University Leaders and the Public Agenda: Talking About Women and Diversity in STEM Fields

We undertake an investigation of public statements and pronouncements from leaders at various universities to gain insight into institutional values and environments relative to women and their participation and advancement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and other disciplinary fields. Employing content analysis techniques to focus on terminological use and keyword interdependencies in these speeches, our findings indicate that, while gender equality is addressed as a separate topic in its own right, university leaders raise issues of gender in the context of STEM participation primarily in conjunction only with other topics. As expected, the data also support arguments suggesting diversity in general as an important goal espoused in the rhetoric of university representatives. Questions remain, however, concerning whether these speeches presage concrete institutional commitments and responses relative to the achievement of diversity, gender equality, and gender equity in the STEM professoriate.     

Cognitive and non‐cognitive predictors of success in adult education programs: Evidence from experimental data with low‐income welfare recipients

Using data on approximately 2,000 low‐income welfare recipients in a three‐site random‐assignment intervention conducted in the early 1990s (the NEWWS), we examine the role of cognitive and non‐cognitive factors in moderating experimental impacts of an adult education training program for women who lacked a high school degree or GED at the time of random assignment. Both cognitive and noncognitive skills (in particular, locus of control) moderate treatment impacts. For the sample as a whole, assignment to an education‐focused program had a statistically significant (albeit modest) 8 percentage point impact on the probability of degree receipt. For those with low cognitive skills, virtually all of these program impacts were eliminated. However, non‐cognitive skills play a substantively important role such that women with high cognitive skills but low non‐cognitive skills are only half as likely to earn a degree as their counterparts with high skills of both types. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

An Update on the Hazards and Risks of Forensic Anthropology,Part II: Field and Laboratory Considerations

This paper focuses on potential hazards and risks to forensic anthropologists while working in the field and laboratory in North America. Much has changed since Galloway and Snodgrass published their seminal article addressing these issues. The increased number of forensic practitioners combined with new information about potential hazards calls for an updated review of these pathogens and chemicals. Discussion of pathogen hazards (Brucella, Borrelia burgdorferi, Yersinia pestis, Clostridium tetani and West Nile virus) includes important history, exposure routes, environmental survivability, early symptoms, treatments with corresponding morbidity and mortality rates, and decontamination measures. Additionally, data pertaining to the use of formaldehyde in the laboratory environment have resulted in updated safety regulations, and these are highlighted. These data should inform field and laboratory protocols. The hazards of working directly with human remains are discussed in a companion article, “An Update on the Hazards and Risks of Forensic Anthropology, Part I: Human Remains.”     

Legal Invisibility and the Revolution: Statelessness in Egypt

Recent political turmoil has focused international attention on Egypt, yet there is little awareness of the country’s stateless populations—those who lack legal nationality to any state—or the challenges they face. Individuals in situations of protracted statelessness are denied their right to a nationality, resulting in an array of additional rights violations. Such violations include denied freedom of movement, equality before the law, and access to economic and social rights. Drawing from two years’ of fieldwork data, this study highlights the plight of those who are unable to achieve legal status in a country with harsh punishments for illegal presence, entry, and exit. It also evaluates potential solutions for eliminating statelessness in Egypt and protecting the rights of stateless populations. As Egypt seeks to move beyond revolution, it is vital that the government addresses the pervasive and systemic inequalities that deny individuals their right to a nationality.     

Abnormal Daily Temperature and Concern about Climate Change Across the United States

The relatively low level of concern about climate change among Americans has important implications for climate policy. While many studies have examined individual characteristics associated with climate change attitudes, fewer studies have considered the effects of environmental conditions on such attitudes. Here, we use two national samples of American adults to explore the impact of abnormal daily temperatures on levels of concern about climate change. We test the hypotheses that (1) abnormally warm temperatures, and (2) both abnormally warm and abnormally cool temperatures are associated with higher levels of concern. Using a generalized ordinal logit, we find that the quadratic form of deviation from mean temperature on the date of the survey is significantly associated with higher levels of concern, thus supporting the second hypothesis. We discuss several theoretical frameworks that may explain this result including availability bias, mental models, and implicit stimuli, and the implications for climate policy.     

A study of the use of sedative PRN medication in patients at a secure hospital

We have investigated the use of ‘as required’ (PRN), sedative psychotropic medication in 242 forensic rehabilitation patients at a UK secure psychiatric hospital. In total, 176 (73%) patients were prescribed PRN medication and 90 (37%) received a total of 542 doses in the preceding two weeks. The principle indication for use was agitation. Oral benzodiazepines, particularly Lorazepam, were most commonly prescribed and administered followed by Haloperidol. Although high-dose antipsychotics and polypharmacy due to PRN prescribing were common (11 and 20%, respectively), on only 6% of the days studied did patients actually receive PRN antipsychotic medication. Using univariate analyses, PRN administration was associated with younger age, female gender, emotionally unstable personality disorder, shorter length of stay and detention in medium security. Case note documentation of PRN administration was often absent (44%) or vague. Further research, both quantitative and qualitative, is needed into the precise circumstances under which PRN is administered.     

Discrepant Parent-Adolescent Reports of Parenting Practices: Associations with Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Discrepancies in multi-informant reports of parenting practices represent a meaningful clinical construct that can be harnessed to predict adolescent mental...     

Prospects for Local Collaboration into an Uncertain Future: Learning from Practice within Labour's Partnership Paradigm

Achieving effective local collaboration, a strong theme of the previous Labour government, may actually become more important given Coalition government policies emphasising decentralisation and encouraging alternative providers of public services. Therefore, it remains essential to learn from experiences of collaboration especially as, despite significant research, few studies explicitly identify guidance for improving this practice that is of specific relevance to local policy actors. In order to do so, a decentred and ethnographic approach was adopted to examine collaboration in a case study of a Sport and Physical Activity Alliance in Casetown, a medium-sized city in the south of England. Findings from this case study reinforced those found in other studies that pointed to the constraints of targets imposed by the Labour government, ingrained approaches to public administration and lack of open acknowledgement of power differentials impeding the development of effective collaboration. Drawing on the suggestions of those involved in the alliance, an alternative vision of collaboration is advocated, focused on shared learning and bottom-up implementation within more fluid and open structures in which there would be greater scope for the exercise of agency on behalf of those individuals and organisations involved. As during the period of the Labour government, aspects of current wider policy agendas may impede as well as support the development of this alternative vision of collaboration. Nevertheless, it is argued that reflexive local actors may collectively be able to address the contextual challenges that exist in order to develop more effective forms and practices of collaboration.