Savoring semiotics: food in intercultural communication

Food is both a relevant source of signification and an effective form of communication, based on a limited – although very wide – variety of edible substances, practices, beliefs, and norms that form a network of interconnected systems. These systems and their uses in social practice, constituting a specific semiosphere, are challenged when their users travel and are confronted with unfamiliar foodways in terms of ingredients, cooking techniques, flavorings, preparations, utensils, meal structure, table manners, distribution of the meals during the day, and social dynamics. When different culinary semiospheres interact, food-related experiences reveal the cultural character of gastronomic competences, forcing individuals to engage with otherness through embodied communication.     

Electoral Institutions and Distributive Policies in Parliamentary Systems: An Application to State Aid Measures in EU Countries

Electoral institutions should systematically affect the propensity of a country to rely and spend on distributive measures. Supporting evidence is however still rare because of the difficulty in finding comparable cross-national data, the employment of dummy variables to account for the electoral systems, and the failure to recognise the interacting effects of different electoral rules on policy outcomes. Employing national data on state aid expenditure and a number of measures across European Union countries, the article provides evidence that legislators elected in higher magnitude districts spend less. More interestingly, it shows the interlocking policy effects of electoral institutions. Where high district magnitude is combined with ballot control, party-based voting and pooling, these rules conjunctly dampen politicians’ incentives to cultivate a personal vote and lead to lower spending on, and use of, distributive measures. Where high district magnitude is not combined with these rules, results are inconclusive. With one exception though, if leaders do not have control over the ballot rank, higher magnitude increases reliance on distributive measures. Results are robust to several alternative political-economy explanations of fiscal policy outcomes.     

Voting on income tax exemptions

Most itemized tax exemptions lead to significant deductions for a minority of the population only. This raises the question why the majority does not vote for the abolition of these tax privileges in exchange for lower tax rates. In this paper we show that a reform proposal may be voted down, even when the majority uses the exemption at stake below the average. Turning to an empirical application, we simulate the voting outcome on the proposal to abolish the tax deductibility of commuting expenses in Germany. Our model predicts that this proposal would be rejected, even though a comfortable majority has below-average deductions.     

Out of Africa: The human trade between Libya and Lampedusa

Smuggling and trafficking in persons is ipso facto illegal. Is this criminal activity organised or diffuse? Recent objective indicators show that between 2000-2005 the reported incidence of people trafficking and smuggling from North Africa to Europe has escalated. The article examines the nature of criminality involved in people smuggling and trafficking with specific reference to the sea route between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, 180 miles north of the Libyan coast. In 2006 almost 19,000 illegal migrants arrived on this small island. Recent major operations conducted by the Italian anti-mafia unit and the state police suggest transnational criminal organisation of the trade. The networks involved in this trade, however, do not conform to mafia-like hierarchical organisations but rather smaller, more complex and fluid criminal networks. The article aims to cast light on how people are smuggled and trafficked. The background to the rise in illegal immigration from Libya is sketched underlining the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors involved in the human trade. The article’s chief objective is to provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in smuggling/trafficking. A better knowledge of the processes involved is vital if domestic, regional and international authorities and bodies are to counter the practice and/or to formalise it.     

Suicidal or Homicidal Sharp Force Injuries? A Review and Critical Analysis of the Heterogeneity in the Forensic Literature

The differential diagnosis between self-inflicted and nonself-inflicted, suicidal and homicidal, injuries is difficult or impossible in many cases and, above all, cannot be made on the basis of information obtained solely from the autopsy or the medicolegal clinical examination. The purpose of this study is to analyze the literature on suicidal and homicidal sharp force injuries and identify the relevant parameters that may help differentiate between suicidal and homicidal deaths. To achieve this goal, a review of 595 potentially relevant articles was performed. After excluding the nonrelevant papers by screening the titles, all abstracts were reviewed, and articles meeting the inclusion criteria underwent a full-text review. The following parameters were compiled into a table: number of cases, localization of the injuries, and number of injuries. The data were statistically analyzed and compared with those available in the forensic literature. On the basis of the heterogeneity of data revealed by the present review, a simple and short checklist of the parameters that should be included when reporting suicides and homicides by sharp force has been proposed.     

Subarachnoid hemorrhage during sexual activity after sildenafil intake: an accidental association?

We report and describe an autopsy case of a man dead for rupture of cerebral artery aneurysm with subsequent subarachnoid hemorrhage after sexual intercourse. Toxicologic analysis demonstrated that he had consumed sildenafil (Viagra). Although subarachnoid hemorrhage has been reported to be associated with sexual intercourse, it is not among the known adverse effects of sildenafil. However, sildenafil has been found to interact with vascular physiology via multiple mechanisms and in most of the vascular districts of the human body. This case provides an example of a very rare association between this drug and a fatal pathologic event and deserves to be added to the existing clinical knowledge about sildenafil and the pathophysiology of the events involved. This knowledge may be helpful in orienting further investigation into the mechanisms of action of sildenafil and their clinical implications.     

Nanotechnology for forensic sciences: Analysis of PDMS replica of the case head of spent cartridges by optical microscopy, SEM and AFM for the ballistic identification of individual characteristic features of firearms

A novel application of replica molding to a forensic problem, viz. the accurate reproduction of the case head of gun and rifle cartridges, prior and after been shot, is presented. The fabrication of an arbitrary number of identical copies of the region hit by the firing pin and by the breech face is described. The replicas can be (i) handled without damaging the original evidence, (ii) distributed to different law enforcement agencies for comparison against other evidences found on crime scenes or ballistic tests of seized firearms, (iii) maintained on a file by the laboratories. A detailed analysis of the morphological features of the replicas has been carried out by standard microscopy techniques as well as by advanced microscopy such as scanning probe and scanning electron leading to a quantitative morphological characterization of the case heads down to the nanometer scale. The assignment of the cartridge replicas to the shooting weapon is demonstrated to hold below the micron scale, while it is hindered at the nanometer level both by the manufacturing differences and by eventual modifications occurring on the firing pin.