Brand new norms for a good old test: Northern Italy normative study of MiniMental State Examination

Aim Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is one of the most used tests for the screening of global cognition in patients with neurological and medical disorders. Norms for the Italian version of the test were published in the 90 s; more recent norms were published in 2020 for Southern Italy only. In the present study, we computed novel adjustment coefficients, equivalent scores and cut-off value for Northern Italy (Lombardia and Veneto) and Italian speaking Switzerland. Methods We recruited 361 healthy young and old (range: 20–95 years) individuals of both sexes (men: 156, women: 205) and from different educational levels (range: 4–22 years). Neuropsychiatric disorders and severe medical conditions were excluded with a questionnaire and cognitive deficits and were ruled out with standardized neuropsychological tests assessing the main cognitive domains. We used a slightly modified version of MMSE: the word ‘fiore’ was replaced with ‘pane’ in verbal recalls to reduce the common interference error ‘casa, cane, gatto’. The effect of socio-demographic features on performance at MMSE was assessed via multiple linear regression, with test raw score as dependent variable and sex, logarithm of 101—age and square root of schooling as predictors. Results Mean raw MMSE score was 28.8 ± 1.7 (range: 23–30). Multiple linear regression showed a significant effect of all socio-demographic variables and reported a value of R2 = 0.26. The new cut off was ≥ 26 /30. Conclusion We provide here updated norms for a putatively more accurate version of Italian MMSE, produced in a Northern population but potentially valid all over Italy.

Peran Organisasi Sayap Partai Politik dalam Kaderisasi Partai Politik di Indonesia

The political parties that emerge in Indonesia have a distinct catch-all character; they are dependent on individual figures and lack a defined socioeconomic foundation. For political parties, the regeneration process has become a struggle. Because certain political parties lack a clear regeneration system, oligarchic recruiting is a common occurrence. Religious affiliations, local links, local commonalities, and proximity to political party leaders all have a role in recruitment trends. This research aims to explain the role of the under bow of the political party on regeneration. This is a legal-normative study that relies on secondary data. The research material is divided into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The following factors, according to this study, influence political party regeneration and recruitment: 1) political dynasty has an impact on unhealthy regeneration; 2) political dowry has an impact on unhealthy competition among political party members; and 3) popularity factor has an impact on how quickly people can become political party members. Political parties' inability to recruit and regenerate has an impact on their capacity to fulfill their role as the primary source of national leadership selection. Alternative solutions to these problems include strengthening the under bow of political parties. The existence of under bow of political parties will aid in the transmission of political party doctrine. Political parties will be rewarded with the best members who will fight for their vision and goals. Furthermore, the under bow of political parties can serve as educational institutions for potential members before they join the party.

Normative study of 500 general-knowledge for true-false questions in Russian

In this report we present Russian norms for 500 general knowledge questions in True-False format. The questions cover the topics of Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Culture and Sports. For each of the questions we report accuracy and confidence.

Inter-rater Reliability and Construct Validity of the Lerner Defense Scale in Clinical and Non-clinical Groups

The current study investigated the inter-rater reliability and the construct validity of the Rorschach Lerner Defense Scale (LDS). In particular, it aimed to explore the inter-rater reliability, analyzing the most frequent coding mistakes in an attempt to improve the coding guidelines, and to investigate the ability of the scale to distinguish between individuals with neurotic-level and borderline-level personality organization, according to the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-2 (PDM-2), and non-clinical subjects. Eighty clinical subjects and 80 non-clinical ones participated in the study. Among the clinical subjects, 40 have borderline-level personality organization and 40 have neurotic-level personality organization. Non-clinical subjects were drawn from an archival dataset of non-clinical individuals who previously participated in a Rorschach normative study. The LDS showed substantial inter-rater reliability; however, guidelines could be improved, specifically with regard to the threshold for coding Devaluation and Idealization at level 1. Furthermore, more examples should be included in the manual about the coding of Projective Identification and Denial. The LDS distinguished borderline-level subjects from both the non-clinical and neurotic groups with regard to Devaluation and Projective Identification, with borderline-level personality organization subjects reporting higher scores than either of the two other groups. Only the Denial scale discriminated between the non-clinical and neurotic group, with the latter reporting higher scores of high-level Denial.

Viés de causalidade implícita para 50 predicados do Português Brasileiro / Implicity Causality Bias for 50 Predicates in Brazilian Portuguese

Resumo: Nesse trabalho, construímos um corpus com predicados de causalidade implícita para o Português Brasileiro (PB). A causalidade implícita é uma propriedade de uma classe de predicados verbais cuja causa para o evento que denotam tende a recair, para alguns verbos, no sujeito da oração (“enfurecer”, “decepcionar”) e, para outros, em seu objeto (“parabenizar”, “admirar”). Nosso objetivo foi registrar o viés de causalidade de 50 predicados. Para isso, realizamos um experimento de continuação de sentenças com 34 participantes, falantes nativos de português brasileiro. Nossas análises identificaram 24 verbos com viés de causalidade associado ao sujeito e 22 verbos com viés de causalidade associada ao objeto. Esses resultados expandem um corpus já existente em português europeu (COSTA, 2003). Que saibamos, este é o primeiro estudo normativo para a construção de um corpus de causalidade implícita que tem como alvo falantes de português brasileiro. O resultado é um conjunto de verbos que podem ser usados em futuros estudos em psicolinguística ou psicologia que lidem com relações de causalidade. Palavras-chave: psicolinguística; causalidade implícita; verbos; português brasileiro.Abstract: In this paper, we built an implicit causality corpus for Brazilian Portuguese (BP) verbal predicates. Implicit causality is a property of some verbal predicates that strongly associate their causality with their subject (for verbs such as “enrage”, “disappoint”) or their object (for verbs like “congratulate”, “admire”). Our goal was to measure the causality bias of 50 predicates. In order to do so, we carried out a sentence continuation experiment with 34 participants, all native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Our results identify 24 verbs with a causal bias associated with the subject of the clause, and 22 verbs with a causal bias associated with its object. These results expand a corpus that already exists in European Portuguese (Costa, 2003). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first normative study for the construction of a corpus of implicit causality that targets Brazilian Portuguese speakers. The result is a set of verbal predicates that can be used in future studies in psycholinguistics or psychology that aims at investigating causal relationships.Keywords: psycholinguistics; implicity causality; verbs; Brazilian portuguese.

Small Claim Court as the Alternative of Bad Credit Settlement for Legal Certainty of the Economic Actors

This article aimed to analyze the problem of legal cases accumulation, especially default on credit contracts in court. It also analyzes the effectiveness of implementing a small claim court in contract default and the independence of a single judge in handling cases through the small claim court mechanism. Small claim court also to offer a breakthrough in the settlement of bad loans related to contract defaults to reduce the burden on courts in Indonesia and provide legal certainty to business actors. The sole judge also examine, resolve and decide on inheritance cases in a fast and efficient process to issue a fair decision for all parties. This normative study was carried out using statutory, case, comparative law, and analysis content approaches. The research results showed that the filing of small claim court increased 10 times from 2015 to 2020, with the plaintiffs dominated by banks in bad credit cases. A small claim court provides benefits the bank and the customer because it speeds up the settlement of the plaintiff's money in a bad credit case with a case value of not more than 500 million, especially for microloans in a maximum period of 25 days. Furthermore, the latest regulation of 2019 concerning small claim court gives judges the authority to confiscate guarantees and conduct auctions to carry out forced executions through the Court Execution Auction process.

Non-compliance with the Constitutional Court's Decision from the Perspective of Constitutional Law

This study aims to determine the forms of non-compliance with the Constitutional Court Decision regarding Manpower and to find a constitutional solution to the problem of non-compliance with the Constitutional Court Decision regarding Manpower.This research is a juridicial normative study using a statutory, case, and conseptual approach.Using legal materials in the form of a Constitutional Court Decision related to Manpower.From the research results, it can be concluded that the Constitutional Court Decision regarding Manpower are not obeyed by the adressats. Various forms of non-compliance with the Constitutional Court Decision regarding Manpower-related Laws were not followed up and partially fulfilled in the form of government policies such as the Regulation of Minister of Manpower, Circular of the Minister of Manpower. Some laws are in the legislative process. The constitutional solution that has the potential to realized for non-compliance with the Constitutional Court Decision is the implementation of the concept of judicial order, judicial defferal, and imposition of sanctions.