Deaths Related to Tractor Accidents in Eskişehir,Turkey: A 25‐Year Analysis

This study aimed to analyze deaths related to tractor accidents in Eski?ehir Province and characteristics of these cases to provide data and suggestions along with the literature. The cases involved individuals died due to tractor‐related accidents were retrospectively examined between 1992 and 2016 (25‐year period). Demographic data related to the cases and crime scenes, characteristics of events, and autopsy findings were evaluated. In the 25‐year period, 61 individuals (88.5% males, average age: 48.7 years) died due to tractor accidents in Eski?ehir Province, and approximately 45.9% of these accidents most commonly involved tractor rollover. Deaths due to tractor accidents will be decreased by raising awareness among tractor drivers, preventing young individuals from driving tractors, not allowing individuals to drive without license, making mechanical and physical features of tractors suitable for agricultural activity to be performed, ensuring their safety for travel and use, and avoiding carrying passengers on tractors.     

Lessons learned from inter-laboratory studies of carbon isotope analysis of honey

Forensic application of carbon isotope ratio measurements of honey and honey protein to investigate the degree of adulteration with high fructose corn syrup or other C₄ plant sugars is well established. These measurements must use methods that exhibit suitable performance criteria, particularly with regard to measurement uncertainty and traceability – low levels of adulteration can only be detected by methods that result in suitably small measurement uncertainties such that differences of 1‰ or less can be reliably detected. Inter-laboratory exercises are invaluable to assess the state-of-the art of measurement capabilities of laboratories necessary to achieve such performance criteria. National and designated metrology institutes from a number of countries recently participated in an inter-laboratory assessment (CCQM-K140) of stable carbon isotope ratio determination of bulk honey. The same sample material was distributed to a number of forensic isotope analysis laboratories that could not participate directly in the metrological comparison. The results from these studies have demonstrated that the majority of participants provided isotope delta values with acceptable performance metrics; that all participants ensured traceability of their results; and that where measurement uncertainties were reported; these were fit-for-purpose. A number of the forensic laboratories only reported precision rather than full estimates of measurement uncertainty and this was the major cause of the few instances of questionable performance metrics. Reporting of standard deviations in place of measurement uncertainties is common practice outside metrology institutes and the implications for interpretations of small differences in isotopic compositions are discussed. The results have also highlighted a number of considerations that are useful for organisers of similar inter-laboratory studies in the future.     

Stigmatized cohabitation in the Latvian region of the eastern Baltic littoral: nineteenth and twentieth centuries

The social history of coresidence arrangements in the Latvian region suggests that forms of cohabitation without marriage were present in the Latvian population since the eighteenth century when empirical evidence became available. Before the twentieth century, however, these forms remained marginal and seldom involved choice. The subject of severe criticism until the 1960s–1970s, such forms become more widespread thereafter as the Latvian population began to exhibit many key features of a second demographic revolution. Post-Soviet censuses now suggest that such coresidence patterns in the Latvian population approach the levels of those in most western European states, including the Scandinavian countries.     

Reinventing ‘new’ Europe: Baltic perspectives on transatlantic security reconfigurations

This article examines the self-positioning of the three Baltic states in international politics in relation to the major structural pressures challenging the status quo of the transatlantic security configuration. The constitutive role of the Russia-Georgia war of 2008, the global economic recession, the debt crisis in the eurozone, and the shifting policy preferences and force projection of the United States towards Asia are explored as the key sources of the emerging Baltic security predicament. The empirical conclusions of the poststructuralist discourse analysis conducted for this study demonstrate how the Baltic states, in particular Estonia, have recently come to redefine the contents of ‘new’ Europe, thereby shifting the extant fault lines within the European Union.     

The Nato enlargement debate in the media and civil‐military relations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

This article links the NATO enlargement debate to the course of civil‐military relations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. After a general analysis of civil‐military relations and the media, it looks at the NATO membership issues discussed across seven dimensions and their impact on relations between civil society and the military. It concludes that a gap existed between the governing elite and the public in both countries.     

Black Esophagus: Acute Esophageal Necrosis in Fatal Haloperidol Intoxication

Herein, we present a case of 53‐year‐old psychotic woman with acute esophageal necrosis (black esophagus), who was found lying on the floor in the living room of her flat. Pillboxes of antipsychotic drugs were located in the bin. External examination of the body was unremarkable. On internal examination, we found acute esophageal necrosis. Histologically, there was complete epithelial necrosis with focal involvement of muscularis mucosae, dense infiltrate of leukocytes, and ulcerations without any viable cells. There was no evidence of underlying organic diseases or trauma. Toxicological analysis revealed a fatal blood level of antipsychotics (haloperidol, zotepine, and chlorprothixene). Death of the deceased was attributed to fatal intoxication with three various types of antipsychotics. As far we know, this is the first described association between so‐called black esophagus and fatal blood level of neuroleptics.     

Environmental crime and green criminology in South Eastern Europe—practice and research

All contemporary societies are facing environmental crime as one among many modern threats to the environment and human / animal life and this is due to the unlimited exploitation of natural resources and pollution. The aim of the present paper is to describe different responses to environmental crime and the development of green criminology in South Eastern Europe. In this region environmental crime occurs under the influence of social conditions and circumstances in which the environment is used as a source of resources for survival, as well as economic factors which mean the environment is used as a resource for profit. For countries in South Eastern Europe it is typical that environmental criminals change their modus operandi and adapt to new socio-economic circumstances, use different loopholes in legislation and exploit gaps in infrastructure and enforcement leading to committing environmental offences without being processed and punished. In many countries of South Eastern Europe green criminology is still in its nascent stages but is focusing on similar obstacles and challenges to those identified elsewhere, such as multi-disciplinarity, cooperation with the natural sciences, and responding to particularities in the region, such as pollution of marine and coastal ecosystems, hunting tourism, and organized crimes such as timber logging.     

Just When You Thought You Understood New Jersey Allocation Law: Implications,Limitations, and Complications in Applying Farmers Mutual Fire Ins. Co. of Salem v. New Jersey Property-Liability Ins. Guar. Ass’n

The New Jersey Supreme Court's recent decision in Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Salem v. New Jersey Property-Liability Insurance Guaranty Association holding that a 2004 statutory amendment requires all solvent triggered liability policies be exhausted before the Guaranty Association pays statutory benefits for an insolvent's share has created many uncertainties in allocating long-tail liabilities. This article discusses the implications and the significant limitations of the Farmers Mutual decision and the questions it leaves unanswered, and responds to arguments that the decision supports revisiting other situations where New Jersey's Owens-Illinois methodology allocates losses to the insured.