Harmony, Law and Criminal Reconciliation in China: A Historical Perspective

In 2012, China revised its Criminal Procedure Law (2012 CPL). One of the major changes is its official approval of the use of victim-offender reconciliation, or ‘criminal reconciliation’ in certain public prosecution cases. This change, on the one hand, echoes the Confucian doctrine that favours harmonious inter-personal relationships and mediation, while, on the other hand, it deviates from the direction of legal reforms dating from the 1970s through the late 1990s. Questions have emerged concerning not only the cause of this change in legal norms but also the proper position of criminal reconciliation in the current criminal justice system in China. The answers to these questions largely rely on understanding the role of traditional informal dispute resolution as well as its interaction with legal norms. Criminal reconciliation in ancient China functioned as a means to centralise imperial power by decentralizing decentralising its administration. Abolishing or enabling such a mechanism in law is merely a small part of the government’s strategy to react to political or social crises and to maintain social stability. However, its actual effect depends on the vitality of Confucianism, which in turn relies on the economic foundation and corresponding structure of society

Two paths of cluster evolution: global expansion versus core collapse

All gravitationally bound clusters expand, due to both gas loss from their most massive members and binary heating. All are eventually disrupted tidally, either by passing molecular clouds or the gravitational potential of their host galaxies. However, their interior evolution can follow two very different paths. Only clusters of sufficiently large initial population and size undergo the combined interior contraction and exterior expansion that leads eventually to core collapse. In all other systems, core collapse is frustrated by binary heating. These clusters globally expand for their entire lives, up to the point of tidal disruption. Using a suite of direct N-body calculations, we trace the "collapse line" in r_v-N space that separates these two paths. Here, r_v and N are the cluster's initial virial radius and population, respectively. For realistic starting radii, the dividing N-value is from 10^4 to over 10^5. We also show that there exists a minimum population, N_min, for core collapse. Clusters with N < N_min tidally disrupt before core collapse occurs. At the Sun's Galactocentric radius, R_G = 8.5 kpc, we find N_min >~ 300. The minimum population scales with Galactocentric radius as R_G^{-9/8}. The position of an observed cluster relative to the collapse line can be used to predict its future evolution. Using a small sample of open clusters, we find that most lie below the collapse line, and thus will never undergo core collapse. Most globular clusters, on the other hand, lie well above the line. In such a case, the cluster may or may not go through core collapse, depending on its initial size. We show how an accurate age determination can help settle this issue.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 14 Pages, 9 Figures, 2 Table

The Big Mac Index 21 Years On: An Evaluation of Burgereconomics

The Big Mac Index, introduced by The Economist magazine 21 years ago, claims to provide the “true value” of a large number of currencies. This paper assesses the economic value of this index. We show that (i) the index suffers from a substantial bias; (ii) once the bias is allowed for, the index tracks exchange rates reasonably well over the medium to longer term in accordance with relative purchasing power parity theory; (iii) the index is at least as good as the industry standard, the random walk model, in predicting future currency values for all but short-term horizons; (iv) future nominal exchange rates are more responsive than prices to currency mispricing, but this split is difficult to determine precisely. While not perfect, at a cost of less than $US10 per year, the index seems to provide good value for money.

The Big Mac Index Two Decades On An Evaluation Of Burgernomics

The Big Mac Index, introduced by The Economist magazine more than two decades ago, claims to provide the “true value” of a large number of currencies. This paper assesses the economic value of this index. We show that (i) the index suffers from a substantial bias; (ii) once the bias is allowed for, the index tracks exchange rates reasonably well over the medium to longer term in accordance with relative purchasing power parity theory; (iii) the index is at least as good as the industry standard, the random walk model, in predicting future currency values for all but shortterm horizons; and (iv) future nominal exchange rates are more responsive than prices to currency mispricing. While not perfect, at a cost of less than $US10 per year, the index seems to provide good value for money.

Competition between Normal Superfluidity and Larkin-Ovchinnikov Phases of Polarized Fermi Gases in Elongated Traps

By applying the recently proposed antisymmetric superfluid local density approximation (ASLDA) to strongly interacting polarized atomic gases at unitarity in very elongated traps, we find families of Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) type of solutions with prominent transversal oscillation of pairing potential. These LO states coexist with a superfluid state having a smooth pairing potential. We suggest that the LO phase could be accessible experimentally by increasing adiabatically the trap aspect ratio. We show that the local asymmetry effects contained in ASLDA do not support a deformed superfluid core predicted by previous Bogoliubov-de Gennes treatments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; revision; accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.A (Rapid Communication