A Peruvian population study of eight Y-chromosome STR loci

We have analyzed the distribution of the allele frequencies and haplotypes at eight Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS460, DYS461, GATA A10, GATA C4 and GATA H4) in a sample population of 87 unrelated individuals from Perú.     

Information, Verfahren, Selbstregulierung, Flexibilisierung: Instrumente eines effektiven Umweltrechts?

Die Jahrhundertaufgabe Nachhaltigkeit verlangt danach, einmal grundsätzlicher nach der Effektivität der Grundstrukturen der deutschen und europäischen Umweltpolitik zu fragen. Dabei verdienen bestimmte neue Steuerungsinstrumente besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Ihre Beurteilung verlangt freilich auch eine prinzipielle Untersuchung, unter welchen Bedingungen politische Steuerung z. B. im Umweltrecht wirksam sein kann. Dieser Beitrag plädiert im Ergebnis für eine andere Steuerungsstrategie, die mit zunehmend dominanten Paradigmen wie Informationsgesellschaft, Prozeduralisierung und Systemtheorie skeptisch umgeht. * Eine rechtssoziologische, ökonomische und historische Analyse umweltpolitischer Defizite bietet Ekardt, Steuerungsdefizite im Umweltrecht—Ursachen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Naturschutzrechts und der Grundrechte. Zugleich zur Relevanz religiösen Säkularisats im öffentlichen Recht, 2001. Die Analyse wird verbessert und auf das Wirtschaftsrecht (speziell Energierecht) ausgedehnt bei Ekardt, Zukunft in Freiheit: Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit, der Grundrechte und der politischen Steuerung—zugleich eine Grundlegung der Nachhaltigkeit, 2004, § 7 A. und § 8 B. II. Dazu jetzt auch die wesentlich präzisierte und ergänzte Taschenbuchfassung bei C.H. Beck: Ekardt, Das Prinzip Nachhaltigkeit, 200 S. In diesen Aufsatz gehen ferner einige Vorträge ein, die ich in den letzten Jahren gehalten habe (u.a. an den Universitäten Wuppertal, Juli 2003, und Rostock, Februar 2001).     

Le chevauchement des programmes fédéraux et provinciaux: un bilan

Sommaire: Après avoir montré que le chevauchement des programmes fédéraux et provinciaux est une caractéristique fondamentale de l'activité gouvernementale au Canada et qu'il a son origine dans les dispositions de la Constitution, cette étude présente une évaluation qualitative de ses conséquences quant à l'efficience et à l'efficacité du système politico-administratif canadien. Ces conséquences sont envisagées sous l'angle du coût de l'action gouvernementale, de l'efficacité des politiques publiques, du fardeau imposé aux administrés en matière de transactions avec l'État et de la portée du principe de la responsabilité politique des gouvernants envers la population. Vue dans cette perspective, la duplication des activités fédérales et provinciales apparaît comme une source d'inefficience et d'inefficacité pour la gestion des affaires publiques. Elle justifie qu'on s'interroge sérieusement sur la valeur du partage actuel des pouvoirs entre les deux ordres de gouvernement. Abstract: After showing that the overlap between federal and provincial programs is a basic characteristic of government activity in Canada rooted in the provisions of the constitution, this study presents a qualitative assessment of its consequences for the efficiency and effectiveness of the Canadian political-administrative system. These consequences are viewed from the viewpoint of the cost of government action, of the effectiveness of public policy, of the burden the administered face in dealing with governments, and of the scope of governmental political accountability to the people. From this angle, the duplication of federal and provincial activities appears to be a source of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the management of public affairs. It raises serious questions as to the adequacy of the present sharing of powers between the two levels of government.     

Should forensic patients be informed of evaluators' opinions prior to trial?

There are several articles in the literature that discuss the problems which occur when persons who have been evaluated by forensic clinicians hear the results of those evaluations for the first time in court. The authors agree that the scenarios presented are problematic but suggest that in many cases the problems can be avoided by sharing the information with the person prior to presenting it in court. They present several case examples to illustrate their point.     

The myth of the local

Debates about the diffusion of international norms have increasingly focused on norm appropriation, highlighting the agency of local actors. The proliferation of international organizations in the Global South raises the question of whether and how they practice local norm appropriation. This article uses ethnographic methods to investigate the appropriation of development norms in an intergovernmental development organization located in Bangladesh. Established theories like localization and sociological institutionalism would expect local actors to allude to a global norm but not to adhere to it. On the contrary, this study finds that, while development organizations may allude to local development norms and dismiss UN-led initiatives as “Western,” their practices remain in line with global concepts such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Human Development Index. These actors perform to localize, but the rhetoric is not matched by their everyday practices. The local therefore functions as a myth.     

The Meaning of Students’ Personal Belief in a Just World for Positive and Negative Aspects of School-Specific Well-Being

In two cross-sectional questionnaire studies with N = 1792 German and Indian students, aged between 12 and 17 years, we investigated the relation between personal belief in a just world (BJW) and positive as well as negative dimensions of school-specific well-being. Furthermore, we considered students’ personal experience of teacher justice as possible mediator in this relation and controlled for confounding effects of gender, neuroticism, and locus of control. In Study 1, we used multilevel modeling to analyze the German data and to control for class-level effects. In accordance with our hypotheses, Study 1 showed that the more students believed in a personal just world, the better their positive attitudes toward school, their academic self-esteem, and their enjoyment in school were, and the less somatic complaints in school, social problems in school, and worries toward school they experienced. These associations partly differed between classes, but generally persisted when controlled for sex, neuroticism, and locus of control. Finally, the association between personal BJW and well-being was at least partly mediated by students’ personal experience of teacher justice. In Study 2, we focused on the generalizability of the pattern of results across different cultural contexts. However, we did not aim to carry out comparative research. Results from bootstrap mediation analyses were predominantly the same as in Study 1. The adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research are discussed.     

A banana republic? The effects of inconsistencies in the counting of votes on voting behavior

Public Choice - We examine whether local inconsistencies in the counting of votes influence voting behavior. We exploit the case of the second ballot of the 2016 presidential election in Austria....     

Electronic taxation and cybercrimes in Nigeria,Kenya and South Africa: Lessons from Europe and the United States of America

Advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) over the years has changed the way people now live and conduct their businesses. Consequently, tax administrators in line with global trends are shifting from manual processes to electronic tax systems. Although the adoption of ICT has apparent advantages, it does not come without some potential challenges, prominent among which are the activities of cybercriminals. This paper seeks to identify the ways electronic tax systems can be protected and sustained in some African countries, drawing from the lessons the experiences of the United States of America (US) and some countries in Europe present.