Unabhaengige Regulierungsinstanzen als parallele Institutionen ‐ Die Auseinandersetzung um die Entbuendelungsverpflichtung auf der letzten Meile in der Schweizer Telekommunikationspolitik

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der Einsetzung unabhängiger Regulierungsinstanzen auf den politischen Entscheidungsprozess. Im Lichte der Literatur über institutionelle Redundanz interpretiert der Artikel dabei unabhängige Regulierungsinstanzen als Parallelinstitutionen zum traditionellen Gesetzgebungsprozess. Wenn sowohl eine unabhängige Regulatorin als auch die Institutionen des klassischen Gesetzgebungsprozess in einem Politikbereich entscheiden können, können Reformkreise einen der beiden Instanzenwege frei wählen und haben nach einer Niederlage noch einen zweite Chance in einem weiteren Verfahren. Die daraus entstehenden Interaktionen werden anhand des Konflikts um die letzte Meile in der Schweizer Telekommunikationspolitik mit einem einfachen spieltheoretischen Modell analysiert. Wie der Beitrag zeigt, bringt die Einführung paralleler Entscheidungsinstanzen Vorteile für Reformkreise, allerdings nur unter der Annahme, dass die beiden Instanzenwege unabhängig voneinander entscheiden. Andernfalls spielt die Reihenfolge der Anrufung einzelner Instanzen eine zentrale Rolle. Dabei haben jedoch wiederum die Reformkräfte einen Startvorteil: Sie können die Reihenfolge der anzurufenden Instanzenwege wählen und so die für sie erfolgsversprechendste Kombination wählen. Weiter zeigt der Beitrag auf der empirischen Ebene, dass die Kombination vieler paralleler Entscheidungsverfahren mit starken Vetopunkten innerhalb dieser Instanzenwege die Unsicherheit über den Verfahrensausgang über lange Zeit andauern lassen kann.     

Labor law as an impediment to labor relations reform: Leveling the playing field

The primary professional society of American public administration has developed a code of ethics that appears to be largely irrelevant to the realities of bureaucratic experience. An explanation of this paradox can be found in the sociological literature on the professions and code-writing. Professional codes are designed to reyulate the behavior of a profession's members, but this is generally seen as a secondary aspect of a more fundamental objective: the need to assure the public at large that the profession's power is being exercised responsibly. From this perspective, the public administration code can be interpreted first as part of an attempt to legitimate the profession in the face of hostile challenges to its authority, and second as an effort to engender ethical behavior. Such an interpretation helps to explain the profession's failure to confront the organizational and political barriers that impede effective implementation of the code. The paper concludes with an observation on the implications of the argument for the further development of ethics in public administration.     

Developmental validation of the SPERM HY-LITER™ kit for the identification of human spermatozoa in forensic samples

Abstract: With sexual assault evidence, the visualization of spermatozoa confirms that ejaculation has occurred. However, microscopic examination of spermatozoa is a laborious process and can sometimes result in sperm cells being overlooked. Here, we present the developmental validation of the SPERM HY‐LITER? kit, which contains a human sperm–specific mouse monoclonal antibody coupled to a fluorescent Alexa 488 dye. The kit was tested using samples of human semen, saliva, blood, and urine, various animal semen extracts, sexual lubricants, and a commercially available spermicidal film. Postcoital vaginal swabs, degraded semen samples, and samples prepared with sample fixation techniques that deviated from the kit‐provided protocol were also tested. In each case, the SPERM HY‐LITER? kit was demonstrated to bind only to human sperm cell heads. Limitations to this fluorescent staining procedure include nonspecific staining and increased background fluorescence with extreme heat fixation in some samples.     

Acute pathophysiological influences of conducted electrical weapons in humans: A review of current literature

Conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) deliver short high-voltage, low current energy pulses to temporarily paralyze a person by causing muscular contraction. The narrative of this article is a methodical analysis on acute pathophysiological changes within the central nervous system, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, sympatho-adrenergic and muskuloskeletal system which can occur after application of conducted electrical weapons on human subjects. The results are based on wide-ranging literature analysis and source studies. The majority of the recent scientific publications on humans classify the health risks of an appropriate use of the CEWs device as minor. However, there still is an uncertainty about possible side-effects of these devices. Therefore medical supervision with human application is advised.     

新地缘政治时代下的跨大西洋关系

柏林墙的倒塌和"9·11"恐怖袭击事件使全球地缘政治环境发生了重大变化,也改变了德美和欧美关系.本文认为:面对这一变化,如果仍固守冷战时期形成的行为方式和理念,已不利于德、欧、美跨大西洋关系的发展.德国、欧洲和美国应通过跨大西洋政策和跨大西洋机构的改革,构建一种新的跨大西洋关系.     

Parent Relationships,Emotion Regulation,Psychosocial Maturity and College Student Alcohol Use Problems

This study tested associations between problems in parent-youth relationships and problems with alcohol use among college students (N = 1592) using structural equation modeling. Hypotheses were that relationships between both substance-specific parenting factors (parental drinking) and non-substance-specific parenting factors (parental intrusive control and lack of support) and college student drinking behaviors would be mediated by the developmental tasks of managing difficult emotions and establishing a mature psychosocial identity. Sex, ethnicity and age were entered as control variables in the analyses and were tested for moderating effects. Results showed that the unconstrained model for males and females differed significantly from a model in which the two groups were constrained to be similar. Among young women, emotion regulation and psychosocial maturity were partial mediators of the effects of parent problems on alcohol use problems. Among young men, parent problems were indirectly related to alcohol use problems through emotion regulation. Implications for alcohol use prevention activities on college campuses are discussed. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Council on Family Relations Annual Meeting, November, 2004, Orlando, Florida. Research interests in college student alcohol misuse. Research interests in adolescent psychosocial maturity. Research interests in young adult relationships.     

Self-Regulation as Policy Process: The Multiple and Criss-Crossing Stages of Private Rule-Making

While there are many studies of self-regulation, they have not yet systematically analyzed the very process by which rules are developed and implemented. This article treats self-regulation as a process with sufficient autonomy and functional coherence to display identifiable stages, each of which deserves independent attention in turn. It draws from the literature on the stages of public policy processes and uses this as a template to identify and analyze the unique properties of private rule-making, while acknowledging the criticisms that have been made of excessive determinism and simplicity in some applications of the general idea of stages. The article shows that our understanding of self-regulation is significantly advanced by examining it as a process with stages but it emphasizes that the different stages of the self-regulatory policy process (agenda-setting, problem identification, decision, implementation and evaluation) are criss-crossed in numerous and interesting ways. It also shows that private rule-making often seeks to solve societal problems in domestic and international settings and is an important alternative to public regulation but self-regulation is rarely completely de-coupled from public authority. Instead, public authority is activated to solidify self-regulatory arrangements across the different stages of the policy process.     

Cerebral ischemia or post traumatic thrombosis of the A. carotis occuring to a car driver (author's transl)]

A short while after leaving a public-house a 71 year old man as the driver of his car was involved in a head-on collision with another car. On admission to a hospital he was unconscious with a distinct debility for the left side of his body and showed a changing anisocoria. Angiography of the right carotid artery revealed an occlusion. It was suspected that this was the terminal state of a generalized arteriosclerotic occlusion which was considered being the reason for the accident. The autopsy-findings showed, however, a posttraumatic thrombosis (whiplash-trauma of the cervical vertebral column) of the right arteria carotis and of the right arteria vertebralis with thromboembolia in a small pontine artery with an infarct-like ischemic softening. The differentiation from an apoplexia is of importance for the differential diagnosis.