Gender-Based Stereotype Threat and Competitive Interactive Games

Stereotype threat has been examined in numerous areas of performance, including entrepreneurial intentions, negotiation, math, and chess (Gupta, Turban, & Bhawe, 2008; Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001; Maass, D’Ettole, & Cadinu, 2008; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). Women who identify more strongly with their gender are also more vulnerable to stereotype threat (Schmader, 2002). The masculine stereotype includes such qualities as aggressiveness and risk-taking, and the feminine stereotype includes qualities such as cooperating and nurturing (Best, Williams, & Briggs, 1980; Gupta et al., 2008; Kray et al., 2001). Men tend to play competitive interactive games, particularly complex board games and table-top games, more often than women and are believed to be superior players, possibly because the feminine stereotype excludes qualities that are considered essential for gameplay. Nevertheless, in some games (particularly video game role playing games), women have been found to be superior players to men by many measures (Williams, Consalvo, Caplan, & Yee, 2009). Studies of social games show that women are more cooperative than men in mixed-sex groups, but less in same-sex groups (Balliet, Li, Macfarlan, & Van Vugt, 2011). In the present study, women were expected to manifest stereotypical gender qualities with higher frequency during a complex board game played with both men and women than during a game played with only members of their own gender, and to do so to a greater extent the more they self-identified as feminine according to the PAQ. Women in mixed-sex groups were actually found to perform less feminine actions and more masculine actions relative to women who played in all-female groups. A significant correlation was found between PAQ femininity and the relative number of feminine-typed actions taken during the game. No evidence of stereotype threat was found, but there were signs that some type of gender-based interference occurred during the games, causing women to behave differently according to their group type

Humpback and Fin Whaling in the Gulf of Maine from 1800 to 1918

The history of whaling in the Gulf of Maine was reviewed primarily to estimate removals of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, especially during the 19th century. In the decades from 1800 to 1860, whaling effort consisted of a few localized, small-scale, shore-based enterprises on the coast of Maine and Cape Cod, Mass. Provincetown and Nantucket schooners occasionally conducted short cruises for humpback whales in New England waters. With the development of bomb-lance technology at mid century, the ease of killing humpback whales and fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus, increased. As a result, by the 1870’s there was considerable local interest in hunting rorquals (baleen whales in the family Balaenopteridae, which include the humpback and fin whales) in the Gulf of Maine. A few schooners were specially outfitted to take rorquals in the late 1870’s and 1880’s although their combined annual take was probably no more than a few tens of whales. Also in about 1880, fishing steamers began to be used to hunt whales in the Gulf of Maine. This steamer fishery grew to include about five vessels regularly engaged in whaling by the mid 1880’s but dwindled to only one vessel by the end of the decade. Fin whales constituted at least half of the catch, which exceeded 100 animals in some years. In the late 1880’s and thereafter, few whales were taken by whaling vessels in the Gulf of Maine

Minimising the environmental footprint of industrial-scaled cleaning processes by optimisation of a novel clean-in-place system protocol

Cleaning of food fouling deposits in processing equipment is costly and time consuming. Fouling deposits form as a result of adhesion of species to the surface and cohesion between elements of the material. Cleaning can result from either or both adhesive and cohesive failure. In this study, the aim was to investigate the removal kinetics of an adhesive material and to design a novel cleaning in place (CIP) protocol for these kinds of materials at industrial scale to reduce environmental impact of cleaning processes. It was detected that different variables controlled the cleaning process in removal of adhesive deposit Temperature was not found as a significant variable in the initial stage of cleaning. Velocity of cleaning water controlled the cleaning at this stage when top layers of the deposit were removed by fluid mechanical removal due to breakdown of weak cohesive interaction. In the later cleaning stage, both velocity and temperature significantly contributed to cleaning, which suggested that both hydrodynamic forces and rheological changes are needed to overcome adhesion forces between the deposit and surface. Hence, a novel two step CIP protocol was proposed due to existence of different mechanisms in cleaning. When compared with conventional one step CIP protocols currently used in the processing plants, the proposed CIP protocol reduced the energy consumption by 40% without decreasing the cleaning efficiency. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Turkish Ministry of National EducationMinistry of National Education - Turkey; ZEAL project [TP//ZEE/6/1/21191]; Technology Strategy Board's Collaborative Research and Development programme; BBSRCUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [BB/D523386/1] Funding Source: UKRI; EPSRCUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/K011820/1] Funding Source: UKRI; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [BB/D523386/1] Funding Source: researchfish; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/K011820/1] Funding Source: researchfishIP (the first author) acknowledges the financial support from the Turkish Ministry of National Education. This paper reports results from the ZEAL project TP//ZEE/6/1/21191, which involves; Alfa Laval, Cadbury Ltd., Ecolab Ltd., Newcastle University, Heineken UK Ltd., GEA Process Engineering Ltd., Unilever UK Central Resources Ltd., Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, GlaxSmithKline, Bruker Optics Ltd. and the University of Birmingham. The project is co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board's Collaborative Research and Development programme, following open competition. For more information visit

High-Efficiency K-Band Space Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier for Near-Earth High Data Rate Communications

The RF performance of a new K-Band helix conduction cooled traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA) is presented in this paper. A total of three such units were manufactured, tested and delivered. The first unit is currently flying onboard NASA s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft and has flawlessly completed over 2000 orbits around the Moon. The second unit is a proto-flight model. The third unit will fly onboard NASA s International Space Station (ISS) as a very compact and lightweight transmitter package for the Communications, Navigation and Networking Reconfigurable Testbed (CoNNeCT), which is scheduled for launch in 2011. These TWTAs were characterized over the frequencies 25.5 to 25.8 GHz. The saturated RF output power is >40 W and the saturated RF gain is >46 dB. The saturated AM-to- PM conversion is 3.5 /dB and the small signal gain ripple is 0.46 dB peak-to-peak. The overall efficiency of the TWTA, including that of the electronic power conditioner (EPC) is as high as 45 percent