The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 public law 96-480

The Stevenson Technology Innovation Act of 1980 has passed Congress and has been signed by the President. The legislation accomplishes two main functions. The first part establishes an Office of Industrial Technology in the Department of Commerce which will oversee the establishment of a wide variety of university-affiliated centers. The Centers will: 1) Perform research supportive of technological and industrial innovation including cooperative industry-university basic and applied research; 2) provide assistance to individuals and small businesses in the generation, evaluation and development of technological ideas supportive of industrial innovation and new business ventures; 3) provide technical assistance and advisory services to industry, particularly small businesses; and 4) provide curriculum development, training, and instruction in invention, entrepreneurship, and industrial innovation. The second part of the Act is concerned with the utilization of Federal Technology. Some of the provisions are: 1) Each Federal Laboratory shall establish an Office of Research and Technology Applications; 2) each Federal laboratory having a total annual budget exceeding $20,000,000 shall provide at least one professional individual full-time as staff for its Office of Research and Technology Application; and 3) after September 30, 1981 each Federal agency shall make available not less than 0.5 percent of the agency's research and development budget to support the technology transfer function of the Office of Research and Technology Applications. The legislation also establishes a Center for the Utilization of Federal Technology in the Department of Commerce to serve as a central clearinghouse for the collection, dissemination, and transfer of information on Federally owned or originated technology having potential application to State and local government and to private industry.     

Multidimensional incongruence and vote switching in Europe

Does ideological incongruence hurt parties in elections? Research on the representational relationship between parties and voters suggests that ideological congruence can boost a party’s electoral prospects. However, while the mechanism is at the individual-level, most of the literature focuses on the party-level. In this article, we develop a set of hypotheses based on a multi-issue conception of party-voter congruence at the individual-level, and examine the electoral consequences of these varying congruence levels in the 2014 European Parliament elections. Consistent with our expectations, comparative analysis finds that ideological and issue-specific incongruence is a significant factor in voting behavior in the European Parliament elections. Although the substantive effects of incongruence are understandably small compared to partisanship, government, or EU performance evaluations, party-voter disagreement consistently matters, and voters’ issue salience is an important moderator of the impact of incongruence on vote choice.     

Recognising Place,Space and Nation in Researching Women's Movements: Sisterhood and After

Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project has attempted to capture regional and national as well as ethnic diversity within the complex geographical and political entities of the United Kingdom. We argue against generalising about the UK or ‘British’ movement, important as the cities of England and specifically London have been to the development of political mass, acknowledging the independent networks in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Our findings suggest that in contrast to English activists' tendency to be suspicious of the state, in the ‘Celtic periphery’ of Wales, Scotland and – more complicatedly – Northern Ireland, feminists have more often sought state–level political opportunities to advance claims within these jurisdictions.     

The demand for manpower—an East African case study 1

Using cross-sectional data from 13 African countries, I compare long-term health outcomes across cut and uncut women. This study is the first to use nationally representative data. Consistent with medical research, no evidence of general health impairments or decreased fertility induced by female genital cutting (FGC) is found; rather cut women have more children. The most pronounced long-term health impairments are a 24 per cent increase in the odds of contracting sexually transmitted infections and a 15 per cent increase in genital problems. Concomitantly, the odds that a cut woman will marry before an uncut woman are 13 per cent.