Post-conviction DNA exonerations

The role of DNA profiling is constantly increasing in various fields and criminal justice is not an exception. Several individuals, who are wrongfully convicted, have been exonerated based on DNA evidence. Research in the U.S. has consistently found the major factors contributing to wrongful convictions to be： （1） eyewitness errors; （2） mishandling of evidence by police and prosecutors; （3） false or coerced confessions; （4） improper interrogations and line-ups; （5）jailhouse informants or ＂snitches＂; （6） ineffective assistance of counsel; （7） forensic errors; and （8） the adversarial system. This paper examines the data made available by the Innocent Project for 233 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the U.S. since 1989.     

Mangroves, crabs, clams and communities in Airai State, the Republic of Palau

A collaborative 18 month study was conducted within 4 protected mangroves areas in Airai State, Southeast Babeldaob and the Republic of Palau with traditional men and women groups. Water quality, forest structure, and the size distribution and relative abundance of the mud crab, Scylla serrata and the clam Anodontia edulenta were studied. Water quality parameters differed significantly between sites as follows： pH （F=16.8; df=3,138; p〈0.000）, turbidity （KW-H=22.07; df=3,162; p〈0.0006）, salinity （F=19.8; df=3,366; p〈0.000）, dissolved oxygen （KW-H=13.4; dr=3, 169; p〈0.0012） and temperature （F=4.33; df=3,157; p〈0.006）. The total mean density of all trees was 2,077±225 stems ha^-1 and differed significantly between sites （KW-H=9.3; df=3; p〈0.02）. The total mean basal area was 18.9±2.76 m^2ha^-1 and differed significantly between sites （KW-H=36.2; df=3; p〈0.000）. The total mean volume of all trees was 679 m^3ha^-1 ± 201 m^3ha^-1. The total mean density of saplings was 1,234 ± 297 saplings ha^-1. The mean percent tree canopy cover significantly differed between sites （F=3.3; df=3, 32; p〈0.02）. Mean soil elevation decreased at sites 1 and 4 and increased at sites 2 and 3. The mean soil accretion was greater at sites 1 and 3 than sites 2 and 4. The mean weight for all crabs was significantly different between sites （F=3.2; df=3, 178; p〈0.02）. The mean weight for 55 females was 0.62 g ± 0.04 kg （SE） and differed significantly between sites （F=4.2; dr=3, 51; p〈0.01）. The mean weight for 157 males was 0.75 ± 0.04kg （SE）. The mean carapace width （CW） for all crabs was 14.30 ± 0.20 cm （SE）. The mean carapace width （CW） for 56 females was 14.4 ± 0.35cm （SE） and significantly differed between sites （F=4.6; df=3, 52; p〈0.006）. The mean carapace width （CW） for 157 males was 14.3 ± 0.21 cm. The mean CPUE for all sites was 0.48 ± 0.04 crabs trapl night^-1 （SE） and significantly differed between sites （F=2.9; df=3, 77; p=0.04）. A total of 21 tagged crabs were recaptured in the same area they were initially tagged, of which 3 male crabs had molted. A male was recaptured in the same trap 180 days after capture at Site 1 ; the carapace width increased by 3.6 cm and a weight increase of 0.75kg. A single A. edulenta was found in the protected areas. Clams harvested in Airai State outside the protected areas were significantly smaller than clams harvested in northwest Babeldaob （F=14.8; df=1, 198;p〈0.0002）. Crab fishers and the community recommended a harvest ban on female crabs, enforcement of existing 6inch CW harvest size limit, further investigation of point sources of coliform bacteria and sediment pollution and a harvest limit on mangrove trees.     

From economic statism to free-market regime： Re-considering Nigeria＇s private-sector-led economy drive

The Nigeria＇s economy since its induction into the global capitalist mode of production has been an appendage and a satellite outpost of metropolitan capitalism. Incidentally, unlike their western counterparts, who owned the means of production of the economies of their respective countr/es, the Nigerian national bourgeoisies who took over the control of state productive resources at the country＇s independence however were weaned unto the national stage from weak material base. They, therefore, depended on the state for their reproduction and also owe their bourgeoisie status simply by seizing the apparatus of the state and appropriating state resources. As a result of their weak material base, they have at every point in time to devise economic frameworks that could always afford them unfettered access to state resources. Each of the economic models devised has always, however been dictated by the metropolitan capitalism and the imperative of shoring up the weak material base; so that while these national bourgeoisies mouth the slogan of indigenous origin, they merely attempt to cover their comprador status. Incidentally, however, these national bourgeoisies have no choice other than to accede to the dictates of foreign capitalism, even as the relationship between the two is mutually beneficial, albeit to the detriment of the majority of the citizens. At first, it was through heavy state presence in the economy and later the free market system. In each case, the Nigerian bourgeoisies however have had to justify their actions as informed by true nationalistic motive, to wit for the overall good and benefit of all. But evidence points to the contrary that whether with state-run economy or free market mechanism, the Nigerian economy remains a victim of primitive accumulation by the country＇s elites and its so-called national bourgeoisie.     

Africanization： The dilemma to Africanize or to globalize a curriculum

Africanization is generally seen as a renewed focus on Africa-reclaiming what has been taken from Africa--and the emergence of a new sense of pride. With regard to the local curriculum, there is a renewed focus on indigenous knowledge and an African community competing in a global society. In this article the author will reflect on a literature search on Africanization by firstly attempting to create an awareness of the topic by local problems, for example an Africanized curriculum and study material specifically designed for the higher education student in South Africa （who might be in rural or urban） or in the rest of Africa, or even a local student who has migrated to another part of the globe; secondly, looking at relevancy problems that arise when designing local study material on a global platform; thirdly, suggesting ways to design an Africanized environment that not only reflects the underpinning of an African philosophy, but also takes cognizance of the global curriculum. Therefore, an attempt to create an awareness in all communities worldwide of the need is involved in their own curricula by not only looking at problems such as language, culture and values, but also starting at the very beginning, namely with the philosophy behind the design of such a curriculum.     

The matrix of complex negotiations case study： Negotiating with the Chinese at a time of crisis

This paper seeks to outline the profile of the Chinese negotiators in light of the negotiations that took place during the month of October 2008 between a major Brazilian importer of manufactured goods, which the authors will call ＂Brazilian company＂ and six Chinese companies from the cities of Guangzhou, Pinghu and Hangzhou. The authors will provide succinct examples of stages in the negotiation process and seek to link them to the ten elements of the matrix of complex negotiations, namely： context, interests, options, power, cognition, relationship, concessions, compliance, criteria and time; There are four steps involved in the process： preparation, value creation, value division and execution.     

Biomarket for transforming agriculture to drive Asian economic boom

Asian countries have historically faced challenges of higher population growth and a traditional economy largely based on primary production. Even with good potential for agriculture in terms of available area, basic infrastructure and social skills, plant diseases, poor yielding crop varieties, irregular rainfall and other environmental factors keep the produce much lower. The paper suggests the concept of biomarket as a combination of biotechnology and economy. Notwithstanding public apprehensions, biotechnology promises environment and infection resistant crop varieties, higher yield, improved taste, texture and nutrition of foods, independence from fertilizers and pesticides. However, there is time lag between the research and implementation not to mention the increasing costs involved. A biomarket then would start with a consortium of scientists from member countries pooling research tracks and knowledge of otherwise locally available/developed biotechnologies and making them easily available to all members. Exim policies, IPRs and transparent works would have to be modeled to the opening and sharing of research and its use in the fields and homes. Technology transfer, industry-academic partnership, identification and marketing of bioproducts, international centres, and utilization of indigenous technologies in modern way would streamline the operation of biomarket across Asia. Biomarket will be more evolved than the conventional markets by including knowledge based economy. Social awareness of various biotechnologies and demonstration of success in implementing them locally would engage people＇s life styles. This will ensure wider sociological impact with a purpose of economic progress. Biomarket will finally aim for Asia to emerge as a world power bloc.     

A model for adoption of mobile banking services using classification and regression trees

The analysis and improvements of bank performance is a challenging issue for bank managers. Among various banking services, mobile banking is one of the most risky fields that is prone to customer resistance. Mobile banking is a form of banking transaction carried out via a mobile phone. Mobile banking allows bank customers to check their account balances and perform credit card transaction, as well as provide information on the latest transaction made by customers. This paper summarizes experiences and results of productively using knowledge discovery and data mining techniques in a large detail bank data. Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data. We review prior literature on mobile payments, analyze the various factors that impact mobile payment services markets, and suggest directions for future research in this risk management field. Our research work demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of data mining in analysis of retailing bank performance. We use classification and regression tree learning algorithm for proposing a customer adoption model of mobile banking according to some personal characteristics of customers.     

Alliance of Civilizations： The global peace project of the 21st century

The Alliance of Civilizations was established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey; under the auspices of the United Nations for inter civilizations dialogue to bridge the gap between the West and Muslim world. This article analyzes advantage and disadvantage sides of the success of this initiative.     

Antecedents and consequences of interpersonal trust： An empirical study

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of empowerment, participation and feedback as antecedents of interpersonal trust and organizational commitment and productivity as consequences of interpersonal trust. This study also attempts to find the influence of empowerment, participation and feedback on positive organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment and productivity. A quantitative research design was employed. Data were collected through survey instrument from 186 participants comprising professional, administrative and support staff working in one municipality of Istanbul （Turkey） government. The research results indicate that interpersonal trust is vital to positive organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment and productivity and to enhance the interpersonal trust and positive organizational outcomes, which are characterized by empowerment, participation and feedback are very important.     

IAS/IFRS and insurance： A gradual shifting from insurance to finance

Financial year 2005 marks the gradual introduction of the international accounting standard （IAS） as part of a broad project promoted by the EU to achieve consistency and comparability and, consequently, greater transparency in corporate accounts, with benefits for the users and institutions who make use of, or exercise control over them. The present paper will not address all the related complex profiles （e.g., actuarial methodologies, financial evaluation models, cash-flows scenarios generation techniques）. Actual aim is to bring evidence for the gradual shifting of perspective promoted by the financial community as far as the insurance companies are concerned： Once considered as unknown ＂black-boxes＂ because of their peculiarities, western countries＇ most authoritative agencies and largest private investors felt for a long time uneasy to manage insurance companies＇ disclosures. More recently, since the industry has been absorbed in the world-wide trend toward global conglomerate encompassing banking, finance and insurance, western regulators have undertaken a sound effort to move insurance disclosures from a technical to a financial view, boosting a dramatic homologation to other financial institutions （Cesarini ＆ Varaldo, 1992; Forestieri ＆ Moro, 1993; Locatelli, et al., 1999）. The trade-off, the authors intend to show, is now between more transparent outlook and an insider＇s knowledge of an industry whose peculiarities are inescapable.     

Is it really performance that is measured？ A reflection of the South African Government＇s performance management system

The institutionalisation of performance management in the South African public service is a post-1994 intervention necessitated by the need to counteract the legacy of poor performance in public service institutions. Performance management as an integrated system is not a standalone intervention, but has direct links with other organisational processes. At both the micro- and macro-levels, PMS （performance management system） recognises institutional performance relationships between individuals＇, teams＇ and departments＇ performance contributions for attaining government performance targets. These institutional performance relationships in the South African public service have attracted excessive attention, whilst their performance impact in communities has been overlooked. In addition, the interdependence between the dichotomies of PMS： institutional performance relationships and performance impact have also been overlooked. In the South African context, this condition creates a disparity in terms of which government employees are rewarded for outstanding performance, whilst targeted beneficiaries express dissatisfaction, often with violent protests, over government＇s performance in the delivery of basic services. The protestors cite poor service delivery in prioritised key performance areas of the South African Government. The granting of performance rewards to government employees is an expression of performance excellence, which should translate into quality service delivery. Such delivery should not only meet the levels of service delivery expectations of targeted communities, but should also result in their total satisfaction. The article is founded on the basis that any disparity between targeted beneficiaries＇ service expectations and level of satisfaction can be linked directly to government progress in PMS implementation.     

Media influences and effects on experiences of uncertainty and fear in urban public spaces

From the point of a normative idea of equality, all citizens are entitled to equal access to the cities public spaces. In the public debate, the media have often been blamed for contributing to people＇s fear and insecurity and the avoidance of public places, especially after dark. In this paper, the author addresses the question of how and to what extent experiences of risk and threats in the media, perceptions of crime coverage in the media and third-person-effects of risk and threats influence the degree of avoidance of public places and the variation in people＇s experiences of the sensation of feeling fear and insecurity in public places. The main results presented here are primarily based on survey data from a well known regional survey （Western SOM） performed in 2001-2007 on approximately 3,000 inhabitants in the local region of Gothenburg, Sweden. Experiences of risk and threats through the media are of minor importance for the independent effect on the experiences of the sensation of feeling fear and insecurity in public spaces. The main role of the media is through the perceptions the respondents have on media coverage on crime and media influence on their own and others experiences of threats and risks. Those that believe that media coverage on crime is understated have to a greater extent avoided public places and experienced the sensation of feeling fear and insecurity than those that believe that media coverage of crime is coherent with reality or overstated. The third-person-effects that occur also have consequences. Those that believe that media influence experiences of threats and risks have to a greater extent experienced the sensation of feeling fear and insecurity than those that don＇t believe in media influence （on both others and themselves）. The main conclusion presented in this paper is that the avoidance of public places and variation in people＇s experiences of the sensation of feeling fear and insecurity in public places is more related to people＇s perceptions of media content and media influence regarding risk and threats than experiences of risk and threats through the media. This, however, doesn＇t mean that the experience of risk and threats through the media doesn＇t matter. Experience of risk and threats through the media matters, but do so through reinforcing personal and social experiences of risk and threats.     

Internet as a source of information for tourists The case of Croatia

This paper presents the results of empirical research conducted during the summer 2007 on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia about how much tourists used the Internet as a source of information. Precisely, because tourism is an important part of Croatian economy, it is in everyone＇s interest for information about Croatia as a tourist destination to be available to potential guests. A variety of media are used in achieving that aim--starting with conventional speech and conversation amongst friends, through radio, television and the press, and now the Internet. This paper has the aim of exploring the share of Internet usage as a source of information compared to other media and showing some characteristics of tourists who have used the Internet as the main source of information and spent their vacations in Croatia in July and August in 2007. The main hypothesis is the continuing problem of the generation and education gap and that the Internet does not jeopardize direct communication.     

From local to global： Can local journalism be a new approach to environmental awareness？

Turkey＇s media agenda mostly consists of European relations, the Middle East question and Iraq. The rest of this agenda is predominantly economic news. Because of its geographical location, it is difficult for environmental problems to be perceived as leading problems and find places in Turkey＇s national newspapers. The importance of the local media arises in creating awareness about the environmental issues and forming public opinion in order to find solutions. Due to the immediacy component of news, creating public opinion about the environment through local as opposed to national media is considered to be a more effective method. It is purpose of researcher to determine whether this which is seen to be effective theoretically will also have the same effect in practice. In this research, content analysis will be applied to three local newspapers in Turkey. It has seen that the local media reports environmental news, its source are government and city hall. It has given information to form awareness to the environmental issues.     

Simplification： A single tax and a single entitlement

The United States is experiencing a very serious economic downturn. It is now necessary to consider some significant changes in government policy. The system of revenue collection should be simplified with a single tax levied and itemized at the national, state, and local levels. Likewise, the system of benefit distribution should be simplified with a single entitlement paid to each individual at every level with absolutely no strings attached. Such simplification would save a massive amount of time and money even if it was neutral in terms of overall revenue and expenditure. And, it would minimize fraud, waste and abuse. The gains in efficiency and accountability would be enormous.     

A road to institutionalization： China＇s corruption and struggle for political reform

This essay is a study of China＇s political corruption and countermeasure for it. The author will focus on the cultural factors and the incompleteness of the market economy because these show us the reason why the corruption became severe after the initiation of the economic reform. The author will move on to search a solution within the field of political reform. The author will deal with the problem by two approaches. The first one is to focus on the democratization and the second one is to focus on the political institutionalization. The goal of the author＇s analysis is to examine which approach will work as a proper solution. The author＇s argument is that institutionalization will be the better one. The author will outline the grounds briefly. Firstly, unlike democratization, this solution shows possibility of realization. Secondly, political institutionalization has its own value of political development which was not considered sufficiently before. And finally there are advantages of strengthened accountability and limit discretion. To consolidate the author＇s argument the author will use Hong Kong＇s case where have been successfully controlled the problem by political institutionalization.     

Combinatorics in the theory of utility

It used to be thought that the utility or pleasure that goods gave consumers depended on the whole on the nature of the goods and, particularly, on its quantity. This is half true, half false. The utility obtained from a set of goods depends mainly on how the goods are ordered and combined within the dynamic time sequence represented by consumption. In other words, it depends less on what the goods are and more on how the goods are positioned. Understanding this offers huge possibilities within the theory of utility--and thus of consumption--as it allows us to apply the arsenal of tools available to us in the mathematic speciality known as combinatorics, as applied to utility. If each combination of goods poses a utility, we can rank these combinations differently using ordinal criteria and real transitive preferences. From there we can establish a set of menus, from best to least poor, and, armed with this information, work out a theory of individual choice. This is in brief the purpose of this work.     

A perception of motorcycle insurance in Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to find out people＇s perception of motorcycle insurance while comparing the perceptions of insurance companies＇ staff with that of their customers （the motorcyclists）, and also find out the major causes of motorcycle accidents in Nigeria. A total of 140 respondents were sampled using the questionnaire. The kolmogorov smirnov test was used to test the hypothesis. Findings show a general negative perception of insurance services by the motorcyclist and a large disparity in the responses of the motorcyclists and the insurance companies＇ staff. The major causes of motorcycle accidents are also found to be over speeding, carelessness and poor driving skills.     

The understanding of the laws and bylaws and the methodology for drafting in the socialist regime

The methodology for drafting is one of the most important concepts in drafting of a policy paper and translating this policy into legislation. Regarding this, it is necessary to know how the legislative drafting developed in the past during the socialist regime, and how it has changed with time after the beginning of the democratic processes of the country. Due to the correct methodology of drafting, we enable a good correct legislation as an important element of good governance, where the concept of law lays on its foundations and the democratic system is the major goal.