Ordinary Behavior Research Articles

Instrumental and legal nature of early release on parole from serving a sentence

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the content of early release on parole as a comprehensive criminal law remedy. It is stated that the functional purpose of conditional early release on parole from serving a sentence is to achieve the goals necessary for society. From the point of view of the instrumental theory of law, it is determined that early release on parole from serving a sentence constitutes a specific system of criminal law means by which the goals of criminal law regulation are achieved. According to the information and psychological orientation, such legal means are divided into stimulating and restrictive. It is found that legal facts, subjective rights, legitimate interests, benefits and incentives are the forms of manifestation of legal means-incentives. It is substantiated that legal incentives, directly orienting an individual to achieve beneficial consequences for him/her, are the most powerful incentive factor, and their application in the case of early release on parole from serving a sentence may be associated with both ordinary lawful behavior which does not exceed the general requirements and excessive performance of duties by a convicted person and is expressed in the form of elimination of restrictions determined by the criminal sentence applicable to a convicted person. The article emphasizes that legal remedies-restrictions are associated with unfavorable conditions for realization of interests of subjects, are focused on negative legal motivation and reduction of negative activity of subjects of law, and their forms of manifestation are legal facts, prohibitions, suspensions, legal obligations, penalties, etc. A legal restriction on early release on parole from serving a sentence is a prohibition in the form of a passive legal obligation of a convicted person not to commit any new criminal offense during the unexpired part of the previously imposed sentence. It is generalized that legal means-incentives and legal means-restrictions should be considered in an inseparable interrelation, since they are paired legal categories, i.e., internally dialectically interrelated and mutually supporting each other in the process of criminal law regulation. Thus, the author concludes that the instrumental and legal nature of early release on parole from serving a sentence as a complex criminal law tool is dialectically complex, since it combines directly opposite and at the same time internally unified criminal law means of influencing social relations.

Readiness for sustainable accreditation management in higher education institutions: A mixed-method study in Indonesia

Obtaining an excellent accreditation rank in various study programs has become an urgency for universities in Indonesia because accreditation rankings are believed to have an impact on the provision of quality education. However, not all universities are able to achieve an excellent accreditation rank for all of the study programs they manage. This research aims to determine the readiness of the accreditation teams in managing accreditation in various study programs. The mixed method is used, with an explanatory sequential design. The participants involved are university leaders and accreditation teams in various study programs. The research results showed that an excellent accreditation rating cannot be achieved with ordinary organizational behavior but requires great effort, care, and commitment from both the leaders and the accreditation team. It also requires active and comprehensive participation from the academic community. The excellent rank in accreditation can only be obtained with superior effort and care. It is suggested that the readiness of the leaders and accreditation teams to manage accreditation optimally is a crucial aspect in achieving an excellent rating. In conclusion, there are at least three important aspects to consider in the accreditation process in order to achieve an excellent rank: the need to achieve the highest assessment, the effort and care needed to significantly impact the highest assessment, and the institution needs to ensure a quality culture through quality assurance and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Phase transition, structural and magnetic parameters of vanadium-substituted Bi0.9Sm0.1FeO3 multiferroic ceramics

ABSTRACT The inorganic multiferroic compounds Bi0.9Sm0.1Fe1 − x V x O3 (x = 0.0, 0.015, 0.03, and 0.045) were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the rhombohedral perovskite-like structure with minor traces of the impurity phases Bi2Fe4O9 and Bi25FeO40. The lattice parameters a and c, and the volume of the hexagonal unit cell were extracted from the X-ray diffraction data and found to increase as the V5+ content is increased. The average crystallite size was estimated to be in the range 380–415 Å. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the rhombohedral perovskite-like structure via the vibration bands of the octahedral FeO6 group observed between 410 and 570 cm−1. A differential scanning calorimeter was used to record the thermal scans which revealed that the compounds have undergone crystalline phase transitions at temperatures in the range 300–320°C. A 4.5% V + 5 substitution has shifted the transition peak by 20°C. The magnetic hysteresis loops taken at room temperature with a vibrating sample magnetometer revealed the ordinary ferromagnetic behavior. The V5+ substitution enhanced the remanent magnetization, but the magnetic coercivity was found to fluctuate around an average value of about 1000 Oe. The compound Bi0.9Sm0.1Fe0.955V0.045O3 exhibited the maximum remanent magnetization.

Psychometric benefits of self-chosen rating scales over given rating scales

Rating scales are susceptible to response styles that undermine the scale quality. Optimizing a rating scale can tailor it to individuals’ cognitive abilities, thereby preventing the occurrence of response styles related to a suboptimal response format. However, the discrimination ability of individuals in a sample may vary, suggesting that different rating scales may be appropriate for different individuals. This study aims to examine (1) whether response styles can be avoided when individuals are allowed to choose a rating scale and (2) whether the psychometric properties of self-chosen rating scales improve compared to given rating scales. To address these objectives, data from the flourishing scale were used as an illustrative example. MTurk workers from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform (N = 7042) completed an eight-item flourishing scale twice: (1) using a randomly assigned four-, six-, or 11-point rating scale, and (2) using a self-chosen rating scale. Applying the restrictive mixed generalized partial credit model (rmGPCM) allowed examination of category use across the conditions. Correlations with external variables were calculated to assess the effects of the rating scales on criterion validity. The results revealed consistent use of self-chosen rating scales, with approximately equal proportions of the three response styles. Ordinary response behavior was observed in 55–58% of individuals, which was an increase of 12–15% compared to assigned rating scales. The self-chosen rating scales also exhibited superior psychometric properties. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Effective information bounds in modified quantum mechanics

A common feature of collapse models and an expected signature of the quantization of gravity at energies well below the Planck scale is the deviation from ordinary quantum-mechanical behavior. Here, we analyze the general consequences of such modifications from the point of view of quantum information theory and we anticipate applications to different quantum systems. We show that quantum systems undergo corrections to the quantum speed limit which, in turn, imply the modification of the Heisenberg limit for parameter estimation. Our results hold for a wide class of scenarios beyond ordinary quantum mechanics. For some nonlocal models inspired by quantum gravity, the bounds are found to oscillate in time, an effect that could be tested in future high-precision quantum experiments.

El aumento de penas y los sujetos de control social en Colombia después de la Constitución de 1991

This paper presents three interrelated arguments: (i) the disproportion of criminal punishment in Colombia have its origin in the State fight against subversive groups, specifically against las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, which after 1990 massified kidnapping; (ii)that the endure and stabilization of punishment rise in Colombia criminal law is due to being move to criminal behaviors related to the armed conflict to ordinary criminal behaviors, specifically the violent thief and the sexual predator; and (iii) that the persistence of criminal disproportion is due to the rise of new subjects of social control, particularly the young and poor man, and the sexual predator. To support those arguments, the paper inquire the boundaries of 1980 Colombian criminal code to show how it started to enlarge in the nineteen year through the “estatuto antisecuestro”. Subsequently, it shows how this trend stabilized around the rise of the new subjects of social control that have legitimized the discourse of citizen (in)security.

Deception and euphemisms as a linguistic strategy in the context of (political) discourse

The paper discusses lying as an ordinal function of language in the context of political discourse.To begin with, the phenomenon of lying is regarded as an ordinary linguistic behaviour with a specificfunction for the speaking individual. Based on a variety of empirical data, the aforementionedfunction is thought to be a certain evolutionary strategy that provides concrete advantages (to individuals).

Disruptive situation detection on public transport through speech emotion recognition

Disruptive situations are emotionally-charged events diverging from ordinary behavior, like people fighting or screaming. Public transports are one type of social environment where disruptive situation may occur, and their timely detection may bring significant improvements to people's safety. Current approaches to disruptive situation detection, typically based on CCTVs, do not take the emotional dimension into account. Conversely, we propose to frame such a problem as a speech emotion recognition task.To validate our hypotheses, we carry out an extensive experimental study focusing on the development of a model characterized by speaker/gender independence, robustness to noise, and robustness against multiple voices. We investigate a variety of audio features, classifiers, datasets, and data augmentation methods in an effort to define effective ways to address this under-investigated yet socially significant problem. Our experiments show that the proposed systems attain an F1 score of over 90% on the disruptive class, even when introducing noisy elements such as environmental noise or multiple overlapping voices. This robust performance is achieved with datasets characterized by speaker variability, gender diversity, and varying number of samples. Such promising results indicate that framing disruptive situation detection as a speech emotion recognition task could pave the way to the adoption of new types of intelligent systems with a positive impact on public safety.

Structural and magnetic properties of Fe–Ti–O solid solution prepared by ball-milling and post annealing

We investigate the structural and magnetic properties of a Fe–Ti–O system prepared by ball-milling and post annealing from γ-Fe2O3 and TiO2-anatase. From a systematic analysis of the structural properties, we show that our sample consists of a Fe–Ti–O solid solution, in which the Ti acts as dopant in the hematite structure. Moreover, by exploring distinct aspects of the magnetic behavior, we reveal that our sample presents a magnetic behavior that is strongly dependent on the temperature. Although the Fe–Ti–O solid solution carries the ordinary magnetic behavior expected for the hematite over most of the investigated temperature range, we verify quite-interesting features of magnetic origin taking place at lower temperatures. We interpret them as fingerprints of cluster spin freezing effect and provide experimental evidence supporting the existence of the glassy state below ∼51 K.

Legal Systems and Boundaries for the Punishment of International Commercial Crimes

This paper focuses on the definition of international commercial crime, how to punish international commercial crime, what legal systems have been introduced to punish international commercial crime, and how to distinguish international commercial crime from ordinary commercial behavior. With the continuous development of the globalization of the world, the mutual integration and collision of economy, commerce, culture, and politics have become more and more obvious and frequent. The mutual integration of different countries and regions in commerce and economy has led to various manifestations of commercial behavior, which inevitably lead to some commercial activities that go beyond normal commercial behavior under the guise of commercial behavior. These behaviors have a negative impact on the international business environment to make huge profits. Some of these acts have even harmed the interests of other countries to the extent of being illegal and criminal.

Autonomous agent adaptive driving control based on fuzzy logic theory and normative behavior

Studying driver behaviors has become a major concern for the transportation community, businesses, and the public. Thus, based on the simulation, we proposed an adaptive driving model in the car-following driving behavior and based on the normative behavior of the driver during decision-making and anticipation, whose intention is to ensure the objectives of imitation of ordinary human behavior and road safety. The presented model is based on a software agent paradigm to model a human driver and the Fuzzy Logic Theory to reflect the driver agent’s reasoning. To validate our model, we used the dataset from the program of the US Federal Highway Administration. In this context, we notice an excellent homogeneity in the deviation of the adopted trajectory of the autonomous driver agent from the adopted trajectories by the human drivers. Moreover, the advantage of our model is that it works with different velocities.

Precipitation, mechanical properties and early slant ductile fracture in cyclic and naturally aged Al-Zn-Mg(-Cu) alloys

Natural and artificial ageing treatments are compared with ageing by cyclic deformation at room temperature. Atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy revealed that a fine distribution of GP-zones, was responsible for the strength after cyclic ageing. Ten days further natural ageing allowed these early-stage clusters to grow into more stable ones, thereby improving the mechanical response. This resulted in similar tensile strength and uniform elongation as for the peak aged condition by artificial ageing. It was found that fracture of cyclic aged samples occurred earlier, in the form of a ductile slant shear fracture without necking in advance. In all cases, the slant fracture started at about the same point as reaching maximum strength, i.e., at the uniform limit. However, by an artificial ageing treatment after the cyclic hardening treatment, an ordinary necking behavior was seen, similar as for the peak aged samples. Natural aged samples had similar GP-zones as the cyclic hardened ones, and the same slant fracture mode, indicating that the precipitation structure controls the fracture type. Similar behavior was observed for two different Al-Zn-Mg alloys, with and without copper.

Understanding the adaptive laboratory evolution of multiple stress-resistant yeast strains by genome-scale modeling.

Stress responses triggered by external exposures in adaptive laboratory evolution studies alter the ordinary behavior of cells, and the identification of the differences between the starting and the evolved strains would provide ideal strategies to obtain the desired strains. Metabolic networks are one of the most useful tools to analyze data for this purpose. This study integrates differential expression profiles of multiple Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that have evolved in eight different stress conditions (ethanol, caffeine, coniferyl aldehyde, iron, nickel, phenylethanol, and silver) and enzyme kinetics into a genome-scale metabolic model of yeast, following a new enhanced method. Flux balance analysis, flux variability analysis, robustness, phenotype phase plane, minimization of metabolic adjustment, survivability, sensitivity analyses, and random sampling are conducted to identify the most common and divergent points within strains. Results were examined both individually and comparatively, and the target reactions, metabolites, and enzymes were identified. Our results showed that the models reconstructed by our methodology were able to simulate experimental conditions where efficient protein allocation was the main goal for survival under stressful conditions, and most of the metabolic changes in the adaptation process mainly arose from the differences in the metabolic reactions of energy maintenance (through coenzyme-A and FAD utilization), cell division (folate requirement of DNA synthesis), and cell wall formation (through sterol and ergosterol biosynthesis).

Localization and slow-thermalization in a cluster spin model

Novel cluster spin model with interactions and disorder is introduced and studied. In specific type of interactions, we find an extensive number of local integrals of motions (LIOMs), which are a modified version of the stabilizers in quantum information, i.e., mutually commuting operators specifying all quantum states in the system. These LIOMs can be defined for any strength of the interactions and disorder, and are of compact-support instead of exponentially-decaying tail. Hence, even under the presence of interactions, integrability is held, and all energy eigenstates are labeled by these LIOMs and can be explicitly obtained. Integrable dynamics is, then, expected to occur. The compact-support nature of the LIOMs crucially prevents the thermalization and entanglement spreading. We numerically investigate dynamics of the system governed by the existence of the compact-support LIOMs, and clarify the effects of additional interactions, which break the compact-support nature of the LIOMs. There, we find that the ordinary many-body localization behaviors emerge, such as the logarithmic growth of the entanglement entropy in the time evolution. Besides the ergodicity breaking dynamic, we find that symmetry protected topological order preserves for specific states even in the presence of the interactions.

The relaxed open mouth is a true signal in dogs: demonstrating Tinbergen's ritualization process

Play fighting, the most iconic form of social play, is often punctuated by specific signals, such as the relaxed open mouth (ROM) display, limiting the risk of misunderstanding between playmates. Although there is general consensus that the ROM of dogs is a ritualized version of play biting, the empirical demonstration of the actual ritualization of ROM has been lacking. We videorecorded and analysed 118 playful sessions involving 24 Czechoslovakian wolfdogs (12 females; 12 males), which is a breed of domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris, showing wolf-like behavioural traits. By using an integrated approach of different techniques (dog facial action coding system, an unsupervised cluster analysis and the Levenshtein distance), we empirically demonstrate that the ROM is intrinsically different from the play biting action in this breed of dog. Contrary to the play bite, during ROM, the recruitment of muscular action units for each facial display was more consistent, conspicuous and intra- and interindividually stereotyped. Moreover, a sequential analysis revealed that the ROM usually preceded playful offensive patterns, thus underlining the real metacommunicative function of the signal. Finally, by running a linear mixed model, we found that the most balanced sessions were punctuated by the most prolonged performance of ROM, thus revealing the efficiency of the facial signal in maintaining a balanced session. In conclusion, through the processes of formalization, simplification and emphasis, an ordinary precursor behaviour (i.e. play biting) has been taken out of context and transformed into an extraordinary, derived behaviour (i.e. ROM) specifically designed to attract receivers' attention and modulate playful social interactions in dogs.

The motor profile of obsessive-compulsive rituals: psychopathological and evolutionary implications.

Studies investigating obsessive-compulsive disorder from an ethological approach have highlighted a specific motor pattern of compulsive rituals with respect to corresponding ordinary behaviors. Particularly, compulsive motor profile is built through the repetition of acts, with prevalence of nonfunctional ones and redirection of attention to its basic structural units. These formal features would characterize ritual behavior throughout evolution, from nonhuman animals to human cultures. However, no study to date has investigated a possible relationship between such motor profile and underlying psychopathology. Therefore, the first objective of the study was to confirm previous findings on a larger sample size of obsessive patients; the second objective was to elucidate whether motor profile might be associated with obsessive-compulsive psychopathology and/or prepsychotic symptoms of schizophrenia. Twenty-one obsessive-compulsive outpatients provided a videotape of their rituals. An equal number of healthy controls, matched for sex and age, were registered for corresponding ordinary acts. Obsessive patients were administered the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire. The results of the present study confirm that ritual compulsions present a specific motor structure characterized by repetition of both functional and nonfunctional acts and their longer duration. Such a motor pattern is independent from obsessive-compulsive psychopathology, whereas it results specifically associated with prepsychotic symptoms of schizophrenia. We argue that this association may reflect the adaptive significance of ritual behavior across evolution, that is, its homeostatic function in conditions of unpredictability.

The experimental investigation of pipes system array inside the pressurized cylindrical container in various orientations

The experimental investigation of natural convection analysis in pressurized containers has been successfully addressed fusing four identical circular rectangle pipes. The pressurized tank of 0.3 m diameter and 0.45 m height within 0.43 m height and 0.025 m side length interior square pipes are used to obtain the present investigation. Various parameters are used such as gauge pressure (0.5-1 bar), pipes Ra configurations and enclosure orientations. The results are Nusselt number for cold and hot sides. Both sides has reverse response, the parametric analysis shows the ordinary behavior according to gravity and pressure forces interaction. The optimum conditions is observed when horizontal enclosure of top pipe in one bar is applied where the heat transfer improvement is 24 % approximately.

Quantum oscillations and physical properties of LaCu2Si2

High quality single crystals of LaCu2Si2 are successfully grown from a high temperature ternary melt. The physical properties are investigated by measurements of specific heat, electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power, and magnetization. The electrical resistivity follows an ordinary metallic behavior with a residual resistivity ρ0 = 0.87 μΩ cm and residual resistivity ratio (RRR) ρ(300 K)/ρ0 ∼ 13. Quantum oscillations for H || ab are clearly observed from electrical resistivity, magnetization, and thermoelectric power measurements in magnetic fields as low as 30 kOe and at temperatures as high as 20 K. In the earlier studies no quantum oscillations have been observed from both single crystal and polycrystalline samples. The small value of ρ0 and quantum oscillations indicate a high quality of LaCu2Si2 samples used in the present study. The cyclotron effective mass obtained from the analysis of the de Haas – van Alphen (dHvA) oscillations is small m0 ∼ 0.14me, which is consistent with the small electronic specific heat coefficient γ ∼ 3.4 mJ/mol K2. The detected dHvA frequencies of LaCu2Si2 are compared with those of the RCu2Si2 (R = Y, Th, and Ce) family.

Complex data and simple instructions: Social regulation during the Covid-19 pandemic

Responses to the Covid-19 pandemic include the generation of new norms and shifting expectations about everyday, ordinary behaviour, management of the self, and social interaction. Central to the amalgam of new norms is the way information and instructions are communicated, often in the form of simple images and icons in posters and signs that are widespread in public settings. This article combines two sociological concerns – social control and visual research – to investigate the ways social interaction is being recalibrated during the pandemic. It focuses on some of the imagery relied on in public information about the coronavirus and investigates the form and content of various signs, instructions, and notices for their normative underpinnings, their advice and directives which attempt to modify and regulate diverse activities.

Prevention of Bullying of Students in Educational Institutions and the Application of Legal Sanctions

This is a qualitative research with a case study approach. This research is intended to answer the questions how the sanctions are applied by schools for bullying children and how the law enforcement for bullies is applied. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 5 informants consisting of a psychologist, a legal practitioner and 3 parents whose children were victims of bullying. Cases of bullying that occur in schools receive less attention from teachers, academic staff and school principals. In general, bullying is still considered an ordinary child delinquency and behaviour, even though the impact of bullying is very dangerous for students who become victims. For this reason, every teacher, staff, principal must have sufficient knowledge regarding bullying issues in order to create an activity program that aims to prevent bullying and every parent must also pay attention to their children and understand that currently there is a law related to the problem of bullying and it is hoped that parents will have the courage to report to the authorities in order to provide a deterrent effect not only to the bullies but also to those who cover up the case.