The application of immunoblotting to the phenotyping of haptoglobin.

An immunoblotting method for phenotyping haptoglobin in serum and bloodstains has been developed. Haptoglobin isoproteins were separated by polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis and then transferred to nitrocellulose by electroblotting. The use of 1 mm gels facilitated more rapid and effective transfer than conventional 3 mm thick gels. Nitrocellulose blots were developed by double antibody enzyme immunoassay. The detection limit for serum and bloodstains was improved 16 times compared to conventional staining using O-tolidine. The method could detect haptoglobin phenotypes from 0.001 microliter of whole blood. This detection limit is approximately 8 times lower than that of group specific-component analysis by immunoblotting.     

Rank injustice?: How the scoring method for cross-country running competitions violates major social choice principles

The scoring method used by high schools and colleges in the U.S. to determine which team wins a cross-country meet can violate a major social choice principle, referred to here as Independence from Irrelevant Teams: whether team A is scored as defeating or losing to team B can depend on whether team C’s performance is included in the calculations. In addition, if a three-way meet is scored as three dual meets, the scoring method can produce a cycle, thereby violating the principle of Transitivity: team A beats team B, team B beats team C, but team C beats team A. Real-world violations of Independence and Transitivity are reported from a high school cross-country meet held in Michigan in the U.S. in 2003. Several results are presented about the conditions under which these two principles can be violated. An alternative scoring method that will violate neither Independence nor Transitivity is also discussed and evaluated.     

Individualisierte Wahlkämpfe im Wahlkreis. Eine Analyse am Beispiel des Bundestagswahlkampfes von 2005

Constituency campaigns are an important subject matter for students of political parties, voting behavior and political communication. In all three fields, constituency campaigns are perceived as elements of centralized high-tech campaigns strategically targeting particular segments in electoral markets. In this paper, we propose an alternative understanding of local campaigns and use the case of the German Parliamentary Elections in 2005 to provide empirical evidence for this view. We analyze constituency campaigns from an actor-centred perspective, which assumes local campaigns to signal independence of individual candidates from their parties. We label this phenomenon individualized campaigning. We argue that individualized campaigning is, on the one hand, driven by changing electoral markets. On the other hand, we argue, however, that electoral incentives and particular types of electoral competitiveness foster individualized constituency campaigning. We test this latter hypothesis with regard to the German mixed-member electoral system and on the basis of a survey of all candidates standing for election in 2005.     

Individual learning and building organisational capacity for development

Building capacities and capabilities for international development is an ongoing subject for debate, further fuelled by recent interest in learning and knowledge. This article focuses on how, and the extent to which, individual learners in education and training programmes for development policy and management interact with their organisations to build capacities and capabilities. It demonstrates some of the ways that individual learning and organisational capacity are linked by examining case studies from Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The article reflects on the complex nature of this interaction and on the broader challenges of linking learning to development. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Life Cycle of the Government-Sponsored Enterprise: Lessons for Design and Accountability

The federal government uses government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to allocate credit to sectors such as housing and agriculture that are considered to deserve special support. The GSEs illustrate the importance of life cycle in the design and accountability of federal agencies and instrumentalities. Four case studies are presented here. In general, market and political dominance and rapid growth are inherent in GSE design. Dominance means inadequate feedback, which can foster poor management and financial risk. Government lacks an exit strategy for GSEs that have outlived their usefulness. Government should systematically review the organizational structure, accountability, and design of all agencies and instrumentalities, both at inception and over their life cycles.     

Von der historischen Entstehung zur aktuellen Ausbreitung der Moderne

Max Weber interessierte die historische Entstehung der Moderne; heute steht ihre globale Ausbreitung auf dem Programm. An Stelle eines Pluralismus von Entwicklungsgeschichten der Kulturkreise, den Weber in der Religionssoziologie verfolgt, sehen viele heutige Studien nur noch ein einziges Weltgesellschaftssystem am Werk. Dies stellt sowohl Webers Kritik am Evolutionismus und Universalismus, der aktuell recht zu haben scheint, als auch seine Vermeidung von Kollektivbegriffen infrage. Für die Aktualisierung von Webers Forschungsprogramm im Hinblick auf diese Herausforderungen werden verschiedene Seiten seiner Soziologie unterschieden: eine methodologische, eine theoretische und eine historische. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie seine methodologische Kritik an Kollektivbegriffen auch aktuelle ?Weltgesellschafts-“ und ?Weltsystem-Thesen“ trifft. Statt von einem Weltsystem ist es geeigneter, von globalen Konstellationen auszugehen, die Spielräume für Modernisierung eröffnen. Bei der Frage, wie dabei globale und kulturbzw. länderspezifische Ordnungskonstellationen zueinander stehen, kann auf Webers kultur- und strukturtheoretische Theoreme zur Bestimmung der Moderne zurückgegriffen werden. Das Innovationspotenzial von Webers Forschungsprogramm kann dabei nicht durch bloße Interpretation des Werkes aktiviert, sondern es muss durch Rückgriff auf andere Autoren, Theorien und Fragestellungen weiterentwickelt werden. Nur so wird Max Weber auch im 21. Jahrhundert der primus inter pares unter den soziologischen Klassikern bleiben.