Indirect contact and prejudice reduction: limits and possibilities

Here we review recent developments in the field of indirect intergroup contact, an extension of the classic Contact Hypothesis. Three forms of indirect contact are assessed: extended, vicarious and imagined. The strengths and limitations of each are evaluated. Although not as potent as direct contact, indirect forms of contact generally offer a more diverse set of practical solutions for reducing prejudice, especially in challenging contexts where direct contact may be infrequent or impossible

Computation of a combined spherical-elastic and viscous-half-space earth model for ice sheet simulation

This report starts by describing the continuum model used by Lingle & Clark (1985) to approximate the deformation of the earth under changing ice sheet and ocean loads. That source considers a single ice stream, but we apply their underlying model to continent-scale ice sheet simulation. Their model combines Farrell's (1972) elastic spherical earth with a viscous half-space overlain by an elastic plate lithosphere. The latter half-space model is derivable from calculations by Cathles (1975). For the elastic spherical earth we use Farrell's tabulated Green's function, as do Lingle & Clark. For the half-space model, however, we propose and implement a significantly faster numerical strategy, a spectral collocation method (Trefethen 2000) based directly on the Fast Fourier Transform. To verify this method we compare to an integral formula for a disc load. To compare earth models we build an accumulation history from a growing similarity solution from (Bueler, et al.~2005) and and simulate the coupled (ice flow)-(earth deformation) system. In the case of simple isostasy the exact solution to this system is known. We demonstrate that the magnitudes of numerical errors made in approximating the ice-earth system are significantly smaller than pairwise differences between several earth models, namely, simple isostasy, the current standard model used in ice sheet simulation (Greve 2001, Hagdorn 2003, Zweck & Huybrechts 2005), and the Lingle & Clark model. Therefore further efforts to validate different earth models used in ice sheet simulations are, not surprisingly, worthwhile.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures, 3 Matlab program

Understanding victim group responses to hate crime: shared identities, perceived similarity and intergroup emotions

Hate crimes against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) individuals have been shown to indirectly impact other members of the community (e.g., Noelle, 2002). However, as the LGBT ‘community’ is a diverse grouping of individuals with various sexual and gender identities, we examined experimentally whether reactions were enhanced when participants shared specific sub-identities with the victim (N=126). Results indicate that, while sub-group identities may be important, they do not affect the reactions to anti-LGBT hate crimes above and beyond the superordinate LGBT identity. Instead, further correlational analyses revealed that perceived similarity to the targeted characteristic better explains the community impacts of hate crimes. We show that this similarity increases empathy for the victim which, in turn, heightens subsequent emotional reactions and related behavioural responses. The results show the utility of adding intra-group perceptions to Intergroup Emotions Theory (e.g., Mackie & Smith, 2015) to better understand the community impacts of hate crime

Findings from the Sussex hate crime project

In this short report we summarise some of our key findings from the quantitative surveys and experiments (with over 1400 respondents) and which are yet to be published. Some of the data below on police perceptions are aggregated into two areas: London (serviced by the Metropolitan Police Service) and all other areas in England and Wales. This allows for a comparison between the country’s largest city (and largest police service) with the rest of the countr

The short and longer term impacts of hate crimes experienced directly, indirectly and through the media

A longitudinal study (N = 774) explored the short and longer term impacts of anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) hate crime experienced directly, indirectly, and through the media. In the short term, being a victim (direct) or personally knowing of a hate crime victim (indirect) was positively associated with vulnerability, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions after reading about a hate crime. Direct victims were also less empathic toward other victims and engaged in more victim-blaming. A structural equation model showed direct experiences (via personal vulnerability and empathy) and media experiences (via group-threat and victim-blaming) to be cross-sectionally associated with behavioral intentions. Media experiences also had lasting demobilizing impacts on actual behaviors, again serially mediated by group-threat and victim-blaming. The findings highlight the emotional and behavioral impacts of hate crimes on both direct victims and on the wider LGBT community. They also raise questions about media reporting of hate crimes and the role of victim-blaming

HTC Scientific Computing in a Distributed Cloud Environment

This paper describes the use of a distributed cloud computing system for high-throughput computing (HTC) scientific applications. The distributed cloud computing system is composed of a number of separate Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds that are utilized in a unified infrastructure. The distributed cloud has been in production-quality operation for two years with approximately 500,000 completed jobs where a typical workload has 500 simultaneous embarrassingly-parallel jobs that run for approximately 12 hours. We review the design and implementation of the system which is based on pre-existing components and a number of custom components. We discuss the operation of the system, and describe our plans for the expansion to more sites and increased computing capacity