Using the 2006 Eurobarometer data (representative sample of the European population, N = 16 306, 27 countries), we performed a multilevel analysis aimed at predicting fear of crime. A significant proportion of the variation in fear of crime was at country level. Of the individual predictors included, being a woman, being poorly educated, being unemployed, and being an urban dweller showed positive relations with fear of crime. Fear was highest among people who considered themselves to be socially marginal, among people with negative expectations regarding themselves and their country's future, and among people who considered their nation's welfare system to be unsatisfactory. Among the ecological predictors we took into consideration, nations' degree of economic inequality and low expenditure on education and on social protection showed a positive association with fear of crime, whereas the crime, immigration, and employment rates did not. Implications and limitations of this research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, we analyzed the relationships among political identity, the perception of moral distance between the political ingroup and the political outgroup, and outgroup animalistic dehumanization. One correlational and one experimental study revealed a positive correlation of ingroup identification (Study 1, N = 99) and salience of ingroup membership (Study 2, N = 96) with the degree to which participants dehumanized the outgroup. This relationship was mediated by the perceived moral distance between the ingroup and the outgroup. The limitations, implications, and possible developments derived from the present findings are discussed.

Background: Herpesviruses are widespread viruses, causing severe infections in both humans and animals. Eradication of herpesviruses is extremely difficult because of their ability to establish latent and lifelong infections. However, latency is only one tool that has evolved in herpesviruses to successfully infect their hosts; such viruses display a wide (and still incompletely known) panoply of genes and proteins that are able to counteract immune responses of their hosts. Envelope glycoproteins and cytokine inhibitors are two examples of such weapons. All of these factors make it difficult to develop diagnostics and vaccines, unless they are based on molecular techniques. Materials and Methods: Animal herpesviruses, because of their striking similarity to human ones, are suitable models to study the molecular biology of herpesviruses and develop strategies aimed at designing neurotropic live vectors for gene therapy as well as engineered attenuated vaccines. Results: BHV-1 is a neurotropic herpesvirus causing infectious rhinotracheitis (IBR) in cattle. It is a major plague in zootechnics and commercial trade, because of its ability to spread through asymptomatic carrier animals, frozen semen, and embryos. Such portals of infections are also important for human herpesviruses, which mainly cause systemic, eye, and genital tract infections, leading even to the development of cancer. Conclusions: This review covers both the genetics and molecular biology of BHV-1 and its related herpesviruses. Epidemiology and diagnostic approaches to herpesvirus infections are presented. The role of herpesviruses in gene therapy and a broad introduction to classic and engineered vaccines against herpesviruses are also provided.

The role played by the Internet in young people’s political lives has received great research attention. However, two gaps in the literature hinder the drawing of conclusions on how online political participation is related to its offline counterpart. First, although there are multiple hypotheses on the nature of the relationship, they have not been compared in any single study. Second, although the relation may differ according to developmental stage, age differences have not been examined. We address these gaps using longitudinal data from two samples of youth at different developmental stages, and test four hypotheses for each sample. It was found, among late adolescents, that online participation serves as a gateway to offline participation. However, among young adults, offline participation spills over into online participation. These findings indicate the positive potential of online political participation in youth’s political lives, and highlight the need to focus on their developmental stages.

We analyzed directly and indirectly the relationships between societal threat to safety, perceived control, and the increase in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in two studies. In Study 1 (national sample of the Italian population, N=1,169), we performed a longitudinal analysis structured into three waves (January 2003, September 2004, and January 2005). A moderated regression analysis showed that RWA increased from 2003 to 2005 as a function of perceived societal threat to safety more among low- than among high RWA scorers. In experimental Study 2 (Italian university students, N=131) a moderated mediation model showed loss of perceived control to mediate the relation between societal threat to safety and the increase in RWA, but among low authoritarians only. Limitations, implications, and possible developments of this research are discussed

Amnå, Ekström, Kerr & Stattin, 2009). Responsible for the planning, implementation, and financing of the collection of data were professors Erik Amnå, Mats Ekström, Margaret Kerr and Håkan Stattin. The data collection was supported by grants from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The study has been approved by the regional Ethical Committee at Uppsala, Sweden.

This methodological study was conducted to test the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy‐Health Professional Student's version (JSE‐HPS), in a convenience sample of 797 Italian nursing students and to describe their empathic engagement. Data were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, test–retest, correlation analysis, t‐test, and analysis of variance method. Principal component factor extraction with Oblimin rotation on the first half of the sample was conducted. The analysis suggested a three‐factor solution for 14 items: “compassionate care/emotional engagement,” “perspective‐taking,” and “standing in the patient's shoes.” Confirmatory factor analysis on the second half of the sample showed good fit indexes for the 14‐item solution, indicated by the exploratory factor analysis, and the 20 item solution of the scale, with the exception of one item. Test–retest correlation was 0.50 (P < 0.001) for the overall scale. Results from group comparisons and correlations are also provided and discussed. The Italian version of the JSE‐HPS is a psychometrically sound tool. The translated 20‐item solution is also suitable to carry out cross‐cultural comparisons.

We studied the relationship between victimization and fear of crime longitudinally, analyzing data from the Observatory of the North-West (Italian national sample, N 5 1,701, two waves: January 2006 and January 2007). We modeled fear of crime at T 2 using as independent variables: (a) the main sociodemographic variables and fear of crime, as assessed at T 1 ; (b) direct victimization; and (c) indirect victimization. Recent direct victimization was the most effective victimization predictor of both concrete and abstract fears, followed by multiple or repeat direct victimization. On the other hand, direct victimization occurring in the 12 months before the first wave did not influence fear. Recent indirect victimization and, above all, multiple or repeat indirect victimization influenced concrete, but not abstract, fear of crime, while direct victimization occurring in the 12 months before the first wave did not foster fear. We discuss the limits of this work and possible further directions. C