1,542 research outputs found
Status, Testosterone, and Human Intellectual Performance: Stereotype Threat as Status Concern
Results from two experiments suggest that stereotype-threat effects are special cases of a more general process involving the need to maintain or enhance status. We hypothesized that situations capable of confirming a performance stereotype might represent either a threat to status or an opportunity for enhancement of status, depending on the nature of the stereotype. The positive relationship between baseline testosterone and status sensitivity led us to hypothesize that high testosterone levels in males and females would amplify existing performance expectations when gender-based math-performance stereotypes were activated. In Study 1, high-testosterone females performed poorly on a math test when a negative performance stereotype was primed. In Study 2, high-testosterone males excelled on a math test when a positive performance stereotype was primed. The moderating effect of testosterone on performance suggests that a stereotype-relevant situation is capable of conferring either a loss or a gain of status on targets of the stereotype.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
Close relationships: A study of mobile communication records
Mobile phone communication as digital service generates ever-increasing
datasets of human communication actions, which in turn allow us to investigate
the structure and evolution of social interactions and their networks. These
datasets can be used to study the structuring of such egocentric networks with
respect to the strength of the relationships by assuming direct dependence of
the communication intensity on the strength of the social tie. Recently we have
discovered that there are significant differences between the first and further
"best friends" from the point of view of age and gender preferences. Here we
introduce a control parameter based on the statistics of
communication with the first and second "best friend" and use it to filter the
data. We find that when is decreased the identification of the
"best friend" becomes less ambiguous and the earlier observed effects get
stronger, thus corroborating them.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Mean-field analysis of the q-voter model on networks
We present a detailed investigation of the behavior of the nonlinear q-voter
model for opinion dynamics. At the mean-field level we derive analytically, for
any value of the number q of agents involved in the elementary update, the
phase diagram, the exit probability and the consensus time at the transition
point. The mean-field formalism is extended to the case that the interaction
pattern is given by generic heterogeneous networks. We finally discuss the case
of random regular networks and compare analytical results with simulations.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure
Excitable Scale Free Networks
When a simple excitable system is continuously stimulated by a Poissonian
external source, the response function (mean activity versus stimulus rate)
generally shows a linear saturating shape. This is experimentally verified in
some classes of sensory neurons, which accordingly present a small dynamic
range (defined as the interval of stimulus intensity which can be appropriately
coded by the mean activity of the excitable element), usually about one or two
decades only. The brain, on the other hand, can handle a significantly broader
range of stimulus intensity, and a collective phenomenon involving the
interaction among excitable neurons has been suggested to account for the
enhancement of the dynamic range. Since the role of the pattern of such
interactions is still unclear, here we investigate the performance of a
scale-free (SF) network topology in this dynamic range problem. Specifically,
we study the transfer function of disordered SF networks of excitable
Greenberg-Hastings cellular automata. We observe that the dynamic range is
maximum when the coupling among the elements is critical, corroborating a
general reasoning recently proposed. Although the maximum dynamic range yielded
by general SF networks is slightly worse than that of random networks, for
special SF networks which lack loops the enhancement of the dynamic range can
be dramatic, reaching nearly five decades. In order to understand the role of
loops on the transfer function we propose a simple model in which the density
of loops in the network can be gradually increased, and show that this is
accompanied by a gradual decrease of dynamic range.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
New Black Hole Solutions in Brans-Dicke Theory of Gravity
Existence check of non-trivial, stationary axisymmetric black hole solutions
in Brans-Dicke theory of gravity in different direction from those of Penrose,
Thorne and Dykla, and Hawking is performed. Namely, working directly with the
known explicit spacetime solutions in Brans-Dicke theory, it is found that
non-trivial Kerr-Newman-type black hole solutions different from general
relativistic solutions could occur for the generic Brans-Dicke parameter values
-5/2\leq \omega <-3/2. Finally, issues like whether these new black holes carry
scalar hair and can really arise in nature and if they can, what the associated
physical implications would be are discussed carefully.Comment: 20 pages, no figure, Revtex, version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Class of correlated random networks with hidden variables
We study a class models of correlated random networks in which vertices are
characterized by \textit{hidden variables} controlling the establishment of
edges between pairs of vertices. We find analytical expressions for the main
topological properties of these models as a function of the distribution of
hidden variables and the probability of connecting vertices. The expressions
obtained are checked by means of numerical simulations in a particular example.
The general model is extended to describe a practical algorithm to generate
random networks with an \textit{a priori} specified correlation structure. We
also present an extension of the class, to map non-equilibrium growing networks
to networks with hidden variables that represent the time at which each vertex
was introduced in the system
Pre-market version of a commercially available hearing instrument with a tinnitus sound generator: feasibility of evaluation in a clinical trial.
OBJECTIVE:
This report considers feasibility of conducting a UK trial of combination devices for tinnitus, using data from the study which evaluated different listener programmes available within the pre-market version of Oticon Alta with Tinnitus Sound Generator.
DESIGN:
Open and closed questions addressed the following feasibility issues: (1) Participant recruitment; (2) Device acceptability; (3) Programme preferences in different self-nominated listening situations; (4) Usability; (5) Compliance; (6) Adverse events.
STUDY SAMPLE:
Eight current combination hearing aid users (all males) aged between 62-72 years (mean age 67.25 years, SDâ=â3.8).
RESULTS:
All eight participants reported the physical aspects and noise options on the experimental device to be acceptable. Programmes with amplification and masking features were equally preferred over the basic amplification-only programme. Individual preferences for the different programme options varied widely, both across participants and across listening situations.
CONCLUSIONS:
A set of recommendations for future trials were formulated which calls for more "real world" trial design rather than tightly controlling the fitting procedure
Tracking Black Holes in Numerical Relativity
This work addresses and solves the problem of generically tracking black hole
event horizons in computational simulation of black hole interactions.
Solutions of the hyperbolic eikonal equation, solved on a curved spacetime
manifold containing black hole sources, are employed in development of a robust
tracking method capable of continuously monitoring arbitrary changes of
topology in the event horizon, as well as arbitrary numbers of gravitational
sources. The method makes use of continuous families of level set viscosity
solutions of the eikonal equation with identification of the black hole event
horizon obtained by the signature feature of discontinuity formation in the
eikonal's solution. The method is employed in the analysis of the event horizon
for the asymmetric merger in a binary black hole system. In this first such
three dimensional analysis, we establish both qualitative and quantitative
physics for the asymmetric collision; including: 1. Bounds on the topology of
the throat connecting the holes following merger, 2. Time of merger, and 3.
Continuous accounting for the surface of section areas of the black hole
sources.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure
Evolution of the Corticotropin-releasing Hormone Signaling System and Its Role in Stress-induced Phenotypic Plasticity
Developing animals respond in variation in their habitats by altering their rules of development and/or their morphologies (i.e., they exhibit phenotypic plasticity). In vertebrates, one mechanism by which plasticity is expressed is through activation of the neuroendocrine system, which transduces environmental information into a physiological response. Recent findings of ours with amphibians and of others with mammals show that the primary vertebrate stress neuropeptide, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), is essential for adaptive developmental responses to environmental stress. For instance, CRH-dependent mechanisms cause accelerated metamorphosis in response to pond-drying in some amphibian species, and intrauterine fetal stress syndromes in humans precipitate preterm birth. CRH may be a phylogenetically ancient developmental signaling molecule that allows developing organisms to escape deleterious changes in their larval/fetal habitat. The response to CRH is mediated by at least two different receptor subtypes and may also be modulated by a secreted binding protein.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73287/1/j.1749-6632.1999.tb07877.x.pd
Randomly dilute Ising model: A nonperturbative approach
The N-vector cubic model relevant, among others, to the physics of the
randomly dilute Ising model is analyzed in arbitrary dimension by means of an
exact renormalization-group equation. This study provides a unified picture of
its critical physics between two and four dimensions. We give the critical
exponents for the three-dimensional randomly dilute Ising model which are in
good agreement with experimental and numerical data. The relevance of the cubic
anisotropy in the O(N) model is also treated.Comment: 4 pages, published versio
- âŠ