Trajectories of Administrative Reform: Institutions,Timing and Choices in France and Spain

The influence of national administrative institutions on contemporary reforms has often been noted but insufficiently tested. This article enriches the comparative perspective of administrative reform policies by focusing on four interrelated dimensions: the choices of reformers, institutional constraints, timing and sequencing and long-term trajectories. This article tries to determine whether most similar administrative systems exhibit analogous contemporary reform trajectories in content, timing and sequence. By comparing the administrative reform policies of two ‘most similar’ Napoleonic countries, France and Spain, this article analyses the commonalities and divergences of decentralisation, territorial state reorganisation, civil service reforms and policies that focus on performance management and organisational design. The article identifies the ‘causal mechanisms’ that characterise the specific role of institutions and considers both the role of context and the importance of policy intersections.     

Modelling and refinement of forensic data acquisition specifications

This paper defines a model of a special type of digital forensics tools, known as data acquisition tools, using the formal refinement language Event-B. The complexity and criticality of many types of computer and Cyber crime nowadays combined with improper or incorrect use of digital forensic tools calls for more robust and reliable specifications of the functionality of digital forensics applications. As a minimum, the evidence produced by such tools must meet the minimum admissibility standards the legal system requires, in general implying that it must be generated from reliable and robust tools. Despite the fact that some research and effort has been spent on the validation of digital forensics tools by means of testing, the verification of such tools and the formal specification of their expected behaviour remains largely under-researched. The goal of this work is to provide a formal specification against which implementations of data acquisition procedures can be analysed.     

Distributed filesystem forensics: XtreemFS as a case study

Distributed filesystems provide a cost-effective means of storing high-volume, velocity and variety information in cloud computing, big data and other contemporary systems. These technologies have the potential to be exploited for illegal purposes, which highlights the need for digital forensic investigations. However, there have been few papers published in the area of distributed filesystem forensics. In this paper, we aim to address this gap in knowledge. Using our previously published cloud forensic framework as the underlying basis, we conduct an in-depth forensic experiment on XtreemFS, a Contrail EU-funded project, as a case study for distributed filesystem forensics. We discuss the technical and process issues regarding collection of evidential data from distributed filesystems, particularly when used in cloud computing environments. A number of digital forensic artefacts are also discussed. We then propose a process for the collection of evidential data from distributed filesystems.     

The effect of congruence in policy priorities on electoral participation

This paper proposes that voters are more likely to turn out at elections if candidates and parties address their issue concerns in the election campaign. Voters with high levels of congruence in policy priorities should perceive the campaign as more interesting and the election as more relevant. In addition, the costs associated with the vote choice should be lower if voters' policy priorities are salient. The effect should be weakened by party identification, which acts both as a mobilising force and as a heuristic to the vote choice, making information costs less detrimental to turnout. The analysis, which links voter survey data with candidate survey and media content data from the 2009 German federal election, confirms the hypotheses.     

A proposal for standardization in forensic canine DNA typing: allele nomenclature of six canine-specific STR loci

In this study a proposal for the allele nomenclature of six polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci (PEZ3, PEZ6, PEZ8, PEZ10, FHC2161, and FHC2328) for canine genotyping (Canis lupus familiaris) is presented. The nomenclature is based on the sequence data of the polymorphic region of the microsatellite markers as recommended by the DNA commission of the International Society of Forensic Haemogenetics (ISFH) in 1994 for human DNA typing. To cover commonly and rarely occurring alleles, a selection of homozygous and heterozygous animals were analyzed and subjected to sequence studies. The alleles consisted of simple tri- and tetra-nucleotide repeat patterns as well as compound and highly complex repeat patterns. Several alleles revealing the same fragment size but different repeat structures were found. The allele designation described here was adopted to the number of repeats, including all variable regions within the amplified fragment. In a second step the most commonly occurring alleles were added to an allelic ladder for each marker allowing a reliable typing of all alleles differing in size. A total number of 142 unrelated dogs from surrounding municipal animal homes, private households, and canines in police duty were analyzed. The data were added to a population database providing allele frequencies for each marker.     

高等学校行政主体地位初探

长期以来 ,高等学校的法律地位模糊不清 ,学校仅具有民事主体资格。重新界定高等学校在新体制下的行政法律地位 ,即“公务法人”地位 ,运用法人制度来处理高等学校与政府、教师、学生和社会的关系 ,是实现“以法治教”的重要途径     

加强“官德“建设的思考

加强"官德"建设是实践公民基本道德规范和以德治国方略的核心,是人民群众关注的焦点和热点问题.面对新形势、新任务,我们应认真分析当前我国"官德"建设中存在的主要问题及其表现,找出其原因,进而针对性地寻求加强"官德"建设的良好途径.     

期刊规范与作者隐私权的碰撞

随着信息高速公路的筹建与开通,学术期刊界对编排予以规范是科学运作的必然选择。时下颁行的《中国高校社会科学学报编排规范》、《中国高等学校自然科学学报编排规范》、《中国学术期刊光盘版检索与评价数据规范》在强调科学编排的同时,漠视了对作者隐私权的保护,其中某些项目要求对个人信息的曝露不能不引起人们的关注,如何保障作者隐私不受侵害则是我们必须探讨的问题。     

远程实时监控的图像传输技术

视频信息因能给人们全方位的真实感受而在多种领域中得到广泛应用，鉴于监控系统网络化、远程化的发展趋势，本文对远程实时监控的图像传输相关问题的探论具有一定的现实意义。     

介词结构在公文写作中的表达与运用

介词结构是公文写作中使用频率较高、运用范围较广的语法现象。介词结构的使用范围、连用表达的组合特点、专用介词与固定句式的运用以及语法规范,都比较特殊。