Transparent space: Law,technology and deliberative democracy in the information society

Abstract

The resuscitation of deliberative democracy in the Information Age requires the construction of transparent public spaces ‐ public arenas where power relationships between speakers are discernible and debate ensues according to the rules of civility and reason (conversational transparency). The metaphor of transparency, in the sense of legal accountability, also connects the role of communications regulation to the development of democratic political culture (legal transparency). Finally, transparency suggests the power of technology to obscure and hinder as well as help the progress of deliberative democracy (technological transparency).     

Bayesian autoregressive spectral analysis

The article describes an operational Bayesian approach to making inferences for the spectral density function for univariate autoregressive processes and for the AR operator of multivariate autoregressive processes. The derivation of the approach is described. Numerical examples, including the Wolfer Sunspot numbers, are used to demonstrate the practical usefulness of the approach.     

Effectiveness of an educational intervention to increase knowledge and reduce use of risky behaviors associated with cumulative trauma in office workers

OBJECTIVE: This pilot project assessed the effectiveness of an intervention to increase knowledge and reduce risky behaviors related to cumulative trauma disorders (CTD) in office workers. STUDY DESIGN: All 124 employees from the administrative offices of a health maintenance organization were invited to participate. Subjects were followed across time using an identification number. Data were collected via questionnaire in June 1994 (pretest1) (N=84), August 1994 (pretest II) (N= 63) and September 1995 (posttest) (N=40). The yearlong intervention focused on functional activities to prevent CTD. RESULTS: of chi-square analyses for the 40 subjects who completed all surveys indicated this intervention significantly increased overall knowledge of CTD (p =.002). Significant changes in self-reported hand/wrist (p =.016) and neck/shoulder (p =.003) posture were also found. CONCLUSIONS: This study is a first step in identifying effective educational interventions to increase knowledge and reduce risk factors related to CTD in office workers.     

Urban forest cover of the Chicago region and its relation to household density and income

Urban forests and herbaceous open space play a vital role in the environmental and aesthetic health of cities, yet they are rarely identified in land-use inventories of urban areas. To provide information on urban forests and other vegetative land cover in Illinois cities, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data from June 27, 1988, were classified for the Chicago metropolitan region (9,717 km²). Ten land-cover classes were identified, including two types of forestland (occupying 5.8% of the total area), residential land with trees (14.6%) or without trees (7.8%), cropland (37.5%), two types of grassland (7.7%), urban with impervious surfaces (23.1%), water (1.6%), and miscellaneous vegetation (2.1%). Correlation analyses indicated that household income and household density are strongly related to land covers in the region, particularly those with tree cover and urbanized land. Population changes for 1980–1985 and 1985–2010 (projected) show a pattern of increasing density in the urbanized zone concurrent with continued urban sprawl, primarily into current cropland.     

Gift Giving, Identity, and Transformation: The AIDS Memorial Quilt

Those who have originated the AIDS Memorial Quilt have often referred to it as a gift. In this essay, the author discusses theories related to gift giving to discuss the quilt and its constructed effects for those who experience it as a gift. In particular, Weiner's notion of inalienable possessions is highlighted to address how the quilt, as a gift that is kept inalienable from its original creators, maintains historical identity and immortality for its originators, many of whom are gay and bisexual men. Also, Hyde's notion of erotic gifts is presented to consider the quilt's ability to draw people together, create feeling-bonds among them, and affect their transformation.     

Evaluating the administrative efficiency of courts

In addition to being held accountable for judicial decision, courts, like other public agencies, can and should be evaluated in terms of their administrative efficiency. This paper illustrates how courts can be evaluated in terms of their relative administrative efficiency, using a new approach—data envelopment analysis (DEA)—first proposed by Charnes et al. [1]. The DEA is based upon the economic notion of Pareto optimality which states that a given decision making unit (DMU) is inefficient if some other DMU, or some combination of other DMUs, can produce at least the same amounts of all outputs with less of some resource input and not more of any other resource. Conversely a DMU is said to be efficient if the above is not possible. Charnes et al. [1] generalized the usual input/output ratio measure of efficiency for a given unit in terms of a fractional linear program with fractional constraints. In the case of courts, the efficiency of any particular court is calculated by forming the ratio of a weighted sum of outputs to a weighted sum of inputs, where the weights for both outputs and inputs are to be selected in a manner that calculates the Pareto-Koopmans efficiency of the court. This paper reviews the DEA method and illustrates its application to a data base for 100 criminal superior courts in North Carolina.     

The relationship of trauma exposure to sex offending behavior among male juvenile offenders

The most common type of adult and juvenile sex offender treatment utilizes a Relapse Prevention (RP) model. In RP clients learn about their offense cycle with an emphasis on recognizing high-risk situations and negative emotional states that can be precursors or triggers to offending behavior. This study identifies ways that traumatic experiences and trauma-associated feelings can be offense triggers for juvenile sex offenders. Researchers interviewed the treating clinicians of 40 male juvenile sex offenders who received at least six months of RP sex offender treatment. Results showed that 95% of the youths had experienced a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Criterion A traumatic event and that 65% met criteria for PTSD based on clinician judgments. Overall, clinicians identified prior trauma exposure as being related to the offense triggers in 85% of offenders. Specifically, the following trauma-related feelings were identified as offense triggers: intense fear in 37.5% of sex offenders, helplessness in 55%, and horror in 20%. Implications for sex offender treatment programs are discussed.     

Social support as a mediator of revictimization of low-income African American women

Mediating effects of social support on the link between childhood maltreatment and adult intimate partner violence (IPV) were explored in a sample of 362 low-income, African American women. We examined relations between childhood maltreatment experiences (total maltreatment, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect) and adult maltreatment (physical IPV and nonphysical IPV). Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed small, but significant, effects. Further, social support mediated revictimization. Social support fully mediated relations in which the form of childhood maltreatment was different than the form of adult IPV (e.g., the relation between childhood sexual abuse and adult nonphysical IPV), but only partially mediated the relations in which the form of childhood maltreatment was similar to adult IPV (e.g., the relation between childhood emotional abuse and adult nonphysical IPV). Implications for clinical interventions for women with intimate partner violence experiences are discussed.