Moment of Silence

The paper looks at the establishment of religion clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and cases, e.g. Brown v. Gilmore, followed by Croft v. Perry and Sherman v. Koch, cases that relate to the concept of the “moment of silence” in educational institutions in which it was claimed that such events constitute a breach of the establishment clause. Courts have been inconsistent in their decision-making, which may indicate a lack of transparency not only in the interpretation of the relevant phrase in the Constitution but also in the judicial interpretation of the “three-pronged test” with regard to “excessive entanglement” as laid out in Lemon v. Kurtzman of 1971. The paper discusses the “moment of silence” within the framework of a model of silence in which this type of silence would be labeled as either textual or situational silence.     

Medieval Arabic Algebra as an Artificial Language

Medieval Arabic algebra is a good example of an artificial language.Yet despite its abstract, formal structure, its utility was restricted to problem solving. Geometry was the branch of mathematics used for expressing theories. While algebra was an art concerned with finding specific unknown numbers, geometry dealtwith generalmagnitudes.Algebra did possess the generosity needed to raise it to a more theoretical level—in the ninth century Abū Kāmil reinterpreted the algebraic unknown “thing” to prove a general result. But mathematicians had no motive to rework their theories in algebraic form. Because it offered no advantage over geometry, algebra remained a practical art in both the Islamic world and in Europe until the scientific uphevals of the 17th–18th centuries.     

论汉语诗歌的内在音乐境界

诗歌语言是一种音乐化语言，但诗歌不能等同于韵语。诗歌的音乐形式既是其外部声音特征，也是其内在规定，节奏、韵律仅是其本质的外在显现。音乐和诗歌都是时间艺术，其共同逻辑起点是人对于世界的时间化感知。时间是内省形式，因而不可言说，但可通过时间对象——意象得以揭示。只有当诗歌语言被用于呈现生命时间本身，诗歌才达到旋律的境界，声韵一变而为神韵。动态意象成就了诗歌的内在节奏，它使得体验者当下的时间音乐化了。律化时间片断的延续构成了生命过程本身，由此抵达诗歌的内在旋律。动态意象所形成的内在节奏与声音节奏统一，内在旋律也与声调之曲折相呼应。如此，诗、音乐、思共在。     

论学前儿童音乐审美经验的建构

学前儿童具有先天的音乐能力。这是人类音乐性的体现,是人类的一种生存本能和由音乐经验积淀而形成的集体无意识。以此为前提,学前儿童能够通过与音乐作品的互动来建构审美经验。从感知到音乐文本的存在开始,学前儿童以一种主动的态度去理解、阐释音乐,并将所获得的音乐体验内化、再建构,从而形成对某一作品的我自己的审美经验。其后,学前儿童将此经验迁移以形成良好的音乐审美判断和鉴赏能力。在这一过程中,听觉与动觉的相互转换占主导地位。学前儿童音乐审美经验的建构是存在于幼儿、作曲家、社会之间的一种多重交互行为,其结果是建立一种共享体验。     

Mad cows and democratic governance: BSE and the coonstruction of a “free market” in the UK

The Conservative government elected in 1979 was ideologically committed to deregulation and removed many of the state's previously established regulatory procedures. The policy permitted important changes in the structure of the meat rendering industry and in the processes employed by it. These changes were directly responsible for the spread of BSE through the British cattle herd and lead to a rising incidence of the human form of BSE – variant-CJD. The British Government – and particularly MAFF – sought to defend the meat industry by denying – until March 1996 – both the seriousness of the BSE epidemic in cattle and the possibility of a species jump from cattle to the human population. Ministers and officials insisted that beef was safe to eat and underpinned this stance by providing misleading or inaccurate information to Parliament and the public. This deception was made possible by officials having the power to manipulate the scientific evidence and to prevent research and the publication of research findings. The British Government also succeeded in obstructing European Union directives from 1990 and in intimidating the Commission. MAFF equated the “public interest” with that of the meat rendering industry and consistently put the financial interests of the dominant firms above public health. The conspiracy of silence and the deceits employed to hide the increased risks resulting from infectious agents carried by food and the public health implications of deregulation reflect not only the broad economic and industrial policy of the then government and its agencies, but also the state's lack of independence from industrial and financial interests. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Lovely Beasts,Bestial Lovers: Animals,Righteous Men and the Semiotics of Musical Mirrors

In Aesop’s narrative world, metaphorical representations were apparently used to point out human flaws by attributing those to beasts, while anthropomorphic animals were actually able to disclose how bestial mankind is. In mediaeval bestiaries the same animal may carry multiple meanings, depending on what particular aspect of it is being highlighted and on its relationship with the other animals appearing in the same context. Even music forces to a continuous re-structuring of sounds in configurations which change depending on context, and which determine the conditions for a process of meaning-making based on both internal and external systems of relations. Thus, there seems to be a perfect analogy between the language of the bestiaries and that of music, and a commonality in how both bestiaries and music bestow on Nature its role as locus of truth. But how does musical rhetoric intervene in the effective construction of similarities, of metaphors and allegories that condense or articulate a narrative transformation through the organised conjunction of different animal figures? Throughout an analytic journey from mediaeval Italian musical bestiaries to erotic madrigals, from the intriguing fashion of musical “portraits” to the French late baroque representation of savages, this essay investigates the semiotic device of music as an ironic reversing mirror, which points out alterity and reveals the true bestial nature of mankind.     

Idle musical community: Dischord Records and anarchic DIY practice

Originally formed in 1980 to document the Teen Idle’s Minor Disturbance EP, Dischord Records has continued to document and support the local Washington, DC, hardcore punk music scene for over three decades through an anarchic Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethic. Dischord’s DIY ethic affords a manner of music documentation, in contrast to production, and community formation that reconfigures the space of dominant commercial production and exchange. Dischord’s business practices, such as forming agreements with bands via handshake instead of legal contract, allow the label to resist consumerism and exploitation of both artists and audiences while fostering a creative space, where profit does not dictate the sound of the music or produce a commodified musical product. Ultimately, Dischord’s political potential is in its ethics to the extent that anarchic DIY practice constitutes a sort of inoperative community of circulation rather than production and profit. The implications of these practices relate to the ways in which music constitutes social and communal relations and its radical possibility of reconfiguring a space outside of commercial exchanges, whether in the political sphere or in the digital realm.     

Reducing criminal recidivism: evaluation of Citizenship, an evidence-based probation supervision process

‘Citizenship’ is a structured probation supervision program based on ‘what works’ principles, designed for offenders on community orders or licenses supervised within the UK National Probation Service. The program was evaluated using survival analysis comparing the reconvictions of a cohort of all offenders in one probation area eligible for Citizenship over a 2-year period (n = 3,819) with those of a retrospective cohort of all eligible offenders in the same probation area receiving ‘traditional’ probation supervision (n = 2,110), controlling for risk related factors. At the 2-year stage, 50% of offenders in the comparison group had reoffended compared to 41% in the experimental group, and the difference between the survival curves was statistically significant. The hazard ratio was 0.69, which represents a 31% reduction in reconvictions in the experimental group over the proportion in the comparison group at any given time. Time to violation of a supervision order or post custody license was also statistically significantly longer in the experimental group. A key element of the program, promoting contact with community support agencies, was statistically significantly related to reduced reoffending in the Citizenship group. The overall effects remained after controlling for differences in risk scores although effectiveness varied by risk level. Contrary to other ‘what works’ research findings, the program was found to be most effective across the low–medium and medium–high risk thresholds, and was not effective with the highest risk group. This difference can be explained and is discussed in terms of risk, need, and responsivity principles. The Citizenship program was found to be cost-beneficial.     

‘Me and My Drank:’ Exploring the Relationship Between Musical Preferences and Purple Drank Experimentation

“Purple drank” is a label typically applied to mixtures of codeine cough syrup with soda, although it has also been applied to mixtures of over-the-counter cough syrups and alcohol. This novel drug formulation was first popularized in the Houston, Texas rap music scene in the 1990’s, and since then references to purple drank have become common in rap and hip-hop songs, but remained virtually absent in other musical genres. Prior research has found that musical preferences can have an influence on choice and frequency of drug use. The goal of the present study is to examine the relationship between musical preferences and experimentation with purple drank. Self-reported information about musical preferences, substance use, and demographic characteristics were collected from 2,349 students at a large university in the southeastern United States. An analysis of lifetime purple drank and other drug use by musical preferences reveals that those who prefer rap/hip-hop music and rock/alternative have the highest risk for reporting purple drank use. Further, this relationship far exceeds the associations between musical preferences and other drugs. Results from logistic regression analyses indicate males, other drug users, and those that prefer rap/hip-hop music have a significantly higher likelihood of using purple drank.     

'Alternative' music obtained from free download music websites does not entitle SGAE to claim royalties

Proof that the music played in a public establishment is obtainedfrom free download music websites, considered together withother factors such as the fact that the establishment is a non-profitmaking cultural entity and that the music played is exotic andunknown— which the Court describes as ‘alternative’music—is sufficient to avoid the infringement of the publiccommunication copyright, even if it has not been proved thatall the songs played have been downloaded from the websitesin question.     

Never mind the quality feel the width: University–industry links and government financial support for innovation in small high-technology businesses in the UK and the USA

In this paper we use a size and industry matched sample of over 1,900 UK and US businesses for the period 2004–05 in the manufacturing and business services sectors to analyse the relative “strength” of the university–industry ecosystems in which these firms operate in the two economies. Our analysis shows that in both countries universities per se play a quantitatively smaller role as a source of knowledge for business innovation than either the business sector itself or a variety of organisations intermediating between the university and business sectors. Our analysis reveals a much more diffuse university–industry ecosystem in the UK in which a higher proportion of businesses claim links external to themselves in their pursuit of knowledge for innovation and a higher proportion report directly connecting with universities. US firms are more likely to access knowledge through a combination of business and intermediary sources and are less likely to have established formal collaborative or partnership agreements in the 3 years prior to the survey. We also find, however, that a higher proportion of US firms place a very high value on the connections they have with universities and are much more likely to commit resources to support such innovation related university interactions. A similar pattern of diffuse but weaker links characterise the supply of public sector financial assistance for innovation in our sample firms. UK firms are more likely to be in receipt of assistance, but receive far less per firm in absolute terms and relative to their R&D expenditures. It appears that the UK university–industry ecosystem is characterised by a greater width than quality of interaction.     

The White March as a Belgian Body without Organs: On dissipative structures, strange attractions and empty signifiers

This essay comments on the so-called ’White March‘ which, in the aftermath of the Dutroux-case (which was about multiple child abuse and child murder), led one out of 30 Belgians to participate in the biggest demonstration, albeit a silent one, Belgium has ever known. It is argued here that this White March can be read, in a Deleuzean way, as a rhizomic flash, or, using metaphors from chaos theory, as a dissipative structure, which was strangely attracted around empty signifiers (e.g. “Whiteness”), to form a Body without Organs. This formation, or build-up of a white (Belgian) Body without Organs is explained by pointing at two complementary processes which post-Fordist, flexible, “hypermodern” Belgium is sliding into: 1) under “hypermodern” conditions of flexibility, of post-Fordist regulation, of de/re/centring subjectivities and of budgetary austerity, the old Belgian regulatory mode of political pacification through pillarization is becoming more and more obsolete, and, at the least, is growing incapable of regulating ever proliferating nomadic subjectivities; 2) de/re/centring, nomadic subjectivities, in Belgium, losing the old comforts of pillarized regulation and pacification, are floating and whirling freely in Belgium's political void, since there is no alternative mode of regulation – such as a public space or culture of civic negotiation – in sight/site. This has brought Belgium's mental and political landscape on the verge of deep instability, or, in the language of chaos theory, in a phase of exploding bifurcations, in which small causes can produce big consequences – a phase, that is, in which tiny particles of social energy can rapidly cluster together (around “strange attractors”) to form dissipative structures, mostly around “empty signifiers”, in a (Deleuzean) Body without Organs. This happened, in Belgium, when, in August 1996, the Dutroux-case broke out. The Dutroux-case gathered – rhizomically – huge portions of “White material” of unregulated discontent from Belgium's multiple locations of multiplicity to form a Body without Organs, which, in turn, materialized in the White March of October 20th 1996, after it had been named by Marc Dutroux's legal counsel, who suddenly spoke a language of universalism, equality, and civic culture. When the counsel spoke words, that is, which did not match with Belgian everyday life experience, still submerged as it was (and is) in the old mental habits of Belgium's politics of pillarization, with its trench mentality, and its war-of-position-like strategics. The essay closes with some considerations on the future of Belgium's emerging White Movement. In a sense, this essay aims at two goals: it tries to read one of the most significant events in Belgian history using rather “unusual” metaphors, and, secondly, while doing so, it aims at showing that metaphors from chaos theory and from Deleuzean post-structuralism can be merged together while describing (or explaining) concrete historical events. This essay, then, tries to contribute to what might be called a historiography of rhizochaotics, or a psycho-geography of rhizomic and chaotic socio-mental energies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

带词音乐作品的著作权保护——以《五环之歌》侵害音乐作品改编权纠纷系列案为例

《五环之歌》侵犯音乐作品改编权系列案件判决书中,关于《牡丹之歌》带词音乐作品的性质,原告、被告和法院观点各不相同,争议非常大。其中,三个审理法院均认为《牡丹之歌》带词音乐作品属于合作作品,但又判决原告仅对歌词部分享有改编权,突出地体现了现行《著作权法》第13条规定的可分割合作作品和《著作权法实施条例》第4条规定的音乐作品,在保护带词音乐作品上造成的重大矛盾。建议我国《著作权法》删去第13条第2款关于可分割合作作品的规定。带词音乐作品中的歌词和曲谱属于各自独立的作品。     

Sex and Capacity: Introduction to Special Edition of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Liverpool Law Review</Emphasis>

This paper addresses the appropriate legal and policy approach to sexual conduct involving people with dementia in care homes, where the mental capacity of one or both partners is compromised. Such conduct is prohibited by sections 34–42 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, but this article asks whether this blanket prohibition is necessarily the appropriate response. The article considers a variety of alternative responses, eventually arguing that clearer guidance regarding prosecution should be issued.     

Competition@eCommerce.eu: An Appropriate European Approach to the Anticompetitive Implications in the Online World

The economic landscape of Europe has undoubtedly been revolutionised over the last few years with the introduction of new technology into business practices. But along with the inevitable benefits a series of antitrust issues have surfaced, which have often disrupted the application of European Competition Law. This article will analyse and discuss the existing legal framework and recent case law with respect to its capacity to pave the way for enterprises to embrace innovation, and argue that – although the current legal system might be satisfactory to a certain extent – the European Commission should make adjustments and promote the idea of self-regulation, if the EU is to be at the forefront of the online world. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Strength in Numbers or Quality over Quantity? Examining the Importance of Criterion Measure Selection to Define Validity Groups in Performance Validity Test (PVT) Research

Mirroring clinical guidelines, recent Performance Validity Test (PVT) research emphasizes using ≥ 2 criterion PVTs to optimally identify validity groups when validating/cross-validating PVTs; however, even with multiple measures, the effect of which specific PVTs are used as criterion measures remains incompletely explored. This study investigated the accuracy of varying two-PVT combinations for establishing validity status and how adding a third PVT or applying more liberal failure cut-scores affects overall false-positive (FP)/-negative (FN) rates. Clinically referred veterans (N = 114; 30% clinically identified as invalid) completing a six-PVT protocol as during their evaluation were included. Concordance rates were calculated across all possible two-and three-PVT combinations at conservative and liberal cutoffs. Two-PVT combinations classified 72–91% of valid (0–4% FPs) and 17–74% of invalid (0–40% FNs) cases, and three-PVT combinations classified 67–86% of valid (0–6% FPs) and 57–97% of invalid (0–24% FNs) at conservative cutoffs. Liberal cutoffs classified 53–86% of valid (0–15% FPs) and 39–82% of invalid (0–30% FNs) cases for two-PVT combinations and 46–75% of valid (3–27% FPs) and 60–97% of invalid (0–17% FNs) cases for three-PVT combinations. Irrespective of whether a two-or three-PVT combination or conservative/liberal cutoffs were used, many valid and invalid cases failed only one PVT (3–68%).Two-PVT combinations produced high FNs and were less accurate than three-PVTs for detecting invalid cases, though variable accuracy was found within both types of combinations based on the specific PVTs in the combination. Thus, both PVT quantity and quality are important for accurate validity classification in research studies to ensure reliability and replicability of findings. Applying more liberal cutoffs yielded increased sensitivity, but with generally higher FPs yielding problematic specificity, particularly for three-PVT combinations.     

Research expenditures,technology transfer activity,and university licensing revenue

In this paper we relate university licensing revenues to both university research expenditures and characteristics of the university and the university technology transfer office. We apply the Hausman–Taylor estimator for panel data with time-invariant explanatory variables and the Arellano–Bover dynamic panel model to unbalanced panels for the years 1991–2003 and balanced panels for the years 1995–2003. We find conflicting evidence regarding the short-term impacts of research expenditures on licensing revenues. On the other hand, both early initiation of technology transfer programs and staff size increase expected licensing revenues. Staff size and early entry appear to be substitutes, however. One-year lagged licensing revenue has strong predictive power for current licensing revenue. Further research is necessary to analyze changes in technology transfer office efficiency over time and the contribution of technology transfer to larger university missions.     

What Is The Wrong Of Wrongful Disability? From Chance To Choice To Harms To Persons

The issue of wrongful disability arises when parents face the choice whether to produce a child whose life will be unavoidably flawed by a serious disease or disorder (Down syndrome, for example, or Huntington’s disease) yet clearly worth living. The authors of From Chance to Choice claim, with certain restrictions, that the choice to produce such a child is morally wrong. They then argue that an intuitive moral approach––a “person-affecting” approach that pins wrongdoing to the harming of some existing or future person––cannot account for that wrong since the choice to produce such a child cannot, under the logic of the nonidentity problem, harm that child. The authors propose that we supplement the person-affecting approach with an “impersonal” principle that takes the form of their well-known principle N. In this paper, I argue that the authors are mistaken to suppose that a plausibly articulated person-affecting approach cannot account for the wrong of wrongful disability. We can retain an intuitive, comparative, “worse for” account of harm and still identify serious harms imposed by the choice of wrongful disability. In particular, I argue that harm, both to the impaired child and to others, comes not in the form of that procreative choice’s procreative effect but rather in the form of its many distributive effects. I also argue that the rare, residual case in which a person-affecting approach would approve of the choice of wrongful disability does not function as a counterexample to that approach. As a separate matter, I address legal claims for wrongful disability, which are closely akin to claims for wrongful life. The legal claim is brought by the impaired child, not against the parents, but rather against health care providers whose negligent failure to diagnose or inform parents of an increased risk of a genetic or congenital impairment results in the birth of the impaired child. The authors’ treatment of the moral wrong that is done as impersonal in nature suggests that courts are correct to dismiss any such claim. Once we identify harm, however, the person-affecting approach can identify a clear foundation in the law for the wrongful disability claim.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ayam aham asmīti</Emphasis>: Self-consciousness and Identity in the Eighth Chapter of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chāndogya Upanişad</Emphasis> vs. Śankara’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bhāşya</Emphasis>

The article offers a close reading of the famous upanişadic story of Indra, Virocana and Prajāpati from the eighth chapter of the Chāndogya-Upanişad versus Śankara’s bhāşya, with special reference to the notions of suşupti and turīya. That Śankara is not always loyal to the Upanişadic texts is a well-known fact. That the Upanişads are (too) often read through Śan-kara’s Advaitic eyes is also known. The following lines will not merely illustrate the gap between text and commentary but will also reveal an unexpected Upanişadic depiction of ‘dreamless sleep’ and ‘transcendental consciousness’. Suşupti is described here as ‘one step too far’, as a ‘break’ or discontinuity in one’s consciousness; whereas turīya is depicted positively, and surprisingly even in wordly terms. Unlike the third state of consciousness in which there is no ‘world’ nor ‘me’, and which is described through Indra’s character as ‘total destruction’ (vināśa); in turīya, the world ‘comes back’, or rather the ‘renouncer’ returns to the world. Sankara’s position, as far as the story under discussion is concerned, is radically different. For him, the Upanişadic story illustrates the continuity of consciousness in all its states. For him, the identification with merely one of the consciousness-states is an error (adhyāsa) which causes suffering. Consciousness prevails even in suşupti, and turīya has nothing to do with ‘coming back to the world’, since there is nowhere to come back from or to. Turīya, as seen by the Advaitin, consists of all the other states of consciousness together, or as K. C. Bhattacharyya puts it, ‘It is not only a stage among stages; it is the truth of the other stages’. The article is dedicated to Prof. Daya Krishna (1924-2007).