Establishing Confucius Institutes: a tool for promoting China’s soft power?

Soft power has become China’s new diplomatic tool to spread its influence in today’s changing international landscape. The establishment of Confucius Institutes (CIs) since 2004 to promote the understanding of Chinese language and culture is a striking example of how the government promotes soft power through cultural means. Through the macro- and micro-level analysis of CIs, this study shows that CIs fail to increase the soft power of China because many countries regard CIs as a propaganda tool and a threat to academic freedom and the local community. It shows that China’s soft power is not so attractive in the eyes of receivers. In fact, China’s aggressive cultural initiatives through the establishment of CIs have triggered another version of the ‘China threat’.     

The Open Method of Coordination: A New Supranational Form of Governance?

The open method of coordination (OMC) has emerged as a new policy instrument in the European context. While it was initially confined to the employment field, it has recently been applied to several other areas. The aim of this article is to provide a reconstruction of the OMC. The focus is in particular on the structure and process of the OMC, but also on the new approach to law that it proposes. The OMC differs from traditional EC methods but also from traditional soft-law mechanisms. In order to highlight those original features, the paper analyses the key steps in the evolution of a strategy, the European employment strategy, which slowly became a new mode of governance.     

I know how you feel: the influence of psychopathic traits on the ability to identify micro-expressions

Few studies have examined the manner in which individuals view, interact with, and manipulate others, or their ability to identify and respond to others’ emotional cues. More specifically, no research has examined the capacity of individuals high in psychopathic traits to perceive and recognize extremely fleeting emotional expressions (i.e. micro-expressions) that could allow them to infer emotional vulnerability in others. The current study examined whether psychopathic traits [measured via the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-4 (SRP-4); Paulhus, D. L., Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2016). Manual for the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (4th ed.). Toronto: Multi-Health Systems] were associated with the ability to identify micro-expressions in others. Participants (N?=?132) viewed videos of 1/25th second micro-expressions and attempted to identify the displayed emotion. The results indicated that SRP scores were positively associated with a heightened ability to identify sadness micro-expressions, particularly among observers who were women. Additionally, various SRP subscales were related to emotion selection tendencies and accuracy rates, which also differed between the sexes.     

Subsidiarity, Regional Governance, and Caribbean Security

The reconfiguration of the global security order since the late 1980s has had a heavy impact on regional security in the Caribbean. Having lost strategic importance, the Caribbean states have been attempting to restructure their relationship with the United States. These small states are interested in building a regional security regime that is inclusive, transparent, and accountable. This analysis shows how the principle of subsidiarity may be employed to achieve that end.     

Business incubators and accelerators: a co-citation analysis-based,systematic literature review

The Journal of Technology Transfer - A long and rich research tradition exists on the phenomenon of business incubators since this kind of venture support institution first emerged. One can observe...     

Sexual dimorphism in human browridge volume measured from 3D models of dry crania: A new digital morphometrics approach

Sex estimation from the human skull is often a necessary step when constructing a biological profile from unidentified human remains. Traditional methods for determining the sex of a skull require observers to rank the expression of sexually dimorphic skeletal traits by subjectively assessing their qualitative differences. One of these traits is the prominence of the glabellar region above the browridge. In this paper, the volume of the browridge region was measured from digital 3D models of 128 dry crania (65 female, 63 male). The 3D models were created with a desktop laser scanner, and the browridge region of each 3D model was isolated using geometric planes defined by cranial landmarks. Statistical analysis of browridge-to-cranium volume ratios revealed significant differences between male and female crania. Differences were also observed between geographically distinct populations, and between temporally distinct populations from the same locale. The results suggest that in the future, sex determination of human crania may be assisted by quantitative computer-based volume calculations from 3D models, which can provide increased objectivity and repeatability when compared to traditional forensic techniques. The method presented in this paper can easily be extended to other volumetric regions of the human cranium.