From Passive Receptacles to Active Contenders: Ovulation and Intrasexual Competition in Human Females

Recent evidence has suggested that ovulation in humans might be accompanied by subtle cues. Furthermore, several studies have suggested that women engage in intrasexual competition, or competition with members of the same sex, with the aim of obtaining high quality mates. This competition involves the use of complex strategies including self-promotion and rival derogation. The link between ovulation and intrasexual competition remains largely underexplored, although a few studies have suggested that intrasexual competition might become intensified during ovulation. This paper explores the relationship between ovulatory cue detection and intrasexual competition and outlines two research proposals for future analysis of this topic. Study 1 proposes an investigation of men and women’s perception of women’s gait. In this study, male and female participants would rate the attractiveness of women’s gait. Female participants would also rate these gaits on perceived threat. The menstrual cycle of both the walkers and raters would be taken into account. Either male or female confederates would walk behind the participants in order to test whether women reduce their gait attractiveness in the presence of female rivals and enhance it in the presence of potential mates. Study 2 outlines an experiment to test female scent as an ovulatory cue. Both males and females would rate the scent of women on attractiveness at different stages of the menstrual cycle. Females would also rate the scents on perceived threat. This study would help to clarify whether women’s ratings of other women are dependent on the menstrual cycle of both the female rater and the female being rated. Both the literature review and the proposed studies suggest a view of women as active contenders that play an essential role in the mating process within an evolutionary framework

Talking To Your Teens About Pregnancy

Teen parents are at risk for a variety of adverse life outcomes. The rate of low birth weight and premature delivery is higher among teen mothers than the average population. Teen pregnancy and birth are major contributors to lower educational achievement and income as they are less likely to graduate High school and college, leading to increased rates of poverty among teen mothers. This project aims to educate parents of at risk teens on how to approach the topic with their kids and to provide them with a list of online sources to aid in the process.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1330/thumbnail.jp

AztechSat-1, a First Collaborative CubeSat Between NASA and Mexico

An international collaboration program for capacity building in space technology is being established between NASA and the Mexican Space Agency (AEM). Its objective is to develop a series of CubeSats collaboratively in a way that benefits both agencies. For AEM, this experience will support the development of human capital required for its space program. This project provides an opportunity for NASA future missions to benefit from commercially available technologies demonstrated in space. AEM was recently created by the Mexican Government to use and develop space technology in Mexico. Current AEM plans call for having the capability of developing its own communication satellites by 2030, so the need for having a Mexican cadre of space experts is mandatory. The program will start with the development and launching of AztechSat-1, the first AEM CubeSat project to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS). Several public Mexican universities will participate in this project to demonstrate GlobalStar, a satellite communications provider using a constellation of LEO satellites, as an option for small satellite missions. AztechSat-1 mission objectives are:(1) Develop a flight ready CubeSat for deployment from the ISS; (2) Demonstrate GlobalStars Network as a method to advance communications in CubeSat missions. AztechSat-1 is envisioned as a 1U CubeSat and will be designed and constructed by Mexican graduate students from two major universities in Mexico: UNAM and IPN. The students will be mentored and supervised by researchers from NASA Ames Research Center (NARC). Flight acceptance tests are going to be done both at Mexican university labs as well as at NARC. Funding for the project will be provided concurrently by AEM, the Mexican participating universities, and other Mexican entities. The development of AztechSat-1 will emphasize the transfer of knowledge in space mission analysis and design, flight acceptance testing and other areas of space technology which are not well developed in Mexico yet. Mexican students will benefit from their mentoring from NASA researchers and will provide a multiplier effect in the development of the next generation of Mexican aerospace engineers. AztechSat-1 will be developed in a period of twelve months and will be launched by late 2015. AztechSats success will define the future of collaboration between NASA and AEM in capacity building. A plan for developing a series of AztechSats in a one per year basis, with increasing capabilities and complexity is currently being negotiated between NASA an AEM

Affordability and subsidies in public urban transport : what do we mean, what can be done?

Subsidy policies on public urban transport have been adopted ubiquitously. In both developed and developing countries, subsidies are implemented to make transport more affordable. Despite their widespread implementation, there are virtually no quantitative assessments of their distributional incidence, making it impossible to determine if these instruments are pro-poor. This paper reviews the arguments used to justify subsidy policies in public urban transport. Using different tools to quantitatively evaluate the incidence and distributive impacts of subsidy policy options, the paper analyzes the findings of a series of researchpapers that study urban public transport subsidy policies in developed and developing countries. The available evidence indicates that current public urban transport subsidy policies do not make the poorest better off. Supply-side subsidies are, for the most part, neutral or regressive; while demand-side subsidies perform better-although many of them do not improve income distribution. Considering that the policy objective is to improve the welfare of the poorest, it is imperative to move away from supply-side subsidies towards demand-side subsidies and to integrate transport social concerns into wider poverty alleviation efforts, which include the possibility of channeling subsidies through monetary transfer systems or through other transfer instruments (food subsidies, health services and education for the poor). The general conclusion of the paper is that more effort should be devoted to improve the targeting properties of public urban transport subsidies using means-testing procedures to ensure a more pro-poor incidence of subsidies.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Transport in Urban Areas,Urban Transport,Taxation&Subsidies,Economic Theory&Research

Smart Quizzes

Standardized testing, while efficient for testing a large amount of people, is not an effective or holistic method of evaluating test takers. They fail to take into consideration factors such as stress, which can inhibit a student’s ability to perform well on a test. Our goal is to create a framework for creating tests that are dynamic, adaptive assessments, minimize stress levels, and overall improve student performance. This solution will produce in tests that even out the academic playing field while being more informative in their assessments

Simulation of the hydraulic fracture process in two dimensions using a discrete element method

We introduce a discrete element simulation for the hydraulic fracture process in a petroleum well which takes into account the elastic behavior of the rock and the Mohr-Coulomb fracture criterium. The rock is modeled as an array of Voronoi polygons joined by elastic beams, which are submitted to tectonical stresses and the hydrostatic pressure of the fracturing fluid. The fluid pressure is treated like that of a hydraulic column. The simulation reproduces well the time and dimensions of real fracture processes. We also include an analysis of the fracturing fluid loss due to the permeability of the rock which is useful in an efficiency analysis of the treatment. The model is a first step for future applications in the petroleum industry

Optimized LTE Data Transmission Procedures for IoT: Device Side Energy Consumption Analysis

The efficient deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) over cellular networks, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) or the next generation 5G, entails several challenges. For massive IoT, reducing the energy consumption on the device side becomes essential. One of the main characteristics of massive IoT is small data transmissions. To improve the support of them, the 3GPP has included two novel optimizations in LTE: one of them based on the Control Plane (CP), and the other on the User Plane (UP). In this paper, we analyze the average energy consumption per data packet using these two optimizations compared to conventional LTE Service Request procedure. We propose an analytical model to calculate the energy consumption for each procedure based on a Markov chain. In the considered scenario, for large and small Inter-Arrival Times (IATs), the results of the three procedures are similar. While for medium IATs CP reduces the energy consumption per packet up to 87% due to its connection release optimization