People must change before institutions can: a model addressing the challenge from administering to managing the maltese public service

The Maltese public service is currently undergoing major organisational changes to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness in its service delivery. The great majority of these changes have focussed on re‐organising the macro‐level, namely strategy, processes and structures. This is not an easy feat as local external power forces leave their impact in the process. It is argued, however, that one way to circumvent these resisting forces is to empower the real agents of change: the administrators of the public service. For some reason, the micro‐level has been neglected and has been generally absent from the agenda of the major change programme with a few exceptions. This article throws light on this level by proposing an intrapersonal, psychological and pedagogical model for change that may complement and accompany the larger macro changes. The authors suggest that the model can be developed in a practical way to motivate change from within the person and not just push change around the person. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

(Non)equivalence in a federalism: Dual tax shares, flypaper effects and Leviathan

Among the best-known theorems of fiscal federalism is the presumed allocative and distributive equivalence between a lump-sum grant to a collectivity and a set of lump sum grants to the members of a collectivity. Interestingly, the simple elegance of the theorem is at odds with observed behavior. Grants to governments produce greater public spending than does tax reduction. Explanations of this "flypaper effect" range from misspecified econometric modeling to presumed behavior based on fiscal illusion. In this paper we show that theoretical equivalence exists in a model that recognizes only one tax share, the citizen voter's local tax share. When the model is expanded to include voters' federal tax shares as well as local taxes, non-equivalence and the flypaper effect become the rule, not the exception.     

La Commission Rochon et la réalisation des politiques publiques

Sommaire: La Commission d'enquête sur les services de santé et les services sociaux, créée par le gouvernement du Québec en juin 1985, a remis son rapport au tout début de 1988. Cet article montre que la Commission a agi comme une espèce de metteur en scène, qui a proposé ce que devrait être la contribution des acteurs et la structuration du pouvoir dans les politiques publiques en matière de santé et de services sociaux. La Commission privilégie une alliance de type bureaucratique et une alliance de type socio-sanitaire, contre une alliance de type médical et une alliance de type managérial. Cette dernière semble la mieux placée actuellement pour structurer le pouvoir dans le système des services de santé et des services sociaux selon ses intérêts. Abstract: The Study Commission on Health and Social Services, created by the Quebec government in June 1985, submitted its report in early 1988. This article shows that the commission acted as a “packager,” specifying the recommended role of the parties involved and the power structure for public policy on health and social services. The commission favours a bureaucratic alliance covering the social/health area, rather than a medical/managerial alliance. The latter currently seems to be in the best position to structure the power in the health/social services system in accordance with its interests.     

Development and evaluation of a standard method for the quantitative determination of elements in float glass samples by LA-ICP-MS

Forensic analysis of glass samples was performed in different laboratories within the NITE-CRIME (Natural Isotopes and Trace Elements in Criminalistics and Environmental Forensics) European Network, using a variety of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) systems. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests was to cross-validate the different combinations of laser ablation systems with different ICP-MS instruments. A first study using widely available samples, such as the NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 reference glasses, led to deviations in the determined concentrations for trace elements amongst the laboratories up to 60%. Extensive discussion among the laboratories and the production of new glass reference standards (FGS 1 and FGS 2) established an improved analytical protocol, which was tested on a well-characterized float glass sample (FG 10-1 from the BKA Wiesbaden collection). Subsequently, interlaboratory tests produced improved results for nearly all elements with a deviation of < 10%, demonstrating that LA-ICP-MS can deliver absolute quantitative measurements on major, minor and trace elements in float glass samples for forensic and other purposes.     

Le contrôle de l'information gouvernementale: le cas du Québec

Sommaire: Nos sociétés modernes font l'objet de débats très controversés autour du problème de I'accès à l'information gouvernementale. Une approche systémique permet entre aittres de prendre conscience des différents enjeux inhérents au contrôle de cette information. Elle expliqrie pourquoi certains Etats sont plus en-clins que d'autres à favoriser 1'accès à l'information gouvernementale. Dans cette approche, la société est perçue comme un système d'acteurs dont les trois principaux sont le gouvernement, les intermediaires et les différents publics, avec en plus les acteurs externes dans I'environnement. Ces acteurs sont soumis à des règles normatives ou pragniatiques. Leur pouvoir respectif de contrôle est loin d'être équivalent. Le pouvoir du gouvrnement sur les différentes dimensions de la communication le démarque fortement de ses compétiteurs. Certaines propriétés générales dri système, de caractère- plus macroscopique, sont ensuite dégagées, soit la tendance gÆné rale à l'amplification de I'information gouvernementale ainsi que la tendance a l'amplification des prohlémes contradictoires reliés au trop grand secret de l'information gouvernementale d'une part, et à la trop petite protection de l'information personnelle d'autre part. Le gouvernement québécois a maintenant legiféré dans ce domaine. mais la loi d'accès ne inodifie pas fondanientalement les propriétés generales du systeme ni le pouvoir prédominant du gouvernement sur les autres acteurs politiques. Abstract: In modern societies, the problem of access to government information has been the subject of passionate debates. The systemic approach offers, among other things, an awareness of the various stakes inherent in the control of this information. It explains why some countries are more favourably disposed toward easy access to government information. In this approach, society is perceived as a players' system, the three main actors being the government, the intermediaries and the public, with, in addition, outside actors. The actors are subjected to normative or pragmatic rules but their respective control is far from being of equal value. Through its power on the various dimensions of communications, the government is very much set apart from its competitors. Some general and more macroscopic characteristics of the system are then oAPred: on the one hand, the general tendency to exaggerate government information as well as the tendency to overstate the contradictory problems.     

Coronal cleft vertebra initially suspected as an abusive fracture in an infant

A case of a four-month-old male infant is described who was found unresponsive at home and brought to the emergency room. He lived for four days. During his hospital admission he was diagnosed by radiography with a fracture of the third lumbar vertebra that was presumed abusive in nature. Autopsy examination failed to confirm a fracture. However, a defect in the development of the vertebral bodies was discovered. He was diagnosed with possible failure of the notochord to regress, a condition with no significant sequelae. The cause of death was certified as sudden infant death syndrome after full investigation, and all autopsy studies were negative.     

Die Koordination von Raumplanung und Verkehrspolitik in urbanen Räumen der Schweiz: Determinanten der politischen Geographie,der politischen Kultur oder der institutionellen Struktur?

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit den exogenen Bestimmungsfaktoren der Koordination raumwirksamer Politiken anhand der vier Agglomerationen von Basel, Bern, Lausanne und Genf. Ein Vergleich von entsprechenden Outcomes zeigt markante Unterschiede zwischen den vier Städten. Nach einer kurzen Kritik der Binnenorientierung gängiger Governance-Ansätze werden die drei exogenen Erklärungsansätze der politischen Geographie, des Institutionalismus und der politischen Kultur in vier Thesen beschrieben. Deren Exploration weist die Wichtigkeit von Kontextvariablen bei der Untersuchung von Ressourcen-Regimen aus. So ist eine Abhängigkeit der inhaltlichen Koordination von soziokulturellen, geographischen und historischen Faktoren auszumachen. Dagegen ist der Zusammenhang mit der Einschätzung der institutionalisierten Koordination nicht eindeutig, was die Vermutung nahelegt, dass im Falle der prozeduralen Koordination die endogenen Faktoren stärkere Erklärungskraft besitzen und die Regime Analysis mithin das geeignetere Mittel zu ihrer Untersuchung darstellt.     

Arsenic speciation of two specimens of Napoleon's hair

Since 1960, it has been demonstrated by various analytical procedures that high concentrations of arsenic were present in Napoleon's hair. Various authors, indicating that the detected arsenic levels are a consequence of external contamination, have challenged the results of these examinations. We have tested two strands of hair, referenced as Noverraz and Grand Maréchal Bertrand. Samples were incubated 6 h in water at 90 °C, and arsenic speciation was carried out by HPLC–ICP/MS. The residue was injected on a cation-exchange PRP-X200 column that allows the detection of arsenobetaine and on an anion-exchange PRP-X100 column to test for the mineral forms. In these conditions, the inorganic species As(III), As(V) and their metabolites (DMA and MMA) were separated. Analysis of hair samples highlighted massive amounts of total arsenic (42.1 and 37.4 ng/mg). Arsenical species found in the two samples of analyzed hair are distributed in the following: As(III) 31.1 and 44.7%; As(V) 66.3 and 53.2%; DMA 0.42 and 0.15%. Traces of MMA were detected, and 2% of the species could not be identified. These results prove that more than 97% of the arsenic found in the hair of Napoleon is in inorganic form, which is consistent with a chronic intoxication to arsenic.     

Stressors, coping resources and strategies, and police stress in South Korea

The present article extends prior research to identify the predictors of police stress from work place problems, the resources available through social support, different strategies for coping with stress, and conditions unique to policing in South Korea. The unique conditions are perceived public perception of police and attitudes towards women working outside of the home. Seven hundred officers were asked to participate in the research, and 686 did participate (96 percent response rate). Almost half of the variance in stress could be explained. Reports of being ridiculed and “set up” in dangerous situations, and to a lesser extent, lack of support from superiors and perceived disrespect from the public, were salient predictors of stress. Coping strategies did not moderate the associations between stressors and stress. Findings were interpreted in relation to collectivist culture and possible points of intervention.