Allele frequencies and haplotypes of the STR loci of the PowerPlex Y-system in southern populations from Korea

In this study, 12 Y-specific STR loci--DYS391, DYS389 I, DYS439, DYS389 II, DYS438, DYS437, DYS19, DYS392, DYS393, DYS390, DYS385a/b--were analyzed in 259 unrelated males from the southern populations in Korea using the PowerPlex Y PCR system.     

Successor Liability and Asymmetric Information

The doctrine of successor liability transfers tort liabilityarising from the seller's past conduct from the seller to thebuyer. If the buyer has as much information about the liabilityas the seller, all beneficial acquisitions take place and theseller takes the efficient level of precaution. However, ifthe seller has more information about the liability than thebuyer, not all beneficial acquisitions are consummated and theseller takes a suboptimal level of precaution. I argue that,in the presence of information asymmetry, the courts shouldincrease the damages against the (potential) seller to providebetter incentives to take precaution while decreasing the damagesagainst the buyer to encourage more beneficial asset sales.     

A culture of rent seeking

Public Choice - Tullock [J Dev Econ 67(2):455–470, 1967] introduced the concept of rent seeking and highlighted the social costs associated with collecting and lobbying for or against...     

Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Social Capital Matters for Women’s Career Success?

This study examines the relationship between social networking as a potential upward mobility strategy for women and their career advancement. The federal data from the 2007 Career Advancement Survey (CAS) were analyzed using ordered logistic regressions and OLS multiple regressions. The results showed that having a supportive supervisor and/or mentor was positively related to the likelihood of being appointed to critical roles and being assigned important work, while having important contacts was positively associated with temporary promotions. In addition, engaging in professional and formal networks showed a marginally positive association with work assignment. Gender congruence in supervisory dyads was positively associated with role assignment. The findings regarding gender differences in relationships reported a stronger positive relationship between having a supportive supervisor and/or mentor and temporary promotions for women than for men. Women were more likely to be temporarily promoted than men when they have a supportive supervisor and/or mentor. Women who have a female supervisor were more likely to be temporarily promoted and to be assigned critical roles than men or women who have a male supervisor.     

Does type of well drilling matter for local governments' fund balances?

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the type of wells drilling in Pennsylvania matters to the fund balance of local governments in Pennsylvania. After conducting one‐way analysis of variance and Kruskal–Wallis equality‐of‐populations rank test, the median value of fund balance of local governments have differences by the type of wells drilling. This result can suggest that the local governments of Pennsylvania should consider how to levy the level of impact fee to the companies operating wells for extracting shale gas. In other words, it should be designed more systemically by the type of wells drilling in Pennsylvania.     

Venue Preference and Earthquake Mitigation Policy: Expanding the Micro‐Model of Policy Choice

Seismologists have reported that a majority of recent earthquakes in Oklahoma have been triggered by the activities of oil and gas companies. Despite this fact, there is evidence of strong opposition toward earthquake mitigation policy. In this article, we argue that how individuals define issues affect their policy choice. Furthermore, we incorporate the concept of venue shopping from the literature on macro theories of the policy process to investigate the effect of problem definition in shaping individual venue preference for policy choice. Using unique survey data, we find that problem definition, particularly issue causality and issue image, is strongly related to individual support for earthquake mitigation policy. However, a more nuanced relationship between individual problem definition and venue preference is observed. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand the politics of problem definition at an individual level, which may be the precursor of understanding policy choices at the institutional level.     

Perceived crime seriousness: Consensus and disparity

In this article, the statistical technique for setting up the consensus of perceived crime seriousness in previous studies is critically reviewed. The conventional method, when applied to a data set of crime seriousness, is found to have exaggerated the consensus because, by using a more appropriate model, which assumes perfect agreement in crime severity between subgroups, the consensus is reduced unanimously. By breaking down the population by gender, age, and educational level, sociodemographic differentials in crime seriousness are set up. The disparity is then further examined in details by paired comparisons between a target crime with fourteen other crimes. The three factors are all found to be important in affecting perceived crime seriousness. This conclusion is different from that of previous studies. The scaling method is found to be responsible for the difference. As the Thurstone method used in this study is more responsive and can produce more discriminating results, it is recommended for future research in crime severity. Finally, the implications of the findings on some important issues, like the appropriateness of legal penalty and the construction of a crime index, are discussed.     

Wielding Occam's Razor: Pruning Strategies for Economic Loss

The English Court of Appeal is currently faced with three analyticallydistinct approaches to the question of when one party owes anothera duty of care in respect of her economic interests, all ofwhich bear the authority of the House of Lords. Unable to choosebetween them, it has recently adopted a fourth approach combiningwhich combines them, in the apparent belief that the combinationwill eradicate any individual deficiencies. Against the backgroundof a recent case, the author argues that this is a holding strategyat best and methodologically deficient. He also challenges thecontinuing lip-service paid by courts to models of liabilitybased upon ‘assumptions of responsibility,’ examiningand criticising the causes of their persistence in the law inthe face of widespread academic criticism. Instead, the authorargues, the House of Lords should now clearly endorse a singlereasoning strategy to economic loss cases based on the three-stageapproach in Caparo Industries v Dickman. Properly understood,this approach offers the best prospect of facilitating consistentand transparent decision-making in the longer term.