Does electoral fraud spread? The expansion of electoral manipulation in Russia

In this paper, we argue that the occurrence of electoral manipulation in Russia has been driven, in part, by diffusion across neighboring raions through emulation, incentives, and networks. Presumably, in Putin’s Russia all local authorities have some incentives to deliver a high number of votes to United Russia, the “party of power”. However, the perceived pressure to deliver ever higher levels of support for Putin’s party arguably increases considerably if one’s raion is located in a region marked by extraordinarily high turnout and high vote share for United Russia. Conversely, the absence of perceived competition to curry executive favor through delivering votes and networks of uncorrupted local authorities, as well as local opposition organizations working to combat electoral fraud, may help explain the absence of fraud among raions located in regions marked by clean elections. Our quantitative analyses suggest that a “neighborhood effect” – the existence of manipulated raions within a region – strongly influences the likelihood that raions are manipulated. Moreover, although results are more mixed, spatial autocorrelation analysis suggests that turnout levels in raions are influenced by the turnout in proximate raions.     

Implementing Developmental Screening Programs for Infants and Toddlers in the Child Welfare System

In 2003, revisions to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act required states to develop plans to refer children younger than 3 years of age with a substantiated case of abuse and neglect for developmental screening. A decade after legislation was passed, its implementation varies considerably across states. This article explains how research informs the need for careful developmental monitoring of young children, especially those experiencing trauma or living under stressful conditions. Finally, this article presents how one community used colocation to increase developmental screenings for young abused and neglected children.     

Good Governance Means Performance and Results

If the object of developing and developed world leaders is to uplift their peoples continually, then it is essential to measure approximations of actual service deliveries (what we ought to mean by “governance”), not to rate nations impressionistically according to the perceived quality of their operations, their perceived impartiality (as per Rothstein), the extent of their bureaucratic autonomy (as per Fukuyama and others), or their capacity to coax or coerce citizens. Only in that positive manner can we distinguish the governments that are producing abundant political goods (i.e., good governance) from those that no longer are, or never did.     

Sustainable citizenship for a technological world: negotiating deliberative dialectics

Incorporating the notion of sustainability is the biggest challenge for citizenship in a technological era. Existing conceptions of citizenship have not been able to grapple with compounded ecological, economic, cultural, and moral threats facing modern technology-infused societies. Nor has increased public participation, engagement, and dialogue resolved polarized positions on issues such as what constitutes quality of life or what is meant by the integrity of nature. This paper draws on the scholarship of both sustainability and citizenship to propose a framework of sustainable citizenship that seeks to emphasize shared values through a deliberated clash of ideas. Such a framework involves a negotiation of the dialectics of rights and responsibilities, state and non-state, public and private, human and non-human nature, universal and particular, and democracy and capitalism. The paper illustrates how sustainable citizenship can be applied to deal with contentious political and policy issues of new and emerging technologies.     

Factors influencing the precision of estimating the postmortem interval using the triple-exponential formulae (TEF). Part I. A study of the effect of body variables and covering of the torso on the postmortem brain, liver and rectal cooling rates in 117 forensic cases

Brain, liver, rectal and environmental temperatures were continuously monitored under controlled conditions, in 117 forensic fatalities, for up to 60 h after death. Cases were studied either naked (63%) or covered with two blankets (37%). Bodies were classified into fat and thin groups. Statistical analysis and curve-fitting of the data yielded the average triple-exponential formulae for each body site and each body group. The effects of covering of the torso and body parameters such as weight, height, surface area and 'cooling size factor' (Z) on postmortem cooling are assessed and discussed. Results show that covering of the torso has a significant influence on the rate of postmortem cooling, however, there is no good correlation between the body variables and the cooling rate.     

Factors influencing the precision of estimating the postmortem interval using the triple-exponential formulae (TEF). Part II. A study of the effect of body temperature at the moment of death on the postmortem brain, liver and rectal cooling in 117 forensic cases

The temperatures of three body sites, namely, the brain, liver and the rectum as well as the temperature of the environment were continuously monitored, every 5-10 min, in 117 forensic cases commencing soon after death and in most cases, within 45 min postmortem. The body temperature at the moment of death was empirically determined by a computer-based extrapolation method. Thus, temperature data for the first 3h of each body site were fitted to single-exponential equations and the fitted curve was extrapolated backwards to obtain the intercept on the Y-axis (the temperature axis). The effect of body temperature at the moment of death on postmortem cooling rate is examined and factors influencing body temperature at death are discussed. Forensic fatalities associated with hyper and hypothermia are reviewed briefly.