Technology transfer in the Americas: common and divergent practices among major research universities and public sector institutions

The present article presents the results of a qualitative study whose purpose was to compare the structure and operation of the programs for intellectual property management and technology transfer, and the mechanisms through which to foster entrepreneurship, in five high-profile research institutions across the Americas. The institutions of focus included Stanford University and the University of California, Davis in the United States; the Universidad Católica and the Universidad de Concepción in Chile; and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina. The purpose of the study was to elucidate commonalities and differences among these institutions with respect to their technology transfer practices, and to distill methodologies that could be used to establish or refine technology transfer offices in American regions. Research revealed common goals and core activities, shared and implemented in similar ways among all five institutions. However, the analysis also identified divergent areas within the structure and operation of the various technology transfer programs, representing significant differences between the five institutions.     

Organizational downsizing and age discrimination litigation: the influence of personnel practices and statistical evidence on litigation outcomes

The present study examined relationships between reduction-in-force (RIF) personnel practices, presentation of statistical evidence, and litigation outcomes. Policy capturing methods were utilized to analyze the components of 115 federal district court opinions involving age discrimination disparate treatment allegations and organizational downsizing. Univariate analyses revealed meaningful links between RIF personnel practices, use of statistical evidence, and judicial verdict. The defendant organization was awarded summary judgment in 73% of the claims included in the study. Judicial decisions in favor of the defendant organization were found to be significantly related to such variables as formal performance appraisal systems, termination decision review within the organization, methods of employee assessment and selection for termination, and the presence of a concrete layoff policy. The use of statistical evidence in ADEA disparate treatment litigation was investigated and found to be a potentially persuasive type of indirect evidence. Legal, personnel, and evidentiary ramifications are reviewed, and a framework of downsizing mechanics emphasizing legal defensibility is presented.     

Regulating transnational corporate bribery: Anti-bribery and corruption in the UK and Germany

Recent large-scale cases involving multi-national corporations such as the BAE Systems and Siemens bribery scandals illustrate the difficulties faced by the UK and German sovereign states in controlling complex trans-national and multi-jurisdictional crimes. This article analyses the mixture of enforcement, self-regulatory and hybrid mechanisms that are emerging as part of UK and German responses to controlling transnational corporate bribery. This regulatory landscape incorporates a diverse array of direct and indirect state and non-state ‘regulatory’ actors of varying levels of formality. Mechanisms of a self-regulatory nature vary in terms of their mandatory/voluntary requirements and manufactured/organic formation. However, there is an assumption that the emergence of a variety of enforcement, self-regulatory and innovative hybrid mechanisms is sufficient but in reality this is not the case. Instead, the key argument of the article is that while these mechanisms are aiding the response, they are likely to fail leading to the default position of accommodation by state agencies, even where the will to enforce the law is high.     

论高校贿赂犯罪的侦防对策

贿赂犯罪作为一个古老的社会现象,在中国市场经济日益发达的今天似乎愈演愈烈,甚至渗入被视为象牙塔的教育领域,成为现代法治社会的一大毒瘤,严重影响了创建和谐社会的宏伟目标。笔者在分析中国高等教育系统贿赂犯罪的现状与特点基础上,拟就如何采取侦查和预防对策,提出自己的见解,以期有效地控制高校领域的贿赂犯罪.     

Uncivic Society as a Sociopolitical Phenomenon in Ukraine: Reflections of the Social Character of the "Average" Ukrainian in the Electoral Process

Among the many remarkable peculiarities of the electoral process in Ukraine during the eighteen-month electoral cycle (from the parliamentary elections in March 1998 to the presidential elections in October-November 1999), the features of most interest to political scientists are those that, if properly explained, will enable us, first, to outline the basic parameters of citizens' behavior under the political regime that has evolved during the last ten years and, second, to determine the value orientations and the potential of the principal social and political actors. Above all, I have in mind the sociopolitical and sociocultural components of the elections or, to use a term of Erich Fromm's, the social character [1] of what is called the mean statistical (average) Ukrainian.     

Network subversion: The contrasting effects of multiple networks on bribery in South Korea

This paper is based on the premise that corrupt uses of public, civic networks ostensibly built and legitimated for their altruistic purposes can be a source of network subversion and corruption. Open, public, civic networks of South Korea seem to be systemic and organizational facilitators of criminality instead of assumptions of criminality being related only to closed, criminal cultures or anomie. We test whether increasing participation in the major social networks of Korean civic life – networks based on geography (common ancestral hometown), family (extended kinship), and education (alumni) – are associated with increasing penchants for self-admitted criminal collusion, in this case, bribery. We argue that due to relational association or within-network favoritism the increase in multiple networks per individual generates increasing social capital of access, information, and trust which may be subverted toward some form of private criminal collusion.     

Research universities as actors in the governance of local and regional development

In the increasingly competitive, knowledge-based economy, universities have a variety of potential roles for stimulating economic development beyond teaching, research and technology development. In this article we focus on universities’ role as actors in the governance of local and regional development. Using recently developed theories about the emergence of heterarchical governance, we discuss the motivations, interests, structural arrangements, and contingent conditions for universities becoming actors and partners in steering regional economic development policy and contributing to regional problem-solving, and explore the how university involvement may increase the effectiveness of governance processes. We test several hypotheses and draw lessons for the design and participation of governance arrangements. Our results suggest that individual leadership initiatives and the quality or interpersonal working relationships among leaders may be more important than the particular structural arrangements for producing effective governance outcomes.     

Organizational structure as predictor of intelligence strategy implementation in policing

Barriers to strategy implementation are often found in the organizational structure in law enforcement. Strategy implementation is important because failure to carry out strategy can cause lost opportunities and leave police officers reluctant to do strategic planning. Lack of implementation creates problems in maintaining priorities and reaching organizational goals. Yet, strategy implementation suffers from a general lack of academic attention. This research paper makes a contribution to police strategy implementation literature by developing a research model to study the extent of intelligence strategy implementation caused by organizational structure in policing.     

Assessing Committee Roles in a Developing Legislature: The Case of the Ukrainian Parliament

The Ukrainian parliament consistently attracts scholarly attention as one of the developing parliaments in the Former Soviet Region that is succeeding with institutionalisation. This study assesses committee roles in the legislative process and discusses factors that are associated with strong or weak roles for committees. We bring evidence from the Ukrainian parliament to test traditionally hypothesised institutional factors in committee studies, such as roles of government and parties. To account for the difference between developed and developing legislatures, we add an attitudinal component to the analysis. The results confirm that traditionally hypothesised factors are important in assessing committee roles. However, important intervening factors such as strength and size of factions and the range of ideologies have to be taken into account to explain institutional dynamics in a developing legislature. In addition, an analysis of attitudes provides a valuable insight into the development of committee roles in a developing legislature.     

Self-control, differential association, and gang membership: A theoretical and empirical extension of the literature

Using data gathered from a sample of two hundred jail inmates housed in a large California city, this research extends the still nascent literature on the self-control/gang membership association. The article begins by first articulating more comprehensively than earlier research Gottfredson and Hirschi's theoretical justification for expecting a self-control/gang membership link. Next, an examination is undertaken of the relative independent influences on gang membership of self-control and a series of measures, derived from differential association theory, that mainly tap familial gang involvement. On the whole, logistic regression models suggested that self-control exerted an effect on gang membership that was almost entirely independent of, but also modest in comparison to, familial gang involvement effects, although the results also indicated the insignificance of self-control upon controlling for a series of differential association measures. Finally, theoretical implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Labeling and differential association: Towards a general social learning theory of crime and deviance

This study contends that components from two theories-labeling and differential association-should be incorporated into a general social learning perspective of crime and deviance. Data from waves one, two, and three of the National Youth Survey (n=1725) are used to test the proposed model. Results indicate that labeling effects are mediated by associations with delinquent peers when looking at a 24-item delinquency index. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Racial disproportionality in state prison admissions: Can regional variation be explained by differential arrest rates?

Recent studies have found that states in the Midwest incarcerate Blacks at a higher rate than those in the South. This article examines the extent to which this regional pattern of racial disproportionality in incarceration rates could be explained by controlling for race-specific arrest rates. The findings showed that the level of racial disproportionality in imprisonment decreased among all of the regions after controlling for race-specific arrest rates, but previously observed regional differences remained. These findings indicate that differences in the level of racial disproportionality in incarceration rates among regions were due to differential involvement in serious crimes by race resulting from a higher concentration of Blacks in urban areas relative to Whites in the Midwest.     

Public sector innovation: the effect of universities

A growing literature in public management has identified the key role that innovation can play in enhancing agency efficiency, effectiveness, performance and legitimacy. However, considerably less is known about the actual sources of knowledge generating innovative activity in the public sector. This paper fills this crucial gap in the literature by explicitly analyzing the link between a key source of knowledge and ideas, universities, and the innovative activities of public organizations. By utilizing a new source of data, this paper is able to show that not only do universities play a key role in generating innovative activity in public organizations, but the nature of innovations and their impact on public sector performance are related to the role played by universities. The findings suggest that universities play a key role in generating innovative activity in public organizations as doing so can increase the quality of public services, employee job satisfaction, and interagency collaboration.

     

Microwave-assisted extraction and differential scanning calorimetry in the chemical identification of sliming agents apprehended in the south region of Brazil

Over the past decades, consume of slimming agents considerably increased in several countries, including Brazil, due to weight-loss and stimulant properties. Since these drugs are controlled to prevent illicit and indiscriminate use, there is a parallel illegal market that uses the Internet and irregular pharmacies in order to distribute these formulations. Slimming agents produced by these illegal sources are known for being manufactured with little or none quality control resulting in uncertain and unknown formulations. For forensic purposes, apprehended pharmaceuticals have to undergo a process of chemical identification that can be difficult due to its complex matrix. In this sense, application of assisted energies in the extraction step such as microwave irradiation can be a promising method to increase the recuperation of the target molecules of the sample. Therefore, the aim of this research was to identify four slimming agents apprehended in Brazil by means of visual inspection, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry. Moreover, the efficiency of solid-liquid extraction and microwave-assisted extraction was compared. It should be noted that our work was one of the few to use Differential Scanning Calorimetry and the application of microwave irradiation in the analysis of apprehended materials. Results showed that the majority of the samples was counterfeit being composed of one or several adulterants or contaminants. Initially, visual inspection resourcefully screened the slimming agents for possible signs of falsification, however it failed to detect fraudulent products that were very similar to veridical medicines. Sequentially, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy detected functional groups present in the samples while the presence or absence of the alleged active ingredients were successfully measured with Differential Scanning Calorimetry and, thus, providing a full chemical screening of the apprehended materials. Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry confirmed the presence of adulterants such as caffeine, fluoxetine and phenolphthalein as well as contaminants such as sulfurol in the falsified samples. Finally, comparison of extraction procedures indicated that microwave-assisted extraction increased the recovery of compounds detected in chromatographic analysis to a greater extent than solid-liquid extraction.     

Social entrepreneurs as change agents: a case study on power and authority in the water sector

In view of urgent social and environmental problems, it is important to understand the political dynamics that may promote sustainable development and to identify the agents that make changes in this direction happen. We examine the role and authority of a new type of actor that has recently emerged on the global stage—the social entrepreneur, who tackles social and ecological problems with entrepreneurial means. We consider them as agents that perform functions and provide services that have been considered to be the sole authority of states. For instance, the provision of water services has long been considered an exclusive task of the state. The water sector therefore serves as a good example to explore how these agents come up with their own missions and political agendas. Via an illustrative sample of social entrepreneurs from around the world, we explore their relation to water governance in general and the hydraulic mission in particular. We propose that their innovative potential serves as their main source of authority. Their local embeddedness along with their educational efforts, participatory goals, and accreditation as “social entrepreneur” provide additional sources of authority.     

The political management of managed care: explaining variations in state health maintenance organization regulations

In the 1990s, strong incentives for managed care organizations to control costs, once regarded as a fortuitous confluence of interests, came to be seen as antithetical to consumers' interests in quality of care. In response to this change in political climate, many states have greatly increased their regulatory control of managed care organizations since the mid-1990s. This activity is surprising in an era when public policy on health care issues is usually described as frozen, gridlocked, and/or stalemated as a result of intense activity on the part of organized interests. We take advantage of the variation in state regulations of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to discover why some governments are able to address policy problems that are often perceived as intractable in a political if not in a true policy sense. From the history of HMOs, the backlash against managed care, and state responses to that backlash, we first extract a number of hypotheses about state regulatory activity. We then test these hypotheses with data on regulatory adoptions by states during the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Last, we discuss the findings with special attention to the role of politics in health care.     

Technology commercialization in entrepreneurial universities: the US and Russian experience

US universities are leading the way in technology commercialization, while universities in Russia lag far behind. This paper discusses the best American practices, as well as the main issues of technology commercialization at the US universities. As an example, we consider the experience of the University of Maryland, College Park. In the next section, we turn to technology commercialization in Russia, where it struggles for several reasons. In this paper, we propose that Russia can improve its technology commercialization by studying the example of the leading US entrepreneurial universities and implementing proper procedures. And the important overarching point is that Russian universities need to improve their collaboration with industry, and they need to develop new standards of administrative, research, and business activity that will promote innovation and entrepreneurship.     

The importation and re-exportation of organized crime: explaining the rise and fall of the Jamaican posses in the United States

During the 1980s and 1990s, Jamaican posses captured the imagination of the press corps, film makers, and numerous of criminal justice scholars in the United States. However, except for a few historical references, their virtual disappearance from the contemporary criminal justice literature leaves many unanswered questions. In updating the literature, this paper examines the main factors contributing to the decline of Jamaican posses in the United States and explains how their criminal activities were displaced to Jamaica through aggressive U.S. anti drug and anti-gang operations and immigration policies.