Interpreting the dynamics of public housing: Cultural and rational choice explanations

Abstract

This article uses culture of poverty and rational choice theories of poverty to explain how quickly nonelderly household heads leave public housing. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics serve as the basis for the analysis.

Although a significant proportion of all household heads have public housing spells lasting five or more years, the majority have spells lasting less than five years. The availability of other housing options has a strong impact on how quickly individuals move out of public housing. Family structure and human capital play a more modest role. To the extent that one's childhood experiences affect the likelihood of exiting public housing, they appear to do so mostly through their effect on the acquisition of human capital. Finally, the evidence presented is inconsistent with the notion that public housing is a trap from which it is more difficult to escape the longer one lives in it.     

Esophageal injury in fatal rear-impact collisions

Neck injuries resulting from motor vehicle collisions (MVC), often referred to as whiplash trauma and injury, often demonstrate little or no evidence of significant tissue damage. In rare instances, however, serious injury to the anterior neck organ injuries can result from such trauma. The present study describes esophageal injury associated with rear-impact collisions, based on a unique case report, review of the scientific literature and a query in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) database of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Medline search and present case study totaled five cases of rear-impact collision-related serious esophageal injury (laceration or rupture). In the four published cases all patients survived, whereas in the presented case study, the patient died due to mediastinitis and sepsis. The NASS query revealed an additional three cases out of a total of 55,926 investigated crashes. All three cases were associated with fatalities. Although no anatomical or bioengineering studies have presented data on the behavior of the esophagus during rear-impact whiplash loading, sudden tensile and/or compressive forces is the likely explanation of injury, often in combination with a local fracture of a vertebral body. In these 8 cases significant esophageal injury carried a substantial (50%) risk of mortality. Clinicians should be aware of the potential for significant complications in the whiplash trauma-exposed patient who complains of chest pain, mid-thoracic pain, discomfort in the neck and throat, respiratory distress, or hoarseness. For those forensic specialists involved in whiplash cases these study results highlight the need to consider esophageal injuries as a rare but potential consequence of whiplash trauma.     

Validation and implementation of the PowerPlex 16 BIO System STR multiplex for forensic casework

The PowerPlex 16 BIO multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) system contains the 13 CODIS loci (FGA, TPOX, D8S1179, vWA, D18S51, D21S11, TH01, D3S1358, CSF1PO, D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, and DS5S818), plus two pentanucleotide repeat loci (Penta D and Penta E) and the sex-identifying locus. Amelogenin. The PowerPlex 16 BIO System is optimized for use with the Hitachi FMBIO gel imaging systems. A consortium of seven independent laboratories collaborated to perform the studies defined by the FBI standards for performing a developmental validation, including the evaluation of sample concordance, percent stutter determination, nonprobative casework, precision, sensitivity, mixture determination, effect of substrates, the impact of environmental insults, and species specificity. All samples tested for concordance were consistent except for one sample from the Virginia Division of Forensic Science database that displayed discordance at D13S317, a locus whose primer sequence was altered. Stutter values were comparable to those of other STR multiplex systems, the precision was comparable to other multiplexes analyzed by gel electrophoresis, the DNA profiles were unchanged by the substrate upon which the blood samples were placed, and the nonprobative casework samples re-typed for the PowerPlex 16 BIO System were consistent with previous typing results. When greater than 0.125 ng of DNA was placed into the PowerPlex 16 BIO System amplification reaction, a full profile was generated by all laboratories. The mixture study results were comparable to those reported for other multiplex systems, the environmental study demonstrated a loss of larger molecular weight loci when samples were incubated at elevated temperatures for a prolonged period of time, and the only notable cross species hybridization was observed with primate DNA samples. This extensive validation work performed demonstrates that the PowerPlex 16 BIO System provides STR data of a quality comparable with other PowerPlex STR multiplex kits as well as other widely used STR multiplexes and is thus suitable for evidentiary casework analysis as well as database sample profiling.     

Teaching the New Inequalities: Using the Human Development Report as Class Text

In this article we share our experiences helping students to think critically about global issues by using the data and the conceptual innovations presented by the authors of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report We discuss a number of strategies we have applied to actively engage students in the analysis of the extensive data in the Report and the approaches we have taken to help our students understand both the research and the policy implications of the diverse conceptual frameworks introduced in each annual edition. By using a publication that introduces new concepts, new measures, and new insights in each annual edition, we help our students to see how social scientists work and how knowledge is constructed. At the same time, by requiring them to use the data to analyze, compare, and conceptualize, we show them they can "do" social science and discover for themselves some of the realities of the global community described in the more traditional texts.     

Program in search of a policy: The chrysler loan guarantee

In 1979, the U.S. government responded to the threat that Chrysler might close its doors with a program that had almost no U.S. precedents. The policy that lay behind the program was obscure at the time and remains so. A variant of the traditional argument for the protection of infant industries offers the glimmering of a rationalization. But defining a general policy in such cases remains a task for the future.     

Understanding the Judicial Role in Addressing Gender Bias: A View from the Eighth Circuit Federal Court System

The role of trial judges in the litigation process is frequently debated. Are judges to be dispassionate adjudicators, disengaged referees in a sport in which attorneys compete? Or are they charged with a more active role in promoting the substance, form, and process of justice? In the present paper, we explore the judicial role in addressing gender bias in federal litigation, using data gathered for the Eighth Circuit Gender Fairness Task Force. The federal judges of this circuit were surveyed about their experiences, observations, and opinions of gender-biased conduct. Results indicated that although judges viewed judicial intervention as an appropriate response to gender bias, they had little personal experience with intervention in such a situation. Fur thermore, when specific hypothetical scenarios were presented, they generally agreed that the described conduct was inappropriate but offered little consensus regarding the best course of action for an attorney or judge confronted with such behavior. The Eighth Circuit data thus provide the basis for expanded understanding of the conduct at issue, the options for action in response, and the persistent discrepancy in viewpoints on gender bias and the judicial role.     

Dimensional Review of Scales for Forensic Photography

Scales for photography provide a geometrical reference in the photographic documentation of a crime scene, pattern, or item of evidence. The ABFO No. 2 Standard Reference Scale (1) is used by the forensic science community as an accurate reference scale. We investigated the overall accuracy of the major centimeter graduations, internal/external diameters of the circles, error in placement of the circle centers, and leg perpendicularity. Four vendors were selected for the scales, and the features were measured on a vision‐based coordinate measurement system. The scales were well within the specified tolerance for the length graduations. After 4 years, the same scales were measured to determine what change could be measured. The scales demonstrated acceptable stability in the scale length and center‐to‐center measurements; however, the perpendicularity exhibited change. The study results indicate that scale quality checks using certified metal rulers are good practice.