Managerial autonomy: does it matter for the performance of water utilities?

The public administration literature asserts that autonomy is central to performance. In this article we develop a managerial autonomy index, which we apply to 22 water utilities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The 16 items that underlie our composite autonomy index display a high degree of internal consistency. This speaks for the validity of the autonomy concept. We find that the autonomy scores of the 22 utilities vary widely. We also find strong and positive associations between autonomy scores and six out of eight key performance indicators. Our results support the idea that autonomy is central to the performance of water service providers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescents' perceptions of their attachment relationships with their mothers,fathers, and friends

This study explored changes in New Zealand adolescents' perceptions of their attachment relationships with their mothers, fathers, and friends. The main findings revealed that from early to late adolescence: Males and females remained stable in their quality of affect toward their mothers. With increasing age, females utilized their mothers for support and proximity more, whereas males utilized their mothers for support and proximity less. With increasing age, males and females rated their quality of affect toward their fathers as lower and utilized their fathers for support and proximity less. Females had a higher quality of affect toward friends than males regardless of age, but both males and females increased their utilization of friends for support and proximity over age. Further analyses revealed that Pacific Island adolescents utilized their mothers less for support and proximity than European/Pakeha adolescents. Adolescents from one-parent families utilized their fathers less for support and proximity and had a lower quality of affect toward him than adolescents from two-parent families. These findings suggested that substantial changes take place in attachment relationships from early to late adolescence and highlighted the need for research to differentiate between the sex of adolescent and sex of parent dyads in order to examine adolescents' affective relationships effectively.This research is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation at the University of Auckland.Received Ph.D. from the University of Auckland. Research interests are in life span developmental psychology and in the parenting of children and adolescents.Received Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Research interests lie within life span developmental psychology and early cognitive development.Received Ph.D. from the University of Canterbury. Her main interests are in life span developmental psychology and the development of low birth weight babies.     

Adolescent attachment to parents and friends in relation to aspects of self-esteem

This study explored the relative influence of adolescents' perceptions of their attachment relationships with their mothers, fathers, and friends on three measures of self-esteem. The sample consisted of 493 New Zealand adolescents ranging from 13 to 19 years of age. Two dimensions of the attachment relationship were assessed: the utilization of emotional support and proximity, and the quality of affect. The major findings were as follows: utilization of emotional support and proximity from mothers, fathers, and friends was minimally related to overall self-esteem, coping abilities, and social competence. The quality of affect toward mothers and fathers was significantly related only to social competence. These findings suggest that adolescent self-esteem is more strongly associated with the quality of affect toward parents and friends than with the utilization of these target figures for support or proximity. The notion that parents and friends may contribute to different facets of self-esteem is discussed.This research is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation at the University of Auckland.Received Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Research interests are adolescent development and the development of children's health beliefs and behaviors. To whom reprint requests should be addressed at School of Occupatinal Therapy, Private Bag 92006, Auckland Institute of Technology, Auckland 1020, New Zealand.Received Ph.D. from the University of Canterbury. Main interests are in life span developmental psychology, and the development of low birthweight babies.Received Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Interests lie within life span developmental psychology and early cognitive development.     

Variation in central bank independence across countries: Some provisional empirical evidence

In this paper seven hypotheses to explain variation in central bank independence across countries are tested. The predictions based upon the theory that delegation of authority by politicians to the central bank is used as a commitment device are not supported: central bank independence is not higher the larger the employment motivated inflationary bias, the higher political instability or the larger the government debt. Central bank independence is positively related to historical inflation experience and negatively with political instability. We do only find limited support for the view that countries with a universal banking system and countries whose central banks do not regulate financial institutions have more independent central banks.     

Changes in composition of ballpoint pen inks on aging in darkness

A method for comparison of the relative age of ink entries written by the same ballpoint pen on documents stored in darkness is presented. Inks were extracted from the document and analyzed by HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography). On aging, changes in the chemical composition of the inks were noted. These changes were similar to those observed when inks were exposed to light or heat. The aging was followed by using ternary diagrams constructed for dyes generally present in blue-colored inks--Crystal Violet, Methyl Violet, and Tetramethyl Para Rosaniline. The procedure is applicable for relative dating of ink entries in diaries, notebooks, etc., where often several ink entries are written by the same ink. However, a prolonged exposure of the document to daylight and/or artificial light (light from fluorescent tubes) as well as to extensive heat will render the whole procedure inapplicable. An example of the use of the proposed method in casework is given.     

Fatal versus non-fatal heroin "overdose": blood morphine concentrations with fatal outcome in comparison to those of intoxicated drivers

The study was performed to distinguish fatal from non-fatal blood concentrations of morphine. For this purpose, blood levels of free morphine and total morphine (free morphine plus morphine conjugates) in 207 cases of heroin-related deaths were compared to those in 27 drivers surviving opiate intoxication. The majority of both survivors and non-survivors were found to show a concomitant use of depressants including alcohol or stimulants. Blood morphine levels in both groups varied widely, with a large area of overlap between survivors (free morphine: 0-128 ng/ml, total morphine: 10-2,110 ng/ml) and non-survivors (free morphine: 0-2,800 ng/ml, total morphine: 33-5,000 ng/ml). Five (18.5%) survivors and 87 (42.0%) non-survivors exhibit intoxication only by morphine. In these cases, too, both groups overlapped (survivors-free morphine: 28-93 ng/ml, total morphine: 230-1,451 ng/ml; non-survivors-free morphine: 0-2,800 ng/ml, total morphine: 119-4,660 ng/ml). Although the blood levels of free or total morphine do not allow a reliable prediction of survival versus non-survival, the ratio of free/total morphine may be a criterion to distinguish lethal versus survived intoxication. The mean of the ratio of free to total morphine for all lethal cases (N=207) was 0.293, for those that survived (N=27) 0.135, in cases of intoxication only by morphine 0.250 (N=87) and 0.080 (N=5), respectively. Applying a cut-off of 0.12 for free/total morphine and performing ROC analyses, fatal outcome can be predicted in 80% of the cases correctly, whereas 16% of the survivors were classified as dead. Nevertheless, in this study, all cases with a blood concentration of 200 ng/ml and more of free morphine displayed a fatal outcome.     

Comparison of Anonymous Versus Confidential Survey Procedures: Effects on Health Indicators in Dutch Adolescents

Self-report questionnaires are frequently used in youth research, but doubt remains whether total anonymity affects the results. This study compared the responses of 704 mainly 16–17-year-old adolescents to self-report measures of various health indicators in 2 groups: anonymous and confidential collection. For most health indicators no significant differences were found. Perceived health, use of alcohol, and aggressive behavior (for boys) were reported significantly less frequently in the confidential group (small effect size). It appeared that pupils with high scores on social desirability do not respond differently at most health indicators in the 2 conditions. For most health characteristics, epidemiologically useful outcomes may be derived from confidential self-report measures, which are also valuable for detecting individual at-risk children. Similar studies in lower grades and other types of education should confirm the results.Youth Department, Municipal Health Service Rotterdam area. Main research interests are emotional and behavioral problems of adolescents, youth health care, monitoring.Youth Department, Municipal Health Service Rotterdam area. Main research interests are emotional and behavioral problems of adolescents, youth health care, monitoring.Research Department, Municipal Health Service Rotterdam area. Major research interests include emotional and behavioral problems of adolescents, suicidal behavior, youth health care, monitoring.     

Über die Notwendigkeit und Bestimmung liberaler Bürgertugenden

Numerous sociological studies describe the status of contemporary liberal democracy as frightening. Taking up these investigations, this article asks for the pre-conditions of liberal democracy, particularly for their moral foundations. In contrast to the classic political theory of liberalism, these moral foundations are not assumed to be locked in the institutional order of the state, but in a certain morality of the citizens. The first target of the investigation is to proof that a moral quality of the citizens is a necessary prerequisite for the persistence of a liberal democracy. The second aim of the work is to show how these moral orientations (liberal virtues) should be shaped within each citizen. This is clarified by discussing three liberal thinkers (Charles Larmore, John Rawls, and Ralf Dahrendorf). The so distilled central liberal virtue is formulated as follows: The political convictions of the citizens must be justifiable for everybody, i.e. also to citizens with a different world view. Political convictions and values, which are expressed during the political process and which influence the voting-behaviour, should therefore not rely exclusively on one’s own set of moral values. The work closes with a discussion of the implications of this normative claim.