Penalizing Bribery of Foreign Officials Through The Tax Laws: A Case for Repealing Section 162 (c)(1)

Most -commentary on these congressional attempts to use tax laws to control the ethics of overseas enterprises has centered either on the effectiveness of these provisions or on the burdens and difficulties involved with their implementation. This article, while discussing these issues, is concerned primarily with the conceptual justifications and the direct economic effects of these tax provisions. The article contends that section 162(c)(l) and the pertinent provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 are disguised penalties which often operate arbitrarily and unfairly and concludes that they should be repealed in favor of more equitable and effective deterrents

Religious orientation, mental health and culture : conceptual and empirical perspectives

This special edition of Mental Health, Religion and Culture brings together thirteen original empirical studies that employ theories and measures based on the notion of ‘religious orientation’. As originally conceived, Allport’s notion of religious orientation distinguished between the two motivational styles of intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity. Subsequent work distinguished between extrinsic-personal and extrinsic social motivations, and added the third orientation styled as quest religiosity. The first set of seven studies draws on a variety of measures of religious orientation developed since the mid-1960s, including single-item measures. The second set of six studies draws on the New Indices of Religious Orientation proposed by Francis in 2007. Collectively these studies confirm the continuing vitality of the notion of religious orientation for informing empirical research within the psychology of religion and strengthen the foundation for future work in this area

Introducing the modified paranormal belief scale: distinguishing between classic paranormal beliefs, religious paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity among undergraduates in Northern Ireland and Wales

Previous empirical studies concerned with the association between paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity have produced conflicting evidence. Drawing on Rice's (2003) distinction between classic paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs, the present study proposed a modified form of the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale to produce separate scores for these two forms of paranormal belief, styled 'religious paranormal beliefs' and 'classic paranormal beliefs'. Data provided by a sample of 143 undergraduate students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, demonstrated that conventional religiosity is positively correlated with religious paranormal beliefs, but independent of classic paranormal beliefs. These findings provide a clear framework within which previous conflicting evidence can be interpreted. It is recommended that future research should distinguish clearly between these two forms of paranormal beliefs and that the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale should be routinely modified to detach the four religious paranormal belief items from the total scale score

Addiction to self-harm? The case of online postings on self-harm message boards

Presently, there is limited research investigating the addictive nature of self-harm, even though non-suicidal self-injury disorder has been included in the DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association 2013) for over 5 years. The aim of the present study was to build on the existing literature by examining self-harm discussions on Internet message boards to examine if themes related to addiction are present. A sample of 500 online postings from four forums were analysed to examine whether self-harm has an addictive nature. Postings were extracted, read, and re-read before being coded using inductive content analysis to identify themes. Six themes were identified: “Urge/Obsession”, “Relapse”, “Can’t/Don’t want to stop”, “Coping mechanism”, “Hiding/Shame”, and “Getting worse/Not enough”. Postings revealed there can be cravings to engage in self-harm behaviour, not wanting or being able to stop, returning to the behaviour, self-harm being a coping mechanism, shame, and the behaviour becoming worse. This study has demonstrated that repetitive self-harming seems to have addictive aspects

Impassioned communication and virtual support roles of online postings : the case of self-harmers

Although there is an emerging literature on online users support groups, limited research has focused on the online users support groups concerned with self-harm. This study reports the findings of inductive content analysis of self-harm online messages from one self-harm online users group. One hundred messages were examined. Categories were determined and inductive analysis revealed online self-harm postings showed two themes. The first theme was “impassioned communication,” 76% of the postings had this major theme. There were three subthemes included in this theme: being a “failure,” “people not understanding,” and “improvement.” The second theme was “virtual support.” Although presented as two separate themes, “impassioned communication” and “virtual support” are interrelated as some postings suggested the need for support with impassioned communication. These results support the established view that the Internet is the place where individuals can access emotional support or social integration, especially helpful for those who are, or feel, marginalized (e.g., those experiencing disenfranchised grief and self-harming). This study shows the usefulness of utilizing online message boards as a research tool for conducting research among populations that are difficult to access

The association between church attendance and psychological health in Northern Ireland : a national representative survey among adults allowing for sex differences and denominational difference

This study extends previous research concerning the association between religion and psychological health in six ways: (1) by focusing clearly on religious attendance (church attendance); (2) by employing a robust measure of psychological distress (GHQ-12); (3) by studying a highly religious culture (Northern Ireland); (4) by taking sex differences into account (male or female); (5) by taking denominational differences into account (Catholic or Protestant); (6) and by obtaining a national representative sample (N = 4,281 adults aged 16 and above). Results from a 2 (sex) by 2 (denomination) ANCOVA demonstrated that Catholics recorded significantly lower levels of psychological health compared to Protestants, and that females showed significantly lower levels of psychological health compared to males. In addition, females reported higher frequency of religious service attendance than males, and Catholics reported higher attendance rates than Protestants. A significant positive association was found between frequency of religious attendance and GHQ-12 scores, and this association was moderated by sex and denomination. In conclusion, the results suggest that there may be sex and denominational differences in further understanding the relationship between frequency of religious attendance and psychological health

Internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith among religiously unaffiliated Christian and Muslim youth in the UK.

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith among a sample of 10,678 13- to 15-year-old students from across the United Kingdom, exploring the performance of the scale independently among three groups: religiously unaffiliated students (N = 3,711), Christian students (N = 6,649), and Muslim students (N = 318). The data support the internal consistency reliability and the construct validity of this instrument among all three groups and commend it for application in further studies

Religious affect and self-esteem : an empirical enquiry among 10-to 12-year-old participants

Within contemporary psychology of religion, there has been sustained interest in examining the relationship between measures of religiosity and those measures conceptualised and operationalised from the area of positive psychology. For example, previous research that has examined the relationship between religiosity and self-esteem has provided mixed results. This lack of clarity is likely to be partly attributable to the variety of measures and samples that have been employed. To systematically examine this matter, one research initiative has employed one particular conceptualisation and operationalisation of religious affect, the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity, alongside a few selected measures of self -esteem. To extend this research initiative, a sample of 522 participants in a summer holiday programme for adolescents (247 males and 275 females) aged between 10 and 12 years completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Rosenberg Self -esteem Scale. The data demonstrated a small significant positive correlation between religious affect and self -esteem, after controlling for sex and age differences (r = .14, p < .01). This finding is consistent with previous research that has examined the relationship between this particular conceptualisation and operationalisation of religious affect with other measures of self -esteem. More generally, this finding is consistent with the wider research literature that has examine d the relationship between with Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and other measures from the area of positive psychology

Assessing Urban Residential Irrigation Performance Using a Water Budget Approach

Wasting water by excessive irrigation of urban residential landscapes is a ubiquitous problem. By reducing irrigation in excess of plant water needs, homeowners and cities save substantial quantities water. Although water utilities can use a variety of approaches to encourage customers to reduce their consumption, some residences may use water more efficiently than others. By understanding patterns of irrigation performance among customers, water utilities can develop more economical approaches for encouraging water conservation. Irrigation performance can be assessed by comparing outdoor water use with a landscape water budget. This requires an accurate estimate of irrigated landscape area, which can be difficult to obtain for citywide datasets. A bivariate approach using tax appraisal information is proposed, which can be applied in any county. Irrigation performance was assessed for 5,565 single-family residences by examining their conformance to monthly water budgets. Nonconformance was defined as outdoor water use exceeding the monthly budget volume. Large lots were found to overwater by significantly greater volumes than smaller lots. However, lots with smaller landscape areas tended to overwater more frequently and apply higher volumes per unit area. These findings suggest new management options for addressing consistently wasteful water use and improving efficiency

The effects of river flooding on dioxin and PCBs in beef

In 2008-2010, samples of meat from 40 beef cattle, along with grass, soil and commercial feed, taken from ten matched pairs of flood-prone and control farms, were analysed for PCDD/Fs and PCBs. Concentrations were higher in soil and grass from flood-prone farms. The beef samples from flood-prone farms had total TEQ levels about 20% higher than on control farms. A majority of flood-prone farms (7/10) had higher median levels in beef than on the corresponding control farm. This first controlled investigation into PCDD/F and PCB contamination in beef produced on flood-prone land, presents robust evidence that flooding is a contaminant transfer mechanism to cattle raised on river catchments with a history of urbanisation and industrialisation. PCDD/F and PCB sources in these river systems are likely to be a result of the legacy of contamination from previous industrialisation, as well as more recent combustion activity or pollution events. Crow