Deception and Mutual Gains Bargaining: Are They Mutually Exclusive?

Conclusion We have made great strides in recent years teaching more people — in classrooms, corporate training sessions, and actual negotiations — about negotiations, including how to be more ethical and how to ensure that integrative joint gains are not left on the table. The fact that we even need to write an article like this is an indication of the advances that have been made.Yet exactly because of these advances, more care needs to be taken to ensure that the subtle distinction between what is ethical and what is integrative is maintained. Being ethical in negotiations is more complicated than producing greater joint utility, and the techniques that are helpful for producing greater joint utility should not be made more complicated by the addition of ethical concerns. Each issue — ethics and mutual gains bargaining — can stand on its own, and benefits by being considered on its own. By maintaining this distinction, we believe each will have greater clarity and greater impact, and our teaching and training will be both better received and more valuable to those we teach.     

A Statistical Model of Bilateral Cooperation

In most situations of bilateral cooperation we can observe onlywhether or not potential partners actually cooperate. Yet weoften want to know what factors lead the actors to enter intoand continue cooperation. The model we develop—a dynamicversion of bivariate probit with partial observability—permitsone to estimate the probabilities that either of two partieswould want to cooperate and to identify the factors that affectthese probabilities. As an illustration, we focus on agreementsbetween national governments and the International MonetaryFund. The model should have a wide applicability.     

Photographic evidence protocol: the use of digital imaging methods to rectify angular distortion and create life size reproductions of bite mark evidence

Bite mark evidence seen in skin injuries or objects is commonly photographed for evidentiary documentation, preservation, and analysis. Distortion in forensic evidence photographs diminishes the outcome of analytical procedures available to the forensic odontologist. Inaccurate positioning of the evidence, camera, or measurement reference scale creates perspective and parallax distortion of the captured image. These variables must be eliminated, if possible, to ensure reliable results derived from comparison of the suspect teeth and the bite mark. Detection and measurement of camera/evidence/scale misalignment is the threshold step in evidence evaluation, and is possible through digital imaging methods coupled with established methods. Correction (rectification) of perspective distortion is possible through the application of additional digital editing techniques. This study establishes type categories of perspective and parallax distortion seen in bite mark evidence, validates the use of the digital imaging tools of Adobe Photoshop to correct certain types of distortion, and establishes a forensic protocol to verify the accuracy of evidence photographs requiring dimensional accuracy.     

Characteristics of assaultive patients with schizophrenia versus personality disorder: six year analysis of the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP)

Literature reviews of individual assaultive patients, repetitively violent patients, and restrained assaultive patients document that persons diagnosed with schizophrenia or personality disorder are at the highest risk to become assaultive. While there has been some initial research of possible predictor variables across diagnostic groups, this six-year retrospective study is the first to compare only persons with schizophrenia or personality disorder on basic demographic and the selected clinical variables of history of violence, personal victimization, and substance use disorder. In this study, the variance suggested that persons with schizophrenia and personality disorder were both likely to be assaultive. Assaults by persons with schizophrenia were somewhat proportional to their presence in the population studied. However, personality disordered patients represented a disproportional increase from the population studied. Younger females with a diagnosis of personality disorder and with histories of violence toward others and personal victimization appeared at increased risk to be assaultive and to require restraints. The findings and their implications for safety and clinical care are discussed.     

A Biomechanical Evaluation of Skull–Brain Surrogates to Blunt High‐Rate Impacts to Postmortem Human Subjects

The field of forensic injury biomechanics is an emerging field. Biomechanically validated tools may assist interdisciplinary teams of investigators in assessing mechanisms of blunt head trauma resulting in skull fractures. The objective of this study is to assess the biofidelity of spherical, frangible skull–brain (SB) surrogates. Blunt impacts were conducted at 20 m/s, using an instrumented 103 g rigid impactor, to the temporo‐parietal region of four defleshed cephalic postmortem human subjects (PMHS). Force–deformation response, fracture tolerance, and fracture patterns were recorded for comparison to spherical skull–brain surrogates. Three brain substitutes were assessed: 10% gelatin, lead shot with Styrofoam and water. Force–deformation response of the skull–brain surrogates was similar to defleshed PMHS up to the point of fracture; however, none of the surrogates fractured at tolerance levels comparable to the PMHS. Fracture patterns of the skull–brain surrogates were linear and radiating, while PMHS fractures were all depressed, comminuted.     

Psychometric Properties of the Trauma and Post-Trauma Well-Being Assessment Domains of the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale for General and Reunification Services (NCFAS G+R)

Two new domains of the NCFAS-G+R, trauma and post-trauma well-being, were tested for reliability and validity in relation to previous NCFAS-G+R domains. Three family preservation programs provided case level data on 170 in-home service families over six months. Domains were tested for reliability using Cronbach's alpha, factor structure was explored, and convergent validity was examined through correlations of new scale items with domain ratings on the NCFAS-G+R. Assessment ratings were cross tabulated with practice and outcome variables. Reliability of the new domains was established with Cronbach's alphas of .811 and .905, respectively, factor structure was confirmed, new scale items and domains correlated predictably and significantly with other NCFAS domains. Outcome variables were influenced by trauma assessment ratings. Displaying good psychometric properties, the trauma-focused assessment domains hold promise for assisting child welfare practitioners assess trauma symptomology, and post-trauma well-being following services.