Testing the Influence of Autocratic Leadership,Democratic Leadership,and Public Service Motivation on Citizen Ratings of An Agency Head’s Performance

Abstract

Research is lacking concerning the impact of leadership styles on citizen attitudes toward the performance of government leaders. To address this gap, an online experimental survey was conducted to determine the effect of leadership styles on respondents’ perceptions regarding a fictitious superintendent’s performance in a school district. The results demonstrate that democratic leadership practices enhanced the performance reviews of the superintendent, while autocratic leadership practices decreased them. Respondents’ level of public service motivation (PSM) was also found to have a positive effect on the superintendent’s performance ratings. Furthermore, democratic leadership style moderated the relationship between PSM and the performance ratings assigned by respondents. In particular, individuals with high PSM rated the performance of democratic leaders higher as compared to individuals with low PSM. However, autocratic leadership was not found to moderate the relationship between PSM and the superintendent’s performance. These results are thoroughly discussed in the paper.     

When are experiments corrupt?

ABSTRACT

Between 2010 and 2011, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) funded a large-scale experiment on Kenyan schools. The policy experiment tested the effects of cutting teachers’ salaries and hiring them on short-term contracts, but the intervention failed after sustained opposition from teacher unions and parent associations. This article critically revisits the narrative of how this experiment was designed, implemented and interpreted, finding evidence that the experiment violated empirical logic. It examines whether the theory of neopatrimonialism can explain the ways in which vested interests may have undermined the empirical logic of the experiment. By doing so, the analysis tests the explanatory utility of neopatrimonialism, and casts light on the conditions under which policy experiments in Africa may be anti-empirical.     

Impinging blood droplets on different wettable surfaces: Impact phenomena,contact line motion,post-impact oscillation and dried stains

Understanding the underlying hydrodynamics of impinging blood droplets and finding out the physical parameters determining the bloodstain characteristics are of great importance in blood related forensic investigations. In this work, the impact of non-Newtonian blood droplets on solid surfaces ranging from lyophilic to superlyophobic was systematically investigated and compared to that of Newtonian droplets with a similar dynamic shear viscosity. We show that impinging blood droplets behave as low-viscosity Newtonian droplets in the short-time spreading, which is dominated by capillary and inertial forces, but their non-Newtonian viscoelasticity would notably affect the droplet retraction and post-impact oscillation occurring in large timescales. Whereas the strong liquid–solid adhesion and the non-Newtonian elongational viscosity hinder droplet recoiling and thus alter the impact phenomena on lyophobic and superlyophobic surfaces, the shear and elongational viscosities are coupled to result in higher damping coefficients of oscillating blood droplets after deposition, in comparison to that of impinging Newtonian droplets. The size of the dried bloodstain was found to be different from both the maximum spreading radius of the droplet that can reach during impact and the final radius of the deposited droplet after oscillation, and their correlations are highly dependent on the impact velocity and surface wettability. Moreover, the morphologic characteristics of the bloodstains would also be changed by varying either the impact velocity or the surface wettability. We envision that these findings can not only find applications in the bloodstain pattern analysis, but also provide useful information for medical diagnosis based on blood droplet test.     

Skull and Encephalic Injuries Caused by Beach Umbrellas: Case Reports and Review of Literature

This study reports two unusual cases of skull‐encephalic injuries in bathers that were caused by violent impacts with beach umbrellas. The first case concerned a 36‐year‐old man who, while lying on a sun bed, was struck on his left temple by a beach umbrella, which had been blown away by a gust of wind. The second case concerned a six‐year‐old child who was struck on the right temporal region while he was playing on the sand. Both subjects died. A review of the literature was carried out. Various skull and brain injuries caused by several objects were found, but no injuries caused by beach umbrellas were detected. There were only cases of injuries caused by normal umbrellas. These cases showed that several objects can be responsible for traumas causing skull and brain injuries, therefore forensic investigation must be supplemented by circumstantial data.     

令人不适的法医影像对司法心证的影响探微

司法人员在审查案卷时,可能由于一些令人不适的法医影像而影响其客观、公正地履行职责。在现实中法医影像制作的不规范状况扩大了这种负面影响。而对这种负面影响的制约有赖于相应法律规范和证据规则的制定、制作人观念和态度的转变、制作方式的规范,以及司法人员相应素质的提高。     

我国环境影响评价法律制度的不足及完善

2003年9月1日,《中华人民共和国环境影响评价法》正式颁布实施,该法规除对建设项目要进行环境影响评价外,同时要求对有关规划进行环境影响评价,这标志着我国环境与资源立法步入了一个新的阶段——从决策的源头来防止环境污染和生态破坏。随着经济的快速发展,其暴露出来的问题越来越多,尤其在环境影响评价的范围、公众的参与以及法律责任的承担等方面。所以,我国环境影响评价相关法律需要在适当的时机对评价的范围、公众参与等相关规定进行修改,以此来保障经济发展的高质量。     

气候变化对东南亚经济的影响

气候变化成为国际社会关注的重点,各权威机构及学者纷纷研究气候变化及其对经济的影响。本文以斯特恩评论的框架,结合有关研究资料分析东南亚的气候变化,包括气温、降雨量、极端气候事件和海平面的变化及趋势,评介这些气候变化对东南亚经济,包括对水资源、农业、林业、沿海及海洋资源和人类健康等5个方面的影响及发展趋势。     

血液样品中乙醇稳定性的实验研究

目的考察在不同存放条件下含乙醇的血液样品中乙醇浓度的变化情况。方法采用顶空-气相色谱法,以异丙醇为内标,对存放条件不同的血液样品中乙醇进行检测。结果冷冻(-10℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量无显著变化;冷藏(4℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量变化不显著;室温(28℃~33℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量显著改变。结论含有乙醇的血液样品,在冷冻、冷藏条件下可较稳定的存放30天;在室温条件下存放30天血液样品中乙醇浓度发生显著变化,不可在此条件下存放。     

圆明园湖底防渗工程公众听证会的法律性质研究

《环境保护行政许可听证暂行办法》规定了环境行政许可听证制度。《环境影响评价法》规定了“专项规划编制环境影响报告书听证”和“建设项目编制环境影响报告书听证会”两类制度。另外,在我国还有环境行政处罚听证制度。圆明园湖底防渗工程公众听证会并非上述意义上的“听证”,而是类似于英国“非法定听证”的一类新型听证。现阶段立法应规定,该类听证可以参照适用《暂行办法》,予以必要的立法规制。     

若干经济政策对我国职工队伍的影响

改革开放以来经济政策的主流是好的。但是,若干经济政策的失当,或经济政策是好的,由于执行中的失误,对我国职工队伍造成了一定的冲击和影响。这种影响的实质导致了劳动关系的失衡。而不均衡的劳动关系对和谐社会的构建产生的是负面影响,不利于社会的稳定和经济的发展。