The Interplay of Early Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms,Aggression and Perceived Parental Rejection: A Four-Year Community Study

This study of early adolescents from the general population examined the direction of effects adolescents’ depressive symptoms, aggression, and perceived parental rejection have on one another in a longitudinal study. Over a four-year period, data were collected yearly from 940 early adolescents (50.6% boys and 49.4% girls) who completed self-report questionnaires of depressive symptoms, aggressive behaviors, and perceived parental rejection. The longitudinal relationships of adolescent reported depressive symptoms, aggression, and perceived parental rejection were tested in multi-group structural equation models. The findings of this study demonstrate that adolescents’ depressive symptoms, aggression, and perceived parental rejection can be viewed as two unidirectional effects models that work in tandem: adolescents’ depressive symptoms longitudinally predicting perceived parental rejection and, in turn, perceived parental rejection longitudinally predicting adolescents’ aggression. Additionally, the strength of these effects diminished as the adolescents grew older and the effects were similar for both adolescent boys and girls.

IMF retrospective and prospective: A public goods viewpoint

The paper investigates changes in IMF activities using the analytical framework of international public goods. The IMF promotes international financial stability, whose outputs are joint products with varying degrees of publicness. In recent years, IMF loans (recipient-specific benefits) have assumed decreased importance, while the Fund’s technical assistance and monitoring activities have taken on greater importance. As a consequence, the club and purely public outputs (e.g., disseminating best practices) have grown as a share of IMF activities. Changes in the mix of IMF activities alter the mix of international public goods and, in so doing, change policy recommendations regarding the role of IMF. The future of IMF is also addressed, especially in light of increased private capital flows.

Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley (eds), Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder

Human Rights Review -     

Heteroplasmy in hair: differences among hair and blood from the same individuals are still a matter of debate

The analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a useful tool in forensic cases when sample contents too little or degraded nuclear DNA to genotype by autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci, but it is especially useful when the only forensic evidence is a hair shaft. Several authors have related differences in mtDNA from different tissues within the same individual, with high frequency of heteroplasmic variants in hair, as also in some other tissues. Is still a matter of debate how the differences influence the interpretation forensic protocols. One difference between two samples supposed to be originated from the same individual are related to an inconclusive result, but depending on the tissue and the position of the difference it should have a different interpretation, based on mutation-rate heterogeneity of mtDNA. In order to investigate it differences in the mtDNA control region from hair shafts and blood in our population, sequences from the hypervariable regions 1 and 2 (HV1 and HV2) from 100 Brazilian unrelated individuals were compared. The frequency of point heteroplasmy observed in hair was 10.5% by sequencing. Our study confirms the results related by other authors that concluded that small differences within tissues should be interpreted with caution especially when analyzing hair samples.     

Transportation infrastructure and regional economic development in China

This study examines the trend of transportation investment and analyzes the effect of transportation investment on regional economic development in China. Results from cross-section analysis indicate that those provinces that have invested more in transportation infrastructure tend to have greater output.     

“I am myself it”: comparative national identity formation in the lives of Vera Brittain and Edith Stein

Abstract

This is a study of the tranformational impact of their World War One experiences on the national identities of two eminent feminist intellectuals, Vera Brittain and Edith Stein, each a volunteer Red Cross nurse on opposing warfronts. The essay examines how their gender, ethnicity, social class, and feminism intersect within this identity. To assess the War's impact, the author first probes – through extensive research in unpublished and recently published documents – the nature and evolution of Brittain and Stein's pre-war national identities, identities featuring a complex and ambiguous interplay of European and national consciousness. Through analysis of the tension between national and European identity in Brittain's and Stein's lives, the essay highlights key questions with regard to national similarities and differences in women's wartime experiences, as well as revealing critical factors vital to wider analysis of the War's impact on female national identity, particularly among educated middle-class German and British women.