Humanization and policy support: A replication-extension on group-composition framing

Evaluations of beneficiary groups matter for individual levels of policy support. A variety of cues and heuristics shape evaluations. One particularly consequential heuristic concerns the beneficiary’s perceived level of humanity. Recent work shows that individuals, individuals within groups (group compositions), and unitary groups evoke different levels of perceived humanity, and that these differences have downstream effects on sympathy and willingness to help. We replicate these findings, and then extend them to government policy support. We find that individuals and group compositions evoke higher levels of support than groups, and that perceived humanity explains this effect. We focus on the Roma, a tough, critical test given pervasive dehumanization and anti-Roma prejudice. Finally, we demonstrate the value of cross-disciplinary extension-replications.

The Importance of Perceived Procedural Justice Among Defendants With a Non-Western Background Involved in Dutch Criminal Cases

This study aims to put perceived procedural justice to a critical test in the context of Dutch criminal court hearings. To that end, we surveyed 198 criminal defendants to examine whether their perceptions of procedural fairness were significantly associated with trust in judges and intentions to protest against judicial rulings, among other variables. We also examine the possibility that sometimes unfair procedures may have nice aspects, because they offer opportunities to attribute negative outcomes to external causes. Previous studies conducted in different settings support this line of reasoning by showing that associations between perceived procedural justice and other variables are sometimes attenuated or even reversed, particularly when people feel strongly evaluated. The current study takes these insights into the novel context of Dutch criminal court hearings by focusing on defendants with a non-Western ethnic-cultural background. Some of these defendants may feel negatively evaluated by society, which can manifest as a high level of perceived discrimination. Thus, we examine whether the associations between perceived procedural justice and important other variables may be attenuated or reversed depending on respondents’ perceptions of everyday discrimination and their outcome judgments. Our results revealed significant associations between perceived procedural justice on the one hand and trust in judges and protest intentions on the other hand, which remained intact regardless of perceptions of everyday discrimination and outcome judgments. Hence, even in this real-life courtroom context, procedural justice was a relevant concern. Taken together, our findings support the importance of perceived procedural justice, even when it is put to a critical test.

Demystifying Unexpected Silicon Responses through User-Defined Fault Models (UDFM) and Failure Analysis

Failure Analysis (FA) plays an important role during silicon development and yield ramp up, helping identify critical test, design marginality and process issues in a timely and efficient manner. FA techniques typically rely on diagnosis callouts as a starting point for debug. Diagnostic algorithms rely on the error logs collected on production patterns which are generated to detect Stuck-at Faults (SAF) and Transition Delay Faults (TDF). Typically, SAF patterns screen out the static defects and TDF patterns test for transient fails. But often, we see cases where a SAF pattern shmoo is clean but the TDF pattern shmoo is a gross failure indicating a cell-internal static defect missed by the traditional SAF patterns. In this work, we will present our own developed User-Defined Fault Model, which targets cell-internal faults to explain unexpected silicon observations. An added advantage of the work can be seen in improving diagnosis results on the error logs collected using these targeted UDFM patterns. Since UDFM utilizes targeted fault excitation, the diagnosis algorithm results in better callouts. In this paper, we will also propose a custom diagnosis flow using our in-house UDFM to achieve better resolution. Three FA case studies will be presented to showcase the usefulness and effectivity of the proposed methods.

Discrimination against mobile European Union citizens before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Germany

One of the greatest achievements of the EU is the freedom of movement between member states offering citizens equal rights in EU member states. EU enlargement and the COVID-19 pandemic allow for a critical test of whether EU citizens are indeed treated equally in practice. We test preferential treatment of EU citizens in two hypothetical choice experiments in Germany at two different time points: in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Theories of responses to threat suggest that the COVID-19 crisis should increase discrimination against mobile EU citizens. While our findings reveal sizeable discrimination based on nationality and language proficiency of mobile EU citizens, the findings also suggest that, contrary to expectations, discrimination did not increase in the initial COVID-19 crisis period.

Distinct population code for movement kinematics and changes of ongoing movements in human subthalamic nucleus

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is theorized to globally suppress movement through connections with downstream basal ganglia structures. Current theories are supported by increased STN activity when subjects withhold an uninitiated action plan, but a critical test of these theories requires studying STN responses when an ongoing action is replaced with an alternative. We perform this test in subjects with Parkinson's disease using an extended reaching task where the movement trajectory changes mid-action. We show that STN activity decreases during action switches, contrary to prevalent theories. Further, beta oscillations in the STN local field potential, which are associated with movement inhibition, do not show increased power or spiking entrainment during switches. We report an inhomogeneous population neural code in STN, with one sub-population encoding movement kinematics and direction and another encoding unexpected action switches. We suggest an elaborate neural code in STN that contributes to planning actions and changing the plans.

MILITARY INTERVENTION OF THE USA AND SOUTH VIETNAM IN LAOS IN JANUARY-APRIL 1971 ACCORDING TO THE MEMOIRS OF THE VIETNAM AND AMERICAN PARTICIPANTS OF THE WAR

The article is devoted to the history of the planning and making of intervention of USA and South Vietnam into Laos in February-April 1971. The operation was named «Lam Son 719». The invasion group was to destroy the infrastructure of material support of People‟s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) – «Ho Chi Minh Trail». The work is built with the assistance of a memoir – translations memories combatants in Laos, soldiers and commanders of Army of United States America, South Vietnam and Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The materials housed in the monographs of American and Vietnam researchers of the Indochina conflict, 1960–1970-s.In 1971 amid the withdrawal of US troops from Indochina, American administration made a decision to invade Laos. The main target of the intervention was destroying the objects of «Ho Chi Minh Trail» in the southeastern regions of the kingdom. With a success of ARVN in Laos, the PAVNs combat effectiveness is seriously reduced. This operation was critical test of Vietnamization. «Lam Son 719» had to demonstrate high combat capability of ARVN. The victory was supposed to strengthen international credibility of USA. In 8 February 1971, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) invaded into kingdom. The command of PAVN, having guessed the enemy's plan, pulled together large forces in Lower Laos. Supported by U.S. artillery, helicopters, fightersbombers and B-52s, South Vietnamese troops advanced fought heavy battles with the enemy. The author paid attention to some military and political aspects of intervention into Laos. The article deals with the problems of South Vietnamese troops. Special attention is paid by the author to the analysis of the morale and combat effectiveness units of ARVN during invasion into Laos. The author concluded, that the intervention of ARVN and U.S. Army ended in complete failure. The main objectives of the invasion were not achieved.

6. Exemption clauses and unfair contract terms

Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the use and enforceability of exemption clauses (total exclusion or limitation of liability clauses inserted into contracts) and their legislative regulation. Whereas the regulation of such clauses is limited to the common law and UCTA 1977 in the case of commercial contracts (B2B), in the case of consumer contracts (B2C) the law intervenes to control a broader category of terms, ‘unfair contract terms’ (Consumer Rights Act 2015) with the critical test being ‘unfairness’.

Physical experiments in geomorphology

An experiment is a program of observations specially constructed to provide a critical test of theory or generalization about nature. It is designed to acquire firm evidence for or against the effect in question. Accordingly, it must be arranged to control all sources of variability contributing to the phenomena under examination save those it is intended to study. In the natural environment this is difficult to achieve. Consequently, classical geomorphology had no established tradition of experimentation. However, in the latter third of the 20th century, geomorphologists began to explore experimentation as a means to resolve questions that arise in the study of geomorphological processes. In the period 1976-84 an IGU commission on field experiments in geomorphology formally established an interest in the approach. Although few field studies before the turn of the century achieved experimental status, valuable experience was gained in laboratory experiments, scaled and unscaled, leading to present wide acceptance of experimentation as a means to approach questions about geomorphological processes.