Effect of family rupture and recomposition on the children of New France

Using the biographies of nearly 10,000 children born in New France during the seventeenth century, this study looks at the phenomenon of single parenthood from the children's point of view. Since separation and divorce were uncommon during this period, marital disruptions only occurred through the death of one of the partners. In New France, half of all children witnessed the disruption of their parents' marriage before having reached emancipation. The article examines the impact on family characteristics (family size and number of emancipated children), as well as the contribution of age-ranking within the family to the likelihood that the children would live in a reconstituted family.     

When industrial policy shapes public sector reform: Total quality management in Britain and France

Approaches seeking to explain the development of TQM ideas in government are very much ‘business‐centric’. The goal of this article is to show that in reforming the public sector, policy‐makers did not simply follow the lead of the private sector because ‐ in the case of TQM ‐ the private sector was itself, to some extent at least, led by government. In the mid‐1980s, Britain and France launched nationwide ‘quality initiatives’ which provided money for businesses to buy management consulting expertise. Through the implementation of these policies, consultants built channels of communication with the state, and this subsequently opened possibilities for consultants to help transfer TQM ideas from the industrial policy area to the field of public sector reform.     

Do Social Relationships Protect Victimized Children Against Internalizing Problems?

We investigated whether social relationships protect children against the effects of victimization on internalizing problems. We used data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Victimization at age 8 years was associated with internalizing problems at age 9 years. Victims who had siblings, warm parents, and a good relationship with the teacher had less severe internalizing problems than those who did not, providing evidence for a protective effect of social relationships. Friendships with classmates were not found to be protective. Furthermore, social relationships did not protect victims more than nonvictims.     

The use of self-organising maps for anomalous behaviour detection in a digital investigation

The dramatic increase in crime relating to the Internet and computers has caused a growing need for digital forensics. Digital forensic tools have been developed to assist investigators in conducting a proper investigation into digital crimes. In general, the bulk of the digital forensic tools available on the market permit investigators to analyse data that has been gathered from a computer system. However, current state-of-the-art digital forensic tools simply cannot handle large volumes of data in an efficient manner. With the advent of the Internet, many employees have been given access to new and more interesting possibilities via their desktop. Consequently, excessive Internet usage for non-job purposes and even blatant misuse of the Internet have become a problem in many organisations. Since storage media are steadily growing in size, the process of analysing multiple computer systems during a digital investigation can easily consume an enormous amount of time. Identifying a single suspicious computer from a set of candidates can therefore reduce human processing time and monetary costs involved in gathering evidence. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate how, in a digital investigation, digital forensic tools and the self-organising map (SOM)--an unsupervised neural network model--can aid investigators to determine anomalous behaviours (or activities) among employees (or computer systems) in a far more efficient manner. By analysing the different SOMs (one for each computer system), anomalous behaviours are identified and investigators are assisted to conduct the analysis more efficiently. The paper will demonstrate how the easy visualisation of the SOM enhances the ability of the investigators to interpret and explore the data generated by digital forensic tools so as to determine anomalous behaviours.     

Title VII retaliation claims

Section 704(a) protects employees who engage in activity aimed at remedying employment practices they believe to be unlawful. Such activity may take the form of participation in governmental investigations or proceedings, or expressing opposition to an employer's practices through internal complaints to management, circulating petitions among employees, directly challenging an employer's affirmative action plan, etc. As the Ninth Circuit's recent Crown Zellerbach decision demonstrates, employers must proceed with caution before taking disciplinary action against an employee who engages in arguably protected 704(a) activity. The following article discusses employee activity protected by section 704(a) and examines various employer defenses and concerns in a retaliation case.     

Vers une redéfinition de la politique d'achat du Québec

Sommaire: Les marchés publics constituent pour le Gouvernement du Québec un précieux instrument de développement socio-éonomique et un puissant levier dans la réalisation de certains objectifs bien particuliers. Aussi, afin de stimuler et de favoriser le développement de l'économie québécoise, la politique d'achat du Gouvernement du Québec révèle plusieurs mesures préférentielles. Elle tente explicitement de maximiser l'utilisation de produits québécois, de canaliser une part substantielle des achats publics vers les entreprises québécoises. Cette politique d'achat préférentielle a été récemment raffermie et ce, malgré le mouvement international de plus en plus vigoureux visant l'élimination des obstacles à la libre circulation des biens et services. Toutefois, au niveau interprovincial, ce même Gouvernement, dans une volonté d'emboîter le pas et de s'aligner sur l'actuelle tendance à la libéralisation des échanges commerciaux, a spontanément souscrit à l'Accord intergouvernemental sur les marchés du secteur public qui prône l'abolition des barrières au commerce interprovincial. Le Gouvernement du Québec doit désormais tenter de concilier l'existence des principes et objectifs de ces deux textes conflictuels. La présente étude offre une vision globale, suggère un survol de la politique d'achat du Gouvernement du Québec et de son champ d'application, dam le contexte de la libéralisation des échanges commerciaux interprovinciaux. Elle souligne que l'Accord ne sonne pas le glas de la politique d'achat du Québec mais en implique une sérieuse et profonde remise en cause. En effet, la politique d'achat devra nécessairement débouher sur une façon originale d'utiliser les marchés publics tout en s'insérant dans le cadre de l'Accord. Abstract: For the Government of Quebec, public contracts are an invaluable tool for socio-economic development and a powerful lever for the achievement of some quite specific objectives. In order to stimulate and promote the development of the Quebec economy, the purchasing policy of the provincial government involves several preferential measures. It explicitly attempts to maximize the use of Quebec products, and to channel a substantial portion of public purchases to Quebec firms. This preferential purchasing policy has been strengthened recently, in spite of the growing international movement towards eliminating impediments to the free trade of goods and services. However, at the interprovincial level, in order to fall in step and align itself with the present trend towards freer trade, the Government of Quebec spontaneously subscribed to the Intergovernmental Accord on Public Sector Contracts, promoting the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers. The Government of Quebec must now aim to reconcile the principles and objectives of these two conflicting approaches. This study provides an overview and suggests a survey of the provincial government's purchasing policy and its field of application, within the context of the liberalization of interprovincial trade. It stresses that the accord does not negate Quebec's purchasing policy, although it does involve a thorough review of it. Indeed, the purchasing policy must necessarily lead to an original way of using public contracts while still staying within the bounds of the accord.     

Trace Element Analysis of Rough Diamond by LA‐ICP‐MS: A Case of Source Discrimination?*,†

Abstract: Current profiling of rough diamond source is performed using different physical and/or morphological techniques that require strong knowledge and experience in the field. More recently, chemical impurities have been used to discriminate diamond source and with the advance of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) empirical profiling of rough diamonds is possible to some extent. In this study, we present a LA‐ICP‐MS methodology that we developed for analyzing ultra‐trace element impurities in rough diamond for origin determination (“profiling”). Diamonds from two sources were analyzed by LA‐ICP‐MS and were statistically classified by accepted methods. For the two diamond populations analyzed in this study, binomial logistic regression produced a better overall correct classification than linear discriminant analysis. The results suggest that an anticipated matrix match reference material would improve the robustness of our methodology for forensic applications.     

Understanding Multilevel Governance Processes through Complexity Theory: An Empirical Case Study of the Quebec Health-Care System

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of multilevel governance processes. We do so by focusing on the in-depth examination of the institutional changes recently implemented in the Quebec health care delivery system that require a close collaboration between interdependent actors acting at various levels of governance. Our three research questions are: (1) How does multi-level governance emerge in a pluralist institutuional context? (2) How do multi-level governance processes shape the adaptive capacity of the organization to its environment? (3) How does institutional context influence these multi-governance processes?Our empirical investigation is inspired by the theory of complexity which invites us to pay attention to three processes: self-organization, eco-self organization and co-evolution. This study shows that the effectiveness of multi-level governance processes do not only go through the implementation of instruments aiming at aligning the action of lower government levels with the objectives of the upper levels as suggested by numerous existing works. More precisely, it suggests that more distributed and coordinated processes favor a more homogenous form of adaptation (Miller and Page, 2007) taking into account the interdependence between stakeholders.     

The prevalence of mental disorders in a German sample of male incarcerated juvenile offenders

The current study investigated the prevalence of mental disorders among incarcerated juvenile offenders in Germany and sought to identify clinically relevant subgroups. In sum, 149 newly incarcerated male juvenile delinquents (M age = 19 years) were included. Diagnostic tools included the German version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and the Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version. The most prevalent diagnoses in the sample included conduct disorders (81%), Cluster B personality disorders (up to 62%), and substance-related disorders (up to 60%). Moreover, psychopathic features were found among 21% of the participants. Cluster analysis distinguished three subgroups among this group of young offenders. The most problematic consisted of juveniles with multiple psychopathology, including antisocial traits, personality pathology, higher scores on the Psychopathy Checklist, as well as multiple substance abuse. Study outcomes are discussed in light of their implications for the development of effective treatment for juvenile offenders.     

The Co-development of Friends’ Delinquency with Adolescents’ Delinquency and Short-term Mindsets: The Moderating Role of Co-Offending

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has...