Civil Society and Good Governance in Bangladesh

Many of the recent ideas and concepts of ‘good governance’ and ‘civil society’ in Bangladesh have been generated by the international aid agencies and their ‘good governance’ policy agenda in the 1990s, but there are also local meanings to the terms derived from the independence struggle and the construction of a Bangladeshi state. This article aims to obtain a clearer analytical understanding of the processes and institutions of civil society in Bangladesh that can develop workable strategy to improve governance for helping the poor and moving beyond the patron–client relationships on which they have depended historically. It also focuses attention and debate on those aspects of civil society which can enhance the quality of governance and democracy by overcoming the western top-down approach; and can strengthen the role of civil society organisations to further enhance their impact on better governance for fair distribution of public goods and ensuring social justice for the poor.     

The exclusion of Roma claimants in Canadian refugee policy

The arrival of thousands of European Roma seeking refugee status in Canada elicited a range of legislative and policy instruments that severely restrict their acceptance and create conditions antagonistic to further admissions. Interventions have included visa restrictions, actions by Immigration and Refugee Board, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act followed by the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, and ministerial rhetoric about the illegitimacy of Roma as refugees. Other factors have involved interpretations of persecution in relation to the Geneva Convention and Protocol, and the implications of the conditions required for membership to the European Union. These political circumstances in large part determine Canadian acceptance rates for the Roma. Their systematic exclusion is reminiscent of the historical treatment of other groups due to institutional racism. In the new racism, however, refugee law and policy is racist in effect while evading the language of race.     

The South African National Credit Act fails to protect homeowners against various interest rates hikes

Where a credit provider makes a proper financial assessment and finds that the low-income consumer will be able to satisfy in a timely manner all the obligations under all the credit agreements to which the consumer is a party he will in all probability conclude the credit agreement with the consumer. Obviously the affordability assessment made by the credit provider will depend on the prevailing interest rates at the time. There has been several interest rate hikes since June 2006 to December 2008 in South Africa that has had a detrimental impact on low-income home owners. Due to the various interest rate hikes and the prevailing high interest rates many consumers have lost their mortgaged homes. The South African National Credit Act of 2005 has failed to take into its purview cases such as these, and as a consequence there is no sort of consumer protection available for the low-income group who become over-indebted, because of the constant rising interest rates on their mortgage loans.     

我国货币流通速度研究

货币流通速度理论是货币理论的一个重要组成部分,它对货币政策的实践具有重要的指导意义。改革开放以来我国货币流通速度长期表现出有规律逐年递减的时序特征,总结导致这一现象出现的原因有经济货币化、金融不良债权的增加、金融资产单一、地下经济规模增加等。因此,应通过大力进行金融创新的活动、实行利率市场化、缩减超额准备金率激活闲置资金、对金融企业和机构进行改革等措施改变我国货币流通速度递减的趋势,并将其维持在合适的水平。     

对我国转型期弱势群体利益表达现状的成因分析

在我国目前的转型期,弱势群体在利益表达上呈现出利益表达渠道众多与表达的低效化、利益表达内容的合理性与利益表达方式的非理性、利益表达的客观必要性与利益表达主体的不成熟性、利益表达的共同性与利益表达的分散性等特点,造成这一现状的原因可分为主观和客观两方面。主观原因是弱势群体自身在社会经济地位,教育文化水平,受传统意识影响方面有其局限性。客观原因有利益表达机制不完善和社会团体发展有制度性障碍两大方面。     

Mutation rates at 14 STR loci in the population from Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil

Definition about mutation rates of short tandem repeats (STRs) loci used in forensic analysis are useful for the correct interpretation of resulting genetic profiles and the definition of criterions for exclusion in paternity testing. Germline mutation of 14 STR loci was studied for 54,105 parent–child allelic transfers from 2575 paternity testing cases carried out during 2000–2007 from the Pernambuco State, Northeast Brazil. The parenthood in each of these cases was highly validated (probability > 99.99%). We identified 43 mutations at 12 loci. Locus-specific mutation rate estimates varied between 2 × 10⁻⁴ and 2 × 10⁻³, and the overall mutation rate estimate was 8 × 10⁻⁴. Mutation events in the male germline were more frequent than in the female germline. The majority of the mutations could be explained by losses or gains of one repeat unit and there was no evidence for selection between insertion or deletion changes. Our data were compared with those of Portuguese and North-American populations for CSF1PO, D18S51, D21S11, D7S820, TH01, TPOX and demonstrated, despite the great difference in the size of the sample, that mutation rates of STR loci in a mixed population do not differ from that encountered in different populations.     

财产性利益盗窃的客观构造

利益盗窃与有体物盗窃共享“财产静态控制关系”的保护法益,其解释论不能突破“盗窃”的语义边界,这是形塑其客观构造的前提。套用占有理论的解释论忽视了利益变动与有体物转移的区别,具有片面性。立足利益盗窃与有体物盗窃的共性,结合财产性利益的特质,利益盗窃的客观构造应为“侵入权利人控制领域-打破权利人控制-取得财产性利益”。这一构造既契合盗窃罪财产静态控制关系的保护法益,也未突破“盗窃”的语义边界。由于利益变动的抽象性,须通过行为要素互补等精细化解释,确保利益盗窃客观构造的明确性。“侵入权利人控制领域”对利益盗窃的成立必不可少;“打破权利人控制”包括了转移、消灭、设定义务三种行为方式;“取得”的认定应注意素材的“同一性”与“同质性”之别,并强调终局性要求。     

Firearm examination: Examiner judgments and computer‐based comparisons

Forensic firearm examination provides the court of law with information about the source of fired cartridge cases. We assessed the validity of source decisions of a computer‐based method and of 73 firearm examiners who compared breechface and firing pin impressions of 48 comparison sets. We also compared the computer‐based method's comparison scores with the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments and assessed the validity of the latter. The true‐positive rate (sensitivity) and true‐negative rate (specificity) of the computer‐based method (for the comparison of both the breechface and firing pin impressions) were 94.4% and at least 91.7%, respectively. For the examiners, the true‐positive rate was at least 95.3% and the true‐negative rate was at least 86.2%. The validity of the source decisions improved when the evaluations of breechface and firing pin impressions were combined and for the examiners also when the perceived difficulty of the comparison decreased. The examiners were reluctant to provide source decisions for "difficult" comparisons even though their source decisions were mostly correct. The correlation between the computer‐based method's comparison scores and the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments was low for the same‐source comparisons to negligible for the different‐source comparisons. Combining the outcomes of computer‐based methods with the judgments of examiners could increase the validity of firearm examinations. The examiners' numerical degree‐of‐support judgments for their source decisions were not well‐calibrated and showed clear signs of overconfidence. We suggest studying the merits of performance feedback to calibrate these judgments.     

马哈蒂尔的外交语言

本文首先讲述马哈蒂尔外交语言的广泛内容,然后分析其特点,接着指出马哈蒂尔外交语言在他整个外交活动中的地位,阐述其理论和现实基础。最后指出,尽管马哈蒂尔的外交语言有其自身的弱点,但总体上是成功的。     

构建社会主义和谐社会的多重价值维度探析

构建社会主义和谐社会是一个充满价值色彩的命题。与以往的人们对和谐社会的憧憬和设计相比,当前中国的实践无疑具有自身的性质、内容、目标和手段,从而决定其理论研究和实际操作都具有独特的、多样化的、整体性的价值维度及取向。