Do Bad Boys Finish First? An Investigation of a Lay Theory of Heterosexual Women\u27s Mate Preferences

The notion that heterosexual women are romantically interested in “bad boys” is a pervasive lay theory of close relationships in U.S. culture. The current research investigated women’s perceptions of bad boys and individual differences in their romantic interest in bad boys. Three studies recruited heterosexual female participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. Study 1 asked participants to rate their associations of a list of trait adjectives with the bad boy and other prototypes (the “hero,” “nice guy,” and “loser”). Paired comparisons indicated that supportiveness and social dominance traits discriminated among prototypes. Study 2 asked participants to rate their romantic interest in profiles derived from these traits and multilevel models revealed that greater trait attachment anxiety predicted more interest in less supportive prototypes (i.e., bad boy and loser), greater trait attachment avoidance predicted less interest in the ideal prototype (i.e., hero), and associations with self-esteem, sociosexual orientation, and menstrual cycle phase differed by type of interest (sexual or relationship). Study 3 asked participants to complete attachment primes and rate the same profiles. Multilevel models indicated that the avoidant prime decreased sexual interest in supportive prototypes (the hero and nice guy) relative to other primes, while the anxious prime increased relationship interest in socially dominant prototypes (the hero and bad boy) relative to the avoidant prime; however, these results were qualified by trait attachment. The research provides evidence that women’s individual differences relate to less-than-ideal mate choice and that alterations in their state of mind can influence their choices as well

Desirable ICT Graduate Attributes: Theory vs. Practice

The majority of ICT graduates must begin their careers by successfully fulfilling the requirements advertised within online recruitment sites. Although considerable research into employer requirements is commonly undertaken when preparing curricula, studies investigating how well the graduate attributes on which curricula are based match those required by employers have been limited in terms of the techniques used. This study employs an innovative approach of analyzing online ICT employment advertisements in Australia and the United States to determine the key attributes sought by ICT employers, together with the most commonly required skill groupings. A position-based wrapper system was developed to extract the advertisement data, which was then analyzed using a text mining package. The results are benchmarked against those from standard ICT curricula produced by academic and professional bodies. The findings suggest that employers place greatest emphasis upon experience and technological skills; although current curricula meet these requirements, their emphases warrant revision. There also appear to be differences between professional body curricula and the ISCC ’99 curriculum which was produced by industry and academia, with the latter appearing to match employment market demands more closely

Resilience of a eucalypt forest woody understorey to long-term (34–55 years) repeated burning in subtropical Australia

We investigated the effects of annual burning since 1952, triennial burning since 1973, fire exclusion since 1946 and infrequent wildfire (one fire in 61 years) on woody understorey vegetation in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest, south-eastern Queensland, Australia. We determined the influence of these treatments, and other site variables (rainfall, understorey density, topsoil C : N ratio, tree basal area, distance to watercourse and burn coverage) on plant taxa density, richness and composition. The richness of woody understorey taxa 0–1 m in height was not affected by burning treatments, but richness of woody plants 1–7.5 m in height was lower in the annually burnt treatment than in the triennially burnt treatment from 1989 to 2007. Fire frequency and other site variables explained 34% of the variation in taxa composition (three taxon groups and 10 species), of which 33% of the explained variance was explained by fire treatment and 46% was explained by other site variables. Annual burning between 1974 and 1993 was associated with lower understorey densities mainly due to reduced densities of eucalypts 1–7.5 m in height. Triennial burning during the same period was associated with higher densities of eucalypts 0–7.5 m in height relative to the annually burnt and unburnt treatments. Most woody taxa persisted in the frequently burnt treatments through resprouting mechanisms (e.g. lignotuberous regeneration), and fire patchiness associated with low-intensity burning was also found to be important. Persistence of plants <1 m tall demonstrates the resilience of woody taxa to repeated burning in this ecosystem, although they mainly exist in a suppressed growth state under annual burning

The Implementation of an Automated Assessment Feedback and Quality Assurance System for ICT Courses

Providing detailed, constructive and helpful feedback is an important contribution to effective student learning. Quality assurance is also required to ensure consistency across all students and reduce error rates. However, with increasing workloads and student numbers these goals are becoming more difficult to achieve. An automated feedback system, referred to as the Automated Feedback Generator (AFG), has therefore been designed and developed with the aim of providing superior quality assurance and efficiency in both assessing student assignments and providing feedback. Unlike existing automated marking and feedback software, AFG aims to allow educators to perform the entire process of student feedback generation for any assessment type. The AFG system is investigated across two introductory ICT courses: general ICT and programming. The aim is to demonstrate that AFG provides a more effective means for providing student feedback than alternative manual and automated approaches. This is achieved by comparing AFG with these alternatives and demonstrating that it offers quality control, efficiency and effectiveness benefits whilst generating consistent feedback from a student perspective. An empirical approach is employed using attitudinal data. T tests are used to test hypotheses comparing three feedback generation approaches: AFG, manual and a more complex automated approach. The results show that feedback from AFG was perceived to be constructive, helpful and with error levels less than or equal to those for other course feedback approaches; students also found feedback to be consistent with that produced by the more complex alternatives

Trunk muscle activation during movement with a new exercise device for lumbo‐pelvic reconditioning

Gravitational unloading leads to adaptations of the human body, including the spine and its adjacent structures, making it more vulnerable to injury and pain. The Functional Re‐adaptive Exercise Device (FRED) has been developed to activate the deep spinal muscles, lumbar multifidus (LM) and transversus abdominis (TrA), that provide inter‐segmental control and spinal protection. The FRED provides an unstable base of support and combines weight bearing in up‐right posture with side alternating, elliptical leg movements, without any resistance to movement. The present study investigated the activation of LM, TrA, obliquus externus (OE), obliquus internus (OI), abdominis, and erector spinae (ES) during FRED exercise using intramuscular fine‐wire and surface EMG. Nine healthy male volunteers (27 ± 5 years) have been recruited for the study. FRED exercise was compared with treadmill walking. It was confirmed that LM and TrA were continually active during FRED exercise. Compared with walking, FRED exercise resulted in similar mean activation of LM and TrA, less activation of OE, OI, ES, and greater variability of lumbo‐pelvic muscle activation patterns between individual FRED/gait cycles. These data suggest that FRED continuously engages LM and TrA, and therefore, has the potential as a stationary exercise device to train these muscles

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Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30245/1/0000640.pd

Effects of a six-week exercise intervention on function, pain and lumbar multifidus muscle cross-sectional area in chronic low back pain: A proof-of-concept study

Introduction Exercise with the Functional Re-adaptive Exercise Device (FRED) has previously been shown to activate the lumbar multifidus (LM) and transversus abdominis (TrA) muscles in non-symptomatic volunteers. This study aimed to determine the effects of a six-week FRED exercise intervention on pain intensity, patient-reported function and LM cross sectional area (CSA) in people with chronic non-specific low back pain (LBP). Methods Thirteen participants undertook six weeks of FRED exercise for up to 15 min, three times per week. At six weeks pre-, immediately pre-, immediately post-, and six and 15 weeks post-intervention, participants completed the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, Patient-Specific Functional Scale, and ultrasound imaging was used to assess the size of the LM muscles at L5 level. Changes in outcomes were assessed using effect size, confidence intervals and minimum clinically important difference (MCID). Results There was no improvement in pain intensity following the intervention. Patient-reported function improved by at least twice the MCID for all follow-up assessments compared to immediately pre-intervention (d = 4.20–6.58). Lumbar multifidus CSA showed a large effect size increase from immediately pre-intervention to immediately post-intervention (d = 0.8–1.1); this was maintained at six weeks post-intervention (not measured at 15 weeks post-intervention). Conclusion Six weeks of FRED exercise improved physical function in all 13 participants with chronic non-specific LBP who took part in this study and most participants' lumbar multifidus muscle CSA. On this basis, it may be an effective intervention for people with chronic LBP and should now be tested in a randomised controlled trial