Democratic Deficit or the Europeanisation of Secession? Explaining the Devolution Referendums in Scotland

This article deals with the variation in the demand for self-government in Scotland – as measured by the vote in the two referendums – between 1979, when devolution was rejected, and 1997, when devolution was endorsed. The existing literature mainly deals with each of the two referendums in isolation and does not offer an explicitly comparative analysis of them. However, implicit comparisons contained in analyses of the 1997 referendum tend to identify as the main cause of the variation the 'democratic deficit' created by Conservative rule between 1979 and 1997, which was consistently rejected in Scotland. I take issue with this explanation on theoretical and empirical grounds and advances an alternative account grounded in an explicit comparison of the two referendums. Based on a rationalist approach, the analysis presented here identifies three key elements in the voting dynamics at the two points in time – a gap between support for self-government and the actual vote in the referendum; an interaction effect between attitudes to devolution and to independence; and the role of the European context in shaping perceptions of independence. I argue that significant change in these three variables (rather than a 'democratic deficit') appear to have been the most important determinants of the different results of the two referendums.     

Ecological Validity of the Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29): an Italian Study of Court-Ordered,Psychological Injury Evaluations Using the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) as Criterion Variable

The Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29; Viglione, Giromini, & Landis, Journal of Personality Assessment, 99(5), 534–544, 2017) is a 29-item, recently published, self-administered test aimed at assessing the credibility of various symptom presentations. Although available research strongly supports the use of this symptom validity test in malingering-related contexts, to date, only few studies have analyzed data from real-life forensic evaluations. To fill this gap and explore ecological and convergent validity, the current study analyzed data from 74 court-ordered evaluations aimed at establishing the possible presence of psychological injury. Such evaluations are high-stakes situations in which exaggeration or malingering occur relatively often. We used a research-supported and popular symptom validity test, i.e., the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS; Smith & Burger, Journal of the American Academy on Psychiatry and Law, 25:180–183, 1997), as our criterion variable. The IOP-29 produced excellent area under the curve (AUC) values of .98 with a recommended SIMS total score cutoff (≥ 17) and .99 when eliminating too-close-to-classify cases (Rogers & Bender, 2018) and very large Cohen’s d effect sizes of 2.98 and 3.59, respectively. Crucially, when implementing established cut scores from previous research, the IOP-29 yielded very high specificity and sensitivity rates, and the predictions from the two tests were strikingly similar. Taken together, these findings support the strong convergent validity of the IOP-29 and its utility in applied clinical and forensic settings.     

Observations on dental structures when placed in contact with acids: experimental studies to aid identification processes

In a "mafia" crime case, a magistrate asked us whether it is possible to destroy a cadaver by immersing it in acids, and would it be possible to identify any residues. The aim of this study was to observe the behavior of teeth exposed to four kinds of acid solutions. The teeth were placed in plastic containers with 25 mL of acid and observed. The experiences showed that teeth are completely dissolved after 14 h of immersion in 37% solution of hydrochloric acid, while at 90h in 96% sulfuric acid, the destruction of the samples is still incomplete. In nitric acid the teeth undergo a complete dissolution in 12 h, and in 17 h in aqua regia (chloroazotic acid-hydrochloric/nitric acid 1:3). It was possible to recognize the characteristic morphological features of dental tissues and structures up until the advanced stages of degradation.     

Surviving the suicides of significant others: a case study

Psychological pain has been reported to be major contributing factor for completed suicide, and classical suicidology based its wisdom on this construct. In this paper we report the case of a patient whose family experienced a high number of suicides apparently due to an escalation of psychological pain in the family members after the successive suicides. We also briefly discuss the problem of helping survivors after the suicide of loved one.     

Behavioral Public Administration ad fontes: A Synthesis of Research on Bounded Rationality,Cognitive Biases,and Nudging in Public Organizations

This article provides a comprehensive overview of how policy makers, practitioners, and scholars can fruitfully use behavioral science to tackle public administration, management, and policy issues. The article systematically reviews 109 articles in the public administration discipline that are inspired by the behavioral sciences to identify emerging research trajectories, significant gaps, and promising applied research directions. In an attempt to systematize and take stock of the nascent behavioral public administration scholarship, the authors trace it back to the seminal works of three Nobel Laureates—Herbert Simon, Daniel Kahneman, and Richard Thaler—and their work on bounded rationality, cognitive biases, and nudging, respectively. The cognitive biases investigated by the studies reviewed fall into the categories of accessibility, loss aversion, and overconfidence/optimism. Nudging and choice architecture are discussed as viable strategies for leveraging these cognitive traps in an attempt to alter behavior for the better, among both citizens and public servants.     

Suicidal intent in single-car accident drivers: Review and new preliminary findings

This study addressed the issue of a possible link between single-car accident drivers and suicidal intent. In the international literature this topic has generated both positive and negative results. Some authors have stressed unconscious suicidal motivations in various single accidents. Nevertheless, refutation of such theory was demonstrated through experimental studies. We selected 30 single-car accident drivers who had been admitted to emergency departments and then hospitalized for an average period of 10 days. We administered the Reason for Living Inventory (RFL) and investigated their attitudes toward suicide. We also matched these patients with a control group of drivers who had never had a car accident. Results showed that single-car accident drivers were not exposed to a higher overall suicidal risk, though they reported a higher risk on the RFL Survival and Coping Beliefs subscale and often expressed tiredness of being alive. These patients had experienced more life events than controls. We conclude that, although suicide risk was low in our patients, they were engaged in looking for a solution to their problems in which the accident played a role in such a process. This behavior has some characteristics of the logic of suicidal individuals.