The Firm Subtleties of a Philosopher in 'Everlasting Doubt': Remembering Norberto Bobbio

This is the first paper in a new series which focuses on European scholars whose work, because of language issues, may not be widely known within the English-speaking world.     

Community elder-care in Tasmania: examining whether caregivers believe they "make-a-difference" in an urban and rural island

Adult caregivers (n = 184;Mage = 43.9 years old) working at a non-profit, eldercare program at five geographically diverse sites located in the self-contained, island state of Tasmania, Australia, completed a set of self-report measures. Results across the five sites indicated that respondents experienced a relatively strong sense of self-efficacy toward making a difference in their local community. However, there were significant differences (controlling for social desirability) when comparing caregivers from rural northern (n = 45) with urban southern (n = 139) communities, with rural caregivers claiming stronger sense of common mission with others, reciprocal responsibility to help others, and caregiver satisfaction, plus lower disharmony with other members and caregiver stress in helping the elderly than urban caregivers. Implications suggest that community self-efficacy may be high among eldercare staff, but their sense of community and caregiving perceptions may reflect geographic differences, especially in Tasmania.     

Structural social support: impact on adult substance use and recovery attempts

This study examined the structural social support of 132 men residing in a network of self-run, substance abuse recovery homes. The impact of different types of social relationships on individuals' substance use patterns and recovery attempts was investigated. Results suggest that varying relationship types (i.e., parents, significant other, friends, children, coworkers) have significantly different influences on use and recovery. Additionally, each type of relationship had differential impacts on use versus recovery. Children were the sole relationship type that affected both substance use and recovery attempts in a positive nature, suggesting that children may have a beneficial impact on reducing.     

Economic costs of Oxford House inpatient treatment and incarceration: a preliminary report

The Oxford House model for substance abuse recovery has potential economic advantages associated with the low cost of opening up and maintaining the settings. In the present study, annual program costs per person were estimated for Oxford House based on federal loan information and data collected from Oxford House Inc. In addition, annual treatment and incarceration costs were approximated based on participant data prior to Oxford House residence in conjunction with normative costs for these settings. Societal costs associated with the Oxford House program were relatively low, whereas estimated costs associated with inpatient and incarceration history were high. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The influence of policy on the differential expansion of male and female self-run recovery settings

The present study used archival data to examine the differential growth among self-governed substance abuse recovery homes for men (N = 443) and women (N = 125). The number of these homes increased dramatically across the U.S. from 1988-1999 when state loan funds were made available to states and technical assistance was utilized by organizations developing the houses. State loan programs and the utilization of technical assistance, however, had the strongest impact on the expansion of women's houses compared to men's houses. The implications of these findings in relation to the scarcity of recovery options for women are discussed.     

Rapid analysis of caffeine in "smart drugs" and "energy drinks" by microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC)

A novel method based on microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) with diode array detection (DAD) for rapid determination of caffeine in commercial and clandestine stimulants, known as "energy drinks" and "smart drugs", is described. Separations were carried out in 50 cm × 50 μm (ID) uncoated fused silica capillaries. The optimized buffer electrolyte was composed of 8.85 mM sodium tetraborate pH 9.5, SDS 3.3% (w/v), n-hexane 1.5% (v/v) and 1-butanol 6.6% (v/v). Separations were performed at a voltage of 20 kV. Sample injection conditions were 0.5 psi, 3 s. Diprofilline was used as internal standard. The determination of the analytes was based on the UV signal recorded at 275 nm, corresponding to the maximum wavelength of absorbance of caffeine, whereas peak identification and purity check was performed on the basis of the acquisition of UV radiation between 200 and 400 nm wavelengths. Under the described conditions, the separation of the compounds was achieved in 6 min without any interference from the matrix. Linearity was assessed within a caffeine concentration range from 5 to 100 μg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precision values were below 0.37% for migration times and below 9.86% for peak areas. The present MEEKC method was successfully applied to the direct determination of caffeine in smart drugs and energy drinks.     

“Tampering to Death”: A Fatal Codeine Intoxication Due to a Homemade Purification of a Medical Formulation

Many homemade tamper processes of medical codeine formulations are available on selected “forums” on the Internet, where recreational codeine users claim to be able to purify codeine by removing additives, such as acetaminophen, to avoid or limit adverse effects. In this work, it is reported and discussed a fatal case of codeine intoxication. The findings of objects such as jars, filters, and tablets, and amounts of unknown liquid material at the death scene investigation suggested a fatal codeine intoxication after the tampering procedure called “cold water extraction.” Toxicological results obtained from the analysis of both the nonbiological material and the body fluids of the decedent integrated with the information collected at the death scene investigation confirmed the above‐mentioned hypothesis. This report underlines the importance of a tight interconnection between criminalistics and legal medicine to strengthen the identification of the cause of death and the reconstruction of the event.     

Stalking behavior in delusional jealousy

Stalking behavior has been associated with several mental disorders, both psychotic and non-psychotic. The most frequently associated condition appears to be an individual with primitive personality psychopathology regardless of co-occurring psychotic symptomatology. Among the psychotic symptoms, erotomanic, and jealousy delusions may be the most clinically and torensically relevant. However, delusional jealousy has not been well appreciated in the psychiatric literature as an important contributor to stalking behavior. In this article, we explore the psychiatric, psychosocial, and forensic aspects of stalking in the context of delusional jealousy. We use a case example to highlight important issues in this area.     

EXCLUSIONARY PRICING AND CONSUMERS HARM: THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S PRACTICE IN THE DSL MARKET

The assessment of exclusionary abuses by dominant firms is byno means an easy task. This is particularly true for pricingabuses, as there is no clear-cut way of distinguishing a pricecut that is abusive from one that instead is pro-competitive.We argue that there are several shortcomings in the way theEuropean Commission as assessed exclusionary pricing abusesin two important decisions concerning Internet access servicemarkets: Deutsche Telekom AG and Wanadoo Interactive. Firstof all, in computing downstream costs to apply the price squeezetest the incumbent's economies of scale and unavoidable costsshould be factored in, as the test is only meant to establishwhether an as-efficient competitor has been unlawfully foreclosed.Secondly, since the price squeeze test provides only for a necessarycondition for predation to occur, it is also necessary to provethat the recoupment of initial losses is a plausible scenarioso that the conduct under examination may indeed turn out tobe harmful to consumers. This is all but a trivial task, asthere are some sources of endogeneity that may cause a radicalchange in the underlying market structure. Particularly, inmarkets at early stage of development, entry barriers that mayfacilitate the recoupment of initial losses ex-ante may causea change such that market structure no longer supports recoupmentex-post.     

Population data for MiniNC01 in a population sample from North-eastern Italy and their use in neoplastic tissues fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin

To establish a database for the three MiniNC01 loci D10S1248, D14S1434, D22S1045 in a population sample from North-eastern Italy, 102 unrelated individuals were typed. DNA was amplified in a multiplex reaction with subsequent automatic detection using capillary electrophoresis. The obtained data give a contribution to the definition of Italian population miniSTRs allele frequencies for the three analysed loci. These three MiniSTRs were tested on 21 neoplastic tissues and the obtained genotypes were compared to those obtained from normal tissue. Only 3 cases (14.28%) gave a different genotype suggesting a better performance of these markers than traditional STRs.