bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between Child Sexual Abuse and Major Depression among Low-Income Women: A Function of Growing Up Experiences?
Authors: Zuravin Susan J. , Fontanella Cynthia
Published: March 2007

This article on the adult sequelae of child sexual abuse (CSA) focused on (a) identifying the rate of major depression among adult survivors and (b) testing the third variable hypothesis that the relationship between CSA and major depression is spurious, a function of other adverse growing up experiences. Subjects included 513 low-income women, of whom 105 had experienced contact sexual abuse. Information on depression was collected with the Depression Module from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, Third Edition, Revised (DIS-III-R). Third variables included 11 markers of negative growing up experiences including four types of child maltreatment: emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect, and verbal abuse. Findings (a) revealed that CSA victims were almost three times as likely to be depressed as comparison women and (b) failed to support the third variable hypothesis. CSA accounted for variance in the major depression over and above other adverse growing up experiences. Discussion focuses on recommendations for future study.
Parent Attitudes and Discipline Practices: Profiles and Correlates in a Nationally Representative Sample
Authors: Thompson Ross A. , Christiansen Elaine H. , Jackson Shelly , Wyatt Jennifer M. , Colman Rebecca A. , Peterson Reece L. , Wilcox Brian L. , Buckendahl Chad W.
Published: March 2007

The responses of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 parents to a survey concerning parent attitudes, disciplinary practices, and other predictors of competent parenting were analyzed. Cluster analysis identified three subgroups based on their profiles of parenting attitudes and discipline. The first was high on physical discipline, neglect, verbal abuse, and attitudes that devalue children. They reported childhood abuse and domestic violence, marital difficulty, and problems managing anger. The second group was high on nonphysical as well as physical discipline, and had a more positive attitude toward children but also had a profile of psychosocial risk. The third group had low scores on all disciplinary practices, low perceived disciplinary efficacy, and a healthy marital and personal history. These groups are different from traditional parenting typologies, and the findings confirm theoretical predictions concerning the correlates of parenting problems and raise new questions concerning the convergence of physically punitive with nonpunitive discipline practices.
My Life in an Ashram
Authors: Bruner Edward M.
Published: March 2007

This article describes the author's experiences at the Himalayan Institute, a New Age ashram located in Pennsylvania, from the dual perspectives of an ethnographer interested in understanding transplanted Indian traditions and as an individual engaged in a spiritual quest. The article reflects on the nature of the self in a meditative state, presents a brief ethnography of the ashram, discusses principles of yoga philosophy as applied to the author's own life situation, and ruminates on the relationship between the ethnographic self and the personal self.
The Violence of Displacement
Authors: HATTY SUZANNE E.
Published: March 2007

Identity traditionally is bound up with the idea of origins—with the birthplace, the home, and the family. How is identity fractured by the severing of the connections between notions of self and memories of place? How do homeless people respond to the tearing away of the traditional frameworks of identity? In particular, how do homeless young women make sense of their locatedness within new “spatial stories”? This article explores the meanings attached to home (the private domain) and the street (the public domain) and analyzes the intersection of gender with the definition and management of public and private space. In-depth interviews and ethnographic work with homeless young women in Sydney, Australia's largest city, are employed to illustrate the relationships among space, place, and gender.
Perception of Cues in Conflictual Dating Situations
Authors: McCAW JODEE M. , SENN CHARLENE Y.
Published: March 2007

To account for the disturbing prevalence of acquaintance rape, both researchers and lay people often use the Miscommunication Hypothesis—the assumption that most acquaintance rape and coercive sex follow from miscommunication between men and women. The present study was designed as a pilot to begin to empirically investigate the Miscommunication Hypothesis. Equal numbers of men and women wrote short essays in response to a scenario describing a dating interaction in which sexual conflict occurred. For the 40 participants, gender differences in the meanings of behavioral cues for sexual interest, nonconsent, and coercion, were not associated with their perceptions or descriptions of coercive sex. These findings call into question the validity of the Miscommunication Hypothesis, suggesting that relatively few men may engage in sexual coercion without realizing, or being able to realize, that that is what they are doing. The study therefore also raises questions about the efficacy of many rape prevention programs.
The Community Service Voucher Program
Authors: Pitts James P.
Published: March 2007

This paper describes and evaluates the initial use of the community service voucher pro gram, a program which used federal funds to empower four organizations in disadvan taged Chicago neighborhoods to contract for university resources. The analysis presents the concept behind the program and describes the circumstances of its implementation and various program outcomes. The analysis ends with an evaluation of program impact, recommendations for how to expand and replicate the program, and a discussion of its potential in different university-disadvantaged community settings.
Revitalization of Inner-City Neighborhoods
Authors: Hudson James R.
Published: March 2007

Recent investigations of inner-city areas have indicated that a number of neighborhoods and commercial areas are attracting affluent middle-class migrants and businesses. The phenomenon has been called "gentrification" and "neighborhood revitalization." This process is regarded as an example of the human ecological concept of invasion-succession. That concept, it is argued, has been employed too narrowly in the study of urban change, and the current alterations in land use patterns open up the possibilities of broadening its application. The concept is reassessed in light of recent research and is examined as a particularly good foundation for research on changing land use patterns.
The Influence of Race on Hispanic Housing Choices
Authors: Rosenbaum Emily
Published: March 2007

How does race influence the housing choices of Hispanic households who have recently moved? Results of this study demonstrate that white Hispanics are more successful than black Hispanics and other-race Hispanics in gaining access to predominantly Anglo subareas, apparently by virtue of their nonblack status. These findings reveal the individual-level processes underlying aggregate patterns of racial segregation among Hispanics and provide evidence of the influence of social and market forces that isolate not only Anglos from African-Americans and Hispanics but also, increasingly, African-Americans and black Hispanics from all persons of nonblack status.
Manipulating the Message in the U.S. Congress
Authors: Sellers Patrick J.
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on politicians' efforts to shape the issue agenda outside Congress. Control of the issue agenda inside the institution is a central part of congressional politics. The majority party exerts extensive control over this agenda, and the minority party often works to subvert that control. However, legislators (particularly those in the minority party) may extend the battle over the congressional agenda beyond the internal operations of Congress by promoting their arguments in the news media. Shaping this broader issue agenda can help politicians pursue their policy and electoral goals. If legislators draw media attention to an issue, they may more successfully move related legislation through Congress. In addition, media attention may publicize legislators' claims and accomplishments to constituents. I find that coordinated support for a single message increases the likelihood that the message receives news coverage. This article illustrates how these media campaigns may be an underappreciated source of bias in our news coverage.
Spin Doctors in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany
Authors: Esser Frank , Reinemann Carsten , Fan David
Published: March 2007

This study develops a new concept in political communication theory called metacommunication. It argues that metacommunication (1) describes a new, third stage in election coverage after issue and strategy coverage; (2) reflects the mass media's new role as a political institution in the third age of political communication; and (3) can be seen as the news media's response to a new, third force in news making: professional political PR. Metacommunication is defined as the news media's self-referential reflections on the nature of the interplay between political public relations and political journalism. While metacoverage can take two forms, self-referential news and process news, the present study puts the main emphasis on the latter. It argues that the coverage of campaign strategists and spin doctors can be seen as a prime example of metadiscursive process news. A cross-country content analysis of “spin doctors in the press” reveals different profiles of metacoverage in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany that can be explained by the different media cultures and political PR cultures. While metacoverage is discussed as a new style of reporting to be welcomed in the view of professionalized political PR, journalism is inherently limited in analyzing PR adequately.
New Campaign Communications
Authors: Kavanagh Dennis
Published: March 2007

This article explores the ways in which British election campaigns and parties have changed as a result of new technology and party recruitment from advertising agencies, pollsters, and public relations advisers. The emerging model is sometimes termed an Americanization of British politics. This article draws on interviews to report on the relations and tensions between politicians and the outsider advisers, discusses the extent to which the parties have been changed as a result of these trends, and concludes by demonstrating the limits of Americanization in Britain.
A Posteriori Error Estimate Analysis for BEM in Plate-Bending Problems
Authors: Ventsel Eduard S.
Published: March 2007

This article concerns the construction of a posteriori error estimates for the boundary element methods in plate-bending problems. The proposed approach allows one to assess the size of the error of a numerical solution through an accurate satisfaction of the prescribed boundary conditions. This error estimate analysis can also be used for boundary-type method formulations such as the Trefftz method, the boundary collocation method, and so on.
Multifield Description of Microcracked Continua: A Local Model
Authors: Mariano Paolo Maria , Augusti Giuliano
Published: March 2007

In the present paper, a continuum model used to describe brittle microcracked bodies is proposed. The configuration of the body is represented by two fields: the displacement field and an appropriate approximation of the microcrack density. The evolution of the latter field is regulated by the balance of the actions of the microcracks on each other. Moreover, the introduction of a damage entropy flux in the Clausius-Duhem inequality allows one to obtain appropriate criteria of damage growth directly from balance equations. The mathematical structure of the model thus obtained is different from those based on internal variable schemes and allows one to overcome some of their theoretical shortcomings. A simple example, although limited to an elastostatic case, allows one to recognize the basic difference between the model presented here and the models with internal variables, and to underline the potentialities of the proposed approach.
Case Management Principles for the Home Care Clinician
Authors: Hughes Laura L.
Published: March 2007

As health care plunges forward into the new century, the home care industry is met with greater challenges with respect to regulatory compliance and changes in reimbursement. Managed care continues to grow, and there is increased focus by payors on home care providers who can meet the needs of patients in a cost-effective manner. There is also the expectation that patients will experience quality outcomes. Using clinical case managers and applying the principles of case management are more essential to the survival of home care than ever before.
Training Future Providers in Home Care and Telehealth Technologies: A Collaborative Effort between Nursing and Biomedical Engineering
Authors: Buckley Kathleen M. , Tran Binh Q. , Prandoni Cheryl M. , Clark Helene M.
Published: March 2007

Trends in telehealth technologies have promoted a unique collaboration between nursing and biomedical engineering faculty in a training program at the Catholic University of America. The goalof the program is to prepare future nurses and biomedical engineers to collaborate in providing improved health care services for the elderly living at home. Nursing faculty provide graduate biomedical engineering students with information on nursing assessment, clinical foundations, and care of the elderly as a knowledge base to improve their designs of technology for this population. In return, undergraduate nursing students are given the opportunity to obtain a hands-on experience with new and emerging telehealth technologies in home care and to expand their therapeutic communication skills.
Candida infections in children with HIV disease
Authors: James Judith , Lincoln Priscilla
Published: March 2007

The most common fungal infection found in children infected with HIV is from the candida organ ism. This article describes the epidemiology and pathogenesis of the organism. The clinical course of the infection along with the nursing intervention is presented. A brief case presentation illus trates the psychosocial and cultural implications for care.
Efforts to reduce homemaker/home health aide turnover in a home care agency
Authors: Ditson Laurel A.
Published: March 2007

The Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of the Denver area conducted an action research project that identified and reduced high turnover rates of homemakers and home health aides. The research team worked to minimize attrition in the VNA's professional staff, which had annual turnover in excess of 95% and staffing losses as high as 60% from the first to the second day of employment. Through a collaborative effort within the organization, the team decreased turn over and reduced staffing losses to 25%, resulting in a first-year savings to the VNA of more than $5,900. Key words: reduction of home health aide turnover
The Impact of Risk Management and the Importance of Effective Incident/ Complaint Reporting
Authors: Hughes Angela R.
Published: March 2007

An efficient and effective risk management program is an essential component for home health care agencies today. The rapid growth of home health care, increased patient acuity level, and technological advancement all place home health care providers at an increased risk in terms of liability. The expanding role of managed care raises new concerns in terms of utilization of service and payment. This article will address ways to identify, correct, and prevent risk issues.
Specialty Training in a Managed Care System
Authors: Fuzy Jetta Lee
Published: March 2007

Home health care delivery is in a dramatic state of change due to the backlash of President Clinton's health care reform proposal. The concept of managed care has been influential in creating the changes seen in hospitals and other acute care settings. Now the home care industry is reeling from similar effects. The challenge for skilled nurses in today's arena is to prepare to implement skilled nursing care in the home setting-to go from generalist to specialist, from delivering quality patient care in a structured environment to maintaining the same quality in the patient's home. To meet the time restraints required by managed care guidelines, home health care nurses must increase their knowledgebase and improve their skills. Specialty training offers both. In a particular area of home health care delivery, allowing the nurse to provide care in a more efficient and cost- effective manner allows the nurse to become proficient in a specific area of home health nursing, such as care of the diabetic patient.
Depression and Suicide: Assessment and Intervention
Authors: McIntyre Leona G. , Oreck Phyllis , Camarillo Mary Ann , McBride Valente Sharon
Published: March 2007

Despite the ever increasing numbers of older persons in the home health care system, often those who are suffering from a depression are not treated adequately. This article presents a case study to illustrate assessment, identification of risk factors, and interventions aimed at preventing suicide, a lethal outcome of untreated depression. Once detected, depression can be effectively treated. Nurses are vital in their role as educators and counselors in treating depression and promoting improved functioning for older persons.
Neonatal Follow-Up Care: Implications for Home Health Care
Authors: Amato-Bowden Catherine
Published: March 2007

Through changes in technology and medicine, the population of the intensive care nursery (ICN) has become more acute, along with new challenges for the home care provider. The follow-up care of these infants is multifaceted. They have medical, technical, developmental, financial, and psychosocial issues that affect them as well as their families and community. These issues may become evident in the form of a crisis, postdischarge, or may remain chronic and long term. The home health care nurse is in a unique position to facilitate, report, educate, and provide compassionate care for these infants and their families as well as connect them to their community. This article discusses some of the issues facing the ICN infant and family postdischarge and suggests home care interventions. It is followed by a three-part tool that may be used to assess an infant's ICN course, home assessment, and infant assessment.
Preparing American and Nicaraguan Nurses to Practice Home Health Nursing in a Transcultural Experience
Authors: Ross Carl A.
Published: March 2007

One of the outgrowths of the Center for International Nursing activities between Duquesne University and Nicaragua is the establishment of an "Hermanamiento" sister school collaboration between Duquesne University School of Nursing and the School of Nursing at the Polytechnic University (UPOLI), Managua, Nicaragua. In response to the formation of this sister school affiliation, a number of activities have resulted. Activities include student and faculty exchange experiences in community and acute health care. One of the latest activities occurred in April 1997 and involved 10 undergraduate students and a faculty member from Duquesne who traveled to Nicaragua for a student and faculty exchange in home health care experience. The purpose of the trip was to allow students to experience health care outside the boundaries of the United States with limited resources. The students were involved with a collaborative nursing experience with counterpart students from Nicaragua. Students carried out a practicum experience in the community and observed health care in public hospitals as well.
The Nurse-Managed Wellness Clinic Model Developed by Duquesne University School of Nursing
Authors: Resick Lenore K. , Taylor Carol A. , Leonardo Maureen E.
Published: March 2007

The residents of senior-focused housing typify the phenomenon of aging-in-place. Older people are living longer than expected with a subsequent increase in health problems. However, with accessible health promotion and wellness services, these individuals are able to live independently for a longer period of time. This article will describe the background and implementation of the nurse-managed wellness clinic model developed by the faculty of the Duquesne University School of Nursing.
Whose Land Is It Anyway? National Interest, Indigenous Stakeholders, and Colonial Discourses
Authors: Banerjee Subhabrata Bobby
Published: March 2007

In this article, the author examines the case of the highly controversial Jabiluka uranium mine that was recently given the green signal by the Australian government. The mine, to be constructed in the heart of the Kakadu National Park (home to the Mirrar people and a World Heritage site) has been the topic of public debate and controversy involving Aboriginal communities, political parties, the mining industry, and environmentalists. By examining the colonial and anticolonial discourses that inform the mining project (with a particular focus on the colonialist, capitalist discourse inherent in the construction of Australian nationhood and the management of Aboriginal identity), the author argues that contemporary postcolonial theory can be problematic. It tends not to account for anticolonialist struggles or the struggles of the colonized to negotiate with and survive colonial conditions. The author also examines the differential power dynamics among stakeholders in this process and concludes by discussing implications of this case for stakeholder theory and for critical management studies.
Environmental Hazard and Institutional Betrayal
Authors: Beamish Thomas D.
Published: March 2007

In this in-depth case analysis of the massive Guadalupe Dunes oil field spill in California’s San Luis Obispo County, it is argued that understanding community members’ interpretations of risk requires attention to the broader social and historical contexts within which interpretation occurs. This conceptualization differs from conventional approaches to studying risk that tend to treat the phenomena more narrowly, as discrete “variables” that can be measured objectively by experts or that can be assessed as reactions of lay people to single, isolated events. The main finding from this study is that community members’ interpretations of the risks posed by the Guadalupe Dunes spill (the largest in U.S. history) were affected profoundly by the social and environmental history of the local area. In this case, perceptions of present and future risk associated with the massive contamination of Guadalupe Dunes grew more from impressions of the way corporate and governmental institutions in the area mishandled this and previous oil-related hazards than from fear of health risks associated with the discrete Guadalupe Dunes event. Community members reacted to the threat from the immediate event but also experienced a more encompassing sense of risk associated with a perceived breach of trust on the part of corporate and governmental institutions. From their impression of institutional neglect, misconduct, and cover-up, they developed a sense of institutional failure and feelings of betrayal and anger. As this case suggests, when a complete breakdown in trust of this kind occurs, community members’ perceptions of and reactions to risk can be seen as “rational” but cannot be understood as merely calculative responses to the physical hazards associated only with the immediate, discrete event. By reporting how community members and other members of the lay public experienced this more encompassing sense of risk, this study illustrates the critical importance of context in risk research. Implications for developing theories of risk perception are discussed.
A Trade Association's Role In Crisis Management
Authors: Cox Geraldine V.
Published: March 2007

Trade associations are structured for studied consensus development with advocacy of their approved policy. They are not designed for crisis action. Crisis management, the antithesis of consensus management, is virtually un known in the trade association field. Yet, when confronted with a major crisis, a trade association has only two options—do nothing or do some thing. The Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) opted for the latter when the magnitude of the Bhopal accident became evident. This paper out lines the steps that CMA took to: 1) get the story out regarding Bhopal; and 2) help the chemical industry respond to the post-disaster environment, which was marked by a high level of public scrutiny and suspicion.
Chemical Wastes in our Atmosphere—An Ecological Crisis
Authors: Likens Gene E.
Published: March 2007

A large variety of chemical wastes is added to our atmosphere from nu merous human activites. Some of these, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides (which produce acid rain), ozone, metals, and hydrocarbons, have reached high concentrations in industrialized and urbanized regions of the globe and are causing an ecological crisis.

Acid rain and snow have been falling on increasingly widespread areas of the world during the past several decades. Large areas of North America, Europe, and Asia now receive rain that is, on average, 10 to greater than 30 times more acidic than would be expected for unpolluted atmospheres. Fre quently, individual rainstorms or cloudwater events have pH values of less than 3. Dry deposition of acidic substances (gases and particles) to natural ecosystems may equal inputs from rain and snow.

Effects of air pollution on surface waters, forests, and crops are very difficult to quantify because these natural systems are exceedingly variable and complex. Nevertheless, thousands of lakes and streams in North America and Europe have become so acidic that they cannot support viable populations of fish and other organisms. Highly acidic precipitation events coupled with high atmospheric concentrations of ozone and metals can cause plant damage. Crop loss from ozone damage in the United States is estimated at 6 to 7% annually. The environmental and economic conse quences of air pollution have yet to be evaluated fully, but atmospheric ozone and inputs of acids and metals to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems clearly represent a potential ecological crisis.

Various historical and transboundary aspects of these air pollution problems have become controversial political and economic issues, particu larly between states within the United States, between the United States and Canada, and between various countries in Europe. The solution to this many-faceted environmental problem represents an enormous scientific and political challenge.
Representations of Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder in children's literature
Authors: Leon M. Roth
Published: March 2007

Fiction and non-fiction children's literature about Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was reviewed for its presentation of demographic profiles of children with ADHD (age, gender, and ethnic background), diagnostic information (etiology, symptomatology, prognosis, and comorbid conditions), impact of ADHD on academic systems (cognitive functioning, social functioning, and student/teacher interactions) and home systems (parents, siblings, and extended family), and selected treatment/ intervention variables (assessment procedures and intervention modalities). Portrayals of these topics in the children's literature were compared with selected findings in the empirical literature on ADHD. Areas of high comparability between the two literatures occurred within the areas of age, effects of ADHD on social functioning in school, impact of ADHD on siblings, types of personnel who diagnose ADHD, and commonly used assessment and intervention modalities for ADHD. Descriptions of gender, ethnicity, etiology, symptomatology, prognosis, comorbidity, the impact of ADHD on cognitive functioning in school, and parent/child and extended family/child relationships differed between the children's and the empirical literatures. The accuracy of portrayed teacher/student relationships is unclear, and warrants additional research. Results of this review may help to provide potential guideposts for the creation of future books about ADHD written for child, family, and teacher audiences.
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Authors: Conroy Patrick , Shladover Steven , Dahlgren Joy , Varaiya Pravin , Recker Will , Ritchie Stephen
Published: March 2007

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) hold great promise for public works professionals seeking to optimize those public investment strategies that deal with traffic congestion and other growth pressures. Advanced traffic and fleet management systems as well as traveler information and vehicle-based systems can take advantage of information technology advances and private market products to substantially improve the productivity, connectivity, and safety of transportation. And as the new federal transportation act further spurs deployment of these systems, ITS research programs will continue to play a vital role in supporting such deployment and the overall evolution of ITS. Such research includes developing technology tools, providing testing and evaluation environments, and helping advance the state of the practice.
Managing Urban Growth
Authors: Blair Robert
Published: March 2007

Research shows the social and economic costs of uncontrolled or rapid urbanization, yet promoting growth remains synonymous with urban development in most American communities into the 21st century. Growth management consists of public policy initiatives by city officials to lessen the adverse impacts of urban sprawl. This article examines local growth management in terms of the mechanisms of policy implementation tools. The emerging body of research and theory on instruments of public policy implementation gives a new perspective on the effectiveness of urban growth management efforts. The author tests policy tools theory by adapting Peter’s three-way matching analytical approach, which includes policy tool, management strategy, and policy community, using urban growth management as the policy area for analysis. The author asks whether the tools approach can improve the effectiveness of urban growth management efforts. A case study of one municipality’s effort in growth management provides the data.
The Role of Ad Hoc Regional Alliances in Managing Growth
Authors: Barth Thomas
Published: March 2007

This article discusses the establishment of the Cape Fear Regional Growth Team as an example of the emergence of ad hoc regional alliances nationwide. These alliances, characterized by the lack of a formal leader, strict organizational boundaries, or imposed rules or regulations, exist solely because it is in the interest of the members. They are an organizational response to a world of “wicked problems” where no one is in charge because solutions require the voluntary cooperation of members representing multiple jurisdictions. The emergence of ad hoc alliances suggests that effective regional growth management in the future should not rely solely on the creation of traditional bureaucracies or top-down rules but also use dynamic coalitions and cooperative relationships based on mutual needs and interests. A viable vision of how a community should grow cannot be mandated from above; it must be created from within if it is to be sustainable over the long term.
Resident Support for Local Growth Management Strategies in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Authors: King Karen
Published: March 2007

The issue of growth management in urban settings has captured the attention of concerned groups for the past several decades. The voice that is sometimes lacking is that of the residents of neighborhoods who are inevitably affected by the economic and political decisions made by others on how and where growth should occur, but whose recommendations are often ignored or overturned. In an attempt to determine resident satisfaction with the growth management policies promulgated by urban decision makers, the researcher examined association newsletters from 44 neighborhoods in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Results of this study indicated that community satisfaction with growth management does not show a consistent pattern. What did emerge, however, was the fact that neighborhood residents want more information about growth management strategies and more involvement in the land use decision making process.
Improving through Benchmarking
Authors: Meszaros Greg , Owen C. James
Published: March 2007

Rising public expectations for higher-quality, more cost-effective services are radically altering the way municipalities deliver utility services. In increasing numbers, many local governments are introducing competition, through private sector contract operation companies, into their water and wastewater utilities. Once foreign to public utility managers, the concepts, behavior, and work practices of a competitive market increasingly are becoming a reality for many municipal water and wastewater utility providers. This article examines the use of competitive benchmarking as a means of assessing and responding to the changing market conditions sweeping the municipal water and wastewater utility industry. An overview of the benchmarking process is presented, and the use of benchmarking is illustrated through an examination of the techniques used to develop a competitive assessment of the Utility Division of the city of Fort Wayne.
Homicide and Nativity
Authors: SORENSON SUSAN B. , LEW VIVIAN
Published: March 2007

Immigration has been associated with crime. Whether immigrants are more involved than native-born persons in violent crime, in general, and in homicide, in particular, is less clear. The authors addressed the latter question by examining the 9,442 homicides from 1990 to 1994 in Los Angeles County. To avoid attributing to nativity the risk associated with age, gender, and ethnicity, population structure differences of the two groups were taken into account. Immigrants are at slightly higher risk of becoming a homicide victim than native-born persons. Offense rates are difficult to interpret because in 42.3% of the homicides, no suspect was identified; using data from known suspects, U.S.-born persons are 1.29 times more likely than foreign-born persons to commit homicide. The nature of the homicides of immigrants and by immigrants are, with some exceptions, substantially similar to the homicides of and by natives. More and better data are needed to inform policy.
Sales Tax Equity Again: By Age Groups and Income Classes
Authors: Ghazanfar S.M.
Published: March 2007

This paper investigates sales tax inequities from a new perspective: by house-Abstract hold heads' age groups and income classes. With income constant, spending variations exist due to family head's age, just as variations exist due to family size. This study examines effective rates (and composite burden indices) for three age groups over ten income classes, computed by applying food-exempt and food-taxed structures. There is evidence of vertical and horizontal ineguities for various age groups, though such inequities are reduced when food is exempt. An important policy implication is that food exemption (or tax credit) can mitigate both types of inequities for different age groups, an argument already well established concerning family sizes.
Special Districts and Local Public Services
Authors: D Thomas J.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the role of special districts in the efficient provision of local public services. Many public administrators, political scientists, and urban planners have long held that the proliferatian of special districts in urban areas leads to an increase in the cost ofproviding local public services and a decline in the degree to which service provision is responsive to the demands of consumer-taxpayers. In contrast, this article evaluates special districts on the basis of economic theory and deduces that they can be conducive to both production and consumption efficiency. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that restrictions on the growth of special districts diminish competition in the provision of local public services and lead to rising costs. This hypothesis is tested using data from California and Oregon, two states which have severely restricted the growth of special districts. It is found that, ceteris paribus, such restrictions are likely to have increased the cost of providing local public services.
On Deriving Pricing Rules in the Theory of Second Best
Authors: Walsh John P.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to generalize the Lipsey-Lancaster "mixed economy" example in order to establish the second-best pricing rules exactly. We establish the required assumptions concerning the relationship between the monopoly and the competitive industry. We also establish a partial characterization of the second-best optimum. The general principles developed in the article can be applied to a number of other public sector problems.
Taxation and the Growth of Nonwage Compensation
Authors: Sloan Frank A. , Adamache Killard W.
Published: March 2007

Until recently, there have been no attempts to measure the influence of the income tax system on fringe benefits. A model is specified that links the tax system to fringe benefits. In addition, other determinants of the demand for and supply of fringe benefits are discussed. Using a time-series cross-section of establishment data, the influence of income taxes and other determinants on employer contributions to "voluntary" nonwage compensation is estimated. Using Tobit analysis, we find that higher marginal tax rates increase employer contributions to pensions and to life, accident, and health insurance. We also link our results to losses in federal tax revenues due to fringe benefits.
Measuring School District Performance
Authors: Färe Rolf , Grosskopf Shawna , Weber William L.
Published: March 2007

This article provides a method of measuring performance in the public sector, specifically performance of school districts. The technique is closely related to the family of Farrell type efficiency measures as well as data envelopment analysis (DEA). It also can be viewed as a generalization of earlier work on educational production functions. The approach gauges performance relative to the best practice frontier constructed from enveloping observed data points. It is nonparametric, i.e., no parametric functional form is imposed on the data, and the approach readily admits multiple goals or outputs. By way of illustration we apply this approach to a sample of Missouri school districts for the 1985-1986 school year. In order to reduce the impact of outliers we employ jackknifing techniques.
Evaluating the Success of Need-Based State Aid in the Presence of Property Tax Limitations
Authors: Reschovsky Andrew , Schwartz Amyellen
Published: March 2007

Massachusetts uses an aid formula that accounts for differences among local communities in both fiscal resources and costs. To assess the success of this aid program in reducing fiscal disparities, it is necessary to estimate the costs of providing public services. Implementing these estimates introduces difficulties arising from the presence of Massachusetts' property tax limitation, Proposition 2½. Our solution is to estimate local government expenditure equations using separate, selection-corrected regressions for communities proposing property tax overrides and those not proposing overrides. This approach produces reasonable results that suggest that the distribution of aid does serve to diminish fiscal disparities.
Should Education Be Subsidized?
Authors: Trostel Philip A.
Published: March 2007

An efficiency argument for public subsidies to education is proposed in this study. Subsidizing education is shown to be welfare improving because it makes the tax system less distortionary. Income taxation causes a less than efficient amount of investment in human capital, and induces an inefficient mix of human capital investments. Taxation causes too few goods, and relatively too much time, to be invested in human capital. Lowering the private cost ofgoods invested in human capital counteracts these tax distortions, thus it can be efficient to subsidize education.
The Marginal Cost of Funds With Nonseparable Public Spending
Authors: Ahmed Shaghil , Croushore Dean
Published: March 2007

This article provides new calculations of the welfare effects of fiscal changes when the publicly provided good is nonseparable in utility and production so that it affects economic agents' marginal decisions. The authors' results show that these nonseparabilities significantly alter the marginal cost of funds (MCF ) that previous studies have calculated. The authors also report estimates of the nonseparable marginal benefits (NSMB ) associated with aggregate government purchases. The net marginal cost offunds (NMCF ), which is equal to MCF - NSMB, is in general positive over a wide range of parameter values that encompass empirically relevant specifications. Thus the nonseparable benefits by themselves are not sufficient for a marginal increase in aggregate government purchases of goods and services to be worthwhile.
The Optimal Tariff for Public Good and Public Input Provision
Authors: Michael Michael S.
Published: March 2007

It is well known that when tariff revenue is distributed to consumers as a lump sum, the optimum policy for a small country is free trade because a tariff reduces its welfare. Many less-developed countries, however, use tariff revenue to finance the provision of public goods or public inputs, such as technical training or infrastruc ture. This article builds a small open economy model with three private goods—one imported, one exported, and one nontraded—and where the government uses tariff revenue to finance the provision of a public good or input. Within this framework, the article derives the optimum tariff formulas and efficiency rules for public good and public input provision and compares the latter with the efficiency rules when the provision of public goods is financed with consumption taxes.
Numerical Experiments With an Overlapping Additive Schwarz Solver for 3-d pArallel Reservoir Simulation
Authors: Pavarino Luca F. , Ramé Marcelo
Published: March 2007

Domain decomposition methods are a major area of contemporary research in the numerical analysis of partial differential equations. They provide robust, par allel, and scalable preconditioned iterative methods for the large linear systems arising when continuous prob lems are discretized by finite elements, finite differ ences, or spectral methods. This paper presents nu merical experiments on a distributed-memory parallel computer, the 512-processor Touchstone Delta at the California Institute of Technology. An overlapping ad ditive Schwarz method is implemented for the mixed finite-element discretization of second-order elliptic problems in three dimensions arising from flow mod els in reservoir simulation. These problems are charac terized by large variations in the coefficients of the elliptic operator, often associated with short correlation lengths, which make the problems very ill-conditioned. The results confirm the theoretical bound on the con dition number of the iteration operator and show the advantage of domain decomposition preconditioning as opposed to the simpler but less robust diagonal preconditioner.
Optimization and Performance Analysis of a Massively Parallel Dynamic Programming Algorithm for Rna Secondary Structure Prediction
Authors: Shapiro Bruce A. , Chen Jih-Hsiang , Busse Tim , Navetta Joseph , Kasprzak Wojciech , Maizel Jacob V.
Published: March 2007

An optimized and parallelized form of a dynamic pro gramming algorithm capable of generating optimal and suboptimal RNA secondary structures is pre sented. Implementation of this algorithm on a MasPar MP-2 with 16K processors is shown to perform ex tremely well for very large nucleic acid sequences such as HIV (AIDS) and Rhinovirus (common cold). These sequences are, respectively, 9,128 and 7,208 nu cleotides in length. By taking advantage of the parallel nature of MasPar and also optimizing the communica tion requirements the implementation essentially re duced the algorithm from order O(n3) to 0(n2). This reduction in complexity enables us to fold large RNA sequences in reasonable amounts of time. This capa bility has proven to be a valuable tool in studying the molecular structure and biological function of mole cules this large.
Estimation and Uses of the Proportion of Method Variance for Multitrait-Multimethod Data
Authors: Conway James M.
Published: March 2007

Recent evidence supports the use of the correlated uniqueness model over the general confirmatory factor analysis model for multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data The former provides no method factor loadings and therefore no obvious estimate of the proportion of method variance. This is problematic; researchers have used proportions of method variance from the general confirmatory factor analysis model for many purposes. Demonstrations showed that correlated uniquenesses can be averaged to estimate the proportion of method variance. Unlike factor loadings, correlated uniquenesses need not be squared. The first demonstration included a mathematical proof and analysis of an artificial matrix The second involved two employment interview matrixes and one performance appraisal matrix Proportion of method variance estimates were used to make comparisons within and between MTMM matrixes. Results suggested that more structured employment interviews contain smaller proportions of method variance and that peer performance ratings contain greater proportions of method variance than do self-ratings.
Transforming a Public Service Organization from inside Out to Outside in
Authors: Price Reg , Brodie Roderick J.
Published: March 2007

As competition increases and customers become more demanding, service organizations are recognizing the need to become more market oriented. This requires developing and being guided by “outside-in” as opposed to “insideout” processes. However, many organizations are finding this difficult to achieve. Using the framework developed by Day, the authors examine the use of service principles to transform a large public sector service organization so it is more market oriented. The authors examine the catalysts that initiated the change, how the change program was designed, and how it was implemented. Central to the change process was getting the organization to rethink its activities so they were “outside-in.” Resultant changes for staff in their focus and vocabulary brought about improved work practice and more effective customer communication. The performance scorecards showed dramatic improvement in process performance and a substantial and enduring positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Regaining Service Customers
Authors: Stauss Bernd , Friege Christian
Published: March 2007

Service markets are increasingly competitive while at the same time customer loyalty decreases. To succeed in these markets, service providers have to address not only prospects and existing customers but also lost customers as a distinct target group for their customer management. This article develops a conceptual basis for “regain management” aimed at winning back customers who either give notice to terminate the business relationship or whose relationship has already ended. Regain management offers service providers profitable acquisition by adopting a specific management process consisting of regain analysis, regain actions, and regain controlling. Essential for this process is a customer database that allows segmentation of lost customers and a segment-specific variation of regain dialogues and regain offers.