Market Structures and Shipping Security

The events of September 11th, 2001, in the US have brought a greater focus to the ways in which national security is viewed. International agencies such as the International Maritime Organisation and most national governments have been active in developing new security policies. Security, however, poses particular problems because, unlike safety where there is no conscious effort to cause harm, there is an inevitable gaming problem with potential perpetrators continually vying to circumvent security regimes. Added to this, security involves uncertainty that, unlike risk, has no real probability associated with it. These features necessitate a public as well as a private sector response. To develop public policy in these circumstances there is a need to tailor actions to the nature of the maritime market. A difficulty in doing this is that there is no single market; rather there are a number of overlapping markets. An added problem is that there is no consensus on the underlying structure of most of these markets. This paper fills some of the resultant voids by examining the extent to which actors in various market situations have internal incentives to ensure security and how they would react to external incentives such as regulations. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2006) 8, 100–120. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100145

The New DSM-5 Impairment Criterion: A Challenge to Early Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis?

The possible effect of the DSM-5 impairment criterion on diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young children was examined in 127 children aged 20–47 months with a DSM-IV-TR clinical consensus diagnosis of ASD. The composite score of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) served as a proxy for the DSM-5 impairment criterion. When applying a mild level of impairment (cutoff: 1 SD below the mean on the VABS), 88 % of the cases fulfilled the impairment criterion. Sixty-nine percent fulfilled the impairment criterion at a moderate level (1.5 SDs) and 33 % at a severe level (2 SDs). Findings indicate that a strict application of the new DSM-5 impairment criterion might compromise early diagnosis of ASD