Prisoners of Conscience

Amnesty International is a human rights organisation that operates right around the world. This article describes its objectives and methods, and discusses some of the factors which have contributed to its successful growth over the past 27 years. It also looks at the relationships between the organisation, the offending authorities and the victims of oppression and their families.     

On longevity and life-line

Newrick et al. (1990) have claimed from 100 consecutive autopsies that there is a significant association between life-line and longevity. This study has received wide publicity in the popular press and in the T.V. media, and we re-examine their claim.     

Cramér-von Mises statistics for discrete distributions

Cramér-von Mises statistics are developed for use in testing for discrete distributions, and tables are given for tests for the discrete uniform distribution.     

“Getting even”: Clinical considerations of adaptive and maladaptive vengeance

This article is intended to acquaint the reader with the concept of vengeance. Conceptualized as the intense, compelling wish or intention to get even, right a wrong, or avenge an injury, vengeance is best understood on a continuum from innocuous retaliatory fantasies/actions on one end of the continuum to meeting out of death and destruction on the other end. This article identifies various manifestations of vengeance, discusses theoretical formulations related to affects in general and vengeance, in particular, and presents a series of case vignettes which highlight the adaptive and maladaptive function of this psychological phenomenon.     

Helping the medicine go down. Nurses' and patients' perceptions about medication compliance

The issue of medication compliance is a multidimensional phenomenon that rests not only with the patient, but also with the interactions of caregivers. Study results revealed that nurses and patients generally perceive estimated frequency of medication compliance to be similar, although increased length of time as a psychiatric nurse was associated with nurses perceiving patients as being less compliant. Reasons given by patients and nurses for medication noncompliance differed. Patients' responses were characterized by being more concrete and varied in nature than those of the nurse.     

Terrorism: A Peace Psychological Analysis

Peace psychologists emphasize the importance of recognizing both direct and structural bases of peace and conflict. In the peace psychological analysis of terrorism presented here, I attempt to further our understanding of the bases of terrorism in the context of how inequities in political, economic, and social structures may feed into or exacerbate terrorism. I analyze the effectiveness of responses to terrorism in terms of the tripartite peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding model of nonviolent response to violence.     

Consistency of Procrustes Estimators

Lele has shown that the Procrustes estimator of form is inconsistent and raised the question about the consistency of the Procrustes estimator of shape. In this paper the consistency of estimators of form and shape is studied under various assumptions. In particular, it is shown that the Procrustes estimator of shape is consistent under the assumption of an isotropic error distribution and that consistency breaks down if the assumption of isotropy is relaxed. The relevance of these results for practical shape analysis is discussed. As a by-product, some new results are derived for the offset uniform distribution from directional data.