Overcoming barriers to technology transfer between small business assistance agencies and their clients: Third world style

This paper presents the results of an empirical examination of the methods small business assistance agencies in the Dominican Republic use to overcome technology transfer barriers. The availability and the methods agencies use to access the world's business knowledge are examined, as well as how the agencies disseminate the information to clients. The discussion identifies barriers that inhibit the flow of client information between (1) the knowledge pool and the agencies and (2) the agencies and the client. The strategies that agencies use to overcome barriers are characterized as push or pull, and informal or formal. Pull strategies begin with marketplace need and work toward the technology to solve the problem. Push strategies begin with specific business information and work toward its acceptance and use in the marketplace by clients. Personal interviews were conducted in Spanish with heads of the 13 assistance agencies in the country. Survey participants were asked about the processes, procedures, and techniques they used to gain and transfer business skills. The study identifies specific activities in which the agencies engage in order to effectively overcome barriers to the transfer of business knowledge.     

The Burger Court's View of the Relationship Between the States and Their Municipalities

This article examines selected Burger Court cases concerningmunicipal antitrust immunity in order to determine whether theU.S. Supreme Court has a theoretical perspective on the relationshipbetween the states and their municipalities. After delineatingthe constitutional position of municipalities through an examinationof key Court cases and Dillon's rule, the study explores thederivative status of state-action immunity to municipalitiesin antitrust suits. In two significant cases, including oneinvolving a home rule city, the Burger Court has refused togrant municipalities the state-action exemption granted statesunder the Sherman Act. But, in reinforcing the unitary relationshipbetween the states and their municipalities, the Court has notaddressed Dillon's rule or the ambiguities inherent in denyingmunicipalities the residual powers of local self-government.     

Should forensic patients be informed of evaluators' opinions prior to trial?

There are several articles in the literature that discuss the problems which occur when persons who have been evaluated by forensic clinicians hear the results of those evaluations for the first time in court. The authors agree that the scenarios presented are problematic but suggest that in many cases the problems can be avoided by sharing the information with the person prior to presenting it in court. They present several case examples to illustrate their point.     

The presentation of expert testimony via live audio-visual communication

As part of a national effort to improve efficiency in court procedures, the American Bar Association has recommended, on the basis of a number of pilot studies, increased use of current audio-visual technology, such as telephone and live video communication, to eliminate delays caused by unavailability of participants in both civil and criminal procedures. Although these recommendations were made to facilitate court proceedings, and for the convenience of attorneys and judges, they also have the potential to save significant time for clinical expert witnesses as well. The author reviews the studies of telephone testimony that were done by the American Bar Association and other legal research groups, as well as the experience in one state forensic evaluation and treatment center. He also reviewed the case law on the issue of remote testimony. He then presents data from a national survey of state attorneys general concerning the admissibility of testimony via audio-visual means, including video depositions. Finally, he concludes that the option to testify by telephone provides a significant savings in precious clinical time for forensic clinicians in public facilities, and urges that such clinicians work actively to convince courts and/or legislatures in states that do not permit such testimony (currently the majority), to consider accepting it, to improve the effective use of scarce clinical resources in public facilities.     

Relationship status of battered women over time

A longitudinal study of 114 women, all having serious problems in intimate relationships, recruited from the community was undertaken in order to investigate relationship and battering status over time. In the original sample (N=193), 97 women were battered and 96 were not battered, as determined by an adaptation of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Of the 114 who returned approximately 2 and 1/2 years later, only 25% of the 51 originally battered women were still in that category. Discriminant function analysis using a combination of variables from established instruments (depression, self-esteem, physical symptoms, self-care agency) and in depth interview (education, relationship control, relationship duration, childhood abuse) failed to distinguish those battered from those not abused at Time 2. Results do not support a learned helplessness model for most women experiencing abuse, and they suggest that battered women seen in the health care and/or social services systems should be supported in a process of healthy decision making about their relationship status.