Fatal intoxication due to tramadol alone: case report and review of the literature

Poisoning may also lead to both coma and multiple organ failure, also in youngsters without a known major medical history. As not all toxic agents are routinely screened when a poisoning is suspected, it is useful to consider less frequently encountered poisons in certain cases. We describe the occurrence of asystole and multiple organ failure which occurred in a young man after a suspected tramadol overdose. The tramadol concentration on admission in the ICU was indeed 8 microg/ml (mg/l), far above the therapeutic range. Subsequently, the patient developed severe acute liver failure, finally leading to death. Post-mortem toxicology did not reveal any other poison responsible for this unfavourable course as only very high serum and tissue tramadol and desmethyltramadol concentrations were found. Only a few fatal poisonings attributable to tramadol alone, as observed in our case, have been reported. An overview of these cases is presented.     

Bridging the academic-policy gap in Canadian defence: What more can be done?

This article assesses the academia-policy gap in Canadian defence. The field of Canadian defence studies is inherently interested in the work of defence practitioners, and the Department of National Defence has had an ongoing interest in supporting academic defence expertise. A gap nonetheless persists between the two communities, owing to their different cultures, approaches, and objectives. Drawing on personal experiences as members of both the academic and policy worlds and on findings from semi-structured interviews with serving and retired defence officials, the article examines the nature of academia-policy gap in Canadian defence, the factors that make the gap persist, and what measures can help bridge the gap.     

East Germany: another party landscape

Viewed from the heart of the EU in Brussels, German European policy has not been significantly altered by unification. A major reason for this policy continuity is the stability of the composition of German's foreign policy ‘establishment’ in the federal bureaucracy as well as in the political parties. For a combination of reasons, including the economic conjuncture, the enhanced European policy role of the Länder governments, and the lack of socialisation of east Germans into the European project after the Second World War, the political climate has, however, grown more hostile to closer integration. This may prove though to be a conjunctural phenomenon, which will change with an upturn of the German economy. There will be no ‘Britishisation’ of German European policy.     

How robust is the welfare state when facing open borders? An evolutionary game-theoretic model

How robust is the welfare state when confronting open borders? To answer that question, we develop an evolutionary game-theoretic model combined with an ingroup–outgroup model. The simulations reveal that welfare states in general will transform into low-welfare societies unless the societies in time generate a sufficiently large amount of social recognition of the reciprocators in such a crisis. The recognition implies that the “always cooperators” in favour of supportive policies towards free riders need to step down and hand over privileges to those willing to reciprocate, namely the “willing punishers”. The open-border society is modelled by letting a small amount of random types enter the society each year. Interestingly, it is not the defectors who compromise high-welfare societies. Instead, it is the excessive presence of cooperators who crowd out the reciprocators, thus making society increasingly vulnerable to free riding. This accentuates the need for timely recognition and actions against the risk of moving towards a low-welfare society.

     

Education, empowerment and community based structural reinforcement: an HIV prevention response to mass incarceration and removal

In the context of US urban jails, incarceration is often seen as an opportune intervention point for prevention interventions in public health. For the detained individual, it is an opportunity to reflect on individual choices and the potential for changes in one's life course. For population focused public health professionals, jail detention facilities represent a concentration of health risks, and an opportunity to have an impact on a significant portion of those at risk for HIV and other health concerns. This paper presents an innovative education and empowerment model that bridges across jail walls, beginning on the inside, and continuing on the outside of jail where individuals continue to be challenged and supported toward positive health and social choices. The intervention also seeks to foment community activism in the communities to which jail detainees return, thus aiming to have a structural impact. This paper examines both the intervention model and the challenges of examining the effectiveness claims for the intervention at multiple levels.     

Religion und Wirtschaft. Mauss,Simiand und das Durkheim’sche Programm

Berliner Journal für Soziologie - Der Artikel zeigt auf, dass das Werk Emile Durkheims zwei Forschungsprogramme im Bereich der Wirtschaftssoziologie umfasst. Beim ersten liegt der Schwerpunkt...