Public Opinion and the Helms Amendment

This article questions existing performing arts market segmentation practices in the United States, probing for examples of unintended exclusion and discrimination. The author critiques specific performing arts marketing scholarship and the segmentation practices that stem from it. Future growth of the performing arts industry's audiences may rest on the ability to define their composition more broadly, to be more inclusive rather than exclusive. At the same time, marketing theory, research, and practice may need to be specifically developed to meet the needs of both the performing arts industries and their audiences.     

Families of nations and public policy

Employing cluster analysis, this article reconsiders a concept formulated by Francis G. Castles that stresses the existence of four families of nations, which markedly differ in respect of public policy‐making. For two policy fields — social and economic policy — the hypothesised families of nations can be shown to exist, and they are quite robust and stable over time. Cluster analysis also reveals different paths towards modernity. On the one hand, there are more state‐oriented versus more market‐oriented models of public policy‐making; on the other, there is a cleavage in public policy‐making between rich countries located at the centre and somewhat poorer countries located at the periphery.     

A proposal for standardization in forensic canine DNA typing: allele nomenclature of six canine-specific STR loci

In this study a proposal for the allele nomenclature of six polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci (PEZ3, PEZ6, PEZ8, PEZ10, FHC2161, and FHC2328) for canine genotyping (Canis lupus familiaris) is presented. The nomenclature is based on the sequence data of the polymorphic region of the microsatellite markers as recommended by the DNA commission of the International Society of Forensic Haemogenetics (ISFH) in 1994 for human DNA typing. To cover commonly and rarely occurring alleles, a selection of homozygous and heterozygous animals were analyzed and subjected to sequence studies. The alleles consisted of simple tri- and tetra-nucleotide repeat patterns as well as compound and highly complex repeat patterns. Several alleles revealing the same fragment size but different repeat structures were found. The allele designation described here was adopted to the number of repeats, including all variable regions within the amplified fragment. In a second step the most commonly occurring alleles were added to an allelic ladder for each marker allowing a reliable typing of all alleles differing in size. A total number of 142 unrelated dogs from surrounding municipal animal homes, private households, and canines in police duty were analyzed. The data were added to a population database providing allele frequencies for each marker.     

Cases, Conflict, and Accommodation: Patterns of legal Interaction in an American Community

This article provides an overview of an empirical study of a civil trial court and the environment of indigenous law and conflict resolution in which the court operates. The article combines an analysis of civil cases and litigants with an investigation of alternative nonjudicial approaches used by residents of the community. The first section of the article examines the emergence of legal conflicts from the fabric of social relationships in the community and compares cases and parties in the court with those that gravitate toward nonjudicial settings. The second section compares processes and outcomes available in the court with those that may be obtained nonjudicially. The article concludes that different categories of cases emerge from different kinds of social relationships and for this reason are associated with fundamentally dissimilar patterns of values, norms, procedures, and outcomes. It also emphasizes the benefits to be obtained from investigating the complex relationships and interchanges that link local level trial courts to their communities.     

Civil Cases and Society: Process and Order in the Civil Justice System

It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an era preoccupied with the problems and challenges of obtaining justice in civil cases. Concerns expressed about the civil justice system range from warnings that civil court dockets are clogged by disputants too litigious for their own good to complaints that the legal system is used too rarely in civil cases.
The authors approach their analysis with a sense that this subject area is in need of more and better theory. It is an unfortunate fact that discussions of civil justice—and suggestions for reform—have been marked by contradiction and confusion and have been engrossed with small matters that tend to obscure from view the system as a whole.
The first part of this essay focuses on what the civil justice system is and does. It presents a five-stage model of civil case processing and examines relationships between this model and the criminal justice system. The second part of the essay considers this model in a broader context. Here the authors examine two paradigms of civil case processing and their implications for the implementation of legal norms and the pursuit of justice in society.     

Nachruf auf Winfried Steffani

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Vital animal predation of the genital region caused by a mongrel dog

A 79-year-old man, who was in a helpless situation due to cardiac decompensation, suffered dog bite injuries on the left thigh and in the genital region while still alive. Two extensive soft-tissue defects with contused and bruised wound edges were surrounded by multiple slit-like skin lesions. The outer genitals were almost completely missing. Because of surgical emergency treatment, molecular biological investigations were no longer possible. Therefore, the cause of the bite injuries had to be determined solely on the basis of the documented morphology of the wounds.     

No Sex,No Crime,No Shame: Privatized Care and the Seduction into Responsibility

The article reflects on the interrelation between neo‐liberal economy and sexuality. The neo‐liberal paradigm issues a paradoxical appellation of individualization and privatized responsibilities. The latter not only refer to personal well‐being and growth, but also demand for care relations, which substitute for the shrinking of the social system. The thesis is that homosexual lifestyles figure as avant‐garde positions, which promise to provide a “solution” to the paradoxical demands for individualization and care. Reading visual representations of lesbian and gay figures in media and advertisements the author argues that non‐normative genders and homosexual ways of existence gain access to the mainstream via the mechanism of “projective integration”. This mechanism stimulates a new hegemonic consensus via the disarticulation of the socio‐political contradictions of the global capitalist economy and the affirmation of not only new forms of intimacy, but also new forms of exclusion.     

Identification of sinicuichi alkaloids in human serum after intoxication caused by oral intake of a Heimia salicifolia extract

A 26-year-old male came to hospital around midnight complaining about muscle pain of the extremities as well as the tongue and slightly raised temperature. He reported the intake of an unknown amount of sinicuichi tea he had fermented over 24 h by adding yeast and sugar. The patient was treated with Vomex A (dimenhydrinate) and released from hospital the following afternoon. A blood sample taken shortly after submission and a small amount of the used plant material were available for analysis. Herbal drugs are widely used as stimulants as a legal alternative to illegal psychoactive drugs or in traditional context. Among many others like Sassafras officinalis, Salvia divinorum or Ephedra, Heimia salicifolia ("sinicuichi"), a species of the lythraceae family, is available via several online shops. Brewed up or fermented and consumed, the so-called sinicuichi tea may cause exhilarating feelings and an alteration of awareness accompanied by bradycardia, relaxation of the muscles and a pleasant faintness. Therefore Sinicuichi brew and heimia leaves are widely used for medication by the natives of Central and South America. After liquid extraction with acetone five different alkaloids were detected in the plant material by LC-MS/MS operated in the Q1 scan mode applying a TurboIonSpray source. Subsequently, Product Ion Spectra were recorded and after confirming the molecular formula by determining the accurate masses, possible structures of H. salicifolia alkaloids were assigned. The information of the Product Ion Spectra was then used to set up a sensitive multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method. Applying the MRM method to the patient's serum sample after alkaline liquid-liquid extraction all of the five heimia alkaloids detected in the plant material were also detected qualitatively in the serum extract, confirming the ingestion.