Search results

Research following the terrorist attacks July 22nd 2011 has been especially challenging, due to the extreme nature of the events and the trauma for those involved; both directly as victims and indirectly as family, relatives and friends.

Open access journals are becoming increasingly viable publication venues for scientists, educational organizations, and government funders. Unfortunately, unscrupulous publishers have taken advantage of this trend by creating journals that are open access but predatory or of low quality [1]. Some services attempt to remedy this situation by providing a white list and blacklist of journals, manually vetted by experts. Two examples of these expertly curated lists are the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Cabbell's journal blacklist and whitelist. However, how these organizations choose journals is poorly understood. It would be beneficial to understand these decisions and also it would be important to improve on the detection accuracy of these services. In this preliminary work, we codify the rules that the DOAJ purports to use for journal auditing and examine their effectiveness in telling apart blacklisted vs whitelisted journals [2]. We compare these rules to features derived from the author, organization, and citation networks. We show that by using a combination of the DOAJ rules and network features, we can achieve significantly higher accuracy in our predictions. Finally, we examine the features that are most predictive and discuss our next steps.

Open access journals are becoming increasingly viable publication venues for scientists, educational organizations, and government funders. Unfortunately, unscrupulous publishers have taken advantage of this trend by creating journals that are open access but predatory or of low quality [1]. Some services attempt to remedy this situation by providing a white list and blacklist of journals, manually vetted by experts. Two examples of these expertly curated lists are the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Cabbell's journal blacklist and whitelist. However, how these organizations choose journals is poorly understood. It would be beneficial to understand these decisions and also it would be important to improve on the detection accuracy of these services. In this preliminary work, we codify the rules that the DOAJ purports to use for journal auditing and examine their effectiveness in telling apart blacklisted vs whitelisted journals [2]. We compare these rules to features derived from the author, organization, and citation networks. We show that by using a combination of the DOAJ rules and network features, we can achieve significantly higher accuracy in our predictions. Finally, we examine the features that are most predictive and discuss our next steps.

Quickly changing concepts on gender roles are a pivotal issue in after-colonial African societies. Many women (and men) are calling for a radical change as they feel traditional gender concepts as being oppressive, inhuman and un-Christian. Gender equality, gender fairness is on their agenda. On the other hand, for many men (and women) these societal changes are painful "gender troubles" and seem to be dangerous for gender-based identity, threatening traditional African values. Volume 22 of the BiAS series deals with this central topic by asking what gender troubles have to do with the Bible. Are biblical texts an obstacle for women's liberation? Is the Bible a divine guaranty for male supremacy or rather an advocate for gender equality? What are "redemptive masculinities" and how do they relate to a new, truly Christian understanding of the role of women in church, society and state? – Scholars from different disciplines and several countries are dealing with these urgent questions to help scholars, students, pastors, politicians and members of Christian churches to find a way to more gender fairness and "gender joy".

This is an updated version of the brief submitted to the House of Commons Heritage Committee on Oct. 6, 2016 as part of the committee's study on Communities and Local Media. Residents of Canada's largest municipalities can obtain news from multiple sources, but it's a different story elsewhere in the country. People who live in smaller cities and towns, suburban communities and rural areas have fewer options to begin with, and in recent years their choices have become even more limited. Traditional news outlets have been hit by cutbacks, consolidations and closures, while digital first news sites often struggle to stay afloat. Does any of this matter? The answer is "yes," according to a report by the U.S.-based Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The commission's report concluded that information is "as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools, and public health (Knight Commission, 2009, xiii)." It went on to argue that in addition to helping communities develop a sense of connectedness, access to information is essential in terms of holding public officials to account and making it possible for community members to work together to solve problems. While local journalism is the subject of increasingly intensive scrutiny by scholars in the United States – Duke University's Philip Napoli, for instance, is launching a project that will investigate the state of local news in 100 U.S. communities (Napoli, 2016) - there is much we don't know about the Canadian situation and the extent to which the critical information needs of rural areas, towns and smaller cities in particular are being addressed. As Carleton University professor Dwayne Winseck warned committee members during his testimony earlier this year, there are "severe" shortages of information on changes to the media landscape overall. Moreover, he cautioned, there are "a lot of opinions and little data to act upon" (Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage 2016, 5) . ; Lindgren, A., Hodson, J. and J. Corbett. (2016). Local News Poverty in Canadian Communities : Presentation to the House of Commons Heritage Committee, updated version of the brief submitted to the House of Commons Heritage Committee Oct. 6, 2016. Retrieved from : http://localnewsresearchproject.ca/2016/11/01/local-news-poverty-in-canadian-communities/

The Dutch Delta Program is currently developing new government policies for flood protection and fresh water supply. Decision support instruments have to address the program's technical and political complexity. The water system functions are highly interwoven and would benefit from an integrated approach on a national level, with decisions supported by a scientific Systems Analysis. Politically, there is a tendency towards broad participation and decentralization, and decision-making is typically supported by Conflict Resolution methods. To connect these two sides of the Delta Program's task, an outline is presented of an internet community-based interactive instrument, preliminarily named SimDelta. On-line interactive maps and elements of serious gaming intuitively provide local Delta Program participants insight into the interaction between scenarios, problems, and solutions. SimDelta uses the internet to more frequently and efficiently present conceptual designs by architects and engineers to the Delta Program stakeholders, record their preferences, and "crowdsource" corrections, improvements and new ideas. ; Water Management ; Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The rise in self-publishing, digital folk culture and social media participation, have revolutionized reading and writing practices. Readers can directly contact their favourite authors, and publishers, through social media and become authors, and publishers, themselves. One of the outcomes of digital reading and writing is that writing is now becoming more democratic: traditional publishers are no longer the sole gatekeepers of culture. The popularity of social writing platform Wattpad is a recent example of how a new generation of influential and innovative writers is entering the publishing arena. This also demonstrates that there is a demand for authorship without the intervention from publishers. Despite this, traditional notions of authorship, ownership and control are prevalent in contemporary publishing hindering the true potential of creativity. The disharmony between the rise of the amateur author and the control of the traditional publisher is confronted in the digital public sphere. Consequently, issues such as authority and influence are mediated during the activities and interactions that take place on social media and other online platforms. Established authority figures, such as famous authors or well-known publishers, that exert authority and influence in the traditional sphere, can shift this authority and influence to the digital world; however, this sphere is also occupied by emerging networks of influencers, such as emerging authors or micro-celebrities, who gain popularity as a result of specific trends, in specific domains, at specific times. This article will examine how new and established authors are using social platforms, and social media, to publish their writing, build communities and extend their dialogue with readers and other writers. A netnographic study of Wattpad will identify which authors are the influencers and innovators in social publishing. Consequently, this article will underscore the increasing importance of social networks and social relationships in 21st century publishing.

Beating a Rap? Defendants Found Incompetent to Stand Trial In this book, Henry Steadman, Director of the Special Projects Research Unit of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, addresses the common suspicion that defense attorneys enable their clients to escape criminal charges by having the clients declared incompetent to stand trial. Such suspicion, he argues, results both from public confusion over the legal and psychiatric issues in a competency hearing and from a lack of understanding (even among experts) about the practical results that flow from a determination of incompetency. Law and Order in American History Edited by Joseph M. Hawes This work is premised on the belief that an understanding of history is necessary to comprehend the complexities of America's modern criminal justice system. To illustrate the interaction between the criminal justice system and society, the editor has com-piled a series of readings which examine the components of the criminal justice system both historically and analytically. Joseph Hawes, an Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University, includes works by a sociologist, a criminologist, a political scientist and several historians in this anthology, in order to provide varied approaches. Law and the Arts--Art and the Law. Edited by Tem Horwitz This anthology is a comprehensive handbook and source book for literary, performing, and visual artists, craftspeople, arts attorneys, and arts administrators. Its nine essays reflect the nature and variety of legal problems that have surfaced during the past decade,which has witnessed a burgeoning interest in the arts and in arts organizations. The book is partially financed by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Chicago Council on Fine Arts and purports to be a distillation of the experiences of the attorneys and staff of Lawyers for the Creative Arts. Letters of Louis D. Brandeis. VOLUME V: 1921-1941. Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and David W. Levy. This is the ...

Abstract
This paper examines the resistance of Irish regions to potential future economic shock, focusing specifically on employment change in firms in receipt of assistance from the Irish government's enterprise development agencies. The paper classifies both regions and sectors in terms of their employment performance during the course of the 2011–22 period and assesses the roles of sectoral composition and firm nationality in shaping regional performance. While nationality mix is significant, sectoral composition is seen as having a more important impact on regional employment performance. It then uses the same approach to predict the performance of regions in the context of potential future shocks post 2022. The paper suggests that the Border region is the least resistant to potential future shock. Other regions with relatively low resistance include the Mid East and the Midlands. The paper subsequently considers the implications of the findings for both regional economic divergence trends and the policy aim of balanced regional development in Ireland.

Canada is one of a number of countries (e.g. Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Ireland) in which the provision of social services is considered to be a partnership between government and nonprofit service providers, with government providing the money and the nonprofit organizations (NPOs) delivering the service. However, the Canadian model incorporates two significant features of the Anglo-Saxon model, as practiced in Great Britain, United States and Australia. First, many Canadian social service NPOs receive additional philanthropic support, some even relying exclusively on philanthropy; and second, many social service NPOs benefit from a large volunteer presence (Hall, Barr, Easwaramoorthy, Wojciech & Salamon, 2005).Overall, the social service sector receives 66% of their revenues from government sources - mostly from provincial governments (Barr et al., 2005). Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: ; Meinhard, A., Lo, L. & Hyman, I. (2015). The provision of services to new immigrants in Canada: characteristics of government-non-profit partnerships (Working Paper Series Volume 2015 (2)). Toronto: Ted Rogers School of Management, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University.