Comparative study of postmortem barbiturates, methadone, and morphine in vitreous humor, blood, and tissue

With the introduction of radioimmunoassay (RIA) techniques, it has become toxicologically possible to determine drug concentrations in postmortem vitreous humor. This study demonstrates and confirms this toxicological feasibility. In 49 medical examiner's drug related cases, postmortem tissue levels of morphine, barbiturates, and methadone were compared to the vitreous humor.     

Narcissistic Features in Young Adolescents: Relations to Aggression and Internalizing Symptoms

Recent research and theory suggest narcissistic features contribute to aggression in adults. The present study examined the association of narcissistic features with aggression and internalizing symptoms in 233 students of 5th–8th grade at three inner-city schools. A factor analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory in this sample revealed three factors: Adaptive Narcissism, Exploitativeness, and Exhibitionism. Regression analyses were used to predict the association of these three narcissistic features with self-, teacher-, and peer-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results indicate narcissistic exploitativeness positively predicted self-reported proactive aggression, and narcissistic exhibitionism positively predicted internalizing symptoms. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to predict teacher-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of existing theories of narcissism, threatened egotism, and self-perception bias.     

Women College Students’ Reasons for Engaging in Psychological Dating Aggression: a Qualitative Examination

Dating violence frequently occurs within women college students’ relationships, but few examinations of their reasons for engaging in psychological aggression have been conducted. Accordingly, the current study investigated psychological aggression initiated by women undergraduates against their male partners using a qualitative methodology. Overall, 72 of the 206 participants responded to an open-ended question examining their reasons for initiating psychological aggression. Six domains of reasons were identified; the two most frequently reported precipitants were negative affect and a partner’s transgression. One domain, “self-soothing,” (i.e., aggressing to help oneself feel better) had not been observed in studies of women’s initiation of physical aggression. These reasons could be targeted in prevention and intervention programs for reducing dating aggression among undergraduates.     

Special report on reimbursement. Medicare program abandons 1986 malpractice rule

Hospitals with claims "properly pending" before fiscal intermediaries or in the courts need do nothing in order to obtain corrected reimbursement for fiscal years so pending. However, to speed processing of corrected reimbursements for fiscal years pending in appeals before the PRRB, hospitals should request that the Board determine its jurisdiction and remand to the fiscal intermediary for payment as soon as possible. It will be helpful to include with any such request a copy of the notice of program reimbursement and the original appeal letter for each fiscal year under appeal. Despite the fact that HCFA Ruling 91-1 effectively concedes that HCFA has applied an invalid regulation to all fiscal years since May 1, 1986, HCFA counsel have stated that HCFA will not permit reopening of closed cost reports to correct the inappropriate apportionment of malpractice insurance costs. Nevertheless, hospitals that do not presently have a claim or appeal pending have several options. Under the Provider Reimbursement Manual, HIM-15, sections 2930-2931, fiscal intermediaries are required to reopen cost reports filed within the three-year reopening period to correct errors. Accordingly, should a fiscal intermediary deny a provider's reopening request, the provider should seriously consider taking an appeal to the PRRB. The PRRB's jurisdiction to review fiscal intermediary denials of requests to reopen cost reports was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, see State of Oregon v. Bowen, 854 F.2d 346 (9th Cir. 1988), a decision that is controlling in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Measuring both the art and science of mediation

Conclusion An art is best observed, and the effort to specify the criteria for watching art is a worthy enterprise. Like all art criticism, however, it is not clear to me that we will always have convergence in our evaluations. If theInterim Guidelines are tested in more settings (and subjected to test validation studies) we will learn more about whether it is possible to create a science of evaluation in this field.With all my reservations, I still applaud the effort to create standards for evaluation, based on actual performance of the task. I hope there will be further opportunity to test and refine these performance standards so that they may be used in a professionally responsible way to facilitate good screening, training, and evaluation of mediators in a wide variety of settings. Carrie Menkel-Meadow is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90024-1476.     

Personalized or bureaucratized justice in legal services: Resolving sociological ambivalence in the delivery of legal aid for the poor

This paper examines and tests some of the claims about the professional autonomy of attorneys working in a bureaucratic environment. Following an analysis of the concept of professionalism across various types of attorney practices, data are offered to explore how attorneys who provide legal services for the poor resolve the potential conflict between bureaucratic demands and personal or professional autonomy. The data, which consist of attorney time sheets covering some 2284 separate legal tasks as well as in-depth personal interviews with 23 attorneys, reveal some difference between actual practice routines and perceived personal autonomy. Implications of this for the delivery of legal service are discussed. The paper concludes that although the conflicting demands of legal services practice might lead to sociological ambivalence, as long as the attorneys do not perceive themselves as bureaucratic service deliverers but as autonomous professionals, there is little manifest ambivalence. Developing an adaptive strategy to avoid sociological ambivalence, attorneys see themselves as individual service providers, personalizing the justice they deliver.A lawyer is a lawyer-but only to a pointAn earlier version of this paper was presented to the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 28–May 2, 1982.