Relational Victimization,Callous-Unemotional Traits,and Hostile Attribution Bias Among Preadolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of callous-unemotional traits, hostile attribution bias, and relational victimization experiences among 228 Greek preadolescent students attending the last two primary school grades. No significant gender differences were found. Correlations showed positive associations among relational victimization, callous-unemotional traits, and hostile attribution bias. Multiple regression indicated that preadolescents with high callous and unemotional traits and hostile attribution bias who experienced physical aggression were more likely to be relationally victimized. Results emphasize the role of both personal and social-cognitive factors in relational victimization, and are discussed in terms of their practical implications.     

Backups and the right to be forgotten in the GDPR: An uneasy relationship

The recent enforcement of the GDPR has put extra burdens to data controllers operating within the EU. Beyond other challenges, the exercise of the Right to be Forgotten by individuals who request erasure of their personal information has also become a thorny issue when applied to backups and archives. In this paper, we discuss the GDPR forgetting requirements in respect with their impact on the backup and archiving procedures stipulated by the modern security standards. We specifically examine the implications of erasure requests on current IT backup systems and we highlight a number of envisaged organizational, business and technical challenges pertained to the widely known backup standards, data retention policies, backup mediums, search services, and ERP systems.     

Static screening instruments for risk of minor and major violence

Background: Screens for violent convictions that are simple, accessible and parsimonious are needed, as a first stage in identifying those at high risk for further assessment. Aims: To construct and validate screening tools for minor and major violence convictions for released prisoners. Methods: Internal validation sample of 1647 serious offenders and an external validation of 46,704 general prisoners. The outcomes were binary indicators for having at least one conviction for minor and major violence. Risk factors were convictions for violence and age. Results: In the external validation sample, the instrument for risk of minor violence (PMIV) identified correctly 60.8% of male and 66.2% of female general prisoners. For risk of major violence, the instrument (PMAV) identified correctly 68.0% of male and 79.3% of female prisoners. Conclusions: The PMIV and PMAV will efficiently assist practitioners in a first stage of screening before in-depth clinical assessment of risk for future violent convictions.     

Development and validation of a simple GC-MS method for the simultaneous determination of 11 anticholinesterase pesticides in blood--clinical and forensic toxicology applications

Anticholinesterase pesticides are widely used, and as a result they are involved in numerous acute and even fatal poisonings. The aim of this study was the development, optimization, and validation of a simple, rapid, specific, and sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the determination of 11 anticholinesterase pesticides (aldicarb, azinphos methyl, carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, dialifos, diazinon, malathion, methamidophos, methidathion, methomyl, and terbufos) in blood. Only 500 μL of blood was used, and the recoveries after liquid-liquid extraction (toluene/chloroform, 4:1, v/v) were more than 65.6%. The calibration curves were linear (R(2) ≥ 0.996). Limit of detections and limit of quantifications were found to be between 1.00-10.0 and 3.00-30.0 μg/L, respectively. Accuracy expressed as the %E(r) was found to be between -11.0 and 7.8%. Precision expressed as the percent relative standard deviation was found to be <9.4%. The developed method can be applied for the investigation of both forensic and clinical cases of accidental or suicidal poisoning with these pesticides.     

Anxiety disorders and intimate partner violence: can the association be explained by coexisting conditions or borderline personality traits?

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, preventable public health problem. IPV perpetration is strongly associated with Anxiety disorders at the population level. We investigated whether the association could be explained by coexisting psychiatric conditions or Borderline personality traits, using a combined data-set of two National Household Surveys (n = 15,973). Results showed women were more likely to report perpetrating IPV than men. Anxiety disorders were associated with IPV. When coexisting psychiatric conditions together with a categorical diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) were investigated as explanatory variables, 19.2% of the association between Anxiety disorders and IPV was explained. Using individual Borderline traits in place of a categorical diagnosis of BPD, 58.3% of the association was explained. In conclusion, the association between Anxiety disorders and IPV was partly, but not fully, explained by coexisting psychiatric conditions and individual Borderline traits. Perpetrators of IPV should be screened for Anxiety disorders and among those with Anxiety disorders, Borderline traits are important.     

Problems of commitment in arming and war: how insecurity and destruction matter

Public Choice - This paper analyzes a guns-versus-butter model in which two agents compete for control over an insecure portion of their combined output. They can resolve this dispute either...     

Post-crisis Political Normalisation? The 2018 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Cyprus

This article takes stock of the most recent presidential election in the Republic of Cyprus and connects it to broader currents in post-crisis European political settings. Although the elections took place against a backdrop of improving economic prospects, the crisis has left its political mark in a number of areas we identify that include a growing political fragmentation, the rise of the far right and increased voter abstention. The empirical analysis focuses on the media campaign and draws on a topic-modelling approach to identify and contrast emphasis given to policy issues over the two electoral rounds. The policy themes identified clustered around two dominant dimensions of political conflict: the Cyprus conflict and the economy.     

Stability of Morphine,Codeine, and 6‐Acetylmorphine in Blood at Different Sampling and Storage Conditions

The stability of drugs in biological specimens is a major concern during the evaluation of the toxicological results. The stability of morphine, codeine, and 6‐acetyl‐morphine in blood was studied after different sampling conditions: (i) in glass, polypropylene or polystyrene tubes, (ii) with addition of dipotassium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (K₂EDTA) or sodium oxalate (Na₂C₂O₄), and (iii) with or without the addition of sodium fluoride (NaF). Spiked blood samples were stored at two different temperatures (4 and ?20^°C), analyzed after different storage times and after three freeze–thaw cycles. Opiate concentrations were decreased in all conditions, but the most unstable was 6‐acetyl‐morphine. The addition of NaF as preservative improved the stability of opiates at all conditions studied, whereas the type of anticoagulant did not affect the stability of opiates. It was concluded that blood samples should be stored at ?20^°C in glass tubes containing oxalate and NaF for maximum stability.     

Profiling tax and financial behaviour with big data under the GDPR

Big data and machine learning algorithms have paved the way towards the bulk accumulation of tax and financial data which are exploited to either provide novel financial services to consumers or to augment authorities with automated conformance checks. In this regard, the international and EU policies toward collecting and exchanging a large amount of personal tax and financial data to facilitate innovation and to promote transparency in the financial and tax domain have been increased substantially over the last years. However, this vast collection and utilization of “big” tax and financial data raise also considerations around privacy and data protection, especially when these data are fed to clever algorithms to build detailed personal profiles or to take automated decisions which may exceptionally affect people's lives. Ultimately, these practices of profiling tax and financial behaviour provide fertile ground for discriminating processing of individuals and groups.In light of the above, this paper aims to shed light on the following four interdependent and highly disputed areas: firstly, to review the most well-known profiling and automated decision risks emerged from big data technology and machine learning algorithmic processing as well as to analyse their impact on the tax and financial privacy rights through their immense profiling practices; secondly, to document the current EU initiatives toward financial and tax transparency, namely the AEOI, PSD2, MiFID2, and data retention policies, along with their implications for personal data protection when used for profiling and automated decision purposes; thirdly, to highlight the way forward for mitigating the risks of profiling and automated decision in the big data era and to investigate the protection of individuals against these practices in the light of the new technical and legal frameworks; in this respect, we finally delve into the regulatory EU efforts towards fairer and accountable profiling and automated decision processes, and in particular we examine the extent to which the GDPR provisions establishes a protection regime for individuals against advanced profiling techniques, enabling thus accountability and transparency.