Democratic Hegemony and American Hegemony

The emergence of an ‘American democratic empire’, rising from the global informational and transportation revolution, that has its epicentre situated on the territory of the United States (US), has produced a profound metamorphosis in world affairs. National power elites, including those in America, are confronting a dilemma. They are compelled to accept, favour and even defend the so-called globalisation process in order to avoid further erosion of their economic and political power. On the other hand, this process is also directly threatening this same power. The paradox is that the US is the main promoter and defender of last resort of the new global ‘order’, which at the same time is restricting its own margins for sovereign action. The ‘democratic empire’ is thus fostering the rise of a democratic hegemonism at the expense of a ‘US hegemonism’. This democratic hegemonism is a gradually rising—and fragile—consensus on a proliferating set of perceptions and values, stressing individual freedom, responsibility and political and social activism. This consensus arises from the material possibilities of a more individualistic way of life and the increasing capacity of single individuals or organised groups to participate in global and local political decision-making processes. This is a process that favours the empowerment of interest groups whose reference is no longer solely the nation-state. Hence, traditional power elites are progressively losing their ability to present themselves as the ultimate embodiment of a national ‘general interest’. The irony of the seemingly intractable contradiction between US hegemonism and democratic hegemonism is that the actual spreading of the logic of the latter is closely dependent on US power and willingness to defend its own national interest. The greatest challenge for the coming decades will be the construction of supranational governance institutions under democratic hegemony, so as to avoid a classic imperial self-isolation of the US—a situation that would trigger the inevitable demise of democratic hegemonism and, for the time being, of any order as such.     

Applicability of Cranial Models in Urethane Resin and Foam as a Substitute for Bone: Are Synthetic Materials Reliable?

As literature is poor in functional synthetic cranial models, in this study, synthetic handmade models of cranial vaults were produced in two different materials (a urethane resin and a self‐hardening foam), from multiple bone specimens (eight original cranial vaults: four human and four swine), in order to test their resemblance to bone structure in behavior, during fracture formation. All the vaults were mechanically tested with a 2‐kg impact weight and filmed with a high‐speed camera. Fracture patterns were homogeneous in all swine vaults and heterogeneous in human vaults, with resin fractures more similar to bone fractures. Mean fracture latency time extrapolated by videos were of 0.75 msec (bone), 1.5 msec (resin), 5.12 msec (foam) for human vaults and of 0.625 msec (bone), 1.87 msec (resin), 3.75 msec (foam) for swine vaults. These data showed that resin models are more similar to bone than foam reproductions, but that synthetic material may behave quite differently from bone as concerns fracture latency times.     

The Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach in Forensic Sciences: Perspectives from a Peculiar Case of Mummification

The finding of a mummified body raises many problems, also because of the limits of the medico‐legal investigations in case of mummification. Psychological autopsy and behavioral analysis have demonstrated a significant impact in case of equivocal death. The mummified corpse of a woman was found sealed in a wardrobe during the death investigation of a 36‐year‐old man, later discovered to be the woman's son. The woman's corpse was well preserved and no external injuries were found. Autopsy could not ascertain the cause of death. The state of the premises and the writings on the walls offered an opportunity to investigate the man's psychological profile and to better understand how the events might have taken place. The role of an accurate investigative analysis of the crime scene is a cornerstone of forensic pathology and the case presented underlies the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in forensic sciences.     

When is Parental Monitoring Effective? A Person-centered Analysis of the Role of Autonomy-supportive and Psychologically Controlling Parenting in Referred and Non-referred Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Over the last few years, the protective role of parental monitoring on adolescent adjustment (i.e., active parental efforts aimed at setting limits and tracking...     

Is there a future for Latin America?

If Latin America is to have a future that transcends more than three or four successful national stories and a few competitive clusters and niches around the region, there must be fundamental cultural change from within combined with a friendlier and less predatory international atmosphere.     

Personal identification by the comparison of facial profiles: testing the reliability of a high-resolution 3D-2D comparison model

Identification from video surveillance systems is frequently requested in forensic practice. The "3D-2D" comparison has proven to be reliable in assessing identification but still requires standardization; this study concerns the validation of the 3D-2D profile comparison. The 3D models of the faces of five individuals were compared with photographs from the same subjects as well as from another 45 individuals. The difference in area and distance between maxima (glabella, tip of nose, fore point of upper and lower lips, pogonion) and minima points (selion, subnasale, stomion, suprapogonion) were measured. The highest difference in area between the 3D model and the 2D image was between 43 and 133 mm(2) in the five matches, always greater than 157 mm(2) in mismatches; the mean distance between the points was greater than 1.96 mm in mismatches, <1.9 mm in five matches (p < 0.05). These results indicate that this difference in areas may point toward a manner of distinguishing "correct" from "incorrect" matches.     

Contracts, Necessity and Ex Ante Optimality

In this paper I return to the issue of incentives to justify a narrowing of the applicability of a fair price rule to contracts of necessity. It is argued that such contracts should be viewed as part of a set of ex ante choices, one of which will minimize the costs of dealing with the risks associated with a period of temporary necessity. The Pareto optimality of a contract of necessity depends on whether the contract price would be seen by a potential victim of necessity as optimal ex ante, relative to her other choices with which to deal with the risk. It is shown that in the special case of a discrete choice set a fair price rule of law may not lead to efficient behavior on the part of both agents.