Studentische Hilfskräfte im deutschen Bildungswesen

The article takes a critical look at the situation of graduate assistants at German universities. For this purpose the paper is based on two sociological perspectives. On the one hand, being employed as a student assistant can be regarded as an important individual strategy to gather privileges in the German higher educational system. On the other hand, working as a student assistant is a paradigmatic example of labor conditions in modern society due to the fact that higher qualified persons need to be profoundly flexible and have to work under precarious employment conditions. The analysis highlights that the problematic working conditions of student assistants are caused by the specific structures of the German education system. It is the difference between individual prospects and objective possibilities which makes these precarious labor conditions possible.     

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Imagining society: constructivism and the English School

This article critically examines the current relationship between constructivism and the English School. Scholars in each school have worked largely with stereotypes of the other, and this has greatly impeded productive dialogue and cross–fertilization. A more fruitful strategy is to treat both schools as bounded fields of debate, as rich and diverse realms of internally contested thought. Constructivism is characterized by three key axes of debate: between sociological institutionalists, Habermasian communicative action theorists, and Foucauldian genealogists; between unit–level, systemic, and holistic theorists; and between interpretivists and positivists. The English School is also divided between pluralists and solidarists, between those who identify the school with international society theory and those who see it as inherently multifaceted, and between those who emphasize interpretive or eclectic methodologies. Opening up each approach in this way enables us to identify new, more fruitful axes of dialogue between the two perspectives.     

Dental CT imaging as a screening tool for dental profiling: advantages and limitations

The use of dental processing software for computed tomography (CT) data (Dentascan) is described on postmortem (pm) CT data for the purpose of pm identification. The software allows reconstructing reformatted images comparable to conventional panoramic dental radiographs by defining a curved reconstruction line along the teeth on oblique images. Three corpses that have been scanned within the virtopsy project were used to test the software for the purpose of dental identification. In every case, dental panoramic images could be reconstructed and compared to antemortem radiographs. The images showed the basic component of teeth (enamel, dentin, and pulp), the anatomic structure of the alveolar bone, missing or unerupted teeth as well as restorations of the teeth that could be used for identification. When streak artifacts due to metal-containing dental work reduced image quality, it was still necessary to perform pm conventional radiographs for comparison of the detailed shape of the restoration. Dental identification or a dental profiling seems to become possible in a noninvasive manner using the Dentascan software.     

The Legacy of Nuremberg

The Nuremberg trial, later followed by the Tokyo trial, is amilestone in the development of international law. For the firsttime in modern history, the leaders of a defeated country wereindicted for committing serious crimes jeopardizing the basesof peaceful coexistence among individual human beings and peoples:crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.German objections criticizing crimes against peace as havingno legal basis and, therefore, contradicting the principle nullumcrimen sine lege, were justified. To date, the legal positionhas not changed, since the international community has consistentlyrefrained from including aggression in the lists of offencesprosecutable under the statutes of the currently existing internationalcriminal courts. However, no well-founded objections could beraised against the indictment for war crimes and crimes againsthumanity. Concerning offences of such abhorrent nature, no offendercan invoke nullum crimen that protects only legitimate confidence.To hold to account political leaders, directly under internationallaw, for criminal actions organized and ordered by them is anecessity in a world where the basic axioms of the internationalsystem have changed: state sovereignty has lost its absolutecharacter and is counterbalanced by the requirements of humanrights protection. The emergence of international criminal justiceembodies the concept of international community in the mostpalpable manner. Fortunately, some of the defects of the Nurembergtrial have been remedied today: no arbitrary picking and choosingof the accused by the prosecution is possible before the InternationalCriminal Court; prosecutors as well as the judges of all existingjudicial bodies are carefully selected by the internationalcommunity with a view to avoiding any illegitimate bias.     

Injury pattern on the hand after slipping onto the blade during a knife attack--a contribution to the differential diagnostic classification of sharp force injuries of the upper extremities

Differential diagnosis of injuries caused by accidental slipping of the hand onto the blade of a knife includes self-inflicted injuries (e.g. to simulate an offense) as well as active and passive defense injuries indicative of the involvement of another party. The injury pattern on the hands of five perpetrators who suffered accidental cuts during knife attacks, as seen by the authors during the clinical forensic examination, is presented. The injuries were localized on the ulnar aspect of the thumb facing the index finger, the radial aspect of the index finger facing the thumb and variable sites on the flexor or extensor side of the middle and ring fingers. Especially in those cases in which the injuries of the victim (e.g. involvement of bony structures) and the dominant hand of the perpetrator are known, additional information for the reconstruction of the course of events may be derived from the cut wounds occurring during the knife attack as the hand slipped onto the blade.