On the affective ambivalence of living with cultural diversity

Living with cultural diversity is characterized by a fundamental affective ambivalence. On the one hand, there is existential unease in the face of cultural strangeness, which is linked to our human dependence on `common sense' — the shared background of understanding from which we derive ontological security about the world and our place in it. Through cultural contact, common sense loses something of its self-evident character, and certainties about what is normal are put to the test. On the other hand, contact with unfamiliar practices and forms of expression can equally give rise to positive feelings of wonder and fascination, as in the urban context. This affective ambivalence stems from an existential paradox: the experience of both meaning and lack of meaning are dependent on contact with transcendent realities — in other words, realities that cannot be fully encompassed within our cognitive and manipulative horizons. This leads us to the question as to what the conditions are in which cultural diversity is experienced as a positive social given. The hypothesis is that cultural strangeness cannot in any event fascinate those who perceive the presence of this strangeness, rightly or wrongly, as an acute threat to their own psychological integrity, their vital integrity and/or to the national integrity

Do personality traits moderate relations between psychologically controlling parenting and problem behavior in adolescents?

This research examined whether and how adolescents' personality traits moderate associations between psychologically controlling parenting and problem behaviors. On the basis of self-determination theory, we also examined the mediating role of psychological need frustration in the effects of psychologically controlling parenting. A cross-sectional study in two samples (N = 423 and 292; M-age = 12.43 and 15.74 years) was conducted. While in Sample 1 both mothers and adolescents provided reports of parenting and problem behavior, Sample 2 relied on adolescent-reported parenting and mother-reported problem behavior. Psychologically controlling parenting was related to internalizing and externalizing problems in both samples. Little systematic evidence was obtained for the moderating role of personality, with the exception of a moderating effect of Agreeableness. In both samples, psychological control was unrelated to externalizing problems among adolescents high on Agreeableness. Analyses of Sample 2 showed that associations between psychological control and problem behavior were mediated by psychological need frustration. Adolescent personality plays a modest role as a moderator of associations between psychologically controlling parenting and problem behavior. Frustration of adolescents' basic and universal psychological needs can account for the undermining effects of psychologically controlling parenting. Directions for future research are discussed

National scientific capabilities and technological performance: An exploration of emerging industrial relevant research domains.

Today's theories and models on innovation stress the importance of scientific capabilities and science-technology proximity, especially in new emerging fields of economic activity. In this contribution we examine the relationship between national scientific capabilities, the science intensity of technology and technological performance within six promising industrial fields. Our findings reveal that national technological performance is positively associated with scientific capabilities. Countries performing better on a technological level are characterized both by larger numbers of publications and by numbers of involved institutions that exceed average expected values. The latter observation holds for both companies and knowledge generating institutes actively involved in scientific activities. As such, our findings seem to suggest beneficial effects of scientific capabilities shouldered by a multitude of organizations. In addition, higher numbers of patent activity coincide with higher levels of science intensity pointing out the relevance of science 'proximity' when developing technology in newer, emerging fields. Limitations and directions for further research are discussed.Performance; Research; Theory; Models; Model; Innovation; Field; Science; Intensity; Technology; Country; Expected; Value; Companies; Knowledge; Effects;

Integrating personal media and digital TV with QoS guarantees using virtualized set-top boxes: architecture and performance measurements

Nowadays, users consume a lot of functionality in their home coming from a service provider located in the Internet. While the home network is typically shielded off as much as possible from the `outside world', the supplied services could be greatly extended if it was possible to use local information. In this article, an extended service is presented that integrates the user's multimedia content, scattered over multiple devices in the home network, into the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) of the Digital TV. We propose to virtualize the set-top box, by migrating all functionality except user interfacing to the service provider infrastructure. The media in the home network is discovered through standard Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), of which the QoS functionality is exploited to ensure high quality playback over the home network, that basically is out of the control of the service provider. The performance of the subsystems are analysed

Legal Knowledge and Information Systems

One way of reasoning with uncertainties in the context of law is to use probabilities. However, methods for reasoning about the probability of guilt in a court case requires us to specify a prior probability of guilt, which is the probability of guilt before any evidence is known. There is no accepted approach for specifying the prior probability of guilt but multiple solutions have been proposed. In this paper, we consider three approaches: a prior that is based on the population, a prior based on the number of agents that have similar opportunity as the suspect and a prior that represents a legal norm. For comparing and evaluating the approaches, we use an agent-based model as a ground truth in which all probabilities are known. With the data generated in the ground truth model, we investigate how the choice of prior influences the posterior probability of guilt for both guilty and innocent agents. Using a decision threshold, we can determine the effect of the three approaches on the rates of correct and incorrect convictions and acquittals. We find that the opportunity prior results in higher rates of both correct convictions and false convictions and requires more assumptions and access to data and knowledge than the legal prior and population prior.</p