QUESTIONING SEQUENCES IN CANADIAN POLICE INTERVIEWS: CONSTRUCTING AND CONFIRMING THE COURSE OF EVENTS?

A content analysis of 19 Canadian police interviews with adult witnesses revealed that several of the interviewing strategies used by officers ran counter to the recommendations in the literature. Specifically, interviewers interrupted the witness more than was necessary, rarely employed any cognitive techniques to enhance memory recall and asked far more closed than open-ended questions. Further, in terms of the sequencing of questions, a pattern emerged across interviews that suggested that officers first “help” the witness construct the event and then, through a rapid sequence of “yes/no” questions, seek to confirm the account. We argue that this pattern of questioning may suggest that officers are pursuing an assumed version of events and that exploring interviews from a sequencing perspective may prove beneficial in identifying possible biased versions of events.     

Building on Solid Ground: Robust Case Selection in Multi‐Method Research

The social sciences are currently witnessing a trend toward multi‐method research (MMR). However, many important issues have not been sufficiently addressed so far. The focus of this paper is case selection for process tracing on the basis of regression results, which is the main point of intersection between the two methods. Based on a review, we first show that the current empirical and methodological literature does not fully appreciate the implications of modeling uncertainty and non‐robust quantitative results. The major problem is that non‐robust regression results may lead to invalid choices and faulty inferences. We develop a novel selection procedure that takes these issues into account and improves causal inference in MMR.     

Knowledge generation,political action and African development: A polycentric approach

ABSTRACT

Knowledge generated to meet societal needs is the bedrock of development. Africa's development crisis is marked by the persistent gap between the application of intellectual rigours and political action. Despite abundant development potential (human and natural resources, and scientific knowledge), coupled with reform declarations and commitments by African leaders over the past four decades, development remains illusory. This article examines the relationship between key development players (African public officials and African scholars), and how generated knowledge is applied to respond to the needs of African citizens. Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (otherwise known as new institutionalism) this article examines weaknesses in the interaction of knowledge, political action and development, while at a local level African citizens, through shared strategies and problem-solving interdependency, are effectively transforming indigenous knowledge inherited from their parents to confront daily challenges. The article suggests ways of bridging the gap between development players by proposing an African Development Institutional Mechanism (ADIM) aimed at enabling key development players to operate in synergy.     

An academic perspective on the copyright reform

The recently proposed new Copyright Directive was released on 14 September 2016. It has been described by EU law-makers as the pillar of the copyright package promised by the European Commission (EC), to be delivered before the end of Mr. Juncker's mandate. In its Communication of 6 May 2015, the EC had stressed “the importance to enhance cross-border access to copyright-protected content services, facilitate new uses in the fields of research and education, and clarify the role of online services in the distribution of works and other subject-matter.” The proposed Copyright Directive is thus a key measure aiming to address two of these three issues. However it is not without shortfalls.We have therefore decided to publicly express our concerns and send an open letter to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to urge them to re-assess the new provisions dealing with mandatory filtering of user-generated content in the light of the CJEU case law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.In a more extended statement, we examine in details the text of both the explanatory memorandum and the Directive itself.Our conclusions are:1. A comprehensive re-assessment of Article 13 and Recital 39 in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the E-commerce Directive (in particular Article 15) including CJEU case law is needed, as the proposed Copyright Directive does not expressly address the issue of its compatibility with both of these texts.2. Recital 38 does not clarify the domain and effect of Article 13. Rather, it creates confusion as it goes against settled CJEU case law (relating to Articles 14 and 15 of the E-commerce Directive and Article 3 of the Infosoc Directive). Recital 38 should therefore be deleted or substantially re-drafted/re-phrased. If the EU wants to introduce a change in this regard it should clearly justify its choice. In any case, a recital in the preamble to a directive is not an appropriate tool to achieve this effect.We hope that this exercise will prove useful for the debate that has now begun both in the European Parliament and in the Council.     

Discrimination between sediment and soil samples for forensic purposes using elemental data: an investigation of particle size effects

This paper reports the results of an investigation to quantify variations in elemental concentrations amongst different particle size fractions obtained from a suite of sediment samples collected from the River Avon, UK. Concentrations of 49 elements determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-AES and ICP-MS) were compared using conventional and multivariate statistical methods in order to assess compositional differences between different size fractions and between different samples. The results showed significant differences between different size fractions and the bulk sediments, but indicated that all of the size fractions considered (<150, 63-150, 20-63 and <20microm) provided an adequate basis on which to identify associations and differences between samples. It was concluded that, while in certain specific circumstances it may be most appropriate to make forensic comparisons based on a very narrowly defined particle size range, for the majority of purposes the <150microm fraction provides the best compromise between sample size requirements and data resolution.     

负重对步法特征影响的实验研究

利用Footscan足底压力步态分析系统采集青年人抬重物行走足底各个区域的压力数据,通过对实验数据的定量分析、比较,研究压力分布变化规律,同时捺印穿鞋样本足迹进行对照研究,为利用足迹压痕等步法特征分析遗留足迹人的行走方式,进而分析其人身特点提供可靠的理论依据和实用方法。     

Legal and ethical issues in knowledge management in Malaysia

In this era of k-economy, knowledge management is becoming crucial to take stock of the influx of knowledge available on the Internet as well as consolidating knowledge generated within an organization. This paper explores the legal and ethical ramifications of all the various processes of knowledge management from capturing, creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge within an organization in Malaysia.     

我国商业银行的营销策略

借助SWOT分析法,对我国商业银行自身反我国宏、微观的银行营销环境进行综合分析,提出选择目标市场、进行金融服务定位、不断创新产品和服务、树立自己的品牌形象、制定适当的价格策略、建立通畅的分销渠道等一系列适合我国商业银行实际的市场营销策略。     

基于BP神经网络的高校院系科研绩效评价模型

本文在分析当前各种高校院系的科研绩效评价指标体系的基础上．针对目前各种评价指标多、定量难、人为干扰因素多等问题,采用主成分法从大量评价因素中筛选出绩效评估的主要因素,即在保留评价信息的前提下对数据进行有效降维。并通过BP神经网络的自学习功能计算出高校院系的科研绩效。该模型能较为科学地评估高校院系科研团队的科研成效、核心竞争力及研究潜力,为高校科研管理提供一种新方法。