The USPS as an OSP: A Remedy for Users’ Online Privacy Concerns

New digital technologies, and a legal system that has failed to keep pace, are allowing government and the private sector to engage in unparalleled unauthorized surveillance of online personal data contained in emails and in the aggregation of users’ online searches. This article argues that the U.S. Postal Service — compelled to protect communications privacy by its enabling statute, the Fourth Amendment, and other federal laws — should provide email and browser-search engine services to shield users from unauthorized online behavioral marketing and tracking by the private sector and metadata collection by government, and, just as important, give users legal remedies against such abuses. To that end, this article provides a legal analysis and rationale to support the USPS's authority to offer such nontraditional postal services.     

Light as an Analogy for Cognition in Buddhist Idealism (Vijñānavāda)

In Sect. 1 an argument for Yogācāra Buddhist Idealism, here understood as the view that everything in the universe is of the nature of consciousness / cognition, is laid out. The prior history of the argument is also recounted. In Sect. 2 the role played in this argument by light as an analogy for cognition is analyzed. Four separate aspects of the light analogy are discerned. In Sect. 3, I argue that although light is in some ways a helpful analogy for the Buddhist Idealist, in other ways it is thoroughly inappropriate. At the end of the article I ask whether the lack of fit between light and cognition is unavoidable, or whether the Buddhist Idealists could have chosen a better analogy.     

Child Abuse as a Catalyst for Wife Abuse?

This paper draws on Matza’s (1964/1990) theory of deviance to propose that the father’s current abuse of the child moderates the relationship between father’s patriarchal beliefs and current perpetration of husband violence in South Korea. Drawing on Matza’s concept of neutralizing beliefs, the paper argues that child abuse potentiates patriarchal beliefs, allowing husbands to extend rationalizations for child abuse to rationalizations for wife abuse, resulting in an interaction effect. The paper tests this hypothesized interaction effect using data from a nationally representative sample of 585 South Korean men. The paper then tests a competing alternative hypothesis that any type of violence (including violence outside the family) by the father acts as a moderator. Support is found for the child abuse as moderator hypothesis but not for the competing hypothesis.     

Can Formal Rules of Order be Used as an Accurate Proxy for Behaviour Internal to a Legislature? Evidence from Costa Rica

Scholars rely heavily on formal rules to classify legislatures, but parchment institutions may only tell part of the story about how the chamber works. Behind-the-scenes behaviour may counter-balance or temper the power distribution created by formal rules. To begin examining if formal rules are an accurate predictor of actual behaviour, we analyse standing committees in Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly. We find that despite the formal institutions that favour a majoritarian bonus, the opposition party is a full participant in the legislative process in committee sessions. Opposition deputies participate equally or more so than majority party deputies, and deputies of all parties work together to investigate bills and kill legislation evaluated to be flawed, which indicates that formal rules are only one component to understanding legislative behaviour.     

The hunt for an elusive crime – an analysis of Swedish measures to combat sex trafficking

Sex trafficking has been described as an enormous, serious and growing problem that must be combatted, but also as a moral panic based on a very small number of cases. This article explores the measures that have been proposed to combat sex trafficking by politicians, the national police and the National Council for Crime Prevention in Sweden between 2007 and 2017. The analysis shows that sex trafficking is partly used by the actors to justify their own work. The measures that all three actors describe as central are crime victim support, co-operation, information, education and expanded legislation. The underlying problems associated with sex trafficking, according to the three actors, appear to be prostitution, drug use and foreign women crossing Swedish borders. Much of the responsibility for the provision of information and education is delegated from government agencies to a wide range of actors. This desire for comprehensive societal engagement stands in stark contrast to the small number of sex trafficking cases in Sweden. The measures to combat sex trafficking are thus largely characterized by the hunt for an elusive crime.     

Side-payments: an effective instrument for building climate clubs?

Climate clubs have been suggested as a gateway to substantial reductions in global emissions. The club approach begins with a small number of enthusiastic countries. This paper asks under what conditions such clubs are likely to evolve into effective cooperation through side-payments to new members. The question is addressed through a range of formal thought experiments using numerical simulations. The model is calibrated using empirical data on countries’ emissions, GDP, populations, and vulnerabilities. It is simple and stylized, but allows for complex and dynamic interactions between actors. Basic equity considerations can be accommodated. The results indicate that side-payments’ theoretical potential for facilitating effective clubs is large. One or two large emitters can initiate a club that grows to cover a substantial share of global emissions if the global benefit–cost ratio for mitigation is around 3 or larger. The size of stable clubs is larger if new members contribute to making side-payments, and somewhat lower if equity considerations constrain the set of possible transfers. Side-payments’ effect is enabled by the large asymmetries between countries. Total side-payment flows range from tens to hundreds of billions of US dollars annually.     

Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reporting—Not an Option for Much Longer

Based on the worldwide movement toward climate change, voluntary reporting of greenhouse gases is something every business—large and small—should consider doing now. Reporting makes sound business sense and will become mandatory in the US within the next few years. It provides a competitive advantage, baseline protection, input to new regulations, and preparation for emissions trading.

This article suggests that corporate officers have a fiduciary duty to voluntarily report. Not reporting could cost their companies money, unnecessary time catching up, reputation damage, and potential lawsuits from shareholders who believe that the corporate officers knew or should have known to investigate the issue and react.     

＂Terminator Technology＂ -A Technological Fix for an IP Problem？

1 Seed Saving 1.1 Under UPOV The evolution of the legal regime under which the de- velopment of plant varieties has secured protection as a cat- egory of intellectual property protection has been discussed elsewhere.1 The key feature of this evolution was a manifest tension between the desire of seed producers to protect their innovations and public concerns about the strategic impli-     

A Closer Look at an Eye for an Eye: Laypersons’ Punishment Decisions Are Primarily Driven by Retributive Motives

According to recent research on laypersons’ punitive attitudes people’s sentencing decisions are primarily driven by a desire for retribution. The research designed to test this notion, however, can be criticized for suffering from several limitations. Three online-based studies were conducted with samples from Western Europe with the aim of replicating the findings of Carlsmith (J Exp Soc Psychol 42:437–451, 2006) in which participants’ punishment motives were inferred from their behavior in a process tracing task. In the present research, this approach was adopted and modified in order to provide a more conservative test for the notion that people mainly care about retribution. Although these modifications strongly influenced the overall pattern of results, retribution still was the most important punishment motive in all three studies.     

Innovation and standardization as drivers of companies’ success in public procurement: an empirical analysis

The Journal of Technology Transfer - There is a significant potential to improve the benefits from public procurement through a better understanding of drivers in company success at the...     

The use of the M-Vac® wet-vacuum system as a method for DNA recovery

Collecting sufficient template DNA from a crime scene sample is often challenging, especially with low quantity samples such as touch DNA (tDNA). Traditional DNA collection methods such as double swabbing have limitations, in particular when used on certain substrates which can be found at crime scenes, thus a better collection method is advantageous. Here, the effectiveness of the M-Vac® Wet-Vacuum System is evaluated as a method for DNA recovery on tiles and bricks. It was found that the M-Vac® recovered 75% more DNA than double swabbing on bricks. However, double swabbing collected significantly more DNA than the M-Vac® on tiles. Additionally, it was found that cell-free DNA is lost in the filtration step of M-Vac® collection. In terms of peak height and number of true alleles detected, no significant difference was found between the DNA profiles obtained through M-Vac® collection versus double swabbing of tDNA depositions from 12 volunteers on bricks. The results demonstrate that the M-Vac® has potential for DNA collection from porous surfaces such as bricks, but that alterations to the filter apparatus would be beneficial to increase the amount of genetic material collected for subsequent DNA profiling. These results are anticipated to be a starting point to validate the M-Vac® as a DNA collection device, providing an alternative method when DNA is present on a difficult substrate, or if traditional DNA collection methods have failed.     

Comparison of new Ampac bags and FireDebrisPAK® bags as packaging for fire debris analysis

Abstract: The FireDebrisPAK^® bags that were produced by Kapak were considered to be one of the best containers for fire debris. Kapak bags were discontinued; however, from July 2010, Ampac is offering a new packaging material. The aim of the presented research was to compare the properties (durability, background interferences, and permeability) of Kapak bags and packaging material offered by Ampac. The analysis was conducted by passive adsorption from the headspace with subsequent thermal desorption and analysis by GC‐MS. The results proved that the properties of the compared materials are similar. Their greatest advantage is that they are impermeable for components of flammable liquids, so there is no danger of losing analytes or cross‐contamination. Their one significant drawback is that they should not be exposed to temperatures above 80°C. At this temperature, they become soft, their inner layer is compromised (becomes sticky), and they emit some volatile organic compounds. Among them, there are compounds that constitute the components of some of flammable liquids.     

Hyperostosis frontalis interna as an age-related phenomenon – Differences between males and females and possible use in identification

Hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) is a condition manifested by thickening of the inner surface of the frontal bone and it could be useful when dealing with the identification of human remains in various anthropological and forensic investigations. We compared the macroscopic appearance and morphologic (metric) features of the skulls in cases with and without HFI, in both sexes, and wanted to establish whether age determined occurrence of HFI. To achieve this aim, we performed prospective autopsy study, covering ten-year period (2007–2016). Study group consisted of southeast Europe Caucasian subjects, with determined age and sex. The severity of HFI was classified by two forensic pathologists independently, according to the four types (A–D) proposed by Hershkovitz et al. Thicknesses of the frontal and temporal bones, as well as the longitudinal and frontal diameters of the skulls were measured. The sample consisted of 35 males and 112 females with HFI, and 55 males and 202 females without HFI (404 individuals in total). Type B was the most common type of HFI among males (45%) and type C among females (41%). HFI type D was almost four times more common in females than in males (OR?=?3.73). Frontal and temporal bones were thicker in all subjects who have HFI. Thickness of the skull was not age-dependent, in the entire sample, or in subjects with HFI, or in the control group (in all the cases Spearman's Rho was <0.3). Age seemed to be a predicting factor for HFI occurrence only in females. Females younger than 55?years have similar risk for HFI occurrence as males. An unidentified skull with the general markers of old age and severe form HFI is most probably from a female decedent.     

Greening the security council: climate change as an emerging “threat to international peace and security”

Climate change is a security problem that requires global solutions. Despite some important recent advances, current international responses to climate change are inadequate. This paper assesses whether the United Nations Security Council possesses sufficient legal authority to compel states to address the causes and consequences of climate change. While not advocating the immediate adoption of coercive measures, this paper initiates discussion of this issue, with the goal of developing an institutional framework within which to respond to this emerging threat, if necessary. The paper begins with a brief overview of the clear links between climate change and security, and the inadequacy to date of international remedial efforts. This is followed by a detailed analysis of Security Council legal authority, in particular the UN Charter, including a discussion of its evolving invocation in the context of non-traditional threats. Applying this legal framework to the specific issue of climate change demonstrates the substantial authority of the Security Council to take binding decisions relating to this subject, and its wide range of available enforcement measures, recognizing that political will to exercise and support this authority is required for any successful Security Council efforts to address climate change. The paper concludes that the Security Council has the legal authority to address the causes and consequences of climate change, and that its recent counter-terrorism and non-proliferation measures provide an illustrative institutional framework within which to address this emerging ‘threat to international peace and security’.