Making sense of multilevel governance and governance coordination in Brazil: The case of the Bolsa Verde Programme

Brazil is an example of a challenging governance context par excellence: continental size, multi-levelled governance structures and diverse administrative cultures meet with ambitious, large-scale policy needs and objectives. The multilevel governance approach is applied here to analyse implementation and governance coordination of the Bolsa Verde Programme (BVP). Through a close reading of the narratives told by three programme officials – and zooming in on jointly exercised governance functions known from the metagovernance approach – we analysed how BVP’s programmatic governance coordination was made sense of. The analysis showed that our interviewees were well aware of the shortcomings of the governance coordination in BVP, understood as rather hierarchical, centrally driven and often tackling challenges of vertical multi-actor coordination in a reactive ad-hoc manner. However, since the implementers have been able to creatively and skilfully solve governance coordination challenges, possibilities for developing more systematic and inclusive (meta)governance approaches seem feasible.     

Quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) methodology in forensic toxicology: Modeling postmortem redistribution of structurally diverse drugs using multivariate statistics

Postmortem redistribution (PMR) constitutes a multifaceted process, which renders the analytical results of drug concentrations inaccurate to be interpreted by forensic toxicologists. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) methodology could serve as an effective tool to estimate the ability of drugs to redistribute across tissue barriers during postmortem period on the basis of their molecular, physicochemical and structural properties. In this aspect, multivariate data analysis (MVDA) was applied to a set of 77 structurally diverse drugs. PMR data expressed by the central:peripheral concentration ratio (C:P ratio) was taken from the literature. An adequate and robust QSAR model (R² = 0.65, Q² = 0.56, RMSEE = 0.34) was established for 59 (77%) out of 77 drugs. Although the derived QSAR model presented limited applicability, it provided an informative illustration of the contributing molecular, physicochemical and structural properties in PMR process. Drugs with strong basic properties and enhanced molecular size, flexibility, lipophilicity and number of halogens were found to be susceptible to increased PMR. Due to the high complexity of PMR process, further QSAR studies need to focus on structurally related drugs to develop more specific models, which could serve as alternative tools to evaluate PMR for different chemical classes.     

The “net” of the Internet: Risk Factors for Cyberbullying among Secondary-School Students in Greece

Cyberbullying is one of the most common threats an adolescent might face online with serious negative consequences at the social, emotional and educational level. Despite the intense study of the phenomenon over the past decade, most researchers ask for new directions in research that will focus on risk and protective factors. This study attempted to investigate the predictive effect of internet use, parental mediation, school-bullying and victimisation, gender and empathy on cyberbullying and cybervictimisation in two measurements, 4 months apart. Data collection was conducted using a self-report questionnaire. Four hundred and forty secondary school students, aged 12–14, participated in the study. The students were randomly selected from six public schools located in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki in Greece. Results showed that involvement in traditional bullying as a victim or as a perpetrator is the factor with the highest predictability for cyberbullying and cybervictimisation, which also remains stable across time. This finding points to the urgent need for designing and implementing programmes against all forms of bullying both offline and on line.