bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conceiving the Past and Future
Authors: Newby-Clark Ian R. , Ross Michael
Published: July 2003

The authors compared people's views of their histories and futures by asking them to recall and anticipate personally significant episodes. It was hypothesized and found in Study 1 that individuals spontaneously recall an affectively mixed past, containing both “highs” and “lows,” whereas they anticipate homogeneously ideal futures. It was further hypothesized that people devote little thought to negative futures, and this was tested directly in Studies 2 and 3 by assessing how quickly past and likely future events came to mind. Asked to report positive and negative episodes from the past and future, participants took longer to generate future negative than positive events. Speed of recall was unaffected by the valence of past episodes. In Study 4, the response latency difference was again replicated for future events and it was demonstrated that people are slower in both generating negative future events and judging those events as likely.
Interpersonal Distance in Immersive Virtual Environments
Authors: Bailenson Jeremy N. , Blascovich Jim , Beall Andrew C. , Loomis Jack M.
Published: July 2003

Digital immersive virtual environment technology (IVET) enables behavioral scientists to conduct ecologically realistic experiments with near-perfect experimental control. The authors employed IVET to study the interpersonal distance maintained between participants and virtual humans. In Study 1, participants traversed a three-dimensional virtual room in which a virtual human stood. In Study 2, a virtual human approached participants. In both studies, participant gender, virtual human gender, virtual human gaze behavior, and whether virtual humans were allegedly controlled by humans (i.e., avatars) or computers (i.e., agents) were varied. Results indicated that participants maintained greater distance from virtual humans when approaching their fronts compared to their backs. In addition, participants gave more personal space to virtual agents who engaged them in mutual gaze. Moreover, when virtual humans invaded their personal space, participants moved farthest from virtual human agents. The advantages and disadvantages of IVET for the study of human behavior are discussed.
When Communications Collide with Recipients' Actions: Effects of Post-Message Behavior on Intentions to Follow the Message Recommendation
Authors: Albarracín Dolores , Cohen Joel B. , Kumkale G. Tarcan
Published: July 2003

Two experiments investigated the processes through which post-message behavior (e.g., noncompliance) influences resistance to the message. Participants in Experiment 1 read preventive, consumer-education messages that either opposed the consumption of an alcohol-like product or recommended moderation. Half of the participants then tried the product, whereas the remaining participants performed a filler task. In the absence of trial, the two messages had the same effect. However, recipients of the abstinence-promoting preventive message who tried the product had stronger intentions to use the product in the future than recipients of the moderation message. This finding suggests that assessments of message impact may be inadequate unless an opportunity for trial is also provided. Results are interpreted in terms of self-perception and cognitive dissonance and contrasted from psychological reactance.
Self-Consistency for Low Self-Esteem in Dissonance Processes: The Role of Self-Standards
Authors: Stone Jeff
Published: July 2003

The self-consistency revision of cognitive dissonance theory predicts that people with low self-esteem are less likely to experience dissonance arousal compared to people with high self-esteem. Two experiments investigated how the accessibility of different self-standards in the context of a dissonant act activates the consistency role of self-esteem in the process of cognitive dissonance arousal. In Experiment I, after participants wrote a counter-attitudinal essay, priming personal self-standards caused more attitude change for those with high compared to low self-esteem, whereas priming no standards or priming normative self-standards caused the same level of attitude change among both self-esteem groups. Experiment 2 showed that the self-consistency effect for low self-esteem participants only occurred among those who were high in self-certainty when personal self-standards were primed. The importance of self-standards for understanding the role of self-esteem in dissonance processes is discussed.
Predicting Change in Self-Reported and Interviewer-Assessed Adult Attachment: Tests of the Individual Difference and Life Stress Models of Attachment Change
Authors: Davila Joanne , Cobb Rebecca J.
Published: July 2003

The study tested the key assumption of the individual difference model of adult attachment change: that people who have experienced certain vulnerability factors will be prone to change attachment styles because they have developed unclear models of self and others that render their attachment models unstable. This model was compared to a life stress model, which states that change occurs as an adaptation to new, interpersonally relevant life circumstances. Changes in self-reported and interviewer-assessed attachment were examined among 94 young adults who were followed over 1 year. Analyses yielded support for the individual difference model for change in both self-reported and interviewer-assessed attachment. The life stress model was supported for change in interviewer-assessed attachment only. Implications for differential change processes for self-reported versus interviewer-assessed aspects of adult attachment are discussed.
Physical, Emotional, and Behavioral Reactions to Breaking Up: The Roles of Gender, Age, Emotional Involvement, and Attachment Style
Authors: Davis Deborah , Shaver Phillip R. , Vernon Michael L.
Published: July 2003

Associations between gender, age, emotional involvement, and attachment style and reactions to romantic relationship dissolution were studied in a survey of more than 5,000 Internet respondents. It was hypothesized that individual reactions to breakups would be congruent with characteristic attachment behaviors and affect-regulation strategies generally associated with attachment style. Attachment-related anxiety was associated with greater preoccupation with the lost partner, greater perseveration over the loss, more extreme physical and emotional distress, exaggerated attempts to reestablish the relationship, partner-related sexual motivation, angry and vengeful behavior, interference with exploratory activities, dysfunctional coping strategies, and disordered resolution. Attachment-related avoidance was weakly and negatively associated with most distress/proximity-seeking reactions to breakups and strongly and positively associated with avoidant and self-reliant coping strategies. Security (low scores on the anxiety and avoidance dimensions) was associated with social coping strategies (e.g., using friends and family as “safe havens”). Attachment insecurity, particularly anxiety, was associated with using drugs and alcohol to cope with loss.
Narcissists as “Victims”: The Role of Narcissism in the Perception of Transgressions
Authors: McCullough Michael E. , Emmons Robert A. , Kilpatrick Shelley Dean , Mooney Courtney N.
Published: July 2003

Narcissism is a set of traits that are motivated by the desire to establish and maintain a grandiose self-image. Consistent with this conceptualization, the authors hypothesized that narcissistic people perceive themselves to be the victims of other people's inter-personal transgressions more frequently than do less narcissistic people. In a 14-day diary study, the authors found that narcissism (particularly in its exploitiveness/entitlement dimension) was associated positively with the number and frequency of transgressions that respondents reported. The narcissism-victimization relationship appears to result, at least in part, from biased recall or self-presentation. The exploitiveness/entitlement dimension of narcissism may be particularly useful for explaining why narcissistic people report higher rates of interpersonal transgressions in their daily lives.
Mechanisms of Self-Control Failure: Motivation and Limited Resources
Authors: Muraven Mark , Slessareva Elisaveta
Published: July 2003

Research has found that individuals who are lower in self-control strength because of previous self-control exertions perform more poorly on subsequent tests of self-control. The present studies suggest that this effect may be moderated by motivation. In particular, depletion and motivation jointly determine self-control performance. Individuals who were depleted and believed that the task would help others (Experiment 1) or believed that their efforts could benefit them (Experiment 2) performed better on a subsequent test of self-control than individuals who were depleted and lower in motivation. The results of Experiment 3 replicated these findings and suggested that depletion only affects performance on tasks that require self-control; tasks that are difficult but do not require self-control are immune to the effects of depletion. Hence, depleted individuals may compensate for their lack of self-control resources when sufficiently motivated. The results may help explain the nature of self-control strength.
Identification and the Commitment Shift: Accounting for Gender Differences in Relationship Illusions
Authors: Gagné Faby M. , Lydon John E.
Published: July 2003

Previous work revealed gender differences in relationship illusions. Women, and not men, perceived their dating partners more favorably than their partners' self-perceptions. In two studies, the authors replicated these findings and showed they are moderated by relationship commitment but not by relationship satisfaction. Dating men low in commitment devalued their partners' virtues, whereas those high in commitment exaggerated their partners' virtues compared to their partners' self-perceptions. In contrast, dating women showed relationship illusions irrespective of their commitment. In Study 2, similar results were obtained with relationship-specific identification. Moreover, men's commitment mediated the effect of identification with the relationship. This suggests that gender differences in relationship identities exist at a general level and that men need to identify with and then commit to a specific relationship before they exhibit pro-relationship thinking, which women exhibit as general dispositions.
Self-Esteem Maintenance Processes: Why Low Self-Esteem may be Resistant to Change
Authors: Josephs Robert A. , Bosson Jennifer K. , Jacobs Christopher G.
Published: July 2003

If most people desire to maximize feelings of self-worth, how do we explain the persistence of low self-esteem? Results from four studies suggest that people with low self-esteem may be less likely to accept positive feedback from themselves than from an outside source but equally likely to accept negative feedback from the self and an outsider. When the self was the source of positive feedback, people high, but not low, in self-esteem incorporated the feedback into their self-views; in contrast, when positive feedback came from a knowledgeable external source, both high and low self-esteem people accepted it. Finally, when self-generated feedback was negative, participants low in self-esteem accepted it. The authors discuss how these findings shed light on the maintenance of low self-esteem.
Computerized Adaptive Testing With Item Cloning
Authors: Glas Cees A. W. , van der Linden Wim J.
Published: July 2003

To increase the number of items available for adaptive testing and reduce the cost of item writing, the use of techniques of item cloning has been proposed. An important consequence of item cloning is possible variability between the item parameters. To deal with this variability, a multilevel item response (IRT) model is presented which allows for differences between the distributions of item parameters of families of item clones. A marginal maximum likelihood and a Bayesian procedure for estimating the hyperparameters are presented. In addition, an item-selection procedure for computerized adaptive testing with item cloning is presented which has the following two stages: First, a family of item clones is selected to be optimal at the estimate of the person parameter. Second, an item is randomly selected from the family for administration. Results from simulation studies based on an item pool from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) illustrate the accuracy of these item pool calibration and adaptive testing procedures. Index terms: computerized adaptive testing, item cloning, multilevel item response theory, marginal maximum likelihood, Bayesian item selection.
Further Investigation of the Performance of S - X2: An Item Fit Index for Use With Dichotomous Item Response Theory Models
Authors: Orlando Maria , Thissen David
Published: July 2003

This study presents new findings on the utility of S - X2 as an item fit index for dichotomous item response theory models. Results are based on a simulation study in which item responses were generated and calibrated for 100 tests under each of 27 conditions. The item fit indices S - X2 and Q1 - X2 were calculated for each item. ROC curves were constructed based on the hit and false alarm rates of the two indices. Examination of these curves indicated that in general, the performance of S - X2 improved with test length and sample size. The performance of S - X2 was superior to that of Q1 - X2 under most but not all conditions. Results from this study imply that S - X2 may be a useful tool in detecting the misfit of one item contained in an otherwise well-fitted test, lending additional support to the utility of the index for use with dichotomous item response theory models. Index Terms: item response theory, S - X2, Q1 - X, model = data fit, item fit index.
TAP: Test Analysis Program
Authors: Brooks Gordon P. , Johanson George A.
Published: July 2003

Courses in introductory educational measurement are often hampered by the lack of computer programs by which to analyze test data. To be sure, computer software exists (e.g., SPSS, SAS, Iteman) that performs these analyses; however, these programs come at a high cost and are not designed for instructional use. As a result, many practicing teachers who take the introductory educational measurement course learn about reliability and item analysis but are not able to continue to use these skills after the course ends. The Test Analysis Program (TAP), written in Borland Delphi Professional Version 6.0, performs classical test and item analyses under Windows 9x/NT/XP. In addition to performing test analyses, the TAP software includes certain features that will assist instructors of educational measurement in the classroom.
Genetic Testing and its Implications: Human Genetics Researchers Grapple with Ethical Issues
Authors: Rabino Isaac
Published: July 2003

To better understand ethical issues involved in the field of human genetics and promote debate within the scientific community, the author surveyed scientists who engage in human genetics research about the pros, cons, and ethical implications of genetic testing. This study contributes systematic data on attitudes of scientific experts. The survey finds respondents are highly supportive of voluntary testing and the right to know one's genetic heritage. The majority consider in utero testing and consequent pregnancy termination acceptable for cases involving likelihood of serious disease but disapprove for genetic reasons they consider arbitrary, leaving a gray area of distinguishing between treatment of disorders and enhancement still to be resolved. While safeguarding patient confidentiality versus protecting at-risk third parties (kin, reproductive partners) presents a dilemma, preserving privacy from misuse by institutional third parties (employers, insurers) garners strong consensus for legislation against discrimination. Finally, a call is made for greater genetic literacy.
Measuring Multiple Dimensions of Religion and Spirituality for Health Research
Authors: Idler Ellen L. , Musick Marc A. , Ellison Christopher G. , George Linda K. , Krause Neal , Ory Marcia G. , Pargament Kenneth I. , Powell Lynda H. , Underwood Lynn G. , Williams David R.
Published: July 2003

Progress in studying the relationship between religion and health has been hampered by the absence of an adequate measure of religiousness and spirituality. This article reports on the conceptual and empirical development of an instrument to measure religiousness and spirituality, intended explicitly for studies of health. It is multidimensional to allow investigation of multiple possible mechanisms of effect, brief enough to be included in clinical or epidemiological surveys, inclusive of both traditional religiousness and noninstitutionally based spirituality, and appropriate for diverse Judeo-Christian populations. The measure may be particularly useful for studies of health in elderly populations in which religious involvement is higher. The measure was tested in the nationally representative 1998 General Social Survey ( N = 1,445). Nine dimensions have indices with moderate-to-good internal consistency, and there are three single-item domains. Analysis by age and sex shows that elderly respondents report higher levels of religiousness in virtually every domain of the measure.
Coresidence between Unmarried Aging Parents and their Adult Children
Authors: Choi Namkee G.
Published: July 2003

Data from the 1993 to 1995 waves of the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old were used to analyze unmarried elderly parents' and children's characteristics associated with their respective self-reported reasons for coresidence: always lived together, to help the child, to help the parent, or to help both. As compared to the parents in the always-lived-together pairs, parents as the help receivers were older, had more health problems, and were more likely to have moved in with an older, married child. Children as the help recipients were more likely to be sons than daughters and less likely to work or make a financial contribution to the household. Parents in the mutual-help group were more likely to have higher education and to have been divorced, separated, or never married than to be widowed, and the children were more likely to be married. Parental gender and race/ethnicity were not significant factors.
Financial Markets and Politics: The Confidence Game in Latin American Emerging Economies
Authors: Martínez Juan , Santiso Javier
Published: July 2003

This article focuses on the interactions between politics and financial markets in emerging economies. More precisely, it examines how Wall Street reacts to major Latin American political events. The case study focuses on the 2002 Brazilian presidential elections. The first section of the article provides a critical review of the available literature. The second section presents an empirical study of Wall Street analysts' perceptions of the 2002 presidential elections in Brazil, based on reports produced by leading Wall Street investment firms. The final section uses polling and financial data from previous Brazilian elections to place the events of 2002 in comparative historical perspective.
Information Technology and the Governance of Social Security
Authors: Henman Paul , Adler Michael
Published: July 2003

Recent welfare state developments have emphasized the structure, administration and governance of service delivery. In critically examining these developments, this article advances a governmentality approach to the welfare state that highlights the significance of technology in contributing to the nature and practices of the welfare state. Based on a comparative study of computerization in the social security systems of 13 OECD countries, it demonstrates that information technologies have generally increased the control of staff and claimants by management rather than empowered them.
Regulating the Commercial Development of Genetic Testing in the UK: Problems, Possibilities and Policy
Authors: Martin Paul , Frost Robert
Published: July 2003

Genetic testing promises to revolutionize health care. This article describes the development of genetic testing in the UK and the first attempts to commercially exploit this technology. It then examines the way in which testing has been governed by both the medical profession and the state, and analyses the main unresolved issues for public policy. We argue that the full range of social policy issues raised by genetic testing can only be understood by including the activities of firms in the analysis. Furthermore, attention needs to be paid to the way in which a series of distinct markets for genetic testing is being constructed and the role that public policy is playing in shaping these technologies, applications and markets. Finally, recommendations for policy and some reflections on the relationship between social policy and technical change are offered.
Digitizing Surveillance: Categorization, Space, Inequality
Authors: Graham Stephen , Wood David
Published: July 2003

In this article, we seek to add to current debates about surveillance and society by critically exploring the social implications of a new and emerging raft of surveillance practices: those that specifically surround digital techniques and technologies. The article has four parts. In the first, we outline the nature of digital surveillance and consider how it differs from other forms of surveillance. The second part of the article explores the interconnections between digital techniques and the changing political economies of cities and urban societies. Here we explore the essential ambivalence of digital surveillance within the context of wider trends towards privatization, liberalization and social polarization. The third part provides some insights into particular aspects of digital surveillance through three examples: algorithmic video surveillance (in which closed circuit television systems are linked to software for the recognition of movement or identity); the increasingly prevalent practices of digital prioritization in transport and communications; and the medical surveillance of populations, wherein databases are created for increasingly mixed state and commercial medical purposes. Following this, in part four, we reflect on the policy and research implications raised by the spread of digital surveillance.
Articulating Gender in the Context of ICTs in Health Care: The Case of Electronic Patient Records in the Maternity Services
Authors: Henwood Flis , Hart Angie
Published: July 2003

The article explores the articulation of gender in the context of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in health care. It explores how gender symbolism, gender structures and gender identities combine to produce what may be perceived as `resistance' to the development of electronic patient records (EPRs) in the maternity services. In particular, midwives define their work in opposition to computers, seeing IT work as antithetical to the core `woman-centred' philosophy of midwifery. The article argues that for ICTs to be used to improve both patient care and the skills and working lives of health care practitioners (as in New Labour's vision for the modern NHS), a far more detailed understanding of that care and those working lives is needed. The IT midwife is offered as a key figure in overcoming the gendered boundaries that exist between the IT and midwifery worlds. A case is made for this role to be expanded and supported to enable both sides to move beyond their traditional spheres to engage in the `co-production' of EPR systems that are acceptable to the maternity services staff and clients.
E-Galitarianism? The Information Society and New Labour's Repositioning of Welfare
Authors: Hudson John
Published: July 2003

In recent years, claims that epochal shifts in the socioeconomic landscape demand a reappraisal of the welfare state have become almost commonplace and postmodern, post-Fordist and postindustrial perspectives on the welfare state have all found a place in academic literature. However, while each of these discourses has noted the role of technological change in enabling the emergence of new societal models, in general the significance of such change for social policies has been overlooked. This article argues that there are significant connections between notions of a technologically driven information society and New Labour's vision for welfare. In support of this claim it considers New Labour's outlook on the role of the state in contemporary society and some of the specific policy mechanisms being put in place to help ease the `transition' to an `information age' and offers the notion of `e-galitarianism' as a label for their approach.
Media Policy Paradigm Shifts
Authors: van Cuilenburg Jan , McQuail Denis
Published: July 2003

This article deals with communications and media policy paradigms. In the US and Western Europe three paradigmatic phases of communications and media policy may be distinguished: the paradigm of emerging communications industry policy (until the Second World War); the paradigm of public service media policy (1945-1980/90); and the current phase (from 1980/90 onwards) in which a new policy paradigm is searched for. In Phase I, communications and media policy primarily referred to the emerging technologies of telegraph, telephony and wireless. Communications policy in that era was mainly pursued for reasons of state interest and financial corporate benefits. After the Second World War, media policy was dominated by sociopolitical rather than economic or national strategic concerns. In this paradigmatic phase, lasting until 1980/90, the ideal of public service broadcasting was at its height, notably in Western Europe. From 1980 onwards, however, technological, economic and social trends fundamentally changed the context of media policy. In many countries, governments opted for policies of breaking monopolies in media and communications and privatizing as much as possible. The old normative media policies have been challenged and policy-makers are searching for a new communications policy paradigm. In this new paradigm, there seems to be a shift in the balance of component political, social and economic values that shape the definition of the public interest that media and communications supposedly serve. The authors conclude by sketching the core principles of the new communications policy paradigm that currently seems to be emerging.
Discourses on Communication Technologies in Canadian and European Broadcasting Policy Debates
Authors: Young David
Published: July 2003

There have been growing similarities between broadcasting issues in Canada and Europe. Some issues, including the emergence of private broadcasting and concerns about American broadcasting, became prominent in Europe decades after they were evident in Canada. In both contexts, historical and contemporary debates about broadcasting issues have been tied to three discourses on communication technologies. This article contends that broadcasting policy debates in Canada and Europe can usefully be interpreted through a theoretical model that addresses technological determinism, technological democracy and technological nationalism. The model places the discourses in the context of struggles between dominant agents (private companies, governments or supranational institutions) and subordinate agents (including various social movements). The model shows how connections between the discourses help to secure the hegemony of powerful groups. However, the model also identifies contradictions within the discourses and compromises involving the discourses. Both are associated with opposition from less powerful groups.
Research Note: The Launch of the Euro in the Italian Media
Authors: Triandafyllidou Anna
Published: July 2003

This article has a double aim. Taking as a case study the Italian media coverage on the launch of the common European currency, it shows how the meaning of a public event is defined in different ways by different media (television channels and newspapers of different political orientation). The second aim of this article is to analyse how the media elaborate national understandings of the European Union while also redefining national identity and images of the nation by means of incorporating European/EU elements into them. The Italian media discourse offers an interesting case study as national policy, public attitudes and political discourse in that country have been consistently pro-EU in the past decades. However, this article seeks to steer clear from facile claims that public discourse in a given country is clearly pro- or anti-EU. Using the tools of qualitative discourse analysis, it casts light on the complexity and ambiguity of public discourse. The material analysed includes the coverage of the Euro launch by five newspapers and two television channels in the period between 30 December 2001 and 3 January 2002.
Law, Political Reconstruction and Constitutional Politics
Authors: Arjomand Saïd Amir
Published: July 2003

The purpose of this introductory article is to put the constitutional reconstruction that followed the collapse of Communism in 1989 in historical and macrosociological perspective. The `new constitutionalism' is considered the novel feature of the post-1989 transition to democracy, and is analytically contrasted with the old constitutionalism and the classic idea of rule of law, and with the ideological constitution-making of the intervening era. The role of constitutional courts as the typical institution of the new constitutionalism is highlighted. The concept of `constitutional politics' is developed to throw light on the process of political reconstruction, and the variation in its interface with the law is considered along a spectrum ranging from the `judicialization of politics' to the `politicization of the judiciary'. Contemporary constitutional regimes are compared with respect to their distance from ideological politico-legal regimes, the extent to which the emergency powers of the head of the state creates a situation of `dual legality', and in terms of the contribution of their major institutions to the transition to democracy.
A Globalizing Constitutionalism?
Authors: Go Julian
Published: July 2003

This article uses primary data from the constitutional texts of 91 postcolonial nations (over the course of the latter part of the 20th century) to question the effects of global political norms upon documentary constitutionalism. The independence constitutions were strongly influenced by intra-imperial and transnational lines of circulation, but not global ones. They were differentiated by former empire, religion and political-economic ideology. A significant change came about during the 1990s, when most of these original constitutions were rewritten or replaced. The newer constitutions are more isomorphic than before, indicating the global influence of democratization, human rights ideology and economic neoliberalism. On the other hand, this process of homogenization has been tempered by two countervailing processes: constitutional complexification and differentiation. These processes produce syncretic forms within and across constitutions. They reveal that divergence can unfold concomitantly with, rather than in spite of, constitutional convergence.
Postcolonial Collages: Distributions of Power and Constitutional Models
Authors: Klug Heinz
Published: July 2003

The wave of post-Cold War state reconstruction was marked in its reliance on the adoption of new constitutions as the marker of a state's transition to a new order. Whether at the beginning or end of the process, or as the central theme, as was the case in South Africa, post-Cold War constitutions came to reflect a common core of principles and institutions, despite the often nationalist tone surrounding their creation. This article argues that these constitutions both reflect a dominant post-Cold War international political culture and yet rely on their own histories and reconstruction processes to create hybrid forms to address local conditions. This process involves a specific politics, in which models - such as the US Constitution - are either used as models or anti-models, and results in the creation of a postcolonial collage of constitutional mechanisms and institutions that might offer an opportunity to achieve the democratic outcomes which have so often eluded postcolonial countries.
The Role of Constitutional Courts in the Transition to Democracy
Authors: Sólyom László
Published: July 2003

The transition to democracy has been the matrix of three generations of European constitutional courts. Their power to review laws in abstracto has been the basis of the activism of these courts and their self-conscious relationship with the legislature. The third generation, the post-Communist constitutional courts, are distinguished by the fact that they were born into the global constitutional movement, which has determined their rapid reception of international standards and legal solutions and strong mutual cooperation. The article focuses on the inevitable problems of such transition - retroactive criminal legislation, lustration and compensation of victims - elucidating the grounds of the decision by the Hungarian Constitutional Court to weigh legal certainty against substantive justice. Third-generation constitutional courts typically returned to the Kelsenian model of abstract norm control but developed cooperation with the legislature, and turned their role of `negative legislator' into pronouncing positive rules, especially in Hungary. The Hungarian Constitutional Court has also managed to extend constitutional interpretation to the ordinary courts by reviewing the `living law', that is the law as applied by the courts. Finally, the article points to the importance of access by citizens to the constitutional court for popular acceptance of the new constitutional order.
Parliament and the Political Class in the Constitutional Reconstruction of Poland
Authors: Kurczewski Jacek
Published: July 2003

The article outlines the political history of new democratic constitution-making in Poland since 1989 and scrutinizes the paradox that it took longer than in other former Communist countries. Two areas of debate are compared: first, the division of powers between various branches of government, legislature and judiciary, and second, the variety of rights proclaimed by the constitution and their judicability. Once inner conflict within the ruling elite had been settled, the compromise on the values and rights was reached quickly and a weak but extensive version of the rights had been offered to citizens in exchange for approval of the new constitution in a nationwide referendum in 1997. The process illustrates the duality of the constitutional arrangements - the `inner' version addressing the political class and the `outer' for the wider society.
Moral Definitions of Constitutionalism in East Central Europe
Authors: Skąpska Grażyna
Published: July 2003

In this article the approaches to past gross human rights violations are analysed as moral foundations of post-dictatorial or post-totalitarian constitutionalism. The theoretical perspective adopted stresses the discursive elaboration of the past as a means of legitimization for the new political system, and as justification of institutionalized approaches towards the perpetrators and instigators. In light of this, the author investigates the political and cultural discourses, trying to answer the question concerning the great differences among institutional reactions towards past human rights violations in Eastern and Central Europe.
A Framework for Real-time Path Planning in Changing Environments
Authors: Leven Peter , Hutchinson Seth
Published: July 2003

We present a new method for generating collision-free paths for robots operating in changing environments. Our approach is closely related to recent probabilistic roadmap approaches. These planners use preprocessing and query stages, and are aimed at planning many times in the same environment. In contrast, our preprocessing stage creates a representation of the configuration space that can be easily modified in real time to account for changes in the environment, thus facilitating real-time planning. As with previous approaches, we begin by constructing a graph that represents a roadmap in the configuration space, but we do not construct this graph for a specific workspace. Instead, we construct the graph for an obstacle-free workspace, and encode the mapping from workspace cells to nodes and arcs in the graph. When the environment changes, this mapping is used to make the appropriate modifications to the graph, and plans can be generated by searching the modified graph.

In this paper, we first discuss the construction of the roadmap, including how random samples of the configuration space are generated using an importance sampling approach and how these samples are connected to form the roadmap. We then discuss the mapping from the workspace to the configuration space roadmap, explaining how the mapping is generated and how it can be encoded efficiently using compression schemes that exploit redundancy in the mapping. We then introduce quantitative robustness measures and show how these can be used to enhance the robustness of the roadmap to changes in the environment. Finally, we evaluate an implementation of our approach for serial-link manipulators with up to 20 joints.
Locomotion of a Two-Dimensional Walking-Climbing Robot Using A Closed-Loop Mechanism: From Gait Generation to Navigation
Authors: Chen I- Ming , Yeo Song Huat
Published: July 2003

We investigate the locomotion of a surface-walking/climbing robot, the Planar Walker, based on a novel planar eight-bar closed-loop mechanism. The robot can produce inchworm-like movements in two orthogonal directions and can rotate about itself. The locomotion mechanism to achieve such motions comprises four two-way linear cylinders forming a deformable quadrilateral and four two-way gripper modules. Decoupled transverse gaits and turning gaits of the robot with finite lengths and finite rotation angles are obtained through the actuation of linear cylinders and grippers. Actuation sequences of the cylinders and grippers for different types of gaits are modeled using finite state machines. The kinematics of the gaits are described using planar rigid motion group SE(2). When a series of gaits are executed, the robot follows a non-smooth segmented trajectory. Based on this feature, three point-to-point navigation methods are developed for various scenarios: the Simple Line of Sight (SLS) algorithm, the Simulated Annealing based Accurate Planning (SAAP) algorithm, and the Localized Hybrid Accurate Planning (LHAP) algorithm. Computer simulation shows that the SAAP algorithm produces accurate gait sequences and the LHAP algorithm saves computation time and resources for long-range targets. However, experimental results show that the inherent positional errors in individual gait movements can be substantial when accumulated and can render a particular algorithm less effective.
Contact Stiffness and Damping Estimation for Robotic Systems
Authors: Erickson D. , Weber M. , Sharf I.
Published: July 2003

In this paper, we review and compare four algorithms for the identification of contact stiffness and damping during robot constrained motion. The intended application is dynamics modeling and simulation of robotic assembly operations in space. Accurate simulation of these tasks requires contact dynamics models, which in turn use contact stiffness and damping to calculate contact forces. Hence, our primary interest in identifying contact parameters stems from their use as inputs to simulation software with contact dynamics capability. Estimates of environmental stiffness and damping are also valuable for force tracking and stability of impedance controllers. The algorithms considered in this work include: a signal processing method, an indirect adaptive controller with modifications to identify environment damping, a model reference adaptive controller and a recursive least-squares estimation technique. The last three methods have been proposed for real-time implementation in impedance and force-tracking controllers. The signal processing scheme uses a frequency estimate calculated with fast Fourier transform of the force signal and is an off-line method. The algorithms are first evaluated using numerical simulation of a benchmark test. Experiments conducted with a robotic arm contacting a flexible wall provide a further demonstration of their performance. Our results indicate that the indirect adaptive controller has the best combination of performance and ease of use. In addition, the effect of persistently exciting signals is discussed.
A Framework for Steering Dynamic Robotic Locomotion Systems
Authors: McIsaac Kenneth A. , Ostrowski James P.
Published: July 2003

We seek to formulate control and motion planning algorithms for a class of dynamic robotic locomotion systems. We consider mechanical systems that involve some type of interaction with the environment and have dynamics that possess rotational and translational symmetries. Research in non-holonomic systems and geometric mechanics has led to a single, simplified framework that describes this class of systems. In this paper, we explore a hybrid systems approach to generating motion plans for systems of this type. We perform a dynamic analysis of the system to find a small set of periodic control inputs for momentum generation in desired directions. We then find a simplified, kinematic model which captures the fundamental nature of the locomotion system and we use this abstract model for motion planning. This approach is inherently modular, since broad classes of locomotion systems can be described by the same kinematic approximation. In this paper, we describe the application of such an approach to two examples: the snakeboard robot and an eel-like, underwater robot.
People Tracking with Mobile Robots Using Sample-Based Joint Probabilistic Data Association Filters
Authors: Schulz Dirk , Burgard Wolfram , Fox Dieter , Cremers Armin B.
Published: July 2003

One of the goals in the field of mobile robotics is the development of mobile platforms which operate in populated environments. For many tasks it is therefore highly desirable that a robot can track the positions of the humans in its surrounding. In this paper we introduce sample-based joint probabilistic data association filters as a new algorithm to track multiple moving objects. Our method applies Bayesian filtering to adapt the tracking process to the number of objects in the perceptual range of the robot. The approach has been implemented and tested on a real robot using laser-range data. We present experiments illustrating that our algorithm is able to robustly keep track of multiple people. The experiments furthermore show that the approach outperforms other techniques developed so far.
Recognizing Retro-Reflectors with an Obliquely-Oriented Multi-Point Sonar and Acoustic Flow
Authors: Kuc Roman
Published: July 2003

This paper applies acoustic principles and a novel scanning method motivated by acoustic flow to recognize retro-reflectors directly from sonar echoes while performing drive-by scanning. Right-angle corners and cylinders form specular retro-reflectors that produce strong echoes whose features can be easily identified. A multi-point sonar produces a point process whose density encodes the echo amplitude and allows strong echoes to be isolated. In drive-by scanning an obliquely-oriented sonar beam passes over a retro-reflector which then exhibits a sequence of strong echoes having a pattern predicted by a forward model. Drive-by scans of a simple retro-reflector, a complex hallway environment and distant objects illustrate the method. An algorithm recognizes and localizes the retro-reflector by performing a two-dimensional search to find coordinates producing range readings matching the data in a weighted-least-squared error sense. A conventional Polaroid 6500 ranging module produced 5,000 sonar points in a drive-by scan of a hallway, which the algorithm converted into six corner locations. Interfering reflectors were detected by large deviations from the predicted template. Echoes from occluded retro-reflectors up to 7 m range were analyzed. Recognizing objects directly from echoes extends sonar sensing from data acquisition to landmark identification for robot navigation.
Social Capital: Recent Debates and Research Trends
Authors: Adam Frane , Rončević Borut
Published: July 2003

The aim of this article is not only to provide an overview of the state of recent discussion about the concept of social capital, it is also an attempt at critical reflection on theoretical and empirical research efforts. The question is whether the concept of social capital is a fashionable (and short-lived) term proposed as a cure-all for the maladies affecting contemporary communities, organizations and societies as a whole or whether it has more long-term strategic - theoretical as well as applicable - meaning for sociology and other social-science disciplines. Despite the deficiencies of the recent research findings, we argue that the latter is true. The concept represents a very important conceptual innovation which can facilitate the theoretical integration within sociology and the inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration of sociology and other disciplines, especially economics. The article emphasizes the problems of reception, definition and operationalization, and the developmental role of social capital.
A Propos de l'Économie Kantienne
Authors: Ballet Jerôme , Jolivet Patrick
Published: July 2003

Kantian moral philosophy has become a reference sometimes invoked in economics as an example of a solution to the problem of co-ordinating agents. The present article provides a critical overview of the literature. Kantian economics refers to a set of principles that are more or less related to Kant's moral philosophy. The first in the set is the principle of generalization. It is the foundation of an ordinary Kantism. The distinction between the principle of generalization and the principle of reciprocity underscores the importance of the principle of unconditionality. Finally, the notion of commitment is closer to this philosophy, but used in a broader sense. It can give rise to different interpretations.
The Dimension of Social Solidarity in Distributive Justice
Authors: Sabbagh Clara
Published: July 2003

Some normative and empirically based theories conceptualize distributive justice as principles of social action which are characterized by their universal validity, while others see these principles as being local or socially constructed. I discuss these contrasting approaches while arguing that social contexts are a substantive and integral component in the definition of distributive justice. The conceptual framework offered here maps five main attributes of social contexts which, according to the literature, shape justice principles (goals and motives, object of perception, relating to the other, affective climate and type of exchanged resource). It reconsiders these attributes in a more comprehensive way as different aspects of a common dimension, namely, the dimension of social solidarity.