A comparison of email versus letter threat contacts toward members of the United States Congress

To better understand inappropriate correspondence sent to public officials, 301 letter cases and 99 email cases were randomly selected from the United States Capitol Police investigative case files and compared. Results indicate that letter writers were significantly more likely than emailers to exhibit indicators of serious mental illness (SMI), engage in target dispersion, use multiple methods of contact, and make a problematic approach toward their target. Emailers were significantly more likely than letter writers to focus on government concerns, use obscene language, and display disorganization in their writing. Also, letter writers tended to be significantly older, have more criminal history, and write longer communications. A multivariate model found that disorganization, SMI symptoms, problematic physical approach, and target dispersion significantly differentiated between the correspondence groups. The group differences illuminated by this study reveal that letter writers are engaging in behavior that is higher risk for problematic approach than are emailers.     

Russian data retention requirements: Obligation to store the content of communications

This paper presents an analysis of Russian data retention regulations. The most controversial point of the Russian data retention requirements is an obligation to keep the content of communications that is untypical for legislation of European and other countries. These regulations that oblige telecom operators and Internet communication services to store the content of communications should come into force on July 1, 2018.The article describes in detail the main components of the data retention mechanism: the triggers for its application, its scope, exemptions and barriers to its enforcement. Attention is paid to specific principles for implementation of content retention requirements based on the concepts of proportionality, reasonableness and effectiveness.Particular consideration is given to the comparative aspects of the Russian data retention legislation and those applying in different countries (mainly EU member states). The article focuses on the differences between the Russian and EU approaches to the question of how to strike a balance between public security interests and privacy. While the EU model of data retention is developing in the context of profound disputes on human rights protection, the Russian model is mostly concentrated on security interests and addresses mainly economic, technological aspects of its implementation.The paper stresses that a range of factors (legal, economic and technological) needs to be taken into account for developing an optimal data retention system. Human rights guarantees play the key role in legitimization of such intrusive measures as data retention. Great attention should be paid to the procedures, precise definitions, specification of entitled authorities and the grounds for access to data, providing legal immunities and privileges, etc. Only this extensive range of legal guarantees can balance intervention effect of state surveillance and justify data retention practices.     

Selection and Incentives in the Electoral Security‐Constituency Communication Relationship

The relative importance of selection and incentives is essential for understanding how elections structure politicians’ behavior. I investigate the relative magnitudes of these two effects in the context of US House members’ constituency communication. Consistent with previous research, I find that there is a negative cross‐sectional relationship between electoral security and the intensity of constituency communication. The negative relationship holds in a panel‐data setting where only within‐legislator variation in electoral security is used to identify the effect of electoral security on legislator behavior. Due to the likely presence of myopic voters, the impact of electoral security increases as the election approaches. Point estimates suggest that the total effect is almost entirely driven by incentives, and I am able to reject the hypothesis that the incentive effect is zero at conventional levels of statistical significance.     

全人类共同价值国际传播：意义阐释、困境透视与优化路径

全人类共同价值站在世界发展与人类进步的道义制高点上，旨在打破不同国家和地域间的文化隔阂，赋能世界人民的美好生活追求，体现了新时代中国共产党人的全球视野和大国担当。全人类共同价值的国际传播对解构西方的“普世价值”话语霸权、夯实人类命运共同体构建的价值根基、提升中国的对外话语权和软实力等方面具有深层价值意蕴。当下全人类共同价值的国际传播仍面临传播环境阻滞、传播主体协同性不够、传播受众针对性不足、传播媒介影响力不强等多元困境。为此，应通过优化国际传播环境、整合国际传播主体、对国际传播受众进行细分和策略选择、打造国际传播媒介矩阵等多维路径协同推进，全面提升全人类共同价值国际传播效能。     

互联网国际规则建构:话语策略的公共安全视角

对当今世界各主要经济体而言,互联网安全已成为一个利益攸关的重要议题,但该领域国际共识和国际规则严重缺失,这与持续加剧的互联网安全威胁之间产生了尖锐的矛盾。在中国,互联网治理日益成为关乎国家安全的政策焦点,同时也是参与全球治理不可或缺的组成部分;建构互联网国际规则的话语能力直接影响着中国对外传播话语体系的建立和制度性话语权的提升,但目前中国对该领域话语策略的学术与政策研究仍严重缺失。当前,对互联网国际规则之制度理念的应然性研究仍显不足,关于中国在该领域对外传播话语策略的探讨更是近乎空白。互联网国际规则的缺失本质上源于互联网信息自由带来的收益与政府信息管控对此种收益的限制之间存在难以调和的矛盾。由于日益严峻的互联网安全形势正逐渐打破互联网信息自由与政府信息管控之间原有的平衡,加之全球化趋势将世界各国的命运更加紧密地联系在一起,该领域国际规则的建构开始具备现实的可能性。鉴于传播话语在规则建构的过程中占据着举足轻重的地位,以公共安全为切入点赢得国际共识、提升中国在互联网全球治理中的话语能力和制度性话语权就成为中国政策制定机构和宣传机构在通过对外传播推进互联网国际规则建构时应采取的话语策略。     

Personal attributes and (mis)perceptions of local environmental risk

Individuals' risk perceptions shape their attitudes and behaviors, and to the extent that governments respond to public demands, they also influence public policy priorities. Conversely, risk misperceptions—that is, when risk perceptions do not align with realities—may lead to suboptimal behaviors and inefficient public policy. This study investigates the phenomena of environmental risk misperceptions. Specifically, with an original survey that enables a direct comparison of perceived and actual environmental risks at the local level, it examines the relationships between personal attributes and risk misperceptions. The findings show that individuals exhibit optimism bias in assessing local environmental risk. On average, people rank their communities as experiencing less risk from toxic air pollution than objective measures suggest. Moreover, Whites, males, conservatives, and older people tend to have larger optimism bias and have lower chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their counterparts, respectively, while respondents who are married, poor, who go to church regularly, and have strong pro-environmental orientation, tend to have smaller optimism bias and have higher chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their respective counterparts. The systematic misperception of local environmental risk underscores the importance of information provision and risk communication, and the sociopolitical correlates of misperception suggest that targeted and more nuanced strategies are required to correct misperceptions.     

技术权威与数字时代的国际技术竞争

在国际技术竞争中，技术权威既非构建于利益交换关系之上，又不依靠强制胁迫的方式来维系，而是通过锁定技术发展轨道与治理规则路径赢得其他国家的自愿追随，由此形成非对称服从关系。技术权威可划分为知识型、监管型、辐射型与借力型四种类型，不同技术权威类型之间可通过技术跃迁与市场规模拓展来实现转换。在移动通信技术领域，拥有不同技术权威类型的国家分别通过实体路径、市场路径、制度路径与联盟路径参与国际技术竞争，借助技术领域中的锁定效应巩固其在国际技术竞争中的优势地位，直至出现颠覆性技术的突破。     

吴茱萸碱对大鼠肝癌细胞缝隙连接细胞通讯功能及连接蛋白表达的影响

目的探讨吴莱萸碱抗肿瘤的作用机制。方法用终浓度为0．1，0．2，0．3μmol／L的吴茱萸碱作用于CBRH7919细胞，同时设不加吴茱萸碱的空白对照组。采用划痕标记染料示踪技术检测各组细胞缝隙连接细胞通讯（gap junctional intercellular communication，GJIC）功能；异硫氰酸荧光素间接免疫荧光法检测连接蛋白（connexin，Cx）26、Cx32表达的变化。结果与空白对照组相比，吴莱萸碱各浓度组CBRH7919细胞Cx26、Cx32表达显著增加，GJIC功能增强，并呈一定的剂量效应依赖关系。结论吴茱萸碱上调CBRH7919细胞Cx26和Cx32的表达及促进CBRH7919细胞的GJIC功能，可能是其抗肿瘤的机制之一。