Research on medical records without informed consent

Observational research involving access to personally identifiable data in medical records has often been conducted without informed consent, owing to practical barriers to soliciting consent and concerns about selection bias. Nevertheless, medical records research without informed consent appears to conflict with basic ethical norms relating to clinical research and personal privacy. This article analyzes the scope of these norms and provides an ethical justification for research using personally identifiable medical information without consent.     

Does knowledge diffusion between university and industry increase innovativeness?

This paper presents an econometric analysis of the impact of collaboration with universities on the innovative output of firms. We also illustrate the differences that emerge from robustness checks, based on different matching estimators and samples. Our findings strongly suggest that university collaboration has a positive influence on the innovative activity of large manufacturing firms. In contrast, there appears to be an insignificant association between university collaboration and the average service firm’s innovation output.     

Preliminary data on the usefulness of internal transcribed spacer I (ITS1) sequence in Cannabis sativa L. identification.

A method is described to identify an unknown sample of plant material of forensic interest as Cannabis sativa L. The method consists in comparing the sequence of the nuclear ribosomal DNA Internal Transcribed Spacer I (ITS1) of the unknown sample with a Cannabis sequence. Our preliminary results show that the ITS1 is an ideal molecule for the identification of a sample suspected to be marijuana.     

Experimental design for acquiring relevant data to address the issue of comparing consecutively manufactured tools and firearms

The comparison of consecutively manufactured tools and firearms has provided much, but not all, of the basis for the profession of firearm and toolmark examination. The authors accept the fundamental soundness of this approach but appeal to the experimental community to close two minor gaps in the experimental procedure. We suggest that “blinding” and attention to appropriateness of other experimental conditions that would consolidate the foundations of our profession. We do not suggest that previous work is unsound.     

"A brilliant ball of fire." The sabotage of United Airlines Flight 629

Among the known causes of aircraft disasters, sabotage is perhaps the most terrifying and difficult to comprehend. Bombs have been exploded in at least 34 commercial aircraft, with the resultant loss of more than 300 lives. Motives for these acts include profit, the deaths of certain persons, and politics. On November 1, 1955, United Airlines Flight 629, bound to Denver-Portland, exploded and burned in flight near Longmont, Colorado, a few minutes after takeoff, with the loss of all 44 on board. Investigation revealed that the plane had been destroyed by the explosion of a bomb that had been placed in the rear luggage hold in Denver. Twelve days after the disaster, John Gilbert Graham, the son of one of the female passengers, was arrested and charged with murder. He reportedly admitted placing a time bomb on board the aircraft, apparently in order to collect $37,500.00 in life insurance that he had taken on his mother's life. Though he soon recanted, he was convicted of murder and was executed. The potential for additional such crimes remains.     

The Effect of Distributive Justice on Willingness to Pay for Municipality Child Care: An Extension of the GEF Hypothesis

Public-goods dilemmas are characterized by conflicts between self-interest and the welfare of a group or society at large. Research has identified several factors that enhance cooperation in such dilemmas. However, less is known about how concern for distributive justice affects willingness to contribute in asymmetric public-goods dilemmas. To test the hypothesis that contributions to a common resource is related to perceived fairness, experiments were performed to investigate willingness to pay to the social service of child care in hypothetical societies. Experiment 1 aimed at replicating a previous survey study (Biel et al., 1997). Experiments 2 and 3 were extensions. In all three experiments subjects were asked to indicate how fair they considered different distributions of the quality of child care provided by their municipality. These distributions corresponded to the principles of equality, equity, and need. University students (32, 48, and 32 in the three experiments, respectively) served as subjects. Ratings of perceived fairness were positively related to willingness to pay. Other factors also positively related to willingness to pay included ability to pay, personal need, expected payment from others, and the number of households who had to contribute in order to maintain the quality. Furthermore, decreasing municipality size increased willingness to pay.