A Reformed Natural Theology?

This paper aims to counter the recent opinion that there is a peculiar epistemology in the reformed Church which made it negative to natural theology. First, it is shown that there was an early and unanimous adoption of natural theology as the culmination of physics and the beginning of metaphysics by the sixteenth and seventeenth century philosophers of good standing in the reformed Church. Second, it is argued that natural theology cannot be based on revelation, should not assume a peculiar analysis of knowledge and must not pass over demonstration

A questionaire among members of Västra Värmland and Dals Forest Farmer Association

On behalf has a questionnaire been conducted with the aim to find out the members opinion regarding the management of the association. The survey showed that association has a strong position locally and that the forest owners generally are satisfied with the management and the competence among the forest super visors. The main opinion is that the association can improve the communication with the forest owners before as well as after the sale of forest products

Anabolic Androgenic Steroids-Use and Correlates among Gym Users-An Assessment Study Using Questionnaires and Observations at Gyms in the Stockholm Region

he purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) use and offers to use among gym users in Stockholm County (Sweden), and to conduct a comparison of concordance in estimates of AAS and supplements at gyms between two data collection methods. A questionnaire was distributed to members at 36 training facilities and 1,752 gym users participated in the study. An observation study was conducted as covert participant observations at 64 gyms. According to the questionnaire, 3.9% of men reported life time use of AAS, 1.4% use during the past 12 months and 0.4% AAS use during past 30 days. Not only were there similar patterns found in the two methods, i.e., similar age and gender distributions for AAS use, but analyses of concordance showed that gyms with a higher prevalence of self-reported AAS-use and supplement use (questionnaire) showed a significantly higher proportion of observer-assessed AAS users. Analyses of individual predictors showed that AAS users were almost always young men, regular weight trainers and more often users of drugs and nutritional supplements. The higher prevalence of AAS use among gym users than in the general population makes the former an appropriate target group for AAS prevention. The connection between supplements, drugs and AAS use suggests that effective AAS prevention need to focus on several risk factors for AAS use. The clear resemblance in estimates between the observation and questionnaire data strengthen the credibility of the two methods.Original Publication: Hakan Leifman, Charlotta Rehnman, Erika Sjoblom and Stefan Holgersson, Anabolic Androgenic Steroids-Use and Correlates among Gym Users-An Assessment Study Using Questionnaires and Observations at Gyms in the Stockholm Region, 2011, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, (8), 7, 2656-2674. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8072656 Copyright: MDPI http://www.mdpi.com/home</p

Socio-Emotional Functioning and Face Recognition Ability in the Normal Population

Recent research indicates face recognition ability varies within the normal population. To date, two factors have been identified that influence this cognitive process: the age and gender of the perceiver. In this paper, we examine the influence of socio-emotional functioning on face recognition ability. We invited participants with high and low levels of empathy (as indicated by the Empathy Quotient) to take part in a face recognition test. Participants were asked to study a set of faces, and at test viewed the studied faces intermixed with novel faces. As predicted, high empaths achieved higher scores in the face recognition test compared to low empaths. This pattern of findings provides further evidence that face recognition ability varies within the normal population, and suggests socio-emotional functioning may be an additional factor that influences face recognition ability

Mitigation of interfacial dielectric loss in aluminum-on-silicon superconducting qubits

We demonstrate aluminum-on-silicon planar transmon qubits with time-averaged ${T_1}$ energy relaxation times of up to ${270\,\mu s}$, corresponding to Q = 5 million, and a highest observed value of ${501\,\mu s}$. We use materials analysis techniques and numerical simulations to investigate the dominant sources of energy loss, and devise and demonstrate a strategy towards mitigating them. The mitigation of loss is achieved by reducing the presence of oxide, a known host of defects, near the substrate-metal interface, by growing aluminum films thicker than 300 nm. A loss analysis of coplanar-waveguide resonators shows that the improvement is owing to a reduction of dielectric loss due to two-level system defects. We perform time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and observe a reduced presence of oxygen at the substrate-metal interface for the thicker films. The correlation between the enhanced performance and the film thickness is due to the tendency of aluminum to grow in columnar structures of parallel grain boundaries, where the size of the grain depends on the film thickness: transmission electron microscopy imaging shows that the thicker film has larger grains and consequently fewer grain boundaries containing oxide near this interface. These conclusions are supported by numerical simulations of the different loss contributions in the device.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

The Composite Task Reveals Stronger Holistic Processing in Children than Adults for Child Faces

Background: While own-age faces have been reported to be better recognized than other-age faces, the underlying cause of this phenomenon remains unclear. One potential cause is holistic face processing, a special kind of perceptual and cognitive processing reserved for perceiving upright faces. Previous studies have indeed found that adults show stronger holistic processing when looking at adult faces compared to child faces, but whether a similar own-age bias exists in children remains to be shown. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we used the composite face task – a standard test of holistic face processing – to investigate if, for child faces, holistic processing is stronger for children than adults. Results showed child participants (8–13 years) had a larger composite effect than adult participants (22–65 years). Conclusions/Significance: Our finding suggests that differences in strength of holistic processing may underlie the ownage bias on recognition memory. We discuss the origin of own-age biases in terms of relative experience, face-space tuning, and social categorization

Hangö – mitt i havets famn

Hangö – mitt i havets famn Innehållsförteckning – Inledaren av Håkan Eklund – Topelius – en flitig fritidsfiskare i Tvärminne av Birgitta Ekström Söderlund – Sibelius piano, det första i Tvärminne av Birgitta Ekström Söderlund – Mannerheims sommarparadis i Hangö av Birgitta Ekström Söderlund – Sovjetarrendatorernas ankomst av Tomy Karlsson – Hangöudd som krigszon av Tomy Karlsson – Hangö sommaruni av Fredrik Åberg – Från Hangö sommarunis fjärde termin av Perikles (ÅU) – En idealisk plats för ett sommaruniversitet av Perikles (ÅU) – Muntra minnen från Hangö sommaruni av Thomas Rosenberg – Fotoskolan vid Hangö sommaruni av Håkan Eklund – Silläventyret på Ishavet på 1930-talet av Birgitta Ekström Söderlund – Hangö skärgård – ”fiskbutkor”, fågelskär och sälbådar.....av Mikael Kilpi – Mitt Hangö – med havsutsikt av Johanna Sandin – Lycka är att bo i Hangö av Lotta Rehnman – Några emigrantöden av Marketta Wall – Hangöturism året om är målet av Ilse Klockars – Hangö udd i krigsbilder av Thure Malmberg – Nordiska skärgårdssamarbetet av Annastina Sarlin – Kolumnen ”Från Karins horisont” av Karin Dahlström – Sista bilden av Håkan Eklun

An inner face advantage in children’s recognition of familiar peers

Children’s recognition of familiar own-age peers was investigated. Chinese children (4-, 8-, and 14-year-olds) were asked to identify their classmates from photographs showing the entire face, the internal facial features only, the external facial features only, or the eyes, nose, or mouth only. Participants from all age groups were familiar with the faces used as stimuli for 1 academic year. The results showed that children from all age groups demonstrated an advantage for recognition of the internal facial features relative to their recognition of the external facial features. Thus, previous observations of a shift in reliance from external to internal facial features can be attributed to experience with faces rather than to age-related changes in face processing

Always on My Mind? Recognition of Attractive Faces May Not Depend on Attention

Little research has examined what happens to attention and memory as a whole when humans see someone attractive. Hence, we investigated whether attractive stimuli gather more attention and are better remembered than unattractive stimuli. Participants took part in an attention task – in which matrices containing attractive and unattractive male naturalistic photographs were presented to 54 females, and measures of eye-gaze location and fixation duration using an eye-tracker were taken – followed by a recognition task. Eye-gaze was higher for the attractive stimuli compared to unattractive stimuli. Also, attractive photographs produced more hits and false recognitions than unattractive photographs which may indicate that regardless of attention allocation, attractive photographs produce more correct but also more false recognitions. We present an evolutionary explanation for this, as attending to more attractive faces but not always remembering them accurately and differentially compared with unseen attractive faces, may help females secure mates with higher reproductive value