The Tangled Webs We Wreak: Examining the Structure of Aggressive Personality Using Psychometric Networks

Trait aggression is a prominent construct in the psychological literature, yet little work has sought to situate trait aggression among broader frameworks of personality. Initial evidence suggests that trait aggression may be best couched within the nomological network of the Five Factor Model (FFM). The current work sought to locate the most appropriate home for trait aggression among the FFM. We applied a preregistered regimen of psychometric network analyses to three datasets (combined N = 2,927) that contained self-reports of trait aggression and the FFM traits. Trait aggression was highly central in the factor-level networks, which contained associations consistent with the conceptualization of this construct as a lower-order component of low agreeableness. The facet-level networks revealed that the behavioral facets of trait aggression reflected low agreeableness, but that the anger and hostility facets reflected high neuroticism. The item-level network suggested that the intent to initiate aggressive encounters was the primary bridge that empirically linked trait aggression to agreeableness. Our results indicate that trait aggression is primarily a lower-order facet of agreeableness, advance our understanding of trait aggression, integrate it with broader frameworks of personality, and suggest future directions to refine this complex dispositional tendency.

Study on Nonlinear Stochastic Process of Deck Slamming on Floating Offshore Platform

In this paper, a semi-analytic method is introduced to predict the deck-slamming probability and corresponding loads. This method is based on a nonlinear statistical approach that takes into account the linear and second-order components of the relative wave elevation up to the second order. The linear and second-order wave elevation is assumed to be a two-term Volterra series. The joint probability density function of the relative wave elevation and velocity are formulated using the Hermite-moment method, and the probability distributions of the wave crest and relative wave velocity are calculated. These probability distributions are verified using the data sampled from the linear and second-order relative wave elevation. Based on this formulation, the probabilities of deck slamming and slamming-induced loads are estimated. This method is applied to a tension leg platform (TLP) model, and the effects of the second-order component of the relative wave elevation on the deck slamming are investigated.

Self-Representationalist Theories of Consciousness

Self-Representationalists hold that conscious mental states are conscious in virtue of suitably representing themselves, and that awareness of a mental state is achieved by representing oneself as being in that state. Where Higher-Order Representationalists claim that awareness of a mental state is conferred by a distinct mental state that represents it, Self-Representationalists instead argue that conscious mental states represent themselves. This chapter explores why Self-Representationalists make this move away from Higher-Order Representationalists and describes the internal divisions among Self-Representationalist theories. These divisions concern: whether conscious states have distinguishable components corresponding to their lower-order and higher-order content; whether the higher-order component of a conscious state (if such there is) is itself represented by that state. The challenges faced by Self-Representationalist include: the threat of collapsing into a Higher-Order Representationalist theory; the worry that the proposed self-representing states resist naturalization; and the danger of failing to accommodate the intimate contact we have with our own conscious states.

Improving the uncertainty of ocean surface wind and wave parameters estimated by a single HF radar system

<p>A 16 Rx element linear array HF radar system (LERA III), working at 27.75 MHz and 300kHz in bandwidth, was installed at the north of Taichung harbor at the western coast of Taiwan in November 2018. This LERA system is low-cost, compact in size, easy to set-up, and maintain. The purpose of present studies is to implement algorithms for retrieving wave and wind fields and assess the system performance in terms of operational mode. For inter-comparison, the long-term in-situ wave data measured by an AWAC was adopted. Wind data were measured from a coastal wind gauge. The inter-comparisons between radar data and in-situ data were carried out on seasonal basis, including severe sea states during winter monsoon and passage of typhoon as well as calm seas during spring.</p><p>For the data processing, the Doppler-range spectrum for each azimuth direction was extracted by using the classical beam-forming technique and then provided as level 1 product for further analysis. Regarding the method for retrieving wave parameters, formulations directly derived from Barrick’s assumption was implemented. In those formulas, wave parameters are calculated based on the ratio of the 2<sup>nd</sup> order component multiplied by the coupling coefficient function to the 1<sup>st</sup> order component in the Doppler spectrum. It means that no empirical constants were included. Initially, Wyatt’s (1999, 2011) and Walsh & Howell’s (1993) methods were applied to determine the lower and higher bounds that separate the 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> order component. For wind speed inversion, Dexter & Theodorides’s (1982) method was adopted. The Bragg wave direction was used as a proxy to the direction of the wind field.</p><p>It is found that when using Wyatt’s (1999, 2011) method, the wave height and period results often lead to bias estimations for severe sea-state, and with the presence of highly variable surface current. In order to improve the accuracy, adaptive methods for the identification of spectra component areas is crucial. In this study, an alternative method is proposed. This method is developed based on the concept proposed by Kirincich (2017), which includes the pretreatment of Doppler-rang spectrums, marker-controlled watershed segmentation, and an image processing technique. In this research, we will demonstrate the advantages of using the new method for wave and wind field retrieval. From comparative studies, the error indexes based on the sea truth data are discussed. It is found that the accuracy would be improved using the proposed method, especially for the cases of varying current fields, severe sea state, and noisy radio background.</p><p>Key words: high-frequency surface wave radar; phased array antennas; significant wave height, wave period, marker-controlled watershed segmentation (MCWS) techniques.</p>

Vibrations of a nonlinear stochastic system with a varying mass under near resonant excitation

Dynamics of a nonlinear second order system with a stochastically varying mass is considered in the article. The system is under an external time-harmonic loading, which is assumed to be near resonant. Damping, excitation strength, nonlinearity, and mass variations are considered to be of the same order of smallness. Under these assumptions, an explicit approximate solution of the problem is obtained using the multiple scales perturbation method. The leading (zero) order component of the solution is not affected by noise, whereas the first order component is stochastic and is energetically unstable because of mass variations. This implies that the considered oscillator will not vibrate in the near resonant regime because of mass variations. Instead, its vibrations will feature a considerable, but limited in amplitude, stochastic component. These vibrations will be stable, which illustrates a qualitative difference of the phenomenon from the motion instability described previously for linear stochastic oscillators for lower values of damping. The presence of the nonlinearity does not considerably affect the stability. To avoid the phenomenon, damping in the system should be increased so as to be much larger than mass variations. The obtained results were validated by a series of numerical experiments. The oscillator can be considered as a simplified model of machines used for processing of granular materials, such as vibrating screens, and the results are relevant for various applications, including mining industry.

Multipole expansion of densities in the deformed relativistic Hartree–Bogoliubov theory in continuum

The deformed relativistic Hartree–Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) has been proved as one of the best models to probe the exotic structures in deformed nuclei. In DRHBc, the potentials and densities are expressed in terms of the multipole expansion with Legendre polynomials, the dependence on which has only been touched for light nuclei so far. In this paper, taking a light nucleus [Formula: see text]Ne and a heavy nucleus [Formula: see text]U as examples, we investigated the dependence on the multipole expansion of the potentials and densities in DRHBc. It is shown that the total energy converges well with the expansion truncation both in the absence of and presence of the pairing correlation, either in the ground state or at a constrained quadrupole deformation. It is found that to reach the same accuracy of the total energy, even to the same relative accuracy by percent, a larger truncation is required by a heavy nucleus than a light one. The dependence of the total energy on the truncation increases with deformation. By decompositions of the neutron density distribution, it is shown that a higher-order component has a smaller contribution. With the increase of deformation, the high-order components get larger, while at the same deformation, the high-order components of a heavy nucleus play a more important role than that of a light one.

Bond orders of the diatomic molecules

Bond orders were computed for 288 diatomics, and a new bond order component analysis (BOCA) was applied to selected diatomics.

Effects of nidopallium caudolaterale inactivation on serial-order behavior in pigeons (Columba livia)

Serial-order behavior is the ability to complete a sequence of responses in a predetermined order to achieve a reward. In birds, serial-order behavior is thought to be impaired by damage to the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). In the current study, we examined the role of the NCL in serial-order behavior by training pigeons on a 4-item serial-order task and a go/no-go discrimination task. Following training, pigeons received infusions of 1 μl of either tetrodotoxin (TTX) or saline. Saline infusions had no impact on serial-order behavior, whereas TTX infusions resulted in a significant decrease in performance. The serial-order impairments, however, were not the result of any specific error at any specific list item. With respect to the go/no-go discrimination task, saline infusions also had no impact on performance, whereas TTX infusions impaired pigeons’ discrimination abilities. Given the impairments on the go/no-go discrimination task, which does not require processing of serial-order information, we tentatively conclude that damage to the NCL does not impair serial-order behavior per se, but rather results in a more generalized impairment that may impact performance across a range of tasks. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We examined the role of the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) in serial-order behavior by training pigeons on a 4-item serial-order task and selectively inhibiting the region with TTX. Although TTX infusions did impair serial-order behavior, the pattern of the deficit, plus the fact that TTX also impaired performance on a task without a serial-order component, indicates that inactivation of NCL causes impairments in reward processing or inhibition rather than serial-order behavior.