Attachment Models in Incarcerated Sex Offenders: A Preliminary Italian Study Using the Adult Attachment Interview

A group of sex offenders (clinical group: n = 19) was compared to a nonclinical sample matched by age, years of education, and gender (control group A: n = 19) to verify a higher incidence of insecure attachment models among sex offenders. In addition, we tested whether sex offenders were characterized by specific childhood experiences, compared to control adults (control group B: n = 19) with the same secure/insecure attachment classification. Results showed significant differences between offenders and control adults on both the AAI continuous score and the distribution of the two-way attachment classifications. Furthermore, sex offenders reported more intense experiences of rejection by the father figure and abuse in the family context during early childhood compared to not offenders subjects with the same attachment classification.     

Determination of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Postmortem Samples in Ectopic Pregnancies

Increased human chorionic gonadotropin levels (HCG) can be detected in femoral blood, bile, and vitreous humor collected during autopsy of pregnant women using a standard kit designed for living patients. In the study herein, the concentrations of HCG were measured in postmortem serum, vitreous, bile, cerebrospinal, and pericardial fluids in 4 cases of fatal ectopic pregnancy and 40 controls using a quantitative electrochemiluminescence immunoassay designed for living patients. No false‐negative cases were identified in any of the analyzed samples in any of the ectopic pregnancy cases. No correlations were found between total HCG levels in postmortem serum and the other tested specimens. The results of this study would suggest that higher HCG in bile, vitreous, pericardial, and cerebrospinal fluids may confirm the existence of ectopic pregnancy and therefore identify other situations in which this hormone is increased, although gestational age cannot be reliably estimated using these values.     

The impact of technology complexity on the financial performance of R&D projects: evidence from Singapore

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Prior empirical research is inconclusive in determining whether technology complexity influences the financial performance of research commercialization...     

Global perspectives on scientists’ roles in legislative policymaking

Policy Sciences - The question of how scientists should engage in policymaking has spurred both pragmatic and philosophical debates for decades. Scant empirical research addressing how experts...     

Universities and start-up creation by Ph.D. graduates: the role of scientific and social capital of academic laboratories

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper investigates how the characteristics of university laboratories influence the propensity of Ph.D. students to entrepreneurship, and thus, contribute...     

A Comparative Analysis of SME Friendly Public Procurement: Results from Canada,Hungary and Italy

This paper studies SMEs’ participation in public procurement in light of perceived barriers and expected benefits of accessing the public marketplace. It presents a comparative analysis of SMEs’ participation in three countries that share similar approaches to SME-friendly public procurement. A common survey protocol was developed to be administered to SMEs in the three countries. Data collected were then analysed using regression methods. Findings suggest that some issues that are typically considered critical barriers, namely administrative requirements and award based on lowest price do not hinder participation. However, findings also suggest that firms’ characteristics associated with size are still relevant hindrances, and that SMEs’ involvement are affected by a shortage of tangible (human and financial) and intangible resources (experience). These findings provide guidance to fine-tune public procurement policies directed to SMEs.     

Notes on Italian foreign politics

The relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran both shapes and is shaped by a new Middle Eastern “Cold War”. The United States and the Islamic Republic should transcend the prospects for hegemonial conflict or strategic standoff and seek a fundamental realignment of their relations, along the lines of the realignment in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China that took place during President Richard Nixon's tenure in the White House. The article examines the imperatives for a comprehensive and strategic realignment of US–Iranian relations from the standpoint of Iranian interests and foreign policy concepts as well as from an American perspective. It also evaluates the actual prospects for US–Iranian rapprochement.     

CONTINUITY / DISCONTINUITY

Starting from issues Wang Hui raises in “The Dialectics of Autonomy and Opening” (Critical Asian Studies 43:2), the authors of this article focus on the problematic coexistence of continuities and discontinuities in modern and contemporary Chinese politics. China's present role in the international scene, they argue, cannot be assessed in terms of economic performance, but requires new perspectives for rethinking the search of China for an original path in domestic politics, as well as the universalistic attitude toward the various forms of thinking coming from all over the world.     

The EU Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation and the roots of the ‘right to be forgotten’

The EU Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation has caused a wide debate between lawyers and legal scholars and many opinions have been voiced on the issue of the right to be forgotten. In order to analyse the relevance of the new rule provided by Article 17 of the Proposal, this paper considers the original idea of the right to be forgotten, pre-existing in both European and U.S. legal frameworks. This article focuses on the new provisions of Article 17 of the EU Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation and evaluates its effects on court decisions. The author assumes that the new provisions do not seem to represent a revolutionary change to the existing rules with regard to the right granted to the individual, but instead have an impact on the extension of the protection of the information disseminated on-line.