Parties as Procedural Coalitions in Congress: An Examination of Differing Career Tracks

We examine the degree to which parties act as procedural coalitions in Congress by testing predictions from the party cartel theory (Cox and McCubbins 1993, 1994, 2002). We gain leverage on the question of party influence in Congress by focusing on three types of House members: reelection seekers, higher‐office seekers, and retiring members. We argue that retiring House members are no longer susceptible to party pressure, making them the perfect means (when compared to higher‐office seekers and reelection seekers) to determine the existence of party influence. Results from a pooled, cross‐sectional analysis of the 94th through 105th Congresses (1975–98) suggest that party influence is indeed present in Congress, especially where the party cartel theory predicts: on procedural, rather than final‐passage, votes. Moreover, we find that procedural party influence is almost exclusively the domain of the majority party. This latter finding is especially important because most prior studies have been limited to investigating interparty influence only.     

Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Dependency Court in Cases Involving Battered Mothers

A qualitative study was conducted involving clients, victim advocates, and judges participating in one of Miami‐Dade County's (Florida) “therapeutic” juvenile court based programs, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence (DCIPFV). The primary objective of this study was to assess how battered mothers’ perceptions of the dependency court judges’ actions impacted the women's motivation to take appropriate actions to promote their own, and their child(ren)'s safety.     

112例脑弥漫性轴索损伤分析

目的探讨脑弥漫性轴索损伤（diffuse axonal injury,DAI）与脑挫裂伤和原发性脑干损伤的关系。方法分析112例DAI伤者的法医临床学资料和影像学特点,对原发性脑损伤的特征进行比较。结果112例DAI伤者中70.5%为交通事故致伤,多次暴力致伤比较多见（60.7%）,伴脑挫裂伤者80例（71.4%）。CT或MRI发现出血灶者90例。结论DAI多伴有脑皮质挫裂伤和原发性脑损伤,CT或MRI有助于法医学死因分析和伤残程度鉴定。     

Does knowledge diffusion between university and industry increase innovativeness?

This paper presents an econometric analysis of the impact of collaboration with universities on the innovative output of firms. We also illustrate the differences that emerge from robustness checks, based on different matching estimators and samples. Our findings strongly suggest that university collaboration has a positive influence on the innovative activity of large manufacturing firms. In contrast, there appears to be an insignificant association between university collaboration and the average service firm’s innovation output.     

Development and usage of a NIST standard reference material for real time PCR quantitation of human DNA

National Institute of Standards and Technology SRM 2372 human DNA quantitation standard has been produced to support the need for a human-specific DNA quantitation standard in forensic casework and calibration of new quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays. The conventional DNA concentration has been assigned with one of the U.S. National Reference UV/Visible Spectrophotometers, assuming an absorbance of 1.0 at 260 nm equals 50 ng/μL of double stranded DNA. In addition, an interlaboratory study has been conducted, to verify that the SRM 2372 materials perform well in currently used DNA quantitation assays by the forensic DNA community. Each unit of SRM 2372 consists of three well-characterized DNA extracts. Component A is a single-source human male material derived from blood. Component B is a multiple-source human female material derived from blood. Component C was purchased as a purified unsheared genomic human DNA (Sigma-Aldrich Co., St. Louis, MO) obtained as a lyophilized human genomic extract and has both male and female donors. SRM 2372 is intended to enable the comparison of DNA concentration measurements across time and place. Manufacturers can use SRM 2372 to validate the values assigned to their own reference materials. Individual forensic laboratories can use SRM 2372 to validate DNA quantitation methods and to verify the assigned concentration of in-house or commercial DNA calibration standards.