Investigations into Enhancing Yersinia pestis Cells Viability following Environmental Sampling for Forensic Analysis

Following an intentional or accidental bio-warfare agent (BWA) release, environmental sample analysis is absolutely critical to determine the extent of contamination. When dealing with nonspore forming BWA (e.g., Yersinia pestis), retention of cell viability is central to such analyses. Even though significant advances have been achieved in DNA sequencing technologies, a positive identification of BWAs in environmental samples must be made through the ability of cells to form colony-forming units upon culturing. Inability to revive the cells between collection and analysis renders such studies inconclusive. Commercial kits designed to preserve the viability of pathogens contained within clinical samples are available, but many of them have not been examined for their ability to preserve samples containing suspected BWAs. The study was initiated to examine the applicability of commercial solutions aiding in retention of Y. pestis viability in samples stored under nonpermissive temperatures, that is, 40 and 37°C. While none of the tested solutions sustained cell viability at 40°C, the results show five out of 17 tested preservatives were capable of supporting viability of Y. pestis at 37°C.     

Does Targeted Capture Reduce Terrorism?

From January 1979 to December 2009, the Maoist insurgent Shining Path committed a total of 9,034 violent acts in a concerted attempt to topple the Peruvian government. These acts of violence included bombings, armed assaults, and assassinations. The Shining Path's leader Abimael Guzmán was captured by the Peruvian government on 12 September 1992. Using quarterly data and an interrupted times-series AutoRegressive Integrative Moving Average (ARIMA) study design, we investigated the effect of Abimael Guzmán's capture on the ability of the Shining Path to wage its war against the Peruvian government. Maximum-likelihood results revealed that the frequency of terrorist acts committed by the Shining Path dropped by 143 incidents per quarter a short time after Guzmán was captured. The analysis also evinced a positive relationship between the lethality of attacks and the frequency of the Shining Path's terrorist activity. We conclude that targeted capture shows some promise as an effective counterterrorism strategy, at least for terrorist groups such as the Shining Path that have a top-down type of organizational structure.     

Sexual Difference as Nomadic Strategy

Lisa Folkmarson Käll's article “Sexual Difference as Nomadic Strategy” deals with Rosi Braidotti's attempt at rethinking sexual difference and female subjectivity in terms of nomadism. It explores how the idea of nomadism can function as a framework for understanding sexual difference which takes into account the multiple ways in which difference is configured, experienced, and contextually given meaning. Braidotti's account of sexual difference as nomadism captures difference in three interrelated dimensions, namely the difference between man and woman, differences between women, and differences within each woman. In all three dimensions, the central issue at stake is to bring forth an understanding of identity as a site of difference. Such an understanding allows Braidotti to locate sexual difference at the very core of subjectivity and recognize difference as constitutive of identity in a more fundamental way than as marking out its external limits. According to Käll, Braidotti's tripartite understanding of nomadism further opens up towards a rethinking of sexual difference beyond the confines of a strict exclusionary binary relation between man and woman. It locates sexual difference as a central element in the identification and becoming of subjectivity while at the same time recognizing that sexual difference is not the only central element, but one which intersects with others.     

Housework,Wages and Money

Abstract

According to a range of authors and popular commentators, the post-Fordist socioeconomic order has produced a new category of female labourer, the ‘female principal breadwinner’. This article opens out this category of worker to critical scrutiny. We suggest that while the very idea of the female principal breadwinner is open to all manner of existing lines of feminist critique, beyond this it forces a confrontation with a number of issues vital to feminist analyses of transformations to women's labour—both waged and unwaged—in contemporary financialised post-Fordism. We pursue two issues in particular. First, transformations to the labour of social reproduction—including transformations to the measurement and valuation of domestic labour—and second, the financialisation (and shifting capacities) of wages specifically and money more generally. We suggest that if transformations to women's labour are to be fully grasped and understood feminist theory must renew and rethink its analyses of domestic labour, wages and money.     

Longitudinal Effects of Perceived Maternal Approval on Sexual Behaviors of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Young Adults

Data were obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the longitudinal association between Asian and Pacific Islander (API) adolescents’ perceptions of maternal approval of their sexual activity and contraception use, and four sexual outcomes during young adulthood. The study includes a nationally representative sample of 1,195 API adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between predictors (Wave I) and outcomes (Wave III), controlling for covariates. API adolescents who perceived that their mothers approved of their sexual activities were more likely to have engaged in sex before age 15, contracted HIV/Sexually Transmitted Diseases, had multiple sex partners, and paid money for sex during young adulthood. Findings highlight the need for parent–adolescent communication and parental involvement in preventing negative sexual health outcomes among API adolescents transitioning to young adulthood.

Understanding the effects of perceived ethics failure,compassionate leadership,and communication strategy on anti-government sentiment

This study conceptualizes anti-government sentiment and tests the relationships between anti-government sentiment and three antecedents (i.e., ethics failure, compassionate leadership, and communication strategy). An online survey (n = 1,112) was conducted in South Korea. Exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the measures proposed for anti-government sentiment. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Results show that publics' perceptions of the government's ethics failure, lack of compassionate leadership, and use of a buffering strategy for communication are positively related to their anti-government sentiment toward the incumbent government.     

Coproducing the Endangered Polar Bear: Science,Climate Change,and Legal Mobilization

Applying insights from science and technology studies about the “coproduction” of science and sociopolitical order to research on legal mobilization yields important theoretical insights. Using the polar bear petition campaign by the Center for Biological Diversity as an illustrative case, this article shows how this protracted legal campaign around protection of the polar bear and its habitat opened up new legal opportunities for those advocating for the regulation of carbon emissions, mandated state-sponsored generation of climate science, legally constructed the polar bear as “endangered,” and helped to shape the priorities of the nongovernmental organization itself.     

Nudging Early Reduces Administrative Burden: Three Field Experiments to Improve Code Enforcement

In the past decade, public sector organizations around the world have worked to simplify administrative processes as a way to improve user experience and compliance. Academic evidence on administrative burden supports this approach and there is a strong body of research showing that learning costs, compliance costs, and psychological costs help to explain why residents do not always take up programs for which they are eligible. This article considers the role of these types of costs in a different set of resident-state interactions: compliance with regulations. We present the results of three large field experiments aimed at improving resident compliance with municipal housing codes using targeted behavioral interventions. We find that contacting property owners earlier, redesigning first notices, and proactively communicating with previous violators, can significantly improve compliance by 14.7 percent, 3.3 percent, and 9.2 percent, respectively, with costs savings ranging from 6 to 15 percent of a city's annual enforcement budget. Our results counterintuitively suggest that sometimes adding steps to an administrative process can reduce the costs associated with the resident-state interaction.