Leadership and the Transformation of a Major Institution: Charles Rossotti and the Internal Revenue Service

Charles Rossotti took the helm at the Internal Revenue Service in 1997 amid complaints of abuse of both IRS workers and taxpayers. Did he succeed at improving the agency’s image without sacrificing its principal mission to enforce the tax code fairly and effectively? This retrospective on Rossotti’s five‐year tenure suggests that he, his leadership team, and teams of IRS employees managed effective changes that substantially improved services to taxpayers and the administration of a beleaguered revenue‐collection system. His leadership offers valuable lessons and insights for administrators in all settings. Are there invaluable lessons that public administrators might learn from Rossotti’s management strategy?     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in a southwest Spain population sample

The Y-chromosome polymorphism of eight STRs (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392; DYS393, DYS385) were studied in 111 unrelated individuals from the population of southwest Spain. The most common haplotype was shared by 3.6% of the sample, while 99 haplotypes were unique. The gene diversity was 0.9977.     

美国与东亚经济失衡及东亚区域合作构想

美国与东亚经济失衡与摩擦对东亚区域经济一体化的影响巨大而复杂。一方面,为应对与美国的经济摩擦,东亚先进经济体往往通过对外直接投资将国内失去比较优势的产业转移到区内后进经济体,将其作为自己的出口平台,从而促进东亚地区产业分工与国际生产网络等经济一体化的形成;另一方面,作为东亚区域经济一体化进程中最重要的外部因素,美国对东亚经济一体化的立场、东亚对美国市场和美国货币的非对称依赖都在一定程度上限制了东亚地区一体化的发展。     

The Rhetorical Syllogism (Enthymeme) in Judicial Argumentation

The thesis here expounded can be divided in three parts: in the first place, it is supposed that the syllogism is not the rhetorical way, and less still the logical way, indeed used to reach the decision in the legal proceedings monopolized by the modern State. At the most, it can be seen as a form of presenting a decision that has already been reached by other means. It sure constitutes a highly functional procedure, effective and legitimating. It is generally not a conscious strategy on the part of the so called official legal agents (judges, prosecutors, state attorneys, lawyers, plaintiffs), which seem to believe that the decision before the concrete case is in fact produced by the previous general norm enunciated by the system. If there would be a chronological order, the general norm comes afterwards. In the second place, the judicial discursive structure seems to be rather enthymematic than syllogistic, because not all the effectively used norms are revealed, many of them staying not only out of question but also hidden. Finally, it is suggested that, in the atmosphere of faking dogmatic law in which acts the underdeveloped State, those implicit norms are not just presupposed as evident, but they are also uncertain, being rendered to manipulation.     

Voltammetric analysis of luminescent markers in gunshot residues

Currently, SEM-EDS is used to detect gunshot residue (GSR) from the presence of Ba, Pb, and Sb in the sample. However, the development of new nontoxic ammunition (NTA) has prevented conventional metals from being found. In this work, we aim to determine the presence of an inorganic luminescent chemical marker based on rare earth in gunshot residues using the technique of squarewave voltammetry (SWV). After firing, the luminescent complex [(Eu₂Zr)(btc)₃(Hbtc)_0.5.6H₂O], which is used as a chemical marker, can be detected under a UV lamp. An aqueous solution with 0.1 mol L⁻¹ KCl as supporting electrolyte can be easily collected on carbon paste electrode surfaces for SWV analysis A = 100 mV, f = 10 Hz, and step potential of 5 mV are required. The luminescent marker incorporated into the carbon paste electrode showed two anodic peak currents in the region of 0.4 V (vs Ag/AgCl) and at 0.75 V (vs Ag/AgCl) and also a cathodic one in 0.4 V (vs Ag/AgCl). SEM-EDS was able to analyze the same voltammetric results for conventional and nontoxic ammunition containing the luminescent marker. Therefore, voltammetry and SEM-EDS are valid for detecting the new residue marker in GSR. Despite this, the electrochemical method is still more advantageous because of its low cost and lack of expensive equipment and supplies in forensic laboratories.