The information gained from witnesses' responses to an initial "blank" lineup

Wells ("The psychology of lineup identifications," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1984, 14, 89-103) proposed that a blank lineup (an initial lineup of known-to-be-innocent foils) can be used to screen eyewitnesses; witnesses who chose from a blank lineup (initial choosers) were more likely to make an error on a second lineup that contained a suspect than were witnesses who rejected a blank lineup (initial nonchoosers). Recent technological advances (e.g., computer-administered lineups) may overcome many of the practical difficulties cited as a barrier to the use of blank lineups. Our research extended knowledge about the blank lineup procedure by investigating the underlying causes of the difference in identification performance between initial choosers and initial nonchoosers. Studies 1a and 1b (total, N = 303) demonstrated that initial choosers were more likely to reject a second lineup than initial nonchoosers and witnesses who did not view a blank lineup, implying that cognitive biases (e.g., confirmation bias and commitment effects) influenced initial choosers' identification decisions. In Study 2 (N = 200), responses on a forced-choice identification test provided evidence that initial choosers have, on average, poorer memories for the culprit than do initial nonchoosers. We also investigated the usefulness of blank lineups for interpreting identification evidence. Diagnosticity ratios suggested that suspect identifications made by initial nonchoosers (cf. initial choosers) should have a greater impact on estimates of the likely guilt of the suspect. Furthermore, for initial nonchoosers, higher confidence in blank lineup rejections was associated with higher diagnosticity for subsequent suspect identifications. These results have implications for policy to guide the collection and interpretation of identification evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Postmortem exsiccation of the fingertips--results of a systematic quantitative and qualitative experimental study

To date there have been no results published on qualitative and quantitative time-related changes with regard to desiccation of human fingertips post mortem. The fingertips of 52 hands from 36 corpses were qualitatively examined soon after death (2-6 h) to 120 h post mortem. The quantitative investigations were confined to the tips of the middle fingers. The width of three adjoining ridges of the skin was measured in four defined areas of the middle fingertips, and photographs were taken at intervals of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 20, 26, 32, 44, 50, 60, 72, 84, 96 and 120 h p.m. Concerning the qualitative test results, four time-related stages were classified macroscopically and by a pocket lens (X25). Desiccation stage IV correlates to the period 72 h after death in bodies found in apartments. Besides the rough, wrinkled, and brown or black surface of the fingertips, microwrinkles of the epidermis occur on the skin ridges, which have so far not been described. The quantitative results did not show any changes in the width of the skin ridges, independent of age, sex, right or left hand.     

Genealogies of the colonial present: the rediscovery of the local in conflict management interventions in Mindanao,the Southern Philippines

This article argues that the current attention on indigenous institutions, and the ‘local’ more generally, in peace-building and conflict management bears similarities with colonial and post-colonial attempts at pacifying volatile borderlands. This will be illustrated through a historical case study of the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao, which has witnessed a recurring Muslim insurgency throughout different phases of its history. In an attempt to cope with these violent uprisings, both the American colonial authorities and the authoritarian Marcos regime, as well as a range of contemporary international NGOs, have endorsed traditional institutional avenues of informal mediation. The argument for the deployment of the local in state reconstruction and peace-building as propagated in current literature on hybrid peace should therefore be reframed as a reinvention of colonial governance techniques of indirect rule. It will hereby also be argued that the underlying rationale for this current deployment of local/traditional institutions of mediation and governance confirms and builds further upon a colonial framing of the non-Western other as incapable of modern, liberal democracy.     

Effect of Lower Third Molar Segmentations on Automated Tooth Development Staging using a Convolutional Neural Network

Staging third molar development is commonly used for age estimation in subadults. Automated developmental stage allocation to the mandibular left third molar in panoramic radiographs has been examined in a pilot study. This method used an AlexNet Deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) approach to stage lower left third molars, which had been selected by manually drawn bounding boxes around them. This method (bounding box AlexNet = BA) still contained parts of surrounding structures which may have affected the automated stage allocation performance. We hypothesize that segmenting only the third molar could further improve the automated stage allocation performance. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine and validate the effect of lower third molar segmentations on automated tooth development staging. Retrospectively, 400 panoramic radiographs were collected, processed and segmented in three ways: bounding box (BB), rough (RS), and full (FS) tooth segmentation. A DenseNet201 CNN was used for automated stage allocation. Automated staging results were compared with reference stages – allocated by human observers – overall and per stage. FS rendered the best results with a stage allocation accuracy of 0.61, a mean absolute difference of 0.53 stages and a Cohen's linear κ of 0.84. Misallocated stages were mostly neighboring stages, and DenseNet201 rendered better results than AlexNet by increasing the percentage of correctly allocated stages by 3% (BA compared to BB). FS increased the percentage of correctly allocated stages by 7% compared to BB. In conclusion, full tooth segmentation and a DenseNet CNN optimize automated dental stage allocation for age estimation.     

How Local Economic Conditions Affect School Finances,Teacher Quality,and Student Achievement: Evidence from the Texas Shale Boom

Whether improved local economic conditions lead to better student outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and will depend on how schools use additional revenues and how students and teachers respond to rising private sector wages. The Texas boom in shale oil and gas drilling, with its large and localized effects on wages and the tax base, provides a unique opportunity to address this question that spans the areas of education, labor markets, and public finance. An empirical approach using variation in shale geology across school districts shows that the boom reduced test scores and student attendance, despite tripling the local tax base and creating a revenue windfall. Schools spent additional revenue on capital projects and debt service, but not on teachers. As the gap between teacher wages and private sector wages grew, so did teacher turnover and the percentage of inexperienced teachers, which helps explain the decline in student achievement. Changes in student composition did not account for the achievement decline but instead helped to moderate it. The findings illustrate the potential value of using revenue growth to retain teachers in times of rising private sector wages.     

Understanding voluntary program performance: Introducing the diffusion network perspective

Voluntary programs have rapidly become a means for the public, private, and third sectors to regulate and govern complex societal problems. Following the rapid and widespread emergence of these programs, scholars have been active in mapping, exploring, and interrogating their design and performance. Considerable advances have been made in describing program design and context conditions, and the actors involved in the voluntary program that relate to program performance. Less is known, however, about how these conditions affect program performance. Starting with one of the dominant theories on voluntary programs, the club theory perspective, this article seeks to understand how different program design conditions interact to affect the performance of 26 voluntary programs for low carbon building and city development in Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. Applying qualitative comparative analysis, the study finds that the club theory perspective has limited explanatory power for this specific set of cases. Iterative rounds of analysis indicate that a diffusion network perspective is the best complementary perspective for explaining the performance of this set of programs. The article concludes that, in situations of a non‐homogeneous market of voluntary program participants, a focus on the programs’ diffusion networks helps to explain their performance. This has implications for the design and implementation of such programs.