An Evaluation of Leadership as a Response to Agency Failure in the Public Sector

An alternative to contractual solutions to agency problems is suggested in the literature on leadership in which leaders are often claimed to be able to steer historical processes in the direction they intend through the distinctive influence they have on the intrinsic motivation of their followers. We evaluate Casson's (1991) agency–theoretic model of leadership as 'moral manipulation' which under certain conditions can be exercised at lower agency cost than monitoring. We then make a case for conceiving leadership as the development of culture of passion to advance the leader's quest through the engagement of followers in 'interaction rituals' in which their passion is either recharged or their lack of passion exposed. The impact the emergence of such cultures can have on the policy–making community is examined using the British and New Zealand experiences and a case is made for the preservation of a counter–culture of 'public interest' in the policy advisory ranks of the civil service.     

China's new order and past disorders: A Dialogue Starting from Wang Hui's analysis

Abstract

This dialogue develops a series of reflections on contemporary Chinese politics starting from Wang Hui's analysis of the role that the repression of the spring 1989 movement played in the acceleration of China's neoliberalist economic policies, and more in general about the peculiar forms of intervention of the party-state in the implementation of capitalist forms of economy. Four major issues are discussed: some probings of the political value of the Tiananmen movement; the suppression of the agricultural people's communes; the parallel transformation of the industrial danwei system; and the rise of Deng Xiaoping's strategy as a form of reactive subjectivity toward the political experiments of the late sixties and early seventies. The authors argue that the major consistency in the Chinese state today is the process of harsh depoliticization of subjectivities deployed during the Cultural Revolution, and retrospectively throughout the entire twentieth century in China. On the other hand, this process of depoliticization shows a weakness in consistency, since it basically depends on a “radical negation” and, in the end, lacks autonomous subjective strength.     

Rapid analysis of caffeine in "smart drugs" and "energy drinks" by microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC)

A novel method based on microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) with diode array detection (DAD) for rapid determination of caffeine in commercial and clandestine stimulants, known as "energy drinks" and "smart drugs", is described. Separations were carried out in 50 cm × 50 μm (ID) uncoated fused silica capillaries. The optimized buffer electrolyte was composed of 8.85 mM sodium tetraborate pH 9.5, SDS 3.3% (w/v), n-hexane 1.5% (v/v) and 1-butanol 6.6% (v/v). Separations were performed at a voltage of 20 kV. Sample injection conditions were 0.5 psi, 3 s. Diprofilline was used as internal standard. The determination of the analytes was based on the UV signal recorded at 275 nm, corresponding to the maximum wavelength of absorbance of caffeine, whereas peak identification and purity check was performed on the basis of the acquisition of UV radiation between 200 and 400 nm wavelengths. Under the described conditions, the separation of the compounds was achieved in 6 min without any interference from the matrix. Linearity was assessed within a caffeine concentration range from 5 to 100 μg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precision values were below 0.37% for migration times and below 9.86% for peak areas. The present MEEKC method was successfully applied to the direct determination of caffeine in smart drugs and energy drinks.     

Hair testing and self-report of cocaine use

Hair analysis is a useful tool in both clinical and forensic fields: it allows information about drugs of abuse (DOA) consumption to be obtained. However, in spite of analytical results, sometimes patients continue to deny using drugs or, on the contrary, insist on describing themselves as severe drug addicts; indeed there are often considerable difficulties in getting truthful statements about the real amount of drugs used. In this study we have tried to compare cocaine concentration in hair samples with self-reported drug intake. We enrolled 113 subjects (61 Africans, 52 Caucasians) who had been recently sent to jail. They were asked to tell about their use of illicit drugs during the last three months and then submitted to hair analysis. Hair segments (3 cm) were analyzed by GC-MS for amphetamines, cocaine and opiates. Useful data was obtained from 82 subjects, separated into two main groups on account of ethnic origin (African or Caucasian) and divided further into daily, weekly and monthly users. The results showed qualitative results and self-reported consumption to be in good agreement, although the correlation between frequency of consumption and concentration in hair revealed sometimes higher concentrations in contrast with the admission of low consumption. There was a definite separation between occasional and daily use (especially in Caucasian people), while concentrations found where weekly use was reported were more variable. Concentrations of cocaine measured in Africans' hair were much higher than in Caucasians'. Even if this study is exclusively based on self-report, it provides some interesting information in order to differentiate the frequency of consumption, and especially underlines the great importance of ethnic bias on hair analysis.     

Study of Chilean Children’s Dental Maturation*

Abstract: In forensic science, determining a person’s chronological age has become a challenge for researchers. Determining age using dental calcification is becoming increasingly important. The objective of this study is to estimate the dental age of the children’s population in Region VIII, Chile. The sample was randomly taken from children under the care of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile. The study encompasses 159 children between 3 and 14 years of age. The dental age was determined following the Demirjian method. The Bland–Altman method was applied to establish the correlation. It was determined that the range between chronological and dental age is similar, and the degree of correlation between both ages is nearly perfect. In conclusion, the degree of correlation between the chronological and dental ages for each gender is also very good although it is slightly higher for females.