Females exhibit lower sudomotor response than males, which has been attributed to physiological differences between sexes. It is well accepted that non-thermal factors (i.e. baroreceptors and osmoreceptors) can influence thermoeffector responses. Even though there are sex-related differences in baroreceptor modulation of thermoeffector responses, it remains unknown if differences in osmoreceptor modulation could explain the lower sudomotor response in females. Therefore, we examined if there are sex-related differences in osmoreceptor modulation of sweating and cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC). A group of nine males and nine females were passively heated while in an isosmotic and hyperosmotic state. The onset and thermosensitivity of sweating and CVC were calculated and compared between groups and conditions. We show that the delay in onset of sweating and CVC is similar between sexes. However, thermosensitivity of sweating was lower in females than males. We conclude that hyperosmolality does not modulate the decreased sudomotor activity in females.

No description available.

The solution of convection-diffusion problems is a challenging task for numerical methods because of the nature of the governing equation, which includes a non-dissipative component and a dissipative component. Once the convection-diffusion equation is discretised, it is usual to observe oscillations in the computed solution regardless of whether these might be expected in the original physical situation. Mostly these oscillations are the result of numerical instability. This thesis centres on this fundamental difficulty: the numerical stability of finite difference discretisation of a convection-diffusion equation. The existence of an exact evolution operator for the constant coefficient convection diffusion problem is the framework we use to derive new finite difference schemes in one and two dimensions and also, when a high-order scheme is considered, to derive numerical boundary conditions. The influence of numerical boundary conditions on the stability of a general scheme is one of the main themes. The stability analysis is done mostly by using the von Neumann method and the matrix method. The Godunov-Ryabenkii theory is also applied to the one dimensional case. In two dimensions we deduce different forms of second-order (Lax-Wendroff) schemes and third-order (Quickest) schemes. We apply some of those schemes to a Navier-Stokes problem by running experiments to illustrate the practical stability region, showing how results from a simpler case presented in previous chapters carry over to the more complex case.

Extensive reviews of phonetic and phonological investigations into sex-related differences reveal a mottled history. The investigations suffer from methodological and theoretical deficits: the most serious being the misrepresentation of the interaction between variables, a lack of homogeneous data and its misinterpretation, and the widespread neglect of women's speech. Existing phonetic databases are shown to be inadequate and poorly-controlled, admitting too many unwanted variables. A very tightly-controlled database, constructed for this research, contains data for eighty female and male speakers of two accents of British English. This contribution is regarded as important per se. Digital acoustic analysis of the data permits quantification of the phonetic divergence shown by the sexes in British English. Previous attempts to normalize the acoustic effects of speaker-sex on vowels have been largely unsuccessful. Here, the application of an innovative auditory normalization procedure reflects how perceptual normalization may be achieved. It further demonstrates that male/female phonetic differences remain after normalisation, which cannot be accounted for by anatomy, but are accountable by social-role conditioning (i.e. learned). These differences are statistically significant. Speaker-sex and gender are thus shown to interact at the phonetic level. Extending this technique to five other languages/dialects corroborates the central hypothesis that the degree to which the sexes diverge phonetically will vary from speech-community to speech-community. Exploration of the possibility that contoids will reveal similar systematicity shows this to be unlikely across languages. The examination of suprasegmental sex-associated differences, however, merits further pursuit. Implications of these experimental findings are discussed for 'inter alia' speech technology, language-planning and medical aids. Using sex-linked differential voice quality as a springboard, it is suggested that sex-appropriate norms are required in speech pathology. The need for socio- phonetics to be recognized as an important new discipline is thus underlined.

It was hypothesized that girls would feel more negatively than boys about inequality of achievement within friendships. Using a questionnaire, 123 boys and 138 girls, aged 13 to 17, imagined that two close friends had performed better or worse than them in five domains. They then rated how much they would care, feel and think about the unequal outcomes, that were of equal value to both genders. They were also asked to rate how they felt the friends would feel towards them. Overall, girls' reactions to the inequality were more negative than boys'. The difficulty females face in integrating friendship and personal achievement is explored.

The presence of a sex difference in mutual eye-to-eye contact in dyadic interaction is well documented from late infancy through adulthood with females making more mutual eye contact than males. Only one study (Hittelman & Dickes, 1979) found evidence for this behavior pattern in newborns, but no research has been done to follow-up these findings. Systematic examination of the development of sex differences in mutual gaze behavior can aid in unraveling the differential effects of biological and social influences on the development of gendered social behavior. / This project was a longitudinal, within participants replication and extension of Hittelman and Dickes study: Seventy neonates (32 female, 38 male) age 13--112 hours postpartum and their parents participated in the Time 1 data collection, and 23 (9 female, 14 male) infants and their parents were seen a second time at 13--18 weeks postpartum (Time 2). Mutual gaze between the infant and two interacters (1 female, 1 male) was measured, and parents completed the Parental Sex-Typing of Newborns (Paston) Rating Scale to measure their sex-typed perceptions of newborns and young infants. / Results indicated: (a) No empirical evidence for sex differences at Time 1; (b) Strong evidence for sex differences in mutual gaze behavior at Time 2 indicating development of this sex-typed pattern in early infancy; (c) The emergence of sex differences in mutual gaze behavior from Time 1 to Time 2 is entirely accounted for by a radical change in female infants' gaze behavior; and (d) Empirical evidence linking mothers' sex-typed beliefs about their infants and infants' sex-typed gaze behavior. / Results are discussed within the theoretical contexts of the social learning and biological perspectives. This study demonstrates that infants' sex-typed behavior and mothers' gender-typed perceptions begin early in life. It is concluded that sex differences in mutual gaze behavior are a complex interplay of biological or social forces acting in concert. Subsequent research in this area should focus on the specific forces involved in bringing sex differences in mutual gaze behavior to fruition.

The current study was designed to examine characteristics associated with interaction in group versus dyads in middle childhood. Two classes of children in grades one through five participated in the study. Children were identified by their peers as participating in groups or dyads. Teachers then rated the characteristics of these children. Analyses of children interacting in groups versus dyads showed that both boys and girls in groups were perceived to be more competitive, to value their friends more, to receive more attention from peers and to be more emotionally expressive than children interacting in dyads. It was also found that boys in both groups and dyads were perceived to lack more self-control and to be more active and loud than girls. The measures of self-confidence, lack of self-control, emotional difficulties, activity level, and thoughtfulness did not differ for children who interacted in groups versus dyads. Findings are discussed in terms of the functions of group versus dyadic interaction.

The current study was designed to examine sex differences in the importance of peer relations. Interviews were conducted with 85 elementary school children from grades one, four, and six. As documented in earlier studies, boys and girls showed a clear preference for same-age, same-sex peers. There were no sex differences in children's desire to marry or how often they thought about marriage. Sex differences were found in how much children desired to play with the popular girl and boy in their class. Females desired to play with the popular girl significantly more than with the popular boy in grade one. Males desired to play with the popular boy more than the popular girl in grades one and six. Finally, females did not differ in number of girls versus boys with whom they played in their favorite activities at any grade level. In contrast, in both grades four and six, males named significantly more boys than girls in their favorite activities. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of same-sex peer relationships for males and females.

Despite wide acceptance of the stereotype that women apologize more readily than men, there is little systematic evidence to support this stereotype or its supposed bases. In the present research, I explored whether gender differences in apology behaviour occur and, if so, why they occur. In Study 1, I used daily diaries to assess everyday apologies and found that women indeed apologized more frequently than men did. I found no difference in the proportion of offenses for which men and women apologized, however, suggesting that women may apologize more often than men do because they have a lower threshold for what constitutes offensive behaviour. In Studies 2 and 5, I replicated a gender difference in apology behaviour using hypothetical offenses and obtained evidence that this difference is mediated by different judgments of offense severity. In Study 3, I adapted a signal detection paradigm and demonstrated that women exhibit a more liberal response bias in the direction of remembering an apology. In Study 4, I found that women and men similarly associate apologies with positive outcomes, and that only women endorse the stereotype that women apologize more often than men do. Finally, in Study 6, I conducted a daily diary study with romantic couples and found that, as in Study 1, women and men apologized for a similar proportion of the offenses they reported. Together, these studies suggest that a gender difference in apology frequency is caused by different judgments of severity rather than by a difference in willingness to apologize.

No description available.