Hemolytic staining of the intima of the aortic root in freshwater drowning: a retrospective study

A retrospective study was conducted of files at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Hamburg, Germany from 1998 to 2003 of all cases of drowning where there was no putrefaction, to document the rate of recording of hemolytic staining of the intima of the great vessels. All cases had full police investigations with reviews of previous histories, circumstantial evidence, and autopsy findings. A series of control subjects who had died of various natural and nonnatural, nondrowning deaths, matched for age, sex, and postmortem interval, was also reviewed. One hundred twenty cases of freshwater drowning were identified. Drowning occurred in a garden pool in 1 case, in a bath in 2, and in the river Elbe in 117. The age range was from 2 to 91 years (mean = 55 years; M:F = 1:1.8). Hemolytic intimal staining of the aortic root was documented in 6 cases (6 of 120; 5%). This consisted of reddened discoloration of the proximal portion of the aortic root, without any significant staining of the proximal pulmonary artery. No significant hemolytic staining of the intima of the great vessels was recorded in any of the 120 control cases. Although under-reporting of findings may occur in retrospective analyses, this study has shown that at least 5% of freshwater drowning cases showed differential staining of the pulmonary trunk and aorta, with hemolytic discoloration of the aortic intima. When present, hemolytic staining of the aortic root intima may be a useful and possibly under-recognized corroborative sign of freshwater drowning.     

Predicting Competitive‐Unethical Negotiating Behavior and Its Consequences

This study examines the relationships between negotiators' attitudes toward competitive and unethical tactics, their actual use of those tactics, and their subsequent perceptions of performance and reputation in two‐party, e‐mail‐based negotiations. The results indicate several predictors of competitive‐unethical behavior, including a negotiator's attitude toward competitive‐unethical tactics, early use of competitive‐unethical tactics, and the behavior of a negotiating counterpart. Furthermore, it was the perceived honesty of one's counterpart rather than the actual use of competitive‐unethical behaviors that was associated with a negotiator's perceptions of the collective or joint outcome. The implications of these findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.     

The rise of the modern welfare state, ideology, institutions and income security: analysis and evidence

In the 25-year period between 1960 and 1985, there was a great expansion of welfare state programs throughout the West. The fraction of GDP accounted for by social expenditures doubled in much of Europe and grew by 40–50% in many other OECD nations. After 1985, growth in social insurance programs slowed relative to other parts of the economy. This paper explores the extent to which institutions and ideological shifts may have accounted for the period of rapid growth, for differences in the extent of that growth, and for the subsequent reduction in the growth rates of social insurance programs.     

“Murder–Suicide” or “Murder–Accident”? Difficulties with the Analysis of Cases

Abstract: Homicide where a perpetrator is found dead adjacent to the victim usually represents murder–suicide. Two incidents are reported to demonstrate characteristic features in one, and alternative features in the other, that indicate differences in the manner of death. (i) A 37‐year‐old mother was found dead in a burnt out house with her two young sons in an adjacent bedroom. Deaths were due to incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. (ii) A 39‐year‐old woman was found stabbed to death in a burnt out house with her 39‐year‐old de facto partner deceased from the combined effects of incineration and inhalation of products of combustion. The first incident represented a typical murder–suicide, however, in the second incident, the perpetrator had tried to escape through a window and had then sought refuge in a bathroom under a running shower. Murder–accident rather than murder–suicide may therefore be a more accurate designation for such cases.     

Age‐Dependent Fracture Characteristics of Rigid and Compliant Surface Impacts on the Infant Skull—A Porcine Model*,†

Abstract: This study documents skull fracture characteristics on infant porcine specimens under known impact conditions with respect to age and interface. A single impact causing fracture was conducted on the skull of porcine specimens aged 2–28 days (n = 76). Paired rigid and compliant impacts at the same energy were conducted at each specimen age. Impact force, impact duration, and fracture length were recorded. Energy required to initiate skull fracture increased with specimen age. For a given energy, impact of the skull with a compliant interface caused more fracture damage than with a rigid interface for specimens aged under 17 days, but less damage for specimens aged 24–28 days. The documentation of energy required to cause fracture and resulting fracture propagation with respect to impact interface and age may be of critical importance in forensic investigations of infant skull trauma.     

Hard‐Core Toughie: Donald Trump’s Negotiations for the United States Presidency

This paper examines the negotiation tactics employed by Donald Trump in his 2016 presidential campaign. Drawing on data from multiple sources (interviews, debates, articles, books), our analysis begins with a brief overview of Trump’s personality and philosophy, which offers a basis for understanding his general negotiating approach. We then highlight six competitive tactics and four principles of persuasion that Trump employs, with specific examples of how he used them during the campaign with his primary negotiating counterparts – the other candidates, the Republican Party, the press corps, and the American electorate. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of his negotiating approach and preferred tactics in dealing with domestic and international issues as president of the United States.     

Introduction: The Progressive Dilemma in British Politics

This special edition reflects on the contemporary relevance of the insights and concerns of David Marquand's book The Progressive Dilemma. In this Introduction, the editors set the scene for these reflections. They consider the structural changes that have occurred in politics since the 1990s: the impact of globalisation, the erosion of class identities, the rise of ‘identity politics’ and the continued fragmentation of the party system. There has been no reconciliation between the parties of the centre‐left, nor any re‐examination of the ‘liberal tradition’ and the potential for a new synthesis with revisionist social democracy. On the one hand, Corbynism is a radicalised metropolitan species of liberalism, while on the other there are plenty in Labour who stress the need for the party to re‐engage with the traditional, socially conservative values of the working class in a new ‘postliberal’ appeal. Yet the authors argue that those who broadly identify with progressive causes in British politics—animated by the various overlapping strands of social liberalism, social democracy and liberal socialism—have still to work out how to address the historic failings that Marquand so eloquently exposed, to create a new and inspiring intellectual vision that unites and energises the left and centre‐left.     

Robert D. Tollison and the economics of politics

This paper tracks economists’ rising, yet elusive and unstable interest in collective decision mechanism after World War II. We replace their examination of voting procedures and social welfare functions in the 1940s and 1950s in the context of their growing involvement with policy-making. Confronted with natural scientists’ and McCathythes’ accusations of ideological bias, positive studies emphasizing that collective decisions mechanisms were unstable and inefficient, and normative impossibilities, economists largely relied on the idea the policy ends they worked with reflected a “social consensus.” As the latter crumbled in the 1960s, growing disagreement erupted on how to identify and aggregate those individual values which economists believed should guide applied work, in particular in cost-benefit analysis. The 1970s and 1980s brought new approaches to collective decision: Arrow’s impossibility was solved by expanding the informational basis, it was showed that true preferences could be revealed by making decision costly, and experimentalists and market designers enabled these mechanisms to be tested in the lab before being sold to those public bodies looking for decision procedures that emulated markets. In this new regime, the focus paradoxically shifted to coordination, revelation and efficiency, and those economists studying collective decision processes were marginalized.