THE POLICY IMPACT OF NO-FAULT AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE

This study examines the impact of four different types of no-fault automobile insurance laws on the risk adjusted price of insurance. No-fault insurance plans are in operation in 23 states. Using data from 1976 to 1984 for 49 states, the study found that no-fault plans limiting litigation result in lower prices for automobile insurance. This relationship holds even under controls for several variables that also affect the price of automobile insurance.     

Support for aged care workers and quality care in Australia: A case of contract failure?

This paper is guided by Conservation of Resources theory and aims to investigate the impact of personal and organisational support on the quality of clinical care given to aged care residents in for‐profit (FP) and not‐for‐profit (NFP) facilities. Broadly, the paper addresses challenges faced by governments in designing contract specifications that ensure quality outcomes from aged care providers. The argument is that the present accreditation standards that are used to assess the status of aged care providers are too narrow to capture the complexity in delivering social services. Data were collected from 442 aged care workers from aged care facilities in NSW, QLD and WA. The results show that carer support (personal and organisational support) explained half of the variance in quality of clinical care in NFP facilities, and a third of the variance in FP facilities. In particular, the findings suggest support for carers is important for carer retention, and ultimately the clinical care of residents. The findings provide supporting evidence to widen the required contract specifications for aged care provider accreditation to include organisational and personal support for carers.     

Government stewardship and primary health care in Guatemala since 1996

This article analyzes the role of government stewardship in the expansion of primary health care in post‐conflict Guatemala. By the time the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, the country's primary health care system was scarcely functioning with virtually no services available in rural indigenous areas. To address this gaping void/deficiency, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS) embarked on a progressive expansion of primary services aimed at covering the majority of rural poor. Through a series of legal, policy, and program reforms up to 2014, the MSPAS dramatically expanded primary coverage and greatly improved basic health indicators for the entire population. To succeed in this effort, the MSPAS and its partners needed to simultaneously grow their stewardship capacity to oversee and develop the primary health system. On the basis of recent health systems strengthening literature, we propose a stewardship framework of 6 critical functions and use it to analyze the gains in government capacity that enabled the achievement of many of the country's primary health goals. Of the 6 stewardship functions, “building relationships, coalitions, and partnerships” especially with civil society organizations stands out as one of the keys to MSPAS success.     

“The Long and Winding Road”: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Multilevel Judicial Implementation of Work‒Life Balance in Spain

ABSTRACT

This article studies how processes of policy implementation and the impact of a multilevel European legal order shape social policies. By using an interdisciplinary approach to comparative policy analysis that investigates policy implementation through the critical study of judicial litigation, the article analyses the case of García Mateos on work?life balance in its different stages before Spanish and supranational courts. It shows that the implementation of work?life balance policy through litigation in Spain is a “long and winding road” paved with discursive and material opportunities and obstacles. While multiple pressures, actors, and framings at different governmental levels contributed to a favourable judicial decision on gender equality, norms about the gendered division of labour limited its transformative potential.     

Violent women: a multicentre study into gender differences in forensic psychiatric patients

To gain insight into the relatively small, but increasing group of women in forensic psychiatry, a retrospective multicentre study was started gathering information from the files of 275 female patients of four Dutch forensic psychiatric hospitals on characteristics and violence risk factors. Overall, a picture emerged of severely traumatized women with complex psychopathology with multiple previous treatment failures and many incidents during treatment. The present study investigates specific psychiatric and criminal characteristics of female patients by comparing their data to those of 275 male forensic psychiatric patients. Various prominent differences were found, for example, women had more complex histories of victimization, were more often diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, were more likely to commit homicide and arson and less likely to commit sexual offenses, and were more often involved in inpatient aggression than their male counterparts. Several recommendations for gender-responsive treatment and directions for future research are provided.     

Adolescent Victim Types Across the Popularity Status Hierarchy: Differences in Internalizing Symptoms

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Previous studies have called attention to the fact that popular youth are not immune to peer victimization, suggesting there is heterogeneity in the popularity of...     

VORSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIK ineligible for CTM registration

OHIM refused registration as a Community trade mark of the wordsVORSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIK in the name of Audi AG for goods andservices in Classes 9, 14, 25, 28, 37–40, and 42 on thegrounds that the mark was devoid of any distinctive character.Audi's action for annulment of this decision was dismissed bythe CFI.     

Fatal intoxication with labetalol (Trandate)

The dead body of a 44-year-old woman, previously known for depression and alcoholism, has been discovered at her place of residence by her husband. A forensic autopsy has been carried out. The results indicated unspecific histological lesions (alveolar oedema, liver steatosis and interstitial nephritis) but did not reveal any apparent cause of death. Several boxes of medicines have been found near the body, justifying a toxicological analysis. This has been performed on peripheral blood and urine samples using liquid chromatography with diode array and mass spectrometric detections, in conjunction with gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Ethanol has been found (1.24 g/L in blood, 2.63 g/L in urine and 1.33 g/kg in gastric content), as well as therapeutic concentrations of meprobamate (14.1mg/L) and low concentrations of nordazepam (0.12 mg/L) in blood. On the other hand, particularly high levels of labetalol, a widely used beta-blocker, have been found both in blood (1.7 mg/L) and urine (20.2mg/L), which led us to measure labetalol levels in available viscera samples (liver, heart, kidney, and lung) and gastric content. Measured concentrations were 14.2 microg/g, 7.8 microg/g, 5.4 microg/g, 5.2 microg/g and 31.1 microg/g, respectively. We describe here the first report of a fatal intoxication attributed to labetalol that is linked to its acute toxicity, with tissue distribution of this beta-blocker.     

Sexually violent predator laws and the liberal state: an ominous threat to individual liberty

No other country has taken the idea of the liberal state - a government that relies on the rule of law to limit state power and maximize individual liberty - as seriously as the United States. But now many states are manipulating the government's civil commitment authority to indefinitely confine sex offenders who have served their criminal sentences and are entitled to their freedom in the community. This new system of preventive detention masquerading as civil commitment poses an ominous threat to individual liberty and to the continued vitality of the liberal state.     

Practicability of the mobile one-finger scanner Cross Match MV5 in fingerprinting of corpses: are mobile fingerprinting scanners suitable for use in mass disasters?

Dactyloscopy is a special field in the police records department and a suitable means for identifying unknown dead persons as well as solving crimes by taking fingerprints from living persons. Apart from the conventional methods of dactyloscopy, mobile and more compact instruments are to facilitate taking prints of fingertips and palms also at the scene of mass disasters. In the presented study, living persons and corpses were examined to find out the possible uses and limits of mobile one-finger scanners. The concrete issue of the investigation was whether the mobile one-finger scanner Cross Match MV5 is suitable for application in mass disasters. The device was used in 12 corpses aged 5 weeks to 76 years (mean postmortem interval 5.5 days) and in 28 living persons aged 6 weeks to 87 years. In summary, the scanner produced qualitatively good prints in all age groups of the living individuals. In the corpses, the prints were only partly evaluable. In particular, fingers and fingertips with soot blackening and livid discoloration were difficult to analyse. Postmortem rigidity also complicated the handling of the scanner. In fresh corpses, the scanner can be recommended without reservation. Even if the epidermis was detached, the scanner was able to produce evaluable prints of the dermis of the hypothenar.