Constraints on sustainable development in Ethiopia: Is there a future for improved wood-stoves?

A fundamental component of resource conservation in Ethiopian development programmes is sought in part through the dissemination of improved stoves. However, as an evaluation of a range of stove programmes reveals, the absence of applied research by government and non-governmental organizations together with fundamental constraints arising out of the wider development context is resulting in programmes that are poorly targeted, inflexibly implemented and largely unable to meet the energy needs of poor rural and urban households. Despite these problems, donors continue to fund such projects, in large part because project evaluations are not made public, because of a policy lacuna, and ultimately because development thinking appears locked into finding a quick technology fix for what are essentially long-term, intractable sociopolitical processes and problems.     

The distribution of and factors associated with intimate terrorism and situational couple violence among a population-based sample of urban women in the United States

It has been proposed that two distinct forms of intimate partner violence exist: intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. This article describes the distribution of factors that characterize intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, including controlling behaviors, violence escalation, and injury, among a representative sample of 331 physically assaulted women living in 11 North American cities. In addition, respondent, partner, and relationship characteristics associated with each form of violence are identified. Most women who experienced physical assault also experienced controlling behavior by their male partner. In multivariate analyses, respondent's young age, violence escalation in the relationship, partner's access to guns, previous arrests for domestic violence offenses, poor mental health, and previous suicide attempts or threats were associated with intimate terrorism, defined as experiencing one or more controlling behaviors. These results suggest that situational couple violence is rare and that moderate and high levels of controlling behaviors are associated primarily with partner factors.     

Utility of the Y-STR typing systems Y-PLEX 6 and Y-PLEX 5 in forensic casework and 11 Y-STR haplotype database for three major population groups in the United States

The Y-PLEX 6 and Y-PLEX 5 systems enable analysis for 11 Y-STR loci. We present here the utility of these systems in forensic casework. A total of 188 samples, including 127 evidence samples, were analyzed using either or both of the systems. The evidence sample types included fingernail scrapings, sperm or seminal fluid, epithelial cells, blood and other tissues. The Y-STR typing systems provided useful probative results in difficult cases. A reference database for Caucasian (n = 517), African American (n = 535), and Hispanic (n = 245) population groups within the United States was generated for estimating the haplotype frequency in forensic casework. Among the individuals profiled, 311 Caucasians, 412 African Americans, and 194 Hispanics provided unique profiles in their respective population datasets. This is the first report describing the haplotype database for the set of 11 Y-STR loci recommended by the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM). Linkage analysis reveals that the frequencies from forensically important autosomal loci can be multiplied with the Y-STR haplotype frequency. The results from Y-PLEX systems have been accepted in courts in the United States.     

Participation in a national,means‐tested school voucher program

We use data from a sample of applicants to a national means‐tested school voucher program and a national sample of the population eligible for the program to evaluate the factors leading families to use school vouchers. Our analysis divides the process of voucher usage into two distinct stages: initial application and subsequent take‐up. Using a nested logit model, we find that some factors, like religious affiliation and religious service attendance, affect both stages. Others, like mother's education, affect only one (application). Still others, like ethnicity, have opposite effects at the two stages. Compared to Whites, minorities are more likely to apply for vouchers, but less likely to take them when given the opportunity. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

What's looks got to do with it? Instructor appearance and student evaluations of teaching

Some studies suggest that instructors' looks are important determinants of their Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) results. Yet the studies examining this proposition leave out many independent variables that have been found to be important determinants of SETs in the SET literature. This study adds in most such factors and finds that, controlling for these other factors, attractiveness has no effect in our data. We conclude that earlier findings indicating that instructor appearance is important are likely due to omitted variable bias. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Stretching the limits of "rights talk": securing health care entitlements for children

Health care rights by their very nature have to be considered not only in a traditional legal context structured around the ideas of human autonomy but in a new analytical framework based on the notion of human interdependence. "A healthy life depends upon [social] interdependence: the quality of air, water, and sanitation which the [state] maintains for the public good; the quality of one's caring relationships, which are highly correlated to health; [as well as] the quality of health care and support furnished officially by medical institutions and provided informally by family, friends, [and the community]."