Experiments on economic games typically fail to find positive reputational effects of using peer punishment of selfish behavior in social dilemmas. Theorists had expected positive reputational effects because of the potentially beneficial consequences that punishment may have on norm violators’ behavior. Going beyond the game-theoretic paradigm, we used vignettes to study how various social factors influence approval ratings of a peer who reprimands a violator of a group-beneficial norm. We found that ratings declined when punishers showed anger, and this effect was mediated by perceived aggressiveness. Thus the same emotions that motivate peer punishers may make them come across as aggressive, to the detriment of their reputation. However, the negative effect of showing anger disappeared when the norm violation was sufficiently severe. Ratings of punishers were also influenced by social distance, such that it is less appropriate for a stranger than a friend to reprimand a violator. In sum, peer punisher ratings were very high for a friend reprimanding a severe norm violation, but particularly poor for a stranger showing anger at a mild norm violation. We found no effect on ratings of whether the reprimand had the beneficial consequence of changing the violator’s behavior. Our findings provide insight into how peer punishers can avoid negative reputational effects. They also point to the importance of going beyond economic games when studying peer punishment.

This paper asks whether moral preferences in eight medical dilemmas change as a function of how preferences are expressed, and how people choose when they are faced with two equally attractive help projects. In two large-scale studies, participants first read dilemmas where they “matched” two suggested helping projects (which varied on a single attribute) so that they became equally attractive. They did this by filling in a missing number (e.g., how many male patients must Project M save in order to be equally attractive as Project F which can save 100 female patients). Later, the same participants were asked to choose between the two equally attractive projects. We found robust evidence that people do not choose randomly, but instead tend to choose projects that help female (vs. male), children (vs. adult), innocent (vs. non-innocent), ingroup (vs. outgroup) and existing (vs. future) patients, and imply no (vs. some) risk of a harmful side-effect, even when these projects have been matched as equally attractive as, and save fewer patients than the contrasting project. We also found that some moral preferences are hidden when expressed with matching but apparent when expressed with forced choice. For example, 88–95% of the participants expressed that female and male patients are equally valuable when doing the matching task, but over 80% of them helped female patients in the choice task.

Fiscal capacity is regularly linked to warfare and democratization. However, the majority of income taxes – a cornerstone of government finance – were introduced by non-democratic states in peacetime. This paper is concerned with how autocratic politics shape the adoption and expansion of income taxes. Political institutions help overcome a commitment problem related to investments in taxation. To avoid being deposed by his or her elite supporters, a ruler needs to guarantee that new taxes will not be used opportunistically (e.g. expropriating the elite). If the elite supporters can effectively monitor the government, any transgressions will be detected and punishable. Institutions such as legislatures solve this commitment problem when they allow oversight and monitoring over the executive branch. The empirical implications are straightforward: in places with strong institutional oversight, which allows the elite to monitor the executive, we should observe higher fiscal capacity. I find support for this by analyzing newly available historical datasets over tax revenues, tax introduction dates, and political institutions.

Post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorder is a potentially mortal complication after heart transplantation in children. As the immune system plays a crucial role in the development of lymphoma, we explored the influence of thymus function in relation to immunosuppressive treatment in organ-transplanted children and healthy control subjects. A prospective case–control study was performed at a single centre, in which 36 children who had undergone heart transplantation were compared to two control groups: 34 kidney-transplanted children and 33 healthy age- and sex-matched children. T- and B-lymphocyte subtypes and monocytes were analysed by flow cytometry, and T-cell receptor excision circles were assessed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Heart-transplanted children had a lymphocyte profile characterised by reduced or absent thymic function with low numbers of T-cell receptor excision circles and total and naïve T cells, together with immune activation against the allograft. Despite similar immunosuppressive treatment, the kidney-transplanted group showed an activated T-lymphocyte compartment.

Violators of cooperation norms may be informally punished by their peers. How such norm enforcement is judged by others can be regarded as a meta-norm (i.e., a second-order norm). We examined whether meta-norms about peer punishment vary across cultures by having students in eight countries judge animations in which an agent who over-harvested a common resource was punished either by a single peer or by the entire peer group. Whether the punishment was retributive or restorative varied between two studies, and findings were largely consistent across these two types of punishment. Across all countries, punishment was judged as more appropriate when implemented by the entire peer group than by an individual. Differences between countries were revealed in judgments of punishers vs. non-punishers. Specifically, appraisals of punishers were relatively negative in three Western countries and Japan, and more neutral in Pakistan, UAE, Russia, and China, consistent with the influence of individualism, power distance, and/or indulgence. Our studies constitute a first step in mapping how meta-norms vary around the globe, demonstrating both cultural universals and cultural differences.

Weed species composition and density were recorded in three identical field experiments established 26 to 30 yr ago in southern Sweden. Each experiment compared three 6-yr crop rotations and four rates of nitrogen application. The rotations differed by having (1) a 2-yr rotational grassland, (2) a 2-yr mixed rotational grassland (legume/grass), or (3) spring wheat followed by fallow. Other crops in the rotations were winter turnip rape, winter wheat, spring oats, and spring barley. Using multivariate analyses, the relative importance of site, crop, crop rotation, and nitrogen application rate on the weed flora was determined. The greatest difference was found between sites, and the second most important factor was crop species. Nitrogen application rate weakly influenced the weed flora, while differences between crop rotations were hardly detectable.

Gestational weight gain (GWG) has in numerous studies been associated with offspring birth weight (BW) and childhood weight. However, these associations might be explained by genetic confounding as offspring inherit their mother's genetic potential to gain weight. Furthermore, little is known about whether particular periods of pregnancy could influence offspring body weight differently. We therefore aimed to explore total and trimester-specific effects of GWG in monozygotic (MZ) twin mother-pairs on their offspring's BW, weight at 1 year and body mass index (BMI) at 5 and 10 years. MZ twin mothers born 1962–1975 were identified in national Swedish registers, and data on exposure and outcome variables was collected from medical records. We analyzed associations within and between twin pairs. We had complete data on the mothers’ GWG and offspring BW for 82 pairs. The results indicated that total, and possibly also second and third trimester GWG were associated with offspring BW within the twin pairs in the fully adjusted model (β = 0.08 z-score units, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.17; β = 1.32 z-score units, 95% CI: -0.29, 2.95; and β = 1.02 z-score units, 95% CI: -0.50, 2.54, respectively). Our findings, although statistically weak, suggested no associations between GWG and offspring weight or BMI during infancy or childhood. Our study suggests that total, and possibly also second and third trimester, GWG are associated with offspring BW when taking shared genetic and environmental factors within twin pairs into account. Larger family-based studies with long follow-up are needed to confirm our findings.

Dietary patterns derived by statistical procedures is a way to identify overall dietary habits in specific populations. The aim of this study was to identify and characterise dietary patterns in Swedish adults using data from the national dietary survey Riksmaten adults 2010–11 (952 women, 788 men). Principal component analyses were used and two patterns were identified in both sexes: a healthy pattern loading positively on vegetables, fruits, fish and seafood, and vegetable oils, and negatively on refined bread and fast food, and a Swedish traditional pattern loading positively on potatoes, meat and processed meat, full-fat milk products, sweet bakery products, sweet condiments and margarine. In addition, a light-meal pattern was identified in women with positive loadings on fibre-rich bread, cheese, rice, pasta and food grain dishes, substitute products for meat and dairy products, candies and tea. The healthy pattern was positively correlated to dietary fibre (r 0·51–0·58) and n-3 (r 0·25–0·31) (all P<0·0001), and had a higher nutrient density of folate, vitamin D and Se. The Swedish traditional and the light-meal pattern were positively correlated to added sugar (r 0·20–0·25) and the Swedish traditional also to SFA (r 0·13–0·21) (all P<0·0001); both patterns were in general negatively correlated to micronutrients. Dietary pattern scores were associated with, for example, age, physical activity, education and income. In conclusion, we identified three major dietary patterns among Swedish adults. The patterns can be further used for examining the association between whole diet and health outcomes.

Gestational weight gain (GWG) is a complex trait involving intrauterine environmental, maternal environmental, and genetic factors. However, the extent to which these factors contribute to the total variation in GWG is unclear. We therefore examined the genetic and environmental influences on the variation in GWG in the first and second pregnancy in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin mother-pairs. Further, we explored if any co-variance existed between factors influencing the variation in GWG of the mothers’ first and second pregnancies. By using Swedish nationwide record-linkage data, we identified 694 twin mother-pairs with complete data on their first pregnancy and 465 twin mother-pairs with complete data on their second pregnancy during 1982–2010. For a subanalysis, 143 twin mother-pairs had complete data on two consecutive pregnancies during the study period. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the contribution of genetic, shared, and unique environmental factors to the variation in GWG. A bivariate Cholesky decomposition model was used for the subanalysis. We found that genetic factors explained 43% (95% CI: 36–51%) of the variation in GWG in the first pregnancy and 26% (95% CI: 16–36%) in the second pregnancy. The remaining variance was explained by unique environmental factors. Both overlapping and distinct genetic and unique environmental factors influenced GWG in the first and the second pregnancy. This study showed that GWG has a moderate heritability, suggesting that a large part of the variation in the trait can be explained by unique environmental factors.

We use transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for in situ studies of electron-beam-induced crystallization behavior in thin films of amorphous transition metal silicon carbides based on Zr (group 4 element) and Nb (group 5). Higher silicon content stabilized the amorphous structure while no effects of carbon were detected. Films with Nb start to crystallize at lower electron doses than the Zr-containing ones. During the crystallization, equiaxed MeC grains are formed in all samples with larger grains for ZrC (∼5 nm) compared to NbC (∼2 nm). The phenomenon of self-terminating crystallization at a dimension of 2–5 nm is explained by segregation of Si that is expelled from growing metal carbide grains into the surrounding amorphous phase matrix, which limits diffusion of the metal and carbon.

We report that an electron beam focused for high-resolution imaging rapidly initiates observable crystallization of amorphous Me–Si–C films. For 200-keV electron irradiation of Nb–Si–C and Zr–Si–C films, crystallization is observed at doses of ~2.8 × 109 and ~4.7 × 109 e−/nm2, respectively. The crystallization process is driven by atomic displacement events, rather than heating from the electron beam as in situ annealing (400–600 °C) retains the amorphous state. Our findings demand a critical analysis of alleged amorphous and nanocrystalline ceramics including reassessing previous reports on nanocrystalline Me–Si–C films for possible electron-beam-induced crystallization effects.

Background: Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) has been found to be an effective way to disseminate psychological treatment, and support given by a therapist seems to be important in order to achieve good outcomes. Little is known about what the therapists actually do when they provide support in iCBT and whether their behaviour influences treatment outcome. Aims: This study addressed the content of therapist e-mails in guided iCBT for generalized anxiety disorder. Method: We examined 490 e-mails from three therapists providing support to 44 patients who participated in a controlled trial on iCBT for generalized anxiety disorder. Results: Through content analysis of the written correspondence, eight distinguishable therapist behaviours were derived: deadline flexibility, task reinforcement, alliance bolstering, task prompting, psychoeducation, self-disclosure, self-efficacy shaping, and empathetic utterances. We found that task reinforcement, task prompting, self-efficacy shaping and empathetic utterances correlated with module completion. Deadline flexibility was negatively associated with outcome and task reinforcement positively correlated with changes on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Conclusions: Different types of therapist behaviours can be identified in iCBT, and though many of these behaviours are correlated to each other, different behaviours have an impact on change in symptoms and module completion.