William Friedman's Bletchley park diary: A different view

‘William Friedman's Bletchley Park Diary’ (INS 20/4 (2005) pp. 654–69) stated that Friedman, with Col. Alfred McCormack and Lt.-Col. Telford Taylor (US Army Special Branch), visited Bletchley Park in mid-1943 to negotiate with the British Government Code and Cypher School on how the Travis–Strong Agreement of May 1943 on Sigint cooperation should be implemented. This article shows that they had no substantive negotiating powers, and that they were essentially on a fact-finding mission.     

The Islamic State and the New Tribalism

This article focuses on the apocalyptic zeitgeist of the Islamic State through the lens of what we call the New Tribalism. It finds that IS emerged from the Al Qaeda (AQ) milieu, but soon split with AQ as the messianic excitement surrounding Al-Baghdadi and his teachings grew. In common with previous millennial/messianic movements in all three “Peoples of the Book”—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—IS soon evolved beyond the laws of the normative faith (antinomianism). We hold that for this reason, despite its claims of faith and fealty, IS has left the Islamic Umah behind, becoming a malign sectarian group of its own whose dynamism and successes are attracting a global audience and support from Muslims in almost every country. This helps to explain such abhorrent practices as forced conversion, sexual servitude, the destruction of historic artifacts, and mass executions. We find that the American invasion of Iraq was the vital first step in a series of events, which gave birth to IS. A thorough review of IS history and political culture traces these historic moments in time.     

State economic development strategy: Designing a tool for evaluating policy

In 1987, the new governor of Pennsylvania introduced a plan designed to protect “old” jobs while encouraging public and private investment in targeted “growth” industries. Recognizing that “targeting growth opportunities” was, at best, an uncertain enterprise, the Department of Labor and Industry suggested a program be implemented that would monitor these “key” sectors. To be cost-effective, this evaluation effort would need to be sufficiently timely and sensitive to allow for mid-course corrections. In this paper, we describe an effort to design and implement such a program.     

Psychometric Properties of Revised Conflict Tactics Scales: Portuguese Sibling Version (CTS2-SP)

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2, Straus et al. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 283–316, 1996) were conceived to measure Psychological Aggression, Physical Assault, Sexual Coercion, Injury and the use of Negotiation towards a partner in a marital, cohabiting or dating relationship. The CTS2-SP was designed for obtaining data on conflict tactics between siblings. The main objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the CTS2-SP Portuguese version. Data were collected among 590 Portuguese university students. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.65 to 0.81 for the perpetration scales and ranging 0.66 to 0.84 to victimization scales. Significant correlations between different forms of the CTS2 illustrate its construct validity. The psychometric characteristics of CTS2-SP Portuguese version were found to be adequate. The CTS2-SP offers a reliable and valid measure to be used within the Portuguese population.     

Chimpanzee homologous of human Y specific STRs. A comparative study and a proposal for nomenclature

Eleven Y specific microsatellites, previously studied in humans, were typed for fragment length and sequenced in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).The primers described by Ayub et al. (Nucleic Acids Res. 28, 2000, 2) for amplifying DYS434, DYS435, DYS436, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439 and those described by White et al. (Genomics, 57, 1999, 433) for GATA A10, A7.1, A7.2, C4, and H4, were used to amplify DNA samples from chimpanzees.Primers described for Y GATA A4 were found to amplify the same region as reported for DYS439. Moreover, the GATA A4 forward primer only matches the repeat flanking region in 14 of the 28bp, being responsible for a very weak amplification. Therefore, this system was not included in this study.The analysis of the repeat and sequence structure observed in chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes allowed evolutionary comparisons as well as the basis for improving Y STR nomenclature and therefore, a unified nomenclature for these novel STRs is proposed to the scientific community following ISFG recommendations.     

Evaluation of the persistently violent offender treatment program

The treatment of violent offenders has evolved in recent years, shifting from interventions focused on anger management to those incorporating social information processing skills. The present study was a multimethod evaluation of one such program, the Persistently Violent Offender program. A total of 256 Canadian male violent offenders participated in the study; 70 Persistently Violent Offender program completers were compared to two control groups (n(1) = 33, n(2) = 105) who completed an alternate program and to 48 offenders who failed to complete either program. Results demonstrate few differences among groups in terms of changes on measures of treatment targets, involvement in institutional misconducts, and postrelease returns to custody, thus demonstrating that the Persistently Violent Offender program was superior to neither the alternate program nor program noncompletion. These results are discussed in light of the findings from two more promising recent evaluations of similar programs.