3,510 research outputs found

    An examination of the verbal behaviour of intergroup discrimination

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    This thesis examined relationships between psychological flexibility, psychological inflexibility, prejudicial attitudes, and dehumanization across three cross-sectional studies with an additional proposed experimental study. Psychological flexibility refers to mindful attention to the present moment, willing acceptance of private experiences, and engaging in behaviours congruent with one’s freely chosen values. Inflexibility, on the other hand, indicates a tendency to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions, entanglement with one’s thoughts, and rigid behavioural patterns. Study 1 found limited correlations between inflexibility and sexism, racism, homonegativity, and dehumanization. Study 2 demonstrated more consistent positive associations between inflexibility and prejudice. And Study 3 controlled for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, finding inflexibility predicted hostile sexism and racism beyond these factors. While showing some relationships, particularly with sexism and racism, psychological inflexibility did not consistently correlate with varied prejudices across studies. The proposed randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to reduce sexism through enhanced psychological flexibility. Overall, findings provide mixed support for the utility of flexibility-based skills in addressing complex societal prejudices. Research should continue examining flexibility integrated with socio-cultural approaches to promote equity

    MANAGING DEATH IN TERMITES

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    Death of individuals from the same species represents potential risks from disease, predation or competition for animals. Diverse responses associated with death have evolved ranging from simply avoiding or being attracted to the corpses in solitary animals to complicated undertaking behavioral repertoire in eusocial insects. A systematic review in chapter 1 suggested cannibalism is an ancestral and widespread death-related behavior in all non-human animals. Termites are suggested to switch their undertaking behavioral responses from cannibalism to burial based on interactions between chemicals associated with death to balance risks and benefits associated with decomposition. In eusocial animals like termites with caste differences, conspecific death from different castes or different causes might deliver different types of risks to living members. However, whether termites are capable of distinguishing differences in conspecific death and responding accordingly remains unknown. In chapters 2 and 3, the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, was found to manage corpses from different castes or causes differentially based on both qualitative and quantitative differences in their chemical profiles. R. flavipes workers cannot distinguish dead individuals caused by termiticides apart from those killed by naturally occurring abiotic factors. Death by biotic factors accelerated the release of late death cues and the deployment of burial behavior in nestmate workers. Corpses of all castes were carried inside the nest and cannibalized when the postmortem time wasbehaviors, such as walling-off and movement of the corpse before burial were observed for 50% of soldier corpses. Postmortem chemical profiles showed that the early death cues, 3-octanone and 3-octanol, in worker corpses were significantly higher than in soldier corpses, while they were undetectable in nymphal corpses. In addition, we confirmed the existence of 3-octanol and 3-octanone in the head, thorax, abdomen, and hemolymph. Higher concentrations of early death cues were detected in the head and thorax than in the abdomen, suggesting the possible location of synthesis. Ultra-low temperature did not affect the amount or concentration across body parts, suggesting the synthesis of early death cues occurs prior to death. Our findings suggest termites equipped with delicate risk assessments on different types of conspecific death based on chemical signatures: cannibalism was the prior strategy dealing with freshly killed corpses to recycle nutrients and remove potential risks from pathogens or pesticides, whereas burial would happen when risks from disease or competition/intrusion overcome benefits associated with nutrition recycle. This study provides insights into the understanding of mechanisms of chemical-based “death recognition” in non-human animals, providing potential opportunities for further evolutionary studies of death-related behaviors

    On the Utility of Representation Learning Algorithms for Myoelectric Interfacing

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    Electrical activity produced by muscles during voluntary movement is a reflection of the firing patterns of relevant motor neurons and, by extension, the latent motor intent driving the movement. Once transduced via electromyography (EMG) and converted into digital form, this activity can be processed to provide an estimate of the original motor intent and is as such a feasible basis for non-invasive efferent neural interfacing. EMG-based motor intent decoding has so far received the most attention in the field of upper-limb prosthetics, where alternative means of interfacing are scarce and the utility of better control apparent. Whereas myoelectric prostheses have been available since the 1960s, available EMG control interfaces still lag behind the mechanical capabilities of the artificial limbs they are intended to steer—a gap at least partially due to limitations in current methods for translating EMG into appropriate motion commands. As the relationship between EMG signals and concurrent effector kinematics is highly non-linear and apparently stochastic, finding ways to accurately extract and combine relevant information from across electrode sites is still an active area of inquiry.This dissertation comprises an introduction and eight papers that explore issues afflicting the status quo of myoelectric decoding and possible solutions, all related through their use of learning algorithms and deep Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. Paper I presents a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for multi-label movement decoding of high-density surface EMG (HD-sEMG) signals. Inspired by the successful use of CNNs in Paper I and the work of others, Paper II presents a method for automatic design of CNN architectures for use in myocontrol. Paper III introduces an ANN architecture with an appertaining training framework from which simultaneous and proportional control emerges. Paper Iv introduce a dataset of HD-sEMG signals for use with learning algorithms. Paper v applies a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model to decode finger forces from intramuscular EMG. Paper vI introduces a Transformer model for myoelectric interfacing that do not need additional training data to function with previously unseen users. Paper vII compares the performance of a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to that of classical pattern recognition algorithms. Lastly, paper vIII describes a framework for synthesizing EMG from multi-articulate gestures intended to reduce training burden

    Achieving social justice for psychiatric survivors: capabilities and advance consent to mental health treatment

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    This thesis uses a socio-legal methodology to investigate the desirability of advance consent to mental health treatment. Advance consent to mental health treatment is an anticipatory directive whereby a mentally ill patient may self-bind to future treatment in specific circumstances. Currently, there is no such provision available in English law. To assess the desirability of advance consent, this thesis asks the following questions: 1) To what extent would advance consent to mental health treatment be able to minimise coercion in the experiences of treatment? 2) What role, if any, should the mental capacity assessment play in facilitating a legal framework for advance consent? 3) Which capabilities are valued by psychiatric survivors, and to what extent can advance consent translate into securing those? 4) What are the sources of injustice experienced by psychiatric survivors, and what challenges/barriers do they pose for advance consent? These questions are grounded in original empirical data based on 21 interviews with 12 psychiatric survivors using narrative and photo- elicitation methods. These methods are considered novel for the socio-legal inquiry into mental health law. Thus, this thesis suggests a new methodological approach for studying lived experience of mental health law in everyday life. This socio-legal analysis is driven by the capabilities approach developed primarily by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen. I argue that social justice is best understood through capabilities and practical alternatives to what is currently experienced as injustice in people’s lives. I suggest advance consent can aid the individual experience or achievement of social justice by supporting capabilities necessary for bodily integrity, health, emotions and safety, making it a desirable mechanism. This is the first study to use the capabilities approach to conceptualise lived experiences of mental health and treatment to provide a new contribution to existing debates on advance consent. In my investigation, I find that coercion, insufficient information, insight, stigma and mental capacity are experienced as injustice. I argue that legally binding, voluntary, informed, sufficiently safeguarded, and carefully implemented advance consent can minimise these experiences of injustice. Using empirical data alongside the capabilities framework enables a more holistic and practical consideration of the value of advance consent in everyday life and in relation to social justice

    Management strategies and contributory factors for resistance exercise-induced muscle damage: an exploration of dietary protein, exercise load, and sex

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    The World Health Organisation recommends that resistance exercise be performed at least twice per week to benefit general health and wellbeing. However, resistance exercise is associated with acute muscle damage that potentially can dampen muscle adaptations promoted by chronic resistance training. The extent to which muscle is damaged by exercise is influenced by various factors, including age, training status, exercise type, and – notable to this thesis – sex. To this end, establishing sex-specific management strategies for exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is important to optimise the benefits of exercise. Two EIMD management strategies were focussed on in this thesis: dietary protein supplementation and exercise load manipulation. It was identified in this thesis that research into the impact both of protein supplementation and exercise load on EIMD heavily underrepresent female populations (chapters 3 and 5), despite well-documented sex differences in EIMD responses. Therefore, future research priority should be placed on bridging the sex data gap by conducting high-quality studies centralising around female-focussed and sex-comparative methodological designs. Both peri-exercise protein supplementation and exercise load manipulation in favour of lighter loads were revealed to be effective management strategies for resistance EIMD in males through systematic and scoping review of the current literature (chapters 3 and 5, respectively). Due to a lack of data from females, it is only appropriate for these strategies to be recommended for males at present. To decipher whether protein supplementation and lower exercise loads are beneficial for managing EIMD in females, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) (chapter 4) and a protocol for an RCT (chapter 6) involving male and female participants are presented in this thesis. The incorporation of ecologically-valid resistance exercise in the RCT in chapter 4 highlighted that even mild muscle damage is attenuated in females, reflected in diminished increases in post-exercise creatine kinase concentration and muscle soreness compared with males; however, the reason for this difference requires further investigation. This study, while supporting sex differences, contrasted previous studies, as neither males nor females experienced an attenuation of EIMD during milk protein supplementation. This difference likely owed to the lower severity of muscle damage induced in the current study relative to previous studies, and accordingly, future research should seek to discover alternative management strategies for mild EIMD. A protocol for an RCT examining the impact of exercise load on EIMD in untrained males and females is described in Chapter 6 of this thesis and may be used as guidance for researchers developing similar, sex-comparative studies. It was hypothesised that females will experience attenuated muscle damage relative to males and low-load exercise will induce less muscle damage than high-load exercise in both sexes. A lack of methodological consistency among EIMD studies was a recurring finding throughout this thesis, which posed an issue when attempting to compare between-study outcomes and reach a consensus. Achieving greater uniformity in study designs by adopting comparable methods relating to EIMD markers and time-points of assessment would help improve understanding of the factors influencing the magnitude of EIMD and effective management strategies. While there are limitations with several EIMD markers – for example the variability of biomarkers and subjectivity of perceptual assessments – once the optimal markers are determined, these should be consistently used moving forward. Overall, this thesis has contributed to the current body of knowledge by demonstrating that milk protein ingestion is not an effective management strategy for muscle damage following ecologically-valid resistance exercise; therefore, alternative strategies to mitigate mild muscle damage should be investigated. Further, this work supported previous reports of sex differences in EIMD and indicated that the attenuation of EIMD in females relative to males was not attributed to sex differences in body composition; thus, the aetiology of such differences necessitates further exploration by means of high-quality sex comparative research. Finally, this thesis reached the consensus recommendation that lower exercise loads can be utilised to reduce muscle damage in males; nonetheless, supporting evidence for the application of this recommendation to females is required

    New perspectives on A.I. in sentencing. Human decision-making between risk assessment tools and protection of humans rights.

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    The aim of this thesis is to investigate a field that until a few years ago was foreign to and distant from the penal system. The purpose of this undertaking is to account for the role that technology could plays in the Italian Criminal Law system. More specifically, this thesis attempts to scrutinize a very intricate phase of adjudication. After deciding on the type of an individual's liability, a judge must decide on the severity of the penalty. This type of decision implies a prognostic assessment that looks to the future. It is precisely in this field and in prognostic assessments that, as has already been anticipated in the United, instruments and processes are inserted in the pre-trial but also in the decision-making phase. In this contribution, we attempt to describe the current state of this field, trying, as a matter of method, to select the most relevant or most used tools. Using comparative and qualitative methods, the uses of some of these instruments in the supranational legal system are analyzed. Focusing attention on the Italian system, an attempt was made to investigate the nature of the element of an individual's ‘social dangerousness’ (pericolosità sociale) and capacity to commit offences, types of assessments that are fundamental in our system because they are part of various types of decisions, including the choice of the best sanctioning treatment. It was decided to turn our attention to this latter field because it is believed that the judge does not always have the time, the means and the ability to assess all the elements of a subject and identify the best 'individualizing' treatment in order to fully realize the function of Article 27, paragraph 3 of the Constitution

    Trajectories of Change, from Armed Struggle to Politics: The Transformation of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) from a Liberation Movement into a Political Party

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    The end of the Cold War catalysed a range of civil wars and separatist conflicts that battled for government control around the globe. Most of them were resolved through peace agreements which led rebels to lay down their arms and adopt political strategies to pursue their goals. A primary challenge for any resistance or liberation movement is how to win legitimacy and support from the population. This thesis is a case study on the transformation of the Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) from a liberation movement to a political party and, later, government. It provides a context-specific understanding and analysis of how the liberation movement garnered legitimacy by tapping into local and international support in the liberation war. The analysis uses legitimacy as the optic for exploring the historical narrative and process-tracing to unearth multifaceted and interactive mechanisms, and strategies facilitating the liberation movement’s quest to consolidate domestic and international legitimacy during the period of struggle. The study employs a theoretical framework focusing on the concept of legitimacy as developed by Max Weber and other scholars. The theoretical approach expands the application of the term ‘legitimacy’ by including concepts such as revolutionary ideology, and performance, or eudaemonic legitimacy. Revolutionary ideology plays a vital role in helping a liberation movement to garner support and political legitimacy from the population during a conflict. It also arises through the invocation of universal values such as freedom, equality, and social justice democracy. Equally important is performance or eudaemonic legitimacy, which is measured by the ability of a former liberation movement to fulfil its revolutionary promises in the aftermath of (violent) conflict. Such a process entails the fulfilment and deliverance of ideals of liberation earlier promised during a struggle period. The promises may include the provision of security, public goods, and welfare to the citizens. However, in comparison to motives, objectives and aspirations of the SPLM/A during the liberation war against the central government in Khartoum, key findings on SPLM/A’s trajectory from a rebel movement to a government in the post-conflict period are not encouraging. The optimism, the hard-won jubilation, and the revolutionary legitimacy that catapulted the SPLM/A to power and the subsequent secession and independence in July 2011 quickly began to wane. The study found that SPLM/A’s legitimacy in the post-CPA and independence period continues to decline, and the South Sudanese do not enjoy the fruits of the liberation struggle. The findings also indicate that the SPLM/A is stuck in a political limbo: it retains many traits of a liberation movement, while its free ride during the CPA-mandated interim period en route to forming South Sudan’s first government has in effect worked against its aspiration to transform into a legitimate political party

    Innovation of Tourism Mobility Systems in Historic City Centres: The Case of Austria

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    Fundamentally, tourism involves people on the move. Although controlled and well-managed tourism mobility can facilitate the sustainable touristic utilisation of places, uncontrolled touristic movement often creates significant challenges for host destinations. Developments in technology and digitalisation, such as the ubiquitous use of smartphones, are changing not only the way tourists move and behave while visiting historic cities, but also the evolution and management of tourism mobility systems in cities. Therefore, it is crucial to understand these changes and their effects on existing tourism mobility systems to benefit from digitalisation. This thesis develops a detailed understanding of the configuration of existing tourism mobility systems to analyse and model digitally induced innovations in tourism mobility systems in tourist-historic cities in Europe. This study employs the multi-level perspective (MLP) as an analytical tool. This approach enables a holistic analysis of innovation processes within tourism mobility by incorporating both internal and external factors that may influence system change. A two-step empirical approach was adopted. First, a scoping study was employed to identify the current innovation status of tourism mobility systems in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage City Centres in Europe. Based on these findings, in-depth expert interviews were then conducted for the Austrian case cities of Vienna, Salzburg and Graz to develop a detailed understanding of stepwise innovation within digitally penetrated tourism mobility systems. The main contribution of this study is the development of an analytical five-phase innovation model of tourism mobility systems in tourist-historic cities. This model provides a detailed understanding of the general characteristics of each innovation phase of the tourism mobility system and the drivers and constraints of innovation. The five-phase model can be used as an assessment tool to establish the current innovation status of a local tourism mobility system and to evaluate the readiness of the system to innovate (further). In addition, for the tourism mobility systems investigated in the research, a detailed understanding of the actor configuration was revealed, including the roles and responsibilities of the actors. This thesis also contributes to the conceptual discussion of tourism mobility as a joint objective for research and will be of utility to practitioners in developing more sustainable tourism mobility systems
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