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IntroductionTo improve our understanding of how people engage in altruistic behavior, it is important to investigate the motives provided by help recipients and how these motives influence givers' helping behaviors.MethodIn the present study we conduct three experiments (total N = 606), exploring how the financial motivation of help recipients can affect givers' helping behaviors.Results and discussionWe find that people like to help others but resent helping those motivated by immediate financial gains. Study 1 shows that the recipient of help influenced the responses of the helpers depending on whether the recipient was making a sales profit from this help or not. An influencing factor was whether the recipient could provide an excuse for making such a profit. Study 2 replicated these findings also in conditions in which other kinds of profits were applied. Study 3 confirmed the results in conditions in which helpers were informed about recipients' financial motives before deciding whether to help.

Several distributions and families of distributions are proposed to model skewed data, e.g., with skew-normal and related distributions. Lambert W random variables offer an alternative approach in which, instead of constructing a new distribution, a certain transformation is proposed. Such an approach allows the construction of a Lambert W skewed version from any distribution. Here, we choose the Lambert W normal distribution as a natural starting point and include the Lambert W exponential distribution due to the simplicity and shape of the exponential distribution, which, after skewing, may produce a reasonably heavy tail for loss models. In the theoretical part, we focus on the mathematical properties of obtained distributions, including the range of skewness. In the practical part, the suitability of the corresponding Lambert W transformed distributions is evaluated on real insurance data. Finally, the results are compared with those obtained using common loss distributions.

The quantity of medieval pilgrim badges discovered in Estonia has significantly increased over the past six years. In 2018, during archaeological excavations in a 15th-century landfill located in the vicinity of Jahu and Väike-Patarei streets in Tallinn, close to forty pilgrim badges and scallops were unearthed. Some of these artifacts, either fragmented or without parallels elsewhere in Europe, remain unidentified. Among these lead-tin alloy badges was a two-piece fragment depicting a figure holding a flag with a lily and a partially preserved vessel, encircled by a Middle Low German inscription in minuscule, which translates as "...count of Schwerin" and "badge of the holy.." Additionally, in the same year, a similar badge was discovered in another excavation in Tallinn. This badge, too, is fragmented, but fortunately, the entire inscription can be reconstructed. It commences with: "guncelinus greue van swery[n]" and extends to the other side of a small coat of arms: "teke[n] des hilgen blodes to rige" The stylistic features of the badge allow for dating it to the latter half of the 15th century. Until recently, only one type of pilgrim souvenir had been associated with medieval Livonia, particularly Riga: an almond-shaped badge from the late 13th century depicting the Madonna seated on a throne, encircled by an inscription in majuscule: "SIGNVM S MARIE IN LIVONIA REMISSIONIS PECCATORVM." Discoveries in Tallinn now suggest that by the late Middle Ages, a generic badge like this no longer met the demands of pilgrims, leading to the production of specific badges for the relic of the Holy Blood in Riga Cathedral. Previously, it remained uncertain when and how this precious relic had arrived in Riga. The inscription on the badge mentions Schwerin, where at least one, if not two, relics of the Holy Blood were housed in the Cathedral, notably one gifted by Count Heinrich I in 1222. Further examination of the historical and familial ties between the Church of Riga and Schwerin unveiled that Count Gunzelin III, Heinrich I's son, was summoned to Livonia as a crusader in 1267 and appointed by Albert Suerbeer as the protector of the Archdiocese. Even more intriguingly, Gunzelin's son Johannes, a canon in Schwerin, was elected as the Archbishop of Riga in 1294. Documentation from the late 1290s suggests that the Cathedral of Schwerin received a fragment of the relic of the Holy Cross from the Church of Riga. Hence, it is probable that in the late 1290s, the Churches of Riga and Schwerin engaged in an exchange of revered relics, with a portion of the Holy Blood relic arriving from Schwerin to Riga during that period. In the late 14th and 15th centuries, this relic became embroiled in conflicts between the Archbishop of Riga and the Teutonic Order in Livonia. The central figure depicted on the pilgrim badges likely represents either Gunzelin I, the first count of Schwerin, who received a relic of the Holy Blood from Henry the Lion of Saxony, or Gunzelin III, the progenitor of Archbishop Johannes, who established a chantry of the Holy Blood in the Cathedral of Schwerin in 1274, linking it with the memoria of his lineage. In either scenario, it underscores the enduring importance, even into the latter half of the 15 th century, for the Church of Riga to commemorate Gunzelin's name on the badge and visually associate him with the relic of Riga. The partially preserved vessel held by the figure likely represents a monstrance, alluding to the golden monstrance in which the Riga relic was housed. The banner bearing a lily and the diminutive coat of arms with the same emblem at the count's feet may either signify the coat of arms of the early counts of Schwerin, featuring a lily flanked by two dragons, or the coat of arms of the cathedral chapter of Riga. The discovery of two distinct badges in Tallinn originating from different matrices suggests that the production of pilgrim souvenirs in Riga was likely quite prolific. It remains uncertain whether the relic of the Holy Cross also had its own badge or if metal badges were similarly crafted at other pilgrimage sites in Livonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) is a universal classroom-based program that promotes children's mental health. In Estonia, the intervention is delivered to first grade students (aged seven to eight) within the regular school curriculum. The current work describes a protocol for a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the PAX GBG conducted in Estonia. Design and methods: This is an ongoing, pragmatic, two-year, matched-pair, cluster-RCT conducted in Estonian elementary schools. Schools were matched to pairs based on their geographical location and number of students per classroom. One school in each pair was randomly selected to receive the intervention and the other placed on a wait-list as a control. 42 schools provided baseline data during the autumn of 2016. Data is collected at two more points in time – seven months and 19 months post-baseline. Outcomes of children's mental health and behavior are measured by the teacher- and parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, parent-rated Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham – IV Questionnaire and the Go/No-Go task completed by children. Teachers also rate their self-efficacy and overall classroom behavior. Discussion: This study aims to test the effectiveness of the intervention in Estonian classrooms with a newer version of the rigorously tested GBG program. To our knowledge, this study is the first to measure the effects of the intervention on children's inhibitory control, which has been associated with externalizing problems in the literature. The results from this trial will provide further understanding into how the program influences children's well-being and self-control. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov registry (NCT02865603).

Symmetric elliptical distributions have been intensively used in data modeling and robustness studies. The area of applications was considerably widened after transforming elliptical distributions into the skew elliptical ones that preserve several good properties of the corresponding symmetric distributions and increase possibilities of data modeling. We consider three-parameter p-variate skew t-distribution where p-vector μ is the location parameter, Σ:p×p is the positive definite scale parameter, p-vector α is the skewness or shape parameter, and the number of degrees of freedom ν is fixed. Special attention is paid to the two-parameter distribution when μ=0 that is useful for construction of the skew t-copula. Expressions of the parameters are presented through the moments and parameter estimates are found by the method of moments. Asymptotic normality is established for the estimators of Σ and α. Convergence to the asymptotic distributions is examined in simulation experiments.

This article evaluates the effects of two types of rewards (performance-contingent versus engagement-contingent) on self-regulation, intrinsic motivation and creativity. Forty-two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to three conditions; i.e. a performance-contingent reward group, an engagement-contingent reward group and a control group. Results provide little support for the negative effects of performance rewards on motivational components. However, they do indicate that participants in the engagement-contingent reward group and the control group achieved higher rated creativity than participants in the performance-contingent reward group. Alternative explanations for this finding are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)