Eminent domain power and afterwards: Leviathan’s post-taking opportunism

This paper investigates post-taking procedures, a research area not yet fully explored. It discusses the economic implications underlying the landowner’s ‘repurchase right (RR)’ which can be invoked upon the occurrence of a so-called ‘change in use after taking.’ RR is compared with the government’s discretion regarding such changes. The lack of post-taking accountability tends to create power ripe for abuse, and RR appears to be an effective device for constraining Leviathan’s opportunism. Finally, a parsimonious estimation supports that, under the overriding-RR regime, there exists the systematic post-taking opportunism whereby ‘original public projects are changed into inappropriate projects.’     

EU perceptions through the FTA lens: main results of interviews among the Korean “elites”

The Korea–EU relations have undergone a substantive change during the last two decades. The bilateral Framework Agreement, which was first signed in 1996 and updated in 2009, has upgraded the bilateral relationship to a considerable extent. The common membership of Korea and the EU to the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) has also expanded and deepened the channels of official contacts between the two parties. Among these factors, the Korea–EU FTA Agreement, which was initialed in October 2009, appears to have the potential to affect the relationship most strongly. The results of elites’ interviews conducted during September 2009–April 2010 largely verifies this in a number of interesting aspects. Especially, most of the Korean elites perceive the Korea–EU FTA as an opportunity to maximize the effects arising from “the expanded markets”, “reduced market risks” and “harmonized European business practices leading to reduced transactions costs”. This also has had substantially positive impact on their perception of the EU’s importance to Korea.     

Regulatory reform in the era of new technological development: The role of organizational factors in the public sector

What is the role of organizational factors in fostering regulatory reform in response to new technological development? Existing studies provide useful frameworks to understand regulatory reform in rapidly changing circumstances but still lack a systematic analysis of how organizational factors affect regulatory reform in the public sector. To fill this gap, we examine the impact of several institutional elements that are central to defining organizational characteristics, such as job tasks, bureaucratic autonomy, and organizational culture. We theorize that regulatory reform is more likely when public sector organizations are more receptive to external changes, which are determined by these characteristics. We leverage original surveys from over 1,000 civil servants in Korea, one of the front runners in new technological development, and find support for our prediction. We find that the implementation of regulatory reforms is more likely when (i) organizational tasks are relevant to scientific and technological development, (ii) higher levels of bureaucratic autonomy are granted, (iii) agency heads demonstrate stronger leadership, and (iv) organizational culture is less authoritarian. Our study makes clear contributions to the literature on public management and regulation theory, and has important implications for regulatory reform in the face of new technological development.     

Distribution of methamphetamine and amphetamine in drug abusers’ head hair

In order to aid the interpretation of hair results from methamphetamine (MA) abusers the MA and amphetamine (AP) concentrations in 2070 hair samples were statistically evaluated. The MA and AP concentrations in hair were put into three groups arbitrarily representing low, medium and high ranges and the metabolite-to-parent drug ratios of each group were examined. The concentration ranges proposed here were also applied to the interpretation of five authentic cases. The low, medium and high ranges of MA were 0.5–4.2, 4.2–24.5 and 24.5–608.9 ng/mg and those of AP were 0.1–0.4, 0.4–1.7 and 1.7–41.4 ng/mg. The AP-to-MA ratios showed large variation but a tendency that it decreased as the MA ranges increased. This evaluation was very useful to presume the severity of individuals’ MA abuse and to provide law enforcement agencies more understandable information. It could also facilitate the court's decision regarding specific circumstances surrounding the drug-related crimes.     

Sequences of the Cytochrome C Oxidase Subunit I (COI) Gene are Suitable for Species Identification of Korean Calliphorinae Flies of Forensic Importance (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Abstract:  Calliphorinae fly species are important indicators of the postmortem interval especially during early spring and late fall in Korea. Although nucleotide sequences of various Calliphorinae fly species are available, there has been no research on the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) nucleotide sequences of Korean Calliphorinae flies. Here, we report the full-length sequences of the COI gene of four Calliphorinae fly species collected in Korea (five individuals of Calliphora vicina , five Calliphora lata , four Triceratopyga calliphoroides and three Aldrichina grahami ). Each COI gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and directly sequenced and the resulting nucleotide sequences were aligned and analyzed by MEGA4 software. The results indicate that COI nucleotide sequences can be used to distinguish between these four species. Our phylogenetic result coincides with recent taxonomic views on the subfamily Calliphorinae in that the genera Aldrichina and Triceratopyga are nested within the genus Calliphora .     

Age estimation of Korean children based on dental maturity

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between age and dental maturity and to establish the standard database of dental maturity based on the Demirjian's stages, which can be used for the age estimation of Korean children. For this purpose, dental maturity was measured by the Demirjian's stages on a randomly selected sample of panoramic radiographs taken from 2706 patients between 1 and 20 years of age and analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis based on the method of least squares. The results showed that, except for the third molars, the development of permanent teeth in Korean children was more advanced in females. The Demirjian's stage G of the second molar appeared last in both male and female subjects by age 18, showing 95th percentile at age in the male and female subjects between 16.7-17.4 years and 17.1-17.3 years, respectively. Coefficients of determination (r(2)) of the Demirjian's stages relative to age in regression analysis were 0.9721 in male and 0.9740 in female subjects. The standard error was 0.63 years in male and 0.62 years in female subjects. The estimated age according to regression analysis was within +/-1.0 year of the actual age in 92.0% of male and 92.5% of female subjects. Collectively, the data of the present study can be used as a reference for dental maturity and a standard for age estimation of Korean children.