Compliance with the law

The effectiveness of law as an instrument of social control depends on the assumptions lawmakers and implementers have about human behavior. The tax laws offer a good example of the difficulties in trying to anticipate what people will do in response to various legal requirements. This paper proposes a new approach to understanding tax compliance drawn from behavioral decision theory. The paper discusses the issue of rationality, explores the strategies people use to make taxpaying decisions, focuses on the distinction between norm-processing and outcome-processing strategies, and presents some implications of this approach for research and for legal policy making.     

Sudden death due to unsuspected coronary vasculitis.

Coronary artery vasculitis is a well-recognized complication of polyarteritis nodosa and is occasionally seen in other forms of systemic vasculitis. However, involvement of the major epicardial coronary arteries leading to myocardial infarction and death is uncommon. Isolated coronary arteritis is even more rare. We report three cases of sudden death due to myocardial ischemia associated with arteritis of the major coronary arteries. All three decedents were previously healthy young to middle-aged men who had died suddenly after complaints of chest pain and shortness of breath. The autopsy findings and differential diagnoses are presented. Such cases are of particular interest to the medical examiner because of the sudden, unexpected nature of the deaths. An approach to the correct diagnosis is discussed.     

Agenda Power in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1988–2000

We present strong evidence that governing coalitions in Italy exercise significant negative agenda powers. First, governing parties have a roll rate that is nearly 0, and their roll rate is lower than opposition parties' roll rates, which average about 20% on all final‐passage votes. Second, after one controls for distance from the floor median, opposition parties have higher roll rates than government parties. These results strongly suggest that governing parties in Italy are able to control the legislative agenda to their benefit. We also document significantly higher opposition roll rates on decree‐conversion bills and budget bills than on ordinary bills—results consistent with our theoretical analysis of the differing procedures used in each case.     

Identification of shed or plucked origin of Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) tail feathers: preliminary findings

Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) tail covert feathers were studied to investigate the difference between shed and plucked feathers in the context of wildlife offence cases involving the killing of the Indian national bird for the purpose of plucking feathers. Plucked feathers were distinguished from shed feathers by examining their roots under low magnification of a stereoscopic microscope. A chemical test to show the presence of blood on the roots of plucked feathers was used to corroborate the plucked origin of feathers.     

The role of certain sections of the central nervous system in the genesis of sudden death]

Hypothalamic and hippocampal lipid composition in sudden death from coronary heart disease is studied. Thin-layer chromatography was the main method of biochemical analysis. Disorders in the lipid component of hippocampal cytostructures involved mainly the cholesterol fractions. Metabolic disorders in the hypothalamus involved the phospholipid metabolism. The above-mentioned biochemical changes were paralleled by ultrastructural abnormalities. Analysis of the data demonstrates a probable metabolic basis of a central mechanism of sudden cardiac death.