112 research outputs found
Commentary on "The Influence of Pitch Height on the Perception of Submissiveness and Threat in Musical Passages" by David Huron, Daryl Kinney, and Kristin Precoda
Increasingly, the Arts and Humanities and Science fields are finding common ground, as illustrated in Huron et al.’s fine paper. My commentary discusses the origin of the idea that pitch and motivation have an evolved relationship. Their finding that loudness and aggression are related has been little studied in animals and I suggest an explanation from the biological literature
Solid state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin
The transfer of information between different physical forms is a central
theme in communication and computation, for example between processing entities
and memory. Nowhere is this more crucial than in quantum computation, where
great effort must be taken to protect the integrity of a fragile quantum bit.
Nuclear spins are known to benefit from long coherence times compared to
electron spins, but are slow to manipulate and suffer from weak thermal
polarisation. A powerful model for quantum computation is thus one in which
electron spins are used for processing and readout while nuclear spins are used
for storage. Here we demonstrate the coherent transfer of a superposition state
in an electron spin 'processing' qubit to a nuclear spin 'memory' qubit, using
a combination of microwave and radiofrequency pulses applied to 31P donors in
an isotopically pure 28Si crystal. The electron spin state can be stored in the
nuclear spin on a timescale that is long compared with the electron decoherence
time and then coherently transferred back to the electron spin, thus
demonstrating the 31P nuclear spin as a solid-state quantum memory. The overall
store/readout fidelity is about 90%, attributed to systematic imperfections in
radiofrequency pulses which can be improved through the use of composite
pulses. We apply dynamic decoupling to protect the nuclear spin quantum memory
element from sources of decoherence. The coherence lifetime of the quantum
memory element is found to exceed one second at 5.5K.Comment: v2: Tomography added and storage of general initial state
The Co-occurrence of child and intimate partner maltreatment in the family: characteristics of the violent perpetrators
This study considers the characteristics associated with mothers and fathers who maltreat their child and each other in comparison to parents who only maltreat their child. One hundred and sixty-two parents who had allegations of child maltreatment made against them were considered. The sample consisted of 43 fathers (Paternal Family—PF) and 23 mothers (Maternal Family—MF) who perpetrated both partner and child maltreatment, together with 23 fathers (Paternal Child—PC) and 26 mothers (Maternal Child—MC) who perpetrated child maltreatment only. In addition, 2 fathers (Paternal Victim—PV) and 23 mothers (Maternal Victim—MV) were victims of intimate partner maltreatment and perpetrators of child maltreatment and 7 fathers (Paternal Non-abusive Carer—PNC) and 15 mothers (Maternal Non-abusive Carer—MNC) did not maltreat the child but lived with an individual who did. Within their family unit, 40.7% of parents perpetrated both intimate partner and child maltreatment. However, fathers were significantly more likely to maltreat both their partner and child than mothers and mothers were significantly more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence than fathers. PF fathers conducted the highest amount of physical and/or sexual child maltreatment while MC and MV mothers perpetrated the highest amount of child neglect. Few significant differences between mothers were found. PF fathers had significantly more factors associated with development of a criminogenic lifestyle than PC fathers. Marked sex differences were demonstrated with PF fathers demonstrating significantly more antisocial characteristics, less mental health problems and fewer feelings of isolation than MF mothers. MC mothers had significantly more childhood abuse, mental health problems, parenting risk factors and were significantly more likely to be biologically related to the child than PC fathers. This study suggests that violent families should be assessed and treated in a holistic manner, considering the effects of partner violence upon all family members, rather than exclusively intervening with the violent man
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead
Effective Pollination of Erythrina Fusca by the Orchard Oriole (Icterus Spurius): Coevolved Behavioral Manipulation?
Volume: 66Start Page: 482End Page: 48
The Effects of Distance and Isolation on Song-Type Sharing in the Carolina Wren
Volume: 99Start Page: 601End Page: 61
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