Willing Suspension of Disbelief: A Study in Online Learning Through Simulation,and Its Potential for Deeper Learning in Higher Education

This article describes the replacement of a “traditionally taught” law of probate course (lectures and workshops/tutorials) with an on-line collaborative learning exercise using simulation and role-play which is referred to hereafter as the Transactional Learning Project (TLP). The article considers the theory that the emotional engagement that comes about through role play in simulation leads to deeper learning, a process (Maharg in Simulation and the affective domain, Cambridge, 2010) has dubbed as the “integration of the cognitive and the affective”. The article includes statistical analysis of student feedback on the TLP in an attempt to measure how easy it is to carry students predisposed to expect information to be “given” rather than “acquired” along the journey leading away from traditional didactic teaching. The project was motivated partly by the dearth of such learning practices on the Legal Practice Course. It is suggested that the findings of the project add to the body of research (Keats and Boughey in High Educ 27:59–73, 1994) which tends to illustrate the success in terms of student learning from working in leaderless (i.e where the Tutor is absent from the collaborative group) groups engaged in practical tasks involving simulation.     

Validation of the Attitudes About Aggression in Dating Situations (AADS) and the Justification of Verbal/Coercive Tactics Scale (JVCT) in Spanish Adolescents

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of two instruments that assess attitudes justifying use of aggression in adolescents?? dating relationships: the Attitudes About Aggression in Dating Situations (AADS) and the Justification of Verbal/Coercive Tactics Scale (JVCT). The sample was made up of 2,856 adolescents from different high schools of Madrid. Results supported the three-factor structure for the AADS and the six-factor structure for the JVCT, which was consistent with the theory and with previous research. As expected, the relation between attitudes and aggressive behavior was between small and moderate but significant in most cases. Furthermore, attitudes differed depending on the type of violence, the respondent??s sex, and on whether aggression is carried out by a man or a woman. Finally, the potential applications of these two scales are discussed, and it is concluded that both constitute useful tools to assess justification of aggression in dating relationships in young couples.     

Incorporating a Healthy Living Curriculum within Family Behavior Therapy: A Clinical Case Example in a Woman with a History of Domestic Violence,Child Neglect,Drug Abuse,and Obesity

Women reported to child protective service agencies frequently report problems that significantly interfere with the health and well-being of their children and themselves. Behavioral treatment programs appear to be effective in managing these co-existing problems, such as domestic violence and substance abuse. However, evidence-supported interventions are rarely exemplified in complicated clinical cases, especially within child welfare settings. Therefore, in this case example, we describe the process of adapting an evidence-supported treatment to assist in managing significant co-existing health-related problems in a mother who was referred due to child neglect and drug abuse. At the conclusion of therapy, the participant reported improvements in perceived family relationships, illicit drug use, child maltreatment potential, whereas other health-related outcomes were mixed. Most improvements were maintained at 4-month follow-up. Issues relevant to implementing evidence-based treatments within community contexts are discussed, including methods of increasing the likelihood of valid outcome assessment, managing treatment integrity, and adjusting standardized treatments to accommodate co-occurring problems.     

Domestic Violence and Social Support in a Clinical Sample of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Women

The present study examined domestic violence and perceived social support in a clinical sample of Deaf and Hard of Hearing women. Forty-six adult Deaf and Hard of Hearing females receiving outpatient mental health services completed a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. Results showed that nearly three-quarters (71.7%) of the sample related experiencing psychologically abusive behaviors, and over one-half (56.5%) reported a history of physical violence from a partner. In addition, participants reported experiences of domestic abuse directly related to their deafness. Level of perceived social support did not differ for participants with a history of domestic violence victimization compared to those with no such history. Findings underscore the need for increased awareness of Deaf and Hard of Hearing women as a population at high risk, and warranting further investigative attention, with regard to domestic violence.     

What is Tort Law For? Part 1. The Place of Corrective Justice

In this paper I discuss the proposal that the law of torts exists to do justice, more specifically corrective justice, between the parties to a tort case. My aims include clarifying the proposal and defending it against some objections (as well as saving it from some defences that it could do without). Gradually the paper turns to a discussion of the rationale for doing corrective justice. I defend what I call the ‘continuity thesis’ according to which at least part of the rationale for doing corrective justice is to mitigate one’s wrongs, including one’s torts. I try to show how much of the law of torts this thesis helps to explain, but also what it leaves unexplained. In the process I show (what I will discuss in a later companion paper) that ‘corrective justice’ cannot be a complete answer to the question of what tort law is for.     

Superfilling technology: transferring knowledge to industry from the National Institute of Standards and Technology

In the mid-1990s, the semiconductor industry manufactured devices with critical circuit dimensions of between 0.35 and 0.25 μ, and it used aluminum or an aluminum copper alloy to interconnect device components. However, the critical dimension needed to be reduced so that devices could become faster and more efficient. At circuits dimensions of 0.18 μ or less, aluminum no longer conducts electricity well enough to maintain the circuit’s efficiency; thus, the industry determined that copper—a superior conducting material—would be needed to help the industry produce smaller and faster semiconductor devices. Still, technical barriers existed, preventing a seamless transition from aluminum to copper. Thus, in the 1990s, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began focused research on superfilling aimed at assisting the semiconductor industry during this period. In this paper, we document the net economic benefits (private and social) accruing from NIST’s core research investments in superfilling during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Using traditional evaluation methodology and metrics, we calculated economic impact estimates, and the results suggest that NIST’s public resources were, from a social perspective, used efficiently.     

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.     

The impact of research and technology organizations on firm competitiveness. Measurement and determinants

The objective of this work is to evaluate the impact of research and technology organizations (RTO) on firm competitiveness. To this end, we develop a framework that includes strategies to deal with the methodological problems highlighted in the literature. The main features of this framework are the definition and classification of different types of impacts, the estimation of (rough) quantitative measures of them and the development of a multivariate model to explain the different impacts including the traditional indicators of firm characteristics and their relationships. The empirical work is based on a database constructed from information from the responses to a questionnaire designed specifically to estimate the impact of RTOs on Spanish firms, and information from the Spanish Innovation Survey. Our findings show that firms are able to recognize the influence of these relationships on different technical, economic, investment and intangible impacts and to roughly estimate their economic impact, and that several characteristics of these relationships affect the impact of RTOs.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Maslahat</Emphasis>, the state and the people: opium use in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This article tracks the development of opium use in present day Iran. Investigating how opium use is influenced by ideological change within the country, this paper intimately attempts to understand how Iranian intellectual, religious and national movements affected and still affect opium use. Working from an historicist approach, this paper furthermore investigates the changing response of the state to this opiate addiction. Analyzing the Islamic Republic's response to opiate-drug use is key in understanding how state policy decisions are influenced by and embedded within these ideological movements of a nation, and, specifically, how the Islamic Republic’s constitutional policy of maslahat allows for flexible legal strategies to combat drug control. Such an investigation is important, not only in understanding the etiology of Iranian policies of drug control and criminalization, but also in understanding how ideological movements affect an individual’s choice to use illegal substances.     

Timely shirking: time-dependent monitoring and?its?effects on legislative behavior in the U.S. Senate

We examine legislative shirking under conditions of imperfect constituent monitoring. Our core argument states that variation in information costs and constituent memory leads to systematic variation in constituent monitoring over time. Assuming that legislators are responsive to multiple cues, we expect to observe time-dependent legislative shirking. We develop a theoretical model of legislative behavior with time-dependent monitoring, which we test empirically using Senate roll call data. Our findings show that a substantial number of senators engage in systematic, time-dependent shirking, and that senators consistently move toward extreme positions when monitoring is low and toward moderate positions when it is high.