Responding to Systemic Crisis: The Case of Agroterrorism

The post–11 September security environment has led to a reevaluation of the nature of national security and national security systems. Bioterrorism in the form of attacks against the agricultural sector, particularly in the form of foot-and-mouth disease, could prove attractive to some groups should other targets and means of attack become more difficult. This article considers three cases, one of bioterrorism and two of agricultural disease outbreaks. Using complex adaptive system principles it suggests a strategy and socio-technical system design, adaptive hardening, appropriate to the challenge posed by terrorist-induced foot-and-mouth disease.     

The interpersonal voice: applying appraisal to the rap and sung voice

Following in the traditions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics, this paper applies the linguistic system of appraisal to the mode of sound. More specifically, it aims to describe and compare the interpersonal properties of the rap and sung performance voices. In doing so, this paper also aims to provide analysts with a systematic, principled method by which to identifying interpersonal meanings in sound. Drawing on various aspects of the appraisal framework, and the respective sound features of the rap and sung voice, this paper offers three approaches. The first approach employs the grammatical frames used to classify the attitude sub-systems of affect, judgment, and appreciation. The second approach is more general in scope and analogizes from the sound systems of melody, time, and voice quality to the appraisal systems of attitude, engagement, and graduation, respectively. The third approach applies the concept of binding to the distinctive sounds of the rap and sung voice. The paper concludes by considering some future directions for this research.     

The National Assembly for Wales, Civil Society and Consultation

The National Assembly for Wales has been serious in its statutory commitment to involve voluntary groups in the decision-making process of state and has developed a number of sophisticated mechanisms by which civil society groups can link into policymaking, one of which is the consultation process. Drawing on original research this article investigates consultation from the perspective of those involved in a range of voluntary activities. Evidence offered here suggests that whilst many groups have engaged in the process of consultation, the experience is not uniform but patchy, with many groups left feeling frustrated rather than truly consulted.     

Not Ozzie and Harriet: Postwar Divorce and the American Liberal Welfare State

This article analyzes divorce as a technology of governance in twentieth-century America in order to examine the emergence of a rights-based liberal welfare-state regime during the postwar era. The author offers an interpretation of the post–World War II "divorce boom" that challenges prevailing notions of postwar domestic tranquillity and highlights the legal formalization of family relations and the administration of the developing welfare state. The article posits an important shift in postwar public policy regarding divorce from the policing of public morality through family preservation to the regulation of public welfare through family structures. The legal consequences of this shift are explored at the local level by focusing on the "problem" of the Chicago divorce courts and the frustrated attempts of postwar reformers in Illinois to employ the traditional methods and rhetoric of Progressive Era reform. At the national level, the author examines the formulation of new governmental objectives and individual rights in the liberal welfare-state regime through an analysis of the United States Supreme Court's'decisions regarding migratory divorce.     

An assessment of the effectiveness of 5-methylthioninhydrin within dual action reagents for latent fingerprint development on paper substrates

A critical investigation of 5-methylthioninhydrin (5MTN) is presented as a 'dual action' formulation component for the development of latent finger marks on paper substrates. Preparation of a dual action reagent was performed by combining proportions of 5MTN and zinc chloride (ZnCl(2)) in a pre-mixed solution. Developed prints (deposited on filter paper substrates) could be subsequently visualised in both colour and fluorescence modes. Finger mark quality was graded using a quartered print approach for a number of reagent compositions to deliver an optimised formulation recipe. To fully appraise 5MTN in comparison to currently employed chemistries, this reagent was evaluated against three alternative amino acid selective reagents, ninhydrin, 1,8-diazafluorenone (DFO) and 1,2-indandione/ZnCl(2). Six common paper types were used for this purpose and split depletion finger marks from six donors were collected. Finger mark sets were also left for two days or two weeks to show the effect of ageing on development quality. For the first time, it was shown that 5MTN/ZnCl(2) is effective as a 'dual action' reagent under the United Kingdom climate conditions. However, results presented herein show that the existing recommended chemistries and the 1,2 indandione/ZnCl(2) process are all more effective than this new latent finger mark enhancement reagent. In a preliminary sequencing study, we show the effectiveness of the existing DFO-ninhydrin sequence over dual action reagents.     

Ethnicity,Perceived Pubertal Timing,Externalizing Behaviors,and Depressive Symptoms Among Black Adolescent Girls

An accumulation of research evidence suggests that early pubertal timing plays a significant role in girls’ behavioral and emotional problems. If early pubertal timing is a problematic event, then early developing Black girls should manifest evidence of this crisis because they tend to be the earliest to develop compared to other girls from different racial and ethnic groups. Given the inconsistent findings among studies using samples of Black girls, the present study examined the independent influence of perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Black girls (412 African American and 195 Caribbean Black; M = 15 years). Path analysis results indicated that perceived pubertal timing effects on externalizing behaviors were moderated by ethnic subgroup. Caribbean Black girls’ who perceived their development to be early engaged in more externalizing behaviors than Caribbean Black girls’ who perceived their development to be either on-time or late. Age of menarche did not significantly predict Black girls’ externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms. The onset of menarche does not appear to be an important predictor of Black girls’ symptoms of externalizing behavior and depression. These findings suggest ethnic subgroup and perceived pubertal timing are promising factors for better understanding the adverse effects of early perceived pubertal timing among Black girls.