Managing Change: Focus on Improving Service Quality and Information Management

Then there are the organisations that want to shape the future. These companies learn to anticipate the possible directions the future may take and begin to blaze the new path without hesitation. The leaders of these companies encourage their people to challenge conventional thinking, to change the business dramatically, and to create continuous renewal and progress. These companies don't just want to survive — they want to lead. They want to write the rules that others will follow.     

Can we measure civil society? A proposed methodology for international comparative research

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the concept of civil society in development and governance circles. Broadly understood as the space in society where collective citizen action takes place, civil society has, in fact, proved an extremely difficult concept to define and operationalise. This article proposes a framework and methodology for measuring and comparing the state of different civil societies around the world. It concludes with a discussion of outstanding questions and challenges, drawing on preliminary insights from current efforts to apply the approach in more than 50 countries.     

Measuring the effects of the guilty but mentally Ill (GBMI) verdict

We studied effects of guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) legislation on use of the insanity defense in Georgia using data on all defendants entering an insanity plea before (1976–1981) and after (1982–1985) the introduction of the GBMI verdict. In contrast to earlier studies, our results indicated that GBMI did decrease the likelihood of an insanity verdict and affected the composition of those found not guilty by reason of insanity. Defendants pleading insanity and found GBMI were typically white males with a serious mental disorder, charged with murder or robbery in which an unrelated female victim was involved. The data also indicated that defendants who pleaded insanity and were found GBMI received harsher sentences than their guilty counterparts. We conclude that the GBMI verdict will make the insanity plea a less appealing option for mentally ill defendants.     

Automated headspace solid-phase microextraction and capillary gas chromatography analysis of ethanol in postmortem specimens

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a relatively new solventless sample preparation technique that allows simultaneous sampling, extraction, pre-concentration, and introduction of analytes from a sample matrix in a single procedure. This methodology has been used for the analysis of several drugs of forensic toxicology interest including volatile compounds. This paper describes a methodology for analysis of ethanol and other volatile compounds using automatic headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and capillary gas chromatography in postmortem specimens. The methodology was initially developed using standard solutions of acetaldehyde, acetone, methanol, and ethanol. Isobutanol was used as internal standard. Postmortem samples of blood, urine, and vitreous humor were obtained during medico-legal autopsies. To date, there are no published paper regarding alcohol analysis in vitreous humor specimens using HS-SPME and limited literature analyzing blood and urine samples. HS-SPME analysis showed that, under optimized conditions, ethanol and isobutanol (internal standard) were well-separated from other volatile compounds such as acetaldehyde, acetone, and methanol considered to be potential interferents in ethanol analysis. The calibration curves for each volatile compound demonstrated good linearity throughout the concentration range from 0.001 to 1.0 g/dl and the detection limit of ethanol in the studied specimens was approximately 0.0001 g/dl.     

Exploring psychological features in adolescents who assault their parents: a different profile of young offenders?

This study aimed to explore some psychological features of adolescents who have been reported by their parents for being violent towards them, analysing how they differ from other young offenders and from non-offender adolescents. Concretely, the presence of clinical diagnosis was explored and whether these juveniles received some psychological/psychiatric treatment. Moreover, this study examined substance use and some variables that characterise the social-cognitive style of these juveniles, along with the level of self-esteem. Information concerning clinical diagnosis and psychological/psychiatric treatment was extracted from the young offenders’ legal files. Measures included the social-cognitive subscale from the attitudes and social-cognitive strategies questionnaire (AECS), Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and a structured interview to assess substance use. Results indicated that juveniles who assaulted their parents present a different profile when compared to the other groups, as they showed a higher presence of psychopathology and more social-cognitive difficulties. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the design and implementation of specific treatments with these aggressive adolescents.     

Physical attractiveness, issue agreement, and assimilation effects in candidate appraisal

This study examines the cognitive and affective factors of candidate appraisal by manipulating candidate attractiveness and levels of issue agreement with voters. Drawing upon research in evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience, this analysis proposes that automatic processing of physical appearance predisposes affective disposition toward more attractive candidates, thereby influencing cognitive processing of issue information. An experimental design presented attractive and unattractive candidates who were either liberal or conservative in a mock primary election. The data show strong partial effects for appearance on vote intention, an interaction between appearance and issue agreement, and a tendency for voters to assimilate the dissimilar views of attractive candidates. We argue that physical appearance is important in primary elections when the differences in issue positions and ideology between candidates is small.