Rights: Foundations, Contents, Hierarchy

It would seem that we in the West are suffering from an increasing glut of rights. To the sixty-odd human rights that the Universal Declaration and its Covenants have long given us, must now be added the particular rights claims of an increasing number of ‘oppressed’ minorities, claims to compensation rights for just about every conceivable harm done and claims to ever more trivial things. This tendency is harmful insofar as it trivialises rights and devalues the coverage of rights. Human rights are fundamental and ought to be protected from these tendencies. Using an analysis of the foundations of human rights, and their function in maintaining autonomy in particular, this article analyses the content of rights – what must be fulfilled in order for a right to be protected – as a means of demonstrating the possibility of reducing the volume of rights without reducing rights coverage and of creating a defensible hierarchy.     

权力层级与团队绩效关系：权力与地位的一致与背离

本研究致力于探讨在权力与地位不一致的背景下, 权力层级与团队绩效研究的分歧。本研究提出权力层级与团队绩效的关系取决于团队的层级一致性——权力与地位的匹配度。具体地, 当层级一致(权力与地位匹配)时, 权力层级促进团队绩效; 当层级不一致(权力与地位不匹配)时, 权力层级抑制团队绩效。本研究结合问卷、实验和二手数据方法来验证假设, 研究1通过对46个大学生创业实践团队的两阶段问卷调查, 发现层级一致性对权力层级与团队绩效的关系具有调节作用。此后, 研究2通过一项涉及64个团队的实验来揭示因果关系, 发现权力争夺在权力层级和层级一致性的交互与团队绩效的关系中起中介作用。最后研究3通过203个观测值的互联网公司二手数据重复验证了层级一致性的调节作用, 并提升了本研究的生态效度。本研究为权力层级的研究做出了一定的贡献, 并为团队管理提供了启示。     

Interindividual differences in neonatal sociality and emotionality predict juvenile social status in rhesus monkeys

In humans, socioeconomic status (SES) has profound outcomes on socio‐emotional development and health. However, while much is known about the consequences of SES, little research has examined the predictors of SES due to the longitudinal nature of such studies. We sought to explore whether interindividual differences in neonatal sociality, temperament, and early social experiences predicted juvenile social status in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), as a proxy for SES in humans. We performed neonatal imitation tests in infants’ first week of life and emotional reactivity assessments at 2 and 4 weeks of age. We examined whether these traits, as well as the rearing environment in the first 8 months of life (with the mother or with same‐aged peers only) and maternal social status predicted juvenile (2–3 years old) social status following the formation of peer social groups at 8 months. We found that infants who exhibited higher rates of neonatal imitation and newborn emotional reactivity achieved higher social status as juveniles, as did infants who were reared with their mothers, compared to infants reared with peers. Maternal social status was only associated with juvenile status for infant dyads reared in the same maternal group, indicating that relative social relationships were transferred through social experience. These results suggest that neonatal imitation and emotional reactivity may reflect ingrained predispositions toward sociality that predict later outcomes, and that nonnormative social experiences can alter socio‐developmental trajectories. Our results indicate that neonatal characteristics and early social experiences predict later social outcomes in adolescence, including gradients of social stratification.     

Rehabilitating AI: Argument Loci and the Case for Artificial Intelligence

This article examines argument structures and strategies in pro and con argumentation about the possibility of human-level artificial intelligence (AI) in the near term future. It examines renewed controversy about strong AI that originated in a prominent 1999 book and continued at major conferences and in periodicals, media commentary, and Web-based discussions through 2002. It will be argued that the book made use of implicit, anticipatory refutation to reverse prevailing value hierarchies related to AI. Drawing on Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's (1969) study of refutational argument, this study considers points of contact between opposing arguments that emerged in opposing loci, dissociations, and casuistic reasoning. In particular, it shows how perceptions of AI were reframed and rehabilitated through metaphorical language, reversal of the philosophical pair artificial/natural, appeals to the paradigm case, and use of the loci of quantity and essence. Furthermore, examining responses to the book in subsequent arguments indicates the topoi characteristic of the rhetoric of technology advocacy.     

Monadic Fuzzy Predicate Logics

Two variants of monadic fuzzy predicate logic are analyzed and compared with the full fuzzy predicate logic with respect to finite model property (properties) and arithmetical complexity of sets of tautologies, satisfiable formulas and of analogous notion restricted to finite models.     

Can thematic roles leave traces of their places?

An important question in the study of language production is the nature of the semantic information that speakers use to create syntactic structures. A common answer to this question assumes that thematic roles help to mediate the mapping from messages to syntax. However, research using structural priming has suggested that the construction of syntactic frames may be insensitive to variations in thematic roles within messages (Cognition 35 (1990) 1; Psychological Review 99 (1992) 150). Because these studies involved structural alternations whose syntax covaries with the order of thematic roles, it is difficult to assess any independent contribution that role information may make to the positioning of phrases. In this study, we primed the order of the roles without changing the syntactic structure of the sentences produced, and found that the order of the roles was influenced by the priming manipulation. This implies that thematic roles or the features that differentiate them are active within the mapping between messages and sentence structures.     

Fuzzy Logic and Arithmetical Hierarchy III

Fuzzy logic is understood as a logic with a comparative and truth-functional notion of truth. Arithmetical complexity of sets of tautologies (identically true sentences) and satisfiable sentences (sentences true in at least one interpretation) as well of sets of provable formulas of the most important systems of fuzzy predicate logic is determined or at least estimated.     

层级一致性指标的多级评分拓展

在认知诊断评估实践中,属性层级合理性的验证非常重要,而现有指标仅停留在0-1计分测验,无法适应考试形式和评分方式多样化的实践需求。研究将0-1计分层级一致性指标（MHCI）拓展至多级计分的层级一致性指标（GHCI）,模拟和实证研究结果表明：（1）GHCI具有和MHCI相同的本质含义,考虑了父项目和子项目得分的多种可能性,从而将MHCI纳入GHCI体系;（2）在多级或混合计分情境,MHCI会有信息损失,容易发生低估,且易受转换比例的影响;（3）GHCI在模拟和实践情境均具较好的适宜性,拟合截断值的设置可依属性层级而定。     

Race and Nation: How Racial Hierarchy Shapes National Attachments

We contend that the boundaries and nature of national attachments are shaped by the position of one's group within America's racial order, with higher status yielding more racially exclusive forms of identity. We test our claims in the realm of xenophobia. Using an original survey of African Americans (n = 1,000) and Whites (n = 1,000), we assess national pride, nationalism, nativism, and racial identity, plus affect toward various immigrant groups. We establish that national attachments have racially varied meanings, thereby producing sharp differences in each racial group's response to foreigners. Although national pride is unrelated to White antipathy toward outsiders, nationalism and nativism increase White hostility to immigrants—except when they are White. In contrast, national pride diminishes African American hostility to Black and non‐Black immigrants, while nativism is generally unrelated to Black antipathy to outsiders. Finally, while nationalism heightens xenophobia among Blacks, this sentiment envelops all foreigners—including African immigrants. We discuss our results' implications for theories of national attachment in intergroup settings.     

Two new cases of rank reversals when the AHP and some of its additive variants are used that do not occur with the multiplicative AHP

Many researchers have long observed some cases in which certain ranking irregularities can occur when the original analytic hierarchy process (AHP), or some of its variants, are used. This paper presents two new categories of ranking irregularities which defy common intuition. These ranking irregularities occur when one decomposes a decision problem into a set of smaller problems each defined on two alternatives and the same criteria as the original problem. These irregularities are possible when the original AHP, or some of its additive variants, are used. Computational experiments on random test problems and an examination of some real‐life case studies suggest that these ranking irregularities are dramatically likely to occur. This paper also proves that these ranking irregularities are not possible when a multiplicative variant of the AHP is used. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.