Victim service and justice system representative responses about partner stalking: what do professionals recommend?

Research suggests that partner stalking is associated with reassault and lethality as well as increased psychological distress for victims. However, there is a significant gap in information about stalking interventions and the responses of health, mental health, law enforcement, social services, and criminal justice professionals to women experiencing partner stalking. The purpose of this study is to examine the ideas about appropriate and effective responses to stalking victims from professionals in victim services and the justice system. The study also examined differences among rural and urban representatives because prior studies have shown significant differences between rural and urban areas on experiences and responses to partner violence. A total of 152 key informants (38 urban and 114 rural) were interviewed. Study results suggest a need for more training for victim services and justice system professionals on stalking and service needs of women who experience stalking in the context of partner violence.     

A Survey of the Teaching of Statistics in M.B.A. Programs

A survey of business schools was conducted to obtain information about the current state of the teaching of business statistics to students enrolled in M.B.A. degree programs. The survey was undertaken for and presented at a June 1986 conference on “Making Statistics More Effective in Schools of Business,” held at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. Information was elicited concerning both the required statistics sequence and elective statistics courses for M.B.A. students, as well as computer usage in these courses. This article summarizes the information obtained from the survey.     

Principles for Conduct of Pest Risk Analyses: Report of an Expert Workshop

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have focused attention on risk assessment of potential insect, weed, and animal pests and diseases of livestock. These risks have traditionally been addressed through quarantine protocols ranging from limits on the geographical areas from which a product may originate, postharvest disinfestation procedures like fumigation, and inspections at points of export and import, to outright bans. To ensure that plant and animal protection measures are not used as nontariff trade barriers, GATT and NAFTA require pest risk analysis (PRA) to support quarantine decisions. The increased emphasis on PRA has spurred multiple efforts at the national and international level to design frameworks for the conduct of these analyses. As approaches to pest risk analysis proliferate, and the importance of the analyses grows, concerns have arisen about the scientific and technical conduct of pest risk analysis. In January of 1997, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) held an invitation-only workshop in Washington, D.C. to bring experts in risk analysis and pest characterization together to develop general principles for pest risk analysis. Workshop participants examined current frameworks for PRA, discussed strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, and formulated principles, based on years of experience with risk analysis in other setting and knowledge of the issues specific to analysis of pests. The principles developed highlight the both the similarities of pest risk analysis to other forms of risk analysis, and its unique attributes.     

Penalties and payoffs: The short-term economic consequences of human capital acquisition for resettled refugees in the United States

The relationship between refugee investments in human capital and short-run economic outcomes may influence the extent to which refugees invest in human capital that is associated with positive future economic mobility. Using data from the Annual Survey of Refugees from 2016 and 2017 we assess the relationship between recent investments in human capital and hourly wages for employed refugees in the United States. Results suggest that recent job training has a positive effect on hourly wages. In contrast, enrollment in English classes and educational programmes have no short-term positive effects on hourly wages. When combined with the pressure resettled refugees experience to find employment quickly, these results suggest that the lack of short-term wage benefits from English language or educational courses may dissuade refugees from sufficiently investing in the amount of English language or education necessary to promote positive long-term economic mobility.     

Maternal depression,parental attributions,and adolescent psychopathology: An evaluation using observational and video-mediated recall methods

Parenting styles associated with maternal depression are a risk factor for adolescent psychopathology, and maternal attributional styles may be a key mechanism in this relationship. Mother-adolescent dyads (N = 180; 96 male; ages 10–15) completed in-person interactions and then the mothers participated in a video-mediated recall procedure to assess maternal attributions. Maternal depression was associated with negative attributions. Negative attributions were associated with low parental acceptance, aggressive parenting, and low positive parenting. Positive maternal attributions were associated with less aggressive parenting, and more positive parenting during one interaction task. Adolescent externalizing behaviors were associated with negative attributions. Future research should evaluate whether maternal attributions mediate the association between maternal depression and both parenting behaviors and adolescent mental health.     

A test statistic for weighted runs

A new test statistic based on runs of weighted deviations is introduced. Its use for observations sampled from independent normal distributions is worked out in detail. It supplements the classic χ² test which ignores the ordering of observations and provides additional sensitivity to local deviations from expectations. The exact distribution of the statistic in the non-parametric case is derived and an algorithm to compute p-values is presented. The computational complexity of the algorithm is derived employing a novel identity for integer partitions.