History of childhood abuse and neglect and suicidal behavior at hospital admission

Suicide is a major public health problem. Preventive measures have been sought by identifying risk factors. This study evaluates the association of childhood abuse and neglect with suicidal behavior at the time of psychiatric hospital admission. A total of 120 subjects (72 females; mean age 42.5 +/- 15.6 years old) admitted from August 2006 to July 2007 completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) to assess severity of exposure to childhood maltreatment. Thereof 62 (51.6%) patients presented with suicidal behavior at admission. Patients who had attempted suicide had significantly higher CTQ scores. Regression analysis indicated that shorter illness duration and severity of childhood maltreatment were predictors of suicidal behavior at admission. The study showed that inpatients of a psychiatric unit of a general hospital who experienced severe childhood abuse or neglect were significantly more likely to present with suicidal behavior. History of childhood maltreatment should be evaluated as an associated risk factor of suicidal behavior at admission of psychiatric inpatients.     

Development and evaluation of a standard method for the quantitative determination of elements in float glass samples by LA-ICP-MS

Forensic analysis of glass samples was performed in different laboratories within the NITE-CRIME (Natural Isotopes and Trace Elements in Criminalistics and Environmental Forensics) European Network, using a variety of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) systems. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests was to cross-validate the different combinations of laser ablation systems with different ICP-MS instruments. A first study using widely available samples, such as the NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 reference glasses, led to deviations in the determined concentrations for trace elements amongst the laboratories up to 60%. Extensive discussion among the laboratories and the production of new glass reference standards (FGS 1 and FGS 2) established an improved analytical protocol, which was tested on a well-characterized float glass sample (FG 10-1 from the BKA Wiesbaden collection). Subsequently, interlaboratory tests produced improved results for nearly all elements with a deviation of < 10%, demonstrating that LA-ICP-MS can deliver absolute quantitative measurements on major, minor and trace elements in float glass samples for forensic and other purposes.     

Dilemmas and Horizontal Logics: Subnational Industrial Policy in Spain and Brazil

Scholars of "decentralization" have recently revealed the importance of subnational industrial policy in responding to the challenges of globalization. But these treatments tend to make endemic assumptions about either the universal efficiency or inefficiency of decentralization. This article argues that subnational industrial policy performance is politically contingent and develops national patterns that are more composite than endemic. Political contingency is analyzed in terms of subnational incumbents'incentives to delegate authority and resources to industrial policy agencies and the degree of symmetry in authority and information flows across these agencies. A cross-regional/cross-national comparison of several subnational units in Spain and Brazil demonstrates that subnational industrial policy is implemented and maintained where incumbents delegate and policy-making agencies are symmetrically integrated.     

The Good,the Bad and the Ugly: Do Attractive Politicians Get a ‘Break’ When They are Involved in Scandals?

Political Behavior - In general, politicians involved in scandals of various natures are punished by voters. Good-looking politicians, on the contrary, are rewarded by voters. Almost fifty years of...     

The Macquarie Laws of War Corpus (MQLWC): Design,Construction and Use

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This paper discusses the creation and use of the new Macquarie Laws of War Corpus (MQLWC). The...     

After Decentralization: Patterns of Intergovernmental Conflict in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico

Recent scholarship on the political determinants of decentralizationhas been useful for explaining initial decisions by nationalelites to decentralize, but the electoral independent variablesfavored by these analyses are insufficient to explain the complexprocess of decentralization over time. Distributional conflictsinvolving national chief executives and subnational governmentsoccurring after decentralization is initiated shape the processin ways that alter initial conditions. This study assesses changein the degree, pattern, and pace of decentralization in fourcountries: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain.