Death caused by cardioinhibitory reflex cardiac arrest--a systematic review of cases

Forensic pathologists often refer to the cardioinhibitory reflex cardiac arrest (CiRCA) following short neck trauma as a mechanism of death. We sought via a systematic review of the literature to identify circumstances under which carotid bifurcation stimulation could lead to death. Two independent reviewers selected case studies or reports from Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Embase. Circumstances and contributory factors were extracted for each case. From the available data, authors independently assessed whether CiRCA was highly probable (no alternative explanation possible), probable (alternative explanation possible), or unlikely (alternative explanation highly probable). A narrative approach was used to define circumstances in which CiRCA remained possible. From the 48 published cases evoking CiRCA as a possible cause of death between 1881 and 2009, 28 were most likely to result of other mechanism of death (i.e., cerebral hypoxia due to carotid compression, mechanical asphyxia, myocardial infarction). CiRCA remained possible for 20 cases (including five based on anecdotal evidence only) with only one case with no alternative explanation other than CiRCA. Our findings support the presumption that reflex cardiac arrhythmia due to carotid bifurcation stimulation cannot provoke death alone. Actual state of knowledge suggests CiRCA might be contributory to death in the presence of drug abuse and/or cardiac pathology, often associated with physical and/or mental excitation.     

Advancing Cosmopolitanism through International Competition

The impact of the Olympics seems global, but is it cosmopolitan? Cosmopolitan theory needs to be expanded to include criteria for evaluating the effects of transnational non-governmental associations. Such criteria would enable cosmopolitans not merely to argue for the toleration of associations but also to consider how associations advance cosmopolitan norms and dispositions. Assessing institutional, developmental, shared identity and public sphere effects, this article uses the example of the Olympics to explore what it would mean for an association's effects to be cosmopolitan. Establishing standardised international rules and shared global norms such as fair play are cosmopolitan aspects of the Olympic movement. These shared rules and practices lead to transnational communities among elite athletes, sports administrators and even audiences. The nationalistic aspects of the Olympic Games keep this association a partial expression of cosmopolitanism. Partial expressions of cosmopolitanism, however, have the potential indirectly to advance cosmopolitan norms among those who do not necessarily embrace cosmopolitanism. The Olympics demonstrates that to advance cosmopolitanism requires more than a declared cosmopolitan purpose.     

Do Governments in Developing Countries Pursue Sustainable Debt Policies? Empirical Evidence for Selected Countries in Africa and Latin America

In this paper we test for sustainability of public debt in selected low- and middle-income developing countries of Africa and Latin-America. We do this by analysing how the primary surplus to GDP reacts to variations in the debt to GDP ratio where we allow for a time-varying reaction coefficient. Moreover, we test for stationarity of the overall budget deficit of the selected countries. The results show that, despite rising debt ratios, there is empirical evidence for some of the countries that public debt is sustainable, independent of whether they belong to the low-income or middle-income group of countries.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Erzählungen des Kindes‐ und Erwachsenenschutzes: Eine Anwendung und Erweiterung des Narrative Policy Frameworks

The Child and Adult Protection Authorities (KESB) have been the subject of controversial discussion since their establishment in 2013. The reform of the Guardianship Law provided for an institutional shift away from local guardianship authorities to regional specialist authorities. This article uses the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine the history of today’s controversy, simultaneously proposing an analytic strengthening of said framework. Previous NPF studies summarize policy actors into opponents and proponents. As a result, we do not know whether different actors use different narratives. We therefore separate the expert from the MP discourse. The analysis shows that the experts' arguments for a new institutional arrangement and a person‐oriented narrative dominated, which put the fundamental rights of the persons affected by guardianship measures up front. The study contributes to the understanding of the current controversy, in which a person‐oriented narrative seems to be dominant again, directed against the new authorities.     

Putin's militocracy? An alternative interpretation of Siloviki in contemporary Russian politics

This article challenges the perception of the rising numbers of siloviki in Russian politics as a conscious strategy and expression of a more authoritarian policy direction pursued by President Putin. Contextualising the phenomenon within the framework of the system of elite recruitment in contemporary Russia, and engaging in a micro-level study of individual siloviki, the article argues that the role of these figures is more modest than often asserted and the possibility of a coordinated ‘siloviki project’ is unlikely.     

Irony of Citizenship: Descent,National Belonging,and Constitutions in the Postcolonial African State

In 2010, like many African countries since the 1990s, Kenya passed a new constitution. This constitution aimed to get rid of many past issues including the definition of citizenship. Globally, two general principles govern the acquisition of citizenship, descent from a citizen (jus sanguinis), and the fact of birth within a state territory (jus soli). In contrast to the prior Constitution that required both descent from Kenyan parents and birth in Kenya, the 2010 Constitution adopted a rule of citizenship by descent alone (jus sanguinis) from either parent. However, today Kenya is faced with a conundrum first articulated by Aristotle: how do you understand and operationalize citizenship by descent in a new state, or in the case of Kenya, one that has only just turned fifty? The crux of this conundrum is determining the basis of the citizenship of parents who precede the polity and therefore what they can transfer to their children. Understanding that articulations of citizenship are also systems of exclusion, this paper asks who can and cannot be a Kenyan citizen and why? What are the unintended consequences of efforts to escape Aristotle's conundrum?