Comment on William M. Rohe and Rachel G. Bratt's “Failures,downsizings, and mergers among community development corporations”: Merger does not mean failure

Abstract

In response to the article by Rohe and Bratt in which mergers among community development corporations (CDCs) were viewed as one type of response to organizational “failures,” this comment makes the case that many nonprofit mergers arise from a variety of motivations other than organizational crisis. Mergers are increasingly strategic partnerships in which two or more nonprofits seek mutual advantages, such as a larger market share, better access to capital, and other longer‐term goals.

Mergers are most successful when relatively strong organizations analyze their circumstances and determine that they can best advance their missions through working together. A merger has limited utility in saving an organization in crisis. Rather, it is a tool for advancing the missions of different organizations by combining their strengths. The relationship is best entered into freely, after a great deal of consideration, and with reasonable expectations for both the work ahead and the potential payoff.     

Natural Disasters,Human Development and Poverty at the Municipal Level in Mexico

This article analyses the effects of natural disasters on human development and poverty levels at the municipal level in Mexico. Using several sources, we build a panel of data in order to uncover if different natural shocks can affect social indicators. After controlling for geographic and natural characteristics which can make municipalities more hazard prone, as well as for other institutional, socio-economic and demographic pre-shock characteristics, in addition to using fixed effects, we find that general shocks, especially from floods and droughts, lead to significant drops in both types of indicator.     

Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence, Depressive Symptomatology, and Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and personality disorder symptoms controlling for depressive state. Victims of IPV (n?=?176) and non-abused women (n?=?193) completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ), Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). IPV victims scored higher than non-abused women on Intimacy Problems, and scored lower on Rejection traits, after adjustment for depressive symptoms. Severity of the IPV was related to Cognitive Distortion, Suspiciousness, Restricted Expression, and Intimacy Problems, and the length of the IPV was negatively associated with Rejection. The current study suggests only modest differences in personality traits between IPV and non-abused women. The DAPP-BQ traits associated with severity of IPV, in a dose-response manner, would partially reflect the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), although this possibility deserves further study.     

Vagueness in Progress: A Linguistic and Legal Comparative Analysis Between UN and U.S. Official Documents and Drafts Relating to the Second Gulf War

This paper is based on a doctoral thesis which aimed at investigating on whether the use of strategic vagueness in Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq has contributed to the breakout of the 2002–2003s Gulf war instead of a diplomatic solution of the controversies. This work contains a linguistic and legal comparative analysis between UN and U.S. documents and their drafts in order to demonstrate how vagueness was deliberately added to the final versions of the documents before being passed, and thus strategically used vagueness has played a crucial role in UN resolutions related to the outbreak of war in Iraq, and in relevant legislation produced by the United States for its Congressional authorisation for war. The comparative analysis between S/RES/1441(2002) and US legislation has evidenced that that there would have been diplomatic solutions to the Iraq crises which were not synonymous of light-handed intervention against Iraq, but deliberately vague UN wording allowed the US to build its own legislation with a personal interpretation implying that the UN did not impede military action.     

The Language of the UN: Vagueness in Security Council Resolutions Relating to the Second Gulf War

Over the last few years the diplomatic language of UN resolutions has repeatedly been questioned for the excessive presence of vagueness. The use of vague terms could be connected to the genre of diplomatic texts, as resolutions should be applicable to every international contingency and used to mitigate tensions between different legal cultures. However, excessive vagueness could also lead to biased or even strategically-motivated interpretations of resolutions, undermining their legal impact and triggering conflicts instead of diplomatic solutions. This study aims at investigating intentional vagueness in Security Council resolutions, by focussing on the analysis of the resolutions relating to the second Gulf war. Using the qualitative Discourse-Historical approach (Wodak in Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism, Taylor & Francis Ltd., London [2000]) and quantitative analysis tools (Antconc and Sketch Engine), special attention is given to the historical/political consequences of the vagueness and indeterminacy used in that framework and to the study of vague ‘weasel words’ (Mellinkoff in The language of the law, Little, Brown & Company, Boston [1963]), modals, and adjectives contained in the corpus. The hypothesis of intentional vagueness is further reinforced through an analysis of the US legislation related to the outbreak of the war, to reveal how the US has legally interpreted UN legislation and to understand the purposes and consequences of vague language contained in it. The findings indicate that vagueness in resolutions has triggered the Iraqi conflict instead of diplomatic solutions with the overall legislative intent of using intentional vagueness as a political strategy.     

Guidelines for postmortem protocol for ocular investigation of sudden unexplained infant death and suspected physical child abuse

Postmortem examination is a cornerstone in identifying the cause of unexplained sudden death in children. Even in cases of suspected or known abuse, an autopsy may help characterize the nature of the abuse, which is particularly important in the forensic autopsy of children in the first 3 to 4 years of life when inflicted neurotrauma is most common. Forensic examinations are vital in cases that might otherwise be diagnosed as sudden infant death syndrome. The ocular autopsy in particular may demonstrate findings that were not appreciated on antemortem clinical examination. This protocol for postmortem examination of the eyes and orbits was developed to promote more consistent documentation of findings, improved clinical and forensic decision making, and more replicable and coherent research outcomes.     

Combining autosomal and Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat data in paternity testing with male child: methods and application

Paternity testing is being increasingly requested with the aim of challenging presumptive fatherhood. The ability to establish the biological father is usually based on the genotyping of autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) in alleged father, mother and child, but the use of Y-chromosomal STR has gained interest in the last few years. In this work, we propose a new probabilistic approach that combines autosomal and Y-chromosomal STR data in paternity testing with father/son pairs taking into account mutation events. We also suggest a new two-stage approach where we first type Y-STRs and possibly autosomal STR for the putative father and son, conditional on Y-STR results. We applied this approach to 22 cases. Our results show that Y-STRs can identify nonpaternity cases with high accuracy but need to be validated with autosomal STR to establish paternity. Moreover, the two-stage approach is less costly than the standard approach and is very useful in motherless cases.     

Toward the Implementation of Intersectionality in the European Multilevel Legal Praxis: B. S. v. Spain

This article identifies the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of intersectionality in European multilevel legal praxis through the analysis of the case B.S. v. Spain. Combining critical legal analysis of the main judicial documents with qualitative methodology from political science based on in‐depth interviews with key actors involved in the case, we uncover the obstacles and opportunities existing at the national and supra‐national levels for the implementation of intersectionality. We decipher the factors contributing to the exceptional success of this case through the conjoint analysis of macro, meso, and micro levels. Our analysis shows that a combination of the legal provisions, paradigms and structures, the roles of the different actors involved, and the applicant's subjective position made it possible to put intersectionality in practice. This study provides novel empirical evidence that contributes to advancing the theoretical debate about intersectionality implementation in the multilevel European context.     

A comparative analysis of Inspector responses to complaints about psychosocial and physical hazards

Work Health and Safety Inspectors are at the forefront of efforts to protect workers from harm from psychosocial hazards, yet the application of regulatory theory to their practice has been limited. Drawing on models of responsive regulation and strategic enforcement, we analyze extensive (N = 46,348) complaint and incident notification data from an Australian Work Health and Safety Inspectorate, to compare Inspectors' responses to psychosocial versus non-psychosocial hazards. We found psychosocial hazards were less likely to be actioned than non-psychosocial hazards. When they were actioned, psychosocial hazards saw more Inspector activity, but fewer enforcement notices than non-psychosocial hazards. These findings are inconsistent with the version of responsive regulation espoused by the regulator. Our theoretical conclusion is that Weil's strategic enforcement approach is likely to offer greater possibilities for guiding future resource allocation.