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Explores attitudes towards abortion in the USA and whether or not they have changed during the period 1977‐1993 (based on data from the National Opinion Research Centre’s General Social Survey). Describes the research methodology used and how the data was analysed, testing for attitudinal change by age, gender and race, through a comparison of mean scale scores, longitudinal analysis, and multiple regression. Finds that younger people are more pro‐choice but that there has been an increase in pro‐life attitudes among women and pro‐choice among men. Indicates that racial differences on abortion are declining. Reveals that increased religiosity affects attitudes towards abortion, which may account for black women generally being more pro‐life. Notes, also, that respondents with higher levels of education were more pro‐choice. Refers to a particular legal decision on abortion, which, it was thought, had prompted a pro‐choice attitude, but finds that this is not actually the case.

Due to limited resources available for leadership development programming at colleges and universities, there is a need to better understand the leadership attitudes and beliefs of incoming first-year students in order to most efficiently develop effective leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership attitudes and beliefs of incoming first-year college students within the context of ecological leadership in order to determine if gender or ethnic differences in the leadership attitudes and beliefs exist. Implications for leadership development programs are discussed.

The diffusion of innovations paradigm suggests that stakeholders’ acceptance of a police innovation shapes how it spreads and impacts the larger criminal justice system. A lack of support by external stakeholders for police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can short-circuit their intended benefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of BWCs among non-police stakeholders who are impacted by the technology as well as how BWCs influence their daily work processes.

The authors conducted interviews and focus groups (n=41) in two US cities where the police department implemented BWCs. The interviewees range from courtroom actors (e.g. judges, prosecutors) to those who work with police in the field (e.g. fire and mental health), city leaders, civilian oversight members, and victim advocates.

External stakeholders are highly supportive of the new technology. Within the diffusion of innovations framework, this support suggests that the adoption of BWCs will continue. However, the authors also found the decision to implement BWCs carries unique consequences for external stakeholders, implying that a comprehensive planning process that takes into account the views of all stakeholders is critical.

Despite the recent diffusion of BWCs in policing, this is the first study to examine the perceptions of external stakeholders. More broadly, few criminologists have applied the diffusion of innovations framework to understand how technologies and other changes emerge and take hold in the criminal justice system. This study sheds light on the spread of BWCs within this framework and offers insights on their continued impact and consequences.

The purpose of this study is to review and summarise the existing available literature on lightweight cladding systems to provide detailed information on fire behaviour (ignitibility, heat release rate and smoke toxicity) and various test method protocols. Additionally, the paper discusses the challenges and provides updated knowledge and recommendation on selective-fire mechanisms such as rapid-fire spread, air cavity and fire re-entry behaviours due to dripping and melting of lightweight composite claddings.

A comprehensive literature review on fire behaviour, fire hazard and testing methods of lightweight composite claddings has been conducted in this research. In summarising all possible fire hazards, particular attention is given to the potential impact of toxicity of lightweight cladding fires. In addition, various criteria for fire performance evaluation of lightweight composite claddings are also highlighted. These evaluations are generally categorised as small-, intermediate- and large-scale test methods.

The major challenges of lightweight claddings are rapid fire spread, smoke production and toxicity and inconsistency in fire testing.

The review highlights the current challenges in cladding fire, smoke toxicity, testing system and regulation to provide some research recommendations to address the identified challenges.

The development of new, inexpensive, robust and miniaturised sensors is continuously being sought and it is believed that thick‐film technology can help to achieve these goals. A strain sensor utilising the piezoresistive properties of thick‐film resistors is described here. Characterisation of the sensing element has revealed that the gauge factor is significantly higher than that of metal foil strain gauges and the temperature coefficients are generally lower than those found for semiconductor strain gauges. Results show how the gauge factor can be optimised by varying the production parameters.

This paper examines the price setting behaviour over time and space in the Athens residential market. In periods of house price inflation asking prices are often based upon the last observed highest selling price achieved for a similar property in the same micro-location. However, in a falling market, prices may be rigid downwards and less sensitive to the most recent transaction prices, weakening spatial effects. Furthermore, the paper considers whether future price expectations affect price setting behaviour.

The paper employs a dataset of approximately 24,500 property values from 2007 until 2014 in Athens incorporating characteristics and locational variables. The authors begin by estimating a baseline hedonic price model using property characteristics, neighbourhood amenities and location effects. Following this, a spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR) model is estimated. Running separate models, the authors account for spatial dependence from historic valuations, contemporaneous peer effects and expectations effects.

The initial STAR model shows significant spatial and temporal effects, the former remaining important in a falling market contrasting with previous literature findings. In the second STAR model, whilst past sales effects remain significant although smaller, contemporaneous and price expectations effects are also found to be significant, the latter capturing anchoring and slow adjustment heuristics in price setting behaviour.

As valuations used in the database are based upon comparable sales, then in the recessionary periods covered in the dataset, finding comparables may have become more difficult, and hence this, in turn, may have impacted on valuation accuracy.

In addition to past effects, contemporaneous transactions and expected future values need to be taken in consideration in analysing spatial interactions in housing markets. These factors will influence housing markets in different cities and countries.

The information content of property valuations should more carefully consider the relative importance of different components of asking prices.

This is the first paper to use transactions data over a period of falling house prices in Athens and to consider current and future values in addition to past values in a spatio-temporal context.

I ENTERED the literary world late in the immediate post‐war years when changes of literary taste and loyalty were already in the air. The first broadcast I gave was, I remember, an attack upon Virginia Woolf. Her books had nurtured me as an adolescent, and I was in reaction against her influence.