Examining citizen participation: local participatory policymaking and democracy revisited

This article discusses developments in citizen participation and its contribution to democracy since the publication of the original article. It evaluates the continued relevance of the use of a normative framework to assess different forms of citizen participation, nuances some of the conclusions and shows how inclusion and a connection with formal decision-making remain central issues that need more scholarly attention. Moreover, the article shows how the framework has been used in advising councillors and organisers of local citizen initiatives.     

Sizing the government

Is there such a thing as an optimal government size? We investigate the so-called Armey curve, which claims an inverted U-shaped relationship between government size and economic performance, using non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The DEA scores are linked to control variables, such as initial per capita income, openness, population density, urbanization, country size and family size. For 23 OECD-countries we estimate the country specific efficiency scores, which reveal the extent to which a country uses excess public resources to achieve the observed growth rate of GDP.     

反思、借鉴与探索——国外教育公平的实践对我国的启示

实现教育公平有利于增进社会公平,稳定社会秩序,促进社会和谐.当前我国实现教育公平过程中存在的主要问题是城乡、地区、阶层之间差别较大,我们可以积极借鉴国外促进教育公平的有益经验,深刻反思我国实施教育公平中存在的问题,在立足国情的基础上,探索思考促进我国教育公平的实现途径.     

A sensitive and simple assay of saliva on stamps

Identification of saliva on stamps or envelope flaps remains yet a not widely studied problem. In most forensic laboratories it is seldom carried out, but this fact does not reduce the importance of the assay. Most authors consider amylase a sufficiently specific marker of the presence of saliva; really, the only other human body fluid that contains high amounts of this enzyme is the pancreatic juice (and therefore feces). Here we present a simple and sensitive assay for the determination of alpha-amylase that uses a commercially available and well-known substrate. It is hydrolyzed by amylase with the production of soluble blue fragments, that can be measured by photometry, obtaining objective results. The presented assay identifies 1 X 10(-6) diluted saliva or that present on 0.5 mg of a stamp; 16-year-old samples can also be identified. Intra-assay and day-to-day CV resulted in 10.8% and 13.7%, respectively. Owing to the high sensitivity of the test, handling samples or reagents can introduce contamination with saliva traces, giving false-positive results. Addition of EDTA 0.1 mol/l to the incubation mixture, lowering the sensitivity to 1 X 10(-3) diluted saliva, overcomes this problem.     

论我国人事诉讼程序之建构

人事诉讼程序是适用于人事诉讼案件的特别程序。现行民事诉讼法中人事诉讼程序的厥失不利于人事诉讼案件的处理和当事人权益的保护 ,有必要在修改民事诉讼法时增设独立的人事诉讼程序 ,完善其具体程序内容 ,以建构我国的人事审判制度。     

Lethal orphenadrine intoxication: report of a case.

A case of lethal orphenadrine intoxication is reported. Included are the anatomical and toxicological findings. Most conspicuous histologically was the centrilobular necrosis of the liver.