UK: Hemophiliac wins access to recombinant factor VIII

On 17 July 2003, the England and Wales High Court granted a hemophiliac leave to appeal a decision to refuse to provide him with recombinant factor VIII, a treatment for hemophilia not derived from human blood. The applicant had been infected with HIV and hepatitis B, C, and G through tainted blood products.     

Detecting Deception in Children's Testimony: Factfinders' Abilities to Reach the Truth in Open Court and Closed-Circuit Trials

This study examined the influence of closed-circuit television (CCTV) on jurors' abilities to detect deception in children's testimony. Children ages 7–9 individually played games and made a video movie with a male confederate. In the guilty condition, stickers were placed on exposed body parts (i.e., the child's arm, toes, and bellybutton). In the not-guilty and deception conditions, stickers were placed on the child's clothing rather than on bare skin. Approximately 3 weeks later, mock jurors recruited from the community viewed child participants testify either in a traditional courtroom setting or via one-way CCTV. The mock jurors responded to questions about the child witness and the defendant as well as deliberated to reach a verdict. Children in the deception condition were asked to testify as if the stickers had been placed on exposed body parts rather than on their clothing. Predeliberation, jurors were less likely to convict when a child testified in the deception condition as opposed to the guilty condition. These differences disappeared following deliberation. There was no support for the notion that jurors reach the truth better when children testify in open court versus via CCTV. Implications for jurors' abilities to reach the truth are discussed.     

Changing Forms of Accountability in Education? A Case Study of LEAs in Wales

Political mechanisms of accountability were marginalized by Conservative government reforms during the 1980s and 1990s which sought a more market-oriented approach within the public sector in order to enhance ‘consumerism’. In education, parents were given more choice between schools and were provided with more information on school performance. The promotion of market accountability has involved a reduction in the powers of local education authorities (LEAs) which had been central to the operation of political accountability. However, whilst market-based forms of accountability were firmly enhanced in principle by the legislation, to what extent have the forms of accountability operating within LEAs changed in practice? Interviews with Chief Officers and the Chair of the Education Committee are used to identify changing perceptions and practices of accountability in LEAs in Wales. The findings indicate that although local politicians and officials have been forced to operate within the legislative framework of market accountability, they have sought to impede its successful implementation. The policy community in Wales facilitated the LEAs’ capacity to respond in this way. The market-based reforms conflicted with fundamental values held in Wales, which remain those of professional accountability.     

Early Adolescents’ Social Standing in Peer Groups: Behavioral Correlates of Stability and Change

Sociometric nominations, social cognitive maps, and self-report questionnaires were completed in consecutive years by 327 students (56% girls) followed longitudinally from grade 7 to grade 8 to examine the stability of social standing in peer groups and correlates of changes in social standing. Social preference, perceived popularity, network centrality, and leadership were moderately stable from grade 7 to grade 8. Alcohol use and relational aggression in grade 7 predicted changes in social preference and centrality, respectively, between grade 7 and grade 8, but these effects were moderated by gender and ethnicity. Changes in social standing from grade 7 to grade 8 were unrelated to grade 8 physical aggression, relational aggression, and alcohol use after controlling for the grade 7 corollaries of these behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding links between social standing and problem behaviors during adolescence.

Predicting success: A research study based on law degree courses at Trent Polytechnic

Abstract

THIS STUDY was set up to investigate the possibility of a relationship between the General Certificate of Education ('G.C.E.’) ‘A’ level qualifications of the entrants on to the law degree courses at Trent Polytechnic and their degree classifications.

Very little evidence was found of any such significant relationships. Further analysis of both G.C.E. ‘A’ and ‘O’ level qualifications similarly showed no significant relationships except in the case of ‘O’ levels. The most clear finding was that significant relationships do exist between being a full‐time female student and obtaining a good honours classification, and that all LL.B. Legal Studies (four‐year sandwich) students have a better chance of obtaining good honours than do LL.B. Law (three‐year full‐time) students.

Various other analyses were also attempted, but no other significant relationships were found, although it is possible that choice of final‐year options may influence degree classifications.

Overall, this study suggests that while G.C.E. results may be suggestive of a basic ability to complete degree courses successfully, they do not predict degree classifications. From this I draw the conclusion that G.C.E. results should not be used to exclude students from these, and possibly other, courses in higher education.

In considering the possible predictive value of the ‘A’ level G.C.E. qualifications of entrants on to the law degree courses at Trent Polytechnic and their degree classifications, other possible predictive relationships and factors were also investigated, in order to examine whether any other (reasonably available) variables were linked to degree classifications. Analyses were therefore carried out in relation to ‘O’ level G.C.E., gender, age of student, course, G.C.E. subject‐groupings and course progress. Other variables were not possible to test because of the quality of the information available.     

Exploring Gender-Specific Trends in Underage Drinking Across Adolescent Age Groups and Measures of Drinking: Is Girls’ Drinking Catching Up with Boys’?

Underage drinking is among the most serious of public health problems facing adolescents in the United States. Recent concerns have centered on young women, reflected in media reports and arrest statistics on their increasing problematic alcohol use. This study rigorously examined whether girls’ alcohol use rose by applying time series methods to both arrest data, Uniform Crime Reports, and self-report data from Monitoring the Future, a nationally representative long-term survey gathered independently of crime control agents. All self-reported drinking behaviors across all age groups show declining or unchanged female rates and no significant change in the gender gap, while the official source displays a steady narrowing gender gap and some increase of female arrest rates for liquor law violations. Results indicate that social control measures applied to underage drinking have shifted to target young women’s drinking patterns, but their drinking has not become more widespread/problematic. Girls’ increased alcohol use and abuse is a socially constructed problem, rather than the result of normalization of drinking or more strain in girls’ lives. Future underage drinking policies and practices that apply legal intervention strategies to less chronic adolescent drinking behaviors will increase the visibility of girls’ drinking.