The extent of aspartic acid racemization in dentin: a possible method for a more accurate determination of age at death?

In the current study the objective was to find to what extent a reliable determination of age at death is made possible by establishing the degree of aspartic acid racemization in the dentin of teeth. The results of the investigation of 46 teeth are in agreement with the values found by other authors. The method presented makes a reproducible and accurate estimation of age possible. We intend to elaborate and improve this promising method for determination of age at death. The relevant points are presented here.     

Fatalities in west Austrian prisons

The purpose of this study is to review 23 causes of death that have occurred in Western-Austrian prisons from 1974 to 1989. The majority of them (11 cases) were due to suicides. Among 9 cases of natural death there was a 25 years old man, who died of an unknown purulent meningoencephalitis. Two drunken prisoners had not been supervised and therefore died of alcohol poisoning. In one case the police jail physician did not recognize an epidural hematoma.     

Consent and its meaning to the sexual victimization of women

Two conditions must be met in order for a person to be rightly considered the victim of a crime. First, there must be the victim of some form of harm. Second, the harm in question was the direct result of an act in which the harmed individual did not knowingly consent to take part. What are the dynamics of consent and how important should consent be in defining and placing criminal responsibility in crimes where women are sexually victimized? Finally, how does the conceptualization of victimization change when viewed from liberal and radical feminist perspectives?     

A DECADE OF DIVORCE MEDIATION RESEARCH

A decade of divorce mediation research has focused on outcomes such as settlement rates, cost efficiency, client satisfaction, effect on levels of conflict and cooperation, psychological adjustment, and compliance. Despite methodological problems limiting generalizations, most studies report mildly favorable to very positive findings. Research on the mediation process and mediator behaviors has received very limited attention, and should be the focus of the next decade of research to elevate the mediation field to a more sophisticated, effective level of practice.     

Social justice as a Holy Grail: The endless quest

This paper gives the author's impressions on the following aspects of justice: desert, equity, equality, need, and intergenerational equity. The author concludes that these different aspects cannot be reconciled but instead must be compromised. An example of such a compromise is provided by a discussion of welfare reform. The author claims that rights are correlative with duties, and that asserting the former has little meaning without specifying the latter. He then discusses justice toward groups rather than individuals. He proposes that maintaining cultural variety in the presence of a homogeneous superculture is a major problem of the contemporary world. The paper concludes with a discussion of various forms of power, particularly the integrative power that people acquire over each other by virtue of ties of loyalty and identity.     

Bicommunalism in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a bicommunal society in which Protestantsare numerically dominant; Roman Catholics constitute virtuallyall of the remaining population. On the island as a whole, Protestantsare heavily outnumbered; the Republic of Ireland (the "South")has a population that is about 96 percent Catholic. Social segregationof the two northern communities is relatively distinct, andthere is little crosscutting between groups that might lessenbicommunal conflict. A reciprocal relationship exists betweenthe social system and political structures. Northern Irish politicalinstitutions followed the Westminster model, which facilitatedthe political exclusion of Catholics and impeded social as wellas political integration. The bicommunal social structure hasimpeded the development of more accommodating political structures.Geographic issues and external linkages compound the politicalproblem. Northern Irish politics can be viewed as a "dual dyad"in which the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland arecritical components. Psychological dimensions of Northern Irishbicommunalism further exacerbate the conflict.