Chengdu Impression

Most of my high school experience wasspent studying Chinese on my own and working toward my ultimate goal of mastering a language and through this learn more about my own and others as well. First, it is important to understand a background of my senior year in high school when I went abroad to China.I arrived in Chengdu, capital city     

Temporal Order and Causal Inference

Measures of change in pairs of attitudinal variables can provideimportant insights into the structure of the political beliefsystems of mass publics. Panel data reveal evidence of the greatercentrality of some idea elements rather than others in the contextof short-term dynamic constraint. Specification of the theoreticallyrelevant voter attributes makes it possible to test for expectedstructural differences connecting policy related predispositionsand policy preferences; specification also makes it possibleto test propositions involving the reciprocal effects of attitudesand emerging vote preferences. Some of the more helpful specificationsdisclose the extent to which population heterogeneity producesa blurred image of relationships when analysis is based on thetotal electorate rather than limited to voters or subsets ofvoters specified by theoretical criteria.     

The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For

For a decade, public administration and management literature has featured a riveting story: the transformation of the field's orientation from an old paradigm to a new one. While many doubt claims concerning a new paradigm—a New Public Management—few question that there was an old one. An ingrained and narrowly focused pattern of thought, a "bureaucratic paradigm," is routinely attributed to public administration's traditional literature. A careful reading of that literature reveals, however, that the bureaucratic paradigm is, at best, a caricature and, at worst, a demonstrable distortion of traditional thought that exhibited far more respect for law, politics, citizens, and values than the new, customer-oriented managerialism and its variants. Public administration as a profession, having let lapse the moral and intellectual authority conferred by its own traditions, mounts an unduly weak challenge to the superficial thinking and easy answers of the many new paradigms of governance and public service. As a result, literature and discourse too often lack the recognition that reformers of institutions and civic philosophies must show how the capacity to effect public purposes and accountability to the polity will be enhanced in a manner that comports with our Constitution and our republican institutions.     

Teaching Negotiation through Paradox

How to teach negotiation cannot be effectively summed up in a few ready‐to‐be‐applied principles. In this article, I define a paradoxical professorial stance that I believe can be useful for helping students learn negotiation concepts and methods, and will also help them reflect on their own practice. The paradoxes are the following: caring for the students while deliberately exposing them to frustration; nurturing a lively, interactive course while respecting those students who prefer to remain silent; helping the students to be more autonomous while simultaneously manipulating them; accepting their vulnerability while nurturing their creativity; and finally, maintaining both professorial distance and closeness. My adoption of such a paradoxical stance as a professor has encouraged greater creativity in my students, and by the end of the course, they are better able to create value in a negotiation simulation.     

Les transformations du travail et de l'entreprise : qu'attendre des politiques publiques?1

Sommaire : Les politiques publiques du travail ont été conçues pour offrir des mesures de protection aux salariés travaillant à temps plein, pour un seul employeur, sous son contrôle et sur les lieux de l'entreprise. Or, le marché du travail est aujourd'hui composé d'une pluralité de relations d'emploi qui limitent l'efficacité de ces protections. Ce constat soulève la question suivante : que devraient contenir les politiques publiques pour être mieux adaptées au marché du travail? La première partie de cet article examine les voies de renouvellement possible des politiques publiques pour tenir compte des transformations du travail et de l'entreprise. Certaines suggèrent de faire reposer l'octroi de droits et d'avantages sur l'existence d'un travail ou d'une activité professionnelle alors que d'autres les rattachent à l'individu ou au citoyen. Ces propositions ne pourront cependant voir le jour que si elles font l'objet d'une appropriation par les acteurs sociaux et étatiques. Une réflexion sur le contenu des politiques doit ainsi être combinée à l'étude des processus sociaux susceptibles de faire émerger de telles réformes. Cette question est abordée dans la deuxième partie de l'article à partir de trois exemples récents de réformes législatives. Abstract: Public labour policies were developed to ensure the protection of workers who work for one employer on a full‐time basis, at the employer's place of work and under his control. However, today's labour market is composed of a multiplicity of employment relations that limit the effectiveness of the protection. This raises the following question: what features should public policies include to better meet the needs of the labour market? The first part of this article examines how public policies could be renewed in order to take work and organizational transformations into account. Some policies suggest that rights and benefits should be granted on the basis of a job or professional activity, whereas others link rights and benefits to the individual or the citizen. However, these proposals will only emerge if they are appropriated by social and governmental stakeholders. A reflection on the content of the policies must therefore be undertaken in combination with a study of the social processes that may influence the emergence of such reforms. This question is examined in the second part of the article through a review of three recent examples of legislative reform initiatives.     

Biomechanical Factors in Human Dermal Bitemarks in a Cadaver Model*

Abstract: In bitemark analysis, the forensic odontologist must consider how the biomechanical properties of the skin contribute to distortion of the bitemark. In addition, one must consider how the bitemark can be distorted by postural movement of the victim after the bite has occurred. A fundamental review of the architecture and biomechanical properties of the dermis is described and evaluated through bites made on cadavers. In order to assess distortion, 23 bites from a single characterized dentition were made on un‐embalmed cadaver skin. Bite indentations were photographed. Following various body manipulations they were re‐photographed in different positions. Hollow volume overlays of the biting dentition were constructed, and metric analysis of the dentition and all bitemarks was completed. The overall intercanine, mesial to distal, and angle of rotation distortion was calculated. Of the 23 bites made, none were measurably identical, and in some cases, dramatic distortion was noted.     

Chemical Differences Are Observed in Children’s Versus Adults’ Latent Fingerprints as a Function of Time*

Abstract: The identification of aged latent fingerprints is often difficult, especially for those of children. To understand this phenomenon, the chemical composition of children’s versus adults’ latent fingerprints was examined over time using Fourier transform infrared microscopy. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that children’s and adults’ prints were distinguishable for up to 4 weeks after deposition, based on differences in sebum composition. Specifically, adults had a higher lipid content than children, but both decreased over time, attributable to the volatility of free fatty acids. The aliphatic CH₃, aliphatic CH₂, and carbonyl ester compositions changed differently in adults versus children over time, consistent with higher cholesterol and cholesteryl esters in children’s prints and wax esters and glycerides in adults’ prints. Thus, fingerprint composition changes with time differently in children versus adults, making it a sensitive metric to estimate the age of an individual, especially when the age of the print is known.