Policy representation of constituency interests

This paper examines two aspects of congressional representation: the responsiveness of House candidates to constituency opinion and the effect of candidate positions on House election outcomes. For both Democratic- and Republican-held seats, constituency liberalism (as measured by the constituency's vote for McGovern in 1972) is strongly related to the liberalism of incumbent candidates but less so to the liberalism of challengers. House election outcomes are visibly influenced by the positions of incumbent candidates but not those of nonincumbent candidates. The paper argues that elections contribute significantly to achieving congressional representation. Candidate positions are measured from a 1974 CBS survey of all major House candidates.     

Problem boys in young adulthood: Teachers' ratings and twelve-year follow-up

In an earlier paper we reported that teachers' ratings of child guidance clinic children were associated with the children's global adjustment in young adulthood. Teachers' ratings, especially the peer relations measure, far surpassed other data sources in predicting general adult mental status. Other sources were developmental history, social history, family information, and psychiatric and psychological evaluations. The purposes of the present investigation were to evaluate mother-son reliability on adulthood information, and to determine whether teacher-rated behaviors of clinic boys predicted specific adult behaviors or were only globally related. Interviewed separately when sons were young adults, mothers and sons closely agreed on sons' adult behavior, with mothers somewhat underreporting sons' negative behaviors. The major finding was that one teacher-rated item,fails to get along with other children, was closely associated with a wide spectrum of adult behaviors. This was not due to the peer relations indicator serving as a global statistic reflecting general childhood impairment. It was also found that composite scores of childhood and adulthood bad conduct were significantly related to each other.Data collection was funded by NIMH Grant #MH-23441-02A1, and by the William T. Grant Foundation, Loretta K. Cass, Principal Investigator. The authors bear sole responsibility for the data analyses and interpretation presented here.Received Ph.D. from University of Oklahoma. Current research interests are in prediction of adult mental status from childhood indexes.Received Ph.D. from Washington University. Current research interests are in life history research, particularly alcoholism and schizophrenia.Received B. A. from Washington University.     

Detection of a primer-binding site polymorphism for the STR locus D16S539 using the Powerplex 1.1 system and validation of a degenerate primer to correct for the polymorphism

Quality assurance samples submitted from the NCSBI as part of a contract with TBTG to outsource DNA Database samples showed unexpected discrepancies for the locus D16S539 when all other loci yielded identical results. Discrepancies observed included allele drop out and an imbalance in sister alleles with samples returned from TBTG. This led to a comprehensive review of the technical procedures used between the two laboratories to determine the cause of the discrepancies noted for the locus D16S539, since both laboratories were using the PowerPlex 1.1 typing kit from the Promega Corporation. The NCSBI and the TBTG utilize different extraction methods (organic extraction vs. FTA) and amplification conditions (AmpliTaq vs AmpliTaq Gold), respectively, so the exact cause of discrepancy observed was not immediately apparent. Experiments at the NCSBI associated the observed allele drop out and the imbalance of the sister alleles with the use of AmpliTaq Gold and a hot start procedure. Sequencing data revealed that a point mutation resides on the D16S539 primer-binding site that reaches polymorphic levels in African-American populations. This led to the development of a degenerate primer by the Promega Corporation to detect "missing" alleles when AmpliTaq Gold is used. The degenerate primer was then thoroughly tested to show its efficacy in detecting the "true" D16S539 profile when used.     

Informativeness of the CODIS STR loci for admixture analysis

Population admixture (or ancestry) is used as an approach to gene discovery in complex diseases, particularly when the disease prevalence varies widely across geographic populations. Admixture analysis could be useful for forensics because an indication of a perpetrator's ancestry would narrow the pool of suspects for a particular crime. The purpose of this study was to use Fisher's information to identify informative sets of markers for admixture analysis. Using published founding population allele frequencies we test three marker sets for efficacy for estimating admixture: the FBI CODIS Core STR loci, the HGDP-CEPH Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel and the set of 39 ancestry informative SNPS from the Shriver lab at Pennsylvania State University. We conclude that the FBI CODIS Core STR set is valid for admixture analysis, but not the most precise. We recommend using a combination of the most informative markers from the HGDP-CEPH and Shriver loci sets.     

Skin penetration assessment of less lethal kinetic energy munitions

The development of less-lethal technologies has provided law enforcement personnel with an alternative to lethal force. Although the less lethal projectile was produced to engender non-penetrating wounds, case studies show that there have been a number of reported penetrating injuries ranging from minor to significant in morbidity. The objective of this study was to determine the energy per unit area required to penetrate various regions of the body. Eight unembalmed postmortem human specimens were procured for this testing. Each specimen sustained a maximum of 25 impacts consisting of shots to the anterior and posterior thorax, abdomen, and legs. A 12-gauge, fin-stabilized, rubber rocket round was used as the impactor for all of the conducted tests. The energy density required for 50% risk of penetration varied from 23.99 J/cm2 for the location on the anterior rib (p = 0.000) to 52.74 J/cm2 for the location on the posterior rib (p = 0.001).     

Academic and Surrogate Entrepreneurs in University Spin-out Companies

Universities have two options when they formulate policies to develop new technology-based start-ups. One approach is to encourage faculty members to engage in this activity. Another avenue is to encourage surrogate (external) entrepreneurs to assume a leadership role. Based on a survey of technology transfer/business development officers at 57 U.K. universities, we examine perceptions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We also analyze whether there are significant differences in these attitudes between universities that have launched many start-ups and those that have been less active in this arena. Our results imply that the most significant barriers to the adoption of entrepreneurial-friendly policies are cultural and informational. We also find that universities that generate the most start-ups have more favorable attitudes towards surrogate entrepreneurs. It appears that a combination of academic and surrogate entrepreneurship might be the best approach for universities that wish to develop successful technology-transfer based start-up companies.     

Statistical techniques for juror and jury research

Juror and jury research is a thriving area of investigation in legal psychology. The basic ANOVA and regression, well‐known by psychologists, are inappropriate for analysing many types of data from this area of research. This paper describes statistical techniques suitable for some of the main questions asked by jury researchers. First, we discuss how to examine manipulations that may affect levels of reasonable doubt and how to measure reasonable doubt using the coefficients estimated from a logistic regression. Second, we compare models designed for analysing the data like those which often arise in research where jurors first make categorical judgments (e.g., negligent or not, guilty or not) and then dependent on their response may make another judgment (e.g., award, punishment). We concentrate on zero‐inflated and hurdle models. Third, we examine how to take into account that jurors are part of a jury using multilevel modelling. We illustrate each of the techniques using software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet (the package R) and provide a web page that gives further details for running these analyses.