Student Preferences for Lecturers' Personalities

The present study set out to examine students’ preferences for lecturers’ personality as a function of their classroom behaviour, core self-evaluations and self-rated character strengths. Various hypotheses were tested: first, students’ Big Five traits would significantly predict corresponding personality preferences for lecturers (the matching hypothesis); second, students’ core self-evaluation scores would significantly predict preferences for extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers; and third, self-rated character strengths would also significantly predict extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers. We also investigated difference in preferences among two ethnic groups (South East Asian/Chinese versus Caucasian/British). In all, 264 British students completed four questionnaires. Conscientiousness was the most desired trait in lecturers, followed by agreeableness, extraversion and openness; neuroticism was the least desired trait. Preference for agreeable lecturers was best predicted by all individual difference variables. Caucasian students had a stronger dislike for neurotic lecturers, while Asians had higher preferences for extraverted, open and agreeable lecturers. There was some evidence of the student–lecturer personality match. Limitations and further research options were discussed

Calcium-rich Gap Transients: Solving the Calcium Conundrum in the Intracluster Medium

X-ray measurements suggest the abundance of Calcium in the intracluster medium is higher than can be explained using favored models for core-collapse and Type Ia supernovae alone. We investigate whether the Calcium conundrum in the intracluster medium can be alleviated by including a contribution from the recently discovered subclass of supernovae known as Calcium-rich gap transients. Although the Calcium-rich gap transients make up only a small fraction of all supernovae events, we find that their high Calcium yields are sufficient to reproduce the X-ray measurements found for nearby rich clusters. We find the $\chi^{2}$ goodness-of-fit metric improves from 84 to 2 by including this new class. Moreover, Calcium-rich supernovae preferentially occur in the outskirts of galaxies making it easier for the nucleosynthesis products of these events to be incorporated in the intracluster medium via ram-pressure stripping. The discovery of a Calcium-rich gap transients in clusters and groups far from any individual galaxy suggests supernovae associated with intracluster stars may play an important role in enriching the intracluster medium. Calcium-rich gap transients may also help explain anomalous Calcium abundances in many other astrophysical systems including individual stars in the Milky Way, the halos of nearby galaxies and the circumgalactic medium. Our work highlights the importance of considering the diversity of supernovae types and corresponding yields when modeling the abundance of the intracluster medium and other gas reservoirs

Gravity in the 3+1-Split Formalism II: Self-Duality and the Emergence of the Gravitational Chern-Simons in the Boundary

We study self-duality in the context of the 3+1-split formalism of gravity with non-zero cosmological constant. Lorentzian self-dual configurations are conformally flat spacetimes and have boundary data determined by classical solutions of the three-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons. For Euclidean self-dual configurations, the relationship between their boundary initial positions and initial velocity is also determined by the three-dimensional gravitational Chern-Simons. Our results imply that bulk self-dual configurations are holographically described by the gravitational Chern-Simons theory which can either viewed as a boundary generating functional or as a boundary effective action.Comment: 25 pages; v2: minor improvements, references adde

Students’ preferences for lecturers’ personalities

The present study set out to examine students’ preferences for lecturers’ personality as a function of their classroom behaviour, core self-evaluations and self-rated character strengths. Various hypotheses were tested: first, students’ Big Five traits would significantly predict corresponding personality preferences for lecturers (the matching hypothesis); second, students’ core self-evaluation scores would significantly predict preferences for extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers; and third, self-rated character strengths would also significantly predict extraverted, agreeable and conscientious lecturers. We also investigated difference in preferences among two ethnic groups (South East Asian/Chinese versus Caucasian/British). In all, 264 British students completed four questionnaires. Conscientiousness was the most desired trait in lecturers, followed by agreeableness, extraversion and openness; neuroticism was the least desired trait. Preference for agreeable lecturers was best predicted by all individual difference variables. Caucasian students had a stronger dislike for neurotic lecturers, while Asians had higher preferences for extraverted, open and agreeable lecturers. There was some evidence of the student–lecturer personality match. Limitations and further research options were discussed

Gravity in the 3+1-Split Formalism I: Holography as an Initial Value Problem

We present a detailed analysis of the 3+1-split formalism of gravity in the presence of a cosmological constant. The formalism helps revealing the intimate connection between holography and the initial value formulation of gravity. We show that the various methods of holographic subtraction of divergences correspond just to different transformations of the canonical variables, such that the initial value problem is properly set up at the boundary. The renormalized boundary energy momentum tensor is a component of the Weyl tensor.Comment: 28 pages; v2: minor improvements, references adde

Markers characterizing corneal damage during aging of rat

Aging is a biological phenomenon that involves an increase of oxidative stress associated with gradual degradation of the structure and function of the cornea. Gender differences and subsequent deterioration of cornea is an interesting topic, especially yet few data are available concerning the impact of age, especially on the corneal. One hundred male and female Wistar albino rats ages 3, 6, 18, 24, and 30 months (n=10 equal for male and female) were used. At the time interval, cornea were investigated by light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), immunohistochemistry of caspase 3 (casp3), glial fibrillar acidic protein(GFAP) and CD45 and  flow cytometry of DNA, bcl-2-like protein 4 (BAX), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and Cd45 (lymphocyte common antigen). Light and TEM investigation  revealed apparent deterioration of atrophy of corneal epithelium with vesicular vacuolar degeneration, hyalinization of stromal collagen fibrils and swelling and degeneration of the endothelial lining the descemet's membrane. There was apparent loss of keratocytes within corneal stroma. Immunohistochemistry of casp 3 and CD45 were markedly increased manifesting cell damage. GFAP showed apparent reduction of innervation of corneal stroma and endothelium layer. Flow cytometry of DNA, Bax and TGF revealed increased apoptic cell death of cornea of 30M-old rats. We concluded that aging contributed to an apparent increase of cellular damage of different corneal region associated with alterations of cell markers

The polar Catalysmic Variable 1RXS J173006.4+033813

We report the discovery of 1RXS J173006.4+033813, a polar cataclysmic variable with a period of 120.21 min. The white dwarf primary has a magnetic field of B = 42+6-5 MG, and the secondary is a M3 dwarf. The system shows highly symmetric double peaked photometric modulation in the active state as well as in quiescence. These arise from a combination of cyclotron beaming and ellipsoidal modulation. The projected orbital velocity of the secondary is K2 = 390+-4 km/s. We place an upper limit of 830+-65 pc on the distance.Comment: ApJ Accepted. 12 Pages, 13 Figures, 6 table

Black hole entropy in 3D gravity with torsion

The role of torsion in quantum three-dimensional gravity is investigated by studying the partition function of the Euclidean theory in Riemann-Cartan spacetime. The entropy of the black hole with torsion is found to differ from the standard Bekenstein-Hawking result, but its form is in complete agreement with the first law of black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX, minor revision