At the frontiers of scientific advancement: the factors that influence scientists to become or choose to become publicly funded principal investigators

This paper aims to unearth the factors that influence scientists in becoming and choosing to become publicly funded principal investigators (PIs). PIs are the linchpins of knowledge transformation and bridging triple helix actors, particularly academia-industry. At a micro level, PIs are at the nexus of engaging and interacting with other triple helix actors. No study to date has specifically focused on the factors that influence scientists to become or choose to become publicly funded PIs. For scientists taking on the role of a PI represents an important landmark in their research career. Set in an Irish research system we found two main categories of influencing factors—push and pull. Pull factors are where the PI has more choice in choosing to become a PI, where as push factors is where the PI has less choice in choosing to become a PI. Pull factors we identified were control, career ambition and advancement, personal drive and ambition. Pull factors we identified were project dependencies and institutional pressures.     

China’s economic statecraft in Europe

Asia Europe Journal - China’s economic statecraft in Europe relies upon three distinct strategies: specific and diffuse reciprocity, and strategic engagement—each designed to advance a...     

A Wave to Worry About? Public opinion,foreign policy and China's anti-Japan protests

Comparing China's 2012 anti-Japan protests against three previous rounds of anti-Japan protests in 1985, 1996 and 2005 reveals a cyclical pattern, best characterized as a wave of popular mobilization. In each case, external events sparked a swell of public anger and activism which Chinese leaders initially tolerated before cooling. This pattern of contained contention has not led to Beijing loosening control over its foreign policy. However, the 2012 protests did feature one new element: a consumer boycott augmented by China's more assertive economic statecraft.     

Teaching Law Students How to Feel: Using Negotiations Training to Increase Emotional Intelligence

This article suggests that negotiation courses using traditional lectures combined with role plays and simulated exercises can be used to train students in understanding emotion and increasing their emotional intelligence. The article defines emotion and emotional intelligence; describes and analyzes one simulated exercise that has proven to be particularly potent in the classroom for teaching both the theory and practice of emotional intelligence; sets forth the rudimentary components of a possible curriculum for emotions training; and concludes with reasons why law schools and other professional degree-granting programs can and should make training in emotions a curriculum staple.     

‘Ulster’s policing goes global’: The police reform process in Northern Ireland and the creation of a global brand

This paper engages with contemporary discussions in relation to the commodification of policing and security. It suggests that the existing literature regarding these trends has been geared primarily towards commercial security providers and has failed to address the processes by which public policing models are commodified and marketed both within, and through, the transnational policing community. Drawing upon evidence from the police change process in Northern Ireland, we argue that a Northern Irish Policing Model (NIPM) has emerged in the aftermath of the Independent Commission on Policing (ICP) reforms. This is increasingly branded and promoted on the global stage. Furthermore, we suggest that the NIPM is not monolithic, but segmented, and targeted towards a number of different ‘consumers’ both domestically and transnationally. Reflecting these diverse markets, the NIPM draws upon two seemingly incongruous constituent elements: the ‘best practice’ lessons of policing transition, as embodied in the ICP reforms; and, the legacy of counter-terrorism expertise drawn from the preceding decades of conflict. The discussion concludes by querying as to which of these components of the NIPM is in the ascendancy.     

Survey of 1276 shoeprint impressions and development of an automatic shoeprint pattern matching facility.

1276 shoeprints were collected at a scientific exhibition. Details regarding the age groups of the participants, style, size and manufacturer/brand of their shoes were recorded. The impressions were assigned to pattern groups showing that the most common pattern was present in only 1% of the population studied and most patterns were much less common. The impressions were digitized and a system developed for automatically sorting a database of images of outsole patterns in response to a reference image. The database images are ranked so that those from the same pattern group as the reference shoeprint are likely to be at the start of the list. A database of 486 complete shoeprint images belonging to 142 pattern groups was established with each group containing two or more examples. Tests of the system have shown that the first-ranked database image belongs to the same pattern group as the reference image 60% of the time and that a correct match appears within the first 5% of the ranked images 88% of the time. The system has translational and rotational invariance so that the spatial positioning of the reference shoeprint images does not have to correspond with the spatial positioning of the shoeprint images of the database. The performance of the system for matching partial shoeprints was also determined.