Conjunctions of social categories considered from different points of view

Conjunctions of divergent social categories may elicit emergent attributes to render the composite concept more coherent. Following Kunda, Miller & Clare, (1990) participants listed and rated attributes for people who belong to unexpected conjunctions of social categories. In order to explore the flexibility in such constructions, they were also asked to adopt the point of view of a person in one of the two categories. Experiment 1 found that when adopting the point of view of one constituent category, people tended to combine the concepts antagonistically, meaning that they attributed to members of the conjunction the more negative aspects of the opposing category. Experiment 2 showed that this polarizing effect was reduced when the point of view category was itself unusual. Strong gender stereotype differences were also found in the degree to which combinations were antagonistic. Female stereotypes as points of view generated a greater degree of integration in the conceptual combination

Establishing blood gas ranges in healthy bovine neonates differentiated by age, sex, and breed type

peer-reviewedCalf mortality and morbidity commonly occurs within the first month of life postpartum. Standard health ranges are invaluable aids in diagnostic veterinary medicine to confirm normal or the degree and nature of abnormal parameters in (sub)clinically ill animals. Extensive research has indicated significant differences between the physiologies of neonate and adult cattle, particularly for blood parameters such as pH, base excess, anion gap, and bicarbonate (HCO3−). The objective of this research was to determine the influence of age, sex, and breed type, in addition to environmental factors, on the normal blood gas profiles of neonatal calves, and thus develop a scientifically validated reference range accounting for any significant factors. The study was conducted on healthy neonatal calves (n = 288), and completed over a 2-yr period. Individual calf blood gas analysis was conducted for parameters of pH, base excess, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl−, glucose, total hemoglobin, HCO3−, pCO2, anion gap, strong ion difference, and hematocrit levels. Regression procedures examined the combined effect of year, farm, age, breed type, sex, and hours postfeeding on each variable. Significant effects were observed for age, sex, and breed type on several of the blood gas variables. Furthermore, year, farm, and hours postfeeding appeared to have less of an influence on neonatal bovine blood gas profiles. Consequently, specific ranges based on the neonate's age, sex, and breed type will allow for more detailed and accurate diagnosis of health and ill health in neonatal calves

Modelling soil erosion and transport in the Burrishoole catchment, Newport, Co. Mayo, Ireland

The Burrishoole catchment is situated in County Mayo, on the northwest coast of the Republic of Ireland. Much of the catchment is covered by blanket peat that, in many areas, has become heavily eroded in recent years. This is thought to be due, primarily, to the adverse effects of forestry and agricultural activities in the area. Such activities include ploughing, drainage, the planting and harvesting of trees, and sheep farming, all of which are potentially damaging to such a sensitive landscape if not managed carefully. This article examines the sediment yield and hydrology of the Burrishoole catchment. Flow and sediment concentrations were measured at 8-hourly intervals from 5 February 2001 to 8 November 2001 with an automatic sampler and separate flow gauge, and hourly averages were recorded between 4 July 2002 and 6 September 2002 using an automatic river monitoring system [ARMS]. The authors describe the GIS-based model of soil erosion and transport that was applied to the Burrishoole catchment during this study. The results of these analyses were compared, in a qualitative manner, with the aerial photography available for the Burrishoole catchment to see whether areas that were predicted to contribute large proportions of eroded material to the drainage network corresponded with areas where peat erosion could be identified through photo-interpretation

Refractory times for excitable dual state quantum dot laser neurons

Excitable photonic systems show promise for ultrafast analog computation, several orders of magnitude faster than biological neurons. Optically injected quantum dot lasers display several excitable mechanisms with dual state quantum lasers recently emerging as true all or none excitable artificial neurons. For use in applications, deterministic triggering is necessary and this has previously been demonstrated in the literature. In this work we analyse the crucially important \emph{refractory time} for this dual state system, which defines the minimum possible time between distinct pulses in any excitable pulse train. Ultrashort times on the order of 1~ns are obtained suggesting potential use where ultrafast analog computing is desired