Unusual findings in a death caused by a car fire

Witnesses detected a burning car in the parking lot next to a discotheque in the early morning hours. After the fire had been extinguished, the charred body of the 23-year-old car owner was found in the driver's seat. The young man had been a guest of the discotheque the previous night and consumed plenty of alcoholic drinks. The traces left by the fire on the car suggested that the fire had started in the passenger compartment. At autopsy, greyish-brown discoloration and induration of the mucosa of the respiratory tract were found in addition to massive aspiration of soot and signs of soot swallowing. The macroscopic and histological findings pointed to a chemical burn of the airways probably caused by chlorine gases developing when the covering of the passenger compartment was burning. Chemical burns due to inhalation, aspiration and swallowing of soot are all signs of vitality, so that a smoldering fire must have gone on for a while inside the car with the windows closed. The most probable cause of the fire is that clothing or textile material in the car was set on fire by a burning cigarette.     

Infant death scene investigation and the assessment of potential risk factors for asphyxia: a review of 209 sudden unexpected infant deaths

At the Wayne County Medical Examiner Office (WCMEO) in Detroit, Michigan, from 2001 to 2004, thorough scene investigations were performed on 209 sudden and unexpected infant deaths, ages 3 days to 12 months. The 209 cases were reviewed to assess the position of the infant at the time of discovery and identify potential risk factors for asphyxia including bed sharing, witnessed overlay, wedging, strangulation, prone position, obstruction of the nose and mouth, coverage of the head by bedding and sleeping on a couch. Overall, one or more potential risk factors were identified in 178 of 209 cases (85.2%). The increasing awareness of infant positions at death has led to a dramatic reduction in the diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome at the WCMEO. This study suggests that asphyxia plays a greater role in many sudden infant deaths than has been historically attributed to it.     

An unusual case of thermal injuries with a hot glue gun: Deliberate self-harm or maltreatment?

Assessing injuries in forensic medicine casework, examiners are often confronted with the question of self-infliction versus third parties' influence, respectively, deliberate self-harm versus maltreatment. We report the case of a 40-year-old male who presented with numerous partially healed thermal injuries of different age. These burns were shaped like capital letters and little circles, which were arranged in lines in a regular form. The lesions were found on the whole body with exclusion of face, genitals, hands and feet. Furthermore, four bitemarks at the right shoulder were noted. Investigations revealed that the man had been abused by his 25-year-old wife (presumably a borderline personality disorder patient) for at least 1 year. In addition to another series of abuses, the woman may have inflicted the shaped burns with a hot glue gun as punishment for breaking certain "rules" she had established. When assessing injuries of patients in forensic medicine, several considerations regarding etiology have to be taken into account. In principle, the victim's testimony, the anamnesis, the police investigation results and the findings from the forensic physical examination have to be balanced against each other. The injury pattern in the present case showed contradictory single characteristics both of deliberate self-harm and of maltreatment. After forensic analysis, it was assessed as injuries inflicted by an assistant with the patient's consent.     

Die ostasiatische Moderne – eine Moderne „eigener“ Art?

The article casts doubt on the claim of Eisenstadt and other culturalists that East Asia constitutes a distinct modernity, one that differs fundamentally from Western modernity. Following a brief reconstruction of key modernization theoretical premises against which this claim is directed, it compares the five largest Western countries with the currently most advanced exemplars of East Asian modernity. The findings show that the two regions are remarkably similar in virtually all respects that matter from a modernization theoretical viewpoint. The article then goes on to assess the relevance of the evidence held against modernization theory by Eisenstadt and his followers. As it turns out, this evidence presents no challenge to modernization theory whatsoever. Moreover, its epistemological status is dubious given that multiple modernists lack a sufficiently worked-out theory of modernity in whose light the social theoretic significance of empirical observations could be assessed. Drawing upon the differentiation theoretical tradition, an alternative approach is outlined that addresses multiple modernists’ substantive concerns without falling into the trap of essentializing diversity. However, utilizing this approach for the comparison between Western and East Asian modernity subverts the very idea of a uniform West against which the notion of a distinctly East Asian modernity is posited.     

Lessons from the Past: Reassessing the Interwar Disciplinary History of International Relations

This article reconstructs the interwar discourse of international relations among American political scientists and seeks to challenge the orthodox view that the scholarship of this period was essentially idealist in nature. It aims to make a contribution to the growing body of literature devoted to examining the institutional history of international relations. My purpose is to demonstrate that the conventional label of idealism that has been attached to the interwar period of international relations scholarship seriously misrepresents the actual character of the conversation that was being directed toward understanding international politics. By carefully reconstructing the internal discourse of the field, many of the field's long forgotten individuals and ideas are brought back to life. The article concludes by highlighting some of the lessons that the interwar discourse offers to the study of international relations today and argues that this period cannot be construed as idealist.