DNA typing in populations of mule deer for forensic use in the Province of Alberta

The present study involves the development of forensic DNA typing tests and databases for mule deer in the Province of Alberta. Two multiplex PCR reactions interrogating 10 loci were used to analyze samples from three populations of mule deer. Additionally, an amelogenin based sex-typing marker was used to determine the gender of samples. Results show that the tests and databases are appropriate for use in forensic applications. Additionally, the results indicate that there is little population structure in mule deer in Alberta and that no changes to management of this game species are suggested.     

The INSPIRE Framework: How Public Administrators Can Increase Compliance with Written Requests Using Behavioral Techniques

Public administrators rely on written communications to send information to citizens and stakeholders, and they are among the heaviest users of the postal service. Behavioral science research has identified several techniques that public administrators can use to increase compliance with written requests and, in turn, increase effectiveness. Currently, however, many written communications from government bodies are not written in a manner that utilizes these techniques. It remains an ongoing challenge for public administrators to identify, understand, and use these techniques in the written communications sent by their organizations. This article presents a framework capturing seven prominent techniques in a simple mnemonic—INSPIRE—that is already being used by several government bodies in Australia. It also provides practical examples of how to use each technique and demonstrates that using these techniques could result in large aggregate improvements in effectiveness and socially desirable outcomes of public administrators' written communications.     

The Women's Charter: American Communists and the Equal Rights Amendment debate

The American Communist Party (CPUSA) opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), arguing that it failed to ameliorate class and racial inequality. In 1936 the CPUSA participated in the Women's Charter campaign, an alternative to the ERA crafted to protect labor legislation. This article argues that the Charter campaign and the CPUSA's opposition to the ERA demonstrate class-based visions of equality that amalgamated race and gender into the class struggle and highlights disagreements among women's rights activists about how to define women's equality. These disagreements prevented a unified single-issue women's movement after 1920.     

The White House as a Black Box: Oral History and the Problem of Evidence in Presidential Studies

Scholars who study the American presidency usually have to rely on indirect evidence for understanding the internal operations of the 'black box' that is a contemporaneous White House. Most of the direct evidence about White House behavior becomes available only after a president has left office, when confidential communications are opened to the public by the presidential libraries. In recent years, however, such direct evidence has become increasingly inaccessible, because of changes in the record-keeping habits of senior executive branch officials and because of the politics of archival release. This article explores the nature and extent of these problems, and how elite oral history interviewing can compensate for them. It further examines the strengths and weaknesses of oral history as a means of learning about the usually hidden workings of the American presidency.     

"NOT A DEPARTMENTAL STATEMENT": A CASE STUDY OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF TAFE 1978–84

Abstract: This paper traces the background to the 1979 and 1984 equal opportunity policy statements in the South Australian Department of TAFE. It documents the process of policy development and planning for implementation and, through an examination of the content of each statement, evaluates the intentions of the authors. It concludes that there is little evidence of commitment at political and bureaucratic levels to deal with the issues the policies sought to address. By use of documents produced within the department at the time, the paper traces resistance to external pressures for change and failure to establish a firm and realistic program for policy implementation.     

STATE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SURFACE MINING CONTROL AND RECLAMATION ACT OF 1977

The implementation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 in coal producing states is guided by a partial preemption policy approach t h a t establishes a balance between federal and state decision-making authority. The usefulness of this approach is assessed by analyzing state enforcement actions in relation the institutional capacity of states to shoulder regulatory responsibilities and the propensity of the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) t o oversee state enforcement actions and, if necessary, to undertake corrective action. Our results indicated that state administration of SMCRA was canstrained by the lack of effective federal oversight but was largely unaffected by interstate differences in political, economic, or administrative characteristics.