Santeria on Trial

Is ritual animal sacrifice constitutional? A Florida judge rule

Efficient Portfolio Selection

Merak believed that an efficient frontier analysis method that combined the robustness of the Monte Carlo approach with the confidence of the Markowitz approach would be a very powerful tool for any industry. However, it soon became clear that there are other ways to address the problem that do not require a Monte Carlo component. Three subgroups were formed, and each developed a different approach for solving the problem. These were the Portfolio Selection Algorithm Approach, the Statistical Inference Approach, and the Integer Programming Approach

On emotionally intelligent time travel: Individual differences in affective forecasting ability

available options would make them feel. Yet, recent research suggests that such predictions, or affective forecasts, often are inaccurate. There are, after all, a number of obstacles to successful emotional time travel-people are likely to err in affective forecasting if they inaccurately envision the future event itself, misremember how they felt in response to similar past events, or fail to adequately take into account the host of potential differences between their physical and psychological state at the time of forecasting and the time of experiencin

Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sociopolitical Control Scale

The Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) is a widely used measure of the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted with data from two samples to test the hypothesized structure of the SPCS, the potential effects of method bias on the measure's psychometric properties, and whether a revised version of the scale (SPCS‐R) yielded improved model fit. Sample 1 included 316 randomly selected community residents of the Midwestern United States. Sample 2 included 750 community residents of the Northeastern U.S. Results indicated that method bias from the use of negatively worded items had a significant effect on the factor structure of the SPCS. CFA of the SPCS‐R, in which negatively worded items were rephrased so that all statements were positively worded, supported the measure's hypothesized two‐factor structure (i.e., leadership competence and policy control). Subscales of the SPCS‐R were found reliable and related in expected ways with measures of community involvement. Implications of the study for empowerment‐based research and practice are described, and strategies to further develop the SPCS are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117223/1/ajcp9070.pd

Resilience Among Urban African American Male Adolescents: A Study of the Protective Effects of Sociopolitical Control on Their Mental Health

Resilience refers to the notion that some people succeed in the face of adversity. In a risk-protective model of resilience, a protective factor interacts with a risk factor to mitigate the occurrence of a negative outcome. This study tested longitudinally the protective effects of sociopolitical control on the link between helplessness and mental health. The study included 172 urban, male, African American adolescents, who were interviewed twice, 6 months apart. Sociopolitical control was defined as the beliefs about one's capabilities and efficacy in social and political systems. Two mental health outcomes were examined—psychological symptoms and self-esteem. Regression analyses to predict psychological symptoms and self-esteem over time were conducted. High levels of sociopolitical control were found to limit the negative consequences of helplessness on mental health. The results suggest that sociopolitical control may help to protect youths from the negative consequences of feelings of helplessness. Implications for prevention strategies are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44052/1/10464_2004_Article_416735.pd

On the Lattice Structure of Finite Games

We prove that games born by day n form a distributive lattice, but that the collection of all finite games does not form a lattice