Regulatory capture in agency performance evaluation: industry expertise versus revolving-door lobbying

This study investigates the concept of bureaucratic competence. Specifically, we challenge the argument that a “careerists’ premium”—the tendency for public services run by careerists to receive better performance evaluations than services administered by other types of public managers—necessarily is explained by the superior expertise of career bureaucrats. Evidence that forms the basis of this possibility comes from performance evaluations of Korean state-owned enterprises (SOEs) managed by different types of executives between 2000 and 2015. The results of our analyses provide support for the existence of a careerists’ premium. However, we find that the premium is most salient and significant when executives had retired from the governmental agency that oversees the performance-evaluation process. Moreover, the gap between qualitative and quantitative assessment scores increase significantly when the evaluated SOEs are managed by career executives who have retired from the regulating agency. This result suggests that the oft-cited careerists’ premium may not necessarily signify careerists’ greater expertise; it may also be the product of lobbying and regulatory capture.     

Pharmacokinetics of ethanol in patients with renal failure before and after hemodialysis

We studied the pharmacokinetics of ethanol in seven patients suffering from terminal renal failure before and after they underwent hemodialysis. Ethanol (0.40 g/kg) was administered in the morning after an overnight fast by a constant rate intravenous (IV) infusion over 45 min. After removing a mean fluid volume of 2.46±0.48 liters (±SD), span 1.76–3.43 liters by hemodialysis, the same subjects received a second IV infusion of ethanol after they had eaten lunch. At exactly timed intervals of 0, 45, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165, and 180 min from the start of the infusion, two blood-samples were drawn and the plasma portion of one of them was obtained by centrifugation. The concentration of ethanol in blood and plasma was determined by headspace gas chromatography and the water-content of whole blood was determined from the change in weight after desiccation. Plasma always contained a higher concentration of ethanol than whole blood and the mean plasma/whole blood ratio in patients with renal failure was 1.07:1 (span 1.05–1.10). The rate of ethanol disappearance from blood (β-slope) was faster (0.185±0.013 versus 0.157±0.022 g/l/h), the C₀ value was higher (0.79±0.08 versus 0.73±0.10 g/l) and the apparent volume of distribution (V_d) of ethanol was lower (0.507±0.049 versus 0.558±0.078 l/kg) after hemodialysis. The water content of whole blood was significantly higher (P<0.001) before dialysis (88.6±1.97 g/100 ml) compared with after dialysis (87.4±2.01 g/100 ml). The higher V_d for ethanol and lower C₀ as well as higher blood-water content are to be expected for a over hydrated condition before hemodialysis. The swifter rate of ethanol elimination from blood (β-slope) after hemodialysis should be interpreted with caution because eating a meal before the second infusion of ethanol is a confounding factor. Nevertheless, the rate of elimination of ethanol from blood in patients with renal failure agreed reasonably well with values expected for healthy subjects, namely mean 0.15 g/l/h spanning from 0.10 to 0.20 g/l/h.     

Inked into Crime? An Examination of the Causal Relationship between Tattoos and Life-Course Offending among Males from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

Purpose

There have been a number of prior studies that have investigated the relationship between tattoos and crime with most documenting evidence of an association. Specifically, prior research often suggests that individuals with tattoos commit more crime, are disproportionately concentrated in offender and institutionalized populations, and often have personality disorders. Having said this, the bulk of the prior research on this topic has been correlational.

Methods

In the current study, we rely on data from a prospective longitudinal study of 411 British males from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development and employ propensity score matching to determine if the link between tattoos and crime may in fact be causal.

Results

Results suggest that having tattoos is better considered as a symptom of another set of developmental risk factors and personality traits that are both related to tattooing and being involved in crime rather than as a causal factor for predicting crime over the life-course.

Conclusions

Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Walking the fiscal tightrope: local government budgeting and fiscal stress

This paper discusses the components of local government budget processes and their relationship to fiscal stress. While many cities and counties are suffering from stressful fiscal situations, leading in some cases to bankruptcy filings or other severe measures, their budgets have to be balanced, unlike the federal government and some state governments. Using survey data from a large number of jurisdictions, this paper shows how local governments have developed budget processes which respond to these changing fiscal situations. Governments use computers, collect and analyze many different types of information, and use budgetary information for other management purposes in order to improve productivity. Budget processes are providing good information to local government decision makers which is helping them respond constructively to the fiscal crises of the 1990s.     

A Ferris Wheel Accident at a Movable Amusement Park

This study presented a Ferris wheel accident case. A Ferris wheel is composed of many parts, and the outmost ring of it is assembled using a lock pin. This accident occurred because the lock pin caught the door of a gondola and the gondola overturned. Five of the seven passengers in the gondola fell to the ground, along with the gondola's viewing window. The investigation revealed that the gondola became stuck when its door was caught by a lock pin at the Ferris wheel's three o'clock position. The contact between the door and the lock pin was due to a structural problem: There was not enough space allotted between the door and the lock pin. Therefore, if a passenger pushed on the gondola's door, the potential existed for contact between the door and the lock pin.     

An Explosion of a CNG Fuel Vessel in an Urban Bus

Abstract: An investigation is presented of the explosion of a CNG (compressed natural gas) fuel vessel, called a liner, in an urban bus. The explosion happened at a gas station 10 min after filling was completed. There were no traces of soot and flames at the failed liner, which would be indicative of explosion by ignition of the gas. The filling process of the station was automatically monitored and recorded in a computer. There was no unusual record of the filling system that indicated excess pressure at the time of the accident. There were cracks on the liner that were initiated at the outer surface of the cylindrical shell located at a point 4 cm above the lower dome where cracks did not originate easily as a result of overload. Chemical analysis was performed on a specimen that was cut from the liner, and there was no peculiarity in the mix. Mechanical analysis was performed on the specimens and showed that the hardness was not in the specified range because of inadequate heat treatment of the metal. The hardness of the liner was strictly controlled in the manufacturing process. All the liners that were manufactured at the same period with the failed liner were recalled for examination.