Interpersonal violence in adolescence: ecological correlates of self-reported perpetration

Although growing attention is being paid to the problem of teen dating violence, to date less is known about perpetrators of victimization. The current article used a subset of 980 adolescents aged 11 to 19 who were surveyed as part of a statewide community service coordinated through Cooperative Extension to survey all youth in target communities about risky health behaviors. The current article examined correlates of perpetration of either physical dating violence or sexual abuse across all levels of the ecological model (individual, family, and community factors). At the bivariate level, individual factors including substance use and low social responsibility, family factors including divorce, low parental monitoring, and low social support, and community variables such as low school attachment and neighborhood monitoring were associated with self-reported perpetration. At the multivariate level, gender and history of victimization were most significant in explaining variance in perpetration.     

Multiplex PCR and minisequencing of SNPs--a model with 35 Y chromosome SNPs

We have developed a robust single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) typing assay with co-amplification of 25 DNA-fragments and the detection of 35 human Y chromosome SNPs. The sizes of the PCR products ranged from 79 to 186 base pairs. PCR primers were designed to have a theoretical Tm of 60 +/- 5 degrees C at a salt concentration of 180 mM. The sizes of the primers ranged from 19 to 34 nucleotides. The concentration of amplification primers was adjusted to obtain balanced amounts of PCR products in 8mM MgCl2. For routine purposes, 1 ng of genomic DNA was amplified and the lower limit was approximately 100 pg DNA. The minisequencing reactions were performed simultaneously for all 35 SNPs with fluorescently labelled dideoxynucleotides. The size of the minisequencing primers ranged from 19 to 106 nucleotides. The minisequencing reactions were analysed by capillary electrophoresis and multicolour fluorescence detection. Female DNA did not influence the results of Y chromosome SNP typing when added in concentrations more than 300 times the concentrations of male DNA. The frequencies of the 35 SNPs were determined in 194 male Danes. The gene diversity of the SNPs ranged from 0.01 to 0.5.     

Artificial Intelligence,Forward‐Looking Governance and the Future of Security

Over the last years, AI applications have come to play a role in many security‐related fields. In this paper, we show that scholars who want to study AI’s link to power and security should widen their perspective to include conceptual approaches from science and technology studies (STS). This way, scholars can pay attention to critical dynamics, processes, practices, and non‐traditional actors in AI politics and governance. We introduce two STS‐inspired concepts – the micro‐politics of design and development and co‐production – and show how the study of AI and security could benefit from them. In the final section, we turn to the study of AI in the context of Switzerland to underscore what aspects the two previously introduced concepts help to highlight that remain invisible for traditional approaches.     

The banality of counterterrorism “after,after 9/11”? Perspectives on the Prevent duty from the UK health care sector

Since 2015, the UK healthcare sector sector has (along with education and social care) been responsibilised for noticing signs of radicalisation and reporting patients to the Prevent programme. The Prevent Duty frames the integration of healthcare professionals into the UK’s counterterrorism effort as the banal extension of safeguarding. But safeguarding has previously been framed as the protection of children, and adults with care and support needs, from abuse. This article explores the legitimacy of situating Prevent within safeguarding through interviews with safeguarding experts in six National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups. It also describes the factors which NHS staff identified as indicators of radicalisation – data which was obtained from an online questionnaire completed by 329 health care professionals. The article argues that the “after, after 9/11” era is not radically distinct from earlier periods of counterterrorism but does contain novel features, such as the performance of anticipatory counterterrorism under the rubric of welfare and care.     

Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Developing and Emerging Markets: A Survey of Conceptual,Methodological and Policy Issues,and Selected Empirical Findings

Abstract

Global integration has increased the international linkages of financial markets for emerging market countries. A key channel for the international transmission of inflation and economic cycles is from exchange rate movements to domestic prices, known as exchange rate pass-through (ERPT). This article reviews the conceptual, methodological and policy issues connected with ERPT in emerging market and developing countries, and critically surveys selected empirical studies. A key contribution is to categorise and compare the heterogeneous methodologies used to extract ERPT measures in the empirical literature. Single equation models and systems methods are contrasted; frequent misspecifications that produce unreliable ERPT estimates are highlighted. The discerning policy-maker needs to ascertain by which methods ERPT measures were calculated, the controls and restrictions applied, and the time frame and stability of the estimates.     

Book reviews

Conversations with lillian hellman edited by Jackson R. Bryer‐Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1986, 298 pp. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

PROVINCE OF REASON: AMERICAN LIVES IN A NEW AGE OF SCIENCE by Sam Bass Warner, Jr. Harvard University Press, 1984. (cloth, $20.00)     

SPERM ON ICE

Freezing technologies and extraction techniques make posthumous reproduction possible. This article discusses the bioethical and legal debates that surround the possession and use of dead men's sperm as they unfold in three select cases in Denmark and Australia. In the analysis we use feminist perspectives on reproduction to argue that the debates frame posthumous reproduction in light of four discursive configurations: The ‘child’, the ‘father’, the ‘widow’, and the ‘necrophile’. Whereas the performance of responsibility and maturity is key in the production of the ‘good’ widow in the Australian legal cases, the monstrous figure of the necrophile takes on a more prominent place in the Danish bioethical material. The legal and bioethical debates jointly, however, resurrect the nuclear, patriarchal family, while they also tend to re-naturalise heterosexed, romantic reproductive desire.     

Towards a professional civil service in post‐transition Romania

To what degree and under what conditions can a young democracy build a competent, politically neutral public bureaucracy? A crucial component of the transition from communist party rule to democracy is the creation of a professional civil service. Success along this dimension of state‐building generates administrative capacity: non‐elected public officials ensure the implementation of reforms initiated by political leaders. In the communist party‐led regimes of Eastern Europe, forging this new administrative class from its highly politicised predecessor took place as new democracies sought to overcome historical legacies and integrate with the European Union. A case study of administrative reform in Romania during the post‐1989 period suggests the importance of external influences in forming a civil service more closely adhering to the Weberian ideal of an expert, rules‐based bureaucracy. Through analysis of survey data from a nationally representative sample of the Romanian civil servants, the public bureaucracy has professionalised insofar as educational and training credentials rather than political affiliation are significant predictors of salary levels. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Reconnaissance of Alternative Measures of Effective Property Tax Rates

Informed policy discussions on local property tax reform initiatives require accurate and reliable information about the tax's current use. This paper reviews two popular measures of property tax burden and their limitations. The paper then reports the results of a reconnaissance of measures of effective property tax rates and how they vary across the 50 states. The paper also reports the findings of a 50-state survey that indicates how states calculated and reported effective property tax rates. These comparisons lead to a suggested framework for certain methodologies for calculating effective property tax rates.     

Implementing evidence-based policy in a network setting: road safety policy in the Netherlands

In the early 1990s, in order to improve road safety in The Netherlands, the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) developed an evidence-based "Sustainable Safety" concept. Based on this concept, Dutch road safety policy, was seen as successful and as a best practice in Europe. In The Netherlands, the policy context has now changed from a sectoral policy setting towards a fragmented network in which safety is a facet of other transport-related policies. In this contribution, it is argued that the implementation strategy underlying Sustainable Safety should be aligned with the changed context. In order to explore the adjustments needed, two perspectives of policy implementation are discussed: (1) national evidence-based policies with sectoral implementation; and (2) decentralized negotiation on transport policy in which road safety is but one aspect. We argue that the latter approach matches the characteristics of the newly evolved policy context best, and conclude with recommendations for reformulating the implementation strategy.