Facial visualizations of women’s voices suggest a cross-modality preference for femininity

Women with higher-pitched voices and more feminine facial features are commonly judged as being more attractive than are women with lower-pitched voices and less feminine faces, possibly because both features are affected by (age-related) variations in endocrine status. These results are primarily derived from investigations of perceptions of variations in single-modality stimuli (i.e., faces or voices) in samples of young adult women. In the present study we sought to test whether male and female perceptions of women’s voices affect visual representations of facial femininity. Eighty men and women judged voice recordings of 10 young girls (11-15 years), 10 adult women (19-28 years) and 10 peri-/post-menopausal women (50-64 years) on age, attractiveness, and femininity. Another 80 men and women were asked to indicate the face they think each voice corresponded to using a video that gradually changed from a masculine looking male face into a feminine looking female face. Both male and female participants perceived voices of young girls and adult women to be significantly younger, more attractive and feminine than those of peri-/post-menopausal women. Hearing young girls’ and adult women’s voices resulted in both men and women selecting faces that differed markedly in apparent femininity from those associated with peri-/post-menopausal women’s voices. Voices of young girls had the strongest effect on visualizations of facial femininity. Our results suggest a cross-modal preference for women’s vocal and facial femininity, which depends on female age and is independent of the perceiver’s sex

QC-DMRG study of the ionic--neutral curve crossing of LiF

We have studied the ionic--neutral curve crossing between the two lowest ^1 Sigma^+ states of LiF in order to demonstrate the efficiency of the quantum chemistry version of the density matrix renormalization group method (QC-DMRG). We show that QC-DMRG is capable to calculate the ground and several low-lying excited state energies within the error margin set up in advance of the calculation, while with standard quantum chemical methods it is difficult to obtain a good approximation to Full CI property values at the point of the avoided crossing. We have calculated the dipole moment as a function of bond length, which in fact provides a smooth and continuous curve even close to the avoided crossing, in contrast to other standard numerical treatments.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Diverse and rich fortified cultural heritage of the Iberian Peninsula. Basis for culture tourism with the European Culture Route Fortified Monuments FORTE CULTURA®

[EN] Fortresses are architectural pearls, cultural sites, event locations, experience places and memorials, mostly situated at breath-taking places on mountains, rivers or in the under-ground. Fortresses are monuments of common European history, they mirror the past into the present, connect cultures and offer deep insights into the historical conflicts. Fortified monuments are part of what makes Europe unique and attractive. This cultural heritage has to be preserved and made accessible for the culture tourism at the same time. The Iberian fortified heritage has big potential for new culture touristic topics and travel routes away from mass tourism. Therefore, cultural routes are a useful instrument. The European Culture Route Fortified Monuments –FORTE CULTURA®– is the European umbrella brand for fortress tourism. It offers useful instruments for international marketing of fortified monuments. The implementation of the attractive architectura militaris of the Iberian Peninsula into the culture route FORTE CULTURA® makes it possible to network this culture asset touristically, make it visible and experienceable on international tourism markets and market it Europe-wide. By implementing a new touristic regional brand “FORTE CULTURA – Iberian Fortified Heritage” the qualified culture tourism will be addressed. This supports a balance between over and under presented monuments and extends the sphere of activity of local actors onto whole Europe.Neumann, H.; Röder, D.; Röder, H. (2020). Diverse and rich fortified cultural heritage of the Iberian Peninsula. Basis for culture tourism with the European Culture Route Fortified Monuments FORTE CULTURA®. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 971-976. https://doi.org/10.4995/FORTMED2020.2020.11394OCS97197

Geometric Invariant Theory based on Weil Divisors

Given an action of a reductive group on a normal variety, we construct all invariant open subsets admitting a good quotient with a quasiprojective or a divisorial quotient space. Our approach extends known constructions like Mumford's Geometric Invariant Theory. We obtain several new Hilbert-Mumford type theorems, and we extend a projectivity criterion of Bialynicki-Birula and Swiecicka for varieties with semisimple group action from the smooth to the singular case.Comment: Final version, to appear in Compositio Mat

Spin correlation functions in random-exchange s=1/2 XXZ chains

The decay of (disorder-averaged) static spin correlation functions at T=0 for the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XXZ antiferromagnet with uniform longitudinal coupling $J\Delta$ and random transverse coupling $J\lambda_i$ is investigated by numerical calculations for ensembles of finite chains. At $\Delta=0$ (XX model) the calculation is based on the Jordan-Wigner mapping to free lattice fermions for chains with up to N=100 sites. At $\Delta \neq 0$ Lanczos diagonalizations are carried out for chains with up to N=22 sites. The longitudinal correlation function is found to exhibit a power-law decay with an exponent that varies with $\Delta$ and, for nonzero $\Delta$, also with the width of the $\lambda_i$-distribution. The results for the transverse correlation function show a crossover from power-law decay to exponential decay as the exchange disorder is turned on.Comment: RevTex manuscript (7 pages), 4 postscript figure