Forensic laboratory work in Burma (with special reference to the Office of the Chemical Examiner, Burma)

Burma is a country in Southeast Asia which is slightly smaller than Texas and has a population of 30 million people. The British colonial era brought the Chemical Examiner's laboratory to Burma. This was an all-purpose analytic laboratory. The forensic laboratory evolved within this structure as the need arose. The Medico-legal Division of this laboratory examined trace evidence, drugs, and body fluids of felons and there victims. Various aspects of investigation are discussed.     

To Flirt or Not to Flirt? Sexual Power at the Bargaining Table

We begin by exploring the lay belief that women can use flirtation to their advantage in professional contexts and contrast it with trained negotiators' negative views on flirtation. We then examine the impact of flirtation on negotiators' impression formation. We explore whether a flirtatious style aids women in the trade-off they often face between perceived likability and perceived competence. We discover both an upside and a downside to flirting at the bargaining table. Although flirtation appears to be positively related to women's likability, negotiators who flirted were judged to be less authentic than those who refrained from exercising their sexual power.     

Assessing callous–unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: Validation of the Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits

The presence of callous–unemotional (CU) traits designates an important subgroup of antisocial youth. To improve upon existing measures, the Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits (ICU) was developed to provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of CU traits in samples of youth. The current study tests the factor structure and correlates of the ICU scale in a sample (n = 248) of juvenile offenders (188 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 12 and 20 (M = 15.47, SD = 1.37). Confirmatory factor analyses are consistent with the presence of three independent factors (i.e., Uncaring, Callousness, and Unemotional) that relate to a higher-order callous–unemotional dimension. Also, CU traits overall showed associations with aggression, delinquency, and both psychophysiological and self-report indices of emotional reactivity. There were some important differences across the three facets of the ICU in their associations with these key external criteria.     

Does Intimate Partner Violence Epidemiology Differ Between Homes With and Without Children? A Population-Based Study of Annual Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors

We sought to determine whether intimate partner violence (IPV) risk factors differed depending upon the presence of children in the home, and to estimate the annual prevalence of IPV first in the general population and then in homes with and without children. We analyzed data from a cross-sectional random sample of 6,836 women in southeastern Pennsylvania interviewed by telephone in 2004. The magnitude of association between IPV and risk factors varied between homes with and without children for women’s alcohol problems (with children, odds ratio (OR) 7.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.9, 20.9; without children, OR 2.4; 95% CI 0.9, 6.0), and mental health problems (with children, OR 4.0; 95% CI 1.8, 8.9; without children, OR 3.0; 95% CI 1.6, 5.7). Poverty was significantly associated with IPV only in homes without children (OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.9, 7.2). Annual IPV prevalence was 1.2% overall, 1.4% in homes with children, and 1.1% in homes without children. One in 63 children lived in a home with IPV. Differences in IPV risk factors in homes with and without children suggest distinct underlying IPV mechanisms or consequences in these contexts.     

Settling for Less? Organizational Determinants of Discrimination‐Charge Outcomes

Although more than 60,000 workers formally charge their employers with unlawful sex or race employment discrimination annually, fewer than one in five charges results in outcomes favorable to the complainant. Building on sociolegal and organizational theory, this study examines how employing organizations avoid unfavorable discrimination-charge outcomes. Using EEO-1 establishment reports matched to discrimination charge data provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I assess the effect of employers' legal experience, resources, and indicators of legal compliance on the likelihood that complainants receive favorable charge outcomes, benefits, monetary settlements, and policy change mandates. In general, I find that legal experience, establishment size, and indicators of legal compliance insulate employers from unfavorable charge outcomes. However, in situations where employers are willing to settle claims, legally experienced establishments are more likely to pay monetary damages and receive mandates to change their workplace policies.     

To be continued . . . Syntheses and trends in follow-up of quality assurance in West European higher education

The authors report on West European trends in follow-up arrangements of national quality assurance procedures. They argue that external quality assurance ought to adopt a broader conception of quality than is now often the case. Next, the general public ought to have a guarantee that external quality assurance is valid (through meta-evaluation) and has consequences (through follow-up arrangements). Follow-up currently is not well developed in many European countries in a formal sense, but is receiving more attention as external quality assurance is maturing. Finally, the authors link national quality assurance to the European dimension; an international network could fulfil important functions in making quality assurance transparent and credible across Europe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Second CSF (Delors' II Package) for Greece and its Impact on the Greek Economy

The Greek Community Support Framework (CSF), which is operational during the period 1994-99, is designed to finance large-scale development projects and investment in physical and human capital in Greece, aiming to gear the economy onto a sustainable path of economic growth and development. This process of real convergence is viewed as a prerequisite for the cohesion of EU and the sustainability of the nominal convergence objective of the Maastricht Treaty in the way to Economic and Monetary Union of Europe. The paper provides, first, an overview of the Greek CSF and, second, an ex ante assessment of the effects that the Second CSF is likely to have on the economy of Greece. The analysis delineates four types of CSF actions according to whether they aim at (i) raising 'hard' infrastructure, (ii) financing 'soft' infrastructure interventions (such as R&D, health services, etc), (iii) supporting productive investment, and, (iv) training the labour force into new skills and improving the civil service. The effects are analysed first assuming that CSF operates only through raising the components of income and aggregate demand, and then by incorporating externalities on the productivity of output in various sectors and the reduction in costs. We find that in the absence of externalities, output rises during the period of the CSF 1994-99 but then returns to the benchmark course without any lasting improvement. When all types of externalities are taken into account, total output in year 2010 will be higher than baseline by an impressive 9.5%, and will continue to grow at a rate faster by 0.26% per annum than would be otherwise, while employment expands by an average of 95.000 new jobs.