The Impact of Ideology and Attorneys On Precedent Usage: An Analysis of State High Courts

This dissertation focuses on an important question in the judicial politics literature: what types of influences encourage opinion-writers to cite and use precedents in particular patterns. I address this question by using a series of innovative frameworks from social psychology, specifically systematic information processing frameworks using a theory of motivated reasoning. This theory postulates that the interplay (and shifts) between attitudinal accessibility and fear of invalidation/illegitimacy will encourage judges to cite and/or treat precedents using behavior that is consistent with top-down or bottom-up forms of motivated reasoning. Specifically, when attitudinal accessibility is high and fear of invalidation is low, precedent citation and treatment patterns should be consistent with top-down forms of motivated reasoning. In contrast, cases that have low attitudinal accessibility and a high fear of invalidation, precedent citation and treatment patterns should be broadly consistent with bottom-up forms of motivated reasoning, with the other two cells occupying mixed (or intermediate) forms of motivated reasoning

Between History and Catastrophe: Emanuel Ringelblum\u27s Secret Warsaw Ghetto Archive

Dr. Samuel Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History, Trinity College, and noted author of The Distinctive Life of East European Jewry and Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum and the Secret Ghetto Archive.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1262/thumbnail.jp

Temporal regularity effects on pre-attentive and attentive processing of deviance

Temporal regularity allows predicting the temporal locus of future information thereby potentially facilitating cognitive processing. We applied event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate how temporal regularity impacts pre-attentive and attentive processing of deviance in the auditory modality. Participants listened to sequences of sinusoidal tones differing exclusively in pitch. The inter-stimulus interval (ISI) in these sequences was manipulated to convey either isochronous or random temporal structure. In the pre-attentive session, deviance processing was unaffected by the regularity manipulation as evidenced in three event-related-potentials (ERPs): mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON). In the attentive session, the P3b was smaller for deviant tones embedded in irregular temporal structure, while the N2b component remained unaffected. These findings confirm that temporal regularity can reinforce cognitive mechanisms associated with the attentive processing of deviance. Furthermore, they provide evidence for the dynamic allocation of attention in time and dissociable pre-attentive and attention-dependent temporal processing mechanisms

Why pitch sensitivity matters : event-related potential evidence of metric and syntactic violation detection among spanish late learners of german

Event-related potential (ERP) data in monolingual German speakers have shown that sentential metric expectancy violations elicit a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of an anterior negativity and a posterior positivity (P600). This pattern is comparable to that elicited by syntactic violations. However, proficient French late learners of German do not detect violations of metric expectancy in German. They also show qualitatively and quantitatively different ERP responses to metric and syntactic violations. We followed up the questions whether (1) latter evidence results from a potential pitch cue insensitivity in speech segmentation in French speakers, or (2) if the result is founded in rhythmic language differences. Therefore, we tested Spanish late learners of German, as Spanish, contrary to French, uses pitch as a segmentation cue even though the basic segmentation unit is the same in French and Spanish (i.e., the syllable). We report ERP responses showing that Spanish L2 learners are sensitive to syntactic as well as metric violations in German sentences independent of attention to task in a P600 response. Overall, the behavioral performance resembles that of German native speakers. The current data suggest that Spanish L2 learners are able to extract metric units (trochee) in their L2 (German) even though their basic segmentation unit in Spanish is the syllable. In addition Spanish in contrast to French L2 learners of German are sensitive to syntactic violations indicating a tight link between syntactic and metric competence. This finding emphasizes the relevant role of metric cues not only in L2 prosodic but also in syntactic processing

Studies on greenhouse gas emissions in organic and conventional dairy farms

In Germany agriculture is responsible for 14 % of the whole greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-sions. A considerable portion (30 %) of the emissions is caused by dairy farming. Recent discussions about this issue show that there is a lack of solid data. The project "Climate effects and sustainability of organic and conventional farming systems - examination in a network of pilot farms" aims to attain more precise information. A total of 40 conventional and 40 organic farms in Germany are compared in this project. Half of the farm pairs are dairy systems; they are located as organic/conventional pairs in regions with equal soil and climatic conditions. The collected data includes length of life, first calving, milk yield, fodder regime, state of health of the different dairy herds and data on manure management and fodder production as well as soil and soil management data. Options to increase sustainability in the farming systems are discussed with a special view to GHG emissions. Modelling of GHG emissions and weak point analyses in production shall be undertaken with the models GAS-EM and REPRO. General differences between organic and conventional dairy farming affecting the GHG balance can be expected by different milk production per cow, different feed components and obligatory grazing in organic farms and different GHG balances in the production of fodder crops. An increase in milk yields by a general intensification of feeding might be connected with unwanted effects on the GHG balance. Also, overall effects of the use of CH4-reducing feed components are unclear. The important role of herd management on the GHG balances in dairy farming is highlighted. The accumulated project data shall serve as a basis for the development of GHG reduction potentials and for an improvement of other sustainability aspects in organic dairy farming

P3b reflects periodicity in linguistic sequences

Temporal predictability is thought to affect stimulus processing by facilitating the allocation of attentional resources. Recent studies have shown that periodicity of a tonal sequence results in a decreased peak latency and a larger amplitude of the P3b compared with temporally random, i.e., aperiodic sequences. We investigated whether this applies also to sequences of linguistic stimuli (syllables), although speech is usually aperiodic. We compared aperiodic syllable sequences with two temporally regular conditions. In one condition, the interval between syllable onset was fixed, whereas in a second condition the interval between the syllables’ perceptual center (p-center) was kept constant. Event-related potentials were assessed in 30 adults who were instructed to detect irregularities in the stimulus sequences. We found larger P3b amplitudes for both temporally predictable conditions as compared to the aperiodic condition and a shorter P3b latency in the p-center condition than in both other conditions. These findings demonstrate that even in acoustically more complex sequences such as syllable streams, temporal predictability facilitates the processing of deviant stimuli. Furthermore, we provide first electrophysiological evidence for the relevance of the p-center concept in linguistic stimulus processing

Physical exercise during encoding improves vocabulary learning in young female adults

Acute physical activity has been repeatedly shown to improve various cognitive functions. However, there have been no investigations comparing the effects of exercise during verbal encoding versus exercise prior to encoding on long-term memory performance. In this current psychoneuroendocrinological study we aim to test whether light to moderate ergometric bicycling during vocabulary encoding enhances subsequent recall compared to encoding during physical rest and encoding after being physically active. Furthermore, we examined the kinetics of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in serum which has been previously shown to correlate with learning performance. We also controlled for the BDNF val66met polymorphism. We found better vocabulary test performance for subjects that were physically active during the encoding phase compared to sedentary subjects. Post-hoc tests revealed that this effect was particularly present in initially low performers. BDNF in serum and BDNF genotype failed to account for the current result. Our data indicates that light to moderate simultaneous physical activity during encoding, but not prior to encoding, is beneficial for subsequent recall of new items

Multilateralismus im Hohen Norden: Die Ukrainekrise droht, die Arktisdiplomatie zu versicherheitlichen

Im April dieses Jahres übergab Kanada den Vorsitz des Arktischen Rates an die USA; in der Arktis waren diese bislang kein starker Akteur. Doch gerade jetzt gefährdet die Ukrainekrise die bisher gut funktionierende internationale Zusammenarbeit mit Russland in der Arktis. Gleichzeitig ist angesichts signifikanter umweltpolitischer Herausforderungen und der steigenden wirtschaftlichen Relevanz des Hohen Nordens multilaterale Zusammenarbeit in der Region wichtiger denn je - es gilt sicherzustellen, dass diplomatische Lösungen auch in Zukunft möglich sein werden

Zusammensetzung von Wirtschaftsdüngern ökologischer und konventioneller Milchviehbetriebe im Rahmen des Projekts Klimawirkungen und Nachhaltigkeit von Landbausystemen

In Deutschland ist die Milchviehhaltung für 30 % der gesamten Treibhausgasemissionen der Landwirtschaft verantwortlich. Zu den größten Verursacherbereichen der landwirtschaftlichen Emissionen in Deutschland gehören die landwirtschaftlichen Böden, die mineralische Düngung, die Emissionen aus der Fermentation aus der Verdauung der Tiere und die Lagerung und Anwendung von Wirtschaftsdüngern. Auf der anderen Seite steigert ein gezielter Einsatz von Wirtschaftsdüngern die Erträge und mindert die Notwendigkeit von Mineraldüngern, was zu einer Senkung der Treibhausgasbelastungen führen kann. Trotz der Bedeutung zu Klimawirkungen der Landwirtschaft, gibt es in der Literatur kaum aussagekräftige Datensätze von Wirtschaftsdüngern in Bezug auf Menge und Qualität und vor allem für den Ökolandbau liegen keine Tabellenwerte dieser vor. In eigenen Studien zu „Klimawirkungen und Nachhaltigkeit von Landbausystemen – Untersuchung in einem Netzwerk von Pilotbetrieben“ wurden in 20 ökologischen und konventionellen Milchviehbetrieben der Düngeranfall, die Lagerungsart, sowie die Anwendung und Qualität von Wirtschaftsdüngern erfasst. Die Ergebnisse der Nährstoffgehalte der ersten Probenahmeperiode sind in diesem Beitrag dargestellt. Die große Spannbreite der N-, P- und K-Gehalte, welche auch in anderen Studien gefunden wurde, konnte durch die eigenen Studien bestätigt werden. Systematische Effekte der Bewirtschaftungsform auf die Qualität der Wirtschaftsdünger konnten nicht gefunden werden, was auf einen unermesslichen Effekt des spezifischen Düngermanagements auf die Zusammensetzung des Düngers hindeutet. Aus diesem Grund werden Qualität, Management, Einsatz und Verwertung der Wirtschaftsdünger genauer betrachtet, um die Treibhausgasbilanzen von Milchviehbetrieben zu optimieren

Analyse von Grundfutterqualitäten ökologischer und konventioneller Milchviehbetriebe im Rahmen des Projekts Klimawirkungen und Nachhaltigkeit von Landbausystemen

Im ersten Jahr eines paarweisen Vergleichs von 20 ökologischen sowie 20 konventionellen Milchviehbetrieben wurden Unterschiede in den Mittelwerten der Proteingehalte der Kleegras- und/oder Grassilagen deutlich. Dahingegen unterschied sich die Qualität der Maissilagen der Betriebe mit den verschiedenen Bewirtschaftungsformen nicht. In eigenen Studien wird der Einfluss der Qualität von Futtermitteln in Abhängigkeit des Managements auf die Treibhausgasbilanzen von Milchviehbetrieben untersucht