Paris attacks reopen US data encryption debate

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Data Access ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Encryption ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Safe Harbour ◽  
The Us ◽  
User Data ◽  
Law Enforcement Officials ◽  
Government Data

Subject The US data encryption debate post-Paris. Significance The increased use of 'strong encryption' technology by tech companies has renewed fears among law enforcement officials that user data will 'go dark' and become inaccessible to investigators. In the wake of the November 13 Paris attacks, US law enforcement officials have called for tech companies to enable government agencies to bypass strong encryption, including by building 'back doors' into software. However, this debate has significant commercial implications, particularly for US tech companies attempting to retain market share among increasingly privacy-orientated customers in the United States and abroad. Impacts US law enforcement efforts to circumvent encryption may hinder renegotiation of the US-EU 'Safe Harbour' agreement. UK adoption of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill enhancing government data access may boost similar US efforts. The encryption debate may undermine the Obama administration's efforts to set international rules for other technologies, such as drones.

Washington will rethink its foreign chip strategy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Export Controls ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Technology Competition ◽  
Business In China

Significance Follow-on action from Washington and responses from foreign actors will shape the US government’s adversarial policy towards China in semiconductors and other strategic technologies. Impacts The Biden administration will likely conclude that broad-based diversion of the semiconductor supply chain away from China is not feasible. The United States will rely on export controls and political pressure to prevent diffusion to China of cutting-edge chip technologies. The United States will focus on persuading foreign semiconductor leaders to help develop US capabilities, thereby staying ahead of China. Washington will focus on less direct approaches to strategic technology competition with China, notably technical standards-setting. Industry leaders in the semiconductor supply chain worldwide will continue expanding business in China in less politically sensitive areas.

Identification and assessment of the unionization factors of the US electrical construction trade

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisham Said ◽  
Aishwarya Mali ◽  
Ajay Deshmukh
Keyword(s):  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Us ◽  
Share Data ◽  
Trend Data ◽  
Industrial Projects ◽  
Practice Knowledge

PurposeConstruction trade unions have been a vital force in improving the job standards and wellbeing of trade workers. However, the union membership in the construction industry has dropped by half between 1983 and 2017. The objective of this study is to identify and assess the controlling factors of construction electrical trade unionization in the United States.Design/methodology/approachThe study involved four main steps. Literature review and industry townhall meetings were conducted to identify the electrical trade unionization factors. A new unionization trend metric was developed using available union market share data to quantify the growth and decline of local unions. Mixed-mode surveying was used to collect questionnaire and interview data on the unionization factors in different local units of the electrical trade union. Finally, the survey data from the questionnaire and interviews were merged and their correlation with the unionization trend data was assessed.FindingsThe study found that the unionization of this specialty trade is dependent on increasing the crew ratio, expanding the non-apprenticeship union membership program, organizing larger contractors, and continuing the union focus on public and heavy industrial projects.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the construction management body of knowledge by providing a data-driven industry-wide assessment of the factors that affect electrical construction unionization. The study advances the understanding of construction trade unions by narrowing the theory-practice knowledge gap, illustrating the use of macro quantitative empirical research methods, and developing a new unionization trend metric.

Online disinformation is greater risk for older users

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
News Source ◽  
The Us ◽  
Older Users ◽  
Special Concern

Significance The growing numbers of senior citizens in the United States, their rapidly increasing adoption of social media and their high levels of voter turnout make their vulnerability to disinformation a matter of special concern. Other advanced democracies likely mirror the US experience. Impacts Older US adults' use of television as their primary news source may provide some bulwark against being targeted by disinformation online. The rapid evolution of news distribution technologies will challenge older adults used to a more slowly changing media landscape. Further research is necessary to determine the causes of age-based vulnerability and levels of resilience.

Where Is the Fairness in Canadian Cannabis Legalization? Lessons to be Learned from the American Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-418
Author(s):  
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Drug Law Enforcement ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Drug Prohibition

Canada has received praise and international attention for its departure from strict cannabis prohibition and the introduction of a legal regulatory framework for adult use. In addition to the perceived public health and public safety benefits associated with legalization, reducing the burden placed on the individuals criminalized for cannabis use served as an impetus for change. In comparison to many jurisdictions in the United States, however, Canadian legalization efforts have done less to address the harms that drug law enforcement has inflicted on individuals and communities. This article documents the racialized nature of drug prohibition in Canada and the US and compares the stated aims of legalization in in both jurisdictions. The article outlines the various reparative measures being proposed and implemented in America and contrasts those with the situation in Canada, arguing, furthermore that the absence of social justice measures in Canadian legalization is an extension of the systemic racism perpetuated under prohibition.

Surgery for Parkinson disease in the United States, 1996 to 2000: practice patterns, short-term outcomes, and hospital charges in a nationwide sample

2003 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 863-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad N. Eskandar ◽  
Alice Flaherty ◽  
G. Rees Cosgrove ◽  
Leslie A. Shinobu ◽  
Fred G. Barker
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Treatment ◽  
Parkinson Disease ◽  
Practice Patterns ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hospital Charges ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Fine Print ◽  
Deep Brain

Object. The surgical treatment of Parkinson disease (PD) has undergone a dramatic shift, from stereotactic ablative procedures toward deep brain stimulaion (DBS). The authors studied this process by investigating practice patterns, mortality and morbidity rates, and hospital charges as reflected in the records of a representative sample of US hospitals between 1996 and 2000. Methods. The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study by using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database; 1761 operations at 71 hospitals were studied. Projected to the US population, there were 1650 inpatient procedures performed for PD per year (pallidotomies, thalamotomies, and DBS), with no significant change in the annual number of procedures during the study period. The in-hospital mortality rate was 0.2%, discharge other than to home was 8.1%, and the rate of neurological complications was 1.8%, with no significant differences between procedures. In multivariate analyses, hospitals with larger annual caseloads had lower mortality rates (p = 0.002) and better outcomes at hospital discharge (p = 0.007). Placement of deep brain stimulators comprised 0% of operations in 1996 and 88% in 2000. Factors predicting placement of these devices in analyses adjusted for year of surgery included younger age, Caucasian race, private insurance, residence in higher-income areas, hospital teaching status, and smaller annual hospital caseload. In multivariate analysis, total hospital charges were 2.2 times higher for DBS (median $36,000 compared with $12,000, p < 0.001), whereas charges were lower at higher-volume hospitals (p < 0.001). Conclusions. Surgical treatment of PD in the US changed significantly between 1996 and 2000. Larger-volume hospitals had superior short-term outcomes and lower charges. Future studies should address long-term functional end points, cost/benefit comparisons, and inequities in access to care.

Winter Olympic boycott increases corporate pressures

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
The Us ◽  
Olympic Boycott

Significance The US-led diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in February will increase the pressure on US companies to decide whether China or the United States is their more valuable market. Some of that pressure to decide is coming from employees and customers in both countries. Impacts More frequent and sharper confrontations between US companies and China could accelerate the decoupling of the two economies. Renewed emphasis on human rights concerns will encourage the further shifting of some supply chain elements out of China. Consumer brands are particularly vulnerable to human rights concerns, as are their suppliers.

scholarly journals Investigating academic library responses to predatory publishing in the United States, Canada and Spanish-speaking Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jairo Buitrago Ciro ◽  
Lynne Bowker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comparative Investigation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
The Us ◽  
Predatory Publishing

PurposeThis is a comparative investigation of how university libraries in the United States, Canada and Spanish-speaking Latin America are responding to predatory publishing.Design/methodology/approachThe Times Higher Education World University Rankings was used to identify the top ten universities from each of the US and Canada, as well as the top 20 Spanish-language universities in Latin America. Each university library's website was scrutinized to discover whether the libraries employed scholarly communication librarians, whether they offered scholarly communication workshops, or whether they shared information about scholarly communication on their websites. This information was further examined to determine if it discussed predatory publishing specifically.FindingsMost libraries in the US/Canada sample employ scholarly communication librarians and nearly half offer workshops on predatory publishing. No library in the Latin America sample employed a scholarly communication specialist and just one offered a workshop addressing predatory publishing. The websites of the libraries in the US and Canada addressed predatory publishing both indirectly and directly, with US libraries favoring the former approach and Canadian libraries tending towards the latter. Predatory publishing was rarely addressed directly by the libraries in the Latin America sample; however, all discussed self-archiving and/or Open Access.Research limitations/implicationsBrazilian universities were excluded owing to the researchers' language limitations. Data were collected between September 15 and 30, 2019, so it represents a snapshot of information available at that time. The study was limited to an analysis of library websites using a fixed set of keywords, and it did not investigate whether other campus units were involved or whether other methods of informing researchers about predatory publishing were being used.Originality/valueThe study reveals some best practices leading to recommendations to help academic libraries combat predatory publishing and improve scholarly publishing literacy among researchers.

scholarly journals A cross-national comparison of police attitudes about domestic violence: a focus on gender

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samara McPhedran ◽  
Angela R. Gover ◽  
Paul Mazerolle
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Police Attitudes ◽  
Enforcement Officer ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Officer Attitudes ◽  
Cross National

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first goal is to conduct a cross-national examination of law enforcement officer attitudes about domestic violence (DV) by comparing officer attitudes in the USA to officer attitudes in Australia. The second goal is to examine law enforcement officer attitudes about DV using a gender lens to identify whether patterns in attitudes among male and female officers in the USA are similar to those among Australian male and female law enforcement officers. Design/methodology/approach The current study involves a comparative analysis of DV attitudes in two different countries (the USA and Australia). Officers in the USA were asked to indicate their level agreement with 28 attitudinal statements about DV. The Australian survey adapted the Gover et al. (2011) instrument by including 24 of the 28 attitudinal statements. The survey followed a mixed-methods design with both quantitative and qualitative components. Bivariate analyses were conducted to determine whether attitudes varied by country and gender of the responding officers. Analyses of attitudinal questions and categorical variables (e.g. gender) were conducted using t-tests. Findings According to survey data gathered from police officers in Colorado (USA) and Queensland (Australia), male and female officer attitudes within each country are more similar than different. When comparing the overall sample of American officer attitudes to Australian officer attitudes, they significantly differ about half the time. Research limitations/implications The Australian survey had a considerably low response rate, and therefore it cannot be stated with certainty whether the responses given are truly representative of the views of Australian officers as a whole, although the demographic characteristics of the sample were comparable with the overall police population demographics. Another limitation is that not all demographic and background variables were collected by both surveys. For example, the US survey asked about officers’ ethnicity, while the Australian survey did not, and the Australian survey asked about how many DV jobs officers attended per month, while the US survey did not. Practical implications Improving knowledge about police attitudes towards DV can help to inform future policy or practice implementation, as well as training programmes and better overall responses to the pervasive and ongoing problem of DV internationally. Originality/value This is a unique and original piece of research as it is a partial cross-national replication of an existing survey. This work does have the potential for great impact in understanding and developing innovative law enforcement responses to DV. In developing such responses officer attitudes need to be considered and integrated into the response, as their opinions will guide the support of future interventions.

Measuring the impact of police representativeness on communities

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren B. Trochmann ◽  
Angela Gover
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Community Conflict ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the representativeness of police departments, i.e. the extent to which the demographics of sworn police officers mirror their local constituency’s demographic makeup, has an effect on communities. The study seeks to explain whether community complaints about police use of force are related to the representativeness of the police department. Design/methodology/approach The study examines the relationships between use of force complaints lodged against a police department and the representativeness of the police vis-à-vis their community using ordinary least squares regression and city fixed-effects models. The stratified sample of 100 large US cities uses data from the US Census Equal Employment Opportunity Survey and the Bureau of Justice Statistics Law Enforcement Management and Administration Statistics Survey from several points-in-time. Findings The analysis suggests that racial makeup and, to a lesser extent, local residency of police departments might matter in reducing community conflict with police, as represented by use of force complaints. However, the fixed-effects model suggests that unobserved community-level characteristics and context matter more than police departments’ representativeness. Originality/value This study seeks to provide a unique perspective and empirical evidence on community conflict with police by integrating the public administration theory of representative bureaucracy with criminal justice theories of policing legitimacy. The findings have implications for urban policing as well as law enforcement human capital and public management practices, which is essential to understand current crises in police-citizen relations in the US, especially in minority communities.

Hague Securities Convention goes into effect in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-77
Author(s):  
Bryan L. Barreras ◽  
Barbara M. Goodstein ◽  
Kevin C. McDonald
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Choice Of Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Commercial Code ◽  
The Us ◽  
Secured Transactions ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Market Practice ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

Purpose To explain the Hague Securities Convention in the context of secured financing transactions in the US and to discuss the implications of the Convention on new and existing transactions, as well as on market practice going forward. Design/methodology/approach This article provides a broad overview of the Hague Securities Convention and the impact of the Convention’s choice of law rules on secured financing transactions in the US involving intermediated securities, including how this deviates from previously applicable laws (such as the Uniform Commercial Code), and provides practical considerations with respect to secured financing transactions. Findings While in most circumstances the Convention provides for the same choice of law as previously applicable laws, there are certain scenarios where the Convention will produce a different result. Market practice with respect to perfecting security interests will likely change to take account of the Convention and to provide the parties with certainty regarding the law applicable to secured transactions. Practical implications The Convention calls for increased diligence with respect to the law governing the account agreement between the debtor and the securities intermediary and whether the securities intermediary has a qualifying office in that jurisdiction. Originality/value Practical guidance from experienced finance lawyers.

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