Surrogate Decision-Making Standards for Guardians: Theory and Reality

This Article examines the theoretical and practical implications of the substituted judgment and best interest standards for decision making by guardians. After providing an overview of the current decision-making standards in guardianship statutes, the Article synthesizes theoretical debates about what these standards mean and whether they provide an effective paradigm for surrogate decision makers. The authors then use new survey data to offer conclusions about the degree to which the substituted judgment and best interest standards are understood and meaningfully applied by guardians

The UPC Substituted Judgment/Best Interest Standard for Guardian Decisions: A Proposal for Reform

The introduction in 1997 of substituted judgment as a guiding principle for guardian decisions was a key contribution of the UPC to guardianship reform. The current UPC section 5-314(a) instructs guardians to consider the expressed desires and personal values of the ward when making decisions and to at all times...act in the ward\u27s best interest. This dual mandate for guardian decisions was intended to promote the self-determination interests of incapacitated adults. This article argues that in practice the standard has failed to achieve this goal. It analyzes the shortcomings of UPC Section 5-314(a) and other statutory decision-making standards and offers an improved decision-making model. Frolik and Whitton propose reform of Section 5-314(a) to provide better guidance for guardians, and to harmonize the standard for guardian decisions with other surrogate decision-making standards within the UPC

The UPC Substituted Judgment/Best Interest Standard for Guardian Decisions: A Proposal for Reform

The introduction in 1997 of substituted judgment as a guiding principle for guardian decisions was a key contribution of the UPC to guardianship reform. The current UPC section 5-314(a) instructs guardians to consider the expressed desires and personal values of the ward when making decisions and to at all times...act in the ward\u27s best interest. This dual mandate for guardian decisions was intended to promote the self-determination interests of incapacitated adults. This article argues that in practice the standard has failed to achieve this goal. It analyzes the shortcomings of UPC Section 5-314(a) and other statutory decision-making standards and offers an improved decision-making model. Frolik and Whitton propose reform of Section 5-314(a) to provide better guidance for guardians, and to harmonize the standard for guardian decisions with other surrogate decision-making standards within the UPC

Evaluation of the NAS-ILAB Matrix for Monitoring International Labor Standards: Project Report

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) engaged the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to recommend a method to monitor and evaluate labor conditions in a given country. The method focuses on 5 labor standards: freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced or compulsory labor, child labor, discrimination, and acceptable conditions of work

Current flight test experience related to structural divergence of forward-swept wings

Flight testing the X-29A forward-swept wing aircraft has required development of new flight test techniques to accomplish subcritical extrapolations to the actual structural divergence dynamic pressure of the aircraft. This paper provides current experience related to applying these techniques to analysis of flight data from the forward-swept wing in order to assess the applicability of these techniques to flight test data. The measurements required, maneuvers flown, and flight test conditions are described. Supporting analytical predictions for the techniques are described and the results using flight data are compared to these predictions. Use of the results during envelope expansion and the resulting modifications to the techniques are discussed. Some of the analysis challenges that occurred are addressed and some preliminary conclusions and recommendations are made relative to the usefulness of these techniques in the flight test environment

The egalitarian effect of search engines

Search engines have become key media for our scientific, economic, and social activities by enabling people to access information on the Web in spite of its size and complexity. On the down side, search engines bias the traffic of users according to their page-ranking strategies, and some have argued that they create a vicious cycle that amplifies the dominance of established and already popular sites. We show that, contrary to these prior claims and our own intuition, the use of search engines actually has an egalitarian effect. We reconcile theoretical arguments with empirical evidence showing that the combination of retrieval by search engines and search behavior by users mitigates the attraction of popular pages, directing more traffic toward less popular sites, even in comparison to what would be expected from users randomly surfing the Web.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 2 appendices. The final version of this e-print has been published on the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103(34), 12684-12689 (2006), http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/34/1268

Social, family and trauma risk factors for common disorders in Israeli youth

Trauma exposure needs to be differentiated from trauma impacts in models of psychological disorder. Early life trauma experience is well established as a risk for psychological disorder in teenage and adult years. However, trauma experience is a broad category including personal (e.g. familial abuse, peer violence) and non-personal such as social deprivation and political violence related trauma. These factors are examined together in the Israeli context to gain understanding of their impact on emotional and behavioural disorders