Changing patterns of addiction and public aid receipt: tracking the unintended consequences of welfare reform

Sharp declines in welfare rolls since the passage of welfare reform legislation have led many to label it a social policy success. Using data from prereform and postreform samples of welfare applicants and recipients, as well as ethnographic data on welfare reform implementation, we examine three hypotheses based on concerns raised during the welfare reform debate about the possible effects of new policies on substance abusers and addicts: First, they would be "scared off," or discouraged from applying to aid by welfare's new requirements surrounding work and treatment. Second, they might be "weeded out," or face discrimination in the application process because of concerns about the difficulty of moving them successfully from welfare to work. Third, they might be "bumped down," or shifted to local aid programs rather than moving from welfare to self-sufficiency. Our empirical analysis finds no evidence of scaring off or weeding out, and some evidence of bumping down. Using ethnographic data, we offer some possible explanations for these findings by placing them in the context of policy change and implementation in the years following welfare reform.     

Spinal epidural haematoma after blunt trauma to the neck and hyperflection of the cervical spine

Spinal epidural haematomas (sEDH) can be regarded as rare events, in principle a spontaneous and a traumatic aetiology can be distinguished. Spontaneous spinal epidural haematomas can arise, e.g. from vascular malformations, coagulopathies, etc. On the other hand, traumatic sEDH are related to, e.g. spinal trauma or intraoperative vascular injuries. With regard to clinical significance, spinal epidural haematomas accompanied by transient mild neurological symptoms up to lethal outcomes have been observed. We report on a 53-year-old male alcoholic who was found in the kitchen of his asylum in a grotesquely fixed body position, with his head and cervical spine in a maximum anteflected position. A general practitioner had ruled for a non-natural manner of death due to "broken neck" and alcohol intoxication, therefore, the prosecution authorities called for a medicolegal autopsy. At autopsy, paravertebral soft tissue haemorrhage in between the shoulder blades was disclosed. Furthermore, a spinal epidural haematoma, extending from the foramen magnum down to the middle portion of the thoracic spine was found. No fractures of vertebrae nor lesions of spine ligaments or bleedings of intervertebral discs were found. Blood alcohol concentration was determined 1.92 g/l and urine alcohol concentration was 1.76 g/l. Further morphological findings were cerebral oedema and cardiac hypertrophy; the urinary bladder was found filled to bursting. Neuropathological investigations confirmed the presence of the spinal epidural haematoma and assigned lethal significance to this finding. There were no histological signs of axonal injury. Reconstruction revealed that when sitting on a chair in a drunk condition, the individual's upper part of the body had fallen backwards in the corner and subsequently got stuck with maximum anteflection of the head and cervical spine, causing rupture of vessels and spinal epidural haematoma. Acute respiratory failure caused by impairment of the phrenic nerve following spinal epidural haematoma with potential synergism of alcohol intoxication was ascertained as the cause of death.     

Frequency of positive diazepam-screening in post-mortem examinations (author's transl)]

The post-mortem blood specimens of 389 forensic autopsies were analyzed for diazepam. The age of the cases investigated was above 10 years and the survival time was less than 12 hours. Eighteen samples corresponding to 4.6% were found to be diazepam-positive. These 18 samples were distributed equally between men and women. The proportion of diazepam-positive samples was increased in the groups of suicide and poisoning (alcohol and opiates). The association between diazepam intake and poisoning was statistically highly significant. No correlation was found between diazepam intake and age. Alcohol was found to occur significantly more often in the group of the diazepam positive cases as compared to the diazepam negative group.     

ABH and Lewis antigens of tracheal glands. II. Lewis negative individuals

Immunocytochemical studies were performed on tracheal wall samples embedded in paraffin; the samples were taken at 23 autopsies. In all cases, the red cells had been typed in postmortem serological studies as being Le(a-b-). Blood-group antigens were demonstrated by the indirect immunoperoxidase technique, using monoclonal Anti-A, Anti-B, Anti-Lea and Anti-Leb; H was detected by UEA 1. The secretor characteristics could clearly be diagnosed from the ABH staining pattern of the mucous glands. In 11 cases, the lewis antigen labeling patterns were identical to the group of Lewis-positive individuals. It seems probable, from the statistical point of view, that these 11 individuals were, in fact, Lewis-positive and that the negative serology resulted from deterioration of the cadaver blood samples. The immunocytochemistry was quite different in the remaining 12 cases: (a) secretors (n = 9) were completely negative for Lea, Leb was equally negative in one case, but in the remainder it was detectable within mucous epithelia in minimal amounts and in an atypical granular distribution; (b) nonsecretors (n = 3) reversely exhibited complete negativity for Leb but a minimal staining for Lea. These findings are in harmony with the well established Lewis serology typing of secretions in Lewis negative individuals. Thus, a minimal Lewis antigen biosynthesis and secretion seem to occur in the absence of the Le gene: A alpha-4-L-fucosyltransferase of low activity might be the product of the allele le.     

Statesman to Statesman

Dear Readers,Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society.We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics(in either English or Chinese).yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments     

Analysis of Factors of Overpricing in Public Procurement: A Study for Low-performing EU Countries

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the issue of overpricing of public procurement in low-performing EU countries. It examines a uniquely large sample of public procurement in 11 Central and Eastern European countries. Hierarchical regression is used to analyze the factors that influence public contract. Our results indicate that institutional factors have a greater impact on overpricing than individual decisions by the contracting authority. Our analysis for low-performing EU countries provides interesting results and also draws attention to behavior that is not typical of the better established and more advanced EU countries. Our results are particularly important for public policy in each country, as they show the direction of regulatory action in the field of public procurement. The results introduce a debate on the appropriateness of “one size fits all” regulations within the EU.     

Breaking the glass ceiling,but facing a glass cliff? The role of organizational decline in women's representation in leadership positions in Dutch civil service organizations

Despite efforts to increase gender diversity and equality worldwide, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in public bureaucracies. This article speaks to the debate on how organizational context, more specifically organizational decline, may influence gender representation in such leadership positions. Based on role congruity theory and glass cliff theory this article empirically examines whether and how excessive workforce reductions are associated with changes in the representation of women in leadership positions in Dutch civil service organizations. Panel analyses on administrative data show that women's representation in leadership positions varies over time, but is not significantly affected by excessive workforce reductions. Overall, the analyses do not provide evidence for a glass cliff for women in Dutch civil service organizations. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Legal History and the Problem of the Long Civil Rights Movement

This essay offers a critical examination of use of the term “long civil rights movement” as a framework for understanding the legal history of the battle against racial inequality in twentieth‐century America. Proponents of the long movement argue that expanding the chronological boundaries of the movement beyond the 1950s and 1960s allows scholars to better capture the diverse social mobilization efforts and ideas that fueled the black freedom struggle. While not questioning the long framework's usefulness for studying the social movement dynamics of racial justice activism, I suggest that the long framework is of more limited value for those who seek to understand the development of civil rights, as a legal claim, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. The tendency of long movement scholars to treat civil rights as a pliable category into which they can put any and all racial justice claims is in tension with historical understandings of the term. Susan Carle's Defining the Struggle: National Organizing for Racial Justice, 1880–1915 suggests an alternative approach. Her detailed and nuanced account of a period in American history when racial justice activists understood civil rights as a relatively narrow subset of legal remedies within a much broader struggle for racial equality indicates the need for an alternate history of civil rights—one that places the evolving, contested, and historically particularized concept of civil rights at the center of inquiry.