Eyes, eyebrows and their effect on the facial perception of hostility

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of the eyebrows and the eyes on the perception of the emotion of hostility through facial expressions. Eighty-six participants were randomly selected as a convenience sample from Tennessee Technological University. Images of the eye and eyebrow region of the face were projected in front of the class and participants rated each image on hostility, friendliness, and happiness, scaled from 0-5. The specific dependent measures were only hostility ratings. Results supported each of the proposed hypotheses. It was found that inward eyebrows, less open eyes, and the combination of inward eyebrows and less open eyes were rated the most hostile at a significance level of .01. Related findings in previous research and potential future research are discussed

Problematic Texting Behavior: A Look at Individual Differences

Problematic Texting Behavior: A Look at Individual Differences Bradford L. Schroeder & Valerie K. Sims University of Central Florida Text messaging (“texting”) is a communicative social behavior which is the most preferred form of social interaction among young adults (e.g., Harley et al., 2007; Haste, 2005; Lister, 2010; Sierkowski & Wood, 2011). Perhaps the greatest appeal of texting is its convenience – it is easily possible to communicate with anyone, regardless of either party’s location. However, the convenience of texting has opened a door to an important safety issue: texting while driving. The context of safety has been a prime focus for much of the recent research on texting (e.g., Drews, Yazdani, Godfrey, Cooper, & Strayer, 2009), but less attention has been focused on the consequences of other kinds of problematic texting. Although the safety implications of texting and driving are apparent, other texting behaviors may lead to adverse social, physical, health, or interpersonal consequences. Due to these potential effects, there is a need for other types of problematic texting to be better researched. In this study, we examined a variety of problematic texting behaviors in addition to those related to texting and driving, and analyzed them in the context of individual differences such as personality, need for cognition, and age. Previous work has minimally examined texting and individual differences, and because of this, the present findings are largely exploratory in nature. We argue that, to better understand a common and complex behavior such as texting, the relationships among texting behaviors and individual differences must be explored. Because young adults aged 18-25 tend to text most frequently (Ling, 2010), we surveyed 242 (55% female) undergraduate college students’ texting habits. In addition, we collected their responses to examine individual differences in age, gender, personality, and need for cognition. Generally, age showed a negative association with most of the problematic texting habits we measured, most notably texting in class, texting while walking, and texting to cheat on assignments. As compared to females, males tended to report higher rates of texting when in their vehicle (but not while driving), when bored, to send sexual messages (“sexting”), or to threaten others. Extraversion was generally positively associated with texting while driving, and neuroticism was positively associated with various socially problematic texting behaviors (such as during face-to-face conversations). These two dimensions of personality have been shown to be related to the types of text messages people send (Holtgraves, 2014). Need for cognition was negatively associated with a majority of the socially problematic texting behaviors we examined. Given that texting is more than just a social behavior, this study extends the previous research on texting with a look at less well-researched texting behaviors from an individual differences perspective. In addition to individual differences, these behaviors were examined in terms of participant endorsement rate. Participants showed high endorsement rates for dangerous behaviors, such as texting in the car when in traffic (65%), or while walking alone (89%). Further results and implications for human factors and future research are discussed

Production of Lambda and Sigma^0 hyperons in proton-proton collisions

This paper reports results on simultaneous measurements of the reaction channels pp -> pK+\Lambda and pp -> pK+\Sigma^0 at excess energies of 204, 239, and 284 MeV (\Lambda) and 127, 162, and 207 MeV (\Sigma^0). Total and differential cross sections are given for both reactions. It is concluded from the measured total cross sections that the high energy limit of the cross section ratio is almost reached at an excess energy of only about 200 MeV. From the differential distributions observed in the overall CMS as well as in the Jackson and helicity frames, a significant contribution of interfering nucleon resonances to the \Lambda production mechanism is concluded while resonant \Sigma^0-production seems to be of lesser importance and takes place only through specific partial waves of the entrance channel. The data also indicate that kaon exchange plays a minor role in the case of \Lambda- but an important role for \Sigma^0-production. Thus the peculiar energy dependence of the \Lambda-to-\Sigma^0 cross section ratio appears in a new light as its explanation requires more than mere differences between the p\Lambda and the p\Sigma^0 final state interaction. The data provide a benchmark for theoretical models already available or yet to come.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures; accepted by The European Physical Journal A (EPJ A

Restricting detergent protease action to surface of protein fibres by chemical modification

Due to their excellent properties, such as thermostability, activity over a broad range of pH and efficient stain removal, proteases from Bacillus sp. are commonly used in the textile industry including industrial processes and laundry and represent one of the most important groups of enzymes. However, due to the action of proteases, severe damage on natural protein fibres such as silk and wool result after washing with detergents containing proteases. To include the benefits of proteases in a wool fibre friendly detergent formulation, the soluble polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) was covalently attached to a protease from Bacillus licheniformis. In contrast to activation of PEG with cyanuric chloride (50%) activation with 1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) lead to activity recovery above 90%. With these modified enzymes, hydrolytic attack on wool fibres could be successfully prevented up to 95% compared to the native enzymes. Colour difference (ΔE) measured in the three dimensional colour space showed good stain removal properties for the modified enzymes. Furthermore, half-life of the modified enzymes in buffers and commercial detergents solutions was nearly twice as high as those of the non-modified enzymes with values of up to 63 min. Out of the different modified proteases especially the B. licheniformis protease with the 2.0-kDa polymer attached both retained stain removal properties and did not hydrolyse/damage wool fibres

A Synthesis of Tagging Studies Examining the Behaviour and Survival of Anadromous Salmonids in Marine Environments

This paper synthesizes tagging studies to highlight the current state of knowledge concerning the behaviour and survival of anadromous salmonids in the marine environment. Scientific literature was reviewed to quantify the number and type of studies that have investigated behaviour and survival of anadromous forms of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brown trout (Salmo trutta), steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). We examined three categories of tags including electronic (e.g. acoustic, radio, archival), passive (e.g. external marks, Carlin, coded wire, passive integrated transponder [PIT]), and biological (e.g. otolith, genetic, scale, parasites). Based on 207 papers, survival rates and behaviour in marine environments were found to be extremely variable spatially and temporally, with some of the most influential factors being temperature, population, physiological state, and fish size. Salmonids at all life stages were consistently found to swim at an average speed of approximately one body length per second, which likely corresponds with the speed at which transport costs are minimal. We found that there is relatively little research conducted on open-ocean migrating salmonids, and some species (e.g. masu [O. masou] and amago [O. rhodurus]) are underrepresented in the literature. The most common forms of tagging used across life stages were various forms of external tags, coded wire tags, and acoustic tags, however, the majority of studies did not measure tagging/handling effects on the fish, tag loss/failure, or tag detection probabilities when estimating survival. Through the interdisciplinary application of existing and novel technologies, future research examining the behaviour and survival of anadromous salmonids could incorporate important drivers such as oceanography, tagging/handling effects, predation, and physiology

Brazilian Consensus on Photoprotection

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions with a large heterogeneity of climates and massive mixing of the population. Almost the entire national territory is located between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Earth axial tilt to the south certainly makes Brazil one of the countries of the world with greater extent of land in proximity to the sun. The Brazilian coastline, where most of its population lives, is more than 8,500 km long. Due to geographic characteristics and cultural trends, Brazilians are among the peoples with the highest annual exposure to the sun. Epidemiological data show a continuing increase in the incidence of nonmelanoma and melanoma skin cancers. Photoprotection can be understood as a set of measures aimed at reducing sun exposure and at preventing the development of acute and chronic actinic damage. Due to the peculiarities of Brazilian territory and culture, it would not be advisable to replicate the concepts of photoprotection from other developed countries, places with completely different climates and populations. Thus the Brazilian Society of Dermatology has developed the Brazilian Consensus on Photoprotection, the first official document on photoprotection developed in Brazil for Brazilians, with recommendations on matters involving photoprotection

Texting Behind The Wheel And Beyond: A Look At Problematic Habits

Texting while driving is a dangerous behavior that is heavily researched. However, there are other problematic texting habits that are less well-researched. A study was performed to examine other potentially problematic texting behaviors in addition to texting while driving. Furthermore, individual differences in cognition and feelings of control were examined in relation to these texting habits. Participants completed several self-report surveys assessing texting habits, cognitive wisdom, and locus of control. It was found that those who text while driving also tend to text more during a movie, while in class, and while stopped in the car at a red light or traffic jam. It was also found that a somewhat high proportion of participants endorsed potentially problematic texting behaviors such as texting while stopped in the car and texting while about to fall asleep. It was concluded that one of the major issues with problematic texting relates to reductions in situation awareness. Additional human factors implications are discussed