Assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency offices on state hazardous waste enforcement decisions

In assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency EPA offices on the state management of hazardous waste programs, we focused on the extent to which federal administrative decisions affect levels of enforcement activity by state environmental agencies and whether these effects vary over time. Our results indicated that state enforcement actions were affected by state program capacity variables such as primacy and the strength of existing hazardous waste policies as well as one federal-level factor—the distribution of grant monies. The impact of federal oversight decisions was minimal.     

The selection of zero-non-zero patterned cointegrating vectors in error-correction modelling

An effective and efficient search algorithm has been developed to select from an 1(1) system zero-non-zero patterned cointegrating and loading vectors in a subset VECM, B^q(l)y(t-1) + B^q-1 (L)Ay(t) = ε( t ) , where the long term impact matrix Bq(l) contains zero entries. The algorithm can be applied to higher order integrated systems. The Finnish money-output model presented by Johansen and Juselius (1990) and the United States balanced growth model presented by King, Plosser, Stock and Watson (1991) are used to demonstrate the usefulness of this algorithm in examining the cointegrating relationships in vector time series.     

No associative biases in the first name cued recall procedure for eliciting personal networks

One thousand five hundred twenty-five respondents from a representative sample of adult residents of the state of Florida (USA) participated in a telephone survey on personal networks (McCarty et al., 1995). McCarty et al. (1995) elicited samples of alters from respondents' personal network with a first name cued recall interview procedure. This paper reports an assessment of associative biases involved with this technique in a further evaluation of the representativeness of the alter samples elicited with this method. Associative biases would be present if successively recalled alters are more likely to know each other or belong to the same social context (e.g., work, family, school) than alters not recalled successively. Such biases, if present, could influence the characteristics, and thus the representativeness, of the set of alters elicited, such as the density of ties. Analyses indicate that there are no associative biases in the first name cued recall procedure. Future research should investigate the possibility of associative biases in other methods for eliciting personal networks.     

Levels of analysis,theoretical orientations and degrees of abstraction

This article suggests that what often appear to be fundamental conflicts of opinion among sociologists regarding appropriate levels of analysis and theoretical orientations are much less problematic when considered in terms of differences in degrees of abstraction. The critical factor in the compatibility of various levels of analysis and theoretical orientation is the use of degrees of abstraction by the researcher. The impact of this issue on sociological knowledge and some of its applications are examined. Pat Lauderdale is professor of justice and adjunct professor of law at Arizona State University and is completing a book on social conflict and disputes. Steven D. McLaughlin is the director of Battelle’s Health and Populations Research Center in Seattle and presently is conducting research on adolescent fertility and educational attainment. Annamarie Oliverio has completed graduate work in political science and criminology at Simon Fraser University and currently is working on her doctoral dissertation at Arizona State University.     

Role constraints and first ladies

The First Ladyship is an institution that consists not only of the perceptions of its various occupants, and the accumulated precedents they have established, but also of the perceptions of the various audiences to which the First Ladies have played, and the elite and popular expectations that have accumulated over time in response to those precedents. Certain roles and their attendant behaviors are, thus, more likely than other roles and behaviors to attract elite and/or popular supports, whereas others are more likely to founder against one or more of the audience constraints that are part of the political ecology in which any First Lady operates.     

A Construction of Lancaster Probabilities with Margins in the Multidimensional Meixner Class

The well-known Meixner class (Meixner, 1934) of probabilities on R has been extended recently to R ^d (Pommeret, 1996). This generalized Meixner class corresponds to the simple quadratic natural exponential families characterized by Casalis (1996). Following Lancaster (1975), the present paper offers a characterization of the joint probability of a randomvector ( X, Y ) such that the two variables X and Y on R ^d belong to the multidimensional Meixner class and fulfil a bi-orthogonality condition involving orthogonal polynomials. The joint probabilities, called Lancaster probabilities, are characterized by two sequences of orthogonal polynomials with respect to the margins and a sequence of expectations of products. Some multivariate probabilities are studied, namely the Poisson-Gaussian and the gamma-Gaussian.     

A New Paradigm for Understanding Women's Sexuality and Sexual Orientation

Major scientific findings about women's sexuality and sexual orientation are reviewed. Sexual orientation is unrelated to mental health. There is no inherent association between gender conformity and women's sexual orientation; masculinity and femininity are linked to sexual orientation in some social contexts but not in others. Research has so far failed to identify major biological or childhood antecedents of women's sexual orientation. Women's sexuality and sexual orientation are potentially fluid, changeable over time, and variable across social contexts. Regardless of sexual orientation, there are important commonalities in women's sexuality. In particular, women tend to have a relational or partner-centered orientation to sexuality. Together, these findings provide the basis for a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of women's sexual orientation.     

Environmentalism and Public Policy: Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and Its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making

A growing body of evidence reveals that people of color and low-income persons have borne greater environmental and health risks than the society at large in their neighborhoods, workplace, and playgrounds. Over the last decade or so, grassroots activists have attempted to change the way government implements environmental, health, and civil rights laws. Grassroots groups have organized, educated, and empowered themselves to improve the way government regulations and environmental policies are administered. A new movement emerged in opposition to environmental racism and environmenttal injustice. Over the last decades or so, grassroots activists have had some success in changing the way the federal government treats communities of color and their inhabitants. Grassroots groups have also organized, educated, and empowered themselves to improve the way health and environmental policies are administered. Environmentalism is now equated with social justice and civil rights.