Estimating policy positions using political texts: An evaluation of the Wordscores approach

This paper evaluates a recently developed method for extracting policy positions from political texts, known as Wordscores. This computerized content analysis technique is a potentially powerful tool for scholars interested in the study of political elites, since it promises an easy and efficient way of inferring policy position from texts and speeches. In this article, we provide a systematic evaluation of this promising method. Using Danish manifestos and government speeches from 1945 to 2005, we compare the policy positions extracted using Wordscores with measures of positions from the well-known Comparative Manifesto Project and cross-validate these with party expert surveys. Our analysis shows that the word scoring technique arrives at largely similar estimates to independently derived position measures and produces time series of government positions with high face validity.     

Techniques of Citizenship: Health and Subjectivity in a New and Predominantly Inuit Territory

The lives and citizenship struggles of migrant workers, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and others shape current thinking about citizenship, suggesting that it is an ongoing process of engagement. These struggles are often framed in citizenship terms because they are struggles for particular kinds of membership and participation within and beyond nation-states. They are, however, collective struggles for new space and suggest that treating citizenship simply as membership is inadequate. They demand, rather, recognition of both individual and collective subjectivities that emerge through efforts to shape and govern their own communities. This paper explores the relationship between the Inuit of the Central and Eastern Arctic and mechanisms of Canadian citizenship—those of national and territorial health institutions and discourse. In April 1999, the establishment of the new Canadian territory of Nunavut, with a population that is 85% Inuit, marked an important moment in both Inuit and Canadian histories. Through a qualitative exploration of the unfolding of health governance in this new territory, the paper examines how Nunavummiut (people of Nunavut) take up and challenge notions of health, governance, Canadian, Inuit, and Nunavummiut. It considers two discourses of health through which Nunavummiut, and others, employ “techniques of citizenship”, shaping both hybrid subjectivity and conceptions of health, giving rise to both constraint and resistance as Inuit Nunavummiut envision their engagement in health governance and in the collective Inuit struggle for self-determination.     

Economic Voting and Multilevel Governance: A Comparative Individual-Level Analysis

An important component of incumbent support is the reward/punishment calculus of economic voting. Previous work has shown that "clarity of responsibility" within the central state government conditions national economic effects on incumbent vote choice: where clarity is high (low), economic effects are greater (less). This article advances the "clarity of responsibility" argument by considering the effect of multilevel governance on economic voting. In institutional contexts of multilevel governance, the process of correctly assigning responsibility for economic outcomes can be difficult. This article tests the proposition that multilevel governance mutes effects of national economic conditions by undermining responsibility linkages to the national government. Individual-level data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Module 1 are used to test this proposition. Results demonstrate that economic voting is weakest in countries where multilevel governance is most prominent. Findings are discussed in light of the contribution to the economic voting literature and the potential implications of multilevel governance.     

Analysis of Hypodermic Needles and Syringes for the Presence of Blood and Polydimethylsiloxane (Silicone) Utilizing Microchemical Tests and Infrared Spectroscopy

Suspect hypodermic needles and syringes were seized from an unlicensed individual who was allegedly injecting patients with silicone (polydimethylsiloxane [PDMS]) for cosmetic enhancement. Since control syringe barrels and needles often contain an interfering PDMS lubricant, a risk for false positives of foreign PDMS exists. The focus of this report was to minimize this risk and determine a quick and reliable test for the presence of blood in PDMS matrices. Using ATR‐FT‐IR spectroscopy, the risk for false‐positive identification of foreign PDMS was reduced by (i) overfilling the sampling aperture to prevent spectral distortions and (ii) sampling a region of the suspect syringe/needle assembly where manufacturer‐applied PDMS is not typically located. Analysis for blood indicated that the Teichman microchemical test was effective for detecting blood in the presence of PDMS. Overall, detecting PDMS established intent and detecting blood established that the needle containing the PDMS had been used for injection.     

Postcranial Sex Estimation Criteria for Mexican Hispanics

Population-specific reference data are necessary for sex estimation in forensic anthropological practice. Currently, there are no population-specific data for Hispanics equivalent to data available for American Blacks and Whites. Individuals of Mexican origin represent the largest group of Hispanics in the United States (Spradley and Jantz. 2011. J Forensic Sci;56:289). This paper presents new population-specific sex estimation criteria for postcranial measurements for Mexican Hispanics. Metric data come from positively identified border-crossing fatalities at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner and documented cemetery collections curated at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. Stepwise variable selection procedures and discriminant function analyses were utilized to generate classification functions for postcrania. Sectioning points were also created for select measurements. Both the cross-validated classification rates and sectioning points achieved accuracy rates as high as 95% and 92%, respectively. These new criteria will improve sex estimation for US Mexico border crossers and Hispanics in the US.     

Child Suicide in the North of Portugal

Suicide in children is a rare finding and is probably motivated by acts of impulsiveness. This study aims to contribute to the characterization of child suicide in a forensic perspective in the Portuguese population. Data of forensic autopsies from 2004 to 2012 related to suicide victims under 18 years were reviewed. A total of 17 cases, with a male predominance (64.7%) and a mean age of 15.24 ± 1.348 for both genders, were registered. The leading suicide method was hanging (35.3%), and a suicide note was found in 41.2%. Psychological autopsy proved to be useful in promoting a better understanding of these incidents and their antecedents. This study also offers useful information, namely the implied risk factors, for future programs of suicide research and prevention.