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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Information strategy： An analysis framework

Strategic information requirements define which information an enterprise needs to operate and manage its business. These requirements are told ＂strategic＂, since they are at a very high abstraction level, and reflect what managers want to know about operations. In an ideal world, managers would simply express their needs in natural language and the analyst will translate them in actual systems. To get close to these ideal results, a key point is to structure requirements and go from a strategic level, suitable for managers but not for IT analysts, from a semantic level, suitable for IT analysts. For this purpose, we here present an approach to strategic information requirements elicitation （SIRE）. It includes a meta-model, analysis steps and a software tool. The meta-model describes the information domains of the enterprise. The design steps specify the activities the analyst should perform to go from a strategic level to an engineering level. SIRE is based on some key ideas. First, an enterprise processes information made of universal information domains, which include stakeholders, products, process and contexts. By specializing these domains, the analyst identifies domains specific to individual enterprises. Second, whatever domain includes different information types： Master information that defines structural properties, transaction information that describes events, indicators that describe performances. By crossing information domains and types the analyst identifies strategic information entities （SIE）. The method requires few definitions and is readily understood by management and users. Of course, it can be used to design new systems. Additionally, it can be used in information systems planning to assess the coverage of current systems （fill-gap analysis）. The tool enables to store high level schemas that can be mapped against real database schemas of commercial software platforms to understand their coverage.     

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.     

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.     

Electronic government interoperability framework in Greece： Project management approach and lessons learned in public administration

The implementation of e-government is a burgeoning phenomenon across the globe. However, a review of the IS literature reveals the inability of public administration organizations to complete information technology projects successfully. Unless governments learn to manage the government transformation projects, these e-dreams will turn into global nightmares. The shortage of studies on e-government implementation presents a knowledge gap that needs to be plugged. This paper describes and analyzes the implementation and the project management approach of the electronic government interoperability framework （EGIF） in Greece. Our intent is to present an application of a goal-driven project management methodology named EGTPM （electronic government transformation project management） in order to use it as a methodological reference when navigating in the open sea of information technology project implementations in the area of public administration. The successful implementation of the specific project indicates that the application of EGTPM approach could provide a solution to achieve government transformation objectives more effectively and efficiently.     

Definition of national minorities in international law

During historic development, that the stress put in international law on protection of national minorities was strengthened or weakened depends upon a momentary interest of states. In （general） international law up to now, the term of ＂national minority＂ has not been legally defined. It has been done only for Europe. A group can be classed as a national minority if it is numerically smaller than the rest population of the state. It is not in a dominant position, its culture, language, religion, race, etc. are distinct from that of the rest population, its members have a will to preserve their specificity, its members are citizens of the state where they have the status of a minority and as a specific condition frequently added, and at the same time such a minority should have a long-term presence on the territory where it has lived.     

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.     

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.     

Reform process in Bulgaria： Challenges and perspectives after joining EU

The paper＇s objective is to analyze and outline the key challenges and perspectives in achieving a modern type of governance and a well functioning and transparent administrative system, capable to apply the best European practices and policies. The study summarizes the main results, achievements and shortcomings of the reform process and reveals that the progress has been slower and more limited than expected despite all efforts of the government. The conclusion made is that Bulgaria needs to not only substantially enhance its administrative and judicial capacity, but also drastically intensify its reforms to improve the management of EU funds and achieve concrete results in the fight against corruption. All this requires strong political will and determination.     

Empirical study on the influence of organizational learning and capability on technological mnovanon

Based upon the generalization of those theories in organizational learning, organizational capability and technological innovation, the essay discusses the influence of organizational learning and capability in technological innovation, and presents its relevant hypotheses. On analyzing the effective sample data from 682 enterprises of different industries across 10 provinces and cities in China, the empirical results reveal that external learning is in favor of enterprises to cultivate dynamic capability but to disfavor in improving the existing operational capability, internal learning benefits enterprises to improve the existing operational capability but to disbenefit in cultivating dynamic capability, dynamic capability has a positive impact on operational capability, dynamic capability has significantly positive correlation with product innovation and process innovation, while operational capability has only evidently positive correlation with product innovation.     

Globalized economies or globalized bodies？ The economical and cultural factors of obesity in China

This paper is a review of the literature that examines obesity in China. Multiple factors that contribute to this phenomenon are investigated, such as globalization, urbanization and cultural changes. Most of the researches reviewed in this paper concern urban, coastal populations of China. Obesity is defined differently for Asian populations; thus, diagnosis has been underestimated in the past. As China＇s economy develops, the country may now be gaining western problems, such as obesity. Obesity is related to economical causes as China participates in international business and trade. Furthermore, the role of the globalized food industry is reviewed. More western food companies and restaurants have infiltrated Chinese cities, causing mass changes in the traditional Chinese diet. Likewise, employment is a significant factor examined since more occupations in Chinese cities have transitioned to the service sector. Cultural attitudes differ from those of the West in which the Chinese view heavier bodies as healthier than thinner figures. Interventions that have been attempted are reviewed.     

Recent problems of the historic centres in Spain

In the last thirty years, historic centres that were considered as impoverished urban structures that ought to be replaced are now viewed as crucial enclaves of urban identity that ought to be protected. The singularity of the old city increases its importance in our global world. The value of the city as a living cultural legacy, with all its embedded symbolism, is thus recognised. We can find some problems within these spaces, as for example, depopulation and dwelling price increase with their consequences： degradation in some parts and revaluation in others, especially in those with progressive increase in the service economy.