The Aesthetics of Terrorism and the Temporalities of Representation

Representations of terrorism, in fiction and non-fiction, summon their readers and viewers to examine terrorism in any of at least four modes of temporality: the past, the past perfect, the continuous present, and the simple present. This essay explains those modalities and shows how they work with reference to novels, a film documentary, and contemporary American television, including the documentary Black September and the series NCIS. The modalities are ideological as well as narratological functions and are sometimes employed to occlude the historical and pragmatic dimensions of terrorist violence. Terrorism is always already aesthetic and “hyperreal,” in Jean Baudrillard’s sense of the word, but to contemplate the aesthetics of terrorism is to occupy a certain geopolitical and historical position with regard to it, in addition to a location in hyperreality

Using Drones in Internal and External Audits: An Exploratory Framework

Recently the FAA relaxed restrictions on the use of drones or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) for commercial purposes. Markets for commercial drone use are in the technology trigger phase of the Gartner Group’s Hyper Cycle, with developments occurring rapidly in real estate, agriculture (farming), the film industry, insurance, and other areas. Examination and inspection applications of drones have been proposed in heavy industry and cell tower inspection. Previous research suggests an incremental structure for implementing technological innovations such as continuous auditing (CA). In this paper these proposals are expanded to include the additional requirements to add drone technologies. This structure is extended here by (1) defining the use of drones in audit environments, with emphasis on the continuous versus occasional use of drone technologies, (2) extending the technical adoption architecture to include the use of drones, and (3) considering the types of drone usages amenable to both internal and external audits. A specific architecture is proposed here to prototype inventory counts in large warehouses or open-air inventories and that satisfies the suggested requirements. Additionally, this proposal adds value to the current research by extending the discussion of technology adoption in the Alles, Kogan, and Vasarhelyi (2008) paper to include the use of drones in many different audit environments by enumerating the usage types of drones in audit settings and by considering the prototype of such a system

Shakespeare and the Concepts of Fear

Lorsque l’on pense à la peur, on ne mobilise pas toujours les mots de sens voisin comme anxiété, terreur et panique. Si l’on essaie de conceptualiser la peur et les phénomènes proches, on est souvent gêné par le présupposé qu’il existe un système de types naturels parmi les émotions, alors qu’il y a tout au plus ce que Wittgenstein appelle « un air de famille ». Il n’existe pas de système fiable de nos jours, et il n’en existait pas non plus du temps de Shakespeare. Cette contribution étudie un éventail de termes que l’on utilise pour rendre compte de phénomènes tels que la peur chez Shakespeare, ainsi que les différents concepts correspondant à ces termes. Elle met en lumière les défis herméneutiques que posent d’une part le caractère polysémique de la peur, et de l’autre la richesse de l’exploration shakespearienne de tous ces concepts.Fear and its companion terms like anxiety, terror, and panic are not systematically related. Our attempts to conceptualize fear and related phenomena are often hampered by assumptions that there is a system of natural kinds in the emotions, when at best there are only what Wittgenstein called family resemblances. There is no one reliable system now and there was no reliable system in Shakespeare’s period. This essay examines a variety of terms used to account for phenomena like fear in Shakespeare, as well as the variety of concepts behind the terms. It highlights the hermeneutic challenges posed by fear’s polysemanticity, and by the copiousness with which Shakespeare explores all the concepts

Voluntariness of Consent to Research: A Conceptual Model

A good deal of policy and practice in human subjects research aims to ensure that when subjects consent to research, they do so voluntarily. To date, however, voluntariness and its impairment have been poorly conceptualized and studied. The legal doctrine of informed consent could provide a useful model

Strategic allocation of attention reduces temporally predictable stimulus conflict

Humans are able to continuously monitor environmental situations and adjust their behavioral strategies to optimize performance. Here we investigate the behavioral and brain adjustments that occur when conflicting stimulus elements are, or are not, temporally predictable. ERPs were collected while manual response variants of the Stroop task were performed in which the SOAs between the relevant color and irrelevant word stimulus components were either randomly intermixed or held constant within each experimental run. Results indicated that the size of both the neural and behavioral effects of stimulus incongruency varied with the temporal arrangement of the stimulus components, such that the random-SOA arrangements produced the greatest incongruency effects at the earliest irrelevant first SOA (-200 msec) and the constant-SOA arrangements produced the greatest effects with simultaneous presentation. These differences in conflict processing were accompanied by rapid (∼150 msec) modulations of the sensory ERPs to the irrelevant distractor components when they occurred consistently first. These effects suggest that individuals are able to strategically allocate attention in time to mitigate the influence of a temporally predictable distractor. As these adjustments are instantiated by the participants without instruction, they reveal a form of rapid strategic learning for dealing with temporally predictable stimulus incongruency

Disclosure of Information to Potential Subjects on Research Recruitment Web Sites

We examined systematically how a sample of Web sites that recruit participants for research on particular diseases present studies to potential subjects, exploring the presence of information about research benefits, risks, procedures, and incentives, including monetary incentives. Such data can elucidate the degree to which federal guidance is being followed and may have potential implications for policy, suggesting areas that IRBs, policy-makers, and regulators may want to consider further regarding online recruiting of research participant

Self-Injurious Behaviors in Prisons: A Nationwide Survey of Correctional Mental Health Directors

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) by inmates has serious health, safety, operational, security and fiscal consequences. Serious incidents require a freeze in normal facility operations. Injuries that need outside medical attention create additional security risks, including potential escape attempts. The interruption of normal operations, diversion of staff, cost of outside care, and drain on medical and mental health resources all have significant fiscal consequences. This session will present the results and implications of a survey of the Mental Health Directors in all 51 state and federal prison systems on the extent of SIB by inmates, including incidence and prevalence, adverse consequences, and management. Thirty-nine of the state and federal correctional systems (77%) responded to the survey. Fewer than 2% of inmates per year engage in SIB, but in 29 85%) of systems these events occur at least weekly to more than once per day. The highest rates of occurrence of these behaviors are in maximum security and lock-down units, and most often involve inmates with Axis II disorders. Despite the seriousness of the problem, systems typically collect little, if any, data on self-injurious behaviors, and management approaches lack widespread consistency

Anticipating issues related to increasing preimplantation genetic diagnosis use: a research agenda

Increasing use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) poses numerous clinical, social, psychological, ethical, legal and policy dilemmas, many of which have received little attention. Patients and providers are now considering and using PGD for a widening array of genetic disorders, and patients may increasingly seek ‘designer babies.’ In the USA, although governmental oversight policies have been discussed, few specific guidelines exist. Hence, increasingly, patients and providers will face challenging ethical and policy questions of when and for whom to use PGD, and how it should be financed. These issues should be better clarified and addressed through collection of data concerning the current use of PGD in the USA, including factors involved in decision making about PGD use, as well as the education of the various communities that are, and should be, involved in its implementation. Improved understanding of these issues will ultimately enhance the development and implementation of future clinical guidelines and policies