Combination of Face Regions in Forensic Scenarios

This article presents an experimental analysis of the combination of different regions of the human face on various forensic scenarios to generate scientific knowledge useful for the forensic experts. Three scenarios of interest at different distances are considered comparing mugshot and CCTV face images using MORPH and SC face databases. One of the main findings is that inner facial regions combine better in mugshot and close CCTV scenarios and outer facial regions combine better in far CCTV scenarios. This means, that depending of the acquisition distance, the discriminative power of the facial regions change, having in some cases better performance than the full face. This effect can be exploited by considering the fusion of facial regions which results in a very significant improvement of the discriminative performance compared to just using the full face.     

Projecting macroeconomic outcomes: Evidence from the IMF

In the process of designing IMF-supported programs, IMF staff members prepare projections of the evolution of key macroeconomic variables for the participating country. These projections are based on countries?? initial situations, and are conditioned on the implementation of reforms and policy measures agreed in the context of programs. In this paper, we examine the accuracy of projections in 291 programs approved in the period 1993?C2009. We focus on the projections of three macroeconomic variables (the ratios of the fiscal surplus to GDP and of external current account surplus to GDP, and real GDP growth) during the years immediately following the initiation of an IMF-supported program. We identify several potential reasons for divergence of projected from actual values: (i) mismeasured data on initial conditions; (ii) country-specific differences in forming projections, (iii) projections that do not reflect the dynamic time-series process of the actual data; (iv) policy forecast error; and (v) random errors in the actual data. Our data analysis suggests that the incomplete information on initial conditions and the country-specific differences in projection error are the largest contributors to discrepancies between projection and actual. We also consider whether the IMF??s forecasts have gotten more accurate in recent years; there is evidence that they have for the shortest horizons, but the quantitative impact on forecast error is small.     

Sufren Los Niños: Exploring the Impact of Unauthorized Immigration Status on Children's Well‐Being

The present study examines the effect of unauthorized immigration status on child well‐being at a time of elevated immigration rates, economic decline, and unprecedented local lawmaking related to immigration. Immigrant families today are likely to differ from those of the past in that they are more likely to be from Latin America or the Caribbean and include unprecedented numbers of unauthorized immigrants. In addition, they are settling in destinations that have not historically had immigrant populations. The present study draws on interviews with 40 families from an emerging immigrant destination in north central Indiana to help illuminate the ways in which unauthorized immigration status influences child well‐being. Results illustrate that unauthorized status extends beyond the individual to families and that mixed‐status family situations create unique challenges for these families. More specifically, these results show the ways in which unauthorized immigrant status may impact family stress and uncertainty, health outcomes, and educational attainment and may result in increased social isolation for children in immigrant families.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• Unauthorized immigration status is typically defined as an individual characteristics, however there are likely to be large numbers of families with authorized and unauthorized status family members. These “mixed‐status families” create unique challenges for families and children.
• This article informs practitioners about the ways in which recent state policies targeting unauthorized immigrants, in addition to existing federal policy, create barriers and negatively impact child and family well‐being for Latino immigrants, regardless individual immigration status.
• Unauthorized immigration status may impact family stress and uncertainty, health outcomes, educational attainment, and may result in increased social isolation for children in immigrant families.

     

Small-Scale irrigation and income distribution in Ethiopia

Abstract

Irrigation stimulates agricultural productivity and economic growth, but this may come at the cost of growing inequality. Using data at community and household level, this paper analyzes the distributional impacts of irrigation in Ethiopia. Regression analyses reveal the direct effects of irrigation on expenditures and labour demand, and the indirect effects of irrigation on food prices and expenditures of non-irrigation households. The results indicate that past development of irrigation stimulated growth without deepening inequality, and that irrigation decreased dependence on food-for-work programs. Thus, irrigation has played a positive role in the development of Ethiopia.     

Local technological capability and productivity spillovers from FDI in the Uruguayan manufacturing sector

This article examines intra‐industry spillovers from FDI in Uruguayan manufacturing plants in 1988, to determine whether differences in the technology gap between locally‐owned plants and foreign affiliates have any impact on the relation between local productivity and foreign presence. We find a positive and statistically significant spillover effect only in a sub‐sample of locally‐owned plants with moderate technology gaps vis‐à‐vis foreign firms. Our interpretation is that there are firm‐specific differences in the ability to absorb spillovers, and that these may explain some of the contradictory findings of earlier spillover studies.     

Beyond Crime Statistics: The Construction and Application of a Criminogenity Monitor in Amsterdam

Criminologists have devoted a great deal of attention to risk factors – also called criminogenic factors – leading to criminal offending. This paper presents a criminogenity monitor which includes 19 risk factors that underlie crime. These factors do not themselves cause criminal behaviour; rather, they must be seen as signals that crimes may be committed. After discussing how the criminogenity monitor was constructed, we apply the risk factors we examined to the situation in Amsterdam, capital city of the Netherlands. The monitor is intended to function particularly as an instrument to rationalise policy-makers’ work in targeting and preventing symptoms of crime at three geographical levels: the entire city, its boroughs and its neighbourhoods.     

Evaluating the impact of IMF programs: A comparison of matching and instrumental-variable estimators

We examine the impact of IMF programs on economic performance in 95 developing countries over the period 1993–2002. Three macroeconomic measures of economic performance are considered: the real per capita economic growth rate, the ratio of the fiscal surplus to GDP, and the ratio of the current account surplus to GDP. Three estimation techniques are used: censored-sample, full-sample instrumental-variable, and matching. Substantively, we find little statistical support that IMF programs contemporaneously improve real economic growth in participating countries, but stronger evidence of an improvement in economic growth in years following a program. We find that both the fiscal ratio and the current-account ratio improve contemporaneously with IMF participation relative to the counterfactual, with effects in succeeding years differing little from the impact effects. We conclude that the program-effect estimates of matching and other estimators will differ largely because of the sample included in estimation. Matching by its nature excludes country episodes associated with extreme values of the propensity score, while the instrumental-variable estimator includes those. If there is heterogeneity of performance response in extreme vs. moderate cases, the estimates differ systematically between the two techniques. JEL codes F33 · F34 · C34     

Family First

My decision to come to China was a pretty simple one:curiosity.I am originally from Holland,but have always been fascinated with China-this mysterious and rising oriental superpower.I bought books and movies on the country,wishing to satisfy my questions.On the contrary,it only inspired more.With China’s economy booming,many amazing career opportunities are currently open to foreigners like me.It was a very natural decision for me to come to explore the possibilities in China.Beijing brims with opportunities and ancient Chinese culture,which is the reason I have made it my home.     

Effect of the breakup context on unwanted pursuit behavior perpetration between former partners

Former partners comprise the most important subgroup of stalkers. However, contextual factors related to the breakup are hardly examined to explain ex-partner pursuit. In a community sample of 194 separated persons, about one-fifth perpetrated at least one unwanted pursuit behavior in the past 2 weeks. Being female, lowly educated, and socially undesirable raised the number of perpetrated behaviors. Beyond these effects, the number of behaviors increased when the cause of the break was attributed to the ex-partner or external factors and when the ex was appraised as the breakup initiator. Breakup reasons, the ex-partner's lack in meeting family obligations and own infidelity, also related to pursuit behaviors albeit inferior to subjective attributions and appraisals of initiation. Finally, participants who felt more anxious or lonely negative showed more behaviors. The results enlighten that the breakup context gains further attention. Clinical treatment might benefit from fostering cognitive reconstructions and breakup adjustment.     

Neighborhood Disadvantage and Neuropsychological Functioning as Part Mediators of the Race–Antisocial Relationship: A Serial Mediation Model

Objectives

We test a serial multiple mediation model in which the relationship between ethnicity and antisocial behavior is sequentially mediated by disadvantaged neighborhoods and impaired neuropsychological functioning.

Methods

Parental and self-report measures of antisocial behavior were assessed in a community sample of 341 adolescent males and females. Neighborhood disadvantage was assessed from census data. Neuropsychological functioning was evaluated using a computerized battery. Separate serial multiple mediation models were tested using non-executive functioning and executive functioning.

Results

The serial mediation model for executive functioning was supported, with the pathway from race to antisocial behavior through neighborhood disadvantage and executive functioning in serial accounting for 10.8% of the total effect of race on antisocial behavior.

Conclusions

Findings support social neurocriminology theory by integrating neighborhood disadvantage and executive functioning as sequential mediators of the race–antisocial relationship. To our knowledge, these are the first findings to explain the race–antisocial relationship in terms of connected social and neuropsychological processes. While this pathway is significant, the effect is still relatively small and thus should be understood as one of many mechanisms through which race may affect antisocial behavior. From a translational science standpoint, the identification of neurocognitive mechanisms by which neighborhood disadvantage predisposes to antisocial behavior suggests the potential benefits of cognitive enhancement techniques to remediate the negative effects of adverse neighborhoods on brain functioning in at-risk minority groups.