The Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations: An Exploratory Method for Discrete Multivariate Analyses of Crime Data

Derived from comparative approaches in both qualitative and quantitative research, the current study describes a simple exploratory technique for the multivariate analysis of categorical data. This technique is referred to as the conjunctive analysis of case configurations. After describing the logic and underlying assumptions of this conjunctive method, it is applied and illustrated in the study of the federal sentencing of drug offenders. The relative value of this conjunctive approach for purposes of exploratory data analysis and its overall utility as a method for confirmatory research are also discussed.

Research with minors in Germany

The European GCP Directive has been implemented into German law in sect. 40 ff. AMG (German pharmaceutical law). Unlike the Directive, German pharmaceutical law basically differentiates between three constellations of clinical trials on minors: clinical trials on healthy minors, clinical trials on ill minors with an individual benefit for the individual participant, and clinical trials on ill minors without direct benefit for the individual participant, but with a so-called "group benefit". Particularly the latter possibility of conducting clinical trials on minors even if no individual benefit can be expected is not a matter of course in Germany since due to historical experiences a sceptical attitude towards clinical research on humans prevailed for a long time. German legislature has availed itself of the option granted by Article 3 of the GCP Directive to establish a higher level of protection of clinical trial subjects than the European level.     

Social media video analysis methodology for sarin exposure

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous, many events are recorded and released on social media platforms, including chemical weapon attacks. We develop an objective tool in order to evaluate brief and unstructured social media videos for analysing sarin exposure from a civilian medical pathology perspective. We developed and validated this new questionnaire using a standardized procedure that includes content domain specification, item pool generation, content validity evaluation, a pilot study, and assessment of reliability and validity. In total, 51 sarin attacks and 48 matched videos were analysed. Cronbach’s α for all 20 items was 0.75, which indicates adequate internal reliability. The test–retest reliability was 0.96, which indicates good internal reliability. The inter-observer intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.97. After verifying sampling adequacy with the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure and the factorability of the items with Barlett’s test of sphericity, a factor analysis was performed. According to the principal axis factoring, a six-factor solution explained 51.86% of the total variance. The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the Video Score Questionnaire has a sensitivity of 0.817, a specificity of 0.478, and an efficiency of 65.3. Therefore, the Video Score Questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating sarin attacks from brief and unstructured social media videos.

Key points

• Chemical weapons are still used as a method of warfare.
• Social media videos are an important source of information.
• We developed a validated scale which can analyse sarin exposure in short and unstructured videos.

     

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood:” Public administration,the management orthodoxy,and civic humanism

Public administration is confronted with a dilemma: whether to follow the course of the management orthodoxy; or to follow the course of civic humanism. It is argued that the profession should follow the latter path. Democratic public administration must be informed by a civic idealism, centering on civic virtue, that insures that morality will be realized in action. Yet in recent years, public administration has become overly entranced with the orthodoxy of the management sciences. The profession's ties with the management sciences have proven to be practically advantageous, but, overall, the association has been negative. Public administration has begun to lose its soul: its sense of civic idealism. The management orthodoxy adopts a more positivist stance, because virtue will not yield to the dominant methodology and is, hence, considered to be unreliable. A civic humanist approach to public administration requires a rather exalted notion of human potential, and a conception of political service as something both necessary and unique. Thus, in a correctly ordered republic, a public administration, guided by civic humanism, would consider the promotion of virtue among all citizens as a primary responsibility.

The 19th century brought about the creation of the modern organization. The early organizationalists argued that society would no longer need to rely upon the unpredictable virtue of its leaders and citizens. Instead, through scientific administration, all societal needs could be assessed and met by organizations. That assumption, in a more sophisticated guise, has carried over to the present day. Thus, the primary responsibility of organizational leadership is to ensure organizational survival. Such leaders are not required to be individuals of virtue; they only need to be effective motivators and managers.

If this argument is accepted, then the question becomes one of how public administration can recover its soul. First, the core of the public administration curriculum must be a political philosophy centering upon civic humanism. Second, public management goals and techniques must be modified to promulgate civic virtue. Granted, these recommendations are overtly idealistic, but, then, public administration should be an idealistic profession.