Self-control, risky lifestyles, and situation: The role of opportunity and context in the general theory

Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) propose that low self-control is a cause of criminal behavior. Several recent studies showed mixed support for the theory and called for researchers to examine proximate causes that might intercede between self-control and criminality including lifestyle and the social circumstances of criminal events. Utilizing a sample of 125 homeless male street youths, this study explored how low self-control, risky lifestyles, and street youths' reactions to situations influenced their participation in a range of violent behaviors both as offenders and victims. Results revealed that certain sub-scales of low self-control influenced the way street youth react to criminal events and the likelihood that they would become an offender or victim. Lifestyle and situational dynamics of conflicts also influenced people's propensity to become involved in violence. This suggests that learned repertoires for aggression and situational dynamics can mediate the effects of low self-control.     

Palliative pain therapy at the end of life and forensic medicine issues.

An 83-year-old woman with a history of Alzheimer's disease and breast cancer died at home while receiving palliative pain therapy with oral morphine from her family for metastatic breast cancer. Allegations of mistreatment were made, and this case was ultimately referred to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland. An autopsy failed to identify any injuries or residual cancer, leaving no anatomic explanation for the pain that had been presumed to be metastatic breast carcinoma involving bone. The blood free morphine concentration was 5,200 ng/ml, and the total morphine concentration was 15,000 ng/ml. This case demonstrates the challenges and difficulties in forensic medicine when faced with the interpretation of toxicologic results at the end of life.     

Ethical and practical principles underlying the end of life decisions

"I will not relinquish old age, if it leaves my better part intact. But, if it begins to shake my mind, if it destroys its faculties one by one, if it leaves me not life but breath, I will depart from the putrid or tottering edifice. If I must suffer without hope or relief, I will depart, not through fear of the pain itself, but because it prevents all for which I would live." Seneca, the great Roman statesman of 1st century AD, spoke these words 2 millennia before the Netherlands became, on November 28, 2000, the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. The decisions pertaining to end of life, whether legalized or otherwise, are practiced in many parts of the world but not reported on account of legal implications. Lack of awareness regarding the distinction between different procedures on account of legal status granted to them in some countries is the other area of concern. Debate among the medical practitioners, lawmakers, and the public taking into consideration the cultural, social, and religious ethos will lead to increased awareness, more safeguards, and improvement of medical decisions concerning the end of life.     

中国紧急状态法的立法状况及特征

本文侧重对我国目前紧急状态法的立法现状、内容和特征进行了比较全面地分析 ,并在结合国外法治国家紧急状态法律制度建设的经验基础之上 ,提出要统一我国的紧急状态法律制度 ,特别是应当制定统一的紧急状态法来代替目前分散立法的状况 ,此外 ,还应当建立统一的应急机构来保证政府在紧急状态时期能够依法行使行政紧急权力 ,防止公民的宪法和法律权利因为实施紧急状态而受到政府紧急权力不必要的侵犯。     

The end of life: A Nyāya-kantian approach to the Bhagavadgītā

Work on this paper was supported by a grant from the Spalding Trust at Oxford University, U.K.     

The role of marketing activities in the fuzzy front end of innovation: a study of the biotech industry

In this paper we explore the importance of marketing activities during the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation (FFEI), which in product life cycle management is described as the phase between R&D and the beginning of formal new product development. The FFEI is characterized by informal processes and many industry specific conditions. The particular context in which the study was conducted involved research emerging from a US government sponsored institution. Firms obtain licenses for technology from the government sponsored institution with the purpose of advancing them towards commercialization. But, the process of development often gets stalled, especially during the initial stages due to the lack of a number of resources (financial, key personnel, etc.). The specific interest in this study was, therefore, to understand the extent to which various marketing efforts by the licensees enabled the survival of early stage biotech innovations. Licensees would be expected to seek resources by undertaking a number of marketing activities designed to communicate a value proposition to potential resource providers. The study involved qualitative data collection among licensees to uncover marketing activities in which they engaged during the FFEI phase. The data was coded to develop the specific types of marketing activities that had been employed so as to provide insight into which activities were important in enabling early stage innovation survival. Future research can build upon this study’s findings in industries other than biotech and involving different sources of technology transfer (universities, etc.).     

The impact of education on the demographic life course: The family reproduction process of literates and illiterates in the Netherlands at the end of the nineteenth century

A widely held assumption is that the decline of illiteracy had a notable impact on the demographic transition in western Europe in the nineteenth century. Literates, it is said, were more open to innovation and were better equipped to control their environment and their destiny. The article examines this hypothesis by looking into the family reproduction process of literates and illiterates who lived in the town of Eindhoven between 1850 and 1900. Using the concept of the life course, the article looks at differences in age at marriage, fertility, and infant and child mortality, and finds that in each category of literacy a certain form of demographic behavior prevailed.