Some observations on humor and laughter in young adolescent girls

Some of the functions of humor and laughter in two groups of young adolescent girls were studied. When humor was successful and giggling and laughter a pleasureful release, the material, spontaneous talk and jokes, resonated with current developmental tasks. Among them were those dealing with bodily changes, early relationships with boys, disguised masturbatory wishes, and ambivalent feelings toward mothers. Some cognitive aspects of joking are examined. Humor worked when frightening words could be reduced to familiar or diminutive ones. Humor failed when content was too grownup: when the subject matter stimulated frightening fantasies of male penetration and damage and frightening images of the mature female body or fears of punishment.Received Master's degree in social science at the University of Chicago and Master's degree in psychiatric social work at Adelphi University. Was a supervisor and teacher of psychiatric residents and psychiatric social workers from 1955 to 1974 in the Adolescent Mental Hygiene Clinic of the Bronx Muncipal Hospital and director of the School Consultation Program sponsored by the Department of Child Psychiatry. Has had a long-time research and clinical interest in the borderline adolescent and, in addition, is interested in the interplay of psychiatry, mythology, and archeology.     

An updated validation of Promega's PowerPlex 16 System: high throughput databasing under reduced PCR volume conditions on Applied Biosystem's 96 capillary 3730xl DNA Analyzer

The PowerPlex 16 System from Promega Corporation allows single tube multiplex amplification of sixteen short tandem repeat (STR) loci including all 13 core combined DNA index system STRs. This report presents an updated validation of the PowerPlex 16 System on Applied Biosystem's 96 capillary 3730xl DNA Analyzer. The validation protocol developed in our laboratory allows for the analysis of 1536 loci (96 x 16) in c. 50 min. We have further optimized the assay by decreasing the reaction volume to one-quarter that recommended by the manufacturer thereby substantially reducing the total cost per sample without compromising reproducibility or specificity. This reduction in reaction volume has the ancillary benefit of dramatically increasing the sensitivity of the assay allowing for accurate analysis of lower quantities of DNA. Due to its substantially increased throughput capability, this extended validation of the PowerPlex 16 System should be useful in reducing the backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples currently facing public DNA forensic laboratories.     

Security Intelligence in the Middle East (SIME): Joint Security Intelligence Operations in the Middle East,c. 1939–58

Security Intelligence Middle East (SIME) remains an understudied aspect of British intelligence. In many respects it was a remarkable organization. Its wartime iteration was created in haste, ostensibly as a military body but based upon the Security Service's office in Cairo. It evolved into a truly ‘joint’ unit but culturally was closer to the Security Service (MI5) than either the military or the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). SIME changed dramatically as a result of the end of the Second World War: it became the sole responsibility of MI5; local cooperation between MI5 and MI6 was scaled-down and became the focal point of a broader inter-intelligence service dispute in London; and new nationalist threats caught SIME off-balance and eventually undermined its raison d'être. SIME's contrasting wartime and peacetime iterations provide a useful example of how intelligence agencies respond to external pressures. It also provides a window into wider jurisdictional and constitutional conflicts at the heart of the relationship between MI5 and MI6, both during and after the war. Finally SIME shows practitioners what can be achieved under the right stimulus and what can be lost when that stimulus fades.     

Global climate security governance: a case of institutional and ideational fragmentation

In recent years climate change has become integrated into pre-existing, but fragmented structures of global security governance. In this article I argue that while institutional fragmentation of global climate security governance is not automatically problematic, the phenomenon of ideational fragmentation that often goes with it is highly disadvantageous to achieving climate security for people. This is because the preferences of a diverse group of security organisations/actors (in this article the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the European Union and the United States/Pentagon) are often vastly removed from the global agenda set by the United Nations and its expressed preference for understanding climate security in terms of human security. I suggest that the first step towards overcoming ideational fragmentation would have to be the advancement of a universal definition of climate security by an authoritative source, however, given that security is for many actors a matter of perception the chances of overcoming ideational fragmentation are slim.     

TRENDS IN THE LOGIC OF POLICY INQUIRY: A COMPARISON OF APPROACHES AND A COMMENTARY

This paper provides an overview of trends in the logic of policy inquiry. It compares Harold Lasswell's view of the policy sciences with the applied social science approach articulated by James Coleman and revised into multiplism by Thomas Cook. Alternative approaches presented by Trudi Miller (design science) and Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Cuba (naturalistic inquiry) are also examined. Commonalities existing among them are identified.     

Colonization to co‐operation? French technical assistance in Senegal

Too often manpower aid planners treat the input of expert personnel and their knowledge as if it would have a reasonably calculable output and positive effect on development, however vaguely defined. This article suggests the limitations of such an approach by examining the French programme in Senegal, which in 1971 included more than 1,200 technical assistants in education and the administration. It concentrates chiefly on technical assistants serving as advisors in the administration where their impact lies above all in the continuation of structures and attitudes derived from the colonial period and afterwards. It examines the ambiguity of the role of the technical assistant in the context of local organization, emphasizing the importance which his authority and experience assume while working within an inefficient administrative structure. Tracing the consequences of this, it is possible to discern the elements of an expatriate ‘administration within an administration’.

While such a phenomenon may not be so obvious elsewhere, it seems pertinent to take a critical look at technical assistance activity in the context of ever expanding unemployment and inefficient bureaucratic structures in Africa, and possibly elsewhere.