Americans and their sexual partners

Andrew M. Greeley is a priest, sociologist, novelist, and journalist. His scholarly writings concentrate on religion and ethnicity. His other writings range from critiques of the Catholic church to best-selling novels.     

Prospects for Managed Democracy in Russia

The 2003 Duma election resulted in the victory of the party of power, thereby strengthening managed democracy in Russia. Since then, political trends in Russia's regions and rural politics provide considerable evidence of the increasing ability of pro-Kremlin forces to maximise their electoral fortunes in national contests. These political trends make it likely that United Russia will not only emerge as the dominant party in the 2007 Duma election, but will provide the Kremlin and Putin's successor with a compliant lower house. The outcome is that Putin's successor will find the political infrastructure to continue managed democracy.     

Environmental liability and harmonization in the presence of transboundary effects and hidden assets

Within the context of transboundary disputes, this paper seeks to determine which liability concept, negligence or strict liability, performs better when assets are secure against foreign claims for transboundary damages. Our results indicate that, if assets are hidden from foreign claims, strict liability will not implement the socially optimal outcome, but neither will negligence. However, even though the socially optimal outcome is not always achieved, strict liability weakly dominates negligence. These results suggest that the harmonization of statues that deal with transboundary pollution should be based on strict liability not negligence. JEL classification K32 · Q5 Smith and Eckert both thank SSHRC of Canada for financial assistance. We thank two referees for valuable comments that greatly improved the paper and Matt Smith for his research assistance. All remaining errors are our responsibility.     

小鼠骨骼肌细胞核DNA降解与死亡时间的关系

目的　监测小鼠死后骨骼肌核内DNA降解的情况 ,探讨死后细胞核DNA降解的一般规律。方法　建立小鼠死亡模型 ,在死后 72h内 ,以 12h的间隔取骨骼肌样本进行单细胞凝胶电泳 ,在荧光显微镜下测量彗星图像 ,并作统计学分析。结果　机体死后 ,骨骼肌细胞在电泳图像上出现了明显的彗星形拖尾 ,L/W比值随死亡时间而逐渐增大 ,二者呈一定的线性关系。结论　单细胞凝胶电泳技术可以应用于早期死亡时间推断。     

Do the polls affect elections? Some 1980 evidence

This paper finds that the relatively favorable standing of Ronald Reagan in the preelection polls helped to generate a bandwagon effect in the 1980 presidential election. The models tested here suggest that this effect was most pronounced among voters who had the weakest prior political opinions and hence were most susceptible to suggestion through the media. While the bandwagon effect that is generated is modest, after controlling for an array of other political biases, it is substantial enough to warrant further attention as the dissemination of poll results becomes an increasingly attractive news event.