Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)--standardised investigations and classification: recommendations

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) still accounts for considerable numbers of unexpected infant deaths in many countries. While numerous theories have been advanced to explain these events, it is increasingly clear that this group of infant deaths results from the complex interaction of a variety of heritable and idiosyncratic endogenous factors interacting with exogenous factors. This has been elegantly summarised in the "three hit" or "triple risk" model. Contradictions and lack of consistencies in the literature have arisen from diverse autopsy approaches, variable applications of diagnostic criteria and inconsistent use of definitions. An approach to sudden infant death is outlined with discussion of appropriate tissue sampling, ancillary investigations and the use of controls in research projects. Standardisation of infant death investigations with the application of uniform definitions and protocols will ensure optimal investigation of individual cases and enable international comparisons of trends.     

The Representation of the Legal Interests of Children and Adolescents in Germany: A Study of the Children's Guardian from a Child's Perspective

In 1998, the children’s guardian was introduced into Germanlaw as a new legal institution to represent interests of childrenand young people in certain family and guardianship court proceedings.Until now, there has not been realized any comprehensive investigationabout the perception of children and young people themselvesabout the new figure. This study focuses on the understandingof 52 children and young people concerning the guardian’srole and their satisfaction with the representation. To a largeextent, most children formulated appropriate and differentiatedconceptions of the role and duty of the children’s guardianeven if there were a few uncertainties. Furthermore, most childrenreported on many positive and satisfying aspects, although individualaspects were designated as problematic.     

Implicit attitudes toward violence and their relation to psychopathy,aggression, and socially adaptive behaviors in forensic psychiatric inpatients

In order to investigate the relation between implicit attitudes toward violence and different aspects of violent and social behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients, an implicit association test was related to measures of psychopathy, aggression, and socially adaptive behaviors. Results indicated that all patients had negative implicit attitudes toward violence. Although implicit attitudes toward violence were unrelated to several self-report measures of aggression, there was a significant positive relation between these attitudes and the antisocial facet of psychopathy. Furthermore, it was found that implicit attitudes toward violence were significantly negatively associated with coping behaviors and the level of moral awareness, indicating that patients with more negative implicit attitudes toward violence more often reported these behaviors, which can be assumed to inhibit aggression. As the present study was only correlational in nature, our findings need to be further explored in prospective research.     

Reforming the Swedish employment-related social security system: activation,administrative modernization and strengthening local autonomy

The Swedish system of social security has often been regarded as comprehensive and comprehensive and inclusive. During major reforms in the 1990s and 2000s, it has maintained its essential character as a popular and well-endowed provider of social security and stability. Employment-related benefits are generous in financial terms, but come with the need for recipients to remain actively engaged in the economic or educational field. However, Sweden’s geographical and demographic diversity made it necessary to increase the role of local authorities in implementing active labour market policies. This article tracks these developments since the mid-1990s, both with regard to changing the benefits system and with regard to changing local government involvement. It argues that backed by broad political support, the Swedish system has achieved the necessary modernization and adaptation to remain a viable alternative to more neo-liberal welfare retrenchment projects conducted in other European countries.     

Methodological Artifacts in Measures of Political Efficacy and Trust: A Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Many authors report a positive relationship of education andpolitical interest with political efficacy and trust, but itis well known that both of the former are associated with responsestyles, such as a tendency to "strongly agree." Since they arerelated to both a substantive concept (political efficacy andtrust), and to methodological effects (agreement bias and atendency to give non-substantive responses) it is importantto assess whether the substantive relationship is due to methodologicalartifacts. Applying multiple correspondence analysis to the1984 Canadian National Election Study, we will discuss a methodwhich allows to test a set of items for measurement effectssuch as ordinality and response sets. In the given example,ordinality of the political efficacy and trust items could beconfirmed only for politically interested respondents. For respondentswith low political interest, there is clear evidence of a responseset resulting in a tendency to "strongly agree" regardless ofthe direction of the items. Taken together, these findings callinto question the substantive relationships reported in theliterature.