Defending Democracy: Taking Stock of the Global Fight Against Digital Repression, Disinformation, and Election Insecurity

Amidst the regular drumbeat of reports about Russian attempts to undermine U.S. democratic institutions from Twitter bots to cyber-attacks on Congressional candidates, it is easy to forget that the problem of election security is not isolated to the United States and extends far beyond safeguarding insecure voting machines. Consider Australia, which has long been grappling with repeated Chinese attempts to interfere with its political system. Yet Australia has taken a distinct approach in how it has sought to protect its democratic institutions, including reclassifying its political parties as “critical infrastructure,” a step that the U.S. government has yet to take despite repeated breaches at both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. This Article analyzes the Australian approach to protecting its democratic institutions from Chinese influence operations and compares it to the U.S. response to Russian efforts. It then moves on to discuss how other cyber powers, including the European Union, have taken on the fight against digital repression and disinformation, and then compares these practices to the particular vulnerabilities of Small Pacific Island Nations. Such a comparative study is vital to help build resilience, and trust, in democratic systems on both sides of the Pacific. We argue that a multifaceted approach is needed to build more resilient and sustainable democratic systems. This should encompass both targeted reforms focusing on election infrastructure security—such as requiring paper ballots and risk-limiting audits—with deeper structural interventions to limit the spread of misinformation and combat digital repression

Aphasia blog talk: How does stroke and aphasia affect a person’s social relationships?

Background: Stroke and aphasia can negatively affect a person’s ability to maintain healthy social relationships, both within the family and also with friends and the wider network. To date, this has been explored predominantly through qualitative interviews and questionnaires. Blogs written by people with aphasia constitute a novel source of data, comprised of people’s own voices on issues that are of concern to them. Aims: To explore the impact of stroke and aphasia on a person’s relationships with family, friends and the wider network through analysing blogs written by people with aphasia. Methods & Procedures: Blog search engines were used to identify blogs sustained by a sole author who had aphasia following a stroke, and which reflected on their social network. The data were analysed qualitatively using framework analysis. Outcomes & Results: The systematic search resulted in 10 relevant blogs. Participants were aged between 26 and 69 years old, lived in the community, were at least 1 year post stroke and included six women and four men. Aphasia was a consistent thread running through the blogs affecting conversations with all parts of a person’s network and impacting on participants’ sense of self. They found it more difficult to take part in family activities and described higher degrees of dependence and changed family dynamics. Contact with friends was reduced, partly due to communication and physical difficulties. While some participants became motivated to become members of groups post stroke, contact with the wider network sometimes diminished, in part because of loss of work and community activities. An additional factor impacting on social relationships was other people’s positive or negative reaction towards the person with aphasia. Finally, the blogs reflected on the importance of support they had received, both from close family and also from the wider community. Conclusions: This study found that social relationships played a crucial role in people’s lives following a stroke and aphasia. Nonetheless, family relationships, friendships and social exchanges within the wider social network were all substantially affected. Exploring this area through online narratives offered a rich and highly authentic source of data. The findings suggest that clinicians should incorporate social approaches in rehabilitation and consider ways to foster the maintenance of social networks. The use of social media by people with aphasia should be further explored, both as a therapeutic outlet and also as a way for people with aphasia to feel connected to a wider community

Is bicarbonate in Photosystem II the equivalent of the glutamate ligand to the iron atom in bacterial reaction centers?

Photosystem II of oxygen-evolving organisms exhibits a bicarbonate-reversible formate effect on electron transfer between the primary and secondary acceptor quinones, QA and QB. This effect is absent in the otherwise similar electron acceptor complex of purple bacteria, e.g. Rhodobacter sphaeroides. This distinction has led to the suggestion that the iron atom of the acceptor quinone complex in PS II might lack the fifth and sixth ligands provided in the bacterial reaction center (RC) by a glutamate residue at position 234 of the M-subunit in Rb. sphaeroides,RCs (M232 in Rps. viridis). By site-directed mutagenesis we have altered GluM234 in RCs from Rb. sphaeroides, replacing it with valine, glutamine and glycine to form mutants M234EV, M234EQ and M234EG, respectively. These mutants grew competently under phototrophic conditions and were tested for the formate-bicarbonate effect. In chromatophores there were no detectable differences between wild type (Wt) and mutant M234EV with respect to cytochrome b-561 reduction following a flash, and no effect of bicarbonate depletion (by incubation with formate). In isolated RCs, several electron transfer activities were essentially unchanged in Wt and M234EV, M234EQ and M234EG mutants, and no formate-bicarbonate effect was observed on: (a) the fast or slow phases of recovery of the oxidized primary donor (P+) in the absence of exogenous donor, i.e., the recombination of P+QA− or P+QB−, respectively; (b) the kinetics of electron transfer from QA− to QB; or (c) the flash dependent oscillations of semiquinone formation in the presence of donor to P+ (QB turnover). The absence of a formate-bicarbonate effect in these mutants suggests that GluM234 is not responsible for the absence of the formate-bicarbonate effect in Wt bacterial RCs, or at least that other factors must be taken into account. The mutant RCs were also examined for the fast primary electron transfer along the active (A-)branch of the pigment chain, leading to reduction of QA. The kinetics were resolved to reveal the reduction of the monomer bacteriochlorophyll (τ = 3.5 ps), followed by reduction of the bacteriopheophytin (τ = 0.9 ps). Both steps were essentially unaltered from the wild type. However, the rate of reduction of QA was slowed by a factor of 2 (τ = 410 ± 30 and 47 ± 30 ps for M234EQ and M234EV, respectively, compared to 220 ps in the wild type). EPR studies of the isolated RCs showed a characteristic g = 1.82 signal for the QA semiquinone coupled to the iron atom, which was indistinguishable from the wild type. It is concluded that GluM234 is not essential to the normal functioning of the acceptor quinone complex in bacterial RCs and that the role of bicarbonate in PS II is distinct from the role of this residue in bacterial RCs

Corporate governance compliance and disclosure in the banking sector: using data from Japan

Using regression model this study investigates which characteristics of a bank is associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure in Japan. The findings suggest that on average 8 banks out of a sample of 46 disclose optimal corporate governance information. The regression model results reveal in general that non-executive directors, cross-ownership, capital adequacy ratio and type of auditors are associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure. Of these four variables, non-executive directors have a more significant impact on the extent of disclosure contrary to total assets and audit firms of banks in the context of Japan. The findings of this paper are relevant for corporate regulators, professional associations and developers of corporate governance code when designing or updating corporate governance code

Corporate social responsibility disclosures in international construction business: trends and prospects

There is increasing sophistication in corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures by international construction companies (ICCs). Nevertheless, a systematic analysis of the trends and prospects is yet to appear. This study fills that knowledge gap by providing an understanding of the idiosyncrasies of CSR disclosure and by offering suggestions for future reporting exercises. By examining the top fifty ICCs’ CSR/sustainability reports using content analysis, it found that the more negative impacts a company may have, the more remedial strategies it will disclose in a CSR report. ICCs from economically more developed countries maintain a high level of CSR disclosure, while their counterparts from developing countries have caught up in this CSR cause. As a way to improve the consistency and integrity of disclosed information, ICCs are increasingly adopting CSR reporting guidance frameworks and using third-party assurances. CSR disclosures present a high degree of uniformity while they also show nuanced and intriguing diversity. This research helps understand comprehensively the trends of CSR disclosure in international construction. It will help ICCs extrapolate their future CSR reporting exercises.postprin

Reviewing the decision-making behaviour of Irrigators

The contribution of agriculture to society is undeniable, as is its impact on the environment. Irrigators' decisions to follow best management practices or implement a policy change, to accept a technology, or even to exit farming, all affect society. Hence the decision‐making behavior of irrigators is of interest to politicians, policymakers, and researchers due to their impact on resource use and social concerns for their welfare. There are numerous studies available regarding the decision‐making behavior of irrigators. Most of them concentrate on decisions within a single time frame, single decisions with multiple driving forces, or multiple decisions with a single driving force. We have conducted a comprehensive review of the existing literature related to irrigators' decision‐making behavior. We used a systematic method to identify relevant publications and used qualitative data analysis (content analysis) to analyze trends and/or patterns across the selected articles. This research provided a typology and an overarching high‐level framework of irrigators' decision‐making process irrespective of the types of decisions made. The results of the study demonstrate that it is highly beneficial to integrate both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study to get a complete picture of irrigators' decision‐making process. This allows us to ensure that we have captured the relevant drivers of decision‐making in highly dynamic and complex environments. Better knowledge of irrigators' decision‐making process allows regulators to shape improved agricultural policy and increase acceptance by irrigators of technologies that allow water managers to allocate resources fairly among different stakeholders.Lubna Meempatta, A. James Webb, Avril C. Horne, Louise Anne Keogh, Adam Loch, Michael J. Stewardso

Using Cognitive Interviewing for the Semantic Enhancement of Multi-Lingual Versions of Personality Questionnaires

We discuss the use of cognitive interviewing with bilinguals as an integral part of cross-cultural adaptation of personality questionnaires. The aim is to maximize semantic equivalence to increase the likelihood of items maintaining the intended structure and meaning in the target language. We refer to this part of adaptation as semantic enhancement, and integrate cognitive interviewing within it as a tool for scrutinizing translations, the connotative meaning, and the psychological impact of items across languages. During the adaptation of a work-based personality questionnaire from English to Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Spanish, we cognitively interviewed 12 bilingual participants about 136 items in different languages (17% of all items), of which 67 were changed. A content analysis categorizing the reasons for amending items elicited eleven errors that affect two identified forms of semantic equivalence. We provide the resultant coding scheme as a framework for designing cognitive interviewing protocols and propose a procedure for implementing them. We discuss implications for theory and practic

Collaborating around digital tabletops: children’s physical strategies from the UK, India and Finland

We present a study of children collaborating around interactive tabletops in three different countries: the United Kingdom, India and Finland. Our data highlights the key distinctive physical strategies used by children when performing collaborative tasks during this study. Children in the UK tend to prefer static positioning with minimal physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in India employed dynamic positioning with frequent physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in Finland used a mixture of dynamic and static positioning with minimal physical contact and object movement. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding collaboration strategies and behaviours when designing and deploying interactive tabletops in heterogeneous educational environments. We conclude with a discussion on how designers of tabletops for schools can provide opportunities for children in different countries to define and shape their own collaboration strategies for small group learning that take into account their different classroom practices