Exploring the Relationship Amongst Sex, Personality Traits, and Cognitive Task Performance

The results of many research studies support the hypothesis that men possess better spatial abilities than women, particularly on versions of the mental rotation task (MRT). However, while this sex difference may hold true for any given sample of men and women from the general population, people within each of these sex categorizations differ on such characteristics as personality traits. These differences in personality can be seen on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS). The current study explored whether these personality traits, as returned by the aforementioned inventories, were better predictors of mental rotation task performance than sex, with a particular emphasis on determining whether women with traditionally “male” personality traits performed equally to men and better than women with stereotypically “female” personality traits on a version of the mental rotation task. Analyses on a sample of men and women (N=101) indicate that while men significantly outperform women on the MRT (p\u3c.001), women with the greatest number of “male” traits perform no differently from men, though they do not outperform women with fewer “male” traits on the MRT. Furthermore, certain personality traits yielded a significant model for predicting MRT performance—Openness/Intellect was a stronger predictor of MRT performance than sex. These results suggest that personality factors, not sex alone, may be a factor in determining spatial ability as measured by the MRT

Contour measurement system

A measurement system for measuring the departures from a straight line of discrete track sections of a track along a coal face in a mine employing a vehicle having a pair of spaced wheel assemblies which align with the track is presented. A reference arm pivotally connects between the wheel assemblies, and there is indicating means for measuring the angle of pivot between the arm and each of the wheel assemblies. The length of the device is less than the length of a track section, and thus when one of the wheel assemblies is on one track section and one is on an adjoining track section, the sum of the indicated angles will be indicative of the angle between track sections. Thus, from the length of a track section and angle, the departure of each track section from the line may be calculated

Experiential Learning Framework for Smaller Computer Science Programs

Experiential learning (EL) permeates the Computer Science discipline. This work seeks to codify EL practices for computer science pedagogy into ve key pillars. These pillars have been successfully applied at a small to mid-sized college within the heavily competitive Boston area. This paper further describes how a computer science department may eectively implement the pillars in their own curriculum

Noncontacting devices to indicate deflection and vibration of turbopump internal rotating parts

Published report discusses feasibility of ultrasonic techniques; neutron techniques; X-radiography; optical devices; gamma ray devices; and conventional displacement sensors. Use of signal transmitters in place of slip rings indicated possible improvement and will be subject of futher study

Prediction for new magnetoelectric fluorides

We use symmetry considerations in order to predict new magnetoelectric fluorides. In addition to these magnetoelectric properties, we discuss among these fluorides the ones susceptible to present multiferroic properties. We emphasize that several materials present ferromagnetic properties. This ferromagnetism should enhance the interplay between magnetic and dielectric properties in these materials.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, To appear in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

Policy-Based Redactable Signatures

In this work we make progress towards solving an open problem posed by Bilzhause et. al, to give constructions of redactable signature schemes that allow the signer to limit the possible redactions performed by a third party. A separate, but related notion, called controlled disclosure allows a redactor to limit future redactions. We look at two types of data, sets and linear data (data organized as a sequence). In the case of sets, we limit redactions using a policy modeled by a monotone circuit or any circuit depending on the size of the universe the set is drawn from. In the case of linear data, we give a linear construction from vector commitments that limits redactions using a policy modeled as a monotone circuit. Our constructions have the attractive feature that they are built using only blackbox techniques

Constrained Pseudorandom Functions from Pseudorandom Synthesizers

In this paper we resolve the question of whether or not constrained pseudorandom functions (CPRFs) can be built directly from pseudorandom synthesizers. In particular, we demonstrate that the generic PRF construction from pseudorandom synthesizers due to Naor and Reingold can be used to construct CPRFs with bit-fixed predicates using the direct-line\u27\u27 approach. We further introduce a property of CPRFs that may be of independent interest