The effect of preferential paw usage on dogs' (Canis familiaris) performance in a manipulative problem-solving task

In a number of species, individuals showing lateralized hand/paw usage (i.e. the preferential use of either the right or left paw) compared to ambilateral individuals have been shown to be more proactive in novel situations. In the current study we used an established test to assess preferential paw usage in dogs (the Kong test) and then compared the performance of ambilateral and lateralized dogs as well as left- vs. right-pawed dogs in a novel manipulative problem solving task. Results showed an equal proportion of ambilateral and lateralized dogs but contrary to predictions non-lateralized dogs were faster at accessing the apparatus in test trials. No differences emerged between right- and left-pawed dogs. Results are discussed in relation to previous studies on lateralization. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

A new Nawaz–Enscore–Ham-based heuristic for permutation flow-shop problem with bicriteria of makespan and machine idle-time

A new heuristic based on Nawaz–Enscore–Ham (NEH) algorithm is proposed for solving permutation flowshop scheduling problem in this paper. A new priority rule is proposed by accounting for the average, mean absolute deviation, skewness and kurtosis, in order to fully describe the distribution style of processing times. A new tie-breaking rule is also introduced for achieving effective job insertion for the objective of minimizing both makespan and machine idle-time. Statistical tests illustrate better solution quality of the proposed algorithm, comparing to existing benchmark heuristics.

Whose sins do the Brethren confess? The problem of sin as the problem of expiation

Among Brethren fisher families in Gamrie, northeast Scotland, professional clergy and written liturgy are held to be blasphemous denials of the true workings of the Holy Spirit. God, I was told, chooses to speak through all born-again (male) persons, unrestricted by the vain repetitions of lettered clerics and their prayer books. In this context, confession of one’s own sin is a private and pointedly interior affair. In Gamrie, not only did every man seek to be his own skipper, but also his own priest. Yet, much of Brethren worship is given over to ritualised acts of confession. So whose sins do the Brethren confess, and to what end? This article argues that among the Brethren of Gamrie, such acts involve confessing not one’s own sin, but the sins of a ‘sick’ and ‘fallen’ world. More than this, by attending to the sociological (as opposed to theological) processes of confessing the sins of another, we see a collapse in the distinction between confiteor and credo that has so dogged anthropological studies of Christianity. In Brethren prayer and bible study, as well as in everyday gossip, the “I confess” of the confiteor and the “I believe” of credo co-constitute one another in and through evidences of the ‘lostness’ of ‘this present age’. But how, if at all, does this solve ‘the problem of sin’? This article suggests that, with the ritual gaze of confession turned radically outward, Brethren announcements of global wickedness enact (in a deliberate tautology) both a totalising call for repentance from sin, and a millenarian creed of the imminent apocalypse. Here, the problem of ritual can be understood as the problem of (partially failed) expiation.