Cumulative experiences of violence among high-risk urban youth

This study examines type-specific and cumulative experiences of violence among a vulnerable population of youth. Sixty high-risk, shelter-dwelling, urban youth were interviewed regarding their history of childhood maltreatment, exposure to community violence (ECV), and experience with intimate partner violence (IPV). Results show a high prevalence and high degree of overlap among multiple types of violence exposure. Childhood physical, sexual (CSA), and emotional (CEA) abuse were interrelated and were associated with ECV. Cumulative experiences of childhood abuse (CCA) had a graded association with IPV victimization. In multivariate analyses, CCA and ECV were independently associated with IPV victimization. Gender moderated the effect of one association: CEA raised the risk of IPV victimization for girls but not for boys. Only CSA predicted IPV perpetration. Findings suggest that cumulative exposures to violence create cumulative risk for experiencing more violence. Shelter-dwelling, urban youth may be particularly vulnerable to this additive effect.     

The study of post-communist Slovenian firms and their internationalization

Understanding the evolution and growing importance of firms in post-communist countries is a critical new research direction for the study of communist and post-communist economies. In light of this, the primary purpose of this study is to identify the conditions necessary for the internationalization of enterprises from post-communist Slovenia, based on the responses of 298 firms currently engaged in the export of Slovenian products. The study supports the idea that many of the conditions necessary for international expansion of the firms are also applicable to firms from the post-communist economy, that is Slovenia. Environmental factors, including economic stability and cultural similarity, firm size and experience, stable markets, management strategies and other country-specific factors, were found to have significant influences on the participation of post-communist firms in the global economy. Environmental factors, including economic stability and cultural similarity, were found to be the most important in the factor analysis. Firm size and experience also exerted an influence on the internationalization of post-communist Slovenian firms. However, stable markets were found to be more important than firm size or management strategies at this point in time. Slovenia’s small size, its former command economy, and other country-specific factors, were also found to have significant influences for the firms involved in this study.     

A Primary Cause of Partisanship? Nomination Systems and Legislator Ideology

Many theoretical and empirical accounts of representation argue that primary elections are a polarizing influence. Likewise, many reformers advocate opening party nominations to nonmembers as a way of increasing the number of moderate elected officials. Data and measurement constraints, however, have limited the range of empirical tests of this argument. We marry a unique new data set of state legislator ideal points to a detailed accounting of primary systems in the United States to gauge the effect of primary systems on polarization. We find that the openness of a primary election has little, if any, effect on the extremism of the politicians it produces.     

Developing STR databases on structured populations: The native South Siberian population versus the Russian population

Developing a forensic DNA database on a population that consists of local ethnic groups separated by physical and cultural barriers is questionable as it can be genetically subdivided. On the other side, small sizes of ethnic groups, especially in alpine regions where they are sub-structured further into small villages, prevent collecting a large sample from each ethnic group. For such situations, we suggest to obtain both a total population database on allele frequencies across ethnic groups and a list of θ-values between the groups and the total data. We have genotyped 558 individuals from the native population of South Siberia, consisting of nine ethnic groups, at 17 autosomal STR loci of the kit packages AmpFlSTR SGM Plus и AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus. The groups differentiate from each other with average θ-values of around 1.1%, and some reach up to three to four percent at certain loci. There exists between-village differentiation as well. Therefore, a database for the population of South Siberia is composed of data on allele frequencies in the pool of ethnic groups and data on θ-values that indicate variation in allele frequencies across the groups. Comparison to additional data on northeastern Asia (the Chukchi and Koryak) shows that differentiation in allele frequencies among small groups that are separated by large geographic distance can be even greater. In contrast, populations of Russians that live in large cities of the European part of Russia are homogeneous in allele frequencies, despite large geographic distance between them, and thus can be described by a database on allele frequencies alone, without any specific information on θ-values.     

E-participation: A Strategic Framework

Despite the rising scientific and practical relevance of e-participation, the field still suffers from a diffuse, heterogeneous state of knowledge and our understanding of successful e-participation strategies and implementation is very limited. This situation is seen as a key reason why e-participation initiatives in practice often fall short of expectations. Against this background, this study compiles the existing insights from the interdisciplinary scientific literature to deduce a unifying definition and propose an integrated strategic e-participation framework that conceptually combines important strategic and organizational factors as well as environmental drivers of e-participation.     

Allelic and haplotypic frequencies at 11 Y-STR loci in Buryats from South-East Siberia

We have obtained Y-STR haplotypes in 12 loci (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439) from 215 Buryat males. We have found that one haplotype (15-11,18-13-28-23-10-11-14-14-10-12) comprises more than 30% of Y chromosomes in this population while another haplotype (14-11,13-14-30-23-10-14-14-14-10-10) comprises additional 14% of chromosomes. The population under study seems to be very homogenous as far as Y chromosome is regarded and the most frequent haplotype seems to be the modal haplotype for Buryats.     

Ein kritischer Blick auf die aktuellen Entwicklungen in der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik unter Einbeziehung der neu geschaffenen regionalen Fischereibeir?te

Die europ?ische Fischerei muss sich zur Zeit einer Vielzahl von Problemen wie sinkenden Fangmengen, abnehmenden Ums?tzen sowie einem stetigen Besch?ftigungsabbau stellen. Einer der Hauptgründe für diese Entwicklung ist die bis zum heutigen Tage nicht nachhaltig betriebene Fischerei. Mit einer grundlegenden Reform der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik (GFP) im Jahre 2002 und der Abl?sung der alten FischereigrundVO von 1993 sollten diese dr?ngenden Probleme angegangen werden. Darüber hinaus wurde mit den Regionalbeir?ten (RACs) ein gemeinsames Forum für den Fischereisektor sowie Umweltund Verbraucherschützer geschaffen, welches die EU-Kommission in Fischereifragen beraten soll. Leider stimmen die ersten Jahre der neuen GFP wenig zuversichtlich. Eine Erholung der bedrohten Fischbest?nde ist vorerst nicht in Sicht, insbesondere weil die wissenschaftlichen Empfehlungen der Fischereiexperten weiterhin ignoriert werden. Ob die neu geschaffenen RACs mit ihrer Beratungst?tigkeit und ihrem internen Diskurs wichtige Anregungen hin zu einer nachhaltigeren Fischerei leisten k?nnen, ist zweifelhaft.