Conflict Minerals in Electronic Systems: An Overview and Critique of Legal Initiatives

The Democratic Republic of Congo has vast natural resources, many of which are regularly exploited by the electronics industry. Unfortunately, in addition to these resources, there are widespread human rights abuses committed by armed groups entrenched in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. These armed groups are using profits from these minerals as a source of funding. Their human rights abuses have led to a growing humanitarian interest in the region and prompted the international community to action. This paper explores the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, provides an understanding of the link between human rights abuses and conflict minerals, and interprets and critiques the legal actions of the international community.     

The relationship between morningness–eveningness, time-of-day, speed of information processing, and intelligence

Morningness–Eveningness refers to individual differences in circadian phase position of spontaneous sleep–wake rhythms and to subject alertness. There is some evidence indicating that performance on cognitive tasks may be influenced by Morningness–Eveningness and time-of-day. Given the potential importance of such a finding for the assessment of cognitive ability we conducted a study assessing the relationship between Morningness–Eveningness, time-of-day, and performance on the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery IQ (MAB-IQ) and Inspection Time (IT) task. Twenty male and 50 female participants classified according to their scores on the Morningness–Eveningness dimension (Horne & Östberg, 1976) were administered the MAB and IT tasks in the morning (0900 h) and in the late afternoon (1500 h). No significant effect of time of testing, and Morningness–Eveningness was observed except for the Spatial subtest of the MAB. Morning Type-participants performed significantly worse in the morning session in Spatial subtest and better in the late afternoon session and Evening Type-participants performed significantly better in the morning than in the late afternoon session. These results do not support the hypothesis that there is a reliable relationship between Morningness–Eveningness, time-of-day and cognitive ability.     

Exploring the effect of artificial intelligence intellect on consumer decision delegation: The role of trust,task objectivity,and anthropomorphism

This study examines the impact of AI intelligence levels on consumer decision delegation through three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates AI intelligence levels (low vs. high) to establish the main effect. Study 2 explores the mediating role of trust and the moderating effect of task types (subjective vs. objective) on the relationship between AI intelligence and trust. Study 3 investigates the role of AI anthropomorphism in AI delegation. The findings reveal that increasing AI intelligence enhances consumer decision delegation for both subjective and objective consumption tasks, with trust serving as a mediating factor. However, objective tasks are more likely to be delegated to AI. Moreover, anthropomorphic appearance positively influences trust but does not moderate the relationship between intelligence and trust. This research expands the literature on AI decision delegation, shedding light on the psychological processes related to AI-powered product design, consumer perceptions, and consumption situations, while also offering practical implications.     

Effect of strain rate on the compressive behaviour of a Zr56Al10.9Ni4.6Cu27.8Nb0.7 bulk metallic glass

We report the study of the effect of strain rate on the compressive behaviour of a Zr₅₆Al_10.9Ni_4.6Cu_27.8Nb_0.7 bulk metallic glass. The results indicated that both the strength and plasticity of the glass increase with increasing the strain rate up to 10^?5 s^?1, above which the strength and plasticity start to decrease. The enhanced mechanical properties under a strain rate of 10^?5 s^?1 are due to the emission/propagation rate of the shear bands being consistent with the strain rate.     

Effects of priming self‐construals on self‐evaluations: Cultural game player perspective

This study examined the validity of situational view on culture‐specific behaviours focusing on self‐evaluation. Two experiments with American students as samples were conducted to examine whether priming their self‐construals would affect individuals' self‐evaluation. In Experiment 1, the participants' self‐evaluation was compared across different conditions of primed self‐contruals. In Experiment 2, the participants were split into 2 groups based on their initial default self‐consturals and, the self‐evaluations were compared across the 2 groups after priming self‐contruals. The results demonstrated that although the participants' self‐evaluation was initially in accord with their default self‐construal, it changed into accord with the primed self‐construals. The findings supported the proposed cultural game player view. Implications on situational view of self‐evaluation are also discussed.     

Immigration and Democratic Principles: On Carens’ Ethics of Immigration

Carens has done more than any other political theorist or philosopher to develop the normative perspective of prospective migrants from within the liberal democratic tradition, but he has not sufficiently engaged with the other side of the argument – in particular, with the value of political community and the principle of collective self‐determination. What is at stake for the immigrant‐receiving country that might justify its claim to control immigration? I first examine Carens’ theory of social membership and its connection to political community. I then discuss his method of ‘political theory from the ground up’ and his interpretation of democratic principles. I conclude with a discussion of the principle of collective self‐determination.     

Sequence effects of the involuntary and the voluntary components of symbolic cueing

The orienting of attention has been found to be influenced by the previous cueing status in a spatial-cueing paradigm. The explanation for this sequence effect remains uncertain. This study separated the involuntary and the voluntary components of arrow cueing by manipulating the predicted target locations. For example, a left arrow cue may have indicated that the target was more likely to appear at the up location. Therefore, three trial types were repeated or switched between trials: cued (targets appeared along the direction of the arrows), predicted (targets appeared at the locations predicted by the arrows), and unrelated (targets appeared at the other two locations, neither cued nor predicted). RTs of cued trials were found to be significantly facilitated after a previous cued trial; however, the same effect was not observed for predicted trials. The results suggest that significant sequence effects are induced only in the involuntary component of arrow cueing. The findings support the feature-integration hypothesis for the sequence effect of symbolic cueing.