Some thoughts on the application of new technology to resource management needs

A brief insight into the phenomena of technology transfer are reviewed. With this as background material two propositions are stated:

1. Technology emerges from the human mind into widespread economic reality, with resulting social impacts over a long period of time. This is the process of technological innovation.
2. There always are some distinctive events, points or stages in this process that mark progress. If they can be identified, progress can be measured and related to time, cost, performance, resource usage, possible impact and other attributes. It is argued that there are at least eight identifiable stages of the process.

These stages are then discussed and conclusions are drawn.     

The application of the medical criteria for the harm to health: expert and law-enforcement practice

This paper is devoted to the practical application of the medical criteria (MC) for the harm to health (HH) put into force on September 16, 2008. The authors undertook the analysis of procedures of forensic medical expertises for the estimation of the harm to health during the periods before and after putting MC into action (between 2007 and 2010). The results of this analysis were compared with the number of documented criminal actions that caused harm to health and the number of subjects convicted of such crimes. It is shown that the frequency of crimes leading to the serious harm to health has increased (by 22%) in parallel to the roughly similar decrease in the frequency of crimes responsible for the moderate harm. These trends are unrelated to the changes in the number of subjects convicted of such crimes. The frequency of intentional infliction of the serious harm to health decreased by 12% and the number of subjects convicted of the crimes that caused serious (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, parts 1-3, article 111) and moderate (Criminal Code, article 112) harm to health decreased in 2010 by 5% compared with 2007. The rise in the frequency of the crimes responsible for the serious harm to health (Medical Criteria, pp. 6.11.1-6.11.11) revealed during forensic medical expertises is unrelated to the number of documented crimes and subjects convicted of them under parts 1,2, article 264 of the Criminal Code. The number of documented crimes and subjects convicted of them after the new medical criteria had been put into force (2009 and 2010) decreased by 23% and 15% respectively. It is concluded that putting into effect the new regulations and medical criteria did not result in a substantial change in the relative frequency of the serious and moderate harm to health. Nor did the law enforcement practice gives evidence of any change in the relationship between cases of moderate and serious harm to health and in the number of grave crimes causing the harm to health. The new medical criteria allowed to put in order and present in a structured fashion the data on the harm to health depending on the degree of its severity.     

The contributions of invention management companies to technology transfer

A new type of organization which is explicitly dedicated to technology transfer has emerged in the United States: Companies which manage inventions produced by universities, independent inventors and other creative groups. This paper shows that these “Invention Management Companies” (IMCs) make important and unique contributions to technology transfer on legal issues (e.g., guarding against patent infringements), marketing (e.g., convincing a company to commercialize au invention) and advocating the invention against the organized opposition of established technologies. Given the contributions of IMCs to an emerging system for encouraging innovation (an “Inventive Society”), the paper recommends broadening the role of IMCs as information providers and linking them to incubators and venture capital companies.     

测谎鉴定意见的应用现状及证据效力研究

测谎技术(polygraph)经过一个多世纪的发展,目前在多个领域都有不同程度的应用,但我国法律尚未对测谎鉴定意见的法律地位做出明确规定.本文简要介绍了测谎技术的历史发展,分析了测谎鉴定意见的证据属性及其信度、效度,并总结了将测谎鉴定意见作为证据使用还存在的几个问题:1.测谎专业人员培养滞后,测试人员水平参差不齐,从业资格认证与管理缺乏统一的规范;2.对于测谎鉴定的应用范围、测试主体、启动程序等缺乏法律依据;3、测谎鉴定意见的假阳性率无法消除,盲目认定其证据效力存在风险.最后针对问题提出了对策与建议,相信通过不断的努力,可以使测谎技术更为科学、有效、规范地服务于我国的司法实践.     

The safety helmet detection technology and its application to the surveillance system

The Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) plays an important role in the modem economy. It provides a fast and convenient way to process transactions between banks and their customers. Unfortunately, it also provides a convenient way for criminals to get illegal money or use stolen ATM cards to extract money from their victims' accounts. For safety reasons, each ATM has a surveillance system to record customer's face information. However, when criminals use an ATM to withdraw money illegally, they usually hide their faces with something (in Taiwan, criminals usually use safety helmets to block their faces) to avoid the surveillance system recording their face information, which decreases the efficiency of the surveillance system. In this paper, we propose a circle/circular arc detection method based upon the modified Hough transform, and apply it to the detection of safety helmets for the surveillance system of ATMs. Since the safety helmet location will be within the set of the obtainable circles/circular arcs (if any exist), we use geometric features to verify if any safety helmet exists in the set. The proposed method can be used to help the surveillance systems record a customer's face information more precisely. If customers wear safety helmets to block their faces, the system can send a message to remind them to take off their helmets. Besides this, the method can be applied to the surveillance systems of banks by providing an early warning safeguard when any "customer" or "intruder" uses a safety helmet to avoid his/her face information from being recorded by the surveillance system. This will make the surveillance system more useful. Real images are used to analyze the performance of the proposed method.     

Legal deduction,legal predicates and expert systems

Much of the text which follows was first presented to the Conference of the Legal Expert System Association at Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, in August 1987, and followed by a similar argument, slightly differently angled, at a Symposium in honour of Ota Weinberger in Graz, whose proceedings remain for the moment unpublished. I have also received valuable criticisms through discussions of the latter version at meetings of an Esprit Working Group on Foundations of Legal Reasoning convened by Dr. Tim Flanagan of Cambridge, 1988–91.     

The dichotomy of the expert witness

The expert on either side is either right, partially right, wrong, or wrong and dishonest. Even strongly opposed testimony is not evidence of dishonesty, although it is clear at least one expert is wrong. Some differences are the result of legitimate differences of opinion. However, the author has identified several categories of testimony that show dishonest intent. It is clear that the growth of financial incentives has increased the number of cases in which there are opposing experts. If some kind of corrective action is not taken, expert witnesses will no longer be an effective force in the legal system. A multidisciplinary testimony review board separate from the ethics function is clearly one answer to the problem.     

The role of intellectual property management education in a technology management curriculum

Should intellectual property (IP) management be considered a required course in Technology Management curricula? If so, what knowledge and skills should be conveyed in a one-semester course? What is the best way to teach this material? This paper presents evidence that intellectual property management should be of central importance to technology management (TM) programs and that professionally vital knowledge can be taught to MBA and Management of Technology (MOT) students without legal backgrounds. IP management can be seen as a curricular locus, bringing together subjects such as entrepreneurship, technology strategy, and technology transfer. At Stevens Institute of Technology, we’ve taken the position that IP Management should be taught as a distinct course in a technology management program on equal footing with more traditional course offerings such as Marketing and Finance. We reflect upon 4 years’ teaching experience and present evidence from former students that the course fulfills its mission to be professionally relevant and pedagogically unifying to technology management programs.     

Legal regulation and management of fee for services in the state expert institutions

With due regard for the economic situation in regions, differences in the material-technical and personnel provision of each forensic-medical bureau (FMB), paying capacity of local residents and for other factors, a method for estimating the cost of forensic medical services was elaborated and offered for use. The formula of cost estimation for rendered services allow for basic wages (BW) and bonuses, sick-list and vacation payments, overhead charges (including FMB wear-and-tear), and BW assignment to off-budget funds (which constitute, in total, the self-cost of services) as well as the planned profit and road taxes.     

Probabilistic expert systems for handling artifacts in complex DNA mixtures

This paper presents a coherent probabilistic framework for taking account of allelic dropout, stutter bands and silent alleles when interpreting STR DNA profiles from a mixture sample using peak size information arising from a PCR analysis. This information can be exploited for evaluating the evidential strength for a hypothesis that DNA from a particular person is present in the mixture. It extends an earlier Bayesian network approach that ignored such artifacts. We illustrate the use of the extended network on a published casework example.     

论现代安防技术中的空间信息与多媒体通讯技术及其应用

本文首先叙述了国内外安防的要求与近十年来安防技术的发展，侧重介绍了空间信息与多媒体网络通信技术的发展及在安防中的应用可能性。     

A new approach to measuring technology with an application to the shape of the diffusion curves

This paper documents the sources and measures of the cross-country historical adoption technology (CHAT) data set that covers the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to explore the shape of the diffusion curves. Our main finding is that, once the intensive margin is measured, technologies do not diffuse in a logistic way.

Welfare benefits adviser: a local government expert system application

Walsall M.B.C., in conjunction with ICL, are developing an expert system to give advice on welfare benefits. The system will advise potential claimants on their entitlement, initially to Income Support, Family Credit, Mobility Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Invalid Care Allowance with other benefits to be added later on. Although the present version covers only 5 of the approximately 70 benefits, in fact these 5 benefits account for about 85% of claims to the DSS. The system is currently on field trial in six of the Council's Neighbourhood Offices. The following summarises developments so far.     

Practical application of the Injury Severity Score (ISS) in expert forensic testimony

The retrospective analysis of the autopsy records of 50 homicides showed that the Injury Severity Score (ISS), a numerical scoring system initially developed to quantify the severity of injuries sustained in road traffic accidents, can also be useful for objectively describing and ranking the overall severity of trauma with regard to forensic issues. The present case report illustrates to what extent the ISS can help to assess the contribution of each assailant in homicides committed by several perpetrators. In the case presented the court was convinced that one perpetrator had inflicted four deep stab wounds to the victim's face (each with bony lesions), 2 stabs to the chest piercing the right lower pulmonary lobe and causing a haemothorax of 200 ml, an abdominal stab wound without involvement of a parenchymatous organ as well as multiple defence wounds of the arms. Thereafter, a second perpetrator was thought to have inflicted several heavy blows with a full water bottle causing severe contusions on the right side of the forehead, the chin, the left side of the face and a spider's web fracture of the frontal bone. Using the ISS an injury severity score of 24 was assigned to the first complex of injuries and a score of 10 to the second complex. The forensic conclusions with regard to prognosis and lethal outcome are discussed.     

专家陪审制度的研究

案件事实认定中诉讼专门性问题的高频化和复杂化使得法官更加依赖具有专门知识的人来解决,而现有诉讼专门性问题的解决途径存在不足.以人民陪审制度为基础,选取具有某一专门知识的专家作为陪审员参与诉讼专门性问题的事实认定,既有利于弥补现有诉讼专门性问题解决途径的不足,使法庭更为准确地认定案件事实,又能有效地发挥人民陪审员的民主价值.目前专家陪审制度在诸多地方法院自主实行,亟待进行统一的制度规范.