The Institute for Fiscal Studies Report: English Council Funding: What’s Happened and What’s Next?

The article reviews the recent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfFS) report, English Council Funding: What’s Happened and What’s Next. The article provides an overview of the main themes and findings of the report which examines the consequences of a sustained period of austerity for English local government and the impact of austerity on certain key council services. The article explores what the report has to say about the way councils have responded to reductions in government funding and the strategies they have developed to protect certain frontline services. The article reviews the suggestions made in the IfFS report for changing English local government funding and finds that they reflect a form of centralist thinking which lacks a radical edge when it comes to reform.     

Cheaper,better, and more accountable? Twenty‐five years of prisons privatisation in Victoria

Twenty‐five years after the Kennett government began privatising prisons, Victoria has the world's highest proportion of prisoners in private prisons. When the privatisation project began, it was confidently expected that privately managed prisons would be cheaper, better, and more accountable than traditional public sector provision. This paper examines whether those anticipated benefits have been realised. In doing so, we assess system‐wide operating costs, specific measures of performance, and accountability of the prison system between 1992 and 2017. Using publicly available data, we conclude temporary lower costs occurred but have not been sustained. Similarly, performance improvements are mixed, and enhanced accountability is contested. Although the performance information now available on Victoria's prisons is superior to what was available in the pre‐privatisation era, successive Victorian governments have also overseen arrangements that severely curtail dissemination of such data. This has restricted the capacity of Parliament and the public not only to hold government to account for the operations of the prison system, but also to evaluate the efficacy and impact of the prisons privatisation project. We conclude a more definitive assessment will only be possible when current limitations on accessing performance and other data are lifted enabling greater public scrutiny of Victoria's prison system.     

Governing public–private partnerships: A systematic review of case study literature

Governance plays a critical role in determining the success and failure of public–private partnerships (PPPs). We conducted a systematic review of case study literature on PPP governance and developed a governance framework consisting of 21 issues in four groups: institutional, organizational, contractual, and managerial. Then, we investigate the dynamics of governance issues, including the relative importance, interrelationships, and connections with PPP success and failure. Results suggest that PPPs should emphasize cooperation, trust, communication, capability, risk allocation and sharing, competition, and transparency in their governance. We also found that the governance practice of emphasizing dominant and direct factors and ignoring recessive and indirect ones has hindered PPPs’ success.     

Technocracy,democracy, and public policy: An evaluation of public participation in retrospective regulatory review

Retrospective review of existing regulations is an increasingly common aspect of the regulatory policy cycle. As with prospective regulatory policymaking, public participation is a central feature of many retrospective review initiatives. Despite its theoretical and practical significance, participation in retrospective review has received little scholarly attention. This paper presents the first systematic assessment of participation in United States retrospective regulatory review. Utilizing content analysis of an original dataset of government documents and public input produced pursuant to Executive Orders 13563, 13579, and 13610, the paper analyzes participatory institutional design, the level and composition of participants, and participation processes. The results suggest that retrospective review participation processes largely reflected the modes of stakeholder outreach and engagement employed in prospective regulatory policymaking, but resulted in comparatively low levels of participation. Consistent with the purposes enumerated in the executive orders, participation processes facilitated information exchange and were relatively representative of and responsive to stakeholders.     

Making sense of the case law on Ombudsman schemes

This article analyses the case law on ombudsman schemes in the UK, with the purpose of identifying some of the key trends that underpin this branch of law pre-the first Supreme Court decision in this area, JR55 v Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints. While the law on ombudsman schemes remains based on legislation and the various grounds of administrative law available in judicial review, distinct bespoke principles have also been relied upon. These principles are beginning to provide consistent guidance on how the law should be used and interpreted in cases involving an ombudsman scheme. One task of the Supreme Court in JR55 will be to confirm these principles, or rationalize any departure from them.     

circRNA的研究进展及其法医学意义

RNA在法医学领域中越来越受到重视,发展以RNA为基础的新生物标记在复杂案例分析中具有重要的意义。环形RNA(circular RNA,circRNA)是最近被广泛报道的一类非编码RNA,虽然其生成和表达调节机制目前尚未完全清楚,但现有的研究表明circRNA具有重要的生物学功能。circRNA具有细胞表达特异性,稳定性好且表达丰富等特点,使其在法医学应用中具有潜在意义。本文对circRNA的研究历程及生成调节机制、生物学属性及其生物学功能进行总结,希望能为相关研究和法医学应用提供参考。     

证据规则影响下法医学影像资料个体识别研究进展

随着DNA检验及影像学技术的进步与发展,以及各种证据规则的演变,引发了影像资料个体识别是否过时的讨论,以及影像学证据能否适用于当代证据规则、能否解决放射体位差异等诸多争论。本文结合近20年来国内外影像资料个体识别的研究,对以上问题进行综述。     

有限元方法在交通损伤中的应用及其法医学前景

有限元方法(finite element method,FEM)是一种基于计算机技术的数值计算方法,目前已逐渐被应用于医学及生物力学领域。通过有限元分析,可以研究交通损伤中人体结构的受力过程分析和受伤机制,为交通损伤的法医学鉴定提供帮助。本文综述了近年来国内外在交通损伤中颅脑、颈椎、胸腹部、骨盆及四肢的有限元建模和分析进展。     

Predatory journals and meetings in forensic sciences: what every expert needs to know about this "parasitic" publishing model

The emergence of the Internet has transformed all areas of society. This includes the universe of scientific publications, with several publishers now exclusively focusing on the electronic format and open access model while expanding to a megajournal scope. In this context, the pandemic of predatory open access journals (POAJs) and meetings are of grave concern to the academic and research community. This new shift within academia produces a variety of new victims; namely, the authors themselves. In turn, scientific knowledge is often discredited, with the public placing less trust in science. Now more than ever, performing research with integrity and selecting a journal in which to publish requires close attention and expertise. The "predatory movement" has developed increasingly sophisticated techniques for misleading people into believing what seem to be credible professional layouts and legitimate invitations. Initiatives such as the Jeffrey Beall's list, the Cabell's Scholarly Analytics and Think.Check.Submit offer some guidance to uncover the "parasitic" intervention of predatory journals and meetings, but specific education in this field is sorely needed. This work aims to review the main characteristics of predatory journals and meetings and to analyze this topic in the context of forensic and legal medicine research.     

民事诉讼二审发回重审制度的重新审视——兼评《民事诉讼法修正案》第40条之规定

二审发回重审制度是我国民事诉讼程序的重要组成部分。该制度在司法实践中显现出诉讼效益低、诉讼成本高、两审法院之间组织管理出现矛盾等制度瓶颈问题。新近施行的《民事诉讼法修正案》第40条对其作出了最新的修正,包括缩减适用范围、合理限定程序事由、规定使用次数等。但本次修法仍存在较大局限性,如对实体事由修正不彻底、未有效限制自由裁量权、对发回重审的裁定格式及拘束力未明确等。重新审视该制度并对之进行改良,可从明确规定法定事由、充分尊重当事人主体地位、增加救济程序以及明确发回重审裁定的格式及拘束力等方面加以探索。