A pilot study of the suicide victim's last contact with a health professional

Suicide victims frequently have contact with health care professionals in the months before death. The primary aims of this pilot psychological autopsy study were to determine the feasibility of undertaking a full study and to describe the characteristics of the last health care professional contacts with suicide victims aged > 34 years. We interviewed the informants of 52 suicides. Interviews were obtained from 37 health care professionals who had contact with 28 of the suicides during the 3 months before death. The primary reasons for the last contact with the health care professional were mental health (62%), physical health (22%), and social (14%). 87% of health care professional contacts occurred within 1 month of death. Symptoms of depression were noted in 49% of health care professional contacts. Consensus psychological autopsy diagnoses of depression were made in 64% of suicide victims. Overall suicide risk was assessed by 38% of health care professionals during their last contact. This was more likely to occur when the deceased presented as depressed, was aged < 60 years or seen by a psychiatrist. None was assessed to be suicidal. The family informants regarded nine of the suicide victims to have been suicidal before death but informed a health care professional in only one third of the cases. Critical information that might have altered the management is not often accessed from family members.     

Party leaders and voter responses to political terrorism

Public Choice - In this article, we study the political implications of terrorism rooted in extremist political ideologies. Our data uniquely allow studying the potential role of party leader...     

Identity and Media-use Strategies of the Estonian and Latvian Russian-speaking Populations Amid Political Crisis

Abstract

In this essay, we examine the connections between media use and trust strategies, and the identity development of the Russian-speaking populations in Estonia and Latvia in the context of the political crisis in Ukraine. We argue against the levelling, uniform view of Russian-speaking audiences as being completely under the influence of Russian media and thereby politically identifying themselves with the Kremlin. We present a typology of Russian-speaking audiences, explain how they construct their identities as audience members within these types in times of political crisis, and discuss how this self-identification as audience members shapes the development of broader civic and ethnic identities among the Estonian and Latvian Russian-speaking populations.     

Skin penetration surrogate for the evaluation of less lethal kinetic energy munitions

Although the benefits of the use of less lethal kinetic energy munitions are numerous, there is a need to evaluate the munitions prior to deployment to ensure their intended effect. The objective of the current research was to validate a surrogate that could be used to predict the risk of penetration of these devices. Existing data from biomechanical testing with post-mortem human specimens (PMHS) served as the foundation for this research. Development of the surrogate involved simulating the various layers of the skin and underlying soft tissues using a combination of materials. A standardized 12-gauge impactor was used to assess each combination. The energy density that resulted in a 50% risk of penetration for the anterior thorax region (23.99 J/cm(2)) from the previous research was matched using a specific combination of layers. Twelve various combinations of materials were tested with the 50% risk of penetration determined. The final validated surrogate consisted of a Laceration Assessment Layer (LAL) of natural chamois and .6 cm of closed-cell foam over a Penetration Assessment Layer (PAL) of 20% ordnance gelatin. This surrogate predicted a 50% risk of penetration at 23.88 J/cm(2). Injury risk curves for the PMHS and surrogate development work are presented.     

The Predicament of Modern Law: Parker's History of a Law Without a History that Matters

Kunal Parker's Common Law, History, and Democracy in America, 1790–1900: Legal Thought Before Modernism shows how nineteenth‐century thinkers thought about law and history differently than do post‐Holmesian modernist sociolegal scholars, whose ahistorical law appears contingent on politics, power, or will. Understanding time and history to be essential to law, nineteenth‐century jurists conceived of a common law that was able to work with and to shape democracy, Parker argues. Contra modernist histories then, Parker claims that the common law was not a reactionary force that stood in the way of democracy and economy. His history of legal thought before modernism suggests, further, the predicament of antifoundationalist modern law and modernist scholars: stripped of time and without its own history, how can law be anything other than politics, power, or will?     

Coercive Diplomacy: Israel,Transjordan and the UN—a Triangular Drama Revisited

The Arab states suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of Israel during the first Arab–Israeli war. Immediately following the war, Israel made brilliant and shrewd use of diplomacy to achieve its goals at the negotiating table, much as it had previously used armed force. Israel refused to negotiate with a united Arab negotiation team, preferring to isolate the states, picking them off one after the other. The Israeli–Transjordanian talks differed radically from the other armistice negotiations. Here, two parallel tracks were followed. At Rhodes, the two countries negotiated openly under UN auspices, while in Jerusalem and at King Abdullah's palace in Transjordan, representatives of the two countries held secret bilateral talks. Israel masterfully used the context of these talks to maximise its gains, using military operations to create ‘facts on the ground’, combined with direct coercion in the shape of blackmail, while taking full advantage of international power structures and abusing the trust that King Abdullah had placed in personal relations. The UN Acting Mediator, Ralph Bunche, was aware of the secret back channel, where the clearest cases of coercion took place. Physically and mentally exhausted by the protracted negotiations, he allowed the secret talks to progress despite his dislike of the outcome. The British government, at the time the protector of Transjordan, was unable to assist its client for fear of falling out with the USA, while the US government, in many ways the protector of Israel, maintained an equally ‘hands off’ stance because the talks concerned only an armistice, not a peace treaty. Already at this early stage in their relations, the power asymmetry between Israel and the Arab states was the main reason the parties could not arrive at a peaceful, sustainable solution. This article reinvestigates this diplomacy by using a combination of US, Israeli, British and UN archives, as well as the almost untouched Ralph Bunche diary.     

Alcoholism Level Differences between Vietnamese Batterers and Non-Batterers

Frequency of alcohol consumption and alcoholism levels were compared between Vietnamese batterers and non-batterers. A sample of 200 Vietnamese men was administered a self-reported questionnaire which combined the Conflict Tactics Scale 2 and the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test. Results of the study revealed statistical significant differences between the two groups regarding frequency of alcohol consumption and alcoholism levels. However, through logistic regression analysis, it was found that participants’ frequency of alcohol consumption and alcoholism levels were not statistically significant in predicting battering among Vietnamese men. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Determining Factors of the Effectiveness of IP-based Spin-offs: Comparing the Netherlands and the US

In this paper we describe and analyse IP-based spin-offs as a relatively new phenomenon for transferring knowledge from science to industry. We argue that the effectiveness of this mechanism is subject to a complex array of institutional factors. These factors entail national, sectoral, regional and managerial institutions. Based on an indicative comparison between the Netherlands and the United States we find that is especially the combination of national and sectoral institutions that condition whether an IP-based spin-off is established in the first place, whereas regional and managerial institutions condition its subsequent chances of success. We finish by formulating some notions for public policy.