A comparative analysis of some aspects of the training and visit system of agricultural extension in India

The article utilises recent farm survey data to assess the performance of the Training and Visit Extension system in one district in the state of Haryana (India) compared to a neighbouring district covered by an older extension system. The data show a significantly higher level of village‐level extension activity in the area covered by Training and Visit Extension, and this is compatible with the large number of staff and higher expenditure on extension under this system. The data also suggest that knowledge of improved practices, especially in wheat cultivation, diffused faster in the area covered by T & V extension.     

Demographic and clinical characteristics of 1092 consecutive police custody mental health referrals

The 43 police forces in England and Wales have made over 13 million arrests in the last decade. Yet, despite this high volume criminal justice system activity, and evidence of substantial health morbidity across the criminal justice pathway, mental health services in police custody have only been patchily developed, and the literature in this area is limited. Referrals (n = 1092) to a pilot mental health service operating across two police stations in a London borough were examined over an 18-month period in 2012/2013. The referred group had high levels of mental health and substance misuse problems (including acute mental illness, intoxication and withdrawal), self-harm, suicide risk and vulnerability (including intellectual disability), with some important gender differences. Although this work has limitations, the findings are broadly consistent with the small existing literature and they confirm the need for services that are sufficiently resourced to meet the presenting needs.     

No Country for Made Men: The Decline of the Mafia in Post‐Soviet Georgia

This article studies the decline of a long‐standing mafia known as thieves‐in‐law in the post‐Soviet republic of Georgia. In 2005 an anti‐mafia campaign began which employed laws directly targeting the thieves‐in‐law. Within a year, all Georgia's thieves‐in‐law were in prison or had fled the country. This article looks at the success of the policy by investigating how Georgia's volatile socio‐economic environment in the 1990s affected the resilience of the thieves‐in‐law to state attack. The article presents data showing that the chaos of this period impacted on the ability of thieves‐in‐law to coordinate activities, regulate recruitment, and protect their main collective resource—their elite criminal status. Due to this, the reputation of the thieves‐in‐law as a mafia drastically declined creating vulnerability. The article adds to the literature on resilience in criminal networks and the study of organized crime in the post‐Soviet space.     

Research collaboration in universities and academic entrepreneurship: the-state-of-the-art

There is abundant evidence that research collaboration has become the norm in every field of scientific and technical research. We provide a critical overview of the literature on research collaboration, focusing particularly on individual-level collaborations among university researchers, but we also give attention to university researchers’ collaborations with researchers in other sectors, including industry. We consider collaborations aimed chiefly at expanding the base of knowledge (knowledge-focused collaborations) as well as ones focused on production of economic value and wealth (property-focused collaborations), the latter including most academic entrepreneurship research collaborations. To help organize our review we develop a framework for analysis, one that considers attributes of collaborators, collaborative process and organization characteristics as the affect collaboration choices and outcomes. In addition, we develop and use a “Propositional Table for Research Collaboration Literature,” presented as an “Appendix” to this study. We conclude with some suggestions for possible improvement in research on collaboration including: (1) more attention to multiple levels of analysis and the interactions among them; (2) more careful measurement of impacts as opposed to outputs; (3) more studies on ‘malpractice’ in collaboration, including exploitation; (4) increased attention to collaborators’ motives and the social psychology of collaborative teams.     

Inequity in the distribution of science and technology outcomes: a conceptual model

We propose a conceptual model to encourage systematic analysis of social equity issues of science policy. The model considers the relationships among several attributes of science and technology goods and services including the incidence of its impact, degree of concentration, and whether its consumption generates capacity for the individual or groups or is “hedonic,” that is, short term and diminishing rapidly in its effects. We discuss the implications of the model in terms of four quite different types of equity. We conclude by suggesting some respects in which the model could be employed to facilitate public policy and moral deliberations about the effects of science and technology.     

Mt. Laurel: A View from the Bridge

Across the Delaware River from the “region” which the New Jersey Supreme court appears to suggest should be the planning base for Mt. Laurel Township's land use decisions lies the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which has been having some severe land use pangs of its own. Long before even the initiation of the Mt. Laurel litigation, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had begun to decide “exclusionary zoning” cases. And it has continued, intermittently, ever since its National Land ¹ decision in 1965 to admonish municipalities that they must not commit exclusionary² zoning. Thus, the court held a 4 acre minimum lot size exclusionary and then, five years later, held a 2 acre minimum lot size similarily invalid³.