Problems of Applying Special Grounds for Exemption from Criminal Liability for Kidnapping

Despite the positive attitude towards the presence of compromise norms in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, containing the possibility of exemption from criminal liability for a committed crime, their mere presence seems insufficient. It is important to introduce a mechanism for the functioning of the norms, which will describe in detail all the stages necessary for their application. The article discusses controversial issues of insufficient legislative regulation of exemption from criminal liability on the basis of the application of a note to Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The opinions of scientists concerning the application of special grounds for exemption from criminal liability for kidnapping are generalized, the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the understanding of the term “voluntary release of the kidnapped” is considered. A number of controversial issues that have not been taken into account by the legislator, which require mandatory regulation, are cited. The article examines the existing judicial practice of applying the note to Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A lack of uniformity in the law enforcement activities of the judiciary was revealed. Supplements are proposed to the new resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 24, 2019 No. 58 to increase the effectiveness of the application of the considered grounds for exemption from criminal liability. As a result, a proposal was put forward that is aimed at improving the note to Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The issues raised in the article are of scientific and practical interest.

Cytokine Signalling at the Microglial Penta-Partite Synapse

Microglial cell processes form part of a subset of synaptic contacts that have been dubbed microglial tetra-partite or quad-partite synapses. Since tetrapartite may also refer to the presence of extracellular matrix components, we propose the more precise term microglial penta-partite synapse for synapses that show a microglial cell process in close physical proximity to neuronal and astrocytic synaptic constituents. Microglial cells are now recognised as key players in central nervous system (CNS) synaptic changes. When synaptic plasticity involving microglial penta-partite synapses occurs, microglia may utilise their cytokine arsenal to facilitate the generation of new synapses, eliminate those that are not needed anymore, or modify the molecular and structural properties of the remaining synaptic contacts. In addition, microglia–synapse contacts may develop de novo under pathological conditions. Microglial penta-partite synapses have received comparatively little attention as unique sites in the CNS where microglial cells, cytokines and other factors they release have a direct influence on the connections between neurons and their function. It concerns our understanding of the penta-partite synapse where the confusion created by the term “neuroinflammation” is most counterproductive. The mere presence of activated microglia or the release of their cytokines may occur independent of inflammation, and penta-partite synapses are not usually active in a neuroimmunological sense. Clarification of these details is the main purpose of this review, specifically highlighting the relationship between microglia, synapses, and the cytokines that can be released by microglial cells in health and disease.

Feeling better in the presence of others: It may depend on whether you are a man or a woman

Previous research has suggested that it is good to have other people around us. Indeed, there seems to be a generally positive impact of the presence of others on individuals’ physical and psychological well-being. In the current work, we examine if these positive experiences may be promoted by the mere presence of nonsignificant others in our environment, during a brief period. Specifically, in two experiments, we compared how being in the presence of others (co-action) versus being alone impacts how participants feel at the moment (mood, Experiment 1) and how satisfied they feel about their lives (general well-being, Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we also manipulated the nature of the task (i.e., demanding/threatening vs. nondemanding). Both experiments revealed that participants feel more positive when in the presence of others. However, important gender differences occurred: mood enhancement for women (vs. men) only occurred when the task was nondemanding. In the case of life satisfaction, only women were sensitive to the presence of others. We discuss how these effects inform the social facilitation literature.

The effortful and invisible cost of repairing speech misperceptions by individuals who use cochlear implants

PurposeSpeech recognition percent-correct scores fail to capture the effort of mentally repairing the perception of speech that was initially misheard. This study includes two experiments to simulate and measure the effort of this experience of mental repair, from the perspective of both listener and talker.MethodsCochlear implant (CI) listeners heard and repeated sentences where single words were distorted or masked by noise, but recoverable based on later context – a signature of mental repair. Changes in pupil dilation were tracked as an index of effort and time-locked with specific landmarks during perception. Later, audio recordings of the participants’ responses were played for outside observers who judged whether they thought the CI user mentally repaired a word.ResultsEffort significantly increases when a listener needs to repair a misperceived word, even if the verbal response is ultimately correct. That increased effort lasts longer for CI users than for listeners with normal hearing. There was no success in detecting that effort by nearly 200 external observers including audiologists and others who profess to have experience and skill in conversing with people who have hearing loss. Mental repair of words in a sentence were accompanied by greater prevalence of errors elsewhere in the same sentence, suggesting that effort spreads to consume resources across time. ConclusionsListening effort is better explained by the mental repair and reconstruction of words rather than the appearance of correct or incorrect perception. Linguistic coherence drives effort more heavily than the mere presence of mistakes, highlighting the importance of effort that cannot be tracked with individual words or digits. However, an external observer is not able to reliably detect that extra effort in the listener’s voice.

“May you fall [dead] while standing!”

This paper presents two types of maledictions in Thadou-Kuki. The first deals with the various forms of maledictions which on the surface appear as though they are curse words in terms of their forms and meanings. But a close examination reveals that the mere presence of such maledictions does not constitute cursing. Rather, it is the context of who said what to whom and why that determines whether they should be interpreted curses or not. The second deals with words that are used purely as abuses or insults and, as such, do not have such semantic or pragmatic ambiguities like the various forms of maledictions. The paper shows that maledictions are expressed with the help of imperatives of which the directive -în and the command tâng are used with slight nuances in meaning. That is, with the latter, the wish is more pronounced and indicates the true intent of the speaker to inflict harm upon the addressee, which the former lacks. Abuses or insults, on the other hand, are momentary emotional reactions to the things that happened around the speaker and unlike true curses are not carefully thought out expression of words. They are rather words that the speaker picked up as and when the situation demands and may involve an element of bragging.

Music and Time Perception in Audiovisuals: Arousing Soundtracks Lead to Time Overestimation No Matter Their Emotional Valence

One of the most tangible effects of music is its ability to alter our perception of time. Research on waiting times and time estimation of musical excerpts has attested its veritable effects. Nevertheless, there exist contrasting results regarding several musical features’ influence on time perception. When considering emotional valence and arousal, there is some evidence that positive affect music fosters time underestimation, whereas negative affect music leads to overestimation. Instead, contrasting results exist with regard to arousal. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, a systematic investigation has not yet been conducted within the audiovisual domain, wherein music might improve the interaction between the user and the audiovisual media by shaping the recipients’ time perception. Through the current between-subjects online experiment (n = 565), we sought to analyze the influence that four soundtracks (happy, relaxing, sad, scary), differing in valence and arousal, exerted on the time estimation of a short movie, as compared to a no-music condition. The results reveal that (1) the mere presence of music led to time overestimation as opposed to the absence of music, (2) the soundtracks that were perceived as more arousing (i.e., happy and scary) led to time overestimation. The findings are discussed in terms of psychological and phenomenological models of time perception.

How Food Marketing on Instagram Shapes Adolescents’ Food Preferences: Online Randomized Trial

Background Worldwide obesity rates have prompted 16 countries to enact policies to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing, but few policies address online advertising practices or protect adolescents from being targeted. Given adolescents spend so much time online, it is critical to understand how persuasive Instagram food advertisements (ads) are compared with traditional food ads. To strengthen online food marketing policies, more evidence is needed on whether social media ads are more persuasive than other types of ads in shaping adolescents’ preferences. Objective This study examined whether adolescents could identify food companies’ Instagram posts as ads, and the extent to which Instagram versus traditional food ads shape adolescents’ preferences. Methods In Part 1, participants aged 13-17 years (N=832) viewed 8 pairs of ads and were asked to identify which ads originated from Instagram. One ad in each pair was selected from traditional sources (eg, print; online banner ad), and the other ad was selected from Instagram, but we removed the Instagram frame—which includes the logo, comments, and “likes.” In Part 2, participants were randomized to rate food ads that ostensibly originated from (1) Instagram (ie, we photoshopped the Instagram frame onto ads); or (2) traditional sources. Unbeknownst to participants, half of the ads in their condition originated from Instagram and half originated from traditional sources. Results In Part 1, adolescents performed worse than chance when asked to identify Instagram ads (P<.001). In Part 2, there were no differences on 4 of 5 outcomes in the “labeled ad condition.” In the “unlabeled ad condition,” however, they preferred Instagram ads to traditional ads on 3 of 5 outcomes (ie, trendiness, P=.001; artistic appeal, P=.001; likeability, P=.001). Conclusions Adolescents incorrectly identified traditional ads as Instagram posts, suggesting the artistic appearance of social media ads may not be perceived as marketing. Further, the mere presence of Instagram features caused adolescents to rate food ads more positively than ads without Instagram features.

Reexamining the “Brain Drain” Effect: Does Ward et al. (2017) Replicate?

The present study was a pre-registered direct replication of Ward et al.’s (2017) second experiment (OSF pre-registration found at: https://osf.io/5fq4r). This replication assigned both smartphone location (on desk, in pocket/bag, or outside of the testing room) and smartphone power (on, or off) for a total of six conditions. Participants completed an automated operation span (OSpan) task, a cue-dependent go/no-go task, and the smartphone attachment and dependency inventory. It was hypothesized that performance on an attention-demanding task (i.e., the OSpan task) would be worse for those in closer proximity to their smartphone (on desk) and that those with greater smartphone attachment and dependency would have a larger “brain drain” effect. Using the same tasks and conditions as in Ward et al.’s (2017) second experiment, the present study found that the “brain drain” effect did not replicate: there was no difference between smartphone location conditions on performance on either the o-span task or the go/no-go task. These findings demonstrate that the mere presence of one’s smartphone may not be enough to affect cognitive performance. Understanding these effects is crucial in a time where smartphones are a basic necessity.

Stereotypes Disrupt Probabilistic Category Learning

We ask whether task-irrelevant associations of a social nature, such as stereotypes, may be “sticky” and disrupt probabilistic learning and updating more than non-social task-irrelevant associations. Across three experiments, participants learned the probabilistic outcomes of different combinations of cards based on feedback in either a social (i.e. forecasting crime) or nonsocial (i.e. forecasting weather) learning context. During learning, participants were presented with either task-irrelevant social (i.e. Black or White faces) or non-social (i.e. Darker or Lighter clouds) stimuli that were congruent or incongruent with the social and nonsocial learning context. We found that learning was impaired in the social compared to nonsocial learning context, despite the fact that both sets of stimuli were unrelated to the stimulus/outcome pairings that participants were asked to learn (Studies 1-2). Moreover, we found that learning decrements extended beyond the mere presence of distracting human faces (Study 2), and that they extended to both positively and negatively-valenced stereotypes (Study 3). Next, we tested competing hypotheses regarding whether learning decrements were due to “first order” stereotype application or inhibition at the trial-level, or due to “second order” cognitive load disruptions that accumulate across trials (Meta-Analysis 1). We found evidence for second- versus first-order disruptions, such that participants who were more internally motivated to respond without prejudice learned less accurately. This finding suggests that participants who are more likely to self-monitor their responses in contexts where they may appear prejudiced perform significantly worse due to taxed cognitive functioning. We discuss the implications for the influence of stereotypes on probabilistic category learning.

Peer Presence Effect on Numerosity and Phonological Comparisons in 4th Graders: When Working with a SchoolMate Makes Children More Adult-like

Little is known about how peers’ mere presence may, in itself, affect academic learning and achievement. The present study addresses this issue by exploring whether and how the presence of a familiar peer affects performance in a task assessing basic numeracy and literacy skills: numerosity and phonological comparisons. We tested 99 fourth-graders either alone or with a classmate. Ninety-seven college-aged young adults were also tested on the same task, either alone or with a familiar peer. Peer presence yielded a reaction time (RT) speedup in children, and this social facilitation was at least as important as that seen in adults. RT distribution analyses indicated that the presence of a familiar peer promotes the emergence of adult-like features in children. This included shorter and less variable reaction times (confirmed by an ex-Gaussian analysis), increased use of an optimal response strategy, and, based on Ratcliff’s diffusion model, speeded up nondecision (memory and/or motor) processes. Peer presence thus allowed children to at least narrow (for demanding phonological comparisons), and at best, virtually fill in (for unchallenging numerosity comparisons) the developmental gap separating them from adult levels of performance. These findings confirm the influence of peer presence on skills relevant to education and lay the groundwork for exploring how the brain mechanisms mediating this fundamental social influence evolve during development.