Selective exposure to populist communication:How attitudinal congruence drives the effects of populist attributions of blame

Although it has been argued that populist communication only appeals to a specific audience, extant research has exclusively studied the effects of populist communication in forced-exposure media environments. Responding to this discrepancy, we conducted two experiments (N = 562 and N = 558) in which we manipulated the core idea of populist messages—attributing blame—in forced and selective exposure media environments. Our results demonstrate that citizens higher in relative deprivation are most likely to select populist messages. Irrespective of selective exposure, citizens’ populist attitudes are only positively affected if the populist message is congruent with their prior feelings of relative deprivation. These results provide important insights for the polarizing potential of media populism in a fragmented media environment

Biobased economy : state-of-the-art assessment

The interest in the biobased economy stems from the possibility to substitute biologically derived materials and processes for the production of goods that will, therefore, result in a reduced use of petroleum and petro-chemistry. Other reasons are the reduction in the energy required in production processes or the more environmentally benign waste treatment channels for the production residues or discarded products at the end of their life cycle. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of The Netherlands has asked Wageningen UR (AFSG and LEI) to examine the contemporary market for biobased products and the potential growth of the biobased economy. This report is based on an analysis of the bio-based composition, actual and possible, as well as the market value of 780 non-food, non-feed products within the PRODCOM listing, which represent the potential for biobased production in NL and the EU25

Spinning Braid Group Representation and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

The path integral approach to representing braid group is generalized for particles with spin. Introducing the notion of {\em charged} winding number in the super-plane, we represent the braid group generators as homotopically constrained Feynman kernels. In this framework, super Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov operators appear naturally in the Hamiltonian, suggesting the possibility of {\em spinning nonabelian} anyons. We then apply our formulation to the study of fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). A systematic discussion of the ground states and their quasi-hole excitations is given. We obtain Laughlin, Halperin and Moore-Read states as {\em exact} ground state solutions to the respective Hamiltonians associated to the braid group representations. The energy gap of the quasi-excitation is also obtainable from this approach.Comment: (36 pages) e-mail [email protected]

CP Violation in Hyperon Nonleptonic Decays within the Standard Model

We calculate the CP-violating asymmetries A(Lambda_-^0) and A(Xi_-^-) in nonleptonic hyperon decay within the Standard Model using the framework of heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory (chiPT). We identify those terms that correspond to previous calculations and discover several errors in the existing literature. We present a new result for the lowest-order (in chiPT) contribution of the penguin operator to these asymmetries, as well as an estimate for the uncertainty of our result that is based on the calculation of the leading nonanalytic corrections.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures; discussion clarified, results & conclusions unchanged, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Haalbaarheidsstudie bio-afbreekbare plastic draagtasjes : technische en economische haalbaarheid en implicaties

Dit rapport beschrijft de resultaten van een haalbaarheidsstudie naar de technische en economische haalbaarheid en implicaties van een verbod op dunne plastic draagtasjes in Nederland, met een eventuele uitzondering voor bioplastic draagtassen. In deze korte studie staan bioplastic draagtassen centraal. Het gaat hierbij om alle bioplastics, dus om zowel de biologisch afbreekbare plastics als om niet-biologisch afbreekbaar bioplastic zoals biobased polyetheen (bio-PE). Het is technisch haalbaar om conventioneel fossiele PE plastic draagtassen te vervangen door bioplastic draagtassen. Bio-PE heeft dezelfde eigenschappen als fossiel PE en kan derhalve 1 op 1 als vervanging dienen. Biologisch afbreekbare plastic draagtassen voldoen eveneens; ze zijn vooralsnog dikker en zwaarder dan PE draagtassen om aan de gebruikerseisen te voldoen. Een specifieke antwoord op de economische en technische effecten is niet te geven omdat de exacte beleidsmaatregel en met name daaraan ten grondslag liggende beoogde effecten nog niet duidelijk is. In dit rapport worden daarom verschillende elementen besproken die onderdeel kunnen worden van een eventuele beleidsmaatregel