Buying in a Businesslike Fashion— And Paying More?

The government, particularly the Department of Defense (DoD), is undergoing yet another wave of acquisition reforms, which are intended to bring commercial buying practices to DoD's purchasing operations. This research shows that, prior to these reforms, the DoD's buying practices were superior to commercial practices in terms of prices paid for a large number of electronic and engine parts. The research compares DoD and purchasing of more than 676,000 identical items costing more than $60 million with commercial purchasing of the identical items. It finds that the DoD's purchasing superiority holds even when purchasing costs are considered. The DoD achieved these results because it was already using commercial practices commonly followed by large firms: aggregating purchases, using cost data, and negotiating aggressively in markets with few suppliers. Some of the recent reforms will undermine the DoD's ability to exploit these common commercial practices and will raise the government's costs.     

Financial Inclusion and Human Capital in Developing Asia: the Australian connection

The Australian government as part of its aid programme allocates large funds to improve financial inclusion in developing countries. However, this does not take into account low educational levels in these countries. The existing literature on financial inclusion also treats the issue as mainly supply-centric and does not take cognisance of the fact that poor human development and high illiteracy levels in developing economies may prevent a large section of the population from benefitting from financial inclusion efforts, because of low awareness and comprehension of the financial services available. This study uses a detailed three-stage methodological approach to examine the relationship between financial development and human capital in 21 countries of developing Asia. The results show that a significant negative relationship exists between financial development proxied by M2/gdp and pupil:teacher ratios and a strong positive relationship exists between physical access to banks and expected years of schooling. Further, our financial development and educational development indices also show no clear pattern in the selected countries' financial and educational development.     

The Mythology of Female Sexuality: Alternative Narratives of Belonging

Gillian Beer, Open Fields: Science in Cultural Encounter, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, £25, £6.99 pbk. (1999). Annie Coombes, Re‐Inventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996, £40.00.     

Individuality of handwriting

Motivated by several rulings in United States courts concerning expert testimony in general, and handwriting testimony in particular, we undertook a study to objectively validate the hypothesis that handwriting is individual. Handwriting samples of 1,500 individuals, representative of the U.S. population with respect to gender, age, ethnic groups, etc., were obtained. Analyzing differences in handwriting was done by using computer algorithms for extracting features from scanned images of handwriting. Attributes characteristic of the handwriting were obtained, e.g., line separation, slant, character shapes, etc. These attributes, which are a subset of attributes used by forensic document examiners (FDEs), were used to quantitatively establish individuality by using machine learning approaches. Using global attributes of handwriting and very few characters in the writing, the ability to determine the writer with a high degree of confidence was established. The work is a step towards providing scientific support for admitting handwriting evidence in court. The mathematical approach and the resulting software also have the promise of aiding the FDE.     

Studies on glyoxalase 1 isoenzymes in semen stains: polymorphism in Himachal (India) population

One hundred and ten pairs of blood and semen samples and their stains were studied to type glyoxalase 1 (GLO 1) isoenzymes using agarose-starch medium. A good agreement was observed between the phenotypes expressed in blood and semen samples of the same donor. No GLO 1 activity however could be demonstrated in the vaginal swabs tested. The gene frequencies of GLO 1 polymorphs in Himachal population has been worked out and their stability studies carried out at -12 degrees C and at room temperature.