Female economic dependence and the morality of promiscuity

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Author(s) 2014.In environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, male parental investment is more essential. In such environments, therefore, both sexes should value paternity certainty more and thus object more to promiscuity (because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty). We tested this theory of anti-promiscuity morality in two studies (N = 656 and N = 4,626) using U.S. samples. In both, we examined whether opposition to promiscuity was higher among people who perceived greater female economic dependence in their social network. In Study 2, we also tested whether economic indicators of female economic dependence (e.g., female income, welfare availability) predicted anti-promiscuity morality at the state level. Results from both studies supported the proposed theory. At the individual level, perceived female economic dependence explained significant variance in anti-promiscuity morality, even after controlling for variance explained by age, sex, religiosity, political conservatism, and the anti-promiscuity views of geographical neighbors. At the state level, median female income was strongly negatively related to anti-promiscuity morality and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived female economic dependence. These results were consistent with the view that anti-promiscuity beliefs may function to promote paternity certainty in circumstances where male parental investment is particularly important

How willing are you to accept sexual requests from slightly unattractive to exceptionally attractive imagined requestors?

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below.In their classic study of differences in mating strategies (Clark & Hatfield, 1989), men and women demonstrated a striking difference in interest in casual sex. The current study examined the role of requestor physical attractiveness (slightly unattractive, moderately attractive and exceptionally attractive) on men's and women's willingness to accept three different requests (go out, come to apartment, go to bed) in a questionnaire study. We tested two hypotheses, using a sample of 427 men and 443 women from three countries. Hypothesis 1 states that men, relative to women, will demonstrate a greater willingness to accept the “come to apartment” and “go to bed” requests but not the “go out” request for all three levels of requestor attractiveness. This hypothesis reflects Clark and Hatfield's (1989) main findings. Hypothesis 2 states that the physical attractiveness of a potential partner will have a greater effect on women's than on men's willingness to accept all three requests, and particularly for the explicit request for casual sex. The results partially supported Hypothesis 1 and fully supported Hypothesis 2. The discussion highlights limitations of the current research and presents directions for future research

Divided attention selectively impairs memory for self-relevant information

Information that is relevant to oneself tends to be remembered more than information that relates to other people, but the role of attention in eliciting this "self-reference effect" is unclear. In the present study, we assessed the importance of attention in self-referential encoding using an ownership paradigm, which required participants to encode items under conditions of imagined ownership by themselves or by another person. Previous work has established that this paradigm elicits a robust self-reference effect, with more "self-owned" items being remembered than "other-owned" items. Access to attentional resources was manipulated using divided-attention tasks at encoding. A significant self-reference effect emerged under full-attention conditions and was related to an increase in episodic recollection for self-owned items, but dividing attention eliminated this memory advantage. These findings are discussed in relation to the nature of self-referential cognition and the importance of attentional resources at encoding in the manifestation of the self-reference effect in memory

Rapidity and Centrality Dependence of Proton and Anti-proton Production from Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y|<0.5 and 0.35 <p_t<1.00GeV/c. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y|<0.5. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to PR

Issues of methods and interpretation in the National Cancer Institute formaldehyde cohort study

In 2004, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reclassified formaldehyde (FA) from a probable (Group 2A) to a known human carcinogen (Group 1) citing results for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) mortality from the follow-up through 1994 of the National Cancer Institute formaldehyde cohort study. To the contrary, in 2012, the Committee for Risk Assessment of the European Chemicals Agency disagreed with the proposal to classify FA as a known human carcinogen (Carc. 1A), proposing a lower but still protective category, namely as a substance which is presumed to have carcinogenic potential for humans (Carc. 1B). Thus, U.S. and European regulatory agencies currently disagree about the potential human carcinogenicity of FA. In 2013, the National Cancer Institute reported results from their follow-up through 2004 of the formaldehyde cohort and concluded that the results continue to suggest a link between FA exposure and NPC. We discuss in this commentary why we believe that this interpretation is neither consistent with the available data from the most recent update of the National Cancer Institute cohort study nor with other research findings from that cohort, other large cohort studies and the series of publications by some of the current authors, including an independent study of one of the National Cancer Institute's study plants. Another serious concern relates to the incorrectness of the data from the follow-up through 1994 of the National Cancer Institute study stemming from incomplete mortality ascertainment. While these data were corrected by the National Cancer Institute in subsequent supplemental publications, incorrect data from the original publications have been cited extensively in recent causal evaluations of FA, including IARC. We conclude that the NCI publications that contain incorrect data from the incomplete 1994 mortality follow-up should be retracted entirely or corrected via published errata in the corresponding journals, and efforts should be made to re-analyze data from the 2004 follow-up of the NCI cohort study. © 2014 Marsh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Combined T2 and diffusion-weighted MR Imaging with template prostate biopsies in men suspected with prostate cancer but negative transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsies

PURPOSE: Transperineal template prostate (TPB) biopsy has been shown to improve prostate cancer detection in men with rising PSA and previous negative TRUS biopsies. Diagnostic performance of this approach especially MR imaging and using reliable reference standard remains scantly reported. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 patients, who were previously TRUS biopsy negative, were recruited in this study. All the participants had at least 28-core TPB under general anesthetic within 8 weeks of previous negative TRUS biopsies. In 15 men undergoing laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, prostate specimens were sectioned using custom-made molds and analyzed by experienced pathologist as a feasibility study. RESULTS: In total, 120 of 200 patients (60 %) had positive TPB biopsy results. All of these men had at least one negative biopsy from transrectal route. T2 diffusion-weighted MR imaging showed no lesion in almost one-third of these men (61/200; 30.5 %). Out of these, 33 (33/61; 54 %) showed malignancy on TPB including high-grade tumors (>Gleason 7). Out of 15 patients underwent surgery with a total of 52 lesions (mean 3.5) on radical prostatectomy histology analyses, TPB detected 36 (70 %) lesions only. Some of these lesions were Gleason 7 and more mostly located in the posterior basal area of prostate. CONCLUSIONS: Transperineal template biopsy technique is associated with significantly high prostate cancer detection rate in men with previous negative TRUS biopsies, however compared to radical prostatectomy histology map, a significant number of lesions can still be missed in the posterior and basal area of prostate

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations at large transverse momenta in p+pp+p and Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}= 200 GeV

Results on high transverse momentum charged particle emission with respect to the reaction plane are presented for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$= 200 GeV. Two- and four-particle correlations results are presented as well as a comparison of azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions to those in $p+p$ at the same energy. Elliptic anisotropy, $v_2$, is found to reach its maximum at $p_t \sim 3$ GeV/c, then decrease slowly and remain significant up to $p_t\approx 7$ -- 10 GeV/c. Stronger suppression is found in the back-to-back high-$p_t$ particle correlations for particles emitted out-of-plane compared to those emitted in-plane. The centrality dependence of $v_2$ at intermediate $p_t$ is compared to simple models based on jet quenching.Comment: 4 figures. Published version as PRL 93, 252301 (2004

Azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV

The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow (v_1), elliptic flow (v_2), and the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution of particles from Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV are summarized and compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results for identified particles are presented and fit with a Blast Wave model. Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects are extracted from the data. For v_2, scaling with the number of constituent quarks and parton coalescence is discussed. For v_4, scaling with v_2^2 and quark coalescence is discussed.Comment: 26 pages. As accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Text rearranged, figures modified, but data the same. However, in Fig. 35 the hydro calculations are corrected in this version. The data tables are available at http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications/ by searching for "flow" and then this pape

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in the hard scattering regime at RHIC

Azimuthal anisotropy (v(2)) and two-particle angular correlations of high p(T) charged hadrons have been measured in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN) = 130 GeV for transverse momenta up to 6 GeV/c, where hard processes are expected to contribute significantly. The two-particle angular correlations exhibit elliptic flow and a structure suggestive of fragmentation of high p(T) partons. The monotonic rise of v(2)(p(T)) for p(T) 3 GeV/c, a saturation of v(2) is observed which persists up to p(T) = 6 GeV/c

Cross sections and transverse single-spin asymmetries in forward neutral-pion production from proton collisions at root s=200 GeV

Measurements of the production of forward high-energy pi(0) mesons from transversely polarized proton collisions at root200 GeV are reported. The cross section is generally consistent with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The analyzing power is small at x(F) below about 0.3, and becomes positive and large at higher x(F), similar to the trend in data at roots less than or equal to20 GeV. The analyzing power is in qualitative agreement with perturbative QCD model expectations. This is the first significant spin result seen for particles produced with p(T)>1 GeV/c at a polarized proton collider