Does Being Attractive Always Help? Positive and Negative Effects of Attractiveness on Social Decision Making

Previous studies of organizational decision making demonstrate an abundance of positive biases directed toward highly attractive individuals. The current research, in contrast, suggests that when the person being evaluated is of the same sex as the evaluator, attractiveness hurts, rather than helps. Three experiments assessing evaluations of potential job candidates (Studies 1 and 3) and university applicants (Study 2) demonstrated positive biases toward highly attractive other-sex targets but negative biases toward highly attractive same-sex targets. This pattern was mediated by variability in participants’ desire to interact with versus avoid the target individual (Studies 1 and 2) and was moderated by participants’ level of self-esteem (Study 3); the derogation of attractive same-sex targets was not observed among people with high self-esteem. Findings demonstrate an important exception to the positive effects of attractiveness in organizational settings and suggest that negative responses to attractive same-sex targets stem from perceptions of self-threat

The ABCD of usability testing

We introduce a methodology for tracking and auditing feedback, errors and suggestions for software packages. This short paper describes how we innovate on the evaluation mechanism, introducing an (Antecedent, Barrier, Consequence and Development) ABCD form, embedded within an eParticipation platform to enable end users to easily report on any usability issues. This methodology will be utilised to improve the STEP cloud eParticipation platform (part of the current STEP Horizon2020 project http://step4youth.eu. The platform is currently being piloted in real life contexts, with the participation of public authorities that are integrating the eParticipation platform into their regular decision-making practices. The project is involving young people, through engagement and motivation strategies and giving them a voice in Environmental decision making at the local level. The pilot evaluation aims to demonstrate how open engagement needs to be embedded within public sector processes and the usability methodology reported here will help to identify the key barriers for wide scale deployment of the platform

Towards understanding the myometrial physiome: approaches for the construction of a virtual physiological uterus

Premature labour (PTL) is the single most significant factor contributing to neonatal morbidity in Europe with enormous attendant healthcare and social costs. Consequently, it remains a major challenge to alleviate the cause and impact of this condition. Our ability to improve the diagnosis and treatment of women most at risk of PTL is, however, actually hampered by an incomplete understanding of the ways in which the functions of the uterine myocyte are integrated to effect an appropriate biological response at the multicellular whole organ system. The level of organization required to co-ordinate labouring uterine contractile effort in time and space can be considered immense. There is a multitude of what might be considered mini-systems involved, each with their own regulatory feedback cycles, yet they each, in turn, will influence the behaviour of a related system. These include, but are not exclusive to, gestational-dependent regulation of transcription, translation, post-translational modifications, intracellular signaling dynamics, cell morphology, intercellular communication and tissue level morphology. We propose that in order to comprehend how these mini-systems integrate to facilitate uterine contraction during labour (preterm or term) we must, in concert with biological experimentation, construct detailed mathematical descriptions of our findings. This serves three purposes: firstly, providing a quantitative description of series of complex observations; secondly, proferring a database platform that informs further testable experimentation; thirdly, advancing towards the establishment of a virtual physiological uterus and in silico clinical diagnosis and treatment of PTL

Nonparametric nonlinear model predictive control

Model Predictive Control (MPC) has recently found wide acceptance in industrial applications, but its potential has been much impeded by linear models due to the lack of a similarly accepted nonlinear modeling or databased technique. Aimed at solving this problem, the paper addresses three issues: (i) extending second-order Volterra nonlinear MPC (NMPC) to higher-order for improved prediction and control; (ii) formulating NMPC directly with plant data without needing for parametric modeling, which has hindered the progress of NMPC; and (iii) incorporating an error estimator directly in the formulation and hence eliminating the need for a nonlinear state observer. Following analysis of NMPC objectives and existing solutions, nonparametric NMPC is derived in discrete-time using multidimensional convolution between plant data and Volterra kernel measurements. This approach is validated against the benchmark van de Vusse nonlinear process control problem and is applied to an industrial polymerization process by using Volterra kernels of up to the third order. Results show that the nonparametric approach is very efficient and effective and considerably outperforms existing methods, while retaining the original data-based spirit and characteristics of linear MPC

Prediction of Preterm Deliveries from EHG Signals Using Machine Learning

There has been some improvement in the treatment of preterm infants, which has helped to increase their chance of survival. However, the rate of premature births is still globally increasing. As a result, this group of infants are most at risk of developing severe medical conditions that can affect the respiratory, gastrointestinal, immune, central nervous, auditory and visual systems. In extreme cases, this can also lead to long-term conditions, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning difficulties, including poor health and growth. In the US alone, the societal and economic cost of preterm births, in 2005, was estimated to be $26.2 billion, per annum. In the UK, this value was close to £2.95 billion, in 2009. Many believe that a better understanding of why preterm births occur, and a strategic focus on prevention, will help to improve the health of children and reduce healthcare costs. At present, most methods of preterm birth prediction are subjective. However, a strong body of evidence suggests the analysis of uterine electrical signals (Electrohysterography), could provide a viable way of diagnosing true labour and predict preterm deliveries. Most Electrohysterography studies focus on true labour detection during the final seven days, before labour. The challenge is to utilise Electrohysterography techniques to predict preterm delivery earlier in the pregnancy. This paper explores this idea further and presents a supervised machine learning approach that classifies term and preterm records, using an open source dataset containing 300 records (38 preterm and 262 term). The synthetic minority oversampling technique is used to oversample the minority preterm class, and cross validation techniques, are used to evaluate the dataset against other similar studies. Our approach shows an improvement on existing studies with 96% sensitivity, 90% specificity, and a 95% area under the curve value with 8% global error using the polynomial classifier

Análisis próximo de algunas materias primas colombianas empleadas en nutrición animal.

Observando los datos del contenido de proteína, grasa, fibra, ceniza, humedad, y extracto no nitrogenado de algunos ingredientes alimenticios producidos o usados en Colombia en alimentacióin animal, se ve que muchos de éstos se pueden comparar favorablemente con los valores analíticos publicados en otros países. Se encontró, que particularmente en los sub-productos existía considerablemente variación en la posición química delas diferentes muestras del mismo producto. Esta variación fué menor en los granos y harinas oleaginosas. Parte de dicha variación se debe a la falta de uniformidad en la producción, a la definición imprecisa de los productos y a las diferencias en los métodos de procesamiento usados en Colombia. En la formulación para cerdos y aves de raciones, particularmente con sub-productos, es conveniente analizar los ingredientes alimenticios antes de ser suministrados, excepto cuando las variaciones químicas son muy pequeñas o cuando se trata de productos de reconocida calidad. Estos resultados confirman la importancia de establecer normas de alimentación en Colombia con base en análisis de los alimentos producidos localmente. Se recomienda que se empleen mayores estandarizaciones en la producción y clasificación de éstos, con base en los análisis químicos próximos. Se sugiere establecer normas de producción y clasificación de los alimentos, así como también de llamar la atención a los productores sobre la importancia de especificar claramente los ingredientes alimenticios que van a usarse en la alimentación animal

Utilización de torta (harina) de algodón en alimentación de cerdos.

Información básica y aplicada sobre este efecto. En la primera parte se discuten aspectos generales sobre el valor nutritivo y análisis químico de los diferentes tipos de torta de algodón disponibles en latinoamérica. En la segunda parte se analizan en forma resumida los resultados de evaluaciones nutritivas durante las distintas fases de producción en cerdos, presentando alternativas con raciones a base de torta de algodón como fuente proteínica para cerdos en crecimiento, acabado, gestación y lactancia. Se concluye que: la torta de algodón es una fuente abundante de proteína vegetal en la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos, siendo gran parte de este subproducto de baja calidad debido a deficiente procesamiento industrial. Para cerdos con menos de 50 kg de peso no debe utilizarse un nivel superior al 10 por ciento de la torta en la ración, cuando se presente más del 0.2 por ciento de gosipol libre y más del 10 por ciento de fibra cruda. Raciones con más del 10 por ciento de torta generalmente producen resultados satisfactorios en cerdos adultos. Para cerdos en cabado se recomienda la adición de sulfato ferroso cuando la concentración de gosipol libre en la ración total sea superior al 0.03 por ciento. La deficiencia de lisina en raciones para cerdos jóvenes se puede subsanar utilizando el aminoácido sintético o productos ricos en lisina. Por medio de un procesamiento adecuado se puede obtener torta de algodón de buena calidad con precios menores entre 20 y 50 por ciento con respecto a otras fuentes proteínicas convencionalesAlgodón-Gossypium herbaceu