Physical appearance of man, a new study

A recent study published in Social Science Quarterly has shed light on an intriguing aspect of our lives—how our physical appearance during our teenage years can impact our future social mobility. Researchers found that being perceived as attractive during adolescence can significantly boost a person’s chances of moving up the social ladder in terms of education, occupation, and income.

We’ve all heard the saying that “looks aren’t everything,” but this study suggests that they might matter more than we think when it comes to social mobility. While previous research has explored various factors influencing social mobility, such as education and family background, the role of physical attractiveness has often been overlooked. This study aimed to fill that gap by examining how physical appearance in adolescence might affect a person’s future opportunities and success.

“My co-author and I became interested in this topic because there is a popular notion that physically attractive individuals have an advantage over others, not only in terms of finding romantic partners, but also in terms of achieving other important outcomes, such as having higher incomes,” explained study author Alexi Gugushvili, a professor at the University of Oslo. “Yet, we couldn’t find many studies which would show if attractiveness really helps to improve individuals’ socioeconomic position when compared to their parents.”

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which involved over 20,000 adolescents in the United States. They looked at information from three different waves of data collection, spanning from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s.

The researchers assessed the participants’ physical attractiveness using interviewer ratings obtained during the first wave of data collection when the respondents were aged 12-19. The attractiveness ratings ranged from “very unattractive” to “very attractive.” These ratings were used to gauge the participants’ physical attractiveness during their adolescent years.

To measure social mobility, the researchers compared the educational, occupational, and income attainment of these adolescents in adulthood with the socioeconomic status of their parents. This allowed them to determine whether individuals had moved up or down the socioeconomic ladder compared to their parents.

The researchers found that individuals who were rated as attractive or very attractive during their adolescent years were more likely to experience upward social mobility in terms of education, occupation, and income when they became adults. This effect was significant even after accounting for various factors such as socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, personality traits, health, and neighborhood characteristics.

“Despite decades of research on how some individuals climb the social ladder in comparison to their parents, many important characteristics that can facilitate intergenerational social mobility are not well understood,” Gugushvili told PsyPost. “In the present study, we showed that being physically attractive helps individuals be better educated, have more prestigious jobs, and earn higher incomes when compared to their parents.”

The study also uncovered gender differences in the impact of physical attractiveness on social mobility. While physical attractiveness mattered for both males and females, it appeared to have a stronger influence on males’ educational and income mobility compared to females. For females, the effect of physical attractiveness on occupational mobility was less pronounced.

“The most surprising finding of the study was that physical attractiveness appears to matter more for males than females,” Gugushvili said.

But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. For instance, the researchers relied on interviewers’ assessments of physical attractiveness, which may not be a perfect measure. Additionally, factors influencing attractiveness and social mobility could be intertwined in complex ways. Future research could delve deeper into understanding the mechanisms through which physical attractiveness affects social mobility and explore whether these effects persist over time.

“I think it is particularly interesting to study how and why males benefit more from their looks than females, and if the same association also holds in countries other than the United States,” Gugushvili said.

Should you wipe snow off solar panels?

The next time you wake up to find a layer of snow on your solar array, don't sweat the minuscule loss in production. Think of the convenient (and free) cleaning it will be providing your panels, and remember that it will melt away and slide off before you know it!

We do not recommend that you remove the snow from your solar panels. The danger of personal harm or damage to your panels is not worth the minor gain. Your array will most likely be snow-free in a day or two, and any production loss will most likely be offset by production over those long summer days.

What is a biogas?

Biogas is an environmentally-friendly, renewable energy source of renewable fuel produced by the breakdown of organic matter such as food scraps and animal waste. It is produced and used to fuel vehicles, heat our homes and to generate electricity.

Biogas is a type of renewable energy that is produced through the anaerobic digestion of organic materials, such as agricultural waste, food waste, sewage sludge, and animal manure. It is a mixture of primarily methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), along with small amounts of other gases.

The process of biogas production involves the decomposition of organic matter by bacteria in an oxygen-free environment, known as anaerobic digestion. During this process, the bacteria break down the organic material, releasing biogas as a byproduct. The produced biogas can be captured, stored, and utilized as an energy source.

Biogas has several applications. It can be used for heating, cooking, and lighting purposes in households and commercial settings. It can also be used as a fuel for electricity generation in biogas power plants, where the biogas is burned in a generator to produce electricity. In addition, biogas can be upgraded and purified to remove impurities, resulting in biomethane, which has similar properties to natural gas and can be injected into the natural gas grid or used as a transportation fuel.

The production and use of biogas offer various environmental benefits. It helps in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by capturing and utilizing methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. Biogas production also provides an avenue for waste management, as it allows the conversion of organic waste into a valuable energy resource, reducing the need for landfilling or incineration.

Overall, biogas is a renewable energy source that can contribute to sustainable development, waste management, and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Its utilization can help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, mitigate climate change, and promote a circular economy approach by converting organic waste into a valuable energy asset.

There are 486,713 routes to Rome

All roads lead to Rome

A data visualization unveiling mobility patterns at a very large scale, created with routing algorithms on existing street infrastructure from the city to continent scale.

These are 486,713 routes to Rome.

Ranveer Singh revealed about RaamLeela first actress

In the recent episode of Koffee With Karan, Ranveer Singh revealed that Deepika Padukone made a last minute entry on Ram Leela replacing Kareena Kapoor in the film! 

.

.

.

What is a power factor?

Power factor (PF) is a ratio that measures how efficiently electrical power is converted into useful work output. It's calculated by dividing the useful power (kW) by the total power (kVA) consumed by an electrical system. The ideal power factor is unity, or one. 

Power factor is measured in kilowatts (kW) and kilovolt amperes (kVA). Apparent power, also known as demand, is the measure of the amount of power used to run machinery and equipment during a certain period. It's found by multiplying (kVA = V x A). 

Power factor has a value between zero and unity. There are good, bad, and poor power factors with specific ranges: 

•Good: 1.0 to 0.95

•Poor: 0.95 to 0.85

•Bad: 0.85 and below

A high power factor indicates that the power supplied to the electrical system is effectively used. A system with low power factor doesn't effectively consume the incoming electric supply and results in losses. 

A low power factor can: 

•Increase electricity costs

•Reduce electrical distribution capacity

•Cause sluggish motor performance

•Require larger wires and other equipment

•Electrical utilities will usually charge a higher cost to industrial or commercial customers where there is a low power factor. 

Force-sensing ‘smart scalpel’ helps hone doctors’ surgical skills

Researchers have developed a scalpel with built-in force-measuring sensors and coupled it with a machine-learning model that could streamline how doctors are trained to perform surgery and pave the way for automated surgical device.

If we have to go under the knife, we want the surgeon performing the surgery to be skilled with a scalpel. It requires striking a balance between using an appropriate amount of force for deliberate and controlled tissue dissection and not applying too much, which can cause damage.

While the level of force applied to the scalpel by its human operator is – obviously – important during surgery, there have been few tools capable of measuring it in real-life settings. Now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the UK have developed a ‘smart scalpel’ with built-in sensors to measure force.

“We are excited to develop this new system, which uses a combination of real-life sensing technology and machine learning methods to quantitatively assess surgical skill,” said Ram Ramamoorthy, the study’s corresponding author. “This system will enable the development of new systems for skill assessment and training and could one day lead to the creation of automated surgical devices that can assist surgical teams.”

The smart scalpel prototype

Rhona Crawford/University of Edinburgh

The low-cost, easy-to-replicate device consists of a scalpel connected to a sensor-loaded circuit board fitted inside its handle. The researchers designed a machine-learning model to analyze the force applied by the users. Twelve medical students and two professional surgeons tested their innovative scalpel by performing a series of 12 elliptical incisions on a multilayered skin replica made of gelatin and silicone.

Each procedure, which involved making two curved cuts to the skin, such as those used to remove moles and melanomas, was video-recorded and assessed by four expert surgeons – two neurosurgeons and two plastic surgeons – who rated the participants’ proficiency. The researchers then analyzed the relationships between the subjective expert evaluations and the objective force-based metrics data.

Results broadly matched the surgical experts’ assessment of each medical student’s ability, suggesting that this technology could simplify the process of assessing surgical skills. Some discrepancies arose, which, the researchers say, are partly because neurosurgeons and plastic surgeons use different instrument and tissue handling techniques.

The researchers say their findings open up possibilities for future studies, including using more participants for a more comprehensive analysis. Mapping objective measurements and patient outcomes would also be instructive. They say their method shows promise as a way of analyzing highly procedural tasks such as suturing.

The study was published in the journal Communications Engineering.