Deciding to Negotiate with Villains

Negotiation Journal - Do national leaders have an obligation to negotiate with enemies that have been villainized despite government policies and popular opinion that constrain them from doing so?...     

How extensive can injury of the larynx in self-choking be?]

Is it possible to distinguish between suicidal and homicidal strangulation by the extent of the injuries of the larynx if the results of the police investigations are uncertain? Therefore evaluation of the German publications (115 reported cases of suicidal strangulation) and our own cases (17 cases). Hereafter more intensive injuries of the neck are extremely rare in cases of self-strangulation. Casuistic: Body of a 40 years old woman with signs of strangulation. The husband declared his wife strangulated herself in the bathtub with the belt of a bathrobe. Autopsy: Typical findings of drowning, intensive injuries of the neck tissues and the larynx. Kind and extent of the findings are speaking well for an assault mainly by manual strangulation. Undepending of the medical findings the police investigations are almost excluding a suicide. Condemnation of the husband.     

Longevity of spermatozoa in the post-ejaculatory urine of fertile men

Many scientists of varying clinical backgrounds have described the phenomenon of spermaturia in animals, adolescents as well as fertile and infertile men. Nevertheless, research for an expert opinion on a law case in the field of forensic medicine revealed a lack of valid information about the longevity of spermatozoa in post-ejaculatory urine (PEU) of fertile men.Our goal was to measure the appearance of vivid sperm in PEU while considering the factor of time in order to predict a realistic interval, in which positive sperm findings might occur. Therefore ten healthy, young men donated their sperm for fertility analysis and a urine sample prior to and after ejaculation. The time intervals between ejaculation and the first micturition were preset ranging between 30 min and maximal 11 h. Each ejaculate underwent a semen analysis. The pre- and post-ejaculatory urine samples were screened for the presence of viable and motile spermatozoa. Semen parameters were determined and related to the sperm findings in the precipitate of the urine samples. The amount, the viability and motility status of the detected spermatozoa were recorded after each preset time interval.The results showed that none of the 10 participants had sperm in their urine samples prior to ejaculation. The average sperm concentration was 50.1 ± 25.8 million/ml. After a time span of 30 min 59.5% of the first fractions of PEU samples were sperm positive, after 2 and 4 h still 70%, and after 5 h sperm were no longer detected. The last motile spermatozoa could be found after 4.5 h. It seems that remaining sperm in the urethra are washed out with the first micturition in the majority of fertile men, however, the conclusion as to whether sperm findings >5 h after ejaculation are improbable needs to be confirmed by further investigations.     

Die multilokale Mehrgenerationenfamilie

In the fourties, René König and Ernest W. Burgess formulated concepts for the family, with the internal coherence being based on the relations and the feelings of the family members. Therefore, König feared the disorganization and disintegration of the institution of the family. In contrast, Talcott Parsons developed the model of a cooperative family organization, whose stability is not based on the feelings, but is regulated by the reciprocal functioning of the family members. The thesis of this essay is that Parsons — contrary to König and Burgess — developed a valid model of the family of the industrial society. This model is empirically examinable, but furthermore indicates in detail the conditions designating the stability or the decay of the model. Today the fordist family model of Parsons is replaced by the model of the multi-local and multi-generational family.     

Campaign finance reform legislation in the United States Congress: A critique

Legislation to reform campaign funding in the United States must produce a system which reduces the potential for corruption, real or perceived, and creates greater equality of fund raising opportunity between incumbents and challengers. Bills before the 104th Congress would require bureaucratic and arbitrary systems of regulation; they would not produce workable reform. Within the existing full disclosure system,two reforms would be most effective: setting maximum dollar amounts for “soft money” contributions; and limiting fund raising by lobbyists. An even more effective system would be to “blind” contributions made to the campaign committees of individual candidates. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pigeonholing Partisans: Stereotypes of Party Supporters and Partisan Polarization

Political Behavior - What comes to mind when people think about rank-and-file party supporters? What stereotypes do people hold regarding ordinary partisans, and are these views politically...