Adult Fanniidae associated to pig carcasses during the winter season in a semiarid environment: initial examination of their potential as complementary PMI indicators

Besides the dominant necrophagous dipteran of the families Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae usually used for post mortem interval (PMI) estimations, species of other families such as Fanniidae have frequently been reported in forensic studies. Though less abundant, these species are prevalent in decomposing carcasses with most reports being anecdotal. In this study we identified adults of the fly family Fanniidae associated to pig carcasses located under different local environmental conditions (sun and shade) in a semiarid area at Mendoza, Argentina during the winter season. We examined the potential of species of this family as indicators of PMI by measuring abundance, time of occurrence and residency time at the carcasses. We identified six species of Fanniidae: Euryomma peregrinum Meigen, Fannia albitarsis Stein, Fannia femoralis Stein, Fannia fusconotata Rondani, Fannia heydenii Wiedemann and Fannia sanihue Domínguez and Aballay. Overall, fly abundance was higher at the sunlit than at the shaded carcass. The most abundant species at the sun was F. fusconotata while at the shaded carcass F. femoralis was the most abundant species. Based on their residency time, however, species with higher potential as PMI indicators seem to be F. heydenii and F. sanihue as their residency time at the carcass was restricted to a short period of the decomposition process. Other species were present throughout most of the decomposition process or in such a low abundance (E. peregrinum) that they were not useful as indicators. These preliminary results indicate that adults of some species of Fanniidae could act as a good complementary indicator species during the winter season. In particular, F. heydenii and F. sanihue should be the focus of further studies which should also expand to other seasons.     

No-show at a forensic psychiatric outpatient clinic: risk factors and reasons

Nonattendance for and late cancellations of scheduled appointments, that is no-show, is a well-known phenomenon in psychiatric outpatient clinics. Research on the topic of no-show for initial and consecutive appointments in the field of forensic psychiatry is scarce. This study therefore aims to determine the prevalence and causes of no-show and to explore reasons for nonattendance. The study was carried out in an outpatient clinic in northern Netherlands. Telephone interviews were administered to 27 no-show clients, 84 follow-up no-show clients, and 41 attendees of 18 years and older. A no-show rate of 24.9% and a follow-up no-show rate of 9.8% was found. The majority of appointments missed were in the beginning phase of clinic contact. No-show clients were younger than their attending counterparts and more often dropped out from clinic contact. Also, less family social support was experienced by nonattendees. Reasons for nonattendance were having forgotten about appointment and work commitments.     

Does inequality cause inflation?: The political economy of inflation,taxation and government debt

Public Choice - A democratic society in which the distribution of wealth is unequal elects political parties that are likely to represent the interests of poor people. It is in the interests of the...     

Successful female aging for beginners: Carolyn Heilbrun/Amanda Cross and perspectives of gendered aging in The Players Come Again

Although Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (1926–2003) is best known for her best-selling mystery novels, published under the pseudonym of Amanda Cross, she also authored remarkable pieces of non-fiction which evidence an intense reflection upon female aging as well as her long-standing commitment to feminism. Works such as Reinventing Womanhood (1979), The Representation of Women in Fiction (1983), Writing a Woman's Life (1988), and The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty (1997) explore the ways in which women in general and the author in particular experience the changes that maturity involves as an enriching process rather than as a path into decay and loss. This paper contends that these might perhaps shed a new light into her fiction as Amanda Cross, which includes The Players Come Again (1990). Taking her essays in feminism and literary criticism as a basis, my aim was to reveal the extent to which Heilbrun's commercial mystery novels represented a springboard to the theories she put forward in her essays, which vindicated the difficulties as well as the joys involved in a gendered experience of aging.     

The effect of monetary unification on public debt and its real return

We explore the implications of monetary unification for real interest rates and (relative) public debt levels. The adoption of a common monetary policy renders the risk-return characteristics of the participating countries’ public debt more similar. The implied reduction in the scope for risk diversification raises the average expected real return on the debt. Also, the share of the union-wide debt issued by relatively myopic governments or of countries that initially have a relatively dependent central bank increases after unification. This may put the political sustainability of the union under pressure. A transfer scheme that penalizes debt increases beyond the union average is able to undo the interest rate effect of unification, but magnifies the spread in relative debt levels.     

Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Silver Bullet or White Elephant

A major component of tax administration reform in sub-Saharan Africa for the last 30 years has been the creation of semi-autonomous revenue authorities (SARAs). The effects of their creation on revenue performance have been much debated, although there are only a few quantitative studies. The core argument of this paper is that existing research suggesting diverse and contradictory outcomes has not taken account of trends in revenue performance in the years before the establishment of SARAs. Allowing for this revenue history our analysis, based on 46 countries over the period 1980–2015, provides no robust evidence that SARAs induce an increase in revenue performance. This does not imply that SARAs may not provide benefits for tax collection, but they do not demonstrably increase (or decrease) revenue collected.