Considering Knowledge Uptake within a Cycle of Transforming Data,Information, and Knowledge

Knowledge uptake, having decision makers assimilate the ideas of experts, is recognized as an important stimulus to bringing about policy change. This is particularly true in the realm of environmental policymaking, which is characterized by knowledge intensity, complexity, and multifaceted concerns. Using examples from an innovative watershed management organization, this article presents a heuristic for understanding how knowledge uptake occurs within a cycle of organizational reasoning. This cycle is driven by activities that transform data, information, and knowledge and that link specialists with decision makers. The heuristic can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify breaks in the transformation process that impede mandate fulfillment and impair capacity building. Lack of appreciation of the dynamic relationship between data, information and knowledge leads to mistimed and ineffective policy interventions that do not result in the hoped for progress in science intended to underpin policy advances.     

Empirical analysis of the STR profiles resulting from conceptual mixtures

Samples containing DNA from two or more individuals can be difficult to interpret. Even ascertaining the number of contributors can be challenging and associated uncertainties can have dramatic effects on the interpretation of testing results. Using an FBI genotypes dataset, containing complete genotype information from the 13 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) loci for 959 individuals, all possible mixtures of three individuals were exhaustively and empirically computed. Allele sharing between pairs of individuals in the original dataset, a randomized dataset and datasets of generated cousins and siblings was evaluated as were the number of loci that were necessary to reliably deduce the number of contributors present in simulated mixtures of four or less contributors. The relatively small number of alleles detectable at most CODIS loci and the fact that some alleles are likely to be shared between individuals within a population can make the maximum number of different alleles observed at any tested loci an unreliable indicator of the maximum number of contributors to a mixed DNA sample. This analysis does not use other data available from the electropherograms (such as peak height or peak area) to estimate the number of contributors to each mixture. As a result, the study represents a worst case analysis of mixture characterization. Within this dataset, approximately 3% of three-person mixtures would be mischaracterized as two-person mixtures and more than 70% of four-person mixtures would be mischaracterized as two- or three-person mixtures using only the maximum number of alleles observed at any tested locus.     

Risk factors for sexual victimization among male and female homeless and runaway youth

Risk factors associated with the likelihood of being sexually victimized by a stranger or friend/acquaintance since being on the street was examined among 372 homeless and runaway youth. Young people were interviewed on the streets and in shelters by outreach workers using a systematic sampling strategy. Youth who engaged in more high-risk behaviors were expected to be at greater risk for sexual victimization by both known and unknown assailants. Results indicated that for females, running from home for the first time at an earlier age was associated with sexual victimization by both a stranger and friend/acquaintance. However, engaging in deviant subsistence strategies, survival sex, and grooming predicted being sexually victimized by a friend/acquaintance. For males, survival sex and grooming predicted stranger sexual victimization, whereas sexual orientation was associated with sexual victimization by a friend/acquaintance. Overall, 35% of the sample had been sexually victimized.     

Systematic differences in electropherogram peak heights reported by different versions of the GeneScan software

DNA profiling using STRs on the 310 and 3100 Genetic Analyzers routinely generates electropherograms that are analyzed with the GeneScan software available from the instrument's manufacturer, Applied Biosystems. Users have been able to choose from three different smoothing options that have been known to result in significant differences in the peak heights that are reported. Improvements in the underlying algorithm of the most recent version of the software also result in significant and somewhat predictable differences in peak height values. Laboratories that have performed validation studies using older versions of GeneScan should either reanalyze the data generated in those validation studies with the newest version of the software or otherwise take into consideration the systematically higher peak height values obtained as they begin following the recommendation of the manufacturer and use the new algorithm.     

农村村民自治的理论溯源

有学者认为,村民自治作为一种"基层群众性自治",无论是在马恩列斯著作中,还是在毛泽东全集里,均找不到它的理论源头.本文作者认为,马克思主义经典作家提出的人民自治理论和毛泽东大力发展农村民主建设的思想,为我国实行村民自治提供了重要的理论依据.同时,村民自治又是当代中国领导人根据中国国情所进行的巨大理论创新,是马克思主义人民自治理论在中国的新发展.     

社区戒毒模式研究——基于多元整合视角的实证分析

吸毒人群的戒毒问题是一个世界性难题，是一个多元干预手段环环相扣的综合性问题，因此，对吸毒人群戒毒的干预、康复和矫治工作，关键是将关沙酮社区维持治疗（生理）、人格重塑、提升吸毒人群拒绝毒品的自我效能感（心理）、家庭治疗（家庭支持）和社区戒毒、帮教（禁毒社会工作者帮扶）相结合，使每个环节无缝连接，才有可能从根本上帮助吸毒人群戒除毒瘾。因此，本研究就是要对“生理——心理——社会”的综合性干预模式的可行性、有效性进行评估。本研究基于笔者在南京市关沙酮维持治疗中心完成的300份问卷调查和南京市秦淮区187位社区戒毒人员的问卷调查；基于对14位秦淮区禁毒社工，10位戒毒人员家属的个案访谈而开展。     

在趋同发展中保持政治特色是民主党派存在和发展的价值所在

政党制度是现代民主政治的重要组成部分。随着我国多党合作事业的不断发展,一方面,民主党派与中国共产党在政治基础、政治原则、政治目标上越来越趋于一致;另一方面,各民主党派之间在社会基础、成员构成、政治取向、参政内容、活动方式上的差别越来越小。在新世纪新阶段、面临新任务的情况下,应该对趋同问题加以认真思考和研究。     

国内武装冲突中的战争犯罪审判问题研究

针对国内武装冲突中的战争犯罪行为,国家立法机关应当提供必要的惩处依据。我国现行刑法、刑事诉讼法和人民法院组织法尚不能适应追究这类犯罪的客观需要。建议通过法律修正案或单行法规的形式,尽快完善相关的实体法、程序法和组织法,促进中国特色社会主义法律体系的健全发展,为军事斗争准备提供必要的法律保障。