Express Concern (express + concern)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Doctors, Borders, and Life in Crisis

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2005
Peter Redfield
The politics of life and death is explored from the perspective of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières [MSF]), an activist nongovernmental organization explicitly founded to respond to health crises on a global scale. Following the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, I underline key intersections between MSF's operations that express concern for human life in the midst of humanitarian disaster and the group's self-proclaimed ethic of engaged refusal. Adopting the analytic frame of biopolitics, I suggest that the actual practice of medical humanitarian organizations in crisis settings presents a fragmentary and uncertain form of such power, extended beyond stable sovereignty and deployed within a restricted temporal horizon. [source]


Privacy and Commercial Use of Personal Data: Policy Developments in the United States

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2003
Priscilla Regan
In the online and offline worlds, the value of personal information , especially information about commercial purchases and preferences , has long been recognised. Exchanges and uses of personal information have also long sparked concerns about privacy. Public opinion surveys consistently indicate that overwhelming majorities of the American public are concerned that they have lost all control over information about themselves and do not trust organisations to protect the privacy of their information. Somewhat smaller majorities favour federal legislation to protect privacy. Despite public support for stronger privacy protection, the prevailing policy stance for over thirty years has been one of reluctance to legislate and a preference for self-regulation by business to protect privacy. Although some privacy legislation has been adopted, policy debates about the commercial uses of personal information have been dominated largely by business concerns about intrusive government regulation, free speech and the flow of commercial information, costs, and effectiveness. Public concerns about privacy, reflected in public opinion surveys and voiced by a number of public interest groups, are often discredited because individuals seem to behave as though privacy is not important. Although people express concern about privacy, they routinely disclose personal information because of convenience, discounts and other incentives, or a lack of understanding of the consequences. This disconnect between public opinion and public behaviour has been interpreted to support a self-regulatory approach to privacy protections with emphasis on giving individuals notice and choice about information practices. In theory the self-regulatory approach also entails some enforcement mechanism to ensure that organisations are doing what they claim, and a redress mechanism by which individuals can seek compensation if they are wronged. This article analyses the course of policy formulation over the last twenty years with particular attention on how policymakers and stakeholders have used public opinion about the commercial use of personal information in formulating policy to protect privacy. The article considers policy activities in both Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that have resulted in an emphasis on "notice and consent." The article concludes that both individual behaviour and organisational behaviour are skewed in a privacy invasive direction. People are less likely to make choices to protect their privacy unless these choices are relatively easy, obvious, and low cost. If a privacy protection choice entails additional steps, most rational people will not take those steps. This appears logically to be true and to be supported by behaviour in the physical world. Organisations are unlikely to act unilaterally to make their practices less privacy invasive because such actions will impose costs on them that are not imposed on their competitors. Overall then, the privacy level available is less than what the norms of society and the stated preferences of people require. A consent scheme that is most protective of privacy imposes the largest burden on the individual, as well as costs to the individual, while a consent scheme that is least protective of privacy imposes the least burden on the individual, as well as fewer costs to the individual. Recent experience with privacy notices that resulted from the financial privacy provisions in Gramm-Leach-Bliley supports this conclusion. Finally, the article will consider whether the terrorist attacks of 11 September have changed public opinion about privacy and what the policy implications of any changes in public opinion are likely to be. [source]


Consumer preference for production-derived quality: analyzing perceptions of premium chicken production methods

AGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009
Brian Innes
The authors assess consumer interest in a food product containing production-derived attributes. They use the French Label Rouge system in the Ontario chicken market as an example of a producer-controlled quality system. Conjoint analysis reveals a significant proportion of respondents value nonprice attributes; medication and housing had the highest importance scores, followed by price and brand ownership. Cluster analysis of the part-worth utilities revealed three consumer segments: price conscious consumers; consumers focused on naturalness; and those focused on animal health. Segments do not appear to differ on the basis of socioeconomic and demographic profile of respondents. However, multiitem scales reflecting attitudes towards production systems vary significantly across segments. Price-conscious respondents show agreement with use of medication and express concern over quality. Respondents in the naturalness segment express concern over quality, locality of production and impact of production methods on own health. Animal-health-conscious respondents show agreement with the use of medications, concern over quality, locality and impact of production methods on own health, but neutrality towards byproducts and traditional production methods. [EconLit citations: D120, Q130]. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Public library websites for teenagers: How are they addressing the consumer health information needs of today's teens?

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
Jennifer E. Burke
Young adult use of the Web both for creating and reviewing content continues to grow and the Internet has become an important tool for teenagers seeking health information (Borzekowski & Rickert 2001, Gray et al 2005; Rideout 2001; Richardson 2002; Vargas 2005). More than 70 percent of 15 to 17 year olds say they have used the Internet to look up health information (Rideout 2001, Richardson et al 2002). In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation study reported in "Generation Rx.com" found that more youth had looked for health information than had engaged in various Web 2.0 behaviors as purchasing something online or using a chat room (Rideout 2001). Researchers cite availability, anonymity, and affordability as the key reasons teenagers turn to the web for answers to their health-related questions (Barak & Fisher 2001; Gray et al 2005). While the Internet provides teenagers with access to a wealth of health-related resources, it also presents challenges that can negatively impact the ability of adolescents to access quality information online. Difficulty conducting searches, judging the credibility of the information retrieved, and accessing sites due to filtering software are just a few of the barriers teenagers face (Gray et al 2002; Gray et al 2005; Richardson et al 2002). Like many Web users, teenagers also express concerns about privacy and confidentiality, especially in chat rooms or email correspondences (Vargas 2005). Given the issues teens face when searching for health information online, it seems natural that public libraries take the lead in providing assistance to teenagers who need help finding health information. Libraries, particularly public libraries, have a long history of providing consumer heath information to adults in their communities, and this service has transitioned online as libraries provide Internet access to electronic consumer health information (Smith 2006). In addition, many public libraries have developed websites specifically for teenagers. As more teens look for personalized information or the ability to ,create' their own content, these library web pages often serve as centers for reference, educational support, popular materials, community information, and library programming (Hughes-Hassell & Miller 2003; Jones 1997). Including links to useful websites would alleviate some of the frustration teenagers face when searching for quality health information on the Internet and allow them to make their own informed decisions (Vargas 2005). But how common is it for these web pages to provide consumer health information for teenagers? [source]


Expiration day effects: The case of Hong Kong

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 1 2003
Ying-Foon Chow
Regulators around the world often express concerns about the high volatility of stock markets due to index derivative expirations. Earlier studies of expiration day effects have found large volume effects, abnormal return volatility, and price effects during the last hour of trading on expiration days when the settlement is based on the closing price. This article examines the impact of the expiration of Hang Seng Index (HSI) derivatives on the underlying cash market in Hong Kong for the period from 1990 to 1999. The HSI derivative market is different from most other markets in the sense that the settlement price is computed by taking the average of 5-minute quotations of the HSI on the last trading day, thus providing an alternative setting for testing expiration day effects. Our empirical findings indicate that expiration days in Hong Kong may be associated with a negative price effect and some return volatility on the underlying stock market, but there is no evidence of abnormal trading volume on the expiration day, or price reversal after expiration. Thus, the existence of expiration day effects cannot be confirmed in the Hong Kong market. [JEL classification: G13; G14; G15]. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:67,86, 2003 [source]