CT‐Guided,Minimally Invasive,Postmortem Needle Biopsy Using the B‐Rob II Needle‐Positioning Robot

CT‐guided, minimally invasive needle biopsy techniques can be used to retrieve tissue or body fluid samples for histologic tissue diagnoses in forensic investigations. The purpose of this study was an evaluation of CT‐guided needle‐positioning robot B‐Rob II. To operate under CT guidance, we adopted the B‐Rob II robotic needle placement system and its workflow. The accuracy and speed of the procedure were tested on a gelatin phantom in a series of 21 biopsies. We achieved an average needle placement accuracy of 1.8 mm (±1.1 mm) using robotic assistance. The procedure required an average of 2 min 21 s. The needle placement accuracy for minimally invasive needle biopsies using the B‐Rob II biopsy robot is sufficiently accurate and fast for forensic postmortem examinations of focal organ changes. Further tests will be performed to test the feasibility of the robot for performing biopsies of focal organ changes in human bodies.     

Biparietal Thinning: Accidental Death by a Fall from Standing Height

Biparietal thinning resulting in bilateral and symmetrical resorption and loss of thickness of the parietal bones is an uncommon to rare condition in the anthropological and clinical literature. This enigmatic condition of unknown etiology was first reported in the 18th century and has been variously described as a nonmetric trait, anatomical variant, anomaly, and pathology. Biparietal thinning presents grossly and radiographically as oval‐shaped depressions in 0.25–0.8% and 0.4–0.5% of individuals and with a higher frequency in females over the age of 60 years. A review of the literature revealed only one example of cranial trauma associated with biparietal thinning and none of fatal trauma associated with this condition. This case reports a rare example of fatal trauma in an elderly man that resulted from a backward fall from a standing height and highlights the increased risk of craniocerebral trauma in individuals with this condition.     

WORKFARE IN THE 1980s: SUCCESSES AND LIMITS

Between 1981 and 1987 twenty-eight states experimented with workfare programs. By requiring mandatory community service from welfare recipients, the states hoped to reduce welfare caseloads as well as increase community service. Based in part on those program experiences, Congress included the first national workfare requirement in the 1988 welfare reform package (the Family Support Act). This study is the first to attempt to evaluate the implementation and impact of workfare on a national basis. A pooled, cross-section, longitudinal model is used to estimate the effect of workfare on AFDC caseloads. Despite the low level of state-level implementation, the evidence suggests that workfare may have contributed to welfare caseload reductions in the 1980s.     

NATO enlargement and Russian security: A comparison of findings from two analytical approaches

The article compares the results of two model analyses on the implications of NATO enlargement for Russia's security in six regions: North‐West, West, South‐West, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Far East. One was done by Vitali Tsygichko using his ‘Model of Defense Sufficiency’ (MDS), the other one by these authors using Tsygichko's data as input to the ‘Generalized Force Ratio Model’ (GEFRAM). While agreeing with regard to the general trend in the development of Russia's security situation, the results differ significantly as to whether these trends indicate a reduction of security below Russia's stated requirements. The results are preliminary and meant as an input to a continued debate on the subject among analysts.     

Quecksilbereintr?ge in oberirdische Gew?sser durch Kohlekraftwerke

Gegen die Errichtung von Kohlekraftwerken, selbst wenn es sich um Kraftwerkserneuerungen und -modernisierungen handelt, regt sich im Hinblick auf die CO₂-Emissionen vor allem bei Umweltschutzvereinigungen erheblicher Widerstand. Da der Vorhabentr?ger bei Vorliegen der Genehmigungsvoraussetzungen des §6 BImSchG einen gebundenen Anspruch auf Genehmigungserteilung hat, den Genehmigungsbeh?rden mithin kein Ermessen einger?umt ist, auf der anderen Seite die Vermeidung von CO₂-Emissionen auch nicht zu den Genehmigungsvoraussetzungen für Kohlekraftwerke z?hlt, konzentrieren sich aktuell die rechtlichen Einw?nde im Wesentlichen auf das Bauplanungsrecht, entgegenstehende Zielfestlegungen in Raumordnungspl?nen und die für den Kraftwerksbetrieb (Einleitung von Abwasser und Kühlwasser) zus?tzlich erforderliche wasserrechtliche Erlaubnis. Letztere steht im Ermessen der Wasserbeh?rde und stellt damit eine Art “Achillesferse” der aktuellen Kraftwerksplanungen dar. In jüngerer Zeit wird insbesondere das Thema Quecksilbereintr?ge in oberirdische Gew?sser vermehrt diskutiert. Der Betrieb von Kohlekraftwerken kann auf zwei verschiedenen Wegen zu solchen Quecksilbereintr?gen führen: Bei der Verbrennung von Kohle entsteht gasf?rmiges Quecksilber, das durch die Rauchgasw?sche (REA) gebunden wird und über das Abwasser als Punktquelle in ein oberirdisches Gew?sser eingeleitet wird (sog. Wasserpfad). Daneben wird gasf?rmiges Quecksilber auch über den Schornstein freigesetzt und kann durch Absinken die in der Umgebung gelegenen oberirdischen Gew?sser verschmutzen (sog. Luftpfad bzw. atmosph?rische Deposition auf die Gew?sseroberfl?che). Beide Verschmutzungswege k?nnen durch technische M?glichkeiten zwar reduziert, derzeit aber nicht auf Null reduziert werden. Teilweise wird daher schon von einem Errichtungsverbot für neue Kohlekraftwerke gesprochen. Im Folgenden soll der Stichhaltigkeit dieser Auffassung n?her nachgegangen werden.     

Quasilegality: khat,cannabis and Africa’s drug laws

Abstract

This article explores the concept of ‘quasilegality’ in relation to two of Africa’s drug crops: khat and cannabis. It argues that the concept is useful in understanding the two substances and their ambiguous relation to the statute books: khat being of varied and ever-changing legal status yet often treated with suspicion even where legal, while cannabis is illegal everywhere in Africa yet often seems de facto legal. The article argues that such quasilegality is socially significant and productive, raising the value of such crops for farmers and traders, but also allowing states to police or not police these substances as their interests and instincts dictate. It also argues that there is no clear link between the law on the statute book and the actual harm potential of these substances. Finally, it suggests that the concept has much wider use beyond these case studies of drugs in Africa in a world where global consensus on drug policy is cracking, and where many other objects of trade and activities find themselves in the blurred territory of the quasilegal.     

Correction to: Taxing Higher Incomes: What Makes the High-Income Earners Consent to More Progressive Taxation in Latin America?

Political Behavior - The article Taxing Higher Incomes: What Makes the High-Income Earners Consent to More Progressive Taxation in Latin America?, written by Sarah Berens and Armin von Schiller,...     

Alexa,Alert Me When the Revolution Comes: Gender,Affect, and Labor in the Age of Home-Based Artificial Intelligence

The fantasy of automation is one of liberation from alienating tasks. Today, domestic artificial intelligence (AI) enacts this dream of frictionlessly offloading monotony. This article deploys theories of Marxist feminism, affective labor to interrogate domestic AI’s unprecedented promise of absorbing forms of labor we hardly acknowledged that we did. While these devices make the reproductive labor of the household legible as labor, we interrogate their quasi-emancipatory promise. We argue that devices such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home elide and reproduce the gendered and racialized dimensions of domestic labor, streamline this labor for capture by capital, and heighten the very affective dynamics they promise to ameliorate. Only critical political theories of work can illuminate the unfulfilled transformations and ongoing dominations of gender, race, and affect that saturate labor with domestic AI – expressed, we contend, by re-articulating the framework of the “social factory” to that of the “social server.”