Treasury Department regulatory material under the tax code

The legislative process in the tax field and the administrative process for the issuance of regulatory and interpretative material by the Treasury Department are closely coordinated. The same persons and interests both inside and outside of Government are involved in both processes. There is thus continuity of expertise, understanding of what is at stake, adversary viewpoints, and Washington knowhow. The preparation of administrative material within the Treasury is a task for those technical personnel and policy officials who in varying degrees also have a voice in the preparation of the Treasury's legislative position and the legislative development of statutory language. The outside forces who watch legislative activity also closely watch administrative activity and seek to shape the latter just so they do the former. The response of the Treasury is much the same in both situations, and governed by the policies, attitudes and predilections of tax policy officials and career personnel.     

Gordon Tullock’s The Organization of Inquiry: A critical appraisal

The major themes of Gordon Tullock’s 1996 book The Organization of Inquiry are identified. Tullock’s treatment of the philosophy of science is criticized, as is his explanation for the backwardness of the social sciences relative to the natural sciences. The paper closes with a listing of some of Tullock’s proposals for the reform of science.     

Making the difference: Deleuze's difference and Derrida's différance

This paper seeks to explore the differences between Derrida's différance and Deleuze's difference. Derrida ‘s différance can be seen as based on a phenomenological theory of time, whereby the future is ‘prior’ to the past, and on a Hegelian theory of negation (but without final term or synthesis). Deleuze's, by contrast, relies on a Bergsonian theory of time as the actualization of virtualities, along with a positive and qualitative notion of difference derived from Nietzsche, Leibniz and Spinoza. The paper suggests some implications of these differences for Derrida's and Deleuze's approaches to criticism.     

Object-oriented Bayesian networks for paternity cases with allelic dependencies

This study extends the current use of Bayesian networks by incorporating the effects of allelic dependencies in paternity calculations. The use of object-oriented networks greatly simplify the process of building and interpreting forensic identification models, allowing researchers to solve new, more complex problems. We explore two paternity examples: the most common scenario where DNA evidence is available from the alleged father, the mother and the child; a more complex case where DNA is not available from the alleged father, but is available from the alleged father’s brother. Object-oriented networks are built, using HUGIN, for each example which incorporate the effects of allelic dependence caused by evolutionary relatedness.     

Company Law and Corporate Governance Renewal in Transition Economies: The Bulgarian Dilemma

The main objective of company law and corporate governance structures is to provide rules and secure efficient functioning of decision-making mechanisms that maximise the value of enterprises and safeguard interests of various stakeholders. Company laws and corporate governance models in different countries have evolved in specific historical, cultural, market and legal conditions that prevent their direct transplantation elsewhere. Assessing available experiences, former centrally planned European economies, engaged in sweeping transformations, are challenged by the need to recreate a delicate balance between investor protection and business discretion of managers to work for corporate value maximisation and social welfare. This essay undertakes an explorative discussion on the possible choices and the costs and benefits related to principalagent problem resolution in economies in transition, with special emphasis on institutions and the case of Bulgaria.     

The sciatic notch/acetabular index as a discriminator of sex in European skeletal remains

The sciatic notch/acetabular index and its rule of thumb application was tested on two European skeletal series of documented sex. The results showed poor consistency between documented and estimated sex. Of the two variables comprising the index, it appeared that sciatic notch width was a particularly poor discriminator of sex. It is suggested that this may be due to differences in the relationship between sciatic notch form and body size in different ethnic groups.     

Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc.: Revisiting Pre-emption for Medical Devices

The recent United States Supreme Court decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. affirmed the doctrine of pre-emption protection only for those medical devices reaching U.S. markets via the PMA (premarketing approval) process and preserved the previous Lohr v. Medtronic decision's lack of preemption protection for those medical devices marketed via the generally more abbreviated 510(k) clearance mechanism. This paper reviews the logic and faults of the Riegel decision and discusses the implications of the Riegel decision for pre-emption protection for other classes of FDA-approved medical products.     

Interpersonal Violence in Alcohol Complicated Marital Relationships (A Study from India)

This study compared 75 wives of alcoholics with an equal number of wives of non-alcoholics matched on key socio-demographic variables, using a cross sectional ex-post facto research design. Instruments to assess the extent of conflict and danger perceived by them in their marital relationship, besides the communication apprehension experienced towards their partners were administered. Analyses showed that the wives of alcoholics as a group had higher levels of conflict, perceived more danger and experienced more apprehension in relating with their spouses, than the subjects of the reference group. Results indicate the need to consciously focus on the spouse of the alcoholic and to help her resolve various marital issues with which she is faced. Implications for therapeutic intervention with couples in alcohol complicated relationships to enable them overcome their marital life deficits are discussed. This study was funded by the University Grants Commission of India. An erratum to this article can be found at