Shock treatment: using immersive digital realism to restage and re-examine Milgram's 'obedience to authority' research

This is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.Attempts to revisit Milgram's 'Obedience to Authority' (OtA) paradigm present serious ethical challenges. In recent years new paradigms have been developed to circumvent these challenges but none involve using Milgram's own procedures and asking naïve participants to deliver the maximum level of shock. This was achieved in the present research by using Immersive Digital Realism (IDR) to revisit the OtA paradigm. IDR is a dramatic method that involves a director collaborating with professional actors to develop characters, the strategic withholding of contextual information, and immersion in a real-world environment. 14 actors took part in an IDR study in which they were assigned to conditions that restaged Milgrams's New Baseline ('Coronary') condition and four other variants. Post-experimental interviews also assessed participants' identification with Experimenter and Learner. Participants' behaviour closely resembled that observed in Milgram's original research. In particular, this was evidenced by (a) all being willing to administer shocks greater than 150 volts, (b) near-universal refusal to continue after being told by the Experimenter that "you have no other choice, you must continue" (Milgram's fourth prod and the one most resembling an order), and (c) a strong correlation between the maximum level of shock that participants administered and the mean maximum shock delivered in the corresponding variant in Milgram's own research. Consistent with an engaged follower account, relative identification with the Experimenter (vs. the Learner) was also a good predictor of the maximum shock that participants administered.The main work on this paper was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council to KM and SDR (“Reinterpreting Milgram’s Obedience Studies via Documentary Film”; DP1301108). Additional funding was provided by the Australian Research Council to SAH (“An Advanced Social Identity Approach”; FL110100199) and by the Economic and Social Research Council to SDR (“Beyond the Banality of Evil”; ES/L003104/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

An ECOOP web portal for visualising and comparing distributed coastal oceanography model and in situ data

As part of a large European coastal operational oceanography project (ECOOP), we have developed a web portal for the display and comparison of model and in situ marine data. The distributed model and in situ datasets are accessed via an Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) respectively. These services were developed independently and readily integrated for the purposes of the ECOOP project, illustrating the ease of interoperability resulting from adherence to international standards. The key feature of the portal is the ability to display co-plotted timeseries of the in situ and model data and the quantification of misfits between the two. By using standards-based web technology we allow the user to quickly and easily explore over twenty model data feeds and compare these with dozens of in situ data feeds without being concerned with the low level details of differing file formats or the physical location of the data. Scientific and operational benefits to this work include model validation, quality control of observations, data assimilation and decision support in near real time. In these areas it is essential to be able to bring different data streams together from often disparate locations

An Intelligent Advisor for City Traffic Policies

Nowadays, city streets are populated not only by private vehicles but also by public transport, fleets of workers, and deliveries. Since each vehicle class has a maximum cargo capacity, we study in this article how authorities could improve the road traffic by endorsing long term policies to change the different vehicle proportions: sedans, minivans, full size vans, trucks, and motorbikes, without losing the ability of moving cargo throughout the city. We have performed our study in a realistic scenario (map, road traffic characteristics, and number of vehicles) of the city of Malaga and captured the many details into the SUMO microsimulator. After analyzing the relationship between travel times, emissions, and fuel consumption, we have defined a multiobjective optimization problem to be solved, so as to minimize these city metrics. Our results provide a scientific evidence that we can improve the delivery of goods in the city by reducing the number of heavy duty vehicles and fostering the use of vans instead.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This research has been partially funded by the Spanish MINECO and FEDER projects TIN2014-57341-R, TIN2016-81766-REDT, and TIN2017-88213-R. University of Malaga, Andalucia TECH. Daniel H. Stolfi is supported by a FPU grant (FPU13/00954) from the Spanish MECD. Christian Cintrano is supported by a FPI grant (BES-2015-074805) from Spanish MINECO

Culturally Diverse Teaching Competence Of Teachers As Perceived By Students At An International University In Thailand

As higher education institutions deal with the increase of international students, teachers areincreasingly concerned with the potential challenges in dealing with teaching and learning ina culturally diverse classroom. The purpose of this study is to examine the level of culturallydiverse teaching competence of teachers in international higher education institutions. Thecultural diverse teaching competence is measured based on the five dimensions typology ofmulticultural education. They are awareness, relationship, instruction, respect, and prejudice.A cross-sectional survey design was employed with a sample of 241 participants was takenfrom a university located in Thailand. The results of the students thought that teachers weremost competent at building respect for diversity and that teachers were least competent atgeneral cultural awareness and combating prejudice. In addition, the majority of studentscome from single cultural and become more multicultural as they progress through school.Lastly, there were differences in cultural competence when comparisons were made byfaculty

Mortality differences and inequalities within and between 'protected characteristics' groups, in a Scottish Cohort 1991-2009

Background: Little is known about the interaction between socio-economic status and 'protected characteristics' in Scotland. This study aimed to examine whether differences in mortality were moderated by interactions with social class or deprivation. The practical value was to pinpoint population groups for priority action on health inequality reduction and health improvement rather than a sole focus on the most deprived socioeconomic groups. Methods: We used data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study which captures a 5.3 % sample of Scotland and links the censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011. Hazard ratios for mortality were estimated for those protected characteristics with sufficient deaths using Cox proportional hazards models and through the calculation of European age-standardised mortality rates. Inequality was measured by calculating the Relative Index of Inequality (RII). Results: The Asian population had a polarised distribution across deprivation deciles and was more likely to be in social class I and II. Those reporting disablement were more likely to live in deprived areas, as were those raised Roman Catholic, whilst those raised as Church of Scotland or as 'other Christian' were less likely to. Those aged 35-54 years were the least likely to live in deprived areas and were most likely to be in social class I and II. Males had higher mortality than females, and disabled people had higher mortality than non-disabled people, across all deprivation deciles and social classes. Asian males and females had generally lower mortality hazards than majority ethnic ('White') males and females although the estimates for Asian males and females were imprecise in some social classes and deprivation deciles. Males and females who reported their raised religion as Roman Catholic or reported 'No religion' had generally higher mortality than other groups, although the estimates for 'Other religion' and 'Other Christian' were less precise. Using both the area deprivation and social class distributions for the whole population, relative mortality inequalities were usually greater amongst those who did not report being disabled, Asians and females aged 35-44 years, males by age, and people aged <75 years. The RIIs for the raised religious groups were generally similar or too imprecise to comment on differences. Conclusions: Mortality in Scotland is higher in the majority population, disabled people, males, those reporting being raised as Roman Catholics or with 'no religion' and lower in Asians, females and other religious groups. Relative inequalities in mortality were lower in disabled than nondisabled people, the majority population, females, and greatest in young adults. From the perspective of intersectionality theory, our results clearly demonstrate the importance of representing multiple identities in research on health inequalities.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

On the importance of training data sample selection in Random Forest image classification: A case study in peatland ecosystem mapping

Random Forest (RF) is a widely used algorithm for classification of remotely sensed data. Through a case study in peatland classification using LiDAR derivatives, we present an analysis of the effects of input data characteristics on RF classifications (including RF out-ofbag error, independent classification accuracy and class proportion error). Training data selection and specific input variables (i.e., image channels) have a large impact on the overall accuracy of the image classification. High-dimension datasets should be reduced so that only uncorrelated important variables are used in classifications. Despite the fact that RF is an ensemble approach, independent error assessments should be used to evaluate RF results, and iterative classifications are recommended to assess the stability of predicted classes. Results are also shown to be highly sensitive to the size of the training data set. In addition to being as large as possible, the training data sets used in RF classification should also be (a) randomly distributed or created in a manner that allows for the class proportions of the training data to be representative of actual class proportions in the landscape; and (b) should have minimal spatial autocorrelation to improve classification results and to mitigate inflated estimates of RF out-of-bag classification accuracy

Charcoal production during the Norse and early medieval periods in Eyjafjallahreppur, Southern Iceland

Timber procurement and the use of woodlands is a key issue in the Norse and Medieval period in the North Atlantic islands. This paper outlines evidence for the timing and mechanisms of Norse deforestation in an area of southern Iceland which is tracked through the mapping and analysis of charcoal production pits. Precise dating of the use of these charcoal production pits within a Bayesian framework is demonstrated through the combination of tephrochronology, sediment accumulation rates and multiple radiocarbon dates on the archaeological charcoal. The implications for using charcoal as a dating medium for radiocarbon dating in Iceland and the wider North Atlantic are then explored. Finally, the nature of the deforestation and human impact on the environment is placed into the context of the Norse landnám across the North Atlantic

Navigational Hypertext Models For Physical Hypermedia Environments

In this paper we identify a common aim between ubiquitous computing and hypertext systems: the desire to present navigable, located and structured information. We propose that existing navigational hypertext models might be valuable as a formalisation of ubiquitous information and explore the challenges of applying standard hypertext operations, such as anchor resolution, display and link traversal, to links that have physical anchors

The effectiveness of emergency obstetric referral interventions in developing country settings : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD