The application of NIST's Fire Dynamics Simulator to the investigation of carbon monoxide exposure in the deaths of three Pittsburgh fire fighters

A case is reported in which computer fire modeling was used to reevaluate a fire that killed three fire fighters. NIST's Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was employed to model the fire in order to estimate the concentration of carbon monoxide present in the dwelling, which was the immediate cause of death of two of the fire fighters, who appear to have removed their face pieces in order to share available air. This estimate, along with an assumed respiration volume and known blood carboxyhemoglobin, was plugged into a standard equation to estimate the time of exposure. The model indicated that 27 min into the fire, the carbon monoxide concentration had already reached approximately 3600 ppm. At this concentration, and a respiration of 70 L/min, an estimated 3 to 8 min of exposure would have been required to accumulate the concentrations of carboxyhemoglobin (49, 44, and 10%) measured on the fire fighters at autopsy.     

Another death due to ingestion of Nicotiana glauca

Deaths attributed to ingestion of Nicotiana glauca are extremely rare. We report here a case where a 43-year-old man was found dead after apparently drinking a water extract of Nicotiana glauca. The primary alkaloid in the plant is anabasine. Toxicological analysis by capillary gas chromatography showed the deceased had a blood anabasine concentration of 2.2 mg/L. Clinically, the features of poisoning are nicotine-like and if death occurs it results from respiratory paralysis. The case further supports the view that, in the human, anabasine is considerably more toxic than nicotine.     

Socialism after communism?: The socioeconomic and cultural foundations of left politics in post-soviet russia

This article examines socioeconomic foundations of leftist politics in post-Soviet Russia. It is often argued that the reemergence of left politics is the result of contingent factors connected to transitional crises. While this is one source of strength for the left, there are two more important and enduring sources: a “socialist value culture” among a large majority of Russians, and an emerging pseudo-capitalist system that is creating “traditional” class-based and left-leaning attitudes and affiliations among particular social groups. The article examines the extent of this value culture and the emergence of these attitudes and affiliations through an analysis of statistical data and interviews conducted with Russian workers and intelligentsia figures from 1994–1997.     

Competing for father's love? The politics of central government agency termination in China

It is well known that public agencies are nearly immortal, but what explains their termination? This article argues that apart from conventional antecedents, political salience defined by top leaders largely shapes government agencies' life cycle. In one of the first large‐N analyses of agency termination in a non‐Western authoritarian regime, we used longitudinal data for the central apparatus in China from 1949 to 1976 to test this hypothesis. We specifically used Chairman Mao's written directives to measure political salience and found that agencies that received more directives were less likely to be terminated. In contrast, agencies less attended to the boss were less likely to survive major restructurings. We also found that peripheral agencies (e.g., smaller, lower‐ranking agencies with noncore functions) benefited more from leaders' attention. We compare the results with the existing literature and suggest some theoretical and policy implications.     

The Dynamics of Decentralization and Recentralization

Decentralization of authority from central government to sub-national governments is an important part of modern public sector reforms and has been the primary contribution to public sector reform in Denmark and the other Nordic countries. On the assumption that political and administrative actors are authority maximizers, the paper analyses how national and sub-national actors react to these decentralization goals, and the extent to which they are implemented. The analysis points to the importance of both institutional and power variables. It concludes that dynamic change can take place in a public sector which is characterized by strong corporatist and multi-level institutions, such as in Denmark.     

Political Science, Public Administration and the Danish Civil Service Profession

The history of Danish political science is young, and public administration has from the beginning been part of the training of political scientists. This background reflects a double strategy: first, in order to ensure political scientists a position in the labour market, they were launched as a new kind of generalist, competing with lawyers and economists. Second, public administration has from the very beginning been seen as a subfield of political science. Even if the institutions engaging in PA research and training have varying profiles, the integration of the discipline in political science is still dominant. So far it has been a success, whether measured at the level of political science graduates in the civil service or the level of PA research. However, the paper argues that in a tougher labour market, generalists with a broad political science background face severe competition from lawyers and economists, and that this must have implications for the direction of research and training in public administration.