An Alternative Internationalism: The Main Lines and Legacies of Polish Sovietology,Promethean Orientalism and the Soviet ‘Southern Borderlands’, 1926–1939

Abstract

‘Prometheism’ was an interwar movement of borderland nationalists from the former Russian Empire who envisioned the division of the Soviet Union into independent nation-states. This article argues that ideological affinities and diasporic connections made the Promethean cause an attractive ‘alternative internationalism’ to the Soviet system for exiled thinkers hailing from the so-called ‘southern borderlands’ of Crimea, the Caucasus, the Volga region and Central Asia. In the 1930s, Prometheism drew intellectuals from these regions to Poland, where the movement’s thinkers formulated ambitious visions of Eurasian liberation from Soviet power.     

From alcohol to liquid ecstasy (GHB)--a survey of old and modern knockout agents. Part 2: benzodiazepines and other sedatives/hypnotic drugs

Owing to the rapid progress in the development of synthetic pharmaceuticals, the classical knockout drugs such as chloroform and diethyl ether have been superseded by highly effective sedative and hypnotic drugs (e. g. methyprylone, clozapine and especially benzodiazepines). These are frequently given to the victim unnoticed by adding them to an alcoholic drink. In this way, alcohol still plays an important role as an interaction partner. The article presents relevant case examples together with their criminalistic background.     

Comparative dental radiographic identification using flat panel CT

A skull without lower jaw was found and brought in for identification. It was suspected to be that of a man reported missing five years ago. An undated antemortal dental chart and two dental films of the 1st and 2nd dental quadrants, both taken about 4 years before the man went missing, were available for comparison. The method of choice in solving the identity question was comparative dental radiography. Despite numerous attempts, it was not possible to obtain radiographs of the upper jaw that duplicated the X-ray beam angulation of the antemortem dental films. The skull was thus scanned with a multislice computed tomography (MSCT) scanner, and virtual radiographs with the desired angulation were generated from the data with the maximum intensity projection (MIP) technique. The resulting virtual radiographs could, however, not be used for superimposition with the antemortem radiographs because of their poor resolution and the occurrence of artifacts caused by metallic dental fillings. The upper jaw was therefore scanned again, this time with a high resolution eLU-CT (eXplore Locus Ultra flat panel CT). The resulting eLU-CT datasets were visualized with the MIP technique and yielded virtual radiographs that could be compared with the antemortem radiographs. Positive identification could be assumed with near certainty after dental features could be matched in the superimposition of antemortem and postmortem radiographs. In the presented case, eLU-CT was used for the first time for a comparative dental radiographic identification.     

Individual and contextual characteristics of the German extreme Right–Wing vote in the 1990s. A test of complementary theories

In this article we set out to improve our knowledge on voting for extreme right–wing parties, i.e. the Republikaner, by taking into account social, political and contextual characteristics. We test four theories that provide explanations as to why certain social categories are more likely to vote for the Republikaner. The hypotheses are tested with multilevel analyses, with data from a national sample (N = 4688). Multinomial analyses provide additional information on how theoretically derived political attitudes effect voting behaviour.     

Electoral participation in the Netherlands: Individual and contextual influences

Research into electoral participation has produced two traditions, one focusing mainly on individual level explanations while the second concentrates primarily on aggregate level explanations. By bringing these two research approaches together, we are not only able to explain individual electoral participation more thoroughly, but we also gain additional insight into the influence of aggregate level characteristics on individual behavior. We combine eight National Election Studies held in the Netherlands between 1971 and 1994 enabling us to study variation on the individual and the contextual (aggregate) level, including interactions between these two levels. Findings show that the addition of contextual characteristics form a significant improvement to an individual level model predicting electoral participation. Findings also confirm our expectation that the influence of individual characteristics such as education or political interest is dependent upon contextual characteristics describing for instance the salience of the election.     

India and the dialectics of domestic and international “land grabbing”: Historical perspectives,current debates,and the case of Ethiopia

International land “acquisition” or land “grabbing” has become a global phenomenon in which India plays an increasingly important role. While there is a critical domestic debate regarding land deals within India — especially pertaining to the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2014 — there is practically no such debate regarding international land deals by Indian companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. By applying a two-level discourse analysis, this article argues that the land discourse within India can be understood as a strategy of exclusion. By linking land issues with questions of “development,” the discursive strategies of powerful actors lead to the exclusion of the arguments of NGOs and others opposed to the land deals from the discourse within India. This strategy of exclusion is then taken to the extreme with the strategy of securitization outside India: land deals are linked to “food security,” as the example of Ethiopia highlights.     

Political Scandals,Newspapers, and the Election Cycle

Political Behavior - Election outcomes are often influenced by political scandals. While a scandal usually has negative consequences for the ones being accused of a transgression, political...     

Digital forensic osteology--possibilities in cooperation with the Virtopsy project

In forensic pathology, the reactions that occur in the body from somatic death to cell death are commonly termed "supravital reactions". There are many reports of grossly visible and microscopic supravital reactions; however, few papers are available on the supravital reaction concerning gene expression. The aim of this study was to examine the gene expression of immediate early genes (IEGs) including c-fos, fos-B and c-jun in mechanically asphyxiated mouse brain and lung after somatic death and to identify the IEGs expressed at the point of supravital reaction in the brain and lung. Our results confirm that the expression of IEGs changed after death during supravital reaction and that the alterations differed according to the cause of death and the types of organ examined. In addition, IEG expression significantly increased following mechanical asphyxia. These results suggest that there is a specific pattern of gene expression following asphyxia. It is therefore important to identify the specific genes involved, as this may give significant information to aid in the post-mortem diagnosis of strangulation and hanging.