Examining the relationship between parent/carer's attitudes, beliefs and their child's future participation in physics

Despite girls enjoying and being good at physics, the proportion of girls studying physics and going into physics related careers still lags behind that of boys. A large volume of research exists on the factors related to the uptake of girls into physics, however little research looks at the link between parents and their child’s physics uptake. Research shows that children’s attitudes towards physics correlate strongly with their parents’ attitudes, but more research is needed. The evidence presented here moves the research forward by modelling a number of parental attitudes and background characteristics to establish the strength of association with their child participating in physics in the future. It also develops validated scales for use with parents and suggestions for interventions to establish causality. 2,049 parents and carers of 13/14 year old children in England completed the survey. The findings indicate that parents who enjoyed physics, consider physics useful for getting a job and judge their child as academic, have the strongest associations with their child’s future participation in physics. Other key variables include the parent valuing physics, the parent attending school outside of the UK, the child being a boy and parents judging daughters as courageous and/or determined

The Flare-dominated Accretion Mode of a Radio-bright Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsar

© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We report new simultaneous X-ray and radio continuum observations of 3FGL J0427.9-6704, a candidate member of the enigmatic class of transitional millisecond pulsars. These XMM-Newton and Australia Telescope Compact Array observations of this nearly edge-on, eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary were taken in the sub-luminous disk state at an X-ray luminosity of erg s-1. Unlike the few well-studied transitional millisecond pulsars, which spend most of their disk state in a characteristic high or low accretion mode with occasional flares, 3FGL J0427.9-6704 stayed in the flare mode for the entire X-ray observation of ∼20 hr, with the brightest flares reaching ∼2 × 1034 erg s-1. The source continuously exhibited flaring activity on timescales of ∼10-100 s in both the X-ray and optical/ultraviolet (UV). No measurable time delay between the X-ray and optical/UV flares is observed, but the optical/UV flares last longer, and the relative amplitudes of the X-ray and optical/UV flares show a large scatter. The X-ray spectrum can be well-fit with a partially absorbed power law (Γ ∼ 1.4-1.5), perhaps due to the edge-on viewing angle. Modestly variable radio continuum emission is present at all epochs, and is not eclipsed by the secondary, consistent with the presence of a steady radio outflow or jet. The simultaneous radio/X-ray luminosity ratio of 3FGL J0427.9-6704 is higher than any known transitional millisecond pulsars and comparable to that of stellar-mass black holes of the same X-ray luminosity, providing additional evidence that some neutron stars can be as radio-loud as black holes

Evaluating the Resilience of Face Recognition Systems Against Malicious Attacks

This paper presents an experiment designed to test the resilience of several user verification systems based on face recognition technology against simple identity spoofing methods, such as trying to gain access to the system by using mobile camera shots of the users, their ID cards, or social media photos of them that are available online. We also aim at identifying the compression threshold above which a photo can be used to gain access to the system. Four major user verification tools were tested: Keyemon and Luxand Blink on Windows and Android Face Unlock and FaceLock on Android. The results show all tested systems to be vulnerable to even very crude attacks, indicating that the technology is not ready yet for adoption in applications where security rather than user convenience is the main concern

Wildlife in the line of fire: evaluating the stress physiology of a critically endangered Australian marsupial after bushfire

Australian native fauna are thought to be well adapted to fire-prone landscapes, but bushfires may still pose considerable challenges or stressors to wildlife. We investigated the impact of bushfire on the stress physiology of the woylie (brush-tailed bettong, Bettongia penicillata) a critically endangered Australian marsupial, and assessed whether fitness indices (body condition and parasite load) influenced stress physiology before and after the fire. We hypothesised that there would be a significant change in stress physiology indicators (in the form of faecal cortisol metabolites, FCM) following the fire, compared with the months previous. We trapped woylies (n≤19) at Whiteman Park Reserve in Perth, Western Australia, two days after a major bushfire and measured FCM concentration by enzyme immunoassay. Population-level comparisons of FCM were made between these samples and those collected in previous months (n≤58). While mean FCM varied by month of sample collection, it was not higher after the fire. We suggest that woylies may be able to maintain homeostasis through change (allostasis), at least in the period immediately after the fire. This is supported by our finding that FCM did not relate significantly to body condition or parasite load. Our results potentially highlight the physiological and behavioural adaptations of woylies to fire, which could be further explored in future studie

Providing nicotine replacement therapy in focus groups

In many research studies, tobacco users are asked to forgo tobacco during study appointments to avoid interrupting study sessions with breaks or disrupting research flow and efficiency. Although onset of withdrawal varies according to levels of nicotine dependence, symptoms commonly begin within 30 minutes of abstinence

Evaluating stress physiology and parasite infection parameters in the translocation of critically endangered woylies (Bettongia penicillata)

Translocation can be stressful for wildlife. Stress may be important in fauna translocation because it has been suggested that it can exacerbate the impact of infectious disease on translocated wildlife. However, few studies explore this hypothesis by measuring stress physiology and infection indices in parallel during wildlife translocations. We analysed faecal cortisol metabolite (FCM) concentration and endoparasite parameters (nematodes, coccidians and haemoparasites) in a critically endangered marsupial, the woylie (Bettongia penicillata), 1–3 months prior to translocation, at translocation, and 6 months later. FCM for both translocated and resident woylies was significantly higher after translocation compared to before or at translocation. In addition, body condition decreased with increasing FCM after translocation. These patterns in host condition and physiology may be indicative of translocation stress or stress associated with factors independent of the translocation. Parasite factors also influenced FCM in translocated woylies. When haemoparasites were detected, there was a significant negative relationship between strongyle egg count and FCM. This may reflect the influence of glucocorticoids on the immune response to micro- and macro-parasites. Our results indicate that host physiology and infection patterns can change significantly during translocation, but further investigation is required to determine how these patterns influence translocation success

Preparation of non-aqueous Pickering emulsions using anisotropic block copolymer nanoparticles

In this work, we show that amphiphilic diblock copolymer worms prepared via alcoholic RAFT dispersion polymerization can be used to stabilize non-aqueous Pickering emulsions. A previously reported synthesis protocol based on polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) was modified to enable the preparation of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PDMA-PBzMA) worm-like particles directly in methanol at relatively high solids. A dilute dispersion of these highly anisotropic nanoparticles was then homogenized with sunflower oil to produce sunflower oil-in-methanol emulsions. The mean droplet diameter ranged from 9 to 104 μm, depending on the nanoparticle concentration and the stirring rate used for homogenization. The sunflower oil content was increased systematically, with stable emulsions being obtained up to a volume fraction of 0.60. In all cases, the sunflower oil droplets gradually increase in size on ageing for up to 4 days. However, stable emulsions were obtained after this time period, with no further change in the mean droplet diameter for at least 2 months on standing at ambient temperature. Turbidimetry studies of the continuous phase after sedimentation of the relatively dense emulsion droplets indicated that the initial adsorption efficiency of the PDMA-PBzMA worms is very high, but this is reduced significantly as the droplet diameter gradually increases during ageing. There is a concomitant increase in fractional surface coverage over the same time period, suggesting that the increase in droplet diameter is the result of limited coalescence, rather than an Ostwald ripening mechanism

Chiral Behaviour of the Rho Meson in Lattice QCD

In order to guide the extrapolation of the mass of the rho meson calculated in lattice QCD with dynamical fermions, we study the contributions to its self-energy which vary most rapidly as the quark mass approaches zero; from the processes $\rho \to \omega \pi$ and $\rho \to \pi \pi$. It turns out that in analysing the most recent data from CP-PACS it is crucial to estimate the self-energy from $\rho \to \pi \pi$ using the same grid of discrete momenta as included implicitly in the lattice simulation. The correction associated with the continuum, infinite volume limit can then be found by calculating the corresponding integrals exactly. Our error analysis suggests that a factor of 10 improvement in statistics at the lowest quark mass for which data currently exists would allow one to determine the physical rho mass to within 5%. Finally, our analysis throws new light on a long-standing problem with the J-parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. Full analytic forms of the self-energies are included and a correction in the omega-pi self-energ

`In pursuit of the Nazi mind?' the deployment of psychoanalysis in the allied struggle against Germany

This paper discusses how psychoanalytic ideas were brought to bear in the Allied struggle against the Third Reich and explores some of the claims that were made about this endeavour. It shows how a variety of studies of Fascist psychopathology, centred on the concept of superego, were mobilized in military intelligence, post-war planning and policy recommendations for ‘denazification’. Freud's ideas were sometimes championed by particular army doctors and government planners; at other times they were combined with, or displaced by, competing, psychiatric and psychological forms of treatment and diverse studies of the Fascist ‘personality’. This is illustrated through a discussion of the treatment and interpretation of the deputy leader of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, after his arrival in Britain in 1941

Biogeochemistry of manganese in ferruginous Lake Matano, Indonesia

This study explores Mn biogeochemistry in a stratified, ferruginous lake, a modern analogue to ferruginous oceans. Intense Mn cycling occurs in the chemocline where Mn is recycled at least 15 times before sedimentation. The product of biologically catalyzed Mn oxidation in Lake Matano is birnessite. Although there is evidence for abiotic Mn reduction with Fe(II), Mn reduction likely occurs through a variety of pathways. The flux of Fe(II) is insufficient to balance the reduction of Mn at 125 m depth in the water column, and Mn reduction could be a significant contributor to CH<sub>4</sub> oxidation. By combining results from synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence and X-ray spectroscopy, extractions of sinking particles, and reaction transport modeling, we find the kinetics of Mn reduction in the lake's reducing waters are sufficiently rapid to preclude the deposition of Mn oxides from the water column to the sediments underlying ferruginous water. This has strong implications for the interpretation of the sedimentary Mn record