A validation study for vinyl electrical tape end matches

Fracture matches are considered the strongest conclusion in the forensic examination of rigid materials, such as glass, metal, and paint. However, publications that support the fracture matching of polymeric films, such as tape backings, are limited. This study was designed to determine the validity and error rate associated with conducting end-match (fracture match) examinations on vinyl electrical tape. Test designs varied the source roll of tape, test preparer, or mode of separation from the roll. Results indicated that each affected the resulting severed tape ends. The analysts examining the end matches also had an effect on the results. Eight end matches in the study were not identified by the initial analysts and were considered inconclusive. One end match was misidentified, resulting in one false positive and an error rate of 0.049%. These results support a comprehensive physical and chemical tape comparison regardless of indications of an end match.     

Interpersonal violence as social construction: the potentially undermining role of claims making and advocacy statistics

The relationship between empirical research inquiry and advocacy efforts is complex and seldom addressed in the interpersonal violence literature. In this article, we first examine how social conditions come to be seen as social problems, using a social constructionist perspective. Next, we focus specifically on the problem of interpersonal violence as viewed through a social constructionist lens, highlighting the many ways in which advocacy has influenced public perceptions of interpersonal violence as a social problem. Finally, this article considers some of the consequences that may result from exaggerated or misleading claims, especially when they are made by social scientists who are presumably engaged in an objective discussion of a problem. These consequences include generating skepticism toward the social sciences, feeding a backlash movement, and diverting attention away from the most severe forms of interpersonal violence. Contrary to the goals of many advocates, some of these consequences may be detrimental to the very social problems they hope to alleviate.     

Business Planning for Climate Change: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Planning for Changes in Water,Temperature, Sea Level,Natural Resources,Health Effects,and Extreme Events

The ability to predict the timing and magnitude of future climate and temperature changes at a regional level has become increasingly important for corporate decision making and enterprise risk management. In the short term, companies could face decisions about acquisitions of water-dependent companies and natural resources or might be planning facilities or operations in communities vulnerable to erosion and flooding, changes in water supplies, and increasing health-care costs. In the intermediate term, companies need to assess these vulnerabilities to determine appropriate insurance coverage, plan for new infrastructure, implement preventative health-care programs, or protect natural resources. A technical approach needs to involve predictive tools that can provide bounding estimates at regional scales. The implications of those changes need to be translated to consequences that can affect specific businesses. Corporations must be cognizant of the uncertainties in this forecasting process and for that reason it is essential to link the likelihood of outcomes with the magnitudes of consequences. This article outlines an approach that is gaining traction as a way to address this complex matter.     

Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership,Public Service Motivation,and Mission Valence

This article contributes to our understanding of public service motivation and leadership by investigating ways in which organizational leaders can reinforce and even augment the potential effects of public service motivation on employees’ attraction to the organization’s mission (mission valence). The results contribute to two research questions. First, the findings provide new evidence on the sources of public service motivation. The authors find that transformational leadership is an organizational factor associated with higher public service motivation. Second, the article examines the relationship between transformational leadership and mission valence. The authors find that transformational leadership has an important indirect effect on mission valence through its influence on clarifying organizational goals and fostering public service motivation.     

The influence of public programs on inter-firm R&D collaboration strategies: project-level evidence from EU FP5 and FP6

Inter-firms R&D collaborations are often seen as an effective mean to access new resources, to innovate and/or to enter new markets in a turbulent environment characterized by fierce competition. However, all R&D partnerships do not have the same strategic importance. We analyze the strategic features of two types of partnerships that are seldom compared in the academic literature on R&D alliances: EU-sponsored inter-firms collaborations on the one hand, and non-sponsored, spontaneous inter-firm collaborations on the other. We compare their incentives and coordination mechanisms, and derive theoretical propositions that we test empirically. Our econometric analysis uses original data on (sponsored and non-sponsored) projects conducted by participants in the 5th and 6th European R&D Framework Programs. Our empirical findings support our main propositions. EU-funded collaborations are more exploratory and more focused on peripheral competences than spontaneous R&D collaborations. They are also less flexible, due to rigid monitoring rules which are nevertheless crucial to the projects?? success. However, there is no major difference between the different types of EU-sponsored collaborations, which pleads for a simplification of these policy instruments.     

Genetic and Environmental Overlap between Low Self-Control and Delinquency

Low self-control has emerged as a consistent and strong predictor of antisocial and delinquent behaviors. Using the twin subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), genetic analyses were conducted to examine the genetic and environmental contributions to low self-control and offending as well as to their relationship with one another. The results revealed that low self-control and criminal behaviors are influenced by genetic and nonshared environmental factors with the effects of shared environmental factors being negligible. In addition, the co-variation between low self-control and criminal behaviors appears to be largely due to common genetic and nonshared environmental factors operating on both phenotypes. The implications of these findings on the current understanding of Gottfredson and Hirschi??s general theory of crime are discussed.     

Catching flies with vinegar: a critique of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid self-disclosure program

This Article argues that the current approach of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enforcement of the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (the "Stark Law") is unnecessarily punitive and discourages health-care providers from self-disclosing even very minor violations of the Stark Law. This Article suggests a number of specific changes to encourage provider self-disclosure and proposes that CMS create a demonstration project under the authority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to test the reforms. A demonstration project provides the perfect vehicle to prove that increased self-disclosure protocols for the Stark Law can decrease the government's costs of enforcement, improve program integrity, and encourage providers to deal responsibly with the inevitable minor lapses in compliance that arise in such an enormous government program as Medicare.     

Sobering Up on the Streets: Homeless Men in Alcoholics Anonymous

An exploratory, qualitative examination of homeless, recovering alcoholic men in a Twelve-Step program shows the ways these men adapt tools of sobriety to match their needs. Using semi-structured interviews, the experiences of these men were evaluated in order to find out how they stay sober without a formal place to live. Based on the narrative histories, three varieties of adaptations to the conventional Alcoholics Anonymous program are discussed: excessive twelfth-stepping, a mélange of religious principles, and unrealistic ideals. Implications for treatment and directions for future research are discussed.