Rape myth acceptance, victim blame attribution and Just World Beliefs: a rapid evidence assessment

Background: Rape is underreported, potentially because individuals self-blame and/or are blamed by others. Research predominantly illustrates male-perpetrated stranger-rape of females; thus, there may be a perception that rape myth acceptance (RMA) and victim-blaming are most prevalent in males. The purpose of this rapid evidence assessment was to investigate the availability of high-quality research into the effects of Just World Beliefs, perpetrator/victim gender, and stranger- and acquaintance/marital-rape scenarios on victim-blaming and RMA. Methods: Several electronic databases were searched for empirical papers using terms including: ‘victim blame’, ‘rape myth acceptance’, ‘Just World Beliefs’, ‘type of rape’ and ‘gender’. Gough's (2007) weight of evidence framework was used to assess quality prior to inclusion. Findings: Studies retained after filtering and quality assessment suggested that RMA was predictive of victim-blaming with both male and female ‘victims’. Rape myth acceptance is more prevalent in males even in male ‘victim’ scenarios, and Just World Belief was positively associated with RMA. Greater victim-blaming was attributed in stranger- vs. acquaintance-rape scenarios. Discussion: There are no absolute conclusions regarding the role of gender or situational factors and rape-supportive/victim-blaming attitudes. Further empirical research is required to understand the prevalence of RMA in perceptions of marital rape and, particularly, homosexual marital rape

The Symmetric Group Defies Strong Fourier Sampling

The dramatic exponential speedups of quantum algorithms over their best existing classical counterparts were ushered in by the technique of Fourier sampling, introduced by Bernstein and Vazirani and developed by Simon and Shor into an approach to the hidden subgroup problem. This approach has proved successful for abelian groups, leading to efficient algorithms for factoring, extracting discrete logarithms, and other number-theoretic problems. We show, however, that this method cannot resolve the hidden subgroup problem in the symmetric groups, even in the weakest, information-theoretic sense. In particular, we show that the Graph Isomorphism problem cannot be solved by this approach. Our work implies that any quantum approach based upon the measurement of coset states must depart from the original framework by using entangled measurements on multiple coset states

ECOLABELS AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY: SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS

The public provision of information about the environmental performance of firms and products has generated considerable enthusiasm and become a common instrument of environmental regulation, even though the economic analysis of the social welfare properties of these policies is quite limited. This paper proposes a model for examining these properties.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Kinetic Mixing and the Supersymmetric Gauge Hierarchy

The most general Lagrangian for a model with two U(1) gauge symmetries contains a renormalizable operator which mixes their gauge kinetic terms. Such kinetic mixing can be generated at arbitrarily high scales but will not be suppressed by large masses. In models whose supersymmetry (SUSY)-breaking hidden sectors contain U(1) gauge factors, we show that such terms will generically arise and communicate SUSY-breaking to the visible sector through mixing with hypercharge. In the context of the usual supergravity- or gauge-mediated communication scenarios with D-terms of order the fundamental scale of SUSY-breaking, this effect can destabilize the gauge hierarchy. Even in models for which kinetic mixing is suppressed or the D-terms are arranged to be small, this effect is a potentially large correction to the soft scalar masses and therefore introduces a new measurable low-energy parameter. We calculate the size of kinetic mixing both in field theory and in string theory, and argue that appreciable kinetic mixing is a generic feature of string models. We conclude that the possibility of kinetic mixing effects cannot be ignored in model-building and in phenomenological studies of the low-energy SUSY spectra.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure. Revised to match published versio

Parsing shocks: real-time revisions to gap and growth projections for Canada

The output gap - the deviation of output from potential output - has played an important role in the conduct of monetary policy in Canada. This paper reviews the Bank of Canada's definition of potential output, as well as the use of the output gap in monetary policy. Using a real-time staff economic projection dataset from 1994 through 2005, a period during which the staff used the Quarterly Projection Model to construct economic projections, the authors investigate the relationship between shocks (data revisions or real-time projection errors) and revisions to projections of key macroeconomic variables. Of particular interest are the interactions between shocks to real gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation and revisions to the level of potential output, potential growth, the output gap, and real GDP growth.Economic development ; Economic conditions - Canada