Official Decision Research Articles

Local Actors' Frames of the Role of Living Conditions in Shaping Hypertension Risk and Disparities in a Colombian Municipality.

Conditions in the social and physical environment influence population health and risk for CVD, including hypertension. These environmental conditions are influenced by the decisions of public officials, community leaders, and service providers. Examining the frames that local decision makers bring to understanding hypertension can provide important insights into the decisions that they make about strategies for addressing this problem in their jurisdiction. The goal of this study was to examine the frames that local decision makers in Quibdó, Colombia, bring to understanding hypertension risk, and in particular, whether and how they use frames that encompass associations between living conditions and hypertension risk. Data for this qualitative study were collected using a stratified sampling strategy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2012 with 13 local decision makers and analyzed using a framework approach. Participants linked the structural conditions experienced in Quibdó, including displacement, limited economic opportunities, and the infrastructure of the city, to hypertension risk through multiple pathways, including behavioral risk factors for hypertension and physiologic responses to stress. They described the social patterning of these factors across socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and gender hierarchies. Although several conditions associated with hypertension risk are widely distributed in the city's population, social processes of marginalization and stratification create additional disadvantages for those on the lower rungs of the social hierarchy.

The decision process: police officers’ search for information in dispute encounters

ABSTRACTThe police officer decision-making process is a complex one, subject to multiple informational inputs from a variety of sources. Policing scholars have spent a significant amount of time investigating which of these inputs contribute to decisions made by police but our ability to explain how police officers decide on a non-arrest course of action is still limited. This research utilises a mixed methods approach to examine the process of police officer decision-making in dispute encounters. Both qualitative (analysed using content analysis) and quantitative data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods are used to examine both the process and outcome of police decision-making in dispute encounters. In particular, this research seeks to determine the variation across officers in terms of type of information needed to determine a final outcome, the variation in terms of the outcomes reached, and the variation in terms of the depth of information search, which provides some insight into whether offices use a compensatory or non-compensatory decision-making process. The analysis of officer decision-making process revealed that officers, on average, utilise less than half of the information available to them in an encounter and, further, that officers often make interim decisions before deciding on a final outcome. The most common disposition was to take no further action; the second most common was to arrest. Further, the analysis reveals that officer decision-making strategies in the field appear to be non-compensatory, which has implications for how decision-making behaviour should be modelled and tested in the future.

Comparing Policies for Case Scheduling Within 1 Day of Surgery by Markov Chain Models

In previous studies, hospitals' operating room (OR) schedules were influenced markedly by decisions made within a few days of surgery. At an academic hospital, 46% of ORs had their last case scheduled or changed within 1 working day of surgery, and a private hospital had 64%. Many of these changes were for patients who were admitted before surgery (i.e., inpatient cases). In this study, we investigate the impact on OR productivity of how cases are scheduled within 1 working day before the day of surgery. We consider the case-scheduling choice between 2 ORs. We compare 3 scheduling policies: Best Fit Descending, Worst Fit Descending, and Worst Fit Ascending. "Descending" strategies consider new cases from longest to shortest, whereas "Ascending" considers new cases from shortest to longest. Best Fit schedules each new case into the OR with sufficient but the least remaining underutilized OR time for the case. Worst Fit does the same but with the most remaining time. For our application, Best Fit chooses a later start time, whereas Worst Fit chooses an earlier start time. In our computational model, cases are of 2 possible durations, brief or long. Case cancellation is incorporated explicitly, and the number of new cases to schedule depends on the current number of scheduled cases in each OR, both new from previous studies. The number of cases in each OR is modeled as a Markov chain, evolving between 2 periods, corresponding to 1 day and 0 days before the day of surgery. For each scheduling policy, we evaluate the mean overutilized OR time and productivity. Our sensitivity analyses cover many cancellation rates, arrival settings, case durations, and initial conditions (i.e., how cases are scheduled into the 2 ORs preceding 1 workday before the day of surgery). Best Fit Descending and Worst Fit Descending achieved almost the same overutilized time and productivity. Worst Fit Ascending caused greater overutilized time (as much as 6.6 minutes more per OR) and thus lesser productivity (as much as 1.6% less) compared with Best Fit Descending or Worst Fit Descending. When the staff were scheduled for less time than the optimal allocated OR time, there were nearly the same differences between the staff productivity resulting from the use of Worst Fit Ascending rather than Worst Fit Descending or Best Fit Descending. Scheduling office decision making within 1 day before surgery should be based on statistical forecasts of expected total OR workload (i.e., forecasts that include the addition of non-elective cases and the subtraction of cases that cancel). As long as a case is not scheduled into overutilized time when less overutilized time could be achieved in another OR, and cases are considered in descending sequence of scheduled durations, the differences in overutilized time and productivity among the scheduling policies are small. Cognitive bias in staff scheduling causes a significant reduction in productivity, but the differences among scheduling policies are nearly the same as when there is no bias.

Exercising discretion in border areas: on the changing social surround and decision field of internal border control in the Netherlands

Most of the research on discretion focuses on the street-level decisions of law enforcement officials. By focusing on the micro level, these studies neglect the fact that decisions are not made within a vacuum but rather within a broader political, legal and societal context. This article not only sheds light on the understudied area of border policing, it also aims to give insight into the broader context that might influence the street-level decision-making of Dutch Border police officers. By means of a discourse analysis of over 250 documents, the research shows how the social surround and the decision field of border security in the Netherlands develops over a period of 20 years. The results of the study not only show how Dutch border security is increasingly directed at the criminal immigrant, but also the increased use of and belief in intelligence-based and technology-driven decision-making.

Exercising discretion in border areas: on the changing social surround and decision field of internal border control in the Netherlands

Most of the research on discretion focuses on the street-level decisions of law enforcement officials. By focusing on the micro level, these studies neglect the fact that decisions are not made within a vacuum but rather within a broader political, legal and societal context. This article not only sheds light on the understudied area of border policing, it also aims to give insight into the broader context that might influence the street-level decision-making of Dutch Border police officers. By means of a discourse analysis of over 250 documents, the research shows how the social surround and the decision field of border security in the Netherlands develops over a period of 20 years. The results of the study not only show how Dutch border security is increasingly directed at the criminal immigrant, but also the increased use of and belief in intelligence-based and technology-driven decision-making.

Sprawiedliwe czy korzystne? Wpływ subiektywnej sprawiedliwości proceduralnej i korzyści własnych na poziom akceptacji decyzji administracji podatkowej

This article presents two experiments to determine the level of acceptance of a tax office decision as a function of the decision’s favourability and perceived procedural fairness. The studies were conducted in a two-factor experimental scheme: Procedure (fair vs. unfair) and Result (in Study 1: Decision: favourable vs. unfavourable; Income: less vs. more unfavourable; in Study 2: Overpayment: less vs. more favourable) on a total sample of 224 people. Study 1 results showed a significant effect of the decision’s favourability on the acceptance of the final tax office decision. Respondents were more likely to accept a decision to be favourable and less unfavourable, even as the result of an unfair procedure. In the Income scenario, the effect of procedural fairness on the level of statistical trend was found. Study 2 results showed the higher acceptance of the more favourable decision, regardless of the level of procedural fairness. The results suggest that the acceptance of a tax office decision is primarily influenced by its favourability. Procedural fairness may have an impact on moderately unfavourable decisions.

Barragem de Contenção de Cheias e Políticas Públicas:

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o processo de tomada de decisão e as ações de ampliação da Barragem Sul de Contenção de Cheias, com base nas políticas nacionais de recursos hídricos, de segurança de barragens e de proteção e defesa civil. Trata-se esta de uma das três maiores barragens de contenção de cheias, no afluente do corpo d’água principal da Bacia Hidrográfica do rio Itajaí. Utilizou-se para este fim técnicas de análise de textos bibliográficos, científicos e documentais. Como resultado, verificou-se que as mudanças climáticas e os desastres ocorridos em 2008 e 2011 na região, tem pressionado o Poder Público a dar uma resposta à população, como forma de evidenciar que não está inerte frente ao problema. Contudo, nota-se que a decisão de ampliar a Barragem Sul carece de articulação com a política de segurança de barragem, bem como, com as diretrizes de planejamento urbano e territorial.

The power of presidency in UN climate change negotiations: comparison between Denmark and Mexico

In December 2010, the 16th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ended with adopting Cancun Agreements as official decisions under the UN process. The international community determined the meeting a success. This was a substantial change compared to the previous year’s Copenhagen climate conference, which failed to reach consensus at the official level and thus having come under severe criticism as “diplomatic failure.” This article aims to explain the stark contrast between the two consecutive COP meetings and argues that the leadership style of the president of the conference is one important factor propelling negotiations forward. While the current literature scarcely addresses the role of the president, this article explores multiple variables that condition the president’s effectiveness in moving negotiations forward. This article concludes that the Mexican government successfully chaired the negotiations with excellent agenda management and process management capability, which the Danish government lacked. In particular, its transparent and embracing manner in handling subgroup meetings and the production of a single negotiation text facilitated trust among negotiators, which in turn made the parties tend to cooperate better. More importantly, the case study reveals that the Mexican government had a significant influence on given conditions of the negotiation process, such as the international environment surrounding the negotiation and the decision-making rules.

China’s Legal System and the Fourth Plenum

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee's first meeting specifically devoted to the legal system, the Fourth Plenum, held in October 2014, attracted a lot of attention from those interested in Chinese law. Anyone expecting the official Decision of the Fourth Plenum (subsequently referred to as the Decision) to show a Pauline conversion to the ideology of of however, would have been disappointed. Even if the leadership were to desire the system of accountability and institutionalized restraint on government that is generally understood by the term rule of law, it could not be accomplished anytime soon and would require changes in entrenched features of the current political and administrative system. But what about by law-a system of largely predictable and rule-governed behavior by lower-level government administrators, even if those giving the orders are not ultimately accountable or constrained? In this essay I will argue that the Fourth Plenum Decision represents modest progress toward that goal.The big-picture summary is that the Decision contemplates no fundamental reform in the relationship between the legal system and the CCP. It is clear that, institutionally speaking, the party will remain above the law. At the same time, the Decision does contemplate some genuinely meaningful (and, in my opinion, positive) reforms. It also includes many things that might look meaningful but are not.This essay will proceed by discussing first the continuing primacy of the CCP. It will then analyze in turn some major and then some minor, yet still meaningful, reforms to the legal system. It will conclude with a discussion of an important reform that was not made: a reform in the system under which local officials administer rules but do not make them. This system inevitably results in the highly discretionary application of rules and makes it difficult-perhaps impossible-to develop truly rule-based government.Party First, Law SecondIn general, whenever the party and the law appear in the same sentence in the Decision, the party comes first. Certainly, it comes first in some important places. For example, section one of the Decision lists several important principles that must be upheld in order to achieve the goal of ruling the state according to law. The first is leadership of the party.Section six states that judges should be loyal to four things: the party, the state, the people, and the law. Notice which comes last. There is no reason, of course, why this sentence could not be interpreted as giving all elements equal value; in any list something must come first. But in a document like this, nothing-not even a comma-is accidental. The elements of this list come in the order they do for a reason. The Three Supremes (sange zhi shang), long associated with former Supreme People's Court (SPC) president Wang Shengjun (on whose CV not a single day of legal education appears), are resurrected in the same section. Legal system personnel should give highest priority to the cause of the party, the interests of the people, and the constitution and laws-again, listed in that order. Lawyers must support the party's leadership, and party cells in law firms should step up their activities.In addition, obedience of officials to law is presented throughout as a kind of internal party policy goal: this is something that party members should do, and officials will even be scored on it (section 7, subsection 3). Those who have a special privilege mentality will be criticized and educated (piping jiaoyu), and if necessary removed from office. But because the Decision contemplates no changes in the relationship between the legal system and the party, the system in which powerful officials can override law if they wish remains comfortably in place. The Decision just wants them to wish to override it less often.Major Meaningful ReformsManagement of judicial personnel. …

Response decision, emotions, and victimization of police officers

This study explores the question of whether response decision and situation-dependent emotions, concepts of the Social Information Processing model of Crick and Dodge (1994), are useful in explaining differences involving the victimization of police officers. Officers from five regional police forces in the Netherlands completed a digital questionnaire, based partially on the Social Information Processing Interview. Results indicated that victimization involving verbal violence, threats, and physical violence were associated with response decision but not with negative emotions. Police officers who had more negative outcome expectations of aggressive or assertive responses, or who selected an aggressive rather than a passive or assertive response, were more likely to report being a victim of violence than were other police officers. Not all results were as hypothesized, and associations were discussed in the context of police officers’ work situations, protocols, and training.

Blaming Mothers: A Disability Perspective

Blaming mothers is a longstanding cultural tradition in the United States. This article traces how mothers are often blamed by school district personnel when their children with disabilities face educational challenges. Using hearing officer decisions in special education cases, this article offers specific examples of how the blame the mother phenomenon occurs. Mothers are either too aggressive or too passive while school districts fail to offer children with disabilities an appropriate education.

Writing and rewriting Amazigh/Berber identity: Orthographies and language ideologies

This study discusses how scripts, or orthographies, are selected based on social and ideological factors rather than linguistic and scientific grounds. A Moroccan government committee was appointed in 2003 to determine whether Latin, Arabic or Tifinagh scripts should codify Amazigh/Berber. Tifinagh was officially selected, stirring debates between different groups with opposing views and complex affiliations. Informed by theories of language ideologies, this article examines the ideological motivations for the selection of Amazigh script, and investigates the social implications of Amazigh codification. This study shows that despite the official decision to support Tifinagh, the script issue is far from settled, given enduring questions of identity, political ideology and linguistic differentiation. The outcome of this study has implications for other communities facing similar decisions and competing script choices.

Corrupting activities and economic development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships of different types of corruption and selected economic measures that appear to contribute to a country’s sustainable economic development. Design/methodology/approach – The research used selected data from the World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey on corruption activities (Irregular Payments and Bribes, the Diversion of Public Funds, Organised Crime, and Favouritism in Decisions of Government Officials) and Ethical Behaviour of Firms. The economic data (FDI, GDP, GDP Growth and Capital Formation among others) is from the World Bank database. A series of statistical models were developed to examine the relationships among different types of corruption and a country’s economic development. Findings – The findings are mixed, showing that some types of corruption have greater negative impact on specific aspects of economic development. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited by the availability of data from reliable sources and the availability of data on a limited number of corruption activities. Only four aspects of corruption are examined in this paper. Only selected aspects of a country’s economy were examined. The variables analysed in the study were not available for each of the 179 countries. Practical implications – A country may learn the types of corrupting activities that must be controlled to aid in the targeted growth of specific economic development, such as Direct Foreign Investment. Originality/value – This study builds on previous work by Anderson (2012, 2013) that used Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as a global measure of corruption. This study, in contrast, uses the results of the World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey, to indicate the perceived level of different types (components) of corruption. By using more specific measure of corruption, there is a better understanding of the relationships between corruption and economic development.

Political Seismology or Seismological Politics: Natural Resources Defense Council-USSR Experiments in Underground Nuclear Test Verification

In the 1980s, the Institute of Physics of the Earth (IPE) in Moscow was challenged by the Soviet Academy of Sciences with an ambitious task to become the Soviet representative in an unprecedented joint project with the United States of America in a defense‐sensitive area. In 1986–1988, a series of experiments was held on two major nuclear test sites, in Nevada in the United States and Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, to prove the scientific possibility of verifying the exact location and yield of underground nuclear explosions. The story hardly sounds sensational; however, there are reasons to believe that it stands out in the chain of events that led to the current Comprehensive Nuclear‐Test‐Ban Treaty (CTBT). This paper marks the twenty‐fifth anniversary of the exceptional example of seismologists acting on the forefront of global politics. The majority of available materials on this project exist only as technical reports, protocols, and presentations. The course of events was covered extensively from the U.S. point of view by an American historian of science, K.‐H. Barth. His paper, as well as this article, argues that there are situations in which the critical mass of scientific knowledge can overpower the political pressure on the international scale (Barth, 2006); moreover, in times of a global threat, scientists can accumulate enough influence to become a strategic force for change. This paper attempts a glimpse of the international seismological research in nuclear arms control at the end of the Cold War through the lens of joint Soviet–American experiments in underground nuclear testing verifications from the historical rather than the geophysical point of view, and it is aimed at honoring the experiments as one of the independent research initiatives put forward by scientists that influenced the decisions of top government officials. The initiative was preceded by nearly 20 years of deadlock …

The Use of Economics in the Anti-Monopoly Law of China

Advances in the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law (‘AML’) of China have been remarkable since its enactment in August 2008. The Chinese competition authorities—MOFCOM, NDRC and SAIC—have been increasingly active in recent years, handling cases that have drawn widespread local and international attention. As the authorities gradually accumulate case work experience and capacity, their analyses and decisions are likely to become more sophisticated. For example, MOFCOM appears to increasingly use economic analysis in assessing complicated mergers. In line with the growth of public enforcement by competition authorities, private actions under the AML before the Chinese courts have also progressed rapidly. The Chinese courts have heard and ruled on a number of high-profile private disputes involving both large domestic and international companies. Recent judgments suggest that the courts have started to show the capability and the willingness to engage in economic debates and to deal with the evidence put forward by the parties’ economic experts. Notably, the judgment by the Supreme People’s Court of China (‘the SPC’) in Qihoo 360 v Tencent, published in October 2014, highlights the importance of economic evidence before the Chinese courts in private AML disputes. In this landmark case— the first case under the AML to go to the SPC—the court adopted an effects-based economic framework in ruling on a complex abuse of dominance dispute. This Judgment sends a promising signal that economic reasoning and evidence will be taken seriously in future Chinese court cases. However, despite the attempts by the courts, and to some extent the competition agencies, to increase transparency, official decisions generally reveal limited information about the substantive discussions and practical considerations that drive the decision-making processes behind competition investigations. It is therefore unsurprising that antitrust practitioners and interested parties, particularly those located outside China, often find it hard to understand how economic analysis is used in practice in Chinese antitrust matters. In this article, we draw on our experience of advising MOFCOM and notifying parties in merger cases, and of giving expert testimony before the Chinese courts in private litigation, to shed light on the use of economics in antitrust matters in China. We first provide an overview of antitrust enforcement and the use of economic analysis by the authorities and the courts in China. We then discuss some lessons from two recent cases, namely, the proposed joint venture between Wilmar and Kemira in China that was cleared by MOFCOM unconditionally in June 2014, and the Qihoo 360 v Tencent litigation that

MobilityGraphs: Visual Analysis of Mass Mobility Dynamics via Spatio-Temporal Graphs and Clustering.

Learning more about people mobility is an important task for official decision makers and urban planners. Mobility data sets characterize the variation of the presence of people in different places over time as well as movements (or flows) of people between the places. The analysis of mobility data is challenging due to the need to analyze and compare spatial situations (i.e., presence and flows of people at certain time moments) and to gain an understanding of the spatio-temporal changes (variations of situations over time). Traditional flow visualizations usually fail due to massive clutter. Modern approaches offer limited support for investigating the complex variation of the movements over longer time periods.

Conceptualize Governing with the Ethic of Care and Justice

Throughout corporate America’s history, we experience periods of positive ethical behavior when negative activity momentarily may dissipate or be hidden. However, a positive ethical behavior flash in business often is brief. As seen in economic challenges from the Great Depression to the savings and loan crisis to the financial collapse of the 2000s to the more recent mortgage financial crisis, public and governmental respect of the business sector is decreasing. Individual actor behavior around ethical choices and its connection to organizational culture have much input into the crisis of the business community and its subsequent ramification. Despite much work around positive business ethics, consistent and sustained individual behavior and positive ethical choices are moving at snail-like speed. Thus, this article proposes a dual system for individual decision analysis for organizational responsibility. I label this dual system, “dual ethical analysis.” The dual ethical analysis, which is conceptual, posits using both the ethic of care and ethic of justice as the organizational model for individual decision analysis. Ethic of care would be the foundation for individual decision analysis, while the ethic of justice is for surface analysis.The dual ethical analysis attempts to establish positive, consistent, and sustainable ethical behavior by decision makers. I further argue its importance for corporate governance in that it can support an officer or director decision maker in meeting her fiduciary duties, specifically the duty of care. By drawing upon business ethics literature and practical examples, I desire to initiate a conversation about using the ethic of care as a foundation for business decision making.

A Critical Assessment of Trade Mark Distinctiveness and Descriptiveness Under Australian Law

This paper considers some of the challenges Australian courts and the Australian Trade Marks Office have faced over the last couple of years when dealing with descriptive and laudatory word marks in the context of trade mark registration and cancellation proceedings. Descriptive and laudatory word marks tend to receive less attention than more exotic subject matter (such as colour, shape and product design marks), but the majority of decisions under the ‘distinctiveness’ ground contained in s 41 of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) that have come before Australian courts over the past few years have involved such marks. An analysis of these cases, as well as opposition decisions of hearing officers of the Trade Marks Office, shows that the law is far less settled than it might appear. Indeed, this appears to have been recognised by the High Court in granting special leave in Cantarella Bros Pty Ltd v Modena Trading Pty Ltd, a case involving two foreign word marks that raises fundamental questions as to how distinctiveness is to be assessed. Parts 2 and 3 of the paper provide a brief overview of the distinctiveness requirement in registered trade mark law, how the two stages of distinctiveness are assessed and the complex way in which s 41 operates, and will introduce some useful terminology for understanding the statutory tests. Parts 4 and 5 contain a critical analysis of recent Australian cases and decisions, showing that there are a number of problems with the current approaches to dealing with descriptive and laudatory marks, in relation to assessing both inherent adaptation to distinguish and factual distinctiveness. Part 6 contains some recommendations for legislative reform, as well as thoughts as to what brand owners might be able to do to overcome some of the challenges they are likely to face in seeking to secure protection for descriptive or laudatory word marks.

Police Officer Decision-making in Dispute Encounters: Digging Deeper into the ‘Black Box’

In an effort to expand existing knowledge on police decision-making behavior, this research utilized data from a systematic social observation of police (The Project on Policing Neighborhoods) to conduct a qualitative content analysis of the narrative debriefings in dispute encounters. The content analysis revealed six distinct themes related to officer arrest decision-making, including the finding that officers utilize working rules when deciding on a course of action. Further, the influence of the working rules on decision-making behavior is mediated by specific cognitive frameworks. For example, officers typically utilize the working rule “arrest if there is an injury” but this working rule can be nullified if the officer determines that the victim is undeserving. The analysis also revealed that the application of working rules by officers was not uniform across the study, but varied by department in some key ways. For example, in cases where evidence was not strong enough to warrant an arrest, officers in Indianapolis would use the working rule “threaten arrest to ensure future compliance.” Officers in St. Petersburg, however, utilized no working rules related to the threat of arrest.

Space and Time Variations in Crime-Recording Practices within a Large Municipal Police Agency

When comparing crime rates across several locations or analysing general trends, it is usually assumed that police statistics are an imperfect, but relatively constant indicator of the phenomenon. This study delves into the possibility that this may not be the case. Multilevel models are used to analyse the recording rate of six types of offences for the 33 police districts of a large Canadian city between 2005 and 2009. Results demonstrate that geographical and time factors unrelated to the offence committed may influence a police officer's decision whether or not to record certain types of offences. In some cases, official statistics do not provide a meaningful indicator of crime for comparative purposes.