11,549 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Ethnic minority business: policy and practice review
Part of a series produced to support a ESRC/CRE/DTI/emda workshop on ethnic minority entrepreneurship. This paper identifies the key problems in addressing racism and ethnicity in extant cross-governmental policy and practice relating to entrepreneurship
Female reproductive strategy predicts preferences for sexual dimorphism in male faces
The aim of the current studies was to test an assumption that variation in female preferences for sexually dimorphic male facial characteristics reflects strategic optimisation of investment in offspring. A negative relationship was predicted between ideal number of children and preferences for masculine male face shapes, as the benefits of securing paternal investment should outweigh the benefits of securing good genes as the costs of raising offspring increase. In Study 1 desired number of children and preferences for masculine face shapes were compared in a sample of female students. In study 2, the prediction was tested in a sample with a wider age profile while controlling for relationship status. Preferences for explicit partner characteristics were also assessed. The prediction was supported: women who desired a higher number of children preferred more feminine male face shapes and ranked cues to investment of parental care over cues to immunocompetence in a partner more highly than those who desired fewer children. Results indicate that female mate preferences vary with reproductive strategy and support assumptions that preferences for feminine male faces reflect preferences for âgood dadsâ
Honesty, social presence, and self-service in retail
Retail self-service checkouts (SCOs) can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff. Recent research indicates that the lack of presence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on dishonest user behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. Our hypotheses were partially supported by the results. We conclude that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study
Recommended from our members
The rule of law in the Islamic legal system
This presentation was given as part of the Islamic Law and International Law Conference 2011 by Irmgard Marboe from the University of Vienna. The conference was hosted by the Brunel Law School on the 9th September 2011
Discrete and surface solitons in photonic graphene nanoribbons
We analyze localization of light in honeycomb photonic lattices restricted in
one dimension which can be regarded as an optical analog of (``armchair'' and
``zigzag'') graphene nanoribbons. We find the conditions for the existence of
spatially localized states and discuss the effect of lattice topology on the
properties of discrete solitons excited inside the lattice and at its edges. In
particular, we discover a novel type of soliton bistability, the so-called
geometry-induced bistability, in the lattices of a finite extent.Comment: three double-column pages, 5 figures, submitted for publicatio
Optimizing photon indistinguishability in the emission from incoherently-excited semiconductor quantum dots
Most optical quantum devices require deterministic single-photon emitters.
Schemes so far demonstrated in the solid state imply an energy relaxation which
tends to spoil the coherent nature of the time evolution, and with it the
photon indistinguishability. We focus our theoretical investigation on
semiconductor quantum dots embedded in microcavities. Simple and general
relations are identified between the photon indistinguishability and the
collection efficiency. The identification of the key parameters and of their
interplay provides clear indications for the device optimization
Wild at Heart:-The Particle Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre
We treat of the high-energy astrophysics of the inner ~200 pc of the Galaxy.
Our modelling of this region shows that the supernovae exploding here every few
thousand years inject enough power to i) sustain the steady-state, in situ
population of cosmic rays (CRs) required to generate the region's non-thermal
radio and TeV {\gamma}-ray emis-sion; ii) drive a powerful wind that advects
non-thermal particles out of the inner GC; iii) supply the low-energy CRs whose
Coulombic collisions sustain the temperature and ionization rate of the
anomalously warm, envelope H2 detected throughout the Cen-tral Molecular Zone;
iv) accelerate the primary electrons which provide the extended, non-thermal
radio emission seen over ~150 pc scales above and below the plane (the Galactic
centre lobe); and v) accelerate the primary protons and heavier ions which,
advected to very large scales (up to ~10 kpc), generate the recently-identified
WMAP haze and corresponding Fermi haze/bubbles. Our modelling bounds the
average magnetic field amplitude in the inner few degrees of the Galaxy to the
range 60 < B/microG < 400 (at 2 sigma confidence) and shows that even TeV CRs
likely do not have time to penetrate into the cores of the region's dense
molecular clouds before the wind removes them from the region. This latter
finding apparently disfavours scenarios in which CRs - in this star-burst-like
environment - act to substantially modify the conditions of star-formation. We
speculate that the wind we identify plays a crucial role in advecting
low-energy positrons from the Galactic nucleus into the bulge, thereby
explaining the extended morphology of the 511 keV line emission. (abridged)Comment: One figure corrected. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 29 pages, 14
figure
Challenging Racist Violence and Racist Hostility in 'Post-Racial' Times: Research and Action in Leeds, UK, 2006-2012
YesDespite increasing understanding of, information about and official commitment to challenge these patterns, racist hostility and violence continue to have an enduring presence in urban and rural life in the UK. This indicates the paradoxical nature of this racial crisis and challenges for antiracism as a political project. This paper charts how these issues play out at the local level through an examination of a five year process from problem identification through to research, response, action and aftermath from 2006 to 2012 in the city of Leeds, UK, with a focus on two predominantly white working class social housing estates in the city. We explore how embedded tensions and antagonisms can begin to be challenged, while examining how the contemporary climate of austerity and cuts in services, together with prevailing post-racial thinking, make the likelihood of such concerted action in the UK increasingly remote
- âŠ