Failing to tell friend from foe: A comment on Wijn et al. (2017)

Behavioural observation programmes are becoming increasingly popular at transportation hubs, sporting events, and other large crowd gatherings. Premise of these programmes is that malicious intention can be accurately deduced from observable behaviour. In a recent article published in this journal, Wijn et al. (2017, Legal and Criminological Psychology, 22, 378–399.) conclude that environmental cues improve the correct detection of participants with malicious intent. This conclusion can and will be interpreted as support for behavioural observation programmes. In this comment, we argue that Wijn and colleagues draw a fundamentally wrong conclusion from their data. What their data show is that malicious intentions could not be detected in any of the conditions. Their findings can therefore not be conceptualized as evidence for behavioural observation programmes. Rather, they add to the growing critique voiced towards such programmes.     

Survival at the Intersection of Government and Business: The Unique Case of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is a government organization whose responsibility is to promote Australian exports and investment facilitation in global markets. It has a unique position of being a government agency and at the same time working alongside and with business in assisting exporters enter overseas markets. This relationship is often strained both for reasons of changing government preferences in terms of assisting exporters as well as pressures on the government budgets. Yet Austrade has been able to remain a steadfast intersection between government and business despite the competing strategies of its two main stakeholders – government and business. This paper assesses Austrade as a case of organizational survival maintaining its equilibrium through sound management and serendipity.     

Use of a priori-a posteriori models of change in policy analysis: Applications to simulating the white flight phenomenon

Theory is the foundation of policy studies in the social sciences; its specification via a model is a key element in the selection of appropriate methodologies to study policy. Many policy analysts, due to their professional training and the availability of computer software, sometimes fail to distinguish between theory which is a priori based or theory that is a posteriori based; hence they tend to develop a dependence on one type of methodology in their studies. The purpose of this study is to examine empirically how this important dichotomy might lead to different methods of analysis and to possibly erroneous conclusions. In some cases, the poor selection of research methods severely limits the range of findings and insights available to the policy analyst. The applications of a priori and a posteriori based models to educational policy studies of white flight are presented and the results compared to underscore the importance of recognizing the distinctions between a priori and a posteriori models.     

Evidence for Social and Behavior Problems in Low-Income,Urban Preschoolers: Effects of Site,Classroom, and Teacher

Teacher ratings of 336 preschool children (mean age = 48 months) attending two urban Head Start programs were collected to examine the influence of contextual variables of teacher training, classroom, and site on the prevalence of significant problems. The prevalence of externalizing behaviors in the problem range was higher than expected and fewer children were rated in the well-adjusted range on social competence measures. Psychometric characteristics of the ratings indicated that teachers in this urban setting were less consistent in their ratings of internalizing problems, calling into question the lack of elevation of such problems in this population. Ratings by teachers and teacher assistants of the same children showed low agreement; the level of ratings was not affected by differences in training but did vary across classrooms. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the entire sample showed significant effects of classroom and site on problem behaviors and social competence. These results reveal the wide variation in problem frequency across classrooms, which needs to be considered in the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions. Further, these results point to the importance of studying possible lasting effects on children exposed to these differing contexts.     

Selfish and Indoctrinated Economists?

Many people believe that economists in general are more selfish than other people and that this greater selfishness is due to economics education. This paper offers empirical evidence against this widely held belief. Using a unique data set on giving behaviour in connection with two social funds at the University of Zurich, it is shown that economics education does not make people act more selfishly. Rather, this natural experiment suggests that the particular behaviour of economists can be explained by a selection effect.JEL Classification: A13, A20, H41     

Harmonization of IP litigation practice--still a long road ahead

Legal context. Notwithstanding the advanced level of harmonizationof IP laws, these substantive laws are still not applied ina harmonized way because of the vast differences in proceduralrules amongst the member states of the European Union. For example,the speed, type of relief, costs and potential drawbacks ofa legal action still vary substantially between countries. Thesedifferences continue to influence the choice of venue for manyIP owners and their adversaries. Key points. When a national or Community IP right is infringedand the potential acts of infringement (or infringers) are locatedin more than one jurisdiction, the situation might give riseto multiple parallel litigation in a number of countries. Awell-informed IP specialist will not advise on such a decisionwithout considering a number of issues, analysed in this article:(1) how and where to find evidence of the infringement, andits potential trans-border use; (2) whether the questions ofvalidity and infringement are inseparable (particularly forpatents); (3) the availability of injunctions reaching acrossnational borders; (4) the availability of so-called "torpedo"actions; (5) the recoverability of costs and attorneys' fees;and (6) the ability to protect confidential proprietary informationduring the litigation. Practical significance. As long as differences continue to existbetween Member States, the level of IP enforcement will continueto vary from one jurisdiction to another, and the type of reliefthat is sought by the IP owner will never be exactly the same.Of course this creates disparities and disadvantages. The advantageof this situation is that an IP owner, when he is confrontedwith a multi-jurisdictional IP dispute, can pick and choosethe best available procedural tools and remedies that are availablein each jurisdiction. So forum shopping is still the name ofthe game, as every experienced litigator knows.     

Assessment of age at death by microscopy: unbiased quantification of secondary osteons in femoral cross sections

The microscopic method of age at death determination was introduced by Kerley in 1965 [E.R. Kerley, The microscopic determination of age in human bone, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol, 23 (1965) 149-163.]. However, even though the method has been revised several times, there remain some fundamental issues concerning the reliability of the methods. This is because several basic histological features seen in a cross section of a bone have to be quantified according to the method, but the definition, and hence quantification, of these features leaves room for subjectivity. In a previous study we found that some of these features (osteon fragments and Haversian canals) could not be identified reliably. Only secondary osteons could be identified with a low inter and intra observer error. Furthermore, since the histological features are quantified in only parts of an entire bone cross section, the selection of these parts or areas is a potential source of bias. Finally, unless an unbiased method is used for addressing features on the borders of the selected areas, this will also introduce error. These issues have not been addressed specifically in previous studies. In this study, we used the methods of stereology to choose the regions of interest, as well as for dealing with border phenomena, and we only counted secondary osteons. Our results show a statistically significant increase in the median number of osteons per area unit with increasing age at death. However, this was after exclusion of one outlier. This result is probably due to the limited sample size (N = 24). As such, this study is preliminary, but does warrant applying the described techniques to a larger sample.     

Publishing as Prostitution? – Choosing Between One's Own Ideas and Academic Success

Survival in academia depends on publications in refereedjournals. Authors only get their papers accepted if theyintellectually prostitute themselves by slavishly followingthe demands made by anonymous referees who have no propertyrights to the journals they advise. Intellectual prostitutionis neither beneficial to suppliers nor consumers. But it isavoidable. The editor (with property rights to the journal)should make the basic decision of whether a paper is worthpublishing or not. The referees should only offer suggestionsfor improvement. The author may disregard this advice. Thisreduces intellectual prostitution and produces more originalpublications.     

The Normative Frameworks of Public Policy

This article suggests some tools for the analysis of social conceptions that shape the policy-making process. It defines the three dimensions of policy frameworks and their links with the related notions of paradigm and myth. It analyses the institutionalization of policy framework building and its impact on power relations within the French policy-making process.