Les incidences de la séparation sur le budget québécois: où s'arrête la réalité, où commence la fiction

Sommaire: Le but de la présente étude consiste à faire ressortir certains faits importants concemant l'incidence de la séparation sur le budget du gouvemement du Québec. Un cadre d'analyse synthétique des comptes économiques provinciaux est esquissé. Certaines hypothèses sur le partage de la dette fédérale, les taux d'intérêt et la croissance de 1'économie sont avancées pour évaluer dans quelle mesure la situation budgétaire d'un Québec souverain pourrait être soutenable. On conclut que la maige de manoeuvre du gouvernement d'un Québec souverain assumant une part substantielle de la dette fédérale serait extrêmement étroite. Dans la plupart des scénarios, les impôts devraient êre relevés et/ou les transferts aux particuliers diminués avant même qu'un seul fonctionnaire du government fédéral ne soit embauché. Dam me perspective historique, l'analyse montre que les résultats auraient été très différents dans les années 60, période où le Québec contribuait largement au fédéralisme canadien et où la dette du gouvemement fédéral était faible. Abstract: The purpose of this study is to highlight important facts regarding the consequences of separation on the Québec budget. A synthetic analytical framework of provincial economic accounts is presented, and the sustainability of an independent Québec budget is assessed. This analysis suggests that the room in which an independent Québec budgetary authority could manoeuvre is likely to be extremely narrow. In most scenarios regarding the division of federal debt and the evolution of interest rates and economic growth, taxes would have to be raised and/or transfers cut before a single federal civil servant could be hired by an independent Québec government. Results would have differed if the same type of analysis had been performed in the 1960s. During that period, Québec was an important net contributor to fiscal federalism, and the federal public debt was low.     

What explains the Differences in the Tax Burden Between Swiss Cantons?

In the present article, we empirically analyse a series of competing hypothesis that try to account for the considerable disparity in the tax burden between Swiss cantons. Three hypotheses focus on differences in spending levels: The first explains differences in the tax burden with differences in citizens' demand for government services. The second emphasizes the differences in efficiency between cantonal administrations, whereas the third insists on the more or less easy access to cantonal instruments of direct democracy. However, when confronted to the data, none of these three expenditure‐based hypotheses are confirmed by our cross‐sectional estimations. On the contrary, our regressions lend support to the hypotheses which highlights the differences in tax revenues between cantons. These results suggest that it is not differences in government spending which account for the disparity in cantonal tax levels, but differences in the cantonal endowment with resources. This indicates that some financial equalization on the cantonal level might strengthen the equity of Switzerland's tax system.     

Methodological aspects of telephone scatologia: a case study

The present paper focuses on the sexual paraphilia of telephone scatologia. Some psychological concepts of scatologia are reviewed; their methodological aspects are examined. It is argued that telephone scatologia is only one of the forms of audio scatologia (akophilia), which together with visual and textual scatologias present interactive but remote--intermediary--forms of sexual excitation, when the function of tactile contact is delegated to the sensory specific communication device, and where the perpetrator can be safe and sexually aggressive at the same time. The main objective of this paper is to present a case of prolific telephone scatologist, with the analysis of which the author was closely affiliated. The present paper does not pretend to cover all of the issues associated with etiology and psychogenesis of scatologia, but intends to offer rarely addressed material that could be useful in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, sexology, criminology and interpersonal violence.     

A pilot study of the effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy on brain activation pattern in a man with pedophilia

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, such as leuprorelin, are recommended in the patients with pedophilia at highest risk of offending. However, the cerebral mechanisms of the effects of these testosterone-decreasing drugs are poorly known. This study aimed to identify changes caused by leuprorelin in a pedophilic patient's brain responses to pictures representing children. Clinical, endocrine, and fMRI investigations were done of a man with pedophilia before leuprorelin therapy and 5 months into leuprorelin therapy. Patient was compared with an age-matched healthy control also assessed 5 months apart. Before therapy, pictures of boys elicited activation in the left calcarine fissure, left insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and left cerebellar vermis. Five months into therapy, all the above-mentioned activations had disappeared. No such activations and, consequently, no such decreases occurred in the healthy control. The results of this pilot study suggest that leuprorelin decreased activity in regions known to mediate the perceptual, motivational, and affective responses to visual sexual stimuli.     

Heat Induced Changes to Dental Resin Composites: A Reference in Forensic Investigations?*

The objective was to investigate color change and surface damage in dental resin composites exposed to high temperatures over different time intervals for comparative purposes. Samples were prepared using two resins - Z100(R) (R1) and Charisma (R2), heated at the following temperatures: 200 degrees C, 400 degrees C, 600 degrees C, 1000 degrees C, for 15, 30 and 45 min (n = 104 for each resin sample). Color (DeltaE) and brightness (DeltaL) changes were analyzed by spectrophotometry using the CIE Lab system and surface changes by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). R1 showed more intense color changes after heat exposure than R2. DeltaL values were found to be the best parameter for evaluation of light and color change. A biphasic pattern after thermal exposure was detected, from dark brown to light white. SEM showed more intense alterations in R2 than in R1. These results indicate that the parameters observed in both resins are useful as a guide in forensic analyses.