Why They Leave: An Analysis of Terrorist Disengagement Events from Eighty-seven Autobiographical Accounts

A deeper understanding of terrorist disengagement offers important insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to persuade individuals to leave these groups. Current research highlights the importance of certain “push” and “pull” factors in explaining disengagement. However, such studies tell us very little about the relative frequencies at which these hypothesized factors are associated with leaving in the terrorist population. Using data collected from eighty-seven autobiographical accounts, we find that push, rather than pull, factors are more commonly cited as playing a large role in individuals' disengagement decisions and that the experience of certain push factors increases the probability an individual will choose to leave. Importantly, disillusionment with the group's strategy or actions, disagreements with group leaders or members, dissatisfaction with one's day-to-day tasks, and burnout are more often reported as driving disengagement decisions than de-radicalization. Finally, our results suggest that ideological commitment may moderate one's susceptibility to pull factors.     

Medical liability and health care reform

We examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on medical liability and the controversy over whether federal medical reform including a damages cap could make a useful contribution to health care reform. By providing guaranteed access to health care insurance at community rates, the ACA could reduce the problem of under-compensation resulting from damages caps. However, it may also exacerbate the problem of under-claiming in the malpractice system, thereby reducing incentives to invest in loss prevention activities. Shifting losses from liability insurers to health insurers could further undermine the already weak deterrent effect of the medical liability system. Republicans in Congress and physician groups both pushed for the adoption of a federal damages cap as part of health care reform. Physician support for damages caps could be explained by concerns about the insurance cycle and the consequent instability of the market. Our own study presented here suggests that there is greater insurance market stability in states with caps on non-economic damages. Republicans in Congress argued that the enactment of damages caps would reduce aggregate health care costs. The Congressional Budget Office included savings from reduced health care utilization in its estimates of cost savings that would result from the enactment of a federal damages cap. But notwithstanding recent opinions offered by the CBO, it is not clear that caps will significantly reduce health care costs or that any savings will be passed on to consumers. The ACA included funding for state level demonstration projects for promising reforms such as offer and disclosure and health courts, but at this time the benefits of these reforms are also uncertain. There is a need for further studies on these issues.     

Evaluation of the Analytical Performance of a Fuel Cell Breath Alcohol Testing Instrument: A Seven‐Year Comprehensive Study

Abstract: Between 2003 and 2009, 54,255 breath test sequences were performed on 129 AlcoSensor IV–XL evidential instruments in Orange County, CA. The overall mean breath alcohol concentration and standard deviation from these tests was 0.141 ± 0.051 g/210 L. Of these test sequences, 38,580 successfully resulted in two valid breath alcohol results, with 97.5% of these results agreeing within ±0.020 g/210 L of each other and 86.3% within ±0.010 g/210 L. The mean absolute difference between duplicate tests was 0.006 g/210 L with a median of 0.004 g/210 L. Of the 2.5% of duplicate test results that did not agree within ±0.020 g/210 L, 95% of these had a breath alcohol concentration of 0.10 g/210 L or greater and 77% had an alcohol concentration of 0.15 g/210 L or greater. The data indicate that the AlcoSensor IV–XL can measure a breath sample for alcohol concentration with adequate precision even amid the effects of biological variations.     

如何保护你的知识产权

知识产权已经成为现代法律体系中变化最快的领域之一,每一位商人都有必要拥有一位通晓知识产权原则、对因不慎便可能陷入的知识产权陷阱有所了解的律师。商标名称、标志、图标及其三者的组合一旦被用来标识产品或者服务的来源时便落入了商标法调整的范围。为了确定一件商标能否被一个商业机构合法利用,就有必要首先确定该名称、标志或图标是否有可能得到保护以及该拟用商标与某个受保护的商标听起来或者看起来是否相同或者相似从而容易产生混淆。在ISCYRA诉ommyHilfiger(80F.3d749(2dCir.1996))一案中,世界著名的服装设计师希望使用“星…     

John and Jane Doe: the epidemiology of unidentified decedents

Abstract:  The number of people who cannot be identified at the time of death, sometimes referred to as John or Jane Does, is unknown, and little is known about them as a group. The study's objectives were to estimate the number of annual unidentified deaths, to identify demographic characteristics associated with dying unidentified, to determine whether the rates of such deaths vary geographically or over time, and to better characterize the causes of death. This was a population-based surveillance study of data collected from death certificates from 1979 to 2004 in the U.S. Subjects were selected by the absence of name, date of birth, and Social Security Number on their certificates. Main outcome measures were distributions by age, sex, and underlying cause of death and rates by sex, race, year, and state of death. An average of 413 unidentified persons died each year. The peak year was 1987 with 691 deaths, a rate of 28.5 per 10 million people. The rate declined to 9.7 per 10 million in 2004. Most unidentified decedents were male (80.6%). Unidentified death rates were highest among black people and in the Southwest. Among deaths for which the cause was known, 82.7% were due to injuries. Among injury deaths, 31.8% were homicides. Improvement in identification technology may have reduced rates of unidentified death since the 1980s. In addition, variations in rates of unidentified decedents may reflect changes in risk factors such as homelessness and substance abuse.     

Right to Experimental Treatment: FDA New Drug Approval, Constitutional Rights, and the Public's Health

On May 2, 2006, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a startling opinion, Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs v. Eschenbach, held that terminally ill patients who have exhausted all other available options have a constitutional right to experimental treatment that FDA has not yet approved. Although ultimately overturned by the full court, Abigail Alliance generated considerable interest from various constituencies. Meanwhile, FDA proposed similar regulatory amendments, as have lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress. But proponents of expanded access fail to consider public health and consumer safety concerns. In particular, allowing patients to try unproven treatments, outside of controlled clinical trials risks both the study's outcome and the health of patients who might benefit from the deliberate, careful process of new drug approval as it currently operates under FDA's auspices.