Metrological framework for selecting morphological characters to identify species and estimate developmental maturity of forensically significant insect specimens

Accurate age estimates of immature necrophagous insects associated with a human or animal body can provide evidence of how long the body has been dead. These estimates are based on species-specific details of the insects’ aging processes, and therefore require accurate species identification and developmental stage estimation. Many professionals who produce or use identified organisms as forensic evidence have little training in taxonomy or metrology, and appreciate the availability of formalized principles and standards for biological identification. Taxonomic identifications are usually most readily and economically made using categorical and qualitative morphological characters, but it may be necessary to use less convenient and potentially more ambiguous characters that are continuous and quantitative if two candidate species are closely related, or if identifying developmental stages within a species. Characters should be selected by criteria such as taxonomic specificity and metrological repeatability and relative error. We propose such a hierarchical framework, critique various measurements of immature insects, and suggest some standard approaches to determine the reliability of organismal identifications and measurements in estimating postmortem intervals. Relevant criteria for good characters include high repeatability (including low scope for ambiguity or parallax effects), pronounced discreteness, and small relative error in measurements. These same principles apply to individuation of unique objects in general.

Key points

• Metrological rigour can increase in forensic entomology by selecting measurements based on their metrological qualities.
• Selection of high-quality features for morphological identification of organisms should consider these criteria: (1) pronounced discreteness of features (minimising group overlap or maximizing interval); (2) high repeatability of assessment (such as symmetrical width rather than asymmetrical length); (3) small relative error in measurement (selecting the physically largest continuous rigid feature for measurement).
• These metrological principles also apply to individuation of unique objects in general.

     

当前中国大众民粹程度测量研究

对民粹主义的内涵和实证研究的分析表明,民粹主义是一个可以测量的概念。通过对中国民粹主义的表现形式和网络民粹话语的梳理,形成了一个包含仇视官员、民族民粹主义、反体制、仇视富人、民粹司法和仇视专家等6个维度23个指标的民粹程度量表。运用这个量表考察中国社会各阶层样本,发现中国在整体上并不具备明显的民粹主义特征。     

网络信息安全犯罪的定量评价困境和突围路径——大数据背景下网络信息量化标准的反思和重构

刑法对网络安全的保护立场,正由网络运行安全转向网络信息安全。刑事立法更新不断增设网络信息安全专属罪名的同时,刑事司法的定量评价体系却未能一体构建,成为网络安全刑法保护的薄弱环节。当前网络信息安全犯罪的定量评价体系缺乏明确的逻辑主线,同时适用错位的“传统法益侵害程度”量化标准和模糊的“数据规模”新型量化标准,无法满足网络信息安全专属罪名司法适用的准确性和统一性需求,导致了司法适用的困境。消弭规范和技术之间的差异,以“信息规模”为定量评价核心的基础上,建构信息价值的分层评价模型,并将“组信息”作为基础的数据规模计量单位,是大数据时代背景下,突破网络信息安全犯罪司法定量评价困境的合理路径。     

Decentralization and Economic Growth: Specification,Measurement, and Direction of Causal Relationship

The concept of decentralization has attracted the attention of scholars and policy makers alike for number of decades. Yet, there still remains a significant amount of confusion over its measurement and its contribution to an economy. Current literature on decentralization is characterized by the multitude of conflicting definitions and measurement instruments. Current literature on the relationship of decentralization and economic growth is also mixed. This article builds on the existing literature and develops a decentralization index that includes its most frequently mentioned dimensions. We find that our newly developed index captures decentralization concept better than other tools and that there is no significant relationship between decentralization and economic growth.     

博弈视角下农地流转与农民利益保障机制探析

农地流转制度在巩固存量利益的同时,也带来了可观的增量利益,各个利益主体为分配新增利益势必会展开激烈的竞争和角逐.运用博弈论系统分析利益主体之间的博弈关系,透视现实制度实行中其他利益主体对农民利益的侵害.在策略选择上从宏观、中观和微观角度着力构建三位一体利益保障机制,矫正农地流转利益博弈中的力量失衡状态,促使农民的存量利益能够得到对价支付,确保农民能够公平参与增量利益的分配.     

情理与法律冲突时的利益衡量

情理与法律,既相对立,又相统一。情理是法律的基础,而法律是情理的升华与体系化。法官在适用法律解决纠纷中的重要使命,就是发现、阐明并应用蕴含于法律规则之中的“理”。这种理是法律的精神力量所在,也是司法权威的精神来源。法官在审理案件时,要在掌握法律基本原理的前提下,深刻领悟法律规则背后无形的法律精神。通过创造性的、合理的解释去弥补和完善法律存在的不足,能够平衡互相冲突的利益,实现法律与情理的和谐统一。     

公共行政人员行为选择的伦理困境及其化解

实现负责任行政行为的关键在于制度伦理建设、公共精神的彰显以及行政人格的塑造。通过外在约束和自我规制,从而构建以公共利益为导向的行政行为具有重要意义。     

The Investment Approach to Public Service Provision

The investment approach to public service provision is now receiving considerable attention worldwide. By promoting data‐intensive assessments of baseline conditions and how government action can improve on them, the approach holds the potential to transform policy development, service implementation, and program evaluation. Recently, variations on the investment approach have been applied in Australia to explore the effectiveness of specific programs in employment training, criminal justice, and infrastructure development. This article reviews the investment approach, presents a Public Investment Checklist to guide such work, and discusses three examples. It concludes by considering the implications of investment thinking for the work of policy designers and public managers.     

Measuring subnational democracy: toward improved regime typologies and theories of regime change

Social scientists have been limited in their work by the paucity of global time series data about subnational institutions and practices. Such data could help scholars refine regime typologies, improve theories of democratization and regime change, better understand subnational democracy, and illuminate issues of development, conflict, and governance. This article addresses the lack of data by introducing 22 subnational measures from a new dataset, Varieties of Democracy. Validity tests demonstrate that the measures’ strengths outweigh their weaknesses. The measures excel in covering all subnational levels for most countries, capturing different elements of subnational elections, and including a variety of dimensions of elections and civil liberties. The measures also offer unmatched global and temporal coverage. The article demonstrates how these strengths can provide scholars with the benefits described above.