Trajectories of Delinquency and Problem Behavior: Comparison of Social and Personal Control Characteristics of Adjudicated Boys on Synchronous and Nonsynchronous Paths

In this paper we identify and distinguish two categories of manifestations of deviance, problem behavior and delinquency, and show that they often follow synchronous developmental sequences. Using data from a sample of 506 adjudicated boys, we investigate the difference between those with synchronous trajectories, in which problem behavior and delinquency follow similar developmental paths, and those with nonsynchronous trajectories, in which the two follow different developmental paths. Comparison of the trajectories shows that personal control variables, such as social maladjustment, value orientation, manifest aggression, and extroversion, are more effective in discriminating between trajectories than are social control variables from school, peer, routine activities, and belief categories. These personal control variables are often not included in studies of delinquency.     

Automated comparison of firearm bullets

Fired bullets bear striation marks that can be thought of as a "fingerprint" left by the firearm. This new comparison approach is based on an automated extraction of a "signature" encompassing the relevant marks from an image. To this end, multiple pictures of the bullet are recorded first by using different illumination patterns, and a high quality image is generated by means of fusion techniques. After a preprocessing, the image intensities are filtered along the striations direction, yielding a compact representation of the marks. A non-linear filter selects the striae of interest. The actual comparison takes place by cross-correlating the signatures obtained this way. Finally, an assessment strategy is proposed to objectively evaluate the performance of the system. As demonstrated with an image database of real bullets, the proposed approach outperforms a state-of-the-art commercial system.     

论区域合作视角下的ECFA

ECFA是中国内地与台湾地区构建的在主权中国范围内进行区域经济合作的制度安排。一方面ECFA符合两岸宪制，具有非国际性、协商性和非均衡性特点；另一方面，虽然ECFA的内容设计必须遵守WTO规则，但WTO规则的调整作用具有从属性，即它必须受到中国主权的限制，并通过两岸现有法律体系产生作用。只有如此，ECFA中惠及两岸的更为优惠的措施才不会被普遍最惠国待遇稀释。     

印度公共卫生医疗体系

正是由于印度公共卫生保健重预防、具有明确的目标定位以及卫生政策的强连续性,使印度在政府公共卫生支出非常少的情况下仍能保持较好的医疗公平性。     

基因科技发展的人权影响

基因科技发展对生命健康权、隐私权、环境权与发展权等人权保护都已产生了正负两方面的影响。这种双重影响的原因是多种的,包括基因技术的安全性、研究者的科研自由、基因技术引发的平等主体间的权利冲突、基因技术引发的私人权利和公共利益的冲突等等。因此,我们需要对基因技术进行法律调整以促进其良性发展。     

Lost in Translation: A Multi‐Level Case Study of the Metamorphosis of Meanings and Action in Public Sector Organizational Innovation

This paper explores the early implementation of an organizational innovation in the UK National Health Service (NHS) – Treatment Centres (TCs) – designed to dramatically reduce waiting lists for elective care. The paper draws on case studies of 8 TCs (each at varying stages of their development) and aims to explore how meanings about TCs are created and evolve, and how these meanings impact upon the development of the organizational innovation. Research on organizational meanings needs to take greater account of the fact that modern organizations like the NHS are complex multi‐level phenomena, comprising layers of interlacing networks. To understand the pace, direction and impact of organizational innovation and change we need to study the interconnections between meanings across different organizational levels. The data presented in this paper show how the apparently simple, relatively unformed, concept of a TC framed by central government is translated and transmuted by subsequent layers in the health service administration, and by players in local health economies, and, ultimately, in the TCs themselves, picking up new rationales, meanings and significance as it goes along. The developmental histories of TCs reveal a range of significant re‐workings of macro policy with the result that there is considerable diversity and variation between local TC schemes. The picture is of important disconnections between meanings, that in many ways mirror Weick's (1976) ’loosely coupled systems’. The emergent meanings and the direction of micro‐level development of TCs appear more strongly determined by interactions within the local TC environment, notably between what we identify as groups of ’idealists’, ’pragmatists’, ’opportunists’ and ’sceptics’ than by the framing (Goffman 1974) provided by macro and meso organizational levels. While this illustrates the limitations of top down and policy‐driven attempts at change, and highlights the crucial importance of the front‐line local ’micro‐systems’ (Donaldson and Mohr 2000) in the overall scheme of implementing organizational innovations, the space or headroom provided by frames at the macro and meso levels can enable local change, albeit at variable speed and with uncertain outcomes.