Can We Negotiate and Still Be Friends?

In this essay, we address why it is that people may not feel comfortablenegotiating with friends. We hypothesize what the effects of friendshipcould be on the negotiation process and outcome, and propose also how anegotiation could impact a friendship. Finally, we suggest means for measuringthis impact. This essay, based on a discussion at the Hewlettconference, does not provide answers but instead proposes questions withthe hope that these questions will provoke future research into these areas.     

What Do We Mean by ‘Rethinking Regulation’?

This article identifies and discusses several different conceptions of regulatory reform. It subsequently looks at available evidence on trends in regulatory burdens and on the results of regulatory reform activity undertaken over the past 30 years. Thirdly, it identifies and briefly discusses the range of tools that are typically employed in implementing regulatory reform policies. It then examines some of the regulatory problems that implementation of the reform agenda has itself brought forth. It concludes with some comments which seek to assess the report of the Better Regulation Taskforce in the context of the broad overview of regulatory reform set out in the preceding sections of the article.     

Development and usage of a NIST standard reference material for real time PCR quantitation of human DNA

National Institute of Standards and Technology SRM 2372 human DNA quantitation standard has been produced to support the need for a human-specific DNA quantitation standard in forensic casework and calibration of new quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays. The conventional DNA concentration has been assigned with one of the U.S. National Reference UV/Visible Spectrophotometers, assuming an absorbance of 1.0 at 260 nm equals 50 ng/μL of double stranded DNA. In addition, an interlaboratory study has been conducted, to verify that the SRM 2372 materials perform well in currently used DNA quantitation assays by the forensic DNA community. Each unit of SRM 2372 consists of three well-characterized DNA extracts. Component A is a single-source human male material derived from blood. Component B is a multiple-source human female material derived from blood. Component C was purchased as a purified unsheared genomic human DNA (Sigma-Aldrich Co., St. Louis, MO) obtained as a lyophilized human genomic extract and has both male and female donors. SRM 2372 is intended to enable the comparison of DNA concentration measurements across time and place. Manufacturers can use SRM 2372 to validate the values assigned to their own reference materials. Individual forensic laboratories can use SRM 2372 to validate DNA quantitation methods and to verify the assigned concentration of in-house or commercial DNA calibration standards.     

Marital Satisfaction and Marital Discord as Risk Markers for Intimate Partner Violence: A Meta-analytic Review

A meta-analysis investigating the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and intimate partner violence (IPV) in heterosexual relationships was conducted with 32 articles. Overall, a small-to-moderate effect size (r = −0.27) indicated a significant and negative relationship existed between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV. Moderator analyses found no differences between effect size based on construct examined (discord or satisfaction). However, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by other moderator variables, including the use of standardized versus non-standardized measures, gender of the offender and victim, role in the violence (perpetrator versus victim), and sample type (clinical versus community). The data suggests that gender is an especially important moderator variable in understanding the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV.     

School violence prevention measures: School officials' attitudes about various strategies

Concern about school violence has been escalating in recent years. A variety of strategies are used in efforts to prevent violence in schools. These remedies can be classified as legal, interactionist, and physical remedies. Legal remedies refer to laws, like the reasonable suspicion to search strategy that allows school officials to search and seize contraband. Interactionist remedies refer to practices that encourage students and other school officials to communicate more openly with school officials about possible cases of violence. Physical remedies refer to strategies that involve altering the school environment in an effort to prevent violence. This study considered the way that 138 school officials from the Commonwealth of Virginia defined the usefulness of these strategies. Attention was also given to whether certain factors contribute to the officials' assessments of the efficacy of each prevention strategy. Results of the study showed that the interactionist, and then legal remedies are believed to be the most useful, while physical remedies are perceived as the least useful strategies. The study uncovered differences of opinion based on racial lines. As an example, more Blacks than Whites were more likely to describe metal detectors as a very useful strategy. Implications of the study are provided.     

The INSPIRE Framework: How Public Administrators Can Increase Compliance with Written Requests Using Behavioral Techniques

Public administrators rely on written communications to send information to citizens and stakeholders, and they are among the heaviest users of the postal service. Behavioral science research has identified several techniques that public administrators can use to increase compliance with written requests and, in turn, increase effectiveness. Currently, however, many written communications from government bodies are not written in a manner that utilizes these techniques. It remains an ongoing challenge for public administrators to identify, understand, and use these techniques in the written communications sent by their organizations. This article presents a framework capturing seven prominent techniques in a simple mnemonic—INSPIRE—that is already being used by several government bodies in Australia. It also provides practical examples of how to use each technique and demonstrates that using these techniques could result in large aggregate improvements in effectiveness and socially desirable outcomes of public administrators' written communications.     

Human Values and Sophistication Interaction Theory

Political Behavior - Political sophistication systematically affects the structure, crystallization, and use of political values, but it remains unclear if sophistication manifests similar effects...