Age Differences in the Desirability of Narcissism

Young adult narcissism has been the focus of much discussion in the personality literature and popular press. Yet no previous studies have addressed whether there are age differences in the relative desirability of narcissistic and non-narcissistic self-descriptions, such as those presented as answer choices on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979). In Study 1, younger age was associated with less negative evaluations of narcissistic (vs. non-narcissistic) statements in general, and more positive evaluations of narcissistic statements conveying leadership/authority. In Study 2, age was unrelated to perceiving a fictional target person as narcissistic, but younger age was associated with more positive connotations for targets described with narcissistic statements and less positive connotations for targets described with non-narcissistic statements, in terms of the inferences made about the target’s altruism, conscientiousness, social status, and self-esteem. In both studies, age differences in the relative desirability of narcissism remained statistically significant when adjusting for participants’ own narcissism, and the NPI showed measurement invariance across age. Despite perceiving narcissism similarly, adults of different ages view the desirability of NPI answer choices differently. These results are important when interpreting cross-generational differences in NPI scores, and can potentially facilitate cross-generational understanding

Collecting The World: Nature In Museums, Gardens and Art

My work explores the dynamic relationship between human representations of nature and the natural world. This investigation through the artwork The Perfect Specimen has as its scope a critique of the wholesale collection of nature and its presentation in museums of Natural History as this practice has evolved over the last two hundred years of European colonisation and industrialisation. This research has a particular focus on this history in an Australian context. The work examines these histories of collection in light of the global phenomena of extinction and concludes with a discussion of how contemporary museums of Natural History are responding to these environmental concerns. The artwork Resemblances explores a number of narratives that have come to be enmeshed in Western representations of nature over time. Individual works within this collection are titled, Field Guide, Fossil, Flower Arrangement, Blue Rose and Acanthus. These objects explore concepts of naturalism and empirical observation, social hierarchies and ideologies aligned with concepts of ‘objective truths’ in nature, floriculture, plant cultivation, genetic engineering, symbols and decorative uses of nature. The paper concludes with a discussion of the art practices of Brandon Ballengee, Jason Decaires-Taylor, Ken Yonetani and Fiona Hall

Retinal detachment post-phacoemulsification in Bichons Frises: A retrospective study of 54 dogs

Objective—To compare rates of retinal detachment (RD) post phacoemulsification in American Bichons Frises with and without prophylactic retinopexy. Procedures—Medical records of 54 Bichons Frises undergoing phacoemulsification with or without prophylactic retinopexy between 2003–2013 in one or both eyes were reviewed from five Midwestern university veterinary teaching hospitals. Inclusion criteria were pre-operative ERG, at least 6 months of follow up post phacoemulsification, and absence of pre-existing RD as determined by ophthalmic examination and/or ultrasound. Statistical analyses used chi-squared and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and Wilson confidence intervals with the p value Results—Phacoemulsification was performed without retinopexy in 79 eyes (42 dogs, non-PR group) and with prophylactic retinopexy in 23 eyes (12 dogs, PR group). Incidence of diabetes mellitus was 10/42 and 3/12 in the non-PR and the PR groups respectively (p=0.93). Intraocular lens implantation was performed in 40/42 non-PR dogs and 11/12 PR dogs, (p=0.63, 73/79 versus 21/23 eyes). At final re-examination, RD occurred in 4/79 eyes without retinopexy, compared to 0/23 RD in the retinopexy group. There was no statistically significant difference in RD rates between the two groups (p=0.27) Conclusions—These data provide no statistical evidence to support prophylactic retinopexy in Bichon Frises. Due to the low rate of retinal detachment following phacoemulsification without prophylactic retinopexy, the procedure appears to offer limited benefit to offset cost, procedural risk and risk of extended or repeated anesthesia in Bichons Frises

Environmental proteomics reveals taxonomic and functional changes in an enriched aquatic ecosystem

Aquatic ecosystem enrichment can lead to distinct and irreversible changes to undesirable states. Understanding changes in active microbial community function and composition following organic matter loading in enriched ecosystems can help identify biomarkers of such state changes. In a field experiment, we enriched replicate aquatic ecosystems in the pitchers of the northern pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea. Shotgun metaproteomics using a custom metagenomic database identified proteins, molecular pathways, and contributing microbial taxa that differentiated control ecosystems from those that were enriched. The number of microbial taxa contributing to protein expression was comparable between treatments; however, taxonomic evenness was higher in controls. Functionally active bacterial composition differed significantly among treatments and was more divergent in control pitchers than in enriched pitchers. Aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria contributed most to identified proteins in control and enriched ecosystems, respectively. The molecular pathways and contributing taxa in enriched pitcher ecosystems were similar to those found in larger enriched aquatic ecosystems and are consistent with microbial processes occurring at the base of detrital food webs. Detectable differences between protein profiles of enriched and control ecosystems suggest that a time series of environmental proteomics data may identify protein biomarkers of impending state changes to enriched states

A Search For Organic Molecules in Intermediate Redshift DLAs

There has been a renewed interest in searching for diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) due to their probable connection to organic molecules and, thus, their possible link to life in the Universe. Our group is undertaking an extensive search for DIBs in DLAs via QSO absorption-line systems. Six of our DLA targets are presented here. Our equivalent width (EW) limits for the 5780 DIB line strongly suggests that DIB abundance is below the Milky Way expected value or that metallicity plays a large role in DIB strengths.Comment: 3 pages; 2 figures; presented at IAU 199; Probing Galaxies through Quasar Absorption Line

The effect of galaxy mass ratio on merger--driven starbursts

We employ numerical simulations of galaxy mergers to explore the effect of galaxy mass ratio on merger--driven starbursts. Our numerical simulations include radiative cooling of gas, star formation, and stellar feedback to follow the interaction and merger of four disk galaxies. The galaxy models span a factor of 23 in total mass and are designed to be representative of typical galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the merger--driven star formation is a strong function of merger mass ratio, with very little, if any, induced star formation for large mass ratio mergers. We define a burst efficiency that is useful to characterize the merger--driven star formation and test that it is insensitive to uncertainties in the feedback parameterization. In accord with previous work we find that the burst efficiency depends on the structure of the primary galaxy. In particular, the presence of a massive stellar bulge stabilizes the disk and suppresses merger--driven star formation for large mass ratio mergers. Direct, co--planar merging orbits produce the largest tidal disturbance and yield that most intense burst of star formation. Contrary to naive expectations, a more compact distribution of gas or an increased gas fraction both decrease the burst efficiency. Owing to the efficient feedback model and the newer version of SPH employed here, the burst efficiencies of the mergers presented here are smaller than in previous studies.Comment: 26 pages, 21 figures, submitted to MNRA

Whole System Approach for Women Offenders - Final Evaluation Report

The evaluation has found that the WSA provides a good example of a gendered approach to supporting women in contact with the criminal justice system or at risk of offending and has been successful in responding to a number of its key aims. These include: creating opportunities to divert women from charge, court and custody; supporting women in ways which reduce their repeat criminalisation; and the provision of safe women-only spaces which can contribute to a reduction in the damage that involvement in the criminal justice system can have on women and their families. It is doing so by empowering women and improving their wellbeing and safety. Other key features of the approach include providing gender specific support to women across Greater Manchester, at all stages of the criminal justice system, based on multi-agency working, built around the network of women’s centres. This summary will now consider the evidence of impact against each of these aims in turn

Structural Variation among Wild and Industrial Strains of Penicillium chrysogenum

Strain selection and strain improvement are the first, and arguably most important, steps in the industrial production of biological compounds by microorganisms. While traditional methods of mutagenesis and selection have been effective in improving production of compounds at a commercial scale, the genetic changes underpinning the altered phenotypes have remained largely unclear. We utilized high-throughput Illumina short read sequencing of a wild Penicillium chrysogenum strain in order to make whole genome comparisons to a sequenced improved strain (WIS 54–1255). We developed an assembly-free method of identifying chromosomal rearrangements and validated the in silico predictions with a PCR-based assay and Sanger sequencing. Despite many rounds of mutagen treatment and artificial selection, WIS 54–1255 differs from its wild progenitor at only one of the identified rearrangements. We suggest that natural variants predisposed for high penicillin production were instrumental in the success of WIS 54–1255 as an industrial strain. In addition to finding a previously published inversion in the penicillin biosynthesis cluster, we located several genes related to penicillin production associated with these rearrangements. By comparing the configuration of rearrangement events among several historically important strains known to be high penicillin producers to a collection of recently isolated wild strains, we suggest that wild strains with rearrangements similar to those in known high penicillin producers may be viable candidates for further improvement efforts