Narrative and the Origins of Law

In order to understand these distinct narratives of legal origin through the tools of narratology, we will proceed in several steps. First, we will define more precisely the set of social contract theories that we consider. We will discuss our decision to narrow the focus down to two social contract theorists in particular, one contemporary and one classical, John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These two theorists seem worlds apart in many respects—yet the tools of narratology will enable us to see their shared enterprise. Second, the tools of narratology will help us to identify and discuss the component parts that define social contract narratives, namely, the creation of an original space and situation, the description of the act of contracting, and the way in which endings are used to frame and position all of the moving pieces into one linear and evolutionary storyline. We will then examine why narratology yields an interesting and fruitful analysis of these narratives. In concluding, we will link this endeavour to future ones, in which we intend to use the tools of ‘law and literature’ to make sense of the narratives, in theory and in practice, that give rise to and sustain legal and political order

Better, Nicer, Clearer, Fairer: A Critical Assessment of the Movement for Ethical Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

This paper uses frame analysis to examine recent high-profile values statements endorsing ethical design for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Guided by insights from values in design and the sociology of business ethics, we uncover the grounding assumptions and terms of debate that make some conversations about ethical design possible while forestalling alternative visions. Vision statements for ethical AI/ML co-opt the language of some critics, folding them into a limited, technologically deterministic, expert-driven view of what ethical AI/ML means and how it might work

Personality Measures Link Slower Binocular Rivalry Switch Rates to Higher Levels of Self-Discipline

In this paper we investigated the relation between personality and the rate of perceptual alternations during binocular rivalry. Studies have demonstrated that slower rivalry alternations are associated with a range of clinical conditions. It is less clear whether rivalry dynamics similarly co-vary with individual differences in psychological traits seen across non-clinical population. We assessed rivalry rates in a non-clinical population (n = 149) and found slower rivalry alternations were positively related r(149) = 0.20, p = 0.01 to industriousness, a trait characterized by a high level of self-discipline using the Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS). Switch rates were also negatively related r(149) = -0.20, p = 0.01 to cognitive disorganization, a schizotypy trait capturing schizophrenia-like symptoms of disorganization using the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE). Furthermore, we showed that that these relations with personality were unaffected by the inclusion or exclusion of mixed percept in the response analysis. Together these results are relevant to theoretical models of rivalry investigating individual differences in rivalry temporal dynamics and they may reduce concerns about the impact of task compliance in clinical research using rivalry as a potential diagnostic tool

Students’ Reactions to Reform Mathematics Pedagogy in a Postsecondary Remedial Mathematics Course

The students in this study were enrolled in a remedial mathematics course at a small 4-year university and were taught according to the reform pedagogical principles advocated by NCTM, AMATYC, and MAA. Since most of the students had not been previously exposed to these teaching methods, this study obtained students’ reactions (n = 22) to the course through an anonymous, free-response (not multiple choice) survey at the end of the course. Surveys from students in two equivalent “traditional” lecture courses (n = 44) were also analyzed and served as a baseline by which to gauge students’ responses from the reform group. The surveys asked for general likes and dislikes regarding the pedagogical practices that were employed in their respective courses. The findings from the surveys were that students in the reform course generally liked its key features (group work, student presentations, and graphing calculators), but roughly half of the class wished that the instructor spent more time doing many more example problems on the board as opposed to giving the class time to explore the mathematical principles underlying the example problems. Teachers who wish to use reform pedagogical practices need to be aware of student expectations as they plan their lessons

Connectivity and free-surface effects in polymer glasses.

The glass transition is one of the few unsolved problems in condensed matter physics: agreement on the cause of the slowing down of structural relaxation in glass-forming liquids is lacking. Glasses are amorphous solids, which do not possess the long-range crystalline order, yet display arrested dynamics and the shear elastic modulus characteristic of equilibrium elasticity. It has been suggested that due to the influence of intramolecular interactions and chain connectivity, the nature of the glass transition in polymers and in standard glass-formers is fundamentally different. Here, we discuss the role of connectivity in polymer glasses, demonstrating that although covalent bonding promotes glass formation, bonding sequentiality that defines a polymer chain is not critical in the bulk: glassy dynamics is purely a result of the number of connections per particle, independently of how these connections are formed, agreeing with the classical Phillips-Thorpe topological constraint theory. We show that bonding sequentiality does play an important role in the surface effects of the glass, highlighting a major difference between polymeric and colloidal glasses. Further, we identify the heterogenous dynamics of model coarse-grained polymer chains both in 'bulk' and near the free surface, and demonstrate characteristic domain patterns in local displacement and connectivity.Queens' College Los Alamos National Laboratory, US

The Design Aspect of Videogame Creation

The goal of this project is to incorporate students from different academic disciplines to see if they can come together to create a working video game with educational components. While learning the necessary software to create the video game, students must come together to then put what they learned into action by creating an educational video game