Democracy Lives in Darkness

Republicans and Democrats increasingly distrust, avoid, and wish harm upon those from the other party. To make matters worse, they also increasingly reside among like-minded others and are part of social groups that share their political beliefs. All of this can make expressing a dissenting political opinion hard. Yet digital and social media have given people new spaces for political discourse and community, and more control over who knows their political beliefs and who does not. With Democracy Lives in Darkness, Van Duyn looks at what these changes in the political and media landscape mean for democracy. She uncovers and follows a secret political organization in rural Texas over the entire Trump presidency. The group, which organized out of fear of their conservative community in 2016, has a confidentiality agreement, an email listserv and secret Facebook group, and meets in secret every month. By building relationships with members, she explores how and why they hide their beliefs and what this does for their own political behavior and for their community. Drawing on research from communication, political science, and sociology along with survey data on secret political expression, Van Duyn finds that polarization has led even average partisans to hide their political beliefs from others. And although intensifying polarization will likely make political secrecy more common, she argues that this secrecy is not just evidence that democracy is hurting, but that it is still alive, that people persist in the face of opposition, and that this matters if democracy is to survive.

RAHASIA DAGANG SEBAGAI SALAH SATU PERLINDUNGAN HAK KEKAYAAN INTELEKTUAL DARI HASIL PENELITIAN HIBAH SEKOLAH VOKASI IPB TAHUN 2020

ABSTRACTThe Research results as the result of thoughts from researchers or lecturers need to be protected from harmful fraudulent actions. Protection of the research results also provides motivation for researchers or lecturers to continue working. One form of protection provided is the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Various forms of IPR can be utilized as long as it meets the criteria of the IPR field. The purpose of this study was to determine the form of protection of trade secrets for the Research Results. In addition, to find out the efforts that need to be made to fulfill trade secret requirements. This research is normative legal research with a qualitative approach. The Research results of The College of Vocational Studies IPB University’s lecturer who research grants in 2020 that can be given protection as trade secrets. The Research results can be protected as trade secrets if they meet the criteria that the research results are confidential information in the field of technology and/or business, have economic value and are kept confidential by researchers or lecturers. To maintain the confidentiality of the research results, efforts were made such as providing a password, writing the word "Secret", storing documents in a safe place, making a confidentiality agreement and inserting a confidentiality clause in the license agreement.

The strategic design of port services based on a total landed cost approach

PurposeThis paper explores the effect of port's service time, particularly the mean and variability, on shippers' total landed costs to determine the competitive position of the port and derive recommendations for the strategic design of port services.Design/methodology/approachThe competitive position of a port is estimated considering the service level offered to the end-users of the port such as port service time, its variability and its effect on the total landed costs observed by the port users. The proposed methodology is meant to help ports to determine the required service time levels to maintain or gain a competitive advantage against other ports, in terms of attracting common hinterland's customers.FindingsResults show the advantages of considering service levels factors to determine the competitive position of a port, and what are the minimum characteristics required to capture more traffic volumes, that can help port managers to take strategic design decisions to better position the port in the current fierce market.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed methodology is illustrated by considering a case study, which is the Port of Guaymas in Mexico. Data was not directly collected by the port, but based on interviews with shippers and public information, a representative case is presented. Due to a confidentiality agreement with the Port, specific references for most of the data used to estimate the model's parameters are not provided. The analysis is intended to show the potential value of this mechanism and can be used for evaluating the competitive position, from a high-level perspective, of any port to determine potential hinterland by improving the service level of the port.Originality/valueThe existing literature on port choice and port competition has not previously considered the effect of port service levels under the perspective of total landed costs of the users, being this paper a contribution to fulfill this gap.

Evolution of Medical Students' Perception of the Patient's Right to Privacy

Background: During clinical rotations, medical students experience situations in which the patients’ right to privacy may be violated. The aim of this study is to analyze medical students' perception of clinical situations that affect patients' right to privacy or intimacy, and to look for the influential factors that may contribute to the infringement on their rights, such as age, gender, academic year or parents’ educational level.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a survey via “Google Drive”. It consisted of 16 questions about personal information, 24 questions about their experience when rotating and 22 questions about their opinion concerning several situations related to the right to privacy. Results: 129 medical students from various Spanish medical schools participated. Only 31% of 3rd-6th year students declared to have signed a confidentiality agreement when starting their clinical practice, and most students (52%) reported that doctors “sometimes”, “rarely” or “never” introduce themselves and the students when entering the patients’ rooms. Additionally, about 50% of all students reported that they would take a picture of a patient’s hospitalization report without his/her (consent), which would be useful for an assignment. Conclusions: Important mistakes during medical students’ rotations have been observed, as well as general lack of knowledge regarding patient’s right to privacy among Spanish medical students. Men and older students showed better knowledge of current legislation, as well as those whose parents were both college-educated and those in higher academic years. Informative courses and law teaching should be enhanced so that patients’ right to privacy may be better guaranteed.

An Empirical Analysis of Employee Responses to Bonuses and Penalties

ABSTRACT We examine how employees respond to bonuses and penalties using a proprietary dataset from an electronic chip manufacturer in China. First, we examine the relative effects of bonuses and penalties and observe a stronger effect on subsequent effort and performance for penalties than for bonuses. Second, we find that the marginal sensitivity of penalties diminishes faster than that of bonuses, indicating that the marginal effect of a bonus may eventually exceed that of a penalty as their value increases. Third, we find an undesirable selection effect of penalties: penalties increase employee turnover, especially for skillful and high-quality workers. These results may help inform our understanding of the observed limited use of penalties in practice due to their bounded effectiveness and possible unintended consequences. Data Availability: The confidentiality agreement with the company that provided data for this study precludes the dissemination of detailed data without the company's consent.

Using Fixed Wages for Management Control: An Intra-Firm Test of the Effect of Relative Compensation on Performance

ABSTRACT Efficiency wage theory predicts employers can elicit better employee performance ex post by paying higher fixed compensation ex ante, relative to the market wage. Relative compensation may thereby constitute an alternative control mechanism when performance-based compensation is difficult to implement. Using proprietary data from 436 hotels in a U.S. lodging chain, we find that relative compensation is positively associated with performance, and additional profits associated with higher compensation exceed the wage increase. Relative compensation has a larger impact on profit when tasks are more complex and a smaller impact on profit, revenue, and quality when chain monitoring is stronger. Finally, the magnitude of the relation between relative compensation and financial performance (nonfinancial) is larger (the same) for employees earning more than the median wage compared with those earning less. Overall, our results are consistent with assertions that higher relative compensation attracts more capable candidates and mitigates shirking, but provide little support for reciprocity. Data Availability: The confidentiality agreement with the firm that provided data for this study precludes revealing its identity and disseminating data.