Subjects varying in private self-consciousness listened to humorous stimuli presented either with (laugh track group) or without (no laugh track group) canned laughter. Self-focus (a) intensified ...subjects' amusement; (b) decreased the extent to which their evaluations of the stimuli were biased by canned laughter; and (c) increased the consistency between their (self-reported) cognitive and (overt behavioral) affective responses (although this finding was equivocal). (Abstract amended)
Results are presented of a new VLA-ROSAT study that probes the magnetic field strength and distribution over a sample of 16 ``normal'' low redshift (z < 0.1) galaxy clusters. The clusters span two ...orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity, and were selected to be free of (unusual) strong radio cluster halos, and widespread cooling flows. Consistent with these criteria, most clusters show a relaxed X-ray morphology and little or no evidence for recent merger activity. Analysis of the rotation measure (RM) data shows cluster-generated Faraday RM excess out to ~0.5 Mpc from cluster centers. The results, combined with RM imaging of cluster-embedded sources and ROSAT X-ray profiles indicates that the hot intergalactic gas within these ``normal'' clusters is permeated with a high filling factor by magnetic fields at levels of <|B|> = 5-10 (l/10 kpc)^{-1/2} microGauss, where l is the field correlation length. These results lead to a global estimate of the total magnetic energy in clusters, and give new insight into the ultimate energy origin, which is likely gravitational. These results also shed some light on the cluster evolutionary conditions that existed at the onset of cooling flows.
We report on an ongoing project to map a 15 degree x 15 degree region in Coma Berenices with the new 74 MHz receiver system of the VLA. The field is centered on the Coma cluster of galaxies. Coma ...Berenices has been observed in all VLA configurations, which allowed us to resolve several hundred point sources with 35 arcsecond resolution. We have successfully detected the diffuse emission from the Coma cluster radio halo, radio relic, and radio bridge. Difficulties and strategies of the observation and data reduction are discussed. Preliminary results are given.