Transferring technology into and within the third world

This article is based on Jordan J. Baruch's talk at the banquet at this year's Technology Transfer Society's annual meeting on the occasion of his being named winner of the society's Thomas Jefferson Award. As recipient of the award, he was cited for outstanding achievements in technology transfer in three categories:1. Exemplary success in managing actual transfer (Baruch invented and managed transfer of many civilian and military technologies in acoustics.).2. Leadership in technology-transfer public policy (He has been a frequent expert in Congressional testimony on such issues as consortia in technology development and commercialization. He also led efforts to develop formal organizations to promote technology transfer between the US and other nations such as Israel, Jordan, India, China, and several African countries.).3. Significant contributions to professional knowledge in technology transfer (Baruch has promoted the use of computer conferencing and was the conceptual and political driving force for the formation of the Center for Utilization of Federal Technology.). Jordan J. Baruch, who has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a consultant (Jordan Baruch Associates). He served as assistant secretary for science and technology at the US Department of Commerce in 1977–81. A professor at Dartmouth, The Harvard Business School, and MIT, he also was a founding partner of the engineering firm Bolt Beranek & Newman. Baruch is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.     

Is Something Better Than Nothing? The Effect of Short Terms of Mandatory Parole Supervision

This article reports the findings of a quasi-experimental evaluation of a mandatory early parole program. New Jersey’s Statutory Early Release (SER) law required that all inmates, with few exceptions, be released onto parole six months before the expiration of their sentence. SER participants (n = 405) were matched using propensity scores to two groups of similar offenders who left prison in the year prior to the implementation of the SER statute. Comparison groups include former inmates that were released either unconditionally (n = 4,507) or onto standard parole (n = 5,657). At the conclusion of the matching routines, 395 SER-parolee pairs and 394 SER-unconditional release pairs were identified. Outcomes measures, including comparisons of rearrest and reconviction rates, are reported pre and post matching, and at 6-, 12-, and 18-month intervals. Individuals enrolled in the SER program demonstrated significantly reduced arrest rates during the SER supervision period when compared to unconditionally released offenders, though differences do not persist past six months. Offending rates for both SER participants and matched parolees were generally similar, with some significant variation in arrest rates emerging after 12 months.     

Longitudinal Associations between Social Relationships and Alcohol Use from Adolescence into Young Adulthood: The Role of Religiousness

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - As adolescence is a time characterized by rapid changes in social relationships as well as an increase in risk-taking behaviors, this prospective longitudinal...     

Impact of the Stand Your Ground law on gun deaths: evidence of a rural urban dichotomy

We explore the impact of the Stand Your Ground (SYG) law on gun deaths by degree of urbanization. Unlike firearm homicides the definition of firearm deaths does not depend on the broadening of the self-defense provision that the SYG law represents. Using a difference-in-difference design, we find that the SYG law had no impact on gun deaths at the state level. However, once the U.S. states are disaggregated into portions by degree of urbanization—central city, suburb, small urban area and rural area—we find that the law increased gun deaths in the central cities and the suburbs, and had no impact in smaller urban areas and rural areas. These findings are consistent with the fact that there is a great divide between urban and rural areas in terms of ownership and usage of guns, attitudes towards guns, and the implications thereof. The finding of increased violence in the suburbs is of particular interest in the historical backdrop whereby the growth of the suburbs, to a large extent, may have been motivated by a desire to escape crime and violence.