Heterosocial cues and perceptions of sexual intentions : effects of sexual connotativeness, verbal refusal, and rape outcome

This study was designed to examine the extent to which men's and women's perceptions of consent by a woman to sexual intercourse are determined by the additive and interactive effects of the woman's verbal statements and nonverbal behaviors, the degree of consistency between these two modes of communication, and whether or not the woman is forced to have sex. After reading a scenario describing a couple on a date, subjects rated the man and the woman on a number of attributes and completed questions relevant to what they had read. Consistent with previous research, this study found strong support for the suggestion that men have a lower threshold than women for imputing sexual meaning to behaviors. In addition, perceptions of consistency between the woman's verbal statements and nonverbal behaviors affected subjects' ratings not only of the woman but also of the man. Subjects rated both the man and the woman more favorably when the woman's verbal statements were consistent with her nonverbal behaviors. Finally, contrary to previous research, this study provided little evidence for the suggestion that people often blame the victim for having precipitated a rape. Rather, subjects were less likely to attribute blame and responsibility to the woman when she was forced to have intercourse than when she was not

Teasing, rejection, and violence: case studies of the school shootings.

Media commentators have suggested that recent school shootings were precipitated by social rejection, but no empirical research has examined this claim. Case studies were conducted of 15 school shootings between 1995 and 2001 to examine the possible role of social rejection in school violence. Acute or chronic rejection-in the form of ostracism, bullying, and/or romantic rejection-was present in all but two of the incidents. In addition, the shooters tended to be characterized by one or more of three other risk factors-an interest in firearms or bombs, a fascination with death or Satanism, or psychological problems involving depression, impulse control, or sadistic tendencies. Implications for understanding and preventing school violence are discussed. Aggr

Gaia photometry for white dwarfs

Context. White dwarfs can be used to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy by analysing their luminosity function and initial mass function. Among them, the very cool white dwarfs provide the information for the early ages of each population. Because white dwarfs are intrinsically faint only the nearby (~ 20 pc) sample is reasonably complete. The Gaia space mission will drastically increase the sample of known white dwarfs through its 5-6 years survey of the whole sky up to magnitude V = 20-25. Aims. We provide a characterisation of Gaia photometry for white dwarfs to better prepare for the analysis of the scientific output of the mission. Transformations between some of the most common photometric systems and Gaia passbands are derived. We also give estimates of the number of white dwarfs of the different galactic populations that will be observed. Methods. Using synthetic spectral energy distributions and the most recent Gaia transmission curves, we computed colours of three different types of white dwarfs (pure hydrogen, pure helium, and mixed composition with H/He = 0.1). With these colours we derived transformations to other common photometric systems (Johnson-Cousins, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and 2MASS). We also present numbers of white dwarfs predicted to be observed by Gaia. Results. We provide relationships and colour-colour diagrams among different photometric systems to allow the prediction and/or study of the Gaia white dwarf colours. We also include estimates of the number of sources expected in every galactic population and with a maximum parallax error. Gaia will increase the sample of known white dwarfs tenfold to about 200 000. Gaia will be able to observe thousands of very cool white dwarfs for the first time, which will greatly improve our understanding of these stars and early phases of star formation in our Galaxy

Gaia Universe Model Snapshot : A statistical analysis of the expected contents of the Gaia catalogue

Context. This study has been developed in the framework of the computational simulations executed for the preparation of the ESA Gaia astrometric mission. Aims. We focus on describing the objects and characteristics that Gaia will potentially observe without taking into consideration instrumental effects (detection efficiency, observing errors). Methods. The theoretical Universe Model prepared for the Gaia simulation has been statistically analyzed at a given time. Ingredients of the model are described, giving most attention to the stellar content, the double and multiple stars, and variability. Results. In this simulation the errors have not been included yet. Hence we estimate the number of objects and their theoretical photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic characteristics in the case that they are perfectly detected. We show that Gaia will be able to potentially observe 1.1 billion of stars (single or part of multiple star systems) of which about 2% are variable stars, 3% have one or two exoplanets. At the extragalactic level, observations will be potentially composed by several millions of galaxies, half million to 1 million of quasars and about 50,000 supernovas that will occur during the 5 years of mission. The simulated catalogue will be made publicly available by the DPAC on the Gaia portal of the ESA web site http://www.rssd.esa.int/gaia/.Comment: 21 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, typos corrected in author name

The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: III. Stellar Kinematics

We study Milky Way kinematics using a sample of 18.8 million main-sequence stars with r<20 and proper-motion measurements derived from SDSS and POSS astrometry, including ~170,000 stars with radial-velocity measurements from the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Distances to stars are determined using a photometric parallax relation, covering a distance range from ~100 pc to 10 kpc over a quarter of the sky at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>20 degrees). We find that in the region defined by 1 kpc <Z< 5 kpc and 3 kpc <R< 13 kpc, the rotational velocity for disk stars smoothly decreases, and all three components of the velocity dispersion increase, with distance from the Galactic plane. In contrast, the velocity ellipsoid for halo stars is aligned with a spherical coordinate system and appears to be spatially invariant within the probed volume. The velocity distribution of nearby ($Z<1$ kpc) K/M stars is complex, and cannot be described by a standard Schwarzschild ellipsoid. For stars in a distance-limited subsample of stars (<100 pc), we detect a multimodal velocity distribution consistent with that seen by HIPPARCOS. This strong non-Gaussianity significantly affects the measurements of the velocity ellipsoid tilt and vertex deviation when using the Schwarzschild approximation. We develop and test a simple descriptive model for the overall kinematic behavior that captures these features over most of the probed volume, and can be used to search for substructure in kinematic and metallicity space. We use this model to predict further improvements in kinematic mapping of the Galaxy expected from Gaia and LSST.Comment: 90 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Ap

Diagnostic Accuracy of a Prototype Point-of-Care Test for Ocular Chlamydia trachomatis under Field Conditions in The Gambia and Senegal

Trachoma, caused by infection of the eye with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, is the leading infectious cause of blindness and is associated with poverty. Antibiotic treatment of all community members is one of the recommended control strategies for trachoma. However, in places where the prevalence of clinical signs is low, C. trachomatis eye infection is often absent. Laboratory testing for C. trachomatis infection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is highly sensitive but expensive and requires well-trained staff. A simple point-of-care (POC) test that can be used in trachoma-affected communities could help trachoma control efforts. We evaluated a POC test for C. trachomatis eye infection. Children under 10 years of age were screened for clinical signs of trachoma and C. trachomatis eye infection. The POC test result was compared with laboratory PCR test results. The POC test detected just over half of PCR test positives correctly. However, the POC test tended to give false-positive results in hot and dry conditions, which is the typical environment of trachoma. The POC test requires high specificity since it would be used to make treatment decisions at the community level. Therefore, its present format requires improvement before it can be utilized in trachoma control

Measurements of inclusive and differential fiducial cross-sections of tt production with additional heavy-flavour jets in proton-proton collisions at √ s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of tt production in association with additional b-jets in pp collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. Fiducial cross-section measurements are performed in the dilepton and lepton-plus-jets tt decay channels. Results are presented at particle level in the form of inclusive cross-sections of tt final states with three and four b-jets as well as differential cross-sections as a function of global event properties and properties of b-jet pairs. The measured inclusive fiducial cross-sections generally exceed the ttbb predictions from various next-to-leading-order matrix element calculations matched to a parton shower but are compatible within the total uncertainties. The experimental uncertainties are smaller than the uncertainties in the predictions. Comparisons of state-of-the-art theoretical predictions with the differential measurements are shown and good agreement with data is found for most of them