Testing the Development and Diffusion of E‐Government and E‐Democracy: A Global Perspective

E‐government uses information and communication technology to provide citizens with information about public services. Less pervasive, e‐democracy offers greater electronic community access to political processes and policy choices. Few studies have examined these twin applications separately, although they are widely discussed in the literature as distinct. The authors, Chung‐pin Lee of Tamkang University and Kaiju Chang and Frances Stokes Berry of Florida State University, empirically analyze factors associated with the relative level of development of e‐government and e‐democracy across 131 countries. Their hypotheses draw on four explanations of policy change—learning, political norms, competition, and citizen pressures. All four explanations are strongly linked to nations where e‐government policy is highly advanced, whereas a country’s e‐democracy development is connected to complex internal factors, such as political norms and citizen pressures.     

Trends in the Study of Public Administration: Empirical and Qualitative Observations from Public Administration Review, 2000–2009

What are the apparent research and methodological trends in PAR’s content over the past decade? From the perspective of the journal’s 70‐year history, with its aim to “mesh” practitioner and academic knowledge creation, topical coverage since 2000 reflects striking continuity, emphasizing many of the “bread and butter” administrative issues such as planning, human resources, budgeting, and public management. A marked increase in coverage is apparent in the application of more sophisticated quantitative statistical methodology, as well as in the number of female authors, while the number of practitioner authors declined sharply. Throughout the first turbulent decade of the twenty‐first century, three intellectual themes stood out: evaluations of New Public Management, connections between practitioners and academicians, and responsiveness to immediate social, economic, and political challenges. Given the constant demand for usable knowledge, scholars seem to have marginalized attention to the historical context and epistemological foundations of the study. The central challenge in the years ahead will be to effectively use research methods in response to the big questions of government and society that defy measurement. Since many [empiricists], especially the younger, do not know very much about epistemology, they tend to be quite dogmatic about the one set of canons that dominate them. —C. Wright Mills, 1959     

Safety,Regulation and Tort: Fault in Context

The relationship between tort and regulation is dense and complicated. This paper examines diverse approaches to one small element of this relationship: the relationship between regulatory norms and the standard of care in personal injury cases. The lack of clear rules governing that interaction is not surprising: we would never expect the courts to give up the authority (or abdicate the responsibility) to generate private law norms; on the other hand, nor would we expect them to ignore the potential authority and legitimacy of external norms. The strength of external standards is best identified by close scrutiny of the regulation itself. The varying authority of external norms in a private law forum requires engagement with the process by which the external norms were reached. Who and what determined the ‘ought’ of regulation will provide greater insight into the ways in which it should inform the ‘ought’ of tort.     

Validity of Demirjian's and modified Demirjian's methods in age estimation for Korean juveniles and adolescents

In estimating age of juveniles and adolescents, the teeth are employed primarily because of its low variability and less affection by endocrine and nutritional status in development. Demirjian established criteria for evaluating maturity of teeth and his method has been used throughout the world. However, several studies showed the inappropriateness of Demirjian's method on populations other than the one it is based on. Consequently some researchers modified Demirjian's method using data of several different populations. Demirjian himself also published a revised method to overcome other shortcomings of his original method. The aim of this study was to test the validity of Demirjian's and the modified methods (Demirjian's revised, Willems', Chaillet's and new Korean methods) for Korean juveniles and adolescents. 1483 digital orthopantomograms which consist of 754 males and 729 females in the age range of 3-16 years were collected. New age estimation method based on Korean population data was calculated. Dental age was estimated according to each method and the validity was evaluated using the differences between chronological and dental age. The inter- and intra-observer reliability was evaluated to be excellent. Statistically significant difference was observed between chronological and dental age in all the methods for both sexes except new Korean method for both sexes and Demirjian's revised method for males. However, when analyzing absolute and squared value of difference, Willems' method was found to be most accurate followed by new Korean method with slight difference for Korean population for both sexes. In conclusion, both Willems' method and new Korean method conducted by present study were proven to be suitable for Korean population.     

Oriental medicine professionals' duty to inform patients

Oriental medicine has constituted a significant portion of health care in Korea, but discussion regarding the legal duties of Oriental medicine professionals has been marginalized. This article proposes the first step in discussing the duty of Oriental doctors and pharmacists to inform their patients about the medicine they provide. It begins by introducing the only decision the Supreme Court of Korea has made regarding the legal obligation of Oriental medicine professionals, where the Court held that the Oriental medicine retailer had a duty to provide information about the medicine being sold. This article supports that decision of the Supreme Court and further argues that other primary providers of Oriental medicine-Oriental doctors and pharmacists-should also bear the duty to inform. The conclusion is driven from the fundamental principle of the Korean Constitution: that everyone is entitled to the right to self-determination. In discussing the scope of information doctors and pharmacists should provide, this article notes the unique features of Oriental medicine used in Korea. The author concludes that Oriental doctors and pharmacists should inform their patients of the nature and effect of the medicine being provided, detailed usage instructions, potential risks associated with the medicine, and information regarding combined use with conventional medicine. As for restorative Oriental medicine, doctors and pharmacists should particularly provide instructions regarding its unique restorative purpose.     

内地仲裁裁决在香港法院执行中的公共政策问题

公共政策是《纽约公约》框架下拒绝承认和执行外国仲裁裁决的传统抗辩事由,但由于其理论具有一定模糊性,导致实践中的不确定性。《安排》引入了公共政策机制,以调整内地与香港仲裁裁决的相互执行程序。在各国法院对公共政策进行严格解释的大趋势下,由于两地道德观念相通、国家主权相同,为了更有效地促进两地司法协助的开展,两地在相互承认与执行仲裁裁决中应取消公共政策机制的束缚。     

Accidental death from hydromorphone ingestion

Abstract: A 15‐year‐old male orally consumed an unknown but fatal amount of sustained release hydromorphone. He was naïve to opioid use. No other drugs or alcohol were involved. The cause of death was acute aspiration‐related bronchopneumonia, secondary to hydromorphone ingestion; the manner of death was accidental. Hydromorphone and hydromorphone‐3‐glucuronide were quantified in postmortem fluids by tandem liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. The hydromorphone concentrations in the peripheral blood, urine, and vitreous humor were 57, 4460, and 31 ng/mL, respectively. The hydromorphone‐3‐glucuronide concentrations in the corresponding three fluids were 459, 36,400, and 40 ng/mL. Hydromorphone‐3‐glucuronide accumulation probably did not contribute significantly to the opiate toxicity. The proposed minimum lethal hydromorphone blood concentration in the nontolerant user is in the vicinity of 60 ng/mL.     

Improved gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric method for determination of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in hair using mechanical pulverization and bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction

A gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometric (GC-NCI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of 11-nor-Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) in human hair. After decontamination, hair samples were weighed (25mg), mechanically pulverized with a bead mill, and incubated in 0.7 mL of 1.0M sodium hydroxide at 95 °C for 30 min. Bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction was performed with n-hexane:ethyl acetate (9:1, v/v), a method developed in our laboratory. The extract was evaporated to dryness, derivatized with pentafluoropropanol and pentafluoropropionic anhydride, and analyzed by GC-MS/MS in the negative ion chemical ionization mode using methane as the reagent gas. The linear ranges were 0.05-10.0 pg/mg for THC-COOH with the coefficient of determination (r(2) = 0.9976). The intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 1.7 and 13.8%, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day accuracies were -4.8 to 10.0% and -3.9 to 3.8%, respectively. The limit of detection and quantification were 0.015 and 0.05 pg/mg, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 79.4-87.1%. The results indicate that the proposed method is simple, rapid, accurate, and precise for determination of THC-COOH in hair. The method identified THC-COOH in hair specimens from suspected marijuana abusers.     

Analysis of hair after contamination with blood containing 6-acetylmorphine and blood containing morphine

The study was carried out to investigate external contamination of hair by blood in heroin-related post-mortem cases. Solutions were prepared containing 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 3.0μg/mL of 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-AM) only or morphine only in human blood. Samples of approximately 3.2g of drug-free hair were contaminated by soaking in the blood solutions for 5min. They were then removed and left at room temperature. Approximately 0.5g of hair was collected from each of the blood soaked hair samples at 6h, 1, 2, 4 and 7 days after contamination. As each hair sample was collected it was shampoo-washed to prevent further drug absorption. Hair samples were analysed in triplicate using a fully validated method described previously. 6-AM broke down to morphine in all samples. In hair contaminated with blood containing 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2μg/mL 6-AM or morphine drug was either not detected or was detected below the limit of quantitation (0.2ng/mg hair) at all contamination times. In hair contaminated with blood spiked with 0.5μg/mL morphine, the concentration in hair ranged from 0.54 to 0.91ng/mg and in hair contaminated with blood spiked with 3.0μg/mL, from 3.25 to 5.77ng/mg. The concentrations of 6-AM ranged from 0.65 to 1.11ng/mg and morphine from 0.34 to 0.80ng/mg in hair contaminated with 0.5μg/mL 6-AM in blood. 6-AM ranged from 2.12 to 3.67ng/mg and morphine from 0.84 to 2.05ng/mg in hair contaminated with 3μg/mL 6-AM in blood. For 6-AM and morphine ANOVA statistical evaluation showed no significant difference among the concentrations over time.