Benefit estimation goes to court: The case of natural resource damage assessments

This article evaluates the feasibility of performing natural resource damage assessments under the current Superfund legislation. Using the analyses developed for two recent cases, it explains the sources of the substantial divergences between plaintiffs' and defendants' estimates of these damages. Three factors explain the differences in damage estimates: (1) the time horizon used and treatment of capitalization effects of past damages; (2) the extent of the market assumed in estimating the effects of a release of hazardous wastes on the demand for the affected natural resource; and (3) the character and availability of substitutes for the resource involved.     

Individual and Family Predictors of the Perpetration of Dating Violence and Victimization in Late Adolescence

Teen dating violence is a crime of national concern with approximately one-fourth of adolescents reporting victimization of physical, psychological, or sexual dating violence each year. The present study examined how aggressive family dynamics in both childhood and early adolescence predicted the perpetration of dating violence and victimization in late adolescence. Children (n = 401, 43 % female) were followed from kindergarten entry to the age of 18 years. Early adolescent aggressive-oppositional problems at home and aggressive-oppositional problems at school each made unique predictions to the emergence of dating violence in late adolescence. The results suggest that aggressive family dynamics during childhood and early adolescence influence the development of dating violence primarily by fostering a child’s oppositional-aggressive responding style initially in the home, which is then generalized to other contexts. Although this study is limited by weaknesses detailed in the discussion, the contribution of longitudinal evidence including parent, teacher, and adolescent reports from both boys and girls, a dual-emphasis on the prediction of perpetration and victimization, as well as an analysis of both relations between variables and person-oriented group comparisons combine to make a unique contribution to the growing literature on adolescent partner violence.     

Australian news media’s representation of Cate McGregor,the highest ranking Australian transgender military officer

To date, no academic analysis has investigated the representation of transgender individuals by Australia’s news media (ANM). This paper conducts a discourse analysis of ANM’s representation of Cate McGregor, the highest ranking Australian transgender military officer. The author offers this analysis as a case study in which 28 articles were selected from a three-year period, beginning November 2012, when McGregor ‘came out’. By employing a feminist and transgender theory framework the author concludes that, on the one hand, ANM reproduces traditional transgender tropes (e.g. publishing ‘before/after’ photographs). On the other hand, ANM gives voice to McGregor’s views pertaining to living as a woman and a transgender woman, which are aligned with transgender theory. Thus, this author argues that ANM engages in a remediation of transgender theory. McGregor acknowledges that she has enjoyed the privilege of being socialized as a man and therefore her life as a woman, a transgender woman is different to other women. Moreover, as an ‘out’ transgender woman she is refusing to ‘pass’ and hide her sex/gender history. Subsequently, McGregor views on what it means to be a man, a woman, and a transgender woman, are disruptive to sex/gender normativities and she thereby embodies a ‘gender fuck’.     

What you don't know can hurt you: why managed care organizations have a legal duty to disclose the use of financial incentives to limit medical care

This article, winner of the 2000-2001 American Health Lawyers' Student Writing Competition, examines the conflicting policy goals at the heart of managed care--particularly in the use of financial incentives for physicians who limit their use of referrals and expensive diagnostic tests. While conceding the legality of such incentives, the author contends that Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) have a legal duty to disclose their existence to beneficiaries. After analyzing the basis for imposing a duty to disclose, the author proceeds to examine such issues as the proper timing, level, and extent of disclosure.     

A Study of PCR Inhibition Mechanisms Using Real Time PCR*,†

Abstract: In this project, real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was utilized to study the mechanism of PCR inhibition through examination of the effect of amplicon length, melting temperature, and sequence. Specifically designed primers with three different amplicon lengths and three different melting temperatures were used to target a single homozygous allele in the HUMTH01 locus. The effect on amplification efficiency for each primer pair was determined by adding different concentrations of various PCR inhibitors to the reaction mixture. The results show that a variety of inhibition mechanisms can occur during the PCR process depending on the type of co‐extracted inhibitor. These include Taq inhibition, DNA template binding, and effects on reaction efficiency. In addition, some inhibitors appear to affect the reaction in more than one manner. Overall we find that amplicon size and melting temperature are important in some inhibition mechanisms and not in others and the key issue in understanding PCR inhibition is determining the identity of the interfering substance.