Commotio cordis as a result of a fight: Report of a case considered to be imprudent homicide

Commotio cordis is a clinic-pathological syndrome related to sudden death in young people involved in sports activities. It has been described, mainly, in athletes without previous cardiac anomalies who received a minor blow to the chest which produces ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest in the absence of structural damage to the ribs, sternum, or heart. There are few reported cases of commotio cordis associated with violent, non-sports related actions, which are commonly considered to be imprudent homicides. We present the case of a 20-year-old man, who was kicked in the chest during a fight; he suddenly collapsed although advanced cardio-respiratory resuscitation started shortly. Autopsy showed no cardiac lesions concluding that death was due to commotio cordis (blunt trauma to the chest). Toxicological analysis determined the presence of 5.14 mg/L benzoylecgonine in blood. On the basis of medico-legal investigation, the official prosecution considered the death to be imprudent homicide and the aggressor was sentenced to 4 years in prison. We emphasize the importance of the knowledge of the death circumstances through the witnesses’ testimony, prior to beginning the autopsy, to confirm this important medico-legal diagnosis. Arrhythmogenic effects of cocaine and its contribution in the production of these deaths are also exposed.     

Politicized U.S. Intelligence Polluted the World

On October 29, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a declassified version of its report on the origins of the novel coronavirus. It continues to imply the Chinese Government or a Wuhan lab is hiding something and not cooperating, while vilifying the World Health Organization (WHO) for telling the truth from the very beginning at that fateful first press conference.     

Logrolling under fragmented authoritarianism: theory and evidence from China

This paper provides a rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis of the effect of logrolling between interest groups on social welfare in a non-democratic political system. In particular, we focus on China, where bureaucratic interest groups are separate vertical organizations reaching down from Beijing to the provinces and cities. The key question in this paper is: what are the effects of the logrolling of parochial interest groups on state policies and social welfare in autocracies? We address this question both theoretically and empirically. The theory predicts a specific distortion in resource allocation because of logrolling, while the empirical results confirm the theoretical prediction. We find policy outcomes under logrolling are characterized by excessive spending on all the interest groups’ preferred goods and insufficient spending on public goods. We test the existence of logrolling between the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Health in China. Our result shows logrolling between the two ministries lead to inefficiencies in social security and health care policies.     

The 1984 Luxembourg election

The emergence of new interest groups and social movements in the 1960s and 1970s facilitated a participation explosion in Western democracies. With increased levels of education and improved understanding of the workings of the political process, modern citizens are now faced with a vibrant and growing market for political activism. Political parties face an especially strong challenge in this market‐place as it appears that citizens now make a succession of participatory decision, akin to impulse buying in a supermarket. It is not surprising that the market share which traditional parties retain is apparently in decline. Whether this is problematic for democracy is more open to debate than conventional models of participation would suggest.     

Subnational Governments in the Negotiation of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014–2020: The Case of Spain

The negotiation of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014–2020 has been an outstanding topic on the agenda of the EU during the past few years, on which subnational units also tried to have a say. In this article we analyse the formal institutional framework available for the Spanish Autonomous Communities to participate in the negotiation of the Cohesion Policy 2014–2020 and the Common Agriculture Policy 2014–2020. By analysing this participation, this text explores how this institutional framework has evolved during the past few years and how the Autonomous Communities could represent their interests at the domestic and supranational level within these crucial negotiations.     

A review of blunt force injury homicides of children aged 0 to 5 years in bexar county, Texas, from 1988 to 2009

ABSTRACT: It is essential that clinical physicians, medical personnel, medical examiners, and law enforcement agencies understand the types of injuries seen and demographics of children affected by intentional blunt force as this understanding can be crucial to the death and/or criminal investigations. An understanding of the injuries can also assist in drawing conclusions regarding how those injuries could have been sustained. This study discusses the types and patterns of injuries seen in blunt force homicides in children younger than 6 years. The study found that male infants are more often intentionally injured than are female infants and that fatal head injuries most frequently occur in the first year of life, whereas most fatal thoracoabdominal injuries occur in the first 3 years of life. In children with head injuries, subdural hemorrhage was the most common finding, followed by subarachnoid hemorrhage. In 2.5% of deaths due to head injury, concurrent neck injury was seen, a percentage far lower than previous literature would suggest if shaking was the primary mechanism of injury. Twelve legal confessions were also reviewed, none of which disclosed a pure mechanism of shaking the infant.