Victimology: A Canadian Perspective, by Jo-Anne M. Wemmers

The Canadian legal community finds itself in the midst of a debate about whether victims of crime deserve greater rights in its justice system. A stunning report, for example, from The Globe and Mail in 2017 that details the high rate of sexual assault reports dismissed by police forces across the country was met with calls for investigators to pursue justice on behalf of victims more forcefully. Parliament, meanwhile, enacted legislation designed to better prepare sexual assault survivors who may face credibility-impeaching evidence on the witness stand. Dubbed “the Ghomeshi law” by legal commentators (as it arrived not long after the high-profile acquittal, on sexual assault charges, of CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi), the legislation has proved to be controversial

ENHANCING DATABASE PERFORMANCE IN A DSS ENVIRONMENT VIA QUERY CACHING

A key element in all decision support systems is availability of sufficiently good and timely data to support the decision making process. Much research was, and is, devoted to data and information quality: attributes, assurance that quality data is used in the decision process, etc. In this paper we concentrate on a particular dimension of data availability and usage -the retrieval of data in a timely and decision enhancing manner. We propose to augment the decision support databases by an adaptive and efficient query cache. The cache contains snapshots of the decision support database, each being the answer to a recently invoked query. A snapshot can be reused by the originating user, or a different user, at a later time --provided the use of cached data leads to savings over the use of a new query, and these savings exceed the cost of using stale date. The proposed scheme is conceptually different from conventional data replication schemes. In data replication schemes the data items to be replicated and the protocols for concurrency control are defined at the system level. In our scheme the cache is populated dynamically and the snapshots it contains are refreshed only if the cost of using stale information is higher than cost of refreshing the snapshots. At the same time, users can still decide to refresh the stored snapshot, based on their own decision environment. Our scheme thus enhances the data retrievalprocess, while supporting a more efficient data retrieval at both the user level and the data warehouse leve

Electrophilic carboxylation of alkenes

In the presence of 1.2 equivalents of boron trichloride 2,2-dichloro-1,3-benzodioxol (2) reacts with alkenes 4 to form 1:1 addition products 6, which are converted into the unsaturated tert-butyl esters 7 on treatment with potassium tert-butoxide. In the presence of ZnCl2, these reactions do not usually terminate at the 1:1-product stage, and 2,2-disubstituted 1,3-benzodioxols 5 are formed by reaction of 2 with two equivalents of 4a-f

Resolution of the Hanford site ferrocyanide safety issue

The Ferrocyanide Safety Issue at the Hanford Site was officially resolved in December 1996. This paper summarizes the key activities that led to final resolution of this safety hazard, a process that began in 1990 after it and other safety concerns were identified for the underground high-level waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site. At the time little was known about ferrocyanide-nitrate/nitrite reactions and their potential to cause offsite releases of radioactivity. The ferrocyanide hazard was a perceived problem, but it took six years of intense studies and analyses of tank samples to prove that the problem no longer exists. The issue revolved around the fact that ferrocyanide and nitrate mixtures can be made to explode violently if concentrated, dry, and heated to temperatures of at least 250 {degrees}C. The studies conducted over the last six years have shown that the combined effects of temperature, radiation, and pH during 40 or more years of storage have destroyed almost all of the ferrocyanide originally added to tanks. This was shown in laboratory experiments using simulant wastes and confirmed by actual samples taken from the ferrocyanide tanks. The tank waste sludges are now too dilute to support a sustained exothermic reaction, even if dried out and heated to high temperatures. 2 tabs., 18 refs

Erwartungsbildung über den Wahlausgang und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahlentscheidung

Erwartungen über den Wahlausgang haben einen festen Platz sowohl in Rational-Choice-Theorien des Wählerverhaltens als auch in stärker sozialpsychologisch orientierten Ansätzen. Die Bildung von Erwartungen und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahlentscheidung ist dabei jedoch ein noch relativ unerforschtes Gebiet. In diesem Beitrag werden anhand von Wahlstudien für Belgien, Österreich und Deutschland verschiedene Fragen der Erwartungsbildung und ihrer Auswirkungen untersucht. Zunächst wird die Qualität der Gesamterwartungen analysiert und verschiedene Faktoren identifiziert, die einen systematischen Einfluss auf die Erwartungsbildung haben. Im zweiten Schritt wenden wir uns den Einzelerwartungen über verschiedene Parteien und Koalitionen zu und finden eine moderate Verzerrung zugunsten der präferierten Parteien und Koalitionen. Dabei kann gezeigt werden, dass der Effekt des Wunschdenkens mit dem politischen Wissen und dem Bildungsgrad abnimmt. Schließlich werden in einem letzten Schritt zwei unterschiedliche Logiken für die Auswirkungen von Erwartungen getestet, das rationale Kalkül des koalitionsstrategischen Wählens zur Vermeidung der Stimmenvergeudung sowie der sozialpsychologisch begründete Bandwagon-Effekt. Das Ausmaß an politischem Wissen scheint dabei eine zentrale vermittelnde Variable zwischen den beiden Logiken zu sein

The Human Element of Decision Making in Systems Engineers: A Focus on Optimism

Biases continue to be an important aspect of human judgment and decision making because they can lead to unfavorable outcomes. Optimism bias is one type of bias that is often overlooked because of its association with good health and positive outcomes. However, the existence of optimism bias in human judgment can be very damaging especially when it distorts a person’s view of future events. In order to better understand optimism bias we explore the benefits and downsides of optimism as well as some empirically-based origins of both optimism and pessimism. This provides a backdrop for a methodology for quantifying optimism and pessimism using the Brier score developed for calibrating weather reporters and a discussion about how sports bookies make well-calibrated decisions. Results are explored from an optimism survey given to a cohort of eighty systems engineers, which ultimately portray the degree to which optimism bias influences decision making in large projects. Further exploration of the key differences in optimism across professions helps distinguish motivational factors and characteristics of well-calibrated professions. We also present results from a calibration exercise, designed to infer if such activities can be adopted to assist systems engineering estimation. Finally, we provide prescriptive advice on how individual decision makers can better manage their optimism and become more realistic

Progress in resolving Hanford Site high-level waste tank safety issues

Interim storage of alkaline, high-level radioactive waste, from two generations of spent fuel reprocessing and waste management activities, has resulted in the accumulation of 238 million liters of waste in Hanford Site single and double-shell tanks. Before the 1990`s, the stored waste was believed to be: (1) chemically unreactive under its existing storage conditions and plausible accident scenarios; and (2) chemically stable. This paradigm was proven incorrect when detailed evaluation of tank contents and behavior revealed a number of safety issues and that the waste was generating flammable and noxious gases. In 1990, the Waste Tank Safety Program was formed to focus on identifying safety issues and resolving the ferrocyanide, flammable gas, organic, high heat, noxious vapor, and criticality issues. The tanks of concern were placed on Watch Lists by safety issue. This paper summarizes recent progress toward resolving Hanford Site high-level radioactive waste tank safety issues, including modeling, and analyses, laboratory experiments, monitoring upgrades, mitigation equipment, and developing a strategy to screen tanks for safety issues