Service Quality Effects of Incentive Regulation on Access Service in Telecommunications in the United States

Incentive regulation in the form of price caps was adopted for interstate access service in 1991 as a way to provide local exchange carriers with an incentive to improve their productive efficiency. An issue that has arisen with the adoption of price cap regulation is whether deterioration in service quality for interstate access service has been an unintended consequence. The analysis in this paper uses several different measures of service quality, including the average installation interval, the percent of commitments met, total trouble reports, and the average repair interval for both switched access service and special access service, to investigate empirically whether there has been a decline in service quality between 1991 and 2000. The results are conclusive. Overall service quality has fallen. To rectify the situation, a proposal is offered to adjust the price cap index to penalize LECs who fail to provide an acceptable level of aggregate service quality.     

论拒绝强迫自证其罪规则——以此为突破口设置我国沉默权制度

沉默权制度一直是我国刑事诉讼领域炙手可热的话题,然而当前是否已经具备了引进沉默权的条件,在我国目前的“本土”环境下其能否有效运行,还需进行辩证的分析。如沉默权所要求的制度条件,沉默权的引进应该暂缓,沉默权与拒绝自证其罪的关系。同时提出了以拒绝自证其罪的角度设置我国的沉默权制度。     

民事诉讼证据交换制度的立法探讨

证据交换的正当性虽然无可置疑,但其被规避适用却是实务中的普遍现象。设置证据交换制度有诉讼效率的考量,但其首要的价值目标却是公平和公正。审判效率得以提高的秘密不在于证据交换本身,而在于证据交换制度所依存的具有不可逆性的二元性诉讼结构。在制度层面上,司法解释与《民事诉讼法》的不兼容及司法解释技术自身的问题应当予以检讨。完整的具有实效性和可操作性的证据交换规则的确立包括两个大的方面：一是包含有实体性因素的证据交换规则;二是包含有程序性因素的证据交换规则。     

基于中阿合作视域的宁夏文化“走出去”战略探析

在中阿合作的进程中,宁夏文化的"走出去"是极其重要的,这是中阿合作的基础性和根本性工作。文化的"走出去",势必会深化中阿合作的内涵,丰富其内容,推动其不断走向更高的阶段,取得新的、更大的成效。因此,要明确中阿合作中宁夏文化"走出去"的重点领域,也要发挥政府在其中的主导作用。     

利用RASSF1A位点检测母体血浆中胎儿SNP分型

目的探讨利用母体血浆中高甲基化RASSF1A位点进行胎儿SNP分型的应用价值。方法随机收集10个未孕健康妇女和45例不同孕期（早期5例、中期20例、晚期20例）孕妇的血样本及相应胎儿组织（绒毛组织、羊水、胎盘组织）;利用甲基化敏感限制性内切酶BstUI酶切后进行PCR,产物进行血细胞、血浆和胎儿组织（绒毛或胎盘）DNA RASSF1A序列的甲基化模式检测,并采用直接测序法对SNP rs4688725位点进行分型。结果经BstUI酶消化,RASSF1A序列在母体血细胞中均未检出,而在绒毛或胎盘组织中均能检出;在45名孕妇血浆中,RASSF1A序列均能被检出,且序列内的SNP分型与相应胎儿组织一致;在10名非孕妇女血浆中均未检出RASSF1A序列。结论母体和胎儿DNA中RASSF1A基因启动子区域的甲基化模式存在差异,可用于对母体血浆中的游离胎儿DNA进行SNP分型。     

Antecedents of Psychological Empowerment: A Study of Greek Employees in Municipalities

ABSTRACT

Psychological empowerment has received a burgeoning attention among scholars and practitioners in the last decades. However, little is known about its antecedents in the public sector, and even more in municipalities. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX), role conflict and role ambiguity with employees’ psychological empowerment. Data were collected from 210 administrative employees of nine Greek municipalities. Results supported our hypotheses that these three factors constitute important antecedents of such employees’ psychological empowerment. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.     

‘A second wife is not really a wife’: polygyny,gender relations and economic realities in Tajikistan

While polygyny in Tajikistan existed before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has been a phenomenon of growing importance since Independence, it is still forbidden by law. To understand this renewal, I do not look at polygyny as a sign of religiousness, but as a form of patriarchal bargain in which women (who often experienced former matrimonial disjuncture) may have a greater power of decision in the spousal relations. I will explore women's points of view, from which polygyny is a strategy to accessing the symbolic and material resources they lack. I then explore the conditions to which becoming a second wife is possible: women's own resources, be they material, symbolic, familial, appear as of crucial importance in this accession to the status of being married anew.     

著作权法公有领域的法律保护

公有领域是知识产权法上的十分重要的概念,在著作权法中尤其应该值得重视。一般认为,公有领域是社会的公共财富,社会成员皆可自由之利用。但这并不意味着著作权中公有领域是不受法律规制的法外领域。相反,它不仅受著作权法的调整,而且在某些特定条件下还可能受到相关的商标法、反不正当竞争法和物权法的调整和保护。     

The rise and fall of spin: changes of fashion in the presentation of UK politics

Spin is the current dominant form of political presentation in the UK. Politics and presentation are inseparable and before the 1980s, political presenters were less aggressive towards and more respectful of journalists as watchdogs of politics. Labour introduced spin as a defensive response to editorial hostility but since New Labour came to terms with Thatcherism, spin has been used for the offensive promotion of policy. Changes in journalism, particularly a blurring treatment of fact and opinion, were an incubatory environment for spin. Moreover, the term became part of lay language and its vocabulary is deployed as a scrutiny of politicians via ridicule and satire. Conceptually, ‘spin’ can be characterised as an exchange or contest between information and publicity, with contingencies influencing where any presentation lies on that continuum. Wherever it falls, spin demeans elected politicians and tends to reduce their status to celebrities. That reduction is a cost too high for privileging presentation over policy and ought to be reversed. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

"Ripple Effects" in Youth Peacebuilding and Exchange Programs: Measuring Impacts Beyond Direct Participants

A number of organizations have a mission of encouraging peace throughout the world by enhancing young people's knowledge and understanding of other countries and cultures. One strategy used to further this mission is international or intercultural exchange programs. Most evaluations of exchange programs gather data only from the direct participants who traveled to another country. But these programs have the potential to have impacts that expand beyond the direct participants—or "ripple effects." Thus, a more appropriate methodology to evaluate exchange programs is "360-degree feedback," which gathers data from multiple sources. This study uses 360-degree feedback to evaluate a youth peacebuilding and exchange program by gathering data not only from the exchange students but also from chaperones, host families, and students and teachers in the host school. ANOVA analyses finds that the program had positive impacts on the exchange students and, in many cases, even greater ripple effects on indirect participants.