Mental health correlates of intimate partner violence in marital relationships in a nationally representative sample of males and females

It is important to understand the epidemiology of intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by both males and females. Data were drawn from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Replication. The relationships between physical IPV and child abuse, mental disorders, and suicidal ideation and attempts among males and females were examined. The results indicate that child sexual abuse was associated with IPV among males, whereas child physical and sexual abuse was associated with IPV among females. IPV was associated with poor mental health outcomes for males and females, although sex differences are noted. The sex differences indicate that females experience a wider range of poor mental health outcomes compared to males. Knowledge about correlates of IPV can be useful in identifying individuals exposed to violence. Further research is required to identify effective methods to reduce exposure to IPV and to adequately address the specific needs of male and female victims of IPV.     

Chemical markers from the peracid oxidation of isosafrole

In this work, isomers of 2,4-dimethyl-3,5-bis(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)tetrahydrofuran (11) are presented as chemical markers formed during the peracid oxidation of isosafrole. The stereochemical configurations of the major and next most abundant diastereoisomer are presented. Also described is the detection of isomers of (11) in samples from a clandestine laboratory uncovered in South Australia in February 2004.     

A preliminary investigation of insect colonisation and succession on remains in New Zealand

A preliminary, systematic field study on the process of decomposition and associated insects was conducted, for the first time, in New Zealand. Using pig carcasses as an animal model for human decomposition, insect colonisation and succession was monitored in three different habitats in the Auckland region where remains are likely to be found. A significant difference in the rates of decomposition was found among the three different habitats of an open field, coastal sand dune area and native bush during the autumn/winter season. The primary colonisers of all carcasses were Calliphora stygia Fabricius (Calliphoridae), Chrysomya rufifacies Macquart (Calliphoridae) and Hydrotaea rostrata Robineau-Desvoidy (Muscidae). Two species were identified as possible representatives of the habitats in which they were found; Fannia sp. (Fanniidae) in the open field habitat and Calliphora hilli Patton (Calliphoridae) in the native bush habitat. Also identified was Sylvicola sp. (Anisopodidae) as a possible indicator of damp habitats as well as a likely indicator of a longer postmortem interval. This preliminary investigation presents a broad outline of the insects associated with remains and the order in which they appear in the Auckland region.     

Active citizenship or passive clientelism? Accountability and development in Solomon Islands

Active citizenship and participatory community-development approaches have evolved partly in response to perceived aid-dependency among rural communities. In Solomon Islands these methods have met with mixed success. This article reflects on the frustration often felt by local and international development workers when working with rural communities. It questions some of the assumptions that shape the way in which development workers and programmes understand the types of community which make up Solomon Islands.     

Why did We Get the End of the Cold War Wrong?

In many important ways the history of modern international relations (IR) begins at the point when the international order collapses in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Indeed, the withering of communism in Central and Eastern Europe followed by the break–up of the USSR two years later, posed what many in the field saw then (and continue to regard now) as a series of problems to which the hitherto dominant paradigm in IR—realism—had no ready or easy answers. This article neither seeks to defend nor criticize realism. Rather it shifts the debate about the end of the cold war—and why most experts failed to anticipate it—away from the field of IR to the more specific study undertaken in the West of the Soviet system. It goes on to argue that the source of so much academic embarrassment may be better explained not through a rehearsal of realism's supposed flaws as an international theory, but rather through a detailed examination of the different ways that different writers understood, or more precisely failed to understand, the operation of the Soviet system itself. The conclusion reached is that few analysts could have predicted what happened between 1989 and 1991. In fact, as the article seeks to show, their often complicated and diverse theories about the USSR as the living alternative to market capitalism led most of them (with one or two notable exceptions) to the conclusion that whatever problems faced the Soviet Union as a power in the 1980s, the system as such was likely to endure.     

Extension of the portfolio allocation model to surplus majority governments: a fuzzy approach

Scholars have long studied the conditions under which the cabinet making process will result in minority, surplus majority, or minimum-winning governing coalitions in parliamentary systems. Since Riker, a good number of these attempts have been based on rational choice assumptions. Among formal approaches in this vein, Laver and Shepsle’s (Making and breaking governments: Cabinets and legislatures in parliamentary governments, 1996) portfolio allocation model argues that parties centrally located in policy space have a greater potential for being part of any governing coalition and that parties located at the issue-by-issue median have a high likelihood of forming a minority government. However, the model predicts that surplus majority coalitions will only form when the number of salient policy dimensions in the political system is greater than two. We incorporate fuzzy set theory in the portfolio allocation model, permitting us to model ambiguity in parties’ policy preferences. The reformulated model accounts for the formation of surplus majority coalitions in two-dimensional policy space. We illustrate the model’s conclusions with a case study of the 1996 surplus majority coalition in the Lithuanian Seimas.     

The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing

Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large‐scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly likely to fulfill their pledges, and significantly more so than parties that do not enter government executives. We explain variation in the fulfillment of governing parties’ pledges by the extent to which parties share power in government. Parties in single‐party executives, both with and without legislative majorities, have the highest fulfillment rates. Within coalition governments, the likelihood of pledge fulfillment is highest when the party receives the chief executive post and when another governing party made a similar pledge.