Do the illegal and legal rents of politicians affect municipal election outcomes? Empirical evidence

This paper aims to analyse whether illegal (corruption) and legal rent extraction (high politicians’ wages) affect electoral outcomes at municipal level. We use an initial sample of 145 Spanish municipalities over 50,000 for two electoral periods: 2004–2007 (before the crisis) and 2008–2011 (during the crisis). Our findings show that neither illegal nor legal rent extraction impact on re-election in non-crisis times. However, we observe that citizens penalize legal rent extraction in the ballots during the crisis. Regarding the economic performance of the local governments, we find that its effect on re-election is important in non-crisis period. Nevertheless, in time of crisis, given that the economic situation is bad in general in the country, voters pay less attention to economic factors and focus on politicians’ behaviour.     

Evaluating local government performance in times of crisis

In recent years, Spanish local governments have come under increasing pressure to accommodate severe economic restrictions while maintaining their provision of local public services. We analyse overall cost efficiency in Spanish local governments during the period of the economic crisis (2008–2013), under four different non-parametric methodologies. Moreover, given how problematic it is to precisely define what municipalities do, we compare three different output models with various measures of quantity as well as quality. Results suggest that Spanish local government efficiency improved over the period 2008–2013 since budget expenditures (inputs) fell while local public services and facilities (outputs) were maintained. We also find evidence of the possible implications of service quality when measuring municipalities’ efficiency, and of structural differences in the average efficiency between municipalities located in different Spanish regions. Finally, our results confirm that the level and variation of efficiency scores are affected by the approach taken.     

Analysis of ionic ratios in myocardial tissue and their relation to cardiac damage

The authors evaluated the usefulness of the postmortem biochemical analysis of ionic ratios in different parts of the heart and their relation to cardiac damage caused by chest trauma, as observed by anatomopathologic study. Fifty-nine 59 cases were studied, selected from routine necropsies, and samples were taken from different sites of cardiac tissue. The cause of death was trauma in 40 cases and nontraumatic causes in 19 cases. The object of this study was to analyze the levels of Na+, K+, Ca+2, Mg+2, and Zn+2 in different zones of the heart, and the relationship between intracellular and extracellular ion ratios and the different causes of death and any anatomopathologic alterations observed. The biochemical tests revealed a possible relation between the ionic values and cause of death. Alterations in cell membrane permeability and corresponding modification of the ionic ratios were produced earlier than histologic alterations, which need longer to establish themselves whether or not they follow a traumatic process.     

STR data for the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus loci from Greece

Allele frequencies for the nine STRs included in the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus kit (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317 and D7S820) were estimated from a sample of 143 unrelated individuals living in different regions of Greece.     

Genetic variability of 16 Y-chromosome STRs in a sample from Equatorial Guinea (Central Africa)

Nine Y-STR loci from the "minimal haplotype" included in Y-STR Haplotype Reference Databases (YHRD) together with eight additional Y-STRs (DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS460, DYS461, GATA C4, GATA H4 and GATA A10) were analyzed in a sample of 101 males from Equatorial Guinea living in Madrid. Haplotype and allelic frequencies were calculated and genetic diversities were estimated for each genetic system as well as for the whole haplotype. An unexpected high frequency (6%) of intermediate alleles (13.2 and 14.2) was found in DYS385. For DYS19, two alleles were found in one sample. Another sample failed to amplify with DYS393 primers using either PowerPlex Y System (Promega Corporation) or the Y-PLEXtrade mark 12 (Reliagene, New Orleans, LA) commercial kits. Comparison between Equatorial Guinea and another African population (Mozambique; South East Coast) revealed a significant pairwise Phi(st) value between them (Phi(st)=0.03309; P=0.00000).