Psychology

In this paper we o¤er a new theory of religious organizations. Our theory links between two important aspects of religion: individual beliefs about the causality between private actions their and consequences, and the social aspects of religious practices. The model has three main ingredients: (i) a social interaction game; (ii) heterogeneous beliefs about the statistical relation between private actions in the game and uncertain events that a¤ect individual's utility; (iii) observable actions (interpreted as rituals) that allow religious individuals to identify themselves.

The credible identification of endogenous peer group effects-i.e. social multiplier or feedback effects-has long eluded social scientists. We argue that such effects are most credibly identified by a randomly assigned social program which operates at differing intensities within and between peer groups. The data we use are from Project STAR, a class size reduction experiment conducted in Tennessee elementary schools. In these data, classes were comprised of varying fractions of students who had previously been exposed to the Small class treatment, creating class groupings of varying experimentally induced quality. We use this variation in class group quality to estimate the spillover effect. We find that when allowance is made for this 'feedback' effect of prior exposure to the Small class treatment, the peer effects account for much of the total experimental effects in the later grades, and the direct class size effects are rendered substantially smaller.

Recent work in behavioral animation has taken impressive steps toward autonomous, self-animating characters for use in production animation and interactive games. It remains difficult, however, to direct autonomous characters to perform specific tasks. This paper addresses the challenge by introducing cognitive modeling. Cognitive models go beyond behavioral models in that they govern what a character knows, how that knowledge is acquired, and how it can be used to plan actions. To help build cognitive models, we develop the cognitive modeling language CML. Using CML, we can imbue a character with domain knowledge, elegantly specified in terms of actions, their preconditions and their effects, and then direct the character's behavior in terms of goals. Our approach allows behaviors to be specified more naturally and intuitively, more succinctly and at a much higher level of abstraction than would otherwise be possible. With cognitively empowered characters, the animator need only specify a behavior outline or "sketch plan" and, through reasoning, the character will automatically work out a detailed sequence of actions satisfying the specification. We exploit interval methods to integrate sensing into our underlying theoretical framework, thus enabling our autonomous characters to generate action plans even in highly complex, dynamic virtual worlds. We demonstrate cognitive modeling applications in advanced character animation and automated cinematography.

Animation through the numerical simulation of physicsbased graphics models offers unsurpassed realism, but it can be computationally demanding. Likewise, the search for controllers that enable physics-based models to produce desired animations usually entails formidable computational cost. This paper demonstrates the possibility of replacing the numerical simulation and control of dynamic models with a dramatically more efficient alternative. In particular, we propose the NeuroAnimator, a novel approach to creating physically realistic animation that exploits neural networks. NeuroAnimators are automatically trained off-line to emulate physical dynamics through the observation of physicsbased models in action. Depending on the model, its neural network emulator can yield physically realistic animation one or two orders of magnitude faster than conventional numerical simulation. Furthermore, by exploiting the network structure of the NeuroAnimator, we introduce a fast algorithm for learning controllers that enables either physics-based models or their neural network emulators to synthesize motions satisfying prescribed animation goals. We demonstrate NeuroAnimators for a variety of physics-based models.

We present a learning technique that automatically synthesizes realistic locomotion for the animation of physics-based models of animals. The method is especially suitable for animals with highly flexible, many-degree-of-freedom bodies and a considerable number of internal muscle actuators, such as snakes and fish. The multilevel learning process first performs repeated locomotion trials in search of actuator control functions that produce efficient locomotion, presuming virtually nothing about the form of these functions. Applying a short-time Fourier analysis, the learning process then abstracts control functions that produce effective locomotion into a compact representation which makes explicit the natural quasi-periodicities and coordination of the muscle actions. The artificial animals can finally put into practice the compact, efficient controllers that they have learned. Their locomotion learning abilities enable them to accomplish higher-level tasks specified by the animator while guided by sensory perception of their virtual world; e.g., locomotion to a visible target. We demonstrate physics-based animation of learned locomotion in dynamic models of land snakes, fishes, and even marine mammals that have trained themselves to perform "SeaWorld" stunts.

The goals of this paper are two-fold: (i) to present our initial efforts towards the realization of a fully autonomous sensor network of dynamic video cameras capable of providing perceptive coverage of a large public space, and (ii) to further the cause of exploiting visually and behaviorally realistic virtual environments in the development and testing of machine vision systems. In particular, our proposed sensor network employs techniques that enable a collection of active (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras to collaborate in performing various visual surveillance tasks, such as keeping one or more pedestrians within view, with minimal reliance on a human operator. The network features local and global autonomy and lacks any central controller, which entails robustness and scalability. Its functionality is the result of local decision-making capabilities at each camera node and communication between the nodes. We demonstrate our surveillance system in a virtual train station environment populated by autonomous, lifelike virtual pedestrians. Our readily reconfigurable virtual cameras generate synthetic video feeds that emulate those generated by real surveillance cameras monitoring public spaces. This type of research would be difficult in the real world given the costs of deploying and experimenting with an appropriately complex camera network in a large public space the size of a train station.

Natural images are the composite consequence of multiple factors related to scene structure, illumination, and imaging. For facial images, the factors include different facial geometries, expressions, head poses, and lighting conditions. We apply multilinear algebra, the algebra of higherorder tensors, to obtain a parsimonious representation of facial image ensembles which separates these factors. Our representation, called TensorFaces, yields improved facial recognition rates relative to standard eigenfaces.

While it is well-known that faces provide linguistically relevant information during communication, most efforts to identify the visual correlates of the acoustic signal have focused on the shape, position and luminance of the oral aperture. In this work, we extend the analysis to full facial motion under the assumption that the process of producing speech acoustics generates linguistically salient visual information, which is distributed over large portions of the face. Support for this is drawn from our recent studies of the eye movements of perceivers during a variety of audiovisual speech perception tasks. These studies suggest that perceivers detect visual information at low spatial frequencies and that such information may not be restricted to the region of the oral aperture. Since the biomechanical linkage between the facial and vocal tract systems is one of close proximity and shared physiology, we propose that physiological models of speech and facial motion be integrated into one audiovisual model of speech production. In addition to providing a coherent account of audiovisual motor control, the proposed model could become a useful experimental tool, providing synthetic audiovisual stimuli with realistic control parameters.

For a market with an atomless continuum of assets, we formulate the intuitive idea of a ''well-diversified'' portfolio, and present a notion of ''exact arbitrage'', strictly weaker than the more conventional notion of ''asymptotic arbitrage'', and necessary and sufficient for the validity of an APT pricing formula. Our formula involves ''essential'' risk, one based on a specific index portfolio constructed from factors and factor loadings that are endogenously extracted to satisfy an optimality property involving a finite number of factors. We illustrate how our results can be translated to markets with a large but finite number of assets. r , pp. 173-197] for a discussion of naive and efficient diversification. We note here that there is no uniform terminology in the literature. For example, the terms non-diversifiable risk and diversifiable risk used here for the CAPM are also called systematic risk and unsystematic risk in . On the other hand, systematic risk and unsystematic risk used here for the APT model are also referred to as non-diversifiable and diversifiable risk in, for example, [37,38, pp. 116-120].

This paper contains additional details about the model in our paper "A Political Economy Model of Congressional Careers" (Diermeier, Keane and Merlo ), as well as the computational methods we use to solve and estimate the model, and the construction of the data set.

We explore natural and calm interfaces for configuring ubiquitous computing environments. A natural interface should enable the user to name a desired configuration and have the system enact that configuration. Users should be able to use familiar names for configurations without learning, which implies the mapping from names to configurations is many-to-one. Instead of users learning the environment's command language, the system simultaneously learns common configurations and infers the keywords that are most salient to them. We call this the SNAC problem (Simultaneous Naming and Configuration). As a case study, we contrast speech and GUI interfaces for workspace lighting control on a large array of individually-controllable lights. In our design process we have used a lo-fidelity text-based study, a speech-based training data collection study, an evaluation of the deployed live system and are conducting a longer evaluation of the deployed system.

In Active Capture applications, systems that direct human action, the system works with the user to achieve a common goal, for example, taking her picture and recording her name for inclusion on a department web page. The design of Active Capture applications draws from the areas of direction and cinematography, computer vision and audition, and human-computer interaction and results in a diverse design team. Without a

We experimentally test an endogenous-timing investment model in which subjects privately observe their cost of investing and a signal correlated with the common (but unobserved) investment return. Subjects overinvest, relative to the Nash benchmark. We can separately consider whether a subject infers from the other subject's investment, in hindsight, and whether a subject has the foresight to delay profitable investment and learn from market activity. In contrast to Nash, cursed equilibrium, and level-k predictions, behavior hardly changes across our experimental treatments. Our maximum likelihood estimates are inconsistent with belief-based theories. We offer an explanation in *

Software Design Laboratory is an undergraduate practicum in software design, which focuses on principles and practices of large-scale software design. Concepts and examples borrowed from elsewhere in Computer Science are applied to the construction of a significant project, namely a command interpreter resembling the Bourne shell. The course focus is on long-liveds oftware systems of a size requiring group effort. Wet herefore address maintenance, testing, documentation, code readability,version control, and group dynamics.

This note contains information about job search for DPhil graduates. The first -and longest --part is devoted to the American job market, a large organized clearing house that meets once a year. The second part covers the European market. The emphasis is on academic and research jobs, although useful information is also provided on nonresearch jobs in the internet section. A list of Oxford resources appears at the end, as well as references to journal articles on the job market for economists and the ranking of various departments.

The recent literature has shown that subjective welfare depends on relative income. Much of the existing evidence comes from developed economies. What remains unclear is whether this is a universal human trait or an artifact of a prosperous, marketoriented lifestyle. Using data from Nepal, a mountainous country where many households still live in relative isolation, we test whether poorer and more isolated households care less about relative consumption. We find that they do not. We investigate possible reasons for this. We reject that it is due to parental concerns regarding the marriage prospects of their children. But we find evidence in support of the reference point hypothesis put forth by psychologists: household heads having migrated out of their birth district still judge the adequacy of their consumption in comparison with households in their district of origin.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether students evidence better adjustment after a residential move if they have a high-quality friendship. In the fall and spring of a school year, students in the third (n = 331), sixth (n = 286), eighth (n = 256), eleventh (n = 172), and twelfth (n = 92) grades answered questions about the length of time they had been in their school district, the features of their best friendship, and their feelings of scholastic competence and social acceptance. Teachers and peers also provided information on students' adjustment. Students who in the fall of the school year had been in their school district for less than four months showed less positive academic and social adjustment than students who had been there longer. The adjustment of students who had been in their school district for more than four months did not vary according to how long they had been in their current school. Also, for students who had been in their school district for two or more years, having a friendship that was high in positive features in the fall contributed to increases in report-card grades and in teacher-reported social skills, and decreases in peer-reported problem behaviors, over the school year. The reverse was true for students who had been in their school district for less than four months in the fall. Finally, students whose best friendships were high in negative features in the fall were rated by their teachers as decreasing in their academic competence and social skills over the course of the school year.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether adolescents were more similar to their best friend in their perceived and actual academic adjustment when they spent more time with their best friend in various activities. Seventh graders (n = 177) and tenth graders (n = 145) answered questions about their own and their best friends' positive involvement in school, disruptive behavior at school, report-card grades, and the amount of time spent in various activities with their best friend. Adolescents' adjustment was positively related to their perceptions of and to the actual adjustment of their best friend. Tenth graders spent more time socializing and in extracurricular activities with their best friend while seventh graders reported more participation in sports with their best friend. More time socializing with a best friend was related to having a more negative profile of academic adjustment, while adolescents who spent more time in schoolrelated and extracurricular activities with their best friend had a more positive academic profile. Few interactions of best friends' adjustment and time spent in activities with a best friend were significant predictors of seventh graders' adjustment. However, tenth graders viewed themselves as more similar in their disruptive behavior to that of their best friend when they did more schoolrelated and extracurricular activities with their best friend. By contrast, tenth graders were less similar to their best friend in their actual academic adjustment when they spent more time engaged in school-related and sports activities with that friend.

To investigate the effects on children and adolescents of relocation to a new school and community, more than 1,100 third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth graders were assessed in the fall and spring of a school year. All students had at least one parent who was in the U.S. Armed Forces. In the fall, some students had been in their current school district for less than 4 months; others had been in the district for 4-12 months or for a longer time. Students in the district less than four months showed poorer academic adjustment (e.g., lower report-card grades) than students who had been in the district for a longer time. New students also showed poorer social adjustment (e.g., less positive perceptions of their social acceptance) but not more problem behaviors than other students did. These findings suggest that academic adjustment to a new school normally takes a full academic year. Changes in social adjustment are more variable. Classmates reported improvements in newcomers' behavior during the school year, but even students who had been in the school district for 4-12 months perceived their social acceptance as lower than did students who have been in the district for more than two years.

"Simon Blackburn’s expressivist logic of attitudes aims to explain how we can use non-assertoric moral judgements in logically valid arguments. Patricia Marino has recently argued that Blackburn’s logic faces a dilemma: either it cannot account for the place of moral dilemmas in moral reasoning or, if it can, it makes an illicit distinction between two different kinds of moral dilemma. Her target is the logic’s definition of validity as satisfiability, according to which validity requires an avoidance of attitudinal inconsistency. Against Marino’s arguments, I contend that expressivists following Blackburn are able to show how we appreciate the validity of arguments found in dilemma-contexts, and that Marino’s argument concerning the distinction between contingent moral dilemmas and logical moral dilemmas rests on
a mistake concerning the logical representation of a contingent dilemma."

The author uses an anthropological perspective to consider how certain social conditions of training institutes, through the stresses they evoke, render trainees susceptible to the instruction of seniors. And depending on that which seniors advocate -'inclusive' or 'closed' therapeutic adherence -trainees will be influenced in that direction as practitioners. In this sense the internalization of clinical perspectives is facilitated by certain exacting conditions of psychotherapeutic training which generate this anxiety. This argument exposes for those desiring clinical reform two sites at which it might be profitably directed: at the social conditions of the training institute which arouse susceptibilities, or else at the instruction, which, by capitalizing on such susceptibilities, inculcates particular clinical values and perspectives. He concludes that if changes are to be brought to such perspectives then it is the social conditions of the training institute that need to be altered.

Visual guidance of forwards, sideways, and upwards stepping has been investigated, but there is little knowledge about the visuomotor processes underlying stepping down actions. In this study we investigated the visual control of a single vertical step. We measured which aspects of the stepping down movement scaled with visual information about step height, and how this visual control varied with binocular versus monocular vision. Subjects stepped down a single step of variable and unpredictable height. Several kinematic measures were extracted including a new measure, "kneedrop". This describes a transition in the movement of the lower leg, which occurs at a point proportional to step height. In a within-subjects design, measurements were made with either full vision, monocular vision, or no vision. Subjects scaled kneedrop relative to step height with vision, but this scaling was signiWcantly impaired in monocular and no vision conditions. The study establishes a kinematic marker of visually controlled scaling in single-step locomotion which will allow further study of the visuomotor control processes involved in stepping down.

Background: Previous investigations have highlighted the importance of genetic variation in the determination of bitter tasting ability, however have left unaddressed questions as to within group variation in tasting ability or the possibility of genetic prescription of intermediate tasting ability.  Our aim was to examine the relationships between bitter tasting ability and variation at the TAS2R38 locus and to assess the role of psychosocial factors in explaining residual, within group,
variation in tasting ability.

Results: In a large sample of children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we confirmed an association between bitter compound tasting ability and TAS2R38 variation and found evidence of a genetic association with intermediate tasting ability. Antisocial behaviour, social class and depression showed no consistent relationship with the distribution of taste test scores.

Conclusion: Factors which could influence a child's chosen taste score, extra to taste receptor variation, appeared not to show relationships with test score. Observed spread in the distribution of the taste test scores within hypothesised taster groups, is likely to be, or at least in part, due to physiological differentiation regulated by other genetic contributors. Results confirm relationships between genetic variation and bitter compound tasting ability in a large sample, and suggest that
TAS2R38 variation may also be associated with intermediate tasting ability.

The article discusses a topical issue in contemporary Bulgaria: the crime among the underage offenders aged 14–17. National Statistical Institute data for a 17 year period is reconfigured, analyzed and then interpreted from the standpoints of sociology of delinquency and criminology. As a result a quantitative generalized profile of the juvenile offender is constructed and presented both in short and in detail.
The article also traces the structure and dynamics of the convicted underage offenders throughout the period. Using the correlation method of statistical analysis, the author offers a periodization of the transitional period. The periodization emerges on the basis of changing dynamics explained by the finding that the convicted criminal activity of underage and full age offenders is determined by different factors during the sub-periods. A number of hypothetical explanations, pending verification, are offered in relation to the changes in convicted criminal activity in Bulgaria. The periodization is exclusively based on data and statistical coefficients provided and estimated by the National Statistical Institute.
Furthermore, the article discusses the structure and dynamics of convicted underage offenders by a number of demographic and social attributes, e.g. sex, age, education, ethnicity, type of crime, family type, situation in the family, physical and mental health, and all types of inflicted punishments. As a result of all analyses and interpretations based on the available data it is generalized that there are approximately 190 underage (aged 14–17) offenders per year whom can be referred to as dangerous offenders active in Bulgaria.

Members of newly formed design teams have different frames – implicit values, goals, and assumptions – they each hold about what problems are important and how they are best addressed. In the early, informal phases of design projects, these frames, and the degree to which they are shared within the team, have substantial consequences. However, little is known about the interactions and activities that reveal frames and support frame sharing in teams.

Our study follows 22 newly-formed multidisciplinary teams through the early phases of the design process in a New Product Development course.  We used a mixed method, inter-disciplinary approach to understand the dynamic process through which design frames are socially negotiated and shared.  We identified core framing activities of design teams and propose a framing cycle of pseudo-frame setting, making individuals’ frames explicit, making frame conflicts salient, and building a common frame.

Participants presented with unimodal auditory, unimodal visual, or bimodal audiovisual stimuli in a speeded discrimination task, fail to respond to the auditory component of bimodal targets significantly more often than they fail to respond to the visual component. This study explored the influence of temporal factors on this phenomenon, known as the Colavita visual dominance effect. Participants performed a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task followed by the Colavita task. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the auditory and visual components of the bimodal targets was varied and the results showed that the point at which the Colavita effect disappeared was correlated with the point at which participants started to reliably perceive the auditory stimulus as coming first. Furthermore, no Colavita effect was observed at SOAs where the participants always perceived the visual stimulus as having come first. These results are explained in terms of the unity assumption; that is, the Colavita visual dominance effect occurs within the temporal window in which participants bind auditory and visual stimuli into a single multisensory perceptual event. However, within this window, the Colavita effect is larger when the visual (rather than the auditory) stimulus is presented first.

Este estudio tiene como principal objetivo analizar el impacto de la ineficiencia judicial sobre la pequeña empresa en Perú. Se funda sobre la hipótesis de que los problemas crónicos de los sistemas de justicia de la región tienen consecuencias negativas para el desarrollo de las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas. Nuestro análisis se concentra, en primer lugar, en la forma en que las pymes se relacionan con el sistema de justicia. En segundo lugar, indaga acerca de las decisiones tomadas por los pequeños empresarios a fin de mitigar los efectos del mal desempeño de los tribunales. Por último, identifica las diversas maneras en que la ineficiencia judicial se traslada al sector productivo y se intenta cuantificar su impacto económico.

This study analyzes the impact of judicial inefficiency on small businesses in Peru. It is based on the hypothesis that chronic problems in the region’s judicial systems have negative consequences on the development of micro, small and medium-sized businesses. The analysis focuses, first, on the relationship between small businesses and the legal system. Secondly, it looks at decisions made by small businesses to mitigate the effects of poor performance by the courts. Lastly, it identifies several ways in which judicial inefficiency is transferred to the business sector. The analysis also attempts to quantify the economic impact of judicial inefficiency.

Participants presented with unimodal auditory (A), unimodal visual (V), or bimodal audiovisual stimuli (AV) in a task in which they have to identify the modality of the targets as rapidly as possible, fail to respond to the auditory component of bimodal targets significantly more often than they fail to respond to the visual component. In the majority of published studies on this phenomenon, known as the Colavita effect, the auditory, visual, and bimodal stimuli have been presented in the ratio 40A:40V:20AV. In the present study, we investigated whether the relatively low frequency with which the bimodal targets in previous studies have been presented may have contributed to participants’ difficulty in responding to such targets correctly. We manipulated the bimodal target probability by presenting the stimuli in the ratios 20A:20V:60AV, in Experiment 1; 5A:5V:90AV, 25A:25V:50AV, and 45A:45V:10AV, in Experiment 2. A significant Colavita visual dominance effect was observed when the bimodal targets were presented on 60% of the trials or less. We suggest that increasing the frequency of bimodal targets may have provided an exogenous cue to performance, that reduced the necessity for endogenous attention when selecting the appropriate response to make to bimodal targets.

The Colavita visual dominance effect refers to the phenomenon whereby participants presented with auditory, visual, or audiovisual stimuli in a speeded response task sometimes fail to respond to the auditory component of the bimodal targets.We conducted an experiment on the Colavita effect in which the auditory and visual components of the bimodal targets were presented from either the same or different positions (sides) at one of two eccentricities (13◦ or 26◦). Participants were presented with auditory, visual, and bimodal stimuli to which they had to respond by pressing an auditory response key, a visual response key, or both response keys, respectively. On bimodal trials, participants failed to respond to the auditory stimulus significantly more often than they failed to respond to the visual stimulus, resulting in a significant Colavita visual dominance effect. The Colavita effect was significantly larger when the stimuli were presented from the same position than when they were presented from different positions. These results provide the first empirical evidence that the Colavita effect is modulated by the spatial coincidence of the auditory and visual stimuli.

In this chapter, I consider how objects might phenomenally look to beings with more coarse-grained visual systems than us. Many hold that to such beings, objects may phenomenally look red, without phenomenally looking a particular shade of red. David Armstrong expresses this intuition as follows: ‘It is perfectly possible… to have a mental image of a piece of crimson cloth of no particular shade of crimson.’ In this chapter I try to make intuitions of the kind that Armstrong has precise, and I try to make some progress towards evaluating them.

In this chapter I use a thought experiment to argue that objects could phenomenally look to have z coordinates, in addition to phenomenally looking to have x and y coordinates. I also argue that the thought experiment gives us reason to think that objects do phenomenally look to have z coordinates, in addition to phenomenally looking to have x and y coordinates.

In the last two chapters we have considered a number of views about the nature of the position properties that objects phenomenally look to have: the observer-relative view, the field-of-view relationalist view, the Leibnizian relationalist view, and the substantivalist view. All of these views seem to face serious objections. In this chapter I shall sketch a positive view about the nature of phenomenal position properties, which I call primitivism.

This is an updated version of my paper 'Content Ascriptions and the Reversibility Constraint'. I argue that there is a tension between the fact that singular terms are exportable from within the scope of mental state ascriptions, and the view that objects phenomenally look to the left and right of me.

Philosophers have often raised the question what kind of information is available to vision. For instance, Berkeley argued that one could not see depth, Hume argued that one could not see necessary connections and, according to Paul Guyer, Kant held that there is no perception of change, but only change of perception (Guyer 2004).

Recently philosophers have asked what kinds of properties visual experience represents. According to sparse views, visual experience represents a sparse range of properties, for instance just colours, shapes, positions and sizes (see McGinn 1982, Burge 2003, Millar 2000). According to rich views, visual experience represents a rich range of properties, for instance properties such as being a tomato, and being sad (see Peacocke 2003, Siegel 2006, Searle 1983, McDowell 1998b).

In this thesis I discuss some questions arising from the above debate. Instead of using the terminology of what properties visual experience represents, I define a kind of looking, phenomenal looking, which is individuated in terms of differences in visual phenomenal character, and I raise the question what kinds of properties objects phenomenally look to have.

We often make content ascriptions to subjects that are assertable despite being literally false, in the sense that the subject does not literally have the content that we are ascribing to them. The ascriptions are close enough to the truth, and in the conversational context it is convenient to be a little loose in one’s content ascriptions. In this paper, I shall give some examples of one kind of non-literal content ascription, and then propose a constraint, which I call the reversibility constraint, which distinguishes instances of this kind of non-literal content ascription from literal content ascriptions. I will then apply this constraint to looks-statements, and argue that the reversibility constraint can help us decide which looks-statements report the contents of visual experiences, and which do not. I will argue for the conclusion that ‘that apple looks to the left of me’ does not report the content of my visual experience when I do not see myself.

Globalization is both a dynamic and multi-faceted phenomenon. Foremost, the process is associated with global capitalism and is shorthand for the likes of Nike, Coca Cola, and McDonalds. Secondly, globalization in the political, social, and cultural spheres, as well as the economy, is about global interconnectedness. It is, according to Anthony Giddens, “the stretching of time and place.” From the post-1914 surge in short-term financial flows to lower cost international air travel and to the information and communications technology revolution, ours is a world of growing interdependence. Thirdly, globalization is about global consciousness [of humanity]. In the aggregate, then, it is best seen as a multidimensional set of processes and not one singular event.

While this multi-continental network of interdependence is both increasingly thick and acquiring an institutional velocity, it is hardly universal. On the contrary, globalization varies by region, locality, and issue relevance. While global interconnectedness is on the rise, the world today is increasingly divided into a global class of information “haves” [David Held’s “cosmopolitan elite”] and a localized class of information “have nots.” Globalization is at one and the same time a process of homogenization and fragmentation—Schumpeter’s “creative destruction.” Furthermore, while it does shrink distance, it does not make distance irrelevant. It is a complex process by which both homogenization [i.e., McWorld] and fragmentation [i.e., Jihad] are unfolding simultaneously.

Handwritten characters differ from person to person. Thus, when using traditional methods like Neural Networks and Image Processing techniques, extensive training of the system is needed. Due to this reason, an attempt was made to develop a system that used the methods that humans use to perceive handwritten characters. Thus, a system that recognizes features in handwritten characters using Fuzzy Logic was developed. The reasons for the selection of Fuzzy Logic were as follows: 1. Fuzzy Logic can be used to model human perception 2. The mathematics that Fuzzy Logic requires is extremely fundamental. Thus, any algorithm developed using fuzzy logic would require relatively simple and short calculations. 3. Due to simplicity of fuzzy calculations, they can be implemented on any hardware or software platform without too much concern for computing power. The objectives in the development of this method were: 1. The development of a short and efficient algorithm that tries as much as possible to model human perception. 2. The development of an algorithm that can be implemented on any hardware or software platform through low computational power requirements.

There is a widely held view in the philosophy of perception that visual experiences have representational content. One reason that I sometimes hear given in support of this view is that when something looks a certain way, it makes sense to ask whether or not it is the way it looks. I argue that this is not a good reason to think that visual experiences have representational content.

We study linear programming relaxations of Vertex Cover and Max Cut arising from repeated applications of the ``lift-and-project'' method of Lovasz and Schrijver starting from the standard linear programming relaxation. For Vertex Cover, Arora, Bollobas, Lovasz and Tourlakis prove that the integrality gap remains at least $2-epsilon$ after $Omega_epsilon(log n)$ rounds, where $n$ is the number of vertices, and Tourlakis proves that integrality gap remains at least $1.5-epsilon$ after $Omega((log n)^2)$ rounds. We are not aware of previous work on Lovasz-Schrijver linear programming relaxations for Max Cut. We prove that the integrality gap of Vertex Cover remains at least $2-epsilon$ after $Omega_epsilon (n)$ rounds, and that the integrality gap of Max Cut remains at most $1/2 +epsilon$ after $Omega_epsilon(n)$ rounds. The result for Max Cut shows a gap between the approximation provided by linear versus semidefinite programmming relaxations.