Clinical Characteristics of Fatal Methamphetamine‐related Stroke: A National Study

The study aimed to determine the clinical characteristics of fatal methamphetamine‐related stroke in Australia, 2009–2015. There were 38 cases, 60.5% male, with a mean age of 40.3 years. In no case was there evidence that this was the first time methamphetamine had been used by the decedent, and 52.6% had known histories of injecting drug use. The stroke was hemorrhagic in 37 of 38 cases. In 21.1% of cases, the stroke was purely parenchymal and, in 18.4%, involved purely the subarachnoid space. A ruptured berry aneurysm was present in 31.6% and in 68.8% of initial subarachnoid hemorrhages. There was evidence of systemic hypertension in 8 of 25 cases in which full autopsy findings were available. With increased use of methamphetamine, there is a high probability of increased hemorrhagic stroke incidence among young people. In cases of fatal hemorrhagic stroke among young cases presenting to autopsy, the possibility of methamphetamine use should be borne in mind.     

Self-deception and other-deception among admissions to a maximum security hospital and a medium secure unit

Abstract

Other-deception and self-deception are important variables to consider when conducting a forensic psychological evaluation. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of setting on other-deception and self-deception scores. It was hypothesised that patients at a maximum security hospital (Broadmoor) would score lower on an other-deception questionnaire than similar patients at a medium secure unit (Denis Hill Unit). All the patients completed the other-deception (ODQ) and self-deception (SDQ) questionnaires of Sackeim and Gur (1979) on admission to the two security hospitals. The Broadmoor patients (N = 46) obtained significantly lower ODQ score than the Denis Hill Unit (N = 52) patients, after controlling for differences in ethnic background and diagnosis among the two populations. No significant difference in setting was found for the SDQ score. The ODQ and SDQ scores were significantly associated with the type of diagnosis and the ethnic background of the patient, with patients diagnosed as mentally ill scoring higher than those with a diagnosis of personality disorder, and ethnic minority patients scoring higher than Caucasian patients.     

Neuroscience and Neurolaw

At the intersection of neuroscience and psychological science stands neuropsychology, providing patients, triers of fact, and other parties a quantifiable, evidence-based method for understanding cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes that occur in the context of injury or disease. The purposes of this special issue of Psychological Injury and Law are to (1) illustrate the ways in which neuroscience, psychological practice, professional ethics, and laws are intertwined in the evaluation and treatment of persons who have been injured or are experiencing a neurological disease, (2) demonstrate the ways in which neuropsychological practice is applied to forensic questions, and (3) promote quality neuropsychological practice and services to patients, courts, and other consumers of neuropsychological services. This special issue provides a sample of the types of ways that practitioners integrate neuroscience and clinical psychology, informed by and consistent with relevant laws and professional ethics, to understand people who have cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral problems stemming from neurological injuries or other disorders.     

Institutionalised Co-production: Unorthodox Public Service Delivery in Challenging Environments

In developing countries in particular, services are often delivered through unorthodox organisational arrangements that cannot simply be dismissed as relics of ‘traditional’ institutions, or as incomplete modern organisations. Some have emerged recently, and represent institutional adaptations to specific political and logistical circumstances. We need to expand the range of organisational categories that are considered worthy of study and develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of unorthodox arrangements. The concept of institutionalised co-production provides a useful point of entry. Institutionalised co-production is defined as: the provision of public services (broadly defined, to include regulation) through a regular long-term relationship between state agencies and organised groups of citizens, where both make substantial resource contributions. We explain some varieties of institutionalised co-production arrangements; explore why they appear to be relatively so widespread in poor countries; and relate the concept to broader ideas about public organisation.     

The Japanese worker

Abstract

Robert Cole points out in his introduction to Japanese Blue Collar that there are two dominant but conflicting views of the social relations of production in the Japanese economy, views which Cole conveniently sums up under the rubrics of “uniqueness” and “convergence.”     

Electoral Rewards for Personal Vote Cultivation under PR-STV

Generally the assumption is that legislators act to maximise their chances of re-election, with their optimal behaviour determined by the party-centred or candidate-centred nature of the electoral system in use. Existing evidence of the impact of members' actual behaviour on subsequent electoral performance is inconclusive. This research explores whether or not legislators who choose to focus on cultivating personal votes reap rewards from the electorate under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system. Exploring electoral reward under STV is particularly significant because some legislators face intra-party competition for votes while others do not – a key determining incentive for cultivating personal votes. This study uses a survey of Irish legislators in 2002 and 2007 to measure constituency orientation and effort. The data suggest an electoral reward for personal vote cultivation, although the relationship between intra-system incentive and reward is apparently not always as expected.     

Beyond committees: parliamentary oversight of coalition government in Britain

Abstract

A legislature’s ability to engage in oversight of the executive is believed to derive largely from its committee system. For example, powerful parliamentary committees are considered a necessary condition for the legislature to help police policy compromises between parties in multiparty government. But can other parliamentary instruments perform this role? This article suggests parliamentary questions as an alternative parliamentary vehicle for coalition parties to monitor their partners. Questions force ministers to reveal information concerning their legislative and extra-legislative activities, providing coalition members unique insights into their partners’ behaviour. In order to test our argument, we build and analyse a new dataset of parliamentary questions in the British House of Commons covering the 2010?2015 coalition. As expected, government MPs ask more questions as the divisiveness of a policy area increases. Legislatures conventionally considered weak due to the lack of strong committees may nevertheless play an important oversight role through other parliamentary devices, including helping to police the implementation of coalition agreements.     

Science governance and the politics of proper talk: governmental bioethics as a new technology of reflexive government

Abstract

The article examines the emergence of governmental bioethics in Great Britain, France and Germany, i.e. bodies, discourses and procedures meant to guide policy-making in terms of ethical considerations. It argues that governmental bioethics, marked by openness, transparency and participation, can be understood as a form of reflexive government in the realm of science governance. It grew out of the problematization of older forms of science governance based on ideas of effectiveness, scientific expertise and system stability, and operates through structuring and managing proper talk rather than intervening in processes of techno-scientific development. Yet, rather than challenging the commitment to techno-scientific ‘progress’, it stabilizes it through mechanisms of inclusion, involvement and mobilization: within the framework of proper ethical talk, participation can be employed to pursue rather than oppose system stability.     

Thirty-seven degrees frigid: US-chilean relations and the spectre of polar arrivistes, 1950–59

After its 1948 proposal to internationalize Antarctica had been rejected, the United States accepted the Chilean Escudero Plan as a necessiry for avoiding further political disputes among the seven nations that had balked at the proposal's call to renounce their sovereign rights. US and Chilean officials proceeded to discuss revisions that might enhance the Escudero Plan's acceptabiliry to the other nations, all of which shared the goal of excluding the Soviet Union. Before there had been any substantial progress, the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year legitimated the USSRs presence in the far south, and already tense US-Chilean relations entered a phase of heightened apprehensiveness. This article explores the diplomatic and contextual nuances of this bilateral interaction that proved central in bringing the Antarctic Treary of 1959 to fruition.