Can Twitter Add to Performance Evaluation in the Area of Performing Arts? Reflections from La Scala Opera House

ABSTRACT

Social media are continuously diffusing in performing arts organizations. Yet little is known on how social media data can contribute to the performing arts evaluation process. This article addresses this issue by investigating if and how Twitter data can add a valuable source of information to the performance evaluation process. A literature review with an empirical application on the evaluation of the performance Aida at Teatro Alla Scala provides evidence about the type of indicators that can be derived from Twitter and support a discussion about potentialities and pitfalls connected to their adoption for the evaluation of performing arts.     

Adding Value to an Arena Legislature? A Preliminary Examination of Topical Debates in the British House of Commons

The introduction of the topical debate mechanism in the autumn of 2007 sought to enhance the contemporary nature of debate in the British House of Commons and to increase opportunities for the participation of backbench MPs. Though experimental in the first instance, these debates have since become an entrenched feature of parliamentary life. This note seeks to assess the impact of topical debates on a legislature which has long been characterised by the strength of its plenary sessions. Analysis of the topical debates held during the 2007–08 parliamentary session demonstrates that topic selection has indeed been broad, examining issues of both national and constituency concerns. Whilst there has been no extraordinary change in the House, the use of topical debates by backbench opposition MPs in particular is significant and has the potential to add considerable value to the House of Commons as an arena legislature.     

Is Timing Everything? Retirement and Seat Maintenance in the U.S. House of Representatives

Literature on open‐seat elections has focused on the individual attributes of a candidate and/or institutional arrangements. When a seat becomes an open contest could be a significant indicator as to how likely the incumbent party is able to maintain the seat. Examining data on open U.S. House seats from 1996 to 2008, we use OLS regression and logistic regression analysis, finding that time is a significant predictor for incumbent party fund‐raising and seat maintenance. We conclude that political parties have an interest in encouraging members of Congress to announce their retirement early in the election cycle.     

The Compulsory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice: How Compulsory Is It?

The "compulsory jurisdiction" of the International Court ofJustice is not truly compulsory. The Court's jurisdiction isbased on the consent of the parties. States have the optionto accept or not to accept the Court's jurisdiction and cando so under terms and conditions they determine themselves.However, once a State has granted its consent, and when a disputethat falls within the scope of that consent is submitted tothe Court, the State must subject itself to the Court's jurisdiction.It is that legal obligation that is at the root of the term"compulsory".     

The Evolution of the CPC’s Conception of Association and Regulation of Social Organizations in China

Freedom of association and all institutions coming with it have not been accepted by the Chinese government. Instead, Chinese social organization administration is based upon the concept of association held by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese government had adopted a “total control” model of social organization administration in the era of totalitarianism before the “Opening-up and Reform”, leaving almost no room for social organizations to survive, because the CPC had regarded social organizations as “revolutionary” and “deconstructive”. The Chinese has adopted a graduated control system to administrate social organizations in the era of authoritarianism after the “Opening-up and Reform”, treating social organizations differently according to their threats to the ruling order and their utilities for economic development, because the CPC has viewed social organizations as a “challenging” but “auxiliary” power. The on-going “innovation of registration and administration of social organizations” is not a return to international standard regarding social organization administration in China, but only partial reform of the graduate control system still based upon the CPC’s conception of association as “challenging” but “auxiliary”. Social organizations capable of providing public goods in areas of economic development and social services are given more favorable treatment by the government while political and religious organizations are still tightly controlled by the government.     

Why Be Just? The Problem of Motivation in Hegel and Rawls

At the heart of any theoretical problem of justice lies the problem of motivation: Even if we could conceive of a way to develop a comprehensive system of just laws, and even if we could rationally believe in the justice of these laws, how could we ever ensure that we—or anyone else—would be motivated to abide by them? By unearthing how the problem of motivation sways canonical discussions of justice, the article brings forth intrinsic similarities and differences in these discussions that are often overlooked in the literature. In particular, the article highlights intrinsic similarities in the analysis of the concept of justice in two central works that belong to the continental and the analytic tradition respectively and are otherwise rarely discussed together: Hegel’s Outlines of the Philosophy of Right and Rawls’s Theory of Justice .     

Predictions of Future Dangerousness in Capital Murder Trials: Is It Time to “Disinvent the Wheel?”

Although recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the death penalty (e.g., Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) have renewed interest in mental health issues, one topic that has not received much attention recently is the ongoing use of expert testimony to support claims that defendants represent a continuing threat to society. In this article, we (a) review prior research relevant to determining the accuracy of clinical predictions that capital defendants will commit future acts of criminal violence; (b) summarize new data from current and former death row inmates in Texas that bolster the claim that such predictions are gross overestimates of risk; and (c) review extant research addressing the potential utility of various risk assessment instruments that increasingly are being used to reinforce clinical predictions in capital trials. Despite significant recent advances in the field of risk assessment, clinical assertions that a defendant is likely to commit future violent acts appear to be highly inaccurate and ethically questionable at best. Moreover, available research offers little support for the claim that the accuracy of these predictions will be appreciably improved by relying on more structured risk assessment measures that have some demonstrated predictive validity in other contexts.Portions of this article were written while the first author was a member of the Department of Psychology at Sam Houston State University. The prison inmate data reported in this study also are described in a report by the Texas Defender Service, available at:     

Is the doctor in? The evolving role of organized medicine in health policy

Until recently, physicians were viewed as the dominant player in health policy. Now, however, they compete with many other effective interest groups. This article analyzes this changing role, and specifically how organized medicine has changed its approach to influencing health policy. The essay begins with a review of the reasons for the growth and subsequent decline of physicians' influence. This is followed by a case study of physician payment reform under Medicare, which illustrates the ways in which organized medicine chooses when and when not to cooperate with government. The article concludes with a discussion of where physicians are likely to continue to be influential in future health policy reform. Three such areas are noted: payment policy, quality and clinical innovation, and medical education and training.     

Is it possible to have cheaper drugs and preserve the incentive to innovate? The benefits of privatizing the drug approval process

In this paper, we argue that lower prices for pharmaceuticals can be achieved by fostering a new type of competition in the pharmaceutical industry. Lower drug development costs, and hence prices, can be brought about by abolishing national drug administrations and replacing them with private certification boards that compete on the basis of safety, efficiency and cost of their drug approval process. A major benefit of this type of privatization is that it would not necessitate limits on data exclusivity in order to achieve lower prices. Drug approval privatization could achieve the same positive results as generic competition, in terms of lower costs and prices, without the negative effects of intellectual property rights violation and the consequent discouragement of innovative activities.

The Turn to Imagination in Legal Theory: The Re-Enchantment of the World?

Various contemporary legal theorists have turned to ‘imagination’ as a keyword in their accounts of law. This turn is fruitfully considered as a potential response to the modern condition diagnosed by Max Weber as ‘disenchantment’. While disenchantment is often seen as a symptom of a post-metaphysical age, it is best understood as the consummation of metaphysics and not its overcoming. Law’s participation in disenchantment is illustrated by way of Holmes’ parable of the dragon in ‘The Path of the Law’, which illustrates the rationalization and demystification of law. Four ideal–typical turns to ‘imagination’ are identified: the theoretical (turning to imagination as synthesis), the progressive (imagination as empathy), the transformative (imagination as invention) and the nostalgic (imagination as attunement). Most of these turns to imagination remain complicit with disenchantment. ‘Imagination’ often appears only to be harnessed in the service of more conventional keywords of legal thought: theoreticians turn to imagination as synthesis to serve as a form of super-reason; progressives turn to imagination as empathy to make law a more effective instrument; transformatives turn to imagination as invention to serve as a form of super-will. By turning to imagination as attunement, nostalgics come closest to accepting a world that is not masterable, i.e. they come closest to accepting an enchantment that is a gift and not the product of our imaginations. Indeed, modern imaginations are themselves symptoms of disenchantment. If Weber’s diagnostic calls for a human response, it cannot be one of overcoming disenchantment by imaginative re-enchantment: it belongs integrally to enchantment to exceed any and all human capacities.     

Is the appearance of macrophages in pulmonary tissue related to time of asphyxia?

In order to connect the appearance of macrophages and giant cells in pulmonary tissue with the time of asphyxia the authors analyzed 50 asphyxiated human lungs paying their attention on the number of alveolar and interstitial macrophages and giant cells. They compared histological specimens of 25 asphixiated humans lungs following a slow asphyxia (30 min or more) with 25 histological specimens of asphyxiated human lungs following a rapid asphyxia (10-15 min). Alveolar and interstitial macrophages and giant cells per section, were considered and numbered. Controls were done on histological examination of traumatized lungs. In the pulmonary alveoli following on acute asphyxia there were 27.7+/-4.4 macrophages per section. Subjects dead after a slow asphyxiation showed 68.2+/-7.1 alveolar macrophages per section (p<0.001). Interstitial macrophages were also frequently present. No differences are detectable in the number of polynuclear giant cells between rapidly and slowly asphyxiated human lungs. The number of alveolar and interstitial macrophages per section can be considered as a further histological evidence of a slow asphyxia and can differentiate a slow asphyxia from an acute one.     

Using the Strategy Tripod to Understand Strategic Management in the “Evaluation-Friendly” Organizations of Cultural and Creative Industries

Abstract

This article provides a new conceptual framework based on the Strategy Tripod to understand challenges and orientation that affect performance evaluation in the organizations of cultural and creative industries (CCI). The analysis is built on a quantitative study carried out in Estonia. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to assess the ability of different variables to predict performance evaluation. The new conceptual framework provides a holistic understanding of the uncertain environment and its impact on strategic management in “evaluation-friendly” organizations in CCIs. It adds new insight into theoretical and managerial discussions on how and why strategic management in CCIs is practiced.     

The Governance of Cross-Border Data Flows in Trade Agreements: Is the Cptpp Framework an Ideal Way Out?

The regulations of cross-border data flows is a growing challenge for the international community. International trade agreements, however, appear to be pioneering legal methods to cope, as they have grappled with this issue since the 1990s. The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules system offers a partial solution under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which covers aspects related to cross-border data flows. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) have also been perceived to provide forward-looking resolutions. In this context, this article analyzes why a resolution to this issue may be illusory. While they regulate cross-border data flows in various ways, the structure and wording of exception articles of both the CPTPP and USMCA have the potential to pose significant challenges to the international legal system. The new system, attempting to weigh societal values and economic development, is imbalanced, often valuing free trade more than individual online privacy and cybersecurity. Furthermore, the inclusion of poison-pill clauses is, by nature, antithetical to cooperation. Thus, for the international community generally, and China in particular, cross-border data flows would best be regulated under the WTO-centered multilateral trade law system.     

A Multidimensional Approach to Ascertaining Individual Differentiation and Consistency in Serial Sexual Assault: Is It Time to Redefine and Refine?

Whilst investigative use of behavioural evidence to help link and solve serial offences has long been in use, the empirical and theoretical grounds for whether and how to use this evidence effectively have begun to emerge only in recent decades. The present study empirically tested (a) the potential for effectively differentiating between rape offence crime scenes using quantitative and qualitative distinctions within the behavioural dimensions of control, violence, and sexual activity, and (b) the extent to which redefining behavioural consistency more broadly to include dynamic trajectories of behavioural change may be more effective than limiting this definition to behavioural stability. Results confirmed that sexual offences can be successfully differentiated based on the specific degree and subtype of these behavioural dimensions present in each crime scene. The analysis of consistency and behavioural trajectories showed that whilst none of the offenders exhibited complete consistency across behavioural dimensions, a subsample of offenders remained fully consistent in at least one. Furthermore, of those who were not consistent, the vast majority followed an identifiable trajectory of change. Findings are discussed in the context of psychological theories of behavioural consistency as well as practical aspects of advancing the utility of behavioural linkage.     

Why Is Fast Track the Way to Go? Justifications for Early Agreement in the Co‐Decision Procedure and Their Effects

Since the introduction of the co‐decision procedure by way of the Maastricht Treaty, the procedure has been transformed considerably. One of the most striking innovations is the possibility to adopt a legislative act in first reading. This article aims to answer the questions whether the increasing use of this fast track procedure is in line with Treaty provisions and/or intra/inter‐institutional rules, and what the effects are of these stipulations. The empirical findings presented in this study indicate that two reasons for taking the fast track gain dominance in the practical political process, ie the political priorities of the Council and European Parliament (EP) and whether these actors consider a legislative file as urgent. From a study of two directives, it becomes clear that this dominance of factors has consequences for the type of early agreement reached (first or early second), the quality of the adopted legislation and its implementation at the national level.     

Improving Children's Recall of an Occurrence of a Repeated Event: Is It a Matter of Helping Them to Generate Options?

Three experiments were conducted to explore whether children's recall of an occurrence of a repeated event could be improved by encouraging them to consider various details that occurred across a series of events prior to making a judgement about which details were included in the target (to-be-recalled) occurrence. Experiment 1 explored whether children's recall of the target occurrence was better after the interviewer presented all the items from the series prior to the child identifying the final item. Experiment 2 explored whether having the children generate all the items facilitated their subsequent recall of the target occurrence. Finally, Experiment 3 directly compared the effectiveness of the above 2 procedures. Regardless of the children's age, the retention interval, or the type of item, children's capacity to identify which details were included in a target occurrence was enhanced when they were initially provided with all the possible details from the series of events. However, without relying on the interviewer to generate the options, the benefit of the technique was directly contingent on the children's ability to generate content details; this was a distinct source of difficulty for the children. Indeed, having children generate options had no beneficial effect on decisions about the temporal position of items unless performance was made conditional on the children's ability to remember the relevant details in the first place. The implications of the findings for the legal setting and for future research are discussed.     

Is Police Integrity an Important Predictor of Citizen Satisfaction in Police in Post-colonial Emerging Democracies? The Case of India

The focus of this study is to examine citizen satisfaction with the police. Specifically, the authors aim to understand the factors that determine citizen satisfaction with police services in India, a former English colony and a relatively new republic that has achieved a significant economic development in recent decades. Findings from analysis of a convenience sample (N = 845) obtained from four Northern states in India suggest that perceived procedural fairness, fear of crime, and age of the respondents predict satisfaction with police services. Moreover, perceived professionalism of police officers is found to increase their perceived procedural fairness.     

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea? A Critique of the Ability of Community Mediation to Suppress and Facilitate Participation in Civil Life

This article revisits debate between academics and practitioners about the potential of community mediation. While mediation evangelicals make bold claims about the possibility of mediation helping to rebuild communities, academic critics have been suspicious of such contentions and claimed instead that mediation has provided just another route through which the state can interfere in the life of its citizens. It is argued here that debate on the topic has been clouded by unduly high expectations of disputes as agents of social change. Their importance has been understood by reference to their ability to rebuild communities or their potential to become test cases. It is argued here that mediated disputes make much more modest challenges to state authority but that they can be aided in this by the intervention of mediators prepared to take a pragmatic approach to the unachievable ideal of neutrality. The article does not conceive of community mediation as an alternative of the state or its agent. Rather, it suggests that mediators can be embedded within both worlds and act as message-bearers between them.