Short-Term Impacts of Solar Lanterns on Child Health: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

We implemented a 16-month randomised field experiment in unelectrified areas of Bangladesh to identify health impacts of solar lanterns among school-aged children. Our analysis of various health-related indicators – self-reporting, spirometers, and professional medical checkups – showed modest improvements in eye redness and irritation but no noticeable improvement in respiratory symptoms among treated students. Varying the number of solar products received within treatment households did not alter these results. This limited health benefit was not caused by nonutilisation of the products by treated children, spillover effects from treated to control students, or contamination resulting from unfavourable family cooking environments.     

Evaluation of real-time PCR amplification efficiencies to detect PCR inhibitors

Real-time PCR analysis is a sensitive template DNA quantitation strategy that has recently gained considerable attention in the forensic community. However, the utility of real-time PCR methods extends beyond quantitation and allows for simultaneous evaluation of template DNA extraction quality. This study presents a computational method that allows analysts to identify problematic samples with statistical reliability by comparing the amplification efficiencies of unknown template DNA samples with clean standards. In this study, assays with varying concentrations of tannic acid are used to evaluate and adjust sample-specific amplification efficiency calculation methods in order to optimize their inhibitor detection capabilities. Kinetic outlier detection and prediction boundaries are calculated to identify amplification efficiency outliers. Sample-specific amplification efficiencies calculated over a four-cycle interval starting at the threshold cycle can be used to detect reliably the presence of 0.4 ng of tannic acid in a 25 microL PCR reaction. This approach provides analysts with a precise measure of inhibition severity when template samples are compromised. Early detection of problematic samples allows analysts the opportunity to consider inhibitor mitigation strategies prior to genotype or DNA sequence analysis, thereby facilitating sample processing in high-throughput forensic operations.     

Health for All by the Year 2000: What about the nomads?

Health for All by the Year 2000 (HFA/2000) was a goal embraced in 1978 by all countries, especially the developing countries. Therefore to that end, many countries have since established policies and plans to make healthcare accessible to all of their citizens. Such access has come to be regarded as a right, and the last 30 years have seen major growth in national systems of healthcare provision. However, while remarkable advances have been made in both health status and the healthcare sector in general, nomadic people still lag the furthest behind in every field of progress. They continue to be neglected and left out of the development mainstream, including access to health services. Some countries have large nomadic populations, such as Somalia, with more than 60% of its population nomads. All nomads share characteristics which include an unstable life pattern, an interest in livestock, suspicion of outsiders, strong cultural beliefs, and faith in their traditional medicine. Nomads' self-reliance and independence, their sense of identity and community organization, and the predictability of their movements between water-points favor the development of health services. In the interests of equity and social justice, and if HFA/2000 is to become a reality, nomadic people must have equal rights to better healthcare.     

Has victimology outlived its usefulness?

Victimology has made important contributions to understanding victimization in the last several decades. Yet it has done little to reduce victimization. Instead, victimological findings and victim advocacy have been used by policymakers to promote ineffective ‘law and order’ crime policies. Victimology has been substantially co-opted, largely because it has either shunned politics or at least implicitly endorsed a counterproductive politics. Instead, victimology must re-examine its direction and politics. The possibilities are illustrated by examining several alternative, anti-crime ideologies and case studies. The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein     

Children's responses to interpersonal obstacles as a predictor of social competence

Children's responses to interpersonal obstacles and the relationship of these responses to social competence were investigated using the Social Problem Situation Analysis Measure. In this procedure, children respond to standard vignettes and then have their initial response negated by the examiner. The data showed that indices of problem-solving skills instandard andobstacle situations were indeed complementary. Problem solving in response to obstacles was the strongest predictor of self-concept and teachers' ratings of studients' adjustment. Expectancies in standard situations were most predictive of behavioral problem solving and social isolation. The discussion emphasized implications for theory and research into the way in which social problem solving under obstacle conditions relates to different indices of social competence.This study was supported in part by grants to the first author from the William T. Grant Foundation (with John Clabby) and NIMH.Received Ph.D. from University of Connecticut. Research interests include primary prevention and social competence promotion.Received Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Research interests include stress and coping processes.Received Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Research interests include theory and assessment, self and psychopathology.     

Brinkley Messick,The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Service Sector Productivity: B2B Electronic Commerce as a Strategic Driver

Information technology, and especially the Internet, are exerting an increasingly large and broad influence on industrial structures and measurement and evaluation of such fundamental concepts as risk, the value and benefits of intangibles such as intellectual capital, brand-related goodwill, and service sector productivity. Identifying the key value-adding factors underpinning productivity in the service sector has always been a significant challenge but with the advent of the WWW and the broad diffusion of Internet-enabled technologies and transacting modalities such as electronic commerce, this challenge has become even harder. In this paper, we compile a number of empirical case studies from industry where the use of electronic commerce has served as a strategic differentiator in pushing the service productivity envelop and in maximizing customer value added. Specifically, we examine the impact of electronic commerce on the process and petroleum industries. We profile in detail the role of electronic commerce as a strategy-enabling, infrastructural, path-breaking and general-purpose technology that if properly leveraged, can lead to radical improvements in both quality and productivity in services, thus helping re-define and re-shape the core structure and relationships in the industries it impacts. We end by identifying best practices in deploying electronic commerce as a strategic agent of change within and across firms and industries in the pursuit of increasingly higher levels of service sector productivity and quality.     

Dead Man Walking: The Affective Roots of Issue Proximity Between Voters and Parties

Do voters like the party they already agree with or do they agree with the party they already like? Previous studies have suggested a link from preferences to perceptions. However, such a causal link has not been convincingly demonstrated. Most issue voting studies have adopted the basic premise of spatial models of voting—that voters compare parties’ positions with their own ideal points and apply a rule to choose among these parties. Drawing on a natural experiment, this study shows that perceptual agreement between parties and voters is endogenous to voters’ party affect. We use the murder of a Dutch politician amidst the data collection period of the 2002 Dutch election study. The death increases respondents’ feelings for his party without providing information about its issue stances. This upward shift in feelings translates into a significant increase in the perceived level of proximity with the party. The design also allows us to explore the mechanism bringing parties and voters closer. Rather than taking up the party’s stances, voters move a party’s positions closer to their own views when their feelings for that party increase. The findings challenge established assumptions about the theoretical underpinnings of spatial models of voting. They support classic notions of voter projection and lend credence to recent theories of attitudinal change, which are based on coarse thinking and uninformative updating.