State Environmental Policies: Analyzing Green Building Mandates

This research addresses state requirements that public facilities be constructed as “green buildings” that promote environmental friendly, energy efficient, and healthy workplaces. We consider state choices to adopt green building mandates and the form of their policy enactment. In considering the way that low salience issues like green buildings get on state agendas and the circumstances under which governors decide to engage the issue, we extend William Gormley's (1986) depiction of “board room” regulatory politics. State energy agencies provide an attention‐focusing role while governors behave strategically in deciding whether to issue executive orders about green buildings. This research adds to the growing understanding of states as innovators in aspects of environmental policy not normally subject to state regulation.     

Parental Cultural Affiliation and Youth Mental Health Service Use

Studies indicate that African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Latino youth have higher rates of unmet mental health needs and lower rates of mental health service utilization compared to non-Hispanic White youth, suggesting that obstacles may exist in the help-seeking and service utilization pathway for minority youth. Parental cultural factors may significantly impact youth service use, and acculturation is one way to measure adherence to culture specific values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. In this study, parental acculturation level, conceptualized as cultural affinity to 1) mainstream American culture and 2) an alternative culture, were examined as potential mediators of the relationship between race/ethnicity and youth service use. The current subsample (n=1364) was drawn from the Patterns of Care study, a larger study of at-risk youth who were active to at least one of five public sectors of care. Our subsample included all youth aged 6–17 who were African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, or Non-Hispanic Whites (66.6% male). The results indicate that parental acculturation level as measured by affinity to an Alternative Culture was a partial mediator in the relationship between race/ethnicity and mental health service use for Asian/Pacific Islander and Latino youth. Doctoral student in the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court, Suite 100, San Diego CA, graduate research assistant, Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Children’s Hospital, San Diego, 3020 Children’s Way (MC 5033), San Diego, CA 92123 Assistant Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University; Assistant Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, Research Scientist, Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, San Diego, 3020 Children’s Way (MC 5033), San Diego, CA 92123 Research Scientist, Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Children’s Hospital, San Diego, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of San Diego; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, 3020 Children’s Way (MC 5033), San Diego, CA 92123 Research Professor of Psychiatry and Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; Emeritus Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University; Senior Research Scientist at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Children’s Hospital, San Diego, 3020 Children’s Way (MC 5033), San Diego, CA 92123     

Corporate autonomy and institutional control: The crown corporation as a problem in organization design

Abstract: A central issue in the government-crown corporation decision-making relationship is the balance between corporate autonomy and institutional control. This study investigates the effects of organization designs on the balancing of autonomy and control in practice, taking account of the incentives and strategic behaviour of the relevant actors. Politicians, for example, seek to maximize their own political support, crown corporation executives their own autonomy, and bureaucratic officials within central agencies their own policy influence. Three positive approximations of normative models of organization design models are investigated in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Each design establishes different “rules of the game” and offers different advantages. Alberta practice most closely approximates a “self-contained” design in which corporate actors have the information advantage and are most closely able to achieve their own objective. In Manitoba, where practice most closely approximated a “vertical information systems” design, central bureaucratic monitoring agents had the information advantage and were most closely able to achieve their own objective. Saskatchewan practice most closely approximates a “lateral relations” design. Neither corporate nor bureaucratic actors have an enduring information advantage or are more able than the other to achieve their own objective. The relative “efficiency” of these crown corporation organization designs is not known. But they do yield qualitatively different balancing outcomes. Determinations can be made, quite simply, in terms of who is “winning” the crown corporation “game.” Sommaire: L'un des aspects fondamentaux à considérer dans les rapports décisionnels entre les sociétés de la Couronne et le gouvernement est l'équilibre qui existe entre l'autonomie des sociétés et le contrble institutionnel. Plutôt que de spéculer sur le caractère optimal des divers modes organisationnels qui peuvent théoriquement servir à structurer de tels rapports, cette étude considkre leurs effets sur l'equilibre autonomie-contrble, d'un point de vue pratique, en tenant compte des comportements stratégiques et des incitations des différents intervenants. Ainsi, les politiciens cherchent à maximiser l'appui politique dont ils jouissent; les dirigeants des sociétés de la Couronne, eux, cherchent à défendre leur autonomie; de leur côte, les fonctionnaires des organismes cen-traux souhaitent protéger leur influence sur les politiques. Les auteurs se penchent sur trois modèles normatifs de concepts organisationnels en Alberta, au Manitoba et en Saskatchewan. Chaque modèle établit des «règles du jew» différentes et offre des avantages particuliers, en termes de ressources stratégiques d'in-formation pour les trois groupes d'intervenants. La répartition des avantages en matière d'information régit les comportements d'optimisation des intervenants, les amenant à différents résultats en termes d'équilibre entre I'autonomie des sociétés et le contrôle institutionnel. La pratique en Alberta s'apparente plus à un modêle d'autonomie où les intervenants des sociétés de la Couronne ont I'avantage sur le plan de l'information, ce qui leur permet de mieux parvenir à leurs propres objectifs. L'autonomie des sociétés I'emporte alors sur le contrôle des institutions. Au Manitoba, où la pratique se rapproche d'un modèle d'information médicale, les agents de surveillance des organismes centraux ont I'avantage et sont donc en mesure de mieux parvenir à leurs propres objectifs. Le contrôle des institutions I'emporte alors sur l'autonomie des sociétés de la Couronne. En Saskatchewan, le modèle s'approche de celui des «relations latérdes». Ni les intervenants des sociétés, ni les bureaucrates n'ont un avantage durable sur le plan de I'information de sorte que ni les uns ni les autres ne sont donc en mesure de mieux atteindre leurs propres objectifs. I1 en résulte éventuellement un équilibre entre l'autonomie des sociétés de la Couronne et le contrôle des institutions. L'on ignore I'eficacité relative de ces différents modèles organisationnels, mais I'on sait qu'ils ont pour résultat un équilibre différent. L'on peut donc, fort simplement, déterminer qui «gagne» au «jeu» des sociétés de la Couronne.     

Formulating disaster relief when needs are unknown.

As in most cases of natural disasters, relief needs arising out of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruptions in May 1980 were greatly overestimated. Technical, bureaucratic, and political considerations all contribute to the upward bias in such cases. The errors in early estimates of relief needs can be reduced by systematic means. But more important than obtaining good early estimates is maintaining an effective control over actual disaster relief expenditures. As it turns out, the more effective systems of control usually go hand in hand with poorer early estimates, creating a dilemma for the management for disaster relief.     

Optimisation of cellular DNA recovery from tape-lifts

Adhesive tape-lifts are a commonly used technique for the recovery of DNA from forensic exhibits. Examination of large forensic exhibits or tape-lifts from old “cold” cases can make the direct submission of the tapes for extraction difficult. By applying a swab loaded with an organic solvent to the tape-lift, any DNA bound to the tape can be transferred and concentrated on to the swab head. Whilst removing any DNA, the tape's glue adhesive is also transferred. This requires a modified extraction technique that can dissolve the adhesive whilst maintaining the integrity of any DNA. Of several solvents tested, xylene was shown to be the solvent of choice, efficiently removing the adhesive and any bound DNA. A modified chelex extraction method, again incorporating xylene, provided optimal conditions for dissolving the adhesive and releasing the DNA for lysis.     

Humanitarianism from the Suburbs: Australian Refugee Relief and Activism during the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation War

The Bangladesh Liberation War against West Pakistan in 1971 triggered an exodus of ten million refugees, the deaths of approximately 1.5 million people and widespread destruction of villages, crops and infrastructure. Preoccupied with the Cold War and domestic politics, powerful nations such as the US and UK did not intervene directly and reluctantly provided aid. The Australian government, for its part, was particularly slow to offer aid, trailing efforts of New Zealand and most Western European governments. While the McMahon administration remained indifferent, Australians from diverse backgrounds engaged with this conflict by raising public awareness, fundraising and lobbying the Australian government to increase its aid contribution to Bangladeshis displaced by war. At a time when Australian government policies focused on the war in Indo‐China, Cold War politics and development in south‐east Asia and the south Pacific, I consider the ways Australian individuals offered aid to Asian, non‐Christian refugees, some of whom held Maoist views. Using archival materials, historical newspapers and census data, this article argues that, paradoxically, it was individuals with little political capital who spearheaded Australian efforts to aid Bangladeshi refugees. In short, the Bangladesh Liberation War provoked a groundswell of suburban activism that acted independently of government policies.     

Multinational Corporations in World Development: 40 years on

In light of the 2014 Ecuador-sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council to examine the link between Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, in this paper I review the first major discussion at the United Nations of the role of multinational corporations. The report on Multinational Corporations in World Development (1973) for the UN Department of Economic and Social affair launched the (then) new UN Centre on Transnational Corporations. I examine the report in some detail, compare and contrast this with the Ecuadorian resolution from 2014, and reflect on the continuities and changes in attempts to regulate the conduct of global corporations over the 40 years between these two moments.     

Patterns of Dating Violence Victimization and Perpetration among Latino Youth

Theory and research suggest that there may be significant heterogeneity in the development, manifestation, and consequences of adolescent dating violence that is not yet well understood. The current study contributed to our understanding of this heterogeneity by identifying distinct patterns of involvement in psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence victimization and perpetration in a sample of Latino youth (n?=?201; M?=?13.87 years; 42% male), a group that is understudied, growing, and at high risk for involvement in dating violence. Among both boys and girls, latent class analyses identified a three-class solution wherein the largest class demonstrated a low probability of involvement in dating violence across all indices (“uninvolved”; 56% of boys, 64% of girls) and the smallest class demonstrated high probability of involvement in all forms of dating violence except for sexual perpetration among girls and physical perpetration among boys (“multiform aggressive victims”; 10% of boys, 11% of girls). A third class of “psychologically aggressive victims” was identified for which there was a high probability of engaging and experiencing psychological dating violence, but low likelihood of involvement in physical or sexual dating violence (34% of boys, 24% of girls). Cultural (parent acculturation, acculturation conflict), family (conflict and cohesion) and individual (normative beliefs, conflict resolution skills, self-control) risk and protective factors were associated with class membership. Membership in the multiform vs. the uninvolved class was concurrently associated with emotional distress among girls and predicted emotional distress longitudinally among boys. The results contribute to understanding heterogeneity in patterns of involvement in dating violence among Latino youth that may reflect distinct etiological processes.     

Elements of Negativity: Volume and Proportion in Exposure to Negative Advertising

Recent studies contend that negative advertising benefits voters. However, these studies only measure the volume of negativity in campaigns, often relying on survey data on voter behavior coupled with estimates of negative ad exposure. Theories of information processing indicate that the proportion of negativity may yield influences spanning a range of judgments related to candidate construction and voting behavior, yielding effects that are different from the influence of sheer volume. Thus, I argue that the proportion of negativity also has an influence, and that it is likely more often to be detrimental. I examine this claim using survey data and conclude that prevailing accounts of the effects of negative advertising campaigns are underspecified and, as a result, potentially overly optimistic. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.