Caregiver Stress and Elder Abuse among Korean Family Caregivers of Older Adults with Disabilities

This study aims to identify risk factors and mediating factors of elder abuse among older adults with disabilities being cared for by their family caregivers. The data were based on a sample of 1,000 primary family caregivers from the Comprehensive Study for the Elderly Welfare Policy in Seoul (2003). Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify significant indicators for the degree of elder abuse, such as cognitive impairment, functional ability (ADL), caregiving involvement, economic strain, caregiver burden, and social support for the degree of elder abuse. In the full model, ADLs, cognitive problems, economic strain, caregiver burden, informal social support, and formal social support were significantly associated with elder abuse. The findings suggest that psychosocial support services and programs for family caregivers are needed to prevent and reduce the prevalence of elder abuse in South Korea. The research data were drawn with permission from the Seoul Development Institute and this project was funded by the Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor’s Office, Welfare & Women’s Bureau.     

Paternity determination when the alleged father's genotypes are unavailable.

In paternity testing using the DNA evidence, analysis of the deficiency case when the DNA profiles of the alleged father are not available is different from that of the case with complete evidence. In this paper, we describe how to evaluate and determine the paternity in the deficiency case, by comparing the paternity indexes of the true father and the falsely non-excluded man.     

Elections as Focusing Events: Explaining Attitudes Toward the Police and the Government in Comparative Perspective

Traditional views hold that citizens' attitudes toward the police are driven by local concerns. We contend that public attitudes toward the police are responsive to systematic and periodic national-level political factors. In particular, we show that national elections as a focusing event alter periodically the determinants of attitudes toward the police. Using a logistic regression model and diachronic data from Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States, we find that attitudes toward the police and the national government are linked, and this linkage is responsive to the influence of national election campaigns in varying degrees. In addition, we find that attitudes toward the Mexican police are sensitive to partisan changes in the composition of the national political government. We find no such sensitivity in the police attitudes of Costa Rican and U.S. citizens. This suggests that police attitudes are not only affected by the performance of the national political government but also by the character (consolidated versus unconsolidated) of the national political government. In short, police attitudes in new democracies are an indication of the unconsolidated nature of the state apparatus.     

元明清时期中国西南地区的交通发展

元明清时期,中国西南地区主要存在6条对外通道,虽然各条道路的旅行时间在这一时期变化不大,但元明清政府所投入的巨大人力物力极大地改善了西南水陆交通状况,降低了交通运输成本,使西南地区的贸易量有了显著的增长.     

Psychological Dimensions of the Israeli Settlements Issue: Endowments and Identities

When you have a rational discussion of what to do with the Israeli settlements, how do you factor in the irrational, the deeply held beliefs of people with varying views? As we witnessed at the conference, when people speak about the Israeli settlements, they do so with emotion, using such phrases as “Messianic spirit,”“longing for homeland,”“compassionate revenge,” and “the destruction of dreams.” The land in question is precious to two different groups, who each imbue the land with their own narrative and fervor. In fact, at the very heart of what makes the settlements issue so complex and seemingly intractable is its psychological dimensions — the mental and emotional factors that permeate the discussion at every level.     

Variation in Methods of Cardiac Dissection—A Potential Confounder in Measuring Cardiac Weight at Autopsy

To evaluate whether the weight of the heart measured at autopsy may be affected by the type of dissection, a prospective study was undertaken of the weights of sequential cases of nonpediatric hearts. Four hundred fifty‐eight hearts were examined (age range 17–96 years; mean 55.9 years; M:F = 3:1). The hearts were each weighed fresh, once the apex had been sliced, the auricles of the atria opened and blood drained, and again once the cardiac chambers had been opened completely. The difference in the partially and fully opened heart weights (range 146–1028 g; mean 434.8 g; range 134–1011 g; mean 420.8 g, respectively) (p < 0.05) ranged from 0 to 100 g (mean 14 g). In the most extreme example, the weight of the partially opened heart was 30.3% higher than that of the fully opened specimen. Failure to fully open the heart prior to weighing may result in significant error.