Procedural justice in Alternative Dispute Resolution: Fairness judgments among users of Financial Ombudsman services in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article uses the lens of procedural justice theory to explore peoples’ experiences of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) model: ombudsman services. We focus on two specific services that deal with complaints about financial services in Germany and the UK. Using and expanding upon procedural justice theory we ask two key questions: is the complaints process more important than its outcome; and does the importance of process and outcome vary between countries? In both countries we find a strong association between perceptions of procedural justice and outcomes such as overall perceptions of fairness, confidence in the ombudsman service, and decision acceptance. Against expectations, these associations are broadly invariant across the German and UK samples; but, despite this, all else equal German respondents expressed consistently more positive views. Our data add some nuance to the existing literature on procedural justice and suggest that the national context also plays a role in people’s decision-acceptance of ombudsmen. We suggest that national legal cultures provide for a framework of rules that guide people’s perceptions and behaviors in legal, quasi-legal and related environments

A voice for change? Trust relationships between ombudsmen, individuals and public service providers

There has been a debate for years about what the role of the ombudsman is. This article examines a key component of the role, to promote trust in public services and government. To be able to do this, however, an ombudsman needs to be perceived as legitimate and be trusted by a range of stakeholders, including the user. This article argues that three key relationships in a person’s complaint journey can build trust in an institution, and must therefore be understood as a system. The restorative justice framework is adapted to conceptualize this trust model as a novel approach to understanding the institution from the perspective of its users. Taking two public sector ombudsmen as examples, the article finds that voice and trust need to be reinforced through the relationships in a consumer journey to manage individual expectations, prevent disengagement, and thereby promote trust in the institution, in public service providers, and in government

A quality assessment of Spatial TDR soil moisture measurements in homogenous and heterogeneous media with laboratory experiments

Investigation of transient soil moisture profiles yields valuable information of near- surface processes. A recently developed reconstruction algorithm based on the telegraph equation allows the inverse estimation of soil moisture profiles along coated, three rod TDR probes. Laboratory experiments were carried out to prove the results of the inversion and to understand the influence of probe rod deformation and solid objects close to the probe in heterogeneous media. Differences in rod geometry can lead to serious misinterpretations in the soil moisture profile, but have small influence on the average soil moisture along the probe. Solids in the integration volume have almost no effect on average soil moisture, but result in locally slightly decreased moisture values. Inverted profiles obtained in a loamy soil with a clay content of about 16% were in good agreement with independent measurements

Glucagon-like peptide 1 improved glycemic control in type 1 diabetes

BACKGROUND: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and its agonists are under assessment in treatment of type 2 diabetes, by virtue of their antidiabetic actions, which include stimulation of insulin secretion, inhibition of glucagon release, and delay of gastric emptying. We examined the potential of GLP-1 to improve glycemic control in type 1 diabetes with no endogenous insulin secretion. METHODS: Dose-finding studies were carried out to establish mid range doses for delay of gastric emptying indicated by postponement of pancreatic polypeptide responses after meals. The selected dose of 0.63 micrograms/kg GLP-1 was administered before breakfast and lunch in 8-hour studies in hospital to establish the efficacy and safety of GLP-1. In outside-hospital studies, GLP-1 or vehicle was self-administered double-blind before meals with usual insulin for five consecutive days by five males and three females with well-controlled C-peptide-negative type 1 diabetes. Capillary blood glucose values were self-monitored before meals, at 30 and 60 min after breakfast and supper, and at bedtime. Breakfast tests with GLP-1 were conducted on the day before and on the day after 5-day studies. Paired t-tests and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In 8-hour studies time-averaged incremental (delta) areas under the curves(AUC) for plasma glucose through 8 hours were decreased by GLP-1 compared to vehicle (3.2 ± 0.9, mean ± se, vs 5.4 ± 0.8 mmol/l, p < .05), and for pancreatic polypeptide, an indicator of gastric emptying, through 30 min after meals (4.0 ± 3.1 vs 37 ± 9.6 pmol/l, p < .05) with no adverse effects. Incremental glucagon levels through 60 min after meals were depressed by GLP-1 compared to vehicle (-3.7 ± 2.5 vs 3.1 ± 1.9 ng/l, p < .04). In 5-day studies, AUC for capillary blood glucose levels were lower with GLP-1 than with vehicle (-0.64 ± 0.33 vs 0.34 ± 0.26 mmol/l, p < .05). No assisted episode of hypoglycaemia or change in insulin dosage occurred. Breakfast tests on the days immediately before and after 5-day trials showed no change in the effects of GLP-1. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated that subcutaneous GLP-1 can improve glucose control in type 1 diabetes without adverse effects when self-administered before meals with usual insulin during established intensive insulin treatment programs

Self-organization and the selection of pinwheel density in visual cortical development

Self-organization of neural circuitry is an appealing framework for understanding cortical development, yet its applicability remains unconfirmed. Models for the self-organization of neural circuits have been proposed, but experimentally testable predictions of these models have been less clear. The visual cortex contains a large number of topological point defects, called pinwheels, which are detectable in experiments and therefore in principle well suited for testing predictions of self-organization empirically. Here, we analytically calculate the density of pinwheels predicted by a pattern formation model of visual cortical development. An important factor controlling the density of pinwheels in this model appears to be the presence of non-local long-range interactions, a property which distinguishes cortical circuits from many nonliving systems in which self-organization has been studied. We show that in the limit where the range of these interactions is infinite, the average pinwheel density converges to $\pi$. Moreover, an average pinwheel density close to this value is robustly selected even for intermediate interaction ranges, a regime arguably covering interaction-ranges in a wide range of different species. In conclusion, our paper provides the first direct theoretical demonstration and analysis of pinwheel density selection in models of cortical self-organization and suggests to quantitatively probe this type of prediction in future high-precision experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure