Assisted suicide and professional responsibilities

He is co-author of Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decisions in Clinical Medicine; The Insanity Plea: The Uses and Abuses of the Insanity Defense;and Choosing Life and Death.He is a fellow of the Hastings Center.     

Extremism, suicide terror, and authoritarianism

This paper studies extremist behaviour, and its connection to authoritarianism. I divide extremists into two groups, leaders, who demand extremist acts such as assassinations, suicide terror or other forms of political violence from followers, who supply them. I assume that both the leaders of extremist groups and their followers are rational. The paper looks at three examples: Communism, Nationalism and Islamic Fundamentalism. I show that leaders with extreme ideologies also tend to adopt violent methods when there is an indivisibility between the intermediate goal of the group and its ultimate goal. Turning to followers, the most important innovation of the paper is a simple model which explains how it is possible for a person to rationally commit suicide to further the goals of a group. The most important policy implications of the paper are, firstly, that one should look at the goals of extremist group in order to understand their actions. If one can un-bundle the goal or make the indivisible divisible, then there may be ways to provide these goals in a way which satisfies some of the potential supporters of the group and thus dries up support for the grander ambitions of the leaders of extremist groups. Secondly, the provision of programs which foster social cohesion tends to dry up an important motive for extremist activity: the desire for solidarity. Thirdly, policy towards terrorists should combine the use of “carrot” and “stick”. Finally, I argue that authoritarian regimes rather than democracies or totalitarian regimes are the most likely sources of suicide terror. So democracy is indeed part of the solution to the problem of suicide terrorism.     

Anti-depressants, suicide, and drug regulation.

Policymakers are increasingly concerned that a relatively new class of anti-depressant drugs, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI), may increase the risk of suicide for at least some patients, particularly children. Prior randomized trials are not informative on this question because of small sample sizes and other limitations. Using variation across countries over time in SSRI sales and suicide, we find that an increase of one pill per capita (a 13 percent increase over 1999 levels) is associated with a 2.5 percent reduction in suicide rates, a relationship that is more pronounced for adults than for children. Our findings suggest that expanding access to SSRIs for adults may be a cost-effective way to save lives, although policymakers are right to remain cautious about pediatric use of SSRIs.     

浅谈机器视觉的应用

用信息化带动工业化,就是要用先进的技术来武装传统产业.我国工业面临着产业结构的调整.国内工业自动化技术终归要和国际接轨.自动化企业正在倡导软硬一体化解决方案,于是在国内机器视觉悄悄兴起.随着信息技术不断进步,机器视觉将在自动化领域占据主导地位.     

Heavy alcohol use and youth suicide: Evidence from tougher drunk driving laws

This paper uses the widespread variation across states in the timing of adoption of tougher drunk driving laws that set very low legal blood alcohol limits for drivers under age 21—“zero tolerance” (ZT) laws—to provide new evidence on the causal effect of alcohol use on youth suicide. ZT laws reduced heavy episodic drinking by underage men, with no effect for slightly older males. I estimate the reduced form effect of ZT policy adoption on suicide deaths among 15–17‐, 18–20‐, 21–24‐, and 25–29‐year‐old males and females for the period 1981–1998. The models control for macroeconomic conditions, demographic changes, other alcohol control policies, state and year fixed effects, and smooth state trends. Results indicate statistically significant reductions in suicide among young males aged 15–17 and 18–20 associated with adoption of ZT laws on the order of 7 to 10 percent. I find no effects for slightly older males who were unaffected by the tougher drunk driving laws, and no consistent effects for females. These results provide new and compelling evidence that heavy alcohol use causes young male suicide. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

A framework for regulating automated teller machine technology

This article specifies and estimates a logit model of ATM adoption by commercial banks. The model provides evidence that permissive sharing laws increase the odds of adoption, which suggests that the antitrust laws may impede the efficient diffusion of the technology. The model also provides evidence that mandatory access laws decrease the odds of adoption for small banks. This suggests that the benefit of such laws in terms of promoting competition in the banking market may be offset by the cost of slower technological diffusion. Finally the model provides evidence that banking markets overlap to a varying degree, which implies that banks compete on the dimensions of price and location. This evidence suggests that mandatory access laws are a more appropriate policy tool when competing banks provide services at similar locations, and permissive sharing laws are more appropriate when competing banks are differentiated by location.     

Predicting and preventing radicalisation: an alternative approach to suicide terrorism in Europe

Suicidal acts of terrorism conducted by lone actors independently of overseas command and control networks currently dominate the European landscape. Intelligence suggests from a population of fifty-two attackers between 2012 and 2017, at least 75% had a history of chronic substance abuse. Almost exclusively, Muslims do not engage in 12-step recovery programmes like Alcoholics Anonymous. We hypothesize that as both an ideology and agent of socialization, Islamic fundamentalism provides a structurally equivalent alternative. Yet, it is a programme that inadvertently directs a minority of vulnerable men along a pathway towards isolation, obsession, resentment and finally martyrdom.     

How to build a time machine for public affairs executives

Temporal factors such as time and timing are so self‐evident in public affairs that they are rarely mentioned and even less frequently researched. Time is seen as the independent variable—a scaffold that underpins a calendar of communication events, legislative and regulatory processes, or issue lifecycles. However, time is a more complex and essential variable to contemplate than public affairs (and most other) executives give it credit for. This paper explores 16 unique ways to think about time, applying those dimensions to the Amazon HQ2 (second headquarters) selection process to illustrate how public affairs executives could use them to illuminate aspects of strategy and behavior they might otherwise not consider. Strategically, understanding interconnected dimensions of time improves clarity in the choice‐making process, allowing public affairs executives to exploit ideal timing as they execute their strategies.     

Male and female politicians on Twitter: A machine learning approach

How does the language of male and female politicians differ when they communicate directly with the public on social media? Do citizens address them differently? We apply Lasso logistic regression models to identify the linguistic features that most differentiate the language used by or addressed to male and female Spanish politicians. Male politicians use more words related to politics, sports, ideology and infrastructure, while female politicians talk about gender and social affairs. The choice of emojis varies greatly across genders. In a novel analysis of tweets written by citizens, we find evidence of gender-specific insults, and note that mentions of physical appearance and infantilising words are disproportionately found in text addressed to female politicians. The results suggest that politicians conform to gender stereotypes online and reveal ways in which citizens treat politicians differently depending on their gender.     

多媒体教学中人机关系的哲学思考

多媒体计算机应用于教育领域,给传统的教学活动带来了新的挑战,它打破了传统教学中所结成的人（教师）与人（学生）的单一交流模式,取而代之以新型的人（教师）-机-人（学生）的双向交互模式,而在这一模式中,人与机究竟形成了怎样的关系？本文欲从哲学视角进行阐述,以期更好地协调人机关系,促进教学改革。     

Who controls the machine,III: accountability in the results‐based revolution

Following up on two previous analyses of the efforts of Member States to solve the problems of command and control in the United Nations and its organisations, the article focuses on the latest effort, the institution of results‐based budgeting. The approach as applied to assessed budgets is critical for the maintenance of support of major contributors to the United Nations and other international organisations. After reviewing the problems inherent in previous efforts at using programme planning to control the organisation and make it accountable, the article focuses on the use of monitoring and evaluation as means of holding organisations accountable for producing results and on the conditions necessary for this to be effective. It argues that refocusing the work of the Committee for Programme and Coordination and the Office of Internal Oversight Services as its independent secretariat could make the results‐based revolution work and Member States finally to control the machine. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who controls the machine,revisited: command and control in the United Nations reform effort

Revisiting an analysis done ten years ago during one of the periodic efforts to reform the United Nations, the article suggests that the problem of control and accountability of the programming and budgeting process of the United Nations has not yet been resolved. Noting that the existing process does not allow for major changes in programmes and priorities and that it does not give the Secretary-General or the Member States a means for determining the organization's effectiveness, it argues for a new approach to command and control based on a service-delivery approach and adjustment of existing institutions. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.