De Facto Use Research Articles

Tracing Palestinian Literature: An Interview with Refqa Abu-Remaileh

In this interview, Dr. Refqa Abu-Remaileh discusses her new project, Country of Words: A Transnational Atlas for Palestinian Literature. Country of Words combines literary history, a rich and expansive set of primary sources, and digital humanities tools to trace Palestinian literature’s development in the twentieth century. Abu-Remaileh resists the de facto use of the predominant nation state framework to categorize Palestinian literature, an approach, she asserts, that is inadequate for conveying continuities between periods and literary geographies. Instead, Country of Words demonstrates the possibility of methodologies for studying the creation and dissemination of national and exilic literature beyond set physical and temporal borders. Her project primarily uses periodicals published throughout the Arab world and across the North and South American mahjars to demarcate Palestinian literature’s development into seven separate, though sometimes concurrent, periods. Coupled with the use of digital humanities tools, her project offers readers the opportunity to not only interact with a comprehensive overview of Palestinian local and global works but also consider the overlapping networks and trajectories that characterize and continue to shape this literature. This interview discusses the project’s inception, accomplishments, challenges, and impact.

Parliamentary Committees and Ex-post Oversight: Institutional Options and Design

Abstract Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.

Recognizing the never quite absent: de facto usage, ethical issues, and applications of covert research in difficult research contexts

This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent literature about this research method, we reflect on the ethical and safety implications stemming from the widespread, even if well-intended, lack of transparency characterizing many research projects, especially ones conducted in difficult research contexts. While the standard definition of covert research holds that researchers deliberately do not declare to research subjects that academic research is taking place, we argue that the remoteness of Western academia from most researched contexts often a priori renders field research at least partially covert, irrespective of the researcher’s intentions. This is because its aims, utility, and expected outputs are hard to understand for research participants unrelated to academia. We illustrate this argument by analyzing our own fieldwork experiences in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to critically reflect on the de facto use of covert techniques by social researchers.

Practice Makes Dialogue: Reconceptualizing Constitutional Interaction between Courts and Legislatures

Abstract The question of how to understand and conceptualize inter-institutional interaction between courts and legislatures, particularly in the context of constitutional challenges, has drawn considerable attention over the years. This question is of special importance to the apprehension of constitutional dialogue as simultaneously describing and shaping constitutional interaction. This article focuses on the descriptive aspects of the constitutional dialogue and through them proposes a reconceptualization of constitutional dialogue, which is not based on the mere existence of legislative responses or the number thereof, or on the existence of different structural constitutional mechanisms. Instead, this reconceptualization is based on the de facto use in constitutional practices during the routine constitutional examination process, by the judiciary and political branches altogether. The article introduces a breadth-and-depth approach, which observes many constitutional decisions and legislative responses and uses them to analyze the nature of courts-legislatures dynamics. These insights are derived not only from the mere existence of a ruling or a statute, but also from the content and design of the institutional outcome thereof. The conclusions drawn using this approach are comprehensive, providing insight into the constitutional and dialogic interaction between courts and legislatures in each constitutional system, as well as identifying trends and changes as they occur. The article also offers an application of this approach to Israeli jurisprudence, illuminating the depth and complexity of this interaction, and enabling us to recognize it as a constitutional system with strong dialogic characteristics.

Practice Makes Dialogue: Reconceptualizing Constitutional Interaction between Courts and Legislatures

The question of how to understand and conceptualize inter-institutional interaction between courts and legislatures, particularly in the context of constitutional challenges, has drawn considerable attention over the years. This question is of special importance to the apprehension of constitutional dialogue as simultaneously describing and shaping constitutional interaction. This article focuses on the descriptive aspects of the constitutional dialogue, and through them proposes a reconceptualization of constitutional dialogue, which is not based on the mere existence of legislative responses or the number thereof, or on the existence of different structural constitutional mechanisms. Instead, this reconceptualization is based on the de facto use in constitutional practices during the routine constitutional examination process, by the judiciary and political branches altogether. The article introduces a breadth-and-depth approach, which observes many constitutional decisions and legislative responses and uses them to analyze the nature of courts-legislatures dynamics. These insights are derived not only from the mere existence of a ruling or a statute, but also from the content and design of the institutional outcome thereof. The conclusions drawn using this approach are comprehensive, providing insight into the constitutional and dialogic interaction between courts and legislatures in each constitutional system, as well as identifying trends and changes as they occur. The article also offers an application of this approach to Israeli jurisprudence, illuminating the depth and complexity of this interaction, and enabling us to recognize it as a constitutional system with strong dialogic characteristics.

The impact of audit committee financial expertise on de facto use of IFRS: does external auditor’s size matter?

Purpose De facto use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a particular form of voluntary compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS). It is practiced when an enterprise uses a number (and not all) of international standards as a complement to overcome the unachieved nature of local generally accepted accounting principles. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, at first, whether the financial expertise of Tunisian audit committee’s members is associated with de facto use of IFRS. Second, it explores to what extent and in what direction this association evolves when the factor auditor’s size is introduced as a moderator variable. Design/methodology/approach Data spanning a seven-year period (2012–2018) was hand-collected for a sample of 497 firm-year observations. Further, regression analysis was used to test the study’s hypothesis. Findings Findings show that the proportion of financial experts who sit on the audit committee is positively associated with the de facto use of IFRS. Besides, the association between audit committee members’ financial expertise and the voluntary use of IFRS is more pronounced when the company is audited by at least one BIG 4 audit firm. Practical implications The paper’s findings have implications for regulatory bodies and standards setters who are concerned with the functioning of the audit committee, especially when it comes to enhancing the quality of the financial statements. The results also shed light on the role of financial experts on the audit committee and Big 4 auditors to enforce the de facto use of IFRS. Originality/value The findings of this study contain an important message for the drift toward national de jure convergence with IAS.

Linking ecological condition to enforcement of marine protected area regulations in the greater Caribbean region

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly employed worldwide to conserve marine resources. However, information on the role of governance mechanisms, in particular those associated with compliance, in shaping ecological condition inside MPAs at the regional scale remains deficient. An exploratory data analysis was conducted to evaluate links between strategies used to promote compliance with MPA regulations (e.g. incentives and penalties) and indicators of ecological condition, including biomass and density of commercial fish species, fish functional groups and coral cover in 21 MPAs across 13 different countries and territories in the greater Caribbean region. The strategies used to promote compliance with MPA regulations were correlated with indicators of ecological condition. For example, MPAs in which a larger number of incentives and penalties are present in the governance system are associated with higher commercial fish biomass and density as compared to those with fewer penalties and incentives available to promote compliance. Although most MPAs in the greater Caribbean use penalties to enforce compliance, these results suggest incentives may also be an important governance strategy for ensuring efficacy of protected areas in conserving key species. Alternatively, the presence of a high number of penalties and incentives in governance systems may also be indicative of greater state capacity and political will in these MPAs resulting in better managed MPAs. Further research is necessary to evaluate results of the exploratory data analysis presented in this study with a more in depth analysis of the de facto use of the regulations evaluated and their efficacy. Multi-country comparisons of MPA governance and ecological indicators can help policy and decision makers maintain MPAs that most effectively achieve MPA conservation objectives.

Safety of β2-Agonists in Asthma: Linking Mechanisms, Meta-Analyses and Regulatory Practice.

An epidemic of asthma fatalities in the 1970s prompted a series of case-control studies which indicated that short acting β-agonists increased the risk of death. Subsequent mechanistic and pharmacodynamic studies have suggested that β-agonist monotherapy facilitates airway inflammation, although when co-administered with inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs), similar evidence is lacking. The Salmeterol Multicenter Asthma Research Trial, which revealed a fourfold increase in asthma-related deaths in salmeterol-treated patients, prompted a paradigm shift in the evidential assessment of β-agonist safety. The FDA's meta-analysis of over 60,000 patients ultimately concluded that long-acting β-agonist (LABA) therapy increased the risk of serious asthma-related events. However, this meta-analysis itself raised questions given a large body of omitted data and a limited emphasis on the risk of ICS-LABA co-administration. Subsequently, the FDA mandated the conduct of five large studies to definitively ascertain whether ICS-LABAs increase asthma-related risk. Whether this ambitious programme will provide certainty remains to be seen given issues of multiplicity, the very low frequency of fatal and near-fatal asthma, and the administration of a free combination of ICS and LABA in one trial. The FDA's de facto use of FEV1 as a safety parameter, based on findings from the Foradil NDA, is a further topical issue: subsequent clinical study data, considerations relating to regional pulmonary drug deposition and pharmacological differences between different β-agonists suggest that FEV1 may be a suboptimal safety metric. Models evaluating airway inflammation and bronchial reactivity may be more appropriate to assess the relative risk of asthma-related events.

Scripts and Politics in Modern Central Europe

At present two scripts are employed in Central Europe, Latin and Cyrillic, or three,if we include Greece in the region. In this article I set out to problematise this oversimplisticpicture drawing at examples from the past and pointing to various politicaland identificational uses of scripts today. Until the mid-20th century, also other scripts(and different types of the Latin and Cyrillic script, for that matter) were used forofficial purposes and in book production, namely Arabic, Armenian, Church Cyrillic,Gothic and Hebrew. In addition, Glagolitic and Runes (both Nordic and Hungarian)were sometimes recalled for ideological reasons. Each of these scripts was used forwriting in numerous languages. Initially, script choices were dictated by religion(Latin letters for Western Christianity, Church Cyrillic for Slavophone OrthodoxChristians, or the Arabic writing system for Muslims), usually connected to a holybook in an ecclesiastical language committed to parchment in a specific script. Whenvernaculars began to make an appearance in writing, especially in the 16th centuryand later, their users stuck to the scripts of their holy books. Two factors, the processof building ethnolinguistically defined nation-states and changing ideas about whatmodernity should be about in the sphere of culture, radically limited the number ofscripts in official and de facto use. Only in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia,Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine are two scripts in official use, to varying degrees inthe different countries. The European Union already uses three official scripts, Cyrillic,Greek and Latin; if its actions follow its words and it admits some or all of thesestates to membership, it stands a good chance of reviving the tradition of Europeanmultiscripturality, alongside its legally enshrined commitment to multilingualism.

Inside the Judicial Mind: Exploring Judicial Methodology in the Mixed Legal System of Quebec

This article explores judicial methodology in the mixed legal system of Quebec and examines, in particular, how the nature of its legal system as a mixed legal system influences the judicial methodology of its judges, especially with respect to the de facto use of precedent. Features of the mixity, including the institutional setting of Quebec courts as courts of inherent jurisdiction, the nature of Quebec’s civil justice system and procedural law, as well as the judicial role and the effect of a supreme precedential authority (in the Supreme Court of Canada) are examined in turn as influential factors.

Inside the Judicial Mind: Exploring Judicial Methodology in the Mixed Legal System of Quebec

This article explores the judicial methodology in the mixed legal system of Quebec and examines, in particular, how the nature of its legal system as a mixed legal system influences the judicial methodology of its judges, especially with respect to the de facto use of precedent. Features of the mixity, including the institutional setting of Quebec courts as courts of inherent jurisdiction, the nature of Quebec’s civil justice system and procedural law, as well as the judicial role and the effect of a supreme precedential authority (in the Supreme Court of Canada).

The Role of NGO’s in Environmental Litigation Against Public Authorities: Some Observations on Judicial Review and Access to Court in the Netherlands

With the adoption of the Aarhus Convention and the European legislation implementing it , the rights of environmental organisations have been firmly anchored in national, international and European law. A study, commissioned by the European Commission on access to justice in environmental matters in eight European countries, showed that in the period 1996 to 2001 environmental organisations in the Netherlands brought by far the most cases. This made us wonder what the factual effects are of judicial procedures brought by environmental NGOs. It is our, modest, objective to provide the reader with some empirical data on the de facto use of judicial review procedures by NGOs in the Netherlands.

Effects of multiple-use of water on users' livelihoods and sustainability of rural water supply services in Honduras

The de facto use of rural water supply systems for productive purposes is a practice that has only recently received recognition in Honduras. This paper presents the results of 14 case studies, which focus on the role of multiple-use of water in people's livelihoods as well as on sustainability in service provision. The extent of this practice differs significantly between different user categories, and ranges from the use of small amounts of water for a backyard garden and some animals, to complementary irrigation of field crops or livestock at commercial scale, though in this case often private sources of water are used. This de facto multiple use of water supply may bring risks to the sustainability of service provision. However, a number of relatively simple measures can be considered in regulating water use, thereby mitigating the risks. By adopting such measures more widely certain degrees of multiple-use of water can be accommodated into service provision without causing negative impacts, while sti...

The Role of NGOs in Environmental Litigation against Public Authorities: Some Observations on Judicial Review and Access to Court in the Netherlands

With the adoption of the Aarhus Convention, the rights of environmental organisations have been firmly anchored in national, international and European law. However, in the Netherlands, the position of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to bring cases to a court of law is under threat. This made us wonder what the effects are of judicial procedures brought by environmental NGOs. After a short introduction setting the legal scenery for NGOs to challenge environmental licences/permits, this article will in particular focus on the de facto use of judicial review procedures by NGOs. Our research shows that NGOs are successful litigants. First, their appeals are well-founded more often than the appeals of other appellants. Secondly, if the Council of State rules the appeal of an NGO well-founded, relatively often (and contrary to other appellants), it determines substantive failures in the contested decision.

Watershed externalities, shifting cropping patterns and groundwater depletion in Indian semi-arid villages: The effect of alternative water pricing policies

Frequent droughts and groundwater depletion are critical constraints to improving agricultural productivity in the semi-arid tropics. India has been promoting integrated watershed management in drought-prone areas to address these constraints. Watershed communities are being assisted to invest in groundwater re-charging facilities. While communities and the public bear such costs, individual farmers capture irrigation benefits. Groundwater is a free common property resource and land users hold de-facto use rights. This has accelerated private irrigation investments and depletion of aquifers resulting in iniquitous distribution of irrigation water. Power subsidies and negligible pumping costs aggravate the problem. These policy failures and low irrigation costs to farmers are displacing water-efficient crops in favor of water-intensive crops in water-scare areas. The paper reviews the village-level externalities that aggravate groundwater depletion and evaluates potential policy options to enhance local collective action in water management. Using 3SLS, an econometric crop-water productivity model is used to evaluate alternative water policy instruments. The results indicate that different types of water user charges can be introduced with modest consequences on profitability and farm incomes. If properly implemented and managed by the local communities, pro-poor policies could bring considerable sustainability benefits and also ensure enhanced equity in access to the resource.

The Nephrologist as a Primary Care Provider for the Hemodialysis Patient

The role of nephrologists as de facto primary care providers (PCP) for dialysis patients is of increasing interest. We sought to determine the proportion of patients who rely on nephrologists for primary care and to identify demographic variables associated with this primary care responsibility. We reviewed the charts of 158 patients receiving hemodialysis at a suburban, freestanding, teaching hospital affiliated outpatient unit from December 1999 through January 2001. In addition, each patient was interviewed and completed a survey. Non-nephrologists were considered to be a patient's PCP if there was chart, survey or interview evidence of such a relationship. Of the 158 patients, only 56 patients had a PCP. The nephrologist thus was the de facto PCP in 65% of hemodialysis patients, a responsibility that was 3.3-fold more likely for patients not enrolled in a health maintenance organization (HMO) or managed care organization (MCO). In the non-HMO/MCO group, patients with a PCP had been on dialysis for less time than those without a PCP [2.7 vs. 4.6 years (P=0.0006)]. Only 32% of patients on dialysis <1 year had nephrologists as de facto PCP vs. 71% of those on dialysis more than 1 year (P=0.0002). This association between time on dialysis and de facto use of nephrologists as PCP was not accounted for by the shorter time on dialysis of HMO/MCO enrollees. The extent to which the nephrologist fulfills the often unsought role as PCP needs further investigation.

Performance, anxiety

Performance, anxiety

THE DIAGNOSIS OF INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS REVISITED: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS DATABASE STUDY

The lack of a precise working definition of interstitial cystitis may have resulted in the de facto use of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) "research" definition by clinicians. We evaluated these strict criteria in light of the broader inclusion criteria for patients evaluated in the Interstitial Cystitis Database study to determine their utility in clinical practice as a useful basis for the diagnosis of interstitial cystitis. A total of 379 women who completed screening for the Interstitial Cystitis Database before January 1, 1996 met the basic criteria of urinary frequency, urgency or pain for at least 6 months in duration without a diagnosable etiology. Of these patients 148 underwent cystoscopy and hydrodistention of the bladder as a part of the evaluation. All patients were followed for a minimum of 1 year. Comparisons were made between patients judged to have a clinical diagnosis of interstitial cystitis and those who met the NIDDK research definition of the syndrome. Almost 90% of patients potentially meeting NIDDK criteria are believed by experienced clinicians to have interstitial cystitis, confirming the research value of these criteria in defining a homogeneous population for study. However, strict application of NIDDK criteria would have misdiagnosed more than 60% of patients regarded by researchers as definitely or likely to have interstitial cystitis. The NIDDK criteria are too restrictive to be used by clinicians as the diagnostic definition of interstitial cystitis.

An evaluation of air safetysource-control technology for the post anesthesia care unit

A new source-control system designed specifically to address the most important air safety hazards in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) is presented—the transmission of bloodborne and respiratory pathogens, and occupational exposure to waste anesthetic gases. The controversy arising from research in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s regarding waste anesthetic gases, government regulations that responded to air safety hazards, and the resulting de facto use of scavenging systems in almost all operating rooms across the United States is discussed. However, a similar concern does not apply to the PACU although its unique characteristics make it an especially high-risk environment for air safety hazards.

Die toepassing en gebruik van finansiele verhoudingsgetalle: 'n Verkenningstudie

In this article the de facto use of financial ratios is reported on. To identify meaningful financial ratios, information was obtained from 166 enterprises on the use of financial ratios. The Likert scale was used to establish the frequency of use of the following categories of financial ratios, namely return on assets, income margins, capital turnover, solvency and ratios derived from the cash flow statement. In total, 41 financial ratios were submitted to the respondents. The most important findings were: Income margins are by far the group ratios with the highest frequency of use along with the debtors collection period. Further, with the help of a multiple analysis of variance, it was established that the main activities and size of respondents had no influence on the use of specific categories of financial ratios. Finally, the findings of a factor analysis indicated noticeable similarities between theoretical groupings of financial ratios and the results of the empirical study.