Books on the topic 'Feature behavior analysis'

After a brief review of the scholarly discussion about the idea that context affects political behavior, this chapter proposes a model for the analysis of contextual effects on opinion formation and voting behavior. It highlights theoretical issues in the interplay of various contextual features and voter predispositions in bringing about contextual effects on voters. This model guides the analyses of contextual effects on voter behavior in Germany in the early twenty-first century. These analyses draw on rich data from multiple voter surveys and various sources of information about contextual features. The chapter also gives an overview of different methodological approaches and challenges in the analysis of contextual effects on voting behavior.

Shivers (1975) was David Cronenberg's first commercial feature and his first horror film. In a modern apartment block, a scientific project to unleash the id results in the equation of passion with contagion and predation. Because the writer-director's imaginative landscape arrived in the genre fully formed, the unique forms of this début have often been overlooked or mistaken for shortcomings. Cronenberg's most comedic film until Map to the Stars, Shivers is also his most spectacularly unnerving, throwing more images of extreme behavior at us than any of his subsequent films; it remains, with Crash, his most disquieting and transgressive film to date. This book's analysis addresses all channels of communication available to the 35mm sync-sound narrative feature, including shot composition, lighting, cinematographic texture, sound, the use of stock music, editing, costume, makeup, optical work, the screenplay, the casting, and the direction of the actors. This tour of Shivers as “cognitive territory” takes in architecture, cultural context, critical reception, and artistic legacy.

The primary argument of this chapter is that children’s and youth’s defiance may be misread and misinterpreted unless a greater understanding of the interplay of genders, races, and ethnicities is grasped. It analyzes various types of aggression to illustrate that the norms that determine harms from aggressive behavior need to be articulated and critiqued. The chapter sets out central characteristics of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD), then analyzes the larger context for understanding defiant behavior. Research on features of aggression in children’s play is included, and this leads to an analysis of how to understand the harms of aggression. The author also examines the matrix of raced, gendered, and classed intersections in the interpretation and reproduction of norms for behavior. This analysis of the construct of aggression makes it more difficult to interpret certain behavior as maladaptive defiant traits.The chapter ends with considerations as to why children (and adults) might have reasons for being defiant.

One of the most fertile areas of research has been the question of why the American political system has polarized so sharply over the past four decades. The academic debates about polarization have largely been carried out by mainstream scholars of political behavior and institutions. Scholars of American Political Development (APD) have a major opportunity to participate in a vital debate about the emergence of a central feature of the contemporary American system while mainstream scholars should come to appreciate that one cannot easily develop explanations for dynamic change with static models of institutions and behavior. This chapter reviews the literature on polarization to introduce scholars of APD to debates about the measurement of polarization and its causes Also areas in which our knowledge about polarization can be improved by historical–institutional analysis are identified.

In the process of data analysis, the investigator is often facing highly-volatile and random-appearing observed data. A vast body of literature shows that the assumption of underlying stochastic processes was not necessarily representing the nature of the processes under investigation and, when other tools were used, deterministic features emerged. Non Linear Time Series Analysis (NLTS) allows researchers to test whether observed volatility conceals systematic non linear behavior, and to rigorously characterize governing dynamics. Behavioral patterns detected by non linear time series analysis, along with scientific principles and other expert information, guide the specification of mechanistic models that serve to explain real-world behavior rather than merely reproducing it. Often there is a misconception regarding the complexity of the level of mathematics needed to understand and utilize the tools of NLTS (for instance Chaos theory). However, mathematics used in NLTS is much simpler than many other subjects of science, such as mathematical topology, relativity or particle physics. For this reason, the tools of NLTS have been confined and utilized mostly in the fields of mathematics and physics. However, many natural phenomena investigated I many fields have been revealing deterministic non linear structures. In this book we aim at presenting the theory and the empirical of NLTS to a broader audience, to make this very powerful area of science available to many scientific areas. This book targets students and professionals in physics, engineering, biology, agriculture, economy and social sciences as a textbook in Nonlinear Time Series Analysis (NLTS) using the R computer language.

Stochastic Actor Oriented Models for Network Dynamics are used for the statistical analysis of longitudinal network data collected as a panel. The probability model defines an unobserved stochastic process of tie changes, where social actors add new ties or drop existing ties in response to the current network structure; the panel observations are snapshots of the resulting changing network. The statistical analysis is based on computer simulations of this process, which provides a great deal of flexibility in representing data constraints and dependence structures. In this Chapter we begin by defining the basic model. We then explicate a new model for nondirected ties, including several options for the specification of how pairs of actors coordinate tie changes. Next, we describe coevolution models. These can be used to model the dynamics of several interdependent sets of variables, such as the analysis of panel data on a network and the behavior of the actors in the network, or panel data on two or more networks. We finish by discussing the differences between Stochastic Actor Oriented Models and some other longitudinal network models. A major distinguishing feature is the treatment of time, which allows straightforward application of the model to panel data with different time lags between waves. We provide a variety of applications in political science throughout.

The study of identifiable neurons, a common feature of invertebrate nervous systems, has made it possible to construct a detailed cell-to-cell connectivity map using electrophysiological methods that can inspire the design of biomimetic systems. This chapter describes how the analysis of the neural circuitry in the lobster stomatogastric ganglion (STG) has provided some general principles underlying oscillatory and rhythmic behavior in all animals. The rhythmic and oscillatory patterns produced by the two STG central pattern generating (CPG) circuits are a result of two cooperative mechanisms, intrinsically bursting pacemaker neurons and synaptic network properties. Also covered are the major neuromodulatory and neural control mechanisms. The chapter discusses how a deep knowledge of the stomatogastric circuitry has led to the development of electronic neurons for biomimetic devices that can be used for experimental and prosthetic applications The chapter concludes with a section on new techniques that may help with unraveling oscillatory circuits in the brain.

The chapter examines classes of grammatical markers that can serve more than one function, polyfunctional markers, spoiling the one-to-one form and function relation which is what morphology tends to do. There are areas of the grammar more prone to this behaviour suggesting that there may be at work principles of morphological organization that lie orthogonally to sign-based principles such as Transparency. The distributions attested in Tundra Nenets provide a fertile ground for exploration because they combine polyfunctionality with cumulative exponence, where a single paradigm indexes two sets of features. Recasting Blevins’ (2016) abstractive analysis as a default inheritance hierarchy the analysis is guided by insights from Paradigm Function Morphology and Sign Based Construction Grammar, and treats polyfunctionality as the realization of a unifying morphomic feature that abstracts away what is common between different morphosyntactic configurations.

Many modern engineering structures are composed of brittle heterogenous (a.k.a. quasibrittle) materials. These materials include concrete (an archetype), composites, tough ceramics, rocks, cold asphalt mixtures, and many brittle materials at the microscale. Understanding the failure behavior of these materials is of paramount importance for improving the resilience and sustainability of various engineering structures including civil infrastructure, aircraft, ships, military armors, and microelectronic devices. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of quasibrittle fracture mechanics. It first presents a concise but rigorous and complete treatment of the linear elastic fracture mechanics, which is the foundation of all fracture mechanics. The topics covered include energy balance analysis of fracture, analysis of near-tip field and stress intensity factors, Irwin's relationship, J-integral, calculation of compliance function and deflection, and analysis of interfacial crack. Built upon the content of linear elastic fracture mechanics, the book presents various fundamental concepts of nonlinear fracture mechanics, which include estimation of inelastic zone size, cohesive crack model, equivalent linear elastic fracture mechanics model, R-curve, and crack band model. The book also discusses some more advanced concepts such as the effects of the triaxial stress state in the fracture process zone, nonlocal continuum models, and discrete computational model. The significant part of the book is devoted to the discussion of the energetic and statistical size effects, which is a salient feature of quasibrittle fracture. The book also presents probabilistic fracture mechanics, and its consequent reliability-based structural analysis and design of quasibrittle structures. Finally, the book provides an extensive review of various practical applications of quasibrittle fracture mechanics.

This chapter examinesStreet-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services, a classic work by Michael Lipsky that describes what the street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) in charge of delivering public services actually do in terms of policy implementation and how their actions differ from the policy pronouncements of central-level planners. Lipsky identifies the limits of central control over SLBs’ behavior and proposes alternative strategies for holding them accountable for their actions. Before illuminating the analytic and practice relevance of street-level bureaucracy, the chapter outlines the core features of the theory of SLBs and considers its key contributions to the field of public policy analysis. In particular, it discusses how Lipsky’s book linked public administration work to public policy and political science. Finally, the chapter analyzes the nature of administrative discretion and its political consequences, as well as how SLBs can be better supported to offer public value.

Nonverbal cues are important elements of persuasive communication whose influence in political debates are receiving renewed attention. Recent advances in political debate research have been driven by biologically grounded explanations of behavior that draw on evolutionary theory and view televised debates as contests for social dominance. The application of biobehavioral coding to televised presidential debates opens new vistas for investigating this time-honored campaign tradition by introducing a systematic and readily replicated analytical framework for documenting the unspoken signals that are a continuous feature of competitive candidate encounters. As research utilizing biobehavioral measures of presidential debates and other political communication progresses, studies are becoming increasingly characterized by the use of multiple methodologies and merging of disparate data into combined systems of coding that support predictive modeling.Key elements of nonverbal persuasion include candidate appearance, communication style and behavior, as well as gender dynamics that regulate candidate interactions. Together, the use of facial expressions, voice tone, and bodily gestures form uniquely identifiable display repertoires that candidates perform within televised debate settings. Also at play are social and political norms that govern candidate encounters. From an evaluative standpoint, the visual equivalent of a verbal gaffe is the commission of a nonverbal expectancy violation, which draws viewer attention and interferes with information intake. Through second screens, viewers are able to register their reactions to candidate behavior in real time, and merging biobehavioral and social media approaches to debate effects is showing how such activity can be used as an outcome measure to assess the efficacy of candidate nonverbal communication during televised presidential debates.Methodological approaches employed to investigate nonverbal cues in presidential debates have expanded well beyond the time-honored technique of content analysis to include lab experiments, focus groups, continuous response measurement, eye tracking, vocalic analysis, biobehavioral coding, and use of the Facial Action Coding System to document the muscle movements that comprise leader expressions. Given the tradeoffs and myriad considerations involved in analyzing nonverbal cues, critical issues in measurement and methodology must be addressed when conducting research in this evolving area. With automated coding of nonverbal behavior just around the corner, future research should be designed to take advantage of the growing number of methodological advances in this rapidly evolving area of political communication research.

Increasingly, people travel and communicate across borders. Yet, we still know little about the overall structure of this transnational world. Is it really a fully globalized world in which everything is linked, as popular catchphrases like “global village” suggest? Through a sweeping comparative analysis of eight types of mobility and communication among countries worldwide—from migration and tourism to Facebook friendships and phone calls—this book demonstrates that our behavior is actually regionalized, not globalized. The book shows that transnational activity within world regions is not so much the outcome of political, cultural, or economic factors, but is driven primarily by geographic distance. It explains that the spatial structure of transnational human activity follows a simple mathematical function, the power law, a pattern that also fits the movements of many other animal species on the planet. Moreover, this pattern remained extremely stable during the five decades studied—1960 to 2010. Unveiling proximity-induced regionalism as a major feature of planet-scale networks of transnational human activity, the book provides a crucial corrective to several fields of research. Revealing why a truly global society is unlikely to emerge, the book highlights the essential role of interaction beyond borders on a planet that remains spatially fragmented.

Within the study of sociolinguistic variation and change, two approaches have been developed that attempt to link individual speaker behavior with the study of the community. One approach makes use of “linguistic grouping,” examining the linguistic conditioning of individual speakers and looking for social correlates of the resulting groups. Another approach is the detailed analysis of individual speakers in different social situations. This chapter presents an overview of these two research traditions. It provides analyses across groups and individuals in the English spoken on the island of Bequia. Two well-studied grammatical variables constitute the linguistic focus of this research: The absence of copula/auxiliary be and existential constructions. The discussion compares the linguistic conditioning of these features in the speech of individuals who have left Bequia for long periods of time with that of their stay-at-home peers.

This chapter examines the cultural and social contexts in which honor killings occur. Honor killing is a social practice in which complex psychological, interpersonal, and social dynamics are unified and replicated over time. The chapter first illuminates the general features of social practices, then analyzes features critical for honor killing as a social practice, beginning with the salience of norms of honor and shame in what are called honor–shame communities. The chapter analyzes sharaf, an important general honor concept, and ‘ird or ‘ard, the conception of honor relating to sex and gender behaviors, and most important when concerns about honor offenses arise. The latter pertain to the chastity and obedience of females and male responsibilities as guardians of females and as enforcers of communal honor norms. The constitutive features of honor–shame communities are identified, and the interrelationship between collective social elements and individual identity and self-esteem are discussed.

This book is concerned with the conceptual foundations of research methods. In particular, it undertakes a philosophical examination of a number of different quantitative research methods that are prominent in, or relevant for, the conduct of research in the behavioral sciences. By doing so, the deep structure of the methods is examined in order to overcome the shallow and uncritical understanding that is typically provided by textbooks and other instructional sources. The methods submitted to critical examination are important and mostly well known. They are exploratory data analysis, statistical significance testing, Bayesian confirmation theory and statistics, meta-analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. The treatment of the research methods examined is consistent with a philosophy of scientific realism. Theories of scientific method feature prominently in the discussions of the research methods. Each chapter contains a Further Reading section in order to help the reader extend their thinking beyond what the chapters contain.

Dynamics of Skill Acquisition, Second Edition, provides an analysis of the processes underlying human skill acquisition. As the first text to outline the multidisciplinary ecological dynamics framework for understanding movement behavior, this heavily updated edition stays on the cutting edge, with principles of nonlinear pedagogy and methodologies from the constraints-led approach. Students and practitioners across a variety of professions—including coaches, physical educators, trainers, and rehabilitation specialists—will appreciate the applied focus of this second edition. Movement models throughout the text provide examples for visualizing task constraints and enhancing the study and understanding of movement behavior. Athletes and sports teams are presented as specific complex adaptive systems, with information on designing learning environments and adapting programs to foster skill development. Readers will learn the historical evolution of dynamical systems theory and the ecological dynamics framework. These foundational concepts illustrate the integration between intentional action, cognition, and decision making and their effects on performance and behavior. Complex theoretical concepts are explained in simple terms and related to practice, focusing on the implications of the work of pioneering researchers such as Nikolai Bernstein, Egon Brunswik, James Gibson, Scott Kelso, and Karl Newell. Case studies written by practitioners contain specific examples of the ecological dynamics framework in action, bringing theory to life. By learning how to identify and manipulate key constraints that influence learning skilled behavior, readers will gain insight into practice designs for creating positive learning experiences that enable individuals to develop and learn functional movements. Throughout the book, learning features guide readers through material with clear direction and focus to improve understanding. Spotlight on Research sidebars provide detailed descriptions of important studies to connect theory, research, and application. Lab activities teach application skills beyond the content, ensuring reader understanding. In addition, chapter objectives, self-test questions, and Key Concept sidebars highlight important concepts in each chapter. With the study of human movement now bridging many disciplines, including motor development, psychology, biology, and physical therapy, Dynamics of Skill Acquisition, Second Edition, provides a timely analysis of the ecological dynamics framework and presents a comprehensive model for understanding how coordination patterns are assembled, controlled, and acquired. The theoretical roots and development of the ecological dynamics framework provide application strategies for all people with an interest in movement coordination and control. AUDIENCE An upper-level undergraduate or graduate textbook for courses in human movement and skill acquisition. A professional reference for movement practitioners and scientists, including teachers, coaches, trainers, physical educators, physical therapists, rehabilitation specialists, sport scientists, psychologists, biomechanists, sport analysts and physiologists.

Abstract We are very pleased to introduce Volume 9 of the Handbook of Advances in Culture and Psychology. Over the last 10 years, we have featured programmatic research on culture and psychology to continue to globalize the field. This volume, like its predecessors, showcases contributions from internationally renowned culture scholars who span the discipline of culture and psychology and related disciplines and represent diversity in the theory and study of culture within psychology. The volume includes cutting-edge contributions on culture and memory, culture and human development, culture and economics, the cultural psychology of honor, cultural foundations of negotiation, and computational perspectives on cultural dynamics. Collectively, they showcase the latest insights across different levels of analysis of the profound influence of culture on human behavior.

Over the last three decades, the economics of judicial behaviour has revealed itself most prominently in the field now known as Law and Positive Political Theory (Law and PPT). Instead of the traditional focus of ‘law and economics’ on the normative efficiency of legal rules, Law and PPT identifies the role of competition among legal and political institutions for policy outcomes, with these outcomes usually taking the form of legislative enactments, executive action, judicial opinions, or administrative agency pronouncements (regulations). This article illustrates the ‘law’ features of Law and PPT, while keeping the economics of judicial decision-making — especially the efficiency-driven, game-theoretic, utility maximization features — at the forefront of the analysis. It begins by summarizing basic elements of Law and PPT as relevant to judicial decision-making. It then discusses context-specific applications of Law and PPT where the craft of law is revealed as strategy.

This chapter examines the questions that sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) pose for analysts of foreign policy insofar as their operating preferences could be either geostrategic, and seek to advance the interests of the home state, or economic, and seek to maximize profits. To sort through the related issues, the chapter considers “home” and “host” country issues with respect to the democratic features attached to each. It thus offers insight into the strengths and weaknesses of various foreign policy arguments that have been offered in the existing literature. Next, the chapter offers observations on attempts to coordinate the behavior of SWFs at the international level, chiefly the Santiago Principles. It concludes with the relationship between pooled investment vehicles and state power in foreign affairs.

Prostitution is one of the least understood occupations but appears to have all the features of traditional markets: prices, supply and demand considerations, variety in the organizational structure, and policy relevance. These are keystones of economics analysis. Greater access to data has enabled economists to build better theories and gain a better understanding of the organization of sex market. The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Prostitution is a comprehensive economic analysis of prostitution. It examines how prostitution markets are organized across space and time, the role of technology in shaping labor supply and demand, the intersection of prostitution with trafficking, and the optimal use of law enforcement. Among the issues addressed are the determination of sex worker prices, sexual assault and sex workers, bargaining, and STD transmission in sex work. What makes the material unique is its explicit focus on economics as the primary methodology for organizing our understanding of prostitution. It sheds light on underground markets, labor economics, risky behaviors, marriage, and gender.

This chapter examines transactional sex as a distinctive feature of traditional “dating” in Malawi. It begins with a review of the existing literature on transactional sex in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on the distinction between commercial sex work, informal sex work, and transactional sex. It then analyzes transactional sex among a sample of 13- to 22-year-old, initially never-married females in southern Malawi. It also considers the role that cash-transfer programs in particular and social safety-net programs in general might play in mitigating transactional sex. The findings suggest that cash-transfer programs that focus on adolescent girls can allow them to steer away from “relationships of need” toward “relationships of want,” reduce risky sexual behavior as a result, and thus reduce their subsequent risk of HIV infection.

Speech and thought about what the law is commonly function in practical ways to guide or assess behavior. These functions have often been seen as problematic for legal positivism in the tradition of H.L.A. Hart. One recent response is an expressivist analysis of legal statements. This paper advances a rival, positivist-friendly account of legal statements which the authors call “quasi-expressivist”. It combines a descriptivist, “rule-relational” semantics with a pragmatic account of the expressive and practical functions of legal discourse. This approach is at least as well-equipped as expressivism to explain the practical features of “internal” legal statements and a fundamental kind of legal disagreement, while handling better “external” legal statements. The chapter develops this theory in a Hartian framework, and also argues (against Kevin Toh’s expressivist interpretation) that Hart’s own views in The Concept of Law are best reconstructed along quasi-expressivist lines.

British Politics provides an introduction to British politics with an emphasis on political science to analyse the fundamental features of British politics, and the key changes post-Brexit. Part A looks at constitutional and institutional foundations of the subject. Chapters in this part look at leadership and debating politics and law creation. The second part is about political behaviour and citizenship. Here chapters consider elections, the media, agenda setting, and political turbulence. The final part is about policy-making and delegation. The chapters in this part examine interest groups, advocacy, policy-making, governing through bureaucracy and from below, delegating upwards, and British democracy now.

The essence of this article is material culture in folklife studies. The meaning of ‘material culture’ seems clear. According to archaeologist James Deetz, it included that sector of our physical environment that we modify through culturally determined behavior. Material culture reveals human intrusion into the environment. It is the way we imagine', he continues, ‘a distinction between nature and culture, and then rebuild nature to our desire, shaping, reshaping, and arranging things during life’. This article argues that the anthropological study of folklife has had a long series of connections with, and influences upon, the investigation of material culture. Folklife has brought to the analysis of landscapes, archaeology, and vernacular objects an integrative methodology. This article discusses the key features of the folklife studies movement, including the ways it differed from ‘folklore’. The Pennsylvania folklife society is given much emphasis. The gradual shift from folklore to folklorism is explained in details followed by poetics of commodities.

This chapter introduces the model problems and the solution operator for the associated heat equations. These operators give a good approximation for the behavior of the heat kernel in neighborhoods of different types of boundary points. The chapter states and proves the elementary features of these operators and shows that the model heat operators have an analytic continuation to the right half plane. It first considers the model problem in 1-dimension and in higher dimensions before discussing the solution to the homogeneous Cauchy problem. It then describes the first steps toward perturbation theory and constructs the solution operator for generalized Kimura diffusions on a suitable scale of Hölder spaces. It also defines the resolvent families and explains why the estimates obtained here are not adequate for the perturbation theoretic arguments needed to construct the solution operator for generalized Kimura diffusions.

Social Currents in North Africa offers multidisciplinary analyses of social phenomena unfolding in the Maghreb today. The contributors analyze the genealogies of contemporary North African behavioral and ideological norms, and offer insights into post-Arab Spring governance and today's social and political trends. The book situates regional developments within broader international currents, without forgoing the distinct features of each socio-historical context. With its common historical, cultural, and socioeconomic foundations, the Maghreb is a cohesive area of study that allows for greater understanding of domestic developments from both single-country and comparative perspectives. This volume refines the geo-historical unity of the Maghreb by accounting for social connections, both within the nation-state and across political boundaries and historical eras. It illustrates that non-institutional phenomena are equally formative to the ongoing project of postcolonial sovereignty, to social construction and deployments of state power, and to local outlooks on social equity, economic prospects, and cultural identity. Scholars in the field of North African and Maghrebi studies were invited to working group meeting held by the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar, to reflect on their specialized disciplinary or methodological approaches to the region, and to comment on the overall validity of North Africa as a cohesive geo-historical unit for social scientific analysis.

The essay that forms the core of this book is an attempt to understand the developments that have occurred in Orthodox Jewry in America in the last seventy years, and to analyse their implications. The prime change is what is often described as ‘the swing to the right’, a marked increase in ritual stringency, a rupture in patterns of behaviour that has had major consequences not only for Jewish society but also for the nature of Jewish spirituality. For the book's author, the key feature at the root of this change is that, as a result of migration to the ‘New Worlds’ of England, the United States, and Israel and acculturation to its new surroundings, American Jewry—indeed, much of the Jewish world—had to reconstruct religious practice from normative texts: observance could no longer be transmitted mimetically, on the basis of practices observed in home and street. In consequence, behaviour once governed by habit is now governed by rule. This new edition allows the author to deal with criticisms raised since the essay, long established as a classic in the field, was originally published, and enables readers to gain a fuller perspective on a topic central to today's Jewish world and its development.

The experimental probing of recursion in human performance is fraught with non-trivial problems. Here, a number of case studies from the literature are analysed that contrast with the approach set out in chapter 5, and it is proposed that they give little information about the underlying mental processes at play within each of these domains. Among the questions discussed are whether experimental participants employ recursive rules in parsing artificial strings of nonsense syllables, the role of self-embedded structures in reasoning and general cognition, and the reputed connection between structural features of a visuospatial object and the corresponding recursive rules needed to represent or generate it. What a recursive process would actually look like and how one could go about probing its presence in human behaviour is then re-emphasized.

Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasized on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union (EU) and the conditions required to bring it about. Part I presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part II defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part III explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part IV presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and help to ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the role of recursion in language in two distinct but interconnected ways. First, it examines how recursion applies at different levels within a full description of natural language. Specifically, it identifies and evaluates recursion as: a) a central property of the computational system underlying the faculty of language; b) a possible feature of the derivations yielded by this computational system; c) a global characteristic of the structures generated by the language faculty; and d) a probable factor in the parsing operations employed during the processing of recursive structures. Secondly, the volume orders these different levels into a tripartite explanatory framework. According to this framework, the investigation of any particular cognitive domain must begin by first outlining what sort of mechanical procedure underlies the relevant capacity (including what sort of structures it generates). Only then, it argues, can we properly investigate its implementation, both at the level of abstract computations typical of competence-level analyses, and at the level of the real-time processing of behaviour.

The monograph reflects the problems of Russian psycholinguistics from the moment of its inception in Russia to the present day and presents its main directions that are currently developing. In addition, theoretical developments and practical results obtained in the framework of different directions and research centers are described in a concise form. The task of the book is to reflect, as far as it is possible in one edition, firstly, the history of the formation of Russian psycholinguistics; secondly, its methodology and developed methods; thirdly, the results obtained in different research centers and directions in different regions of Russia; fourthly, to outline the main directions of the further development of Russian psycholinguistics. There is no doubt that in the theoretical, methodological and applied aspects, the main problems and the results of their development by Russian psycholinguistics have no analogues in world linguistics and psycholinguistics, or are represented by completely original concepts and methods. We have tried to show this uniqueness of the problematics and the methodological equipment of Russian psycholinguistics in this book. The main role in the formation of Russian psycholinguistics was played by the Moscow psycholinguistic school of A.A. Leontyev. It still defines the main directions of Russian psycholinguistics. Russian psycholinguistics (the theory of speech activity - TSA) is based on the achievements of Russian psychology: a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena L.S. Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontyev. Moscow is the most "psycholinguistic region" of Russia - INL RAS, Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, RUDN, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Sechenov University, Moscow State University and other Moscow universities. Saint Petersburg psycholinguists have significant achievements, especially in the study of neurolinguistic problems, ontolinguistics. The most important feature of Russian psycholinguistics is the widespread development of psycholinguistics in the regions, the emergence of recognized psycholinguistic research centers - St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Perm, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kursk, Chelyabinsk; psycholinguistics is represented in Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Volgograd, Vyatka, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Abakan, Maikop, Barnaul, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk, Syktyvkar, Armavir and other cities; in Belarus - Minsk, in Ukraine - Lvov, Chernivtsi, Kharkov, in the DPR - Donetsk, in Kazakhstan - Alma-Ata, Chimkent. Our researchers work in Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, China, France, Switzerland. There are Russian psycholinguists in Canada, USA, Israel, Austria and a number of other countries. All scientists from these regions and countries have contributed to the development of Russian psycholinguistics, to the development of psycholinguistic theory and methods of psycholinguistic research. Their participation has not been forgotten. We tried to present the main Russian psycholinguists in the Appendix - in the sections "Scientometrics", "Monographs and Manuals" and "Dissertations", even if there is no information about them in the Electronic Library and RSCI. The principles of including scientists in the scientometric list are presented in the Appendix. Our analysis of the content of the resulting monograph on psycholinguistic research in Russia allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about some of the distinctive features of Russian psycholinguistics: 1. cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena of L.S.Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontiev as methodological basis of Russian psycholinguistics; 2. theoretical nature of psycholinguistic research as a characteristic feature of Russian psycholinguistics. Our psycholinguistics has always built a general theory of the generation and perception of speech, mental vocabulary, linked specific research with the problems of ontogenesis, the relationship between language and thinking; 3. psycholinguistic studies of speech communication as an important subject of psycholinguistics; 4. attention to the psycholinguistic analysis of the text and the development of methods for such analysis; 5. active research into the ontogenesis of linguistic ability; 6. investigation of linguistic consciousness as one of the important subjects of psycholinguistics; 7. understanding the need to create associative dictionaries of different types as the most important practical task of psycholinguistics; 8. widespread use of psycholinguistic methods for applied purposes, active development of applied psycholinguistics. The review of the main directions of development of Russian psycholinguistics, carried out in this monograph, clearly shows that the direction associated with the study of linguistic consciousness is currently being most intensively developed in modern Russian psycholinguistics. As the practice of many years of psycholinguistic research in our country shows, the subject of study of psycholinguists is precisely linguistic consciousness - this is a part of human consciousness that is responsible for generating, understanding speech and keeping language in consciousness. Associative experiments are the core of most psycholinguistic techniques and are important both theoretically and practically. The following main areas of practical application of the results of associative experiments can be outlined. 1. Education. Associative experiments are the basis for constructing Mind Maps, one of the most promising tools for systematizing knowledge, assessing the quality, volume and nature of declarative knowledge (and using special techniques and skills). Methods based on smart maps are already widely used in teaching foreign languages, fast and deep immersion in various subject areas. 2. Information search, search optimization. The results of associative experiments can significantly improve the quality of information retrieval, its efficiency, as well as adaptability for a specific person (social group). When promoting sites (promoting them in search results), an associative experiment allows you to increase and improve the quality of the audience reached. 3. Translation studies, translation automation. An associative experiment can significantly improve the quality of translation, take into account intercultural and other social characteristics of native speakers. 4. Computational linguistics and automatic word processing. The results of associative experiments make it possible to reveal the features of a person's linguistic consciousness and contribute to the development of automatic text processing systems in a wide range of applications of natural language interfaces of computer programs and robotic solutions. 5. Advertising. The use of data on associations for specific words, slogans and texts allows you to predict and improve advertising texts. 6. Social relationships. The analysis of texts using the data of associative experiments makes it possible to assess the tonality of messages (negative / positive moods, aggression and other characteristics) based on user comments on the Internet and social networks, in the press in various projections (by individuals, events, organizations, etc.) from various social angles, to diagnose the formation of extremist ideas. 7. Content control and protection of personal data. Associative experiments improve the quality of content detection and filtering by identifying associative fields in areas subject to age restrictions, personal information, tobacco and alcohol advertising, incitement to ethnic hatred, etc. 8. Gender and individual differences. The data of associative experiments can be used to compare the reactions (and, in general, other features of thinking) between men and women, different social and age groups, representatives of different regions. The directions for the further development of Russian psycholinguistics from the standpoint of the current state of psycholinguistic science in the country are seen by us, first of all:  in the development of research in various areas of linguistic consciousness, which will contribute to the development of an important concept of speech as a verbal model of non-linguistic consciousness, in which knowledge revealed by social practice and assigned by each member of society during its inculturation is consolidated for society and on its behalf;  in the expansion of the problematics, which is formed under the influence of the growing intercultural communication in the world community, which inevitably involves the speech behavior of natural and artificial bilinguals in the new object area of psycholinguistics;  in using the capabilities of national linguistic corpora in the interests of researchers studying the functioning of non-linguistic and linguistic consciousness in speech processes;  in expanding research on the semantic perception of multimodal texts, the scope of which has greatly expanded in connection with the spread of the Internet as a means of communication in the life of modern society;  in the inclusion of the problems of professional communication and professional activity in the object area of psycholinguistics in connection with the introduction of information technologies into public practice, entailing the emergence of new professions and new features of the professional ethos;  in the further development of the theory of the mental lexicon (identifying the role of different types of knowledge in its formation and functioning, the role of the word as a unit of the mental lexicon in the formation of the image of the world, as well as the role of the natural / internal metalanguage and its specificity in speech activity);  in the broad development of associative lexicography, which will meet the most diverse needs of society and cognitive sciences. The development of associative lexicography may lead to the emergence of such disciplines as associative typology, associative variantology, associative axiology;  in expanding the spheres of applied use of psycholinguistics in social sciences, sociology, semasiology, lexicography, in the study of the brain, linguodidactics, medicine, etc. This book is a kind of summarizing result of the development of Russian psycholinguistics today. Each section provides a bibliography of studies on the relevant issue. The Appendix contains the scientometrics of leading Russian psycholinguists, basic monographs, psycholinguistic textbooks and dissertations defended in psycholinguistics. The content of the publications presented here is convincing evidence of the relevance of psycholinguistic topics and the effectiveness of the development of psycholinguistic problems in Russia.

Modern Persian reveals interesting typological properties. In terms of word order parameters, it has grammaticalized a number of OV-type and a number of VO-type parameters. As this mixed typological behaviour can be attested in Old Persian and Middle Persian, the implications of this observation for typology, formal linguistics, and theories of language change are worth pursuing. The agreement system of Modern Persian is Nominative-Accusative. However, the majority of Modern Iranian languages are split in this respect. Morphologically, Modern Persian is analytic. This morphological type can be observed in Middle Persian as well. This two-millennium-old typological property gives Persian a distinct place within the Indo-European languages. As Persian is spoken in a widespread geographical area, there are many Persian dialects currently in use. A number of grammatical features of Tajik Persian, Afghan (Dari) Persian, Isfahani Persian, and Gha’eni Persian are briefly mentioned.

Medicalization of human behavioral diversity is a recurring theme in the history of psychiatry, and the problem of defining what is a genuine mental disorder remains an unresolved question since the origins of clinical psychopathology. This chapter presents an evolutionary view of mental health, placing functional capacities and biological adaptation at the core of attempts to define mental disorder instead of other criteria of morbidity that are commonly used . This theoretical shift depends on the fact that the evolutionary concept of mental disorder is consequence oriented: what makes a condition pathological are its consequences, not its causes or correlates. The chapter then provides, an evolutionary analysis, which reveals that the degree of efficiency of functional capacities is dependent on features of the environment. Optimal functional capacities are sets of coevolved traits that are best suited to increasing adaptation in specific environments. The same trait can be highly adaptive in one environment and minimally adaptive in another.

The aim of this book is to offer detailed characterizations of some intellectual virtues and vices of self-evaluation, to highlight the epistemic harms and moral wrongs that flow from them, to explain their psychological bases and to suggest that some interventions that inhibit vicious behaviour and promote intellectual virtue. The first chapter introduces the virtues and vices of intellectual self-evaluation that are the main topic of the book. The second chapter offers a detailed account of three kinds of intellectual vices: character traits, thinking styles, and sensibilities. The chapter includes a defence of the view that motivations play a crucial role in the development and preservation of these psychological features. The third chapter introduces attitude psychology which supplies the framework for detailed accounts of virtue and vices. These accounts are provided in Chapters 4–6. Chapter 4 discusses humility, pride, and concern for one’s intellectual reputation. Chapter 5 details superbia, arrogance, servility, and self-abasement. Chapter 6 is dedicated to vanity, narcissism, timidity, and fatalism. Chapter 7 analyses the epistemic harms and moral wrongs that flow from these intellectual vices. Chapter 8 argues individuals are morally and epistemically responsible for their epistemic vices and the bad believing that flows from them, but raises questions about the wisdom and morality of blaming people for these psychological features. Finally, Chapter 9 evaluates some interventions designed to promote virtue and reduce vice.

The final chapter summarizes the material covered by the book, offering our perspectives on areas of consent, disagreement, and future research. The book analyzes how consumers respond to changes in their economic environment and react to risks they face during the life cycle. In addressing these issues, the basic life-cycle permanent-income model is augmented with other significant features of consumers’ preferences and environment: precautionary motives for saving, borrowing constraints, life span uncertainty, intergenerational transfers, non-separability between consumption and leisure, habits, and financial sophistication. By and large, one can reconcile some puzzling facts present in the empirical data by means of relatively modest modifications of the basic version of the model, such as provision for home production and non-separable preferences between consumption and leisure. However, in order to explain other “anomalies” and “puzzles” observed in individuals’ actual saving and financial behaviors, more important modifications to the standard framework are required.

Geminate consonants, also known as long consonants, appear in many languages in the world, and how they contrast with their short counterparts, or singletons (e.g. /tt/ vs. /t/), is an important topic that features in most linguistics and phonology textbooks. However, neither their phonetic manifestation nor their phonological nature is fully understood, much less their cross-linguistic similarities and differences. As the first volume specifically devoted to the phonetics and phonology of geminate consonants, this book aims to bring together novel, original data and analyses concerning many individual languages in different parts of the world, to present a wide range of perspectives for the study of phonological contrasts in general by introducing various experimental (acoustic, perceptual, physiological, and electrophysiological) and non-experimental methodologies, and to discuss phonological contrasts in a wider context than is generally considered by looking also at the behaviour of geminate consonants in loanword phonology and language acquisition. Studying geminate consonants requires interdisciplinary approaches including experimental phonetics (acoustics and speech perception), theoretical phonology, speech processing, neurolinguistics, and language acquisition. Providing phonetic and phonological details about geminate consonants across languages will greatly contribute to research in these fields.

This book is the first to present a framework of general principles for animal research ethics together with an analysis of the principles’ meaning and moral requirements. This new framework of six moral principles constitutes a more suitable set of moral guidelines than any currently available, including the influential framework presented in the Principles of Humane Experimental Technique published in 1959 by zoologist and psychologist William M. S. Russell and microbiologist Rex L. Burch. Their “principles”—commonly referred to as the Three Rs—are better described as specific directives than as general moral principles, and they are insufficient as a moral framework of basic values in the context of contemporary biomedical and behavioral research. The framework presented in Principles of Animal Research Ethics is more comprehensive in addressing ethical requirements pertaining to societal benefit (the most important consideration in justifying the harming of animals in research) and features a more thorough, ethically defensible program of animal welfare (the area on which Russell and Burch focus). The present framework is also more likely than the Three Rs to foster extensive agreement between the biomedical and animal protection communities—an agreement deeply needed at the present time. The book features commentaries on the framework of principles written by eminent figures in animal research ethics representing an array of relevant disciplines: veterinary medicine, biomedical research, biology, zoology, comparative psychology, primatology, law, and bioethics. The seven commentators on the authors’ Principles are Larry Carbone, Frans B. M. de Waal, Rebecca Dresser, Joseph P. Garner, Brian Hare, Margaret S. Landi, and Julian Savulescu.

Mind-body interactions enshrined in the psychosomatic approach, encompass the psyche (mind) and the soma (body). They can result in obstetric and gynaecological disease conditions with clinically significant morbidity. Relevant psychosomatic understanding facilitates appropriate management. Chapter 1 discusses the anatomical, physiological, and pathological basis of clinical psychosomatic obstetrics and gynaecology, explores ancient medical practices throughout Asia and Europe, the change in approaches since the seventeenth century, and the future of psychosomatic medicine. Tracing medical history from ancient times shows the importance of time-tested methods of physical and mental assessments of patients by using good clinical observation, and appropriate knowledge for treating illnesses. Records of the clinical practices of Hippocrates, Soranus, and William Osler retell the medical philosophy, and ethics behind promoting healing of the body that could also involve restoring a healthy mind. By analysing the historical context of psychosomatic medicine, Chapter 1 brings into focus the rationale behind developing psychosomatic awareness in healthcare, and the fundamentals and basis of related healthcare. It introduces key aspects of psychosomatic medicine that feature in current practice, such as understanding the neuroendrocrinological milieu, which regulates the physiological changes from puberty to the menopause, and generates emotions, behaviour patterns or pain either generalised or specific, as when in labour. Psychosomatic issues will challenge futuristic clinicians' managing women's diseases.

How do poor people in Latin America participate in politics? What explains the variation in the patterns of voting, protesting, and contacting government for the region’s poorest citizens? Why are participation gaps larger in some countries than in others? This book offers the first large-scale empirical analysis of political participation in Latin America, focusing on patterns of participation among the poorest citizens in each country. Far from being politically inert, under certain conditions the poorest citizens in Latin America act and speak for themselves with an intensity that far exceeds their modest socioeconomic resources. We argue that key institutions of democracy, namely civil society, political parties, and competitive elections, have an enormous impact on whether or not poor people turn out to vote, protest, and contact government officials. When voluntary organizations thrive in poor communities and when political parties focus their mobilization efforts on poor individuals, they respond with high levels of political activism. Poor people’s activism also benefits from strong parties, robust electoral competition, and well-functioning democratic institutions. Where electoral competition is robust and where the power of incumbents is constrained, we see higher levels of participation by poor individuals and more political equality. Precisely because the individual resource constraints that poor people face are daunting obstacles to political activism, our explanation focuses on those features of democratic politics that create opportunities for participation that have the strongest effect on poor people’s political behavior.

Lost Glory: India’s Capitalism Story describes India’s industrialization experiences. Questions about long-term industry and productivity evolution, and their impact on economic growth, lie at the heart of discourses of capitalism. The book is based on detailed empirical analyses of India’s industrialization over a period of almost seven decades, and a case study of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automobile manufacturer. The deeply nuanced depiction of the historical political economy that has affected India’s industrialization is a unique feature. This history will enlighten everyone interested in India. The presentation takes readers on a definitive evidence-based survey of India’s industrial landscape. It includes a detailed historical description of the intellectual origins of India’s modern industrialization, anchored in a privileged view of economic policymaking. Grounded in historical and political analyses, the facts derived on India’s long-term economic performance are used to set the record straight. It is unsparing in its assessments where the evidence warrants such conclusions. Its findings will transform debate, and set the agenda for thoughtfully assessing the future course of India’s prosperity. The author overturns the assumptions that India’s much-vaunted private sector firms only engender positive outcomes, finding State-sector firms to have become efficient, and the molecular sector to be as effective overall, while also challenging the notion that privatization is necessary for progress. Conversely, it is found that competition policy innovations to have had positive impact. Practical suggestions are provided and three fundamental reforms, one administrative, one structural, and one behavioral, necessary to regenerate high output, are advocated.

More people today get news via Facebook and Google than via any news organization in history, and platforms like Twitter serve news to more people than all but the biggest media companies. This book draws on interviews and other data to analyze the platform power a few technology companies as a consequence have come to exercise in public life, the reservations publishers have about platforms—as well as the reasons why they often embrace them nonetheless. Most of the news content we rely on is still produced by journalists working for news organizations. But the way in which we discover it, how it is distributed, where decisions are made on what to display (and what not), and who profits from our behavior—all this is changing rapidly as people increasingly rely on social media, search engines, and aggregators offered by large platform companies to access news, and publishers in turn seek to reach people via the platforms they rely on. To understand the new, distinct relational and generative forms of power that platforms exercise, this book analyzes how they have evolved from the early days of Google’s first forays into news. Examining the different ways publishers have responded and how various platform companies have in turn handled the increasingly important and controversial role they play, it draws out the implications of a fundamental feature of our world we all need to understand: the news media are simultaneously empowered by and dependent on a few powerful private, for-profit technology companies.

Comprehensive and up to date, this textbook on children’s sport and exercise medicine features research and practical experience of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians that informs and challenges readers. Four sections—Exercise Science, Exercise Medicine, Sport Science, and Sport Medicine—provide a critical, balanced, and thorough examination of each subject, and each chapter provides cross-references, bulleted summaries, and extensive reference lists. Exercise Science covers growth, biological maturation and development, and examines physiological responses to exercise in relation to chronological age, biological maturation, and sex. It analyses kinetic responses at exercise onset, scrutinizes responses to exercise during thermal stress, and evaluates how the sensations arising from exercise are detected and interpreted during youth. Exercise Medicine explores physical activity and fitness and critically reviews their role in young people’s health. It discusses assessment, promotion, and genetics of physical activity, and physical activity in relation to cardiovascular health, bone health, health behaviours, diabetes, asthma, congenital conditions, and physical/mental disability. Sport Science analyses youth sport, identifies challenges facing the young athlete, and discusses the physiological monitoring of the elite young athlete. It explores molecular exercise physiology and the potential role of genetics. It examines the evidence underpinning aerobic, high-intensity, resistance, speed, and agility training programmes, as well as effects of intensive or over-training during growth and maturation. Sport Medicine reviews the epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, and management of injuries in physical education, contact sports, and non-contact sports. It also covers disordered eating, eating disorders, dietary supplementation, performance-enhancing drugs, and the protection of young athletes.

Heat waves will occur in Rotterdam with greater frequency in the future. Those affected most will be the elderly – a group that is growing in size. In the light of the Paris heat wave of August 2003 and the one in Rotterdam in July 2006, mortality rates among the elderly in particular are likely to rise in the summer. METHOD The aim of the Hotterdam research project was to gain a better understanding of urban heat. The heat was measured and the surface energy balance modelled from that perspective. Social and physical features of the city we identified in detail with the help of satellite images, GIS and 3D models. We determined the links between urban heat/surface energy balance and the social/physical features of Rotterdam by multivariable regression analysis. The crucial elements of the heat problem were then clustered and illustrated on a social and a physical heat map. RESULTS The research project produced two heat maps, an atlas of underlying data and a set of adaptation measures which, when combined, will make the city of Rotterdam and its inhabitants more aware and less vulnerable to heat wave-related health effects. CONCLUSION In different ways, the pre-war districts of the city (North, South, and West) are warmer and more vulnerable to urban heat than are other areas of Rotterdam. The temperature readings that we carried out confirm these findings as far as outdoor temperatures are concerned. Indoor temperatures vary widely. Homes seem to have their particular dynamics, in which the house’s age plays a role. The above-average mortality of those aged 75 and over during the July 2006 heat wave in Rotterdam can be explained by a) the concentration of people in this age group, b) the age of the homes they live in, and c) the sum of sensible heat and ground heat flux. A diverse mix of impervious surfaces, surface water, foliage, building envelopes and shade make one area or district warmer than another. Adaptation measures are in the hands of residents, homeowners and the local council alike, and relate to changing behaviour, physical measures for homes, and urban design respectively.

In recent years, international arbitration has become plagued by different forms of substantive and procedural abuse. For example, we have witnessed a rise in cases where parties restructure their investments in an abusive manner by altering one of its features purely to gain access to ICSID arbitration. Similarly, the increasingly common practice of initiating parallel arbitral proceedings in order to maximise a party’s chances of success, and the possibility of inconsistent decisions pose a risk to standards of fairness. Abusive practices designed by parties to prejudice their opponents may undermine the fair resolution of disputes and frustrate the administration of arbitral justice. There are pre-existing tools and legal rules that can be utilised to prevent abuse. However, these tools are inherently rigid in their application and fail to remedy all forms of abuse. Abuse of Rights in International Arbitration introduces the principle of abuse of rights and considers its application as a general principle of law to prevent different forms of substantive and procedural abuse in international arbitration. The virtue of a single theory with a wide scope and an overarching premise is that it is a principle, which involves equity considerations, enjoys the flexibility of general principles of law, and can address different abusive behaviours. The author carefully examines the legal basis and core elements of abuse of rights and analyses the relevant case law to address how the principle may affect administration of arbitral justice. Arguing for the application of abuse of rights as a general principle of law, the author expertly examines how it could apply in both international commercial and investment arbitration to tackle procedural misconduct and different abusive practices.