The enigma of facial asymmetry:is there a gender specific pattern of facedness?

Although facial symmetry correlates with facial attractiveness, human faces are often far from symmetrical with one side frequently being larger than the other (Kowner, 1998). Smith (2000) reported that male and female faces were asymmetrical in opposite directions, with males having a larger area on the left side compared to the right side, and females having a larger right side compared to the left side. The present study attempted to replicate and extend this finding. Two databases of facial images from Stirling and St Andrews Universities, consisting of 180 and 122 faces respectively, and a third set of 62 faces collected at Abertay University, were used to examine Smith's findings. Smith's unique method of calculating the size of each hemiface was applied to each set. For the Stirling and St Andrews sets a computer program did this automatically and for the Abertay set it was done manually. No significant overall effect of gender on facial area asymmetry was found. However, the St Andrews sample demonstrated a similar effect to that found by Smith, with females having a significantly larger mean area of right hemiface and males having a larger left hemiface. In addition, for the Abertay faces handedness had a significant effect on facial asymmetry with right-handers having a larger left side of the face. These findings give limited support for Smith's results but also suggest that finding such an asymmetry may depend on some as yet unidentified factors inherent in some methods of image collection

Shared liking and association valence for representational art but not abstract art

This is the authors' accepted version of an article published in Journal of Vision, 2015. The article, together with supplementary information, is available at http://jov.arvojournals.org/Article.aspx?articleid=2278788We examined the finding that aesthetic evaluations are more similar across observers for representational images than for abstract images. It has been proposed that a difference in convergence of observers' tastes is due to differing levels of shared semantic associations (Vessel & Rubin, 2010). In Experiment 1, student participants rated 20 representational and 20 abstract artworks. We found that their judgments were more similar for representational than abstract artworks. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding, and also found that valence ratings given to associations and meanings provided in response to the artworks converged more across observers for representational than for abstract art. Our empirical work provides insight into processes that may underlie the observation that taste for representational art is shared across individual observers, while taste for abstract art is more idiosyncratic

Student voice and engagement: connecting through partnership

This paper draws on research conducted across an English higher education partnership to investigate the ways in which student voice was engaged in further education colleges offering university awards through partnership arrangements. Such collaborations are characterised by the marginal presence of higher education students in an environment that is dominated by further education structures, culture and practice. This provides challenges for both colleges and universities in developing higher education student identity and appropriate mechanisms of student engagement that comply with expectations within the higher education sector but also recognise the contextual situation of students within the college environment. It is argued that student partnership collaboration can be a positive driver in an increasingly marketised global environment, where student voice and feedback mechanisms are at the forefront of quality assessments and institutional reputation. An ideal types framework is suggested as a heuristic device for the evaluation of college strategies of engagement.TFA

Greater cross-viewer similarity of semantic associations for representational than for abstract artworks

Journal article. Available as gold open access via the URL given.It has been shown previously that liking and valence of associations in response to artworks show greater convergence across viewers for representational than for abstract artwork. The current research explored whether the same applies to the semantic content of the associations. We used data gained with an adapted Unique Corporate Association Valence (UCAV) measure, which invited 24 participants to give short verbal responses to 11 abstract and 11 representational artworks. We paired the responses randomly to responses given to the same artwork, and computed semantic similarity scores using UMBC Ebiquity software. This showed significantly greater semantic similarity scores for representational than abstract art. A control analysis, in which responses were randomly paired with responses from the same category (abstract, representational) showed no significant results, ruling out a baseline effect. For both abstract and representational artworks, randomly paired responses resembled each other less than responses from the same artworks, but the effect was much larger for representational artworks. Our work shows that individuals share semantic associations in response to artworks with other viewers to a greater extent when the artwork is representational than abstract. Our novel method shows potential utility for many areas of psychology that aim to understand the semantic convergence of people’s verbal responses, not least aesthetic psychology.University of Chester internal grant partly funded work towards this article

Measuring kinetic coefficients by molecular dynamics simulation of zone melting

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to measure the kinetic coefficient at the solid-liquid interface in pure gold. Results are obtained for the (111), (100) and (110) orientations. Both Au(100) and Au(110) are in reasonable agreement with the law proposed for collision-limited growth. For Au(111), stacking fault domains form, as first reported by Burke, Broughton and Gilmer [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 89}, 1030 (1988)]. The consequence on the kinetics of this interface is dramatic: the measured kinetic coefficient is three times smaller than that predicted by collision-limited growth. Finally, crystallization and melting are found to be always asymmetrical but here again the effect is much more pronounced for the (111) orientation.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures (for fig. 8 : [email protected]). Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Key actors leading knowledge brokerage for sustainable school improvement with PLCs:Who brokers what?

This study investigated knowledge brokerage key actors, in schools that realized sustainable school improvement through professional learning communities (PLCs). To gain insight into what knowledge key actors brokered and how they brokered knowledge, key actors at five secondary schools that worked sustainably with PLCs participated in an in-depth mixed-method study. The findings showed what types of knowledge were brokered and through what activities, what characteristics of key actors were important for knowledge brokerage, and how key actors fit different profiles. These insights can help schools improve their knowledge brokerage as they work towards sustainable school improvement

Shared liking and association valence for representational art but not abstract art

We examined the finding that aesthetic evaluations are more similar across observers for representational images than for abstract images. It has been proposed that a difference in convergence of observers' tastes is due to differing levels of shared semantic association

Women in the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pumps industry

Over 15 million people are employed worldwide in the refrigeration sector, which means that almost 5 workers out of 1000 have a job linked to the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and servicing of refrigeration equipment. The need for engineering and technical staff is currently increasing due to the growing demand for refrigerating capabilities, along with the unique skills required from refrigeration-related professions in the field of energy and environment. Women are significantly and visibly under-represented in the refrigeration industry. The preliminary evaluation demonstrated that 6.13% of women are members of national refrigeration associations/organizations/institutions. This paper is an update of the IIR preliminary state-of-the-art of women in the refrigeration field collected from national RACHP institutions and associations. It focuses also on new national, regional and international incentives to promote refrigeration to the younger generation including minority groups such women/girls

Improving well-being in Higher Education: Adopting a compassionate approach

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a chapter published in the 'Values of the University in a Time of Uncertainty'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15970-2_18Peer reviewe