Challenges to Property Rate Administration in the Offinso South Municipality,Ghana

Decentralized governments in Ghana have not been able to realize optimum benefits from their property tax potentials. The paper investigates the administration of property taxation in Ghana using the Offinso South Municipality (OSM) as a study area. Questionnaires were relied on to garner data from property owners in the municipality. It observed that low coverage and collection ratios, inadequate collection modes, and negative public perceptions have worked against the administration of property tax in the OSM. The paper suggests a complete overhaul of the property rate regime in the OSM if the buoyancy of property tax revenue is to be realized. It argues that the rating authority should purge the system of perceived corruptions. It suggests a revamp of the property rate collection means in order to slump rent seeking behavior of the mobile property rate collectors.     

Determination of nimetazepam and 7-aminonimetazepam in human urine by using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

We report determination of metabolites of popular drugs of abuse, including nimetazepam and nitrazepam, in urine by using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Nimetazepam and its metabolites, 7-aminonimetazepam and nitrazepam, were extracted by solid-phase extraction using a DAU cartridge. An ammonium acetate buffer solution (pH 4) and a Luna polar-RP column were selected as the mobile and stationary phase, respectively, for liquid chromatography. Mass spectrometry was used for analysis and was optimized for operation in the positive mode for all analytes. The urine specimens were screened for the presence of nimetazepam and its metabolites nitrazepam and 7-aminonimetazepam at a concentration of 0.1 ng/mL. Presence of 7-aminonimetazepam in the urine was an indicator of the subject being a probable abuser of nimetazepam.     

Trust in Government Among British Muslims: The Importance of Migration Status

This article engages debates about Muslim integration in Western societies by analyzing trust in government among British Muslims. A central finding of the article is that British Muslims are more likely than Christians to have high levels of trust in government. To account for these outcomes, I highlight the importance of general political satisfaction and political efficacy as opposed to the more specifically assimilation and segregation-related variables identified by the literature on minority attitudes. In addition, I posit that Muslims are more likely to have positive political attitudes because they are more likely than Christians to be migrants and migrants are more likely than natives to have optimistic evaluations of British society. I claim that these migration dynamics help account for much of the attitudinal differences between Muslims and Christians.     

Allelic alterations at the STR markers in the buccal tissue cells of oral cancer patients and the oral epithelial cells of healthy betel quid-chewers: an evaluation of forensic applicability

Although cancerous specimens are usually not used in forensic DNA typing, they might be forcibly employed under certain instances. On the other hand, though the oral epithelial samples have been applied to forensic identification, the great popularity of betel quid (BQ)-chewing in Taiwan, which is known to be a risk factor leading to an oral cancer, makes this application questionable. The DNA stability of nine short tandem repeat (STR) markers (the AmpFlSTR kit) was first investigated and then used to evaluate the forensic appropriateness of the oral samples of both healthy BQ-chewers and the archived clinical specimens from oral cancer patients. The analyses were performed on buccal samples from 100 BQ-chewers and 100 oral cancer patients, as well as their paired peripheral blood samples, and a group of 100 non-BQ-chewers were used for the control. In the group of 100 oral cancer patients, two types of DNA instability were found. They were major allelic imbalance, and allelic alterations including the expansion, the contraction and the un-classified type (i.e. can not be confirmed as the expansion or the contraction). The overall percentage of the cancerous subjects demonstrating DNA instability was 33% (five patients possessing both types of DNA instability). Both types of DNA instability showed a tendency of increasing with the severity of the pathological stage of oral cancer. Forty-four occurrences of major allelic imbalance were found from 21 cancer patients. The statistical result revealed that there was no significant difference in the allelic imbalanced occurrence among the nine STR loci. Allelic alterations were found in 17 patients, within which 12 individuals had the expansion, five had the contraction, and three were the un-classified type. Further, among these 17 patients, three were found to acquire multiple allelic alterations at multiple loci. In the group of 100 unrelated healthy BQ-chewers, two loci with major allelic imbalance were detected. However, the two imbalanced alleles were virtually half lost, and could still be recognized as heterozygous alleles. The statistical results of ANOVA, chi(2), and Scheffe tests indicated that the means of allelic imbalance at the nine STR loci of the oral cancerous group revealed a significant difference from those in the control group. Our results suggest that oral cancer tissues cannot be used as references for forensic purposes using the PCR-based STR systems, whereas the oral swabs from healthy BQ-chewers can be employed, but should be done with caution.     

On flexible containment

The doctrine of containment has been a principal element of American foreign policy for four decades. But there has been a major change in the Communist world; it is no longer a monolithic bloc. Many Marxist governments, including some Communist regimes, are not satellites or allies of the Soviets. Indeed, some are more anti‐Soviet than many noncommunist states. Yugoslavia and China do not serve Soviet expansionism; their security and economic interests are closer to the West. More and more Communist regimes, faced with mounting social and economic difficulties, must turn to the West, which has so much more to offer in the economic and technological spheres. Consequently, differentiation and disintegration within the Communist alliances are inevitable. Pluralism in the Western democracies is a source of strength. In despotic countries and blocs, pluralism would sound the death knell of tyranny and of despotic centralization.

The emergence of Gorbachev as a dynamic leader flexible in his relations with noncommunist countries makes the rigid containment practices of the postwar decades decidedly outdated and counterproductive. The international chessboard has become a game of movement, sensitivity, and subtlety. Consequently, the United States should use in its international relations the concept of pluralism that we have used so successfully at home. This means differentiation among the various Marxist regimes, calibrating our policy with flexibility toward each country's policy and situation affect our national interests.     

Hypnotic interrogation,pretrial preparation,and witness testimony during direct and cross-examination

Subjects who witnessed a videotaped shooting were interrogated immediately after viewing the film and again several days later. Before their second interrogation half of the subjects received hypnotic suggestions for enhanced recognition. Hypnotic and nonhypnotic subjects failed to differ in the accuracy with which they identified a mugshot of the offender, but hypnotic subjects placed more confidence in their misidentifications than did nonhypnotic subjects. In a third session, subjects who had identified a mugshot returned to be examined and cross-examined in a mock courtroom setting. Before direct examination, half the subjects underwent pretrial preparation aimed at building confidence. When coupled with pretrial preparation, hypnotic interrogation led subjects to express relatively high certainty in their mugshot identification while testifying. Nevertheless, hypnotic interrogation did not deter witnesses from disavowing their testimony (i.e., breaking down) during cross-examination. In contrast, pretrial preparation induced substantial resistance to breakdown during cross-examination. Implications are discussed.This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the first author.     

DNA analysis of digested tomato seeds in stomach contents

Examination of stomach contents is one of the important steps in medical legal autopsy. Vegetative materials such as stems, roots, and seeds in stomach contents can be valuable evidence for providing investigative leads in death investigation. Currently, the identification of plant materials relies on microscopic and morphologic examination. We have found that many seeds are often protected from acid degradation during stomach digestion by their tough exterior seed coat. Tomato seeds were selected as a model system to assess DNA analysis and plant variety marker identification. The DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism method was performed to determine if the DNA obtained from single seeds could be used for PCR analysis. From the amplified fragment length polymorphism results, some candidate markers for individualizing seeds from morphologically distinct tomatoes were identified. These data on DNA analysis of tomato seeds indicate amplified fragment length polymorphism is a viable procedure for the individualization of seeds from stomach contents in forensic investigations.     

Diversion from youth courts in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions: welfare or restorative solutions

Since the 1970s, there has been a trend to move away from punitive and retributive approaches to reintegrative practices. This article provides an account of how young offenders in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions are diverted from being prosecuted in the youth courts and of to where they are diverted. The five cases demonstrate that diversionary measures in the Australasian jurisdictions tend to be more restorative in their practices than are those in Chinese-dominated jurisdictions, which adopt welfare responses. It is concluded that although there is some progress in the areas of decarceration and delegalization, the diversion goals of decategorization and deprofessionalization in Chinese-dominated jurisdictions have yet to be achieved. Such diversionary strategies carry the risk that many more young people committing minor offences may be subject to more intrusive measures and disguised social control in the name of diversion, welfare, or the prevention of future offending.     

Managed competition versus industrial purchasing of health care among the Fortune 500

The theory of managed competition has found favor with many health policy analysts and academic economists alike. Three characteristics--consumer choice, defined contribution, and dissemination of information--signal managed competition strategy. By requiring private employers to provide their employees with a choice of health carriers, a fixed-dollar strategy (defined contribution), and quality information to make appropriate choices among carriers, managed competition offers to remedy imperfections in both the consumer and provider sides of the market for health insurance. In an extensive survey of health care purchasing practices among Fortune 500 companies we found that major companies are not using the managed competition approach to health care purchasing. Instead, most of the companies surveyed are purchasing health care in the same way as they do other inputs to production--a pattern we call industrial purchasing.