Regulating Autonomy: An Assessment of Policy Language for Highly Automated Vehicles

Self‐driving cars (also known as driverless cars, autonomous vehicles, and highly automated vehicles [HAVs]) will change the regulatory, political, and ethical frameworks surrounding motor vehicles. At the highest levels of automation, HAVs are operated by independent machine agents, making decisions without the direct intervention of humans. The current transportation system assumes human intervention though, including legal and moral responsibilities of human operators. Has the development of these artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous system (AS) technologies outpaced the ethical and political conversations? This paper examines discussions of HAVs, driver responsibility, and technology failure to highlight the differences between how the policy‐making institutions in the United States (Congress and the Public Administration) and technology and transportation experts are or are not speaking about responsibility in the context of autonomous systems technologies. We report findings from a big data analysis of corpus‐level documents to find that enthusiasm for HAVs has outpaced other discussions of the technology.     

Policy Narratives across Two Languages: A Comparative Study using the Narrative Policy Framework

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) focuses on the role of narratives, drawing from a rich scholarship in narrative, language, and culture. Despite the understanding that narratives are constructions of language and that narrative construction differs across languages, NPF studies have not focused on policy narratives in languages other than English. Language characteristics of narratives are important to assess the stability of policy narratives when there are multiple dominant languages in a political system. This study investigates the use of narrative elements in policy narratives in agricultural biotechnology policy in India across Hindi and English media coverage to examine the NPF assumption that narratives have generalizable narrative elements irrespective of variation in linguistic context and, specifically, tests the transportability of narrative elements. Findings validate the transportability of narrative elements in Hindi narratives, indicate variation in the use of narrative elements over time, and have implications for applying NPF across languages.     

Venue Preference and Earthquake Mitigation Policy: Expanding the Micro‐Model of Policy Choice

Seismologists have reported that a majority of recent earthquakes in Oklahoma have been triggered by the activities of oil and gas companies. Despite this fact, there is evidence of strong opposition toward earthquake mitigation policy. In this article, we argue that how individuals define issues affect their policy choice. Furthermore, we incorporate the concept of venue shopping from the literature on macro theories of the policy process to investigate the effect of problem definition in shaping individual venue preference for policy choice. Using unique survey data, we find that problem definition, particularly issue causality and issue image, is strongly related to individual support for earthquake mitigation policy. However, a more nuanced relationship between individual problem definition and venue preference is observed. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand the politics of problem definition at an individual level, which may be the precursor of understanding policy choices at the institutional level.     

Patterns of Local Policy Disruption: Regulatory Responses to Uber in Ten North American Cities

Since its inception in 2009, Uber has grown into a technology behemoth, with operations in over 70 countries and 500 cities around the world. Along the way, it has successfully forced regulatory upheaval in hundreds of local taxi markets controlled by municipal authorities. In this sense, Uber is not only a market disruptor, but also a policy disruptor. This paper examines the nature of such policy disruption at the local level by reviewing regulatory responses to Uber in ten North American cities. We find that regulatory outcomes are a function of two factors: Uber’s government relations strategy, either cooperative or confrontational, and the degree to which local governments perceive Uber as complementary or harmful to the existing marketplace. We conclude by proposing a typology of regulatory responses to Uber as a basis to identify patterns in the behavior of municipal regulatory authorities and political leaders.     

Governing Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction: The Case of Pennsylvania

Over the past decade, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing enabled an unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) boom in many regions of the United States, including parts of Pennsylvania. This revolution has created serious concerns about the capability of existing institutions to govern important societal outcomes associated with UOGE. We present a conceptual framework for assessing key societal outcomes influenced by UOGE governance. In applying this framework to Pennsylvania, we discern certain institutional strengths that have allowed the Commonwealth to reap appreciable short‐term economic growth from rich resource endowments. We also find, however, that several institutional weaknesses have allowed costs externalized to the environment, public health, and community integrity to offset some proportion of those economic benefits. Likewise, we find that governance of UOGE in Pennsylvania has contributed to a bifurcated sociopolitical landscape wherein adversarial coalitions dispute the legitimacy of the industry and its governance.     

东亚合作的现状与未来

１０＋３合作是东亚合作的主渠道，在世界各地区合作中独树一帜。经过几年来的发展，这种合作已取得显著进展，且打下了坚实基础。１０＋３合作势头良好，但未来发展仍面临一些问题。中国是１０＋３的重要一员，１０＋３的发展对中国具有十分重要的意义。     

根据C_3转化率和尸体肛温推断死亡时间

本文观察了不同温度条件下,人血中C_3转化率的变化情况。在14个尸解案例中,根据C_3转化率和尸体肛温推断死亡时间,其95％可信区间为±11小时。测定C_3转化率的同时,还可以观察C_3的表型,为无名尸体的个人识别提供依据。     

口蹄疫病毒多基因片段的克隆及其杆状病毒表达载体的构建

根据定点突变原理获得了包含口蹄疫病毒P1、2A、3C、3D及部分 2B编码区的目的基因片段 ,经SpeⅠ和HindⅢ双酶切后 ,与经相同方法处理的杆状病毒转移载体 pFastBacHT连接 ,得到了重组质粒 pFB P12X3C3D。经酶切和测序鉴定后 ,将其转化入含穿梭载体Bacmid的感受态细胞DH10Bac ,经抗性及蓝白斑筛选 ,得到了含P12X3C3D多基因的重组穿梭载体 ,将其命名为Bacmid P12X3C3D ;提取其DNA并转染Sf9昆虫细胞 ,最后获得含口蹄疫病毒P12X3C3D多基因的重组杆状病毒。     

Stature estimation using foot dimensions via 3D scanning in Taiwanese male adults

In forensic identification, the use of foot dimensions to predict stature is a requisite. For Taiwanese male stature prediction, available information about stature estimation using foot dimensions is still lacking. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to establish Taiwanese adult male stature prediction models for various foot dimensions. A total of 2,072 male 3D foot models were collected and the subjects' ages ranged from 18 to 59 years old. Thirteen foot dimensions for each foot were utilized in this study. Bilateral differences were tested using paired t-tests. Stature predictions based on different foot dimensions were conducted using simple linear and stepwise regression methods. The results showed significant bilateral differences in the majority of the selected foot dimensions (p < 0.001). Foot length had the highest positive correlation with stature in the right and left foot. Using length-related dimensions generated better prediction accuracy (0.356 < R² < 0.533, 4.193 < SEE < 4.928), whereas the worst accuracy was observed with angle-related dimensions (0.001 < R² < 0.023; 6.072 < SEE < 6.137) when employing a single foot dimension to estimate Taiwanese male stature. Stepwise regression analysis results indicated that the coefficient of determination was improved to 0.590 and 0.593 by applying five and six foot parameters to predict stature, respectively. The findings of the present study suggest that these stature estimation equations can be applied to predict Taiwanese male stature in the forensic science field.