Building Trust in a Post-Conflict Society: An Integrative Model of Intergroup Contact and Intergroup Emotions.

Across one longitudinal and two cross-sectional surveys in Northern Ireland, we tested a model of intergroup relations in which out-group attitudes and behavioral tendencies are predicted by cross-group friendship and positive intergroup appraisals, mediated by intergroup emotions and out-group trust. In study 1, out-group friendship at time 1 predicted out-group trust at time 2 (one year later), controlling for prior out-group trust. In study 2, positive and negative intergroup emotions mediated the effects of friendship on positive and negative behavioral tendencies and attitudes. In study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that trust and emotions are distinct constructs with unique predictive contributions. We then tested a model in which cross-group friendship predicted intergroup emotions and trust through intimate self-disclosure in out-group friendships. Our findings support an integration of an intergroup emotions framework with research highlighting the importance of cross-group friendship in fostering positive intergroup outcomes.

Energy conserving schemes for the simulation of musical instrument contact dynamics

Collisions are an innate part of the function of many musical instruments. Due to the nonlinear nature of contact forces, special care has to be taken in the construction of numerical schemes for simulation and sound synthesis. Finite difference schemes and other time-stepping algorithms used for musical instrument modelling purposes are normally arrived at by discretising a Newtonian description of the system. However because impact forces are non-analytic functions of the phase space variables, algorithm stability can rarely be established this way. This paper presents a systematic approach to deriving energy conserving schemes for frictionless impact modelling. The proposed numerical formulations follow from discretising Hamilton׳s equations of motion, generally leading to an implicit system of nonlinear equations that can be solved with Newton׳s method. The approach is first outlined for point mass collisions and then extended to distributed settings, such as vibrating strings and beams colliding with rigid obstacles. Stability and other relevant properties of the proposed approach are discussed and further demonstrated with simulation examples. The methodology is exemplified through a case study on tanpura string vibration, with the results confirming the main findings of previous studies on the role of the bridge in sound generation with this type of string instrument.

Extended contact through cross-group romantic relationships

Cross-group romantic relationships are an extremely intimate and often maligned form of intergroup contact. Yet, according to intergroup contact theory, these relationships have the potential to improve the intergroup attitudes of others via extended contact. This study combines the interpersonal and intergroup literatures to examine the outcomes associated with knowing a partner in a cross-group romantic relationship. Results suggest that cross-group romantic partners encounter greater disapproval toward their relationships than same-group partners and, as a result, their relationships are perceived more negatively. Nevertheless, extended contact with cross-group partners, controlling for participants' cross-group friendships and romantic relationships, predicts more positive attitudes toward cross-group dating and positive intergroup attitudes in general, mediated by perceived ingroup norms toward cross-group relationships.

Applying imagined contact to improve physiological responses in anticipation of intergroup interactions and the perceived quality of these interactions

This experiment (N 5 49) is the first to show that imagined contact can bufferanticipatory physiological responses to future interactions, and improve the qualityof these interactions. Participants imagined a positive interaction with a person withschizophrenia, or in a control condition, a person who did not have schizophrenia. They then interacted with a confederate whom they believed had schizophrenia. Participants in the imagined contact condition reported more positive attitudes andless avoidance of people with schizophrenia, displayed smaller anticipatory physio-logical responses, specifically smaller changes in interbeat interval and skin conduct-ance responses, and had a more positive interaction according to the confederate.These findings support applying imagined contact to improve interactions with people with severe mental illnesses.

The solvable Lie group N_{6, 28}: an example of an almost C_0(\mathcal{K})-C*-algebra

Motivated by the description of the C*-algebra of the affine automorphism group N6,28 of the Siegel upper half-plane of degree 2 as an algebra of operator fields defined over the unitary dual View the MathML source of the group, we introduce a family of C*-algebras, which we call almost C0(K), and we show that the C*-algebra of the group N6,28 belongs to this class.

Properties of Super-Hydrophobic Copper and Stainless Steel Meshes: Applications in Controllable Water Permeation and Organic Solvents/Water Separation

The wettability and hydrophobicity of super-hydrophobic (SH) meshes is greatly influenced by their topographic structures, chemical composition and coating process. In this study, the properties of copper and stainless steel meshes, coated with super-hydrophobic electrolessly deposited silver were investigated. A new method to test the pressure resistance of super-hydrophobic mesh was applied to avoid any deformation of mesh. Results showed that SH copper mesh and SH stainless steel meshes with the same pore size have almost the same contact angle and the same hydrophobicity. SH copper mesh with a pore size of 122 μm can resist water pressure of 4900 Pa and a decrease of pore size of mesh can increase the pressure resistance of SH copper mesh. The SH copper mesh modified with 0.1 M HS(CH2)10COOH solution in ethanol has a controllable water permeation property by simply adjusting the pH of water solution. SH copper mesh shows super-oleophilicity with organic solvents and so with a water contact angle of 0° and it can be an effective tool for organic solvents/water separation. The separation efficiency of SH copper mesh for separating mixtures of organic solvent and water can be as high as 99.8%.

A class of almost C_0(K)-C*-algebras

We consider in this paper the family of exponential Lie groups Gn,µ, whose Lie algebra is an extension of the Heisenberg Lie algebra by the reals and whose quotient group by the centre of the Heisenberg group is an ax + b-like group. The C*-algebras of the groups Gn,µ give new examples of almost C0(K)-C*-algebras.

The Landscape of Differences: Contact and Segregation in the Everyday Encounters

The article examines everyday life in Northern Ireland’s segregated communities and focus on a neglected empirical dimension of ethnic and social segregation developed within the socio-spatial relations between people and their built environment. It shows how the everyday urban encounters are reproduced through negotiating differences and the ways in which living in divided communities lead to social inequality and imbalanced use of space. The article employed qualitative research methods with individuals and community groups from the Fountain estate, a small Protestant enclave in Derry/Londonderry. Their stories were replete with cases of injustice and insights into the daily struggles that have generally occurred within theories of contact and social segregation as a whole. In fact, people in the Fountain presented their own intertextual references on what was more significant for them as a matter of routine survival and belonging, which allowed them to be more constructive about themselves. While segregation has persisted for multiple decades; time is believed to be the factor most likely to change it, as it is hoped that the younger generation will provide lasting change to Northern Ireland and eventual peace between currently segregated communities.

Almost nothing, almost anywhere: the metal shed in Ireland

This paper argues that the modern barn in Ireland is a complex social and architectural phenomena that is without, or has yet to find, a satisfactory discourse. Emerging in the middle third of the twentieth century, the modern barn – replete with corrugated iron and I-sections – continues to represent a presence in the Irish landscape whose ubiquity is as emphatic as its flexibility. It is, however, its universal properties that begin to suggest connections with wider narratives. The modernising aspects of the barn that appear in the 1920s and 30s begin to conflate with a rhetoric of architectural modernism which was simultaneously appearing across Europe. But while the relationship between high modernism’s critique of what it divined as the inspirational qualities of utilitarian buildings – Walter Gropius on grain silos, Le Corbusier on aircraft hangers etc. – has been well-documented, in Ireland this relationship perhaps contains another layer of complexity.
The barn’s consolidation as a modern type coincided with the search for a nation’s cultural identity after centuries of colonial rule. This tended to be an introspective vision that prioritised rural space over urban space, agriculture over industry, and imagined the small farm as a central tenet in the construction of a new State. This paper suggests that the twentieth-century barn – as a product of the mechanisation of agriculture promoted by the new administrations – is an iconic structure, emblematic of attempts to reconcile the contradictory forces and imagery of modernity with the mores of a traditional society. Moreover, given a cultural purview that was often ambivalent or even hostile to the ideologies and forms of modernity, the barn in Ireland is, perhaps, not so much the inspiration but the realisation of an architectural modernism in that country at its most pervasive, enduring and unself-conscious.

On Irish sticklebacks: morphological diversification in a secondary contact zone

Question: How parallel is adaptive evolution when it occurs from different genetic backgrounds?
Background: Divergent evolutionary lineages of several post-glacial fish species including the threespine stickleback are found together in Ireland.
Goals: To investigate the morphological diversity of stickleback populations in Ireland and assess whether morphology evolved in parallel between evolutionary lineages.
Methods: We sampled stickleback from lake, river, and coastal habitats across Ireland. Microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA data revealed evolutionary history. Geometric morphometrics and linear trait measurements characterized morphology. We used a multivariate approach to quantify parallel and non-parallel divergence within and between lineages.
Results: Repeated evolution of similar morphologies in similar habitats occurred across Ireland, concordant with patterns observed elsewhere in the stickleback distribution. A strong pattern of habitat-specific morphology existed even among divergent lineages. Furthermore, a strong signal of shared morphological divergence occurred along a marine–freshwater axis. Evidently, deterministic natural selection played a more important role in driving freshwater adaptation than independent evolutionary history.