Animal-related fatalities--part I: characteristic autopsy findings and variable causes of death associated with blunt and sharp trauma

Animals may be responsible for an array of potentially lethal injuries. Blunt force injuries characteristically involve larger animals such as cattle or horses that may kick, crush, or trample a victim causing head and facial injuries. Farm workers in particular are at high risk of lethal injuries involving the head and torso. Significant blunt trauma may be found in vehicle occupants after collisions with large animals such as camels or moose. Rarely, zookeepers may be crushed by particularly massive animals such as elephants. Sharp force injuries usually involve carnivore bites, most often from dogs with a "hole and tear" pattern of wounding. Injuries from animals such as alligators and sharks may have a significant component of crushing. Incised wounds may result in death from exsanguination and air embolism. On occasion, blunt or sharp trauma from animal activity may be confused with postmortem damage or with inflicted injury from an assault.     

The More You Say the Less It Means: Overreporting and Attenuated Criterion Validity in a Forensic Disability Sample

A recent publication in Psychological Bulletin by McGrath et al. (Psychological Bulletin 136:450–470, 2010) challenged the necessity of response bias indicators in applied psychological assessment on the grounds that there is insufficient empirical support that shows that they are able to moderate the prediction of substantive measures. The current study challenges their conclusions by examining the effects of response bias in a sample of 2,275 disability litigants. We utilized the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath and Tellegen, 2008) in order to establish a group of litigants who did not exhibit evidence of overreporting and compared them to a group of overreporting litigants. The overreporting group scored significantly higher on every Restructured Clinical Scale. Moreover, we compared the criterion validity between various substantive scales on the MMPI-2-RF and extratest measures [e.g., Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996)] and found evidence of significantly attenuated criterion validity in the overreporting group. Implications of the study in light of the review by McGrath and colleagues are discussed.     

Jurors' use of probabilistic evidence

Mock jurors' use of probabilistic evidence was examined in a fractional factorial design manipulating 7 variables: strength of nonstatistical evidence; quantification of nonstatistical evidence; strength of statistical evidence; combination of 2 pieces of statistical evidence; instruction in use of Bayes' theorem; and presentation of fallacies (both prosecutor's and defense attorney's) concerning use of statistical evidence. One hundred eighty-nine subjects viewed 1 of 16 videotapes presenting a condensed mock trial. Subjects completed dependent measures after each of 4 witnesses and at the end of trial. The strength of both nonstatistical and probabilistic evidence affected verdicts; the other manipulations did not. Overall, subjects slightly underused the probabilistic evidence, as compared to their individualized Bayesian norms, and subjects did not succumb to fallacies. However, subjects greatly varied in over-or underutilization, even after Bayesian instruction. Future research should examine use of weak nonstatistical evidence, and should test different probabilistic instructions.     

Manpower impacts of changes in federal budget priorities

This paper presents the results obtained from computer simulations conducted to determine the sentitivity of occupational employment demands to shifting patterns of U.S. Federal expenditures. The general model utilized is described and the effects of four hypothesized shifts in national priorities upon U. S. manpower requirements in the early 1960's are estimated. Selected occupations are classified and ranked according to their sensitivity to changing patterns of resource allocation between military and civilian activities. From these findings implications for economic and manpower forecasting are derived and discussed.     

The effect of early labor market experience upon internal-external locus of control among young male workers

This study examined the influence of some personal and labor market factors on changes in internal-external control among young male workers. Utilizing 960 respondents from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience's national sample for young men, multiple regression analysis, and an abbreviated version of the Rotter Internal-External Control Scale, this study found that labor market success, race, and employment in the private sector enhance feelings of internal control during the transition between school and work.This paper is a revision of several parts of the author's doctoral dissertation at Washington State University. Financial assistance was provided by the Richard D. Irwin Foundation and the Center for Public Economics at San Diego State University.Received Ph.D. in economics from Washington State University. Major interests are development of human resources and the effects of attitudes on decision making and economic behavior.     

State Corporate and Federal Securities Law: Dual Regulation in a Federal System

Corporate law in the United States involves dual regulation.Although state and federal corporate law typically functionwithout mutual interference, the last thirty years have revealedpotential conflicts, chiefly in two situations. One involvescivil remedies for investors under federal securities statutes;the other is state anti-takeover regulation and its relationshipto the federal Williams Act. The postwar years until 1975 sawperhaps too much reliance on the federal component of corporateregulation. Since 1975, there has been a renaissance of statelaw. Recently, however, appreciation for state regulatory authoritymay have degenerated into hostility to the will of Congress.The authors argue that the core interpretive task in federalsecurities law is preservation of both regimes to maximum effect,because the Congress has expressly declared that state authorityshould continue adjacent to federal regulation.