中小企业集群发展中的政府干预

中小企业集群很多都是自发形成的,但实践证明,地方政府在中小企业集群的形成中可以发挥较大作用。中小企业在发展中面临着许多自身无法克服的劣势与风险,因此,在集群的发展过程中,需要政府进行干预,即通过多种途径发挥其对集群的引导和扶持作用。     

Bildungsexpansion und Wandel des politischen Interesses in Westdeutschland zwischen 1980 und 2002

Interest in politics is a prerequisite for political participation and political engagement. The promotion of political engagement and education to politically mature citizens were basic concerns of educational reforms in the 1960s. This article focuses on the question if educational expansion has lead to a rise in political interest. To reproduce the change in political interest adequately, effects of education, age, period and cohort will be analyzed simultaneously. The data base of the empirical analyses is a cumulated data set consisting of the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 1980 to 2002. Results show that there is a robust effect of education: More highly educated people are more politically interested. Regarding educational expansion evidence suggests that it actually leads to a rise in political interest.     

Contests with an unknown number of contestants

This paper studies rent-seeking contests where the contestants do not know the number of actively competing contestants. Two models are compared. In the first, all players are risk neutral; in the second, all have constant absolute risk aversion. If the expected fraction of active contestants is low, an increase in the number of potential contestants increases individual rent-seeking efforts. This effect is in contrast to the complete information case where individual rent-seeking efforts decrease in the number of contestants. The effect is more likely under risk neutrality, but also possible under risk aversion. Equilibrium rent seeking efforts are lower under risk aversion if and only if the expected fraction of active contestants is low.     

From the Morality of Living to the Morality of Dying: Hunger Strikes in Turkish Prisons

Political hunger strikes have been part of the debates on human rights in many countries around the world. This paper explores the preconditions for and motives behind hunger strikes in Turkey by conceiving the hunger strikers as a part of citizenship politics through which strikers not only express their views against certain common issues, but also declare total opposition to an unjust condition within their political community. The paper focuses on the question of why some such “citizens” choose to participate in hunger strikes, which appears as an individual commitment to achieve a certain common objective. In doing so, the meaning of the experiences of hunger strikers and their universal right to live are elaborated in relation to their political and moral views. Hunger strikes are suggested to be seen as voluntary fasting, undertaken as a means of civil disobedience against an injustice within the context of citizenship. As examples of non-violent political acts, hunger strikes are not only part of citizenship politics but also expressions of commitment to achieving one's goals through non-aggressive means for the common good of all citizens. Moreover, they can also be considered examples of martyrdom/heroism because hunger strikers altruistically risk their life for a public cause. As a particular altruistic act, hunger strikes can also be viewed as an effective form of communication directed toward fellow citizens. Moreover, they are expressions of self-determination for having control over and for one's own life conditions. Finally, hunger strikes can be conceptualized as a struggle for transforming the configuration of structures and practices of citizenship about which one is passionately concerned. In this context, hunger strikes seem to be struggles for recognition in a relationship between two subjects, in which one subordinates the other.     

Sexual sadism

Definitions of sexual sadism in ICD-10 and DSM-IV will be presented as well as the historical routes of the concept. Today studies on differently selected clinical samples reveal a different distribution of sexual sadism versus masochism with masochism prevailing in general especially outpatient psychiatric facilities, and sadism prevailing in forensic settings, thus corroborating the concept of two separated diagnoses sadism versus masochism. In forensic settings the diagnosis of a sadistic character disorder (sadistic personality disorder [SPD] according DSM-III-R) is found to a much higher degree than in other clinical samples (50-fold). Our own follow-up study on a forensic sample implies that sadism as a paraphilia is of relevance for relapse-rates of sex-offenders. Symptoms of SPD can be combined with sexual sadism, or occur independently. This may corroborate arguments in favor of a dimensional concept of sexual sadism. Symptoms of SPD may then be a sign of generalization of sadistic traits at least in some cases. A concept of two factors contributing to sadistic pleasure is suggested, one taking the aspect of bodily gratification by sexual-aggressive stimuli as decisive, and the other taking inner representation of hostile objects into consideration (stressing the antisocial-anger-rage aspect).     

Review of prison-based needle exchange programs published

A recent review of prison-based syringe-exchange (PSE) programs concludes that such programs "are feasible and do provide benefit in the reduction of risk behaviour and the transmission of blood-borne infection without any unintended negative consequences".     

The external occipital protuberance: can it be used as a criterion in the determination of sex?

Sex determination of a corpse can be problematic in cases where the body is damaged. Useful criteria would assist in the identification of sex in such cases. The goal of this study is to determine the usefulness of the external occipital protuberance (EOP) in the determination of sex, especially in lateral cranium radiographs. The types and configurations of the EOP were investigated on normal lateral cranium radiographs of 1000 subjects (500 males and 500 females) and 694 dry-skull remains (371 males and 323 females) from a 16th Century Anatolian population for the purpose of sex determination. In the radiographic examination, the incidence of less prominent (Type 1) EOP is found to be 85.4% in females whereas 17.8% in males. The spine type (Type 3) EOP is found to be 63.4% in males and to be 4.2% in females. On the other hand, studies of dry-skull remains revealed the incidence of Type 1 EOP to be 67.5% in females and Type 3 EOP to be 55.2% in males. The crest type (Type 2) EOP is approximately equal in both sexes and is found to be less valuable for sex determination in both groups.     

Cutaneous current marks due to a stun gun injury

Histological changes of the skin following electrical injury with a stun gun have rarely been described. We report the case of a 61-year-old man who died after having been tortured with a stun gun during a robbery. At autopsy two reddish, dot-like lesions where found on the chest and histological examination revealed electric current-related changes. Only a few reports concerning micromorphological cutaneous changes following stun gun injury have been reported; therefore further investigations concerning the frequency and type of histological findings due to stun gun injuries will be necessary in order to provide sufficient characteristic data for a conclusive interpretation.