Are women better than men at multi-tasking?

Background: There seems to be a common belief that women are better in multi-tasking than men, but there is practically no scientific research on this topic. Here, we tested whether women have better multi-tasking skills than men.<p></p> Methods: In Experiment 1, we compared performance of 120 women and 120 men in a computer-based task-switching paradigm. In Experiment 2, we compared a different group of 47 women and 47 men on "paper-and-pencil" multi-tasking tests.<p></p> Results: In Experiment 1, both men and women performed more slowly when two tasks were rapidly interleaved than when the two tasks were performed separately. Importantly, this slow down was significantly larger in the male participants (Cohen’s d = 0.27). In an everyday multi-tasking scenario (Experiment 2), men and women did not differ significantly at solving simple arithmetic problems, searching for restaurants on a map, or answering general knowledge questions on the phone, but women were significantly better at devising strategies for locating a lost key (Cohen’s d = 0.49).<p></p> Conclusions: Women outperform men in these multi-tasking paradigms, but the near lack of empirical studies on gender differences in multitasking should caution against making strong generalisations. Instead, we hope that other researchers will aim to replicate and elaborate on our findings.<p></p&gt

Prediction of 24-hour milk yield and composition in dairy cows from a single part-day yield and sample

peer-reviewedTeagasc PublicationIrish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research | Volume 58: Issue 1 Prediction of 24-hour milk yield and composition in dairy cows from a single part-day yield and sample S. McParlandemail , B. Coughlan , B. Enright , M. O’Keeffe , R. O’Connor , L. Feeney and D.P. Berry DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijafr-2019-0007 | Published online: 09 Aug 2019 PDF Abstract Article PDF References Recommendations Abstract The objective was to evaluate the accuracy of predicting 24-hour milk yield and composition from a single morning (AM) or evening (PM) milk weight and composition. A calibration dataset of 37,481 test-day records with both AM and PM yields and composition was used to generate the prediction equations; equations were validated using 4,644 test-day records. Prediction models were developed within stage of lactation and parity while accounting for the inter-milking time interval. The mean correlation between the predicted 24-hour yields and composition of milk, fat and protein and the respective actual values was 0.97 when based on just an AM milk yield and composition with a mean correlation of 0.95 when based on just a PM milk yield and composition. The regression of predicted 24-hour yield and composition on the respective actual values varied from 0.97 to 1.01 with the exception of 24-hour fat percentage predicted from a PM sample (1.06). A single AM sample is useful to predict 24-hour milk yield and composition when the milking interval is known

Degradation and breakdown characteristics of thin MgO dielectric layers

MgO has been suggested as a possible high-k dielectric for future complementary metal-oxide semiconductor processes. In this work, the time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics of 20 nm MgO films are discussed. Stress induced leakage current measurements indicate that the low measured Weibull slopes of the TDDB distributions for both n-type and p-type devices cannot be attributed to a lower trap generation rate than for SiO2. This suggests that much fewer defects are required to trigger breakdown in MgO under voltage stress than is the case for SiO2 or other metal-oxide dielectrics. This in turn explains the progressive nature of the breakdown in these films which is observed both in this work and elsewhere. The reason fewer defects are required is attributed to the morphology of the films

Dimensional Reduction, Hard Thermal Loops and the Renormalization Group

We study the realization of dimensional reduction and the validity of the hard thermal loop expansion for lambda phi^4 theory at finite temperature, using an environmentally friendly finite-temperature renormalization group with a fiducial temperature as flow parameter. The one-loop renormalization group allows for a consistent description of the system at low and high temperatures, and in particular of the phase transition. The main results are that dimensional reduction applies, apart from a range of temperatures around the phase transition, at high temperatures (compared to the zero temperature mass) only for sufficiently small coupling constants, while the HTL expansion is valid below (and rather far from) the phase transition, and, again, at high temperatures only in the case of sufficiently small coupling constants. We emphasize that close to the critical temperature, physics is completely dominated by thermal fluctuations that are not resummed in the hard thermal loop approach and where universal quantities are independent of the parameters of the fundamental four-dimensional theory.Comment: 20 pages, 13 eps figures, uses epsfig and pstrick

Energy-Aware Cloud Management through Progressive SLA Specification

Novel energy-aware cloud management methods dynamically reallocate computation across geographically distributed data centers to leverage regional electricity price and temperature differences. As a result, a managed VM may suffer occasional downtimes. Current cloud providers only offer high availability VMs, without enough flexibility to apply such energy-aware management. In this paper we show how to analyse past traces of dynamic cloud management actions based on electricity prices and temperatures to estimate VM availability and price values. We propose a novel SLA specification approach for offering VMs with different availability and price values guaranteed over multiple SLAs to enable flexible energy-aware cloud management. We determine the optimal number of such SLAs as well as their availability and price guaranteed values. We evaluate our approach in a user SLA selection simulation using Wikipedia and Grid'5000 workloads. The results show higher customer conversion and 39% average energy savings per VM.Comment: 14 pages, conferenc

Interactive Effects of Trait Self-Control and Stress Appraisals on Blood Pressure Responses to a Laboratory Stressor

Purpose: Stress may play a role in explaining part of the conscientiousness-longevity relationship. Conscientiousness (C) is associated with the appraisals of stressors and its lower-order facets have been shown to differentially moderate the experience of stress in daily life. This study investigated whether the lower-order facet, self-control (SC), moderated the relationship between stress appraisals and blood pressure responses to a laboratory stressor. Methods: Ninety participants (selected from the upper and lower quartiles for C scores from a sample of 679 participants) were invited to complete the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were assessed throughout the stress task. Stress appraisals were assessed at baseline. Results: Blood pressure responses to the MAST were similar in participants who scored high and low in SC. However, primary appraisals were negatively associated with BP reactivity and recovery in the high SC group but not in the low SC group. Moreover, SC was found to moderate the relationship between primary appraisals and SBP and DBP reactivity values, such that higher primary appraisals were associated with lower BP reactivity in individuals high in SC but not in those low in SC. In addition, lower SBP recovery values were observed in the high SC group compared to their low SC counterparts. Conclusions: These findings indicate that SC may influence health status by modifying the relationship between perceived demands and blood pressure. Moreover, having a greater stake in stressors may yield health benefits in the longer term for individuals high in SC

Controlled functional expression of the bacteriocins pediocin PA-1 and bactofencin A in Escherichia coli

peer-reviewedThe bacteriocins bactofencin A (class IId) and pediocin PA-1 (class IIa) are encoded by operons with a similarly clustered gene organization including a structural peptide, an immunity protein, an ABC transporter and accessory bacteriocin transporter protein. Cloning of these operons in E. coli TunerTM (DE3) on a pETcoco-2 derived vector resulted in successful secretion of both bacteriocins. A corresponding approach, involving the construction of vectors containing different combinations of these genes, revealed that the structural and the transporter genes alone are sufficient to permit heterologous production and secretion in this host. Even though the accessory protein, usually associated with optimal disulfide bond formation, was not required for bacteriocin synthesis, its presence did result in greater pediocin PA-1 production. The simplicity of the system and the fact that the associated bacteriocins could be recovered from the extracellular medium provides an opportunity to facilitate protein engineering and the overproduction of biologically-active bacteriocins at industrial scale. Additionally, this system could enable the characterization of new bacteriocin operons where genetic tools are not available for the native producers

A REVIEW OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF MODIFIED SYSTEMS FOR IRELAND. ESRI BROADSHEET No. 21, October 1983

The first chapter of this paper discusses the reasons for heavy government involvement in agricultural production and trade throughout the world and concludes that the answer is basically related to what farmers produce -- food. Food is a basic primary want and rightly or wrongly there seems to be an innate feat" that without market intervention supplies will be erratic and so sometimes scarce

Examining Superintendent Turnover Intent: A Quantitative Analysis of the Relationship Between Exchange Commitment and the Turnover Intent of Public School Superintendents in Texas

Quality leadership in a school district is critical to school improvement (Dunlap, Li, & Kladifko, 2015; Kersten, 2009; Leithwood, Seashore, Anderson, & Wahlstom, 2004). School leaders must be capable of providing vision, focus, and support to their staff, in order to facilitate a positive working culture, and achieve sustainable academic success. Given the competitive nature and complexities of building a quality workforce, when a quality leader is hired, it is typically in the best interest of an organization to retain this talent. However, planning for employee retention requires a detailed understanding as to why an individual desires to leave their current job (Hackett, 2015). This can prove to be even more challenging in school systems where applicant pools are often limited