Quasirational models of sentencing

Cognitive continuum theory points to the middle-ground between the intuitive and analytic modes of cognition, called quasirationality. In the context of sentencing, we discuss how legal models prescribe the use of different modes of cognition. These models aim to help judges perform the cognitive balancing act required between factors indicating a more or less severe penalty for an offender. We compare sentencing in three common law jurisdictions (i.e., Australia, the US, and England and Wales). Each places a different emphasis on the use of intuition and analysis; but all are quasirational. We conclude that the most appropriate mode of cognition will likely be that which corresponds best with properties of the sentencingtask. Finally, we discuss the implications of this cognition-task correspondence approach for researchers and legal policy-makers

Setting up new chemical engineering degree programmes: Exercises in design and retrofit within constraints

The rise in popularity of chemical engineering among students entering university has prompted expansion of the UK provision, through increased intake into current degree programmes and with the rise of new providers. The former entails logistical challenges of processing larger numbers through existing infrastructures whilst maintaining the student experience. The latter entails challenges of designing and introducing programmes that build harmoniously on existing non-chemical engineering provision, within the constraints of university validation procedures and physical resources, and in the face of uncertainty around student and staff recruitment, while aspiring to implement best practice in chemical engineering content and pedagogy. Following a review of the UK chemical engineering landscape and a critique of literature guidance on the appropriate content of chemical engineering curricula, this paper illustrates the issues of new programme development through the approaches and experiences of a new provider, the University of Huddersfield, which introduced new chemical engineering programmes from academic year 2013-14. The paper addresses specifying the content of chemical engineering programmes to align with accreditation requirements and literature advice while maintaining distinctiveness. The constraints imposed by the need to specify and validate courses internally and to minimise substantive programme changes subsequently, whilst responding to the opportunities that arise as staff are recruited and to external developments and unplanned incidents, are highlighted and illustrated, in order to draw lessons that might help to guide other new entrants

The value of experiments in futures and foresight science as illustrated by the case of scenario planning

An already pressing need to evidence the effectiveness of futures and foresight tools has been further amplified by the coronavirus pandemic, which highlighted more mainstream tools’ difficulty with uncertainty. In light of this, the recent discussion in this journal on providing futures and foresight science with a stronger scientific basis is welcome. In this discussion critical realism has been proffered as a useful philosophical foundation and experiments a useful method for improving this field’s scientific basis. Yet, experiments seek to isolate specific causal effects through closure (i.e., by controlling for all extraneous factors) and this may cause it to jar with critical realism’s emphasis on uncertainty and openness. We therefore extend the recent discussion on improving the scientific basis of futures and foresight science by doing three things. Firstly, we elaborate on critical realism and why the experimental method may jar with it. Secondly, we explain why the distinction between a conceptual and a direct replication can help overcome this jarring, meaning experiments can still be a valuable research tool for a futures and foresight science underpinned by critical realism. Thirdly, we consider the appropriate unit of analysis for experiments on futures and foresight tools. In so doing, we situate the recent discussion on improving the scientific basis of futures and foresight science within the much longer running one on improving the scientific basis of business, management and strategy research more broadly. We use the case of scenario planning to illustrate our argument in relation to futures and foresight science

Orientale and South Pole-Aitken basins on the Moon: Preliminary Galileo imaging results

During the Earth-Moon flyby the Galileo Solid State Imaging System obtained new information on the landscape and physical geology of the Moon. Multicolor Galileo images of the Moon reveal variations in color properties of the lunar surface. Using returned lunar samples as a key, the color differences can be interpreted in terms of variations in the mineral makeup of the lunar rocks and soil. The combined results of Apollo landings and multicolor images from Galileo allow extrapolation of surface composition to areas distant from the landing sites, including the far side invisible from Earth

Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of the Nucleus of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

We have used the Spitzer Space Telescope InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) 22-μm peakup array to observe thermal emission from the nucleus and trail of comet 103P/Hartley 2, the target of NASA’s Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The comet was observed on UT 2008 August 12 and 13, while 5.5 AU from the Sun. We obtained two 200 frame sets of photometric imaging over a 2.7 hr period. To within the errors of the measurement, we find no detection of any temporal variation between the two images. The comet showed extended emission beyond a point source in the form of a faint trail directed along the comet’s antivelocity vector. After modeling and removing the trail emission, a NEATM model for the nuclear emission with beaming parameter of 0.95 ± 0.20 indicates a small effective radius for the nucleus of 0.57 ± 0.08 km and low geometric albedo 0.028 ± 0.009 (1σ). With this nucleus size and a water production rate of 3 × 10^(28) molecules s^(-1) at perihelion, we estimate that ~100% of the surface area is actively emitting volatile material at perihelion. Reports of emission activity out to ~5 AU support our finding of a highly active nuclear surface. Compared to Deep Impact’s first target, comet 9P/Tempel 1, Hartley 2’s nucleus is one-fifth as wide (and about one-hundredth the mass) while producing a similar amount of outgassing at perihelion with about 13 times the active surface fraction. Unlike Tempel 1, comet Hartley 2 should be highly susceptible to jet driven spin-up torques, and so could be rotating at a much higher frequency. Since the amplitude of nongravitational forces are surprisingly similar for both comets, close to the ensemble average for ecliptic comets, we conclude that comet Hartley 2 must have a much more isotropic pattern of time-averaged outgassing from its nuclear surface. Barring a catastrophic breakup or major fragmentation event, the comet should be able to survive up to another 100 apparitions (~700 yr) at its current rate of mass loss

Disengaging and rehabilitating high-value detainees: a small scale qualitative study

In an era of international terrorism, interviews with high-value detainees may have the dual purpose of extracting useful information and of disengagement. We conducted a small-scale, qualitative study using in-depth, individual interviews with 11 experienced interviewers in the Southeast Asia region and Australia, in order to provide insights into the types of interviewing strategies employed in terrorist rehabilitation. Our findings highlight the potential efficacy of creating a physically comfortable and relaxed interview setting, and of using interview strategies that focus on rapport-building, principles of social persuasion and elements of procedural justice, along with a patient and flexible stance to questioning. We suggest that interviewers performing rehabilitation interviews with high-value detainees ought to be trained to use the social approach to interviewing

Precession of a Freely Rotating Rigid Body. Inelastic Relaxation in the Vicinity of Poles

When a solid body is freely rotating at an angular velocity ${\bf \Omega}$, the ellipsoid of constant angular momentum, in the space $\Omega_1, \Omega_2, \Omega_3$, has poles corresponding to spinning about the minimal-inertia and maximal-inertia axes. The first pole may be considered stable if we neglect the inner dissipation, but becomes unstable if the dissipation is taken into account. This happens because the bodies dissipate energy when they rotate about any axis different from principal. In the case of an oblate symmetrical body, the angular velocity describes a circular cone about the vector of (conserved) angular momentum. In the course of relaxation, the angle of this cone decreases, so that both the angular velocity and the maximal-inertia axis of the body align along the angular momentum. The generic case of an asymmetric body is far more involved. Even the symmetrical prolate body exhibits a sophisticated behaviour, because an infinitesimally small deviation of the body's shape from a rotational symmetry (i.e., a small difference between the largest and second largest moments of inertia) yields libration: the precession trajectory is not a circle but an ellipse. In this article we show that often the most effective internal dissipation takes place at twice the frequency of the body's precession. Applications to precessing asteroids, cosmic-dust alignment, and rotating satellites are discussed.Comment: 47 pages, 1 figur

Lunar scout missions: Galileo encounter results and application to scientific problems and exploration requirements

The Lunar Scout Missions (payload: x-ray fluorescence spectrometer, high-resolution stereocamera, neutron spectrometer, gamma-ray spectrometer, imaging spectrometer, gravity experiment) will provide a global data set for the chemistry, mineralogy, geology, topography, and gravity of the Moon. These data will in turn provide an important baseline for the further scientific exploration of the Moon by all-purpose landers and micro-rovers, and sample return missions from sites shown to be of primary interest from the global orbital data. These data would clearly provide the basis for intelligent selection of sites for the establishment of lunar base sites for long-term scientific and resource exploration and engineering studies. The two recent Galileo encounters with the Moon (December, 1990 and December, 1992) illustrate how modern technology can be applied to significant lunar problems. We emphasize the regional results of the Galileo SSI to show the promise of geologic unit definition and characterization as an example of what can be done with the global coverage to be obtained by the Lunar Scout Missions

First Galileo image of asteroid 243 Ida

The second spacecraft encounter with an asteroid has yielded an unprecedentedly high resolution portrait of 243 Ida. On 28 Aug. 1993, Galileo obtained an extensive data set on this small member of the Koronis family. Most of the data recorded on the tape recorder will be returned to Earth in spring 1994. A five-frame mosaic of Ida was acquired with good illumination geometry a few minutes before closest approach; it has a resolution of 31 to 38 m/pixel amd was played back during Sept. 1993. Preliminary analyses of this single view of Ida are summarized

Exploring young people's and youth workers' experiences of spaces for ‘youth development’: creating cultures of participation

The paper focuses on the emergence of ‘positive youth development’ and its impact on older, more established practices of working with young people, such as youth work. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in England between 2004 and 2006, in particular young people's and youth workers' accounts of participating in youth work, the analysis engages with the social spaces in which youth work takes place and asks key questions about why young people might participate in youth spaces, what they get out of participating and how such spaces can promote cultures of participation. The analysis shows that such spaces provide young people and their communities with biographical continuity and time becomes a key component for sustaining such spaces. The argument is made for a more nuanced understanding of what young people get out of their participation in youth spaces, and for an epistemological approach to youth praxis that embraces the messiness and inequalities of lived experience