Nanoregulation—Filtering Out the Small Stuff

Whilst there are not yet laws specifically relating to nanotechnology and its products in any country, the technology and its products are not unregulated. Regulatory frameworks created for conventional technologies and products will be expected to apply to nanotechnology and its products. For example, new medicines are regulated in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. If a new medicine incorporates nanotechnology, then it should still be regulated as a medicine. However, whether the expectation that pre-existing regulatory frameworks will apply is correct and, if so, whether the application of such frameworks is adequate are important issues to be answered. This paper considers these questions, drawing on lessons learnt from significant regulatory reviews undertaken in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.

Application of the Minority Stress Theory: Understanding the Mental Health of Undocumented Latinx Immigrants

This paper applies the Minority Stress framework to data collected from an ongoing community-based participatory research project with health and social service agencies in Southeast Michigan. We examine the stressors and coping strategies employed by undocumented Latinx immigrants and their families to manage immigration-related stress. We conducted in-depth interviews with 23 immigrant clients at Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (FQHC) in Southeast Michigan and 28 in-depth interviews with staff at two FQHC's and a non-profit agency serving immigrants. Findings suggest that immigrants face heightened anxiety and adverse mental health outcomes because of unique minority identity-related stressors created by a growing anti-immigrant social environment. Chronic stress experienced stems from restrictive immigration policies, anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media and by political leaders, fear of deportation, discriminatory events, concealment, and internalized anti-immigrant sentiment. Though identity can be an important effect modifier in the stress process, social isolation in the immigrant community has heightened the impact of stress and impeded coping strategies. These stressors have resulted in distrust in community resources, uncertainty about future health benefits, delayed medical care, and adverse mental health outcomes. Findings provide a framework for understanding the unique stressors experienced by immigrants and strategies for interventions by social service agencies.     

和而不同——全球化情境下伦理文化发展的黄金定律

随着经济全球化发展,世界文化发展的矛盾冲突日益凸显。全球化与本土化之争如火如荼,“西方中心论”愈演愈烈。本文通过对文化的历史发展及内在本质的探析,认为伦理文化发展始终以中国儒家文化的“和而不同”为黄金定律。     

Improving payment of traffic fines with financial incentives: Discounts vs. penalties

The effective enforcement of traffic laws is critical for improved road safety outcomes. Decisions to follow traffic rules and pay fines are influenced by formal institutions (e.g. laws, court summons, and fines) as well as informal institutions (e.g. norms and aspects of culture). Formal and informal institutions create incentives that should be designed to steer individuals’ behaviour towards desired outcomes. Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that the institutions to deal with traffic violations in South Africa currently create effective incentives. This paper discusses the findings of a controlled laboratory experiment, conducted with a sample of university students, that tested the efficacy of different financial incentives that may influence the payment of traffic fines. An early payment discount was compared to a late payment penalty (used in other countries, for example, some states in the USA), and to the absence of any incentives. Furthermore, we examined whether the willingness to settle fines is sensitive to the likelihood of detection by the authorities. We found that introducing financial incentives significantly increases voluntary payment of fines, irrespective of whether immediate payment is encouraged with a discount or late payment is discouraged with a surcharge. In addition, subjects are more sensitive to the likelihood of detection when financial incentives are present.     

Cosmopolitan ethics and global legalism

This article analyses the legal and ethical dimensions of the wide gap between commitments to universal human rights and the reality of their widespread and systematic abuse, particularly as related to poverty and inequality. The argument put forward is that, properly conceived, global legalism, that is, the quest to apply the rule of law across and among states and societies, and cosmopolitan ethics, both support restricting harms imposed on weak and vulnerable individuals worldwide by an unjust institutional order. Therefore, those who have tended to value either a global rule of law or cosmopolitan ethics independently have good reason to pursue their requirements together. The article also considers the problem of legalism and cosmopolitanism being used by powerful agents in global politics to enhance their prerogatives and their freedoms from legal and ethical restraints.     

Seeing Small,Seeing the Future

The Role of Science in Law by Feldman analyzes the vexed relationship between science and law. The book provides a good overview on the ongoing debate on the topic, but the author's attempt to suggest a guideline for the conflict between science and law falls short of any satisfactory conclusion.     

新尝试“假设法脑出血测量”与常用方法的对比

介绍一种CT脑血肿体积测量的新方法——假设法。制作水模进行CT扫描,分别用CT脑出血测量之假设法与多田公式法、CT定量法对其测量,比较结果的准确性。该方法较多田公式法、CT定量法更便捷准确。此假设法,计算简单、快速、准确,比多田公式法、CT定量法更具优势。     

Avoiding Cheap Grace: Luther and the Need for Moral Despair

Abstract : This article addresses two problems in the development of an adequate Lutheran ethics in our time: moral quietism in the public square and an overly narrow and individualistic moral vision. I argue that the construction of grace as “freedom” tends toward “cheap grace” and that grace needs, then, to be thought of as a compelling of moral striving. Second, I argue that our sense of moral despair today should be broadened to focus on our participation in social structures that damage humans and the nonhuman world as much as on our personal and individual failings.