Talking trash about landfills: Using quantitative scoring schemes in landfill siting processes

Policymakers and the public often turn to scientific experts for help in making decisions about complex policy problems. Such decisions, however, may involve trade‐offs among desired goals and so require considerable technical and political judgment. Typically there is no objectively "best" answer, although some answers may be better than others. We use a case study of a landfill siting process in Orange County, North Carolina, to analyze how quantitative scoring schemes may best be used to facilitate site selection processes. Quantitative scoring schemes, used and interpreted properly, can help policymakers and the public focus their attention on central rather than peripheral issues, and thereby conduct a more informed political debate. For the quantitative scoring scheme to fulfill this role, however, the community must be explicit about how the scoring scheme will be used within the larger decisionmaking framework. Clarifying the power and limitations of quantitative scoring schemes shows promise for facilitating decisionmaking regarding other locally unpopular land use siting processes, as well as any public policy decision involving multiple objectives. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Adolescent school-based sexual victimization: Exploring the role of opportunity in a gender-specific multilevel analysis

Purpose

Most research on school-based adolescent sexual victimization has lacked an explicit theoretical focus. This study examined whether an opportunity framework is appropriate for understanding adolescent school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization using gender-specific multilevel analysis.

Methods

Using a sample of middle and high school adolescents, we examined the effects of individual-level indicators of opportunity on school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization. In addition, we explored the relative influence of school factors on student sexual victimization, including the potential moderating influence the school environment may have on the effects of individual-level indicators of opportunity. Finally, we examined the potential differences in the correlates of sexual victimization across male and female adolescents.

Results

Several individual-level indicators of opportunity were associated with school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault for both males and females, though several important gender differences were observed. In addition, school factors directly and indirectly influenced sexual victimization.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that an opportunity framework is appropriate for understanding school-based sexual harassment and sexual assault victimization, and that important gender differences do exist. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

Differentiating Al Qaeda and the Islamic State Through Strategies Publicized in Jihadist Magazines

As Al Qaeda and the Islamic State vie for ascendancy in the jihad movement, policymakers grapple with distinguishing the threat posed by these groups. Proceeding from the terrorists’ view of media as a critical arena of jihad, this study applies content analysis to Al Qaeda- and Islamic State-produced magazines in order to empirically differentiate the two groups through the strategies publicized therein. Findings reveal that Al Qaeda consistently employs attrition to compel changes in the West's policy and behavior, while the Islamic State has shifted from intimidating populations to outbidding competing groups to solidify its claim to the Caliphate.     

Picture perfect: nostalgic femininity and temporal disruptions in the Aqualillies’ water ballets

This article examines nostalgic femininity in the aquatic performances of present-day synchronized swimming performance troupe, the Aqualillies. In spite of their fervent emulation of the iconic images of Golden Age Hollywood's splashiest star, Esther Williams, the Aqualillies’ performances refuse to be only a kitschy nod to the past through the addition of marketable symbols of modern femininity, such as the bikini, to their otherwise nostalgic representation. Through a concurrent multiplicity of temporally diverse femininities, they challenge the neoliberal rhetoric of choice that can arise in reperformance. This article invokes Svetlana Boym's theory of reflective nostalgia ­– an emotional connection to the past that does not foreclose critical reflection – to argue that the Aqualillies’ water ballets use performative temporal vacillation to expose the physical and psychical labor in the picture-perfect images of femininity in order to subvert the image's dominance and to defy capital's linear organization of time.     

One Strike to Second Chances: Using Criminal Backgrounds in Admission Decisions for Assisted Housing

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has changed its position toward housing individuals with criminal records from strict one-strike policies in the 1980s to providing second chances to returning citizens. Many public housing authorities have not updated their admission policies for using criminal backgrounds and still adhere to the one-strike philosophy. In response to new guidance from HUD, housing agencies are trying to find a balance between screening practices to identify demonstrable risk but avoid discrimination and violation of the Fair Housing Act. This research examines several questions critical to assisting housing providers to address the new guidance from HUD. Findings provide direction for housing providers on understanding recidivism risk rates, using useful lookback periods, considering risk and harm across crime types, and verifying rehabilitation and other evidence to design informed policies and procedures for using criminal records in admission decisions for assisted housing.     

Do Partners in PPPs view Public and Private Management Differently?

Differences between public and private management have been studied extensively by comparing sectors, but not within cross‐sectoral collaborative arrangements. As participants in such arrangements have actually experienced both management styles, examining their perceptions of how these styles differ may contribute innovatively to existing literature. This paper compares such perceptions between public and private sector project members (N = 63) involved in four PPPs in the Netherlands. We assess (1) to what extent and under which conditions these project members view public and private management differently and (2) how they evaluate these differences. By triangulating quantitative and qualitative interview data, we examine Boyne's classical hypotheses and find that more than two‐thirds of the statements making reference to these hypotheses offer support for them; more so, the vast majority of such statements evaluate sectoral differences negatively. Intriguingly, type of PPP is a stronger determinant of perceived differences than the manager's sector of origin.     

Stature Estimation from Postmortem CT Femoral Maximum Length in Contemporary Danish Population

Stature estimation methods for Danish adult population have generally relied on Trotter and Gleser’s and Boldsen’s regression equations that are based on the skeletal remains of recent war dead American Whites, Terry Skeletal Collection, and Danish archaeological medieval skeletal materials, respectively. These equations are probably not suitable for stature estimation in contemporary Danish forensic cases. Furthermore, because postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) is now routinely performed at Danish forensic departments, equations based on PMCT, rather than measurements of defleshed bones, are needed. The aim of this study was to develop new equations for adult stature estimation based on PMCT femoral measurement. Maximum femoral length was measured on the PMCT images of 78 individuals (41 males and 37 females) aged 23–45 years. The measurement accuracy was tested on dry bones, and all the measurements were included in the inter- and intra-observer analyses. Both analyses results demonstrated the reliability of the method and data. Comparison between the living stature of the individuals and the estimates based on the equations by Trotter and Gleser and Boldsen demonstrated the unreliability of the previous equations to some extent. New regression equations were then developed and validated on a different sample of 18 Danish forensic cases. Comparisons of all the equations indicated that both the sets of previous equations underestimated the stature in the new validation dataset. The new equations developed in this study provide a reliable alternative for stature estimation in modern Danish forensic cases.     

Evaluation of DNA Extraction Methods for Processing Fingerprint Powder-Coated Forensic Evidence

In unison, fingerprinting and DNA analysis have played a pivotal role in forensic investigations. Fingerprint powders that are available on the market can come in a range of colors and with specific properties. This study evaluated the efficiency of DNA extraction from samples coated with 3 brands of fingerprint powders: Lightning, Sirchie, and SupraNano, covering a range of colors and properties. A total of 23 fingerprint powders were tested using the Chelex, Promega DNA IQ™, and Applied Biosystems™ PrepFiler™ DNA extraction protocols. The DNA IQ™ and PrepFiler™ methods extracted higher yields of DNA in comparison to Chelex, which also accounted for better quality of PowerPlex x00AE; 21 DNA profiles recovered. There were no signs of degradation or inhibition in the quantification data, indicating that samples returning low DNA yield was due to interference during DNA extraction and not PCR inhibition. DNA profiles were recovered from the majority of fingerprint powders with only a single powder, Sirchie Magnetic Silver, failing to produce a profile using any of the methods tested. A link was observed between the DNA extraction chemistry, fingerprint powder property, that is, nonmagnetic, magnetic and aqueous, and the brand of fingerprint powder. Overall, the DNA IQ™ method was favorable for nonmagnetic fingerprint powders, while magnetic fingerprint powders produced more DNA profiles when extracted with the PrepFiler™ chemistry. This study highlights the importance of screening DNA extraction chemistries for the type of fingerprint powder used, as there is not a single DNA extraction method that suits all fingerprint powder brands and properties.     

Dress and Distinction in Nursing, 1860–1939: ‘A corporate (as well as corporeal) armour of probity and purity’ 1

This article considers the uniform and uniform rules which formed an important part of the ‘reformed nurse’ in the latter years of the nineteenth century and remained central to the concept of the nurse in the twentieth. It will be shown that the rules and regulations of nurses’ garb continued long after the rules for women’s dress in general had relaxed. These dress codes were used by the reformers of nursing to provide a ‘space’ between the ‘new or reformed nurse’ and her morally suspect predecessor, the Sairey Gamp figure in Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit. The nurses’ garb was created to provide a common identity for the profession at a time of rapid social change. But within this context it also represented its distinctiveness; uniform was a metaphor for the class divisions and symbolic fractures within the profession.