Analysis of the Federal District’s Legislative Chamber in the Information Age

The study investigates the satisfaction with the work of the parliament of Brazilian Federal District. The survey was based on the competencies extracted from the institutional mission and targeted citizens who frequently use social networks. Inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results showed a great unsatisfaction about the institution. The most satisfied respondents are the less educated, while the most educated, older, and highest income respondents are the most unsatisfied. The results also highlighted the low interaction between respondents and the Chamber, the absence of an effective official communication channel, and actions associated with sustainable economic development will be more effective in increasing satisfaction.     

What Encourages Cities to Become Sustainable? Measuring the Effectiveness of Implementing Local Adaptation Policies

This research seeks to understand which essential characteristics are necessary to drive municipal governments to adopt smart growth measures. By testing previously expected outcomes for why a local government would adopt a particular policy, we find an inherent need to create strong needs-based policies promoted by interest groups. We conducted a principal component analysis and a linear regression model to test several hypotheses. A discussion of this analysis is provided along with policy recommendations to explain why and when metropolitan areas use sustainability plans and how to encourage more to do so.     

Political Ideology,Perceived Threat,and Justice Towards Immigrants

In multiethnic societies, issues of justice and fairness have become the focus of intense public debate. Although current psychological theories of distributive and procedural justice concentrate on multiple normative rules that guide allocation decisions, there is little research that focuses on the particular relationship between immigrants as recipients and members of the host society as allocators. In the present study Germans were asked about their opinions as to what Turkish immigrants in Germany deserve or are entitled to and to which degree they pose a threat to German culture. Political orientation of the allocator turns out to be an important predictor of how distributive and procedural justice concerns are evaluated. Both conservatives and liberals exhibit a different conception of what counts as distributive justice. With regard to procedural justice, however, liberals and conservatives did not differ much. Moreover, perceived threat to German culture is significantly related to distributive justice but not to procedural justice.     

The use of quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) to identify composite restorations in forensic examinations

There has been a large increase in the number of tooth colored restorations "white fillings" placed in recent years. An increased demand from the public for more aesthetic dental restorations causes a potential problem for forensic dentists who may find the fillings difficult to identify and hence include in postmortem odontograms. This has implications for the accuracy of dental identifications, particularly in situations where limited time is available for postmortem identification, e.g., mass casualty incidents. A new method for the detection of composite restorations is presented. Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence (QLF) is a technique currently employed to detect small changes in enamel mineral content. An experiment was conducted to determine if the technique would afford a greater degree of contrast between composite and enamel and thus enable the accuracy of composite identification in enamel. Twenty-four previously extracted human premolars were gently cleaned with pumice and wet-and-dry paper. Twelve were subsequently randomly selected and restored on their buccal surfaces with Spectrum (a composite) following manufacturer's instructions. No attempt was made to color match the teeth and all were filled with shade B3. Twelve teeth were left unrestored. QLF and normal white light images were taken of both restored and non-restored surfaces with teeth wet and then dried. Ten forensic dentists were asked on two separate occasions (one month between each attempt) to indicate whether or not they thought the surface was: a) restored or b) unrestored. Results indicate that forensic dentists detected a significantly higher proportion (p<0.005) of filled surfaces with QLF.