15 years later: Post 9/11 support for increased security and criminalizing muslims

Islamophobia appears to be growing, becoming a mainstream ideology in the United States. Despite the current spike in anti-Islamic sentiment and fear of the Islamic “other,” these ideas are not new and can be traced back to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Using survey data collected only months after the attacks (N = 422), this study uses an integrated threat framework to examine predictors of public support for increased security in the United States. The results show that perceived personal threat and support for policies that criminalize Muslims predict support for security policies that compromise civil liberties. This is especially true among older individuals, conservatives, individuals less inclined towards individual freedom, and those living in the Northeast or in the South.     

Inhabiting the Ruins of Neoliberalism: Space,Catastrophe and Utopia

Law and Critique - In Robinson in Ruins, the third of Patrick Keiller’s trilogy of fictionalised documentaries concerning the wanderings and speculations of an unseen protagonist, the...     

A study on the effects of degradation and template concentration on the amplification efficiency of the STR Miniplex primer sets

In forensic DNA analysis, the samples recovered from the crime scene are often highly degraded leading to poor PCR amplification of the larger sized STR loci. To avoid this problem, we have developed STR markers with redesigned primer sequences called "Miniplexes" to produce smaller amplicons. To assess the effectiveness of these kits, we have tested these primer sets with enzymatically degraded DNA and compared the amplifications to a commercial kit. We also conducted sensitivity and peak balance studies of three Miniplex sets. Lastly, we report a case study on two human skeletal remain samples collected from different environmental conditions. In both types of degraded DNA, the Miniplex primer sets were capable of producing more complete profiles when compared to the larger sized amplicons from the commercial kit. Correct genotypes were obtained at template concentrations as low as 31 pg/25 microL. Overall, our data confirm that our redesigned primers can increase the probability of obtaining a usable profile in situations where standard kits fail.     

Forensic value of 14 novel STRs on the human Y chromosome

We identified and characterized 14 novel short-tandem-repeats (STRs) on the Y chromosome and typed them in two samples, a globally diverse panel of 73 cell lines, and 148 individuals from a European-American population. These Y-STRs include eight tetranucleotide repeats (DYS449, DYS453, DYS454, DYS455, DYS456, DYS458, DYS459, and DYS464), five pentanucleotide repeats (DYS446, DYS447, DYS450, DYS452, and DYS463), and one hexanucleotide repeat (DYS448). Sequence data were obtained to designate a repeat number nomenclature. The gene diversities of an additional 22 Y-STRs, including the most commonly used in forensic databases, were directly compared in the cell line DNAs. Six of the 10 most polymorphic markers include the newly identified Y-STRs. Furthermore, these novel Y-STRs greatly improved the resolution of paternal lineages, above the level obtained with commonly used Y-STRs, in the European-American population.     

FISCAL STRESS AND HEALTH POLICY IN THE A.C.T.*

Abstract: Since 1981, the financing of the‘ ACT has been subject to five inquiries by the Commonwealth Grants Commission. These inquiries have incorporated the ACT into the fiscal equalisation process between Australian states and territories. and have significantly affected the ACT'S general revenue grants from the commonwealth. The inquiries produced evidence of generous commonwealth funding of the ACT compared with the other states. This funding has given rise to “over-spending” on service provision by the ACT government. The ACT government is not currently responsible for all identified “over-spending”. being buffered to some extent by transitional allowances recommended by the Grants Commission. The ACT government is, however, experiencing fiscal stress for the “overspending” for which it is responsible. This stress is expected to increase in the future as the ACT government comes to bear the full burden of all “overspending”. A significant cause of the “over-spending” identified by the Grants Commission was health services expenditure. This situation has raised a number of interesting questions. Is the “overspending” on health a conscious policy decision to produce a higher quantity/quality combination of health services in the ACT? Or does it represent inefficiency? What policy options are appropriate in view of the “over-spending” on health? This paper addresses these questions using data from the Grants Commission inquiries and a recently released study of hospital utilisation and costs in Australia. It is concluded that, at least with respect to public hospitals in the ACT. excessive stafting is the primary cause of “over-spending”. There is little evidence to support an argument that this “over-spending” is resulting in superior health outcomes for ACT citizens.     

Who is afraid of success? And why?

This study was designed to facilitate understanding of different forms and expressions of Fear of Success. It had four specific aims: (1) to test for Fear of Success in response to a semiprojective measure among Israeli pupils in their last year in high school, (2) to test for developmental trends in this variable, (3) to investigate whether disadvantaged pupils also express Fear of Success, and (4) to investigate more overt expressions of negative attitudes toward success. The sample was comprised of 391 subjects of two age groups (13 and 17), two social classes (advantaged and disadvantaged), and both sexes. The results replicated Horner's findings in that advantaged girls in high school scored higher on projective Fear of Success than advantaged boys. However, in elementary school both scored low. A novel finding was that disadvantaged pupils of both sexes scored high on Fear of Success in high school. Subgroups scoring high on projective Fear of Success also revealed a variety of negative attitudes toward success in response to the overt measures. Analysis of the results suggested that Fear of Success is a complex phenomenon which may take different forms involving various kinds of cultural expectations and different degrees of conflict.Fields of interest are moral and political development and education, alternative frameworks in education, creativity.Received his Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Fields of interest are motivation, moral development.     

National Competition Policy: The Downside

Identifying the ‘downside’ of competition policy raises the question of whether there is an ‘up-side’. Competition is supposed to drive the organisers of commodity production to minimise the costs they have to bear in some short to medium term, within environments more or less circumscribed by government regulations. The actual period tends to be that for which the providers of finance are prepared to wait for returns after a poorly performing company is restructured. Economists used to say that cost minimisation requires an industry structure in which there are many independent producers. Nowadays, more enlightened writers speak of ensuring that the market positions held by existing producers are contestable by prospective new producers. The question of what government in Australia may do to establish competition in this sense of competition has recently focussed on the desirable re-organisation of public enterprises, perhaps especially those that exist at the level of the states. So what are the dimensions of the ‘downside’ of opening the market positions occupied by public enterprises to contestation by private companies, especially those which are monopolies? The answer takes a large measure of the gloss off the Hilmer promises. The problems to be addressed are: the limit put on contestability where there is an element of natural monopoly; the tendency for cost minimisation to depend on the tighter management of labour; and, the difficulty of insisting simultaneously on both ‘competition’ and the satisfaction of ‘community service obligations’ (CSOs).