Improving the quality of drug court clinical screening: a call for performance measurement policy reform

Despite the widespread use of the drug court model, standardized performance measures for drug courts are not uniformly utilized, and rarely include process measures. To ensure that drug courts are being implemented in the most effective manner, the use of performance measurement tools should be considered for wide scale adoption. Drug court effectiveness is moderated by participant characteristics, and is most effective for individuals with the highest substance use needs. Therefore, having quality clinical screening processes is crucial to ensuring that drug courts are serving the population for which they are effective. This paper examines clinical screening in drug courts, to answer the following 1) what is the current state of screening, 2) what works, and 3) why measurement matters. It also proposes a clinical screening performance measure to improve fidelity and ensure appropriate participant enrollment. The creation of a performance measure would create opportunities to improve drug court outcomes, and leverage pay-for-performance models.     

Can APB 2000 Be Used to Discern Sincerity of Effort in Unimpaired Subjects from Maximal Performance in Subjects with Shoulder Pain?

The automated pegboard (APB 2000), which has been found to objectively quantify motor performance, was used to differentiate maximal motor performance among subjects with shoulder pain, healthy unimpaired subjects performing normally and also while feigning shoulder pain. Six participants with shoulder pain and 15 healthy unimpaired individuals participated. Individuals with shoulder pain were tested on the APB 2000 using their affected upper extremity. Unimpaired participants were instructed to perform normally on the test with randomly selected upper extremity and to feign shoulder pain with the other upper extremity. The two tests for the unimpaired participants were conducted 1 week apart. There were significant differences in mean performance time for normal, patient, and feigned performance, with 80, 111, and 149 sec for the three groups respectively (p < 0.0005). There was also considerable overlap in the three distributions of performance times. These preliminary findings suggest that the APB 2000 is able to distinguish performance time between these three groups. Whether it can be used to distinguish between maximal performance and submaximal performance in individuals suspected of submaximal performance requires further study.     

HPLC测定爽咽茶中绿原酸的含量

目的：建立爽咽茶中绿原酸含量的测定方法。方法：采用HPLC测定炎咽茶中绿原酸的含量，采用C18柱，乙腈-4．0g／L磷酸(10：90)为流动相，检测波长为327nm。结果：平均加样回收率为97．75％，RSD为1．40％。结论：本法操作简便、易行，具有实用性。     

Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality: Trust, Social Capital, and Institutional Performance

In the last decade considerable research in social sciences has focused on interpersonal trust, treating it as a remedy for most maladies modern democracies suffer from. Yet, if others act dishonestly, trust is turned into gullibility, thus mechanisms linking interpersonal trust with institutional success refer implicitly to honesty and civic morality. This paper investigates the roots of civic morality. It applies hierarchical models to data from 38 countries, and tests the individual, community and structural explanatory factors. The results of the analysis point to the relevance of an institutional dimension, both in the form of individuals’ perceptions as well as the quality of governance: confidence in political institutions and their objective quality are the strongest predictors of civic morality. At the same time, the findings show that the recently popular claims about the importance of social capital for citizens’ moral standards are largely unfounded.

试论向第三人履行的合同--对我国《合同法》第64条的解释

《合同法》第64条非但未否定第三人的履行请求权,且其文义可以容纳该第三人权利;通过体系解释、法意解释、比较法解释,可以且应该肯定第三人履行请求权。仅依当事人的合意便可成立第三人权利,第三人表示受益意思只发生使该权利确定的效果。如第三人不欲享受利益,可表达拒绝的意思,使该权利自始消灭。债务人违约,债权人与第三人均可主张违约责任,因二者的主张是基于各自不同的债权,故二者所主张的责任内容会有所不同。     

加强政府绩效评估构建有效政府——基于公共财政的研究视角

公共支出绩效评估就是要通过及时可靠的支出绩效信息,来强化政府预算约束,提高公共财政资源的配置效率和使用效益,其最终目的是增强政府部门的公共受托责任和财政透明度,改善政府的绩效,提高政府的执政能力,推动有效政府的建设。     

浅析企业业绩评价体系的演进

在西方国家,企业业绩评价的发展经历了成本业绩评价阶段、财务业绩评价阶段和综合业绩评价阶段。目前EVA、平衡计分卡、标杆瞄准、利益相关者评价四种体系在理论和实践中各有优缺点。我国企业业绩评价体系的发展经历了5个阶段,近几年的研究集中在战略性业绩评价、股权激励、ESC等方面,对评价标准尚未见系统研究。     

德尔菲法在构建政府绩效指标体系中的应用——以乡镇政府为例

评价指标是政府绩效评价的关键要素。咨询专家的选择、初始指标集的确定和咨询问卷的拟订以及进行多轮征询和数据处理是应用德尔菲法构建政府绩效指标体系过程中的关键环节。应用德尔菲法构建政府绩效评价指标体系的一般方法,如以乡镇政府为例,选取50位专家进行三轮征询,获得由37个指标构成的乡镇政府绩效评价指标体系,对中国政府绩效评价(或类似于绩效评价)活动具有参考意义。     

论治理范式转型中的政府绩效评估

当代的政府绩效评估涉及政府治理过程的范式转变,如由过去的政府导向向民众导向转变、由技术导向向战略导向转变、由对程序负责向对结果负责转变等等,但在我国的学术界和政府管理实践领域都存在为评估而评估的倾向,缺乏政府绩效评估与治理过程相结合角度的考察。要从变革传统政府治理模式的高度审视政府绩效评估,把绩效评估作为政府再造的一个利器、实现政府职能转变和建设和谐社会的战略工具、建设民主行政的一个重要途径,相应地,实行组织再造,推动政府组织机能的变革等,方能达到良好的效果。     

Regulatory regimes and accountability

This research considers accountability issues for new forms of regulation that shift the emphasis from prescribing actions to regulating systems or regulating for results. Shortfalls at various levels of accountability are identified from experiences with these regimes in the regulation of building and fire safety, food safety and nuclear power plant safety. These experiences illustrate how accountability shortfalls can undermine regulatory performance and introduce a potential for subtle forms of regulatory capture. These concerns underscore the importance of finding the right fit between regulatory circumstances and the design of regulatory regimes.