Superimposition of ante- and post-mortem photographs of tattoos as a means of identification--a case report

With the rising number of tattooed people tattoos have become increasingly important for the identification of unknown corpses. Tattoos can be helpful in both phases of the identification process, either by providing clues to the identity of an unknown person or body or as a means of verifying a postulated identity. In the presented case, an ante-mortem photograph of a tattoo was available although it was of poor quality. The respective skin region of the body was photographed from the same angle as the tattoo on the ante-mortem photograph. When superimposing the two photos, the tattoos were found to match and the identity of the body could be verified.     

Books reviews

Jeffrey Kaplan and Leonard Weinberg, The Emergence of a Euro‐American Radical Right, New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Pp.248. $52 (cloth); $22 (paper). ISBN 0 8135 2563 2 (cloth); 0 8135 2564 0 (paper).

Chuka Onwumechili, African Democratization and Military Coups, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998. Pp.121. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–275–96325‐X.

R. Falkenrath, R. Newman and B. Thayer, America's Achilles’ Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. $22.50. ISBN 0–262–56118–2.     

The Rule of Law in the Fight against Terrorism

What is the role of legal limits on executive power, if any, when citizens demand more security from terrorism, and allowing executive officials legal flexibility of action appears necessary to achieve it? We develop a game‐theoretic model to show that when the executive faces increased electoral incentives to provide security and has legal flexibility to choose any policy it finds optimal, security from terrorism can actually decrease. In contrast, when the executive faces increased electoral incentives to provide security and there is an explicit legal limit on executive counterterrorism activities, security from terrorism increases. We also show that the executive achieves the objective of terrorism prevention more effectively when there are some limitations on its counterterrorism powers. The article provides a security rationale for legal limits on executive power and has implications for understanding how to design the institutional structure of liberal governments when the social objective is terrorism prevention.     

The use of rapid diagnostic test of procalcitonin serum levels for the postmortem diagnosis of sepsis

Because serum Procalcitonin is reported to be a valid postmortem marker of sepsis, this prospective study was carried out to determine whether the semi-quantitative PCT-Q((R))-Test (B.R.A.H.M.S., Germany) is a reliable indicator of postmortem Procalcitonin (PCT) serum levels, thus enabling a quick "tableside" diagnosis of sepsis. Postmortem PCT-levels of 70 forensic and 78 clinical-pathological autopsy cases (n=148) were examined using the B.R.A.H.M.S-PCT-Q-Test during autopsy. 27 cases were categorized as the cases of sepsis according to the ACCP/SCCM Consensus Conference criteria. 121 cases were assigned to the non-sepsis group. Among the 148 cases, 18 samples could not be analyzed by the reason of strong hemolysis. Using a cut-off point of 2 ng/ml, 20 cases of sepsis were identified (true positive) whereas 3 cases of sepsis were not detected (false negative). In the non-sepsis group (107 cases) 6 cases showed a positive testing (false positive). When applied within 48 h postmortem, the PCT-Q-Test showed a sensitivity of 86.96% and a specificity of 94.39% (at cut-off 2 ng/ml). Likelihood ratios and positive predictive values proved to be lower in the forensic autopsy group (PPV: 59.3% in forensic case vs. 85.1% in clinicopathological cases; NPV: 98.73% in forensic cases vs. 95.2% in clinicopathological cases). The PPVs using a cut-off point of 10 ng/ml were 100% in both groups independent of sepsis prevalences. The results show, that a high NPV for prevalences ranging from 3% to 30% can be reached using a 2 ng/ml cut-off point, whereas a cut-off of 10 ng/ml ensures a high PPV for the respective prevalences in the absence of exclusion criteria. The study provides strong evidence that the introduction of rapid diagnostic test (RDTs) of postmortem PCT serum levels may be useful in achieving rapid distinction between sepsis and non-sepsis-related causes of death, especially in conjunction with the medical case history and further autopsy results. In addition, the use of RDTs enables clinicians to conduct an evidence-based validation of clinical diagnosis, thus facilitating future clinical decision-making.     

Herrschaft des Gesetzes, Freiheit, Demokratie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Political Conflict over Time

We study a model of electoral competition in which politicians must decide whether to initiate the provision of some public good and, afterward, how much of the public good to supply. The model illuminates how a project's implementation affects elections and, conversely, how electoral considerations influence decisions about implementation. Under well-defined conditions, politicians will either implement projects that they do not like or delay projects that, absent electoral concerns, they would support. The model further reveals how the perceived benefits of holding office can impede the production of public goods about which there is broad consensus. And depending on facts about the program's structure and the electoral landscape, a policy's implementation can either mitigate or exacerbate political conflict.     

Candidate competition and voter learning in the 2000–2012 US presidential primaries

Public Choice - When candidates in primary elections are ideologically differentiated (e.g., conservatives and moderates in the Republican Party), then candidates with similar positions affect each...     

Partisan Differences in Swedish Macroeconomic Policy

The purpose of this paper is to trace partisan differencesamong Swedish governments during the period 1958-2000. According tothe Partisan Theory of macroeconomic policy left-wing governmentsare relatively more concerned with the performance of the realside of the economy (real output and unemployment) as compared toright-wing governments, that place a higher weight on the nominalvariables (inflation). Left-wing governments would therefore pursue moreexpansionary aggregate demand policy, and thereby be willingto risk a higher inflation, in order to improve real economicperformance. In this paper we apply the model developed in Hibbs (1994) onSwedish data. Our empirical results support the partisan theory,showing that, ceteris paribus, aggregate demand policy under left-winggovernments is relatively more expansionary than under right-wing governments, even if the expansionary policysometimes leads to higher inflation.     

Constitutionalising Subsidiarity in Integrated Markets: The Case of Tobacco Regulation in the European Union

Abstract:  The article establishes three propositions. First, if a constitution establishes the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as legal principles, questions of competencies are closely tied up with questions of regulatory policy. This means that the Treaty carves out a powerful role for the Court of Justice to assess the jurisdictional reasonableness of market intervention when reviewing whether the EU was legally competent to act. Second, general scepticism about courts being able to play such a demanding role in policing jurisdictional boundaries in federal systems are unjustified in the EU. The new procedure established in the Constitutional Treaty, which is likely to be included in any renegotiated constitutional settlement, involves national Parliaments and the Commission building a written record addressing the relevant policy issues on which the court can base its review. Additionally national courts serve as an external check on the Court of Justice, disciplining the Court of Justice to focus on taking competencies seriously or facing the prospect of national courts disapplying EU law on the grounds that it was enacted ultra vires. Third, even though there are some promising points of departure in its case law, the Court of Justice has not yet adopted a doctrinal framework that effectively operationalises the Treaty's commitment to subsidiarity and proportionality in the context of the common market.     

Personality disorders in a sample of paraphilic and nonparaphilic child molesters: a comparative study

This article renders the results of research that investigated personality disorders in a sample of paraphilic and nonparaphilic child molesters. The sample contained 36 paraphilic child molesters and a matched comparison group of 34 nonparaphilic child molesters. The analyses of the research results show that four personality disorders discriminate between both groups. Only the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder contributes significantly to the explanation of paraphilic child molestation. This result also contributes to the development and differentiation of the treatment of paraphilia-related disorders. For several child molesters, psychological approaches to the treatment of sexual offending (e.g., cognitive-behavioral treatment, psychotherapy in general) are limited and cannot be expected to immediately reduce risk. Interest has been expressed in medical approaches to reduce recidivism, in combination with psychotherapy.