Getting Ahead Versus Getting Along : Examining the Role of Agency and Communion in Prejudice

The topic of prejudice has been extensively studied by psychologists, but there has been no work directly examining whether agency (“getting ahead”) and communion (“getting along”) influence prejudiced attitudes. Across three studies we examined whether these dimensions differentially motivate prejudiced attitudes towards immigrants and Syrian refugees. We expected that agency would positively predict prejudice for those low in communion but not for those high in communion and that a self-threat would amplify this effect. Additionally, we examined unmitigated agency (focus on agency to the exclusion of communion, distinct from high agency and low communion as separate factors) as it has been linked to other problem behaviours (Helegson, 1999). In Study 1, inconsistent with our predictions, we found that high agency or low communion may motivate prejudice towards immigrants. In Study 2 and 3 we examined whether a co-operation focus (balance of agency and communion) or competition focus (strong agency, lack of communion) predicted prejudice towards Syrian refugees. We found some evidence that a focus on co-operation could reduce the positive relation between unmitigated agency and negative attitudes towards Syrian refugees. We did not find any consistent evidence supporting our main predictions with the addition of a self-threat in Study 3. Across all three studies, our most consistent finding was that unmitigated agency was positively associated with prejudice and predictors of prejudice established in past research. Overall, our findings did not yield consistent evidence that agency and communion motivate prejudice, and instead suggest that unmitigated agency may be a distinctly motivating factor for prejudice

An Odontometric Study of Mediaeval Danes

In the present study, and examination was made of tooth size in medieval Danish skulls excavated at two sites (Aebelholt and Naestved) on the island of Sjaelland (Zealand)

The Dentition of Early Scottish Races

The object of the present work was to study the teeth and jaws of prehistoric Scottish skulls, and to evaluate such differences as might exist between the races who inhabited Scotland from the Neolithic period to Mediaeval times. A brief description has been given of the archaeological features of the different periods, with particular reference to the burial customs of the various races. The anthropological features by which these races may be distinguished have also been described. The main part of the work consisted of an odontometrical study of the Scottish material. A preliminary survey has been made of previous studies of tooth measurements in various different races. The methods used in the present study for measurement of teeth have been described in detail, and an account has also been given of the method used in statistical preparation of the results. The material fell into four main groups - Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Mediaeval. The first three of these groups were each subdivided into two sections. In dealing with the results of tooth measurement, the main groups were first discussed separately, and the sections were compared. An analysis of sex differences within each main group was also made. Too little material was available in the Neolithic group for differences in tooth size between the Western and Northern subgroups to be apparent. The few measurements obtained from the teeth of females were with one exception smaller than the mean measurements of the male teeth. This finding could not be subjected to statistical evaluation, but may be suggestive. The Bronze Age group contained sufficient material to permit a fairly complete statistical comparison to be made between Southern and Northern subgroups. As far as tooth size was concerned, these subgroups appeared to form a homogeneous population. This agrees with the current anthropological opinion. No sex difference could be observed in Bronze Age teeth, and in a number of instances, the mean diameters of the teeth of the females were even found to exceed those of the males. There appeared to be some differences between the Long Cist and Viking subgroups of the Iron Age population, and these were most clearly marked in the males. Unfortunately, the quantity of Viking material was too small to allow more than tentative conclusions to be drawn from these results. In the Iron Age group there was a distinct sex difference in tooth size, the teeth of the males always being larger than the corresponding teeth of the females. The sex differences were found to be most highly significant for the canines of both jaws. The Mediaeval group was not subdivided on archaeological grounds. Since there were no known female skulls in this group, no sex comparison could be made. Sufficient material was available in the Bronze Age and Iron Age groups to permit a statistical comparison of the tooth measure ments to be carried out. Unsexed material was excluded from this comparison. In general, Bronze Age teeth were found to be larger in both dimensions than those of Iron Age individuals. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Measurement-induced entanglement transitions in many-body localized systems

The resilience of quantum entanglement to a classicality-inducing environment is tied to fundamental aspects of quantum many-body systems. The dynamics of entanglement has recently been studied in the context of measurement-induced entanglement transitions, where the steady-state entanglement collapses from a volume law to an area law at a critical measurement probability pc. Interestingly, there is a distinction in the value of pc depending on how well the underlying unitary dynamics scramble quantum information. For strongly chaotic systems, pc > 0, whereas for weakly chaotic systems, such as integrable models, pc = 0. In this work, we investigate these measurement-induced entanglement transitions in a system where the underlying unitary dynamics are many-body localized (MBL). We demonstrate that the emergent integrability in an MBL system implies a qualitative difference in the nature of the measurement-induced transition depending on the measurement basis, with pc > 0 when the measurement basis is scrambled and pc = 0 when it is not. This feature is not found in Haar-random circuit models, where all local operators are scrambled in time. When the transition occurs at pc > 0, we use finite-size scaling to obtain the critical exponent ν = 1.3(2), close to the value for (2+0)-dimensional percolation. We also find a dynamical critical exponent of z = 0.98(4) and logarithmic scaling of the Rényi entropies at criticality, suggesting an underlying conformal symmetry at the critical point. This work further demonstrates how the nature of the measurement-induced entanglement transition depends on the scrambling nature of the underlying unitary dynamics. This leads to further questions on the control and simulation of entangled quantum states by measurements in open quantum systems

Measurement-induced criticality and entanglement clusters: A study of one-dimensional and two-dimensional Clifford circuits

Entanglement transitions in quantum dynamics present a novel class of phase transitions in nonequilibrium systems. When a many-body quantum system undergoes unitary evolution interspersed with monitored random measurements, the steady state can exhibit a phase transition between volume- and area-law entanglement. There is a correspondence between measurement-induced transitions in nonunitary quantum circuits in d spatial dimensions and classical statistical mechanical models in d + 1 dimensions. In certain limits these models map to percolation, but there is analytical and numerical evidence to suggest that away from these limits the universality class should generically be distinct from percolation. Intriguingly, despite these arguments, numerics on 1 + 1 D qubit circuits give bulk exponents which are nonetheless close to those of 2D percolation, with some possible differences in surface behavior. In the first part of this work we explore the critical properties of 2 + 1 D Clifford circuits. In the bulk, we find many properties suggested by the percolation picture, including several matching bulk exponents, and an inverse power law for the critical entanglement growth, S ( t , L ) ∼ L ( 1 − a / t ) , which saturates to an area law. We then utilize a graph-state-based algorithm to analyze in 1 + 1 D and 2 + 1 D the critical properties of entanglement clusters in the steady state. We show that in a model with a simple geometric map to percolation—the projective transverse field Ising model—these entanglement clusters are governed by percolation surface exponents. However, in the Clifford models we find large deviations in the cluster exponents from those of surface percolation, highlighting the breakdown of any possible geometric map to percolation. Given the evidence for deviations from the percolation universality class, our results raise the question of why nonetheless many bulk properties behave similarly to those of percolation

Developing an Intervention Toolbox for the Common Health Problems in the Workplace

Development of the Health ↔ Work Toolbox is described. The toolbox aims to reduce the workplace impact of common health problems (musculoskeletal, mental health, and stress complaints) by focusing on tackling work-relevant symptoms. Based on biopsychosocial principles this toolbox supplements current approaches by occupying the zone between primary prevention and healthcare. It provides a set of evidence-informed principles and processes (knowledge + tools) for tackling work-relevant common health problems. The toolbox comprises a proactive element aimed at empowering line managers to create good jobs, and a ‘just in time’ responsive element for supporting individuals struggling with a work-relevant health problem. The key intention is helping people with common health problems to maintain work participation. The extensive conceptual and practical development process, including a comprehensive evidence review, produced a functional prototype toolbox that is evidence based and flexible in its use. End-user feedback was mostly positive. Moving the prototype to a fully-fledged internet resource requires specialist design expertise. The Health ↔ Work Toolbox appears to have potential to contribute to the goal of augmenting existing primary prevention strategies and healthcare delivery by providing a more comprehensive workplace approach to constraining sickness absence

Self-starting capability of a Darrieus turbine

Darrieus-type vertical axis wind turbines have a number of potential advantages for small-scale and domestic applications. For such applications, the issues of cost and reliability are paramount and hence simplicity of design of the structure, the generator, and any control system is vital. A particular concern relating to Darrieus turbines is their potential to self-start. If, as has been suggested by several authors, they require external assistance to start then much of their advantage is lost. The purpose of the study described here is, therefore, to investigate their starting performance through the development and validation of computational simulation and to determine the parameters that govern the capability to self-start. A case study is presented based upon the use of the widely used and well documented, symmetrical NACA 0012 turbine blade profile. It is shown that a lightly loaded, three-bladed rotor always has the potential to self start under steady wind conditions, whereas the starting of a two-bladed device is dependent upon its initial starting orientation