Digital reconstruction of fragmented tooth remains in forensic context

Forensic odontology majorly focuses on the identification of victims through the analyses of oral and para-oral structures.Exposure to high temperatures and trauma can occur in mass disasters and may lead to the fracturing and fragmentation of teeth.These fragments may become very fragile and easily damaged while handling.Conventional methodologies such as the use of transparent nail polish,hair spray,cyanoacrylate or adhesives have been used to stabilise the fragmented pieces.This study introduces a new and innovative digital technique that utilises three-dimensional surface scanning(3DSS)and rapid prototyping techniques to reconstruct fractured portions of the teeth.The results of qualitative congruency analysis suggest that over all variance of morphological error(0.0526±0.05)mm.These results imply that the reconstructed 3D model can be used for various morphometric analyses.     

Understanding Motivations of Mega-Gift Donors to Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

Patterns of giving to higher education by individual donors have changed in recent years, with large gifts accounting for an increasing percentage of the total. In light of this shift, understanding the motivations of donors who make very large gifts, commonly known as “mega-gifts,” has become important. Efforts to explore these motivations run into access barriers. This article uses an innovative methodological approach to overcome this challenge. Drawing on the media coverage of mega-gifts, the authors create donor biographies and carry out qualitative analysis of these donor biographies to examine donor motivations and evolution in motivations. The article draws on the existing literature to synthesize a typology of donor motivations and uses this typology to categorize the motivations of mega-gift donors. The identification of additional subcategories under the broad category of impact is a significant contribution of this study and adds nuance to our understanding of mega-gift donors to higher education institutions.     

The European Union in the eyes of India

The multifaceted engagement between India and the European Union (EU) has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to a strategic partnership, which is one of the three that the EU has in Asia. Based on a content analysis of three prominent Indian newspapers, which were monitored on a daily basis for a period of 6 months (1 July–31 December 2009), and interviews conducted with political, business, media, and civil society “elites,” this article seeks to analyze and assess the perceptions of the EU in India.     

Gender Dimensions of Public Service Motivation

Feminist scholars of public administration have critiqued the dominance of masculine imagery in public administration theory and practice. However, public service motivation is one area of public administration discourse that contains both feminine and masculine imagery. Focusing on Perry's multidimensional public service motivation scale, the authors borrow from a range of social science literatures to contend that compassion is a feminine dimension of public service motivation, whereas attraction to policy making and commitment to public service are masculine dimensions. Data from a survey of public managers in state health and human service agencies reveal that women score higher on Perry's compassion subscale but also on attraction to policy making. No statistically significant gender differences were found on commitment to public service.     

Partner and relationship factors in domestic violence: perspectives of women from a slum in Calcutta, India

A cross-sectional study in a representative sample of 751 women, living in slums, examined their perspectives on partner and relationship factors of domestic violence. More than 17% of women experienced physical violence in the past year. Individual factors related to the husband-namely, poor socioeconomic status, use of alcohol, extramarital relations, and visiting red light districts-increased the risk of violence. The following relationship factors were associated with a higher risk of violence: age difference of 5 years or less between spouses, husband's irregular contribution to family expenses, not sharing information about his personal expenses, manifestation of controlling behaviors, and longer duration of marriage. The study concludes that adverse socioeconomic conditions create low self-esteem and insecurity among men, who find expression in aberrant behaviors, and violence is used as a compensatory behavior. Interventions, therefore, need to go beyond the victim-centric approach and address partner and relationship issues for greater impact.     

An Analysis of Acquisition Value Property Tax Assessment for Homesteaded Property

This article explores the implications of acquisition value assessment for homesteaded property established in 1983 in Muscogee County, Georgia. The resulting freeze in assessed values has created sizeable assessment inequality that varies systematically with the value of the parcel. The difference between market value and acquisition value assessments is substantially larger for households with longer tenure and is associated with households with higher income, who are older, and who are white. The freeze has a small effect on the size of the property tax base and does not appear to reduce the probability of a home's being sold.     

Cutback Management and the Paradox of Publicness

Cutback management in the public sector poses unique problems. More than 30 years ago, Charles Levine illustrated these problems by discussing the paradoxes of cutback management in public organizations. Building on Levine's work on cutback management and developments in publicness theory, the author provides a contemporary perspective on cutback management. He asserts that publicness creates paradoxical tensions in different domains such as organizational goals, employee motivation, and organizational performance. These tensions need to be embraced in both theoretical discussions of and practical engagement with cutback management. Instead of a short‐term, reductionist approach to cutback management, a holistic and long‐term perspective is necessary.     

A study of sexual dimorphism in the femur among North Indians

Determination of sex of unknown skeleton remains is the most important step in the identification process. Racial and regional differences in the populations create and maintain specificity in their dimorphic characteristics. Moreover, considering continued secular changes in the population structure, constant revision of osteometric standards becomes mandatory. In an effort to establish osteometric standards for the femur of contemporary North Indian populations, 122 adult femora of known sex (M: 94; F: 28) were collected in the Department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU, Varanasi. Eight standard parameters were measured and analyzed by discriminant function analysis using SPSS 16. The accuracy of sex prediction ranged from 70.5% to 83.6% with single variables. In stepwise analysis, epicondylar breadth, proximal breadth, and antero-posterior diameter of the lateral condyle were found to be the most discriminating variables providing an accuracy of 90.2%. The results clearly indicate the importance of the ends of femur in the determination of sex.     

The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation

In seeking to explain the antecedents of public service motivation, James Perry focuses on the formative role of sociohistorical context. This study tests Perry's theory and examines the role that organizational factors play in shaping public service motivation, based on responses from a national survey of state government health and human service managers. The findings support the role of sociohistorical context, showing that public service motivation is strongly and positively related to level of education and membership in professional organizations. The results also underscore the significant influence of organizational institutions, indicating that red tape and length of organizational membership are negatively related to public service motivation, whereas hierarchical authority and reform efforts have a positive relationship. Therefore, public organizations have both an opportunity and a responsibility to create an environment that allows employees to feel they are contributing to the public good.     

Interlocal Service Cooperation in U.S. Cities: A Social Network Explanation

Local governments increasingly confront policy problems that span the boundaries of individual political jurisdictions. Institutional theories of local governance and intergovernmental relations emphasize the importance of networks for fostering service cooperation among local governments. Yet empirical research fails to examine systematically the effects of social networks on interlocal service cooperation. Do the individual networks of local government actors increase their jurisdiction's level of interlocal service delivery? Drawing data from the National Administrative Studies Project IV (NASP‐IV), multivariate analysis is applied to examine this question among 919 municipal managers and department heads across the United States. The findings indicate that interlocal service cooperation increases when jurisdictional actors network frequently through a regional association or council of government and when they are united by a common set of professional norms and disciplinary values. Manager participation in professional associations, however, does not increase interjurisdictional cooperation. The key conclusion for local government practitioners searching for ways to increase collaboration: networks that afford opportunities for more face‐to‐face interaction yield better results for effective service partnerships.