A comparison of email versus letter threat contacts toward members of the United States Congress

To better understand inappropriate correspondence sent to public officials, 301 letter cases and 99 email cases were randomly selected from the United States Capitol Police investigative case files and compared. Results indicate that letter writers were significantly more likely than emailers to exhibit indicators of serious mental illness (SMI), engage in target dispersion, use multiple methods of contact, and make a problematic approach toward their target. Emailers were significantly more likely than letter writers to focus on government concerns, use obscene language, and display disorganization in their writing. Also, letter writers tended to be significantly older, have more criminal history, and write longer communications. A multivariate model found that disorganization, SMI symptoms, problematic physical approach, and target dispersion significantly differentiated between the correspondence groups. The group differences illuminated by this study reveal that letter writers are engaging in behavior that is higher risk for problematic approach than are emailers.     

Increasing knowledge of food deserts in Brazil: The contributions of an interactive and digital mosaic produced in the context of an integrated education for sustainability program

As efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition evolve within the context of United Nations' Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goals; such problems remain far from being solved due, in part, to their complex nature. Brazil exemplifies such multifaceted scenario as the country has left the “hunger map” in 2014 but now faces another issue: The quality of the food available to its population. Physical, social, economic, cultural, and political factors have impacted the Brazilian food environment, shaping new eating habits such as the replacement of traditional local food for processed foods. Within this context, educational institutions may play an important role in spreading knowledge about major social challenges such as this and their interdependent causes. This paper presents the case study of a project conducted by business and public administration students in a discipline called Integrated Education for Sustainability (FIS), offered to undergraduate students at one of Brazil's most important management schools. In 2017, the project worked on the topic of Food Deserts, challenging the students to develop a digital and interactive mosaic that uncovers the situation of the food deserts in São Paulo. Data were collected from participant observation, field trips, events, and interviews conducted in class with 18 professionals working on several areas related to the topic. The article provides insights into (a) the importance of education to tackle the sustainability challenges, (b) lessons learned from the 14th edition of FIS course, and (c) the several barriers to food access in the city of São Paulo.     

Risk aversion in two-period rent-seeking games

This work analyzes a two-period rent-seeking game, with the aim of studying the effect of risk aversion on the optimal choices made by the rent-seekers. We first prove that the equilibrium in two-period rent-seeking games always is unique. The analysis also shows that more risk aversion reduces the investment in the rent-seeking game in a two-period framework without introducing the additional condition of prudence, required in one-period models. Similarly, the introduction of a risky rent, instead of a given rent, implies, in the two-period framework, a reduction in investment under the condition that the rent-seekers are risk averse. Moreover, with risk aversion, larger first-period wealth increases investment in the rent-seeking game and larger second-period wealth reduces it. When both first-period and second-period wealth increase, investment in the rent-seeking game declines if the rent-seeker is risk averse and imprudent. Lastly, when a risky level of second-period wealth is introduced, the rent-seeker increases (reduces) investment in the rent-seeking game if he is risk averse and prudent (imprudent).

     

Mapping a way forward: Interest group selection and roles performed in engagement processes

Interest groups have much to offer citizen engagement activities, yet their contributions have been marginalized in recent years with the focus on more deliberative approaches for “ordinary citizens.” It seems that an either/or situation exists between citizen and interest group engagement. This article transcends this debate by delineating a methodology to inform the design of engagement processes that would include both citizens and groups in productive dialogue. Based on past interest group collaboration patterns, a collaborative method is outlined, which offers a way to identify and select interest groups for inclusion in engagement processes with citizens. The method is then applied to a case study of two water issues confronting the City of Hamilton in Ontario.     

The need for a complete dental autopsy of unidentified edentulous human remains

In December 2017, a decomposed unidentified body was found near the river Tronto in Teramo, Italy. The corpse was found without any identifying documents or specific personal belongings, except for a packet of cigarettes. The medical examiner determined a gastric perforation from the intake of hydrochloric acid to be the cause of death. A jar of muriatic acid found near the body led to suicide being considered the manner of death. The Penal Court in Teramo appointed two forensic odontologists to complete the postmortem assessment and collect dental data for personal identification. The corpse was found wearing a complete set of upper and lower dentures. The dental autopsy and 42 periapical X-ray images helped generate a biological profile of a man totally edentulous with upper and lower dentures, as well as an osteosynthesis with two plates and screws in the left ascending ramus of the mandible. In March 2018, the sister of a missing person reported the disappearance of her brother, and a presumptive identification was performed through visual recognition of the decomposed body. The sister confirmed the presence of two dentures and the location of the maxillo-facial surgery for the treatment of the fractured mandible. A complete dental autopsy was able to establish his identity without any DNA comparison needed. This case highlights the importance of performing a complete dental autopsy inclusive of dental radiographs, and its value in the identification of all unknown human remains even when totally edentulous.A complete dental autopsy should be performed in all cases of human identification.

Keypoints

• Despite a corpse being edentulous, a complete dental autopsy can still be useful.
• Dental radiographs, such as bitewings, periapical images, panoramic radiographs, and CT scans, are recommended in all identification autopsies.

     

Soziale Mechanismen und mechanismische Erklärungen

Researchers in all fields dealing with reality wish to explain facts once they have described them. The prevailing account of explanation in the philosophical literature is the “covering law model”. According to this opinion, to explain a fact is to deduce the proposition(s) describing it from a theory together with the appropriate data, such as initial conditions. This is not how explanation is conceived of in the advanced factual sciences. In these, to explain a fact consists in unveiling the mechanism that makes the thing in question “tick”. In turn, a mechanism consists in the process(es) characteristic of the given thing. For example, metabolism is the central mechanism of living beings, learning is that of schools, and trade that of markets. I call mechanismic this kind of explanation. Therefore, anyone wishing to control a concrete system had better start by finding out its typical mechanisms, so as to maintain or alter them. This is what social control mechanisms, from cooperation and charity to legislation and violence, are supposed to accomplish. Typically, social mechanisms involve at least two levels, micro (individual) and macro (institutional). Consequently they can be neither understood nor designed on the basis of either individualism or holism. I argue that only systemism, the view that every thing is either a system or a component of one, can satisfactorily account for the centrality of mechanisms. Warning: Merton, Giddens and others often called “structure” what I call “mechanism”. Following mathematical usage, I define the structure of a system as the set of all the relations (in particular cohesive bonds) among the system component (endostructure), as well as the relations between the system components and things in the environment.     

Speaking the Language of Friendship: Partnerships in the Political Construction of the Late Sixteenth-Century South-East Charcas Frontier

The present article discusses the importance of partnerships in the political construction of the south-east frontier of late sixteenth-century Charcas, focused on foundation and destruction of San Miguel de la Laguna. In a challenge to the narrative of ‘constant war zone’, the events are here framed as part of a process described as territorialisation, which transformed geographies into territories of the polycentric Catholic Monarchy, politically equipping the land with relations that were expressed through institutions. San Miguel was the product of the ‘friendship’ between its founder and the Chiriguanaes who inhabited the area. Its fate was not the result of untrustworthy natives.     

The Disappeared and the Mesa de Diálogo in Chile 1999–2001: Searching for Those Who Never Grew Old

This paper describes steps taken in order to deal with information regarding human rights abuses in Chile during the Pinochet regime, focusing on the most recent initiative, the Mesa de Diálogo (1999–2001) whose final report was given to president Lagos in January 2001. Two national initiatives, i.e. the establishment and reports of the Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliación (1991) and the following-up of this inquiry by the Corporación Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación (1996) preceded La Mesa and are discussed in this paper. The paper concludes by suggesting that the Chilean transition to democracy will remain incomplete if the fate of the disappeared is not fully known and legally investigated.     

Using Stationarity Tests in Antitrust Market Definition

In this article it is argued that, if two products or geographicareas belong in the same market, their relative price must bestationary. Hence stationarity tests like the Augmented Dickey-Fullerand the KPSS can be helpful in delineating the relevant marketfor antitrust purposes, particularly for abuses of dominantpositions and agreements between competitors. The proposed procedureis strictly related to cointegration analysis but is simplerand has more general validity. An application to the Italianmilk market illustrates the technique.