tag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:/all?page=2Journal of Brief Ideas: Ideas from the last week2023-11-17T04:38:27Ztag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11712023-11-17T04:38:27Z2023-11-20T06:00:39ZRelationship Between Violent Media and Individuals Demonstrating Aggressive Behavior https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10157862The research's results vary on violent media's effect with some saying it has the effect of aggression while some say the opposite. However, although there have been multiple studies conducted about violent media's effect on the general population, there are a limited number of studies that focus on people who are already known to enjoy violence. Therefore, this brings the question, do people who are conducting violent behaviors for pleasure are also likely to become more violent when watching violent media? Or would the violent impulse decrease by playing violent video games or watching violent media as an alternative? This experiment can be conducted by using different methods such as computational models, or animal studying and observing the difference in neurotransmitters that are emitted, within the realm of ethical guidelines.
This experiment can show the broader effect of violent media and can help to create better regulation for it. Lee, Jiwontag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11702023-11-09T16:20:09Z2023-11-16T06:00:26ZCookie-Cutter Effect of Regulation https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10140339The best description of the Brussels Effect is “unilateral regulatory globalization” (Bradford, 2012). Per Bradford (2012) this “..occurs when a single state can externalize its laws and regulations outside its borders through market mechanisms, resulting in the globalization of standards…”. Can this apply to regulatory regimes intra-jurisdictionally? In other words, can nearly identical regulations be applied under categorically homogeneous conditions? In the U.S., we have seen campaigns to “externalize” the regulatory frameworks of alcohol and tobacco (age restrictions, control boards, excise taxes, etc.) to emerging markets for recreational cannabis.
The Cookie-Cutter Effect of Regulation is a natural corollary of the Brussels Effect, but instead of being a geographically applying previously established regulatory regime, it is the application of similar regulations to categorically similar commodities and conduct. If it works in one similar country, it might work in another. If it works for alcohol, it might work for marijuana; this is the core assumption underlying this concept.
Clark, Petertag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11692023-10-30T00:35:56Z2023-11-23T08:49:04ZBreadth and depth are positively correlated emergent properties of engagementhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10140335Scholars like Duckworth and Ericsson speak of an “ineluctable trade-off between breadth and depth” in expertise and knowledge acquisition. However, recent research [on polymathy](/ideas/753fac5b42e4c3cac704937e5be2ef39) shows a positive correlation between the two. This seeming contradiction arises from a flawed conceptualization of breadth and depth as reified attributes. Instead of treating them as "things" whose level we deliberately grow, they should be viewed as properties emerging from episodes of engagement, where the real unit of analysis and action is termed here "stint," a period of uninterrupted engagement with a task.
This is particularly relevant for polymathy. While polymaths often engage in stints with goals (e.g., learning or executing a task), they don't have a predetermined goal of enhancing either depth or breadth. Yet, the multidisciplinary nature of their interests results in stints that "belong" to diverse domains, thereby fostering breadth. Concurrently, high levels of engagement, especially involving not only information acquisition but its synthesis in novel and meaningful ways, lead to a virtuous cycle conducive to all dimensions of polymathy (breadth, depth and integration) at once. Thus, breadth and depth are not only positively correlated but co-evolutionary and coupled through integrational ability. Finally, as engagement increases in quality, stints (whether they be focused on learning, execution, or mind-wandering) more frequently yield insightful experiences that illuminate understanding across domains, in a virtuous cycle.
Araki, Michaeltag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11682023-10-26T12:23:37Z2023-11-16T06:00:26ZVariable-angle and variable-curvature fluidizing bed for continuous processes involving changing particleshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10140331In a fluidized bed, a fluid stream passes through a bed of solid particles at a velocity high enough to effectively suspend those particles by way of the friction effects on their surfaces. Fluidized beds are widely-used as chemical reactors because they enable homogenous contact between solid and fluid reactants, while allowing mixing of both the fluid stream and the bed of solids. Fluidized beds require careful design to match their diameter and the fluid flow-rate to give the desired fluidizing velocity. For reactions in which the physical properties of the solid particles change, this velocity is not constant and changes as the reaction progresses. For continuous processes, this necessitates new design geometries where the reactor diameter progresses as a function of the progression in particle properties. This will result in a reactor where new particles are fed at the bottom, where the velocity is highest, and then graduate to lower-velocity zones as the reaction progresses and their density decreases. Such a reactor would have a vertical residence time profile. A constriction zone at the top of the reactor could be used as a means of increasing velocity to eject particles, after a desired residence time, through elutriation. Stacey, Neil ThomasMudley, CameronJose , Joshuatag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11672023-10-26T02:52:48Z2023-11-16T06:00:26ZImaging through perturbed multimode fibers with physical priorhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10140327Imaging through perturbed multimode fibers based on deep learning has been widely researched. However, existing methods mainly use target-speckle pairs in different configurations. It is challenging to reconstruct targets without trained networks. In this paper, we propose a physics-assisted, unsupervised, learning-based fiber imaging scheme. The role of the physical prior is to simplify the mapping relationship between the speckle pattern and the target image, thereby reducing the computational complexity. The learning model learns target features according to the optimized direction provided by the physical model. Then, the reconstruction process of the learning model only requires a few speckle patterns and unpaired targets. The proposed scheme also increases the generalization ability of the learning-based method in perturbed multimode fibers and targets. Our scheme has the potential to extend the application of MMF imaging. Zhang, Chunchengtag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11652023-10-09T21:30:28Z2023-10-10T06:00:56ZWeak Link Theory of U.S. Political Party Platformshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8423526Why do Republicans no longer support free trade? Neoliberal trade policy was a hallmark of the Regan years (Wilson, 1993). The Trump administration ended this decades-long consensus. Per Ehrlich & Gahagan (2023), an ANES survey found only 33.1% of Republicans favor free trade. How can a political party change a policy position it has held for decades? One potential antecedent engendering this shift has been the decline in “principled partisanship”. The trend since the Progressive Era has been American voters favoring a candidate’s personality over their conformity to political philosophy (Postell, 2018). Political labels serve more as a social identity than indicators of principled philosophical affiliation. (Barber & Pope, 2018).
The Weak Link Theory of U.S. Political Party Platforms suggests the pivot from political principles to candidate personalities, improving the ease of adding and removing planks from a party’s platform. When policy positions become unmoored by a decline in ideological commitment, the policies binding the party’s platform are weakened. Analogous to an eroded piece of chain link, enabling enterprising political actors to break it off from the rest of the chain.Clark, Petertag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11642023-10-03T09:33:56Z2023-10-10T06:00:56ZAeroplane-mounted real-time micro-plastic detectorshttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8423524Recent research has discovered airborne micro-plastic particles in clouds, and it is theorized that these particles may influence cloud formation and precipitation by providing nucleation sites for condensation. With the rapidly rising levels of plastic pollution and micro-plastics in particular, this phenomenon may begin to affect rainfall patterns, resulting in aberrant weather and potentially affecting the accuracy of weather models. It is therefore imperative that we start to develop the means to systematically measure atmospheric levels of airborne micro-plastics in order to adapt our weather models to factor them into predictions, and to provide the data needed for those models. The most viable means of doing this would be the development of a real-time micro-plastic detectors that can be mounted on aeroplanes, which already carry weather instrumentation and play a key role in providing the data for forecasts. Real-time detectors for water-borne micro-plastics have recently been developed, and there is now an urgent need to begin work on equivalent technology for airborne particles.Stacey, Neil Thomastag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11632023-10-01T22:10:45Z2023-11-16T08:11:43ZSynthetic Dataset Generation for Concept Drift Adaptationhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8423520Concept drift, a phenomenon where the statistical properties of the target variable change over time, poses a significant challenge in data stream mining. The low amount of real word datasets with concept drift make this challenge harder on many researchers. This brief proposes an approach to generate synthetic datasets that incorporate concept drift, aiding in the training and testing of machine learning models for detecting and adapting to such drifts. The process involves defining the concept drift, generating synthetic data reflecting this drift, splitting the data into training and testing sets, and iteratively training, testing, and improving the model based on its performance. This approach aims to enhance the model’s adaptability to concept drift, thereby improving its predictive accuracy over time.AIT ARYANE, Mehditag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11612023-09-12T22:38:27Z2023-10-10T06:00:55ZDoes it take longer to choose among more alternatives?https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8423518From an optimization-view of human decision making it makes sense that choosing among more alternatives would take longer, simply because there are more alternatives to evaluate before deciding. If humans use simple rules of thumb or use satificing rather than maximizing strategies, it is far fram clear that choosing among more options will take longer.
To examine the question empirically, one could add a real life choice situation towards the end of a survey, for example by having the respondents choose among several options for e.g. charity donations-By randomizignthe number of options displayed data on time to choose among N alternatives for N ranging from 2 to around 25 (or even higher) can be easily collected. Bergh, Andreastag:beta.briefideas.org,2005:Idea/11592023-09-12T11:40:31Z2023-10-10T06:00:56ZProtocological Ecosystemhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8423516The concept of the "protocological ecosystem" is an invitation to appreciate a novel form of vitalism in social interaction based on the entanglement of protocols, humans, and interfaces. Such an ecosystem is founded on a set of voluntary rules governing the coordination of communities, their communication, voting, and conduct. The concept is rooted in current debates about materiality and mediality in global distributed infrastructures, the distributed agency of non-human actors, and is oriented toward governing the commons. Recognizing such an ecosystem based on protocols sheds light on often overlooked facets of past and contemporary societies and enables us to articulate a foundational element of potential future societies. From an epistemological standpoint, microbiology serves as a framework for thinking about the organization of these media ecosystems as a form of situated knowledge. Consequently, it raises questions about how to design an appropriate interface and formulate a critique of blockchain-based forms of governance. I understand this approach as a media theoretical contribution to basic research on blockchain governance.Bennke, Johannes