GABA Receptors,Alcohol Dependence and Criminal Behavior

The aim of this study was to analyze the connection between alcohol dependence and criminal behavior by an integrated genetic–environmental approach. The research, structured as a case–control study, examined 186 alcohol‐dependent males; group 1 (N = 47 convicted subjects) was compared with group 2 (N = 139 no previous criminal records). Genetic results were innovative, highlighting differences in genotype distribution (p = 0.0067) in group 1 for single‐nucleotide polymorphism rs 3780428, located in the intronic region of subunit 2 of the GABA B receptor gene (GABBR2). Some environmental factors (e.g., grade repetition) were associated with criminal behavior; others (e.g., attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous) were inversely related to convictions. The concomitant presence of the genetic and environmental factors found to be associated with the condition of alcohol‐dependent inmate showed a 4‐fold increase in the risk of antisocial behavior. The results need to be replicated on a larger population to develop new preventive and therapeutic proposals.     

Urbs and Civitas: Stone Order and Civil Order Collapsing in Some Cinematographic Examples

The assimilation of the architectural sign to the linguistic one, is the way that allow us to analyze the architectural element of the city, according to the symbolic and conventional way, but giving to the architectural sign an iconic value that we could read through reconstruction of city in films. It is possible if we consider city as artwork seen according to the definition of Lynch. There is a temporal and special dimension, the urban dimension, which would otherwise not be ‘visible’ to the naked eye or perceivable with hearing. City as an artwork can be read for more reasons, through the cinema in the translation of an architectural semiotics that finds a double correspondence of Urbs and Civitas, in the real building of the city and in its re-construction. In this contest, some Italian movies of Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, for example, beyond the traditional interpretations, can give us indications about the moments and ‘points’ of collapse that we can find in ‘signs’ and ‘singular points’. It’s in these points that we found the signs of evolution, breakdown and collapse of relationship between Urbs and Civitas.

     

Die Konstitutionalisierung Europas zwischen Konvent,Regierungskonferenz und Verfassungsvertrag

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Correction to: The EU as a norm promoter through trade. The perceptions of Vietnamese elites

Asia Europe Journal - The original version of this paper unfortunately contained mistake, the correct sentence should be.     

The Policy Basis of Measured Partisan Animosity in the United States

Understanding and addressing the consequences of partisan animosity requires knowledge of its foundations. To what extent is animosity between partisan groups motivated by dislike for partisan outgroups per se, policy disagreement, or other social group conflicts? In many circumstances, including extant experimental research, these patterns are observationally equivalent. In a series of vignette evaluation experiments, we estimate effects of shared partisanship when additional information is or is not present, and we benchmark these effects against shared policy preference effects. Partisanship effects are about 71% as large as shared policy preference effects when each is presented in isolation. When an independently randomized party and policy position are presented together, partisanship effects decrease substantially, by about 52%, whereas policy effects remain large, decreasing by about 10%. These results suggest that common measures of partisan animosity may capture programmatic conflict more so than social identity–based partisan hostility.     

Between Occupation and Politics: Legislative Professionalization in the Swiss Cantons

In this article, we consider the question of how professionalized the cantonal parliamentarians are and which factors are related to this professionalization. By definition, Swiss parliamentarians exert an occupation in parallel to their mandate. We argue that parliamentarians who spend more time for their mandate have more resources to do so and, more importantly, intend to pursue a political career. In doing so, we analyze data gathered from a survey that was conducted among all Swiss cantonal parliaments in 2014. Our multi‐level analysis shows that parliamentarians who run for office at the national level spend significantly more time for their parliamentary mandate than their colleagues. This effect decreases with the parliamentarians’ age. This finding could be relevant in order to understand the career paths of Swiss parliamentarians. In addition, the study contributes to the discussion of the future development of the militia system in Switzerland.     

The Return of Political Risk: Foreign-Owned Banks in Emerging Europe

Political risk—risk that investments are damaged by policy action of authorities—increased during the financial crisis due to controversies about the distribution of accumulated losses among stakeholders. Authorities interconnected by cross-border banks considered unilateral policies that minimised losses for domestic stakeholders at the expense of their foreign counterparts. This is at odds both with the assumption behind financial integration which presumes multilateral responses to cross-border shocks and with the typical definition of political risks that ignores the fact that not only host-country, but also home-country authorities can create such risks. This paper recasts the definition of political risk and reviews instances when political risk materialised within the EU banking market between 2007 and 2011. The analysis reveals that the EU regulatory framework needs to be enhanced to contain resurgent political risks systematically rather than through ad hoc interventions of the EU and international bodies.