Freedom in paradise: quality of conditional release reports submitted to the Hawaii judiciary

Annually thousands of insanity acquitees are released from mental hospitals when they are no longer determined to be dangerous. This research examined quality of post-acquittal Conditional Release (CR) reports submitted to the Hawaii Judiciary. Hawaii utilizes a “three panel” system for assessing trial felony competency, criminal responsibility, and conditional release, where typically two psychologists (one Department of Health and one community-based) and one community-based psychiatrist submit independent reports to the Court. One hundred fifty CR reports were rated using a 44-item report quality measure. Interrater reliability trials indicated good to excellent agreement between quality ratings. Overall level of report quality was poor regardless of examiners' professional discipline, employer, or board certification status. Concordance rates for CR opinions were poor. Level of agreement between the judicial determination and majority recommendations was also poor. Reasons for the poor quality and level of agreement are discussed with recommendations for report quality improvement, including standardization of procedures and use of forensic risk assessment instruments.     

Sickle cell trait-associated deaths: a case series with a review of the literature

This study presents a series of 16 carriers of hemoglobin S (HbS) who died during various circumstances. Many of the cases were associated with mild to moderate exertion. The onset and/or duration of symptoms varied from a few minutes to several hours with many displaying a prolonged lucid interval with stable vital signs. Despite seeking medical treatment, sickle cell trait-related micro-occlusive crisis was never considered in the differential diagnosis. Several cases were associated with sudden death. In those deaths which were delayed, high anion gap and uncompensated metabolic acidosis were typical and were not heat related. Also characteristic were large increases in creatine kinase, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase along with myoglobinemia. Although the antemortem diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis was made, the underlying cause was never deduced by the clinicians. The sickling found at autopsy is not always a postmortem artifact, and in the right circumstances can be diagnostic.     

Indirect holdings of securities and exercise of shareholder rights (a Spanish perspective)

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• Shareholder rights have been the centre of the debatein Corporate Governance since recently. At the same time, modernsecurities markets have evolved and changed profoundly in recentdecades, both in the way in which the securities are representedand transferred—through electronic book entries held byintermediaries—and in the geographical reach of such transfers:every corner of the world.
• Recent research has thoroughly analysedthe effects of the indirect holding system in those countriesthat have chosen to give legal status to indirect holding systems(where the paradigm is the USA), leading to the conclusion thatin these countries the issuer–investor relationship encountersfar more difficulties than in those that facilitate direct holding.Some scholars have even proposed that countries such as theUSA should move into a direct holding similar to the Spanishone.
• This article analyses whether direct holdings facilitatethe said issuer–investor relationship by reviewing . . . [Full Text of this Article]