Structures,functions and flows of IWT: deconstructing a criminal network between East Africa and Southeast Asia

Crime, Law and Social Change - The paper investigates the role of criminal networks in fostering illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and how these relational structures interact with transnational...     

The association between psychopathic personality traits and health-related outcomes

Purpose

Psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits (PPT) have been linked to a long list of negative life outcomes. To date, however, few studies have provided a systematic analysis of whether psychopathic personality traits contribute to increased health burden. The current study was designed to address this gap in the literature.

Method

This study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and employed a measure of PPT derived from the five-factor model of personality. Analyses were conducted using OLS, logistic, and Poisson regression techniques.

Results

The results revealed that relatively higher scores on psychopathic personality traits were associated with a slight increase in a wide range of negative health outcomes. These significant associations were detected for both males and females.

Conclusions

We speak to the importance of these findings for the potential to reduce health burden among psychopaths and those who score relatively high on measures of psychopathic personality traits.     

The Impact of Voter Evaluations of Leaders’ Traits on Voting Behaviour: Evidence from Seven European Countries

This article aims to examine how the evaluation of party leaders’ traits influences voting behaviour. The work incorporates data from election studies across seven countries with different social contexts (Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Hungary). Characteristics of leaders were placed into two groups: competence and warmth, in accordance with the stereotype content model and relevant studies on evaluations of leaders’ traits. Since different personality traits were evaluated within each country, the analysis was based on the two aforementioned dimensions and the political ideology of the leader. Multiple sequential binary logistic regression models were performed to analyse the predictive power of competence and warmth on voting behaviour, controlling for socio-demographic and political ideology variables of voters. Results reinforce the personalisation of politics theory, showing the relevance of leaders’ warm personality traits. As for the competence dimension, it was proven to be decisive only with regard to left-wing party leaders.     

Self‐Embedding Behavior in Adults: A Report of Two Cases and a Systematic Review

Self‐embedding behavior (SEB) is the repeated insertion of sharp objects, such as needles or pins, into the soft tissues of abdomen, limbs, and other body parts. In this study, two cases of SEB were reported and the scientific worldwide literature reviewed. Thirty‐two cases of SEB were identified through systematic searches in the main bibliographic databases. Mean age was 35 years (SD = 8.97). Just over two‐thirds of the patients were female. Although the number of embedded objects could be as high as 200, major clinical and surgical complications were uncommon and mortality was null. Patients with SEB presented three major diagnoses: psychotic (25%), personality (21.9%), and factitious (28.1%) disorders. The practice of SEB largely went undetected as the patients themselves did not bring it to the attention of family members or physicians and usually denied they have engaged in SEB. A high level of suspicion is required to avoid a missed diagnosis.     

Training for Cultural Production and Management in Brazil

This article aims to contribute to the field of arts management by identifying the need to make cultural production/management an established field of professional practice and training in Brazil, and the challenges of doing so. To accomplish this, we reviewed several publications and we present first a discourse on theoretical texts in relation to the idea of culture and systems of cultural production and then an analysis of arts management publications in Brazil with observations about this field of work. In this article, we address the current paucity of training opportunities of this kind, the extent to which these roles have yet to be professionalized, and indicate, in the conclusion, that this is a matter of increasing importance and concern for cultural policy in Brazil.     

What will work? the Costa Rican experience using silos in achieving universal health care 2000

The study of comparative and development administration frees governments from their parochial confines. It opens vistas onto global experiences of what has worked well for others elsewhere and enlarges the range of possible choices that might be made to improve domestic performance. After the World Health Organization in 1977 had adopted the goal “Health for All in the Year 2000,” the Pan American Health Organization opted for the strategy of achieving it though local health systems (SILOS). Costa Rica, the most likely candidate for successful implementation, adopted SILOS in the late 1980s but has run into many difficulties in making SILOS a reality. The difficulties and the impact that SILOS have made on the national health service of Costa Rica are examined and several lessons are drawn to illustrate once again how difficult comparative and development administration are in practice.     

Rethinking Critique: Becoming Clinician

Law and Critique - Today, capitalism functions as a very complex tool of colonisation capturing our desires, dreams, and putting life itself at risk. Its effects lead us all to times of extreme...     

Men and intimate partner rape: characteristics of men who sexually abuse their partner

This article explores men's use of sexual violence against their intimate partner. Although there is a growing body of information about men's use of physical violence, there is less data about men's sexual violence in intimate partnerships. Data were collected from 229 men who were enrolled in an intervention program for men who abuse. Of men in this study, 53% had sexually assaulted their partner at least one time. This article will address the ways in which this sample of men sexually abused their partner and the connection between physical and sexual abuse within their relationships.     

Cuba''s Revolutionary Foreign Policy Concept

At the invitation of Cui Liru, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez Costa paid a visit to CICIR on November 13, 2006. Following are the contents of his speech in CICIR.