Legally flawed, scientifically problematic, potentially harmful: The UK Psychoactive Substance Bill

This journal has often analysed legislation in the field of drug policy. Rarely has it discussed a proposed law that has such deep problems in its legal and scientific bases. The Psychoactive Substances Bill, which is currently proceeding through the UK Parliament, will (if enacted) create a ‘blanket ban’ on the production, importation, exportation and supply of all psychoactive substances for human consumption, except for those that are specifically exempted. The Bill provides for a range of civil and criminal penalties, with a maximum seven-year prison sentence

A rail network performance metric to capture passenger experience

For passenger rail operators worldwide a common concern is to better understand and improve passenger experience. Based on factors including train movement times and crowding, the Journey Time Metric and Disutility Metric can be used to quantitatively assess the journey experience of individual passengers. However an assessment of overall network performance is also desirable. This paper presents a whole-network assessment metric that captures passenger experience by aggregating and normalizing individual journey assessments. The newly developed metric is validated against customer satisfaction data measured in passenger surveys of the London Underground Limited Victoria Line with a statistically significant correlation (P < 0.005) between the predictions and the measurements. It is found that there is a high degree of correlation (ρ = 1.00, P < 0.005) between the network scores calculated using the new whole-network assessment metric with either the Journey Time Metric or Disutility Metric despite their different formulations and countries of origin. Through development of the new metric it is identified that many commonly used network assessment metrics (e.g. Public Performance Measure and the end-to-end journey time of passengers) are insensitive to crucial aspects of passenger experience. The newly developed metric could be used by rail operators to better select strategies for improving passenger experience

International Social Survey Programme: Work Orientations IV - ISSP 2015

Attitude towards work. Work orientation. Conflict and social exclusion. Subjective experience of job. Work satisfaction. Non-standard employment. Work life balance. Job and working flexibility. Human capital. Outcome of work. Employability, new job. Topics: work centrality (a job is just a way of earning money vs. would enjoy having a paid job even if the money is not needed); importance of selected demands of a job like job security, high income, etc. (work values); work life balance: willingness to give up good job opportunities for the benefit of the family; willingness to remain in a job that is not satisfying for the benefit of the family; conflict and social exclusion: experience of discrimination with regard to work, for instance when applying for a job; main reason for the discrimination; experience of harassment at the workplace by superiors or co-workers (for example bullying, physical or psychological abuse); solidarity and conflict with regard to trade unions (workers need strong trade unions to protect their interests vs. strong trade unions are bad for the country´s economy); preferred employment arrangements (full-time, part-time, less than 10 hours a week, no paid job at all); currently working for pay (employment status); preference for more work (and money) or for reduction in working hours (work longer hours and earn more money, work the same number of hours and earn the same money, or work fewer hours and earn less money); characteristics (social dimension) of own job; subjective experience of job: frequency of hard physical work and stressful work; non-standard employment: frequency of working at home during the usual working hours and working on weekends; job and working flexibility concerning starting and finishing times; non-standard employment: usual working schedule in the main job; job and working flexibility: organisation of daily work (free decision, decision within certain limits, no free decision); work life balance: difficult to take an hour off during working hours to take care of personal or family matters; demands of the job interfere with the family life and the demands of family life interfere with the job; human capital: usefulness of the abilities learned from past work experience for the present job; job training over the past twelve months to improve job skills; judgement on the relations between management and employees and the relations between workmates/ colleagues (working atmosphere); outcome of work: work satisfaction in the main job; identification with firm or organisation; occupational commitment (would change the present type of work for something different, proud of the present type of work); employability/ new job: expected difficulties in finding a new job at least as good as the current one; likeliness of job search in the next twelve months; worried about the possibility of losing own job; job and working flexibility: accepted concessions to avoid unemployment (acceptance of a job that requires new skills, acceptance of a lower paid position, acceptance of temporary employment, longer travel to reach the place of work, movement within the country, movement to a different country); existence of a side job in addition to the main job; earning from the additional job(s) in total compared with the main job. Respondents who are not currently employed were asked: ever worked for pay for one year or more; month and year the last paid job ended; work satisfaction in the last job; main reason for the end of last employment; interest in finding a paid job; expected difficulties in finding a new job; worried about the possibility of not finding a job; accepted concessions in order to get a job (acceptance of a job that requires new skills, acceptance of a lower paid position, acceptance of temporary employment, longer travel to reach the place of work, movement within the country, movement to a different country); job seeking activities in the past twelve months and training to improve own job skills; currently looking for a job; main source of economic support; worried about the possibility of losing this main economic support. Optional items: recent work histories: ever worked for pay over the past five years; experience of selected changes in working life (unemployment for a period longer than three months, change of the employer, change of the occupation, started own business/ became self-employed, took up an additional job); self-assessment of current financial situation; change of current financial situation compared to five years ago; expected financial situation in five years; attitude towards senior citizens´ work (good for the country´s economy, employed people aged 60 and over take jobs away from younger people). Optional background variable: self-assessment of physical and mental health. Additional compulsory background variable: age of the youngest child in the household. Demography: sex; age; year of birth; years in school; education (country specific); highest completed degree; work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; number of employees; supervision of employees; number of supervised employees; type of organisation: for-profit vs. non profit and public vs. private; occupation (ISCO-08); main employment status; living in steady partnership; union membership; religious affiliation or denomination (country specific); groups of religious denominations; attendance of religious services; top-bottom self-placement; vote in last general election; country specific party voted in last general election; party voted (left-right); self-assessed affiliation of ethnic group 1 and 2 (country specific); number of children; number of toddlers; size of household; earnings of respondent (country specific); family income (country specific); father´s and mother´s country of birth; marital status; place of living: urban – rural; region (country specific). Information about spouse/ partner on: work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; supervises other employees; occupation (ISCO-08); main employment status. Additionally encoded: respondent-ID number; date of interview (year, month, day); case substitution flag; mode of data collection; weight

International Social Survey Programme: Citizenship - ISSP 2004

Citizen and state. Topics: Qualities of a good citizen; attitude toward the right ofpublic meetings for religious extremists, people who want to overthrowthe government by force, or people prejudiced against any racial orethnic group; social and political participation; memberships;importance of different people`s rights in democracy (scale);estimation of political influence possibilities (political efficacy);likeliness of counter-action against an unjust law and expected chanceof serious attention to people`s demand; interest in politics; personaltrust in politicians and people; political discussions with friends;opinion leadership in politics; national sovereignty and attitude tointernational organisations; attitude to the action of politicalparties; real policy choice between parties; attitude toward areferendum; level of honesty and fairness in the last nationalelection; commitment to serve people and likeliness to correct ownmistakes in public service; corruption in public service; functioningof democracy at present, in the past and in the future; frequencies ofmedia use; respect for people and tolerance in case of disagreement;self-description of the habitation (residence); voter participation;voting behaviour (recall). Demography: Sex; age; marital-status; steady life-partner; education;current employment status; hours worked weekly; occupation (ISCO 1988);working for private or public sector or selfemployed; if selfemployed:number of employees; supervisor function; trade union membership;current employment status (ISCO 1988); earnings; family income;household size; household composition; party affiliation; participationin last election; religious denomination; attendance of religiousservices; self-placement on a top-bottom scale; region; size ofcommunity; type of community: urban-rural area; ethnicity, nationalityand family-origin. Additionally coded: administrative mode of data-collection

International Social Survey Programme: National Identity III - ISSP 2013

Fragen zum Nationalbewusstsein und zur nationalen Identität. Themen: Identifikation mit der Stadt, der Region, dem Land und mit dem jeweiligen Kontinent; wichtigste Eigenschaften für die nationale Identität; Identifikation mit der eigenen Nation und Nationalstolz (Skala); Stolz auf die Funktionsweise der Demokratie im eigenen Land, den politischen Einfluss des Landes in der Welt, die wirtschaftlichen Errungenschaften des Landes, das soziale Sicherheitssystem, seine wissenschaftlichen und technologischen Errungenschaften, seine Errungenschaften im Sport, in Kunst und Literatur, die Streitkräfte, seine Geschichte und die Gleichbehandlung aller gesellschaftlichen Gruppen; Einstellung zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem eigenen Land und anderen Ländern (Skala: Beschränkung der Einfuhr ausländischer Produkte zum Schutz der nationalen Wirtschaft, des Rechts internationaler Institutionen zur Durchsetzung von Lösungen auf nationaler Ebene (z.B. im Bereich Umweltverschmutzung), die Durchsetzung nationaler Interessen unabhängig von evozierten Konflikten mit anderen Ländern, die Ablehnung von Grundstückskäufen durch Ausländer, Präferenz für nationale Filme in nationalen Fernsehsendern); Einstellung zu ausgewählten Aussagen: große internationale Unternehmen schaden den lokalen Unternehmen; Freihandel führt zum Angebot besserer Produkte im Land; im allgemeinen sollte das Land den Entscheidungen der internationalen Organisationen folgen, auch ohne Einverständnis der nationalen Regierung mit diesen Entscheidungen; international Organisationen ziehen zu viel Leistung aus dem Land; Identifikation eher als Weltbürger als Landesbürger; Einstellung gegenüber Minderheiten: volle Assimilation ist unmöglich für Menschen, die nicht die Landesbräuche und Traditionen teilen; ethnische Minderheiten sollten staatliche Unterstützung erhalten zur Bewahrung ihrer Bräuche und Traditionen; Präferenz für die Assimilation von Minderheiten oder für die Beibehaltung ihrer Identität; Einstellung gegenüber Einwanderern (Skala); Meinung zur Zahl der Einwanderer im Land; Einwanderer sollten ihre Herkunftskultur behalten und nicht die Landeskultur annehmen versus auch die Landeskultur annehmen, versus eigene Kultur aufgeben und Landeskultur annehmen; Nationalstolz; Einstellung zum Patriotismus (stärkt das eigene Land in der Welt, führt zu Intoleranz im Land, ist für die Einheit des Landes notwendig, führt zu negativer Haltung gegenüber Einwanderern); Staatsbürgerschaft des Befragten; Staatsbürgerschaft der Eltern zum Zeitpunkt der Geburt des Befragten. Optionale Fragen für Länder mit einem entsprechenden regionalen Zusammenschluss: Kenntnis des entsprechenden Bündnisses wie der EU oder des Wirtschaftsverbandes NAFTA; Vorteile aus der EU-Mitgliedschaft (NAFTA-Mitgliedschaft etc.); Land sollte EU (NAFTA, etc.) Entscheidungen folgen, auch im Falle von Meinungsverschiedenheiten; Meinung zu einer leistungsfähigen EU-Regierung; Präferenz für eine künftige EU-Mitgliedschaft des Landes (für zukünftige EU-Mitglieder) bzw. zum Fortbestand der EU- Mitgliedschaft des Landes (aktuelle EU-Mitglieder). Demographie: Geschlecht; Alter; Geburtsjahr; Jahre der Schulbildung; Bildung (länderspezifisch); höchster Abschluss; Erwerbsstatus; Wochenarbeitszeit; Arbeitsverhältnis; Zahl der Beschäftigten (Unternehmensgröße); Weisungsbefugnis; Anzahl der Mitarbeiter für die Weisungsbefugnis besteht; Art des Unternehmens: Profit vs. Non-Profit und öffentlich vs. privat; Beruf (ISCO-88); Hauptbeschäftigungsstatus; Zusammenleben mit einem Partner; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft;Religionszugehörigkeit oder Konfession (länderspezifisch); Konfessionsgruppen; Kirchgangshäufigkeit; Oben-unten-Selbsteinstufung; Wahlbeteiligung bei der letzten allgemeinen Wahl und gewählte länderspezifische Partei; Links-rechts-Einstufung der gewählten Partei; Selbsteinschätzung der Zugehörigkeit zu einer ethnischen Gruppe 1 und 2 (länderspezifisch); Anzahl der Kinder; Anzahl der Kleinkinder; Haushaltsgröße; Einkommen des Befragten (länderspezifisch); Familieneinkommen (länderspezifisch); Geburtsland von Vater und Mutter; Familienstand; Urbanisierungsgrad; Region (länderspezifisch). Angaben zum Ehepartner bzw. Partner hinsichtlich: Erwerbsstatus; Wochenarbeitszeit; Arbeitsverhältnis; Weisungsbefugnis; Beruf (ISCO-88); Hauptbeschäftigungsstatus. Zusätzlich verkodet wurde: Interviewdatum; Case substitution flag; Erhebungsmethode; Gewicht