‘You Wouldn’t have Your Granny Using Them’: Drawing Boundaries Between Acceptable and Unacceptable Applications of Civil Drones

Some industry and policy actors are concerned about public opposition to civil drones, in particular because of their association with military drones. However, very little is understood about public reactions to the technology. Strategies to ‘manage public acceptance’ have so far relied upon several untested assumptions. We conducted public engagement activities to explore citizens’ visions of civil drones. Several insights counteracted the prevailing assumptions. Rejecting the notion of blanket support for or opposition to civil drones, we found that citizens make nuanced decisions about the acceptability of civil drones depending upon the purpose of the flight and the actors involved. The results are positioned in support for calls to strengthen the role of citizens in civil drone development and, in particular, to shift away from the current focus on citizens’ acceptance of civil drone development towards the development of civil drones that are acceptable to citizens.     

Leninism and the Enlightenment

Conclusion The outcome of this comparison of the impact of the Englishtenment on two rival philosophical traditions suggests that there are points of contact even on the issues that appear to push Leninism in an opposite direction from liberalism. The lack of communication between these two traditions results in a lack of vigor in developing their philosophies in a way that addresses the accomplishments of rival philosophies. For example, Leninism, which seeks to justify limits on the freedom of speech for those viewed as anti-socialist, would do well to reinforce its position by mastering the reasoning of the liberals who differentiate the rights of the Ku Klux Klan from those of the N.A.A.C.P. And liberalism, which has been concerned with overcoming formal equality to implement real, practical equality of opportunity, is in effect echoing one of Lenin's main concerns about democracy under capitalism.Insofar as Lenin put forward the idea of Marxism as the continuation and sublation of the best accomplishments of human culture, it appears to be a weakness of contemporary Leninism that it fails sufficiently to embrace or confront the body of philosophical thought characterizing the liberal democratic conceptions of the Enlightenment and of contemporary liberalism. Even though this body of thought was known to Lenin and partially appropriated as well as confronted by him, there is a lack of emphasis by Leninists upon the mastering of the arguments advanced by liberalism. The fact that rival, anti-Leninist thought also began from certain ideas of the Enlightenment underscores the importance for Leninism's own self-understanding of studying the evolution of Enlightenment philosophy, its links with twentieth-century liberalism, and the reasons for the rejection of liberal conceptions by Lenin.     

Problems in evaluating the real-world usability of digital voice communication systems

Digital voice communication systems are being used in a wide variety of applications. Human observers are used to measure the performance of computer voice systems. We also need to determine how losses in speech quality and intelligibility affect the performance of the communicator. This paper considers several situational variables that can affect the usability and acceptance of digital voice communication systems: task constraints, user experience, and communication environment. User experience and communication environment influence the acceptability of degraded voice systems; greater experience and field environments lead to higher acceptability ratings. However, performance measures, such as task completion time, are still adversely affected by lower voice quality.     

Prayer in the medical encounter

A large percentage of the population report that they believe in God and pray regularly. Recent reviews suggest that prayer and religious commitment are positively associated with mental and physical health. These data, taken together, strongly imply that the health professional must find a way to recognize and work with patients' religious practices. There is already a reasonable amount of literature detailing the beliefs and desires of both patients and professionals in commencing upon this work. This paper provides a comprehensive review of that literature and concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions.     

Book reviews

Islam: a challenge for Christianity (Concilium 1994/3). Hans Kung & Jurgen Moltmann (Eds), 1994. London, Concilium; Maryknoll, SCM Press; London, Orbis Books. 163 pp., pb. £8.95, ISBN 0–334–030269.

Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the age of discovery. Bernard Lewis, 1995. New York, Oxford University Press. 101 pp., hb., $16.95, ISBN 0–19–509026–8.

Beyond Faith and Infidelity: the Sufi poetry and teachings of Mahmud Shabistari. L. Lewisohn, 1995. Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press. 344 pp. pb. £14.99, 0–7007–0343–8.

The Prophet's Pulpit: Islamic preaching in contemporary Egypt. [Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies, 20]. Patrick Gaffney, 1994. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. 367 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 0–520–08471–3, pb. £15.95, ISBN 0–520–08472–1.

Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad b. CA1i al‐Sanūsi and his Brotherhood. K. S. Vikor, 1995. London, Hurst & Co. 310 pp. hb. £37.50, ISBN 1 85065 218 X.

Children of Islam. Marie Parker‐Jenkins, 1995. Stoke‐on‐Trent, Trentham Books Ltd. 162 pp., £12.95, ISBN 1–85856 034 9.     

Understanding the Complexity of Human Aggression: Affective,Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Individual Differences in Propensity Toward Aggression

Human aggression is a complex phenomenon operating at multiple levels. Converging evidence distinguishes ‘hot’ aggression, impulsive and emotionally-centered, from ‘cool’ aggression, cognitively based and instrumental. The correspondence of these aggressive response patterns with individual differences in Propensity toward Aggression was investigated. Our data (from 477 Italian adults) map ten of these aggression indicators into the personality space defined by the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The quadrant containing most of these variables is defined by Emotional Instability (the negative pole of Emotional Stability) and Hostility (the negative pole of Friendliness). Factor analysis uncovered two factors that accounted for nearly 60 percent of the variance in Propensity toward Aggression: Emotional Responsivity and Positive Evaluation of Violence. Practical implications for issues of health and disease, violence, and interventions for different forms of adults' and children's aggression are outlined.     

The etiology of behavioral problems and competencies in very young twins

Although genetic and environmental influences on behavior problems in middle childhood and adolescence have been well-studied, little is known about the etiology of behavior problems in very early childhood. The present study explores genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in behavior problems and competences in an infant-toddler sample of twins. There were 1,950 twin pairs (mean age=23.8 months) who were rated by parents on the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. All four domains (Externalizing, Internalizing, Dysregulation, Competence) and 20 subscales-indices on the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment displayed significant heritability. There were also substantial shared environmental influences operating on most of the domains and subscales. Compared with behavior problems, behavioral competencies were less heritable and more influenced by shared environments.     

Neuropsychological Effects of Brain Arteriovenous Malformations

Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVM's) are developmental, chronic lesions that provide unique information about the human brain and can be a useful model for neuroscientists to study cerebral reorganization and hemodynamics. We review the neuroanatomy, epidemiology, natural history, imaging and treatment of brain AVMs, and provide a model with which to better understand neuropsychological functioning and brain reorganization. We suggest that future studies must exclude ruptured AVMs if they wish to further explain focal neurological/cognitive deficits associated with this neurovascular anomaly.