Assessment of intra- and intercostal variation in rib histomorphometry: its impact on evidentiary examination

Rib histological age estimation requires the evaluation of the middle third of the sixth rib. Human ribs have thin cortices and, when recovered, are often fragmented or absent, making it difficult to identify a specific midthoracic rib. This research explores the amount of microstructure variation in the middle third of the midthoracic ribs and determines whether the sixth rib age prediction equation can be applied to non-sixth ribs with similar accuracy. The amount of variability must be evaluated in order to meet the criterion for evidentiary examination. The sample consists of 120 cortical bone cross-sections from the middle third of ribs 3-8 removed from 20 cadavers. For each rib, osteon population densities (OPDs) and associated age estimates were calculated. The results demonstrate that non-sixth ribs can provide similar OPD values compared with those of the sixth ribs; however, individual variation proved to be significantly associated with bias, suggesting that individual factors influence the magnitude and direction of bias in non-sixth rib OPD values. This demonstrates the importance of evaluating multiple cross-sections (both intra- and inter-rib) to estimate age due to the normal remodeling variation within individuals.     

Hatchet or Scalpel?Domestic Politics,International Threats,and US Military Spending Cuts, 1950–2014

Abstract

Budgetary cuts are characterized by distinct political, organizational, and psychological dynamics in contrast to increases. Ideally, policymakers rank, prioritize, and assess among likely strategic challenges to identify the appropriate offices, programs, line items, or service branches in which to curtail spending. Targeted cuts—preserving some line items or services while cutting others—occurred during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, and Clinton administrations. In contrast, the Nixon, H.W. Bush, and Obama administrations implemented across-the-board cuts, impacting all areas of the budget uniformly, regardless of strategic priorities. We argue that the ability of the executive to target and redirect spending commensurate with national security needs are constrained by domestic interests. However, the degree to which the threat environment is diverse conditions the number of available policy options and, in turn, executive capacity to implement targeted cuts vis-à-vis parochial interests.     

Judicial policy‐making in Italy: The constitutional court

This study focuses on the Italian Constitutional Court, the newest and most prestigious addition to a judicial tradition that can be traced as far back as the Roman Empire. This court has indeed been an effective policy‐making body, particularly in matters of civil liberties and church‐state relations, as well as in compelling the legislative branch, where it has been so charged, to complete the drafting of the Constitution. The Court has faltered at times in defending its independence, and this account argues that life appointments might be a viable means of achieving the goal of a constitutional body that serves ‘nee spe nee metu’     

Optimal procurement contracts under a binding budget constraint

The traditional literature on agency models predicts that, for zero liability contracts, it is optimal for the principal to pay for the information he cannot observe. However, this principle is not valid for a set of contracts mostly used by government agencies whose distinguishing feature is represented by a stringent budget constraint for the principal. This paper shows that in this environment the principal will either choose a structure exibiting pooling or a bargaining solution. The bargaining solution represents the analytical proof to the intuition of the difficulty in implementing procurement contracts stated by Laffont and Tirole (1993).     

Does the flypaper model stick? A test of the relative performance of the flypaper and conventional models of local government budgetary behaviour

Two of the most widely referred to models of local (or state) budgetary behaviour are developed and tested. The models considered are a variant of the flypaper model (see, for example, Courant et al., 1979 and Oates, 1979) and a conventional model which builds on the seminal work of Wilde (1969, 1971). The models are developed in a manner which allows them to be tested empirically using data for English local governments. Two types of test are employed: the ability of the two models to explain the variations in expenditure levels across local governments within any given fiscal year; the ability of the models to predict future levels of expenditure given changes to local government budget constraints (as brought about, for example, by changs in grants-in-aid from central government).