Contracting Capacity and Perceived Contracting Performance: Nonlinear Effects and the Role of Time

Contracting out has become a popular strategy in public service delivery, but it remains uncertain whether and how government can ensure contracting performance. As a result, a growing literature emphasizes the importance of governments' contracting capacities. Yet very few studies have empirically assessed how contracting capacities relate to contracting performance. This article identifies four types of contracting capacities in terms of agenda setting, contract formulation, contract implementation, and contract evaluation, relating them to three performance dimensions including cost, efficiency, and quality. Drawing from a manager survey from Taiwan, the article shows that the relationships between the capacities and the performance indicators are not always straightforward or linear, and the relationships are complicated by the role of time. The results suggest that contracting capacities have both benefits and costs, and the solutions rooted in the economics theory should not be taken beyond their appropriate boundaries.     

Emotional Labor and Job Stress in Caring Professions: Exploring Universalism and Particularism in Construct and Culture

Passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the US increases demand for nurses and brings health care into the public sphere with all that entails, including public accountability and performance measurement. In the UK’s long-standing national healthcare system, revelations of several years of neglect and poor oversight at one hospital might have contributed to nearly 1,200 deaths. The resulting Francis Report cited, among many factors, undue emphasis on reaching national access targets and balancing budgets for substandard care. Scholars of emotional labor note these trends with interest, because emotional labor is essential to nursing practice. But is emotional labor a universal construct, or is it particular to cultural context? How much can be imported from one study to the next? We compare nurse job stress in individualist and collectivist countries and reveal a statistically significant relationship: The higher a country’s individualism index, the greater the frequency of emotional-labor-demanding job stress.     

Forensic applications of infrared imaging for the detection and recording of latent evidence

We report on a simple method to record infrared (IR) reflected images in a forensic science context. Light sources using ultraviolet light have been used previously in the detection of latent prints, but the use of infrared light has been subjected to less investigation. IR light sources were used to search for latent evidence and the images were captured by either video or using a digital camera with a CCD array sensitive to IR wavelength. Bloodstains invisible to the eye, inks, tire prints, gunshot residue, and charred document on dark background are selected as typical matters that may be identified during a forensic investigation. All the evidence types could be detected and identified using a range of photographic techniques. In this study, a one in eight times dilution of blood could be detected on 10 different samples of black cloth. When using 81 black writing inks, the observation rates were 95%, 88% and 42% for permanent markers, fountain pens and ball-point pens, respectively, on the three kinds of dark cloth. The black particles of gunshot residue scattering around the entrance hole under IR light were still observed at a distance of 60 cm from three different shooting ranges. A requirement of IR reflectivity is that there is a contrast between the latent evidence and the background. In the absence of this contrast no latent image will be detected, which is similar to all light sources. The use of a video camera allows the recording of images either at a scene or in the laboratory. This report highlights and demonstrates the robustness of IR to detect and record the presence of latent evidence.     

The Right to be Free from Domestic Violence in Macau

Domestic violence is a problem which historically has not received adequate attention in Macau. At the outset, it explains why the right to be free from domestic violence matters in Macau. I contend that the treatment of domestic violence is a human rights issue under international human rights law, focusing on the shift in the conceptualization of domestic violence from a private matter into a human rights issue. I denounce domestic violence as human rights violation. The second part depicts the draft law on Combating of Domestic Violence Act and analyzes the possible effects of Combating of Domestic Violence Act that can occur. Then, I intend to highlight the absence of attention to the positive duties of states—not negative duties to restrain from acting (such as a duty not to infringe upon the right to be free from domestic violence), but positive, affirmative duties to protect women.     

Retrospective and prospective voting in a one-party-dominant democracy: Taiwan's 1996 presidential election

Public Choice - Several theories of voting behavior suggest that voters evaluate candidates in an election based on the candidates; past performance and future promise. There is a dispute in the...     

Evaluation of the DNA stability of forensic markers used in betel-quid chewers' oral swab samples and oral cancerous specimens: implications for forensic application

Chewed betel-quid (BQ) residues are often considered vital biological evidence at crime scenes, since the human DNA extracted from the residues is actually from buccal epithelial cells and can be associated with suspects. BQ-chewing is also a risk factor for oral diseases and/or cancers. Archived medical oral-specimens can be used to identify specific individuals under adverse conditions, although STR markers are known to be unstable in various tumor tissues. This study evaluates the DNA stability of forensic marker systems in BQ-chewers' oral epithelial cells, and in archived clinical specimens of oral cancer patients. The genotypes of oral and paired peripheral blood samples in 200 subjects were compared, using the commercialized typing systems of HLA-DQA1, PM (including LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, and GC loci), and AmpFlSTR markers (including 9 STR loci and the Amelogenin gene). The 100 healthy BQ-chewers had consistent oral swab and paired blood sample genotypes analyzed withboth DQA1/PM and STR marker systems. In the 100 oral cancer patients, one discordant result at D7S8 was found in the 600DQA1/PM-marker loci, and 25 allelic alterations with expansion or contraction were detected in the 900 STR loci. The findings herein suggest that when cancerous specimens were tested, the HLA-DQA1/PM system with point polymorphism appears more reliable than the STR system with length polymorphism. Our results also indicate that healthy BQ-chewers' oral cotton swabs containing buccal epithelial cells are useful for forensic purposes using the HLA-DQA1, PM, and STR marker systems.     

Mitochondrial DNA sequence alterations observed between blood and buccal cells within the same individuals having betel quid (BQ)-chewing habit

There are hundreds of millions of betel quid (BQ) lovers widely spreading around the world. Compositions in BQ may generate reactive oxygen species, which would induce DNA damage. However, oral epithelial cells as well as blood have often been used as reference samples in comparison with the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence of hairs. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of mtDNA sequence variation in regular BQ-chewers' oral epithelial cells, and thus to evaluate the forensic availability of the buccal cells from BQ-chewers using the mtDNA markers. The hypervariable segments I and II in the D-loop control region of mtDNA between paired samples of blood and buccal scrape cells from 75 non-BQ-chewers (to be a control group), 60 BQ-chewers, and 67 oral cancerous patients were DNA sequenced and compared. Among the three groups, the alteration rates of 1.3% (1 out of 75), 10% (6 out of 60), and 61% (41 out of 67) were identified from the control, BQ-chewers, and the cancerous group, respectively. In the cancerous group, as expected, high rate of DNA alteration between blood and buccal samples was found. In the BQ-chewers, one and five individuals had the length and point alterations, respectively. Interestingly, most of point alteration sites, e.g., mtDNA positions 153, 16189, 16093 identified from BQ-chewers, were also observed in previous literatures. As for the control subjects, one case with point alteration, and none with length alteration, was identified. For all the three groups, not only the oral cells but also the normal blood samples exhibited high frequency (>55%) of length heteroplasmy at poly-(C)n track. Statistical analyses revealed that significance was observed between the severity of mtDNA alteration in BQ-chewers' oral epithelial cells and the history of BQ-chewing (p = 0.02), with a tendency of positive association. Based on the guidelines by Carracedo et al., we suggest that the interpretation of mtDNA variations between criminal evidences and the oral epithelial cells (as a reference or known sample) from BQ-chewers should be performed with particular caution using the PCR-based mtDNA sequencing. Our findings would be valuable in mtDNA analysis of hair evidence, especially for those countries where the habit of BQ-chewing is popular.     

Species identification using sequences of the trnL intron and the trnL-trnF IGS of chloroplast genome among popular plants in Taiwan

Forensic botanical comparison can be hampered by the lack of appropriate DNA databases. While DNA sequence databases for many mitochondrial loci have been established for the identification of animal species, less is known regarding the genomes of plants. We report on the use of the trnL intron and the trnL-trnF intergenic spacer (IGS) in the chloroplast genome and establish a DNA sequence database for plant species identification. The DNA sequences at these two loci from commonly encountered plants, including monocots and dicots, were aligned to establish a DNA database of local plants. The database comprises 373 individual sequences representing 80 families, 206 genera and 269 species. These plant species can be grouped to species level using both sequence and length polymorphisms at these loci. To validate the database for future forensic purposes, we sequenced 20 blind samples and searched the local database and the databases of GenBank and EMBL. Fifteen of these 20 samples used in blind trial testing matched their respective species from our local DNA database but only 6 matched species registered in the GenBank and EMBL databases. The sequences of two species used in the blind trial did not match any sequence registered in any of these databases. Cluster analysis was performed to demonstrate the family and genus distribution of samples. Neighbor-joining trees of the two DNA regions from 70 samples of the local database and 10 of the species used in the blind trials were constructed and clustered to both family and genus. The bootstrap values of the trnL intron were higher than most of those of the trnL-trnF IGS. The sequence database described in this study can be used to identify plant species using DNA sequences of the trnL intron and trnL-trnF IGS of chloroplast genome and illustrates its value in plant species identification.     

Characterization of the polymorphic repeat sequence within the rDNA IGS of Cannabis sativa

The rDNA intergenic spacer (IGS) structure of Cannabis sativa contains six variable repeat motifs within a locus spanning 1387 base pairs. The degree of variation of the first three motifs was examined using 77 samples from cannabis samples. The samples originated from five seizures in Taiwan and seed stocks from six different countries. The results showed that there were four types of sequences producing PCR products at either 255, 260, 264 or 265 base pairs. The data obtained indicates that this region of rDNA IGS exhibits a degree of polymorphism that while insufficient by itself can be added to a multiplex with other cannabis STR loci.