Rediscovering the Evidence: Parental Support for Sex Education in Schools

Invited commentary on Dispelling the Myth: What Parents Really Think about Sex Education in School

Responding to class theft: Theoretical and empirical links to critical management studies

Redrafted submission for inclusion in Remarx Section of Rethinking MarxismThis paper suggests closer linkages between the fields of Postmodern Class Analysis (PCA) and Critical Management Studies (CMS)2 are possible. It argues that CMS might contribute to the empirical engagement with the over-determined relations between class and non-class processes in work organizations (this appears to have received relatively little attention in PCA) and that PCA's theoretical and conceptual commitments may provide one means for CMS to engage in class analysis. CMS's focus on power and symbolic relations has led to the relative neglect of exploitation and class, in surplus terms. Both fields share similar although not identical political and ethical commitments

First exit times of solutions of stochastic differential equations driven by multiplicative Levy noise with heavy tails

In this paper we study first exit times from a bounded domain of a gradient dynamical system $\dot Y_t=-\nabla U(Y_t)$ perturbed by a small multiplicative L\'evy noise with heavy tails. A special attention is paid to the way the multiplicative noise is introduced. In particular we determine the asymptotics of the first exit time of solutions of It\^o, Stratonovich and Marcus canonical SDEs.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

RAFCON: a Graphical Tool for Task Programming and Mission Control

There are many application fields for robotic systems including service robotics, search and rescue missions, industry and space robotics. As the scenarios in these areas grow more and more complex, there is a high demand for powerful tools to efficiently program heterogeneous robotic systems. Therefore, we created RAFCON, a graphical tool to develop robotic tasks and to be used for mission control by remotely monitoring the execution of the tasks. To define the tasks, we use state machines which support hierarchies and concurrency. Together with a library concept, even complex scenarios can be handled gracefully. RAFCON supports sophisticated debugging functionality and tightly integrates error handling and recovery mechanisms. A GUI with a powerful state machine editor makes intuitive, visual programming and fast prototyping possible. We demonstrated the capabilities of our tool in the SpaceBotCamp national robotic competition, in which our mobile robot solved all exploration and assembly challenges fully autonomously. It is therefore also a promising tool for various RoboCup leagues.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Absorption of Manganese and Iron in a Mouse Model of Hemochromatosis

Hereditary hemochromatosis, an iron overload disease associated with excessive intestinal iron absorption, is commonly caused by loss of HFE gene function. Both iron and manganese absorption are regulated by iron status, but the relationships between the transport pathways of these metals and how they are affected by HFE-associated hemochromatosis remain poorly understood. Loss of HFE function is known to alter the intestinal expression of DMT1 (divalent metal transporter-1) and Fpn (ferroportin), transporters that have been implicated in absorption of both iron and manganese. Although the influence of HFE deficiency on dietary iron absorption has been characterized, potential effects on manganese metabolism have yet to be explored. To investigate the role of HFE in manganese absorption, we characterized the uptake and distribution of the metal in Hfe−/− knockout mice after intravenous, intragastric, and intranasal administration of 54Mn. These values were compared to intravenous and intragastric administration of 59Fe. Intestinal absorption of 59Fe was increased and clearance of injected 59Fe was also increased in Hfe−/− mice compared to controls. Hfe−/− mice displayed greater intestinal absorption of 54Mn compared to wild-type Hfe+/+ control mice. After intravenous injection, the distribution of 59Fe to heart and liver was greater in Hfe−/− mice but no remarkable differences were observed for 54Mn. Although olfactory absorption of 54Mn into blood was unchanged in Hfe−/− mice, higher levels of intranasally-instilled 54Mn were associated with Hfe−/− brain compared to controls. These results show that manganese transport and metabolism can be modified by HFE deficiency

Global well-posedness for a slightly supercritical surface quasi-geostrophic equation

We use a nonlocal maximum principle to prove the global existence of smooth solutions for a slightly supercritical surface quasi-geostrophic equation. By this we mean that the velocity field $u$ is obtained from the active scalar $\theta$ by a Fourier multiplier with symbol $i k^\perp |k|^{-1} m(k|)$, where $m$ is a smooth increasing function that grows slower than $\log \log |k|$ as $|k|\rightarrow \infty$.Comment: 11 pages, second version with slightly stronger resul

When Do People Trust Their Social Groups?

Trust facilitates cooperation and supports positive outcomes in social groups, including member satisfaction, information sharing, and task performance. Extensive prior research has examined individuals' general propensity to trust, as well as the factors that contribute to their trust in specific groups. Here, we build on past work to present a comprehensive framework for predicting trust in groups. By surveying 6,383 Facebook Groups users about their trust attitudes and examining aggregated behavioral and demographic data for these individuals, we show that (1) an individual's propensity to trust is associated with how they trust their groups, (2) smaller, closed, older, more exclusive, or more homogeneous groups are trusted more, and (3) a group's overall friendship-network structure and an individual's position within that structure can also predict trust. Last, we demonstrate how group trust predicts outcomes at both individual and group level such as the formation of new friendship ties.Comment: CHI 201

Charges and fields in a current-carrying wire

Charges and fields in a straight, infinite, cylindrical wire carrying a steady current are determined in the rest frames of ions and electrons, starting from the standard assumption that the net charge per unit length is zero in the lattice frame and taking into account a self-induced pinch effect. The analysis presented illustrates the mutual consistency of classical electromagnetism and Special Relativity. Some consequences of the assumption that the net charge per unit length is zero in the electrons frame are also briefly discussed

On the Delivery of Recommendations in Social Software: a User's Perspective

Recommendation is a popular feature of social software. Recommendations could be made by the software autonomously or by social contacts who are often aided by the software on what to recommend. A great deal of emphasis in the literature has been given to the algorithmic solution to infer relevant and interesting recommendations. Yet, the delivery method of recommendation is still a widely unexplored research topic. This paper advocates that the success in deducing recommendations is not the sole factor for “recommendees” to consider. Users have their own requirements on the way a recommendation is made and delivered. Failure in meeting user expectations would often lead to the rejection of the recommendations as well as the violation of user experience. In this paper, we conduct an empirical research to explore such user’s perspective. We start with qualitative phase, based on interviews, and confirm and enhance the results in a quantitative phase through surveying a large sample of users. We report on the results and conclude with a set of guidelines on how recommendations delivery should be designed from a user’s perspective