The characterization of automobile body fillers

Body fillers are sometimes encountered with paint evidence from hit-and-run accidents. Little forensic research has been conducted and published on the subject since 1986. The objective of this study was to determine if chemical and physical differences in body fillers from various manufacturers existed and could be identified. Thirty-three samples of light-weight automobile body fillers and spot putties were obtained. The fillers and putties were compared using light microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX), and pyrolysis gas chromatography (pyGC). Results from fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis placed the samples into five groups and differentiated six samples. Light microscopy placed the samples into one of five color groups. PyGC placed the samples into three groups and differentiated one sample. SEM-EDX placed the samples into four groups and differentiated 13 samples. Using these analysis methods, 19 of the 33 samples could be discriminated. The best discriminatory tool was found to be SEM-EDX.     

Religious Participation and Economic Conservatism

Why do some individuals engage in more religious activity than others? And how does this religious activity influence their economic attitudes? We present a formal model in which individuals derive utility from both secular and religious sources. Our model, which incorporates both demand‐side and supply‐side explanations of religion, is unusual in that it endogenizes both an individual's religious participation and her preferences over economic policy. Using data on over 70 countries from the pooled World Values Survey, we find that religious participation declines with societal development, an individual's ability to produce secular goods, and state regulations on religion, but that it increases with inequality. We also find that religious participation increases economic conservatism among the poor but decreases it among the rich. Our analysis has important insights for the debate about secularization theory and challenges conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between religious participation and economic conservatism.     

University R&D and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Italy

Ed Mansfield wrote several papers on the private returns to basic research (e.g. Mansfield, 1980) and the influence of academic research on industrial innovation (e.g. Mansfield, 1991). We extend this line of research by assessing the impact of university research on total factor productivity growth of Italian manufacturing firms. The econometric analysis is based on reduced-form estimation of the R&D capital stock model, including controls for two potential sources of sample selection bias, as proposed by Crepon et?al (1998) and Piga and Vivarelli (2004). Our results suggest that while there are positive returns to collaborative research with other firms, collaborative research with universities does not appear to directly stimulate productivity. We interpret this result as consistent with recent evidence (e.g. Hall et?al 2001, 2003) suggesting that firms engage in collaborative research with universities when appropriability conditions are weak.     

The liberty of free riders: the minimum coverage provision, Mill's "harm principle," and American social morality

A direct requirement for most Americans to purchase any product or service .... certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race, that gravely ill individuals cannot use a substance their doctors described as the only effective palliative for excruciating pain, or that a farmer cannot grow enough wheat to support his own family. The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems, no matter how local--or seemingly passive--their individual origins.     

Politics,politicians, and public servants in non-partisan local governments

Abstract: One of the major characteristics of the increasing complexity of government in the 1990s is the heightened power of public servants. This phenomenon has been well documented at the federal and provincial levels. The smaller size of local governments has meant that this trend has been slower to develop there, but it seems clear that it is emerging as an issue at this level of government as well. The increasing power of public servants challenges the traditional, simple paradigm of the role of politicians and public servants, simply expressed as “politicians on top, experts on tap.” This paradigm is breaking down in a number of ways as decision-making processes become more complex. This means that this once-clear statement of “politicians on top, experts on tap” needs to be replaced by a more complex understanding of the relationship between politicians and staff. Power is now shared by politicians and staff, but the tricky part of the sharing is that democratic principles require that elected politicians must maintain a predominant position. Any revised paradigm must recognize both the sharing of power, and the fact that the sharing cannot be equal. This paper will borrow a framework commonly used to examine the power of public servants in the federal and provincial governments and apply it to local government. As the article will indicate, many of the principles are similar, but there are some important variations. This revised paradigm provides a practical guide for action for both councillors and staff in their dealings with one another. Sommaire: L'augmentation du pouvoir des fonctionnaires constitue l'une des principales caractéristiques de la complexité croissante du gouvernement dans les années 1990. Les preuves de ce phénomèe sont nombreuses aux paliers fédéral et provincial. Étant donné la taille plus réduite des gouvernements locaux, cette tendance s'y développe plus lentement, mais elle commence 1à aussi à susciter des préoccupations Ce phénomène remet en question le paradigme traditionnel sur le rôle des élus et des fonctionnaires, que l'on peut exprimer très simplement comme suit “ les élus en haut, les experts en disponibilité. ” Ces rapports se désagrègent de diverses façons à mesure que le processus décisionnel devient plus complexe. Cet énoncé, jadis très clair, doit être remplacé par une compréhension accrue des rapports entre elus et fonctionnaires. En effet, si les deux groupes partagent maintenant le pouvoir, la difficulté dans ce partage réside en ce que les principes démocratiques exigent que les représentants politiques élus maintiennent une position dominante. Toute redéfinition du paradigme traditionnel doit admettre à la fois le partage du pouvoir et le fait que ce partage est forcement inégal. Le présent article emprunte un cadre généralement utilisé pour examiner le pouvoir des fonctionnaires au sein des gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux, et l'applique au gouvernement local. L'article souligne que de nombreux principes sont similaires, bien qu'ayant toutefois des variations importantes. Cette redefinition constitue un guide d'action pratique tant pour les conseillers municipaux que pour leur personnel dans leurs transactions mutuelles.     

The nature and importance of attachment relationships to parents and peers during adolescence

The nature and quality of adolescents' attachments to peers and parents were assessed with the newly developed Inventory of Adolescent Attachments. The relative influence on measures of self-esteem and life satisfaction of relations with peers and with parents was then investigated in a hierarchical regression model. The sample consisted of 213 adolescents ranging from 12 to 19 years of age. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) The quality of perceived attachments both to parents and peers would be related to well-being, and (2) the quality of parental relationships would be a more powerful predictor of well-being than would the quality of peer relationships. Confirming the study's hypotheses, the perceived quality of the adolescents' relationships to both peers and parents, their frequency of utilization of peers, and their degree of negative life change were significantly related to both measures of well-being. The quality of attachment to parents was significantly more powerful than that to peers in predicting well-being. In addition, quality of attachment to parents showed a moderating effect under conditions of high life stress on the measures of self-esteem. The study suggests that it is useful to consider the quality of attachments to significant others as an important variable throughout the life span.