in the business world or in government, the necessity of maintaining an aura of strength and competence can make it difficult to accept policy failures and mistakes. It goes back to the issue of cognitive dissonance. Powerful people can have difficulty reconciling their faith in their abilities with the fact of their errors. In order to resolve this dissonance, the fact of their errors can become subject to interpretation. As with André's refusal to believe that he can make a mistake at poker, a president may find it impossible to believe that his decisions as commander in chief are wrong. Evidence of failure is viewed as an anomaly in a larger picture of success; disagreement is regarded not as reasonable but as mulish partisan resistance.
We have seen such thinking played out again and again in the careers of prominent leaders. The valuable ability to remain objective, even when it means conceding error, is elusive enough in ordinary life. When factors such as outsized ego, the high stakes of failure, and the glaring spotlight of public attention are added to the mix, objectivity can be even harder to attain.
The costs of self-deception are not hard to identify, as we have seen. Decisions based on what we'd like to think as opposed to what is factually accurate, whether the context is romantic or geopolitical or something in between, rarely serve us well. Wishful thinking can take us only so far.
On the other hand, to construe self-deception as a wholly negative phenomenon would be to oversimplify matters. Clearly, there is value to accurately apprehending the truth. There may also be benefit, though, to indulging in a measure of fiction. Some research suggests that lying to ourselves can at times be advantageous.
# **The Lake Wobegon Effect**
Garrison Keillor, the host of the public radio show _A Prairie Home Companion,_ describes his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon as a place where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." It's a good joke. It is also one that captures a powerful psychological truth. Although we may recognize that we can't _all_ be above average—indeed, that it's a logical impossibility—we still tend to think of ourselves this way.
In one survey of over 800,000 high school students conducted by the College Board, 70 percent of respondents said they had "above average" leadership skills; 60 percent rated themselves as in the top 10 percent in the category of getting along with others; and none of the respondents considered themselves below average in relating to their peers. It is not just teenagers who engage in Lake Wobegon thinking, either: 64 percent of professors rate their teaching as above average, and 25 percent consider it "superior." Most businesspeople think they are more ethical than the average, most drivers think they are better drivers than the average—even those who have been hospitalized after car accidents. Generally speaking, the majority of adults think of themselves as smarter and more attractive than the average.
The logic of math tells us there is some self-deception going on here. Apparently we like to think of ourselves as a little smarter, better looking, and more competent behind the wheel than those around us. Clearly, some of us must be fooling ourselves. Yet it's not necessarily the case that we would be better off with a clearer understanding of where we fit on the attribute hierarchy.
Researchers studying depression have found that clinically depressed people often have surprisingly accurate views of themselves—a phenomenon known as _depressive realism_. People suffering from depression make better assessments than nonde-pressed people about their control over events, their role in effecting positive outcomes, their good qualities, and their shortcomings. Their perceptions are not irrationally pessimistic. On the contrary, they are unusually clear-eyed.
We don't know for sure whether being depressed somehow leads one to greater accuracy or whether having greater clarity into oneself leads to feelings of depression. What is clear is that at least some depressives are unable to find the comfort that self-deception brings to most of us.
Freud understood self-deception as a kind of protection mechanism. Guilt or fears that might threaten the ego were buried in the unconscious. Modern psychology does not take such a clean-cut view of things; the idea that the mind can be neatly divided into components such as the ego and the unconscious has been replaced by more complex models. Yet Freud's core idea may be valid. The world can be a harsh, capricious place. There are limits to what humans are capable of controlling. It is entirely possible that even as you read this, a broken-off chunk of a satellite is hurtling toward you with lethal force. Living in fear, though, is crippling. If we really took seriously the number of car-related fatalities, would we ever get behind the wheel again? Distorting the reality of what goes on around us may be necessary for us to function.
More specifically, Lake Wobegon thinking—that we are all a little better than average—can empower us not merely to merge onto the highway but to strive toward and achieve larger goals and ambitions. If we truly believed ourselves to be ordinary—of typical intelligence, of mundane attractiveness, of average likability—could we really retain the motivation to seek a better job, a higher grade, a loving partner? Self-deception can help preserve our optimism. If we believe we are in some ways superior to others, whether we are or not, we can use this attitude to aspire to goals we believe superior people normally achieve.
The connection between confidence (whether earned or imagined) and performance has a great deal of scientific support. Numerous studies over the years have found that thinking you will succeed helps you succeed, in a variety of contexts. For this reason, deceiving yourself about your intelligence when taking a test or about your competence during a job interview can have tangible benefits. Whether you are above average or not, _thinking_ you are can assist you in achieving above-average results.
Researchers Richard Gramzow, Greg Willard, and Wendy Mendes at Northeastern University reported a fascinating finding in line with this idea. They discovered that students they interviewed who exaggerated their grade point average—bumping it up to a few notches above reality—generally later went on to improve their grades. Further, the change in the grades often reflected the exact number they'd reported earlier. In other words, they improved their performance to make their lie _true_. Such lies can be thought of as a sort of expression of inner yearning. Students reported what they perhaps unconsciously wanted their grades to be, then followed through to make this wish reality.
Self-deception can also help one attain more grandiose goals than improved grades. If we honestly assess the odds against opening a successful business or making a radical career change later in life, we might, perfectly rationally, decide not to attempt such an endeavor. But if we offer ourselves an unreasonably optimistic appraisal of the challenges ahead, it can be easier to find the motivation to strive toward realizing such unlikely ambitions. It's important to keep in mind that the odds against achieving most of humanity's greatest accomplishments seem, in retrospect, hopelessly long. Who would have thought we could put a man on the moon before the invention of the pocket calculator?
Furthermore, self-deception has also been shown to offer benefits to those who are struggling with a past misfortune, as opposed to striving toward a future goal. Victims of trauma who can convince themselves that they do, in fact, retain control of their lives cope better than those who take a harder, more realist view of things. Cancer survivors who develop the notion that they can prevent the return of the disease, be it through diet or blind faith, tend to adjust better to life after their sickness. The false sense of security self-deception creates does contribute to psychological health.
Lying to ourselves, then, about our attributes, our ambitions, or our vulnerability can benefit us in ways both mental and concrete. But self-deception can also be helpful in our dealings with other people. Sandra Murray of the University of Buffalo and John Holmes of the University of Waterloo in Ontario have done extensive research into the ways lovers and spouses view each other. Their studies have found that people hold an idealized view of their close romantic partners. Positive attributes become exaggerated; flaws are minimized. This sort of partner glorification has actually been found to be a factor in relationship success. Relationships in which the partners see each other with this positive prejudice tend to last longer and be more mutually satisfying. In a similar vein, psychologists studying relationships have found that people in more successful relationships tend to lie to themselves about their options for other partners. The same way people mentally burnish the qualities of spouses or lovers, the qualities of potential mates outside the relationship are often viewed with irrational harshness. Here, the positives are overlooked or minimized, the negatives inflated or embellished. Perhaps the realities of sexual competition make long-term relationships all but impossible. We need to see our partners as close to perfect and everyone else as hopelessly flawed.
More broadly, self-deception can be an essential component of social living in general. Consider the fact that however much we idealize them, the people in our lives remain, in the end, people. Our closest friends, husbands or wives, coworkers and family members inevitably indulge in acts of selfishness or malice. Sometimes, unfortunately, these acts are directed toward us. Would it really serve our interests to think of our network of associates as selfish and malevolent? Or, to consider the question another way, would we maintain this network if we did?
In order to get at such questions, a group of American and Canadian anthropologists created a computer simulation of a two-player game. In the game, each player decides whether to contribute to a common investment pool. They both also have the option of excluding their partner from accessing the pool if the partner is not contributing enough to the common pot. After running the simulation for several generations of interactions, the researchers found that players who had established a history of cooperation were willing to ignore isolated acts of selfishness and continue the partnership. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that in the long term, this pattern of behavior was the most beneficial for the larger community. In other words, the ability to overlook the occasional malignant act proved helpful to the society at large. Serial offenders had to be excluded. But the simulation suggested that more harm was done ending imperfect but workable relationships than by continuing them, warts and all.
What this suggests for us is a model of relationships in which we deny, as best we can, the anomalous cheating and stealing of others so that society in general can function. According to one view, this is actually an evolved behavior. Early humans benefited from the ability to overlook minor acts of cheating, the theory holds, because this practice kept the small groups in which they lived more stable and tightly knit. By this reasoning, then, we didn't learn to overlook the flaws of those around us early in life; our genetic heritage makes them somehow invisible.
Other theories also trace self-deception to evolution. Some psychologists conjecture that we learned self-deceit in order to trick our own rules of conduct. We may feel a strong internal prohibition against stealing, for instance. However, we can skirt this prohibition and enjoy the advantage of stealing if we can convince ourselves that what we're doing isn't stealing but, say, "creative accounting."
The common thread among all this thinking is that self-deception, at least in some circumstances, is good—or, at least, in confers benefits on those who practice it. This undoubtedly is true to some degree. Yet the risks of self-deception are also evident. Particularly in our decision making, we may need a harsh assessment of the facts that self-deception only makes more difficult. As we have seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , lying has costs and benefits. This turns out to be true whether we are the target of the lies, their teller, or, in the case of self-deception, both.
And just as with the types of deception covered in previous chapters, the first step to living with deception is an awareness of it. This is particularly important with regard to the lies we tell ourselves, since these are the lies we are often least aware of. Carol Tavris is a social psychologist who cowrote a recent book with Elliot Aronson on the dangers of persistent self-justification, _Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)_. She summed up the apparently paradoxical need to keep the lies we tell ourselves in mind through a sharp metaphor. "Just as good drivers," she explained to the _Chronicle of Higher Education_ , "are aware that they have an optical blind spot, the more we understand our own mental blind spots, the better able we are to compensate for them."
This metaphor is particularly appropriate, of course, because we are all above-average drivers.
# CHAPTER 7
# **Cosmetic Deceit: Lies to Make Us Seem Richer, Smarter, Better**
The town of Gerald, Missouri, population 1,200, has a local police force you can tally on one hand. Unfortunately, Gerald also has a drug problem, specifically with methamphetamines. In this, Gerald is not unique. Meth labs have been popping up in rural areas of Middle America with alarming frequency in recent years. And like Gerald, most towns don't have the resources to deal with the problem. So when a federal agent arrived in Gerald and announced he had been sent to assist local law enforcement officers with their efforts against pushers and users, he was welcomed.
"Sergeant Bill," as he came to be known around town, fit the image of the tough federal drug warrior almost to perfection. He was bulky and clean-cut. He carried a gun and a badge. He drove around town in a Ford Crown Victoria outfitted with sirens and a police radio. And he turned sour when asked to give out his full name, saying it could compromise his investigative work.
Sergeant Bill began participating in an aggressive series of raids not long after arriving in Gerald. He reportedly kicked open doors, ransacked private residences, seized property, and put suspects in handcuffs. He did all this without search warrants, claiming that federal agents weren't required to obtain them. Sergeant Bill's campaign began to attract the attention of local media, in particular his claim that federal agents can act without warrants. (For the record, they can't.)
A reporter for the _Gasconade County Republican,_ the local Gerald paper, began digging into Sergeant Bill's story. It didn't take long to uncover that it was all fiction. Sergeant Bill's real name was Bill A. Jakob. He had no affiliation with any federal agency. He had a brief history of small-town law enforcement, and he had also worked, at various times, in the trucking industry, as a wedding minister, and as a security guard. Sergeant Bill, it turned out, was an impostor.
He was certainly a convincing one, though. He fooled the mayor, the police chief, and the town aldermen. Even after Jakob had been revealed as a fraud, for a time some in Gerald clung to the belief that he was a federal agent despite all of it, that the revelations were just an elaborate cover story. There doesn't, however, seem to be any evidence to support this conviction. In the fallout from Jakob's fraud, several police officers lost their jobs, Gerald residents launched multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuits, and Jakob himself faces a twenty-three-count indictment for impersonating an officer.
In earlier chapters of _The Liar in Your Life,_ we have explored how frauds such as Bill A. Jakob can succeed. Liars have a powerful advantage when they seek to fool us. We are in many ways predisposed to trust, and this predisposition is often difficult to overcome. Indeed, it can be argued that it is actually easy to trick other people in the fashion of "Sergeant Bill." But what about the reasons why Bill A. Jakob would engage in such an elaborate ruse? Why would someone want to impersonate a federal drug agent, conduct raids, kick down doors? What is the psychology behind taking on a new identity?
For Bill A. Jakob, the most obvious explanations don't seem to fit. He didn't gain financially from his fraud. He told local authorities that his salary was being paid by the federal government. His services cost the town of Gerald almost nothing in terms of dollars. Nor is there much reason to believe that Bill A. Jakob was simply crazy. He took elaborate steps to hide his true identity, even going so far as to offer a fake phone number for a fake agency, the "multijurisdictional task force," in support of his story. It does not seem, in other words, that Bill A. Jakob really _believed_ he was in the employ of the DEA. His deception was deliberate and, at least in terms of how it was pulled off, rational.
Aspiration is a ubiquitous feature of modern life. We live in a society that encourages us to spend whatever it takes in order to make ourselves a little thinner, a little fitter, a little more sophisticated-looking. Perhaps, too, there is some aspect of human nature that resists the complacency of total self-satisfaction—that drives us to expand beyond our present condition and circumstances. Yet regardless of whether it comes from our DNA or our TV, the urge to be _better_ is a very real one, and it manifests itself in a huge variety of ways. Some people answer the impulse toward self-enhancement by taking courses to learn a new language, some people buy a new car—and many people resort to deception.
It's ultimately impossible to identify with certainty the underlying motives for Bill A. Jakob's deceit, especially since these motives may have been hazy even to him. Yet if any aspect of his lies stemmed from a wish to be something more than he was—a federal agent instead of small-town cop—then in this regard his actions resemble those of millions of people engaged in what is generally considered normal behavior. Most don't go so far as to impersonate a DEA agent, but almost all of us have taken steps to improve ourselves, and these steps are not always strictly honest.
I call such deception _cosmetic deceit._ This term refers to the broad category of lies we tell to make ourselves appear better—by whatever standard—than we are. The term "cosmetic deceit" may seem to imply something casual—a brief act of minor fabrication, comparable to applying a dab of makeup to hide a blemish. But as the case of Bill A. Jakob shows, cosmetic deceit can encompass substantial fabrication with equally substantial consequences. Indeed, some of the most prominent scandals of recent years stem from lies that can be categorized as cosmetic deceit.
Cosmetic deceit is also among the most common forms of deception. As we have seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life,_ lies occur regularly in day-to-day social interactions. These lies can function simply to keep a conversation moving or to avoid hurting the feelings of the target of the lie. Very often, too, the lies that crop up in everyday conversations help service the psychological well-being of the liar. In order to impress someone, or, by the same token, salve nagging insecurities, a person may invent a fact or deceptively soften the edges of an embarrassing event. That is, they may indulge in a cosmetic lie to cast themselves in a better light. A lukewarm performance review is recounted as glowing; a golf score is lowered by a couple shots; the laughter a joke elicited gains a decibel level in the retelling. Such lies are so common because, as we will see later in the chapter, the social and psychological dynamics of interacting with other people can to some extent make cosmetic deceit nearly inevitable.
Yet some argue that interpersonal lies are only one form of a much broader practice of cosmetic deceit. Some psychologists hold that most of Western culture's fundamental activities of ornamentation, such as applying makeup or styling hair, constitute deception. In this view, one's natural appearance has a kind of authenticity. Wearing a shade of lipstick darker than one's natural pigmentation, for instance, thus represents a form of a lie. When our "true" appearance is interfered with, by way of blush or eyeliner or colored contact lenses, the image presented to the world is to some degree false. For the purposes of our discussion, it isn't necessary to plumb the question of whether wearing a wig is the equivalent of lying about the length and color of your hair. It is enough to note that we are accustomed to exercising a great deal of control over our physical appearances. We exercise this control through everything from clothing selection to cosmetics application to trips to the spa. Whether or not we conclude that any of these activities represent deception, it's easy to see how the attitudes that underlie them sometimes take verbal form. A chipped tooth is replaced with a fake; an embarrassingly bad decision is hidden with a lie.
It's not news to anyone that our culture is obsessed with image. What's important to keep in mind is that the idea of "image" is not restricted to the visual realm. Modern society places enormous significance on the perceptions of other people. The explosion in recent years of blogs and reality television demonstrates the great interest people have in scrutinizing other people's lives, as well as in offering up their own lives for scrutiny. Given the centrality of the opinions of others, then, the temptations of cosmetic deceit aren't difficult to understand. When we pay so much attention to what other people think, it's hard to limit the ways we try to influence those thoughts. Representing our true selves can often take a back seat to representing what we perceive to be our "best" selves. And this tendency can be especially pronounced in situations where impressing another person is not just an implicit goal but the entire point of the interaction.
# **Blind Dates and Other Times You'll Probably Be Lied To**
Certain situations seem to lend themselves to horror stories: visits to the dentist; trips to the local Department of Motor Vehicles; and, perhaps most infamously, blind dates. It's likely you've heard more than one story of a disastrous blind date. If you've been single for a while, it's probable you've experienced one, too.
A student of mine once offered me an interesting perspective on the disastrous blind date. He was, he confessed, the initiator of the disaster. He was having dinner with an attractive, intelligent young woman—and suddenly found himself blathering on about a bicycle trip across South America he planned to take the following summer. He discussed the route he would follow, the type of bike he would buy. The problem was, he had no plans to take such a trip. Biking South America was something he'd pondered idly but had no concrete intention of doing. Unfortunately, his date was a cycling enthusiast, and as she pressed him for details, it became increasingly clear that what he'd told her was basically fiction. And so this blind date entered her pantheon of horror stories.
What surprised me about this anecdote was that this student was not habitually dishonest. He was, rather, a forthright, decent person, and one who expressed great embarrassment over his behavior on the date. How was it, then, that he had come to find himself telling a lie about biking across South America?
As we consider the factors underlying cosmetic deceit, the blind date presents an illuminating scenario. These encounters are all about mutual evaluation: assessing a potential partner on a vast array of criteria, from the physical to the financial. Such a scenario inevitably puts psychological pressure on its participants. When we are being judged, we reflexively want to be judged positively. Even if one of the participants has less than a consuming interest in the date, the interest in maintaining self-esteem remains. The need to come off well, even in the eyes of an unappealing stranger, can be intense.
Yet the process of coming off well is far from simple. In previous chapters, we've examined the psychological mechanism of self-presentation, the way we demonstrate our personality and related traits to other people. As we've discussed, self-presentation is often a question of choice: which impulses to follow or ignore, which opinions to express or withhold, which jokes to tell or save for another occasion. On a blind date, we frequently choose which details in our personal biography to present. The recent promotion is mentioned; the problems securing a car loan are not. Self-presentation represents a kind of packaging of who we are in a form we judge to be appealing and appropriate.
This process of self-presentation is one we enact in every single social encounter we have. Only a pure social incompetent acts the same way in every context, with every group of people. The rest of us weigh such factors as who we're talking to and the situation in which we're interacting as we make decisions regarding how to behave and what to say. A blind date is in some ways only a pressurized version of a circumstance we face all the time. While we may not always be explicitly attempting to woo or impress another person, our encounters with others inevitably involve revealing and concealing, emphasizing and downplaying.
And this brings us back to cosmetic deceit. If we think of self-presentation as a creative process, one in which we tailor ourselves to fit the situation, we can see how there is a very fine line between honest self-presentation and cosmetic deceit. If we feel we lack in some way the _self_ a situation demands—if we feel we don't have the intelligence or the wit or the biography the circumstance calls for—we can resort to fiction. Again, even honest self-presentation involves creativity. At some point, we may find ourselves stepping from shading and selection over into distorting and invention.
On a blind date, such temptations can be especially strong. The evaluative pressure of a blind date forces our insecurities to the surface: about appearance, about accomplishments, about status. Cosmetic deceit is a way of answering these insecurities. Further, the stakes on a blind date can be, well, blindingly high. Assuming a person takes a liking to his or her date, he or she might judge the potential rewards of appealing self-presentation to be everything from short-term physical gratification to lifelong emotional satisfaction. In other words, a successful blind date can mean snaring Mr. or Ms. Right. In this context, the urge to impress may easily trump the commitment to honesty.
The initially inexplicable deceit of my student regarding his invented bike trip thus becomes more explicable. The barriers against deception in self-presentation are fragile, and the psychological pressures weighing toward cosmetic deceit on a blind date are extreme. My student wanted to impress his date and ended up enhancing his attributes by concocting an athletic adventure.
Certainly, he was not alone in his behavior. Studies have found that cosmetic deceit occurs in a range of romantic contexts. Psychological researchers Wade Rowatt, Michael Cunningham, and Perri Druen of Baylor University conducted a study of the ways people present themselves when they are trying to get a date in the first place. Rowatt and his colleagues were particularly interested in how the strategies for self-presentation might vary depending on the attractiveness of the potential date. In other words, did people change tactics according to whether they were wooing someone more or less attractive?
Rowatt and his colleagues presented volunteers with profiles, featuring photographs and personality descriptions, of members of the other sex. (In this study, the selected participants were all heterosexual.) Some of the profiles featured physically attractive people, some unattractive people. The researchers told the study participants that the profiled individuals would be selecting one participant to go on a date with based on a survey they would fill out. The researchers then analyzed the surveys the participants completed to see how they had presented themselves to what they believed to be potential romantic partners.
The participants were not entirely honest in the surveys. But, given the dynamics of self-presentation, that is not much of a surprise. What is telling, though, is that the participants lied more in the surveys directed to the more attractive individuals. In other words, the greater the attraction, the greater the deception. The nature of the deception Rowatt and his colleagues identified is also instructive. The participants often lied in order to appear more similar to the profiled individual. As opposed to embracing the motto that opposites attract, participants fabricated resemblances to their romantic targets.
Playing up similarities is a conventional tactic in winning the affection of another person. We've all been told to focus on what we "have in common" when meeting someone new. By the same token, having "nothing in common" is usually a damning sentence when it comes to forming a relationship. Cosmetic deceit offers a way to build the bridge of common interests and personality traits, even when it may not exist. When people want to woo an attractive potential mate, Rowatt and his colleagues' study suggests, they lie to present themselves as _just like_ him or her.
Cosmetic deceit, then, can serve a variety of functions in the romantic realm. It can be used to build up a suitor's credentials in stereotypically desirable categories, such as achievement, ambition, or status. Further, it can be used in a more psychologically subtle way, to achieve a kind of matching with the romantic target. A man tells his date that he, too, is a devoted family man; a woman tells her date that she, also, is looking for a serious commitment. It should be noted, as well, that these uses are far from mutually exclusive. Indeed, the tweaking of a biography and the fabrication of similarities can overlap in complex ways. For example, as women become increasingly financially successful earlier in life, there is a growing trend among young women to actually pretend to earn _less_ than they really do, so as not to threaten the egos of potential male partners. Cosmetic deceit can be used to make yourself seem a little less accomplished, then, when you think it might benefit you or appeal to your date.
The functions of cosmetic deceit are hardly limited to romantic situations, of course. Indeed, they are not limited even to social contexts. The pressures to fit particular criteria can be institutional. Getting and keeping a job necessarily entails matching personal skills and abilities with the specific needs of an employer. And just as people use cosmetic deceit to impress an attractive potential mate with false attributes, so too do they use it to woo potential bosses with degrees they never earned and past experiences they never had.
# **Being Right for the Job, Even When You're Not**
As dean of admissions for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marilee Jones earned a reputation for speaking out against the high-pressure, high-stress culture of the American college admissions system. Jones counseled teens to stop trying to embody the theoretical ideal in the mind of an Ivy League admissions officer and focus more on being themselves. Her publisher's description of the book she cowrote, _Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond_ , promised that it would help applicants in "letting your true, authentic self come through in your paperwork." It's an appealing idea: the truth taking primacy over institutional demands.
Yet however valid Jones's message was, it only rang with irony when application of indiscretions of her own came to light. On her professional résumé, Jones had claimed to hold degrees from three different institutions: Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The truth was that her only degree was from an obscure Catholic college in Albany, New York. In the wake of the ensuing scandal, Jones resigned, ending her twenty-eight-year career at MIT.
The story of Marilee Jones garnered national media attention. The public seemed fascinated by a tale of such glaring fraud at such a renowned educational institution. Yet the fact is that Jones's behavior was far from extraordinary. The practice of embellishing a résumé is fairly common. Exact figures differ, but studies indicate that two-thirds of people exaggerate or simply fabricate their managerial experience. Padding a résumé to a small degree is so common that it often falls into the category of minor crimes dismissed as things "everybody does." In this context, job applicants may even feel at a disadvantage if they _don't_ stretch the truth on their résumé, creating another impetus for deceit.
Job interviews, another fundamental element of the job application process, provide an even greater opportunity to lie. Interviews are conducted orally, so they leave no verifiable record of what occurred. Many people see this as an open invitation to be deceptive. Since statements cannot be vetted later, the checks against exaggerating accomplishments or taking false credit are that much weaker.
If we consider the psychological dynamics of applying or interviewing for a job, perhaps all this cosmetic deceit should not surprise us. In many ways, the factors that induce people to engage in cosmetic deceit on a blind date are the same ones that tempt them to lie when seeking a job. The evaluative intensity of a blind date is paralleled in a job interview. Again, the entire purpose of the interaction is scrutiny, as an interviewer evaluates the candidate on a range of criteria, from business skills to personality. This scrutiny triggers the same impulses to succeed that a blind date does—with the added component of potential financial benefit thrown in. A job interview, like a blind date, is really a high-stakes challenge of self-presentation. Decisions about what to say and what to conceal take on great importance. In this context, self-presentation can easily yield to cosmetic deceit.
As it plays out in the context of job seeking generally, cosmetic deceit is often very specific and very concrete. Employers make clear what they are looking for in a new hire. If a person lacks any of the stated requirements for a job—the experience, the degree—cosmetic deceit allows him or her the opportunity to win the job anyway. As with Marilee Jones, the obstacles to a particular position can be overcome with a few deceptive lines on a résumé.
What's important to understand is that while the form may vary, the underlying psychology of cosmetic deceit remains largely the same. Perceived gaps in _who we are_ can be masked through lies. Sometimes the lies involve imaginary bike trips, sometimes college diplomas. Regardless, when we fall short of what we'd like to be—in terms of achievement or personality or experience—cosmetic deceit provides a fix, albeit a temporary one.
In contrast to all this cosmetic deceit in the business world and the dating world is what might be called the Stuart Smalley philosophy of life. Stuart Smalley was a character portrayed by Al Franken on _Saturday Night Live_. A self-help fanatic, Smalley was known for his signature affirmation, which he would repeat while staring at himself in the mirror: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggone it, people like me." Why is cosmetic deceit a part of our lives in the first place? If we don't have the skills for one job, we can learn them, or simply find a job we are suited for. If a romantic partner doesn't like our jokes, surely someone out there will. Why don't we follow Stuart Smalley's lead and simply embrace our own inner sufficiency?
The problem may be that unlike Stuart Smalley, we can't just look in the mirror and be secure in our own greatness. Indeed, our own greatness may not even be the point. We may resort to cosmetic deceit not because we doubt we are good enough, smart enough, and likable enough, but because other people out there are better, smarter, and, doggone it, more likable.
# **Looking Up and Lying**
Wade Rowatt, Michael Cunningham, and Perri Druen conducted another study in conjunction with their research into how people lie to potential romantic partners. They had found that participants were more likely to lie to attractive potential dates than unattractive ones, and they were curious to know whether the participants in their study were aware of this bias. So in a second study, they asked participants directly whether they were more willing to lie to better-looking people. Surprisingly, most of the participants admitted that they were. They said they'd be more apt to lie about everything from their personalities to their income to their past relationships.
These results indicate that cosmetic deceit employed in the course of wooing can be a tactic. It is at times a dishonest method used to ingratiate the liar with the beautiful target of the lie. In other words, a Lothario knows what he's doing when he tells the woman at the bar he's a huge fan of Mariah Carey's music, too.
Yet while cosmetic deceit can be cunning, there does seem to be another side to it. Think again of my student and his invented bike trip. He described being as surprised as anyone by what he was saying. This suggests that cosmetic deceit is not always something we consciously deploy. While its effect may be manipulative, its source may not necessarily be an intent to manipulate.
In order to explore whether cosmetic deceit can occur spontaneously, as my student suggested, I, along with my student James Tyler, conducted a study investigating how people react to threats to their self-esteem. The study worked like this: I told the participants that a large corporation was funding a research project to determine the best way to assess potential employees. The participants would be asked to take a series of tests that would measure their skills and aptitude in particular areas. They would be teamed with a partner in another room, who would be taking the same tests. The participant and the partner would evaluate each other's responses. In fact, the partner was just fiction—another example of employing deceit in psychological research into deceit. But for this experiment to function, it was essential that the participants _believed_ there was another person, a lot like them, taking the same tests they were.
The first portion of the test included questions measuring analytic skills. These questions were pulled from old versions of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Once the participants had completed this section, it was taken to be "graded." A few minutes later, the participants were given their score on the first section, along with, importantly, the fictional score of their partner.
Again, this was all part of a ruse. There were no partners, and the questions weren't actually graded. The intent was to present the participants with a sharp contrast in performance. The made-up results showed that they had done poorly on the quiz, while their partners had scored well. In other words, a participant looking at her score from part one of the test would see that her partner in the next room had aced it, while she had bombed.
After being presented with these (intentionally unsettling) results, participants were given a questionnaire regarding personal information and told that they would be exchanging the completed questionnaires with their better-scoring partner. The questionnaires asked about grade point average, accomplishments, skills, and so forth.
Once the questionnaires had been completed, participants were informed that the experiment was essentially over. But one more task remained: the participants were asked to review their questionnaire responses and report any exaggerations, discrepancies, or straightforward lies they'd included. It was this evaluation that, in reality, formed the crux of the study. I wanted to see how receiving an inferior score on the analytic questions would shape the way participants presented themselves on the personal questions. How would self-presentation, manifested literally on a survey, be shaped by a blow to self-esteem?
The result showed that participants employed a great deal of cosmetic deceit. In the wake of being told that they had been outscored by their partners, participants responded by inflating their grades, their accomplishments, and their skills. Overall, a quarter of the responses they gave on their surveys were false. (Importantly, also, a group of control participants who were informed that they had outscored their partners lied at much lower rates.)
In considering these results, two facts bear emphasis. First of all, the participants didn't stand to gain anything by their deceit. There was no job on the line, no romantic partner to win over. There was basically no practical benefit to lying on the personal questionnaires at all. Second, the participants never saw their partners and had no reason to believe they would ever meet them. If they were threatened by their partners' scores, if they hoped to impress them with their personal information, these dynamics played out anonymously.
How, then, to account for the high levels of deceit? Psychologists speak of what are called "upward comparisons." These are comparisons individuals make between themselves and people whom they perceive to be superior according to some conventional societal standard—smarter, more famous, more academically successful. A wealth of psychological theory and research, not to mention common sense, tells us what such comparisons can do to our egos. When we engage in an upward comparison, our self-esteem faces damage. No one likes to be reminded that there are people out there who are more successful in their careers, more attractive, more clever. Reflexively, we look for ways to shield ourselves from the threat such comparisons present to our pride.
The participants in my study were confronted with a very clear (albeit fictional) comparison: they were told their partners had done better on an analytic test. Their response was often to defend their self-image by _inflating_ this image on paper. They used cosmetic deceit to enhance themselves. This deceit was ostensibly targeted toward their partners, who would be reading the fabricated personal questionnaires. But again, these partners were people they had not met, and probably never would. It's not a stretch to conclude that the real focus of the deception was the participants themselves. It was their self-esteem that was threatened by the upward comparison, their own anxieties that demanded some form of comfort.
In this conception, cosmetic deceit acts as a kind of self-administered balm for situations in which our self-esteem is imperiled. It becomes a mechanism for taking the edge off an unflattering upward comparison. This also offers another explanation for why Rowatt and his colleagues found lying to be so frequent in dealings with attractive people. It's not so much that particular individuals are attractive, as that we feel they are _more attractive_ than us. And just as in my study, the response to this upward comparison is self-presentation enhanced with cosmetic deceit. We offer a fictional version of ourselves, presenting a person who need not fear the comparison to others. The lie about ourselves may or may not impress or fool its target—but the fiction makes _us_ feel better. It's as if the false self-image we create through cosmetic deceit is one we get to admire, too.
The psychological functioning of cosmetic deceit is thus highly varied. Lies about ourselves can function as a tool of callous manipulation or as very personal shields to our fragile self-esteem. Often, these uses run together. Who can say to what extent braggadocio is used to impress another person and to what extent it reassures and comforts the braggart? But there is a particular realm where many of the psychological pressures that trigger cosmetic deceit come together, perhaps in their most concentrated form. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that in this realm so many of the most infamous examples of cosmetic deceit have occurred.
# **"The Truth Is, I Want Your Vote!"**
Hillary Clinton, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in the spring of 2008, described a memorable trip she made to war-torn Bosnia more than a decade earlier. "I remember landing under sniper fire," she was quoted as saying. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." News footage, however, told a different story. It showed Clinton strolling calmly with her daughter, Chelsea, upon arriving in Bosnia, and even receiving a present from a young Bosnian girl. It was later revealed that Clinton had been accompanied on the trip not only by her daughter and members of the press but also by the comedian Sinbad. When asked to explain the discrepancy, Clinton asserted that she "misspoke."
During that same election cycle, Mitt Romney, a candidate for the Republican nomination, claimed that his father, George Romney, a former Michigan governor, had "marched with Martin Luther King." It was soon revealed that the elder Romney had never actually done so. Romney asserted that he had been speaking in a figurative sense, in that his father had _supported_ Martin Luther King, not physically _marched_ with him.
Such instances of deception (or, more charitably, misunderstandings) are nothing new. In the presidential campaign of 1840, William Henry Harrison played up his "log cabin" roots, even though he was born into a powerful political family and raised on a Virginia plantation. And not an election cycle goes by without some new instance of a candidate claiming to be instrumental in legislation he had little role in, or declaring she supported a cause all along, when in fact she once opposed it. While politicians continue to pay lip service to the importance of honesty, their behavior suggests a very different valuation.
It would be easy to conclude, as many do, that politicians are simply by nature duplicitous. People who run for office, the thinking goes, are the kind of people who lie. It is somehow encoded in their DNA.
Yet keep in mind that, as we have seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , people in all walks of life lie. Politicians are not some unusually duplicitous strain within the human race. Rather, their dishonest behavior, and specifically their cosmetic deceit, actually makes them resemble us more than it sets them apart.
To see how this similarity manifests itself, consider the mechanics of a campaign. The demands of self-presentation are acute. Modern campaigning is almost purely a matter of fostering a particular image, one that will appeal to voters (or at least to a majority of them). In a sense, every day on the campaign trail is like an outsized job interview, with a candidate working to fit his or her personal traits to the criteria of a scrutinizing electorate.
The psychological intensity of this is compounded by the pressures of not only the omnipresent media but also omnipresent competitors. For most of us, the competition we face is implicit. A colleague at work with the same title as us may, in theory, stand in the way of our winning a promotion, but the ultimate decision is rarely so dramatic as management making a choice between us and him. Politicians on the campaign trail, on the other hand, face daily, explicit competition, often with rivals who share many of the same skills and attributes.
In short, campaigns combine many of the factors identified as underlying cosmetic deceit. There are high-pressure demands for effective self-presentation; there are ubiquitous comparisons, which frequently can at least be perceived as upward. If psychological research is correct, cosmetic deception is a common response to such conditions. So when Hillary Clinton presents herself as a strong leader based on her dangerous landing in Bosnia, perhaps we should temper our scorn with a measure of identification.
# CHAPTER 8
# Lies with Intent: Deceit to Trick or Cheat
Though many would prefer to forget it, during the 1990s, a teen-pop boom swept across the United States. Acts like the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync were a sensation, filling concert arenas, selling millions of records, and generating vast sums of money. At the eye of this cultural storm was a veteran of the aviation business named Lou Pearlman. Pearlman was responsible for managing the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, as well as numerous other, less successful acts. A large, bespectacled man with a soft, doughy face, Pearlman liked to style himself as a father figure to his acts, going so far as to ask group members to call him "Big Poppa."
Pearlman spent lavishly during the height of his success, purchasing cars, homes, and investment real estate. He became a well-known figure in the Florida music scene and was even awarded the key to the city of Orlando. But members of Pearl-man's groups began to wonder why all the revenue Pearlman was so clearly enjoying wasn't trickling down to them. Eventually, some concluded that Pearlman was bilking them of their fair share of profits. First the Backstreet Boys sued Pearlman; then 'N Sync followed. Kevin Richardson, a Backstreet Boys member, told _Rolling Stone_ , "[Pearlman] totally deceived me." Eventually both the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync reached settlements that allowed them to break from Pearlman and recover at least some of their earnings.
But the members of his musical acts were hardly the only ones who would come to feel victimized by Pearlman. In the early 1990s, Pearlman had begun selling so-called Employee Investment Savings Accounts (EISA) in a company he controlled, Trans Continental Airlines. Selling often to elderly Floridian retirees, sometimes simply by cold-calling, Pearlman made millions off his EISAs.
The problem was that Trans Continental Airlines did not exist. And, in fact, there was no such thing as an Employee Investment Savings Account. The entire scheme was a paper-based fraud—a Ponzi scheme, in which Pearlman paid out dividends to old investors with money swindled from new ones. Eventually, cheated investors and Florida state officials caught on to Pearlman's massive web of shell companies, bogus accounting firms, and forged documents. After fleeing the country, Pearlman was eventually apprehended at a resort in Bali. In 2008, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and ordered to pay back $300 million in stolen profit.
Up to now, we have focused on some of the surprising motives behind deceit. People lie to benefit others or as an almost unconscious response to threats to their egos. Sometimes, though, the reasons underlying deception don't seem to demand much accounting. You don't need a PhD in psychology to offer a good explanation for why Lou Pearlman sold fake shares in a fake company to vulnerable marks. He did it to _make money._ Whatever other factors contributed to his malfeasance, the immediate goal seems obvious.
In this chapter, we will examine instances where the purpose of deception seems on the surface very straightforward, not to mention baldly unscrupulous. False flattery and lies of social convenience make up the bulk of the lies we encounter in daily life. Yet the lies of swindlers, con men, impostors—to put it simply, the lies like those of Lou Pearlman—have their place in the portrait of deceit, too.
My term for these lies, ones that dupe or con, is _lies with intent_. This phrase helps differentiate them from the more mundane forms of deception we typically encounter in day-to-day life. For example, lies that smooth social interactions blend naturally into the fabric of our relationships. We never find out that our officemate doesn't really like _CSI: Miami,_ and, ultimately, it may not be hugely important that we do. Further, as we have seen in many chapters of _The Liar in Your Life_ , most of the lies we commonly hear have their roots in the psychological maintenance of the person telling them. The liar herself may not even really understand why she shaved five strokes off her last round of golf. Regardless, the lie has more to do with her own comfort than with fooling us.
Lies with intent, on the other hand, fragment and fray the social fabric of daily life. They undermine trust, and they erode relationships. While we might be content not to sniff out some minor disagreement, not sniffing out a _lie with intent_ has serious consequences, most often and most immediately financial. _Lies with intent_ are not most relevant to the psychology of the liar (though, as we will see, the psychology of the liar plays a significant role in their origin). Rather, they are most relevant to the person who might be fooled by the lies. Such lies have _intent_ : to win misplaced trust, to execute a business fraud, to victimize. In short, lies with intent have the intent to harm.
It's important to keep in mind that while lies with intent have serious, and very worrying, consequences, they are relatively rare. The Lou Pearlmans of the world, those with the capacity and the willingness to execute large-scale deceit with the purpose of victimization, are few and far between. Even more minor lies with intent—say, those told by a plumber who wants to overcharge us for the cost of a repair—are infrequent when compared to the false flattery and insincere social niceties that occur so regularly in daily life.
Yet despite their rarity, lies with intent largely define how we think about lying. We assume that people who lie to us want to gain something tangible through their deception. It's hard to accept the notion that the most common lies we hear yield only psychological benefit, or that this benefit might even be mutual, shared by us and the liar. Yet the fact is that the kind of lie we're most likely to hear is one our spouse tells about the results of our latest home improvement project. We don't want to know that the paint job on the deck looks terrible, and our spouse doesn't want to break it to us, either.
Part of the reason lies with intent dominate our attitudes toward deception generally is that they are so different from such mundane acts of deceit. Unlike domestic false flattery, lies with intent have clear elements of drama: innocent victims, brazen perpetrators, unexpected revelations. When Lou Pearlman's fraud was discovered, it garnered national media attention, as did more recent revelations about the even larger Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff. When we discuss and contemplate lying, we focus on the lies we hear about on television or in the newspaper, or those that are worth a recounting from friends. These tend to be lies with intent. More frequent lies just aren't very interesting to those not directly affected.
We need to keep lies with intent in perspective, then. Statistically, few of us will ever be caught up in an elaborate investment scheme or come to realize that our lawyer friend is in fact an impostor. The liars in our life are the ordinary people we interact with day in and day out, people who have no malicious plan to steal from us.
On the other hand, lies with intent are, almost by definition, a very harmful form of deceit. While more frequent, more mundane lies may have an overall corrosive effect on the comfort and honesty of society as a whole, the effects of lies with intent are generally both painfully unambiguous and all too calculable. Further, the concrete goals of lies with intent can obscure a deeper complexity. Although greed may be the primary motive behind lies with intent, it is not necessarily the only motive.
# **The Joy of Lying**
Hakan Yalincak fit an enduring image in popular culture: that of the financial whiz kid. While enrolled at New York University and still in his early twenties, Yalincak ran his own hedge fund, Daedalus Capital Relative Value Fund. The fund attracted millions in investment and, on paper at least, seemed to be booming. By all accounts, Yalincak possessed an excellent mind for numbers and a mastery of the lingo of trading. Apparently happy to share his wealth, he promised NYU a $21 million donation, the first payment of which went toward creating the "Yalincak Family Foundation Lecture Hall."
But things began to unravel when Yalincak attempted to deposit checks of $25 million and close to $18 million. The checks, it turned out, were fakes. In fact, all of Daedalus Capital Relative was fake. The whole operation was a scam, a net of phony numbers and false associations meant to entrap investment capital. For a while it had worked: experienced financial players had dumped millions into Daedalus. But when Yalincak was arrested after trying to pass off the phony checks, investors sued. The gift to NYU never materialized. Eventually, Yalincak was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for his assorted acts of fraud.
The permutations for potential investment have probably never been more dense than they are today, representing a theoretically profitable tangle of securities and derivatives, commodities and futures. As the global fallout from the collapse of the subprime-fueled real estate market shows, even the savviest investors can be enticed into very risky and, ultimately, very bad decisions. In such a financial climate, we might expect a figure like Hakan Yalincak to emerge: someone who could exploit the complexities of the finance system to create the opportunity to invest in something that simply wasn't there. In a sense, it's the logical next step from the storied con of selling a yokel the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead of selling a bridge that wasn't for sale, Yalincak sold a hedge fund that wasn't investing.
From a psychological standpoint, too, Yalincak does not necessarily seem extraordinary. Every day, people break into homes, steal cars, rob at gunpoint. Elaborate fraud does not have to be more psychologically nuanced than "petty" theft. One could even argue that it is simply a difference of the tools of the crime. If we don't wonder much about what's going on in the head of a mugger, is there reason to wonder about Yalincak's mental state? As we discussed with regard to Lou Pearl-man's EISA scam, the motive behind lies with intent can seem crystal clear: profit.
Yet construing Yalincak as merely greedy—thinking of him as a mugger armed with false profit statements instead of a knife—would seem to leave something out. We don't need to aggrandize Yalincak to the level of an evil genius to remark that even most paper frauds don't rise to the level of attempting to deposit fake checks for $25 million at a go. Think of it another way: to pull off his fraud, Yalincak needed to fool investors in face-to-face interactions, fabricate a complicated yet sufficiently plausible paper trail, carry on a façade of respectability, and all the while evade the scrutiny of those who enforce the laws he was breaking. At some point, wouldn't it have been simpler just to mug someone? Or, to offer a legal—not to mention potentially more lucrative—spin, why not start a _real_ hedge fund?
The apparent contradictions in Yalincak's behavior help underscore the fact that lies with intent are not as simple as they may first appear. All of us, to some degree at least, want to make money. But few of us choose to go about it by engaging in multimillion-dollar fraud. Beyond the ethical objections, there are practical considerations. These considerations generally involve things like the risk of jail time, the possibility of public humiliation, and potential inclusion in a book about liars. What is it that pushes con artists and frauds to disregard these considerations in their pursuit of profit?
In Yalincak's case, fraud seems to have been a kind of family business. His mother, Ayferafet Yalincak, spent nearly two years behind bars for impersonating a doctor in Indiana for six months. She was arrested soon after her son, in connection with his hedge fund scheme, and was eventually sentenced to another two years in prison.
Looking beyond one individual's, or one family's, lies with intent, though, we can identify certain factors that generally drive this form of deceit, despite its inherent risks. To understand more fully why a person might tell a lie with intent, we have to reexamine another one of our preconceived notions about lying. Go back for moment to our discussion of lie detection. The thinking behind most methods of lie detection, and behind polygraph machines specifically, holds that liars experience anxiety when they lie. That is why you might suspect that someone is lying if they avert their gaze and why, in theory, a polygraph machine reveals a lie when it records an elevated heartbeat. Both of these are physiological responses to anxiety, which (again, in theory) is an emotional response to telling a lie.
The problem is that this is _only_ theory. The fact is that some people don't get anxious when they lie. Good liars remain remarkably calm, and can exhibit virtually no physiological response that might betray their deceit. This is chiefly why polygraph machines have such a high failure rate, and also why you can't assume someone is telling the truth just because he looks you in the eye.
More to the point in a discussion of lies with intent: not only do some people remain free from anxiety when they tell a lie, but some even experience pleasure. Paul Ekman of the University of California, San Francisco, is one of the leading researchers in the area of nonverbal behavior and deception. He has identified a feeling among liars he calls _duping delight._ This refers to the positive emotional response lying can elicit in certain individuals. In his book _Telling Lies,_ he describes the forms duping delight can take: "The lie may be viewed as an accomplishment, which feels good. The liar may feel excitement, either in anticipating the challenge or during the very moment of lying.... Afterward there may be the pleasure that comes with relief, pride in the achievement, or feelings of smug contempt toward the target." We generally think of lying as something difficult, a taxing and anxiety-provoking task. For most of us, it usually is. But just as people will jump out of airplanes and climb mountains precisely because of the physical and mental challenges, so too do people find an almost recreational thrill, as Ekman describes, in deception.
There does seem to be something a bit sinister in the idea of duping delight—in the notion that one might experience pleasure from tricking other people. But think of the concept of bluffing. We've probably all had occasion to bluff, perhaps literally, during a card game or, more figuratively, during a negotiation in our business or private life. For most of us, there is an undeniable thrill in (emptily) threatening to walk away unless the broker shaves a few thousand more off the asking price or, more quaintly, unless the woman at the tag sale takes off another dollar. Whatever the stakes, such deceptive power plays are exciting to make, and exciting to pull off. And a successful bluff is really only a step away from a lie with intent. Indeed, it could be argued that the former is just a milder form of the latter.
Regardless, once we recognize that it is possible to enjoy a lie with intent, this form of deceit becomes at once more understandable and more complex. It is not just the function of the lie that matters. It is the form, too. The act of telling the lie itself brings a kind of profit: an adrenaline rush, a feeling of superiority, a sense of accomplishment. Studies of confidence men, for example, have shown that their interest is less in the money they earn—which they burn through quickly anyway—than in the rush of the con itself. The income is nice; the process of getting it is what really motivates them.
We can see this same phenomenon in an entirely different context in a study conducted by Gideon de Bruin and Hilton Rudnick, researchers at the University of Johannesburg, in South Africa. They were curious about the phenomenon of academic dishonesty; they wanted to know if particular personality types were more prone to cheating on tests. In their research, they found that individuals described as "excitement seeking," those with a tendency to pursue thrills and risk, were more likely to cheat. Academic dishonesty, de Bruin and Rudnick's research suggests, is not strictly about getting better grades. Just as with con men, the thrill of the crime itself is a motivating factor.
Interestingly, duping delight has a parallel in the more mundane forms of deception we normally encounter in everyday life. As was noted above, many lies have more to do with the psychology of the liar than the target of the lie. This is true, again, in many instances of false bravado, such as exaggerating the quality of a golf score, or the size of a paycheck, or what have you. Duping delight suggests that this same phenomenon may be relevant, at least to an extent, for lies with intent. These lies clearly have much to do with their target; specifically, they intend to fleece him or her. Yet perhaps more powerfully, they convey a psychological thrill to their teller. Just like a lie that defends self-esteem, a lie with intent can make the liar _feel good_.
This is not to suggest a moral equivalence between a lie that puffs up self-esteem and a lie that costs the target his or her life savings. Everyday lies don't usually harm us directly, while lies with intent fail if they don't. It's important to realize, though, that the victimization inherent in lies with intent conveys a twofold benefit on the liar: the tangible benefits that come from the scheme (usually money) and the psychological benefit of pulling off the scheme (duping delight). This twofold model of profit (financial and psychological) can help us understand lies with intent that play out on an even larger scale than those of Hakan Yalincak or Lou Pearlman. Sometimes lies with intent create more than a false investment opportunity. Sometimes they are used to create an entirely fabricated person.
# **Life-Sized Lies**
In the late 1880s, a woman by the name of Mrs. Hoover was married to Dr. Leroy S. Chadwick, a high-society Cleveland doctor. She moved into his residence with him on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland's so-called Millionaire's Row, and took his name, becoming Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick. Mrs. Chadwick did not quite fit in among Cleveland's well-heeled society; she was apparently viewed as something of an eccentric. This prejudice might also have come from the fact that the Chadwicks reportedly met in a brothel, which Mrs. Chadwick may or may not have known was operating out of a boardinghouse she ran.
Mrs. Chadwick's social status took an unexpected turn during a trip she made to New York. She asked an acquaintance of her husband's, a man by the name of Dillon, to take her to Andrew Carnegie's mansion on Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Chadwick was admitted inside while Dillon waited for her. When she emerged, she tripped, accidentally (or so it seemed) dropping a piece of paper, which Dillon saw was a signed promissory note from Andrew Carnegie himself. The amount: $2 million.
When pressed, Mrs. Chadwick explained that she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter. He had been giving her promissory notes for years, but she'd been too ashamed of her situation to ever make use of them. She also revealed that when Carnegie died, she stood to inherit $40 million. Dillon offered his assistance, connecting her with numerous Ohio bankers, who were all too eager to give her high-interest loans against the promise of Carnegie's fortune. Mrs. Chadwick spent this money lavishly, on clothing, jewelry, and elaborate parties. She made herself into the self-styled "Queen of Ohio."
Then one of her loans was called in. She couldn't pay, and she was sued. The promissory notes were soon found to be crude forgeries. When the issue was brought to Andrew Carnegie, he stated that he had never heard of Mrs. Chadwick, and certainly had never promised her money. Mrs. Chadwick was put on trial, and her case drew global media attention. Carnegie himself attended the proceedings. It was revealed that Mrs. Chadwick had a long criminal history, about which her husband, Dr. Chadwick, apparently knew nothing. Her real name turned out to be Elizabeth Bigley, and her actual father was a Canadian railway worker. In 1905, Bigley was convicted of conspiracy; she died in prison shortly thereafter.
The lies of Hakan Yalincak, Lou Pearlman, and their predatory ilk are extreme. But figures like Cassie Chadwick/Elizabeth Bigley seem to embody still another level of deception. Bigley didn't just concoct a Ponzi scheme—she concocted an identity. Her lies were ones she lived with day in and day out. Whereas we tend to think of deception as an aberration within a larger practice of honesty, for Bigley, deception was the behavioral norm.
Masquerading of this sort did not end with the nineteenth century, of course. Like Hakan Yalincak's mother, who posed as a doctor for six months, rare individuals continue to blend themselves into ordinary life, posing as people entirely different from who they really are. The popular term for such individuals is impostors. Sometimes, they are motivated merely by necessity. The fugitive Serbian leader Radovan Karadžić posed as a doctor of alternative medicine, hiding his face behind a bushy gray beard, in order to avoid prosecution for war crimes. (He was finally arrested in the summer of 2008.) Others, like Bigley, seem to view impostorism as a way to cash in on a life more privileged than the one they were born to. And for some, there is almost certainly an element of duping delight. This sensation may, in fact, be magnified in impostors, who succeed not just in duping a few people but in fooling more or less everyone with whom they come into contact.
Yet the satisfactions of impostorism are not necessarily limited to the joys of profit and the thrills of manipulation. Ferdinand Waldo Demara is among the most infamous American impostors. At various times, he assumed the role of a lawyer, a college dean, a psychologist, and a sheriff's deputy. For a time during the Korean War he even posed as a medical officer on a Canadian destroyer, going so far as to perform surgeries. It is telling that nearly all the roles Demara took on—surgeon, lawyer, dean, sheriff—are ones society typically holds in high esteem (lawyer jokes notwithstanding). Think, too, of Elizabeth Bigley: she was spurned by Cleveland society until her supposed connection to Andrew Carnegie allowed her to buy her way into the ranks of the elite.
Impostors fully occupy their false role in society. This means that they can reap not only the tangible rewards of that role (such as the salary of a doctor or lawyer), but also all the accompanying social and psychological benefits. Demara was treated with the respect due a surgeon, Bigley with the deference for an upper-class lady. Occupying a place in a particular profession or class can mean gaining the admiration of strangers and the respect of peers, identifying with a wider community, even achieving a sense of self-worth.
Such rewards may be especially tempting for someone who suffers specifically from their lack. Indeed, impostorism, according to the thinking of some who have studied it, is not so much about being another person but, rather, about not being _yourself_. According to this conception, the assumed role fills the gaps the impostor perceives in him- or herself, be it lack of accomplishment, insignificance in the wider world, or just generally low self-esteem. Impostorism can be considered both an embrace of a desired role and a deliverance from an unpleasant one.
From this perspective, impostorism appears, if not more understandable, then at least not necessarily malevolent. All of us have, at one time or another, wished we were different in some way. The idea that we can effect changes to ourselves is an enduring aspect of the national ethos. The American dream is one of willed transformation. Impostorism may be merely a distorted and exaggerated enactment of this dream, one that exchanges deception for effort, while the essential goal remains the same.
Perhaps it is precisely because we can recognize some shadow of our own psychology in impostors that they occupy such an ambiguous place in our culture. Whereas white-collar frauds like Bernie Madoff are pitilessly condemned, society seems to retain some affection for those who push their lies with intent to the level of impersonation. In 1961 Ferdinand Waldo Demara's life was made into a movie, _The Great Impostor,_ starring Tony Curtis. More recently, Steven Spielberg directed and Leonardo DiCaprio starred in _Catch Me If You Can,_ a movie depicting the many lives and lies of Frank Abagnale, an impostor who posed as a doctor, a lawyer, and, most notoriously, an airline pilot.
Yet even if we admire their guts or identify, to a degree, with their psychology, it's important to keep in mind that the core of what impostors do is exploit the trust and faith of those around them. Lies with intent, by definition, involve manipulation and victimization. While we shouldn't overexaggerate the importance of the profit motive for impostors, we can't ignore it, either. And that profit is stolen from someone. These issues of victimization and loss, which are easy enough to ignore in the Hollywood conception of impostors as lovable rascals, come into clearer focus when we look at the practitioners of another manifestation of lies with intent. If the mental makeup of an impostor is perhaps more sympathetic than we might first assume, the mental makeup of the con artist is probably more sinister.
# **The Art of Plucking Our Mental Strings**
Imagine you are in the mall parking lot, making your way to your car, when you notice an abandoned purse. A young woman happens to see it at the same time, and the two of you chat about what to do about it. The young woman suggests that you open it to look for ID, and when you do, you discover that it is stuffed with cash. There is nothing else in the purse—no identification or other items that might help you track down the owner. It is just a bag of money. The young woman asks what you think you should do next, and after you discuss it, she suggests that she should call the lawyer for whom she works. The lawyer tells her that she should bring the money to him, and he will follow the proper legal procedure to find the bag's owner. If he fails—which, he notes, seems likely—the money will be divided between you and the young woman as its discoverers.
Before heading off to see the lawyer, though, the young woman suggests that the two of you both put some of your own money in the bag; a thousand dollars, she proposes, a minor sum compared to what's in there already, as a show of mutual good faith. She even offers to go first, producing one thousand dollars in cash and putting it in the bag. After that, you feel more at ease, and drive with the young woman to the bank, take out your money, and put it in the bag, too. Next you drive to the lawyer's office. In the lobby of the building, she tells you she needs to use the bathroom. She offers to let you hold the bag while she finds the facilities. After twenty minutes, she hasn't returned, and you start to get worried, but not too worried, since you're the one with the bag of money. After a while, though, you look inside—and see that the bag you're holding is filled with newspaper. Needless to say, you never see the young woman or your "good faith" money again.
This scam is known as a pigeon drop. The "pigeon" in this scenario is you, the one who gets dropped holding a bag of worthless newspaper, out a thousand dollars. There are scores of permutations on this scam, but the core dynamics are always the same: the mark is convinced to add his or her money to some common pool, and then his or her cash and the rest of the pool vanishes. It is a little bit hard to believe that such cons work. What kind of gullible fool would add their own money to a bag of it, just to show "good faith"? But the fact is, pigeon drops and other such confidence games do succeed, which is why they are endlessly recycled and reinvented.
I once saw a con in progress. A man was trying to entice passersby on the sidewalk to play three-card monte with him, at one hundred dollars a hand. I watched as a woman eagerly accepted, plunked down a hundred bucks, picked what was obviously the wrong card, and then chuckled off her misfortune. My first thought was "I can do better than that." My second thought was "This is obviously a con: the woman is a confederate, and it's all a ploy to rope in somebody like me."
From the outside looking in, cons often seem transparent. But even a clumsy scheme like three-card monte, a game synonymous with trickery, induced a moment of minor temptation in me. And it is just this sort of temptation that cons exploit. Con artists—the term is shorthand for those who operate pigeon drops and other such "confidence games"—prey on our own thinking in order to make their otherwise unlikely ruses succeed.
Go back to the pigeon-drop con. It's easy to focus on the foolhardiness of someone who would voluntarily put their own cash in a bag at the suggestion of a stranger. But consider the full context of the con: the mark thinks he or she has just found a huge pile of cash. It's a daydream we've probably all indulged in at one point or another, stumbling upon free money as we go through our daily routine. The possibility of this scenario coming true creates more than just a bias toward cooperating with the young woman who suggests adding "good faith" money; it also creates a bias toward believing in the scenario itself. Skepticism about the young woman and her intentions means skepticism about the unexpected windfall. The mark in the pigeon drop _wants_ to believe he or she really just stumbled upon a bag of money—anyone would. It is precisely this desire, conscious or unconscious, to have our dreams fulfilled that the con artist exploits. In a very real sense, a successful con represents a collaboration between the mark and the con artist. The con artist wants the mark to believe something that the mark wants to believe, too. Remember, also, that in any circumstance, people operate under a truth bias. This cognitive rule of thumb means that we are predisposed to believe what we hear and see. (The truth bias was explored in depth in Chapter 2.) While the truth bias usually serves to make our mental processes more efficient, it also aids con men in succeeding in their lies with intent.
The pigeon drop is an example of a generic con. It is targeted not at one specific person but, rather, at whichever person stumbles onto it. Other cons are far more individualized and insidious. A con artist will target a specific person, family, or community to dupe and victimize. Even so, the basic psychological tactics the con artist employs are quite similar to those used in a pigeon drop. He or she exploits the mark's thinking against the mark, identifying and then manipulating the mark's needs or vulnerabilities. These needs might be financial, but they could also be romantic or emotional. Regardless, the con artist casts him- or herself as a solution to the mark's problems.
Charles V. Ford, in his book _Lies! Lies! Lies! The Psychology of Deceit_ , explores the relationship between the con and the mark. He writes: "The confidence game appears to be a dynamic relationship built on the needs of the 'mark' as well as those of the exploiter. The con artist has an almost uncanny ability to discover the victim's vulnerable areas and to 'pitch the con' to those areas." The con artist's real skill may not even be telling convincing lies—something, as we have seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , many people can do. Rather, the con artist may succeed because of his "uncanny ability" to identify the psychological pressure points of his victims.
The distinctions between the perpetrator of an elaborate paper fraud like Hakan Yalincak, an impostor like Elizabeth Bigley, and a con artist are not hard and fast, of course. Con artists differ from impostors in that they generally engage in more focused, profit-driven schemes—in this they resemble figures like Yalincak and Pearlman. Yet Yalincak did not pretend to be someone he wasn't; he just defrauded investors with a hedge fund that didn't exist. The psychology of the con artist seems to wed the tactics of the impostor to the greed of the fraudster. But, as Ford notes in his book, this greed can extend beyond the desire for money, taking the form of a lust for loyalty, for intimacy, and, naturally, for confidence, thereby filling an emotional void in their own lives. Yet, con artists are often characterized by a pronounced lack of empathy for their victims, and perhaps for others generally.
As we consider this lack of empathy, which can border on the sociopathic, it is useful to return to the broader picture of deception in our society. Again, while lying is common, lies with intent are not. Many of the lies we encounter in our daily lives are actually meant to protect us from hurtful truths, or occur as part of an earnest attempt to strengthen a relationship. As we address the deception in our lives, perhaps we should focus less on an impossible (and probably undesirable) standard of absolute honesty and more on the intentions of the individual telling the lie. Every lie has a price, of course. But not every lie has the intent to harm.
# CHAPTER 9
# Synthetic Reality: Media-Manufactured Lies
On August 8th, 2008, at precisely 8:00 P.M. (eight being a lucky number in Chinese culture), the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics in Beijing began. Around a billion people tuned in to watch the spectacle, which featured fifteen thousand performers and the budget of a Hollywood movie. There were pyrotechnics, dancers, costumes galore, meticulous choreography, and epic pageantry.
Yet for many the focus of the event became a single little girl, in a red dress and pigtails, who sang the patriotic ballad, "Ode to the Motherland." The nine-year-old girl, Lin Miaoke, became an overnight celebrity, and gave interviews in which her performance was lavished with praise. Amid a grand spectacle, she seemed to offer a human face people connected with.
Yet there was nothing human about her performance. Or more precisely, her performance was really the electronic amalgamation of two humans. Lin Miaoke provided the face, but she lip-synched to the recorded voice of another girl, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi. It emerged that quite some time before, Yang Peiyi had been tapped to appear in the opening ceremonies, but during dress rehearsals, a member of the Chinese Politburo decided she had to go because of imperfect teeth. So Lin Miaoke provided the face, and Yang Peiyi the voice.
The revelation of the fakery caused an uproar, in China and in the United States. People on both sides of the Pacific recoiled at the callous handling of the little girls, who, it seemed, had been accorded all the respect of stage props. Yet the resentment went further than indignation at the treatment of Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi. A fellow at the Brookings Institution, Cheng Li, was quoted in the _New York Times_ saying, "The people [of China] were so emotionally involved. If you asked them what's the most moving episode [of the ceremonies], I think the majority would tell you that moment, with the little girl in red clothes. Now the Chinese people feel they are fooled. The psychological hurt is enormous." In other words, the people of China, and likely people all over the world, felt duped. They'd formed an emotional bond and discovered that it was based on deceit. And, as people usually do in such a situation, they responded with a combination of anger and embarrassment.
Yet if people the world over had been the victims of deceit, it's worth asking, Who did the deceiving? We can probably let Yang Peiyi off the hook. She seems as much a victim in all of this as anyone, and it's unlikely she had a say in how the recording of her voice was used. Lin Miaoke, of the superior dental work, doesn't seem to warrant much blame, either. She was more the device of the deception, rather than its architect. And if she played along with the deceit in the days that followed, there is some question as to whether she even realized that her voice hadn't been used. It's possible she was duped, too.
The directors of the opening ceremonies, then, the ones who made the switch, might seem to be the liars in this situation. Or maybe it was the member of the Chinese Politburo who decided Yang Peiyi was not the ideal person to represent the People's Republic of China. But these are people none of us have ever met. They never appeared on camera, and, perhaps more importantly, they never assured anyone that the show they were responsible for would be executed in an honest manner. It's worth noting that other parts of the opening ceremony were faked, too. The fireworks that were shown exploding over Beijing were in fact computer-generated. Perhaps the broadcast networks showing the games somehow warranted the truth of the content? Yet it's probably too much to expect Bob Costas and the rest of the NBC sports team to guarantee the veracity of every word and image that occurs during an elaborate stage piece with a cast of thousands.
By now we might expect that deception is more complicated than it first appears. But with most forms of deceit, at least the perpetrator is clear. As we turn to deception in the media—the lies we encounter when we turn on the television or open a book or pick up the newspaper—even this aspect takes on ambiguity. There was clearly some form of deception involved in Lin Maoke's rendition of "Ode to the Motherland." But the responsibility for the fakery is so diffuse it can't be placed on any one individual or even institution. Media lies frequently function this way. We are left with the feelings associated with being deceived, but often without a clear understanding of just who did the deceiving. Perhaps even more frustratingly, we are haunted by a nagging self-recrimination: Why did we trust the media in the first place?
# **The Reality Bias**
A television advertisement for the Gillette Fusion razor brought together some of the world's greatest athletes. Tiger Woods, the legendary golfer, Roger Federer, the legendary tennis player, and Thierry Henry, the legendary soccer player, all appeared in the ad, playing their various sports with a digital version of the earth, then horsing around together, presumably in celebration of the quality of their shaves. I don't pretend to have any insight into why Gillette determined that this ad would help sell razors. For our purposes, what's important is that final shot in the advertisement, featuring the three superstars all together.
It's important because the three superstars never were all together, at least not in this razor commercial. Henry and Federer interacted with a man in a green suit, and Tiger Woods was added to the shot digitally. It was high-tech sleight of hand, useful, presumably, in balancing the schedules of three very busy celebrity athletes.
Most of us like to think of ourselves as fairly shrewd media consumers. We probably need to be, given the ubiquity of the media with which we live. It's not enough to turn off the radio, or the television, or avoid the newspaper or the racks of countless magazines. A lot of us carry all those things in our pocket, in the form of a BlackBerry or iPhone. So we try to be as savvy as we can be, sorting out the objective from the tendentious, the informative from the commercial, the true from the false. Yet as jaded as we try to make ourselves, it's still news to most of us that Gillette would employ digital fakery in presenting its star-athlete money shot. We should know better than to trust a commercial. We should know a lot better than to trust the physical reality of a commercial that features people playing golf, tennis, and soccer with a miniature planet Earth.
In earlier chapters, we've discussed what psychologists call the truth bias. This is a mental rule of thumb that means, essentially, that we are predisposed to believe what we see and hear. To doubt the truth, even to scrutinize something fully for the truth, requires mental energy. The truth bias allows us to live our lives without expending this energy. It makes our cognitive life more efficient. But as we've noted, the cost of this efficiency is that we are often predisposed to believe lies, even without being conscious of it.
So far, we've considered the truth bias largely in the context of interpersonal interactions. When the woman at the bookstore tells us that a particular title is on back order, we don't consider the fact that she might be lying, because the truth bias is something we've internalized. It isn't limited to particular interactions, or to particular kinds of information. The truth bias means we're likely to believe the woman at the bookshop, and it also means we're likely to believe that Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Thierry Henry all shot a commercial together.
In the context of media, the truth bias forms what I call a _reality bias_. What we see on television is easily manipulated. It's been fifteen years since Cokie Roberts caused a minor media storm when she put on a trench coat and did a report in front of a photographic image of Capitol Hill, claiming she was outside in Washington when in fact she'd never left the ABC News Washington bureau studio. This method of image manipulation is almost crude compared to the possibilities of modern digital technology. Today, it wouldn't take much computer expertise to place Cokie Roberts in Washington, or in Bangkok, or in the middle of the ocean, with a just few clicks of the mouse. Yet when we see a Gillette commercial, our first instinct says that elements of it, at least, are real. This is the reality bias at work. We don't bother questioning and critiquing the parts of every image or piece of information the media delivers. Instead, we assume that they have integrity and save our mental energy for other matters. And again, this is not an assumption we're aware of. The reality bias, extending as it does from the truth bias, operates beneath the level of consciousness.
No one appeared at the start of the Olympic ceremonies and assured viewers that everything they were about to see and hear was occurring the way it would seem to be. There were no guarantees against lip-synching and digital fireworks. Nor, if we think about it, do we really "trust" television, or the organizers of the Beijing Olympics. The psychological force in play more relevant than trust is the reality bias, which makes us tend to think that what we see is what we get, that Lin Miaoke's voice is the one we hear when she opens her mouth to sing.
Yet our credulity with regard to the media is not exclusively a product of the reality bias. Sometimes our trust flows not from our own mental processes but, rather, from the claims of the media itself. This is the case with so-called reality television, a form of entertainment that is predicated on the promise of the truth, but one that often delivers something very far from it.
# **Synthetic Reality**
The Discovery Channel show _Man vs. Wild_ has a very simple premise. A man, Bear Grylls, is placed in some inhospitable tract of the wilderness. Equipped with minimal supplies, Grylls, a lifelong adventurer and a former member of the British special forces, has to employ "localized survival techniques" in order to find his way out. Over the course of different episodes of the show, he's braved everything from hypothermia to desert mountains to a meal of earthworms. Yet the conditions in which Grylls subsisted were not always as harsh as viewers were led to believe. The London _Sunday Times_ reported that during the filming of some episodes, Grylls enjoyed the comforts of a hotel room, in one instance even staying in a resort. None of this, of course, was shared with viewers.
Since these revelations, the Discovery Channel has made a commitment to be more transparent about the entire filming process of _Man vs. Wild_. But in the broader context of so-called reality television, this is hardly an isolated incident. The mega reality hit _Survivor_ confessed to reenacting a key scene using body doubles because the filming of the "real" scene had accidentally included shots of cameras. Then there is "Frankenbiting," a common technique reality show producers use when the facts of an event don't fit the story they want to tell. Frankenbiting involves splicing together lines of recorded dialogue to put words in the mouths of reality-show participants. They may not have actually said what the producers want, but viewers can be fooled into thinking they did. Sometimes, Frankenbiting isn't even bothered with. There have been reports that Paris Hilton was fed specific lines to speak on her show _The Simple Life_.
Even if shows did not resort to reshoots and Frankenbiting, reality television's claim on reality would still be tenuous. After all, what is "real" about a man being flown from dangerous location to dangerous location so he can demonstrate survival techniques? And even the most mundane reality television setups inevitably deviate from reality in at least one crucial way: the real people involved are always being tailed by cameramen. The effect being filmed has on people varies, of course, but it's hard to argue that it does not have _any_ effect. The presence of a camera shapes its own kind of reality.
What, then, does reality television really show? It's instructive to revisit the amalgamation of Yang Peiyi's voice and Lin Miaoke's face during the Beijing opening ceremonies. Chen Qigang, the music designer for the ceremonies, explained that the girl in the ceremonies had to be, well, perfect. He was quoted as saying, "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression." That, obviously, is no small order. In fact, in the end, it seemed impossible for the Beijing organizers to find such a "flawless" girl. Luckily for them, they were able to create one, matching a superior voice with surpassing cuteness.
In a sense, reality television does the same thing. It offers a trumped-up version of events, in the guise of reality. I call this enhanced depiction of life _synthetic reality_. In reality, mountain climbers and other thrill seekers at times run into some dangerous situations, which demand they use some pretty canny survival techniques. But in synthetic reality, such situations are continuous. Indeed, they occur every week, on your television. Arguments and bickering sometimes occur in real life. But in synthetic reality, as offered up on shows like _The Real World_ or _Big Brother_ , tension and "drama," as it is ubiquitously called in promotional materials for such shows, are both more frequent and more intense. First, the scenarios reality television concocts are usually constructed in order to foster conflict: a dozen or more men or women competing for the affection of a single person; a group of strangers with strong and conflicting personalities trapped on an island or in a house; and _Temptation Island_ (which warrants no further explanation). Second, for each episode hundreds of hours of tape are edited down to the most emotionally fraught twenty or so minutes. The result is that in synthetic reality, people are always squabbling, conniving, backstabbing, screaming.
We feel a sense of betrayal, or at least a twinge of surprise, when we learn of reality show producers who Frankenbite to create story lines, who order the reenactment of key events. But we probably shouldn't. Reality television strays so far from the truth in its design that it may be almost inevitable that its execution follows this pattern. After all, if we really wanted reality, devoid of carefully crafted story lines and reliably timed eruptions of discord, we could just turn off the television.
Some might argue, though, that carping about the dishonesty in reality television is a bit superfluous. Among its staunchest defenders are those who would admit that its reality is more ostensible than genuine: the point is not that it is factual but that it is entertaining. Yet the notion that when we watch reality television we should it take it for granted that we're getting synthetic reality itself raises an interesting question: Why call it _reality_ television at all? If viewers and producers and participants all accept that there is some level of implicit fakery involved in these shows, why append a label suggesting truth in the first place? It seems as if the idea of the truth functions less as a guarantee of authenticity, and more as a selling point.
# **The Truth Brand**
The 1996 movie _Fargo_ , created by Joel and Ethan Coen, is set in rural Minnesota and tells the story of a kidnapping gone wrong and the grisly chain of murders that ensue. The crimes are investigated by Marge Gunderson, a very astute and very pregnant local sheriff. Yet as unlikely as this plot may seem, the movie, which was nominated for multiple Oscars and won two, begins with a declaration of its grounding in fact. The opening credits announce: "This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."
It's certainly possible to detect some characteristic sly Coen brothers wit in these words. Yet the larger point, evidently, could not be clearer: _what you're about to see really happened._ Except that, it didn't. Journalists couldn't find reports of any events that matched the improbable plot of _Fargo_ , and the Coen brothers eventually owned up to the fact that the movie was all fiction. Their explanation for why they sought to dupe their viewers, though, is telling. "We felt the audience would have certain expectations if they were told it was a true story that would allow us to do things that we wouldn't be allowed to do if they thought it was fiction," Joel Coen, _Fargo_ 's director, explained.
Audience members, then, according to Joel Coen, assess material differently if they believe it is factual. They accept greater stretches of logic and more implausible plot developments, he suggests, than they would from "pure" fiction. This gives those creating the material greater latitude in what they produce.
Labeling something as true, or "based on true events," or even just "inspired by true events," thus has its benefits. For those in the media, it is not simply a matter of accurately conveying where their movie or book or television show came from. The truth represents a kind of brand, a source we credit more, it seems, than the imaginations of directors, writers, or producers.
Indeed, in some ways the truth—or, more precisely, "the truth"—has never been more popular. Reality television continues to be a ratings juggernaut. Nonfiction book sales easily outpace fiction. Politicians offer dueling "truth squads" to point out the lies of the other side. Again, though, this is not a matter of the media adhering to objective fact. A cursory nod toward the truth is what the media offers us, but they present this truth with all the bells and whistles of fiction. It's like when a brand of cookies claims to be a healthy alternative because it offers 10 percent less fat than its competitors. The greatest substantive difference is not in the content but in the packaging.
Consider again reality television. All the tools of a fictional television show are employed. Lines are constructed via Frankenbiting, or simply given to the performers. Plots are edited to present an artificially coherent story line. And sometimes scenes are simply staged, as in the case of _Survivor_. Yet as Joel Coen suggested was the case with regard to _Fargo_ , reality television's use of the truth brand allows it to get away with things that would otherwise seem ludicrous. Most would demand more of a fictional show than twenty minutes of people screaming at one another between commercials. The truth brand exploits our credulity—or perhaps we allow ourselves to be taken in by it—and we accept even the most preposterous of dramatic events because "it really happened that way."
Beyond eliciting a greater willingness to suspend disbelief, the truth brand also seems to have an emotional component. We can see this in one of those infamous cases of truth branding, that of James Frey's book _A Million Little Pieces._ The memoir tells the story of Frey's struggles with drug abuse and his long road to recovery. The book became a hit after Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club in 2005. She pointed to the inspirational qualities of the book's tale of one man's fight against his own demons. It's fair to assume that a large share of this inspiration stemmed from the fact the tale was _true._ The battle with addiction played out not in the mind of a writer but, rather, in the real world, and this gave _A Million Little Pieces_ a particular emotional piquancy.
When it infamously emerged that portions of the memoir were fabricated, however, the fallout had an emotional piquancy, too. There are reports that Frey initially shopped _A Million Little Pieces_ as a novel but it found a publisher only when given the truth brand and repackaged as a memoir. Readers seemed to take personally the revelations of invented details and scenes. Oprah herself told Frey she felt "really duped" by his actions, and subjected him to a ritualistic on-air grilling. The book's publisher, Random House, took the unusual step of offering a refund to readers who had bought the book and felt defrauded by its claims of veracity.
To be fair, one should never read a memoir thinking that every detail is reported exactly as it occurred. More to the point, one would never _want_ to read such a memoir. We get enough of the inevitable boring episodes in life outside of books. While it seems apparent that Frey crossed a line from truth to deception, damaging his own reputation and triggering genuine feelings of betrayal among some of his readers, most memoirists employ many of the tactics of fiction. Pulling a story from the density and ambiguity of real life would probably be impossible otherwise.
Yet it's clear that the application of the truth brand can have a transformative affect on a book, both in terms of its sales and in its emotional impact for readers. The initial success of Frey's fabrication of parts of his life shows again how effective the media's exploitation of the idea of honesty can be. And what we also see, again and again, is how tolerant we as media consumers are of this exploitation. Reality television's synthetic reality is apparent to the critical eye, yet its success endures. And there is an important caveat to Frey's story, as well: in 2007, he signed a three-book, seven-figure deal with HarperCollins, and his latest work, _Bright Shiny Morning_ , was a best seller.
The use and abuse of the truth brand is not the limit of media dishonesty. Works that use the label "reality" or "based on true events" generally retain at least some link, albeit tenuous, to real occurrences, but recent years have seen numerous instances of outright deception. Indeed, some in the media have deceived the public to such a degree that James Frey seems by comparison like a paragon of honesty.
# **False Stories, Fake Authors**
Initially, the critical reception of _A Million Little Pieces_ was somewhat mixed. The book's notoriety came when it made Oprah's Book Club—and its infamy when its many fabrications were revealed. _Love and Consequences_ , on the other hand, a memoir by Margaret B. Jones, garnered immediate critical praise. The _New York Times_ hailed it as "humane and deeply affecting." The book tells the story of Jones's youth as a foster child in South-Central Los Angeles, navigating gang violence and making money running drugs. She writes with a keen sense for the telling anecdote, recounting how she prepared crack to pay her family's bills, how she received a handgun for a birthday. As mentioned above, memoirists typically exaggerate certain details in their works, and some reviewers noted that _Love and Consequences_ had passages that seemed to border on the novelistic. Still, this was forgiven in the context of the book's larger emotional impact. But it turned out that Jones's work didn't just borrow some of the methods of fiction. It was all fiction, right down to the author.
Margaret B. Jones was the pen name for Margaret Seltzer. Margaret Seltzer did not grow up as a foster child in South-Central Los Angeles, or anywhere. She was raised by her biological family in Sherman Oaks, an upscale section of the San Fernando Valley, and she had no affiliation with gangs or with selling illegal drugs. In admitting her deceit, Seltzer claimed that _Love and Consequences_ was in fact based on the experiences of friends she'd known growing up. "For whatever reason, I was really torn and I thought it was my opportunity to put a voice to people who people don't listen to," she told the _New York Times_.
However altruistic her motives, Jones's deception is of a different order than what you would get from a night of reality television. In fact, despite her defense, it's probably reasonable to compare Seltzer's act with some of the more insidious forms of deceit we've discussed, such as lies with intent. After all, she gained both literary fame and fortune through her deceit.
Yet what is even more surprising than Seltzer's deceit is the fact that it was hardly an isolated incident. _Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years_ , by Misha Defonseca, is ostensibly the true story of how Defonseca, as a young girl, escaped the Holocaust by trekking across Europe. The book, first published in 1997, was translated into eighteen languages and was made into an opera and then a French feature film before it was revealed to be fiction, in 2008. Misha Defonseca was in fact Monique De Wael, a Catholic who'd spent her girlhood during the war in Belgium. _Fragments,_ by a man calling himself Binjamin Wilkomirski, was another acclaimed Holocaust memoir that turned out to be fake. The author, whose real name was Bruno Doessekker, stole the name and history of a Jewish family to carry out his deception. And then there is the writer J. T. LeRoy, who published several books before being revealed to be an entirely fabricated persona of the writer Laura Albert. Albert even used a stand-in to act as LeRoy for public appearances.
The invention of J. T. LeRoy is clearly an extreme example. But memoir fabrication is nothing new. Indeed, it is a practice older than America. John Smith's seventeenth-century accounts of his adventures in the early colony of Jamestown, Virginia, including his stories about his relationship with Pocahontas, have long had their veracity questioned by scholars. Ours is hardly the first generation of authors to recognize the potential profits in the exaggerated or simply made-up life story.
Yet while it's fair to point out that deceptive memoirists benefit financially from their lies, it's probably an oversimplification to assume that money is the only relevant motivator. The impostors we discussed in Chapter 8 carried out a similar type of fraud in their assumption of new, and often improved, identities. Faking an account of one's life is really only a kind of retroactive impostorism: instead of pretending to be someone in the present, individuals like Margaret Seltzer and Monique De Wael pretended to have been someone in the past. The psychology of those who write up a fake life and those who live a fake life is likely similar. We can assume there is at least some element of duping delight, the pleasure liars feel in fooling their targets. For fake memoirists, this feeling may be compounded by the fact that they fool not only those they know but literally tens of thousands of others. There can also be a similar element of wish fulfillment at play, allowing the author to assume a life that is more dramatic, and elicits more sympathy or esteem, than their own might warrant.
Another factor underlying memoir falsification is that, in many ways, it is easier to pull off than we might think. After all, only the author really knows what he or she did or did not experience. When memoirists write about an event that no one else witnessed— _Misha_ includes multiple encounters in the woods with wolves, for instance—their claims can be all but impossible to contradict. And when their tales stretch to the improbable, they have a ready, and essentially bulletproof, excuse: _That's how I remember it._
On the other hand, Margaret B. Jones/Margaret Seltzer was not recounting events that took place in the forests of a war-torn continent more than a half century ago. Even granting the inherent difficulties in disproving the autobiographical assertions of another person, we might hope one of Seltzer's editors would have caught on to the fact that she had never even been a foster child, let alone one who ran drugs. Yet in looking to the editors or publishers of a memoir to verify its accuracy, we find that they frequently pass the buck on verification, too. Most editors would say that it is the author of a book who guarantees its truth. Generally, newspaper and magazine pieces are rigorously fact-checked (not that this is necessarily a surefire way to prevent deceit, as we will see), but most books are not so strictly vetted. When it's revealed that a memoir has been falsified, editors often claim to be victims of the deception as much as readers are. And, indeed, editors do sometimes form personal relationships with their writers, and so experience a double sting of personal betrayal and professional humiliation when authorial duplicity comes to light.
Still, we as readers are probably right in feeling a bit hung out to dry by this system. We generally take it on faith that when a book announces an "Incredible True Story," the story will actually be true, and not just incredible. Yet the fact is that this claim of truth sometimes may be based on no more than the word of the author, someone who stands to gain financially by making the assertion, whether it is factual or not. Perhaps we'd be wise to take the stunning details in the memoirs we read with a grain of salt—just another example of how deceit can dampen the experience of ordinary life, even when it does not victimize us directly, or in the ways we usually assume it might.
It's simple enough to take a critical attitude when browsing the autobiography section of Barnes & Noble. Media deception makes its way into formats that we look to for more than recreational reading. When we pick up a newspaper or a newsmagazine, we assume we are getting the facts about what is happening in the world around us. Unfortunately, several recent incidents have shown that this conjecture might be flawed.
# **News That Isn't Worthy**
During the 1990s, I was a subscriber to the _New Republic_ , a respected weekly magazine of political commentary. I was regularly struck by the articles that appeared near the beginning of the magazine, narrative pieces focused on particular events or trends. Often they included extraordinary details; I still remember a piece about a group of absurdly virulent anti-Clinton conservatives. I never noticed that all these remarkable pieces were written by the same author: Stephen Glass.
In May 1998, Glass published another piece in the _New Republic,_ "Hack Heaven." It described how a fifteen-year-old computer hacker named Ian Restil was being courted to work at a software company called Jukt Micronics. According to the story, Restil demanded everything from an _X-Men_ No. 1 comic to a Miata, and Jukt was happy to oblige. The article caught the eye of a reporter at _Forbes.com_ , but when he followed up on the story, he couldn't confirm any of its details. It turned out there was no Ian Restil, and no Jukt Micronics. Glass had fabricated the entire story. In fact, Glass had fabricated some or all of more than two dozen stories—including ones I had noticed for being so astonishing. Glass had fooled his editors at the _New Republic_ and thousands of readers just like me.
As mentioned above, magazines like the _New Republic_ employ fact-checkers to verify the accuracy of what they print. Glass was able to fool the fact-checkers by crediting his own notes and anonymous sources for his reporting. Perhaps the _New Republic_ 's fact-checking standards were not rigorous enough (they were strengthened in the wake of the Glass debacle), but fact-checking can perhaps never be so rigorous as to prevent journalistic deceit. Reporters write about things they have seen or been told. That's why they're called "reporters." As with a memoirist, ultimately only the journalist really knows what he or she has experienced in investigating a story.
Perhaps this is why incidents of journalistic duplicity have become, if not commonplace, than at least less exceptional. The _New York Times_ prides itself on its role as "the paper of record," printing corrections to stories sometimes decades after the fact to maintain its reputation for accuracy. Hence the sensation when it was revealed that Jayson Blair, a _Times_ reporter, had fabricated or plagiarized material for dozens of national news stories. He'd offered reporting from places he had never been, he'd given quotes from people he had never interviewed or met, he'd misstated facts, and he'd made up details. _USA Today_ reported Jack Kelley was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize before it was revealed, in 2004, that he had invented material, including portions of the story that had earned him a Pulitzer nomination. In a front-page article, _USA Today_ admitted that "Kelley fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories, lifted nearly two dozen quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he gave for the newspaper and conspired to mislead those investigating his work."
A distinction can be made between the deceit of people like Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair and the deceit perpetrated in formats like reality television. In the former cases, the lies are an aberration. Glass and Blair broke the institutional rules of their media employers, violating very clear ethical guidelines that all reporters follow (or at least are supposed to). When their deception was uncovered, it was punished: both reporters were fired. The synthetic reality we see on television is not the work of a few duplicitous individuals. Rather, it is the intended product of all involved. Synthetic reality is not the punished exception but the rule.
So it may seem something of an oversimplification to place, say, _Survivor_ and Stephen Glass in the same media-deception category. Yet in a crucial way they resemble each other: they both erode our trust in the media. Whether I feel deceived when I learn that certain articles in the _New Republic_ were fiction or whether I feel deceived when I learn that sometimes lines have been fed to the subjects of a reality television show, in either case, I am duped. If I am reassured that the _New Republic_ is at least vigilant to prevent such deception in its pages, I am probably also more worried by the fact that the _New Republic_ is the sort of media organ I depend on to stay informed about the world. Losing trust in reality television is one thing. Losing trust in the _New York Times_ is quite another.
Whichever news outlet we prefer, be it one in print, on television, or online, we depend on journalists to convey information about local and world events to us. Given the abundance of news options in modern society, it's unlikely that we'll be wholly deceived about something for very long. _Forbes.com_ formed an effective check on the _New Republic_ , for example. Yet Stephen Glass was able to pass off outrageous stories as fact for years before anyone, at the _New Republic_ or elsewhere in the media, caught on. Further, while it's easy enough for a newspaper to go back and recheck the articles of a mendacious reporter, our opinions aren't so easily vetted. If it's possible that some of the facts that underlie our judgments are untrue, can we be sure we've supported the right candidate, advocated the right decision?
These hypothetical questions played out in reality in the wake of the Iraq War. When it was learned that Iraq did not, in contrast to media reports and government assurances, possess weapons of mass destruction, the entire rationale for the war came into question. In this case, it didn't take a Jayson Blair to compromise the veracity of respected news outlets. The _New York Times,_ for example, admitted that some of its reporting on Iraq's weapons had been flawed. And when it came to assigning responsibility for the misinformation that had been parroted and reported, a game of pass the buck ensued, sadly reminiscent of what occurs when a memoir turns out to be fake. Reporters blamed the government, the government blamed the CIA, the CIA blamed its sources—and, as with a false memoir, the public was left to sort out how we'd been misled and why.
As individuals, of course, we can't find out the news of the world for ourselves. In the end, we have to rely on journalists to bring us news, much as we rely on friends or coworkers to tell us the weather or if our tie is crooked. We can't function as informed citizens without some degree of trust, any more than we could function as neighbors or community members without it. It seems clear, though, that healthy skepticism is in order. Even the most trusted media outlets are, in the end, staffed by individuals, and some individuals, as we have seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , simply can't be trusted at all. But as we have also seen, these individuals are the exception. It's reasonable to hope that the bulk of people who commit themselves to ethical and objective reporting have every intention of upholding that commitment.
# CHAPTER 10
# Career Lies: Deception in the Workplace
In 1999, a major drugstore chain paid $1.5 million in a settlement over allegations by a California district attorney that it had sold expired goods, including baby formula and contraceptives, at dozens of its stores. Eight years later, the New York State attorney general announced plans to sue this same drugstore chain for selling expired food and drugs at, according to his investigation, 43 percent of its locations.
MetLife, among the largest life insurance companies in the United States, settled a class action lawsuit for $1.7 billion. Among the allegations in the suit was that MetLife had engaged in a variety of deceptive sales practices. These included portraying policies as investment opportunities with exaggerated promises of returns and selling policies on the promise that the premiums would at some point "vanish"—though, of course, they never did.
When _PRWeek_ , a public relations trade magazine, conducted a survey of 1,700 public relations executives, 25 percent of them admitted lying on the job, 39 percent confessed to exaggerations of the truth, and 62 percent felt their honesty had been compromised by being lied to by a client or by being told only a partial truth.
Dr. Seymour I. Schlager served as an executive scientist at Becton, Dickinson, a major medical technology company. He was a published author, his book _Clinical Management of Infectious Diseases_ having been released by Williams & Wilkins. And he served on the board of a New Jersey drug company. What Dr. Schlager did not tell Becton, Dickinson, or his publisher, or the drug company, was that in 1991 he had been convicted of attempting to smother his wife with a pillow, had spent years in prison for the crime, and had had his medical license revoked.
There is probably no single anecdote or story that epitomizes the deception that occurs in the business world. As the examples above suggest, lying in the workplace can take myriad forms. Sometimes the lies occur through an institutional practice, such as a pharmacy selling expired drugs in nearly half of its stores. Sometimes the institutional lies are perpetrated by a sales force and directed at customers, employed as enticements to get them to buy life insurance or a used car or a "Rolex" watch. Workplace lies can be told in the context of job performance, as when a public relations officer assures a financial reporter that a company's earnings will be good news for stockholders, when in fact they will be anything but. And workplace lies can victimize companies, as when an employee adds something false to—or, as in the case of Seymour Schlager, leaves something very important off—a résumé.
Just as it is varied, lying in the business world is also widespread. It is not limited by industry or market, by size of company or structure, by culture or geography. Even industries that place an emphasis on honesty can be hit with scandals over deceit. Perhaps no place of work holds honesty more sacrosanct than academia. Scholarship depends on truthfulness in the reporting of experimental results, on the supremacy of fact over self-interest and prejudice. Yet recent years have seen numerous examples of outright fabrication on campuses. Joseph Ellis, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his book _Founding Brothers_ , was temporarily suspended from teaching after it was revealed that his claims of having fought in Vietnam were false. A scientist at Purdue University, Rusi Taleyarkhan, attracted national attention when he reported in _Science_ that he had achieved nuclear fusion through the manipulation of bubbles. The results came into question when others could not duplicate the experiment, and a Purdue panel eventually concluded that Taleyarkhan had falsely claimed independent verification of his work. Instances of plagiarism in academia are becoming so common that their revelations sometimes seem mundane. And again, this is in a realm where honesty is a necessity—if not in practice, then at least in theory.
Businesses in which a strict adherence to the truth is not even given the benefit of lip service often have even higher incidences of deception. This helps explain the statistics reported in the _PRWeek_ survey. The nature of the work done in public relations involves shading and tailoring to present facts in a particular form. It's essentially the same thing a salesperson does when glowingly describing a car or vacuum cleaner or piece of real estate. The law defines this sort of embellishment and exaggeration as "puffing," and makes a distinction between it and outright fraud. But the line between deceit and puffing can be easily crossed and, indeed, can sometimes be difficult to identify.
Beyond instances when the legitimate work of a job blends easily into deceit, there seems to be another prominent motive underlying workplace deception: money. Since money is the common element in the many forms of human employment, it makes sense to consider it the common element in the many forms of deception related to that employment. Indeed, some of the most prominent business scandals of recent years seem driven almost solely by the lust for profit. Names like Enron and WorldCom have become synonymous with greed that outstrips good sense and sound ethics. Yet it would be a mistake to consider workplace deception as merely a means to a few more dollars. The complexities of lying on the job resist a simple, singular explanation.
It may be more instructive to focus not on what a job gets you but on what a job can mean. After all, money is only one reason people seek the jobs they do. Jobs can also convey a certain status within society, a sense of purpose and belonging. Perhaps this is why workplace deception often begins before people have even found a job.
# **Lying to Get in the Door**
As competitive as the American college application process can seem, it is probably still far less stressful than the education system in South Korea. From an early age, South Korean children begin preparing for college entrance exams in intense cram sessions. Admission to the right school means qualification for top jobs and social benefits that extend as far as marriage prospects. Not getting into an elite school, though, can close career and societal doors permanently.
It was against this backdrop that it emerged that Shin Jeongah, a top art historian, had falsified her educational experience. Fired from her position at the elite Dongguk University, she left South Korea for the United States. Yet the revelations of Shin Jeong-ah's false credentials turned out to be only the first in a series of résumé scandals. A well-known monk, the Venerable Jigwang, the head of a temple with 250,000 members, confessed that he did not, as he had claimed, hold a degree from Seoul National University, South Korea's top school. Lee Chang-ha, a popular architect, was forced out of Kimcheon Science College after disclosures that he claimed to hold a degree in fine arts from a Los Angeles university that does not give degrees in fine arts. A movie director, a celebrity chef, a radio host, a comic-book artist—more and more well-respected and well-known South Koreans were added to the list of academic pretenders.
It would be wrongheaded to conclude that the South Korean intelligentsia is composed largely of frauds, or of those ruthless enough to fabricate credentials. The nationwide scandals, sweeping up individuals in so many walks of life—religious, intellectual, artistic—would seem to point instead to the stakes of educational success. Or, to put the issue more bluntly, the scandals point to the stakes of _superficial_ academic success. After all, as in the United States, the question is not so much what an individual learns at a university as the reputation of that university. The line on the résumé is what opens doors, not the content of the education.
Again, this is true not only of South Korea; many American companies screen résumés for particular degrees. Without that degree, an applicant will not even be considered, regardless of skills, knowledge, experience, or any other sort of qualification. This helps explain why so often the lies on American résumés relate to education. Generally, all résumés are prone to deceit. A low estimate is that a quarter of résumés contain lies. But with educational background in particular, job seekers are apt to invent the facts.
Jude M. Werra, the head of a headhunting firm in Wisconsin, conducts a biannual review of the high-powered résumés his firm receives. He checks the educational backgrounds of CEOs and vice presidents, then compiles what he calls the Liars Index: a statistic that represents the number of résumés with inaccuracies divided by the total number of résumés he has checked. In 2008, the Liars Index was nearly 16 percent. That's down from the high of 23.3 percent, reached in 2000. Applicants claimed degrees they had never earned, honors they had never received. And again, these are not the résumés of inexperienced college graduates (or nongraduates, as it were), ready to lie in order to launch their careers. Werra's index describes executive résumés, those of individuals already established in the business world—though, it seems, not established enough.
Examples of degree falsification by highly successful people abound. Ronald Zarrella, the former chairman of Bausch & Lomb, admitted that he did not, as he had claimed, hold an MBA from New York University. The new head football coach of Notre Dame, George O'Leary, resigned after holding the job for only five days when it was revealed that he did not, as claimed on his résumé, hold a master's degree from New York University (apparently a college holding a certain attraction to those falsifying their résumés). The CEO of RadioShack, David J. Edmondson, was fired after it was revealed that he'd added to his résumé degrees in psychology and theology that he didn't have. A former president of the U.S. Olympic Committee falsely claimed to have a doctorate in American literature. And Chapter 7 detailed the story of an MIT dean who claimed to hold three degrees, when in fact she held only one, from an obscure college.
It may be tempting to conclude, as with the South Korean résumé scandals, that the people who make it to the top are the ones who are unscrupulous enough (and maybe bold enough) to lie about their degrees. But a less morally charged explanation is also possible. To make it to the top requires a foot in the door. A lie on a résumé may be the means to start a career that, through skill, luck, determination, or some combination thereof, ends up in a chair or a presidency. In other words, highly successful people may not be more prone to faking their educational background; rather, it may be that those initial lies enable people to become successful in the first place.
If applicants for high-profile positions engage in deception on their résumés, we might expect that people applying for more mundane jobs might feel even less encumbered by the truth. Certainly, it seems remote that one's application for a job at the corner dry cleaners would be subject to stringent fact-checking.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the other major form of information gathering—the job interview—offers opportunities to stretch the truth even beyond what one might be tempted to list on a résumé. Conducted in face-to-face settings, job interviews typically yield no written record that can later be used to check against reality.
In fact, one of my own research studies, conducted with Brent Weiss, found that job applicants are more than ready to bend the truth to obtain an attractive position. In the study, we offered college students the opportunity to apply for a job that paid $15 an hour—an enticing amount to impoverished undergraduates. The job ostensibly involved tutoring high school students, but the specific nature of the position varied in one of two ways. Some of the potential tutors were the told that the job required technical skills such as managing student data files and some statistical analysis; the job description focused on mathematical prowess. In contrast, other job applicants were told that the position required strong interpersonal skills, with high sociability and enthusiasm central requirements.
After learning about the job requirements, applicants filled out an application form and then participated in a job interview. Both the application form and the interview asked a wide range of questions but also focused on applicants' math and social skills—key components of the job requirements.
After the interviews, we let applicants know that in reality there was no job and that the entire situation had been designed to study the interview process. (We worked very hard to explain the rationale for the study and to make participants understand why our own brand of deception was necessary.) We then had participants view a videotape of their responses during the job interview, and we asked them to identify any deviations from the truth.
The results were quite consistent with our other studies of the frequency of deception in everyday life. Just over 80 percent of the participants admitted telling at least one lie in the interview. The average number of lies was 2.2 during the interviews, which lasted from ten to fifteen minutes. Furthermore, the nature of the lies was consistent with the job requirements. Applicants applying for a position involving math skills were more likely to boast about their mathematical prowess. In contrast, applicants applying for the job where social skills were paramount were more apt to lie about their adeptness in socializing with others.
Perhaps it's predictable to find such a high level of deception when people are seeking to obtain a job. After all, many people consider résumés and job interviews to be sales opportunities, ones whose purpose is to put the best possible gloss on past experience and accomplishments. In this view, it is standard practice for an afternoon digging through files for a lost invoice to become "extensive research experience." Embellishment can easily lose its grounding in the facts, if it ever had one in the first place.
What's particularly surprising, though, is the degree to which even facts that can be easily checked, such as educational background, appear to be fair game for self-promotion. After all, a degree was either conferred or it wasn't. Further, while it may be difficult to check or to ascertain what "extensive research experience" constitutes, a degree can be verified with a single phone call, or even a single Web search.
Perhaps the fact that educational background remains so frequently fudged points to a certain attitude toward such credentials. Again, the importance of such degrees can certainly be viewed as only surface deep. A master's degree might help you land an interview for an executive-level job, but the extent to which that degree will benefit you in doing that job is debatable. By that same token, individuals may feel a certain frustration if they consider themselves qualified for a certain job in terms of experience but disqualified from even pursuing it because they lack a higher degree or a degree from a brand-name college.
This ambivalence regarding the practical benefits of a degree, as opposed to the surface benefits, may actually be echoed among employers. Given how easy it is to check educational background, it is surprising how many companies don't. The proof of job worthiness may ultimately lie in job performance. This is not to argue that companies don't care when applicants falsify their educational experience. Rather, it is to state that their interest in finding a person to fill important job vacancies is very strong, as well. Employers don't benefit from losing good employees in résumé scandals any more than the fired employees do. This may be another reason why the Liars Index never approaches 0 percent. After it was revealed that Ronald Zarrella did not have an MBA from NYU after all, he was docked his $1.1 million bonus. However, he continued serving as Bausch & Lomb's CEO for another five years.
Of course, faked education credentials may be among the more benign forms of workplace deceit. Other practices can be far more insidious. Sometimes the lies in a résumé, especially lies of omission, can cover over a past of deception that no company would—or, more importantly, could—tolerate. This was the case with one of the most infamous CEOs of the booming '90s: Chainsaw Al.
# **Why Apples Turn Bad**
Albert J. Dunlap seemed to enjoy his reputation as a CEO who took no prisoners. He made his name on Wall Street at Scott Paper, a struggling company that Dunlap rejuvenated to the tune of a $6.3 billion increase in market value. One way he achieved this was by the cutting thousands of jobs. But Dunlap was unapologetic over his hardball tactics. He titled his autobiography _Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great._ The book, with its titular wordplay suggesting both seriousness and toughness, became a best seller. When Sunbeam Corporation, a maker of small consumer appliances, named him CEO, its shares surged 60 percent. Dunlap reportedly declared, "The old Sunbeam is over," and oversaw a restructuring plan that would eliminate 87 percent of Sunbeam products and about half of its jobs.
At first, Dunlap's black-hat tactics seemed to work, and Sunbeam reported big gains in earnings. But the apparent boom at Sunbeam didn't last. Its stock tanked, and as the company started to fall apart, Dunlap was fired. Accusations of fraud emerged. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Sunbeam had overstated its profits during Dunlap's tenure, and the Justice Department soon opened its own investigation. Dunlap eventually settled with the SEC, admitting no wrongdoing but paying a $500,000 fine. Sunbeam went bankrupt, and Dunlap had to pay a further $15 million to settle a lawsuit by disgruntled shareholders.
Sunbeam executives thought they were hiring a ruthlessly effective CEO who would stop at nothing to make their company profitable. Instead, their company collapsed amid allegations of fictitious accounting. What Sunbeam didn't know when they hired Dunlap—and, indeed, what it seems few of Chainsaw Al's admirers knew—was that Dunlap had once been the president of a company called Nitec Paper. And Dunlap's leadership of Nitec had played out in a remarkably similar fashion to his tenure with Sunbeam.
Dunlap's omission of Nitec from his employment history meant that Sunbeam didn't know Dunlap had been fired from Nitec. Nor did Dunlap disclose that the reported profits during his leadership of Nitec had vanished after he left amid, once again, allegations of accounting fraud, reportedly perpetrated at his direction. Dunlap and Nitec became embroiled in lawsuits, but Nitec went bankrupt and the case never went to trial. By leaving Nitec off his résumé and, of course, out of his memoir, Dunlap was able to escape the odor of fraud and become a Wall Street star—at least for a while.
Most immediately, Dunlap's story points to the dangers of résumé fraud, not to mention the urgency companies should give to employee résumé verification. If a fabricated degree can be rationalized as unimportant in the context of job performance, hidden stories of disastrous, or even criminal, work history obviously can't. Jude Werra, the creator and compiler of the Liars Index, warns of a "halo effect" surrounding the hiring of high-level executives. These executives can be so impressive by reputation and bearing that they don't receive the scrutiny in the hiring process they should. The story of Chain-saw Al, and those of the other fabricated résumés of prominent people recounted in this chapter, should demonstrate that a complete and truthful employment history can never be taken for granted.
More broadly, Chainsaw Al's downfall points to issues of workplace deceit beyond those that show up on a résumé. Résumé fabrication is, in theory, isolated to a single employee. Accounting fraud or other such crimes can bring down entire companies, with effects that ripple across the economy. No better example of the dangers of deceitful business practices can be found than the fallout from the subprime mortgage collapse, which threatened to send the entire global economy into a tailspin.
Psychologists have sought to understand the dynamics that underlie cooking the books, fixing markets, and the other forms of fraudulent business dealings. One possible explanation is among the most obvious: the key to white-collar crime lies with the individuals who perpetrate it. Unethical or simply criminal businesspeople deviate from accepted procedures for their own benefit. This conception might be called the Bad Apple Theory of White Collar Crime. Indeed, it was just this metaphor former President George W. Bush used in discussing the fall of Enron. A few bad apples, aberrations in their companies and in the business world generally, brought down a profitable and respectable business.
One reason the Bad Apple Theory makes sense is that individuals, particularly high-level individuals within a company, have so much to gain personally by cheating the system. This is born out by a study concluding that CEOs were responsible, either through direct action or through attitude, for nearly three-quarters of corporate accounting fraud. As stated above, the incentives to cheat go beyond mere dollars and sense—though, of course, money usually plays a role, too. CEOs can directly benefit from overinflated profits through performance bonuses and the value of stock options they hold. Beyond financial gain, though, company heads have other motivations to engage in business deceit, ones that are more psychological than tangible.
We've seen throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ how deception is frequently a response to a threatened ego. When we're faced with a comparison that we feel reflects badly on us or a social situation that brings withering scrutiny, lying can be an almost knee-jerk response. To a degree, CEOs may employ this same defense mechanism, though in a more intense form. CEOs, with their positions of power and their track records of achievement, often have outsized egos. Yet an inflated ego often comes with inflated feelings of anxiety and vulnerability, as well. This combination can make the prospect of bad results extremely threatening and, indeed, more threatening than an outside observer might consider rational. In any case, under pressure of this ego threat, CEOs may respond by sanctioning or even creating a more palatable fiction.
What bears emphasis is that this fiction may also be one CEOs believe in themselves. Those outside the business world (and I certainly consider myself a member of this group) too often think of profit statements as simple reportage: income minus costs equals profits, or some such simple formulation. The reality of accounting is, of course, far, far more complicated, and to a degree it is even subjective. The heads of companies have a good deal of flexibility in how they present their results to the world and, more importantly, to themselves. Given this wiggle room, we can imagine how numbers can be crunched past the point of honesty, but in such a way that it resembles honesty even to the person doing the crunching. Rather than accept failure, some CEOs may find it easier to accept "creative accounting," or, as most of us call it, fraud.
What's interesting is that while many people lie to protect their self-esteem, they usually enact these lies personally. That is, they will verbalize a lie about their own talents, their own accomplishments. The conception of CEOs defending their egos through business deceit has them enacting the defensive lie through a secondary mechanism such as an earnings report. This points to another reason company leaders may cook the books rather than accept disappointing results. For many high-level executives, work can become all-consuming. They spend far more hours on the job than with family or friends, and form an attachment to their business that may be unrivaled outside it. This bond can be especially strong for businesspeople who helped found a company. J. Richard Anderson and Michael E. Tirrell, professors of business administration and psychology, respectively, at Stonehill College, cowrote an insightful article on CEO deceit titled "Too Good to Be True: CEOs and Financial Reporting Fraud." In the article, they describe the link between executive and company in vivid terms. They write: "It is very natural for the firm's success or survival to be visualized by the founding CEO as _personal_ success or survival.... For individuals who have built their sense of self-esteem around the business, the possibility of a publicly announced failure represents a direct threat that necessitates protective actions." The identification between leader and company becomes so strong as to be nearly indivisible. Company failure becomes the CEO's personal failure, and lies that protect the former also protect the latter.
Anderson and Tirrell also point out another reason, related to identification, why CEOs might engage in deceit to keep their companies looking strong. The collapse of a business does more than bruise the ego of its leaders. It throws into some degree of turmoil the professional lives of every person the business employs. A CEO who cares about his company, or who just cares about people in general, might find the prospect of every person who works under him losing their job extremely troubling. If the alternative to duplicity is bankruptcy, a CEO might resort to business lies out of something akin to compassion.
It should be remembered that these motives rarely operate independently. The issues of greed and pride, identification and compassion often blend in subtle ways. Further, since self-deception can easily come into play, CEOs who believe themselves to be acting out of compassion might actually be using this as a kind of mental excuse for essentially selfish behavior. In any case, duplicity can sustain a business for only so long. At some point, even the most cleverly executed or best-intentioned lies give way to economic realities.
It's clear, though, that business leaders have a range of incentives, some apparent and some subtle, to engage in deceit related to their companies. But the Bad Apple Theory of business deceit, which holds that crooked business practices are ultimately the doing of unethical individuals within the business, has a serious flaw. Perhaps in some cases a CEO or a small group of executives can execute significant fraud without the awareness of anyone else in the company. In general, though, it would be difficult without the complicity, or at least the knowledge, of others within the company bureaucracy.
In fact, in some cases it seems that malfeasance cannot be traced to a particular individual or group but is, instead, endemic to the entire company hierarchy. In such cases, the problem of business deceit cannot be put down to a few bad apples. The whole barrel seems to be bad.
# **Bad Barrel Theory**
The story of Enron and its principle villains is by now a familiar one. Kenneth Lay, the founder of Enron, Jeffrey K. Skilling, the CEO, and Andrew Fastow, the chief financial officer, conspired to prop up Enron through fraudulent accounting and outright deceit. In September 2001, Lay assured his employees that Enron stock was a smart investment and that "the third quarter is looking great." Three weeks later, Enron disclosed a $600 million loss. By the end of the next year, the company was bankrupt. Fastow pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, and Skilling and Lay were convicted of conspiracy and fraud. Lay died of a heart attack before he was sentenced.
According to the Bad Apple Theory, Enron was undone by ruthless and reckless leadership. Lay, Skilling, Fastow, and perhaps a few others brought down what would otherwise have been a successful, or at least a reputable, company. The problem with this conception of Enron's demise, though, is that deceit at Enron was widespread. Even aside from the massive accounting scandal that was its undoing, Enron's business practices were often duplicitous. For instance, Enron traders reportedly took steps to fuel the California energy crisis, since the demand for energy drove up Enron's stock price.
Michael Shermer, an author and a regular columnist for _Scientific American_ , wrote an article analyzing Enron's corporate culture entitled "Do All Companies Have to Be Evil?" He describes how when Jeffrey Skilling came to Enron in 1996, he instituted a policy that became known as "Rank and Yank." Under this system, every employee was ranked by his or her peers on a scale of 1 to 5. Any employee who got a 5 was fired. Results of the review were posted on the Enron Web page, along with employee photographs. Rank and Yank meant that every six months, between 10 and 20 percent of Enron employees lost their jobs. More to the point, according to Shermer, Rank and Yank "established an environment that brought out the worst in Enron's employees: selfishness, competitiveness and greed." It was this atmosphere that fostered the widespread duplicity at Enron, in the accountants to executives to traders.
This explanation for what occurred at Enron might be called the Bad Barrel Theory of corporate deception. It isn't so much that the people who engage in workplace deception are prone to duplicity. Rather, they are encouraged to duplicitous acts by the culture in which they find themselves. It is a triumph of environment over character.
In considering the roots of infidelity, we discussed the idea of social norms. Social norms are the informal rules a society holds that govern behavior. There is no written law against sitting down in an elevator or cutting to the head of a line, but social norms dictate that these are things you don't do. You stand up in the elevator; you start out at the back of the line.
As we noted in our discussion of adultery, social norms generally discourage duplicitous behavior. However, if social norms within a specific group—say, a company—are strong enough, they can counteract the broader societal prohibitions against lying and cheating. In other words, if everyone in your office is telling lies, you might feel it is okay to do the same. Indeed, the power of social norms is such that you might actually feel you _should_ act in a deceitful manner, in order to align your behavior with that of your colleagues. If everyone in your department were fudging their sales numbers, you would likely feel professionally handicapped and personally isolated by being honest. The Bad Barrel Theory posits that corporations that engage in business deceit can function in precisely this way. Lying is the norm, a norm encouraging everyone in the organization toward duplicity.
Yet social norms characterized by deceit are not the only way in which lying can be fostered within an organization. Bad barrels can be composed of many types of wood. There was nothing in Rank and Yank, for example, that explicitly encouraged deceit. Yet the atmosphere Rank and Yank helped create at Enron was one in which deceit easily took root. Researchers into business deceit have found that stressful work environments are conducive to deception. This makes intuitive sense. Constant pressure to meet difficult goals can erode a commitment to honesty if deception presents itself as a way to alleviate that pressure. Lying can be a way simply to keep one's head above water. So, an employee tells his or her supervisor that a report is finished when it isn't, that sales in his or her district are strong when they're not.
Further, in looking at the Bad Barrel Theory, it's important to keep in mind that dishonesty can be fostered throughout the chain of command. A supervisor who pushes her subordinates to get the job done _no matter what_ may in effect be pushing them to lie to her. These subordinates may (correctly) conclude that a lie, of whatever scope, may benefit them more professionally than a disappointing truth; and, moreover, that a hard-driving manager would rather they cheat than fail, even if this is never explicitly stated. At high-pressure companies, lying can become systemic: managerial expectations are met through dishonesty, those expectations, even if unrealistic, endure; and then they must be fulfilled through further dishonesty. This can occur at every level of a corporate structure, pressure from supervisors manifesting itself as pressure on those supervised, from the CEO on down.
Stressful work environments can thus herd employees into business deceit. But there is also the matter of who such environments attract in the first place. Undoubtedly, there are honest people who thrive on the adrenaline and mental stimulation of a high-pressure job. But cut-throat evaluation systems and hard-driving managers can also appeal to individuals with less rigorous ethics, those more interested in profit and career success than strict honesty. It's almost as if bad barrels can draw in bad apples.
Paul Babiak is an industrial and organizational psychologist who has done extensive research on the topic of psychopaths in the workplace. The term "psychopath" usually evokes thoughts of serial killers, or at least vengeful exes. Yet psychopaths, or at least those with psychopathic traits, need not appear crazed, much less be murderous. Indeed, psychopaths can often be charming and articulate—as well as ruthless, manipulative, and cruel. Babiak believes that psychopaths are over-represented in the business world, and are particularly drawn to high-pressure, fast-moving organizations, where their cunning and impulsiveness is rewarded. He argues that companies need to be far more aware of the danger of psychopaths in their ranks.
Implicit in the idea that companies can protect themselves from psychopaths, and implicit in the Bad Barrel Theory generally, is the belief that there are steps companies can take to prevent business deceit from occurring. Lying is not inevitable in business. It is the result of bad business practices or bad business culture. The Bad Apple Theory largely concurs on this point: business deceit can be chalked up to the behavior of duplicitous individuals. Yet not everyone agrees with this premise. Some researchers believe that business deceit occurs because of the very structure of business itself.
# **Work and the Need to Deceive**
Throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , we have explored how fully intertwined deception is with ordinary social interactions. Standards of tact and politeness, the demands of context, and expectations can make deception, to some degree, almost inevitable. This is why researchers have found that so many lies occur every day. The way we usually interact with one another makes it very difficult to be completely honest. Unless we decide we want to know that our new haircut is a mess, that our child is a terrible Little Leaguer, that our colleague is not happy to run into us at the gym—and, indeed, unless we are prepared to tell other people this sort of thing—deception is here to stay.
It's helpful to keep the functioning of interpersonal deception in mind as we consider the thinking of David Shulman. In his book _From Liar to Hire_ , Shulman, a professor of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College, presents a picture of the modern workplace that in many ways resembles the picture of modern social interactions presented above. In Shulman's view, business deception is not a question of bad apples or a bad barrel. It is, rather, a normal aspect of everyday working life. Shulman writes: "Workplaces generate social pressures and situations that help people to overcome proscriptions against lying, just as everyday social niceties encourage 'white lies' to help people preserve the peace in routine interactions with family and friends."
What are the pressures and situations that trump the tendency toward honesty? To some degree, they are simply part of the package of attitudes and behaviors we might equate with functioning in a workplace. An employee must defer to his or her boss; treat customers with respect and courtesy; put aside personal dislikes or envies in order to cooperate with colleagues. In effect, in order to be what we normally call a "professional," one must put up a front. No one is _always_ eager to perform the roll a job demands—but this is often precisely what work requires. It goes back to the issue of self-presentation. The context of work has certain clear demands for personal conduct. In matching these demands, we sometimes need to lie about how we really feel about an idea, a coworker, a customer's request.
Beyond fake on-the-job personal attitudes, Shulman argues, the organizational dynamics of a company also often necessitate deceit. For instance, anyone who has worked in an office has had the experience of being told by a supervisor to do something one way, while knowing there is a better, faster alternative. Frequently, too, officially mandated channels for certain tasks are cumbersome—the demands of a bureaucracy can make it all but impossible for an individual to do his or her assigned tasks. In such cases, most people will simply ignore the prescribed method and do their job the way they believe (and often know) is best. That breaking the rules in this way often requires varying levels of deception seems secondary to the larger goal of _doing one's job._ Shulman's larger point is that offices inevitably lend themselves to such situations: deception becomes a more effective means of work than honesty. This can be true even at companies where the work is not stressful and where management is not duplicitous.
It's perhaps easy to be sanguine about this sort of deception. After all, if a lie is told in service of job performance, is it really so terrible? The problem with this reasoning is that, as with the arguably benign forms of interpersonal deception, there are no clear limits. Outside of work, there's no easy way to signal the times and situations in which we want the cold, harsh truth and the times we'd rather hear a comforting lie. At work, the situation is parallel. There are times when a business might indeed benefit from an employee stepping beyond official policies to accomplish a task. On the other hand, such policies are in place for a reason. Shulman makes the point that employees who commit "illicit acts" will often utilize deceit in order to hide these acts from managers inside the company or monitors of conduct outside the company. Even if these acts are well-intentioned, hiding conduct is obviously a start down a slippery slope.
If it's true, though, that the very structure of business lends itself to deceit, is there any way to avoid this slippery slope? Fortunately, the answer is probably yes. While some deceit will always occur in the workplace, just as it will in every aspect of modern life, there are ways to try to minimize this deceit so that it won't escalate into an Enron-sized debacle.
The Bad Apple Theory and the Bad Barrel Theory may at first seem to stand in total opposition, but in fact there is significant overlap. The Bad Apple Theory posits that business deceit is the work of individuals. But the business culture that the Bad Barrel Theory holds up as the root of business deceit does not come out of a vacuum. The expectations and attitudes of a company are signaled, if not formally codified, by those at the top of the company, and are echoed and reinforced by those beneath them. In other words, both the Bad Apple Theory and the Bad Barrel Theory hold that business deception can be shaped, if not eliminated, by those within a company. If we are serious about reducing the lies in the business world, the place to start might be with ourselves. Even if Shulman is right, and lying at work is unavoidable, the lies we tell and the lies we accept or choose to overlook are something we retain control over. We also retain control over where we work in the first place. Business lies can't get out of hand if there is no one at the business to tell them.
# CHAPTER 11
# Web of Deceit: The Brave New World of Internet Dishonesty
The history of the Internet is short enough that, as late as 2001, what we know as blogs were still called, quaintly, "Weblogs." One early Weblog that garnered a great deal of interest was Living Colours, the online journal of a Kansas teenager named Kaycee Nicole Swenson. Kaycee was an attractive, athletic girl battling leukemia, and she used Living Colours to narrate her struggles with the disease. Thousands read Kaycee's Weblog, many drawing inspiration from both Kaycee's courage and her sunny optimism in the face of her illness. Some readers even got to know Kaycee via instant messaging and phone calls.
Then, on May 15, 2001, a posting on Living Colours announced that Kaycee Swenson had died. A note thanked her readers for the love and support they had shown her. A huge outpouring of grief followed. Though none (and I mean _none_ ) of the readers of Kaycee's Weblog had met her face-to-face, many in the digital community that had sprung up around her seemed to have formed a real emotional connection with the brave teenager, albeit a one-sided one. Kaycee's death hit these people hard.
Yet it was not long before some in that community also became suspicious. Certain aspects of Kaycee's death seemed odd. Debbie Swenson, Kaycee's mother, claimed that Kaycee's memorial service had been completed only two days after her death. She also offered no address where mourners could send cards or flowers. Online snooping by the Living Colours readership revealed further eyebrow-raising details, such as the lack of any mention of Kaycee's death in local newspapers and the absence of medical records at local hospitals.
Eventually, the chorus of skepticism grew to a roar, and Debbie Swenson was forced to admit the truth. There was no Kaycee Swenson. Debbie had made her up, writing Living Colours, even posing as her online and on the phone. Quite simply, Kaycee was a digital illusion, a fiction Debbie Swenson had invented in order, she said, to do something "positive."
When we assess the honesty of our cultural institutions, we tend to embrace the notion of a more innocent past. Journalists used to be more ethical; newspapers used to be more reliable; George Washington and Abe Lincoln never lied; a handshake used to count for something in business. Some of this is simply naïveté, of course, nostalgia for a time we can at least tell ourselves was more virtuous than our own. Yet it's revealing that we don't think of business or journalism or even politics as necessarily dishonest. They only _became_ that way, or so many often claim.
When it comes to the Internet, on the other hand, one rarely hears such an assertion. Debbie Swenson's invention of Kaycee was one of the first examples of large-scale blog fraud, and it occurred just as the form was emerging in the popular mind. We may be right to think that there never was an antediluvian era of digital honesty—not even an imagined one.
We have become so familiar with the Internet that it is easy to forget what a revolutionary form of communication it represents. The power to send information instantly, to anywhere in the world, entirely collapses the strictures of physical space that had governed communication for tens of thousands of years. Interacting with another person no longer requires enough physical proximity to hold a conversation. It does not even require the time or effort necessary to move some physical object, like a letter, between two distant parties. Geography and time are no longer limiting factors to interpersonal communication.
The new possibilities for interaction the Internet allows have yielded tremendous benefits. Yet when the requirements of physical space are lost, the advantages of face-to-face communication are lost, as well. When we greet our neighbor over the fence, to choose an aptly old-fashioned example, we at least know it's our neighbor we are talking to. We can't know, though, who is responsible for the text we read in an e-mail or an instant message or a forum posting. We may not be able to conclude in a personal conversation whether our interlocutor is telling the truth, but via the Internet we can't even be sure whether our interlocutor _exists._ Digital communication is vast and limitless, but it is also generally completely unverifiable as to its source. Further, the people we interact with over the Internet aren't just neighbors, members of the local community, or fellow employees. We can't make any assumptions based on a common home or working life about their values or standards of behavior. All we can assume is that they have an Internet connection.
Yet perhaps because the Internet remains such a new form of communication, we tend to approach it with the same assumptions we bring to the more traditional means of interaction. In other words, we generally assume that those we communicate with on the Internet are telling us the truth. To a degree, of course, we have to, just as we have to assume that our neighbor over the fence is telling the truth when he says he heard the town sewer tax is going to rise. Community and communication aren't possible without some level of trust. Further, our minds are to some extent wired for credulity. We all operate with a truth bias, the cognitive rule of thumb that makes us predisposed to believe others (as we discussed in Chapter 2). The problem is that our standards for trust, whether cultural or cognitive, weren't formed based on a still new technology that cloaks identity and makes proximity irrelevant.
It's almost paradoxical that we feel betrayed by incidents like the fabrication of Kaycee Swenson, or any of the countless similar cases of Internet-driven deceit. The Internet ensures anonymity, makes identity flexible. Indeed, that is one of its appeals. Who doesn't enjoy inventing a screen name or tailoring a user profile so that it presents just the right image? Yet although we acknowledge and even embrace the elements of the Internet that enable deception, we feel no less stung when a hoax is revealed. Our expectations for honesty don't seem to be entirely consistent when it comes to the Internet (though, to be fair, they may not be very consistent in any other arena, either). Perhaps in a forum where any detail can be changed with the click of a button, it's almost inevitable that our trust will be violated.
# **The 1's and 0's of Internet Lies**
One of the administrative editors of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Essjay, as he was known to Wikipedia users, reported that he sometimes spent fourteen hours a day on the site. He edited thousands of Wikipedia articles, checked accuracy, and settled disputes between authors. Wikipedia is a collectively written encyclopedia. Its premise is that knowledge can be conveyed not just by experts but also by groups of nonexperts working collaboratively. Still, in such a project knowledgeable editors remain essential, and it certainly helped Essjay's reputation as an editor that he held multiple doctoral degrees and worked as a tenured professor at a private university. His credentials lent Wikipedia credibility, too, as a source of accurate information and sophisticated discussion.
But Wikipedia eventually lost the credibility it gained from its association with Essjay—and then some. After being featured in a July 2006 article about Wikipedia in the _New Yorker_ , Essjay confessed that his credentials were false. He was not a professor; in fact, he was a twenty-four-year-old who lacked any higher degrees. After initially defending Essjay, whose real name was revealed to be Ryan Jordan, those who run Wikipedia eventually asked him to resign from his "positions of trust within the community."
What the story of Essjay/Ryan Jordan highlights is how simple even sustained and egregious lies are to execute online. Jordan fooled not only the fact-checkers at the _New Yorker_ but also the community of people, in regular Wikipedia users, with the greatest familiarity with his work. This was also a community, moreover, held together by the common mission of maintaining accuracy and credibility on the Wikipedia Web site. And yet under these scrutinizing noses, Jordan was able to assume the identity of a professor with multiple degrees.
The reasons electronic deception is generally so easy to pull off aren't difficult to apprehend. As mentioned above, the Internet encourages anonymity, or at least its possibility. Users choose their own screen names, write their own bios for forums or Web sites, pick the pictures that are associated with their profiles. This information is as easy to falsify as it is to post online. Further, checking the veracity of user-provided biographical data is often made difficult by the safeguards that ensure user privacy. Obviously, we all hope that at least some of the details of our lives will be protected online. Indeed, Essjay claimed that he concocted his phony identity only in order to keep would-be electronic harassers (perhaps bitter due to his editorial decisions?) off his trail. And the checks that guarantee such privacy function as checks against verification, too. It's not easy to confirm whether the blogger whose journal you are reading really has cancer and lives in Kansas because such off-line investigation is not supposed to be easy. Finally, there is the simple fact that lies are hard to detect in any context. As we discussed in Chapter 2, even trained professionals such as police officers and polygraph administrators aren't very good at spotting lies. Most ordinary people are no better at detecting deception than they'd be if they flipped a coin. Obviously, the task of separating honesty from duplicity is made all the more difficult when one has only the digital text of an e-mail to go on.
The ease of executing an Internet lie helps explain, in part at least, the ubiquity of online deception. Thus far, we have focused on digital impersonation, such as Essjay's or Debbie Swenson's. Yet this is far from the only form of online fraud. Most of us are exposed to lies every time we check our e-mail. In-boxes are regularly flooded with news of inheritances we've won or pleas for help accessing a frozen Nigerian bank account. Such fraudulent spam suggests another dynamic of the Internet that allows for a great deal of deceit: it gives those willing to lie—through a phishing scheme or a fictional blog—easy access to millions of people. Online, lies can travel quickly and widely.
We should not overlook, either, our own role in spreading Internet lies in this regard. During the 2008 presidential election, I received from friends my fair share of forwarded e-mails about the candidates—some serious, many ridiculous. In sending these e-mails on to other friends, I admit, my focus may have been more on entertainment than on disseminating accurate political information. With a click of a button we can become party to dishonesty about this or that candidate's beliefs, background, or personal life. And while we may not take such forwards seriously, there is no guarantee that everyone on an exponentially expanding chain of recipients shares this view. Just because we don't write an Internet falsehood does not mean we don't participate in it.
Deception on the Internet does not have to be exclusively textual, either. In 2008, sports fans were captivated by a You-Tube video of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant apparently leaping over a speeding Aston Martin. Only later did viewers learn that the clip was created digitally as part of a viral marketing campaign for a new brand of Nike shoes. The deception was twofold: the clip itself was a digital fake, and its ostensible source as a home movie made by Kobe Bryant was fake, too. This sort of viral video marketing is becoming more and more popular with advertisers, as they turn to deceit to capture the attention of increasingly savvy consumers.
Nike's motives in creating a deceptive YouTube video are clear enough: the company wants to sell shoes. Behavior such as Debbie Swenson's in inventing—and then killing—a fake daughter may seem harder to figure. Why concoct a digital tragedy? Adam Joinson of the Open University in England and Beth Dietz-Uhler of Miami University conducted a case study of an incident very similar to the invention of Kaycee Swenson. This act of digital deceit occurred on the AnandTech forums. These forums were used primarily by those in the information technology industry to discuss issues of software and memory and so forth, but as with most online forums, there was also an "Off Topic" section, where members could post messages unrelated to the tech industry. It was primarily in the Off Topic section that a user named Nowheremom began to post. She quickly formed a relationship with another Anand-Tech member, DF, and they soon entered into a forum-based public flirtation.
A few months after Nowheremom joined AnandTech, though, DF shared some shocking news in a posting with the pithy heading: "NOWHEREMOM's dead..." Reporting that he was "so focking sad," DF said he'd received a call from Nowheremom's father, informing him that Nowheremom had been killed in a car accident. The AnandTech community was grief-stricken; Joinson and Dietz-Uhler describe the sincere efforts users made to honor and memorialize a woman they had known only through her posts. It was nearly a year and a half before the other shoe dropped. After AnandTech users could find no record of Nowheremom's life or death, DF finally confessed. He had invented the "cyberpersona called NOWHEREMOM," he wrote in a post. "I had never expected the grief that overcame this community. It even overcame me and I sobbed for three days as if she had been real."
When seeking to understand Internet deception, it's perhaps too easy to become overly focused on the Internet itself. We may start to look at online forums and e-mail and such as somehow the source of the deceptive impulse. Joinson and Dietz-Uhler caution against such a narrow view. They point, rather, to an interaction between online and off-line values, online and off-line identities in analyzing the causes of Internet deceit. Remember that the Internet provides only the packaging and transmission system for deception; the content of lies is generated in the minds of those who use it. The question of why people lie online is inextricably linked, Joinson and Dietz-Uhler suggest, to why they lie off-line.
Inventing a fake tragedy, as DF and Debbie Swenson did, is often an attempt to win attention and sympathy that the perpetrator of the deceit feels he or she would otherwise lack. The Internet allows the deception to victimize more people, more quickly, but its fundamental motivation may be no different online or off. Ryan Jordan's impersonation of a professor on Wikipedia fits a model we discussed in Chapter 8 when regarding impostors. Such individuals often assume the role of someone with societal standing. This allows them to reap the psychological benefits of being treated with respect and admiration by their peers, something that is often particularly tempting for those who suffer from feelings of insignificance or societal contempt. Just as the Internet did not fundamentally change how and why we trust other people, it did not fundamentally change the psychological underpinnings of deceit—underpinnings that have been discussed throughout _The Liar in Your Life_.
Yet by the same token, while the dynamics of the Internet may not provide a comprehensive explanation for online deceit, those dynamics clearly have some influence. Internet users may not lie _because_ they're online. But being online just might make deception more likely.
# **Deterrence versus Deindividuation**
When people meet for the first time face-to-face, lies are frequent. As the study I conducted of unacquainted strangers (described in detail in Chapter 1) shows, an individual sitting down and getting to know another person will lie to him or her about three times in ten minutes. The pressure to impress another person and to come off a particular way, even if we aren't consciously aware of it, often takes precedence over an adherence to the truth.
A more recent study of mine (conducted with Mattitiyahu Zimbler) framed the unacquainted-strangers scenario differently. What if the two people get to know each other not by sitting at a table but by sitting at computers? I was curious about what the effect the Internet had on interpersonal honesty.
The setup for the study was very simple. I had pairs of participants get to know each other in one of three ways: either in a face-to-face conversation in a room together, via a fifteen-minute e-mail exchange, or through a fifteen-minute instant-messaging session. Only the face-to-face pairs were in the same room; those using e-mail or IM were physically separated and never saw each other. Also, in all three conditions, the interactions were recorded. I used a hidden video camera to document the face-to-face conversations, and a computer record was generated of the e-mails and instant messages. After the interactions were completed, I asked the participants to review the video or transcript of the conversation, and to note any instances in which they deviated from the truth.
As I approached this investigation into Internet deceit, I mulled over two alternative explanations for what I might find. The first was what might be called the Deterrent Hypothesis. We all know that e-mail, by definition, creates a record of an interaction; the same is also true for an exchange of instant messages. The Deterrent Hypothesis holds that Internet users, aware of the digital record their interaction generates, will be less likely to lie. The record and the possibility that it could be checked later for accuracy will make people be more truthful than they'd be in a casual, face-to-face interaction, which generally involves no permanent documentation. (Remember, the participants did not know that their face-to-face chat was being videotaped.)
The second, competing explanation for how Internet use would shape interpersonal honesty involved a concept known as "deindividuation." The term, coined in the early 1950s, refers to the tendency of individuals to act with less social restraint in situations from which they are physically or psychologically detached. For instance, when an individual enjoys a degree of anonymity, the concept of deindividuation suggests, his or her behavior can become more spontaneous, less regulated by conventional norms.
The Deindividuation Hypothesis for this study holds that Internet users lie more online because their communication is conveyed not personally but by way of electronics. The digital filter creates a level of personal detachment, and so makes users more likely to ignore conventional restraints against deceit. The Deindividuation Hypothesis would also suggest that lies would be most common on e-mail. E-mail creates a barrier of time as well as one of space: individuals have to wait longer between replies than in an instant-messaging or face-to-face interaction. This further layer of deindividuation should make the prohibitions against dishonesty even weaker, and hence lying more likely.
The results of the study showed, as one might guess by now, that participants in every situation lied to each other. Whether conversing in the same room or chatting online or trading e-mails, the vast majority of participants strayed from the truth. Again, though, the question was not whether the participants would lie. The crucial element of the study was _how_ they would lie in the different situations. The Deterrent Hypothesis suggests that those interacting via the Internet would lie less than those interacting face-to-face, because the creation of a permanent record would encourage them to stick more closely to the truth. The Deindividuation Hypothesis suggests the opposite: those using the Internet to converse would lie more because of the depersonalizing aspects of computer-driven communication.
The results of my study show that when it comes to using the Internet, the dynamics of deindividuation trump the deterrence of the digital record. Participants told significantly more lies when communicating via computer than they did face-to-face. Further, they told the most lies when communicating through e-mail. This lends further credence to the Deindividuation Hypothesis, since, again, e-mail involves the greatest level of personal detachment of the three forms of communication employed. Moreover, the fact that the most lies were told via e-mail shows just how powerful deindividuation is. When we send e-mail, we don't just worry that someone might be recording what we write—we _create_ that record, and send it on to another person. Yet even given this possibility that an untrue statement could be checked and discovered to be false, participants lied on e-mail again and again.
Examining the content of the participants' lies sheds some light as to why they ignored the permanent record of their deceit. It may be that, in fact, they did _not_ wholly ignore this record. In the face-to-face situation, the participants usually lied about their plans, or about other factual information. The lies told on the Internet more often related to the participants' inner lives. The deception involved what the liar thought or felt. It's possible that the participants sending the e-mails or instant messages did feel deterred from lying by the permanence of the communication—but only about matters that could easily be verified. In other words, a participant would not send an e-mail discussing a planned safari in Kenya, since such a statement could be checked for its veracity. On the other hand, a statement about whether or not the participant loves wild animals is much more difficult to verify, regardless of the form it takes. There may be a digital record of an e-mail exchange, but there is none of the inside of the liar's head.
Regardless of the particular content of the lies, though, my study suggests that when we use a computer, our standards for honesty are weakened. Bear in mind, too, that they are probably not all that strong to begin with. But the deindividuation that computer-mediated communication creates seems to lower the bar for deception that much further. If looking someone in the eye doesn't do much to discourage deceit, looking into a computer monitor does even less.
There is another aspect of deindividuation that is also relevant to a discussion of Internet deceit. As we've noted throughout _The Liar in Your Life_ , there are no reliable cues that divulge deception. Many people believe that an averted gaze reveals a dishonest intent, but an averted gaze can simply signal anxiety or, just as easily, interest in something across the room. Yet this (mistaken) belief that averted gazes or sweaty palms or tapping fingers signal lies is itself crucial to recognize. If people believe that something they do physically will announce their deception, they may be less likely to engage in that deception. A computer, though, protects people from these theoretically telltale tics. You can avert your gaze all you want when you write an e-mail, secure in the knowledge that its recipient will have no idea you ever did. So the deindividuation Internet communication not only has the psychological effect of making users feel that they have more freedom to lie, it also has a practical element. Communicating via the Internet weakens a crucial barrier against lying: the fear of getting caught.
It would seem, then, that the anonymity engendered by the physical and temporal distance of Internet communication results in a greater likelihood of online deceit. Yet there is a crucial assumption inherent in this line of thinking that, admittedly, may not be accurate. When we consider deceit in terms of deindividuation, we start with the idea that lying is prohibited. We then posit that the dynamics of being online encourage people to ignore this prohibition. Yet the situation may not be so simple. It may be that people don't ignore a prohibition against online deceit so much as they do not feel that prohibition in the first place. In other words, lying online might not be a matter of breaking the rules. In fact, it's possible that for some it's a matter of following them.
# **eHonesty**
Imagine you pick up a copy of the _Wall Street Journal_ and on the cover is a lengthy article about a huge scandal in the United States Department of the Interior. It states that federal employees responsible for giving out oil contracts for years accepted gifts from those in the oil industry. The article goes on to detail a tawdry web of corruption, sex, and even drug use. Now imagine you read the same article, word for word, in the _National Enquirer._ It's probable your reaction to the two articles would be very, very different.
Just about all of us judge the truth of what we read or hear based on its source. And, of course, not all sources are created equal. The standards for reporting at the _Enquirer_ are very different from those at the _Journal_ , just as they're different for movie gossip Web sites and network news, for blogs and for talk radio. In our evaluations of what is true and what is not, we account for context.
To see how this relates to Internet dishonesty, consider a study by Holtjona Galanxhi and Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The two researchers had participants, in pairs, interact with each other through two different methods of Internet communication. Some pairs conversed via a simple, text-based instant-messaging program. Other pairs conversed through a program that used avatars, graphic representations of the participants. These anthropomorphic avatars might resemble the participants or they might not; that was left up to the participants.
In my study of Internet deception, I instructed the participants simply to get to know each other; I then reviewed the records of their conversations with them to identify the lies they'd spontaneously told. Galanxhi and Nah were more direct in their instructions: they told some of the participants to lie. They were curious to see how using the different forms of Internet communication—text-based chat or avatar-based chat—might affect the responses of the participants as they tried to deceive their partners. What Galanxhi and Nah found has important implications for an understanding of online deception generally.
Participants in Galanxhi and Nah's study reported feeling anxiety when they lied to their partners via the text-based chat. It seems that even being physically hidden did not completely salve the participants' unease about engaging in deceit. What is surprising, though, is that the participants who lied using the avatar-based program did not feel this same anxiety. Participants who employed a graphic representation of themselves were calmer when they lied—as calm, in fact, as participants in a control group who were instructed to use the avatar program to engage in honest communication. Somehow, the deceit came more naturally to those using an avatar.
We've examined online deception in the context of deindividuation, noting how the physical and psychological detachment of computer-driven communication can lead to a loosening of the strictures against dishonesty. Yet something more than deindividuation seems to be at work in Galanxhi and Nah's study. As we consider their results, one other finding from their study bears particular emphasis: participants instructed to lie were more likely to select an avatar that did not resemble them than those in the control sample who were instructed to be honest. In other words, those who intended to lie adopted a kind of digital mask.
On the surface, it seems that this finding can be wholly explained by the concept of deindividuation. If communicating with instant messages provides one level of psychological remove, donning graphic camouflage would likely provide another. Hence, it shouldn't be surprising that participants in Galanxhi and Nah's study who lied using an avatar were not very nervous.
Yet recall our earlier discussion about the experience of reading an article in the _Wall Street Journal_ or the _National Enquirer._ As we noted, the context for the information we receive matters a great deal in how we evaluate it. We consider some sources reliable; others, a forum for unsubstantiated rumor and gossip. It's important to remember that workers at the Journals and Enquirers of the world make these distinctions, too. What would pass as a factual basis for reporting at the _Enquirer_ would be laughable at the _Journal._
The notion of varying standards for reporting is not exclusively applicable to journalism. And when we present ourselves online—offer names and biographical details, voice opinions and sentiments, present images that ostensibly have some relation to how we look—the standard we use may be much more _National Enquirer_ than _Wall Street Journal_. In other words, we don't hold ourselves to a high standard of honesty online because, well, _we're online_. And online, as in the pages of the _National Enquirer_ , the truth is mutable, the facts are unreliable, and everybody knows it.
My name for this conception of online deceit is _eHonesty._ The term refers to the idea that we apply a different standard for the truth when we're communicating using a computer than we do when we're in a boardroom or having dinner with friends or in any other real-world situation. In real life, we have one standard of honesty. In the digital world, we follow the weaker standard of eHonesty.
In previous chapters of _The Liar in Your Life_ , we've discussed the power of social norms. These are the unwritten rules that govern behavior in a society. In China, for instance, if you don't hand someone a business card with two hands, you are breaking an important rule of etiquette. There is no law against handing over a business card with one hand, but social norms stand against such behavior. Social norms are, of course, an important element of the reasons why people do (or do not) lie. It isn't illegal to cheat on a girlfriend or to invent an excuse to avoid helping a sibling move, but social norms encourage a certain level of honesty in our actions.
Online, though, the social norms are very different. Picking a new name (or online "handle," to employ some modest insider lingo) is the first thing one does in nearly every new online activity, be it creating an e-mail address or launching a blog or joining a forum. Occasionally online users stick to a firstname.lastname formulation, but very often they do not. Indeed, the mutability of identity in the digital realm is part of its appeal. We _could_ set up a firstname.lastname handle, but what would be the fun in that? The freedom to be another person online—or, at least, to present the person we are in a new way—can be thrilling. For some users, identity play is the entire purpose of going online in the first place.
There is nothing wrong, really, with identity play, with embracing the opportunity digital media afford to take on a new name, a new biography, even a new gender or race. The issue is that such behavior helps establish a social norm more tolerant of deception. The more permissive standard of eHonesty may inevitably lead to incidents in which lies spill over from the realm of the accepted to the realm of the hurtful and condemned.
Adam Joinson and Beth Dietz-Uhler discuss in their case study on the invention of Nowheremom this balance between online lies that are tolerated and those that are scorned. When DF revealed to the AnandTech forums that he had invented Nowheremom, the reaction was not as homogeneous as one might imagine. Many AnandTech users expressed outrage at what DF had done, shocked by what they saw as his callous emotional manipulation. Others, though, saw DF's behavior as consistent with what always occurs online. Joinson and Dietz-Uhler quote one user as writing, "This is the net and lots of people use it to escape from their jobs or life for a second." They quote another as telling DF, "I don't blame you at all for the part about creating Nowheremom, it's so easy and tempting to do something of that sort especially in a forum like this one where so much kidding goes on." DF's actions, then, as Joinson and Dietz-Uhler point out, were to an extent seen as consistent with online social norms. Yet the genuine emotional distress DF caused clearly was regarded as a violation of these norms, as the angry comments of many Anand-Tech users reflect.
The problem, it seems, is that while some deception is generally accepted online, other acts of deceit are generally condemned. There are no clear boundaries between harmless online identity play and hurtful manipulation. As the split in the AnandTech forum over DF's actions shows, too, these boundaries exist in different places for different people. What is par for the digital course for one user is emotional cruelty to another. In some ways, this situation parallels the one in our off-line lives. Some level of deceit is part of everyone's daily life, but in some areas we prefer honesty—though no one can say with certainty how the divisions should be made.
These issues are often all the more intense online, though, both because deceit is so much easier to perpetrate and because the online world is so new. The social norms of the Internet are only decades old, at most. Avatar-based communication is even younger. When compared with one old-fashioned way humans communicate—we've been talking face-to-face for tens of thousands of years—it's not hard to see why online social norms can sometimes be ambiguous. To a large extent, they are still being created. It may take generations of DFs and Nowheremoms and Essjays and Kaycee Swensons before the rules of online deception are clear. And it's worth noting, again, that even after all this time, off-line standards of deceit are often contradictory (hence this book).
Another element of the digital dishonesty puzzle is that the Internet does not exist in a vacuum. Our off-line and online lives intersect with increasing frequency. When it comes to deceit, then, this raises a crucial question: Do we apply off-line standards of honesty or online standards of eHonesty? As many prominent incidents of Internet deception have shown, there may not be a right answer, but it's certainly possible to get this question wrong.
# **The CEO and the Sock Puppet**
During the early 2000s, the user posting on the Yahoo message boards under the name Rahodeb was known as a staunch defender of the organic grocery store chain Whole Foods. Rahodeb would promote Whole Foods' financial prospects and disparage the company's major rival, Wild Oats. He had particular praise for Whole Foods' CEO, John Mackey, once writing: "I like Mackey's haircut. I think he looks cute!" Between 1999 and 2006, Rahodeb made well over a thousands posts.
Then, in 2007, a footnote in a legal filing by the Federal Trade Commission revealed something curious. Rahodeb was not just a fan of Whole Foods and its CEO, John Mackey. Rahodeb _was_ John Mackey. For years, the Fortune 500 CEO had hidden his identity to insert his thoughts into the digital discussions of his company.
Mackey's actions were not unique. His use of an online alias to promote a company he ran is an example of what's known as "sock-puppeting." Sock-puppeting can involve assuming a digital disguise to support any sort of company or cause or product. The key element is an insider, like Mackey, voicing his or her opinions through an anonymous Internet "puppet." Recent years have seen numerous prominent cases of sock-puppeting: by CEOs praising their own companies, by congressional staff members praising their own bosses, by journalists praising their own stories. Often, the puppeteers' excuse is similar to the one Mackey offered for the Rahodeb incident (Rahodeb is an anagram of Deborah, the name of Mackey's wife.) He explained, "I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it."
CEOs of major companies don't have many opportunities to speak off-the-cuff. Even when they want us to think they're speaking off-the-cuff, what they're saying has usually been filtered through a public relations staff or, worse, vetted by lawyers. Given the media and shareholder scrutiny that accompanies a CEO's comments, it's not hard to imagine that for them, yes, anonymously unloading on an Internet site probably would be a lot of fun. The fun stops, of course, when the deceit is uncovered. Then the consequences can range from embarrassment to career implosion. For example, a staffer for a Republican congressman lost his job when it was revealed that he had been acting as a digital agent provocateur on Democratic Web sites.
Sock-puppeting provides a good example of the conflict between eHonesty and conventional off-line standards for conduct. By the rules of eHonesty, there was nothing wrong with Mackey hiding his identity in order to post messages on a public forum. Such messages are almost always posted anonymously. Yet his off-line identity (that is, his _real_ identity) as CEO of Whole Foods demanded that his public comments on his own company, if not those about his haircut, be attributable to him. The online rules say Mackey can hide his identity. The off-line rules say Mackey is accountable for what he says about his business.
Similar contradictions have to be negotiated in Internet environments such as Second Life. This online, multiplayer game allows users to create three-dimensional avatars who populate a world eerily similar (in some ways, at least) to our own. Avatars have jobs, earn money, make friends, go to parties—in short, engage in many of the same activities we do off-line. Avatars can also get married and have sex. This raises some predictably thorny issues with regard to what is and is not permissible within a marriage. For instance, to what degree is cybersex really sex? Can digital infidelity be grounds for an off-line breakup?
The answers to such questions quite simply don't exist yet. The Internet is both the frontier of technology and the frontier of a new kind of social interaction. Standards for honesty will emerge only as individuals play out scenarios along the online/ off-line divide again and again and again.
Until Internet culture stabilizes, if such an event is even possible, the best course of action is to proceed with doubled skepticism about what we read and who we know online. We may be willing to live with the general principles of eHonesty, accepting false names and deceptive biographical details. But there is no filter for the lie that would harm us or hurt us. We have to raise our own firewalls to protect our digital trust.
# CONCLUSION
# Living with Lies
Think about the last time you were lied to.
This was the proposition with which we began this book, and it seems useful to revisit it now. Before reading _The Liar in Your Life_ , you probably thought of the last lie you heard in the context of some nefarious ex, some customer service representative who misled you, some deliveryman who promised a speedy delivery that simply never arrived. By this point, though, it should be clear that the liars in our lives aren't just the unsavory characters we're unlucky enough to encounter every now and again. The truth is that there is no one who is strictly, exclusively honest with us, and the lies we hear are as common as the interactions we have on a daily basis.
To put it simply, the liars in our lives are _everyone_ in our lives.
The notion that deception is rare, something that stands out in our minds because it is so unpleasant, is actually a comforting one. It reassures us that the lies we encounter are to some degree compartmentalized. Yet the true extent of our relationship with deceit can be found simply by picturing our lives without it. Imagine turning on the television and seeing a celebrity announce, "I was paid a lot of money to appear in this commercial." Imagine if a job applicant admitted, as you were interviewing her, "I don't really have the skills to do this job, but I want you to hire me anyway." Or imagine being told by your spouse, "Your new hair color makes you look absolutely ridiculous." Regardless of whether this honesty might be refreshing, it would certainly be wholly unfamiliar.
The fact is that lies are woven into our most intimate relationships and our most casual ones; they are essential to how we think of ourselves and how we present ourselves to others; they play a role in how we elect our leaders and how we make our money. Dishonesty is everywhere in modern life. And there is little reason to think this will change any time soon.
The challenge for us is how we deal with deception. We may have no choice as to whether or not we encounter lies. But there are certainly attitudes and tools we can adopt to help us function more healthily, not to mention more honestly, as we navigate the deception we face every day.
# **Understanding Why People Lie to Us**
Every lie entails some degree of harm and victimization. Granted, some lies exact a steeper cost, be it emotional or tangible, than others. But even the smallest act of deceit necessarily means manipulating the opinions or intentions of another person. Lying, to put it plainly, just isn't very nice.
Perhaps for this reason, it's tempting to idealize a world of total honesty. We can imagine an alternate reality in which politicians would always tell us exactly what they would do if elected, we would always get accurate-to-the-penny estimates on repair work, and if a date promised to call, he or she would call. We could trust everyone we met, they could be confident in trusting us, and this mutual trust would be the foundation for fuller, more intimate relationships.
While this scenario is undoubtedly appealing, it reflects a misunderstanding as to why people deviate from the truth in the first place. Again, lying isn't very nice. But we shouldn't assume that the reason most people tell lies is that _they_ are not very nice, either.
To understand better what motivates a good deal of deception, let's consider what a purely honest society might actually look like. Brad Blanton, a Virginia psychotherapist, is the founder of a movement known as Radical Honesty. According to the tenets of Radical Honesty, one should never, under any circumstances, lie in a personal relationship, nor accept the lies of others. Instead, adherents to Radical Honesty are taught to express every underlying thought and emotion, even anger, resentment, and outright loathing.
While proponents of Radical Honesty do not argue that people should go out of their way to be confrontational, they do suggest that total honesty is the precursor of psychological health and happiness. According to Radical Honesty, if someone asks you how you like their new spouse and you find her obnoxious and unattractive, you should say so. If a friend is worried that his troubled child might not be okay, you have no right to reassure him unless you really think the child will be okay. Radical Honesty—or, for that matter, any system of total honesty—does not allow for any tailoring of opinion, any well-intentioned shadings of the truth. If the truth is brutal, you need to be brutal, too.
Radical Honesty pokes holes in our idealization of total honesty. No, lying is not very nice. But the _truth_ is not necessarily very nice, either. Would we really want to live in a society in which every foible, every flaw, every bad haircut, and every needless purchase would be made nakedly apparent to us? Just as importantly, would we want the responsibility of making such information apparent to our closest friends and family members? And are we always sufficiently in touch with our true feelings to ensure that we can always be truthful, even if we wished to be honest all the time?
For most of us, the answer to such questions is a firm no. A key element of dealing with lies is understanding that a great deal of deception is well-intentioned. People lie to us to protect our feelings. They lie to us out of loyalty to the bonds we share with them. And very often, they lie to us because they realize that we actually want to be lied to.
This is not to suggest that we should be passive in seeking the truth. Nor should we be unthinking in telling well-intentioned lies to others. But coping with deceit means understanding deceit, both how it occurs and why it occurs. The liars in our lives might be everyone we know. Crucially, however, this does not mean that everyone we know is mean-spirited or disreputable or even necessarily untrustworthy. It may be sincere affection that leads other people to tell us lies.
In other cases, the emotional stakes behind a lie can be very low. Some lies serve merely to keep a conversation moving, such as when a colleague falsely tells you she has heard of the restaurant you ate at, simply to keep your anecdote moving forward. Other deception has much more to do with the teller than the recipient of the lie. Lying can be an almost spontaneous response to what psychologists call an upward comparison, a situation in which an individual feels compared to someone smarter, or prettier, or just plain better by whatever the criterion might be. In such circumstances many people turn to deceit, offering false bravado as an automatic, sometimes even nearly subconscious defense to their threatened sense of self-worth. Finally, a good deal of lying occurs in the normal course of self-presentation, the process whereby we select which of our reactions and impulses to express to other people. Socially sensitive people will often hide, say, their loathing of a boss at her birthday celebration because basic civility, not to mention professional considerations, weighs against fully honest expression.
To deal with dishonesty we need to recognize that its ubiquity is tied less to society's lapsed morals and instead has more to do with the great _utility_ of deceit. Where honesty would interrupt a conversation, fray a relationship, or make a social situation uncomfortable, deception (sometimes, at least) can help a conversation continue naturally, keep a relationship warm, and relax a social situation.
Again, though, while it's important to understand the more benign uses of deception, we shouldn't become convinced of deception's ultimate harmlessness. Even when lying is convenient, even when it is kinder than the truth, it can exact a toll. Social psychologist Bella DePaulo, who has carried out extensive research on deception, has identified in her work the "twinge of distress" lying can cause. This occurs not necessarily for the target of the lie, who might not notice the deception. Rather, the person who experiences the twinge is the _teller_ of the lie. Putting one over on a friend, on a loved one, even on a new acquaintance can make the liar feel at least somewhat guilty, at least to some degree less connected to the person he or she deceives. DePaulo's twinge of distress means that liars can be victims of deceit as much as those they target.
Examining protective or well-intentioned lies from the perspective of the person they fool reveals another of their hazards. It might preserve our self-esteem to be told, falsely, that our suit is flattering when it isn't, that our renovated kitchen looks great when it doesn't. But at some point, we may want to know the truth that is apparent to the rest of the world. The compassion that prompts friends, for instance, to let us persist in the idea that we have real singing talent doesn't do us much good when we are getting booed off stage during the local open-mic night. Yet we can't easily signal to others the truths we want to know and the truths from which we want to be shielded. Indeed, this distinction may not even be clear to us.
Hence, it remains important, for practical as well as ethical reasons, to be vigilant in seeking out the truth. Lying may serve many functions, but so too does recognizing honesty. In many ways, when we try to sort out the truth from lies, the deck is stacked against us. Nonetheless, there are tactics we can employ to make ourselves better equipped to grapple with lies.
# **Defensive Driving in Our Social Lives:
Active Honesty Assessment**
Most adults in the United States know how to drive. But there are also those special few among us who describe themselves as _defensive drivers._ These drivers are masters of more than just the rules of the road. Like the rest of us, they follow the speed limit and signal their turns. But they take their mastery of driving a step further. They employ tactics and watch for cues that make them even less likely than an ordinary driver to be caught up in an accident. They gauge the distance between their car and the car ahead so that even if it stops suddenly, they will have time to break. They decelerate with practiced slowness at stop signs. They look left, right, then left again before entering an intersection. Of course, even defensive drivers have accidents. There are some things even the savviest drivers can't control. But defensive drivers take all the extra precautions they can to keep themselves, and their fellow motorists, safe.
People are not very good at detecting lies. Study after study has shown that the average person has barely a 50 percent chance of telling if a statement is true or false. Even such trained professionals as FBI agents and police officers typically don't perform any better than the rest of us. Further, there are no universal clues that tip a liar's hand. If a person averts his gaze or fidgets in his seat, he might be lying, or he might be nervous, or he might have to use the bathroom. There is just no reliable connection between behavior and deception.
In other words, it is not easy to tell when we are being lied to. Even beyond what's described above, there are numerous other components of the Liar's Advantage, the edge that liars have in fooling us. We might be able to mitigate some of these factors, but ultimately it's impossible to level the lying playing field between ourselves and those who seek to fool us. The fact of the matter is, sooner or later someone is going to successfully deceive us.
Yet just as with defensive drivers who know that, while they might not be able to escape every accident, they can at least minimize their risk of accidents, so too can we, while still being susceptible to lies, minimize the Liar's Advantage and make ourselves harder (if not necessarily hard) to fool. There are tactics we can employ and attitudes we can adopt that will make lying to us more difficult—less likely to be attempted and, if attempted, less likely to succeed. I call this posture toward deceit Active Honesty Assessment, or AHA—or, more familiarly, Aha!, the cry that celebrates discovered truth. We are not destined to be the victim of every lie and liar. By employing Active Honesty Assessment, we have the power to lessen the deception we live with.
The first essential piece of Active Honesty Assessment is one we're already familiar with. To determine when someone is lying, we need to know _why_ people usually lie. Conventional wisdom holds that people lie when they want to cheat us out of money or hide something they've done. The reality of the motivations behind deceit is, again, far more complex. Lies can, and do, occur in nearly every social situation, serving to calm insecurities, move a conversation along, follow rules of tact, and so forth.
Knowing that lies commonly occur in so many contexts means that we need to be consistently vigilant in searching for them. We can't, for example, let down our guard in conversations in which there is nothing tangible or important at stake. Lies aren't limited to negotiations or arguments about money, nor to serious conversations about what someone might or might not have done. Even the most mundane interactions usually contain lies. Admittedly, some lies really may not be worth ferreting out. Is it really important, for example, to determine that our friend in the office actually doesn't remember the guy from accounting who got fired the year before? Just as some conversations contain only trivial content, so too do some falsehoods. Yet the comparison between defensive driving and Active Honesty Assessment is again useful. It may seem tedious to refrain from passing on the right in certain situations. But the idea of defensive driving and the idea of AHA both involve a commitment to certain practices that, while at times seemingly unnecessary, in the long run reduce the likelihood of our falling victim to accidents and lies, respectively.
Related to this tactic of constant vigilance in looking out for lies is another important element of AHA. The Liar's Advantage has a range of components. One of its most stubborn is the fact that all of us operate with the cognitive rule of thumb known as the truth bias. The truth bias means that we don't judge the information we receive objectively. Instead, we assume that what we hear or read or see is true. The benefit of the truth bias is that it makes our cognitive workings more efficient: we don't spend our mental energy critiquing new information; instead, we employ our brains in other ways. The downside of the truth bias, of course, is that sometimes we _should_ critique what we hear, because very often people lie to us.
The truth bias, though, is not something we can turn on or off. It is an unconscious element of how we think. In a sense, our default prejudice is toward belief, and it is not a prejudice we can rid ourselves of. The best way to counteract the truth bias is to employ what can be thought of as a _falsehood bias._ This does not mean that you should assume that everything you are told is a lie. Instead, maintain an awareness that everything you are told _could_ be a lie. Rather than just passively trusting, try to enact a process of verification. This active scrutiny will help you counteract the workings of the truth bias.
Again, though, even if you do your best to assess whether a statement is true or false, research suggests that you won't necessarily have much success. It is just very hard to tell when someone is lying, particularly with regard to a person you don't know well. And even if you can identify a particular tic or clue to an individual's deceit, if that individual learns of that tic, it will likely disappear quickly, or even be used against you.
Rather than focusing, then, on determining if information you receive is a lie based on the mannerisms of the person who offers it, employ other, more reliable forms of verification. The falsehood bias suggests that we should independently verify everything we are told. After all, if we assume that what we hear could be a lie, shouldn't we try to find out for certain? Naturally, there are practical limits to this approach. We have neither the time nor the cognitive capacity to research the veracity of every slice of information. Doing so would not even be the equivalent in defensive driving of sticking to the slow lane. It would be the equivalent of never starting your car. We may worry about deception, but we should not allow this worry to cripple our social interactions past the point of recognition.
A useful rule of thumb is this: If we care enough about a piece information to verify it, then verify it. If we don't, then, well, don't. It's possible that the man who sells us our morning cup of coffee might be lying when he says it's his wife's birthday, but really, who cares? On the other hand, if we hear a rumor that affects our working life or a surprising detail about a presidential candidate's past, it's probably worth finding out for ourselves—as best we can—if the story is true.
A key to AHA is becoming more comfortable with uncertainty. If we want to face the ubiquity of deception in modern life, we simply have to stop believing, without consideration, everything we hear. To put it another way, we have to accustom our palates to the proverbial grain of salt.
AHA goes beyond how we assess information from others, though. It also involves changing our own relationship to lies. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the Liar's Advantage is that there are many times when we not only don't notice lies but we don't even want to notice them. We are frequently all too susceptible to the reassuring lie, the false compliment. When we ask a colleague how our presentation went, when we ask our spouse how we look in the morning, it's not necessarily the truth we are seeking. It can be emotional comfort; it can be a balm for our imperiled ego. Regardless of the specifics, in such situations lies are something we actually embrace. The liar wants to fool us, and we want to be fooled.
Obviously, in order to deal with daily deception, we need to end our reliance on reassuring falsehoods. Or if not end it, then at least be aware of it. For all of us, there are situations in which what we want is not an objective evaluation but, rather, the support of friends or loved ones. We need to make a distinction in our minds as to which category our ostensibly truth-seeking behavior falls. The best course may be to find the support all of us need from time to time in an honest way. This will spare us exposure to lies, and will spare those we care about having to deceive us.
There is no sure way to control whether or not someone lies to us. But we can do our best to make clear the times when we truly desire to hear the truth, painful though it may be. Simple phrases like "I won't be offended if you don't like this" or "It's important to me that I look good today, so please tell the truth" can be very effective ways of laying the groundwork for honesty. We also need to be aware that, even despite these phrases, sometimes people in our lives will spare themselves the cognitive effort and emotional risk the truth demands and just give us an offhand lie. Again, the key is to employ Active Honesty Assessment. Be sensitive to the times when others might be tempted to spare your feelings—or their own—via deceit.
As I mentioned earlier, even the most defensive drivers can get in car wrecks. And even the most careful and consistent application of AHA won't stop us from being deceived. Unfortunately, AHA can't make us immune to the kinds of lies we most fear: the lies that betray us, the lies that break our hearts and take advantage of our trust. It's not inevitable that we will be hurt in this way. But if we are, it's worth asking: If we can't escape lies, can we at least recover from them?
# **Learning to Trust Again**
There is probably no way to overstate the emotional and psychological pain that accompanies a major violation of trust. Couples therapists have increasingly come to understand that the reaction to major betrayals of trust such as infidelity is often similar in degree to the psychological pain that follows war traumas, the death of a partner, or rape. And perhaps the worst consequence is that this pain is not limited to the context of the particular lie or lies. We often speak of "shattered" or "broken" trust. This language suggests something that anyone who has suffered significant betrayal knows well: the damage of a lie impairs our ability to trust anyone, in just about any context. It's as if a lie breaks our internal trust mechanism.
Hence, recovering from a lie is not just a matter of filing a police report or challenging a credit card charge, of going through with a divorce or explaining to the children why Mommy or Daddy has moved out. These are necessary, painful steps, but beyond the practical requirements of dealing with a lie, recovering means recovering our ability to trust. And this, unfortunately, is often the hardest step.
One key to regaining the ability to trust involves coming to a better understanding of what trust really represents. We too often think of trust as a kind of inner divining rod, pointing us toward more honest people and more honest relationships. Then, when we are betrayed, we spend far too much mental and emotional energy berating ourselves for our "flawed" sense of who is trustworthy. But trust does not lead us to honest people—it is, rather, the faith we have in other people's honesty. We need to accept that we _can't_ know who is telling us the truth. Trust is the act of believing in other people despite this knowledge.
If we think of trust as a form of faith, the challenges toward restoring it become clearer. The issue is not finding someone who can convince us (again) that they would never lie to us. Rather, it is taking the leap to believe that there is anyone out there who would not lie to us in a significant way.
Taking this leap after we have been duped or wronged requires a lot of courage. Whereas before a major betrayal trust might have been a visceral, natural impulse, we may find that following such betrayal, trust is more of a conscious choice. But if the later acts of trust are less romantic, they are also by definition more realistic. We may not be able to trust like a child anymore—but once we enter adulthood, we probably shouldn't anyway.
For couples who have worked through, or are trying to work through, the pain of infidelity, the restored trust has a very specific object. The wronged party has to find a way to believe in, and simply believe, his or her partner. Trust is a necessary part of any healthy relationship. But it may be unwise for couples to try to trust each other "the way they did before." For one thing, this is often impossible. More importantly, though, _renewed_ trust—trust that is the result of a choice and effort as opposed to an impulse—can in some ways be stronger than the former variety. If both partners understand that trust is not permanent, that it comes from labor and commitment, they might very well value this trust more than they did their previous version. Thus it is possible, in some cases, for betrayal to acutally strengthen a relationship.
For those who choose to continue their post-betrayal life without their betrayer, the challenges of restoring trust are somewhat different. These individuals don't need to trust someone else _again_ —they need to be able to offer trust in the first place. For them, there is no apologetic partner to ease this process. They must find a way to make the leap of trust on their own. The path of each individual toward restored trust is very different. Perhaps even the leap metaphor itself is misleading. Sometimes, trust is restored slowly, incrementally—day by day, perhaps even truth by truth. For others, it _can_ be a leap: a decision to risk betrayal in the name of a fully engaged relationship.
The essential thing to realize is that betrayal is not a life sentence. Trust can be restored, with time and effort. This effort may be formal, inculding therapy or marital counseling, or informal and idiosynchratic. But no one should begin the process of repairing their ability to trust feeling that the exercise is futile. Our faith in other people may at times seem fragile—but it has also proved resilient.
The recovery from betrayal and the preventative tactics of AHA both represent only one side of the coin of dealing with deception. There is another, more sensitive side to this coin, as well. We not only encounter lies—we _tell_ lies. If we want to fully address the liars in our lives, we need to acknowledge the one staring at us in the mirror.
# **Being Honest About Being Honest**
There's a dirty secret I've been trying to avoid emphasizing in this book, but it's about time we faced it. All of us are liars. Yes, that means you. And yes, it means me, too. Our lies may not be significant or intentionally hurtful, but all of us, even the most dedicated practitioners of Radical Honesty, indulge in deceit to some degree.
In many ways, this is socially appropriate. As we know, deception forms a common part of ordinary social interactions. It is embedded in the idea of tact and helps protect other people from upsetting truths. If we didn't lie, we would probably be considered socially awkward, not to mention something of jerk.
On the other hand, we can't forget the potential damage to relationships that lies can create, the twinge of regret that comes from even the most minor deception, or simply the guilt that can come from lying. And, quite apart from the social utility of lying, there is the moral value of truthfulness that we teach our children and about which philosophers have argued for centuries.
Moreover, it's impossible to anticipate the consequences a lie can have, even the best-intentioned one. We may be lying for good-hearted reasons when we tell a friend he's an excellent dancer. When he humiliates himself at the office holiday party, though, we are culpable.
We need to strike a balance when we seek to reduce the deception we perpetrate. Though extremes may be tempting, they are best avoided. We can't maintain anything like a normally functioning relationship with other people if we lie to them whenever it is convenient or rub a harsh truth in their faces simply because we have decided never to lie.
The principles of AHA encourage attention to when others might be lying to us. Perhaps we ought to apply a parallel strategy to our own discourse. Too often, lying is something we do automatically, unthinkingly. When a friend asks how we're doing, we offer the same, essentially automated response, regardless of our mood: "I'm great." A coworker asks if she should be worried about her job, and rather than explain the latest complications of office politics, we answer in a way that saves us time and falsely reassures her: "Nah, you're okay."
Though we seem to have built its neglect into our society, the truth has value. The surest way to respect that value is not through an obsessive scrutiny of every single thing we hear but, rather, through a careful scrutiny of every single thing we _say._ Again, this does not mean Radical Honesty. It does mean choosing our lies as carefully as we choose the moments when we are fully, unreservedly honest.
Frequently, we may tell ourselves we are lying to protect the feelings of another person. As in the example of the worried coworker, though, this protection cuts both ways. What saves the target of the lie emotional pain just about always saves its teller social inconvenience. In other words, there is very often a selfish aspect to the lies we tell. If we're going to use altruism as an excuse for manipulation (and, again, that's what lying is), it seems appropriate that we be sure that altruism, and not its opposite, really is the motive.
We need lies—at least, for the foreseeable future. We can't rebuild society using a purely honest model (and probably wouldn't want to). But rebuilding society using a _more_ honest model can begin with a commitment of each individual to do something very simple: try to lie less. The truth can be inconvenient; it can be awkward and even hurtful. But there is also an undeniable satisfaction to telling the truth, not to mention to hearing it. Further, the truth has practical benefits. We and those around us can judge our opinions and our behaviors not by a convenient (or nefarious) fiction but by the clear light of fact.
Honesty may not be a perfect, universally applicable policy—but it is still the _best_ policy.
# Acknowledgments
The research I describe in this book would not have been possible without the hard work, ideas, ingenuity, and intelligence of a group of superb students with whom I've been lucky enough to work over the last three decades. They include John Blanchette, Erik Coats, Richard Chesley, Robert Custrini, Joel Feinman, James Forrest, Naomi Goldstein, Benjamin Happ, Daniel Hrubes, Sarah Levine, Pierre Philippot, Christopher Poirier, Darren Spielman, James Tyler, Brent Weiss, John White, and Mattitiyahu Zimbler. I thank each of them for going way beyond the call of duty and turning work into play.
I'd also like to thank my colleagues in the field of psychology who have, with brilliance and great insight, sought to understand why people lie, and who have shared their insights in numerous articles, books, and e-mails. I'm thankful, as well, to my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who have shared stories of personal deception with me. Although I have disguised your identities within the pages of this book—thank me later—your personal stores have brought to life the topic of lying.
I've also been the beneficiary of advice, suggestions, and intellectual stimulation from many colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, most of all my office neighbors (past and present) on the sixth floor of Tobin Hall. These include Icek Aizen, Jim Averill, Nilanjan Dasgupta, Sy Epstein, Susan Fiske, Linda Isbell, George Levinger, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, Paula Pietromonaco, and Ervin Staub. I'm enormously grateful to Janet Rifkin, who, despite luring me away from Tobin, provided support and encouragement and gave me the opportunity to write this book. I could not have asked for better colleagues or friends.
Jonathan Karp, my editor at Twelve, offered thoughtful and insightful feedback, and his constant flow of ideas was a source of great inspiration. He is not only a tremendous editor but a very smart and funny guy. And my fine agent, Gillian Mac-Kenzie, provided encouragement, direction, and just the right amount of prodding. Her finely tuned sense of what works and what doesn't helped turn a vague, unformed idea into a book.
My editorial assistants, Tolley Jones and John Graiff, provided the research support that made it possible for me to complete this book, tracking down obscure articles and statistics. I am grateful for their unflagging enthusiasm in the face of unreasonable demands.
Several individuals taught me about good writing, and their tutelage remains reflected in every word of this book. I'm grateful to Rhona Robbin and Judith Kromm, my all-time favorite developmental editors. Furthermore, I'm thankful to Joshua Feldman, whose brilliant writing skills continue to astonish me and who has taught me so much about the craft and art of fine writing. Their fingerprints can be found on every page of this book.
Finally, my wife, Katherine Vorwerk, deserves the ultimate thanks. Her love, encouragement, and patience mean everything to me, and she knows that I'm not lying when I say that.
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**CHAPTER 1. Everyday Inventions of Everyday Life**
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**CHAPTER 2. The Liar's Advantage**
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**CHAPTER 3. Deception 101: How Children Learn to Lie**
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**CHAPTER 4. The Evolution of Deceit: Are We Born to Lie?**
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**CHAPTER 5. Broken Trust: Loving a Liar**
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**CHAPTER 6. Self-Deception: The Lies We Tell Ourselves**
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Kruger J., and D. Dunning. 1999. "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology_ 77: 1121–34.
Larrabee, G. J. 1998. "How We Deceive Ourselves and Others." _PsycCRITIQUES_ 43: 439.
Mar, R. A., C. G. DeYoung, D. M. Higgins, and J. B. Peterson. 2006. "Self-Liking and Self-Competence Separate Self-Evaluation from Self-Deception: Associations with Personality, Ability, and Achievement." _Journal of Personality_ 74: 1047–78.
Rosenthal, R. J. 1986. "The Pathological Gambler's System for Self-deception." _Journal of Gambling Behavior_ 2: 108–20.
Sackeim, H. A., and R. C. Gur. 1979. "Self-deception, Other-deception, and Self-reported Psychopathology." _Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology_ 47: 213–15.
Safer, M.A., and D. J. Keuler. 2002. "Individual Differences in Misremembering Pre-psychotherapy Distress: Personality and Memory Distortion." _Emotion_ 2: 162–78.
Sigmon, S. T., and C. R. Snyder. 1993. "Looking at Oneself in a Rose-colored Mirror: The Role of Excuses in the Negotiation of a Personal Reality." In _Deception and Lying in Everyday Life,_ ed. M. Lewis and C. Saarni, pp. 271–86. New York: Guilford Press.
Solomon, R. C. 1993. "What a Tangled Web: Deception and Self-deception in Philosophy." In _Lying and Deception in Everyday Life_ , ed. M. Lewis and C. Saarni, pp. 30–58. New York: Guilford Press.
Tavris, C., and E. Aronson. 2007. _Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, Hurtful Acts._ Orlando: Harcourt.
Tigner, J. A. 1996. "A Social Conception of Self-deception." _Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences_ 57(2-A): 0719.
Tyler, J. M., and R. S. Feldman. 2005. "Deflecting Threat to One's Image: Dissembling Personal Information as a Self-presentation Strategy." _Basic and Applied Social Psychology_ 27: 371–78.
Vrij, A., K. Edward, and R. Bull. 2001. "People's Insight into Their Own Behaviour and Speech Content While Lying." _British Journal of Psychology,_ 92: 373–89.
**CHAPTER 7. Cosmetic Deceit: Lies to Make Us Seem Richer, Smarter, Better**
Callander, S., and S. Wilkie. 2007. "Lies, Damned Lies, and Political Campaigns." _Games and Economic Behavior_ 60: 262–86.
Davey, M. 2008. "Drug Arrests Were Real; the Badge was Fake." _New York Times_. July 1. A1.
de Bruin, G. P., and H. Rudnick. 2007. "Examining the Cheats: The Role of Conscientiousness and Excitement Seeking in Academic Dishonesty." _South African Journal of Psychology_ 37: 153–64.
DePaulo, B. M., J. A. Epstein, and M. M. Wyer. 1993. "Sex Differences in Lying: How Women and Men Deal with the Dilemma of Deceit." _In Lying and Deception in Everyday Life,_ ed. M. Lewis and C. Saarni, pp. 126–47. New York: Guilford Press.
Ennis, E., A. Vrij, and C. Chance. 2008. "Individual Differences and Lying in Everyday Life. _Journal of Social and Personal Relationships_ 25: 105–18.
Goldman, V. 2007. "Résumés: The Gatekeepers' Gate. _New York Times._ July 29. 4A, p. 4.
Herzog,D. 2006. _Cunning_. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hodgin, H. S., E. Liebeskind, and W. Schwartz. 1996. "Getting Out of Hot Water: Facework in Social Predicaments." _Journal of Personality and Social Psychology_ 71: 300–14.
Hussain, M. S., and E. Langer. 2003. "A Cost of Pretending." _Journal of Adult Development_ 10: 261–70.
Levenson, M. 2007. "Romney Never Saw Father on King March." _Boston Globe_. December 21. A1.
Muscatine, L., and M. Verveer. 2008. "Straight Shooting from Tuzla." _New York Times._ April 1. A23.
Rowatt, W. C., M. R. Cunningham, and P. B. Druen. 1998. "Deception to Get a Date." _Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin_ 24: 1228–42.
———. 1999. "Lying to Get a Date: The Effect of Facial Physical Attractiveness on the Willingness to Deceive Prospective Dating Partners." _Journal of Social and Personal Relationships_ 16: 211–25.
Seiter, J. S., J. Bruschke, and C. Bai. 2002. "The Acceptability of Deception as a Function of Perceivers' Culture, Deceiver's Intention, and Deceiver-Deceived Relationship." _Western Journal of Communication_ 66: 158–80.
Winstein, K. J., and D. Golden. 2007. "MIT Admissions Dean Lied on Résumé in 1979, Quits." _Wall Street Journal._ April 27. B1.
Wortham, S., and M. Locher. 1999. "Embedded Metapragmatic and Lying Politicians." _Language & Communication_ 19: 109–25.
**CHAPTER 8. Lies with Intent: Deceit to Trick or Cheat**
Burrough, B. 2007. "Mad About the Boys." _Vanity Fair_. November. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from <http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2007/11/pearlman200711>.
Crichton,R. 1960. _The Great Imposter._ New York: Random House.
Crosbie, J. S. 1975. _The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick: The Most Notorious Woman of Her Age._ Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
De Bruin, G. P., and H. Rudnick. 2007. "Examining the Cheats: The Role of Conscientiousness and Excitement Seeking in Academic Dishonesty." _Sabinet_ 37: 153–64.
Ekman, P. 2001. _Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage._ New York. Norton.
Fishman, S. 2005. "Mommy's Little Con Man." _New York Magazine._ June 18. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/12070/.
Ford, C. V. 1996. _Lies! Lies! Lies! The Psychology of Deceit._ Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
Keyes, R. 2004. _The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life_. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Kropp, R., and R. Rogers. 1993. "Understanding Malingering: Motivation, Method, and Detection." In _Lying and Deception in Everyday Life_ , ed. M. Lewis and C. Saarni. New York: Guilford Press.
**CHAPTER 9. Synthetic Reality: Media-Manufactured Lies**
Beam, C. 2008. "The Fake Memoirist's Survival Guide: How to Embellish Your Life Story Without Getting Caught." _Slate._ March 6. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from <http://www.slate.com/id/2185918/>.
Booth, R. 2007. "TV 'Survival King' Stayed in Hotels." _Sunday Times._ July 22. 5.
Eskin, B. 2008. "Crying Wolf." _Slate._ February 29. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://www.slate.com/id/2185493/.
Ford, P. 2008. "Faking It." _Christian Science Monitor._ August 12. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://features.csmonitor.com/olympics08/2008/08/12/faking-it/.
Feuer, A. 2007. "Trial of Writer Reveals a Life as Strange as Fiction. _New York Times_. June 16. 2.
Morrison, B. 2004. "Ex– _USA Today_ Reporter Faked Major Stories." _USA Today._ March 19. 1A.
Penenberg, A. 2008. "Lies, Damn Lies, and Fiction." _Forbes._ May 11. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from <http://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html>.
Poniewozik, J. 2006. "How Reality TV Fakes It." _Time_. January 29. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/ magazine/article/0,9171,1154194,00.html?internalid=AOT_ h_01-29-2006_how_reality_tv.
Qigang, C., quoted in O'Connor, A., and J. MacArtney. 2008. "The Counterfeit Games: Designed to Look Good from Every Angle." _The Times (London),_ August 13. p. 18.
Rich, M. 2008. "Frey Defends His Memoir." _New York Times._ April 29. E 2.
———. 2008. "Gang Memoir, Turning Page Is Pure Fiction." _New York Times_. March 4. A1.
———. 2008. "Lies and Consequences: Tracking the Fallout of (Another) Literary Fraud." _New York Times._ March 5. E1.
Roberts, S. 2007. "It's Time to Welcome a Symbol of Substance." _New York Times._ August 12. SP7.
**CHAPTER 10. Career Lies: Deception in the Workplace**
Abbott, W. A. 2001. "Negative Nonverbal Communication: Retaliation, Sabotage, Theft, and Violence in the Workplace." _Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences_ 62(5-A): 1637.
Aguilera, R. V., and A. K. Vadera. 2008. "The Dark Side of Authority: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Outcomes of Organizational Corruption." _Journal of Business Ethics_ 77: 431–49.
Anderson, J. R., and M. E. Tirrell. 2004. "Too Good to Be True: CEOs and Financial Reporting Fraud." _Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research_ 56(1): 35–43.
Aquino, K., and T. E. Becker. 2005. "Lying in Negotiations: How Individual and Situational Factors Influence the Use of Neutralization Strategies." _Journal of Organizational Behavior_ 26: 661–79.
Babiak, P. 1996. "Psychopathic Manipulation in Organizations: Pawns, Patrons and Patsies." In _International Perspectives and Psychopathy,_ ed. A. Cooke., A. Forth., J. Newman, and R. Hare, pp. 12–17. Leicester, U.K.: British Psychological Society.
Braynov, S., and T. Sandholm. 2002. "Contracting with Uncertain Level of Trust." _Computational Intelligence_ 19: 501–14.
Bringman, M. A. 2004. _Swapping Lies! Deception in the Workplace_. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing
Business Wire. 2002. "CEOs Held Primarily Responsible for Recent Accounting Scndals According to Special Edition TEC Index. _Business Wire._ July 17, 2002. Stamford, CT: Gale/Cengage Learning.
Byrne, J. A. 1999. _Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price._ New York: HarperCollins.
Carrell, R. C. 2005. "The Use of Verbal Precision: The Impact of Potential Gain, Potential Loss, Verification, Likelihood, and Truthfulness." _Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering_ 65(8B): 4336.
Cohen, P. 2007. "Tough Guy Faces Stern Reality." _New York Times._ July 25. E2.
Davis, J. L., G. T. Payne, and G. C. McMahan. 2007. "A Few Bad Apples? Scandalous Behavior of Mutual Fund Managers." _Journal of Business Ethics_ 76: 319–34.
DePaulo, P. J., B. M. DePaulo, J. Tank, and G. W. Swaim. 1989. "Lying and Detecting Lies in Organizations." In _Impression Management in the Organization_ , ed. R. A. Giacalone and P. Rosenfeld, pp. 377–93. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Foldes, H. L. J. 2007. "Ethical Misconduct of Senior Leaders: Counterproductive Work Behaviors at the Top." _Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering_ 67(9-B): 5453.
Giacalone, R. A., and P. Rosenfeld. 1987. "Reasons for Employee Sabotage in the Workplace." _Journal of Business and Psychology_ 1: 367–78.
Greene, A. S. 1999. "Honesty in Organizations: Perceptions of the Corporate Environment and Their Impact on Individual Behavior." _Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering_ 60(4-B): 1914.
Grover, S. L. 1993. "Lying, Deceit, and Subterfuge: A Model of Dishonesty in the Workplace." _Organization Science_ 4: 478–95.
Jehn, K. A., and E. D. Scott, 2008. "Perceptions of Deception: Making Sense of Responses to Employee Deceit." _Journal of Business Ethics_ 80: 327–47.
Jones, D. 1996. "Recruiting: People Lie on Résumés—Even on Facts That Can Be Checked." _Detroit News_. September, 16.
Jones, J. W., and M. W. Boye. 1994. "Job Stress, Predisposition to Steal, and Employee Theft." _American Journal of Health Promotion_ 8:331–33.
Keep, W. 2003. "Adam Smith's Imperfect Invisible Hand: Motivations to Mislead." _Business Ethics: A European Review_ , 12: 343–53. Special issue: "EBEN-UK Conference April 2003."
Knights, D., and M. O'Leary. 2005. "Reflecting on Corporate Scandals: The Failure of Ethical Leadership." _Business Ethics: A European Review_ 14: 359–66.
Kuczynski, A. 2000. "In Public Relations, 25% Admit Lying." _New York Times._ May 8. C20.
Lee, S. H. 2007. "Revelations of False Credentials Shake South Korea." _New York Times._ September 1. A3.
Lerer, L. 2007. "Did you Lie on Your Résumé?" _Forbes._ February 7. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/07/leadership-resume-jobs-lead-career scx110207resume.html.
Levashna, J., and M. A. Campion. 2007. "Measuring Faking in the Employment Interview: Development and Validation of an Interview Faking Behavior Scale." _Journal of Applied Psychology_ 92: 1638–56.
Lewicki, R. J., T. Poland, J. W. Minton, and B. H. Sheppard. 1997. "Dishonesty as Deviance: A Typology of Workplace Dishonesty and Contributing Factors." In _Research on Negotiation in Organizations_ Vol. 6, ed. R. J. Lewicki., R. J. Bies, and B. H. Sheppard, pp. 53–86. New York: Elsevier Science/JAI Press.
McBarnet, D. 2006. "After Enron Will 'Whiter Than White Collar Crime' Still Wash? _British Journal of Criminology_ 46: 1092–1109. Special issue: "Markets, Risk and 'White-Collar' Crimes: Moral Economies from Victorian Times to Enron."
McCool, J. D. 2007. "Executives: Making It by Faking It." _BusinessWeek_. October 4. Retrieved November 14, 2008 from http://www.busi nessweek.com/managing/content/oct2007/ca 2007104_799274. htm?campaign_id=rss_null.
McGee, R. W. 2008. "Applying Ethics to Insider Trading." _Journal of Business Ethics_ 77: 205–17.
Micewski, E. R., and C. Troy. 2007. "Business Ethics—Deontologically Revisited." _Journal of Business Ethics_ 72: 17–25.
Minkel, J. R. 2008. "Bubble Fusion Researcher Charged with Misconduct." _Scientific American_. July 21. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from <http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=taleyarkhan-bubble-fusion-misconduct>.
Murphy, K. R. 1993. _Honesty in the Workplace._ Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Neese, W. T., L. Ferrell, and O. C. Ferrell. 2005. "An Analysis of Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Cases Related to Marketing." _Journal of Business Research_ 58: 910–18.
Petersen, M. 2001. "A Résumé Distinguished by What It Didn't Mention." _New York Times._ September 6. A1.
Robinson, W. P., A. Shepherd, and J. Heywood. 1998. "Truth, Equivocation/Concealment, and Lies in Job Applications and Doctor-Patient Communication." _Journal of Language and Social Psychology_ 17: 149–64. Special issue: "The Language of Equivocation, Part II."
Ryan, A. M., M. J. Schmit, D. L. Daum, S. Brutus, S. A. McCormick, and M. H. Brodke. 1997. "Workplace Integrity: Differences in Perceptions of Behaviors and Situational Factors." _Journal of Business and Psychology_ 12: 67–83.
Schein, E. H. 2004. "Learning When and How to Lie: A Neglected Aspect of Organizational and Occupational Socialization." _Human Relations_ 57: 260–73.
Shermer, M. 2008. "Do All Companies Have to Be Evil?" _Scientific American Mind and Brain_ , January.
Shulman,D. 2006. _From Liar to Hire: The Role of Deception in the Work-place._ New York: Cornell University Press.
Theisen, T. 2002. "It's Easy to See Through Resume Lies." _Orlando Sentinel._ May 12.
Weisman, R. 2007. "The Fine Art of Negotiating (with Liars)." _Boston Globe._ August 19. D1.
Weiss, B., and R. S. Feldman, 2006. "Looking Good and Lying to Do It: Deception as an Impression Management Strategy in Job Interviews." _Journal of Applied Social Psychology_ 36: 1070–86.
Williams, M. 2001. "Why Do They Lie?" _Washington Post_. June 20. A27.
Wokutch, R. E., and T. L. Carson. 1999. "The Ethics and Profit-ability of Bluffing in Business." In _Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases,_ 3rd ed., ed. R. J. Lewicki, D. M. Saunders, and J. W. Minton, pp. 225–33. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Wood, J. L., J. M. Schmidtke, and D. L. Decker. 2007. "Lying on Job Applications: The Effects of Job Relevance, Commission, and Human Resource Management Experience." _Journal of Business and Psychology_ 22: 1–9.
Xu, Y., and D. E. Ziegenfuss. 2008. "Reward Systems, Moral Reasoning, and Internal Auditors' Reporting Wrongdoing." _Journal of Business and Psychology_ 22: 323–31.
**CHAPTER 11: Web of Deceit: The Brave New World of Internet Dishonesty**
After, A. 2007. "Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?" _Wall Street Journal_. August 10. W1.
Caldwell, C. 2007. "Not Being There." _New York Times Magazine_. August 12. 11.
Cohen, N. 2007. "A Contributer to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side." _New York Times_. March 5. C5.
Galanxhi, H., and F. Fui-Hoon Nah. 2007. "Deception in Cyberspace: A Comparison of Text-Only vs. Avatar-Supported Medium." _International Journal of Human-Computer Studies_ 65: 770–83.
Hafner, K. 2001. "A Beautiful Life, an Early Death, a Fraud Exposed." _New York Times._ May 31. G1.
Joinson, A. N., and B. Dietz-Uhler. "Explanations for the Perpetration of and Reactions to Deception in a Virtual Community." _Social Science Computer Review_ 20:275–89.
Martin, A. 2007. "Whole Foods Executive Used Alias." _New York Times._ July 12. C1.
Stone, B., and M. Richtel. 2007. "The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped." _New York Times._ July 16. C1.
Whitty, M. T., and S. E. Carville. 2008. "Would I Lie to You? Self-serving Lies and Other-Oriented Lies Told Across Different Media." _Computers in Human Behavior_ 24: 1021–31.
**CONCLUSION: Living with Lies**
Blanton, B. 1996. _Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth_. New York: Dell Publishing.
Druckerman, P. 2008. "After the End of the Affair." _New York Times._ March 21. A23.
Fife, S. T., G. R. Weeks, and N. Gambecia. 2008. "Treating Infidelity: An Integrative Approach." _Family Journal_ 15: 316–23.
Glass, S. P., and J. C. Staeheli. 2003. _Not "Just Friends": Rebuilding Trust and Recovering Your Sanity After Infidelity_. New York: Free Press.
Jacobs, A. J. 2007. "I Think You're Fat." _Esquire_. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from <http://www.esquire.com/features/honesty0707>.
# ABOUT TWELVE
TWELVE was established in August 2005 with the objective of publishing no more than one book per month. We strive to publish the singular book, by authors who have a unique perspective and compelling authority. Works that explain our culture; that illuminate, inspire, provoke, and entertain. We seek to establish communities of conversation surrounding our books. Talented authors deserve attention not only from publishers, but from readers as well. To sell the book is only the beginning of our mission. To build avid audiences of readers who are enriched by these works—that is our ultimate purpose.
For more information about forthcoming TWELVE books, please go to www.twelvebooks.com.
|
package client;
import com.piccus.serper.core.SerperInvoker;
import config.ClientConfig;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;
/**
* Created by Piccus on 2016/12/22.
*/
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ClientConfig.class);
HelloService helloService = SerperInvoker.getProxyInstance(HelloService.class);
String str = helloService.test();
System.out.println("Test client get a ans, length: " + str.length() + ", content: " + str);
}
}
|
Evaluation of conventional and frozen elephant trunk techniques on spinal cord blood flow in an animal model OBJECTIVES The treatment of patients with extensive thoracic aortic disease involving the arch and descending aorta is often performed using the frozen elephant trunk technique (FET). Spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) in cervical, thoracic and lumbar sections prior, during and after aortic arch surgery were compared in conventional elephant trunk (cET) and FET technique in a pig model. METHODS German Landrace pigs (7585 kg) underwent aortic arch surgery using the FET (n = 8) or cET (n = 8) techniques. The Evita Open hybrid stent graft was applied in all FET animals. Regional SCBF was measured 4 times: (i) before cardiopulmonary bypass, (ii) after 1 h, (iii) after 3 h, and (iv) after 6 h of reperfusion using fluorescence microspheres. Spinal cord segments were examined histopathologically and by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS SCBF in FET decreased significantly from 0.13 ± 0.03 to 0.05 ± 0.02 ml/min/g after 1 h (P = 0.047). While at 3 h of reperfusion, SCBF increased and was comparable to baseline (0.09 ± 0.01 ml/min/g), beyond this time SCBF decreased again (0.05 ± 0.02 ml/min/g). A similar trend was found for SCBF in the cET group (baseline: 0.16 ± 0.04 ml/min/g, 1 h reperfusion: 0.02 ± 0.01 ml/min/g, 3 h reperfusion: 0.03 ± 0.01 ml/min/g and 6 h reperfusion: 0.02 ± 0.01 ml/min/g, P = 0.019). Cervical, thoracic and lumbar SCBF were also comparable in both groups. Histological analyses of spinal cord showed no differences in necrosis between cET and FET, while no differences were found for hypoxiainducible factor1&agr; and apoptosisinducing factor. In contrast, oxidative stress and caspaseinduced apoptosis were higher in cET versus FET. CONCLUSIONS The SCBF changed significantly during extensive aortic arch surgery with circulatory arrest and moderate hypothermia, but such changes were comparable between the FET and cET groups. The implantation of hybrid stent graft did not influence SCBF in thoracic and lumbar segments of the spinal cord. The immunohistological examination showed no differences between cET and FET regarding ischaemic damage and hypoxiainduced effects in spinal cord segments. |
package calendar
import (
"errors"
"time"
)
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
var (
// ErrLocaleNotFound is raised when the locale is not supported
ErrLocaleNotFound = errors.New("calendar: given locale not found")
)
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
type defaultCalendar struct {
name string
year int
wdFunc WorkDayFunc
}
// New calendar built using given locale
func New(name string, year int) (Calendar, error) {
// Check supported locale
if _, ok := locales[name]; !ok {
return nil, ErrLocaleNotFound
}
return &defaultCalendar{
name: name,
year: year,
wdFunc: locales[name](year),
}, nil
}
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
func (d *defaultCalendar) IsWorkingDay(day time.Time) (bool, bool, string) {
return d.wdFunc(day)
}
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// GetSupportedLocales returns all locales supported for calendar
func GetSupportedLocales() []string {
res := []string{}
for l := range locales {
res = append(res, l)
}
return res
}
|
Angiogenesis-Related Pathways in the Pathogenesis of Ovarian Cancer Ovarian Cancer represents the most fatal type of gynecological malignancies. A number of processes are involved in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer, especially within the tumor microenvironment. Angiogenesis represents a hallmark phenomenon in cancer, and it is responsible for tumor spread and metastasis in ovarian cancer, among other tumor types, as it leads to new blood vessel formation. In recent years angiogenesis has been given considerable attention in order to identify targets for developing effective anti-tumor therapies. Growth factors have been identified to play key roles in driving angiogenesis and, thus, the formation of new blood vessels that assist in feeding cancer. Such molecules include the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), the fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and the angiopoietin/Tie2 receptor complex. These proteins are key players in complex molecular pathways within the tumor cell and they have been in the spotlight of the development of anti-angiogenic molecules that may act as stand-alone therapeutics, or in concert with standard treatment regimes such as chemotherapy. The pathways involved in angiogenesis and molecules that have been developed in order to combat angiogenesis are described in this paper. Ovarian Cancer: Pathogenesis and Clinical Aspects Cancer is a major public health problem and it constitutes one of the most frequent causes of death in the Western world. A total of 1,638,910 new cancer cases, and 577,190 deaths from cancer, were estimated to occur in the United States in 2012. The economic burden of cancer is associated with expenditures including aspects such as prevention, screening and treatment services, and the lost productivity due to cancer-related death. The five-year net burden for the American Health System has reached almost $21 billion, whereas later findings calculate the total cost of cancer reaching up to $1 trillion in 2009. Ovarian cancer is the most fatal among gynecologic cancers. In terms of pathology, epithelial ovarian cancers are classified into five main types including High-Grade Serous Carcinomas (HGSC), Endometroid Carcinomas (EC), Clear Cell Carcinomas (CCC), Mucinous Carcinomas (MC), and Low-Grade Serous Carcinomas (LGSC). These distinct histological subtypes share few molecular similarities and many of them arise from non-ovarian tissues. Interestingly, contemporary therapeutic approaches are common for all subtypes of epithelial ovarian carcinomas, while the effectiveness of the cytotoxic drugs used has reached a plateau, as indicated by the unaltered five-year survival of ovarian cancer patients the last 15 years. Ovarian carcinomas have been considered to arise from the epithelium that lines the ovarian surface. The latter is composed from a layer of flat to cuboidal epithelial cells that derive from the embryonic coleomic epithelium. Invagination of the ovarian surface epithelium during ovulatory cycles forms inclusion cysts. The exposure of invaginated epithelium to hormonal stimulation accounts for its metaplasia and promotes its malignant transformation. The normal ovary, though, lacks constituents that resemble the major histological subtypes of ovarian carcinoma. Furthermore, ovaries develop embryologically from mesodermal epithelium on the urogenital ridge, separate from the mllerian ducts, and although inclusion cysts are frequently encountered in ovaries, there is no histological evidence that these structures could constitute the precursors of high-grade serous carcinomas. An alternative theory proposed by Lauchlan suggests that tumors with a mllerian phenotype arise from mllerian-type tissue, outside from the primary Mllerian system, that is collectively referred as the "secondary Mllerian system". This includes the Mllerian type epithelium encountered in ovarian inclusion cysts. As these tumors enlarge, they obliterate ovarian tissue resulting in an adnexal tumor that appears to have arisen from the ovary. This theory explains the pathogenesis of some tumors, identical to ovarian carcinomas that develop, despite the ovaries or the ovaries along with the fallopian tubes and the uterus having been previously removed. However, the value of this theory is limited since rarely, if ever, have premalignant lesions resembling ovarian carcinomas in paratubal or paraovarian cysts been recognized. During the last decade, the interest in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer, and especially High Grade Serous Carcinomas, has been transferred to the fallopian tube. More specifically, in 2001 Pick et al. described dysplastic lesions in the fallopian tube of women, with germline BRCA1 mutation, that were subjected to prophylactic salpingoophorectomy. These lesions, later characterized as Serous Tubular Intraepithelial Carcinomas (STICs), were also described in a number of subsequent studies [10,. Based on this observation, Kindelberger et al. not only recognized STICs after careful examination of the fimbria in a series of serous ovarian carcinomas, but also identified identical TP53 mutations among STICs and the corresponding invasive carcinomas, thus providing the etiological link between these two entities. The heterogenous group of epithelial ovarian carcinomas is reflected, not only in histopathology, but also in genetic lesions. Based on morphological and genetic analysis, Shih and Kurman have proposed the dualistic model for ovarian carcinogenesis. They have classified epithelial ovarian carcinomas, based on the genetic alterations implicated in their carcinogenesis, into two types. Type I tumors include low-grade serous carcinomas, mucinous carcinomas, clear cell carcinomas, endometroid carcinomas, and malignant Brenner tumors. They are slow growing tumors and are usually detected at a low FIGO stage, with most of these tumors confined in the ovary. Their development proceeds in a stepwise fashion from well-recognized precursor lesions and are genetically stable. Mutations of genes such as KRAS and ERBB2 that deregulate MAPK signaling pathway drive carcinogenesis in approximately 70% of LSGC. In Low Grade Endometroid and Clear Cell Carcinomas similar genetic alterations are detected, such as those that affect the PI3K signaling pathway. These include activating mulation of the PIK3CA in approximately 50% of cases. Genome-wide mutation analysis in these tumors has also highlighted the implication of tumor suppressor genes in their pathogenesis. In sharp contrast to type I ovarian tumors, the predominant genetic alteration that drives carcinogenesis in type II tumors are TP53 mutations. High Grade Serous Carcinomas harbor TP53 mutations in >95% of cases, and analogous is the percentage in High-Grade Endometroid Carcinomas, an entity that is often morphologically indistinguishable from serous counterparts. As anticipated, mutations in the "guardian of the genome" TP53 gene, results in increased genomic instability detected in HGSCs. DNA copy number gains or losses have been frequently detected in genes such as PIK3CA. Mutations in BRCA1/2 genes that characterize cases of familiar ovarian carcinomas are rarely encountered in sporadic cases. Even newly approved molecular therapies for ovarian carcinomas, despite being promising, lack well defined biomarkers that could improve their effective use. The above, underscore the need to improve our understanding of ovarian cancer at the molecular and cellular level by recognizing the cell of origin, identifying precancerous lesions, and delineating the pathogenesis of the disease. One of the main targets for future drug developments is angiogenesis. Angiogenesis in Cancer Pathogenesis Angiogenesis refers to the process of the formation of new vessels, and it constitutes a hallmark process of cancer progression and metastasis. The angiogenetic process is rather complex and involves a large number of cytokines and associated receptors. It occurs during the menstrual cycle, and also wound healing in the ovaries and the endometrium, in adult life. The angiogenesis term was founded over a century ago, but its meaning was not fully elucidated until the 1960s decade when Judah Folkman discovered that tiny tumors grew to about 1-2 mm in size and also stopped expanding in the absence of the vascularization process. Angiogenesis has been shown to be a necessary process for oncogenesis, as well as subsequent tumor growth and dissemination through metastases. Microvessel density related quantitative analysis in a number of different cancer types in patients revealed that the angiogenic switch and the initiation of angiogenesis also occur during the growth of human cancers. In ovarian cancer, angiogenesis has also been associated with the formation of malignant ascites. During oncogenesis, tumor endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, may divide up to 50 times faster than normal endothelial cells, providing them with a significant growth advantage over their normal counterparts. Continuous neovascularisation allows tumor cells to grow beyond a diffusion-limited size, therefore rendering angiogenesis an important process in the pathogenesis of cancer. The architecture of the tumor blood vessels exhibits differences to the architecture of normal blood vessels, more specifically, abnormalities. Tumor vessels exhibit high vascular permeability, poor blood flow, and a rather irregular shape when compared to normal ones. The elimination of the angiogenic process may result in the inability of the tumor to grow further although cell proliferation occurs, counter balanced by apoptosis, as observed in tumor dormant areas, and it allows metastasis to occur. The mechanism by which angiogenesis occurs is quite complex and it is yet to be elucidated although advances in this field of research are quite intensive. Cancer cells release pro-angiogenic factors, such as the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and the platelet derived growth factor (PDGF). These factors act by activating endothelial cells, thus leading to new blood vessel formation, in order to initiate angiogenesis. The angiogenic process itself in the tumor microenvironment involves the interplay of angiogenic growth factors with their corresponding receptors, leading to endothelial cell activation, and also vascular remodeling. Pro-angiogenic factors' action is counterbalanced by anti-angiogenic action by numerous other factors such as thrombospondin and angiostatin, and this balance has been termed the angiogenic switch. In the case of normal tissues, the angiogenic switch is turned off, thus the vasculature remains quiescent as a result of the balance between pro-and anti-angiogenic factors. In tumor tissues though, the exact opposite happens; balance is leaning towards the greater expression of pro-angiogenic factors and angiogenesis occurs. These pro-angiogenic factors diffuse out of the tumor cells, during the course of tumor development, then bind onto adjacent endothelial cells in the case of mature blood vessels, thus triggering a process called vessel sprouting. Sprouting seems to play a pivotal role in the angiogenesis process. When switching to the angiogenic phenotype according to the angiogenic switch process described earlier, the formation of new blood vessels occurs from pre-existing vasculature. The newly formed vessels infiltrate the tumor mass in the local tumor microenvironment and promote tumor mass expansion, and subsequent hematogenous metastatic spread, therefore contributing to the pathogenesis of cancer. An overview of the angiogenic process is shown in Figure 1. It may also be of importance to briefly mention that angiogenesis is involved in the metastasis of the tumor to the peritoneal cavity. At the time of metastasis, tumor cells from their organ of origin are secreted and move over to the peritoneum where they eventually reach the innermost layer of the peritoneum, the mesothelium. The mesothelium forms a cellular monolayer supported by a basement membrane. Tumor cells then adhere to the mesothelium, followed by penetration of the mesothelium so that tumor cells gain access to the submesothelial connective tissue. Invasion of the connective tissue provides the scaffold for further tumor proliferation, thereby establishing a metastatic deposit. The final step in this process is the induction of angiogenesis for sustainability of the tumor proliferation potential and also the achievement of further metastatic growth. Peritoneal mesothelial cells have been shown to secrete angiogenic factors such as VEGF and Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF). An increase in the secretion of such factors has been observed upon the stimulation with IL-1 and TNF-, whereas factors such as IL-2 inhibited secretion of such pro-angiogenic proteins. Such action for IL-1 has been shown to be possible in ovarian cancer as well, as a recent study has shown. Gerber et al. have shown that the omentum was a major site of metastases growth for intraperitoneal tumors. A subset of mesothelial cells located in the omentum was found to be hypoxic and also secrete VEGF. In addition, the presence of CD105+ vessels and localized sprouting indicated that active angiogenesis was occurring in the peritoneum. In the case of ovarian cancer the seeding of the peritoneum and the resultant cancer development seem to be significant processes in the development of ovarian cancer and especially for the production of ascites. The role of VEGF is quite important in this process. Experiments using animal models with peritoneal cancer spread have shown that VEGF overexpression may lead to tumor increase and also to peritoneal related neovasculogenesis and also increased vascular permeability in the peritoneum. Therefore, there is a strong indication that angiogenesis may play a role in cancer metastasis in the peritoneum with mesothelial cells playing significant role in the process. Angiogenic growth factors may also influence the growth of cancer cells per se. This has been shown by the direct effect of VEGF on to tumor cells. It has also been shown that the autocrine VEGF/VEGFR loop, when both of these molecules are expressed in tumor cells, may be responsible for the growth enhancement of tumor cells per se. The fact that VEGF plays a tumor cell proliferative role has also been shown in the case of ovarian tumor cells as well. Angiogenesis plays an important role in all types of cancer, including gynecological, thereby a role for angiogenesis in the pathophysiology of all gynecological cancers including ovarian cancer has now been established. We hereby describe the important molecular pathways that are involved in this process in the pathogenesis and expansion of ovarian cancer. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Related Pathways VEGF plays an exceptional role in angiogenesis. It is involved in this process by mainly regulating new blood vessel growth. It also promotes survival of immature vasculature before it turns into its mature form. VEGF was first discovered by Ferrara and colleagues and was previously known as the vascular permeability factor due to its capacity of increasing vascular permeability. There are seven member molecules that fall into this family of proteins, including VEGF A-E, and also the placental growth factor 1 and 2 (PIGF-1 and PIGF-2). VEGF-A multiple isoforms may be formed due to alternative mRNA splicing, with VEGF 165 being the most prevalent VEGF isoform in a number of tumors. Molecules of this family exert their effect via signaling through their tyrosine kinase receptor counterparts that are expressed normally on the surface of endothelial cells and are termed vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR). There are three isoforms of this type of receptors namely VEGFR1-3. VEGF-A binds preferentially to VEGFR1 and 2, VEGFB and PIGF-1 and PIGF-2 bind to VEGFR1, whereas VEGF-C and D bind preferentially to VEGFR3. The binding of the ligand onto the receptor induces a receptor dimerization that leads to intracellular signaling initiation. VEGF expression has been shown to be upregulated by factors such as IGF-1 and IL-6. The expression of VEGF may also be regulated by mutations in genes such as p53, ras, src, and vhl Function-wise, VEGFR2 is the main receptor isoform through which VEGF, mainly VEGF-A, mediates its effects that are directly related to angiogenesis. VEGFR-1 has a less defined role, although recent studies have shown that both VEGF and PIGF may bind onto the receptor, in pathological conditions such as tumors, and enhance angiogenesis effects. Moreover, soluble VEGFR1 may even play a role in controlling VEGFR2 signaling as it can act as a decoy receptor molecule. In turn, VEGFR3 plays a lesser role in angiogenesis, but it has been documented to play an important role in lymphangiogenesis upon binding of VEGF-C and VEGF-D. The main VEGF isoform being important in angiogenesis is VEGF-A and it will be referred as VEGF from this point onwards. VEGF is produced by cancer cells and relates to the metastatic potential of a number of different types of tumors, including ovarian cancer. It is detected by immunostaining in most ovarian cancerous tissues and it is also an important facilitator of the creation of ascites in the latter stages of the disease. VEGF alongside its receptors constitute the dominant pathway that regulates angiogenesis in ovarian cancer. The role of the VEGF/VEGFR axis in ovarian cancer has been well documented due to pharmacological studies of agents that reduce the burden of women with the disease. Intracellular signaling related to VEGF in ovarian cancer includes the elaboration of molecules such as JAK and STAT pathway components, PI-3 kinases, and MAP kinases. More specifically, PI-3K has been shown to play an important role in angiogenesis with its expression correlating with VEGF upregulation, and an upregulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway is observed. The activation of the JAK-STAT pathway has been correlated with upregulation of VEGF and intracellular signaling in angiogenesis, especially the upregulation of STAT3 and STAT5. MAP kinases are also involved in an interplay with VEGF levels. For the initiation of signaling, an autocrine loop of VEGF/VEGFR has been indicated to be responsible. Lately, there are other protein molecules that have been studied and shown to be involved in a signaling interplay with the VEGF/VEGFR complex, mainly VEGF/VEGFR2. These include the Src kinases, which increase vascular permeability, and phospholipase C that may interact with Erk/MAPK molecules enhancing the VEGF effect on vascular permeability and vessel formation. Some elements of the VEGF pathway are shown in Figure 2. The Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) Pathway PDGF is an essential protein to pericyte recruitment, which is a critical aspect of blood vessel maturation. It has been shown that the activation of the PDGF Receptor (PDGFR) leads to upregulation of angiogenic events. PDGF also interacts with VEGF and they either converge their signaling cascades or the PDGF pathway may be activated in response to resistance to VEGF inhibition. The importance of PDGF in angiogenesis and in tumor progress is highlighted by the correlation of its expression with ovarian cancer patients' prognosis. Four isoforms of the PDGF molecule have been identified namely PDGF A-D. As in the case of VEGF, there is specificity on which isoforms of PDGF bind specific corresponding receptor isoforms either PDGFR- or PDGFR- in order to exert their effects. In this case, PDGF A-C bind onto PDGFR-, whereas PDGF-B and PDGF-D bind onto PDGFR-. As in the case of VEGF/VEGFR, an autocrine signaling mechanism, may be responsible for PDGF promoting angiogenesis and tumor growth. Upon activation of the PDGF pathway, signaling occurs via the use of the PI3K/Akt complex pathway but there are also MAPK molecules involved alongside proteins of the Src family and Phospholipase C-. Other molecules related to the PDGF signaling include the Ras protein, STAT proteins, and guanine-5'-triphosphate (GTP-ase) activating protein. In the case of ovarian cancer, PDGF has been recorded in a large number of samples and a five to six-fold increase in the level of PDGF has been measured in ovarian cancer tumor cells when compared to cells of the normal ovarian epithelium. PDGFR is expressed in ovarian carcinomas and it is also present in malignant ascites. PDGF has been shown to interfere with the stroma formation and also act as a substrate for angiogenesis. It has also been shown to act in concert with VEGF in order to promote new vessel formation and stabilize newly synthesized vessels, so PDGF molecules are key regulatory molecules in oncogenesis and angiogenesis, important in ovarian cancer. Some elements of the PDGF signaling pathways are shown in Figure 3. The Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) Pathway FGF signaling mechanism has originally been studied as a significant embryogenesis pathway and it has since become an important research target when it comes to angiogenesis research in cancer. There are over 20 FGF isoforms identified, namely 23, and five receptor molecules (FGFR) have also been described. The receptor molecules pose great similarity in structure, including an extracellular immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain and an intracellular tyrosine kinase domain. These domains are conserved between the first four isoforms of the receptor but the fifth isoform (FGFR-5) lacks the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain. Upon binding of the ligand onto the receptor, the receptor molecules dimerise, a process that leads to the initiation of the intracellular signaling cascade. In ovarian cancer, disruptions to the appropriate signaling cascade have been reported, such as alternative splicing events differentiating the ability of the receptor to bind ligands effectively, while mutation events have not been considered significant in altering the receptor's function. In ovarian cancer, differences in alternative splicing may confer sensitivity to the ligand. Moreover, in the case of ovarian cancer, FGF may be secreted into malignant ascites alongside VEGF, therefore, it may be contributing to cancer progression and angiogenesis. The expression of FGF may be associated with prognosis. It has been shown that FGF may play a direct role in tumor cell proliferation in ovarian cancer, but may also play a role in angiogenesis acting alongside other pro-angiogenic factors such as VEGF. The FGF signaling pathway involves the employment of downstream proteins such as MAPK proteins and proteins of the PI3K/Akt cascade. Phospsholipase-c and IP3 cascades are also involved in the downstream signaling of FGF, whereas the FGF pathway may crosstalk with other pathways such as the Notch pathway. A schematic overview of some elements of the FGF related pathways are shown in Figure 4. The Angiopoietin Pathway and the Tie2 Receptor There are two forms of the angiopoietin (Ang) protein, namely angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), and both these proteins may interact with the Tie2 receptor. Ang-1 and 2 may interact with Tie2 and enhance new vessel production, whereas Ang-1 acts via the use of the Akt/survivin pathway in order to stabilize newly produced vessels. Ang-2 may act alone or in synergy with other pro-angiogenic factors, such as VEGF, in order to establish and enhance vasculature and it acts in promoting endothelial cell migration by blocking the vessel stabilizing action of angiopoietin 1. It has to be mentioned, though, that late studies show that Ang-2 may be acting in an agonist manner to Ang-1 when the latter is lacking or alternatively in a dose dependent manner when Ang-1 is actually present. Although in the normal ovary, Tie2 localization may indicate communication between the extracellular matrix and the endothelial cells, in mouse ovarian tumor models Ang-2 is mainly expressed in endothelial cells and the tumor stroma and its expression levels correlate with those of VEGF, therefore proposing a synergistic effect of the two molecules in ovarian cancer angiogenesis. Other molecules involved in the downstream signaling pathway of the Ang/Tie2 receptor include the PI3K protein, involved in the PI3K/Akt pathway, and also proteins such as Protein Kinase B, MAPK/Erk molecules, and also molecules of the Ras pathway, and these molecules may possibly, also, be involved in the downstream signaling of the Tie2 receptor in ovarian cancer. Finally, recent studies show that Ang-2 may be exerting its signaling effects via the employment of integrin molecules. The possible effects of Ang in angiogenesis can be further exhibited by the blocking of the binding of Ang onto the Tie2 receptor that leads to decreased sprouting and reduction of the number of tumor vessels. Figure 5 depicts some of the signaling elements of the Ang related pathways. Targeting the Angiogenesis Related Pathways for Ovarian Cancer Treatment Since angiogenesis poses an important process for ovarian cancer dissemination it is of significance to attempt to devise therapeutic strategies that target angiogenesis pathways. So far strategies that target molecules such as VEGF and PDGF have been developed that act alone or in combination with chemotherapy in order to achieve a more effective treatment. Anti-angiogenic agents include bevacizumab, an anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody that has exhibited satisfactory action as a single-phase treatment agent in phase II trials in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds onto VEGF (mainly VEGF-A) with high affinity, thus neutralizing the VEGF activity. Bevacizumab has also been used in combination with other therapeutic agents such as platinum compounds e.g. carboplatin, and also paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel, topotecan, doxorubicin, and docetaxel. In terms of pre-clinical studies Mesiano et al. tested Bevacizumab;s activity in immunodeficient mice and showed that the drug inhibited subcutaneous tumor growth, partially inhibited the tumor's intraperitoneal growth, and completely inhibited ascites formation. In another study the synergistic effect of bevacizumab with paclitaxel has been described reducing tumor growth and ascites formation. Mabuchi et al. also showed that the continuous administration of bevacizumab could significantly prolong survival in vivo. Recent results established the role of Bevacizumab in ovarian cancer, showing that it increases the efficacy of chemotherapy in the initial management of the disease but also in relapsed platinum-sensitive and platinum-resistant disease. Another anti-angiogenic agent is aflibercept or VEGF-Trap as it is commonly called, which is a fusion protein combined from the domain 2 of VEGFR1 with domain 3 from VEGFR2, attached to the hinge region Fc of a human IgG1. VEGF-Trap binds all isoforms of VEGF and confers a neutralizing effect. Research is ongoing concerning the efficacy of the agent. Pre-clinical data on aflibercept has shown that it is able to inhibit the angiogenic effect including narrowing of vessels, endothelial cell apoptosis, and stop of blood flow and also reduction of tumor burden and ascite formation. VEGF-Trap has also been used in combination with other therapeuting agents such as docetaxel and cisplatin. Preliminary results from a phase 1/phase 2 trial of aflibercept in combination with docetaxel in patients with recurrent gynecologic malignancies, including ovarian cancer, reported promising preliminary findings. Except the anti-VEGF inhibitor molecules, multiple anti-VEGFR inhibitor molecules, termed anti-angiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors are currently undergoing investigation. BIBF 1120 (Intedanib) is an agent that blocks the activity of VEGFR 1-3, PDGFRa and PDGFRb, and FGFRs. Pre-clinical data show that BIBF 1120 exhibits high activity in decreasing vessel density and reducing tumor growth in mouse models. BIBF 1120 has been used as a single agent, but also in combination with the combination of carboplatin /paclitaxel has also been used in epithelial ovarian cancer patients. Pazopanib is another tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits the activity of VEGFR 1-3 and also PDGFRa and PDGFRb, and FGFR-1 and FGFR-3. Pre-clinical data showed that Pazopanib may inhibit VEGF and FGF induced angiogenesis in mouse models, although the effect was higher related to VEGF stimulation. Studies using Pazopanib as a single agent are currently undergoing. Cediranib consists another multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitor, thus neutralizing the effect of molecules such as VEGFR 1-3, FGFR-1, and PDGFRa and PDGFRb. In the case of cediranib pre-clinical data has shown that the drug inhibits angiogenesis in ovarian cancer in a dose dependent manner. Clinical trials in phase II are currently underway and there is also a necessity for trials including a therapeutic combination of cediranib and platinum therapeutic agents. Sorafenib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that neutralizes the effect of VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, and PDGFRb. Studies are ongoing and results for some of them are currently in process. Pre-clinical data have shown the drug to inhibit tumor growth in nude mice and reduce tumor growth at a significant level. Sunitinib inhibits VEGFR-2 and PDGFRB among other molecules. Sunitinib related pre-clinical data have shown also that it can inhibit tumor growth and reduce microvessel density count. Some studies exhibit modest efficacy results but other studies are still ongoing. Finally, AMG-386, is a fusion protein that inhibits the binding of both Ang-1 and Ang-2, and Tie2 receptors. Pre-clinical data shows that AMG-386 is directly involved with intracellular signaling as studies in mouse models have exhibited. Results from studies using AMG-386 as a single agent or in combination with other agents, such as bevacizumab, are awaited. Separate reference should be made to the hypothesized antioangiogenic effect of paclitaxel. Paclitaxel is used alone, or in combination with other anti-angiogenic agents such as Bevacizumab. The actual mechanism of its anti-angiogenic effect is not clear yet. A few hypotheses on that matter have accounted for that effect, including the inhibition of endothelial cell morphogenesis in vitro. In another study paclitaxel seems to have an antiangiogenic effect due to a possible increased uptake by endothelial cells. We should also note here that paclitaxel has been shown to increase Cox-2 mRNA expression, which is a pro-angiogenesis molecule, and thus a combined treatment of paclitaxel alongside a Cox-2 inhibitor molecule may be desirable in some cases. A number of studies have also attempted to shed more light in predicting the effect of anti-angiogenic drugs, mainly via the usage of potential biomarkers that may be used for this purpose. Such examples include the possible use of VEGF as a biomarker when attempting to predict the effect of bevacizumab, with different isoforms varying in their reliability as predictive factors of the function of the drug. PIGF is another angiogenesis related molecule that may act as a biomarker for predicting the effect of anti-angiogenic drugs as its levels have been shown to be elevated upon usage of almost all anti-VEGF drugs. In the same way, soluble fragments of VEGF receptors may play such roles for predicting the effects of cancer anti-angiogenic agents. Examples include the soluble form of VEGFR-1 (sVEGFR1), where the high plasma concentrations of the molecule in blood circulation may predict a poor outcome for patients treated with agents such as bevacizumab and sunitinib. Finally, other molecules that may play a role in assisting prediction of the effect of anti-angiogenic drugs include collagen IV in the case of using a number of angiogenic agents, and IL-8 in the case of using sunitinib. Antioangiogenic therapy, though, has not been so far able, though, to completely cure the disease due to the fact that resistance develops during this type of tumor treatment. Postulated mechanisms for overcoming anti-angiogenic therapy include the use of an alternative pathway when one is blocked, hypoxia by accounting for the selection of more aggressive cells, and also by assisting the survival of cancer stem-like cells. Other causes for resistance include the recruitment of vascular progenitors and modulators such as the pericyte progenitor cells, and tumor cell dormancy that tumor cells enter upon the effect of different types of cell stress. Conclusions Angiogenesis represents a hallmark process that leads to cancer dissemination. Pathways that are related to angiogenesis consist of biochemical processes that occur downstream of the binding of molecules such as VEGF, PDGF, FGF, and Ang with their cognate receptors. Through studying these pathways, molecular targets for developing therapeutic strategies have emerged. Anti-angiogenic molecules have been developed and many clinical trials are underway. It is of importance for angiogenesis research in ovarian cancer to continue, since this is a promising area for devising more effective treatments against gynecological cancer. |
<gh_stars>0
package com.example.adapter;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;
import android.sax.StartElementListener;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.RelativeLayout;
import android.widget.TextView;
import com.example.adapter.HotsaleAdapter.ViewHolder;
import com.example.bean.Address;
import com.example.newapp.AddAddressActivity;
import com.example.newapp.R;
/**
* 收货地址
*
* @作者 陈籽屹
* @时间 2016年6月7日
*/
public class AddressAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
private List<Address> listdata;
private Context context;
private LayoutInflater layoutInflater;
private ViewHolder holder;
public AddressAdapter(List<Address> listdata, Context context) {
super();
this.listdata = listdata;
this.context = context;
this.layoutInflater = LayoutInflater.from(context);
}
@Override
public int getCount() {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
return listdata.size();
}
@Override
public Object getItem(int position) {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
return listdata.get(position);
}
@Override
public long getItemId(int position) {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
return position;
}
@Override
public View getView(final int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
if (convertView == null) {
holder = new ViewHolder();
convertView = layoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.add_addrees_item,
null);
holder.name = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.tv_name);
holder.dianhua = (TextView) convertView
.findViewById(R.id.tv_dianhua);
holder.dizhi = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.tv_dizhi);
holder.btn_delete = (Button) convertView
.findViewById(R.id.btn_delete);
holder.btn_edit=(Button) convertView.findViewById(R.id.btn_edit);
holder.btn_edit.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClass(context, AddAddressActivity.class);
Bundle bun = new Bundle();
bun.putSerializable("address", listdata.get(position));
bun.putString("state", "edit");
bun.putInt("position", position);
intent.putExtras(bun);
if (onChooeseListener != null) {
onChooeseListener.onChooese(position,intent);
}
}
});
holder.btn_delete.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
// TODO 自动生成的方法存根
if (onChooeseListener != null) {
onChooeseListener.onChooese(position,null);
}
}
});
convertView.setTag(holder);
} else {
convertView.getTag();
}
holder.name.setText(listdata.get(position).getLianxiren());
holder.dianhua.setText(listdata.get(position).getDianhua());
holder.dizhi.setText(listdata.get(position).getXiangxidizhi());
return convertView;
}
class ViewHolder {
TextView name;
TextView dianhua;
TextView dizhi;
Button btn_delete;
Button btn_edit;
}
public interface OnChooeseListener {
void onChooese(int position,Intent intent);
}
OnChooeseListener onChooeseListener;
public void setOnChooeseListener(OnChooeseListener onChooeseListener) {
this.onChooeseListener = onChooeseListener;
}
}
|
NFL teams joined the players, players association and commissioner in speaking out against Donald Trump's statements.
On Friday night, President Donald Trump lashed out at NFL players for their protests during the national anthem, becoming profane and saying he would like to see teams punish those who take a knee during the pregame festivity.
NFL players, the NFL Players Association and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell all had strong statements condemning Trump's comments about the league and its players.
"I would say, personally, I'm disappointed in the comments that were made. I think we need a little bit more wisdom in that office. That's being a little blunt, but that's how I feel. You know, I want that guy to be one of the smarter guys in the room. And it seems like every time he's opening his mouth, it's something that is dividing our country and not pulling us together. And that has nothing to do with my feelings about the anthem, but just my take (over the last) 24 hours. So, that's how I feel."
Steelers players, with the exception of former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva, stayed off the field during Sunday's rendition of the national anthem in Chicago.
"Football and politics don't mix easily. Fans come to NFL games to watch great competition on the playing field and that's where our focus should be."
"Professional sports offer a platform unlike any other, a platform that can bring people from a variety of backgrounds together to impact positive change in our society. As owners, it is our job to foster an environment that recognizes and appreciates diversity of thought and encourages using this platform in a constructive manner. Rather than make divisive statements, we believe in promoting thoughtful, inspiring conversation that unifies our communities. We are proud of our players, coaches and staff for the important role they play in our community, and we fully support their constitutional right to respectfully and peacefully express their beliefs."
"Over the last year ... the streets have gotten hot and there has been a lot of static in the air and recently, fuel has been added to the fire. I can no longer ask our team to not say something while they are in a Raider uniform. The only thing I can ask them to do is do it with class. Do it with pride.
"Not only do we have to tell people there is something wrong, we have to come up with answers. That’s the challenge in front of us as Americans and human beings."
"We could not be more proud, appreciative and grateful for our players."
"It's unfortunate that the President decided to use his immense platform to make divisive and offensive statements about our players and the NFL. We strongly believe that players are leaders in our communities and positive influences. They have achieved their positions through tremendous work and dedication and should be celebrated for their success and positive impact. We believe it is important to support any of our players who choose to peacefully express themselves with the hope of change for good. As Americans, we are fortunate to be able to speak openly and freely."
"I am proud to stand with our players and support them in their work on and off the football field. I completely agree with Commissioner Goodell that we are better off as a nation when we are unified and pulling together. I have seen that kind of attitude first-hand in Tennessee and across our country in the many benevolent and public-spirited efforts of our NFL players, often without any public recognition. Our players make public contributions day-in and day-out and when I hear anyone making disparaging remarks about them, I know it has to be the result of not knowing what they bring to our communities or what they have accomplished."
"I wholeheartedly agree with the commissioner's statement. The NFL and its players, more than anything, have been a force for good. What our country needs right now is a message of unity, civility and mutual respect."
“Our game has long provided a powerful platform for dialogue and positive change in many communities throughout our nation.
“Thanks primarily to our players, the NFL also has been a unifying force in our country and impactful change has and hopefully will continue to be the result of peaceful expression, done so in order to highlight social injustices of all kind. |
Is the Pentagon Messing with Texas?
The U.S. military may not be using a summer exercise to institute martial law in Texas, but Governor Greg Abbott isn't taking chances.
Texas has the rare distinction among U.S. states of having been, for a decade in the 19th century, its own nation. That history of independence, that lingering pride of sovereignty, has never really left the state, and every so often it arouses a certain suspicion of outside forces—be it Mexicans, ISIS fighters, or most frequently, the federal government. So when the U.S. military announced plans to hold an eight-week joint exercise it called Operation Jade Helm 15 in Texas and five other western states this summer, the people of Bastrop County quickly—and with the help of radio host Alex Jones and Infowars.com—saw it for what it really was: a preparation for the military to impose martial law in the Lone Star State.
Those fears grew over the course of a month, fed in part by the Army Special Operations Command's release of a map for the exercise that labeled Texas as "hostile territory."
It got to the point where the Army sent Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lastoria to brief residents of Bastrop—which is about 30 miles east of Austin—at a community meeting last month. The briefing did not go well. "We just want to hone our skills," Lastoria told the citizens, according to a clip of the meeting posted by the Austin American-Statesman. "We just need to get back to the basics and make sure we review on soldiers, our special operators, in all of their core tasks, and this exercise will help do that." He said the military was "invested in everybody's personal rights and their privacy." When one Bastrop resident spoke up to oppose the exercise and referred to it as "a martial-law program," the packed room cheered.
I would just ask everybody not to mix apples and pumpkins, ok? Let's do it that way. This institution right here has been around for over 240 years. I have transition in this uniform, various shades of it, under five presidents—all of it peacefully. You may have issues with the federal government. You may have issues with the administration. So be it. But this institution has been with you for over 240 years. Period.
Some in the crowd applauded, but not everyone was convinced. When Lastoria explicitly told one man that the exercise was "not a preparation for martial law," the skeptical Texan (who was holding a dictionary the size of a small child) replied: "That's what you say."
It appeared to be that April 27 meeting in Bastrop that persuaded Texas's rookie governor, Greg Abbott, that he had to step in. Did Abbott issue a statement reassuring his constituents that the federal government was not, in fact, laying the groundwork for a Texas takeover? No, he didn't. Abbott announced that he was directing the Texas State Guard to monitor the military exercise and ensure that Texans' “safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.” Amid a predictable backlash, the Republican governor on Monday said the state guard would merely be "a communication facilitator" and that he had "seen nothing to worry about what was going on."
Abbott joins other recent Lone Star leaders who have indulged the fantastical fears and whims of conspiracy-minded Texans. Remember the NAFTA Superhighway that Ron Paul said would lead to the creation of something called the "North American Union"? Or how about the time in 2009 when Rick Perry, Abbott's predecessor, suggested that Texas's secession from the union was not totally, completely, entirely out of the realm of possibility?
And now the federal government expects Texans to believe that the military wants to spend two months outside its capital city just for "training"?
Nice try. Texas patriots won't be fooled that easily. |
Modification in Braking Technology of Ships This paper aims to draw peoples attention towards one of the major cause of accidents at sea, its impact and the methods we can adopt to reduce the chances of accidents considerably. The paper finds slow braking rate as the key cause of maximum accidents and suggests two systems designed to increase the deceleration rate of the ships. A detailed explanation about the working and the setting up of our proposed systems ECDS (Emergency Cargo Drop Stop) and EBP (Emergency Braking Propellers) has been provided in the course of the paper. It also draws a comparison between the pros and the cons of these systems. The studys conclusion indicates the significance of these two systems and how it paves the way for further study on the application and benefits of these systems. |
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has criticized South Korea's offer to send aid for flood victims, with officials calling the amount and types of the goods an insult, North Korean state media reported Thursday.
After Pyongyang asked what aid items the South could send, Seoul on Tuesday proposed providing 10,000 tons of flour, 3 million packages of ramen noodles and medical supplies, according to South Korean officials. South Korea's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that North Korea had rejected its offer, a decision it said was "very regrettable."
The North's Red Cross Society didn't say exactly what Seoul offered to send, but it characterized it as a "negligible quantity of goods." South Korea "seriously insulted us," an unidentified spokesman for the Central Committee of the Red Cross Society said in remarks carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.
"This goes to clearly prove that the South Korean puppet group's proposal to offer aid is nothing but a gesture to gain gratitude and save its face under the public pressure," he said.
Since June, floods in North Korea have killed more than 170 people, submerged vast swaths of farmland and destroyed thousands of homes, according to state media. A recent typhoon also killed 48 people and left about 21,000 others homeless, state media said.
This isn't the first time that impoverished North Korea has turned away South Korean assistance. An offer made after floods last year was rejected by the North after Seoul refused to meet its demand to ship cement, heavy equipment and rice, which could be used for military purposes, according to South Korean officials.
The North's Red Cross Society spokesman said South Korea again persistently insisted on disallowing the offer of rice, cement and equipment for rehabilitation, according to KCNA.
Ties between the divided Koreas remain strained following two deadly attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. Pyongyang has also repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea over perceived insults.
The North was experiencing protracted drought earlier this year, raising concerns about the effect the severe weather will have on the country's farms. In June, the United Nations said two-thirds of the country's 24 million people were grappling with chronic food shortages.
Recent state media dispatches said North Korea has mobilized soldiers for recovery works at flood-hit mine areas in Komdok, Ryongyang and Taehung. Premier Choe Yong Rim also visited one of the areas to see its recovery efforts, KCNA said Tuesday. |
package com.canzs.lhjz.pojo.model;
public class WeiXinActionInfo {
private WeiXinScene scene;
public WeiXinActionInfo(WeiXinScene scene) {
super();
this.scene = scene;
}
public WeiXinActionInfo() {
super();
}
public WeiXinScene getScene() {
return scene;
}
public void setScene(WeiXinScene scene) {
this.scene = scene;
}
}
|
It's time for the increasingly famous cast to move on.
Girls—the show that helped launch the acting careers of Lena Dunham and Adam Driver—will be ending after Season 6. It might be time those girls grew up.
According to The Hollywood Reporter the show’s sixth season—which would air in 2017—will be its last. HBO has yet to comment. It makes sense that the increasingly famous and busy cast would be ready to move on from the show that started it all. HBO has certainly been making plans for this eventuality; their 2016 slate is full of new comedies like High Maintenance, Vice Principals, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Divorced. Along with returning favorites like Veep, Togetherness, and Silicon Valley, the HBO comedy dance card is looking healthy even without one of their most talked-about shows.
I would say season five — I’m hoping, will really inform how much further we want to go. Once we figure out what season five is, we’ll know whether it’s another year. Maybe it’s just one more year, maybe we wrap it up in six. It all depends. But also we’re not in the business of running it into the ground. We would like to end in a graceful place. And we’d like to tell a complete story. What that means is that we really have to start building towards an end soon, creatively.
The Girls team will still be plenty busy once the show goes off air. Dunham and Konner are co-creating a new HBO comedy, Max while Girls cast members pop up everywhere these days. Be it Alex Karpovsky in the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, Zosia Mamet in Todd Solondz’s Weiner-Dog or Driver in everything from Scorsese to SNL, the faces of Girls will be around for a long time to come. Season 5 of Girls premieres February 21 on HBO. |
// Data-flow analysis is now complete. Any begin_access remaining in
// nonNestedBeginAccessInstructions can be marked "non-nested".
//
// Note: If we later support marking begin_unpaired_access [no_nested_conflict],
// then we also need to remove any corresponding end_unpaired_access. That can
// be done either by recording the end_unpaired_access instructions during
// analysis and deleting them here in the same order, or sorting them here by
// their begin_unpaired_access index.
void AccessFolding::foldNonNestedAccesses() {
for (auto &beginAccessAndInfo : beginAccessMap) {
BeginAccessInst *beginAccess = beginAccessAndInfo.first;
AccessInfo &info = beginAccessAndInfo.second;
if (info.seenNestedConflict())
continue;
beginAccess->setNoNestedConflict(true);
}
} |
package com.baoying.enginex.executor.config;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor;
import redis.clients.jedis.JedisPool;
import redis.clients.jedis.JedisPoolConfig;
import javax.annotation.Resource;
import java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor;
@Configuration
public class ConfigurationContainor {
@Resource
private ConfigHolder configHolder;
@Bean(name = "threadPoolTaskExecutor")
ThreadPoolTaskExecutor threadPoolTaskExecutor(){
ThreadPoolTaskExecutor executor = new ThreadPoolTaskExecutor();
executor.setCorePoolSize(2000);
executor.setMaxPoolSize(10000);
executor.setQueueCapacity(100000);
executor.setRejectedExecutionHandler(new ThreadPoolExecutor.AbortPolicy());
return executor;
}
@Bean(name = "jedisPool")
public JedisPool jedisPool(){
JedisPoolConfig config = new JedisPoolConfig();
config.setMaxTotal(configHolder.getRedisMaxTotal());
config.setMaxIdle(configHolder.getRedisMaxIdle());
config.setMaxWaitMillis(configHolder.getRedisMaxWait());
config.setTestOnBorrow(true);
// config.setTestOnReturn(true);
JedisPool pool = new JedisPool(config,
configHolder.getRedisHost(),
configHolder.getRedisPort(),
configHolder.getRedisTimeout(),
configHolder.getRedisPwd(),
configHolder.getRedisDb());
return pool;
}
}
|
<filename>lib/message_test.go
/*
* CliGo Project
* Copyright (c) 2021 <NAME>
* MIT License
*/
package lib
import (
"github.com/guildenstern70/cligo/lib/termcolor"
"testing"
)
func TestMessage_Run(t *testing.T) {
var cmd = NewMessage("")
var errorCode = cmd.Run(nil)
if errorCode == 0 {
t.Logf("Default Message Cmd " + termcolor.Cyan + "OK" + termcolor.Reset)
} else {
t.Errorf("Default Message Cmd " + termcolor.Red + "not working" + termcolor.Reset)
}
}
|
Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Narra (Pterocarpus indicus Willd.) Populations From Various Seed Sources in the Philippines Using RAPD Pterocarpus indicus Willd. (narra), a critically endangered group, is one of the priority species for conservation and reforestation in the Philippines due to its economic, industrial, and ecological importance. A range of 29 to 40 individual samples from each of six seed sources from the Philippines were tested for genetic diversity using 11 RAPD markers. A total of 134 loci were detected, 129 of which were polymorphic. The mean genetic diversity within population was found to be moderate at 0.3183, which could be attributed to the deciduous and outcrossing nature of narra. The genetic differentiation among populations (0.0575) and Wrights Fixation Index (0.1528) suggests nearness of the populations to each other and distance from fixation of alternative alleles in the populations. The genetic distance and cluster analysis did not conform to geographical distribution, but revealed the relationships and the possible origin/s of the individuals of the populations. The results of the study is useful in the selection of sources of good planting materials for the improvement of narra tree in the Philippines. |
Suppression of tensin 2 promotes intestinal tumorigenesis by liberating integrin-linked kinase-induced nuclear translocation of -catenin. Tensin 2 (TNS2) is a focal adhesion-localized multidomain protein expressed in various tissues. TNS2 expression significantly decreases in many tumor cell lines, and low TNS2 expression is associated with a poorer relapse-free survival in some cancers, suggesting that the loss of TNS2 may be related to tumor progression. Deregulation of Wnt/-catenin signaling is frequently observed in colorectal cancer. In the present study, we found that TNS2 negatively regulated Wnt signaling by suppressing the nuclear translocation of -catenin by reducing integrin-linked kinase (ILK) activity in colon cancer cell lines. To investigate the role of TNS2 in intestinal tumorigenesis in vivo, we introduced Tns2 mutation into Apc Min /+ mouse, a model of human familial adenomatous polyposis. The compound mutant mice showed a significant increase in tumor number and size in the small intestine and colon. Thus, this study may contribute to the discovery of novel mechanisms underlying cancer malignancy, and pave the way for the development of treatment strategies for intestinal cancers. |
The Timing of Angel Mounds Palisade Construction A Search for the Best Chronological Model Abstract Angel Mounds was a heavily fortified Mississippian settlement with several discrete palisades. Although the palisades were identified early on, the construction sequence has remained elusive because the construction episodes do not have stratigraphic relationships with one another. Recent work at the site reexamined old test excavations and collected new material for radiocarbon dating. AMS dating yielded a suite of new dates from palisade contexts. To refine the construction sequence, five Bayesian chronological models were constructed for palisade building. These models indicate that palisades were first built at Angel Mounds sometime between A.D. 1278 and A.D. 1410, which precedes or coincides with regional depopulation in the lower Ohio River valley. These results further indicate that palisade building at Angel Mounds may be a consequence of external competition and conflict caused by resource-induced stress resulting from deteriorating climatic conditions. |
<filename>src/main/java/ecs/Constants.java
package ecs;
public class Constants {
public static final int MAP_X_TILES = 75;
public static final int MAP_Y_TILES = 75;
public static final int BACKGROUND_MAP_IMAGE_WIDTH = 800;
public static final int BACKGROUND_MAP_IMAGE_HEIGHT = 800;
public static final double MAP_CREATION_FACTOR = 0.03;
public static final int CREATURE_DIAMETER = 20;
public static final int TARGET_CANVAS_FRAME_RATE = 60;
public static final int REFRESH_CANVAS_FRAME = 1;
}
|
<filename>internal/repository/entgo/ent/detectionjob_create.go
// Code generated by entc, DO NOT EDIT.
package ent
import (
"context"
"errors"
"fmt"
"time"
"entgo.io/ent/dialect/sql/sqlgraph"
"entgo.io/ent/schema/field"
"github.com/DanielTitkov/anomaly-detection-service/internal/repository/entgo/ent/detectionjob"
"github.com/DanielTitkov/anomaly-detection-service/internal/repository/entgo/ent/detectionjobinstance"
)
// DetectionJobCreate is the builder for creating a DetectionJob entity.
type DetectionJobCreate struct {
config
mutation *DetectionJobMutation
hooks []Hook
}
// SetCreateTime sets the "create_time" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetCreateTime(t time.Time) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetCreateTime(t)
return djc
}
// SetNillableCreateTime sets the "create_time" field if the given value is not nil.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetNillableCreateTime(t *time.Time) *DetectionJobCreate {
if t != nil {
djc.SetCreateTime(*t)
}
return djc
}
// SetUpdateTime sets the "update_time" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetUpdateTime(t time.Time) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetUpdateTime(t)
return djc
}
// SetNillableUpdateTime sets the "update_time" field if the given value is not nil.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetNillableUpdateTime(t *time.Time) *DetectionJobCreate {
if t != nil {
djc.SetUpdateTime(*t)
}
return djc
}
// SetSchedule sets the "schedule" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetSchedule(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetSchedule(s)
return djc
}
// SetNillableSchedule sets the "schedule" field if the given value is not nil.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetNillableSchedule(s *string) *DetectionJobCreate {
if s != nil {
djc.SetSchedule(*s)
}
return djc
}
// SetMethod sets the "method" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetMethod(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetMethod(s)
return djc
}
// SetSiteID sets the "site_id" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetSiteID(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetSiteID(s)
return djc
}
// SetMetric sets the "metric" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetMetric(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetMetric(s)
return djc
}
// SetAttribute sets the "attribute" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetAttribute(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetAttribute(s)
return djc
}
// SetTimeAgo sets the "time_ago" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetTimeAgo(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetTimeAgo(s)
return djc
}
// SetTimeStep sets the "time_step" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetTimeStep(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetTimeStep(s)
return djc
}
// SetDescription sets the "description" field.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetDescription(s string) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.SetDescription(s)
return djc
}
// SetNillableDescription sets the "description" field if the given value is not nil.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SetNillableDescription(s *string) *DetectionJobCreate {
if s != nil {
djc.SetDescription(*s)
}
return djc
}
// AddInstanceIDs adds the "instance" edge to the DetectionJobInstance entity by IDs.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) AddInstanceIDs(ids ...int) *DetectionJobCreate {
djc.mutation.AddInstanceIDs(ids...)
return djc
}
// AddInstance adds the "instance" edges to the DetectionJobInstance entity.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) AddInstance(d ...*DetectionJobInstance) *DetectionJobCreate {
ids := make([]int, len(d))
for i := range d {
ids[i] = d[i].ID
}
return djc.AddInstanceIDs(ids...)
}
// Mutation returns the DetectionJobMutation object of the builder.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) Mutation() *DetectionJobMutation {
return djc.mutation
}
// Save creates the DetectionJob in the database.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) Save(ctx context.Context) (*DetectionJob, error) {
var (
err error
node *DetectionJob
)
djc.defaults()
if len(djc.hooks) == 0 {
if err = djc.check(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
node, err = djc.sqlSave(ctx)
} else {
var mut Mutator = MutateFunc(func(ctx context.Context, m Mutation) (Value, error) {
mutation, ok := m.(*DetectionJobMutation)
if !ok {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("unexpected mutation type %T", m)
}
if err = djc.check(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
djc.mutation = mutation
node, err = djc.sqlSave(ctx)
mutation.done = true
return node, err
})
for i := len(djc.hooks) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
mut = djc.hooks[i](mut)
}
if _, err := mut.Mutate(ctx, djc.mutation); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
}
return node, err
}
// SaveX calls Save and panics if Save returns an error.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) SaveX(ctx context.Context) *DetectionJob {
v, err := djc.Save(ctx)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
return v
}
// defaults sets the default values of the builder before save.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) defaults() {
if _, ok := djc.mutation.CreateTime(); !ok {
v := detectionjob.DefaultCreateTime()
djc.mutation.SetCreateTime(v)
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.UpdateTime(); !ok {
v := detectionjob.DefaultUpdateTime()
djc.mutation.SetUpdateTime(v)
}
}
// check runs all checks and user-defined validators on the builder.
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) check() error {
if _, ok := djc.mutation.CreateTime(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "create_time", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"create_time\"")}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.UpdateTime(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "update_time", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"update_time\"")}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.Method(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "method", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"method\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.Method(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.MethodValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "method", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"method\": %w", err)}
}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.SiteID(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "site_id", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"site_id\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.SiteID(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.SiteIDValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "site_id", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"site_id\": %w", err)}
}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.Metric(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "metric", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"metric\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.Metric(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.MetricValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "metric", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"metric\": %w", err)}
}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.Attribute(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "attribute", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"attribute\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.Attribute(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.AttributeValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "attribute", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"attribute\": %w", err)}
}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.TimeAgo(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "time_ago", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"time_ago\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.TimeAgo(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.TimeAgoValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "time_ago", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"time_ago\": %w", err)}
}
}
if _, ok := djc.mutation.TimeStep(); !ok {
return &ValidationError{Name: "time_step", err: errors.New("ent: missing required field \"time_step\"")}
}
if v, ok := djc.mutation.TimeStep(); ok {
if err := detectionjob.TimeStepValidator(v); err != nil {
return &ValidationError{Name: "time_step", err: fmt.Errorf("ent: validator failed for field \"time_step\": %w", err)}
}
}
return nil
}
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) sqlSave(ctx context.Context) (*DetectionJob, error) {
_node, _spec := djc.createSpec()
if err := sqlgraph.CreateNode(ctx, djc.driver, _spec); err != nil {
if cerr, ok := isSQLConstraintError(err); ok {
err = cerr
}
return nil, err
}
id := _spec.ID.Value.(int64)
_node.ID = int(id)
return _node, nil
}
func (djc *DetectionJobCreate) createSpec() (*DetectionJob, *sqlgraph.CreateSpec) {
var (
_node = &DetectionJob{config: djc.config}
_spec = &sqlgraph.CreateSpec{
Table: detectionjob.Table,
ID: &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeInt,
Column: detectionjob.FieldID,
},
}
)
if value, ok := djc.mutation.CreateTime(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeTime,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldCreateTime,
})
_node.CreateTime = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.UpdateTime(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeTime,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldUpdateTime,
})
_node.UpdateTime = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.Schedule(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldSchedule,
})
_node.Schedule = &value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.Method(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldMethod,
})
_node.Method = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.SiteID(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldSiteID,
})
_node.SiteID = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.Metric(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldMetric,
})
_node.Metric = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.Attribute(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldAttribute,
})
_node.Attribute = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.TimeAgo(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldTimeAgo,
})
_node.TimeAgo = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.TimeStep(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldTimeStep,
})
_node.TimeStep = value
}
if value, ok := djc.mutation.Description(); ok {
_spec.Fields = append(_spec.Fields, &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeString,
Value: value,
Column: detectionjob.FieldDescription,
})
_node.Description = value
}
if nodes := djc.mutation.InstanceIDs(); len(nodes) > 0 {
edge := &sqlgraph.EdgeSpec{
Rel: sqlgraph.O2M,
Inverse: false,
Table: detectionjob.InstanceTable,
Columns: []string{detectionjob.InstanceColumn},
Bidi: false,
Target: &sqlgraph.EdgeTarget{
IDSpec: &sqlgraph.FieldSpec{
Type: field.TypeInt,
Column: detectionjobinstance.FieldID,
},
},
}
for _, k := range nodes {
edge.Target.Nodes = append(edge.Target.Nodes, k)
}
_spec.Edges = append(_spec.Edges, edge)
}
return _node, _spec
}
// DetectionJobCreateBulk is the builder for creating many DetectionJob entities in bulk.
type DetectionJobCreateBulk struct {
config
builders []*DetectionJobCreate
}
// Save creates the DetectionJob entities in the database.
func (djcb *DetectionJobCreateBulk) Save(ctx context.Context) ([]*DetectionJob, error) {
specs := make([]*sqlgraph.CreateSpec, len(djcb.builders))
nodes := make([]*DetectionJob, len(djcb.builders))
mutators := make([]Mutator, len(djcb.builders))
for i := range djcb.builders {
func(i int, root context.Context) {
builder := djcb.builders[i]
builder.defaults()
var mut Mutator = MutateFunc(func(ctx context.Context, m Mutation) (Value, error) {
mutation, ok := m.(*DetectionJobMutation)
if !ok {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("unexpected mutation type %T", m)
}
if err := builder.check(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
builder.mutation = mutation
nodes[i], specs[i] = builder.createSpec()
var err error
if i < len(mutators)-1 {
_, err = mutators[i+1].Mutate(root, djcb.builders[i+1].mutation)
} else {
// Invoke the actual operation on the latest mutation in the chain.
if err = sqlgraph.BatchCreate(ctx, djcb.driver, &sqlgraph.BatchCreateSpec{Nodes: specs}); err != nil {
if cerr, ok := isSQLConstraintError(err); ok {
err = cerr
}
}
}
mutation.done = true
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
id := specs[i].ID.Value.(int64)
nodes[i].ID = int(id)
return nodes[i], nil
})
for i := len(builder.hooks) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
mut = builder.hooks[i](mut)
}
mutators[i] = mut
}(i, ctx)
}
if len(mutators) > 0 {
if _, err := mutators[0].Mutate(ctx, djcb.builders[0].mutation); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
}
return nodes, nil
}
// SaveX is like Save, but panics if an error occurs.
func (djcb *DetectionJobCreateBulk) SaveX(ctx context.Context) []*DetectionJob {
v, err := djcb.Save(ctx)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
return v
}
|
<filename>sample/FileManager/src/com/example/filemanager/SharelinksContainer.java
/**
* Copyright 2014 STRATO AG
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package com.example.filemanager;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import android.util.Log;
import com.strato.hidrive.api.HiDriveRestClient;
import com.strato.hidrive.api.connection.gateway.DomainGatewayResult;
import com.strato.hidrive.api.connection.gateway.interfaces.DomainGatewayHandler;
import com.strato.hidrive.api.dal.FileInfo;
import com.strato.hidrive.api.dal.ShareLinkEntity;
public class SharelinksContainer {
private static SharelinksContainer instance;
private List<ShareLinkEntity> shareLinks = new ArrayList<ShareLinkEntity>();
private OnSharelinksLoadedListener listener;
public interface OnSharelinksLoadedListener {
void onSharelinksLoaded();
}
private SharelinksContainer() {
super();
}
public static SharelinksContainer getInstance() {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new SharelinksContainer();
}
return instance;
}
public void loadShareLinks(HiDriveRestClient hdRestClient) {
hdRestClient.loadShareLinks(new DomainGatewayHandler<List<ShareLinkEntity>>() {
@Override
public void handleDomainGatewayResult(DomainGatewayResult<List<ShareLinkEntity>> result) {
if (result.getGatewayError() != null) {
Log.e(SharelinksContainer.class.getSimpleName(), result.getGatewayError().getErrorMessage());
} else {
SharelinksContainer.this.shareLinks = result.getResult();
if (listener != null) {
listener.onSharelinksLoaded();
}
}
}
});
}
public List<ShareLinkEntity> getShareLinks() {
return shareLinks;
}
public void setListener(OnSharelinksLoadedListener listener) {
this.listener = listener;
}
public ShareLinkEntity getSharelinkForFile(FileInfo fileInfo) {
for (ShareLinkEntity sharelink : shareLinks) {
if (sharelink.getPath().equals(fileInfo.getFullPath())) {
return sharelink;
}
}
return null;
}
}
|
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Government will be spending $116.8 million over four years to undertake a comprehensive review of the education system.
This follows Cabinet's approval for Jamaica to participate in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2021.
Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid, made the disclosure at Wednesday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
Jamaica established a task force in 2004 to review and evaluate the education system.
“Since then, however, there has been no further comprehensive review of our education system,” he noted.
PISA is an international assessment measuring student performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy.
“It focuses on the ability of students to apply unfamiliar contexts and facilitates the gathering of information pertaining to the education system, and ultimately assists in enriching data analysis,” Reid explained.
He noted that the triennial survey will facilitate the evaluation and ranking of the Jamaican education system against other countries.
Reid said that PISA's reach globally has steadily increased from 42 to 80 nations. Trinidad and Tobago is the only other state in the English-speaking Caribbean currently participating in PISA. |
def has_code_execution_as_user(description, cvssv3):
necessary_condition = [
"include and execute arbitrary local php files",
"execute arbitrary code",
"command injection",
"execute files",
"run arbitrary code",
"execute a malicious file",
"execution of arbitrary code",
"remote execution of arbitrary php code",
"execute code",
"code injection vulnerability",
"execute any code",
"malicious file could be then executed on the affected system",
"inject arbitrary commands",
"execute arbitrary files",
"inject arbitrary sql code",
"run the setuid executable",
"vbscript injection",
"execute administrative operations",
"performs arbitrary actions",
"submit arbitrary requests to an affected device",
"perform arbitrary actions on an affected device",
"executes an arbitrary program",
"attacker can upload a malicious payload",
"execute malicious code",
"modify sql commands to the portal server",
"execute arbitrary os commands",
"execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges",
"execute administrator commands",
"executed with administrator privileges",
"remote procedure calls on the affected system",
"run a specially crafted application on a targeted system",
"execute arbitrary code in a privileged context",
"execute arbitrary code with super-user privileges",
"run processes in an elevated context",
]
for phrase in necessary_condition:
if phrase in description:
return True
if "sql injection" in description and \
cvssv3['i'] == "HIGH" and \
cvssv3['c'] == "HIGH" and \
"blind sql injection" not in description:
return True
required_verbs = [
" execut",
" run ",
' inject'
]
required_nouns = [
" code ",
" command",
"arbitrary script",
" code."
]
if test_incidence(description, required_nouns) and \
test_incidence(description, required_verbs):
return True
return False |
Drift mechanism caused by a nonlinear wave and the Cassini Division and Uranian rings formation. The mechanism leading to the observed coexistence of gaps and narrow ringlets in the planetary rings is found. It is based upon the quasi-stationary radial drift of the matter under action of two forces in the disk plane: the Coriolis force and the Reynolds stresses. To an accuracy of the factor of 2 the first force coincides with the Lorentz force, therefore the radial drift in rings is similar to the gradient drift of plasma in the magnetic field. The second force is produced by the wave generated by the nearby satellite in the resonance position. In inertial systems, the second force alone causes a matter flow in its direction, called acoustic streaming. Since the radial drift is caused by nonlinear time-averaged force of high-frequency harmonic interactions in the wave, it exists in the wave propagation zone: from the birth place of the wave-the resonance position, up to the reflection point of the wave, where its group velocity vanishes. Our estimations show that the size of the density wave propagation zone corresponding to the density wave which had been formerly generated the 2:1 orbital resonance with Mimas is consistent with the width of the Cassini Division. In our case the nature of the radial drift is such that first of all it clears out the farthest from the resonance position; later, the closer areas also get affected by the drift. The zone closest to the resonance position itself is the last to be involved in the process. The matter carried away by the drift is partially accumulated near the resonance position forming a narrow dense ringlet. (c) 1996 American Institute of Physics. |
PhD Forum Abstract: Privacy-preserving Data Collection and Sharing in Smart Spaces While the expanding Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem provides services that improve space operation efficiency and benefit individuals, its pervasive monitoring ability also causes serious privacy concerns. Recently, an increasing number of privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) have been proposed to regulate data controllers who own the space and collect data. The data controllers are mandated to enforce appropriate privacy-preserving mechanisms before the data is released or used for any purpose. However, facilitating the regulations in a smart space faces challenges like an untrusted execution environment, lack of a privacy-compliant data model, and limited computing resources at the edge. This extended abstract explores the issues by discussing our experience with instrumenting a real-world campus-scale IoT testbed. We then propose a system for attestable data collection, privacy-preserving data sharing, and efficient data processing at the edge. |
Want a job? Investment banks aren't hiring right now, but if you're interested in the new wave of energy exploration (underwater or on wind-swept ridges), in digital tech (like game design and 3D sportscasts) or even in building spaceships, we have some leads for you. Welcome to the PM job fair.
Arc welding underwater with electrodes carrying 185 amps might seem unwise, but deep-diving wet welders do it every day. They build and repair pipelines and oil platforms--in January 2009 there were 313 new bids worth $484 million in the western Gulf of Mexico alone. Dusty Harrison, placement director for a Florida school called the Commercial Diving Academy, says, "There's no telling how much work there is," thanks to a decade of hurricanes and a boom in oil exploration. During the Gulf 's hurricane season, some welders work in West Africa and Asia.
How to Do It: Oil companies hire dive outfits with welders certified by the Association of Commercial Diving Educators. Schools such as the Commercial Diving Academy and New Jersey's Divers Academy International have four- to five-month certification courses. Swimming ability and a high school diploma are prerequisites; scuba diving isn't.
Earning Potential: Right out of school, you'll pull in $17 to $20 an hour. "After two and a half or three years, that typically doubles," Harrison says.
Some houses now being built make as much energy as they consume. They rely on equipment such as solar cells to generate power, while using efficient design to keep consumption down. Michelle Kaufmann, an architect in Oakland, Calif., is bringing the zero-energy idea and other forms of sustainable design to prefab houses such as her mkLotus, a small, one-bedroom home. (Kaufmann worked for architecture legend Frank Gehry before founding her own firm in 2002.) Kermit Baker, an economist for the American Institute of Architects (AIA), says, "Sustainability and architecture are now intertwined." In a recent AIA survey, architects reported that 47 percent of their clients in 2008 used green building elements. Despite the housing slump, Kaufmann says her 15-person staff is swamped: "We have more projects than ever before."
Earning Potential: Nationally, staff architects earn about $45,000 to $100,000. Architects who own their firms can make much more.
Jim Bondi is an old-school electrician who embraces new-school energy production. After eight years working on projects that included solar installations, he joined Pennsylvania-based E-Finity, designing combined heat and power (CHP) plants. A CHP unit saves energy by burning fuel to produce electricity and using the excess heat for climate control and producing hot water. "With the nation's rising energy demand and the increase in environmental stewardship, CHP is an economic and environmental no-brainer," Bondi says. The Department of Energy hopes the industry will grow enough to add a million workers by 2030.
How to Do It: CHP suppliers provide training. Electricians and mechanics with experience on jet and helicopter engines, which are similar to CHP turbines, find their skills are a natural fit.
Earning Potential: Salaries are $30,000 out of the gate; they top out at $75,000.
When the Coronado naval base in San Diego wanted to shrink its energy consumption, it turned to the consulting firm Tetra Tech, whose energy-efficiency staff has grown sixtyfold in the past decade. "The naval base is like a small city, with office buildings, a supermarket, bowling alleys," says Linda Hunter, a Tetra Tech energy engineer who was brought in to boost efficiency on the base and its two aircraft carriers. Energy engineers may recommend new air-conditioning equipment or solar-powered streetlights, or they may design entire renewable-energy systems, such as harnessing methane from a landfill to generate electricity.
How to Do It: Earn a degree in chemical, mechanical, electrical or civil engineering--or a newer specialty called energy resources engineering. A Certified Energy Manager (CEM) certification is useful; it demands expertise in subjects like indoor air quality codes and standards, thermal energy storage systems and energy economics.
Earning Potential: Salaries start in the $50,000 range; with a master's, you'll get bumped up to around $70,000. Managers can pull in more than $100,000.
Red teamers focused on digital security are hired to hack into computer systems to uncover vulnerabilities. The Department of Homeland Security plans to quadruple its cyber-security staff this year. Mark Mateski, a red teamer and the managing editor of Red Team Journal, says, "You'll find a lot of red teamers working in war gaming and cyber security in the government-contracting world." Even bigger growth may be coming in the private sector: "If your business's survival depends on cyber security, you're going to start looking for unconventional answers," he says.
How to Do It: Programming skills are a must; a degree in computer science is helpful in landing a job. The Center for Cyber Defenders Program at New Mexico's Sandia National Laboratories offers specific red-team training.
Earning Potential: $60,000 to start on the government and government-contract side; six-figure salaries are common in the private sector.
Many fans already say they get a better view of sports events watching TV than sitting near the action, but 3D cements the argument. At least, that's the view of Steve Schklair, CEO of Burbank-based 3ality Digital Systems, a company specializing in 3D technology and production. "If you've got a camera down low next to the green and the golfer is putting uphill, you can actually see the roll of the green while he's putting," he says. Ray Hannisian, the company's lead stereographer, uses software running complex sets of algorithms to fine-tune and synchronize the depth readings of as many as 10 cameras during events. The technology raised its profile during this year's national college football championships, which 3ality shot and broadcast live to 63 movie theaters in January. Such broadcasts will soon be coming to a living room near you: American consumers have already bought 1.4 million 3D-compatible televisions, and every major electronics manufacturer is now producing such sets. Of course, the best-known 3D arena remains moviemaking. More than a dozen 3D movies are scheduled for release in 2009.
How to Do It: You can master 3D still photography on your own using a program like HumanEyes Capture 3D Software. Also, take classes in digital videography (art schools and university film programs offer them), then look for a job as a 2D cameraman. "With digital technology, you can learn a lot about 3D while you're actually shooting," Hannisian says.
Earning Potential: Salaries start at $50,000 and can go as high as $150,000 for television work. For the elite earners in 3D movie production, Schklair says, "There is no limit."
Siting a wind farm takes engineering chops, anemometers, GPS skills and, sometimes, zinc oxide on your nose.
When civil and environmental engineer Mathias Craig arrived in Nicaragua in 2004, he found a stretch of Caribbean coastline where transportation consisted of horses and boats and there wasn't a single light bulb. "It was like the Wild West 200 years ago," he says. As founders of the nonprofit Blue Energy Group, Craig and his brother organized volunteers to build wind turbines to catch the Caribbean trade winds and supply several com-munities with electricity. Hugh Piggott, a Scotland-based wind-energy pioneer, has worked on similar projects in Zimbabwe, Peru and Sri Lanka. "One of the places wind energy is expanding most rapidly is the developing world," he says. "The number of people in the world who don't have utility power is actually increasing." That's because the population in many regions is growing faster than grid lines and new power plants can be constructed. Craig and his staff of 32 have already installed nine turbines in Nicaragua. They've also scouted sites in West Africa, and they're in talks to expand into Honduras and Guatemala.
How to Do It: Texas Tech University's Wind Science and Engineering Research Center offers a summer internship for undergrads and has one of the country's few Ph.D. programs in the field. However, it's possible to jump in without an advanced degree. Piggott teaches turbine-building seminars worldwide; Blue Energy has an apprenticeship program in Nicaragua.
Earning Potential: Nonprofit firms based in developing countries pay from $1000 to $4000 per month. Annual salaries in the U.S. currently range from $35,000 to $55,000.
"We're like the shipbuilders of the modern era," Reuben Garcia says. As head composite fabricator at XCOR, an aerospace company in Mojave, Calif., Garcia is deeply engaged in the race to make ships capable of carrying tourists into space. Garcia and his team take the plans drawn by XCOR's engineers and make them real, using lightweight carbon composites similar to the materials used everywhere from Formula One race cars to high-end fishing rods. Composite structures are built up layer by layer, and Garcia's high-tech creations are shaped largely with such low-tech tools as squeegees filled with epoxy resin. XCOR, which plans to conduct test flights to space by 2011, is situated in a tiny town that has become a hotbed for spaceship and small-airplane construction. "You can walk into any of the 20 or so companies here and have a job in an hour," says Jon Sharp, owner of Nemesis Air Racing, which builds racing planes.
How to Do It: Many companies will train newbies. However, community colleges can offer a head start with introductory courses in composite fabrication.
Earning Potential: Pay starts low but can climb to $20 per hour. Managers who go on to earn engineering degrees can make up to $100,000 a year.
Will Gardner was a freshly minted college graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering when he was hired by Duracell. "I had no idea what a battery company could want with a mechanical engineer," Gardner says, but he was drawn to the field, which combines elements of electrical engineering, chemistry, materials science and, yes, mechanical engineering. "You need to know something about each of them in order to succeed," he says. Today, Gardner leads a team that designs, builds and tests batteries for hybrid electric cars at A123 Systems, a fast-growing firm based in Watertown, Mass. A123's clients include Chrysler, GM and automotive upstarts Think and Better Place, and the company's staff has jumped from 150 to 2000 in the past three years. Ann Marie Sastry, who directs the University of Michigan's master's program in energy systems engineering, says, "The DNA of the automobile is changing, which means the composition of the workforce has to change." Sastry also runs her own battery company, called Sakti3. "We're hiring," she says. "It's a great time to be a battery guy."
How to Do It: A bachelor's in math, materials science or engineering is essential. Sastry's program is very highly regarded: "Students are getting jobs even before they finish their studies," she says.
Earning Potential: To start, $50,000 to $60,000; at the senior level, $95,000.
It took Kyle Gabler just four days to come up with the concept for his first video game, and, frankly, it didn't seem like a blockbuster waiting to happen: The protagonists are gobs of goo. But in the growing world of independent game design, execution is key--and Gabler created a look that has drawn comparisons to filmmaker Tim Burton, supporting a story filled with intrigue and humor. The prototype became an indie hit, and in October 2008 Gabler launched the Nintendo Wii game World of Goo (above). In an era of sequels (a dozen Medal of Honor games, eight iterations of Grand Theft Auto), the industry needs fresh ideas--and supplying them has traditionally been a designer's main job. But as Simon Carless, publisher of the industry website Gamasutra and a former lead designer, says, "Now designers also need practical skills. You need to be able to make the game."
How to Do It: More than 200 schools offer game-design degrees, including the Art Institute of Portland, which graduates students with a B.S. in Visual and Game Programming. But consumer tech is so good now that you may be able to go it alone. "You can make stuff in your bedroom that's as good as what people are making professionally," Carless says. Art, music and coding skills are all critical.
Earning Potential: Staff designers start at an average of $62,000, according to a survey by gamecareerguide.com. On your own, it's feast or famine. Gabler was incomeless while designing World of Goo. In January, it became the 10th-best-selling PC game on the market. |
// List returns list of applications
func (s *Server) List(ctx context.Context, q *application.ApplicationQuery) (*appv1.ApplicationList, error) {
labelsMap, err := labels.ConvertSelectorToLabelsMap(q.Selector)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
apps, err := s.appLister.List(labelsMap.AsSelector())
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
newItems := make([]appv1.Application, 0)
for _, a := range apps {
if s.enf.Enforce(ctx.Value("claims"), rbacpolicy.ResourceApplications, rbacpolicy.ActionGet, appRBACName(*a)) {
newItems = append(newItems, *a)
}
}
newItems = argoutil.FilterByProjects(newItems, q.Projects)
sort.Slice(newItems, func(i, j int) bool {
return newItems[i].Name < newItems[j].Name
})
appList := appv1.ApplicationList{
ListMeta: metav1.ListMeta{
ResourceVersion: s.appInformer.LastSyncResourceVersion(),
},
Items: newItems,
}
return &appList, nil
} |
/*
* The contents of this file are subject to the license and copyright
* detailed in the LICENSE and NOTICE files at the root of the source
* tree and available online at
*
* http://duracloud.org/license/
*/
package org.duracloud.storage.domain;
import org.duracloud.common.util.EncryptionUtil;
import org.jdom.Element;
/**
*
* @author <NAME>
*
*/
public class DatabaseConfigXmlUtil {
public static Element marshall(DatabaseConfig millDbConfig, String elementName) {
EncryptionUtil encryptionUtil = new EncryptionUtil();
Element db = new Element(elementName);
String host = millDbConfig.getHost();
if (null != host) {
db.addContent(new Element("host").setText(host));
}
int port = millDbConfig.getPort();
db.addContent(new Element("port").setText(port + ""));
String name = millDbConfig.getName();
if (null != name) {
db.addContent(new Element("name").setText(name));
}
String username = millDbConfig.getUsername();
if (null != username) {
db.addContent(new Element("username").setText(username));
}
String password = <PASSWORD>();
if (null != password) {
db.addContent(new Element("password").setText(encryptionUtil.encrypt(password)));
}
return db;
}
public static DatabaseConfig unmarshalDatabaseConfig(Element dbConfigElement) {
EncryptionUtil encryptionUtil = new EncryptionUtil();
DatabaseConfig millDbConfig = new DatabaseConfig();
String host = dbConfigElement.getChildText("host");
if(null != host) {
millDbConfig.setHost(host);
}
String port = dbConfigElement.getChildText("port");
if(null != port) {
millDbConfig.setPort(Integer.parseInt(port));
}
String name = dbConfigElement.getChildText("name");
if(null != name) {
millDbConfig.setName(name);
}
String username = dbConfigElement.getChildText("username");
if(null != username) {
millDbConfig.setUsername(username);
}
String password = dbConfigElement.getChildText("password");
if(null != password) {
millDbConfig.setPassword(encryptionUtil.decrypt(password));
}
return millDbConfig;
}
}
|
Use of Polytetrafluoroethylene Grafts in Elderly and HighRisk Patients Despite well established methods of vascular surgery, the elderly patient has not been considered a candidate for operation because of a high operative risk and a limited life expectancy. Simplified surgical procedures and the use of new graft material now permit vascular reconstruction with minimal injury to the tissues, little blood loss, and a short operative time. The immediate postoperative mortality after vascular surgery in 68 patients 70 to 88 years of age threatened with immediate amputation was 3%. Seventy-five percent of the limbs were intact 12 months after operation and 55% after 24 months. Thus when amputation of ischemic extremities seems unavoidable, a vascular reconstruction should always be considered even in elderly patients. |
Aspects of surgical treatment for malignant melanoma: the place of biopsy and wide excision. Biopsy of melanoma is discussed in respect of the operator, the adequacy of biopsy, and the time delay till wide excision; statistics are taken from a series of 509 patients with this disease who had their definitive surgery and review at the Peter MacCallum Clinic between 1954 and 1973. Wide excision is described in respect of its origins and its proponents, and discussion draws on appropriate material from the series. |
/**
* FXML Controller class
*
* @author jorgeespinoza
*/
public class MovimientosController implements Initializable {
/**
* Initializes the controller class.
*/
public static final String viewPath = "/com/sigad/sigad/movimientos/view/movimientos.fxml";
public static String windowName = "Movimientos de Tienda";
@FXML
private JFXTreeTableView<Movement> movimientosTbl;
static ObservableList<Movement> data;
/*Extras*/
@FXML
public static StackPane movementDialog;
@FXML
private JFXTextField filtro;
@Override
public void initialize(URL url, ResourceBundle rb) {
data = FXCollections.observableArrayList();
initMovementTbl();
}
public void agregarFiltro() {
filtro.textProperty().addListener((ObservableValue<? extends String> observable, String oldValue, String newValue) -> {
movimientosTbl.setPredicate((TreeItem<Movement> t) -> {
Boolean flag = t.getValue().id.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().fecha.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().cantidadMovimiento.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().dirección.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().idLoteInsumo.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().idTienda.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().insumo.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().movimiento.getValue().contains(newValue) || t.getValue().usuario.getValue().contains(newValue);
return flag;
});
});
}
private void initMovementTbl() {
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> id = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Id");
id.setPrefWidth(70);
id.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().id);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> cantMovimiento = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Cantidad Movimiento");
cantMovimiento.setPrefWidth(70);
cantMovimiento.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().cantidadMovimiento);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> fecha = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Fecha");
fecha.setPrefWidth(70);
fecha.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().fecha);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> idLoteInsumo = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Id LoteInsumo");
idLoteInsumo.setPrefWidth(70);
idLoteInsumo.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().idLoteInsumo);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> insumo = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Insumo");
insumo.setPrefWidth(70);
insumo.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().insumo);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> idTienda = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Id Tienda");
idTienda.setPrefWidth(70);
idTienda.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().idTienda);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> tienda = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Tienda");
tienda.setPrefWidth(70);
tienda.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().dirección);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> tipoMovimiento = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Tipo Movimiento");
tipoMovimiento.setPrefWidth(70);
tipoMovimiento.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().movimiento);
JFXTreeTableColumn<Movement, String> usuario = new JFXTreeTableColumn<>("Usuario");
usuario.setPrefWidth(70);
usuario.setCellValueFactory((TreeTableColumn.CellDataFeatures<Movement, String> param) -> param.getValue().getValue().usuario);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(id);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(cantMovimiento);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(fecha);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(idLoteInsumo);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(insumo);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(idTienda);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(tienda);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(tipoMovimiento);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().add(usuario);
//DB
getDataFromDB();
final TreeItem<Movement> root = new RecursiveTreeItem<>(data, RecursiveTreeObject::getChildren);
movimientosTbl.setEditable(true);
movimientosTbl.getSelectionModel().setSelectionMode(SelectionMode.MULTIPLE);
movimientosTbl.getColumns().setAll(id,cantMovimiento,fecha, idLoteInsumo, insumo, idTienda, tienda, tipoMovimiento, usuario);
movimientosTbl.setRoot(root);
movimientosTbl.setShowRoot(false);
}
private void getDataFromDB() {
MovimientoHelper helper;
if(LoginController.user.getTienda() == null){
helper = new MovimientoHelper();
ArrayList<MovimientosTienda> lista = helper.getMovements();
if(lista != null){
lista.forEach((p) -> {
updateTable(p);
});
}
}else{
helper = new MovimientoHelper();
ArrayList<MovimientosTienda> lista = helper.getMovements(LoginController.user.getTienda());
if(lista != null){
lista.forEach((p) -> {
updateTable(p);
});
}
}
helper.close();
}
private void updateTable(MovimientosTienda p) {
String fullname;
if(p.getTrabajador() != null){
fullname = p.getTrabajador().getNombres() + " " + p.getTrabajador().getApellidoPaterno() + " " + p.getTrabajador().getApellidoMaterno();
}else{
fullname = "";
}
data.add(
new Movement(
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getId().toString()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getCantidadMovimiento().toString()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getFecha().toString()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getLoteInsumo().getId().toString()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getLoteInsumo().getInsumo().getNombre()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getTienda().getId().toString()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getTienda().getDireccion()),
new SimpleStringProperty(p.getTipoMovimiento().getNombre()),
new SimpleStringProperty(fullname)
));
}
/*Class for table*/
private static class Movement extends RecursiveTreeObject<Movement>{
StringProperty id;
StringProperty cantidadMovimiento;
StringProperty fecha;
StringProperty idLoteInsumo;
StringProperty insumo;
StringProperty idTienda;
StringProperty dirección;
StringProperty movimiento;
StringProperty usuario;
public Movement(StringProperty id, StringProperty cantidadMovimiento, StringProperty fecha, StringProperty idLoteInsumo, StringProperty insumo, StringProperty idTienda, StringProperty dirección, StringProperty movimiento, StringProperty usuario) {
this.id = id;
this.cantidadMovimiento = cantidadMovimiento;
this.fecha = fecha;
this.idLoteInsumo = idLoteInsumo;
this.insumo = insumo;
this.idTienda = idTienda;
this.dirección = dirección;
this.movimiento = movimiento;
this.usuario = usuario;
}
@Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (o instanceof Movement) {
Movement u = (Movement) o;
return u.id.equals(id);
}
return super.equals(o); //To change body of generated methods, choose Tools | Templates.
}
@Override
public int hashCode() {
int hash = 7;
hash = 29 * hash + Objects.hashCode(this.id);
return hash;
}
}
} |
DOP31 Management and outcome of postoperative Crohns Disease in the elderly as compared to young adults: Data from Eneida registry A less aggressive phenotype of Crohns disease (CD) has been reported in patients with elderly onset CD. Despite this, similar surgical rates among younger and older CD patients have been reported. However, scarce data are available about the risk of postoperative recurrence (POR) regarding the age, and no data are available about the use of immunosuppressants and biological agents for prevention of POR in elderly patients. Our aim was to evaluate the management of CD in the postoperative setting and the rate of surgical POR in CD patients according to the age at surgery. Cohort study including all adult CD patients in the ENEIDA registry (a prospectively-maintained database of the Spanish Working Group in IBD GETECCU-) who underwent a first intestinal resection with ileo-colonic anastomosis. Patients were grouped regarding their age at the moment of the first surgery: over 60 years (elderly) and between 18 and 60 years of age (controls). Preventive treatment for POR, surgical POR (need for a further intestinal resection) and postoperative morbidity were compared between both groups. Out of the 69,740 IBD patients included in the ENEIDA database, 3,982 had a first intestinal resection for Crohns disease with an ileo-colonic anastomosis between 2005 and 2020. Of them, 535 were elderly and 3,454 controls. Time from IBD diagnosis to surgery was significantly longer in the elderly (114±128 vs. 93±97 months; p<0.001). Regarding baseline characteristics, the elderly had a lower proportion of penetrating behaviour (25% vs. 39%; p<0.0001) and perianal disease (14% vs. 25%; p<0.0001). No differences were observed in the rate of postoperative morbidity (16% vs 15%; p=0.18). Time of follow-up after surgery was significantly lower in the elderly (63±57.5 vs. 81.2±56 months; p<0.0001). A significantly lower proportion of elderly patients started preventive therapies for POR (immunosuppressants or biological agents) as compared to controls (26% vs. 43%, respectively; p<0.0001). In spite of this, the rates of surgical POR were similar in elderly and controls (19.8% vs. 17.6%, respectively; p=0.169). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis only the inflammatory pattern of the disease was associated with surgical POR (HR 1.27; 95%IC (1.0111.602)). The elderly patients show similar rates of surgical POR as compared to younger patients. Given the high risk of thiopurine and anti-TNF-related adverse events, elderly patients with inflammatory pattern would benefit from preventive therapy with safer biologicals. |
Latest: Minister to remove height restrictions and parking requirement on new homes
Update 12.30pm: Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy says the increased number of cranes in the Dublin skyline are building office blocks and not homes.
He’s published a list of guidelines today that aim to reduce the cost of building apartments.
Included in the measures are easing height restrictions and removing the need for parking.
Minister Eoghan Murphy says car parks are costing developers too much.
“What we're saying is that the default would be for no car parking spaces, but if the developer can make a good case to put in parking, then, of course, the city council can take that on board.
“We’re talking about city centre locations primarily because we know that every car parking space going underground is a significant additional cost per unit for developers.
“At the moment, developers finding enough viability when it comes to building departments and that’s why so many of the cranes we see are actually building office blocks and not homes.
Original story (7.13am): Height restrictions on residential buildings to be eased
Height restrictions on residential buildings are to be eased in new guidelines around apartment developments.
The Housing Department will publish the draft document today which also intends to increase the cap on the number of units that can be on a floor.
The need to have parking spaces will be reduced in areas with good public transport, while 'shared living options' will also be explored.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said the guidelines aim to make it more cost-effective to build apartments.
Architect and assistant professor at UCD Orla Hegarty said the changes will cause delays.
"Nobody can start building if there is uncertainty about what the building will be. Anybody who has planning permission at the moment and were planning to develop it next year is likely now to put the brake on that and stop and wait and see what more they can get on site," she said.
"The immediate impact will probably fewer partner starting in the new year which is exactly the wrong policy direction," she added. |
Wichita Downtown Development Corp. will hold the formal opening of its Innovation Center, at 505 and 507 E. Douglas, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 26.
The center provides a place to develop and exchange new ideas, concepts and projects to enhance downtown. The space is designed to facilitate creativity and features the latest interactive computer technology.
To reserve a place, call 316-264-6005 or e-mail [email protected]. |
Weed Dynamics In No-Till Maize System And Its Management: A Review Among different factors, tillage and weed management are two important factors that influence remarkably the growth and yield of maize. The present review reveals that Echinochloa colona L. is the most dominant weed species with an importance value index (IVI) of 41 followed by Papaver rhoeas L. (32.6), Descurainia Sophia L. (22.27) and Polygonum aviculare L (16.16) in no-till maize. Wider spacing and initial slow growth of maize during the first 3-4 weeks provides enough opportunity for weeds to invade and offer severe competition, resulting in 60-81% in maize yield losses. The shift of the weed population towards perennial was observed under NT. Species like Xanthium strumarium, Solanum nigrum, Euphorbia helioscopia, Convolvulus arvensis, Sorghum halepense, Digitaria sanguinalis, Sonchus oleraceus and Euphorbia vermiculata were associated with no-till Zea mays. The highest weed seed density was found in conservation agriculture practices (no-tillage, no-fertilizer and no-herbicide use) with the highest seed distributed in 0-1 cm depth followed by 1-3 cm depth. Weed control efficiency of Nicosulfuron @0.90 kg/ha was found the highest (98.8%) followed by Atrazine + Tembotrione + Atrazine (@1 kg/ha + 120 g/ha + 0.5 kg/ha) (98.7%) and Tembotrione + atrazine (@ 120 g/ha + 0.5 kg/ha) (96.5%), therefore were very effective in controlling weed in no-till Zea mays. |
<gh_stars>1000+
import { EventsRegistryIOS } from './EventsRegistryIOS';
import { CompletionCallbackWrapper } from '../adapters/CompletionCallbackWrapper';
import { NativeCommandsSender } from '../adapters/NativeCommandsSender.mock';
import { NativeEventsReceiver } from '../adapters/NativeEventsReceiver.mock';
describe('EventsRegistryIOS', () => {
let uut: EventsRegistryIOS;
const mockNativeEventsReceiver = new NativeEventsReceiver();
const mockNativeCommandsSender = new NativeCommandsSender();
const completionCallbackWrapper = new CompletionCallbackWrapper(mockNativeCommandsSender);
beforeEach(() => {
uut = new EventsRegistryIOS(mockNativeEventsReceiver, completionCallbackWrapper);
});
it('delegates registerPushKitRegistered to nativeEventsReceiver', () => {
const cb = jest.fn();
uut.registerPushKitRegistered(cb);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitRegistered).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitRegistered).toHaveBeenCalledWith(cb);
});
it('delegates registerPushKitNotificationReceived to nativeEventsReceiver', () => {
const cb = jest.fn();
uut.registerPushKitNotificationReceived(cb);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitNotificationReceived).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitNotificationReceived).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.any(Function));
});
it('should wrap callback with completion block', () => {
const expectedNotification = { identifier: 'notificationId' }
uut.registerPushKitNotificationReceived((notification) => {
expect(notification).toEqual(expectedNotification);
});
const call = mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitNotificationReceived.mock.calls[0][0];
call(expectedNotification);
});
it('should invoke finishPresentingNotification', () => {
const expectedNotification = { identifier: 'notificationId' };
uut.registerPushKitNotificationReceived((notification, completion) => {
completion();
expect(notification).toEqual(expectedNotification);
expect(mockNativeCommandsSender.finishHandlingAction).toBeCalledWith('notificationId');
});
const call = mockNativeEventsReceiver.registerPushKitNotificationReceived.mock.calls[0][0];
call(expectedNotification);
});
it('delegates appNotificationSettingsLinked to nativeEventsReceiver', () => {
const cb = jest.fn();
uut.appNotificationSettingsLinked(cb);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.appNotificationSettingsLinked).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
expect(mockNativeEventsReceiver.appNotificationSettingsLinked).toHaveBeenCalledWith(cb);
});
});
|
WNK Kinases, Renal Ion Transport and Hypertension Two members of a recently discovered family of protein kinases are the cause of an inherited disease known as pseudohypoaldosteronism type II (PHAII). These patients exhibit arterial hypertension together with hyperkalemia and metabolic acidosis. This is a mirror image of Gitelman disease that is due to inactivating mutations of the SLC12A3 gene that encodes the thiazide-sensitive Na+:Cl cotransporter. The uncovered genes causing PHAII encode for serine/threonine kinases known as WNK1 and WNK4. Physiological and biochemical studies have revealed that WNK1 and WNK4 modulate the activity of several transport pathways of the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron, thus increasing our understanding of how diverse renal ion transport proteins are coordinated to regulate normal blood pressure levels. Observations discussed in the present work place WNK1 and WNK4 as genes involved in the genesis of essential hypertension and as potential targets for the development of antihypertensive drugs. |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of digital division. More particularly, the present invention provides for faster and more efficient digital division in integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital, or binary, division is a process whereby a binary number, referred to as a dividend is divided by a second binary number referred to as a divider. Digital division is increasingly required for many applications such as high quality graphics rendering. Unfortunately, division circuits are usually much larger than multiplier circuits for an equivalent data word length. One conventional method of performing digital division known as restoring and non-restoring division typically involves subtracting the divider from a reference number referred to as a current number. These methods of performing digital division generally require that the divider be added back to the current number after each computation stage. In the restoring method, the decision whether to add back the divider to the current number depends on the result of a subtraction stage. In the non-restoring method, a selection between addition and subtraction is made in the next computation stage following the subtraction stage. In either case, substantial amounts of logic and related logic circuitry are required to implement restoring and non-restoring division. Such additional logic typically can include at least an exclusive-OR (XOR) gate for every bit, which is the equivalent of five (5) NAND gates for every bit.
Hence, conventional techniques for implementing digital division require substantial amounts of logic resources and related logic circuitry. When the integrated circuit is a programmable logic device (PLD), large amounts of valuable programming resources are required to implement digital division, thereby limiting the size or precision of the data words that can be accommodated. Additionally, the serpentine data paths required to connect the related logic circuitry within a particular integrated circuit result in slow performance and can, in some cases, cause the integrated circuit to be non-functional.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous and therefore desirable to provide an efficient method of performing digital division that can be implemented in an integrated circuit using fewer logical resources. By using fewer logical resources, the precision and the speed of the digital division as performed by the integrated circuit are able to be increased. Additionally, the probability of successfully implementing the digital division in an integrated circuit, such as PLD, is commensurably increased. |
class TestGroupAndUserSearchController:
"""Tests common to both GroupSearchController and UserSearchController."""
@pytest.mark.usefixtures("delete_lozenge_request")
def test_delete_lozenge_returns_a_redirect(self, controller):
result = controller.delete_lozenge()
assert isinstance(result, httpexceptions.HTTPSeeOther)
# This tests that the location redirected to is correct and also that
# the delete_lozenge param has been removed (and is not part of the
# URL).
assert result.location == "http://example.com/search"
def test_delete_lozenge_preserves_the_query_param(
self, controller, delete_lozenge_request
):
delete_lozenge_request.params["q"] = "foo bar"
location = controller.delete_lozenge().location
location == "http://example.com/search?q=foo+bar"
@pytest.mark.parametrize("q", ["", " "])
def test_delete_lozenge_removes_empty_queries(
self, controller, delete_lozenge_request, q
):
"""
It should remove an empty q from the URL.
We don't want to redirect to a URL with a pointless trailing empty ?q=.
"""
delete_lozenge_request.params["q"] = q
location = controller.delete_lozenge().location
location == "http://example.com/search"
@pytest.mark.usefixtures("toggle_tag_facet_request")
def test_toggle_tag_facet_returns_a_redirect(self, controller):
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert isinstance(result, httpexceptions.HTTPSeeOther)
@pytest.mark.usefixtures("toggle_tag_facet_request")
def test_toggle_tag_facet_adds_the_tag_facet_into_the_url(self, controller):
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == "http://example.com/users/foo?q=tag%3Agar"
def test_toggle_tag_facet_removes_the_tag_facet_from_the_url(
self, controller, toggle_tag_facet_request
):
toggle_tag_facet_request.params["q"] = 'tag:"gar"'
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == "http://example.com/users/foo"
def test_toggle_tag_facet_preserves_query_when_adding_tag_facet(
self, controller, toggle_tag_facet_request
):
toggle_tag_facet_request.params["q"] = "foo bar"
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == ("http://example.com/users/foo?q=foo+bar+tag%3Agar")
def test_toggle_tag_facet_preserves_query_when_removing_tag_facet(
self, controller, toggle_tag_facet_request
):
toggle_tag_facet_request.params["q"] = 'tag:"gar" foo bar'
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == "http://example.com/users/foo?q=foo+bar"
def test_toggle_tag_facet_preserves_query_when_removing_one_of_multiple_tag_facets(
self, controller, toggle_tag_facet_request
):
toggle_tag_facet_request.params["q"] = 'tag:"foo" tag:"gar" tag:"bar"'
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == ("http://example.com/users/foo?q=tag%3Afoo+tag%3Abar")
@pytest.mark.parametrize("q", ["tag:gar", " tag:gar "])
def test_toggle_tag_facet_removes_empty_query(
self, controller, toggle_tag_facet_request, q
):
"""
It should remove an empty q from the URL.
We don't want to redirect to a URL with a pointless trailing empty ?q=.
"""
toggle_tag_facet_request.params["q"] = q
result = controller.toggle_tag_facet()
assert result.location == "http://example.com/users/foo"
@pytest.fixture(params=["user_search_controller", "group_search_controller"])
def controller(self, request):
"""
Return a UserSearchController and a GroupSearchController.
Any test that uses this fixture will be called twice - once with a
UserSearchController instance as the controller argument, and once with
a GroupSearchController.
"""
return request.getfixturevalue(request.param)
@pytest.fixture
def group_search_controller(self, group, pyramid_request):
# Set the slug in the URL to the slug of the group.
# Otherwise GroupSearchController will redirect the request to the
# correct URL.
pyramid_request.matchdict["slug"] = group.slug
return activity.GroupSearchController(GroupContext(group), pyramid_request)
@pytest.fixture
def delete_lozenge_request(self, pyramid_request):
pyramid_request.params["delete_lozenge"] = ""
return pyramid_request
@pytest.fixture
def toggle_tag_facet_request(self, pyramid_request):
pyramid_request.matched_route = mock.Mock()
pyramid_request.matched_route.name = "activity.user_search"
pyramid_request.params["toggle_tag_facet"] = "gar"
pyramid_request.matchdict["username"] = "foo"
return pyramid_request
@pytest.fixture
def user_search_controller(self, user, pyramid_request):
return activity.UserSearchController(user, pyramid_request) |
On the Legal Categorisation of New Plant Breeding Technologies: Insights from Communication Science and Ways Forward In July 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that organisms obtained from most New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBT) fulfil the requirements of the GMO definition of Directive 2001/18. Practically, organisms created with NPBT have since been legally treated as GMOs. While we do not seek to contest the judgment in itself, in the present contribution we draw attention to the effects of such a categorisation from the perspective of communication science. Extrapolating from communication research conducted in adjacent technology domains, we will argue that by putting organisms obtained from NPBT semantically in the same basket as GMOs may carry a serious risk transferring analogous communication problems that GMOs encountered in the past, to organisms obtained from NPBT, while they may not address similar risks. Possible consequences such as these can hardly be considered at the stage of legal interpretation (such as with the CJEU). Rather, as discussion now unfolds whether and how to change the legal definition, insights from communication science and risk perception research on the effect of such a definition should be taken into account. |
/**
* This activity deals with displaying the contents of an experiment
* To access this activity: Open the app -> click on the listView
* or the experiment
* @see MainActivity
* @see ShowSubscribedListActivity
* @see SearchingActivity
*/
public class DisplayExperimentActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ProfileFragment.OnFragmentInteractionListener, NavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener {
private com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.Experiment exp; // catch object passed from mainlist
private FirebaseFirestore db;
private final String TAG = "PhenoCount";
private String username;
private String UUID;
private com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ExpManager expManager;
private Menu expMenu;
private TextView expStatus;
private CollectionReference collectionReference;
private DrawerLayout drawerLayout;
private NavigationView navigationView;
private androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar toolbar;
private ImageView qrPicture;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setTheme(R.style.Theme_PhenoCount);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_experiment_display);
navigationSettings();
//getSupportActionBar().setTitle("Experiment Info");
TextView toolBarTitle = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.toolbar_title);
toolBarTitle.setText("Experiment Info");
exp = (com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.Experiment) getIntent().getSerializableExtra("experiment");//defining the Experiment object
db = FirebaseFirestore.getInstance();
collectionReference = db.collection("Experiment");
SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = getSharedPreferences("sharedPrefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
sharedPrefs = getSharedPreferences("sharedPrefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
username = sharedPrefs.getString("Username", "");
UUID = sharedPrefs.getString("ID", "");
TextView expName = findViewById(R.id.nameTextView);
TextView expDesc = findViewById(R.id.descTextView);
TextView expOwner = findViewById(R.id.ownerTextView);
TextView expRegion = findViewById(R.id.regionTextView);
TextView expMinTrial = findViewById(R.id.minTrialView);
expStatus = findViewById(R.id.statusTextView);
TextView expType = findViewById(R.id.expTypeText);
TextView expReqLoc = findViewById(R.id.reqLocText);
Button qrButton = findViewById(R.id.qrButton);
qrPicture = findViewById(R.id.qrPicture);
expName.setText(exp.getName());
expDesc.setText(exp.getDescription());
expOwner.setText(exp.getOwner().getProfile().getUsername());
expRegion.setText(exp.getRegion());
expMinTrial.setText(Integer.toString(exp.getMinimumTrials()));
expType.setText(exp.getExpType());
String mStat = "" ;
switch(exp.getExpStatus()){
case 1:
mStat = "Published";
break;
case 2:
mStat= "Ended";
break;
case 3:
mStat = "Unpublished";
break;
default:
mStat= "Added";
}
expStatus.setText(mStat);
// Adding icon programmatically : BrainCrash,2011-09-03,CC BY-SA 3.0, https://stackoverflow.com/a/6932112
if(exp.isRequireLocation()== true) {
expReqLoc.setText("WARNING: REQUIRED");
expReqLoc.setCompoundDrawablesWithIntrinsicBounds(R.drawable.ic_warning, 0, 0, 0);
}
else {expReqLoc.setText("NOT REQUIRED");}
final Button mapsBtn = findViewById((R.id.mapsBtn));
mapsBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
Intent i = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.GifActivity.class);
i.putExtra("gifTrials",exp.getTrials());
startActivity(i);
}
});
qrButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
generateQr();
}
});
}
private void generateQr() {
qrPicture.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
// Create QR Encoder with value to be encoded
String title = exp.getName();
QRGEncoder qrgEncoder = new QRGEncoder(title, null, QRGContents.Type.TEXT, 400);
try {
// Getting QR as Bitmap
Bitmap bitmap = qrgEncoder.getBitmap();
// Set QR to ImageView
qrPicture.setImageBitmap(bitmap);
} catch (Exception e) {
Log.v("Exception", e.toString());
}
}
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
inflater.inflate(R.menu.example_menu, menu);
expMenu = menu;
menuOpt();
return true;
}
/**
* To set the menu according to the required functionalities
*/
void menuOpt() {
expMenu.findItem(R.id.ownerAction).setVisible(true);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.unpublishButton).setEnabled(true);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.endButton).setEnabled(true);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.addTrialButon).setEnabled(true);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.subscribeButton).setEnabled(true);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.unsubscribeButton).setVisible(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.republishButton).setVisible(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.add_qr).setVisible(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.add_qr).setEnabled(true);
if(!(UUID.equals(exp.getOwner().getUID()))){
expMenu.findItem(R.id.ownerAction).setVisible(false);
}
if (exp.getExpStatus()==3){
expMenu.findItem(R.id.unpublishButton).setEnabled(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.republishButton).setVisible(true);
}
if (exp.getExpStatus()==2){
expMenu.findItem(R.id.endButton).setEnabled(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.addTrialButon).setEnabled(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.add_qr).setEnabled(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.republishButton).setVisible(true);
}
if (exp.getSubscribers().contains(UUID)){
expMenu.findItem(R.id.subscribeButton).setEnabled(false);
expMenu.findItem(R.id.unsubscribeButton).setVisible(true);
}
if (exp.getExpType().equals("Binomial") || exp.getExpType().equals("Count")) {
expMenu.findItem(R.id.add_qr).setVisible(true);
}
}
@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(@NonNull MenuItem item) {
if (item.getItemId() == R.id.addTrialButon) {
if (exp.getExpType().equals("Binomial")) {
Intent bintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.BinomialActivity.class);
bintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
startActivityForResult(bintent, LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY);
}
if (exp.getExpType().equals("Count")) {
Intent cintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.CountActivity.class);
cintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
startActivityForResult(cintent, LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY);
}
if (exp.getExpType().equals("Measurement")) {
Intent mintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.MeasurementActivity.class);
mintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
startActivityForResult(mintent, LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY);
}
if (exp.getExpType().equals("NonNegativeCount")) {
Intent nintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.NonNegativeCountActivity.class);
nintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
startActivityForResult(nintent, LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY);
}
} else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.item3) {
Intent dintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.DiscussionActivity.class);
dintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
startActivity(dintent);
} else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.item4) {
Intent tintent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ResultsActivity.class);
tintent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
int LAUNCH_THIRD_ACTIVITY = 3;
startActivityForResult(tintent,LAUNCH_THIRD_ACTIVITY);
} else if(item.getItemId() == R.id.add_qr){
Intent i = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ScanQRActivity.class);
i.putExtra("experiment", exp);
startActivityForResult(i, 1);
} else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.subscribeButton) {
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to subscribe this experiment",14, 24);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
ArrayList expSubList = exp.getSubscribers();
expSubList.add(UUID);
HashMap<String, Object> data = new HashMap<>();
String id = exp.getExpID();
data.put("sub_list", expSubList);
collectionReference
.document(id)
.update(data)
.addOnSuccessListener(new OnSuccessListener<Void>() {
@Override
public void onSuccess(Void aVoid) {
// These are a method which gets executed when the task is succeeded
Log.d(TAG, "Data has been updated successfully!");
}
})
.addOnFailureListener(new OnFailureListener() {
@Override
public void onFailure(@NonNull Exception e) {
// These are a method which gets executed if there’s any problem
Log.d(TAG, "Data could not be updated!" + e.toString());
}
});
menuOpt();
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
}else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.unsubscribeButton){
//Abhishek Maheshwari, 2019-05-21,CC BY-SA 4.0, https://stackoverflow.com/a/56236710
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to unsubscribe this experiment",15, 26);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
// this query updates the unsubscribe status
ArrayList expSubList = exp.getSubscribers();
if (expSubList.contains(UUID)) {
expSubList.remove(UUID);
HashMap<String, Object> data = new HashMap<>();
String id = exp.getExpID();
data.put("sub_list", expSubList);
collectionReference
.document(id)
.update(data)
.addOnSuccessListener(new OnSuccessListener<Void>() {
@Override
public void onSuccess(Void aVoid) {
// These are a method which gets executed when the task is succeeded
Log.d(TAG, "Data has been updated successfully!");
}
})
.addOnFailureListener(new OnFailureListener() {
@Override
public void onFailure(@NonNull Exception e) {
// These are a method which gets executed if there’s any problem
Log.d(TAG, "Data could not be updated!" + e.toString());
}
});
}
menuOpt();
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
} else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.unpublishButton) {
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to unpublish this experiment", 15, 24);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
// this query updates the unpublish status
db.collection("Experiment").document(exp.getExpID())
.update("status", "3");
exp.setExpStatus(3);
menuOpt();
expStatus.setText("Unpublished");
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
} else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.endButton){
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to end this experiment",15, 18);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
db.collection("Experiment").document(exp.getExpID())
.update("status", "2");
exp.setExpStatus(2);
menuOpt();
expStatus.setText("Ended");
//confirmMsg.alertDialog.cancel();
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
}else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.editButton){
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to edit this experiment", 15, 19);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
Intent eIntent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.PublishExperimentActivity.class);
eIntent.putExtra("experiment", exp);
eIntent.putExtra("mode", 1);
startActivityForResult(eIntent, 1);
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
}else if (item.getItemId() == R.id.republishButton){
com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg confirmMsg = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.AlertMsg(this, "Conformation",
"",1);
confirmMsg.setColour("Do you want to republish this experiment", 15, 24);
confirmMsg.setButtonCol();
Button confirmButton=confirmMsg.alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
confirmButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
db.collection("Experiment").document(exp.getExpID())
.update("status", "1");
exp.setExpStatus(2);
menuOpt();
expStatus.setText("Published");
//confirmMsg.alertDialog.cancel();
confirmMsg.cancelDialog();
}
});
}
return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}
@Override
//Sends the experiment object and retrieves the updated object
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
int LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY = 1;
int LAUNCH_THIRD_ACTIVITY = 3;
if (requestCode == LAUNCH_SECOND_ACTIVITY) {
if(resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK){
exp = (com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.Experiment) data.getSerializableExtra("experiment");
SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = getSharedPreferences("sharedPrefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
sharedPrefs = getSharedPreferences("sharedPrefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
username = sharedPrefs.getString("Username", "");
UUID = sharedPrefs.getString("ID", "");
expManager = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ExpManager();
expManager.updateTrialData(db,exp,username);
}
}
if(requestCode == LAUNCH_THIRD_ACTIVITY){
System.out.println("Ignoring");
exp = (com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.Experiment) data.getSerializableExtra("experiment");
expManager = new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ExpManager();
expManager.ignoreTrial(exp);
}
if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_CANCELED) {
System.out.println("No Data");
}
}
public void showProfile(View v){
String username = exp.getOwner().getProfile().getUsername();
String phone = exp.getOwner().getProfile().getPhone();
String UID = exp.getOwner().getUID();
new com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ProfileFragment(username, phone, UID).show(getSupportFragmentManager(), "SHOW_PROFILE");
}
@Override
public void onOkPressedAdd(String text) {
}
public void navigationSettings(){
drawerLayout=findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
navigationView=findViewById(R.id.qrImage);
toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
navigationView.bringToFront();
setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
ActionBarDrawerToggle toggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle(this,drawerLayout,toolbar,R.string.navigation_drawer_open,R.string.navigation_drawer_close);
drawerLayout.addDrawerListener(toggle);
toggle.syncState();
navigationView.setNavigationItemSelectedListener(this);
}
@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
if(drawerLayout.isDrawerOpen(GravityCompat.START)){
drawerLayout.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START);
}
else{
super.onBackPressed();
}
}
@Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(@NonNull MenuItem item) {
Intent intent = new Intent();
switch (item.getItemId()){
case R.id.nav_my_exp:
intent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.MainActivity.class);
break;
case R.id.nav_search:
intent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.SearchingActivity.class);
break;
case R.id.nav_user:
intent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ProfileActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("UUID",UUID);
break;
case R.id.nav_add:
intent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.PublishExperimentActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("AutoId",UUID);
intent.putExtra("mode",0);
break;
case R.id.nav_sub_exp:
intent = new Intent(DisplayExperimentActivity.this, com.cmput301w21t36.phenocount.ShowSubscribedListActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("owner",UUID);
break;
}
startActivity(intent);
return true;
}
} |
import { CmsEditorContentModel } from "~/types";
import upperFirst from "lodash/upperFirst";
import pluralize from "pluralize";
import gql from "graphql-tag";
export const createListEntriesQuery = (model: CmsEditorContentModel) => {
const ucFirstPluralizedModelId = upperFirst(pluralize(model.modelId));
const ucFirstModelId = upperFirst(model.modelId);
return gql`
query CmsEntriesList${ucFirstPluralizedModelId}($where: ${ucFirstModelId}ListWhereInput, $sort: [${ucFirstModelId}ListSorter], $limit: Int, $after: String) {
content: list${ucFirstPluralizedModelId}(
where: $where
sort: $sort
limit: $limit
after: $after
) {
data {
id
}
meta {
cursor
hasMoreItems
totalCount
}
error {
message
code
data
}
}
}
`;
};
|
The present invention relates to a method and a system for synchronizing audio and video signals in general and to a method and a system for synchronizing MPEG video and audio streams in particular.
Methods and systems for providing synchronized audio and video streams are known in the art. For example, MPEG specifications ISO/IEC 11172-1,2,3 (MPEG1) and the ISO/IEC 13818-1,2,3 (MPEG2) describe a method of encoding and decoding analog audio and video.
The encoding process consists of three stages. The first stage is digitizing the analog audio/video signals. The second stage is compression of the digital signals to create elementary streams. The third stage is multiplexing the elementary streams into a single stream.
The decoding process consists of inversing each of these stages and applying them in the reverse order. Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a schematic illustration of an encoding and decoding system, generally referenced 10, known in the art.
System 10 includes an encoding device 20 and a decoding device 40. The encoding device 20 includes an audio encoder 12, a video encoder 22 and a multiplexor 18. The audio encoder 12 includes an audio analog to digital converter (A/D) 14 and an audio compressor 16. The video encoder 22 includes a video A/D 24 and a video compressor 26. The audio compressor 16 is connected to the audio A/D 14 and to the multiplexor 18. The video compressor is connected to the video A/D 24 and to the multiplexor 18. An A/D converter is also known as a digitizer.
The decoding section 40 includes an audio decoder 32, a video decoder 42 and a de-multiplexor 38. The audio decoder 32 includes an audio digital to analog converter (D/A) 34 and an audio decompressor 36. The video decoder 42 includes a video D/A 44 and a video decompressor 46. The audio decompressor 36 is connected to the audio D/A 34 and to the de-multiplexor 38. The video decompressor 46 is connected to the video D/A 44 and to the de-multiplexor 38.
Each of the A/D converters 14 and 24 is driven by an independent sampling clock. The origin of this clock differs in audio and video encoders 12 and 22. Each of the respective compressors 16 and 26 is affected by the sampling clock of the A/D converter connected thereto.
Analog audio is a continuous, one-dimensional function of time. Digitization of analog audio amounts to temporal sampling and the quantization of each sampled value. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the audio digitizer clock is not derived from the analog source signal.
Analog video is a two dimensional function of time, temporally sampled to give frames (or fields) and spatially sampled to give lines. The broadcasting standard of the analog video source signal (e.g. PAL, NTSC), defines the number of frames/fields per second and the number of lines in each frame/field.
Analog video is therefore a discrete collection of lines which are, like analog audio signals, one-dimensional functions of time. Timing information is modulated into the analog video signal to mark the start of fields/frames and the start of lines. The timing of the pixel samples within each line is left to the digitizer, but the digitizer must begin sampling lines at the times indicated by the signal.
Video digitizers typically feed analog timing information into a phase locked loop to filter out noise on the video signal and divide the clock accordingly to derive the pixel clock for digitizing each line. Thus the timing of video sampling is derived from the analog source signal. In the case of video, digitization refers only to the quantization of pixels and CCIR 601 is an example of a video digitizing standard that describes such a process.
The input of a video or audio compression module, such as compressors 16 and 26, is samples or sets of samples. The output is a compressed bit-stream.
As the compressor consumes the samples produced by its respective digitizer, its timing is slaved to that digitizer. In a simple model of the system, the compressor has no clock of its own. Instead, it uses the bit-rate specification to calculate the number of bits required per sample or set of samples. As samples appear at the input of the encoder, they are compressed and the compressed bits appear at the output.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the actual timing of audio or video compressed bit emission by an encoder is determined by the digitizer clock which times the arrival of samples at the compressor input.
The timing of the video digitizer 24 is derived from the video analog source and the video compressor 26 derives its own timing from the digitizer 24. Thus the timing of the video compressor is derived from the analog video source. If the timing information in the analog source is missing or incomplete, then the compressor 26 will be subject to abnormal timing constraints.
The following are examples of problematic video input sources:
The analog source is not a professional one (cheap VCR).
Noise is present on the line that carries the video signal.
The source is detached from the input for some time.
The video source is a VCR without a TBC (Time Base Corrector) and fast forward or rewind are applied.
The effects of problematic video input sources on the compressed stream depends on the nature of the problem and the implementation of the encoder.
Among the timing information present in the analog video signal are pulses that indicate the start of a field, the start of a frame and the start of a line.
If, for instance, noise is interpreted by the digitizer as a spurious pulse marking the start of a field, such that the pulse is not followed by a complete set of lines, then the timing information will become inconsistent.
One encoder might interpret the pulse as an extra field, somehow producing a complete compressed field. Another encoder might react to the glitch by discarding the field it was encoding. In both these cases, the ratio between the number of bits in the stream and compressed frames in the stream may be correct, but one encoder will have produced more frames than the other within the same interval and from the same source.
To an observer at the output of the encoders, this would appear to be caused by a variance between the clocks that drive the video encoders.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, each video and audio encoder may be driven by its own clock. Decoders may also be driven by independent clocks.
As an example of the operation of system 10 the video encoder and audio encoder are fed from the same PAL source (analog video combined with analog audio).
The number of frames that are compressed within a given time interval can be calculated by multiplying the interval measured in seconds by twenty five (according to the PAL broadcasting standard).
In this example, the clocks of the video and audio decoders and the clock of the audio encoder have identical timing. The clock of the video encoder is running slightly fast with respect to the others.
Thus, within a given interval measured by the video decoder clock, the video encoder will produce more frames than the number calculated from the duration of that interval. The video decoder will play the compressed stream at a slower rate than the rate at which the video encoder produces that stream. The result will be that over any given interval, the video display will be slightly delayed.
As the timing of the audio encoder and audio decoder are identical, audio decoding will progress at the same rate as audio encoding. The result will be a loss of audio video synchronization at the decoder display.
It is a basic requirement to be able to guarantee that the decoded audio and video at the output of MPEG decoders are synchronized with each other despite the relative independence of the timings of the units in the system.
One of the methods known in the art to synchronize audio and video streams is called end-to-end synchronization. This means that the timing of each encoder determines the timing of its associated decoder. End-to-end synchronization is supported by the MPEG system layers. If this were applied to the example above, the video decoder would spend the same time displaying the video as the audio decoder spends decoding the audio. The audio and video would therefore play back synchronously.
The MPEG multiplexor implements the MPEG system layers. The system layer may use the syntax of MPEG1 System, MPEG2 Program or MPEG2 Transport. These layers support end-to-end synchronization by the embedding in the multiplexed stream of presentation time stamps (PTS fields), decoding time stamps (DTS fields) and either system clock references (SCR fields), in the case of MPEG1 System, or program clock references (PCR fields), in the case of MPEG2 Program or MPEG2 Transport. In the following, SCR will be used to refer to either SCR or PCR fields.
A conventional MPEG multiplexor operates under the following assumptions:
The deviations between all clocks in the system, free-running as they may be, are bound due to constraints on clock tolerance and rate of change.
The channel between the encoder and decoder introduces no delay or a constant delay.
The multiplexor uses an additional clock called the system time clock (STC). The multiplexor reads this clock to produce time stamps (DTS and PTS values) for each compressed stream (audio and video).
According to a first aspect of end-to-end synchronization, the SCR fields enable the reconstruction of the encoder STC by the demultiplexor 38. From time to time, the multiplexor 18 embeds SCR fields in the multiplexed stream. These fields contain the time, according to the STC, at which the last byte of the SCR field leaves the encoder.
As the delay across the channel is constant, the time that elapses between the emission of two SCR fields according to any clock is the same as that which elapses between their arrivals at the decoder according to the same clock. The elapsed time according to the STC is the difference between the SCR values embedded in those fields.
A free-running clock at the demultiplexor 38 can be adjusted using a phase-locked loop so that the interval it registers between the arrivals of any two SCR fields in the stream is exactly the difference between the times indicated by those fields. Thus the STC is reconstructed by the demultiplexor.
According to a second aspect of end-to-end synchronization, the DTS and PTS associate a time value with selected video or audio frames within the stream. These time stamps indicate the time according to the STC, at which the associated frames are encoded.
As the channel introduces no delay or a constant delay, all time values (in PTS, DTS, SCR or PCR fields) measured during multiplexing can be used to schedule the demultiplexing and decoding process. The constant delay if any, can be subtracted from the times measured in the decoder device, for comparison.
After the subtraction of the constant delay, the decoding and display of frames is scheduled at precisely the times specified in the PTS and DTS fields with respect to the reconstructed STC.
Thus both aspects of end-to-end synchronization together, ensure that each elementary stream encoder runs at the same rate as its peer encoder.
When applied to system 10, the decoder 42 will decode frames at the same rate as they are encoded, and thus the audio and video will play back synchronously.
There are some disadvantages to the above method of end-to-end synchronization. One of these disadvantages is that this method is not applicable by MPEG2 Transport multiplexors, for program encoders. The MPEG2 Transport specification requires encoders of audio and video, belonging to one Program, to be driven by the same clock. (A Program or Service within an MPEG2 Transport stream contains audio and video that are associated with each other and are expected to play back synchronously).
Another disadvantage is that even for MPEG1 System and MPEG2 Program multiplexors, the method described is not trivial to implement. The method requires the multiplexor to perform certain operations at certain times and to read the STC when those events occur. If there are deviations from those times, then the multiplexor 18 must somehow correct the STC readings.
One aspect of this disadvantage involves the embedding of the SCR fields. The SCR fields contain readings of the STC when the last byte of the field is emitted by the encoder. In a real system, the output of the multiplexor might be very bursty, thus introducing a jitter in the SCR fields. In order to reduce the jitter to a tolerable level, the multiplexor needs to perform some measure of correction for the SCR readings. Some methods known in the art apply an output stage, to smooth the burstiness.
Another aspect of this disadvantage involves the embedding of the PTS and DTS fields. If the video encoder produces a few frames together in one burst, then the time stamps read from the STC might have an intolerable amount of jitter. The multiplexor will need to smooth the burstiness of the elementary stream encoders with an input stage or it will have to correct the time stamps to compensate for their burstiness.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that adding an input stage or an output stage for smoothing introduces delay.
In order to eliminate these disadvantages, it is expedient to use video and audio encoders that use the same clock to drive their digitizers together with the end-to-end synchronization method supported by the MPEG system layers.
When this policy is employed, the first disadvantage is no longer relevant as this is precisely what is required for Transport Program encoders. The second disadvantage can be overcome as follows.
The STC is selected as the video encoder clock (equivalent to selecting the audio clock). Between the compression of consecutive video frames the video clock registers, by definition of the video encoder clock, the elapse of exactly the nominal frame time (e.g. 40 milliseconds for PAL). The video clock is the STC, therefore this is also the interval observed by the STC. Therefore decoding time stamps can be calculated by multiplying the index of the video frame and the nominal frame time (e.g. 40 milliseconds for PAL).
Moreover, when the STC is selected as the audio clock audio decoding time stamps can be calculated without reading the STC. When the video clock and the audio clock are identical, all DTS and PTS values can be calculated without reading the STC.
Moreover, if the network clock is identical to the video clock, the SCR values can be calculated without reading the STC. Each SCR is calculated by multiplying the index of the last byte of the SCR field within the multiplexed stream by the constant bit-rate of the multiplexed stream across the network.
Thus, if all elementary streams and the network are driven by the same clock the implementation of end-to-end synchronization is not complicated by bursty elementary stream encoders and multiplexors.
In a typical implementation, known in the art, elementary stream encoder pairs (video and audio) are often driven by the same clock, however the network clock is independent. In these cases, time stamps can be calculated as described, but SCR values must be read in real-time from the STC.
The synchronization methods described above do not provide an adequate solution in two cases. In the first case, the video and audio encoder clocks are not synchronized (locked). In the second case the video and audio encoder clocks are synchronized, however, the video encoder clock drifts with respect to the audio encoder clock due to a problematic video source.
A time base corrector (TBC) is a device, known in the art, which filters noise out of the timing information of a video signal. The output of a TBC will be stable even if the input is a problematic video source such as a fast-forwarding VCR, a low-quality VCR or a disconnected source.
Some MPEG encoder systems require time base correction of video signals to prevent video encoder timing to drift. Professional video equipment often has a built in TBC at its output. In other cases an external appliance is used.
Using a TBC has some disadvantages, one of which is that requiring a TBC adds additional cost to the system.
Another disadvantage is that though a TBC overcomes noise introduced by problematic video sources, it does not lock the video clock with the audio clock. Therefore a TBC is useful in the above second case but not in the above first case.
A further disadvantage of using an external TBC, is that it introduces a delay in the video signal. The audio is typically not delayed in the TBC. Though this delay is small (typically one or two video frames) and constant, it can cause a detectable loss of audio video synchronization. An ideal system will need to compensate for this delay possibly introducing further cost.
Another method known in the art is referred to as periodic reset. Some MPEG encoders are programmed to stop and restart after many hours of operation. This flushes any accumulated loss of synchronization.
It will be appreciated that this method has some disadvantages, one of them being that stopping an MPEG encoder and restarting is a time consuming process. (It may take as much as a few video frames.) During this time the output of the decoder is interrupted.
Another disadvantage is that, depending on the implementation of the decoder, additional delay may be incurred until the decoder restarts after a reset.
A further disadvantage is that the interval between resets (the reset period) should be determined by the time it takes for the system to accumulate a discernible delay. This period is system dependent and therefore is difficult to determine in the general case.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel system for providing video and audio stream synchronization, which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for synchronizing audio and video streams, which overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is thus provided a method for synchronizing between the encoded streams. The method is implemented in an encoding system receiving a plurality of elementary streams. Each of the elementary streams includes a plurality of elementary samples.
The encoding system produces an encoded stream from each of the elementary streams. Each of the encoded streams includes a plurality of encoded samples. Each elementary stream and its associated encoded stream define a stream including a plurality of samples.
The method including the steps of:
monitoring the encoded streams,
detecting the rate of production of each encoded stream,
increasing the number of samples in one of the streams when the rate of production of the encoded stream associated with that one stream is greater than the rate of production of another encoded stream, and
decreasing the number of samples in one of the streams when the rate of production of the encoded stream associated with that one stream is lower than the rate of production of another encoded stream.
Each of the elementary streams can either be an audio stream or a video stream.
The step of increasing can either include increasing the number of the elementary samples in the elementary stream associated with that one stream or increasing the number of the encoded samples in the encoded stream associated with that one stream.
The step of decreasing can either include decreasing the number of the elementary samples in the elementary stream associated with that one stream or decreasing the number of the encoded samples in the encoded stream associated with that one stream.
The method can further include a step of normalizing between the rates of production of the encoded streams, before the steps of increasing and decreasing.
Increasing the number of samples can be performed in many ways, such as duplicating at least one of the samples, adding a sample between two selected samples, replacing selected samples with a greater number of new samples, and the like.
Decreasing the number of samples can be performed in many ways, such as deleting at least one sample, skipping at least one samples, replacing at least two samples with fewer new samples, and the like.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for detecting synchronization loss between the encoded streams. The method includes the steps of:
monitoring the encoded streams,
detecting the rate of production of each encoded stream, and
detecting the difference between the rates of production.
Accordingly, this method can also be a step of normalizing between the rates of production of the encoded streams, before the step of detecting the difference.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a method for reducing the rate of production of one of the streams with respect to the rate of production of another stream. The method includes the step of decreasing the number of the samples in the one stream.
In accordance with a yet another aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a method for reducing the rate of production of one of the streams with respect to the rate of production of another stream. The method includes the step of increasing the number of samples in the other stream. |
def to_64(b):
n = b.find('1')
if n == -1: return False
return b[n:].count('0') >= 6
print('yes' if to_64(input()) else 'no') |
<gh_stars>0
/*
* This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain, following <https://unlicense.org>
*/
package io.limo.transfer;
/**
* This interface allows to read some binary data
*/
public interface Reader {
/**
* Read a byte in the data
*
* @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException if there is no byte left to read
*/
byte readByte();
/**
* Read a 4-bytes int in the data
* <p>bytes are read using BIG ENDIAN byte order
* @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException if there is less than 4 bytes left to read
*/
int readInt();
/**
* Read a 4-bytes int in the data
* <p>bytes are read using LITTLE ENDIAN byte order
* @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException if there is less than 4 bytes left to read
*/
int readIntLE();
}
|
import java.util.List;
public class Artist extends Person {
private Genre genre;
private String badgeId;
List<Band> bands;
}
|
The CC chemokine ligand 3 regulates CD11c+CD11b+CD8− dendritic cell maturation and activation following viral infection of the central nervous system: implications for a role in T cell activation The role of CC chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3) in activation of dendritic cells (DCs) following mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infection of the central nervous system (CNS) was examined. The results indicate that CCL3 participates in an effective host response to MHV infection by contributing to CD11c+CD11b+CD8− DC maturation, activation, and migration to cervical lymph nodes (CLN). Diminished CD8− DC activation correlated with reduced IFN- expression by virus-specific T cells accompanied by increased IL-10 production suggesting that CCL3 contributes to an effective host response to viral infection by enhancing the T cell activation potential of DC. Introduction The CC chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3-macrophage inflammatory protein-1a) is capable of activating monocytes and lymphocytes and serves an important role in the initial recruitment of these cells to tissues following microbial infection (;). In support of the importance for CCL3 in imparting functional signals to T cells are data from our laboratory demonstrating that instillation of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) into the brains of CCL3 / mice results in an inability to clear virus from the central nervous system (CNS) (). MHV-infected CCL3 / mice exhibited a significant reduction in the numbers of infiltrating virus-specific CD8 + T cells present within the brain indicating that trafficking was impaired. Moreover, the ability to produce IFN-g as well as the cytolytic activity of virus-specific CD8 + T cells was dramatically reduced in the absence of CCL3 signaling. Taken together, these data indicate that CCL3 signaling significantly enhances the differentiation of primed CD8 + T cells into effector cells that allows their release from secondary lymphoid organs into circulation and effective migration to the CNS. The present study was undertaken to characterize potential mechanisms by which CCL3 signaling imparts effector function to antigen-specific T cells following MHV infection of the CNS. To further understand the relationship between CCL3 signaling and T cell activation, CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice were infected with MHV and the presence and activation state of DC-like cells within the brain and draining cervical lymph nodes (CLN) determined. Our results delineate a CCL3-dependent pathway of T cell activation that involves the maturation and activation of a subpopulation of (dendritic cells) DCs (CD11c + CD11b + CD8a ) within the CNS as well as influencing the accumulation of these cells within the CLN following MHV infection of the CNS. Results and discussion Characterization of CD11c + cells within the CNS following MHV infection of CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice To characterize the populations of cells present within the CNS of MHV-infected mice, cells were harvested at days 0, 2, and 5 post-infection (p.i.) and immunophenotyped by flow cytometry. We chose to focus our attention on markers that are associated with professional antigen presenting cells such as DC as recent studies have indicated DC-like cells can be detected within the brains under inflammatory conditions (Fisher and Reichmann, 2001;). Furthermore, we have previously determined that CCL3 mRNA expression is detected within the CNS early (b3 days) and therefore may participate in the appearance of CD11c + cells within the brain following MHV infection (). Therefore, we sought to characterize the populations of CD11c + cells within the brain following MHV infection of CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice. Results in Fig. 1A indicate the frequency of CD11c + cells present within the CNS of naRve CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice is b1%. However, within 2 days following intracranial infection with MHV, there is a marked increase in the frequency of CD11c + cells within the brains of both strains of mice (Fig. 1A). Analysis of CD11b expression revealed that approximately 75% of CD11c + cells in both CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice were also CD11b + (Fig. 1A). CD11c + CD11b + cells isolated from the CNS of either CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice expressed little to no CD8a or DEC205 suggesting a phenotype similar to myeloid derived DC (CD11c +, CD11b +, CD8a, DEC205 ) ( Fig. 1B) (;). Increased CD8a and DEC205 expression on CD11c + CD11b cells indicated that the majority of the remaining CD11c + cells present within the brain were similar phenotypically to lymphoid derived DC (CD11c +, CD11b, CD8a + ) (Fig. 1B) (;). Although the Fig. 1. Analysis of dendritic cells (DCs) within the brain following MHV infection. (A) Cells were isolated from the brains of uninfected (naRve) or infected (day 2 p.i.) CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice and stained for CD11c + and CD11b + expression. Gated populations represent CD11c + CD11b + (upper-right quadrant) or CD11c + CD11b (lower-right quadrant) and numbers indicate frequencies of gated cells within the isolated population. (B) CD8a and DEC205 expression on CD11c + cells. CD11c + CD11b + cells from either MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice at day 2 p.i. did not express detectable levels of either CD8a or DEC205 while expression of both CD8a and DEC205 was readily detectable on CD11c + CD11b cells present within the brains of both populations of mice at day 2 p.i. (C) Total numbers of CD8a + and CD8a DCs within the brains of MHV or sham-infected CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice at days 2 and 5 p.i. Data presented represent an average cell number derived from two separate experiments with a minimum of 10 mice analyzed per experimental group. (D) CD8a cells isolated from brains of CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice at day 2 p.i. were gated upon and CD80, CD86, and CD40 expression was determined by flow cytometry. The mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) for cells obtained from either CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice is indicated. Flow data shown in panels A, B, and D are representative of two separate experiments with a total of 10 mice for each experimental condition. remaining CD11c + CD11b CD8a population was not further characterized, it is likely that these cells may be plasmacytoid in origin (CD11c + CD11b CD8a B220 + ) or consist of a yet to be defined population of DC. Comparison of the total numbers of CD8a + cells within the brains of MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice revealed no dramatic differences between the two populations of mice at either 2 or 5 days p.i. (Fig. 1C). In contrast, numbers of CD8a cells were increased by approximately 30% within the brains of MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ mice as compared to CCL3 / mice at day 2 p.i. However, by day 5 p.i., there were increased numbers of CD8a cells present in the brains of CCL3 / mice when compared to CCL3 +/+ mice. In attempt to better evaluate the activation state of CD11c + cells within the brains of MHV-infected mice, we next determined the expression levels of co-stimulatory molecules CD80 (B-7.1), CD86 (B-7.2), and CD40 on CD8a cells within the CNS of CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice. We chose to focus on this subpopulation of DCs in more detail as this clearly was the predominant DC population within the brains of infected mice suggesting a potentially more important role in defense. Analysis of CD8a cells isolated from the brains of CCL3 +/+ mice at day 2 p.i. revealed these cells expressed detectable levels CD80, CD86, and CD40 as determined by measuring the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) (Fig. 1D). Although MHV infection of CCL3 / mice also resulted in enhanced expression of CD86 on the surface of CD8a cells, the MFI for both CD80 and CD40 was dramatically reduced as compared to CD8a cells within the brain of CCL3 +/+ mice at day 2 p.i. (Fig. 1D). Together, these results indicate that although CCL3 signaling is not required for the appearance of DC-like cells within the brain, expression of the co-stimulatory molecules CD40 and CD80 is muted in the absence of CCL3 signaling. Although the total number of CD8a cells increased within the CLN of CCL3 / mice, there was an approximate 4-fold reduction in total numbers of CD8a cells as compared to CCL3 +/+ mice at days 2 and 5 p.i. (Fig. 2C). Similar to the brain, no difference in numbers of CD8a + cells within the CLN was detected at either days 2 or 5 p.i. (Fig. 2C). Examination of co-stimulatory molecule expression on CD8a DCs present within the CLN of CCL3 +/+ mice correlated with the increased expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, CD86 as well as increased MHC I and II expression when compared to sham-infected mice (Figs. 2D and E). These data suggest that this population of activated CD8a cells within the CLN is able to present antigen and induce T cell differentiation within the CLN following MHV infection of the CNS. Although CD8a DCs isolated from the CLN of CCL3 / mice expressed similar levels of CD80 and CD86 as compared to CCL3 +/+ (determined by MFI), expression of CD40 as well as MHC I and II were reduced as compared to CD8a cells isolated from MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ mice (Figs. 2D and E). Cytokine secretion by CD11c + cells One mechanism by which DCs influence the T cell response to infection is through the secretion of cytokines that can subsequently polarize the immune response towards either a Th1 or Th2 phenotype depending on the antigenic challenge. To determine if CD8a DCs present within the CLN of infected CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice were capable of secreting either chemokines or cytokines following MHV infection of the CNS, these cells were isolated and production determined by ELISA. CCL3 was readily detectable from CD8a DCs obtained from CCL3 +/+ mice while CCL3 was not detected in supernatants collected from CCL3 / CD8a DCs (Fig. 3). The CCL3 +/+ CD8a DC population secreted IL-12p70 with low-level production of IL-10 ( Fig. 3). In contrast, the CD11c + CD11b + CD8a cells isolated from CCL3 / mice secreted approximately 3-fold less IL-12p70 while IL-10 secretion was increased by 5-fold as compared to cells from CCL3 +/+ mice (Fig. 3). Altered cytokine production in CCL3 / T cells We next evaluated the ability of T cells obtained from the CLN of either MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice to synthesize cytokines following exposure to defined viral antigens. T cells were isolated from the CLN of CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice at days 7 and 12 p.i. following intracranial infection with MHV and stimulated with peptides corresponding to either the immunodominant CD4 epitope present within the matrix (M) glycoprotein at residues 133-147 (M133-147) or the immunodominant CD8 epitope in the surface (S) glycoprotein spanning residues 510-518 (S510-518) and cytokine production by T cells determined by intracellular cytokine staining (Castro and Perlman, 1995;). The results presented in Table 1 indicate similar frequencies of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells from CCL3 +/+ mice produced IFN-g at days 7 and 12 p.i. Both CD4 + and CD8 + CCL3 +/+ T cells also secreted IL-2 following specific peptide exposure at day 7, although expression was limited to the acute stage of MHV infection as the frequency of IL-2producing cells was reduced at day 12 p.i. (Table 1). In contrast, the frequency of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells isolated from CCL3 / mice secreting IFN-g following peptide stimulation was dramatically reduced. Expression of IL-2 by CCL3 / T cells was comparable with CCL3 +/+ mice at day 7 p.i. However, by day 12 p.i., the frequency of CCL3 / T cells expressing IL-2 remained elevated as compared to CCL3 +/+ T cells (Table 1). In addition, only limited frequencies of CCL3 +/+ CD4 + and CD8 + T cells produced IL-10 following MHV infection whereas CCL3 / CD4 + and CD8 + T cells displayed an overall increase in the frequency of IL-10 ( Table 1). The major findings of this study are (i) MHV infection of the CNS results in the appearance of two distinct populations of CD11c + cells each expressing markers characteristic of lymphoid (CD11c + CD11b CD8a + DEC205 + ) and myeloid dendritic cells (CD11c + CD11b + CD8a DEC205 ), (ii) the accumulation of CD8a DCs within the draining CLN is reduced in the absence of CCL3 signaling, (iii) expression of co-stimulatory molecules such as CD40 by CD8a DCs within either the brain and CLN of MHV-infected CCL3 / mice is diminished suggesting that CCL3 signaling enhances expression of these molecules, and (iv) absence of CCL3 signaling results in the re-direction of the T cell response to viral antigens as determined by cytokine production. These data support and extend recent studies from our laboratory demonstrating an important role for CCL3 in generating effector anti-viral T cells capable of migrating to the brain in response to viral infection (). i.) CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice and stained for CD11c + and CD11b + expression. Gated populations represent CD11c + CD11b + (upper-right quadrant) or CD11c + CD11b (lower-right quadrant) and numbers indicate frequencies of gated cells within the isolated population. (B) CD8a and DEC205 expression on CD11c + cells. CD11c + CD11b + cells from either CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / at day 2 p.i. did not express detectable levels of either CD8a or DEC205 while expression of both CD8a and DEC205 was readily detectable on CD11c + CD11b cells present within the brains of both CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice at day 2 p.i. (C) Total numbers of CD8a + and CD8a DCs within the CLNs of MHV or sham-infected CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice at days 2 and 5 p.i. Data presented represent an average cell number derived from two separate experiments with a minimum of 10 mice analyzed per experimental group. (D) CD8a cells obtained from MHV-infected (day 2 p.i.) or sham mice were gated and the level of CD80, CD86, and CD40 expression was determined by flow cytometry. The MFI for cells obtained from either CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice is indicated. (E) CD8a cells obtained from MHV-infected or sham mice were evaluated for expression of MHC I and II. The MFI for staining of either MHC I or II is indicated in the histogram. Flow data shown in panels A, B, D, and E are representative of two separate experiments with a total of 10 mice for each experimental condition. The activation of DC and their mobilization to secondary lymphoid organs is thought to be a key step in the initiation of an adaptive immune response (Banchereau and Steinman, 1998). Recent studies have indicated that following infection of the CNS with Toxoplasma gondii, CD11c + cells are present within the brain and these cells were able to stimulate the proliferation of naRve T cells (Fisher and Reichmann, 2001). Similarly, our results also indicate an increase in CD11c + cells within the CNS following viral infection, suggesting that these cells are likely critical for successful T cell priming following migration to draining lymph nodes. Whether these cells are present within the CNS by differentiation of local antigen presenting cells, or through migration of immature DC has not been determined and is currently under investigation. Regardless, our data imply that CCL3 expression and signaling contributes to the migration of CD8a CD11c + cells to secondary lymphoid tissue where they participate in priming of T cells. In support of this, we have shown that CCL3 is important in arming these cells with the capability to optimally stimulate antigen-specific T cells with the ability to fully differentiate into effector cells (). The data presented in this study support and extend these observations and indicate that these results may be the result of a combination of diminished expression of both MHC class I and II, reduced expression of CD40, as well as a shift in cytokine production by CD8a cells. Indeed, CD40L:CD40 mediated interactions between T cells and APC can enhance IL-12 production by DC and blockade of this interaction has been shown to result in reduced autoimmunity by down-regulating Th1 differentiation (;). Accumulating evidence indicates that in addition to driving virus-specific T cell proliferation, the activation state of DCs can also directly influence the effector function of T cells through the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines (;). For example, following several viral and bacterial infections, CD8a + DCs have been shown to be able to secrete large amounts of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-12 both in vitro and in vivo and this results in a preferential expression of Th1-associated cytokines, such as IFN-g by responding T cells (;;Reis e ). Until recently, the prevailing thought was that CD8a + DCs were primarily responsible for production of IL-12 and contributing to a Th1 response. However, recent studies have indicated that CD8a DCs also have the potential for secreting IL-12 and influencing the T cell response (). Our studies clearly indicate that CD8a DCs isolated from the draining CLN of MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ mice secrete IL-12 suggesting that these cells help influence a protective Th1-mediated immune response characterized by the majority of antigen-specific T cells expressing IFN-g rather than IL-10 (Table 1). In stark contrast is the data indicating that CD8a DCs present in the CLN of infected CCL3 / mice predominantly secrete IL-10 and this correlates with limited IFN-g expression and enhanced expression of the Th2-associated cytokine IL-10 (Table 1). Therefore, the data indicate that cytokine production, rather than the type of CD11c + cell, may control the predominant T cell immune response within the CLN. Taken together, these data point to an important role in CCL3 expression in linking innate and adaptive immune responses following viral infection of the CNS by contributing to the activation Fig. 3. Cytokine and chemokine secretion by CD11c + CD11b + CD8a cells isolated from mononuclear cells pooled from the CLN of MHV-infected CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice at day 7 p.i. Supernatants were analyzed for the production of IL-12p70, IL-10, and CCL3 by ELISA 24 h following culture. A minimum of three to six mice per group were used for isolation of cells and data presented indicate the average F SD. *P V 0.001. Table 1 Frequency of cytokine-producing T cells present within draining cervical lymph nodes following MHV infection a Mouse Day p.i. IFN-g IL-2 IL-10 CD4 + T cells CCL3 +/+ 7 2 0F 4 35F 5 5F 2 12 Data represent two separate experiments with at least three mice per group, n = 6. Data are presented as average F SD. a Cytokine expression determined by pooling cells from draining CLN of MHV-infected mice at defined times p.i. and pulsing with defined CD4 + epitope (M133-147) and CD8 + epitope (S510-518). b P V 0.01. Decreased frequency of IFN-g secreting T cells and increased frequency of IL-2 producing T cells following MHV infection of CCL3 / mice as compared to CCL3 +/+ mice. c P V 0.002. Increased frequency of IL-10 producing T cells in CCL3 / mice as compared to CCL3 +/+ mice following MHV infection. of DCs through regulating the migration of cells from the CNS to lymphoid tissues as well as the expression of both co-stimulatory molecules and cytokine production. However, it is important to note that there is the possibility of other chemokines and chemokine receptors participating in DC responses following viral infection. Indeed, the CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) is expressed on professional APC including macrophages and DCs and is thought to contribute to defense following microbial challenge by enhancing recruitment as well as production of antimicrobial products such as TNF-a and NO by these cells (Luster, 2002;McColl, 2002;). In addition, the absence of CCR2 signaling results in diminished trafficking and accumulation of dendritic cells within secondary lymphoid tissues following antigenic challenge ((Peters et al.,, 2001). Studies are currently in progress to evaluate the contributions of additional chemokine signaling pathways that may also participate in DC activation and migration following coronavirus infection. In conclusion, the studies presented support and extend previous work from our laboratory indicating an important role for chemokines in the migration of T cells into the CNS following MHV infection ;). Here, we have demonstrated a novel role for the chemokine CCL3 in enhancing the accumulation and activation of CD8a DCs within secondary lymphoid tissue and this correlates with altered T cell activation and differentiation following viral infection. These results indicate that CD8a DCs likely function in an APC-like role within the CLN following MHV infection and that these cells rely upon chemokine instruction to activate T cells. At a more fundamental level, the results presented demonstrate that chemokines serve as critical upstream signals in the innate immune response that later is important with regards to the initiation of a protective adaptive immune responses to viral infection. Mononuclear cell isolation and flow cytometry Mononuclear cells were obtained from the brains and cervical lymph nodes of either CCL3 +/+ or CCL3 / mice at defined times post-infection (p.i.) using a previously described protocol (). Cell surface expression of phenotypic markers was examined using the following reagents for flow cytometric analysis: APCconjugated rat anti-mouse CD8; PERCP-conjugated rat anti mouse CD4 (Pharmingen, San Diego, CA). PE conjugated D b /S510-518 MHC class I tetramer (Beckman Coulter, San Diego, CA) was utilized for identification of CD8 + T cells specific for viral spike protein antigen (). To determine the presence of dendritic-like cells within the CNS and lymph nodes, cells were stained using FITCconjugated rat anti-mouse CD11c (Serotec, Oxford, England) in combination with PERCP-conjugated rat anti-mouse CD8a (Pharmingen), rat anti-mouse APC-conjugated CD11b (Pharmingen), and rat anti-mouse DEC205 (Pharmingen). The maturation and activation state of DC were determined using FITC-conjugated rat anti-mouse CD40, CD80, CD86, MHC I, and MHC II (Pharmingen). Isotypematched antibodies were used as controls for all staining conditions described. Isolation of CD11c + cells from the CLN CCL3 +/+ and CCL3 / mice were infected intracranially with 1000 PFU of MHV and brains and CLN were removed at defined times post-infection for analysis. Brain samples were minced and homogenized into a single cell suspension followed by fractionation on a 70/30% Percoll gradient at 1300 g for 30 min. For isolation of mononuclear cells from the CLN, lymph nodes were homogenized using frosted glass slides and the resulting single cell suspension was treated with sterile H 2 O to lyse red blood cells. Due to the low frequency and numbers of CD11c + cells within the brain and CLN, samples from three to six mice were pooled for each experiment. To enrich for CD11c + CD11b + CD8a DCs, both brain and CLN samples were separately magnetically sorted by negative selection against CD8a using MACS microbeads coated with anti-CD8a (Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn, CA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. CD11c + cells were then magnetically selected from the CD8a fraction using MACS microbeads coated with anti-CD11c (Miltenyi). The resulting population was N90% pure for CD11c + cells that were subsequently determined to be CD11b + and CD8a by flow cytometry (data not shown). MACS enriched cells were then resuspended in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS. Intracellular cytokine staining Mononuclear cells were obtained from the CLNs of MHV-infected mice at defined times post-infection and cytokine production by T cells determined by intracellular cytokine staining to defined viral antigens using a previously described protocol (). Statistical analysis Statistically significant differences between experimental groups was determined by the Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test, and P values of V0.05 were considered significant. |
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My nation was shaken but not too stirred by the horrendous events of the terror attack on Saturday night. And this week there have been worse atrocities in other countries we often don’t pay so much attention to. The London Bridge attack came in the context of two other recent UK atrocities.
To the bemusement of many from outside this island, but not to the surprise of most inside it, one leader called on people not to be too alarmed, stating that London remains perhaps the safest global city in the world.
There are understandable calls from other leaders for renewed action to counter extremist ideology and bolster British values, and further efforts are being made to prevent vehicles from mounting pavements at key places. But an eight minute period from the first 999 phone call, until the police taking down these people in a hail of bullets is further testimony to how well our security services are protecting us. There are many other plots being quietly identified and stopped by the police.
And so, this Great City that I love barely skipped a beat in terms of going about its business. Yes there was a gathering of remembrance attended by thousands. And flags at half mast demonstrate our concern for those who have lost loved ones, and who are injured. But we fight terrorism together by moving on together, and most of all by exercising our right to vote together in two days no matter our political beliefs. I urge my fellow countrymen to vote as I will be doing. It is an important choice. It is quite simply a question of who do you want leading our nation and dealing with all its issues, especially dealing with the terrorist threat, and negotiating Brexit: Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn?
How do the British respond to terrorism? By continuing with our daily lives and this week by voting.
I will close this post with a brief prayer I wrote in the aftermath of this attack.
Raised for our Justification Romans 4:25: the forgotten verse? |
HYSTERECTOMY WITH OPPORTUNISTIC SALPINGECTOMY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL PARAMETERS OF OVARIAN TISSUE The study examined the development of posthysterectomy syndrome in patients after hysterectomy with preservation of ovarian tissue. The aim of the study was to assess the functionality of ovarian tissue in patients with hysterectomy and opportunistic salpingectomy performed for uterine fibroids. Materials and methods of the research. The study was performed in 160 women of reproductive age. The first group included 90 patients after vaginal hysterectomy with tubectomy and associated with laparoscopy, the second group 70 patients after abdominal hysterectomy with tubectomy. The control group included 50 women of reproductive age 45.7±1.3 years with asymptomatic fibroids. The diagnostic algorithm included assessment of hormonal status and instrumental study of structural and functional parameters of ovarian tissue both at the stage of preoperative observation and for 12 months, 3 and 5 years after surgery. Research results and their discussion. At the preoperative stage in both groups found a higher percentage of thyroid disease, hypertension and metabolic disorders, as well as combined proliferative processes of the uterus. Normal ultrasound picture of the ovaries was found in 67.8 % - in the first group and in 47.1 % - in the second group. Significant increase in blood flow in the ovarian artery, in the remote period showing atrophic changes with the development of ovarian depletion syndrome. Assessment of hormonal status in both groups shows marked changes in baseline levels of gonadotropic hormones (FSH and LH): increase in baseline FSH levels by 2.2 times, LH - 1.5 times against the control group (p <0.05), dyshormonal disorders persist for up to 5 years after surgery in one third of cases, and up to 36 months - there is an increase in the proportion of cystic and trophic changes, most pronounced in patients with reduced ovarian reserve, dysmetabolic manifestations and combined proliferative processes of the uterus and appendages before surgery, and syndrome chronic pelvic pain and venous pelvic blood supply in the postoperative period. Conclusions. The technique of performing a hysterectomy does not have a significant effect on the functional state of the ovaries in the long term. The main indicators of ovarian blood flow and steroid hormone production after hysterectomy with opportunistic salpingectomy for uterine fibroids are close to the reference values up to 36 months postoperatively Introduction According to statistics, hysterectomy (HE) is one of the most common surgical interventions in late reproductive age, and every third woman in the world after 55-60 years does not have a uterus. Literature sources show that in the USA about 600 thousand HE are performed annually, in Ukraine in the structure of gynecological operations this surgical intervention is about 38.0 %, in the structure of obstetrics -about 6.0 %. It should be emphasized that even with the preservation of ovarian tissue after HE, patients develop a characteristic symptom complex of emotional, neurovegetative, sexual, urogenital, and vascular manifestations, called posthysterectomy syndrome. It is thought that HE with opportunistic salpingectomy itself has a certain effect on the morpho-functional parameters of ovarian tissue and initiates the imbalance of hormonal homeostasis associated with hypoestrogenic state. And in the development of such disorders, first, a certain place belongs to microcirculatory changes and the development of acute ischemia of ovarian tissue, due to the reaction to interference in the blood supply system of the uterine artery. According to several scientific studies, three types of ovarian blood supply have been identified: uniform blood supply from the uterine and ovarian arteries (51 %), predominant blood supply due to uterine artery branches (38 %) and blood supply mainly due to ovarian artery branches (11 %). This confirms the opinion that ovarian function is directly dependent on the type of blood supply, and HE itself, as a radical procedure, could cause catastrophic changes in ovarian function, which is widely discussed in the literature and is controversial and controversial. Some authors point to ovarian depletion after HE, but do not show unambiguous data on the timing and frequency of hormonal deficiency, while other researchers have presented clear data on impaired hemomicrocirculation in the vessels of preserved ovarian tissue. In this case, complete ovarian ischemia (reduction of maximum and minimum blood pressure to zero, conversion of pulsed blood flow to continuous) occurs after subtotal hysterectomy provided blood supply exclusively or mainly due to the branches of the uterine artery, which are cut off as a result of ligation of own connection of an ovary and an ovarian branch of a uterine artery, which determines, as the most favourable option, a uniform type of blood supply due to both uterine and ovarian arteries. Impaired ovarian hemodynamics triggers a cascade of intracellular changes at the organ level, and ischemic disorders in ovarian tissue led to activation of prostaglandins, spasm of arterioles and secondary circulatory disorders, and changes in steroidogenesis, while increasing the synthesis of cytokines that promote luteolysis and further tissue damage. Also noteworthy is the theory that the uterus, as another secretory organ, affects the secretion of pituitary folliclestimulating hormone (FSH), where, when this function is eliminated, the level of this parameter increases with accelerating follicular exhaustion and ovarian failure. As a result of the simultaneous removal of the local estrogen depot, a breakdown of adaptive mechanisms and the development of hormonal imbalance is generated. Most studies demonstrate changes in women of early reproductive age as the most striking and influential on quality-of-life parameters and psychological status after surgery. The evaluation of the impact of various surgical techniques on the morphofunctional state of the ovaries and disorders of steroidogenesis, as well as the role of age, the combination of proliferative gynecological pathology and postoperative complications, remains ambiguous in scientific research. The aim of the researchassessment of ovarian tissue functionality in patients with hysterectomy and opportunistic salpingectomy performed for uterine fibroids. Materials and methods of the research This research was performed in the gynecological department of the Kyiv Perinatal Center for the period 2015-2019, where was performed a set of clinical, laboratory and instrumental studies in 160 women of reproductive age, which were divided into two groups. The first group included 90 patients (mean age 45.9±1.3 years) who underwent vaginal hysterectomy with tubectomy, both classical and associated with laparoscopy, the second group consisted of 70 patients with uterine leiomyoma (mean age 47.2±1.6 years), where abdominal hysterectomy with tubectomy was performed. The control group included 50 women with asymptomatic fibroids, mean age 45.7±1.3 years. The diagnostic algorithm included assessment of hormonal status by the level of gonadotropic and steroid hormones and instrumental study of structural and functional parameters of ovarian tissue both at the stage of preoperative observation and for 12 months, 3 and 5 years after surgery. Criteria for inclu-sion in the study were: age of patients from 40 to 49 years, HE for uterine fibroids with opportunistic salpingectomy with preservation of ovarian tissue, the patient's consent to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria: severe somatic diseases that formed the patient's premorbid background before surgery, patients' refusal to participate in the study. Functional status of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian system was assessed before and after surgery for serum levels of FSH, LH, estradiol, progesterone and prolactin, as well as anti-Mllerian hormone (AMH) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using test system Core using AMHGenIIELISA kits (BeckmanCoulter). Ultrasound examination of the pelvic organs before and after surgery was performed using a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal sections of complex scanning devices "Voluson E8", using transvaginal and transabdominal sensors with a frequency of 3.5, 5, 6.5 and 7.5 MHz. Echogenicity, volume and size, and the condition of the follicular apparatus were determined during ovarian tissue examination. Doppler color mapping was performed with pulse Doppler in the right and left branches of the a.uterina, in the ovarian arteries, and in the stroma of both ovaries. Weak blood flow was assessed at the registration of 1-5 loci of blood flow, moderateat 5-10 points of vascularization, and activemore than 10 loci of blood flow. Evaluation of pelvic ultrasound was performed in all groups before surgery and at different times in the postoperative period. All questions regarding the possibility of conducting these studies were agreed with the Commission on Bioethical Expertise and Ethics of Scientific Research of the Bogomolets National Medical University protocol No. 140 dated 21.12.2020, the study was performed with the analysis of medical records before surgical recovery in retrospect, all patients gave their voluntary consent to the examination. The research is based on ethical standards in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. Statistical processing of the results was performed using statistical packages IBM SPSS Statistics (ver. 21) and statistical environment R (ver. 3.1). Assessment of variability of indicators was performed by methods of variation statistics. For comparative analysis, we used the methods of nonparametric statisticsthe Chi-square criterion () and used Fisher's exact criterion. Research results When comparing the frequency of extragenital diseases, it is necessary to indicate an increase in the percentage of thyroid disease, hypertension and metabolic disorders. In the analysis of anthropometric data, we noted in one third of patients overweight and obesity of I-II degree, which confirms the existing data in the literature on the increased risk of uterine leiomyoma in metabolic disorders. The analysis of menstrual function should indicate a significant predominance of menstrual disorders by type of menorrhagia (61.9 %), no differences in the parity of pregnancies and births, but in the second groupan increase in the history of such features as abortion, miscarriage, traumatic childbirth etc. It is also necessary to point out the high proportion of combined proliferative processes, such as endometrial hyperplasia, endometriosis, functional ovarian cysts, i.e., hormone-dependent pathological conditions, which allows to classify uterine fibroids to the group of so-called monoclonal hormone-sensitive proliferates. The results of ultrasound are traditionally used to diagnose the onset of secondary gonadal insufficiency, but the processes of imbalance in the hypothalamicpituitary-ovarian system in patients after HE with opportunistic salpingectomy for uterine fibroids performed in reproductive age are insufficiently presented in the literature and are contradictory. It should be noted that immediately after surgery, the first group showed an insignificant increase in the volume of the right ovary and stable indicators of the left, although in the second group the increase in the volume of both ovaries was observed almost twice. Characterizing the sonographic features of ovarian tissue 12 months after surgery, we obtained data on the reduction of ovarian tissue in both study groups, but more significantonly in the second group against the control data (p<0.05). Up to 36 months of follow-up, there was a tendency to decrease the volume of the ovaries in both groups -(3.28±0.02 cm 3 ) and Immediately after surgery, the main dopplerometric parameters, namely pulse rate of blood flow (PRBF) and resistance index (RI) changed downwards, except for central blood supply, where in both study groups there was an insignificant increase in mean PRBF (by 0.9 and 0.5 cm/sec). Up to 12 months of monitoring, most indicators continue to show a decrease in mean blood flow values in both groups, but in the first group with less pronounced deviations. Up to 24 months of monitoring revealed restoration of gonadal hemodynamics in both groups. Thus, in patients of the second group, an increase in ovarian volume was observed in 1.8 times, there was a decrease in echogenicity immediately after surgery, as well as a decrease in Doppler parameters of ovarian blood flow. Restoration of ovarian structure and function in two thirds of patients was observed after 12 months of follow-up, in one third found progressive deterioration of ovarian function with a decrease in their volume, number and size of follicles, deterioration of blood supply by Doppler, which should be associated not only with insufficiency collateral circulation and violation of the architecture of the vascular bed, but also with the removal of one of the links of the self-regulating systemthe uterus itself. It should be noted that in 13 (18.6 %) blood flow in the ovarian artery was not determined, and it should be noted that these were patients with varicose veins of the pelvis, including the ovarian plexus. As shown by the data of Fig. 1, the study of hemodynamics and structural parameters of ovarian tissue in women with verified connective tissue disease, pelvic varicose disease, as well as the manifestations of pelvic floor prolapse and symptoms of chronic pelvic pain in the postoperative period, had their own characteristics, and the most significant differences were found in patients with venous pelvic hemorrhage and chronic pelvic pain syndrome. 20 Studies have shown that ovarian volume in women after HE is characterized by a progressive decrease with increasing duration of postoperative follow-up. In addition, an important factor determining the structural and functional parameters of ovarian tissue is the age of the woman who underwent radical surgery: in patients of late reproductive age immediately after surgery, the average ovarian volume was significantly higher than in the control and in patients under 45 years of age, in parallel, a significant increase in blood flow in the ovarian artery (RI and S/D), in the remote period showing atrophic changes with the development of ovarian de-pletion syndrome. Progression and development of pelvic varicose disease and chronic pelvic pain syndrome in the postoperative period most significantly aggravated hemodynamic disorders and contributed to ovarian tissue atrophy. Assessment of hormonal status is presented in Table 1 and shows in both groups pronounced changes in baseline levels of gonadotropic hormones (FSH and LH): increase in baseline FSH levels by 2.2 times, LH -1.5 times against the control group (p <0.05). Approximation to the reference limits was noted only in 41 patients (25.6 %) up to 12 months of follow-up. The average values of ovarian steroid hormones in the postoperative period indicated a decrease in these parameters in all patients of the second group and in more than half of the samples in the first group (47-52.2 %) (p<0.05), and statistically significantin 2.5 times against the initial data, during 6 months of observation of the restoration of ovarian blood supply due to collaterals contributed to a gradual approximation to the values characteristic of this reproductive age, but still maintained a tendency to decrease from the reference parameters. In 61 patients (67.7 %) of the first group the FSH level remained unchanged, in almost all women of the second group it increased 3.5 times and remained stable high up to 36 months of observation, and estradiol content decreased to postmenopausal values (p<0.05). As a biochemical marker of ovarian reserve of the left ovarian tissue in practice the so-called "triple" test is useddetermination of follicle-stimulating hormone, inhibin B, AMH in blood serum. According to the results of our studies, the most significant level of AMH deviated after 12 months of the postoperative period (2.9 times) (p<0.05), the level of inhibin B showed a decrease of 2.1 times, and in 20 patients of the second group (31, 4 %) -3.2 times (p<0.05). It is necessary to note the dependence of the dynamics and degree of deviations of the ovarian panel with the parity of surgical interventions and their volume, especially on the ovaries. Thus, in women of reproductive age with HE and opportunistic salpingectomy in a third of cases, dyshormonal disorders persist for up to 5 years after surgery, impaired blood flow in the remaining ovaries is accompanied by an increase to 12 months, and up to 36 months an increase in the proportion of cystic and trophic changes, which is most pronounced in patients with reduced ovarian reserve, dysmetabolic manifestations and combined proliferative processes of the uterus and appendages before surgery, as well as chronic pelvic pain and venous pelvic blood supply in the postoperative period. Performing HE with opportunistic salpingectomy exacerbates preoperative hormonal imbalance, which is manifested by increasing hypoestrogenemia, increased FSH and LH parameters, increased hemodynamic disorders and pelvic innervation. These changes could be explained by the following mechanisms: due to the exclusion from the blood supply of uterine arteries there is a natural decrease in hemodynamics in the ovarian branches of uterine arteries, intra-ovarian blood flow, which undoubtedly affects steroidogenesis with reflex enhancement of gonadotropic products. Restoration of ovarian function to reference values occurs up to 5 years in 109 (68.1 %) patients of both groups. It should be noted that in each case the problem of the appropriateness of the volume and timing of hormone therapy rehabilitation therapy should be addressed considering the patient's age, premorbid status and severity of hemodynamic disorders and estrogen deficiency. Discussion of research results According to some published literature reports, any surgical intervention on the pelvic organs leads to a violation of hormonal homeostasis at the level of both pituitary and steroid hormones, most pronounced in the first days after surgery, manifested by increased FSH, LH, decreased estradiol levels and progesterone, and due to acute circulatory disorders of ovarian microcirculation, edema and actual surgical trauma. According to modern literature, there is an increased risk of secondary ovarian failure in women after HE from 6-12 months to 3.5 years. Some reports emphasize that acquired ovarian failure occurs only in women after unilateral ovariectomy and vaginal hysterectomy, whereas in the group of patients with abdominal hysterectomy such changes occur in only 2 % of women a year after surgery and 14 %after 5 years. Separate reports demonstrate changes in ovarian blood flow Doppler parameters and serum AMH levels with corresponding correlations. However, most scientists agree that the cause of posthysterectomy syndrome is not only the operation itself and the resulting hemodynamic and microcirculatory disorders, but also the previous state of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian system and metabolic imbalance, which increases the risk of early ovarian failure. According to some literature sources, there is the ability of myomatous cells to produce estrogen due to the increased content of aromatasean enzyme that converts androstenedione to estradiol. Local hyperhormonemia of uterine origin is confirmed by a higher content of steroids in the tubular-ovarian arterioles (2-8 times higher) than in the serum of the ulnar vein. The larger the volume of the uterus, the more functionally important is the system of uterine and ovarian vascular network in the ligament, i.e., the higher the saturation of arterial vessels with sex hormones. Of interest are several literature sources demonstrating the state of ovarian reserve in patients with HE and opportunistic salpingectomy for uterine fibroids, indicating the role of previous gynecological pathology (uterine leiomyoma, endometrial hyperplasia). in comparison with the same parameters in women of this age category from the control group. An important point is the feasibility and role of tubectomy in the development of ovarian failure syndrome, according to which HE for uterine fibroids, performed with opportunistic salpingectomy, further exacerbates ovarian hemodynamics, which, according to some researchers, justifies organ storage. and preservation of fallopian tubes, but these studies are also ambiguous and insufficiently covered. According to some data, estradiol levels in patients after salpingectomy are reduced by 2.9 times, while the preservation of matte tubesonly 1.2 times, and ultrasound dopplerometric examination reveals changes in ovarian echogenicity and sharp depletion of the follicular apparatus. Other retrospective studies have shown that hormonal and ultrasound parameters do not change significantly if a salpingectomy is performed while performing HE. In this case, laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy is safer when performing subtotal HE. For the first time, Canadian and German scientists have suggested that the fimbrial division of the fallopian tubes is a source of serous ovarian cancer. There is an opinion about the role of distal fallopian tubes in the seizure of serous ovarian cancer in women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. According to US statistics, epithelial ovarian cancer is diagnosed in 25,000 women annually. The results of a study have been published, according to which serous tubular carcinoma in situ occurs in 60-100 % of women with this mutation, and in 30-60 % of patients in the absence of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. This allowed us to determine the feasibility of salpingectomy in patients with BRCA mutations to prevent ovarian cancer, as there are three hypotheses of carcinoma: origin from the epithelium of the distal fallopian tubes, by invagination and inclusion of coelomic epithelium in the cortical layer during ovulation, ovulation retrograde menstrual blood flow. Therefore, most authors believe that opportunistic salpingectomy should become a new clinical standard, as there is ample evidence of serous cancer from the distal epithelium of the fallopian tubes, even in the absence of mutations in the BRCA1 and 2 genes, which reduces the risk by 34-40 %. There are also published data that in patients after HE without supplements the risk of developing ovarian cancer within 15 years is already significant (up to 36 %). Analysis of the literature has shown that there are conflicting data on the structural and functional state of the ovaries after HE without appendages with opportunistic salpingectomy. A detailed study of pathological processes at the cellular-tissue level is promising, which will allow us to understand the mechanisms of ovarian failure after hysterectomy and its impact on steroidogenesis and the like. Study limitations. The results of the analysis reflect the data only of the gynecological department of the "Kyiv Perinatal Center". Because not all patients joined the study after hysterectomy, there may be shifts in the results of the study due to underrepresentation. However, the study has representative and comparable groups. Prospects for further research. The obtained results allowed to outline the main measures to prevent the depletion of steroidogenesis with the restoration of blood flow in the gonadal vessels, and if necessaryhormonal correction. Conclusions A decrease in ovarian tissue volume was found in both study groups 12 months after surgery after a previous compensatory increase in volume in the early postoperative period. There was a decrease in the production of ovarian steroid hormones in all patients of the second group and in more than half of the samples in the first group (47-52.2 %) (p <0.05), and 2.5 times against the original data; reduction of AMH in 2.9 times compared with control after 12 months of the postoperative period (p<0.05). Restoration of gonadal hemodynamics according to sonographic data in both groups up to 24 months of the postoperative period, and up to 36 months of steroid hormone production is close to the reference values in two thirds of those examined in both groups. The most pronounced changes in the hormonal profile were observed in patients under 45 years of age with combined proliferative diseases of the endometrium. It was demonstrated that the operative approach to performing a hysterectomy with a tubectomy does not affect the functional state of the ovaries -the indicators for both groups did not differ statistically significantly. Thus, the results confirm the existing literature, indicating the development of neurodystrophic changes and reduced functional reserve of ovarian tissue and impaired blood supply to the pelvis after hysterectomy with opportunistic salpingectomy. Financing. The study was performed at its own expense within the scientific program of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology No. 1 of Bogomolets Na-tional Medical University: "Preservation and restoration of women's reproductive health, considering medical and social consequences", 0119U103879. |
Indicators of Absolute and Relative Changes in Skeletal Muscle Mass during Adulthood and Ageing This study aimed to explore the set of variables related to skeletal muscle mass (SMM) in both sexes, and to create age- and sex-related models of changes in SMM, using the most representative indicator of muscular status. Body composition was assessed in 8733 subjects (♀ = 3370 and ♂ = 5363), allocated into subsamples according to age: 1829.9, 3039.9, 4049.9, 5059.9, 6069.9, and 70.079.9 years. Nine variables were used: protein mass, protein percent, protein mass index, SMM, percent of SMM, SMM index, fat-free mass, fat-free mass index, and protein/fat index. Univariate and multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA and MANOVA) were used to determine between- and within-sex difference in all variables by age. Correlation analysis established the relationship between age and muscularity variables. Principal Component Analysis extracted the variables that loaded highest in explaining muscularity, while regression analysis determined the linearity of association between the age and indicators of muscular status. Variables SMMI and PSMM were extracted as the most sensitive to age, with SMMI being gender-independent while showing the parabolic and sinusoidal form of change as function of ageing in males and females, respectively; and PSMM being sex-dependent while showing a linear trend of decrease in both sexes. Introduction Stature and body weight are the most commonly used measurements in growth studies from childhood to early adulthood (i.e., birth to 19 years of age). Both dimensions can be systematically measured on regular bases in hospitals, schools or sports clubs with the purpose of following growth status through progress of body dimensions. Longitudinal body dimensions (i.e., body height and length of the limbs) and body width (i.e., hip and shoulder width) follow a particular specific pattern during growth, while body dimensions such as body composition have specific patterns of changes during the life span. Generally, body composition is sex-specific and has been found to valid scientific basis for specific, sensitive, age-and gender-dependent diagnostic purposes, could aim to increase the effects of health prevention and intervention. Moreover, the efficient development of a curative measure may have an impact on improvement in morphological profile in individuals through permanent systematic screening of muscularity (i.e., absolute and relative skeletal muscle content) status. Although some effort has been made in the evaluation of SMM in different age categories, evidence and cross-cultural data are scarce, especially considering different indicators of muscularity. For example, people of different sizes may possess different absolute values of SMM only because of their body size (i.e., larger males compared to smaller males or males compared to females). Furthermore, two persons may have the same absolute SMM but different relative (%) amounts of SMM (percent skeletal muscle mass (PSMM)). However, the fact that two persons can also have different PSMMs because one person is fattier does not necessarily mean that the quality of their SMM (active movement potential) is different. This rather depends on the amount of protein mass that forms the muscles and amount of SMM per square unit of body size (i.e., BH ). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the set of measures related to SMM in both sexes, and to create an age-related model of muscularity that is sex-sensitive. Furthermore, it aimed to determine the most representative indicator of muscularity obtained by InBody BIA machine. Materials and Methods A multicentric transversal survey study was applied in this study, while measurements were conducted in laboratory setting. Concerning the form, this study had characteristics of fundamental and applied research. It provided new insights in the area of understanding of changes in SMM characteristics through the adulthood and ageing of a general Serbian population of both sexes. The subject sample was gathered via a randomized method with a combined approach to the selection of respondents. The sample was gathered in the following ways: as part of regular screening, through measurement announcements given through the media, through personal acquaintances and the systematic testing of different companies, and testing of educational, medical and police personnel. The Institutional Ethical Board of Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade Serbia, approved the study (No. 484-2). The research was conducted following the Helsinki Declaration: Recommendations Guiding Physicians in Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects. Body Composition Measurement Procedure All measurements were realized in the period from 2015 to 2019 in the Methodical Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade, in the Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Nis, as well as at the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology of the Medical Faculty, University of Belgrade. Body composition assessments were conducted using a direct segmental eight-channel bioimpedance analyzer InBody 720 (Biospace Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea). InBody 720 was shown to be valid, reliable and sensitive elsewhere. The same official InBody service provider (Borf d.o.o, Belgrade, Serbia) calibrated all machines twice a year (once each six months). All subjects were measured according to the suggestions of the device manufacturer and following all test recommendations. All measurements were carried out before breakfast between 08:00 and 10:00 h by experienced examiners. Variables The definition of the subjects' body composition took into account four types of variables. Besides the primary body composition variables considering absolute amount of contractile response tissue such as SMM, PM, and Free Fat Mass (FFM), there were three types of index variables: voluminosity-independent, longitudinality-independent, and combined body tissue index variable. Thus, the subjects' contractile tissue was described independently of body dimensions. In total, nine variables were included: 3 primary variables, 2 voluminosity-independent variables, 3 longitudinality-independent variables, and 1 combined body tissue index variables. This approach was previously used in studies on body composition. Primary Body Composition Variables FFM-fat-free body mass, expressed in kg; PM-total body protein mass, expressed in kg; SMM-skeletal muscle mass, expressed in kg; Combined Body Tissue Index Variables PFI-protein and total body fat ratio index. Statistics All row data were analyzed using the descriptive statistical procedure to calculate the basic measures of central tendency and dispersion of data such as Mean and Standard Deviation (SD). Correlations between explored muscle mass indicators and age were established using Pearson's correlation analysis. With the Fisher t-to-z transformation for an independent sample, we calculated if the correlations were significantly different between sexes. General differences according to sex concerning age and muscle mass variables were tested using multiple (MANOVA) and differences between analyzed age groups were established by applying an analysis of variance (ANOVA). Principal Component Analysis with direct Oblimin rotation and Kaiser normalization was used to reduce the set of morphological variables into factors. Thereafter, the most representative variable that is projected at the first position of the extracted factor was used as the best representative of muscle tissue obtained by the BIA used in this study for the next step of statistical analysis. Finally, the method of mathematical modeling was used for defining specific age-muscle equations to determine the dependence of the change in muscular status as function of age relative to sex. In this way, it was possible to determine the model characteristics of the change for most sensitive variable in a function of time and to define the biological peak muscular potential relative to other age periods. All statistical analyses were performed using corresponding statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0. The level of statistical significance was defined at 95% and the probability values of p < 0.05. Results All descriptive data are shown in the form of Mean ± SD relative to sex and age subgroups ( Table 1) Table 2 presents sex-specific correlation coefficients between age and indicators of muscularity, and Fisher r-to-z transformation for differences in correlation between sexes. The age correlated significantly with PM, PP, SMM, PSMM, PFI, FFM, and FFMI in males, and with PP, PMI, PSMM, SMMI, PFI, and FFMI in females. However, correlations were significantly higher in males in PP, PSMM and PFI, and significantly higher in females in PMI, SMMI, and FFMI. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity were statistically significant for males (KMO = 0.663, Bartlett's test = 193,878.5, p < 0.001) and females (KMO = 0.628, Bartlett's test = 109,144.7, p < 0.001), which implies statistically significant suitability of data for complex multidimensional statistical analysis. Principal component analysis extracted two main components for males and two for females (Table 3), cumulatively explaining 89.8 and 90.96%, respectively, of the variance in muscularity. The individual component loadings were 59.08 and 30.74% for males, and 57.81 and 33.15% for females. The structure matrix sorted the variables by size of the loading for each both factors in both sexes ( Table 3). The highest loaded, thus the most discriminative variable within the first component of both sexes, was SMMI, while within the second component it was PSMM. These two variables had the highest degree of methodological sensitivity and explained the highest amount of the variance in the muscularity of males and females. Therefore, they entered the regression analysis to determine the age-muscle relationship for both sexes. The regression analysis for age-predicted SMMI for males and females was conducted on absolute values (Figure 1a), which was followed by the SMMI normalized to maximal obtained SMMI (Figure 1b). The highest SMMI in males occurred at the age of 33 years and in females at the age of 39 years. Considering PSMM, the highest values occurred at the age of 18 years in both sexes and then the values were gradually lower following the age groups from younger towards older. In females, the values were linearly lower, while the sinusoid-shape trend of PSMM in males seems to be stable from 40-60 years (i.e., remains stable). Discussion The main findings of this study revealed significantly lower indicators of SMM across a gradually older sample of adults, whereby the most sensitive indicators of these trends were SMMI and PSMM, regardless of sex. Modeling and controlling changes in skeletal musculature over the Discussion The main findings of this study revealed significantly lower indicators of SMM across a gradually older sample of adults, whereby the most sensitive indicators of these trends were SMMI and PSMM, regardless of sex. Modeling and controlling changes in skeletal musculature over the years in the general population is essential not only for studying humans and health science but also as a source of general health data that could provide accurate and precise guidance as to whether something is right or wrong. This would be practical support of knowledge in aging process of general population that could be compared with the international data through the specific age range. In general, the average protein mass and SMM of Serbian adult females are lower than in males. The results suggest that an average Serbian male possess about 50.69% higher SMM and 54.53% higher protein mass than the average Serbian female. Considering the same variables relative to longitudinal dimensions, the difference of 15.49 and 32.36% could be observed in PMI and SMMI. In relation to body voluminosity, males possessed about 15.40% higher PP, and 16.20% higher PSMM. This was further reflected in the 48.89% higher FFM and 27.54% higher FFMI of males. Although body fat mass was not analyzed, the PFI showed that the ratio of protein mass (i.e., contractile mass) to body fat mass was more than twice lower (108.1% lower) in females than in males, which clearly indicates higher adiposity in females. A dimorphism between sexes has been shown to exist elsewhere, while numerical determination of its size on a population level may have great implication in public health and physical fitness. Acceptable levels of body fatness have been thoroughly defined in the literature for both sexes, along with clearly defined differences, while the information on between-sex differences in muscularity is scarce. Considering that skeletal muscles are responsible for every movement that humans make, along with the movements' strength, power, and precision, it is important to define the possible differences (highs and lows) within the humans of different sizes and certain biological characteristics (i.e., males and females). In that regard, the results showed significant difference between age groups in all investigated variables, indicating that higher initial (i.e., beginning of adulthood) amount of contractile tissue may be beneficial for ageing, as the gradual loss of skeletal muscles is likely to occur. The highest statistical difference occurred in PP, while the smallest was in FFM, meaning that the variable for the analysis of age-related, within-sex differences in muscularity should be chosen carefully for valid and meaningful evaluation (Table 1, Male PP, F = 411.46, PE 2 = 0.28, FFM F = 9.69, PE 2 = 0.01, Female PP, F = 156.64, PE 2 = 0.19, FFM F = 10.55, PE 2 = 0.02). This was additionally confirmed by the highest correlation between PP and age in males and females (see Table 2). PM is a building block of skeletal muscles and other cells, which directly depends on nutrition (or malnutrition) and adaptation to physical activity (or hypokinesia). Both nutrition and physical activity initiate the synthesis of proteins, whereby the type of nutrition and physical activity or exercise define weather PM will increase or remain the same. However, because PM is an integral part of body composition and can remain the same even if the body composition changes (i.e., body fat increases), its relative (%) amount seems more valid for comparison between adults of different age. It is of note that the indicators of muscularity correlated to age differently in males and females, with larger variations in PP, PSMM, and PFI in males compared to females, suggesting that PP and PSMM decrease by age due to an increase in body fatness to larger extent than in females. In contrast, females seem to lose more pure contractile tissue, as PMI, SMMI and FFMI correlated more strongly in females than in males. Therefore, it seems that males are more prone to changes in ratio of fat and muscle tissue, mostly on account of body fat increase, while females, although more prone to loss of SMM, are affected by both. These variations are often reflected in physical performance when fat mass (ballast mass) increases over the criterion level, thus lowering PP and PSMM, when it becomes heavy enough to hinder the outcomes of muscle contractions, resulting in lower performance. Given that the metabolism slows down by age, and an increase in body fatness is likely to occur, a good PP in adulthood, and its maintenance throughout aging could have a preventive effect on health and performance (hence quality of life), which could be obtained by regular physical activity and good eating habits. This was additionally proved via principal component analysis that extracted SMMI and PSMM as the highest loaded variables in component 1 and 2, respectively, in males as well as in females (see Table 3). Therefore, longitudinally independent and body volume independent indicators of SMM are representatives of ageing in humans of different sizes within both sexes. SMM per each m 2 of the body height controls for body size, so the SMM of smaller individuals can be compared to individuals of bigger body frame. In addition, PSMM is in direct opposite relation with percent of body fat, meaning that changes in PSMM are also reflected in percent of body fat, and vice versa. Considering this, these two variables entered the regression analysis revealed biological pick in SMMI and PSMM in males and females. The highest SMMI in males and females occurred at the age of 33 and 39 years, respectively. The lowest values in both variables were observed at the age of 75 years, with a difference of 19.5% in males and 4.2% in females compared to the pick values (see Figure 1). Compared to European consensus on sarcopenia definition and diagnosis, SMMI for 70 and more years old subjects corresponds to moderate sarcopenia (8.51-10.75 kg/m 2 ) in males, while the SMMI of females corresponds to normal muscular status (5.76-6.75 kg/m 2 ). Even though the regression R 2 was not statistically significant, the trend of decrease in SMMI could be noticed. In contrast, non-significant regression indicate that not all subjects from gradually older groups had lower SMMI than the groups who were younger, providing evidence that raw muscular tissue could be maintained, or its loss could be slowed down through ageing. However, even if SMMI does not significantly change, the proportion of muscular tissue in the body can vary depending on the proportion of body fat. This could be observed from the regression analysis for PSMM that determined a strong negative, mostly linear relationship between age and PSMM in males and females (see Figure 2). The only exception seems to be in males between the ages of 45 and 55 years, when the PSMM is relatively stable and then continues to get lower. This can be qualitatively observed when analyzed relative to pick potential in PSMM that occurred at the age of 18 years, as PSMM at the ages of 45, 50 and 55 years was 85.5, 85.4, and 85.4% of the maximum, respectively. The difference between the pick (18 y) and lowest (79 y) relative muscular potential (PSMM) was 33% in males and 28.6% in females, whereby 99.6% and 88.3% of difference in PSMM could be explained by age in males and females, respectively. Based on the results, it could be stated that the PSMM in Serbian males and females decreases by a constant of −0.221 and −0.213% per each year of life between 18 and 79 years of age (see Figure 2a). Janssen et al. reported lower constant values, −0.188 and −0.084%, for males and females. Our results showed that calculating from the values relative to pick value, the PSMM decreases about −0.505 and −0.436% each year, for male and female, respectively (see Figure 2b). These values were somewhat higher than those reported in review by Mitchell et al., where median values were 0.47 for males and 0.37% for females. It is of note that results may vary depending on the method used, sample size and characteristics, cultural and socioeconomic effects on body composition. However, although some differences exist between the studies in the size of differences in muscularity related to ageing, the trend of changes is the same and consensus exists on the significance of the effect of ageing on indicators of muscularity. The main limitations of this study could be the sizes of subsamples for subject groups 60-69.9 and 70-79, which could be larger. However, the obtained samples were still large enough to draw valid conclusions considering the aim of the study and the overall sample, and result in theoretical knowledge that already exists. Nutritional habits, physical activity levels and physical fitness measures may be beneficial to support an explanation of the obtained indicators of muscularity, even though the extensive literature is consistent in that regard, which we used to draw our conclusions. For higher accuracy, the DEXA method could be used as it would determine the most accurate reference values for Serbian population. However, this study used a more practical approach that is more likely to be employed in the public and private health sector as well as in the public and private sports sector. Therefore, that is how the results and conclusions from this study should be comprehended, which adds to strength of the practical application of the results. though the extensive literature is consistent in that regard, which we used to draw our conclusions. For higher accuracy, the DEXA method could be used as it would determine the most accurate reference values for Serbian population. However, this study used a more practical approach that is more likely to be employed in the public and private health sector as well as in the public and private sports sector. Therefore, that is how the results and conclusions from this study should be comprehended, which adds to strength of the practical application of the results. Conclusions Skeletal muscle mass is the biggest tissue in human body and responsible for all movements that we directly control in daily activities. During the growth phase of life, skeletal muscles are Conclusions Skeletal muscle mass is the biggest tissue in human body and responsible for all movements that we directly control in daily activities. During the growth phase of life, skeletal muscles are developing, building the potential for adulthood and ageing. However, results showed that all indicators of muscularity were gradually lower in older subjects. Because males and females differ in size of body frame within their sexes, indicators of skeletal muscles should be chosen to control for longitudinal differences. Furthermore, because body volume can vary significantly, even though the raw muscle tissue did not change, skeletal muscles should be evaluated as a proportion of total body dimensions. In that regard, SMMI and PSMM emerged as the most methodologically sensitive and precise indicators of muscularity in both sexes because they show the amount of muscles that a person has regardless of the size of their body frame, as well as the amount of skeletal muscles relative to other tissues in the body (i.e., body fat). This is of the utmost importance as even good SMMI is not necessarily sufficient for good health and performance if overloaded with overly increased body fat mass (i.e., ballast tissue). Conversely, sufficient PSMM does not necessarily mean good quality of skeletal muscles but merely a good proportion of muscles compared to body fats (i.e., indicating an underweight person due to malnutrition). Therefore, SMMI and PSMM both are important to follow during ageing because the results clearly showed a gradual decrease in both indicators, whereby the decrease was highly significant in PSMM. |
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# pip install -r [pip freeze > (파일이름)]
from pathlib import Path
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from module import CrawlerN
from module import DownloaderN
from module import CrawlerG
from module import DownloaderG
from multiprocessing import Pool
from multiprocessing import Queue
# ========== Setting part ==========
# Choose the search word
searchWord = "<NAME>"
# Justify download max image count - The actual number of downloaded files might be small due to an error.
downloadCnt = 100
# Select mode
testMode = True # if it is true visible the browser
fastTestMode = True # if it is true the number of search images is up to 100.
naverCrawling = True # if it is true crawl naver
googleCrawling = True # if it is true crawl google
# ========== Main part ==========
if __name__ == "__main__":
# ========== Run the chrome driver ==========
# Path import
path = Path("./chromedriver")
# Change to the absolute path
full_path = path.absolute()
# Change to string type
my_path = full_path.as_posix()
# ========== Create directory ==========
# If not the img folder
if not (os.path.isdir("img")):
# Make the img folder
os.makedirs(os.path.join("img"))
# ========== Selenium setting ==========
if not testMode:
# Headless options
options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('headless')
options.add_argument('window-size=1920x1080')
options.add_argument("disable-gpu")
# Execute chrome browser
driver = webdriver.Chrome(my_path, chrome_options=options)
if testMode:
# Execute chrome browser
driver = webdriver.Chrome(my_path)
# ========== Multiprocessing setting ==========
pool = Pool(processes=6)
# ========== Naver crawling part ==========
if naverCrawling:
# Naver crawling
htmlN = CrawlerN.crawlingN(driver, searchWord, fastTestMode)
# Naver image download
pool.map(DownloaderN.downloadingN, DownloaderN.dataN(htmlN, downloadCnt))
# ========== Google crawling part ==========
if googleCrawling:
# Import html using google crawling
htmlG = CrawlerG.crawlingG(driver, searchWord, fastTestMode)
# Google image download with multiprocess
pool.map_async(DownloaderG.downloadingG, DownloaderG.dataG(htmlG, downloadCnt))
# ========== Chrome driver close ==========
if driver is not None:
isQuited = False
while not isQuited:
try:
time.sleep(1)
driver.quit()
print("크롤러가 정상적으로 종료되었습니다.")
isQuited = True
except:
print("이미지 다운로드가 끝나지 않아 종료 대기중입니다.") |
<gh_stars>0
package com.rabbit.samples.configserver.configs;
import org.springframework.cloud.netflix.eureka.EnableEurekaClient;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
/**
* @author <NAME>
* <EMAIL>
* 15 Mar 2019
*/
@Configuration
@EnableEurekaClient
public class EurekaConfig {
// no-op
}
|
Molecular photoswitches mediating the strain-driven disassembly of supramolecular tubules Significance Developing molecular machines has been a leading goal for scientists, but to be practically valuable their mechanically relevant motion must be decoupled from the Brownian storm that dominates in solution. The disassembly of cellular tubules operates by the switching of the shapes of the building blocks, ultimately pulling sets of chromosomes apart. Here, we show that artificial photoswitches can be incorporated within supramolecular microtubules and that individual switching events lead to conversion of light into elastic energy that can be stored, accumulated, and subsequently released to produce a mechanical effect. The work paves the way toward fully artificial supramolecular machines that convert molecular motion into sophisticated operation modes, at length scales that are typically the realm of living matter. Chemists have created molecular machines and switches with specific mechanical responses that were typically demonstrated in solution, where mechanically relevant motion is dissipated in the Brownian storm. The next challenge consists of designing specific mechanisms through which the action of individual molecules is transmitted to a supramolecular architecture, with a sense of directionality. Cellular microtubules are capable of meeting such a challenge. While their capacity to generate pushing forces by ratcheting growth is well known, conversely these versatile machines can also pull microscopic objects apart through a burst of their rigid tubular structure. One essential feature of this disassembling mechanism is the accumulation of strain in the tubules, which develops when tubulin dimers change shape, triggered by a hydrolysis event. We envision a strategy toward supramolecular machines generating directional pulling forces by harnessing the mechanically purposeful motion of molecular switches in supramolecular tubules. Here, we report on wholly synthetic, water-soluble, and chiral tubules that incorporate photoswitchable building blocks in their supramolecular architecture. Under illumination, these tubules display a nonlinear operation mode, by which light is transformed into units of strain by the shape changes of individual switches, until a threshold is reached and the tubules unleash the strain energy. The operation of this wholly synthetic and stripped-down system compares to the conformational wave by which cellular microtubules disassemble. Additionally, atomistic simulations provide molecular insight into how strain accumulates to induce destabilization. Our findings pave the way toward supramolecular machines that would photogenerate pulling forces, at the nanoscale and beyond. |
<reponame>qi123582011/2020_11_09_E-commerce<filename>src/main/java/com/newxton/nxtframework/controller/web/NxtJoinUsController.java
package com.newxton.nxtframework.controller.web;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.mobile.device.Device;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
/**
* @author <EMAIL>
* @time 2020/9/14
* @address Shenzhen, China
* @copyright NxtFramework
*/
@Controller
public class NxtJoinUsController {
private Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(NxtJoinUsController.class);
@RequestMapping("/join_us")
public ModelAndView index(Device device,ModelAndView model) {
if (device.isMobile()){
model.setViewName("mobile/index");
// logger.info("移动端访客");
}
else {
model.setViewName("pc/index");
// logger.info("PC端访客");
}
return model;
}
}
|
Polyethylenimine containing benzimidazole branching: a model system providing a balance of hydrogen bond network or chain mobility enhances proton conductivity. A series of multibenzimidazole functionalized branched polyethylenimine (MPEI) molecules with varied benzimidazole substitution are designed and synthesized to study how hydrogen bonds of benzimidazole can be enhanced through the branching structure of polymer chains. The reduction of H-bonding and the increment of interatomic distance distribution initiate an increase in proton conductivity with temperature as detailed analyses by temperature dependence Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and radial distribution function calculated from temperature dependence X-ray diffraction technique. MPEIs with a higher benzimidazole substitution form a greater number of hydrogen bonds together with the lowering of chain mobility. In combination with the proton conductivity evaluation, bPEI with 19.7% benzimidazole substitution is a preferable condition since at this condition both hydrogen bond and chain mobility are in good balance and favor the proton transfer resulting in a significant proton conductivity ∼10(-5) S cm(-1) in the case of the pure sample in pellet form and ∼10(-4) S cm(-1) in the case of the blend with PVA in the membrane form measuring at 190 °C under anhydrous condition. |
Mexican President Vicente Fox has voiced concern over US plans to use the National Guard to patrol the border.
But, in a 30-minute phone conversation, President George W Bush is said to have assured him that the move did not mean a militarisation of the border.
Mr Bush is due to announce the plans in a speech on Monday as part of an effort to help curb illegal immigration.
The Bush administration has insisted that Mexico is still regarded as a friendly country.
According to a statement released by Mr Fox's office, Mr Bush had said officials were "analysing the administrative and logistical support of part of the National Guard, not the Army, to help police on the border".
The immigration issue has sparked fierce debate in the US.
Mr Bush's speech on Monday evening will discuss how the US should deal with border security and what should happen to the millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says Mr Bush hopes that being tough on future illegal immigration could help to get backing from Republicans to provide an amnesty to those already on US soil.
Congress is currently considering plans to reform immigration laws.
A bill passed last year by the House of Representatives includes provisions to make illegal immigration a felony and to bolster border security.
However a Senate bill, currently stalled, would allow illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship and set up a guest worker programme, which is favoured by Mr Bush. |
Risk factors for cervical lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a study of 1,587 patients Objective The purposes of this study were to identify risk factors for cervical lymph node metastasis and to examine the association between BRAFV600E status and clinical features in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). Methods A total of 1,587 patients with PTMC, treated in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2011 to March 2013, underwent retrospective analysis. We reviewed and analyzed factors including clinical results, pathology records, ultrasound results, and BRAFV600E status. Results Multivariate logistic regression analyses demonstrated that gender (male) , age (< 45 years)(OR = 1.606,P = 0.000), tumor size (> 6 mm) (OR = 2.137,P = 0.000), bilateralism (OR = 2.011, P = 0.000) and extrathyroidal extension (OR = 1.555, P = 0.001) served as independent predictors of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM). Moreover, CLNM (OR = 29.354, P = 0.000) served as an independent predictor of lateral lymph node metastasis (LLNM). Among patients with a solitary primary tumor, those with tumor location in the lower third of the thyroid lobe or the isthmus were more likely to experience CLNM (P < 0.05). Univariate analyses indicated that CLNM, LLNM, extrathyroidal extension, and multifocality were not significantly associated with BRAFV600E mutation. Conclusions The present study suggested that prophylactic neck dissection of the central compartment should be considered in patients with PTMC, particularly in men with tumor size greater than 6 mm, age less than 45 years, extrathyroidal extension, and tumor bilaterality. Among patients with PTMC, BRAFV600E mutation is not significantly associated with prognostic factors. For a better understanding of surgical management of PTMC and the risk factors, we recommend multicenter research and long-term follow-up. BRAF mutation is a common genetic alternation in thyroid carcinoma. The most common and typical mutation in the BRAF gene is T1779A in exon 15, which results in a V600E amino acid substitution 6. However, controversial results have been observed in studies of PTMC, as some research has shown that BRAF V600E mutation in PTMC led to more aggressive behavior 7,8, whereas other studies found that the BRAF V600E mutation was not significantly related to high-risk clinicopathologic characteristics 9. As the clinical features of PTMC and the risk factors for CLNM have been previously investigated, the aim of the present study was to examine the risk factors for lymph node metastasis, including both CLNM and LLNM, based on US results and postoperative pathological records in the setting of a large cohort of Chinese patients with PTMC. Materials and methods Patients A total of 3,789 patients with PTC were initially treated at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2011 to March 2013. Among these patients, 1,587 were diagnosed with PTMC based on postoperative pathology. All patients underwent indirect laryngoscopy before and after surgery. Preoperative US, performed in all cases, provided information regarding disease and possible cervical LNM. When preoperative findings were suspicious for LNM, computed tomography (CT) was performed. Preoperative FNAB was not performed routinely in patients with PTMC. Primary thyroid tumor location was divided into four regions: upper third, middle third, lower third, or isthmus, according to US imaging results. Different therapeutic strategies were used for different types of PTMC, such as lobectomy with isthmectomy plus ipsilateral central lymph node dissection (CLND) for unilateral PTMC, isthmectomy plus prophylactic bilateral CLND for isthmus PTMC, and near-total thyroidectomy plus bilateral CLND for multiple tumors limited to a single thyroid lobe. Moreover, patients with multiple bilateral tumors were treated with total thyroidectomy with bilateral CLND, and patients with US and CT findings suspicious for LLNM were treated with ipsilateral lateral lymph node dissection, including levels II-V. Surgical treatments for the 1,587 patients are shown in Table 1. Extrathyroidal extension, tumor size, tumor number, and presence of LLNM and CLNM were confirmed by two pathologists independently in a blinded fashion. Cases in which findings were inconsistent were discussed with a third pathologist. Extrathyroidal extension was defined according to gross infiltration evident at the time of surgery or by microscopic evidence on pathologic examination. Multifocality was defined as the presence of more than one tumor lesion in the thyroid. The maximum diameter of the primary tumor was defined as tumor size in multifocal cases. Postoperative complications were also evaluated. Temporary hypoparathyroidism was defined as serum calcium < 8 mg/dL within 6 months after surgery. Permanent hypoparathyroidism was defined as low calcium levels in a patient with low/absent parathyroid hormone levels 6 months after surgery. Vocal cord paralysis was defined as temporary recurrent laryngeal nerve injury within 6 months after the operation; vocal cord paralysis continuing longer than 6 months was defined as permanent laryngeal nerve injury. Follow-up data were available for all 1,587 patients, and the follow-up period ranged from 40 to 72 months. All patients underwent US every 3-6 months in our hospital during follow-up. This retrospective study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital. DNA extraction and analysis of BRAF V600E mutation DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues using a kit (Tiangen, Beijing, China) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Specifically, we selected unstained tumor tissue areas on 2 mm thick sections for comparison to hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections. For small tumors, we adopted laser-capture microdissection to collect tissues. Tumor samples were incubated in TE9 for 2 days at 37°C, with fresh proteinase K added daily. Samples were then centrifuged, and the supernatants were digested for an additional 2 days at 55°C. Chelex 100 resin (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, CA, USA) was added to each sample and incubated for 1 h, after which the supernatant was removed. DNA was extracted using phenol-chloroform, concentrated using ethanol precipitation, and resuspended in Tris-EDTA (1 mM EDTA and 10 mM Tris hydrochloride; pH 8.0). Ipsilateral lateral lymph node dissection 98 (6.2) No resection 0 The DNA samples extracted from tissues were then subjected to PCR analysis to explore the BRAF V600E mutation. The appropriate primers have been described in previous research 33. PCR cycles were performed using the BigDye Terminator sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and the sequencing products were analyzed with an ABI PRISM 310 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems). SPSS 22.0 software (IBM Corp., Version 22.0, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to analyze the data. Data were presented as mean ± standard deviation. The 2 test or Fisher's exact test was used to compare cervical LNM and BRAF V600E mutation status with clinicopathologic features. We performed multivariate logistic regression analysis to assess independent risk factors for cervical LNM, using the factors screened by univariate analysis, with P < 0.05. We employed receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis to determine the optimal cutoff point of primary tumor size for determining the risk of CLNM. Values of P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The mean size of primary tumors in the largest diameter was 5.9 ± 2.5 mm, with 586 (36.9%) tumors larger than 6 mm and 1,001 (63.1%) tumors smaller than or equal to 6 mm in diameter. Among all patients, 1,039 (65.5%) and 573 (36.1%) demonstrated extrathyroidal extension and multifocal lesions, respectively. Considering solitary lesions, 312 (30.8%) were in the upper third of the lobe, 268 (26.4%) were in the middle third, 407 (40.1%) were in the lower third, and 27 (2.7%) were in the isthmus. Risk factors for CLNM ROC curve analysis showed that primary tumor size of 6 mm was the optimal cutoff point to distinguish between patients with and without CLNM (area = 0.649, standard error = 0.015, asymptotic significance = 0.000, 95% confidence interval = 0.620-0.678). Risk factors for CLNM were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses according to final pathological results. In univariate analysis, male gender, age < 45 years, primary tumor size greater than 6 mm, multifocality, bilateralism, and extrathyroidal extension (P < 0.01) were significantly related to CLNM. Moreover, univariate analysis performed for the solitary primary tumor group showed that CLNM was significantly associated with tumor location (P < 0.05); tumors located in the lower third and isthmus conferred a higher risk of CLNM than did those in the upper third. On multivariate analysis, male gender , age < 45 (OR = 1.606, P = 0.000), tumor size greater than 6 mm (OR = 2.137, P = 0.000), bilateralism (OR = 2.011, P = 0.000), and extrathyroidal extension (OR = 1.555, P = 0.001) were independent risk factors for CLNM, and number of primary tumors was not significantly correlated with CLNM (P > 0.05) ( Table 3). Risk factors for LLNM According to univariate analysis, tumor size greater than 6 mm, CLNM, extrathyroidal extension, multifocality, bilateralism, and tumor location (P < 0.05) were characterized as risk factors for LLNM, whereas sex, age, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis status were not significantly associated with LLNM (P > 0.05). Tumor location in the middle third of the thyroid gland conferred a high risk for LLNM. However, multivariate analysis identified only CLNM and recurrence as independent predictors for LLNM in patients who underwent follow-up for 40 to 72 months ( Table 4). Correlation of clinicopathologic characteristics and BRAF V600E mutation Among the 1,587 patients, BRAF V600E mutation was detected in 299 patients with a frequency of 83.3% (249/299). Univariate analysis showed that CLNM, LLNM, multifocality, and extrathyroidal extension were not significantly associated with BRAF V600E mutation. Among patients who underwent follow-up for 40 to 72 months, recurrence was not significantly associated with BRAF V600E (Table 5). Complications, follow-up, and recurrence Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury occurred in 14 patients (0.9%); among these, owing to direct tumor invasion, 8 patients underwent shaving procedures or intentional resection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve resulting in permanent vocal fold paralysis, while the injury in the other 6 patients was temporary. Of the 1,587 patients, 386 (24.3%) suffered postoperative hypocalcemia requiring calcium supplementation, and 4 (0.3%) experienced permanent hypocalcemia. Four patients developed a postoperative chylous fistula, and 1 patient required reoperation on the same day owing to postoperative bleeding. Postsurgical clinical examinations were performed every 6 months; these included cervical US and serum thyroid found in 4 patients, contralateral neck recurrence in 1, and bilateral neck recurrence in 2. Regional recurrence was frequent at levels III, IV, and II. Among 1,209 patients who did not undergo total thyroidectomy, 12 (0.99%) experienced malignant recurrence in the contralateral lobe. At the data cutoff point, no patient demonstrated distant metastasis. During the follow-up period, 2 patients died from adrenal insufficiency and pneumonia, and another died of heart failure. None of the patients died of PTMC. In the present study, we used univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to evaluate risk factors for cervical LNM. Consistent with the results of previous reports, we found that male gender, age less than 45 years, extrathyroidal extension, and bilateralism were independent risk factors for CLNM. Multifocality was not an independent predictor of CLNM, although significance was demonstrated on univariate analysis. Tumor size is considered to be an essential prognostic factor in patients with PTMC 19. Although the majority of previous studies used a tumor size of 5 mm as the size threshold 20-23, we assessed thresholds greater than 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm, 7 mm, and 8 mm by ROC curve analysis, and found that primary tumor size (> 6 mm) was significantly correlated with CLNM. Extrathyroidal extension was an evaluated risk factor for CLNM 22,24. However, the diagnosis of extrathyroidal extension is subjective and controversial as there is not a well-defined true capsule in the thyroid gland. The thyroid capsule is usually made up of inconspicuous thin fibrous tissues and contains a variable amount of skeletal muscle, blood vessels, and adipose tissue. In the present study, most cases of PTMC with extrathyroidal extension exhibited extension to the perithyroid soft tissue, such as adipose tissue, rather than to the sternothyroid muscle. In this study, 1,039 (65.5%) patients showed extrathyroidal extension, as we selected intrathyroidal areas with low-risk thyroid carcinoma for observation rather than surgery. Furthermore, the present study showed that tumor size greater than 6 mm, extrathyroidal extension, multifocality, bilateralism, and CLNM were statistically significant factors for LLNM, and CLNM was an independent risk factor. Although CLNM is not significantly associated with diseasefree survival in PTMC, this outcome can be strongly associated with LLNM. The connection between tumor location and LNM in patients with PTMC remains controversial. Wada et al. 28 first reported that the location of PTMC may be related to CLNM and LLNM, although the differences were not statistically significant. Xiang et al. 29 found a correlation between PTMC located in the middle third of the thyroid gland with both CLNM and LLNM. In contrast, Zhang et al. 14 showed that location of PTMC in the upper third of the thyroid conferred a lower risk for CLNM and a higher risk for LLNM. In the present study, we found that tumor location in the lower third of the thyroid gland and the isthmus was strongly associated with CLNM, whereas tumor location in the middle third was correlated with LLNM. The BRAF V600E mutation, which occurs in about 29%-60% of PTC, has been identified as the most common genetic change in PTC 30,31. These mutations activate the RAS/RAF/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and cause the malignant proliferation of cells 32. Previous observations have indicated that the BRAF V600E mutation is correlated with highly aggressive factors, such as advanced stage of disease, extrathyroidal extension, and nodal metastasis in PTC. The BRAF V600E mutational status of highly aggressive PTMC was analyzed by Lee et al. 32 who discovered that the rate of BRAF V600E mutation in patients with penetration of the capsule was higher than the rate in those without. The authors also found that mutations occurred in 50% of T3 or T4 stage tumors, meaning that the presence of BRAF V600E mutation can predict the existence of extrathyroidal metastasis. Moreover, the BRAF V600E mutation was discovered more commonly in highly aggressive subtypes, such as tall cell PTMC, indicating that BRAF V600E mutational status is significantly associated with poor tumor behavior. BRAF V600E is also observed in PTMC, and the mutation may thus be an early event in tumor development, perhaps facilitating the acquisition of secondary genetic events through induction of genomic instability. However, unlike the findings of previous studies, Sun et al. 8 observed that BRAF V600E mutation displayed a weakly negative association with PTMC neck and distant metastasis in a group of 101 patients. In the present study, we were unable to identify a significant correlation between BRAF V600E mutation and clinicopathologic characteristics such as multifocality, neck metastasis, and extrathyroidal extension. Accordingly, it seems that BRAF V600E mutation is not a prognostic factor for PTMC. In fact, most patients with PTMC have an extremely good prognosis following surgery. Large numbers of patients undergo very long-term followup, and it will be necessary to identify the clinical relevance of the BRAF V600E mutation in PTMC. Despite the restrictions of the current study, our data also suggest that larger studies are warranted to determine the relationships between the BRAF V600E mutation and clinical characteristics in patients with PTMC. Although we analyzed a cohort of 1,587 patients with PTMC, there are nonetheless still several limitations in the present study. First, the incidence of LLNM was relatively low in our research sample, and patients who did not undergo LLND were regarded as negative. However, prophylactic LLND could only be performed in cases of LLNM proven by FNAB or with clinical suspicion on US. In fact, prophylactic LLDN is not recommended in the American Thyroid Association guidelines. Nevertheless, data based on prophylactic LLND are more accurate and meaningful. In PTMC, however, the complications of LLND cannot be weighed against its questionable effect on recurrence and survival. Second, long-term follow-up was not performed in the current study. Third, the BRAF V600E mutation analyses were performed in a relatively small number of patients ; therefore, the rate of BRAF V600E mutation may be underestimated, leading to the absence of a significant correlation between BRAF V600E mutation and aggressive factors. Conclusions In conclusion, the present study showed that male sex, age less than 45 years, tumor size larger than 6 mm, presence of bilateralism, and extrathyroidal extension were all independent risk factors for CLNM. Moreover, larger primary tumor, extrathyroidal extension, multifocality, bilateralism, and CLNM were factors that conferred an increased risk of LLNM. Notably, the location of the tumor had an important association with cervical lymph node metastasis status in patients with a solitary primary tumor. Specifically, PTMC location in the lower third of the thyroid gland and the isthmus was associated with a higher risk of CLNM, and PTMC location in the middle third correlated with LLNM. In our studies including 299 patients, BRAF V600E mutation was not significantly associated with prognostic factors in patients with PTMC. |
<gh_stars>10-100
/*
* Oracle Linux DTrace.
* Copyright (c) 2011, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* Licensed under the Universal Permissive License v 1.0 as shown at
* http://oss.oracle.com/licenses/upl.
*/
#ifndef _SYS_COMPILER_H
#define _SYS_COMPILER_H
/*
* Attributes that vary on a compiler-by-compiler basis.
*/
#if defined (__GNUC__)
/*
* GCC. We assume that all compilers claiming to be GCC support sufficiently
* many GCC attributes that the code below works. If some non-GCC compilers
* masquerading as GCC in fact do not implement these attributes, version checks
* may be required.
*/
/*
* We use the _dt_*_ pattern to avoid clashes with any future macros glibc may
* introduce, which have names of the pattern __attribute_blah__.
*/
/*
* We need a very low priority number to ensure that the constructor
* for USDT DOF loading is executed as early as possible. Meanwhile,
* constructor priorities from 0 to 100 are reserved for the implementation.
* So the constructor priority may trigger a gcc compiler warning.
*/
#define _dt_constructor_(x) __attribute__((__constructor__(0)))
#define _dt_destructor_(x) __attribute__((__destructor__))
#define _dt_printflike_(string_index,first_to_check) __attribute__((__format__(__printf__,(string_index),(first_to_check))))
#define _dt_unused_ __attribute__((__unused__))
#define _dt_noreturn_ __attribute__((__noreturn__))
#define _dt_unlikely_(x) __builtin_expect((x),0)
#elif defined (__SUNPRO_C)
#define _dt_constructor_(x) _Pragma("init(" #x ")")
#define _dt_destructor_(x) _Pragma("fini(" #x ")")
#define _dt_noreturn_
#define _dt_unlikely_(x) (x)
/*
* These are lint comments with no compiler equivalent.
*/
#define _dt_printflike_(string_index,first_to_check)
#define _dt_unused_
#endif
#endif
|
President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE will not establish a White House "war room" to deal with the mounting controversies surrounding probes into Russian election interference and possible collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin, according to a Tuesday report.
A White House official told Reuters that it made more legal sense not to have such a team working within the White House itself, and said that Trump's outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz, would likely take on the role of responding to questions and controversies.
"If it exists, it won't be here," the official said. "It would most likely be outside the White House."
ADVERTISEMENT
The White House has reportedly been exploring setting up a rapid response team, possibly headed by Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, that would be responsible for heading up the administration's response to the steady stream of controversies and possible legal threats that have emerged around the White House.
The FBI and at least four congressional committees are investigating Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election, as well as the possibility that members of Trump's campaign coordinated with Moscow to swing the contest in the president's favor.
Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion or improper contact with Russia, and has called the investigations a "witch hunt" intended to disrupt his presidency.
The president has not shied away from addressing the controversies himself, particularly on Twitter. Yahoo News reported on Tuesday that, before he hired Kasowitz as his outside counsel, four high-profile law firms turned down offers to represent Trump, because they feared the president would not take their advice and make comments that publicly knock down or hurt his legal standing. |
/**
* Adds the item clear sort.
*/
public void addItemClearSort() {
String toolTipMsg = MessageConfigLoader.getProperty(IMessagesConstants.CLEAR_SORT);
this.clearSort = getToolItem(SWT.PUSH, null, IiconPath.ICO_SORT_CLEAR, toolTipMsg);
this.clearSort.setToolTipText(toolTipMsg);
this.clearSort.addSelectionListener(new SelectionListener() {
@Override
public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent event) {
dsGridComponent.getDataGrid().clearSort();
}
@Override
public void widgetDefaultSelected(SelectionEvent selectDefaultEvent) {
}
});
} |
package alt.java.util;
public class Rotation {
private float pitch, roll, yaw;
public Rotation(){
pitch = 0;
roll = 0;
yaw = 0;
}
public Rotation(float pitch, float roll, float yaw){
this.pitch = pitch;
this.roll = roll;
this.yaw = yaw;
}
public float getPitch(){
return pitch;
}
public float getRoll(){
return roll;
}
public float getYaw(){
return yaw;
}
public Rotation setPitch(float pitch){
this.pitch = pitch;
return this;
}
public Rotation setRoll(float roll){
this.roll = roll;
return this;
}
public Rotation setYaw(float yaw){
this.yaw = yaw;
return this;
}
public Rotation setPitchRollYaw(float pitch, float roll, float yaw){
this.pitch = pitch;
this.roll = roll;
this.yaw = yaw;
return this;
}
}
|
<reponame>hewittaj/python_crash_course
#2-1
'''
message = "General Kenobi..."
print(message)
'''
#2-2
message = "General Kenobi..."
print(message)
message = "Hello there..!"
print(message)
'''
''' |
Anti-Infective Drugs: Why Should We Pay Attention? Infectious disease is not a problem of the past; despite significant breakthroughs achieved during the last century in the development of antibiotic drugs, the control of many infectious diseases has not been accomplished. The concern is the problems of rapidly developing drug resistance, re-emerging disease, and the speed of appearance of virulent strains posing global threats. Thus, antibiotic resistance is now a global healthcare threat and todays armoury of antibiotics is increasingly limited. For some pathogens, the choice from available drugs is now greatly reduced. Increasing mortality from infections caused by resistant strains, and the increasing levels of hospital-acquired infections, together with escalating healthcare costs, have put antibiotic resistance at the top of the healthcare agenda. Infectious disease is not a problem of the past; despite significant breakthroughs achieved during the last century in the development of antibiotic drugs, the control of many infectious diseases has not been accomplished. The concern is the problems of rapidly developing drug resistance, re-emerging disease, and the speed of appearance of virulent strains posing global threats. Thus, antibiotic resistance is now a global healthcare threat and today's armoury of antibiotics is increasingly limited. For some pathogens, the choice from available drugs is now greatly reduced. Increasing mortality from infections caused by resistant strains, and the increasing levels of hospital-acquired infections, together with escalating healthcare costs, have put antibiotic resistance at the top of the healthcare agenda. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and studies on deaths attributable to a differing selection of multi-drug resistance (MDR) infections show that, each year, these infections result in an estimated 25,000 deaths in 29 countries in Europe (5.1 per 100,000 inhabitants) and 12,000 deaths in the US (4.0 per 100,000 inhabitants). If all MDR infections and other infections with problematic resistance profiles were included in these studies, the estimate of deaths would be much higher. These figures show that antibiotic resistance has reached a critical point, as human and economic costs escalate. Many pathogens are now completely resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics and MDR resistant Gonorrhoeal strains have emerged. Resistance is a familiar problem in antibiotic therapy, because bacteria have evolved genetic attributes "resistome", which specifically enable them to withstand antibiotics, which they produce naturally. Killing pathogens is the goal of antibiotic therapy, but there is now a need to extend the capabilities of anti-bacterial therapies, to develop novel anti-infective drugs and strategies that both destroy pathogens and also undermine resistance mechanisms in more effective ways. Prospects and the Needed Rigorous Research Endogenous host defense peptides (HDPs) have retained evolution-tested efficacy against pathogens that have become refractory to traditional antibiotics. Evidence indicates that HDPs target membrane integrity and bioenergetics of microbes that may be less mutable than conventional antibiotic targets. HDPs have, thus, received increasing attention as templates for development of potential anti-infective therapeutics. The HDPs are short cationic amphiphilic peptides with antimicrobial and/or immunomodulatory activities are present in virtually every life form, as an important component of (innate) immune defenses. These HDPs provide a template for two separate classes of antimicrobial drugs. Direct-acting antimicrobial peptides can be rapid-acting and possess an unusually broad spectrum of activity; consequently, they have prospects as new antibiotics, although clinical trials to date have shown efficacy only as topical agents. But for these peptides to fulfill their therapeutic promise and overcome clinical drawbacks, further work is needed to understand their mechanisms of action and reduce the potential for unwanted toxicity, to make them more resistant to protease degradation and improve half-life in serum, as well as to devise means of manufacturing them on a large scale in a consistent and cost-effective manner. In contrast, the role of cationic host-defense peptides in modulating the innate immune response and boosting infection-resolving immunity while dampening potentially harmful pro-inflammatory (septic) responses gives these peptides the potential to become an entirely new therapeutic approach against bacterial infections. However, advances toward this goal have proven insufficient, owing to limited understanding of structure-activity and selective toxicity relationships in vivo, and the difficulty of cost-effective production of such peptides on a large scale. Thus, innovative technology and advanced molecular insights could lead to novel HDP-based and mimetic anti-infective peptide candidates designed to overcome these limitations. Although initial setbacks have presented challenges to therapeutic development, emerging studies continue to highlight the potential of HDP-based anti-infective as a platform for next-generation therapeutics that will help address the growing threat of multidrug-resistant infections. Another scientific rationale for the development of novel antiinfective strategies is the exploration of probiotics, which exert their beneficial effects in vivo. Probiotic is defined as a live organisms that, when ingested, exerts a health benefit to the host. The commonly used probiotics are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and non-pathogenic yeasts. Not only the live LAB, but also dead bacteria, bacterial components, bacterial DNA and substances elaborated by commensal strains have been shown to exert antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and other effects similar to those exhibited by live organisms. Potential studies on individual Probiotic organisms or in cocktails have shown that probiotics metabolically interact with pathogens, produce chemical products (such as bacteriocins) that directly inhibit other bacteria or viruses, inhibit bacterial movement (translocation) across the gut wall, enhance mucosal barrier function and signaling with the epithelium and immune system to modulate the inflammatory/ immune response. Since not all probiotics have been isolated from human gastrointestinal tract and thus cannot be regarded as human commensals and not all commensals exert probiotic effects, an understanding of the normal human microbiome and of its interactions with the host lies at the heart of the scientific basis of Probiotic therapy. While some real progress has been made, we certainly need more high quality trials of probiotics in digestive disorders as well as laboratory investigations of mechanism of action. The benefits of probiotics are often demonstrated under defined laboratory experimental conditions, but these beneficial effects may fail to be compatible in clinical trials. Clinical trials are essential for establishing the practical and scientific logic of the probiotic therapy. Quorum sensing is a mechanism by which bacteria regulate gene expression, in response to changes in the population, and is integral to the virulence process. This mechanism is based on the release of chemical messengers (auto-inducers), the levels of which fluctuate within bacterial cell populations. Processes that are regulated through quorum sensing include virulence, competence, conjugation, antibiotic production, motility, and biofilm formation. The importance of quorum sensing in the regulation of bacterial populations makes this mechanism a potential target for antimicrobial agents. Research pipeline should include biopeptides and Probiotic strains developed to target quorum sensing of pathogens. Eventually, despite the critical need for new antimicrobial agents, the development of these agents is declining. Solutions encouraging and facilitating the development of new antimicrobial drugs should also be given a great importance. |
<filename>LeetCode/Greedy/JumpGame.cpp
/*
* LeetCode 55 Jump Game
* Medium
* <NAME>
* 2021.8.4
* Last edited at 2021.9.3 / 2021.10.3
*/
/*
* Solution 1:
* If 'nums' not included '0'(apart from last index), the last index can be reached.
* When there`s '0' in 'nums', to reach the last index ,indexes before '0' should be able to reach the index after '0'.
*/
#include<iostream>
#include<vector>
using namespace std;
class Solution {
public:
bool canJump(vector<int>& nums) {
//int size = nums.size();
if (nums.size() == 1) return true;
// The requirement of " ++m ":(1) nums[i] != 0;
// (2) nums[i] == 0; but the point before can span over it.
// So if " m " is equal to the size of nums[], we can reach the last index
int m = 0;
// Search 0.
for (int i = 0; i < nums.size() - 1; ++i) {
if (nums[i] == 0) {
for (int j = i; j >= 0; --j) {
// The maximum jump length > length ──→ able to reach the place after 0.
if (nums[j] > (i - j)) {
m += 1;
break;
}
}
}
else
m += 1;
}
if (m == nums.size() - 1) return true;
else return false;
}
};
/*
* Solution 2 Dp.
* Record the most steps, and update in real time.,find the steps that can reach the last index.
*/
#include<iostream>
#include<vector>
using namespace std;
class Solution {
public:
bool canJump(vector<int>& nums) {
// The maximum path we can reach
int step = 0;
for(int i = 0; i< nums.size(); ++i){
// To updata the maximum path we can reach, (1) the path is longer than before.
// (2) we can reach the starting point.
if(nums[i]+i> step && i<= step) // Update condition
step = nums[i]+ i;
if(step>= nums.size()- 1) return true;
}
return false;
}
};
/*
* Solution3:
* The better way
* Set a point named 'end' place at last number.
* Check from back to front, if a index is able to reach 'end', change 'end' as the index.
* When 'end' located at the first index, we can reach the last index.
*/
class Solution {
public:
bool canJump(vector<int>& nums) {
int size = nums.size();
if(size == 1) return true;
int end = size - 1;
for(int i = end; i >= 0; --i) {
if(nums[i] >= end - i){
end = i;
}
}
// Condition of able to reach the last index.
if(end == 0) return true;
return false;
}
};
|
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of semiconductor memories and, more specifically, the read-out circuits implemented in these memories for detecting the logic programming state of the storage cells.
The invention will be described in reference to magnetic random access memories (MRAM), although it can be applied to other types of memory.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
MRAMs are non-volatile memories. Typically, a magnetic random access memory device includes a matrix of cells arranged in rows and columns, through which metal tracks are routed. The metal tracks extending along the memory cell rows are called word lines and the metal tracks extending along the memory cell columns are called bit lines. Each memory cell thus located at the intersection of a word line and a bit line stores a data bit in the form of a magnetization orientation.
Each of the memory cells indeed consists of two magnetic layers, separated by a dielectric layer. Each magnetic layer has a specific magnetization orientation. The magnetization orientation of one of the layers, a so-called free layer, can be modified, while the magnetization orientation of the other, so-called fixed layer, is fixed in a particular orientation. The magnetization orientations of the two layers can be found in two situations: either parallel, i.e. aligned in the same directions, or anti-parallel, i.e. aligned in opposite directions. These two orientations, parallel and anti-parallel, represent the logic values “1” and “0”, respectively. Alternatively, the parallel state can be interpreted as a logic “0” and the anti-parallel state as a logic “1”.
Consequently, the writing for such a memory cell involves positioning the magnetization orientation in the free layer according to the desired logic state, in either a parallel state or an anti-parallel state, with respect to the magnetization orientation of the fixed layer, by imposing a sufficient magnetic field on the tunnel junction.
Typically, external magnetic fields are applied to a cell selected to switch the magnetization orientation in the free layer of this cell from one state to the other. To do this, a writing current is applied respectively to the word line and the bit line intersecting at the location of the selected memory cell. The writing currents thus applied to the selected word line and bit line create magnetic fields that, when they are combined at the intersection of the word line and the bit line, enable the magnetization orientation of the free layer of the selected memory cell to be switched from the parallel to the anti-parallel state, or the reverse, according to the data that is to be written into the cell.
In the reading, a voltage is applied to the terminals of the memory cell concerned by means of a CMOS control transistor, and the current circulating through the read bit line is measured, its value representing the tunnel junction resistance. The read bit line therefore enables information on the state of a memory cell located at the intersection of this bit line and a selected word line to be transmitted. The read-out circuits are connected to the bit lines, optionally by means of a multiplexer if there is a plurality of bit lines for a single read-out circuit. The constitution of a single read-out circuit, considered to be connected to a single bit line, will be described below so as to simplify the explanations.
The resistance of the junction is dependent on the respective magnetization orientation of the two magnetic layers. The resistance changes from a lower resistance value, corresponding, for example, to the low logic state, when the magnetization orientation of the two layers is aligned in the same direction, to a higher resistance value, corresponding, for example, to the high logic state, when the magnetization orientation of the two layers is in opposite directions. The general principle of a read-out circuit is therefore to detect this difference in value so as to read the information stored by the memory cell concerned. It is routine in the prior art to detect the programming state of a memory cell by comparing the value of the tunnel junction resistance of this cell with a reference value corresponding to the mean value of the resistances of a reference memory cell in the high logic state and a reference memory cell in the low logic state.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,690 describes a read-out circuit implementing this principle. FIG. 1 shows a simplified example of a read-out circuit according to the teaching of this document.
A memory cell, represented by the resistor Bit, can be selected and delivers information on the bit line BL. To do this, the bit line BL is polarized at a fixed reading voltage, by an NMOS control transistor N2, which is intended to provide a current Ibit to the bit line while limiting the potential at the terminals of the memory cell to a predetermined constant value, enabling the very low thickness of the oxide on which the magnetic tunnel junction of the memory cell is based to be taken into account. Then, the actual reading phase takes place and the current Ibit of the bit line is compared to a reference current, so as to determine the programming state of the selected cell.
Two reference lines LR1 and LR2, with characteristics very similar to the bit line, are also therefore polarized for the reading, while being limited in voltage by means of an NMOS control transistor N1 and an NMOS control transistor N3. During the reading phase, these two reference lines consume a current equivalent to that, Ilow, which is consumed by a memory cell programmed to the low logic state, represented by the resistor Reflow placed in the low impedance state, and that, Ihigh, which is consumed by a memory cell programmed to the high logic state, represented by the resistor Refhigh placed in the high impedance state.
To read the state of the memory cell, a comparison will be made between the current consumed by the bit line and a reference current. More specifically, the current consumed by the bit line will be compared to a reference current which is an average of the currents consumed by a cell programmed to the high logic state and a cell programmed to the low logic state.
To do this, in a first branch, the drain of the NMOS transistor N2 is connected to the resistor Bit. The gate of the transistor N2 is connected to a control voltage Vsacg generated so as to maintain a constant potential on the bit line, taking into account the aforementioned constraint. The source of the transistor N2 is connected to the drain of a PMOS transistor P2, of which the source is connected to a supply voltage Vdd. An output node Out is provided at the level of the drain of the transistor P2 so as to provide the output signal of the read-out circuit.
In a second branch, the drain of the NMOS transistor N1 is connected to the reference memory cell Reflow placed in the low logic state. The gate of N1 is connected to the gate of the transistor N2 and the source is connected to the drain of a PMOS transistor P1, of which the source is connected to the supply voltage Vdd. The gate of the transistor P1 is connected to its drain and to the gate of the PMOS transistor P2.
In a third branch, the drain of the NMOS transistor N3 is connected to the reference memory cell Refhigh placed in the high logic state and to the drain of the transistor N1 of the second branch, thus placing the two reference memory cells Reflow and Refhigh in short circuit. The gate of N3 is connected to the gate of transistor N2 and its source is connected to the drain of a PMOS transistor P3, the source of which is connected to the supply voltage Vdd and the gate of which is connected to the gate of transistor P1. A reference output node Outref is provided at the level of the drain of transistor P3 so as to provide a reference output signal of the read-out circuit.
A reference current Iref is thus generated by the two PMOS transistors P1 and P3, and the two NMOS transistors N1 and N3, with Iref=(Ilow+Ihigh)/2. The two transistors P1 and P3 form a current mirror with transistor P2. To simplify the explanation, we will now describe FIG. 2, which is a simplified representation of the stage of the read-out circuit of FIG. 1 with only one PMOS transistor P1 and only one NMOS transistor N1 for generating the reference current Iref.
Transistors P1 and P2 are therefore in a current mirror configuration. The first branch of the mirror includes the write transistor P2; the second branch includes the reference transistor P1. Thus, the write transistor P2 tends to copy the reference current Iref which circulates in the reference transistor P1. The potential at the level of the output node Out of the read-out circuit then varies according to the difference of currents Iref−Ibit, making it possible to determine, by comparison with the reference node Outref providing a potential representative of a cell in the intermediate logic state between the high and low logic states, whether the selected cell is in a programming state corresponding to the high or low logic state.
The problems of such an architecture are described in reference to FIG. 3, showing the reference branch of FIG. 2, and are essentially associated with the low supply voltage Vdd used, typically of around 900 mV.
The polarization voltage Vbitline of the reference bit line required by transistor N1 must also be sufficiently high. Indeed, in view of the resistance values to be considered, of around ten kiloOhms, a polarization of the bit line at an excessively low voltage would result in circulation of an excessively low current in the bit line. Therefore, the Vbitline is selected at around 300 mV, which is a good compromise between the need to have sufficiently high bit line currents and the need to preserve the thin oxide of the tunnel junction.
In addition, as the NMOS transistor N1 operates in the saturated zone, a drain-source saturation voltage Vdssat above 100 mV must be maintained at the terminals of the transistor.
All that remains is 500 mV for the gate-source voltage Vsg of the PMOS reference transistor P1. The PMOS transistor in the current mirror therefore has only a small amount of voltage Vsg available for its polarization.
As will be seen, this limitation becomes very important when considering the mismatch problem in the current mirror circuits. The mismatch is caused by variations in the characteristics of transistors inherent to the production method. Indeed, problems of repeatability in the transistor production method, for example at the level of the implantation of dopants, can cause the MOS transistors, which are intended to be strictly identical, to nevertheless have differing characteristics. Thus, the mismatch is misleading in the current mirror ratio, which is capable of falsifying the write current and, therefore, the variation in potential at the level of the output node OUT on which the reading is dependent.
The mismatch in a current mirror can be modelled by the following simplified equation, which corresponds to a low polarization condition (Vsg−Vt):o2(ΔIsd/Isd)≅4*A(Vt)2/[(W*L)*(Vsg−Vt)2]wherein Isd is the drain-source current of the transistors in the current mirror, Vt is their threshold voltage, Vsg is their gate-source voltage and W*L is their size.
The variation on the saturation current drawn by the PMOS transistor is therefore dependent on three main factors according to the simplified equation: A(Vt)2, W*L and (Vsg−Vt)2. The term A(Vt)2 is a factor that cannot be altered and that is dependent on the production method. It is representative of the quality of the method in its capability to produce MOS transistors that are as similar as possible.
As regards the second term W*L, the greater the size of the MOS transmitters in the current mirror, the more limited the mismatch will be.
However, given the aforementioned constraint in the reading system with regard to the low voltage Vsg available for the polarization of the PMOS transistor in the current mirror, the term (Vsg−Vt)2 will clearly have a very negative impact on the mismatch in the current mirror. Thus, there is a high probability that the variation on the saturation current drawn by the current mirror will be such that the reading is impossible. Indeed, since the differences in tunnel resistance to be measured, which enable the stored logic data to be provided, are small, the available signal to be detected for the reading, which is dependent on the difference between the reference current provided by the current mirror and the current circulating in the read bit line, is also relatively small. Thus, if the PMOS transistors cause too great a mismatch in the current mirror as explained above, the signal available for reading the information will not be operable.
It is possible to consider compensating for the negative impact of the term (Vsg−Vt)2 by increasing the size W*L of the PMOS transistors of the current mirror and therefore their width W so as to achieve an acceptable mismatch. The drain capacity of the transistors will, however, increase in proportion to the W of the transistor. However, as this drain capacity is directly associated with the nodes Out and Outref of the circuit, the latter will be rendered more capacitive, which is disadvantageous in terms of reading speed. Indeed, the potentials will need more time to reach the level of the nodes Out and Outref in reading phase. |
/**
* Transformation operation for a {@link Collection} to a {@link List}.
*
* @param <E>
* the type of the given and returned values
* @param collection
* the collection to transform
* @return the new {@link List}, containing all entries of the given
* collection
*/
public static <E extends Object> List<E> asList(Collection<E> collection) {
List<E> list = new LinkedList<E>();
list.addAll(collection);
return list;
} |
Effect of a single meloxicam administration on newborn HolsteinFriesian dystocia calves: Field results from the first 10 days of life Background and Aim: Calves have increased morbidity and mortality rates after dystocia. One cause is pain during birth, which reduces their colostrum intake. The administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may break this causality. This study aimed to determine the consequences of a single administration of the NSAID meloxicam to dystocia calves after birth. Materials and Methods: Fifty HolsteinFriesian calves born with dystocia from four dairy cattle farms were included in this study. The animals were randomized into two groups. The animals in Group I (n=25, treatment group) received subcutaneous 0.5 mg meloxicam/kg body weight 2-8 h after birth. The animals in Group II (n=25, control group) received a control substance (Amynin®, bovine infusion solution, Merial) with the same volume. The newborn calves were clinically examined on the 1st and 10th days of life. The information regarding the days in between was gathered by questioning the farmer. Results: There was a significant difference (p=0.04) only in calves with thin, mushy fecal consistency on the 10th day in the treatment group compared with the control group. Moreover, meloxicam had no effect on dystocia calves. Conclusion: Since NSAID administration did not produce a significant clinical effect, its necessity is questionable. Further studies should examine how modifying its application time would have an effect. The primary indicators of well-being, such as pain indicators in the blood, were not measured; however, these should be considered in subsequent studies. Introduction The phase after birth is a high-risk time for newborn calves. Especially after dystocia (a difficult birth), calves show an increased incidence of diseases, such as diarrhea and bronchopneumonia. One of the causes is pain during birth, which reduces their colostrum intake and absorption and increases their susceptibility to infection. Little attention has been given to the pain experienced by calves during dystocia, and the relationship between the pain during parturition and diseases later in life is unclear. In this context, pain/stress management and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are becoming increasingly important. Studies on the use of NSAIDs have focused primarily on cows after dystocia. There are only a few studies on the use of NSAIDs on calves after dystocia. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the clinical effects of a single dose of meloxicam on newborn calves after dystocia under field conditions. Ethical approval Examinations and treatments were performed according to the standard therapeutic measures without any unnecessary harm to the animals. Approval from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee was not required; the study did not affect the animals in excess of therapy. Study period and location The study was conducted from August 2012 to August 2014. This study was carried out at four farms in the Hessen region (Germany). Study design The study was conducted on 50 Holstein-Friesian calves according to the veterinary care and ethics of experimental animals. These animals originated from four dairy farms. The inclusion criteria were as follows: Randomization and medication procedures The dystocia calves (n=50) were randomly divided into two equal groups (treatment and control). The treatment group (n=25) received meloxicam subcutaneously (0.5 mg meloxicam/kg body weight, Metacam © 20 mg/mL injection solution, Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany). The control group (n=25) received an equivalent volume of Amynin © (infusion solution for cattle, Boehringer Ingelheim) subcutaneously. The injection was given within the first 8 h of birth. Clinical examination of the dystocia calves The newborn calves were clinically examined on the 1 st and 10 th days of life in which the following parameters were recorded: In addition, the rectal temperature was recorded on the first 5 days of life between 8:00 and 10:00 AM by a farmer. The feed or milk intake was also recorded on the first 10 days after birth. A veterinarian excluded calves with lung, intestinal, and navel diseases from the study up until day 10. Definition of diseases A disturbed general condition existed when at least one parameter deviated from reference values during the final clinical examination. The lungs were considered to be diseased when abnormal auscultation sounds were heard. Similarly, the umbilical cord was considered to be diseased when pain and swelling were present. Statistical analysis To determine the significance of 1 time, qualitative parameters between the treatment and control groups, two-dimensional frequency tables were created and calculated using Fisher's exact test. The following features were compared in this test: Frequency of general disorders Incidence of lung diseases Incidence of intestinal diseases Frequency of navel diseases Frequency of sick animals In addition, for 23 contingency tables, the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test was used. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used for ordinal parameters. Unique quantitative characteristics were calculated using one sample t-test. For group-time interactions, two-factor analysis of variance with repeated measurements was used. The exact Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used for qualitative progressive data with rare events. A comparison of the relative frequency of events between the treatment and control groups was also made using the exact Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. The statistical programs BMDP/ Dynamic (Statistical Software Manual, Volume 1 and 2. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Release 8.1), StatXact ®, Version 9 (Cytel Software Corporation, Cambridge, MA, USA), BiAS for windows, and biometric analysis of samples (Version 9.08, Epsilon-Verlag, Hochheim, Darmstadt, Germany) were used for the evaluations. Changes in clinical parameters between the treatment and control groups on days 1 and 10 postpartum At the time of the initial examination, the mean respiratory rate values were higher than those in the final examination. On both examination times, the calves were distributed evenly over both groups. The heart rate was also homogeneously distributed over both groups at both times. A slightly higher number of calves in the treatment group had mild-to-moderate lung sounds, but the difference was not statistically significant (Table-1). On the initial examination, enlarged navels were found in five calves, and on day 10 postpartum, enlarged navels were found in seven calves. Swollen and painful navels were diagnosed in two (postpartum day 1) and four (postpartum day 10) calves. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in the navel findings between the groups (Table-1). The internal rectal temperatures in the treatment and control groups are presented as arithmetic mean values with standard deviation. The values measured over the investigation period showed an almost identical course at the same level. The number of calves with fever in the treatment group and the average duration of febrile periods were compared with those in the control group. In three calves in the treatment group (14%), an internal body temperature of over 39.5°C was measured, which lasted for approximately 1.7 days. Although no fever was found in the control group, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The number of calves that did not drink milk was higher, and its duration during the study period was longer in the control group. There was a reduced milk intake at the same time in both groups. Approximately 47% of the calves in the treatment group showed a thin, mushy fecal consistency on the 10 th day of life. This differed significantly from that of 17% of the control animals (p=0.04) ( Table 2). Incidence of diseases between the treatment and control groups on days 1 and 10 postpartum The general condition of the animals from both groups was equally disturbed. In total, 46% of the 50 examined calves showed a disturbed general condition. Lung diseases occurred in 33% of the treated calves and in 21% of the control animals. Navel disorders occurred in 33% of the treated and in 24% of the control animals (Table-1). Approximately 34% of the calves remained on the farm, whereas 12% died before the 60 th day of life. Of these, 5% and 18% originated from the treatment and control groups, respectively. Discussion Drug treatment of farm animals is the world's biggest animal welfare issue, and this sector is getting stronger due to new developments in the pharmaceutical industry. Conversely, rising production costs also promote the need for new methods and medications. Accordingly, researchers and veterinary practitioners have to deal with modern prophylaxis strategies and new therapy methods. Birth pains are one of the most intense pains. Difficult births cause postpartum illnesses with considerable pain stimuli, leading to performance losses in cows and calves. Only a few studies focused on the control of pain and inflammation in newborn calves after dystocia. This investigation was based on a hypothesis that the administration of the NSAID meloxicam in dystocia calves leads to a reduction in pathological clinical parameters, making a positive effect on performance. According to a survey among veterinarians in the United Kingdom and North Ireland by Huxley and Whay, 39% of practicing veterinarians use NSAIDs on calves after dystocia. In addition, according to a survey by Laven et al., 14% of calves are treated with NSAIDs after dystocia. Nevertheless, no objective statements can be made in practice regarding the effects of NSAIDs on calves after birth. There are only five scientific studies that mentioned the clinical effects of NSAIDs on newborn calves, stating that its use led to positive effects on performance and health parameters. Todd et al. demonstrated a positive effect of meloxicam in a double-blind study with 56 male Holstein-Friesian calves suffering from neonatal diarrhea. Half of the calves with diarrhea received 0.5 mg/kg body weight of meloxicam subcutaneously on the 1 st day, whereas the other half received an ineffective placebo. Their body weight, intake of milk, starter ration and water, and duration of the disease were recorded. Compared with the control group, the treatment group ingested 5.3 times more milk from the 10 th day of life, drank more water, showed higher daily weight gains due to the 3.19 times earlier intake of the starter ration, and had a disease course shortened by 65%. Thus, the calves treated with meloxicam reached the weaning weight earlier. Hence, it was concluded that the treatment of neonatal diarrhea with meloxicam is an effective supportive therapy. Another study by Murray evaluated the risk factors and management programs for newborn calves in five independent trials. In a partial study with 284 calves, the effects of meloxicam on vitality, sucking reflex, milk intake, daily growth, and calf health were evaluated. In another study with 842 calves, Murray recorded the effects of meloxicam on vitality, passive immunoglobulin transfer, daily growth, and calf health of dystocia calves. In both studies, half of the calves were randomized to receive 0.5 mg/kg body weight meloxicam subcutaneously immediately after birth, whereas the other half Fecal consistency differed significantly (p=0.04) between the groups on the 10 th day of life. Table-1: Comparison of the frequency of lung and navel diseases between the treatment and the control groups on days 1 and 10 postpartum (There were no statistically significant differences in the lung disease and navel findings between the groups). received an ineffective control substance. Overall, Murray demonstrated that the dystocia calves had increased acidosis (blood lactate values higher by 2.93 mmol/L), less motivation to get up, weakened sucking reflexes, and reduced vitality. A single treatment with meloxicam resulted in increased vitality and improved sucking reflex in both studies. Long-term effects, such as increased intake of daily milk quantities, faster weight growth, and lower disease rates, were also observed after meloxicam treatment in both studies. No effects from meloxicam could be registered on the passive immunoglobulin transfer in the calf's intestine. Moreover, according to the visual appearance, initiation of movement, general responsiveness, oxygenation, heart and respiration rates data on calves, Murray et al. reported that meloxicam treatment after calving had a positive effect on their overall health. In the present study, meloxicam had no positive effect on dystocia calves. The only significant difference between the treatment and control groups was the difference in fecal consistency on the 10 th day of life postpartum. This result is surprising and should be interpreted cautiously since all further results showed no significant differences. In addition, this result contradicts the studies of Todd et al. and Murray. Todd et al. chose the same dosage without making this observation. Further studies on the effects of meloxicam on calves after dystocia are recommended. It is also suspected that NSAIDs cause circulatory disorders in calves, especially in the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys, by inhibiting prostaglandin synthesis. Klahr et al. and Agostiniani et al. demonstrated kidney function impairments by administering NSAIDs to human neonates. No studies on calves are available in this regard. Future studies that also consider blood biochemical values will contribute significantly to the evaluation of the study results. Conclusion Meloxicam had no positive effect on dystocia calves during the first 10 days of life. The collected results were clinical and performance parameters in newborn dystocia calves. The primary indicators of well-being, such as pain indicators in the blood, were not measured, but these should be considered in subsequent studies. Authors' Contributions FK, SS, and MY: Performed the experimental work, interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. KF: Data interpretation. AW: Project advisor and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. |
Interview. Epigenomics, imprinting and disease susceptibility. Randy L Jirtle is a Professor of Radiation Oncology and an Associate Professor of Pathology at Duke University, Durham (NC, USA) where he has been a faculty member since 1977. He graduated with a BS degree in nuclear engineering in 1970 and a PhD degree in radiation biology in 1976, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jirtle's research interests are in epigenetics, genomic imprinting, and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, including ten publications featured on journal covers. His enthusiasm for promoting the public understanding of epigenomics led him to create the website, www.geneimprint.org, which has been designated by the scientific publisher Thomson ISI as an 'Exemplary Website in Genetics'. Jirtle has organized five international meetings and been an invited speaker at dozens of others. He has delivered five endowed lectures and was invited to present his research at the 2004 Nobel Symposium on Epigenetics. He was honored in 2006 with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2007, Jirtle received an Esther B. O'Keeffe Charitable Foundation Award and capped off the year with a nomination for Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'. He was the inaugural recipient of the Epigenetic Medicine Award in 2008. |
I’d like you to share some time with the Common Raven. Not the bird that Edgar Allan Poe slandered in verse, but the genuine article. To my mind, ravens are among the most interesting birds anywhere, not just in San Benito County.
There are certainly more of them among us than there were only a few decades ago. That’s in large part because they are remarkably like us. They’ll eat nearly anything, but road kill (that’s where we come in) is an especially yummy treat. They’re smart. They’re social. They appear to engage in play. They can anticipate delayed rewards. Most telling of their link to us; they engage in base subterfuge.
Let’s cover the thing that vexes many birders, and that’s how to know if that large black object in the sky really is a raven. Ravens are not crows. America counts several crow species, but all of them share some traits that help sort them easily from ravens. Even though both are rather large, all black birds, ravens are larger. Ravens soar from time to time, but crows flap pretty constantly, usually only gliding as they alight. The easiest things to look for are heads and tails. Ravens appear to have larger heads and bills, because they are larger. On the wing, ravens have a tail shaped like the image on the ace of spades, whereas crows’ tails are shaped like a paper fan.
Then there’s the voice. Both species make a number of noises from popping to croaks to the “Caw, caw” of comic strips. Crows are tenors, but ravens are distinctly baritones.
It wasn’t too long ago that seeing a raven in town was kind of an event. But they’ve learned to thrive on our debris and our presence. Ravens have been documented nesting in Hollister as well as the far reaches of San Benito County.
So what makes this large, black, carrion-gobbling bird so interesting? It’s because for anyone who spends a few moments watching them, they are fascinating, not for their showy feathers or beautiful song, but for their behavior.
Author-sociobiologist Bernd Heinrich has made a career out of studying ravens and then telling their stories in print. His 1991 book, “Ravens in Winter,” opened a lot of eyes to these birds. He tracked them through a Maine winter, kept some in flight cages, and tested their wits even as they tested his. Spoiler alert: Heinrich didn’t always come out the winner in these battles of wits.
Ravens, crows, magpies and jays are all part of a group lumped together by biologists as corvids. While they don’t share a lot of superficial features, they do share intelligence and adaptability. In fact, as a percentage of gross body weight, the Common Raven has the largest brain of any bird in North America.
Heinrich sought to answer questions about these birds. Do they communicate the presence of a food source in the middle of a bitter winter? Do they communicate the presence of a stranger?
Heinrich appeared to answer one question, and that is, do ravens employ guile? He watched as ravens cached food, only to move it to new hiding places when they noticed they were observed by other ravens.
A few of us once watched a flock of ravens tearing into the carcass of a coyote that met its end near Panoche Road. Suddenly, through the tunnel-vision of our binoculars, we were surprised to see the ravens falling over themselves to quickly distance themselves from their source of food. Then, a Bald Eagle arrived to land on the carcass.
But the ravens didn’t leave. Instead, they waited at a respectful distance, knowing full well that the eagle would have its fill, leaving plenty for the ravens to eat and to stow away for a few subsequent meals.
Smart birds, those ravens. |
<filename>gsk4/src/auto/render_node.rs
// This file was generated by gir (https://github.com/gtk-rs/gir)
// from gir-files (https://github.com/gtk-rs/gir-files)
// DO NOT EDIT
use crate::RenderNodeType;
use glib::object::IsA;
use glib::translate::*;
use std::fmt;
use std::ptr;
glib::glib_wrapper! {
pub struct RenderNode(Object<ffi::GskRenderNode>);
match fn {
get_type => || ffi::gsk_render_node_get_type(),
}
}
impl RenderNode {
//pub fn deserialize(bytes: &glib::Bytes, error_func: /*Unimplemented*/FnMut(/*Unimplemented*/Fundamental: Pointer, &glib::Error), user_data: /*Unimplemented*/Option<Fundamental: Pointer>) -> Option<RenderNode> {
// unsafe { TODO: call ffi:gsk_render_node_deserialize() }
//}
}
pub const NONE_RENDER_NODE: Option<&RenderNode> = None;
pub trait RenderNodeExt: 'static {
fn draw(&self, cr: &cairo::Context);
fn get_bounds(&self) -> graphene::Rect;
fn get_node_type(&self) -> RenderNodeType;
fn serialize(&self) -> Option<glib::Bytes>;
fn write_to_file(&self, filename: &str) -> Result<(), glib::Error>;
}
impl<O: IsA<RenderNode>> RenderNodeExt for O {
fn draw(&self, cr: &cairo::Context) {
unsafe {
ffi::gsk_render_node_draw(
self.as_ref().to_glib_none().0,
mut_override(cr.to_glib_none().0),
);
}
}
fn get_bounds(&self) -> graphene::Rect {
unsafe {
let mut bounds = graphene::Rect::uninitialized();
ffi::gsk_render_node_get_bounds(
self.as_ref().to_glib_none().0,
bounds.to_glib_none_mut().0,
);
bounds
}
}
fn get_node_type(&self) -> RenderNodeType {
unsafe {
from_glib(ffi::gsk_render_node_get_node_type(
self.as_ref().to_glib_none().0,
))
}
}
fn serialize(&self) -> Option<glib::Bytes> {
unsafe {
from_glib_full(ffi::gsk_render_node_serialize(
self.as_ref().to_glib_none().0,
))
}
}
fn write_to_file(&self, filename: &str) -> Result<(), glib::Error> {
unsafe {
let mut error = ptr::null_mut();
let _ = ffi::gsk_render_node_write_to_file(
self.as_ref().to_glib_none().0,
filename.to_glib_none().0,
&mut error,
);
if error.is_null() {
Ok(())
} else {
Err(from_glib_full(error))
}
}
}
}
impl fmt::Display for RenderNode {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "RenderNode")
}
}
|
<gh_stars>0
//import { JournalReportControl } from "./controls";
//import { Dish, Ingredient, InitialIngredients, InitialMeals, JournalEntry, Nutrition, Units } from "./data";
//export class Application {
// ingredients: Ingredient[] = [];
// journalEntries: JournalEntry[] = [];
// dishes: Dish[] = [];
// units: string[] = [];
// constructor(configuration?) {
// this.getIngredients();
// this.getDishes();
// this.getJournal();
// this.units = Object.keys(Units);
// this.journalEntries.push(
// new JournalEntry({
// items: [
// InitialMeals[0]
// ]
// })
// );
// this.journalEntries.push(
// new JournalEntry({
// items: [
// InitialMeals[3]
// ]
// })
// );
// this.displayJournalSelection();
// }
// getIngredients() {
// let raw = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("ingredients")) || InitialIngredients;
// this.ingredients = [];
// if (Array.isArray(raw)) {
// raw.forEach(i => this.ingredients.push(new Ingredient(i)));
// }
// }
// saveIngredients() {
// localStorage.setItem("ingredients", JSON.stringify(this.ingredients));
// }
// getDishes() {
// let raw = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("dishes")) || [];
// this.ingredients = [];
// if (Array.isArray(raw)) {
// raw.forEach(i => this.dishes.push(new Dish(i)));
// }
// }
// saveDishes() {
// localStorage.setItem("dishes", JSON.stringify(this.dishes));
// }
// getJournal() {
// let raw = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem("journal")) || [];
// this.ingredients = [];
// if (Array.isArray(raw)) {
// raw.forEach(i => this.journalEntries.push(new JournalEntry(i)));
// }
// }
// saveJournal() {
// localStorage.setItem("journal", JSON.stringify(this.journalEntries));
// }
// // #region Views
// get $display(): JQuery { return $('#display'); }
// journalReport: JournalReportControl = null;
// displayJournalSelection() {
// let self = this;
// console.log("displayJournalSelection");
// try {
// self.$display.empty();
// self.journalReport = $('<div>', { id: 'journalreport' })
// .appendTo(self.$display)
// .attr("id", "journalreport")
// .journalJournalReportControl({
// allJournalEntries: self.journalEntries,
// units: self.units,
// ingredients: [],
// nutrition: new Nutrition(),
// startDate: new Date('1/1/2021'),
// endDate: new Date(),
// id: 'journalreport'
// })
// .data(JournalReportControl.GROUP_DATA);
// } catch (ex) {
// console.log(ex);
// }
// }
// // #endregion
//} |
A novel gas/liquid two-phase flow imaging method through electrical resistance tomography with DDELM-AE sparse dictionary The purpose of this paper is to explore gas/liquid two-phase flow is widely existed in industrial fields, especially in chemical engineering. Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) is considered to be one of the most promising techniques to monitor the transient flow process because of its advantages such as fast respond speed and cross-section imaging. However, maintaining high resolution in space together with low cost is still challenging for two-phase flow imaging because of the ill-conditioning of ERT inverse problem.,In this paper, a sparse reconstruction (SR) method based on the learned dictionary has been proposed for ERT, to accurately monitor the transient flow process of gas/liquid two-phase flow in a pipeline. The high-level representation of the conductivity distributions for typical flow regimes can be extracted based on denoising the deep extreme learning machine (DDELM) model, which is used as prior information for dictionary learning.,The results from simulation and dynamic experiments indicate that the proposed algorithm efficiently improves the quality of reconstructed images as compared to some typical algorithms such as Landweber and SR-discrete fourier transformation/discrete cosine transformation. Furthermore, the SR-DDELM has also used to estimate the important parameters of the chemical process, a case in point is the volume flow rate. Therefore, the SR-DDELM is considered an ideal candidate for online monitor the gas/liquid two-phase flow.,This paper fulfills a novel approach to effectively monitor the gas/liquid two-phase flow in pipelines. One deep learning model and one adaptive dictionary are trained via the same prior conductivity, respectively. The model is used to extract high-level representation. The dictionary is used to represent the features of the flow process. SR and extraction of high-level representation are performed iteratively. The new method can obviously improve the monitoring accuracy and save calculation time. |
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