A historian's view on the right to be forgotten

This essay explores the consequences for historians of the ‘right to be forgotten', a new concept proposed by the European Commission in 2012. I first explain that the right to be forgotten is a radical variant of the right to privacy and clarify the consequences of the concept for the historical study of public and private figures. I then treat the hard cases of spent and amnestied convictions and of internet archives. I further discuss the applicability of the right to be forgotten to dead persons as part of the problem of posthumous privacy, and finally point to the ambiguity of the impact of the passage of time. While I propose some compromise solutions, I also conclude that a generalized right to be forgotten would lead to the rewriting of history in ways that impoverish our insights not only into anecdotal lives but also into the larger trends of history.     

对正当防卫制度的思考——以大巴车司机关门夹死劫匪为例

2008年初发生的大巴车司机关门夹死劫匪的案子一时间引发了人们的热议,具体探讨该案,可以发现我国刑法中关于正当防卫时间条件的规定过于原则。因而有必要合理细化正当防卫的时间条件,更好地鼓励公民与正在进行的不法侵害作斗争,从而保障社会公共利益及公民的合法权利免受正在进行的不法侵害。     

对人和鼠腹部皮肤切创缘壁伤后不同时间纤维连接蛋白变化的研究

作者应用免疫组织化学 PAP 法对人体腹部4小时以内切创缘 FN 进行染色观察,发现在切创早期创缘 FN 随着时间延长就有明显变化。为法医鉴定早期切创时间提供了新的依据,同时还发现鼠和人腹部切创经过时间虽相同,但创缘 FN 染色强度却不同。     

两高司法解释“曾因盗窃受过刑事处罚”规定解读

两高于2013年4月4日下发了《关于办理盗窃刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释》,其中第2条第1款"曾因盗窃受过刑事处罚"的规定在司法实践中引起一定争议,包括对该规定时间效力的把握、盗窃前科的界定和受过刑事处罚范围的理解。检察机关在适用该款规定时,应当站在刑法体系整体协调的高度,严格遵循从旧兼从轻的刑事法律时间效力原则,运用正确的法律解释方法,坚持刑法谦抑和有利于犯罪嫌疑人的司法理念,有理有据、不枉不纵,确保检察工作法律效果和社会效果的良好统一。     

Parliamentary Question Times: How Legislative Accountability Mechanisms Affect Mass Political Engagement

Over time, people have been losing interest in politics. Some believe this to be one of the largest challenges facing democracy today. What causes some citizens to be more engaged than others? This paper argues that national-level political institutions are important in shaping the tone of political debate between election campaigns. Some countries have regular, accessible debates between political leaders; in others the debate is rarer and harder to follow. Parliamentary question time (QT) is a prominent forum for regular elite-level debate, and QTs featuring open, accessible debate should help induce citizens to engage with politics by providing them with an information-laden political spectacle. The data show that these open QTs are associated with higher levels of political knowledge, partisanship, and turnout.     

外商直接投资对中国产业结构升级的影响——基于粤苏鲁三省面板数据的时点个体固定效应分析

本文选取粤、苏、鲁三省2001～2011年第一、二、三产业的面板数据,采用时点个体固定效应模型,对外商直接投资对产业结构升级的影响做了实证分析,结果显示外商直接投资的进入促进了中国产业经济结构的升级.外商直接投资对第二产业的固定效应最大,其次是第三和第一产业.外商直接投资对第一、二产业的个体固定效应随经济发展水平的提高而降低;对第三产业的个体固定效应则随经济发展水平的提高而增强.外商直接投资对第一产业的时点固定效应呈一直降低趋势,对第二产业的时点固定效应则先升高后降低,对第三产业的时点固定效应呈先降低后升高趋势.     

Use of Postmortem Temperature Decay Response Surface Plots of Heat Transport in the Human Eye to Predict Time of Death

A finite element heat transfer model of the human eye was previously constructed and applied to experimental postmortem temperature decay curves collected in eyeballs of ten human bodies. The model was applied in the early postmortem period of 0–24 h under conditions of natural convection–radiation. Based upon this previous model, response surfaces for postmortem temperature decay were constructed based upon variable ranges of the natural convective–radiation heat transfer coefficient from 7–13 W/m² K, ambient temperatures of 10–33°C, and times of 0–24 h. Mathematical equations to describe these response surfaces have been developed. This response surface method is demonstrated for use by coroners/medical personnel to estimate time of death from recorded field temperature data collected over a 30‐min period. Sensitivity of the model to small changes in the key variable of ambient temperature is explored. The response surface model is applied to two cases of previously collected experimental eyeball temperature data. This response surface model method is only valid for constant surrounding temperatures, conditions of natural convection, no radiation effects, and postmortem times of 0–24 h.     

A Social Discount Rate for Appraisal of Regional Investments: Evidence from Russia

This article provides estimates of a social discount rate (SDR) to inform government policy in Russia. We find that a SDR should be determined for the whole country as well as for particular regions. We apply the social rate of time preferences approach and estimate values for public sector projects at national and regional levels. All calculations are based on data from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia. Findings help the decision-making process in the public sector of economics. Suggestions are useful for Russia as well as for post-Soviet countries and other developing economies with regional diversity.     

Exports as a Determinant of Long-Run Growth in Paraguay, 1966-96

During the 1970s and early 1980s Paraguay experienced relatively high rates of economic growth as well as a boom in primary goods production destined for export. The question which this research addresses concerns the relationship between these events and the applicability of the so-called export-led growth (ELG) hypothesis. The hypothesis is investigated via the use of modern time series methods including Granger causality tests, error correction modeling, and vector autoregression. The basic conclusion reached is that the ELG does not have much relevance to the Paraguayan case.     

Agenda-Setting and Priming in Prime Time Television: Crime Dramas as Political Cues

The effects of agenda-setting and priming are well established in regard to the news media. Considerably less attention has been paid to these phenomena in entertainment media, in spite of the fact that entertainment media enjoy larger audiences than do news media and often address political topics. This article argues that the psychological mechanism hypothesized to lead to agenda-setting and priming effectsthat is, changes in construct accessibilityapplies as equally to entertainment media as it does to news media. Moreover, we contend that the frequency, consistency, and duration of entertainment media treatments of political issues encourage chronic accessibility of those issues. We test these hypotheses looking at television crime dramas as a source of political information. Using data from two controlled laboratory experiments and the 1995 National Election Study Pilot Study, we demonstrate that viewing crime dramas significantly increases concerns about crime and that these concerns significantly affect viewers' opinions of the president. The NES Pilot Study data suggest that these effects are restricted to frequent viewers of crime dramas, supporting a chronic accessibility model of agenda-setting and priming. These findings extend our growing understanding of how non-news sources of political information contribute to the construction of political attitudes.