‘… the Defence of the Realm and Nothing Else’: Sir Findlater Stewart,Labour Ministers and the Security Service

In May 2013, a report on the British Security Service (MI5) by Sir Samuel Findlater Stewart was released by the Cabinet Office. Dated November 1945, the report on the future organization and activities of MI5 was significant in that it defined the Service's post-war remit, accountability and relations with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), laying the groundwork of MI5's mandate until the introduction of the Security Service Act in 1989. The article also suggests that the report is significant, not just because it sheds important light on MI5's wartime and post-war role, but because it helps question existing assumptions about the relationship between the Security Service and the post-war Labour Government of Clement Attlee, often viewed as a troubled one.     

Citizen Assessment of Electoral Reforms: Do Evaluations of Fairness Blunt Self-Interest?

A large literature shows that citizens care about the procedural fairness of rules and institutions. This body of work suggests that citizen evaluations of institutional changes should be constrained by fairness considerations, even if they would personally benefit from the reforms. We test this expectation using two panel studies to examine whether citizens become more accepting of proposals rated as unfair (in wave one) after we experimentally manipulate (in wave two) whether the proposals aid their party’s electoral prospects. Using this approach, we are able to establish what citizens see to be fair or unfair separate from their evaluation of a given rule change. We find that supporters of both parties are consistently more favorable toward reforms their fellow partisans and, crucially, they themselves, claim reduce electoral fairness when framed as advancing their partisan interests. The results provide important insights into how citizens evaluate electoral processes, procedural fairness, and, hence, the acceptable limits of institutional change.

     

Domestic Violence Alleged in California Child Maltreatment Reports During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Family Violence - During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports to child abuse and neglect hotlines have dropped significantly across the United States. Yet, during this same period, calls to...     

Die Organisation der Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit im Entwurf zur Staats- und Verwaltungsreform

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Examination of the steps leading up to the physical developer process for developing fingerprints

This is a systematic study that examines several acid prewashes and water rinses on paper bearing latent prints before its treatment with a silver physical developer. Specimens or items processed with this method are usually pretreated with an acid wash to neutralize calcium carbonate from the paper before the treatment with a physical developer. Two different acids at varying concentrations were tested on fingerprints. Many different types of paper were examined in order to determine which acid prewash was the most beneficial. Various wash times as well as the addition of a water rinse step before the development were also examined. A pH study was included that monitored the acidity of the solution during the wash step. Scanning electron microscopy was used to verify surface calcium levels for the paper samples throughout the experiment. Malic acid at a concentration of 2.5% proved to be an ideal acid for most papers, providing good fingerprint development with minimal background development. Water rinses were deemed unnecessary before physical development.     

Haplotype diversity of 16 Y-chromosomal STRs in three main ethnic populations (Malays, Chinese and Indians) in Malaysia

We have analyzed 16 Y-STR loci (DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635 or Y-GATA C4, DYS392, Y-GATA H4, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS448) from the non-recombining region of the human Y-chromosome in 980 male individuals from three main ethnic populations in Malaysia (Malay, Chinese, Indian) using the AmpFlSTR((R)) Y-filertrade mark (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). The observed 17-loci haplotypes and the individual allele frequencies for each locus were estimated, whilst the locus diversity, haplotype diversity and discrimination capacity were calculated in the three ethnic populations. Analysis of molecular variance indicated that 88.7% of the haplotypic variation is found within population and 11.3% is between populations (fixation index F(ST)=0.113, p=0.000). This study has revealed Y-chromosomes with null alleles at several Y-loci, namely DYS458, DYS392, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS439, DYS448 and Y-GATA H4; and several occurrences of duplications at the highly polymorphic DYS385 loci. Some of these deleted loci were in regions of the Y(q) arm that have been implicated in the occurrence of male infertility.