Genetic screening technology: ethical issues in access to tests by employers and health insurance committees

Whereas the introduction of new technologies previously has raised the ethical question of who ought to have access to a new procedure or device, genetic testing technology raises the new ethical question of to whom access to a new technology ought to be limited. In this article we discuss the implications of employers and private health insurance companies having access to genetic testing technology. Although there may be legitimate business interests in allowing employers and insurers to conduct genetic screening, there are other valid societal interests in regulating or limiting the use of this technology by third parties. Public policy developed in the area of new genetic technology must reflect such interests.     

The importance of preservation of the ethical principle of equipoise in the design of clinical trials: relative impact of the methodological quality domains on the treatment effect in randomized controlled trials

Previous research has identified methodological problems in the design and conduct of randomized trials that could, if left unaddressed, lead to biased results. In this report we discuss one such problem, inadequate control intervention, and argue that it can be by far the most important design characteristic of randomized trials in overestimating the effect of new treatments. Current guidelines for the design and reporting of randomized trials, such as the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement, do not address the choice of the comparator intervention. We argue that an adequate control intervention can be selected if people designing a trial explicitly take into consideration the ethical principle of equipoise, also known as "the uncertainty principle."     

Institutional Entrepreneurship and Agency

The notion of institutional entrepreneurship has become very popular in the last decade. Starting from a review of the literature on the topic, I first focus on the use of the idea of individual entrepreneurs and point out three theoretical incongruities it produces. I then discuss notions of collective entrepreneurship and institutional work to see if they can overcome these incongruities. I conclude that although they can remedy some of the problems, these notions run the risk of describing everything until they describe nothing. In order to limit and enable the entrepreneurship literature to discuss agency meaningfully, I argue, it needs to develop analytical frames of agency derived either from existing sociological theories or from further developing its own brand of agency theory.     

The Importance of the Preservation of the Ethical Principle of Equipoise in the Design of Clinical Trials: Relative Impact of the Methodological Quality Domains on the Treatment Effect in Randomized Controlled Trials

Previous research has identified methodological problems in the design and conduct of randomized trials that could, if left unaddressed, lead to biased results. In this report we discuss one such problem, inadequate control intervention, and argue that it can be by far the most important design characteristic of randomized trials in overestimating the effect of new treatments. Current guidelines for the design and reporting of randomized trials, such as the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement, do not address the choice of the comparator intervention. We argue that an adequate control intervention can be selected if people designing a trial explicitly take into consideration the ethical principle of equipoise, also known as "the uncertainty principle."     

Justification of functional form assumptions in structural models: applications and testing of qualitative measurement axioms

In both theoretical and applied modeling in behavioral sciences, it is common to choose a mathematical specification of functional form and distribution of unobservables on grounds of analytic convenience without support from explicit theoretical postulates. This article discusses the issue of deriving particular qualitative hypotheses about functional form restrictions in structural models from intuitive theoretical axioms. In particular, we focus on a family of postulates known as dimensional invariance. Subsequently, we discuss how specific qualitative postulates can be reformulated so as to allow for conventional statistical hypothesis testing, and we also derive details of a particular likelihood ratio test procedure. An empirical application of the testing procedure is carried out, based on data from a Stated Preference survey.     

Lessons learned from three Southeast Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Several scholars have focused on the COVID-19 case studies in Europe and USA, leaving the people in Southeast Asia with little information about the lesson learned from their own case studies. This study aims to analyses case studies through the SEIR model in three Southeast Asia countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The SEIR model incorporates two types measures including social behavior and lockdowns as well as hospital preparedness. The SEIR model reveals that Malaysia, despite its relatively low testing capacity but with the application of the national lockdown, can slash the coronavirus transmission while Indonesia has still struggled to contain the COVID-19 flow owing to partial lockdowns. Singapore, at one hand, can successfully contain the coronavirus due to the national lockdowns, and the better healthcare system. With this point in mind, it is not surprising that Singapore has very low fatality rates and significantly low cases after lockdowns. Better preparedness lockdowns, and sufficient testing capacity are keys to controlling the COVID-19 flow, especially if the development of vaccines or distribution of respective vaccines is under progress.     

"Risk" and UK Pension Reform

“Risk” is a word that has become common currency in the financial services industry in general, and in the pensions industry in particular. This article critically examines its use in the context of the current debate about UK pension reform. “Risk” is used by a broad spectrum of interests to discuss a wide range of pension issues in a variety of contexts. The article outlines key theoretical perspectives on the nature and construction, or conceptualization, of risk. Their relevance to debate and policy initiatives, particularly public pension policy, is examined. It is suggested that current government policy is failing to carry with it those to whom the policy applies; that reforms implicitly, if not explicitly, underestimate the importance of “security”; and that failure to conduct a much broader debate about the fundamental notions of work, retirement, saving and security may simply condemn the UK to interminable pension reform.     

“You Never Get Used to Loneliness” – Older Adults’ Experiences of Loneliness When Applying for Going on a Senior Summer Camp

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was explore why the informants were feeling lonely and considered themselves to be in need of attending a senior summer camp, and how the informants were experiencing loneliness before they went to the senior summer camp. Interviews was made with nineteen older adult people (15 women and 4 men). A phenomenological inspired approach was used for the analysis of the interviews. Eight themes resulted: Hard to make new friends, Other circumstances making it hard to be social, Feel very lonely even if they lead rich social lives, Loss of loved ones, Do not want to do things alone, Friends make a difference, Do not feel lonely but need a change and Loneliness occurs at certain times. Through this analysis, we have gain insights to better understand loneliness as a multifaceted phenomenon that is associated with both personal circumstances and social situations. Many of the informants experienced being very lonely, even if they lead rich social lives. The experience of loneliness was connected to not having anyone they can turn to in confidence or to share experiences with and the need to belong to something or the need of a change in everyday life.     

自由心证制度的本土实践:以我国西南地区基层环境侵权案件为分析对象

“以事实为根据，以法律为准绳”是改革开放以来我国司法案件审理的基本原则，不过在实践中法官的审理逻辑更复杂。以我国西南地区的基层环境侵权案件为例，我国的基层法院一方面按照法律程序对环境侵权案件进行审理，另一方面在审判中“坚持服务大局”，因此，法官在“自由心证”的过程中“做文章”是一项不得已的实践策略。自由心证制度起源于17世纪英国的普通法法院，以新教革命之后“良心必须是自己形成的”原则为伦理动机。自由心证原则在当代中国的命运如何，不仅取决于法治的顶层设计是否完善，还取决于中国社会能否实现“生活之道的伦理理性化”。     

Cultural Stereotypes and Positioning Theory

This paper addresses the application of positioning theory , a new emerging theoretical scheme on the issue of cultural stereotyping. First, a critical conceptual analysis of the words'cultural stereotype'is presented. Secondly, the basic tenets of positioning theory are outlined. Finally, it will be demonstrated how the framework of positioning theory can be used to analytically refine the concept of cultural stereotype. The main upshot of the article is that within social psychology, the concept of cultural stereotype is used in a conceptually vague and blurred way and that, with the necessary conceptual refinements, other research-agendas on stereotypes will have to be tackled if social psychologists want to contribute anything to the societal efforts of changing stereotypes.     

Future Directions: Social Development in the Context of Social Justice

Many societies and cultures have become increasingly diverse and heterogeneous over the past decade. This diversity has a direct bearing on social justice in children's and adolescents' social development. Increased diversity can have positive consequences, such as the possibility for increased empathy, tolerance, perspective taking, and the celebration of various cultural traditions and values, but it can also result in increased prejudice, bias, and discrimination. In this article, we suggest that incorporating a focus on social justice can transform the field of social development. This can be done by considering the larger societal context of diversity or heterogeneity when investigating children's peer interactions, attitudes, group identity, and social experience. In addition, new findings that incorporate social justice concerns have implications for designing interventions to enhance children's healthy social development. We highlight and discuss recent areas of research that bear on this perspective and discuss avenues for future research and investigation.     

The digital economy and the future of European welfare states

As a consequence of new technology, labour markets are changing. This article’s central aim is to discuss variations among welfare states in Europe to adjust to changing labour markets. These variations in adjustment suggest that some welfare states are more prepared than others, including their capacity to ensure their sustainable financing. In the years to come, the predicted impact of technological development on labour markets will be huge. Impacts will include stronger “dualization” and new cleavages between “insiders” and “outsiders”. Fewer industrial jobs are to be expected, and service‐sector employment faces a risk of decline due to automation. While the creation of new jobs is likely, it remains to be seen whether these will replace the number of jobs destroyed, leaving the risk that many people whose skills become obsolete will become unemployed in the short as well as the longer term. Furthermore, even if the same number of jobs are eventually created, there will be a period of transition. In the light of this, welfare states will be challenged, not only in how they can finance their activities but also in terms of the threat posed to social cohesion by emerging labour market “winners” and “losers”, with an accompanying higher risk of increasing inequality. The article offers suggestions as to how welfare states may cope with the changes related to the financing of welfare states, and how active labour market policy can be part of the response to help alleviate the expected dramatic changes. Also required is a discussion on the annual average number of hours people will work and how this might be a factor in lower future levels of unemployment.     

The topic of subjectivity in psychology: Contradictions,paths and new alternatives

This paper draws a picture of how topics related to subjectivity have appeared in different psychological theories, such as psychoanalysis, Gestalt and post‐structuralist approaches, discussing in depth a specific proposition from a cultural‐historical standpoint. I argue that, in most of these theories, subjectivity has been used to refer to specific processes and phenomena without advancing a more general theory about it. The way in which subjectivity was treated within the Cartesian/Enlightenment tradition, taken together with the individualistic tradition of psychology, led critical psychological theories to reject the concept. In this way, such critical theories have omitted the heuristic value of subjectivity to study processes that can neither be exhausted by language, nor by discourse. A new proposal of subjectivity is highlighted, based on the cultural‐historical tradition in psychology. From this perspective, subjectivity is defined by units of emotions and symbolical processes generated throughout human experience. On the basis of such definition, I discuss how institutionalized orders can be subverted by subjective productions that represent new social pathways. Far from being a remnant of Modernity, in this way subjectivity is defined as a human production, capable of transcending the apparent objective limits of human existence.     

卡里斯玛、公共性与中国社会——有关“差序格局”的再思考

对费孝通的“差序格局”概念,已有的研究大多从个体与不同类别的其他社会成员之间关系的差异性出发来讨论。笔者以为,类似的模型几乎可以在世界任何一个文化里找到,仅从这一视角出发肯定有所偏差。事实上,费孝通认为存在两种“社群”：由团体格局所形成的“团体”和由差序格局形成的“社会圈子”。东西方社会结构的差异不在于西方只存在“团体”,东方只存在“社会圈子”,而在于这两种“社群”在社会构成上的不同。笔者由此指出,“差序格局”的实际含义是强调由“差序”所构成的社会组织在中国社会中占据主导与支配地位。中国所谓的公共领域,实际上由私人领域扩张与转化而来,或者受到私人领域的支配,这也使得中国社会的公共性供给在相当程度上依赖并取决于处于“差序格局”中心的某个个体或某一批个体的道德性     

Comparing uncertainty aversion towards different sources

In this article, we discuss some aspects of Eliaz and Ok ’s (Games Econ Behav 56:61–86, 2006) choice theoretical foundations of incomplete preferences. Our aim is to clarify some aspects of their regularity condition for preorders, showing that, as far as rationalization of a choice correspondence alone is concerned, no further restriction is imposed by requiring the preorder to be regular. However, if one is also interested in capturing other observable aspects of the individual’s choice procedure, such as Eliaz and Ok’s notion of c-incomparability or the notion of behavioral indifference introduced in this paper, then the only option is to use a regular preorder. We also argue that their weak axiom of revealed non-inferiority (WARNI) is too strong a property if our aim is to characterize the rationalizability of a choice correspondence by a (possibly incomplete) preorder. Finally, as we have mentioned above, we introduce the notion of behavioral indifference and argue, not only that Eliaz and Ok’s notion of c-incomparability (observable incomparability) can be derived from it, but also that it has a wider range of applicability than their notion of observable incomparability.     

On probabilities and loss aversion

This paper reviews the most common approaches that have been adopted to analyze and describe loss aversion under prospect theory. Subsequently, it is argued that loss aversion is a property of observable choice behavior and two new definitions of loss averse behavior are advocated. Under prospect theory, the new properties hold if the commonly used utility based measures of loss aversion are corrected by a probability based measure of loss aversion and their product exceeds 1. It is shown that prominent parametric families of weighting functions, while successful in accommodating empirical findings on probabilistic risk attitudes, may not fit well with the theoretical implications of the new loss averse behavior conditions.     

Constructs and empirical basis in theories of economic behavior

Theories of economic behavior often use as-if-languages: for example, analytical sentences or definitions are used as if they were synthetic and factual-normative theoretical constructs are used as if they were empirical concepts. Such as-if-languages impede the acquisition of knowledge and are apt to encourage the wrong assessment of actual research strategies. The author's criticism is first leveled at revealed-preference theory. In this theory observed behavior is often understood in an empirical sense although it is a pure theoretical construct. Another example can be found in von Mises' representations on marketing behavior: here theoretical valuations are used to achieve a spurious streamlining of reality. Result: Scientists should not ogle with reality if they have nothing to say about it.     

述宾式复合词变异用法探析

述宾式复合词能够拆开扩展使用,也能够直接带宾语,这是近年来文学作品及新闻媒体中经常出现的一种超常语言表现形式。这种突破汉语旧有模式的变异用法,无论在表达内容情感,还是表现语气色彩等方面,都具有一般语言形式所没有的语用价值。这些新奇、超常甚至怪异的搭配方式及其使用,往往却能以其独特的表现形式而充满感人的艺术魅力和吸引力。     

孤独个体的共同生活:自然社会的“自然”与“社会”

李猛的《自然社会》是近年来汉语学界研究现代“政治”秩序的一部界碑式著作。此处所谓“政治”,既指向一般意义上的政治,更包括人性、道德、社会和法权等多种秩序。本文认为,《自然社会》的核心是对“个体”与“社会”之关系这一经典命题的深化,亦即孤独的现代个体所构成的共同生活究竟是怎样的,如何理解包括家庭、社会、道德和国家在内的多种共同生活形态的实质及其内在张力。在此基础上,本文试图讨论以下几点：一是鲁滨逊式的孤独包含着一种新的社会生活形态的可能;二是格劳秀斯、普芬道夫和霍布斯那里孤独个体的微妙差别对于理解现代人的心灵秩序不可或缺;三是霍布斯式的个体形象指向一种新的现代人拓展自身人性的可能;四是自然法秩序所塑造的人性为现代国家的确立提供了道德动力。因而,本文认为,现代精神的发展尚未穷尽自身,只有更充分地理解其内在的丰富性和开放性,我们才能更有信心地把握自身的处境和命运。     

Hard evidence and ambiguity aversion

This article shows that if an allocation rule can be implemented with unlimited information certification, then it can also be implemented with limited information certification if the designer can use ambiguous communication mechanisms, and if agents are averse to ambiguity in the sense of maxmin expected utility. The reverse implication is true if there is a single agent and a worst outcome.