Unnatural and Violent Death in Cases with High Blood Alcohol Concentration— Autopsy Study

The use of alcohol increases the risk of dying from unnatural or violent causes. The presented study explored the distribution of age, gender, cause, and circumstances of death in persons who died in an unnatural and violent manner, with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) higher than 0.3 g/dL, and where the cause of death was not alcohol intoxication. We defined the control (0 < BAC < 0.3 g/dL) and study (BAC ≥ 0.3 g/dL) groups, as in subjects with these concentrations, there is a significant risk of gross intoxication, stupor, and death. The subjects from the study group were older, with no difference in gender distribution. Traffic accidents were the most common fatal event in both groups, followed by suicides. Other accidents (choking on food and exposure to fire) were more frequent in the study group. Compared to the control group, subjects from the study group were older persons whose deaths were mainly accidental.     

Forgetting to make votes count: The role of previous democratic experience

This paper argues that wasted votes in founding elections decrease when countries have a previous democratic experience before the current democratic period. This historical-institutionalist argument is tested with national election results in 22 founding elections in third-wave European, Asian, Latin American and African democracies. The results demonstrate that having a democratic past clearly increases coordination and then reduces the percentage of wasted votes in the founding election, controlling for the electoral system.     

Hyperostosis frontalis interna as an age-related phenomenon – Differences between males and females and possible use in identification

Hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) is a condition manifested by thickening of the inner surface of the frontal bone and it could be useful when dealing with the identification of human remains in various anthropological and forensic investigations. We compared the macroscopic appearance and morphologic (metric) features of the skulls in cases with and without HFI, in both sexes, and wanted to establish whether age determined occurrence of HFI. To achieve this aim, we performed prospective autopsy study, covering ten-year period (2007–2016). Study group consisted of southeast Europe Caucasian subjects, with determined age and sex. The severity of HFI was classified by two forensic pathologists independently, according to the four types (A–D) proposed by Hershkovitz et al. Thicknesses of the frontal and temporal bones, as well as the longitudinal and frontal diameters of the skulls were measured. The sample consisted of 35 males and 112 females with HFI, and 55 males and 202 females without HFI (404 individuals in total). Type B was the most common type of HFI among males (45%) and type C among females (41%). HFI type D was almost four times more common in females than in males (OR?=?3.73). Frontal and temporal bones were thicker in all subjects who have HFI. Thickness of the skull was not age-dependent, in the entire sample, or in subjects with HFI, or in the control group (in all the cases Spearman's Rho was <0.3). Age seemed to be a predicting factor for HFI occurrence only in females. Females younger than 55?years have similar risk for HFI occurrence as males. An unidentified skull with the general markers of old age and severe form HFI is most probably from a female decedent.     

DNA Identification of Commingled Human Remains from the Cemetery Relocated by Flooding in Central Bosnia and Herzegovina

The floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina in May 2014 caused landslides all over the country. In the small village of ?eri?i, near the town of Zenica, a landslide destroyed the local cemetery, relocated graves, and commingled skeletal remains. As the use of other physical methods of identification (facial recognition, fingerprint analysis, dental analysis, etc.) was not possible, DNA analysis was applied. DNA was isolated from 20 skeletal remains (bone and tooth samples) and six reference samples (blood from living relatives) and amplified using PowerPlex^® Fusion and PowerPlex^®Y23 kits. DNA profiles were generated for all reference samples and 17 skeletal remains. A statistical analysis (calculation of paternity, maternity, and sibling indexes and matching probabilities) resulted in 10 positive identifications. In this study, 5 individuals were identified based on one reference sample. This has once again demonstrated the significance of DNA analysis in resolving the most complicated cases, such as the identification of commingled human skeletal remains.     

Financial Management Development in Spain: Who is Playing Sancho Panza?

“What giants?” said Sancho Panza. “Those thou seest there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.” “Look, your worship,” said Sancho, “what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.” “It is easy to see,” replied Don Quixote, “that thou are not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat.” So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting.     

Are regulatory agencies independent in practice? Evidence from board members in Spain

Are the board members of regulatory agencies (regulators), taken as a particular cluster within the public sphere, independent of elected politicians and tenured bureaucrats? How can we assess their independence in practice, beyond formal rules? To address these questions, this paper delves into two key dimensions: board members' social connections and their security of tenure in office. Firstly, we focus on regulators' identity as policy adjudicators and examine their political and administrative relations. In doing so, we expect to understand better how regulators' social and political situations may influence their behavior. Secondly, we assess their political vulnerability through political cycles in order to measure their de facto independence over time. Additionally, variations in these two dimensions are compared with respect to the effect of different de jure appointment rules. We contrast these expectations with the empirical evaluation of board members of regulatory agencies in Spain (1979–2010). Thus, we confirm that regulators who have an administrative profile are more vulnerable to political changes than those with political ties, while appointment rules have an influence on their political vulnerability.     

Socio-economic differentiation in the post-communist rural Baltics: the case of three kolkhozes

This paper uses longitudinal quantitative data to examine socio-economic differentiation in the rural Baltic areas after decollectivization. It argues that the rural social structure in the post-Soviet Baltics is best determined by two criteria: source of income (income from farming entrepreneurship or income from salaries) and land holdings. Four rural groups are identified: people getting their main income from farming can be differentiated into large landowners engaged in the commercial production of agricultural goods and people with small or medium-sized farms; and people earning their main income from wages can be separated into people with no farming activities and people who are still keeping small or medium-sized farms. The paper also finds that the importance of farming activities in the countryside decreases while importance of wage income tends to increase.