The development of small-scale irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa

The performance of irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa has generally been discouraging. This has been particularly true of large-scale formal smallholder developments. Recently attention has been turning increasingly to small-scale farmer-managed irrigation, generally utilizing simple, low-cost methods of water control. While not yet very prominent in Government planning and policy statements, small-scale irrigation has been espoused enthusiastically by farmers, non-governmental organizations and some international agencies. In this approach to rural development external agencies act as catalysts of change, technical advisors, channels for capital funding and intermediaries between farmer groups and other organizations. Although generally limited in physical size and sophistication of technology, small-scale irrigation nevertheless experiences the complexities inherent in the management of land and water, and of social, political and economic change. Research and development needs are wide-ranging, and attention to them is likely to be fruitful in terms of increasingly effective rural development strategies.     

Development of a Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Model in Public Child Welfare Systems

The purpose of this article is to review the development and implementation of a revised quality assurance and continuous quality improvement (CQI) model for the child welfare system in one Mid-Atlantic state, and the contribution of this new process to measuring the quality of child welfare practices. This revised CQI model in the state includes a broader scope of assessing practice and outcomes, as well as compliance, and engages internal and external partners in the process. This study is the first to describe the state’s revised CQI implementation process and examine preliminary outcomes in a statewide child welfare system. Findings indicate that the revised model was able to identify the factors that contributed to improving outcomes for children and families and to develop a greater understanding of the aggregate data across the state. This study will contribute to the comprehensive understanding of the model and provide implications for future quality assurance practices.     

Effects of Cyanoacrylate Fuming,Time After Recovery,and Location of Biological Material on the Recovery and Analysis of DNA from Post‐Blast Pipe Bomb Fragments*

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of time, cyanoacrylate fuming, and location of the biological material on DNA analysis of post‐blast pipe bomb fragments. Multiple aliquots of a cell suspension (prepared by soaking buccal swabs in water) were deposited on components of the devices prior to assembly. The pipe bombs were then deflagrated and the fragments recovered. Fragments from half of the devices were cyanoacrylate fumed. The cell spots on the fragments were swabbed and polymerase chain reaction/short tandem repeat analysis was performed 1 week and 3 months after deflagration. A significant decrease in the amount of DNA recovered was observed between samples collected and analyzed within 1 week compared with the samples collected and analyzed 3 months after deflagration. Cyanoacrylate fuming did not have a measurable effect on the success of the DNA analysis at either time point. Greater quantities of DNA were recovered from the pipe nipples than the end caps. Undeflagrated controls showed that the majority (>95%) of the DNA deposited on the devices was not recovered at a week or 3 months.     

The Utility of Expanded Conclusion Scales During Latent Print Examinations

During fingerprint comparisons, a latent print examiner visually compares two impressions to determine whether or not they originated from the same source. They consider the amount of perceived detail in agreement or disagreement and accumulate evidence toward same source and different sources propositions. This evidence is then mapped to one of three conclusions: Identification, Inconclusive, or Exclusion. A limitation of this 3-conclusion scale is it can lose information when translating the conclusion from the internal strength-of-evidence value to one of only three possible conclusions. An alternative scale with two additional values, support for different sources and support for common sources, has been proposed by the Friction Ridge Subcommittee of OSAC. The expanded scale could lead to more investigative leads but could produce complex trade-offs in both correct and erroneous identifications. The aim of the present study was to determine the consequences of a shift to expanded conclusion scales in latent print comparisons. Latent print examiners each completed 60 comparisons using one of the two scales, and the resulting data were modeled using signal detection theory to measure whether the expanded scale changed the threshold for an “Identification” conclusion. When using the expanded scale, examiners became more risk-averse when making “Identification” decisions and tended to transition both the weaker Identification and stronger Inconclusive responses to the “Support for Common Source” statement. The results demonstrate the utility of an expanded conclusion scale and also provide guidance for the adoption of these or similar scales.     

Social Media Social Comparison of Ability (but not Opinion) Predicts Lower Identity Clarity: Identity Processing Style as a Mediator

Social comparison on social media has received increasing attention, but most research has focused on one type of social comparison and its psycho-emotional implications. Little is known about how different types of social comparison influence youth’s identity development. Drawing on the theories of identity processing styles and social comparison, we examined how two different forms of social comparison on social media related to three identity processing styles, which in turn predicted youth’s global self-esteem and identity clarity. We surveyed 219 college freshmen (M_age?=?18.29; 74% female) once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Social comparison of ability on social media was related to concurrent diffuse-avoidant identity processing style, which predicted lower identity clarity months later. In contrast, social comparison of opinion on social media did not influence college freshmen’s global self-esteem and identity clarity through identity processing styles. The findings clarified the implications of online social comparison for youth’s identity development.     

Good Inflation, Bad Inflation: The Housing Boom, Economic Growth and the Disaggregation of Inflationary Preferences in the UK and Ireland

This article presents a comparative analysis of the determinants, sustenance and broader macroeconomic consequences of the ultimately unsustainable housing boom in Ireland and the UK in recent years. It examines, in particular, the role played by ostensibly depoliticised monetary policy in both contexts in the development of a house price bubble that has served to fuel consumer-led growth. It assesses the viability, sustainability and reproducibility of the private debt-financed consumer boom that house price inflation has generated. In the process it draws attention to the increasingly differentiated character of both government inflationary preferences and counter-inflationary performance—with the shift to official measures of inflation that exclude mortgage interest repayments and, in the UK at least, to the covert re-politicisation of monetary policy. It concludes by suggesting that governments may well not have time-inconsistent inflationary preferences so much as sectorally specific inflationary preferences. This might be summarised in terms of the aphorism: 'retail price inflation bad, house price inflation good'.     

Valence and Campaigns

We present a model of two‐candidate elections in which candidates are office‐motivated, campaigning is voluntary and costly, and one candidate has a valence advantage. In equilibrium, the order of campaign announcements matters: Each candidate would prefer to announce his or her position after the other candidate has announced his or hers. The fundamental predictions of the model are (1) the impact of valence and campaigning costs on candidates' equilibrium behaviors is in general ambiguous, requiring further specification of the details of the electoral situation, and (2) in general, equilibrium platform announcements are essentially independent of the location of the median voter's ideal point. In addition, the model is consistent with elections in which both, only one, or neither candidate actively campaigns, and, finally, even when one candidate has a large valence advantage, there might be no equilibrium in which he or she will win the election with certainty.