The When (and How) of Intergroup Competition and Discrimination: Distinguishing the Contributions of Competitive Perceptions and Motivations

A new framework is proposed to examine the effects of intergroup competition on discrimination by assessing the influence of participants’ subjective construal of potentially competitive events. It posits that competitive intergroup perceptions (CIP; the perception that one’s ingroup and another group(s) are attempting to gain a reward or desired outcome at the expense of each other) and competitive intergroup motivations (CIM; the desire for one’s ingroup to acquire more of a reward than the other group(s)) are related but distinct constructs. This distinction implies that CIP and CIM should be strongly related, but not to the point of suggesting they are the same variable. A distinction between CIP and CIM also implies that both constructs can be elicited and experimentally manipulated independently of each other. Most importantly, this distinction implies that both constructs will have unique influences on intergroup behaviour. Although this approach has not been systematically investigated previously, the intergroup relations literature suggests two potential explanations by which CIP and CIM may lead to discrimination: i) CIP and CIM have unique, additive effects on intergroup discrimination (the independence perspective); and ii) CIM is the primary contributor to discrimination, such that CIM is more strongly related with discriminatory behaviour than CIP, and that CIP leads to discriminatory behaviour only when CIM is strong (the motivational perspective). These ideas were examined in three studies that assessed and/or manipulated self-reported CIP and CIM within an intergroup context, then assessed discriminatory intentions or behaviour towards a relevant outgroup. The results of these studies collectively supported the construct validity of the proposed framework: CIP and CIM were positively and non-redundantly related with each other, affected to differing degrees by experimental manipulations that were designed for each variable, and had generally distinct influences on intergroup behaviour. Studies 1-3 generally attested to the primary role of CIM over CIP in predicting intergroup discrimination; however, Studies 2-3 illustrated that experimentally-augmented levels of CIM did not lead to very strong discriminatory behaviour without high levels of CIP. The proposed framework may be instrumental in generating more thorough insights on the processes and social consequences of competitive group dynamics

Isostaticity of Constraints in Jammed Systems of Soft Frictionless Platonic Solids

The average number of constraints per particle $$ in mechanically stable systems of Platonic solids (except cubes) approaches the isostatic limit at the jamming point ($\rightarrow 12$), though average number of contacts are hypostatic. By introducing angular alignment metrics to classify the degree of constraint imposed by each contact, constraints are shown to arise as a direct result of local orientational order reflected in edge-face and face-face alignment angle distributions. With approximately one face-face contact per particle at jamming chain-like face-face clusters with finite extent form in these systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 4 tabl

The impace of custom ROM backups on android external storage erasure

The Android operating system is the current market leader on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The core operating system is open source and has a number of developers creating variants of this operating system. These variants, often referred to as custom ROMs are available for a wide number of mobile devices. Custom ROMs provide a number of features, such as enhanced control over the operating system, variation in user interfaces and so on. The process of installing custom ROMs is often accomplished through the use of a ROM manager application. Such applications often provide mechanisms to back up the contents of the mobile device prior to upgrade. This mechanism is utilised in the case of a failed update to restore the device to its previous functional state. Backups produced in this manner are often stored in on an external media such as a micro-SD card.In the conducted research we evaluated devices inbuilt data erasure mechanisms within the context of erasure of backups produced by ROM managers. It was found that simply using the devices Format External / SD function is not an effective means of completely erasing these backups. Once recovered, these backups offer a quick source of information that a potential attacker could carve to retrieve user files such as media transferred to the external or from applications. Although the same files could be recovered from an image of the external storage itself, the carving process is more efficient than traditional carving methods

Reexamining What We Stand to Lose: A Look at Reinitiated Consultation Under the Endangered Species Act

This article first examines the role reinitiated consultation plays within Congress\u27s statutory framework and concludes that in many ways, reinitiated consultation is the glue that holds the Endangered Species Act\u27s protective scheme together. While the ESA generally prohibits any injury to an endangered species, Congress has authorized the Service to permit such injuries under certain circumstances. But these authorizations must be accompanied by a limit that will trigger reinitiated consultation if exceeded. Thus, without reinitiated consultation, these preauthorized injuries or “takes” would prove gaping leaks in Congress\u27s “Ark,” leaving little or no safety for endangered species. Moreover, reinitiated consultation has significant real world consequences for federal agencies and private parties. Failure to reinitiate consultation when legally required can subject the agency and its employees, as well as private parties, to civil and even criminal liability. Next, this article explores the legal basis for reinitiated consultation. Despite its central role, Congress never provided for reinitiated consultation within the Act itself. While the Service has acknowledged this silence, the courts generally do not raise this question of statutory authority. In light of the ambiguities within the ESA and Congress\u27s clear direction in the legislative history of the Act that it intended for agencies to reinitiate consultation, this article concludes that the practice is legally supportable. Finally, given the significance of reinitiated consultation, and the likelihood that it is here to stay, this article then explores how courts have reviewed suits concerning reinitiated consultation. This discussion highlights potential challenges and best practices for federal agencies and permittees. This article concludes that, with few exceptions, courts have taken a surprisingly deferential approach to reviewing agency decisions to reinitiate, or more commonly not reinitiate, consultation. For example, courts have allowed agencies to expand a project\u27s scope, duration, or impact on listed species or to recalculate how to measure the impacts altogether without requiring reinitiated consultation. Nonetheless, courts have taken a much stricter approach when considering the triggers for reinitiated consultation and have frequently insisted that those triggers be as meaningful and as exact as possible. However, before discussing reinitiated consultation in detail, this article provides some additional background on the ESA in general and reinitiated consultation in particular. To understand the purpose and effect of reinitiated consultation, one must first understand several key ESA provisions - namely, the ESA\u27s listing, liability, and consultation provisions

Ethics and Epidemiology Workshop Report: Towards Ethics-Informed Epidemiology and Epidemiology-Informed Ethics

Two key groups of researchers have worked in parallel to advance health equity—one on the descriptive component (those in public health sciences, e.g., epidemiologists) and one on the normative component (those in the humanities and social sciences, e.g., philosophers and ethicists). Yet a significant gulf exists between their respective research. Consequently, advances in thinking regarding the philosophical underpinnings and normative requirements of health equity have been largely divorced from the design of public health interventions that seek to reduce health inequities. As a consequence, public health interventions aiming to advance health equity may fail to target the most appropriate populations or the most ethically important health disparities and therefore likely fail to achieve the most ‘equitable’ health outcomes. At the same time, without empirically testing different philosophical criteria of health equity, philosophers will end up producing guidance for the design and implementation of public health interventions that may ultimately have undesirable (or less desirable) outcomes in practice. To discuss the contours of this challenge and possible avenues to address it, a meeting was held on December 5, 2022 at the University Club of Toronto with support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Public Health Ontario, Western University, and the University of Toronto. In this meeting report, we summarize the workshop proceedings, report key findings based on the expert contributions of meeting participants, and identify next steps

Is Food Security Targeting Possible in Sub?Saharan Africa? Evidence from North Sudan

Summary Targeting food security interventions in sub?Saharan Africa presents special difficulties and has rarely been successful. A case study of Darfur in Western Sudan shows that targeting can be improved. The key is to focus not just on safeguarding current income and food consumption, but also on long term livelihood interventions that reduce vulnerability; and to do this with programmes which are geographically specific, self?targeting in administrative terms and designed inter alia to support traditional community food security arrangements. Consistency in food policy at macro and micro levels is also important