Insecurity and Self-Esteem: Elucidating the Psychological Foundations of Negative Attitudes toward Women

Political scientists recognize discriminatory attitudes as key to understanding a range of political preferences. Sexism is associated with both explicitly and non-explicitly gendered attitudes. But why do certain individuals display discriminatory attitudes, while others do not? Drawing from psychology, we examine the potential power of an underexplored set of personality traits—secure versus fragile self-esteem—in explaining gendered attitudes and preferences. With an online sample of (N = 487) U.S.-based participants, we find that fragile self-esteem is an important trait underlying individuals’ attitudes: individuals who display a discordant view of self—explicitly positive but implicitly negative—are more likely to hold hostile sexist attitudes and prefer men in leadership; these individuals are also more likely to support the Republican Party and former U.S. president Donald Trump. While present in only a fraction of the population, our results suggest that this trait may be important for understanding the development of discriminatory attitudes toward out-groups

Measurements of greenhouse gases and related tracers at Bialystok tall tower station in Poland

Quasi-continuous, in-situ measurements of atmospheric CO2, O2/N2, CH4, CO, N2O, and SF6 have been performed since August 2005 at the tall tower station near Bialystok, in Eastern Poland, from five heights up to 300 m. Besides the in-situ measurements, flask samples are filled approximately weekly and measured at Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry for the same species and, in addition, for H2, Ar/N2 and the stable isotopes 13C and 18O in CO2. The in-situ measurement system was built based on commercially available analysers: a LiCor 7000 for CO2, a Sable Systems "Oxzilla" FC-2 for O2, and an Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph for CH4, CO, N2O and SF6. The system was optimized to run continuously with very little maintenance and to fulfill the precision requirements of the CHIOTTO project. The O2/N2 measurements in particular required special attention in terms of technical setup and quality assurance. The evaluation of the performance after more than three years of operation gave overall satisfactory results, proving that this setup is suitable for long term remote operation with little maintenance. The precision achieved for all species is within or close to the project requirements. The comparison between the in-situ and flask sample results, used to verify the accuracy of the in-situ measurements, showed no significant difference for CO2, O2/N2, CH4 and N2O, and a very small difference for SF6. The same comparison however revealed a statistically significant difference for CO, of about 6.5 ppb, for which the cause could not be fully explained. From more than three years of data, the main features at Bialystok have been characterized in terms of variability, trends, and seasonal and diurnal variations. CO2 and O2/N2 show large short term variability, and large diurnal signals during the warm seasons, which attenuate with the increase of sampling height. The trends calculated from this dataset, over the period August 2005 to December 2008, are 2.02±0.46 ppm/year for CO2 and -23.2±2.5 per meg/year for O2/N2. CH4, CO and N2O show also higher variability at the lower sampling levels, which in the case of CO is strongly seasonal. Diurnal variations in CH4, CO and N2O mole fractions can be observed during the warm season, due to the periodicity of vertical mixing combined with the diurnal cycle of anthropogenic emissions. We calculated increase rates of 10.1±4.4 ppb/year for CH4, (-8.3)±5.3 ppb/year for CO and 0.67±0.08 ppb/year for N2O. SF6 shows only few events, and generally no vertical gradients, which suggests that there are no significant local sources. A weak SF6 seasonal cycle has been detected, which most probably is due to the seasonality of atmospheric circulation. SF6 increased during the time of our measurement at an average rate of 0.29±0.01 ppt/year

In-situ measurements of oxygen, carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases from Ochsenkopf tall tower in Germany

We present 2.5 years (from June 2006 to December 2008) of in-situ measurements of CO2, O2, CH4, CO, N2O and SF6 mixing ratios sampled from 23, 90 and 163m above ground on the Ochsenkopf tower in the Fichtelgebirge range, Germany (50?0104900 N, 11?4803000 E, 1022ma.s.l.). In addition to the in-situ measurements, flask samples are taken at Ochsenkopf at approximately weekly intervals and are subsequently analysed for the mixing ratios of the same species, as well as H2, and the stable isotopes, ?13C, ?18O in CO2. The in-situ measurements of CO2 and O2 from 23m show substantial diurnal variations that are modulated by biospheric fluxes, combustion of fossil fuels, and by diurnal changes in the planetary boundary layer height. Measurements from 163m exhibit only very weak diurnal variability, as this height (1185ma.s.l.) is generally above the nocturnal boundary layer. CH4, CO, N2O and SF6 show little diurnal variation even at 23m owing to the absence of any significant diurnal change in the fluxes and the absence of any strong local sources or sinks. From the in-situ record, the seasonal cycles of the gas species have been characterized and the multi-annual trends determined. Because the record is short, the calculation of the trend is sensitive to inter-annual variations in the amplitudes of the seasonal cycles. However, for CH4 a significant change in the growth-rate was detected for 2006.5–2008.5 as compared with the global mean from 1999 to 2006 and is consistent with other recent observations of a renewed increasing global growth rate in CH4 since the beginning of 2007

Ipl1/aurora kinase suppresses S-CDK-driven spindle formation during prophase I to ensure chromosome integrity during meiosis

Cells coordinate spindle formation with DNA repair and morphological modifications to chromosomes prior to their segregation to prevent cell division with damaged chromosomes. Here we uncover a novel and unexpected role for Aurora kinase in preventing the formation of spindles by Clb5-CDK (S-CDK) during meiotic prophase I and when the DDR is active in budding yeast. This is critical since S-CDK is essential for replication during premeiotic S-phase as well as double-strand break induction that facilitates meiotic recombination and, ultimately, chromosome segregation. Furthermore, we find that depletion of Cdc5 polo kinase activity delays spindle formation in DDR-arrested cells and that ectopic expression of Cdc5 in prophase I enhances spindle formation, when Ipl1 is depleted. Our findings establish a new paradigm for Aurora kinase function in both negative and positive regulation of spindle dynamics

Combustion in thermonuclear supernova explosions

Type Ia supernovae are associated with thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars. Combustion processes convert material in nuclear reactions and release the energy required to explode the stars. At the same time, they produce the radioactive species that power radiation and give rise to the formation of the observables. Therefore, the physical mechanism of the combustion processes, as reviewed here, is the key to understand these astrophysical events. Theory establishes two distinct modes of propagation for combustion fronts: subsonic deflagrations and supersonic detonations. Both are assumed to play an important role in thermonuclear supernovae. The physical nature and theoretical models of deflagrations and detonations are discussed together with numerical implementations. A particular challenge arises due to the wide range of spatial scales involved in these phenomena. Neither the combustion waves nor their interaction with fluid flow and instabilities can be directly resolved in simulations. Substantial modeling effort is required to consistently capture such effects and the corresponding techniques are discussed in detail. They form the basis of modern multidimensional hydrodynamical simulations of thermonuclear supernova explosions. The problem of deflagration-to-detonation transitions in thermonuclear supernova explosions is briefly mentioned.Comment: Author version of chapter for 'Handbook of Supernovae,' edited by A. Alsabti and P. Murdin, Springer. 24 pages, 4 figure

Evaluating Effects of Divided Hemispheric Processing on Word Recognition in Foveal and Extrafoveal Displays: The Evidence from Arabic

Background: Previous studies have claimed that a precise split at the vertical midline of each fovea causes all words to the left and right of fixation to project to the opposite, contralateral hemisphere, and this division in hemispheric processing has considerable consequences for foveal word recognition. However, research in this area is dominated by the use of stimuli from Latinate languages, which may induce specific effects on performance. Consequently, we report two experiments using stimuli from a fundamentally different, non-Latinate language (Arabic) that offers an alternative way of revealing effects of split-foveal processing, if they exist. Methods and Findings: Words (and pseudowords) were presented to the left or right of fixation, either close to fixation and entirely within foveal vision, or further from fixation and entirely within extrafoveal vision. Fixation location and stimulus presentations were carefully controlled using an eye-tracker linked to a fixation-contingent display. To assess word recognition, Experiment 1 used the Reicher-Wheeler task and Experiment 2 used the lexical decision task. Results: Performance in both experiments indicated a functional division in hemispheric processing for words in extrafoveal locations (in recognition accuracy in Experiment 1 and in reaction times and error rates in Experiment 2) but no such division for words in foveal locations. Conclusions: These findings from a non-Latinate language provide new evidence that although a functional division i

Dynamics of direct inter-pack encounters in endangered African wild dogs

Aggressive encounters may have important life history consequences due to the potential for injury and death, disease transmission, dispersal opportunities or exclusion from key areas of the home range. Despite this, little is known of their detailed dynamics, mainly due to the difficulties of directly observing encounters in detail. Here, we describe detailed spatial dynamics of inter-pack encounters in African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), using data from custom-built high-resolution GPS collars in 11 free-ranging packs. On average, each pack encountered another pack approximately every 7 weeks and met each neighbour twice each year. Surprisingly, intruders were more likely to win encounters (winning 78.6% of encounters by remaining closer to the site in the short term). However, intruders did tend to move farther than residents toward their own range core in the short-term (1 h) post-encounter, and if this were used to indicate losing an encounter, then the majority (73.3%) of encounters were won by residents. Surprisingly, relative pack size had little effect on encounter outcome, and injuries were rare (<15% of encounters). These results highlight the difficulty of remotely scoring encounters involving mobile participants away from static defendable food resources. Although inter-pack range overlap was reduced following an encounter, encounter outcome did not seem to drive this, as both packs shifted their ranges post-encounter. Our results indicate that inter-pack encounters may be lower risk than previously suggested and do not appear to influence long-term movement and ranging