Trusting in Trust(s): TheFamily Home and Human Rights

In July 2002, the U.K. Law Commission published its Discussion Paper No.287 on home-sharing. The conclusion drawn by the Law Commission was that it would not be possible to devise a statutory scheme for the resolution of family property disputes which is both workable and flexible enough to deal with the wide range of personal relationships that exist. It further took the view that, with appropriate changes to the way in which trusts principles are currently interpreted and applied by the courts, these trusts principles are sufficiently flexible and coherent to deal with the question of ascertaining and quantifying property rights over the family home. The aim of this paper is to examine the implications of these particular conclusions drawn by the Law Commission for both the law of trusts and the resolution of family property disputes between cohabitants. In particular, the paper will consider the extent to which trusts law remains a workable and desirable option and whether any mileage may be gained by drawing on the human rights culture that is emerging in U.K. legal and political discourse. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中国东南亚研究面临的学术挑战

本文探寻了中国东南亚研究自上世纪50年代以来的发展轨迹,回顾了主要从事东南亚研究的学术机构之现状。通过对中国东南亚研究重要刊物的载文分析,指出其研究重心和兴趣的转变。文末,作者还点明了中国东南亚研究所面临的学术挑战。     

An effectiveness‐based evaluation of five state pre‐kindergarten programs

Since 1980, the number of state pre‐kindergarten (pre‐K) programs has more than doubled, with 38 states enrolling more than one million children in 2006 alone. This study evaluates how five state pre‐K programs affected children's receptive vocabulary, math, and print awareness skills. Taking advantage of states' strict enrollment policies determined by a child's date of birth, a regression‐discontinuity design was used to estimate effects in Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia. For receptive vocabulary, only New Jersey and Oklahoma yielded significant standardized impacts, though two of the three other coefficients were in a direction indicating positive effects. For math, all the coefficients were positive but only Michigan and New Jersey yielded reliable results. The largest impacts were for print awareness, where all five coefficients were positive and four were reliable in Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, and West Virginia. The five states were not randomly selected and, on average, have higher quality program standards than non‐studied states, precluding formal extrapolation to the nation at large. However, our sample of states differed in many other ways, permitting the conclusion that state pre‐K programs can have positive effects on children's cognitive skills, though the magnitude of these effects varies by state and outcome. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Reforming Social Services in Hong Kong: The Role of Contracting and Performance Management in the Non‐Profit Sector

Contracts and performance management, along with the concept of consumerism, have become the fundamental metaphors for New Public Management (NPM) and key changes in the public service. ‘Doing well while doing good’ and finding generally acceptable accountability measures for social services have become the perennial aspirations of planners, service providers and funders. This article examines the contingent factors and rationales behind the quality movement and recontracting exercise in reforming the delivery of personal social service programs in Hong Kong within the framework of New Public Management (NPM). It explains the use of long‐term relational contracts rather than the standard business contracts between the government as funder and non‐profit organisations as service providers. It also deals with the complex relationships among quality issues, quality standards, consumerism, accountability, performance indicators, and performance management.     

Sudden death in children due to mesenteric defect and mesenteric cyst.

Two cases of sudden death in young female children due to small intestinal volvulus are reported, which involved a mesenteric defect and a mesenteric cyst. Death due to small intestinal volvulus is uncommon, especially when complicated by either a mesenteric defect or cyst.     

Population data for the Identifier 15 STR loci in Hong Kong Chinese

Allele frequencies for 15 STR loci, namely D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818 and FGA, which are tested for by PE Applied Biosystem's Identifier kit, were obtained from a sample of 325 unrelated Chinese in Hong Kong.     

The identification of credit card encoders by hierarchical cluster analysis of the jitters of magnetic stripes

The relative bit density variation graphs of 207 specimen credit cards processed by 12 encoding machines were examined first visually, and then classified by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. Twenty-nine credit cards being treated as 'questioned' samples were tested by way of cluster analysis against 'controls' derived from known encoders. It was found that hierarchical cluster analysis provided a high accuracy of identification with all 29 'questioned' samples classified correctly. On the other hand, although visual comparison of jitter graphs was less discriminating, it was nevertheless capable of giving a reasonably accurate result.