Compositional variation in bullet lead manufacture

The concentrations of antimony, copper, tin, arsenic, silver, bismuth, and cadmium in lead alloys produced by two smelters and one ammunition manufacturer were determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. These element concentrations were used to measure the variations in composition of lead products that result from various processes involved in the manufacture of lead projectiles. In general, when a pot containing molten lead is used to cast a number of objects, these objects are similar, although not necessarily analytically indistinguishable in their elemental compositions. In each subsequent step in the processing of lead at the smelter and at the ammunition manufacturer, the size of an individual homogeneous melt of lead decreases as more distinct compositions are formed as a result of remelting and mixing of sources, including lead scrap. The ammunition manufacturer in this study produced at least 10 compositionally distinguishable groups of bullet wire in a 19.7-h period. The largest group could potentially be used to produce a maximum of 1.3 million compositionally indistinguishable 40 grain bullets.     

Designing a merit‐based process for appointing boards of abcs: Lessons from the Nova Scotia reform experience

Abstract: Efforts to design merit‐based appointment systems for the boards of government agencies, boards and commissions (abcs) have gained greater priority over the past decade in order to enhance public confidence in the integrity of the political process, improve the governance of organizations operating at arm's length from ministers, and reduce the risks to the public interest and public purse that come with incompetent boards. The Nova Scotia reform experience in this regard is instructive because this province's appointment regime not only encompasses a legislative committee veto over ministerial appointments, a power unique to this province in the Canadian and comparative Westminster systems, but also uniquely sets the merit standard as relative‐merit, that is, the appointment of the most qualified of all applicants, and not merely a qualified candidate. This article reviews this provincial experience and concludes that a merit‐based appointment system that pursues relative merit can be created but only by restricting the authority of ministers to a veto over the appointment of candidates nominated by the abcs themselves. Sommaire: Ces dix demières années, les efforts déployés pour concevoir des systemes de nomination au mérite pour les conseils d'administration d'organismes, des régies et des commissions du gouvernement ont obtenu une priorité beaucoup plus grande, et cela, afin de rehausser la confiance du public envers I'intégrite du processus politique, d'ameliorer la gouvernance d'organismes fonctionnant sans contrôle ministériel direct et de réduire les risques que représentent les conseils incompétents pour le bien et les deniers publics. L'expérience de la réforme entreprise en NouvelleÉcosse est à cet égard instructive pour les partisans de la réforme. Le régime de nomination de cette province comporte non seulement un droit de veto de la part d'un comité législatif sur les nominations ministéielles, pouvoir unique à cette province dans le systéme canadien et le systéme comparatif de Westminster, mais il établit également la norme de mérite comme un mérite relatif, c'est‐à‐dire la nomination de la personne la mieux qualifiée parmi tous les candidats et non simplement la nomination d'une personne qualifiée. Le présent article examine I'expérience de cette province et conclut qu'un système de nomination au mérite visant le mérite relatif peut être mis en place, mais seulernent à condition de limiter le pouvoir des ministres à opposer leur veto à la nomination de candidats par les organismes, régies et commissions gouvernementaux.     

To Give or Not to Give: Modeling Individuals' Contribution Decisions

Employing data from a recent national survey on campaign finance, we examine the contribution behavior of individual citizens in the 2000 election. By disaggregating types of contributions, our model enables us to observe potential heterogeneity in the determinants of giving money to parties and candidates. We find that for both types of contributions, the effects of informational resources and solicitation on the decision to contribute outweigh those of financial resources. In addition, we propose both a theoretical and an empirical distinction between the selection effects of solicitation and the stimulus effects of solicitation. By distinguishing between these dual dimensions of solicitation, our analysis provides new insight into the causal linkages between income, solicitation, and contributions. We find that while solicitation increases the likelihood of contributing through selective targeting or rational prospecting, it also does so through a stimulus mechanism.     

Budget Control in Virginia Public School Districts

This article examines the selection and use of a budget approval technique. Specifically, two research questions are addressed: (1) Does the use of a particular budget approval method by a governmental body impact the execution of the budget? (2) What characteristics of a local government are associated with its decision to use a particular budget approval method? Both research questions are addressed by analyzing data from public school systems in the Commonwealth of Virginia, specifically, whether using categorical budget approval differs in the accuracy of budgeting versus using a lump-sum approval method. Characteristics of Virginia school districts are also analyzed according to whether any of them are likely to be associated with school districts using a particular approval method. The remainder of this article is organized as follows: the next section describes the role of budgeting control in schools; subsequent sections review Virginia school district budgeting practices, develop the empirical model used to test the hypotheses, describe the sample, analyze the results of empirical tests and discuss implications of the findings.     

Governance and order-making in Central Asia: from illiberalism to post-liberalism?

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together five different angles on the question as to whether and how political regimes and forms of order-making can and should be researched through the concept of ‘illiberalism’. The discussion engages critically with this and associated concepts, such as ‘illiberal peace’ and ‘authoritarian conflict management’, which have been developed out of the Central Asian / Eurasian context and discussed in their wider global ramifications and, within the framing of ‘illiberal peace’, explored in various contexts in and beyond Central Asia. While further assessing the relevance and implications of this approach, this forum also attempts to think beyond ‘illiberalism’ by introducing and discussing the idea of ‘post-liberalism’. This way, the authors engage in an exchange that serves to probe both concepts and to determine their strengths and limitations when it comes to analysing and understanding politics and societal processes in Central Asia.     

Academic Capitalism and University Incentives for Faculty Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial behavior by professors—including decisions about collaboration with industry, patenting and spinning off companies—can affect the productivity of top universities’ technology transfer efforts. Interviews with 98 professors at 12 southeastern universities showed that the most significant influence on these aspects of entrepreneurial behavior is the beliefs of professors about the proper role of universities in the dissemination of knowledge. Some institutional policies, notably revenue splits with inventors, can affect aspects of this behavior. These findings suggest that both university incentive policies and ethical concerns about academic capitalism, by limiting the productivity of technology transfer efforts, have an effect on regional economic development.