Unpackaging synthetic biology: Identification of oversight policy problems and options

The emerging field of synthetic biology (SB) is just entering policy debates. Reports from non-governmental organizations, such as the ETC Group and the International Risk Governance Council, have recently been issued, but there have been few systematic analyses of the policy problems that we will likely face as this area develops. Biosecurity issues are the most defined; other societal oversight issues and implications have not been well explored. Although SB could assist in addressing pressing global challenges, such as sustainable and renewable energy, there are considerable societal concerns that accompany its development and applications. This article is designed to anticipate and prepare for these concerns by identifying policy problems associated with SB oversight, upstream of its development. Projected applications of SB are reviewed and a typology of them is developed. Key oversight policy problems are then identified based on historical experiences with other emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. Problems associated with biosecurity, biosafety, intellectual property, and ethics are discussed in relation to the typology of SB applications to identify applications of the highest potential concern. Finally, policy options for SB oversight are considered, preventative to promotional. We propose that different categories of SB application may warrant different oversight regimes: there might not be an appropriate “one size fits all” approach. We stop short of making specific recommendations, but suggest that the typology, problems, and oversight options identified in this article be used as a starting point for deliberative, democratic decisionmaking processes that take into account a wide range of perspectives about risk, economic impact, scientific progress, and moral reasoning in the design of oversight systems.     

Web-Based Accountability in the Nonprofit Sector: A Closer Look at Arts,Culture, and Humanities Organizations

ABSTRACT

Web-based accountability continues to be an important consideration for nonprofit organizations. This research examines the impact of certain variables on web-based accountability in the arts, culture, and humanities sector. A content analysis of eighty nonprofit organizations was performed and multiple statistical analyses were used. Findings indicated that regulatory measures, including the prosecution and a detection index, are the most significant variables for determining web-based accountability for this group of nonprofit organizations.     

Moroccan adolescent suspect offenders in the Netherlands: ethnic differences in offender profiles

Ethnic minority youths are over-represented in the juvenile justice system in Western societies. However, research on the nature of crime committed by these youths is lacking. In the present study, offending patterns of incarcerated native Dutch adolescents and adolescents of Moroccan origin were compared. Criminal record data were used to examine the offence history of 291 incarcerated adolescents. Offender types were determined through latent class analysis. Adolescents of Moroccan origin were incarcerated more often, for more offences and at a younger age than native Dutch adolescents. A four-class model of offender types was found: property offenders, violent offenders, sexual offenders and arsonists. Property offenders were mainly Moroccan adolescents, the other offender types consisted predominantly of native Dutch adolescents. Moroccan adolescents in pre-trial arrest in the Netherlands can be characterized as early starting offenders who persist in being incarcerated for property-based crime.     

Measuring motivation to change in offenders

Abstract

Measuring motivation to change in offender populations is important both for selection into treatment programmes and for assessing progress in therapy. Two studies are reported in this paper, both looking at the psychometric properties of questionnaires designed to measure stage of change in therapy. The samples used were patients detained in special hospitals under the Mental Health Act (1983) classification of psychopathic disorder. The first study provides norms for this group on the stages of change in psychotherapy questionnaire, plus some additional information on its relationship with self-esteem and self-efficacy measures. The second study looked at a brief version of the stages of change questionnaire, concluding that its psychometric properties were such that further use was contra-indicated.     

Public policy and quality of community life in american cities: a search for linkage

The purpose of this research is to identify and examine linkages that exist between public policy and quality of life in American cities. A review and analysis of public policy research and social indicators research over the past twenty years is included. Social indicators are further defined into both objective and subjective indicators. The developing confluence of the two areas of research constitutes the basis for the remainder of the paper.

The data for this study are derived from a nationwide survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., in late December, 1977 and early January, 1978, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Interviews were conducted for a sample of 7,074 adults, asking them about their perceptions on the quality of community life, government services, social problems, and future possibilities. The findings are analyzed through use of a frequency distribution of the quality of life measures and the quality of public service variables.

The pattern of statistical relationships indicates that the nine public service variables are sharply divided into two groups. One, seven variables (police, garbage, street lighting, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, and road and street maintenance) are all highly inter-correlated. The correlation coefficients among them range from a high of .411 (police and fire) to a low of .218 (garbage and public schools). The other, public transportation and public health service are also closely inter-correlated, but their relationships with the other seven are all uniformly weak.

These two groups of public services have distinct political and policy implications. The first group of services tends to represent those traditionally well-established public services that are considered “vitally important” for the well-being of the general public. The second group, in contrast, tends to represent those public services that are relatively new and serving primarily the needs of low income or minority groups in the community whose political influence is most likely to be marginal.

A few generalizations may be drawn from the statistical relationships. First, the general indicators of community life quality such as feelings about the overall community and neighborhood are more strongly correlated with the quality ratings of public services than the quality indicators of specific life domains. Second, some of the strongest relationships are found between specific public services and specific domains of life quality that might be expected logically to have close association such as police and safety (r=.317) and public schools and child raising (r=.427). Third, those public services that are considered part of mainstream local services and important for the daily life of the general public (such as police, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, etc.) tend to be very strongly correlated with the measures of community life quality. Fourth, in contrast, those services that are primarily affecting underprivileged groups in the community and not considered part of the mainstream of local services are poorly or insignificantly correlated with the measures of community life quality.     

A token operation: 204 military mission to China, 1941–1945

History of the Second World War: The War against Japan. Vol. II. H.M. Stationery Office. Pp. 519. Maps and Index. 55s.

The Pathans. By Olaf Caroe. Macmillan. 1958. Pp. 521 and xii. Maps; illustrations; appendix; index. 60s.

A Person from England: and Other Travellers to Turkestan. By Sir Fitzroy Maclean. Jonathan Cape. 1958. Pp. 384. Illustrations; map; bibliography. 21s.

The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. By Laurence Lockhart. Cambridge: at the University Press. 1958. 8vo, cloth. Pp. xiii + 584. 10 plates; 6 maps and plans. 70s.

Kitchener: Portrait of an Imperialist. By Philip Magnus. John Murray. 1958. 8¾” × 5¾”. Pp.410. Index; maps; illustrations. 30s.

Egyptt. By Tom Little. Ernest Benn. 1958. Pp. 321. Map. 30s.

Alexander's Path. By Freya Stark. John Murray. 1958. Pp. 283. Ind.; app.; maps; ill. 30s.

Avicenna: His Life and Works. By Soheil M. Afnan. George Allen and Unwin. 1958. Pp. 298. 30s.

A History of Modern Burma. By John F. Cady. Ithaca New York: Cornell University Press. 1958. Pp. 682. Bibliography and index.

Mazdur: Labor Problems in the Industrialization of India. By Charles A. Myers. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp. 297.

India Changes. By Taya Zinkin. Chatto and Windus. Pp. 234. 28s.

The Time of the Mango Flowers. By Roderick Cameron. Heinemann. Pp. 308. Index; illustrations. 30s.

An Economic Geography of East Pakistan. By Nafis Ahmad. Oxford University Press. Pp. 325. 50s.

Frontier Doctor. By Sir Henry Holland. Hodder and Stoughton. Pp. 256. Index; ill.; maps. 25s.

Moscow‐Peking Axis: Strengths and Strains. By Howard L. Boorman, Alexander Eckstein, Philip E. Moseley and Benjamin Schwarz. Foreword by Arthur H. Dean. Published for the Council on Foreign Relations by Harper and Brothers. New York. 1957. Pp. 231.

The Soviet Far East. By Erich Thiel. Translated by A. and R. M. Rookwood. Methuen. Pp. 388. Bibliography; index; 38 maps. 30s.

Syria and the Lebanon Under French Mandate. By S. H. Longrigg. Oxford University Press. 1958. Pp. xii × 404. Index; 3 maps. 42s.

Iraq. By Brigadier Stephen Longrigg and Frank Stoakes. Ernest Benn Ltd. Pp. 256. Appendices; map; index. 27s.

Tensions in the Middle East. Edited by Philip W. Thayer. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins Press. London : Oxford University Press. Pp. 332. Index; map. 35s.

British Interests in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Report by a Study Group of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Published for the Royal Institute of International Affairs by the Oxford University Press. Pp. 123. 12s. 6d.

Doubts and Dynamite: The Middle East Today. By Emile Bustani. Published by Allan Wingate. Pp. 159. Map. 18s.

The Middle East. A Political and Economic Survey. Edited by Sir Reader Bullard. Oxford University Press. Pp. 569. Appendices; maps; index. 45s.

Muhammad and the Islamic Tradition. By E. Dermenghem. Longmans (Men of Wisdom). 191 pp. 111. 1958. 6s.

Islam—The Straight Path. (Islam interpreted by Muslims.) Edited by Kenneth W. Morgan. The Ronald Press, New York. 1958. Pp. 453. End‐paper map. $6.

A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. By K. A. C. Creswell. Peguin Books. Pp. xvi + 330, with 72 plates and 64 text figures. 7¼” × 4½” 8s. 6d.

Malay. By Norton Ginsbury and Chester F. Roberts, Jnr. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1958. Appendices; maps; plans; bibliography; index.

Temiar Jungle. By John Slimming. Published by John Murray. Pp. 176. Ill. 18s.

The Opium War through Chinese Eyes. By Arthur Waley. George Allen and Unwin. 21s. Pp. 257. Index.

Catalogue of Translation from the Chinese Dynastic Histories for the Period A.D. 220–960. Compiled by Hans Frankel. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. Pp. 295. $4.50.

Hazor I. An Account of the First Season of Excavations, 1955 (The James A. de Rothschild Expedition at Hazor). By Yigael Yadin and others. The Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1958. Distributed in Great Britain by the Oxford University Press, London. Pp. xxiv‐160. Plates clxxxiv including 13 plans). 8 guineas.

The Mahdist State in the Sudan. By P. M. Holt. Oxford. 1958. Pp. vii + 247. Index; bibliography; maps. 35s.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. By Eric Newby. Secker and Warburg. London. 1958. Pp. 247. Illustrations; maps. 25s.

Adventurer's Eye. By Tom Stobart. Published by Odhams Press, Ltd. Pp. 256. Ill. Index. 21s.     

On the relationship between democracy and terrorism

This article raises some methodological issues concerning the Eubank and Weinberg analysis of democracy and terrorism. A case is made for the use of events data rather than the presence of terrorist groups. Eubank and Weinberg's classification of countries, as having or not having terrorist groups, is questioned. Further details of their criteria of classification are requested. Some alternative tests are indicated, which can be done when data become available.     

Tracking the War of Ideas: A Poll of Ottawa Muslims

A 2008 poll of 430 Ottawa Muslims found predominantly negative views of the U.S. war on terrorism, including the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. This poll also assessed approval of Western powers (U.S., Canada, Israel, United Nations) and challengers of Western power (Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, government of Iran). Surprisingly, attitudes of Ottawa Muslims toward militant Muslim groups were unrelated to their attitudes toward Western governments. Discussion suggests that this pattern, if confirmed in other Muslim polls, would mean that the war of ideas against radical Islam must address not one target but two: favorable opinions of militants and unfavorable opinions of the U.S. Muslims who come to like the West more may not like Muslim militants any less.     

Social media and protest mobilization: evidence from the Tunisian revolution

This article explores how social media acted as a catalyst for protest mobilization during the Tunisian revolution in late 2010 and early 2011. Using evidence from protests we argue that social media acted as an important resource for popular mobilization against the Ben Ali regime. Drawing on insights from “resource mobilization theory”, we show that social media (1) allowed a “digital elite” to break the national media blackout through brokering information for mainstream media; (2) provided a basis for intergroup collaboration for a large “cycle of protest”; (3) reported event magnitudes that raised the perception of success for potential free riders, and (4) provided additional “emotional mobilization” through depicting the worst atrocities associated with the regime's response to the protests. These findings are based on background talks with Tunisian bloggers and digital activists and a revealed preference survey conducted among a sample of Tunisian internet users (February–May 2012).