Applying the Notion of Noise to Countering Online Terrorism

The growing presence of modern terrorism on the Internet is at the nexus of two key trends: the democratization of communications driven by user-generated content on the Internet; and the growing awareness of modern terrorists of the potential of the Internet for their purposes. How best can the terrorists’ use and abuse of the Internet be countered? As this article argues, the answer to violent radicalization on the Internet lies not in censorship of the Internet, but in a more sophisticated and complicated strategy, relying on the theoretical notion of “noise” in communication process theory.     

The Effectiveness of Inputs in Primary Education: Insights from Recent Student Surveys for Sub-Saharan Africa

With SACMEQ and PASEC there are now two large data bases available on student achievement, socio-economic background and school and teacher characteristics in both anglophone and francophone sub-Saharan Africa. A joint analysis of PASEC and SACMEQ in a common education production function framework allows us to estimate the impact of educational inputs on student achievement in 21 sub-Saharan African countries and to compare our results with those of earlier empirical studies for education systems in Africa and other world regions. In our analysis we focus on school equipment, teacher quality and class organisation. The issue of teacher and student incentives cannot be adequately addressed with the given data. Our results are based on a traditional retrospective analysis of student achievement in PASEC and SACMEQ countries. In contrast to the ‘nothing works’ result from most industrialized countries' studies we find robust positive correlations of achievement test scores and the possession of textbooks and negative correlations with teaching in shifts. The most striking result is the weak or even absent correlation of achievement test scores and teacher education and professional training. However, some differences between francophone and anglophone education systems can be observed in this context if differences in the sampling methodology are duly taken into account.     

Fostering management education to deter corruption: what do students know about corruption and its legal consequences?

This article analyses the current knowledge about corruption and its legal consequences among university students. Based on data from 1,511 undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines at four major universities in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, it appears that the majority of students have difficulty identifying corrupt behaviour and its legal consequences. Law students achieve slightly better results. However, even law students demonstrate a significant lack of knowledge of corruption issues. In particular, most of the students are unaware that corruption that occurs abroad can also be prosecuted in Switzerland. The limited knowledge among students regarding corruption and its legal consequences as identified in this study suggests that the teaching and study of anti-corruption-related subjects should be better integrated into the curricula of universities and business schools.     

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL OVERSIGHT OF ALTERNATIVE BOND SYSTEMS UNDER SMCRA

The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) requires mine operators to post reclamation bonds before mining begins. The Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has approved alternative bond systems in seven states. These systems, rather than requiring bond amounts at the full cost of reclamation, require operators t o submit only a flat rate, acreage specific bond. Additional reclamation costs should be covered by a supplemental fund composed generally of permit fees, taxes, or penalties.
In many cases, alternative bond systems fail to ensure that funds will be available to reclaim coal mined land in the event of operator default, as required by SMCRA. OSMRE needs to take a more active role in oversight of existing state alternative bond systems to ensure that reclamation occurs.     

Visualization of bridging veins by means of postmortem computed tomography

At autopsy, visualization of lesions of the bridging veins, a frequent source of subdural bleeding, is difficult due to their anatomical localization. On the other hand their demonstration is of great importance for the assignment to a chronologically defined trauma. For this reason a postmortem method using computed tomography was developed to visualize the intracranial venous system by means of X-ray contrast media. In subdural bleedings, in which the skull had not been opened up, ruptured vessels could be accurately localized with this method, so that targeted dissection was possible during the subsequent autopsy.     

Determination of time-dependent skin temperature decrease rates in the case of abrupt changes of environmental temperature

The present study deals with the development of a method for determining time-dependent temperature decrease rates and its application to postmortem surface cooling. The study concentrates on evaluating skin cooling behavior since data on skin cooling in the forensic literature are scarce. Furthermore, all heat transfer mechanisms strongly depend on the temperature gradient between body surface and environment. One of the main problems in modelling postmortem cooling processes is the dependence on the environmental temperature. All models for postmortem rectal cooling essentially presuppose a constant environmental temperature. In medico-legal practice, the temperature of the surrounding of a corpse mostly varies; therefore, an approach for extending the models to variable environmental temperatures is desirable. It consists in 'localizing' them to infinitesimal small intervals of time. An extended model differential equation is obtained and solved explicitly. The approach developed is applied to the single-exponential Newtonian model of surface cooling producing the following differential equation:T(S)'(t)=-lambda(t)(T(S)(t)-T(E)(t))(with T(S)(t) the surface/skin temperature, T(E)(t) the environmental temperature, lambda(t) the temperature decrease rate and T(S)'(t) the actual change of skin temperature or first-order derivative of T(S)). The differential equation directly provides an estimator:lambda(t)=-T(S)'(t)T(S)(t)-T(E)(t)for the time-dependent temperature decrease rate. The estimator is applied to two skin cooling experiments with different types of abrupt changes of environmental temperature, peak-like and step-like; the values of the time-dependent temperature decrease rate function were calculated. By reinserting them, the measured surface temperature curve could be accurately reconstructed, indicating that the extended model is well suited for describing surface cooling in the case of abrupt changes of environmental temperature.     

Getting Down to Basics: A Situated Model of Conflict in Social Relations

The field of conflict resolution is fractured. Despite many decades of fine research, we still lack a basic unifying framework that integrates the many theories of conflict dynamics. Thus, the findings from research on conflict are often piecemeal, decontextualized, contradictory, or focused on negative outcomes, which contributes to a persistent research‐practice gap. In this article, we describe a situated model for the study of conflict that combines separate strands of scholarship into a coherent framework for conceptualizing conflict in dyadic social relations. The model considers conflict interactions in the context of social relations and employs prior research on the fundamental dimensions of social relations to create a basic framework for investigating conflict dynamics. The resulting model is heuristic and generative. We discuss the theoretical context and main propositions of this model as well as its implications for conflict resolution practitioners.     

Offline and Online Civic Engagement Among Adolescents and Young Adults from Three Ethnic Groups

Levels of civic engagement are assumed to vary according to numerous social and psychological characteristics, but not much is known about online civic engagement. This study aimed to investigate differences and similarities in young people’s offline and online civic engagement and to clarify, based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB), associations between motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, collective efficacy, and civic engagement. The sample consisted of 755 youth (native German, ethnic German Diaspora, and Turkish migrants) from two age groups (16–18 and 19–26; mean age 20.5 years; 52 % female). Results showed that ethnic group membership and age moderated the frequency of engagement behavior, with Turkish migrants taking part more than native Germans, who were followed by ethnic German Diaspora migrants. Analyses based on TPB showed good fit for a model relating intention for offline and online civic engagement to motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, and collective efficacy. Ethnic group moderated the findings for offline civic engagement and questioned the universality of some model parameters (e.g., peer and parental norms). This study showed the utility of the TPB framework for studying civic engagement but also reveals that the predictive utility of peer and parental norms seems to vary depending on the group and the behavior under study. This study highlights the importance of including minority samples in the study of civic engagement in order to identify between-group similarities and differences.     

Putting power into practice: Administrative and political capacity building in the European Parliament's Committee for International Trade

As the formal powers of the European Parliament have increased with successive treaty changes, its committees' administrations have seen a parallel growth. We argue that such administrative capacity is necessary but not sufficient for acting on formal treaty powers. Administrative capacity has to be combined with political capacity in order to muster policy impact in European Union decision‐making. By differentiating between intra‐institutional administrative and inter‐institutional political capacity, we offer a fine‐grained conceptualization of policy capacity while broadening the theoretical and empirical understanding of the European Parliament's administration as an organizational structure of formal and informal working practices, intra‐institutional coordination and inter‐institutional relations. Based on expert interviews, document analysis and participant observation, the case of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership illustrates how societal politicization of a specific policy issue triggered the European Parliament to exploit the latent potential of its post‐Lisbon administrative capacity by transforming it into a more readily deployable political capacity.