A Failed Refutation and an Insufficiently Developed Insight in Hart’s Law, Liberty, and Morality

H. L. A. Hart, in his classic book Law, Liberty, and Morality, is unsuccessful in arguing that James Fitzjames Stephen’s observations about the role of vice in criminal sentencing have no relevance to a more general defense of legal moralism. He does, however, have a very important insight about the special significance of sexual liberty.     

Contrast and Foundation of the Public Oversight Roles of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.K. National Audit Office

This paper examines and compares, according to the New Public Management approach, the U.S. watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, in its ability to oversee and call to account the executive branch of government, and its U.K. counterpart, the National Audit Office. Results of this examination indicate that the Government Accountability Office is more effective than its U.K. counterpart. Its greater effectiveness is attributable to the fact that it derives its powers and legitimacy from a written constitution; in contrast, in the United Kingdom there is no equivalent document defining the relationship between the state and the citizenry. As a consequence, the powers, duties, and self-perception of the National Audit Office are significantly weaker and more mutable than those of the Government Accountability Office.     

The determinants of time off work after childbirth

Relatively little is known about the role that leave policies--family, parental, or maternity-leave policies--play in facilitating time off work after childbirth. Yet time off is a critical element of leave policies, as it facilitates the mother's recovery from childbirth and promotes maternal-infant attachment. Using data from Minnesota, the state with the highest rate of female labor force participation, we examine the extent to which policies, relative to personal, job, and workplace characteristics, determine the duration of women's childbirth-related leaves from work. A random sample of women identified from vital statistics records is used to estimate the relationship between leave policies and time off work after childbirth. Of our sample 85 percent had access to some paid leave benefits, although only 46 percent had paid maternity leave benefits. The difference in duration of leave between women with and without paid leave policies was approximately four weeks, a substantial difference for most women and their infants. Paid leave policies and spousal earnings as primary determinants of maternal time off work, suggest problems in the use of unpaid leave for economically vulnerable women.     

Comparing two analytical methods: minimal standards in forensic toxicology derived from information theory

Frequently, new instrumentation and techniques are being applied to casework without an adequate knowledge of how this new technology compares to acceptable analytical procedures. Information theory provides a mathematical method to estimate the identification power of various analytical procedures and predicts if the new method produces a better or poorer confidence in the analysis than an accepted method. This paper makes comparisons based on relative informational power and discusses methods to make those estimates. With the procedures outlined in this paper, an analyst can estimate if a novel technique has the opportunity of reaching the accepted analytical methodology and, if necessary, identify places where the greatest improvement can be made to reach this equilivalence. Even though relative information theory can dismiss some proposed techniques before any analysis starts, it cannot verify if a given technique is adequate for a particular task. For that purpose, a complete procedural verification must be undertaken.     

Stable isotope ratios as a tool in microbial forensics--Part 1. Microbial isotopic composition as a function of growth medium

The stable isotope ratios of a seized pathogen culture could potentially reveal information about the environment in which the agent was produced. In this paper we describe general relationships between stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen in bacteriological culture media and spores of Bacillus subtilis, an endospore-forming soil bacterium. In numerous media that varied both in nutrient composition and water stable isotope ratios, medium to spore enrichment in carbon isotopes was 0.3 +/- 2.0% per thousand (parts per thousand), and in nitrogen, 4.5 +/- 0.7% per thousand. We achieved mass balance for the contribution of hydrogen isotopes from nutrients (70%) and water (30%) to spores in independent experiments by varying the isotope ratios of nutrients or water. A model was derived for predicting the isotope ratio values of spores from those in nutrients and water.     

Sex differences in the causes of adolescent suicide ideation

A model that incorporates both socioenvironmental and psychological factors was developed in an attempt to explain adolescent suicide ideation. A sample of 407 high school students was used to test the model. Most of the previous research on the causes of adolescent suicidal behavior has not used multivariate data analysis techniques and has failed to explore sex differences. Results of the present study suggest that these are important omissions. Although significant at the zero-order level, factors such as self-esteem and interpersonal problems at school were not related to suicide ideation when the effects of the other explanatory variables were controlled. The incidence of suicide ideation was higher for females. Emotional problems and involvement in delinquent behavior were important predictors of ideation for females, while employment problems were the most potent predictor for males.Received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current interest is the etiology of various forms of deviant behavior, especially among adolescents.Therapist, Story County Center for Personal Development. Received her M.A. in clinical sociology from Iowa State University.