Measuring High-Technology Capacity Across the 50 States

This study conceptualizes and operationalizes state high-technology capacity and demonstrates its potential usefulness in comparative state studies. The analysis is primarily concerned with identifying and recording the amount of high-technology resources that are available in each state and that can be employed in public policy. Drawing upon a host of likely indicators of high-technology availability, the study identifies five dimensions of the concept and ranks the states along these dimensions. The work then analyzes the relationships between the five components of high-technology capacity and several state energy and environmental policies. Suggestions for future research are included at the end of the study.     

The Determinants of State Budget Periodicity: An Empirical Analysis

States budget for a one-year or a two-year period. Little attention has been paid to the determinants of budget periodicity decisions at the state level. This article relies on existing surveys to develop hypotheses for the factors that influence the periodicity decision at the state level. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 300 observations of the fifty states at various times in recent history. The results suggest that overall expenditures, budget complexity, political culture, revenue variability, and frequency of legislative session are statistically significant factors in the determination of budget periodicity.     

Permitting Jury Discussions During Trial: Impact of the Arizona Reform

A field experiment tested the effect of an Arizona civil jury reform that allows jurors to discuss evidence among themselves during the trial. Judges, jurors, attorneys, and litigants completed questionnaires in trials randomly assigned to either a Trial Discussions condition, in which jurors were permitted to discuss the evidence during trial, or a No Discussions condition, in which jurors were prohibited from discussing the evidence during trial according to traditional admonitions. Judicial agreement with jury verdicts did not differ between conditions. Permitting jurors to discuss the evidence did affect the degree of certainty that jurors reported about their preferences at the start of jury deliberations, the level of conflict on the jury, and the likelihood of reaching unanimity.     

Population data of Galicia (NW Spain) on the new Y-STRs DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, GATA A10, GATA A7.1, GATA A7.2, GATA C4 and GATA H4

Haplotype, allele frequencies and population data of eight Y-chromosome STR loci, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, GATA A10, GATA A7.1, GATA A7.2, GATA C4 and GATA H4, were determined from a sample of 212 unrelated male individuals from Galicia (NW of Spain).     

Results of the GEP-ISFG collaborative study on the Y chromosome STRs GATA A10, GATA C4, GATA H4, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS460 and DYS461: population data

The Spanish and Portuguese ISFG Working Group (GEP-ISFG) carried out a collaborative exercise in order to asses the performance of two Y chromosome STR tetraplexes, which include the loci DYS461, GATA C4, DYS437 and DYS438 (GEPY I), and DYS460, GATA A10, GATA H4 and DYS439 (GEPY II). The groups that reported correct results in all the systems were also asked to analyse a population sample in order to evaluate the informative content of these STRs in different populations. A total of 1020 males out of 13 population samples from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Macao, Mozambique, Portugal and Spain were analysed for all the loci included in the present study. Haplotype and allele frequencies of these eight Y-STRs were estimated in all samples. The lowest haplotype diversity was found in the Lara (Argentina) population (95.44%) and the highest (99.90%) in Macao (China). Pairwise haplotype analysis showed the relative homogeneity of the Iberian origin samples, in accordance with what was previously found in the European populations for other Y-STR haplotypes (http://www.ystr.org). As expected, the four non-Caucasian samples, Macao (Chinese), Mozambique (Africans), Costa Rica (Africans) and Argentina (Lara, Amerindians), show highly significant Phist values in the pairwise comparisons with all the Caucasian samples.     

The effects of pubertal timing on body image,school behavior,and deviance

Variation in the timing of pubertal maturation may result in behavioral differences among early, mid-, and late maturers. Using data from the National Health Examination Survey, a national probability sample of children and youth aged 12–17, we investigated the relationships between maturational timing and body image, school behavior, and deviance. In terms of body image, the early maturing boys were the group most satisfied with height and weight. The early maturing girls were most dissatisfied with weight, with 69% wishing to be thinner. This great dissatisfaction with weight reported by early maturing girls is probably not an affect of early maturation, but a concomitant of maturation in general. The majority of girls became dissatisfied with their weight as they matured, and females from the higher social groups were more likely to want to be thinner than females from lower groups. Thus, a normal developmental process is being viewed negatively by females and positively by males. Male early maturers more often had deviant behavior, but there were no consistent findings for girls. There was no effect of maturational timing on teacher reports of school absence, adjustment, popularity, need for discipline, or grade repetition.This research was supported by the Stanford Center for the Study of Youth Development and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Received M.D. from The Medical College of Pennsylvania.Received Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University.Received Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.Received M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University.