Effects of Foraging Related Stimuli on OLM (Object Location Memory) and Perceptual Search in the Hunter-Gatherer Theory

The hunter-gatherer theory suggests that a division of labor existed in early human settlements whereby men were predominantly hunters and women were predominantly gatherers. Support for this theory has come from the observation that females tend to perform better on tasks concerning object location memory, a skill required for successful gathering. We tested the hunter-gatherer theory through two experiments: (1) an OLM (object location memory) task where males and females were required to encode and recall the locations of animals, fruit, and neutral stimuli; and (2) a perceptual search task where males and females were required to search for either a fruit or an animal in an array of items. With OLM, we found the usual female advantage for neutral stimuli, but this difference was abolished with animal and fruit stimuli. The perceptual search task found no significant gender differences. These results therefore provide only partial support for the hunter gatherer theory

New views of the spherical Bouguer gravity anomaly

This paper presents a number of new concepts concerning the gravity anomaly. First, it identifies a distinct difference between a surface (2-D) gravity anomaly (the difference between actual gravity on one surface and normal gravity on another surface) and a solid (3-D) gravity anomaly defined in the fundamental gravimetric equation. Second, it introduces the 'no topography' gravity anomaly (which turns out to be the complete spherical Bouguer anomaly) as a means to generate a quantity that is smooth, thus suitable for gridding, and harmonic, thus suitable for downward continuation. It is understood that the possibility of downward continuing a smooth gravity anomaly would simplify the task of computing an accurate geoid. It is also shown that the planar Bouguer anomaly is not harmonic, and thus cannot be downward continued

Flight Investigation of a Normal-Acceleration Automatic Longitudinal Control System in a Fighter Airplane

A flight investigation was made to obtain experimental information on the handling qualities of a normal-acceleration type of automatic longitudinal control system. The control system was installed in a subsonic fighter-type airplane. In hands-off (stick-free) flight the normal-acceleration control system attempted to regulate the normal acceleration to a constant value which is dependent on the automatic-control-system trim setting. In maneuvering flight a given pilot's stick deflection produced a proportional change in normal acceleration, the change in acceleration being independent of flight condition. A small side-located controller stick was used by the pilot to introduce signals into the automatic control system. In the flight program emphasis was placed on the acceleration-limiting capabilities of the control system. The handling qualities were investigated in maneuvers such as slow and rapid pull-ups and turns and also in flight operations such as cruising, stalls, landings, aerobatics, and air-to-air tracking. Good acceleration limiting was obtained with the normal-acceleration control system by limiting the magnitude of the input signal that the pilot could introduce into the control system. The same values of control-system gain settings could be used from an acceleration-limiting stand-point at both 10,000 and 30,000 feet for the complete speed range of the airplane. The response characteristics of the airplane-control system combination were also satisfactory at both high and low altitude with these same values of control-system gain setting. In the pilot's opinion, the normal-acceleration control system provided good stability and control characteristics in flight operations such as cruising, stalls, landings, aerobatics, and air-to-air tracking

Prevalence of overweight in 2 to 17 year-old children and adolescents whose parents live separately: a Nordic cross-sectional study

Background Comparative data of parental separation and childhood overweight has not been available before across the Nordic countries. The aim of this study was to examine the within-country prevalence and association between parental cohabitation and overweight in Nordic children. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 2-17-year-old children was conducted in 2011, titled: “NordChild”. A random sample of 3,200 parents in each of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden were invited to participate in the study with parents of 6,609 children accepting to give answers about their children’s health and welfare including information on height and weight of each child and parental cohabitation (response rate 41.5%). The group differences in prevalence and adjusted odds ratio (OR) for overweight, with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were performed in children whose parents lived separately. Additionally, a missing data analysis was performed to determine whether the adjusted estimates might result from confounding or selection bias. Results A significant difference was observed in Iceland between children whose parents live separately compared to those who live with both parents (difference: 9.4%, 95% CI: 2.8; 15.9) but no such difference was observed in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. No significant odds of overweight were observed in children whose parents lived separately compared to children in normal weight at the time of study; Denmark: OR 1.03 (95% CI: 0.42; 2.53), Finland: OR 1.27 (95% CI: 0.74; 2.20), Iceland: OR 1.50 (95% CI: 0.79; 2.84), Norway: OR 1.46 (95% CI: 0.81; 2.62), and Sweden: 1.07 (95% CI: 0.61; 1.86). The missing data analysis indicated that the findings in Norway, Finland and Iceland were partly observed due to selection effects, whereas the adjustment in Denmark was due to confounding. The crude OR for overweight was higher in the 2-9-year-old group than in the 10-17-year-old group whose parents lived separately in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Conclusions No association between parental cohabitation and overweight in Nordic children was found. Our finding of greater prevalence of overweight in Icelandic children whose parents live separately may be an indication that the welfare system in Iceland is separating from the other Nordic countries

FuSSI-Net: Fusion of Spatio-temporal Skeletons for Intention Prediction Network

Pedestrian intention recognition is very important to develop robust and safe autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) functionalities for urban driving. In this work, we develop an end-to-end pedestrian intention framework that performs well on day- and night- time scenarios. Our framework relies on objection detection bounding boxes combined with skeletal features of human pose. We study early, late, and combined (early and late) fusion mechanisms to exploit the skeletal features and reduce false positives as well to improve the intention prediction performance. The early fusion mechanism results in AP of 0.89 and precision/recall of 0.79/0.89 for pedestrian intention classification. Furthermore, we propose three new metrics to properly evaluate the pedestrian intention systems. Under these new evaluation metrics for the intention prediction, the proposed end-to-end network offers accurate pedestrian intention up to half a second ahead of the actual risky maneuver.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, IEEE Asilomar SS

Globalisation masculinities, empire building and forced prostitution: a critical analysis of the gendered impact of the neoliberal economic agenda in post-invasion/occupation Iraq

Adopting a transnational feminist lens and using a political economy approach, this article addresses both the direct and indirect consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq, specifically the impact on civilian women. Pre-war security and gender relations in Iraq will be compared with the situation post-invasion/occupation. The article examines the globalised processes of capitalism, neoliberalism and neo-colonialism and their impact on the political, social and economic infrastructure in Iraq. Particular attention will be paid to illicit and informal economies: coping, combat and criminal. The 2003 Iraq war was fought using masculinities of empire, post-colonialism and neoliberalism. Using the example of forced prostitution, the article will argue that these globalisation masculinities – specifically the privatisation agenda of the West and its illegal economic occupation – have resulted in women either being forced into the illicit (coping) economy as a means of survival, or trafficked for sexual slavery by profit-seeking criminal networks who exploit the informal economy in a post-invasion/occupation Iraq

Revisiting Ruddick: Feminism, pacifism and non-violence

This article explores feminist contentions over pacifism and non-violence in the contextof the Greenham Common Peace Camp in the 1980s and later developments offeminist Just War Theory. We argue that Sara Ruddick’s work puts feminist pacifism, its radical feminist critics and feminist just war theory equally into question. Although Ruddick does not resolve the contestations within feminism over peace, violence and the questions of war, she offers a productive way of holding the tension between them. In our judgment, her work is helpful not only for developing a feminist political response to the threats and temptations of violent strategies but also for thinking through the question of the relation between violence and politics as such