Understanding the drone epidemic

Drones are aircraft that have no onboard, human pilot. Through the twentieth century, piloted aircraft made far greater progress than drones. During the twenty-first century, on the other hand, changes in both drone technologies and drone economics have been much more rapid. Particularly in the case of small, inexpensive devices, the question arises as to whether existing regulatory frameworks can cope. To answer that question, it is necessary to document the nature and characteristics of drones, the dimensions across which they vary, the purposes to which they are put, and the impacts that they appear likely to have. The analysis concludes that careful consideration is needed of the adequacy of controls over the impacts of drones on two important values – public safety, and behavioural privacy.     

What drones inherit from their ancestors

Any specific technology derives attributes from the generic technologies of which it is an instance. A drone is a flying computer. It is dependent on local data communications from its onboard sensors and to its onboard effectors, and on telecommunications links over which it receives data-feeds and command-feeds from terrestrial and perhaps airborne sources and from satellites. A drone acts on the world, and is therefore a robot. The remote pilots, and the operators of drone facilities such as cameras, depend on high-tech tools that interpret data that display transmitted, enhanced and generated image and video, and that enable the composition of commands. So drone operators are already cyborgs. Many drones carry cameras and are used for surveillance. Computing, data communications, robotics, cyborgisation and surveillance offer power and possibilities, but with them come disbenefits and risks. Critical literatures exist in relation to all of those areas. An inspection of those literatures should provide insights into the limitations of drones, and the impacts and implications arising from their use.     

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: Implementing a Tiered Home–School Partnership Model to Promote School Readiness

An ecological perspective to school readiness focuses on child and family readiness by enhancing the developmental contexts and relationships within which children reside (e.g., home environment, parent–child relationship, home–school relationships). The Getting Ready intervention is an ecological, relationally based, tiered intervention providing both universal and intensive services to children and families to promote child and family school readiness. Intensive level consultation services were provided via Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 1992 Sheridan , S. M. , & Kratochwill , T. R. ( 1992 ). Behavioral parent-teacher consultation: Conceptual and research considerations . Journal of School Psychology , 30 , 117 – 139 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2008 Sheridan , S. M. , & Kratochwill , T. R. ( 2008 ). Conjoint behavioral consultation: Promoting family-school connections and interventions () , 2nd ed. . New York , NY : Springer . [Google Scholar]). The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation and effects of CBC within the Getting Ready intervention to promote child and family school readiness. Keys to successful implementation of the CBC intervention and issues needing further investigation are discussed.     

Peer Interaction and Engagement Through Online Discussion Forums: A Cautionary Tale

Following an very inspiring presentation from the REAP (Re-Engineering Assessment Practices in Scottish Higher Education) team, I attempted to address problems of attrition and non-engagement amongst first year law students by introducing online small group activities based around discussion forums into the level 4 (first year) Legal Method course. The idea was to build student engagement through teamwork online, thus moving towards a constructivist theory of learning (Jonassen et al. in Am J Distance Educ 9(2):7, 1995), and to increase formative feedback to students at an early stage in their course without unduly increasing my workload. (The benefits of early formative feedback are well documented. See, for example Yorke in Leaving early; Undergraduate non-completion in higher education, Falmer, London, 1999; Yorke and Longden in Retention and student success in higher education, SRHE and Open University Press, 2004). The students were randomly divided into groups of between 8 and 12 students using the WebCT group function. WebCT was at that time the university??s main virtual learning environment and available to all students enrolled on courses through the university portal system. Group discussion forums were provided for a series of activities, complementing the normal lecture pattern of two hours?? lecture plus one hour??s seminar each week. This paper considers the results over 2?years of introducing this system in a widening participation university. It did not prove possible to reproduce the success experienced in the REAP project. This paper attempts to unravel the various reasons for this, technical, pedagogical and practical. This case study is an example of action research, as I was both dismayed and intrigued by the negative reaction of the students and attempted to discover the reasons for it. The findings and conclusions drawn from them will be used to remodel this aspect of the course in 2010?C2011.     

The Fraser Government's “Uranium Decision” and the Foundations of Australian Non‐Proliferation Policy: A Reappraisal*

The Fraser era represents a defining moment in Australia's approach to the issues of uranium exports and non‐proliferation policy. In contrast to some well‐established positions in the literature, this essay argues that the Fraser government's August 1977 decision to approve the export of uranium was framed not only by domestic political considerations stemming from the Ranger Environmental Inquiry but also by important international factors. In particular, I argue that the non‐proliferation initiatives of the Carter administration presented the Fraser government with an opportunity to portray the export of Australian uranium as means to strengthen the non‐proliferation regime and enhance Australia's influence.     

Privacy and consumer risks in cloud computing

While vaguely defined, and wide in scope, so-called ‘cloud computing’ has gained considerable attention in recent times. Put simply, it refers to an arrangement under which a user relies on another party to provide access to remote computers and software, whose whereabouts, including their jurisdictional location, are not known nor controllable by the user. In this article, we examine the privacy and consumer risks that are associated with cloud computing.     

The Situational Prevention of Terrorism: An Evaluation of the Israeli West Bank Barrier

Objectives

Informed by situational crime prevention (SCP) this study evaluates the effectiveness of the “West Bank Barrier” that the Israeli government began to construct in 2002 in order to prevent suicide bombing attacks.

Methods

Drawing on crime wave models of past SCP research, the study uses a time series of terrorist attacks and fatalities and their location in respect to the Barrier, which was constructed in different sections over different periods of time, between 1999 and 2011.

Results

The Barrier together with associated security activities was effective in preventing suicide bombings and other attacks and fatalities with little if any apparent displacement. Changes in terrorist behavior likely resulted from the construction of the Barrier, not from other external factors or events.

Conclusions

In some locations, terrorists adapted to changed circumstances by committing more opportunistic attacks that require less planning. Fatalities and attacks were also reduced on the Palestinian side of the Barrier, producing an expected “diffusion of benefits” though the amount of reduction was considerably more than in past SCP studies. The defensive roles of the Barrier and offensive opportunities it presents, are identified as possible explanations. The study highlights the importance of SCP in crime and counter-terrorism policy.