Perceptions of Parenting in Daily Life: Adolescent-Parent Differences and Associations with Adolescent Affect

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescents can perceive parenting quite differently than parents themselves and these discrepancies may relate to adolescent well-being. The current study aimed...     

Justice as fairness and bad luck

Abstract

One major way of arguing for the moral attractiveness of luck egalitarianism is indirect; it consists in showing that the view follows from competing views on distributive justice which one actually endorses. Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (KLR) claims that luck egalitarianism is indirectly supported in this way by Rawls’s intuitive argument for the difference principle. That argument begins by asserting that the impact of social and natural contingencies on distributive shares is unjust. After clarifying the notion of indirect support, I argue against KLR’s claim. Whether the argument goes on to support luck egalitarianism is a matter of interpretation which can only be decided by looking closer at what Rawls has to say about the difference principle than KLR’s own treatment of the argument allows. In its most plausible reading, the intuitive argument veers away from luck egalitarianism in favor of a non-egalitarian view of the difference principle as a principle of compensating advantage. On this view, inequality due to bad luck is not in any respect unjust when the least advantaged cannot be made better off under alternative arrangements. In conclusion I explain why there are good reasons of fairness to understand the difference principle in this way.     

Towards an EC directive on plant breeder's rights?

Legal context: Although ‘Brussels’ has established many Directivesand Regulations in the field of IP law during the last two decades,there is still no Council Directive on plant breeder's rights. Key points: The article first examines the current national plant varietyprotection laws in force in the EC Member States. It then focuseson some figures with regard to national applications and Communityapplications for plant breeder's rights filed in the years 2001–2005.Subsequently, it discusses a number of optional provisions laiddown in the 1991 UPOV Convention and it points out the manydifferences in national laws that result from this UPOV text.In particular, it draws attention to national differences withregard to the protection of products made directly from harvestedmaterial, the farmer's privilege, and the term of protection. Practical significance: The article concludes that national applications for plant varietyprotection still play a significant role next to Community applications.It argues that the establishment of a Directive would be worthconsidering, as the differences between the laws of the MemberStates lead to barriers to the free movement of goods and toa distortion of the conditions of competition on the commonmarket.     

Reduce optimisation time and effort: Taguchi experimental design methods

Development and validation of new methods and technologies frequently require long periods of time and high costs to determine the optimal system. A commonly used approach to optimisation is the factorial method, where each variable is tested at every level of the other variables. An alternative approach is to modify the experimental design using a multifactorial approach. The Taguchi design method utilises orthogonal arrays, which distribute the variables in a balanced manner, thus greatly reducing the number of experiments required. We applied the Taguchi experimental design method to PCR optimisation, and significantly reduced the number of reactions required to create highly successful reactions. We found the Taguchi design method a valuable tool for the optimisation of multifactor experiments.     

Does Sanskrit Knowledge Exist?

This paper addresses the near impossibility of writing the social history of knowledge production in India. It also considers the question of the historicity of Sanskrit traditions. It concludes with pointing at a major lacuna in the SKS project, namely the examination or ritual and religious knowledge.     

The incantations of the EU organised crime policy making

This article provides an analysis of the knowledge base of organised crime assessments and policy making in the European Union. It is argued that the current European organised crime (threat) assessments are no reliable and relevant instruments to make meaningful statements about organised crime. The data collection system of the current assessments is defective and to a large extent dependant on what Member States decide to disclose and not based on clear developed concepts, definitions and methods. There is no discernable “counting unit” as a basis for deducing threats or risks. More fundamental: the definition or criteria list used is defective, providing no basis for further deductions or conclusions. The conclusions of the open versions of the European reports are of a very general nature, not substantially different from what can be found in open sources. Though European decision making claims to be founded on these assessments, it looks more like a ritual incantation than a knowledge based process.

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The effects of physical effort on police officers' perception and aggression in simulated shooting incidents

Abstract

In the present experiment the effects of physical effort on police officers' aggression and perception in simulates shooting incidents were investigated. Based upon Kahneman's (1973) variable-allocation capacity model it was hypothesized that physical effort will result in a decease in aggression towards aggressive offenders. Based upon Kahneman's model and Easterbrook's (1959) Cue-Utilization-Hypothesis it was further expected that this decrease in aggression will be caused by an incorrect judgement of the aggression of aggressive offenders (and not by an impaired perception). The findings confirmed these hypotheses.