Serum levels of digoxin in sudden cardiac deaths

Digoxin was determined in postmortem serum samples from 100 patients who died suddenly of cardiac disease. Twenty patients had digoxin levels below the therapeutic range. Twenty-one patients had normal values within the therapeutic range (1.2-2.5 nmol/l). In ten cases there was probably an overdosage. Another 15 patients had markedly elevated levels. No digoxin concentration was found (below 0.5 nmol/l) in 34 patients. The importance of determination of digoxin levels both by the clinician and the pathologist is stressed as well as the necessity of using a correct sampling technique at autopsy.     

From Rhetoric to Blueprint: The Moran Review as a Concerted,Comprehensive and Emergent Strategy for Public Service Reform

On 3 September 2009, Prime Minister Rudd announced a six‐month Review of Australian Government Administration. He appointed an Advisory Group chaired by Terry Moran, Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to prepare a discussion paper, oversee a benchmarking study and consultations, and craft a blueprint to reform the Australian Public Service (APS) in order to deal with future governance challenges. The vision is to develop a forward‐looking, innovative, collaborative, citizen‐focused, agile, informed and highly‐skilled APS to advise and deliver policy and services for government. Ahead of the Game, a comprehensive Blueprint for action, was released on 29 March 2010. This article provides a high‐level review of motivations and process for the Moran Review, an overview of the Blueprint, an assessment of the strategy and process, and suggestions for moving forward on selected issues.     

Developmental validation of feline, bovine, equine, and cervid quantitative PCR assays

Accurate DNA quantification is essential for optimizing DNA testing and minimizing sample consumption. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays have been published for human and canine nuclear DNA, and the need for quantifying other forensically important species was evident. Following the strategy employed for the canine qPCR assay, we developed individual assays to accurately quantify feline, bovine, equine, and cervid nuclear DNA. Each TaqMan-based assay incorporates a genus-specific probe targeting the Melanocortin-1 Receptor gene and includes a piece of synthetic DNA that acts as an internal PCR control for detecting inhibition. Developmental validations were carried out following the revised guidelines of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods with modifications necessary for validation of nonhuman qPCR assays. All assays demonstrated the specificity, sensitivity, stability, reproducibility, accuracy, and precision required for forensic casework. The application of these assays to animal forensic DNA analysis has both conserved laboratory resources and improved genotyping results.     

Legal enclaves as a test environment for innovative products: Toward legally resilient experimentation policies1

Many countries adhere to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development creed that innovation is good for the economy. Experiments are often used to intentionally create space for innovation. Decisions allowing experiments result in temporary legal enclaves for a few, excluding many others. Therefore, they come with risks. The aim of this article is to provide a set of guidelines that help improve the legal resilience of experimentation policies, so they are better able to withstand legal attacks when they occur. To do so, we first arranged the existing diversity of legal experiments in a theoretical model. Special attention was paid to two archetypes of legal experiments: statutory experiments and regulatory sandboxes. Second, we analyzed the impact of both types of experiments on four core legal principles: legality, certainty, equality, and public accountability. From this assessment, we eventually formulated a set of guidelines to secure or improve legal resilience.     

The Australian Public Service and Policy Advising: Meeting the Challenges of 21st Century Governance

This concluding article summarises the case study findings comprising the Special Issue on ‘Advising Australian Federal Governments: Assessing the Evolving Capacity and Role of the Australian Public Service’, identifies and discusses cross‐cutting issues, and considers strategic implications for future practice and research. It reviews key findings from six case studies – Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Intergovernmental Relations, Housing, the BER Stimulus program, and Defence – and assesses the policy advising capacity of the Australian Public Service, with a focus on the policy‐political interface between governments and officials. Putting recent experience in historical context, it considers the performance of the Commonwealth's policy advisory system, the impact of prime ministers and centralisation, the link between advising and analytic capacities, the system's resilience and readiness, whether recent dissatisfaction over APS advising reflect lack of capacity or a culture clash, and the responsibility for ensuring high‐quality policy advice. It recommends developing a more systematic approach to assessing policy advising capability, building on recent APS reforms.     

Appendix: a reconnaissance of Canadian administrative reform during the early 1990s

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to provide background information for discussions at the National Seminar on Decentralization and Power Sharing on 15–17 October 1993 in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick. It emerged out of a concern that the literature has not managed to convey a sense of the extent and nature of administrative reform under way in Canada. Senior public servants working for nine provincial governments were contacted during the summer of 1993 in order to obtain documents and their views on developments in administrative and program reform during the early 1990s.* The information was first presented at the national seminar and was subsequently reviewed by provincial contacts in late 1993, who often suggested additional modifications. Our reconnaissance moves from west to east, and ends with observations about developments at the federal level. We did not delve into aboriginal and federalprovincial issues since other papers were to take up these subjects, but if officials noted that such issues were part of their administrative reform agenda, then we mentioned them. Officials from New Brunswick emphasized regional initiatives in the eastern provinces and we chose to leave that discussion in that section. Given the limited resources and time available for undertaking this survey of developments, it should not be construed as a definitive history of recent reform within each jurisdiction. Nevertheless, we do think this reconnaissance conveys the current tumult in Canada's public sector; governments at all levels are in the midst of significant restructuring, and this will continue for the foreseeable future. Sommaire: Afin de créer une base empirique pour le débat qui devait avoir lieu au Colloque national sur la décentralisation et le partage des pouvoirs, les 15–17 octobre 1993, à St. Andrew's, au Nouveau-Brunswick, nous avons contacté des fonctionnaires supérieurs de neuf provinces afin d'obtenir des documents et des avis sur l'évolution recente des réformes administratives et des révisions de programmes au début des années 1990 (pour l'Ontario, nous nous en sommes remis à un article récent de Lindquist et White). L'article a d'abord été présenté au Colloque national, puis a été analysé par quelques personnes au niveau provincial, qui ont suggéré des modifications supplémentaires. L'article couvre le terrain en partant de l'ouest vers l'est, et conclut par des observations concernant le niveau fédéral. Nous n'avions pas l'intention de nous occuper des questions autochtones et fédérales-provinciales puisque d'autres articles devaient en traiter, mais nous les avons quand même mentionnées lorsque des fonctionnaires signalaient ces questions comme étant à l'ordre du jour de Ieur réforme administrative. Ces analyses ne constituent pas l'histoire définitive des réformes au sein de chaque juridiction, mais elles reflètent bien les bouleversements qui ont frappé le secteur public au Canada. Les gouvernements canadiens sont aux prises avec une restructuration importante à tous les paliers, et notre survol de la question indique que cette situation se poursuivra.