Changing Resource Profiles: Aspirations Among Orphans in Central Mozambique in the Context of an AIDS Mitigation Intervention

In this article the resource profile approach is used as a framework to explore wellbeing and future aspirations among orphans and vulnerable children in Central Mozambique who took part in an AIDS mitigation project aimed at shoring up rural livelihoods. It is shown that participation in the project has altered the resource profile of participants, not least in terms of shoring up cultural resources and enhancing the capacity to aspire. This has wider implications for individuals' resource profile dynamics more generally and strengthens the case for interventions into HIV/AIDS based on a holistic understanding of people's wellbeing.     

Urgent issues and prospects at the intersection of culture,memory, and witness interviews: Exploring the challenges for research and practice

The pursuit of justice increasingly relies on productive interactions between witnesses and investigators from diverse cultural backgrounds during investigative interviews. To date, the role of cultural context has largely been ignored by researchers in the field of investigative interviewing, despite repeated requests from practitioners and policymakers for evidence-based guidance for the conduct of interviews with people from different cultures. Through examining cultural differences in human memory and communication and considering specific contextual challenges for investigative interviewing through the lens of culture, this review and associated commentaries highlight the scope for considering culture and human diversity in research on, and the practice of, investigative interviewing with victims, witnesses, and other sources. Across 11 commentaries, contributors highlight the importance of considering the role of culture in different investigative interviewing practices (e.g., rapport building, questioning techniques) and contexts (e.g., gender-based violence, asylum seeking, child abuse), address common areas of cultural mismatch between interviewer–interviewee expectations, and identify critical future routes for research. We call for an increased focus in the investigative interviewing literature on the nature and needs of our global community and encourage constructive and collaborative discussion between researchers and practitioners from around the world to better identify specific challenges and work together towards evidence-based solutions.     

State‐Building and the European Union's Fight against Corruption in the Southern Caucasus: Why Legitimacy Matters

This article asks under which conditions the state‐building efforts of external actors in areas of limited statehood are likely to be effective. We argue that the legitimacy of the specific norms promoted by external actors among local actors is crucial for their success in strengthening state capacities. International efforts need to resonate with prevalent social norms. To substantiate this argument, we focus on the European Union's (EU) anticorruption programs and their implementation in one of the most corrupt regions in the world, the Southern Caucasus. We show that legitimacy can explain why the EU's fight against corruption helped reduce corruption in Georgia but not in Armenia. In both countries, political elites could selectively use anticorruption programs as an instrument against political opponents, using enhanced state capacities to stabilize the incumbent regime. Only in Georgia, however, was the fight against corruption facilitated by sustained domestic mobilization for anticorruption policies that added pressure on political elites “from below.”     

The noble west and the dirty rest? Western democracy promoters and illiberal regional powers

This conclusion summarizes the major findings of this special issue and discusses their implications for research on democratization and international democracy promotion. First, I compare the interactions between EU and US democracy promotion and the responses of non-democratic regional powers. In the cases in which Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China chose to pursue a countervailing strategy, I match the reactions of the US and the EU and explore how the combined (inter-)actions of democratic and non-democratic actors have affected efforts at democracy promotion in the target countries. The second part discusses the theoretical implications of these findings and identifies challenges for theory-building. I argue that the literature still has to come to terms with a counter-intuitive finding of this special issue, namely that non-democratic actors can promote democratic change by unintentionally empowering liberal reform coalitions as much as democracy promoters can unwittingly enhance autocracy by stabilizing illiberal incumbent regimes. I conclude with some policy considerations.     

Internationale Zuständigkeit für Klagen auf Zahlung rückständiger Bewirtschaftungskosten

Für Klagen nach § 27 Abs 2 WEG einer Eigentümergemeinschaft gegen einen Wohnungseigentümer auf Zahlung rückst?ndiger Bewirtschaftungskosten ist ohne Rücksicht auf den Wohnsitz des Bekl ausschlie?lich das ?sterr Gericht zust?ndig, in dem die unbewegliche Sache gelegen ist, wenn mit dieser Klage ein Antrag auf Klagsanmerkung verbunden ist.     

Multicenter evaluation of ultrafiltration, dialysis, and thermal coagulation as sample pretreatment methods for the colorimetric determination of paraquat in blood and tissues

Three methods of sample pretreatment for the rapid colorimetric determination of paraquat were compared: ultrafiltration, dialysis, and thermal coagulation. Spiked autopsy blood and tissue samples were examined in parallel in Groningen and Krakow and some samples were interchanged. All three methods gave recoveries between 87 to 102%; accuracy at the 20-mg/L level was within 10% of the target value and coefficients of variation in the 10 to 60-mg/L range were between 3 to 15%. Determinations in blood and liver in a fatal case of Gramoxone poisoning showed excellent agreement. Because of its reliability, speed, and simplicity, ultrafiltration is the method of choice.