The Judge as a Negotiator: Claims Negotiating and Inequalities in China’s Judicial Mediation

I propose a three-way model of negotiation on judicial mediation: the judge as a negotiator. Primarily drawing on ethnographic observations of a civil judge in a basic-level court in hinterland China, I document Chinese judges’ tactics at the micro level. I find that the Chinese judge not only “expands” and “narrows” claims. In addition, included in her repertoire are “repression,” “conversion,” and “facilitation.” Following this, I explore the inequitable consequences of the judge’s apparent success in disposing cases. In negotiating the claims, the judge convinces or cajoles litigants who are economically vulnerable, inexperienced in the courtroom, legally bewildered, or timid in confronting the judges’ authority, into the settlement. But she often facilitates the claims of litigants who can mount credible political resistance. The interests of those who are vulnerable in one way or another, but not in a position to initiate political threats, are often dispensed. Inequalities are thus generated, reproduced, and reinforced. This three-way negotiation model provides a new perspective to study judicial mediation comparatively.

Methodology for solving the task no. 8 of the unified state exam in informatics and ICT by a combinatory method and method of programming on python

The article discusses the metodology for solving the task No. 8 of the Unified State Exam in informatics and ICT in two ways: by mathematical combinatorial calculation and writing a program in the Python programming language. The purpose of this methodology is the successful completion of task No. 8 (until 2021 — No. 10) in the Unified State Exam in informatics and ICT by graduates. The article is of an interdisciplinary nature, touches upon issues at the intersection of mathematics and informatics. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that tasks of this type are annually present in the Unified State Exam in informatics and ICT, but the success of this task is too low for tasks of the basic level of complexity. The use of programming tools in the Unified State Exam in informatics and ICT is available starting in 2021. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the use of the Python programming language to solve tasks of this type. The peculiarity of the metodology lies in the gradual increase in the complexity of the algorithms and the "modular" application of parts of the code, which allows using the "modules" of previous tasks to solve subsequent ones. Specific versions of the programs are proposed, a comparative analysis of methods for various prototypes of the corresponding tasks is given. As a result, it was determined that task No. 8 can be effectively solved by the programming method.

Hardly visible, highly admired? Youth perceptions of the EU in Kazakhstan

Youth have always been one of the central target audiences of the European Union’s (EU) policies towards Central Asia, which was once again emphasised in the recent EU Strategy for the region. This paper scrutinises how youth representatives in Kazakhstan, Brussels’ closest partner in the region, perceive the EU and its policies. By doing so, the paper shifts the focus from the EU-centric assessment of its external activities, which has long dominated the academic literature, and provides a ‘voice’ to the targets of the EU’s various initiatives. Examining data obtained through the method of pictorial test and focus group discussions with students of leading Kazakhstani universities, the paper argues that the issue Brussels faces among youth is not an image problem, rather it is a visibility issue. Although Kazakhstani youth are aware of the EU’s main ‘attributes’ at the basic level, they have little knowledge that goes beyond stereotypical, yet positive, images of it. This stereotyped admiration towards the EU, however, is not necessarily an outcome of Brussels’ successful policies, rather it is partly inherited from the historically idealised image of Europe. The paper suggests that increasing its visibility and better communicating its policies and messages need to be a priority for the EU in Central Asia.

Przełamywanie barier komunikacyjnych (na przykładzie wieloetnicznej i wielojęzycznej sytuacji społecznej Zaolzia)

Breaking Communication Barriers (on the Example of the Multiethnic and Multilingual Situation of the Society in the Zaolzie Region)The present paper describes the language situation in several parts of Cieszyn Silesia (the Zaolzie region) in the Czech Republic. The research is based on authentic language material from two music (art) schools in Český Těšín and Třinec. The Třinec school has the official status of a bilingual Czech-Polish educational institution. These two establishments share several common features: both students and teachers come from either majority Czech or minority ethnic Polish communities; Polish children study in both institutions, although a larger group of these "foreign" students attends the school in Český Těšín. The authors analyze not only the spoken language itself but also the competence and language awareness of the respondents. They have come to the conclusion that interactions between the users of two (different) languages can be successful regardless of the fact whether each participant uses their own native tongue or that of their interlocutor, although they speak this language only at a basic level. Przełamywanie barier komunikacyjnych (na przykładzie wieloetnicznej i wielojęzycznej sytuacji społecznej Zaolzia)W artykule została opisana sytuacja językowa w czeskiej części Śląska Cieszyńskiego w Republice Czeskiej na podstawie autentycznego materiału językowego pochodzącego z dwóch szkół muzycznych (artystycznych) – jednej z Czeskiego Cieszyna, drugiej – z Trzyńca. Szkoła trzyniecka ma oficjalny status czesko-polskiej szkoły dwujęzycznej. Obie placówki łączy kilka cech wspólnych: zarówno uczniowie, jak i nauczyciele wywodzą się bądź z większościowego środowiska czeskiego, bądź należą do polskiej etnicznej wspólnoty mniejszościowej. W obu placówkach uczą się także dzieci z Polski, choć o wiele więcej takich „zagranicznych” uczniów uczęszcza do szkoły w Czeskim Cieszynie. Autorzy zajmują się nie tylko analizą samego języka mówionego, ale również kompetencją i świadomością językową badanych osób, dochodząc do wniosku, że interakcja między użytkownikami dwu (różnych) języków może przebiegać pomyślnie nawet wtedy, gdy każdy z nich używa własnego języka ojczystego (względnie gwary ojczystej) lub języka partnera komunikacji, chociaż język ten opanował tylko na poziomie podstawowym.

Students’ Needs for TOEFL Preparation Course at University

This study aimed to identify students’ needs in the TOEFL Preparation course at university. This descriptive research was conducted on thirty first-semester students and the lecturer at Universitas Riau. The instruments were a needs analysis questionnaire for the students and an interview guideline for the lecturer. The results revealed that (1) Most of the students’ abilities were at the basic level; (2) Students took TOEFL Preparation course for several reasons such as to help them get a scholarship and as one of the requirements to finish their study; (3) Students preferred to learn through the teacher-centered method and doing more TOEFL exercises; (4) The lecturer should provide them various examples of TOEFL tests; and (5) The time for having TOEFL Preparation course needed to be extended. Overall, this research implied the need for a newly designed syllabus that could fulfil the students’ needs and could decrease their obstacles in learning TOEFL so that the students’ ability improved significantly.

Claim management office maturity model (CMOMM) in project-oriented organizations in the construction industry

PurposeClaim formation is a fact and a regular occurrence in construction industry projects and often leads to a waste of money and time for organizations. Organizations can, however, reduce and control claims by promoting an integrated claim management system and improving productivity in the results of the claims. Establishing a claim management office is one of the ways to help organizations achieve this.Design/methodology/approachBased on library research, expert opinion and analysis of organizations' contracts as case studies and identifying the root causes of the claim, this paper proposes a claim management office maturity model and determines its levels.FindingsThis paper proposes a claim management office maturity model and also determines its levels. The general structure of this model is based on three parameters: “characteristics of each level,” “requirements of each level” and “transition period of each level” in five levels, where the first level is the most basic level and level five is the highest level of the implementation of a claim management office in the organization.Originality/valueIt can be clearly emphasized that this research is one of the first research studies that has dealt with the issue of claim management office in the construction industry and has proposed the model of maturity and development of claim management office in the organization. The use of numerous and experienced experts in achieving the results and case organizations to develop this research has increased the value and credibility of this research. This study also helps to improve the level of claim management in construction industry organizations so that these organizations can implement each level of claim management maturity model in the organization according to their competence and need for claim management. And by implementing it correctly, solve or reduce the problems of claim management in the organization and their projects.

The characterization of actions at the superordinate, basic and subordinate level

Objects can be categorized at different levels of abstraction, ranging from the superordinate (e.g., fruit) and the basic (e.g., apple) to the subordinate level (e.g., golden delicious). The basic level is assumed to play a key role in categorization, e.g., in terms of the number of features used to describe these actions and the speed of processing. To which degree do these principles also apply to the categorization of observed actions? To address this question, we first selected a range of actions at the superordinate (e.g., locomotion), basic (e.g., to swim) and subordinate level (e.g., to swim breaststroke), using verbal material (Experiments 1–3). Experiments 4–6 aimed to determine the characteristics of these actions across the three taxonomic levels. Using a feature listing paradigm (Experiment 4), we determined the number of features that were provided by at least six out of twenty participants (common features), separately for the three different levels. In addition, we examined the number of shared (i.e., provided for more than one category) and distinct (i.e., provided for one category only) features. Participants produced the highest number of common features for actions at the basic level. Actions at the subordinate level shared more features with other actions at the same level than those at the superordinate level. Actions at the superordinate and basic level were described with more distinct features compared to those provided at the subordinate level. Using an auditory priming paradigm (Experiment 5), we observed that participants responded faster to action images preceded by a matching auditory cue corresponding to the basic and subordinate level, but not for superordinate level cues, suggesting that the basic level is the most abstract level at which verbal cues facilitate the processing of an upcoming action. Using a category verification task (Experiment 6), we found that participants were faster and more accurate to verify action categories (depicted as images) at the basic and subordinate level in comparison to the superordinate level. Together, in line with the object categorization literature, our results suggest that information about action categories is maximized at the basic level.

Lectures on the Superconformal Index

In these lectures, we give a pedagogical introduction to the superconformal index. This is the writeup of the lectures given at the Winter School “YRISW 2020” and is to appear in a special issue of JPhysA. The lectures are at a basic level and are geared towards a beginning graduate student interested in working with the superconformal index.

Same but Different: Chaos and TV Drama Narratives

<p>Complexity is a term that is now commonly used when discussing TV serial dramas and the way that, in recent years, creators and producers of this narrative form have embraced innovative and challenging strategies to tell their stories. As a result, it is also often argued that all TV serial dramas are strikingly different from one another; one of the few things that contemporary TV serial dramas have in common is their employment of complex narrative strategies. However, in this thesis, I argue that—while serial dramas are different from one another in many ways—they are also all the same at a fundamental level. In order to examine the fundamental narrative components that all serial dramas employ, I use chaos as a framework. Chaos is a branch of mathematics and science which examines systems that display unpredictable behaviour that is actually determined by deep structures of order and stability. At its most basic level, chaos corresponds with the way in which serial dramas are both complex and simple at the same time; beneath the complexity of serial dramas are fundamental building blocks that are used to generate innovative, challenging and unpredictable narratives. I apply the findings from my critical examination of chaos and TV drama narratives to the creation of my own TV projects, which employ the inherent structures and patterns of TV drama narratives in a way that produces innovative and complex stories. In doing so, I intend to highlight the potential of serial dramas to be endlessly creative yet consistently the same.</p>