Political Attitudes Develop Independently of Personality Traits

The primary assumption within the recent personality and political orientations literature is that personality traits cause people to develop political attitudes. In contrast, research relying on traditional psychological and developmental theories suggests the relationship between most personality dimensions and political orientations are either not significant or weak. Research from behavioral genetics suggests the covariance between personality and political preferences is not causal, but due to a common, latent genetic factor that mutually influences both. The contradictory assumptions and findings from these research streams have yet to be resolved. This is in part due to the reliance on cross-sectional data and the lack of longitudinal genetically informative data. Here, using two independent longitudinal genetically informative samples, we examine the joint development of personality traits and attitude dimensions to explore the underlying causal mechanisms that drive the relationship between these features and provide a first step in resolving the causal question. We find change in personality over a ten-year period does not predict change in political attitudes, which does not support a causal relationship between personality traits and political attitudes as is frequently assumed. Rather, political attitudes are often more stable than the key personality traits assumed to be predicting them. Finally, the results from our genetic models find that no additional variance is accounted for by the causal pathway from personality traits to political attitudes. Our findings remain consistent with the original construction of the five-factor model of personality and developmental theories on attitude formation, but challenge recent work in this area

Effect of ambient temperature during acute aerobic exercise on short-term appetite, energy intake, and plasma acylated ghrelin in recreationally active males

Ambient temperature during exercise may affect energy intake regulation. Compared with a temperate (20 °C) environment, 1 h of running followed by 6 h of rest tended to decrease energy intake from 2 ad libitum meals in a hot (30 °C) environment but increase energy intake in a cool (10 °C) environment (p = 0.08). Core temperature changes did not appear to mediate this trend; whether acylated ghrelin is involved is unclear. Further research is warranted to clarify these findings

Could you have said no ? A mixed-methods investigation of consent to HIV tests in four African countries

Introduction: Although most studies report high frequencies of consent to HIV tests, critics argue that clients are subject to pressure, that acceptors later indicate they could not have refused, and that provider-initiated HIV testing raises serious ethical issues. We examine the meaning of consent and why clients think they could not have refused. Methods: Clients in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda were asked about consenting to HIV tests, whether they thought they could have refused and why. Textual responses were analyzed using qualitative and statistical methods. Results: Among 926 respondents, 77% reported they could not have said no, but in fact, 60% actively consented to test, 24% had no objection and only 7% tested without consent. There were few significant associations between categories of consent and their covariates. Conclusions: Retrospectively asking clients if they could have refused to test for HIV overestimates coercion. Triangulating qualitative and quantitative data suggests a considerable degree of agency

Moving beyond the ‘language problem': developing an understanding of the intersections of health, language and immigration status in interpreter-mediated health encounters

Health systems internationally are dealing with greater diversity in patient populations. However the focus on ‘the language problem’ has meant little attention is paid to diversity within and between migrant populations; and how interpreted consultations are influenced by intersecting migratory, ethnicity and sociodemographic variables. Our analysis of the experiences of patients, health care providers and interpreters in Scotland evidences the need to move beyond language, addressing multiple hidden inequalities in health care access and provision that operate in both clinic and, especially, home-based settings. We call for a practice-evidenced research agenda promoting cultural communication across health care and home settings, acknowledging immigration status as a social determinant of health. Sur le plan international, des systèmes de santé font face à une diversité croissante dans ses populations de patients. Cependant, l’accent sur ‘le problème de langue’ se traduit dans une manque d’attention à la diversité a l’intérieur même et entre des populations des migrants; et la façon par laquelle des variables migratoire, ethnique et sociodémographique influencent elles-mêmes des consultations interprétées. Notre analyse des expériences des patients, des professionnels fournissant de soins de santé et des interprètes offre des preuves du besoin de dépasser le problème de langue. Et en faisant cela, nous adressons des multiples inégalités, souvent cachées dans des contextes de soins de santé, dans les milieux clinique et domicile. Nous proposons un programme de recherche basé sur la pratique, qui favorise la communication culturelle dans des milieux clinique et domicile, et qui reconnait le statut d’immigration comme un déterminant social de la santé

The Epigenetics of Emerging and Nonmodel Organisms

Genetic model organisms have gifted researchers with a breathtakingly detailed understanding of the most intimate aspects of their genomes, cells, and development. And yet there is a problem—model organisms have been selected because they have simple life histories and happily inhabit laboratories. In short, they make a virtue of being boring. But the diversity of the natural world is not fully captured by yeast, flies, or mice. To truly appreciate the variety of biological mechanisms underlying this remarkable diversity, one must study the often inconvenient but fascinating non model organism. Experimental and descriptive approaches in non model organisms have become more tractable with reduced genome-sequencing costs and the transferability of techniques and tools developed in model organisms, elevating some of them from non-model to emerging model organism status

Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon

Collisions between birds and airplanes can damage aircrafts, resulting in delays and cancellation of flights, costing the international civil aviation industry more than 1.4 billion US dollars annually. Driving away birds is therefore crucial, but the effectiveness of current deterrence methods is limited. Live avian predators can be an effective deterrent, because potential prey will not habituate to them, but live predators cannot be controlled entirely. Thus, there is an urgent need for new deterrence methods. We developed the RobotFalcon, a device modelled after the peregrine falcon, and tested its effectiveness to deter flocks of corvids, gulls, starlings and lapwings. We compared its effectiveness with that of a drone, and of conventional methods routinely applied at a military airbase. The RobotFalcon scared away bird flocks from fields immediately, and these fields subsequently remained free of bird flocks for hours. The RobotFalcon outperformed the drone and the best conventional method at the airbase (distress calls). Importantly, there was no evidence that bird flocks habituated to the RobotFalcon over the course of the fieldwork. We conclude that the RobotFalcon is a practical and ethical solution to drive away bird flocks with all advantages of live predators but without their limitations

Fluctuations and correlations in an individual-based model of biological coevolution

We extend our study of a simple model of biological coevolution to its statistical properties. Staring with a complete description in terms of a master equation, we provide its relation to the deterministic evolution equations used in previous investigations. The stationary states of the mutationless model are generally well approximated by Gaussian distributions, so that the fluctuations and correlations of the populations can be computed analytically. Several specific cases are studied by Monte Carlo simulations, and there is excellent agreement between the data and the theoretical predictions.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

Fetching marked items from an unsorted database in NMR ensemble computing

Searching a marked item or several marked items from an unsorted database is a very difficult mathematical problem. Using classical computer, it requires $O(N=2^n)$ steps to find the target. Using a quantum computer, Grover's algorithm uses $O(\sqrt{N=2^n})$ steps. In NMR ensemble computing, Brushweiler's algorithm uses $\log N$ steps. In this Letter, we propose an algorithm that fetches marked items in an unsorted database directly. It requires only a single query. It can find a single marked item or multiple number of items.Comment: 4 pages and 1 figur

Self-Similar Scalar Field Collapse: Naked Singularities and Critical Behaviour

Homothetic scalar field collapse is considered in this article. By making a suitable choice of variables the equations are reduced to an autonomous system. Then using a combination of numerical and analytic techniques it is shown that there are two classes of solutions. The first consists of solutions with a non-singular origin in which the scalar field collapses and disperses again. There is a singularity at one point of these solutions, however it is not visible to observers at finite radius. The second class of solutions includes both black holes and naked singularities with a critical evolution (which is neither) interpolating between these two extremes. The properties of these solutions are discussed in detail. The paper also contains some speculation about the significance of self-similarity in recent numerical studies.Comment: 27 pages including 5 encapsulated postcript figures in separate compressed file, report NCL94-TP1