2,304 research outputs found
The usual suspects: How psychological motives and thinking styles predict the endorsement of well-known and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs
The usual suspects: How psychological motives and thinking styles predict the endorsement of well-known and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs
Research on belief in conspiracy theories identified many predictors but often failed to investigate them together. In the present study, we tested how the most important predictors of beliefs in conspiracy theories explain endorsing COVIDâ19 and nonâCOVIDâ19 conspiracy theories and conspiracy mentality. Apart from these three measures of conspiratorial thinking, participants (NÂ =Â 354) completed several measures of epistemic, existential, and social psychological motives, as well as cognitive processing variables. While many predictors had significant correlations, only three consistently explained conspiratorial beliefs when included in one model: higher spirituality (specifically ecoâawareness factor), higher narcissism, and lower analytical thinking. Compared to the other two conspiratorial measures, predictors less explained belief in COVIDâ19 conspiracy theories, but this depended on items' content. We conclude that the same predictors apply to belief in both COVID and nonâCOVID conspiracies and identify New Age spirituality as an important contributor to such beliefs
On the stability of Dirac sheet configurations
Using cooling for SU(2) lattice configurations, purely Abelian constant
magnetic field configurations were left over after the annihilation of
constituents that formed metastable Q=0 configurations. These so-called Dirac
sheet configurations were found to be stable if emerging from the confined
phase, close to the deconfinement phase transition, provided their Polyakov
loop was sufficiently non-trivial. Here we show how this is related to the
notion of marginal stability of the appropriate constant magnetic field
configurations. We find a perfect agreement between the analytic prediction for
the dependence of stability on the value of the Polyakov loop (the holonomy) in
a finite volume and the numerical results studied on a finite lattice in the
context of the Dirac sheet configurations
Reasoning about actions meets strategic logics (LORI 2013)
International audienceWe introduce ATLEA, a novel extension of Alternating-time Temporal Logic with explicit actions in the object language. ATLEA allows to reason about abilities of agents under commitments to play certain actions. Pre- and postconditions as well as availability and unavailability of actions can be expressed. We show that the multiagent extension of Reiterâs solution to the frame problem can be encoded into ATLEA. We also consider an epistemic extension of ATLEA. We demonstrate that the resulting logic is sufficiently expressive to reason about uniform choices of actions. Complexity results for the satisfiability problem of ATLEA and its epistemic extension are given in the paper
Morphology and Composition of the Helix Nebula
We present new narrow-band filter imagery in H-alpha and [N II] 6584 along
with UV and optical spectrophotometry measurements from 1200 to 9600 Angstroms
of NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula, a nearby, photogenic planetary nebula of large
diameter and low surface brightness. Detailed models of the observable ionized
nebula support the recent claim that the Helix is actually a flattened disk
whose thickness is roughly one-third its diameter with an inner region
containing hot, highly ionized gas which is generally invisible in narrow-band
images. The outer visible ring structure is of lower ionization and temperature
and is brighter because of a thickening in the disk. We also confirm a central
star effective temperature and luminosity of 120,000K and 100L_sun, and we
estimate a lower limit to the nebular mass to be 0.30M_sun. Abundance
measurements indicate the following values: He/H=0.12 (+/-0.017),
O/H=4.60x10^-4 (+/-0.18), C/O=0.87 (+/-0.12), N/O=0.54 (+/-0.14), Ne/O=0.33
(+/-0.04), S/O=3.22x10^-3 (+/-0.26), and Ar/O=6.74x10^-3 (+/-0.76). Our carbon
abundance measurements represent the first of their kind for the Helix Nebula.
The S/O ratio which we derive is anomalously low; such values are found in only
a few other planetary nebulae. The central star properties, the super-solar
values of He/H and N/O, and a solar level of C/O are consistent with a 6.5M_sun
progenitor which underwent three phases of dredge-up and hot bottom burning
before forming the planetary nebula.Comment: 50-page manuscript plus 11 postscript figures. This revised version
corrects a typo in earlier submission. Nothing else has changed. Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Complexity and Expressivity of Branching- and Alternating-Time Temporal Logics with Finitely Many Variables
We show that Branching-time temporal logics CTL and CTL*, as well as
Alternating-time temporal logics ATL and ATL*, are as semantically expressive
in the language with a single propositional variable as they are in the full
language, i.e., with an unlimited supply of propositional variables. It follows
that satisfiability for CTL, as well as for ATL, with a single variable is
EXPTIME-complete, while satisfiability for CTL*, as well as for ATL*, with a
single variable is 2EXPTIME-complete,--i.e., for these logics, the
satisfiability for formulas with only one variable is as hard as satisfiability
for arbitrary formulas.Comment: Prefinal version of the published pape
Test of the CLAS12 RICH large scale prototype in the direct proximity focusing configuration
A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector has been designed to provide
clean hadron identification capability in the momentum range from 3 GeV/c up to
8 GeV/c for the CLAS12 experiments at the upgraded 12 GeV continuous electron
beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Laboratory. The adopted solution
foresees a novel hybrid optics design based on aerogel radiator, composite
mirrors and high-packed and high-segmented photon detectors. Cherenkov light
will either be imaged directly (forward tracks) or after two mirror reflections
(large angle tracks). We report here the results of the tests of a large scale
prototype of the RICH detector performed with the hadron beam of the CERN T9
experimental hall for the direct detection configuration. The tests
demonstrated that the proposed design provides the required pion-to-kaon
rejection factor of 1:500 in the whole momentum range.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figures, to appear on EPJ
The role of PCOS in mental health and sexual function in women with obesity and a history of infertility
STUDY QUESTION: Do mental health and sexual function differ between women with or without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with comparable BMI and fertility characteristics? SUMMARY ANSWER: Women with PCOS have a poorer mental quality of life than women without PCOS, but there were no differences in symptoms of depression, anxiety, physical quality of life or sexual function. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Various studies suggest that women with PCOS have poorer mental health, such as higher symptoms of anxiety and depression with a lower quality of life, and have an impaired sexual function compared to women without PCOS. However, in most studies, BMI and infertility status differ between women with and without PCOS, which may hamper comparability. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This study is a cross-sectional analysis of a 5-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) among women with obesity and a history of infertility. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Participants in this follow-up study of an RCT were women with obesity and infertility randomized to a lifestyle intervention followed by infertility treatment or prompt infertility treatment (control), stratified by ovulatory status and trial centre. In total, 173 (30.0%) women of the 577 women randomized in the initial trial participated in this follow-up study, with a mean follow-up of 5.5 years (range 3.7â7.0 years); of these women 73 had been diagnosed with PCOS and 100 did not have PCOS. Participants completed questionnaires on symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS)), quality of life (36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)) and sexual function (McCoy Female Sexuality Questionnaire (MFSQ)). We also compared quality of life subscale scores in women with and without PCOS and compared them to an age-matched Dutch reference population with average BMI. Effect sizes were calculated to assess the differences. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Symptoms of anxiety and depression, physical quality of life and sexual function did not differ significantly between obese women with and without PCOS. However, women with PCOS had a worse mental quality of life summary component score (â3.60 [95% CI â6.72 to â0.56]), mainly due to a lower score on the subscale ârole limitations due to emotional problemsâ (â12.41 [95% CI â22.78 to â2.28]), compared to women without PCOS. However, compared to an age-matched Dutch reference population, the obese infertile women with and without PCOS both scored lower on almost all physical and mental quality of life subscales. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: These are secondary analyses of the follow-up study of the RCT. No power analysis was performed for the outcomes included in this analysis and, as our study had a relatively small sample size, the null findings could be based on insufficient power to detect small differences between the groups. Our study population had a high mean BMI (average total group 34.5 [SD ± 5.1]); therefore, our results may only be generalizable to women with obesity. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Our results indicate that PCOS status is associated with impaired mental quality of life. Anxiety and depression, physical quality of life and sexual function in obese infertile women with PCOS seem more related to the obesity than the PCOS status. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): The initial study and follow-up were supported by grants from: ZonMw (50-50110-96-518), the Dutch Heart Foundation (2013T085) and the European Commission (633595). The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the UMCG received an unrestricted educational grant from Ferring pharmaceuticals BV, The Netherlands, outside the submitted work. A.H. reports consultancy for Ferring pharmaceuticals. B.W.J.M. is supported by an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship (GNT1082548). B.W.J.M. reports consultancy for ObsEva, Merck Merck KGaA, iGenomix and Guerbet. All other authors declare no competing interests. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The initial trial was registered on 16 November 2008 in the Dutch trial register; clinical trial registry number NTR1530
Probing for Instanton Quarks with epsilon-Cooling
We use epsilon-cooling, adjusting at will the order a^2 corrections to the
lattice action, to study the parameter space of instantons in the background of
non-trivial holonomy and to determine the presence and nature of constituents
with fractional topological charge at finite and zero temperature for SU(2). As
an additional tool, zero temperature configurations were generated from those
at finite temperature with well-separated constituents. This is achieved by
"adiabatically" adjusting the anisotropic coupling used to implement finite
temperature on a symmetric lattice. The action and topological charge density,
as well as the Polyakov loop and chiral zero-modes are used to analyse these
configurations. We also show how cooling histories themselves can reveal the
presence of constituents with fractional topological charge. We comment on the
interpretation of recent fermion zero-mode studies for thermalized ensembles at
small temperatures.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures in 33 part
Beam-Normal Single Spin Asymmetry in Elastic Electron Scattering off Si and Zr
We report on a new measurement of the beam-normal single spin asymmetry
in the elastic scattering of 570 MeV transversely polarized
electrons off Si and Zr at . The
studied kinematics allow for a comprehensive comparison with former results on
C. No significant mass dependence of the beam-normal single spin
asymmetry is observed in the mass regime from C to Zr.Comment: Submitted for publication to Physics Letters
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