Racial and religious discrimination: The inexorable relationship between schools and the individual

Institutional racism remains a difficult and nebulous practice to analyse. This is due, in part, to the sophisticated and complex discriminatory mechanisms that operate through and between institutions. Furthermore, this is affected by the inequity that is experienced by both those who are employed and those who are serviced by the organisation. It is argued in this paper that a false dichotomy has existed in earlier constructions of institutions, whereby the individual and their conscious (or unconscious) actions can be separated from practices and procedures. In many respects, this has served to absolve the perpetrators of discriminatory practices. This paper claims that racisms actually operate in multiple ways and include other forms of discrimination. Religion, for example, has been ignored in most discussions about institutional racism. To exemplify this, data are drawn from a case study about the educational experiences of Muslim pupils in an anonymous state-funded primary school in the north-west of Britain. Evidence suggests that powerful prejudicial discourse, immersed in unequal power relationships, was maintained by teachers and school procedures, where pupils were, at best, misunderstood and, at worst, deliberately discriminated against.     

Implications of Channel Structure and Operational Mode Upon a Manufacturer's Durability Choice

Motivated by the observation that durability ratings of automobile manufacturers are not necessarily linked to the proportion of leasing but tend to decrease with the density of their dealer networks, we explore the interactions between channel structure (direct interaction with consumers vs. through an intermediary(ies)) and mode of operations (leasing vs. selling) and their implications for a manufacturer's willingness to invest in making her product more durable. Using a manufacturer who leases her product directly to consumers as a point of reference, we find that an isolated change in either the channel structure (selling through an intermediary), or the operational mode (leasing to selling) can decrease the manufacturer's willingness to provide durability. However, if combined, these two changes together may strengthen the manufacturer's willingness to invest in durability. Specifically, the traditional result that a manufacturer who leases provides more durability than one who sells, can be reversed in a decentralized channel.     

On-Site Storage of High Level Nuclear Waste: Attitudes and Perceptions of Local Residents

No public policy issue has been as difficult as high-level nuclear waste. Debates continue regarding Yucca Mountain as a disposal site, and—more generally—the appropriateness of geologic disposal and the need to act quickly. Previous research has focused on possible social, political, and economic consequences of a facility in Nevada. Impacts have been predicted to be potentially large and to emanate mainly from stigmatization of the region due to increased perceptions of risk. Analogous impacts from leaving waste at power plants have been either ignored or assumed to be negligible. This paper presents survey results on attitudes of residents in three counties where nuclear waste is currently stored. Topics include perceived risk, knowledge of nuclear waste and radiation, and impacts on jobs, tourism, and housing values from leaving waste on site. Results are similar to what has been reported for Nevada; the public is concerned about possible adverse effects from on-site storage of waste.     

Extreme value regression models: a useful reparameterization for the survival function

In this paper, we consider some aspects of accurate approximate inferences for the survival function at a specifed time t 0 , considering extreme value regression models using a modified form of reparameterization proposed by Guerrero and Johnson, and exploring a non-normality measure for likelihood functions and posterior densities introduced by Kass and Slate. We illustrate the proposed methodology, considering a lifetime data set with two treatments introduced by Lee.     

Psychological research on child witnesses in sexual abuse cases: Fine answers to mostly wrong questions

Past research on the accuracy of children's testimony has shown that questions' wording and interview context explain some of the variance in children's answers to questions, but does not give answers regarding children's reasons for lying when asked questions about past events. This article reviews research done on children's testimony and suggests that researchers should move beyond the domiant paradigms associated with comparison of one group of children with another on veracity and address the central issue of when and/or why children lie. Suggestions for future directions in research on children as witnesses are presented.     

The Various Roles of Animal Models in Understanding Human Development

In this article, the authors take a very conservative view of the contribution of animal models to an understanding of human development. We do not think that homologies can be readily documented with even our most closely related relatives’ behavior and psychological functioning. The major contribution of animal models is their provision of food for thought (hypotheses, not facts) about human development and general principles of development, and we describe some of the more significant and interesting of these at length. We also briefly discuss the other applications of animal research toward understanding the development and evolution of behavior, more generally speaking.