Comparing Australians’ and Americans’ Abilities to Detect Deception across Cultures and Communication Media

The reach of global communication is expanding through the growing availability of smartphones. Smartphones are particularly popular for texting and voice/video calls, and their affordability means that more and more people around the world can now communicate with each other. Yet with the spread of global communication also comes increased exposure to deceptive communication. Can people in one culture accurately detect deception across cultures? And does the communication media they use play a role in their detection accuracy? We attempt to answer these two research questions in a study of Australian and US judges who were asked to detect deception in Australians and Americans, across four different media: full audiovisual, video only, audio only, and text. We found that both Australians and Americans could accurately detect deception at about the same rate across both cultures, and they were better at detection when exposed to full audiovisual stimuli compared to text

Attosecond electronic and nuclear quantum photodynamics of ozone: time-dependent Dyson orbitals and dipole

A nonadiabatic scheme for the description of the coupled electron and nuclear motions in the ozone molecule was proposed recently. An initial coherent nonstationary state was prepared as a superposition of the ground state and the excited Hartley band. In this situation neither the electrons nor the nuclei are in a stationary state. The multiconfiguration time dependent Hartree method was used to solve the coupled nuclear quantum dynamics in the framework of the adiabatic separation of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. The resulting wave packet shows an oscillation of the electron density between the two chemical bonds. As a first step for probing the electronic motion we computed the time-dependent molecular dipole and the Dyson orbitals. The latter play an important role in the explanation of the photoelectron angular distribution. Calculations of the Dyson orbitals are presented both for the time-independent as well as the time-dependent situations. We limited our description of the electronic motion to the Franck-Condon region only due to the localization of the nuclear wave packets around this point during the first 5-6 fs

The role of quantum fluctuations in the optomechanical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring cavity

We analyze a detailed model of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a ring optical resonator and contrast its classical and quantum properties to those of a Fabry-P{\'e}rot geometry. The inclusion of two counter-propagating light fields and three matter field modes leads to important differences between the two situations. Specifically, we identify an experimentally realizable region where the system's behavior differs strongly from that of a BEC in a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity, and also where quantum corrections become significant. The classical dynamics are rich, and near bifurcation points in the mean-field classical system, the quantum fluctuations have a major impact on the system's dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR

Comparison of MEMS switches and PIN diodes for switched dual tuned RF coils

PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) switches against PIN diodes for switching a dual-tuned RF coil between19F and1H resonant frequencies for multi-nuclear lung imaging. METHODS: A four-element fixed-phase and amplitude transmit-receive RF coil was constructed to provide homogeneous excitation across the lungs, and to serve as a test system for various switching methods. The MR imaging and RF performance of the coil when switched between the19F and1H frequencies using MEMS switches, PIN diodes and hardwired configurations were compared. RESULTS: The performance of the coil with MEMS or PIN diode switching was comparable in terms of RF measurements, transmit efficiency and image SNR on both19F and1H nuclei. When the coil was not switched to the resonance frequency of the respective nucleus being imaged, reductions in the transmit efficiency were observed of 32% at the19F frequency and 12% at the1H frequency. The coil provides transmit field homogeneity of ±12.9% at the1H frequency and ±14.4% at the19F frequency in phantoms representing the thorax with the air space of the lungs filled with perfluoropropane gas. CONCLUSION: MEMS and PIN diodes were found to provide comparable performance in on-state configuration, while MEMS were more robust in off-state high-powered operation (>1 kW), providing higher isolation and requiring a lower DC switching voltage than is needed for reverse biasing of PIN diodes. In addition, clear benefits of switching between the19F and1H resonances were demonstrated, despite the proximity of their Larmor frequencies

New algorithms for optimizing and linking conical intersection points

In this paper we present two new algorithms to study the extended nature of the crossing seam between electronic potential energy surfaces. The first algorithm is designed to optimize conical intersection geometries: both minima and saddle points. In addition, this method will optimize conical intersection geometries using arbitrary geometrical constraints. We demonstrate its potential on different crossing seams of benzene, z-penta-3,5-dleniminium, and 1,3-butadiene. The second algorithm is designed to explicitly compute the intersection-space minimum energy coordinate. Our computations show how an intersection seam and the energy along it can be unambiguously defined. A finite region of the S0/S11,3-butadiene crossing seam has been mapped out, and a new saddle point linked with two lower-lying geometries on the sea

The “secret” impact of population statistics on the metrics of diabetes

The accuracy of disease metrics is dependent on the quality of population-based data. Many diseases, including diabetes, are age and sex dependant. Accurate age- and sexspecific population survey data, population estimates and projections are required to assess the scale and trends in the burden of these diseases. No assessment of the quality of population data being used in the UAE diabetes metrics has been published. We provide insight into the availability and quality of published population data, which is currently being used to inform diabetes research and health services planning in the UAE. We show the absence of credible population-based data impedes the accurate assessment of disease prevalence, incidence and trends. This means that many statements about the burden of this disease in relative and absolute terms are not robust. There has been only one study of sufficient reliability of the prevalence of diabetes in the UAE and this was undertaken in 2000. Hence the calculation and reporting of trends is problematic. Population estimates for the UAE are based on out of date data and are extremely variable. Population projections for the UAE and other Middle East countries with large expatriate labour forces are improbable. The clinical and other implications of accurate population-based metrics are wide reaching. If prevalence rates are to be used to guide public policy and infrastructure planning, then we need to use valid data, including population and population-based data. Whilst specific reference is made to diabetes, and the issues affecting the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries of the Middle East; the impact of inaccurate population–based metrics have application in other regions, and other diseases

Niche evolution and diversification in a Neotropical radiation of birds (Aves: Furnariidae)

© 2017 The Author(s). Evolution © 2017 The Society for the Study of Evolution. Rapid diversification may be caused by ecological adaptive radiation via niche divergence. In this model, speciation is coupled with niche divergence and lineage diversification is predicted to be correlated with rates of niche evolution. Studies of the role of niche evolution in diversification have generally focused on ecomorphological diversification but climatic-niche evolution may also be important. We tested these alternatives using a phylogeny of 298 species of ovenbirds (Aves: Furnariidae). We found that within Furnariidae, variation in species richness and diversification rates of subclades were best predicted by rate of climatic-niche evolution than ecomorphological evolution. Although both are clearly important, univariate regression and multivariate model averaging more consistently supported the climatic-niche as the best predictor of lineage diversification. Our study adds to the growing body of evidence, suggesting that climatic-niche divergence may be an important driver of rapid diversification in addition to ecomorphological evolution. However, this pattern may depend on the phylogenetic scale at which rate heterogeneity is examined

Intellectual tradition and misunderstanding: the development of academic theology on the Trinity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

This study is concerned with the development of a distinct and coherent tradition of thought on the Trinity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The strength of this tradition was such that, in a significant number of cases, it actually prevented theologians from being able to see the real issues before them. When theologians in the thirteenth century come to put forward their interpretations of the statement on the Trinity issued by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, they are severely hampered in their ability to do so because of their preoccupation with an argument about the divine essence which is, at the most, tangential in the Lateran decree itself. Their interpretations are so wide of the mark as to constitute nothing less than a case of collective misunderstanding. This raises questions about rationality and hermeneutics which are not as easily answerable as they first appear. The difficulty arises because it is just possible to discern a conceptual link between the skewed interpretation offered by these theologians and the issues addressed in the Lateran decree as they appear to us today. It is almost as if theologians considered their version to be legitimate because they saw an intrinsic link between the issues of divine unity and divine generation, the main concerns of the decree and academic theologians respectively. What gives credence to this possibility is that these issues were themselves often inseparable in the development of trinitarian theology in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Much of the coherence of the tradition of academic theology of the Trinity derived from a recurrent preoccupation with the question of whether the divine essence begets. In certain crucial instances, the answer to this question was determined with reference to the doctrine of divine unity. The idea was that the generation of the essence would impair irretrievably the absolute unity of essence which was beginning to emerge as the dominant view of divine unity. The Lateran Council's statement on the doctrine can only be understood within this wider theological context. It is no longer possible to attribute this statement to Pope Innocent III's wish to bolster the authority of Peter Lombard. Innocent himself borrowed from Joachim's trinitarian theology, making it almost inconceivable that he would have later wished to condemn the same theologian. Only by giving less attention to the personalities involved and more to the issues themselves can we realise the full significance of the theological controversies of this period